Upon the Wings of Greater Things

The creative endeavours of Starla Huchton

On the Importance of Community

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helpful tips

Wanna hear something cool? Shadows on Snow is still ranking, 10 days after release, in three different categories on Amazon. While that’s not long-term results, it’s a big thing for me. To date, my new releases have gotten a big bump on release day, then tend to fall away after three days or so. Yay for progress!

But that’s not really what this post is about, although it is related. How? I’m getting there.

I’m firmly convinced that the only reason this book has done so much is because of the people around me that have supported, shared, or otherwise helped out with Shadows on Snow. Today, I’m going to talk about that a little.

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The ‘F’ Word

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No, not THAT ‘F’ word.

The ‘F’ word that I’m talking about is one that appears in my Facebook and Twitter feeds every single day. It’s a word that polarizes, one that invokes revulsion and sometimes disturbingly violent behavior. It’s a word that makes people uncomfortable. It’s a powerful word. It’s a scary word.

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Shadows on Snow Release Day!

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It’s here! It’s here! OMG it’s release day!

SHADOWS ON SNOW IS LIVE!

Lots of awesome stuff is happening today. Ebooks are magically appearing on Kindles everywhere. The big Release Day Celebration is going to be a blast. And, of course, it’s blog tour time!

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Jumping Genres: Reflections

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At Balticon this past weekend I was part of one of the very last panels of the con. The audience was tiny, which was to be expected for a panel taking place the last day of the con, but I thought you might like to hear my thoughts on the subject.

The title of the panel was “How Hard Can It Be? Jumping Out of Genre,” and was actually one of my suggested ideas this year. Over the last few years, my writing has been all over the place, and I wondered if other authors had experienced some of the strangeness I feel when I talk about writing in multiple genres, or how scary that can be, especially if you don’t know if your audience will follow you.

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The State of Starla: Release Schedule and a Hypothesis

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So, back in January, I decided that 2014 would be my Year of No Queries. Admittedly, it’s been a hard habit to break, but, so far I’ve only slipped twice, that being responding to a reply to a query I’d sent out last year (which I reluctantly backed away from), and a what-the-hell Twitter pitch I threw out that I immediately regretted doing. Anyway, I embarked on this year with a little hypothesis I wanted to test.

The idea was that rapidly releasing books would make a large impact on my career as an author.

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Teaser Tuesday – Once Upon a Time

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We’re one week away from the release of Evolution: SAGE, but, this week, I’ve decided to switch gears a bit.

As a writer, I’ve learned to just sort of go with the ideas I get and not worry about keeping all of my stories confined to a single genre. Most of what I’ve written the past two years has been Science Fiction of one sort or another, but I didn’t start off that way. For most of my life, I considered myself firmly entrenched in the fantasy world, never to stray from that. Well, things change, as they often do, and my creativity drifted outside of my self-imposed box. But I’ve spent so much time out of the realm of the fantastical lately, I actually wondered if I could ever have my heart in a story about magic again.

I can now say, without hesitation, that I had no cause for worry. An idea hit me a few weeks back, and, having finished another project and not really feeling another, I decided to pursue something completely different. It’s a refreshing change, and I think it’s one that people who enjoyed The Dreamer’s Thread will heartily welcome.

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