K. Tempest Bradford

As promised, I’m keeping everyone abreast of my dealings with SmashWords so as to give my impression of the process. Back in December I published a short story (actually, a novelette) through their site which was immediately available via SmashWords but took some time to make it through distribution channels. SW will send your eBook to Amazon, B&N, Kobo, Sony, iBooks and Diesel on their behalf as the publisher. It sometimes takes a while. Now my book is in all of those stores except for Amazon, as there’s some kind of renegotiation going on with them overall.

Anyway, I did a search and found the book in each place except iBooks (can’t get there from the web) and linked them above. So now phase 2 is over.

Thus far, 50 people have downloaded the except of the story (free) and only 3 have bought it. However, I haven’t done any promotion beyond this blog yet, mainly because I was waiting for the distribution thing to happen. However, I’ve learned a few things already:

1. I suck at writing jacket copy.
2. My cover is all right, but it’s not stunning, and thus probably not driving many sales.

These things I knew before, but seem particularly important now that I’m considering publishing more stories in this manner.I’m trying to take more time to work on these aspects in the next iteration so that when people do land on the page, they’re enticed to click. I recognize the limits in this area as I am not an artist or book designer or copy writer, cannot afford a decent artist or book designer or copy writer, and would have to consider very carefully employing their services if I did. After all, I’m not going to make much money off of these stories no matter what.

The next step is being a little more aggressive in the promotional area. But not overly so. I’m dipping toes in the water here to work out what’s best for this kind of fiction. I may even wait until I have all the stories I plan to release this way (for now) in the SmashWords catalog at least.

Any thoughts, Internets?

March 29th, 2011 | Tags: Smashwords, Ziras Heart | Category: Writing, Writing Life | Comments (7)

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, last week I was on a writing retreat with some awesome folks. I am finishing up my YA novel (finally, I know) and plowing through the revisions and edits I’ve settled on now that the new material is out of the way. At one point I realized that I needed a snippet of description from an earlier draft of the novel and didn’t have it in my current files. I think I may have overwritten it accidentally. Fie. So I went over to my first draft journal to see if it still lived there.

Having a first draft journal is awesome, can I just say. Not only is it good as an extra backup, but it’s interesting (at least for me) to see how my stories and novels change over time from the first stuff that comes out of my head to the version I eventually send out to editors. Looking back at the journal I see the insane struggle it was for me to write the beginning of this novel. I must have a dozen false starts. Makes me feel all the better for finally getting it out in a form I’m happy with.

I did eventually find my snipped of description and added to the new version which is now very nearly complete.

It’s nice to live in the future…

March 1st, 2011 | Tags: First Draft Journal | Category: Writing, Writing Life | Comments (2)

All right, folks. I will be in San Francisco this afternoon and hanging out in Mountain View until Friday. There are some plans afoot for Friday and Wednesday. Possibly something for tonight. But right now I’m honestly not sure how I’m getting from the airport to my hotel.

At any rate, ping me on Facebook or Twitter (@tinytempest) if you want to meet up for dinner or something!

February 1st, 2011 | Category: General | Leave a comment

Very quick:

I’m going to be in San Francisco next week for a Google announcement. Work is flying me out there and paying for my hotel on Tuesday night. However, because of the cost, I’m flying back on Friday afternoon.

So I’m looking for a place to stay Wednesday and Thursday night. I have to work remotely on Thursday and on Wednesday I’ll need to get from Mountain View to wherever I’m staying, but that can happen in the evening (I’ll be at Google headquarters for most of the afternoon then in the hotel lobby trying to write everything after that). And I guess I’ll need some help figuring out how to get to the airport on Friday. I’m not afraid to take public transit, I just need explicit directions.

If anyone has room for me and it’s not too much of a burden, let me know. I’ll be entertaining in the evenings, I swear!

January 29th, 2011 | Tags: San Francisco, travel | Category: General | Comments (2)

Yesterday all of the news sources I knew of predicted that we’d get just 5 – 9 inches of snow overnight. Then  again, those same sources also said it wouldn’t start snowing until the afternoon. Judging by the inch of accumulation before I left the house at 9am, someone was clearly wrong.

I woke up this morning at 5 in order to go to the gym. I turned on WNYC and, lo, the news dude was all: “There’s 15 inches of snow in Central Park.” I looked out of my window at the courtyard of my building and, lo, it seems we got at least that much of here, too. Fabulous.

Thus, the gym was out, because none of the sidewalks had even begun to be shoveled and even walking down the middle of the somewhat plowed street was precarious. How do I know these things? I went out just to assess how bad things were and this is what greeted me at the front door:

Here’s the scene from the bottom of the stairs:

I attempted to make my way down those stairs. But, due to the near foot of snow and the impacted bits from others who were forced to leave their homes, every stair was a death trap. I fell down around the third step. Thankfully, a foot plus of snow is very soft. However, I wrenched my back attempting to not fall. Good times!

Since I was already down, I took a bunch of pictures of my street and the cross street. Note the “plowed” street, which is still unpassable unless you have 4 wheel drive. And the poor people who live up that hill…

Good thing I can work from home.

January 27th, 2011 | Tags: snow, trapped in the, winter storm | Category: General | Leave a comment

A few years ago I read a post by Jed Hartman wherein he listed all of the various organizations and charities he donates money to, usually at the end of the year. I’ve rarely been in a financial position to be a generous donor — one of the reasons I volunteer my time, instead — but this year I have a small bit of extra money and some worthy entities I want to support. And since I can never keep my mouth shut about the things I’m passionate about, I shall also take this opportunity to encourage you to join me in supporting them. It’s only a slightly evil plan, I know. Next time I will do better.

First up: It’s just been a few weeks since the Carl Brandon eReader Drawing fundraiser ended, so you might be a bit burned on this one. However, the Society is in the midst of another fund drive, this time to benefit their general fund. SF3 — the parent org of WisCon — recently awarded CBS a $2000 challenge grant. That means they will match any donations made in December and January up to $2K. The Drawing didn’t count toward this since all the money we raised in November is earmarked for the Butler Scholarship. Any general fundraising will support other activities of the Society, including the Parallax and Kindred awards. You can make a donation via PayPal here. However, if you send a check to the address on that page, CBS gets to keep more of your donation.

Next: If you’ve used Wikipedia any time in the last few months you probably noticed the banner at the top asking for donations. They are apparently within 1.1 million of reaching their goal, and I intend to donate. I know a lot of people scoff at Wikipedia, but I find it to be an incredibly useful resource for some information. I am on the site at least once a day, usually more. And having written an article about Wikipedia lately, I have an even greater appreciation of how important it’s become and how much work the Wikimedia Foundation puts into the site. Click here to donate.

Finally: As much as NPR sometimes makes me roll my eyes, I have to admit that public radio is a constant part of my life. I wake up to it every morning, I’m always downloading podcasts, and I’ve even been a guest. So I’m going to send a bit of change to WNYC and WBAI (which is Pacifica, not NPR). And, who knows, someday you might hear me on the radio begging you to send us money so we can continue operating. I promise, I will not be as annoying or horrifying as Ira Glass.

December 30th, 2010 | Tags: Carl Brandon Society, fundraising, pledge drive, public radio, Wikipedia | Category: General | Comments (1)

I was catching up on my blog reading yesterday when I came across an old entry on Query Shark. If you follow it, you probably remember this from earlier in the month:

Scott Harris gets the shock of a lifetime while burglarizing the Mayor’s home when he moves to the cellar and finds a tortured prostitute shackled within a catacomb of horrors, and documents entailing a vicious plot to take over the U.S. government.

Reading this engendered such a violent bout of hysterical laughter that I had to put down my Samsung Galaxy Tab(tm), otherwise I would have dropped it. I still haven’t recovered, and now my chest hurts. Immediately following this is a note from the query mistress that this sentence would have caused her to stop reading right away. But since I’m not an agent, I was eager to continue. The query just gets more and more WTF as it goes along. Another favorite bit from the post:

Query: As a result, Scott now has Orlando’s most dogged investigator, Detective Stone, hunting him like a voracious hawk coming in for the kill. This leads to an exhilarating game of wits as Scott continues to steal, barely escaping the relentless pursuit of Stone.

Agent: None of this has anything to do with what you said in the first paragraph. Added to the list of things I don’t believe: a game of wits with an Oxycontin addict.

Right on.

I’m kind of amazed at this person’s ability to string together so many wildly improbable scenarios into one narrative. Even though the query isn’t great and the book sounds dubious, I feel like there’s an inkling of something there, if only someone would get this person to stop piling it on in an effort to create THE MOST THRILLING THRILLER THAT EVER THRILLED, THRILLA!

December 26th, 2010 | Category: Elsewhere on the Internets | Leave a comment

Several bits of fictiony news for you! First, I’m experimenting with self-publishing short stories as eBooks just to see what the process is like and to feel out interest in this arena. I have no plans to completely abandon sending my stories out to magazines and such. But there are a few stories that I love and still believe are good, but I’ve run out of markets for them. One such is Zira’s Heart, which is a bit too long for most markets. So, I decided to submit it to Smashwords and get it listed in most major eBook stores to see how that goes.

Shorts never receive the same kind of attention that books get in these situations, but I still think it could be interesting (and fun). I uploaded it last night and it’s already in the Smashwords catalog. Now I’m waiting to see if they’ll accept it for distribution to Amazon, B&N, iBooks and the like. I put the cover and link up on the sidebar of my site and I’m tracking how many clicks it gets. I’ll report as time goes on.

In other news, I don’t know why but I keep forgetting to blog about my first Escape Pod story! Elan Vital, which first appeared in Sybil’s Garage no 6, was podcasted in Escape Pod and read by Mur Lafferty. I’m completely excited to have cracked that market and really glad Mur is the editor now, as I enjoy her other podcasts quite a bit.

I did not intend to actually listen to the piece since I always get emotional even looking at that story. But as several people had praised Mur’s reading of it, I decided to listen to just a little. I ended up listening to the entire thing (crying almost the whole time, arg). Mur is fantastic, as others have said. She strikes the perfect notes all the way through. I’m so lucky! All of my Escape Artists stories have been read by such excellent and talented people^[1].

The discussion about my story is filled with people saying they really loved it (squee!) and some who bounced off hard. I am amused, however, by the person who said early on that the story “isn’t science fiction“. Also amused by the person who pointed out that, whatever happens in the future, he is sure companies will always find ways to charge us subscription fees. Too right.

Over at the Biology in Science Fiction blog, the poster asks “What would you be willing to give to keep someone you love alive?” which is more the center of my story than the actual science. I do enjoy some hard SF now and then. But I’m int he camp of people who think that the science or technology in SF is meant to serve the characters and the plot and the idea, not the other way around. Too much Star Trek as a child?

And finally, this weekend I went to Macy’s in my quest to find a new mattress (as described here) on the advice of those who said they had great deals. Those people? Have a weird idea of what constitutes a great deal. Nothing below $1,000 in the quality I need, and salespeople who didn’t even want to admit that they might be able to sell me a mattress without a box spring. They looked horrified that I should want such a thing. My old box spring is clearly inferior to anything they have. Cue eyeroll.

PayPal being under attack by Anonymous affected a couple of family members from donating to my mattress fund last week, but I think that’s over now. Yay? I haven’t even looked at the account yet since a bunch of people sent me a note saying they wouldn’t be able to send money until next week or so, which is fine. I’m going to ask my new roommate to help me flip my current mattress tonight and try to sleep on the less fucked up side so that my back will stop screaming at me in the night.

Here’s what I don’t get: how did we, as humans, survive all this time without natural latex memory foam individually-wrapped coil mattresses? I mean, this is crazy. There must be a solution for sleeping that is not bad for your back and also comfortable. Also one that does not cost $600+. Fie.

Footnotes

1. Yeah, that’s right, Amal. I am talkin’ about you. Whatcha gunna do about it, huh?[↩]

December 13th, 2010 | Tags: footnote_0_1339, identifier_0_1339 | Category: General, My Fiction, Publications, Publishing, Writing | Comments (11)

As I mentioned previously, I am in need of a mattress. Not having found any other viable option for collecting money from folks who want to contribute to buying it for me, I’ll have to go with PayPal and just deal with the fees. Since I have a business account, they are unavoidable. *mutter* Hopefully whatever people can give, it’ll cover what PayPal takes.

I spent this weekend visiting mattress showrooms in an attempt to find something that didn’t cost too much that was also comfortable all while trying to avoid used car salesman tactics. I still have one place to visit later this week, but it looks like the mattress I’m going to buy is this one from Keetsa, even though it is over $650. The less expensive one is nice, but too squishy for me. And considering my back problems, I need the firmness most of all.

My back is very upset with me right now because I spent the whole day showing it what things could be like at night, and now I have returned to my horrible, sagging mattress of doom. My hope is to buy something just after Christmas, if the money is available. Though Keetsa doesn’t appear to have sales ever. Bummer.

Anyway, I set up a donation button on my blog so my family can easily find it. I’ve let everyone know that I don’t want anything for Christmas except funds toward the mattress. I don’t know whether they will be able to give me enough to cover the cost, but every bit helps. Everyone’s belt is tight, I know. At this point, I am considering selling stuff just to make this happen, before my spine decides to disintegrate.

December 6th, 2010 | Tags: mattress | Category: General | Comments (2)

I’m contributing risotto to Thanksgiving dinner, and I could not find my piece of paper with the recipe on it! Good thing I posted it online a couple of years ago. Here’s a repost of that post with not only the recipe but how I came to make the best risotto in the entire world.

People often ask me about this recipe because my risotto is FUCKING AMAZING. I keep telling them that the whole thing was a work in progress and the ability to make it exactly like mine depends on several factors, including location. But still, I am not one for keeping amazing food a secret.

First thing I will say is that anyone who doesn’t know jack about risotto should first find the Good Eats episode wherein Alton Brown explains how to make it. It’s called Do The Rice Thing. You don’t need to watch it so much for the recipe, but for his explanation of technique. I try to explain technique and people look at me funny.

The basic recipe comes from Alton, of course, and you can find it here. I do not put in asparagus and random wild mushrooms. I do not use dry white wine. I do not use onion, lemon zest, or nutmeg. I do use the rice, tho!

Here is my recipe, modified from Alton’s:

6 cups chicken or vegetable broth, stock or Pot Liquor
1 cup Barbadillo Oloroso Sherry
2 tablespoons unsalted butter/duck or bacon fat
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups Arborio rice
1-2 cups mushrooms or anything you’d like to try
1 cup meat of some kind
2 ounces grated Pecorino Toscano Fresco

In an electric kettle or medium saucepan with a lid, combine broth and sherry and heat just to simmering. Keep warm. In a large 3 to 4-quart heavy saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter/fat. Add the rice and stir. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until the grains are translucent around the edges. Be careful not to allow the grains or the onions to brown.

Reduce the heat to low. Add enough of the sherry and broth just to cover the top of the rice. Stir or move the pan often, until the liquid is completely absorbed into rice. Once absorbed, add another amount of liquid just to cover the rice and continue stirring or moving as before. I usually have to pour in about 4 – 5 times. It should take approximately 35 to 40 minutes for all of the liquid to be absorbed.

After the last addition of liquid has been mostly absorbed, add the mushrooms and whatever else and stir until risotto is creamy. Remove from the heat and stir in the cheese. Taste and then season, to taste, with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Interested in the long journey between Alton’s recipe and mine? More »

November 24th, 2010 | Tags: more-1331 | Category: Geekitude, General | Comments (1)

I’ll stop bothering you all about this now, I swear! But, you might want to check out the Carl Brandon blog for special last-minute goodness. Also, have you read these posts by Shewta and Rochita?

November 22nd, 2010 | Tags: fundraising, Octavia E Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund | Category: General | Leave a comment

There are just two days left in the fundraiser for the Octavia E. Butler scholarship. Over on the Carl Brandon blog I provided folks with 5 excellent reasons to support the scholarship either by buying tickets to win an eReader or autographed book or buy donating directly (as Jeff Vandermeer just did). Here’s a taste:

3. from Rochita Loenen-Ruiz, 2009 Butler Scholar and Clarion West alum:

“I remember telling people about how receiving the Butler Scholarship made me feel like my dreams had been given wings. …[Without it], the chances of me attending Clarion West would have been close to zero.

…

To me, being given that scholarship was like receiving word that there were people who believed in me and in the stories that I had to tell. There were people who believed that what I had to say was something worth saying and something worth listening to. This knowledge inspires me even now that I am far away from all the beloved people who inspired me and who continue to inspire me. Each time I sit down to write, I think of the people who support the Butler scholarship and there aren’t enough words to say how thankful I am for you. You may not be aware of it, but in my darkest moments, the knowledge that you believed in me has kept me here.”

5. from Jeff Vandermeer, author and Clarion instructor:

“The Clarion workshop is important for reasons that go beyond the value of in-depth workshopping from six different experienced instructors and talks by other guests that provide talented beginners with the tools to improve their writing.

It is also important career-wise because many of the instructors can be of use in shortening the path to publication through sharing of contacts, resources, and leverage. Many instructors also aren’t just writers but editors, which is also of use. In addition, the connect to and comraderie with fellow students will, over time, mean more than being part of a community, since many Clarion students go on to have full-on writing careers.

Therefore, in short Clarion is partially about access, and lack of access for talented writers due to monetary concerns is something that diminishes the field and makes it even harder for talent to win out.”

Click here for all 5 reasons. Or just click here to buy tickets.

November 21st, 2010 | Tags: Carl Brandon Society, fundraising, Octavia E Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund | Category: General | Comments (1)

We are in the final days of the Butler Scholarship fundraising prize drawing! We have raised a lot of money! We need to raise more! Why? Well…

In order to go to Clarion in San Diego, a student must come up with $4,957. In order to go to Clarion West in Seattle, a student must come up with $3,200.

Every year the scholarship pays for one student to go to each. Thus, many thousands of dollars are needed. Thus, this fundraiser.

There was no specific goal in mind when we started this project. I wanted to raise at least $1,000, which is a little over what I raised for the scholarship last year. Now my goal is to raise enough to cover tuition for one student. It would be awesome to be able to cover the Clarion West tuition. But how much more awesome if we could raise enough to cover the Clarion Diego tuition? It’s possible.

If you’ve already bought tickets, thanks! Would you mind spreading the word far and wide? If you haven’t already bought a ticket, please do! Or, if you just want to donate, you can do that as well.

It costs a lot to go to Clarion. In this way, you can help offset that financial burden and support a new writer.

November 19th, 2010 | Tags: Carl Brandon Society, Clarion West, fundraising, Octavia E Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund | Category: General | Comments (3)

For a little less than a year I’ve been needing to buy a new mattress. Mine is old, it doesn’t support my back, and for the past month has been the cause of much severe back pain. Since the holidays are upon us, I’ve decided to ask my family to chip in toward getting a new mattress, which is going to cost somewhere in the realm of $500 even though it is only a full size bed. Bah.

My dilemma is this: I want to give them an easy way to send me money electronically. PayPal is out because they take a portion of the money in fees. I’m willing to pay some fees, but they take too much. I was thinking of some system like Kickstarter, where it keeps track of how much has been raised so far. But I feel like that is for actual projects, not just a personal “I want this thing.” Given that Mary had such a terrible time with Fundable.com, I’m a little afraid to try another similar site without knowing anything about them.

Does anyone out there know of a site where people can send money and see how close the fund is to the final goal and etc? I’m looking at ChipIn.com right now but, again, I know nothing about them and I am wary.

November 19th, 2010 | Tags: holidays, mattress, my back is like whoa | Category: General | Comments (7)