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Making Plans

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on March 21, 2012| 4 Comments »

When I look ahead, I’m feeling a little scattered, so it’s time to lay out a plan again.

E-Publishing:

  1. “Heart of Oak” is out. I’ve made four sales so far–two on Amazon and two on Smashwords. Not exactly setting the world on fire, but then I haven’t done very much to try to promote it, either. Actually, “Heart of Oak” is likely to be part of the promotion when I eventually get BLOOD WILL TELL out.
  2. “Becoming Lioness” is another novelette, currently out on submission. I should be hearing in the next week or so. If it comes back, it’ll be my next e-publishing venture.
  3. “The Music Box” is a novella I had shelved because it’s really much more romance than fantasy. The speculative element is very slight and, in fact, you could remove it altogether and the story wouldn’t be noticeably changed. But I’ve always liked it anyway, so I keep coming back to it. So, I’m halfway through a revision right now. I’ll probably try to get a critique or two. Then I’ll either submit it to the same market that has “Becoming Lioness” now or just e-pub it.
  4. All this leads up to e-publishing BLOOD WILL TELL probably at the end of April or the beginning of May. It’s ready to go except for the specific e-publishing formatting, but that’ll be more complicated than for the shorter works. One or more of the shorter works published in advance of this will probably then be used as giveaways to help pomote the novel.
  5. I’ll need to make the revisions to BLOOD IS THICKER, the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL, so I can e-publish this sometime later this year.
  6. Then I’ll have to write the third book in the series BLOOD STAINS, so that I can e-publish it no later than this time next year.

Traditional Publishing:

I haven’t given up on this.

  1. I’m still querying MAGE STORM, at least until I get FIRE AND EARTH (formerly SEVEN STARS) ready to query.
  2. I need to finish up the last little details to get FIRE AND EARTH ready to start querying, probably next month. I think the query’s good–for this pass anyway. Experience tells me I’ll probably do a revision or two during the querying process. I do need to polish up the synopsis. I’ve got some feedback coming in on the first chapter. I’ll need to give that a shine and also make one more pass through the whole thing before starting to query.
  3. MAGIC’S FOOL is out for critiques now. I’ll need to make revisions to that, too, when all the critiques come back.
  4. I’ve started work on MAGIC’S APPRENTICE, sequel to MAGIC’S FOOL, but I’ll probably be setting this aside, soon. It really doesn’t make much sense to devote a lot of time to the sequel before I even start querying the first book.
  5. I’m just about ready to start work on the first draft of THE BARD’S GIFT, my young adult alternate history (with dragons).

All right. No wonder I’m feeling a little scattered, is it? Now all I have to do is prioritize. For the moment:

  1. Finish the revision to “The Music Box” and decide what to do with it.
  2. Get ready to query FIRE AND EARTH.
  3. Start THE BARD’S GIFT.
  4. Revisions to MAGIC’S FOOL.
  5. Prepare BLOOD WILL TELL for e-publishing.

That ought to keep me busy for the next couple of months.

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Middle Books in a Series

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , , on March 18, 2012| 6 Comments »

This subject comes up for several reasons. The main one, of course, is that it’s something I’m struggling with myself. In another month or so, I’ll start the second draft of BLOOD IS THICKER, which is the sequel to BLOOD WILL TELL. While I complete the research and preparations for THE BARD’S GIFT, I’ve also been sporadically working on MAGIC’S APPRENTICE, which is the sequel to MAGIC’S FOOL. In both cases, there will be at least one more book in the series.

As I see it, both from reading and writing series, there are three problems inherent in sequels, in particular in the middle books.

The first is one I hope I don’t have in any of my stories because it annoys me as a reader: when the middle book in a series is just a bridge between the beginning and the end. These books often lack an identifiable story arc of their own. They’re just there to get you from the beginning to the end. It’s a problem most often encountered in trilogies.

The second is one of just maintaining reader interest, even if the book does have its own story (although this becomes much, much harder for middle books that don’t actually tell a full story). I have a theory about this that I’ve blogged about before. Particularly in fantasy, in the first book the reader has the wonder of discovering this new world, its magic and its rules, and the characters. The last book has the whiz-bang fireworks of the climax of the series. The middle book is, well, stuck in the middle.

This is where I think there’s a certain genius in series like HARRY POTTER. J. K. Rowling doesn’t show us all of Harry’s world in that first book. We’re still discovering new things well into the series. Yes, THE SORCERER’S STONE gives you the wizarding world, Diagon Alley, Gringot’s Bank, Hogwarts, and quidditch. But THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS gives you the flying car, the whomping willow, huge spiders, and the basilisk. THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN (on the television right now as I write this) gives you hippogriffs, dementors, and the Marauder’s Map. I don’t think I even have to go into THE GOBLET OF FIRE. The point is, the wonder of discovering this world is stretched out throughout the whole series.

There’s a lesson in that, I think. Now, if I can just figure out how to apply it to my own stories.

The third problem is one that relates especially to independent stories within a series. To a certain extent in this kind of series, it shouldn’t matter if the reader takes the books in order. And there’s the problem. When I start to write the second (or, in this case, third) book in the series, I want to set it up so that the reader can plunge in even if they’ve never read the first book. But, and here’s the problem, I’ve got all these places and characters that I’ve already established. Some of the things that have already happened in the first book are going to influence the relationships between these characters and how they approach the problems presented in the second (or third) book.

So, the problem is to present enough of that background–and only as it becomes relevant to the story–without slowing the main story down to a crawl or overwhelming it with extraneous details. It’s a very fine line. And frankly, one that I’ve never managed to walk on a first draft.

It’s a very real challenge. To me, this is a place where it’s vital to have beta readers. In particular, two groups of beta readers: some who’ve read the first book and can complain if you slow the story down with too many details about what happened before, and some who haven’t read the first book and can tell you when they get confused because something that was explained in the first book was just assumed in the second.

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Research

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 14, 2012| Leave a Comment »

First an update: “Heart of Oak” is now available on Amazon as well as Smashwords. It’s still working its way through Smashwords’ review process for inclusion in the Premium Catalog which would make it available in other markets.

I’m considering two more short works that I might decide to e-publish in the next month. Another novelette and a novella I shelved for being more romance than fantasy. But hey, romance sells.

Then, at the end of April, I will most likely e-publish my first (publishable) full novel, BLOOD WILL TELL, a paranormal romance/urban fantasy. To be followed by its two sequels: BLOOD IS THICKER and BLOOD STAINS. I have a draft of BLOOD IS THICKER, but it’s nowhere near ready for publication yet, so that full slate would likely take a year or so.

Meanwhile, I’m continuing to seek traditional publication for my middle grade fantasy, MAGE STORM, and I’ll probably start querying my young adult fantasy FIRE AND EARTH (formerly known as SEVEN STARS) next month.

Now, on to future works:

I’m continuing the research for my young adult alternate history story THE BARD’S GIFT. The research is not only giving me the appropriate background for the story, but helping me to crystalize what the major conflicts–internal and external–will be.

The research is necessary of course to fill the place of world building. In an ordinary fantasy, I get to determine the various elements of the culture–what they wear, what they eat, what kind of shelter they live in, what the rules and mores of their society are, etc. In an alternate history, most of that should be as close as possible to the real historical culture. Of course, given the addition of dragons, some things are going to have to change at least a little.

For those of you who may be wondering, THE BARD’S GIFT is set against the failure of the Viking colony in Greenland. As far as history knows, the settlers all died, probably of starvation, during the cold spell known as “The Little Ice Age”. But there were at least three other things they could have done, if they’d chosen to, including sail to that part of the map marked “Here Be Dragons”.  And that’s where THE BARD’S GIFT will start.

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Heart of Oak Available

Posted in writing, tagged , , on March 11, 2012| 6 Comments »

I did it. “Heart of Oak” is now available on Smashwords for $0.99.  I’ve even made my first sale. In the next few days, I’ll have to work on the Amazon edition, too.

This is a 9500-word novelette. Markets for stories of this length are slim, at least for those of us who aren’t established authors. So it seemed like a good choice for this first foray into the world of e-publishing.

I’m glad I started with something short and relatively uncomplicated. There were a lot of things I didn’t have to worry about, like chapter headings and a linked table of contents. Next time, or whenever I do BLOOD WILL TELL, I think I’ll get a little more daring and use a graphic as a page separator, at least between the title/copyright page and the text, as well as between the end of the text and the end material (author bio, where to find me on the web, etc.) We’ll see how that works out. There’s a possiblity I may do another novelette before that, though.

Formatting for Smashwords isn’t difficult. It just takes attention to detail and changing things from standard manuscript format to something more polished looking. Well, actually, the formatted file before upload looks less polished, but once it goes through Smashwords’s Meatgrinder, it comes out looking pretty good.

Heart of Oak:

There’s a large burl on the huge old oak at the heart of the forest that makes the tree appear to be pregnant. What will it give birth to?

Kerica is born from the oak tree knowing nothing of the humans among whom she finds herself. The tree had a reason for making her, but Kerica has to figure out what it was for herself before she can decide where she belongs.

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Update on E-Pub Plans

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 7, 2012| 7 Comments »

I’m still working my way through all the information on formatting a manuscript for e-publication. There’s a lot of it.

However, I am also seriously considering entering this contest and having e-published a novel would potentially be a disqualification. There’s no doubt it would be a challenge to organize things–Mom’s care first of all–in the unlikely event that I won, but I think I’d find a way.

Meanwhile, I’ve been playing around with another cover art idea. This is obviously barely started. The dimensions aren’t even right, yet. I think it could be interesting, though.

Also in the mean time, I’m thinking of starting off with something smaller. A novelette titled “Heart of Oak”.  That might be a more manageable place to start, anyway. And then I could give the novelette away for free when I eventually e-pub BLOOD WILL TELL. Guess I may have to start on cover art for that, too.

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Other Fantastic Creatures

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on March 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »

The last post was about dragons. This one is about everything else.

I write fantasy, so fantastic creatures creep into my stories all the time. Sometimes I plan for them to be there. Other times, they just show up.

BLOOD WILL TELL/BLOOD IS THICKER have unicorns as well as dragons. Other fantastic creatures (or, as they are called in this world, magical races) are mentioned, but don’t actually have much of a role. At least not yet. There’s still the third book (tentatively, BLOOD STAINS) to be written. And since that one will involve a battle to defend their home, who knows which ones will turn up to take a part in that?

MAGE STORM also has griffins as well as three kinds of dragons.

SEVEN STARS remains the only novel-length story I’ve written with no fantasy creatures in it at all. Hmm.

MAGIC’S FOOL has some creatures of my own devising, sort of. There’s something very similar to a saber-tooth cat (although I’ve made my own revisions and additions) and a kind of zebra-like wild horse with leopard spots instead of stripes. In addition to wyverns and maybe a hippocampus, later stories in the series will have more odd creatures from my own imagination. In an earlier version of these stories, there was an unusually large and intelligent spotted flying squirrel, a sort of cross between a wild pig and a rhino, and possibly some really mean miniature unicorns. Making up my own creatures can be fun. I should do it more often.

At least right now, the plans for THE BARD’S GIFT don’t include anything other than dragons. But, I haven’t even started writing it yet, so who knows what may show up.

I’m also wondering what imaginary creatures I might want to include in my retelling of the fairy tale “Little Furball”.

 

 

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Dragons

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 29, 2012| 6 Comments »

This post is dedicated to dragons. No, I’m not going to tell you about dragons. You already know.

I love this quote from G. K. Chesterton:

Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children that dragons can be killed.

Except for one thing: Why do you want to kill the dragons?

Most of my stories seems to have dragons in them, for some reason.

BLOOD WILL TELL/BLOOD IS THICKER/(and eventually BLOOD STAINS) have dragons as major characters or even the main character. These dragons can take human form and have some interesting difficulties as well as advantages in dealing with our world. The family is into banking, since guarding treasure comes naturally to them.

MAGE STORM has three different kinds of dragons. Mountain dragons are merely incidental (although one would become much more important in the next two books, WILD MAGE and DRAGON MAGE, if they ever get written. That most likely depends on whether any agent and editor ever like MAGE STORM enough.) Water dragons are a little more important to the story. And then there are the Keepers, tiny dragons who maintain the magical library. I have to admit, I love the Keepers. These are all neutral or actually helpful creatures.

SEVEN STARS may be the only novel I’ve written that makes no reference to dragons at all. Hmm.

MAGIC’S FOOL does not have a live dragon in it, but it does have a story about a dragon and a group of suggestively placed sea rocks called the Dragon Bone Chain. The importance of the largest, Dragon Skull Islet, will only be revealed in later books.

Even one of my trunk novels, DREAMER’S ROSE, had a dragon in it. The dragon wasn’t important to the story, but it was there. Someday, I may figure out what I need to change in that story and rewrite it.

And at least one of my planned novels, THE BARD’S GIFT, will have dragons in it. Yes, it’s alternate history. I’m altering history to include dragons, as well as in other ways.

So, what is this thing I have about putting dragons in my stories.

 

 

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E-Publishing and Cover Art

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , on February 26, 2012| 2 Comments »

Well, I’m a lot closer to being ready to e-publish BLOOD WILL TELL. I’ve been studying all of the material on Smashwords. There’s a lot of it, so it’ll take me a while longer to work through it and be ready to actually go ahead. But this is definitely in the works.

 

 

Meanwhile, I have a first draft of the sequel, BLOOD IS THICKER. It’s nowhere near ready yet, but my wonderful critique partners will help me with that. I’ve been playing around with an image I found that could work for the cover of BLOOD IS THICKER. Unfortunately, right now, I can’t afford to hire someone to do a cover for me. Maybe if I get a few sales of BLOOD WILL TELL.

This image is nowhere near ready yet. This is just a very rough idea of what it might look like.  Think of it as a half-finished first draft. My main problem with it is that it’s so different from the cover art for BLOOD WILL TELL. They won’t look like they belong to the same series. Which means I may have to–eventually–come up with a new cover for BLOOD WILL TELL. I have a couple of ideas.

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Blood Will Tell

Posted in writing, tagged , , , on February 19, 2012| Leave a Comment »

Wow. I got so busy going through a final edit of BLOOD WILL TELL, I almost forgot to blog today.

 I am now 95 % certain that I’m going to go ahead and e-publish this, so look for an announcement in the next week or two.  I’ve got the cover art about as good as I can make it. I’ve been through the manuscript one last time. Now I just need to do the formatting and familiarize myself with Smashwords and figure out how to upload it to Amazon.com.

I also need to make a phone call to the agent who’s had the full manuscript. It’s been five months, so I’m pretty sure I know what her answer is, but I just need to touch base and make sure.

Here’s a teaser:

Valeriah let the droning voices wash over her, ignoring them. Politicians and businessmen: they could talk more and say less than any ten other groups. Fortunately, it wasn’t her job to listen to them. In fact, better not, since she needed to stay alert.

She scanned the crowd again. She didn’t see anything out of place, but her instincts screamed at her that something was wrong. Sight could be deceiving, so she submerged herself in her other senses. Senses that were sharper than a human’s.

There. The sharp scent of fear overlaid with anger. That was out of place on a sunny day at the opening ceremony for a new high school science lab. Circulating inconspicuously through the crowd, Valeriah let her nose lead her to the source. The man in the bright yellow T-shirt didn’t look like much, but a concealed weapon could be a great leveler. She didn’t smell gun oil on him, but there was something else.

The mayor finished his “brief” remarks, finally. Zobran–he called himself Zebulon Towers on this side of the portal–stood to give his speech as the primary benefactor of the lab. Valeriah breathed more deeply, still trying to identify the strange scent. Not dangerous. But something . . .

The yellow-shirted man moved forward, raising his arm and shouting. “Towers Technology works for the military. Their money is blood money.”

Oh. One of those. He probably wasn’t a real threat, but her job right now was to safeguard Zobran.

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First Chapters

Posted in writing, tagged , , , , , , on February 15, 2012| Leave a Comment »

There’ no getting around it. The first chapter of a novel is as important to the querying process as the query letter itself and the dreaded synopsis. Some agents ask for a sample along with the query, which is usually the first chapter or some portion of it. (Very few, in my experience, as for more than the first chapter.)

So, along with polishing the query letter to a high sheen (which I’m still working on), and trying to write a good synopsis, I also have to try to polish up that first chapter so it will entice an agent to ask for more. I just finished the polishing edit on this one and I really, really, still love this story. I want to give it its very best chance.

The whole manuscript of SEVEN STARS has been critiqued by seven different critique partners. I’m confident in the story as a whole, but I want a little extra on the first chapter. And I know a lot of other writers are in the same boat. Therefore, what better than to help each other out. With that in mind, I’ve started a First Chapter Challenge on Hatrack River Writers Workshop. We can read and critique each others’ first chapters.

The great thing about a challenge like this 

is that you can learn so much. Not just from the critiques on your chapter, but from what you notice in other people’s chapters that maybe you would never notice in your own. It’s a win/win.

I’m only just a little nervous about the time commitment. In addition to my regular number of critiques, I expect to have three full novels to critique in the next two months. And now I’ve added the first chapter challenge, too. Judging from the number of responses to the challenge in the first day, it’s going to be a popular one. That’s good.

I may be crazy, but I’m looking forward to it. Critiquing is as important a part of growing as a writer as writing and learning to get critiques are.

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