Scott Appleton's Blog

The Vision for a Story’s End

Today I finished reading the second book in Patrick Rothfuss’s Kingkiller Chronicles and it left me reflecting on the importance of a story’s end. Why do we read a story, and especially a fantasy? Do we want to be dragged into the lives of characters that are endlessly searching without a resolution in sight? I venture most of us do want the story to have a resolution that satisfies us, makes us think, and gives us justification for why we read millions of words to reach its end.

The great books leave us with some sort of resolution. I think of Harry Potter as a prime example. The first books in the series set up mysteries and tension that needed resolution, and when Deathly Hollows arrived in stores, I was in line with my brother for five hours for the midnight release at Borders. And J.K. Rowling delivered! When she wrapped up the story threads in masterful resolution, she proved that all of that time we spent reading Harry’s story had been worth it, because there was a point to all of it.

Both Name of the Wind and The Wise Man’s Fear are well-written novels, but what Rothfuss has failed to do so far is demonstrate that there’s a story “thread” that will have a satisfactory resolution. I finished book one and was genuinely shocked. To say it ended on a cliffhanger is an understatement. I was left asking, “What was resolved in this book? What was its overarching plot?” Now, to be fair to the author, it is his work. That’s probably the type of story he prefers. But I cannot help but think how much better his story would have been if there had been a problem set forth at the start of the book and a resolution at the end.

Another good example of a well-executed story arc is Terry Goodkind’s Wizard’s First Rule. From the beginning, you understand the stakes, and at the end you are satisfied that good will prevail over evil.

I say all of this because it is always on my mind as I write my novels. If I was writing the stories without an end resolution in view, I feel I would cheat you as the reader. Can writers always execute this well? Obviously not, but it is a basic guideline that should not be ignored. Every writer must ask the question: “Why am I writing this story? What is its purpose?”

Without a purpose to the story, without resolutions, readers are cheated out of the point which they invested many hours to discover.

Q: What’s your opinion on story resolution and story threads left forever unresolved? Which books did this well, and which failed to satisfy you?

Paperbacks ready for Signing & Packaging!

My favorite Christmas memories involve unwrapping new books, then lounging on the couch to read while Christmas music played and my family laughed. Christmas is almost here, and the best way I know to celebrate is with a new book!

Among Broken Gods (The Sword of the Dragon series Book 6) already has 5 ratings/reviews on Amazon… and all of them say 5-Stars!

Ready for Signing and to be Packaged for Shipment!

Today my shipment of ABG paperbacks arrived. They look sharp on the shelf Tomorrow, I will be Signing these, and my lovely wife is going to help me package them to ship out to the Kickstarter backers.

God bless you and yours!

Cover reveal! The Sword of the Dragon Series (book 6) Among Broken Gods

Today is the cover reveal for the sixth book in The Sword of the Dragon Series. As a reminder, In Search of Dragons will now be book seven in the series. Without further ado, here is the book cover!

As an added bonus for you, here is a free graphic for your computer background and social media. Thank you for being on this journey with me.

Among Broken Gods (The Sword of the Dragon Series book 6)

Help choose new fantasy book title

Hello, The Sword of the Dragon Series book 6 has way too much story now for me to tell it properly in one book. Consequentially we need a new title and cover for book 6, and In Search of Dragons becomes book 7.

This is a good thing, because the story I have been writing deserves two treatments in order to allow proper pacing. Would you like to help choose the new title for book 6?
There are three ways you can participate: 1) Comment your choice on this blog post 2) Email me spappleton@gmail.com 3) Facebook fanpage poll vote.

Title options: 1) Among Broken Gods 2) Broken Gods 3) No Other Gods 4) The Gold Halberd

COVER REVEAL COMING VERY SOON

Prentice Ash -a curious blend

Recently I caught the online buzz around a new Christian fantasy series, the first book of which is Prentice Ash. I hadn’t read a Christian fantasy in a long while, but this book has an impressive nearly-a-thousand reviews on Amazon. These books rarely hit this many reviews. Personally, I would love to pick the publisher’s brain: he’s been a genius at marketing this series… So, I grabbed the audiobook and went through it.

I find myself mixed in my response to this book. Presented as a Christian Fantasy novel, it hits the mark on several points that I really enjoyed… yet missed in some ways that surprised me. Magic is practically non-existent here, which could work except that the fairy folk are part of the story. The setting is more medieval Europe than anything else, and the treatment of Christianity left me wanting; sometimes it’s honored, but more often it is form rather than individual conviction. There’s a prophetic vision element that I think the story might have done better without.
The main character, Prentice, is very likable and reminiscent of the MC in Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings. Also likeable, is the heroine, though to a lesser degree. She is posited as both highly aware of the injustice taking place in her world, and then strangely unaware and tolerant of flagrant injustices to her personal “army” of convicts.
Overall, this is a worth-while read, though it feels less like an epic fantasy and more like an alternate medieval storyworld with fae aspects. As a starter to the series, Prentice Ash works.

My personal takeaway? I would love to replicate the success of this book. The publisher is a genius at online marketing.

Hell’s Gate book review

I just finished reading Hell’s Gate, and I thought I should be sharing more book reviews here. For this title, I listened to the audiobook. If you’ve read this one, please leave a comment below to say what you thought!

I’m going to rate this one 2.5 out of 5 stars. While admirably complex in its world building, Hell’s Gate gets bogged down by melodramatic characters, and the book itself lacks a satisfying conclusion.

This novel could have been edited down to a third of its length and not lost any of its memorable plot points. The characters are numerous enough to confuse most readers and the story’s point of view shifts constantly, forcing the reader to try and remember who some of these point of view characters are. The plot itself is solid enough, but lacks momentum to hook you for the sequels. Cursing is nearly constant in many portions, often making the dialogue feel unnaturally frustrated and pointless.
Overall, it’s well-written but needs a good edit to trim it down to keep your interest. I found myself bored in many places and I kept expecting some plot twist or resolution that would make sense of it all. Instead the book ends on a literal cliffhanger that should have resolved some of the plot points.

Time for a fun Poll!

I hope this note finds you well! Would you like to vote on a poll to tell me which book format you buy and prefer? I’ve posted it on my facebook page and I tried to post it here, but it doesn’t work here. So here is the Link: Facebook Poll “Which book format do you buy and prefer?”

Storytelling comes first

There is a cute little book store a short distance from my house. In fact, it is inside of an elderly woman’s brick home. I don’t know how long she has been running that business, but she uses the front two rooms to showcase and sell used books. Upon a recent visit there, I was thrilled to find a small paperback of First Men in the Moon by H.G. Wells. It’s one of those old 50-cent copies that you can almost tuck inside your pocket, and as I started to read it I was reminded of my growing conviction that Storytelling comes first.

Before the mechanics of how to tell a story, before grammar, before structure. Without a good story to tell it is not worth the telling. I have a similar paperback of The Time Machine (another classic!) and it astonishes me that Wells was able to pack so much world building, characterization, and fun into such a short book. It makes me think that I should start writing some shorter tales along a similar vein, told as a narrative to be as memorable as possible. I’ll admit to not feeling entirely up to the task yet, but that’s due to my own lack of faith in my ability.

The truth is that if we write a fascinating story the grammar and mechanics can be polished and the narrative strengthened later. We imagine ourselves to be perfectionists when in fact we are procrastinators. We need a little humility, a little reminder that we are but humble creatives groping about like young children in a new world.

Storytelling comes first. I tested this with The Swordmaster’s Glory and the full-length novel Shards in Belial in the first half of this year. The result was two stories that I feel pleased with and am confident are tighter story narratives with great adventurous fun and heart.

First Men in the Moon is a mere 160-pages long in a small paperback format. Like The Time Machine its length is appropriate. But today most science fiction and fantasy publishers will not accept submissions of works less than 80,000-words… A fascinating fact when you consider that the ever popular The Time Machine is about 32,000-words long.

Q: What do you think? Would you like to see shorter reads, or do you hold with a bear’s grip onto the tree of longer fantasy and science fiction books?

How to publish 4 books + 1 audiobook in one year

For years now, I have batted around the challenging prospect of upping my writing productivity. What would happen if I could publish two or more books every year? It’s a huge challenge, mostly due to the other commitments that I have in my life that are not writing-related! But, since September of 2021, I have published four books. This is a milestone, and the challenge for me is how to make that consistent.

Like most writers, I hold a day job that supports my family. I have a wife and five children, and our life is a constant shuffle of priorities. The number one priority for me is legacy, and my family is a big part of that. I want to raise children whom I enjoy, and who love God unabashedly. My writing needs to come second to them, because if it doesn’t then the creative well that I rely on will be spiritually dead. And of what good is a dry well of creativity to thirsty readers who don’t want stories that bore them until they snap the book shut?

I was inspired to push myself in publishing more titles by listening to writers such as Kevin J. Anderson and Steven Higgs. They, among others, focus on telling the stories they love. They are experts at ignoring their inner critic, and at not worrying about how their stories will be received. They simply enjoy the process, and I desire to have that same attitude.

My first step to releasing four books in a year was publishing the long-awaited fantasy epic and fifth book in The Sword of the Dragon series. This was accomplished in September 2021, and the readers’ reception has been stellar! I am truly humbled by how well that series resonates with the fans.

But the next steps were the most challenging, because I wanted to release my first non-fiction book and also another epic fantasy novel.

Using a combination of dictation through Word 365 on my iPhone (I know, it’s a bit weird, but it was effective) and typing up other content on my Freewrite Traveler, and the Macbook Air, I was able to finish and release The Soul of Story in January of this year. It was the first book that reached profitability in its first week after release!

I hired David Moody to redesign/update my website, and a big part of that was to have a New “reader magnet” that subscribers would receive when they signed onto my email list. This was a huge challenge at first, because I had started writing my next fantasy epic and didn’t want to distract too much time from working on it. So again I turned to dictation, and remarkably was able to write and edit an original novelette 10,000-words long, then published that as the reader magnet. I am thrilled with the result, the book The Swordmaster’s Glory.

For the last project in this year’s bonanza, I wanted to start the prequel series to The Sword of the Dragon series. I thought the end product would run a modest 80,000-words. Instead, Shards in Belial (The Sword of the Dragon Origins book 1) clocked in at 110,000-words. I used a combination of dictation and typing to achieve this rapid release. And, again, I’m thrilled with the result.

During this time I also recorded and published The Soul of Story in audiobook format. Granted, it was a shorter audiobook, but this is the second title to get the audio treatment.

I’m no expert at dictation. Not at this point in time. But I am learning it’s faster than typing, and I intend to get a lot more efficient at it. Right now, I run into the problem of external noises interrupting my dictation sessions. I cannot simply step outside on my lunch break at my day job and dictate into my Airpods, because external interference confuses the dictation software and makes the editing a nightmare afterwards. After some research, I found the answer to my dictation challenge is a piece of hardware. A particular microphone that will only pick up my voice and eliminates everything else: the SpeechWare FlexyMike and USB adapter… But it’s not cheap, so it goes on the top of my next hardware to-purchase list. A couple years ago I invested in the Freewrite Traveler, and that has paid off by tripling my word-counts.

Four books represents a lot of writing in one year… a lot of work… but progress is addicting. My final goal is to publish my juvenile illustrated chapter book Father Mouse before September this year. If that is accomplished, it’s a fifth notch in titles published in a single year!

Somehow, I doubt I’ll be able to match this next year… but maybe God has greater plans.

Q: What have you challenged yourself to accomplish this year?

Available now! Shards in Belial on Kindle

Over a thousand years before Ilfedo and Dantress were born, the Unholy Trinity of wizards seek scorched earth, and heroes rise to oppose them.

Curl on a couch with your Kindle

The abbot seeking to protect an orphaned boy, the young woman thrust into the role of High Priestess, and the Swordmaster forced to watch his loved ones die.

When the cockatrice appears, it may doom them all.

Reverend Ashinah promised to take care of the orphaned Xavion, but events are beyond his control. Ooletta never wanted to become High Priestess, but she’s stuck with the responsibility at the expense of her own dreams. Only Olympan the Swordmaster has a clear path, but it is a dangerous and bloody quest.

Rated PG-13 for violence and sensuality. Paperback edition will release next, then hardcover, and there will be an audiobook version as well.