Blog Tour -- Where the Map Ends Day 3

In an effort to create a full feature website at Where the Map Ends, Jeff Gerke has included interviews with various authors, a few short stories, and a writer's tool-kit. He says that forums are coming soon--a place where I'm sure I'll want to hang out. He is waiting for demand, he says, so put me on record as A Demanding Woman. There are other forums meeting the need, apparently, but as far as I can tell (I've peeked into a couple of them) they seem to be more geared to short story writers. I would love a site that is focused on novel writing. Now I currently hang out at Forward Motion and I love it there. I've been a member for five years and a moderator for two of them and it does meet many of my needs. However, I'd love a place that focuses more tightly onto my dreams and goals.

Also in Jeff's visions is a small press (print-on-demand) dedicated to Christian speculative publishing. I mentioned yesterday a post at Gene Curtis' blog. POD presses have gotten a bit of a bad name, but I, like Gene, think this move may not be a bad one. Gene says what is needed are three things: seed money, great talent, and a sound business model that meets the need of this specific niche. In Jeff's writing tips he says that about 97% of CBA readers are: "White, conservative, evangelical, American women of child-raising to empty nest years." So I'm a white, kind-of-conservative, evangelical Canadian woman of recent empty nest years. Close to demographic, but not right on. What makes me love fantasy instead of more *normal* women's fiction? (I do love some, though: check back on Tuesday when I'll be talking to Sharon Hinck about her second Becky Miller novel...) I have no idea why I'm wired like I am. I just know I like it, and apparently I'm not in the majority. What was the purpose of this paragraph again? Oh yeah. To say that I'm in a niche market and that perhaps a non-standard way of getting books to me (or my books, God willing, to other people) will work well in this scenario.

Last major point of the day. I stopped by my daughter's blog.
If you haven't checked out Hanna's Life is Cool, please do. She has a cry from the heart to find a community of Christian artists who love fantasy and science fiction. Hanna has actively begun targeting publishers in search of freelance art projects and so is constantly working on her portfolio. Shortly after Christmas she was looking for inspiration for a new art project and telling me how much easier it would be if she had an assignment. I said, "Would you like to do some art for my novel that I'm currently revising?" And she said yes. Below is the beginnings of this *book cover* and I am absolutely in awe of my daughter's talent. This digital painting is Taifa from Marks of Repentance.