StoneWriter

I'm Back!

Sorry about being away for so long. The job I got late last year kept me busy with little time for blogging. But, I'm hopping to be able to post at least once a week from now on.

Indie lovers, you're probably why ahead of me on this, but I found a company called Smashwords that lets you publish your book through their site and they distribute it to many other sites, including an iPhone app called Stanza. Stanza allows subscribers to buy books, including indie books from Smashwords.

The process for publishing your book on Smashwords in e-book form isn't too daunting. It's just a matter of formatting correctly (their way, not yours) so that their conversion program can convert it into many other formats for use on computers, palms, iPhone, and Sony and Kindle electronic readers.

The multiple formats allows you to reach readers from multiple platforms. You set your own price for the book, and receive royalties of up to 85% of your net sales. There are processing fees and Smashwords lets you experiment with different pricing scenarios to find the right price for you and your book. They've recently started an affiliate marketing program also.

All in all, Smashwords seems like a great way for a new writer to get his work out to the public.

New iPhone

Working from my new iPhone. This is just a test to see if it works. Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Win 12 Months Of Free Gas

American Solutions is having a contest where one lucky American will win free gasoline for an entire year!

They've launched an  American Solutions video contest called "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Nothing." They call it "Pay Nothing" because that's what the winner will pay to fill up their gas tank for the next year.

See the video below:

They're asking people to create videos that demonstrate why a "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less" approach is best for our wallets and America in general. After everyone votes for their favorite video, the winner will be announced on their second annual Solutions Day, on September 27, 2008.

This is your chance to send a message to Congress and the American public.

So get out the camcorder and be creative.  You never know, you may be the one who gets to "Pay Nothing" for gas for twelve whole months.

If you've never heard of American Solutions, they're a non-partisan organization designed to rise above traditional gridlocked partisanship, to provide real, significant common sense solutions to the most important issues facing our country.

Mission Imposible, Life Changing Metaphors

Robert Hruzek at Middle Zone Musings has asked writers to contribute to his What I Learned From… groupwrite project by blogging about what we’ve learned from Metaphors for Life. Metaphors that have helped define or change our lives or been of some importance to us. So, Robert, here are a couple I remember from childhood.

On occasion I remember my mother telling her friends that her life was the perfect storm!  I remember thinking she was right about the storm part, but that her, and therefore our (my brothers and I) lives were more like a hurricane and not perfect in any way, shape, or form. As time went by, I learned that a good storm, every now and then, not only cleans away the dirt in our lives but it also makes life a little more interesting and keeps us on our toes.

Novel Writing Made Easy, or Novels R Us!

I might as well give up writing now. Soon the market is going to be flooded with Novelists, especially romance novelists. The following youtube videos may teach you the basics of novel writing or they may just be fun to laugh at. I especially enjoy the paranormal romance section in the second video. Enjoy!

I must give a shout out to Mary at Writing Blog for putting me on to the first video. During my search for Novel Writing Made Easy, or Novels R Us, I found the second gem.

 

 

Like Bush, Obama Can't Admit When He's Wrong

It's the weekend, and because I noticed something odd on the news this morning I'm going to put my regular musings on storytelling aside for the day and talk about how, like Bush, Obama can't admit when he's wrong.

I'm not a news pundit or a politically savvy lawyer turned journalist, so it's entirely possible that I'm missing the boat on this one. However, I don't think I am, but time will tell.

I remember a few years ago, when the Left in this country said President Bush couldn't admit to his mistakes or admit he was wrong when it came to  WMD's, Rumsfeld, U.S. Attorney Gonzales, securing Iraq's freedom, or the war on terror.

I personally admire a person who can stick to their guns and not give up on their ideals or beliefs due to poll pressure. A person who uses their moral compass to get the job done, knowing they will not go beyond what their moral compass allows. Novelist, Andrew Klavan, recently compared Bush to Batman. Klavan says, "Doing what's right is hard, and speaking the truth is dangerous." Like Bush, most of us have learned that the hard way.

Outline Before Writing a Story

When I started  writing my first novel, I jumped in with both feet and never looked back. I had the idea laid out in my head. Not each scene or chapter mind you, or even all the characters, or the setting, or the antagonist, or three acts, or any research on the technology that would eventually become part of the central plot. The ending, you ask? No, hadn't really given that much thought either.

But hey, I did know who the protagonist would be, but no, I hadn't really flesh out his background on paper or anything. He was going to be cool though. I knew that. He wasn't going to be like all the other hero's out there. He was going to be different, something unusual. There was no rush, I could wait to get to him. After all, he wasn't going to appear in the book until at least chapter seven.  So, what's the rush to figure out what made him who he is?

The Written Art of Storytelling

In case you haven't noticed, (which I know you have, but I had to start somewhere) I have a new banner.  As a new blogger and blog, I've been learning the minutia of blogging and deciding on what I want this blog's focus or brand to be.

As you can see by the banner, I've decided to concentrate my posts on the written art of storytelling. In other words, all forms of storytelling laid down on paper or screen for reading. Occasionally I may write about other forms of storytelling, like oral, puppetry and performance storytelling.

My posts will include information on the creation of stories, crafting likable and unlikable characters, writing, editing, publishing, self-publishing and just about anything else in the storyteller's realm. So, grab on to my feed and I hope you enjoy the ride.

5 Primitive Steps To Getting Published

What are the 5 primitive steps to getting published, you ask? Let's first start with a known fact, time changes,  people don't.  When the first man living in a cave decided to take a burnt end of a piece of wood and press it against a stone tablet, writing was born.  Back then, most writing was used as a way to keep an accounting of animals, inventory, debts, and the like.

Then someone, a struggling writer, decided to write one of the first stories ever written, besides those written for the Bible's Old Testament, and carve it into clay tablets in a writing style called cuneiform. The first written language.

That story, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was probably and instant classic.  The writer most likely handed out stone tablets of the story to all his fiends and family.  In a sense he was the first true Indie published author.  He didn't send copies of his manuscript to various publishers.  He didn't charge anyone for a copy of his work. Well, maybe he bartered for some Pterodactyl eggs or dinosaur meat  for breakfast and supper.

We aren't sure if there was a sequel to his work. It may or may not have been as popular as his first published piece or it may have been lost forever still waiting to be discovered. Kind of like the why your manuscript is waiting to be discovered.

Knol...Is It Time To Buy Stock In Google

I remember President Reagan in a debate with President Carter, utter the words, "There you go again."  Well, there Google goes again. Google has just launched  a new site to rival Wikipedia. If you haven't read the story, check it out on Breitbart.com at, Google launches rival to Wikipedia.  Is it time to buy stock in Google or am I too late?

According to the article, Google's own version of a communally constructed online encyclopedia similar to Wikipedia went live late Wednesday with a free service dubbed "Knol," which indicates a unit of knowledge. Knol...hmm, I can't help but picture an ugly troll under a bridge. Eh, it's probably just me. "The key principle behind Knol is authorship," say  Google product manager Cedric Dupont and software engineer Michael McNally.

Send Your Writing to the Graveyard

My son recently pointed out an article in Behance Magazine, called Tip: Send Ideas to the Graveyard on his blog, Prairie Mod. They write about how we sometimes cling to ideas. It doesn't matter if they're good or bad ideas. There comes a time when those ideas need to be destroyed. We need to kill them, so to speak.  As writer's, don't you sometimes think you need to send your writing to the graveyard?

Behance: If idea generation is an addiction then killing ideas is the cure. After spending countless hours developing and polishing ideas, we tend to become attached to those same ideas (whether they are good or bad). The result can be a great deal of wasted energy and effort.  It's time to sever ties with (some of) our ideas and send them to the graveyard!