Origin Stories

I first want to thank Brian for hosting us on his blog. He was one of the first people to welcome me to Kindleboards almost a year ago. At the time, he shared a bit about how he started writing – a topic that has always fascinated me. These tales are like superhero origin stories, “how I met my spouse” stories, or any other coming-of-age experience that both shapes who we are now and describes how we were then. There are as many origin experiences as there are writers. In the spirit of fair exchange here is mine.

Many authors came to writing later in life. They took a creative writing class in college. Or they experienced a major life change. Or they had a baby (redundant with the second, I know). I fear I’m one of those annoying folks who always wanted to be a writer. I can’t imagine wanting to be anything else.

That doesn’t mean my early efforts weren’t terrible. The imagination was there. The ability to put it on the page in a form recognizable as a story to anyone not on hallucinogenic substances? Not so much. That would take decades – yes, with an s. You have no idea how undisciplined and impatient I was at the beginning of this journey.

Cut me some slack. I was 9.

It began when I discovered Choose Your Own Adventure Books. Do they still make these things? Back before video games had moved past Pac Man and Adventure, these books cast the reader as the protagonist of the story and allowed him (or her) to make critical decisions along the way. Depending on those choices, the book could have a happy ending or (more often) a decidedly unhappy ending. These things were red hot – the post-modern movement of children’s literature. They became more advanced by the year until some clever person decided to add a character sheet, some dice, and a simple conflict resolution mechanic (i.e. “rules that tell us what the dice mean”).

I loved those hybrid “pick-a-path with dice” books so much that I set out to write one. I got as far as researching monsters of mythology and legends before losing focus. I didn’t end up with a finished book, but the experience ultimately exposed me to Dungeons & Dragons – still a win, as far as I’m concerned.

For the next few years I explored D&D, read fantasy and science fiction voraciously, and played ever more elaborate games of pretend with my three younger siblings. Those three things, plus some amazing English teachers who emphasized creative writing, were all critical to developing a storyteller’s instincts.

Games of pretend? Really? Absolutely. In fact, the fantasy places that developed out of those games of pretend are the seeds from which the world Matt and I write about sprang.

The seeds of Kingmaker were more his than mine (and he often takes out the baby pictures from when we were in high school and posts them on our blog). Lesson of the Fire, though, had a very simple and childish origin in those elaborate games of pretend. My family had a big back yard (about 3.5 acres), and when it rained, parts of it would get very soggy. At the center of one of those soggy patches was a pile of sand that served as our sandbox and, in games of pretend, base of operations. When it rained, we imagined that it was our home in the middle of a monster-infested swamp, and we had to brave the dangers of the swamp in order to find food. Of course, sometimes the monsters would attack our home, and we’d have to drive them away.

Those games are present in Lesson of the Fire only as echoes of echoes, but I can still point out some of them. As with so many linguistic relics, place names often betray the history. Why is the capital city Domus Palus? That was our parents’ house on the first map I drew of our swamp world. “Domus” is Latin for “house” (“palus” means “swamp,” but that came later). The town of Rustiford? On the old map, it marked the place where my parents’ old Ford van had been, um, put out to pasture – literally a rusty Ford.

Silly, yes? You’d never think those games would turn into a book about an idealistic wizard-dictator’s violent rise to power and descent into madness as his ambition threatens to destroy the very nation he hoped to lead to a golden age. But then I’m not 9 anymore.

I have always felt it is important for readers to see the humanity of their favorite authors. Sure, I don’t want to read a bunch of rough drafts, but it can be quite illuminating to see a bit of an early draft next to the finished product. I guess I find the creative process endlessly fascinating, and hearing a “where I got this idea” story or seeing a scene evolve from revision to revision is the next best thing to being present in the author’s head when it’s happening.

I’ve also maintained that it is important for a writer to remember what it was like to be new and barely able to string sentences together. The reason Matt can talk on our blog about how Kingmaker evolved from an artless but earnest action story about princes, ogres, and thieves is because we kept every first draft, revision, rewrite, reimagining, and rework of that story seed from the last 20 years (16 versions of it, in all). It look like we’re on course to it 11 versions of what has become Lesson of the Fire. Those old manuscripts remind us of one of the most important lessons we have learned as writers:

No matter what your origin story, writers are not born. They grow. And they should keep on growing.

Thanks for coming by and sharing with us, Eric! You can visit Eric Zawadzki’s website or purchase Kingmaker on Amazon, or simply learn more about the author here.

It is with great sorrow that I share  ~ We lost one of our own last night. Our beloved and lovely lady, Linda Evans succumbed to her battle with cancer.

She fought this disease like a tiger. A lady tiger.

Linda was always kind and generous with her time. She was never too busy to help a friend or respond to a fan. She guided many newbies and held the virtual hands of many old-timers.

Her daughter Jenny will be taking over the promotion of her mother’s books. It would be wonderful if we could support the sales of LC Evans delightful novels to help defray her medical bills. If you are so inclined please post Linda’s bookcovers and links whereever you can.

I have a feeling Linda is watching us right now.

We love you girl!

If you know anyone who reads romance or wants to try it out (or if you’d like to yourself), Linda could spin a tale unlike any other. The proceeds will go toward her medical and final expenses and to her family in this most difficult time. You can look at all of her works here.

When I think about the inevitability and the long, unknown eternity ahead of each of us, I wonder if I will be remembered. Yes, yes, I will be remembered by my close family and friends, and even by some acquaintances, but it is a sneaking thought that creeps up every time something like this happens–will anything I do now matter to anyone after I’m gone?

In looking over the body of comments on the Kindle Boards post and glancing at Linda’s books on Amazon and the reviews, I can clearly see that she will have no problem with this. She will live on, not only through her family and close friends, but through perfect strangers who have enjoyed her work and told others about them. Those little mentionings and whispers across libraries, book stores, coffee shops, and whatever other medium–Linda will live in those forever, a testament to her skill as a writer and her beauty as a person. How many people have been touched by this storyteller, and how many more yet will be touched through the perpetuity of her body of work? More than we can ever know.

Some additional links in remembrance of L.C. Evans:

- The World Has Lost…[a truly talented author, LC Evans] – written by the editor of her final book, Lynn O’Dell.
- L.C. Evans’ Author Central page
- Kindle Boards: LC Evans (announcement)

Thank you for remembering Linda today.

Thankfully, The Circle of Sorcerers (http://circleofsorcerers.latenitebooks.com) didn’t bomb. If it had, we’d be in a little trouble–no new material for quite some time. But, thankfully, it didn’t. It’s done well enough to support the next book at least, so I can keep going forward with new stories. (And, of course, I owe that to the fans for their support.)

With The Consuls of the Vicariate, I hope to have more. More of everything, and more than anything, I hope people will like it. We saw the conclusion of the story arc with Gustav Drakar in the first book, and we’ll be moving forward to the arc with Andolis Drakar in the second. After that… well, you’ll have to see how Consuls ends to know where we’ll be going next. Hopefully, it will be ready in February, and I foresee the third (and the *currently* planned final) of the series out for release in June.

The audiobooks will follow on a schedule that is self-supporting. If there’s enough interest in the first audiobook (which, I must say, has been well-received and is doing well) and it at least pays for itself, I’ll commission the same actor (if he’ll have me) for the remainder of the series.

For now, back to work. Thanks for all the support.

Why? I had several thoughts about the issue, and time management, editing to a final manuscript, and time vs. release issues disuaded me from the practice. In this article, I’ll discuss a bit about the pro’s and con’s of pre-publication reviews, what they are, and why they didn’t work for me this time around.

Now, don’t get me wrong: reviewers are valuable. They’re wonderful, actually. Love them to death more than they will ever know. I try to be easy to work with, I don’t hassle them, and I am as generous as possible. If they tell me it will be 6 months to a year, I say, “Fine, I’m just glad you’re willing to take a look at it, really.” If they decide not to review the book, I tend to carry on a brief, pleasant conversation to see if they’d be willing to look at anything in the future (unless they’ve indicated they don’t read the genre, didn’t prefer the style, or so on).

That being said, I’ll go ahead with the first issue that is about reviewers and muddle my way through it so as to be careful about the way I put it. (read: I’m not belittling reviewers) The first reason I decided against pre-pub reviews was that it can take a long time–an awful long time in some cases–t0 get a book reviewed. Reviewers have lives, and I know my place: I’m not the center of it. The less fortunate side-effect of that realization is that I don’t have huge swaths of reviewers at my beck and call who are waiting for me to publish the next book. Fans and readers? Sure. But, reviewers receive lots of submissions, and it can take a long time to work through them, finding the ones they want to read, replying to the ones they don’t, reading the books, and writing the reviews and posting them around.

In order to get pre-publication reviews, I’d have to send them an unedited manuscript. Seeing as how that would be against two of my beliefs–review the final copy, not a work in progress, and review that which the readers will be reading, I couldn’t put it together because it would have delayed the book release. As we all know, the sooner a book is out, the sooner a book can start earning back the time and money invested to make it a reality. And since we were creeping up upon the Christmas season, I had to get the thing out the door. We had spent a long time editing and fixing it up, cover art was finalized, distribution was in line, and all that. And, just in case anyone had any doubts, I don’t fault reviewers for this; authors should appreciate everything bloggers and reviewers do for us. Without them, we wouldn’t have the exposure and presence.

Second and third, time management. I always struggle with that; there just isn’t enough time in the day to do everything needed. Sometimes, you just have to do what you can. I decided to invest my time in polishing the cover artwork and working with my editor because the quality of the book is foremost. Who would care about it if it didn’t have polish? Would it matter if I got a handful of reviews on a book that I knew needed a lot more work to be enjoyable?

I did pre-publication reviews for my other books, and it taught me valuable lessons, namely the ones above. Since I was writing in a series, it became more difficult to secure pre-publication reviews on the new releases. Why? Because any new reviewers would either have to review beginning from the current book or would have to go back and re-read everything prior to the current one to “get it”. This is a problem for pre-publication and post-publication reviews, of course, but after publication, you have a little more time and less pressure to work with and find reviewers.

Which brings me to my closing point: relax and breath. Post-publication, it doesn’t matter in the self-publishing world whether you get 1,000 reviews right out the gate. You need some, and you need to work at getting them from reliable, honest sources, but at the end of the day, books are–for the most part–timeless and ageless. So what if someone picks up a book ten years after the publication? To them, it’s a new book, full of new experiences and new adventures. A book may slow down as it ages, but self-publishing can be maintained for as long as you want, and you can have revivals with new reviews ten years down the road.

Best of luck. Just wanted to share a little with you. Until next time.

So, without further ado, let’s get after it.

Here are the contents of the memo which was circulating around Hatchett, and my comments are in-line:

“Self-publishing” is a misnomer.

Publishing requires a complex series of engagements, both behind the scenes and public facing. Digital distribution (which is what most people mean when they say self-publishing) is just one of the components of bringing a book to market and helping the public take notice of it.

Oh, my. The process is so complex, apparently, that I must be a prodigical superhuman, a freak of nature, that I was able to release my latest book in hardcover, paperback, electronic formats, and create a deal to make an audiobook with a talented voice actor. I was also able to find an editor and proofreaders and design cover art while still managing to hold on to 70% of the list price. (Sarcasm aside, no, it’s hardly impossible. People do this every day.)

As a full service publisher, Hachette Book Group offers a wide array of services to authors:

 1. Curator: We find and nurture talent:

Legacy publishers find and nurture a few people, nothing more. Legacy publishers are responsible for rejecting Harry Potter about 9 times (I’ve heard it as high as 12), Stephen King’s Carrie around 30 times, and Frank Herbert’s Dune at least 23 times. Surely, these are flukes. Surely, they can automatically see, identify, nurture, and spread-like-wildfire everything with merit. Wait… J.K. Rowling is richer than the Queen, isn’t she?

• We identify authors and books that are going to stand out in the marketplace. HBG  discovers new voices, and separates the remarkable from the rest.

Legacy publishers purchase lottery tickets known as “authors”, and they hope they hit the jackpot. Unfortunately, they’re still rather unwilling to admit this fact.

• We act as content collaborator, focused on nurturing writing talent, fostering rich relationships with our authors, providing them with expert editorial advice on their writing, and tackling a huge variety of issues on their behalf.

Content collaborator? Editorial advice? I can (and do) get those for a flat fee, and happily so. Tackling a huge variety of issues? Like what, exactly? Probably more of that “vastly complex series of engagements” referred to earlier…

 2. Venture Capitalist: We fund the author’s writing process:

Now, this I can’t argue with-especially if you can live for a year off the paltry 4-figure advance they often offer unknowns. Some people get a good deal, but it’s much like the lottery analogy used above.

• At HBG we invest in ideas. In the form of advances, we allow authors the time and resources to research and write. In addition we invest continuously in infrastructure, tools, and partnerships that make HBG a great publisher partner.

Again, depends what you can get done for well under ten thousand, and that advance is spaced out over a year or so in small amounts, and the agent gets 15% off the top.

3. Sales and Distribution Specialist: We ensure widest possible audience:

So does Ingram’s Lightning Source (for print), Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, Barnes & Noble’s PubIt! service, and Smashwords distribution. They pay higher than 17.5%, too. Alot higher.

• We get our books to the right place, in the right numbers, and at the right time (this applies equally to print and digital editions). We work with retailers and distribution partners to ensure that every book has the opportunity to reach the widest possible readership.

Unless you decide otherwise, right? Once the ink dries, you can put a book out of print at will. You can even refuse to actually do print runs altogether.

• We ensure broad distribution and master supply chain complexity, in both digital and physical formats.

I’ve found out how to do distribution, too.

• We function as a new market pioneer, exploring and experimenting with new ideas in every area of our business and investing in those new ideas – even if, in some cases, a positive outcome is not guaranteed (as with apps and enhanced ebooks).

So, you’re an “idea man”? I thought the authors wrote the books and came up with the ideas. Looks like other ideas-oh, let’s say eReaders, online bookstores, new retail channels, faster to-market technologies, and etc.-got picked up by the real idea folks. Wouldn’t it be more accurate to say, “We’re lottery specialists” ?

• We act as a price and promotion specialist (coordinating 250+ monthly, weekly and daily deals on ebooks at all accounts).

You’ve learned how to promote a sale? Cut it with all the jargon.

4. Brand Builder and Copyright Watchdog: We build author brands and protect their intellectual property:

Copyrights cost $35, and I’d be interested to see this watchdog group described above. Are they like the CIA, all around-the-clock surveillance and everything? Didn’t think so. And I find that you didn’t actually list a way of how you “watchdog”, either:

• Publishers generate and spread excitement, always looking for new ways make our authors and their books stand out.  We’re able to connect books with readers in a meaningful way.

Sure, and that’s probably the only benefit as an author–and only if you’re lucky enough to be selected for a decent promotional budget. Best of luck!

• We offer marketing and publicity expertise, presenting a book to the marketplace in exactly the right way, and ensuring that intelligence, creativity, and business acumen inform our strategy.

Hmmm… again, if you’re lucky enough to get a decent promotion budget.

• We protect authors’ intellectual property through strict anti-piracy measures and territorial controls.

Ah, DRM-the one thing that most readers hate more than a terrible book. And territorial controls? As thin as the paper they’re signed on. Tell me, dear Hatchett, will you go to Russia and personally arrest the pirates distributing the books across the remnants of the Golden Khanate? No? Didn’t think so. Territorial controls work in countries that respect/have time to enforce such things, and those countries will work with anyone when rights are infringed. In other words, you go through the same process as everybody else when rights are violated.

I don’t hate Hatchett or the other big publishers. I just hate when they do things like this, try to muster up validation where none exists. Yes, they produce good products, and they have good authors in their stables; however, they will never convince me that an eBook should be priced the same as the hardcover or that authors–the ones who create the products they sell–deserve the lowest share of the return on each sale.

 Until next time.

What do I want for my birthday? Well, if you’re here reading this, you’ve likely already given it: your support. Even though I’d love to hear more from you guys who visit, I know there are lurkers out there who come by regularly and read the posts, check out the books, and enjoy the works. So, my birthday present has already been fulfilled in the form of the readers who’ve enjoyed my writing and supported the effort.

So, tomorrow, November, 30th, 2011, I’ll be taking a day off. Worry not, though; I’ll be back to work on December 1st, and I should have some very exciting things to announce. Thanks for everything!

PDF format: A World Forsaken, Part I of II
MOBI format (for Kindle): A World Forsaken, Part I of II
EPUB format (for most eReaders): A World Forsaken, Part I of II
LRF format (for some older Sony eReaders): A World Forsaken, Part I of II
PDB format (for some Palm devices): A World Forsaken, Part I of II

This is the first half of the last book (book #4) of The Survivor Chronicles, a zombie apocalypse series.

I went ahead and formatted them for devices in the most basic way to go ahead and get them out. As always, these are my free stories and haven’t been run through my editor. So, love ‘em or leave ‘em.

That being said, the sorcerer Laedron Telpist.

The sixteen-year-old son of Filadrena and Wardrick Telpist, Laedron’s life becomes complicated early on in The Circle of Sorcerers. He’s faced with a choice: Morcaine or Westmarch. The prestigious magic academy of the capital city, Morcaine, has a mystical lure about it, and it’s far more popular than any other consideration in his homeland of Sorbia. In fact, very little has ever been heard of Madam Ismerelda of Westmarch, and the last thing on Laedron’s mind is spending day after day alone with some strange sorceress. Ismerelda, you see, offers only private tutelage, and she accepts only one student at a time.

Matters are further complicated when he finds out he actually had no choice to begin with; the decision has already been made for him, and he must accept. Though angry over the way this was decided, he must be trained, both out of tradition and for his own want to be a sorcerer. What should have been the most exciting time of his life is transformed into a dangerous, foreboding thing when Ismerelda’s message is received early. “…Send the boy to me.”

Laedron soon finds that he will be tested in more than simple spellcraft and incantations-the Heraldan church would like nothing more than to see his blood pooled on the ground beneath his lifeless body.

That’s all for today! Since The Circle of Sorcerers is so new, I don’t want to spoil anything. We’ll explore Laedron and many other characters in due time. I hope to have one of these at least once a week if not more often, but time (and the demands of The Consuls of the Vicariate) will dictate that.

Excited!

The title of the blog made me grin ever so slightly, and it’s okay if you do, too. I’m sure I’ll have to tackle a similar question with my now-18-month-old daughter (and any future children we decide to have). I digress.

The Revelation virus from the books is a fictional super virus unleashed by the terrorists over the eastern US and Europe. The zombies created from the virus are relentless, flesh-eating monsters who are mere shadows of their former selves. Though they have the same appearance, they are clearly much different from the people who once occupied their mortal shells.

I’ve speculated sometimes on whether or not I will include the true source of Revelation in the series or not. Will I ever answer “where do the zombies come from” in the sense of who created the original virus? I can’t be sure, but I know it likely won’t be contained in A World Forsaken, the supposed final title in the zombie apocalypse series. Why? Because it’s not fitting for the story; the survivors really don’t have a chance or opportunity to explore these questions, and it would take some outlandish plot device to interject it into the book, anyway.

Some readers have become unhappy that book #4 is listed as the last in the series. Well, I can tell you there is still a chance for a fifth installment, but not right now. I have several other stories which need to be told, which need to see the light of day. One of those stories, The Circle of Sorcerers, is such a book, and that one should be out before the end of the month.

As to when A World Forsaken will be released, it won’t be too terribly long. Maybe not October, but I expect it should be done before the end of November (writing, editing, proofing, and releasing). It’s almost fitting that way because, if you don’t remember, we began this journey in November, 2010, and this would mark a full year since the release of the first book.

In addition, I feel that A World Forsaken is some of my strongest writing and storytelling to date. I’ve learned a lot through the editing process with a professional editor, and I see my flaws as I write and re-read what I’ve written. Anyhow, that’s all for today. I’m going to have some dinner and jump back into writing A World Forsaken. Nadene has some interesting choices to make in this segment.

Formerly known as KindleProcessor, the tool has changed names and been made free to use. Since you can use this tool to format really any kind of manuscript into HTML format and upload it to PubIt! or Kindle Direct Publishing, I decided a more generic name would be better. Oh, and people like “free”, too. So, it’s free now.

Enjoy. It’s currently in the beta stage, but it’s stable. If you find any weirdness or bugs, let me know so I can fix them.

Anyhow, on Squidoo, I’m writing author help articles, so why not check them out? Here’s a list of Brian Kittrell’s lenses on Squidoo.

Hopefully, I can get the fantasy book finished and get back to the zombies in A World Forsaken quickly. Good stories take time, and I’m trying to make this last book of The Survivor Chronicles something that you can sink your teeth into.

I hope you enjoy the videos.

Part 1:

Part 2:

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