R.A. Crawford's Blog: Laugh In The Face Of Dadversity, page 2

Avengers: Infinity Skip

My daughter loves Infinity War.

Now, I’m not just saying that in the way that we dads always do. You know, those guys who are like — “My daughter loves Star Wars, her favorite character is Boba Fett.” Really? Your daughter loves Boba Fett? I appreciate that he’s something of a cult hero, and I love the guy too, but I love him ironically. He has about six scenes and even less lines of dialogue. It’s very unlikely that without being deviously coerced and manipulated by her unscrupulous father, that a little girl could possibly know or care who Boba Fett (RIP) is.

No, my daughter really loves Infinity War. In a way, that is. I mean, she doesn’t care about Iron Man, or Captain America or the fact that half of the entire universe is at stake. But she does love one thing, Gamora. Her fleeting interest in the Guardians of the Galaxy is fueled almost entirely by the movie’s humor and its green-skinned anti-hero.

To be fair, my daughter can just about pick out the women in any and every form of media, in order to declare them her favorite character. Owlette is her favorite PJ Mask. Kotara is her favorite character in the Last Airbender. And, to the point of almost parody, Coco is her favorite character in the aptly titled Coco, despite the fact that she is barely in the movie and, in hindsight, torpedoing my Boba Fett theory (apologies Star Wars dads).

But Infinity War did pique her interest in one unexpected way. She took a particular liking to Thanos, of all people. I mean, we all love Thanos, in a way. But she took a liking to him as “Gamora’s Daddy.” And so anything he did, she enjoyed. Of course, it helped that he has a “glove full of rainbow gems” as she describes them. And she takes no end of pleasure in counting off each gem as they are collected, pointing out which character is going to get beaten up for the next gem, and cautiously asking if Thanos is coming to get any of our gems. Still, mostly he gets a free pass because he’s a daddy.

So given her love for Gamora, Thanos and the gems, how on earth does she reconcile the fact that SPOILERS — Gamora kicks the bucket 2/3rds of the way through the movie? Well… that’s because she doesn’t know.

I mean, look at her, staring off into the sunset all oblivious. Life full of rainbows and infinity gems. What kind of monster wants to ruin all that?

Every single time we watch the movie, and she has seen it 4 times now, I skip the scene where Gamora is SPOILERS AGAIN— tossed off a cliff by her daddy.
And every single time, she asks me — “How did Thanos get the orange gem, Daddy?”
And every time I tell her, “He found it in the water.” When she asks where Gamora is now, I tell her she is missing.

Now I know what you’re thinking. I’m lying to her. Shielding her from the truth. Coddling her. And perhaps you’re right. But given how emotional she got when T’Challa suffered a similar fate in Black Panther (Yes I did the Dad thing and made her watch it. No, she doesn’t give a crap about Black Panther ((Well except Okoye and Shuri — Shock)) there is simply no way I could allow her to watch someone she actually cares about meet their doom in such a devastating way. I mean, I’m 100% certain Gamora will be back at some point and yet I still get choked up watching that scene.

So, before I get the potentially deserved backlash for deceiving her, let me say that I do plan to let her watch it someday. But that day won’t be until I know exactly what happens in Avengers 4, and thus giving me a reasonable answer to the “What happened to Gamora?” question. So don’t blame me, blame Marvel for making us wait.

And if you’re now wondering whether the real point of this article was just to have a rant about waiting for the next Avengers movie. Well, you’re here now already, aren’t you?

Doing The Dad Thing

Full Disclosure: I’ve only been a Dad for like 4 years. There are people with waaaay more experience that new and soon-to-be Dads should be asking for advice from. I personally just follow The Rock on Insta and try my best to imitate him, minus about 100 pounds of muscle (which I’m working on btw). But if I were going to give out any advice, mine would be relatively simple.

Just be there.

Life is busy. And life is really freaking tough. Don’t believe the Insta hype, even The Rock will have days where all isn’t as rosy as his last post. And even if it looks like I’m nailing the whole Dad thing, I’m getting my butt kicked elsewhere. I’m fighting the big author fight, trying to make financial ends meet, and even lost my job earlier in the year.

The only reason I get to be all over the gram is because I make the time to capture those moments. And its hard work, no doubt. Not every dad is going to find the time for Saturday morning football, Swimming lessons on Sundays, Nursery runs on weekday mornings, and your daughters first days of school. If you can manage just one of those things, you’re halfway there in their eyes. All that matters is that your pick your moments and never let them pass you by.

Some people call it sacrifice. The things they have to give up when their kids arrive, but they’ve got it all wrong. Sometimes when I tell my people I can’t make it to their meetup, they think its because I’m being held hostage by responsibility. That family is a chain restricting me from doing the things I want. But its the other way round. With all due respect, f**k those people (if any friends of mine are reading this, I love you really and promise I am very sorry that I couldn’t attend your birthday/coming out/wedding/funeral?) F**k em. I’ve spent years with them, and there will plenty more years to come (unless it was the funeral).

My family is new and exciting. And my family will always be new and exciting (until those kids are 18. After that - good luck strangers, see you at Xmas). Every day is a first. Every day is a rollercoaster. Every day is a new challenge, a memory that you’re going to come back to in thirty years time and bond over time and time again. Like that time I pretended to work from home when really we were just baking white chocolate chip cookies. Or that time when both my kids were acting like total d**ks and I took away all their s**t, sent them to bed early and put headphones on so I couldn’t hear the echoes of their misery. But these are the good times. Even when they’re bad, or seem like they don’t matter.

So make it for bath time when you can, so they can snatch your phone out of your hand and dunk it into the bubbles.

Make it when you can to parties, so you can apologize to the birthday girl for your kid snatching her cake out of her hands and crumbling it over his face.

And make it to dentist appointments at midnight, after an hours drive, when your kid falls over and chips his tooth before bed.

You don’t have to plan 7 days in Disneyland to do the whole ‘Dad thing’. A trip to the grandparents. A weigh in. An hour at soft play. A walk to the shops. They’re all great chances to strengthen the bond between you and them. And all you have to do is be there.

Because if you’re not, those moments (no matter how tiny they might seem) aren’t going to come again.

Dad, I’m Bored

Dad, I’m Bored.

So, I’m writing a children’s book. And this is the star, Millie ☝️.

Yes, yes. I know what you’re thinking. “Bro, aren’t your books all about the shooty shooting and the punchy punching?”

To which I would reply, “There’s a time for bada$$ women flying around the galaxy saving the day, and there’s a time for giving a little something to the writers of tomorrow — so that one day they’ll write about their own bada$$ women flying around the galaxy saving the day.”

As one-half of the parents of two energetic, attention seeking but seldom attention paying pre-schoolers, I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching ways to keep them entertained. And no matter how many new Xmas toys they receive, how many times they watch Moana on repeat, or how many activity classes we force them to attend against their will — there eventually comes and time when every parent hears the same thing.

‘I’m Bored.’

That’s the starting point for this book. Millie has played with every toy she has in her room and yet, finds herself bored of them. She heads off to playschool to have fun with her friends, but when the time comes to go home, she dreads the idea of going back into her room where she’ll be bored once again.

To change her mind, her friends tell her all about the fun they have in their rooms. Not by playing with toys, but by using their imagination.

And this is the point where things get all crazy again, as we go on a ride through the imagination of each of Millie’s friends, as they show off how a simple pretend game with their Dad’s become amazing journeys in their imagination. We’ll see the girls become everything from Superheroes and Pirates, to Astronauts and more. All fueled by the power of imagination.

Here’s a little taste of what you can expect to see, where Millie’s friend Rochelle is having a blast as she rockets her way through space and saves the day from Aliens.

It’s like a sneak peek inside Rochelle’s imagination. She may just be pretending, but that doesn’t make the fun any less exciting! And on the next page, we see the real world that Rochelle has embellished. The building blocks of her imagination.

It’s nice and simple; her in a self-decorated cardboard ship that her Dad helped her build. But it shows just how far your imagination can take you.

Anyway, just thought I’d share our new project with you!

I say ‘our’ because I’ve saved the most important part for last, as every great kid’s book needs a great illustrator. Mine is Kayla Coombs.
She’s literally one of the most awesome Pencillers you’re ever likely to find. She draws some of the cutest and most kicka$$ things imaginable and I can’t wait for you all to see the rest of the book and how fantastic the artwork is. Kayla might just have a better imagination than any of the girls in our book! Not to mention that working with her is a blast. Waiting for her emails to arrive is the most exciting part of the week.

A post shared by Kayla Coombs (@kaylacoombs) on Dec 11, 2017 at 1:08am PST

You can find her and more of her awesome artwork on Instagram — https://www.instagram.com/kaylacoombs/. (Had to post this grown-up Buttercup she created. Because, well, it’s awesome. And so is Buttercup.)

Kayla and I also connected with the common vision of showcasing the power of imagination. It’s one of the most important and liberating creative outlets a person, young or old, can harness. And we aim to take you on a journey of thought, love, family, and fun when it’s all finished.

So, what adventures will the children go on? And will Millie be able to use her own imagination?

If you’d like to see more and/or join my focus group to read it and give feedback, you can contact me by:

Email: RCrawford2057@gmail.com
Twitter: RyanAshCrawford
Instagram: RyanAshCrawford

And you can get more updates if you sign up for my newsletter:

www.racrawford.com/news

Thanks for reading!

Ryan

Originally published at www.racrawford.com .

How To Write A Kicka$$ Action Scene

I’m not the best writer. I’ve got a long of things to learn and some downright terrible habits. But if I can pat myself on the back for just one thing, it’s that I know a little bit about action and how to write it.

When it comes to action, I have about thirty years experience watching things get blown up, sliced open and beat down. My parents were excellent in their job as parents, so they were happy to watch things like Aliens and Terminator with me when I was about 12 months old. And since then, I’ve known little else.

I’ve been through most of the phases. Discovering a copy of Police Story on VHS for the first time. Buying ten packets of fruit pastilles to exchange for that dodgy kid at school’s ropey copy of Ninja Scroll. Convincing my wife that God of War isn’t mindless violence, it’s art. And explaining to my mum that Spartacus is all about the Gladiator battles, not the buff naked men.

And so, if you’ve read my first book — The Trial, you’ll know that’s it’s overflowing with ludicrous action sequences and implausible physics. I even had one reviewer feedback to me that he couldn’t continue because it was hard for him to believe a teenage girl could survive a fall from a plane into a dessert with no parachute. And that happens on something like page 7. Trust me, it only gets crazier from there.

But for those of us that love action, we want to consume it in every format possible. The more ridiculous the better. So my goal was to convert that same feeling of intensity you get from watching a fight, into reading it. It certainly wasn’t easy, but as fans of the book will happily tell you, the result seems to have paid off.

There are a few steps I follow to keep the action flowing and the reader turning the pages.

First up, things need to be short and snappy. Like a classic Yuen-Woo-Ping choreographed fight scene, each movement needs to come and go like a rhythm that keeps the consumer bouncing along in tandem. It’s no use getting tied up in tongue-twisters and complicated terminology. That will only kill the pacing and have readers scratching their heads trying to picture what is actually happening.

The key to all this is planning. All great writers go in with a plan. They set up their characters, their plot, their themes and all the twists and turns that go in between. But often when it comes to the action, they jot down only a note or two. Sam fights Dean. Well sure, but doesn’t that fight deserve as much planning as the complicated love triangle that you’ve weaved throughout the past eight chapters? Plan your action segments in detail too!

When building a compelling action scene, I put all of my focus squarely on the set-piece itself with a few big questions:Why is the scene in the book?What makes it more unique/dangerous than any other action scene?

And why does the outcome matter?

A quick dumb-downed example would be:

Why is this action scene in the book? Because the two characters involved are two of the best fighters in the world. It’s a truly momentous occasion and the biggest in each of their lives.

What makes it unique/dangerous? They’re fighting on top of a speeding hover car.

How does the outcome influence the book? My reader will be squarely rooting for Dean, but he’s is going to lose badly. Which will affect their character arc in soooo many ways.

Another technique I use is to try not to focus on just the action, but the outcome of the action.

A character throws a punch. Who cares? There’s nothing special about that. Punches get thrown all the time. You don’t need to go into tonnes of detail saying he balled up his fist, pulled his arm back etc. We all know how punches work. But a punch can have a number of outcomes and that’s where you throw in the detail:

“The blow left dark, almost black, blood bubbling from his nostril down into the corner of his mouth” or “It hit him hard enough to slam him back through the window, sending shards of glass spiraling down below.“

And finally, the choreography.

Focus on the combatants. What are their characters like? How would it influence the way they fight?

Is she a seasoned kickboxing expert who easily overpowers her opponent with precise kicks and punches and has them intimidated from the get-go? Or is shy, reclusive and physically unimposing, giving overconfidence to her enemies only to surprise them with her in-depth knowledge of martial arts?

These are just a few small tips for putting some punch into your action. Just think about the characters and setup, play it out in your head, and the action should write itself.

If you want to see some of the action at work, PULSE: The Trial is available now!

Thanks for reading!

Originally published at www.racrawford.com .

How To Write A Kicka$$ Action Scene.I’m not the best writer....

How To Write A Kicka$$ Action Scene.

I’m not the best writer. I’ve got a long of things to learn and some downright terrible habits. But if I can pat myself on the back for just one thing, it’s that I know a little bit about action and how to write it.

When it comes to action, I have about thirty years experience watching things get blown up, sliced open and beat down. My parents were excellent in their job as parents, so they were happy to watch things like Aliens and Terminator with me when I was about 12 months old. And since then, I’ve known little else.

I’ve been through most of the phases. Discovering a copy of Police Story on VHS for the first time. Buying ten packets of fruit pastilles to exchange for that dodgy kid at school’s ropey copy of Ninja Scroll. Convincing my wife that God of War isn’t mindless violence, it’s art. And explaining to my mum that Spartacus is all about the Gladiator battles, not the buff naked men.

And so, if you’ve read my first book - The Trial, you’ll know that’s it’s overflowing with ludicrous action sequences and implausible physics. I even had one reviewer feedback to me that he couldn’t continue because it was hard for him to believe a teenage girl could survive a fall from a plane into a dessert with no parachute. And that happens on something like page 7. Trust me, it only gets crazier from there.

But for those of us that love action, we want to consume it in every format possible. The more ridiculous the better. So my goal was to convert that same feeling of intensity you get from watching a fight, into reading it. It certainly wasn’t easy, but as fans of the book will happily tell you, the result seems to have paid off.

There are a few steps I follow to keep the action flowing and the reader turning the pages.

First up, things need to be short and snappy. Like a classic Yuen-Woo-Ping choreographed fight scene, each movement needs to come and go like a rhythm that keeps the consumer bouncing along in tandem. It’s no use getting tied up in tongue-twisters and complicated terminology. That will only kill the pacing and have readers scratching their heads trying to picture what is actually happening.

The key to all this is planning. All great writers go in with a plan. They set up their characters, their plot, their themes and all the twists and turns that go in between. But often when it comes to the action, they jot down only a note or two. Sam fights Dean. Well sure, but doesn’t that fight deserve as much planning as the complicated love triangle that you’ve weaved throughout the past eight chapters? Plan your action segments in detail too!

When building a compelling action scene, I put all of my focus squarely on the set-piece itself with a few big questions:
Why is the scene in the book?
What makes it more unique/dangerous than any other action scene?
And why does the outcome matter?

A quick dumb-downed example would be:

Why is this action scene in the book? Because the two characters involved are two of the best fighters in the world. It’s a truly momentous occasion and the biggest in each of their lives.

What makes it unique/dangerous? They’re fighting on top of a speeding hover car.

How does the outcome influence the book? My reader will be squarely rooting for Dean, but he’s is going to lose badly. Which will affect their character arc in soooo many ways.

Another technique I use is to try not to focus on just the action, but the outcome of the action.

A character throws a punch. Who cares? There’s nothing special about that. Punches get thrown all the time. You don’t need to go into tonnes of detail saying he balled up his fist, pulled his arm back etc. We all know how punches work. But a punch can have a number of outcomes and that’s where you throw in the detail:

“The blow left dark, almost black, blood bubbling from his nostril down into the corner of his mouth” or “It hit him hard enough to slam him back through the window, sending shards of glass spiraling down below.“

And finally, the choreography.

Focus on the combatants. What are their characters like? How would it influence the way they fight?

Is she a seasoned kickboxing expert who easily overpowers her opponent with precise kicks and punches and has them intimidated from the get-go? Or is shy, reclusive and physically unimposing, giving overconfidence to her enemies only to surprise them with her in-depth knowledge of martial arts?

These are just a few small tips for putting some punch into your action. Just think about the characters and setup, play it out in your head, and the action should write itself.

If you want to see some of the action at work, PULSE: The Trial is available now!

Thanks for reading!

Small Publishers — The Nightmare

Have you ever played a really difficult video game? Dark Souls? Kid Chameleon? Ninja Gaiden? Those games that truly make you question yourself. Why am I even playing this? Am I enjoying myself? What’s the fu*ing point? Only to finally overcome the devilish difficulty curve and finish the game, realizing there’s nothing quite like that final feeling of triumph. That’s what writing a book is like.

But what happens next? A win screen congratulating you for being awesome? A prize? A medal? No. The joy is short lived. For your reward is naught but a popup telling you you’ve unlocked the next, even harder, difficulty setting.

And that, my friends, is getting your book published.

Getting your book published is like staying up till 5 in the morning playing Devil May Cry on ‘Dante Must Die’ mode, where enemies kill you in one hit, only to finish and unlock ‘Heaven or Hell Mode’. Where it now only takes one hit to kill you.

I started my journey as an author by self-publishing my first book, PULSE: The Trial. It did pretty well. Better than my expectations. Expectations I had made sure to set at zero before starting out. Sales were okay. Reviews were okay. Everything was okay.

Then, along came a publisher. A small independent publishing house run by someone I had worked with before during my books editing phase. They liked my book before, but it didn’t really fit into with their horror and apocalyptic focused range. But alas, they were about to launch a new sci-fi/fantasy range, for which my book would be a perfect candidate.

Benefits were thrown on the table. Editors would be supplied, along with cover-artists, as well as social media and marketing expertise. And they wanted to sign me up for the next few books in my series too.

I’ll be honest, I had plenty of reservations at the time, but having weighed the pros and cons I decided that it was actually a reasonable deal that would allow me to focus on the thing that really mattered to me. Writing.

And for a time, it was good.

I took down my book. They had new cover art designed and within a few weeks, the ebook was up for sale. And I’d already finished writing book 2, so I handed it over, sat back and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

It’s been a year. I’m still waiting. All I do is wait.

Publishing is slow. We all know that. And I’m a patient guy. But if you’re forced to wait, you expect to eventually receive something worth waiting for.

Sales of my book were iffy. I’d probed for details as to why numbers were down, but it was never clarified. The amount of effort the publisher put into marketing was never quantified. Sure, they put some ads for their other titles into the back of my book. But did I get the same treatment? Who knows.

There still wasn’t any profit of course. I had yet to cross the threshold to payoff the editing and cover art. Even though my book was already edited when I signed.

And physical copies? I was told they would arrive sometime within the next 12–18 months while the press packs were assembled. All the while, I was left mostly in the dark. I only ever heard from them when I initiated an email thread. And I’d usually only get a response saying, ‘Yes. It’s in process.’

6 months in, my contact at the company disappeared. Was she fired? Did she quit? Again, unknown. But I was eventually handed over to a new handler, from which everything began anew. 6 months in and I was back where I started.

A few months later, cover art was finally sorted and it looked like I was on the cusp of release. I tweeted about it and said it was coming very soon. After all, the publisher said it was going to be released ‘within the next month.’

That never happened.

Instead, I got a lengthy email from the director of the company with some more bad news. It seems that sales across the board were down and they were struggling to cope with the amount of unsold physical stock they supplied to bookstores, which was now being returned. Certainly, there couldn’t be talking about me, I still didn’t even have a physical copy.

But they informed me they would be switching primarily to digital distribution and that, given my contract included the promise of paperbacks, I could end my contract if I wished.

That contract is now burning in a digital fire somewhere, as I prepare to bring book 2 to you independently.

I wouldn’t say I regret the experience. Everything is an opportunity to learn, right? And I’ve learned that there is a reason the big publishers are big, just as the small ones are small.

I’ve learned that until I can play hoops with the industry giants, self-publishing is the way for me. The upfront costs, both in effort and finance, are more worthwhile to me in maintaining control and creative direction in my fledgling journey into writing. My projects were already beginning to lose focus and veer away from the goals I set myself, even at this early stage. In the end, the publisher held me back from finding out who I am as a writer before the time comes for me to worry about sales and editions and reviews.

So, look out for Book 2 arriving in December. I mean it this time. Because its a promise from me; The Publisher.

Here’s the new cover art for you to enjoy:

And I’ve got a few other surprises in store for you over the coming weeks. So stay tuned for more and more and MORE.

Originally published at www.racrawford.com .

Dad, I’m Bored.So, I’m writing a children’s book. And this is...

Dad, I’m Bored.

So, I’m writing a children’s book. And this is the star, Millie ☝️.

Yes, yes. I know what you’re thinking. “Bro, aren’t your books all about the shooty shooting and the punchy punching?”

To which I would reply, “There’s a time for bada$$ women flying around the galaxy saving the day, and there’s a time for giving a little something to the writers of tomorrow - so that one day they’ll write about their own bada$$ women flying around the galaxy saving the day.”

As one-half of the parents of two energetic, attention seeking but seldom attention paying pre-schoolers, I’ve spent a fair amount of time researching ways to keep them entertained. And no matter how many new Xmas toys they receive, how many times they watch Moana on repeat, or how many activity classes we force them to attend against their will - there eventually comes and time when every parent hears the same thing.

‘I’m Bored.’

That’s the starting point for this book. Millie has played with every toy she has in her room and yet, finds herself bored of them. She heads off to playschool to have fun with her friends, but when the time comes to go home, she dreads the idea of going back into her room where she’ll be bored once again.

To change her mind, her friends tell her all about the fun they have in their rooms. Not by playing with toys, but by using their imagination.

And this is the point where things get all crazy again, as we go on a ride through the imagination of each of Millie’s friends, as they show off how a simple pretend game with their Dad’s become amazing journeys in their imagination. We’ll see the girls become everything from Superheroes and Pirates, to Astronauts and more. All fueled by the power of imagination.

Here’s a little taste of what you can expect to see, where Millie’s friend Rochelle is having a blast as she rockets her way through space and saves the day from Aliens.

It’s like a sneak peek inside Rochelle’s imagination. She may just be pretending, but that doesn’t make the fun any less exciting! And on the next page, we see the real world that Rochelle has embellished. The building blocks of her imagination.

It’s nice and simple; her in a self-decorated cardboard ship that her Dad helped her build. But it shows just how far your imagination can take you.

Anyway, just thought I’d share our new project with you!

I say 'our’ because I’ve saved the most important part for last, as every great kid’s book needs a great illustrator. Mine is Kayla Coombs.
She’s literally one of the most awesome Pencillers you’re ever likely to find. She draws some of the cutest and most kicka$$ things imaginable and I can’t wait for you all to see the rest of the book and how fantastic the artwork is. Kayla might just have a better imagination than any of the girls in our book! Not to mention that working with her is a blast. Waiting for her emails to arrive is the most exciting part of the week.

A post shared by Kayla Coombs (@kaylacoombs) on Dec 11, 2017 at 1:08am PST

You can find her and more of her awesome artwork on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/kaylacoombs/. (Had to post this grown-up Buttercup she created. Because, well, it’s awesome. And so is Buttercup.)

Kayla and I also connected with the common vision of showcasing the power of imagination. It’s one of the most important and liberating creative outlets a person, young or old, can harness. And we aim to take you on a journey of thought, love, family, and fun when it’s all finished. 

So, what adventures will the children go on? And will Millie be able to use her own imagination? 

If you’d like to see more and/or join my focus group to read it and give feedback, you can contact me by:

Email: RCrawford2057@gmail.com
Twitter: RyanAshCrawford
Instagram: RyanAshCrawford

And you can get more updates if you sign up for my newsletter:

www.racrawford.com/news

Thanks for reading!

Ryan

From Cover To Cover.This is basically a quick shout out to the...

From Cover To Cover.

This is basically a quick shout out to the evolution of the PULSE series’s cover art.

When I first published this bad boy, I had more or less slapped some words down on a page and hit the publish button on Amazon.

Pro tip: it says ‘Failed. Cover file not found.”

After consulting with the Oracle (Google), I found a whole bunch of different ways to get yourself a cover. You could find an artist to draw you something original, hire a designer, use a self-serve art tool or use one of the many pre-made covers available on the web.

That’s where this came from. The original Book 1 cover. Look at that bad boy. Beautiful outer space. Gorgeous planetscape. Love it.

But here’s the thing. When you choose a pre-made cover, you’re committing to forcing the image’s narrative to fit your story. In my case, I was like, “Err… yeah, it’s a planet. Maybe Earth Sure. Or… maybe Raxis. Hey, let the reader decide.”

But let’s be honest. This cover, wonderful though it may be, has nothing to do with the book.

Then in came the publisher, wielding professional cover artists and brandishing years of expertise. I wish I could show you some of the design pitches. Horridly sculpted not-quite-human figures wearing skin-tight leather boots, standing in formation like the Charlie’s Angels logo. Veto. Veto. Veto.

And that’s all I could do. Veto. Creative power was no longer mine. I was merely the manuscript provider. Which would have been fine if my confidence in the designs handled dwindled to non-existence. After deciding that I couldn’t deal with any of the characters being misrepresented, I asked for them to be left out entirely.

This was the second cover for The Trial. Now, a know a lot of people liked this cover. It makes a splash. It draws you in. “It reminds me of Dune,” was the most common feedback I received. High praise indeed. Only one issue. It’s not f**ing Dune man. Seriously. It draws a reader with expectations that won’t be met by the content. And puts off readers who might otherwise find something to like.

Many of my best reviews compare The Trial to the likes of ‘The Maze Runner’ and ‘The Hunger Games.’ Not a Dune in sight.

So when the time came to wrestle the rights of PULSE back into my hands, I embraced full cover design alongside them. So, courtesy of Agata from www.Bukovero.com, here is the new face of The Trial.

That sh*t be poppin yo. A mixture of original art, stock images, and smart design - this is a cover I’m finally proud to share.

And it wasn’t just the end result, the process itself was a huge weight off my shoulders. Agata wanted to know EVERYTHING about the book. The story, the characters, the setting, the technology, the history. She took it all in. She even incorporated the logo that Holly designed for me months ago.

Then BOOM. She outdid herself with the second book cover.

It’s EVEN better. Not only did she do a brilliant job, but she made it look and feel like a series. She added continuity and narrative before the book has even been opened. And she held my hand like a lost baby throughout the process, constantly asking for feedback and checking in as she speedily delivered in just a couple of weeks and for a more than reasonable price.

So if you’re an aspiring author, looking to give your books that shot of adrenaline and dash of dynamism, I suggest heading on over to her website and perusing her services.

You won’t regret it.

PULSE certainly doesn’t.

Small Publishers - The Nightmare.Have you ever played a really...

Small Publishers - The Nightmare.

Have you ever played a really difficult video game? Dark Souls? Kid Chameleon? Ninja Gaiden? Those games that truly make you question yourself. Why am I even playing this? Am I enjoying myself? What’s the fu*ing point? Only to finally overcome the devilish difficulty curve and finish the game, realizing there’s nothing quite like that final feeling of triumph. That’s what writing a book is like.

But what happens next? A win screen congratulating you for being awesome? A prize? A medal? No. The joy is short lived. For your reward is naught but a popup telling you you’ve unlocked the next, even harder, difficulty setting.

And that, my friends, is getting your book published.

Getting your book published is like staying up till 5 in the morning playing Devil May Cry on ‘Dante Must Die’ mode, where enemies kill you in one hit, only to finish and unlock ‘Heaven or Hell Mode’. Where it now only takes one hit to kill you.

I started my journey as an author by self-publishing my first book, PULSE: The Trial. It did pretty well. Better than my expectations. Expectations I had made sure to set at zero before starting out. Sales were okay. Reviews were okay. Everything was okay.

Then, along came a publisher. A small independent publishing house run by someone I had worked with before during my books editing phase. They liked my book before, but it didn’t really fit into with their horror and apocalyptic focused range. But alas, they were about to launch a new sci-fi/fantasy range, for which my book would be a perfect candidate.

Benefits were thrown on the table. Editors would be supplied, along with cover-artists, as well as social media and marketing expertise. And they wanted to sign me up for the next few books in my series too.

I’ll be honest, I had plenty of reservations at the time, but having weighed the pros and cons I decided that it was actually a reasonable deal that would allow me to focus on the thing that really mattered to me. Writing.

And for a time, it was good.

I took down my book. They had new cover art designed and within a few weeks, the ebook was up for sale. And I’d already finished writing book 2, so I handed it over, sat back and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

It’s been a year. I’m still waiting. All I do is wait.

Publishing is slow. We all know that. And I’m a patient guy. But if you’re forced to wait, you expect to eventually receive something worth waiting for.

Sales of my book were iffy. I’d probed for details as to why numbers were down, but it was never clarified. The amount of effort the publisher put into marketing was never quantified. Sure, they put some ads for their other titles into the back of my book. But did I get the same treatment? Who knows.

There still wasn’t any profit of course. I had yet to cross the threshold to payoff the editing and cover art. Even though my book was already edited when I signed.

And physical copies? I was told they would arrive sometime within the next 12-18 months while the press packs were assembled. All the while, I was left mostly in the dark. I only ever heard from them when I initiated an email thread. And I’d usually only get a response saying, ‘Yes. It’s in process.’

6 months in, my contact at the company disappeared. Was she fired? Did she quit? Again, unknown. But I was eventually handed over to a new handler, from which everything began anew. 6 months in and I was back where I started.

A few months later, cover art was finally sorted and it looked like I was on the cusp of release. I tweeted about it and said it was coming very soon. After all, the publisher said it was going to be released ‘within the next month.’

That never happened.

Instead, I got a lengthy email from the director of the company with some more bad news. It seems that sales across the board were down and they were struggling to cope with the amount of unsold physical stock they supplied to bookstores, which was now being returned. Certainly, there couldn’t be talking about me, I still didn’t even have a physical copy.

But they informed me they would be switching primarily to digital distribution and that, given my contract included the promise of paperbacks, I could end my contract if I wished.

That contract is now burning in a digital fire somewhere, as I prepare to bring book 2 to you independently.

I wouldn’t say I regret the experience. Everything is an opportunity to learn, right? And I’ve learned that there is a reason the big publishers are big, just as the small ones are small.

I’ve learned that until I can play hoops with the industry giants, self-publishing is the way for me. The upfront costs, both in effort and finance, are more worthwhile to me in maintaining control and creative direction in my fledgling journey into writing. My projects were already beginning to lose focus and veer away from the goals I set myself, even at this early stage. In the end, the publisher held me back from finding out who I am as a writer before the time comes for me to worry about sales and editions and reviews.

So, look out for Book 2 arriving in December. I mean it this time. Because its a promise from me; The Publisher. 

Here’s the new cover art for you to enjoy:

And I’ve got a few other surprises in store for you over the coming weeks. So stay tuned for more and more and MORE.

The Superstar and the Bitch.Meet Miri and Kandis, the high...

The Superstar and the Bitch.

Meet Miri and Kandis, the high functioning all-achiever and the self-serving backstabber. 

Everyone loves a supporting cast. It’s rare that anyone’s favorite character ends up being the central protagonist. I mean, we all know Morpheus was the best character in the Matrix right? Right??

Supporting roles have it pretty easy, after all. They get the glory scenes without all the heavy lifting. They get to zip in and do something amazing then disappear for a few chapters without anyone wondering why they aren’t getting more air time.

Then again, it’s pretty easy to build bland, lifeless characters that merely serve as fodder for the main cast to bounce off.

Fortunately, that never happened with these two. Miri ended up being the most popular character in the book while others seemed to love how mysterious and downright selfish Kandis seemed to be.

Both characters go on a journey throughout the ‘The Trial,’ and given that many of their scenes were amongst my favorite to write, I couldn’t wait for Holly to get stuck into bringing them to life.

What’s great about writing, is the way that characters evolve from your original conception to their final incarnation. When I first wrote Miri, she was just a silent all-kicking all-punching living weapon. But the more scenes I added between her, Stella and Faye, the more I was drawn to writing a connection between them. Miri turned from someone who purposefully kept others at arms reach to someone who simply didn’t know how best to form connections with others.

Kandis, was my favorite character to write. Some readers found her jarring, appearing from nowhere in the middle of the book to both save and doom Stella. While others found her frankness refreshing. Honestly, my original intention was simply for her to be a bitch. But as her journey unfolded, it was clear that she was a character whose mystery could prove intriguing. What made her the way she is? And why is she even taking the Trial when she is so ill-suited?

I loved writing about these two, and the rest of the cast, so much, that I decided to fire up my very own wiki-style archive where you can read all about everyone in the book. 

So head on over to - http://www.racrawford.com/pulse/characters/earth-academy to find out more and stay tuned for regular updates as book 2 characters begin to surface there too.

Adios