Holy Validation Batman!

About a week ago, I was telling my mom how discouraged I was regarding my book. I guess I need to check Goodreads more often.

Not only did some random person rate it (with 4 outta 5 stars!), but over 200 people entered into the giveaway of 5 copies and over 100 people want to read the book. I'm excited. It's a stupid thing to get excited over, I suppose, but it shifted me straight into the tippy top of my happiness radar.

See, for me, just knowing that somewhere out there, someone read it and enjoyed it makes me happy. And knowing that they read it of their own volition and then chose to rate it toward the higher end of the scale is even better. I can't even describe it properly. I'm shivering with excitement.

It definitely didn't hurt matters that as I was looking at this, "Promise" by Thomas Bergersen came on my iPod. I kid you not, this song is one of my absolute favorites. I could listen to it on repeat for days and never get sick of it. Whenever it comes on, I get so inspired to write and do great things, even if I'm not capable of them.

Well, that's all. I really just wanted to sort of spew my excitement, and it's like, 2am. Normal people are sleeping now.

Not me!

Happy adventuring everyone :)

Currently [re]Writing: Unity
Currently Reading: Hood by Stephen Lawhead
Currently Listening to: "Proud Nation" by Immediate Music

It's That Time

Dust off your keyboards. Renew your interest in a dried out story. Shake out your writing pads & notebooks. Track down your favorite pen or pencil.

NaNoWriMo is back!

In several short days, November will be here. Crazy to imagine that we're already nearing that threshold of a new challenge. For those new to the party, NaNoWriMo is the opportunity for writers (of all ages, genres, levels of expertise, etc.), to band together and attempt a goal that might be insane. In the course of the month of November, hit 50,000 words on a novel of your choosing.

What will I be doing? Well, the rewrite of Unity. Unless if this new story idea hijacks my attention. Or possibly Zero Point. Or I might finish Arthur. This is the first time in a long time that I've left projects hanging. Literally, ZP & Arthur are just chilling until I work up the courage to drag them back into the sunlight.

If you happen to be interested in my goal timeline, this is it. November: rewrite Unity. December: Actually finish Unity (and go to Disney and see one of my favorite couples get married). January: Finish Arthur. February: Knock out a few more stories of Zero Point.

And that's as far as I'm planning ahead. God knows I hate making any plans, let alone ones that have the possibility of cementing into some sort of foundation.

The event today went well. I got the chance to talk with a number of people, both about Genesis and about future events. I've made a lot of connections and contacts now, so that should help open something up for later in the coming months.

So, to tie this back to my original reason for writing: join me! Sign up for NaNoWriMo and give a crack at something insane, but mighty fun. There's a great community of writers out there to help encourage you as you trudge along. Trust me, we understand the pressure of that goal. I'm really going to be fighting to be diligent about it. Crazy - I have to actually find time to write? Ugh, please, can I have my final semester of college back?

Happy adventuring everyone :)

Currently Writing: kinda rummaging through the possibility of this new story. Nothing major yet, just...mishmash plot stuff.
Currently Reading: Hood by Stephen Lawhead
Currently Listening to: "Thankful for You" by TobyMac

P.S. - The TobyMac kick, there is a reason. I just bought his new album and it's kinda been on repeat.

Take 2

I need to be up in five hours. (Aside: I hate that I'm one of those people that counts how much sleep I'll get). Tomorrow/Today, I'm appearing at another event to try to get some more PR out for Genesis. It promises to be a fun day, filled with all sorts of adventuring. This offers a different experience and atmosphere from the first show I did. Not only is this indoors, but all I've got is an eight foot table.

Quite a drastic change from the ten by ten area I had outside in September.

In other news, my rewriting has been stagnant for about three weeks. Whether that's due to my own laziness of late (fighting against lethargy in a myriad of ways), or because I'm actually starting to get a new idea completely unrelated to End Game, I don't know. The other story, by the way, may or may not see the light of day. It might not even be written. But every now and then it pops into my head and I mull it over. I honestly don't think I'll venture far down it simply because there's still so much for me to unwrap with the Tilion world.

Since I really should get to bed, I'll say goodnight/good morning. Have a beautiful day, whomever you are, and if it crosses your mind, wish me luck.

Happy adventuring!

Currently Rewriting: Unity
Currently Reading: Hood by Stephen Lawhead
Currently Listening to: "Eye on It" by TobyMac

P.S. - Anyone good with websites care to explain why my domain won't use my index.html file to automatically connect to the enter page of my site and instead will only display a directory? 'Cause I really am frustrated by the stupid thing. Is it simply 'cause I capitalized the word 'index'? If it is, I'm gonna throw a fit with myself for it being such a simple answer.

P.P.S - Anyone good with websites care to tell me how to link keywords to the site?

Step One

On Sunday, I'm making what's always been in my head a reality. I officially begin to market my book. T-Shirts have piled into boxes neatly, 50 copies of my book sit in wait, boxes of ceramics work are packed and ready to go. Two ladders sit outside ready to be turned into "bookshelves". Sheets of wood are currently covering the dining room table with traced outlines of wings to be cut tomorrow. My business cards are sitting for the first time to be used in a professional atmosphere.

It's kind of surreal.

I have absolutely no idea what's going to come of Sunday. In a way, I'm trying not to get too excited about it, simply because I might get my hopes up. Honestly though, I'm not expecting anything astounding to happen. I anticipate a few books getting sold, maybe a T-shirt or two. But I'm not expecting awards or prizes or even for lots of books to go flying. I'm doing this mostly for PR. To get my name out there and my book on someone's mouth.

So I'll do my darndest to make the most of this Sunday. I'm a little bummed that I'm missing church, but I just have to have faith that this will be worth it. My pastor helped me out tonight in getting a canopy for me to use, and he was excited for me. I guess I'm just lucky to have the support I do. After all, my house is currently filled with my siblings (minus one - bummer too!), and they're here to show their support and offer their encouragement.

My parents have been super helpful in every aspect of this whole endeavor. Saying "I'm blessed" only marginally covers how truly lucky I am to have the people I do in my life. I only hope everyone else has the same kind of support I get on a daily basis. Because I know at any moment, I can text my friends or family members and know that they'll respond with words of encouragement and a prayer on their hearts.

That kind of thing isn't something to take lightly. I try to remember that as often as possible.

May all your writing (and reading), adventures be happy :)

Currently Writing: Nothing at present. After this week, I'm hoping to have more time for Unity's rewrite!
Currently Reading: Finally getting around to finishing The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien
Currently Listening to: "Starvation" by Thomas Bergersen

PS - Sometime next week (or possibly the week after), I'll be unrolling a website for End Game. It's a wonderfully exhilarating experience!

Apologies

I've been taking my time in reading through Genesis via physical copy and have found many a mistake. So for those that have bought the book, I wish to extend my deepest of apologies. Not only have I probably put my worst foot forward, but I've wasted your time and well-earned money. You deserve better, as do my characters.

If you truly feel slighted, let me know. I will gladly purchase a new one for you and mail it to you. No one should be forced to keep something they don't like/can't use. And to be honest, I hope that my books keep you coming back to revisit the story. I know that they constantly beckon to me, but I've also written a story I knew I wanted to read.

News unrelated to my sorry excuse for a first publication:

Arthurian lore is eating at my brain. Reading The Once and Future King doesn't help matters. However, it still calls to my attention at nearly all hours. I can't wait till August so I can let my fingers fly across my keyboard in story-telling again. Exploring this story gets me excited. Many questions will be answered for me and even more will be posed, of this I'm sure.

With every road I travel down regarding my world, I find stories, characters and histories I find captivating. It's why I think I'm always searching down those roads. There's always more story to tell, if I really wanted there to be. Every world, I think, has the potential to grow into something harking of reality. It draws us in and can, if the author allows it, to enthrall and devour a reader's attention.

And that is my sincerest hope for you when you read my books. If I have not done this, well, then I have obviously forgotten something. Or perhaps something was lost. Regardless, it won't be recognized by a larger audience until I get a story that doesn't just grab me. Because boy, does it ever snatch my attention away. I was five minutes late from my lunch today at work because I was so caught up in a story I wrote.

As absurd as this is, I was giggling at my own writing - not because it was bad. But because I actually found it funny.

Lord willing, all will be as I strive for.

Currently Editing: Genesis
Currently Reading: The Once and Future King by T.H. White
Currently Listening to: "Live Like That" by Sidewalk Prophets

All Grown Up (Sorta)

The highest high point of my life has arrived.

Graduating college was great. Watching my best friend get married was fantastic. Writing all five books of the End Game series in a year was phenomenal.

But holding an actual, professional bound copy of Genesis takes the cake (and probably ate it too).

Every time I see it sitting on my bookshelf or take it to show a family member that has yet to see it, I start grinning. Holding it in my hand, fingering through the pages, reading the story in this new medium. It's all so exhilarating. I sort of want to jump around and dance and scream. I even tried to take a picture of myself with the book. My webcam sucks and I don't look recognizable without my glasses on.

So you'll just have to make do with this lovely picture of me.

My book is all growed up. Kinda. I explained to my brother that it's as though my book just graduated high school. In a few years, it'll graduate college, be picked up by a publishing house and go off into the real world.

Meanwhile, I'm reading The Once and Future King like a crazy person, though I don't plan to follow that framework for my Arthurian lore story. That's a little more romanticized and, I'm fairly certain (don't quote me on this), that it's through this version of the story we get the whole idea of Lancelot and Guinevere having a love affair behind Arthur's back. Which is not happening in my version of the story.

Oh, and I redesigned the blog. Obviously. I'm attempting to figure out how to transform this into my official author website. Right now I feel like I've got two jobs: one pays the bills and the other is scraping along meagerly. And, of course, the meager one is what I want to do for the rest of my life. How silly is that?

I'd say only a crazy person would do it.

Happy writing everyone!

Currently Writing: Nothing. And it's driving me a little bonkers.

Currently Reading: The Once and Future King by T.H. White

Currently Listening to: "Hymn to Life" by Thomas Bergersen

Faith

It's a funny thing. You have to just have blind faith sometimes about some things. Faith that something will work out the way you've been dreaming of. Faith of a promise being fulfilled with absolutely no proof that it'll actually come to pass. Faith that one day, your hurting friends will find peace.

I have to remind myself of these things. Because I can do very little on my own. All in all, I'm a fairly helpless creature.

Thus I have left the ledge and jumped off a cliff. Will I fly? Will I die? Will this be the end of a dream, or only the beginning? Or neither?

The absolutely beautiful, crazy thing is: I'm not worried.

Huh.

Happy writing everyone :)

Currently Rewriting: Unity

Currently Reading: Auralia's Colors by Jeffrey Overstreet

Currently Listening to: "Stars Burn Down" by Phillips, Craig & Dean

Gosh This is Hard

You know, as a child I always thought writing was something old people did. No one could actually do it in today's world and anyone that did got lucky and never really had the chance to live off of their struggles. Then one day, I was told that wasn't the case. Then we had people like J.K. Rowling and Stephanie Meyer show up and I realized, hey, if they could do it, why not me?
And now at 23, I realize my child-self was right.
Publishing isn't just hard, it's like, super-impossible. I'm exaggerating of course. However a bit of me isn't. I've been searching for an agent to back my book series and perhaps help me get published. And you know what? As a new writer, NO ONE WANTS ME.
That's also a bit of an exaggeration. There are some people out there looking for new writers, and naturally I will be seeking them out with a video of me crying saying, "Please, please, please take me on! I promise I'm good!" But most agencies, both Christian and secular, don't want new writers.
I understand why. From a business standpoint, we're a major risk. All it takes is a little misplaced faith and BOOM, you're an agent or editor with a crappy book that no one wants to buy and a writer you've got to pay whining that it wasn't their fault.
But then what about those of us that are good? Now, I'm not saying I'm great. I'm not even comfortable saying that I'm good. But I've been told enough times by a wide variety of people that I am a talented writer that it seems a little silly to ignore them. Especially when among those people are friends who wouldn't really care if they hurt my feelings in the process of telling me the truth. Because to my friends, telling the truth and hurting someone is better than lying and snickering behind their back.
All of this to say that I might have to self-publish.
Now, that wouldn't be the end of the world. I'm aware of that fact. However, it really wasn't my first choice. I really would prefer to actually learn the publication process. But hey, for all I know that's the way I need to go.
For some reason though, that road seems so much harder. Self-publishing means doing all the work myself and me paying out before even a hint of revenue comes in. Granted, if it worked well, then all of the profit would come to me (at least most of it would, I think). However if it didn't work well, I'd be up the creek without a paddle.
It's a little discouraging really. I know that the traditional publication process can take up to a year and a half. By then the fantasy thing might be old news. It might not be, but all it would take would be some new fad to come along and suddenly everyone but die-hard fans would hate fantasy stuff. And where would that leave my novels? High and dry that's where.
So what do I do? Struggle along and hope I'm going in the right path? Or take a plunge and a leap of faith and self-publish?
Sometimes I wish for neon signs. And other times, I'm so incredibly glad I don't get them. This is one of the times I wish I got them.
Currently Editing: End Game: Genesis (Chapter 24)
Currently Writing: Alaster
Currently Reading: Eragon by Christopher Paolini
Currently Listening to: "Alive" by Superchic[k]