Rebirth!!!

This blog has gotten lost in the shuffle since I started using LJ more, and since the demise of PD Publishing sent me into a self pitying downswing.

I am done with all that crap! I am working on gathering the cash to reawaken my website, resubmitting my novels old and new to a new publisher, and doing whatever it takes to breathe new life into my career and my stories. The most recent Golden Crown conference was very cathartic in helping me drag my lazy ass out of this funk and begin the journey forward. If you have not been to one of these conferences you should go. You'll never be the same.

So far I have finished the revisions to Natural Order and sent it off to one of my best beta readers, and now am working on the revisions for Ancestral Magic. The goal is to send both off to Regal Crest along with Worlds Collide. If accepted the novels won't be rereleased in print for but they WILL be in ebook formats which is something they haven't been before. I am excited to see what new readers this will bring in.

I also am planning to go over Shadow Magic (book 2 in the series Ancestral Magic is part of) so I can submit it as well. It was on final edits right before PD went away so shouldn't need much work to be ready. Next on the to do list is Natural Rebirth (sequel to Natural Order) which when I left it (also at the time of the PD death and creative crash following that) the novel rough draft was about 2/3 completed. This task is likely to take the most time so is on the the list after Shadow Magic.

Another thing I am working on between revisions is the marketing plans for once the books are out again. I sucked at the marketing thing before. I am determined to find a way to be better at it, while still keeping up with school and mom stuff, at the same time staying within budget. This means heavy organization. I have an editor (who I loves!) who has agreed to go over some of my past novellas (I have about 5) so I can give them away as free taster fic to hopefully convince people not familiar with my work to give me a go :) I got a lot of new marketing ideas from Catherine M Wilson's workshop she did at the con on Marketing to the Mainstream, which I will share as I make my list and plans.

GCLS Report Up

I finally pulled myself away from the kittens and writing to finish the complete GCLS con report I promised everyone. Keep in mind this is my experience, and what I remember two week prior. I met so many more wonderful people then were mentioned here, but names have never been my strong suit. :)

Moon's GCLS Report

Golden Crown Awards...And the Winners Are!!!

In Atlanta after a trip on the red eye, will be leaving for home at about 9:15. I plan to do a big post on the whole convention, but for now I'll leave you with the winners of the 2008 Golden Crown Literary Awards. There will be comintary when I am more awake.

The winners of the 2008 Goldies are:

Lesbian Anthology (non-erotica)
Love, Castro Street: Reflections of San Francisco edited by Katherine V. Forrest & Jim Van Buskirk, Alyson Books

Lesbian Poetry
The Human Line by Ellen Bass, Copper Canyon Press
The Islands Project by Eloise Klein Healy, Red Hen Press
Torch River by Elizabeth Philips, Brick Books

Lesbian Dramatic General Fiction
In Broad Daylight by Jane Vollbrecht, Regal Crest Enterprises
Landing by Emma Donoghue, Harcourt
The Spanish Pearl by Catherine Friend, Bold Strokes Books

Lesbian Short Story/Essay Collection
Are There Closets in Heaven by Carol Curoe & Robert Curoe, Syren Book Company
Deep in the Heart – A Memoir of Love and Longing by Sheila Morris, Red Letter Press
Fried & True – Tales from Rehoboth Beach by Fay Jacobs, A & M Books

Lesbian Mystery
Dark Valentine by Jennifer Fulton, Bold Strokes Books
Redress of Grievances by Brenda Adcock, Regal Crest Enterprises
The Devil Unleashed by Ali Vali, Bold Strokes Books

Lesbian Erotica
Crave by Catherine Lundoff, Lethe Press
Erotic Interludes 5: Road Games editted by Radclyffe and Stacia Seaman, Bold Strokes Books
In Deep Waters: Cruising the Seas by Karin Kallmaker & Radclyffe, Bella Books

Lesbian Speculative Fiction
Crown of Valencia by Catherine Friend, Bold Strokes Books
Queens of Tristaine by Cate Culpepper, Bold Strokes BooksR
ebels' Quest by Gun Brooke, Bold Strokes Books

Lesbian Romance
And Playing the Role of Herself by K.E. Lane, Regal Crest Enterprises
Out of Love by K.G. MacGregor, Bella Books
Second Season by Ali Vali, Bold Strokes Books

Lesbian Debut Author
K.E. Lane, And Playing the Role of Herself, Regal Crest Enterprises
Paula Offutt, Butch Girls Can Fix Anything, Regal Crest Enterprises
Jennifer Parello, Dateland, McKenna Publishing

The Ann Bannon GCLS Popular Choice Award
And Playing the Role of Herself by K.E. Lane, Regal Crest Enterprises

The GCLS Trailblazer Award
Katherine V. Forrest

The GCLS Director's Award
Nann Dunne (she who created JAW (Just About Write, a wonderful resource for lesfic writers and readers)

Congratulations to all the winners!!!

Marketing on a Budget

With my first anthology out (Chilling Tales) and a novel due this fall (Ancestral Magic) I’ve been giving a great deal of thought to the idea of marketing. Being with a small publisher, a lot of the promotion lands on my shoulders, and not having a ton of extra cash to spare, I have to be frugal with the marketing tools I use. Some of these I have been working on for quite some time, whole others are new tools since the anthologies release or resources geared to the novel as its date of availability get closer. Whereas any artist can use these tool to promote themselves, as a writer I will mostly be focusing on that aspect.

The internet itself is a great tool to give your work widespread attention. There are no gas or plane fares to dig into your pocket book, you simply have the world at your fingertips. What you do with this connection is up to you. Here are some suggestions.

Blogging

What a blog is for

This is something I suggest to do as early as possible. Establishing yourself as an online presence before you have work you are promoting is a great way to gather a fan base, as well as giving a place for people who what to know where you stand a way to get to know you better. You can do anything with blogging. Make a stand about social injustices, display personal art and writing, gather with other writers to offer advice on writing or to promote/support each others work. The possibilities are endless.

Be careful what you say

This is not to say you should do anything on a personal or professional blog. This is not a place to publicly bash publishers who reject your work, editors that get on your nerves, other artists you may be having a row with, or even complaining about your boss unless you are okay with these folks finding your blog and seeing what you say about them. It’s an easy way to shoot your career in the foot if you aren’t careful. That is not to say you can’t have an opinion, or vent your frustration, just remember folks are not only reading what you write there, but the wrong person would be just as likely to repost what you say someplace else to start trouble.

The subject of trolls

For those of you who have never experienced internet trolls, here’s a brief definition of what these creatures are. The term trolls has a connection to the technique of” trolling” a style of fishing that involves a bait to be dragged though an area looking far a fish to bite. Internet trolls do basically the same thing. They come to a blog or online community for the purpose to make off topic comments and cause trouble. They are generally a person who feels their life is out of control, so they victimize someone else to make them feel important.

Trolls are something any blogger who takes a stand on anything that could be seen as controversial, or who isn’t meek when it comes to commenting on other blogs, will have to do with at some point. Set your blog settings accordingly to protect yourself best you can, avoid posting personal pics or information you don’t want these trolls to have access to, and work to build a supportive online community who can all just to each other’s defense when these trolls come calling.

You can’t protect yourself completely, but don’t let them stop you from talking about the issues that impassion you, nor give them the power to derail an important topic with their idiocy. It will be up to you on whether to fight or just ignore the trolls, often the latter is the best you can do.

How to handle a troll

Zero Tolerance

Blog linking

Assuming I haven’t completely scared you off of blogging talking about trolls, one of the best ways to bring traffic to your blog is to link up with other blogs as well. Post link to places you admire or find interesting, trade links with other writers or artists you admire or like. Helping promote each other is a great way to increase traffic for all of you. Marketing yourself as an artist isn’t about competing, it’s about giving the consumer all the information they need, and at the same time giving you a place to be creative and speak out. Whether you blog every day or only once a week, it’s a good habit to get into. Also don’t forget to spend time visiting other’s blogs. You may be surprised what you learn and what may inspire you.

Websites

Basics

Other great tool for personal promotion, and something that can be easily links your blog is the website. I prefer having a domain through a paid hosting source, but there is many free webhosting places out there you can use as well. Unless you have a friend who has the ability to build your site for you, you will have to do the web design yourself or pay to have it done. Be sure to keep it as simple as you can easily maintain, so you can make regular changes as you need to.

What to have on your site

There are several things that I think are crucial on any website as an author or artist. You want someplace where the casual viewer can learn about you, a bio page of some sort. This can be as simple or as complex as you’d like. You want to display your work in some way so those visiting can get a taste of what you do, your style and skill. Also, here is a good place to add links to other artist, resource sites, ect…for the cross promoting I mentioned before. You have review of your work, post them on your site. Events you’ll be attending? News on upcoming releases or awards? Yep post those here too. This is your site, your chance to show new viewers who you are and what your about. Inlike the blog this is a much for the casual reader, as for the person who wants to learn much more about you.

Other Tools

Mailgroups

Places like google, yahoo, etc have email communities and forums where you can connect with like minded people and talk about anything that interests you. This is also a great place to promote your work assuming personal promotion is allowed on the group, and you follow the group rules for doing so. My advice, join these groups long before it is time to promote your work. Be as active as you can so people know who you are, and don’t only see you as someone just here to promote themselves but a true member of their online community.

YouTube – Book trailers

Places like YouTube or any other video hosting are fabulous places if you have the tech knowledge and equipment to do your own videos. Book trailers are a great way for you to attract the more visually geared folks to want to check out your work. A well done trailer can be a huge boost, and there are many places that give tutorials on how to do this. You can make your trailer or virtual gallery as simple or as complicated as you like.

Writer Unboxed

No Rule. Just Write

We CAN Market Our Books

Readings – Podcasts

Now many of you know about doing readings and panels at conventions, but with the growing cost of travel I’ve thought about how else to present my work in a less visual arena, for those like me who are more audiotorally geared. Podcasts are a great way to accomplish this. Whether you do them like a regular radio show, for example a writer workshop, or group promotion of several writers, or for accessible reading or you reading your work online, podcasts are a great tool. Here are some great links to teach you how to take advantage of this useful technology.

About.com

Weekend Project

How Stuff Works

Now, in honestly podcast and web vids will never truly replace the feeling of live readings (for some of us the terror and the nausea of public speaking is like nothing else), and if you keep your author events local you can keep costs down as well. Remember, indy bookstores are just one place to do a fun author event. You can do group reading which can be a fantastic draw for attendees, slam session at local coffee houses, any place you can think of that fits the audience of whatever type of work you do. Be creative, and have a good time. If you make it fun, your prospective readers will have a good time too.

Well, I hope this information was useful to you. It’s never to early (or too late) to focus on self promotion. You don’t need tons of money, but you will need to plot your time so as not to get overwhelmed between you promotion time, your creative time, and everything else your life demands of you. Good luck!

Also, as part of this special event there are some other authors doing workshop on their blogs worth checking out.

Sandra Barret is doing “Worldbuilding with a Wiki” Tuesday, July 29, 2008. Jove Belle is doing a not to miss workshop on “Brainstorming” Thursday, July 31, 2008, And the magnificent Larkin Rose is doing a piece called “Hitting the Wall” on the subject of Writer's Block Saturday, Aug 2, 2008

GCLS Con in 4 more days…

Laundry, packing, and so on, my weekend is full of excited preparation for GCLS Lit Con. Here’s an idea of what I have planned…

I leave out Tuesday afternoon because AirTran likes to change stuff on me (again) to force me to head out almost 24 hours early so I don’t miss social stuff Wednesday night. Luckily Patty and her honey are coming to get me and giving me a place to crash Tuesday so I don’t have to sleep in the airport. I won’t be there Tuesday until after 9:30 in the evening, so no early sightseeing for me that evening.

Wednesday check in isn’t until 5pm (though I can at least check into my room earlier than that) so I should be able to get in some sight seeing then. I’ve never been to Phoenix. Or any place that had what people could consider a “dry heat” so I’m looking forward to the experience. The meet and great should be a great time, so many people I have only known online I can finally meet in person.

Thursday we got the murder mystery going on, and I am soooo getting in on that. It should be fun (note to send, be in the vendors area at 2:50 pm on Thursday). My time co-mentoring is from 9 - 10 am so should give me plenty of time to get lunch and relax a bit before we meet up.
The change in mentoring time also means I’ll miss Page-Turning Plots: Outlining & Organizing Your Novel (Presentation & Workshop) Part I with Jennifer L. Jordan, but maybe I can get someone to take my mini recorder with them or take very good notes so I wont be too far behind when I go to Part II at 10:45 am.

It’ll all still leave me time to also go see It's Not All About You: Creating Story People with Depth (Workshop) Part I with Karin Kallmaker& Lori L. Lake at 1:30 pm since that ends at 2:30. I hope O can make it to Part II of that at 3:15 pm, but with the presentation for the murder mystery event that could be hard to manage. Whew I’m gonna be running that day.

Friday will be an early day for me convention time, even though I am regularly up at 6am when I’m not on a (working) vacation. Stop Wasting Those Gigabytes: Make the Most of Your Author Website (Presentation) with KG MacGregor is at 8:30 am, and that sound like a useful panel to check out. I have to be at Tough Girls, Bitchfights, and Girls Gone Bad (Panel/Reading) right after that, so I’ll miss part I of Katherine V. Forrest’s Writing Fiction for Publication/The Successful Manuscript: The Editor's View presentation. Talk about some rough competition to be up against. I hope some of you that may be going to GCLS will make it to the reading.

I might make it to part II of Katherine V. Forrest’s presentation after that, but the world building one looks so good to since I right exclusively paranormal within my own version on the modern world. There’s a part III and IV to this presentation as well, maybe if I am lucky all four parts will be on the GCLS DvD (which I will be ordering a copy of.

See how many cool panels there are here. More of ya’ll will have to come check the con out next year, huh? My other panel is Caliente! Spicy Hot Erotica & Romance (Panel Reading) Saturday at 1:30 pm. Gonna be some fun stuff in here, I bet ya. Ya’ll should come check it out! The winner of the murder mystery will be announced on Saturday, bit as busy as I’m going to be not sure how much of that I’ll have time to participate in. I’m really looking forward to the dance. I love music and dancing, though not sure how much energy I’ll have left for a long night. Depends how late, early I am up writing that weekend along with everything else.

Needless to say I am really looking forward to this trip, and I will do my best to keep ya’ll in touch with what’s going on at the blog. Copies of the anth Chilling Tales of Terror and the Supernatural will be there I found out, so I hope the reading I do and such help will the sale of that as well as drum up interest when Ancestral Magic comes out this fall. If nothing else, I’m sure it’ll be a great time all around.

The Transplanted Writer by Fran Walker

Great new article at Women and Words blog called "The Transplanted Writer" by the wonderful Fran Walker. Here's a sample...

“Write what you know” is a common writer’s mantra. Authors do research in order to create believable characters and settings. The writer of a medical drama can go online to learn the typical layout of a surgical suite or emergency room. An historical writer might check out library books to study the difference between a castle and a palace. But to create a believable story in any setting, the author seems to need a “sense of place” in order to convey a credible world. And sense of place, I’ve learned, has less to do with the obvious differences and more to do with the tiniest details. Often writers depict settings poorly simply because we aren’t aware of the gaps in our knowledge.

Women and Words: The Dark Side by India Masters

New stuff up at Women and Words blog. India Masters is doing a post about the type of fiction she writes called "The Dark Side", you can guess by this our gal doedn't write fluffy happy fiction, huh? Here's a taste...

Well, anyone who’s read my work, knows that light is not a word associated with what I write. Hmmm, food for thought. Do I include past experiences in my writing, and I guess the answer to that is, yes. My first book was a paranormal, The Soul Collector, about an immortal Celtic Druid who is married to a vampire from the French Revolution period.

Read more HERE

It is done!!!

Whew, I never thought I’d finally say this, but…

(drum roll please)

…the first draft of Primal Magic is completed (sequel to Ancestral Magic). Now if I can find a couple more beta readers willing to tackle the 68,045 word manuscript, I can have it out to the publisher by end of August and reach my goal. Wow, this feels sooooo good.

I’m going to take a couple weeks off so I can actually relax during my trip to GCLS con (If I can stand to go without writing for that long) and get started on the rework of Bloodstained Innocence (which has been homeless since the demise of Stardust Press). Once that is ready to go (I want to add a few chapters and a bit more action, make the story less romancy), then begins the big job.

Working on the sequel for Natural Order, Natural Rebirth!

I love being a writer!!!

Women and Words update: Objectively Speaking by Clifford Henderson

There's some great stuff over at the Women and Words blog this weekend. Clifford Henderson has a great post going on about character building that's not to miss. Go forth and check it out!
Cliffi here to talk about “The Big O.” Now, before you start salivating, or running for some privacy, let me warn you, it’s not what you might think.

It was one of those days. The writing wasn’t coming easy. Or, editing, I should
say. Eagle-eye Cindy Cresap, my editor, made the case that one of the
relationships in my novel needed a bit of beefing up. The chapter I was working
on today was crucial in that it’s the first time we see the two characters alone
together.

read the rest here!

New Blog on Writing to Check Out!

A group of women writers (me being one of them, heh heh) have formed a writing craft-focused blog. The participants are: Andi Marquette, Clifford Henderson, India Masters, Jove Belle, Larkin Rose, Me, and Sandra Barret. The first post is up, and it's a great one by Andi, the travel goddess herself.

Women and Words

Author Spotlight "KG MacGregor "

Dreamtimes Author Spotlight with KG MacGregor has been slightly delayed because the interviewer has a sick kid. However, to make up for this, Sundays Magic Chat will be postponed so you have plenty of time to spend with this interesting woman.
( come meet the author )

Spotlight: Lambda Nominees from P.D. Publishing

I was looking over this years nominees and was thrilled to see many of my fellow PD Authors involved. WooHoo. Here's who I noticed. If you haven't checked these great talents out, what are ya waiting for?

( Read more... )

Author's Spotlight Special Event "Best QGT interviews of 2007"

Since I never heard back from this week’s author for her spotlight, I thought it might be fun to share some really great interviews I’ve read this year. Since I joined Queer Girl Talk, I’ve seen some wonderful work done there by Deven, and I’d like to share some of 2007’s personal faves. Come check out the Author's Spotlight Special Event "Best QGT interviews of 2007"

Greetings

My name is Moondancer Drake and I am a student of the Dianic faith as well as a member of the Temple of Diana in Wisconsin. I draw much of my inspiration from my own spirituality as well as experiences as a Cherokee woman and a mother. I live in Milwaukee with my family, which includes my son Raistlin and my daughter Willow. I’m an author of environmental paranormal lesbian romance and an very vocal advocate for civil rights and the responsibility of us all to take better care of Mother Earth. It is likely that in the future that many of my rather blunted stated opinions will offend some people, so I ask you come here with and open mind and a calm heart. If you wish to know more about me feel free to visit my website at www.moondancerdrake.com