just kidding! :)Forget about the deluxe artwork and the high-priced, limited-edition extras; Reznor actually sold more copies of the basic Ghosts I-IV albums through Amazon's MP3 store than did any other act in 2008. He beat out Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, Vampire Weekend, Beck, and hundreds of others, and he did it without a label and by giving the music away.Here's what happened: People downloaded it for free. Some liked it and bought it--the rising culture of Gen Y today realizes appreciation = $ and are willing to pay for it (look at the recent donations being thrown at Wikipedia--in the millions; look at the success of freeware online). Sure, some never spent a penny on it--but they listened to it, and shared it with their friends, and they bought it. And any way you look at it, NIN eventually rose to be number 1--based on a free product.
When they self-released “In Rainbows” back in October of 2007, they told fans they could pay anything they wanted- in a download format only. It was a sliding scale, based on how much you think Radiohead’s record is worth to you, and you got it.Now, I know this isn't a music blog, it's a writing one. But the music industry is the best model for the publishing industry. Literary agent Caren Johnson cross posted Michael Ayers post about whether or not publishing can learn from the music industry:
...when the [music] industry had to make a decision about the future- at the beginning of this decade- they balked. Instead of embracing models of online distribution, they retaliated with suing fans, putting restrictions on the digital playback options, or even worse, continued thinking about the bottom line, instead of the quality of their product, or quality of their artist.While I agree paper books won't ever go away, I also believe that whichever publisher first embraces ebooks in an efficient way will become the iPod of publishing....and what publisher wouldn't want that?
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Yessss....I see many things in the future of publishing.Change had never done Belle Ravenna any favors. Moving from one coast to another last year had meant change: a new school, a new house, and no friends. But the first day of school was all about change—and maybe this would be the year things would finally change for the better. The start of eighth grade would give Belle the chance to reinvent herself, finally become the person she wanted to be.Thanks in advance for any comments any one can provide--and please, don't hold back! And, as a special thank-you for helping me out with this manuscript and sharing this crazy ride of a blog and a manuscript development, I'm making a special pre-announcement: I'll be holding a contest very soon just for you, my wonderful, amazing blog readers!
Someone knocked into Belle as she picked up a chocolate milk. Ashleigh. Belle's corndog slid off her fries. The stick end landed in the ketchup.
"I hate it when the nobodies just stand there," Ashleigh said to the lunchroom in general. She paid for her salad, no dressing, and bottle of water.
"I hate it that you think you can just walk all over me," Belle told her corndog.
So much for reinventing herself. All that had changed since last year was her grade.
"$2.60." The lunch lady didn't look up as she held out her hand.
Belle handed her three dollars. "Have you ever wondered if maybe life should be different from how it is?"
"Change." The lunch lady handed the coins to Belle.
Belle stuffed them in her pocket, picked up the tray, and stepped into the lunchroom and its chaos. ...
A Writer's Prayer was written shortly before I began American Gods. I knew the first two verses when I began it, and the conclusion was there when I reached it. This is why I love writing.Why, yes. I am behind my peers technologically. I have finally joined Facebook. I hesitated because MySpace made me feel like a pedophile--not that I am one, it's just so...uh...obviously aimed at angsty teenagers and inundated with teen porn--but Facebook is nice and not creepy.
But then I went on Google Earth and looked up where they were in relationship to Cairo--pretty close. Then I looked up blogs by people who had been to the pyramids on tours, and they talked about how abrupt the change from city to tourist trap was. These were all details I incorporated later.
The brightly painted doors of Malta fascinated me! 
Click on the map for a larger image. Find the boot of Italy, then the island of Sicily. Malta is the speck below that.
Torri Hamrija, the Lookout Tower near the Hagar Qim archaeology digs.In the distance, nearly on the edge of the cliff overlooking the Mediterranean, stood a low, squat limestone tower of the same dusty yellow that the ruins seemed to be made of.
"That's Torri Ħamrijja," Mr. Mallory said. "One of thirteen towers made in the 1500s as a safe portal to the lignum vitae forests."
A tree grows in Malta."Come over here," Mr. Mallory said, drawing Robert, Esperanza, and Belle away from the group that had swarmed around them and through a narrow porthole door carved into the stone. The room was small, and if it weren't for the fact that there was no roof, Belle would have felt trapped and closed in. The only thing of interest in the stark room was a pedestal-style table with a long, box-shape base that had a many-limbed tree carved into each of the four sides.Not only were there carvings of trees, but the other prominent carving was of a spiral design that archaeologists think represented eternal life. This design became the same as my characters' alchemist mark, the magic symbol that marked them as alchemists.
Swirly!He pointed to some relief carvings that popped out from the lower edge of a half-broken wall. They were spirals that made intertwining circles, like connected curlicues. "Recognize this?" Mr. Mallory asked.
They all shook their heads.
"Oh, come on," Mr. Mallory said, grinning at them. He held up his hand, which glowed under the sunlight.
"The alchemist mark?" Belle asked, looking from the symbol embedded deep within his palm to the carvings on the ancient wall.
Artist rendition of the Hagar Qim temple design.
A sculpture of the Maltese VenusShe was fat, grotesquely fat, but she seemed graceful nonetheless. Still, Belle couldn't help staring at the way the fat rolled over the woman's knees and elbows, at how there were three distinct rolls of fat underneath the woman's Grecian-style dress. Her breasts hung low wobbled as she walked.
Even in the most crowded parts of the city, it was quiet and peaceful. They had yet to see any other people; Belle could hardly even hear any other people. All the streets were lovely and peaceful—but they were also deserted and labyrinthine, and the walls surrounding them rose several stories high, so high, in fact, that it was sometimes hard to see the sky.And the capital city, Valleta, was beautiful and powerful. It was a strong city, as evidenced by the fort-turned-park that has an interesting tower:
Click for a closer look--ears and eyes are carved in the tower,"Look," Esperanza whispered loudly, pointing to the tower in which the man stood. On each of the six sides of the tower—or at least, on each of the sides they could see (two sides hung over the wall, out of their site), a different object was carved. Over the man's head was carved a long-necked bird leaning over, its beak nearly at its feet. But to the left of him, there was a giant ear, and to the right, a giant eye. The giant eye blinked. Its stone pupil moved around, gazing at each member of the crowd in turn. The ear twitched nervously.
Yes! Holiday break is officially broke--I'm off for two weeks! The dog, as you can see, is happy, too: when I'm off, he gets to stay inside with me, instead of outside in the freezing cold. He is amenable to this situation.Belle Ravenna thought starting eighth grade meant change. Maybe class bully Ashleigh would move on to another victim, gorgeous Matt would finally notice her, or, at the very least, she’d make some real friends. But of all the changes Belle hoped for, she never dreamed of how much she would change after discovering that her new English teacher was a witch.
Magical Ms. Wendt may be able to have Sophocles as a guest speaker, but she can’t escape the prison of her own classroom. Trapped behind an enchanted blue door that alters her students’ memories of magic, Ms. Wendt has little hope of rescue—although Belle and her classmates want to help their teacher, they only recall her imprisonment within the classroom. When the new science teacher introduces the kids to alchemy, Belle thinks that may be the key to saving Ms. Wendt. The more Belle learns about alchemy, though, the more she suspect that her science teacher wants to use it to steal Ms. Wendt’s magic…and if she helps, she’ll get some of that magic for her own. Caught between one teacher who wants freedom and another who wants magic, Belle must choose between fighting for what she thinks is right and taking what she knows she wants.
Based loosely on the Greek myth of Bellerophon, The Amnesia Door is a 70k word MG novel intended for tween girls.
When Rachel stared at her, Lina blinked and cocked her head, then groaned.Now, I asked myself, what's wrong with those? They're descriptive, give me a sense of what the character was doing...what's wrong? How is that filler?Lara smirked at Betty, then shook her head and grinned.
Then, like a dog hearing a sound on some inaudible frequency, he cocked his head. (Katherine V. Forrest, Daughters of an Amber Dawn, 2002)That's better. It's fine if your character cocks her head to listen--but add something else, make it something more--make it something new.
So easy to write
A plethora of new words
But cutting them--oh!
...the sensible reader will know which books get put on a library list and which books they buy—and that won’t be to hardback-priced best-sellers infested with DRM.Here's my take:
So there it is, my semi-professional at least I'm not cross-eyed-and-drooling picture! And I actually liked this picture so much that I tried to re-create it, and came out looking like a hair model. 
Audrey Hepburn in the movie Sabrina.Although short, she stood up so straight that she seemed taller. Her close cropped hair framed her pixie face, but although she looked delicate, her eyes held a fierce flash that belied gentleness.But although Ms. Wendt appears small and gentle (like Audrey), I wanted her to have an element of sadness and sorrow. And then I remembered this:
Belle watched her teacher's face pale for just a moment before her features froze into a perfect smiling mask. ...[later] Something—a look of sadness? Anger?—passed over Ms. Wendt's face.During revisions, I became aware of how heavily I was using my image of Ms. Wendt as Audrey. I added this scene as a sort of homage to it all:
She looked just like Audrey Hepburn had in Breakfast at Tiffany's, at the beginning of the movie, when Audrey's character ate a bagel in front of the store window of Tiffany's jewelry store, and her stony face tried to hide a deep, almost painful longing for a life she would never, ever have.
Being alone--Ms. Wendt and Belle both consider themselves solitary characters.
Although both Belle and Ms. Wendt feel alone, they also both have a sense of being surrounded by others.
There is also a sense of giving up things for both characters. Ms. Wendt has given up freedom,
And finally, each of the two feel a stoic sense of responsibility.
