E.J. Gette's Blog, page 2

4 star review

I don’t think anything is as exhilarating as knowing someone read AND enjoyed your book. The story you so lovingly dumped your heart and soul and time into, and someone liked it.

Thank you for the kind and intelligent review.

Mini Comeback

I have been absent for some time now. I wish I could assure you that I have been writing in all that time but I cannot. The disadvantage to not being a writer for a living is the rest of my life must be the focus first. Both family and my 9-5 job have been taking a front seat…the entire front seat.

The good news is that not only am I here again, but I started the week out with some good motivation and put down 1100 words with a lot of ideas still to come. As well as the 4 star review that was just left on Goodreads yesterday. There is little that will motivate a writer more than a good review. Knowing someone enjoyed my story is a true high.

I will do my best to keep you apprised much more often now, and stop by to share my thoughts.

Happy Writing!

Break Time

I have mentioned before that if I am not posting in my blog, it is because I have been writing instead. When I am on a roll with a storyline I like to keep it going as much as possible.

Well, here is the fruit of my labor. 20,000 words in 34 days. That’s an average of 588 words a day. I could break down how many days I didn’t actually write etc. but I’ll save all that. A pretty good run for the first quarter of my draft. I still have plenty of ideas rolling around to keep going. I am however going to take a much needed break this weekend from much more than just my writing. Monday, I will turn the keyboard back on and break into the next exciting adventure.

Keep on writing!

Writing Excuses

Once again there has been a little lapse in my posting. Let me assure you that if I am not posting, I am writing, and book 2 is coming along at a good pace.

Second, no, this is not a post on the excuses writers make to not write. Instead this is a post on a fantastic writer reference. As a writer, nothing is more satisfying than getting advice directly from a well established author. Now, since most well established authors probably have little or no time to filter and answer questions, I have found the next best thing.

Writing Excuses is a podcast hosted by handful of authors, Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, Howard Tayler, and Dan Wells to name a few. At writingexcuses.com you can find the various ways to listen to this podcast.

Each episode is only 15 mins long. Easy enough to listen to when taking a break from writing. Not only have I found some great advice, some good book suggestions and just good humor. But what I also like is when they give a piece of advice and I’m like “I do that!”

Anyway, if you are an author or a writer, check out Writing Excuses, and keep on writing.

Research

Research is obviously an important part of writing. There is no doubt that any nonfiction work requires research, but a good fiction author should do so as well.

Now the research I want to talk about isn’t the obvious kind. Not the sort of research to be sure what year Mustang the 427 cobra-jet engine came in.

When I’m not writing, I’m researching. Sometimes it’s just random searches about religion, places, land types etc. A lot of times when I research I come up with new story ideas as well. And in the age of information and technology this can be so helpful in creating a better more vivid story.

I don’t have a reading example, so I am going to use a movie example here. This past weekend I watched the movie Monster Trucks with the kids. This movie was supposedly set in North Dakota. I live in North Dakota, and the only thing that clued me into the location setting was the fact that the main character says it’s North Dakota. There is nothing in the setting of this movie that made me believe they were anywhere near this state.

Even if you’re using a city or location you have never been to, a little trip on google maps could make you very familiar with the area.

Here’s the difference: “Jane decided she would take the kids down to the little bookshop up the street.”

“Jane would take the kids to the Red Balloon bookshop down on Grand Ave. They always enjoyed not just the books, but the little gardens and statues out front. Jane herself always marveled at the stained glass windows.”

The difference here is that the Red Balloon bookshop is a real place in St. Paul Minnesota. Just by looking it up on google I got some more details to fill this scene out.

That’s my thought for today. Happy writing.

Writing Crazy

I thought I would share my most recent scene with you. My slightly off elf. It’s a short scene but I think it gives us a lot of insight into her.

 

Did you even brush your hair today Laia? And where are you shoes?”

“Shoes are overrated. You cannot feel the colors with shoes on.”

“You should have shoes.”

“This coming from someone who’s feet don’t even touch the floor.”

Laia rambled around the library pushing chairs back into their spots and picking up books that never got put away. The spirit of the keeper watched her with interest.

“You could help a little.” Laia huffed.

“You know that it takes a lot of energy for me to manipulate things in the physical world.” The keeper replied.

“So you’re just going to stand there and watch me clean up the library.”

“There are keepers to do that.”

“They do it wrong.” Laia remarked as she pulled a book from a nearby shelf. “Look at this. They put a book on forging armor with the trade crafts.”

“Forging would be a trade craft.”

Laia scowled at the spirit. “Making armor is an art.” She marched down the aisle turning a corner and squeezing the book into a space next to a book about metal sculpting. “And they keep putting loud books next to the quiet ones. Flower books do not want some loud mouth war book disturbing them.”

The spirit floated into the aisle behind. “I will be going.”

Laia stuck her tongue out at him. “If you must.”

“It takes energy for me to be here.”

“Why do you even bother if it’s so hard?”

She thought the spirit sighed, but that would be impossible. “You know why I am here. Or, maybe you don’t. It is hard to keep track of what you remember and what you do not.”

Laia shrugged as she pushed a couple of chairs back into place.

“Or what you want to remember and what you don’t. I was here for you, I still am. I am now also here for Keysa.”

“Keysa with the cat.”

“Yes, Keysa with the cat.”

Silence followed as Laia continued up the aisle running her fingers over the spines along one shelf. The spirit slowly faded out and was gone.

Laia poked her finger at a candle stand making it wobble back and forth on its wrought iron legs. “And why do you think they let her and that cat tromp all over the tower complex?”

She moved on before the candles settled back into place. “I have no idea. What is so special about her that she can do whatever she wants.”

Laia continued to grumble under her breath as she pulled a book out, blew the dust off of it and slipped it back into its home. “I am so sorry about how dirty you have gotten. The dust really is quite careless about where it gathers. I agree, a little consideration would go a long way.” She turned back to the candle stand. “Well, yes, she did help me in the hallway with my stones and that terrible man. That does not give her the right to do what she likes.”

Laia stopped next to a table and grinned. Without looking down held her hand out, palm facing the floor, her fingers giving a little wiggle. A little rattling noise filled the empty quiet then a pencil rolled from under the table to bump into her toe. “You are getting better, but I still found you. Hide and seek again tomorrow.”

Her palm still facing the floor she spread the fingers out and the pencil lifted from the floor into her hand. She slipped the pencil into a pocket into her robe and continued on through the library. Tucking chairs under the tables, saying goodnight to each one, replacing books to the shelves and retrieving various objects from the floor discarded by the library visitors. Laia smiled again to herself as she swiped a piece of parchment up from one of the tables and without looking at it stuffed it into her robe. The things others wrote down and then left were always so interesting. She had discovered many things in the books only because someone had jotted down notes.

Laia’s trek through the library finally brought her to the back wall in which was set an alcove. To each side was a spiral staircase going up to the mezzanine level. The one on the right had the screaming books, the one on the left the whisper books. Laia took the one on the left. The steps here were used so little they were covered in a fine layer of dust. She stepped carefully, and her bare feet left no tracks as she ascended. Halfway up she felt a strange tingle over her skin that she had only recently discovered was a protection barrier to keep others out of this particular section. She stepped on to the balcony floor and looked around the small area. Lined with only three bookshelves, each only slightly taller than she was and one small, round table in the middle. The barrier must keep out dust as well because there was very little of it here, which was just fine for her. It was such unruly stuff.

“It is good to see you are keeping your room clean.” She addressed the nearest bookshelf as she ran her fingers over a shelf, making sure the spines were aligned evenly. She moved to stand in front of the middle shelf, hands clasped behind her back, fingers entwined but fidgeting.

“I do like it here with the quiet books. You who whisper of things no one has heard in a thousand moons.”

She went to the third and last bookshelf in the room and looked over the books. Running her fingers over each spine on the top shelf, then the second and stopping near the end. Her finger lightly stroked up and down the spine of a green volume. She pulled the book from the shelf pulled a chair out from the table and sat on the floor. Crossing her legs and placing the book on the floor in front of her she closed her eyes and ran her fingers over the pages. “Tell me your stories.”

Stuck

I was cruising along, whipping out the ideas on my keyboard…and now I’m stuck. I am currently working on a new character that is more than a little off. Borderline crazy actually. But not the dangerous kind of crazy. The kind where you talk to inanimate objects, whisper to yourself and trust no one.

The bad part about being stuck is usually my mind just drifts off to anything but writing the story until something pops into my head. This tends to be the way things work for me, but it can be a bit frustrating to wait for that A-HA moment.

100 Followers!

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Wow! Thank you so much.

This has been an amazing community to be in and I am so glad to be here.

Productive day.

Yesterday was a very productive day. I had a good bit of free time to spend on both writing and promotion. I finished chapter three of the new novel and I am very happy with the way Kalin is progressing. I have some very big plans for the elven brother in this story and we will find out about some of them very quickly in the book.

I also started some marketing promotions and some updates to the first novel. I have been working to make my book seen out there among the hundreds and hundreds of books.

Have a good week and happy writing!

40% Off Debut Novel

Hey all, I just wanted to announce that my first book promotion is under way. Beyond the Great Wood is now 40% off. That’s $1.75 for the ebook. BTGW is available on most ebook platforms and can easily be found on Goodreads.