Interview with Irreverent Muse

Just got finished an interview with Michell Plested from Irreverent Muse. Michell is an amateur writer and a podcaster who talks to authors about the publishing journey. We took some time to talk about Small Magics and Cold Magics, which will be coming out in April, and what makes writing so much fun.

I'm slightly worried about this one because I only managed to get about 3 hours of sleep last night and despite two coffees and a Coke, I'm afraid I may have been slightly loopy by the time I started this interview. Hopefully, it'll be funny. Fortunately, Michell is a gracious host and put up with my ramblings.

When I have the link to my actual show I will put it up. Meanwhile, do check out Irreverent Muse and see who else he's had a chat with.

EDIT: Fixed the links to Irreverent Muse. Hat Tip to "Desk Boy" on Facebook, who noticed and told me.

And yes, you can follow this blog on facebook by joining the Erik Buchanan Page.

Book Talk from a Literary Agent

Found this blog today at lunch.  Nathan Bransford is a literary agent from Curtis Brown LTD and runs a nice little blog with excellent advice for writers and those seeking an agent.  Also his blog links on the side are well worth a read, too.

Funny enough, I am not in the market for an agent right now, not because I don't want one (I do, and if any are reading, you'll be hearing from me in the future) but because I don't have anything to send to one at the moment.

I'm up to my eyebrows in editing Cold Magics right now. The King Below, which I could be marketing to an agent, is languishing on the shelf in need of a re-write, while my next one is still sitting in my brain, bubbling away like a stew pot getting ready to explode.  Problem is, I need to keep a lid on it because I don't have time to start another project right now.

So not this year, but next year, I will be looking for an agent.  One that handles historical fiction as well as fantasy. I have a cool idea for the next book.

Running Down the Dream

I haven't been blogging much lately. The joys of working full time, commuting two hours a day, having a small child, taking classes, getting exercise, writing in what spare time I have and desperately trying to get more than 5 hours of sleep a night.

So what am I doing all this for?

I want to write fiction for a living. Not for part of my living; for a living. I want my books to be on shelves across the country, around the world and translated into different languages. I want to be cranking out at least 2 books a year, and I want to do it for the rest of my life.

It's a long row to hoe. And as all of you may have noticed, it's taking a while.

Life has a nasty way of interfereing with one's plans, and my life has certainly been interfering with mine. That's all right. Life is how you get the material you need to write.

So why I am telling you all about this?

Well, I some interesting developments have happened recently. My wonderful publisher, Dragon Moon Press, and I are going to relaunch Small Magics. This fall, I think, though we haven't got a solid date yet. And we are doing this as part of a publicity campaign for something else, which we will announce at the relaunch (hint, it's been a while coming...)

The next step on this is simultaneously building the publicity campaign for the Small Magics relaunch and the campaign around the big announcement. It means lots of writing, lots of media work, and lots of learning to do thingsI don't know how to do, like developing RSS feeds, podcasting, and developing specific social media directed campaigns.

There's lots to be done, including, possibly, a new blog that details this whole mess, as well as keeping up this one. And it's all going to take time. You know time, that one thing I don't have any of this year?

If it isn't challenging, it isn't fun.

The next steps are for me to finalize my publicity plan for the Small Magics relaunch and get working on that at high speed, keep writing on the other projects, and finish my classes at high speed. I'll be finished them this fall, all things being equal, but meanwhile, there's lots to do.

That's me. Stay tuned, and I'll be starting to put in details about the process.

Small Magics Update 2 (and other stuff)

All right, the beast is off. Gwen at Dragon Moon has it, and is putting together a final copy to send to the printers. Here's hoping I found all the erratta.

Gwen should get it out in a week, the printer should take about 4 weeks, which means a late start for it, I know, but not overly late, and not unexpectedly so, given my life these days.

So a new release date to be released soon.

In other news, I've just about got the new computer up and running (yes, it's taken me this long. Like I said, I'm busy). Which soon means more time for writing, rebuilding the website (the next project) and little fun things like, oh, I don't know. Going to a movie maybe.

Meanwhile we are also house hunting. I'm not going to put any details here for fear of jinxing it (yeah, stupid superstition, I know, still what can you do?) but I'll let you know when we've got it.

And now, back to work. I'm on the clock in 7 minutes.

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!

It's Here...

Ain't it cool? Click on it to buy it.

Small Magics: Update

A quick post tonight because I'm up way to late once again and 5:30 AM is coming far too soon.

Laura Diehl, my magnificent illustrator is doing great things withthe cover art, and Gwen, my publisher and I are just working out the schedule for the next two months before the book hits the shelf.

Meanwhile, I'm learning as much about generating publicity as possible, because I want to actually sell a few of these things!

Time for bed.

On Writing: What Comes (and Doesn't) with Publication...

First off, a hat tip to the Wyrdsmiths, who led me to two posts by science fiction author David Louis Edelman on what does and doesn't happen when you become a published author.

Here are the high points:

What Doesn't Happen:
1. Money does not suddenly rain down from the sky.
2. Your career worries do not melt away.
3. Your lifestyle and self-image do not dramatically shift.
4. Writing does not suddenly become easy.
5. Your friendships and relationships don’t undergo a sudden transformation.

What Does Happen:
1. Strangers will be strangely deferential to you.
2. You will suddenly become “the writing expert” to your friends and relatives.
3. You’ll have mixed feelings about what you’ve written.
4. Self-published authors will look to you for validation.
5. You’ll have accomplished something that nobody can take away from you.

Both posts are worth a read, as they are both quite funny and a good reminder to those of us starting out that life isn't going to change that much (except the bragging rights).