Rowan Collage Print

Completed novel collage. Available on Etsy here: http://www.etsy.com/listing/99385795/rowan-jun-original-art-novel-collage-1.

Cuddles,
Tamara

A New Review for Rowan Jun!

"From the opening sentence to the very last period; this story not only held my attention, but threw me head first in a very strange world."

Honest reviews are hard to come by. This early on, it's obvious that most of my readers are people who are either close to me, or I at least know their name. Some of these readers promise to plaster praises in a review, but I beg them not to. That kind of review serves no one. I'd rather have a few honest reviews than many promising shining perfection to a reader. So each reader gets the same request from me: "When you're finished reading, please write and post a serious review, telling what you like AND what you don't like, so other readers can make an informed decision about buying the book."

My lovely friend Mika promised a no-B.S. review of The Pathos of Rowan Jun, and delivered. :) Here's the result, as posted on her blog ShutterBlossoms:

http://shutterblossoms.blogspot.com/2012/04/review-pathos-of-rowan-jun-by-tamara.html?spref=fb

Hope it helps!

Cuddles,
Tamara

Creativity VS Making Money

Some comments that may be of value about creativity versus making money. I've talked about this story somewhere before, but it reared its ugly head again. 


I posted this comment on Goodreads a couple days back, in response to a comment, in the thread for Stephen King's On Writing book: 


"A friend gave me this book following his Creative Writing class in college. His VERY anti-King professor told him that he could have assigned a dozen great books on how to write well, but he assigned On Writing because the students wanted to learn how to make money writing. The professor hates King's writing but knows the man makes a killing doing what he does best: telling good stories. Writing well and making money writing are not always hand in hand. Oh, and I loved the book. Other than the awesome personal-life accounts, King gives basically two orders: 1. Write every day. 2. Keep writing."

I received a response to the effect that the professor was a jealous idiot, and that Stephen King writes well, and could write better if he wanted to, but chooses to focus on the story instead. I consider this a moot point. So I responded in kind:

"Well, this professor isn't an idiot, but he does have it out for King. Just doesn't like him. Jealousy may be a factor, but most likely it's the haughtiness I've witnessed in some professors. One of my dear art professors, for instance, is an awesome artist, but he disdains Thomas Kinkade for shirking tradition and "lessening" the value of his work by selling prints AND by doing simple genre scenes.

It is all quite silly. Kinkade made a killing with his art prints and brand, and is one of the most well known artists of his generation, painting what everyone wanted to hang in their homes. Also, far be it from me to judge an author like King who brings home millions, writing (pretty vividly) what people want to read!

As a writer and artist, I have my own biases. But they don't cloud common sense. Creative people create. Financially successful creative people create what people want to buy."

I repeat: Financially successful creative people create what people want to buy.

End of story, right? Or just the beginning? :)

Cuddles,

Tamara

Volume 2 Cover Progress

I think I've mentioned that my favorite part of self-publishing is total creative control. The Pathos of Rowan Jun was a real challenge. I had to draft, revise, edit, proofread, format, illustrate, make the cover, write blurbs, and everything else for the book, plus make adjustments for a total of three versions (Paperback, Kindle, Smashwords). And that's not even mentioning the marketing process, which I'm still fine-tuning.

I posted progression artwork for The Pathos of Rowan Jun here, so I figured it would be a good idea to do the same for Silver Empress. It's interesting to see how the concept grew from scribble to final concept. (I'll work this final concept into the finished cover. It's nowhere near ready yet!)

The Scribble:

Art informing writing content... Cluttered composition. Changed my mind at this time about releasing a short story collection. Instead, the two background characters will get their own short story book, and Silver and Briescha (foreground) headline volume 2. Smoother design possibilities, smoother story flow.

From the time when Silver Empress was going to be a short story collection.  Not anymore!

The Re-Scribble:

The decision to narrow the focus of the book to this MAJOR plot swivel made my cover characters obvious. Fiddled in Manga Studio with existing sketches and my trusty tablet to produce a new composition. Focused on the faces and worked out some loose angles and things. Very rough design...

Silver, left. Briescha, right. Foreground: Scribble hand  and sword! :)

The Final Drawing and Base Colors:

I realize that I forgot to save a JPEG of just the basic finished black and white drawing. Oh, well. Here's the finished drawing with some base colors, a texture on Briescha's skin, and no background. Silver is all base-gray and solid black at this point. She'll have mirrored skin, God-willing, when I get finished with her. (Still not happy with her mouth shape...) I've overlaid another texture on Briescha's skin to soften the shadows, but there's sooo much left to do...

Final V2 line art with base colors, some shading

As always, the images contained in this blog post are copyright Tamara Henson, Tamara Henson Studios and may not be used without my express written consent.  I welcome any feedback and constructive criticism you can provide on this design, either via comments below or direct messaging on FB or dA. 

Cuddles,

Tamara

Now doing art for my next novel...

Thanks to loads of input from two friends and my mother, I've finalized the release order and composition for my next two books. I originally decided on releasing some short stories while I edit Volume 2. Now, I've decided it's in the best interest of the story to release Volume 2 instead. The book will be titled Silver Empress  and follow the story arc of the Azelan named Briescha and her twin sister... Silver. :D (When a bereft child character insists on naming a newborn, someone should step in. Just sayin'...)

Which brings me to my next digital art challenge:

Julie Bell is the master of making very organic people and things look like shiny silver. With oil paint! And here I am, aspiring to do the same with highly advanced imaging software. I could expound on the fact that Julie and Boris have been making fantasy and sci-fi art since before I was born with amazing success, and that I'm just starting out by comparison. But that would be an excuse, and I don't like those. Regardless, I'm still feeling incredibly inferior. Will have to break out the Julie and Boris book for color reference. But this kind of challenge gets the blood pumping! Also... What kind of idiot creates a character with mirrored skin and then places that title character on the cover??? This kind of idiot. :)

Cuddles,
Tamara

I WON AN AWARD!

I won the eBook cover design contest for fiction! How very exciting! The Pathos of Rowan Jun was one of 67 eBook covers submitted to the Fiction category for February, 2012. 


Here's what Joel Friedlander, The Book Designer, posted about my submission:

"Tamara Henson Coffey submitted The Pathos of Rowan Jun designed by Tamara Henson Coffey. “I wanted to express a graphic novel feel for a very action/adventure type of story, so I made a close-up of a fully inked comics-style character and hand lettered the title and author name.”

JF: An astonishingly strong and harmonious blend of art and lettering. The energy in this cover is palpable, it almost leaps off the screen. Getting this kind of internal consistency and focus, here for a “warrior sci-fi” story, is unusual. Great stuff."

See the original post, as well as the stiff competition, here: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/03/e-book-cover-design-awards-february-2012/

This just raised the art-bar for me! :D Bring on the next book!

Cuddles and "Squeees", 

Tamara

Self-Publishing Links and Advice, Vol. 2

I just posted this advice on reddit for the following question: Does self-publishing hurt your mainstream publishing chances? Thought I'd share it here, as it may be helpful...

Both The Passive Voice blog (http://www.thepassivevoice.com/) and Joe Konrath (http://jakonrath.blogspot.com/) are strong advocates for why we should NOT go the traditional publishing route.

This guy's a treasure, too: http://www.thebookdesigner.com/ He gives practical advice for do-it-yourself designing, and also resources for paying others for services.

All three make valid points supporting self-publishing as a means in itself, not just a springboard to traditional publishing. From my experience, I enjoyed more creative control by self publishing. Since specialty "niche" nonfiction can rack up quite a respectable following, you may stand a good chance with self-pubbing.

I encourage you to read up on the above sites and make the decision yourself. If you expect to be a multi-millionaire by month's end, you will set yourself up for failure. If you treat it like a business, expecting overhead and a steady break-even point, AND if your book finds a market, you'll not be disappointed with the results.

Good luck!

Kindle and Paperback Now on Amazon!

Both Kindle and Paperback versions of The Pathos of Rowan Jun are now linked on Amazon. Just click on  your preferred version in the "Formats" box. See it here: 

http://www.amazon.com/Pathos-Rowan-Jun-ebook/dp/B0078L898E/

More formats on the way, too! I'll be working with Smashwords to post several other formats to allow for the widest possible download options. I'll give you links when those are up for grabs. 

NEXT BOOK: Yep... I've already started edits/rewrites/revisions on the next book. It'll be my first anthology of side-stories to the main arc. These particular three novellas will contain character prequels to Volume 2. There will be art! Even better: I'll celebrate it's release (for a limited time) with a VERY low introductory price! Yep. 99 cents! 

(Huh. Anyone else out there remember the "cents" symbol key? I think @ replaced it? I miss it... and suddenly feel kinda old! LOL)

Cuddles,

Tamara, who fondly remembers the "cents" key

PAPERBACK NOW AVAILABLE!

The paperback has been approved for ordering! The first place the book has been made available is my Createspace page, here:  https://www.createspace.com/3775570

It'll show up on Amazon (hopefully linked to the Kindle book) in about a week. And then it's on to Expanded Distribution, where I'll have to hound the bookstores to pick it up. In a little over two or three weeks, my order will arrive for local sales and website sales. If you're on my local preorder list, you'll get it when that order comes in!

More product pics on the way...

AN ASIDE ABOUT ADVERTISING AND PLATFORM:

My book is finished, as prettily formatted and printed and designed as my skill and brain allow. This is all very exciting. I self-published a book. I'm told that's pretty impressive. I published without querying an agent or submitting to a small press, and I had TOTAL CREATIVE CONTROL, which is exhilarating!

And yet I have a touch of melancholy. I don't do melancholy, so it's confusing. Can't quite put my finger on it, but I feel like I've overstayed my welcome on my social network sites, like I've aggravated some people and just alienated the rest. But I really know almost everyone on my Facebook, and they're not all avid readers. And I have many followers who are also writers on Twitter, who I don't expect to buy my book, really. They are the community with which I want to learn and grow, not potential readers. I just haven't expanded my readership to my target audience yet. Working on that, next...

Truth be told, I'm not a super-awesome marketing expert. :) I know platform-building comes first, and I'm trying very hard to do that. I know advertising is key. (People can't buy what they don't know about!) I even bought an experimental ad here: http://www.kindlefantasyauthors.com/. Top of the page. Maybe the shiniest thing on that whole blog. (Experimental because the readership of this blog is under 1000. Maybe not a good return on investment, but I needed to practice somewhere...) I have an AdWords campaign in the works, but it's still under review. I'm told AdWords can be super-effective or a total loss. Encouraging, no? :D So we'll see. 

I also submitted to thebookdesigner.com Cover Contest, which is exciting!

I write stories and make art. I know where I stand there. Advertising is just a creative extension of my existing skills. I have some videos, banners, text ads, and other things in store for a broader audience. Then I'll focus my campaigns once I figure out what works, and I will thoroughly appreciate the feedback from anyone who experiences those campaigns.

What it all comes down to is time. I have no delusions about the pace of building a writer's career. I do have the very human desire to see results quickly. My "quickly" is different from many others' "quickly," and operates in 3-month quarters. Quarters feel like forever, there is much experimentation, and feedback on that experimentation may not come for weeks or months. And yet, my brain likes the exercise. So please bear with me as I learn the new skillset called "advertising." :)

Or maybe reality just needs to set in. I just published a book. This is pretty dang cool. Now comes the hard work, which really doesn't bother me. Now comes the risk that everyone or no one will love the book. Now comes the most important element to a successful writing business... the NEXT book!

Cuddles,

Tamara

The Pathos of Rowan Jun, Now On Kindle!

The Pathos of Rowan Jun, Kindle Edition 2 (the FINAL version) is up for grabs now!

http://www.amazon.com/Pathos-Rowan-Jun-ebook/dp/B0078L898E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329630518&sr=8-1

THE BLURB:

BURY YOUR HUMAN SOUL IN THE HEART OF A WARRIOR!

“What are you, boy?” asked the Valkyrie.
“A murderer,” Rowan said. “Nothing more.”
“I will be the judge of your worth, now.”

* * *

Rowan Jun awakens to a new, violent world when the Slaveship QuellTruth crashes on the planet Unata.

The human struggles to reconcile his bloody past with that of his new home, and sets out to become the greatest warrior Unata has ever known!

THE STORY:

This sci-fi adventure begins when the title character Rowan is thrown into the mix with a race of warriors on a new planet. The reason? He sabotages the directional controls aboard the QuellTruth, on which he is a slave, in order to save 10,000 slaves from lifelong servitude. The result? The ship crashes, killing all the slaves he tried to free. 

Rowan's guilt rises to strangle him as he seeks out refuge, freedom, and the ability to protect even just one person with his new skills as a warrior. Then a new enemy brings war upon Unata. The creatures—the warrior class from the Slavers’ race—thirst for vengeance over their losses, threatening to wipe out all Unatans. Can Rowan overcome his paralyzing past, to fight and protect his new home? Will he prove for the first time that he can become the Champion of Unata?

COVER:

THE ART:

Not counting the full color cover, the book has 12 illustrations. The map and one other illustration are in full color, for devices that have that functionality. However, they still look great in black, white and gray!

Sample illustration, the title character:

I hope you enjoy the story. Thanks for stopping by!

Cuddles,

Tamara

NOVEL VERSION ANNOUNCEMENT

Regarding The Pathos of Rowan Jun: In reviewing my proof, I found some issues to resolve. That said, looks like one final version of the Kindle book is in order as well. Version 2 will correct minor proofreading errors and will be the final release on Kindle. In a day or so, it should be up and I'll post a notice. If you have purchased Version 1 and would like the updated Version 2 when it's released, send me a message (if Amazon doesn't let you download the update for free, that is!).

Also, I'm correcting issues found in the proof before finalizing the paper book. That version will be on schedule for the end of the month as planned.

LESSONS LEARNED: 1. The finished product gets better the more you revise, 2. The process gets easier the more you repeat it, 3. Finished is a relative term. (All obvious, I know!)


Cuddles,
Tamara

The "Arghs" of Self-Publishing: How-To

At around 4:06 PM, Wednesday, February 15, 2012-ish... I may have successfully finished submission of my paperback novel files for The Pathos of Rowan Jun. I have illustrated, re-illustrated, tweaked and poked and prodded and screamed and kicked and stared stupidly at a screen for weeks. I have watched slow progress bars and eaten junk food and ignored family and friends. Did I mention I screamed? Yeah, I did that. I'm not saying that the following survival tips will keep you from doing the same. But awareness is key!

By comparison, the un-illustrated Kindle version was easy. (When I figure out how to accurately illustrate a Kindle book, I'll let you know! SEE BELOW!) I may have begun a pattern of un-illustrated Kindle version for a low price and illustrated paperback for a regular price.Which is fine by me at this point! Plus, later on, I'll expand distribution to B&N and Smashwords, etc., so that'll be a fun learning curve, too!

UPDATE:
The super-top-secret secret of making images show up in your Kindle book? Save your file as an HTML, Filtered Document, and THEN ZIP TOGETHER THE IMAGES FOLDER AND THE HTML FILE!!! Then upload the zipped folder. I felt so digitally dumb, since it's the obvious thing to do. But that happens...

Here are the general steps of self-publishing I have undertaken so far...

HOW TO SELF PUBLISH:

1. Write book.
2. Edit/Revise/Polish manuscript.
3. Follow formatting instructions for manuscript using Kindle and Createspace walkthroughs and templates.
4. Simultaneously create book cover art using templates, new art, and some fly by the seat of your pants Photoshop learnin'.
5. Co-Simultaneously create art for website, merchandising, and logo/branding THEN order said materials. I have a huge, awesome banner, full-color postcards, and T-shirts featuring the book cover. (www.vistaprint.com = easy and cheap)
6. Purchase ISBNs for your book. Otherwise, Amazon will control your distribution options. (Official gov't contractor for ISBNs: https://www.myidentifiers.com/) Buy 10 or more. It's cheaper that way.
7. Upload files to Kindle's direct publishing website, follow steps, fill out forms and publish. (https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin)
8. Upload files to Createspace, fill out forms, approve files, and submit for review. (https://www.createspace.com/)
9. HAVEN'T DONE THIS YET: Order paperback proof, approve final product and submit for distribution.
10. HAVEN'T DONE THIS YET: Promote and reap the benefits of your hard work! (Eventually, if it reaches your target audience, and if people actually like it...)

THE ARGHS! OF SELF-PUBLISHING:

1. You will notice glaring, silly proofreading mistakes almost as soon as your Kindle book goes live.
2. You will anxiously fix the file, upload again, and wait hours for it to publish and go live again. The version with the errors will remain available for purchase during this time (I'm pretty sure).
3. You may have to repeat!
4. Each time you have to re-upload your Kindle eBook, your ranking will drop dramatically. I think. Maybe. I'm #132,944 Paid in the Kindle Store as of now! (Hey! Give me some time, all right?)
5. As you make corrections, rename (with version number, or something) and backup the different document or art file names. There WILL be different versions... Keeps file confusion at bay.
6. I think Createspace servers update between 3 and 4 am. The upload would constantly stop, restart and then time out. No red-eyed jubilation and sound sleep for me! But when I gave up, slept, then uploaded later in the morning or afternoon, the upload went smoothly, if a little slowly. (My .doc file was over 26MB, though...)
7. I also tried to upload from my jump drive, and that seemed to cause a time-out. Probably something related to the file's location or compression or whatever, I assume. (Though I'm no tech, I did some customer service related to file uploads.) I saved the file to my desktop backup folder and uploaded from there. No timeouts related to location.
8. You will stare stupidly at the progress bar, drawing shapes around it with your in-process-cursor until the huge interior-content file uploads. This will not speed up the progress bar! :D
9. You will have to upload several times at this slow rate of speed to make file corrections.
10. The Interior Reviewer on Createspace is your friend. Y'know... the friend who loves you enough to tell you that shirt makes you look fat. For me, things cropped up like low-image resolution (oops!), formatting (*cringe*) and margin issues (*double cringe*), and active Table of Contents issues. The conversion from Word to PDF that happens in Createspace bumped some of my chapter titles to another page, so the TOC page number and actual page number were wrong. A manual fix and yet another upload later, and the FINAL final file is in review.

There you go! An evaluation that is by no means comprehensive, but represents my personal experience with the process. Let me know if you have any questions, or if you have anything to add to these lists. I'd love to hear from you!

Here is the finished Kindle book as it appears on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Pathos-Rowan-Jun-ebook/dp/B0078L898E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329342078&sr=8-1

Love and Cuddles,

Tamara

BIG ANNOUNCEMENTS!

BIGGEST ANNOUNCEMENT: 

Happy New Release Day, everyone! The Pathos of Rowan Jun is now LIVE and available for purchase on Amazon Kindle!

http://www.amazon.com/Pathos-Rowan-Jun-ebook/dp/B0078L898E/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1329195802&sr=8-1

The "Look Inside" preview function lets you read all of chapter 1, and some of 2. Enjoy!

SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT: 

My shiny, newer and WAY more awesome website just went live earlier this evening! I still have some work to do on content, but it looks stupendous. Everything has a page, whether that page has any content or not... :D Main concerns: The store will go live soonish, once I get product info to my designer. And I'll get all the linkable banners in soon. And the Unatan profile artworks, as I promised earlier on the THS Facebook page... 

Give it a look-see: 

http://www.tamarahensonstudios.com/

THIRD ANNOUNCEMENT: 

I'm hoping for a February 28 release date for the hard copy novel. Due to some setbacks both human and digital, I've delayed the proof order by a couple more days at least. (Some-Tama forgot to fix the cover after a format correction extended the book by, oh, thirty pages! So now I've gotta wait for the review results to tell me I screwed up. Effectively tied my hands for now. Ah, publishing!) And I may make a couple more aesthetic changes that wouldn't much affect the timeframe. But maaan, that interior file was a pain to upload! I don't wanna, but it must be right!

And gracious! If there's another announcement, I'll think it up later. *big sigh of stress-decompression* I shall celebrate my Happy New Release Day with only some work and possibly a full night's sleep!

Love and Cuddles,

Tamara

NOVEL AND LOGO UPDATES!

I'm in the final stages of publication, but these may be the most crucial. I've completed a lot of graphic work these past two days-- I finished and uploaded both versions of the book covers and redesigned my business logo.

Did I mention a shiny new Tamara Henson Studios logo! There's a graytone version with no shading, a simpler "shiny" one like below with no background, and the full retinal assault of the final logo design as you see it here:

Having completed, uploaded, accurately formatted paperback AND eBook covers is almost worth this headache. Almst... Now, onward to Tylenol, and the world map! At this rate, I hesitate to boldly state that I'm on schedule... (*whispers* But I am...)

Whelp... announcements aren't gettin' this thing finished. Off I go!

Cuddles,

Tamara

NOVEL RELEASE DATE: February 14, 2012

I just finished the 3rd Draft Revision on The Pathos of Rowan Jun! (Insert Fireworks and Confetti here) I'll be doing a final readthrough as I format the manuscript for publication. But the rest of the work is just that... WORK! A lot of time, a lot of effort, culminating in a big, finished project!

To celebrate the release (Feb 14), there will be T-Shirts for sale featuring the book cover. (Available through my website, when we get the newly redesigned store launched!) The Kindle eBook and the Paperback should be available through Amazon by the release date, barring any unforeseen circumstances.

I also want to hold some type of contest involving a giveaway of either a T-Shirt or a story-related artwork. I'm not good at contests, so someone throw me some ideas!

Cuddles,

Tamara

NOVEL DEADLINE!

Creative things are dragging along. I'm not sleeping enough, or eating right, or working on my book enough. All three may be related, I realized. Trying to fix that this week with a new deadline: By mid-February, I plan on having volume one revised, polished and uploaded to Kindle, at least. Here's my to-do list to make that happen:

1. Revise and Polish manuscript. (15 chapters left!)
2. Finish, refine cover for both eBook and regular book.
3. Format for Kindle and regular book.
4. Order ISBN and UPC codes.
5. Upload, submit and approve final prints!
6. Repeat for every other platform... (after initial deadline!)
7. Dive into next book and short story edit. (after initial deadline!)

It seems like a lot, but once I'm past number one, it should be mostly technical instead of creative-technical. That means, in my mind, it'll be simply time-consuming, not soul-consuming! :D Operation Get-Finished-So-I-Can-Sleep-Again begins tonight!

Cuddles,
Tamara

NOVEL: REVISION IS LIKE PAINTING

After letting the book rest for a while, I've started the content and line revision. Line by line, chapter by chapter, tedious task by tedious task-- it is exactly like starting all over. Questioning every word and all dialogue is the one thing that makes a book better if the story's already decent. Especially if you can do it without making the sentences stiff. Writing is similar to art in this way. If you paint holding your brush too tightly, the brushstrokes will look stiff and overworked. Keeping a loose grip on the brush (a trained skill) is key to making a dynamic painting. In writing, if you make every sentence technically perfect (holding the brush too tightly), you strangle the life out of the words and end up with immobile, stuffy, uninteresting, overly verbose prose that flaunts skills at the mere level of anal-retentive proofreading and far below dynamic editing. Rant, complete.

And after I've finished the revision, I'll attempt a final polish. If my head hasn't exploded by then. To calm myself, I did a five-minute cover mock-up in MS Paint with the unfinished cover art and a haphazard tagline:

Looks like something out of the seventies! :)

Yep. That makes me feel better. Nothing like the promise of a book cover (a much better one than this!) when I've finished!

I've hired a good line-editor who I promised would not have to do story revision. And because of my previous rant, he knows I just want a basic editing of lines and final proofreading. And the pointing out of any glaring problems he may encounter, if I haven't resolved them by then. (If something annoys him so that he can't edit, he is to report it! :D)

So that's where I am. Wonder if this'll be done by the end of the month? That would be promising!

ON MY KINDLE "MARKET RESEARCH": 

I don't want to self-publish with glaring spelling errors and confusing sentence structure. Simple is best, right? So I downloaded a few freebies on my shiny new Kindle Touch (I'm behind the times. Back off!) to see what the free market offered. The potential of a decent story was often drowned out by the lack of much common-sense editing... sense. I understand that people who view themselves as visionaries can't be bothered with details, but those same visionaries should hire someone who can be bothered. I know it's not all completely amateur stuff, for crying out loud! Luckily, I don't view myself as a visionary. I didn't, after all, invent the eBook or even the paper book. I'm just a storyteller and artist, a creative person who wants to get her stories out there...

But this is a business, right? I'm doing a job, on which consumers may be willing to spend money. To consume my product, if you will. And consumers want to spend their money on products that deliver. You don't buy a cell phone that doesn't receive calls. So you shouldn't have to buy a book whose line editing or lack thereof detracts from the reading experience. A book, by definition, should be readable. Now I cut the free books some slack. They are not purchased with money. But people spend or waste TIME on them, which is far more precious. So these free books should be handled with the same product-pride that the paid books (should) offer. Now, that said, on to the paid books...

My only consistent gripes with the paid self-pub books is that 1) they all seem to be done in first person POV and my book is not and 2) the writing often has a self-conscious quality, a "See Ma? I can write well!" wordiness that distracts me from the story. As in, the way I wrote that novel back in high school... Also, 3) Barring the presence of the ever-popular "young man in a strange world" theme I've incorporated, I haven't found anything that hits the same nerve I wanna hit. I'll keep researching, though. And stop picking it apart for now!

Like I said, I'm not a visionary. I'm a storyteller and artist. I'll stop worrying about them for now and try to make something I love into something that is better than it is right now.

Love and cuddles,

Tamara

NOVEL: In-Progress Cover

In my "let it rest" period before doing a third draft of the novel, I've started the cover art. I still have a lot of work to do on Rowan's portrait before I'm finished, but this is a good in-progress shot! I thank my friends for all the feedback they graciously provided. I'm no digital draftsman, but it's not as bad as it could be. :)

For a sketch-to-current picture progression, and to follow more frequent Tamara Henson Studios updates, see my THS Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tamara-Henson-Studios/151917568249729

Cuddles,

Tamara

180 DEGREES

Today, I celebrated the completion of my second draft of The Pathos of Rowan Jun. I ate a Frosty from Wendy's. :) And I glanced back through this blog, seeing my bumps and snares, a few witty turns of phrase, and a whole lot of struggling to get somewhere.

It all started with my unexpected unemployment, when I finally thought my life was on the right track. I was going to be a teacher and mold young minds! I would have holidays, summers and flood/snow days to work on my novels. And then that fell through. My ideal teaching job opened up, I subbed in it for a term and applied, but that wasn't meant to be either. And the crappy customer service job I left is exactly where I ended up. Yet I'm okay with that. I've realized some other things that are better left between God and me. And that's okay, too.

In just two years, I have done a complete 180 on many opinions I held about life, careers, college, and other things that are important. I hoped that a death in the family wouldn't cause such a falling out, but it did. What a nightmare that was! I thought college was important, and while I cherish the experiences I forged there, it only resulted in a stagnant, staggering debt that I've carried for years. I thought I would never be able to lose the weight that threatens to kill me, and I'm more focused than ever, dropping pounds right and left with the RIGHT mindset. I thought I'd never get married, that I'd either die long before it happened or no one would care enough to marry me. And on November 11, I married the man I love. 

I thought having that stable, logical, safe, obvious, comfy career was what I needed and should continually seek. Even though I didn't really want to. (I wanted the creative things!) But though I love teaching, I can't get a job locally and can't afford to move for just a one-year job guarantee. Then I thought having any job that would pay the bills would be good. And I now have that job. But it's just a Band-Aid on the real issue:

I have spent most of my life NOT doing what makes me happiest from all standpoints, particularly the career point! The creative things make me happy. Telling stories, making artwork, creating things with the talent born of hard work and the talents God gave me makes me happy. And at my lowest point, I wondered why everything was going wrong. And then, the Almighty slapped me on the forehead with the obvious answers: 

Because I wasn't following the path set before me. I was walking the hardest, out of the way paths that didn't have my name on them at all. And God was having to let me learn things the hard way. My barrel-ahead attitude saves my mind from cracking, but shrouds my spiritual listening. I didn't know how to trust God to carry me when I'd walked so long my feet bled. God's encouraging me toward a leap of faith.

Why couldn't I keep a teaching job? Well, I started the teaching program because it was the logical path to move forward. I learned important art things I can use, but the rest of the program is essentially crap. But God let me finish the program and teach art for a year. I got to use that time to touch lives. And I got to see the worst in some people. My season there ended. Then I taught the last term at the other place, nearly a year later. Man, I had improved my methodology! I got to touch lives, and influence some very intelligent, creative minds. And I got to see the best in people, to heal my heart of the scars left by the last place. My three months there eclipsed my experiences at my first teaching job. And my season ended. I learned what I needed from the experience. Now it's time to move on.

Why can't I find a market for my creative work? Because I haven't finished, polished or marketed them! (God's forehead slap of No Kidding!) Guess what? If I don't build it, ain't nobody gonna come! So I created Tamara Henson Studios, bought a domain name, and created a website. After I cut back on the million dreamer's possibilities, I'm down to three: art, storytelling and dolls, with various sub-categories. Those are my focus areas. No commissions now, no three-ring-circus. Just the bare-bones of things I'd love to make a career in. And when I prayed, I felt at peace about it. No straining to make things work. No walking through mud uphill both ways. God's in it.

And step one of this new leap of faith is the self-publication of my novel. I laughed so hard when I read this blog entry from January of this year, back when I apparently planned to write in phases. Go ahead, I'll wait right here while you do:

http://tamarahensonstudios.blogspot.com/2011/01/phase-2-on-self-publication-vs-agent.html 

Such pretty writing and clear justifications for an archaic system of the time-suck of subjective checks and balances! Compared to my last post's "Big Scary Thing", it's hilarious. I'm a converted woman, obviously, from that glaring example of egotistical swill to this world of infinite possibilities. The second draft flowed easily-- a full rewrite in a month and a half! (Oddly and ironically, thanks to 2011 NaNoWriMo!) The other things will come with practice. 

The season I'm in now... it feels like Spring! So warm and inviting, so comforting, as bright as the kingdom of Heaven. Almost. The green down here doesn't seem quite the right shade! But that's another story for another time...

Cuddles,

Tamara

NaNoWriMo 2011

I'm starting a new NaNoWriMo project today. My goal will be to make a (really) rough draft of Book 3, since I just drafted volume 1, and since volume 2 is already wrapped and ready for a full edit once I finish 1. I already had a loose outline of volume 3, which hasn't changed fundamentally since the new content for volume 1 emerged. I just made a few more notes to go with volume 1 and will be typing it up with the existing chapter one I had already completed. It'll give me the illusion of breaking out of the gate ahead, but I dunno if I'll have time to keep it up all month.

I have decided that with the small exception of wedding prep, a wedding and brief honeymoon, my November will be rather dull. I will be mostly alone all month, with the exception of the wedding week. So this month, I will try to finish the rough draft while simultaneously focusing on editing volume 1. If I spend a short time daily on each, I shouldn't have too much trouble keeping myself on task. I've put comics and illustrations on hold for the very creative purpose of diving into the content for a month. Let's see if I can avoid buckling...

I mean, I can win this NaNoWriMo thing, even if it kills me! Rawr!

Cuddles,

Tamara