Entries by Mira Draken

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Can you imagine?
At the moment I'm working on two novels, one novella, about six or seven short stories and several underdeveloped plots. Yeah.
You thought an author would start a novel, write a novel, finish a novel, publish a book, start with the next novel?
Wrong.
Most of us writers work on several stories in different stages of developement at the same time.
Actually, not at the same physical time. That would be impossible.
But today story 1, tomorrow story 2, next day story 1 again, following day story 10, etc.
You get the idea.
It's not working at stories which is difficult. Finishing a story, that is the real monster an author battles. I have yet to finish my first story this year.

Just in case you didn't know: Lung is Chinese for dragon. Here's a writing snippet:

She stared at the enormous beast. Scales like liquid gold, a head big as the officers horse, teeth longer than her hand. Jade Flower couldn't suppress a sob. Princess or not, Lung would eat her, raw and alive. Her mother had been right. Marrying the foreign chief would have been the better choice.
Hot breath touched her face. Breath which smelled like ... peppermint. Not at all what she had expected. These animals were carnivores. What the ... Did that mean he ate his meat spiced with peppermint?

Everybody and her cat seems to have a to-do-list for the new year.
Well, so do I.
Let's have a look:

1. blog more often (I'm embarrassed to see how many weeks, even months I didn't post anything last year)
2. finish that damned book I started last year
3. finish that damned book I started the year before
4. publish something - anything - in 2014
5. write more often than 2013
6. write more words than 2013
7. blog about succeeding with all points at the end of the year

Does that look good?
Did I forget something?

Oh yes, I did.
Feed the cat. She's meowing.

It's time to present another flash story, togesther with a nice picture I bought at www.shutterstock.com:

It was a dark and stormy night. Sleets of hail slashed against the window shutters, while the oaken doors moaned under the pressure of the wind.
Larissa didn’t notice the weather.
Instead she listened to the high-pitched keening which revertebrated through the halls and corridors of Glendwanen castle.
Harry trembled and edged nearer to his big sister. “The banshee!” he whispered.
Larissa nodded, her face pale as moonlight, and shuddered. Her hands closed around the shaking shoulders of her younger brother.
Down below in the basement somebody else heard the keening as well.
“Damned!” growled Lord Frederik. “Tomorrow I will definitely oil the door hinges!”

Did I tell you how I discovered e-books?
It was the Baen free library. I was just surfing the net, idly clicking around for some interesting news about Fantasy and Science Fiction books. And then I stumbled upon the library. Free books, more than a dozen of them. Paradise for a reader. Mind you, I didn't have an e-book-reader then, didn't even hear of the possibility of an e-book-reader before. I started to read the first book online, discovered that it was possible to get a download – a text file –, and harvested book after book.
Free e-books.
A splendid idea, from my point of view. Afternoons, evenings, days, weeks of reading fun.
A splendid idea, from Baen's point of view, too, as I started to buy other books of their authors soon afterwards.
And then I read that this was exactly the point of their whole free library. Marketing, pure marketing. Use freebies for advertising. And it works. Worked for me, and, as they wrote on their website, worked for them as well. A sure win-win-situation.
That kind of marketing I will recommend anytime.

That's the reason I sometimes write flash fiction and publish it on my blog for free.

Rejections are these mails all writers hate. Naturally they happen often, even for the best of us (and I'm not assuming that I belong to the best).
So what are the reasons for rejections?

1. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
2. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
3. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
4. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
5. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
6. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
7. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
8. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
9. Lector/agent doesn't like the book
10. You can't write

Reasons 1-9 every writer will agree upon. Reason 10- no writer ever will accept that he/she can't write. So we try again. And again. And again...

Why do I write this post? One of my new manuscripts just was rejected. Happens ever so often. Of course I'm devastated. I love the plot (how could I not, I wrote it!). I love the writing (again, I wrote it!).

And of course I will submit it again, to another agent, to another publisher. I'm absolutely sure there are some readers somewhere who are just waiting for this special book. Or don't you think?

Some dialog. It's first draft, far from being a polished gem of writing. But I think you can sense the story behind it.

So why do you smile?
You reminded me of someone. Someone I knew before.
Someone you loved?
Someone I hated.
So, why did you smile?
I thought, maybe I should have given him another chance. Maybe it could have turned out differently had we loved each other more. I thought, maybe this time my love wouldn't change to hate.
Did it?
She smiled again and kissed him.

I just found this very interesting essay about writers: http://terrylinks.com/nytwh

He states that most books find fewer than 500 readers, and I fear he's right with his numbers. Did my books sell better? So far they didn't, but I'm working to change that annoying little fact. A major German publishing house showed interest in my writing, maybe I'll land a publishing contract with them. Keep my fingers crossed...

As for other writers: Terry Link's website is a n interesting read. You should try it.

As regular publishing takes its time, I'm going to self-publish some short stories in-between.
One package will contain some adult fairy tales, a modern rewrite of well known stories. As for now, two stories are finished, one about the little mermaid, and the frog king. Little red riding hood is work in progress.
Another package will contain medieval fantasy. One, wedding night, is finished, but I still need to write a second one.

Both packages will definitely be erotic tales.