Annoyance reigns in Celinaland...tempered with a little joyous shock

Okay, so my darn laptop bit it. I have a feeling that the brat got ahold of it and downloaded something and gave it a naaaaaaaasty trojan or something, because I've had to remove everything from the hard drive and reinstall Windows. Actually, I've had to TRY to reinstall Windows. It hasn't been overly successful yet.

I may just ground her until she's thirty.

I've just come off a stretch where I worked 9 of 11 days at the bar. My feet look like pork roasts with sausages stuck on the end. Normally, I'd be lying on the couch and blogging from my laptop but not today--oh no. Today I'm sitting upright and scowling at the desktop. Nice. It's like I have a migraine in my feet. My pain management specialist (high-falutin' talk for the dude who prescribes me medication for my back) is annoyed with me for working period. Of course, he's never annoyed when said job pays his bill. *grin* Oh well, more percocet for me.

In other news, Asphodel has hit number two on the bestseller list at Fictionwise in fantasy. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I'm just a leetle stunned. I hope it keeps rolling along. Now that I have more time, I'll be able to pop out some more publicity *groan* and hopefully crank it up a bit.

And I have a single reader rating to date. Said anonymous reader rated Asphodel as *great*.

Wow.

Just wow.

Off to work on the laptop some more. I'll post again later.

The Reckoning of Asphodel is Out!!!

OH MY GOD!

I am now a published novelist. My debut novel, The Reckoning of Asphodel is available now at n Mountain Press.

Breathe, Celina...breathe.

Whew.

I'm not even certain what to do. Since I just got off work at the bar, I'm certain that one of the things I'll be doing very soon is sleeping. But, I was so excited to get home and find out that my book was available now that I just had to blog about it..and update my website...and email all my friends...and well, just bask in it.

It's a culmination for me, a justification that I've found my niche in the world. I will never be a Stephen King or JK Rowling, but just the fact that a story I created is being shared by people I will never meet is an exhilarating rush.

I love it. *grin* Hopefully, some of you will love it too.

Don't Forget the Contest!

There's only a couple more days to enter my contest for The Reckoning of Asphodel! Details are to the side. And, if you like, you can catch the prologue and first chapter LIVE on my website Shoot The Muse!

The Counter Keeps Moving...

Four days, one hour, ten minutes and twenty seconds.

Nineteen.

Eighteen.

Seventeen.

Wow. My little counter buzzes merrily away and I'm left to wonder: have I done all that I need to? Somehow I think I forgot something important. If I could figure out what it is, I could get that done and go back to my compulsive counter watching.

Four days, one hour, eight minutes and forty-two seconds.

Forty-one.

Forty.

Maybe I should check the manuscript again? Make sure there are no stupid typos? No, it's probably too late for that. I think I'll go back to rewrites on book two...maybe that will settle me.

Tick. Tick. Tick.

A Fate Worse Than Death

So I had to make an emergency trip home to Tennessee. Long story, not worth getting into here, but let's just say that I was NOT looking forward to it. I got off work at the bar at 2:30 a.m. Tuesday morning and immediately hopped into the car with my two teenaged daughters for a quick trip across three states.

You know, after a ten hour bar shift, seven hours in the car is torture on a woman with a bad back. Let's just say that the Elves had their revenge. I can never go to sleep immediately after I get off work, and by the time I could have dozed off I was too worried about the teenager driving the car to even consider anything other than staying awake. Bad music aside (I was allowed no input... *pout*) there's nothing worse than driving through Kentucky as the sun comes up. First off, it's so BRIGHT. Ick. Being a nocturnal beast, the initial glare of sunlight bouncing over the horizon made me feel like Dracula in a tanning bed.

Second off, truckers are assholes. Particularly at 5 in the morning.

Third off, sleep deprivation and chain smoking combi to make someone on medication extremely queasy.

At any rate, we arrived in my hometown at about 9:30. I had an appointment at 11, and after that I figured that we would relax for the rest of the day, get a good night's sleep, and drive back on Wednesday.

Until the phone call, that is. All of a sudden, we had to be back in Ohio TODAY at noon. When did we discover this? Ten p.m. last night. So we grabbed a few hours of sleep and got back on the road at 3 a.m. this morning.

ARE YOU SERIOUS? Jesus H. Christ! Two overnight trips on consecutive nights without the benefit of a day of recovery? MORE 98 Degrees blasting over the speakers? Even MORE truckers switching lanes without looking for the car?

ARRRRRRRRRRRRGH.

I'm tired. I'm not leaving the house for two days at least. Period.

Promo Schmomo

I don't know why I think I'm so damn funny.

So, the promotional blitz continues. My last two days have been devoted solely to coming up with ways to promote Asphodel. It's really hard to come up with an idea that (a) hasn't been done to death and (b) isn't annoying. I've given up on (a)...I'm still working on (b).

Have you guys noticed that, while there are countless review sites and opportunities for free publicity for romance authors, there are very few for speculative fiction authors? It almost makes me want to build another site, although the last thing I need is to have to maintain and moderate it ad nauseum. Without helpful places like Love Romances & More or JERR to rely upon (although I could accurately claim that due to the strong romantic element in Asphodel it could qualify as a romance novel) I'm having to come up with my own ideas.

Boy, I hate that. It's hard enough to do when WRITING much less promoting.

Where is the site that I can just post something like this:

My book, The Reckoning of Asphodel, is a darn good read. Go buy
it. Then tell your friends how awesome it is.

I'd probably have trouble doing that too.

So, anyway, I've sent out press releases, which felt so darn presumptuous that I cringed every time I hit the send button. I've redone ye olde website. I've made a new book trailer (you can see it below) and FINALLY succeeded in getting it posted onto YouTube. I've only been able to get it on the smaller video sharing sites up to now. I finished a newsletter (like anyone really gives a rat's patootie about my world) and it's ready to send out. Now, all I have left of the (a) option is to inundate Myspace (oh won't my kids be embarassed? I'm making them embed my video *snort!*) and then continue my search for other 'new' ways to promote.

Allow me to give you a caveat--I have absolutely refused to spend a dime on this. I promised that I would wait until the book was staggering along its hopeful path to popularity before I strained the family resources with expensive promotional gimmicks. First on the list--my own domain. Then, maybe, someone to do all of these annoying trailers and promo posts and maybe even to redesign my website and make it killer.

Not this blog, though. *grin* It's my baby.

At any rate, back to the grind. We'll see if I find the Philosopher's Stone of cyber-promotion. If I do, though, you're not getting the secrets! Mine...MINE!

Yay! Newsletter is done!

I finished my first issue of my newsletter, Asphodelian Fields. If you want to subscribe (and I would there are definite fringe benefits) send me an email at kaantira@hotmail.com ! Be sure you put Newsletter Subscription in your subject line.

Here I'll give you a hint. If you want to read the prologue and Chapter One of The Reckoning of Asphodel, you can find them at http://www.shootthemuse.bravehost.com/ . However, if you want the special, not found anywhere else except the book sneak peek at Chapter Two, then you have to...
_________________________________________________(fill in the blank)

See how easy that is? Subscribe today! The first issue goes out on 7/27/07.

And more e-piracy notes

So let me ask you: am I unreasonable to think that all copyrighted material should be paid for?

Seriously, what is the difference between downloading a book and a song? Or a movie? Or art? Is the line between public domain and e-piracy blurred beyond recognition?

For example, I've been doing book trailers. Every image that I use is either (a) mine for the purpose of promoting my book, (b) a classical work of art with the original artist dead and thus in the public domain or (c) downloaded from a free image site. Sure, I could make much cooler trailers using screenshots of great fantasy art but I don't. I stick to the images that I can obtain legally. The same thing goes for the music I use. Mozart is dead. His music is public domain. No one owns the copyright to the Requiem Mass.

Now then, here's where it gets sticky. Let's say that someone owns a CD of music. They put the CD into their computer, copy the music, and use that as a basis for a book trailer. Let's say that album is Metallica (yeah, I picked them specifically because of their stance against e-piracy.) Do I have the right, since I bought the album, to use their music as background for a book trailer?

*pauses for a moment to giggle at the thought of Elves and Enter Sandman as theme music. Oh, dear*

Take it a step further. Say that I own an illustrated copy of Lord of the Rings. Add to that the three movies. Since I own those, can I use THOSE images of Elves for my trailers?

My position is: No, I cannot. I cannot use another person's intellectual property (or their faces in the case of actors) to represent my own work. Isn't that frighteningly similiar to, well, I don't know---plagiarism?

The SWFA's position on this is as follows:

Electronic piracy, or e-piracy, is the theft of electronic rights from writers
and artists. E-theft occurs when a party, without authorization from the
copyright owner, makes an electronic copy of a work, and causes it to be
available to others. It does not matter if this is done by the transfer of files
from person to person, or if the work is posted to the Internet. It is still
theft. (link to this article at: http://www.sfwa.org/epiracy/)

As far as I can tell, that covers the entire gambit of images, text, music, and films now available on the Internet that are not specifically labelled as public domain or available for free download with the permission of the creator. How hard is that to understand?

Makin' Me Jealous

I'll admit it: I was in line at Krogers at 12:01 a.m. Saturday morning to pick up my copy of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows."

Don't worry, you KNOW I won't post spoilers.

I'll go even further--I stayed up until 4:30 a.m. in order to finish the book. Aside from the bragging rights within my family for being the first to finish it, I also had the satisfaction of knowing I'd foiled the spoilers posters. HA! Didn't ruin it for me, buttholes! Allow me to state here that I really, REALLY enjoyed the book. I thought Rowling did an outstanding job of tying up all those loose ends and the pacing problems I had with earlier books were non-existent in this one.

Huzzah!

But now, I'm going to descend into a momentary morass of professional jealousy. The only person who will be waiting with breathless anticipation for the release of Asphodel is me. This makes me sad. *sob*

Not really. The original print run of Rowling's first book was 10,000--which isn't really a heck of lot. Now think about it: what happened to bring a series from 10,000 to over 2 million preorders on Amazon? What makes that story so special?

I've seen a lot of argument about this on different writers' site over the past few days and I think I have an answer. It's so obvious, but still so elusive. It's what we all try to do but don't necessarily acheive.

The answer? JK Rowling has created characters that are easy to care about. We like them. We root for them. We want them to succeed. Ultimately, we care about their fates.

Interesting, isn't it? She managed to achieve what every writer dreams of--without any apparent effort. The Harry Potter books read so easily--and so quickly--because she makes her characters walk, talk, live, and breathe along with the reader.

Yep, it makes me jealous. But--at least I figured out the secret.

Announcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE--

On August 7, 2007, Aspen Mountain Press will release Celina Summers' debut novel, "The Reckoning of Asphodel."

Wow.

So anyway, as I type this and get ready for whatever media blitz I can generate, I've discover that the youngest cat in the house--Biscuit (I didn't name her)--wants to play fetch with her mouse.

Fetch. Are you kidding me?

It's pretty darn cute, but it's distracting me from my purpose.

Ms. Summers, who also writes under several pseudonyms, describes the novel as "epic fantasy with strong roots in Greco-Roman mythology. I have taken the familiar fantasy archetypes and twisted them, hoping to bring a new type of fantasy to the shelves of readers."

Setting myself up for a fall there. Although, I must admit, smartass Elves is a bit of a twist.

Tamsen de Asphodel is a girl caught between two worlds. Each half of her life contradicts the other. But when the gods have a wager, she must find a way to reconcile not only herself but the world around her. If she doesn't, an entire race will be destroyed.

I'm fairly comfortable with that because I wrote it myself. No, kitten, I don't want to play catch.

More information about the novel and its author may be found at http://www.aspenmountainpress.com/ or http://www.shootthemuse.bravehost.com/. The novel can be purchased at the publisher's website or Fictionwise (http://www.fictionwise.com/) after its
release.

Always important information. Thanks for not leaving it out.

GET THAT MOUSE AWAY FROM ME. Geeeesus--thank god it's a toy and not a REAL mouse. I'd have blood splattered all over the living room if it was.

Anyway, I'm just a LEETLE excited. Just thought I'd share!

Excerpts! Excerpts!

The Prologue and Chapter One of The Reckoning of Asphodel are now LIVE on my website! Follow the links or go to www.shootthemuse.bravehost.com if you want to check them out!

Make me stop!

Wow. I can see the light reflecting from the floor tiles three back from the end of the tunnel!

If you're not a writer, let me explain. The work is NEVER done. Even after something has been published, I can go back and skim through it and wince. "Gee, maybe I should have reworked that sentence; it's a little awkward." And before I know it, presto! I'm rewriting something that ostensibly is done.

I am soooooooooooooo close to being done with Asphodel. Sooooooooooooooo close to being able to close the book on it (ha ha! made a funny!) and move on to another project. I'm writing the last 15k of the last book. I'm doing the final proofs on book one as it gets ready for publication. I have PRESS KITS for god's sake! BUT I STILL TWEAK THE DARN THING DAILY.

*sigh* Rewriting for me isn't a sit down and bang it out kind of venture. Rewriting for me occurs as follows: I sit down to read my manuscript. If I'm into the story, then obviously there are no mistakes (until the next time I read it.) If something makes my engrossment stumble, there's a problem. I ran the grammar check on Asphodel last night (I hit ignore on it usually. Some of its 'errors' aren't and I will use sentence fragments, damnit!) and the manuscript has a Fleisch-Kincaid grade level of 4.9 and a reading ease level of 80.7. That's pretty good, I think. It means my younger brother might be able to read half of the first page.

So yes...hopefully my editor can pry the manuscript out of my sweaty, desperately clutching hands before I rewrite the whole darn thing. I'm sure she will; she's quite forceful. Make me stop!! I'll be good....I promise.

Spoilers and Buttholes

You know, I'm surprised it took this long for someone to leak Harry Potter.

Here we are, some scant three days away from the resolution of a series that single-handedly is responsible for dragging kids away from the Wii and Playstation and back into books, and some yehaw moron decides to swipe a copy of Deathly Hallows, scan it, and post it online.

Aside from the fact that it's PIRACY which is ILLEGAL, it's absolutely a cold-blooded thing to do. I mean, yeah, I've had my moments of assholishness. the one that immediately pops to mind happened about ten years ago when I was doing summer stock. Another actor was reading "Of Mice and Men". I walked up and asked, "Is this the first time you've read that book?"

"Yeah, it is."

"How cool. By the way, Lenny dies."

He was on page seven. Granted, I didn't like him that much. But, by that point the book had been out for decades. It's not like I broke into Steinbeck's house, stole his manuscript, and spammed it to the world.

Whoever this cheese-eater is, he's in for a world of hurt. As stringent as Bloomsbury has been about protecting the Harry Potter manuscript and its secrets, there's going to be a slew of lawyers descending on this second-rate bookstore employee with lots and lots of papers that will deprive him of all of the comfort he's enjoyed in his mother's basement for the past ten years. Even hear of wage garnishment, pal? Your crap's going to Rowling for a looooooooong, looooooooooong, time.

Dumbass.

You know, it's amazing to me that so many people derive so much pleasure out of ruining it for everyone else. I really, really hope this guy gets what is coming to him. Running his toes through a woodchipper comes to mind. As a reader, and a fan of Rowling and her work, I am very, very angry. I'm an adult, so I can deal with it; I just hate to think of how this makes the kids who've been eagerly waiting for this feel.

As a writer it really pisses me off. Rowling, too, has been waiting for this release for ten years. The excitement she must feel at bringing her quest to conclusion is incomprehensible to me, mostly because I can't imagine anyone wanting to know the end of MY series on this level. So some anonymous slimeball thought it was funny to ruin it for her too.

Pitiful.

So, I hope you got your rocks off, pal. I hope you're getting a big old chuckle out of this. you won't be laughing for long.

And if anyone thinks that my rants about e-piracy were ridiculous, think about how ten million children worldwide must feel tonight. The glory, the curiosity, the fascination, the anticipation of these last few days has now been ruined for them--and all because someone thought that freedom of speech extended to thievery.