The Reading Challenge!

I wanted to get this blog going again, but have had a heck of a time figuring out what to write. Then I remembered I have all these books…

The Collection

250 paperbacks (we double shelve) plus the same again in hardcovers and trades, plus comic books and graphic novels. Half are mine, half my fiancé’s. We have mythology, literary fiction, fantasy, horror, sci-fi, romance, children’s books, anthropology, history, geology, physics, archaeology, palaeontology, and biographies.

The Challenge

I work full time writing and ghostwriting, plus marketing and self-publishing (The Dark Season, beginning this fall, so watch for it) and looking after my daughter. I also suffer from depression, which I am fighting, but which sucks up a lot of energy and makes it hard for me to do other things. So how long will it take to read them all?

Let’s Find Out!

I'm starting this week with the paperbacks, alphabetically by author (anonymous goes first, anthologies are alphabetical by editor). Once I’ve finished those I’ll do the same with with the hardcovers and trades, then the comics and graphic novels. I’m excluding the martial arts manuals and cookbooks, but including (god help me) the books that I wrote (Small Magics, Cold Magics, and True Magics, which you should really read, if you haven’t). And to prove I’ve read them, I’ll post up a short review of each one here and on Goodreads. Because fun and social media marketing.

The First Book

Early Irish Myths and Legends

So join me on the journey, and feel free to tell me what you’re reading, because the more books, the better!
SaveSave

This Writing Life 1: Introductions

It's 8:30 a.m. and I am at my desk.

Well, desk is a misnomer.  I'm sitting at the kitchen table in our apartment in downtown Toronto, Canada. But this table is where I work, so until the family comes home it’s my desk.

My name is Erik Buchanan. I’m a professional writer, and I make a pretty good living at it.  “This Writing Life” is a series about how I got here, how I stay here, how you can get here, and what all of us who write can do to improve our writing.

My desk chair faces a wall. There’s a window beside me but I have to crane my neck to look out, which keeps me from staring at the garden and daydreaming.

Instead, if I look up from my computer I can see two whiteboards. The smaller whiteboard lists my projects. There are about a dozen, and so far everything is running on time.

The big whiteboard shows the story arcs for my new novel, True Magics, (due out this fall). The story arcs are written in in eight different colours and look a mess, but they tells me exactly what I need to fix.

Today’s writing tasks:

• This blog post
• Four hours of ghostwriting for a client,
• Three hours of editing on True Magics

Tomorrow looks similar, except it’s six hours of editing True Magics, seven if I can squeeze in the time.

This is where I am: in my office, writing for a living. And I love it.

So how did I get here?

I’ll talk about that next week.

That's just neat: What was that book

Ever tried to find a book where you couldn't remember the title or the author, just vaguely remembered snippets?

You're in luck!

What was that book? is an online community that reunites folks with the booksthat they've lost.

This may be one of the best ideas ever.

Hat tip to io9, which is where I learned about them.

Now That's Just Neat!

Fit to Print

Imagine being able to go into a bookstore and order any book in existance and have it printed. This is the first step.

It will, I think help revitalize the publishing industry if they do it right, and can certainly do wonders for bookstores. As well as keeping what's new nd popular on the shelves,they would be able to print up the books as they are ordered, including all the backlist stuff that is so hard to find, and that makes Amazon so popular.

Neat!

Science Fiction and Fantasy Fun

Stupid Fun.

But fun nonetheless.

I have been staring at a computer for four days straight...

Time to take a night off. I'm curling up with a book.

Speaking of books, Cold Magics is coming along nicely. Had hoped to be finished by now but life, as usual, interrupted. High hopes for the end of August, though.

And maybe popcorn. I could use some popcorn.

Polaris Day 3

So it's all done for another year. I had a blast.

Only had one panel on Sunday: designing magic systems. The sum total of all our opinions: you can get away with anything as long as you are consistent. Inconsistency can drive readers nuts.

I taught my Instant Kung Fu workshop, which went well, but more importantly, had my first official BOOK SIGNING!!!

It was so cool! I sold ten books and signed them, plus signed another from a woman who was at Polaris last year and bought my book when it first came out. It was brilliant!

I'd like to give a special thanks to the folks at the Indigo table, where the signings were who, despite not actually carrying my book, were gracious and helpful and a lot of fun.

Sales total for the weekend: 15 copies!!!

Yay!!!

Spent a lot of time talking to people (still didn't see any actors) and hanging out. Finally got Tanya Huff's autograph in one of her books (Blood Price) though I had to run from one thing to another.

A note about Tanya Huff: She is a gracious, wonderful, friendly woman, who is nice to everyone and even trats us juniors in the business with respect. May I grow up to be just like her.

And I managed to snag my poster off the wall. It now hangs on my bulletin board. so cool!

All in all, a good time was had by all.

Oh, apprently the fire alarm went off at the hotel three times Sunday: 6 AM, 8 AM, 9 AM. The last two they had to evacuate the hotel. I'm so, so sorry I was at home in bed and missed the excitement.

Really. I'm sorry.


A great time, and hopefully I'll see you all next year.

Well, How About That...

Back in high school I knew a girl named Angie Abdou. Now Angie is an author with a book of short stories out and a new novel. Here they are (click on each picture for their Amazon link):



Angie is launching her new novel, The Bone Cage, on September 21, 2007 at Pages on Kensington in Calgary, Alberta.

Congratulations Angie!

And It's Off...

I have just finished going over the final proofs for Small Magics. These come looking like the interior of the book, and are the author's last chance to make sure he hasn't screwed up too badly before the book goes to the printer.

While I'm pleased to say I didn't screw up too badly, I can't say I didn't screw up the last edit. Found a huge number of punctuation errors, and some text that was bad and needed fixing in a big way. All of that is now done. The errata is on its was back to Dragon Moon, and I am getting all excited.

And now to write something in Cold Magics, just to show I have started work again.

(Given how tired I am, I'll be lucky if it's a complete sentence)

Then to bed. To sleep, to dream, to get up and go to work.

Update:
And those of you who read this before I fixed the typos will know why it is so important to proof your work. And most of all, proof when you aren't tired!