Bernard Jan's Blog, page 21
May 12, 2017
In the Making and Out Now
If you haven't tried to format an e-book, you wouldn't believe what a pain it can be. I wish I could describe differently how I feel about it, but I don’t want to use those words.
I am so tempted to destroy everything I did so far and start for the fourth or fifth time from scratch; this is what I will probably do in the end. I cannot stand the sight of the blank pages and weirdly aligned sections and chapters. If only I wasn't that eager to learn it so I will be able to do it by myself, while having the help of my friends who I am bugging every now and then, my book would already be finalized for marketing and almost out by now.
But it is not. It still needs to be done and perfected because I am a perfectionist. I am not going to publish or sell it until I know that I did my best within my limited knowledge and abilities.
So, if you ask me, when it will be, I can merely tell you that it is in the making and it will come out before I drive everyone around me, myself included, totally crazy.
While we all wait for a miraculous appearance of my soon-to-formatted-e-book A World Without Color, I invite you to take notice of these other four recently published books. I haven't read all of them yet but I surely will (currently I am reading one of them), and I would like you to read them too. Angel, Trish, Dario, Tim and L.T. deserve your attention. Thank you!
Janus: The Devil's Election by Angel Ramon Medina
It's September 11, 2016, only 2 months away from the most controversial election in the history of the United States. Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton are both running for office, but they both could not be any more hated by the American public. Meanwhile, an organization called the Terrorist Killers are investigating a substance known as the stem-cell substance. It supposedly extends the lifespan of a human being and be the next great breakthrough in genetic engineering.
Death by Default by Trish Reeb
An online game turns deadly. To fill the void following his divorce, Detective Conner Smyth plays chess with anonymous opponents. The stakes soar when white chess pieces turn up on murder victims. The problem? Conner's never won a game. His search for a master player leads to a ten-year-old chess champion. To what extremes will he go to stop a serial killer? Risk a boy's life, betray his partner, lose a new love interest... before someone he cares about dies?
Dead Men Naked by Dario Cannizzaro
After the sudden death of his best friend Neil, involving a 6-foot giant crow and quite some Tequila, Lou's life takes an unexpected turn towards the impossible. As Lou discovers his unwelcome gift to see Neil's ghost, he starts to question his sanity; but the real challenge is just coming up. Mallory, a self-proclaimed medium, offers her services to help Neil pass over. Drunk on spirit, lust, and hope, Lou agrees to perform a ritual, which, unforeseen, leaves him alone to face death.
Dead End Girl by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
The most recent body was discovered in the grease dumpster behind a Burger King. Dismembered. Shoved into two garbage bags and lowered into the murky oil. Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. She travels to the Midwest to face a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. Deranged and driven. Another mutilated corpse was found next to a roller rink. A third in the gutter in a residential neighborhood. These bold displays of violence shock the rural community and rattle local law enforcement.
The picture of a mouse I am attaching to this blog post as a gift for you. This is what Anita's cat brought to us yesterday while we formatted my book at her place. The joys of direct formatting! No wonder instructions say never use direct formatting.
No worries, we did not use the mouse for the formatting!
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
I am so tempted to destroy everything I did so far and start for the fourth or fifth time from scratch; this is what I will probably do in the end. I cannot stand the sight of the blank pages and weirdly aligned sections and chapters. If only I wasn't that eager to learn it so I will be able to do it by myself, while having the help of my friends who I am bugging every now and then, my book would already be finalized for marketing and almost out by now.
But it is not. It still needs to be done and perfected because I am a perfectionist. I am not going to publish or sell it until I know that I did my best within my limited knowledge and abilities.
So, if you ask me, when it will be, I can merely tell you that it is in the making and it will come out before I drive everyone around me, myself included, totally crazy.
While we all wait for a miraculous appearance of my soon-to-formatted-e-book A World Without Color, I invite you to take notice of these other four recently published books. I haven't read all of them yet but I surely will (currently I am reading one of them), and I would like you to read them too. Angel, Trish, Dario, Tim and L.T. deserve your attention. Thank you!
Janus: The Devil's Election by Angel Ramon Medina
It's September 11, 2016, only 2 months away from the most controversial election in the history of the United States. Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton are both running for office, but they both could not be any more hated by the American public. Meanwhile, an organization called the Terrorist Killers are investigating a substance known as the stem-cell substance. It supposedly extends the lifespan of a human being and be the next great breakthrough in genetic engineering.
Death by Default by Trish Reeb
An online game turns deadly. To fill the void following his divorce, Detective Conner Smyth plays chess with anonymous opponents. The stakes soar when white chess pieces turn up on murder victims. The problem? Conner's never won a game. His search for a master player leads to a ten-year-old chess champion. To what extremes will he go to stop a serial killer? Risk a boy's life, betray his partner, lose a new love interest... before someone he cares about dies?
Dead Men Naked by Dario Cannizzaro
After the sudden death of his best friend Neil, involving a 6-foot giant crow and quite some Tequila, Lou's life takes an unexpected turn towards the impossible. As Lou discovers his unwelcome gift to see Neil's ghost, he starts to question his sanity; but the real challenge is just coming up. Mallory, a self-proclaimed medium, offers her services to help Neil pass over. Drunk on spirit, lust, and hope, Lou agrees to perform a ritual, which, unforeseen, leaves him alone to face death.
Dead End Girl by L.T. Vargus, Tim McBain
The most recent body was discovered in the grease dumpster behind a Burger King. Dismembered. Shoved into two garbage bags and lowered into the murky oil. Now rookie agent Violet Darger gets the most important assignment of her career. She travels to the Midwest to face a killer unlike anything she's seen. Aggressive. Territorial. Deranged and driven. Another mutilated corpse was found next to a roller rink. A third in the gutter in a residential neighborhood. These bold displays of violence shock the rural community and rattle local law enforcement.
The picture of a mouse I am attaching to this blog post as a gift for you. This is what Anita's cat brought to us yesterday while we formatted my book at her place. The joys of direct formatting! No wonder instructions say never use direct formatting.
No worries, we did not use the mouse for the formatting!
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
May 8, 2017
Post Apocalyptic Zombie Saga
The Scattered and the Dead (Book 1): Post Apocalyptic Fiction by Tim McBainMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Scattered and the Dead (Book 1): Post Apocalyptic Fiction by Tim McBain and L.T. Vargus is a 634-pages-long post apocalyptic saga that warms your heart, chills your bones, makes your skin crawl and stomach churn.
Post apocalyptic might not be the totally-one-hundred-percent-and-absolutely right word, though, because the apocalypse happened, is happening and is going to happen, depending which story we read, which characters we follow, centered around the massive and ultimate doom of mankind.
What I love about McBain’s and Vargus’ writing is the poetry of transformation of the characters, events and their environment. “Action scenes” at the eve of destruction are nothing like low-rated action movies or books. Mitch, Erin, Travis, Baghead and others are not just scattered temporary survivors trying to outlive the infected teeth and stale breath of the new zombie era. Some of them touch us, some of them make us laugh, others annoy us as it should be in the real world. And that's how it is in their real world.
Although The Scattered and the Dead (Book 1) is a lengthy book, at times slow with not much going on, it keeps pulling you further and deeper into, simply demanding from a reader to cross the finish line. Except, there is no finish line.
Unavoidably, we part with some humans and humans-turned-zombies along the way into the uncertain future of the American Zombieland. However, some of them keep going, marching through the green, shabby or dead grass, driving through once crammed and then empty roads, scavenging or hiding in abandoned houses populated with occasional decaying or dried up bodies, or just leaving the nuked cities behind. Scattered but not yet dead.
Bernard Jan
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
View all my reviews
Bernard Jan
May 1, 2017
The Cottage Memories (For Sale)
Today I went with my dad and some potential buyers to our cottage. No working on my book, no formatting, nuking the Word document, no indents, headers, footers, page numeration and section breaks. Just a beautiful sunny day in the countryside.
After such a long time. Two years? I stopped counting.
It's been a while since I was last here. In my childhood oasis. Summers belonged here. With my grandparents, with my mom and dad during our holidays, with my cousin, my uncle and my aunt, my countryside friends.
I spent days, weeks, months here. Years! I spent scorching heats and windy summer storms in Tuhelj. I spent the snow, bitter cold and sledding down the hill. I remember the laughter, the tears, the happiness of a carefree child, the pain of my parents' fights and injustice I did to the ants, wasps and butterflies I was catching in the fields dotted with wildflowers because of their beauty.
Memories came rushing in a torrent, every single detail I saved and stored in the memory space of my subconscious, just to be visited and reopened in the future for the later use. When I am ready for reminiscence.
Now I am selling it. I am selling my past, my childhood and my history, and I am very determined about it. I sell what I loved, the place that affected me deeply and so many times scratched and blooded my arms, my legs, my knees. I am selling everything but my memories because it's time to move on.
The past remains in the grass full of the crickets and various bugs, the smell of flowers, hay and summer evening bonfires, roasted corn and potatoes, the song of the birds in the crown of the trees and the hum of the wind through the woods and the unmowed meadow.
I am closing the chapter about the childhood place in Zagorje countryside, less than an hour drive away from the Croatian capital Zagreb. No regrets because all I need remains with me. It is time for something new.
At the same time, it can be a nice new start, a new page for somebody else. The new beginning with new opportunities. If you think this might be the right place for you, shoot me a message!
In the meantime, enjoy the photos I took today during this brief trip down memory lane, on May 1, 2017, and posted here. I know my colleague Sara Sara will!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
After such a long time. Two years? I stopped counting.
It's been a while since I was last here. In my childhood oasis. Summers belonged here. With my grandparents, with my mom and dad during our holidays, with my cousin, my uncle and my aunt, my countryside friends.
I spent days, weeks, months here. Years! I spent scorching heats and windy summer storms in Tuhelj. I spent the snow, bitter cold and sledding down the hill. I remember the laughter, the tears, the happiness of a carefree child, the pain of my parents' fights and injustice I did to the ants, wasps and butterflies I was catching in the fields dotted with wildflowers because of their beauty.
Memories came rushing in a torrent, every single detail I saved and stored in the memory space of my subconscious, just to be visited and reopened in the future for the later use. When I am ready for reminiscence.
Now I am selling it. I am selling my past, my childhood and my history, and I am very determined about it. I sell what I loved, the place that affected me deeply and so many times scratched and blooded my arms, my legs, my knees. I am selling everything but my memories because it's time to move on.
The past remains in the grass full of the crickets and various bugs, the smell of flowers, hay and summer evening bonfires, roasted corn and potatoes, the song of the birds in the crown of the trees and the hum of the wind through the woods and the unmowed meadow.
I am closing the chapter about the childhood place in Zagorje countryside, less than an hour drive away from the Croatian capital Zagreb. No regrets because all I need remains with me. It is time for something new.
At the same time, it can be a nice new start, a new page for somebody else. The new beginning with new opportunities. If you think this might be the right place for you, shoot me a message!
In the meantime, enjoy the photos I took today during this brief trip down memory lane, on May 1, 2017, and posted here. I know my colleague Sara Sara will!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
April 27, 2017
To be an Amazon Number One
The Unofficial Authors Guide To Buying And Selling Your Book On Amazon: The Top 5 Cheat Sheet by Richard McCartneyMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Indie authors, pay attention! The Unofficial Authors Guide To Buying And Selling Your Book On Amazon: The Top 5 Cheat Sheet by Richard McCartney is something you might want to grab a hold on.
I can't remember how and where I got a free copy of this booklet, but I am glad I got it. It is a timely read for me because I am learning and gathering information on how to self-publish my first novella A World Without Color—a true story about my cat Marcel, in English. Besides, I don't think you care why I lost track of it in the flood of free e-books I've got recently, probably as a gift for submitting my email (somewhere).
The Unofficial Author's Guide To Selling Your Book On Amazon is a small and a fast read but very useful, informative and explosive too! Some advice thoroughly described in 5 + 1 cheat sheets I won't implement because it's not me. Nonetheless, learning about how Amazon functions and what you can do—if you decide for it—to get more visibility and ultimately become a best-selling and hot stuff author on Amazon was altogether an enlightening experience.
Richard McCartney had his saying. What I want to tell you is to consider getting that booklet, read it and see which tactics and tricks you will or will not use to help improve the ranks of your book. Be cautious, though, some of them might backfire at you! The author warns you, do take care with such “black hat” tricks, so be careful what you wish for.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
View all my reviews
Bernard Jan
April 23, 2017
Two of My Books
Two of my books in Croatian are still available for purchase and this is a tip how you can get them!
Cruel Summer (Okrutno ljeto) is my YA adventure/mystery novel with a slight dystopian touch, set in New York City in an alternate reality at the end of the last millennium.
Seventeen-year-old Michael Daniels is a young man who dreams of being a professional skateboarder. He lives with his half-sister and stepfather in a society where people will do anything for power and influence, where child prostitution is rampant, human experimentation is commonplace, and the effects of climate changes wreak havoc on the population. Michael finds out that his stepfather is performing experiments on him to promote superhuman abilities. In an uncontrolled rush of his artificially created powers and rage, Michael beats his stepfather to death and becomes a fugitive on the streets of New Manhattan. His two best friends, Alien and Victor, help him evade the authorities who are learning about Michael’s enhancements and are closing in fast. The truth could provide a justifiable reason for Michael’s assault on his stepfather, but it could also threaten the very foundation of their entire society.
You can buy this book from the website of my publisher Dvostruka duga.
Look for Me Under the Rainbow (Potraži me ispod duge) is my novella listed in a program for elementary schools as a reading of choice for seventh graders.
The murder of seal pups, with their soft pelts and innocent eyes, has come to represent the greed and inhumanity of mankind. It is a tale of the victims hunted for their fur, particularly of a harp seal pup named Danny and his family, and Helen and a small group of people gathered under the name of Rainbow Warriors dedicated to protecting them. Helen represents the future of humanity. Acting in defense of those exploited for money, she questions man’s ability to change and rediscover the human bond with nature.
You can buy the fourth edition of this book from the website of my publisher Katarina Zrinski.
By purchasing, reading and reviewing my books you support my creativity and stimulate and inspire me to push my limits and to delve into new and unexplored literary endeavors! Thank you!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
Cruel Summer (Okrutno ljeto) is my YA adventure/mystery novel with a slight dystopian touch, set in New York City in an alternate reality at the end of the last millennium.
Seventeen-year-old Michael Daniels is a young man who dreams of being a professional skateboarder. He lives with his half-sister and stepfather in a society where people will do anything for power and influence, where child prostitution is rampant, human experimentation is commonplace, and the effects of climate changes wreak havoc on the population. Michael finds out that his stepfather is performing experiments on him to promote superhuman abilities. In an uncontrolled rush of his artificially created powers and rage, Michael beats his stepfather to death and becomes a fugitive on the streets of New Manhattan. His two best friends, Alien and Victor, help him evade the authorities who are learning about Michael’s enhancements and are closing in fast. The truth could provide a justifiable reason for Michael’s assault on his stepfather, but it could also threaten the very foundation of their entire society.
You can buy this book from the website of my publisher Dvostruka duga.
Look for Me Under the Rainbow (Potraži me ispod duge) is my novella listed in a program for elementary schools as a reading of choice for seventh graders.
The murder of seal pups, with their soft pelts and innocent eyes, has come to represent the greed and inhumanity of mankind. It is a tale of the victims hunted for their fur, particularly of a harp seal pup named Danny and his family, and Helen and a small group of people gathered under the name of Rainbow Warriors dedicated to protecting them. Helen represents the future of humanity. Acting in defense of those exploited for money, she questions man’s ability to change and rediscover the human bond with nature.
You can buy the fourth edition of this book from the website of my publisher Katarina Zrinski.
By purchasing, reading and reviewing my books you support my creativity and stimulate and inspire me to push my limits and to delve into new and unexplored literary endeavors! Thank you!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
April 16, 2017
Harry Dennison Review
Harry Dennison by Steve KempMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I am glad that Kaye Bewley asked me if I wanted to get a free copy to review Harry Dennison by Steve Kemp. At first I was a bit skeptical and reluctant to say yes because I had 90 books on my to-read-list (now I have them 106) and had no idea what the book was about. But the word firefighters triggered my curiosity and lit a green light in me. Yes!
I wish there were more stories and novels about firefighters; I do not remember if I read any real firefighters story before Harry Dennison (Fahrenheit 451 is something different and it cannot fit into this category we are talking about here).
Being a firefighter is one of the noblest jobs, one of the bravest callings. Firefighters deserve our boundless gratitude and admiration because they are the invisible keepers of our lives and everything we posses. We are glad we do not have to get in touch with them but we are comforted by the thought that they are here when we need them. Always ready to jump into their trucks on the first siren call, rushing to put out the fire and save someone's life and property. Even if it is only a call to put out someone's burning meal.
One thing we must never forget: Each time the invisible companion death is riding with them, they will never know what they are going to face in the clash with the snake-like flames of destruction and whether lives will be saved or lost.
Harry Dennison is one of those firefighters, a member of the Milwaukee Fire Department, who answers every siren call even after he agreed with his wife about his retirement. He is torn by his guilty feeling about losing his best friend Mike in the line of duty, who appears and talks to him in his nightmares and visions, and by responsibility and need to save Mike's son Coleman from the similar faith after he joins Milwaukee firefighters. Harry is Coleman's father figure after losing his dad, he is his flash-and-blood guardian angel and role model.
A heart-warming humane story about an aging firefighter, who is the link between a dead father and a living son, is warmed to the point of heart break with the story of a cancer stricken nine-year-old child Trevor, who's favorite toy is a kid's fire engine and in whose dying chests beats the heart of a firefighter.
Being himself an Indianapolis firefighter, Steve Kemp used eighteen years of his career and experience in putting out fires and saving people and their homes to give us a precious gift of Harry Dennison novel—based on true events—and set our hearts on fire.
Steve Kemp is a firefighter with a hose and a pen, and the least we can do to thank him for his service to our society is to seize after Harry Dennison and read his story. Maybe some of us will be motivated to realize our childhood dreams and join forces with these noble men.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
View all my reviews
Bernard Jan
April 9, 2017
Lightbox, Cookies, Subscribe
Last week I had entered some strange period when absolutely nothing was happening with my book A World Without Color. Whatever I tried to plan or do was in vain. The forces of heaven, earth and the universe united against me and I could not make a single step forward. The thought of walking into a formatting nightmare didn't help the least in breaking free from the chains of inefficiency and desperation.
Such days and such times happen and will happen again, I have no illusions. The key is in making the best of what you get when nothing is as you want it to be.
And so I did. I continued networking on Twitter and Goodreads (If you don't follow me there feel free to do so) and updating my website by adding the lightbox with a “Subscribe to my blog Muse” (I will be thrilled if you subscribe to it!) and the short notification about cookies.
I don't have to tell you what it means to be an indie author and when someone subscribes to his list, how much it means and is appreciated, how encouraging and motivational this is.
So let's say a bit more about those famous cookies. As the resident of the EU, on my website I have to post the notification about the use of cookies. Unfortunately, it is not something sweet and tasty to eat but, as nicely put by my Wix provider, small files or other pieces of data which are downloaded or stored on your computer or other device, that can be tied to information about your use of the website you visit. All websites use cookies to provide the services and features offered on their website—mine included—to improve their user experience. Once you are on the website, you can either agree to such use of cookies or delete and later disable them, but then you may experience interruptions or limited functionality in certain areas of the website.
Now we are all a bit smarter about cookies after also indulging the EU legislation that wants us, the website owners, to warn you, our visitors, fans and followers, about the little monsters we keep hidden in the secret labyrinths of our pages that will jump on you and eat you alive before you get to click X for exit or close the window!
Don't worry, I don't eat anything or anyone who walks, flies, swims, crawls breaths and thinks, so you are pretty safe with me. My book designer Marijo Kožar from MKM Media can confirm that. He survived an hour on the phone with me on the relation Rome—Zagreb as he was helping me to set up the lightbox which looks much more elegant than my successful but ugly previous attempts with two separate pop-ups which I happily and quickly removed!
You haven't seen a thing and I don't think cookies will tell anyone about that either. Wink, wink!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
Such days and such times happen and will happen again, I have no illusions. The key is in making the best of what you get when nothing is as you want it to be.
And so I did. I continued networking on Twitter and Goodreads (If you don't follow me there feel free to do so) and updating my website by adding the lightbox with a “Subscribe to my blog Muse” (I will be thrilled if you subscribe to it!) and the short notification about cookies.
I don't have to tell you what it means to be an indie author and when someone subscribes to his list, how much it means and is appreciated, how encouraging and motivational this is.
So let's say a bit more about those famous cookies. As the resident of the EU, on my website I have to post the notification about the use of cookies. Unfortunately, it is not something sweet and tasty to eat but, as nicely put by my Wix provider, small files or other pieces of data which are downloaded or stored on your computer or other device, that can be tied to information about your use of the website you visit. All websites use cookies to provide the services and features offered on their website—mine included—to improve their user experience. Once you are on the website, you can either agree to such use of cookies or delete and later disable them, but then you may experience interruptions or limited functionality in certain areas of the website.
Now we are all a bit smarter about cookies after also indulging the EU legislation that wants us, the website owners, to warn you, our visitors, fans and followers, about the little monsters we keep hidden in the secret labyrinths of our pages that will jump on you and eat you alive before you get to click X for exit or close the window!
Don't worry, I don't eat anything or anyone who walks, flies, swims, crawls breaths and thinks, so you are pretty safe with me. My book designer Marijo Kožar from MKM Media can confirm that. He survived an hour on the phone with me on the relation Rome—Zagreb as he was helping me to set up the lightbox which looks much more elegant than my successful but ugly previous attempts with two separate pop-ups which I happily and quickly removed!
You haven't seen a thing and I don't think cookies will tell anyone about that either. Wink, wink!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
Bernard Jan
April 2, 2017
Neon Fever Dream Review
Neon Fever Dream by Eliot PeperMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Two powerful young women dominate Eliot Peper's mystery thriller Neon Fever Dream. At the heart of Black Rock City, an unbelievable story unfolds between Asha and Lynn. A story of love, friendship, betrayal, espionage, revenge, redemption. As the Burning Man festival approaches its climax, at Sub Rosa—the most exclusive black market gathering in the world—events explode in the huge blast of unexpected revelations, found and lost friends, graphic violence and dead and mutilated bodies, organized crime, undercover investigations and investigative journalism, sweet lies and bitter truth.
Passion and love are the only things Asha and Lynn can hold onto when their world mists with doubts and darkens with clouds of betrayal. But the power of forgiveness is the way and the light as the old truth disappears in the flames of the Burning Man and the new one is born on love, blood and ruin.
Eliot Peper is a proven master of storytelling. Once being seduced by his words, it's hard to tell no to his writing. This is the indie author I will definitely keep my eyes on, with the goal, plan and an easy and pleasurable task for myself to read all of his books one day. I know I won't be disappointed.
Please also read my review of Eliot Peper's tech startup thriller Uncommon Stock: Version 1.0 (The Uncommon Series).
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
View all my reviews
Bernard Jan
March 27, 2017
Coming Out
I have been dreading this decision and postponing it for as long as I could—for months, almost a year. Or even more? I cannot tell for certain, really don't remember. It was like a nightmare and I was pushing it away—the further the better—but time has come to acknowledge the inevitable. I have had the water up to my neck; no, up to my mouth!, and with each time breathing in a fraction of truth was exhaled.
My closest friends already know about it, and now I am officially sharing it with everyone. After so much struggle and resistance, I am coming out as—indie author!
Probably this spring, in summer at latest (that is the plan) I will publish my first novella A World Without Color in English. Correction: self-publish! Still hard to accept the thought that I am actually doing it. I have a plan and a time-table, but I am not setting any deadlines for I do not want to put too much pressure on my shoulders. Any day will be a good day for A World Without Color to face the world, with no expectations and only gratitude.
I have translated A World Without Color a few years ago; I have even submitted it to agencies and publishers. But I have decided to give it a final go with it independently while I will keep searching for a literary agent for my novels Cruel Summer and January River.
The self-publishing process started more intensely in February this year when I tried to gather all, or as much as possible, information on how to do it. While I am still learning and asking dozens of questions to my fellow indie authors, I think one of the toughest parts is conquered.
Unlike other indie authors, I have started a reversed process, meaning with gathering information on how to handle my royalty payments from the books sold online, that is abroad. The beginning was a shocker because it felt like banging my head against the wall of ignorance, various information and even more questions that arose during the time. Thanks to many people from Croatia and abroad I talked to, my greatest concern is now settled. At least, I want to think so. But the bitter aftertaste of conducting an international business within Croatian borders keeps polluting the back of my mind like an unwanted alien presence.
Leaving it up to time to handle it, once more I remind myself how things have changed in the course of time of the past twenty years. Writers' and authors' job is not only to make stories and write books any more but also to evolve to a top-skilled self-publishing magicians. Because self-publishing is not easy, make no mistake about that. Publishing (and then marketing and selling) your first book will suck the life out of you and sometimes be a traumatizing experience. You would want to pull out your hair, smash things or just give up everything. But once you are past that thunderstorm of emotions and exhaustion, you will see the sunrise of a day and hear the ticking of the clock counting hours until the cover of your most precious e-book smiles back at you from the vastness of the Internet.
I will conclude this blog post with my admiration and respect to all self-published and indie authors who took pain, shed sweat and hard-labored their way to become both high-skilled and professional authors and publishers. I know how much you loved your books to go through all this and I hope and wish you will be rewarded through your book selling, excellent reviews and the growing number of your readers and followers.
More updates to come, so please stay tuned!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Join my mailing list, subscribe to blog Muse!
My closest friends already know about it, and now I am officially sharing it with everyone. After so much struggle and resistance, I am coming out as—indie author!
Probably this spring, in summer at latest (that is the plan) I will publish my first novella A World Without Color in English. Correction: self-publish! Still hard to accept the thought that I am actually doing it. I have a plan and a time-table, but I am not setting any deadlines for I do not want to put too much pressure on my shoulders. Any day will be a good day for A World Without Color to face the world, with no expectations and only gratitude.
I have translated A World Without Color a few years ago; I have even submitted it to agencies and publishers. But I have decided to give it a final go with it independently while I will keep searching for a literary agent for my novels Cruel Summer and January River.
The self-publishing process started more intensely in February this year when I tried to gather all, or as much as possible, information on how to do it. While I am still learning and asking dozens of questions to my fellow indie authors, I think one of the toughest parts is conquered.
Unlike other indie authors, I have started a reversed process, meaning with gathering information on how to handle my royalty payments from the books sold online, that is abroad. The beginning was a shocker because it felt like banging my head against the wall of ignorance, various information and even more questions that arose during the time. Thanks to many people from Croatia and abroad I talked to, my greatest concern is now settled. At least, I want to think so. But the bitter aftertaste of conducting an international business within Croatian borders keeps polluting the back of my mind like an unwanted alien presence.
Leaving it up to time to handle it, once more I remind myself how things have changed in the course of time of the past twenty years. Writers' and authors' job is not only to make stories and write books any more but also to evolve to a top-skilled self-publishing magicians. Because self-publishing is not easy, make no mistake about that. Publishing (and then marketing and selling) your first book will suck the life out of you and sometimes be a traumatizing experience. You would want to pull out your hair, smash things or just give up everything. But once you are past that thunderstorm of emotions and exhaustion, you will see the sunrise of a day and hear the ticking of the clock counting hours until the cover of your most precious e-book smiles back at you from the vastness of the Internet.
I will conclude this blog post with my admiration and respect to all self-published and indie authors who took pain, shed sweat and hard-labored their way to become both high-skilled and professional authors and publishers. I know how much you loved your books to go through all this and I hope and wish you will be rewarded through your book selling, excellent reviews and the growing number of your readers and followers.
More updates to come, so please stay tuned!
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
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March 19, 2017
The Thousand Years War Series Review
If you are a fan of high-packed action novels, and the rivers of gore and piles of dead, burned or evaporated bodies are your kind of thing, then you are at the right place! Welcome to The Thousand Years War Series by Angel Ramon Medina!
If we still don't believe we are not alone in the universe, it is the moment to reconsider our beliefs and everything they taught us as kids. Earth is under attack and our future and the future of our world rests on the shoulders of a few—a tiny group of four people—who put themselves on the frontiers of the new global war to save mankind.
Angel, Maria, Dayvon and Luis, popularly called our heroes in the three-book series, knew little about each other when the great evil decided to take over Earth for itself. They didn't have time to get familiar and overcome their differences when they bravely joined forces and stood against the new hostile, ruthless and violent alien race called gloobas, who already fought the similar war a thousand years ago. To save our world, they used a new virtual reality weapon, for whatever happens in this virtual world also happens on Earth.
In The Thousand Years War Trilogy casualties are many on both sides though the dead gloobas outnumber a lot dead humans and members of other alien races. Fight for survival is going on in all corners of known and unknown worlds: Brooklyn, Hollywood, the Arctic Core, the Solar System, black holes, outer space. Action scenes line up one after another like in a furious action motion picture, especially in The Thousand Years War and Revenge of the Gloobas: The Third Book of the Thousand Years War, while Framed: The Second Book of the Thousand Years War gives us the brief moment of deceptive break when we get to feel the taste of a normal life of our heroes. In this central—and the shortest— part of the series, Angel, a victim of dirty politics and human enemies, has to justify his good name and his family's good name before he can take matters back into his own hands and sets himself into the ultimate and final showdown with the gloobas.
Even though all three books need additional polishing and editing and the author's writing skills a little fine-tuning (Revenge of the Gloobas much less than The Thousand Years War and Framed), this Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican young writer gave us an amazing sci-fi adventure saga. On 1,030 pages (brace yourself for a long reading!) Angel Ramon Medina gave us evidence of his very vivid imagination and enormous capacity to write much and to write fast!
It should not be left unnoticed that in only seven months Medina wrote, designed, self-published and marketed three of his novels and Angel's Nightmare Adventures short story, which is a 2016 precedent! So whether we like alien-related stories or not, we must give Angel Ramon Medina credit for rocking the 2016 universe. 2016 was the year of Medina-writing-machine and we shouldn't surprise ourselves that the gloobas stood little chances under the onslaught of his virtual pen!
For more information on Angel Ramon Medina please visit The Hybrid Nation.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Thank you for joining my mailing list and subscribing to blog Muse!
If we still don't believe we are not alone in the universe, it is the moment to reconsider our beliefs and everything they taught us as kids. Earth is under attack and our future and the future of our world rests on the shoulders of a few—a tiny group of four people—who put themselves on the frontiers of the new global war to save mankind.
Angel, Maria, Dayvon and Luis, popularly called our heroes in the three-book series, knew little about each other when the great evil decided to take over Earth for itself. They didn't have time to get familiar and overcome their differences when they bravely joined forces and stood against the new hostile, ruthless and violent alien race called gloobas, who already fought the similar war a thousand years ago. To save our world, they used a new virtual reality weapon, for whatever happens in this virtual world also happens on Earth.
In The Thousand Years War Trilogy casualties are many on both sides though the dead gloobas outnumber a lot dead humans and members of other alien races. Fight for survival is going on in all corners of known and unknown worlds: Brooklyn, Hollywood, the Arctic Core, the Solar System, black holes, outer space. Action scenes line up one after another like in a furious action motion picture, especially in The Thousand Years War and Revenge of the Gloobas: The Third Book of the Thousand Years War, while Framed: The Second Book of the Thousand Years War gives us the brief moment of deceptive break when we get to feel the taste of a normal life of our heroes. In this central—and the shortest— part of the series, Angel, a victim of dirty politics and human enemies, has to justify his good name and his family's good name before he can take matters back into his own hands and sets himself into the ultimate and final showdown with the gloobas.
Even though all three books need additional polishing and editing and the author's writing skills a little fine-tuning (Revenge of the Gloobas much less than The Thousand Years War and Framed), this Brooklyn-born Puerto Rican young writer gave us an amazing sci-fi adventure saga. On 1,030 pages (brace yourself for a long reading!) Angel Ramon Medina gave us evidence of his very vivid imagination and enormous capacity to write much and to write fast!
It should not be left unnoticed that in only seven months Medina wrote, designed, self-published and marketed three of his novels and Angel's Nightmare Adventures short story, which is a 2016 precedent! So whether we like alien-related stories or not, we must give Angel Ramon Medina credit for rocking the 2016 universe. 2016 was the year of Medina-writing-machine and we shouldn't surprise ourselves that the gloobas stood little chances under the onslaught of his virtual pen!
For more information on Angel Ramon Medina please visit The Hybrid Nation.
BJ
www.bernardjan.com
Thank you for joining my mailing list and subscribing to blog Muse!
