Coming this week! Holiday stories about Lia, Briand, and Aemi!

Guys! I have a Christmas surprise!

I've written a book of holiday short stories set in the worlds of the Frost, A Gift of Poison (the Kingmakers' War series), and Of Sea and Stone (Secrets of Itlantis)!

All the stories can be enjoyed by anyone, even those who haven't read the stories (but there will be some fun things for fans).

The stories include:

"The Darkest Day in the Frost" - Lia and her siblings try to celebrate the new year without her parents. There's a bit of an Adam cameo. :)

"The White Doe of Winterval" - Briand steals a horse and rides in a hunt. She meets Kael for the first time, and he bestows upon her the nickname Catfoot. :D

"The Last Sacrifice" - Aemi does rebellious and risky things in order to win money to buy her mother a necklace for the Lightning that night. She and Nol snark at each other, of course. :)

I hope to have it up for sale sometime this weekend! So stay tuned!

Other news - Briand and Kael fans, you're in luck. I'm still working on the Kael novella and hope to have that out before the end of the year. Then, I'll finish the next Briand book, and then I've got a few new projects in the works as well.

Once Upon a Beanstalk is LIIIIIIIIIVE on Amazon!

The Amazon news:

*Tosses confetti*

Well, I'm excited.

Once Upon a Beanstalk appeared for sale on Amazon at $0.99 late last night. Today it was #53 in the top 100 Fantasy Anthologies on Amazon, which was pretty fun to see (but by the time I took a screenshot it had dropped to #59... boo).

So anyway, if you have a Kindle and like funny, twisty short stories ... head on over and check it out. Feel free to like it or tag it too ;-)

Anyway, it isn't available on Smashwords or Barnes and Noble yet (those files have not been formatted, but hopefully they'll be ready for upload by the end of the week!), but when it is I will be giving away a few free copies in exchange for honest reviews. I'll have more info about that later.

Other announcements:

I have gone ahead and changed my name to Kate Avery Ellison on GoodReads, Twitter, this blog, Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Smashwords. I think that about covers it ... I am still searchable as Kate Ellison, of course, but this way the other author's books aren't showing up in the lists of mine.

Cover reveal of my new book!

I'm always a bit nervous to reveal cover art, because I have some followers on here who are professional artists and designers, and I've never taken a design class in my life.

Nevertheless, I AM pretty excited to share with you the cover art for my new book!

Once Upon a Beanstalk (And Other Fairy Tale Mashups) is a collection of humorous short stories. Rumplestiltskin and Red Riding Hood are married and running a royal wedding planner venue, Rapunzel has been rescued from her tower and is about to start her happily ever after, and the Grimm Brothers are a group of notorious thieves who are forced to rescue a kidnapped princess from a mobster giant. 

All the stories take place in the same world and involve characters met in previous stories.

I've truly enjoyed writing them and I can't wait to get the book formatted and released!

Introducing "Vestigial Organs"

Happy Monday, everyone! Today my short story "Vestigial Organs" was archived on the Daily Science Fiction site, so you can head over there and check it out.

The zombicorns celebrate this story, naturally.

In Which I Talk About Getting A Short Story Published

So awhile back, a very exciting thing happened. I sold my speculative short story "Vestigial Organs" to Daily Science Fiction. I didn't talk about it much because I'm weird like that (ie my OCD convinces me that good things will inevitably and inexplicably vanish) and I was worried it wouldn't actually happen, like maybe the editor would change his mind or the whole market would randomly decide to go bankrupt and close down, but he didn't and it didn't and now the day is almost here! On Monday the story gets mailed out to subscribers and then it will be archived on the site. I'll put up a link to the archived story when one is available.

I'm very excited. :-)

Excited writer is excited

(In other words: Squeeee!!!!!)

The thing I like about short stories is how easily I can handle the submission process--I can send out one or two a week, and when they come back rejected I just send them out again to some other place. It's like juggling. Not to mention how the rejections hurt SO MUCH LESS because I didn't spend a year of my life bleeding words into them, just a few hours or days.

But acceptances are still really sweet.

Happy Friday, peeps!

Submitting Stories

For me, story submissions of any kind feels like getting in line for one of those theme park free-fall rides where you sit on the little bicycle seat, get strapped in like a baby in a carseat and then get dropped seven stories. You're a little excited, you're pretty scared, and you know it's going to probably hurt.

A lot.

Yeeeaah, at a time like this I always just want somebody to hold my hand and ride with me :-(

Seriously, rejection sucks. There's a part of me that would almost rather just not know that my writing is no good and nobody is interested. I'd almost rather just blissfully think I've got a shot at this whole writing business.

Almost. Fortunately, the desire to actually succeed is stronger than that head-in-the-sand mentality.

On a slightly different note, does anybody else feel that disorienting mental split when they read their own stuff? Half of me is like THIS IS GENIUS! and the other half is like Nobody in their right mind will want this stuff. It's AWFUL.

Hopefully, the reality is somewhere in the middle between those two. Or, hey, I'd settle for the former... :-)

The Good Thing About Short Stories

The good thing about short stories?

I can totally surrender to the plot bunnies!!

If you aren't familiar with the term, "plot bunnies" generally refers to those pesky ideas that multiple like rabbits in your brain while you're diligently (trying to) chipping away at your 100k word novel. Plot bunnies for me are like shiny objects are for my cat. Unbelievably distracting.

The beauty of a short story is just that. It's short. So while I'm writing short story 1, I can pop over to a new word document and jot down a few paragraphs for short story 2, 3, and 4 without experiencing the spasms of guilt that usually accompany such actions when I'm writing a novel. Heck, I might even finish story 2 right then and there before I've returned to story 1.

It's refreshing.

I'm enjoying my creative break. I'm not NOT writing, I'm just doing something else. And the plot bunnies are going crazy.

Anybody else struggle with plot bunnies?

Blarg Blarg Writing Stuff

I run through three week cycles of manic-depressive creative confidence/despair. My life is a lot like this, actually.

So this week I'm dragging a bit.

However, I've had some success in the short story department. I'm knee-deep in a post-apocalyptic story at the moment, aiming for about 7k and getting close to finishing it, and I'm editing a paranormal one a wrote a few months ago (though I do wonder what sort of market those have these days. Are they out? Hmm.)

And I had this great idea the other night of how I can update an old civil war short story to make it a little more palatable to sci fi tastes.

So I'm being (sort of) productive.

Eh.

Short Stories!

Naturally, I picked THE EXACT TIME that image uploads are disabled to write the post. I'm freaking brilliant, people.

WIPW!

It's Weeeeednesday, which means that I have to give some sort of status update on my WIP. And I actually have good news, ya'll! Let's retrace the steps of MASQUERADE (working title):

How I write a novel

1. (2006) I have an idea while walking along a beach in Boston. I scribble down a few sentences.
2. I come up with plot lines and character arcs and hate them all. I loosely plot the book. Nothing is working. I hate it. I don't write anything. I loudly proclaim my despair. I forget the idea and work on something else that IS making sense. I write 6 other books before returning to this one.
3. (2009) I remember idea. Love it all over again. Scribble ideas, brainstorm, daydream. I put it aside, afraid to write it. It's not ready yet.
4. (early 2010) In a burst of inspiration, I discover the ending to the story and thus the entire book begins to make sense. I begin plotting and brainstorming characters. I dream up Shana. I love her. But I haven't quite figured her out yet.
5. (spring 2010) I begin writing while procrastinating on another book. At my in-law's house, I invent the romantic interest. I immediately fall in love with him. More writing.
6. I run into horrible trouble. Nothing is working. The characters feel flat and lifeless. I don't know what the emotional point of the book is, I don't know who anybody is or what they want. They all have secrets they're hiding from me. I become discouraged. I rant to my husband about character motivation and eat too much ice cream cake. I contemplate changing the POV.
7. (summer 2010) I discover, in another fit of creative brilliance, what my main male character is lying about. I realize why he and the queen have so much baggage, and why he can't fully trust my main character Shana. I decide I'm a genius. I begin writing again.
8. I impose a new rule upon myself. Must write for internet--I can't get online unless I've produced 1k of story. I get a lot done, but it's haphazard. I abandon much of the original plot and gleefully chase after secondary characters. The story has more rabbit trails than a petting zoo bunny enclosure. I discover lots of wonderful things. All semblance of order goes to pot.
9. I hit 45k and decide the whole thing is ruined. Angst mingles with horror. I throw everything out and declare that I'm starting over.
10. I decide to plot this time around. I write paragraphs of notes about each chapter, carefully making note of clues for the mysteries in the book. There are now all kinds of mysteries and twists and liars and secrets.
11. I finish plotting. I love the book. I already have ideas for a sequel.
12. (This morning) I write the first 2 chapters. I like them. I resolve to finish the 2nd draft by the end of January.

And there you have it. That's basically how I write a book. I've barely begun, really (I'm in chapter 3!) but at the same time I'm really about halfway done. I'm feeling pretty confident, though. HOPEFULLY this will all come together this time around.

Other news

I'm completely in love with short stories again. Yesterday at work I read a short story that knocked me flat. It was amazing. I went home and promptly began writing about paradox, which lead to writing about a girl at her grandmother's funeral, and her complicated relationship with her mother. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this vignette, but I am determined to finish it and make it into something beautiful. Also * deep breath * I want to try submitting some short stories. I've always wanted to but never dared.

Has anybody out there ever done so? Any advice?