Dear Lucky Agent Contest

Have a science fiction or fantasy novel you want to get in front of an agent?

Well, guess what? You can!

~The Dear Lucky Agent Contest!

And the best part…it’s free!

Contest closes tomorrow,so get a move on, kids.

Conversations While Being Chased by a Dragon

Trying something new again. Often these types of post fall into obscurity after a few weeks, but we’ll see.

I got this idea from another blog I saw, and I liked it. So here’s the attempt with my own spin.

What I’d tell you if…

…I were being chased by a fire-breathing dragon through a dark cave on an unknown planet surrounded by active volcanoes and heroic music which invariably meant I would survive because the hero(ine) always survives.

~It’s hot in here!

~I’m giving a presentation tomorrow on preparing to publish, and I’m really excited about it. Recap next week!

~Talking helps! (And sometimes talking while being chased by a fire-breathing dragon is the best time.)

~You can’t be unhappy when you’re grateful. (And I’m even grateful for the dragon because it means I’m alive and kicking.)

~When I get out of this cave (since I know I will due to the previously mentioned music), I will resume being all I can be and more.

*dodges ball of flame*

I Wrote a Guest Post

Happy December!

In other news, want to know why I went indie?

Dylan Callens has a guest post from me on just that topic.

~Read it at the Cosmic Teapot!

Thanks for hosting me, Dylan. Also, awesome site name! 

Geek on,
Deanna

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Writing for Geeks (At Least for Me)

“Geeky people often have. . . . a mind with its own heartbeat.”
-Garret Freymenn-Weyr

Once upon a time, two years ago, a girl picked up Ready Player One by Ernest Cline and loved it. The characters were real. The story was complex. The zeal for the virtual world that had become Earth’s place of choice reminded her of a time when she, too, wished to live in a virtual world and her eventual decision to leave it behind in favor of reality.

Once upon a time, later, this same girl discovered Ernest Cline was writing another book. She bounced in her chair with excitement and waited with eager breath for the release of this new book. A year later, Mr. Cline released Armada. The girl got it on release day and read.

And read.

And wondered.

~~~

I write for geeks. When the idea of Critical Hit-On first came to me, I thought “I want to write a romance novel for gamers. I want to write a romance for girls like me—ones who consider themselves geeky and fear that being geeky will keep them from finding someone. I want to write a romance novel for girls who love to reference LOTR and Star Wars and all that stuff as much as their male counter parts.”

So I did.

And then I changed it.

It took a long time, but I finally realized somewhere in the process of writing Critical Hit-On that there was such a thing as too many geek references. Not only does it get tiresome, it alienates an entire portion of the population that could become fans. So I cut back on the references and expanded the book. My new goal was to write romance novels that could be appreciated by geeks but that weren’t necessarily for geeks. I feel I succeeded, but I’ll leave that up to the readers.

I finished reading Armada last week. Upon completion of this long-awaited book, I stared at the final page and thought “that’s it?” At the risk of sounding too geeky here, you know that part of the movie where the hero realizes the grizzled old mentor isn’t perfect?

Yeah, that’s what happened.

As a reader, I hold a certain place of esteem for authors who pen novels that make me feel. Ernest Cline made me feel with Ready Player One. I so wanted the same experience with Armada, and I simply did not get it.

Why not? Well, it’s simple, really. There was too much geek. The references started on page one and didn’t let up until the end—literally. Some I got. Some I didn’t. Perhaps the worst part was that I knew I wasn’t getting a lot of the references. I felt excluded from the story because I didn’t know every tiny reference to the most obscure geek culture. It’s not a good feeling.

I had the idea to not use too many references long before Armada. Still, I didn’t know what that really meant. Where was the harm? Well, the harm is here. Geeks are geeks. Any geek who’s asked will automatically admit it. Most will also admit to other interests that aren’t traditionally considered “geek,” too. Like anything else, there are degrees. Armada seems to be written for the all-knowing kind from the 80’s who want the glory days back. If you aren’t in the club, either join or find another club. I’m not in the club, and honestly, I don’t feel it’s worth the work to join when I am happy where I am.

Critical Hit-On and One Fling to Rule Them All are geek romance. There’s no way around it. My characters play RPGs (role playing games), video games, trading card games, most other kinds of games one can think of. They quote books and movies from pop culture, but that’s not all they do. There is more to the books than a love of geek culture. There’s heart and relationships and friendship and family and people with real goals—like wanting to counsel parents with wayward teens or start a small business through which a career in music can be built. Man does not live on pop culture references alone. A good story needs something at its center, something all readers (geek, self-proclaimed or otherwise, or not) can identify with. With Critical Hit-On and One Fling, my aim was to provide a celebration of pop culture while focusing on some real life issues of people who just happen to be gamers. I can only hope I succeeded.

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Please Don't Offend My work ethic. Or, One Indie Author's take on a Blogger's Review Policy

“You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you.” – Ray Bradbury

This past week, I’ve put a lot of time into seeking out potential reviewers for my second book, One Fling to Rule Them All, (which can be purchased by clicking on the blue linked text of the title, just sayin. ). It’s a long and kind of tedious process that goes something like this.

Step 1: Find a long-ish list of book blogs
Step 2 – Go through the blogs on the list individually, paying special attention to their review policy and any other pertinent information (Some do not have a review policy, which is fine. Others do not have easily found guidelines, but that’s a post for another time.)
Step 3 – Determine if each blog a). reviews your genre, and b). would be a good fit by looking at a few reviews
Step 4 – If the blog is a good fit, locate contact information (again, sometimes more easily found than others) and drop blogger a line in preferred method
Step 5 – Wait.

I know. Fun, right? Lately, my days have looked something like this.

Step 1 – Wake up and proceed with morning activities (eat, get dressed, practice personal hygiene, etc.)
Step 2 – Use the late morning and early afternoon to hunt down and (when possible) email bloggers
Step 3 – Have some form of lunch
Step 4 – Write at least a thousand words to keep the writing monster happy
Step 5 – Do any other miscellaneous things that need doing (i.e. Laundry, errands, cleaning, etc.)
Step 6 – Eat some form of dinner
Step 7 – Possibly go back to the blogger hunt
Step 8 – Sleep so this can be repeated the following day

MEEP!

Despite how this list looks, I actually don’t mind the process. Asking bloggers to review my book gives me a sense of doing. I’m accomplishing something small every time my email comes back with “your message has been sent.” The waiting is less fun, but let me tell you. Any irritation caused is instantly made better by the receipt of an email that says something like “Your book looks awesome. I’d love to review it.” That’s every writer’s dream right there. Well, one of our dreams.

However, with the good comes the bad. Most review bloggers say similar things in their policy—I cannot accept every book; I may not finish every book I do accept; my reviews are honest; I may post negative reviews—that’s fine. Authors understand that not everyone will love everything they read. (At least, authors should understand this.) We prepare for one star reviews. It’s part of life.

What shouldn’t be part of life, however, is unnecessary rudeness. I’ve seen cases over the years of authors flipping tables because of bad reviews. That’s not okay. Neither okay, though, is the idea that a review policy can insult writers. Without saying names, I came across a review policy that said something like “I refuse to read self-published books because I like good writing.”

Ouch.

K, back up the wagon. Yes, self-publishing has given everyone (and I mean everyone) the opportunity to publish a book. Yes, many self-published authors do not take the time to get their books beta read, proof read, edited, provided cover art, or any of the other little things that make a book good. And yes, bloggers certainly have the right to not accept Indie authors. It’s the same right that allows them to not accept science fiction or mystery—they don’t want to.

But book bloggers, it is not (repeat NOT) okay to insult the entire Indie author population because you’ve read a few badly done Indie books. There is an entire community out there of self-published authors who know what they are doing and produce products that are written and packaged as well than traditionally published books. There are Indie writers who take just as much time learning the craft of writing than traditionally published authors. There are freelance editors out there who are just as good than editors who work at major publishing houses. There are cover artists, layout artists, publicists, translators—you name it, the Indie world’s got it—that do just as well as the people working in big companies. If you don’t want to read Indie books, fine. But do not, for a moment, presume to insult the Indie authors who work because a few choose not to.

Thank you,
An Indie author who puts effort and time into her books
Deanna Dee

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