Jeno Marz

Wrestling With Scrivener

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Jeno Marz / 2 Comments

After nearly two decades of being a MS Word power user I finally decided to invest into Scrivener. I have to say I’m actually horrified at the amount of things I have to learn (according to the manual) to become prolific in this thing, but oh well, shiny coin already spent. I don’t know if I’m going to regret my decision, because I didn’t do it before I started my new book. I don’t find the experience of moving to a new software fun and not because I hate learning new things. Even this simple task of importing text threw me out of my comfort zone. 😀 Anyway, here I am, in the middle of transferring my manuscript. Good it is only some 70k. I’m actually thinking of doing the same with my previous books, just to keep them all in one place.

I feel like a damn newb. >_< — I feel like a damn newb.

This whole affair will definitely slow me down from my writing, but no more than 800 hours of playing Skyrim did. And this game introduced me to the hell of a simulation sickness before my suffering was mitigated enough and I could enjoy it. 😀

So, yeah, Scrivener, challenge accepted.

Writer's Blog

Rjg Cover Reveal

Posted on April 17, 2016 by Jeno Marz / 0 Comment

It’s been a heavy winter for me, but I finally sorted everything out, getting back on writing schedule. So here’s the cover for my upcoming novel, Rjg. I’m currently somewhere 60 000 words into the book and hopefully will finish the draft as scheduled, this November, so I can publish it next spring (date to be announced).

For the record, “Rjg” reads with a short i, the palatal approximant /j/ like the pronunciation of ⟨y⟩ in toy, and g is the voiced velar plosive /ɡ/, like the pronunciation of ⟨g⟩ in “go”.

It’s a bit early for the cover reveal, but I’m pretty sure I’ll go with this one. I made several covers, but none of them were good. So I decided to return to my initial illustration for the project, though it was actually made for a music album of mine. With this not-so-small matter out of the way, I can focus on writing. 🙂

Atmospheric Chemistry/Planets/Software/Writer's Blog

Writing Notes: Breathing

Posted on January 26, 2016 by Jeno Marz / 2 Comments

I have a chapter in which my main character visits a cave. And while the air composition is different from Earth’s air, it got me thinking whether he would see a white cloud condensing from his breath.

Hot breath increases the relative humidity of the cold outside air as they mix. Once humidity reaches 100%, it results in breath condensation.

It may seem like a tiny thing when you describe setting & character, but it can provide indirect information to the reader.

If you want to know whether your or your character’s breath will condense into a white cloud in certain locations, you can use this calculator.

Writer's Blog

Why Goodreads Giveaways are a Bunch of Crap

Posted on January 8, 2016 by Jeno Marz / 2 Comments

Warning: rant ahead.

The purpose of a giveaway is to get the book into the hands of readers and attract attention of other portential readers who add your book to their TBR list. Of course, the ideal goal is to get your book into the hands of readers who read in your genre and write some good reviews. By good reviews I mean reviews that do the book justice, whether good or bad.

My first and now only Goodreads giveaway was a disaster I ~~sponsored~~ wasted my money on. That’s right, I won’t be doing it anymore.

I had three copies to give away and the interest was pretty much good — more than 1100 people had entered over the course of a month without doing any marketing from my side. Which was excellent result on its own.

By the end of the giveaway I had my reader addresses and mailed the physical copies of books withing the next few days. I have no idea what the third reader will bring to the table (if at all), but the first two were something no writer should experience.

Person #1 declined to receive their shipment, so I even had to contact the GR staff to find out WFT happened there. Still no news. Spending nearly a month in the post office, the new book that no one will be reading returned to Createspace. Fuck you, person #1. Why did you even bother to enter this fucking giveaway? There were plenty of people willing to read the book.

Person #2 wasn’t an avid reader in science fiction genre, leaving me with a 2-star review just because of that and I wonder why she had bothered to enter the giveaway too. WHY??? Free book? You know what I’m thinking, right? Good.
I’d rather given the book to someone else.

Person #3… I wonder what will follow from there. I’m not keeping my hopes up high. That’s another non-target-audience reader.

Dear readers, don’t enter giveaways for books you know are not your kind or you don’t plant to read at all. We authors are paying for these paperback books you don’t want.

Dear Goodreads, do something to make sure the books are going into the hands of good readers. Otherwise, you know what I’m thinking, right? Right. If not, there’s a hint: it’s the F-word and then the Y-word.

/rant over