Doug Farren's Blog, page 17

SFWA Announcement

This might be old news to some people, but in case you haven’t heard: the SFWA has passed a resolution allowing self-published authors to join. To read their official announcement, click here. Back in 2012 (April 20th to be exact), I posted my first blog entry talking about why the SFWA refused to admit self-published authors (read it). Over the years, I've occasionally mentioned this concern of mine. For a while, I had bad feelings toward the SFWA. But, I also realized they are a large organization and change will take time. That time has arrived. I will be logging in to the SFWA web site on March 1st as soon as humanly possible to sign up to become a member.
Why? Honestly, I don’t know. The SFWA itself admits that their organization has little to offer authors who have been in the field for any length of time. But the same can be said for other organizations and clubs like the Elks, the VFW, etc. There is a practical reason to join—to feel as if you’re part of a community of writers. I’m sure that once I become a member I will find something they have to offer is useful. I will be joining because I've always wanted to be a member—and now I can be.
Dragonverse Originsis proceeding along quite well. My wife read the first chapter (something she’s never done until the book was handed to her for her review) and she said she enjoyed it. I love dragons, and writing about them seems to come naturally for me.
My Goodreads giveaway has ended. 564 people entered to win. I will be mailing out the books later next week. Did it boost sales? I’m not sure. It’s very hard to tell. Is it worth it? Again, I’m not sure—but I think I will do it again.

I’m keeping this post short—I have writing to get back to.

Life gets in the Way

I don’t have much to blog about this week. I didn't get much writing done because of other obligations. I have a program that runs at my day job that is responsible for keeping my local databases updated and for generating automatic reports. Both Saturday and Sunday of last week I had to make a quick trip into work to restart the program. Once because of a security warning that popped up from Microsoft Outlook and once because of an unknown fault. Believe me, I was not a happy camper to find that I drove 10 miles in a snowstorm just to click “authorize”.
I also met an out of town vendor for lunch Sunday night. He flew in from Atlanta and was here to demonstrate some really slick software my department is looking to purchase. I worked late Monday and Tuesday (12 to 14 hours) so no writing was done. I took Wednesday off thinking I would get some writing done but, once again, I had to drive into work to restart the program. This time I found the fault and have since corrected it. It has been running fine since.
I did manage to get almost 1,000 words written on Saturday both in the morning and while at B&N. So far, the book is coming along very well. I’m hoping to make more time to write in the near future.
I’m also having to deal with a sick cat and a failing hard drive. One of our cats stopped eating Friday morning. Took him to the vet Saturday and found he had a cold. The vet told us to force feed him if necessary. We managed to get him to down a fair amount of broth from a stew we made the other day. Vet said he will be fine. This morning (Sunday) he ate about 1/3 of his normal meal and he's a bit more active.
The failing hard drive is another issue. I use Microsoft Media Center to run my televisions. The computer that drives the system has a quad tuner installed as well as a dedicated 1 TB hard drive to store the movies. A few days ago, we started getting network errors popping up on the kitchen TV. This television is driven wirelessly and so I assumed the router was getting old. Then the same issues began popping up on the living room TV which is hard-wired into the network. Thursday night, just before bedtime, my wife said several shows refused to play. I fired up the hard drive monitor and it identified the 1 TB drive as having sector read errors. My wife deleted a bunch of the old programs taking the count of recorded shows from 122 down to 88. I started moving the 88 shows that were on the drive to another drive Saturday morning before heading to B&N. I dropped my wife off at the bookstore and bought a new 2 TB hard drive.
I do not back up this hard drive. It is in nearly constant use and backing it up would be difficult. The only thing stored on it are the recorded Media Center television shows. I put this system in service in November of 2011 which means the hard drive lasted about 3 years. Believe it or not, this is pretty typical for Seagate drives in a server environment. The computer is on 24-7 and is almost constantly in use. There are times when the system is simultaneously recording 4 channels and playing back two more--all HD television programs. The new drive is a Western Digital which has a better track record in harsh environments. I would have preferred to buy a Hitachi drive but Office Max does not carry them. I will be buying a nice Hitachi 2 or 3 TB drive in the near future and putting it on standby in case the WD fails in a few years.
When I got home from the bookstore, I found the transfer had stopped. Instead of restarting it, I shut down the computer and replaced the drive. I had also purchased a box that converts an internal drive into an external drive. I popped the old drive in it and began moving files. This arrangement actually moved things along much faster than when I was transferring from the computer to my network drive--3 times faster! All but one show got moved. I also discovered that the failed drive is under warranty.
Finally - if you are a writer, editor, producer, or creator of science-related media, you should seriously consider applying for Launch Pad. If you are interested in attending an event you will remember for the rest of your life, then apply. Professor Brotherton has created a unique program that brings together some of the best people you will ever meet for a memorable week-long experience. If you don't get picked, apply again, and again. Once you go, you will want to support this project in any way possible.

Progress report

Dragonverse edits are complete and the new version is now in the hands of Lee Dilkie for a final sanity check. In the meantime, I've started work on Dragonverse Origins. For days, I pondered over how to begin the novel. I thought about starting out by describing the town, the main character, the time period, all sorts of different beginnings. Nothing seemed to work. A few days ago I got home from work and had some time, so I decided to start writing. I still had not decided how to begin. I fired up Scrivener, loaded my template and sat staring at the blank (blue in my case) screen. And then the magic happened.
Words appeared in my head, traveled down to my fingers and appeared on the screen. The story had a beginning! And it was a good one. I kept working on it until my wife came home. There were several interruptions (cats knocking something over and phone calls) but I eventually wrote several paragraphs. I fired off the rough beginning to Susan Forest (SFWA secretary, award-winning YA author, editor, and teacher) to get her opinion. I got a quick response – she loved it. She did have a few comments though as I had expected and hoped.
I had my wife (who is also my copy-editor) read it and then I showed her Susan’s response. They both had pretty much the same comments. This told me that my wife’s insights were right on track (which I have known all along but this provided validation). The other morning, I made some changes to that rough beginning and kept on going. By the time I had to quit, the novel had expanded to almost 1,000 words. Now, I’m sitting at B&N writing this blog so that tomorrow morning I will be able to get up, make tea, and start writing.
My new battery arrived for my netbook. This, along with my old battery, will give me at least 9 or more hours of usage. That’s a good thing because I plan on doing a ton of writing while flying to Launch Pad in June as well as flying to WorldCon in August. Spending $24.00 on a new battery makes a lot more sense than spending $1,000.00 on a whole new computer, especially when the machine I wanted (Microsoft Surface Pro 3) might not work very well as an actual laptop. Anyone out there ever try to use one on their lap? If so, how well did it work out?

My Goodreads giveaway ends on Feb 7. If you’re interested in possibly winning a copy of Translight(or one of my other books) please consider entering.
An acquaintance of mine, Sandra McDonald, posted an interesting tweet this morning with a link to an article discussing authors reluctance to disclosing their financial resources. It's an interesting read which you can do yourself by clicking here. I don't think it's a secret that I have a good-paying job at a nuclear power plant. I get great benefits and I usually work from 0600 until 1430 Monday through Friday. I do most of my writing in the mornings on my days off as well as more when my wife and I go to B&N, usually on Saturdays. If I'm in the middle of an editing pass, I will take an hour each day to keep going because I don't want the thoughts to go stale. Writing is not a full-time job for me.
I have about an hour before my wife wakes up. Time to get back to writing...

Last Year's Sales

I did this some time ago and I promised to continue to report my sales. I do this because there is no other way for an indie author to know if he or she is doing well compared to other authors. I have said it before and I will say it again, writing--in my opinion--is not a competition. But sales numbers matter. Here are my total book sales since I started keeping records. The jump in November of 2014 is from the release of Peacekeeper 2 .


Author Jim Hines has gone one step farther and posted his income from writing. I applaud him for this! I haven't asked him yet, but I hope he's going to WorldCon so I can meet him in person. Here is a link to his writing income post: Jim Hines: Writing income

Just a quick reminder - don't forget about my Goodreads book giveaway. If you don't want a copy of Translight go ahead and enter and then let me know what book you do want.

I spent a few hours at Barnes & Noble (our favorite hangout) working on Dragonverse  updates. I managed to get over 90% done before my netbook battery died. When I first bought the netbook, the battery would easily run for 5 hours. Now it lasts about 2.5. One of the writers in my B&N writer's group just recently purchased a Microsoft Surface Pro 3. Nifty machine. I immediately wanted one. Yesterday, after the batter died, I was seriously considering buying one. But then, I started thinking. I do a lot of writing with my netbook on my lap. The configuration of a tablet would make writing in this position a bit of a pain. So, instead of spending almost $1,000.00 for a new computer, I spent $24.00 on a new battery.

If all goes well, I will have my Dragonverse edits done by the end of today and then begin work on the next novel -- Dragonverse Origins.

A reader of this blog (Nathan Pim) asked what will happen when I upload a new copy of Dragonverse to Amazon. I never really gave it much thought before because most of the changes I've made in the past to other books were minor, involving nothing more than grammatical fixes. I have made a few story changes to Dragonverse but not enough to warrant having anyone reread the book. But still, the question remained -- what happens? Nathan did the research and came up with two links from Amazon that provided the answer. You can read the exchange here. Thanks Nathan!

I'm bringing this up for two reasons: 1) Self-published authors are about the only authors on the planet who have the ability to make such changes and have them out in the world with a touch of a button. The typical publishing time for a novel from a major publishing house is 3 years. 2) If the author makes what Amazon considers 'major' changes, they will email everyone who has downloaded the book informing them of the update. This got me to thinking...

If Amazon thinks I made 'major' changes to Dragonverse, they will email everyone who has ever downloaded a copy. This sounds like free advertising! So, I will be holding on to my updates until a month before the release of Dragonverse Origins and I will then upload the changes and inform Amazon of this fact. If they decide to send out an email, then everyone who has ever purchased Dragonverse could potentially discover I've released a new book. It's a marketing ploy I did not know existed.

Now, I wonder if Amazon has a way of informing people when an author they've bought books from has released a new book?

Back to writing.

Amazon currency exchange fee

I’m about 60% done with bringing Dragonverse up to my current writing standards. I've made a few small tweaks to the book as well to put it more in-line with what I have in mind for the series as a whole. This is the wonderful part of electronic self-publishing—I can go back and edit a book at any time.  For those who have already read Dragonverse, don’t worry—the changes I've made don’t affect the story at all and you will not be at a loss if you read the next book in the series. The biggest change is the age of the protagonist—now 22 instead of 37—a much better age. This was a suggestion from a reader from a long time ago.
It’s tax time and time for my annual reminder regarding Amazon 1099s. If you have any overseas sales, Amazon is going to charge you a small fee to convert the currency into dollars. This fee is a business expense and is tax deductible. Amazon is real good about telling you they're about to deposit money into your bank account. They don’t tell you how much you are being charged for this service though. So how do you find out? Easy, when you get your 1099s from Amazon, add them up and then subtract the total that they actually deposited into your account last year. The difference is the foreign exchange fees. Why doesn't Amazon simply tell you what this fee is? I don’t know. I ask them the same question every year and every year I get the same answer – silence.
This points out another important tip for writers—maintain meticulous records of everything business related. I touched on this subject in my previous blog but it certainly can’t hurt to stress this important business practice. As long as you are being as honest as possible with the IRS and you have the records to back up what you file, then any audit or questions from the IRS will be a breeze. Keep good records and keep them safe.
This brings up the final point I want to cover—keeping your data safe. Hard drives are not foolproof storage devices. Drop one on the floor while it’s running if you want to try to prove me wrong. Most writers have a lot of electronic records. Make sure you have a foolproof backup of this data. I use Dropbox to house my writing files. My books, business log, scanned records, and Quicken financial database are all stored on Dropbox. These files are backed up to the internet and synchronized to all of my other devices automatically.
I also use Crashplan to keep all of the home computers backed up to the cloud. The cost for this service is worth the peace of mind it give me. If my house were to be beamed into space by aliens, I would still be able to recover everything. I have hundreds of songs, pictures, movies, and books stored on my hard drives and losing them would be a major depressing event.
One final application you should download is LastPass. This is a secure, password organizer. It runs on all my machines as well as my phone. All of my complex passwords (generated by LastPass) are stored in this application’s database. Since all of my passwords are stored in LastPass, I can make each one different and as complex as possible. Of course, if you leave this program unlocked on an unlocked cell phone, then anyone can gain access to your username and passwords. Never leave LastPass unlocked and please put at least some sort of minimal security on your cell phone. The same applies to your home computer. Using LastPass also allows you to periodically change your password to keep it secure.

That’s it…back to writing.

The Writing has begun

Hello 2015!

I've not only settled on my next project, but it will provide me with about 3 years of work. This long-range project involves the following activities:

A small rewrite of Dragonverse to bring it up to my current standards as well as to clean up the plot.A similar rewrite of Ishnef's Revenge.Write a new novel titled Dragonverse Origins. The story begins in our distant past and shows how our myths about dragons and wizards came to be. It will also establish a tentative link to one of my stand-alone novels.Go over the stand-alone novel to make sure it conforms to current standards.Write the book that completely and firmly ties it all together. This will be a military science fiction novel with battles and all the good stuff we military SF people love. The premise for this book is: How do you destroy a nearly indestructible warship?Write another story that's firmly in the realm of Dragonverse but has a serious scifi twist. I'm thinking of calling this one Dragonverse collides with Humanverse but don't hold me to that title. It could also be named The Children of Dragonverse or Dragonbound.This entire process should take around 3 years.
I'm already about 1/3 of the way through my re-edit of Dragonverse and things are looking really good. I'm enjoying this since I love dragons.
My Goodreads Giveaway is not yet live--I'm waiting on approval from the Goodreads team. When it's live, I will include a link to it in this blog.
Tax season will soon be upon us and it's time for me to begin mentioning some important tax items for writers. First up (and this is a new one for me): if you plan on making money as a writer (and who doesn't) then you should apply for an Employee Identification Number (or EIN) from the IRS. There's a good reason for this. If you don't, you will have to include your SSN on all your writing-related tax forms such as contracts with publishers, Amazon, Smashwords, CreateSpace, magazines, and any employees you might need to hire such as editors, artists, etc. That means your SSN is being widely distributed--not a good idea. Getting an EIN, even if you have no employees, is more secure. You use your EIN in place of your SSN. The process is simple and instant. To get an EIN right now go to the IRS website and apply for one.
Another thing writers should do is to perform an end of year reconciliation. Make sure all your documents are in order and you are lined up to get all the tax breaks you deserve. If you claim mileage (you must have a home office to do so) you should have recorded the starting miles on your vehicles as well as the ending miles. The IRS forms don't seem to allow for more than one vehicle but there is a work-around. We own two cars. I keep detailed records showing the starting and ending mileage and which vehicle I'm driving when I use a car for my writing business. At the end of the year, I just add up all the miles. The IRS also wants to know how many total miles have been driven. That's easy--at the beginning of each year I record the mileage on all my cars. A simple subtraction gives me the number of miles driven with each vehicle and I just add these up for the IRS. If you keep detailed records, this will not be a problem.
How do you remember to do all this? That's even easier. I use Google calendar to track a lot of my business-related activities and I use the calendar's built-in reminders to remind me to do things like record mileage, send off estimated taxes, etc. I have an Android phone so the calendar automatically syncs to my phone, tablet, and all my computers. If you put in everything you need to be reminded to do in the calendar, you will never forget to do anything. There are other applications that would work just as well. One of the most popular is Evernote. If you want to learn about Evernote and how it can be used in your business, you should check out Jamie Todd Rubin's website. I met Jamie at the 2013 Launch Pad. His website is filled with useful ideas on how to automate your life. If you're a computer geek you should definitely check out his site.
I will be posting more about how a writer should be preparing for tax season in my next post. In the meantime--I've got some writing to do.....

Time to begin writing

I guess blogging every two weeks while I'm between projects is going to be the norm. I hope everyone had a good holiday. My wife and I were very busy as usual. This was the first Christmas my mother-in-law missed attending the family Christmas dinner. Early in the week, we had dinner at my sister-in-law's house then a get-together later at the other sister-in-law's boyfriend's house. Late that night, my wife got a call from the retirement home informing her they were sending her mom to the hospital. Turns out she has pneumonia and is now on some pretty heavy duty antibiotics. She's diabetic and the drugs began messing with her sugar. Things are now under control but my wife's mom is going to miss out on all the holiday activities.
I found a fatal flaw in my plot for my next book and I spent most of my free time trying to work out a solution. The other day, I had the answer. I wrote it all down and fired it off to Lee Dilkie who is my content editor. If he can't poke any holes in it then I think I have a story. I'm excited about this one because it will allow me to link Dragonverse with one of my stand-alone books. It also means I have a lot of work cut out for me for the next two years.
Linda Nagata's recent blog post talks about how well she did in completing her writing goals for 2014. I never thought about doing something like this since my writing goals are usually pretty simple. It's the same every year: I expect to write one novel and read at least 2 books on how to improve my writing. This past year was no different. Next year, however, is going to be a bit of a challenge. I will start off by going through Dragonverse and Ishnef's Revenge making modifications and updates to bring them up to my current standards of writing. I will also make some minor plot additions to prepare the books for the next novel. (Try doing that with a book you sold to a publishing house!)
While my wife goes through the updated manuscripts, I will begin work on my next project. Writing should take most of the year. I will be passing chapters to Lee Dilkie as I finish my editing so he can chew on them and try to shoot it full of holes. After the final editing is complete, I will pass the book off to my wife so she can proof it as well. While she is doing that proofing, I will be entering the changes she's made to the first two books. Once I'm done, if my wife has not finished proofing the next book, I will start working on the stand-alone to bring it up to current standards. The 5th book in the series will be on hot standby and I will begin working on it as soon as time permits—most likely at the beginning of 2016.
So what's the name of my next project? Unless Lee is able to shoot it down, the book will be called Dragonverse Origins.
As you can see, 2015 is going to be a busy year. I'm also planning on a trip down South to see my dad as well as my yearly trip to Laramie to attend Launch Pad. A month after Launch Pad, I will be flying to Spokane to attend WorldCon 2015. If you are planning on attending WorldCon 2015, please let me know and let's see if we can't get together; I would love to meet some of the people who are reading this blog.

Finally—I'm going to be running a GoodReads giveaway as soon as I can get my head wrapped around how to use their website. I will be giving away two signed copies of one of my books. If GoodReads allows it, I will let the winners select which book to receive. I'm going to try to run this in parallel with a similar give away on my website. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to limit it to the United States and possibly Canada to prevent having to spend a fortune to send a book overseas. If anyone has any ideas to work around this little problem please let me know.
As always, I welcome comments and feedback from those who've read my books. I always respond so feel free to write.

Subtle Power

I've been collaborating with Lee Dilkie again on my next project which is about to be kicked off in a few weeks. We are still working out the details but this next book is going to be wonderful. I'm not going to spoil the fun by pre-announcing what we are talking about but stay tuned for further information. The interesting thing about this collaboration is that I've never met Lee. He was a person who read my books and occasionally commented on them. His comments were always correct and to the point. Last year, I asked if he would like to be a beta reader for Peacekeeper 2. He agreed. His comments on the book were enlightening and the corrections I made because of his feedback have made Peacekeeper 2 one of my best works (in my opinion anyway). There are two points to make here: 1) Writers should always listen to what their readers have to say. 2) The internet is a powerful force that can bring two absolute strangers from two different countries together allowing them to work as a team on a project.

I'm going to discuss something I rarely talk about with anyone. Writers have the ability to shape people's minds. We don't do it with a gun in our hand or by using threats of violence. We do it with the subtle power of words. We create entire universes that exist only in our minds and the reader gets to enjoy being immersed in these foreign universes. While doing so, the reader's mind is learning, adapting, and changing in subtle ways. For those of you who've read my books (hopefully all of you reading this blog) you may have noticed a subtle theme throughout almost everything I write. I see the future much the same way I try to live my own life: racially neutral and religiously tolerant.

Let's take the first lifestyle and dig a bit deeper. I've always tried to see people for what they are - human. My brain can't help but notice that someone's skin is a different color, the shape of their face and eyes is different, or they talk with an accent. The logical part of my brain, the part that distinguishes me from all other life-forms on Earth, glosses over these details. I see a person, a fellow human, a man or a woman who belongs to the same species as myself. I try very hard not to judge a person based on their outward appearance. It's probably why I have such a hard time recognizing people because their looks are not important to me.

Over the years I've learned never to judge a person by what others say about them. I want to form my own opinions. I was told by many people that my current manager was unpleasant and difficult to work with. That could not be farther from the truth because we get along great. I continually heard bad stories as people talked behind the back of another supervisor I worked with. I never got to know the man well enough to form my own opinion. When I moved into a new department, I heard a completely different story. The work this man did was viewed with high compliments. Don't fall into the trap of going along with the rest of a group and start thinking badly about someone. You might be totally wrong and he might turn out to be one of your closest friends some day.

Religious neutrality is another life-style I follow. Religion has been and continues to be the cause of more suffering than any other human institution. People use it as an excuse to kill, torture, and belittle others. Is that really what religion teaches? Really? Religious fanatics are people who use religion as an excuse for them to act violently. I am a firm believer that people should be able to 'believe' in anything they want. If you want to believe that the Earth is flat - that's perfectly fine with me. I will disagree with you and I might try to convince you otherwise but your belief is just that--a belief. Your beliefs are a personal choice and I should respect that choice no matter how I might feel about it.

Disagreement between people is natural. It is how we handle this disagreement that matters. We are an intelligent species and we should show that intelligence in how we act. I might disagree with you about something but that does not mean I'm going to strap a bomb to my chest and kill your entire family. Disagreement is actually a very good thing because it drives human progress. If we never disagreed with anyone then we would never have built airplanes. Scientists of the past were firmly convinced that nothing manmade would be able to fly. A disagreement over this 'fact' resulted in the creation of the flying machine.

Scientists disagree all the time - it's part of their job to question theory. Stephen Hawking, Einstein, Newton, and many others became historical figures because they disagreed with current theory. Disagreement is a driving force in human innovation. How we handle our disagreements is an indicator of our intelligence. If your cat disagrees with being given a bath, it will physically attack you because it has no other recourse. The cat can't discuss the bath with you so you can arrive at a mutually agreeable solution. Even our closest genetic cousin--the ape--resorts to violence when disagreements break out. It's because they have no means to use to work out their differences. They don't have language.

Writers should be masters of language and as such we have the power to change the course of human civilization. Use that power wisely. Think about what you write. Very carefully analyze the subtle messages your stories send to the reader. Do you stereotype people without even realizing it? Are your characters racially and religiously neutral? We are an intelligent species--it's high time we started acting like it.

Interfacing with other writers

I'm still a bit undecided as to what my next project is going to be. I wrote up a detailed (except for the ending) synopsis of the YA/dragon/deformed teen novel I've been kicking around and sent it out for feedback. An interesting thing occurred while writing the synopsis. Before starting, I thought I had a good idea of how the plot would progress. The plot changed as I started writing; becoming a better, more interesting story. Time and time again I sit down at the keyboard with a plan in my head and that plan changes as I actually put words into the computer. My fingers seem to know more about the story than my brain does! I also surprised myself—I managed to make a connection with another of my books. It won't be a strong connection, but it's there and that opens it up for a third book to tie everything together. The problem though is—will it sell?
Writers write because they must—it's an itch that just has to be scratched. But if we have a choice between working on a new novel that is part of a proven series and working on a novel that will turn a stand-alone into a 3-book series with unknown sales potential…well…it's a hard decision. If I go ahead with the YA (which might turn out to be more of a book for adults), I will pretty much have to write the third book in the series. That will delay work on a Dragonverse 3 by 3 years. I already have a tentative agreement by a prominent YA (Young Adult for those who don't know) author to take a look at the final product once it's done late next year. Her schedule and my writing schedule seem to be a pretty good match—at least for next year. Do I go ahead with this new story and delay work on Dragonverse 3? Do I forget about the new book as well as Dragonverse and work on another Peacekeeper (which has been doing quite well)?
Right now, I'm leaning heavily toward the young adult/dragon book mostly because it is the one that seems stuck in my head. I don't have a firm idea for the ending though and if I can figure that part out then it will be a go. I'm also waiting to hear back from Susan Forest to see what she thinks of the synopsis I sent her. I have been told by several people that my endings need more work. Nobody is perfect and everyone can learn by listening to constructive feedback. That's why I listen to my readers. The way I figure it, if someone takes the time to write to me to point out what I did good and where I can improve, then I'm going to take the time to listen to them. There are some writers who never read their reviews or reply to reader emails. I don't believe that's the right approach.

Although writing is a solitary activity, writers should not live in isolation. We need to interface with other writers as well as the people who read our words. Before going to Launch Pad, my only contact with other writers was the small number of people in the writer's group I attend monthly. The leader is a mystery novelist and most of the regular attendees are unpublished. Launch Pad put me in contact with a movie producer, a game developer, award-winning editors, and professional, published, and award-winning authors. Each and every person I've met over the years has had some impact on my writing. You may not realize it, but your brain is always learning. Take advantage of this fact and get to know your readers and other writers.
This past Saturday, my wife and I were at the local Barnes & Noble as we almost always are on a Saturday. There was an author there: Donald Templeman. He has 4 books out and he was promoting his latest. I stopped by and said hello. His intro pitch was perfect and I was tempted to buy a copy. Unfortunately, I simply don't have the time to read another book at the moment. We chatted for awhile and then I let him know I was also an author. He took my card and listened as I told him about Launch Pad. I hope to hear from him again. His books are getting good reviews and it would be nice to add yet another author to my list of writer friends.
There are rumors that the SFWA (Science Fiction Writers of America) are voting on whether or not to admit indie writers into the organization. I'm not sure what membership would bring us, but being allowed to join would be one step toward acknowledging that indies are actual writers. Most indies work just as hard on a book as a writer who has been published by one of the major publishing houses. Fact is, if you're a good indie, you probably work harder. The publishing companies cannot be expected to sign contracts for hundreds of new authors every year. That leaves self-publishing as the only other avenue for writers like myself to publish their works and it's time the SFWA acknowledges that fact. I haven't tallied up my total sales recently but I'm sure I'm over the 100,000 mark--if not, I'm damned close. Why can't I join the SFWA?
I'll be keeping an eye on this and I will let you know if I hear of any changes in policy.

Thoughts of my next project

Yes—I missed last week's post. Since I'm between writing projects, I've been spending a large portion of my time on non-writing activities. My biggest project of late has been reorganizing the collection of Microsoft Access database applications I wrote shortly after accepting my new job as a database administrator. Instead of a loose collection of programs, I've created what I call "The Plan". It centralizes the automatic database updates into a single program and organizes the primary data repositories into a tightly integrated database system. Data is stored in specific locations with well-defined groupings. These databases are updated using a single application. Three other Access applications make up the various user interfaces each one meant to be used by a specific group of people. This will make maintaining the entire system far easier.
This does not mean I've not been thinking about my next project. It has been a close toss-up between a third Dragonverse novel and a new YA novel involving a dragon and a deformed teenager. If I do a third Dragonversebook I'm going to have to go back and revise the first two to bring them up to my current standards. I've learned quite a bit about writing since penning Dragonverse and if I'm going to write a third book I'm going to want to make sure the first two are updated.
The other possibility is a YA (Young Adult) novel about a dragon and a deformed teenager. I've never written a YA novel before which means the story could be a challenge. The genre has certain formats that must be adhered to otherwise it might be rejected by the readers as not being a true YA novel. Luckily, I will have the help of Susan Forest, an award-winning YA author whom I met at Launch Pad this year. She has expressed an interest in reading and reviewing the story once it's complete. I'm still working on the major pieces of the plot and if I can solve a few issues before the start of next year then this will most likely be my next project. I want the story to teach a lesson as well as present a story to the reader. I will need to develop a large amount of back story—most of which will not appear in the book—in order to make it clear in my mind as to how everything will fit together. I will let you know in this blog how this goes.

In other news: I picked up the recent copy of Locus magazine and was shocked as to how many people I've met are in the magazine. I originally picked it up because of a large article featuring Linda Nagata--another author I met at Launch Pad and someone I've kept in touch with over the years. A quick flip of the pages revealed Jenn Brissett, Ann Leckie, Ellen Datlow, and Eugene Myers—all people I've met at Launch Pad. If you are a writer and you do not have a circle of acquaintances who are published writers, then I highly recommend you do something to change this situation. The above writers are all award-winning, well-known writers in their field. They are people just like you and me. I count them as friends and acquaintances I can talk to if I need advice. We stay in touch via Twitter and an occasional email and we will get together anytime we find ourselves in the same location together. We support each other as all writers should.
Writers need to interface with other writers. I did not really understand this until I attended my first Launch Pad. Attend conferences, join a writer's group, apply to Launch Pad (multiple times if you have to), go to conventions, or watch to see if a writer is appearing in a library or a book store. Introduce yourself to them. Talk to them. But don't think that getting to know a well-known author is a gateway to publication. They've all worked hard to get to where they are. They will give you advice, provide guidance if they have the time, and will answer your honest questions if at all possible. But they will not, and cannot, give you a direct line to their agent or publisher. That's your job. They also don't have the time to read everything every writer asks them to read. The biggest advantage of knowing other writers is feeling like you belong. Listen to what they have to say and learn what they have to offer in the form of wisdom. Eventually, if you treat them like a person and not a means to achieving another goal, you will gain their confidence and eventually their friendship and trust.