Coleen Kwan

ivanpw

I recently read an article about social media and how it's a waste of time and money for some enterprises. I would assume it's true for some authors too. In my case, I'm still ambivalent. Social media is not a natural fit for me. I think it's because I'm not a chatterbox. I'm more inclined to listen to conversation than to dominate it. So when it comes to Facebook and Twitter I feel as though I'm at a loud party and I'm listening in while everyone else is madly chatting away. I find myself 'lurking' rather than barging into people's conversations. Yet I keep plugging (sporadically) at FB and Twitter, and I do sometimes find it useful for communicating directly with someone. But I doubt very much I've sold any books because of my FB or Twitter presence.

I look on with some bemusement at the proliferation of other social media like Pinterest, Google+, Instagram, etc. My head spins at the thought of maintaining a profile on all of them. About a year ago I was convinced to get on the Triberr bandwagon. Triberr was a sure-fire way to increase traffic to your blog, I was told. So I signed up, joined a tribe, and dutifully sent out tweets for my tribe. My blog traffic DID go up, but I felt very uncomfortable sending out so many 'spammy' tweets. I didn't have the time to personally read all the blog entries of my tribe members, yet I was obliged to tweet about them. In the end, I took a break from Triberr, and although my blog traffic dropped, I felt a lot more comfortable. But there's always the fear that I might miss out on the next big thing. Recently, in a fit of enthusiasm, I signed up for Tumblr, but quite quickly realised I was out of my depth and backed out.

I've been debating the merits of keeping up this blog. Blogging used to be all the rage, and every writer had to have a blog and update it at least three times a week. But now there's an oversupply of blogs. Many authors are cutting back on their blogging schedules, or dropping their blogs altogether. I think blogging suits me more than Facebook or Twitter. It doesn't require witty repartee or popularity, and a good post can continue to draw readers to my blog months or years after it was written, thanks to SEO. So for now I'll keep to blogging (with side forays into FB and Twitter).

Since SHORT SOUP recently won the Swirl Award, I thought I'd post an excerpt from this novella for my Teaser Tuesday.

In this scene, Toni and Dion have just met for the first time in five years. So much has changed - they've changed - and things are a little awkward between them.

My multicultural contemporary romance SHORT SOUP has won a Swirl Award for best contemporary romance! I'm thrilled to bits.

I'm joining the Teaser Tuesday meme and posting an excerpt from my steampunk romance, ASHER'S DILEMMA.

In this excerpt, Asher has travelled back in time and is reunited with Minerva, who is unaware of what has happened.

The prices of my Carina titles have recently been reduced!

When Harriet Came Home (contemporary romance), Asher's Invention, and Asher's Dilemma (steampunk romance) are now only $2.99 on Amazon and even less on Carina Press. Try them now :)

I’ve always loved the concept of time travel. One of my favourite movies is Back To The Future. I loved the crazy professor , the DeLorean time machine, and the “flux capacitor” which magically made the time machine work. I also loved how neatly interwoven the past and present were, and how, when Marty McFly returns from the past, the present has been altered because of his actions.

So when I began writing Asher’s Dilemma I thought I had time travel all sorted out in my head. Turns out, once you accept that time travel is possible, the door is opened to all sorts of mental gymnastics. I spent hours pondering the various scenarios, wondering what would happen to X if Y did this to him in the past? Would X disappear? Be wiped out from history? Travel to another dimension?

As I investigated time travel, I found scads of information on the subject. I found I had to choose a model of time travel from one of three broad choices:
(1) There is only one single fixed history which is unchangeable
(2) History is flexible and subject to change
(3) There are multiple co-existing timelines.

Even after I’d chosen my model, I had to work out my storyline to fit in with it. Many roundabout arguments with myself and headaches ensued. Every now and then I had to remind myself that I was writing fiction, not a scientific thesis! It’s a strange experience striving to be logical about something that is unproven, illogical, and—most people would say— impossible.

Hopefully, readers will enjoy Asher’s Dilemma, time travel glitches not withstanding.

What was London like during the Victorian era? I imagine it to be sprawling, heaving with humanity, glittering with fabulous riches, and also dirty, overcrowded, and downright stinky.  Victorian London was the biggest city in the world, with a population in excess of 4 million by 1880. Streets teeming with traffic quickly became filled with horse poo. Chimneys from factories and homes belched out black smoke. Raw sewage ran down gutters and into the rivers. Pickpockets and scavengers roamed the streets looking for an easy mark.

Until the second half of the 19th century London residents drew their drinking water from the same stretch of the Thames where open sewers discharged their waste. Makes me shudder to think about it! No wonder they preferred drinking ale or small beer. The Great Stink of 1858 finally mobilised the authorities to do something about the antiquated sewage system.

When researching Victorian London, one of my favourite internet sites to visit is David Perdue. He has an interactive map of Charles Dickens’ London, which shows you all the major landmarks of the city and also where they are referenced in Dickens’ novels. If you’re a fan of Dickens’ work or just interested in Victorian London it’s well worth a visit.