A Midsummer Night’s Dream…

The midsummer weekend is a time of great celebration in my country. We are far enough in the north for there to be light almost through the night, even if the sun does set at some point, and it drives everyone to a near frenzy. Half of the population travels to the seaside, lakeside or poolside to take part in heavy duty partying through a long weekend. At the end of it, they take a toll of those who have drowned and everybody promises to behave better the next time.

My weekend was wonderful though. The whole family gathered at my parents’ summer place – by river – and since the weather favoured outdoors activities, we managed to spend a summery weekend resting and relaxing. Nevertheless, just in case I would feel inspired, I had packed quite a lot of work-related stuff with me, but in the end the midsummer night’s dream got to me and I ended up reading the work of others. Namely, Jim Butcher’s Codex Alera.

I discovered Jim Butcher only recently and was instantly so taken with his Dresden files that I read all of them back to back during the spring. It was a very inspiring experience, but daunting as well. It is wonderful to read an innovative and imaginative series that manages to maintain its level of excellence a book after a book, but at the same time it is upsetting to realise that I will never achieve the same. Inspiration won in the end and so, having devoured Harry Dresden, I moved on to Butcher’s other series, although with trepidation. Could it be as good?

As could be expected with an epic fantasy like Codex Alera , it took me a while to warm up to the characters – unlike with Harry. But once I did, there was nothing better for whiling away slow summer days by river, or on it, than good fantasy Jim Butcher style. Now I feel inspired and ready to tackle my own writing, no matter how imperfect it may be.

Happy birthday to me

It’s my birthday today. I’m not going to tell you how much I’m turning – a girl has a right not to – only that it’s getting uncomfortably close to forty. Besides, I’m not going to have an age crisis on you here. I’m going to celebrate the day by announcing the brand new webpages for Hannah Kane. Check them out here and tell me what you like of them:

Hannah's pages (Update February 23, 2014: Hannah's pages no longer exist.)

Ok, so they turned out a bit too romantic for my taste, but Hannah writes contemporary romances so it’s appropriate. I wouldn’t put wallpaper like that on my own walls, but for her site the pattern is perfect.

On a related note, there isn’t much content in those pages yet, but I’ll be adding it as soon as I have time. And I'm in the process of trying to find an artistic way to add this blog feed on the pages as well; I was helped out with the technical side of it at the amazon.co.uk version of the Meet Our Authors forum, so that should be covered. However, there is a very preliminary excerpt for Hannah’s first book, At her boss’s command, for you to read there. I'll be celebrating my birthday with revising it.

Of changing my mind

The week has flown past. I was absolutely sure that it was only the other day I posted on this blog the last time, but it turns out that was on Monday. I have no idea what happened.

Ok, technically I do. I got distracted.

It started with changing my mind about which book I would publish next. I have a few manuscripts completed, each in need of more or even more revising. When I began in this self-publishing business, I went through them and made a schedule for publishing them. But when it came time to publish only the second book on that list, I had already changed my mind. I’ve been reading the forums for independent publishers on Amazon sites and I became convinced that it would be better to publish a shorter book for Hannah Kane first, instead of the full-length one that I had thought to publish.

So I started revising a manuscript for a romantic novella I'm tentatively calling ‘At her boss’s command’. That was one of the distractions, or two of them, if you count separately the deciding on which story to revise and then spending half a day trying to come up with a title for it that would sell and that wouldn’t have been used already. The latter turned out to be quite difficult, actually. Other distractions include trying to design the cover for the next book, for which I had to spend endless hours browsing for suitable photos, and trying to come up with an idea for Hannah’s personal websites.

Here I am, then, on Sunday, with a manuscript still on its early stages of revising, with no new cover to show or even the websites ready. But at least I got this blog post written.

Of the importance of paper

I’m well aware that we’re supposed to be saving the planet one tree at a time. I recycle as much as I can and use the empty backsides of scraps of paper as shopping lists, among other things. And I think that one of the points for e-books is that they don’t use paper. (Although it’s more important for me personally that e-books don’t put a strain on my already overflowing bookshelves.)

This said, when it comes to writing, I couldn’t live without paper. I write early drafts on notebooks where I make notes about my characters too for easy reference; I tried word documents for the latter, but it just didn’t work for me. I use sticky notes for the little details. And when it comes to editing, paper prints are invaluable.

When it’s time to go through a manuscript in its entirety, I need paper prints. I can check misspelled words on the computer screen too, although I always miss some, but I can fit only so many pages on the screen at once to assess the whole. When I’m holding the concrete text in my hand, I can see what works and what doesn’t so much better. If reshuffling of chapters is needed, I can move them around without losing the bigger picture. And I can make notes directly on the prints and rewrite entire chapters on them as well, before returning to my computer.

I try to be economical and ecological though. I can fit four pages on one sheet and still be able to read it. And once I’m done, I can always use the empty backsides of the prints for something else.

Starting anew

Now that my book is out there, I feel like resting on my non-existing laurels for a few days. I have successfully pulled off a project and have no need to rush into a next one. The summer weather has improved and I have a couple of things I need to see to first.

Nevertheless, I’m starting to feel the pull of my next book. It’s there, somewhere at the back of my head – or where ever these things are actually located – reminding me of its existence. A writer’s life is about always starting something new. There is always a new book to write, a new chapter to start, new characters to meet and new plots to – well – plot. It’s exciting and somewhat daunting too. Will I be able to write something interesting, or will I just stare at the computer monitor for days, the constantly blinking cursor the only sign of life on a blank page?

This time though, I have already written the manuscript, I just need to work on it. It will be more like meeting old friends I haven’t seen for a while. I’m happy to see them, but I’m a bit worried too. Have they changed much? Have I changed? What if we don’t like each other anymore?

Then again, if that happens, there always is that other option open for writers. Starting afresh.

Of the public image

When I began imagining I would become an author, I never imagined doing it publicly. I might tell about it to my family, but since I would be using pen names, no one else would know. There is certain appeal in anonymity, at least for me.

But the reading audience doesn’t really like faceless authors, does it. I know I always check the back flap of a book to see what the author looks like, and if there is no picture, I’m very disappointed. It doesn’t matter what they look like – although, once, an author I thought would be a woman turned out to be a man instead, which threw me. I just want to know. And I know most people want to know too.

So, faced with this dichotomy, I ended up voting for putting my face out there. The decision was so sudden that I didn’t even have a proper photo of myself. At the very least, I thought I would put on some makeup and comb my hair and sit down for a portrait. Instead, I just took the least offensive picture of me I could find and put it out there for everyone to see. Maybe no one will look at it too closely.