AletheaKontis.com

This one wasn’t made by me — it was done by a fan, completely without my knowledge. Which is why you always need to sign up for Google Alerts…because THIS IS EPICALLY AWESOME.

I encourage you all to visit YouTube and tell her how much you love it too!

Back in the summer of 2009, Stephen Segal at Weird Tales started a series called One-Minute Weird Tales, in which supershort flash fiction was set to music and aired on YouTube.

At Dragon*Con that year Stephen asked me to write something for this series, and I did. I even picked out the music. But while it was an awesome Alethea Kontis story, it wasn’t quite right for Weird Tales. Stephen later left Weird Tales and moved on, I later left Tennessee and moved on…though I always had it on the backburner to put the story an music together myself and post it to YouTube.

THREE YEARS LATER, here we are. Enjoy!

(Thanks again to Ego Likeness for “Burn Witch Burn”, used with permission.)

So here we are…the very last day of July’s Month of Artist & Author interviews! It’s been another super-fun ride. I’ve been honored to host such amazing creators. As always, I encourage you to check them out.  If you missed any, don’t worry, you can still find them all on the Interviews Tab.

I was *this* close to letting Elaine Isaak close out this month yesterday with just an overview today…but I can’t skimp on you guys. YOU DESERVE THE WHOLE MONTH!

So when my YouTube digest came in with the newest Vlog from my gorgeous new author friend from NYC Zoraida Córdova, I knew I had to drop her a line. Zoraida was one of the women who performed with me at the May Lady Jane’s Salon reading, and I later joined her at her own launch party for her novel The Vicious Deep. If you’re a fan of mermaids (like I am), you need to be into this book. The sequel, The Savage Blue, releases in January of 2013.

Zoraida, darling, much love to you and your incredibly supportive family. Thank you so much for being my finale!

****************

Author or Artist?
Artist!

Who are your professional role models?
My MOM. Also, Libba Bray, Holly Black, and Ryan Lochte because he is a professional merman.

What’s your favorite writing/sketching weather?
Thunder with a chance of rain.

Set your current playlist/musical device to “shuffle all” and hit PLAY. What’s the first song that comes up?
18 & Life – Skid Row (don’t judge me.)

If you could win any award, which would it be?
The best hair award

Would you rather have magical powers, or a spaceship?
Magical powers.

What was your favorite book as a child?
The Little Leftover Witch

What thing do you wish you could go back in time and tell your 10-year-old self?
Don’t wear the pink lycra.

What’s your favorite constellation?
I don’t really know any. I just like looking up at the stars.

What’s your favorite fairy tale?
Errrr….. “The Little Mermaid.”  [LOL Raise your hand if you're surprised! ~Alethea]

What thing are you most proud of?
My family. We all left everything to come to America in pursuit of better things.

The Colin Harvey Memorial Question: Name 3 things on your List of Things to Do Before You Die.
1. Travel — Greece, Italy, England, Denmark, Egypt, Ireland, Scotland, Australia.
2. Write the best novel I possibly can.
3. Be loved.

****************

Zoraida Córdova was born in Guayaquil, Ecuador, where she learned to speak English by watching Disney’s The Little Mermaid and Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker on repeat. Her favorite things are sparkly like merdudes, Christmas, and New York City at night. You can find Zoraida online at http://www.zoraidawrites.com. Watch her vlog on her ZoraidaLand YouTube Channel.

While I was doing the YouTube research on my Making Money blog post yesterday, I came across something very fun.

Out of curiosity, I typed “Alethea Kontis” into the YouTube search function to see if any of my videos or deleted scenes (or interviews at Dragon*Con, or fan videos of various panels) came up first.

Surprisingly, what came up first — with almost 600 views! — was this video review of Enchanted from the incredibly cute girl at Reading Rhino. (“Oh, I’m a girl…in a forest…” LOL) Happily and wonderfully, ReadingRhino gives Enchanted a 10 out of 10!

*happy dance*

Thank you, ReadingRhino!

Check out the SUPERCUTE review here for yourself!

Like any author worth her salt on the intarwebs nowadays, I try to make a little bit of money everywhere. Stress on the word LITTLE…but I keep telling myself that eventually, this will all pick up and will be a nice steady little Starbucks budget to support this crazy writing habit I have.

Things I have monetized:

1.) Short stories on the Kindle & Nook: A lot of the stories that I have previously had published in various magazines and anthologies, I have released in e-format on the Kindle and Nook platforms for only 99 cents apiece. As a bonus (because I’m a huge fan of DVD extras), each short story has an essay with it that tells you the origin of the idea–and sometimes the path to publication–of each piece. Some of those essays have been previously published elsewhere, and some I wrote specifically for the e-book versions. But for those folks who would like to try out some of my other writing…it’s there to click on. Amount made in last 12 months: $10.85 (Amazon), $0 (Nook)

2.) Short stories on Anthology Builder: Any SF author who has has a story published in a pro venue can submit their work to be included in the Anthology Builder archive. I’ve mentioned this site before — it’s like making your own mixed CD out of stories you’d just like to try out. Create your own collection of your favorite authors or new authors you’d like to try, select a theme, or build a custom anthology of folks you’re going to see at the next convention…and then get them to sign it! A one-of-a-kind collector’s item. Authors make a royalty on every sale, depending on the length of the story (and therefore % of contribution to each anthology). Amount made in the last 12 months: $22.91

3.) YouTube Monetization: A little while ago, AdSense offered me the chance to monetize my YouTube videos. Sure, why not? I’m still not quite sure how this works. I *thought* I made a penny every time someone clicked on one of my videos. But apparently not, because last month I had 123 people click on my videos and I made a total of ONE PENNY FOR THE MONTH. It’s definitely more $$ if people click on the ADS in the video…so if you’re bored one day, I highly encourage you to pop on over to my YouTube Channel and go on a clicking spree. (Mostly so I can collect the data.) I get paid from AdSense when I have accrued $100. Needless to say, I haven’t been paid yet. Amount accrued to date: $9.73 (0 paid)

4.) Amazon Associates Links: I’ve had an Amazon Associates Link for a while (wwwaletheakon-20), but I only recently got smart about it. First of all, Amazon seems to have made the link more difficult than just adding “wwwaletheakon-20″ to the end of the url for the item listing. Secondly, I only get a kickback when OTHER people order books. Like a ninny, I’ve been ordering books using my own Login instead of The FairyGodBoyfriend’s. *headdesk* Thankfully, I’ve wised up. I’ve also fixed up my Books page–if you order from Amazon using the links here, I will get the kickback (and thank you). Amount made in the last 12 months: $13.27

As you can see, I’m totally rolling in the dough. It’s all very glamorous. But yes…maybe someday, when I’m all Celebrity-Kind-Of-Popular, this sort of thing will add up nicely. Regardless, it would be silly of me to NOT go ahead and set these things up to be churning away in the background.

Anyone else know other ways of making a penny (or less) on the net? I’ll happily take suggestions.

A while back, I was contacted by Susan Bertram from www.allthingsif.org because I had mentioned in a blog post that Rudyard Kipling’s “If” was one of my favorite poems of all time.

The poem was quoted in “See How They Run,” a British farce we performed at Spring Valley High School. My French Grandmother had a set of Rudyard Kipling’s complete works at her house (that I later inherited), so when we visited that summer, I memorized it.

The blog post Susan referred to, however, was published in 2009. Instead of editing that post and linking to www.allthingsif.org THEN, I figured it would be much more fun to talk about them NOW.

And since I was already dressed up as a princess, I recited the poem for you LIVE.

To find out more about Rudyard Kipling and All Things If, please visit www.allthingsif.org.

I’m over at Treasured Tales for Young Adults again today–wait, did I ever leave? Maybe I’ve been lurking in the corners all this time! You never know!

We magical princesses are like that.

Today is special, however, because Alishia is posting another EXCLUSIVE DELETED SCENE from Enchanted, read by yours truly, all dressed up, on YouTube.

What are you waiting for?? CLICK HERE NOW.

The sneakiest preview of The Wonderland Alphabet you’ll ever get! How cute is this book?!?

Still working on getting a definite date when this will be out — I know Amazon has had a different release date every other day (now it says June 19th), but who trusts Amazon anymore? They don’t even have the proper cover image.

I can tell you that Archaia has the book (or they couldn’t have made this video!) and it will be shipping to stores very, very soon. Fingers crossed that it shows up while I’m on book tour!

xox

Are you ready, world? Today, Eleusinian Mysteries is unveiling another EXCLUSIVE YOUTUBE VIDEO of Princess Alethea, all dressed up and reading an excerpt from Enchanted.

This one is a brief, sweet, painfully touching scene that takes place after Sunday thinks she’s lost the best friend she ever had, and the closest thing she’s ever felt to true love.

But don’t take my word for it, click on over to Eleusinian Mysteries and see for yourself!

xox

When you’re done watching this exclusive excerpt of Enchanted on YouTube today, click over to the TotallyBooksessed (and totally cute) Gabrielle as she reads “The Twelve Apostles” by the Brothers Grimm for Fairy Tale Fortnight.

It’s a short tale that I haven’t done yet for Princess Alethea’s Fairy Tale Theatre, but Gabrielle does a lovely job here. She also happens to have the exact same copy of The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales that I use to do most of my podcast recordings — I recognize it even without the dust jacket.

Great minds read alike! (Great Grandmothers gift alike too, it seems…)

Enjoy!