Come join the celebration at The Whine Sisters! Fireworks and my favorite Revolutionary War-related comedy routine from the master, Bill Cosby!
Happy Fourth of July
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Today’s agenda: giving one of my best friends grief and finalizing The Cat’s Fancy for e-release!
Status
I love this new cover!
Originally published in 2000, CAT holds a special place in my heart. It’s a light fairy tale about a cat in love with her master, and it was published in a time (was there such a time?) when folks said that paranormal just couldn’t sell! Read all about it here and look for it on Kindle, Nook, and at other retailers soon! (Maybe tomorrow, fingers crossed!)
After that, I have to burst through a bunch of school with the kids, then schlep (in the rain no less) to Austin for Isabella’s pre-surgery appointment. She has a lip revision and nose revision next Friday. There will be much pampering in her future.
But throughout the day, I’m giving Kathleen O’Reilly grief. She said that Game of Thrones Season One pretty much wrapped things up. I couldn’t disagree more. So I’m calling her out. I think she owes me a coffee! You can read all about it over at our Whine Sisters blog.
What are you doing today?
Short or long, stories pack powerful punches
Today, I’m blogging over at the Whine Sisters, and I posted a link to Porcelain Unicorn, a truly lovely short film. And I mean short. Just three minutes. Pop on over and check it out if you want to see a truly powerful punch packed into just three short minutes.
Compare that to something like Game of Thrones, which I’m currently reading. Or Schindler’s List if we want to stay both on theme and with film. Also gut-wrenching, with deep emotion and strong themes.
There’s a lesson there, you know, and it’s not just that creative folks can make movies to fit the parameters of contests. No, it’s that sometimes the story dictates the length. And if you let the story do that, you’re going to get more bang for your buck because the emotion can either be drawn and milked and developed, as in a longer story, or laid out with heart-wrenching power (or humor or pathos or horror) as in a shorter work.
I haven’t always been a fan of shorter stories–I preferred to meet characters and then stay with them. It’s one of the reasons I love books that are part of series. But I’ve done several shorts now, and I love them. From short short stories to novellas.
Right now, I have three shorter works available, and each of them are exactly the length that they should be (which, frankly, is an advantage of epublishing). The first is a novella, SHADOW KEEPERS: MIDNIGHT, which is the prequel to my upcoming release WHEN PASSION LIES (which got a great review in Publisher’s Weekly and was named Amazon’s best romance for May! Yay!).
Shadow Keepers, Book 4
I’ve also got a fun, edgy short story in Love Is Murder…very noir and very short. And, again, just the right length for the story.
Just released in e-format!
All of which brings me to my ePub Tip of the Day: The cool thing about publishing ebooks is that you truly don’t have to worry about word count. Write the story as the story needs to be written. And doesn’t that just feel great?
Wherein I gripe about being underwhelmed by what’s “coming soon” to a theater near me…
“Sadly, there aren’t that many movies hitting the screen that I’m excited about anymore. I’m not sure if it’s the state of Hollywood or the fact that I’m not 21 anymore (though just barely past that, of course). But I’ve been to a couple recently, and that means I’ve seen trailers. And most of the trailers don’t have me bouncing in my seat ready to hand over my money.”
Backyard Adventures!
So, I think I made a Big Mistake.
In a moment of extreme non-lucidity, I randomly suggested for God only knows what reason that the girls and I have a backyard campout. … Continue reading today’s post on my camping excursion over at The Whine Sisters!