Feathers and Ink

  It has been a while since I posted anything, and it has also been a while since I made good progress on my novel. I always seem to run into a solid wall at a certain stage, and it is the biggest challenge to keep going when that wall appears - especially as there is nobody to encourage me or cheer me on. You know, those people other authors dedicate their books to or thank profusely on the pages? I don't have these in my life. It often makes me feel like there's no point in holding on to my dreams. After all, it seems like nobody cares. But I need to keep telling myself that there will be people out there - people like me - who will most likely enjoy the story I am working on. It might even be enjoyed by people who are not like me at all. After all, fantasy fans are not all the same. I also need to keep telling myself that maybe, just maybe, my story might just touch one person enough to encourage them, to make them feel less alone, and to find a few hours of happiness within

  I have made quite a bit of progress on my fantasy novel in the last few days. I am about 8% into the actual writing, but that should from now on go faster. A lot of my time was spent on researching map design and book formatting, so it would look great in print and on various devices like tablets and e-readers. It was a lot to take in. Map Design for authors Most fantasy books have maps. Some have great maps, some have basic maps. Think of Tolkien's Middle Earth maps and George R.R. Martin's Westeros map. These maps are not only useful for readers. They are a great tool for authors themselves. If you know what your world looks like, you can avoid mistakes like making a hike last two days if the distance could actually be walked in half a day.  Creating a map for your story also helps you with getting more ideas about who lives in your world, what it is focused on, which challenges there are based on the landscape, etc. I first thought I'd only make a basic map by hand and

  Yesterday, I finished designing and uploading the contents for my little poetry collection, which will be the second book I am self-publishing. I am just experimenting to see what works and what does not, so I have a better idea about which publishing path I want to take once my first novel is done. The project is done, and I ordered a test print because I'll publish the book as "print on demand" this time. Once I've received the test print, I'll check what it looks like, and if the quality is okay, I'll press the "publish" button. I don't talk much about my writing on Facebook or other social media, but yesterday, I decided I'd like to see how other people would react if I shared the cover of my poetry collection, just with the words "Coming soon".  I received only one reaction - the emoji you use when you find something "funny". I am not quite sure what to make of this. A while ago, I would have been really depressed a

  I originally planned to spend this afternoon by continuing an online course for novel-writing that I started a couple of days ago. But I just can't stand how the information is presented in that one. It's good information; it is stuff writers need to know (and I know a lot of it already). If only the course's creator would have made sure she knew what is essential for online courses. In addition, some of the things included in the course simply do NOT work. One example is the Facebook group, in which you are supposed to be able to ask questions and connect with other writers. The link leads to an error page. I asked a question in the course's comment sections. Then, in a later part of the course, I looked at the other comment section, and someone asked the same thing - TWO YEARS before I did. So this has been broken for two years. Fine, I could deal with that, even though it is not a good thing to take people's money and then abandon your course, hoping that peopl

  I have just recently started to write on my own projects again. After over 10 years of freelance writing, translating, and reviewing, I decided it was time to take the risk - and after one week of it, I already feel that it has done wonders for my mood. It all started when I received an email from Infostack about a new writer's bundle being available. I thought the timing was interesting because I was in the middle of a rather frustrating freelancing experience. I bought the bundle and thought I'd just use it to improve my skills and for the included software. It was a good deal. What really happened when I looked at the list of offerings after I bought it was this, though: I saw a course by Carissa Andrews included in the bundle, and it looked interesting but also a bit uncomfortable to me (because it reminded me of what I was not doing). It was only a short course for about half an hour each day. Nothing to lose. Just the first couple of days changed my attitude towards my