Ladies and gentlemen, a wonderful thing happened last night: I officially became a published author! :D After writing the actual document, enduring the editing process (I need a t-shirt that says, "I let an ESTJ edit my story - and survived"), and designing my own cover design, I am happy to announce that, right now, you can buy The Immortals for the Kindle for $2.99!
If you weren't able to read it before when I had it up on my blog for free for a few months, The Immortals is a short, adventure-romance story about a female assassin who possesses the ability to self-regenerate but who has entirely lost the ability to feel emotions. When she learns some secrets about those who gave her her abilities, she comes to discover much about the worth of emotions and the sacrifices that are involved with feelings.
I put a lot of work into this publishing, so I hope you all can give it lots of love! :)
Write on!
Clove
8.01.2015
7.31.2015
I DID IT.
Hey, guys, guess what?
TO BE CONTINUED (when the links and stuff are working)...
Write on!
Clove
P.S. AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!
"Brief" Update
Life update: Surgery recovery has gone very well. It has now been ten days since surgery, and I'm officially eating food that isn't mush the color of molded mud. (Though, to be honest, while I've been on this liquid detox diet, I've had a seriously terrible craving for two crunchy, unhealthy things: Wendy's popcorn chicken with barbecue sauce and strawberry wafer cookies...like, the ones that taste like a cheap ice-cream cone on the outside until you bite into them and let all the delicious, sugary, artificial filling melt around your tongue. Cravings, people, cravings.)
Writing update: I've been writing like a maniac recently. I think I've averaged a chapter a day, which, if you know me, you know is a crazy amount of writing. Unfortunately, because I've been pumping out so much unedited junk, I have a lot of chapters, but I have a lot of terribly flawed chapters.
What this means for you is: fun stuffs is coming up in the near future. Hold onto your seats, kiddos.
Rant section: As I was writing, I thought to myself, erroneously, if Silvia just met Skain, they would fall in love, which is what I need for the story to progress. He's intelligent, he's rich, and he's about as attractive as guys get. What is there not to like? So I pushed towards them meeting as fast as I could.
And then, today, on the blessed day when they finally bumped into each other, they started bloody FIGHTING. That's when I remembered that Skain is an ENTJ and Silvia is an INFP and they're both as obnoxious as that little flap of skin that starts peeling at the side of your nail into your flesh and bone. He's bossy; she's arrogant. He's frivolous; she's melodramatic. He's chatty; she's a female human hermit crab who has moved to the most abandoned corner of Antarctica to be alone.
Whyyy did I ever try to be creative? "ENTJ x INFP," I said, "No one has ever done something like this before!" Hahaha, yeah, and there's a reason for it, Clove.
Grrr.
Publishing update: GUYS. WE'RE SO CLOSE TO PUBLISHING THE IMMORTALS. Finally, I got the tax and bank account issues figured out, and so, now, I just have to make some final touches to the book cover and figure out how to best categorize my book so as to get it sold. Expect a very excited post that says, "I'M AN AUTHOR!" sometime in the very near future, i.e. in the next twenty-four hours. Yaaay! :D
Write on!
Clove
Writing update: I've been writing like a maniac recently. I think I've averaged a chapter a day, which, if you know me, you know is a crazy amount of writing. Unfortunately, because I've been pumping out so much unedited junk, I have a lot of chapters, but I have a lot of terribly flawed chapters.
What this means for you is: fun stuffs is coming up in the near future. Hold onto your seats, kiddos.
Rant section: As I was writing, I thought to myself, erroneously, if Silvia just met Skain, they would fall in love, which is what I need for the story to progress. He's intelligent, he's rich, and he's about as attractive as guys get. What is there not to like? So I pushed towards them meeting as fast as I could.
And then, today, on the blessed day when they finally bumped into each other, they started bloody FIGHTING. That's when I remembered that Skain is an ENTJ and Silvia is an INFP and they're both as obnoxious as that little flap of skin that starts peeling at the side of your nail into your flesh and bone. He's bossy; she's arrogant. He's frivolous; she's melodramatic. He's chatty; she's a female human hermit crab who has moved to the most abandoned corner of Antarctica to be alone.
Whyyy did I ever try to be creative? "ENTJ x INFP," I said, "No one has ever done something like this before!" Hahaha, yeah, and there's a reason for it, Clove.
Grrr.
Publishing update: GUYS. WE'RE SO CLOSE TO PUBLISHING THE IMMORTALS. Finally, I got the tax and bank account issues figured out, and so, now, I just have to make some final touches to the book cover and figure out how to best categorize my book so as to get it sold. Expect a very excited post that says, "I'M AN AUTHOR!" sometime in the very near future, i.e. in the next twenty-four hours. Yaaay! :D
Write on!
Clove
7.29.2015
I did things
Ladies and gentlemen, I am happy to announce that I have started doing terrible, time-wasting things for my story.
You're welcome.
Write on!
Clove
You're welcome.
Write on!
Clove
7.23.2015
'k, what's with Sil?
Notes after wisdom teeth removal and SARPE:
1. Anesthesia is super not cool. All ENTJs, including yours truly, find basically nothing more psychologically terrifying than being conscious and yet out of control of ourselves, and that's basically what anesthesia did to me for, like, an hour or so. Very, very not cool, dudes.
2. Fun fact: the day I got back from surgery, my wonderful little sister made home-baked chocolate-covered biscotti. Y'ALL BE THANKFUL FOR HARD FOOD, OKAY?
3. I hate recovery. Hate, hate, haaate recovery. My body moves way too slow for my mind, like, come on, can you pick up the slack a little? We have things to do.
Skain has that problem too.
But, anyway, we're not talking about him today. We're talking about Silvia. Or, I mean, I'm talking about Silvia. Or, at least, I'm going to try. I've had the inability to focus on any one thing for longer than, say, thirty minutes. And I'm not taking any prescribed medicines, just homeopathic stuff, so you can imagine that the pain is pretty high. And the fever. And this blueberry yogurt is commanding a lot of my attention right now.
You know what?
This is a terrible idea.
Anywaaay, the question I wanted to answer today is: why Silvia? Why am I writing an INFP? I've always said that writing is a method of conveying feeling, but INFPs (actually, NFs as a whole) live on a totally different emotional planet than NTs. So how can I convey what I don't feel?
Short answer: I can't.
Long answer: I can't, but I'm going to try - and fail and try again and fail again because, goodness gracious, INFPs are strange, sarcastic, needy princesses indeed. But I will persevere. Aaand here's why:
1.) SKAIN NEEDS SILVIA
ENTJs are masterminds, but we're not omniscient. And, many times, on our quest for world domination or what-have-you, we overlook seemingly-insignificant details, including the state of our physical well-being. If we don't partner up with someone who knows before we know that we need help, we're in for a load of trouble.
Silvia is that "someone."
Now, I have to point out that this INFP x ENTJ pairing is an exception. In real life, I almost always ship ENTJs with ISTPs or ESTPs because, in real life without many crises, all three types tend to rally around their Se function: living on the edge, bantering, enjoying thrills, etc. ENTJs (and their bloated income, hehe) are able to effortlessly provide their XSTP partners with the next new adventure, and the XSTPs teach ENTJs not to take themselves so gosh-dang seriously all the time.
However, in my story, Skain is really just trying to survive from day to day, using his more grave-natured dominant and auxiliary functions to outwit the manipulative INFJ antagonist. Thus, he doesn't have much time for living it up. That's why I'm choosing to pair him with the supportive, insightful INFP, rather than the spontaneous, brush-it-off XSTP.
2.) PERSONAL GROWTH
Now that I'm in my latter teenage years, my own inferior Fi function (which is an INFP's dominant function) is starting to show up, an appearance that I find fascinating and yet obnoxious. While most people with Fi in their dominant or auxiliary stack positions have the ability to empathize well with people, all that my Fi is doing for me right now is making me enjoy tear-jerker movies and showing me how unstable I am inwardly.
Just for the sake of seeing how an INFP might properly use her Fi function, I've decided to write Silvia. Simulate and learn.
3.) PRACTICE
Duh. Every author should try to step outside their normal boundaries (or, you know, onto another, emotional planet) for the sake of growing versatility. I'm not saying that I'll ever write another INFP main character after this, but I might diversify my side characters with the practice I'm getting through Silvia.
1. Anesthesia is super not cool. All ENTJs, including yours truly, find basically nothing more psychologically terrifying than being conscious and yet out of control of ourselves, and that's basically what anesthesia did to me for, like, an hour or so. Very, very not cool, dudes.
2. Fun fact: the day I got back from surgery, my wonderful little sister made home-baked chocolate-covered biscotti. Y'ALL BE THANKFUL FOR HARD FOOD, OKAY?
3. I hate recovery. Hate, hate, haaate recovery. My body moves way too slow for my mind, like, come on, can you pick up the slack a little? We have things to do.
Skain has that problem too.
But, anyway, we're not talking about him today. We're talking about Silvia. Or, I mean, I'm talking about Silvia. Or, at least, I'm going to try. I've had the inability to focus on any one thing for longer than, say, thirty minutes. And I'm not taking any prescribed medicines, just homeopathic stuff, so you can imagine that the pain is pretty high. And the fever. And this blueberry yogurt is commanding a lot of my attention right now.
You know what?
This is a terrible idea.
~ ~ ~
Anywaaay, the question I wanted to answer today is: why Silvia? Why am I writing an INFP? I've always said that writing is a method of conveying feeling, but INFPs (actually, NFs as a whole) live on a totally different emotional planet than NTs. So how can I convey what I don't feel?
Short answer: I can't.
Long answer: I can't, but I'm going to try - and fail and try again and fail again because, goodness gracious, INFPs are strange, sarcastic, needy princesses indeed. But I will persevere. Aaand here's why:
1.) SKAIN NEEDS SILVIA
ENTJs are masterminds, but we're not omniscient. And, many times, on our quest for world domination or what-have-you, we overlook seemingly-insignificant details, including the state of our physical well-being. If we don't partner up with someone who knows before we know that we need help, we're in for a load of trouble.
Silvia is that "someone."
Now, I have to point out that this INFP x ENTJ pairing is an exception. In real life, I almost always ship ENTJs with ISTPs or ESTPs because, in real life without many crises, all three types tend to rally around their Se function: living on the edge, bantering, enjoying thrills, etc. ENTJs (and their bloated income, hehe) are able to effortlessly provide their XSTP partners with the next new adventure, and the XSTPs teach ENTJs not to take themselves so gosh-dang seriously all the time.
However, in my story, Skain is really just trying to survive from day to day, using his more grave-natured dominant and auxiliary functions to outwit the manipulative INFJ antagonist. Thus, he doesn't have much time for living it up. That's why I'm choosing to pair him with the supportive, insightful INFP, rather than the spontaneous, brush-it-off XSTP.
2.) PERSONAL GROWTH
Now that I'm in my latter teenage years, my own inferior Fi function (which is an INFP's dominant function) is starting to show up, an appearance that I find fascinating and yet obnoxious. While most people with Fi in their dominant or auxiliary stack positions have the ability to empathize well with people, all that my Fi is doing for me right now is making me enjoy tear-jerker movies and showing me how unstable I am inwardly.
Just for the sake of seeing how an INFP might properly use her Fi function, I've decided to write Silvia. Simulate and learn.
3.) PRACTICE
Duh. Every author should try to step outside their normal boundaries (or, you know, onto another, emotional planet) for the sake of growing versatility. I'm not saying that I'll ever write another INFP main character after this, but I might diversify my side characters with the practice I'm getting through Silvia.
~ ~ ~
All right, dudes, my blueberry yogurt is gone, and my fever is back up. I think now is a good time to take a hot shower and crawl under my covers while meticulously planning what I will do when I'm done recovering, wahaha...
Write on!
Clove
6.26.2015
Pricing
Apparently, there's way more to self-publishing than I first imagined.
It figures, though. I'm a blog author. I type stuff out, glance over it for glaring punctuation and grammatical errors, hit "publish", and - WHAM - my post is out in the world for everyone to read. On a day when I suffer from writer's block, it takes me an hour per post.
Unfortunately, with actual books (even if said books are fictional novelettes), publishing takes a little bit (hehe, a lottle bit) more time and effort for formatting, font choices, and - ugh ugh ugh - cover design. One of the biggest issues that I've been musing over is book pricing and the differences between 99 cent books, 98 cent books, and 97 cent books.
I know, I know, one cent differences.
Think it's absurd?
Hold your laughter.
As I've been reading through "Kindle Publishing Gold: How to Make Money Online Self-Publishing" by R.L. Adams, I've realized that there are huge psychological aspects behind these three prices. Summarized from Adams' book, here's my best interpretation of these three prices' deeper meaning.
99 CENTS:
Most people know this little secret. Price your books at 99 cents and people will buy because they automatically tend to ignore the stuff after the decimal point. (You know, like that one time that you bought that pint of ice cream for $4.99 and thought you were getting a steal - fifty cents per half cup of ice cream! - only to realize that you actually bought a pint of a vanilla-flavored brain freeze for five whopping bucks.)
However, even though people know this secret, no one really seems to be objecting to it. According to studies presented in Adams' book, 60.7% people will still prefer to buy products that end with the number 9.
98 CENTS:
Ooo, we just got one cent cheaper! Now we're hitting the real discounts!
Heheh.
Actually, since people ignore the stuff after the decimal point, they're still ignoring the one extra cent markdown. That is, unless if your target audience is extraordinarily price-sensitive, like Wal-Mart's customers are.
97 CENTS:
Strangely enough, people do tend to notice the three cent discount (97) even if they don't notice the two cent discount (98), simply because 97 cents is a clear break-away from the traditional 99 cents and the less-traditional-but-still-frequent 98 cents.
However, this attention isn't necessarily good. 97 cents implies that the author is cunningly calculating and that the book price is a little too exact. Some people might be turned away by that sort of forethought, feeling as if they're walking into a pricing trap.
Intriguing, isn't it?
Anyway, with all of this help, I've decided that the price for The Immortals is to be CHEAP dollars and INEXPENSIVE cents...which, in more or less words...is to say I haven't decided yet. (No more than two dollars, anyway. :P)
Last note: R.L. Adams' book is a fantastic, practical read for amateur authors like me. If you've got a finished work and want to throw it into the internet world just to see how it does, I would highly advise that you buy his novel (which is free on the Kindle, I believe).
And, as always--
Write on!
Clove
It figures, though. I'm a blog author. I type stuff out, glance over it for glaring punctuation and grammatical errors, hit "publish", and - WHAM - my post is out in the world for everyone to read. On a day when I suffer from writer's block, it takes me an hour per post.
Unfortunately, with actual books (even if said books are fictional novelettes), publishing takes a little bit (hehe, a lottle bit) more time and effort for formatting, font choices, and - ugh ugh ugh - cover design. One of the biggest issues that I've been musing over is book pricing and the differences between 99 cent books, 98 cent books, and 97 cent books.
I know, I know, one cent differences.
Think it's absurd?
Hold your laughter.
As I've been reading through "Kindle Publishing Gold: How to Make Money Online Self-Publishing" by R.L. Adams, I've realized that there are huge psychological aspects behind these three prices. Summarized from Adams' book, here's my best interpretation of these three prices' deeper meaning.
~ ~ ~
99 CENTS:
Most people know this little secret. Price your books at 99 cents and people will buy because they automatically tend to ignore the stuff after the decimal point. (You know, like that one time that you bought that pint of ice cream for $4.99 and thought you were getting a steal - fifty cents per half cup of ice cream! - only to realize that you actually bought a pint of a vanilla-flavored brain freeze for five whopping bucks.)
However, even though people know this secret, no one really seems to be objecting to it. According to studies presented in Adams' book, 60.7% people will still prefer to buy products that end with the number 9.
98 CENTS:
Ooo, we just got one cent cheaper! Now we're hitting the real discounts!
Heheh.
Actually, since people ignore the stuff after the decimal point, they're still ignoring the one extra cent markdown. That is, unless if your target audience is extraordinarily price-sensitive, like Wal-Mart's customers are.
97 CENTS:
Strangely enough, people do tend to notice the three cent discount (97) even if they don't notice the two cent discount (98), simply because 97 cents is a clear break-away from the traditional 99 cents and the less-traditional-but-still-frequent 98 cents.
However, this attention isn't necessarily good. 97 cents implies that the author is cunningly calculating and that the book price is a little too exact. Some people might be turned away by that sort of forethought, feeling as if they're walking into a pricing trap.
~ ~ ~
Intriguing, isn't it?
Anyway, with all of this help, I've decided that the price for The Immortals is to be CHEAP dollars and INEXPENSIVE cents...which, in more or less words...is to say I haven't decided yet. (No more than two dollars, anyway. :P)
Last note: R.L. Adams' book is a fantastic, practical read for amateur authors like me. If you've got a finished work and want to throw it into the internet world just to see how it does, I would highly advise that you buy his novel (which is free on the Kindle, I believe).
And, as always--
Write on!
Clove
6.24.2015
Skain's Playlist - Let Me Know (BTS)
Ever have one of those days where you start writing a blog post, but you can't seem to stop journaling your feels into your blog post even when you know that no one reading your writing blog cares to read about how you feel ("Gosh, Clove, make a personal blog if you want to talk about yourself."), so you delete your entire post and start over a half bajillion times?
Yeah, having one of those days today. >.<
Anyway, I'll get to the point: recently, I've been compiling a list of songs that would fit my characters, as I normally do. (Music and writing? What could be better?) One of my favorite "Skain" songs is Let Me Know by Bangtan Boys.
I'd imagine it'd play at the end of the story, when Skain has been "unfaithful" to Silvia, has literally stabbed her in the back, and has disappeared off the face of the earth - all for the sake of saving her from himself. (To the people who read my first draft, yes, things have gotten much more drastic, hehe.)
In the epilogue, Skain comes back to her eventually and wants to know how she feels after all that he did.
And thus:
Yeah, having one of those days today. >.<
Anyway, I'll get to the point: recently, I've been compiling a list of songs that would fit my characters, as I normally do. (Music and writing? What could be better?) One of my favorite "Skain" songs is Let Me Know by Bangtan Boys.
I'd imagine it'd play at the end of the story, when Skain has been "unfaithful" to Silvia, has literally stabbed her in the back, and has disappeared off the face of the earth - all for the sake of saving her from himself. (To the people who read my first draft, yes, things have gotten much more drastic, hehe.)
In the epilogue, Skain comes back to her eventually and wants to know how she feels after all that he did.
And thus:
On top of this ending tune,
I am standing here alone.
Now tell me that it’s over.
Let me know.
Suddenly, in my eyes, rain wells up.
You well up.
I see you even when I breathe.
Love blooms like cherry blossoms
but burns and becomes ashes.
Hey, girl, I know
the conclusion you made by yourself,
your hand, your body, your body heat
that was hotter than the equator.
I’m still here on repeat on top of the disappeared tune.
I’m turning by myself on top of this music that has ended.
On top of this ending tune,
I am standing here alone.
Now tell me that it’s over.
Let me know.
Girl, let me know.
Girl, let me know.
Although I already know everything is over,
although you’re over me,
girl, let me know.
Girl, let me know.
Girl, let me know.
Tell me something.
I just wanna know, know, know.
I just wanna know, know, know.
My lingering feelings are trying to withstand the end,
so please tell me something.
Girl, let me know.
The promises we made disappeared
with the time we spent together.
The dominos have fallen with our breakup
like Juliet and Romeo.
Did I like you too much?
The heat between me and you won’t cool down.
Now I look back at the film with you,
too early to do anything by thinking of you.
You took away my stars at night,
my sun at day,
only leaving me with the darkness
of a single cold cloud.
If there are hellos,
then there’s bound to be goodbyes?
Never ever.
I don’t care about that,
I don’t want to stick to that,
I’ll turn away, hypnotizing myself.
Maybe we’re all just a bunch of fools.
Everyone lives with a love that has come to an end.
It’s not that I still have feelings for you.
I know we can’t work out,
but why does it feel like I’m having indigestion?
As if my insides will explode...
Cries come up my throat,
making me throw up.
In my imagination, I fight with you,
make up with you, and understand you.
Your hand gestures, your eyes:
they are faded but not gone.
Why won’t it go away?
Why won’t it go away?
Why won’t it go away?
~ ~ ~
Moral of the story? ENTJs (that'd be Skain and me) have some of the highest marital satisfaction of all types, not because we just love everyone so much but because we're stubborn as diamonnnds.
Wahaha, I'm so psyched for this story, guys! :D
Write on!
Clove
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