E.J. Gette's Blog, page 3

Work at it

I know there are a lot of articles, blogs, etc about how much work writing a novel is. The statistic is only 20% of people with the intention of writing a book will actually every finish.

I want to talk about the work AFTER the book is written, even after publication. Now to be clear, I am talking from an indie author point of view. I do not have an agent or a traditional publisher. I don’t even have a personal assistant. That means I do all the work myself.

So, now my debt novel is out in ebook format. I spent 4 months editing, both story edits and copy edits. And if you think staring at a computer screen for 4 hours and correcting spelling and grammar is easy, you’re not ready to publish a novel. I wrote and released two short stories to open some doors up before I published the novel. In this way I could get a feel for using the ebook publishing platforms and start up my author pages, plus start building an audience and following.

Now that my novel is out, I have already rewritten the blurb twice, I have hired someone to create a new world map for me, and someone else to create a new cover for me. I will admit, the map creator sort of fell into my lap. The cover artist though I posted, sent out feelers, looked at different past work and talked about details. This was two day of work just to find someone. Then comes editing details of the cover, resubmitting approving and then I have to add it to the ebook itself. I am also starting a new promotion on the book this week. Having Amazon mark the book down 40% is the easy part. Then I have to submit the books details and links to various promotion sights, and cross my fingers it is accepted. During all of this I continue to work on book 2, blog, be active in social media, inquire on blurb and cover for book two etc.

This is a second job, whether I’m being paid or not, I am putting in a full weeks work to do the best I can to make this work. Publishing a book is not for the squeamish, the lazy or the procrastinator. I generally like to sugar coat things. I will not sugar coat this. It is not easy. If you have any doubt of whether you can do this or not, don’t.

If you are going to continue…I wish you all the luck and happy writing!

Book 2 Scene

I have been working on this scene for book 2. This is both and informational, and pivotal scene in which Keysa finds out a lot about her peoples past. I’m not sure I am entirely happy with it yet, but I wanted to share.  Any comments would be appreciated, even if you think it stinks.

 

Keysa moved to stand next to where Laia knelt before a small rise in the earth. No higher than her waist and twice as wide. At the top was a tangle of roots and branches that resembled a chair and upon that one of the most beautiful creatures she had ever seen. He looked much like an elf but much smaller, about as tall as her leg was long, sitting straight backed on the tangled throne. His hair shone golden and hung about his shoulders. On his head was a crown of brambles woven with white roses. His silver eyes seemed to glitter as he looked her over as she just stood there in awe of the entire scene.

“Two elves in my court. What a day this must be.”

Keysa blinked when he spoke. The speech surprised her for some reason as if she hadn’t expected him to be able to communicate with them at all. He speech was flat but lilted. There had been no true joy or surprise in his statement.

Keysa almost jumped when Laia moved, placing the plate of polished stones at the foot of the hill and looked up in time to see the creature upon the hill smile.

“Keysa of the Taurhin clan. What drives you to follow my servant into my realm this twilight?”

Keysa started again as he spoke her name. “How do you know who I am? Who are you and what are you doing to Laia?”

The creature gave a dismissive wave. “Questions, questions questions. Something you always seem to be full of child.” His face tightened and a shadow seemed to pass over it. “I am the one who asks the questions here.”

“I am not a child.” Keysa huffed, a bit louder than she had intended.

“Quiet. Do you even know where you stand Keysa of the Taurhin. In the summer court you have no sway.”

“The what?”

He stood from the tangled throne and moved forward two small paces. “Your people know nothing anymore. You have spent too much time with the humans, are too much like them. Once you and I were one. The elves and the seely holding court together every solstice. Now you work and arrange order in your lives.”

Keysa started to tremble. She felt like a child being scolded by her father. It was not from fear that she shook but from anger. She hadn’t done anything wrong and only wanted to look out for Laia. Confusion at all the things this creature was throwing at her.

The creature stepped forward again, quickly flanked by a handful of others, some male, some female, all shapes and sizes and even some with wings. She suddenly felt defensive and reached into the ground for the magic and gasped.

Nothing. There was nothing her for her to draw upon.

The creature and those around him laughed. “You cannot use your power here. Even if you can use the deep magic, here the power is mine alone.”

Keysa took a deep breath and let it out slow to steady herself. Her anger had gotten the best of her and the situation was only getting worse.

“I…I only wanted to help Laia. I wondered at where she went at night.”

“The elven girl brings me my offering at twilight.” He laughed again.

“For what? What purpose could there possibly be in brining you a plateful of shiny rocks?”

“Because I can. Because they look good in my garden.”

Keysa stood there for a moment, not expecting such a flippant answer.

The creature on the hill waved his hand and two of those next to him flew down to snatch up the plate of stones making Keysa take a step back in surprise. The others on the hill flitted over to the right and Keysa watched at the branches and underbrush parted with a sparkle of light leaving a path paved with the same polished stones that Laia brought.

Keysa looked to the hill again as the small creature there sighed heavily. “I suppose the only way to solve this matter is to educate you. Come and I will show you what no one but the fae have seen in a thousand years.”

The eyes that watched her flashed and she felt compelled to move so she did. Walking over the stones with stiff steps that did not seem to be her own. She took a look back at Laia, still kneeling at the base of the hill.

“She will be fine and she will wait until I dismiss her.” The creature had suddenly appeared beside her, walking the path next to her.

As they went the foliage along the path spread out father and farther and until they moved past it and entered into a grove that took her breath away. Flowers of every kind, tall broad leaved plants, sparkling stones all surrounding a glittering pool of water. Golden sand sparkled in the filtering rays of sunlight and the creature with her sat down on it waving her to do the same.

“Do I start with who I am, or with who you are?”

“Are you always so confusing?”

“Another question.” He frowned and looked out over the pool. “Who am I then. I am Amanon.”

“Are you king here?”

“Of a sort I suppose. Mostly just someone to speak for the rest of the fae should the need arise. Which it does very little these days.”

Keysa’s brow wrinkled. “The fae, the summer court, so many things you talk about that I don’t even know of.”

Amanon sighed again. “It maddens me to know what an influence your people leaving has cost you. You do not even know what or who you are anymore.” He paused, looking over at her, looking into her. “Though you, you are different Keysa. And because of this I will explain to you.”

The fae king waved his hand toward the shimmering pool and a breeze blew across it bringing with it leaves and dust, colors and glittering sand swirled over the water and began to take shapes in front of Keysa’s eyes. She only stared at the scene before as Amanon began to speak again.

“A thousand years ago, before the elven queen, all the fae were as one race.”

“There was a queen?”

Amanon waved a hand at her. “Hush!” Her mind quieted and she was drawn to the images over the pool again.

“The races you now know as goblins, fairy, bovar, harpies, elves and more were all the fae. Magic was free and used wantonly for any reason that suited our needs. Our whole life was a childhood, playtime. There was no order, nor cares for what the future might bring. The only differences being the seely and the unseely.”

Keysa watched over the pool as colorful glittering images of these races ran thorugh the forests together, ate together and seemingly played all sorts of games. There were fights but they ended in laughter and more games. There were no farmers, no gatherers, no builders and no blacksmiths. Sleep was only taken when exhaustion took over.

“We here in this wood are what remains. We are the summer court, the seely. Mostly we bother no one unless one of us takes to some mischief now and then. Your friend kneeling before the knoll for example.”

The images above the pool lost their form and sparkle and became various forest flotsam again, blowing back to wherever they came from. Keysa found she was breathing heavily and her heart was racing.

“Why are you making Laia bring you the stones?”

Amanon chuckled, “She had wandered into the wood. She should never have been able to find us but there is something special about her, and something broken. It was only a prank at first to frighten her. But after I ordered her to start bringing me polished stones, she did. She comes every three days at twilight. I saw no reason to stop her.”

“What’s wrong with her?”

“She has been broken. Someone or something has tried to split her from her magic. She is fae, she is magic. There is no way to separate the two and it has left its mark.”

Keysa stared at the fae king and shook her head. “Why, why would someone do that?”

“There is an answer, but not one you should seek.”

“I need to know, for her.”

“And for someone else I think.” Amanon replied then nodded. “If you truly want the answer than you will to seek out the winter court. Find the unseely, speak to the sluagh, they will have your answer. I will warn you now. I do not advise this action. The unseely are too unpredictable and do not tolerate visitors. Though it could be entertaining just to watch what happens to you.”

Happy Monday!

It was a good weekend in my world. At least on the writing side of things. I have chapter 1 and 2 written and then jumped to a scene I had to get down on paper. The new scene will be about chapter 5 or 6. Now to fill in the gaps.

I had taken the dogs out for a walk on Sunday morning and as I walked this scene just started going in my head. The feeling, the look the banter between the two characters. As soon as I got home and fed the dogs I plopped down on the couch and wrote about 1900 words in 40 minutes. I have had a streak of writing like that in a while and it feels good.

I have very high hopes for this story as the web becomes more and more tangled.  I will give the scene a once over this week and post it here for any input.

Happy Writing!

Debut novel makes sales!

I am happy to report sales on my debut novel. I am so excited to know that there are people out there with my big on their reading devices. A little nervous at the same time. We are our own worst critics and I always fear that someone will hate it. Or worse, hate it and make sure they tell me about it!

If you need something to read, please check out my debut fantasy novel, Beyond the Great Wood. It is available in ebook format only for the time being. Available from Goodreads and Amazon as well and Nook and Kobo.

Writer Modes

I am finding it hard to keep myself in 1st draft mode. I spent so much time editing that I keep going back and rewriting, deleting, and being overall perfectionist. I keep having to tell myself, just write, write, write and worry about editing later.

I am going to reset the countdown on my blog here for a first draft deadline. Both to keep me focused and on task and to let my readers know what my progress is.

I have a notebook full of ideas right now, and probably enough of an outline to take me through 6 or 7 chapters. So I need to just buckle down and pound them out.

Happy writing!

Back to Work…Works?

I am back from a very needed ten day vacation. Six states later I am back home and now it’s time to get back to work. Actually back to works? Is that plural for work? I am back to my 9-5 job, the one that pays the bills, and back to writing and promoting.

I did manage to get chapter one for book two. Not anything to brag about over ten days. What was more of an accomplishment was the amount of ideas I managed to pen down in my journal. I have pages and pages to carry me through for a while. So writing commences and the ideas flow and book two is in production.

My debut novel is has been out for twelve days now. I need to work on promoting that as well. I am happy to say, I am officially a paid author now though. It’s not much, but baby steps, right?

I will also get back to reading my fellow bloggers.

Happy writing!

Elven poem

So I have been working on a poem…sort of. That fills in some history gaps in my elven lands for the main character.

The sky wheel forever turns

Wind blows and grasses bend

The elven lands

The clans defend

When times come hard

When the darkness grows

Threat and danger

And deep magic flows

The clans unite

Elven warriors fight

The time is right

For the queens might

When siblings born

With eyes of slate

Destined for more

A path that’s great

The best with steel

No one can match

Blade

Sword

Delivered with wrath

When she goes to war

He’ll follow her

Brother

Champion

Great defender

Deep magic sleeps

Awaits the queen

Only one can awaken

A might that’s keen

Air

Fire

Earth

Desire

The four are one

It is the hour

Deep magic calls

The queens true power

It wasn’t enough

She wanted more

To be a god

Is what she swore

Siblings split

He wanted none

Her goal is set

She’s just one

He saves his kin

From wrongful end

Her power is stripped

And is her end

Worth it!

I survived 15 hours in the van with 4 kids!

This was actually a great trip. The kids did really well considering how much time we spent on the road.

Why am I posting this on my writing blog? Because with 15 hours, of which I only drove about 5. I jotted down all sorts of ideas for book two and have come up with two scenes.

I’m still not sure what the best part was. Coming up with great ideas of belting out Bon Jovi songs while driving through Indiana.

Happy writing

10 Days of Discovery

Tomorrow I will be starting my 10 days of vacation. A lot has been going on with my 9-5 job, personal life and of course I finished my novel, almost, by my deadline. I will not be completely absent. I will be spending a lot of the driving time catching up on all the blogs I have neglected the past few weeks. I will also drop in the occasional post.

I am looking forward to this not only because I just love to be outdoors and seeing new things, and of course spending time with my family. But it will give me the chance to explore new feelings, emotions, watch some new people. All things that can be used later while writing. Every new sight, every new emotion, every new interaction with people are things we store in are brains. These memories are the vault in which a writer uses.

On that subject. It was one of the hardest things for me to learn. Using my own memories and emotions. Really putting those emotions into the story. As a writer, we have to give a piece of ourselves to the story, that means bearing a part of our self to the readers.

Be well, and happy writing!

The Journey Starts Again

Ideas for book two are already hitting paper. There has been a lot of brainstorming done and ideas aplenty for the entire story arc. I would like to say thank you to fellow author Lizzie Vega, who has given me a lot of paths to mull over.

It is interesting brainstorming with another author in a different genre. Lizzie writes paranormal fiction. But we seem to bounce ideas off of each other well.

I would also like to thank fellow blogger A. R. Jung. If you haven’t seen her blog you should. She is currently chronicling various mythical and fantasy creatures. A few which I have used.

Book two we will still see Keysa but I am going to flesh out Kalin’s abilities some more.

Stay tuned for updates and samples along the way.

Happy writing!