All posts tagged steampunk world

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


Two more older titles had a face-lift – new cover, new blurb – please, check them out! Lost in the Milky Way (formerly known as Yash&Ryo Lost in the Milky Way) and Soul Thieves are now gone from Smashwords as well, until they manage that actual merging with D2D, that is.

Last week was my most prolific of the year with 25K written, but then, I was off DayJob. It’s also a personal record, the previous one being 21K/week! Whenever I’ll manage to be a full-time writer, how much more will I be able to write? 😉

Although again it’s a series of novels… my wordcount drops dramatically when I write short stories, because of the day-break between projects. If I write a 40K short novel, I’m putting down more words in a month than if I write four 10K stories.

There will be a series of shorts when I finish these novels, but they’re all mostly connected, so I should be able to write them quickly. My poor editor doesn’t know what’s coming for her in June, LOL!

Now, about that Kickstarter… my author copies arrived, and I realized that one book has a cream interior, the others white. Teaches me not to check when I publish the rest after four years, but then… Future Earth Chronicles anyone? 😉

For whoever came late to the party, in Future Earth Chronicles, the paperbacks have alternatively white and cream interior because I screwed up with the first two… For Otherside I realized my mistake when I received my copies, so we have a vintage-looking first book and brand new ones! 😀

Otherside paperbacks

There is still time to get Visions of the Future bundle and get all those awesome sci-fi ebooks for a ridicusly low price. Check it out, and if sci-fi is not your cup of tea, share with friends, in case someone is interested! 🙂

Now I shall get back to writing… and working on that non-writerly stuff… and Friday I’m back to DayJob, sigh! Have a great week! 🙂

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by Barb on 01/06/2022  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, the Human being, writing exercise, writing projects
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Posted by Barb on 01/06/2022

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2022/06/01/wednesday-weekly-roundup-138/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


And the last title being out, the series is now complete, and the series page updated with all the links! The paperbacks should be on their way to the backers who requested them. So I guess this Kickstarter is done! 🙂

Now I should be able to announce the second rebranding for the Star Minds Universe, and here you can see the new covers! There’s also new blurbs, if you’d like to check them out. The series page is updated too.

The titles are slightly changed, but the stories inside are the same – well, a couple of volumes have a new title, because “Interregnum” didn’t make sense anymore, so I changed it to “Confederation”. And you also get a sneak peek of the book coming in July! 🙂

The Smashwords/D2D merging means the books will vanish from Smashwords for a few months, they still have no idea when they’ll be able to send titles to the Smashwords store, but since my only Smashwords customer already has them, I don’t think they will be missed! 😉

Also, the slightly different title means I had to let go the Createspace paperbacks and make a new edition with a new ISBN on KDPprint. I didn’t change the art on the paperbacks, only the typography and the blurbs, but since the title is locked to the ISBN, I decided to create a new edition. Same interior, though! 😀

I wrote almost 13K on the new project last week. I hope to get that much done this week, but this rebranding will keep me busy as well. It’s not only the Star Minds Universe getting a face lift! I did mention I need to tackle Silvery Earth as well at some point, and I’m already starting experiments, but I probably won’t be able to do all the books until the summer.

Meanwhile I take care of the rest! 😀 And write the next book, of course! On TikTok I posted a couple of WiP videos, with things that won’t end up in the final book, like maps… but they’re useful when your characters wander a lot like mine! 🙂

The strip is over on Instagram, so from Sunday you can check the Happiness is… vignettes there. Yes, truly, I’m getting rid of Da Muses, how cruel can I be? 😉 I’m finding other ways to inspire myself, I did change the way I write my books through the decades, so I’ll be fine…

The next big news might be a Sunday Surprise! Have a great week! 😀

by Barb on 25/05/2022  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, real world inspiration, the Human being
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Posted by Barb on 25/05/2022

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2022/05/25/wednesday-weekly-roundup-137/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


And Book 2 is out too! Busy publishing month, LOL! Four books in four weeks, and then I shall rest… not! Because I have more ongoing publishing stuff I’m doing behind the scenes, and you shall see the results soon, hopefully. It’s something I’ve been postponing for way too long and even if I’m hating it, it needs done.

The turn of the season is giving me anxiety and depression again, and I found the only way to escape from my gloomy reality is to write. It might be why I wrote another 12k last week and almost finished book 2 of the next project.

I’m hoping to go to Worldcon (ten years later, same place, because I love Chicago) and I applied to be on the program with tonz of doubts. We’ll see if they’ll give me some panel or not. Maybe I’ll just enjoy being back in Chicago for a few days.

I’ll probably spend my next vacation time (end of May) at home again to finish some projects. I’m still unsure about the end of June, but we’ll see. I should really get my arse to a travel agent and talk to them about international travel!

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

by Barb on 11/05/2022  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, real world inspiration
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Posted by Barb on 11/05/2022

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2022/05/11/wednesday-weekly-roundup-135/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


Yes, it’s now available for all at the usual suspects – ebook and paperback! 🙂 My Kickstarter backers are happily downloading their digital rewards and besides keeping my tight publishing schedule (one title a week) so I’ll be able to send out the paperbacks to the few who backed them by the end of the month, I’d say I’m done! Now to you to enjoy this mini-series! 🙂

Last week, being off the damn DayJob, I managed 19K by the weekend, so I took it off to do other publishing things. Yeah, still trying to revamp everything, but it’s going to take some time. But the next book of the current project is halfway done, yay!

In the end I had over 20K, which shows how much more productive I am when I don’t have to go to a boring office in the morning (and sometimes spend half hours waiting for damn buses which means it takes me one hour and a half to do five kilometers! 😦 ), so here’s to hoping I can quit at some point and think only about writing, publishing and reading! 😀

I also finished the Time Traveler’s Almanac. Of the 60+ stories I loved 15 and did not finish 11. Do I recommend it? Dunno. If you want to try reading time travel fiction, this door-stopper definitely gives you a wide (but not ultimate) view on the topic.

Now I better move on to other things, at least in reading! I’m going to get another couple of ebooks from Kickstarters, so I really should get the new Kindle going, but maybe I’ll read another paperback first. We’ll see!

Since Da Strip on Instagram ends in two weeks, I guess I’m moving the Happiness Is… posts there. You can still find them on this blod if you follow the tag on the sidebar. Now I better go back to writing! Have a great week!

by Barb on 04/05/2022  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, reading
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Posted by Barb on 04/05/2022

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2022/05/04/wednesday-weekly-roundup-134/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


And the Kickstarter is over, with one stretch goal reached, yay! I will send out surveys soon, and digital rewards will go out next week. Thank you again for believing in me! I might do another for the next trilogy… just kidding! We’ll see how long it will take me to recover from this one, LOL!

Last week I wrote over 14K on the new project, and yes, it’s probably a trilogy, but we’ll see. Like I said, I’m in no hurry to publish anything new until the next semester, and I do have a couple of short story collections that came back from Mighty Editor that should come out first.

One is an extra title for the Star Minds Universe, which should do for Sci-fi July, and the other is prequel stories for Ghost Bus Riders, that I may publish in August. I’m considering going back to Worldcon (Chicago, 10 years after my first, and I love the town), but I don’t think I’ll bring anything to sell, just enjoy the Windy City and seeing old friends.

My cover artist for some Star Minds Universe titles, Maurizio Manzieri, is again nominated from the Hugo, amd may he win this year! 🙂 Below his covers on my books (two custom):

Easter Monday morning I wrote another 2300words on the new project, and spent the afternoon drawing and brainstorming the sequel. I will have to adjust everything when all the books are written, like I’m doing with Otherside right now.

Besides obvious typos (still wondering how “mavkerel”, “republix” and “disctionary” ended up in my manuscript), I also found a small continuity error in one of the short stories, since I hadn’t corrected it after writing Book 2. So, good thing I’m going through all the books one last time before sending them out to Kickstarter backers and uploading them to retailers! 🙂

Next week I’m off DayJob, so hopefully I’ll be able to fulfill all of the above – set up the digital rewards on BookFunnel and start uploading the new books to retailers, although they won’t go live until May.

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

by Barb on 20/04/2022  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, real world inspiration
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Posted by Barb on 20/04/2022

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2022/04/20/wednesday-weekly-roundup-132/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


If you read also the comments, besides the post, you might have seen that last week I had a very dry spell and didn’t write Monday to Friday (well 900 words of conclusion of a story I started, like, a month ago). I caught up during the weekend and ended up with 8000 more words of a longer project. No idea how long and no idea when it will be done or even published, but well, I did get back to writing! 😉

My Kickstarter is still out there trying to catch your eye. Sharing it might be nice, if you don’t feel like backing it. On my Facebook page I started a series of daily reminders that I post at random times, since I have friends all over the world. Some people told me that they hadn’t seen my previous, shorter Kickstarter, so this time I want to make sure everybody sees it! 😀

a sample of what goes on my Facebook page

So yeah, I’m going to spam you with this until Easter, I’m afraid! 😉 The bimonthly newsletter will hit your inbox on Friday, and it’s not just about this Kickstarter, I promise. You can still subscribe here.

Now, in case you’re still looking for books and have enough of Kickstarters, there’s always Storybundle! None of mine at this time (but there will be one more this year, stay tuned…), but you can either grab The 2022 World SF Bundle – Curated by Lavie Tidhar, which includes my friend Francesco Verso’s novel Bloodbusters, or The 2022 Aliens Among Us Bundle – Curated by Dean Wesley Smith, which includes a whole batch of friends of mine, namely my workshop buddies Robert Jeschoneck, Kari Kilgore and Marcelle Dubé, as well as Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The only one I haven’t met in meatspace is Rebecca M. Senese, but you’ve read her stories in my Curated Anthos.

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

by Barb on 30/03/2022  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, real world inspiration
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Posted by Barb on 30/03/2022

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2022/03/30/wednesday-weekly-roundup-129/

Wednesday Weekly Roundup


And my next Kickstarter is live! Check it out, read the excerpts, grab the original novella for a buck or the whole series before it goes live at retailers – if you like ebooks, that is! 🙂 This will be a little longer than the previous one, because it’s new stuff and I want people to have time to find it.

It’s an experiment on book-launching. After 10+ years of write-and-release with not very good results, I decided to try this technique for my latest mini-series, in the hopes of actually grabbing some readers. Pre-orders never worked for me, so we’ll see how this goes.

Last week I wrote 6500words, again short stories, I haven’t found a long project yet. I’m at 98K for the year, so I’m not complaining anyway. I’m actually surprised I did this much already! 🙂

This week I haven’t written a word yet, but life got in the way with looking after aging parents and the usual mess at DayJob. Here’s to hoping I can retire early next year and not be bothered by that at least.

I used what little concentration I had to edit the Otherside books, so they’ll be ready when the Kickstarter ends! 🙂 I got book 2 and 3 back from the editor last week, so I’ll concentrate on that for now, and then finish the project I had started (a couple more shorts to write for that one).

Not much else to say this week, except go check my Kickstarter! 🙂 Have a great week! 😀

by Barb on 23/03/2022  •  Permalink
Posted in indie publishing, the Human being
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Posted by Barb on 23/03/2022

https://creativebarbwire.wordpress.com/2022/03/23/wednesday-weekly-roundup-128/

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