Guest Post - Dr. George H. Elder

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 21:57:12 EST

Today I have the privelege of hosting Dr. George H. Elder, whose book, Child of Destiny: The Genesis Continuum Book 1 is available now in paperback and eBook. And since I'm a bit of an artist as well as an author it was great to have him talk about the process he went through getting artwork for his Genesis series.

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Book Cover Design

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 00:59:48 EST

One of my dreams, for quite a few years in high school and college, was to be a fantasy illustrator. But somewhere around my senior year in art school I realized I just didn't have what it takes. I was good, but not great. And I couldn't settle for good. So I put that dream away. But lately I've begun to realize that dream, sort of. You see I've discovered the joy of "Photo Illustration." Basically I'm taking several different photos and PhotoShopping them together to create an illustration. It is actually quite fun. So I've decided to see if I could make a little money at it. I set up a website: www.walkingstickbooks.com where authors can go and see a sample of my work, and I'm starting to generate some business. My latest cover, is seen here. (Click it to see it larger.) It was all kinds of fun to work on. I actually ended up using ten different photographs to make this one illustration. By far the most difficult part of the whole thing is finding the photos. I probalby spend more time on the stock art sites than actually working on the artwork. I'll probably post covers as I create ones I really like. I hope you like them.

Winners, Winners, Chicken Dinners

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:38:06 EST

I'm excited to announce the winners of the three Amazon gift cards (and a little surprise.) This whole tour was fantastic, and I honestly wish I could give prizes to everyone who posted on their blogs, and to all the people who commented, but alas the well doesn't run that deep over here at casa del Pease. So without furthur ado, the winners:

Winner of a $50 Amazon Gift card for the most comments goes to:
Mom Loves 2 Read, with a whopping 443 comments across her two blogs!
http://lovez2read.blogspot.com
http://btweenprose.blogspot.com

This blew me away! Over 400 people learned at least a little about Noah Zarc because of this blog post. YAY! Thanks so much! Your gift card should be in your email box now!

Winner of a $50 Amazon Gift Card for the most creative post goes to:
Sher A Hart. Really how could I not give it to someone who has a cool Earth shot for a background, and posted a Noah's Ark matching game as part of her entry?
http://sherahart.blogspot.com

Thanks so much for all you did to make your post stand out, and help people learn about Noah Zarc! Your gift card should be in your email box now!

Winner of a $50 Amazon Gift Card for one random commentor goes to:
Vanita (my brother-in-law's sister is named Vanita) for her comment on the PragmaticMom website.
http://www.pragmaticmom.com Thanks so much! I contacted you on your website, so send me your email so I can get the gift card to you right away!

Bonus Gift Card
And now for the surprise. I was so touched by all the comments from the students at Oelwein Middle School, I decided to give a bonus $25 Amazon Gift Card to their teacher, Mrs. Duff. http://spottoread.blogspot.com Thanks so much for all you do. Teacher's Rock! Your gift card should be in your email box now!

Praise for Book Bloggers

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 14:09:35 EST

After two months, forty-seven blog posts, and hundreds of commentors, the Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble blog tour has come to an end. It was a blast! It was a ton of work! And I'm so glad I did it. In the end, my biggest takeaway is how amazing the book blogger community is. For each and every one of you that took the time to read through Noah Zarc, I am so very thankful. I know it wasn't always the kind of book you liked (I mean if you aren't a tweener boy, you may not be in the right demographic), but I'm so grateful for all your kind words, and support. For all the great author interviews, thanks as well. You had be cracking up with some of your questions. Book bloggers are the new, New York Times reporters. You are the folks that get books from us new authors, noticed. I hope I was able to do my small part to get you more readers too.

Over the next few days I'll be working on getting the list of winners together. The most creative post, will come first. I do want to give a few days for the folks near the end of the tour to garner some more comments, so keep at the promotion if you like. I think I said I'd announce a winner for that category ten days after the close of the tour. So around January 10th. I'll also announce the random commentor winner then.

In the meantime, if you haven't had a chance to check out all the great posts, here is the final wrap up. Thanks again, and here's to undiscovered worlds!

January 31 - Stop Forty-seven | Interview - The last and final stop on the blog tour! Thanks for some great questions, Book Nerd! Find out what my favorite gadget is in the Noah Zarc Universe. http://booknerdsacrossamerica.blogspot.com

January 30 - Stop Forty-six | Review - "This is a wild ride from the word "Go". I totally recommend this book to kids and adults, alike who enjoy falling into the pages of a book and being swept away in a world created just for them to enjoy. Great book!" http://lotsocats100-fascinatingbooks.blogspot.com/

January 27 - Stop Forty-five | Review - "If I had read this book at age 10, I think it would have made me love SF just as much as reading Asimov did. If you like the non-stop action and humor of Rick Riordan’s Olympians books, I think you’ll also like Noah Zarc." http://sherahart.blogspot.com

January 24 - Stop Forty-three and Forty-four | Review - A nice review, posted in two places. "I LOVED IT! Noah Zarc Mammoth Trouble is an excellent middle grade adventure that keeps the reader on the edge of his/her seat." http://lovez2read.blogspot.com and http://btweenprose.blogspot.com

January 19 - Stop Forty-two | Review - "The characters were diverse and fun, the plot was intriguing, and the writing was very good. I would, overall, say this was a fantastic and fun middle grade novel." http://bookishlybloggers.blogspot.com

January 17 - Stop Forty-one | Review - A fun, acrostic review. "There are a lot of great things to love about this book" http://www.cegesmith.com

January 16 - Stop Forty | Review - "This book was fun! I rarely read sci-fi or books with characters that are twelve, but I was pleasantly surprised to enjoy this book." http://cleanteenfiction.blogspot.com

January 14 - Stop Thirty-nine | Interview - Find out what I really think of the possibility of time-travel, and the all important question, "Vanilla or chocolate ice-cream?" http://riteshkala.wordpress.com

January 14 - Stop Thirty-eight | Review - "The story of Noah Zarc, although set in a science fiction world is really a thriller, and I can say that the action never stops!" http://riteshkala.wordpress.com

Blog Tour Roundup, The Third

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:04:49 EST

It has been a while since I did a blog tour roundup. The holidays got the best of me. So here we go. There are some good ones. Feel free to join in the conversations on these posts. You could win $50.

As always you can visit the blog tour page to keep up with current posts. Only a couple more weeks and we'll be announcing the winners.

January 11 - Stop Thirty-seven | Review - "The plot is compelling and has surprising depth. And the characters are fully developed with none of the stereotyping that plagues so many kids’ action stories." http://www.achilleseffect.com

January 11 - Stop Thirty-six | Review - The awesome Karen Pokras Toz and I swapped reviews today. You can see my review of her book Nate Rocks the World on my blog, and see what she had to say about Noah Zarc on hers: http://kptoz.blogspot.com

January 7 - Stop Thirty-five | Review - "This book was totally delightful. While it is a children’s book, middle-grade, to be exact, I enjoyed every minute of it." http://www.simplistik.org/

January 6 - Stop Thirty-four | Review - "This is a great book for middle grade boys who just can't get enough of futuristic reads..." http://beautyandthearmageddon.blogspot.com

January 6 - Stop Thirty-three | Review - Someone really understands who the target market is for the book: "Young readers will find themselves glued to the pages as Noah and his siblings begin the journey to save their father from the Ice Age and to rescue their kidnapped mother." http://bookemadventures.blogspot.com

January 4 - Stop Thirty-two | Review - I love being mentioned along with the excellent Rick Riordan. "If You Like Percy Jackson, try Noah Zarc. Time Travel Action Adventure Series (and the Physics of Time Travel)" http://www.pragmaticmom.com

January 4 - Stop Thirty-one | Review - "I thought Noah Zarc was an excellent reader for young minds. I loved how the story unfolded, drawing the reader into the world of the Zarcs." http://www.madmoosemama.blogspot.com

January 3 - Stop Thirty | Interview - Find out just what the heck is going on with Noah's face on the cover, and get a sneak peek at the cover for the sequel, Noah Zarc: Cataclysm. http://sugarpeach.wordpress.com

January 1 - Stop Twenty-Nine | Review - A fun review at the Book Reaper. "Okay Noah, being a kid with no legs and having to do all that you did in this book. I feel bad. Not for you but for myself. I get angry for getting up to do the dishes." http://bookreaper.blogspot.com

December 30 - Stop Twenty-Eight | Review - "This book was totally delightful. While it is a children’s book, middle-grade, to be exact, I enjoyed every minute of it." http://www.simplistik.org

December 29 - Stop Twenty-Seven | Review - Maybe we've got a new science fiction fan. "I normally do not read science fiction, but I think Noah Zarc may have changed my mind about the genre just a little." http://krazybooklady.blogspot.com

December 27 - Stop Twenty-Six | Review - Despite finding some typos--will they never die?--the reviewer still liked it the story. "...the story is interesting. The climax had just the right amount of action and suspense." http://sugarpeach.wordpress.com

December 22 - Stop Twenty-five | Interview - This time I get interviewed, and I spill the beans about what Noah's name started out as. Hint, it ryhmes with Japheth (well kind of). http://manda-b.blogspot.com

December 22 - Stop Twenty-Four | Interview - Another fun interview of Noah himself. This kid's a trip. Find out which he prefers, life on Mars, Earth or in outer space. http://blogonlinerandom.blogspot.com

Nate Rocks the World

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 09:33:05 EST

One of the great things I've discovered about being a published author, is all the cool people I get to meet. Someone who definitely falls into that category is Karen Pokras Toz. It seemed everywhere I was hanging out online, she was there. So I decided I must check out this lady's work, and I bought Nate Rocks the world. I found it fun and a great book for kids who maybe aren't that big into reading themselves. I'd highly recommend it for those kids who are ready to move past the picture books their parents read them, but maybe aren't quite ready for the longer reads such as Percy Jackson or Artemis Fowl.

Here's my review:

Kids Will Love It!
Nate Rockledge isn't your typical ten-year-old. Even when life throws him curve balls (or kick balls as the case may be) he knows exactly how to have a good time. His imagination takes him from hitting the winning home run, to the wild west, to the reaches of space. Your kids will love riding along with Nate as he jumps from one adventure to the next. They'll enjoy every minute of it, because quite simply, Nate Rocks!

Links:

Website: www.karentoz.com
Blog: http://kptoz.blogspot.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/karenptoz
Twitter: www.twitter.com/karentoz
Amazon: http://amzn.to/txbX0Z
Barnes & Noble: http://bit.ly/uviYpn
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5009570.Karen_Pokras_Toz

Author Bio:

Karen Pokras Toz is a writer, wife and mom. Karen grew up in Orange, Connecticut and graduated from Ithaca College with a degree in Finance. She also attended the University of Richmond, where she studied law and business, receiving both a JD and an MBA. Karen has spent the last several years working as a tax accountant, writing in numbers. She recently discovered a passion for writing with words. In June 2011, Karen published her first children’s novel Nate Rocks the World. She is currently working on the second book in the Nate Rocks series to be published in 2012.

Karen is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI), Association of Independent Authors (AIA), and the Independent Author Network (IAN). Karen enjoys gardening, cooking, and spending time with her husband and three children.

Blog Tour Roundup, Part Deux

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 10:47:15 EST

The blog tour has been going strong. I am loving it! (Although I've been sick the past few days so I'm not sure what I'm feeling beyond my cold-medicine-induced-fog.) We've had some cool reviews and interviews. You can still follow the tour on twitter, and on my facebook page, as well as my website, and now my new Google+ page too. Take a look at the links listed below. Leave a comment, and you could possibly win a $50 Amazon gift card.

Also if you want to join the blog tour it's not too late. There are spots still open. You can register here.

Without further ado, here's post eleven through twenty-three:

December 21 - Stop Twenty-Three | Review - "With unexpected twists in the plot, the addition of a brilliant cave girl, parallels to Star Wars and The Hitchhiker’s Guide, this was a book that I could not put down! I read it in two days and enjoyed it thoroughly!" http://becauseisaidsothathswhy.blogspot.com

December 20 - Stop Twenty-two | Review - There seems to be a theme in these reviews, "This was a surprisingly good read! I was a little hesitant at first because it's not something I would typically read. Especially it being more for a younger audience, but I was pleasantly surprised." http://drowning-in-books.blogspot.com

December 19 - Stop Twenty-one | Review - Another fun review. "I loved this story! It was fresh and fast paced..." http://wwwburiedinbooks.blogspot.com

December 19 - Stop Twenty | Review - I love that she went into this pretty sure she wasn't going to like the book, and ended up liking it quite a bit. Also she's got a couple of cool Noah Zarc themed recipies like "Mars Punch" to round out her post. www.mydevotionalthoughts.com

December 18 - Stop Nineteen | Interview - A fun interview in which I answer the all important question: dogs or cats? http://thebookscapereport.blogspot.com

December 18 - Stop Eighteen | Review - Another fun review (I love the photos she sprinkled throughout). "The story's extremely well written and I recommend this book to kids,parents & teachers. It's the perfect novel for middle graders and I believe it would make a great lesson in school!" http://www.kindleandme.com

December 17 - Stop Seventeen | Review - This blogger mommy is always on the lookout for new reads. "This is a definite hidden gem for young and old alike. Be sure to get your little ones reading this whether it takes bribery to get them to look at a book, or, they have read your entire local library and they need new options!" mommybookpicks.blogspot.com

December 15 - Stop Sixteen | Review - A most excellent and detailed review. Followed by another great review by the blogger's ten-year-old son! I love it! "This was a fascinating story full of wonder and adventure, which I find surprising considering the fact that I normally don't like books that my dad recommends." http://www.christophergodsoe.com

December 14 - Stop Fifteen | Review - Another really nice review. (There are some fantastic people out there.) "It was interesting and fun, and I enjoyed every word of it." http://thebookscapereport.blogspot.com

December 14 - Stop Fourteen | Review - Love this line from today's review: "Noah is your average twelve-year-old kid... except that instead of playing sports or video games, he flies space ships and time travels and saves extinct marmosets." http://manda-b.blogspot.com

December 12 - Stop Thirteen | Interview - My take on self-publishing for a middle grade audience, and thoughts on adapting Biblical stories for a modern audience. http://www.susankayequinn.com

December 12 - Stop Twelve | Review - I got such a kick out of this review. She was by far the most enthusiastic review to date. Check it out and see if she puts a smile on your face too. http://karlacc-bookaddict.blogspot.com

December 12 - Stop Eleven | Interview - This blogger really had me thinking. Find out what I mean when I say a story should be "epic." http://beautyandthearmageddon.blogspot.com

The Death Cure

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 09:05:25 EST

By James Dashner

The final book in the Maze Runner Trilogy ended the series nicely. It didn't have quite the punch the previous two books had, but I'm not sure what else he could have done. I certainly don't think he should have just stuck them all in another test like he did with book two (the same way The Hunger Games did with book two... I see a trend here). But one thing I struggled with throughout all the books is the big question of why. Why were these kids subjected to these horrific acts inside and outside the maze? And I don't feel like Mr. Dashner quite answered that question satisfactorily for me. Too much of the plot seemed forced. Sure it's cool to put kids through all this torture (from a reader's perspective), but I never felt the reasons were solid enough. BUT if you ignore all that, and just enjoy the ride, it was a fun series. I would still recommend reading it, just be aware that it may not be all tied up in a neat package by the end.

Book Tour Roundup - First 10 Days

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 09:18:20 EST

I have been having a great time reading all the posts from all these excellent bloggers. It is so amazing to get other people's views on a book that has been mostly a labor-of-love for just me for several years now. I've been posting regular links to the posts on twitter, and on my facebook page, as well as my website, but I thought I'd just do an update every ten days or so here on the blog too. Take a look at the links listed below. Leave a comment, and you could possibly win a $50 Amazon gift card.

Also if you want to join the blog tour it's not too late. There are spots still open. You can register here.

Thanks, and I hope you enjoy!

December 9 - Stop Ten | Interview - The writing coach is back with some more interview questions. Find out what I think is the most important element that makes a good story (hint it has to do with things blowing up.) http://mywritingandeditingcoach.blogspot.com/

December 8 - Stop Nine | Review - Another really nice review, from a science nerd like me (no offence meant.) She also discovered one of the hidden easter eggs in the story: http://stefanides.wordpress.com

December 8 - Stop Eight | Interview - Noah Zarc, Jr. is interviewed on subjects ranging from his favorite animals to his favorite movies (Star Wars or Star Trek). A shipload of fun: http://triciakristufek.wordpress.com

December 7 - Stop Seven | Review - A detailed summary (contains some spoilers) and review of Noah Zarc. "Noah Zarc proved to be a delightful read overall." Have a look: http://jasonbeineke.wordpress.com

December 6 - Stop Six | Interview - As you read this interview you will learn about my twin brother, Chip, and how he impacted my writing career: http://donna-mcdine.blogspot.com

December 5 - Stop Five | Interview - First interview for the tour. Find out just what all those animals on the ARC are eating. http://thecrookedword.blogspot.com

December 4 - Stop Four | Review - Oh man, there's nothing better than getting an awesome review from an amazing kid! Take a look. Seems like a young man that's going places: http://kidsnbooksdonna.blogspot.com

December 3 - Stop Three | Review - A fun review from Nancy over at Tumbling Books. "...this book was totally entertaining! I read most of it in just one sitting." Read the whole review here: http://tumblingbooks.blogspot.com

December 2 - Stop Two | Review - An Editing Coach uses Noah Zarc to illustrate a literary archetype, the Coming of Age story. Have a read: http://mywritingandeditingcoach.blogspot.com

December 1 - First up! | Review - A great review by Mrs. Duff at Oelwein Middle School. She sounds like a fantastic teacher. Check it out: http://spottoread.blogspot.com

Cassidy Jones and the Secret Formula

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:40:50 EST

By Elise Stokes

I have a confession to make. Somehow, when I bought this book I had no idea what it was about. I never read the description text. I only looked at the cover and title and thought it'd be something I'd like. From those two pieces of information I decided it was a Nancy Drew type mystery. Boy was I wrong. In a good way. It was so fun to read along expecting one thing and then have the book go in a completely different direction. I found myself glad I didn't know Cassidy Jones was going to turn into a teen-age superhero with super powers and all the stress that goes along with it. I love stories like this! The characters were authentic, mysterious, likable and just plain fun to get to know. I find myself, just like Cassidy, really interested in what superpower she was going to discover next. I also enjoyed her interaction with Emery, a geeky fifteen-year-old genius. I, just like Cassidy, had no idea what to make of him at first. It seemed like he was (and is) hiding something. So much that I didn't know if he could be trusted, but Cassidy and I both decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. Just a really well written book, and I'm happy to have read it. I also hear the sequel is due out soon. I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Check out the Author's site here: www.cassidyjonesadventures.com/

Buy at Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004GB1FIK/

Farsighted by Emlyn Chand

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 09:29:48 EST

I toss and turn. A yellow parakeet stands on my head and whispers in my ear. What's that? Far-what? Farsighted… Farsighted… I leap out of bed and run to Amazon. Sure enough it's true. I've seen into the future. Farsighted is climbing the charts, destined to be a number one seller. Was it a vision? Am I a psychic? Nah, I just know a good book when I see one.

Farsighted was a fun read, that kept be guessing. It was rich with texture. Most notably it filled me with sounds and smells like no other book I've read. Our hero, Alex, is blind. But that doesn't mean he can't see. He sees all around him, using his heightened hearing, he can see blades of grass spring up beneath him as he stands. With his sense of smell he can see exactly where people are in a crowded room. And all of this is even before we find out he can also peer into the future. I really loved how the author got me inside the head of a blind person, then took it a step further and got me to see into the future through his heightened senses as well.

Farsighted has well developed characters, and doesn't just leave them where she introduces them. Each character grows and changes as the story progresses. This is a very difficult thing to pull off. Characters I didn't like in the beginning, became my favorites at the end.

All in all this was an enjoyable read, and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone looking for a good YA, paranormal book, with a hint of danger, and a dash of romance thrown in for good measure.

Blog Tour Notes

THE BOOK: Alex Kosmitoras may be blind, but he can still “see” things others can’t. When his unwanted visions of the future begin to suggest that the girl he likes could be in danger, he has no choice but to take on destiny and demand it reconsider. Get your copy today by visiting Amazon.com’s Kindle store or the eBook retailer of your choice. The paperback edition will be available on November 24 (for the author’s birthday).

THE CASH PRIZES: Guess what? You could win a $100 Amazon gift card as part of this special blog tour. That’s right! Just leave a comment below saying something about the post you just read, and you’ll be entered into the raffle. I could win $100 too! Please help by voting for my blog in the traffic-breaker poll. To cast your vote, visit the official Farsighted blog tour page and scroll all the way to the bottom. Thank you for your help with that.

THE GIVEAWAYS: Win 1 of 10 autographed copies of Farsighted before its paperback release by entering the giveaway on GoodReads. Perhaps you’d like an autographed postcard from the author; you can request one on her site.

THE AUTHOR: Emlyn Chand has always loved to hear and tell stories, having emerged from the womb with a fountain pen grasped firmly in her left hand (true story). When she’s not writing, she runs a large book club in Ann Arbor and is the president of author PR firm, Novel Publicity. Emlyn loves to connect with readers and is available throughout the social media interweb. Visit www.emlynchand.com for more info. Don’t forget to say “hi” to her sun conure Ducky!

MORE FUN: There's more fun below. Watch the live action Farsighted book trailer and take the quiz to find out which character is most like you!

Open Minds by Susan Kaye Quinn

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 09:15:07 EST

Open Minds is one of those stories that took me by surprise. I'm not a big fan of the paranormal romance boom, I mean really, I'm a forty-five year-old male. But this story had just enough action, just enough intrigue to keep me interested. And in the end it was very light on the romance anyway, with only limited "snogging" between characters.

What Open Minds is then, is a well-thought-out look at what would happen in a world where everyone could read minds. There are no secrets. There can be very little crime. But what happens if you turn out to be a zero? Someone who can't read minds at all. Very quickly we can see that you'd be ostracized. An outcast with few if any friends. Who would trust someone whose mind you couldn't read?

Then the author takes it one step further and introduces characters who can not only read other people's minds, but they can control them. That's where the fun begins. There is a whole secret world that no one knew about, hidden in plain sight. I love, and am always drawn to, books with that concept.

There can be many parallels in this story drawn with Hunger Games: a strong heroine, kids in jeopardy, etc... but Quinn makes this story interesting and a great read without having to resort to killing off little kids. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed Hunger Games, but felt it did go a bit far at times.

Overall, I would say this is up there with my favorite reads of this year. I'm already planning on lending it out to my friend’s teenage girls, who really are the target market here.

I highly recommend it. Find out more at the author's site: www.susankayequinn.com

Interview with Tobias Buckell

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 20:15:47 EST

Author of Sly Mongoose and the New York Times Bestselling Halo: The Cole Protocol.

Welcome to the blog, Tobias. For those who don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about your background? I know you grew up on a tropical island, and now live in Ohio. How in the world did that happen?

My stepdad hails from Akron, OH, and I was living with my family on a boat in the Caribbean. We got hammered with a real bad hurricane, lost our home, so my stepdad moved us up to Ohio with family. I've somehow not been able to escape the state since then.

Wow! I was born and raised in Akron, OH. Of course I never got out.

What books have you published?

Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose are the first three books in my Xenowealth series. I also wrote a Halo novel in 2008. I have a collection of short stories, Tides From The New Worlds as well as a book about writing called Nascence, which examines some early fiction of mine and dissects it to help new writers.

Specifically, can you give is a brief introduction to the Xenowealth novels?

They're a series of books set on worlds connected by wormholes, dominated at first by aliens who oppress the humans living within this network. There are some humans among them who are old enough to remember the legend that was Earth, and who hail from there. Most of the characters have some Caribbean background or heritage, and some of the planets do as well.

What were the roadblocks to getting this latest project sold? Wasn't the publisher who released the other Xenowealth novels interested in this new one?

Well, we built up a loyal fan base for the books. On Sly Mongoose we had the best first week sales out of all the books. But these were all from direct orders (like Amazon) or preorders. In the bookstores we were losing real estate, as they were ordering fewer books with each title. So we were losing ground in the stores, gaining ground in direct orders, and sales were flat or slightly rising. So my editor, Paul Stevens, at Tor, and I, decided to go in a different direction for a while with a novel called Arctic Rising. And Tor released the Xenowealth novels.

I started to realize, after I released info a couple months ago about Arctic Rising, that a lot of people were disappointed to hear the Xenowealth books were on hold. Got a lot of email about that. So I started planning a Kickstarter project.

Can you tell us about the new project you have posted on Kickstarter.com?

The Apocalypse Ocean is the 4th Xenowealth book after Crystal Rain, Ragamuffin, and Sly Mongoose. It centers around a young girl, Kay, who's been raised by aliens to be a bit of a weapon against humans under their control. So she's something of a loose canon, and out for bloody vengeance. And as she wreaks her havoc, she falls afoul of many of the characters from the previous books. The 48 worlds have all become connected by wormholes deorbited to sit in oceans, so the landscape tour has changed quite drastically from the last novel.

How viable an option do you think Kickstarter will be for authors to get their writing funded? Do you think you'll do it again?

Well, I only have to page through the fiction projects section of Kickstarter to see all the viable projects. About half of all Kickstarter projects make it, so we'll see where I fall, I guess! I think it's a fascinating way to pre fund sales of a book, and it gets around the problem some authors have of spending half a year or more to write another book in a series, only to find out that while a vocal minority wanted it, there isn't really actually enough economic demand. I think Kickstarter is fairly revolutionary in that it lets you raise book venture capital, then move forward.

If everyone is happy (my readers) with the experiment of The Apocalypse Ocean, and I feel that making the books that are the rewards and the costs of it balance out with the time it takes, then yes. I think people are viewing Kickstarter as a way to bring a venture capital model to artists, and if that is true, it's cool. But if people get burned out and feel like it's begging for money on your site, and it begins to leave a sour taste, then I'll probably drop it. But so far, everyone's been so really enthused about a chance to see a 4th Xenowealth book it's been a very positive experience. If we raise the needed amount, I can see this being a way to continue to wrap up the series (there are 5 books that I had planned in total).

Is Pepper going to be in The Apocalypse Ocean? And for those who don't know, tell us a little about him.

Pepper is most certainly going to be in it. He's a central character to most of the books, a dreadlocked mercenary, more metal than man, he's always involved in trouble in the Xenowealth...

When complete, will you self-publish, or are you planning on trying to find a traditional publisher?

I would be happy to work with a publisher. Of course, we will be producing a limited edition hardcover that goes to anyone who backs the project for $50 and higher. And everyone who backs at $25 or more also gets the eBook. So it's like a limited run self-publish, unless something works out slightly differently. You never know.

What are your thoughts on the state of publishing today? Do you still have books coming out with a traditional publisher? Or do you see a day when you might self-publish everything? Or somewhere in between?

I always try to keep a lot of different pots on the stove, so to speak. I saw this chance to test out Kickstarter with this book and jumped for it. I also have a short story collection in eBook form, as well as a book about writing in eBook form. I've tested those out to see how sales work on those. I'm also happily working with Tor/Macmillan for my next novel 'Arctic Rising.' I'm writing one more for Tor after that as well. I'm also shopping around a YA novel right now to various publishers, and just recently was talking to a publisher about a fantasy novel. I'm fairly agnostic about platforms, I care about words and readers.

The truth is, though, there's more money still in the big publishers for me than things like this, so far. I mean, Kickstarter really suddenly might kick into overdrive and blow me away, who knows? Ask me after the Kickstarter project is done and I know what the various support levels ended up being and what the overall total was, and I'll have a better idea! But so far I'm cautiously optimistic that it can be another tool in my collection of possible ways to connect to readers.

Is there anything else you'd like to add, either about your books, or the state of publishing?

There's a lot of sturm und drang out there today. Personalities stating one thing or another strongly about the state of publishing. I find most of it to be self serving attention-getting behavior. Everyone needs to take a page from Douglas Adams: Don't Panic. As things settle in, courses will become clear. Not everyone needs to be a first adopter. If there's money to be made, people will figure it out, others will follow. Relax and follow your passions, that way if things fall apart or don't work out, you still got to do something that excited you.

I have no idea if this Kickstarter thing will work, and it opens me up to some public ridicule or attention if it doesn't. But I love these books, and it was worth it to see the core readers get excited over the possibility of seeing another Xenowealth book. We're all having fun.

Thanks so much for visiting with us today.

For those of you who are interested, here are links to Tobias's books:

Crystal Rain: www.tobiasbuckell.com/crystalrain
Ragamuffin: www.tobiasbuckell.com/ragamuffin
Sly Mongoose: www.tobiasbuckell.com/slymongoose
Tides From The New Worlds: www.tobiasbuckell.com/tides
Nascence: www.tobiasbuckell.com/nascence

And if you want to get in on the action, here is how you can help "kickstart" his next novel:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1548859355/the-apocalypse-ocean

Go there now, I can't wait to read it.

To Sign or Not to Sign

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 21:39:26 EST

That is the question. Now that I've published my first book, I've run into the issue of people asking me to sign their copy. To be be honest, at this point it is just family and friends, but I find myself feeling uncomfortable with the idea. I've never been an "A" type personality. And the idea that anyone would even want my signature, gives me the willies. Of course, part of the problem is, I have terrible handwriting. I've also been working on creating an "Author" signature--one that is different than my legal signature, and one that is legible. But I'm coming to the realization that I need to just get over it. I think it's kind of cool to have signed copies of books by authors I like, and my goal is to some day have people who do in fact like my books, so... I just have to buckle down and get used to it.

To that end, I've discovered a pretty cool tool called Kindlegraph. It allows authors to virtually sign books for readers, and it is really simple to use. A reader just goes to www.kindlegraph.com and searches for their favorite authors. They then request a signature and the author can write a short message and add their signature to a PDF of their book's cover. Even though it is called "Kindle"graph, it works for any eReader, or no eReader at all. The reader get's the PDF in their email and then they can upload them to their eReader if they like.

So, since I'm sure there are people just foaming at the mouth to get my signature, I've signed up. You can see my page here: http://kindlegraph.com/authors/drobertpease

Third Writers' Platform-Building Campaign

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 10:43:31 EST

I came across what looks to be a great resource for writers. It is designed to help us find people intersted in the same things we are intersted in. It is a Platform-Building Campaign set up to help create followers to your blog. Here's the blurb from their site:

"Basically, the Campaign is a way to link those of us in the writing community together with the aim of helping to build our online platforms. The Campaigners are all bloggers in a similar position, who genuinely want to pay it forward, make connections and friends within the writing community, and help build each others' online platforms while at the same time building theirs."

I'm signing up now. Why not head over yourself if you are a writer?

Divergent by Veronica Roth

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 11:48:09 EST

Divergent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a nice, enjoyable read. I found myself several times shaking my head in wonder that the author is only 23. She has a firm grasp on how to set up a world and keep me turning the pages. There were times her age did show through. She was a master at the whole teen-age angsty sort of love. I would venture to guess the vast majority of her readers are teenage girls. The book is definitely more about relationships than plot, but there were times when I just wanted a bit more information about why things were the way they were, or how things worked. The plot seemed thin in certain important areas. I even ended the book, not quite sure what the big deal about being divergent was. Maybe that was intentional, but to me it just felt like it was because there really wasn't a good explanation. Overall, though, I'm happy to have read it. For a debut novel, Divergent is quite good.

I'm a Published Author*

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 24 Aug 2011 16:50:57 EST

I still have a hard time not adding that asterisk next to "Published Author", but I'm learning. For years self-publishing has had such a stigma, and even now I'm cautious when self-pubbed authors want me to read their books. But I've come to realize that self-publishing does not automatically equal bad writing, just as traditional publishing does not automatically equal good writing.

Publishing is hard, either way. And if it isn't, then an author is probably taking shortcuts. I got to thinking today about the effort and time it has taken to finally see my first book, Noah Zarc: Mammoth Trouble in print. I wrote the first draft in November of 2008 during NaNoWriMo. It has gone through several rewrites, based on great feedback (positive and negative) from critique partners. I've slashed large swaths of the story, and added new plot elements and characters. But all the while I was moving toward the idea of getting an agent, then getting a traditional publishing contract.

Then around a year and a half ago I started toying with the idea of self-publishing. The main reason I started writing in earnest, five years ago, was I wanted to be able to control something creative. I'd been involved in many endeavors that required several people and lots of money to get off the ground. Something broke down in each one of them. But writing was all me. I either did it or I didn't. It either sucked or it didn't. There would be no one else to blame if I didn't make it. So self-publishing began to look like the perfect fit for me. BUT, I also wanted to create the best product I could, and to that end I hired the folks at The Editorial Department to work on the book with me. I have the luxury of being able to use some funds from my web development business to pay professionals for the areas I'm weak. The editors I worked with were fabulous, and after two rounds of plot and character changes, another two rounds of tweaking, and finally an in-depth line edit (where every sentence was looked at with a fine-toothed comb), I truly believe I have a professional product. The story may not be your cup of tea, but it is the best I can produce.

So the easy part is now done. I say that only half joking. I've spent a huge amount of time over the last two weeks taking that final manuscript and getting it out there. Here are just a few of the things I've done just to get it up for sale:

1. Worked with an illustrator for the cover
2. Designed the front and back covers, was well as the interior (I did this myself, since graphic design is my day job).
3. Created and uploaded the files to Createspace for the print version
4. Created and uploaded a MOBI and ePub file for Kindle, Nook and (coming soon) the iBookstore
5. Created and uploaded a Word file version (this was a lot more work than you might think) for smashwords.com They will upload the book to: Sony eReader, Kobo, Diesel, Scrollmotion and Smashwords itself.

This gets the book out there so it can be bought. Now I'm working on the "how do people find out about it" part. I've joined book communities, including:

1. www.goodreads.com
2. www.librarything.com
3. www.shelfari.com
4. Kindle forums
5. www.authonomy.com

And I'm also looking at some promotions on:

1. www.bookrooster.com
2. www.kindlenationdaily.com
3. www.ereaderIQ.com

And that's just what I've discovered in the past few days. It is a big job!

I'm excited to see where this all takes me. I'm getting a little overwhelmed, and realize I need to step back and actually write too. But it has been a blast thus far. There is a pretty big rush to actually hold a copy of a book in my hand that I wrote (how egotistical is that?) But what excites me more is the idea that kids might get a kick out of it too. I got an email from a friend yesterday that said:
"I haven't seen my daughter all day because she's been holed up in her room with your book. Every time I've called up to her to see if she's still alive, she yells down 'Mr. Pease's book is really good!'." That's what I'm talking about.

Noah Zarc Book Trailer

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 27 May 2011 15:34:06 EST

I just put the finishing touches on a book trailer for Noah Zarc, Mammoth Trouble. I'm a bit torn about the effectiveness of trailers for books, but it was fun making nonetheless. Let me know what you think. Are book trailers a good idea? I'll be sure to let you know how effective this ends up being in the overall scheme of things.

So without furthur ado, here's the sneak peek:

Noah Zarc Cover Design

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 09 May 2011 10:08:00 EST

I'm really excited to show you the cover illustration and design for Noah Zarc - Mammoth Trouble. It features a scene from the first pages of the book and, I think, really sets the tone for the whole story. I worked with an amazing illustrator from Imagin8 Design, and I can't wait to see it in print. You can click the image to see it larger.

Out of Body Experience

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 06 May 2011 11:14:17 EST

One of the joys of having a terrible memory, is I am able to re-read books over and over again, discovering something "new" every time. In my lifetime I've probably read the Lord of the Rings twenty times. Dune a half dozen times. The Chronicles of Amber a good fifteen or so. I'm the same with movies. I could watch my favorite movies once every year and they never seem to get old. It may or may not surprise you that this applies to my own writing as well.

Since I finished up the latest edit of Noah Zarc, it was time to get back to my current work in progress, Joey Cola, and the Stoat of Many Colors. In preparation, I loaded it onto my Kindle yesterday and sat down to read. I found myself several times during the day surprised at passages. "Did I write this?" I genuinely couldn't remember or couldn't even get my mind around the fact that the words I was reading originated in my own head. I'm going to say this, and I hope you don't take it as me being an egomaniac, but some of it was quite good.

This isn't me trying to puff myself up because when I finished I thought, "There is no way I can write this good now."

How in the world am I going to end the book properly when I don't think I have the ability to write as well now, as I did when I put the first three quarters of the book down on the page? Was I in some kind of writing zone? I have another ten to fifteen thousand words to write and I'm honestly scared I won't be able to do it.

There can be one of two conclusions I make of this.

1. The writing isn't really all that good, and I'm just being delusional about it.

2. I just need to immerse myself back in the world, and let it take over again.

Of course the third option is the ending will just suck and I'll be dissapointed when I get there. But I have no choice but to push on. Even if no one else reads the story, I have to know how it ends. I was genuinely ticked off yesterday when I read the last word and realized that was all I had written.

What was I thinking stopping there?

Kindle Impressions

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 04 May 2011 12:31:02 EST

No I will not try to give you my best Kindle impression, I will give you my impression of using my new Kindle. If you've been reading this blog long you may remember a post I did way back when, in November 2007: "Kindle Sputters my Interest". My main argument was the device was just too darn expensive. I actually put out a plea to Jeff Bezos to lower the price, to $149, then I'd buy one. Well he did me $10 better and you can now buy a WiFi version for $139. I did end up getting the 3G version for $189, so I guess that was my price point.

The thing is, the Kindle is a great e-reader. I absolutely love reading on it. There is no eye-strain like on an iPad, or iPhone (which is what I've read a few books on). I put myself in the right mind-frame way I got it. Realizing that it wasn't going to be some super cool gadget that did everything, like the iPad. It was for reading books. Period. And it is so darn easy to get books at that.

My son wanted to read the latest Maze Runner book, but we couldn't find it at the library. We couldn't find it at the local Borders. He didn't want to wait for it to come in the mail, so I said let's buy it as an eBook (he read it on my iPhone, before I got the Kindle). 60 seconds later, he was reading it.

Now for the downside, and my next plea. This one goes out to the publishers, lower the price for eBooks. The Kindle editon of Scorch Trials is $10.99. Almost unbelievably, the hardcover is $9.99, and so is the paperback. I paid $1 more to buy something that is nothing more than a bunch of 1's and 0's on some computer somewhere!

But you may say that I did in fact buy it, so they aren't completely stupid, but I may not be the norm. I've already had conversations with more casual readers that say they'd never buy it because the price is too expensive for eBooks.

I'm sure this will change, just like the price of the Kindle dropped--and my guess is the Kindle price will continue to fall, maybe even going all the way down to a free version, supported by book sales, or (shudder) advertisments in the books. I just worry that publishers might be a little late coming to the game with their eBook pricing. For us indie publishers who can set the price anything we want, there is a golden opportunity, to undercut mainstream publishers' prices. So on second thought maybe they should keep the prices high.

Time will tell. For now I love my Kindle. I highly recommend it, as long as you realize you probably won't be getting most books any cheaper for the time being, except for Noah Zarc when it comes out later this year.

Leviathan

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 09:13:26 EST

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in the Leviathan triology, Leviathan and Behemoth by Scott Westerfeld. They were my first introduction to "Steam Punk" and I have to say I love the mix. These books had the added twist (or maybe it is a staple of Steam Punk) of being set in an alternate history. It took place at the beginning of World War I and featured many characters that were based off of real, historical figures. The whole "Clanker" vs. "Darwinisits" aspect was rather cool too. I would highly recommend these books and I look forward to the last one, Goliath, coming out in September of this year.

Self-Publishing Bigot Believer

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 15:15:14 EST

For years I've thought that self-publishing was a bad idea. Back in January of 2008, I came to the conclusion I was, in fact, a self-publishing bigot. How things change. I've been a voracious reader of publishing blogs for several years, mostly focusing on literary agents, and editors at publishing houses, with a smattering of authors thrown in. And to a man (or more than likely, woman) they all have preached the same thing: to make it in the world of book publishing you must find an agent, then find a publisher. I believed this to be the case, and I still believe it was the case, until very recently.

Things began to change with the introduction of the Kindle from Amazon. At first I wasn't too excited about it, but as the price went down, and more and more people bought it, suddenly there was an avenue for authors to reach an audience all on their own. Like the iPhone App Store did for application developers, Kindle did for Authors.

One of the author's sites I've read for years is J. A. Konrath. He, like me, used to believe you had to publish traditionally to make it as an author. But unlike me, he changed his mind a year or two ago. It has been amazing to watch him over the past year and see how his sales have sky-rocketed. He is now selling thousands of books a month, most of them self-published on the Kindle. I don't expect I will be able to do the same, but at least I will have more control over it, than if I had tried to go the traditional route.

One of the reasons I decided to write was it gave me the freedom to control my own destiny. I had been involved in various creative endeavors in the past where I had to rely on other people to get a product to market. But with writing I felt like I held all the cards. I soon found out this wasn't the case though. The author, was in fact, a small part of the whole publishing engine. You required agents, editors, publishers, graphic designers, printing houses, and book stores. All of these aspects had to align just right for you to ever get a chance to even sell one book. But now, There's me, and there's readers. I can write the book. Lay the book out. Publish to Amazon, and Barnes and Noble, and iBooks, etc... all on my own.

Now, I'm not stupid enough to think I don't need any outside help. I still feel strongly there is a place for professional editing, so I've decided to work with The Editorial Department on my first book to be published, Noah Zarc. I think that as Authors, we all need an editor's keen eye. Also, I'll be working with a fantastic artist on the cover design and illustration at Imagin8 Design. But other than that, I am in the driver seat. I can do my own marketing (authors increasingly had to do this themselves in traditional publishing anyway). I can do my own production (I am a graphic designer by trade). And most importantly, I can write and get a story to readers without spending the two or three years it takes with a publisher.

It's early on, and I'll keep you apprised as I go along, but I'm excited about this next chapter. I hope to release Noah Zarc in the next couple of months as an e-book, and a print on demand paperback on Amazon. Stay tuned.

2010 in Review and Thoughts on 2011

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 00:00:00 EST

The final tally for the number of books I read in 2010 was a disappointing 18. However, to be fair, I think I probably read more pages in 2010 than I did in 2009 when I read over 30 books. 2010 was all about the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan (the last two books being written by Brandon Sanderson after Jordan's death). Each book hovered around 1,000 pages, so if you consider most books are around 300, then each book in the series counted for three books. Therefore I read more like 45 books over the course of the year.

In writing news I completed the edits on Noah Zarc, Book One, and am now considering options for publication (more news on that later). I also wrote the majority of a new story, called Joey Cola and the Stoat of Many Colors. I am very excited about it, and hope to have it completed and edited by the end of this year.

Things are changing dramatically in the publishing world. I think by the end of 2011 there may be some pretty significant shifts in the book market. Look for big book chains to either scale back their store's offerings, or go out of business altogether. I think it will become harder and harder to just get in your car and drive to a local bookstore and browse. Publishers have to make a change because of the rising power of e-books, and they are fighting it tooth and nail, and in doing so they may just put themselves out of business too. Without publishers, where will bookstores get their books?

The good news is, if you have an e-reader, I think it will get easier to borrow books from the Library. E-Book prices will continue to fall, and e-book lists will continue to grow. By the end of 2011, I imagine the vast majority of books will be available on most e-readers, and some books, by big names, will begin to be released only on e-readers.

I have yet to jump on the e-reader bandwagon myself, simply because I love to have books on my bookshelf, but I can see the writing on the wall (or on my monitor). It will become inevitable, if you want to read, you will need an e-reader. Maybe not this year, but in the next two or three.

It can either be a scary time to be in the publishing business, or it can be exciting. As a writer, I'm beginning to feel excited about the power shift that seems to be taking place. Authors can write a book, and have it in reader's hands in a matter of days or weeks instead of the, literally, years it takes now. So bring it on 2011, I'm looking forward to what you have to offer.

50,025

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST

The magic number for today! I must say it is a pretty great feeling getting that many words under my belt in 30 days. But what is an even better feeling is I really think this could be my best book yet. I still have another 15 to 20 thousand words to write until the story is done, but I really like where it is going thus far. I will surely speak more about it later, but for now you can revel in my shiny new NaNoWriMo winner's badge.

NaNoWriMo 2010

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:00 EST

Once again I'm undertaking the craziness that is NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). And this year I vow I won't hit the middle of the month doldrums. This will be the third year I've undertaken to write a 50,000 word novel in one month, but from experience I can tell you in some ways it is easier than it sounds and other ways harder. Writing the words is easy. Getting beyond the blocks that crop up is much much harder. Each year, just around the 15th of the month I've run into a wall. My nice little graph that was trending upwards at a beautiful 45 degree angle suddenly flattens out. It is the awful middle section where I just don't know what to write about. But not this year.

I have done something that I never did in the last three novels I've written. I created a detailed outline of the whole story, beginning, middle and end. I don't don't know why I've never tried it before (except maybe I'm lazy). But this year I was not going to have that feeling where I was sure I couldn't finish, and everything I was writing was crap. This year I would triumph over mid-month blues. By the way, one reason I've never created an outline before is because I never had a tool that made it so easy. Let me restate that, I never USED a tool that made it so easy. I wrote last year's novel in Scrivener, but I didn't take full advantage of it. This year, no excuses. I have detailed note cards of every major scene. Detailed notes of every major location. Notes for the magic system of the world. Photos of all the characters (found at istockphoto.com). All put together in a wonderful, easy to organize format within Scrivener.

Tonight for example I was writing a scene involving my main character, Joey, and his Father. I split the screen vertically. On the left were notes about his father. Who he is, what he does for a living, his character traits, etc... along with a photo I thought represented him. On the right was the manuscript. I wrote while looking at the notes and photo. It was amazing the details I pulled out, that I normally would not have. I love this tool. If you don't use it, go to their web site now: www.scrivener.com The new Scrivener for Mac, version 2.0 came out today (I am not going to upgrade until after November) and the version for Windows is available in beta format. I can't say enough about this program, and to top it all off it is dirt cheap. Go there now.

I'm headed for bed. 3,500 words under my belt and it is only day one. Who knows maybe I'll crank out a 100,000 word novel this month. (I'd settle for 50,000 words with at least a small portion of those usable.) Happy writing all.

On Epic Fantasy

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 00:00:00 EST

I just completed The Gathering Storm by Robert Jordan and Brandon Sanderson, the twelfth book in the Wheel of Time series. Robert Jordan died before being able to finish writing the series (sometimes I thought I'd die before I was able to finish reading the series) and Brandon Sanderson was chosen to wrap it up. There are actually going to be two more books by Mr. Sanderson before we finally get to the end. Book thirteen is due November 1 of this year.

This series is epic, in every sense of the word. Each book is big enough to give you tendonitis just holding it. It makes the Harry Potter series look like picture books. The storyline spans an entire continent, and encompasses the lives of dozens of people, although it primarily focuses on a handful. At times I found myself thinking the series could have been much shorter, but then I think there would have been a great deal lost. This series, more than any other in quite some time, became real to me. There were times over the past eight or nine months (that's how long it took me to read them) that I honestly had moments where I wasn't sure what was reality, and what was part of the world that Mr. Jordan created. As an example, for several books there was an intense heat wave that lasted well into winter. On hot days, in the real world in the middle of summer, I actually had in the back of my mind that it was supposed to be winter, even though the temperature outside was ninety degrees. These moments only lasted seconds, but they go to show how deeply immersed I was in the world of The Wheel of Time.

The fact that Brandon Sanderson wrote the last book, using copious notes from Robert Jordan, has been a great example for me as a writer-wanna-be on pacing. I can honestly say that if Mr. Sanderson had written the first eleven books, I think most of my difficulty slogging through the books would have been nonexistent. Robert Jordan would spend nearly entire books on one character. Then do big, honkin' prologues on the next book catching you up to what was going on with everyone else. His prologues could be a sixth of the book. So I found myself a bit frustrated at times wondering what was going on with the rest of the characters. Brandon Sanderson on the other hand jumped around. Every second or third chapter was devoted to a different character. Sure there was that disappointment when you were involved in one character's circumstances and he yanked you away to follow another, but each section ended in such a way as to force you to read on. I read the last book in half the time as any of the others.

All this to say, I love epic fantasy, but I'm sure it isn't for everyone. You do have to have the mindset that you will finish no matter what. That you will continue reading even if it is hard going at times. The world building is incredible. The scope of the story all encompassing. And the payoff at the end is usually (hopefully) worth it.

I'm not supposed to be good at it...

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:00:00 EST

I've been in a funk lately, in my writing, in my exercise regime, with my poker club, in my family life, in my spiritual life, in life in general. No big, nasty, horrible things are happening to me, just a general malaise has hung like a cloud around me. I've felt like I'm just not particularly good at anything. I know this feeling very well. I've had this feeling in periods of my life. But today (my birthday) I've discovered something profound. Watch this video and you'll see what I mean.

"...when you are learning things, you suck at them." I don't even know who this woman is, but I think she has stumbled on a deeply profound idea. Life is all about learning. I think maybe I've spent my life never really getting past the "suckitude" stage. I find something I like, I work at it a while then I start to feel like I'm just not that good at it, so I move on to something else. But what this smart lady is saying is I'm not supposed to be good at it, at first. Life is all about learning new things, but if we don't, if I don't ever get past the "sucking" stage, then what good are my attempts? I should just quit trying if every time I try, I quit.

So, here is to being lousy at something, but pushing on through. Here's to working from suckage to awesome, and not jumping from sucking at one thing to sucking at another, over, and over again.

Avatar

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

I may have more to say later, but Avatar... wow! I'm not sure Cameron built the epic universe he was after (ala Star Wars) but man did he do something special with the world building and animation. I can't really say it was special effects because nearly the whole movie was animated, but it isn't your father's animation. I am usually as stickler for effects that don't look quite right, or animation that seems stilted or mechanical, but my goodness... there was barely a hiccup in the nearly three hour movie. It was utterly believable; like he took a camera crew to another world and filmed it. The 3D engulfed me. The flora and fauna was breathtaking. And the acting via digital performance capture was top notch. I felt like the Na'vi were real flesh and blood people, with a full culture and attitude. It was just amazing.

Now to the epic nature of the story. This is really the only area I think Avatar fell short. For what it was, the story was solid. It wasn't cheesy, or unbelievable, but was it epic? Did James Cameron create a universe with the vastness, the "bigness" of a Star Wars, or Star Trek, or Middle Earth? I don't think so. Was it a big enough universe for one 3 hour movie? Yes. But big enough for a series of movies? Big enough to become an icon, a piece of American culture? I don't think so. Again it was amazing, but more in the immersivness of the world, and animation, but not universe. Will it make a boatload of money? You bet. Will I see it again? You bet. Will it be something that defines this generation of movie goers, like Star Wars did? I just don't see it. But only time will tell for sure. What I can tell you is the bar has been raised considerably. Movies of this nature (science fiction and fantasy) will never be able to get by with what they were doing a year or two ago. I feel some regret Avatar didn't happen before The Lord of the Rings. If you could marry the effects/animation/world building of Avatar, with the epic story of the Lord of the Rings, I would probably call it the greatest movie ever made.

30 Books in 2009

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:00:00 EST

One of the things I believe strongly, is if you want to be a writer, you must first be a reader. With that in mind I set out toward the beginning of this year to read (and track my reading) as much as I could. Now I have a pretty busy life. I have several hobbies, a wife and two kids, friends to hang out with, church events to attend, a business to run, etc, etc... so what this means is I have to work to carve out time to read. That said, I feel pretty good about finishing thirty books this year, including the daunting "Einstein" by Walter Isaacson. But something curious happened in my quest to be a prolific reader. I struggled to find books that I really, really loved. In fiction, there were only two, "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card and "The True Meaning of Smekday" by D.M. Rex. This may partly be due to the fact that I felt like I had to finish every book I started. Because if I didn't, then it wouldn't make my list. So I ended up reading some books all the way through that I normally would have put down. This took up time that I could have been reading something else that I might have loved. I also read a few series that ended up being okay, but just not great. I was invested enough that I wanted to see how the stories ended, but I can't see myself reading them again.

This all got me thinking about my own writing. Am I creating something that is just okay? Something that people might add to their list of books read, but not loved? If so, am I okay with that? Obviously there are many different tastes out there. Some people may have loved the books that I thought were mediocre. So there is always that possibility with my own work. I guess in the end I need to try to write something that I love, and hope there are others out there with similar tastes.

What about you all. What books have you read that you absolutely love? I'd love to add some into the queue for next year.

50,076 Words

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

Well, here it is, just hours before the end of November 2009, and I've crossed the finish line. I'd like to say it was a great experience, but honestly this year was tough. When I did NaNoWriMo in 2008, I had a blast the entire time. Sure I got behind, but the story was such fun to write. This year I struggled through nearly the whole thing, and in the end I'm not sure whether it has any value or not. Sure I think there are some good points to it, my son said it was more "mysterious" than the first Noah Zarc book, which is what I was going for. But in the end I'm not sure it had any clear direction. But that is not what NaNo is about. It is about sitting your butt in the chair and typing, and that I did. If you take a look at my word graph, you'll see I really struggled in the middle. About day 16 is when my son told me he'd help me get going again by reading what I had written. So that got me moving. But by thanksgiving I really had to kick it into high gear, writing 10,000 words in only two days. When all is said and done, I am really surprised how easy it is to crank the words out. I just may have to go back to the drawing board, or keyboard, to figure out how to make those words form a story worth reading.

Writer's Block

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:00 EST

I hate writer's block. I'm not saying I hate getting writer's block, I'm saying I hate the term. I've always believed it was just an excuse for not writing. "I'd be working on my latest novel, but I have writer's block, so I'll go check my facebook page instead." "The World Series of Poker final table is on, I wonder if my man Phil Ivey will take it this year." (He didn't.) You get the idea. Writer's block is an excuse to be lazy. And here I am about to get all honest on you. I had a huge bout of writer's block for several days last week and spilling into this one. You see I'm deep in the throes of NaNoWriMo, and as anyone knows, who is familiar with this insanity, there is absolutely no room for laziness. That's why we use intriguing, "You non-writers wouldn't understand." terms like writer's block. I was completely lost. I had no idea what to do next in my story. So I didn't do anything. I saw my word count deficit build. I thought maybe this year I would be the loser I always knew I was, and not finish what I had started.

Then, my resolve strengthened. No, I will not be that guy. I will not be what my friends in high school said I was. I am not a quitter. D. Robert 2.0 would prevail. So I put my fingers on my keyboard, and I typed. One painful word after another. Then the keys started clacking a little bit louder. The staccato of words on a page beat the air in rhythm to my pounding heart... Okay, that is a bit dramatic, but suffice to say, the words came. Maybe not the next Faulkner, but there are some nuggets in there. Something that won't hit the editing floor in a few months when I get back to the manuscript. So I say now, writer's block be gone. I do not condescend to acknowledge your presence.

Now, what the heck am I doing writing this blog. I still have a valley to climb out of. A low spot in my climb toward 50,000 words to make up for. 11,787 down. 38,213 to go.

Writing a Novel Isn't Rocket Science, Or Is It?

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST

A couple weeks ago, after I posted about completing the latest draft of Noah Zarc, I received a comment on the post from Susan Quinn, a real life rocket scientist. She offered to read through the latest draft and give me some feedback. I of course jumped all over it and sent the manuscript off to her. A short time later she returned the document with an exceptional, well thought out, critique. The most exciting part, in my opinion, were the five "Tech Issues" that she wrote detailed remarks about. Informing me, from a scientific standpoint, where my technology was a little off the mark. Did you know that there is no "escape velocity" if you are simply trying to leave the earth? As long as you are not trying to enter orbit around the earth, you can go at pretty much any speed you are able to maintain. Duh! Susan also had wonderful ideas to improve several other areas of the story, and character development as well. So, Susan a big ol' thank you for your help.

For anyone else out there in the final stages of writing or editing a novel, I cannot say enough about the importance of finding another pair of eyes, or better yet multiple pairs of eyes, to take a look at your manuscript. Look for people who can be honest, detailed, and relentless. This isn't a popularity contest. You don't want people to fawn all over your work. You need critiquers who aren't afraid to tell you like it is. Aren't afraid to tell you to "kill your darlings". If you can find someone like that, and they also point out areas they like, how much more are you going to believe them? My wife is my biggest critic, but I can tell you when she says she likes something, that is huge. Because I know she is not just trying to make me feel all warm and fuzzy, she genuinely means it.

So get your story out there. Let the wolves tear it to pieces. Then put it back together better, and stronger than ever before.

NaNoWriMo 2009

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:00:00 EST

I just signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). I'm pretty excited about writing book two of Noah Zarc. Is anyone else out there planning on having a go at it this year? If so let me know your NaNo name so we can help push each other on. If you are on on the fence about it, I highly recommend you have a go at it. There is nothing like reaching the end of a 50,000 word novel in only thirty days. November 1 you aren't a novelist, and November 30 you are. In my case I will be a three-times novelist (if I finish, which I will baring any catastrophe). So what are you waiting for, sign up now. www.nanowrimo.org

Noah Zarc Rewrite - Again

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST

I finished up the latest rewrite/edit of Noah Zarc last night. I'm really excited about some of the changes. I'm gonna let it stew a couple days then send it off to some readers. The plan is to have this be the last pass. Then it is time to start submitting it. I cut about 1,500 words, but it is still just a bit over 50k. Perhaps my readers can point out a few places to cut. But if not I'm pretty comfortable with that. I don't think any agent is going to throw it out because of a few thousand words.

Writing a "Big" book.

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 EST

Just when I thought I was nearing completion on the editing for Noah Zarc, I read "Writing the Breakout Novel" by literary agent Donald Maass. He makes the argument that best sellers aren't made by good marketing and sales efforts, they depend more strongly on the writing. Duh! But it is surprising how often I read on the blogosphere about marketing, and how your novel will never sell unless you spend a vast amount of time promoting your book. Maass says a writer should be writing. If an author ever wants to move beyond average sales, or dwindling sales in the case of mid-career novelist, then they need to learn how to write a "big" story. He emphasizes this does not necessarily mean a long novel, but it should feel big. I call it "epic".

So, as I attempt to apply this to Noah Zarc, I find there are elements of "bigness" in it, but the plot could use some strengthening too. Where I'm struggling at the present though is with word count. Most sources I've read say that a middle grade novel should be about 30,000 to 40,000 words in length. Noah Zarc stands at about 54,000 words. I don't mind pushing the envelope a little bit, but I feel it is probably too long already and should be cut. However, I also have some ideas that I believe will make it much bigger, much more epic in scope. Except I'm sure those additions will push the word count even higher.

As I've said in previous posts, I am a firm believer of working within guidelines. That is why I became a graphic designer instead of a fine artist. One puts food on the table, one doesn't (as easily). So I'm not going to brush off the word count guidelines only for the sake of my "art". Nevertheless, I'm feeling pretty constricted by it, to tell the story I want to tell. Perhaps the answer lies in the sequel. Hint at greatness in the first book, but then really open the spigot on the second. But then I risk not snagging my audience (agents, editors, and readers) by writing a book that doesn't really get going soon enough.

As you can see I'm pretty conflicted on the subject. Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Ender's Game

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST

At the SCBWI meeting yesterday I read a page or two from Noah Zarc. Afterward one of the members asked me if I ever read "Ender's Game" by Orson Scott Card. He said it really wasn't anything like Noah Zarc, but my story reminded him of it. So since I was at a bookstore anyway, I picked up a copy. I could tell after about 20 pages it was going to be good, because I found myself looking at the back to see how many pages it was, and thinking that it wasn't going to be a long enough book. By the end of the day (ok 12:30 this morning) I had read the whole thing.

It was an utterly compelling story. It had all the hallmarks of an "epic" story at least how I define epic. A small child is given a choice between an easy life with his family, or the chance to save the planet. He chooses the latter and goes to "Battle School". There he quickly rises through the ranks of the other kids to become the leader that the world needed, just in the nick of time.

Ender's Game had elements of Dune, and Harry Potter (although ender's game was before HP) and it sucked me in and I couldn't put it down all day. Finally I reached about 20 pages from the end and could not figure out how the author could possibly wrap the story up in time, then wham, the he hit me with an amazing twist. I highly recommend it.

scbwi

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST

I am currently working on gathering a list of agents to query. In doing so I noticed that several of them were members of SCBWI, the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators. I checked it out and decided it would be worthwhile to join. After joining I was thrilled to discover that they have a local chapter that meets at the Barnes & Noble in Fairlawn. The first meeting is this Saturday. I am really looking forward to attending. They also have a conference coming up in September. It looks to be a pretty well-planned event. At this point I don't really know what to expect, but I have my registration filled out, and my two copies of the first ten pages of my manuscript ready for critique. I will definitely let you know what happens.

Moving closer to submitting

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 00:00:00 EST

I just sent off the latest revision of Noah Zarc to a couple of my most honest and forth-coming critiquers. The plan is to take their revision suggestions, incorporate them into the manuscript, give it one more pass for grammar/spelling issues, then begin sending it out to agents. So while I wait for feedback, I am working on getting the rest of the needed "Novel Package" ready to go. First up is the query. This is the short description of the story that will go in a letter or email to agents, hopefully "hooking" them so they want to read more. Take a look. Please feel free (or compelled) to give me feedback.

Noah Zarc couldn’t imagine life without piloting spaceships through the solar system, dodging killer robots, and saving the earth’s animals from extinction. Life couldn’t be any better for the ten-year-old time-traveler, but he soon learns it could be a whole lot worse. His dad becomes stranded on Earth, ten thousand years in the past. A madman kidnaps his mom, taking her to Mars a thousand years in the future. All while Noah is stuck on the dark side of the moon in the 21st century. His only means of transport—a city-sized spaceship, filled with animals of every size and kind—but it hasn’t moved in years. Noah, along with his brother Hamilton, and sister Sam, know they will have to use every talent they possess to outwit a foe, bent on forcing their mother to destroy an earth that only recently became inhabitable again. At the same time keeping their dad from freezing to death or getting squished by wooly mammoths in the Ice Age. Along the way Noah discovers a dark, family secret, his mother and father aren’t who he thought they were.

Writing Software

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST

A year or so ago I was reading a blog by a published author (Holly Lisle), and she said she was using a software package called Scrivener for her writing. It sounded rather exciting. It allowed you to create virtual "note cards" with ideas for your chapters, which you could then expand upon and grow into your actual story. So I excitedly went to the website to download it, only to discover it only worked on a Mac. Well a year later I'm happily working on my new MacBook Pro which I had purchased a month or two prior when I remembered Scrivener. Five minutes later I had it downloaded and installed.

After working with it a couple of months I can't imagine writing without it. I copied and pasted my entire manuscript for Noah Zarc into it for editing. It has a couple views for different tasks. An "Outline" view that allows me to see every chapter, and every scene in the chapter with a short synopsis of each displayed. This is great for locating key areas in the story to add in new scenes, allowing me to flesh out a sub plot I'm adding to the story. The other view is "Corkboard" with the aformentioned note cards. It allows me to instantly see each scene and drag and drop those scenes in different orders. This has been invaluable as I begin to layout the plot ideas for Noah Zarc book two.

The built in help system is a bit lacking. It took me days to figure out how to get the chapter numbers and titles to print out when I exported it. (all you had to do was turn off both Outline and Corkboard views.) Also the Search and Replace tools could be a bit more robust.

I know I haven't scratched the surface with what it can do. But overall I am extremely happy with it.

Great book on how to make your novel shine

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 12:52:09 EST

I just finished Flogging the Quill- Crafting a Novel that Sells by Ray Rhamey an author and editor. I've read probably a half dozen books on editing, but this one by far has been the most helpful.

One of the great things about the book, is it can be used anywhere along the writing process. If you are just starting a novel, or have it complete, there are sound ideas you can use to make the story shine.

He's the author of the blog Flogging The Quill, that I've mentioned before, and many of his concepts can be found there, but the book goes quite a bit further and really outlines the process step-by-step. I highly recommend this, and if you order it now, he will actually do a free phone consultation, or free critique of your first 3 pages, just for sending in a photo of yourself with the book. You know I'm all over that.

Visions of being King

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 EST

A post over on Patricia Wood's blog, got me thinking about writing. I posted this in her comments.

My dad is a great story-teller. Not the fictional, sitting around the camp-fire ghost story kind. Just the everyday experiences of his life kind. Ever since I was a kid I can remember listening to him tell stories of things he'd done in his life. I discovered around high school that I had no such gift. I couldn't remember what happened last week, let alone what happened five years ago.

So I started to concoct stories up about my exploits. I worked at Disney World for a semester in college (sweeping cigarette butts) and I had all kinds of story-lines I doled out. My favorite one was I went to the lady who made our name tags and told her I lost mine. And I had her make me a "Chip" name tag (My first name is Dale) and I went around telling everyone I was twins. "Yeah, my parents were huge Disney fans, and they named us after those annoying chipmunks."

Another time I was working at a rock concert selling T-shirts and I convinced a group of girls I had fled South Africa during apartheid because I didn't like how the blacks were treated. (I'm white, born and raised in Ohio but I did a pretty good South African/British accent.) I even took it a step further and told them I was number 364th in line for the throne of England.

Then somewhere around the end of my college years, I started to realize something. I wasn't telling stories, I was flat out lying. My conscience started to eat away at me a bit. So I gave it up. Quit cold turkey. Got boring.

Then I discovered writing. The beautiful thing about writing is you can lie all over the place. You can make up the grandest stories, and as long as you make it believable, you can lie, lie lie. I was hooked. I guess I never really thought about it before, but this is probably the main reason I like writing so much. While I'm writing I can at least capture a little bit of that feeling, back when I wasn't so ordinary, and had visions of being King.

I'm a real writer now!

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:00:00 EST

I've finally achieved something that up until now I've only read about. I received my first rejection letter from an agent. Okay, I will admit that I was a bit disappointed, but honestly only a little. As I said previously I had very, very low expectations that I would land an agent this easily. I'm excited that I did get an agent to request pages on my first try, so I'm still pretty pumped.

I am still going to proceed with getting Noah Zarc finalized, and then I'm going to start sending it out in earnest. So for all my beta readers out there, if you can get your thoughts back to me, I'm ready to go.

Just how busy are agents anyway?

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST

I just got a dose of reality today. I've read it dozens of times. I even told my friends who were asking if I heard back from the agent yet, that it could be weeks, or months. But we has humans don't seem to really believe it until it happens to us.

I got an email from the Secret Agent. "Thanks! I'll do my best to get back to you within two months."

I totally understand. We are all very busy people. I have clients (at my day job) that have to wait quite a while for me to get to their projects too. But still, two months! At least I can hold off checking my email every ten minutes... At least for a few weeks. I mean you never know, she may get to it early. :-)

In the mean time I am continuing to refine the query letter for Noah Zarc, and put the finishing touches on the manuscript. I hope to start sending out to other agents within the next month. So that'll give me something else to fret about.

Naoh Zarc, Book Two

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:00 EST

Before all the secret agent hooha, I began work on the second Noah Zarc book. My son has been bugging me to write the sequel, so of course I had to comply. I'm pretty excited about some ideas I have for it. I've got the first couple of pages written, but mostly I've been mulling it over in my mind. I tend to come up with scenes in my head. Little vignettes that begin to build the plot, and give me an idea of where I want to go with the story. I think it may end up being a bit darker than the first one, but that is yet to be seen for sure.

In the mean time I'm continuing to edit book one. I want to make sure it is ready to go if the agent requests the full manuscript. I also haven't forgotten Crimson Swarm. It is off to one of my crit partners who I'm doing a full novel swap with. Could be a busy summer for writing.

Thanks to all the folks who helped whip the first five chapters of Noah Zarc into shape for the agent. Hopefully it'll pay off.

Secret Agent Results

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 12:46:13 EST

It is official. I can't stop grinning. The secret agent chose Noah Zarc as one of the runners up in the Secret Agent contest. How cool is that? The prize: Literary Agent Kate Testerman, has agreed to read the first five chapters of the book. Yikes! That means I have to put an end to my continual editing. I need to say "It is finished" and send it out. That's kind of scary in and of itself.

She also asks for a synopsis of the whole story. I haven't written one of those yet, so I'll have to get crackin'. I did just reread the first five chapters (making yet a few more edits) and am pretty excited about it. Chapter five ends with a pretty cool cliff hanger so hopefully it'll get her to want to read even more.

I know it is a very, very long shot that I would ever land an agent on my first try, but still it is cool. And it is still worth getting excited about.

Secret Agent Part Deux

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 12:45:03 EST

I'm pretty excited... The secret agent commented on my opening, and he/she liked it.

"Secret Agent said... Tension, action, introduction of characters: all in all, a good set-up to a possibly intriguing story. I'd be happy to read more.

Although -- Sam and Ham as matching names bothers me a bit."

It's not that I place agents on a higher pedestal than the average reader... okay, that's a lie. There seems to be this almost mythological view of agents by many unpublished authors. And I can certainly understand, and relate to it. They are the gatekeepers of sorts. If you want to be take seriously by most main stream publishers you have to have an agent. So those few words from the secret agent carry a great deal of weight. I really wonder if most agents understand the power they have. Even our secret agent had some pretty harsh words for some of the other entries... I'm sure she is a nice person and certainly has no desire to hurt anyone, but if I'm this excited about the good things she said, imagine what I would have felt to have her say she "hated" it.

I'm kind of rambling here, but I'm just trying to put into perspective how I feel about the whole experience thus far. There is some guilt for the shadenfreudian thoughts I had when I counted up the nos compared to the yeses (was she hooked?) Hoping that there weren't many yeses giving me a higher chance at winning. But at the same time, that is really how the game works. Agents receive by some accounts a hundred queries a day. As a writer you want your query to stand out above all the others. But that means you want 99 people to be hurt by the rejection, so you can be seen.

Boy, maybe I'm not cut out for this. This started as an I'm excited entry, now I'm feeling a bit down.

Well, if I happen to be one of the ones who wins on Monday, I'm sure I'll get back to excited right quick.

Secret Agent Contest

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 12:44:03 EST

I discovered a nifty site a month or so ago called, Miss Snark's First Victim. (For those who don't know who Miss Snark is, click here.) The blog author, who calls herself Authoress, runs a Secret Agent contest once a month. It goes something like this. She lines up an actual literary agent to agree to be her secret agent of the month. Then she gets 50 wannabe authors to send in their first 250 words from a completed manuscript. These first pages are posted on the site and then everyone has to critique at least 5 entries from the other authors.

Where the fun part comes in (as if that weren't fun enough) is the Secret Agent will also critique the entries, and in the end award some kind of prize. (request to submit, etc...) This sounded quite exciting to me, and so I submitted my first page for Noah Zarc. You can see all the wonderful feedback I've been getting here: http://misssnarksfirstvictim.blogspot.com/2009/04/20-secret-agent.html Although honestly I was hoping for more "This part doesn't work." statements so I could make it better, my ego also enjoys a "This really hooked me!" every now and again too.

The secret agent has yet to show herself, so it remains to be seen what a professional thinks of the opening. I can't wait to hear. Well, I guess I have to, but I don't have to like it.

Noah Zarc Query Letter

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 12:42:16 EST

While I wait for feedback from my Noah Zarc beta readers, I'm working on writing a query letter. This is the first thing prospective literary agents will see. Here is version one.

Dear Ms. Agent:

I have been following your blog for years, and always find your comments helpful and encouraging. I hope you will be interested in representing my novel.

NOAH ZARC is middle-grade, science fiction, complete at 50,000 words.

JJ couldn’t imagine life without spending his days piloting spaceships through time, visiting ancient worlds and rescuing the Earth’s animals from extinction. Sure not every kid had to dodge killer robot drones, rescue their parents from the Ice Age, and save the Earth from being destroyed – again – but not every kid was a Zarc.

Nearly a thousand years in the future, humanity has moved to other worlds. The Earth, once uninhabitable, is coming back to life thanks to the efforts of the ARC Foundation. Noah Zarc, his wife Hannah and their three kids, Ham, Sam and JJ, have been given the task of traveling back in time to retrieve pairs of now extinct animals to repopulate the planet.

However dissention has arisen between supporters of the ARC Foundation who live on Mars, and those on Venus who think the Earth should be reopened to human population. The Venetian leader, Haon, has vowed to stop the Zarcs, even if it means destroying the very thing he is fighting to reclaim.

NOAH ZARC shows the power of family to overcome insurmountable obstacles, while not losing sight of what is most important, standing up for the helpless.

I am the owner of a website development company with a degree in graphic design and illustration. This is my first novel.

If you would like to see sample chapters, or the full manuscript, please respond via email at drobert@drobertpease.com, or at xxx.xxx.xxxx. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
D. Robert Pease

Beta Readers

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 10:42:01 EST

Editing has been progressing slowly but surely. I think I'm to the point where both of my current projects are ready for beta readers. I've sent off Noah Zarc to a few readers, and look forward to their thoughts. I'm in the process of trying to line up some for Crimson Swarm too.

My goal (I know I've said that before) is to have them both ready to go in the next couple of months. I'm itching to start submitting them to potential agents. I think I've learned about all I can, at this point, about the process and I'm ready to hit the ground running.

50,007 Words!

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 08:07:55 EST

November is drawing to a close, and I did it. I just typed the last word. Crossed the last digital T, and dotted the final proverbial I.

It was a great experience, and taught me a lot about perseverance. Writing when I just didn't feel like it. I am certain I would have given up if it wasn't for my son reading along. Every day he would read what I wrote the day before. Tonight I even caught him reading on my screen. He is already talking sequel.
The biggest struggle I had finishing it up was I got to about 48,500 words, and finished the story. So I had to go back and add in another 1,500 words. I'm not sure what will make the cut when it comes to editing, but it was fun getting to the end.

So now it is to bed. As a bonus, here is a photo of what it looks like to write 5o,000 words in a single month.

Coming Down the Home Stretch

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 08:06:37 EST

Well, less than a week to go, and I think I'm going to make it. I wrote like a madman this weekend and I got back on track. 38,390 words. I can finally see the end of the story, and I think everything I have yet left in my head will fill the last 11,610 words. It is kind of amazing to me that I really think I'll have a complete story beginning to end in almost exactly 50,000 words. (Well I guess I shouldn't count my chickens...)

I guess another week will tell. It's been a ball so far.

3/5ths of the way

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 08:06:03 EST

Well it took a marathon writing session tonight, but I caught back up. 30,120 words. So I am feeling really good. For the longest time I couldn't figure out how I was going to finish the novel and use up the whole 50K. It just seemed like I was moving way too fast in the story. But now that I am at 30K words it feels like I am in exactly the right spot.

As always my son has been the best encourager. Today I asked him why he wasn't reading the latest Ink Spell book. He usually devours books in just a few days, but this one has been sitting on the table in the livingroom for a couple weeks. I asked him if it wasn't very good. He said, "It's alright, but it isn't as good as your story. I can't read anything until I find out what happens."

Warmed the cockles of my heart. Cockles I tell you!!

Half Way There!

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 08:05:26 EST

Well, I just passed the halfway mark, and am now starting to think this is doable. I'm at 25,201. I am just a day behind, since it is the 16th, but that should be easy to catch up.

I actually got behind because I played poker on Friday night, and then couldn't sleep in on Saturday because we got a new cat. The Dog wouldn't leave her alone, so I didn't get my usuall "sleep until noon" Saturday. But I made up for it this afternoon.

I'm still a little unsure about how I'm going to write another 25,000 words. I've already accomplished nearly everything in the book I wanted to before the final climax of the story. But if I get to the end and don't have the words, I have no doubt I can go back and add some in.

I'm ready for a bit of an ego boost, so I think I'll print out what I've written so far. My son hasn't read anything in a few days. The grin on his face as he reads gets me pumped for another couple late nights pretty easily.

Lucky 13

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:04:53 EST

Well, after struggling for a few days, the words finally flowed again. I had fun tonight writing in a new character. Adina is now going to be an integral part of the story, and I didn't even know she existed until this evening.

How cool is a 10 year old cave girl going to be in the 31st century.

I passed today's goal by about 200 words. Which is good, because I want to get tomorrow's word count done before I will allow myself to go play poker with they guys.

Today's count: 21,828. Almost half way there!

Update. Day 11.

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 19:51:37 EST

Well I got a bit behind on my NaNo story. I blame it on Chris Baty, the founder of NaNoWriMo. He posted a goal of finishing 15,ooo words by the end of the day yesterday. And I did that with no problem. Unfortunately by the end of the day today I should actually be at over 18,000 words. So... considering the fact that the final table for the World Series of Poker was on tonight. I feel pretty good about writing about 1800 words today. So 16,842 is the current count.

Speaking of poker, I now have the goal of being ahead by 1,600 words by Friday, so I can go play poker with my buddies and not feel guilty.

One other note. I have discovered that it is indeed getting a bit harder to get the words down. Getting to that mid story doldrums. One thing that is keeping me going though is the fact that my son is reading as I go. He is really eager to see what happens next (as am I). And what dad wants to his son to see him fail? So suddenly this has turned into a lesson in finishing what you've started. What have I gotten myself into?

Why I Am Proud to be an American

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 19:50:01 EST

I'm going to take a little break from my usual writing posts and tell you about my Grandpa Clark.

My grandfather never talked about the war. All I knew growing up was he was off to war for much of my mom's childhood. Then just a few weeks before he died back in 1994 he began to talk. We sat at his feet in his home, his family that had grown to four kids, dozens of grand kids and even a great grandchild or two, surrounded him as he told us about something that he had a very hard time putting to words. He still didn't talk a lot about the details. Even then it was still too much I think, but my impression of him and the war were forever changed.

Turns out he was on a ship just off the coast of France during D-Day. He wasn't the first wave to land, but he went in pretty close after that. Then he spent the rest of the war riding across Europe, freeing villages. I remember an old picture of him sitting in a jeep in front of a windmill in the Netherlands. Another of him and his buddies in front of a bombed out cathedral. Anyone who doesn't think we we should have been in the war, just go ask those people in that village in Holland, and all across Europe who could very well be living a very different life now if it weren't for people like William Fredrick James Clark, my grandpa.

Math is not my strong suit.

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:27:48 EST

Somewhere along the line, I discovered that my calculations of the past couple days were inaccurate. I thought I was right on schedule with my Nano word count. But I realized that Saturday, to Saturday was 8 days, not 7. So I started writing tonight with about a 1,600 word deficit. Which meant I needed to write 3,200 words to get back to my target. Well, I didn't quite make it. I'm at 14,322 words, a little less than 700 words shy of my goal for the day. So I need to make up for it tomorrow. (Hmmm... actually later today since it is after midnight.)

At least I figured it out now instead of 3 weeks from now.

End of Week One

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:25:44 EST

Well, I'm still keeping at it. Here we are 1/4 of the way there, and I'm almost exactly 1/4 of the way to my goal. 12,517 words out of 50,000. I have to say this target word count thing is really working for me. I'm finding it surprisingly easy to sit down and write the 1,600+ words needed every day to meet the goal. It really makes me wonder just how much I could write if this was my full time job. I begin to understand why some authors can crank out several books a year.

I'm also pretty excited because this morning, lying in bed, I figured out the ending of the story. I'm definitely a plot as I go kind of writer, but it is a little hard for me to write the story not knowing how it will end. Now that I know, I've got something to work toward. And having the goal of writing a complete novel at 50,000 words with a beginning middle and end, I now know when I need to start reaching the climax of the story in order to come down the other side with a finished story.

My son is still reading along. It is a blast writing with him in mind. "Oh, I know that'll make him laugh. I'm sure he'll think this is cool." really makes me look forward to his reaction. So far I haven't been disappointed.

Slow but steady.

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 16:25:07 EST

Well it is the end of day 5 and I got a good couple hours writing in. As expected I didn't write at all last night. I wasn't really planning on watching much of the election coverage, but my son was studying it in his class at school, and was interested in watching. Couldn't pass up the educational opportunity. I am still on track at 8,220 words, so no problem there.

I'm still quite happy with the story thus far. Our heroes are now in 12th century Scotland. JJ (our ten year old protagonist) is not at all happy about having to wear hose.

I am thoroughly enjoying writing a sci-fi, time travel, young adult novel. I love space, I love gadgets, I love time travel stories (Crimson Swarm also has some time travel elements) and I love writing to this level. It feels so natural. I guess that means I have the mentality of a ten year old.

Well off to bed, so I'm not a total waste at work tomorrow. Also need to make sure I get up and take the kids to school since the wife is out of town on business and isn't here to wake me.

Encouragement

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:24:22 EST

The story for NaNo is going well. I'm at 6,766 words so far which is a bit ahead of schedule. My wife is going away on a business trip tomorrow, so if I can get the kids in bed on time I should have some really good writing time tomorrow night. We'll see how it goes this evening, being election night and all.

I wanted to tell you what a great son I've got. He has turned into quite a little encourager. (Well not so little anymore at almost 11) He read the first 3 chapters of Noah Zarc. I watched him while he read. Several times he grinned. Then when he was all done he said, "That's really great dad." Then he proceeded to tell me some places that needed work. Let me tell you. No other bit of encouragement or advice has felt so good. He is basically the one I'm writing the story for, so to hear he liked it, is great. Thanks buddy.

GO!

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 16:23:22 EST

1,830 down, 48,170 to go.

Man what fun. It has been so long since I just sat down and wrote, with no thought to editing, and perfection.

Well off to bed. 2AM.

National Novel Writing Month

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 16:22:23 EST

Well, I did it. I signed up for NaNoWriMo. Am I nuts? Time will tell.

If you are unfamiliar with the National Novel Writing Month (NaNo) I encourage you to visit the link above. It is a great opportunity to finally write that novel you've been thinking about. The basic premise is you need to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Beginning to end. The emphasise is on quantity and not quality. Just how much can you write in 30 days time? I guess I'm about to find out.

I come to this ill prepared, so I have pretty low expectations. But all that means is there is a great deal of room to be surprised. I have the basic concept of a story, but not much in the way (read none) of an outline. I may try to hammer one out tonight. My goal off the bat will be to write two hours a night at least 5 days a week. Probably 9:30 - 11:30 pm.

I'm going to try my hand at a young adult novel. There is an idea that I've kicked around with some friends for a few years, called Noah Zarc. If I get anything worth-while I'll try to get my illustrator friend to round out the story with illustrations.

So pedal to the metal. Ready... Set...

Advice from Stephen King

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 16:20:58 EST

I saw this clip of Stephen King a while ago. He talks about a magic moment. When you put down a book and realize "I can do better than this." That moment happened for me over the past few days. (Ok that isn't a moment, but sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake.) I've been reading, actually listening on my iPhone, to Sly Mongoose by Tobias Buckell. Now I'm not going to go as far as Mr. King and say it sucked. Because it most certainly did not. I enjoyed the overall story quite a bit, and since this is the third in a series I've read, I'm pretty invested in the universe he creates, and the main character, Pepper. But as I listened to the story, I was struck quite often by the writing. It didn't seem as polished as I remembered the past two books. The author repeated words and phrases often. The dialogue and description didn't seem as crisp. And quite frankly the opening scene was the best part of the whole book. (You can read it on his website: http://www.tobiasbuckell.com/ ) But the question I asked myself was, could I do any better? I'm not sure if I know the answer, but tonight I was sitting in Starbucks editing Crimson Swarm. And several times, I said, "yeah, this is good stuff." The chapter I was working on (about half way through the story) really flowed well. The dialogue was crisp. The action clear. I don't know, I'm too big of a wuss to say it was better writing than Mr. Buckell, (and what makes it even harder is the man is really a great guy, and we've talked a couple times via email.) But maybe, just maybe I had a Stephen King moment. Whatever it takes to get me to finish this darn novel... I'll take it. (sorry Tobias)

Here's the Stephen King clip:

I'm not dead, yet.

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:17:30 EST

Wow, life just has a way of taking over. I haven't posted here in so long, mostly because I haven't written in so long. Part of the problem is I've been having problems with sitting at a computer screen too long. It has been making me nauseous. That is a bad thing when you are a web developer, and a wannabe writer. I went for my 40 year old eye exam, and the Dr. said "Come back when you need me... in the next one to two years." So it's not my eyes. So I'm not really sure what is going on there. But Nuadaim has been calling. I went back and read the first couple chapters again yesterday. It still seems like there is something there.

The family is taking a week and headed to Disney World next week. When I get back, I've got a date with a manuscript. I'm so close. I'm not quitting now.

Also I'm toying around with the idea of doing nano this year. I've got a story idea that has been kicking around. A more young adult story, than Crimson Swarm. Maybe that could be my goal with the edits. Get them done before November 1. Seems doable.

Writing Too Wordy

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:15:31 EST

Wow, where did March go? I can't believe it has been over a month since I posted last. It was a crazy month. My birthday came and went, and I didn't meet my goal, and yet I still don't feel too bad about it. I continue to edit. I'm plugging away at it, but life gets in the way at times.

I did have something interesting happen. I sent my first chapter off to Ray Rhamey an author and editor. He does this thing on his blog called the "Flogometer". For those brave enough, he takes what he considers the first page of your novel (the first 16 lines) and critiques it. Ultimately he says whether he would turn the page or not, looking at how well it "hooks" the reader. He flogged me pretty well, and said he would not continue reading.

Sure there was a little disappointment, but honestly I am so grateful for him for taking the time to give me good solid feedback. Also several people posted comments giving feedback as well. The overall consensus was I was being a bit too wordy. Someone commented that I used too many "highfalutin" words. Looking back at it, I couldn't agree more. I have rewritten the first chapter, and in particular the first page or so, over and over again, and it shows. I really think later stuff, that is fresher is much less likely to be overwritten. You can see all their comments here.

So, even though I said I had rewritten the first chapter over and over, I did it again. Here is the revised first page. Please feel free to comment, and let me know if it still feels overwritten.

----------------------

Chapter 1 - Birth

Burning oil and cooked meats masked the acrid smell of death. With a swollen tongue, he tasted thick dust on cracked lips. Rough stone dug into his back. He opened his eyes, and then flung hands up to shield his gaze. Dust billowed around nearly skeletal fingers, which glowed red against the painful light. Where am I?

The reek of death grew stronger. He struggled to move. His legs were stiff; his shoulders jammed between stone. He was in a cramped box. Sweat poured from his brow. He kicked his legs and grappled toward the light.

He strained against the edges of the box and pulled himself up, toward the ruddy glow. Grey dots danced across his vision and he nearly fainted. His head spun. At last, the room steadied.

He sat in a granite box on a raised platform at the end of a long narrow chamber. Stone sarcophagi lined both sides of the room. A chill prickled his skin. I have awakened in a tomb.

His mind raced, as fresh sweat rolled down his grimy forehead into his eyes. Nightmarish visions of faces filled his mind—faces surrounding him—large pale eyes watching, always watching. A need to get free of the coffin overpowered him.

-----------------

Still Editing

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:13:40 EST

I have been very quiet lately, and this time it is for a good reason. I have been working very hard on the edits for Crimson Swarm. I am now less than 1 month away from my birthday goal. I'm beginning to doubt whether I'll have it all edited by then, but that isn't stopping me. In fact I am working harder than ever. I just spent about 5 hours on chapter 5. And basically I am rewriting the entire thing.

I think I mentioned once before about reading an author's blog, on which they stated they rewrite their book from beginning to end during editing. I just couldn't imagine this would be a good idea. But for this chapter, it really seems to be working. I'm digging much deeper into what the characters are thinking, and why they are doing what they are doing. Also the pacing is much stronger than before. They are escaping from a prison. Before the rewrite everyone was sitting around chatting before they decide it is time to escape. Now they don't wait around for anything.

So I'm excited. I wish it wasn't 1 AM and I could work longer. But alas I must get up early to take the kids to school and do some real, paying work.

Poetry in Fantasy Literature

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 16:12:22 EST

In the early chapters of Crimson Swarm I have a poem that digs deeply into the history and lore of my world. I am rather pleased with it. I think it flows well, and tells the story in a way that other types of narration may not, but I'm not sure I'm going to keep it. The problem is every critique I've received of a chapter that the poem is in (I've moved it a couple times) the critiquers say things like, "The poem kind of slowed things down." or "I only skimmed the poem."

Don't get me wrong, I totally understand. I used to do the same thing with Tolkien. In the Lord of the Rings, every time I came to a song, or poem, zing, I'd skip right over it. But then over the years I started to read them, and love them. I think you can really see Tolkien's passion about his world in the poetry.

My fear is if I have this big long poem (it is probably a page long) in the first three chapters of my manuscript, is an agent going to feel like it really slowed things down as well? Should I keep it, but maybe move it later? Cut it down in bite-sized chunks? Or ditch it altogether?

I'm not sure I have an answer for that yet. I'll add it to my list of things to ponder as I wade through editing.

Bloody (Brilliant) Critiques

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:11:26 EST

I got a particularly bloody critique of chapter three from a member of my crit circle! How exciting is that!! When I printed it out, it was six pages long!!!

Bloody critique--exciting? How can this be?

Really it is. What it means is, someone whose writing I respect, took the time (considerable it seems) to really pick apart the chapter. She had fantastic advice on a number of issues. One in particular that made me slap myself on the forehead. I can't believe I missed something so obvious.

This highlights for me two things I have learned about writing (about anything in fact).

1. Be open to critiques - When someone takes the time to really give you their opinion, be open to it. We are busy people. So it means something when people care enough to (in a kind way) give you suggestions on improving your work.

2. Don't work in a vacuum. Seek out support. - Obviously this relates to the first, but I think it needs emphasising. It is so easy to be blind to your own writing and shortcomings. Don't wait for someone to point them out. It is much easier if you ask someone to point them out. Then it is your idea, not theirs.

So get out there. Take some risks. Ask someone's opinion. It may be bloody painful, but in the end it'll be well worth it.

THE END (Again)

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 16:10:00 EST

I spent a good chunk of Yesterday locked in a study-carol at the local university (Kent State), writing with a friend of mine. He and I have set a goal of mid March to finish our respective projects. His being his doctoral dissertation, and mine a much less lofty, fantasy novel.

Let me first say this is a wonderful way to write for me. Having someone sitting across a desk from me, typing away on his laptop, really does something to my psyche. That tiny bit of accountability, keeps me focused. It also helps that my laptop has such a bad wireless card that even though they had WiFi in the library, I couldn't use it. So no Internet, or email all day. (Ok, I did check my email on my phone a couple times.)

Suffice it to say I got a lot of writing done, and I finished (again) my first draft. You'll remember that I finished once before, but a friend who had been reading along, was not very excited about it. So finally, after six months or so (Yikes!) I have the ending rewritten. I'm pretty excited how it ended up. We'll have to see what he thinks.

Now I can focus completely on editing/revising. I have Chapters 1 & 2 done, 3 is posted to my Crit Circle, and I'm currently working on 4. The book has 28 chapters so I still have a ways to go, but I think it is doable in the next 2 months.

Epic Living?

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:54:32 EST

Yesterday, Sir Edmund Hillary, the first person to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest, died at the age of 88. I heard a couple vignettes about him on NPR. During one they played a recording of him in Washington some years later in which he said: "If you set out on an adventure, and you are absolutely convinced you're going to be successful, why bother starting."

I thought he was going to say something along the lines of if you are convinced you will succeed then you have a better chance of doing so, or something along those lines. But what he actually said was much more profound than that. Man can show greater depths of character when he starts something, against all odds, knowing that there is little chance of success, and in Hillary's case every possibility of death, and yet he still started. He still takes that first step. This is living beyond the Disney "If you dream it you can do it" mentality of the modern world.

There is a scene in the Peter Jackson's movie, The Return of the King, that brings tears to my eyes each time I see it. The book does the same, but the way Mr. Jackson captured it was wonderful. The armies of Rohan have ridden to the aid of Gondor. They crest a hill, and look down upon the plains before Minis Tirith and see the vast hordes of Mordor assaulting the city. Rohan's army looks minuscule beside the might of Sauron. At this point, the logical thing would be to turn back. Set up defences in their own country in what way they could. But they do not. They charge down, into the very arms of the enemy. You are certain that they will all die. They are certain they will die, but the do it anyway.

Or in more contemporary, historical terms look at the movie Saving Private Ryan. Again, an army out manned, out gunned storms the beach at Normandy. Every man in the first wave knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that they were going to die. But they did it anyway. They did it for a greater good. Something larger than themselves. Something, epic.

So how does that translate into today's world. Of course there are still men and women on the front lines. Still in harms way, but still doing their jobs for some grander purpose, but as a whole. As Americans at large, how can we live in "epic" fashion? Can it be a simple as doing something we fully expect to fail at? Getting outside our comfortable little lives and trying to do something that in all likelihood will end in disaster. I began writing my novel fully expecting to fail. I've never finished something of this magnitude before. Something that requires continual work over a period of years. In fact I still expect to fail, and I am nearly complete.

Now realize that I don't in anyway equate this with charging off a boat onto a sandy beach with bullets filling the air, but I do think that it might just touch on what it means to be larger than oneself. How can I love my wife when I don't feel like loving her? How can I love my kids when they are driving me crazy? How can I get up and do my job when I'd rather sleep? By making a conscious effort to do the things I don't want to do, or even more, I know I'll fail at, I think a little piece of the epic creeps into my life, and the lives of those around me. I know I will never love my wife perfectly. There will always be some selfish motivation when interacting with her. But still I try. Still I wake up every morning hoping today I'll love her a little more than yesterday. But unlike Hollywood romance, we are flawed creatures. I know I'll fail, but read again what Sir Edmund Hillary had to say: "If you set out on an adventure, and you are absolutely convinced you're going to be successful, why bother starting." Why bother starting anything that you know you will succeed at. What a waste of time. Push for something more. Push beyond your limits. Somewhere is something greater, something, epic.

Writing a Hook that Hooks

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 15:51:22 EST

I told you in a previous post that I posted my Hook on the Bookends site for critique. Well today Jessica finally got to mine. This is the forth or fifth draft of the hook I have written, and I felt pretty good about it. See what she had to say:

92. D. Robert Pease
Fantasy Novel: Crimson Swarm

Aberthuil Nauile doesn’t know that he once led legions in a war that raged since the dawn of time, against an enemy that cannot be killed. He doesn’t know that he rode on a dragon with his father, and saw his mother die while giving birth to him. He doesn’t know that he once saved his great, great, great grandfather by defeating the black enemy on the slopes of a volcano. Aberthuil doesn’t know that he beheld the creation of the world, as his grandfather eight generations before took the planet ravaged by a war of the gods and began anew. All he knows is that he awoke in a coffin in a tomb, and now the whole world thinks he is their savior. All he really wants to know is his name, and why he keeps hearing voices in his head.

Wow! Am I getting soft or is this really two good pitches in a row? Of course now I’m concerned that my judgment is skewed. Maybe I am getting soft. But no, this is good. This grabs my interest. While normally I might say a pitch like this is backstory, it’s not when it’s world building. I clearly see who Aberthuil is and what his conflict is. While he's sure it might be the voices in his head, his true conflict is the story of the life he doesn’t remember. Very, very cool.

-----------------

First of all, notice that this is pitch # 92. This lady has been very, very busy. And unlike Miss Snark before her, I hope that she can keep her sanity, and I appreciate very much all the work she is putting into these. It makes me feel quite good that she liked the pitch, just the boost I needed right now to keep plugging along with the editing. She does make a great point that I focus primarily on backstory, but it seems I did it in such a way that it still gives insight into what the novel will be about.

Now before I get all warm and fuzzy about my writing, I want to show you how I came to write the pitch this way. Back in October, Kristin Nelson began a series on her blog about how to write a good pitch. Her first post on the subject dissected the jacket cover copy for Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. If you read the cover copy, you will see that what I wrote is very similar. The tone feels the same. The overall pacing is the same. Obviously they are two different books. I didn't plagiarize the copy, I just used something that worked well somewhere else as a template for my pitch, and apparently it worked. Jessica has said that if she posted that she liked a pitch, she would love to see more. I'm not ready to send her more yet, but isn't that the goal of the pitch? To get an agent to want to see more? In that respect, I am very excited.

Does Your Villain Have a Point?

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 15:47:44 EST

Over the years I have tried on several occasions to read the Space Trilogy by C.S. Lewis. I've always struggled with the idea that it was "Science Fiction". I like my Sci Fi to be more science driven than something written in the 40's or 50's. But finally I have succeeded. I am about half way through the final book, That Hideous Strength. One of the things I noticed while reading the second book, Perelandra, was that Lewis was able to almost convince me that the bad guy, the Satan figure, had a point. He had a very convincing argument, and I could see why the Eve figure could nearly be persuaded to go against the desires of the creator.

This really came home to me as I have been rewriting the last chapters of Crimson Swarm. Does my villain have a point? Does his war against humanity have any shred of validity? So I gave him a chance to pitch his best argument. I let him stand up on his soapbox and tell us why he was in the right, and why he should be listened to, and you know what? He had some pretty good arguments. I took my main character, my hero into an audience with the big baddy, ready to do battle with him, and was surprised when he was persuaded to reconsider his actions. That was so cool. Of course I can't just leave him there. I still have to resolve the conflict, but how much richer it has become because I gave the villain a chance to argue his case. I love this writing stuff.

Self-Publishing Bigot

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 05 Jan 2008 15:44:41 EST

Sometimes I'm amazed at how easily it is to become a bigot. Try as you might to be an understanding, tolerant person, something inside of you clamors to feel superior in some way to your fellow man. I'm a W.A.S.P. Male to boot. I grew up in a nice middle class neighborhood. Was raised by good Christian parents. Was always taught that skin color didn't matter. Had a neighbor directly across from me who was black, and because of all this I think I have a pretty healthy attitude about race.... and sometimes I feel superior to others who aren't as enlightened as I am.

See what I mean? I can be a bigot about not being a bigot. What crazy beings man. This leads me to last night. My wife and I meet with a group from church every other Friday night to study the Bible (I know, we are swingers). Somehow during discussion it came up that I was writing a book, which by the way I try not to bring up very often, because I don't want to go off on talking about something I'm passionate about that really has the potential to bore people silly. Anyway, someone mentioned that their nephew just published a book. It was a Science Fiction novel, and he had given everyone in his family copies over Christmas. So did I think, "Wow isn't that great! Someone realized their dream!" No. I immediately figured that he self published, and he was having to give them away because he couldn't sell them. My goodness. When did I become so cynical? I haven't had time to fully process my reaction, but I found it disturbing. I'm not even published, self or otherwise. How can I look down my nose at someone who self published (and I'm only guessing here)? I've become a self publishing bigot of the worst kind.

So, Nephew Science Fiction Novel Guy, I am sorry. Please forgive me for looking down my unpublished, self publishing bigoty nose at you. I'm not sure if I've stumbled upon some deep flaw in my character, of which there are many, but I am sure going to keep an eye on it.

2007 Retrospective and 2008 Goals

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 09:09:51 EST

Well, everyone in the western world seems to be taking a look back to the past year, and making goals for the next, so I guess it is my turn. I am not big on New Year's Resolutions, mostly because there is this expectation that everyone will fail anyway, so if you fail, "Join the crowd." I had some specific goals last year, one was to finish writing my first novel before I turned 40. I set this goal a few years ago. I worked toward it steadily, and I didn't make it. At that moment, when my goal wasn't reached I knew I had a choice. Set a new goal, or quit. My tendency in life is the latter. My wife and friends have said on more than one occasion that I've never finished anything. Well, the older I get, the more I realize that finishing well is much more important than I used to believe. Finishing well as a father, as a husband, as a business owner, as a bread winner, as a bike rider, as a dish washer, as a laundry doer, as a lawn mower, as a pergola builder, as a novelist... whatever I start, I need to start it believing I will finish it. Working till I finish it. Starting something and not finishing it, basically says I am a liar.

So this past year I've improved in some areas, I am trying very hard to be a better husband to my wife, she deserves nothing but the best. My kids are growing up so fast, both just had birthdays this month and will be gone from the house before I know it. I've got a long way to go yet, and hopefully God will give me time to finish well on all of the things I have begun in my life, that pergola in the backyard still needs a few more nails, the bike in the basement is collecting dust (and my waist is expanding because of it). So really, that is my goal for 2008. Keep moving forward. Try every day to reach a little more toward the finish line. Admit when I've failed, and set a new goal. A very wise friend of mine said that if you can just shorten the time between each attempt at a goal, eventually you will realize that you worked toward that goal, more often than you didn't.

If I do that. Any goal I set will have a positive affect on my life, and the lives of those around me.

What Reading Level is your Writing?

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 09:07:31 EST

I found a nifty little site that looks at your blog and judges the reading level needed to read it (no longer active). My blog came out at a High School level.

I remember reading an article a while ago about running your writing through a reading level test. The writer quotes some statistics from the book: Fiction Writer's Brainstormer by James V. Smith, Jr. He did a study where he took several commercial and literary writers work and looked at four areas: Passive Voice, Number of Characters per Word, Readability, and the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level scale.

He found that the best selling authors, read by the majority of adult readers in the US, wrote at a fourth grade level. From this study, he created his Ideal Writing Standard. Now as a writer, he revises every SCENE in his books to the following average standards:

No more than 4.25 characters per word
Passive Voice: 5% or less
Readability: 80% or more on Flesch Reading Ease scale
Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level: 4-6

When I reached 100K words on my book, I ran the entire thing through the tools found in Microsoft Word, and came up with the following:

4.3 characters per word
2% passive voice
77.5% reading ease
5.7 Grade Level.

Also, as a test to see if my editing impoved or degraded my results, I just ran the statistics on my first chapter, which at this point is about as ready for publication as I can get it:

4.3 characters per word
0% passive voice
82.5% reading ease
4.5 Grade Level.

I felt pretty good about this. What it all means I don't know, but if paying attention to readability helps my writing appeal to a broader audience, I am all for it.

Just Because!

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 09:02:54 EST

Ok, I got a little sidetracked the past couple of days. It is the holiday season, I'm not in a working mood, so I decided I wanted to update the skin on my blog (coming soon), and I thought it'd be cool to have a nice, color illustration for the masthead. So I started working on colorizing the sketch I did of a Vurmierg. I've really been wanting to take a stab at this for a while, so I just did it. My dream when I was in High-School, College, was to be an illustrator for fantasy novel covers. Somewhere along the line I realized I wasn't quite up to snuff and pursued other interests, but still that dream lingers. I don't think I'm of the caliber of most of the greats (Hildebrandt, Vallejo) by any stretch of the imagination, but I have fun anyway.

One thing you may notice is that he now has a tail. Well, the simple fact of the matter is, I kinda forgot to add that when I first did the drawing. Well, what do you expect, it isn't like I know the author personally, and know every minute detail of his characters.

She Spoke to Me.

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 08:59:06 EST

So I've been jumping back and forth between finishing up the rewrite of the ending of Crimson Swarm, and editing the early chapters. On Saturday I spent a couple hours editing chapters two and three. Two is nearly complete, three still has a bit of work. While editing chapter three I had one of those great experiences that writers love to have. I realized that much of the dialogue didn't make sense based on changes I had made to the first two chapters, so I cut a big chunk of it out. Then I needed to come up with something new for one of the characters, Elise, to say. So I closed my eyes, and I tried to get in her head. Something dreadful just happened to her, so I tried to feel how she would feel. Say what she would say. Then I opened my eyes and started typing what she said. It literally felt as if I was hearing her speak. For about a half hour I typed as fast as I could, trying to catch every word from her lips. When I got done, I went back and read it, and man, it was pretty darn good. All of the sudden I get a sense for who she is. Not just some two dimensional blond with a sword strapped to her hip. She had depth, she was someone I could respect.

Now if I can only get a few other characters to talk to me this way, I may just have something here. C'mon guys, tell me your stories.

Where Are They Now?

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 08:57:09 EST

As I'm nearing the end of writing my first draft, for the second time, I'm discovering that I am losing track of where everyone is. I found myself bringing a character into a scene and then saying to myself "where did he come from?" I'm sure there are writers out there that have no problem with this, but my brain has limited ability to remember even what I had for lunch yesterday, let alone keep track of the location of 20+ characters throughout a 115,000 word novel, which spans two continents (and in some cases thousands of years). So yesterday I took action and came up with another tool in my arsenal. Now whether this is just another tool to keep me distracted from my true need to just write, or beneficial, is maybe a bit difficult to see, but overall I think it was a good idea.

Basically I created a spreadsheet. Dates down the left hand column, and names along the top, in the chronology that they appear in the story. If you remember I already keep a calendar in Outlook to keep track of the chronology of the story, so adapting it to keep track of all the characters was relatively easy. Take a look:

As you can see characters are introduced as the story progresses, and there are a few places where I've placed a black line indicating the character leaving the story, either by death or other means.

A couple of interesting things came out of this. One was there is a big battle toward the end of the story (This is fantasy after all) and in the battle I had 14 main characters, the one event that brought them all together, and not a single one of them was killed. Now I'm not completely sure any of them should be killed here, but it seems likely that some would be in a battle of the scope I've written. So I'll have to ponder a bit about that.

Another thing, more what I thought I would discover, is people appear and disappear in various scenes with no indication of how they got there. What happened between the time we saw them last and now? I even had two characters that magically combined into one somewhere along the way. (not on purpose) So in this respect this was a very helpful exercise. Try it, maybe you'll discovers some things that really make you question how your brain works (or doesn't).

Even Tolkien Struggled

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 08:55:04 EST

I have been reading a book titled The Company They Keep - C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien as Writers in Community by Diana Pavlac Glyer. I am not sure I can recommend this book wholeheartedly, but I am getting some good insight from it. The book seems to be a Doctoral Thesis, and is geared more toward making a specific argument about a point of view. Namely that the member's of the Inklings influenced each other's writing significantly. I was expecting a more "writerly" look at the romanticism behind the group. If you haven't heard of them before, the Inklings were a group of writers that met for nearly two decades each Thursday night to read portions of their writings to one another and offer encouragement and criticism. Lewis and Tolkien were the two primary members.

As I've said in previous posts, some reading I have done on Tolkien in the past, and how he wrote, really inspired me to pick up the pen (keyboard) and try my hand at writing a novel again. I read a section of The Company They Keep today where the Glyer describes a time early in the writing of The Lord of the Rings that Tolkien was stuck. Apparently Tolkien wrote, and rewrote the first few chapters, and then was unable to go any further. He had a notion of how he wanted the story to go, but really no direction. He had Lews, and his publisher, Rayner Unwin read the chapters, and the general consensus was the writing consisted of too much "hobbit talk". Tolkien created a story that delved deeply into the Shire, and the goings on, but was unable to move beyond the light-hearted "Hobbit" story. For five months in 1938 Tolkien was unable to write any more of the story.

Then Lewis commented, "...hobbits are only amusing when in unhobbitlike situations." It seems that this comment changed the direction and feel of the story completely. It became darker and more serious, very "unhobbitlike". Then Glyer gave this example. Toward the end of the chapters Tolkien had completed was this scene originally. It takes place as Frodo, Odo and Bingo (the original names for Frodo's two companions) were walking in the Shire:

"Round a turn came a white horse, and on it sat a bundle--or that is what it looked like: a small man wrapped entirely in a great cloak and hood so that only his eyes peered out, and his boots in the stirrups below"

The horse and rider stopped near Bingo. "The figure uncovered its nose and sniffed; and then sat silent as if listening. Suddenly a laugh came from inside the hood." It is Gandalf, who calls out, "Bingo my boy!" as he throws aside his wrappings."

Sounds vaguely familiar doesn't it? So Frodo and his two friends were out for a stroll in the countryside of the Shire and this white horse rides up and Gandalf, in high spirits, greets them. But what to do next? How it Tolkien going to get the story moving at this point. Then Lewis made the above comment, and Tolkien rewrote this passage to look like this:

"Round the corner came a black horse, no hobbit-pony but a full-sized horse; and on it sat a large man, who seemed to crouch in the saddle, wrapped in a great black cloak and hood, so that only his boots in the high stirrups showed below; his face was shadowed and invisible.

When it reached the tree and was level with Frodo the horse stopped. The riding figure sat quite still with its head bowed, as if listening. From inside the hood came a noise as of someone sniffing to catch an elusive scent."

Wow! What a change. One is this light-hearted romp, and the other is full of fear and darkness. I can picture Tolkien's train of thought, and the direction the story began to take after this. "Where is Gandalf? Who is the Black Rider? Why was he sniffing?" I love that last one. So simple a thing as keeping the sniffing in from the first draft to the last can build so much depth to the feared enemy. Tolkien built this whole idea that the Black Riders couldn't see, but used their sense of smell, quite possibly from that single word.

This is what I love about the method Tolkien used to write. He did not map out the plot and every element of the story. He painted in broad strokes, and let the story go in the direction it wanted to go. Did he even know that the black rider was one of the "nine" at this point? Maybe not. From what I've read before he had no idea why Gandalf didn't show up.

So I guess the broad themes we can learn here is "Listen to your friends" and "Don't be afraid to go where the story takes you." I think both of these things make the story much richer in the end.

Kindle Sputters My Interest

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 25 Nov 2007 08:52:29 EST

Ok, I don't usually post comments like this to the blog, but I just couldn't resist. When I saw the news about the Kindle from Amazon, I was pretty excited. This is something I have been looking forward to for a while. I currently own a Treo smart phone from Palm, and I read books every once in a while on it, but its small, back-lit screen just isn't conducive to long-term reading. The Kindle on the other hand looks like it would be great for cozying up with a cup of tea and reading all night. I was completely sold by the sales pitch on their site. I love that you can download books wirelessly directly to it. But... $400? I just can't get over this price. I remember when I watched the keynote speech by Steve Jobs for the iPhone's debut. He convinced me that the price for the iPhone was reasonable. I wasn't quite ready to buy one yet, but even if it had stayed at the original price of $599, I feel I eventually would. He did a whole iPhone + Internet Device + iPod thing that made me say, "Yeah, $599 is about what I would expect to pay for all that." Mr. Bezos on the other hand did not do such a good job. An electronic device that stores a boatload of books, and connects wirelessly to his website to buy those books, and is really easy to use, just does not equal $399 which coincidentally (or not) is the exact same price now of above said iPhone.

I know there were a whole lot of people, smarter than me, that decided the pricing structure, but it seems to me that a better model would be to price it at say $149, and then plan on selling a whole heck of a lot of books. I know I would probably spend considerably more on books at Amazon than I do now. For the convenience the Kindle would give (have your book anywhere, any time), and the discounted price (less than cover price + no shipping) it seems to me they could make considerably more with a lower up-front price.

So respectfully, Mr. Bezos, cut the price as soon as possible (Apple did it, why can't you?) Then I'll buy one, and you can track my purchases on Amazon.com over the next year to see if you made a smart decision.

LOTTERY Made a Grown Man Cry

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:51:06 EST

To continue on my post from yesterday, I thought I'd post my review that I wrote for LOTTERY on Amazon.com.

I don't normally read novels of this genre, but when I kept seeing stories online about LOTTERY by Patricia Wood, I decided to give it a try. I got the book in the mail at lunchtime and sat down at the kitchen table to read. An hour later I was deep into the story, with tears in my eyes. Patricia painted such a beautiful picture of a man who most of society would look down upon. In the end, Perry became the kind of man that I hope I can be. Above all else Perry puts others first; the friends that surround him during tragedy, and even the family who try to take advantage of him after he wins $12 Million in the lottery. It is so refreshing to see a story, that puts the American pastime of getting more stuff aside and shows us that there truly are more important things in life.

This is not to say Perry did not have fun with the money. I laughed as he went on a shopping spree with his friend Keith, looking for a 27" TV. Still the most enjoyment he seemed to get, was writing those $500 checks (because he couldn't fit in more zeros) to nearly everyone that asked.

By the end of the day, I read the entire novel and for days after I can't get Perry out of my mind. Thank you Patricia for such a beautiful story. And for anyone unsure about buying the book, please take my word for it, you will be blessed to read it. I would not be surprised to see this rise to the bestseller's lists.

Wow! Someone Is Reading My Book Right Now!

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 08:50:18 EST

Ok, not really, but to me that would be cool. I just got Lottery by Patricia Wood in the mail today. I don't know why I was so excited to get it, but I was. I guess because the Author once posted a comment on my blog. How in the world she found me, I have no idea. I've visited her blog several times... What a neat lady. So anyway, I mostly read Fantasy, but the description of her story sounded so compelling, I had to buy it. I even paid full price at Amazon though I usually buy used ones. Hey she seems like a neat lady, I want to help all I can.

So I stared reading at around noon. At 1:30 I emailed her to tell her she made me cry. Me a 40 year old man, sobbing at the kitchen table while eating lunch. Within an hour I get an email back from her, saying she always finds it gratifying to make grown men cry.

Then I got to thinking how cool it would be, as an author, to know that somewhere half way around the world, someone was at this very moment reading a story I wrote. Do I have a big ego or what?

So Pat, if you somehow stumble on this blog again, here's to hoping that you get joy out of knowing I spent almost all afternoon reading Lottery, when I should have been working. So far, I love it. For everyone else out there, I highly recommend it. Buy it now!

How to Get Published

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 23:59:46 EST

I had a discussion the other day with a friend of mine about the book publishing business. It got me thinking that I have never really written down the process, as I understand it, to getting a book published. So for my benefit, here is everything that I know, or think I know, about how to get published.

Write The Book - First you must have something to publish. In the fiction world of publishing, unless you are already a published author, you need to have a completed manuscript before you can get a publisher to agree to take on your book. For non-fiction it works a bit differently, you can find a publisher based on a proposal for a book, but then the publisher relies more heavily on what is called your "platform". Platform is basically, your credentials, why will people want to read a book written by you? Usually this is because you have already acquired some kind of fame. Which really goes back to the same thing for fiction work. If you already have a base of buyers that know you or your work, then you can get a publishing deal without having first written the entire manuscript. So that being said, as a new, unpublished fiction author, you must write a great story. Refine that story. Join a critique circle. (I belong to a group on FM Writers Community) Have people read it. Refine some more, until you are absolutely certain it is the best you can write at that moment in time.
Write the Hook - Your next goal will be to get the attention of someone in the publishing industry. This is typically done through a "Query" process. Which starts by writing a query letter, that includes your hook. The hook, as I talked about earlier, is a paragraph or two that will make people want to buy your book. Maybe at some point I'll go into what I think that looks like further, but for our purposes here, you are going to write the best darn letter you can that makes someone interested enough to want to see more. Don't try to guilt them into reading more. Don't try to trick them into reading more. Just be professional, and write something compelling.
Hire an Agent - Next you might think you need to find a publisher. While this is true, there is one major problem. Many of the big publishing houses do not except submissions directly from authors, or "Unsolicited Manuscripts" as they like to call them. Therefore the best next step is to find a Literary Agent. An agent will help you get in the door at the publishers. They also help negotiate contracts, sell sub-rights (movie deals, language translations, Action Figures, etc...) and they help guide your career. They can and should be a good sounding board to bounce ideas off of. Here are some quick notes about what I've learned about finding an agent:
1. Research Agents - Do lots of homework to find agents that would be a good fit. Only query agents that represent your genre. If you write fantasy, don't query an agent that doesn't say they represent fantasy.
2. Beware of Frauds - There are a whole lot of people out there, eager to take advantage of folks like you who have a dream of being published. Watch out for them. Look at potential agents client lists. Talk to their clients. Don't pay a fee to them for them to look at your work. Legitimate agents get paid when you get paid. Here are some sites to help protect yourself:
1. Follow the Rules - Once you find your list of agents, find out how they want to receive queries. Then do what they say. If they only ask for a query letter, only send a letter. If they ask for a letter and the first five pages, send the first five pages. If they want it typed in a certain font, mailed with a SASE then do it. At this point you don't want to lose out on a great agent because you tried to be cute, or tried to stand out from the rest. Let your writing, and only your writing stand out.
2. Be Courteous, but Persistent - Agents get hundreds of queries a week. It can take months for them to get to yours. Don't shoot off an email after only a week asking if they read your query. Your best bet is just query as many agents as you can and then do something else. Work on your next book. If your writing is good, they will contact you.
3. Send Your Manuscript - Usually the next step would be to send your manuscript to agents who request it based on your query, or upon a short amount of writing they have previously requested. Again follow the rules. Then wait again. At this point you can be a little more proactive. When you send in the manuscript, try to get the agent to tell you a time-frame that they will look at it. Ask them if it will be OK for you to contact them after that time period to see if they have had a chance to read it. But still, remember that they are very busy, they have clients, queries, and other manuscripts to look at.
4. Celebrate - At some point, hopefully, you will get a call from an agent (or multiple agents) offering representation. Again there are many things to think about before you sign on the dotted line, and perhaps I will cover that in the future as well, but congratulate yourself, this is a huge accomplishment.
5. Modify the Manuscript - Many times at this point, the agent will have advice for you to help make your story stronger. Listen carefully. They are the experts. This doesn't mean you have to do everything they say, but give much more weight to what they say, than if your Aunt Edith told you she hated your protagonist, and why don't you make him a her instead.
Find a Publisher - This is where your agent gets to do her job. Your new agent will now go through a similar process that you did to find your agent. They will write a query letter. They will research their target list of editors at publishing houses, etc... But their biggest advantage is that they should already have a pretty well established relationship with editors from all the big houses. So when they tell Editor A at Random House that he will love your story, Editor A should be happy to take a look at it. If the agent does her job right, and if your writing is as good as she thinks it is, she should be able to find one, or hopefully more than one editor that wants to publish your story. At which point your agent will help you decide who to go with, and help you negotiate your contract.
Modify the Manuscript - Again the Editor will probably have some feedback on your story. How to make it even stronger. Take their advice.
Book Production - At this stage the book is for the most part out of your hands. The publisher will design the book. Design the cover. Again they are the professionals here. You will hopefully get a chance to offer your suggestions on the design, but don't be surprised if they don't take all, or any of your advice.
Promotion - You may think your job is done once the book goes to press, but it isn't. Publishers will allocate a budget for promoting your book, but at this point if you think of their job as getting the books to the store shelves, and your job to promote it, you will be better off. Book signings. Speaking at Libraries, book clubs. Getting involved in various online activities; building your own site, writing a blog, etc... Do everything you can yourself to promote your book. Don't count on the publisher doing it all for you.
Write the Next Book - Through all of this you should be writing the next story. Most Agents and Editors want you to always be working on the next story. I've heard that to get an agent, many times they will want to know that you already have a second book in the works. They are in it for the long haul, and don't usually want one book authors.

So, there you have it. Everything I know about publishing (condensed in easy to swallow chunks). One caveat to all this: I am not a published author. All of this I have learned from reading blogs on publishing. Lots of blogs. So take what I say with that in mind. Do your own research, and if you find something that I've said that is just plain wrong, let me know.

The Waiting Game

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 17:55:09 EST

I read a great post today on the BookEnds site. In it Jessica talks about being on the receiving end of the torture that I have read plagues most writers... waiting to hear from a prospect they've queried.

Although I haven't walked down this path yet, I love that there are stories like this out there. Basically Jessica, an agent, had to grin and bear it for several days as she waited to see if an author would choose her as their agent. Oh to be in such an enviable spot as this author. Apparently she had offers of representation by six agents, and she agonized over which to choose. Jessica apparently was the winner. Good for her. But the hidden author's story is what gives me great hope.

I read statistics every day about how hard it is to find an agent that wants to represent you. Miss Snark used to say that it is all about the writing, and if your writing is good enough you will get published, eventually. But there is always that nagging voice in the back of my head, "What if it is more than that? What if I have to have connections?"

Well apparently for this author it was all about the writing. Her query must have been great, her writing even better. She had SIX agents wanting to represent her!

So now I know that if I can't find an agent, it is not because there are too many hoops to jump through, or not because I didn't know the right people. It will be because my writing wasn't up to snuff. I find comfort in that for some reason.

The Hook Part 2

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 17:54:05 EST

Ok,

Since I posted this new, revised hook on the BookEnds, LLC site for possible critique, I thought I'd post it here too. If I get a crit, from BookEnds, I'll post that in the future.

----------------
Aberthuil Nauile doesn’t know that he once led legions in a war that raged since the dawn of time, against an enemy that cannot be killed. He doesn’t know that he rode on a dragon with his father, and saw his mother die while giving birth to him. He doesn’t know that he once saved his great, great, great grandfather by defeating the black enemy on the slopes of a volcano. Aberthuil doesn’t know that he beheld the creation of the world, as his grandfather eight generations before took the planet ravaged by a war of the gods and began anew. All he knows is that he awoke in a coffin in a tomb, and now the whole world thinks he is their savior. All he really wants to know is his name, and why he keeps hearing voices in his head.
----------------

Seems a little wordy at times, but it has potential I think.

The Hook

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:52:35 EST

I know it is probably way too soon to be thinking of this, but I have been working off and on for months on coming up with a hook for Crimson Swarm. The hook is somewhat akin to the jacket copy on a finished novel. That quick paragraph or two that will entice people to buy the book, instead of the one sitting next to it on the shelf. So far I have not been happy with anything I've come up with. But this morning I saw this entry by Kristin Nelson: http://pubrants.blogspot.com/2007/10/blog-pitch-workshop-part-i.html

A light really came on for me. So I quickly dashed off a hook. It is very rough still, so I won't post it, but using her basic thoughts, and the example she gave from Harry Potter, I am really excited about a hook for the first time. This is probably the 5th or 6th one I've written, and it is the first one that makes me think someone might want to buy the book based on it.

Of course my goal will be to find an agent with it (who knows maybe it will be Kristin).

Half a Year Gone

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 13 Oct 2007 17:51:40 EST

Laying in bed last night I realized that I have less than six months to my birthday. This doesn't usually keep me up at night but what it signifies is I have only a short while to get Crimson Swarm polished up and completed. I had a goal of having the story complete by the time I turned 40. Well that was last March. I came close to having draft one done by then, I think I finished it some time in April. I made a new goal at that time to have draft two done by my next birthday, in effect complete "while" I'm still 40.

So this morning I cleaned up Chapter 2 as much as I could and posted it to my crit circle. I can't say enough good things about belonging to a group like this. I am certain that my writing would not be anywhere near the quality it is now (what level of quality it is, I still don't know for certain).

Now I need to jump to the back of the book and work more on fleshing out the ending. It is coming together nicely, but still needs some work to satisfy me (and my friend who really disliked my original ending).

Reading Aloud

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 17:49:35 EST

I had a great morning tea with an inspirational character this week. And yes he is a living, breathing human being, but a character nonetheless. He's someone I've gotten to know over the years, and is a wealth of enthusiasm and creativity. If you want to see (or hear as the case may be) for yourself, click on over to: http://www.jonathandentler.com/

One of the things that we discussed, among hundreds of topics it seemed, was his interest in voicing audio books. As you will quickly hear at his site he has an amazing voice and ability to stir the imagination.

This got me thinking about how I write. I find myself continually speaking aloud a particular passage I just finished. This allows me to hear the words, hear the texture, the flavor as they roll off the tongue. But I realized that I only read small parts aloud, and I wondered at what benefit there would be to read a larger chunk. So yesterday I read the entire first chapter aloud, in one sitting (while the wife was at work and the kids were at school of course). Wow, what a great exercise. There were a few places in my "complete" first chapter that I stumbled over. Those I quickly fixed. But there were other whole passages that really came alive for me. I hope I am not just fixated on my own words, and that they really are something that people will be interested in reading, and hearing, but for me it really helped me see that yes, chapter one is as good as I can make it.

I really must move on now to chapter 2. The editing is nearing completion and almost ready for my crit circle to get their hands on, but maybe this time I'll read it aloud before I post it, and maybe they won't find so many amateur mistakes like they did in chapter 1.

Chapter One Complete

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 17:48:27 EST

Well, I am finally getting back in the groove of things. The kids are back in school. At last the mountains of work on my desk are diminishing. And the yearning to get back to Nuadaim is growing strong.

This morning I completed what I am going to consider the final edits to chapter one. I received several really good critiques from my crit circle. And I ran the chapter through autocrit.com many times. I am quite confident that it is the best I can do, at the moment.

My goal is to have all chapters, and edits done by the end of the year. Then have a couple of beta readers read and give feedback. All with the goal of saying by my birthday at the end of March that Crimson Swarm is complete.

Then of course comes the hard work of trying to find an agent.

J. K. Rowling vs. J. R. R. Tolkien

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 17:45:19 EST

I spent the last few days reading the latest and final Harry Potter book. At the same time I began reading The Hobbit to my son at night (he had to fill the void left by Harry Potter somehow). I found it interesting to read both of these at the same time. I have been a lifetime Tolkien fan so it comes as no surprise that I prefer his writing style to Rowling, but there are some definite areas where Rowling shines as well. She amazed me with the complexity of the final book. Rowling really seemed to work hard to take elements from early on in the series and make them important in the end. I do feel the final few chapters were a bit rushed as she tied up everything in a neat little package, but hey, how else would you do it, unless you dragged it on with many endings for each plot element.

I am still in love with the richness of Tolkien. His descriptions of the world of Middle Earth are full of life and beauty. I find myself worried at times that my son (9) would be bored when Tolkien takes a half page to describe a field and it's trees and surroundings, but so far there have been no complaints. Rowling on the other hand does seem to keep descriptive text to a minimum, getting right to the action. In the end I rather enjoyed the Potter series and am sad to see it end. Although not with the sadness I felt when I first read the Lord of the Rings in high school, and realized that there would never be any more, (Children of Hurin notwithstanding).

J. K. Rowling should be proud of her accomplishment. History will tell if she will rank up there with the great J. R. R. Tolkien.

Vacations put blog in a dead calm. (Editing Too)

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:43:10 EST

Well, I promised myself I would update this blog at least once a week, and apparently it didn't take very long to break that promise. Vacations, and a nutty workload are the main culprits. Also the Tour de France doesn't help either (watching that on Versus instead of writing). I'll be out until nearly the end of July, so don't look for anything here until August. I do have a trip down south with some friends from my college days... who knows maybe I'll get a bit of work done then (yeah right!).

In the mean time check out this posting from Agent Jonathan Lyons about not jumping the gun accepting an agent. Some good solid advice. If I ever get in the enviable position to receive an offer from an agent, I will certainly follow his advice. (This post has been inserted into my "getting published" binder.)

Story within a story

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 17:41:27 EST

Between trying to finally get caught up with my day job workload, a nasty summer cold, and upcoming vacations, I am getting rather excited about some new ideas to polish off Crimson Swarm.

I've come to the conclusion that I've got to add in some key ideas that were dropped a while ago (because I thought I would be over my target word count of 120,000.) One concept is to have more interplay between the present and the past. This is exciting to me because I can really dig into the "why" behind the hero's actions at the end of the book. Thus not having this sudden info-dump, and wrap up kind of ending I have now.

This will also allow the reader to delve into the mind our our antagonist, and see what makes him tick. No more two-dimensional bad guys. I am hoping to really show his motivations, and at least give a sense that he is more than just evil for evil's sake.

I've been considering options as to how to go about this, and I think at this point I may just write a short work that tells the story of the past events, and then chop it up and intersperse it in with the main story. Obviously it will be a bit more complex than that, but it seems to be a good place to start.

Now if I can just get these five web sites I have to build out of the way...

Chapter by Chapter Plot Points

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:40:30 EST

Continuing a bit with the discussion of a few days ago.

Because I'm not not much of a planner, I don't really have a tight outline of the entire novel. But also because of some great thoughts one of my readers had, I have realized there are some major plot points that are missing. So one of the things I have decided I need to do is go back and outline each chapter and list the major plot elements.

I'm about half way through now and I can already see where holes can be filled, and fluff taken out. I'm writing down number of pages for each chapter, and one quick thing I can tell is if my chapter is 20 pages long, and I only have 3 plot points, there is probably much that can be cut. On the other hand if I only have 3 plot points and the chapter is 10 pages long, there is room to add more in. (Not that I have a target chapter length or plot points per chapter number, but you get the point.)

This is a great way for me to quickly see how the story develops.

I'm still not sure if this is something I could have done before I started writing, but I know there are plenty of writers who would say I should have done this a long time ago.

Best thing since sliced bread.

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 17:38:51 EST

Yesterday I stumbled upon a site: AutoCrit: Fiction Editing Software. Man, what a tool. You take a chunk of your writing (up to 8,000 words if you buy their platinum membership) and paste it into their site. Then using an algorithm they developed based on published fiction, the tool shows you where your writing is weak. Things like: Overused Words, Repeated Phrases, Cliché Finder, etc...

The first time through, chapter one was pretty bloody. I cannot believe how often I used "ly" adverbs. I hate ly adverbs, I worked very hard to never use ly adverbs. It found 58! With a ratio of 1.7%. They claimed this is 1% more than I should have.

Now, I must warn you, it doesn't fix the problems, it just points them out. So I spent several hours going through and editing. As I worked on it, I discovered they were right. The writing became much stronger addressing the problem areas. Now as I run chapter one through AutoCrit, all the red, weak words are gone. I've fallen to a mere .4% ly adverbs. It has much more punch to it. And I didn't have to pay $2,000 for a professional editor.

Planning Vs. Writing as the Story Takes You.

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:37:12 EST

I started writing Crimson Swarm after I read a biography of Tolkien. (I don't remember at the moment which one) In the biography the author talked about how Tolkien wrote the Lord of the Rings. Basically he had the idea that he wanted a story to follow The Hobbit. It had to have the One Ring as a primary element, and he wanted to have some kind of quest. He also had the poem: One Ring To Rule Them All, written. Other than that (and a great deal of back story) He just sat down and started writing.

It was said when he first wrote about Frodo meeting with "Strider" in the Prancing Pony, Tolkien had no idea who Strider was. He only knew that because Gandalf didn't show up (which he also didn't know why) Frodo needed a guide. So thus Strider was born.

This idea appealed to me greatly. I had tried my hand at a large novel in the past, and failed miserably, partly because I'm not a planner by nature. I like to just do things. I'd rather go on a vacation with only vague idea of where we are going, and just see where the road takes us. (My wife however is about as detailed oriented as they come, so this just doesn't fly in my house)

So I sketched out some very basic concepts, and just sat down and started writing, and it was wonderful. I really reveled in the unfolding of the story, and the times when things just surprised me.

I pretty much wrote the entire novel like this. Sure as I went along I started to map things out further, but when I did, I found myself deviating from that pretty quickly.

So now that I've reached the end of the first draft, what do I think about the whole process? Well, there are some good things and some bad things that came up doing it this way. The good is, it was completely enjoyable. And because of that I kept at it. Even when I didn't feel like writing, I told myself, I had to write, because I wanted to see how it ended. I also think there are some twists, and surprises that would not have been there had I mapped it all out before hand.

Now the downside. As I look at the ending, and get feedback from my reading partner (see previous post) I see some major problems. Problems that if I had taken the time to map the story out better probably would have been avoided. I let myself get off on a tangent, following a story line that I never really intended to highlight much.

So now that I see both sides, which will I do next time? I honestly don't know. Maybe a combination of the two.

Do I think that Crimson Swarm is doomed because of lack of planning? No way. I actually don't think there will be much work to go back and adjust the story, cutting what shouldn't be there, and adding what should be, than if I had planned it from the beginning. Only time will tell of course, but I think I have a good idea where I need to go. And the first step is to diagram it out.

I'm excited to see what happens to the story, and I'm convinced it will be much stronger in the end.

With friends like these...

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 21 Jun 2007 17:35:59 EST

I got an email from a good friend of mine today who just finished reading the entire first draft of Crimson Swarm. (You know who you are.) From conversations we've had in the past, I had the idea that he might not like the direction I took at the end, so I told him if he was totally disappointed in the ending let me know. His response, "I can't say I'm totally disappointed in the ending. I'm only largely disappointed."

Now for a very short moment, less than ten seconds, I was crushed. This is not the kind of thing you want to hear. But, it didn't take me long to be grateful for a friend like this. What would have annoyed me more is if he gushed all over it, and I knew he wasn't being totally honest. (something this friend would never do, one of the reasons I respect him.)

For those of you who don't know me from Adam, I am a graphic designer. I don't really consider myself an Artist. I went to art school, and did pretty good. But in my school there was a raging debate between the Fine Artists, and the Graphic Designers. You know the old story, what we do isn't art. Well, I agree. What we do is sell a product. Whatever that product is. We may be every bit as talented as the guy whose work is hanging in the Museum of Modern Art, but that is not where we took our lives. I just didn't have it in me to spend countless years trying to make a name for myself in the art scene, when I could make a decent living selling other people's stuff. But one of the big downsides to the graphic design side of things is you are not your own boss. You can't decide that everything you do is going to be blue, because blue doesn't sell alfalfa sprouts. Green does. Most jobs you've got several people telling you what to do. Change this color, make this font bigger, crop this photo differently, etc... It can get darn frustrating. Many, if not most times the end product is not as good as it should have been because the client had to have it their way (even though they hired me because I was the professional).

What the heck does this have to do with getting "I'm largely disappointed" emails from a friend about my ending. Everything.

When I set out to write a book, I didn't do it to fulfil some inner muse. I didn't do it because I wanted to create a work of literature to be debated in academia. I set out to write a book that people would like. One that people would want to read. Maybe I'm a sell out. I know lots of people in Art School would have said that. But I have a great job doing what I love to do. I've provided for my family for years, allowing my wife to stay home with the kids when she wanted to. And now I'm having the time of my life writing a novel, about something I love, and I have every expectation that when it is done, there will be others that love it too.

This is not to say that I'm going to just ditch my ending and totally change it because of one good friend's comments. But I am going to seriously consider his thoughts. And I look forward to sitting down and really digging into it with him.

Kristin Nelson had a great post on her blog today that really got right to the point. "How Honest Do You Want Us To Be?" She asked this question about how to respond to writers when they are looking for a critique of their work. My answer, "Bring it on."

Chapter One Complete

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:34:11 EST

Well, I've just hacked and stitched and hacked some more on Chapter One, and I feel really good about it. It is much tighter, and moves much more quickly than it did in the past. I have had several comments that it dragged a bit so hopefully I have fixed that.

Also I worked very hard to get inside the main character's head. What is he thinking? What kind of turmoil does he experience? Although there is no conflict outside of him, I definitely think I have added some within him. So does it past muster? Does it begin the story in the right place? Does it present necessary information without huge info dumps? I think the answer is yes. I really feel good that I can tell my writing has improved over the past couple of years. There is very little left in this first chapter that is completely from the original draft. And I think that is a good thing.

Now all I need to do is get the entire book done before I improve too much more, otherwise I'll never get it finished.

Writer's Group Not for Faint of Heart...

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 17:32:42 EST

...or for the lazy for that matter. I joined an online writers critique group year or two ago. (in the Forward Motion Writers website) It was really, really helpful. But one thing I constantly struggled with was keeping up with the critiques of my fellow group members. So at one point about 6 months ago, I decided to take a sabbatical from the group, so that I could focus on finishing up the first draft. Well as you know the first draft is done, so now it is time to get back in the group. As I contemplate this it got me thinking about the pros and cons of the structure of my crit group.

The pros are fairly obvious. I've got three or four people reading my work, giving me feedback, really trying to make my writing better.

The cons are a little harder to nail down. One that may not be a con, but more of a shortcoming of the structure, is no one ever has a chance to see the big picture. We post a single chapter at a time, and critique a single chapter at a time. So it is as if you are reading a novel with blinders on. Especially for the memory impaired. I can read a chapter, and then come back two weeks later and read the next chapter and have no idea who any of the characters are. It doesn't help matters that all the books are fantasy novels, so already they do tend to mush together a bit.

Another con is we are all just amateurs. Some a little more skilled than others (I'd place myself pretty low on the grammar scale), so any advice we get must be carefully considered. Not that it shouldn't be even if we were all published authors, but it does make me yearn for more of a mentoring type situation. (Stephen R. Donaldson is from my hometown, maybe I should look him up.)

I also long for a group of writers that I can physically meet. Read each other excerpts. Discuss with each other our thoughts. You just can't get that online.

All this said, I still think it is worthwhile. So I'm off to inform the group I'm ready to come back.

Where to Begin

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 17:31:23 EST

I've struggled for some time on how to begin Crimson Swarm. It seems there is a lot of opinion on the subject. Some say never start with a dream sequence--never start with an info dump--prologues are frowned upon. As you will see on the link to the left of the 100 Best First Lines, I really like the subject. Therefore I've revised the beginning of my novel several... dozen times.

To make matters worse, from what I've read if you get past the query stage and a potential agent asks to see more, often times they will ask for the first two or three chapters. So you really have to nail the beginning, otherwise they will never see the exciting action of later chapters.

I had this really cool, Cate Blanchett kind of beginning for a while. That's gone. Then I added a prologue, that I felt just had to be there. I'm about to cut that. I completely rewrote the first half of chapter one. So when will I know I've got the beginning I need? Honestly at this point I don't have an answer for you. I'm pretty happy with the first paragraph of the first chapter now, but will I be in two weeks? What do you think?

"His first memory was the smell--a strange mixture of burning lamp oil, cooked meats and vegetables, and something else, something he could not quite put a finger on until later... the smell of death."

If this makes it to the final edit, I'll be surprised.

Calendar of Events

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Fri, 08 Jun 2007 17:30:18 EST

I started editing last night, and one of the things that I want to be very aware of is what time of the year events take place in. To this end very near the beginning of the story-writing process I began keeping a calendar of all events. You can do this any way that works well for you, but for me I used the calendar in Outlook.

As I wrote new scenes and events, I would go back and add them to the calendar. This way I had a very quick way to know what the seasons and moon phases were at all times. (I installed a component to Outlook for the phases of the moon). Also this helped keep the chronology of different characters who were involved in different story-lines correct.

I did have a couple of very interesting surprises happen with the moon phases. On two separate occasions I wrote in the phase of the moon, and then went to my calendar to check to see if I was anywhere close, and on both occasions I was exactly right. In one case I wanted a new moon, so the hero's army wouldn't be seen sneaking into the enemy camp, and sure enough the very night I had them do it, it was a new moon. On another occasion I mentioned it was a waning gibbous moon, and sure enough that exact night it was. I don't know what it means, but it sure was nifty.

Rush to Finish

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:28:31 EST

Well I stayed up way past my bedtime last night finishing my read-through of the first draft of Crimson Swarm. I actually thought it ended pretty well. It was apparent though that I rushed the writing at the end trying to meet my self-imposed end-of-May deadline. The last chapter was only two pages (slightly less even). But the cool thing is, the meat is there, it just needs a little dressing. I found a few points that I'll need to go back and add some foreshadowing earlier in the book for, and actually realized one event I foreshadowed never happened. So I'll have to decide whether or not to add the event in, or take out the foreshadowing.

But overall, I'm pretty darn happy with it. So the next step is editing. I'm happy that my word count is right around 110,000. So this gives me room to add, or delete at will without having it get too long or too short. (From all I've read a first time novel, in the Fantasy genre should be between 100,000 and 125,000 words.)

Drawings to build depth

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 17:07:10 EST

I wanted to follow up on a thought I had in yesterday's posting. The use of drawings to help with your story. Not only to help with the background, world building aspect, but to actually help drive your story. One of the key locations in Crimson Swarm is an enemy fortress named Addlemort. Before I had my characters even catch a glimpse of Addlemort, I drew this:

Once again I probably put way too much time into the drawing, but it really helped me as I began work on the parts of the story that took place here. In the first scene, our hero had to sneak into the citadel undetected. Before I drew the picture, I had no idea how he would do it. Afterwards, I saw those cool flying buttress stairs on either side of the central tower, and I realized that if he could just somehow make it down the mountainside to the top of one of those walkways, he could make it in. Of course how do you sneak into a fortress across a bridge and down a flight of stairs out in the open? The solution I came up with was the majority of the soldiers were distracted. By what? A great plot element grew out of this question, and actually found itself intertwined tightly with where the bad guys drew their power.

The second scene involving Addlemort was when the our hero returned later with an army to attack the fortress. And again I was able to use the drawing to really drive the ebb and flow of the battle. To me it would have been nearly impossible to write the events that took place without having a strong visual like this drawing. I could look at it and run scenarios through my head before actually putting anything down on paper.

Of course you may say you don't have a fancy drawing program (in this case Adobe Illustrator), or you can't draw a straight line. As I said I think I put way too much time in this. There were other cases where I just did a very quick sketch to help orient me in a place. Here is a drawing of the council room where a big debate took place about whether or not to go to war:

Obviously only took a minute or two, but without this I would have had a very difficult time keeping track of everyone at the table.

I've even gone back and done drawings after the fact and then had to revise what I had written because it just didn't make sense once I drew it.

So get out those pencils (or mouses) and get drawing.

Can't Put It Down

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 17:03:08 EST

Well, I'm almost finished reading my first draft. (Anne Lamott has a great phrase for this that I choose not to repeat on this blog.) And it is most definitely rough, but I have found myself on several occasions having difficulty putting it down.

Is this because I have such a big ego, that I just love to hear myself "talk"? Or is it hopefully an indication that it might be publishable? That someone else might get some enjoyment out of it? Time will tell of course.

I've most definitely noticed some holes in the story. Some places where I'm inconsistent, but on a whole it seems like it flows well. Has a strong climax. Means something.

One of the things I'm very glad I did is keeping notes as I wrote. Every character, every place, every race, every animal, every mountain range, sea, etc... got entered into a word document the moment they appeared in the story.

I also tended to go a little overboard with drawings. Here's a map of Nuadaim (the name for my world):

As you can see, way too refined, but man does this help when it comes to making the story believable and cohesive. I also do the same thing for all the towns, and citadels, and rooms, etc... I find that if I do a drawing, it is much easier to write about than if I just try to picture it in my head.

I had a whole battle that took place in an enemy fortress, that I had no idea how it was going to go until I drew it. Then it became very clear how the enemy would defend themselves, and how the good guys would attack it.

So even if you can't draw at this level (not that it is anything amazing) I still think maps and drawings are very important. So get out that pencil and paper next time you move your characters into a new setting.

What makes a "Scene"?

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:57:24 EST

So all day I've been pondering the thoughts from Holly Lisle's ideas of editing a novel. The thing that really struck me is her idea that EVERY scene in the book must have a purpose. Every scene must move the story forward in an interesting fashion (paraphrasing here). She gives this definition of a scene: "A scene has a start and a finish, characters and dialogue, engages at least one and sometimes all five senses, and offers conflict and change." Then she says to go through the novel and make sure every single scene follows this definition. Wow! That is an amazing little piece of advice.

Where was she two years ago?

I know I've got some scenes that don't fit this definition. Now it is a matter of finding, and then cutting or modifying them. Be brutal man! Nothing is sacred.

Creating a New Language

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Mon, 04 Jun 2007 16:53:16 EST

It gets pretty difficult at times to work, when all I can think about is the book. I did go through a bit of discouragement a few days ago as I read through the first draft, but then the writing improved, and now I'm excited again.

The article I mentioned in the previous post by Holly Lisle has really got me pumped. I was thinking this editing process was going to be a long drawn out affair, but she makes it sound so easy. Of course I know that isn't true, but it does give me hope.

One area I know will bog me down is creating some languages. (Which I know Holly does BEFORE writing the book.) I used what I always considered a spacer language for the first draft. It was really just a "code" I developed in high school, swapping out various letters with each other. "Af e zhutho af quzho nquifl quzhogo thapol e zhukkaquo." Which I still think is pretty cool, but not quite what I'm going for. (By the way this is the first sentence from The Hobbit)

Now I really want to put some development time into creating actual languages. Again Holly Lisle to the rescue. I bought an e-book called the "Create a Language Clinic" it has some good stuff in it. I have four main languages in Crimson Swarm, and Holly's ideas will go a long way in helping me flesh them out.

The first language I started work on, was the one I considered the easiest because the race are pretty simplistic in their world view. I used to call them the Voormarg, but after working through the language development, I now call them the Vurmierg, and their language is "Common Gzuri" There is a "High Gzuri" that is spoken by the main villain in the book, but his grunts only speak a very simplified version. I'll post some samples of their language as I develop it, but in the meantime, here is a sketch of what a vurmierg looks like.

Writing a Fantasy Novel

drobert@drobertpease.com (D. Robert Pease) — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 16:27:11 EST

I finally decided it is time to start getting my thoughts down about my experience writing my first novel, "Crimson Swarm". This has been a dream of mine since the moment I picked up the Lord of the Rings when I was a pre-teen. I have such a strong desire to be part of something larger than myself. Something beyond "normal", and I think that is the cord that Tolkien struck so soundly inside of me.

My faith is such a large part of my life as well, but I'm not very good at expressing it, so Crimson Swarm is also an outlet to help articulate what it means to be part of the grand plan of God for his creation.

So here I am. I honestly can't remember when I began writing Crimson Swarm, but I think it has been about two or three years. And finally last week I wrote the two words I had been longing for, "The End". Of course that is a load of baloney, it is far from over, but it felt good nonetheless.

So for the last few days I have been just reading it. Trying very hard not to edit, just read. One thing that is quite apparent is, I am a much better writer now than I was when I began. I'm probably about half way through reading, and at last the writing is becoming bearable.

I just read an article by Holly Lisle, http://hollylisle.com/fm/Workshops/one-pass-revision.html (a prolific Fantasy Author, and from what I've seen an all around great asset to the writing community.) The article was on how to edit your novel, and in one pass no less. So that is where I am. I'm excited. I think the story has great potential, and if I can get it cleaned up, and well-written throughout, who knows... maybe it'll be something someone will want to read.

So that is it for now. I've got a lot more to say on the subject, but I'll save it for another post.

D. Robert Pease | Middle Grade & YA Science Fiction & Fantasy Author Blog