The Home Stretch

Last night I clawed my way over the 80,000 word mark for The Cerberus Rebellion.

Before the weekend, as I was walkung into my night job, I had a flash of inspiration and used Evernote to plot out the last 8 chapters.

Well, one of those chapters turned into 3 chapters but if the last 8 end up between 2-3k words I'll end up just above 105k.

It's a little higher than I wanted to end up but I figure with rewrites and edits I'll cut a few thousand words out.

I'm still hoping to make my self-imposed deadline at the end of April but if I'm over by a week it won't hurt

I'm still looking for Beta Readers and expect to be through my own first draft editing by the end of May and would like to get it to an editor by the middle of June.

If you're interested, please post a comment.

New Hardware

So, up until now I have been writing either on my desktop computer downstairs or on the laptop that my mom gave with almost no functioning keys and a ten pound paperweight.

I had to buy a wireless keyboard/mouse combo in order to function. The problem with that was that even with the wireless keyboard, I would have to set my laptop on the coffee table. For anyone with a wandering 1 year old, you know what trouble having a laptop open can be.

So I've been restricted to either waiting for him to go to bed or going downstairs and writing on the desktop. Since I work 4 nights a week, that cuts out a significant portion of my writing time and my wife works nights sometimes too so I can't just go downstairs to write.

Well, we recently paid off my wife's laptop on our best buy card so I started looking at laptops for myself.

I finally settled on a toshiba ultrabook. It's crazy thin, has a Solid State Drive and only weighs 2.47 pounds.

I just got it on Wednesday and spent most of the night getting it set up, but I can already see that I will be able to get a lot more writing done.

Looking for Blog Tour Hosts for September!

I'm looking for Indie Author and/or Fantasy book blog sites to host a September blog tour to celebrate and announce the release of my first novel; The Cerberus Rebellion.

If you have a blog or know of one that might fit the bill, please leave a comment or tweet me @authorjkjohnson.

Thanks!

How Many Points of View?

As I was planning out The Cerberus Rebellion, I had to make a decision on how many Point of View characters I wanted to include.

I had already concluded that I would be writing in third-person limited. I have written some short stories in first person and I have a couple of pen-on-paper novels written in third person omniscient, but right now 3rd Limited is where I feel comfortable. I like how 3rd Limited allows you to show a character from a different point of view by having them appear in someone else's POV chapter.

Part of my goal in writing The Cerberus Rebellion is to tell the story of how the events of the book, and ultimately the series, affect my main characters.

I wanted to avoid the overwhelming number of points of view (especially as seen in the Song of Ice and Fire novels by George RR Martin) while at the same time telling the full spectrum of my story.

I've decided to start my first novel with 4 main points of view. I was going to include some secondary POV characters for one-shot chapters but decided that those stories could be used for short stories or novellas at a later time (kind of how David Weber fills out information through his anthologies).

How do you decide on how many POV characters to use? Do you think more than 1 is too many or do you like to see multiple sides of the story?

Getting the Ball Rolling

And by "Ball" I mean Advertising/Buzz.

While The Cerberus Rebellion may only be half-done, it is fully on track for a late August release. And as I look around at the various book blogs and advertising venues, it's easy to see that now is the time for me to get going on my advertising.

I've already schedule an Author Interview on Two Ends of the Pen that will be posted September the 14th. I've also put in an email to the Kindle Fire Department to see if they do scheduling that far ahead.

I'm looking into sites where I might be able to do an interview before my book is published as a way to garner some new followers but I'm thinking that it may be best to wait until it's ready to sell before I get too much attention.

Anyways, when do you start your promoting for a new book? And do you have any suggestions for sites or blogs to talk to about an author interview or feature piece?

Any advice would be great!

"Success" as a Self-Publisher

When discussing any endeavor one of the things that comes up is whether or not you are "Successful".

The problem with discussing success in self-publishing is that everyone is going to have a different definition of success for themselves.

Some people will consider a successful launch as success, while others will hold themselves to a dollar amount or a number of sales within a time frame before they consider their book a success.

For example, I have 4 tiers that I feel my work will fall into once I get it published and into the public.

Tier 1: Raging Success. Each book will not only recover it's cost, but will fund above and beyond the cost of the next work (editing, advertising and cover work).

Tier 2: Success. Each book will recover its own cost but will also make between 25-75% of its cost in profit, thus helping to fund the next book.

Tier 3: Mediocre. Each book will recover it's own cost and up to 25% extra.

Tier 4: Not successful. The book, at best, recovers its cost or not at all. 

I plan on giving my books a 9 month window before I make a decision on the results. That will give me enough time to really work on the advertising and get the book out there as well as work on the next one and make adjustments based on feedback and sales results.

So what do you consider success? Just getting published? A certain dollar amount or a certain number of sales within a given time frame?

Short Stories as World Building

As I approach the halfway point in writing the first draft of "Griffins and Gunpowder: The Cerberus Rebellion" I have been thinking about ways to provide backstory without infodumping in the middle of a chapter

I think that one way to do this is to write some of this backstory and information not crucial to the plot (yet still useful) in the form of short stories, novellas and novelettes.

I'm hoping that this will serve both as extra information for those that are interested and as a way to introduce readers to my world and maybe convince them to buy my larger works.

To this end I have roughly plotted out the first 3 Short Stories, a Novella and a Novelette for my world.

Through these stories I intend to provide some context to the catalyst for my series arc, some back story for one of my secondary characters and for one of my main characters.

So how have you countered the problem of infodumping? Have you gradually worked it into the main story, used short stories to tell some of the background information or have you found another way to provide background without overloading the reader?

Leave a comment below and let me know your methods.

When it rains...

...it pours.

After fretting so much about the title of first Gunpowder Fantasy novel - how much of the plot to give away with the name, how to tie it to the relevant part of the story, etc - I finally decided on "The Cerberus Rebellion".

It makes it clear what the book is going to focus on without giving away too much.

Soon after, the titles for the subsequent parts of the series and even a strong candidate for Series Name have emerged.

My current leader for series name is Griffins and Gunpowder:(Insert Book Name Here)

And for book names I'm looking at using the sigil of each house as the focal point for the book and having that house do a lot of the work.

The only thing that has to be settled is the sigil of a major house. I was going to have their sigil be a great-eagle but I couldn't find a solid phrase that would work for a title.

So now I'm leaning towards tiger or great-boar.

The problem also arises that if I can't get everything done in my planned stretch I'm going to run out of houses to focus on and will have to break my convention. But I suppose that I'll build that bridge if it cones to it.

Finally Found It!

So I think I've finally found my title (or at least narrowed it down to 2 options)!

42,000+ words in and it finally came to me.

My problem, I think, was that I was trying to avoid giving away too much of the plot in the title. I realized, however, that to some point that can be a good thing. Additionally, my title choices don't give away the series plot and instead focus on the events of the first book.

So hopefully by August I should have "Hellhound's Revolt" or "The Cerberus Rebellion" on e-readers everywhere!

Goals for this Year, as an Author

I'm going to admit, this is mostly a "To-Do" list for myself as I have a terrible time remembering the most mundane details of day-to-day life (ask my wife) while I remember the most minute details of half a dozen different fictional worlds.

My primary goal, obviously, is to get my current WiP finished, run through beta-readers, edited and published. In working toward that goal, however, there are smaller milestones that I need to accomplish.

The first of which is purchasing my Scrivener key. At the suggestion of several people on twitter and kindleboards, I decided to give this program a try and boy do I love it! The ability to have all of my research notes, family trees, character profiles and the like in one place makes life easier.

I also need to get a website going. Hopefully my wife can find some time to help me with that in between her part time job and handling the now-walking hurricane that is our 1yr old son.

Doing the math with where I am in my plot-line, how many words I've written and how many words I average per weekend, I think that by June or July I should have the novel through at least two rounds of beta-readers and hopefully have an editor arranged to send it off to.

I'm also considering writing some short stories or novellas to go along side this world (maybe build some buzz for it) that I plan to write while my book is with my beta readers.

So we'll see how much I get done this year.

Brave New World

As I've mentioned before, I've decided to go ahead with my plans of writing my new work-in-progress as a "Gunpowder Fantasy."

One of the problems that I've come across already is the lack of previous work in this area. There are a handful of books that have used this sub-genre title and I'm sure that there are other previous works that have integrated gunpowder into a typical fantasy setting.

The problem of course is finding those works.

So in writing my Gunpowder Fantasy, I've had very little in the way of other work to compare mine too.

I think this will probably work to my advantage as I will have a completely clean slate to work against. I don't have many preconceived ways to integrate the magical elements of my world with the rest of my world.

Gunpowder Fantasy

So after doing a little bit of research, I have discovered that I'm not the only person writing "Gunpowder Fantasy." That is: fantasy set in a world that includes gunpowder and it's associated weaponry but does not focus on steam-power or other elements typical of a "steampunk" novel.

Some previous work in this area includes Winter Wolves (Amazon link) and The Black Prism (Wiki link).

It doesn't seem to be a particularly expansive sub-genre (a google search really only turned up these two links). However, I'm definitely going to continue on my current path and work in this sub-genre with my Yet-To-Be-Named-Novel.

And as for YtbNN, it decided to throw me a curveball and adjust the plot-line, leaving around 30,000 words that need to be adjusted to fit the new pace of the plot. And as I was reworking the plot I realized that the way that my world was set up wasn't going to work either. So I've remapped the world, twice.

On this current world, I've added another two major nations and a handful of city-states that are currently just going to be secondary background work (who knows, maybe they'll play a major part later).

My overall plot for Book 1 is still intact, however, and as I work through it I will be working on the overall plot for the series and on Book 2 as well.

What's In a Name (Content)

A little while ago, while working on my current universe, I came to the realization that some of the names I was using (primarily for the nations of my newborn world) didn't really roll off the tongue.

I've noticed that alot of authors tend to make their primary characters and the nations and worlds that those characters exist in have easily pronounced names. The two authors that I have read the most (David Weber and George RR Martin) have made their primary worlds and characters such.

So as I was rereading through the first few chapters of my new world, I decided to change the name of a few characters and the names of a few nations. Not only so the name of the nations themselves but also the name of those nation's citizens. For example, originally the main nation was going to be called Bradig. But I realized that the citizen of that nation would be what? A Bradigite? A Bradigian? So I've renamed my nation to something easier.

When reading, or writing, how important is it to you to have names that you feel are easily pronounced?

Short Story - Thor's Day

Thor's Day

Eric frowned as the first of the dark black clouds rolled down from the ridge north of the village. They had seen far too many storms in the last turn of the moon and the river that ran past the huddle of buildings to the fjord beyond was nearly at the top of the dirt dyke that separated it from the farmers' fields. Not for the first time Eric wished that he'd been allowed to go on the latest raid.

Instead, he’d been left with the children and old men to tend the fields.

The clouds to the north looked like they were moving quickly and would be upon the village by sundown.

Eric rested his metal rake on his shoulder and started down the hillside to the village. Two dozen small houses, a blacksmithy and a longhall where the townsfolk held their meetings. All surrounded by a low stone wall. Eric was told that it was a small village, as things went. Maybe one day he’d be able to go on a raid and see the villages of the people in the south.

He reached the low stone wall just as the first heavy drops of rain started to drop. It was then he noticed that something was missing. There was no flashing lightning. No rolling thunder. There was thunder, even in the smallest storms that rolled down from the northern mountains.

“There’s no thunder!” He yelled across the small yard to Sven the Gray. The old man was one of the only men in the village that had never been a raider. He’d raised sheep and farmed the lands for his whole life.

“Some storms don’t have thunder. It’s nothing to -” The old man’s words stopped suddenly as a black spear sprouted from his chest. Behind him, a figure clad in an oversized black robe sat astride a midnight black horse. Eyes of silver glowed from beneath the cloak’s hood.

Eric was speechless. He had heard whispered tales from the old women of the village. They told of the black men who rode the thunderless storms. He had always believed that they were just tales, told to frighten little boys and girls.

But now one of these creatures had come to Eric’s village and he was frozen. He tried to shout a warning, but when he opened his mouth nothing came out.

The rider dismounted from his horse and walked toward the corpse of the old farmer. He knelt and pulled the spear from the already cold body. His hands searched the body for a moment until he found what he was looking for. He ripped the amulet from around the man’s neck. It was a small stone hammer, a tribute to Thor, god of Thunder.

“Where is your god now?” A high pitched voice demanded.

“I...I...” Eric couldn’t find words. The black rider stood
“Where is your god?” The voice demanded again.

“He...doesn’t visit us anymore...”

The voice laughed. It was a shrill sound that hurt Eric’s ears.

“Your god is dead,” the rider threw the amulet at Eric’s feet. “Tell your leaders. This day is no longer Thor’s Day.”

On Genre

I've always liked to read both Science Fiction and Fantasy. And as a younger author, I tended to switch back and forth between the two.

A few years back, however, I stopped dabbling in Fantasy and have predominantly worked on Science Fiction, particularly the Space Opera and Military Sci-Fi sub-genres. I just liked the idea of writing massive space epics that spanned hundreds of light years.

But recently, I've started to go back to the Fantasy genre. It started when my younger brother was over and he mentioned that he had this idea for a story set in a Fantasy world. He's a song writer, though, so he passed the basics of the idea on to me. I wrote up a basic 2 page idea and have it on file ready to go when I have a chance.

The seed was planted.

I started to develop a new world, which I have named "Zaria" though that is likely to change, and have been working on that world more recently. I had started it as a gunpowder era world, think the late 1700s to early 1800s. I wanted to use some historical situations as a baseline.

Then one day I decided to add elves, and magic was close behind. I realized that my world didn't really fit into any current sub-genres. It's not quite Steampunk, as I've decided to leave steam power out for now (I may start to introduce it much later in the development of this world). But it's definitely not High Fantasy.

I spent a couple of days trying to decide how to adjust this world to more easily fit into an established sub-genre and then I realized that I didn't need to. Sub-genres have to start somewhere, so maybe this will be the start of one.

Special Shoutout to: @cultauthor for helping me decide to just go where the story takes me

First Draft Editions

So I finally finished applying my first draft edits for "Live! At the Front"
I want to flesh out the end of he novel a little bit before I got to second draft.
I think I can do a lot to add details throughout during my second draft so it really looks like it's going to be my third draft that I'll be looking for beta readers.
If you're interested in beta reading this Sci-Fi Space Opera, leave a comment or you can reach me on twitter @stealthvoodoo
I'll post my blurb for "Live!" such as it is later tomorrow.