Working while you wait
Miss D had surgery on her shoulder this morning. Everything went well. She looked like hell (sorry kido, but you looked like death warmed over) when she came out from under the knife. She went home to bed and was doing fine when I talked to Bird this evening.
I went home, fed the baby and crashed myself.
I never really know where story ideas come from. Some just pop into my head fully developed. Others come in brief flashes or a few sentences and demand I flesh them out from there.
While sitting in the waiting room one of those, nearly, fully developed stories hit me out of nowhere. I’m not entirely certain where it is going –to Earth I think- but I do love the beginning.
I got 10 pages hand-written. For some unknown reason I didn’t take Dora with me. I’m about to type those pages and maybe finish the first draft before I crash again.
Oh yeah, saw an ad for the following contest while I was there:
Good Housekeeping’s Short Story Contest
Deadline: All entries must be received by September 15, 2009.
To blog, or not to blog, that is the publishing question
I’ve been reading Midnight Sun on Stephenie Meyer’s website http://stepheniemeyer.com
It’s Twilight from Edward’s point of view.
Apparently someone leaked the first 264 pages of the book on the internet before Meyer finished the novel.
Because of that leak, rumor has it that she has put the rest of the book on hold for now and is working on other projects.
I’m wondering how they could turn Midnight Sun into a movie considering that it is basically the same story as Twilight just from a different perspective. Could that be part of Meyer’s motivation to drop the project? Are the producers of the Twilight movies encouraging her not to waste her time on a remake?
I’m also wondering if Meyer has considered continuing the book Midnight Sun as a blog, since part of it is already on the web. She could charge a subscription fee for readers to follow the blog –that way she won’t be losing money by posting it- and still sell the print version when it is completed. She probably wouldn’t even need to post new pages every day to keep the readers hooked.
I have a feeling that is the future of publishing: Authors posting novels as they write them on pay-to-read sites. It not only gets the material into the hands of the reader quicker it also increases the number of potential readers exponentially.
Publishing companies could reap the benefits too by providing the subscription sites and editors to clean up the author’s work before the stories are actually posted. Publishing companies could provide security services and encryption methods that would prevent the readers from simply copying the story and re-posting it for free.
Posting books to subscription sites, as the author writes them, could also be a good way for new authors to get their foot into the door of the publishing world. New authors could post the first few chapters for free and build up their fan base. Readers only need to subscribe to books and authors they like.
It’s a win-win situation. We’ve all spent our hard earned, shrinking dollars on books we never finished because they had shiny covers but the insides weren’t quite as lustrous. It’s green. And most importantly it’s instantaneous.
Let’s face it we already live in an IMing, blogging, texting, tweeting, real time world. Why shouldn’t we be reading the next best-seller that way?
Must be more productive!
Must stop procrastinating.
Must update blog daily.
Should change the heading of ‘To Do List’ to ‘Must Do List’.
What I am doing today: Meeting Miss D for lunch and a movie. May go to see ‘The Time Traveler’s Wife’. Then we will probably go to Hastings for coffee and writing. I’ve got a long list of projects to work on. Join us.
This evening I hope to attend the Southmoore students talent showcase at 7pm at Shekinah Church located on 104th and Walker. It’s free! However, each performer will have a donation box for any loose change. This donation will help them to attend the Smithsonian Educational Tour to New York next summer!
There are a few contests coming up that y’all might be interested in entering.
Glimmer Train
SHORT STORY AWARD for NEW WRITERS
Deadline: August 31, 2009
- Open only to writers whose fiction has not appeared in any print publication with a circulation over 5,000. (Entries, of course, must be unpublished.)
- Stories not to exceed 12,000 words.
DEADLINE Sept 30, 2009
Norman Galaxy of Writers’ annual contest
www.nonprofitpages.com/normangalaxy
DEADLINE
November 7, 2009
Must be a member of Norman Galaxy of Writers but it is really cheap and easy to join.
