First Review for Rose of Par Kluhnd!

My first review! Rose of Par Kluhnd has been reviewed by Books, Off the Page blog. They've also posted the review to Goodreads, and with their handy widget, I've included the review below:

Rose of Par Kluhnd reviews

I am, of course, thrilled with this review! Please visit Books, off the Page to find more ebook reviews.

What takes up some of my spare time?

I've taken up spinning. No, not the exercise kind, the old fashioned Rumplestiltskin kind. Although I have yet to spin straw into gold.

This is what I've been spinning:

That's a storage tub full of raw sheep's fleece. It smells like a barnyard. I'll take a little bit out of the storage tub every so often and plop it into the bathtub for a wash:

You can see that, although this is only the first soaking (the washing has to be done gently so the fiber doesn't felt), it's already vastly improved over this:

You can even see some white in there!:

After it's been washed and has dried, I comb it out with my wool combs (which would beat any ninja weapon in a contest for most lethal-looking). After the combing, which aligns the fibers even more than carding does, I pull the combed fiber off of the wool combs through a small hole in a tool called a diz. This organizes the fiber into a long rope, which gets rolled up into these puffy balls of wool: 

From here I'll either dye the roving (which is what the ropes of fiber are called) and then spin it, or I'll spin it into yarn and then dye it. Here are a few remnants of dyed yarn that I made from this same fleece. They're left-over from a couple of projects that have already been knitted and given away as gifts:

So that's some of what occupies my time when I'm not writing or promoting.

Good Writing

Once when I was having a stressful, hectic week, I grabbed one of the Harry Potter books on my way up to bed. My husband looked at me, "Harry Potter?"

 I said, "I have to go to Hogwarts for a while."

I read to be taken somewhere, to experience new things. A good writer can take story and writing and create something wonderful. A good story combined with good writing can transport the reader away from all immediate cares and deposit them in another world. And that is exactly what I need sometimes, to go someplace else for a while before coming back to deal with all of the day-to-day stuff again.

Writers have to keep this in mind. Work on the story, work on the writing, until it can take the reader away to someplace they want to be.

I think that with the new (relative) ease of self-publishing in the ebook format, some writers are a little too anxious to get their work out there. I've seen many 'indie' books that could have used a lot more work before the author hit the publish button. The story may have merit, but sometimes the writing brings it down. Usually it's the writing. I would caution all writers out there who are thinking of going the self-publish, or indie, route, to slow down. Hone your craft. Hone your work. Let it sit and come back to it, especially if it's your first piece.

Quality is worth the wait. Quality is worth the cutting and the rewriting. Did you know that Markus Zusak rewrote The Book Thief several times from different points of view until he hit upon writing it from Death's perspecive? Sometimes excellence takes lots of work. Don't be afraid of excellence.

And read, too, copius amounts. Then have the smarts to learn from what you read.

Ebook Promotion Week at Smashwords!

Smashwords is repeating their annual Ebook Week special promotion starting Sunday, March 6th and ending Saturday, March 12th. I'm participating in the promotion with Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale. For one week only at Smashwords, my book will be 50% off with this ecoupon code, to be used at checkout:

RAE50

Click here for Rose of Par Kluhnd's Smashword page, and use the coupon at checkout to receive this ebook at the discounted price of $1.50, only at Smashwords.com! The promotion begins Sunday, March 6th and ends Saturday, March 12th.

Sad news for libraries and ebook lending

This article in Library Journal states that Harper Collins will now limit the number of times a library can lend one of their ebook titles to 26.

The article states:

Josh Marwell, President, Sales for HarperCollins, told LJ that the 26 circulation limit was arrived at after considering a number of factors, including the average lifespan of a print book, and wear and tear on circulating copies.

This is an incredibly terrible idea. I can't imagine what libraries will do when faced with having to repurchase their ebooks after they've been circulated only 26 times.

UPDATE: Here's another link to a story in the NYT about HC, in it you find out that Macmillan and Simon & Schuster don't even make their ebook titles available to libraries.

Book Giveaway!

I'm giving away five copies of Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale at Goodreads!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Rose of Par Kluhnd

by Linda Ash

Giveaway ends March 31, 2011.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

The contest ends March 31st. Goodreads will randomly select the winners at that time, notify me, and then I'll send the books to the winners!

I'm celebrating the release of Rose of Par Kluhnd in print at Amazon.com, and drumming up notice for it in both its print and ebook forms.

Enter to win a copy!

Vote for my story!

The Gatekeepers Discovery Writing Awards

I've entered this contest! It's being hosted on Wattpad.com.

It's a contest for Young Adult novels. I've entered Rose of Par Kluhnd: A Fairy Tale.

To see my entry and to vote for it, click here.

In the first round, currently running, the first 50 pages of the story are posted. The top 100 stories with the most votes move on to round two, where the next 50 pages are posted. If you make the round two cuts, your full story is posted and the judges pick the winner.