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Sunday 27th July, 2014

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I posted the third of the 25 Ways to Kill A Werewolf background posts, this time “On Location“, which probably told you more than you needed to know about growing up in the middle of UK nowhere. More background information this Wednesday!

We’re getting closer to the “mid-August” due date and I’ve seen the galley, so we’re definitely going to have a book baby soon. With this in mind, I think it’s time to organise an Ink Plan update. This will probably be out on Thursday.

Last bit of information: last week’s Sunday Story was Once A Month – and this week’s is Parthenogenesis.

Sunday 11th May, 2014

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Let’s start with something I forgot to mention last week. Esfinges [External Link] – an online support community for women in Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA), of which I am a member, and for which I organise some Twitter Talks – is one of the sponsors of this year’s Iron Gate Exhibition. Following the link will take you to some details but for the basics:

Iron Gate Exhibition (IGX) 2014;
26th – 28th September, 2014;
Danvers Indoor Sports, Danvers, Massachusetts, USA

In a change of subject, I’ve added another story background post about Hunting Unicorns, which is still available on the Future Fire website [External Link]. This joins the current group of posts for Three Little Pigs and Gone Fishing (the latter of which is in Amok from Solarwyrm Press [External Link], see the Ink Plan bookshelf to the right), Two Hearts, Two Minds (no longer available online) and Good Form (also available on the Future Fure website and in their Outlaw Bodies anthology, also on the Ink Plan bookshelf). I have another background post due out this week.

Also this week, there’s going to be an announcement. Please keep an eye out for it!

Sunday 4th May, 2014

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First of all, a reminder about my #BADD2014 post: Teaching Someone Else to Live With An Invisible Disability. If you follow the #BADD2014 link [External Link]), you should also be able to find posts by a bunch of other people about disablism and disability. There’s some interesting stuff in there!

#BADD2014

And now the other things to mention. The official launch of Amok last week (see the bookshelf to the right) means that there’s been a published announcement for Gone Fishing, as well as a background post. This also fit in nicely with the Ink Plan update and gave me something to add!

It has also come to my attention that I haven’t done any story background posts in a while and missed out on two. Under advisement from Ole, I have decided to get around to sorting them out and also do some posts for stories that came out before I started doing these background thingummies. To start with, I have now created a story background tag that should make looking for them easier – if only for me. The next thing is to commit to writing up some background about all the stories published anywhere other than this site that I’ve “missed”. These are, in reverse published order:

  • Hunting Unicorns
  • An Honest Woman’s Child
  • Beaumains
  • Dog Handler
  • The Gospel
  • The Big Bad Wolf
  • Heart’s Desire
  • Nesting Instinct
  • Spindrift
  • Half-Breed
  • Obsession
  • The Ally-Ally-Oh
  • The Girl From Yesterday

I may not get around to doing background posts for all of these – if only because some of the stories that take place in particular worlds will have already got a fair amount of background available on site – but I shall try. Priority will be for those that are still available to read, of course!

April 2014 update

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The important thing this month is…

Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction is now officially available. It’s linked to the right in the bookshelf and below in the list of eligible books. Here’s the blurb on the back:

In an anthology that spans from India in the west to Hawai‘i in the east, and as far south as Australia and New Zealand, 24 authors bring you an exciting range of tales set in the past, present, and future.

Discover characters like the Moon Rabbit from Chinese mythology, a kitsune from Japanese mythology, and the aswang from Filipino mythology.

Find out what arises when a struggling Malaysian student seeks help for her studies in Chinatown, and what happens when the garbage in the Pacific Ocean is seen as a valuable treasure.

Futures imagined stretch from amazing advances in technology to depressing dystopias.

Read these stories and so many more in Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction.

My short story in this is called “Gone Fishing” and is a sequel to “Three Little Pigs”, which appeared in Crossed Genres Issue 17 (see below). Although Gone Fishing takes place after Three Little Pigs and uses the same characters, it’s not necessary to read the older story first. I have a story background post that covers both of them here.

Extending The Ink Plan

If you have any advice on how to push a thousand books, know venues where the book should be reviewed, want to buy a copy, want to see the finished tattoos, want to tell me I’m an idiot, want to register interest in any of the books, have some ideas for events, oer blog posts, or anything like that, then comment below.

The Total So Far

As before, I have (that we’re aware of) sold 215 books, and I owe NAS £10.75. The break down of how I got this is below, along with what books are currently available to boost my numbers.

I’m still awaiting numbers for No Monsters Allowed and Amok has only just officially gone on sale, so no numbers to give for that, yet!

The Eligible Books

The following books are available for sale and count towards the final numbers. I’ve used Goodreads linked images for the thumbnails and you can follow them to find out ways of ordering them. Alternatively, you can go to the (linked) publishers’ sites.

Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction
Published April 2014 by Solarwyrm Press [External Link]
ISBN: 9780980508444
Short story “Gone Fishing”		 ? ?
(x 5p)
No Monsters Allowed No Monsters Allowed
Published October 2013 by Dog Horn Publishing [External Link]
ISBN: 9781907133824
Short story “An Honest Woman’s Child”		 ? ?
(x 5p)
Outlaw Bodies Outlaw Bodies
Published November 2012 by Futurefire.net Publishing [External Link]
ISBN: 9780957397507
Short story “Good Form”		 74
(24/03/2014)		 £3.70
(x 5p)
Totals 74 £3.70

Forthcoming Books

These are the books due out fairly soon that will also be in the Ink Plan. As with the books that are out, you can follow the links.

25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf
Expected publication: July 2014 by Fox Spirit Books [External Link]
Fox Pockets – Monarchs
Expected publication: 2014 by Fox Spirit Books [External Link]
Short story “The Lost Kingdom”
Strange Fortune
Expected publication: 2014 by Knightwatch Press / Fringeworks [External Link]
Short story “The Bull of Essylt”

No Longer Available Books

The following books are no longer available to buy but count towards the final number. Again, thumbnails are actually Goodreads links so that you can find out more about the specifics of the book.

Crossed Genres Quarterly 4 Crossed Genres, Quarter 4
Published December 2011 by Crossed Genres Publications [External Link]
ISBN 9780615578637
Short story “Beaumains”		 103 £5.15
(x 5p)
Crossed Genres Issue 17: Antihero Crossed Genres, Issue 17
Published March 2010 by Crossed Genres Publications [External Link]
ISBN 9781451540963
Short story “Three Little Pigs”		 27 £1.35
(x 5p)
Crossed Genres Issue 2: Dystopian Crossed Genres, Issue 2
Published January 2009 by Crossed Genres Publications [External Link]
ISBN 9781441455376
Short story “Nesting Instinct”		 11 £0.55
(x 5p)
Totals 141 £7.05
(x 5p)

Sunday 13th April, 2014

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Skipped a week. I’ve done a bit of writing, a bit of entertaining the family (world championship top spinning after Sunday dinner today, for example) and a lot of Civ 5 again. I must marshal a bit more self control…

The only other thing I must remember to mention is the Ink Plan official launch. I have the bookshelf to the right, a tag and a category. If you’re interested in funding my potential tattoo habit along with reading my books and achieving a donation to the National Autism Society (NAS) [External Link]!

(Oh, and for those who expected to see me there, I won’t be at Easter Con / Satellite 4 this year as intended. finances won’t allow it due to problems earlier in the year.)

March 2014 launch & update

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Since the initial mention back in July 2013, the Ink Plan has gone through a bit of a change. So the first official status is as follows.

The Ink Plan

If I sell 1,000 books, I shall be getting a journeymouse tattooed on my arm. There is the possibility of a stretch goal for 2,000 and a mouseketeer – this depends on the designs from Keety at Ink Addiction Tattoo [Facebook page – External Link], which I shall share as soon as I have anything.

I have to interject here with the first major change in the plan: I’d intended to just mark the number of sales of 25 Ways to Kill a Werewolf. However, I’ve now opened it to anything with an ISBN – so some of my anthologies count! And I’ve been in a few since I started writing “seriously” in 2007. The European Monsters anthology I’m editing with Margrét Helgadóttir for Fox Spirit Books [External Link] will also count towards the total.

I chose Ink Addiction because they donate part of the costs to charity and I intend to donate to the National Autism Society (NAS) [External Link]. I had intended to split the donation with Cancer Research if the 2,000 book sales was reached but have decided that the donation will work harder if it all goes to one place. This just means I’ll have to come up for something else in another year or so for Cancer Research!

I will also be adding to the initial donation. Originally, I was going to double the donation. However, I think NAS get a bit more out of me if I commit to a price per book. So, I shall be donating 10p per each copy of 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf and 5p per copy of an anthology. Theoretically, I could personally be donating £200 + tattoo costs – but it’s more likely to be about the £150 mark (see below). Obviously, you’ll already be donating money if you’re buying one of my books – but don’t let that stop you donating direct to NAS if you want to!

There is a deadline for this: the tattoo will happen whenever I get to 1,000 books but the donation cut off is December 31st 2014. Whatever books have been sold in that time, I shall make the equivalent donation to NAS. So, for example, if I’ve sold 799 copies of 25 Ways to Kill A Werewolf by December 31st 2014, I’ll donate £79.90 to NAS.

I intend to do monthly updates, using the “Ink Plan” tag and category, dependent on being able to get numbers that regularly. Posts may turn up less often.

So, the important bit: what you can do! If you have any advice on how to push a thousand books, know venues where the book should be reviewed, want to buy a copy, want to see the finished tattoos, want to tell me I’m an idiot, want to register interest in the book, have some ideas for events, etc, then comment below.

The Total So Far

So far, I have (that we’re aware of) sold 215 books, and I owe NAS £10.75. The break down of how I got this is below, along with what books are currently available to boost my numbers.

The Eligible Books

The following books are available for sale and count towards the final numbers. I’ve used Goodreads linked images for the thumbnails and you can follow them to find out ways of ordering them. Alternatively, you can go to the (linked) publishers’ sites.

No Monsters Allowed No Monsters Allowed
Published October 2013 by Dog Horn Publishing [External Link]
ISBN: 9781907133824
Short story “An Honest Woman’s Child”		 ? ?
(x 5p)
Outlaw Bodies Outlaw Bodies
Published November 2012 by Futurefire.net Publishing [External Link]
ISBN: 9780957397507
Short story “Good Form”		 74
(24/03/2014)		 £3.70
(x 5p)
Totals 74 £3.70

Forthcoming Books

These are the books due out fairly soon that will also be in the Ink Plan. As with the books that are out, you can follow the links.

Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction Amok: An Anthology of Asia-Pacific Speculative Fiction
Expected publication: April 30th 2014 by Solarwyrm Press [External Link]
ISBN: 9780980508444
Short story “Gone Fishing”
25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf
Expected publication: July 2014 by Fox Spirit Books [External Link]
Fox Pockets – Monarchs
Expected publication: 2014 by Fox Spirit Books [External Link]
Short story “The Lost Kingdom”
Strange Fortune
Expected publication: 2014 by Knightwatch Press / Fringeworks [External Link]
Short story “The Bull of Essylt”

No Longer Available Books

The following books are no longer available to buy but count towards the final number. Again, thumbnails are actually Goodreads links so that you can find out more about the specifics of the book.

Crossed Genres Quarterly 4 Crossed Genres, Quarter 4
Published December 2011 by Crossed Genres Publications [External Link]
ISBN 9780615578637
Short story “Beaumains”		 103 £5.15
(x 5p)
Crossed Genres Issue 17: Antihero Crossed Genres, Issue 17
Published March 2010 by Crossed Genres Publications [External Link]
ISBN 9781451540963
Short story “Three Little Pigs”		 27 £1.35
(x 5p)
Crossed Genres Issue 2: Dystopian Crossed Genres, Issue 2
Published January 2009 by Crossed Genres Publications [External Link]
ISBN 9781441455376
Short story “Nesting Instinct”		 11 £0.55
(x 5p)
Totals 141 £7.05
(x 5p)

Sunday 30th March, 2014

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So I’ve sorted out a bookshelf to sit to the right of the screen to give you links to the books that count towards The Ink Plan. The Ink Plan itself is officially launched on Monday – with thanks to Bart Lieb and Kay T Holt of Crossed Genres [External Link], Adele Wearing of Fox Spirit Books [External Link], Alex Davis (editor of No Monsters Allowed and Strange Fortunes), Djibril al-Ayad of The Future Fire [External Link], and Dominica Malcolm of Solarwyrm Press [External Link] for the numbers.

ASIDE: For those of you that aren’t aware, all numbers will be estimates – but hopefully very close to the actual sales. Given that issues are handed out for review and under offers, etc, it can be very hard to keep track of actual numbers of book sales.

The front page has already changed to take account of the new category and, with luck, the links will all work when everything goes live tomorrow afternoon.

Other than that, nothing much to report. See you next week!

Monday 24th March, 2014

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Things that have happened since my last update:

  1. Ireland won the Six Nations championship (Yay for BOD!)
  2. My niece and my dog, Rosie, both had their birthdays.
  3. I finished Civ 5. Twice. Admittedly on Settler setting. More or less come out the other side of the addiction now, though.
  4. I continued to host the Esfinges Twitter Talks on Monday and Thursday. In fact, you just missed another one tonight.
  5. I’ve seen a cover for 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf. It looks like it’ll be out in time for attending Edge Lit in July [External Link], so expect me to be plugging it fairly soon.
  6. I’ve decided to include anthologies towards the thousand books in my Ink Plan target (mentioned way back in July 2013), so I’ve got in touch with most of the publishers and editors – a few contacts still to be sorted out – to find out numbers and whether they’re willing to share numbers. I hope to start with official Ink Plan status updates soon and get a bookshelf sorted to sit to the right of the screen to give you links to the books that count towards it.

Sunday 21st July, 2013

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Right. It’s time to explain The Ink Plan. Anyone who has a problem with tattoos, come back next week.

The Ink Plan

Anyone left?

Right. Many moons ago, when I got my fighting dragons tattoo, I said I’d only get another tattoo if I sold a thousand books. Problem is, ink is rather addictive and I have lots of ideas I’d love to put on my body as identifying features.

I also reminded my sister of this when 25 Ways To Kill A Werewolf was accepted by Fox Spirit Books [External Link] and she said “But how am I supposed to afford a thousand copies?”. When mentioned to various members of the Skulk at Edge Lit 2 (Derby – last week), they said much the same thing. So a definite plan has been hatched.

In the unlikely event that a thousand copies are bought (release date of 25 Ways To Be A Werewolf to be finalised, I’ll let you know as soon as I have one), I will get a journeymouse inked on my arm. For a stretch goal in the even less likely event of two thousand copies being sold, I’ll have a mouseketeer – probably on the other arm.

The design(s) is currently being undertaken by Ink Addiction Tattoo [Facebook page – External Link] and I shall post pictures as soon as we have everything sorted. I chose Ink Addiction because they donate part of the costs to charity and I intend to donate to the National Autism Society (the journeymouse) and Cancer Research (the mousketeer) – and double the donation. Obviously, this is not a huge donation of money and, as Erik Lundqvist [External Link] pointed out, there are less painful ways of handing over money but the donation is really the icing on the cake more than anything.

So, the important bit: what you can do! If you have any advice on how to push a thousand copies, know venues where the book should be reviewed, want to buy a copy, want to see the finished tattoos, want to tell me I’m an idiot, want to register interest in the book, etc, then comment below.

Updates as and when, using the “Ink Plan” tag.