Going great guns about Goodreads? Maybe ...

A Goodreads Giveaway Update!

A Goodreads Giveaway for TWO!! paperback copies of Ahnak: Edelin's Revelation ended on June 18. 

411 people signed up to WIN!! one of those books! 

And the winners are: Garry Lomen of Kelso WA and Magen Bosarge of Moss Point MS! Woohoo!

Last August, the month that Lycentia: Harrak's Scrolls was unleashed on an unsuspecting readership, the idea came to me: what about putting a copy of Lycentia up on Goodreads? One of those "giveaways" all the fine Goodreads folks are always chatting about? And so I did!

I ran the giveaway for two weeks. During that time, over 480 Goodreads-readers clicked on that "I want!" button. When the dust finally settled, a young lady in the Golden State was declared (by the Goodreads admins, of course) the winner.

So, after emailing "Lisa" the information (that she already knew, BTW, thanks to the Goodreads admins), she kindly replied with her snail-mail address. That evening, I wrapped up a brand-spanking new, freshly-signed copy of Lycentia and the next day headed for the post office and mailed it. Then I rushed back home and emailed Lisa that her copy of book two of the trilogy was on its way. Within the hour she replied, saying that she could not wait to get it. Then I waited ... two days ... two weeks ... four weeks ... I emailed Lisa again, asking if she had received the book. No response. And as of today there are still only two reviews of Lycentia posted on Goodreads. So what went wrong? What did I do? Or what didn't I do?

So this got me thinking: what have some Writers Cafe novelists done with "Goodreads Giveaways"?

"Only a tiny percentage of the people who shelve your book on a giveaway will go on to read/buy it. A tiny, tiny, tiny percentage. It's still a good way to put your book on people's radar. I recommend getting your cover art as soon as possible. I put my next due out book up as a giveaway as soon as I had the cover art (nearly a year ago now). The giveaway has over 7000 entries and nearly 4000 people have added it to their shelves. It basically constitutes a very very very long-term ad which costs only the number of books I choose. Plus, Goodreads sends an email to people who have my books on their shelves during the month of release. As for using Goodreads otherwise, use it as a reader would. Keep track of the books you read. Review them (you don't have to rate).  Read other people's reviews and comment on the interesting ones. Follow people who write reviews you like. Join groups discussing books you want to talk about. Use Goodreads to TALK ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE'S BOOKS. Strangely enough, that seems to be the most effective way to start people talking about yours."

"I don't want to be a downer on your giveaway. But I did one. I had almost 700 entries. Five winners. I bought the books, signed each one with a note as well, mailed them. Sent congratulations posts to the winners on Goodreads on the day I sent them out and said the books were in the mail. What happened? Nothing! No one bothered to even send me a PM with a thank you.  No comments. No reviews. It cost me over $50.00."

"I joined GR a few months ago, and went to some discussions in my genre. I did not mention my book, I made valid observations about the discussion topic, behaved myself, etc. It didn't seem to be a real back-and-forth 'discussion,' just individual comments posted in a void. Maybe I ended up in some bizarre place I shouldn't have been, but based on that experience, I have no idea what else to do there; it didn't seem to be an intuitively user-friendly place. Or maybe I'm just a fuddy-duddy."

"I also have been struggling with Goodreads. I posted that my third book had been launched, then the next day couldn't find the post. Eventually found it, there were no responses. I emailed Goodreads to ask if I'd done it the right way, it seems I had, their support is excellent. It's just their site. It's a labyrinth! I ended up tearing my hair out just making my way around it. And the 'discussion groups' are very limited. The author tutorials seem OK, but when I try to implement what I've seen, I still get confused. Sigh."

"You want to join a Goodreads group, like ROBUST and take part in its activities, then eventually someone on it will read your book and review it. There are also groups that choose a member's book to read and discuss once a week or month. I've made some really worthwhile connections on Goodreads. Thing is though, I've been a professional writer all my adult life; I know how to behave; I don't expect anything at all to happen instantly; I've never in my life asked anyone for a review, not even the professional reviewers for the newspaper that I know. Indies, by contrast, are a plague of demands for instant gratification. In their first post they positively demand that you review their book, and are then outraged when you say their book is so bad, they shouldn't pretend to be writers at all. Goodreads, like everywhere else that welcomes writers, is about organic growth, not hit and run promotion by idiots."

"I'm an indie author, though I don't consider myself an 'idiot' conducting a 'hit and run promotion'. I also wouldn't term myself 'pushy', nor do I think I'm 'flogging' a 'worthless book'. But I suppose that's for others to decide. At any rate, other than my giveaway I'm trying to use Goodreads as intended -- to document and comment on the books I'm reading. I'm refraining from invading the groups with my book (though I may participate as a reader). I plan to take advantage of their paid advertising services."

"I do a Goodreads give-away for all my print books as a part of the initial exposure blast. It does not create sales, but it does get your book on people's 'to read' lists, so it doesn't look quite so lonely there. I only give away one copy, and tend to run the contest for a short time (a few weeks). The majority of sign-ups happen in the last few days when your give-away shows up as 'ending soon.' Per many discussions here, there seems to be no advantage to giving away extra copies. The book rarely gets read and often shows up to be resold as used. Use common sense when doing digital give-aways on the other sites. If a reader wins and says they can't load the book, 'Can you please gift it through Amazon?' realize it is just a scam. They will cash the gift card and use it for whatever they want."

"Isn't Goodread where a lot of the 'flash mob' reviewers who slam book reviews hang out? Sounds like an impediment to the entire process."

"Goodreads is a wild animal that if you can get it tamed. Authors in the Amazon top-ten are there by using Goodreads. But it's a dangerous place for the unwary. I started a couple of groups over there; one seems to be working pretty well but it's focused on posting Select freebies in Romance titles. I'd set up another genre focused group if I knew enough people were interested (SF, Fantasy, ?, ?). I've stopped putting my Select promotion days on POI/ENT/etc. I've also dropped all FB and Twitter gyrations. Announce Romance free promotions It's mostly self-service for authors so please clean up your post after it ends. Advanced Review Copy promotion: This one is open to multiple genres. I'm still changing things around and adding at the moment. If you want to join and even post, then go ahead. This allows you to build fans before your launch, so the launch day it hits Amazon you can get a bunch of readers/reviews/sales. It also gets around the problem of Goodreads giveaways only being physical copies. I'm open to improvements in the group, so if you see good/bad/better then let me know here or there. When I get my WIPs, ready I'll be posting them there first. If you're not on Goodreads yet, get yourself a reader account, get it upgraded to an author account, get your author weblog RSS link tied into your Goodreads author account and load your books. Then start loading your WIPs and generating buzz for books before they are even out yet. When you are looking at a book on Goodreads, go to the upper right corner and click on 'stats' and see the chart for when added, TBR, reviews, etc. happen. They went from 6 million to 12 million members in 2012. Places like POI/ENT/etc had been advertising 100,000 members. FB advertises that 16% of your posts get transferred to your 'mailing list'. Probability favors getting discovered on Goodreads. but us authors have to behave over there."

"I had success getting some reviews while doing Goodreads giveaways. No immediate sales effects, but Goodreads reviews are handy, especially since Kobo uses them. I also added in a twist. I went through the list of entrants and hand-picked the ones who looked like my book would be perfect for them. I messaged them, told them I was sorry they didn't win, and offered them a free ebook review copy instead in exchange for an honest review on Goodreads and maybe somewhere else. I did this in a non-threatening, non-spammy way and told them there was no pressure, no hard feelings if they weren't interested. This last part is essential if you do this. No pressure, no hard selling. Just a friendly offer. The people who won print copies did Goodreads reviews, so did the ebook gifted ones. A few of the ebook ones gave me reviews at other sites as well. It was a lot of time-consuming work, though. I'd only recommend it if you're starting out and want a few reviews to get things going. (And of course, focus on the next book more than this.) I'm glad I did it but I wouldn't do it again."

"I've gotten thanks and reviews for my giveaways over there, but Goodreads is not a stand-alone platform in my opinion. I use it with my book blog and my Twitter account. Not so much with Facebook, but others do. I tend to ignore Facebook these days. I also integrate it with my other book blog giveaways which I run almost constantly."

"I absolutely do not use Goodreads for the discussion posts or the groups: those are black holes. But my author page, my book pages and the giveaway features are golden. Especially giveaways. I set up a giveaway last month for an upcoming book debut and it's like free advertising. I'm close to 1,000 requests for the book and 700 to-read sign-ups with the book not even publishing until the end of next month. I'm not saying those requests/to-reads translate to sales, but they don't hurt for visibility either."

"I ran a GR giveaway and gave away two copies. Both gave reviews. One was a four-star, the other wound up being my only 1-star. I'm doing another giveaway now for three copies. We'll see what happens. It must have netted a few sales because I received more reviews/ratings later. I also did a read to review in one of the groups I joined by giving away e-copies. I got reviews that way, too. But I'm hesitant to do that again. I think they run so many of them that readers rush through the books. I had some three stars with complaints about points that were clear to other readers. Those seemed to come from the readers who finally gave in their reviews at the last minute (there was a deadline the group sets up.) The reviews that came in earlier seemed to be more detailed and sounded like they took the time to really read the book. All in all, I think Goodreads is like anything else in this game: roulette. Post the right thing at the right time and it's helpful."

Whoa! It's the Next Big Blog Hop!

This is The Next Big Blog Hop!

Blog hops are pretty cool! They provide opportunities

 for authors to show off their craft to others. 

I was tagged by Samantha Fury (@SamanthaFury). 

Thank you, Samantha, for inviting me along on this blog hop!  

What is the title of your book?
Betrovia (The Land of Betrovia Book One)

Where did the idea for the book come from?
For too many years, I played role-playing games on my computer. Some of the time it was just me against the computer's artificially-intelligent CGI characters. But most of the time it was with other people from around the world as we fought the bad guys of Middle Earth. Yes, at one time I was addicted to Lord of the Rings Online. Actually, as I was trying to pay attention during one Sunday School class over 8 years ago, the idea for Betrovia hit me. Before that class was over, I had filled up two pieces of paper with character names, locations, plot/conflict. By the end of 2005, Book One was almost half-done drafted! (The original title of the novel was "The Innkeeper," by the way. When Book One was nearly done, I googled other books with the word "innkeeper" in their titles. Yes, there are more than a few.)

What genre does your book fall under?
Because Amazon, along with nearly all of the other online ebook vendors, require that books be categorized in some way, I had to choose a genre for the Betrovia trilogy. The most-logical choice was "historical fantasy." But it can also be seen as "epic fantasy" since the storylines are chock-full of many interesting characters!

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
The Land of Betrovia trilogy is being self-published. Nearly two years ago, I sent a query to a fairly-reputable "vanity press." This organization said they would love to add Betrovia to their stable; that is, as long as I was willing to fork over a bit more than $4000. Heh...

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
I started drafting Betrovia the spring of 2005. I hit Amazon's KDP "upload" button August 2011.

Give a one-sentence synopsis of your novel.
An innkeeper and his two daughters struggle to realize their destinys in the midst of a land about to be torn to pieces by civil war.

What other works would compare to your story?
Since Patrik, the main character of Betrovia, is challenged to take on a quest, much like Frodo was in Lord of the Rings, it appears that The Land of Betrovia trilogy should be compared to Tolkien's trilogy. One of Betrovia's reviewers wrote that the way the novel was written reminded him of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books. My oldest son has read all of Jordan's Wheel of Time books; I guess I should ask him what he thinks about the comparison :)

Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Even though it sounds a bit "corny," I would have to say that Jehovah God, the creator of the universe, gave me the idea for The Land of Betrovia. I was in the middle of a Sunday School class when the storyline came to me, right?

What else might pique the reader’s interest?
Betrovia is not just about Patrik and his daughters and how they survive the civil war. There is a shadowy thief character, a few soldiers who are involved in their own misadventures, as well as oodles of my sordid opinions about religion, politics, big-business, etc. The Land of Betrovia is a romantic adventure that is completely family-friendly. If it was to be rated like a major motion picture, it would receive a PG-13 (and that is only because of the fight scenes.) If someone is looking for a book like The Lord of the Rings but does not care much about gruesome goblins, terrifying trolls, or even weird wraiths, then Betrovia is a book worth considering!

Oh, and don't forget to check out Samantha Fury's books! Samantha Fury's website

Now what is this "world-building" stuff all about?

As I'm finishing up book three of The Land of Betrovia trilogy (hoping to have book three out by May), I've been thinking about what to do next. Writing "spin-offs" based on the Betrovia universe is one avenue. But another one is starting a science fiction series for young readers. When I was around 13, my mom bought -- at a garage sale, I think -- an entire hardback set of a science-fiction adventure series. There had to be at least 12 books in that set. And I read them all that summer! I think I even went back and re-read most of them months later.

The two main characters were two teenaged-boys who, usually by no fault of their own, got into trouble and worked themselves out of that trouble by the end of each book. I don't remember if the series was specifically chronological (the events of book 1 occurred before those of book 2, etc.), but it doesn't really matter if they weren't. I loved watching those Johnny Quest cartoons on Saturday mornings, and reading that sci-fi adventure series was like watching Johnny and Hadji.

So here's the question I posed to the Writers Cafe novelists: What are some ways to "build" this sci-fi world besides drafting an outline and throwing in the "world" details as part of the outlining process?

"Discussing it with a community of world-builders and doing it step-by-step might work for you. The worldbuilding reddit is fairly friendly. For my current novels, I ran it as an RPG for friends before sitting down and writing the story, it is a process similar to beta-reading but gives you a unique perspective on what other people would do in your setting. It requires a fairly fleshed out world to begin with, but not so much that you can't add/change stuff as you get feedback."

I've only been on reddit a few times, but heading there just to investigate the worldbuilding community sounds like a great idea!

"I've designed a lot of worlds over the years, for stories, games and for fun. The process can vary widely. Some I sit down and write up stacks of details, maps, etc. Others I make up on the fly.  Normally I have a few details but nothing too substantial and see where the story takes me -- that way I'm not as constrained by the details and end up running into brick walls while writing."

Uhm... stacks of details and maps. I tried making maps for Betrovia and there's even one in the front of the paperback version. But time making maps is time away from writing! ACK!

"Before you get into maps and names and places, ask yourself the following:
1. What kind of story do I want to tell? What themes am I writing about? What aspect of the human condition am I examining?  Most speculative fiction starts with the question, 'What if?'
2. What are the most fundamental changes I need to make (taking real Earth as the default) in order to tell that story?
3. What would induce these changes? (One answer may be geographic/geological effects or major historical events).
4. What are the effects of those changes?
From there, you can start building cultures. Once you've done that, you can get into the details of maps and histories.

Example:
1. You want to tell a story about how, for example, modern humans would coexist with another sentient primate. What if Neanderthals were still alive?
2. This one's easy: Neanderthals are still alive.
3. So how did they survive? Maybe they lived in isolation due to a mountain range or an island that was inaccessible to homo sapiens. Maybe the climate developed differently (and here you'd have more explaining to do).
4. This could go in a lot of directions. Are they still isolated? What happened when humans found out? How long have humans known about Neanderthals still being around? How would this knowledge affect religion, cultures, and governments?

From there, maybe you map out the new geography, rewrite geological history, draw new borders if their presence would have had an effect on the growth of nations, etc. First create a world that supports the situation you want to write about, then often the story will flow right out of your world-building. If it doesn't, readers will notice."

Whoa, that's a lot of pre-planning! And yes, Neanderthals are still alive :)

"The process for sci-fi would be the same as the process for fantasy. I've taught live courses and online seminars on this subject from the perspective of a game designer and fantasy author. I've written a book that includes examples from one of my seminars as well as workbook-style questions you can use to develop your world."

I would love to take a class like that! The homework would be very easy for me! :)

"I’m in the middle of world-building right now, and I’m struggling with a few things. I think what I need to do is go right back to the start and use a set of questions, and work from there. I’ve read a lot of people use a pre-set questions sheet."

A list of questions to respond to even before creating an outline. I think I can do that!

"Sometimes you can just transplant the 'real world' on top of the fictional one. Given that I come from South Africa originally, for one of my books, a silly epic fantasy, I deliberately just took sub-Saharan Africa and reproduced the geography (and did wordplay with some place-names). So the book works as fantasy, but also a crash course in the layout of a very real part of the world. I know, it was cheating. But it was fun to do!"

A great idea! Why re-create the wheel when you can simply cover it with a new layer of something!

How unique is your stuff?

When I started to jot down the storyline ideas for Betrovia way back in Dec 2004, I wasn't thinking about anything but getting the plot/characters/settings/conflicts onto paper AFAP (as fast as possible). When I had written nearly 90K words the summer of 2011, I was only thinking about turning Betrovia into a trilogy (to keep the novel from being a VERY long book!). It wasn't until about this time last year, winter 2012, when I asked a MFA 280 customer who bought and read Betrovia what he thought about the novel. He looked at me, smiled and said something like: "I read your book and saw so many things that I had read in too many other books." I laughed, but it wasn't sincere. Then it hit me: Betrovia is not 'unique'?

So what do some Writers Cafe novelists think about when posed with the question: What makes your fiction "unique"?

"It's a question I wrestled with before I started writing. Have you ever read John Barth's short story 'Lost in the Funhouse'? It discusses these questions: If it has to be universal to be grasped by all readers, then why write? And if it has to be specific to be original, then it won't be grapsed, so why write? I decided to make my work original by writing only things based on direct knowledge. That way, I know no one else could've written it. This made a recent review of one of my books especially interesting. In addition to despising my style, the reader couldn't accept the weirdness. Ninety-five percent of the book is documentary. (BTW - Not a complaint. I loved the review. Loved it.)"

So a combination of universiality and orgininality ... with a dash of weirdness? Uhm ...

"That's an important question. If I offer nothing new, there's no reason to purchase my work. One of my books is like the TV series LOST on steroids. What I mean is that it is going to take a very determined reader a lot of effort just to figure out where the story takes place--not to mention when it takes place.  Example: By all appearances, the characters are on Earth somewhere, but there's no Moon. Impossible? No: It's a real place. Many characters appear to be one thing but later turn out to be something else entirely. Most readers will root for one of the characters but then watch in horror as that character makes some really horrible choices--but keeps on winning, anyway.  Lots of mysteries piled on top of mysteries. Two completely new cultures to deal with. Dozens of major characters.  It's been a complicated chess game in the writing, but I hope something readers will enjoy wrapping their minds around. What's unique? The extent to which I immerse the reader. The novel marries the language, Tasblish, to the Tasfit culture.  You need both to understand the Tasfit Nation, and also the Verdos Nation. So I created a 7800-word conlang, possibly the most complete fabricated language ever created for a fictional work, with quite complicated grammar and consistent spellings and etymologies--all the stuff that makes a language real. I hired an illustrator to create 20 figure sketches for the major characters and character types.  There are dozens of maps. You might think of something on the scale of Dungeons and Dragons or A Song of Ice and Fire--that level of immersion--but for a sci-fi world, not fantasy."

This guy obviously has waaaay too much time on his hands ... I wonder how many copies he's sold?

"Most of my work so far is about various forms of slavery. The alternate universe I created in two of them deals with institutional slavery in very concrete ways that emphasize its effects on the individuals involved. They're solidly character-based, not written for thrills or for anyone who's looking for typical master/slave relationships. Of course, that means they're not terribly popular. I'm moving more toward near-future SF now, but exploring some of the same themes."

Ah, there's an idea: take an ages-old problem, like slavery, and explore the various facets and nuances of it. Nah, I couldn't stomach doing that!

"Some of the shallowest characters to ever be given leading roles in a plot-light, typo-heavy book. Also, bad 'jokes' that nobody but me gets."

Funny stuff! This response makes me think of comic books I read as a teenager that spoofed the very foundations of humanity. :)

"Interesting question!  In one of my short story collections, I have five stand alone romantic shorts (novelettes, really) that connect with one another. Story #1 will end at a charity event, for instance, and story #2 will begin at the charity event with different characters.  Sometimes, characters show up for cameos in other stories. They usually all take place in the same city or setting. Most of the main characters appear together at the end of the last story. When readers email me about my books, they always say they love these links. It's fun as a writer to plot out the stories and figure out how to weave a common thread through them."

Yeah, I like this strategy ... put everyday (non-unique characters) and plop them in and take them out of other stories as mono-dimensional beings. Yeah ... maybe ...

"I don't know how unique it is, but I'm trying (emphasis on 'trying') to write complex, nuanced epic fantasy in contemporary settings. There's a lot of alternate history, warped variations of Judeo-Christian mythology, and overly detailed world building. I try to keep everything mythology-lite in my YA/NA books so it's more accessible, but it gets pretty ugly and complicated in the UF. (All of my books are in the same universe.) So ... if an unholy (and less talented) union of Ilona Andrews, Philip Pullman, and Suzanne Collins is unique, then there you go."

An amalgam of mythology, religion and world-building. With a dash of young-adult angst? Could work! (Actually, it is working ... this author is selling lots of books!)

"On one hand, my crooked, distorted view of reality. On another hand, my truthful depiction of what I see around me. Go figure."

I don't know how I would be able to accomplish this kind of fiction. I like to keep 'distorted reality' and 'truthful depiction' far apart from one another!

"Intriguing question! I write suspense novels about the dark side of love. I don't do procedurals, or quirky detectives or serial killers. Instead, I like to look at how things like obsession, lust, greed and jealousy are mistaken for love -- and how it leads to murder. I think of my books as being Lifetime movies as produced by Investigation Discovery and starring Halle Berry and Will Smith."

Nah, I see nothing unique here :)_

"Great question. I guess a couple of things:
1. There isn't much, if any, historical fiction written around the bohemain artists of nineteenth/early twentieth century Paris; yet it was one of the wildest, most decadent eras in history.  A truly fun era to write about.
2. My main characters don't apologize for who they are. They are fair, but they definiately life life in ways that most of society frowned upon and some of the charcters choices would still be frowned upon or judged today. They don't care. They know what they have to do to make themselves happy in life and say so up front. No one goes into their life not knowing who they are. Some see it as selfish, others see it as being true to yourself. It depends on the reader and confident they are about themself, I think. Some could buck society and its mores, others frown on it.
3. I'm not afraid of subjects that some readers may find objectionable or unforgivable. My 'evil' characters show their good sides eventually and vice versa. No one is an ultra hero."

Good stuff here! Alternative history based on an obscure time and even obscure place. But what's so original about evil being 'good' and good being 'evil'?

"How about 'replayability'?  When I sat down to outline my trilogy, that is now complete (thank you!), one of the founding ideas I had for it was to create something that when the reader got to the end of the third book they were so blown away, that they would want go back and re-read them. So I took a page from the video game world and made sure I had re-readability. I can count on one hand how many non-movie books I have read more than once. Re-reading a Harry Potter book before the movie came out doesn't count. So creating something that would make people want to read it again was important to me. Writing a book or even a series of books that once everything has been revealed will re-read as a different story was not an easy task. Unfortunately book three hasn't been out very long so feed-back has been very light. However no one has mentioned to me that they figured it out by reading book one and two. So I'm taking that as a good sign that my plan is working."

Interesting ...

"You mean OTHER than killing off all my characters?"

I bet this writer sells lotsa books!

"Crazy world building (parasites, anyone?) Likable, sorta crazy characters. Crazy-good dialogue. Summing it up: craziness!"

Oh yeah, that's it! It's all about getting 'crrrraaaaaazy'!

"When reviewers leave comments like this: 'He's in a genre all his own'."

Of course, this can be taken multiple ways :)

What keeps writers from writing?

Why is it some days I can plop down in the computer chair, grab the keyboard, fire up the draft of book three of the trilogy and crank out a few thousand words before I've even thought about how many words I've cranked out ... but then there are those other days when I stare pathetically at the screen, hoping that the words will just magically appear on it! ACK!

Oh no, this has nothing to do with "writer's block," not at all. With nearly no effort at all, I can go back to chapter one and begin "revising" (for the tenth, etc. time!). That is waaaaay too easy ... even when I've worked hard all day at MFA 280 in Freeburg!

So how about we see what some of those Writers Cafe folks have to say about this!

"My mind keeps getting ideas for different books or articles while I am trying to finish the one I am working on."

Oh yes! Been down that greasy slope before! I've even fired up a blank text document in order to slap those ideas onto the PC AFAP! (as fast as possible) so I can get back to the main task.

"Family members interrupting me, acting like I'm just sitting there doing nothing, perfectly available for whatever they have in mind - and then acting all offended when my reaction indicates otherwise."

Too true... but will our beloved ones ever REALLY understand what our brain cells are going through as we write?

"Two of the most annoying: "Mooooommmmmmm!" (This is the kids, but also includes my elderly father, who recently moved in with us and can't seem to learn that when I'm working, I do not want to be constantly interrupted. I need to get doors on my office. Locking doors.) "Meow!" (This is the cat jumping into my lap and settling down for a protracted stay, and of course bumping my wrists with her head every time I try to type over her.)"

Can't really relate to this one ... only pet in our house is a canary :)

"My own disgust (with my pathetic first drafts)."

Not much to add to this one! :)_

"Four paws, goes mew, and thinks my mouse is a playtoy and my keyboard should be sat on. And there are two of them, so they tag team."

OK, so if we had a cat (or more), then I can see this being a problem!

"My son! He is either incessantly hungry/thirsty/looking for something/freezing his computer or being far too quiet to not be getting into trouble e.g. mixing up 'potions' in the garage or 'fixing' things that belong to his sister. Fortunately, for his sake, he is very cute!"

Cute? Maybe...

"My dual monitor setup is great for editing, but I need to learn to turn it off when I'm not using it. Scrivener on one screen, Reddit/Kindle Boards/email on the other. Not good."

Last weekend I tried the dual monitor set-up with draft of book three on the left screen and the outline of the novel on the right. Worked quite well until my video card overheated! (New vidcard is on its way!)

"Sex. Hubby and I are writing erotica together now. Occupational hazard."

Woah...

"My family, my commute (a blessing and a 'need your hands on the wheel 2 hours a day, not writing' curse), reading, and TVTropes.com. To be honest though? It's that last one that kills me. I can waste hours on that site 'researching' plot ideas."

TVTropes.com ... I checked out that website .... I don't get it :)_

A bit of the new Galena

Some people have commented that Galena, 
Patrik the innkeeper's younger daughter, was a 

bit of a "wimp" in the first two books of The Land of Betrovia trilogy.

Here's what she looks like in book three!

 “You asked for me, sir?” Galena said as she closed the door to the commander's office.

“Yes, recruit, I did,” Leitser replied without looking up reading a document that was spread out on his desk. “I have a job for you. I need you to deliver some reports to General Demirain.” The commander then pulled a stack of papers off the left side of his desk and stuffed them into a leathery pouch. “Before you ask what they relate to, suffice it to say that these will inform the general of the groups of rebels who continue to roam the forest between the Plains of Dreut and our little village,” he said.

“Rebels? But Uncle Markus said there are no – ”

“The general requested this information months ago, Vellein,” Leitser continued, “It is imperative that he gets it as quickly as possible. I want you to leave for Lycentia immediately. And take two of the others with you.”

“I … I don't understand, sir. I have only been a part of the militia for a few weeks. Why make me the leader of this mission?”

“Vellein, are you refusing to obey a direct order?” Leitser responded softly but sternly.

“Are you giving me a direct order, sir?” Galena replied just about as sternly but slightly softer.

“Indeed I am, recruit,” the commander replied. Galena continued to stare at the man who appeared to be quite engrossed with the piece of literature that was on his desk.

“Which ones, sir?” Galena then asked with a look of feminine consternation on her face.

“Which ones?” Leitser repeated as he finally looked up at her. “Now what are you talking about?”

“Who should I ask to accompany with me?”

“Does it really matter who you ask, Vellein? This is your mission, recruit, and part of your task is deciding who would be best to accompany you,” the commander replied softly.

“No, sir, it does not matter at all. I suppose if this really is my mission, then it is my duty to make the decision on my own,” Galena said as she grabbed the pouch and exited the sparsely-decorated office. Within the hour, not only had Patrik's younger daughter enlisted the help of two of her fellow militiamen, but she was leading them south out of Noran on their way to the capital city. Galena didn't have to think long about who to pick: the two she selected were older men, long-time members of the Noran militia. The younger of the two went by the name of Breatok while the other, a father of one of the newest recruits, had grown up with the name Slatern but preferred to be called Joktean.

On horseback, the journey from the mining village to Lycentia would take slightly more than a day. So, around dusk the day after receiving the order, Galena and her two companions were about to ride into the city.

“Have you been here before?” the older militiaman asked as they came into Lycentia through its western gate.

“First time for me,” Breatok said.

“Same for me,” Joktean replied. “What about you, Vellein? You been here before?”

“After we closed up The Lonely Fox Inn, Father and I moved here to Lycentia,” Galena offered.

“Oh yes! Of course! Why stay in that musty old inn out there in the forest when you could live here in the big city!” Joktean said. “And did then you move into the palace with your sister the queen?”

“No!” she responded angrily. “And I would appreciate it greatly if we could talk about something else!” At this, her companions looked at each other and shook their heads. They rode quietly for a few blocks until Galena cleared her throat.

“It appears that since I am the only one who's been here before, I suppose then that it's up to me to find out where the General's office is located?” Galena asked.

“Over there is a Lycentian officer,” the Joktean said as he smiled and pointed to his right. “I wager that he might know.”

“That is a great idea!” Galena replied. “Since I'm the one in charge here, I should then be the one to ask him,” she added as she hopped off her horse and jogged towards the man clad in the dark-blue of the Lycentian militia. Their conversation was short and to the point, and in less than five minutes, Galena was back on the horse and all three Norans appeared to be back on their way to Demirain's office. That was the case until a different problem arose.

“You know,” Breatok mused playfully, “We haven't had a thing to eat since this morning. How might it work to hitch up the horses over there and find us some food? My nostrils are have suddenly become filled with the aroma of something rather exquisite coming from that general direction!”

“A spectacular idea, Breatok!” the other militiaman chortled. “All I had for breakfast was a small, stale piece of apple cake!”

“But … but the officer,” Galena stammered. “He just said that the compound is only a few blocks away,” Galena replied. “Why can't you two wait until after our mission is complete before you stuff yourselves? Why must men always be thinking about their stomachs!” Before an answer was given, both militiamen had tethered their mounts and were heading for what appeared to be the source of the scintillating aromas.

“Vellein, you can't make me believe that you aren't hungry!” Breatok said. “And don't tell me that you aren't smelling the same thing we're smelling!”

“I should have known something like this was going to happen,” she whispered. “Here's what I propose then!” Galena then shouted back as she rode past the opened tavern door. “If you two haven't eaten everything before I come back, I will gladly join you at that time!”

“That sounds like a good deal to me, Vellein!” Breatok replied from just inside the tavern doorway. “But don't be gone too long! I can't make any promises about keeping this Joktean fellow from eating it all!”

A November to Remember

(Subtitle: what doesn't kill you can only make you stronger)


Blogging should not be a torturous writing activity. But for me it has been! For the last month or so, I've read umpteen Facebook and Twitter posts of people I know who have joyfully announced: "My Blog! It's been updated!" Last summer, it was a goal of mine to update the Betrovia blog at least once a week -- and not with just commentaries/updates about my writing! And I felt that I had done a admirable job in maintaining that goal. (I especially like the short series on UAVs!) The goal of blogging at least once a week even carried into September. But after that month, I must confess that I've been a slacker. I suppose one reason is I've been spending a certain amount of time tweeting. Now, of course, blogging is to tweeting as having bacon, eggs and hash browns for breakfast instead of a milk-drowned bowl of Raisin Bran.

As I waved good-bye to September and welcomed the cooler but shorter days of October, the desire to tweet compared to blogging became even stronger. My desire to tweet instead of blogging was fueled with the notion that tweeting was going to be more productive in sending people to Amazon to buy my stuff. About 1/10 of my tweets have been directly about Betrovia, etc. so I don't feel that I've used my tweeting time to spam my stuff like I've seen too many authors do. (I mean, really, how self-depricating is it to beg someone via a tweet to buy or to even just "like" your book and/or Amazon author's page?)

While I munched on left-over Halloweeen candy the first few weeks of November, plans to head to Kansas for a Thanksgiving celebration began to fly into my in-box. (Wifey has developed this curious habit of emailing me her travel ideas instead of just talking to me about them!) Her plan for this year? Invite ourselves to one of her sister's place. And that is exactly what she did! We checked the long-range forecast and it appeared that neither ice nor snow was not going to hinder us from driving to Kansas on Thanksgiving day.

However, the Monday before Thanksgiving, I got a phone call from one of my older brothers who said that Dad was going in for emergency surgery on Wednesday (Thanksgiving Eve). He sressed that if Dad chose to not go through with the operation, he would most-likely die fairly soon. Our travel plans were consequently altered so I could use the 2004 Altima (which had been loaned to us by our wonderful daughter for the trip) to head to Topeka from Lawrence to visit Dad after the surgery. And there he was, laying in the hospital bed on Thanksgiving Day, watching the dog-show on NBC that people who don't want to watch NFL football choose to watch instead. We had a good talk, one of the only ones we have ever had between just the two of us. Before long my sister and Mom arrived. Before I left, there was talk about Dad undergoing a blood transfusion later that day (which is a normal follow-up procedure for the surgery he had experienced). So I volunteered to take Mom home and on the way to her place the two of us had a wonderful, one-on-one talk as well.

We made it back home before 8 PM Thanksgiving night--a perfect time for Wifey to hit the hay in preparation for getting back up at 4AM for some frenetic Black Friday shopping. So at a few minutes in front of 4AM she got up and was out the door by 4:30. I laid in bed until close to 6 when the phone suddenly rang. Of course, I thought that it was Wifey wanting to get my opinion about something she was thinking about buying. But it wasn't her; it was my eldest brother. He called to tell me that Dad had not survived the transfusion. What else could I do after getting that bad news but call Wifey? The Black Friday shopping came to an abrupt halt.

By Saturday, the funeral plans were made and the following Tuesday we headed back to Kansas. The temperature that morning was in the lower twenties when we left Jefferson City--nearly 40 degrees cooler than our excursion just six days earlier. Instead of borrowing the Altima again, we rented a 2013 Kia Optima. (I have never driven a brand-new car before so that was an interesting and thought-provoking experience!)

Dad's visitation was Tuesday night and the funeral was on Wednesday afternoon. Both took place in the first church that our family attended when we moved back to Kansas from Florida in 1968. Needless to say, it felt very strange to talk to people who said they remembered me when I was only "this" tall. It was also amazing to see three of our Jefferson City current-home church pastors walk in the door Tuesday night! It was a great blessing to have those three men there praying with us at that time!

About 30 minutes before the funeral on Wednesday, my oldest niece Sarah (who's been battling a rare form of intestinal cancer since last Spring) arrived. She was in a wheelchair. It was the first time I had seen her in at least three years. During the funeral service, I glanced a few times over at her and it looked like her head was bowed as if in prayer. After the funeral I found out that the plan was for her to go very soon to the Cancer Treatment Center of America facility located in the Chicago area. I've heard many good things about the CTCA and was hopeful that they would know what to do for her.

At the sun-lit but windy gravesite service, Mom was asked if she wanted to say anything and yes, she certainly did. She said that she felt very blessed to have such wonderful children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren. By 3:30 Wednesday afternoon, we were leaving Kansas and headed for Jefferson City.

In less than a week's time, we had made two trips to Kansas in two different vehicles but for two related events. Three days ago I got an email from Sarah's dad (my oldest brother) and the CTCA people in Chicago said they were not able to do anything for Sarah that had already been done. He wrote that she promptly informed them to unplug her so she could go back to Kansas.

I told Wifey last night that I do not want to go back to Kansas for another funeral. She replied that God is a miracle-worker and that we should continue to pray for Sarah's complete healing. I had to agree. What else could I say?

Dad's sudden departure from this world and Sarah's serious and now somewhat-terminal condition have made the 2012 holiday season one destined for somber reflection. The head pastor at our church has been preaching a series on The End Times (the rapture of the church, etc.). And of course people around the world continue to over-react to this wacky Mayan calendar thing!

Like I wrote at the beginning: what doesn't kill you ...