C. Gockel's Blog, page 152

irondame:

Hrímfaxi, frost maned horse of Viking myth
In Norse mythology, Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi are the horses of Dagr (day) and Nótt (night). The names Skinfaxi and Hrímfaxi mean “shining mane” and “rime mane” (or “frost mane”), respectively.
In stanza 14 of the Vafþrúðnismál, the third poem of the Poetic Edda, Odin states that the horse Hrímfaxi “draws every night to the beneficent gods” and that he lets foam from his bit fall every morning, from which dew comes to the valleys.

Oooo…I didn’t know about this. Lovely illustration.

Beautiful picture of Odin and Huginn and Munnin.

pixie-night-shore:

I don’t know why, but EVERY SINGLE DAY, I find myself  pondering the same question, “What it would be like to be randomly thrown back in time with my same clothes and my little German and be found by some traveling Vikings?” Would they kill me, or would they love me, or make me a slave? I just don’t know, either ways; I would be in Valhalla.

You would probably kill them with all your modern germs. When tribes in the Amazon are contacted by Western anthropologists 90% of the tribe tends to keel over from infections the Westerners weren’t even aware they were carrying.

…did horrible things. Writing about the story of Rind in I Bring the Fire Part IV and feeling very sick to my stomach. 

I will no doubt be labelled misogynist for including it in my story. 

Bookbub will be advertising it today. It’s a big experiment. I’ve heard promotions of 2nd in series don’t do as well. However:

1. People often don’t read free books because they undervalue them. I had a lot more free downloads of Fire than follow up sales of Monsters and Chaos. I hope that people will purchase Monsters on a whim since it’s only 99 cents. Buying books makes people more likely to read them — I hope this will prompt some reading of both installments!

2. I’ve gotten a crazy amount of emails asking me when part II will come out. Which means there are a crazy amount of people too shy to email me. I’m hoping this will let people know that it’s out there.

3. Bookbub has 240K fantasy subscribers, I didn’t get that many downloads. I hope to reach people who were on vacation or otherwise occupied during the first promo.

I’ll let you know how this promo goes in about 7 days. That will give me some idea of how much Chaos sales have increased. Even if I don’t make my money back on the cost of advertising Monsters ($180—at 99 cents that means I’ll have to sell about 515 Monster ebooks), if sales of Chaos are higher than normal over the next week or two I’ll count it as a win.

UPDATE: As of 9 AM Central it’s on their site in the deals section. But the email and also their FB post alerting readers to deals isn’t out yet. So nervous…

UPDATE: As of 7:30 PM I just broke even. Definitely not as dramatic results as my ad for free download of Fire Part I, but it’s Sunday night and I tend to get a lot of buyers Sunday night/Monday AM. I expect I’ll make money from this venture. Also, Monsters has bolted up to #818 in the paid store.

vaneluzimoura:

By Bob Mayer:

My first novel came out in 1991:  The Green Berets: Eyes of the Hammer.  It is still selling well and the Green Beret series just saw its eighth book, The Green Berets: Chasing the Lost come out.  The protagonist from that first book, Dave Riley, is a bit older, supposedly retired, a bit crankier, and more than a little crazy.  Reminds me of someone I know.

I’ve published 52 books since that first book.
Off the top of my head, here are some thoughts of lessons learned.

The best thing a writer can do for their career is […]

A Charmingly Ghoulish Story…

After the murder of his parents, Harold Pickman has only one ghoul…ahem…goal. To survive his senior year of high school. Difficult for an odd boy out under any circumstances, but made more difficult by the fact that Harold harbors a secret: he’s a ghoul, and occasionally has to devour human remains to stay healthy.

Sadly, for Harold (but not for us), being a ghoul doesn’t imbue him with any super powers. And although relationships are the core of the story, it’s relationships of a platonic kind: Harold’s relationships with his parents, and then later his grandmother, and Harold’s relationships with the rest of the guys at the “nerds n’ faggots’ lunch table.

The story is sad, tragic, funny, and then thrilling—the conclusion kept me awake late last night.

The author uses Harold’s POV throughout, and the prose is appropriate for a 17 year old boy’s experiences and perspective. There are great descriptions of high school and the teenage experience. The details about punk rock scene in Philly during the 70s feel very authentic.

The story is self-published, and it’s one of those stories that makes you glad self-publishing exists. I don’t really like horror stories, and I don’t think this really fits in that genre. Also, without soul-mates, super-powers, or saving the world, it’s hard to get publisher’s attention…but it succeeds because it doesn’t rely on those tropes.

The author is promising more stories about Harold, and I can’t wait to read them. For now he’s offering it for only 99 cents on Amazon. Download it now >

cgockel:

“You don’t want the opinion of another writer.”

Hemingway and Dali were my favorite parts of this movie.

In the Balance just got it’s first reviews. Thank you Siffsdottir, Chococat Mom, and Cindy Gibson (CA).

…and I Bring the Fire Part I has gotten so many reviews in the past month. Thank you kandymatx, Jane Crouch, momofsporefan,KR Jansson, Kiltchecker, Coleen Worcester, R. Blist, Carolyn Dymock, Robert H. Williams, Eric Barret, Janet, James F. Bergman, Jofefina, J E, Charles E. Bolger, Ginger Hill, & Victoria Bloom!