Katherine Bell

 Hosted by Lakisha Spletzer and celebrating her third year as an indepent author, I am participating in the Three Year Indie Anniversary Scavenger Hunt. All prizes can be found on her contest site (this link also contains more ways to win than just the scavenger hunt), and the prizes include a free copy of both Amaranth and Verdant. 

If, for some reason, the scavenger hunt portion does show up for you below, you can find it here. 

Guess who's back!

After struggling with more health issues than I really want to talk about, I'm back online -- and back writing! I will be starting back to school in a few months (for Computer Programming, in hopes of an actual paycheck), but I'm not planning on letting that get in the way of anything. Fingers crossed!

Ash: The Preterhumans Book 3 s about 2/3 of the way finished with the editing, and I'm hoping to have it out before the end of the year, health permitting. It will be the last book in the series, at least for now. 

I did mention that I will still be writing, but it will not b The Preterhumans series -- and it may not be under this name. Whatever happens, I promise to do a better job keeping everyone informed. 

There will be a little treat coming up in the next few weeks, sponsored by Lakisha Spletzer. More on that as info becomes available. 

In the meanwhile, though, I'm back, I'm working (albeit at a much slower pace), and I'm not planning on going anywhere for quite a while.

Later, folks!

It looks like I'm miles behind on updating this blog. So much has happened since the last update I made.
NecronomiCon went fine, thanks. I managed to sell a copy. Yes, only one! It was still a sell! And hey, while it may have been to one of my old college friends, it was still a sell. I did a lot of networking while I was there. Lakisha Spletzer was a doll and happened to be set up next to me. Bill Hatfield was charming and entertaining. Andrea Dean Van Scoyoc was an interesting woman to get to meet and speak with. And there were so many other authors I got to meet that I could spend a whole post just on Necro. I'm pretty hopeful that I will be able to go back again next year with at least two books -- and maybe even sell two copies this time!
But I can't do that because there's more to catch up on! On 30 December 2010, Verdant: The Preterhumans Book 2 was released on Lulu.com! It's finally out! I feel like I should be doing a dance of joy of some sort.
I've also added both Amaranth and Verdant to Smashwords. There you will be able to find ebook copies suitable for Kindle, NOOK, Sony Reader, and other e-readers. Soon, they should both also be ready for the iTunes store, so you lucky people with iPads should be able to read it as well.
Finally, I am apparently way behind on posting videos, so... here we go: "Videos of a Struggling Writer" 12-15! Enjoy!
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It's been a while since I've made a post here, I suppose, hasn't it? I'm usually better about things like this, but it has been incredibly hectic as of late.

You may notice that the place to purchase Amaranth: The Preterhumans Book 1 has changed, from Cacoethes Publishing to Lulu.com. As of the beginning of July, Cacothes Publishing and I have parted ways. I don't want to say too much on the subject on a very public blog, so we will leave it at that.

Hopefully by the end of summer, Verdant: The Preterhumans Book 2 will also be available through Lulu.com. In fact, my plan is for the rest of that series to be published on Lulu. Other series will be published through traditional publishers, I hope.

I know some people have already purchased Verdant through Cacoethes. If you have done so, please contact me with a copy of your receipt and I will try to get a copy for you out of my own pocket. Yes, out of my own pocket. Because I love you guys like that.

And on a final note, I will be at NecronomiCon in Tampa/Saint Petersburg, Florida, from October 22 through October 24. While I'm there, I will be signing and selling copies of both Amaranth and Verdant. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone there!

I have to say that I've been a bit overwhelmed by the response to the MacBook Raising Race: two donations from people I know, including one from D. Marie, and another 4 from people whose names I don't recognize.

I did unusually well money-wise for the holidays, so what's left in this little raising race? About $100. I would be happy if I could get $200 or $300, so that I can go ahead and get AppleCare, but I can put that off a bit.

If I can get $100 more dollars saved up by Thursday, then I can go ahead and get the new MacBook before classes start back next Monday, January 4th.

So I would love to kick this little raising race into high gear. If I can get another $100 to go with the $62 that's already been donated, then I can get the MacBook by the weekend. You have no idea how much that would mean to me.

I miss having a laptop. I miss it so damn much.

I had said that I was going to hold off on posting anything like this till I was in dire need. Unfortunately, that time seems to be coming and quickly.

I would love to know why this keeps happening to me. I suspect a lot of it has to do with the fact that all I can afford on my own tends to used models. I have no way of finding out how the person or people who had the computer before me treated it.

In August 2008, I replaced my iBook G4 (with a dead logic board) with a MacBook. Unfortunately, at the time, all I could afford was a used model, from 2006. It was from the "loaner" pool from my university's computer store; even that was $750. Now it seems to be giving up the ghost.

So I'm thinking that the best way for me to go this time will be to purchase a new one, preferably from the Apple Store itself or the Best Buy located here in Tallahassee. The one I am looking at is the minimum version, 2GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive. I would love to go higher than that, but I am capable of doing my own upgrades, so it's not completely necessary to buy it all "pimped out".

I am running a fund raiser via PayPal, trying to get the money up to afford this, since I can't do it on my own, not and have the money some time in the next two years. I am currently accepting donations through PayPal at the link below.

I'm only trying to get up at least $800. That will go a long way to helping me offset the cost of the computer and the tax. Anything over that will go towards programs and AppleCare.

Any help is most appreciated, even if it's just passing on this link!

Thanks!
~Katherine

More information is available here. X-posted to Thoughts of a Struggling Writer.

I wish I could say that this was going to be a fantastically happy post, saying I have a brand new publishing contract and Verdant is out and all that other happy stuff people have been waiting to hear. Sadly, though, it isn't. Last night, my Macbook, Wraith, decided to go down. I tried to boot it up to work on something and... nada. It made a whirring sound of the hard drive trying to do something, but there was no video and no start-up chime. I went over to the Apple site and followed the "my MacBook won't cut on" tutorial and the no video tutorial. (So now my OSX disk is in the drive with no sign of it being willing to turn it loose.) To me, the worst part is that I have the most recent draft of Fallen stuck on there, with no way to retrieve it. So, until I am able to afford to get Wraith repair, there will be no video updates. Typed updates will be even more sporatic.

I’ve been falling behind on video blogging, I was recently reminded. So I made up a new one last night. I’m getting a little better at playing with iMovie. I’m not great with it yet, but I’m definitely getting there. I can cut sections of video, add title bars, and do fades. Like I said, I’m getting there.

NaNoWriMo is just around the corner. I’m working on something new for it, a dark fantasy series called Lurkers. The first book, the one I’m working on is titled Fallen.

And here’s the video…
 

So, today is our last day at Necronomicon. It's been an interesting con so far! Fun panels, wonderful hotel & staff, decent dealers room...

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We'll be getting back to Tallahassee sometime around 6 or 7 tonight. My coworker fed the kitties last night and this morning. We'll be feeding them tonight, maybe having dinner, very possibly buying our limited groceries for the pay period, and then sleep. Sweet, sweet sleep.

Why "sweet, sweet sleep"? We had to call security to get the party next door to quiet down at 5:30 this morning. We're going to have a 5 to 6 hour drive on 2 hours sleep.

I have a few projects I'm working on at the moment. The most immediate is an RSS feed solely for my video blogs from YouTube, so that I can try to get them submitted as a iTunes podcast. Why, yes, I am growing ambitious. Thank you for noticing.

The other project is... a new story. I'm sorry to say it probably won't be one you see here. But if you can suss out my pseudonym, once it's finished, it shouldn't be that hard to find. More on that as it develops, mainly because I've had too bad a headache for while todo much in the way of writing. I'm hoping to hop back on that train again soon, though.

Finally, Necronomicon is about 5 weeks away! Eee! I so can't wait! I still need to buy my boots, though. They're just about the only part of my costume that hasn't been purchased. I have some picked out (on eBay), so it's just a matter of affording them: $15 for the boots and $13 shipping. It shouldn't seem like so much. I'll get them eventually, maybe even in 2 weeks.

In the meanwhile, much love, rock hard, and later!