Link Salad Tossed With Books, Interview, and More!

There's a trojan on your computer

It’s a link salad today! Huzzah! No vegetables, sadly. But first? I haven’t talked about productivity or tips in that direction for a while, so I’ll share with you an insight into my process. Basically, I require math to figure out what I can/can’t do and weigh that against what else I have on my plate. I do the math for money and for word count. To get paid, work has to get done. To get the work done, you’ve got to put words down. To get the words down, you have to figure out how much time you have to write. # of Words Per Day x Rate Per Word (Actual or Ideal) = Writer’s Earnings Per Diem. That helps me figure out my daily goals.

Now, onto the salad o’ links!

  • Marketing, Sales, and Publicity–Part One: The Basics – In Part One of a two-parter, I dive into the 10,000 foot overview between marketing, sales, and publicity for the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. Special thanks to the infamous Nick Mamatas for his time providing a quote, and to Todd Vandermark for the opportunity to write again for the SFWA.

  • Monica Valentinelli on the difference between the Firefly RPG and the Serenity RPG – My first interview for the Firefly RPG line! Shortly after posting my initial article, the fine folks at Geek Native reached out to me with questions.

  • Extreme Zombies Give-A-Way! – The contest for a copy of EXTREME ZOMBIES ends on Tuesday, April 2nd. Got some good entries, but there’s still time!

  • FR Press Sale at DriveThruFiction – If you’re hoping to find a friendly, neighborhood fiction site, consider dropping by DriveThruFiction. They’re very author-friendly — in part because they’ve been dealing with publishers directly on the DriveThruRPG and DriveThruComics side for some time. A disclaimer, of course, is that I have a vested interest in seeing DriveThruFiction and DriveThruComics take off for many reasons; for starters, my own work would benefit and I have seen how effective the direct marketing tools can be. Many of the books I worked on through FR Press are on sale for a week!

  • Tabletop Day – The famed Wil Wheaton launched a celebration of board, card, and role-playing games dubbed Tabletop Day. DriveThruRPG is offering a free bundle and heavily discounted games for the event, but this is well above and beyond just the internet. Many game stores will have events so folks around the world can do what games provide — have fun with friends and family!

  • Migrating from Feedburner – In sad news, Feedburner is slowly meandering off into the sunset. This means that, eventually, my feed address will change and how you access my website will, too. It’s not a change that’s coming right now, but we’re planning on what to do next.

  • Urban Homesteading – Keeping up with the salad theme… I stumbled across this site by way of crochet patterns for chickens (don’t ask) and really dig some of the articles there. We’ve had some trouble with plants in the past, but we’re going the terrarium route a.k.a. cat defense system. There’s a lovely lady across the way from South Africa who’s managed to turn her backyard into a green paradise, so we’re going to give it a shot this year.

That’s all for link salad this time. Hopefully not too heavy, not too light. I detect a hint of lemon and poppyseed.

    Mood: Bwah?
    Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: First cup. Good to the last drop.
    Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: A walk. OUTSIDE EVEN.
    In My Ears: Nothing
    Game Last Played: Eternal Sonata
    Movie Last Viewed: Deadfall
    Latest Artistic Project: Need to take pictures…
    Latest Release: “The Button” We Are Dust anthology

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Want A Signed Copy of EXTREME ZOMBIES?!?!?!

Extreme Zombies CoverIt’s too late! The living dead have already taken over the world. Your brains have been devoured. Nothing is left but spasms of ravenous need—an obscene hunger for even more zombie fiction.

Extreme Zombies is edited by Paula Guran and published by Prime Books. To celebrate this release, FlamesRising.com is hosting an EXTREME ZOMBIES GIVE-A-WAY for two signed copies in the U.S. I’ll be signing them with braaaaaaiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnsssssssssssss!

Just shamble on over to FlamesRising.com and comment on the EXTREME ZOMBIES Give-A-Way contest post! Contest ends in a week — so shamble fast!

Progress Report #2

When I’m online or have chat open, I’m working. I can’t play games or socialize too much; if you see me on Twitter or Facebook it’s usually when I’m taking a quick break or have it on my phone. I wish I didn’t have to be on either network, but this is how I get my news and stay on top of what people are doing. Sometimes, though, I wish I could filter out the news, rants, and ridiculous negativity. It’s hard some days, because I’m a writer, and words resonate with me musically and literally. I suspect there’ll be a purge coming at some point, but regardless I have to use these networks wisely so I can keep creating. I guess that’s why I love my Tumblr account so much! It’s pure, unadulterated joy. Love, love, love logging in and seeing new art filter through every day. Yay!

Does this mean I work too hard? I do put in more than fifty hours a week when you factor in reading and research, but I also have a life and I would not be doing this much if I did not enjoy it immensely. I don’t mean to say that in a snarky way; I’m very intense (as others often point out) but that’s only because I try to make the best out of every possible moment. I don’t always succeed or I go into a mood, but the point is that I’m living. Doing. Writing. And very, very happy I can do this. It may not always be realistic, so I have to take advantage of the time I have now. Many pro writers aren’t making what you might on a salaried position. (GalleyCat has a great collection of three testimonials if you want to see some reports.)

Even when I’m not on a gig, though, I’m always working on something. I have to have a pen and paper and art materials close by or I’ll go crazy. I can tell when I haven’t been doing much of one thing or the other, because that’s when my mood really suffers. I guess you can call me the pragmatic writer? Holistic? Not sure… 🙂 Either way, if you’re going to chase the rainbow, put your tennis shoes on first.

Without further adieu, here’s the updates!

Games

Vampire The Masquerade 20th EditionI announced that I’m the Brand Manager and one of the writers for the Firefly RPG line, which will be published via Margaret Weis Productions. I’m knee deep in outlines and scripts at the moment. More than that, I dare not say…

I’m wrapping up my work for the Mage 20th Anniversary Edition contribution and also working on a Vampire: the Masquerade supplement. Plus, there’s a few other things in the works that I’m not ready to announce just yet. My goal is to wind down work on other games so I can focus on the Firefly corebook and GenCon for this portion of my business over the summer.

Fiction…And COMICS!

The Queen of Crows e-Book | Alternate CoverI’m excited to say that my first comic will be published via Red Stylo Media! *throws confetti* “Last Man Zombie Standing” will be available in an anthology called Unfashioned Creatures, A Frankenstein Anthology late this Summer. If you want to check out some of this publisher’s comics, they do have some available at DriveThruComics.com.

I have also honed my new, original fiction projects down to two: a science fiction novella titled The Red Door and a massive project for the Violet War, which is the setting for The Queen of Crows. Remember, you can now get multiple versions of the original, full color edition from DriveThruFiction.com.

Consulting

John “The Muskrat” Kovalic went to the GAMA Trade Show this year and some new business initiatives that we’d been working on will spring from that. Ninth Level Games launched a Kobolds Ate My Baby Kickstarter that I’ve been behind-the-scenes on; that’ll end on April 3rd. The 50K mark combines Munchkin with Kobolds Ate My Baby!

Onyx Path is moving along; there’s a lot of questions right now, and Rich is taking the time to really think about what the company is doing and what he wants.

We’re focused on GenCon and a few, other foolish surprises…

Firefly RPG Update No. 1

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I announced recently that I’m the new Brand Manager and one of the writers for the Firefly roleplaying game line. Yesterday, I published my first update on the Margaret Weis Productions website. If you’re a reader here on my blog, I’ll be linking to the updates and sticking them underneath my progress reports, since this’ll be one of my projects.

Here’s a quote from the post that clarifies one of the common questions:

Q: How does the Firefly RPG differ from Serenity RPG?

A: The new Firefly RPG, which is based on the hit Fox television series by Joss Whedon, is scheduled for a 2013 release; the system(s) are currently in development. Margaret Weis Productions did put out a game based on the Serenity movie produced by Universal Studios in 2005. The system for that game was a science fiction flavor of Cortex Classic.



If you’re interested, read: Ain’t No Better Place In The ‘Verse

Ah, Bloggendipity

Fire She-Ra Avatar

Haven’t really blogged for a bit. So, today you get a potpourri of flowering thoughts. Spring is on my mind, though it’s still Winter here. Brrrrr…

There are still stigmas that exist about female writers who pen genre tales. (And no, not all of us write romance, though there is nothing wrong with any author who does or does not.) I feel we need to have a directory of female authors in science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Not only would this help with networking, but I also feel it would help readers, too. There are still a lot of writers who obscure their gender and sometimes it’s hard to find a comprehensive list that doesn’t include the usual suspects. (Not that there’s anything wrong with the usual suspects, either. Feh.) I have looked for one. I feel that either a site like iO9.com or SFWA and the HWA need to join forces on this in a very visible way OR we Kickstart this to pay for development time OR a con like WisCon takes up the charge. Mind you, I don’t have time to take this project on by myself. So, unless somebody else takes up the charge it likely wouldn’t get done.

In other news, I got a beautiful new ring for my milestone birthday that pretty much sums up my personality just by looking at it. Big, sparkly, and unusually-colored, watery stones. At the prompting of a friend, I’m entering a jewelry design contest this weekend. I like the contests where you get a component and you have to make magic out of it! Feeling the need to get back into art in a big way; there’s a summer project on the horizon that I’m really excited about, too. All around, a great birthday.

Work and convention planning is going swimmingly. My routine got thrown off due to an intense deadline, but I’m getting back in the swing again as the week progresses. I have a manageable writing schedule and I am anxious to get e-mail wrangled into submission — almost there! got through 250 today! — so I can focus on a summer of creativity. My schedule has to be very focused; after trial-and-error I know precisely how/what/why/where and when I work best.

Well, given that this post has been sitting on my screen since this morning, and I haven’t been able to get any more periphera extracted from my brain… I’m calling it at this point. Sorry this wasn’t more engaging; just very happy right now and super focused.

    Mood: KERMIT FLAIL
    Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: Dude. Not enough.
    Work-Out Minutes Logged Yesterday: Blargh
    In My Ears: Leave you far behind
    Game Last Played: Eternal Sonata
    Movie Last Viewed: Dredd
    Latest Artistic Project: Contest design (In progress)
    Latest Release: “The Button” We Are Dust anthology
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Looking for Monica’s books and games that are still in print? Visit Monica Valentinelli on Amazon’s Author Central or a bookstore near you.

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