Author Liesel K. Hill's Musings on Fantasia...
Friday, January 6, 2017
Friday Funnies + Week in Review
Good morning and Happy Friday! Welcome to Friday Funnies and my Week in Review.
Friday Funnies is something I've done for a while (when I actually get around to it). I just post humorous things I find around the internet to give everyone a good laugh. I'll also start my Week in Review today. It's mostly to keep me accountable to my goals and New Years Resolutions. I'll be just giving numbers, mostly. How many words I've written this week, how I'm doing on my reading, etc. And maybe say a word or two about my writing week.
Welcome to Friday Funnies! Because everyone needs a good laugh on Friday.
Since I went and saw Rogue One about a week ago, and LOVED it, I thought I'd go with some fun Star Wars humor today:
Friday Funnies is something I've done for a while (when I actually get around to it). I just post humorous things I find around the internet to give everyone a good laugh. I'll also start my Week in Review today. It's mostly to keep me accountable to my goals and New Years Resolutions. I'll be just giving numbers, mostly. How many words I've written this week, how I'm doing on my reading, etc. And maybe say a word or two about my writing week.
Week in Review
(Whoops! Forgot to update this last night. Fixing now. See, still getting into the grove. ;D)
Words Written: 5,000-ish. I hope to get more done that that most weeks, but I spent a good deal of time planning and outlining in Scrivner. For a first week, I'm happy with that number.
Books Read: Currently reading Neil Gaimon's American Gods and Brandon Burchard's The Charge. The charge is inspirational and I'm liking it a lot. I've never read Gaimon before and I'm finding American Gods somewhat bizarre, but I'm not thinking of putting it down. Interested to see where it goes.
Short Story: Haven't even started this month's short story yet. Gonna make it a priority first thing next week. ;D
How did you do on your writing goals this week?
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Since I went and saw Rogue One about a week ago, and LOVED it, I thought I'd go with some fun Star Wars humor today:
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Wednesday, January 4, 2017
IWSG for 2017: Writing Rules and New Years Resolutions
Purpose: To share and encourage. Writers can express doubts and concerns without fear of appearing foolish or weak. Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds!
Posting: The first Wednesday of every month is officially Insecure Writer’s Support Group day.
Details HERE and as always thanks to our wonderful host, Alex J. Cavanaugh
Being the first month of a new year, I'm sure this will get said a lot, but I think the thing I'm most insecure about right now is sticking to my New Years Resolutions. Suffice it to say, the past few years I've made goals but attained almost none of them. Of course that's because I let things get in the way of working toward them.
I'm in a better position and mindset to accomplish my goals than I have been in previous years, so I'm more optimistic than ever, but of course there's always the fear of failure, especially because we all tend to put some much pressure on ourselves in January.
But one thing I've learned this past year is just never to throw in the towel. Even if you don't achieve your goals, working steadily on them will yield better results than we can generally conceive of. So that's what I plan to do. And maybe, just maybe, I'll achieve one or two of my lofty writing resolutions.
January Question: What writing rule do you wish you'd never heard of?
Hm. This is a tough one for me. I don't generally take a negative attitude toward any writing "rule," whether I employ it or not. I suppose my only response is that I don't treat any writing "rule" like a hard and fast rule. If I tried to stay within such a rigid structure, I'd go crazy. So I guess all writing rules are ones I wish I'd never heard of, but it's not a problem for me because I never go out of my way to adhere to them.
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What are you insecure about this month?
Tuesday, January 3, 2017
Welcome 2017!
How were everyone's holidays? Mine were fantabulous! Lots of family, fun, giftgiving. LOTS of food. Still working our way through it.
So it's been a while since I wrote a blog post. I thought ushering in 2017 would be a good time to write one. I'm actually super excited for this coming year.
The past few years, I haven't been nearly as productive with my writing as I would like. I'm hoping to change that this year, both in terms of production and in terms of marketing.
I have a list of goals for this year, and they're typical things you've seen from me before: read x amount of books, write x amount of books, sell x amount of books. Some personal things, etc. I'll list the bookish goals below.
But the main thing that I'm doing differently this year is that I'm going to use my blog to help keep me accountable to my reading and writing goals. Each Friday, my blog post will contain a Week in Review section, in which I'll list progress toward all goals. That way I'm keeping track of what I'm getting done and my audience can keep me accountable.
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So here are my bookish goals:
1. Write 9 books. I know, I know, that sounds like a ton. And honestly, I'm aiming high here no matter how you slice it. But I have one project ready to publish that I'm dealing with some legal issues about, and two more that are nearly finished, and two more that are at least partially finished or at least outlined and I just have to get the words on the page. So it's really not 9 projects started from scratch. Most are things I want to finally finish and release.
2. Write 12 (or more) short stories, which obviously works out to one a month. This goal serves two purposes: 1) I'm extremely long-winded, not great at short stories. I'm hoping to teach myself to get a better handle on this format. 2) If I do one or more a month (and I intend to do some holiday stories) then I'll have a handy collection (hopefully) by the time the holidays roll around next year. I've always wanted to do holiday collections, but of course when you don't think about it until October or November, well...you know how it is. ;D
3. Sell a million copies. Again, this is a very vague goal and I'm not going to go into details about how I'll accomplish this. However, I have been working on a marketing plan for the past six months or so, but haven't fully implemented it yet. I will be writing posts about what I'm doing and how well it's working out. But in terms of numbers, I figure I might as well shoot for the stars, right?
4. Read 24 books. That's considerably smaller than my reading goals for the year generally are, but I read a lot fewer books than that in 2016 (11 to be exact) and with all this writing I have to do, I'll be lucky to get two books read a month. I'm hoping to read one fiction and one non-fiction each month.
5. Run a Triathalon. I've been trying to get into better physical shape and I still have a LONG way to go, so this probably won't happen until summer or fall, but I'm training now and gearing up. ;D
I have a few other personal goals, but I'm not going to mention them on this blog. These are the biggest, most relevant ones.
So that's pretty much it. Come back tomorrow for Insecure Writers Support Group. And everyone have a fabulous first week of 2017!
What are your New Years Resolutions?
Tuesday, September 13, 2016
Desolate Mantle Launches Today! Yea!!!
How is everyone doing today? Well, I'm fabulous because today is release day for Desolate Mantle! Yea!!!
This book has been in the works for more than 2 years, so I'm so relieved to finally get it onto the market.
Find it HERE on Amazon!
Tonight is the launch party. I'm hosting it online as a Facebook event and I'll be giving away tons of prized, including copies of Desolate Mantle, copies of my other books, and Amazon gift cards. So come join us for some fun and a chance to win some cool prizes.
Here's the event link if you want to join. I'd love for you to come:
So I guess that's pretty much it. Just the announcement today, but come join us for the launch party. It'll be fun and you could win something super-cool! :D
(Oh, btw, I made a somewhat last-minute decision to make book 1, Dark Remnants, permafree. It hasn't gone free on Amazon yet. It takes a little time for Amazon to price-match and like I said: last minute decision. Totally on me. So you can always wait for Amazon to price match, buy it on another platform if you have the right devices, or if you don't want to wait for a .mobi contact, feel free to contact me personally and I'll send you one. :D)
Free on B&N, Apple, Scribd, Kobo, 24 Symbols, and Page Foundry!
Wish me luck!
Friday, September 9, 2016
2 Techniques for Coming Up With Premises
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So about a week ago, I had a friend ask me how I come up with story ideas. This is a friend I talk to often and so she knows I always have way more stories in my head than I actually get around to writing. So her question was really more about how I can come up with so many things that can potentially turn into books. We also briefly discussed how to fill out a plot.
For me, it's not very different from coming up with full premises. I have ideas for certain things--often they're situations without full stories attached, or lines of dialogue I think are awesome and want to incorporate. There are hundreds of these little nuggets floating around in my head or in various untidy notebooks that litter my work space. So when I need to round out a plot or character, I often draw on these little idea. Generally I have to find some way to mold them to the story I'm already telling, which can change them a lot from what I had in mind at their inception. But I'll tell you, lovely readers, this is often where the magic happens.
So how to come up with these premises or little idea nuggets? In my mind, there are two major ways to do it. Either on purpose (sort of forcing it, if you will) or just paying attention to the things that you find interesting. Let me explain.
1. On Purpose - I talked about this a lot in THIS POST and it's a technique I learned from the wonderful Clint Johnson. I know from my description above about forcing it, many people will balk. But I don't mean "forcing it" in the sense you're probably thinking. This is really just about being creative on purpose.
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| My prowling wolf painting. |
You'll find once you get started that you can go until your hand cramps (or your kids jump on you, your alarm goes off, whatever yanks you unceremoniously out of the Zone). It's such a great exercise for getting the creative juices flowing. Even if what you come up with in any given session doesn't turn into a best-selling novel, you can still come up with nuggets to sprinkle into your writing. Fill in gaps. And occasionally round out stories that win Pulitzer Prizes. (Disclaimer: Have I ever used this technique to win a Pulizter?...No. Other awards yes, but the Pulitzer no. ;D)
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So my friend asked me to give her an example of something I thought was interesting that might turn into a story. Well, I think most of my books have at least something that would qualify, but the example I gave her has to do with a book I'm currently reading and a story I'm not actually writing at present.
As most of you who follow me know, I'm just a little bit fascinated by serial killers.
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Some time ago--I'm not even sure when or where I first heard it--I learned a little something about the Butcher of Kingsbury Run. He was a prolific serial killer in Cleveland, Ohio in the '30s. The book I'm reading is a non-fiction about the case (In the Wake of the Butcher by James Jessen Badal). But I'm honestly not interested in the Butcher solely bc he was a serial killer (I've read about tons of those) or even because he was never caught (though that does up the interest factor a bit). What REALLY made me interested in the case was finding out that Eliot Ness--yes THE Eliot Ness who brought down Capone and founded the Untouchables--presided over the case. And this was years after his success with the Chicago mob.
Ness was known for being traditional to a fault, extremely moral, and unrelenting in both his strictness and effectiveness at rooting out police corruption. So what would a man like that do with a case that involved an elusive serial killer? How would he handle body parts bobbing in the river every few months, and not being able to stop it. A case like this isn't something you can control or predict. I think it would be an interesting character sketch to explore how a man like Ness (ladybug to Capone's aphid) would react to a situation like that. And then there's the fact that it was never solved. Unlike in Chicago, Ness never got his man.
THAT'S the kind of stuff that fascinates me. THAT's the kind of stuff I want to learn and write about.
Now, chances are EVENTUALLY some piece of writing will come from my research on this, but I have a lot more to do, especially on Ness himself. (The book I'm reading is really more about the facts of the case.) But the point is, I just read a single line about how Eliot Ness eventually presided over the Butcher case and went, "Huh. That's kind of interesting." Boom. A story is born. Don't underestimate the power of tiny tidbits that catch your attention for a few seconds. Write them down, or you'll never know the potential they could have had.
So, what techniques do YOU use to come up with story premises or fill out already-existing plots?
Wednesday, September 7, 2016
Insecure Writers Support Group: Time
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It's IWSG day! Thanks to the wonderful Alex Cavanaugh for always bringing us together! Check out THIS PAGE for more info or if you want to participate!
I wasn't sure what to write about this month, and it's interesting that the question for this month concerns finding time to write, because I thought I might do my post on that anyway. I think I've talked about it before, but it was all I had this month. :D
I think it's just about prioritizing and planning ahead. With the way my schedule is now, I can't get any work done until I put my 2-year-old nephew (who I tend full time) down for a nap. Then I get a couple of hours of quiet before he wakes up. It never feels like enough time to actually accomplish much.
But then in the evening, I get more time, too. So I can plan on having a couple of hours in the afternoon and then a little bit bigger chunk in the evening.
The only downside is that after chasing the bouncing baby nephew around all day (his name is Lyric but I affectionately call him Booger or just "the boogs") I'm often exhausted and not in a mood to write.
But if I plan beforehand to get certain things done, the mindset can usually override the exhaustion. And if not, I can take a twenty minute nap to recharge before diving in.
As cliche as it is, it's really just about the mindset. If you put your mind to it, you can do anything. And it's true. Determine that you WILL make time to write, and you will. Even if it's only ten or twenty minutes here and there. At least you'll be making progress. :D
How do you find time to write?
Monday, September 5, 2016
Why Do Serial Killers Fascinate Us So?
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So today my post is actually HERE, over at Author Fiona Mitchell's blog. She's hosting me in anticipation of Desolate Mantle being released next week. So hop on over to her blog to read the post, and be sure to thank her for hosting me while you're there. She's awesome, and a very gifted writer.
Desolate Mantle: Release Date 9/13/2016
Click HERE to attend the online launch party, or for more information.
In the most dangerous city in the country, one controlled by the sadistic Sons of Ares gang, Kyra Roberts recently crossed paths with detective Gabe Nichols. She dismissed any liaison with him as impossible, but telling him the truth may prove inevitable...Walking the Slip Mire nightly, dressed in her disguise and trying to infiltrate a homicidal gang, Kyra sees plenty of things she can’t explain. When she begins to suspect a serial killer might be at work, she decides to approach Gabe again.Gabe has plenty to keep him busy: a bizarre missing persons case, a new development in his brother’s cold case, a new neighbor, and the grisly murders that are a nightly ritual in the Slip Mire. When Kyra shows up unexpectedly, he jumps at the chance keep her around, but it’s harder than he bargained for. She’s not an average source any more than she’s an average Mireling. Gabe wishes she would be sensible about her own safety.Their partnership crumbles, but when things become even darker than usual in the Slip Mire, they’ll need one another get survive a hellish situation. If they can’t work together to shoulder their burdens, they’ll find themselves utterly alone. In Abstreuse, it’s not a matter of not coming out of the darkness, but of being absorbed by the darkness itself…
Happy Monday, Everyone!
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