Birthdays and stuff

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Kai

Normally, I do my ‘birthday’ update on or around my birthday – but I’m a couple of days late this year. And with good (ish) reason.
On the 8th of this year I graduated officially. And so began a week of visits and catching up with friends and family. Unfortunately, so also began a week of random exhaustion and a horrible rash that’s over most of the front of my neck and up one shoulder.

The rash
The rash itself isn’t actually too bad now, other than it itches like mad. I’m itchy in various places to be fair, but it’s all mostly associated with one side of my body. I spent Monday rearranging my conservatory, and sorting out the house – Tuesday – I graduated – Wednesday and a docs visit saw me picking up meds, but little else. I started needing about 200% more sleep. Thursday, mom came back from Egypt, and visited. Friday, Keith arrived, and Saturday….

Well, Saturday was supposed to be my book launch, my big birthday *bash* and my graduation celebration. It ended up being coffee in the morning with my nanoees, napping most of the rest of the day, before landing in the out of hours service at 5:30. Which lead to ‘you have meningeal symptoms (stiff neck, headache, bright lights bothering me, nausea, no temperature though), go to the ER’, which led to ‘the heck no’ conversation that comes up whenever I land in the Gloucester hospital. I eventually talked my other half into letting me go home for my birthday party – which, in the end was food, chatter and watching some cartoons. And then I slept. I did much of the same on Sunday.
And yesterday.
As of 11am this morning I’m still randomly needing to nap for an hour or two after only being up for a few hours, I’m stiff, I’m tired, but I’m still working.

Not quite the way I wanted to celebrate my 33rd birthday, but it let me have a think about several things, and, as Glass Block was signed up with a press, I’ve got space now till February to pursue something fun. So I am.

Insidious lies in the Indie community

Posted on November 2, 2011 by Kai

We interrupt your regularly scheduled fluff for a bit of a rant. And I wouldn’t be doing this during Nanowrimo season, but it *really* needs to be said.

I’ve been reading a lot of ‘I don’t need to worry about grammar and editing, all that matters is I’m writing’ or ‘you’re jealous because your book isn’t out yet’, or ‘would YOU accept a C from your kids if they came home with it on the report? Then why accept a three star review?’.
All of this has kicked off since I started working as an editor – and a lot of it comes out when people discover that it’s going to cost money to edit their books.
There’s two insidious lies I’d like to address today.
First – Editing and grammar ain’t important. O’rhyleah? (sorry, been looking at lots of Lolthulu lately). Seriously? Would I have gotten away with that in a very post ironic way on my degree, or, would my tutor have kicked me from here to next week about run on sentences, and the occasional tense mistake? I think I’d have been kicked. I know I would have been – in fact, I was.
So, while I don’t agree with the idea that we need to be locked to rules (and I’ll talk about that more a bit later) if you’re not at least flirting with the acceptance that mistakes aren’t acceptable, then you’re not a professional writer.

There – I said it – it’s not the idea that you can’t afford to hire an editor that doesn’t make you a professional writer – it’s the idea that you can excuse your behavior by HIDING BEHIND not being able to afford a professional editor.
Can’t afford an editor? – I’m writing a book, and I teach classes – check them out.

The other insidious lie is that we’re not all on the same side as writers and readers. And while that’s true, in some cases (you can’t be ‘on the same side’ if you’re buying something from someone), when it comes to literature, readers and writers ARE on the same side. We all want good literature, and the best stories.

So – there’s a second element to all of this:

If you are charging for your work, you have an obligation – a paid service provision – to be professional.

Again, I said it. If you’re going to publish your work – and people are paying you – for heavens sake, act like a professional. That goes beyond the presentation of your work, but in the end, that’s all that matters to your reader.

Momentum

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Kai

We move through our lives at a constant pace. We can accelerate or decelerate ourselves with a limited amount of success, but the speed we do things at, at our base rate at least, is probably something we’ll never change. Some of us rush headlong into everything and batter through life as fast as we can, hungry for as many new experiences as we can pick up, and tired at the end of each day because we’ve packed in so much.

Others go as slow as possible, savoring every step, and realising, deep down, that they can’t do everything they might want to.

My problem is I want to savor everything, but I want it all. I have too many hobbies, and too little time on my books for new stuff. I book far too much into my life, mostly because I can. My laptop became both my freedom and my curse, because now, there’s a whole world of reading and writing out there, and I get nothing done.
Facebook is a horrible blessing. I can meet and hang out with so many wonderful people, and keep an eye on my friends, and there are some really cool games on there, but, lets face it, I’ve got a nasty habit of refreshing my page again and again, and then wondering, at 2pm, where my day went.

Worst of all, I’m a person that moves through life with a momentum that pulls others along behind me. And lately, I kinda feel like I’m out in the middle of a great big ocean, with no chance of finding the new land I was aiming for. But it feels like I’m stranding other people now and I don’t like that feeling.

Momentum is working out where you’re going and I think that’s the biggest thing for me right now. I need to work out which map I’m working from – someone else’s or my own. If I’m working from someone else’s, where can I adapt it so it’s all mine – or if I’m going to dive on in headlong and do it all myself, I need to work out where I want to go – there are *so many* choices right now.

What I do know is tomorrow begins my ninth Nanowrimo. I’m really looking forward to it. It gives me another month to work out and plan the roller coaster that is about to be my life. One way or another, things will start resolving and working out the way I want to.

Plans are coming soon, though. I’m happy to report there *is* a plan, but it’s difficult to see whether it’s the right choice right now. So I’m going to have a bit of fun with my writing for a bit, and see where that takes me. It’s too easy for me to lose sight of what I wanted to do when I started out online – which was writing. I’ve gone all over the web since, looking for something that’s ‘all me’ but what I am, underneath it all, is a writer.

Of bright lights and disappointments…

Posted on September 22, 2011 by Kai

We are, to all intents and purposes, one month after ‘the Watershed‘

And there’s a couple of things that have changed since then – some for the better, some in a different way and with no impact. One for the worse.

As the last post explained, I finally graduated. What the last post barely touches on is why it’s taken so long to get to that point. And, y’know, I wish I could point at everything I’ve been up to recently and say ‘see, good reason’, but the truth is, the reason, though, probably, a valid one, isn’t a ‘good’ one by any stretch of the imagination. Focusing on the positive though – I graduated. I’m delighted that I graduated. I’m trying to decide if I want to go to the ceremony where our degrees are officially conferred – right now it’s looking at least an option.

Other improvements include taking on better paying work, in some cases. I *love* copywriting – but what I don’t love is the fact that I’m basically at the mercy of clients. Most are darlings – but some leave a lot to be desired. And when I’m having to be draconian about billing practices, I know something has gone wrong. And that’s the problem – there’s no give in my billing. And for those that know why, don’t even say it in public – it’s not necessary. I’ve taken steps to remedy that, in the form of http://indieunbound.com I’m now officially and formally an editor as well as a copywriter, using my experience as a writer and graduate to support indie writers in creating a product that works for them – and the market. It’s good, and in the last few days, I’ve already managed to book clients till our holiday in October, which is just stellar.

Other than that, I’m working on finishing up my websites and setting up regular spots for blogging, fixing my timetable to balance stuff (though, I’m slowly coming to the realisation I can either have a quiet life OR work really hard – there’s no doubling up and earning both) and slowly resolving everything that needs to be resolved.

The negative? other than a couple of outlines, I’m still not writing. And that sucks. But I think I have a solution to that too – one, that if I can keep up with the editing client bookings, will give me the best of all worlds and allow me to be the last piece of the puzzle that is me. I have to find my way back to fiction writing, or there’s no point in freelancing the way I do. I could, instead use my degree on something else, and let go of the idea of being an author – and to be honest, that all or nothing decision makes me more worried than any other choice I could ever make.

I guess the last thing I need to talk about is ‘what’s next’? I already miss university desperately – I’ve never felt more at ease in an establishment in my life, and I want to go back to that at some point. So, realistically, some of the money I make editing and writing is going back into ‘me’, and in turn, making me a better writer and editor, via my MA plans. Ideally, I’d like to do linguistics of some kind, rather than a wholly creative project, but ultimately, I guess I’ll need to see what is available to me, and how long it’ll take me to save for it. For now, all of my energy is going into clearing up the last of the server costs I was left with, sorting out new hosting for that secondary account, and building a buffer of savings for my family. Editing and copywriting together are a good combination, especially if I can keep streamlining my time and using it to the best effect.

Now though? Work beacons. Laters

Degree confirmation

Posted on September 19, 2011 by Kai

As many of you know, I’ve spent the last four years doing a degree in Creative writing, with a side of psychology. It’s been a long road, especially after I fell and banged my head.
But, to the credit of the University of Gloucestershire, and my tutors, we got through it – they were amazingly supportive and helpful and made sure I was in the best position possible to make my degree work for me. I can’t praise them enough.

But – I’m delighted to confirm that I got a 2:1.

So, now I’m a graduate. Wooohooo!

My single strand

Posted on August 23, 2011 by Kai

Image via Wikipedia

Chris Brogan spoke about this yesterday, quite serendipitously, but I’ve been thinking about it – a lot – myself lately. What’s the core of my being. When I remove everything from around me that isn’t dependent on relationships, isn’t dependant on circumstance and isn’t dependant on expectation, what’s left for me? And only me?

Removing ‘stuff’ first

The single strand at the centre of my being isn’t my kids. They are my world, but they don’t define me. Just like I don’t define them. Similarly, my relationships aren’t the single strand at the centre of me, though they are very important, and if we were looking at weaving something from the bits in the middle of me, they’d be one of the foundation threads. I can’t do what I do without the support of the people around me. But, if we’re looking at single strands, as defined by Chris, then it’s something internal, not external.

At first…
At first I thought it was blogging – after all – that’s who I am. I blog. Except, it’s not. Not any more. I spend more time copywriting than blogging writing by a factor of about ten to one. It’s still a core of my being, but it’s not *the* core. It’s not the element at the center of me, as much as I wish it was.
And then, I looked into whether it was copywriting – it’s my job and I’m very passionate about it – but again, that’s not me. I kinda feel like a cat with a ball of string – I grapple with it, but I couldn’t see myself doing it as the only writing thing ever. And while both fulfil a lot of the time I spend online, they’re not the only thing I do.

More recent developments

I’ve started editing – which makes me an editor officially now. I’m about to finish my second contract (probably today or tomorrow) officially, and I’ve edited for places like Scribe and Quill and other sites for years now. But again, it feels kinda like my job, not my career – not to mention, to make sure that I help people with their books, my prices are tiny right now. I still love it, but it’s not something that I’m entirely interested in doing for the rest of my life.
I’m passionate about many things – mental health being key among them – WordPress being another one. It’s important to be passionate, but passion, those passions, aren’t my core. They colour what I do though, and that’s cool.

Hobbies

So, is my single strand my hobbies? Photography? Knitting? Cross Stitch? Gaming? But, if I go into those, when I find that I’m bored of them, or I’ve perfected them, or I can’t ‘do’ them for any reason, then that might mean that I give in and have no single strand.

And that, your honor, is when we uncovered the vital evidence

Writing is at the core of almost everything I do. Even coding when you look at it is writing of some description – but my passion – at the core of my being is writing. Be it fiction or non fiction, I’m passionate about *books* and linguistics, and writing and … and… and…

My single strand isn’t so much a strand – it’s a sentence.
I am a writer.

Weekly author spotlight

Posted on August 21, 2011 by Kai

(I’m part of a facebook group called ‘Indie Authors Unite‘ and we do a weekly facebook blog hop/swap – I’m a bit late this week, this was actually supposed to be last week, but when the laptop died, that kinda scuppered that!)

This week, I’d like to introduce Helmy Parlente Kusuma

Give me a two line description of your book
-Mementoes of Mai is the story of a man who reached an intersection and has to decide where to turn in order to have the love of his life.

Give me a two line description of you
-Helmy Kusuma is an ex-IT worker who has spent two decades typing on the keyboard when suddenly the egg of inspiration fell on his lap.

What’s your favorite scene in your book?
-When the main character was in the middle of a bay shouting “Yeah!”

What did you find hardest?
-Rock, I guess…no, wait a minute, I believe diamond is the hardest.

How about the process – what did you think you were good at, and what did you struggle with?
-I am good at descripting something but still working on creating good dialogues.

If you could ask a fan one thing, what would it be?
-Would you buy my next book?

Who is your favorite author?
-Paulo Coelho

If you could meet any one person, who would it be, and where would you go for lunch?
-I would like to meet Jesus and have lunch at a mountain’s tip. I have always wanted to ask him “Do you like salmon or tuna better?”

Anything else you’d like to tell my readers?
-Buy my book or I would send the minions of darkness to rip your wallet, steal 99c and slap your face with my book. Kidding. Seriously, please buy my book.

Smashwords , Kindle US , Kindle UK , Kindle DE

Hawaiian Novelist: Helmy Kusuma (meandersfit.com)

Kai’s ‘day in the life’

Posted on July 19, 2011 by Kai

I’ve thought about this a lot in the last three or four weeks – and every time I go to write it, I realise it’s difficult to pin down my ‘average’ day. But Chris Brogan outlined his day, so I thought I’d give it a try

There are a couple of commonalities, but it’s been difficult to tie everything into each other lately. But I thought I’d give it a try.

My ‘job’.

I am a full-time writer. So I copywrite, and if I’m not copywriting, I do other content for my blogs, or write fiction. I’ve been off fiction for a while, but I’m working on most of it with a vengeance again.

The morning:

7am – if he doesn’t wake me up at 6:30, I wake up mostly naturally sometime between 7 and 7:30. My first thing I do, and I hate, is check my email for messages overnight from my clients/the team I sub-contract with. It means my morning might be started on a good note or not, depending on edits and stuff that have come in overnight.
I tend *not* to check in on Facebook unless I really need to. I get the kids ready for school – and if I’m not feeling sick, I grab brekfast. I’m trying to teach myself to do that more often, because I think my body confuses nausea with hunger first thing and it has a knock on effect.

8:30am – Kids are normally out the door by now – so I do email, and blogging and anything else I feel like. Right now, in the morning I’m doing fiction writing and writing until lunch. Today, and for the last six days, I’ve been working on my dissertation. Next week, the kids go on holiday and I’ll be working on my novel for its final work through before handing in.
I do Facebook quite a lot during the morning, between writing, in snatches.
If I’m blocked, I blog.

Lunch

Lucky to stop for lunch – working from home means that I can do it whenever, but I normally forget.

Afternoon

In the afternoon, I’m a great copywriter. I don’t know why the difference exists between morning and afternoon, but it is. I write until around 4pm, when the kids get home.

Evening

In the evening, I’m on Facebook, I’m interacting with friends, I’m doing my best impression of a meerkat and listening to the world, with my head stuck above my ‘burrow’. I collapse into bed around 11pm, after a hot bath, one last check on Facebook, and either games on my iPad, or one last bout of writing. If I can’t sleep, I knit.

And Tuesday nights, I game with friends – we’re currently roleplaying through a 40K Rouge Trader game, where I’m the Captain.

Intermingled with all of this, I keep an eye on several self-publishing support groups on Facebook, and put the finishing touches on a lot of the things that I’m setting up for launch post dissertation (this Thursday to hand it in!)

Today’s tasks

2 Blog posts for my client’s equality blogs
4 blog posts to get my blogs ahead – including bi-polarbears
4k of my dissertation (2k writing and 2k editing)
Press release for DarknessPD.
Set-up for new community site for self publishers.
Chapter edits on two books for clients

And anything else that comes up

My ‘takeaway’

One of the big things I’ve learned from Chris over the last years is there’s always a ‘take away’ – an underlying message that comes from what I know now versus what I knew the last time I did this. The last time I did this I was signed off with a mental health disorder – and had just quit Uni for the year, and going back into the classes later in the year to try again.
I’ve come *a long way* since my last ‘day in the life’ post. Seriously. Things have changed so much – I own two limited companies in the UK and our last year’s turnover was great.

The takeaway? I’ve come a long way – and I’ve got a lot to be proud of but there is no such thing as a regular day in the life of a fiction/copywriter.

Not for me anyway.

How about you?

things you probably don’t know about me – 25 at a time

Posted on July 17, 2011 by Kai

Image via Wikipedia

One of the things I’ve realised is that many people don’t actually *know* me, some of that’s deliberate, but that if I don’t start really connecting with people, all of the advice I give people about working with their community is going to be pretty hollow.

So, here’s how this one’s going to work.
For this first set of 25, I’m going to tag five people and then for the next set, I’m going to use people that have commented on the post. Once a week on a Sunday, I’ll post em and we can see if we can’t all get to know one another – y’never know whom you might meet

The 25 things

My real name isn’t Kai. My real name doesn’t even contain, legally, Kai, and though I’ve been threatening for years to change that, I’ve never gotten round to it. My name is very girly, and I never felt it suited me, so I changed it, post breakup from the father of my kids. I have a whole circle of friends that get very confused when people use my ‘real’ name (though, I’m not interested in sharing it in public )
I am 32, and I’m a Scorpio. I’m a very typical Scorpio too. whether that’s an aspect of the fact that I’ve got a strong personality, or whether it’s because of something else, I’m not sure.
I don’t actually buy into a lot of the ‘hippy’ stuff that we call ‘New Age’. I used to, and then realized most of it was probably my positive mindset. I still wear stones and colors that I like, but because I like them, not because they ‘vibrate and heal my aura’.
I own two limited companies in the UK.
I love birds of prey. Especially owls and falcons.
I hate writing right now. Just hate it. I’m tired and burned out and sick of my dissertation, and want it over with, and that’s sad.
I’ve been in Uni for a year extra than most of the peers I started with. That last year was a bit hit and miss really.
I am a closet linguistics geek. My main interest is a field called ‘Forensic Linguistics‘ and I had a paper accepted for publication on it recently, but declined because I realized I could make the findings better. They liked that idea.
I own 220 domains – 98% of which are mine. I hold some for other people, but not many.
My natural coloring is red hair, hazel eyes and very pale skin – but in the last few years I’ve started going a very pale honey brown after living in a part of the country. I dye my hair more vivid red because people seem to ask less questions about how ‘natural’ it is.
My favorite books aren’t probably publishable as a list because they make me look *really* bad. In that number are several books that are, or have been banned in the past. Transgressive literature isn’t so much something I like as something that I learn from.
Socially speaking, I’m a bit of an idiot – I don’t get a lot of the social stuff that goes on around me, and am very direct when people piss me off or put me in a poor situation. I also get very annoyed when people use others for their own gain, and often see it long before others do – while I’ve been told in some cases it’s just how it is. But socially, I’m horrible at new situations, and even worse at understanding why something doesn’t work.
I love to code. But I’m not very good at it, and do a lot of what I do from trial and error. I know the very basics of PHP but most of what I’ve learned isn’t from reading books on coding, it’s from reading code. Again, back to the linguistics aspect of my mind, but I get on very well with code once I understand it.
I have several pen names – one of which, including my back catalog is up for sale to another writer. He’s more passionate about it than me and just as good a writer, so….
I sleep on my stomach because I’m scared that I’ll be choked to death.
I love sci fi. I used to call it my guilty pleasure but now I just call it my pleasure. But I don’t get on with shows like ‘Andromeda’.
I can be very closed minded when I want to be – then realize what I’m doing and fix it. Sometimes years after the fact. Most of the time, once you’re in my bad books, that’s it. You never get back into my good books.
Conversely, if you’re my friend, you can get away with just about anything once.
I really don’t get on with people that believe they are the font of all knowledge. I hate it when people think that’s what I am too.
I knit. I don’t do it often, but I do knit. I also cross stitch like a pro.
I am currently playing a rogue trader in my beloved’s 40K tabletop game. Maeda is a bitch and she’s keeping it pretty well covered so far.
I dislike cooking with a passion. If I could live without food, I think I would. But I love to make meals for friends. Just don’t like cooking for myself much.
I was on Seroquel from May or so of last year until 2 weeks ago. There’s a very good reason that I’ve stopped, but we’ve not gotten there yet, so I can’t talk about it . I am an outspoken mental health advocate on my ‘award winning‘ site.
I dislike, intensely, being the centre of attention, though, time and again, I put myself ‘out there’.
I feel like I’m a fraud….oh, most of the time.
I am bipolar, have a touch or at least aspects of aspergers, and have an unspecified personality disorder to do with self esteem.

And my five ‘tags’

I tag -

Keith Foreman (who is one of my best friends in the whole world)
Mary-Ann Peden-Covellio – Mary-Ann is an incredible writer and another very good (best) friend.
Valerie Douglas – amazing writer whom I’ve been honored to get to know lately.
Rae Gould – fantasy writer extraordinaire and my co-mod on tonnes of projects.
Stephen King – another amazing writer – I seem to be surrounded with them – who keeps a very good blog on writing.

And that’s it. The five I’ve tagged *could* do 25 points of their own, or you could just go check out five really good blogs.

things you probably dont know about me 25 at a time

Going to war redux

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Kai

Well done to those that got the ‘Dr Who’ reference

The last week has seen some chances in how I view the community – I’m beginning to see that one of the major problems is that there are some people in the community that castigate people with one breath and then, scarily, endorse them in another. It seems, basically, that there are some in the community more interested in choosing to play their own interests off against lying. And I’m not sure how to address that other than, possibly, ignore them for all but the most important stuff.

War is going to be waged on several fronts. I’ve got a script to finish sorting out, and some other various and sundry things to take care of over the next few days and weeks, but the most important thing – my dissertation – is top of the pile. It goes back for the second round of feedback tomorrow, and then, hopefully, I can submit it and am done with Uni. I’m really going to miss it, but one of the bigger problems I have right now is the board doesn’t confirm my results now until September, which means I’m not going to know what my degree *is* until then. I’m not sure if I get to see provisional marks or if I just have to wait, so that’s something I’m going to ask Martin/Rebecca when I submit it. If that is the case, we’ve got a big month in September – Teeniboi starts high school, and something else should have begun to resolve by then, not to mention that the plan we’re trying to put into motion right now should be well under way. Glass Block should be out (end of August!), and most of all, I should be in a position to actually see the wood from the trees. Taxes and all that crap should be worked out for the company, and I’ll have our first year’s turnover report available to me. It’s all very exciting and scary all at once.

I’ve still not finished condensing down sites, though I have parked lots of stuff on here already. Got an amazing plugin that should help me – and others – get onto WordPress all the easier, but I gotta test it first. All in all, it might make designing author sites easier and allow me to move my beloved books site (which is html) onto my favorite system. I’ll keep you posted

When a good (wo)man goes to war

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Kai

I’ve been pussyfooting around one of the major reasons that this merge is happening – happened now actually.

About six months ago, I started getting involved in a very specific area of the writing community. That involvement was, in part because after closing five presses with Glass Block, I decided I’d had enough and was going to publish it on my own. Couple that with the fact that the average writer that I know has no technical expertise to speak of and a lot of the questions I was seeing and hearing was specifically to do with blogging and I thought ‘what the hell‘.

The hell…?

Here I am four weeks in and not only am I arguing with people who don’t know their twitter feed from their RSS feed that spam is spam no matter where it’s stuck, I’m now in a special kind of WTH, because sometimes it really is kinda hellish and difficult to get people to see what they are doing to the community as a whole. There are some *seriously* serial unprofessional people out there. And before people say that it’s true of any community, yes it is – that’s not the point I’m making. The point I’m making is there are some seriously, terrifyingly badly behaved people in the community who don’t deserve the benefits that the rest of us are securing for everyone. And we don’t deserve to be tarred with the same ‘can’t even keep a tense straight, bloody hell is this what I’m in for if I buy indie books’ brush.

There, I’ve said it

I’ve been avoiding the rant about the level of unprofessionalism in the community for a while now, but having had the worst week to date with my community mates, and losing my site to an ill advised email from an author who shall remain nameless (The Indie Author Community was removed because, basically, someone complained and though I’d had a chat with my host, they pulled the plug and refunded me rather than waiting for my side). Apparently threatening to sue the host works, well done.

The point being, I’ve decided that there are going to be more than just a few domain changes happening around here. One of the biggest ones is that I’m going to stop – or at least *try* to stop worrying about ‘the crazies’. The low barrier of entry to the Indie community isn’t anything to do with me, and while I’m being shoved into the limelight in the community far more than I enjoy, all I can do, personally is emulate the behaviour that I hold to be the kind that I’d expect others to show.

The other side to that though is that I have to go ‘to war’. To war against perception. Against everything that I revile in the community, and I have to lead by example all at the same time. So.

From now on, I review books to my standards – no gentling the authors and giving them the chance to ‘update’ their stuff. No working with ‘known’ troublemakers in the community (because contrary to popular belief, we moderators do chat together) and no bending my standards because I know the person ‘couldn’t afford’ an editor, or has just chosen to forego that aspect of publishing. I totally appreciate the money reality for some is that they can’t afford an editor, but I hate to say it, putting out more books isn’t going to change that you’re making the same mistakes and while readers don’t read the same way as ‘professional’ reviewers do, they still know a crap book when they read it. And while there are some writers out there managing the same as ‘poor’ traditional presses that are pressed for time and get most of the mistakes out, I hate to break it to people, but the majority of indie writers aren’t *them*.
Readers might not be able to point at something and say ‘that’s the wrong tense’ or ‘thats a plural participle that’s dangling off a grammar cliff’ but they still know that it’s poorly constructed and doesn’t match the standard of publishing they are used to and that’s where many indie authors are shooting themselves in the foot – and the wallet ultimately. How are you going to make enough money to afford an editor if your book is so horrible people return it for a refund for example? Or worse, you put them off the indie community entirely, and the only non publisher stuff they load onto their readers are knitting patterns?

Next post? The projects I have to have artillery to go to war after all

New twitter hashtag #tIAG

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Kai

As many of y’all know, I’m part of a wonderful group of Indie writers on Facebook. To keep track of one another in Twitter, we just lauched a new hastag, at @lil_tufel ‘s suggestion. SO join me in using #tIAG – the ‘twitter Indie Author Group’ tag

(with thanks to Lili Tufel, whose book, Sand is brilliant!) Lili was also the very savvy mind behind the Indie Author Blog Hop, which I help to maintain. We also have a webring to give authors *even more* traffic. Check it out.

Toys and tools for writers – part 3 – the non fiction writer

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Kai

And so, we roll onto the toys and tools for writers, for non fiction writers.

By ‘non fiction writer’ I mean copywriter/article writer/technical medical or otherwise writer that requires you to use your imagination but fit facts.
For this, I’m going to be a bit contrary – I’ve got go final recommendations to offer. And I have a reason for suggesting them. One is an app called ‘Egrelist’ which is specifically designed for the iPhone. It integrates with Evernote and allows you to create Checklists that you can tick off in app. But really, any system that lets you list tasks will help.

Planning your day

One of the things that this article does assume is that you’re already lining up or have work lined up. This is critical for most non fiction writers, because most of us don’t live from book sales. If you do, the methods will be slightly different again.
I find it very handy to look at my day and work out what I’ve got to do. It helps if I’ve got a list of my ‘chores’ for the week, but then again, I still miss stuff off now so it’s not foolproof.
Plan your day around work, ensuring, if you can, that you can take a break or change pace if you need to from the really dull stuff. If you know you work better at certain times of the day, try to plan your day around that so that you’re doing your best work then. If you’ve got calls to make, try to do them when (a) your family are out or (b) there’s someone to look after the children, if you’re a work at home parent.

The joys of Evernote

I’ve found Evernote invaluable when working as a freelancer – I can jot down notes and load them to my phone, or work with stuff already on my phone. It has made projects where I have (x) or (y) amount of articles to do super easy – I just keep adding check boxes till they are complete. Evernote too, works with Egrelist and other apps to create a very slick working program.

I’ve also found word templates invaluable – it’s one of those things that you suddenly realize. It means I’m working from a formatting guide per client and gives me the opportunity to make sure that everyone is happy with their content. I’ll explain more on this later, because I’m also finding it comes in really handy for e-book formatting.

Invoicing

One of the major areas that freelancing falls flat on it’s face is invoicing. It’s difficult to work with many invoicing systems because they because each of them have a steep learning curve. For example, I’m not a technophobe but I haven’t enjoyed working with Sage, Quickbooks or any of the other programs I’ve been looking at. It might just be specific preference, but I really like Freshbooks (affiliate link). I’ve never found a problem with billing with them, and really appreciate the support they’ve given me. I had questions, dozens of them, and they’ve always answered them promptly. I even got sent a surprise t-shirt and paper aeroplane from the office that had been signed by all the staff, with a message – ‘reach for the stars Kai!’ written on it in gold. That’s SERIOUS customer service!

Kai’s book, Glass Block, is due out in August.

This post is part of a series for

One month to go

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Kai

I have to admit to being really very excited right now, an excitement that I can only really imagine is going to get more and more intolerable until the 4th of June.

It’s incredible to think that I’m going to be published in less than 33 days. In one month, exactly, I’m going to be dealing with my very messed up, very hot, very deprecating detective that drives me up the wall and won’t shut up at 4am when he’s got something really important to tell me.

Yes, my character wakes me up in the middle of the night and talks to me. There’s a lot to be said about the things that says about my mental health, but I guess that’s another post. One of the things I am slowly learning and accepting is that it’s normal for me, and that’s OK.
But till I’m through editing Glass Block right to the end, I’m not sure how to answer the questions about Elliot, so I’m going to have to plead patience.

I’m really excited though – one of the things that I’m working on is about a dozen interviews – which means in the near future, I’ll be sharing all of the links for all of my interviews with everyone. For now though – check out my first interview.
But while I’m here, I thought I’d open up the floor to questions – what would you like to know? There are, as ever, things I just can’t answer, but you never know till you ask
*updated – the book is postponed now till August – thanks for your patience guys.

This post is part of the Server Sync up contest

Aggregate

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Kai

D Kai Wilson-Viola

One of the major areas I’m struggling with right now is getting back into a process of working that lets me work on my blogs (and I have a pile of them), do the new projects I’ve come up with (less than the ones I already had, but still….), and copywrite full time/write novels. If I could do all that and make a bit of money from each I’d be happy, but right now I’d be happier if I could get one area carrying the others sufficiently without taking up all of my time.

I thought I’d knock one request right off the list though – the photo on this post is a candid shot of me in our garden from a couple of weeks ago.

One project I’ve been toying with is aggregating all of my blogs to one place (properly). I have the domain name, I have an idea of what I want to do, I’m just struggling with how to do it and how it would work for people that were interested. Right now it involves Yahoo Pipes, and categorizing blogs very broadly into subjects, but I’m hoping once the basic framework is in place, I can do some neater stuff with it all.

Aggregating time and working smarter is a goal I have to really review between now and my birthday – by the time I’m 33, I want to have a better system of checks and balances and ensure that I’m happy with everything I’m doing and then just settle into work – with any luck, my books are going to do well enough that I can justify the time I’m taking out and it’s not going to feel like so much of a blind panic when I think about the hours I *could* be copy writing and am not. I’m sure it’s going to pay off, though right now, the biggest thing I’m interested in is growth – which I’m getting in spades.

I’m curious for those of you that keep dozens of blogs though – how do you manage letting people see *everything* without overwhelming them? My average day is five blog posts a day, which might seem a lot (that’s close to 50 posts a week when it comes down to it) so I’m conscious that I don’t want to overwhelm people, but at the same time, it feels like people are only seeing fragments. Right now, my life stream on Kaiberie.com has some of the blogs I regularly post to, but not all of them. So I’d love to hear how other people manage their online presence so people can see what they’re doing all over

This post is part of a series for

Release schedules….

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Kai

One of the major areas I’m looking at right now, while increasing my ‘discipline’ and butt in seat stickivity for my writing is to look at my release schedules.
So, when I’ve got Glass Block out the gates, I’ve got several choices – Near Earth, Black Monday or another book, I’m not sure whether I’ll move forward with one of several books, or if I’ll take the time to build up my copywriting business, or do something else. All I do know is the next few weeks and months are going to be jam packed, and I hope that they’ll be good for my carreer.

One of the major things I’m learning right now though is that I can’t underestimate anything – if anything, I need to build in space and delays, just to make sure I get through it all – with dissertations and other projects in the way, I’m well aware that just about anything could go wrong between now and June 4th – it’s a good lesson for writers though – as I’m restructuring (again) to ensure that I have time to work on the things that interest me most, I’m also aware that there’s no way in this WORLD that I have the time to do everything I want to. Not right now anyway – it might be possible later once the books start actually doing well……

And that’s where you, my dearest of dear readers come in. Please (please please please!) come on over and check out Darkness PD and fan me on Facebook – D Kai WilsonViola

Thanks!

A little bit of discipline

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Kai

Image via Wikipedia

I find posts like this difficult to write. After all, I am basically saying ‘I am not available’ – which is entirely true, but makes me feel just a bit twitchy. I pride myself in being available to anyone when they need me, but let’s be honest, this place rarely gets updated right now, I’ve got a resit for my psych exam and a hand in and a dissertation hand in to deal with, my book is due out on the 4th of June and is requiring what is probably going to be a major rewrite, and most of all, I’m a mother and fiancée, and queen of a happy little world that requires more attention than bears thinking about sometimes.

Coming back from our trip, I realized that I had to start applying more discipline than I have been lately. Which means coming off Facebook almost entirely for the next month, save promotions – actually writing blog posts instead of procrastinating and generally getting about 20k of writing done (or equivalent editing) a week. It’s all doable, easily, but it means taking a couple of massive steps back.
I’ve already curtailed my Livejournal stuff once and for all (as in, I’m not even logging in to comment any more) but it goes without saying that I’m tired of chasing my tail. So, I’m going to wait for everything to loop round and grab it on the way past.
The rest of this week is quite handily being filled by drafting some new chapters for GB as I remove some of the stuff that slowed the story somewhat, and add some stuff in that needs to be explained, and then see where that gets me. But discipline is something I’ve never been good at, so I’ll need to see how things go.

That’s not to say I won’t be around, but I am trying to teach myself that, like email, Facebook doesn’t need to be constantly open. Same with Skype and chat and all of the other niggles I keep running all day – it’s nice to be in touch, but I’m keen to start trying it on my terms again. And now, with the changes that have come up, I’m free to actually *write* and so, write I shall.
See y’all on the flip side!

Two hand ins to go….

Posted on April 14, 2011 by Kai

For the last four years, I’ve been studying Creative Writing. And I honestly never thought, when I started, that my life would have turned out quite the way it has. I’m so proud of how far I’ve come in those four years.
There’s a but coming.

My last two hand ins are due – one 3000 word assignment and relevant references in the next week, and then, my dissertation on the 30th June. These last two are probably the hardest I’ve done – a transgressive piece about time travel and sleeping with said time traveller, and my dissertation, right now is a second person exploration of slavery and having no control over a body because the protagonist is paralysed. It’s called ‘Doll’ and is taking a lot of work to get finished. On the bright side, there’s every possibility I’ll graduate with a 2:1 and my company is looking really quite good right now. After the last few years I’ve settled into solid high 60 marks, which makes my degree mostly made up of B’s. If my psychology wasn’t quite as weak, I might have managed to pull it up, but unfortunately, I think my psychology leaves me with very little room to get a First. I’m still proud of my possible 2:1 though.

So, if I’m extra quiet over the next few weeks, I can only apologise. I’ve also got Glass Block coming out at the end of next month, so it’s one of those times where my every waking moment is filled with work, writing, and more work.

Books, books books!

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Kai

Yep, I’m positively giddy right now.

I’ve got not one, but two books coming out in the next 60 days.

Reissuing….

Footnotes to a Lesson was most recently issued in an anthology of short stories – the rights reverted last year at some point and I completely forgot to re-release it in eBook format (oops).
It’s written under my horror pen name ‘Sabrann Curach’, and is a ‘Thinking Man’s’ Zombie story.
links to follow, but what do you think?

And the big news….

When Big Brother fell out of popularity in the early part of the 21st century it was replaced with ever more ‘realistic’ reality TV shows, till the need for this was replaced with a need for fantasy. In an attempt to resurrect the old format some die hard fans filmed themselves locked in with a recently released murderer. The person to get out got the money from the stream sales at the end. Needless to say they were slaughtered.

Word of this spread on the internet and a ‘sanctioned’ version by the UCPS (United coalition of Prison Services) was established. Brought in from Darkness, one of the cities providing most of the prisoners, most of which he’d been responsible for collaring, Elliot Peters is forced into a nightmare world where the walls are made of glass and people vote as to whether you survive.

You can read more at DarknessPD

I haven’t forgotten you

Posted on March 16, 2011 by Kai

I know, I know, I’ve been really REALLY bad at keeping up lately.

It’s not actually that I’m bad at keeping up – it’s more that between a very sick small child (she’s nine, but she turns into about a three year old when she’s sick – she has emotional and behavioral problems), first draft of my dissertation, end of year taxes, and a copy writing company that’s only ever quiet when I’ve got time to deal with it, and super busy when we really don’t have the time to do anything, by the time I get to bed at night and actually think about blogging on my iPad/phone then my brain has a bit of a meltdown and I get nada done.

And, if I’m being entirely honest, I’m really not feeling happy about much myself right now.
Ok, happy isn’t quite the right word. Secure probably gets a bit closer, but it’s still not quite right.

I’m a great writer, and do really well with fixing hacks and coding, but every so often I go through these periods of questioning whether I want to work as a writer, or a coder, or even work at all.
I guess some of it is because of my dissertation, which is stopping me from focusing on my writing – ironic really, given my degree is creative writing, but mostly, I feel like I’m staring down the barrel of something nasty.

So I haven’t forgotten the challenge, I just need to get about three weeks of dissertation and a list of projects out of the way. Have fun without me?

Insanity is contagious, Mk x

Funding my writing habit since 2004

Category Archives: Writing

Birthdays and stuff

Insidious lies in the Indie community

Momentum

Of bright lights and disappointments…

Degree confirmation

My single strand

Weekly author spotlight

Kai’s ‘day in the life’

things you probably don’t know about me – 25 at a time

Going to war redux

When a good (wo)man goes to war

New twitter hashtag #tIAG

Toys and tools for writers – part 3 – the non fiction writer

One month to go

Aggregate

Release schedules….

A little bit of discipline

Two hand ins to go….

Books, books books!

I haven’t forgotten you

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