All posts tagged Star Minds universe

Writer Wednesday


Last week I was back to almost 13K, so I’m doing just fine. I hope to finish the missions of the Lone Wolves Team by Easter so I can concentrate on the last Star Minds Lone Wolves novel, now called Rogue (instead of New Thief). I have no idea how long that story will be, so I might have to write a couple of shorts to go with it, LOL! Although a long-haired 20-something rogue might be quite inspiring…

And the anthologies are both live! Fantasy Portals eBook universal link and paperback. More Portals eBook universal link and paperback. Check out these great stories of portals! 🙂 And stay tuned for some authors interviews…

Publishing weekend means I uploaded also Legends of the Moren Empire Volume 1, although I won’t be writing volume 2 and 3 until mid-summer. Well, as soon as I finish with the Lone Wolves I’ll get back to it, so it might be June… But I won’t publish them before September anyway.

Anyhow, if you’re up for some epic fantasy, it’s available as eBook for now. I’ll do all the paperbacks for my own books in May.

I have 50 strips of the Silvery Earth Kids, but I’m still in the process of coloring and lettering them. At first they will be available only on my Patreon, but I’ll do a paperback at the end of the first 52 strips (one a week = a year) as well as a version for the visually impaired that will be in eBook form at first, and possibly in audio later – maaaaybe! 😉 And I’ll probably upload the strips to some webcomic site as well sometime next year!

Yesterday I didn’t write because I was brainstorming with my map and my Silvery Earth calendar where and when exactly the story takes place. I had to change a few sentences when I realized that Copperscales couldn’t be the daughter of a first generation Fajrulo (The Golden Goddess meantioned in The Sun Sword), so she’s Bloodfire’s granddaughter instead (he’s a main character The Sun Sword).

So the story is set in Inex, a northern town seen in The Path of Water but fifty years earlier, so it’s still just a big village with a castle, and a small kingdom of its own. And I drew the prince heir of that kingdom, Lambert who will soon enter the strip/webcomic. Here he is in all his plump childhood! 🙂 I wanted to add a rounder child but the only ones who might be overweight at that time could only be nobles or royalty, so…

 

After Easter there’s a series of national holidays for Italy, so I hope to put in some publishing stuff. I need to put the Vampires Through the Centuries on Draft2Digital for when they open the distribution to GooglePlay. I also added the distribution to libraries through them. Still trying to find all the links for the audiobook of Otherside, but still can’t find it on Kobo or Amazon.

And I’ll probably send out a newsletter as well, no longer regular, but it’s been four months and I think I have a few things to say to whoever is still subscribed there! 😉 I guess that’s all for today… have a great week! 🙂

 

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2 Comments
by Barb on 17/04/2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 17/04/2019

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2019/04/17/writer-wednesday-364/

Writer Wednesday


Last week I reached my first 150K and the first three months of the year are not over yet. Although this week it will probably be a veeeery low  wordcount because I am putting together two anthologies and revising Legends of the Moren Empire Volume 1 before sending it off to Mighty Editor. So, just a little meat on what’s already there.

I wrote 17K in English and 4K in Italian on both projects. Now the Italian one is with a beta-reader who will hopefully tell me if I nailed the revisions and if the end is not too rushed. For the Legends of the Moren Empire, I’m sure Mighty Editor will catch any problem. Yes, she’s awesome like that! 🙂

I received my proof of Otherside paperback and decided to resave the cover as CMYK – the RGB version has too strong reds! 😉 So if you get it now, it’s probably going to look better. I might order more copies closer to 20BooksEdinburgh and the Worldcon this summer. Still no links to the audio book, but will post them as soon as I have them. It’s not been 10 business days yet.

Audiobook 2 is under production and I’ve signed the contract for the third narrator. I’m very happy I found ways to communicate to the second narrator how to pronounce certain words (namely, Zindagi for now, since it was the only one that came up in the audition).

I never tried to listen to the Kindle’s text-to-speech after the first attempts, but hopefully the audiobooks will sound more like I wanted the books to sound! 😀 I also had to check the pronunciation of other words for Otherside (namely, the kukri knife, it has 3 different pronounciations and the narrator had used the American one, but she changed it to my preferred version.

All in all it was an interesting experience! I’m glad I have a few weeks before I have to check the next audiobook, though! 😉 Back to ebook and paperbacks for now – the anthologies, and then for that too I can have a couple of weeks break before preparing the next ebook. I’ll probably do all the paperbacks of the books that came out so far in May, though.

Next week I’m going back to Star Minds Lone Wolves. Fifteen more missions of the Team and then I’ll write another Lone Wolf story, so that later this year I can do 3 box sets – the youngsters, the elders and the rest, haha! Also, in April Star Minds Lone Wolves Shorts goes wide at last, yay. KU experiment failed completely – not one download or sale – so no more exclusivity! 😉

Now I better go working to those anthologies,  hoping the publishing drama of authors caught plagarizing, stealing images and going wild ends soon… Have a great week! 🙂

 

3 Comments
by Barb on 27/03/2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 27/03/2019

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2019/03/27/writer-wednesday-361/

Writer Wednesday


Last week I beat my previous record! Last year one week I wrote 19K… Last week it was 20K+! Two brand new stories, most of the second written on Saturday when I churned out 6K!

Okay, I might have had it easy, since it was the prose version of a comic book from the late 1990s, so I already had an outline and most of the dialog written, but considering how I failed with Lovers, I’m quite glad with these two! 🙂

Now, since one is under 10K and the other over, I will publish them together, to give you, the reader, more “meat” – two stories for 2.99$, that’s a bargain, right? Right? No? Oh, well…

It has a nice cover unlike some of the Double-Feature from the past… 😉 I gave up trying to find the two guys on DepositPhoto and decided to have only one cover for the two stories.

Kindle Countdown starting on Star Minds Lone Wolves Shorts in the UK and US stores! If you’re Amazon-addicted, you know what it means… 😉 It’s always free if you’re on KU, of course… at least for the next two months. Then I’ll definitely go wide! 😀

Across Continents went live and next month you can have Himalayas or you can wait until May and get all four (or five if you missed Book 1).

I have considered following Dean in his challenge, but I still have a Day Job, and even though I’m fast and prolific, I doubt I can write 5 books in 100 days.

I’ll be writing more Fairy Tales Revisited this month and then I’ll probably go back to the Star Minds Lone Wolves Team… are you following me on Patreon yet? Why not? 😉 Just kidding…

Audio update #2: I chose a narrator for the first audiobook and got the production notes template. Yikes. It’s like when I first signed up with Smashwords at the end of 2010 and started uploading stuff there and on Kindle (a few months later) in 2011… Learning how to format and pass through the meatgrinder and all that stuff. I’m sure it will get easier! 🙂

No writerly links this week either, so I wish you a wonderful week! 🙂

2 Comments
by Barb on 06/02/2019  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 06/02/2019

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2019/02/06/writer-wednesday-354/

Writer Wednesday


Last week I got my 10K down… in the next couple of weeks I’ll only have three days to write as much, but it was all in the yearly planning! October is busy with non-writerly things, but surely between November and December I can make my goal of half pulp-speed (500K).

This week I did manage almost 6800words to the end of Draft Zero… And I added some meat to make it look more like a short novel! Hopefully taking this back on the road so I can give the final touches when I get back and send it off to the proofreader the first week of November, on schedule! 🙂

Are you gearing up for NaNoWriMo? I never needed it (I started writing long before NaNoWriMo was even invented and now I’m addicted, LOL) but if you want some inspiration and a great collection of non-fiction to kickstart your writing career, don’t miss the NaNo Writing Tools bundle!

Looky look! Curated by Kevin J. Anderson! And look at those guests! My own writing guru, even more prolific than me, Dean Wesley Smith! Craig Martelle of 50BooksTo50K that I hope to meet in Edinburgh next year! Joanna Penn! Kris Rusch (my other writing guru)! Blaze Ward – I met him last year! 🙂

And some day I’ll meet also Jamie Ferguson, I did a small contribution to her book on bundles! 🙂 It’s a StoryBundle exclusive and you should grab it now along with the other books! 🙂 Whooppee!

If you’re still on the fence about trad or indie, this post by D2D gives a pretty fair view on both. Of course it’s up to you and what you want to do with your writing career, but don’t forget your writing is IP. Might feel it has no value, but that’s not true. The sky might not be falling, but there are big earthquakes in traditional publishing.

Elsa’s story is now live and the pre-order for Kristine is up! 🙂 Don’t miss the closing book of the Vampires Through the Centuries and the mighty battle of Chittor! 🙂 Okay, it’s no longer historical fantasy, since it’s in the decade 2005-2015… tagged it contemporary fantasy, is that correct? Anyhow, meet Kristine Van der Aas, the Dutch girl who moved to Mumbai for love and became a vampire…

And while Da Muse is in Italy to shoot his latest movie, I shall head out of the country for a few days… Did I mention both Da Muses tend to come to Italy when I head out of the country? But then, even when they don’t (John Wick Chapter 2), I don’t go looking for them on the sets, so… I’m not a fan, they’re Da Muses, LOL!

Have a great week! 🙂

3 Comments
by Barb on 17/10/2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 17/10/2018

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2018/10/17/writer-wednesday-339/

Writer Wednesday


And my writing streak came to a screeching halt Saturday morning at 7K. I fell on my face (2 stitches on the chin), didn’t break anything, but my right wrist is wrapped until next Tuesday. I’ll slowly restart (as soon as the major aches are gone, and they almost are, tomorrow I go back to work), but it definitely fucked my schedule.

I had to postpone the editing I had booked since I won’t be able to finish Wanderlust before the end of the month with all the travel inbetween, sigh. And I’ll have to make the corrections on Kristine one-handed, but next weekend I hope to be able to set up the pre-order.

And I did manage to publish Cherry’s story, although not in September as expected. A few days later, there you have it, Mercenary, the winged chick with retractile wings based on Kol-ian’s old implant! 🙂 And I would like to thank Ravven for making 2 versions of Cherry, which made it hard to choose! 🙂 (yes, it’s stock rendering, but I realized I was following her on DeviantART and asked her if she could do a variation of some poses…)

And that’s all for now. On Friday I’ll tell you what I’ve been doing (besides recovering from the stupid fall). Have a great week!

4 Comments
by Barb on 03/10/2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 03/10/2018

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2018/10/03/writer-wednesday-337/

Writer Wednesday


Last week I wrote only 5K but I was busy editing and formatting and uploading and all that other stuff soooo interesting! Not. My yearly total is still 392K, so I’m doing fine, right? 😉 I wrote one last Star Minds Lone Wolves story, an extra scene for Kristine and that’s more or less it.

Ahem, well, anyway, after a weekend of struggles with KDPprint, I think I mastered it and can now do a few more paperbacks with less hassle than the first. I also figured out the difference between proof copy and author copy. So I’m not giving the paperback links until I checked that the paperbacks are okay, LOL!

But, the e-book links are fine! In case you missed it, Star Minds Lone Wolves’ Thief is out! Please meet Mr. H, thief, chameleon and my favorite character although I couldn’t use the actual person I had in mind. I had to settle with this sexy vampire hunter by Ravven instead.

And if you want a sneak peek of the other two coves, go to the Star Minds page and scroll down… Cherry will come out at the end of the month and Elsa on Oct.15th or White Cane Safety Day.

Now I shall move away from the Star Minds universe to write the next Post-Apocalypse Chronicle… and get ready for the October Business Masterclass! 🙂

That’s all for today! Have a great week!

3 Comments
by Barb on 19/09/2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 19/09/2018

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2018/09/19/writer-wednesday-335/

Writer Wednesday


I’m definitely more prolific when I’m on a deadline, LOL! Last week I wrote 17K, almost a full novella, and then came up with another story of the Star Minds Lone Wolves. So the Elders will have one novel and two novellas with two short stories. This week I’ll be busy checking Mighty Editor’s comments and formatting the first ebook for a mid-month release.

I also have to compose the three covers. I have downloaded the images I need, but I still need to put them together. I will be using 3D rendering models instead of pictures this time, because it was the only way to find Cherry and Elsa, so I adapted and found something for Hariel too, since the original isn’t available, LOL! (Yes, Hariel is Da Muse, and even if I did a mock cover with him, I didn’t dare ask the photographer, Dabboo Ratnani, for the rights to that picture, haha!)

This brings the yearly total to 387K and next week I hope to start working on Post-Apocalypse Chronicles book 2, that will have to be done by Oct.18. I might not write 10 novels in 100 days, but I’m sure I can pour out 40-50K in four weeks. Probably less unless I need to stop for research.

Last weekend I did my first book on KDPprint… allow me to bemoan the demise of CreateSpace. Proofs from Amazon come with a banner “Not for Resale” on the cover. If I even want to do a private project, I’ll have to go back to Lulu. Sigh. I did take everything down on Lulu, but I didn’t close the account – I probably knew something like that would happen, eventually.

Anyhow, next weekend I’ll try to set up the paperback for the Star Minds Lone Wolves – The Youngsters as well as uploading the eBook of the first Elder. Mighty Editor has been swamped these two weeks and I had to book an extra week for the last Vampires Through the Centuries novel, LOL!

Now I better go back to my editing, formatting and cover designing… Have a great week! 🙂

5 Comments
by Barb on 12/09/2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 12/09/2018

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2018/09/12/writer-wednesday-334/

Writer Wednesday


I’ll have to admit September took me by surprise. In spite of celebrating Da Muse’s birthday last Sunday, the whole weekend didn’t feel like a new month. I almost missed the Happiness is post last Monday… maybe I need a vacation? I was off only four days last summer… well, the summer is not officially over yet, so this summer!

Anyhow! Another 10K written and books sent to the proofreader. I’ll have to finish the last novella before the end of the week or possibly the start of the next, then I’ll probably have two weekends busy with editing… and paperbacks. I actually even managed to link D2D and Findaway, but I can’t find the courage to start on audio books yet. Cause I hate them so much and can’t be bothered to listen to them. Maybe next year…

For sudden changes in DayJob schedule, I also started the translation of Brainwaves, so that as soon as I finish with the Star Minds Lone Wolves, I can get back to the Post-Apocalypse Chronicles and write book 2. And then the other books coming after that, probably. Writing the mini-series at the same time is actually better, especially if they’re either closely intertwined like Star Minds Lone Wolves or squential like Post-Apocalypse Chronicles.

Besides the online workshop, even Chuck Wendig says so!

Write all the books first. Write the series first. If it’s a trilogy, write the trilogy before trying to publish. If it’s a longer series, write the first three books, at least. Or, bare minimum, plot the books robustly, so that when the contract comes in you’re not rushing to figure out the story beats on a longer series.

And since the Silvery Earth Heroines are standalone, I can write them next year, even though I already have the covers by wonderful Federica Manfredi (she still has to draw the last one, but there is really no rush!). I’m also having fun doing covers with stock photos and rendering, so I might redo some of mine (meaning the ones I drew myself). I did an attempt for Firebird (one of the books I wanted to try in audio), but I still have to work on my skills, LOL!

In case you missed the announcement or are not subscribed to my newsletter, Otherside is out! Although D2D initially rejected it for Apple for links to competitors. I have no idea where they saw links to competitors, since I don’t put them anywhere in the books anymore. Only the publisher page, this blog and the newsletter subscription link. What will they do when I mention the competition in the text (with no links whatsoever) in Kristine the Youngest? Maybe Apple doesn’t want my books. Shame on them.

I downloaded all the reports from CreateSpace (50 paperbacks and the payments of the past four years) just in case they get lost in the move. Then I’ll probably just wait until they do it. My last paperback sale was a few months ago anyway. Not going to do it myself (it didn’t prompt me when I logged in, so I assume they’re already overworked by people moving before the closing).

Now I better go back to writing! The newsletter went out, the new title is up, I better get back to work! 🙂 Have a great week!

 

 

3 Comments
by Barb on 05/09/2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 05/09/2018

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2018/09/05/writer-wednesday-333/

Writer Wednesday


And the third “youngster” is out! This is Jes-syd, Iso-bel’s ex-boyfriend, and he’s a hacker in the truer sense of the word (not a security cracker)! 🙂 Star Minds Lone Wolves – Hacker is now available as ebook at the usual suspects… and no WiP of the cover, since he wasn’t on a cover before.

And he isn’t inspired from a drawing either. I debated between two models and ended up choosing the one that looked more like the description I gave of him in Iso-bel Aya Shermac. I had seen that guy first and wrote the story with him in mind, so this time no NeoStock model for our Sire hacker! 🙂

One young man, two passions: computers and Iso-bel Aya Shermac.

Jes-syd lost his home planet at twenty, and with it his beloved girlfriend who survived but vanished on him without explanations. Five years later he works at the Serenaide Labs and has a new girlfriend, another survivor like him, but things don’t go smoothly between them.

The Tech Fair and a visit from Ypsilanti bring the news that there are more survivors on the dead planet, hidden underground in what’s left of the Vaurabi Labs. Jes-syd’s mother made it with a few more and Jes-syd hopes to get back with Iso-bel again – whenever he manages to find her and give her the good news.

A young Sire survivor who loves computers and his first and only love, a lone wolf hacker who is trying to fight his own grief. A Star Minds universe standalone story of hackers, crackers and survivors.

Bonus story: Wonder Man or how Hariel earned his Codename

And last week I wrote 11K of Hariel, our Wonder Man and the eldest of the future team. I hope to finish his story this week, so I can write a couple more team stories to submit to trad markets before the end of the month. I’m at 292K, so pretty much on schedule to reach my goal of half pulp speed before the end of the year! 🙂

For those of you who arrived late and have no idea of what I’m talking about, here’s Dean’s post about pulp speed. I’ve been trying to reach 500K since 2015 and it seems that this year I’ll finally reach the goal. And I hope to sustain it for the coming years.

And for those of you who just joined, I shall remind you that some books are discounted at Smashwords only for the month of July, if you want a taste of how I write. Or you can subscribe to the bimonthly newsletter and get some free short stories as well as the news from this writer if you can’t be bothered to follow me on Social Media or this blog.

David Gaughran on Amazon Algorithm – whatever that means. I don’t bother with it anymore. Obsessing with sales just hurts my head, so I don’t care anymore. Although I’m happy when I see those spikes at some retailer! 😉 Also, I certainly want to be a long term writer! 😉

And being a writer who has dabbled in screenwriting, I can tell you this review of Save the Cat is spot on. I haven’t read the book itself, but if it’s for screenwriters, it’s NOT for fiction/prose writers. Trust me. I tried it. I have a cinematic prose, I thought I can easily turn it into a movie screenplay… not! So unless you’re trying to break into Hollywood, just ignore that book! 😉

Now I would like to take your time to read the last instalment of Adventures of a first-time editor about the Anthology Workshop. What, you don’t want to join the Writer Club? Bad writer, you! I hope to see you in 2020 at the Anthology workshop. Unfortunately I can’t afford those offline workshops more often than every three years, sigh.

Now I better go back to writing… have a great week! 🙂

 

4 Comments
by Barb on 18/07/2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 18/07/2018

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2018/07/18/writer-wednesday-326/

Writer Wednesday


So last week I did my usual 10K to be on track with the writing. Still with the Lone Wolves since it’s sci-fi July and soon you’ll get another book in the mini-series/sub-series. I’ve started another novel but will throw in more “missions” of the team anytime I finish the current project ahead of time – which normally happens, LOL!

And I also had time to format the first paperback! So if you’re a fan of dead tree books (means you don’t have trouble with your eyes like us elderly people, I had a friend asking me for the ebook because he can’t read the paperback…), you can get Sci-Fi Stories – Starships in paperback now. I’ll do the other as soon as the other anthology goes live, since there’s no pre-order on Createspace! 😉

Thank you all who bought either the above anthology or the bundle Sci-fi July Redux. Remember this bundle won’t be out forever and it’s 10 novels of sci-fi space opera for your entertainment, so if you like space opera, make sure to grab it now.

I mean, look at those names! Kevin J. Anderson! Robert Jeschoneck! Kristine Kathryn Rusch! Dean Wesley Smith! Barbara G.Tarn! Er… scratch the last one, she’s a nobody! 😉

But well, if I make it big, you can say you started following me before I got famous! 🙂 Before I got published in some traditional mag (which at the moment is scheduled for January 2019 – unless I sell something else in the meantime)! 🙂

If you prefer short stories, there’s always the curated anthologies… and hopefully soon more short story collections (gotta write them first, though!)! 🙂

Next weekend I’ll prepare Jes-syd and the second anthology goes live… In the meantime I better go back to writing. Have a great week! 🙂

2 Comments
by Barb on 11/07/2018  •  Permalink
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Posted by Barb on 11/07/2018

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2018/07/11/writer-wednesday-325/

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