A few new things to let you know about:

HÁVAMÁL

After an inadvertent break, my translations and commentary of verses from Hávamál have returned over at Pagan Square. September ended up being even more of a juggling act than I had anticipated, so I am glad to finally get back to the project. Bit by bit, the work will be done. Yes, plans are to gather them all together in a single volume eventually, but for the mean time we’ll all have to be satisfied with incremental steps.

On a related note, to boost interest, I’m giving away ROOK CHANT for free beginning the 27th of the month and running through Halloween/Samhain. If you haven’t picked up a copy, that will be the time to do so. And need I add? if you read it and like it, reviews in the usual places (Amazon, Goodreads, etc) are always welcomed.

A CUT-THROAT BUSINESS

You can now read chapter 1 of the latest CHASTITY FLAME novel over at Scribd. I figure it helps people to get a sense of the book. And as it’s available in formats other than Kindle, it seems a good idea to put out samples in other locations (at Amazon you can automatically download a sample). Drop by the Tirgearr page for Chastity to see all the books in all the available formats. The third book is a bit of a departure from the first two: it’s all about the thrills and the chase. I did my best to give it a breakneck pace and I think I succeeded.

HOW TO KEEP WRITING WITH A FULL TIME JOB

My other new project is a handbook just in time to encourage you to try NaNoWriMo. How to Keep Writing with a Full Time Job developed from the question I’m always asked, “How do you write so much?” I started the Writer Wednesday posts to address the topic and the workshops, but at last decided I should just put the materials together in a short (60pp) handbook. No filler, no fluff, just the basics (and an impressionistic snapshot of twilight Helsinki on the cover).

Have you always dreamed of writing, but didn’t think you had the time?

HOW TO KEEP WRITING WITH A FULL TIME JOB: Award-winning author K. A. Laity, writer of the CHASTITY FLAME novel series, OWL STRETCHING, THE MANGROVE LEGACY and many more books, essays and stories will help you attain your writing goals in just minutes a day with this short 60pp guide.

From the Introduction, “In Praise of the Part Time Writer:

“You’re a writer? How much do you make?”

If you have any doubt that we live in a culture that’s all about money, make an announcement that you are an artist of some kind. Most people don’t even try to disguise their sneering. “How much do you make?”

Maybe you didn’t decide to have your life assessed only in monetary terms. To most people, it doesn’t matter: that’s how they will evaluate your ‘success’ — or lack thereof. However much you make, it’s not as much as they imagine. When people think of successful writers, they think of J. K. Rowling or E. L. James.

Needless to say a handful of people in a generation make that kind of splash. A good number of writers used to be able to make a living with smaller but consistent publications — what was called the “mid-list” (to distinguish them from the big blockbusters and the big busts filling the remainders tables).

Then came the digital age and the explosion of electronic publishing, including a huge contingency of self-publishing. If you check Worldometers.info’s count of book published this year, you’ll see just how much of an explosion that is. As I write this (near the end of August 2013), it’s over 1.6 MILLION. Doubtless we’ll make two million before the end of the year.

That’s a lot of books.

Why do so many people think they have a book in them? Or that writing is easy?

It’s mostly because you have to learn to read and write to get along in our culture. Illiterate people have a big struggle to cope with a written culture. So most people can write a sentence or two and everyone thinks they have a great story in them: how many times have you heard, “You could write a book about me!” No, they’re not always right about that, yet a lot of them feel they should try. No one paints a wall and thinks, “Hey, I could be Michaelangelo!” but anyone who can write a sentence harbours the hope that they just might be the next J. K. Rowling.

The digital revolution and services like Amazon’s Kindle Direct and Create Space (as well as Lulu, Lightning Source and so many more) have made the publication process a simpler one — and one that sidesteps the big publishing houses in New York, who were the traditional gatekeepers of publishing, winnowing down the would-be writers to a very few who ever saw print. The gatekeepers are still there, but hundreds of other gates have opened up and nobody’s watching them at all...

***** Simple Yet Effective Advice “This book although short and simple has enthused and inspired me. That is worth more than money.”

Just $3.99 at Amazon. Pick it up for your Kindle or free Kindle app today. Click the picture!