READ TUESDAY SALE FOR THE 10TH OF DECEMBER 2013.

Welcome to READ TUESDAY. This blog post draws attention to the first ever READ TUESDAY sale. Mad scientist Chris McMullen is responsible. He's hoping to build a death-ray - one he can use on that arch-villain, Illiteracy.
   Anyway, I know I have to plug my work. So here's that plug, for a few books. The first is a sword and science tale. You may think of it as steampunk. There's gas-lighting. Clockwork. Ooh, shiny things in the dark...
 
I am Sorcha Nic Lir. Kill me, if you dare.   Seven men are fated to be sent into the dark. They mustn’t know that they are going to die. There’s no telling who they’ll bargain with, if they think that they are under threat. If they manage to convert the assassin to their cause, everything will fall apart at the outset.
   Fortunately, there’s a plan for dealing with the assassin. It’s the same plan, with the same element of risk. He, too, must not know that he is marked for death. There’s no telling who he’ll bargain with, if he thinks that he’s under threat.
   Gilach Mac Gilach will bargain with anyone, and possibly anything, if it means staying alive that little bit longer. Sent to the city to extinguish the lives of seven ne’er-do-wells, Gilach falls foul of a sudden change in the political mood.
   Within seconds of arrival, he realises that the rules of the game, and promises of gold, mean nothing to the covert agents pulling his strings. The stakes are ridiculous, the odds beyond reckoning, and the treasure unwinnable. Those factors never stopped him before. They could earn him a spot six feet under, this time round…
 
Meanwhile, in another part of the forest...
 
Selena Salem spins tales o’ witchcraft, and worse. Mystified strangers are invited to her kitchen table to hear uncanny stories. Fanning the blood-spattered cards, Selena casts her storytelling spell into the rainy Scottish night.
   Tonight’s tale is one of war between greedy clans. The clan o’ the Hand hires the man in the scarlet cap to do the clan’s bidding. His task? Destroy the clan o’ the Eye and the clan o’ the Tongue. No easy feat for mortal man. A difficult job for a warlock.
   Enter Rory: bandit-killer and lover of married women. The Laird o’ Tongue sends Rory to redress the balance of power by hiring witches. Rory stands on the brink of destruction at the cottage of Selena – prentice witch. Selena’s uncle may be too tired for the fight to come. All the while, the clan o’ the Eye keeps watch. Who will triumph, in this devilish tale of magic gone awry in the service of mortal men?

   
For Amazon Kindle, free on Tuesday the 10th of December 2013.
 
Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords.
 
WITCHES.

MY AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE.

@RLL_author.
Signpost blog, RLL AUTHOR.

Blog, REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE. (THOUGHTS ON PUBLISHING BY AN AUTHOR ON THE RUN.)

 

READ TUESDAY. MY SALE PLAN ON THE DAY - 10TH OF DECEMBER 2013.

This blog has seen several guest stars on it - all in the name of READ TUESDAY. (Described in blurb as a BLACK FRIDAY winter sale event, but for books.)
   Surely I can't plug my books here. This isn't just about the sale.
   Eventually, though, the sale comes. After plugging a whole bunch of people - but not in a gangsterish way - I've arranged a space on the blog. Here, I'll drop anchor and show off my wares.
   I'll repeat what I said over at GREEN EMBERS.

*

 

Click on that image to go to Amazon.

My FICTION FACTORY line is for Kindle stories around the 30,000-word mark. WITCHES serves as a great introduction to the series.
   If you like fairy tales steeped in intrigue, with a touch of what we Scots call the unca’ – the uncanny – then this story is for you.
FICTION FACTORY tales are full of witches, werewolves, vampires, assassins, aliens…
   Each story opens with a prologue and then runs three chapters, closing with story-creation notes. With that format, at that general length, you get a great story told in the space available for the price charged.
   So, on READ TUESDAY, swamped by all those cut-price full-length novels, consider my free story…
   Then find yourself on the sofa of a cold winter’s night, reading a tale o’ witches…

Read Tuesday Sale Plan:

I’ll have two Kindle books on sale come READ TUESDAY, but I’m not greedy – I’ll only plug the one here. Both books are free on the day.
   What? I’m not making money from the sale? Of course, those who like what they read may return to purchase from the paid stall.
But READ TUESDAY isn’t just a sale.
   It’s about getting people talking about reading and writing books. In the run-up to the big day, I’m featuring READ TUESDAY participants on my blog…
   However, I am also offering blog space to authors who can’t make the sale on that Tuesday.
   More importantly, I am offering space on my blog to those fragile creatures – unpublished writers. Publicity doesn’t always have to be in aid of the published.
   I’m willing to support those who want to see their books out in time for the next READ TUESDAY in 2014. Dare to dream. Then dare to do more than dream.

*

 

This is my blog, so I will give space to the other book on sale that day. I'll be using discount pricing in future sales - but, as the December sale day came through mistimed against my Amazon sale cycle, I'm not running partial discounts on the day. No - I'm going into the free zone...
 

 Click on that image to go to Amazon.

Looking to get away from the epic quest in fantasy fiction? You've come to the right place.
   Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords takes you through the steam-powered streets of a blood-flecked city.
   The only people who aren't on Gilach Mac Gilach's side are the ones who really really aren't on his side.
   Swords flash in the gaslight. Oaths are broken, or uttered.
   If Gilach is lucky, he'll have a moment of inspiration and uncoil himself from the Serpentine conspiracy.
   Of course, he'll have to survive an encounter with the deadly Sorcha - she's the sort of woman who'd want Gilach dead BEFORE meeting him.
   And there's wisdom in that view.

*

Check out both books now using the LOOK INSIDE! feature over on Amazon. To read of Sorcha's early misadventures, click on the HALLOWE'EN INAUGURATION page on this blog for a free story.
   Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords and WITCHES will both be free on READ TUESDAY. You'll find a bunch of authors plugged on GREEN EMBERS and in many other locations.
   If you pick up my free stories on the day, do something for me - an act of remembering. Remember those stories carry weight. They may sit lightly on your Kindle. Pretend they are heavy.
   Free weightless books take more effort to read on the Kindle, for some reason. Treat the stories as readable - I didn't write them to be stored. I say that as a reader of paper books...I know exactly how hard it can be to read free stuff on the Kindle...
   (It's hellish, kick-starting that engine.)
   If you are storing free books on the Kindle, ask yourself why. Then read something. This goes for all those e-books out there on the day. Not just mine.
   And now, I say this to you. If you read my work, try to write a review. I'm not asking for rose petals strewn ahead of my sandaled feet in the streets of ancient Rome...
   No.
   All any scribbler could ask for is reviews. I won't come to your house for dinner if you give me five stars, and I won't be camped outside with a rifle if your view heads in the other direction.
   READ TUESDAY is about reading and writing. Try reading our books. And try writing reviews. We, as writers, hope you enjoy reading. For we enjoy writing.

VAMPIRES.

Still plugging my work on a weekly basis until I run out of items to plug. Then I should publish JAPANESE MONSTERS. With illustrations. Actually, why not throw in a sample here...



   That image is after Monet. The character depicted is Wataru the Wave-Man. More on him later. For now, here is the weekly plug for a book you can check out on Amazon...

FICTION FACTORY. Welcome to my mini-self-publishing imprint for short stories running around 30,000 words. These stories are not collected or bundled with other tales. If you buy WITCHES, you won’t suffer disappointment in later life by finding WITCHES reheated for a collection called TALES TO IMPRESS PALAEONTOLOGISTS. Be thankful for that small mercy.

VAMPIRES.

Crashing parties used to amuse Vance. He hurled himself into a world of no commitments. When the synthetic blonde offered more of the same, guided by brusque phone texts, he didn’t see the harm in another meaningless fling.

“Rule 1. If I text and you are busy, that’s fine. The rule runs in both directions. No pestering.”

He was okay with that.

“Rule 2. We never attend social functions. I don’t do weddings, though I will crash parties.”

Suited him, just fine.

“Rule 3. No gifts.”

Saved money.

“Five rules. Rule 4. If we see each other with strangers, no questions. No introductions to family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, serial killers…”

Vance had no problem with the fifth rule. He thought his problems began next day.

There, in red lipstick, she’d left a mirror message.

WIPE THIS OFF. STICK TO THE RULES. SEE YOURSELF OUT.

The bar? Reasonable. Didn’t try too hard to be trendy. He knew no one here – not on a Wednesday night. Vance watered at the venue on the odd weekend. Open the door on a world without strings. In.

Scene. The jet minx in front of him shook hailstones from her bobbed coiffure. Melting pellets bounced off his heavy coat. By contrast, she appeared to be wearing a black plastic bag for no protection from the night.

He eyed her tight black jeans. Painted on. Sheathed legs stopped at bare ankles and shiny stab-me black shoes. Hang about…

37,000 words, plus notes.

 

WEREWOLVES.

The countdown to publication is rumbling on. What am I hoping to publish next? This...

   Though not in that form. I will plug the updated cover nearer the day. Right now I am typing this on my internet-connected computer. Ah, luxury. I write on a computer that has no links to the world-wide drain on authorly time.
   So expect to see a slightly more Japanese version of the above cover.
   Meanwhile, counting down to publication, I am plugging my published works. Here you go...

FICTION FACTORY. Welcome to my mini-self-publishing imprint for short stories running around 30,000 words. These stories are not collected or bundled with other tales. If you buy WITCHES, you won’t suffer disappointment in later life by finding WITCHES reheated for a collection called TALES TO IMPRESS PALAEONTOLOGISTS. Be thankful for that small mercy.

WEREWOLVES.

Two men died. The third man faded. SHE spoke to the police. The police looked into that connection. Nothing connected. Trailing over old ground, cold ground, SHE thinks SHE’s on the right track. The trouble with following tracks? Sometimes you meet trains coming the other way.

SHE has little to go on but instinct and a curiosity that’s already killed the cat. On this mad little adventure into the unknown, it’s the dog SHE should worry about. No full moon. Little sign of silver bullets. Maria Ouspenskaya checked out of that hotel a long time ago.

Follow in the footsteps of two, or three, dead men. Take a walk into the alleys just off Maldine Square. Ignore the café chatter. Find your way to that place, where the brass dragon shakes two silver bells as you tumble through the door. Take a look around. See what you can find. Be wary of anything that finds you.

39,000 words, plus notes.

 

 

WITCHES.

Another week spent plugging my own stuff. Why? Pulled a pin. The grenade is fizzing away. I’m plugging one published work a week, until I run out of items. By which time I should be published again. That’s the plan. 

FICTION FACTORY. Welcome to my mini-self-publishing imprint for short stories running around 30,000 words. These stories are not collected or bundled with other tales. If you buy WITCHES, you won’t suffer disappointment in later life by finding WITCHES reheated for a collection called TALES TO IMPRESS PALAEONTOLOGISTS. Be thankful for that small mercy.

WITCHES.

Selena Salem spins tales o’ witchcraft, and worse. Mystified strangers are invited to her kitchen table to hear uncanny stories. Fanning the blood-spattered cards, Selena casts her storytelling spell into the rainy Scottish night.

   Tonight’s tale is one of war between greedy clans. The clan o’ the Hand hires the man in the scarlet cap to do the clan’s bidding. His task? Destroy the clan o’ the Eye and the clan o’ the Tongue. No easy feat for mortal man. A difficult job for a warlock.
   Enter Rory: bandit-killer and lover of married women. The Laird o’ Tongue sends Rory to redress the balance of power by hiring witches. Rory stands on the brink of destruction at the cottage of Selena – prentice witch. Selena’s uncle may be too tired for the fight to come. All the while, the clan o’ the Eye keeps watch. Who will triumph, in this devilish tale of magic gone awry in the service of mortal men?

35,000 words, plus notes.

THE MADONNA GAMBIT.

While the blog undergoes behind-the scenes changes, I’m plugging my books. Today, we’re veering into the FICTION FACTORY side of things. Stories around 30,000 words...

FICTION FACTORY. Welcome to my mini-self-publishing imprint for short stories running around 30,000 words. These stories are not collected or bundled with other tales. If you buy WITCHES, you won’t suffer disappointment in later life by finding WITCHES reheated for a collection called TALES TO IMPRESS PALAEONTOLOGISTS. Be thankful for that small mercy.
 

THE MADONNA GAMBIT.

 

Harvey lingered, in case the rain concealed someone tailing from the weather’s depths.

Come on. Is that likely? A tactic you’ve used, true. If they are sharp enough to keep an eye on you, they’ll do so from here. Not on the exposed walkway by the shore. Leapfrog ahead in that red car, and hang around the streets. Around the spare wheels. No one knows about the contingency except her. Your link to the outside world. If she’s suspect, throw yourself in the lake now.

Placing the spare car here was a thin point generating weakness. Getting the keys to him constituted another thin spot. Forget this crisis of non-confidence. The only way to compromise the alternative exit is by going there to check on things. You are a tourist, remember. Lurching from puddle to puddle. Doing touristy things on a rainy day.

They are watching me.

Snap the hell out of it.

Harvey Yale is a hired killer. He wonders why the Madonna Gambit isn’t going according to plan. Is revenge really reaching from beyond the grave to spoil Harvey’s appetite, this job, and the rest of his day? Perhaps there’s more to his paranoia than his paranoia.

Someone marked him. Coincidence. He was offered a gun he wasn’t sure about using. Uncertainty meant nothing. This wasn’t a high-profile job. He could walk away from the pittance they’d offered him, claiming the set-up looked bad.

Set-up. The phrase needled him. When in doubt, run with your gut before your gut is wrapped around the other guy’s cutlery. Is the mission compromised? Has paranoia won over instinct? Join Harvey on the treacherous slopes of the rock, to find out…

37,000 words, plus notes.

WHO WANTS TO BE A MILLIONAIRE?

Am I a millionaire? Yes.

   No, I’m not rich. Spammers – stop salivating. Sell your Rolex watches elsewhere. In one form or another, I’ve generated a million words during my first year as a self-publisher. I didn’t set out with that objective in mind.

   As I neared the first year, I noticed the word-count. Stories I’d dusted down and reformatted. Blog posts, gathered with a view to publication. New tales I concocted. Old tales I recycled. Leaving aside the repetition that arises from listing the same ALSO AVAILABLE sections at the end of my works, I was a millionaire.

   How would I have fared, writing from scratch? Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords runs to 195,000 words including notes. That’s three long weeks of writing, right there.

   I wrestled with formatting that story and I managed to throw something together inside two months. A story that was already written. My first attempt at formatting was a cautious affair. Had I written 50,000 a week instead of formatting, I’d have knocked out an epic of 450,000 words.

   That Odyssey may not have made much sense. Writing isn’t editing. After Neon Gods was published, I turned to the creation of INCOMPLETE UNCOLLECTED SHORT WORKS. The editing and formatting process was now on a six-week clock.

   I handled the deal inside the time-limit, adding new fiction to old tales. That book runs to 116,000 words. If I’d written 50,000 a week over the revised editing and formatting period, I’d have come up with an epic of 300,000 words instead. After the second book was out, I turned to LYGHTNYNG STRYKES.

   This book runs to 295,000 words. So if I’d elected to write something new instead of editing and formatting an old novel, I’d have been in the same area for once – given the writing of 50,000 words each and every week.

   It isn’t always possible to write 50,000 words in a week. With Hallowe’en 2012 looming, I wanted to put out a 30,000-word story called WITCHES. I wrote that story in three days. It runs to 35,000 words. The rest of the week was given over to editing and formatting.

   What could I write in a year? Let’s say a five-day writing week generates 10,000 a day. I try to write seven days a week. This isn’t always possible. Sunday is usually the day of rest. Output is often down. Monday is a day of reading. If I could read a book a week, I’d feel good.

   However, sometimes you have to throw the stack of books aside and write a bloody chapter on the Monday. Or read publishing articles on a Monday. A long time ago, traditionally, Wednesday night was a design night. Now and again, I hark back to that era. Mostly, design happens as and when. I am no longer ritualistically tied to that specific time. (The radio show ended.)

   If you are knocking out 50,000 a week, then your writing year is half-over by the time you’ve hit a million words. Is that how things went for me? After twelve weeks, I’d produced those three products and I had 600,000 words out there – equivalent to being banged out at 50,000 per week. And now, the important bit.

   Coincidence.

   Mm, this is all crap. Don’t pay attention to a single figure. The amount you write in a day is irrelevant. Written is not edited. Edited is not published. Published is not indicative of sales. Sales may not relate to quality. Oh, I’ll return to quality.

   I’d love to knock out 50,000 a week every week, but there are other considerations. A 10,000-word day can seem short. Or very long. A 15,000-word day IS long – even though days like that are days on which the story flows like molten fucking lava. Hot. Fast. Spewing ash. Roaring along faster than a man can run.

   My word-count drops to nothing on heavy editing days. And on reading days. Also, sometimes, on design days – if I go mental on design. I can’t put a value on what’s written in a day. Next day I might cast a glance over a piece of writing and curse at the typos I glossed over as I rattled away on a creative streak.

   National Novel Writing Month occurs in November. I’d only heard of it in 2011. November was a busy month that year. I didn’t take part in the challenge to write 50,000 words. My task was to finish editing and formatting my novel for sale in December.

   For 2012, I decided to support people who were participating. I’d shadow the whole thing, and post a daily word-count on Twitter until I hit the 50,000 level. After eight days, I was done. That included a knee-folding day on which I wrote 17,500 words.

   Take plenty of rest-breaks. I did. The story flowed like molten lava. Destroying everything in its path. Including the continuity of the story. I switched to writing an unconnected scene knowing it would be placed later in the story once I turned to editing. There was no pause, bar the double-tap of the ENTER key. I simply made space and got the hell on with it.

   Eight days. I didn’t manage 10,000 a day every day. Life stepped in. Sunday was the day of rest. Could I write 10,000 words a day for a whole year? Yes, if I cut and pasted FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY FLY into files and then fucked off to do something else.

   No. I’d have to devote time to reading books. And to editing. To formatting. Design. Hell, I’d occasionally have to eat meals and fall in and out of hot soapy water. Go for a wander. See the sights. Take time off. (A writer is always on the job. I took two stints off in 2012, and got stories out of both breaks.)

   It doesn’t matter how much you write. Some days, 5,000 seems low. A slow day. And on other days, that 5,000 comes across as a job well-done. My limit of 20,000, that I hit once, was ridiculous. I had to spend the next day editing. So the fantastic 20,000 in one day became 20,000 the next. No advance.

   As though I’d written 10,000 one day and 10,000 the next. This is an important point. The 20,000 on day one wasn’t as good as the same 20,000 sitting there on day two. By day two, it wasn’t the same 20,000. It was edited.

   No, it doesn’t matter what you write that day. My word-count may increase by nothing or even drop a few words after editing. Events intrude. Life. You may be forced to write nothing for a week as you deal with hospitals, maintenance issues, or weird technical stuff that slows your world to the consistency of something that has fossils in it.

   Don’t get hung up on word-count. One smooth word trumps a thousand rough ones. There are other aspects of the business to deal with. Reading is so important that I should have spent this entire blog post typing READ READ READ READ.

   I may actually do that in a blog post. It would be quick to write. Ah. But how long would I spend editing?

   Let me turn to the issue of quality. Quality is unimportant. That’s right. Say it again. Quality. What is it good for? Absolutely nothin’. Basic quality is vital. Your story is about something. Oh, you may feel inventive and write a story that appears to be about nothing. That’s your affair.

   Develop a minimum standard, and write beyond that. Beyond that, opinion takes over. So don’t concern yourself with the quality of writing. Whether you write in television or not, ask yourself what you would do if you wrote in television.

   I’ll delve into the second person.

   You are a writer for an American TV show – the series runs episodes in the twenty-odd range. Scripts must be churned out through half the year. On a weekly basis. A few weeks after your script goes in, someone is building a set in which to film your wonderful piece of writing.

   Quality?

   Doesn’t matter. You have seven days to turn in a script, or you won’t eat food. If you are the sort of writer who sits there aching over the construction of a perfect sentence, I imagine a voice just popped into your head.

   Well I wouldn’t eat that week, ha ha.

   Laughing? The joke’s on you. If I had a week in which to write a story by contract, that story would be written. Tom Berenger is scowling over you in the jungle. TAKE THE PAIN! You should write as though you have a weekly deadline, even though your deadline may be further off. Stop worrying about quality. About perfection.

   A perfect one-sentence TV script makes for a short show.

   What am I getting at? You wrote 10,000 words that day. Irrelevant. The piece may not be up to scratch. You wrote one sentence that day – and it shone through the storm, healing the sick as it passed by. Irrelevant.

   Somewhere in there, is your own balance. You write stuff. It looks okay. You’ll tidy it later. After many days of this, you have a story in front of you. This is a story you decide to put in front of others. Job done. Thus endeth the lesson.

NEXT BLOG: BLACK HOLE.

SCHEMES O’ MICE AN’ MEN.

Twice in this blog I announced the impending publication of collected blog posts. My schemes drifted from the template. Instead, I published WITCHES, THE MADONNA GAMBIT, and WEREWOLVES ahead of REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE. I published those tales ahead of my second REPORT, too.

   Life gets in the way. In my next blog post, I’ll talk about the physical workings of an office. Gremlins feature. Time is spent fixing things that shouldn’t have broken. Do your best, in writing, to take those events and make something of them. I took a broken desk and parlayed the experience into fodder for my next blog. Stay tuned.

   Over the summer I put a novel together. At least, I thought that’s what I did. I rushed the idea, and I knew I rushed the idea as I rushed the idea. That’s okay. These things happen. Adapt. I had straightforward pieces of writing to munch my way through. These were linked by a delicate plot mechanism.

   That delicate plot mechanism was adjusted with all the skill of a Swiss watchmaker taking a hammer to a jar of nitro. After the resultant blast, I picked up a few pieces and retreated gracefully. (That last sentence was a lie.)

   What happens when your schemes gang aft a-gley? You translate for non-Scots. My schemes went astray. Not too far. Collected blog editions were still in the works. I could return to the fractured novel once the smoke cleared.

   It’s okay to make mistakes. I wouldn’t recommend spending a lot of time on airy nothingness. That happens, though. Dust yourself down and look beyond the nothingness you weren’t working on. See something, anything, worth salvaging or conjuring into substance.

   Learn from errors. Fix the fixable. Put a foot wrong then set that step right. I blog weeks ahead of the game so I can turn to work on actual work. Problem. I saw that I wouldn’t immediately put out collected editions of my blogs. Solution. I could’ve gone to the automated blog posts and silenced my wayward announcements.

   Instead, I preferred to let the writing stand as scribbled – as a sign that things don’t always plan according to go. I’d operated to very strict publishing deadlines initially, knowing I’d loosen up on deadlines in the next phase. The more I published to deadline, the more I felt that way. Why?

   Publishing to a date, a second date, and a third date was hard to do. A lot of things jumped in my way. Well, boo and hoo. No, I’m not complaining. Publishing strictly, I might have lost sight of a great many items if things were slightly worse for me at the time.

   With a more flexible approach to publishing, I can take account of life’s complexities with a lower likelihood of bursting a vein. Concerning my first three publication dates, I knew the hour of publication. On the day, my plan fell apart and my first stab was delayed for a few hours while I took care of an arcane piece of formatting.

   How important is it to have deadlines? Almost as important as having the material. First you generate the material. Very important. Then you publish to a deadline. Very important. My first bloody stab at self-publishing worked. The deadline was kept. Almost to the hour.

   Second stab. Same tale of success. To the hour.

   Third stab. No fresh news there. Same story. To the hour.

   So much for winter/spring. Then I generated material over the summer. Kept myself busy setting up projects. Designing covers. Manipulating artwork or photography. Editing. Thinking – managed a bit of that. I read articles on the business, chatted with colleagues, and I planned. Unsurprisingly, I also changed plans.

   One approach worked. Another avenue was blocked. I learned. Hell, I even enjoyed what I was doing – how about that. With the summer’s end, I wanted to dive back into the publishing side again. I’d avoided a rigid clockwork existence. Nothing wrong in that – if you are a cog and all is right with the mechanism.

   Writers must avoid being too tightly (or loosely) coiled.

   There were technical issues with blog posts. I didn’t set a definite deadline for blog publication in a collected edition. Instead, I went for a fluid approach. And I’m glad I did. I was able to check a whole load of things. The same went for the second collection. Because the first collection was delayed, the second one had to follow the familiar trail worn by the first.

   I embarked on my FICTION FACTORY publication schedule. October arrived. Could I put out two stories before the end of October? Yes. WITCHES was written in three days. THE MADONNA GAMBIT took longer to write as I incorporated an old piece of fiction into the story. If I’d written from scratch, I’d have done the piece in three days.

   Stitching the old to the new took careful work. I didn’t want to trip up over myself. The same thing happened with WEREWOLVES. I used an old piece of writing as the foundation for a new story, and gave myself an extra week to construct the tale.

   Delay isn’t always bad. I felt that extra week paid off. My loose plan was to put a story out every week from late October. I’d do this three times, and then see to other projects. A change is always better than arrest. I had semi-loose deadlines. WITCHES had to be available by Hallowe’en, to mark my first year of blogging.

   Even allowing for differences across the world, thanks to multiple time-zones, I should be able to publish on the day I publish. If I feed my Scottish story in at one end and an American company takes that story on at the other and the company dictates the time of publication…

   Then if I publish late in my day, it’s still the same day – only earlier – in America. For some reason, that’s never been the case. Amazon always backdates publication by a whole day. WITCHES was published on the 21^st of October 2012, not the 20^th as stated by Amazon. I published late enough on my 21^st for Uncle Sam’s calendar to be on the same page. Still, the story was thrown back in time.

   My schemes didn’t go a-gley. THE MADONNA GAMBIT was published on the 28^th of October, or the 27^th if you believe Amazon. Two stories, a week apart, before Hallowe’en. I kept things fluid. Job done. If I’d had difficulty getting the work seen to, then I’d have imposed a strict deadline of the 31^st.

   No need to burst a vein. Bursting a vein, or a gut, will delay writing and publishing projects. Unless you work through the pain. I’ve never written from a sick-bed, and I possess no desire to join the ranks of writers who have done so.

   My plan continued. “I’ll publish WEREWOLVES by the 4^th of November if I can.” It soon became clear that I needed an extra week. So I gave myself an extra week. I published on the 11^th, or the 10^th if you listen to that scamp Amazon.

   What am I trying to say? I’ve published to strict deadlines that were so tight that I could go in and publish at a precise minute of a set hour. And I’ve published to loose deadlines that were still deadlines. One option isn’t right with the other being wrong.

   The broad idea to publish to a deadline is right. Should I have published WEREWOLVES as intended, a week earlier? No. Other considerations come into play. Publish when you are ready to. Out of the three stories, all three were ready for publication when published. Not before.

   Except. Mm. I rushed publication of WEREWOLVES in one respect. Didn’t credit my artist on the Amazon page. I spotted that and fixed the glitch by publishing again. There’s a delay of several hours before the story goes live on the Amazon network. You think you ticked all the right boxes and filled in the appropriate sections. Think hard. Then check anyway.

   What am I trying to say to would-be professional writers? Write your story and see that your story is published at some point. Let go of your tale. It doesn’t matter if you let go of your tale with a stopwatch standing by counting down the seconds until launch.

   And it doesn’t matter if you look at the colour of the sky and think it’s time to send that file off to Amazon. As long as you do publish before you drop dead. It’s a bit harder to publish after. That’s a technical issue.

   When I set my strict deadlines, I published. And when I set my loose deadlines, I published. I know that I’m going to have strict deadlines for some projects and loose ones for others. The biggest deadline of all is unavoidable. (DEATH.)

   Have a plan. Be prepared to change that plan. Don’t panic if events conspire against you. Try to react in such a way that events conspire for you. Your schemes may be best laid, by mouse or man, and still fail. That’s no excuse to ignore planning.

NEXT BLOG: MARK TWAIN.

MADONNAS, WITCHES, AND WEREWOLVES, OH MY!

Fiction. I’m known for writing it. What is the nature of fiction, in the Digital Age? Stories are whatever the hell you want them to be. I have slight trouble with the word novella. To me, the term signifies a story around 50,000 words.

   When I decided to put out short stories, I wondered if I’d call a 30,000-worder a novella. I didn’t wonder long. No. At that level, my tale is an extended short story. That’s a fancy way of saying it’s a short story stuffed to brimming.

   I do what I can to gather my work for sale. My Amazon author page appears at the end of my blog collections. Blog posts are bundled with fiction – on the off-chance that my blog vanishes. I always write blog posts with the intention of publishing them in e-book form. Whether or not that improves the quality, I leave to the muttering of others.

   Familiar readers of this blog may have noticed that I mentioned a factory for my fiction. The phrase seemed ripe for exploitation. I wanted to write, edit, and publish rapidly. Format? Stories around 30,000 words. I felt like throwing in a few pages of notes. Behind the scenes. FICTION FACTORY was born.

   I created a red stripe for the top of each cover. Initially, I used black lettering. Black on red. Must be a winner. At thumbnail size, I saw white on red had a slight edge. I ditched the winner and backed a horse I wouldn’t normally give a second glance.

   Red stripe. White lettering. Hell, I’d just created a mini-brand for handy doses of tale-tellery. Here’s the blurb for the first three stories in my FICTION FACTORY…

*

WITCHES.

Selena Salem spins tales o’ witchcraft, and worse. Mystified strangers are invited to her kitchen table to hear uncanny stories. Fanning the blood-spattered cards, Selena casts her storytelling spell into the rainy Scottish night.

   Tonight’s tale is one of war between greedy clans. The clan o’ the Hand hires the man in the scarlet cap to do the clan’s bidding. His task? Destroy the clan o’ the Eye and the clan o’ the Tongue. No easy feat for mortal man. A difficult job for a warlock.

   Enter Rory: bandit-killer and lover of married women. The Laird o’ Tongue sends Rory to redress the balance of power by hiring witches. Rory stands on the brink of destruction at the cottage of Selena – prentice witch. Selena’s uncle may be too tired for the fight to come. All the while, the clan o’ the Eye keeps watch. Who will triumph, in this devilish tale of magic gone awry in the service of mortal men?

   35,000 words, plus notes.

*

THE MADONNA GAMBIT.

Harvey lingered, in case the rain concealed someone tailing from the weather’s depths.

   Come on. Is that likely? A tactic you’ve used, true. If they are sharp enough to keep an eye on you, they’ll do so from here. Not on the exposed walkway by the shore. Leapfrog ahead in that red car, and hang around the streets. Around the spare wheels. No one knows about the contingency except her. Your link to the outside world. If she’s suspect, throw yourself in the lake now.

   Placing the spare car here was a thin point generating weakness. Getting the keys to him constituted another thin spot. Forget this crisis of non-confidence. The only way to compromise the alternative exit is by going there to check on things. You are a tourist, remember. Lurching from puddle to puddle. Doing touristy things on a rainy day.

   They are watching me.

   Snap the hell out of it.

Harvey Yale is a hired killer. He wonders why the Madonna Gambit isn’t going according to plan. Is revenge really reaching from beyond the grave to spoil Harvey’s appetite, this job, and the rest of his day? Perhaps there’s more to his paranoia than his paranoia.

   Someone marked him. Coincidence. He was offered a gun he wasn’t sure about using. Uncertainty meant nothing. This wasn’t a high-profile job. He could walk away from the pittance they’d offered him, claiming the set-up looked bad.

   Set-up. The phrase needled him. When in doubt, run with your gut before your gut is wrapped around the other guy’s cutlery. Is the mission compromised? Has paranoia won over instinct? Join Harvey on the treacherous slopes of the rock, to find out…

   37,000 words, plus notes.

*

WEREWOLVES.

Two men died. The third man faded. SHE spoke to the police. The police looked into that connection. Nothing connected. Trailing over old ground, cold ground, SHE thinks SHE’s on the right track. The trouble with following tracks? Sometimes you meet trains coming the other way.

   SHE has little to go on but instinct and a curiosity that’s already killed the cat. On this mad little adventure into the unknown, it’s the dog SHE should worry about. No full moon. Little sign of silver bullets. Maria Ouspenskaya checked out of that hotel a long time ago.

   Follow in the footsteps of two, or three, dead men. Take a walk into the alleys just off Maldine Square. Ignore the café chatter. Find your way to that place, where the brass dragon shakes two silver bells as you tumble through the door. Take a look around. See what you can find. Be wary of anything that finds you.

   39,000 words, plus notes.

*

I don’t feel the need to blog about my work at every turn. Relentless plugging is dreary. If I automated the process, relentless plugging would be just as dreary.

   BUY MY STUFF!

   HEY, BUY MY STUFF.

   ZZZ, HUH, WHUZ, UH, BUY MY STUFF.

   Automation has its place. I automate the blog to cover for a few weeks if I’m out of the country, ill, or otherwise missing in inaction.

   If you want to check out my fiction, root around the blog. There’s the Hallowe’en page. Free story. There’s also the free novel listed under DOCTOR WHO FAN FICTION if your taste runs in that direction. My commercial wordsmithery is on Amazon, for the Kindle…

   The first ten per cent of each tale is free. That’s the Amazon sampling system for you. Click to LOOK INSIDE! The system can take a week to kick in after publication. If you don’t see a free sample, have patience. Give it a few days for Amazon to ferry the free slice to a book-hungry public.

   Free samples. Blurb is free. Product description.

   I wanted a home for my blurb. A place that wasn’t Amazon. Right here. A blog post must be built around any blurb-fest. I thought I’d talk about the nature of product descriptions. Self-published digital writers have the power to fashion blurb. I control the content. Is this a good thing? A bad thing? In the world of movies, I often feel the need to shoot the people who come up with trailers.

   Rules for movie trailers?

   Never show a serious heavy-duty plot-point in a trailer. By that, I mean one that thunders into sight when people sit to watch the movie. They’ve seen the trailer, and guess the cunning part of the plot once they take in the first half hour of the film. Your shitty trailer gave away the last half hour. Awkward.

   Don’t put stuff in the trailer if it doesn’t make the final cut. Annoying.

   Please don’t show half the film in the trailer. Pointless. A tactic used for thrillers, mysteries, and suspense flicks. Trying too hard.

   Comedy trailers. Don’t show five jokes in the trailer. Especially if there are only four jokes in your movie.

   Please don’t tell us HEROES WILL RISE. That makes the movie sound as though there’ll be a catastrophic start to the good guy’s tale, followed by an extensive training montage/landscape-hopping journey, ending with a bare-chested revenge fight in rain. With knives.

   There’s nothing wrong with films like that. Just don’t tell us heroes will rise in them. DOUGH WILL RISE. VILLAINS WILL RISE. DOUGHY HEROES WILL RISE. Don’t confuse doughy heroes with doughty heroes. They’ll all rise.

   Don’t show any snippets from the final scene of your film. Let it go.

   Time for a DO, instead of a DON’T. Do use James Horner’s music from Aliens in your trailer. Hell, we won’t spot that tactic. Year in, year out.

   I give away my plot for Neon Gods Brought Down by Swords right there in the blurb. Our hero is sent to kill seven bastards. There’s an immediate betrayal and all bets are off. A good example of product description, or not?

   Go to Amazon’s Kindle Store to check the blurb. If you’re reading this in the collected edition, you’ll find blurb for Neon Gods under the heading ALSO AVAILABLE. Judge for yourself. I tell you everything, yet give nothing away.

   The plot outlined in my product description is divulged inside the first ten per cent of my book. You get the basic idea from the blurb, true. That plot surrenders to the reader of the free sample. I’m not giving out a major twist that upsets the customer.

   Did I say too much in my blurb for WITCHES, THE MADONNA GAMBIT, WEREWOLVES, or any other story I’ve written? Those FICTION FACTORY pieces are short stories. Should I say less that’s plot-related when describing shorter works?

   Rory enters a deal with witches. Harvey Yale is an assassin. SHE is a curious investigator of strange doings. Well, I have to tell potential customers SOMETHING. What am I saying? There’s a skill to writing, and there’s a skill to writing blurb.

   If you are a self-published scribbler, you must develop the skill of writing blurb. In the paper publishing world, this skill was thought too dangerous to be left in the hands of authors. There are times, glancing at paper publishers, when I thought those publishers wanted to do it all – even writing the books.

   You know. Do away with authors.

   This is the Digital Age, and many of us simply chose to dispense with the paper publishers. If I’m going to have crappy blurb attached to my stories, I may as well be the piss-artist responsible. Excuse my bias – I don’t have crappy blurb attached to my stories.

   Sometimes this sentiment feels right – if only the people who made the movie had made the trailer.

   Occasionally, the view runs in another direction – if only the people who made the trailer had made the movie.

   What to do, about blurb? I’d advise adding the word-count to product description. Be transparent. For my REPORT FROM A FUGITIVE editions, I make it plain that I’m bundling around 30,000 words of a free blog with paid-for fiction. The FICTION FACTORY line consists of stories that aren’t going to be reissued in larger collections – that’s transparent on the product description. (See any FICTION FACTORY story on Amazon or the ALSO AVAILABLE section of this collection for the main mission statement.)

   Transparency. Be honest about the product without giving away the goods. Have I altered product descriptions? Yes. The only way to know you set the blurb down straight is by studying the text live on Amazon. I’ve had to correct glitches and deal with gremlins that popped up.

   Don’t mislead customers. That’s a rule for writing blurb. When constructing novels, feel free to misdirect readers – that’s different. It’s also a topic for another time. Leaving me just enough space for a spot of blurb plugging the next blog post…

NEXT BLOG: SCHEMES O’ MICE AN’ MEN.