The Education of an Indie Writer continues…
Hello, and thanks to everyone who signed up for the newsletter over the last month; it’s really nice to know I’m not just shouting out into the void (heh)!
It’s been a really busy February, with some family ups-and-downs, school swimming, guitar and playdates, and lots and lots of writing.
Writing update
My Education of an Indie Writer continues this month; I’ve been busy compiling stories, doing lots of research, and getting all of my ducks in a row. There is so much involved with Indie Publishing, and I’m slowly working through my checklist.
On the business side of things, I’ve set up my KDP account, registered the domain name for my “official writing website” (hosted at GitHub pages) at www.jessicanickelsen.com (and stopped myself from wasting too much time on the CSS there), created a business bank account, and this newsletter too. Hooked everything up to point back at the author website, and I’ve updated my contact email address too. You can now send an email to jess@jessicanickelsen.com and get directly in touch! (Or, for that matter, just hit reply to this newsletter.)
On the actual writing side, I’ve been putting together a collection that I’m calling The Dark Offering and other stories, and it’s been great going back through those.
I’ve written a blurb and chosen a cover, which just has a couple of tweaks required, and then I’ll share it here. I’m not throwing handfuls of cash at this project but I want it to look and feel good. Choosing a cover was difficult; in the end I went with a pre-made cover from James at GoOnWrite.com, and while there is still one little part of it I’m still thinking through, it has a great creepy mood and feeling. It also has good contrast and stands out really well even as a thumbnail, and in black and white. Tick!
Once all of the short story collection is finished, I’ll start working on putting together the Catnip and Brimstone novelette as an ebook. (By the way, what sounds better to you, On Catnip and Brimstone, or just Catnip and Brimstone?) The sequel to this (working title Catmage) is also in the works. I’m about 20,000 words in and feeling good about its progress.
Books & music
Fiction I've enjoyed this month:
- Sounder, by William H Armstrong. I’m sure I read this back when I was a kid, but I don’t know if I was prepared for how powerful this book was. It’s slim, sparse, and yet so full of richness and detail. Armstrong portrays a gruelling life of poverty, and yet I felt so lifted up with The Boy at the end.
- Till September Petronella, by Jean Rhys. Wide Sargasso Sea is one of my favourite books, but I’ve never read any of Rhys’s short stories. This is a little volume of four stories that I really enjoyed. Each features unreliable female narrators who seem out of sorts in new lives in London, much the way I imagine Rhys herself felt when she came over from the Caribbean.
- All About Emily, by Connie Willis. An aging actor strikes up a friendship with an A.I. who dreams of becoming a Rockette. I’d never heard of this, but spotted it at the library. I love The Doomsday Book, To Say Nothing of the Dog, and Bellweather, and while I’m not sure I loved it quite as much as the other three, I devoured it in a day.
- and I’ve just started The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck (after last reading it at least twenty years ago!)
And non-fiction:
- Stop Worrying, Start Selling, by Sarah Painter. My “sales hat” doesn’t get worn very often, and I think I’m allergic to salespeople. This book helped me get over that though (well, mostly) and see that there are ways that you can market and sell your writing without coming across like a complete jerk. Thanks!
- Successful Self-Publishing, by Joanna Penn. Anther good one for just putting everything down in one place. I’ve taken copious amounts of notes from these two books & heartily recommend them if you are new to the indie publishing bizzo.
- Take off Your Pants!, by Libbie Hawker.I’ve had this for a while, but it’s been quite helpful for the current book I’m working on. I’m still not the sort of person who can sit down and outline something from start to end. But Hawker’s book has me pinning down my thinking a little more than I did in the past, and I’ve found it’s really good to help me keep my thinking a bit more on track when I write.
Blog round-up
If you missed Feb’s blog posts, you can find them here. Yeah, it's been a tough month.
- A newsletter cometh
- A Day for Writing
- Saying Goodbye
- Rain, Lots of Rain
- Relief
- Setting up an external SSD on the mac mini
- A big step
Cool links
Aaand, last, but not least, some random yet pleasing miscellanea:
- 10 Ways to Use Up Leftover Milk
- End of Neanderthals linked to flip of Earth's magnetic poles
- Now
- At Age 28, Chilean Astronomer Maritza Soto Has Already Discovered Three Planets
- Denis Johnson's 69-page list of writing quotes
Thanks again for coming along on this ride with me. As always, feel free to send me an email if there's anything you liked here, or didn't like. Or if you just want to say hi. Just hit reply, or email jess@jessicanickelsen.com
See you next time,
Jess