I was thinking the other day as I made my way around blog land that there are two kinds of authors in this world. There are the ones who would bend over backwards to help another author out and there are the ones who’d step on your head if you were drowning so that they could reach the boat first.
I’m always kind of floored and uncomfortable when I meet the latter type author. It’s not that I don’t get the every-man-for-himself mentality. I do. I’m a fairly aggressive person, so I understand that aspect of a personality. It’s just that there’s a part of me that finds the ’shove everyone out of the way’ behavior kind of sad. I would think that if you behave that way there would have to be an aspect of you that would be lonely. It’s not like you’re going to have friends in the business. Anyone like that has made sure to distance themselves from the others. And anyone in this crazy business knows it’s hard enough to write alone, much less try to stand alone without outside support. I know that there’s a genuine belief that other authors are competition, so they must be kept at a distance. I suppose that’s true to a certain extent, but I don’t think it’s very healthy. I suspect it would make you fairly paranoid.
I personally can’t imagine doing this job without my friends in the industry. Sure, I have support at home. It helps that my significant other is published too, but no one understands this craziness like another fiction published author.
What do you guys think? Are you an island? Do you believe that every author is your competition? Or do you think that you get further making friends?
Archive for March, 2008
For those of you thinking that I skipped my cooking class notes, I didn’t. There just weren’t any notes. Everything she told us referred to the recipes that she gave us. The only tips were be careful when you’re trying to freeze appetizers that contain cheese. Most don’t work well. And, when working with phyllo dough, always put it back into the fridge if you’re not using it immediately. It dries out otherwise. Hopefully Tuesday’s International recipes will have more notes.
Barbara Vey works as a blogger for Publisher’s Weekly, a book industry magazine that’s pretty much the “gold standard” of the business. Barbara is unique in that she LOVES romance novels and frequently talks about them (along with lots of other genres), which increases the status of them in the industry. But the blog is up for review, and she needs our help to keep PW sponsoring it for the next year.
Tomorrow is the one year anniversary of writing my Beyond Her Book blog.
I know, I can’t believe it’s been a year already. So, I’m planning an online party to include lots of giveaways.
In a couple of weeks I’ll be in New York talking to the bigwigs at PW about my “success” online and I’d like to blow them away with numbers. So I’m asking everyone I know to send out messages to have everyone and their uncles to read and/or post a comment to the blog on Friday (TODAY) to try and hit record numbers. Anything you can do to help would be much appreciated.
Seems like the world of ebook publishing is at it again. Another publisher appears to be on shaky ground. I really like this publisher, so the news that there is trouble bums me out. It seems to me that most of these problems with ebook publishers stems from their leap into paperback publishing. I used to LOVE writing for epubs. It was a nice steady part-time income (a lot of people made it a full-time income due to their productivity). There was a lot of freedom in the storytelling that’s hard to get anywhere else. I could write whatever popped into my scary mind. *g* Unfortunately, things within contracts made it impossible for me to continue. So as much as I’d love to write for them, I don’t see how I can. But that’s neither here nor there. Life goes on.
I do hope the latest scare ends up stabilizing before more authors get hurt. Things like this rarely end well.
AND THE WINNER IS: PAULA. Pleas send me your snail mail address so that I can forward it to Sylvia. Congratulations!
Today is Sylvia Day’s birthday. In honor of that, I’m (she’s) giving away an autographed copy of DON’T TEMPT ME. If you’re interested in winning (and you should be), leave a comment below and I’ll have dh pick a name tomorrow.
I found this link via Lauren Dane and thought it was important enough to post here. I also related to this post from John Scalzi.
If you’re looking at the calendar and it says the 10th, then you’ll find me at Writeminded. See you there. 
Since my website is in the process of being redesigned, I’ve been giving content a lot of thought. I’d like to put up some freebie stories and had one contemporary novella picked out, but now I’m not so sure. See, the more I thought about it, the more I thought maybe the stories that I put up should reflect the work I’m doing now–not the stuff I wrote years ago. Only trouble is that I don’t have any new stories at present and I’m not sure when that will change. My guess is after I’ve turned in the last book of my trilogy for Tor. Any thoughts or suggestions? Do you expect freebie stories on an author’s site or is it just a ‘nice to have’ thing? Are you more likely to visit an author’s site, if there are free stories available?
I finished reading Black Magic Woman by Justin Gustainis. I’m trying to decide how to describe it. The book is definitely urban fantasy, but like most well-written urban fantasies it focuses on the characters. Justin did a good job with teaming up characters that you wouldn’t expect to see together like an African American FBI agent with a South African white cop. He also did a wonderful job of taking these characters past their preconceived notions about each other and showing their eventual friendship. The book starts a little different than others that I’ve read. It introduces what appears to be two separate storylines that eventually converge. That said, it still read like every character had their own individual story unfolding. I know I’m not doing a good job at describing this book, which says more about me than the book. *g* If you read urban fantasy, then you need to pick up Black Magic Woman. It has a little bit of everything (ie witches, voodoo, vampires, zombies, demons–you name it). It’s darker/grittier (sp) than a lot of UF that I’ve read, which is probably why I liked it so much. Book two is coming out, although I’m not sure when. (I’m too lazy to walk upstairs and check.;) I do plan to pick it up, when it’s released.
I still haven’t heard from Sandy, who won a copy of OFF LIMITS. Sandy, I need you to email me with your snail mail address, so I can get these books off to you and Caryn. Congrats again! Tonight dh and I are going out to dinner with two other couples. Should be fun. Can’t believe how social I’ve been this week. Downright shocking. *ggg* On Monday, I am going to be blogging at Writeminded. The ladies were kind enough to invite me. So if you missed your chance to win a copy of OFF LIMITS, you’ll get another one. Have a great weekend. I’m off to start Mark Henry’s Happy Hour of the Damned. Zombies, oh my.
My dh has been out of town for the past few days at a conference. I took the opportunity to watch several of the movies that I know aren’t his thing. Mainly monster movies. I’ve said it before on this blog, but I LOVE monster movies. I especially love ‘B Monster’ movies. I have no idea why, but I get a kick out of these films and love watching them over and over again. On top of the monster movie marathon, I went to see Definitely, Maybe with Ryan Reynolds. Very cute film. It’s told from the perspective of the father relaying a story to his daughter. In this case, the story is how he met her mother. The interactions between Ryan Reynolds and the little girl who plays his daughter makes the movie. It wasn’t as good as Juno, but it’s definitely worth seeing.
Today I had lunch with two writer friends. I was really looking forward to it, since it happens so rarely. We had a nice lunch that revolved around writing and cooking. Now I’m back home and ready for a nap. I think I may go toss in one of the monster movies and take one. *g*
Unfortunately, this is going to be another short entry because much of what was covered referred to the recipes. I do have a quick note for those of you who took down the Brazilian Cheese Roll recipe, add the oil when you add the milk and egg. That wasn’t in the recipe. It was left out. I couldn’t figure out why my cheese rolls didn’t turn out, so I asked the chef. She read the recipe and went oops. *g* I apologize to anyone who made the cheese rolls and they didn’t taste good. You are not alone. (wg)
Here are the dessert tips that I picked up: When working with desserts always use a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. Keep a separate wooden spoon for desserts because wood tends to absorb flavors and you don’t want your desserts to taste like garlic. 
Always work with cold butter when making desserts. Always let dough (such as pie dough) rest in the fridge. Always work dough with your fingertips–not your whole hand. The best way to roll dough onto a pan is by rolling it onto your rolling pin, then roll it off into the pan. Always put plastic wrap on top of custard, if you put it in the fridge. Make sure the wrap touches the surface to keep the custard from forming a ‘crust’. When making creme anglaise, look for it to double in size and turn pale yellow. That’s the only way to know when it’s ‘done’. Same goes for creme brulee. Before you take creme brulee out of the oven, make sure to give it a little shake. If the top jiggles a little, they’re done. If it jiggles a lot, it needs to cook longer.
And that’s it gang. Wish there was more, but the class didn’t roll out that way. Pardon the pun. *g*
Yep, I know it looks like I’m here today, but I’m really not. I am at Romancing the Blog, so drop by and see me.
On Friday, we went to see Juno. Yes, we’d heard great things about the movie, but hadn’t been expecting much since it was supposed to be the story of a teenage girl who gets pregnant and decides to give the baby away. It is that…and so much more. The movie was a pleasant surprise with its twists and turns. I understand why it won Best Screenplay at the Oscars. It was smart, funny and touching in its quirkiness. The characters are likeable in their abnormal normalcy. The first couple of minutes may lose you due to the slang, but it smooths out. Just stick with it. If it’s still playing at a theater near you, go see it. You will not be disappointed.
Now onto our second feature. Dh and I had put off seeing Jumper because of the hellacious reviews. Charli gave us hope that it wasn’t as bad as everyone said. Today we broke down and went to see it. And you know what? Charli was right. It was a fairly entertaining movie. The premise is awesome. Abused kid, abandoned by his mother discovers that he can teleport when his life is put into danger. The movie goes on to show what he chooses to do with his ‘gift’. Obviously there is a lot more going on than just his ability to teleport, but I can’t tell you what it is since it would spoil a plot point. I’d never thought about teleporting as being something cool (outside of avoiding air travel) until this movie. Let me just say, it would be one heck of a power. The movie was certainly decent enough to warrant my time and money. It also has me intrigued about the book. I will probably pick it up the next time I’m at the bookstore. My final thoughts on the movie are if you enjoyed Transformers, then you’ll enjoy Jumper (even though it doesn’t have robots). Yes, there are a few holes that aren’t plugged because the movie is supposed to be the first of a trilogy, I believe. If you go into with that in mind, you’ll enjoy the flick.
Now for something completely different and I think way cool click here for Apocalyptica and let the headbanging begin.
