I’ve (almost) reached the halfway mark!
Now of course, this refers to a first draft, and we’re talking ten chapters of a first draft that may ultimately have more than 20 chapters, but that’s all I’ve outlined so far. So this is a very qualified celebration. But it feels like progress nonetheless. As avid readers of this blog know (Lock him up! He’s referring to imaginary people!), I was well into (probably halfway, ironically) a middle-grade adventure novel (working title: Opposite Day) when I decided to shelve the whole thing. One day, I might pull it back out, and one day it might actually be shelved in a physical library, but I just wasn’t feeling it. I’m not sure if it was the voice, the “reining Read More…
Interviewed on “Just Following a Dream” blog!
Jessica Sayler, author of the “Just Following a Dream” blog (and author of a WIP tentatively entitled “Awakened”) was kind enough to host me on her blog and ask me a series of interesting–and random–questions. However, as fellow authors know, there’s no such thing as a random question or thought when it comes to fiction. Anything is fair game and anything can lead to inspiration, a plot point, dialogue or a character. The interview deals with both my humorous suspense novels, the recent Kindle Book Review honoree Ring of Fire and Battle Axe, and touches on my own WIP Opposite Day). You can read the brief interview here.
Ring of Fire Selected as “Best Indie Book of 2012” Semifinalist!
The Kindle Book Review has selected Ring of Fire as a suspense/horror semifinalist in its annual Best Indie Books competition. The page has had over 50,000 hits in the last couple of months so this is some invaluable exposure for my debut novel. The final five finalists from each category will be announced on September 1, and the six winners (one in each category) will be announced on October 1. I’ll be sure to update you as I find out, but this is a huge thrill for a book that was once agented and had lost hope of finding a “home.”
Podcast with Wattpad!
I’ve done announcer-type work and voiceovers for years as kind of a side job, but I still don’t love listening to myself. You, however, are welcome to. This is an interview I did last week with the exceedingly nice Pam from Wattpad, a very popular site for writers to post their work and gain free exposure. I’m bound to Amazon to keep “Ring of Fire” there exclusively for another few weeks, but I posted “Battle Axe” on Wattpad back in March and it’s already received over 100,000 “reads.” Pam asks me about my background in fiction, cartooning, advertising and whatever else we can think of. Listen to it here.
Choose Your Friends Carefully
What I mean by that is, if at all possible, during your formative years, become friends with someone who, a few decades later will offer to design your ebook cover as a personal favor. Make sure this person is someone who displays very little aptitude or passion for graphic design at the time, but through hard work and dedication miraculously transforms into a visionary artist and Photoshopper par excellence. Well, that’s what I did, anyway, and look what it got me. I’m posting a larger cover of my debut novel Ring of Fire here, mainly to give it a place to live so I can send out links. My designer–the multi-talented Mike Sottong–worked with my crude notions of a concept Read More…
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