Glistering: B's Blog

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Rock On

I seem to have a problem with timing. No, not musically speaking. My sense of rhythm and tempo are rock steady. And not performance timing. I pride myself (what a weird expression, but you know what I mean) on being able to start on time and remain within a reasonable timeframe, both for myself or anything I've organized.

No, just general life timing. Putting things together on a daily basis timing. And especially this book business and promotion thing timing. It's a bit...confusing and frustrating. And the more time I spend trying to do the social networking thing, the more confused I get (not to mention the horrendous wasting of precious writing time!)

On a more encouraging note, I am thrilled to be able to say that Bronze won (tied) the Literary Fiction category of the IndieReader Discovery Awards. I'm glad of the exposure and extremely glad to know that my book was read by people actually in the publishing and media industries and was considered good enough to win an award. For someone like me who is still trying to figure out the best way of letting people know my book even exists, it's a BIG deal. So . . . YAY!

Also, I'm waiting to release (rather impatiently, but I'm trying!) the Kindle version of Bronze to maximize exposure for it. I'll tell you more about this as those efforts progress. There will be hidden information revealed concerning the book (yes, like a puzzle) and a real contest (yes, solving said puzzle) and there will definitely be giveaways and free Kindle days and special goodies. I'm extremely excited and anxious to get this going! Tick tock tick tock....

In the meantime, I'm trying to concentrate on actual writing and avoiding internet wandering. I'm saving a couple of blog posts I've already written for a future blog tour--as soon as I have that set up--so I won't be terribly active here, but I'll let you know where I can be found! I would love to respond to people and answer any specific questions you may have, but I'm going to avoid the internet otherwise. I'm too easily distracted! The best place to contact me personally (unless you have my e-mail) is here on this blog, on The Glister Journals Facebook page or @glisterjournals on Twitter.

I'd like to share a video with you though. This made my day and was a huge encouragement to me to block out self doubt and just stay true to my vision, my ideas, my voice, my characters, and the story I'm trying to tell with The Glister Journals. Adults can be so stifling and negative. Children often seem to be my greatest inspiration, and these boys are wonderful. Rock on!

(Click the right bottom corner for full screen.)

Reviews for The Glister Journals: Bronze

More Glister Journals info and chapters at the book's website here: theglisterjournals.com

The Glister Journals: Bronze can be purchased through any bookseller, or purchase now at Amazon.com

Saturday, June 1, 2013

Bronze e-book . . . soon!

UPDATE (June 9, 2013):

I'm pleased to say the Kindle edition of my novel Bronze is ready and will be available soon pending some promotional efforts. Once those things are in place there will be more news and giveaways. Hang in there with me!

Well, I had hoped to have the Kindle edition of Bronze available today, but I confess I'm still working on the TOC. It will be available within the next few days though. When it is I'll update this post and announce the first 'free' day.

There will also be news--Bronze has won an award that we're quite excited about--and I can't wait to tell you about the Bronze soundtrack. "You mean 'play list'?" I hear you ask. No, soundtrack. Stay tuned!

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Allison, Wreck It Ralph and PDDs

First I'd like to share with you the second Glister Journals piece drawn by a friend, comic artist Jeff Stokely, before he became famous and notorious (okay he's not exactly famous nor notorious beyond certain circles but he's working on it!) I love this drawing. This is closest to how I picture Allison (from my novel Bronze) and I love the way he has portrayed Robin too, though I don't see her quite this way. (The drawing of Dave and Chris is here.) What do you think?:

Jeff has been extremely busy and is working on two comics coming out this year, a reimagining of a classic pulp, Six Gun Gorilla, and his own (with co-writer/creator Chris Northrop) The Reason for Dragons which I am personally very excited about.

So, I finally saw Wreck It Ralph last night. It's not a movie that I would normally choose to watch, but I had heard about it when it came out from many kids that loved it. My daughter and her boyfriend just watched it last night and left it for me to watch too so I figured I had better make an effort. I have to admit that I wasn't at all interested in it and for the first half of the movie was wishing I was watching something else. But I persevered and I'm glad I did.

Now, I'm not going to list the reasons that I found the movie less than captivating. People have different tastes and this didn't appeal to me to start with. It really bothers me when people write reviews on books, films, whatever, that they wouldn't normally have read/watched and can't really find fault with but give negative reviews because they assumed it was something else (don't even get me started on assumptions) or just didn't like it for reasons outside the scope of what it is. Why do people do that? So I'm not going to say what I didn't like. If you like this kind of movie, you will probably love it.

This is a tongue-in-cheek 'behind the screens' promo that does not divulge much of the actual movie, but if you haven't seen it, you'll get the idea:

I will say that, though I felt 'meh' about all the characters from the beginning, Ralph himself, though completely predictable, did grow on me. But what I really sat up and took notice of was the character Vanellope. At first I couldn't stand her and not because she was obnoxious, but because she was so obviously meant to be too obnoxious so that you would have to like her later. The anti-princess. Ugh. But as I continued to watch, it began to occur to me that this throw-away child was like the neuro-atypical people I see every day. How she was like my character Allison Anderson from Bronze. And, apparently, like me.

Now Allison is quiet and introspectiv--not in-your-face obnoxious like Vanellope--nor is she homeless and lacking in personal hygiene. But that 'glitch' that keeps Vanellope from being accepted by the other kids--along with having very different ideas of what is attractive, valuable, and funny (not to mention questionable powers of self-assessment and style sense)--is what sets kids diagnosed with PDDs (pervasive developmental disorders) apart. It is also often what gives them heightened sensory perception and out-of-the-box creativity which Vanellope displays beautifully (her ability to see what others cannot, creative approach to problems, etc.) She is not just a quirky character that marches to the beat of a different drummer. I think a lot of 'normal' people like to think of themselves that way too.

No, there is something different about her; something in her code, her genetic make up and neural programming. This is PDD. This is what is at work with people with autism spectrum disorders. It is not something they control or choose and it does not necessarily affect their intelligence or ability to take care of themselves and others. It does often make it very hard to interact with other people, react in socially accepted ways, and cope with sensory overload. I don't know if that's what the writers had in mind but if you've seen the movie or watch it now, I'd be interested to know what you think.

*Small Spoiler Alert* I think the thing I loved most about the character in the movie was at the end, when she becomes accepted by the others (the reasons which I'm not going to analyze too deeply right now.) At first she appears to become a princess, as if she has completely changed and is 'normal' like all the others. PSYCH! Nope, she's just the same as she was, glitch and all. I LOVE THAT! If you are a person with ASD/PDD, you cannot magically be changed. There's no 'cure'. Why should we want one? We aren't 'wrong' or broken, just different.

I will leave you with a song and video I would otherwise never subject you to, but I love it. (Metaphors aside, whether this song is appropriate in a children's movie is also beyond the scope of what I want to deal with here!):

Reviews for The Glister Journals: Bronze

More Glister Journals info and chapters at the book's website here: theglisterjournals.com

The Glister Journals: Bronze can be purchased through any bookseller, or purchase now at Amazon.com

Happy Mother's Day

A short post to wish all you mums out there a lovely Mother's Day with a special Mother's Day song from a very special lady. Flo Paris is the talented daughter of a musical friend of mine, orignally from California and now residing in Nashville. I got to know her a little when she was still in high school--an extremely talented performer even then.

Every February Flo asks her friends and fans to send in their ideas for song titles. She picks fourteen and then writes songs to them! This song, Make your Own Way, was written last year but she made a little video to go along with it and just released it for Mother's Day. It's lovely and her daughters are adorable. Please share with your moms and sisters and friends!

Happy Mother's Day!

Reviews for The Glister Journals: Bronze

More Glister Journals info and chapters at the book's website here: theglisterjournals.com

The Glister Journals: Bronze can be purchased through any bookseller, or purchase now at Amazon.com

Friday, May 3, 2013

An Interview with Asidefromwriting Blog

Hi everyone, I just wanted to let you know about a cool blog site called asidefromwriting. I am featured there today in an interview and later in the month there will be a feature of my novel Bronze. I'd love for people to stop by and say Hi! You can also enter to win books from all the authors involved!

It's a great blog with YA book reviews and features from authors. The bloggers themselves are also writers: Melanie Cusik-Jones (Hope's Daughter and Outlanders from The Ambrosia Sequence series),

Tony Talbot (American Girl, Over the Mountain, many others)

Jade Varden (Justice, The Tower, two more in the Deck of Lies series)

and Stephanie who, I believe, is working on her debut novel.

So I hope you'll go on over and get to know me a little better! Have a great weekend everyone!

Reviews for The Glister Journals: Bronze

More Glister Journals info and chapters at the book's website here: theglisterjournals.com

The Glister Journals: Bronze can be purchased through any bookseller, or purchase now at Amazon.com

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Two Lovely Bronze Reviews . . .

. . . and a very flattering picture.

Ruth over at Reading...Dreaming, a book review blog in Uruguay (how cool is that?) did me the honor of requesting a book to review a few months ago. Unfortunately the first book went missing and I've imagined all kinds of interesting stories of where it might have gone and in whose hands it ended up! But she finally received the second book, liked it (yay!), and posted this lovely review.

One of the things I love most about being a writer is the connections I make to those people who like my book, write the reviews, and let me know who they are. I now have friends in Canada, Australia, and Uruguay, as well as several dotted around the United States. The thought of doing a real, physical book tour makes me shudder, except that I would love to get to meet these people. (I do plan on doing a virtual book tour when the e-book of Bronze is released and again when the second book is released, but this will not require airplanes, scratchy hotel sheets, or crowds!)

Then she posted this picture of the bookmark of another author's novel:

It took me a moment to recognize my own book right behind the bookmark (you can just see the "n" and "z" of Bronze). Totally made my day! Though I'm not sure what that author thinks of it--it looks like she's kissing MY book! I will have to somehow return the favor!

Thursday (two days ago) I received e-mail notification that ForeWord Reviews had reviewed the copy of Bronze I had sent. This is huge for me. There are not many widely (editorially) accepted book review entities that review indie books. I have received a couple of other media reviews, but nothing on the scale of ForeWord. So I was, as the song says, noivous.

Yeah . . . you heard me. Bo Diddly.

Now, I've lived long enough to know myself pretty well. I had a rehearsal that night so I didn't want to have anything else on my mind. I also knew that one way or the other the results of the review might (and probably would) keep me awake, so I didn't look at the review until I got home after work on Friday (yesterday). I figured if it was negative and snarky at least I didn't have to get up early in the morning and act like a normal person.

Apart from a couple of comments about certain information the main character, Allison, didn't give soon enough (which, if you understand the concept of the book, was for a reason) and subjective opinion about formatting (if we had formatted over more pages the book would have been HUGE and cost more too!), the reviewer seemed to really like it and basically "got" it, as much as anybody can at this point anyway (bearing in mind, again, the concept of assumptions and how much information is still to be revealed!) The full review can be read here: ForeWord Review--The Glister Journals: Bronze

More music? Of course!!! I don't think I've mentioned it before, but I wake up with music playing in my head. Every. Single. Day. The really weird thing is that I don't wake up and the song then starts; I wake up and the song is in the middle somewhere. That's seems odd, but maybe everbody does that. It's usually something different every day, but this past week this song has been there several mornings. I love the trumpet part most, but after watching the video (just now) I love it even more and realize how appropriate it is for this post. This is what these lovely, confirming things make me feel like. (The dancing, the dancing! Not blowing things up! LOL)

Reviews for The Glister Journals: Bronze

More Glister Journals info and chapters at the book's website here: theglisterjournals.com

The Glister Journals: Bronze can be purchased through any bookseller, or purchase now at Amazon.com

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Artwork, Road Trip, Music (Part Four)

This is Chris and Merle from The Glister Journals as imagined by artist Katelynn Chambers, the last of four pieces commissioned from her to coincide with the release of the hardback edition of Bronze. I absolutely adore her style and her sense of color. All her work affects me quite deeply. I look forward to commissioning (and/or working with) her more in the future.

The Road Home (A continuation)

As usual for me, I didn't get on the road until much later than I had planned, but still wanted to try to make it to Roseburg, Oregon for the night. It began to rain steadily soon after I left my friends and Blaine behind. By the time I reached Mount Vernon, it was pouring so there wasn't much to see and I was preoccupied with just seeing the road ahead. But beyond Olympia the rain subsided, the sun came out, and all was green and beautiful.

Around Kalama, a large body of water to the west sparked my curiosity and I began looking for possible offramps to get closer and explore. Keeping in mind how far I wanted to get today (and how far I still had to go) I didn't want to get too far from the highway. Unfortunately nothing presented itself until Woodland. There, signs for the mysterious 'Port of Woodland' and the even more exotic sounding 'Dike Access' proved too alluring, and I had to strike off in search of whatever I could find.

Adding to the sense of adventure was what appeared to be a fair sized fire not too far distant.

Considering how green everything was, and that it had been pouring all morning, I felt relatively safe and determined to find water, if not the source of the smoke.

What I didn't realize then (but see now that I am looking at a physical map) was that the river, the Columbia, is actually the border with Oregon, though it lay north to south (or vice versa, I don't remember which way the water was flowing) and that the other side of the river was in fact Oregon and had been for quite a while. Isn't geography wonderful. Anyway, it was very pretty, but I couldn't find any free river access so headed back the way I had come. I sorely wanted to stop and take pictures of all the emergency vehicles and the almost completely burned down house, but wasn't sure whether that would be okay. It was obviously a training exercise, but I wasn't sure how they'd feel about my taking pictures. Sometimes I don't mind risking a little trouble, but trouble takes time and I still had a long way to drive.

I finally found a place to take some decent pictures just before turning back onto the Dike Access Road.

Having quite a way to go before reaching Roseburg, I pulled over at a rest stop somewhere in Oregon to stretch my legs and snooze for a few minutes. It was an extremely pretty area and I wish I had written down the name of the place (if it had one).

Music

For this leg of the journey I listened mostly to Keane's latest album, Strangeland. It wasn't until I had got it home from the store and ripped it onto my computer that I found that it was a Japanese release with bonus tracks. Goody. The bad part of that is that all the track information is in Japanese, which meant manually renaming everything. Luckily the song titles transferred just fine to my MP3 player so at least I could see what they were while I traveled.

Now, I have to say that, if you like Keane's sound, you will probably like this album, but I can't say there was anything that surprised me or bowled me over right away. The opening song, "You Are Young," is nice but the second track, "Silenced By The Night", jumps out as definitive Keane:

The following track has an even more distinctive sound. Keane utilizes very similar (sometimes exactly the same) interval patterns revolving around 2, 3, and 5. For example, "Disconnected" uses the pattern: 5-3-2-5-3-2-5-3.

This same pattern can be heard in "Day Will Come." Past Keane songs you may remember with distinctive 2, 3, 5 patterns are: "Is It Any Wonder" (2-2-3-3-5-5-3-2) "Nothing In My Way" (2-3-2-3-5 2-3-2-3-5 2-3-2-3) "Crystal Ball" 5 3-6-5 2-3-L7 2-3-L7 5-5-5-3-2-3-L7 There are other motifs Keane uses, but these are the ones that jump out at me and make the songs so darn catchy.

"Sovereign Light Cafe is another that took hold of me immediately but for a completely different reason. The opening melody is exactly like a song I wrote eons ago. No, you've never heard it and you never will, but it took me way back to days when I spent my time writing music instead of words. The lyrics grabbed me next; so evocative. It took me back to days and nights spent in Santa Monica, along the beach front, on the pier; it also took me back to England where I lived for several years, and time spent at Brighton, Southampton, other seaside towns. When I got home and saw the video, it resonated with me even more. It's now one of my favorites.

I enjoyed the whole album, some tracks standing out more than others, and even the bonus tracks are good. My favorite of these (also reminding me strongly of England) is "The Boys" but I couldn't find a video for it. I guess you'll just have to buy the album!

I will leave you with this, set to beautiful locations and subbed in Spanish, "Somewhere Only We Know" (3-2-3-5-3-2 LOL)

Reviews for The Glister Journals: Bronze

More Glister Journals info and chapters at the book's website here: theglisterjournals.com

The Glister Journals: Bronze can be purchased through any bookseller, or purchase now at Amazon.com