stuff

Couple of Things (All Behold Skyla, Mistress of Amazing Blog Titles)

* Payday came at last and so I picked up some movies for the Hunter Prize Pack. You can see the updated list here: http://www.skyladawncameron.com/hunterprizepack They're oldies but goldies.

* I also grabbed a St. Anthony chaplet with wooden beads. I was going to just get a plain rosary, but that's what Ryann carries in Hunter, so I dropped a couple of extra bucks for it. I'll update the contest page with pics when it arrives.

* Author Krista Ball will be visiting July 15, so mark that on your calendars!

* Diet Game of DOOM stuff is going well enough so far. We keep adding to the wager. If Dina loses, she has to do her lip syncing dressed as a mundane (sans Goth gear). If I do, I have to read a page of Twilight, while sober, and then edit it. Also, there was talk the other night of the scene in Dirty Dancing when Penny and Baby are practicing dancing to "Hungry Eyes." Yeah, here's a visual for you (check it at about 1:58). I am SO not losing this motherfucking thing.

* On a similar note, the fab Lilith Saintcrow has a post up on running that you need to check out. Also click through for Sports Bra of DOOM.

* As I mentioned the other day, the serials are no longer available in print. I'm still grumpy about it.

* Speaking of serials, I think Amends will have a new chapter posted every two weeks. I tried to do one a week of another serial years ago and it damn near killed me--I have to much else to do. Each chapter will be 2K words or so, which is a little shorter than a typical chapter is in Bloodlines.

* What I AM going to need, though, is a volunteer proofer. Requirements: a good eye for typos (errors I typically make: missing a word or an extra word added, slightly wrong word used 'cause I type too fast) and hopefully a passing familiarity with the first book. Also, the ability to get a chapter back to me within a few days of receiving it, barring emergencies, would be great, as I'm terrible about writing things last minute. Plus on occasion I may ask for feedback as in, "I was trying to do __ with this scene--does it work?" but beyond that, no, I'm not looking for betaing/critting, so you don't have to think too much about it. Interested? Drop me an email at skyladawncameron[at]gmail[dot]com.

* Hunter revisions are...erm...coming along. I'd like to say well but as soon as I do, something bad will happen. I'm over halfway there, though, and Zara shows up soon, so that should speed it up.

* I had something else to include here but I took too long to write this and now I've forgotten. I'm sure it was fascinating, however.

Sunday Post

Well, it's been a busy month. I wasn't around for a chunk of it--physically, as in I wasn't home and away from my PC, and mentally/emotionally as in I retreated from everything.

Yesterday I watched Amelie. It would likely surprise no one that it's one of my favourite movies, however it probably would surprise people to know that of all the movie characters that ever were, I probably identify with her the most. Not that I do good deeds for people (eww, no--I'm evil), but her inability to relate to others and build relationships. My social circles consist of people who are friends with each other, and then there's me, off to the side, stuck in her own head and not really a part of things.

Which is probably why I'm okay with uprooting my life and moving in a few months to a place where waitresses stare at me funny when I request a meal that doesn't include meat. I'm going to be a distant hermit no matter where I go.

And you know, I don't really have a point in saying this; it was just on my mind and I've been silent for weeks, so I thought I'd ponder it 'aloud' on the blog. I feel Amelie-ish a lot of the time. Only with less awesome hair and sans the cute, quirky guy to borderline stalk.

Stuff I Did This Week:

* I let everyone know I am not dead yet.

* Did some arty stuff called Wild.

* Facebook has changed their "Become a Fan of" button to "Like." So while initially I kind of ignored my FB page and never really invited anyone (as the number of invites I get to things often drives me batty) because I didn't want to force them to be a "fan" of me...now I'm kinda insulted that more of my friends' list doesn't "like" me. Is it because I'm distant and Amelie-ish? http://www.facebook.com/pages/Skyla-Dawn-Cameron/9912704791

Stuff I Sorta Contributed To:

* Friend J.A. Saare dealt with piracy again--she was quite disheartened when her latest release was uploaded to a pirate site. So of course I jumped on board to play Veronica Mars and help her find this person. 3 hours on the phone later... Well, here's the saga: Part One: Wherein She First Discovered the Piracy, Part Two: Portrait of an E-Pirate, and Part Three: Update.

This story did have a somewhat happy ending, which has gone to show that it IS possible for authors to reach the people illegally uploading their work and, in some cases, nip this problem in the bud. (Of course, a few months ago Jaime also spoke to one Sarah Sandford from Australia--specifically, from the Wangaratta area, I believe--who had requested illegal copies of her work...Sarah assured Jaime she wouldn't do it again, and then just last week tried to steal one of my books. She had no excuses or apologies for ME when I asked about it.)

Stuff I Tangentially Contributed To:

* Well, I acquired and edited the book, so...that's where my contribution begins and ends in this case. But I love the book so much that I want you to purchase it and love it too, so behold Sarah-Jane's fabulous trailer for Thief!

Stuff I In No Way Contributed To But Dig:

* Lili Saintcrow talks about how she's not the enemy in ebook pricing (and how neither is her publisher). Besides the fact that her post is AWESOME and very right, something interesting comes up in the comments that I think about a lot.

Sometimes it seems, as writers, that we can't say anything without readers perceiving us as insulting them. What I don't think people understand is that...you haven't seen an author's inbox. Most people wouldn't BELIEVE some of the stuff "fans" say to writers. I'm a nobody, and I get everything from backhanded compliments to hatemail. Saying "Please don't complain to me about something out of my control" isn't being disrespectful to readers; it's a request for respect and a showing of transparency about the business.

(Tangent: I'm also sympathetic because in my job I *constantly* get yelled at for Shit Out of My Control. And then I explain how and why it's out of my control and *still* get yelled at.)

* In a similar vein, Jaime pondered how to respond to negative reader letters. (My opinion? If it's angry/insulting/provoking, I don't answer it. Sometimes I try, but if an email ticks me off, it gets starred for a later reply and then I tend to forget about it. Moral of the story: expressing your displeasure with a book is fine, but try to be nice if you're writing to an author personally. We are actually people.)

* 50 Things You Can Control Right Now.

* The Writing Style of Twilight. All I can say about this is...TRAITOR TEARS!

* And on the subject of Twilight, Translating the Eclipse Trailer.

* I attended Boobquake.

* via ICAHK, UK Gov't "too busy" to stop a woman from being deported to her death.

* April 20th was Random Act of Kindness Day for friend Rissa Watkins to honour the baby she never had.

* Jim Hines on Authors Behaving Badly. If you missed the whole Rejection Queen saga, Fandom Wank has the detes. Get some popcorn.

And here's a random Amelie fan vid that I found and LOVED. Yes, I watch fanvids and am a total nerd.

link in case the embedding doesn't work

And that pretty much sums up the past few weeks in April. Did you guys read/do/watch anything totally awesome? Leave a link!

Sunday Post

So I'm keeping this as a "Sunday Post" even though it's going up on Monday...I wrote most of it yesterday, so it still counts. Yeah.

Skyla News:

* Inbox got up to like 340 again. Cue nervous breakdown. Then the minion came (what--you don't have a minion?) and she took on some of my inbox while I took on the longer, more complicated answers.

Now look!

This makes me ever so happy.

* Also, I put up the shelf (that fell and could have killed me in my sleep) again all by myself. I'm still sleeping on the other side of the bed AWAY from it, though.

* Saturday, I saw New Moon. I'm trying to think of a worse movie, but I can't. Even Jesus Christ Vampire Hunter was better (because it had a) bad kung fu, b) a Mexican wrestler, and c) vampires that killed people rather than sparkled, which all makes it better). The LOLCat version was totally apt and if you read it, you don't need to see that dreadful film ever.

* I got a lovely review for Wolfe from Bitten by Books - Five Tombstones. "Well written with very defined characters, the series is very compelling and captivating, so much so that I find myself somewhat curious about Ms. Cameron’s background and if she’s hiding any secrets about herself." read more

Yes, I'm secretly a werewolf. ;-)

No, you know what it is? Why I could get in River's head so easily? Because even if I'm not secretly a wolf-turned-human, I've always felt like an outsider looking at humanity. River is just that to the extreme.

Some other linkage:

* Michelle on getting good at eating.

* Lili on having a room of one's own, and the will to write. I was an only child, so I did become accustomed to writing in a space by myself, but throughout school as a teen, I did learn to write anywhere. I wrote on my old laptop while I was babysitting, I wrote in class during lessons (probably why I failed nearly everything). The room of my own had to be in my head--it was the only place others couldn't tread. So I would stick on headphones, go into that little room, and write regardless of the distractions around me.

* Kate Harding on Women's Fiction.

* A Happy Meal hasn't decomposed...in a year. Ewwww. This is why I don't eat that kind of crap.

* "Nowhere in the bible did Jesus have a sword fight." (Some more fun from David Thorne.)

* xkcd on "Porn for Women".

* Oh yeah (going through my Twitter feed): I made Jill Kismet fan art last week.

* The Future of Publishing

Finally...I was at a friend's place working on Wednesday and I found (and scanned) an old photo of me 'cause, like, that's just the thing to do--post embarrassing old photos. So here's thirteen year old Skyla...clearly it's the mid-90's. I mean, THE HAT.

Sunday Post

I gotta get blogging more. I'm just really lazy and typically post links on Twitter to whatever I'm interested in, rather than do a proper blog post. But anyways, I'm going to try to do a round up post on Sundays of nifty, random stuff.

In Skyla News, I was on limited office hours this week due to really bad wrist pain, which flares up if I don't take enough breaks for several weeks. So...ouch. And in writing news, I've been suffering a whiny case of, "Writing is hard--waaaaah!" so I've pretty much kept to myself. I don't understand why staring blankly at the screen doesn't make words appear...

First up, publishing/writing stuff.

* A great piece on writers' expectations and publishing. I love this piece. It addresses the obsession with instant success stories (which I've talked a bit about before) and the whiny "Why do crappy books get published?" thing that everyone says. And it was summed up best by the awesome Julie Butcher: "So if we're hard-heads, we win?" Yep.

* Over at Deadline Dames, Jeaniene Frost talks about piracy. We all know my thoughts on the subject *cough* so I'll just say WORD to everything there.

* Lili's Friday writing post about the fear that characters will stop talking to you if you're happier and don't share their pain. And it's a fantastic post because I've had that fear for years. I'm viewing shitty life experiences now as "taking one for the team"--they've allowed me to go to a very dark place and transform those feelings and experiences into something cathartic for others. In short, I feel like my best books are the ones I write for fellow damaged people. So if I actively work on being happier and healthier, can I still write effectively for the damaged? I don't know. But it's worth a shot.

* I wrote on the MP blog about my author checklist. This is something I've heard a LOT of editors talk about--what type of writers do they want to work with...and who do they REALLY not want around? I came up with nine qualities I've encountered that make me twitchy. I also encourage writers to come up with their checklist for publishers. I think we all have to be clear about what our expectations are for one another to make the best match possible, because really, that's how a book is going to be successful--when both parties are on the same page. I expect someone's going to get bent out of shape over it but, you know, someone's gotta say these things.

* My friend J.A. Saare has a new book out. Go read, buy, and DON'T pirate it or she and I will kick your scummy pirate ass. ;-)

Feministy things.

* A sixteen year old girl was buried alive by her family for talking to boys. I can't even begin to tell you how much this upset me--I think I spent the better part of an hour on Friday just sitting here crying. If you're interested in learning more about honour killings and those fighting against the practice, visit the fine folks at the International Campaign Against Honour Killings. They're good people.

* Follow The Pixel Project on Twitter. Every night they tweet helplines from all over the world to DV shelters. Retweet the numbers and you could save a life.

Video stuff.

This is an oldie, but it's been this weekend's theme song. Defying Gravity, Firefly/Serenity style

And Gone with the Wind with Vampires.

Randomness.

* There's a fan group on Facebook for Mike "Other Asian" Chang on Glee! This makes me happy because he's really adorable. I think he needs a storyline of his own. Or at least a few more lines.

* Finally...here's Selleck Waterfalls Sandwich. Which wins the internet.

Obligatory First of the Month Post

So I've got lots of new stuff coming your way.

New Children of the Apocalypse chapter has been posted. Yay! Now I have to scramble to get the next one done--it's too short, needs a serious rehaul, but I've been too lazy to do anything about it). We're on Chapter Two of Part Three: The Ritual, and the girls are--of course--getting themselves into a spot of trouble...read it all here: http://www.apocalypsenovel.com

Tomorrow (well, likely tonight) will see the posting of the next Curio Killed the Cat chapter. Chapter Five: Praise Jesus, Not Satan sees more trouble befalling the shop. Is there truly no such thing as bad publicity? Head over to http://www.curiokilledthecat.com shortly to find out.

I also added a little poll on my main website, asking who your favourite of my heroines is? http://www.skyladawncameron.com/poll/1

I'm otherwise doing okay. I'm on medication right now and the (hopefully temporary) side effects have kicked in full force today. I can barely sit up to work on the computer, and am incredibly thankful I don't have to walk to work today. Lots of pain = badness. I have a few covers that I'm trying to get finished today, as well as some acquisitions work. Between all my jobs, I think I've been working fourteen hour days for the last couple of weeks...ah, the life of a poor person. ;-)

As an aside, WTF is wrong with some people who insist on kicking you while you're down? I'm so happy that all of the new people I have in my life now are quite the opposite (although I still think I'm doomed to always have potential in laws who dislike me). At the very least, it's incredibly comforting to know that they can kick me all they want--they invariably underestimate me and the things I'm capable of doing...

I'm going back to work now, where I shall continue listening to this awesome album Voodoo Blues, which I highly recommend.