Weekly Check-In

Despite this being the last few days of the Savvy Boot Camp, it was a lazy week.  I read Kiss of Snow instead of sleeping, and slept instead of writing, and as soon as the clock rolled over to June 1st all responsibility to write like the wind was gone.  We still don’t know the results for who won the boot camp, but it was a close race to the end.  June is the month that I want to do revisions rather than writing, but I’m still writing.  I got off to a good start, but I’ll talk about that below.

I haven’t been talking about A Round of Words at all, and for that I fail.  I haven’t forgotten that I’m working on that challenge, but I haven’t been as mindful of updating my progress on it.  I solved that yesterday.

Blogging.

Judging by the twitter conversations and the comments left on Suzan’s blog and here I would say that the Let’s Talk About Sex series is off to a good start.  We discussed underwear and what that says about your characters.  Suzan took the girly side and I discussed all things buff and hunky.  This week we’re talking about heat levels and language particular to the romance genre.  While a lot of people already know this stuff, not everyone does and it’s good to talk about it.  We’re also having a blast while we’re at it, so that’s all that really matters.

Revising.

I started revisions on Rescue Me – again.  These were pretty light, going over what one of my critique partners suggested.  A lot of it was grammar, and of that commas.  I have comma issues.  I conquer the apostrophe and now the comma and I are at odds!

I’m really happy with Rescue Me.  I have it up over at Book Country for review if anyone is a member there and feels like giving me some feedback.  I plan to submit it next month after I take my submission package class and hammer out the submission details.  I’m less confident about those, but that’s the reson behind taking the classes!

This weekend I broke open Decoy.  I’m almost halfway through it and hoping to be done with this first pass in a few days.  It’s kind of ugly at this point and there’s a lot of red, but I’m hoping that in the end it will pay off and it will rock.  I’m crossing my fingers that I finish this draft Tuesday or Wednesday and then the super picky stuff starts.

Plotting.

Um, I’m kind of stalled out on plotting.  I’m worried that letting an idea stew this much is a bad idea.  I get bored of the shiny and move on to something else.  I still like the idea and I want to write it but it’s not a driving desire of want any more.  I’m afraid that this is bad.  Very bad.

I replotted my superhero story I was supposed to write during Boot Camp.  It’s a whole new idea and more naughty than the original, but again I waited too long to write it.  So I’m going to write the naughty one and just go for it.  If it flops in the draft process it flops and I’ll move on.

I plan on doing more reading this month to get myself in a place to write certain things.  We’ll see how this goes!!!

Writing.

Yeah, so since it’s June I’ve slacked on writing….

Project: Booty-Call Bust
Genre: romance
Type: novella
Progress: I had an idea for this while watching Deadliest Warrior, of all things.  The story is actually at a very interesting part, so it shouldn’t be hard to jump back in and hopefully hammer it out soon.  My problem is that I’ve been distracted by being lazy.  And revising.  I’m going to attempt to write 1-2K a day on this a day this week in tandem to doing revisions.  It’s not a lot, I know, but I want to keep the ball rolling and finish this sucker.

What I read.

• Kiss of Snow by Nalini Singh

eBooks, DRM, Libraries and questions

Over the last few days I’ve been getting caught up to the latest ebook debacle.  The American Library Association is about to get involved, according to this article.  But what’s really going on?  And what does it mean?  I don’t have the answers, in fact I probably have more questions.

The current problem centers around lending rights of ebooks in libraries.  The current fail safe is DRM, which is already on a lot of what we buy electronically.  It’s what prevents me from downloading ebooks and sharing them with my friends.  DRM is what keeps me from going to the library, downloading all of their books and never paying anything for them except the pittance a library membership costs.  From a librarians point of view, DRM can make their lives difficult, but not impossible to lend books.  It’s much easier to allow them DRM-free editions to share and lend.

What is DRM? Digital rights management (DRM) is a term for access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals to limit the use of digital content and devices. The term is used to describe any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that is not desired or intended by the content provider. The term does not generally refer to other forms of copy protection, which can be circumvented without modifying the file or device, such as serial numbers or key files. It can also refer to restrictions associated with specific instances of digital works or devices.

However, from a publishers point of view DRM-free books could be the thing of nightmares.  Remember Napster?  All that music people got for free and artists never got paid for.  There doesn’t seem to be a single method used for ebook lending in place yet, just as there is no one file type for ebooks or one anything as far as the digital book market is concerned.  It’s all still very new and fledgling.  Of course there will be growing pains and issues, but you would hope that publishers would not want to alienate their biggest supporters.  Librarians.

The current upset is all about Harper-Collins putting DRM on their ebooks that limits the number of lending allotments to 26.  Haven’t they heard the answer to life, death and dinner is 42?  I have yet to figure out why the number 26 was decided on or if there are any numbers to back it up.  To me 26 sounds like a very low number.  It also sounds a little unfair that after purchasing an ebook for, say, half the cost since it does self destruct, they would then have to purchase and repurchase those books.  It sounds like bad business.  If a library has to continuously purchase replacement books for their digital libraries, they will be less able to buy new books from new authors.

The ALA is pushing for publishers to drop DRM from their digital libraries.  Publishers clearly do not want to lose money in an industry that has already proven to have enough leaks to sink a ship.  It’s a tough road on both sides.  Libraries have been hit hard in the cuts made to budgets and the still struggling economy and they just don’t have the money to spend unwisely.  The book industry has their own hang ups.  Fewer sales from a tighter economy and the shaky foundation of epublishng has them nervous about losing money, but I think that by treating libraries and by proxy librarians like this is a bad move.

What do you think about ebook lending?

Related Links:

• Eric from Pimp My Novel wrote a blog post called Panic at the Library! and explains a lot of what’s going on.
• The Consumerist, includes a great video by some librarians displaying the wear and tear of books and how ebooks and physical books should be equal.
• The Library Journal offers quotes from Harper-Collins and Over Drive, the platform used to check out ebooks.
• Publishers Weekly chimes in as well with a short report, with promises of more details coming out later.

What I did in 2010

2010 has changed a lot of how I think about writing. I attended conferences, I wrote – a lot, and I realized I want to take this seriously. Writing is something that makes me happy, I’m fairly good at it, and I can always improve. I can learn, I can discover new things I want to write about, it’s a blank canvas. And I painted a lot in 2010 apparently!

I’m not going to make a long post, but I just want to list some of my accomplishments for the year.

I wrote well over 800,000 words – that I can account for. I wasn’t always very good about keeping track of what I was writing and where I logged it. But right now I can say that between two blogs, an RP site I no longer write at, and about ten different projects, I wrote 848,805 words, and probably more than that! Yikes!! Now what will I write in 2011?

I attended two writing conferences and two workshops. The first was way early in 2010 and was held at a local college. We did a few workshops and I wrote the beginning of what would be the beginning of Tales from the Bad-Lands: Resort. My writing friends and I attended the DFW Writer’s Convention and had a blast. It was a really great event, and I wish they hadn’t doubled the price for 2011 or else I would be there in a heartbeat. This fall I got the chance to attend the Armadillo*Con convention and the optional workshop the day before the convention. It was an affirming event, and very enjoyable. Because of prices I don’t see me attending any of these events in 2011, but maybe 2012?

I wrote four novels, one novella, untold short stories, and half of five other novels. Completed drafts for 2010 include: Sing Softly, Abs-olutely, Maliginus, Gate Keepers. The novella was Blood Bound. Short stories I admit to writing: Lost Gods Tattoo, Resort, My Boyfriend is a Werewolf, Gentleman Pirates and Gun Smuggling Ladies, and Rockstar Murderer. Drafts that sit in a half-finished state that I might complete: Derby Girls are Dangerous, Space Particle, and My Personal God. I have big plans for revising in 2011!!

I got published! My short story, Lost Gods Tattoo, was published in December in the Tattoo Anthology II from XOXO Publishing.

I had fun. Really. Writing and meeting other writerly people has made 2010 a great year. I won’t get sappy, but my friends and their writing has helped me be better, do more, and step outside of my comfort zone.

Thanks 2010, it was real.

The Tattoo Series – Volume II

So I stumbled on some very cool news tonight.

The anthology that accepted my short story earlier this year was published on December 23rd from XOXO Publishing. Isn’t the cover art yummy?

If you’d like to buy it, here’s a handy link.

Now I’m off to go read yummy tattoo stories.