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Authorspace: Winners
The first winner, by a seriously landslide majority vote, wins on account of the kind of company the author keeps while writing. Josh Storey, you are the first to claim a copy of Gilded! Signed and delivered the instant the early copies make it to me.
Transportationally Creative
The second winner gets the next copy of Gilded, signed and delivered, because I can’t even fathom what it must be like to write where you do. Chris, because your authorspace is a moving freaking vehicle, you win.
Spider Knows
And the third win, picked because of reasons that go beyond the space she inhabits and the fuzzy company she keeps, goes to Govneh S. She has a very eclectic writing habitat, including instruments, a puppy, a surprisingly organized wall, NSFW pinned notes, and Spider Jerusalem.
You’re going to get a signed copy of Gilded, too, because I can.
You Worked. You’re Awesome
And everyone who entered the Authorspace contest will be receiving a copy of Before the Witches, the prequel novella to my Dark Mission series, and a copy of the fourth in the line, Sacrifice the Wicked.
So! If you won, and if you entered, email me with your address, how you want it signed (generally, to you, or to someone else), and I shall get them in the mail to you! (Note: Those who won Gilded will have to wait for my author copies to arrive.)
Congratulations, y’all. You worked.
Authorspace: Making It Yours
Everyone saw the disaster area my writing space was. With Ritz crackers taking up space next to a jar of peanut butter (and why not?), and all kinds of hazardous materials around, I used the challenge in last You Better Work Monday’s to clean up. While I’m not completely done, I did get pretty far!
So close to completion, I can taste it!
What about you?
Writing Spaces Abound
All of the Authorspace entries have been posted up on my Pinterest board. Which has been called, rather unoriginally, Authorspace. Go there to view them all.
These are a couple of the samples that you brave people sent me.
— Josh Storey
For unmitigated cuteness, Josh’s rather harmonic writing area looks comfortable, warm, and so darn welcoming, I just want to wander on by and use that Shiba Inu as a pillow. I’d get absolutely no work done, but I’d sure get some great naps!
— Lisa Hager
A late entry to the Authorspace contest, I had to include Lisa’s cute little nook. It’s so organized! I love all the little artwork and photo bits.
— Austin Sirkin
I couldn’t leave this other late entry out. Not when our very own steampunk celebrity, Austin Sirkin, manned up and showed off his before and after. He says, “It was particularly gross because I’ve been sick for like a week, so it was pretty overdue for a cleaning.” A man after my own heart.
There are other entries to take a look at, some with multiple parts, and another puppy!
Later today, I’ll be picking the winners.
Hey, Slackers…
…This could have been you!
I know more of you write than entries I got. Shame. Shame.
Next contest, you make sure and sign up, you hear? I can’t just give these things away to thin air!
You better work. And there’ll be another one of those kinds of posts later today, so you still have a chance to get on the ball and start this week off right.
See you soon!
It’s a Metal State of Mind: Authorspace
It’s Monday, and, folks, there is shit to do.
No more excuses. The world might be content to hover just out of view for a little while, but that grace period only extends so far. From depression to less than savvy time management skills, from too many projects to too few, there just isn’t enough time in the day to keep sorting through the whys and why-nots.
You dig?
It’s you and me, today. We’ve got projects to work on. Let’s make this happen.
Turning Over a New Tree: You Better Work
I used to make Mondays my rant days. I’d pull out the latest on dit that was rant-worthy and let fly, making it a thing. I tried for things that were obviously wrong—weight issues, fairness issues, things like that.
One day, as I was gearing up for a Monday rant, I tweeted a PSA: “Warning: rant incoming.”
Someone I respect very much tweeted back within seconds. “No,” he said, more or less accurately because like an idiot, I didn’t save it. “Go have some whiskey.”
I don’t know if it was timing, or if it was my frame of mind. Maybe it was pure chance he caught me right at that second, right on that note. I blinked at that tweet and realized… Did I want to start the week off on a negative note? Mondays are hard enough, right?
More importantly, if this fellow author whom I admire could be so firm and calm about it, does he know something I don’t? Does he? DOES HE??
The nerve.
Who am I? …I am a walrus. — instagram
So I’m trying something different.
I’m wandering over to his end of the water, where I hear there’s a hot tub. I’m going to start the week off with some encouragement. Yes. Encouragement. Help. Advice, which is about as valuable as the pixels its digitized in.
Look, it goes like this: The farther I go in this industry, the more experience I gain, I realize how much I really don’t know. I’ll be up front about that. I mean, six months ago, I’d be brimming with advice about the writing world. It’s been made stunningly apparent how full of shit I really am.
You want to know a secret? This is a true fact: We all are.
Every single one of us published (mortal) authors are floating through this chaos, flailing like mad. We desperately seize upon whatever process works best for us at the time, relieved as all get out when we somehow manage to eke a book out of the madness. It’s why we’re all neurotic as hell, waiting desperately for those first reviews and then holing up in manic shame that we read them. It’s why we’re always so surprised when we get nominated for awards, and dryly admit to voting for the other author.
We’re all mad here.
Cleavage Cthulhu says, “Take Me seriously, Me damn it!” — instagram
The way I look at it, it’s kind of like LARPing. Or yoga. Or any other activity that involves looking like a complete tool. The sooner you realize that everyone looks stupid, you relax. You can go with the flow, stop being self-conscious about the fact that you didn’t put on pants yesterday and you still don’t know what the hell is happening in chapter three.
So, I’m going to tell you how I roll. I’m going to let you into my office—the good days when it’s clean and the bad days when it’s not, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.
This is your brain on words. Any questions? — instagram
I’m going to let you into my writing process. I’ll share with you how I plot for what book, and what tools I use. I’ll tell you why I make a character one way and not another, or why I don’t make a character the way others say I should. I’m going to try this whole “positive reinforcement”-slash-“helpful bee” thing and see if y’all like it.
If you don’t, then I’ll think of something else. Murders by Monday? Slaughterhouse Monday? The Day Karina Goes on a Crime Spree Bender and Makes Like Thelma and Louise?
Okay, that’ll need some work.
You guys better like this, is what I’m saying. Because there isn’t enough carpet cleaner in the world for the alternative. You dig? Do you? Do you really?
It puts the lotion on it’s skin…
In less creepy references, I was trying to name this thing, and for some reason, when searching for the right thing to call the day, all I can hear is RuPaul: Girl, you better work!
Okay, sure. You Better Work Monday.
It’ll do, RuPaul. It’ll do.
