Tag Archives: literature

May 10, 2014 · 6:56 am

Lindsay Schopfer, ‘The Beast Hunter’ launch

Today, Lindsay Schopfer, well-known Pacific Northwest author of science fiction and fantasy, instructor, and writing coach has consented to answer a few questions for us. His second book, The Beast Hunter is launching today, and I’ve been privileged to read an advance copy of it. If you are looking for an action-adventure in set in another world, brimming with political and personal intrigue, this is the book for you!

CJJ: Lindsay, you were one of my daughter Meg’s closest friends in high school. I’ve followed your career from the early days of your first play, “Techies,” knowing you had a wonderful future in writing ahead of you. Your own real life tale has been a wonderful journey, so tell us a little of early life and how you began writing:

LS: I started writing as a little kid, and I guess some people would have called me a prodigy. I wrote and produced my first full-length stage-play at 13, and went on to do five more, including two runs of “Techies.” After high school, I took a break from writing and spent two years as a service missionary on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico. That experience, coupled with a health condition which could randomly cause me to be paralyzed for hours at a time, taught me important lessons of hardship, hope, and love.

I went to film school in Canada for a year, thinking that I would continue my passion for acting and directing, but I eventually realized that I just wouldn’t be able to tell the fanciful stories in my head unless I put them into novels. While I still daydream about film adaptations of my stories, I have to say that I’m very happy with my work and life right now.

CJJ: My favorite Lindsay Schopfer quote says it all, “I only write when I’m inspired, and I make sure I’m inspired every morning at 9 a.m.” How do you channel the randomness of inspiration into an appointment?

LS: Actually, that quote originally comes from Peter De Vries, but it’s something that I try to live by as well. For me, turning on my inspiration means creating a mental place where I feel safe to be creative. I map out the times of day I have available when I seem to be the most productive and set them aside. I listen to music that fits my mood and the kind of writing I’ll be doing. I also try to remember that I can write whatever story I want to, so that I enjoy my work rather than feel confined by it. Ultimately, if I make writing my break from the world, then I don’t feel the need to take a break from my writing.

CJJ: I read Lost Under Two Moons, and really enjoyed it. I find that your work is well-structured, with creative environments, good tension, and deep characters. Do you have a specific ‘Creative Process’ that you follow, such as outlining or do you ‘wing it’?

LS: My ideas for stories usually come in two parts, the beginning and the ending. Once I have those two points established in my mind, writing the novel is just a matter of connecting those two dots. I don’t do a lot of outlining because I find that I start to lose interest in a story if I feel ‘chained’ to a guideline I’ve set for myself. I do enjoy doing world-building early on, though I usually just sketch out enough details to get me started and only add to it if I get stuck. Of course, once the first draft is done, I always go back and fill out the rest of my backstory and world-building notes, but that’s usually a case of noting what I came up with as I was writing and trying to maintain continuity throughout the story.

CJJ: You are highly involved with the Pacific Northwest Writers Association, which I am also a member of. You gave a workshop on May 2^nd, regarding turning off the inner critic. What advice would you give new authors, who may be struggling with this common problem?

LS: Like I said earlier, turning off the inner critic and getting inspired is a matter of creating a place where you feel safe to write. For some people, this means writing when you’re not fully awake. I do my best writing at three different times, when I first wake up, at around two in the afternoon (siesta time), and just before bed. Another way to turn off the inner critic that’s especially useful to new authors is to work on multiple projects at a time. Too many first-time authors have this mindset that they have to put all their good ideas into their first novel, or that the first book has to be perfect. By working on more than one project at a time, the writer is constantly reminded that she will have more chances than just this one book, which can be a common anxiety. Having a second project also means that you have a creativity lifeboat, and if you get writer’s block on one project you can “run away from it” and yet still be writing until you’re ready to go back.

CJJ: I absolutely agree, and I usually have three projects going at a time myself. So, I know why I chose the indie route for my work, but I’m curious as to why you’ve chosen this path.

LS: Actually, I never intended to be an indie author. When I finished Lost Under Two Moons, I pitched it to agents for a while before releasing it as an EBook and later in print. My decision to indie-publish that novel came mainly from a desire to start selling books and establishing a market for myself. I wanted credibility as a generative artist, and to be honest I felt like that happened once I finally had a book people could buy and read.

The Beast Hunter was also originally intended for a traditional publishing route. In 2012 I went to PNWA’s summer conference and asked agents what it would take to become a hot commodity to them. The answer I got was that I needed a built-in fan base, so I wrote The Beast Hunter online serial. Once I had the fan base, I went back in 2013 with my completed novel and loyal readers, and pitched it. I was shocked that the same agents who had encouraged me to do the serial now said I had ruined my chances for success with this book because I had already “saturated the market”, though I’d like to think that there are plenty of people who would like The Beast Hunter who haven’t read the serial! I decided to keep the serial going as a way to reward loyal fans, and indie-publishing the novel seemed like the best way to tie-in the serial with my novels.

I haven’t given up on traditional publishing. I have two additional book series that I’m working on that will be intended for a traditional book deal. I’m hoping that the exclusivity of these stories combined with the fan base from my indie publishing will finally allow me to be a hybrid author with both traditionally and independently published books.

CJJ: That is a great plan of action—one that addresses negotiating both sides of the publishing dilemma. What advice would you offer an author trying to decide whether to go indie or take the traditional path?

LS: Don’t give up on traditional publishing. While the industry is still trying to figure out how to handle the electronic revolution, it is filled with very intelligent professionals that really know the business of selling books. On the other hand, I don’t think writers should give the industry any more power than it already has. An author desperate for representation and publication is an easily exploitable resource. I would advise authors to try for traditional publishing first, but don’t be overly eager. Remember that the greatest power you have is to say no, no to an agent that isn’t good for you, no to a publisher that won’t push your book, no to a book-deal that demands too many rights. Keep that in mind, and if you feel like your project isn’t right for traditional, go indie.

CJJ: Your new book, The Beast Hunter is launching today. This is a book with an interesting history! Tell us a little about it and how it came to be.

LS: The Beast Hunter actually started as a 1,000 word flash fiction story that I wrote more as an exercise for myself than anything else. I wanted to see if I could write an action sequence, something I hadn’t tried doing in my fantasy writing since becoming serious about pursuing a career as a novelist. At the time, I was playing a steampunk CRPG called Arcanum Of Steamworks & Magic Obscura, so I decided to try writing about a hunter using 19^th century technology to bring down a monster.

I liked the result, and decided to expand on the character of Keltin Moore by continuing his adventures in a free, online serial. A little more than a year later I’d finished the first season and The Beast Hunter had gained an international following. It’s kind of funny, because for a long time this story was my side-project, something that I wrote on to relax and just enjoy writing. To see it in print now is kind of like inviting all the world to play make-believe with me, and I’m excited to continue the adventure.

CJJ: Lindsay, thank you so much for being here today! I must say, I am looking forward to hearing your presentation at the PNWA convention on July 18, 2014 on UNLOCKING CHARACTER MOTIVATION. I will be taking notes!

The Beast Hunter Books For Africa Fundraiser Event

To celebrate the launch of his latest book, Lindsay has decided to donate one dollar to Books For Africa for each verified copy of The Beast Hunter that is sold in the next two months!

Here’s how it works. Purchase The Beast Hunter in paperback or EBook form and then take a picture of yourself with your new book. Post that picture on this event page, and Lindsay will make a donation. Only one donation per copy of The Beast Hunter.

Books for Africa is an organization with just one goal: to end the book famine in Africa. BFA is the largest shipper of donated text and library books to the African Continent, and has a 4-star rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest charity evaluator. A donation of 50 cents is enough to send a book to a child in Africa. For more about this amazing organization, check out http://www.booksforafrica.org.

About Lindsay Schopfer:

Lindsay Schopfer is the author of the rural steampunk adventure novel The Beast Hunter (2014) and the fantasy adventure novel Lost Under Two Moons (2012) . His short fiction has also appeared in The Daily Times, an international newspaper based in Pakistan. When he isn’t writing, Lindsay is a writing coach and instructor for Adventures In Writing, where he helps writers learn about and improve their craft. He is also a mentor for Educurious, a Gates Foundation-funded program designed to connect high school students with professional writers.

Lindsay’s books are available at amazon.com and through his website, http://www.lindsayschopfer.com

You can also sign up for his wonderful workshops through his website at Adventures in Writing, http://www.yourwritingadventure.com

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Filed under Adventure, blogging, Books, Fantasy, Literature, Publishing, Self Publishing, Uncategorized, writing

Tagged as adventure, books, fantasy, fiction, Keltin Moore, Krendaria, LIndsay Schopfer, literature, Meet the Author, Peter De Vries, The Beast Hunter, writing

May 7, 2014 · 5:29 am

What I’ve learned from George R.R. Martin

I’m not a fan of George R.R. Martin’s style of writing, but I adore the man as a person. He has the courage to say out loud what many people would sweep under the rug.

Recently George R.R. Martin told journalist Dave Itzkoff of the New York Times that although his books are epic fantasy, they are based on history. He said, “Rape and sexual violence have been a part of every war ever fought, from the ancient Sumerians to our present day.”

“To omit them from a narrative centered on war and power would have been fundamentally false and dishonest, and would have undermined one of the themes of the books: that the true horrors of human history derive not from orcs and Dark Lords, but from ourselves. We are the monsters. (And the heroes too.) Each of us has within himself the capacity for great good, and great evil,” Martin said.

According to Martin, “History is written in blood, and although Westeros – the fictional continent where the series is set – is ‘not the Disneyland Middle Ages,’ it is “no darker nor more depraved than our own world. The atrocities in A Song of Ice and Fire, sexual and otherwise, pale in comparison to what can be found in any good history book,” he said. (End of quoted text.)

George is right, and he is not advocating or glorifying rape, in fact just the opposite. If you want to inject realism into a work of fantasy you must address uncomfortable realities that human history has shown to exist. The worst aspects of human nature are portrayed in our everyday life—things I could never dream up. Society at large is blasé about it—unless it affects one personally, it may as well not exist. Rape in the military is a fact, friends, not a myth, and that is just within our own forces. Not only does she live in a danger zone while in the military, a woman soldier also knows she faces rape and torture if she is captured by the enemy—that is the first step in breaking her. Many men also suffer sexual assault and torture for the same reasons, whether we wish to acknowledge their pain or not.

Image courtesy of CBS News, and Getty

Consider this disgusting item of current news that only rarely makes it onto the nightly newscast in our town: To be a young girl in Borno, Nigeria is an invitation to be kidnapped and sold into sexual slavery. More than 200 young girls are living this nightmare right now, because an extremist group, Boko Haram, who is against educating women, goes door to door, breaking into their homes and boarding schools and taking the girls from their beds. This is done as a way to maintain political control and keep their fathers in line. The families of the stolen children are powerless against these brutal thugs.

Do you think these schoolgirls are not being raped and tortured? If so, you are living in a dream. The leader of these radicals publicly flaunts their intentions to sell or marry all of them, bragging to all the media that they do it because God told them to. They loudly proclaim that they will sell all of these girls, and believe me, the world is full of buyers just waiting for such an opportunity. So far, 20 lucky girls have escaped their captors.

If I was writing modern literary fiction or political potboilers, I would have tossed out such an unbelievable plot–it would have seemed completely unrealistic–I mean, a religious cult of pedophiles and rapists systematically kidnapping 200 girls, claiming divine privilege, and no one is able to stop them? Come on, get real.

A 19th-century depiction of Galileo before the Holy Office, by Joseph-Nicolas Robert-Fleury image courtesy Wikipedia

I suspect God would prefer we humans didn’t give him the credit for our evil, thank you very much.

So what have I actually learned from George R.R. Martin? I have learned to be true to reality in my writing or my story will never hold water. Draw from history, mash it up all you want, but don’t deny the roots and don’t turn away from the ugly truth. Also, we must never forget that there is as much beauty to draw from as there is pain, for it is that contrast that makes an intense story compelling.

No work of fiction will ever be more horrific or glorious than the true history of our humanity and inhumanity. We authors will only scratch the surface, and if that small scratch makes a reader slightly uncomfortable, the reader can easily retreat to their ivory tower and read bland romance novels written by someone other than me or George R.R. Martin, where everything is rainbow perfect and happy endings are guaranteed.

If you were privileged to be allowed to learn to read, that is.

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Filed under Battles, blogging, Books, Fantasy, news of the world, Politics, Publishing, WordPress, writing

Tagged as Boko Haram, Dave Itzkoff, Game of Thrones, George, George R R Martin, human history, literature, Nigeria, NY Times, rape in the military, Realism in writing, writing

May 5, 2014 · 6:37 am

My Writing Process Blog Tour

extra small caricature of connie by street artist Stacey Denton

Today I am embarking on the “My Writing Process” blog tour! In this blog relay, each author discusses his or her writing process and then passes the baton to three other authors. Last week, my good friend Lisa Koosis, passed the baton to me. Lisa is amazingly creative, as you will see when you click on the link to her blog, Writing on Thin Ice. Please, do visit her blog, where you can read more about her exciting projects and her own writing process.

So, here goes…

1. What am I working on?

I am working on the third and final book in the TOWER OF BONES series, winding up Edwin’s story. This book has been very tough to write, because it keeps spawning new books! I can frequently be heard shouting, “NO! We must finish this book before we embark on a new one!”

I really do want Edwin Farmer’s story to be a 3-book trilogy.

*cough* Robert Jordan…Wheel of Time …fifteen books in the trilogy*cough*

There will be more books set in this world, I feel certain of it, but I intend to make each a stand alone book. I love each of the characters so much in this tale, it’s hard to keep on task—but my self-imposed deadline is to have it ready for the editor by August.

2. How does my work differ from others of its genre? Why do I write what I do?

First of all, I write from the point of view of a gamer—I am a freak for the great Final Fantasy PS2 and PS3 console games—Final Fantasy VII, VII, X/X2 and XII are among the great classics in gaming. I haven’t invested in a PS4, and I may not, as I haven’t had much time to play lately, and wasn’t impressed with 2010’s FFXIII.

I know what I love about those games, and want to inject that into my books. I want the action, the romance, and the drama of a full throttle action/adventure and I want it set in a sweeping landscape, with my characters beset by nearly insurmountable challenges. Magic must have limits and no character can have unlimited power. Those limitations are what drive the action, because the characters have to struggle to overcome them. The power of the story is in the struggle. The final redemption must be worth the struggle!

3. How does my writing process work?

That’s where I went off the rails on this final installment in this particular series—I didn’t stick to my usual process, which was clearly outlined. But I had so many sudden brainstorms, I went way off track. Normally, when I first have the idea to write a book, I visualize it as the walkthrough for an RPG game.

I spend days writing down the ideas as they come to me, obsessively building the outline, the shell of the story. I make personnel files, descriptions of environments, designing the political and religious systems, creating the rules for magic, and drawing maps. Each world is unique, and I want to know what I am writing about.

I write the beginning and the end, and key action vignettes, fitting them into the framework of my outline.

Once I have that all done, I start at the beginning, and write, connecting the dots between the vignettes. When all the dots are connected, I have a book—albeit a raw rough draft of a book. I set it aside, as it is in desperate need of a complete rewrite, but I can’t do that until I can see it through unbiased eyes.

The second draft goes to Irene Roth Luvaul, who helps me shape it into a submission-ready manuscript. Then it will go to Carlie M.A. Cullen at Eagle Eye Editors. My work is linear, with a specific goal or “quest” and many obstacles in the way of achieving those goals. Some will live, and some will fall by the way—my task is to make it an emotionally gripping journey for the reader.

NEXT WEEK

Stay tuned for the next part of the relay as I pass the baton to three talented writers, who I have the good fortune of working with at Myrddin Publishing Group. Next Monday (May 12) they will answer the same set of questions, so please stop by their blogs to read more about their projects and their own writing processes.

Shaun Allan, Author of Sin and Dark Places

http://flipandcatch.blogspot.com

A creator of many prize winning short stories and poems, Shaun Allan has written for more years than he would perhaps care to remember. Having once run an online poetry and prose magazine, he has appeared on Sky television to debate, against a major literary agent, the pros and cons of internet publishing as opposed to the more traditional method. Many of his personal experiences and memories are woven into the point of view and sense of humour of Sin, the main character in his best-selling novel of the same name, although he can’t, at this point, teleport.

A writer of multiple genres, including horror, humour and children’s fiction, Shaun goes where the Muse takes him – even if that is kicking and screaming.

Shaun lives with his one partner, two daughters, three cats and four fish! Oh and a dog.

Allison Deluca, Author of The Crown Phoenix Series

http://AlisonDeluca.Blogspot.com

Alison DeLuca is the author of several steampunk and urban fantasy books. She was born in Arizona and has also lived in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mexico, Ireland, and Spain.

Currently she wrestles words and laundry in New Jersey.

Stephen Swartz, Author of After Illium, The Dream Land Trilogy, and A Beautiful Chill

http://stephenswartz.blogspot.com

Stephen Swartz grew up in Kansas City where he was an avid reader of science-fiction and quickly began emulating his favorite authors. Since then, Stephen studied music in college and, like many writers, worked at a wide range of jobs: from French fry guy to soldier, to IRS clerk to TV station writer, before heading to Japan for several years of teaching English. Now Stephen is a Professor of English at a university in Oklahoma, where he teaches many kinds of writing. He still can be found obsessively writing his latest manuscript, usually late at night. He has only robot cats.

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Filed under Adventure, blogging, Fantasy, Final Fantasy, Literature, Publishing, Self Publishing, Uncategorized, writing

Tagged as adventure, Alison DeLuca, fantasy, fiction, Final Fantasy, humor, Lisa Koosis, literature, magic, My Writing Process, PS2, PS3, Robert Jordan...Wheel, Shaun Allan, Stephen Swartz, The Dream Land Trilogy, Thin Ice, Tower of Bones, writing, Writing Process

April 30, 2014 · 7:35 am

Oh, the agony

I am an avid reader. I love the Kindle for the simple reason I have over 500 books and I don’t have to dust a one of them.

I have managed to get nearly every book I ever loved on my Kindle, and have become a great fan of hundreds of new authors, most of them indies.

Every now and then I read a book that is not in the genre of fantasy, sometimes taking a dip into general fiction. I did that this week, reading a book I saw advertised on twitter. I picked this one up because I like the title.

I don’t usually read general fiction because so many times I am left with a bad taste in my mouth. I’m OCD–if the book isn’t too horrible, I can’t put it down until I have read it to the end and confirmed that it was indeed a waste of paper and time. I hate that.

It never fails–I buy a book based on glowing reviews and after I’ve done my part and slogged through the depressing, overdone theatrics and get to the end I find that, just like an ex-lover, it turned out to be a pretentious riff on a tired theme after all, with nothing positive to offer.

No happy ending, and perhaps no ending at all.

Why do I ignore the warning signs? The cringing when certain characters (once again) turn their head just so, the clenching of my teeth when the bored protagonist lights yet another cigarette. What is this fascination some authors have with portraying moneyed, bored people who cheat on each other and their taxes as if they were somehow glamorous? What makes me keep reading despite the fact that if I were to review this travesty I would give it a 3 star review and a good thrashing?

I was up to 2:a.m. reading that crap. Now I feel soiled, as if I’d suddenly developed a craving to party the night away at the local club and woke up with a horrendous hangover and a drummer named Scooter.

Today I am going back to Roger Zelazney. He’s a lover who has never let me down. I am going to revisit the scene of our most passionate affair, that amazing world of Rondoval, and Roger’s masterpiece, Changeling.

Give me flawed characters larger than life, seething with jealous rage, untapped magic, and raw violence–and put them in an environment that makes them have to work to survive.

Oooh baby…. Now THAT is the antidote to bored ennui in my reading material!

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Filed under Battles, Fantasy, Literature, Publishing, Self Publishing, Uncategorized, WordPress, writer, writing

Tagged as adventure, books, Changeling, fantasy, fiction, humor, literature, magic, Roger Zelazney, Why are we in this handbasket and where are we going, writing

April 24, 2014 · 7:00 am

My manuscript is a Doorstop

I give up.

I need ideas, and they–recalcitrant beasts that they are– will not appear. Please, ideas…have pity on me and put yourself into this manuscript.

I woke with a new book in my head and now I can’t work on the one I am SUPPOSED to be doing…the one my nephew, Robbie, will beat me for if I don’t get it written…

The one that has been in limbo for more than a year.

Outline of Book: done.

First 1/4 of Book — done, done and then done some more — done to the point that there are 160,000 words: TWO books worth of done-ness to sort through and condense into no more than 50,000 words so that the total length of the Book won’t be so big that the paperback is a doorstop.

Tad Williams can get away with a book 520,000 words long (To Green angel Tower) and David Foster Wallace could with Infinite Jest (543,709) –but I’m an indie.

I have to calculate my production costs, and believe me, it’s hard enough for an indie to sell work that is priced reasonably. Once an indie’s paperback increases to more than $14.99 it won’t sell at all, and at anything over 120,00 to 130,000 words your costs are well over the optimum of $12.99.

What to leave in? What to cut?

What the heck?

Second 1/4 of book mostly done, and looking good.

Last half of book nearly done, pleased with the way that is going.

Still drowning in flood of first 1/4–> think there may be a book of short-stories there. Must decide who will live…

…and who will end their days in an anthology of tales of Neveyah….

Sigh.

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Filed under Battles, blogging, Books, Fantasy, Humor, Literature, Publishing, Self Publishing, WordPress, writer, writing

Tagged as adventure, books, David Foster Wallace, fantasy, fiction, humor, Infinite Jest, literature, Tad Williams, To Green Angel Tower, writing

April 15, 2014 · 7:10 am

Hawking Your Wares

Early hot dog merchant, 1936 by Berenice Abbott courtesy EphemeralNewYork.wordpress.com

Early hot dog merchant, 1936 by Berenice Abbott courtesy http://EphemeralNewYork.wordpress.com

Yay! It’s official, I’m an author now! I wrote a book or four, I had them edited, I covered them, and I had them published. Now all I have to is sell enough of the darned things and that Hugo award is mine!

So how do we go about that? There is the tiny problem of that old “getting your name out there” thing…I stink at that.

Roy Huff, author of the Everville series, regularly uses Goodreads to publicize his work. All his Goodreads connections received emails last week like this:

Roy has modified the event Everville (#3) TheRiseofMallory 99 cent promo begins Midnight Pacific The First Pillar FREE KINDLE PROMO starts in 12 hours.
Date: April 14, 2014 04:22AM

Description: A new promo has begun. You can join that promo here https://www.goodreads.com/event/show/… feel free to invite others to join. Details are below as well. Thanks so much!

FREE KINDLE PROMO April 15 to April 18th for Everville The First Pillar http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BCOQSSQ
FREE KINDLE PROMO April 19 to April 22th for Everville The City of Worms [InD’Tale Magazine’s Creme de la Cover March Winner] http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EQZ5T2E

99 CENT KINDLE COUNTDOWN DEAL April 15 to April 21th for Everville The Rise of Mallory http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00HYN 3NXC

Stay tuned on Facebook @http://on.fb.me/1ni21BT
Stay tuned on Twitter @evervillefans

Well, I don’t know about you, but that seems like a good promotion to me, and I will be quite interested to see how well things go for him with it. Roy has a lot of connections on Goodreads, and he puts a lot of energy into promoting his work, so maybe he will do well. He has given me something to think about, in regard to the whole giveaway thing. One reason I made Tales From the Dreamtime, which is a novella, into the first of my audiobooks was the hope that it would generate some recognition for my brand, which if you remember, is my Author Name.

Another author friend, Stephen Swartz, is promoting his works too. Today is Tax Day in the US, so he is running a twitter campaign:

4/15 TAX DAY SPECIAL! 2 Books! 2 Bucks! ‪#‎Kindle‬ ‪#‎romance‬
‪#‎AFTERILIUM‬ http://bit.ly/AfterIlium_US
‪#‎ABEAUTIFULCHILL‬ http://bit.ly/BeautifulChill_US

He didn’t know if Amazon UK will honor the discount, but here are the UK links:

AFTER ILIUM kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009SDW1KC
A BEAUTIFUL CHILL kindle http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I6M4R9Y

I will also find out from him how well that went.

So, I am going to continue the way I have been, promoting via twitter. I have paid for a Goodreads ad for Huw the Bard, for the next two weeks or so and will let you know how well that went. I will also try the Goodreads promotion route in May, and will keep you posted on that.

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Filed under Adventure, Books, Fantasy, Humor, Literature, Publishing, writer, writing

Tagged as Berenice Abbott, books, Connie J Jasperson, Everville, fantasy, Goodreads, humor, Huw The Bard, literature, Roy Huff, Stephen Swartz, Tales From the Dreamtime, twitter, writing

April 13, 2014 · 7:16 am

The Eye of the Beholder

Sigh. I read a lot of indie books. I’ve said this before, but I read or at least crack open around 6 books a week. It never fails–just when I am really enjoying reading a book, something comes along to yank me out of it. Like an asteroid landing in the backyard or squirrels taunting the dog–it’s always some darned thing.

Unfortunate phrasings that yank me out of a book:

“She lay there staring with her creamy blue eyes, water pooling in the corners.”

“Her eyes were the same color as the deep purple velvet drapes.”

Meh. Enough about their eyes already. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be told what to think when I am reading a book. The fact is, what I consider beauty is not necessarily beautiful to someone else. So how do you describe a character in such a way that the reader will find them as attractive as you want them to be?

I think a loose, general description will solve the problem, and give the reader the framework to build their mental image around. In my TOWER OF BONES series, the men in Edwin’s family have this sort of cachet that makes them irresistible to all women. It is the Goddess Aeos’s way of ensuring that the girl she has selected for them falls in love with them, and their bloodline is continued.

But what do they look like? Well, they are blond, blue-eyed, and well-built, muscular from working on their farm. To men they seem rather average, nothing spectacular. They aren’t the best looking man in town, so what is this charisma they seem to have?

To women, they are an irresistible banquet of masculine pheromones. This creates many opportunities for mayhem, and I have had a lot of fun with that particular plot-line, especially in my current work in progress, Mountains of the Moon.

For my other characters in various books–Christoph Berryman is dark, with short black hair and elfin features. Julian Lackland is blond, handsome, the image of the knight in shining armor. Huw the Bard is dark, blue-eyed with black curling hair. Friedr Freysson is tall, with long curling red hair and a beard. Aeolyn is small, with dark hair worn in plaits that she coils around her head like a crown.

This is as descriptive as I get, because I want the reader to imagine the characters’ beauty and magnetism in the way that is most appealing to them.

Because I am a romantic at heart, ALL my characters are exceedingly good-looking in their own different ways. I just don’t want to beat the reader over the head with my personal vision, other than the general description to cement them in place.

In many ways, my mental images of my characters are drawn from the many wonderful characters in the epic Final Fantasy series of games, which these images are also from. I love the fabulous art work that Square-Enix, the makers of these games put into their characters, making them a blend of the best of all we are as humans. Since a great deal of my time has been spent playing these games, It stands to reason a certain amount of that kind of storytelling will creep into my work.

And this is the way it is for every author–your vision is definitely not what your readers see, and to force them to see what you do ruins the flow of the tale. A good general description, with hints or comments about their beauty or lack thereof is all that is needed. The reader’s mind will supply the rest.

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Filed under Books, Fantasy, Final Fantasy, Humor, Literature, Publishing, Romance, Uncategorized, writer, writing

Tagged as adventure, Art, battles, books, fantasy, fiction, Final Fantasy XII, humor, Huw The Bard, literature, Tower of Bones, writing

April 7, 2014 · 6:13 am

10 Things to Do—Part 1, The First 5 Speedbumps

There are things that happen in the natural course of writing the first draft that make it painful for people to read. DO NOT SHOW IT TO YOUR ADORING FANS JUST YET. This really is NOT the time to ask for feedback unless you want to be lied to. They will look at you with a possum-in-the-headlights smile, and say “Wow…this is really…nice.”

What they really are thinking is, “Holy s**t. This disjointed, hokey mess sucks.” That friend will poke needles in their eyes before they read another piece of your work again.

Just sayin’.

But even though the first draft is always stinkaroo, don’t try to edit as you write because it interferes with your creative processes and blocks the flow of ideas. While you’re writing the first draft these bloopers should be allowed to just fall where they may, because you just need to get the ideas down. You will reshape them in the 2^nd draft. So, today I’m posting the first half of a two-part series on 10 Things to Do in the second draft of your manuscript.

Before you do anything, just put it to one side. Forget about it for a while.

A month or so later, after you have gained a different perspective is when you begin to look for these problems. Fine tuning and rephrasing will settle most of them, and a good flamethrower will take care of the rest!

First we will look at:

1. The Info Dump (my personal failing)

Often new authors feel they need to dump a lot of back story at a novel’s beginning before readers will understand the main story. I did this in my first novel, and I have regretted it ever since! It seems like logical thinking: “Before you get this, you need to know this.” But the problem was, I gave the info dump in the first five pages. Those are the pages that acquisition editors look at and decide whether or not to continue reading the submission. For those of us planning to go the indie route, those pages are also the pages the prospective buyer sees in the “look inside” option on Amazon dot com.

While back story is important for character and plot building, too much outright “telling” freezes the real-time story in its tracks. And for modern genre fiction, beginnings must be active—they need to move.

Here is the opening paragraph of my next novel in the Tower of Bones series, Mountains of the Moon. It is a prequel to the first two novels, and this is the way it currently reads in its second draft stage. It may be changed once the editor gets her hands on it, but right now this is how it stands with the info dump removed:

Wynn Farmer discovered his old boots had holes worn in the soles when he heard the soft, squishing sound, perfectly in sync with every step he took. If he’d known he would be dropped into some strange world when he left the house, he might have planned ahead a little better and slipped some new cardboard into his boots, just until he could get them resoled. Now he trudged along a faint path through a dark, eerie prairie with wet feet, shivering in the cold, misty rain and completely lost.

In the second draft we alter the original words we wrote, subtly slipping little details into the narrative while showing the real-time story, and doing it in such a way that it is part of the action and the dialogue, fading into the background. The reader will understand what you are showing them without feeling bludgeoned by it.

2. Telling Instead of Showing in Prose (heh, heh–my own personal failing)

In the rush of the first draft, of getting all our thoughts about the storyline down, sometime our minds go faster than we can write. We use a kind of ‘mental shorthand’ and write things such as:

Erving was furious.

Martha was discouraged.

These are really just notes telling us what direction this tale is supposed to go. Modern readers don’t want to be told how the characters felt—they want to see. When you come across this in a novel, it is clear the author has published a first draft.

Thus, when you come across this in your first draft, now is the time to follow those road signs and expand on the scene a little. Instead of telling the reader that Martha was furious, you will show this emotion.

Martha stamped her foot, and clenched her fists.

Erving’s body shook with rage, and his face went white.

Show the reader the emotions. It adds word count, but you will also be taking word count away in other places in the manuscript as you go along.

3. Using Dialogue to Tell, Not Show (oh yeah–my personal failing)

“I’m simply not going to do it,” Vivian hissed. (Reader: “What, is she a snake?”)

“Why, oh why, did I ever trust her?” Greg said dejectedly. (Reader: “Aw, that’s sad. Boring!”) (Closes book.)

Please, OH please, avoid attaching adverbs ending in “ly” to speech tags. They are the devil!

If you want to convey an attitude in dialogue, the words themselves should communicate it. Greg’s words already communicate dejection. If you need more, add a line of action:

In low tones, Vivian said, “You couldn’t pay me enough to do that.” She turned and walked away.

Greg threw up his hands. “Why did I trust her?”

This gives readers the opportunity to see for themselves the scene you painted with words.

4. A Lack of Contractions in Dialogue (Wait–this is my personal failing too! What’s going on here?)

“Arrabelle, I do not want you to leave me!”

This is one of the worst NaNoWriMo manuscript flaws BECAUSE when we are in the midst of November, we are desperate for word count. “Don’t use contractions” is one of the prime directives of Chris Baty’s “No Plot? No Problem” and if word-count is all you are in the game for, then fine. However, IF you ever intend to publish your work you should use contractions in dialogue. Depending on the type of story you are writing, you may want to use them elsewhere, if that is the style of your work.

This problem may also be a throwback to those days in your high school English class, when teachers deducted points for the use of contractions in term papers. But contractions are effective at conveying realistic speech.

You want dialogue to sound natural? Use contractions.

5. Too Many Speech Tags in Dialogue (Hey–I have that problem too! What the heck…?)

“Jake, are you okay?” Vaia wailed.

“Of course I’m all right,” Jake groaned. “What a silly question.”

“But your arm,” Vaia said. “I thought maybe you…well, the way you’re holding it…I guess I thought—”

“You thought I’d injured it,” Jake said.

“Well…yes,” Vaia said.

Especially when only two characters are talking, readers should be able to keep track of speaker ID with ease. In those situations, speech tags are rarely, if ever, needed. In fact, doing away with tags entirely, unless they are absolutely necessary, is frequently suggested to be a great strategy, although I don’t go that far. Instead of using a speech tag, insert a burst of action before or after a line of dialogue that identifies the speaker and lends opportunities to deepen character chemistry, conflict, and emotions.

Vaia felt something trickling down her cheek. She wiped it, and her hand came away with blood. Jake was pale, and held his arm at a strange angle. “Jake, are you okay?”

“Of course I’m all right. I’m always all right.”

She reached toward his shoulder, toward the torn shirt—but something held her back. “But your arm. I thought maybe ….”

“I’m hurt, but I think it’s fine. You thought maybe I had broken it.” He willed her to admit that she cared.

The intensity of his gaze forced her to look away. “Well…. I did think that. Can you still fight?”

Trade in empty speech tags for emotion-infused writing that can do so much more. HOWEVER—Remember that the reader needs to have clear direction as to who is speaking to whom, otherwise you will lose the reader. And I do recommend you don’t get too creative with them. Said, replied–those are usually all that is required. If you throw in hissed, or moaned, once in a great while for specific circumstances, fine, but not too much please. It’s too distracting for me as a reader. I close that book and move on to the next when the characters do too much hissing and moaning. Just sayin’.

This covers the first 5 things to look for in your second draft. Items 6 through 10 will be covered on Wednesday!

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Tagged as battles, books, fantasy, fiction, humor, literature, manuscript, NaNoWriMo, self publishing, The second draft, writing

April 3, 2014 · 7:10 am

Strapping the Monkey to the Typewriter and Selling His Work

At times, creativity seems to fail. We’ve become bored with the work we’re doing and need some new thing to spark that creative genius lurking deep within our coffee-addled brains (or wine-soaked, as the case may be.) An infinite number of monkeys strapped to IBM Selectrics, industriously typing out Shakespeare could do better.

For myself, the way to beat this is to write something, anything–even if it doesn’t pertain to my major work in progress. The best part of being an indie is that you can write in whatever direction the mood takes you.

And that is how Huw the Bard came about. I was supposed to be working on Forbidden Road, but I had become bogged down. NaNoWriMo came along and Huw grabbed me by the imagination and away we went. This jump-started my mind on the other book too, so I wrote on both books for the next year. Forbidden Road was finished, edited and published in 2013

Now Huw the Bard has been published and I am working on Valley of Sorrows. In the meantime I have to find ways to publicize my work, and since we just acquired a hefty car payment, it must be affordable. (As in CHEAP.)

In other posts I have discussed the importance of getting Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads, Pinterest, Facebook and Google+ profiles created. You must also have your Author Central profile put together on Amazon and one for Smashwords, Barnes and Noble and any other major online place you sell your works.

Today, I want to say that Facebook is fun, and a great place for a free launch party. We had a great time with that, and I do think it helped sell books. But you need a sustainable place to put your work, and Facebook is no longer that great a venue for selling books. I’ve had better luck through blogging, if the truth be told. My good friends helped get Huw the Bard off the ground with their blogs and tweets.

Also, Facebook won’t allow your posts to be seen by many people unless you pay them. They call it ‘Boosting’ the post. I have done that on occasion, and for 30.00 I sold 3 books. That is a terrible return on investment.

I was directed by Aura Burrows, who writes the hit series, “The Cold” on www.BigWorldNework.com, to an interesting and free website run by a friend of hers. It is called The Story Reading Ape Blog and I have gone to the “contact me” page and followed the instructions. It is free, and Chris is awesome as a person–he is very sincere about helping indies get their work seen. I will keep you posted as to how that goes for me, and if you want to try it yourself, please feel free to click the link and go for it.

There are many venues–blog hops, paid ads on Goodreads and Google–all of which I will be doing over the next year. Paid ads are tricky–the ones I can afford are not that big or prominent so perhaps they aren’t a good investment. However, there are many affordable indie book websites who will sell you ad space for $30.00 to $50.00 a whack–a sum that is doable for me if I give up Starbucks for my craft.

So now begins my real push to get my work out there–to make it visible so readers will see it and want to know what it’s about. I have to push Tales From the Dreamtime as well as Huw the Bard, because I have that wonderful narrator, Craig Allen, depending on me to sell our audio-book! I’m selling a few books here and there, but I’ll be posting about which venues were most successful as the year progresses.

The real trick will be to get the work out in the public eye without spamming and alienating my friends.

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Filed under Books, Epilepsy, Fantasy, Literature, Publishing, Uncategorized, writer, writing

Tagged as adventure, books, Facebook, fantasy, fiction, Forbidden Road, Goodreads, Google+, Huw The Bard, literature, Monkeys at Typewriters, romance, Tales From the Dreamtime, The Story Reading Ape Blog, twitter, writing

March 31, 2014 · 5:35 am

HUW the BARD Launch

Today is the official launch of HUW THE BARD, a novel set in the alternate medieval world of Waldeyn.

I am doing something quite unique, for me–I am hosting a Virtual Launch Party via Facebook, complete with virtual canapes, champagne, and caviar. The link for this event is here: Huw The Bard Launch Party. Any and all are welcome to stop by and share in the revelry.

This is the hard part of going the indie route–I wrote, had it edited, got it published, and now I have to sell it. There is an art to this, I ‘m sure! Some people with moderately good books are quite successful, and others with truly great books, not so much. Even Charles Dickens had trouble selling his work, back in the early days of publishing. In fact, most of the early authors of books we now consider classics were unheard of in their own time, except by a few intrepid readers.

So now, in this modern era of social media, I am trying to let the world know I wrote a book. I want folks who might be interested in it to be able to find it.

But I want to do this in such a way that I am not spamming my Facebook friends — because they get enough of that already without me adding to it. Hence, my launch party, open to the public and of course, my friends. How this will go, I don’t know, but I have been looking at other avenues of exposure, and now begins the (tasteful) twitter campaign. Also, many of my friends are supporting me by posting reviews, excerpts and cover reveals on their blogs, which is a huge help.

Carlie M.A. Cullen posted a lovely review.

Maria V.A. Johnson also posted a great review.

Fresh Pot of Tea, Alison DeLuca hosted the cover reveal, and posted an excerpt of the book.

So if you are available, feel free to stop on by the Launch Party, have a virtual canape and swap a joke or two with me and my friends. I will be posting medieval music that I have come across on YouTube, and of course, we will talk about the book.

HUW THE BARD on Amazon.com

YouTube video book trailer featuring the music of Tom Cusack