Skyla's blog

Fear Itself

I have a new book out tomorrow.

It utterly terrified me to write.

I distinctly remember writing the opening scene (that takes place outside the main narrative) huddled over my PC keyboard. Shaking. Stomach churning. Crying. I had a few beers to loosen up, some liquid courage.

The one thing I didn't do was flinch.Read more

Let's Dance (Encore)

It's nearly three years to the day that I wrote this blog post for work. It's not a long one--go ahead and read it. I'll wait. It's comparing the submissions process to dating and the comparison is still apt. 1. First impressions count. 2. Personalizing goes a long way. 3. It's important to be a good fit because, ideally, you want to form a long-lasting relationship, whether you're marrying someone or coming to a business agreement.

Today's post is an extension of that topic, and how the things on your blog come across to your potential publishing partner.Read more

Life Isn't Fair. So Deal With It.

This may come as a complete and utter shock to writers everywhere, but the publishing world isn't "fair."

We all have woe tales to tell. Shitty Book A is selling better than something you worked really hard on. People with no experience suddenly get huge book deals. Readers in many cases don't want something new, they want the same grounds tread again and again with the same tropes.

Yes, Snooki is selling more than you.

Yes, Twilight fanfic is selling more than you.

Yes, Twilight even exists outside of someone's Desk Drawer of Embarrassing Manuscripts.

Yes, it may not be fair. You may have put years into your craft. You may be doing something exciting and different in your genre. You may be banging your head against the desk knowing that truly poorly written books are selling because they have sex in them, or have X, Y, Z that makes them popular.

Um...so?Read more

Evil Guest Interview: Aurelio Voltaire

Readers and Esteemed Members of the Evil League of Evil,

It has been a year. A year of evil and advice and more evil. There have been trials and tribulations, things of awesome and things of suck. There have been fundraisers and evil giveaways and gift baskets and more. There has been a great deal packed into the twelve months that have passed since the inception of the Evil League of Evil Writers with our first Evil Interview. Our inaugural evil was made possible by our Patron Saint of Evil Writers, the estimable Lilith Saintcrow.

It is only fitting that we begin a new infernal cycle with another Evil Patron Saint. This man wrote the theme song of the Evil League of Evil Writers (literally!). He was evil enough to grant us the awesome of his wicked presence, and it pleases me to share the nefarious love (and one of his albums, if you're the lucky commenter!) here.

I give you the Patron Saint of Macabre Humor, the one and only Voltaire!

Disclaimer: Dina asked the interview questions and may or may not be a rabid fangirl. The management takes no responsibility for fangirl drool. Please make sure your inoculations are up-to-date before reading this interview.Read more

Shove Some Humble In That Pie Hole

Douchebaggery abounds lately.

Oh, I know, it always has. But with The Rise of Ebooks (TM) and Everyone Can Be An Author (TM), lots of people are jumping out there and hitting lists with their 99c ebooks (oooh!)*, which is all well and good--but I wonder if perhaps douchebaggery clings to a lot of these newbies in particular because they haven't been through the gauntlet**. They haven't had to build up a modicum of class, haven't been at it long enough to know how precarious any position of popularity is, etc. This is also my theory behind the spate of brand new authors the past few months who have argued with reviewers and come away looking like douchetards.

It is no secret that I have no patience for douchebaggery. I don't rant about this any longer because, hey, douchebags gotta douche, and it didn't solve anything because when people recognized themselves in the posts, they just snowflaked out on me. But I had this conversation with a fellow writer last night and it seemed a good blog topic.

You have achieved something? Great. That's fantastic. We are all happy when we win awards, hit besteller lists, no matter how big or how small.

Now STFU.Read more

The Writer Death Spiral of Woe and Doom

I've been having a lot of WOE lately.

Weeks and weeks of Woe. I pretend it's not Woe because no one wants to hear about these things. But I'm depressed and tired and not fine--I'm in the Writer Death Spiral of Woe and Doom.

It's not just a writer thing. It's an everyone thing, but yes, it hits writers. And it sucks. I'll illustrate it for you:Read more

Know WTF You're Talking About

So I've been reading a book I wrote three-four years ago.

And cringing.

Not just for the usual reasons. No, this time it's because Past!Skyla was mentioning guns. And she didn't have a fucking clue what she was talking about.

There were lots of clips! And silencers! And no recoil! And nothing more specific than "gun"!

Oh dear god.Read more

How I Write Words & Get Shit Done

I did math the other day.

I don't particularly LIKE doing math. Not because I'm a girl (thanks, Barbie), but because I'm me and I have trouble with numbers. But I recalculated it a few times and found that yes, indeed, I've written about 450 000 words this year in various novels and short stories.

I finished one new novel, completely gutted and rewrote to others (not revisions--I mean rewrote from the bottom up, into entirely new books), finished another new novel, am about to finish a third, started two other novels, and wrote some short stories.

It's a lot of words. Especially when you work full time.

So. How do I do this? Am I magical? Maybe a robot? Do I have copious amounts of free time?

No, I STFU and work. So here are some fast and easy tips to help those of you having trouble with output.Read more

How to Deal with Edits

Tweaked recycled blog post so may look familiar, but it's always a good reminder.

So you're an author. And you're picked up by a small press/e-publisher. You're simultaneously excited and nervous, because you know edits are coming up and you don't know what to expect.

Then you get them. And you wonder...wtf?

Part of my job is overseeing editing. I introduce authors and editors, am copied on all correspondence, and mediate in case any issues come up. Usually it runs smoothly, sometimes there are hiccups. The thing about collaborative edits, when you're bouncing a manuscript back and forth between author and editor, is that there needs to be balance. Writers need to speak up but also listen; editors need to be thorough but also flexible. Both parties need to leave their ego at the door and have the same goal: make the manuscript the best it can be.

But how do you find this balance?Read more

Actually Getting Writing Done

Hey there! Skyla here with Skye's post. Enjoy!

I’ve had a lot of free time to write in the past two weeks, which has been glorious. Of course, the reason wasn’t so great. I had to have surgery to remove a cyst and got a free appendix removal as a bargain. The pain was pretty manageable and as a result, it just meant a lot of sitting around. Which is pretty good news for a writer, really.

Without that pesky job thing interfering (or my appendix, which may have been holding me back all along), I managed to write a novella about a superhero. Someone asked me how much pain medication I was on and whether or not the story would reflect that. J Fortunately, no meds these days, so I think I’m good to go on that front.

I like to think that my sudden burst of creativity is my way of my body coping. Since I get exhausted easily, I can’t do much. My brain is making up for my lack of physical activity by being more active. It’s the first time in a while that I was super excited to pound out a story. I wrote 6,000 words on the first day. That level of productivity is practically unheard of for me.

Now, keep in mind, I’m not recommending surgery as a viable approach to writer’s block, but I’m making lemonade out of the crappy lemon surgery and trying to have a little fun while I’m at it.

The biggest problem I had with the whole story was naming my male superhero. I mean, I had a name for him, but what would be his superhero name? He can create stasis fields – small bubbles of time and space where he can control everything within them. Any ideas?

The idea was sparked by seeing a call for superhero novella submissions from Entangled Publishing. I don’t know anything about them, and I’m not even sure I’m going to submit my story, but I liked the prompt it gave my brain.
I’m headed back to work on Monday, so I need to get back to editing my story before my free time goes away again.

Also, a huge THANK YOU to the lovely ladies of ELEW who sent me a truly evil chocolate get well gift basket. Delicious!