Laurie Varga's Blog

Just a short note to let you know that Like a Bird is now free on iBooks. Well, as soon as it appears on the iTunes store it will be free. I will attempt to get Amazon to match it but that’s not always guaranteed., some authors have quite a bit of trouble getting Amazon to price match and they don’t offer a free option for sellers (which is a shame and also frustrating). It may show up here too as a free download in a variety of formats.

I wasn’t sure if I should do this. It wasn’t because I was trying to squeeze as much dough from my readers, it was mainly because there is quite a bit of research indicating that people don’t value things that are free. If it costs nothing, it must be worth nothing, right? I also found that most of the downloads I received during the brief promotion periods when Like a Bird was free didn’t result in a lot of feedback for me and feedback is something all creative people crave. It’s pretty much a valued currency, like gold.

Various attempts at paid marketing and other schemes didn’t result in many new readers, if any at all. The more research I did the more frustrated I was at how much time I was spending trying to market the book and not actually writing more books! Last night I poured out my woes as my husband listened patiently. Then he said,

“Why don’t you just give the book away for free?”

Damn him! Always coming up with the brilliant, simple solutions. I thought about it for maybe 7 seconds, then nodded my head. Yeah, that was what I needed to do. Get Like a Bird into the hands of as many people as possible. Whether they read it or not doesn’t matter. What matters is a few people will read it and the more people who read it the more this 3 year project will seem worthwhile.

** As of this writing the book is only available from the US iBooks store. I can’t even see my own book!

Download Like a Bird here.

Not only am I a writer and designer, I am a yogi also. I’ve recently been introduced to the Yoga Sutras, a brilliant and complex book of guidance originally written buy a guy who is very long dead. Thankfully, the confusing sanskrit instructions have been translated by an insightful Swami who brings these ancient teachings into a modern context.

But enough about yoga. Let’s talk about bondage.

I like this quote from the Yoga Sutras because it not only applies as a deep metaphor for my recent novel but it’s also a helpful life instruction. One of my chief aims has always been freedom. But the idea of freedom is almost as esoteric and unreachable as happiness. That current, obnoxious pursuit that is popular with self-help writers today.

The idea that the pursuit of freedom from bondage is, in itself, a form of bondage is not likely to go over well with most people. Especially those of us who live in places where we can even write and read such liberated stories without persecution. Just that thought alone gives me chills. Even if we are open to exploring the idea further, without accepting it fully, we might better understand the character of Sky and her level of acceptance of her situation. As someone who has no one, she represents the flip-side of the liberation coin. A person who clings to a tenuous connection, who accepts and even welcomes the idea of bondage in the hopes she may not have to face the rest of her future alone.

Perhaps in this way she does make a great companion to a man who has lost everything, who took what he had for granted, and has adopted a dominating form of love in the hopes he can restore the freedoms he one enjoyed. It’s as though he cannot accept that his life has been permanently altered, at least on a superficial level, and has yet to dive deep enough within himself to discover that what he seeks is not an external thing.

And even if none of that makes sense to you, it doesn’t matter. You can still get tied up in the thrills of the story. (Horrible pun intended).

You would think, after reading this book, I had some kind of obsession with birds. But I don’t. I don’t even know much about birds and am terrible at identifying them.

At one point in the story I mentioned a flock of birds on the ground who startled and flew up into the trees. My editor said I should label the birds, and she rambled off the names of a few ground-feeders. My first thought was:

There are ground feeders?

That’s how little I know about birds. The great thing about being a writer is that although we get to show off what we know, we often have to learn a lot in a short period of time in order to make the book believable for the reader. Or at least not piss off the bird watchers who are just waiting for the author to stumble.

The interesting thing about writing is that symbols and metaphors often arise naturally out of the story without the writer having to artificially shove them into the story. That is a technique some writers use but it doesn’t seem to work out that well unless the forced experience is what you’re going for. Initially, I did not intend for this story to have such a prominent focus on nature and birds in particular. Like a Bird was the original, working title and it was based solely on the giant, replica birdcage that features prominently Gareth’s home. I did intend to change the title to something “better” once the story was fully developed but that just never happened.

Like many books, much of what resulted was an accident. A happy accident, I hope, and one that was carefully crafted. Believe me when I tell you  the characters and plot twists sometimes surprised me as much as they might the reader. And that’s one of the many things that makes writing such a delightful process.

But not on a typewriter because that would be silly.

Could you imagine the carpal tunnel I’d have working on that thing? My arms, hands and wrists are in bad enough shape as it is. But that’s no excuse to stop writing. Because there’s dictation. The learning curve is atrocious and I’m at the bottom end of it but I’m not quite ready to give up. Well, I did give up for a while and reverted to typing but once we settle in a bit more I might get the trusty Blue Snowball microphone back out and give it another shot.

Let’s back up a bit.

I’m working on the sequel to Like a Bird. When I began the original book it was intended to be a stand alone because I detest series. As the story was nearing the three-quarter complete mark I began compulsively daydreaming (i.e. creating storylines instead of sleeping) an extended future for the characters. I told myself it was all in good fun and that nothing would come of it. Only the story was good, juicy good with lots of twists, new love interests and a cat-and-mouse element. Once the first book was complete and the dust had settled with the initial promotion (which took forever!) I started hacking together an outline and then dove right in.

However, we randomly bought a house in another city recently so I’ve had to put anything non-essential on the back-burner. And by non-essential I mean anything that didn’t fit under the category: Food/water/shelter.

My computer is finally up. I’ve also made my first journal entry (this one!) in almost 8 months and updated my website content. It was long overdue and as necessary as actually writing the damn story.

So here we are, ready to begin a new chapter in so many ways.

I will post more about the first book, the characters, the metaphors and the thinking behind it in future posts. For now I’m really just testing out content to see how it displays before I more seriously commit to posting more often in my journal. I do hope you subscribe below in the footer so we can keep in touch. Please send me any questions or comments you have, I do love hearing from people, even if you haven’t read the book.

Best wishes,

Laurie