book – Tale Chasing

Episode 27: SF – Authors Notes 1

kimiko — Thu, 07 May 2009 18:33:30 +0000

Let’s get back to the real purpose of Tale Chasing. This little black sheep had lost her way and now she’s found the path again. I call this the Authors Notes because I wanted this raw, uncut, and immadiately ready for release. I wanted TaleChasing to be the place to come for Special Features (hence the SF in the title) on the hows and whys of making Guardians or whatever project I’m involved with. Well…here we go.

This is me…raw and uncut! Enjoy!

I’ll tell you the truth.

kimiko — Sat, 24 May 2008 02:16:12 +0000

I’m going to talk about the thing that no one wants to talk about. The thing that writers who are trying to help other writers pretend not to have. Fear.

Yesterday, I was not hitting on all cylanders. I attempted a podcast (which will be up shortly) that I wasn’t really happy with. I even gathered a few people together to talk about writing and wasn’t very happy with how that turned out either. Later on, when I was thinking about getting to that re-edit I thought back to my evening and decided that I might be better off getting to it tomorrow since it was clear that I wasn’t really happy with my performance. I was pretty ok with that and sat down with a book that I bought to help spark my creativity. I got so into it that I read for several hours. It even sparked me to want my book to be as good.Â I read until I got to tired to stay awake.

This morning when I woke up somehow that great spark of hope turned inwards on itself into fear and self-doubt. I contemplated beginning the re-write and nothing I thought about writing seemed like it was going to be good enough. I managed to let my fear take over.

A book I got recently called ‘The War of Art’ by Steven Pressfield, talks about “Resistance” in terms of what keeps people from rising to their potential and fulfilling their desires. You’d think he would tell us that “fear is the mind killer”, which in some cases it is. But his feeling on fear is this:

“Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do….. Resistance is experienced as fear; the degree of fear equates to the strength of Resistance. Therefore the more fear we feel about a specific enterprise, the more certain we can be that that enterprise is important to us and to the growth of our soul. That’s why we feel so much Resistance. If it meant nothing to us, there wouldÂ be no Resistance.”

He goes on to talk about other interesting ideas reguarding resistance and how to over come it. I’m not quite through with the book but I find that it has a lot of truth in it. I’m still scared of failing to write something people will like, or not writing it well enough. It’s likely going to be a fight I’ll have to work through until the book is finished and maybe even during the next one. But I do want to write this and I do think it can be really good.

So if you think you’re alone in your fear, if you think you’re alone in your fight against Resistance..y.ou’re not. I’m right there with you. Let’s fight it together.

Look what I found

kimiko — Wed, 14 May 2008 21:52:40 +0000

I was reading a list of questions with links to the answers by The Paperback Writer. There’s a lot of good stuff over there. But that led me to what seems to be a really good resource for writers who are looking for more info on how to plot, create characters, etc. I haven’t had time to read it all. I was very aware that I probably should have been writing instead of reading about writing….but part of the reason for linking it for you was so I could go back later and read it myself. If you find particularly good parts, feel free to put them in the comments!

Of course, part of the reason I decided to save this for later is because I started reading and questioning whether I’d covered all the things they were talking about in my story and characters and that way leads to madness.

So…enjoy!

A taste of what it’s like

kimiko — Wed, 14 May 2008 18:12:21 +0000

Last night I agreed to help run the door for a friend of mine, Tristan Taormino (NWS), who was having a book signing party. OMG! She had well over 400 people who came to see her and another author she was doing the party with. The club was moderately small, as most of them are in NYC and I was so glad I was at the door and not back in the crowded club space. But it definately gave me an idea of what a party is like. Made me tired and I wasn’t even the one hob-knobing with people.

She had some people from the media who came and other VIP like people. She gave out goodie bags and raffled off some prizes. She had quite a few helpers from her friends and such and it makes me think about if I ever have one what work it will be. LOL It was good experience to have actually.

It was a three hour party, and while pretty much anyone was allowed to come, she had us check off names so she could have a decent accounting of how many people came. The raffle was held 30 mins from the end so that kept most people hanging around to possibly buy something. EVERYONE wanted a gift bag but we only gave out tickets for them to the first 200 people. So many people tried to scam them. LOL Makes me wonder what kind of stuff I could put in a goodie bag if I gave them out. Her’s was a sex/relationship book so lots of the goodies in the bag had something to do with that. No wonder everyone wanted one.

I mentioned that I wouldn’t want to do mine in such a small club but someone mentioned that the atmosphere was probably better with everyone so close together and hyped up. Probably right but ug!

Ep 10: Interview with Stacia Kane

kimiko — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 03:20:13 +0000

I interview Stacia Kane,Â urban fantasy and erotic fiction author. Her newest book, Personal Demons is out in the next week or so! I recommend it highly. It’s an awesome read. And don’t listen to her when she says she’s a bad interview. She’s just modest! And now…Stacia Kane.Â

The following were mentioned in the podcast (in no certain order)

Stacia Kane
Ellora’s Cave
December Quinn
Passionate Ink Online Writers Group
Romance Writers of America
Jackie Kessler : Cat and Muse

Promo:
The Writing Cast

Repost and new Episodes!

kimiko — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:43:30 +0000

As you can see I finally got caught up! Ep 1 – 8 of Tale Chasing is all nice and neat and now available for download! I hope that you enjoy them and I hope that you take some time to leave comments on the site or call in! I’m looking forward to doing more and working on my book now that this is all done!!

Â You can call in to 201.830.1586ï¿½
Remember to leave the name of the site and if it’s ok for me to use your comment in one of my podcasts!

When I return from Kansas I’ll write a post with all the links from Ep 1-8 that you might want to get to!

Ep 8: Interview with Jackie Kessler

kimiko — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:39:41 +0000

Kimi gets the author of Hell’s Belles, Jackie Kessler to sit down and spill some of her secrets.

Ep 7: Brainstorming Session

kimiko — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:37:29 +0000

Kimi brainstorms about a WIP with friends in her chat room.

Ep 6: Post DragonCon 2007

kimiko — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:34:50 +0000

Kimi talks about the highlights of DragonCon 2007 and what’s planned in the future.

Ep 4: Prep vs Procastination

kimiko — Sat, 16 Feb 2008 05:27:54 +0000

When is doing research and preparing to work on your book nothing more then just simple procastination? Kimi discusses the concept in this episode of Tale Chasing.