Good News--And Bad

Yep, I've got good news and I've got bad news.

Which do you want first? The bad news? Oh, all right.

Rites of Ascension III had a setback. A big one. I was plugging away at it and I was getting more and more frustrated. It looked pretty good but it felt like a shirt that's on backward: it just didn't sit right. So I went back and looked through it. And I tore out about a hundred pages. That means, yes, it's again taking longer than I expected. *Sigh*

Coincidentally, a few days later, I got a review for Blood of War: three stars. The reviewer commented he was concerned that the third book would become too religious- or too politically-based. I removed those hundred pages because it was, in fact, beoming too politically driven and that is not what the series is about. It's about exploring one man's process of growing up. The rest is chaff to make things interesting.

If you're really looking forward to Rites of Ascension III, then all I can do is apologize profusely and assure you that, setbacks notwithstanding, it's still on the go. As soon as it's done properly, I will release it. but as I said before, I won't release it unless I'm satisfied it's the story it was meant to be.

All right, that sucked. The good news then? (Try not to be too disappointed here; it's actually pretty important if you stop and think about it.)

The Amazon customer discussions are almost alive again. If you've never been there, here's some background:

For a long time, the Amazon forums were just rampant with authors and wanna-be authors all screaming, "Buy my book!" It almost killed all real discussion. The place turned into a self-promo wasteland. I never really went. I checked a couple of threads last year but I quickly got tired of "Buy my book!" so I stayed away.

I happened across a thread a couple of weeks ago and it looked interesting. I'd heard Amazon had banned self-promotion on their forums--except in one sub-forum. Frustrated about the progress on my work, I stopped in to take a break.

Okay, it's not perfect. There are a few trolls (for the uninitiated, a troll is forum speak for someone who posts comments that are negative and offensive for the sole purpose of being negative and offensive) and a few authors still post the odd self-promotional tidbit. A few of the more established authors who should know better have taken on the cause that it's their right to promote wherever and whenever they wish. *Sigh again*

But for the most part, conversation is starting to pick back up. Mostly, it's just a lot of fun, with a fair amount of silliness involved (guilty as charged; but please, if you check it out, I'm just goofing around!), There are some good threads starting up with good conversation, good ideas and good book talk. It's starting to be a decent place to get good reading recommendations.

Case in point, one poster, Angela Perry, posted a thread a little while ago, and the question she wanted answered was what did readers want in an online community. This exploded, and over the next several pages of responses, an idea for a new kind of website came out, one where the readers come first, one that, if it works, readers wil be able to use to get ideas to fill their Kindles and bookshelves from other readers.

The thread degenerated toward the end but the idea is a good one and I hope to see it happen.

Check out the forums at Amazon; they're a pretty good place to let your hair down. There are only two rules:

1) Don't self-promote. It's pointless and it angers readers who are sick of the self-promotion. That's why Amazon made it against the rules. If you're an author, self-promoting there will hinder rather than help.

2) Join in and have fun. They talk about anything and everything there.

I'll be there too when I'm on the verge on banging my head on my desk.

Good Times!

Well, last week, to celebrate my birthday I gave away The Path of the Sword for three days. A bunch of you snapped up copies and I couldn't be more thrilled. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed giving it.

Now that the holidays are all over and done with, it's time for me to get serious again. I've had a wild few weeks--Christmas with two children under five, I'm finding, can only be described as wild--and it's been a great time, but I need to buckle down. I need to get my head in the game. I need to...

You get the idea.

I've picked up the pen (keyboard) again and I'm banging away at Rites of Ascension III. I still have a way to go, but it's turning out pretty well so far.

I'll let you know, a little closer to release, what the title is going to be. I have a couple of ideas but I don't want to set anything in stone yet.

Back to it!

Last Day!

This is it. The countdown is on. The great birthday celebration is winding down. The Path of the Sword is still free but only until the end of today! Grab yourself a copy today!

And remember: the sequel, Rites of Ascension II: Blood of War is out!

Part III is just around the bend (maybe two bends; it's taking me a little longer than anticipated).

Thanks for all your support!

Celebration Sale!

It's ma burfday! Yes it is!

To celebrate, I'm giving away The Path of the Sword for the next three days! I wanted 3.5 days--you know 'cause I'm 35 and all--but Amazon doesn't allow half days.

Until 12:00 am PST on the 18th of January, The Path of the Sword is free for the taking! Enjoy!

Goodreads

I'd like to say I hope everyone had a great holiday season. I haven't been around much because of my own revelries but now that it's done for another year, well, here I am.

I'm changing the pace a little this time. Some of you may have noticed that I'd begun writing about how I became a writer. I did this for two reasons:

1) Some of you may be interested in trying your hand at penning your own work and I thought I'd pass on any wisdom I've come across in the last couple of years. It's a shallow well yet but in time hopefully I'll have some useful nuggets for you.

2) The subtitle of my blog is 'A Writer's Journey'. Seemed to make sense to me that I actually mention something about my journey.

Today, I want to mention something just a little different. Goodreads.

I signed up some months ago but I didn't do very much with it. I was always too busy with other stuff to really give it a whole lot of attention. But, lately, I've been going more often and I have to say, it's not bad. No, it's not bad at all. In fact, I'd say it's one of the best resources a reader--or writer--can have at his or her disposal. Not only can you find any number of books that you may enjoy but there are a lot of authors and authors' groups that you can interact with.

Think Facebook, but for books. And without the eye-rollingly bad status updates.

So I've made an effort to create a more complete profile which you can see here. It still needs work--I'm still tinkering with it--but it's well worth the effort. It's a great place to discover new books, and readers interested in the same things you are.

Now, I know that, if you do happen to take a look at my profile, you'll notice I have a lot of books by very few authors. This part has, so far, been the most time consuming for me. I've read thousands of books in the past twenty five years and I'm trying to remember them. I'll never remember them all, and even of the ones I remember reading, I may not retain enough to remember whether or not I enjoyed them.

It'll look weird that I have suddenly read so many books but rest assured I have read everything I listed (just not, as Goodreads indicates so far, all in January).

Any down sides to Goodreads? One: sometimes navigation is a little confusing. But once you get the hang of it, you'll love it. I wholeheartedly recommend it to everyone.

A great site. If you love reading or if you're an author looking to have a closer rapport with your readers, I heartily urge you to check it out.

From Idea to Outline to First Draft

I had my ideas on paper. In point form, they didn't really evoke a sense of awe. Rather, it was thirty-odd pages of scribbles that, frankly, looked like a really long doctor's prescription. I could read it, but just barely.

It wasn't entirely my fault. I was writing at a break-neck pace, trying to get all the ideas out so I wouldn't forget anything. I wrote until my fingers cramped and I wrote while my fingers were cramping. I wrote beyond that until my hand was numb. In fact I wrote so much, the body of the pen made an imprint in my finger and thumb that lasted days after I put it down.

My brother once took me jogging. I'm not much of a jogger. I'm more of a sitter. An eat-chips-and-swig-Pepsi-by-the-gallon-then-take-a-nap-before-bed sitter. About five minutes into the jog, I was panting and sweating enough cola out my pores to cause diabetes. I begged him to stop. I don't think he heard what I said; the words sort of stumbled out between death-rattle gasps. But he got the gist, I think, by the begging look I gave him and the fact that I was gripping my guts as though I was afraid they were going to fall out.

Of course, he wasn't even winded. The man's an ox: martial arts, weight-lifting, calisthenics: his left pinky finger can bench press more than I can.

He looked at me and smiled (he smiled!) and said, "You gotta push through the pain."

I don't think he knew this, but after he turned back around to keep up his torturous pace, I flipped him the bird. Okay, I didn't. I tried, but I couldn't seem to stop my arm from flopping around like spaghetti.

But as I wrote, I understood. I wrote, and I wrote, and it didn't matter if my hand was turning into a twisted, mal-formed claw. It didn't matter if my arm went numb. I just had to keep writing. Push through the pain: I got it.

And it only got worse. You see, at this point, it was time to organize the point-form notes into an actual story. I mentioned I didn't yet have my laptop. It was all done by hand. I went through a box of pens before the story was down. I went through two packages of lined paper. I went through a dozen layers of skin.

I would not stop until it was out of me. Strangely, I would not stop because I could not stop. I was gripped by some manner of ghost, possessed by some sort of demon, that would not let me lay my pen down, that laughed maniacally whenever my knuckles seized. The bastard.

Three months passed like this. Three mind-numbing, knuckle-busting months. I don't remember much else from that time. I've never been so obsessed about anything ever. When I laid my pen down, forcing my fingers apart to do so, I stared at the page, at the words, "The End" with a combination elation and sadness. Elated because I had done it, and sad because, well, the story was out. It's like saying good-bye to your best friend. I know that sounds weird. I mean, the story was sitting right there, right in front of me. But it wasn't the same. And I felt sad.

But it was done. I now had my book, The Path of the Sword, out of me. On paper.

And that's not what any of you read. That was only draft 1. The story had to do a lot of growing before it became the book you read (or maybe you didn't, I won't judge). That part of the process took much, much longer.

Especially since it was around that time that I got my laptop. *Sigh*

Behind the Scenes Mechanics

My lovely Cori had succeeded in kicking me in the butt (metaphorically).

After the kick in the butt (metaphorically), I was brimming with energy. I wanted to write this book. I needed to write it.

I pulled out paper and pen (I didn't have my laptop yet) and started scribbling away.

And that's all I was doing: scribbling. Sure, I had ideas. Sure, the whole story was there in my head trying to pop out. That was the problem: the entire story was trying to pop out all at once. If you don't already know this, take it from me: trying to get a dozen ideas out all at the same time doesn't work.

After a few pages of garbled junk, I sat back in frustration. I needed to do something about this. I needed to organize my ideas into one cohesive, chronological list.

Well, though I hadn't written much since high school, I still remembered some of the lessons. I realized an outline was needed. So I sat and started getting my ideas out in point form, line by line. Each fully developed idea became a scene...scenes that tied in became chapters. Oh sure, I had to move a few scenes around, chapter 6 became chapter 8, chapter 7 became chapter 6; all for the sake of clarity and, well frankly, entertainment.

When I put my pen down, I had about thirty pages of notes.

And the basic outline of The Path of the Sword.

And then the fun started.