Ellis Vidler's Unpredictable Muse: Eel's Reverence

Monday, December 5, 2011

Giving It Away

What a fun person Marian Allen is! I love the trailer for Force of Habit. Now I must get the book.

30-second YouTube spot: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2FWEq-sxZM

When Bel Schuster swaps clothes with a native and goes off-limits on the planet Llannonn, she lands in several flavors of hot water. Alien criminals, local slavers and the planet's own particular legal code end up in a baggy-pants courtroom drama.

Giving It Away

When my previous book, EEL'S REVERENCE, came out, I ran a contest during my blog book tour for it. One of the prizes was the right to name a character in a short story I pledged to write to promote FORCE OF HABIT. The winner of the drawing was one Holly Jahangiri.

Now, I had "met" Holly in Dani Greer's Blog Book Tour class, but she was only a slight acquaintance. When she won the contest, I started following her blog, I "friended" her on FaceBook and I "traded follows" with her on Twitter.

After a few months, I got an idea for the story: On the planet Llannonn, living books--people who, as in Bradbury's FAHRENHEIT 451, memorize and recite texts--live in a cross between a library and a rooming house. Some of them go missing. The librarians and a cop team up to solve the mystery. I would call it "By the Book".

Like FORCE OF HABIT, the story would be sf/crime/humor. Holly would be one of the librarians. Her Twitter avatar included a purple feather boa, so I wrote a purple feather boa into the story.

By the time I finished the story, submitted it to my publisher and went through the edits, my familiarity with Holly the character cemented my friendship with Holly the person. The connection must have manifested itself electronically because my publisher, with no input from me, made a cover for the eStory featuring -- a purple feather boa.

Holly loved the story and helped me promote it (it's free at Smashwords -- if you really want to, you can pay $0.99 for it at Nook or Kindle stores) and helped me promote FORCE OF HABIT. She even interviewed herself on my blog. <http://www.marianallen.com/2011/11/bonus-follow-friday-more-holly/>

I recently ran another contest and the right to name a character in a new short story was won by -- HOLLY! So there will be a sequel to "By the Book". I think I'm going to call it -- and this is the first announcement of the title -- "By Hook or Crook".

I'm in several writers' email lists, and the question occasionally comes up as to the benefit of contests and of giving writing away. I post free samples at http://MarianAllen.com every Sunday, some of them excerpts but many of them flash fiction stories. Although I love earning money with my writing, I find that the satisfaction of sharing my creation is vast. I hope that people who enjoy the free stuff will support me by buying something, too. And the inspiration and friendship I found through writing "By the Book" are beyond price.