Michell Plested's Blog, page 8

Building Worlds Takes More Than One Book

Building Worlds Takes More Than One Book I have heard of people spending hours and hours doing nothing but building worlds for their characters to play in. They sacrifice time creating those actual characters and creating stories for them to exist in all for the sake of a more detailed legal system or better rules of magic or whatever. I suspect, for those people, the fun of creation is such that the actual story writing might be a chore. Sort of like being the Dungeon Master (DM) versus the Campaign Party (CP) in DnD. The DM creates the dungeon and all of its inherent challenges and rewards. The DM loves torturing and making the characters work. The CP meanwhile, is […]

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Mik Murdoch 4 is Underway

Mik Murdoch 4 is Underway The story for Mik Murdoch 4 has been in my mind for well over a year. The problem was, I was busy with other books that had to come first. When I finished the last of those books (Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Masters) it was finally time to work on Mik. So, I began plotting the story. And then I plotted some more. I could have gone on with nothing but plotting for weeks if I had let myself. But the characters were starting to give me lines for the story. It was time to write. It Started Slow I’ve been in editing mode for quite a while now, which is considerably different than […]

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Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Masters

Coming October 31st! It has been two years since the zombie apocalypse ended, but Scouter Mike continues to relive the horror every day in his dreams. When he and his Scouts are invited to the World Jamboree in Japan, he is reluctant to go. But go he does and it isn’t long before the horror starts again. But why now? And, even more important, why here? Mike and his Scouts must battle the undead one more time as they race to find out why it’s happening again and stop it once and for all. Amazon Amazon Kindle Kobo

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Cover Reveal – Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Masters

Cover Reveal – Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Masters The cover for Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Masters is here and I couldn’t be happier! This cover is definitely darker in tone than the first two but I think it is an awesome zombie novel cover. The book itself is also in the final stages of preparation, sitting with the printer and distributors. You can have your own copy of the book October 31st. I know, I can’t wait.

Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Masters in Final Copy Edits

If I had a megaphone I would be shouting out “Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Masters is in Final Copy Edits!” Truly, I would be. This book, for many reasons, has been a long time coming to get to this point. But, we are finally here and I couldn’t be happier! The cover is all but finished, the layout is started. The new badges are here (I’ll be showing those off in a few days). It finally feels real. Of course, LOTs of promotion to do and hopefully lots of books sold.

Changing My Ways

As I write this, I kinda think I should have titled this blog, “Old dogs need to learn new tricks” but,  I’m not a dog.

The Importance of Networking

The Importance of Networking I’ve talked about networking many times in the past; why it is important and necessary. At When Words Collide I was reminded once again of how critical it is to a writer to network. It all began with one of the keynote speeches. Sam Morgan, a literary agent, talked about how he got into his current career. He went from one connection to the next to the next until he had gone from unemployed college graduate to literary agent. He said he didn’t even know what a literary agent was until he got the job. His talk made it sound like he bounced from one person to the next like a ping pong ball. If you […]

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Why Do You Want to Publish a Book?

Why Do You Want to Publish a Book? I was asked some questions recently that made me really think. Not think as in “what’s the right answer”, but think as in “what’s the right answer for what you are doing”. Especially when it comes to publishing a book. There are many people out there who claim to want to write a book. The number who actually accomplish that goal is significantly smaller. The number who publish the book they wrote is even smaller still. For those of us who do want to see our books published, the question that first needs to be asked is “Why?” Possible Reasons for Publishing Your Book I Want a Copy on my Bookshelf (or […]

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Don’t Submit To Your Editor Too Soon (or Mistakes were made)

Mistakes Were Made I made a mistake. I admit it. Nothing Earth shattering, mind you. Just something that has slowed my own process. What was it you ask? I submitted my draft of Scouts of the Apocalypse: Zombie Masters too soon. My editor was eager to see it (who can blame him) and I sent it before I’d had any chance to fix the problems I knew were there. Why is that a Mistake? I wrote SotA: ZM fast. Maybe faster than usual. Because I forced myself to write every day to meet my self-imposed deadline, I had some sections that were less than stellar. They weren’t completely thought out or they were filler to my thought process. That being the […]

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Managing Priorities

Managing Priorities Our lives are filled with often-conflicting events. Prioritizing those things is the only way to survive (and succeed). In my case, my daughter was getting married AND I have a book to edit for publication (there are a couple more AND’s in there as well, but those are the two biggies). If you’ve never had a book published before you might lean in that direction. It was never a question for me; my daughter did and always will take precedence over my writing. So, being the father of the bride, I spent my time supporting her and my wife as well as I could and prepared for the wedding. The book sat waiting for my attention. Back to […]

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