Stories of Trae: Available as e-shorts!

Every time I release something I get nervous. It's an anxious, exposed feeling which I detest. So that's probably why I haven't blogged yet about the two new short stories I have up at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. But I've gathered my courage, and now I can finally write about them here. And you can read them, if you'd like some more insight into the world and the characters of Dreaming of Deliverance. Both stories stand on their own, so you don't need to have read DoD to follow them, but they also provide glimpses of what's happening in Trae and what's made Lindsay who she is at the beginning of the novel.

The stories don't need to be read in any particular order, but I'll describe "Preston's Take" first. Preston was Lindsay's boyfriend at the time of her arrest and this is his story—where he describes what happened and why. This is one of those stories that I'm reluctant to claim as something I wrote. Do people like Preston really live inside my head? I guess they do!

I wasn't sure what Dreaming of Deliverance fans would think of it either, because it's quite different from the tone and style of DoD. No journeys to Trae, for example; the whole thing takes place in the real world. But it does tell us a lot about Lindsay herself and how she ended up in prison. And I've had a good response from the beta readers. Some said that they even understood what Lindsay saw in Preston, which pleases me because even jerks have their appealing qualities!

"Preston's Take" costs 0.99 and you can read it on your ereader, phone, ipad, or computer, and purchase it from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, or Smashwords. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on it.

The second story is more similar to Dreaming of Deliverance, even though Lindsay only appears briefly in it. "Forbidden Fruit" is about Anne right before she becomes a Lead. Anne is one of my favorite characters. Life wasn't easy for her, and she isn't a very nice person in her day-to-day interactions with people, but there are good reasons for that, and you can find a lot of them in "Forbidden Fruit".

Then there's Reg, whom you'll meet in this story. He's also going to appear in the still unnamed sequel to Dreaming of Deliverance, and getting to know him through writing "Forbidden Fruit" opened up my imagination and helped me figure out a lot of things that happen in that next book.

This is the story where you can return to Trae: to a new community this time—Stanlo, which I can see as vividly in my mind, as I can Parl and Guin. Forbidden Fruit is also 0.99 and is available at Amazon, B&N, or Smashwords.

I'm going to produce and sell both stories in audio as well. The audio versions will also be 0.99 each and as soon as they're ready, I'll let you know where you can find them.

More soon!

Huh! Time management strategies actually help with productivity. Who'd've thought?

My boss is still wimpy, but I'm taking matters into my own hands and trying to do some time management, and what do you know, I've been much more productive. But that means I'm not blogging so much. I'm on the fence with how much blogs help, from a productivity standpoint, anyway. I've always blogged for myself mostly. I know there are highly motivated people whose blogs bring in new readers/listeners, but I'm doubtful I could ever be one of them. So I blog sporadically. Thanks to the few who stick with me, despite the lack of regular entries.

Anyway, I wanted to dash off a quick entry before getting back to writing and audio editing. Why the head in the jar? Aside from the fact that I didn't know which picture to post, I think it's a good example of all of the fun/timewasting options there are out there in the world now. This was made using the "head in a jar" ipod/iphone app. So if you've ever wanted to make a Futurama head in a jar avatar of yourself, now you can! I am trying not to do too much of that kind of thing, however. I'm trying to be productive and efficient. A couple of weeks ago I watched this amazing lecture on Youtube on time management given by Randy Pausch before he died. You should check it out if you haven't already. It inspired me to make todo lists and commit to using my time more wisely (or should that be using my time wiser? hmm....). I hate todo lists but I found this ipod app that I'm using and somehow that's making it all more tolerable.

So really fast, before I get back to work, here are a couple of other links you might want to check out:

Catastrophe Baker and the Cold Equations by the great Mike Resnick is the latest Dunesteef story that I produced. I had a lot of fun with it. There was threat of castration and operatic sex. What's not to like? Plus it's really funny!

Then I had a role in a fullcast podcast of an incredible short story called "The Machine Stops" by E.M. Forster. It was written back in 1909 but is amazingly accurate in some of its predictions for the future. Give it a listen.

Finally, Dreaming of Deliverance was reviewed by The Self-Publishing Review. I was worried about what she might say about it, because she has high standards and doesn't finish 90% of the books she's sent, but she read all of DoD in one day and said she missed the characters when it was over. Of course she also had areas she thought could be improved. I want to blog more about that, but for now I'm just going to give you the link: The Self-Publishing Review

Okay! I will try not to let too much more time pass before I post another entry. If I get it on my todo list next week sometime, I should be all set!

Description and natural settings

It was so pleasant writing by the lake last weekend, that I decided to write in my backyard this morning. The backyard isn't quite as picturesque as a mountain lake, but it's still lovely. My husband grows bonsai, and our neighbor has a fountain, so it's rather peaceful and zen-like back there.

It's funny. I've gotten many compliments on how descriptive and visual my writing is, which I used to think was one of my weaknesses. It's something that doesn't usually come easily. But writing in beautiful settings helps. Being outside helps, especially since a lot of the scenes in my fiction occur outside in dramatic natural settings.

I want to start blogging about some of the settings in Dreaming of Deliverance as well as its sequel and soon-to-be released short-stories. The trees in Guin, the granite in Parl, Hoven canyon, the river, the willow, they all were inspired be real places. I don't grab characters from my real life and experiences (at least not purposefully) but I'm very inspired by nature. When I'm writing a scene, I can see it in my mind and I think that helps me describe how it looks. Also, I think my impatience for too much description in some of the books I've read, means that I only include enough description in my writing to set the scene and provide a climate for what's happening in the story. Description for description's sake isn't usually that interesting, but when done carefully and concisely, it can really help plunge the reader right down in the middle of the action.

So look for some blog entries about setting soon!

My Simple Pleasures

Long time, no blog post! I've no good excuse, just germs sweeping through the family. I've been recording and writing anyway, however, and here's some good news. There should be two DoD-related short stories that will be made available in the next few months! I'm having fun working on them, and they will answer some of the questions raised in DoD so you won't have to wait until the next novel is ready to learn more about what's happening in Trae.

But that's not why I wanted to blog today. I've been thinking about simple pleasures. I saw a discussion about them on line and got to thinking that there are so many small things in life that provide such happiness. We tend to focus so much on the big stuff, but it's important to appreciate the little things that make life beautiful. What are yours? Here are some of mine:

• The quiet house in the morning before everyone else wakes up
• An In-n-Out cheeseburger animal style no pickles
• Running in the canyon
• Sitting by a river
• Reading a great book
• Walking on the beach at low tide
• Figuring out how a story fits together
• Kitty snuggles
• Laughing with my kids
• Hugging my husband    

Hope you're all having a great week!

More soon!

Cenizas and the Ash King

My first fullcast fiction production went live earlier this week at the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine: Cenizas and the Ash King by Lizanne Herd.

Because I'm recovering from fighting the Black Friday crowds*, I'm not going to reinvent the wheel here by describing my involvement, and instead am cutting and pasting some of my comment from the story listing:

When I offered to produce one of the Broken Mirror Stories, I warned Big and Rish that I’d never put together a full cast production and had no experience with sound effects. I was a little stressed out about that part of it because I know how much time and finesse can be put into sound effects and I don’t have the experience or the temperament to do them well. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed the Cenizas experience! Putting together a fullcast fiction podcast is story-telling and I hadn’t realized that before. I always love story-telling.

The best thing about producing the story was that I got to hear the unedited lines from Big and Rish! So entertaining! And really, it was easy to edit the voice track into something that sounded good because they do such a great job with the narration and their characters. It was also fun to give lines to Rhonda, EMZ, and Kenn. They were awesome about getting them back quickly and did a great job with them! Kenn also helped me with the production–the lines that were said in unison–because I was not getting that to work. My kids had a blast doing the kids’ voices and they also liked hearing the story come together.

The crowd noise was probably the biggest challenge–well that and the sound effects for the fountain scene, which I think could have been much better. Oh and all of the spitting, which wasn’t challenging, but wasn’t my favorite part to listen to. I was provided with lots of loogie-hawking that didn’t make it into the final version!

One more somewhat unrelated thing: because it's Black Friday, that means the holiday shopping season has officially begun! I want to remind you all that the print version of Dreaming of Deliverance is a mere $9.99. Maybe you have someone on your shopping list who loves to read and isn't into podcasts. You could share DoD with them! And if you'd like me to send you a signed book plate to stick inside, just let me know. 

I'll try not to be too obnoxious about reminding you about the now-inexpensive nature of the print version. I'm just exited that the price is low enough that people could give it away as gifts! And I'm really hoping that you take me up on receiving the signed book plates. I have a stack of them all ready to personalize and send out!

Have a nice, relaxing weekend!

*Okay, I didn't really fight the Black Friday crowds. I prefer to celebrate B-F by vegging all day!

Some thoughts on endings: Dreaming of Deliverance's ending in particular!

I've wanted to blog about story endings for a long time, but I've put it off because I don't want to spoil anything for anyone who hasn't reached the conclusion of Dreaming of Deliverance. Actually, I'm still not sure how to do it! I guess I'll put a warning here. If you haven't finished DoD and don't want to have any inkling as to how Dreaming of Deliverance ends, skip this post. I'm not going to outright say what happens, but you'll get a sense of the tone of the ending.  Consider yourself warned!

A few years ago I was reading one of my favorite childhood books, Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, to my daughter. If you're not familiar with the story, it's about a boy in the Ozarks who works for years to save enough money to buy some hunting dogs. He and the dogs develop an incredible friendship and at the end of the book the dogs are killed saving his life. (It's a little more complicated, but in a nutshell, that's the story.) So I'm reading this book to my 7-year-old daughter and she's laughing at the dogs' antics and the cute, smart things they do, and as we get closer to the end of the story I start to stress. I feel like I'm guiding her to her doom. My dilemma was, do I warn her about what's going to happen and spoil the story for her, or do I blithely go on, knowing that it's going to be rough for her at the end? Wimp that I am, I ended up telling her that the dogs would die, but that it still was a great story, and I asked her if she wanted me to finish it. She said no. We've still never gotten to the end of that book.

When I was podcasting DoD I had a similar concern. People would write to me and tell me how much they loved the characters and I'd think, "I'm sorry! Don't hate me when you get to the end!" I felt like warning people to brace themselves. But I didn't. And I know the way the story ended was tough for many.

Sad endings have never ruined a story for me. Like Where the Red Fern Grows, some of my favorite stories have sad endings: The Time Traveler's Wife, Dragonfly in Amber, Shakespeare in Love, Before Sunrise. I don't like stories that are complete downers--where there's no upside. But that's not the case in DoD. There is a lot of positive at the end, both for Lindsay and most of the other characters. It's not all bad. And with DoD, a completely happily ever after ending wouldn't have fit with the rest of the book. It's a dark story.

Besides, I don't pull any punches when it comes to story. I guess I'm brave that way. If you're one of my characters, you have to realize that I won't keep you safe, just because I like you.

Still, I apologize to anyone who was upset by DoD's ending.

One of the tough things about being an independent artist is that there's no paid mentor to ask for advice. I've wondered for months if I should come right out and reveal something that might make you feel better about DoD's ending. However, being independent, I don't have an agent or editor to consult. And my knowledgable friends, who I know would be happy to advise me, are fans of the story. I haven't wanted to ruin anything for them just because I wanted some guidance.

But I did end up telling one person something about the ending, something that I think most people missed. (It's okay that they missed it, I kept it subtle intentionally.) Then I asked her what she thought I should do: tell or not tell.

Her advice was this: allude.

So here's my not-so-cryptic revelation:

Go back and listen to the last episode. Or read the end one more time, if you're a reader not a listener. If you pay close attention to exactly what's described (and what's not described) you'll probably feel better about how the story ends.

And there is a sequel. Don't forget that. I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo this month, but I do plan to do a lot of writing on DoD2. Before too long, I think I'm going to release a few excerpts from it to whet your appetite for the next part of the story. Possibly in video form, now that I have a taste of being on camera!

Yay! My post on endings is finally complete. Feeling any better now? I hope so! Let me know in the comments if you have any questions or want to share your thoughts on endings in general and DoD's in particular. I'm happy to talk more about it!

Listen to my latest short story: It's sinful!

Hi everyone!

This year, I had the honor of participating in the Wicked Women Writer's Challenge. Each writer received one of the Seven Deadly Sins to write a story about and then record for the Horror Addicts Podcast. My sin was "Pride", and I had a lot of fun with it.

Those expecting something like Dreaming of Deliverance, might be surprised. This is short fiction so it's not as in-depth with characters and themes as Dreaming of Deliverance was. But I do have a vivid, some would say twisted, imagination, so I think you'll find the story to be different from the norm. There's also some humor and...well...since it's horror, there are some dark moments too.

To listen to "Pretty Proud" by R.E. Chambliss go to HorrorAddicts.net. There you'll find Episode 49 of the podcast as well as all of the stories as bonus episodes. You can also find them by searching for Horror Addicts on itunes.

If after listening to the stories, you find that one struck you as particularly well done, you can vote for it to win the challenge by emailing your choice to emzbox at sbcglobal dot net. If you vote, you'll be eligible to win a super-cool prize package, so why wouldn't you vote?

A big thanks to Emerian Rich the fabulous hostess and force behind Horror Addicts, and to the awesome H.E. Roulo, another terrific author/podcaster and last year's Wicked Women Writers Challenge winner, for all that they've done to make this year's Wicked Women Writers Challenge possible!

Want to buy Dreaming of Deliverance? It's $9.99 through the end of the year!

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, I always thought the print version of Dreaming of Deliverance was over priced. But I didn't have the option to lower it. Until now!

So I'm thrilled to announce that through December 31, 2010 you can buy a print version of Dreaming of Deliverance, an actual, physical book, for only $9.99!

Click here to order it from Amazon.com!

And if you'd like me to sign it, just email your address, and who the book is for, to renee@rechambliss.com and I'll send you a special signed, personalized Dreaming of Deliverance book plate to stick inside!

Starting January 1, the print version price will go up to $13.99, which is more on par with other trade paperbacks like it. But for the next two and a half months, it's yours for just ten bucks!

And don't forget, you can also buy the Kindle or Nook ebook versions for $2.99!

Now there is a Nook edition!

One of the Dreaming of Deliverance podiobooks listeners asked if there could be a Nook e-reader edition. It took a couple of months, but finally it's available!

Here's the link:

Dreaming of Deliverance, Nook Edition

In other news, the print version of Dreaming of Deliverance will be priced lower soon, which thrills me, because I've always thought it cost way too much. It's only recently that I've been able to adjust it. I will let you all know the new price, once it goes into effect.

And, I have this blog post on endings, DoD's ending in particular, that I've been mulling over for a while now. It'll be up before too long. Stay tuned. I think you'll like it!

No, really! I'm still around!

It's July 10, already?! Didn't I just post a blog entry? No? Crud!

The time is getting away from me. I'm writing some, recording lots, and have plans of course, but I haven't been blogging about anything, because nothing is available yet.

Soon, I'm pretty sure.

Anyway, as for the writing, I'm working on DoD 2, which probably won't be called DoD 2, but I don't have a title yet. That's not unusual since I didn't come up with "Dreaming of Deliverance" until the book was over 2/3 written. I have a hard time with titles. I like them to have multiple meanings, which Dreaming of Deliverance does, if you think about it. Anyway, I'm doing a lot of brainstorming, outlining even for this second book, which is very different from my usual process. The story of DoD was discovered as it was written, which was a ton of fun and worked well, I think, because Lindsay didn't know what was going on. She learned things as she went and so did we.

This book is different, however, because it's where we learn answers to all of the questions that came up for Lindsay. The story is going to end with this book and I don't want to spin my wheels writing without knowing where it's going. I do have a big chunk written already, but before I continue, I need to solve some problems. So I'm doing a lot of thinking and questioning and answering. I'm learning some incredible things about the whole situation. It's really cool! So don't worry. Progress is being made, even if I'm not sharing much about it right now.

As for the voice work, I think the story I narrated for the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine should be live before too long. I can't wait to share it with you!

I'm also doing some voice work for Craig Robertson's next podiobook and that has been so much fun! You wouldn't believe the variety of characters in this one. As soon as that becomes available, I'll point you in that direction. You won't want to miss it.

Then there are three other voice work projects that should be underway before the year is out, that I will be starting soon, and should be available to you in the next few months. I'll keep you posted!

And I'm going to have a story in the Farrago Anthology! Something else that I'm thrilled about, but again, isn't quite ready. If you're curious what the Farrago Anthology could possibly be, check out this blog post by author/podcaster/editor powerhouse, Jennifer Hudock: The Power of Community I love being a part of this effort!

That's all for now, I think.

I will blog more soon.

Really!

I'm still around!

I miss you guys! I miss releasing new DoD episodes! Lucky me I still get to interact with the characters as I work on the sequel. I'm toying with the idea of releasing an excerpt from the still unnamed DoD 2. Is that something that might interest anyone? Email me or leave me a comment here, if you'd like.

I'm also thinking of starting a question and answer series about Dreaming of Deliverance or anything: writing, narrating, whatever. Craig had a question about the end of DoD, that I'd love to share with you all. And if anyone else had questions I'd be happy to answer what I can: as long as it doesn't spoil what's coming!

But if you'd like to hear me read something new, that's available right now, I recorded a story written by Kenn Crawford and his grandmother Hannah Crawford, that's now live at Kenn's site. It is beautifully written and very moving. The story behind this story is almost as touching as the story itself. So be sure to check out "Steven's Song".



And I was interviewed for Podioracket's Blog Talk Radio show! It was so much fun and there were lots of good questions. If you missed it and would like to hear it, here's a link to the archive. During the interview, someone told me they liked reading about the Africa trip. I still have lots of pictures, so here's a new one for you! A dung beetle! Not the most picturesque of the African animals, but really when you think about it, they are pretty impressive!

Finally, I'm supposed to mention that I was nominated for a Parsec award: Best New Speculative Fiction Podcaster/Team Apparently that's the kind of thing that one should blog about. I'm very humbled and thankful that someone thought of me for this category. So thanks to whomever put my name forward.

There's more coming, and I will try to be better about letting you all know about it. I'm going to be doing some voice work for the Dunesteef Audio Fiction Magazine, as well as for a couple of podcast novels. I will keep you posted on the progress there as the release dates for those projects get closer!

Take care, everyone! Thanks for sticking around. Even though DoD is over, there is more to come!

Dreaming of Deliverance is complete!!

I still can't believe it. 32 episodes, over 560 pages of text, and over 6 months of recording and audio editing, and now it's finished!

Actually, it's been finished for a couple of days, but I've been so swamped with life and other projects, I haven't had a chance to blog about it until just now!

Thanks so much to everyone who encouraged and supported me throughout the process. I had a lot of learning to do to pull it off, but I'm really pleased with the result and so glad to have had the opportunity.

Now I'm going to work on the sequel, and do some voice acting and narrating for other books. Once they are ready for your listening enjoyment, I will post about them here!

Also, it's almost summer, so the kids will be home and there will be lots of activity here for a few months until school starts up again. That might keep me a tad busy.

Plus I might be podcasting with one or two other people that have been mentioned here in this blog. Well see...

So even though the podcast episodes of DoD are at an end, there will still be a lot going on with me.

I'll be sure to keep you posted!

In honor of Mother's Day...Baboons and Ep 31!

Happy Mother's Day! I've finished episode 31 of Dreaming of Deliverance. It should be live at Podiobooks.com soon, but I've put it up here at REChambliss.com if you'd like to listen to it right now!

There is only one more episode to go. Wow!

As for Africa photos, I had several mother/baby photos and wanted to post one of them in honor of moms everywhere. I chose this mama and baby baboon. You don't usually think of baboons as sweet and maternal, but they clearly are.

Happy Mother's Day everyone!

More soon.

Tired

Too tired even to make a "clever" simile about how I'm like a mama elephant (and I sure feel like one sometimes!). But I wanted to post this picture, because I love it! Taking pictures of the elephant babies was tough, because the rest of the elephant family was so protective of them. They'd usually stand between us and them. But we were patient, and eventually got this photo!

But as I said in the title of this entry--I'm tired! So even though the picture could probably tie in to the rest of what I wanted to tell you, I'm not going to try to make that connection.

I've been subbing away! But I did record episode 31 of Dreaming of Deliverance early yesterday morning, and I will have it edited and up before the weekend is out.

Only one more episode after this. I still can't believe it!

Africa pic of the day and Episode 29 is live at Podiobooks.com

Do I even need to write anything here? Doesn't the title say it all? Well, I can tell you that these elephants weren't fighting, they were playing--so cute! I took their picture in Manyara National Park. I have lots of elephant pictures, but this was one of my favorites.

As for episode 29, in case you don't have a link to the podiobooks.com listing of Dreaming of Deliverance, here it is!

Okay, now 28 is live on podiobooks.com!

So you don't need to go to the REchambliss.com link to listen to it. I was hesitant to put it there, because the site needs a lot of work. But I had it ready, and it sometimes takes a day or two after I've finished it before it can go live on podiobooks, so I thought something might be better than nothing. But it's the same audio file, so you don't need to listen to it in two different places.

I was telling someone the other day about how even though I have perfectionistic tendencies, I've had to relax some because otherwise I wouldn't be able to get the episodes out regularly. The mom-thing limits both my time and my ability to record, since I don't record when the kids are home.

Anyway, I've been wanting to improve the web site forever, but haven't had much of a chance to do it. Now that we're so close to the end (just 4 more episodes), what I think I will do is post some bonus behind the scenes sorts of commentary on REChambliss.com after the whole book is live. I'd wanted to do them as I went and have the podcast version of Dreaming of Deliverance available in two places, but it all proved to be too tricky for my meager web master skills, and I thought having them on podiobooks took priority!

Today is Monday. The kids are back in school and I wasn't called to sub. So I might record episode 29. Or I might clean the house and go to the grocery store. Decisions, decisions! I know which I'd rather do, but sometimes duty calls!

More soon!

Episode 28!

It's not up yet at podiobooks.com, but if you want to hear it sooner, I've uploaded it to REChambliss.com.

More soon!

Episode 27 is Live!

Episode 27

This was a longer episode, but I wanted to give you the whole chapter. My 3-year-old niece has been staying with us so I haven't had a chance yet to record for episode 28, but tomorrow is the day!

We have just 5 episodes remaining!

More soon.

Episode 27, Runners Round Table, Dead Hunt, Facebook

Hello!

So I'd been hoping to be able to announce that Episode 27 of Dreaming of Deliverance is live. But it's not yet. I finished it and uploaded it Saturday evening, but it hasn't been posted yet at podiobooks.com. Soon I'm sure! Thanks so much for your patience!

But if you want to hear an interview where I talk about some of the background and inspiration for Dreaming of Deliverance, check out the Runners Round Table podcast from last week. I had so much fun talking with Joe, Toni, and Leslie. They were very welcoming and had so many great questions. Among other things we discussed the fact that unlike Lindsay, I've never been incarcerated. That part of DoD came from research and my imagination.

And of course there's Kenn Crawford's Dead Hunt! He just released episode 8. Have you been listening? Things are getting dicey in Margaree. And it's doing really well on the podiobooks.com charts, which doesn't surprise me at all. It's so well-produced and is such a creepy story! I sure tried my best to do it justice with the narration.

Finally, I'm hoping to have some sort of Facebook presence soon. It will be another way that people can communicate with me, as well as with each other about Lindsay, Joel and Trae. I'm not sure if it will be a regular profile or a fan page, but I'll let you know once it's ready to go. Do any of you have a preference there?

That's about it for me. Remember you can follow me on twitter: @reneechambliss

More soon!

Finally! Episode 25 is live!

It's been a long 3 weeks, but at last there is a new episode of Dreaming of Deliverance up for your listening enjoyment!

Thanks so much for you patience!

http://www.podiobooks.com/title/dreaming-of-deliverance