Brock E. Deskins's Blog: The Mind of Brock, page 10

Wondering what to get people for the holidays?

First, I apologize for my blatant commercialization here, but business is business even when it's fun and you love it, and unfortunately,  business ain't so hot right now. If you enjoyed my books, how about telling others about them? Post them on your Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, or whatever else the cool people are doing that I don't know about. You can send them to my blog where they can click the links or here http://tinyurl.com/myyemm6 to get a good look at them on Amazon.

Book 8, The Sorcerer's Destiny, is coming along great. I should have the first draft complete by mid October at the latest, and I have already started my first proofing when my brain gets too lazy and mushy to write. As long as I can get a cover made up, a holiday release is pretty certain. Thanks to everyone who has read and enjoyed my stories. It makes me extremely happy knowing I have created something entertaining for so many people.

Good news everyone!

Good news, everyone! For an as of yet unexplained reason, I have been banned from my online game. This means a significant increase in my writing productivity! RAWR! THEY TOOK MY CRACK PIPE!Productivity has actually been pretty good. I just topped 109k words and the next few thousand should come pretty easy. The biggest challenge I face now is the final epic battle and how much detail I will go into. There has already been two huge battles and I don;t know how much I can do without sounding repetitive or simply rattling off a series of story boarded narratives. It will be a challenge. I see the first draft done in the next two weeks.

Guest Post for Tara Maya

Ms. Maya's agent contacted me about doing a blog post swap. I sent her an excerpt and blurb of my book and she sent me one. I began reading The Unfinished Song (Book 1): Initiate and find it interesting. The premise and magic is original and the characters well established. It is not (as far as I have read) a hacking and blasting style of fantasy, but there is suspense and action set at a good pace.



The Unfinished Song (Book 1): Initiate by Tara Maya
BLURBDEADLY INITIATION
A DETERMINED GIRL...Dindi can't do anything right, maybe because she spends more time dancing with pixies than doing her chores. Her clan hopes to marry her off and settle her down, but she dreams of becoming a Tavaedi, one of the powerful warrior-dancers whose secret magics are revealed only to those who pass a mysterious Test during the Initiation ceremony. The problem? No-one in Dindi's clan has ever passed the Test. Her grandmother died trying. But Dindi has a plan.

AN EXILED WARRIOR...Kavio is the most powerful warrior-dancer in Faearth, but when he is exiled from the tribehold for a crime he didn't commit, he decides to shed his old life. If roving cannibals and hexers don't kill him first, this is his chance to escape the shadow of his father's wars and his mother's curse. But when he rescues a young Initiate girl, he finds himself drawn into as deadly a plot as any he left behind. He must decide whether to walk away or fight for her... assuming she would even accept the help of an exile.

EXCERPTBlue-skinned rusalki grappled Dindi under the churning surface of the river. She could feel their claws dig into her arms. Their riverweed-like hair entangled her legs when she tried to kick back to the surface. She only managed to gulp a few breaths of air before they pulled her under again.
She hadn't appreciated how fast and deep the river was. On her second gasp for air, she saw that the current was already dragging her out of sight of the screaming girls on the bank. A whirlpool of froth and fae roiled between two large rocks in the middle of the river. The rusalka and her sisters tugged Dindi toward it. Other water fae joined the rusalki. Long snouted pookas, turtle-like kappas and hairy-armed gwyllions all swam around her, leading her to the whirlpool, where even more fae swirled in the whitewater.
"Join our circle, Dindi!" the fae voices gurgled under the water. "Dance with us forever!"
"No!" She kicked and swam and stole another gasp for air before they snagged her again. There were so many of them now, all pulling her down, all singing to the tune of the rushing river. She tried to shout, "Dispel!" but swallowed water instead. Her head hit a rock, disorienting her. She sank, this time sure she wouldn't be coming up again.
"Dispel!" It was a man's voice.
Strong arms encircled her and lifted her until her arms and head broke the surface. Her rescuer swam with her toward the shore. He overpowered the current, he shrugged aside the hands of the water faeries stroking his hair and arms. When he reached the shallows, he scooped Dindi into his arms and carried her the rest of the way to the grassy bank. He set her down gently.
She coughed out some water while he supported her back.
"Better?" he asked.
She nodded. He was young--only a few years older than she. The aura of confidence and competence he radiated made him seem older. Without knowing quite why, she was certain he was a Tavaedi.
"Good." He had a gorgeous smile. A wisp of his dark bangs dangled over one eye. He brushed his dripping hair back over his head.
Dindi's hand touched skin--he was not wearing any shirt. Both of them were sopping wet. On him, that meant trickles of water coursed over a bedrock of muscle. As for her, the thin white wrap clung transparently to her body like a wet leaf. She blushed.
"It might have been easier to swim if you had let go of that," he teased. He touched her hand, which was closed around something. "What were you holding onto so tightly that it mattered more than drowning?"

LINKSTara’s blog http://bit.ly/12dFdNyTara’s Twitter http://bit.ly/162sCtEThe Unfinished Song on Facebook http://on.fb.me/1400mMqAmazon http://amzn.to/15ciwYcBarnes and Noble http://bit.ly/13yM5DrKobo http://bit.ly/1aFhg1PiTunes http://bit.ly/1baddhNSmashwords http://bit.ly/17zK8Xn
Initiate is free everywhere except on Barnes and Noble (where it’s $0.99). You can download a free .epub version via Smashwords.

Still broken but working

I took one day of no writing and managed to clean my house pretty well. I got some good work done yesterday and I think I am in the homestretch. At just under 98,000 words, I will probably have to come up with a bit more content to meet my minimum expectations of that I and my readers desire for book length. I had stated that I won't release any book in this series with less than 100,000 words, but really I want at least 110,000 to stay in line with the other books of the series. There is plenty for me to work with without sounding like I'm adding fluff or filler or going on a tangent. I just need to focus more on dialog and character interactions more instead of continually advancing the storyline at a faster pace than necessary. It's tough to do.

One other news, I am in talks with a professional artist and designer to rework some covers. I still want to go over book 1 again and clean it up. I have yet to feel comfortable with it. I'm not sure what exactly I'm going to do. Just reading over it recently I noticed a difference in my delivery, voice, and scene descriptions. Hopefully I can bring it up to at least the level of my later books and get it into print. The two books I have in print haven't sold diddly squat so I hope it's not a waste of time.

Starting a new chapter but I'm broke down

My recent writing efforts have been rewarded with a stabbing pain in my neck and shoulder. It sucks. I was looking forward to starting the next chapter. I'm uncomfortable with how the last section went. There is a full two chapters in a row without Azerick. I'm sure to hear about it from my readers but I don't see an easy way around it. Oh well, there's a lot going on and it's a big world.

Destiny update

Just topped 81,000 words. I think this will have a good length to it once it's over. I have a pretty good plan in my head for the rest of it. Just a matter of prying it out. Had a couple ideas for future books so I might be able to keep this up a couple more years at least.

Character Creation

Q.      Do you personally know other fantasy writers?a.       I do not. Q.      How do you create characters? Do you try to thinking through as much of their personality and history as you can before you start writing them in your books? Or do they just evolve naturally somehow as you write? Have you ever surprised yourself by the turn a character has taken that you didn't quite anticipate?a.       When I started The Sorcerer’s Ascension I had Azerick and Maude’s crew created in my mind. Beyond that, everyone else I made up as needed as the story unfolded. Because I am “discovery writer” and have almost no clue what is going to happen much beyond where I am at right now, I cannot create them very far in advance.  They are a product of their environment and evolve along with the story. When I create a new character, I try to make that person unique and memorable with a real personality even if they exist only in a one a few scenes. Like in life, everyone is unique and I want to try and convey that in my books as well. I have had a few characters evolve far beyond what I had expected. Azerick most notably. I never intended him to become as dark and foreboding as he has. Probably my favorite evolution of character was Tarth. I really enjoyed writing his back story in The Sorcerer’s Return. When I made him and Maude’s crew, it was mostly just to entertain with little connection to the main plot. When I realized I had to really tie them in, I had to give serious consideration to providing a real identity.Q.      How long did it take you to write your first book?a.      I wrote the first draft to The Sorcerer’s Ascension in about a month. I wrote the next three books and The Portal in just under a year. These were fairly raw at the time and needed months of proofing and editing. I’m still trying to get book 1 right! Now I try to have a book from start to on the shelf done in about six months.

evolution of my writing process. Putting the series in print.

1.      How has your process changed between the first book and where you are now? Is it becoming easier in any way? I imagine you spend less time thinking about the environment of the world since most of it has been established by now.A.     I’m not sure my process has really changed that much. I have started printing out my second proof to provide better editing. I also try much harder on creating more original content and creatures instead of recycling your typical D&D monsters and spells. In some ways it has actually gotten harder. Yes, most of my characters are established so I do not have to create them and their personalities, but I am trying a lot harder to make a professional looking book as opposed to what started as just something to do for the sake of doing it.2.      Have you thought at all about making print copies? If so, what are the things that are keeping you from doing that? Too few sales, dealing with publishers, etc.a.       I want to see the series in print, but the quality requirements are much higher, at least for me. What I and many readers will forgive in a $2.99-$3.99 ebook cannot be tolerated in an $8-$10 paperback. I really want to get book 1 perfect before committing even to a print on demand through Createspace like I have done with Shrouds of Darkness and The Portal. I will get them in print, I just cannot give a timeline for it just yet.

TROLL!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaklcX...

Give these guys a thumbs up. Love em.

Anxiety of being an independent author

One of the questions someone asked was how does a person deal with negative reviews and how do they affect me. I was absolutely terrified of them initially and could set me in a state of anxiety for hours. Fortunately, I have received enough positive feedback that I can let them roll of my back fairly easily now. No one will ever please everyone. I am sure some people gave even Harry Potter horrible reviews.

The ones that concern us independents are these http://www.amazon.com/The-Sorcerers-R...

There is no constructive opinion or feedback to go with the 1 star. Why was it horrible? Was there nothing redeemable about the book? One star can lower the overall rating, lessen Amazon recommendations, and destroy sales. There are companies out there who are paid to post bad reviews to intentionally destroy writers' rankings and people who pay them to do so. Is this one of them? I don't know. I do not understand why someone would think that by destroying one author their readers are going to flock to their books. I pray that the intelligence of the reading public is great enough to spot the trolls or just an individually dissatisfied customer and base their opinion and purchase choices on the overall quality of the book and its reviews and not just a few people who do not take the time to give a fair review, either positive or negative, or someone who just wants to intentionally hurt someone they don't even know.

Take this review for example. http://www.amazon.com/The-Sorcerers-R...

Correct me if I am wrong, but I do not recall making any reference to orphans, there were few battles and none were huge nor were they described in any sort of gory detail.  The vagueness of the review makes me think everything was taken from the book description and not actually read. Like the 1 star review, this person only has 1 other review on Amazon. If it is a legitimately dissatisfied reader then I am fine with that. I doubt I will ever be totally satisfied with anything I write. I just hope we aren't becoming such a competitive and spiteful society that we go out of our way to hurt people because we can safely hide behind the anonymity of the internet.