Monday, December 9, 2013
ROMCON 2013
This year, RomCon, the Romanian sci fi and fantasy convention, is taking place in Iasi, between 13th and 15th of December. The program of the convention can be found here.
Thursday, December 5, 2013
Order Restored Giveaway
Well, I can't give you all presents, but I can offer 5 ebook copies of Order Restored (The Impaler Legacy #3) in a giveaway that starts today and ends on December 12.
There are several ways to score an entry: you can like my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, add Order Restored to your to-read shelf on Goodreads, become my fan on Goodreads, subscribe to my newsletter, tweet about the giveaway, and also like and follow the awesome ladies who agreed to host this giveaway on their blogs.
If you can't wait that long, Order Restored has a discounted price of only $0.99 on Amazon.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
The giveaway is also hosted on my site and the following blogs so show them some love!
Monday, December 2, 2013
New Release: Order Restored (The Impaler Legacy #3)
Oddly enough, Order Restored required no plotting in advance. When I finished writing A Victory that Counts, I only knew the opening scene from the sequel and it was enough. The main goals were to save Jesse, deal with the new breeds, and figure out what to do with Max. If you're reading Order Restored, you'll find out what solutions I came up with. I will miss these characters, but they earned their right to rest. There are other stories waiting to be told. See you in the next book!
Order Restored (The Impaler Legacy #3) is available through Amazon and Smashwords, and soon through other stores too. To celebrate its release, the Amazon price will be lowered to $0.99 between December 2 and 15 so hurry and get it while it's still hot!
The website got a new layout to celebrate the new release so you might like to stop by too.
Romanian Horror and Fantasy Roundtable
Mihai Adascalitei from Dark Wolf's Fantasy Reviews invited a series of Romanian writers and artists (Raluca Băceanu, Marian Coman, Oliviu Crâznic, Ştefana Cristina Czeller, A.R. Deleanu, Andrei Gaceff, Teodora Gheorghe, Teodora Matei, Cristina Nemerovschi, Claudia Niculescu, Mircea Pricăjan, Radu Romaniuc, George Sauciuc, Cristina Schek, Narcisa Stoica, Ioana Vișan) to talk about the state of Romanian horror and fantasy not only in literature but in culture, in general, as well. I think our answers describe the situation quite accurately so check them out. Oh, by the way, the interview is in English so, hopefully, it will reach a wider audience.
Sunday, December 1, 2013
NaNoWriMo - post-mortem
At the end of October, I wrote a post about NaNoWriMo and my plans for it. To sum it up, I was planning to write 1,000 words daily in November, including during the weekends.
Now the month of November is over so let's see how it went. Did I reach my goal? Yes. On November 29, I had 31k done so I took the last day of Nano off. :P I didn't write only one Sunday, but I didn't fall behind with the word count because I had already written an extra 1k. The main goal was 30k with hopes to get to 35k. I didn't get to the 35k, but that's okay. The writing flew smoothly with no major roadblocks, even if I only had about half of the plot figured out when I started. 35k was a tentative margin, however, I don't feel like I reached the end yet. There are another two major events that still need to happen in the story so probably another 30k. It turns out it's a novel after all. Oh, well ... I guess the readers will stop complaining about my stories being too short when they expected full novels instead of novellas.
What did I learned? I can do it, obviously, but I already knew that. Will I do it again another time in November? Not a chance! November is the worst month for this as far as I'm concerned, coming in second only after Euros and Worlds. When I decided to do the Nano, I hadn't taken in consideration the fact that the skating Grand Prix events were in full swing and Eurosport planned on airing all of the competitions during the weekends. So in between watching skating on TV and running the AS site, getting the word count done too was pretty stressful. On top of all, my pc monitor broke and for a week I had to work with a borrowed one. Not fun.
But there are some positive aspects too. I have a new story in the works that I hope to finish by the end of the year. I like the characters and the world I created. What I don't like so much is that I keep getting ideas for sequels. I'll have to do something about that, or I'll get stuck with them for another year. Okay, the truth is I have an idea of how to handle the issue, but I'm not ready to divulge it yet. ;)
So ... plans for December. I'll be busy with promoting Order Restored so I'll try to keep a light schedule: finish the story or get as close to the end as possible, and come up with some kick-ass cover(s) somehow. Wish me luck!
Now the month of November is over so let's see how it went. Did I reach my goal? Yes. On November 29, I had 31k done so I took the last day of Nano off. :P I didn't write only one Sunday, but I didn't fall behind with the word count because I had already written an extra 1k. The main goal was 30k with hopes to get to 35k. I didn't get to the 35k, but that's okay. The writing flew smoothly with no major roadblocks, even if I only had about half of the plot figured out when I started. 35k was a tentative margin, however, I don't feel like I reached the end yet. There are another two major events that still need to happen in the story so probably another 30k. It turns out it's a novel after all. Oh, well ... I guess the readers will stop complaining about my stories being too short when they expected full novels instead of novellas.
What did I learned? I can do it, obviously, but I already knew that. Will I do it again another time in November? Not a chance! November is the worst month for this as far as I'm concerned, coming in second only after Euros and Worlds. When I decided to do the Nano, I hadn't taken in consideration the fact that the skating Grand Prix events were in full swing and Eurosport planned on airing all of the competitions during the weekends. So in between watching skating on TV and running the AS site, getting the word count done too was pretty stressful. On top of all, my pc monitor broke and for a week I had to work with a borrowed one. Not fun.
But there are some positive aspects too. I have a new story in the works that I hope to finish by the end of the year. I like the characters and the world I created. What I don't like so much is that I keep getting ideas for sequels. I'll have to do something about that, or I'll get stuck with them for another year. Okay, the truth is I have an idea of how to handle the issue, but I'm not ready to divulge it yet. ;)
So ... plans for December. I'll be busy with promoting Order Restored so I'll try to keep a light schedule: finish the story or get as close to the end as possible, and come up with some kick-ass cover(s) somehow. Wish me luck!
Saturday, November 30, 2013
2013 November Reading List
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch – If someone removed the interludes, this would be a great book. It’s too wordy the way it is now. The Gentleman Bastards are, of course, a hoot! 4/5 stars
Beyond the Shadows by Brent Weeks – This one seemed a little uneven, especially in the second part, and the last battle scene is huge, but a fine conclusion in the end. 4/5 stars
Inferno by Dan Brown - I'm half way through it, but while a considerable improvement compared to The Last Symbol, the infodump is huge. I'm basically reading it because the action takes place in Florence, still there's no chance it will get any better from this point forward. 3/5 stars
Friday, November 29, 2013
Mention in Observator cultural
The Romanian of Human Instincts edition is available here.
The English of Human Instincts edition is available here (and several other places listed in the right sidebar).
Update: I nearly missed there was a new issue of Helion Online out. In 2014, Catalin Badea-Gheracostea mentions the idea of a bilingual anthology of Romanian hard sci fi and adds my name to a list of important writers. I suddenly feel so popular. :)
Thursday, November 28, 2013
Free Webhost and Domain Registration
I've been delaying all summer the search for a new free webhost, knowing how frustrating and time consuming it can be. I'm quite happy with Zymic.com (6000 MB space, 50 GB bandwidth), but I already have four websites hosted there and I didn't want to push my luck.
My new discovery is Hostinger.ro. The free plan includes 2000 MB space, 100 GB bandwidth, FTP, PHP, MySQL, and bilingual control panel in both English and Romanian. There's a limit of 20,000 files, but other than that I didn't notice any restriction that might bother me. The upload went fine, and the sites are loading in a reasonable amount of time. I already moved three sites and I'm considering moving other four. It's too soon to tell if the promised uptime is real so I'll keep an eye on that.
For free domain names, I'm using dot.tk. Some keywords are flagged and reserved for the paid subscription, but it's easy to find a combination of words that still works. The maximum free subscription is 12 months, and it can be renewed.
My new discovery is Hostinger.ro. The free plan includes 2000 MB space, 100 GB bandwidth, FTP, PHP, MySQL, and bilingual control panel in both English and Romanian. There's a limit of 20,000 files, but other than that I didn't notice any restriction that might bother me. The upload went fine, and the sites are loading in a reasonable amount of time. I already moved three sites and I'm considering moving other four. It's too soon to tell if the promised uptime is real so I'll keep an eye on that.
For free domain names, I'm using dot.tk. Some keywords are flagged and reserved for the paid subscription, but it's easy to find a combination of words that still works. The maximum free subscription is 12 months, and it can be renewed.
Monday, November 25, 2013
Ebook Formatting Services for Indie Writers
I've been a self-published/indie writer for 18 months now, which means I'm in charge with the entire publishing process from the beginning to end. Some tasks I delegate, like editing, but the rest I pretty much do by myself, and this includes manuscript formatting before uploading to various platforms.
After 6 published titles (soon to be 7), it occurred to me that I had enough experience when it comes to ebook formatting and I could offer my services to other writers. Not everyone is ready to tackle everything, especially the technical part, but I never minded that. So after thinking about it for like 5 minutes, I decided to put the idea into practice and came up with this site: http://www.formattingforindies.tk (alternate URL http://ebookformatting.esy.es).
For now, I only offer formatting for Kindle (.mobi). My experience with .epub is restricted to formatting for Smashwords, and while I'm getting better at it, I still feel like it's a bit of a hit and miss at times. So no .epub, but possibly in the future it will be added to the list too. Mobi will do for now, and let's face it, everyone wants to be on Amazon, right?
Take a look at the site, and if you know anyone interested, send them my way. The prices are very low right now compared to what's out there. I'll increase them once I get more clients, so now it's your chance to get your Kindle ebooks formatted for cheap.
After 6 published titles (soon to be 7), it occurred to me that I had enough experience when it comes to ebook formatting and I could offer my services to other writers. Not everyone is ready to tackle everything, especially the technical part, but I never minded that. So after thinking about it for like 5 minutes, I decided to put the idea into practice and came up with this site: http://www.formattingforindies.tk (alternate URL http://ebookformatting.esy.es).
For now, I only offer formatting for Kindle (.mobi). My experience with .epub is restricted to formatting for Smashwords, and while I'm getting better at it, I still feel like it's a bit of a hit and miss at times. So no .epub, but possibly in the future it will be added to the list too. Mobi will do for now, and let's face it, everyone wants to be on Amazon, right?
Take a look at the site, and if you know anyone interested, send them my way. The prices are very low right now compared to what's out there. I'll increase them once I get more clients, so now it's your chance to get your Kindle ebooks formatted for cheap.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
About "Ferestrele timpului"
After the fun romp in Barcelona's streets, as "Punct the rendez-vous la cota +3000" turned out to be, I felt like writing something different, grittier, and with higher stakes. I had been toying with this idea for a couple of years, ever since reading Cherie Priest's Boneshaker. What if there was a person able to resist a poisonous gas that could kill everyone else? What would he do with his ability, and why was he this way? These are the questions I'm trying to answer in "Daca aerul n-ar avea miros" (If The Air Had No Scent).
Half way through it, I got blocked thinking there wasn't enough time travel in the story. But then I told myself my readers are smarter than that. Believe me, there is plenty of time travel in the story, you just need to pay attention. Oh, and there are also some aliens I had to threaten with selling just to make them behave, tee-hee!
"Ferestrele timpului" (The Windows of Time) was published by Tracus Arte, and the official launch is scheduled for today at Gaudeamus book fair in Bucharest.
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