Author: Nicole Luttrell

I'm a speculative fiction writer. That means I write about dragons, ghosts and spaceships. Sometimes I write about the ghosts of dragons on spaceships.

Waiting for the end of a series might kill the series

Who hasn’t felt this heartbreak? You get introduced to a series, and it’s love at first sight. The characters, the plot, the execution. Everything is just hitting that spot.

And then, you finish the first book or first season. So what is there to do but wait for the next one?

So you wait. And you wait. And you wait. Finally, one day, the dark truth is revealed.

Your series was canceled.

So many, many good series have been canceled before their time. Or, there’s so much time between one book or season and the next that it feels like it might as well have been canceled. And it sucks! I could just start listing off series that have ended without an ending for the rest of this post, and I’d run out of room before I ran out of titles. Just a few that still tear me up are Limetown, The Numair Chronicles, and of course the infamous Firefly.

No, Serenity doesn’t count as an ending.

And don’t even get me started on the extensive times between books or seasons. The last season of Stranger Things came out in 2022, and the next season isn’t expected until next year!

With all that being said, I understand why some people choose to wait until a series has ended before getting invested in it. Doing so would have certainly saved me from the heartache of the Santa Clarita Diet ending. And I didn’t like it, but I know Song of Ice and Fire fans probably wish they’d skipped the whole damn thing after waiting thirteen years and counting for the next book.

Here’s the thing though. Waiting to read a series or watch a show until it’s done, is just increasing the chances that it’s never going to get done at all.

The publisher is going to nope out

The publishing world is a business, like any other. And it’s going to produce what makes it money. Not what’s good, or what the editors like, but what sells. The same can be said for streaming platforms and TV networks. If enough people aren’t watching a series, there’s little chance it’ll get picked up for season two, if it even gets a chance to finish season one.

This is one of the things I hate most about the field. Storytelling is cutthroat, and I hate that creative endeavors have to be so. It’s like knowing fennec foxes will fight to the death with each other. It shouldn’t be in their nature, but it is.

The money is going to dry up

Unfortunately, we live in a capitalist society. And because of that, sometimes we have to make shitty decisions. So even an indie writer, like myself, might have to cut a project if it’s not making enough money to be worth the time.

Again, most people don’t want to do this. I love writing my stories. I want to see how my series ends as much as everyone else. Probably more. But when creative work is what’s putting food on your table and keeping the lights on, you have to make sure what you’re producing is what’s selling. Writers and creatives have to have some income from book one while they’re working on book two.

No one likes playing to an empty house

Okay, so what’s my excuse, you might ask. I don’t write for TV and I’m not traditionally published. I have a day job, so I don’t depend on my writing money to eat. So what’s stopping me from writing anything I want?

Nothing. I can, and do, publish whatever I want whenever I want. But what I want is to write stories that people read. Or listen to, in the case of AA.

If I didn’t care if other people read my work, I’d just publish it for fun and move on to another project. I certainly wouldn’t waste time promoting my books. I wouldn’t invest in cover art. I wouldn’t waste time with beta readers. I would just write whatever the hell made me happy.

But I want to put out work that other people enjoy. I want to put out work that people value. And the only way I can tell that people are valuing my stories is if they’re buying them. And if people aren’t valuing my stories, I’ll move on and write a different one.

To end today, please understand that I get the challenge. It is awful to have a story without an ending. And yes, if you jump on a new series right away, there’s a chance it might not have an ending. But if you never start, there’s even more of a chance that the story will never be able to end.

If you liked what you saw here today, please consider liking and sharing this post. Or you can support the site financially on Ko-fi.

Broken Patterns is available now for preorder! You can order it now on Amazon.

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Broken Patterns is now available for preorder

This post was almost just me typing look at this cover! in all caps. Because this cover is, let me tell you, astounding.

Isn’t that freaking gorgeous? Thank you so much, Getcovers, who did a fantastic job.

All of that to say, Broken Patterns is now available for presale. You can get it right here now, and be among the first to read it on September sixth.

Or, maybe re-read it. It is a relaunch, after all.

In Devon and Lenore’s world, magic is as common as turning a pot or fletching an arrow. What isn’t common is a man with thread magic. When Devon starts weaving prophetic tapestries, his royal family tries to keep it a secret. 

But the family can’t stay in the shadows when Devon’s uncle is assassinated and he becomes second in line for the throne. Especially when he weaves a vision of destruction for the dragon lands. 

Who is Broken Patterns for? It’s for people who love magic, dragons, and stories about people who don’t quite fit in. It’s a story about a boy who is clearly not his dad’s favorite, but holds within him the power to save a country. It’s the story of a young woman with the ability to bring light to the world, who has to fight against its darkest forces first. And, it has science wielding dragons. I cannot stress this enough, there are dragons doing science. I am so proud of that.

The journey from the start of this series to this point has been a wild one. It’s been ten years. Ten long years of learning, growing and watching the world catch fire around me. And I’ve never stopped being thankful for this story. I hope that you all love this new, updated version as much as I do.

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Why should you consider relaunching your book?

Books go through several versions in the course of their lives. My books often look wildly different from rough drafts to finished products.

But once the book is out there in the world, the revisions might not be finished. Often different versions come out of the same story. For book collectors like me, this can be infuriating. I think we all have a few books that we consider to have ‘definitive’ versions. And sometimes those versions are just impossible to replace if something (cat) happens to them.

Or you get a copy of a book, and then you find out there’s another version that is so much cooler. But you already have one copy, and do you really need multiple copies of the same book? Then you decide it doesn’t hurt to have a few copies, and this is how you end up with five copies of Christmas Carol and not enough shelf space for this kind of foolish behavior.

There are several reasons a book might relaunch or come out with alternative copies. Some make a lot of sense, and some are regrettable. And if you are a self-published author, it’s something you might want to consider. Let’s talk about why.

Commemorative copies

Everyone loves anniversaries and milestone moments. Ten, fifteen and twenty-year anniversaries are a great time to relaunch a beloved book with a new forward, new cover, or extra content. Fans of books eat this sort of thing up, myself included.

While I wouldn’t necessarily do this for every book every ten years (that would be a lot) it can be a rewarding project for you to republish a book that’s meaningful to you on a big anniversary.

Movie and TV show tie-ins

I’ll be honest, this is my least favorite reason to relaunch a book. When content gets made into a show or movie, some wiseass in the promotional department usually suggests they relaunch the book with a new cover inspired by the new iteration. If I ever stumble upon a version of the Giver with the movie poster for its cover, I might set the damn thing on fire.

But, if you like the book and the movie, this might be fun for you. And if your story gets picked up for a movie or show, this could be fun.

New covers

Of course, sometimes covers just need to be redone. There are lots of reasons for this. While I love my covers for Seeming and You Can’t Trust The AI, they don’t match the rest of the series. Unfortunately, the fantastic artist who designed them wasn’t able to finish the series. And so I will, eventually, be relaunching that whole series with new covers that all match.

The other issue could be that the original covers are just bad. This isn’t usually anyone’s fault. I think we all want to give our books the best covers we can. But as we learn more, we can and should do better. I loved the cover for Station Central when I made it. But I think we can all agree that the one for Nova is a lot better.

Then, of course, there’s a situation like the one I’m in right now. I’m relaunching the Woven series, and one of the best things about that is giving them the new covers they’ve deserved for years.

And yes, a cover announcement is coming soon.

Expanded versions

Sometimes when books are traditionally published, they get cut by the editors because they’re just too damn long. Or maybe some scenes are perfectly fine, but offended someone’s sensibilities. Whatever the reason, sometimes good scenes get cut from books.

And sometimes, the writers this happens to get enough clout and respect to go back and correct those mistakes. This has happened with at least two books I enjoyed, The Stand and American Gods. I’ve read the original, and I’ve read the expanded versions. And I can honestly say I like the expanded versions better. But of course, when a book is good enough, it’s always too short.

New publisher

And of course, books will sometimes change publishers during their lives. Or international versions will come out under different publishers. Sometimes that means that someone else owns the artwork on the original cover. Sometimes it just needs updating for any of the above reasons and it’s just a convenient time to get it done. And sometimes the new publisher just wants to put their mark on the book, which is understandable. Marketing is important, after all, and building a brand is boring but crucial work if you want your company to continue to, you know, survive.

I’m sure I missed some reasons why a book might be relaunched. I’d love to hear about them in the comments. Or, if you know of a book that has one definitive version, let us know that as well.

If you liked what you saw here today, please consider liking and sharing this post. Or you can support the site financially on Ko-fi.

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Preptober planner, 2024

August is now upon us. This is a liminal month here in Western PA, probably in other places. Signs of fall have started to pop up. Some leaves are beginning to turn, but most are still a vibrant green. The Steelers preseason is starting soon. Kids are going back to school. And while the days are still stifling hot, the nights are getting cooler. The days grow short, the nights grow long and my soul is coming alive.

Pumpkin spice is coming, my friends. Pumpkin spice is coming.

And while we’re all either soaking up the last weeks of summer or counting the days until chunky sweater weather, one thing remains the same. Nanowrimo will be with us before you realize it. And it’s time to get ready for Preptober. As such, I have updated my preptober planner for 2024.

This year’s version sports a new, darker color and updated coffee cups throughout the whole thing. More substantially, it includes two new planning pages.

Our first new page is a character injury page. I think we’ve all read or seen something in which a character is injured in one scene, only to be perfectly fine far too soon after. Was this done for convenience? Or did the author just forget about the injury?

The new planner page will help you avoid this. This includes a male and female presenting outline so that you can keep track of the bumps, bruises and breaks that your character suffers along the way.

Our second new page is a map page. I am a visual person. And it might surprise you to know that I often draw maps of my story locations so that I can keep track of things. Especially stories like Station 86, which included several levels of the space station that I needed to keep track of. I also had a map of the apartment building in Quiet Apocalypse so that I could remember who lived where and across from who.

These two pages bring us up to eleven total pages of planning goodness. You can print the planner out or just download it and write directly on the document. And while you could follow along with everyone planning on October, there is no reason you can’t get the planner now and begin your novel writing adventure.

I love this planner so much. Every year it gets better, in my humble opinion. You can get it right here now on Ko-fi for only $1.50.

Happy planning and happy writing everyone!

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Why am I still blogging?

Next month will mark the tenth anniversary of keeping this blog. Which is honestly astounding. I have been here almost ten years. In that time, I have moved three times, switched jobs, become a professional critic and gotten married.

Oh, and I’ve also published 12 books and produced two seasons of a sci-fi/horror podcast.

When I started Paper Beats World, it seemed like everyone had a blog. From teens talking teen things on Tumbler to the sea of mommy bloggers giving you recipes after boring you with the three-generational family history of their lemon squares, blogs were the hot ticket.

Now, they’re not. Now, everyone’s got either a YouTube channel or a podcast. There are so, so many podcasts. I hosted one about true crime, and I continue to write a fiction one.

And yet, I am still writing a blog after so many people have given up on them or switched to a different medium. Why? I don’t make money from this site. It takes roughly two hours a week to write, edit and post a blog. This is time I could be spending writing reviews, short stories or novels. I could be keeping up with my house, playing with Oliver or reading. So, why am I still here?

I don’t want to write a newsletter, do YouTube or start a podcast

Writers need platforms. They need a way for people to keep up with them. Otherwise, how will we know when their new books come out? I need a way to let all of you know what I have going on. And frankly, I don’t want to do it any other way.

I hate newsletters. When was the last time you actually opened a newsletter you subscribed to? Because I sure don’t. They sit in my inbox and I feel guilty for not reading them until I get tired of feeling guilty and delete them.

I really don’t want to do Youtube, because frankly, it seems like a lot more work than I need to add to my week. YouTube would mean I need to put on makeup, create a cute background and write a script instead of writing a blog post. Then, I’ve got to edit the damn thing. Oh, and I have to be careful of what I say, or the video will get demonetized or taken down.

Gross.

As for creating a podcast, this I have considered. It would just be me reading blogs out loud, to be honest. But I can see that being appealing and something I could keep up with. But again, that would include hours of audio editing that I don’t enjoy.

I still find blogging to be the best way to talk to people and the best way to consume content.

If I thought that creating content differently would be beneficial to you all, I’d consider it. I want the things I say to be accessible, and enjoyable. And maybe this is just me, but listening to a podcast where I’m supposed to learn something is often a pain in the ass. I’m often listening to them while cleaning, walking Oliver, or doing any number of things I don’t have a pen for. So if I want to write down a book title, a bit of clever dialog, or information about an herb, I have to pause the podcast until I can get to a pen and paper. It is so much easier for me to have a blog post to refer to when I have note-taking abilities.

I still like it

This is a big one for me. We all know there are things on our to-do list that we don’t want to do, we want to have done. Writing for this blog has never been one of those things for me. I’m still eager to sit down and write for all of you every week. It’s still fun for me. And seeing as how I want to throw as much joy in my life as possible, that’s important.

I want to do things I have fun doing. So, I’m still writing this blog.

I haven’t run out of things to say yet

And I doubt I ever will.

Living is a constant learning experience. And it should be. We are always learning innovative things about our craft. We learn things about the world around us. We learn things about ourselves. Very rarely have I considered what I was going to write about for the week and come up with nothing. There’s always some new book to talk about, some new writing revelation, or some new tool I just discovered.

There is always something new to talk about. And I love that.

It is the one platform I can control

Lots of writers lost an audience when Twitter sunk into the hole of self-important bullshit that is Musk. And I know it hurt some of those people. As I mentioned earlier, we have to have a way to let readers know what we’re doing. And for many of us, that is social media. But social media is fickle. Instagram is relying more and more on reels. YouTube has gone nuts with censorship issues. Threads is nice, for now.

While I still post on Threads, Instagram and Pinterest, the only platform I can be sure of is this one right here. I can post what I want when I want and I know that most of you will see it. If all of my social media was gone tomorrow, I would still be right here.

It keeps me accountable

Writers have a love/hate relationship with deadlines. I despise them, they make me anxious. And yet, I need them. I need them real bad.

With my fiction writing, I often don’t have a deadline. The story will get done when it’s done. And if I have to push it back, most people won’t even know, because I’m usually not stupid enough to announce a launch date until the project is finished.

But I have committed to be here most Fridays. I know that this is when I have to have a post up, and that people are expecting it. So if I just don’t feel like writing. If I’m dealing with burnout or depression, I have that little push to get me to my desk. And often, once I’m there to write a blog post, I start thinking of what I’d like to do with the next chapter of the book. Or a good piece of microfiction I want to write. Or an idea for a contest I didn’t think I was going to bother with.

Writing is often like that. Once you get the momentum started, it’s hard to stop. It’s just getting that momentum going in the first place that can be hard.

You’re still here

Finally, I’m still here because you’re still here. People show up every day to read something I wrote on this site. I still can’t believe it. But I hope that I’m helping you. Every day there’s a new person, or a returning one. I want to put something here that will be inspiring, or funny, or helpful. And so long as you all keep coming back, I’ll keep showing up. So thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being here with me still.

Stay tuned for more.

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Something exciting is coming this Fall

Ten years ago, in 2014, I was not the same woman I am today. I wasn’t writing, hadn’t written for years. I had never actually finished a novel. I was depressed. I was working too much at a job that didn’t feed my soul. I didn’t like myself, didn’t like my life.

Then, I came up with a story about a boy who weaves visions and a girl who spins light.

This is not news to you if you’ve been here a minute. I talk about this every year, on the anniversary of the day I came up with Woven. I broke bread with the birds in the park and prayed that this story would live.

And it did.

Woven became my first published series. And I loved every second of writing it.

Last year, if you’ll recall, my publisher dropped all of my books without warning. And so the Woven series has been out of print for the last year.

I could have theoretically published them again right when I got them back. But I had a new season of AA coming out, and then Nova came out. I wanted to prioritize the new over a relaunch.

But finally, finally, the time has come. And I am relaunching Woven.

Book one, Broken Patterns will be coming out September 6th. It’s the story of a kingdom in danger, of magic and spinning. It’s a story of dragons.

More release dates to come. I’ll be doing a pre-sale, of course, and as soon as I have the info I’ll let you know.

I am so excited to get Woven back out in the world. It’s a beautiful story and one that I am still very proud of. I can’t wait to be able to share it again with all of you.

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Writing when someone you love is ill, part two

Last week we started talking about balancing a writing career when you have a partner with a chronic illness. If you haven’t read that one, I’d suggest starting there.

If you’ve never experienced living with someone with a chronic illness, it can be a struggle. There’s a lot to balance. And it takes a significant toll emotionally. But it’s something that plenty of people deal with every day. And if you want to have a creative career while caring for someone with a chronic illness, you can do it. You should do it. You deserve to do it. And today, we’re going to take another look at how I do it.

Decide how much or how little you want to share about this journey

Part of being a creative content creator in 2024 is having an online presence. And at least some of that online presence is probably going to be about your real life.

Mostly this consists of fun, happy things. We share content about our pets, our homes, and our writing process. We show pictures of our coffee and book signing. One author I follow shares videos of her cat using talk buttons. Another shows food pics. I like to show my tarot decks and library hauls. And, of course, pictures of my cats and dog.

Another author I follow shares info about her books and YouTube videos. She shares pictures of her adorable dog. And sometimes, she talks about her husband’s chronic illness.

It makes me feel like I’m not alone. And I love her for that. It is because of her that I decided to write this post. Her name is Jenna Moreci. She writes fantasy romance.

I bet that a lot of people I follow are also living with chronic illness. Or they have a partner who has a chronic illness. They never talk about it. Jenna doesn’t talk about it much. I don’t talk about it much either.

We don’t owe that part of ourselves to the internet. We don’t owe any part of ourselves to the internet.

When it comes to your family, how much or how little you share online is up to you and your family. Please don’t ever feel pressured to share more than you want. But if you want to share, that’s okay too.

Accept help when you can

It’s easy to feel like we’ve got to do everything ourselves. Society sure as hell tells us we should. We see people who are working full time, with immaculate homes and homemade meals.

I’m sorry, but that just isn’t real life. And when your partner has a chronic illness, you’ve got a lot of pressure on you.

It’s not just that you’re dealing with their illness and whatever demands that makes on your time and energy. It’s also that the care of the home and family will fall all on you more often than it would if your partner was able-bodied. Housework is work.

If you have a support system, let them help you. Let someone grab your groceries for you. Let a sibling take your partner to a doctor’s appointment if you don’t have time.

The darling husband and I don’t have a lot of family. For a long time, I felt like I had to take care of him, the house and the pets by myself. Over time, I’ve realized that this is unsustainable. So I started having our groceries delivered. We order in when we need to. And I lean on my friends for emotional support. I tell them when I’m struggling. I tell them when I’m scared. And that’s sometimes all that I need, just someone to listen to how hard this day was.

Ask for help when you need it. Accept help when it’s offered. You do not need to do everything by yourself.

Take care of you

I know that taking care of yourself takes time. And time is the thing you probably have the least of. But you have got to care for yourself.

Make doctor’s appointments, even if you’re sick to death of doctors. Get rest, even when you have a million things to do. Take care of yourself, eat good food, drink water, and take your meds if you’ve been prescribed meds.

We have to keep ourselves healthy or we won’t be able to care for our partner. So take good care of yourself.

Art can save us in our darkest hours.

So why would you still want to write when your partner has a chronic illness? With all the other demands on your time, why still put this extra burden on yourself?

I can’t answer that for you. But I can tell you why I still do it.

Art has saved my sanity. While parts of the writing game feel burdensome, the act of writing never has. Whether I’m writing a blog post, a review, a chapter of my novel or a short story, writing is always great. Creating is always great. Through writing, I can have a voice that I might otherwise be denied. It allows me to process my emotions. It allows me to face my demons on the page. It allows me to breathe. I do not think I would have survived the last ten years without my writing.

That’s all I can think of for now, advice-wise. If I think of other things I might do a follow-up. But now I want to hear what you think. Do you have a partner who has a chronic illness? Do you have a chronic illness that you manage while writing? Let us know in the comments.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do here, please like and share this post. You can also support us financially on Ko-fi.

Man in The Woods is now available on Smashwords and almost everywhere!

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Writing when someone you love is ill

I didn’t mean for this post to be late today, but it does kind of fit into the theme.

My husband has several chronic illnesses. I don’t want to go into details because that’s not my story to tell. Suffice it to say that caring for his health is a full-time job for him and a part-time job for me.

If you’ll recall, I also have a full-time job, as well as trying my damndest to have a writing career.

Having a partner with chronic illness is a journey. It’s difficult to watch someone you love suffer. It’s terrifying to come close to losing them. It’s hard to make plans for the day, let alone the future when you just have no way of knowing how their health is going to be from day to day. Some days he’s fine, some days he can’t get out of bed. Some days he goes to the hospital.

There are countless books and blogs about living with a partner with a chronic illness. That’s not what I’m here today to talk about, that’s way out of my lane. What I do want to talk about is maintaining a creative career while caring for a loved one with a chronic illness. Because it’s what I’ve been doing for almost ten years now.

You do not have to keep writing for an audience

Let’s just get this out of the way first. If you don’t want to keep writing for anyone but yourself. I don’t care if you are in the middle of a series. I don’t care if people are waiting with bated breath on the cliffhanger of a lifetime. I don’t care if you’re Stephen King. If Tabitha King suddenly took a nose dive health wise I would light a candle for her and expect to never see another King book.

The people you love will always be more important than any success you might find in this world. If you don’t have the physical or mental bandwidth to create for days, weeks, or even years at a time, that is okay. You don’t owe your art to anyone. Everything else in this post is for people who want to keep going.

Don’t feel guilty

That being said, you do not need to feel guilty if you want to keep writing. My writing career has gotten me through some very dark moments. Having work that I was passionate about has given me something to focus on when I felt useless. It gives me something that is for me. And we all deserve something that is for us. We all need something that is for us.

Be realistic about how much you can take on.

I might seem like the worst person to talk about this. I’m working on a sci-fi series, a podcast series, multiple short stories, writing for this blog, and writing reviews on Haunted MTL. And yes, sometimes that is too much. That’s why this post came out in the afternoon instead of in the morning.

But let’s be fair, there’s always more I could be doing. Things I’d like to do. I’d like to create audiobooks. I’d like to write a serialized story on Wattpad. I’d like to make a true crime podcast series, enter more contests, write more short stories, do more micro-fiction on social media. I want to do so much more than I realistically can do.

Here’s what I suggest. Make a list of everything you want to do. All the projects you would love to work on. Take your time.

Then, list all of your projects from the ones you most want to do to the least.

I keep a whole list on Notion at all times. Sometimes projects drop off the list, and sometimes more get added. But I’m always putting my energy on the top priorities of that list. So if I can only get one thing done, it’s at least the most important thing.

Learn to write in strange places

I am so blessed to have an office in my home. I use it to work from home and write my stories and I love it. It’s bursting with light, colors, art and books. I have ample desk space, a comfortable chair and a place for all my pens.

I don’t always get to write there, though. I have gotten very good at writing in waiting rooms and hospitals. I have written in a notebook balanced on my knees in an uncomfortable plastic chair. I have written on my laptop, sitting on an emergency room couch and trying not to think of what sort of fluids that couch might contain. I’ve written in cafeterias, on patios, with bad cups of coffee and the same Lipton tea every hospital seems to have.

Because of this, I’ve always kept a writer’s bag. I can do an updated post about this if you’d like. I don’t go anywhere without a notebook and pen. Even if I don’t know I’m going to be stuck somewhere for a time and might as well do some writing, I might suddenly get stuck somewhere and be inspired to write a little short fiction.

Be flexible

This one sort of goes along with the last piece of advice.

When you’re dealing with a chronic illness, things cannot always go to plan. This is true for most of us anyway. Washing machines break. People call off at work so you have to go cover for them. The power goes out. The internet goes out. People with chronic illness and their families aren’t immune to these things. We just have that extra hurdle of health to consider. I might be right on pace to meet a deadline, or get a blog post out in time, and suddenly get waylaid because a health concern took precedence.

This is why it’s important to under-promise when it comes to deadlines. Whether you’re working with a publisher or just setting a deadline of your own. If you think something’s going to take a week, plan for two. Trust me, no one is ever angry that you beat a deadline.

You have to be ready for your day to not look how you expected it to look, and roll with it. Trust me, I hate this. This is not where I thrive. I thrive when everything happens exactly how my Google calendar says it’s supposed to happen. I am mentally prepared for that, I have supplies and snacks for that. But we don’t always get to live the day we planned for. We have to live the day we have.

I have a lot more to say about this topic, but we’re running long as it is and this post is late as it is. So I’ll be doing part two next week. See you then.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do here, please like and share this post. You can also support us financially on Ko-fi.

Man in The Woods is now available on Smashwords and almost everywhere!

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Man in The Woods is now available Wide!

Today is the day. Man in The Woods is now available on Smashwords, and most other book platforms! 

Hurray! 

Having my books available to as many people as possible is very important to me. And I know this one took some time, but I am so glad to see Man in The Woods no longer bound to one place. 

And, the timing couldn’t be better. Because, in case you missed it on my social media, Smashwords is currently having its Summer Sale. And yes, Man in The Woods is included. 

I hope that you get a chance to get your hands on Man in The Woods, my eerie little woods story. This story was so important to me, and I love seeing other people enjoy it. 

And by the way, this isn’t the last launch of 2024. Stay tuned, I have a lot of exciting things on the way.

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Are you reading right?

You’re reading wrong. You’re not doing it right.

That’s the message I get often on social media. Especially Bookstagram. I have such a hate/love relationship with Bookstagram. I can feast my eyes for way too long on these gorgeous pictures of new hardcovers set next to luxurious steaming cups of coffee, shelves full of expensive editions and books with colored edges, and a fluffy chair just waiting for a lucky reader to spend hours in a fantastical world. Oh, and there are usually super cute girls with big swords and perfect manicures.

Of course, it’s not just social media that makes me feel like my reading is inferior. I just finished attending Nebula Con a few weeks ago. And it was a fantastic experience. I came away with so much knowledge and writing inspiration. I also came away feeling like a dipshit who eats crayons regarding my reading choices. It seems like everyone else is reading large, important, influential works while I’m over here reading young adult fiction most of the time. And I can’t even do that right. I never seem to like the popular thing. I’ve never read a single Sarah J. Mass book, for instance. And as a child, I hated A Wrinkle in Time.

I still don’t like it.

All of this is to say that I have been feeling down on myself for the books I read. And really, the way I consume stories in general. Because frankly, I watch a lot of TV and movies. I listen to a lot of podcast fiction. I even, gasp, read comic books. The amount of time I spend sitting down and reading is small compared to the time I spend doing almost anything else.

I am not the only one who gets down on myself for this, I’m sure. So, I’m here to ask all of us a simple question today.

What in the hell are we doing to ourselves?

I didn’t start to love reading as a child because I loved bookshelves and proving I was smarter than everyone else because I finished a long and difficult book. I wasn’t the little asshole reading Anna Karenina during recess. I was reading Goosebumps, Bunnicula, Babysitter’s Club, Laura Ingles, and Sweet Valley High (my mom had them and I was bored one summer). I read Calvin and Hobbs, Far Side, Harry Potter, every Roald Dahl book, and Power Rangers. Lest you think it was all fluff, I also read Tuck Everlasting, Bridge to Terabithia and Where The Red Fern Grows, Chronicles of Narnia and Dragon Riders of Pern. I didn’t read these books to impress anyone. I read them because they were fun to read. And reading for fun shaped a lot of who I am as an adult.

I don’t want to lose that love of reading for fun. And I don’t want you to either. So today I want to answer four questions you might be asking yourself about your reading habits. Starting with the biggest one.

Am I reading enough?

I get it. I like numbers that go up too. I like feeling challenged, and I sure do the Goodreads goal every single year. But I do that mostly so I feel like I’m accomplishing something when I’m reading, otherwise I find it hard to relax and actually allow myself to read.

Otherwise, I feel like I’m just slacking if I’m not reading something educational or reviewing it. And this, I think, is the true curse of adulthood. We feel like we must be productive in all things.

But we don’t. And we certainly don’t have to speed read through 100 books in a year to prove that we are well-read. First off, when would you find the time? We all have work or school. We’re all trying to survive in this late-stage capitalist hellscape. Most of us are taking care of other people as well as ourselves. And it would be nice if we saw the sun sometimes.

If your goal is quantity, not quality, you’re going to have a shitty reading experience. You’re going to shy away from longer books because they’ll take too much time. You’ll be skimming, not consuming the stories. And that’s just not fun.

I want to read The Stand and enjoy the gory, dark tale without worrying if I can still finish five books this month. I want to dive into a book and experience it, even if that means I don’t get through more than a chapter a day. And I want to continue to eat food, so I do have to do actual work sometimes.

So if a reading goal helps you give yourself space to read, that’s fantastic. But don’t let it consume your reading joy. Don’t let it make reading just another burden.

Am I reading the right books?

Let me tell you a tale of two books. One is This is How You Lose The Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. The other is Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki. Both won Nebula awards. Both came highly recommended by other SFWA writers. Both were getting a ton of love online.

I read Time War in a day. Granted, it was a novella, but still. It was fantastic. I’ve never read anything like it.

I didn’t finish Light from Uncommon Stars. It seems like a good book, but the story wasn’t grabbing me. I found myself making excuses not to read, which is always a kiss of death.

I think my dislike of the book stemmed from the romantic plot. While I like a little romance, it bores me quickly if there isn’t something else to catch my attention. And for me, there was too much romance and not enough sci-fi in this sci-fi story.

I think a lot of us feel like we aren’t reading the right books. We don’t know the classics. We aren’t reading the right authors. We aren’t reading things that are challenging enough, impressive enough, or thought-provoking enough.

My problem with this is that nothing is going to be thought-provoking if you’re not provoked to read the damn thing.

Yes, we should read out of our comfort zone. We should read indie books, books that we’ve never heard of before. Books that everyone’s talking about and books from authors no one recognizes. We should certainly read books by people who don’t look like us. We should read old books and new books. We should read banned books. We should read books we might not even agree with.

But just because you try a book doesn’t mean you have to finish it.

Stephen King gives an example in Hearts in Atlantis. Reading a book is like priming a water pump. You have to give it some work before it kicks in, but you wouldn’t keep pumping if nothing is coming out. He suggests getting ten percent of the way through a book. At that point, you can give it up if you don’t like it. My latest book is 250 pages. If I don’t have your attention by page 25, then the story isn’t for you. And that’s fine!

We all have different tastes. We should absolutely try new things and expand our pallets. But just because you try something doesn’t mean you have to finish it.

Am I consuming stories the right way?

This is the one that upsets me the most if I’m being honest. I cannot stand it when people put down movies and TV shows. Granted, some are hot garbage. But so are some novels. I don’t think someone who reads Twilight is intellectually superior to someone who watches Dr. Who, for instance.

Stories are stories, no matter how we tell them. TV and movies are just another medium. The same goes for comic books. I started this year reading Bone, and it was a good time.

The worst thing I’ve seen, though, is people who put down audiobooks as being somehow inferior. First off, that’s a privileged argument. Not everyone can read a physical book for many reasons. Vision issues, certain neurodivergent problems and physical health can all be boundaries to people reading. But it could also be a lack of time. I can listen to a book while I’m cleaning, cooking, or walking Oliver. All of these are things I have to do, so I can consume a story while I do it. I am not choosing to listen to an audiobook over reading, I am doing what I have space for in my life.

(And yes, before anyone points this out, I know that my books aren’t yet available as audiobooks. It’s expensive and time-consuming and I am working on it. As much as I want to provide my stories to people who can’t read a physical book, I also need to make sure that I’m creating a quality product that I’m proud of, paying people for their time and talent, and not overworking myself in the process. There’s a reason most indie books don’t come in audiobook form.)

This post has already gone on long enough, so let me finally answer the question we came in on. Are you reading right? Well, if you’re enjoying the story then the answer is, and will always be, yes. Don’t let anyone tell you any different. Not even yourself.

Paper Beats World is a labor of love. If you love what we do here, please like and share this post. You can also support us financially on Ko-fi.

Man in The Woods is now available on Smashwords and almost everywhere!

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