Blog | Sarah Ettritch | Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Romance

Now this is What You Call Bad Luck

Posted on January 27, 2012 by Sarah

Here’s a video about a doomed book and its creator’s bad luck:

Speaking of the Titanic, my partner and I went to a Titanic exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre. When we entered the exhibit hall, we were each handed a card that contained the name of a Titanic passenger and a bit of information about them–gender, age, and who they were travelling with. What the card didn’t say was whether the passenger survived. My card was about a middle-aged woman travelling with her entire family–her husband and all of her children.

When we reached the end of the exhibit, there was a large display board that listed all the passenger’s names in alphabetical order, and whether they lived or died. My passenger and her entire family perished. It really brought home the magnitude of the tragedy. Here was a family that had probably sold everything it owned to start a new life in North America. Instead, it was snuffed out. Not a single survivor.

I’ll think of that woman and her family on April 15th, the 100th anniversary of the Titanic’s sinking.

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My New Kindle

Posted on January 12, 2012 by Sarah

After humming and hawing for months, I finally bought a Kindle. I already had a Sony Reader, which I bought to read on my commute to and from work. Not long after getting it, I was laid off, and it’s collected dust since then. Why read eBooks on a tiny screen when I can read them on my computer’s LCD?

That was my attitude for a while, but my library of non-fiction Kindle books continues to grow, and sometimes I just don’t feel like reading in front of my computer. Sure, I have the Sony Reader, but many of those Kindle books have DRM, and all of them would have to be converted to a format the Reader recognizes. I’m too lazy to do that. Also, while I can inspect my own books using Kindle for PC before I upload them to Amazon, I’d like to inspect them on an actual Kindle.

So I bit the bullet and bought the basic Kindle 4, and I’ve had it for a couple of weeks. My sister has a Kindle and says she could never go back to reading print, and I’ve heard others say the same. I’d resisted reading fiction in digital form, but now that I had a Kindle, it was time to load up one of those free fiction books I occasionally (legally) download but never read. I opened a sci-fi story with bated breath, expecting to undergo some sort of transformational experience that would have me proclaiming, “Print? What’s that?”

It didn’t happen.

I didn’t mind reading the story on the Kindle, but right after finishing it, I started a print book, rather than opening another one of the freebie eBooks. I still prefer to read fiction in print. That doesn’t mean I won’t read fiction eBooks, but only if I can’t get a book in print, or the print version is way, way, WAY more expensive than the eBook. We’re talking at least twenty bucks more expensive, here. I might also consider the eBook if it’s available before the print book, but I suspect that I’ll probably wait for the print version in those cases. I can always find something else to read in the meantime.

Non-fiction is a different story. I’ve never minded reading non-fiction eBooks, and I’m thrilled that I can now read them away from the computer. I also like that I can think, “Hmm, I need to research this,” find a book on the topic, buy it, and start reading it, all within the space of ten minutes. Just last week I wanted a book that was “1 to 2 months shipping” for print, so it was a no brainer to buy the Kindle version, and I’m already halfway through reading it.

So now I know. When it comes to non-fiction, I don’t have a preference, but when it comes to fiction, I’m still a print gal.

Posted in eBooks | Tagged ebooks, Kindle | 5 Comments

My Writing Plans for 2012

Posted on December 21, 2011 by Sarah

Before I talk about 2012, I thought I’d look back at My Writing Plans for 2011. How did I do?

At this point in time, only two projects are definitely on my “to-write” list: the Rymellan series and a story for Torquere Press’s Sapphic Signs…

Check. Posted four stories to Rymellan Fiction and wrote Like Water and Water.

I do know that I’d like to focus on short stories and novellas. Since I don’t write a story with a set length in mind, I might end up writing a novel anyway, but my preference will be to work on projects that I expect to come in under 50K words.

Bzzt! I ended up writing Threaded Through Time, Books One and Two, both of which came in over 50K words. Having said that, when I started to write Threaded Through Time, Book One, I expected it to come in under 50K words.

I see myself publishing only one print book in 2011: Rymellan 2.

Bzzt! I ended up taking Threaded Through Time to print, too.

Okay, so I won’t be enjoying a second career as a psychic anytime soon.

What’s in Store for 2012?

At the moment, I have only one story on my “to-write” list; in fact, I’m already writing it: the March Rymellan story. Will there be any other Rymellan stories in 2012? I don’t know. If I had to guess, I’d say no. But as you can see from 2011, nothing I say in this post is cast in stone.

I will, of course, take Rymellan 3 to print and eBook in 2012.

What Else?

Once I’ve finished the March Rymellan story, I’ll open my ever-growing ideas file and choose what to write next. I hope to cross a few ideas off the list in 2012.

I’ll try to do what I wanted to do in 2011: focus on shorter works. I’d like to write a variety of stories, none of which I’ll talk about because I don’t know what I’ll do with them when they’re finished.

Possibilities:

Learn from the experience and stick the story in a drawer.
Submit the story to an ezine, magazine, or anthology.
Wait until I’ve built up a decent collection of stories and then publish them.
For novellas: publish them.

As you can see, the options range from never publishing a story to potentially having a story accepted for publication in a year or two. Given that, there’s no point talking about what I’m writing as I go along. I’ll only talk about a story when I know that it’ll be published, and when.

No More WIP Page

Once I’ve posted the March Rymellan story to Rymellan Fiction, I’ll remove the WIP page from this website. It’s mainly there so people can check where I am with the next Rymellan story. That will become moot in March, and since I won’t be talking about whatever I’m writing as I’m writing it, there won’t be anything to put on the WIP page.

Summary

In 2012, I’ll finish writing the March Rymellan story, and I’ll publish Rymellan 3 in print and eBook. I’ll focus on short stories, novelettes, and novellas for the remainder of the year. When I know if/when a story will be published, I’ll post about it on my blog.

I wish you a safe and happy holiday season, and all the best for 2012. See you next year!