What would you like to see

Writing a blog is hard work. You have to think up a topic, write coherently (and hopefully well) on the topic, and post it for the world to see. It's recommended you end your post with a question, or at least encourage discussion in some way. Some people say set topics for each day so you have guidelines. Others say writing whatever you feel like and to hell with guidelines.

I tend to wander all over the spectrum on things like this. I used to have scheduled days. Then I started going random again. Then I tried a new schedule. And now we're back to being random again. I'm really not sure what I'm doing honestly. I hope I at least somewhat entertain you, offer interesting thoughts, and maybe provoke a little conversation now and then.

So...what would you like to see more of on my blog? Do you want to see more snippets of WIPs? More discussions on the world of publishing and my writing? No politics. No religion. I will rant about things occasionally but I'm not turning it into a regular post. Would you like a set schedule? Or are you fine with my rambling posts about whatever I feel like?

Tell me what you think you'd find interesting and I'll see what I can do.

Follow up to the A to Z Challenge

Those of you who've read my A to Z Challenge posts may think I'm a very serious person. I'll admit I do have those periods of time. But there are also times when I'm silly, hopefully amusing, and just downright snarky. Not too many of the last since there are a lot of people who do snark better than I ever could.

I'm also a writer. I post writing related things. Sometimes I even post book reviews, if I feel strongly enough about the book I've read. I normally don't post on the weekends, and sometimes have problems posting every weekday like I've been trying to do. That's a lot of posts to come up with. I have a habit of writing them all ahead of time for the week and scheduling them. I usually do okay with that, though there have been a few times when I've goofed on the scheduling bit. It all works out in the end.

One of the things I am passionate about, as you could no doubt tell from the posts during April, is mental health awareness. As I'm dealing with it, I want other people to see what I find out, what I learn, what I'm doing. I want people to understand that yes, there is a person behind the diagnosis.

Oh, one other thing. My cat Reidar. I am very fond of him and will occasionally post random pictures of him as part of a post. Or fun YouTube videos. Or pictures I find on Morguefile or DeviantArt (all of those images used are stock photos put on this page following the guidelines of the site/photographer).

So buckle your seatbelts. This is going to be one very interesting ride.

Well, it's been a while

I know, I know.

I keep doing this.

I'll post like crazy for a while and then it falls off and I stop talking to everyone here for days/weeks/months on end. It's not because I don't love all of you. It's because I just don't know what to say. I mean, being an introvert I'm not great at small talk and personally I hate small talk on a blog anyway. If I'm reading a blog I want something interesting, something worth reading. And really, I don't feel like what I have to say is worth reading.

But I'm going to start over again anyway. This blog post was written Saturday night but as you can tell, it's going live Sunday morning. As of this coming week I'm going to be posting more here. At first, it's just going to be 2-3 times a week unless I find something I find that I want to share with you. Then it'll be more often.

One of the things I'm going to start doing in the coming months is sharing some of the shorter bits (as in non-novels...I can't guarantee there won't be some novella length fiction broken up into "chapters") of stories from my fantasy world of Vassa. You may remember me referring to it with Erondhal, Lytharia, Sindla, and a few other things. Yes, you're finally going to get to see a better glimpse of it.

This is coinciding with the writing and editing of the first novel I'm seriously going to try to get published - the ever aggravating Marked. (No seriously, I've tried three times to write a first draft I liked. I think I have one this time, but we'll see.) I plan on starting to query this starting in October, so I'm going to have to do a lot of work between now and then.

I am also looking for beta readers, as always. It's a little over 120k right now. It's length can change varied upon the editing I do next month and what my primary beta reader says. But I want more opinions than just one. So if you're interested, leave me a comment please?

The other thing I'm going to be doing this month, as I work on fixing up those shorts I mentioned, is reading a lot. My goal is a book a day. I'm going to post a bit about each book I read, not every day but a few at a time during my other blog posts. I've already read my first book, though I'm not going to talk too much about it because it was me beta reading for a friend - the lovely Joelle Casteel, who writes erotica/erotic romance with heavy BDSM themes. They are not for the faint of heart. She's going to be working on re-releasing her first book - Out of the Night - soon. Her second book, the one I just finished beta reading, is Gates of the Garden and will be out not too long after.

I've also got a lot of other books on my plate. I've managed to acquire more than 120 e-books from the free list on Amazon and through promotion by other authors (also free e-books from Amazon). Not to mention I was gifted a lovely romance book that I intend on reading as well. I'll be posting short reviews of those and buy links so you can pick them up on your own if you're so inclined.

If there's a topic you're curious about my opinion on, leave me a comment. I'll be glad to answer that too. Just give me some time to get back into the swing of things and we'll see what happens. Thanks to my faithful readers who have stuck with me, and welcome to new readers brought here by Facebook and Twitter. Enjoy what you see and don't forget to grab some cookies and milk on your way through the door. *grin*

Sunday 'fess up - Yes, Anni's bringing this back

Hello all!

Any of you long time blog followers remember my SFU posts? You know, where I'd talk about my week and my writing. Mainly about my writing. And just other general life stuff? Well I'm bringing them back.

Aren't you all excited? ;)

Now, for those of you who missed the post I made about this (I did make a post about it didn't I?) I'm trying to finish the first draft of Marked, formerly known as Only A Name, by the end of July. So far, I'm on track to complete that goal. I'm using Camp Nano as an excuse to write as much as I can every day and it's working. While I'm not updating as frequently on the Camp Nano site, I am still tracking my word count and it's progressing nicely.

Of course, that does lead to the inevitable blocked moments when I run into a brick wall. I ran into one of those last night when I tried to think of a name for a creature they were fighting (I figured it out finally). And now, I'm in a boring part of the story and I don't want to write it but I know I need to so I can progress with the story. It's a short boring part but it still has to be written. (Even if it'll probably get changed in edits.)

I've changed up my blog post schedule a little bit going forward too. From now on (or until I change my mind again) Sunday is back to the SFU and Tuesday is for the snippets. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday will stay the same. Friday I'm taking a day off my blog.

Well, I've abused the parenthesis enough for one blog post. See you all next week on the SFU!

B is for Blogging

I didn't start out to be a blogger.  I originally had a LiveJournal page that I posted life updates on but that was the extent of my online presence.  Then I was introduced to Facebook and was obsessed with it for a while.  Then I joined Twitter.  Then I decided, after reading a lot of articles and blog posts, to create a blog of my own specifically dedicated to my writing, my thoughts on various topics, and a little bit of my personal life as well.

Blogging is a great way to get ideas down that you might not be able to express elsewhere.  It gives you a venue to express yourself and get other people's opinions on your ideas.  You can talk about politics without inciting a riot - although I don't mix politics with my blog often.  You can talk about your writing projects.  You can talk about religion, personal beliefs, world events, etc.

Your blog is really your way of expressing your thoughts to a world wide audience.  I've seen blogs where literally thousands of people logged in every day to read someone's blog post.  I can only hope that one day I'll get to that point.  Though I'm not sure I'd like to be THAT famous.  Maybe get my blog following up to 100 readers or something like that would be better.

Writers can use their blog to build their platform early on so when they do go to get published, they've already got a following.  When the books come out they've potentially got a ready made audience.  They've got people who're willing to buy the book and even post a review.

Another thing that blogs are good for are book reviews.  I've got my own book review blog.  It's got one follower right now and I haven't been as assiduous at updating it as I have been my regular blog.  I find it hard to write book reviews because I don't want to hurt another author's feelings.  I've been rather disappointed in many of the books I've read and tried to express that disappointment without being too insulting.

A blog can be a powerful tool.  It can bring people close and introduce you to a world of new friends.  Or it can create a lot of drama and cause issues for other people.  It's all in how you use your blog and what you have to say.  So...make it interesting and play nice if you can.  Or if you can't, make sure the snark is there to make it a fun read.  ;)

Writing Wednesday - Blogs to consider for writers

Hey all!

This is just a quick post for you.  I'm on a time crunch because of work so this week is a link spam.  Most of you are probably already following all of these people.  If you're not, go follow them.  It's worth it.

Writer's Beware - a MUST SEE for all writers
Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America - a good resource and something I intend to join one of these days
The Other Side of the Story - Janet Hardy's blog has a lot of useful advice
Editorial Anonymous - A children's book editor talks about writing children's books...and has the cutest little slush pile monster ever
Girlfriend's Book Club - a group of lady authors has gotten together to create this wonderful blog, sharing personal stories on their road to becoming authors
Ted Cross - Ted Cross's blog is full of interesting facts about his creations, and some interesting commentary on writing in general
Type M for Murder - NOT just for mystery writers...the information these authors share is useful to all genres in a general way
Pub Rants - It's always nice to see both sides of the game, and this agent shares her world with us
The Rejectionist - Our dear Rejectionist has a very snarky attitude but is so much fun that you can't help but learn something
Edittorrent - This blog carries a lot of good posts based on workshops they do; very informative & useful for writers in many different stages of their career
Crazy Writer Girl - She gives us a glimpse of what it's like to be an intern/assistant to an agent & what the slush pile looks like from her point of view
Murder by 4 - Again, not just for mystery writers...they've got some really fascinating posts as well
Blood Red Pencil - Very useful for those of us who are still getting the hang of this "revisions/edits" thing, also interesting posts on writing in general
The Character Therapist - A VERY useful & interesting blog explaining the psychological quirks of our characters as well as offering her services to give advice on her Treatment Tuesday posts

If these don't keep you busy for a while...

I'm off until Sunday. Will be back again next week with a guest blog from Raquel Henry!  If anyone else wants to guest blog leave me a comment and I'll get back to you...as soon as I get a chance to breathe again.

Anni's conducting a poll...of sorts

Hey everyone!

I know, I know.  Not my usual day for blogging.  I'm generally a Sunday only blogger with random posts showing up from time to time when I think someone might be interested in what I have to say.  However, after reading my blog list for the day (when did I start follow so many blogs?), it hit me: I'm a failure.

Okay, okay, so maybe not a failure per se.  But I'm not using my blog to its fullest potential.  At least that's my guess based on everything I've seen and read.  I need to come up with something else to post about aside from my weekly 'fess ups.

Now, I'm not a published author.  I'm barely in the revision stage of my first reasonably decent novel length manuscript.  So I don't have any words of wisdom  on the whole query/indie publish/agent side of things.  I'm a fan of both paper books and ebooks so I can't really take sides on the e-reader debates.  I'm not politically motivated by anything, aside from telling my local officials how bloody STUPID I think they are at random times (e-mails are wonderful tools for that).  Besides, politics - to me at least - is a good way to turn people OFF of your blog, unless you do it well enough that they want to come back.

I'm not particularly tech savvy so discussing the latest and greatest in technology is out.  I follow blogs and news feeds to keep up with what's going on in the publishing industry but I couldn't possibly do any better when it comes to discussing these things than people like Nathan Bransford and Writer's Beware (their blogs are informative in different ways).

So, my lovely blog readers, what do you suggest?  What kind of posts are interesting to you?  What do you blog about?  I'm also working on my vlogs, and I'm going to focus a bit more on getting them into something a bit more solid.  I've considered talking about world building in my blog - hey, I've spent 20 years building Aleran...I think I could talk about that for a while - but then again, I've seen a lot of blog posts done really well regarding world building and don't know that I'd have anything better to say.

I think I'm talking myself out of blogging again...which I'm trying not to do.  So, PLEASE leave me your suggestions here.  Tweet them to me on Twitter (@annikkawoods, for those of you who may not know me there yet).  Drop me a line on my Facebook page if you prefer (same thing...Annikka Woods).  But leave me some ideas, and I'll see what I can do.

Gender imbalance

Today I read an article that was linked in one of the various Twitter chats I follow frequently.  It was to this post:

Type M for Murder - Gender Balance

I find myself disagreeing with the author of that post.

What brought this to mind is that on the way to Dorothy’s on Friday I listened to a radio interview with the British writer David Mitchell. When Mitchell said, my wife is an early reader of all my work and she helps me with the books, I rolled my eyes. But then he went on. Men, he says, can’t write women well, but women can write men because they grow up paying attention to men’s behaviour, whereas men really don’t notice or care the way woman act or think. 

I’d expand that thought a bit. Women not only grow up having to closely observe the men they encounter in life (primarily a safety issue, but still our model of ‘success’) but women are constantly exposed to men’s world-view in movies, TV, books. Men might pick up a book written by a woman with a female protagonist, but not often. Remember that Harry Potter is a boy so that boys would read the books and Joanne Rowling is J.K. so they don’t know the author is a female. 

 That is a direct quote from the post, for those of you who might not be interested in reading the whole thing.  I didn't grow up having to closely observe the men I encountered.  I ignored them for the most part, actually, unless it was my dad or church authority figures or my teachers at school.  Anyone else tended to be chalked up to being one of the faceless masses.  I was cautious, of course.  I paid attention to my surroundings and if something did seem off I'd focus on that person - but that could have been either a man or a woman...or another teenager.

Yes, I'm exposed to a world where the views of men are given more airtime than the views of women.  But here again, I don't analyze the way these ideas are presented or how they might have been conceived of in the minds of those who thought them.  Instead I look at if I need to incorporate them into my own worldviews or if I can file them away as "interesting but not my cup of tea" moments.

I can't argue the point about books written with female protagonists.  But I'll tell you right now, I know a LOT of guys who own books by female authors.  Fantasy and science fiction readers tend to be an expansive lot.  I don't know if in other genres it's different.  I'll read just about anything that looks interesting and pay attention to the author later.  That's how I've found some of my favorite authors, in fact.

I got into the Harry Potter books well after the 3rd or 4th one came out.  I knew by that time that Rowling was a woman.  I found it interesting to note that most of the boys (and adults) reading the books talked about Ms. Rowling quite cheerfully.  Many of them wanted to meet her - several still do.  I know I owe her a debt of gratitude.  She's the one who convinced my nephew that video games are all well and good, but books are AWESOME.  He's been an avid reader since the day he picked up the first Harry Potter book.

Another point I have is the author of the blog states "...men really don't notice or care the way women act or think."  I'd like her to meet my husband one of these days.  He's got a lot of good insight on the way people - all people - act and think.  Same with several of my male co-workers, a few of my friends, etc.

I dislike generalizations like what came out of that blog post for a reason.  Not everyone fits inside that kind of worldview.  I need my husband's eyes on my early manuscripts because he's the one who tells me if the voices of the characters are off, if I'm too pretentious and verbose, if a guy "just doesn't think like that", etc.  Without him I doubt I'd have gotten very far with any of my projects because I'd have been perpetually confused.

So whether you're someone who relies on critiquing groups for help, your wife, your husband, or your kids...whoever you trust enough to read through your early manuscripts is the right one for you.