Thank You Star Wars for Blowing my Mind

On this day (May 25th) in 1977 Star Wars was released. At the time I was ten years old. I still have a very clear memory of convincing my father to take me and my three brothers and my mother off the ranch and cross country to Shaunavon, SK to see the movie. I remember that first scene where the Imperial ships are moving through space above the camera, larger than any battleship imaginable. Would they ever end? The very molecules of my brain began to vibrate. This was the world I was suppose to live in. And then that entrance of Darth Vader. Was he not evil incarnate? Here was someone who could knock Sauron off his pedestal. And it turned out the story was about a farm boy who was going to learn to use a lightsabre and save the princess. For a ranch boy in South West Saskatchewan this was speaking directly to me. Yes, Luke, get off the farm! Save the princess! Blow up the Deathstar. My brain was altered from that moment forward. I knew I had to live in the world of imagination. As we left the theatre, I felt as though I was floating in the air. My father turned to my Mom and said, "Well, that movie was far fetched." Obviously the movie isn't for everyone. But thank you, Star Wars, for blowing my mind.

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How my iPad made me a better iWriter

Well I've had my iPad for several months now (it's the iPad 1: 32 Gig wifi) and it has been a real help in the various aspects of my career. I should give you forewarning that I am a Mac geek (since 1984) but I'm sure you can trust my opinion anyway. : )

First and most importantly--Writing: You can write on the iPad but don't expect it to be a good as a laptop. I use Pages for my text because it can easily be saved as a PDF. If I plan on writing a longer piece I will connect my wireless keyboard and zip along. But most of the time I am working on shorter pieces and in that case the virtual keyboard works just fine (as long as I don't try to type too fast and I always check that the autocorrect function hasn't changed my words dramatically). I usually only use this program when I am travelling and it's too unwieldy for me to work on my current projects (I don't like keeping track of various versions), so I have an iPad "book" that I'm working on. I noodle away on it whenever I'm on a plane or in a train etc.,   It's very handy because it only takes a few seconds to open.

Secondly--School presentations:

I talk to many, many school classes and I usually do a whole audio/video extravaganza presentation. And for years I've been lugging around my laptop and power source and connecting cables (I use Keynote for my presentations). Well, Keynote also works on the iPad:

Screenshot of Keynote (image reversed by my webcam)

It isn't as robust as the version on my iMac. But it handles audio cues, video (in fact I have my book trailer as part of my presentation), and a nice array of special effects (cool page turns, etc.). Occasionally, for reasons beyond my tiny brain's understanding, a projector won't recognize the signal from the iPad (it's happened once out of about 50 visits). The great thing is that the battery power means that I can do 4 presentations and still have plenty of battery life. So all I bring with me is my 15 pin connector and the school provides the projector and speakers (that I plug into the audio port of my iPad). The one drawback is that you can't use a clicker to advance the slides so you have to be standing near the iPad.

Thirdly--Social Networking:

Ah, the dreaded social networking. Bane of the writers who want to get work done. Blessing of the writers who are trying to avoid doing work. Well, the iPad does make it a little easier to do and less time consuming. I use Hootsuite for both Facebook and Twitter updating. The program makes it easy to update both at once and follow them, too (I also use the Twitter app and Friendly). There are many apps out there (Flipboard is rather cool if you want to see a newspaper-like version of Twitter). But the beauty of the iPad is its transportability. Now while I'm watching a hockey game I can sit on the couch and also reply to tweets or update Facebook. So it means I don't have to be tied to my iMac and I can practice multitasking. 
Final word: There are many other aspects of the iPad that are handy for writers. I mean I can check my Novelrank rankings every minute if I want! Or my ebook sales. I also have all of my favourite blogs on the iPad for easy access. Recently I was on a two week trip that took me from Saskatoon to Nanaimo to Toronto to Ottawa. I wrote on the plane, read Hunger Games, listened to my own music, did my school presentations using the iPad, checked my mail (whenever I had wifi), tweeted in the airport (most airports have free wifi now), had four hours to write and tweet and read on the train from Toronto to Ottawa (CN has free wireless on the trains), did more presentations, and read my book on the way home (I didn't have any movies uploaded or I might have watched one). So the iPad is an extremely adaptable device and I'm happy with the wifi one (haven't felt I needed 3G). I haven't been lured into getting the iPad2 because I'm still quite happy with this one (but when iPad3 comes out...hmmm).
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Howl for the Wolfman! The Loki Wolf is released today!

Today is the official worldwide--no galaxy-wide--wait, I mean, universe-wide release of the ebook for The Loki Wolf, the third novel in the Northern Frights series. It's a happy little Christmas werewolf story (because really we need more Christmas werewolf stories, don't we? Santa and the elves get all the attention). Here's a description:

"On the third night the worst nightmare -- the very worst -- invaded my mind. Loping behind me was a gigantic wolf, its jaws snapping together and tearing off pieces of my flesh. There was no blood. No pain. But bit by bit he swallowed chunks of my body until nothing of Angela Laxness remained."

When Angie dreams about being devoured by a giant wolf, her parents tell her it is only her imagination. But later, while on a vacation in Iceland with her grandfather and two cousins, she begins to wonder if the dream wasn't a warning. First, there are strange scratches outside her window. Then she finds out that sheep have recently been disappearing from her uncle's farm. But it isn't until she and her cousins go to the old croft house that they discover the horrifying truth.

See? A happy little Christmas werewolf story! And it follows that general "horror" rule: don't go into the croft house!

I'm absolutely excited to be releasing this ebook today. The novel has been out of print for several years and I'm so glad that it has come back to life (with the aid of electronic technologies). The extremely frightening cover is done by uber-artist Derek Mah. I get nightmares just looking at it. It's so fleshy and beardy all at once. And, in re-reading the book, I was pleased to discover that it is still a frightening story (really, don't go into the croft house). And I had forgotten how much Icelandic folklore was injected into this book (and the series). Those Vikings could really tell tales.

So The Loki Wolf is on the loose and available for the jaw-dropping, saliva inducing price of $2.99. Just click this link for the various ebookseller links.

Happy Hauntings!

P.S. This brings to a close the first part of my ebook experiment. To recap I've released the following novels and short story collections as ebooks: Don't they look pretty altogether? I'm going to concentrate on my Hunchback books for the next while (looming deadline!), but am toying with the idea of a few other eprojects (including a novel). Stay tuned. Peace out. BHM's in. P.P.S. BHM's are Big Hairy Monsters. Join the fur nation.

How to Sell a Gazillion e-books (exaggeration free).

>Well, I'm reaching the last day of the 3rd month of my eBook experiment. Since mid-February I've released several of my out-of-print books and one selection of short stories as eBooks. Here they are below.

The books are available on Amazon, iBooks and Smashwords.
My total sales were as follows:
February: 21 copies
March: 51 copies
April: 368 copies

Because I like graphs, I'll put this one in to the left. It does make it rather clear that there has been a large growth in the number of sales. Part of that is due to the fact that there are now more books available for purchase. I'll break down the individual sales:
Dust:  397 copies
Draugr: 18 copies
Haunting of Drang: 9
Shades: 16
Tribes: 1
Of the sales 440 total sales, 419 come from Amazon, the rest are spread between iBooks and Smashwords.  Obviously DUST is the biggest seller and (sniff) poor TRIBES is the least (and always the last one picked for the eBook "baseball" team). The books that have sold more are the ones that have been out longer. The reason for DUST's sales though are twofold. One is that I dropped the price to 99 cents about mid-March (from $2.99). The second is that DUST was listed on Pixel of Ink, which is a website that lists low-priced and free books for Kindle owners. Dust had sold 16 or so copies in the space of a month and a half. And started to pick up a bit once I lowered the price, but really grew after the listing.
In fact I kept track of the daily sales starting April 1st when the book was listed:
April sales:
1st-80 copies (Pixel Ink listing)
2-10
3-5
4-5
5-5
6-42 (have no idea why it suddenly jumped up here or the next day)
7 -40
8-8 
9-7 
10-5 
11-6 
12-8 
13-6 
14-15 (Daily Cheap Reads listing)
15-9 
16-4 
17-6 
18-7 
19-6
20-9 
21-6 
22-2 
23-4
24-6 
25-22 (holiday monday sales)
26-9 
27-4
28-5
29-4
30-2 (so far)
So you can see that DUST, which used to average two or three sales a week has jumped to 6-10 copies a day. Obviously at 99 cents a copy (that's 35 cents for me), I'm not making a bundle (in fact only averaging about $3 a day or so). But my hope is that the book will continue to climb (even if it continues as this pace it will sell 4200 copies in a year's time). The more people who buy it the more it ends up in the "people who bought this also bought this" list. 
What the DUST buyers are Buying
Obviously the more times DUST is recommended the more times it has a chance to sell. At first I was going to leave the book at .99 cents for two months, but now I might wait until it has sold at least 1000 copies, just to see what kind of momentum it will gain from having so many recommendations. 
As far as my other books go I'll let them grow slowly. Draugr, The Haunting of Drang Island and (soon to be released) The Loki Wolf are more middle-grade novels, and I don't believe the market is that big for them yet. They're a long term investment. Shades is a collection of short stories and they tend not to sell as well (but I always have hope). For Tribes I bought an ad in Pixel of Ink to give the book a leg up because I believe the novel is attractive to both young adults and adults, and therefore has a wider audience for me to aim at. If only I'd put a vampire in the book! 
Which reminds me, I am considering writing a "direct-to-ebook" novel. Something short, snappy, and full of action and aimed at adults. I'd really like to test out everything I'm learning on a brand new project. Oh, but first I better finish writing the next book in The Hunchback Assignments.
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Uncle Ray Bradbury

When I was twelve years old, I first met Uncle Ray. I found him in the back of the grade seven classroom in a cardboard box. In that box were rough-edged paperbacks whose best days were far behind them. The book I picked up was The Martian Chronicles.  The cover was orange, the planet mars was in the background, and in the foreground was Ray Bradbury’s face, floating. Daring me to read it. Uncle Ray, as I would soon begin calling him.

I did read the book. And that book changed me. Oh, I had been altered by other books, but there was a deep hypnotism of the language. It wasn’t that I just HAD to read more. It wanted all his words, each avenue of thought, from invisible boys. And me, who never liked short stories could not stop from reading S is for Space and R is for Rocket.

I personally don’t know Ray Bradbury, and the way the world is, I likely won’t ever get the chance to meet him. Yet he is still a part of my family, if I were to put the tree up he would be alonside my other unlces. After all he has guided me.

One of the concepts in life is the whole idea of "paying it forward." In other words if someone helped you get into the position you are at in life today, then instead of paying them back you should pay it forward to the next generation. This happens a lot in writing. If I had to write up a thank you list it would be endless: my parents, teachers, other writers & fans who have dropped me notes of encouragement.

Canadian Cover

Ten years ago I dedicated my novel DUST to Ray Bradbury. Out of all the writers I've read, he is still the one I mark as being most influential in my choice of becoming a writer. The worlds he created made me want to create my own worlds. Each of his stories has been an inspiration to me. So as a thank you I sent him a copy of DUST, which is the most Ray Bradburyesque of my works. This is the letter I received in return:

It hangs on my wall as one of my prize possessions. I see it as a prime example of paying it forward. Bradbury must received hundreds if not thousands of similar requests and the fact that he took the time to reply (even being ill at the time) is very important. Anytime I reply to a fan letter or teach a writing class or answer a question from an up and coming writer, I remember Bradbury's gesture.
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Worldwide eRelease of TRIBES

Today I'm releasing the ebook of my novel TRIBES worldwide (except Canada*). It will be the fifth ebook of my backlist that I've released so far. To recap here are the others:

I've really enjoyed the challenge of understanding how to create and market ebooks and of working with the various distributors. On a "gee where is my career going" level, it has been an experience to reread these books from my past. Some are even as old as fourteen. I mean that's grade nine for Pete's sake!

TRIBES is a short novel, weighing in at a little over 25,000 words, but it is dense with ideas: evolution, big bang, first love, suicide, grad week shenanigans. I still remember writing a note to myself that went something like this: anthropological study of high school students big bang science stuff. That's about how much sense my notes make sometimes. But soon Percy the anthropologist wannabee was appearing on the page telling me all about his high school and the dangerous tribes that lurked inside it: The Lipstick and Hairspray tribe, The Hockey Tribe, The Gee-The-Seventies-Were-Great-Even-Though-I-Wasn't-Born-Yet Tribe.

If I am allowed to have favourites out of my sixteen novels, this one is near the top. I just loved the way Percy's mind worked, his obsessive and tragic need to catalogue every experience. On another level I had always hoped for more for this novel. Just before it was going to be released there was a real buzz about the book (Spike Lee's movie company came close to optioning it and selling it to Disney) and both my editor and agent felt the book would really make a splash. It did well, was nominated for several awards, and grew a following, but it never really knocked on the door of true success. That's why I'm happy to have it out there as an ebook. We all deserve a second chance. In fact I'm big on third chances, too.

And I must say I adore the new cover created by Christopher Steininger. I had absolute confidence in his skills to create a brilliant piece of artwork and he didn't disappoint.  

Just click here for the official TRIBES page.It is available on Kindle and iBooks (and soon B&N and Kobo) for the existentially low price of $2.99.

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*TRIBES. is not available in Canada at this point as an ebook, but is available in paper at fine bookstores everywhere.