What a SLACKER!

I haven't posted here in so long, dear blogledites, and yes, I've had a lot going on in my life, but also I've felt sort of defeated of late. For those of you who've never done it, let me tell you: the self-publishing world can chew you up and spit you out if you're not prepared for it.

It was never my goal to make a fortune with this book. Let's face it: these days you only make a fortune if you write crap, a la The Da Vinci Code or Fifty Shades. My goal with my book was just to have people read it and enjoy it. I've been frustrated by how few people seem to be purchasing it not because I wanted to make $$$, but because that means so few people are reading it!

I've decided to take a philosophical view on the issue from now on. I write for me, and the rest is just details. People buy it or they don't; they read it or they don't. At least I know I've put out a high-quality product that I enjoy.

In other news, I got a new 5-star review! That helps.  :)  It came with this handy-dandy sticker...

You can find it HERE. I also received two new reviews from the lovely ladies at Famous Five Plus. You can find those HERE.

That's about all from me today. I'll try to be less of a slacker from now on!

Part Two: Let's Talk...

Now, a few days later than promised, on to the second question: process!


I used to just sort of write at my work. I have about a zillion unfinished stories haunting my harddrive, and they might never get finished. Why? For some of them, because they're just not very good. For others, I never really intended to finish; it might just be a scene or a pretty moment that I can use later. For most of them, though, it's because I never established a routine.


Shortly before I dove into this book, I read Stephen King's On Writing. Now, look, don't be a snob. If you're here reading this you have no reason to be a snob -- I write trash, in King's words, but I hope I write good trash. On Writing was invaluable to me. I learned so much from it, and it's not even a very long book. It's approachable, interesting, and easy to read.


In it, King says he sets a word goal for himself every day, and he doesn't stop writing until he reaches that goal. So that's what I did. My goal was easy peasy: 1k words. That's not very much; I set the bar low on purpose so it would seem achievable. Most days I wrote at least 2k words, and some days as many as 4k. Other days those measly 1k words seemed like a damn marathon. I would sit and sit and every single sentence was like a major dental procedure.

Here's a newsflash, kids: despite what people think, writing isn't easy. Anyone who tells you otherwise is either a fool or a liar. Or a really crappy writer. I don't think there's anyone out there who listens to Mozart and thinks, "Shit yeah, I could compose that in my SLEEP!" But there are plenty of people who will read an amazing book, shrug, and say, "Easy. Gimme a typewriter and an idea and I'll give you a best seller."

It doesn't happen that way. Writing 98k words (the rough length of Dark Man) takes discipline. Blood, sweat, and tears. Don't get my wrong, dear blogledites; I'm in no way comparing myself to Mozart. I'm just saying that just because you can write a coherent sentence doesn't mean you should write a book.

Also, and here's something else I learned from Stephen King: don't write unless you're also reading. It never occurred to me that there were writers out there who don't read. How the heck can you know good writing unless you read? How can you know your genre, your audience, your voice?

Whenever I picked up a book to read while writing Dark Man, it helped me clear my head. I went back to writing with a different perspective, and a voice in my skull other than my own. My sentence structure and vocabulary became more varied. It was nothing at all but win.

So. What have we learned here? Stephen King knows a damn lot about writing. Set a routine. Read a lot, as much as possible. Don't be an arrogant sod.

Words of wisdom for a lifetime, dear blogledites.  :)

Let's Talk...

Process! (a 2 part series, because it turned out longer than I meant)

People who know I wrote a book (all, like, 5 of you!) often ask me questions like how long did it take, or what sort of routine did I follow while writing. Well, dear blogledites, I shall now pull the curtain back and expose the mystery of my writing process to you!

Let's address the first question first: how long did it take me to write The Dark Man's Son. Ha. That's a funny question, really. I've been writing stories with the Guardian characters since I was probably 14. They've gone through a LOT of changes over the years. Originally there was just Alex (who had a different name; big surprise). Then I decided she had a brother, but he was dead. Then I decided that once upon a time there had been 100 Guardians, 50 Light and 50 Dark. Present day, there are only 2 left, and they've gotta duke it out for the Big Fight.

That idea didn't last very long. Too many complications to work out. Eventually I decided on the form they take now: 2 Guardians, one of each, and they've both existed since the beginning. Oh, wait. That took me a while to decide, too. I read Sandman by Neil Gaiman a few years ago, and that helped me to define my characters' age. How? Well, in Sandman, Dream and his siblings are called the Endless. I liked that. They (at least Death) were older than...pretty much everything. I thought about it, and I realized there'd be no need for Guardians until there were mortals. And then I decided they'd be the Youngest. Angels are the Eldest, I guess you could say, and then mortals, and then Guardians.

Anyway. It also took me 16 years to work out Alex herself. Her original incarnation was pretty much flawless, a beacon of shining light. It took a while for me to realize how boring that is. Alex now is...well, read and find out for yourself, but she's not exactly Mary Sunshine. Good is sometimes relative.

It takes a perspective a bit broader than a 14-year-old's to attempt to write an immortal being. I'm not saying I'm Ms. Worldly or anything, but time has helped a bit. I think the reason Alex faded into the background a bit more than I originally intended is because I felt sorta like Jason: an outsider looking into a world I didn't really understand. I have no idea what it would be like to exist for literally billions of years. What has she seen? What has she done? What sort of life is that?

Everything I've ever read has influenced this story. I'm talking obvious influences like Robin McKinley or Neil Gaiman or Cormac McCarthy, but also more subtle ones like Homer or Vasari's Lives of the Artists. I spent a long time in college -- I was on the 7 year plan -- and had quite a few majors before I decided on one. All of that has gone into this book in one way or another.

To answer the question a bit more directly (or to actually answer the damn question), once I sat down to start writing this particular book, it took me about 3 months to finish the first draft. I had some scenes written already, and I pulled some scenes from previous stories, but everything got reworked to fit this story. The scene where Alex and Luc meet Rorik was an old one. The opening scene of the book was a bit older than that. The scene where Jason first meets Cassius was the oldest of all, over 10 years. That one got reworked a lot.

Point is, an idea can take a long time to develop before it's ready. Sometimes it needs coaxing or refining. If it's a good idea, it'll work out. If it's not...well, forget it and come up with something better.  :) (she says like it's so easy)

Tune in tomorrow, dear blogledites, for Part 2 of this ramble: Process (for real)!

An update...because why not?

Today is Mother's Day, and I just wanna let y'all know that I have a great mom. She's awesome. Happy Mother's Day to her, and I'm glad she's able to put up with all my shit.

In other news...I signed a contract with the oh-so-talented Cathy Helms to design my book cover, and I'm very excited. She's going to be working on it near the end of the month, and I can't wait.

I haven't done much with the book in the last week or so. I'm trying to let it breathe -- like wine, I guess -- and then once Cathy gets the cover to me, I'm going to give it another read through. The last one. Really. I'll do any final (REALLY) tweaks, and then it'll be ready to go.

It's sort of surreal, because I finished it a few weeks ago, and it's kind of like...then the hard work began. Would I do anything differently at this point? No, I don't think so. This process is exhausting, a bit, but overall worth it. I'm excited about the release and the cover and all of it.

Short entry tonight, kids. I'm tired, but I didn't want the blog to feel neglected. Hi, blog. Here's a cookie.

Don't feed the idea gremlins after midnight

I want to go to sleep. I had a long day, and I'm tired. You might be wondering why I'm telling you (the infinite abyss) this rather than just going to sleep, but it's pretty simple: I can't get my brain to shut up.

Seriously. I'm writing scenes from the sequel in my head AS I FRAKKIN TYPE THIS. Do you have any idea how annoying that is? I can't get the characters' voices out of my head. They have medication for that.

I'll probably try to get it down on "paper," but then it won't be as good as what I'm hearing in my head right now, and I'll be all pissed and disappointed and end up staying up until 8am or something trying to get it right. Thus is the curse of a writer. As melodramatic as that sounds, I've come to accept its truth.

In other news, didn't go to The Avengers midnight screening tonight. I thought about it, toyed with the idea, but in the end I decided I'd rather wait a few days. Midnight screenings are fun, but they're also stressful. I don't do well around huge, excited crowds.

Ari Hest is playing the late show tomorrow at the Muse, and I'm excited about that. Gonna see Joe and Bradley play with The Matt Perrone Band on Saturday for Joe's birthday, so that should be fun. Other than that...I'm bleary-eyed and tired of thinking about angels and demons.

What idjit thought this writing thing was a good idea?

Novella, novella, novella

So, hey, I finally sat down and started writing the novella! I'm only about 3k words into it, but it's actually pretty decent. I'm not...100% sure what's going to happen next, as far as specifics go, but I have a general idea, and for me that's usually enough to get started.

I'm planning to keep things very mysterious. I don't want the reader (you guys!) to know too much of the nitty gritty background details, because I get into all that way more in The Dark Man's Son. Don't wanna show your hand too soon, ya know?

The novella is more about James and his experiences and his life...and falling in love. It's definitely more of a love story than anything else. Of course, I have the ending of this particular love story in The Dark Man's Son, so it's gonna be interesting trying to decide how exactly to end the novella. I don't want to remove that chapter from the book, so...well, we'll see. I'll think of something.

I always do.  :)

In other news, the rewrites for the book are pretty much done. I'm waiting on my friend to get back to me with the blurb, and to hear from someone about the cover illustration. Everything's really coming together! Too bad I suck so hard at this whole marketing thing. Can't even get people to the damn blog...

Well, blogledites (you few, you happy few), that's all for tonight. Tune in next time for some handy-dandy tips on...I don't know. Writing in first person? Sure!

*crickets*

I get that no one reads any of this, and I'm even kind of ok with that. I'm just rambling and hitting the "publish" button to send these words out into the vast, echoing abyss of the internet.

My worry is that since nobody comes to my blog (which I plug quite often on Facebook and Twitter), will anyone bother reading my book? Sigh. Doubts, indecision, and lack of confidence plague me.

C'mon, cosmos. Gimme a break here.

I kinda love rewrites

In case you're new here (and who am I kidding--everyone's new here!), I just wrote my first book. I've been writing short stories and attempts at books and fanfiction since I was in high school, but I finally managed to sit down and bust out 100k words all on the same subject with all the same characters and whatnot. I'm pretty happy about it.

I do something that most writing advice type things will tell you not to do: I edit as I go. I kind of can't help it. I write a chapter, read it, and edit it. Rinse and repeat. It's part of my process. Because of that, when I set about doing the rewrites for my book, I thought I wouldn't have that much to do. It's all already been edited like four times, right?

Arrogance, thy name is first time writer. I read the whole book through once and found a couple of little things. Then I put it aside for a week and didn't touch it, and now I'm reading it again, slowly, and I'm finding more nitpicky type things (and the occasional typo, egad!) to fix, plus major scenes that need overhauls. My mom is reading it, too, and she's making notes as she goes, and I'm fixing or altering according to what she's saying as I go, too.

As a result I've drastically changed the order of a few things, to the point that I'll have to read the whole thing from the beginning again to know if I like it. I've also re-written some weak scenes that've bugged me since day one, and I've fleshed out some things that need fleshing.

Point is, I knew I needed an outside opinion before I knew if any of it was any good or if it was all rubbish, and at least now I know. Of course, she hasn't gotten to the ending yet, and I hate writing endings....

Friday the whatwhat?

Apparently today was Friday the 13th. Some part of my brain knew that, I guess, but being a very non-superstitious person, I didn't really care. I have a black cat, and he crosses my path at least once a day. In China black cats are considered lucky. I'm down with that.

Concert season 2012 is winding up, and some of my favorite acts are on tour. Ari Hest will be at the Evening Muse on May 4, and Bob Schneider will be playing a solo acoustic show at the Visulite on April 27. David Gray is back on tour, and I sincerely hope he adds Charlotte to his list of stops, because his show last July at Ovens was probably the best concert I've ever been to. Somewhere around us would work, too; I'd drive to see David Gray.

Music on my mind...I went to the Vis tonight to see a friend of mine from work play, and he was awesome. Probably the best part of the night. The band he was playing with, the Matt Perronne Band, was opening for the Pat McGee Band. Not a huge fan of Pat McGee; a bit too country for my taste; but overall it was a good night for music in the Queen City.

I've decided on some tweaks I'm gonna make to the blog layout, and hopefully that'll make things a bit easier to read. I did this design based on the design of my other blog, which is mostly pictures and very few words, and what works over there doesn't work as well over here. Live and learn, right?

I just finished reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett for the fourth time. If you haven't read it, you really should. It's very funny. Perhaps even the funniest book about the Apocalypse ever written. That sounds odd, but trust me.

Speaking of things I like (and the Apocalypse, thought I'm not particularly a fan of that), you should all check out Divine: The Series. It's a web series that's like a...really violent version of my book. With more priests. And a random Japanese schoolgirl. If you're a fan at all of the show Supernatural, Misha Collins (Castiel) is one of the creators, and he's also in it. It's really well done, and it recently won a bunch of awards for directing and effects and...stuff. Each episode is only ten minutes long, and there are six of them, so surely you can spare the time.

That's about all I got tonight, kids. I'll be back later with more. Not sure if that's a promise or a threat....

Where are you going...? Know it, I do!

Where are you going to!?

Yeah, okay. For those of you who aren't old school mega-geeks like me, that was a King's Quest 6 reference. It was pretty bitchin' back in the day, and it was the first game I ever played on CD-ROM; that is, the first game that ever actually TALKED to me! I played it so many times I can still hear certain lines in my head. "Don't just wander, Alexander; let your conscious be your guide."

Right, moving on...

A friend of mine sent me a link to Patrick Rothfuss' blog (If you don't know who Patrick Rothfuss is, stop reading this right now. Go find one of his books. Read it. Read the second one. Come back.) in which the author instructs a first-time fantasy writer in the fine art of not showing your hand too early. Don't pile on the info so fast that your reader gets bored and wanders off, in other words.

It's great advice, and in a fantasy story it's especially important. So how does this advice apply to The Dark Man's Son?

Well, ya see. People ask me (quite often) what my book is about. I, being me, kind of assume they're just being polite and give them a sort of over-simplified version. "Oh, it's a modern urban fantasy with mythological elements. Like, angels and demons and whatnot. Good vs. evil. Ya know." It is all those things, don't get me wrong, but I'm leaving out pretty much...yeah, 99% of "what it's about".

How, then, do I explain that, yes, it's about those things I just said, but also I created this class of being that's unique (not 100% unique, because...eh, Joseph Campbell) to my story. Am I supposed to launch into an entire background spiel? Maybe some people would find that interesting, but other people might be like, "Yeah, um. I was just bein' polite. Thanks, though."

Besides that bit of social awkwardness, Pat's blog sent me into a tailspin of rewrites. In the original (as in, 10 years ago) versions of this story, which are all VASTLY different than the final one, I had long paragraphs basically describing the Guardians' origins, function, history...everything. I had taken most of that out in this story, but I did have a prologue that established some of the story's mythology straight off the bat.

In response to the "don't share too much too soon" advice, I chopped my prologue up into little bits. There's no longer a prologue. Instead, peppered throughout the story, are pieces of the prologue. Like croutons in a salad. Wait: I just said "peppered". Right. So the prologue is now peppered like salad croutons, because I did not mix my metaphors, dammit.

Do I like it better? Yes and no. Yes because I prefer a non-linear style of storytelling anyway, and doing this allowed me to mix the prologue up (like salad dressing) so that the first bits are now middle bits, and the last bits are first bits, and the middle bits are all over. But for the no: I'm not sure I like how I've peppered the croutons throughout my story salad, and maybe it doesn't work at all.

Sigh. Okay, kids. Next entry won't be so much second-guessing. I'm going to try to point you guys towards some of the reference sources I used, because for a modern urban fantasy with mythological elements, I did a helluva lot of historical research.

Aaaaand breathe

I think the header image is pretty well tweaked by now. Robin McQuay girl will stare into your SOUL!

It's kinda funny, because I have a LiveJournal, and I have another blog (WAY different than this one), and I never keep up with them. So why will I keep up with this one? Hum. I have a plan. A sort of take-over-the-world type plan. No, not really. It's smaller and simpler than that.

I just wrote a book. I'm kind of impressed with myself, but only in a "wow I can't believe I actually stuck it out this time" sorta way. Not like "holy crap I'm the new Hemingway" or anything.

Anyway. It was an arduous process, and not for the faint of heart. It literally hurt at times--I tend to type like a crazy person banging away at the keyboard, and some days my hands felt like they were on fire. I miss my old school "natural" keyboard. You know, the one that looks like Salvador Dali got ahold of it? Yeah...that's the one.

I have one like that for my old PC, and I like it. Scoff if you will, but Dali knew his stuff. I mean, geez, have you seen his movies? Go Google it. I'll wait.

Hum. Guess I shoulda warned you about the eyeball thing. It was a cow's eye, so that nice lady is fine.

But I digress. I posted a lot on Twitter and FB while I was writing my book, because they were right there on my phone, all convenient and whatnot, but I'd like to devote more of my energy to telling the story of writing here. I don't mean telling the story of my book--that's what the book's for--but more the experience of writing it.

A lot of people want to write books, and on the surface it looks sorta easy. Really, though, it's pretty frakkin hard. Yeah, I just said "frakkin". So?

The hardest part for me was the title. That sounds ridiculous, but up until...hum, right before I wrote the last chapter...I had no title. Even now, I'm not 100% committed to the title I chose. It just stuck in my head, and nothing else sounded right. So I guess that's its name.

The Dark Man's Son. My first book. What a trip.