Gaaa!!! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!!

So I just sent off another round of review requests for my book, The Speed of Darkness, yeah? Of course I've found that most reviewers who offer to review for unknown authors ask for a copy of the book or a coupon to go buy it free.
Hey, I understand that! I'm not asking people to give me money so they can have the privilege of determining whether or not I'm a crappy writer. 'Twould be almost ridiculous (Not to mention that it would practically encourage fast thoughtless writing by people who write for the express purpose of turning around and to get rich directly from the reviewer's pockets.)
Anyway, I look in my email this morning to see I got one of those reviews posted. I'm OK with the misspelling of my name, that's common enough, but then I see my character referred to as SAM.

IN MY FINAL COPY, THE GUY'S NAME IS ERIC

Little story behind that... I wrote The Speed of Darkness nearly 3 years before I published it. By the time I put it on Amazon, I was in the middle of another still unfinished story/stories (online here) that also have a pretty important character named Sam. Having no real reason to keep calling people Sam I decided to switch one of their names to Eric. (A tribute to, I forget the name of the story, but it has a pair of twins named Sam and Eric). I forget why, but that other guy's name was unchangeable.

I tried to make the change everywhere, and I'm pretty sure now Sam Omlup is always Eric Omlup everywhere the book can be downloaded online. In most places on my computer it is changed too.
(I must have 15 different copies of the book on my computer to be ready for all the different file-formats people ask for, I also have 1 or 2 with the slight modifications Smashwords insisted on before they would send it to Barnes & Noble)


Looking back through my file system to destroy the offending 'Sam' files and create new 'Eric' files to replace them, I found 2 instances that hadn't been fixed within the folder where I was pulling copies of the story to give to reviewers who asked for them: the .pdf and the .mobi.

These are the two most common file-types reviewers want. So now I can look forward to a good score of possible reviews with names that don't quite match my story.

I've been interviewed today

Today I had a nice interview by Author Marcia Carrington.
Marcia's Book Talk

This is fun

I check my email/facebook and see that my book now stands within The Book-Junkies Library: Sarah Baethge page

Now, I might have tried to put it there myself, but I truly don't remember this one. Nice little surprise.

It's not mine, but if you like ebooks...

You want an ebook you don't have to open your pocketbook for? http://theriaka-ebooks.blogspot.com/2012/02/ebook-giveaway-falling-by-lc-smith.html It's a fantasy called Falling by L.C.Smith.

I think that last blog title hurt me....

Want to guess what happened to that story?
Don't worry about it, I'm sure I'll continue it at some time. In fact, Rachel Hadley's recent review of The Speed of Darkness has put me in the mood to write a prequel for it.
And don't let me try to get clever with words here in a way that's that's gonna leave me questioning whether or not the story will come to be; if I could end that other by saying my talk could curse it, I'm saying now- unquestionably, and quite assuredly- I AM going to write my prequel through to it's end without working on anything else until it's done.
-Sarah

Now this probably curses it, but....

I've gotten a pretty good sized set of notes together for a story I'd like to write. I still haven't decided on a perfect ending for it, but I have enough that I don't think I will be able to just give up on it. Even if I plan nothing new I'm gonna give up this planning in a couple of days and simply get to writing. If I get to a point where I can't write any more, I think that this story, now called 'Panoptemitry' will get finished; or at least join the other 2-3 I'm working on with parts on my Kindle.
So those of you who ask if I'm currently working on anything, the answer now is yes. I WILL start writing that first chapter tomorrow whether or not I decide on the ending today. If I get stuck I'll start back on the one I'm calling 'Meant to Be.' Even if that doesn't work I can always switch back to 'The Link' that I started in Galveston...
Yeah, I'm gonna keep up reading and reviewing new books; but with any luck, I will produce 1 (if not 2 or 3) full length books this year that will easily outshine 'The Speed of Darkness.'

Ready to Start Something New

You know? Getting a few bad reviews probably did me good! I no longer feel the urge to spend so much time trying to market the silly story that I wrote until I gave up on a couple years ago. I am glad that I finally felt brave enough to show off my writing without waiting for someone else's approval!
More than one reviewer stated that they thought I had potential, and even though they may just have been feeling nice, it made me feel good. I will be careful now to avoid the mistakes they pointed out and focus again entirely on writing.
As one of the major problems alluded to was the feeling that I had rushed (I did. If you don't count the amount of time I declared it done and did nothing with it...)That makes me feel good about the few stories I have held back on my computer because of the feeling they need something more.
Like the story I'm trying to put together now. I keep having new ideas for it every couple of days, and putting that into an outline. I don't want to start the actual writing of it, until I feel that outline is complete. I probably won't try working on that one seriously until next year. I want to leave it open to any of the new ideas I might get over the holiday. I tentatively plan to focus on its writing until I get back home after new years. By then; with all my idea filled notes to frame it, it will not be rushed.

...or maybe I'll switch to one of my two or three half written stories with its own set of notes. And maybe my short story 'Right Now' will have been accepted by then! (I enjoyed writing that one enough I'll probably self publish it soon if I can't get anyone to bite at it.)
Whatever, I feel comfortable to consider myself a writer now.

Happy with the 1 star review

Say what? Perhaps it's just too early in the morning, but I like the review I got today: http://heatherslibraryworld.blogspot.com...
1/5 score, but not because my story stinks or I'm a crappy writer, but because I didn't spend enough time finessing my words and writing into the best that they could be; apparently I left a few rather glaring mistakes. So why does this earn my enjoyment? Because of the time and effort I'm taking with my current writing.
a happy reminder that resisting the urge to rush, may be be beneficial.
And hey, if you don't get too worried about the technical aspects of writing, you can read a novel that, according to Heather, has 'a promising storyline' by an author described with 'great ideas are in her head.'

Joey Pinkney Interviewed me

There's now a short sweet page about my book here.

I've been interviewed about my book!

Now there's a nice interview of me by writer Morgen Bailey here: http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/2011/11/21/blog-interview-no-194-with-author-sarah-baethge/
Very cool!

Facebook Page

Ok, I went and made a facebook page for my book: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Speed-of-Darkness-by-Sarah-Baethge/247661878624972 but now I'm lost at trying to attach a 'like' box to my blog.

You want a book of writing advise?

Written by writers, for writers: Writer Spotlights
I wrote 1 article, and it's free!

NaNo Demon Wins

Although I'd pretty much decided it by Monday, I'm going to now officially declare that I've thrown in the towel on NaNoWriMo this year. I don't think I've written on my story since Friday, and I don't think there's any chance I can bring up the word count fast enough to get 50,000 in November.
This isn't a bad thing, however. I now have the full set of notes to carry on writing a story I really like. Without worrying about my writing speed, I can now pull the story together and let it improve as I consider all of what could possibly happen.
It may even be a good thing, I never finishedThe Speed of Darkness until a good while after NaNoWriMo.