Indie Block Party Post 8: Social Media & Networking Tips

Let's conclude with the last post of the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.

Today I'm supposed to give you some tips about networking and social media.

I'm not really a social media or networking champion so I don't really know if I'm qualified to give any tips. More likely I'm still just experimenting with facebook and twitter mostly. I have a faint presence on google+ and goodread. 

So this is what I do in no particular order, I'm not sure if it's working or not though:

1) I use social media to be around and show people what I'm doing. 

2) Use reciprocity one retweet for one retweet for example. 

3) I refuse to post about other people on my facebook pages (blog page, author page) (except when I have a guest blog post) this is because I'm annoyed when I see a writer I like having everything about other writers on their page. If I wanted to know about them I would follow them and I think a lot of people think the same way. 

4) Participate to blog hops (Week-end Writing Warriors, Hump Day Hook, Snippet Sunday and from this week Travel Tuesday)

5) Comment on everyone during the blog hops (it show your name there even if they don't visit you) 

6) Optimize the twitter's hashtag (please retweet people retweeting you)

7) Give reviews on Createspace (those are private reviews and it sometimes work like an exchange)

8) Participate to writers groups on facebook.

9) I have an amazon author page, a goodread author page linking to my blog. 

10) Selling my novel characters dolls on etsy.

11) I also have a youtube channel which should be waking up soon (at least I hope)

12) Organizing crazy contest: On going, Mich's Summer Mystery
13) I use futurestweets to get my tweets out when I sleep so that I can read readers from the other side of Earth. 

That's about it. Sometimes it's fun and sometimes it can also feel like it's draining my energy away. Remember to turn off the computer sometimes.

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Indie Block Party Post 7: Writing Tips

Let's continue with the second week of the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.

Today I'm supposed to give you some writing tips. I think I'm being mean by telling people what (not) to do.

I think the first tips I can give to someone who wants to write is to WRITE and I also think it's not only a good advice for writers but it goes for everyone else. You want to do physics, DO PHYSICS, you want to play basketball, well PLAY BASKETBALL. I mean why not? That's what most successful people actually do, you can't be a writer if you don't write.

The second tips is the one I usually get yelled at for but in the end I don't really mind anymore because it doesn't mean it doesn't work, it just mean people are to self-conscious and righteous to actually take it (seriously): write it (your story, novel, PhD thesis, whatever) as badly as you can. And yes, I'm absolutely serious about that, I'm not a funny person. This is the best advices I was ever given, I read it on All Japanese All The Time. Technically, why would you even bother to have the grammar, tenses, well chosen words on a first draft that will dramatically be changed in the second rewrite and editing (there is no saving time on editing for later, that just doesn't exist). Trying to make things perfect the first time is 1) not going to happen, 2) a waste of your time 3) getting you all stressed out... 

The third tips is to get the first draft done with no matter how bad it is. It is really easy to give up on a story if you only managed to write 5 brilliant, spotless, perfect pages, (really?) It is a lot harder to give up on 50k words, 100k words, 153858 words (I need to finish that one)...

The fourth tips is to read writing advices on internet and NOT to take them. I use to believe that I didn't know what I was doing and so I would read other people's advices and take them all and apply them all. The problem is, the more you read advices on writing, the more you find out that they are contradictory, at time irrelevant, and that people giving them can totally be mistaken (including me!) Read those advices, go back to a book you really love and see if the writer there use it or not. If he doesn't, you can ditch it. That goes especially for advices you actually didn't like in the first place. ;) (Example: Never, ever put the name of a character in the first sentence of your book! Wait? What? Open Tom Sawyer)

The fifth tips is that every words count. This is true if you are participating to writing context like NaNoWriMo but it is also true when editing. I read a lot of post telling you to stop using verbs like "fell, like, wonder..." and to put a description instead so that it can be more precise and let the reader experience exactly what the character experience. I have mix feelings about that kind of advices. It might be good as an exercise to help you develop a sense for details but it doesn't mean those words should be annihilated. There are times in the story when you need them. If the reader already know the details there is no need to push them back some more when a single verb can do the trick. Be wise and careful when choosing your words and style. Ask yourself how many times you use those words in conversation.

The sixth tips is don't ask other people for ideas. It's your world you are creating, why would you need someone's else vision of it? It's your job to actually think about all the details, why the hell are you taking a short cut and asking someone else to do the job for you, they might as well write your novel while they are at it. If you can't figure out what is happening next in your own story or why the bad guy is a bad guy, nobody can, the story just takes a turn for the worse and you'll get stuck again later cause you were trying to write from someone else's mind. That's not brilliant. Plus it takes away all the fun of writing. If stuck, just you re-plot the all thing, not someone else.

The seventh tips is don't write to please anyone else but yourself. Even if no one else read those story, you created something extraordinary. Those characters will give you love when no one else does.

More writing tips:  

10 tips to win NaNoWriMo 

3 tips to create places in novels 

3 tips to create realistic characters 

Editing tips 1: Using a word list

Editing tips 2: Spotting plot's holes

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Indie Block Party Post 6: Top 5 books

Let's continue with the second week of the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.

This time I'm supposed to tell you which are my five favorite books. So here you go:

Dune (trilogy) by Frank Herbert

I found the Dune trilogy book at an airport. I always meant to read the book but I hadn't until that time. I devoured it, it was brilliant. Dune doesn't only give you an epic futuristic tale on foreign planets, it also gives you a philosophy that can be applied in your every day life. One of the most common example is the lithanie against fear: 

"I must not fear.

Fear is the mind-killer.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

I will face my fear.

I will permit it to pass over me and through me.

And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.

Where the fear has gone there will be nothing......Only I will remain."

Persuasion by Jane Austin

Persuasion is not the best known novel by Jane Austin but he talks to me because it is the most likely to happen. A couple destroyed by other, what other things and say persuaded the girl to break the relationship even if she regrets it for a very long time.  It's a lesson teaching you to follow your own heart.

          She hoped to be wise and reasonable in time; but alas! Alas! 

          She must confess to herself that she was not wise yet.

Phénix (trilogy) by Bernard Simonay (So far I only read the first book)

This story takes place in a future after a nuclear war where the world has returned in a sort of medieval age with medieval values and knowledge is detained by an handful of people. In hope for knowledge to be accessible for all again, twins are born. 

I like this tale because it's at the same time futuristic and medieval. It shows the regression of mankind with the absence of knowledge and at the same time the evolution of the major religion and different culture of the present world as the adapted to the need of the new world.

          Un éclair déchira la nuit de sa lueur aveuglante, loin au-dessus des Terres Bleues. Solyane redoutait que l'orage d'une violence exceptionnelle ne parvînt à franchir la barrière de la Ceinture. Il aurait pu alors déferler sur Syrdahar. Elle le redoutait, et l'espérait à la fois. Frissonnante, elle passa un bras autour de la taille du jeune garçon. Debout sur la terrasse qui longeait la chambre de Solyane, ils contemplaient l'horizon tourmenté. Soudain intriguée par le cheminement mental de son frère, la fillette leva les yeux vers lui. Se glissant dans ses pensées, elle déclara doucement: 

        - Sans doute n'y a-t-il rien! 

        - Je ne le crois pas! Les Terres Bleues ne peuvent pas être infinies! 

        - Comment peux-tu affirmer cela?

Chaos by James Gleick

This book talk about the discovery of the Chaos Theory. It's an accessible scientific book for non-scientist. It tells about the daily life of physicist and the development of fractals, etc... 
I have to say that thinking about it I still have problem to sleep at time.

       The police in the small town of Los Alamos, New Mexico, worried briefly in 1974 about a man seen prowling in the dark, night after night, the red glow of his cigarette floating along the back streets. He would pace for hours, heading nowhere in the starlight that hammers down through the thin air of the mesas. The police were not the only ones to wonder. At the national laboratory some physicists had learned that their newest colleague was experimenting with twenty-six-hour days, which meant that his waking schedule would slowly roll in and out of phase with theirs. This bordered on strange, even for the Theoretical Division.

Empress Orchid by Anchee Min

This book tells the story of Empress Dowager the mother of the tenth Qing emperor of China. It show the combat of a woman raising from poverty to concubine and managing to attract for herself the favor of the emperor and finally giving birth to the first born male. It takes place in the middle of the intrigue of the Imperial court where she has to protect her life and her son's at every hours of the day from politics and other concubines. 

       We were meant to survive because of our minds' ability to reason, our ability to live with frustration in order to maintain our virtue. We wore smiling masks while dying inside.

Extras: 

The alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert

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Indie Block Party Post 5: What are you currently reading?

This is the start of the second week of the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.

Today I'm supposed to talk about my current reading. If you have read the last challenge post, you will know that I'm back on RMOD (Read More Or Die) which is a reading contest in second language.

At the moment I'm reading (struggling with): ビブリア古書堂の事件手帖 (Biburia Koshodō no Jiken Techō) or in English: The notebook cases of Biblia Antiquarian bookshop. I don't think it has been translated so I have to read it in Japanese.

Blurb: Goura Daisuke can't read novels, he suffers from dizziness every time he tries due to a childhood trauma. At the death of his grand-mother, his mother sends him to Biblia Antiquarian bookstore to sell his grand-mother's old books. The owner of the shop, Shinokawa Shioriko is young and beautiful and knows more about book than what is normally to be seen. Looking at one of the volumes in Daisuke's grand-mother's collection, she uncovers the secret the old lady had been hiding all those years. Shioriko will hire Daisuke in the store to teach him about books and discover more book related secrets.

I discovered this book when watching the drama inspired from it. The story is bases in an old bookstore shop which already set up for mystery. The customer's books in the hands of Shioriko have a lot to say about their owners' past or the past of their family. Shioriko's detective's habilities soon become contagious for Daisuke. 

I'm struggling with reading it because there are still kanji combinations that I don't know and I don't know their pronunciations either. The plan is to read at least ten pages a day. If I can manage that it will be a miracle.

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Indie Block Party Post 4: Interview one of your neighbors, Juli D. Revezzo

Juli has been a little bit busy lately so this post comes a little late in the schedule.  So without more delay, let's get on with the interview.

1) Where did you start writing? (not the traditional "when" but you can tell us when as well)

Where? Well, actually, I started writing seriously in college. :)

2) What inspire your novels? Characters? Ideas?

A lot of things. Celtic mythology most often now, though. :) Passion's Sacred Dance, my new  paranormal romance published by The Wild Rose Press, definitely was influenced by Celtic mythology. The synopsis goes like this:

Battling mounting debt, Stacy Macken is determined not to lose her historic art gallery. When Aaron Fielding appears and offers to help, she fights to keep the attraction sizzling between them from clouding her judgment. He may be her savior in disguise--but can she trust him?

Aaron intrigues her with tales of the Tuatha dé Danann, sworn warriors who protect humanity from the monsters seeking their destruction. If Aaron can prove what he claims, she would give up anything to help--even the gallery he claims is sacred ground. But with her property set to stage the next epic battle, she needs answers. An old family diary will confirm the ancient legend is true, if only they can find it in time.

If the battle is lost, the enemy will take control of Earth for the next five hundred years. Stacy and Aaron's budding love might only complicate things.

It’s currently available at Amazon:

http://amzn.to/16jXR3n

3) Which of your character is your favorite and why?

My hero Aaron.

4) Give us three words which describe best the world inside of your books and your reasons for choosing them.

Pre-apocalypse, because if the hero and heroine don't succeed, the world will be facing the end--or an end.

Romantic and heroic in the old Arthurian meaning of the words where the knights and ladies fight for honor and to uphold certain ideals and defend the little guy,

and Love, since the hero and heroine fall in love. :)

5) Do you have a specific writing ritual and if yes, can you tell us about it?

Not specifically. Sometimes I'll have a dream about the story so that sets me writing first thing in the morning, sometimes even before coffee. Yes, shocking I know. :)

6) What are your plans for the future?

I am working on a follow up to Passion's Sacred Dance and the follow up to The Artist's Inheritance as well as a few other things. :) I'm keeping busy!

Links:
Your readers can find me at http://julidrevezzo.com

They can find more of my books at Amazon: http://amzn.to/1dzZBLq

Or for further releases from The Wild Rose Press, my author page: http://bit.ly/15hfQtc

And they may like me on Facebook for more updates and silliness.

https://www.facebook.com/julidrevezzo

Subscribe to my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/pWI0T

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Indie Block Party Post 3: Interview one of your characters

For the next two weeks, I'm participating to the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.

Today I'm supposed to interview a character. As Kamaril has been the most annoying one lately I'm going to try to interview him. Kamaril is a demon and secondary character in "Demon World", a finished first draft not yet edited.

Kamaril: Secondary, you bet, if it wasn't for me it would all end with a stupid little love story, you know the kind: the girl get kidnapped and the guy come rescue her, pathetic. If it wasn't for me there wouldn't be a sequel brewing, right here, right now for that book and there wouldn't be any idea in the bad guys' minds they would just be kidnapping people randomly... pathetic...

Me: hum, you see what I meant by annoying...hum... hum... so let's get going with the interview's question, shall we?

Kamaril cross arms on his chest: if you want.

Me: What was your life like growing up? What is your family like?

Kamaril: I was alone, the usual deal. Father, too busy working to notice that I existed. Mother, too busy with other guys to cook me breakfast. Not that I mind, she would bring me nice stuff so that I keep my mouth shut. That was the good time really, before they figured out my dad was a Nephil. He was at a meeting in an hotel for work, you know the kind, well my mum was at the same hotel having fun. Her new guy ended up a bit... wet... that runs in the family... *grins* But that was shitty, so I ended up at the sanctuary. Goodbye nice demon life, welcome to the new Nephil guru crap. Damn they thought they were going to teach me something there. 

Me: Who are your closest friends?

Kamaril: I don't have any friend. I don't need any friends. You mean I should make friend with the other Nephilim, with Azazel and his crew? Damn that guy! He is hanging out with a Watcher all the freaking time thinking he is a big shot because he has Evalynn hanging at him like a jellyfish. Seriously, what the hell would I need friends for? Beside, people are made to help you reach your purposes. I'm not telling that you need them to help you but people are usable, you can step on them to reach a higher place, you know what I mean. And I know exactly who I'll step on next.

Me: Who?

Kamaril grins: If I tell you that's not going to help me, is it?

Me: I'm the one asking the questions, here. Who do you love?

Kamaril: Love! Damn you're so funny! Is that really all you think about? I don't need love, never had any, never going to get any. Have you seen Azazel and Evalynn? Doesn't it make you wanna vomit? *mimicking Evalynn's voice* Where is Az? We have a problem, someone broke a nail and... *mimicking Azazel* I'm here babe, let's go. *he rolls his eyes* Seriously, that the way they escape classes to hide in the closet. He is lucky I'm not anywhere near to see what they are doing 'cause I would show him how to give a girl a good time. I might try it in the middle of the class, I mean no need to hide in a closet for that, but I won't go back to the sanctuary anyway, the place is kinda destroyed now, just the way it should be, there are still good things about the Hunters. *grins.*

Me: As you don't seem to be too kind on people, let's change topic a bit. What are your 3 most prized possessions?

Kamaril: I just hate people in general, they don't know anything about life, that's all, nothing else to say. But Azazel is really dear to my heart. *he puts his hand on his heart with a bad smile.* Three things I value.... hum, I can't really think about that now. I feel that there was something I used to have long time ago but really I can't figure out what that is. I think it has to do with the god awakening. I might not be totally awake though. *laughs* Three things I values? I'm on the run, I'm not going back to the sanctuary, so I don't have anything much really, I would say my wings and my new powers *grins making some water flow out of his hands.*

Me: What is your first memory?

Kamaril: I remember blood. That was at the time when my mum was still bringing her guys back home. It was messy at that time. I think she liked the fact that my father could get back home and discover her anytime. She locked me in the closet, I was small at that time. Well, I couldn't see a damn thing but I could hear them a lot. Evalynn is a lot quieter with Azazel, that guy can't do anything properly. Well, it ended up that my mum opened the door suddenly and told me to run. They were playing with knife, I'm not kidding, there were two guys lying in the bed, they looked dead and they both had knifes in their hands. I stand there looking. My mum kisses me and laughs, she put money in my hand and tell me to run to the store to get some water. I mean they needed a lot more than water to clean the mess. "I'll give you whatever you want but just go get water now" my mum said. She was a nut case really. When I came back the place was clean. I don't know how they did it. The guys didn't seem too happy to see me though.

Me: Hum, let's stop talking about family. What about you is heroic?

Kamaril: I'm a fucking god. Isn't it all there is?

Me: I mean what did you ever do that that makes you a hero, a person who save others and can be looked up to?

Kamaril: I stopped Azazel's little friends from roasting us like chickens. I'm not a good guy and I don't pretend to be. But once I'm done with them, the world is surely going to look up and all they'll see is me. 

Me: Thank you for taking the time to answer those questions.

Kamaril: Stop doing stupid blog hop and writing about vampires, really it's starting to get on my nerves. Anyway, you know where to find me once you decide to get serious.

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Indie Block Party Post 2: Introduce your WIP

Since yesterday and for six more blog posts over the next two weeks, I'm participating to the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun.

Today, I'm supposed to introduce my work in progress, so once again I'm going to be talking about Vampire Heart.

My idea for Vampire  Heart originated three years and a half ago when I thought about an amnesic vampire with a beating heart. Of course, I have to explain why his heart was beating and why he was amnesic. Viorel, the main character, appeared out of that thought and everything else followed, the characters were created and Viorel was on his way through Europe with a bunch of vampires running after him.

Viorel is traveling through Europe in search for his memory, knowledge and a way to get his revenge. So of course I needed a travel map.

Despite being a more than three years long project with more than 153858 words, Vampire Heart is still at the stage of an unfinished first draft. I would say that I'm right in the middle of the story. I thought several times about cutting it into a trilogy but, if it happens, it will be done much later. For the moment, all I have to do is write, replan, write and replan.

All current parts of Vampire Heart's first draft are accessible from this blog. The reason for this is that I feel pushed to write if I know that there are people out there waiting to read what comes next.

Vampire Heart, part 1
Vampire Heart, part 2
Vampire Heart, part 3
Vampire Heart, part 4
Vampire Heart, part 5
Vampire Heart, part 6
Vampire Heart, part 7
Vampire Heart, part 8
Vampire Heart, part 9
Vampire Heart, part 10
Vampire Heart, part 11
Vampire Heart, part 12







Vampire Heart is my first novel written mostly as in the first person point of view. It was hard at the beginning so I added some parts telling what is happening to Sorina, the one Viorel is longing for, in the third person. I think it suits the book and helps cutting the action a little.

First unedited paragraph :

About 600 years ago in Sighişoara.

I woke up feeling a deep pain in my chest, I feel the air running through my nose and cough. I had the taste of blood in my mouth and the air was going in too, making my chest move up and down quickly. I wanted it to stop, I closed my eyes for a second thinking that if I could go back to sleep it would stop, that if I could stop thinking it will all go away. But I was wrong, my chest kept on moving up and down with the air inside burning it. That was the worse sensation I ever felt, something going inside of me without me wanting it and I was unable to resist it. I tried to pull up my hands to my chest or my throat but I could feel the heavy weight of chains around my wrist penetrating my flesh as I moved my hands up. I hold it a little, that type of pain felt a lot better. I knew that type of pain, I was tied up but for some reasons I wasn’t scared. I seemed like the fear had felt me long ago. I heard some voices around me and I realized that I was lying on a table. I moved my head up to look in direction of the voices but I started to feel dizzy, my lungs’ need for air accelerated as my head felt back on the hard wooden table. I felt unable to move.

First paragraph with the third person point of view (unedited):


Sorina woke up as the cold water hit her face. She huddled up trying to protect herself from the vampires standing in from of her.
“Stand in front of the master,” the old servant beat her with a stick and she huddled up even more. Despite her young age she despised him and she would never got up for him even if she could which was not the case anyway. He beat her again, as if that was pleasurable until the one he had called the master pushed him disdainfully away.
“Where is he?” the master asked.
He had tried anything to make her talk and she was sure that she would have talked by now if she had known but she didn’t know, she was just hoping that he was safe. And as far as they were still asking her about him, she knew he was. She didn’t even answered or looked at him, whatever she might say wouldn’t have changed anything. Her life had gone with him. Everybody she ever knew and loved were dead and he had escape. The only reason why she was still breathing was because she knew that he would come back for her.
“It has been three weeks already, that’s a very long time for a human, you are getting old,” the vampire added.


I have Vampire Heart's home made dolls.

Viorel

Dylan

Daciana

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Indie Block Party Post 1: Introduce Yourself

Today and for seven more blog posts over the next two weeks, I'm participating to the Indie Block Party. Indie authors have gathered to talk about... Indie author stuff, like writing and stories and trying not to bored the readers, you should check them out HERE it might be fun. 

For this first post I'm supposed to tell everyone why I'm so awesome, it's called Introduce yourself and it has to do about me as a writer which is really fortunate because I don't really like introducing myself. Generally I'll just go: "I'm Linda and that's all you need to know." Though recently I do it especially on purpose to annoy a friend asking me to introduce myself almost every time we met. (Yes, he is that bothering.)

I started to write when I was 3 years old, maybe before, I'm not sure. my mother taught me how to write my name so at my first day at school when the teacher asked me to come to her desk so that I could hand her my drawing for her to write my name on it, I told her not to bother because I could do it myself. I guess that kind of started my reputation. Of course I still needed to learn how to write few more words to be able to write stories but that only came few years later. 

So you could say I have been writing for quite a long time. First I was writing in French and few years ago I switched to English. I don't think I did it on purpose though it's just my brain doing things like that. There is a story I'm kinda working on at the moment that refused to be written in anything else than Japanese and I can't even write properly in Japanese. It's here if you want to check it out. (There is a picture ;) )

One think about my writing is that I don't have a favorite genre to write in, I think I'm doing mixed genre which is generally confusing for every one around but really fun to write. You would think it's romance reading the prologue and then it turns out that the girl never see the boy again... kinda... Another particularity about my writing is that I like my character to be self standing even when having some romance and if they got sick for being away from each other. Therefor I create side stories to show there life outside of the main action or relationship using secondary characters just like you would have waiters or bystanders in a movie. 

This blog is working in the same way. It is not about writing only, it is also about travel, knitting, cooking and so much more, just like writing itself is not only about grammar or knowing how to hold a pen but also about inspiration and creativity.

When I'm not writing? I'm a physicist of course. ;)

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