The Adventures of an Independent Author

The Latest Review

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 09:23:24 PDT

Well, I'm back from summer vacation, which went on much longer than anticipated, and provided a much needed respite. How I got along so many years without a summer break I can't imagine. Now it's time to get back down to work.

But first... this just in. The Historical Novel Society has just posted their review of The Saga of Beowulf, and so I pass it along here to you. I may have missed a few reviews while I was gone, but this is one I had been looking forward to with some anticipation, as I expended a fair amount of effort working out the historical aspects of the story. While Beowulf must be considered a fantasy through and through, still it is set in a real time and place, and does include several historical personages and datable events. I made no effort to gloss over the fantasy, but likewise I didn't shy away from reality either.

The Historical Novel Society
Book Review by Steve Donoghue
In The Saga of Beowulf, R. Scot Johns tackles a story as old as English literature itself: the saga of the Geatish strongman Beowulf and his many adventures—especially his battle with Grendel, the monster terrorizing Heorot, the great hall of the Danish King Hrothgar. Many others have dramatically shaped this material, from the Beowulf poet himself to John Gardner in his 1971 novel Grendel to director Robert Zemeckis in his 2007 special effects extravaganza, and even in such varied and powerful company, Johns acquits himself well.
His big, engrossing novel is Beowulf’s story from beginning to end, thickly populated with engaging characters, from warrior-women to evil kings (foremost of which is Hygelac, King of the Geats and Beowulf’s uncle, who’s here presented as a great snarling, monk-skewering bad guy) to Beowulf and his valiant men, seeking glory and a bit of international diplomacy by standing guard to face the monster haunting Heorot.
Johns is in great earnest while telling his epic story, and he’s done an impressive amount of research into 6th-century Scandinavia, but even above these things, the saving grace of his book is its sly sense of humor, which hums along in the background of virtually every scene, such as when he identifies some bad guys: “For these were Stone-Trolls of the highland hills that ate great bowls of rocks for breakfast—when they couldn’t get a decent fill of human flesh (which was not often enough these days to their way of thinking).” In this Johns remembers what many previous dramatizers have forgotten: if the saga of Beowulf hadn’t been just plain entertaining, it wouldn’t have survived all these centuries.
That dramatic legacy is in good hands with Johns. The Saga of Beowulf is highly recommended.

Sales continue to trickle in at a slow, but steady pace, which is nice and quite surprising, considering I've done no promotion on the novel now for over four months. Reviews such as this have helped a lot in that respect, since it will likely bring in at least a few new readers and help to spread the word. Book promotion, as it turns out, is a slow and steady build over a lengthy course of time. Like melting snow that starts as just a single droplet sparkling in the dawning sun, yet one day will help to carve a path through rocky canyons to become one with the ocean, so every word from each new reader to another functions as a tributary of that mighty river. And so I thank you all.

Gone Fishin'

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sun, 31 May 2009 10:16:29 PDT

I'll be gone for the next few weeks on a much-needed (and, I believe, well deserved) vacation. The past year has been a long and demanding one, and the creative juices are in dire need of recharging. I have three months off from work for summer, so before I dive head-first and get too deep into my next project I thought now would be a good time to take a break and just relax.

Not all R&R, however, as I'll be doing "research" for a travel guide I plan to write...

The Saga of Hrolf Kraki

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Mon, 25 May 2009 17:18:42 PDT

The Saga of Hrólf Kraki is a 13th century Icelandic tale which bears remarkable similarities to Beowulf at many points. Like its forbear, Hrólf's saga is tale of tragedy and strife set in the Danish royal hall, and is, in fact, the source for the location of Heorot at Lejre, a pivotal bit of information not given in Beowulf.

It was due to the mention of Hleidargard that excavations were begun at Lejre on the isle of Zealand in the 1940's, with the remains of an enormous Viking-era great hall discovered there in 1986. The largest hall found thus far in all of Scandinavia, it measured 142 feet in length by 38 feet wide, covering an area of roughly 5400 square feet - a mansion even by today's affluent standards.

More importantly, the saga provides corroboration and/or clarification of many details in Beowulf that might at best remain sketchy otherwise. For example, it is here we find the name of Yrsa, Onela's wife, and hear the story of her incestuous relationship with Halga, her own brother (on which I drew heavily for my own novel). In addition, the characters of Hrothgar, Halga, and Healfdene appear as members of the Skjöldung clan (the Danish Scyldings of Beowulf), along with the Heathobard king Froda (whose story we get much of here) and the young Eadgils as the king of Swedes. Their names appear here in their Icelandic form, so that one might not at first make the connection that Hrólf himself is the Hrothulf of Beowulf. Here their stories are as different as they are like those of Beowulf, bearing witness to the changes that take place in oral tradition over time, and much debate has since ensued as to their common thread, and how and where and when the stories came to be.

But Hrólf's Saga was written down in Iceland some three hundred years after Beowulf was committed to parchment around the year 1000. Scholars date the Icelandic variation from between 1230 to 1450, but their common roots go back much further. At present there are 44 existing manuscripts, with the earliest extant copy dating from the 17th century, although there are records of a copy housed at the monastery of Möðruvellir in Iceland as early as 1461.

Was the tale of Beowulf transmitted down the years from mouth to ear until three hundred years had passed and it was written down at last a thousand miles across the sea?

For a more detailed comparison see Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki at Wikipedia, or pick up a copy of the Penguin Classics edition, which has thorough notes.

DOWNLOAD "THE SAGA OF HROLF KRAKI" HERE FOR FREE!

Summer's Here At Last!

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:28:56 PDT

Having survived (barely) another year of work delivering hefty stacks books to schools across the state, I'm more than ready for a lengthy break. I honestly don't think that I could do this job year-round - and fortunately for me, I don't. So now I'm at the start of a three month break and preparing to get back to the work I truly love.

And just what will that be? You'll just have to wait and see.

This past few days I've been relaxing, resting up and recuperating while finishing off a few books I've been reading lately. Unfortunately neither of them merit a full review in my opinion, although of the two, Dean Koontz's Frankenstein, Book One: Prodigal Son was well written and intriguing. I just got bored before the end and can't imagine wading through two more books to find out how it all turns out. But I thoroughly enjoyed Koontz's writing style, and particularly his wit. However, it dragged on for way too long with nothing really happening in terms of plot or character development.

As for the other, Stephen Lawhead's Song of Albion, Book I: The Paradise War, I finally gave up three chapters from the end, as I no longer even cared what happened to the pathetic characters he populates this inane excuse for mythology with. Written in first person, I immediately disliked his whining protagonist from the start, and nothing he said or did throughout the remainder changed my mind. This book shows exactly why I despise contemporary fantasy fiction, which tends to ramble with little purpose to no end with characters who rarely change in any meaningful way.

Still, I keep hoping to find that rare gem among the shale and detrius. But there's a reason why the classics have achieved their revered status, and Lawhead's mess is proof of it.

More Beowulf Text Downloads

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sun, 17 May 2009 15:12:26 PDT

Today I added the text of Beowulf in the original Old English to the download page, for anyone truly interested in delving into it. I've had several queries lately from readers wanting to see more of the Old English text, and while I don't have space here to present and analyze the entire work, I can at least provide the text for those who want it.

Along with the manuscript transcription I've uploaded a useful resource for further study of the history of Beowulf scholarship and criticism, which is C. B. Tinker's 1902 Yale dissertation on the translations that had been done up to that time. As this covers most of those now in the public domain, and a great many of the more important works, this is a highly worthwhile reference on the subject.

Reading it will tell you almost all you want to know about how Beowulf came to be in its present form - from its obscure place on the shelves of Robert Cotton's library to the honored place it now holds in the British Museum. It will also get you well on your way to understanding the content of the poem, and the many difficulties it presents due to its damaged state. However, a study of the actual manuscript it crucial to a full appreciation of this masterpiece of epic poetry.

BEOWULF DOWNLOAD PAGE

Free Download: Beowulf Translations

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sun, 17 May 2009 08:52:23 PDT

Beowulf is the oldest work of literature in the English language. There are a handful of shorter poems which are actually earlier, for the most part consisting of religious homilies and translations of Biblical passages, as well as a scattering of financial records and the like, but Beowulf is the first significant work of epic literature written in what had by then become the English language (unrecognizable though it may be to modern English speakers).

It also has the distinction of being complete (or nearly so), whereas several clearly earlier works exist in fragments. For example, The Fight at Finnsburg, which itself is told in part within the Beowulf poem, and so must be older, is extant in only a single folio of some fifty lines, and that as a transcript dating from 1705: the original has since been lost.

The single existing Beowulf manuscript itself was nearly lost due to a fire which destroyed much of the Ashburnham House library in which it was residing during the year 1731. The manuscript was damaged both by fire and by water, as well as smoke and age; the edges of many pages have shrunk and crumbled from the heat, resulting in the loss of many individual letters. Since then the manuscript has been preserved and digitized, and much of the text restored through ultraviolet and fiber-optic photography, though many hundreds of letters are forever lost.

In 1995 professor Kevin Kiernan created The Electronic Beowulf Project, a comprehensive interactive cd-rom edition of the Beowulf manuscript, which I purchased for my book research at a cost of around $300. The cd-rom includes not only the manuscript plates along with infrared and x-ray photos of all the damaged portions, but all of the early transcripts of the poem as well, which provide much useful information on the text, as the earliest of these were written down before the manuscript had fully deteriorated, and one short section even before the fire.

The manuscript itself has been dated to the reign of Canute the Great, Viking king of England, Denmark, and Norway, who died in 1035. The poem was very likely composed (or at least written down at this time) to please these Viking overlords of England, who were then at the height of their power. Indeed, it begins with a call to remember the heroic deeds of the ancient Danes, and how they achieved great fame in former days.

The events detailed in the story of Beowulf are both historical and legendary, set in a time some five hundred years before its composition. Much like the tales of King Arthur or Robin Hood, where a grain of truth is obscured by superhuman feats and mythological beings, the young Norse warrior Beowulf undertakes an epic quest to defeat a marauding ogre that is ravaging the Danish realm. Although there is no historic evidence for Beowulf's existence, many of the supporting characters show up in early chronicles and sagas from France to Iceland, or are associated with burial sites in Sweden and the Rhine.

It would be futile to undertake a comprehensive analysis of Beowulf in such a short space as this, but as the founding work of English literature there could be few works more worthy of that status. As difficult as it may be to read, even in translation, it is well worth the effort to any lover of heroic adventure or epic fantasy. Many modern works in the fantasy genre owe their inspiration to Beowulf, from The Lord of the Rings to Star Trek's Klingons.

Because it's poetry, with Beowulf translations it's really a matter of personal preference as much as anything. Some are better than others, with some being stronger in one area than another, due to the choices each translator is forced to make. While one will adhere as strictly as possible to a literal translation at the expense of form, another will focus on alliteration or metre and take great liberties with content. Few achieve both, and that does not begin to address the academic debates each line and word has undergone throughout the past two hundred years. Short of learning Old English and reading the original as written, my advice is to read as many translations as you can, and there are by now no shortage of them to chose from.

I will continue to add editions to the page linked below as I find time (I will post notices of updates here). To start with there are three: those by Leslie Hall (1892), William Morris & A. J. Wyatt (1895), and Francis Gummere (1910). Of these, the easiest to read (and most popular) is Gummere's, while the other two tend to use a great deal of archaic language which is now rather outdated.

DOWNLOAD BEOWULF TRANSLATIONS HERE

New Feature: Classic Book Downloads

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sat, 16 May 2009 13:48:58 PDT

Today I'll be adding a new section to the Fantasy Castle Books website, which will also be tied in to a series of book reviews I'll be posting here. These will be reviews of classic works of literature, and each will feature links to download the book for free in several formats (both here and on the website), including e-Reader, Microsoft Reader, and reformatted standard text files.

I'm doing this for several reasons. One is that I read a lot of classics, but the free ebook files I tend to find on sites like Project Gutenberg or The Online Books Page are either poorly edited or in a generic text format that doesn't allow for such basic e-reader features as bookmarks or annotations, which I use a lot. And while Gutenberg is a fabulous repository of our literary history and culture, their text files often have quirky issues, such as hard return line breaks that don't allow for wrapping smoothly to my iPaq's window, or tabs that push the text too far to the right, and consequently I end up reformatting all their files as I read. Once I've done this I turn them into Reader files so that next time I can read them more comfortably. It occurred to me that I should maybe share these files so that other readers might benefit.

My other motivation for doing this is entirely self-serving, and has to do with my efforts in marketing my own work. One of reasons I've started doing book reviews on this blog is to increase the number of potential keywords readers might search for when they're looking for new books to read. And since my own name isn't well known yet, getting the names of other authors and their works inserted on my site will hopefully bring new readers who might like what they find. Even if they don't buy my book, the added traffic will increase my page rank and make it easier for other readers to find me.

But since I don't read a lot of contemporary fiction, preferring the works that have withstood the test of time, the number of reviews of new books I can offer here is minimal at best. I just don't find most modern authors have the skill in handling character and narrative as do the masters. I can re-read Homer endlessly, but it's all that I can do to get through a Cussler or a Clancy novel even once. After all, entire academic careers are spent on studying the Shakespeare canon, or even just the tragedies. But what modern author could fill even a single semester course? Perhaps Asimov or Orwell, but there again we're getting into classics territory.

I'll continue to do reviews of modern works I read as I see fit, but for the most part I plan to focus on the history of several genres, such as fantasy and science fiction (from the likes of Morris and MacDonald in fantasy, or Verne and Wells in sci-fi), as well as those that fall into the realm of folklore and mythology (such as the tales of Robin Hood and the Arthurian tradition, both of which I have researched extensively, and in the case of King Arthur, even done a public lecture on the subject). My intention is to provide something of a historical retrospective of these genres, with the texts and all the relevant background data provided for your perusal and enjoyment.

Book Review: Sarum by Edward Rutherford

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:08:34 PDT

Edward Rutherford began his novel writing career with this epic 900 page tome that spans ten thousand years in the history of the famous Salisbury plain, most notably the home of Stonehenge, and more recently (that is, circa 1258 A.D.) the towering Anglican cathedral of Saint Mary (commonly known as Salisbury Cathedral), which hosts the world's oldest working clock, one of only four existing copies of the Magna Carta, and the U.K.'s tallest spire (at 404 feet).

Born in Salisbury himself (the modern equivalent of the old word Sarum), Rutherford has an obvious love and affinity for the region which shows in this massive work. I had read this once before, back in 1987 when it first appeared, and recalled its highs and lows only vaguely when I took it up again last month.

Following in the footsteps of James Michener, Rutherford's plan is epic in scope: to tell the history of a single region from its earliest days to the present. He does this in two ways, using two methods which would provide the template for his future work. First, he creates a half dozen fictional families who he then follows throughout the ages as they interact and react to the major events and people of the past. Each of these family lines have specific traits and genetic characteristics, as well as social standing, both of which seem equally difficult to overcome, so that, for example, the long-toed and stubby fingered rivermen of 10,000 B.C. tend to be relegated to subservient positions and even slavery throughout their many generations, yet always prove exceptional craftsmen and waterfolk along the way.

The second, and less successful, method Rutherford employs is a continual jumping through time from one significant event to the next. This is understandable from a practical point of view, as obviously two covers could never contain a continuous narrative spanning such a length of time. Yet it proves jarring at every turn, rendering the novel more an anthology of short stories than one cohesive narrative. This is more an issue in the earlier stages of the book, as the temporal shifts grow consecutively shorter with each leap, so that where many hundreds of years are simply discarded between the construction of Stonehenge and the subsequent coming of the Romans, by the time of the Black Death and the War of the Roses it is very nearly a continuous timeline. Indeed, the last chapters, covering the years from the Reformation through World War II and beyond - a span of some 300 years - takes up as many pages as do all those that lead up to the conquest of the Normans in the 11th century.

This proves difficult to overcome at several points, in that many of the events themselves are not interesting enough to draw the story on, and as the characters are new at every section, their stories are often short and shallow. The seemingly endless conquests, for example, grow quickly tedious, and pale by comparison to the fascinating drama surrounding the construction of Stonehenge. Not until the building of Salisbury Cathedral does the intensity pick up again. From then on it's engrossing reading, with the drama building as events become more and more familiar and relevant. This is a problem I often encounter, both in historical fiction and non-fiction accounts of ancient events. For one thing, there is simply less known about such far flung times. But it's also true that the more distant events are in time from us, the harder they are to empathize with. Consequently, the relative weighting of Rutherford's chronology is not so different from that which is found in virtually every collegiate "Intro to Western Civilization" textbook.

All in all, Sarum is a truly astounding work, both in the scope and breadth of its subject, as well as in the way it makes actual history a fascinating tale. After all, human history is the greatest story ever told.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Book Review: The Historian, by Elizabeth Kostova

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:00:08 PDT

I've never understood the fascination with vampires. Or rather, I should say I think I understand it, but I just don't share it.

The fixation comes, I would propose, from two things: the Gothic love of blood and death (that seemingly innate appeal that brings a host of skulls and ghosts to every store at Halloween), and the human yearning for immortality. It is these elements which have rendered the vampire such a potent figure of folklore through the years, and all the more so as our world grows less mysterious and such creatures consequently more mythic.

Fortunately for me, Kostova made no attempt to romanticize the undead as in Twilight, or every book by Ann Rice, save in the single figure of Vlad Ţepeş, the Impaler - commonly known as Count Dracula - and then only to a minor degree, as a lover of learning. What historian wouldn't want such a library, after all, and all eternity to study? Still, this plays only a very small part in the larger narrative, although the author's own love of books and manuscripts is obvious throughout.

As a work of historical fiction this novel succeeds to a large extent (even though Vlad the Impaler is the only historical personage in the entire book), if only on the extent of background information imparted by the author. Clearly a great deal of research went into it, and Kostova claims to have spent ten years completing it, inspired by stories of Dracula her father told her as a child while living in Slovenia. Consequently, she is ideally suited to write this story. However, as a work of suspense and horror it failed completely to convince me. This is in great part due to the fact that there is very little action or suspense throughout its nearly one thousand pages, and what there is is interspersed between lengthy dissertations as the characters sit reading in one library or another. I also detest first person narratives, as innately shallow and limited in scope. That said, the prose is well written, and the content interesting enough to keep me reading.

One final note, however, is that I found the ending wholly unsatisfying, as one of those too easy culminations which leave you wondering why someone didn't just do that five hundred pages ago if that's all it took. It's like the building crescendo of a drum roll that ends with a rim shot.

What brought me to read this monstrosity was not its subject, or my general interest in historical fiction (which it really is only marginally), but the fact that it was a debut work of fiction which fetched a price of two million bucks and a marketing campaign of another half a million, which of course resulted in an astounding amount of copies sold. How a book this long and tedious got the interest of an agent, let alone a publisher is beyond me, but it just goes to show that miracles can still happen in this day and age.

Rating: 3 out of 5

(More) Thoughts on Self-Publishing

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:01:39 PDT

I've been giving a lot of thought lately to the arguments and obstacles involved with publishing your own work. Having undergone the equivalent of self-publishing boot camp for the past half year I felt it was time to stop and re-evaluate what I have done, and reflect on what I've learned.

The foremost factor is that publishing yourself is an enormous amount of work, and frankly I'm exhausted from it. I've spent the past few weeks wandering around the house in something of a muddled haze, attempting to regain some sense of perspective on the issue. I often do this when I'm formulating writing ideas. I put on some mellow music and sit staring out the window at the clouds for hours, waiting for the clarity to come. Sometimes it does. Sometimes not. Just as with clouds, sometimes you get brilliant beams of light, and sometimes you get rain.

The fact is that first and foremost I'm a writer. Authors write because they enjoy it, because they have a story they need or want to tell, or simply because they're good with words (but hopefully all three). The greatest single lesson I've learned over the past six months is that authors also have to be first-rate salesmen. I think this is the better part of why most writers prefer to turn their work over someone else once it's done. It's just easier to let a big publishing house take on all the work of getting a book to market - even if it's still up to the author to promote it. This is, of course, why the publisher takes the majority of the profits as well.

And although I've met with some success with my first novel, I had begun to wonder if that trade-off wasn't worth the cost. The truth is that I would much rather have spent the past six months working on another book, instead of making promo videos and managing an ad campaign. The second greatest lesson, then, is that self-publishing - for all the talk of authors using it as an easy route to seeing their work in print - is vastly harder that following the traditional path to publication. My sense is that with trade publishing persistence will eventually pay off, since its very much a numbers game, and sooner or later someone is bound to like your work - that is, so long as it's commercially viable. With self-publishing, however, it's entirely up to you to get your book out there before the readers' eyes, and up to them to determine whether it has merit. Every good review by an actual reader builds up an author's credibility, and it doesn't take a million dollar ad budget to get a good review if your work deserves it.

Still, I'd begun to wonder lately if I shouldn't resume the process of sending out queries to agents and editors, if only so that I can get my novel into brick-and-mortar stores. Because another thing I've come to see is that visibility is key to getting your book into readers' hands, and most readers like to browse the book store aisles, even if they buy their books online. I rarely buy a book at Barnes & Noble, but I still go there anyway, just to see what's on the shelf. Maybe it's the smell of all that paper. Maybe it's the neatly ordered ranks of glossy art. Maybe it's just hanging out with people I don't know, but who I know are just like me at least one significant way: we love to read. Either way, you can't deny the stimulative value of a store stocked full of the very thing you love, whether you're the buyer or the seller.

But back to the search for perspective. Ultimately I decided to make a list of the reasons why I opted for self-publishing in the first place, sort of a pros-and-cons of publishing from an independent author's point of view.

1. Self-dependence. It's the foundation of the American way of life. Ironically, while small business owners are admired and esteemed for their hard-working, independent values, self-published authors tend to be reviled and mocked as somehow failing to succeed, as if the corporate publishing model were the only one.
2. Self-control. As an independent publisher, I retain all rights and control over my work. Every aspect of its creation and production is up to me. Again, this is a two-edged sword, since it also means I have to do all the work. But as I enjoy doing it, and can, that's all the more reason why I should. Trade publishing requires turning over nearly all the decisions - creative or otherwise - to businessmen. Some of these they may be better suited to deal with than I, but certainly not all, and particularly with regard to the artistic choices which drew me to writing in the first place. Those I won't give up for any money. And speaking of money...
3. Higher profit margin. With literally hundreds - if not thousands - of middlemen inserted between the author and the reader throughout the traditional publication process, each of whom are paid or take a cut, there is very little left out of the final retail price for the author of the book. Standard royalties hover around 4-7% (with 14% begin about the upper end the biggest authors can expect), and the majority of books never earn out their royalty at all, meaning that authors tend to live from one advance to the next and never see another dime, since the book will likely be out of print within a year, and in the bookstore for even less. In contrast, I keep every penny my book brings in, and I decide how many pennies that will be.
4. Quicker publication time. Once you finish writing your masterpiece you want to see it into print as soon as possible, if not right away. But first you have to find an agent, and to do that you have to write up queries and send submissions, a process that at best will take many months, and more likely several years, and may never meet with success at all. Then, once you acquire an agent, they'll start the process all over with the publishers. Again, this will take many months at best, and could go on for years, and again result in nothing. But if it does, and you achieve that lofty goal and sign a trade contract, another year to eighteen months will pass before you see your book in print. Then, two years after you finished writing it (and hopefully have two more done by then) you go back mentally several years to where you were when it was first completed, and talk it up to anyone you can. Meanwhile, your mind is now entirely on another project which you will, of course, gladly interrupt or abandon at this point. After this, of course, the road will hopefully get easier, and the cycle of writing and publishing will more closely coincide. But that will only happen if your first book is a significant success. Otherwise, you'll have to undergo the process all over with the next one, because your agent may or may not deign to continue their association, and the publisher will be far less interested in losing money on you yet again. None of this, of course, applies to self-published authors, who can see their book in print within a month, and spend their time promoting it as they see fit before they move on to the next project, which has just as much chance as the one before.
5. Pride of ownership. Self-publishers are often derided as being driven by vanity. Firstly I would say that having struggled and succeeded in producing a finished novel they have every right to be proud of what they've achieved. Do onlookers mock the marathon runner who comes in last? Just to have finished is something. But I would also say that the very concept that drives the thought of self-publishing as somehow inferior is itself driven by vanity. After all, the motivation behind an author's claim to being published by "X" major trade is a statement of pride. It is my contention that half the reason authors want a contract with a trade publisher is so that they can boast about it to their friends. And more power to them. But self-publishing is about engaging readers, not editors. Which brings me to my next point...
6. Even if you get a major trade contract it doesn't mean you'll sell a single book, or in fact that your book is any good. It only means one reader thought it commercially viable, which is not the same thing at all. More and more these days commercial success equates to mediocre: easy enough for anyone to read and comprehend, and falling within a fairly narrow range of subjects for which the largest number of people show some interest, such as murder, suspense, and romance. Broad, general, vague. Which doesn't mean it isn't good. But unless it fits in this commercial niche it probably won't be published by the trades. And if it is it won't get a nickel for marketing. Which bring me to my most important point...
7. You still have to sell the book yourself. Unless you've got a fluke on your hands that will somehow beat the odds to become that one-in-a-trillion bestseller that somehow goes viral - which you can never plan or prepare for, let alone count on - you're going to have to get out there and peddle your wares yourself. The bigger platform you have the easier this will be, and the more success you're likely to have, but the vast majority of us just have to find a way to get our book into the reader's hands, and then keep at it. Therefore, the more venues an author can find to get their work in front of readers the better chance they'll have.

Now, this last is also an argument for approaching the major trades, since they potentially provide a lot of outlets - but you have to weigh that against all the other points just given. Is giving up control and profits worth getting a publisher imprint on the jacket spine? Will this get you any more exposure than you might get yourself? The truth is probably not. All a trade contract will get you is a listing in the quarterly catalogue (probably at the very back) and a little bit of clout when you go out to press the case yourself. The publisher might be able to get your book into B&N for three months, but it's up to you to keep it there.

The whole point is that either way it's a gamble and a lot of work. But with trade publishing the process is dependent on a lot of factors the author has no control over, and reliant on a lot of other people to get it done. This may be a good thing, depending on your outlook and your abilities. Frankly, I'd rather have a batch of lackeys do the grunt work for me. But I'm not Tom Clancy, nor will I ever be. The fact is that I prefer to do things myself, and always have. Sometimes there's a steep learning curve involved, and this is one of them. After pondering the matter, however, I'm more driven to continue than before.

The Hunt For Gollum

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:53:02 PDT

As I was out of town yesterday - away south on a secret expedition (more on that later...) - I was unable to watch The Hunt For Gollum at the very second it came out as I had planned (actually I probably could have - it's only forty minutes long, but I was preoccupied with making preparations for my excursion, and got back very late). Today I was up and on the road by six, round trip to Sun Valley and back for my book delivery route, and home only now, well past dinnertime.

The very first thing I did, of course, before even taking a shower or eating more than a chunk of cheese on rye, was watch the film twice through, and then the behind-the-scenes-how-we-made-the-bloody-thing-on-next-to-nothing video, both available for streaming in widescreen HD via the official website at the link above. Given this thing was made by fans of Tolkien (and clearly of Peter Jackson, too) on a budget that wouldn't even feed a professional crew for half a standard film shoot (a little less than $6000), and yet achieved results that emulate remarkably what New Line spent a billion dollars on, I have to say I'm quite impressed.

Aside from some too-dark battle scenes and a bit of stilted dialogue, the overall result is lush and mythic, with stunning cinematography that would fit right into Jackson's trilogy, a haunting score that mirrors Howard Shore's, and most importantly a brilliant Andy Serkis imitation. Already web rips of the streaming video are showing up (although the first one I downloaded was in black and white), but I'm hoping for official VOBs for personal DVD burning, or at least an official hi-rez AVI or MP4. I'd love to watch this on a big screen, although my brand new 21" widescreen monitor looks pretty good, and with dual 5.1 surround it's plenty loud.

The film actually premiered over the weekend with a one-off theater showing in London, but don't expect to see it at your local cinema anytime soon. The project was purely non-profit, and no one on the crew got paid. For legal copyright infringement reasons this is how it likely will remain, although these folks deserve much more. Here's to the beginning of some long and illustrious careers.

Let There Be Light (At the End of the Tunnel)!

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sun, 03 May 2009 09:50:48 PDT

Just three more weeks of work to go...

It's down to crunch time, and as always things are getting crazy. During these last few weeks the days get long and the workload increases as we try to tie up all the ragged ends and make sure all the mis-delivered, misplaced, or otherwise misappropriated orders get replaced or filled with the proper items. This takes me from east to west across the state, often in a single day. I lift about two tons of books each day (not even kidding), and my poor spine is bowing like an ancient willow in the wind beneath the strain. Some days I lay down on the couch when I get home and it's just about all I can do to get back up. Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to my summer break. As difficult as writing is, it's a walk in the park compared to hefting freight all day, and I'm really looking forward to getting back to it.

The Saga of Beowulf - Best Fantasy Books Review

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:14:43 PDT

Ben over at Best Fantasy Books just posted up the review for the final review copy I sent out last month at the end of my virtual book tour. For those of you who don't remember, Ben's book review site was added as a stop on my book tour at the last minute, but due to a communication error no review copy was sent. After a bit of back and forth banter via our respective blogs, I offered to send him a free copy of the book whether or not he ever cared to review it. As he was by that time busy with other reading endeavors, Ben instead gave me the address of another reader (in New Zealand, mind you) who does reviews for him; and so I lived up to my agreement and sent the requisite copy off some four weeks ago. The following review is the result (I have silently emended several errors in the spelling of my name, but left the rest as posted).

For those of you not in the know, Beowulf is a 10th century old English poem that has been translated and adapted many times; from good text translations to terrible film adaptations. In the poem, Beowulf is a giant of a man descended of kings, yet king he is not. Because of his father’s deeds and his uncle’s jealousy he became an outcast and sent on a deadly mission that no one ever thought he would come back from. His mission was to kill the unstoppable ogre, Grendel.
R. Scot Johns’ very good version (that’s because it’s not a film) of the epic tale stays as true to the poem as possible. He starts off slow, introducing characters and a bit of history among the clans, but then Grendel is introduced and it is all on. In my own minds eye I could envision Grendel wrecking havoc, sundering the souls of men and feasting on their flesh. This is due to R. Scot’s ability to describe a scene, telling enough for you to form an image but not so much as to not let your imagination flow. I was personally amazed at the information this book presented. Turning a poem into a full blown novel is not easy and more than a little did R. Scot do when researching the tale of Beowulf. Any parts that he did change were very sensible, making it easier to read and overall added to the story well. The best change was the twist of Grendel’s father and the importance of Wiglaf.
What I liked most perhaps about the story of Beowulf is that he is human. While I was reading the book, I was always comparing Beowulf to other mythical heroes, Samson and Hercules being two that came to my mind quickly. Yet Beowulf was unto his own and I was glad they he wasn’t like them. I would not have liked to read about an all conquering hero, I like my hero’s flawed. He was young but too brash, had the strength of thirty men in his arms but unwise in the way of life.
Tempering the good with the bad I must say that a lack of a professional editor has hurt this book. From spelling mistakes, to misplaced names, to insufficient map detail has caused some annoyance while reading. A good editor should have solved these problems, but this is a learning curve fledgling authors often take (especially when low on capital).
Overall I was impressed by R. Scot’s work, more so when I visited his website http://www.fantasycastlebooks.com/ after finishing the book. The Saga of Beowulf is action packed and true to the heroic fantasy genre. I would really love to pick up some original work from R. Scot because this book only hints at his originality and the underlying ability he has for writing heroic fantasy.
Review written for Best Fantasy Books by Jon Snow, from Sleeping With Books.

A few minor notes should be pointed out here for the sake of clarity. Clearly not a movie fan, Mr. Snow does show some knowledge of the original Beowulf poem. However, the mention of "his father’s deeds and his uncle’s jealousy" refers to a plot device entirely of my own invention, not to be found within the poem itself (although extrapolated via rational inference). Conversely, the reference to the "Grendel's father" plot twist, and to Wiglaf's significance, greatly increase my respect for this reviewer.

Concerning the lack of a professional editor I can only agree with his wish for one, as well as the reason given for said editor's absence (i.e. low on capital). That said, to my knowledge there is only one instance of a misplaced name (Hrothgar for Hygelac on page 242), which was only pointed out to me recently by a friend after the book has been in print now for half a year. Kudos again to Mr. Snow for catching it, if this is, indeed, the one he meant (and if not, please inform me of the rest, that I might correct the errors). Of spelling and grammatical errors I'm aware of barely half a dozen, which is on par with most professionally published fiction these days, although each one irks me to no end, since I must assume full responsibility for them.

Regarding the map, there are two reasons for the lack of added detail. The first is that little is actually known about this time in Scandinavian history, and so the map is rather accurate in that respect. But the other is that, frankly, there really isn't much else to put in, in terms of set locations. Nearly all of the events take place in three locales, and the function of the map was first and foremost to provide an overall relationship to their physical locations in the real world. I had wanted, or at least considered, including higher detail maps for the Geatburg region, as well as a map of northwest Europe where the Frankish raid episode takes place, but ultimately decided this was unnecessary, since the Geatland scenes center almost entirely around the Trollhight mountains (seen on the map), Lake Vaenir (seen on the map), and Geatburg itself (also on the map). As for the Frankish raid, it takes up only three chapters out of thirty, and simply didn't merit it, as any map of modern Europe will provide the basic topography of the region. Still, I take serious note of the "annoyance" this has caused one reader, and will consider the matter for further editions (one solution being simply to delete the map altogether and leave the reader to use that imagination our reviewer clearly prefers).

All in all a good review, and I'm happy to have it. The reviewer seems to have enjoyed the book, and that is all an author can ever hope for.

The Saga of Beowulf - Odyssey Review

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:45:48 PDT

Kristen over at Odyssey Reviews has finally finished reading the copy of The Saga of Beowulf I sent out back on December 1st of last year, and has posted her review there. According to her bookshelf notes on Goodreads, she's been working on it for some time now, and I'd begun to fear she'd given up and couldn't force herself to finish it. But as it turns out, the delay was for an altogether different reason.

Kristen Payne, Odyssey Review
herodyssey.blogspot.com, April 23, 2009
I have now had this book FOREVER! And finally made it through all 600+ pages. Did it take me this long because it was slow or boring? Not at all! It took me that long because it was simply too big to fit in my purse.
Beowulf has long been one of my favorite stories of all time. In eighth grade we had to read the original poem in old English. Even though the language made me want to cry, I still loved the story. I have read and re-read various translations, and stylizations of the tale over the years. There is nothing more thrilling to me than following Beowulf and his men as they face the beast Grendel, then have to do battle with the Sea Witch and finally at the end of his life, to do battle with the Dragon. But in this book there is so much more to the story, so many little gaps filled in, more back story and so much more life to it.
This book, though huge and daunting to look at - is FANTASTIC. If you have ever wanted to read Beowulf, but hated the idea of ancient English verse - THIS is the book you need to read. Honest to the source material, and simple to read and comprehend without a translation key. Even if you love the tale in verse, you should still pick up a copy of this book and re-read it, the story and the character are given a whole new life. Beowulf becomes what we imagined he was between the lines of the old poem.
I have one complaint - and it should give you an idea of how much I love this book - The cover does not do it justice. This book should at least have a faux-leather cover, an epic tale like this deserves better then the 1980's Dungeons and Dragons looking cover it currently has. I highly recommend this book to everyone!
5 of 5 medallions.

Kristen is the one who mentioned to me in an earlier correspondence that she thought the cover art reminded her too much of the old D&D cartoons, and I can't argue with her there. I just happen to like that old D&D art. But I would also love to see it bound it leather, and can only hope one day it might achieve that lofty status. For now I'm more than satisfied with reviews like this, knowing there are readers who enjoy the story.

I should note that Kristen posted two other reviews as well, giving 4 stars to Homer's Iliad and only 3 to Neil Gaimon's Mirrormask. A personal note was also posted on my Goodread's page today, in which she said:

EXCELLENT job on the book - I loved it. Though I hate to do it, I donated it to a local school; I think it will get the reading it deserves there.

I'm grateful to Kristen for doing this, and hope it finds and inspires many young readers there.

Greenleaf Books Update

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 17:36:20 PDT

I had a nice chat with Matt from Greenleaf Book Group on Monday, after I had a chance to look through the promo packet he had sent me in a nice fat pdf. Greenleaf has positioned itself as a unique entity in the book industry, functioning in essence as an intermediary between small presses and independent publishers and the megalithic trade distribution network. They can take a book from inception to the retail shelves, or implement just a portion of those functions. The one thing they don't do, however, is P.R. marketing, leaving that entirely up to the author/publisher. Instead, they focus on marketing to the trades and retail outlets.

For my purposes, retail brick and mortar distribution was what I needed, since everything else is done already. As such, Greenleaf would function as a trade-focused promotion agency for my book, implementing a marketing campaign aimed at getting it into stores. They do offer a host of online promo options along with this, such as Amazon optimization and producing video trailers, but I've done most of that myself as well. They probably have a lot more know-how about things like refining a Google ad campaign than I do, but that's not a high priority for me. And, of course, they do book jacket art and layout design which would all be incorporated into an overall web presence, but again, that time has passed.

With Greenleaf the author remains an independent agent, retaining full ownership of the work, with an equivalent responsibility to promote it once it's out. They can get it into bookstores, but you still have to make it sell. In other words, you either have to act as your own P.R. agent, or hire someone else to set up your P.R. events. You would consequently be responsible for printing up your own promotional materials for said events, as well as any bookmarks, fliers, posters, and portfolios you might need or want. So essentially just where I am already, but with much more potential for sales.

However, as an independent author/publisher, you also have to produce your own books. That is, you can either utilize the print on demand mode in a manner like to what I've done, or you can pony up to get a batch of books printed and shipped to Greenleaf's warehouse, for the storage of which you pay five cents per book per month as long as they're housed there. Greenleaf claim to have good contacts in the printing industry so that they can negotiate good rates, but you still have to shovel up the funds yourself if you go that route.

And to get these services you have to pay a one-time up-front fee of $2500 to get set up in their distribution network. After that they work for 10-15% of the total gross in sales. So even though they'll only work on marketing your book as long as necessary to get it into distribution (after all, why keep hounding Barnes & Noble about a book they already stock?), they keep raking in the profits just as long as you do. Of course, being an independent, you can sever your ties with them at any time, but since I haven't looked into their specific contract terms I can't say if it's really just that easy.

The $2500 is a one time fee, so you don't have to pay it again for subsequent books, but the 10-15% is ongoing; so in this respect they function somewhat like an agent who pimps your book to retail outlets instead of to the major trade publishers themselves. In other words, for me it would be very much like hiring a secretary to make my calls and send out proposals and inquiries. $2500 and 10% probably isn't a bad price for a good secretary, especially one who comes with a fat Rolodex and knows the ropes. But I don't have the money to hire one just now, or to pay for a major P.R. campaign, so Greenleaf is out of luck.

More Tolkien News

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 16:29:31 PDT

The Tolkien Library has announced the release of The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún, a previously unreleased work by author and Oxford Anglo-Saxon professor J. R. R. Tolkien, due out May 5th on Harper Collins.

Dating from the early 1930's, prior to the publication of The Hobbit, the work is "an extensive retelling in English narrative verse" of the epic Norse tales of Sigurd the dragonslayer and the Fall of the Nibelungs, drawn both from the Old Norse Eddas and the Icelandic Völsunga Saga, being retold in Tolkien's own words rather than translated.

As with nearly all of Tolkien's posthumous publications, the book will be edited and introduced by Christopher Tolkien, and will also feature an essay on Norse literature taken from professor Tolkien's lectures. You can read the full text of Christopher Tolkien's introduction here, where you will also find a couple of promotional videos for the book's release. However, bear in mind that unlike 2007's release of The Children of Húrin, this is not an original story of Tolkien's, nor is it in prose. Rather, it will be much akin to reading Beowulf in direct translation, and so will likely appeal only to students of Norse mythology and literature, and true diehard Tolkien fans (since Tolkien drew much of his inspiration, and even many of his character names, from these Old Norse tales).

Unlike the discovery of Tolkien's Beowulf translation and commentaries (consisting of two thousand hand-written pages), this work seems to have been kept rather quiet until the preparation for its release was assured. For some undisclosed reason (which, try though I might, I cannot ascertain), the Tolkien Estate decided to shelve the Beowulf manuscript some two years after its release was announced back in 2003, much to my chagrin (which I'm certain bothered them not at all). During my campaign to foist my Beowulf screenplay on Hollywood around that time, I actually used the pending release of Tolkien's translation as a motivation to make my movie. Sadly, neither the film nor the translation were forthcoming.

The Hobbit Movie Update

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:12:05 PDT

Over at Empire online a new exclusive scoop has been posted this weekend, taken from the upcoming 20th anniversary edition, guest-edited by Steven Spielberg. It features a snippet from an interview with producer/directors Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro on the nature of the soon-to-be-filmed duo of movies for J.R.R. Tolkien's classic book The Hobbit, and reveals a change in direction for the content of the two films. Here is the post in full:

We’ve known for a while that Peter Jackson and Guillermo Del Toro’s eagerly-awaited adaptation of the Lord Of The Rings prequel, The Hobbit, would comprise two movies, due in December 2011 and 2012. But the make-up of those two movies has been up for debate… until now.

We spoke exclusively to both Del Toro and Jackson for our birthday issue, and they told us the latest, which is…

“We’ve decided to have The Hobbit span the two movies, including the White Council and the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur,” says Del Toro.
“We decided it would be a mistake to try to cram everything into one movie,” adds Jackson. “The essential brief was to do The Hobbit, and it allows us to make The Hobbit in a little more [the] style, if you like, of the [LOTR] trilogy.”
So there you go. The second film will not, as had previously been suggested, [be] a film that will bridge the 60-year gap between The Hobbit and the start of Fellowship Of The Ring.

This means that the first part of the two Hobbit films, due out in two years, will end part-way through the book; probably, I would hazard to guess, around the captivity of the Dwarves in the Wood-elves' dungeon, a good spot for a cliffhanger if ever there was one. But if they now also incorporate the comings and goings of Gandalf to Dol Guldur (where he gets the Lonely Mountain map and key from Thorin's father Thrain), as well as the meeting of the White Council and the subsequent first defeat of Sauron, it's difficult to say how this will change the pacing.

Personally, this is welcome news. I, like many other Tolkien fans, have wondered how an entirely new third story could be concocted from the hints and snippets given concerning the events between the two published books. My guess is that the screenwriters were unable to do so, since there is really no cohesive story arc to this section, at least not with a compelling plot that could stand on its own as a feature film without wholesale invention beyond the scope of Tolkien's own writing. But incorporating some of those events into the plot of The Hobbit will make that story even stronger. To see the Dark Lord Sauron in his human form as he battles with the Wizards of the White Council, and Saruman before his fall while he was still their leader, and the babbling madness of Thrain as he hands the map to Gandalf...these are all elements that will give more force to Bilbo's expedition with the Dwarves, culminating in the wrath of Smaug and the Battle of Five Armies. I can hardly wait!

Little news has been forthcoming thus far this year concerning the fate of the two films since the MTV article back in January, where it was said the artistic visualization by John Howe and Alan Lee (among others at WETA) was "a good third" done. Last month actor Ralph Moeller said in an interview on the German site Presseportal (in German) that he had been approached to play a role in The Hobbit films as a "wolfman" (probably meaning Beorn), but had not signed yet.

And, in an interview with Total Film back in February, actor Viggo Mortensen addressed speculation as to whether he would reprise his role as Aragorn should the opportunity arise (the rumors at the time being that the second film would feature the search for Gollum by Aragorn and Gandalf after the events of The Hobbit proper in the first), in which he said he would certainly prefer to do the role himself, for the sake of continuity if nothing else, rather than see it given to someone else. But it was clear he had not yet been given such an offer. Del Toro has said himself that he would like to bring back as many of the original Lord of the Rings actors as he can, if there is an appropriate part for them. The casting of Bilbo, of course, is hotly anticipated, as actor Ian Holm is sadly too old to play the younger Baggins.

And, by the way, for those of you who do not know, there will be a film featuring the search for Gollum, regardless of whether Del Toro and Jackson do it as well (now highly unlikely), and that is The Hunt For Gollum, a 40-minute independent film due to be released May 3rd to the internet. The brand new second trailer for the project was just posted Thursday on their official site (which I recommend you visit), but you can watch it right here. Enjoy!

Trailer 2 - The Hunt For Gollum
by HuntForGollum

Radio Interview Cancelled

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 09:09:57 PDT

For those of you who tuned in to Storyheart's BlogTalkRadio program "A Book and a Chat" this morning, expecting to hear my latest interview, you might have been as surprised as I to find that someone else had usurped that role. For no apparent reason, and with no advance notice, the show's host simply scheduled someone else to take my place.

As you can see by the url (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/Across-the-Pond/2009/04/18/A-BOOK-AND-A-CHAT-with-R-Scott-Johns) my name is still attached to this segment, even though another author is now listed and interviewed. I didn't bother to call in and interrupt, and will just write it off as yet another example of unprofessionalism in the industry we authors have to deal with.

In better news, however, I've been in contact with Matt Donnelley from Greenleaf Book Group, and things look quite promising on that front. He's scheduled a call for Monday to follow up and discuss the project, in which Greenleaf would act as a production/distribution intermediary to the retail market, while I retain ownership and control of the work itself, splitting retail roughly 10/35 in my favor (the remainder being the retailer's discount). 35% is a substantial profit margin, but of course I have many questions concerning costs, both up front and ongoing, as well as marketing methods and timelines. I'll keep you posted as events unfold.

As for my current project, I apologize for the lack of new material of late, but bear with me and you will be rewarded. I'm kind of winding down from the recent flurry of events, and doing a lot of prep work for the next book. Writing a book requires a lot of advance effort in terms of plot outlines and character development, little of which is interesting to read in itself. But I now have a host of notes and sketches that are slowly coming together into a cohesive form, and as soon as there's something worth reading be sure that I will post it here.

Unsolicited Publication Query

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:01:09 PDT

I received an interesting email today that I thought I would share with those of you who have followed along on this publication odyssey. It's an unsolicited inquiry from a publisher concerning the status of my novel, which I take to be an initial overture to further professional relations, should such prove beneficial to both parties. I present it here in its entirety:

Mr. Johns,

First off, congratulations on the book! It must be great to see it all come together. My name is Matthew Donnelley, and I work for Greenleaf Book Group here in Austin, TX (www.greenleafbookgroup.com). We are a book distributor and publisher, focusing on independent authors, and small presses. I came across your book online, and was curious how it has been going for you (hopefully well!). I see that you have the book for sale on Amazon.com, but have you had much success in getting the book to the major retailers? Is that something you are looking for?
Our distribution muscle is on par with the major houses, and I would love to talk with you about your book. At first glance, based on your website and the small bit I've read electronically, your book seems very interesting (though we would need to review an actual copy of the book to make sure it fits in with our line). My e-mail and
phone number are below. I look forward to talking with you!
Best,
-Matthew Donnelley

Knowing nothing about this publisher I did a little footwork. As mentioned, Greenleaf specializes in the development of independent authors and the growth of small presses. They are one of the fastest growing companies in the United States (named to the Inc. 500 in 2006) and have represented (published or distributed) more than 700 titles since 1997, including three titles that reached the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestseller lists in the past 18 months. They are best known for their "selectivity, innovative business model, distribution power (bookstores, airports, grocery stores, and beyond) and award-winning designs," including three of the five books they entered in 2008's Gold Ink Awards, for which they've taken top honors two years running.

According to their website, only 3% of manuscript submissions are accepted, which makes their extended invitation all the more promising. It may, of course, result in nothing, but given my recent blurb on the nature of fate, I'm hesitant to pass up the opportunity. The fact that it's an author-centric company makes it all the more appealing, for as much as authors want the validation provided by the major names in the trade, this one would much prefer the more respectful hands-on treatment afforded by the independents. Ultimately, what I'd really like is to see my novel reach the brick-and-mortar stores, and the opportunity to go out and promote it with a signing tour. The rest is up to the reading public.

Regardless of what comes of this, it's nice to have a publisher come to me rather than the other way around. And much like fishing, where patience and persistence reap the best reward, it gives me more incentive to keep trying.

Works In Progress

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 23:36:17 PDT

Having finally completed the upgrade and configuration of my computer work station, it was time to get back to working seriously on this digital art project I've proposed. And the next step after installing all the necessary programs was to load in all the 3D models I've acquired.

Over the past few weeks I've purchased a host of sets and props from Content Paradise and Renderosity, as well as downloading a bunch of stuff that's offered free on sites like ShareCG, in an attempt to build up enough materials to get started: things like trees and rocks, for example, as well as more specific bits to fit my Viking theme, like the ship and costumes I posted images of before. This render is a bower set for the Geat Queen Hæreth, with late-Viking period Urnes-style interweaving art motifs throughout. Although historically much later than the early pre-Viking period that Beowulf is actually set in, it makes a lush and royal residence such as befits a Viking Queen.

I wanted her chamber to be vastly different from the rustic hovel Beowulf lives in, which is more like what I've pictured in this image at the right, although this is just a rough test render of a temp layout. The walls used in the first image, by the way, are actually the ceiling textures, but I liked them far more than the walls provided in the model, which is called Guinevere's Bower, an expansion pack for The King's Chamber, available from DAZ-3D. Likewise, I used the floorboards from that set as the walls in Beowulf's room, although I'll change these later when I find something better suited to the purpose.

I suppose I should mention here that after careful consideration based on several factors I've decided to work for the next month or so on creating several characters and scenes for an illustrated edition of The Saga of Beowulf, whether I end up following through on that project or not. How that goes and what I come up with will determine to a great degree where I go with it from there.

But I should also say that one of those factors is the status of my day job, which comes to an end in four weeks as I only work during the school year, and consequently will have no income for the subsequent three months, save the meager and sporadic income my book sales have been bringing in. Given the current state of the economy I've been unable to save up enough to get me through until the Fall when my job begins again. What I do about the intervening span will have some impact on what I'm able to do on the creative front. But that will depend in great part on how much income I can bring in during the next four weeks, since I work entirely on commission selling books to teachers, and if I can find a summer job in this depressed market. I may be living in a tent for all I know.

Home Sweet Home

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:38:31 PDT

After a long week away it's always good to be home. Over the past few weeks I've spent the better part of what little free time I could find rebuilding and configuring my two computers (not counting my laptop or pocket pc), beefing up my RAM and installing some new hardware.

The computer on the left is my writing station, where I wrote most of The Saga of Beowulf. This system is a Compaq Presario, the older of the two, but features a new Sony dual-layer DVD burner, a Creative SoundBlaster Audigy 2 ZS sound processing interface and a full suite of professional sound editing software, such as AcidPro, Cakewalk, CoolEdit, Cubasis and FruityLoops, among others (I'm also a musician, although I no longer perform professionally, or even practice regularly).

This system also houses a secondary 500 gig hard drive nearly full with nothing but MP3 files: well over 100,000 tracks and counting. I listen to music constantly, from the moment I get up, and this computer is also the headquarters for dual 5.1 speaker systems, one in the computer room, and one in the living room, both linked together to run either from the pc or the entertainment system in the other room. I used to have one upstairs in the bedroom as well, but disconnected it as it was a bit of overkill. You can hear it just fine, as I rarely have the volume at less than 50%. The main drive in this system is 200 gb, and a third drive of 160 gigs holds my library of ebooks and texts of virtually every classic work of literature throughout the eons, as well as an extensive collection of reference texts, and, of course, my own notes and writings. I use the Microsoft Office suite for all my business and word processing needs, but Adobe Pro (Photoshop and Acrobat Professional particularly) for graphic design and layout.

The computer on the right is a Dell Dimension 3000 (with a 2.8 GHz processor), which I just beefed up with 4 gigs of RAM and installed a smoking new graphics card with another gig of onboard RAM. It also houses three separate hard drives, one for system programs, one for graphics, and one for backup archives. This system also features a Sony dual-layer DVD burner, and is now my video and graphics processing powerhouse, with Poser, DAZ, Bryce, Maya, Manga Studio, Corel Painter, and the full Macromedia and Adobe suites. It also hosts my scanner and a Bamboo pen tablet. This computer has been a project in the making for many months now, and only now has finally reached its full potential, so I'm excited to take it for a spin and see what it can do. I've been doing my graphics work (website design, video production, and book layout) on the Compaq, but with its moderately wimpy 1.5 gHz processing speed it sometimes tended to balk at the heavy load I forced upon it.

Both systems are fully wireless, and are networked together, and to three HP printers: one inkjet and two laserjets (a color and a black & white). You can't see it in the photo, but the wall on the left holds four cork boards and a bookshelf filled with notebooks for my research and outlines. The odd-looking white rectangle down in the lower right-hand corner is my lightbox sitting at the end of my art desk, which completes the U-shaped desk layout around my office: three walls of desk and one of bookshelves. Here is where I spend my time, turning dreams into reality. Or at least into works of fiction. Here is where The Jester's Quest will soon begin. Where it will lead or end I cannot say.

So What Have You Been Up To Lately?

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 11:54:38 PDT

I keep running across old friends and neighbors lately, often in the oddest places where you never expect to see someone you once knew, like halfway across the state in some little town that only hosts a couple hundred residents, where you both just happen to be passing through on the same day, and crossing the same street at the exact same time. And it makes you wonder what if the light had not turned red just then, or you were looking in the opposite direction? How often does it happen but you just don't notice?

Everyone, I'm sure, experiences these seemingly strange coincidences, or so the stories of my friends and relatives attest. But having just written a novel in which "fate" plays a fairly major role (or does it?), the subject has been on my mind quite a bit of late.

What we commonly think of as fate tends to be a situation in which a destined outcome occurs through what might otherwise appear a random meeting or event. Two people meet and fall in love, for example, or a chance encounter leads to someone's success or failure. However it might happen, the idea is that a seemingly innocuous occurrence results in a significant outcome, an effect whose cause was somehow pre-ordained. It is, in fact, the importance of the end result which later renders its inception significant, to the extent that it appears some greater force must have been in play, so great does the coincidence seem otherwise.

But what of all these chance encounters that amount to nothing, as so many (if not most) seem to do? Have we not yet witnessed the miraculous event now destined to result, or are the greater events that shape our lives as random as the ones we soon forget? Do we shape our fate, or does our fate shape us? Is fate just what we like to call those sequences of cause and effect that lead from little into much, however unpredictable the case may be?

The point of all this rambling nonsense isn't an attempt to make any sense of it at all, but rather came by way of saying to a lot of people lately something on the lines of "So what have you been up to lately?" And being asked the same of me. How do you sum up half a life in half a dozen sentences? For some, half a dozen words is quite sufficient. "I'm a financial services administrator," they might say, as if that tells me all I need to know about their life (or anything at all). "I work in the labor trade," an old friend said, which could apply to every job I've ever had, except that I recalled he was a contractor when last we spoke. As it turns out he now tears down dumpy slums he once helped build. But it's difficult to sum up several decades at a corner crosswalk when your fries are getting cold.

"I just wrote a novel," I would say, and hand the random passerby a bookmark, shaking hands as we once more returned to our own lives.

Book Review: The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Tue, 12 May 2009 19:53:02 PDT

I've been spending a lot of time on the road lately, and consequently holed up in motels with little to do but read (which I hardly mind). This past week it's been The Dante Club by Matthew Pearl. Published in 2003, this was Pearl's debut novel, a fictional tale filled with historical characters and revolving around an actual event, just the sort of book I tend to like.

That event, the first translation of Dante's Divine Comedy into English for an American audience, begun in 1865 and published two years later in 1867, provides the impetus for a fictional series of gruesome murders based on the eternal punishments meted out to sinners in the nine circles of hell in the Inferno.

Foremost among the historical characters are the Fireside Poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Oliver Wendell Holmes, and James Russell Lowell (as well as several others), of whom Longfellow is our chief translator. The translation itself is historical, while the murders most certainly are not. But it is intriguing and inventive to see how this seemingly innocent event might well have caused such an uproar from Harvard intellectuals intent on protecting the purity of the "true classics" from the "vulgar" work of Dante (a work he wrote in exile) to grimy thugs and cutthroats who could hardly make out English, let alone Dante's medieval Italian.

Now, I've never read Longfellow's translation, but I know my Dante well enough, and although not critical, a reasonable familiarity with The Inferno would prove useful to readers of Pearl's mystery, not so much to understand the particulars of the various crimes - which are detailed quite clearly enough for vivid comprehension - but rather to appreciate more fully the complexities of the rationale behind these murders. As with most historical novels, knowing to some degree the period and subject matter goes a long way towards enjoyment of the work at hand.

The Dante Club is quite fascinating in this regard, although it tends to drag at some points where the author seems to feel it necessary to detail elements which in themselves are not terribly riveting, such as the haughty socio-political posturing of Harvard's elite. But bearing with the story yields its fruits, beginning roughly halfway though when the Fireside Poets take it on themselves - quite out of necessity - to solve the murders. The story takes on shades of Sherlock Holmes as the search winds through the seedy underside of Cambridge and Boston, while our poets try to puzzle out the clues before their "Lucifer" strikes again.

The culmination of this bizarre literary mystery felt slightly anticlimactic, if only because half of the final chapter is spent explaining and providing information necessary to have figured out the villain's purpose earlier. But all in all it was an entertaining read, both socially and psychologically insightful, and I recommend it to aficionados of historical mysteries and early medieval classics, of which The Divine Comedy is among the very finest of human creations.

Rating: 4 out of 5

The Girl

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 21:17:09 PDT

This is the hot new chick that DAZ just released. Simply dubbed "The Girl," she's a highly detailed 3D model with incredibly realistic skin-tone texture - and, to say the least, a vivacious bod, with the sort of curves we fans of fantasy tend to find appealing.

The basic figure was offered free for just a few days (it's now on sale for $1.99 until the 13th, and after that for $29.95, except for members of the Content Paradise club who always get the sale price), and comes with all the standard morphs, as well as a limited set of poses and facial expressions, and a half a dozen colors for her hair.

There are, of course, a seemingly infinite number of "add-ons" to compliment and clothe the figure, such as this sultry outfit called "Moroccan Dreams," which was also offered free for download at the time - and so, of course, I obliged, needing something to dress the nearly naked waif in until such time as I might find something better suited to my needs. I have to say, though, she makes a rather alluring addition to my harem.

I doubt I'll use her in the Saga of Beowulf graphic novel, but you never know. She'd make a great fairy princess or and elfin waif in The Jester's Quest though, which will have a more fantasy aspect to it than does Beowulf, which, although containing its fair share of fantastic elements and overblown heroic types, is ultimately based in a real world setting with characters resembling actual living beings than those found in a fairy tale.

I haven't yet made up my mind as to whether I'll actually undertake a fully illustrated edition of The Saga of Beowulf just yet, but I'm leaning toward it. At the very least I want to do a few of the major scenes for my own benefit, to assuage my curiosity, and of course when I do I'll be sure to share them here.

Digital Graphics Tests

noreply@blogger.com (R. Scot Johns) — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 14:27:40 PDT

These are just a couple of quick render tests to see how my system handles the relatively heavy burden of converting initial preview art into fully 3d objects with light and texture. Here I've added some reddish-orange light to simulate a fire source to the right for what will eventually be a scene during Beowulf's battle with the dragon.

These are just some basic Viking props and costume bits I bought on the DAZ Content Paradise website, and I haven't done anything but pose and tweak them to fit a basic figure for this test which will be replaced and altered greatly before the end. I plan to paint most of my own textures and design some custom costumes to use, as well as building many of the sets and landscapes using Bryce and Blender, which I've only started toying with.

Here, however, is a figure I've been playing with for several days to beef him up and make him look more like a traditional Nordic warrior hero. I've morphed his face all over the place to get his age and skin tone close to where I want it, with an overall look that I kind of like. I'm not sure if this will end up being the figure I use for Beowulf, but it's a start.

If so, I might pump him up even more to something along the lines of Schwarzenegger size, although I'm hesitant to make him appear abnormal, since I want Grendel to tower over him as he does over his own men, so I need to find a happy medium. Already the guy above looks like a wimp in comparison to this brawny Geat. But I'll only be able to determine the right approach once I get a rough cast of characters together, and that might take some time. I still haven't made up my mind if I'll even pursue this project right away, if ever. The poll results are mixed so far, but it's only been a day so I'll wait a bit before finalizing my decision.

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