by Kai | Mar 10, 2011 | Announcements, Writing, Books, Publication notices
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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!
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
by Kai | Mar 9, 2011 | content
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My partner and I have chatted over the last couple of days – and one of the things that has come out is the fact that I need to buckle down and deal with my university assignments. And it got me thinking – there’s a lot of changes I need to make over the next few months.
One of the things I’ve come around to, slowly, is that popularity doesn’t matter. Not on a personal level at least. Professionally, I work in a career that relies on what interest I can raise in my writing, so professionally it’s a different matter entirely. It’s critical to me to understand how to balance my professional and personal life, so this is why I’m clearing out my Facebook, and why I’m changing some of the ‘groups’ I’ve categorized people in – it means you’re probably going to lose access to some of my more personal updates.
Being classified into the ‘professional’ list doesn’t mean that you’re *not* in other lists – but it does mean that if I’m posting something about the craft of writing, it’s probably going to go to that list. It also means I can be more confident about posting leads that people are actually going to use, and tailor my ‘stuff’ to the people who really need to see it.
Also, also, this is my personal blog. I can talk a bit about my mental health ‘stuff’ on here, but ultimately, I try not to let my disorder ‘beat’ me (at least in the terms that people seem to consider when looking at mental health). I’m a survivor, simply because up until recently, I’ve had no choice. Being too self reliant is one of the big problems that my other half talks to me about – I don’t talk to him until my problems are waaaay beyond where I can handle them, which is bad. And I’m working on that.
These changes – all of them – aren’t going to come overnight. Nothing ever does in my household, but what I do know is that I’ve got stupid amounts of work to do, and I’m not doing it navel gazing.
Next couple of posts are going to talk publishing, self publishing and some other ‘stuff’. Requests? I’d really love your feedback and comments. If you’re interested in something I’ve touched on but haven’t talked about yet, tell me 😉
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
by Kai | Mar 8, 2011 | The office cat's guide to Blogging
Posts are coming soon!
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
by Kai | Mar 7, 2011 | Announcements
Hi there, I’m Office Cat. My pet, Kai, has graciously allowed me to come onto her blog today to introduce the ‘office cat guide to
Blogging’. But first, may I offer my feline feliciations and give you an idea of who I am
Kushie, the Office Cat
and my (blogging) pedigree.
My name is Jenuine WildTansy, and I am an F4 Bengal. But my mom (and pet) calls me Kushka, or Kushie, or Fuzzbutt, which is very undignified.
But what my pet has told me about Blogging is *really* valuable, so valuable in fact that I wanted to share. She’s doing the 30 day challenge, and so am I!
From now on, the ‘Office Cat’s guide to Blogging’ will appear on WPforAuthors, but mom has graciously allowed me to start on her blog first, and get everyone interested.
And here’s my first tip.
1) Personality
Forget worrying about SEO, forget worrying about domain names, the first thing you’ve GOT to do is find your gorgeous voice. Like my piercing stare, a gorgous, sleek voice will be strokable, skritchablle and entirely memorable. Once you’ve got your voice, you can plan your blog.
Remember, I’m appearing DAILY at Wpforauthors, and I hope you’ll join me there from tomorrow!
Till next time! Kushie, the Office Cat
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
by Kai | Mar 7, 2011 | Free for all, Language, Writing
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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.
Kai is a writer, author and avid reader. A mental health advocate, Ludosport athlete and coder. She’s the mother of two young adults, owned by two cats, and lives with her beloved in the Cotswolds.
Looking forward to those recipes.