New Cover!
I always enjoy cover reveals. Maybe it’s an indie thing because I don’t see trad authors doing this so much. or perhaps I’m wrong, I don’t know. When I first started publishing, during the indie golden age, it was a popular thing to reveal a new cover. I still like it. I hope you do too. Below is the new cover for my upcoming novel, Message At The Deep.
The Perils of Publishing For Young Authors (The audra winter Controversy)
Don’t be the entertainment!
Get the popcorn ready!
If you haven’t heard about it yet, you will if you are in any way close to the online publishing world. A young author, Audra Winter, is being excoriated from one end of the internet street to the other for releasing a book without first having properly learned the craft of writing. I think what has made it so bad for her is that she is a whiz at marketing. So when it came to creating hype and excitement about her book she knew exactly what to do.
The problem is that for nearly all writers, their first few novels are unpublishable. They are bad books and there’s a reason for that - you must learn how to write and you don’t learn how to write well until you are through writing badly. That means lots of practice, usually many years of it, before you become proficient. This is true for any craft, art or discipline, truly any type of work that one wants to become good at. It takes lots of practice. It also means you must read and take in other stories and not just your own in the process of writing and finding inspiration. That was another problem with Audra. She was more concerned with her own world, art work and just about every other thing except her actual writing of the story. I don’t judge her for it. When I was in elementary school I worked on a huge novel called Baby Adventures. I worked on this fantasy world of mine for years. But it was a childish project fit for a child. Not publication when I turned twenty. My unsolicited advice for this young author? Adding more art work and creating a complex world are all great but you have nothing if you are trying to publish a book and the story isn’t readable. Many readers are asking for refunds. This is embarrassing, I’m sure, for her and a lesson for other young writers watching this unfold.
I have no wish to pile on the girl, only to note a warning to new authors and writers about the dangers of self publishing. Indie writers often extol the advantages of walking this path and I am no exception. When I started self publishing during the gold rush, back in 2011, I published a short story that got me excoriated all over Amazon and Goodreads. I learned quickly about what to publish and what not to publish. But I had been writing for decades at that point so I had enough crafting skills to write a decent story. But, I still had much to learn and respect about tropes and genre. What I learned from the short story affair was not that I couldn’t write, but that that short story didn’t follow the tropes of horror. Normally, I don’t give in to such demands if I really believe in a particular story, but my heart wasn’t in horror and my writing, when it came to horror wasn’t going to satisfy horror readers. I had also written that story when I was a teenager. For a precocious teen it was decent. For an experienced writer, it wasn’t that good. I learned my lesson without too much damage having been done to my career or self esteem.
The wonders of self publishing today is that there are no gatekeepers to prevent you from publishing your book and getting it out to readers. The problems with self publishing today is the same exact thing!
For young writers out there, don’t become discouraged by this tea cup controversy and hide away your work. Simply keep writing and working on your craft. A writer is a craftsman. Craftsmen must work diligently for years before their work is any good. Read good books (bad ones too for something can be learned from all stories) watch good films and shows (and bad ones too!) Keep working on your craft as if you were a guild member or a journeyman working under a master. The master, you ask? Your favorite writers that came before you. Study how your favorite writers write the books that you love to read and become inspired by that. Don’t hide away or become afraid over social media flaps. They come and they go. Do learn from them, though. Learn from the wisdom of writers who have been out there with success for years. They know a lot. You don’t have to take everything they say as gospel truth but there is always something to learn. Most of all, if you do seem to fail at a launch you can re-launch. Remember the idea of the magic bakery. Don’t know what that is? Go find out from Dean Wesley Smith.
Today, book publishing is in your hands and under your control. Respect the craft by learning it first before the marketing, and in time you will do fine. And don’t ever be in a rush to publish!
Happy writing!
August Sci-fi and Fantasy ebook giveaway!
Get your free books right here!
Looking for good reads for high summer? Look no further! I’m participating in a science fiction and fantasy ebook giveaway! Check it out at the link below and grab some great free books to read!
Leaving Fans Hanging. . .
George R. R. Martin has not finished Winds of Winter. In fact, he has recently had a tantrum over fans of the series (myself included) holding his feet to the fire over making us wait so damned long for it. He deserves the excoriating he’s been getting. I can’t believe he’s been allowed to not finished this series by the publisher.
And this leads me to my point for this post - this is why I believe that writers need an outline, especially for long, complex works like ASOIAF. I can’t see how anyone can create and finish such a sprawling story without one. Martin’s refusal (or inability) to finish the series is a case in point. He used to make a big deal about being a gardener or a pantster (writing without an outline) rather than an architect or plotter. I am a plotter. Plotters can suffer from the same issues of losing interest but at the end of the day you can go back to your outline and see where things are not working or pick up the story and keep on writing. If you need to make changes you can make them rather easily because you can see the bones of the story, its structure, and keep the story on track to being finished without getting lost, frustrated and then giving up, which it seems Martin has.
What a disservice to readers who have been waiting for the next book for so many years!
Tale Foundry: A Whimsical Place!
One of my favorite places on YouTube is a channel called Tale Foundry. I get so much inspiration from this channel on creating themes for my own work. It’s a channel that makes you think deeply on story and the paths you can take, where you can go with any one type of story. It’s a fun channel and it focuses on themes in story and the question of “why” in story. Where John Truby focuses and teaches a writer on how to construct a story. if you are a writer I think it is very helpful but even if you aren’t I think you will find it very engaging and fascinating - if you love story.
Shakespeare After All
Another excellent instructor on Shakespeare’s work is Marjorie Garber. She is the author of the phenomenal book Shakespeare After All, a collection of essays on his plays. I have her book and have read it many times. It’s dog-eared now and perhaps I need to buy a new one but she also has a video course of her classes on the same subject on YouTube. I’ve watched them several times and I personally feel that between Garber and Cantor you will understand what you need to know about the greatest of all writers in the English language! (My opinion, of course!)
You can find her courses here. Enjoy!
Instruction On Shakespeare
Shakespeare, or someone else?
Even though YouTube is in great danger of being completely engulfed in AI slop there are still plenty of gems to be found there. I miss the old days of YouTube, when there was no algorithm to speak of and you found interesting videos based on your own interests and brain power.
One of the great things about this site is it can serve as a great educational platform. I’ve found several great teachers who can help illuminate one’s knowledge and understanding of the genius of Shakespeare. And, for the record, I never believed in this nonsense that Shakespeare wasn’t a real person, or that he couldn’t write the very works he is credited with writing. I find that theory silly, classist and without merit. This essay here is enlightening on why Shakespeare’s ideas about how the classes interacted with one another wasn’t particularly accurate at the time, which lends credence to the fact that he actually wrote those plays. It’s a very good and enlightening read.
Were Shakespeare’s Plays Written By An Aristocrat?
There truly was a man named William Shakespeare and yes, he actually wrote the plays he is attributed to writing.
Paul Cantor, my favorite instructor on Shakespeare is one of the best teachers you can find anywhere. Sadly, Cantor has since passed from this mortal coil but his instruction on understanding Shakespeare’s plays remain on YouTube. If you love Shakespeare I urge you to please give his videos a look. In my opinion, they are the next best thing to attending an ivy-league university course on the subject.
Paul also adroitly addresses the notion of Shakespeare actually being an aristocrat writing under the name “Shakespeare”. He is no fan of the theory and slaps it down as the nonsense that it is. Even if you disagree I think that you will find his videos on the plays worth your time.
First DRAft
I don’t have much to say right now as I’m still at work on the manuscript. But I have finished the first draft of Message At The Deep. Usually when this happens I take about a week to relax my mind and work on other things. Well, I’ve done that and now I am in the beginning revision stage where the body is being filled in or changed as need be. Sometimes this is the most difficult and the most rewarding phase of a book for me.
On another note I have been looking out for new books to read. I am making my way through C. J. Cherryh’s Chanur saga and I love it. I wonder why I’d never read it back in the 80’s? Too busy reading those hoary Dungeons and Dragons books, I guess! I did read some of her other books back then but this is my favorite series from her. I may do a blog post on this series alone soon. It’s a classic in science fiction. Everyone should read it.
On a YouTube book blog I found out about a fantasy book called Godfallen by Tim Meyer. They were talking about the cover and how much they loved that retro fantasy look. I love it too and I plan to check the story out. Much respect to the artist of this cover. I love science fiction and fantasy covers from the 70’s and 80’s. They remind me of what an awesome and carefree childhood I had back then.
Retro? Yes, retro!
This book sounds good too. I will be checking this out on my next trip to Powell’s. It’s giving me Conan the Barbarian vibes, and that is a very good thing!
Happy reading!
Reminders And research
Things are coming along and I’m even thinking of plots for the next few books in this series but it is always a good idea to go over principles of good storytelling and for me that is John Truby’s two towering achievements, The Anatomy of Story and The Anatomy of Genres. I can’t recommend these two books enough for any writer when looking for how to shape a story idea or organize a bunch of ideas or plot points when getting ready to work on a new manuscript. I’m also planning to build a shop here for my books on this website so that books can be sold right here, directly.
Life is doing what life does, happening and closing and opening doors to new and old paths. Jumbled thinking, I know, but this is stream of consciousness stuff, so, forgive me.
The protagonist of this new series, Jonas, is turning out to be who I can truly resonate with. He is very different form that last protagonist I wrote about, Robert Astor, whom I loved writing about very much. He was cheerful, outgoing almost nothing got him down for long. Jonas is very different and it is interesting to see the difference in personality. A Princess of Mars was the main inspiration for the Mission series and Robert Astor was, I suppose you could say, a goofy, self-effacing version of John Carter. Jonas Johnson is very different and for him I had always specifically was inspired by the Knights Templar. In an unofficial way he is an errant knight. In any case, in a few weeks it will be time for me to take a trip to Powell’s bookstore for some books on the Templar Knights. So I’ve got quite a bit of homework to do. Truby, along with the history of the templars. But this is the kind of homework that is fun to do!
Happy reading!
Humming Along
Changes are always taking place. Family drama and issues. Another family change is happening. This time it’s a good thing. Major debts are being paid off one by one (yay!) I couldn’t be happier.
The manuscript is coming along nicely. It seems at this point that I may be writing ten books for this new series. I already have the titles worked out. of course this can change in time but this is part of the road-map that I enjoy working creating for my stories. I know that free writers would be scandalized by such stick-in-the-mud ways but I love doing that and I often come up with a title first and then build a story around that. That’s just how I roll!
Tentative titles:
Message At The Deep
The Red Book (or The Red Book of Ralston)
The Great Game
House of Air
Super Unknown
Blood and Consequences
Where The Stars Are Strange
The Goodship Carcossa
On The Hour Of Our Meeting
The Raven And The Phoenix
Several are inspired by Tolkien, as you may have noticed, one by Soundgarden, one by Ambrose Bierce and one, tangentially by Arthur Conan Doyle. Whether these titles will remain is another matter. Things can always change. Anyway, I don’t have much to say besides that. I hope those that are on the subscriber list enjoyed the short story I wrote. Happy reading and writing!