Off to Space!

November is coming at full throttle, and NaNoWriMo is right around the corner.

 As I mentioned in my last post about the contest, I will be writing a novel separate from the Realms Quintessential series. It's tentatively titled Epic Sofa D and is a Sci-Fi comedy.

My strategy for day 1 (Tuesday) is to fill out my "Theme" booklet for Epic Sofa D. I recently attended a lecture by Lynda Barry  where she taught methods to increase creativity. Based on her methods, I made a small booklet out of a sheet of paper. On page 1, I made space for five themes. On the next five pages, I made spaces for ten images based on each of those themes. On November 1st, I will fill out the themes and images, and be well on my way to 50K!

If I'm successful in doing this, the prize this year from CreateSpace is five free paperback copies of a book. I will save this for The Book of Earth. The question is: do I save those for pre-orders, or do I make them contest copies? ;)

Happy Reading!

Look Here!

Yes! The Book Of Fire is back for Kindle!

I just uploaded it tonight, so it should be live again within the next day or two. The sample is still up on the "Books" page if you would like to try before you buy.

I am very excited to have this opportunity to entertain you. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

Happy Reading!

Prepping for NaNoWriMo

As October draws to a close, I am frequently reminded that it is almost time for NaNoWriMo once again. Last year, I used the contest to write The Book of Fire.

This year, I plan to use NaNoWriMo to take a break from the series, seeing as The Book of Earth is roughly halfway done. My idea for this year's contest is a space-themed action comedy based on a doodle I drew on a notebook last school year. Should I be successful in writing this novel in a month, I will use the free proof copy to print The Book of Earth,  as I plan for this novel to be exclusively for digital format.

Speaking of digital formats, The Book of Fire is undergoing a reformatting. The new edition will have an interactive table of contents. When this is done, you'll see a picture of what it looks like in my Kindle library! Very exciting times.

Happy Reading!

Four Dashes

Today, I want to talk about pauses.

The Book of Earth is still in progress. I am taking an approach where, during creative down times, I am typing my story into a document. In my notebook, I transition from chapter to chapter by using four dashes. As I type my story into the document, I use ----(This Format)----, where the thing in parentheses is what I want to build on.

This is also helpful because I've decided to join some chapters together. This will help vary the length of the chapters. So far, I've added another scene to the back story, some background, and a conference between my main party of characters. This will help boost word count and make for a more coherent story.

My question to my fellow writers today is: what do you do to expand on your works or to make them flow better? Please leave your answers in the comments below.

Happy Reading!

Frequency

I really need to post more frequently.

Anyways, I went home for Columbus Day weekend. Lately I've been in a creative slump, which means more of The Book of Earth has been typed than handwritten. While typing, I am trying to find a "jump-in point", somewhere I can put in new content and move the story along.

As for The Book of Fire, it has yet to get traction under its wheels. I did order some prints of my cover to hand out, and I also ordered a poster to replace the flier on my dorm room door.

My questions for my readers today are: Do you have a blog? What do you write about, and how often do you post? Do you think you post enough?

Leave your answers in the comments, and stay tuned for the next post.

Happy Reading!

Samples!

So you're at the grocery store, and a company has just come out with a new food product. One of either two things will happen: the store will have a booth for free samples, or you will have a coupon and you'll try it yourself.

This is the logic behind posting book samples on my "Books" page. If my readers like the free sample of The Book of Fire, they will want more of the story. From there they can go to Amazon or CreateSpace and pick up a copy of the first novel.

Also, a quick update on The Book of Earth. I took some advice from a friend of mine and began typing up my handwritten copy. The typed copy holds about 3,000 of the 15,000 written words. I also changed the expected release date on the books page from "TBA" to August 2012. If there are changes to that date, or if I zero in on a more exact date, you'll find out about it here.

Happy Reading!