Damon Alan's Blog, page 16

Variety

I'm not sure how many writers do it, whether they work one piece beginning to end, or if they have a variety of pots simmering in the fire.

I was the one piece sort of guy.  Now I appear to be the opposite.

I have the Dark Seas series, two books of which are complete and one book is about 1/3 done.

I have a political thriller that makes a statement about how the US is becoming much less free and stifles innovation with each step away from that freedom.

I have a short story in the works that is 3.5K words now but probably about 10K words finished. A fantasy piece.

I have an idea for a post-apocalyptic sci-fi that I'm considering writing on a bit today.

Earlier I had an idea about time travel that it probably wouldn't be too hard to work into a story.  Time travel/parallel universes/state of consciousness sort of thing is what first came to mind.

The thriller and post-apoc would be one off novels.  The short story could conceivably turn into a series of short stories about the same heroes.I have no idea what the time travel thing is yet. What's true is that there is no shortage of ideas demanding my attention, but there is both a shortage of time and endurance to get to them. 

Plus soon I want to write a piece about my GTI.  And I'm considering a non-fiction piece on agnosticism for the average dude.

So much variety.  Too bad words don't flow to paper as easily as they flow through neurons.

Not everything is a book.

Hard to believe that an author doesn't put all their time into the books, right?

'Tis sad, but true.

My wife is creating a company to make card games, and I've designed a card game for her to release. It's called All or Nothing and will be going up on Kickstarter "soon™", I believe.

Publishing a card game isn't all that different than getting a book published.

You have to write the game. Design the cards (like cover design in a way) and then find someone to print it.  Unlike a book, there aren't businesses lined up to print your cards, distribute it, and sell it on Amazon for you at a reasonable price. I'm pretty sure the companies that do print cards make a lot higher profit margin than those that print books. I do realize that there is difference in paper quality, which is probably a big deal, but a deck of cards is more to print than a 400 page book. 

But if you look on retail stands, a custom card game is pretty close to the same price as a trade paperback book.  Which means, per copy sold, my books will be more profitable than a card game.

But not everything is about money. 

Sometimes it's about checking that box.  I wrote a book.  I created a game.  I did X, Y, or Z in my life.  That's partially what this is about.  Diversity of experience, and yet another thing my kids can look back on when they're reflecting on my life someday.  I want them to say, "Dad lived.", not "Dad just sat around."

Not to mention they get the legacy.  If any of this stuff goes big, they get to inherit that.

In the end, it's our deeds, our creations, and our impact on the lives of others that survive us. 

I can think of worse fates than being remembered for games and books.

Next book

I've been working hard and fast on my next book in the Dark Seas Series, On the Shores of a Dark Sea.

Tonight I was editing and got to the point I don't think I was catching much.  Time to shift gears when that happens, so I got to work on the cover for that book.

Here it is, in preliminary form.  Changes happen, but I sort of like this one.  It grows on me as I look at it.



All of the art is original, of course, except the galaxy image that I lifted from my friend the Hubble Telescope.  The ocean was originally a photograph as well, but I edited it so heavily it doesn't look very much like the original photo. 

This book has a gas giant, although it would probably be a lot darker than the one pictured. It would be the color of coal most of the time. There is a scene by the ocean, in fact it's a fairly pivotal part of the book. The sky is green, the star in this star system is a K4 orange dwarf and the atmosphere of Refuge is different than Earths. Since the star is one step down on the spectrum from our G2 class yellow dwarf, I stepped the sky down on spot as well.  From blue sky to green sky.  Just a whim thing, I don't have any idea if that would actually happen.

Tomorrow I'm back to editing text.  If nobody has any objections to this cover on here or Facebook, I'll probably be published in the next few weeks.

Proofs

Got proofs for the print copy in today.  Now to get them looked over and upload corrected text.  I found a couple of typos, and will give the books to friends to find others.

Ebook sales are running along better than I expected, to be honest, which is a great surprise.  The print version will be available on Amazon only, which is both to keep the price down ($9.99) and also because I'm well aware that Amazon is the 800 pound gorilla in this market.

So I'll get reading and get the book in place for those who don't want a Kindle copy.  Which is $2.99 or Free to Kindle Unlimited users, btw.

Here's what the print version looks like.  I did my own cover, but am immensely pleased with it.


Yep.  I'm pretty hyped.

Release

The Anvil of Dust and Stars released today, at 12:01am EST, a mere three hours ago. 

This is a very exciting time for me personally, and a milestone in my life. 

If you like military sci-fi and/or space opera, give it a shot and let me know what you think.

http://www.amazon.com/Anvil-Dust-Fire...

If you like it, please leave a good review. It's the measure of success that will motivate more output and a continuation of Sarah Dayson's story.

Signs of Progress

I plan on releasing my 2nd book in my sci-fi series in a few months.  Few might be anything from 2-6 in this case, however.  It certainly needs a going over and an application of the lessons I've learned in the last year. 

I was hoping it would be easier. But nooooo, I have to work for it. :)

The good news is I've got the bug not to let the bad stuff hit the market with my name on it, hopefully that's the case. 

But another book is coming.  Then another. And so on.. just like that hair shampoo commercial from oh so long ago. And so on, and so on, and so on....

Shallow Hal

I go to critique group every Sunday.  Most people go to church, I sit in the temple of words known as Pike's Perk Coffee Shop and go over the words of my peers and they go over mine.  We discuss how we can make ourselves better at our art, and talk about our personal lives. We're both friends and professional partners.

With that said, my critique group showed me just how shallow I am as an author yesterday. One of the stories of my fellow authors contains a woman who has lost a child in her womb and is fleeing from her life. In doing so, she puts herself in danger.

One of my compatriots said, "I understand that her reflection on the empty beach house as a reflection of the emptiness of her womb."

I'm pretty sure I did a double take.

To be fair, I don't read women's fiction except what my critique partners share with me. It's not my cup of tea, but then I'm sure they're not all fans of my sci-fi and thrillers either. 

But I realized, I suppose, that I'm shallow. Empty house, empty womb? Really?  I read those words and thought, at best, "Oh, the house will remind her that this is where she wanted to raise her child."

I read the words. I take them pretty literally. It's the same when I write the words. If, someday, someone is reviewing my works and says, "Here, when the spaceship is penetrated by the missile, he's talking about Sarah Dayson's vulnerability as a woman..." Bullshit. I mean, and you can quote me, that the SHIP got hit by a MISSILE. LOL!

I have not hidden any meanings. I do not consider my story to be a metaphor for some other state of human existence. I simply write the words to tell as good of a story as I can tell. Not to really educate anyone about anything, but simply to entertain.

That's called commercial fiction, in my case.  I didn't pick up any life altering lessons from Indiana Jones. Or Luke Skywalker. Or even James Bond. What I was, quite frankly, was entertained. Which, as a guy, is one of my top priorities. Simply not being bored is good enough for me.

Been a while.

Sometimes life gets out of control.  Gets a bit confusing, and we let some things drop through the cracks.  That's what I've done with this blog.

I created another site that I intended to use for my blog, but that really wasn't so convenient. Apparently, for the largest part of 2014, this wasn't either.

A lot has happened in a year.  We moved to the west side of Colorado Springs.  Love it, we're going to move again in May and upscale our house choice a bit.

I have the first book in the Dark Seas series done.  It's available on Amazon on 1/31/15.  Here is the link.

http://www.amazon.com/Anvil-Dust-Fire-Dark-Seas-ebook/dp/B00RY202VO/ref=pd_rhf_gw_p_img_4

If you have Kindle Unlimited, you can read it for free. I'm not sure I've mentioned on here before, I'm a huge Amazon fan, so I have gone exclusive with them. The Anvil of Dust and Stars is part of Kindle Select, which means Amazon has exclusive rights. In return they do a bit better promoting me and I still get paid even if the Unlimited crowd read my book.

Book 2 is done, but I want to make just a few more editing passes through it.  I also need to make a cover for it, I designed the one for Book 1 as well.  I'm going to keep a similar theme.

One of my kids got moved up a grade, that's a huge deal.

That's it for now.  Now that I'm published I'm going to try to pick up my blog posts again.  It's easy to let things slide when you're hammering away at novels.

'Til next.

9 days

Nine days to go until the Pike's Peak Writer's Conference.  I finished both books. Are they as polished as they can be?  No, probably not.  I may work on them some more in that regard.  But both are written, and sitting at 76K and 79K words, books 1 and 2 respectively.

I'm trying to figure out what to do with myself for the next few days.  I suppose I should get some 3x5 cards and get my pitch process down. 

After all, selling the books is as important as writing them.

Change of plans... because plans change.

I got a few requests for my novel from agents.  The answer from one of those agents led to a change in my plans.

I have turned my book into two books. I was sitting on a 105,000 word novel.  The agent replied to me stating that most agents want new authors to be at 80,000 words.  So I was either going to have to cut 25,000 words... or I was going to have to break some material off into another book.

I cut 30,000 words off actually, and am now, after much typing, sitting on two 75,000 word books. I wrote 45,000 words of prequel to what had originally been in one book.

So my novels are in this situation:

Book 1:  Born of Dust and Fire.  74,207 words complete. I have it printed, and will do two rounds of editing between now and April 24th, the Pikes Peak Writer's Conference.

Book 2: On the Shores of a Dark Sea:  75.553 words complete. I will print it and revise it once to ensure it conforms to the story now told in book 1.

Book 3: Legacy: 20,000 words or so done.  I expect it will be complete by mid-Summer.

Book 4: Child of Man: Just an idea, no  words.  But I know what story it needs to tell.


So I'm about 140,000 words from a complete series... unless there is a book 5, which is a possibility if the story of the Hive and the Adepts gets too big for 80K.



There are two books on the edge of completion!  Thanks to the agent who told me 105K was way too much.

I can handle two published books instead of one.  Now to find an agent.  PPWC here I come.

On a side note, I got business cards today.  They don't really say much, just a gimmick to hand out at  conventions.