If you’ve read this blog in years past, you know I have been down on Smashwords before. You know I’ve said some not-very-nice things about them. But truth be told, for many years, the Smashwords store was my go-to place to buy books as a reader. When I got my first Kindle, I ran to the Smashwords store and browsed a special sale they were holding, grabbing all sorts of…
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The anatomy of a symptom flare
It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been active on this blog, or sent out my newsletter, or posted anything decent on social media. My amazing assistant, Esther Hadassah, had been doggedly continuing to post content on Facebook like a trouper. I appreciate her keeping it going even as I’ve given her nothing new to post about in well over a year. I’ve discovered that when you get out…
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The Martian calendar system in The Iamos Trilogy
In preparation for the last book in the Iamos series finally? coming out?? soon??? (we can all hope and pray), I am getting together some supplementary material for the series to help readers out, especially those who want to be able to jump into the final book as soon as One World is out without having to start over from the beginning. Right now I’m working on detailed recaps for…
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There is no magic bullet
Something that’s been really bothering me for a couple years now is this pervasive idea in indie publishing that there’s a formula to success, and anyone can be making five+ figures from their writing if they follow the formula. You’ll see it a lot on social media, especially on Facebook in writers’ groups. Authors will post that their book isn’t selling, and the peanut gallery will come racing in with…
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Some news
News Item 1: Sing, Goddess! is available now Sing, Goddess! A YA Anthology of Greek Myth Retellings, edited by Jane Watson, is available now! I’m excited for everyone to read my retelling of the myth of Icarus, “Feathers on the Wind.” Set in ancient Greece and featuring a half-harpy girl who befriends Icarus, it follows the myth pretty closely but there are some changes. It was hilarious when I was…
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Get off Twitter
This was originally posted on my personal blog, but after getting a lot of positive comments from people saying they felt it was an important part of the conversation, I decided to repost it here as well. Although I’ve been off Twitter for over a year at this point, a few days ago an author friend of mine sent me a Twitter thread to look at. It was a reaction…