The Boy With A Thousand Stories

Get Inspired - Life

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 12:30:00 +0000

So far all of the different sources of inspiration I’ve talked about have been media related, (music, images, and media) but today I want to talk about how you can get inspired simply by living.

It's everywhere if you keep your eyes open.

Writers tend to be pretty quiet people, and we’re often mistaken for being shy. But that assumed shyness is really just perception. We are watching, ever observant and our brains are processing every bit of information our senses feed them. It’s one of the reason we live up to the “writers in coffee shops” cliché so well, the environment stimulates our senses and it’s a great place for inconspicuous people watching.

I study people I meet, their behaviors and personality quirks, the way they move their hands when they talk, the words they choose; these are all important elements that make this person unique and real. I study these traits and interject my characters with the traits that make sense for them based on people I’ve observed in real life. Sometimes even I’ll base entire characters on people I know and I’m sure lots of writers do this, that’s why we put that disclaimer on the legal page.

But sometimes studying people isn’t enough. A lot of what you deduce about them is based on assumption – which is fine, it’s great to flex your imagination while people watching – but if you want to really know somebody you have to talk to them. The conventional wisdom says “write what you know,” but what if you want to write a war story but you’ve never stepped foot on a battlefield? Do the next best thing, talk to someone who has.

When I was younger my grandfather would always offer – unsolicited - a recounting of his exploits in World War II. At the time I didn’t pay much attention to them, but now that he’s no longer with us I badly wish I had listened. Everybody on this planet has, in essence, seen some shit. Everyone has an experience, everyone has a story, if you take the time to listen you might find inspiration for your next book and it just might change your life.

My grandpa, proud buffalo soldier.

In the last post I talked about how watching documentaries can take you to faraway places and can help inspire you but nothing can replace the physical act of exploration. Half of the fun is the journey itself! I haven’t set foot atop beautiful vistas or sailed roaring rapids (yet!), but even living in the city you can find things you never knew existed. Get out and go biking in a part of town you’ve never been, take the bus one stop further than usual and explore the area on foot, the whole time your brain will be receptive to new sights and feelings and new, exciting, thoughts will pop into your head. You get the best of both worlds, a mini-getaway and your write brain gets fed, it’s a win-win.

In this video I talk about how I got the inspiration for my latest short story by taking a ride around my neighborhood.

Inspiration doesn’t always just happen, sometimes you have to actively seek it out, but it really is nice when it just comes to you. For some reason a lot of creative minded are prone to epiphanies in the bathroom. I’m always in the middle of a shower when a good idea strikes me, and usually I try to be ready to jot down interesting thoughts but in the bathroom I’m unarmed and forget it the second I step out.

There’s something about being on autopilot mode that lets our imagination run wild while our bodies are preforming tasks which is why a lot of people will say “go for a jog,” or “ take a walk around the block,” if you’re feeling like the muses have turned away from you. I’d like to add one more piece of advice, and that is to work on your writing at your day job. If like me you have a job you can easily space out at while suffering no loss in performance then I say do it. Take the time to think about your story structure, what your protagonists are going to face in your next writing session, what the antagonists are doing during your heroine's downtime, think about the characters themselves and their relationships to one another. I get a lot of planning done at my day job while still getting paid, another win-win, and it’s especially easy if you have a menial job like washing dishes or stocking shelves. Work while you’re at work, get inspired by life!

See you tomorrow as the Get Writing Challenge continues with Get Inspired - Negativity!

Links to all entries in the Get Writing Challenge:

Get Writing – Introduction

Get Inspired – Music

Get Inspired – Images

Get Inspired – Media

Get Inspired – Life (Current Page)

Get Inspired - Media

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 00:30:00 +0000

I am a couch potato and if you’re anything like me you can sit and marathon shows and movies for hours each day without feeling bad about it. To an outsider it might look like we writers spend a lot of time idly watching T.V. but for many of us studying well-made shows is a form of research. There is a part of our brains that’s actively working to deconstruct what we’re watching as it happens. We’re following the flow of the plot beat for beat, analyzing how the dialogue makes us feel, essentially we’re watching as viewers while thinking as writers.

When I watch shows and movies I like to have the captions on so it’s kind of like I’m reading the script and seeing how it plays out live at the same time. I also like to buy the screenplays for my favorite movies and study those by themselves. Even if you have no plans to be a screenwriter a novelist can learn a lot about story structure and pacing by reading screenplays.

Usually your favorite films are the ones that inspire you the most. Some of mine are Avatar, Inception, Back to the Future, Fight Club and The Social Network. The list is in no way conclusive but these are the movies I watch pretty much once a year. There’s just something about a great film that makes me want to rise to the level and be able to create something as good, or better. There’s nothing wrong with setting your sights high, and I believe if you really want to improve you have to be of the mindset that you will eventually be able to go toe to toe with your heroes. If you’re gonna compete, compete with the best.

Inversely I spend a decent amount of time actively seeking out and watching terrible movies. I’m not talking campy-but-lovable B movies. I’m talking full on “how the hell did this get made? I’ve seen some shit,” kind of movies. I won’t name any but if you find yourself scrolling Netflix for fun one day you’re likely to run across a few of these. Movies with terrible pacing, ham-fisted dialogue, plot inconsistencies, plot contrivances, and zero character development; these are my favorites. By studying films like these you can learn what NOT to do. You can also make notes on what little fixes you would’ve made to the plot to make it better if you were in charge. It’s a fun exercise and it makes you feel like watching that awful movie wasn’t a complete waste.

I have friends that seem to always be traveling to exotic places like India, Alaska, and the waterfalls in South America. I don’t have as many mileage points as they do but I do just as much traveling, from my couch. Recently I’ve been watching loads of documentaries like the Nova series and Planet Earth to broaden my horizons. There’s so much wonder and magnificence out there in this world of ours and if you can’t hop on a plane and see them yourself loading up a documentary is the next best thing. Learning about places I’ve never been and getting a feel for the culture there is a great way I stimulate my imagination and if I do enough research on a location I can feel comfortable writing about a certain place or tailor it to fit within the narrative.

Writing is all about taking in information, processing and combining it in your mind and outputting words in your unique voice so a huge part of becoming a better writer is becoming a more avid reader. I try to keep both hemispheres of my brain engaged at all times so usually I’ll read one fiction novel and one non-fiction book and make progress on each a little at a time every day. For fiction books I try to read in the genre I’m writing at the time, especially if I like a particular author’s voice and I want some of that to leak out into my current project. With the non-fiction book I tend to enjoy the self-help variety as well as the instructional but I’m learning the benefit of reading outside my comfort zone to help broaden my horizons.

These have been invaluable to me over the years.

Some people treat comic books like they’re not literature, like comics are just pulp fiction trash not worth reading if you’re over the age of twelve, while other people hold up (certain) comics like they’re the highest form of prose. To me comic books are both a guilty pleasure form of entertainment and a big source of inspiration. I really like reading team oriented books like X-men and JLA and I feel it has helped me manage characters when writing stories with a larger ensemble. I love the marriage of the visual and the mental. Comic books aren’t movies nor are they books, but kind of a combination of the two. The imagery leaves just enough to engage the imagination to fill in the details between panels and the dialogue is often concise because with comics page real estate is precious.

These are my Marvel shelves but I love DC too!

Getting inspired watching movies, reading comics and books for me is a good way to flex my creative muscle passively and actively while having fun and I feel I bring elements of these different forms of media into my writing to breathe fresh life into my scenes.

See you Tomorrow as the Get Writing Challenge continues with Get Inspired - Media!

Links to all entries in the Get Writing Challenge:

Get Writing – Introduction

Get Inspired – Music

Get Inspired – Images

Get Inspired – Media (Current Page)

Get Inspired - Images

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 05:38:00 +0000

I do hope to actually play one day.

For someone who has never played Dungeons and Dragons I have a pretty sizable collection of source books. To me these books are a goldmine of inspiration, the bestiaries especially. When I’m feeling like I’m in a creative rut just thumbing through the monster manuals sometimes will get the gears turning again as I study the images and see possibilities. These books are full of awesome, terrifying creatures and landscapes which makes them, in my opinion, a fantastic set of reference guides, and not just for science fiction/ fantasy authors. Some of the Eldritch abominations in the new compendiums could make even veteran Lovecraft readers uncomfortable at the sight of them.

Alongside music, the other big gun in my creative arsenal is my ability to draw inspiration from images. I’m a pretty visual guy, I learn visually and often when I write it comes as if I’m a character in the story living and watching the events transpire, so a big part of story-boarding for me is getting inspired from images that match the setting, and tone of the story. Once I have those images for references it’s easy for me to leave a session then come back and use the images I gathered to put me back in the same place tonally.

I say all this to justify hours of browsing Deviantart as part of my research phase. Storytelling for me a lot of the time starts with the seed of the plot, but takes root in moody soils. To get the tone of the story just right I search for images that look the way the story feels to me. When I have that in place the idea grows like a wildflower and the book nearly writes itself.

When I put the last punctuation mark on the last page of the story I like to reward myself and indulge the would-be graphic artist in me by making a mock up cover for the book. I tell myself I’m making a reference for the cover artist but really it’s all about spending more time scouring stock image sites and putting together something that I feel represents the overall feeling of the story. Luckily for me and for my readers I’m not a cover artist, just take a look at my crude mock ups next to the professionally designed covers.

My awful cover attempt.

Flowers cover by Karri Klawiter

It hurts to look at. Scroll down already!

Tea Time cover once again by the talented Karri Klawiter

See you Tomorrow as the Get Writing Challenge continues with Get Inspired - Media!

Links to all entries in the Get Writing Challenge:

Get Writing – Introduction

Get Inspired – Music

Get Inspired – Images (Current Page)

Get Inspired - Music

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 08 Sep 2015 06:03:00 +0000

Some people need absolute silence to focus on their writing, for them music is a distraction, to me it’s fuel. I cannot write without listening to music. It doesn’t feel right, it throws me out of whatever I’m working on and I can’t get into that zone where I’m fully focused on writing without music.

But I can’t just listen to any old thing, nope I have a playlist of songs across a few genres that get me pumped, put me in the write head-space (heh), trigger the emotions I wish to evoke, and make the writing sessions feel more fun.

Feel free to laugh at my tastes.

I love to write cinematically and as I’m putting words on the page I imagine the music that’s playing as the score to whatever scene I’m writing at the time. For this I love listening to soundtracks. From the melodrama in scores like Hans Zimmer’s Inception or the whimsy of Alan Silvestri’s Back to the Future the soundtracks I have in my playlist cover a broad spectrum of emotion and allow me to inject those feelings into my writing.

As much as I enjoy popular movie scores I have a growing love for so called “trailer music.” Trailer music essentially is a genre of pieces composed to be used by movie studios in their film trailers and promotional videos. Soundtracks produced by companies like Audio Machine and EpicScore make for such lush soundscapes without a story already attached to them. I can listen to the Thor Original Score by Patrick Doyle from start to finish and get nearly the same feeling as if I watched the movie, the story is there in the music and has a beginning, middle, and end. The beauty in trailer music is that it’s all about the emotion and how the music stimulates your imagination. Instead of associating a piece with a character you’re associating it with what it makes you feel and what it makes you imagine, and from that tangent a story idea can be born. I feel that a lot of young writers and film makers have come to see the benefit in trailer music as inspiration lately. If you go on Youtube and look in the comment sections for these songs you can see people writing short pieces of fiction based on how the music fires up their creativity. It’s really cool, it’s somewhat like the new-age version of gazing at the sky and seeing shapes in clouds.

I'm listening to AudioMachine - Existence as I write this.

As you can already kind of guess I have a fondness for classical instruments and arrangements but I also enjoy heavy music, and I’m a huge nerd so it only makes sense that power metal takes up an enormous portion of my playlist and my iPod in general. It has the best elements of the classical symphonic music I love and all the campiness, flair and energy of metal which I also love. It’s the perfect marriage. It isn’t hard to imagine how listening to songs about wizards and knights and dragons while writing about wizards, knights and dragons gives me a +3 to creativity, but I’ll let you in on a little secret dear reader. The best thing about power metal, aside from the instrumental virtuosity, is the lyrics. Each song in a story unto itself – Hell, Rhapsody of Fire’s discography can be read as one epic saga and each album is a new chapter – however most of my inspiration actually comes from misinterpreting lyrics of my favorite songs. A lot of my favorite power metal vocalists sing in English as a second language and their thick accents make it easy to mishear the lyrics. Some bands like Galneryus sing in a very broken kind of English and that makes it even better. I’ll listen to a song and hear a cool line and sometimes it will be the spark I need for a story then I’ll come to find out the line I heard was actually something else entirely when I read the lyrics, which is fine. Often times I like my version better anyway.

Aside from those, metalcore and j-rock are the other big pillars of my inspiration music library. Metalcore with its aggressive, high energy blast beats, visceral screams and emotionally charged choruses the genre is full of amazing songs that always seem to come on in my shuffle while I’m writing a crucial fight scene or a really tense situation. And while I don’t understand the lyrics in Japanese rock songs the tone and the message is there. I find most of my j-rock songs in the playlist have a pretty uplifting character without sounding cheesy. They also always come on at the right time to help me provide levity to a scene or when I’m writing about a budding romance. Some of my all-time favorite love songs are in Japanese.

I do have an assortment of other genres and odds and end in my playlist, (80’s music because I wish I was an 80’s kid, drum and bass because it gives me laser focus) but metalcore, j-rock, power metal, and soundtrack music are the biggest genres in terms of helping me get in the zone with my writing and keep me there until the last song fades out.

Most Played Soundtrack Albums.

Most Played Trailer Music Albums

Most Played Metalcore Albums

Most Played J-rock Albums

I’m curious to know if any of these genres have the same effect on you when you’re writing or reading. Do you listen to music while you write, and if you do genre do you draw the most inspiration from?

See you Tomorrow as the Get Writing Challenge continues with Get Inspired - Images!

Links to all entries in the Get Writing Challenge:

Get Writing – Introduction

Get Inspired – Music (Current Page)

Get Inspired – Images (Tomorrow)

Get Writing Challenge - Introduction

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 04 Sep 2015 22:46:00 +0000

I want to try something new with my blog. To tell the truth I haven’t been writing nearly as much as I should be and it’s been far too long since my last post. I need a swift kick!

With Nanowrimo just around the corner and the year quickly coming to a close many writers want to fulfill their dreams of putting ink to page, or (myself included) log more hours working on their craft. But whether you’re in the early stages of planning your first novel or in the middle of your twentieth we all hit road bumps.

Beginning on Monday I’m starting what I call the Get Writing Challenge which will be broken down into three parts. In week one I will talk about the different ways I get motivated, how I draw inspiration from internal and external sources. Week two will be all about getting organized. The methods I use to bring order to the chaos which in turn makes sitting down to do the work MUCH less daunting. And finally the theme in week three will be about getting over yourself, freeing yourself from anxiety, letting go of ego and getting out of your own damn way.

These are all very personal subjects to cover, week three especially because everyone knows a writer’s harshest critic is himself, however by doing this challenge I will offer an inside look at what works for me in the hopes that it will encourage or inspire anyone who also wants to tear down their creative barriers and get inspired.

I also want to hear feedback, what works for you, what doesn’t. Everybody is wired differently but we can all learn from each other’s struggles and triumphs.

So join me on Monday as I begin the Get Writing Challenge and see how I push myself to new creative heights with the first installment, GetInspired – Music.

Get Writing!

Union

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 22:57:00 +0000

Today I proudly bring you my latest short story Union which is available at all major ebook retailers for FREE! Links down below :)

Blurb

The Union. A highly controversial new procedure that bonds two people into one body. When a couple makes the Union no thoughts are kept secret, every moment is shared, intimacy reaches a level never before imagined, and the couples' lifespan is effectively doubled. For some it's the ultimate "I do", the highest affirmation of love. To others it's unnatural, abominable and an affront to the institution of marriage.
But, no matter how you feel about the ethics, once the Union is made it's irreversible.

Frank is content living with his fiancé with no set date, but plans to get married and start a family one day, the traditional way. However, as Rose grows more interested in the benefits the Union can offer the couple must make a tough decision.
The stakes are high in this Sci-fi Thriller where “till death do us part” takes on a whole new meaning.

A Saki Short Story.

You can get your free copy here:

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Itunes
Google Play
Kobo
Smashwords

Not only am I excited to take my first plunge into the world of sci-fi, (my other stories so far have been horror themed and a little dark. Read: not for everyone) I'm especially proud of Union because it represents a new era in my writing. Tea Time and Flowers were both stories that I wrote in high school and refined afterwards, but they represent a different time. A different fragment of my soul is captured in those pages, like a time capsule.

Also with this story I attempted something I haven't tried so far in my writing. Without giving away too much there is an alternate ending in this story. If you read between the lines a bit you see the events that transpired, and the reasons for those events may not be so cut-and-dry.

Okay, I'm being purposefully cryptic. I think I pulled this off well and only some astute readers will be able to figure it out, but maybe I'm wrong. In any case I look forward to your feedback. I can't wait to see if you discovered the hidden ending. Please let me know, and then we can argue about which is the "true" ending. :)

* You wouldn't believe how much time I spent debating weather to call it The Union or just Union.

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[Recently Read]: Ender's Game

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 27 Feb 2014 23:08:00 +0000

The new Ender's Game film popped into theaters with big names, yet very little fanfare and disappeared just as quietly (usually not a good sign), however last July when I saw the novel with the new cover sitting on the bookstore shelf I went straight to YouTube to find the trailer, which looked amazing! I put what I was reading at the time on hold and decided it was time to dive into one of the most highly recommended books in my backlog.

I get excited when I see popular books get a movie adaptation, especially Sci-Fi and Fantasy novels when they're well done (seven years later and I'm still cringing over the Eragon film, the book deserved better than that). One of my goals is to have at least one of my books hollywood-ized, so it makes me happy to see other authors achieve that milestone. But I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit.

I have a weird personal rule (actually I have a lot of these) that I can't, or rather, I won't allow myself to watch an adaptation of something I've been wanting to read until after I've read it. That's why I'm missing out on the Game of Thrones frenzy right now and probably five or ten years from now I'll be tweeting about how good the show is long after it's over. The problem with this personal rule is that I'm a slow reader. I wanted to finish Ender's Game in time to see it in theaters, but wound up just making the DVD release.

The book was a great ride! Orson Scott Card has a brilliant, forward thinking mind. If I had been living under a rock and someone told me the book was written last year I would've believed them. I've read some pretty silly 80's Sci-Fi in my life, some stories that are set in the distant future yet the technology was old in the 90's and the characters are using words like "tubular" and "radical" to describe said technology. But here we are almost thirty years later and Ender's Game is still relevant. That says a lot.

Also the characterization is spot on. I was worried at first that the characters would come across as very juvenile sounding, but before I got even halfway through I forgot I was reading a YA novel and had to be reminded of Ender's age. The kids at Battle School are only children in stature, sure they have some moments where they're goofing off and acting their age but they are each complex characters. It reminded me a little of Lord of the Flies.

I loved every bit of it, the military's manipulation of children, the twist that I should have seen coming but didn't that made me loudly exclaim "oh shit!" at three A.M. By the last chapter I was thoroughly at home in this world and I didn't want to turn that last page, but then I remembered... I had the movie to look forward to!

As I feared the movie was much faster paced than the novel and left out a lot of nuances, but I forgave it for that because everything looked so dang cool! I was impressed, it looked better on screen than in my head (especially the battle room scenes). And unlike some recent film adaptations like The Great Gatsby where reviewers criticized the film for putting more emphasis on style than substance (which I only partially agree with in the case of The Great Gatsby), I didn't feel like Ender's Game was just a visual spectacle. It stayed true to the source material, more than I thought it would, and captured the major plot points at the expense of smaller details. I watched with my girlfriend who hadn't read the book and didn't know anything about it before the movie started and she told me a few times throughout "I feel like I'm missing something," or "did they skip something here." And she was right, quite a few things were altered, abridged or omitted (like Peter's significance to the story and Valentine and Peter's takeover of the nets on earth). If anything I would've wished for an extra 20-30 minutes of film time. But overall I can't say I was disappointed with the movie.

I'm glad it was made, I'm glad it prompted me to read a book that had been in my backlog forever, I'm glad I got to see Bean on the big screen (hes just too awesome!), and I'm glad that the movie, while hit or miss for some people, potentially turned new readers on to Orson Scott Card and the Sci-Fi genre as a whole.

I want to stay in Ender's world. I want to dive into the next book... but right now I have to switch gears to the fantasy genre, continue on where I left off in the Broken Empire Trilogy and catch up with Jorg and the gang. Best not keep the prince waiting!

Cover Reveal for Next Project Titled: "Union"

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 29 May 2013 18:50:00 +0000

This cover totally exceeded my expectations!

Artist credit due to Fiona Jayde
http://fionajaydemedia.com/

Union is an upcoming Science Fiction short story. Look for more news in the coming weeks (so excited!!).

Espionage, Magic and Intrigue Blended Well: Shaken not Stirred (Book Review)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 00:02:00 +0000

State of Grace is a phenomenal beginning of a series. For starters Wolf Dasher is a likable character, he doesn't feel like a self-insert character or a man without flaws, he has vulnerabilities. There’s a romantic, passionate side to him as well as a cunning deadliness.

The story draws strong parallels to our modern world but is different enough to be interesting, you find yourself wanting to learn more about Urland and Alfar as the pages turn. This book is a little politics heavy, there are a lot of players involved and histories between the nations. If you’re into that aspect of world-building then you’ll love it. Personally, I had a little trouble keeping up with some of the subplots but it all came together nicely in the end.

I think Silverleaf was easily my favorite part of it all. I’m one to root for the villains and Sagius Silverleaf (how could you not root for someone with such a cool name?) is one clever and dangerous elf. The highlight of the story for me was the card game between Silverleaf and Wolf. The game design itself was interesting which is a credit to Phythyon’s experience in writing role playing games. The dialogue in that scene, the suspense, the way Silverleaf gets under Wolf’s skin was all very well done.

I have to mention Ravager as well - a sadist with a unique shadow ability - he added just the right amount of physical menace to Silverleaf’s mental machinations. We were also briefly introduced to a few members of Urland’s Shadow Service and I can only hope that as the series progresses we will learn more of the Shadow Service and its members with unique gifts. That was a huge part of the story’s intrigue for me.

State of Grace on the surface level can be said to be 007 in a fantasy setting, and it does have a number of things in common with that series, but I would say that it stands on its own merits. A totally solid story, interesting characters with cool names, and a thrilling ride till the end.

Nerd is Cool...For Now.

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 08:14:00 +0000

Cringe! Exhibit A of "psuedo nerds"

Many people will tell you this whole current trend of nerd being the "new black" started when the Big Bang Theory became popular. I disagree. I saw the ripples forming at the turn of the century.

It was July something 2000 when I saw Bryan Singer's X-Men film (I saw it a couple of weeks late because I had to read the novelization first.Typical). I'll never forget how impressed the younger me felt walking out of that theater. It wasn't what I was expecting and by the reviews I could tell it wasn't what anyone else was expecting. It was cool. It took the spandex and superpowers and made them stylish and grounded, sure there was a bit of a corny factor but it wasn't cringe inducing. It was a good movie, geeks were happy - and get this - the normies were talking about it too! The chunky kid that used to steal my cool pencils and milk money was talking about Wolverine!

Since then I watched closely and saw tides rising. More superhero movies followed, Harry Potter made reading cool for all age groups, Peter Jackson's LOTR was on the horizon and fantasy novels came back to the forefront. People were really becoming interested in the things I've been interested in my whole life, even if it was only for a little while.

Then something even weirder started happening. People were flocking to Comic-Con. Waves of people. As shows like True Blood and Dexter and movies like Twilight (especially Twilight) became popular people were making a big effort to make it to the cons to see their heroes. Just as nerds have been doing for many years before - only it wasn't something to make fun of anymore. Comic Con was serious business now.

It was the best of times, and the worst of times. It was the golden age of nerd. These people who might have previously laughed at the idea of 20 something year old men and women spending a month or two putting together a costume now found it kind of interesting. They wanted to do it too. They wanted to stay and soak up this nerd culture.

Sure, on both sides there were people who didn't understand the other team. The seasoned nerds didn't fully trust these new converts. The neophytes didn't get why some of the convention veterans weren't embracing the newcomers with open arms. The lack of communication, I believe led to what follows. We're getting to that.

In the meantime something separate but equally important was happening in the gaming community. A powerful wind was blowing as playing video games socially became a big part of American culture for teens and young adults. WoW, CoD, Halo... these games were blowing up due to the social implications they brought with them and it was cool to be a gamer. The Gamer Geek was born.

Why did this become a "thing"? The upper left was serious, the rest were parodies.

Like the Comic-Con example, many of the gamers who felt marginalized, the ones who had previously been shunned for their love of gaming were wary of the noobs. The newcomers wanted to jump right in and be accepted without being tested first, or learning about the ways of the gamer lifestyle. They only knew what they saw in the media since the grognards wouldn't teach, them they fed into the stereotypes. And the cycle continued. The winds continued to howl.

Fast foward. Now The Big Bang Theory comes into the picture. And for the record, I like it. It makes me laugh more than not, and I can relate to many scenarios.

All kinds of people are watching this show. Bazinga! shirts are selling like hotcakes. It blends pop culture with nerd culture, both surface level and sometimes touching upon the more obscure. But at what cost? Many critics blame the Big Bang Theory and Chuck Lorre for perpetuating stereotypes, for making the social awkwardness and nerdy traditions of the four guys the punchline of all the jokes. It makes the viewer who identifies with those characters rather than Penny, by proxy, the one who is being laughed at.

All of these events have helped shape this whole "nerd is cool" thing we're experiencing in the present time, and for the most part I'm enjoying it. I was always one to feel like I didn't fit in wherever I was. I had a lot of nerdy hobbies and I was self-conscious of being judged for them so I always tried to keep my power level suppressed. But now I feel like I can go out wearing a Nightwing shirt and not be judged for it.

But I fear it's not going to last. I feel the storm coming.

The communication breakdown I mentioned earlier along with the new adopters taking in only the surface level, stereotypical qualities associated with nerdom, but not getting to the deeper essence of it gave rise to the Psuedo-nerd and Geek-Chic. It became a fashion statement and a social thing more than anything. Like in the picture at the top of the post, (a Google search will turn up literally thousands of similar photos) it became more about the irony of seeming to be a nerd than actually enjoying the hobbies of a nerd. Creating a further divide.

Then to add to the trouble we have shows like King of the Nerds. I cringed hard when I watched the trailer and all through the first episode.

Who is the target demo? Nerds or the people who tune in to laugh at them?

This won't be the end of it. More nerdsploitation is on the horizon.

Again, I can't say it's all been bad. It's been great, especially for some talented, deserving authors like George R.R. Martin.Not to mention the success of the Dark Knight Trilogy, the Avengers and all the films that lead up to it. Those films, I think, wouldn't have worked in another time and place and it's thanks to the nerds, neo-nerds, psuedo-nerds and non-nerds that it happened. But like every fad it will come to an end. The howling winds and the rising tides are forming a Tsunami.

When it hits there will be destruction on both sides. Some people will rise from the wreckage wondering why the heck they bought those oversized non-prescription glasses and suspenders in the first place, while others will slip quietly back into the shadows to enjoy their hobbies in peace.

But after the storm clears I hope for the dawn. One good thing I see is that society is leaning towards tolerance and acceptance more than ever. I hope that when the clouds part being yourself will be the new trend. Being an individual will be fashionable and respectable. There won't be a stigma where people feel like they need to try to become something they're not. Jocks and geeks can coexist.

Maybe I'm hoping for too much.

Only time will tell.

Projects for 2013/ Looking Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 10 Jan 2013 00:10:00 +0000

Starting the year off right!

Wait.. don't give me that look, I'm not totally insane. Only one of the titles above is a full length novel, the rest are short stories and novellas. Still, 2013 is set to be a very ambitious year for me.

This year I will celebrate my first full 365 days into my writing career as well as increase my online presence, make more new author friends, share this part of my life which I've been keeping secret with my friends and family (more on that later), and FINALLY publish the novel I've been working on since I was 13!

I apologize for blurring the titles. It may seem trivial but I feel like even something as small as a title reveal should be special. Couple that with an unreasonable fear that if I reveal the title too soon someone else will write the same exact book with the same exact title first (silly right? Though I can't be the only one who thinks like this) and I hope you'll understand why.

Though honestly I'm ~~excited~~ ecstatic about every single title on that list. I can't pick one I'm more enthusiastic about because when I think about them I can feel what seems to be a mix of impatience and elation bubbling up from the pit of my stomach - though that could just be what I had for lunch earlier.

I'll stop teasing now, I'm getting ahead of myself. 2013 has just barely begun, but I can't help but look ahead and grin thinking about all the challenges yet to overcome and all of the achievements yet to meet.

Poem: Something About Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:32:00 +0000

I have a HUGE problem with putting things off. I call myself a Pro-crastinator because sometimes I do my best work under self inflicted time restraints but it really is a terrible habit.

Short poem.

Something about tomorrow,
The tomorrow that never comes.
The far off notion.
"I'll get the work done."

It tricks and it deceives
A noble heart's intent.
A false promise.
Always present, it circumvents.

The true nature
Of this many faced beast:
It is ourselves
Who help us the least.

Not Gonna NaNo...

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 00:51:00 +0000

Not this year at any rate.

National Novel Writing Month is something I wanted to participate in for years, and I was actually looking forward to in this year.

But come October, I found myself in the trenches, knee deep in story, working on two novellas and two short stories simultaneously. Fighting the good fight.

I didn't even want to think about starting a new project - though I was tempted - before putting in all I had with these already existing projects.

So here we are... ten days from the end of NaNoWriMo. The good news is I've made great progress on those four upcoming projects. The bad is that I let another year pass me by without giving it a try.

Well there's always next year right.

Kudos to all the word warriors who stuck it out and can now make out the faintest light at the end of the word tunnel. I'll see you out on the battlefield next time, you brave souls!

“The Next Big Thing” Blog Hop

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 06:30:00 +0000

I was tagged last week in a blog hop that's sweeping the writer blogsphere called "The Next Big Thing" by the talented Nadia Hasan.

If you're not familiar with how a blog hop works the idea is that you read a post on one blog then continue on to the ones linked to the post. It's a great way to meet new creative folks and you might find a great new blog to follow or an author to check out in the process.

The idea for this particular blog hop is to talk about your new Work In Progress or upcoming project by answering the following ten questions and tagging five other authors to do the same.

*If my upcoming book piques your interest please feel free to leave a comment or question.

Here we go:

What is the title (working title) of your book?

My next work will be a short story titled M4W. (Typeset as >m4w<)

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The idea came from a time in my life where I was going through a depression and quite literally looking for love in all the wrong places – one place in particular being Craigslist. It’s funny now that I look back at it but it was pretty sad at the time. During that era though I discovered the dark side of Craigslist.

The sex personals.

I wasn’t a fool. I was aware of the large percentage of scam artists operating on the site with the regular “For Sale” ads, and knew about all the news reports of people getting robbed and assaulted.

People not getting what they bargained for.

Then my mind got to wondering, what would happen if you fell victim to a scam artist in a sex personal ad? What if you replied to one of these and didn’t get what you bargained for? What would they take from you?

Naturally that scared me so I had to write about it.

What genre does your book fall under?

Horror. I like to say I (mostly) write six different styles of stories.

“The Six S’s”

-(P)sychos

-Slashers

-Superheroes

-Sci-fi

-Sword & Sorcery (sometimes they can be interdependent; sometimes they can be separate styles)

This story would fall under “Slashers”.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

At first I was thinking Andrew Garfield for the male lead but he’s a little too handsome for this kind of role to be honest, and I’d blow most of my budget to get him and the movie would look cheap. Haha!

I would probably go with fresh, undiscovered talent if I was in charge of casting.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Still working on this but here’s the best I’ve got so far:

In an attempt to recover from a bad breakup Robert Morales, a college dropout living in his mother’s basement arranges to meet with a girl from a Sex Personals ad on Craigslist, but when he finds himself tied to a chair at the mercy of a psychopath he wishes he would have tried a more traditional dating site instead.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? What do you think?

The short story will be self-published.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The first draft was written during a weekend. (Keep in mind it’s a short story of about five thousand words. Don’t be tricked into thinking I’m a fast writer. I’m no Mary Shelly.)

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I would say there is a little bit of influence from Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter book series in there, I was on the second book when I wrote the first draft. Also my other eternal influences when it comes to this type of story should be fairly obvious when reading it. Stephen King and Edgar Allen Poe. As I said it’s a slasher story on the outset, but all my stories have psychological underpinnings.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?

Real life. What ifs. Loneliness. Watching too many episodes of Criminal Minds. News reports. Atreyu and AFI (bands).

What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

This story is more graphically violent than any other I’ve written so far. It’s not gratuitous or violent for violence’s sake, but when it’s time to be visceral I’m not pulling any punches. You can’t feel totally in the moment with a story like this if you’re using flowery words and tip-toeing around the pools of blood on the floor. And I need you to be in the moment with this story so you’ll feel as afraid as I felt when I wrote it.

Here are five great fellow authors you should meet. Make sure to check back for their posts too! (To be updated as more answers are posted. Check back to meet more awesome writers)

Rev. Evelyn M Johnson (http://www.mycitymesocial.com/profiles/blogs/interview-by-saki-the-next-big-thing-blog-hop)
Justin Swapp – (http://justinswapp.com/the-magic-shop-in-the-next-big-thing-blog-hop/)

Tea Time

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 00:54:00 +0000

I'm pleased to announce my second short story "Tea Time" is now available for FREE at major retailers!

Blurb:

Come, have a seat…

Meet Ms. May and Ms. Joyce Anderson two loveable, spunky residents of the Crossroads Nursing Home as they sit together for afternoon tea. But keep your wits about you, there’s more to this place than meets the eye.

“Tea Time” is a Saki Short Story and to say any more would give too much away, but one thing’s for certain, this is a tea party you will never forget.

You can get your free copy here:
Amazon

B&N

Smashwords

Kobo

Sony

Please feel free to leave a comment or review as well.

(Review) Sleeping Beauty Short Story By John Phythyon Jr

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:57:00 +0000

We all know the story, beautiful girl pricks her finger, falls asleep, true love's first kiss breaks the spell and all of those elements are here in this story, but the way they unfold here is different and pretty intriguing. This isn't simply a transplant of a fairy tale plot into a modern setting, this is a total reworking of the classic story that makes sense and works in our modern world.
Set in an upscale neighborhood the "Sleeping Beauty" in the story is groomed from an early age and forced into a life of pageantry by her mother, brought up to be a perfect little princess, which I thought worked really well for the story and gave it an ironic twist, drawing parallels to the whole "Toddlers and Tiaras" thing going on right now.

There is no fire breathing black dragon here, but instead a(n over)protective father who has his daughter put into a coma to "protect her purity" which, I think is just as scary. It's scary partly because it's not so farfetched. In some countries fathers have been known to mutilate their daughters' genitals to "preserve their honor." The even more frightening part is that the father doesn't feel his thinking is skewed, in his mind he's just being a good father and protecting his daughter. Despite that (or maybe because of that) the character is likeable and relatable on some level. *Cue spine shivers*
There's a little bit here for everyone, some YA elements, some supernatural/ fantasy, some romance (thankfully not the cheese flavored kind), but it's all thriller.

One thing Phythyon does really well is that he knows how to create tension by redirecting the reader's attention. It's a common technique with film and television to switch the scene just as something important is about to happen and Phythyon knows how to work it to his advantage. As a reader you find yourself becoming desperate to find out what happens next, you become invested in the story but you can't simply skip the scene change because what's happening there is important too. There is no filler in this story.

This is the first work I've read from John R Phythyon Jr but it probably won't be the last :)

*The story is available today and tomorrow (9/19) for free on Amazon
$0.99 otherwise, well worth the price in my opinion.

The Muse as a Muscle

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 07:14:00 +0000

Just some quick musings (HAHAHA! HILARIOUS!) on developing the Muse as a muscle.

Some people are of the school of thought that "The Muse" is an abstract, metaphysical thing that you can't tame, and can't control. I used to be guilty of this too. But lately I've been of the thought that you can learn to control your muse and with great control and discipline it will become something you can turn on and off like a light switch.

We all know what happens when you try to force inspiration, it can get really ugly.I'm not talking about that. I'm saying we can learn to turn on the faucets and let all that wonderful, magical, creative fairydust come gushing out of every orifice at a whim (yes even that orifice. *ahem)

I'm sure anyone who ever endeavored in the creative arts has experienced that creative rush that occurs from time to time that seems to take over our whole bodies, hi-jack our brains and let us create something amazing, surprising ourselves (I'm just coming down from one of those highs, except this time I kind of , sort of willed it to happen). And I can wager that most of us have been in a fight before. You know that feeling, that rush of adrenaline that makes you either stronger than you ever thought you were or lets you run faster and farther than you ever could before.

That short burst inspiration/adrenaline is awesome, but if you relied on that to write you probably wouldn't be as proficient as you wanted to be because most of the time you'd be waiting for the inspiration to strike.

I have a theory that the Muse is a muscle and can be trained, worked out to the point where you can "flex" it on command.

I'm still working this theory out. But it's a safe bet you'd be a far more effective fighter if you trained your muscles than if you just relied on adrenaline. Same goes for writing, the brain is a muscle after all. So here's to hitting the mental heavybag.

Poem: Recollection

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 21:45:00 +0000

Lately I've been looking through all the poems I've written over the years and the vast majority of them were cringe-worthy but this was one of the better ones. It was from a time when I had lost sight of my dreams and was just what I needed to remind myself of who I really am.

Also I decided for September to write a poem a day. Most will be terrible but maybe a few of them will turn out well. We'll see..

Anyway, here's Recollection

He used to be mad.

Conversing with people who didn’t exist.

Bearing witness to events that never transpired.

Describing these other worldly phantasms, these fantastical apparitions to friends, family and strangers only to be met with the same blank faces, concerned looks and confused stares.

He used to be mad.

But now he has locked away the demons.

He ignores the spectacular phenomena around him.

He chooses to turn away from that other world that only he can see into.

He used to be mad.

He used to be a sorcerer.

Transmuting the mundane into the extraordinary.

Conjuring mighty beasts, the likes of which never before were imagined.

Channeling great power from within to move mountains, divert rivers, and shape whole continents.

He used to be a sorcerer.

But he has closed his mind to that power.

He has become out of practice, his spells feeble and weak.

He dares not stir up those forces again out of fear. Fear of failure.

He used to be a sorcerer.

He used to be a God.

Creating whole worlds with just a thought.

Crushing civilizations with a simple gesture.

Dictating the wills of men and authoring history at his pleasure.

He used to be a God.

But he has grown complacent.

He has turned away, forsaking the very people he breathed life into.

Leaving unfinished what he had started.

He used to be a God.

He used to be a writer.

Dreaming up worlds so vivid, so real people might have thought him deranged.

Working like a mad sorcerer with tomes full of handwritten notes scribbled so frantically, with such fervor they appeared to be nothing more that cryptic symbols.

Shaping the universes he had created like a God, molding them to perfection to suit his visions.

He used to be a writer

But his once unshakable spirit has been crippled by heartache.

His seemingly endless ambition is held back by doubt.

And his energy is stolen from him daily from a cruel and unforgiving job in a cruel and unforgiving world.

He used to be a writer,

And in fact.. he still is.

He just needed to remind himself.

Is There a Point to Writing Horror?

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 17 Aug 2012 06:25:00 +0000

What is the point of writing horror? Why are horror stories important in the grand scheme of things? Are they important? Do they offer anything valid to the literary world? These are some of the questions I asked myself today.

I've never questioned the genre like this before but when faced with telling someone what my latest story was about I paused, considering how they might react, that they might think it was just a simple scare story and not understand why it was so important for me to tell that I had to allocate precious hours of my precious life to sit down and write.I felt like I had to justify my reason for writing a horror story.

Why did I feel this way? Did I feel there was some stigma against writing horror? Sure, but no one directly said or implied to me that horror stories lacked the depth that other styles of fiction offer so where did this idea come from?

I looked to all the popular forms of horror I know, the ones that weren't allegories like Frankenstein or Jekyll and Hyde, the ultra popular stories like Carrie, and a short story I recently read Grey Matter and broke them down in my mind.

Carrie at it's core is about a girl who uses telekinesis to get revenge for getting picked on. Sure there are subtexts such as religious fanaticism and different ways of looking at the story like "Did Tommy deserve his fate? Did Sue deserve hers? Is bullying always wrong, or is it an evolutionary mechanism to seek out the dangerous ones, the outcasts from society and call attention to them if they should become a threat?" But at it's core, that is what the story is. And Grey Matter is a story about a fungal goop man.

What motive did Mr. Stephen King have for writing these stories (besides that I imagine they were a lot of fun)? Did he just want to get a rise out of the audience? Possibly but I feel like there's more to it. Why do horror stories work? They scare us, but why?

Some psychologists say horror frightens and excites us because sometimes its like we're looking into a dark mirror reflection of our own lives, or what we can become. A monster, a raging murderer, its what we have the potential to become if we were to let ourselves slip, and it's sometimes difficult to face that truth so reading horror is one way to deal with it. We can distance ourselves a bit from acknowledging the parallels between the fantasy and the reality. But sometimes it hits too close to home, and that's when it's really good. It compels and repulses us simultaneously. Like a train that ran off the rails, slammed into the freeway at rush hour and left a wake of mechanical and bodily devastation. Naturally traffic on the other side of the freeway would slow to a standstill, the scene is grizzly but we can't look away.

And it doesn't have to be as extreme as the walking dead or creatures of the night, horror can be human. A serial killer, a rapist, a normal seeming person slipping into psychosis, losing control of their life. This is human horror. Tragedy. And sometimes it's scarier because it's real, it happens every day and can be waiting for you right outside your comfy little three bedroom home.

But it's not about simply eliciting fear.Not just about cheap jump-scares and endless gore. There's something more, something personal, something that eludes us and because it eludes us it is troublesome. That's why horror stories resonate with us for so long. We can remember some of the ones we were told from a young age even now, that's how powerful and effective they are.So we seek out that elusive something in horror. We seek out ourselves in horror.

As a writer it's not my favorite subject to write about. If I had my way I'd write about wizards and dragons all damn day long, but more than just occasionally I feel compelled to tell a story that fills me with dread because it terrifies me on some deep personal level, and it won't leave me alone until it's told. If I try to ignore it, it screams, it invades my life. But when it's done and it's told satisfactorily it leaves me alone and I have peace.I've wrestled with and reconciled with something within me and feel better because of it. Most of the time I don't know what the it was, but its been dealt with (for the moment) and now it's your turn to deal with your personal it.

Horror stories remind us of our mortality, of our fragility and our humanity, and our propensity for evil, I think more-so than any other genre. And horror/ thriller writers are exploring one of the true final frontiers left in the world and we don't have to go into deep space or leagues under the ocean to do it. That frontier has been right under... or, I should say, directly above our noses this whole time. We're exploring the human mind.

That alone is a great feat, and there should never be a reason for us to doubt our work's importance.

Stressors

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 02 Aug 2012 06:11:00 +0000

A Chemical or biological agent, environmental condition, external stimulus or an event that causes stress to an organism.

Lately I've been watching Criminal Minds too much (and when I say too much what I mean is too many episodes to be considered normal, but not enough to satisfy my curiosity. There just aren't enough hours in a day.) and I see how certain stressors can cause people to go over the edge, but I believe stressors are a good thing. I think they're necessary.

Sometimes.

Given that you aren't a raving lunatic or psychologically damaged sexual sadist and given that the stressor isn't so bad as to cause injury or depression I think they make us stronger.

I hate my job. Let me put that in bold for ya, I HATE my job. Not so much the job actually it'sthe emotional, mental and physical drain it is on my life that I hate. It taxes me. I feel like it's a giant straw sucking the creativity right out of my brain until I get home and I don't even want to look at my notes, don't even want to touch the keyboard except to do some mindless surfing or downloading to take my mind off of the stress.

And I know I might sound like some whiny kid and I'm trying not to, (so settle down with your stories of how you had to walk 20 miles in the snow to and from work and how you labored for 23 hours a day in a heavy stone lifting facility) I know what I feel is pretty much a universal feeling. Everyone that has worked for someone else has felt this at least once before in their life. You know you can relate to me even if you won't admit it.

A job can be a major stressor. Which is ironic because you work hard to be able to provide a good life for yourself and your family but some people work too hard, let stress get to them and die of heart disease later on due induced by stress. It's not funny, but it's ironic and unfortunate. Tragic really, but it's the American Dream.

Uh-oh I'm getting political now...

But I can't ignore the fact that as much as I might not like it it's a necessary evil. If you're anything like me, a creative person trying to make their own way in the world, then you might not like what I'm saying but in your heart you can understand it. It's necessary to have these stressors (for me it's work for your it may be something else, an environmental stressor putting a damper on your creative spirit) because they make us great.

I had a long string of days off recently. It wasn't a vacation and the circumstances were rather tragic but nonetheless I had a large lump of time that I could have made use of. I'm talking long blocks of time, with no real obligations. Guess how much I wrote during that time. Guess how many chapters I knocked out. Guess how many short stories I completed...

I reserve the right to not answer the above questions...

I had no stressor. Sure I have goals and ambitions, who doesn't? But I had too much free time and I underestimated it's importance. Now that it's back to work I'm kicking for wasting all that time.

Usually for me a bad day at work is a good day of writing. All the stresses of my day job push me to work harder at my night job, my career. It reminds me of how much I really want it and it makes me stronger.

A stressor doesn't have to be a bad thing. If you let it, sure, one stressor can tear your life to shreds. But on the other hand you can use it. Turn it on it's head and make it work for you.

And Another One Bytes The Dust

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 01 Jul 2012 01:55:00 +0000

In my last post I sort of griped about how my fiction/non-fiction ratio was all screwed up and after hitting "publish" I cracked open another non-fiction book and read it at work.

Okay, when I say "crack open" I don't mean literally because it's an ebook and that might damage my boss' computer, and saying I read it all during my 8 hour shift sounds impressive but it's not a full size GRRM novel, it was more like a manifesto.

But it was a damn good read. The advice given was obvious and practical, yet had impact and truth. This one definitely falls in line with the other things I've been reading lately and with my previous post about how conflicted I was about weather I could consider myself a 'real writer' yet.

I already am a real writer because I declared it so.

As soon as you accept that and get rid of your fears of being called out you start to have more fun with it.
Again great, quick read for anyone having doubts or still clinging to that "aspiring" label.

Now time to start making progress on my fiction pile.

Book Rotation (or Brain Confusion)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 30 Jun 2012 22:26:00 +0000

Brain Confusion is a little practice I came up with where I read one Fiction book and one Non-Fiction (motivational, self help, historical, etc..) at the same time. It's designed to work somewhat like Muscle Confusion in sports and physical training where you alternate working different muscle groups in no particular pattern, Book Rotation works the Left and Right sides of the brain (in theory at least. I'm no neuro-genius) in the same fashion.

It's probably just bro-science but I like planing my reading this way so that I'm always reading one fiction book and one non-fiction book at any given time.

However, my finished book ratio is way off. Since I started this I've breezed through 3 non fiction books in the last month and haven't even finished the one fiction book I started.

Stephen King's Night Shift

Maybe it's because I cheated.

Actually while I was reading Paulo Cohelo's The Alchemist

I also alternated between the King book of short stories and this compilation of essays for authors Write Good or Die

But it's okay.. they're very short non-fiction books so that counts as one. Right?

To make matters worse I just finished James Allen's As a Man Thinketh

So that makes three non-fiction books in one month and I'm not even a third of the way through Mr. King's collection.
I'm a mess.
/rant

I guess what I wanted to do with this was share my readings for the month of June, share my cockamamie brain confusion theory and hope that someone out there has similar funky reading patterns and shares my same pain.

#bookwormproblems

Published! Pt. 2

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 26 Jun 2012 21:39:00 +0000

This is a very exciting time for me.

I present to you: "Flowers: A Short Story of Love and Death"

Now this isn't a full length novel and it was *only* self published (be careful about adding that "only" part. To some Indie Authors, that could be considered grounds for fighting!) but what is important is that this marks a beginning for me as an author. It's a first step.

When I decided to take my passion much more serious and ditch the "aspiring" prefix and simply be an author I realized I could go about one of two ways.

I could finish, edit and self publish my first book
I could finish and edit my first book and seek an agent to send it to traditional publishers.

Both options had their own set of challenges but I was prepared for that, until a third route opened up.

I could finish and edit my first book while self publishing and self promoting some of my shorter works to get experience with promotion and get my name out there. Meanwhile seeking an agent to send it to traditional publishers.

This seemed to be a very logical choice (and logical things make me happy). I have no way of knowing if this is going to be the best option in the long run but it seems to be working out so far, and most of all it's exciting to me. I understand the appeal of self publishing now. Self publishing is a sort of self empowerment to an author and it feels freaking great!

So with that I present my first installment of self published short fiction, a truly dark S.S.S. (Saki Short Story) entitled "Flowers".

It is available now on Amazon for $0.99 and will be available on other platforms (nook, itunes etc..) very soon.

Here's the blurb for the ebook:

George and Chloe are High School sweethearts nearing the end of their senior year with a serious problem. The adorable, inseparable couple that everyone sees smiling and holding hands is a façade. Behind George’s doting ways and charming smile lies a jealousy and paranoia so deep it drives him into a blind rage that is best kept under wraps. When Chloe announces she is moving to California for college George unravels and there is no stopping the rampaging, possessive beast that lives within causing him to do terrible, terrible things. Will George be able to take control of this inner monster before it destroys everything good in his life or will he be a slave to it just as his father was?
This is a story of young love and fear, affection and abuse, sunflowers and suspicion, innocence and blood.

- "Flowers" is a digital Saki Short Story that can be enjoyed easily in one sitting, during a long bus ride, road trip, extended evacuation of the bowels, just about anywhere.

So I suppose this marks the official beginning of my literary career. Some authors out there say "You're not a real writer until you're paid for your work." While others will tell you "If you write you are a writer."

I'm personally inclined to side with the latter but I guess now I can fall into both categories.

Thanks for taking the time.
-Saki

Published!

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 19 Jun 2012 03:02:00 +0000

Can I officially call myself an author now? Did I just upgrade from hobbyist to someone who's serious about their craft? Can I now say Literacy and I are going steady?

Not to sound like one of those guys (you know the type I'm talking about) but I've been published before. I've had my work in various lit mags and even by my local library but never anything on this scale. I'm talking worldwide distribution.

More details to follow...

Author Branding ~ Thoughts

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 22:45:00 +0000

Author Branding. Creating a unique visual/verbal niche for yourself. Something I always knew I would need to start thinking about but just thought I could work on refining that later…

But as I’m reading all of these articles on author branding

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/2012/03/20/branding-author-platform/

http://www.bluemooncommunications.com/white_papers/author_branding.htm

I’m realizing it’s something I’ve got to do NOW.

What makes me special as a writer? What makes me unique as a person? How do I want people to identify me? What colors do I want to associate myself with?

I’m thinking about all my writings, what do they have in common? What is unique and is a key component to my style? And so far… I’ve got nothing good. It’s okay, it takes a little time I guess.

One of my favorite bands is Dragonforce. They play “Extreme Power Metal” which really isn’t that much different from standard Power Metal (same chord progressions, songs that are at minimum 6 minutes long, one token ballad/slow song per record) but that’s the brand they created for themselves and it sticks!

So I guess the first step for me is to analyze what is integral to my writing style and describe those aspects with flair. Create a hook for myself. Kind of like a logline for your book, except that it applies to you as a writer/business.

It’s a very daunting task considering all the writers out there who have their own established brand, and all the ones developing brands similar to mine but I have to just remember no matter how similar they are they can’t be me.

There is a certain amount of excitement I’m feeling too that kinda cancels out the daunting bit of this whole thing. I get to be the architect of how the world perceives me. Saki, the writer. I get to tailor the aesthetics of my blog, take cool headshots, design business cards, write better bio and keep it consistent in all my networks, work on how I present myself, and generally run PR department of my life. And that’s pretty effin cool.