Book Announcement :P

Yes, I do realize that this page is somewhat lacking in the fanfare that I should have, but I'm not really sure how else I'm supposed to attract reviewers and bloggers willing to host guest post spots for my new book, Panoptemitry that I can link to on my official release page.

This would be the longest piece I've ever written at just under 62,000 words. If you like bizarre sci-fi spacey fantasy, this might just interest you. If you review books and think you might like to review this, drop me a line and we'll see about getting you a copy. (You don't need a fancy review page, Amazon lets anyone review.)

I wrote this book because the great people at http://www.iwritereadrate.com offered to pay for me to get an MSS-editing report from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy for my first draft. (I'd be happy to get your review on their page too :) they just require that you actually buy the book from them first)

If you're still undecided the first 2.5 chapters are free wherever it's sold and on its Goodreads page.

I'm pretty sure you can get to it all from the official release page, but if you've any questions, just leave a note here or contact me through one of my social networks.
My work here is done~
Enjoy!
-Sarah Baethge

Advice that is sure to Help Me

When I looked in my email yesterday, I got the MSS report on the draft of my upcoming novel Panoptemitry from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy (cool prize I won from iwritereadrate.com). It had not only ideas for how I can polish this book to make it pretty for publication, but it gave me a connection with an editor who seemed to genuinely care about the made up characters in my story.

(Now that's a cool feeling for a wanna be author.)

Matt R wrote out for me advice on how to improve my style of writing. I need to allow the action to happen- not just tell about it happening.

Confused about the difference? No one's ever explained it to me so I understood the concept right before now, so I might not say this clear enough:

wrong way: Having looked at this report will help improve my writing.

(I tell about what happened)

right way: Reading this report improves my entire approach to writing.

(it happens)

That wasn't everything of course, but most of the rest was kind of specific to the story; what was good, what could be improved. Why, and how so.

I'm still just thrilled I got my book evaluated like this. The timing of the report is perfect too because now I'll have advice specific to my own style of writing fresh in my head just in time for NaNoWriMo.

Vote for My eBook!

Check it out-
     My short story, Right Now is in a contest where YOU can vote!
http://www.voteformyebook.com/

The story is down!

3.29032~ months and my story's done!
This would be the longest story I've ever written, too. (currently at 54,039 words)
Pretty short amount of time when I consider how long I've worked on other pieces that I'm still not satisfied with.
Sure, I'll read over it a couple more times and polish it up some more before I send it to the editor, but if they demanded it right now, I could probably give it up.

Notice, will you, I do have an editor this time. Want to know how that came about?
I've mentioned it a few times :P but in case you didn't hear, I have a few short stories on a self-published literary website called IWriteReadRate.com. Fun place; after you read a story you're given the opportunity to tell the author what you thought of it. The idea is what finally gave me the guts to try to sell my writing. It just felt safer and less scary than baring my imaginary ideas to the whole world through Amazon.

To try interesting people into putting their books on it, they decided to hold a drawing. Anyone who loaded a story to the site would have the chance to have the IWRR people pay for a book of up to 100,000 words to be edited by Cornerstones Literary Consultancy (worth close to $1000, I hear).

If you like writing, I encourage you to come check out http://www.iwritereadrate.com/. If what I've said hasn't interested you yet, you still have the opportunity to win  a great prize by uploading some of your writing there. If you don't write but still like to read, you can have your say, too. IWRR holds a monthly competition at http://www.voteformyebook.com/ where the author of the highest voted book wins a Cornerstones professional critique of a work up to 2000 words long.

I really wasn't going for a common theme-

Yesterday when writing on what is to become my new novel, Panoptemitry, I came to the realization that I seem to be stuck upon a constantly re-occurring (hopefully)fictional happening. Whatever else might be happening in my story, I can't seem to resist throwing in some unlucky character who suddenly finds himself as a test subject for some sort of mad scientific medical experiment. 
[already have 3 or 4 instances of this (all of my published work)]
[Nigel Hunter                                        in The Speed of Darkness]
[both Samuel Parker and Linael Darrow           in Breaking Away]
[Joe                                                                           in Right Now]
Now, as what I'm writing is 60%-75% done with an editor waiting on me in September, I really don't have time to try and change the story so I can work events out in a new way. I just thought I should make note that I do realize this is happening so I can try to keep from doing it again.

{I do plan on explaining in more detail about how the great people at iwritereadrate.com hired me this editor when the book becomes available for purchase, but if you're curious, check out their blog post about it: here.}

And no, I swear I wasn't ever experimented on myself, to cause this seeming obsession.
I'm sure it just stems from bored daydreams I had in the hospital after a car wreck, wishing to get some sort of fantastic super power as fair payment for an accident I still don't actually understand.

what I'm up to (Windows 7, don't fail me now... :P)

As I'm somehow attracting new blog followers, so thought I'd share what happened today. For once I actually have a writing deadline (on my upcoming sci-fi novel Panoptemitry for  http://www.iwritereadrate.com/ [more on that later]) so I've messed with my Windows settings to make it only able to kick me off for a 'magical update' once a week. So if that is gonna happen, the magic day is Friday.
You know what that means -today it supposedly did its thing and asked for a restart.
Trusting me, I click Ok.
Big surprise: my machine won't start back up.

Did I mention that most of the 32,800+ words I already have written exist only on this laptop?


Sure, there was an earlier version of maybe 4-5 non-sequential chapters Calibre-converted on my Kindle, but as I'm now writing on chapter 12, that's more than half of what I've written! Plus all of my notes...
Eventually, after a few annoying unsuccessful runs through start-up repair  my computer came back on.
Of course the machine wants to retry its update. I'm cool with that. I'm on the internet so much, I don't exactly want to miss out on some kind of update that keeps my files/programs running right.

I'll out smart it here, I think; just Calibre-tize the newest version of EVERYTHING and give Fred that whole story!(If you wonder, Fred's my Kindle. Just the first thing that came to mind when the Kindle asked me for a 'device name.')
So I start up Calibre and it tells me to go download the update [#0.8.61 I think]; you know my paranoia about updates, with hardly any thought, I download and run it.
-couple of postpones for the Windows update here-
Finally Calibre's ready to go supposedly, but now Calibre wont start.
-maybe another Windows postpone or two as I search through my files-


Thanking whatever computer god is out there, I see I never trashed the last few Calibre updates I downloaded. (hats off to you Calibre writers, a week never passes without 1 or 2 new versions)
The newest one I have on hand is 0.8.57
After I run this update (downdate?), I am able to create a .mobi of the newest version of my story and pop it onto Fred.

Still trusting something to watch over my notes (don't ask me why), I let the Windows update run. Oh sure, there were still a few snags and running's of startup-repair, but now I think my Windows is happy enough to go awhile longer without an update.

Now I can get back to my story, that I plan to finish by September!

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