Well. Maybe I Should Come Clean

I gaze upon Rites of Ascension III and I feel sad and guilty. I've been letting me down; I've been letting you down; I've been letting Jurel down.

I haven't given up, I haven't stopped. I've had to take an unplanned hiatus. 

I've been ill. Very ill. I'm surprised I'm still here to write this blog. 

I am recuperating, albeit slowly. I've had some setbacks but finally after more than a year, the victories are outnumbering the losses. With the help of my lovely Cori and my two shining children, I have been able to fight my way back to the point where I can sit and write this. It's not much but it's a start.

I have every intention of returning to Jurel's story. I want to see the end of his story.

I just hope some of you are patient enough to bear with me a little longer.

I want to thank all of you who have not lost faith. I want to thank all the doctors who have helped me see this side of the debilitating and deadly disease that I almost succumbed to. I want to most thank my wife, my guardian angel, Cori, for being there at my side every agonizing step of the way encouraging me ever onward.

Thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

Now...about Jurel...

I'm Feelin' Pretty Terrible

A message was left for me here the other day. It was not a very flattering message. But it was true enough. If you want to see it, check out the responses to the It's Alive post I made back in September.

To this person, and to everyone else, I apologize. It hurts me that this third book is taking so long. It hurts me even more to know that I have disappointed, and continue to disappoint, all the wonderful folks out there who like my work. I am sorry. 

I am still working on it. It is slow going, and admittedly sporadic, at times. I can only say that this past year has been one major upheaval after the next for me. It's not much of an excuse I know. I just hope that you can bear with me a little longer. Things are starting to settle around here and that means I should have more time to devote to this.

I love reading and I love writing. I can't wait until I can devote more time and a lot more concentration on both.

Cheers to all of you.

It's Alive!

Well, howdy folks! Long time no see!

Another quick update for you:

So, Book 3 of the Rites of Ascension trilogy is finally seeing some real progress. I'm happy with it, and I'm looking forward to starting the editing process fairly soon.

As unimportant as it is at this stage of the game, I've been considering titles. I really want to find a title that fit well with the previous books in the series. I think I've got it. So, at the moment, I do believe the title will be The Broken Sword. What do you think? Good? Bad? Just sort of "meh"?

Tell you what, if anyone thinks they've got a better title, then feel free to post it in the comments. If I decide to use one of your suggestions, I'll gift the third book to you when it's done.

It's on its way, folks! It's coming along! I want to thank all of you for your prodigious patience. I think, in the end, it'll be worth it.

See you soon!

Daily Book Talk

It's been crazy around these parts this last couple of months. Because of this, I have had very little time to devote to this blog. Well...okay, none. I hope to get back in the groove of things soon.

Tonight is going to be just a short note for a cool new site. A friend of mine, Ed Foster, has created a new web site called Daily Book Talk. It's a wonderful site that explores not just individual books but the ideas and the impact of books around the world.

Ed has a singularly penetrating mind and he delves deeply into his topics--which are updated, well, daily. It's a great site for anyone who loves books and reading.

It also has a great forum that, though the site is still quite young, has begun to grow into a diverse community.

Great job, Ed! You have a winner on your hands!

Check it out right here.

So...How Hard Can It Be?

Book three (which is still untitled!) is coming along nicely; this new computer is holding up very well. And now I want to take a little break. So...back to my story.

The Path of the Sword was all snug in its file folder. It was rough and most certainly not ready to be seen by anyone but its daddy, but it was done and tucked safely away. I left it alone; I let it rest (piece of advice: never wake a sleeping baby!).

I'd learned something from Stephen King's book, On Writing. In it, he suggested that, when you're done the first draft, don't look at it--don't even think about it--for a few weeks. He maintained that, if you can put it out of your head then, when you return to it, it'll be with a little more distance and you might be able to view it with a little more objectivity.

So, the baby slept comfortably for a few weeks.

And I opened another blank document, and started jotting down notes for Blood of War.

Of course, I already knew the general direction Blood of War would take--just as I knew what direction book three had to take. I just had to make sure I chose the right route.

I didn't.

Based on my notes, I wrote about four hundred pages, each one harder than the previous. By the time I had gotten to about page three hundred, it was a slog to even manage a page a day--a little down from the ten or so a day I started at. I didn't know why it was so hard; I didn't know what was wrong.

Until I decided to go back and reread it.

Let me tell you something about the very first draft of Blood of War: It was atrocious! It was so bad that it will never see the light of day. It was so bad I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or burn my still shiny netbook. It was so bad...

You get the idea.

Let me clarify. The writing wasn't that bad. It needed polish, a good spit-shine in places, but it was readable. No, that wasn't the problem. The story. The story was the problem. If you've read Blood of War then you know that, at one point, Jurel does something pretty damned cowardly. Something that you might hate him a little bit for (It's okay; I did, too). He had reasons, but it was still a pretty terrible thing.

In the first version, he does the same terrible thing...but the reasons that drove him to it, well, it was not Jurel. He would not have made that decision for those particular reasons.

And that's when it hit me. I didn't go wrong with the story per se. I went wrong because I was not honest. I forced Jurel to do something he would not normally have done to make the story go forward. And the entire thing ended up sucking because of it. I had to rewrite nearly three hundred pages.

I will never make that mistake again.

But before I could rewrite, I went back to The Path of the Sword. It had been several weeks so it was time, and now I had the added reason that I needed to think hard about Blood of War before I could move forward with it.

I Died A Little Inside

Hoo boy, was I excited! A computer! One that would sit on my lap while I typed! Yes, I know laptop ownership is nothing new but, to me, it was. And I was stoked!

Okay, to be honest, we're not talking about a powerhouse gaming rig that would bake me a cake on my birthday or anything. In fact, it was slow, couldn't play HD video, and games? Fuggeddaboutit! But, it ran Openoffice Writer, and that's what it was for anyway. It was very portable; I could take it wherever I wanted. And it fit on my lap!

So...

I sat down at my desk, flipped open the lid, pressed the power button, and waited for it to stroll its way through the boot-up process. I grinned like a kid on Christmas when I heard the Windows XP start-up jingle--and I may or may not have clapped and done a little happy dance.

Then, I opened the case that held the first draft of The Path of the Sword.

And my smile fell off my face with such velocity that, when it hit the ground, the impact registered on the Richter scale.

I carefully hefted the stack of paper out. It was nearly six inches thick. I looked from it to the computer and back. There are still tear stains on that first draft.

I was never an expert typist. I'm no hunt-and-peck, single-finger key stabber but I'm not exactly renowned for my blazing speed. It took me a month.

It was gruelling. Not only because there was so much but because my hand-writing was utterly atrocious. My four-year-old daughter does better with a Crayola.

A month of nothing but deciphering the scribbles--one letter at a time, in places--and tap, tap, tap away.

And when I was done, finally done, I didn't do a happy dance. I took two extra-strength Tylenol and fell into my bed.

I wrote The Path of the Sword, Blood of War, and all of Rites of Ascension III that is so far done. That little netbook lasted through everything I could throw at it and it just kept right on going. I wrote several other little bits and pieces on it, too, including the short stories that are here on this blog, a short story that I wrote for a dear friend and that I posted on the Amazon forums. I spent countless hours stumbling around the internet (Stumbleupon is more addictive than nicotine laced crack!), I spent ridiculous amounts of time in front of that little netbook and it kept on going.

The only thing it couldn't survive was old age. That amazing little netbook expired last week. Done. Kaput.

I bought a new notebook PC that is superior to that little netbook in every conceivable way. It's far, far faster with a high end Core i7 processor and a good Geforce GPU; it has a huge memory capacity--8 GB; it has a monster hard drive--750 GB; it has a 15.6" screen. It even has an audio system by Bang & Olufsen!

Yet...

I'm going to miss that netbook. It got me here. Almost five years, almost always on, almost always doing something. It's like your first car, or the home you grew up in. It's silly, but I'm going to miss that little guy.

Thank you, Acer, for the amazing little Aspire1 that made publishing two books and writing most of a third possible.

And, a special thank you to my mother-in-law and my father-in-law (rest in peace, Barry), for gifting it to me. It means more than you can know.

Return to the Journey

All righty, then! I've sidetracked long enough! It's time to return to my little story. It's getting close to done so why don't I just move along. Now let's see. Where was I? Ah, yes. The completion of the first draft. Right.

So, let's see. I'd finished the first draft; it was all written out in pen. Hundreds of dog-eared pages covered in enough ink to paint a horse. Or two.

It was approaching Christmas. It was a cold, soggy Christmas, as I recall. Snow up the wazoo. That's uncomfortable. My lovely Cori and I were travelling, that year, to visit family. In fact some very special people, Cori's mother and father, drove from Washington DC to meet us in Toronto.

As a side note, our little girl was one that year. Travelling with a one year old child is the height of hilarity (can you see the sarcasm oozing out of your screen?) but we managed.

The moment we left our house, I started getting jittery. My manuscript was sitting in there, all alone, with no one to take care of it. But my lovely Cori was adamant: no thinking about it! It was just a few days, but it really affected me. Probably too much; I probably should have made an appointment with a psychiatrist.

In Toronto, my in-laws (wonderful people!) met us at the hotel where we would all spend the night. Nice place: not too fancy-schmancy but certainly not a run-down cockroach farm either. In their room, they presented us with some early Christmas presents.

And there it was: my shiny new laptop. To be honest, it's a netbook, a little guy that's just perfect for toting around everywhere I go. I was, of course, elated. Ecstatic. Beside myself! (What a silly expression...) At that moment, I wanted nothing more than to start writing. I still have it. I've written both books, the majority of my third book, and this blog on this netbook.

And that's when it came home. Hundreds of hand written pages. Hundreds of them. I had no scanner. Even if I did, my handwriting had been so bad that any character recognition software would have either laughed at me, or had a psychotic meltdown. Chances are, it would have tried to murder me in my sleep. With a pen of course.

The rest of the trip was very nice, I suppose. But I admit I was quite preoccupied. I wanted to get back to the book. At the same time, the thought of painstakingly transferring it all to the digital world caused a certain trepidation...

Aw jeez, who am I kidding? It gave me nightmares!

But more on that later. I have a book to try to finish at some point in the near future.

Book Three--And I'm Still Alive

Okay! I've got the climax of the third book of Rites of Ascension done and it went right where I expected it to go! I don't think anyone will be disappointed. A bit surprised but not disappointed. I think, when it's (finally) done, it will be a good finale.

I was going to post a short excerpt but it's too raw yet. I need to fix up the middle--the pacing is jerky and I'm not happy with some of my phrasing. Well, without getting too involved in the whole thing, there's still a lot of work to get it right. But it's a lot closer to store shelves...or Amazon's digital shelves anyway.

Title-wise, I'm toying with the idea of simply calling it Ascension. It's not bad; it certainly works as a working title. I'll keep a thought on it.

What about the future? Well, when this series is (finally!) complete, I think I'm going to hold off on another series for a while. It has been draining, and pulling together the threads in this third book has been surprisingly difficult. I suddenly have a lot more respect for those writers who pound out series--Robert Jordan (R.I.P, sir) comes to mind.

I have two ideas for single volume works that I'm going to explore. One of them is in my comfort zone--another epic style fantasy. The other is an (gasp!) urban fantasy! Which one, which one...

Well, let's get this third Rites of Ascension out and then we'll see what we'll see.

Oh, and by the way, I'm alive. Thumbs up!

Thanks folks! Talk to you soon!

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.

In the Beginning...

I've embarked on quite the journey. I've been through a lot since I released The Path of the Sword. I'm a pretty private kind of person so not much of what I've been doing gets posted here--which, in retrospect, you're probably grateful for. I mean, who wants to hear about my work day? Really? I suppose if you had a case of insomnia I could help you out. Or if you were suffering from a rough case of "good mood" I have just the cure.

But I'm digressing. I haven't even gotten to the point and I'm already digressing. This bodes well.

With the holiday season at hand, I find I'm reminiscing about things past; between memories of my daughter taking her first steps and my son hurling his very dirty diaper across his bedroom (that was a good day), I somehow managed to think about how I got on this whole writing kick.

First, a little background. I'm a reader. I've always been a reader. I don't think I've gone anywhere without a book since I was ten. But writing...not so much. You see, I was a COMPUTER GUY. I didn't have time to write stories. I was busy writing code.

But about a decade ago, I got an idea for a story. I was excited by it so, naturally, I sat down to write it. It was the first thing I really tried to write--besides creative writing assignments in high school that is. I wrote approximately ten pages--the prologue and the first chapter. Then I read it. Then, horrified by the atrocity I had committed to computer screen, I repeatedly slammed the delete key until all trace of what I had done was gone forever.

It was bad, is what I'm saying. It was eye-gougingly bad. It was...well I think there are statutes in the Geneva convention that make what I had done a crime against humanity.

Resigned, I decided I would--could--never try again.

Yeah. Okay.

About three years ago, an image popped into my head. Clear as day. It was the climax to The Path of the Sword. I don't know where it came from but, by golly, it was compelling. I dared not ruin it by actually writing it, but I thought about it. 

Over the next few weeks, more images came to my head, surrounding the original climactic scene like a posse and I couldn't shake them. Those scenes stuck to me like glue. It got so bad, I started telling my lovely Cori about them. I told her over and over again about the scenes that played out in my head (but did not dare write) and she listened. At first, she listened because she thought it sounded neat. Then, after a week or two, she listened because it was polite. After a month or so, I think she listened only because she loves me just that much.

I was annoying, is what I'm saying. I never shut up about it. I actually had the whole damned thing in my head from start to finish and she heard it all. Over and over again. And soon her smile started to seem forced. If you've ever seen someone smiling while their jaw muscles are clenching repeatedly, you know what smile I'm talking about.

Well, one day, I was talking about it again. Yes, imagine that. Somewhere in the middle of my monologue, Cori sighed deeply and loudly. She leaned forward and placed her hands on my cheeks. She smiled. It was a radiant smile, the kind of smile that stops hearts and turns knees to water. She looked deep into my eyes, and she said, "Sweetie, I love you. More than anything. But please, p*** or get off the pot."

"Huh?" I stammered as my head tried to wrap itself around the incongruity of her words and her smile.

"Either write the thing or shut up about it."

I don't really know why, but it was as if those words were a kind of...mitigation, maybe a pardon for my previous atrocity. I could write it--no one had to be exposed to it if it sucked.

After I finished, Cori read it. She knew the story, of course. I'd told her often enough. But she wanted to read it. I spent the next two days cringing, just waiting for her to tell me what I already knew: "Sweetie, you know I love you. But..."

When she put the last page down, she looked at me and said, "Sweetie, you know I love you. But...How long do you expect me to wait for the second part?"

"Huh?" I stammered.

"This was awesome. I want the next one."

"Huh?" I stammered (She does that to me a lot).

And here we are. The Path of the Sword is out and readers seem to generally enjoy it (though I've taken the criticisms to heart: from now on, I'm going to ask a professional editor to tear my work apart). Blood of War is out and, again, readers seem to generally enjoy it. I'm writing book 3 of Rites of Ascension (title still pending). I have a half dozen other ideas that I want to get to. I have this blog (that I fully admit is not updated nearly enough but, come on! You don't want to know how my son and daughter can get into a screaming match over a sticker book!)

Looks like I'll be writing for a while. Who'd a thunk it?

Thanks everyone.

Decisions, Decisions

You know, I never knew the writing process could be so difficult.

I'll explain it briefly...then I'll end my little rant. Then I'll probably go to bed. After a bowl of chips.

Here's the deal. Rites of Ascension III is well under way. Jurel and his friends are embroiled in some pretty dicey stuff. So far, so good. The problem lies in that I have more ideas for dealing with their situations than I have pages. I've hit a couple of spots where I'm not sure which one is the best.

Now, there are a few solutions:
1) Eeny meeny miney moe. Yeah, I don't like that one either.
2) Play out each one in my head and write the one that sounds best. This one makes me uncomfortable: I can never be sure I've explored it all until it's down on paper.
3) Write them all. Then pick the best one. Ooh. Time consuming. But at least I'll know.

No one ever said this was gonna be easy.

I'm working on it. It'll be out as soon as I can get it done--to my satisfaction. I want the story to be right!


Thanks for your patience, folks.

Okay, rant done. I'm going to go check up on Metana.

To Promote or Not to Promote

There is an issue that has been at the forefront of my mind for months now. It's an issue that is a hot topic among indie writers. Can you guess what it is? Can you?

Oh, right. It's in the title.

Promotion. Ads, giveaways, book-signings, interviews, reviews, rinse, repeat. Is it important? Is it necessary? I don't know. But to some authors, it seems that promotion is more important than production. I mean, they spend months or years producing the next great literary work, then when they publish it, they seem to forget that they're writers. They become marketers. They work constantly, obsessively at it, always trying to find that one great technique or method that'll guarantee bestseller status.

I would never argue that promoting is useless. We've all got to get word of our masterpieces out, we've got to let all the readers out there know that we have something they'll love. But it's too much. Too much stress.

Let's see, between my efforts to get as much writing as possible done, a full time job, spending time with my wife and kids, chores, errands, and time to, you know, eat, sleep and have the occasional shower, I don't have a whole lot of time left over to devote to promoting my books.

Yet, I'm doing all right. Thanks to all the fantastic folks out there, I'm doing all right. J.K. Rowling does not fear that I'll break her sales numbers any time soon but readers are finding my books, readers are reading my books and it seems that readers are enjoying my books (and, hopefully, they'll continue to do so for years to come).

Can promoting more (in my case, 'more' would be read as 'at all') help my sales? Maybe. But enough to warrant all the time that I could have used to continue writing the conclusion to Rites of Ascension? Or even the time that I could be wrestling with my son, or playing tea party with my daughter? I don't know. It has worked for some. The big names in indie publishing--John Locke, Amanda Hocking, J.A. Konrath--have certainly benefited from marketing. But for every story I hear of promoting making a real difference, there are fifty stories of authors who have promoted the living heck out of their work and they're struggling to find even a handful of readers.

There's one more thing to consider. I, too, am a consumer. But when I'm online, I don't look at ads. I just don't register them. They appear all over the place and I sail right on by. Assuming I'm normal (according to my lovely Cori, that's a shaky assumption but never mind that) then it seems plausible to extrapolate that many others don't stop what they're doing to read the ads either. So what's the point?

This will raise many eyebrows among the indie crowd--to many, marketing is as important, or more important, than writing. To those, I say, "Hey, it's a free country. Do what you like." I think what I'd like to do is write a few pages and then color a picture with my daughter.

Rites of Ascension II: Blood of War Now Available

It's out and on sale at Amazon.com for $2.99!

Rites of Ascension II: Blood of War

The Journey Continues.
After his foster father's brutal murder, Jurel Histane unleashed powers beyond his comprehension, perpetrating a bloodbath that left him horrified to the core of his soul.
That day, he discovered the truth.
He knows who he is, he knows what he is.
And now he is on the run, accompanied by his only friends: Kurin, a Salosian healer; Mikal, the commander of the Salosian army; and Gaven, once Jurel's enemy.
He is on the run from a relentless foe: the Soldiers of God, the military army of the Prelacy, intent on destroying him before the truth gets out.
He is on the run from himself, from the darkness lurking, from the awesome power that he desperately does not want.
But there can be no escape. He must either confront the forces rallying against him, or he must die. And if he dies, the world dies with him.
Yet, before he can face his enemy, he must face himself. He must come to terms with the terrible truth that has been hidden all his life beneath the facade of the simple farm boy he once was.

Rites of Ascension II: Blood of War

The wait is over! Rites of Ascension II: Blood of War is finished! Look for it in the Kindle store at Amazon.com by the beginning of next week!

Thanks for your patience. And an extra thanks to Kathleen Valentine at Valentine Design for another phenomenal cover!