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!

So, the new world order

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Kai

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I discovered a couple of things this weekend – the first being I don’t like being out of control – meds haven’t changed how pressured I feel when things start dropping out-of-order.
The second thing I discovered is I’m really freaking out about my dissertation – and with all my focus on trying to keep work flowing and keep up with all of my commitments, I’ve been pushing that to the back of my mind and going ‘la la la’. Not good given it’s due in just under 60 days and I’m only confident in about a fifth of it (of 10k). I have a meeting about that today…
The third thing I discovered – and keep discovering is that if I don’t commit to writing at least a little fiction daily, I become very negative. It’s not because my self-worth is tied to my writing – in fact it’s worse than that – it’s because without fiction, I really feel like I’m a failure.
I guess that needs to be examined some more because I can’t handle not writing fiction – but at the same time, I’m afraid to ‘put it out there’ so it sits, worthless on my hard drive. Ultimately too, I don’t need people to tell me I’m being silly, or demand it, or anything else – it’s not how my psyche works. I need to put myself out there, but before I do so, I have to start writing again.
What this means in practicality is that i am going to start small. A couple of times a week I’m going to take time out for my projects. Instead of investing (wasting!) time surfing the net, or vegging on Facebook (because I do that more often than I’m productive and helpful on there) I’m going to write my ‘own’ stuff. I’m not sure how I’m going to balance work and this yet, but it starts with my assignments and my dissertation. As they are fiction, that suits me quite nicely.

And yes, I know, I said this a couple of months ago, when I said ‘making it easier on myself’, but you know what? Sometimes it takes me a while between making a decision and actually actioning it. It’s a personality flaw I guess
After May, I’m going to finish producing a couple of short non fiction books for the Kindle platform and start redressing this balance that’s out of whack. Ultimately I’m not earning ‘enough’ as a copywriter now and that needs to be addressed – not by taking on ever more work – but by balancing copywriting part time with being an author and publisher part-time. I have lots of marketable expertise – I really should share it.

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 ;)

The 30 day V7N blog challenge and going forward

Posted on February 4, 2011 by Kai

The last few days saw the ‘end’ of the V7N blogging challenge for many of us – a 30 day (starter at least) blogging challenge ran by the amazing Cricket Walker.

But really, it’s just the beginning, because most people that had signed up for the initial challenge have gained freinds, got more in our reading lists that we know what to do with, with lots of inspiration and more.

One of the best things I’ve really loved about it is finding new people to read without being ‘advertised’ to – I also loved all of the comments I’ve picked up.
I was supposed to keep going this week, but I’ve been horribly ill and incredibly busy – writing somewhere in the region of 22k for one client in the next week alone has meant I’ve felt pretty much burned out with writing, so I’m sorry that I’ve been MIA for the last few days – one of the biggies I’m putting in place is, as soon as I get over this bug/pancreatic problem (we’re hoping for the former rather than the latter!) I’m going to be back on the game, blogging more and taking part in *two* new challenges.

The first is an additional stint with the ’30 day challenge’ where I’ve committed to blogging on one of my blogs, daily, and getting my blogging network blog all set up so people can grab me as a guest blogger and see what I’m already writing and offering out for syndication.
The second is ‘learn 21 things in 21 days‘ – for which I’m going to keep generally blogging here about the things I’m learning, motivations and more, and for the second half of that challenge, I’m going to blog at Writers-bookshelf about self publishing and what I’m learning about that – including all of the stuff I’ve got on my roster for learning about publishing on the Kindle and using Amazon’s new services to set up my blogging stuff – all in all it’s going to be a blast!

Blogging Every Day – V7N.com 30 Day Blogging Challenge (customerthink.com)

The 30 day V7N blog challenge and going forward

Making it easier on myself

Posted on January 27, 2011 by Kai

Kai

I’m infamous for biting off more than I can chew – it might be the Scottish in me, it might be the fiery red hair – even though in that picture of me I actually had black hair , it might just be that I always feel I have to make up for *something*. Goodness knows what, but I’m highly competitive with myself mostly. What I do know is that for about two months now I’ve had this growing list of things that I need to take care of – I was midway through designing my hosting site when Christmas pounced in my house, I’m trying to do the fly lady project, make over my son’s room, and lots of other things – I’ve always been a bit ‘butterfly’ in my approach to stuff, but I’ve definitively gotten worse since I fell and banged my head a few years ago.

So, I’m making it easier on myself.

First rule got instituted this weekend with the arrival of a really nice case for my iPad – with a keyboard. Night times are for writing/editing/fiction – so no more laptop unless I’m on a tight deadline. Or if I want to veg, I can. I don’t veg nearly enough, and I’m beginning to think it shows. Right now, I’m using the opportunity to get my blogging schedule back on track and plan as much of the next few weeks, which leads me to…..

I’ve got a list in word, called ‘the never ending todo list’. It’s now six pages long, but I’m not going to panic if I can’t get it done straight away. Instead, once a week, I’m going to print it, stick it on my clipboard and mark it off as I go. At the end of the week, I’m going to move what I managed to the ‘always growing accomplished list’ along with a record of my word counts and edits and everything else I do so I’ve got a work diary of sorts, plus I can see how my work ebbs and flows for one of the projects I keep putting off.

In other news, Phillip Pullman, one of the writers I grew up reading, and greatly admire, just about sums up how I feel about the INSANE government cuts to libraries. In Gloucestershire, where we live, we’re losing 11 libraries – I don’t talk politics very often (because of readership + neutrality, to a point) but this is just mad.

Now, wish me luck, for I head out to the doctors to find out what in the merry heck is wrong with my poor arm – I suspect I’m going to be told that something has gotten into my vein, but that doesn’t explain the ominous bruise on the other hand…..sigh.

Philip Pullman’s call to defend libraries resounds around web (guardian.co.uk)
Why the Big Society failed (liberalconspiracy.org)

The difference between writing for publication (traditionally) and blogging

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Kai

One of the biggest discussions I’ve been involved in recently between some of my closer friends and some newbies alike, is what the difference between traditional publication and blogging actually is.
SO I thought I’d sum up what I’ve had explained, what I understand and how, if anything, this changes your view on blogging.

Legally

Legally, once you’ve blogged something, it is considered published. In the case of stories, or poems, this means that if your blog is public, you’ve just given away first rights. If your blog isn’t public and it’s locked to a group of friends, your mileage may vary basically. It’s pretty safe to assume that anything over 10 sets of eyeballs is first rights, that way, you’re erring on the side of caution.

(exception – you can *self publish* something in PDF format to distribute to a tight list of friends – no matter how big that list, they are your beta readers – most publishers find this perfectly acceptable, but are a lot more picky about groups and blogs).

Legally, as in publication, you can be sued for libel, even if you’re telling the truth. So it’s important to be as careful as possible when writing.

Personally

On a personal level, most blogs are supposed to be more conversational than other forms of publication, but it’s pretty blurry. Blogs are now used to host articles from magazines, to newspapers – to teenage angst, to birth stories, to death stories, photos to diagrams and technical information. All of this leads to lots of confusion.

How about professionally?

Professionally, blogs are designed to promote something, but as blogs are supposed to bring people to a level of personal contact not possible on a website, it’s important to understand and see how you can do that, and still remain professional – yet personable. It’s difficult basically.

The difference between writing for publication (traditionally) and blogging

Toys and tools for writers – part 2 – the novelist

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Kai

Ok – so, one way or another, you’ve got the tools I recommended – whether you went with all free, or a mix of free and paid, or you’re ready to experiment with each. Or you’ve got your own go-to tools, that you work with – that’s ok too – the list I provided wasn’t exhaustive (though, if you think I’ve missed something, please let me know – I’d love to hear about other tools people use).
I also didn’t list ‘Write or die’ – deliberately – that goes under a whole ‘nother section – writer’s block.

Anyway – tools for novelists and why they work well together.

For idea collation I suggest Evernote – simply because it’s search able and is as handy as your mobile phone (if you’ve got a smart phone). It lets you store notes, inspiration, voice recordings, images, the works. This is crucial, because there are occasions you won’t be able to stop and grab a piece of paper, but you might have your phone with you, or times when you’re in the middle of writing something else, and need to take notes.
I suggest having a couple of tags to categorise ideas – I’ve got ‘story idea’, ‘snippet’, ‘research question’, ‘blog post’ and ‘misc’. I categorise them at home on my laptop because it’s easier to catch them that way than tag on the fly.

Writing

If I’m writing a novel, I pick the tool that best fits the job as soon as I get settled, but I tend to do my outlines and other basic work in Word, just because sometimes it’s hard to tell which is ‘best’ to use.

I’ve found though that it pretty much splits into two easy categories – serials, in which case I find it easier to work in Liquid Story Binder (and will explain that on a later post ) or stand alone which works best in Scrivener. If it’s a stand alone with lots of notes, Scrivener copes, I’ve just yet to adapt to writing longer serials in Scrivener.

I edit though, in Word – simply because it’s easier to do cohesive line editing in there – though, again that comes down to personal preference.
Other tools a novelist needs – books in the genre they’re writing in – so they can keep their ‘finger on the metaphorical pulse’ and some support. I recommend finding a crit group to chat about your writing, and get feedback. I like OWW-SFF but your mileage may vary.

Toys and tools for writers part 2 the novelist

Ten more topics almost anyone can use

Posted on January 23, 2011 by Kai

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After the vast amount of comments and attention the ‘topics anyone can use’ series has generated, both on my blog and in private on the mentoring group where I was the guest speaker this week, I thought I’d kick off my site ‘the status report’ with ten more topics here – and invite you to add ‘the status report’ to your RSS feeds. I’ll talk markets (for fiction and non fiction), timely topics with a couple of suggested slants, and, best of all, I’m going to feature one reader every week and talk about things they might want to talk about. That’s right – you, oh faithful reader, can ask me what you might like to blog about. And get traffic from ‘the status report’ to make you accountable

You can find information on how to get in on the action on my blog feed later in the week but for now, as promised, 10 more topics almost anyone can use.

I’ve split the suggestions into tech (3), hobby (4) and general (3)

Tech

There’s an app for that – solving a common problem in your community using (x) apps. Don’t think of it as advertising (because it is a little) but more adding value and ability to your brand (YOU!).
Latest advances in (your community here) – whether you’re a blogger, a soap and candle maker, deal in kid safety or internet safety or an internet consultant, your community is probably constantly evolving. Highlight something and talk about whether it’s changed anything for you.
How tech has changed your life…..anything that shows your readers what you use your ‘tech’ for is probably the best type of techie post that doesn’t require actual in depth technical knowledge.

Hobby

My desert island must haves – you have to run your business from a desert island – you can’t have all of your gadgets and things that make your life easier – how would you do it?
(X) things I can’t live without – conversely, is there something that you just can’t live without?
Great books in the hobby – great tools in the hobby – great materials – shout out to the things you appreciate most.
Music to hobby by – give people an idea of what makes your environment perfect to work your hobby. (and don’t be afraid to tell them if your hobby is also for sale!)

General

A big family adventure (if you’re comfortable posting about your family that is. My family aren’t ‘named’ on any of my public areas – she’s PrincessPink (9) and he’s Teeniboi (11) because that’s where I’m most comfortable. If you’re not comfortable sharing, how about showing off non identifying holiday photos?
Do you (x) – kinda related to your hobby – in my case it would be either ‘do you game’ or ‘do you knit’ – both of which I’m a guest blogger on big blogs for.
Share a cooking recipe – showing your roots is often a great way for people to feel instantly more connected to you and might answer something that people have looked for. I’ve posted traditional Scottish recipes in the past and garnered bigger followings, so it does work.

Remember, you’re blogging to share with people, so it’s not *wrong* to keep your eye on subscribers, but you shouldn’t blog just to get more people interested – adding and sharing value with those already reading will allow you to spend time developing key online relationships and gain more blogging link backs.

Guest blog posts with free tech support

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Kai

I thought, given there’s a lot of people have been asking how to ‘hire’ me as a guest blogger recently so I thought I’d sweeten the deal.
If you’re running WordPress self-hosted, I’ll log in, run the posts that you want, over a period of two weeks or more (with a standard bio) – but you’ll get to review them and edit them before they’re posted as live – and while I’m there, I’ll make sure everything you’re running is up to date and give you the basic plugins that I run at the same time.
I’ll also make sure your theme is up to date (or let you know if you need to download it and upload it afterwards).

What I won’t do
I’m not running this offer along with installing or fixing theme issues that are already in place – this is not the way to hire me to fix a hack either – and you have to be able to read the documentation on additional plugins to understand how they work. Basically, I’m here to give you a shove in the right direction, if you need it. Plus a minimum of two free guest posts, on the subject of your choice.

All I ask in return is two things – one – you let me include a link to this post at the very bottom of the guest posts I do for you – and two, I get to run an unedited bio with two links to two projects relevant to what I’m writing, or one link that’s relevant, and my hosting company if there aren’t two links with relevant content.

If you’d like me to guest blog for you, shoot me a comment or drop me a comment on my contact-me form.

(small print – I only do basic updates for this offer and cannot be responsible if your blog is so out of date that anything breaks – I am not responsible for any custom coding and cannot undertake it as part of this free offer – this offer is only valid with a minimum of two guest blogs, spaced at least a week apart, and I am not accepting guest blog bookings for more than three weekly increments at present. All guest blog posts are exclusive to the blog site for one calendar week then revert entirely to me and cannot be used as reprints to promote your blog without prior permission.).

Five ideas almost anyone can use

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Kai

There are just some topics that anyone can use – no matter what the perspective. So I thought I’d share them here and hopefully give you a jumpstart in your writing projects.

Go seasonal – is there something that happens around *now* that ties into your blog? If not, is there a holiday coming up that you can share with other people – whether it’s a tip or trick, or just how your family celebrate? That makes a great post.
BONUS – share it about a week in advance, then link back to it ‘on the day’ – you’ll have people who can use the tip during the run up to the holiday or event and you can capitalise on the traffic ‘on the day’.
Look at your comments – has anyone asked a question lately? Run with it.
If your readers are small business based, consider providing a calendar of the important things that people have to do – and offer your tips. For example, right now (January) it’s self assessment tax time – while, in December, most small businesses either find that business is incredibly slow or busy – tips are great to help people through this.
Is there a theme you’ve seen in your favorite TV program that you could share or tie into your business? How about in the news? This ‘flash’ content is often not as evergreen as other content, but can be good to get some vital traffic boosts.
Got an offer you want to run? Make it interesting. For example, I’m running a ‘guest blog with free tech support‘ project right now – you can get me to post on your blog, and if I do a run of articles, I’ll update your blog, your theme and your site – I won’t install anything new, but I’ll make your blog secure. If you include it with an article, people are more likely to notice than it getting lost in the signal to noise on your Facebook/Twitter/in amongst posts.

See, simple!
Tomorrow, as a bonus, I’m going to share 10 topics that I’ve seen people request in the last 30 days on mailing lists, groups and other blogging sites, to give you actual ‘go to’ topics, with some title suggestions if you’re *really* stuck.

Pen Names aren’t cowardice

Posted on January 12, 2011 by Kai

Image via Wikipedia

Though the writing community has moved on somewhat on the subject of pen names, it’s hard not to feel that the community itself has elements that are a bit behind the times.

What is a pen name?

A pen name is, quite simply, when you use aliases to write under. For example, my real name is Donna. Everyone online knows me as ‘Kai’. Technically, I write everything under a pen name. While this can sometimes be acceptable (like using your middle name instead of your first name) some people still frown on it. But why?
The main bulk of pen names are made up of people who want, for various reasons, to disassociate their writing from one or another area of their lives. Sometimes it could be because they write a genre that is family friendly and another that isn’t. In some cases it’s because they don’t want their ‘old’ name to impact on their ‘new’ name – either because they had very poor or runaway success with the first name.
Or, like me, they write over distinct genres, and want their fans to know what they’re getting into when they pick up a book. While it’s normally wise to develop one voice and ignore the others, some of us just can’t do that. Like me.

The problem with pen names

‘Problem’ is a loaded word, but in this case, the ‘problem’ with pen names is that people sometimes see it as ‘dishonest’. after all if you’re hiding your real name, what else are you hiding? This kind of attitude seems to be most prevalent in people who would criticise anyway, so it’s easy to ignore, but if it’s something that happens on a mailing list, it can degenerate very quickly. Especially if people start using emotive comments such as ‘honesty’ and ‘integrity’ to justify what they’re saying. It’s vital in these cases to stand your ground, politely and then take a step back.

One of the main problems that comes from Pen names, funnily enough, is paperwork. I run my writing as a business (and I’ll post on that later this week at my other blog at Work At Home Writers). Especially if you’re making sales in different places under different names – so pen names aren’t as straight forward as ‘today I’m going to be Marty Mcspuspu’. (not my pen name!). Actually, scratch that, it’s more work in general.

What’s good about them?

I’m not sure how other writers see them (but would love to know!), but for me, it’s a clear ‘job description’. If I’m writing as Sabrann Curach, I know I’m doing horror. If I’m writing under D Kai Wilson-Viola, I know it’s thrillers for me. Kai Viola, chick lit. Brittany Harkness is romance, and D Kai Wilson is non fiction. It’s straight forward for me.
I initially started out with one pen name – - Fayth C Reeves. She was necessity of a different kind. I joined some mailing lists where being a parent (which, by the time I was 21, I was), and writing erotica was somehow the worst thing *ever*. So I wrote under a persona. And in doing so, I opened up a whole new world and new understanding of pen names. Fayth wasn’t just a pen name – she was a whole new character – one that I quite enjoyed ‘playing’ with gusto on my sites for a while. She still resides on some of my older hard drives, but time moves on and erotica isn’t the ‘bad thing’ it used to be.

Pen names are cowardice

One of the few things I really object to, when discussing pen names, is the idea that they are in fact cowardice – that somehow they’re underhand. I’d like to vehemently refute that – sure if someone is writing something libelous under a pen name, that’s a different matter entirely, but one of the big problems with the writing community is that there are certain people who can’t see others happy. These ‘policers’ as a whole, are a massive minority compared to those that *do* give back to the writing community, but they have two major issue – one, they’re not writing themselves (so really have no reason to judge another person’s choice. It’s not even a case of ‘a mile in their shoes’ – it’s more that some people just seem to enjoy ‘teh dramas’) and two, and probably more importantly, they are tearing people down instead of building them up.

If someone is writing under one – or more pen names, I say ‘good on them’. I don’t even think in terms of ‘how dare they, they haven’t even ‘paid their dues’ on one, why should I support a second. We should be supporting each other, period.

Toys and tools for writers – pt 1

Posted on January 11, 2011 by Kai

Image by Okinawa Soba via Flickr

One of the things I’ve noticed is that writers are really into their tools.

I’m constantly looking for something to streamline how I write, when I write, where I write and how easy all the different iterations are to use.

Disclaimer
This assumes a couple of things – that you either own the ‘tech’ listed, can modify the tech you own to work for you – or in the ways I’ve listed, and have no compunction or issue with buying the software if you like what I’m describing. To be fair, most of the things I use are free, to a point, so you can either try before you buy, they are totally free, or are almost instantly justifiable. I apologise if my probably cavalier attitude to software is distressing, but in deference to sensibilities and the current economic climate, I’m not exactly rich myself and save for everything I own. That said….

Advertising disclaimer
All links marked with a bold * are affiliate links. They go towards supporting the site, but are only used when I can genuinely recommend the product. In most cases there is a review on the product on one of my sites, or there is a review being moved to one of my sites in the near future. I manage my affiliate links with a keyword plugin, which is why they aren’t plain text links like the other resources listed.

What you need:

A computer – laptop, desktop or netbook. Nothing I use needs much memory at its basics, but given the writing world is rapidly becoming an online resource system, so I’d be at least end of life specs (which I believe is XP for Windows and some sort of fuzzy Leopard for Mac - I know the iPad won’t sync below Leopard).

The free computer stuff –

Dropbox (http://dropbox.com)* – this is a great backup system, and if you click on the link I’ve provided, I get extra space to store my stuff. And if you *do* sign up, let me know and I’ll give you access to my free ‘chapter samples’ folder – if you’re interested in my books that is

Evernote – Evernote is a free, always accessible notes system – a bit like Dropbox, you can share and allow others to have access to your notes what I adore about it is I can run it on my iPhone and take snaps, make notes, and store stuff so that I can use it later. You can also pay a low monthly subscription and extend its features.
Ywriter (http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html) – no frills, very snazzy word-processing system that lets you work in ‘scenes’ instead of one document. Saves all information in RTF as well, so it’s easy to access in other software.
If you’re selling work, a tracking system such as Sonar (http://www.spacejock.com/Sonar3.html) or
WinSAMM from http://www.sandbaggers.8m.com/samm.htm (please note, this site has been going since I started looking in 2001, and I don’t think the software has ever been updated – up until very recently it was also my manuscript tracking weapon of choice).
Rough Draft is also a great wordprocessing program, again free, again, I don’t know when the last update was, and the site is currently down :(
Oom is also free, but is so new to me I haven’t tested it – it’s linked in the resource links at the bottom

Not free software

I’ve got three pieces of software that I consider must have, for different reasons. You can however choose just one – all three work well as a single writing program.

Word or Open Office (free) – the difference between Word and Open Office are now so negligible, that you can’t really tell which a document has been written in, at least till you start importing and exporting between them. Word however, is not cheap, so if you’ve got a limited budget, I recommend Open Office – I’m listing it in the ‘not free’ however because you may need to procure templates, depending on what you’re writing.

Liquid Story Binder – this has an affiliate scheme, but I’m just posting this because it’s playing up, - http://www.blackobelisksoftware.com/this has been my must-have writing product for nearly five consecutive Nanowrimos, and is my favorite writing software when writing serials.
Scriviner – I love, love love this software. http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivenerforwindows/ (that’s the windows link). Again, it’s not an affiliate link. It’s great for stand alone stories.

I’ve also tested and enjoy Write-way – http://www.writewaypro.com/ – it’s good for either style, but I’m happier with Scriviner/LSB.

*please note* Ywriter works equally well, just has less bells and whistles.

Not free tools

eBook reader or books – The *Kindle and the *Apple iPad are the best two tools, IMO out there, but I’ve got nothing against the Nook, or the *Sony eBook Reader , having owned the latter and think the colour screen on the former kicks ass. Alternatively, you can go paperbacks – libraries are a great way to read serious amounts and save money. You need, as a writer, to read at least five books a month, in my opinion. Opinions and mileage may vary, of course, but if you’re not devouring other perspectives, you’ll find it difficult on some occasions to express your own. And this doesn’t include research books – I’m just talking ‘for fun, to stay on top of the trends of the genre you’re writing in.
BONUS – if you’re targeting a specific press, go all out and read their books – remember though, the goal isn’t to emulate these writers, but to make your writing as compelling as theirs.

Separate from this – Writing Books – like it or not, you’re not a perfect writer. I’m not a perfect writer. Getting books that help you perfect your writing style will allow you to be your editor’s and Agent’s darling in later life and give you a real sense of accomplishment. I’ve been writing for…er…27 and a bit years now, at a guess, and I’m still learning. I’ve probably done my 10k hours and then some.

Notepad, pens, diary – basically anything you need for organising yourself.
AND – a wall. This last one I’ll have to explain in a final post.

Next article – the combinations for bloggers, writers, scriptwriters, poets and special uses.

Related articles

Fantastic New Tool for Writers (bloggingwithbeth.com)

Of literary merit

Posted on January 7, 2011 by Kai

Image by ciccioetneo - long exposures lover via Flickr

What makes a story good – or great?

It’s a question that gets bandied about a lot in class – I’ve been studying creative writing for the past four years and it’s been one of the ‘biggies’ that gets posed to us.
And while many have looked at the mechanics, the use of language, and application of plot, character, tension and more, others examine the interactions and relationships and the subtext in the plot.
There are lots of elements listed that make a story good – but there’s one missing. Passion.

The importance of passion and involvement that your reader gains from a story – the passion that you invest in a story, no matter how dark. And I’m not talking passion, as in enjoyment, necessarily – but the passion for telling the story itself.
As a writer, I’ve always found that the most difficult part of it all is to share the underlying story itself. The elemental *thing* that makes up the seed that creates the idea that made me write it in the first place. There’s a passion there for the story itself, no matter how grim, no matter how beautiful. And I think that’s what makes a good story – the investment of the author into the piece that creates the sense of ‘reality’ and substance within the piece.

I have a hard time with that, simply because the subject matter I choose to write tends to be very dark- being passionate about the darkness and the things that go ‘bump in the night’ makes people very wary of you (like the ‘Merry go round’ escapade). I know there have been occassions where both my best freind and finacee and other very close freinds have said that what I’m suggesting is just warped and that I should stop now, before people think I’m being serious. I’ll be talking about that more later in the month I think, when I get round to explaining why ‘I’ doesn’t mean ‘me’, but it’s important to highlight this. Just because I can put myself into very dark places doesn’t mean I’m some nut job serial killer – or that because I wrote erotica for a while that I’m some kind of mad deviant. It just means my brain tends to do wierd things with the world around it – and that I’m well suited to my vocation, which is writing. And that’s what literary merit boils down to. Getting published is about luck – literary merit is about being passionate, lucky or not.

What do you think?

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

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

Image via Wikipedia

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)

Writing 101

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Kai

: Image via Wikipedia

I’m a writer.
I’ve been a writer for close to 28 years – since I was four in fact.
I started off in fan fiction – writing stories based on the cartoons and programmes I watched, and the books I read. And then I moved to my own stuff – my first novel was called ‘Ascendant’ – and was the story of a spaceship which sat on the junction to the ends of everything. At 13, I was even really into exploring environments, and apparently, hard sci-fi because I wrote quite a detailed explanation of the convergence between the drive and the ‘problems’ people were seeing.
I’ve gone on to outline 50 novels, a couple of hundred short stories, more blog posts and articles than I can count and more. I love writing. Which is why, though this is meant to be a personal blog, I’ll always talk writing here.

In the next few weeks, I’m going to try to tackle some of the biggies, the difference between the ‘I’ in writing and the person writing it, why ‘adult material’ isn’t necessarily ‘adult’ content, and why writing under pen names isn’t cowardice. If you’ve got any other stuff you’d like me to tackle, I’d love to hear about it.

Schedules and other erratta

Posted on January 3, 2011 by Kai

Image via Wikipedia

So I’ve got a rudimentary schedule for the blog – Monday ‘me’ day – which is information mostly about me. Monday also covers ‘mental health’.
Tuesday ‘tech days’ – I’m going to talk ‘WordPress’, tech (as in iPhone, iPad, laptops, desktops), Wednesday ‘writers’ days, where I talk writing in it’s myriad formats. Thursday I’m going to talk language – I’m a forensic lingustics nut.
Friday is my ‘free’ day, so it might be photog, or something else, and Saturday and Sunday I’m going to talk about gaming and hobbies of all types – tabletop, roleplaying, MMORPGs, indie (classics), old skool…the works. My hobbies include knitting and sewing, so I’m going to explore that too.
January, that means every day there’s going to be something there. After that, who knows

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!

Picking up where I left off and why the site has been quiet

Posted on October 23, 2010 by Kai

: Image by Writing On The Mall via Flickr

Ok, I know, I’m supposed to blog more than once a week, once a month, once in a blue moon, but it’s been kinda hectic lately. I’m still getting used to lots of things, but basically, since my last posting, I’ve sorted out my gap year funding for Uni, have handed in several essays to support my gap year, then even started back to my +1 year.

It’s been mad here – the youngest has changed schools – again – to a specialist unit. The eldest tried out for grammar school. My partner still loves his job, I founded an entirely new company, doing the same stuff (writing!), and for the first time in my life, came off incapacity benifit. I’ll probably talk more about that whole fun experience later (and I mean fun in the exciting sense, not the sarcastic )

Other than that – I’m still slowly expanding my library of ‘I wrote this, I really should share’. Slo-o-o-w-l-y, but faithful readers will know that this is the time of year that this changes.

Yep – it’s NANO time! Woooohoooo!

I’m so excited. So there should be more posts, from this blog and others about how cool things are going to get.
It’s good – great – to be back.

Picking up where I left off and why the site has been quiet

Insanity is contagious, Mk x

Funding my writing habit since 2004

Category Archives: Writing

Exciting stuff

So, the new world order

A bit of a dilema – at a crossroads

The 30 day V7N blog challenge and going forward

Making it easier on myself

The difference between writing for publication (traditionally) and blogging

Toys and tools for writers – part 2 – the novelist

Guest blog posts with free tech support

Five ideas almost anyone can use

Pen Names aren’t cowardice

Toys and tools for writers – pt 1

Of literary merit

Showing my chops- the Merry-go-round

What’s forensic linguistics then?

Writing 101

Schedules and other erratta

It’s been over 20 years in coming….

Picking up where I left off and why the site has been quiet