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Tomas slowly made his way down the dimly lit hall. He walked with a limp, and the metal apparatus around his leg protested his every move.
Just a tiny tease from the first draft of New Worlders. 🙂
31 Monday Aug 2015
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Tomas slowly made his way down the dimly lit hall. He walked with a limp, and the metal apparatus around his leg protested his every move.
Just a tiny tease from the first draft of New Worlders. 🙂
26 Wednesday Aug 2015
Posted Writing Wednesday
inLast Week’s WW: Structure
Sometimes, I have a lot of ideas. Occasionally, too many. Other times, they just won’t seem to come. Lately I’ve been feeling all of this. I’ve been letting my writing anxieties build. I’ve been avoiding writing. I stopped the creative flow and I feared that the well had dried up. It seemed like the harder I tried to think of an idea, the further away I got from it. Maybe I was trying to hard. I just hated feeling like I had nothing to do. I hated having a bunch of ideas, but no passion and no real insight into any of them.
How do we over come this? Continue reading
25 Tuesday Aug 2015
Posted Mention Monday
inTags
author, author meet up, comic con, hugh howey, san diego, the z chronicles, writer, writing life
Last MM: Future Chronicles
Hugh Howey is one of my favorite writers and has been a great influence on my career. Early last month, I had the opportunity to meet him. A lot of indie authors like to do something called “meet ups”. You see this sometimes on the Kboards or on a particular author’s Facebook page. Sometimes, if you have online author friends, and they happen to be in the area for a book signing, or in Hugh’s case, Comic Con, they might just put out a call for anyone who is around to come and meet them. Hugh even brought donuts.
I made the 3 hour drive (should have only been 2, but Comic Con traffic) down to San Diego to meet him. His hotel, where he was hosting the morning meet up, was literally next door to the convention center. Since I was there primarily to see Hugh, I got to park at the hotel and it turned out that it didn’t cost me a thing. I found Hugh and a few other authors and fans sitting at a table in the cafe area near the pool. I was surprised to see that there was only maybe ten people in attendance. Which is ironic when you consider how many people were literally lined up to see him next door.
He talked about writing and his process. He talked about how he puts a lot of importance on theme and how, even though the specific ideas that influence his story may not be what’s in the story, it’s what the story is about. I was actually a little surprised to learn what Sand and Wool were really about. It’s been almost 2 months, so I don’t want to paraphrase and mix up his message. But they go a lot deeper than just dystopian scifi.
He was very open and invited questions, be them about writing, publishing, or his books in general. He invited those of us who were authors to let everyone there know about our works.
I actually managed to speak. More than a couple words. I even jumped into the conversation from time to time and started a couple. I was proud of myself. I messaged Hugh after and thanked him for the meetup. He was nice enough to write back to me and tell me that it was nice to meet me.
Honestly, that Saturday in July was one of the best days of my life. I got to meet Hugh Howey, which was a big deal for me, I went to Comic Con (more about that next week), I enjoyed San Diego, and, it was just a perfect day. Well, almost. I could have gotten a better pic, lol. 🙂
20 Thursday Aug 2015
Posted Writing Wednesday
inLast WW: Don’t Let Your Characters Just Stand There
Whether your a planner or a pantser, a story needs to have structure. The first thought that comes to mind is: beginning, middle, end. Sure, a logical story goes in that order. Even one told out of linear progression still, at its heart, has a beginning, middle, and end. However, if you want to go beyond basic, you should really have four parts.
Part One: Continue reading
17 Monday Aug 2015
Posted Random
inTags
author, blog, new series, otherworlders, update, updates, writer, writing life
As you may have noticed, I’ve been having trouble keeping up with my blog the past few months. It’s like all my motivation just drained from me and left me a tired shell. I think I can pinpoint most of this feeling to an exciting contract that I had that fell through. It put me in a funk, and it’s been a tremendous fight to try to get over it. It might be slow, but I am trying.
Last month I wrote two 10,000 word short stories. See? I’m doing stuff. This month, well, I haven’t written much. The first of those stories will be in The Future Chronicles, a special edition of the series. The other story I’m shopping around. I might even turn it into a novel some day. Do you like Space Murder Mysteries? I hope so.
I’ve been getting back into the swing of things with my Mention Monday. I actually had an amazing month last month, and have a bunch of things to mention. I just need to start setting an alarm or something so I remember that Monday is Monday. Too often I find myself realizing on Tuesday that Monday is gone. Not that I strictly have to stick to alliteration, but I think it’s a good structure to stick with. I’m thinking that I might bring back Serial Sunday. I don’t want to over-promise, and I don’t know exactly when I’ll start, but it’s something I want to do. What will the new Serial Sunday be about? I’m planning for it to be a companion to Otherworlders. If you are subscribed to my mailing list, then you probably got a little bonus scene featuring the character Chase. He was important to the story, and originally had a lot more air time, but a bunch of his story got cut out in the editing process as his character got redefined. Some people had mentioned that they didn’t feel like they got to know him very well in the novel. Therefore, I’m planning to create Otherworlders: The Chase Chronicles. It’ll be an ongoing feature on my blog that explores all the things Chase was doing during the book. How’d he react when the Otherworlders arrived? How’d he wind up in the military? What’d he do when he left Tomas and Samantha? Who are these contacts he has? What other missions did he go on? He freed a lot of people and escaped the government a couple times, and we didn’t get to see all that much of it. And what really happened between him and Kara during their time together? And if you think this companion series is a hint that there may be more Otherworlders to come, you might be right. 🙂 Just to warn you, though, it probably won’t happen very fast. At some point, once The Chase Chronicles is finished, I plan to collect it and put it on Amazon.
I also want to bring back Writing Wednesday, and hopefully at some point, if I can find the energy and muses, Flash Fiction Friday.
So bear with me, I’m still at it, just at a little slower pace. Thank you for reading my work and following my blog! I’m grateful for every single one of you.
10 Monday Aug 2015
Posted Mention Monday
inTags
chronicles, future, giveaway, kindle, kindle paperwhite, rafflecopter, science fiction, scifi, the future chronicles, win
Like the storied SF collections of the past, The Future Chronicles brings you themed anthologies on the topics you love — Robots, Telepaths, Aliens, Artificial Intelligence, Dragons, Zombies… and more. Each collection combines fresh new voices in speculative fiction with established, best-selling, and award-winning authors. An amazing array of talent has joined together to produce a series like no other.
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….A 6″ Kindle Paperwhite with the entire set of currently-available seven Future Chronicles ebooks!
August 10-16 is Future Chronicles Week, here with all the authors and contributors of the Chronicles, and there’ll be giveaways from everyone!
If you haven’t joined the Chronicles Newsletter yet, now’s the time to join! You’re always able to get Advance Review Copies (ARCs) of forthcoming books, as well as the latest news. And you’ll get the Future Chronicles special edition ebook as our thank you.
Or join our Facebook Group, for fascinating SciFi discussions as well as all the latest news on the upcoming Chronicles releases. We are 400+ authors, working together to help create a new Silver Age of Speculative Fiction.