New Ebook Up, Bits & Things

“Fantasy is a necessary ingredient in living. It's a way of looking at life through the other end of the telescope.” Dr. Seuss


everyday omen: a piece of bark stuck in my car door. The bark is worse than the bite? Barking up the wrong tree? Yup, often it is a cliché or a pun…

gemstone: lapis lazuli. A favorite of mine is said to bring wisdom, understanding, and esoteric knowledge. It also attunes one to the creative source.

"If you're a writer, ideas flock around the inside of your mind like bats.” (words by Mark Haddon) (I first read this as: "If you're an artist, ideas flock around the inside of your head like gnats"...which makes room for a whole lot more swarming ideas!

tidbits: Issac Asimov wrote 500 books, more books than most people read in a lifetime.

Which brings me to: How many books do you read a year? month? week?
I read a book about every couple days (not counting editing my own!) So that's, gee, only 121 books a year about. (Okay, so I'm not counting the times I've read 2 books in one day...so maybe a few more. And you?

Mystery and romance lovers /readers make up for more than 85% of the books sold (2000). I like books that combine these two genres (Like Jayne Anne Krentz.)

John William Polidir was a contemporary of Mary Shelly, he wrote the 1st vampire story, called, 'The Vampyre".

thought: Suppose you were actually living in your novel/ Who would you be?
In my Miss Kitty Mysteries, I'm not the main character, I'm one of the artists living on Easlyn Lane, down the street from Dusty.

Sara, The Artist:
An artist hits the moment where it looks as if nothing will ever come together. The story, the painting, the sculpture, the composition is ashambles. It looks horrid and is fighting to become even more of a mess. This is not the time to give up (even when your stupid pen runs out of ink like mine just did writing this out!)
That is where my latest (large tapestry) painting (of Ganesha) has been for...a while. Okay, I found in a journal that I had started it last year. Time flies when you are wishing the painting would just come together by itself magically...


An awake: One night I was wandering about with my head hurting and I asked aloud (not really expecting an answer), "What can I take for my headache?" Spirit answered, "A chocolate." It was a surprising answer to me and it worked and tasted way better than aspirin!
(An awake, to me, is like a dream (in that it is a piece of life that has extra meaning.) only you are walking around thinking you are awake and aware in the physical world, rather than asleep and dreaming.)


Sara, The Writer: Yipeee!!! I started writing again (rather than the endless editing in various stages that I've been doing for it seems like ever). I got 7 pages done on the next Miss Kitty Mystery (#11, Portals & Poisons).
Not that I can stop editing, I have Byran's book 5 to edit through again. With even more loose ends! How come they keep multiplying when I'm not looking!? Can I just say: Byran didn't bother with that, end of story???

Oh, I am putting the 3rd Miss Kitty Mystery up on Smashwords in ebook form today, if all goes well. It is $ 3. If you love cozy mysteries and cats, this has lots of cats, the requisite dead body, and some handsome live ones to perk Sazzy's day up, oh, and even more cats (and a few dogs in case you like those).

Kittens & Kilts:
Someone is kidnapping cats
and Miss Kitty's Private Spy Agency
seems like the best place to go for help
to get the furry darlings back.
The client, in his kilt and vest, is decorative enough to snag Sazzy's attention long enough for Dusty to say, "Yes, she'll take the case."

Merrie Days:
Happy birthday to the Greek God Apollo (one source at least) on the 22nd. Happy birth anniversary to Clay, May 21. Happy day to Y, May 23. Happy birth anniversary to Aunt Nancy, May 25. And a merrie, magical day to you!

Merrie May!

This is a picture of Chay, the Youngest Sinister Fate

 

quote: Slayer of dragons, matador of time and space, rightful heir to heaven and earth, it's time to begin living the life of your dreams. (Mike Dooley)

superstition: Coffee drinkers: if bubbles flat towards you, money is on the way. But if you stir your coffee (or any other drink) with a knife, you'll get a stomach ache.

everyday omen: I have two this time, both found in a parking lot. One was a tiny feather. This reminds me of two things: "It isn't the feather, it's you who can fly" (from Dumbo); and Richard Bach's book Illusions, where a feather is the answer to: Prove I can I manifest anything. Looking at them together, I think the message is basically the same. Believe in my talent and abilities.
Second everyday omen, a package of salt. Salt of the earth. Salt is protection. Being below or above the salt is status. The salt was at my foot as I stepped out of my car, so I'll go with status. I am at the salt. This reminds me of a dream I took as confirmation of having made a major change I didn't think I could ever make. (The dream image was teeth coming out in a set of four, then, in the dream, I still had all my teeth, too.)

writer tidbits from various sources:
..South American writer, Kathleen Lindsey wrote 904! novels between 1903 and 1973. Yipe!
..If you think that is high, Maria del Socorro Tellado Lopaz published more than 4000 novels between 1927 and 2009 (Most of that time is precomputer, people!)
..Earle Stanley Gardner sometimes worked on as much as 7 novels at once...but he only put out 104 books. (And those were rather short.)
..For Issac Asimov I have two numbers. One source says he wrote 200 books, another says 400. I don't what the discrepancy is. Someone couldn't count? Or someone only counted one type of book?
..Crime writers sell, on an average, about 1500-10,000 soft cover mysteries per book.
The most borrowed genres in fiction, from libraries are: Romance, Historical, Fantasy, and Crime, in that order. (9 out of 10 borrowers are women.)

Thoughts: I am considering putting a novel in process up serial on this blog. What do you think? Any suggestions of what series? I am working on a Miss Kitty, Beacon Book, and a Younger Fates Entire story next. Or, I suppose it could be nonfiction, I have a sort your life out self-help book I am wrestling with.

Sara, The Artist: I got all my calendar pictures done, draft printed and painted...so I can make corrections. I have one I don't like enough to redraw it. My art energy has been low. I took time off. It is still low. Time to find some encouragement!

Sara, The Writer: What is with Byran's last story? If it isn't a computer problem, it's a backup not there after all problem, and Monday last it was an electric company shut power off just as I was getting ready to close down. I lost the document and the backup. Argh. I had the day before's back up in plain text at least. I am editing so I only lost a day's editing work...but adding that to the other lost work days, I wonder again: What is with this story!
Other than that, I am getting one book (one in the Beacon series, The Horns of Dilemma, which is Megan's story) ready to send to my outside reader, and one (Miss Kitty Mystery # 10, Races & Rogues) I am printing my first paper copy to slash and dice...
This all means, I haven't been writing...only editing. Dare I say, the less I write, the less sane I am???


Did I say that Wishing is up on Smashwords and Barnes & Noble? And Byran's book 4 (Byran Spiritsong) is out in the print version.

Happy May 17, the Festival of Roses honoring Flora, the Roman Goddess of flowers...of which my yard is full: fire crackers, jasmine, plumbago, hibiscus. No roses, I don't do plants that need any kind of real care.
Merry May, hope the last of your spring is full of cheer!