Who doesn't like free stuff?

One of the most rewarding experiences for me as an author is knowing that others enjoy reading my stories.  Up till now, the only stories I've received fan-feedback about are my fanficitons but now that I am publishing my original work I will be introducing some freely available short stories on this website.

They may tie into an existing story, such as view of an event from a different character's perspective or exploration of an event that was only mentioned in the main narrative.  They may also be completely unique short stories that I do not see expanding into larger works.

You can find these stories under 'Free Stories' via the button on my Home page or under the Home tab.  I would love to read your comments on these free stories.  As of now, the ones available are three that have been published through a third-party (AKA not me) and one fanfiction.  I am working on an outtake from Call of the Black Panther for circulation.  When it is done, it will also be found under the 'Free Stories' section.

Wishing you the best,
~Katarina Claire

I have begun distributing Call of the Black Panther to family and friends.  As I do so, I begin to wonder what they may think of it.  Ultimately, I write because I love to do it.  I love the characters that grow alongside my vision, the plot that twists beyond what I had initially imagined, and the journey of weaving thoughts, dialogue and concepts into a cohesive whole.  Not everyone will like my book, there's no getting around that, but I hope that something about it captures their interest.  I would love for my story to inspire feelings and thoughts.  After all, an engaging story is what makes any form of entertainment worthwhile.

Analysing one's own writing from others' points of view is an interesting experience.  You wonder what the topics, characters, and themes you choose to focus on say about you as a person, and how the world may see them.  My work has many serious themes but I like to think that the joy of life is reflected just as often as the challenges.  In the future, I plan to write a story built around humour rather than seriousness.  It will be a good challenge for me.  Improving one's craft usually involves getting out of your comfort zone and embedding a comic tone to a story would be a good flexing of my literary muscles.

As a form of practice, I've included a brief passage from said humorous story.   It is FAR from being done but hopefully this will provide a glimpse into what my humour is like.

Excerpt: Blinking rapidly, Brian pulled himself from the now stifling darkness. He was laying beside the old willow tree, a calm, clear sky floating lazily above him. Quickly sitting up, the boy’s suspicions were confirmed. Instead of being surrounded by forest he was sitting at the top of a hill, looking down on a small village nestled beside ocean. A village that looked remarkably similar to the one from his dream.

Right you are, a voice said into his head.

Jumping to his feet, Brian spun around to find the source of the voice. He was completely alone.

The tree, the voice spoke again. Despite the fact that his brain felt like rusty clockwork, Brain slowly turned to face the willow whose leaves and branches were gracefully blowing in the breeze.

You were right when you said that I would have a lot to say, if I could talk, the tree made a noise Brian could only interpret as a laugh. How could I ignore your plea when you had paid me such a compliment?

“What do you mean?” Brain asked, hoping this whole mess wasn’t his fault.

You wanted to learn how to be brave and stand up to your enemies, the tree explained, and what better way to do that then to go on a fully bona fide adventure!

“Wait, what?! You’re telling me that I’m going to embark on some great adventure to learn how to solve everyday problems?”

Yes.

“Haven’t I read this somewhere before?”

It is, indeed, a tried and true method of improving people.

Having pressed his palms to his temples in an attempt to cool his racing mind, Brian asked, “What about my family? I’m the peace maker, they won’t survive without me.”

There you go again thinking that others can’t get on without you, the tree admonished, put yourself first boy! They won’t even know you’re gone.

Whether that was because of some strange magic or that they wouldn’t care, Brain didn't know. Turning his back on his kidnapper, the boy looked out over the horizon.

Now, to start your adventure, you have to go to the town and discover what your first test is, the tree told him.

“That’s helpful,” Brian muttered, “thanks.”

“See ya on the other side kid,” Brian turned in time to see the tree fade into nothing, a sense of finality settling on his shoulders.

“Yeah,” Brian sighed, starting down the hill, “see ya.”


© Katarina Claire E.R.

Now that 'Call of the Black Panther' is finally out in the world I thought I would reflect on the final stages up to that successful completion.  Once the document was completely edited, I looked over the formatting to ensure that everything was as I wanted it to be (ensuring that the page breaks were where they should have been, that the font size and type was all the same etc.). 

One of the challenges I encountered is a difference between OpenOffice (when saving in .doc) and Microsoft Word involving page breaks.  I utilised the template from the Createspace website to ensure that my book was correctly formatted, but it seemed to have hidden page breaks that would randomly make themselves apparent throughout the chapters.  I would manually remove them but once I closed then reopened the document they would be there again.  Eventually, I managed to solve the problem by opening the file in Microsoft Word, finding the page breaks and deleting them.  I'm not sure if this issue occurred due to a programming flaw with OpenOffice's saving as .doc or a compatibility issue between the Word and OpenOffice file.

The other issue I ran into was the type of interior file I uploaded to Createspace.  Originally, I believed the recommendation to be uploading it as a pdf file since this would avoid formatting changes.  When I got a copy of the proof, however, I discovered that some of the text had been changed into weird characters.  Thankfully, I knew why this had occurred.  In one of my previous jobs I worked as an editor for the University, correcting formatting errors that would occur during file conversions.  Generally this involved pdfs being changed into Word documents.  Since the computer could not always recognise what letter it was reading from the image-like pdf file, it would substitute the closest thing it could find (which sometimes looked nothing like the original letter).

I, therefore, tried uploading a Word (not OpenOffice in .doc due to the page break issue) file to Createspace and  the second proof looked perfect.  The whole process has been very interesting, sometimes frustrating yes, but ultimately rewarding.  There's nothing quite like holding a copy of your own book in your hands - one that you imagined, wrote, edited, commissioned cover art for, formatted, and then set-up for distribution.

Now comes the marketing part...  Speaking of which, here's a heads-up about a Goodreads Giveaway for 'Call of the Black Panther'.

The Giveaway will occur between October 1st and 31st. 
You can enter here: https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/153245-call-of-the-black-panther