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More Doctor Who Musings

I know how it isn’t fun to read about someone else obsessing about something, and so I apologize about posting about Doctor Who again. But things are bothering me, and maybe the Internet at large can help me clear up some points.

I’m mid-way through season three (so, Ten and Martha), for clarity’s sake.

First of all, let me just say that I find the show a little jarring, the way people come and go. I understand why this is necessary–no one is going to want or be able to play the same character for the length of time the show has been on, but it’s very weird to get used to or to like a character just to have them disappear after a season or two. I mean, I finally got to like Nine, and then he regenerated. And then, when Rose goes, we lose not only her, but Jackie and Mickey too.

(That being said, I heart Martha. She’s my favorite.)

Okay, points for clarification:

1. Nine says he’s over 900 years old. Now, admittedly, I am completely unfamiliar with Doctor Who before Eight (I mean, I can identify some of the earlier doctors, but I have no idea about the focus of the show or anything) but it seems like none of his regenerations last particularly long. I mean, Nine only seems to have lasted a year. And I admittedly have no ideas how Time Lords count years, but it seems like there hasn’t been enough time represented, or even alluded to.

2. For there being a finite number of Daleks left, they are seemingly everywhere.

3. Let’s talk about “Blink.” I can see it looming a few episodes ahead of where I am. People have hyped up the weeping angels to me every since the episode was originally on. So I’m a little anxious about actually watching it. If it’s not as scary as I’ve been told, I’ll be a little disappointed, and if it is, I may never sleep again.

4. Also, last week I had a bad dream about Daleks and weeping angels, and I think it’s quite unfair to start worrying about them before I’ve ever seen the episode.

5. Also, it seems a bit ostentatious to call your species the Time Lords. But, then, of course, they’re all the Doctor, the Master, etc., so what do I know.

Right, bit rambly, and I apologize for that. Anyway, I shall move on to other subjects for Thursday. But feel free to discuss these and other points in the comments. (Seriously, though, Daleks.)

The Foundation Trilogy Readalong, ROW80 Check-in, and Miscellany

Good afternoon, Squiders. We’ve got a lot of ground to cover here today, so we’d better get cracking.

But, first, a public service announcement: My friend’s daughter is missing and was last seen on Tuesday in Tuscon, AZ. Please keep an eye out for her and let the authorities know if you have any information.

It’s time to start our first readalong of the year, Squiders! And in making a drastic move away from the YA fantasy readalongs we’ve been doing, we’re going to do Isaac Asimov’s classic Foundation trilogy. I’m excited–I own most of the books but have never gotten a chance to read them. We’ll do one book a month, and change the schedule as necessary. We’ll start with the original trilogy, and then, if we’re having a good time, we might delve into the other four books which Asimov wrote later. So if you want to play, read Foundation by February 18, which is when the discussion post will go up.

In writing news, ROW80 is going well thus far (which is admittedly only a week and a half). Getting a spreadsheet helped immensely. I don’t seem to be able to manage to write every day, so I’ve been writing when I can and just pushing for longer and bigger word counts than my daily. I’ve got just over 6K for the challenge, which looks measly but is over 10% of my goal and more or less on track, so there is that. And I’m over 30K on the draft itself, which is also shiny, though I am not so sure about my pacing.

In random miscellany, apparently my husband’s coworker loved Shards to the point where she is now reading this blog (Hello, husband’s coworker!), which is rather a nice compliment. And I found a lovely video review of Shards as well (warning: bit plot spoiler-y in the middle).

And now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Why Self-Published Books Get a Bad Rap

I always mean to read more self-published books. I’ve meant to for years. I feel like it’s important to be aware of what’s out there on the self-pubbed, indie, and traditional levels so I can be more informed and not look like an idiot when I talk to other people in the industry.

In that vein, I’ve been downloading free Kindle ebooks for years. However, I don’t use my Kindle very often and I haven’t touched a one of them. (I also download classics and the occasional free traditionally-pubbed book, and pick new books to read based on my mood.)

I may have never actually gotten around to it except I finally got around to looking at the Goodreads groups that I belong to, and I discovered that a couple of them offer read and review programs for all authors, self and indie and traditionally-pubbed, provided you can find a way to get an ebook copy to the volunteer reviewers for free. (I have Shards up for March.)

It’s a wonderful idea–authors get much needed eyes and feedback, and readers get free books. Now, I like free books as much as the next person, so when the group mods release the new books for the programs, I’ve been taking a look and volunteering when something catches my fancy. I’m in the middle of my second book that I’ve gotten through these programs, and both have been self-published.

And the editing is terrible. Both have editors mentioned on their copyright page, so I assume the authors paid someone to edit their book, and I am just horrified but how bad it is. Like, distractingly bad. I’ve read fanfiction with less punctuation errors. Some of it is content editing errors, such as saying the same thing two different ways, one right after the other, but most of it is grammar and punctuation. I don’t know if I’m more sensitive since I am an editor myself, but I can only take so many comma splices or improperly used semi-colons before I kind of want to set something on fire.

Part of me wants to write to the authors and implore them to find a better editor, someone who knows when they should use a comma versus a semi-colon and can discern if you’re using the right to/too/two.

But on the other hand, the guilt may not lie all with the editors. It’s why I almost prefer the authors I work with to not name me in the finished product. The thing about self-published works is that the author has the final say on everything. As an editor, I’ve made suggestions to authors that they’ve ignored. I’ve had authors who have rewritten all or part of stories after I’ve proofread them and published them without having them proofed again.

So maybe these people have perfectly creditable editors and just didn’t bother to go through a proper editing process before publishing their books. I don’t know. All I know is that if it were me, I’d be a little embarrassed at the quality of the book.

If you are self-publishing your book, please please please have someone proofread it before you publish it! I’m sure there are plenty of self-pubbed books out there that are just as clean as traditionally-pubbed books (which usually have a couple missing quotation marks and periods in them and are by no means perfect, but are mostly perfect), but my sampling thus far bodes ill.

How about you, Squiders? Do you read self-pubbed books too? What has your experience been like?

Fly and Die

We have a saying in crew–fly and die. Essentially, it’s when you come out of the gates going at an unsustainable pace, get part of the way through whatever you’re trying to do, and then fall apart because you pushed too hard at the beginning. We used it mostly in relation to 2K tests, which are horrible things that only take you somewhere between 7 and 9 minutes and yet destroy you for the rest of the day.

I kind of feel that way about ROW80 at the moment.

Oh, not that I’ve come out of the gates too fast. Oh no, far from it. We’re four days in, and I think I have 2 and a half days’ worth of words.

To continue on with my rowing analogy, the way to get through a 2K test is to have a relatively good idea of what pace you can maintain for the entire 2000 meters. Normally, the best way to do this is to base it off of past 2K times, times from other tests (such as 4 or 5Ks, or 500 meter sprints), how you’re feeling and what shape you’re in, etc. If you’ve still got a lot of energy at the end, you know to go faster the next time, and if you just barely make it through, you know you’re probably going at your limits.

ROW80 is an unknown to me. I don’t participate in a lot of writing challenges, so I don’t necessarily have a good idea of what works for me outside of Nanowrimo. And I can’t help but feel, even though we’re only a few days in, that I didn’t pace myself well and am sort of flailing about in an unproductive manner.

And it’s making me anxious, which is no good. Writing is fun, so stressing about it is counterproductive.

Part of it is that I can’t tell how far behind I am, and I don’t know where I should be exactly, and that’s only going to get harder as time goes on and I have to do harder math. Actually, I think that’s a lot of it. Since I don’t know what my pace should be, I can’t tell where I am and how far I have left to go.

So, no doubt, that’s the next step. Figure out my pace. It won’t be hard–there’s tons of Excel worksheets floating around the interwebs that people have made, so I just need to find one and adapt it for my purposes, and then hopefully I shall feel better about the whole endeavor.

And then, it’s back to writing.

ROW80 Goals

So, I’ve been generally aware of A Round of Words in 80 Days for a while. Billing itself as a writing challenge for those who have a life, you’re supposed to set a writing goal and regularly check in, so there’s a level of accountability. It runs fours times a year.

So, Kit, you say, why are you doing ROW80?

Well, squiders, you may remember that around Nano I was waffling about whether or not to participate, since I was working on marketing for Shards‘ release. And I did eventually decide not to play, for my own sanity, and I do think that was the right decision. And, at the time, my good friends Siri Paulson and Erin Zarro were going through the same dilemma (although not, obviously, because of Shards marketing).

So, having all decided that Nano wasn’t going to work for us, we agreed to do a writing challenge slightly later. Say, the beginning of 2014. And it just happened to line up with ROW80 and ROW80 would work for our goals, so here we are.

You’re required to have a blog for the challenge (check) and post your goals (working on, obviously) there. I’ve been kind of ditzing about looking at other people’s goal posts, and they’re really complicated. Multiple projects, multiple steps, writing and editing and researching, oh my. Maybe I going to be doing this wrong. But you know me, squiders. I think having one main and one side project at a time is the best way to roll.

And so, for the first round of ROW80 of 2014, my goal is:

Write 50,000 words in the third book of the Ri’shan Trilogy

Tada! That’s it. A single project. It breaks down to a little less than 700 words a day, which is totally doable provided I get my act together, which was not yesterday and may not be today if I don’t get on it.

I mean, sure, I have other writing goals, but they’re little things like working on my serial or submitting short stories. Don’t really seem like they’re worth sticking in the challenge when I’m totally going to do them anyway.

How’s your 2014 thus far, squiders? Any new goals or challenges you’re trying? (Aside from this, I am also doing a 6 day a week, 6 week boot camp challenge at the gym. I am two days in and I both love and hate it.)

Reading in 2013

Happy 2014, Squiders! I hope your holidays were lovely, or at least non-stressful.

For those of you just joining us, or those who have joined us recently, I am a nerd, and I like statistics.

And at the end of every year, I do statistics on the books I’ve read for the year. My goal is always to read 50. I usually reach that, but sometimes it’s a near thing.

So, without further ado, my reading stats from 2013:

Books read in 2013: 50
Change from 2012: -2

2012 was down from 2011, so this is NOT ENCOURAGING.

Of those:
19 were Mystery
15 were Fantasy
4 were Science Fiction
2 were Gothic
2 were Historical Fiction
2 were Magical Realism
1 was Children’s
1 was General Literature
1 was Mythology
1 was Nonfiction
1 was Romance
1 was Thriller

Children’s and YA genre is included with the genre.

New genre(s): Mythology, Magical Realism
Genres I read last year that I did not read this year: Science Fantasy, Horror, Chick Lit, Paranormal, Young Adult

Genres that went up: Mystery, Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Gothic
Genres that went down: Thriller, Romance, Nonfiction, General Literature, Children’s

Man, that mystery binge really destroyed everything else.

29 were my books (7 were ebooks)
18 were library books (4 were ebooks)
3 were borrowed from friends/family

Average Rating: 3.36 (out of 5)

Top Rated:
Shades of Grey (5)
Murder with Peacocks (4.3)
We’ll Always Have Parrots (4.3)
Forged by Fate (4)
Inherit the Stars (4)
A Great and Terrible Beauty (4)
The Moon Pool (4)

Howl’s Moving Castle also got a 5, but it doesn’t count because it was a re-read.

Also Shades of Grey (not to be confused with 50 Shades of Gray) was amazing.

Most recent publication year: 2013
Oldest publication year: 1898
Average publication year: 1992
Books Older than (and including) 1900: 1
Books Newer than (and including) 2010: 13

I actually read several books that were published between 1900 and 1920, which brought down the average significantly.

How many books did you read last year, Squiders? What ones did you enjoy the most? What’s your reading goal for 2014?

Happy Christmas Eve!

Hidey ho, squiders! I hope you’re having a lovely time with your loved ones and eating lots of chocolate (and that you haven’t misplaced every roll of tape in the house, like somebody else).

The blog will be on hiatus for the holidays and shall resume on Thursday, January 2nd.

The Conundrum of Doctor Who

It’s been my intention for years to watch Doctor Who, ever since the new iteration started and all my friends and the Internet in general got sucked in. It seemed like it would be right up my alley, since I like Star Trek and Merlin and shows of that ilk. Ones where they’re not afraid to occasionally be silly. Ones where the characters care about each other despite their differences.

I should probably note that I had seen Doctor Who before the new series started–I watched the 1996 made for TV movie with Eight (Paul McGann). Admittedly, I think I was 13 at the time, but I remember liking it and being somewhat disappointed that it hadn’t done well enough to be picked up for a TV series.

And, of course, because I am a denizen of the Internet, despite not having watched the show, I am generally aware of what’s happening. (Sometimes I even know what’s happening more than my friends who are caught up with the show, which just amuses me.) So I went in knowing about sonic screwdrivers and daleks and weeping angels and regeneration (and also things associated with the 50th anniversary special which I shall not say in case people do not know and care about spoilers).

About a month ago I finally decided to dive in with the beginning of Nine and…well, I didn’t like it. There were conversations I thought were funny, and I thought the characters were fine, but overall it wasn’t doing much for me, and I was really annoyed about it, because I’d been so excited to watch the show, and I’d heard such good things, and it just wasn’t doing anything for me.

But I stuck through with it, and near the end of the first season there’s an episode where they’re in 1941 England, and they hook up with Captain Jack, and there’s random Merlin actors and that was the first time where I could see what people were talking about. It was a two-part episode, and both the strength of the story and the interplay between the characters were fantastic. And, for the most part, the rest of the season (a standalone episode and another two-parter) kept that up.

And then, of course, I get to the end of the season and Nine regenerates into Ten, and now I feel all off-kilter again. I got to really like Nine, and I feel like I don’t know what to make of Ten yet (I’m…four? episodes into the season). And I feel like the quality of the episodes has gone back downhill, more like the beginning of season/series one than the end.

(Also, we ditched Captain Jack at the end of season one and I really liked him and how he interacted with the other characters. I mean, I know he comes back and there’s Torchwood, but I would have watched him and Nine and Rose forever.)

Part of me wonders if I should just give up here. If I find it so hard to adjust every time they switch out a character, is it worth it to keep watching a show where characters switch every year or two? I mean, aside from the Doctor regenerating, companions come and go. And maybe it just hasn’t hit its stride yet and if I keep going the show will become good enough that that will stop bothering me as much as it does at the moment.

And I’m still a little annoyed that I don’t like it more than I do.

What about you, Squiders? Are you a die-hard Whovian, or can you not get into the show? Who’s your favorite Doctor?

Still in Need of Presents?

I ate too many cookies today, Squiders, and now feel a bit sick. This is the dangers of baking for the holidays that they fail to warn you about. The only thing saving the peppermint bark is that I made it specifically for presents.

Speaking of which, are you still in need of present ideas for your loved ones? I recommend books. Already bought everyone something? Get them books anyway. Books are awesome and everyone needs more of them.

(My family has expressed dismay that all I want for Christmas is books. And scarves.)

(I don’t even wear scarves that often but I like to collect them, apparently.)

And I almost hate to do this, because I hate it when other people do it, but some of these books are really awesome and I think other people would like them if they got their hands on them. So here are some recommendations, and just take it with a grain of salt that I am indirectly or directly somehow connected with all of them.

First up is Once Upon a Spork. This is a fairy tale anthology, with a healthy mix of adaptations and new tales. There’s only one story in here that I don’t like. Admittedly I love fairy tales almost as much as mythology (and, indeed, would argue that they are sort of a type of mythology themselves), but if you know someone who also likes fairy tales, why not pick this up for them?

As of me writing this post, Amazon has it on sale for $10.45, and you get 13 stories from authors from such exotic locales as Sweden. And California.

Next I’d like to recommend Without Wings, which is a poetry chapbook about love gone wrong. I’m not a big poetry fan; I don’t understand how to do it and it mocks me, so we compromise with haiku and limericks about alpacas and landsquid.

That being said, I really enjoyed this book. The imagery is haunting. Anytime anybody mentions the remotest thing about poetry I bring it up. It is probably obnoxious, but I do it anyway.

There’s no excuse for not buying it, honestly. The paperback version is only $6.99, and the ebook version is a mere $.99.

In general, I rather like all the TDP anthologies. Winter’s Night is an interesting mix of fantasy, science fiction and myth. Seasons Eternal provides an interesting look at how different people imagine a world where seasons have ceased to exist. But The Best of Turtleduck Press, Vol I is a look back at all the short fiction put out through TDP’s three-year existence, and it includes a good range of what TDP offers.

Plus it’s only a dollar. And the paperback versions of the other anthologies are less than $5. Stock stuffers for anybody who likes a good mix of speculative fiction.

And, of course, you can’t have a holiday promotional post without mentioning your own stuff, so don’t forget Hidden Worlds (YA urban fantasy) and Shards (not-YA urban fantasy).

Anyway, Squiders, have any books to recommend?

Getting Sucked In

(First of all, just a small reminder that Amazon still has the paperback version of Shards on sale for 20% off. If you need a present for someone who likes urban fantasy, please consider picking it up.)

(Also, I don’t understand Amazon’s pricing scheme. They change the price by a few cents every other day. Sometimes up, sometimes down. Whatever. I’m an author, not someone who understands complex economic algorithms.)

Guys, I have gotten almost nothing done in the last few days, and I’ll tell you why. I’ve been re-reading my high fantasy trilogy in an attempt to get ready to finish the first draft of the third book, and I have been sucked in. I was just going to read the first book, but instead I have pushed through all the way to what I have of the third, to the determent of many other things I am supposed to be doing. (Like paid work. And doing the laundry. To say nothing of the fact that I typically blog on Thursdays, not Fridays.)

(Man, I should really do the laundry.)

Occasionally I do actually have to do other things, and so I was wondering why I’ve been so engrossed in the whole thing. (Well, except for the beginning of the first book, which needs some serious pacing help.) I like to think that I’m pretty good at this whole writing thing, but I’m not under any delusions of being J.K. Rowling or Orson Scott Card or whomever is your favorite speculative fiction writer.

And I remembered that I’d gone into Shards a little over a month ago to check something and had ended up reading the whole thing again (again to the determent to anything useful).

So why was I getting so sucked into my own work?

And, with a little thought, it was obvious. People become writers for many reasons, but one of the most common is that the story a writer wants to read doesn’t exist, so they have to do it themselves. And most writers, the ones who really love what they’re doing, write stories that appeal directly to them. People write the stories they want to read.

So it follows that the stories I write, on some level, fulfill what I want. So, of course, they’re going to appeal to me, and I’m going to enjoy reading them. And, especially when it’s a story I haven’t touched in a while, it’s fun to go back through and read it like I’m reading it for the first time.

Whether they appeal quite as much to someone else, well, that’s something else completely.

Well, other writers, do you find yourself getting sucked into your own work? And everybody–readers and writers alike–what was the last book you literally could not put down?

Books by Kit Campbell