Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Scribe and scribbles

revised Dec 5,2012



For those of you that know me, I am writing again. My muse hath forsaken me for too long, undoubtedly headed to warmer climates, but it is back and kicking into my ribs as if I was a horse moving too slow. I heed its 'gentle' persuasion and put thought to font.
The stories come and I write as fast as I can to trap the ever elusive thought patterns before they evaporate into thin air and evade the page. Always with an outdated day planner in my back pocket and two pens at the ready to jot down some angle, some view, some great line that floats by on an inspirational breeze.
Stories come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. I find that just stepping outside to escape the routine of the day will inspire a thought that leads to a spark and then, 'Ah! What a great story!" I have many 'Ah!' moments over the past 16 years. Several' Ah Crap!' moments as well, but still I write. Fame and fortune have not found me yet, but that is not why I write. (That's a lie, I want to be so famous I can never leave my hotel room for the rest of my life.) I write because I will burst if I don't. Once the seed is planted in my mind I must write it down. Even if it doesn't turn out to be a novel, the characters, the beginning middle and end must get down on paper. Grammar, punctuation, hell even language are all pushed to the lower rung of priority as long as the story gets out. Once caught and planted on the page, I can breathe knowing it is not going to escape me. A prized capture, a netted rare specimen, forever in my collection. I have many in my collection, novels, novellas, screenplays, poems, children's stories.
I am not plugged into any specific genre, contemporary fiction, suspense, fantasy, YA, humour, adventure, it's whatever the pen wants, I just hold the thing and it scribbles or scribes.

You have undoubtably stumbled upon here via the Kidlit link, that's great, thanks for dropping in. I had entered Mary's contest several years back hoping to get published, but someone else beat me to the punch. Congrats to them.
But as a writer, I keep on writting and hope that someone will take note of my creative ventures and have some faith in them, enough so to grab at least one of them and get them on the market. It is so hard, as I am sure you can attest. But, not to take away from the agents and publishers out there, there is hope for us little, unknown struggling tortured authors. One word... Smashwords.
I had stumbled upon this site, while trying to get somewhere with the mass volumes that were accumulating in my basement in a box and hidden from the public. Smashwords is an ebook aggrigator, or distributor if you prefer, for some of the largest ebook stores out there. I checked them out and they are very reputable, and one of the first partners with the ibook Store at Apple. Within two weeks, two of my books were listed with Kobo, Sony, Diesel, Barnes and Noble, Chapters/Indigo and the Apple ibook Store. Yeehaaa! Quite the leap from the box in my basement.
Now that they are out there, the fact that I don't have a publisher in the traditional sense, nor a publicist or an agent or a marketing team, it is all up to me to get the word out and do my own marketing. It is not easy, but well worth it when you see the star ratings pop up beside the picture of your book, or that long awaited, dreamy feeling when you know you sold a copy.

Smashwords does all the work. You just have to get your book in the right format and they do the rest. I found a formatter who guarantees his work, and he is listed with Smashwords and with Apple as well, he does great work, and fast. He also formats for Amazon KDP, if you want.

My books published and available on line.

Two fantasy stories, one is 'the Wish', about faeries, but not your average fluffy fairy tale. It is in the same vein as Lord of the Rings, although not as epic, and the same feel as the Spiderwick Chronicles.

'The Christmas Crunch'  is a laugh out loud, family tale for the entire family.


or on the Apple ibook store, just type in Van Pornaras in the search bar and the wonder of
modern electronics will take you there.


I have struggled for decades to get someone to believe in my works. Rejection is even a welcome response, that is if you even get a response. Write because you have something to say. Polish it so you can show what you have to say, and for the love of your craft get it out there. We as writters, in this new age of ebooks can do that NOW.


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