R.M. Prioleau's Blog, page 4

"Firebrand" Coming This Spring!

No specific date, yet, but it's looking like Firebrand (the paperback version) will be available this spring. I've halted work on book 2 to concentrate on the edits on book 1, which I am working closely with my editor. If all goes well, Firebrand will be launched around the same The Necromancer's Apprentice was released (4/7/2011)!

Books & Cons

2012 already started out busy as ever with 2 book signings — one at the local coffee shop and the other at an anime & gaming convention. Both were great successes (and great fun!). My next appearance will be at the Author Showcase in The Villages, FL. See the events page for more information.

Some more great things has been happening. First, Firebrand is currently being reviewed by my editor, which means I'll soon have a tentative release date. I've already been working on book 2′s edits, as well. Second, the paperback version of The Necromancer's Apprentice is now available at Amazon! and third, in case you haven't seen it, the e-book version of The Necromancer's Apprentice is now available at Apple iTunes!

I've also made a few tweaks and changes to the website. A mobile version of this website will load if you are visiting via your smartphone or tablet.

Merry Christmas!

Can you believe this Sunday is Christmas? This year has flown by so fast! This has been a very productive (and successful) year for me and I only hope that 2012 will be even better. I had a book signing last week at the local Starbucks, and it was a complete sellout! I sold all 25 copies! Thank you to those who came out and showed your support! I am still very overwhelmed by the experience! I will be returning again on New Year's Eve and bringing 50 copies with me.

The Necromancer's Apprentice is now available at Kobo Books!

Back to editing!

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December and Beyond

NaNoWriMo is over, but that only means the fun has just begun. I officially have the entire Pyromancer Trilogy 'written,' but it's far from finished. Book 1 is undergoing the next phase of editing and I'm currently editing/rewriting book 2. Fun times!

The First Friday Artwalk was quite successful. 5 copies of The Necromancer's Apprentice was sold, and I had the opportunity to meet lots of friendly faces (not to mention, I had fun cosplaying again [image error] ). I plan on possibly doing this every month. The trading cards also came in and they turned out great!

I also wanted to make mention of my fellow author, John, who has released his debut novel, Picayune. This light-hearted, YA fantasy is available in paperback and ebook formats. Check it out! [image error]

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The Madness is Back…

Yes, that's right. NaNoWriMo is back in full swing, and this year, it's bigger than ever. Of course, I'm participating and writing the third and final book of the Pyromancer Trilogy. Meanwhile, I'm also doing first-round editing book 2. Book 1 has been sent off to be edited and finalized for release. I'm probably looking at early January 2012 for Firebrand to be released (in paperback). Of course, the e-book versions will be a little longer due to the time it takes to convert them.

I'll be making another appearance and booksigning of The Necromancer's Apprentice at the First Friday Artwalk in historic downtown Ocala, December 2 from 6-8PM. Looking forward to another great event!

Quick recap from the Authorfest in October:

This was my first-ever booksigning, and it was a great success! I had a wonderful time meeting so many people! Sold 9 copies of The Necromancer's Apprentice, also! I had fun being able to cosplay in my homemade gothic dress. Thank you to everyone who came out!

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Authorfest and NaNoWriMo

Wow, is it really October already? That means next month is National Novel Writing Month, and the month after that is Christmas! Time certainly flies when you're having fun. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to participate in this year's GothNoWriMo as I've been hard at work with editing Firebrand. I was hoping to have it finished back in August, but one thing led to another (like reprinting The Necromancer's Apprentice, for one). Speaking of which, the newest version of The Necromancer's Apprentice is available in print and eBook formats. If you've already purchased the book, you can simply re-download it to get the new version.

October is a busy month. I will be kicking off NaNoWriMo at the end of the month and I will also be attending the 2011 Authorfest. If you are in the Central Florida area, I would love to meet you! I will be bringing 20 printed copies of The Necromancer's Apprentice whilch will be made available for purchase. You can find more information about the event at the official website: http://wlov.org/Upcoming_Event.html

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get the Fantasy Trading Cards for The Necromancer's Apprentice printed this time around, but that is next on my to-do list once Firebrand is released. [image error]

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Reprint and Fall Projects

The reprint for The Necromancer's Apprentice is FINALLY done and converted to print and e-book edition. For those who already purchased the previous version of the e-book, you should be able to re-download/update to the new (and improved) version at no charge.

Firebrand is still being worked on and going through another session of edits and changes after I've acquired some great advice from this book. The great people over at Kindleboards recommended it to me, and I literally couldn't put it down. There was so much great information to be had, and I think it's also helped me in improving my own skills. I would really like to have the book finished and published before next month, as the FWA Annual Conference (October 21-23) will be happening at that time. I'll have a table there, along with John, another member of my writing group. I'll have signed copies of The Necromancer's Apprentice (and hopefully, Firebrand) for sale, as well as other goodies and giveaways (like Fantasy Trading Cards)!

These next few months are going to be especially busy for me. In addition to getting these edits done and the conference, I'm also participating in GothNoWriMo and NaNoWriMo in October and November (yes, back-to-back competitions!). There's a lot of work to be done from now until next month, and I'm really striving to get Firebrand out as soon as possible.

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More Summer Madness

There's never been an idle moment for me this summer. New side projects have sprang up amidst the writing. I'm preparing to attend FWA in October (more details on that in a later post), which means many side projects (like promo items). I'm finalizing Firebrand (which seems like a never-ending process). Lastly, I'm preparing to do a reprint of The Necromancer's Apprentice. I'd like to have all this done by October. We'll see what happens.

My local writing group, The Dragon's Sandbox, has started a new movement called Fantasy Trading Cards in the same retrospect and theme as Romance Trading Cards. As you guessed it, the Fantasy Trading Cards movement helps promote Fantasy authors and brings awareness to readers who are fans of the Fantasy genre. I'll be creating a new section on my website for all the cards I'll have available and how you can get your hands on some! [image error] The trading card movement has proven to be a popular and fun endeavor for both readers and authors of the Romance genre. I hope FTC will be just as effective!

FTC can be found at: www.FantasyTradingCards.net (check out the Twitter page, too!) @FanTradeCards.

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My Writing Process

The majority of this summer has been spent in front of a computer — if not programming, then writing. While I'm steadily working on a visual novel game, I'm also preparing for my next book release, Firebrand and participating in Camp NaNoWriMo. It's been a busy summer year so far, and it only promises to stay that way.

Today, I thought I'd share a little insight on my writing process. All the literary types have them and each one is different. I will be basing my process on my Camp NaNoWriMo projects, which are my most current projects thus far.

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1. The idea

No matter what project you undertake, everything starts here.  No idea is too big or too small. I began brainstorming ideas on paper and typing little notes in Microsoft Wordpad. Some of my ideas come from dreams, past and present experiences. My July novel is an assassin story of the high-fantasy genre. I felt inclined to write a type of story I don't see much of. Moreover, I'm a sucker for stealthy-types.

2. The story

Once I've figured out the idea I want to go with, I turn it into a story with a beginning, middle and end. This is where I plan out the world/setting, plot, twists and everything else that goes into storybuilding. When I'm done, I have a pretty rough outline of where I want to take the story. Of course, 99% of the time, the outline ends up taking another direction once I start writing it. Thankfully, it's been for the better.

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Scrivener

I use Scrivener to help with my initial storybuilding. I mainly just use the corkboard feature for this. I'm a visual learner and this definitely helps me with my planning.

3. The characters

The idea for the main character of my assassin story came from my Ranger/Elementalist character I used to play in Guild Wars years ago. Strangely, the character I played was female, but I already had a backstory with her. Her name was Arissa and she had an elder brother named Gavin. It's strange how the character I didn't think would be the one I would write a book about ends up being it. Arissa is still a main character in the story, but her role is pretty minor, compared to Gavin.

I list all the possible characters in the story along with their roles and relations. I also write how that particular character influences the world and the flow of the story. I usually start with the antagonist, first, since I've found it to be the most difficult for me to do. Ironically, I love antagonists. I always root for them in any story. My problem is making a good, believable antagonist while avoiding cliches and other pitfalls that come with it. I have to ask myself, "What is their drive or motivation to do what they do?" "What is it they hope to achieve or gain from doing it?" "Why are they doing it?" These are simple questions, but can sometimes be very hard to answer.

In my story, I wanted to introduce political corruption. The story itself has a 'Robin Hood' kind of feel to it. It's a different twist than what I did for Firebrand and The Necromancer's Apprentice and will require me to do some extra research on things like medieval politics once I start the re-writing phase.

As before, I use Scrivener to outline all the characters. I even find some stock pictures online to help me further visualize the characters. One of my favorite places to find some great fantasy character portraits is the Neverwinter Vault.

4. Writing the story

Here's where the actual writing begins. I start the first day of the NaNoWriMo event and write to my heart's content until I reach my goal. I usually make a target wordcount of 3,000 words a day so I always stay on track. At this point of the process, I'm not worried about doing research or anything. I save that for the revision and re-write. For now, I'm writing my entire 50,000-word rough draft of the novel I just planned out.

5. Revision and rewrite

This is, perhaps, the phase I dread. It's very tedious going back and revising what you've written, taking chunks out only to re-write entire chapters in its place. It's like writing a new novel all over again; but it's a step that has to be done. During this phase, I also spend time researching specific topics (like the medieval political system) and re-writing parts of my story to make it relevant to the material. This is, perhaps the longest phase of them all.

6. Read-through

Once I've revised what I've written, I go back and read the entire story from start to finish. First, I read it from a new reader's point of view. I try to see what the reader sees and ask the questions the reader might question while reading this. I also check for typos and minor things. After the read-through, I go back to make necessary changes (step 5). As you might notice, step 5 and 6 may be repeated indefinitely.

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The Hero's Journey

One of the tests I put my story through is The Hero's Journey. I highly suggest using this to test out on your story. It has definitely helped me in determining what areas are lacking or needs to be fleshed out further. If my story passes all of those points in the Hero's Journey, then I know I'm on the right track. If I run into a block, then I know what I need to fix. This is a really helpful method to use when revising your story.

7. Beta readers

Once I'm satisfied with what I've read, I pass the manuscript along for others to read and edit to their heart's content. This can be another long phase because it may require step 5 and 6 to be repeated again once others have spotted errors in the manuscript. Beta readers and editors are an essential part of the writing process at this point. Once the manuscript is absolutely ready (that means final checks, etc.), I get it ready for print.

* * * * * * * * * *

And that's pretty much my process from start to finish. Not too bad, eh? Of course, everyone's process varies depending on their style of writing. As long as your process produces effective results, then you should stick with it for any writing project you undertake. After all, if it's not broken, why try to fix it?

Sneaky Summer Camp

It came as a big surprise for me when I found out today that Camp NaNoWriMo was supposed to be starting July 1. Not only that, it's slated to actually be two NaNoWriMo events starting July 1 and August 1 respectively.

I can only say that I'm relieved Firebrand is just about ready to be released so I can give my full attention to my NaNoWriMo project. This summer is already proving to be very busy, but highly productive and exciting. I don't think I have the stamina to do two NaNoWriMo events for both months, but who knows? I might just be crazy enough to try it.

On the flip side, Firebrand is currently undergoing the beta reading phase. Pretty soon, I'll send this off to the printers and finally see the proof copy in my own hands! If all goes well, I would expect to see the book released during late July/August.