New Horizons

Having read an interesting article about publishing platforms, I decided to broaden my horizon and publish the third volume of my short story collection called 'New Untold Stories of Neverbeen Universe' on wattpad which is also accessible via smartphone app.
I think it's pretty cool, and pretty convenient. Now you can read my stories everywhere. ;)
So check it out and tell me what you think. :D

Writing Exercise 100

Wow! This is writing exercise number 100 already. :D

And to celebrate this 'century' of writing exercises, I chose to let you read a short appetizer from the novel I'm currently writing as NaNoWriMo project. This work is called 'Rogue Adventures -- A Tale from Neverbeen Universe' and is a continuation of my yet unpublished novel "Ravenous Adventures -- A Tale from Neverbeen Universe', and I'm currently writing chapter 17 of 37 planed chapters.

So here is a short excerpt of this very chapter:

2017/11/08 – write a short excerpt of where you're at in your current NaNoWriMo project (Rogue Adventures – A Tale from Neverbeen Universe, chapter 17)

[…] Raphael’s gaze sharpened. He drew his sword. ‘Stay back,’ he linked his mind with Gene’s, and he obediently did a step backwards.

‘He’s all yours,’ Gene murmured, ‘Just be careful. That’s the one who kidnapped me.’ Raphael had assumed as much, but now he had Gene’s affirmation. He cautiously approached, ready to fight.

“Now, now,” the Daemon had an even thicker accent than Raphael, “Is this a way to greet family?”

“I do not know you,” Raphael stated evenly, “and if it’s true and you’re one of my father’s cronies, I’ll have even more reason to kill you.” He lifted his sword.

“I wouldn’t call me a crony, but, indeed, I am here on Lord Rhagkal’s orders,” the man admitted and grinned, “What about you, Gene? At least you’re going to greet me properly, right?” He opened his arms as if he expected a hug.

Behind Raphael Gene shifted into a defensive stance. “No way in hell. You can’t be trusted.”

“Pity,” the stranger commiserated, then grinned mischievously. Suddenly he leapt over the altar, drew two shortswords and slashed them at Raphael, who reacted swiftly enough to parry. […]

Announcement

It's on a pretty short notice, but I have something to tell you. :D

Tomorrow I'm going to have an author's slot at my dear writing buddy Frankie's release party for her novel "Emergence".
In this author's slot I get to celebrate with my friend, talk about my works and do a reading of a short story from my yet unreleased third volume of my "Untold Stories of Neverbeen Universe" short story collections.

The event starts at 6:30 p.m. CET and my author's slot starts at 8:15 p.m. CET.
Here's the link to Frankie's Facebook, as the party will be held online.

Don't miss it and celebrate with us! :D

Dembelo's discussions

As I've mentioned, I've been to the authors' bar camp at the Unperfekthaus in Essen last Saturday.

The Dembelo team, which I am part of, had a lot to set up before the event could start at 3 o'clock in the afternoon. The workshop room had to be prepared, the buffet had to be organised, posters and logos had to be hung up, the reception had to be set up as well as the exhibition desk. But we managed everything on time!

When finally a total of 42 participants, coming from all over Germany, had arrived, the authors' bar camp could oficially start. At first we introduced our project, then explained how the bar camp functioned and collected the topics the participants wanted to address.
These topics were summed up into six workshops, two of them held parallelly each throughout the bar camp.
These workshops were:

• The future of reading and writing
• Writing skills
• Cooperative writing
• Readings
• Selfpublishing
• What to do after the first draft

During my shifts I moderated two of these workshops, Cooperative writing and Readings. I was very excited, but it worked out pretty awesomely. Together with the participants some interesting and intensive discussions unfolded; the important points were noted on a flip chart, so the results could be presented at the plenum at the end of the authors' bar camp and before the midnight writing workshop began at half past eleven.

And in between the authors could hold readings, which were broadcasted via life stream.

So later, when only the participants of the midnight writing workshop were left, we moved to the shared appartment hotel of the Unperfekthaus to write all night.
Well, I wrote until half past three, then I was totally exhausted. At least I managed to write one and a half decent chapters for one of my WIPs.

But after retreating to the room I shared with my fellow Dembelo teammates I couldn't sleep at all. Not even for a few minutes! So many impressions kept me awake, and the appartment hotel was also pretty badly soundproofed.
So the next morning during brunch I felt like a zombie. But still it was a very successful weekend for the Dembelo team, and for me personally. I would totally do it again and am looking forward to next year's authors' bar camp! :D

Midnight Writing

Next week, on the 29th and 30th to be exact, I'm going to participate in an authors' bar camp held by the Dembelo team, which I am part of, at the Unperfekthaus in Essen, and I'm pretty excited about it. :D
So what is this authors' bar camp?
This event is about everything writing related. Authors from all around the area meet and attend workshops where they discuss different topics ranging from the very first idea for a story to publishing and marketing, and everything in between. The bar camp lasts all Saturday, and a particular dozen may stay the night and attend a writing workshop and work on their stories. Pretty exciting, isn't it?
I am one of those few, and I'm relly looking forward to meet other authors, talk to them and polish our stories together. I am really happy I joined the Dembelo team. Anyhow, I'm sure I will return with a lot of impressions from that bar camp! Maybe I'll even meet you there? ;)

Now what?

As the new year has started you might either be exhausted from all these holidays or energized with good intentions.

Either way, after completing NaNoWriMo in November your work isn't done yet. You may have a first draft but don't make the mistake to publish it as is. Please, don't! A draft is a draft, and it needs serious polishing to become the shining gem it is supposed to be.

January is the perfect time to do this polishing as it's often ugly outside and you usually feel both drained of creativity and motivated to start the year fresh.
You probably haven't touched your work in about a month. So when you open the document again you likely will be surprised what you have achieved to write in November. You will see your story with a fresh set of eyes.
Now read, and read carefully.
As you go, catch all those typos and puctuation errors, reword where necessary, cut too long paragraphs or add to them where they are lacking. You will see, there is much to do.

Be critical, but don't butcher your story.

Get help when you're stuck or story blind. You will want to introduce your draft to your betas soon. Let their comments help you edit. Don't take their criticism too much to heart, but learn from them, accept and adapt. Remember: they want to help you, not harm you.
And by the end of it you will have an improved new draft.

Something to read

As promised in another blog post, I'm going to bring you into the loop of what I'm currently up to:
recently I joined a German literature project called Dembelo.


So what is Dembelo?

The concept takes a different view on authors: they are not some genius in their quaint room conjuring up brilliant words, but service providers to their readers.

The idea is to provide episodical stories (text knots) with the length of approximately 20 minutes of reading -- something which shortens the time waiting on the bus or in an anteroom or on a train ride or when nothing is on TV an you don't want to read a whole book. At the end of the text the reader decides how the story should continue; they click on one of eight choices to keep on reading for another 20 minutes, and another, and another... if they so wish.

The readers fund the text knots they want to read via micro purchases and see their wishes come true as soon as the worth of another text knot is reached. Theoretically like this an endlessly deep-rooted tree of stories is created as more and more episodes are created and the possibilities branch further and further; the contents of these episodes are supposed to reflect the readers' demands. So everyone can read what they want to read instead of paging through something that doesn't interest them.

Any excess profit is invested in new jobs to support the author teams working on the stories. We believe in social growth rather than profit. The system also considers that authors are creative, so coworkers are paid according to their efforts instead of fixed working hours.


Isn't this exciting and new? Doesn't that sound like something you might want to see?
If you like the idea you can support us on Patreon so we can make it happen (the page is in German though).

The things to do in November

Aside from NaNoWriMo there are still a lot of things to do. I've just looked at my calendar and I noticed next week is the first Sunday in Advent already!
Time sure runs by fast when you're absorbed by writing. :o

So have you prepared for Advent yet? Are your places decorated with fairy lights and baubles and candles and fir twigs yet? Have you tasted the first gingerbread and speculoos yet?

I'm just getting started. And while I cudgel my brains about Christmas presents for my loved ones I realize it's already this time of the year again...

Certainly you'll feel cozier and more comfortable when the room is dipped in the warmth of candle light, when the baubles gleam and the fir twigs spread their soothing fragrance. You may snuggle on your sofa or armchair with a cup of hot cocoa or tea and be pleased as punch that you don't have to be outside where the first snow of this winter thaws and cold rain patters against your windows.

So get yourselves in the mood for Advent; take your time and find some inspiration how to prepare your home for the coldest but coziest season. Because winter is coming! ;)

I did it!

So far NaNoWriMo has been a blast to me. :D
I've been to two write ins and it was so much fun and motivated writing, that it propelled me forward.
I hit the 50k words on November 8th, and I finished translating my novel 'Ravenous Adventures' on November 10th with a wordcount of 60,894. Wow. That was fast, don't you think? :o
But I decided the story wasn't over until the fat lady sung, and so started translating my second short story collection 'More Untold Stories of Neverbeen Universe' and continued NaNo.
In the meantime I'll lay 'Ravenous Adventures' in the hands of my trusty betas and hope they'll like what they read. By the way, I'm looking for more betas, for both the English and the German edition. So if you're interested, tell me. :)

NaNoWriMo is here!

NaNoWriMo has begun.
Three days in, I'm at over 33k words already. :o

On Tuesday I went to a kick off write in in Essen. There I met a bunch of other authors from the region. At some point we were about twenty people even! Everyone was so motivated, and with the exception of two breaks we wrote and wrote and wrote. It was awesome and amazing. I was totally in the zone, and the people I met were really fascinating and nice. Someone even brought muffins. :D

The location was great, too. You had to pay a low entrance fee, but all the drinks were free and there was a brunch buffet, which was tasty. We had a fireplace chamber all to ourselves and the atmosphere was really cozy and productive. There were even activities like yoga or art exhibitions in this building.

I'd like to go again and write together, but as the other write ins are scheduled for Saturday-Monday, I probably won't make it. Weekends are reserved for my beloved fiancé. <3

Anyway, the members of the Dead Pete Society are equally excited about NaNoWriMo. We're writing and cheering each other on, inciting and motivating. And it feels so good to be in the flow.
It's so much crazy fun, and November has just begun! :D

Writing Exercise 037

It's time for another writing exercise already. :)
Today I wrote a double drabble about one of my favourite places. Find out where that is and why!

 

2016/08/23 – at the book store (double drabble)

The book store is one of my favourite places to be. When I go window shopping it is hard not to stop by. I rather go book shopping than buy clothes. I also prefer paperbacks to ebooks; I want to feel and smell them and put them on my shelves.

But what do I look for in a good book?

Mostly I want a thrilling story, which captures me and holds me completely until I've gobbled it whole. But beautiful language and intriguing characters and interesting topics are just as important. What books I pick depends on my mood also. Sometimes I want dark and mysterious stories, sometimes I seek light entertainment, sometimes I crave deeper layers or knowledge or poetry.

I appreciate the written art, and I feel most comfortable being surrounded by it.

Now at the book store you would find me somewhere browsing whodunits, fantasy or sci fi sections, but I'll also peek at comics and mangas if I want a quick read.

I sometimes dream my books would one day be displayed there, too, and people would stop by, pick them up and think: “Oh, this looks interesting.” And I'd be right there smiling to myself...