Birthdays and stuff

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Kai

Normally, I do my ‘birthday’ update on or around my birthday – but I’m a couple of days late this year. And with good (ish) reason.
On the 8th of this year I graduated officially. And so began a week of visits and catching up with friends and family. Unfortunately, so also began a week of random exhaustion and a horrible rash that’s over most of the front of my neck and up one shoulder.

The rash
The rash itself isn’t actually too bad now, other than it itches like mad. I’m itchy in various places to be fair, but it’s all mostly associated with one side of my body. I spent Monday rearranging my conservatory, and sorting out the house – Tuesday – I graduated – Wednesday and a docs visit saw me picking up meds, but little else. I started needing about 200% more sleep. Thursday, mom came back from Egypt, and visited. Friday, Keith arrived, and Saturday….

Well, Saturday was supposed to be my book launch, my big birthday *bash* and my graduation celebration. It ended up being coffee in the morning with my nanoees, napping most of the rest of the day, before landing in the out of hours service at 5:30. Which lead to ‘you have meningeal symptoms (stiff neck, headache, bright lights bothering me, nausea, no temperature though), go to the ER’, which led to ‘the heck no’ conversation that comes up whenever I land in the Gloucester hospital. I eventually talked my other half into letting me go home for my birthday party – which, in the end was food, chatter and watching some cartoons. And then I slept. I did much of the same on Sunday.
And yesterday.
As of 11am this morning I’m still randomly needing to nap for an hour or two after only being up for a few hours, I’m stiff, I’m tired, but I’m still working.

Not quite the way I wanted to celebrate my 33rd birthday, but it let me have a think about several things, and, as Glass Block was signed up with a press, I’ve got space now till February to pursue something fun. So I am.

Momentum

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Kai

We move through our lives at a constant pace. We can accelerate or decelerate ourselves with a limited amount of success, but the speed we do things at, at our base rate at least, is probably something we’ll never change. Some of us rush headlong into everything and batter through life as fast as we can, hungry for as many new experiences as we can pick up, and tired at the end of each day because we’ve packed in so much.

Others go as slow as possible, savoring every step, and realising, deep down, that they can’t do everything they might want to.

My problem is I want to savor everything, but I want it all. I have too many hobbies, and too little time on my books for new stuff. I book far too much into my life, mostly because I can. My laptop became both my freedom and my curse, because now, there’s a whole world of reading and writing out there, and I get nothing done.
Facebook is a horrible blessing. I can meet and hang out with so many wonderful people, and keep an eye on my friends, and there are some really cool games on there, but, lets face it, I’ve got a nasty habit of refreshing my page again and again, and then wondering, at 2pm, where my day went.

Worst of all, I’m a person that moves through life with a momentum that pulls others along behind me. And lately, I kinda feel like I’m out in the middle of a great big ocean, with no chance of finding the new land I was aiming for. But it feels like I’m stranding other people now and I don’t like that feeling.

Momentum is working out where you’re going and I think that’s the biggest thing for me right now. I need to work out which map I’m working from – someone else’s or my own. If I’m working from someone else’s, where can I adapt it so it’s all mine – or if I’m going to dive on in headlong and do it all myself, I need to work out where I want to go – there are *so many* choices right now.

What I do know is tomorrow begins my ninth Nanowrimo. I’m really looking forward to it. It gives me another month to work out and plan the roller coaster that is about to be my life. One way or another, things will start resolving and working out the way I want to.

Plans are coming soon, though. I’m happy to report there *is* a plan, but it’s difficult to see whether it’s the right choice right now. So I’m going to have a bit of fun with my writing for a bit, and see where that takes me. It’s too easy for me to lose sight of what I wanted to do when I started out online – which was writing. I’ve gone all over the web since, looking for something that’s ‘all me’ but what I am, underneath it all, is a writer.

Going to war redux

Posted on July 3, 2011 by Kai

Well done to those that got the ‘Dr Who’ reference

The last week has seen some chances in how I view the community – I’m beginning to see that one of the major problems is that there are some people in the community that castigate people with one breath and then, scarily, endorse them in another. It seems, basically, that there are some in the community more interested in choosing to play their own interests off against lying. And I’m not sure how to address that other than, possibly, ignore them for all but the most important stuff.

War is going to be waged on several fronts. I’ve got a script to finish sorting out, and some other various and sundry things to take care of over the next few days and weeks, but the most important thing – my dissertation – is top of the pile. It goes back for the second round of feedback tomorrow, and then, hopefully, I can submit it and am done with Uni. I’m really going to miss it, but one of the bigger problems I have right now is the board doesn’t confirm my results now until September, which means I’m not going to know what my degree *is* until then. I’m not sure if I get to see provisional marks or if I just have to wait, so that’s something I’m going to ask Martin/Rebecca when I submit it. If that is the case, we’ve got a big month in September – Teeniboi starts high school, and something else should have begun to resolve by then, not to mention that the plan we’re trying to put into motion right now should be well under way. Glass Block should be out (end of August!), and most of all, I should be in a position to actually see the wood from the trees. Taxes and all that crap should be worked out for the company, and I’ll have our first year’s turnover report available to me. It’s all very exciting and scary all at once.

I’ve still not finished condensing down sites, though I have parked lots of stuff on here already. Got an amazing plugin that should help me – and others – get onto WordPress all the easier, but I gotta test it first. All in all, it might make designing author sites easier and allow me to move my beloved books site (which is html) onto my favorite system. I’ll keep you posted

New twitter hashtag #tIAG

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Kai

As many of y’all know, I’m part of a wonderful group of Indie writers on Facebook. To keep track of one another in Twitter, we just lauched a new hastag, at @lil_tufel ‘s suggestion. SO join me in using #tIAG – the ‘twitter Indie Author Group’ tag

(with thanks to Lili Tufel, whose book, Sand is brilliant!) Lili was also the very savvy mind behind the Indie Author Blog Hop, which I help to maintain. We also have a webring to give authors *even more* traffic. Check it out.

One month to go

Posted on May 4, 2011 by Kai

I have to admit to being really very excited right now, an excitement that I can only really imagine is going to get more and more intolerable until the 4th of June.

It’s incredible to think that I’m going to be published in less than 33 days. In one month, exactly, I’m going to be dealing with my very messed up, very hot, very deprecating detective that drives me up the wall and won’t shut up at 4am when he’s got something really important to tell me.

Yes, my character wakes me up in the middle of the night and talks to me. There’s a lot to be said about the things that says about my mental health, but I guess that’s another post. One of the things I am slowly learning and accepting is that it’s normal for me, and that’s OK.
But till I’m through editing Glass Block right to the end, I’m not sure how to answer the questions about Elliot, so I’m going to have to plead patience.

I’m really excited though – one of the things that I’m working on is about a dozen interviews – which means in the near future, I’ll be sharing all of the links for all of my interviews with everyone. For now though – check out my first interview.
But while I’m here, I thought I’d open up the floor to questions – what would you like to know? There are, as ever, things I just can’t answer, but you never know till you ask
*updated – the book is postponed now till August – thanks for your patience guys.

This post is part of the Server Sync up contest

Release schedules….

Posted on April 28, 2011 by Kai

One of the major areas I’m looking at right now, while increasing my ‘discipline’ and butt in seat stickivity for my writing is to look at my release schedules.
So, when I’ve got Glass Block out the gates, I’ve got several choices – Near Earth, Black Monday or another book, I’m not sure whether I’ll move forward with one of several books, or if I’ll take the time to build up my copywriting business, or do something else. All I do know is the next few weeks and months are going to be jam packed, and I hope that they’ll be good for my carreer.

One of the major things I’m learning right now though is that I can’t underestimate anything – if anything, I need to build in space and delays, just to make sure I get through it all – with dissertations and other projects in the way, I’m well aware that just about anything could go wrong between now and June 4th – it’s a good lesson for writers though – as I’m restructuring (again) to ensure that I have time to work on the things that interest me most, I’m also aware that there’s no way in this WORLD that I have the time to do everything I want to. Not right now anyway – it might be possible later once the books start actually doing well……

And that’s where you, my dearest of dear readers come in. Please (please please please!) come on over and check out Darkness PD and fan me on Facebook – D Kai WilsonViola

Thanks!

A little bit of discipline

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Kai

Image via Wikipedia

I find posts like this difficult to write. After all, I am basically saying ‘I am not available’ – which is entirely true, but makes me feel just a bit twitchy. I pride myself in being available to anyone when they need me, but let’s be honest, this place rarely gets updated right now, I’ve got a resit for my psych exam and a hand in and a dissertation hand in to deal with, my book is due out on the 4th of June and is requiring what is probably going to be a major rewrite, and most of all, I’m a mother and fiancée, and queen of a happy little world that requires more attention than bears thinking about sometimes.

Coming back from our trip, I realized that I had to start applying more discipline than I have been lately. Which means coming off Facebook almost entirely for the next month, save promotions – actually writing blog posts instead of procrastinating and generally getting about 20k of writing done (or equivalent editing) a week. It’s all doable, easily, but it means taking a couple of massive steps back.
I’ve already curtailed my Livejournal stuff once and for all (as in, I’m not even logging in to comment any more) but it goes without saying that I’m tired of chasing my tail. So, I’m going to wait for everything to loop round and grab it on the way past.
The rest of this week is quite handily being filled by drafting some new chapters for GB as I remove some of the stuff that slowed the story somewhat, and add some stuff in that needs to be explained, and then see where that gets me. But discipline is something I’ve never been good at, so I’ll need to see how things go.

That’s not to say I won’t be around, but I am trying to teach myself that, like email, Facebook doesn’t need to be constantly open. Same with Skype and chat and all of the other niggles I keep running all day – it’s nice to be in touch, but I’m keen to start trying it on my terms again. And now, with the changes that have come up, I’m free to actually *write* and so, write I shall.
See y’all on the flip side!

Books, books books!

Posted on April 7, 2011 by Kai

Yep, I’m positively giddy right now.

I’ve got not one, but two books coming out in the next 60 days.

Reissuing….

Footnotes to a Lesson was most recently issued in an anthology of short stories – the rights reverted last year at some point and I completely forgot to re-release it in eBook format (oops).
It’s written under my horror pen name ‘Sabrann Curach’, and is a ‘Thinking Man’s’ Zombie story.
links to follow, but what do you think?

And the big news….

When Big Brother fell out of popularity in the early part of the 21st century it was replaced with ever more ‘realistic’ reality TV shows, till the need for this was replaced with a need for fantasy. In an attempt to resurrect the old format some die hard fans filmed themselves locked in with a recently released murderer. The person to get out got the money from the stream sales at the end. Needless to say they were slaughtered.

Word of this spread on the internet and a ‘sanctioned’ version by the UCPS (United coalition of Prison Services) was established. Brought in from Darkness, one of the cities providing most of the prisoners, most of which he’d been responsible for collaring, Elliot Peters is forced into a nightmare world where the walls are made of glass and people vote as to whether you survive.

You can read more at DarknessPD

Exciting stuff

Posted on March 10, 2011 by Kai

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It’s not all gloom and doom in my household.

One of the big projects I’m launching post graduation is my new press project. It’s two parts at the moment – with the whole thing being ran from one site – Occam’s Library is my e-book print arm, and covers working on the Kindle, and the Nook and other projects that involve the ‘simplest’ solution, while Schrödinger’s Library is the print project and will be lagging slightly behind this one. I think that the overall project needs a proper name, so for now it’s falling under Lime-in-the-coconut , which was my original co-op press project. So all and all, it’s very positive.

But – I need a bit of help. To make a press really work I need to have people to read the stuff we’re putting out. For now I’ve got some very specific books in mind for going out, so please don’t query me to take your book. What I need instead is…well, a couple of things really.

One is to follow @occamslibrary on Twitter. The second is to join up to my writer’s fan page.

Occam’s Library’s first release is going to be Glass Block – it’s been variously described as ‘Law and Orders down and dirty with a dystopic CSI, discovers blood borne viruses that creates vampires, werewolves and other wibblies and has a love child’ or ‘absolutely insane, off the hook, gimmie more!’.

I describe it as a sci-fi/horror/slipstream thriller that constantly leaves you guessing, and introduces you to Elliot Peters, one of the main protagonists in the green-room in my head.

The second book out is a guide to social networking and blogging – it’s in the process of being renamed because we didn’t like the name it had – it walks you through, step by step, what you need to do to set up your blog to work with social networking, and how to leverage it effectively, including planning things like promotions, blogging calendars ‘etc’.

The third book out, near Christmas, is yet to be decided. It’ll either be Pictures In the Dark (a bipolar’s guide to good mental health), or Near Earth. And of course if things pick up, or there’s a demand, there’s something like 12 other books in the Glass Block series waiting to be edited and released, plus dozens of other universes and other fun stuff that’s sci-fi, horror or a mix of both.

For those of you that don’t see anything you’re interested in yet, Green room in my head talks about all the different genres I write, while Writers-bookshelf is going to gear itself more towards the theory and practice of publishing, but I write and have written in just about every genre known to man and woman kind, including erotica, so there really is something for every type of reader out there available. You gotta tell me though – which is the other area I need help. I’m legendarily indecisive, so I’d love to hear what you want to see. Got a favorite genre? Really interested in what I’m talking about? tell me!

A bit of a dilema – at a crossroads

Posted on March 3, 2011 by Kai

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So, I’m taking part in another blogging challenge, the V7N one that Cricket runs (remember to share the love!) and I have a bit…. a lot of a dilemma.

I need to start getting focussed. Specifically, I need to make time for both fiction writing and publishing. I also really want to get back to the stuff I’m *really* passionate about, which is language, specifically, the language that we use to write ‘stuff’. But I’m also mental about WordPress, and knitting, and…and….

Ok. So there’s a couple of complications to this.

One – I have a dissertation due on the 3rd of May. I also have ~~two~~ sorry, three assignments due in, one next week. It’s creative writing so it’s not *that bad*, but it’s still….a lot to deal with. At the moment, I’m working with taking an hour and a half out every day to do *stuff*.

Two – I want to spend some quality time with the two leading men in my fiction, Elliot Peters and Marcus Farran. So, we’re looking at being torn between two genres too, and it’s difficult to work with blogging and fiction when it’s going forward to be published. But I can write about the *process* right?

Three – I’ve got five different blogs that I *could* do the challenge on. And that’s when my dilema really kicks into high gear.
The five blogs are:

Kaiberie.com – ie. this one.
booksbykai – this is my book blogging site, though it’s currently being co-hosted on writers-bookshelf
literary-forensics – one of my major MASSIVE passions – I love talking language. It’s just out in front of talking coding, when, if you get down to the nuts and bolts, is about the same thing really.
WP-for-Authors – Doing a project that I could blog about, though the principles apply to anyone, I know who my ideal market is and why.
The Blogging coach – Talking about blogging in general.
And of course, I *WANT* to be as involved in the community, if not more, but I’m also highly aware that I’m not running it, so my instinct to help out is probably misplaced :S

The complication comes in, of course where you factor in that I’m a full time copywriter, a full time WRITER, a full time student, a full time mother….I want to find time for all of my projects, but it’s just not physically possible. It used to be, especially as there is a massive amount of overlap in my time. It’s difficult to be a (copy/student) writer without there being a bit of overlap. Still…..

So, here’s where you guys come in. Help me choose. I need to get the blog or blogs listed on the V7N challenge thread before Monday, so I’d love some feedback from everyone
Also, I’ve ‘vollunteered’ to add at least two posts to the V7N blogs. I can talk ‘tech’ or ‘Seo’ – which would you like to hear about and what questions are burning through your concentration demanding to be answered? Other, of course, than ‘who is this crazy lady’

30 posts later – where I am, where I’m going etc

Posted on February 19, 2011 by Kai

I noticed this morning that I hit the magical 30 post mark, from the 30 posts in 30 days (in my case, really it was 30 posts in 45 days!) and wanted to do a quick round-up, along with some observations.

First up – I suck at timetables.
Actually, more accurately, I suck at working within timetables, when there is lots going on around me. In the last month I went back to Uni for a new term (my last one), I moved laptops to a much sleeker, faster, sweeter piece of kit (which leads me to a point I’m going to make later), and I finally discovered that my love for writing definitively needs fiction to keep the flames burning. And that simply reading it for now isn’t enough.
I also discovered that 30 billable hours equates to much *much* more than that, and I procrastinate too much, which lead me to another project idea for this month/next month. I discovered that I’m not in the best shape mentally, or physically, and that I really need to find and adhere to boundaries. That means less answering email on my phone when I should be chilling out, and more spending my time working on the things – all of them – that makes me happy. Journaling, despite being suggested, isn’t something I can get into any more – I had a horrible time of it when my then psych council got his hands on one of my stories and tried to commit me because it was about suicide, and jumping out the windows of my flat. I know mental health care has moved on in leaps and bounds since then, but there have been other incidents where people have used my journal against me. Next best idea is to go back to fiction .

Specifics though

Of the 30 posts I had planned, I’ve still got 14 drafts left. I’ve also added to that and have ideas for about another 60 blog posts – or partial posts. If I got them scheduled and farmed to the right blogs (because some of them might not belong *here* when I’m done) then I’ve got content for two blogs for a month, or several blogs for several months depending on posting schedules.
I’m so not over my blogging apathy. I still find it difficult to interact on Livejournal, where I started to blog – I don’t know if it’s transient but it’s lasted about eight months so far and hasn’t abated any. I work a full-time job, study practically full time for Uni, write when I can, plus I’m the primary parent for a nine-year old with emotional difficulties (she’s getting MUCH better), and an eleven year old that is an amazing wee guy. And then I fit my relationships with friends, family and my fiancée into that massive mix. It’s not an easy balancing act, and gets harder in November, when I run the Nanowrimo, and in April for ScriptFrenzy. I think it’s a symptom of my life being too busy, but it could just be that I’ve outgrown how I used to blog (24 blogs, updated on a three-day schedule). It could just be that I’m burned out still – and that I need more time to myself. It could be that it’s just one of those things. The 30 day challenge brought me back to a lot of that, but there’s still a lot to be said for needing more time to fall in love with blogging all over again.
I really don’t write enough fiction. I’m not editing at all – I’ve got this one task in my task manager that keeps getting bumped to next week to actually sit down and write Glass Block – which lead me in a very circumlocutory way to a project I want to try. More about that below though.
Emotionally, I’m not over any of the miscarriages I’ve had in my adult life, but of all of them, this last one was the hardest. I think it’s a mix of us both being on board with the idea fully, and the traumatic way we found out I wasn’t pregnant, plus the hospital stuff afterwards, but now I’m not doing well with any of that stuff. The last one resulted in the problems we had when I moved and the referral through the Crisis team in Gloucester (who, really I can’t praise enough) to the Recovery team and my wonderful worker, whom I really *really* miss. This one seems to be worse in some ways, because I’m still feeling it all and I’m ON medication. Time will tell I suppose. December doesn’t seem that long ago, but that morning in the hospital feels even closer to me still.*

Moving on

I guess the positive in that phrase is that I actually know where I’m going and what my plan is. Well, kinda anyway.
There’s two immediate projects I want to get out of the way and through before I decide what I’m going to do with myself full-time from now on. Lots of the projects I’ve got in mind are just going to have to wait till after I’ve graduated – realistically, I don’t have time to blog in all the places I want to, but I will soon.

But the two big projects.
I want to show the impact social media has on someone’s day – so I’m going to do a Friday *with* full social media interaction, and a Friday without. The Friday *With*, I’m going to use Facebook and Twitter through my laptop – without I’m going to check in on my phone. To get to that point though, I need to rebuild my tweetdeck and reader set-up, plus update what I’m looking at because I’m pretty scattered all over the place right now.

I’m going to journal what I’m doing, and track the time using an app that I’ve long since gotten used to called ‘Rescue time’. I’ll log my full day on (and off) the computer, and post the results and some conclusions I’ve drawn at the end of it. It’s a teeny tiny project, but it’s one of those wonderful things that others can attempt to duplicate and they too can talk about what they found, so it’s going to be interesting. I’m going to stick that happy little project up on Work at home Writers, because it’s primarily about productivity.

The second is a little more hazy now. I’ve got to get the books I’ve written into Scrivener, and then move on from there, but I’m deliberately declaring Sundays ‘fiction day’. I’ll most likely have to skip a couple of them to get my dissertation finished, or when there’s a massively pressing deadline, but if I’m so reluctant to write non fiction, it’s maybe for a different reason and I want to test that For that second, specifically, I need lots of encouragement. I am deliberately removing billable hours from my schedule, and guilt aside, I’m not sure that I’m even particularly confident in my fiction abilities any more. So if you could hop onto one of the social media areas where I talk writing, cheer me on at Writers-bookshelf or otherwise play ‘cheering squad for me’ I’d love it, I really would.

* I don’t talk about what went on – and would appreciate that people don’t pursue this one reference to it with me. I’m not interested in baring my soul about it and while I appreciate it’s an area that women really don’t talk about enough, I’d rather err on the side of not talking about it. That said, I’d rather people knew why I was prickly, than simply smack them upside the head.

Shameless self promotion – books, sites and how to encourage me ;)

Posted on February 17, 2011 by Kai

One of the off list conversations I had with the people who were asking me about my stuff, and encouraging me not to be shy is to ask to have you guys urge me.
So I bowed to peer pressure, in a positive way. The following ways are the absolute best ways to get me to – find out about the books I’ve mentioned in the past, urge me to write them, and get access to them, and the writing process before/after/getting your mitts on them. Having a strong fan base will also help me convince publishers that I’m a great bet after the first ‘oh, this is good’.

I’m considering whether I should work to a self publishing schedule for some of my books – I’m not sure whether I should keep slogging on with Elliot Peters and his stuff or just get it out there so that those that want it can get their hands on it, while those that want to wait till it’s backed by a publisher can still support me by passing the book onto others.

Facebook

I’ve got a page for my main book stuff – and as the books come out, I’ll create a page for the big ones – and a short story overall page for the shorter ebooks. You can sign up at D Kai Wilson-Viola’s Facebook Page. As a quick side note, I won’t add people to my main Facebook page if you’re only interested in my books, or I don’t know who you are. This is not to say I won’t welcome you on my fan page, but I have lines that I tend to defend. If you know me from somewhere and think that I should add you, it goes faster either way if you tell me where we know one another from – but I’m always happy to gain new ‘fans’.

Twitter

I have two main twitter feeds – Kaiberie (my personal one) and BooksbyKai – where I’ll talk writing/publishing/share notices and reviews. I add people back as long as they aren’t constantly offering information on making money

Blogs and websites

I’m currently in the process of redesigning my website, so for now, I can’t point you at anything – but what I can do now is point you at my writer’s blog – at writers-bookshelf.

Anything else?

I’d love to hear if there’s anything that you would like to hear or see?

Shameless self promotion books, sites and how to encourage me ;)

Showing my chops- the Merry-go-round

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Kai

: Image via Wikipedia

Or, as my partner and best freind have both pointed said ‘showing just how warped I really am’.

Before we moved to our sunny location in the Cotswolds, my beloved and I were walking along a street in our hometown, looking down into Princes Street gardens. The shed at the back of a merrygoround that had been set up was on fire, but we didn’t know that – and I just suddenly turned to my other half and said ‘what if the merry go round is on fire’.
Another ten steps as we made small talk about how sad that was, then I chirp up ‘oooo…idea for a story…’
He stops and looks at me, then says ‘go on then’.
At this point in our relationship, we had been together for less than a year (it’s coming up on seven years this March!) so he’s just getting used to the idea that he dates someone that writes books, and was currently putting up with me while I worked out some pretty gruesome, CSI level graphic ideas for my detective (Elliot Peters – more about him later).
We’d gotten past the line of sight of the fire, and were walking past the church on the West corner of Princes Street when I started this story, about to cross the road near Bruntsfield place, and head for the bus round the corner from there. It’s about a four minute walk, especially if you’re corralling someone waving and gesturing as enthusiastically as I was.

And I proceeded to tell him this:
“What would happen if a serial killer was storing dead bodies in a frozen food truck, and had saved them all up, before bringing them down into the gardens, sticking them on the merry-go-round and setting fire to it before setting it in motion?’
What would happen is a forensic mess. What actually happened was my other half was backing away from me, at speed, into a plate glass window outside a shop with a look of sheer amazement on his face. He sees a merry-go round on fire and thinks ‘dammed shame, it was painted so nice too’.
I see a Merry go round on fire and think ‘Elliot would have a cow, and forensics would be at it for months…..’

I really should finish that story tho……

Blogging for the 30 day blog challenge – you can too!

What’s forensic linguistics then?

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Kai

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Thursdays is ‘language’ day – it’s one of those happy areas where I could talk for days/weeks/months.

But before I get into the *really* geeky stuff, I thought I’d give my perspective on Forensic Linguistics and how it fits into my world.
First up, I love the definition at Blogs.berkeley.edu (linked in the footnote). Forensic linguistics is the study of language as it relates to crime – but more importantly, it also covers the psychological and socio linguistic ways we use language.
Translation – language shapes everything we do – down to how we think and define our world.

Forensic linguistics specifically is the art of looking at language as it relates to crime. It covers language, as in our language and how we use it, to how we translate the language use of others and beyond. It looks at everything from socio interracial interaction (including racism and inclusion/exclusion) to the way language shapes our opinion.
My interest runs slightly deeper than that – and relates more to the ‘how we use language’ and how it relates to writers. I call it Literary forensics, and talk about it on another blog (mostly) at http://literary-forensics.com . I really enjoy talking about the writing and interesting pieces in the corpus of language (that’s the individual use of your own language – your idiosyncracies and colloquialisms). It’s really facinating, and can give real insight into everything from the writer themselves, to making characters more believable. It’s something I’m genuinely passionate about, so I apologise for my geekery. I hope you’ll enjoy it though.

Forensic Linguistics (blogs.berkeley.edu)

It’s been over 20 years in coming….

Posted on November 21, 2010 by Kai

: Image via Wikipedia

I’m not really ready to *launch* the blog yet, as in, I’m not ready to start talking about everything that I need to, because I’m still getting a grip on the change in schedule that just, quite suddenly, dropped in my lap, but I wanted to intro myself, and say ‘hi there!’

So, most of you know who I am, but just in case, my name is D Kai Wilson. I write under several dozen names, though mostly it includes Kai and ‘Wilson’ or ‘Viola’. You can read more about the rationalle behind that on my ‘about – personal’ page later, but I’ve got a couple of entirely off the wall pen names.
8 years ago, I took part in a project called ‘The Nanowrimo‘ – and became an ML for them at the same time. Myself and a lovely lad called James ran that first year in Edinburgh, where I lived at the time, and it was a blast. And during that year, I wrote what became an obsession for me, that’s spawned a series of seven books directly and two spin off sets.

The building pictured to the right is Teviot House – a couple of the Nanoers were roleplayers, with a group called GEAS – John being one of them – who then introduced me to Gregor and others – from *there*, I went through some really interesting times – got really sick, and met the man I’m marrying. We’ve since moved 100′s of miles south and quite a bit west, but I’ve got some very fond memories of that time, and the books that started it all. Yeah, that’s right, Nanowrimo changed my life .

Eight years of edits, massive life changes, and seven other Nanowrimos later, and here we are. I have a contract (this really should be surrounded by flashing lights), and now, I get to talk about how this works. All of it.

‘Glass Block’ isn’t my first novel. it’s not my first book. I’ve been writing since I was 4 (I just turned 32), so this has, quite literally been over 20 years in the making. I’m so excited, but it’s not entirely unexpected. I know a lot of people compare it to winning the lottery, and it is, and yet it isn’t. There’s a lot more work for a start.

So, there’s going to be a couple of great things I hope to do with this – I want to talk about editing manuscripts, and working with an editor and publishing house through the whole process, writing more books. Y’know – the works.
I’m also hoping that we can get other authors roped into talking about stuff – and working through everything that we’ve got, going on and more.

But, for now, I’m just revelling in the glow of having my first contract. I’ll get to share more when it’s all settled – but for now, I’m just so goddammed excited!

Free Chapter – Glass Block

Posted on April 9, 2010 by Kai

: Image via Wikipedia

And he’s the free chapter from Glass Block – let me know what you think, and whether you like it or not. Interested, not interested, I’d love to hear your views!

Glass Block free prologue

Glass Block Blurb

Sometimes games and reality shows just shouldn’t be revived – Elliot Peters, detective at Quadrant A, Downtown Darkness knows this best. When he’s plunged into a nightmare game show, he begins to realise that the religious element of the city might just be finally making their move and it’s a race against time to stop the release of a deadly virus that four of the prisoners had been carrying.

Available for Pre order July ’10.

Free download – project cover sheet

Posted on January 8, 2010 by Kai

: Image by mattymatt via Flickr

I’ve got these deadlines in my calendar for writing short stories, based on the duotrope theme calendar. But my main problem is I have to do three or four of em in a month, or at least attempt an idea at them – I could postpone submitting till March and roll up to it slowly, but it’s easier, in most cases, for me simply to jump in both feet.

So I designed a deceptively simple cover sheet for my projects – it’s got space to track the idea, or outline, the title, the link, notes, and each draft status. You can print it or simply open it and update it once a month, and is also a handy dandy cover sheet for any contracts you may need to later file.

You can download, modify and mess with the file from deadline planning – let me know if you get any use out of it?

Who’s ready for the Nanowrimo?

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Kai

I’m so excited. Not only did I get to meet Stephen Fry AND Mark Carwardine this weekend at the Cheltenham Literary festival, who both signed my book, and join Neil Gaiman (05)John and Carol Barrowman(08), and Toni Morrison(08) on my pride of place ’signed’ corner, but we’re nearly at Nanowrimo 09!

For those of you that don’t know what it is (where have you BEEN, it’s been running now for 11 years!) basically you go mad for 30 glorious and (legal) stimulant of your choice fuelled days (mine is Coca-Cola and fresh air, alongside copious hugs from the kids and my other half, and write 50k. I take it a step further and aim to do three books during that time – two main, one alt (and I’ll announce what they are this year on Wednesday). Not only do I write three books a year (or at least try – and make it most years to around 120k), but I’m also an ML and a full time student.

I’m actually ready (writing wise at least) this year. I have two different writing software projects – Liquid story binder and WriteWay Pro. I’ve *got* both because they suit the different styles of writing I use, and makes it easier for me to spend time actually writing instead of bending the program to my will.

I also, as a first, grabbed the spreadsheets that have been published for the Nanowrimo – I’ve seen lots of nice ones, but this one (by salzke (nanowrimo username) ) is really cool. Easy to customise to what I need (because it’s a pain in the ass to unlock a sheet and find all the different places that it’s using 50k in it’s calculations instead of, say 150k), and pretty too .

I’m already having to make concessions to my other plans – one Nano is part of my dissertation, and I’ll probably be submitting a fragment of the other one for my assignment in December, because there’s no other way to handle it, without going noisily mad.
So, who else is ready?

Insanity is contagious, Mk x

Funding my writing habit since 2004

Category Archives: Books

Birthdays and stuff

Momentum

Going to war redux

New twitter hashtag #tIAG

One month to go

Release schedules….

A little bit of discipline

Books, books books!

Exciting stuff

A bit of a dilema – at a crossroads

Showing my chops- the Merry-go-round

What’s forensic linguistics then?

It’s been over 20 years in coming….

Free Chapter – Glass Block

Free download – project cover sheet

Who’s ready for the Nanowrimo?

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