Rod Tyson's Blog, page 46

For King and Country!

This week's word - 'Shivered'.

The cannons belched their fury from across the valley, wreathing the distant hill crest in white smoke. Seconds later, great plumes of dirt erupted across the field as the first barrage fell short of its mark. The captain of hussars shivered, then reigned in his startled mount and glared at the ragged line of horsemen before him, their faces bloodied and grim, cast in stark relief by the rays of the setting sun. All day the battle had raged; like an unstoppable beast, driving both sides into a frenzy of slaughter and madness.
[image error] 'For the King and our country we must succeed,' he called, 'prepare to charge those guns!'

You know the score. ;) http://lilliemcferrin.blogspot.com/ Five Sentence Fiction Challenge.

This weeks Five Sentence Fiction Entry -

A bit close to the submission deadline this one :{  The idea is to write a five sentence story based around a catch word. This week's word is 'Clandestine'.

The castle halls were quiet at night, the only noise; the gentle flap of silk as her gown caught the breeze. Her husband, the Emperor had found himself another concubine. Young, renowned for her beauty, with a voice like the south wind - in contrast to her own aging skin and bitter heart. Her spies had informed her of the chamber where they would meet. The Empress held the clay jar close to her breast as the huge scorpion within grew restless. 

[image error] With thanks to Lillie McFerrin who hosts the Five Sentence Fiction challenge over on her blog right here :)
http://lilliemcferrin.blogspot.com/

The 'Orphan Stone' preliminary cover art

[image error] [image error]
Hi Folks, :)
Please let me know if you like any of these book covers. 'Yay, awesome?' or 'Nay Lad, what in God's name were ye thinking?' Any input would be very much appreciated.

Today's thoughts and stuff -
Today, I've been juggling my obsessive writing with (thankfully) some productive employment that has carried me across the Norfolk countryside.

In between episodes of eye bulging acceleration, through the busy traffic on the A12 motorway, I've been gathering ideas and images for the cover design of 'The Orphan Stone'.
(I had the sense to pull over first.)
However, this has been only a tiny part of a rather voluminous, and gaping, literary hole.
The issue is - 'How can I remain faithful to the original ideas set out in the first 'Ancient Shadows' novel?
The muses have been jumping up and down on the tin roof of my creativity for months, and in between my frantic attempts to appease the God of Domestic Serenity (who's claws are substantially longer than any muse) I've been bashing away at my keyboard like a chimpanzee on a set of bongo drums.

I just wanted to reveal something about the next installment from the world of Ancient Shadows.
'The Orphan Stone' is a stand alone Dark Fantasy primarily involving Hetty, Cat Celeste's best friend from 'Curse of Ancient Shadows'.
I'm getting a little jumpy and excited because the project is nearing completion.
I don't want to give away any spoilers, so for now I'll just say that the story involves important character development for Hetty, as she finds herself fighting against a frightening entity from the distant past, as well as introducing a host of new and interesting characters. Some of whom are due to appear in later novels from the 'Ancient Shadows' mythos.
More later, and take care ;)

The truth about publishing on Smashwords (and eating your hat).

[image error] I promised a little while back to write the final installment of my 'E-book Asylum' articles, for newcomers to the whole e-publishing scene. The first two dealt with how to publish on Amazon, then on Barnes and Noble. This one deals with the thorniest of the bunch - Smashwords :)

Smashwords bill themselves as a one stop method of publishing youre-book across a range of the largest and most influential online stores. Theydo this for a very small slice of your pie and, at first glance, this lookslike a great idea. However (you guessed it) once you start breathing deeply ofthis new found freedom you'll be wishing at times that someone would open a windowand let in some fresh air.
I really don't want to be too hard on Smashwords though. Theservice is largely unique and is still in a sort of 'beta stage' while theyiron out issues. (Allowing author's to publish to Amazon being one of them.) But, if you give your work over solely to Smashwords thenyou are channelling yourself though their limited perspective. So here's why,and more importantly how, I recommend using them:Use them. Publish your work with them, but before you do,run around the corner and stick your stuff up on Amazon and B&N anyway,independently of Smashword's methods. Maintain control of your destiny.Publish/ list your e-book in as many places as you can. You might be thinking that the Smashwords submission toB&N and Amazon will override your own submissions. Don't worry, it won't.The primary benefit of Smashwords is the e-book ISBN number they give you forFREE, which is used by Apple and Sony, and would otherwise cost you aload of money and hassle to get hold of. (See later in this article on how to obtain your free ISBNfrom Smashwords).A second major benefit is that it's really easy to creatediscount coupons for your books using Smashwords, which are great for offeringpotential reviewers free copies.

Smashwords formatting - Getting your e-book correctly formatted is the primarybugbear when using Smashwords. There is really no easy option and the difficultyof this, as well as Smashword's patchy feedback on whether you've succeeded in fulfilling their criteria has been known to drive debut authors running to the doors of thelocal lunatic asylum in an attempt to escape the unforgiving nature of thistask. So brace your girdles and sharpen the old Gandermank 'cos it's gonna be abumpy ride folks.

First thing we need to do is download the Smashwords StyleGuide. You can find it here: http://www.smashwords.com/b/52

However, I am going to distil the info contained within totry and make the process clearer, and easier. (Call me crazy!) Though you shouldstill read through the Smashwords Style Guide, as there are other, peripheralissues that may apply to your e-book that I cannot include here for spacereasons (like tables and whatnot). It'll also give you an insight into the waythey work.Smashword's attitude to the formatting in your e-book isthat you probably cocked things up. They won't accept your book onto their Premiumlist (which is the list that ships out to the major online retailers) unlessyou get this right. Don't bother going through your text re-organising things,removing indents and chasing your own tail. What you need, from day one, is theNUCLEAR OPTION (boom!).

1) Nuclear option. Copy and paste to notepad then back again to Word.Make sure your manuscript is saved. Then save it againsomewhere else. Highlight your entire manuscript and COPY it. (Press CTRL andC). Then open Notepad. PASTE your manuscript into notepad.(Press CTRL and V). This removes ALL formatting from your manuscript. Save thenotepad file to a convenient location. Now, highlight and copy the text in thenotepad file (Ctrl and C again). Open a blank document in MSWord and paste thetext you've just copied from the notepad file into it (Ctrl and V again). Now,you will have a MSWord document of your e-book that has zero formatting withinthat could foul up Smashword's Auto Vetter. Save it, twice. This document isthe one you will be uploading to Smashwords after you've finished with it.

2) Apply all your indents again.
(Noooo! I hear you cry. I spent months getting this right. Mynovel is 90,000 words long! Surely you jest!?)  I know. You have my deepest sympathies. This is the worst bit about the wholeprocess. It sucks monumentally but it's the most thorough and efficient way. There is a veryuseful tool on the toolbar at the top of MSWord that will help enormously. It'scalled a 'Pilcrow' and it's the weird backwards P that sits near the 'inserttable' or the 'zoom' features in the toolbar that looks like this:
¶Click it and your formatting willbe revealed. Use it to iron everything out.Do not use TAB or SPACEBAR for applying indents during this process - this isimportant. First, you should set an indent value for the entire document by going tothe bar at the top of MSWord and clicking 'Format' then 'Paragraph'.

3) Go through your manuscript and remove indents on thefirst line of any paragraph.

4) Apply italics, large fonts and center text as needed.

5) Apply paragraph returns in a consistent manner - I dothree before chapter  headings and two after (before main text starts).

6) Apply page breaks at end of chapters, by going to'insert' on the toolbar and then 'break' (or 'page break').

7) There's no need to paste an image of the cover into thetop of your manuscript in my experience.

8) Add links to yourself at the very end.

9) On the title page of your novel you need to keep itsimple. I recommend you just have the following - Book title (not too big,16pts is fine), your name, copyright notice, mention it's the 'SmashwordsEdition', website address, a dedication. If you go writing things like 'published byetc.' Smashword's auto vetter will fail your novel. Stick to what I've justlisted.

10) Create Smashwords account here:       http://www.smashwords.com/

11) Upload your novel. Don't forget the cover too, you upload that separately so don't paste it into your novel manuscript.

12) Eat your hat. Yup - and put some ketchup and fries in it, because if you got this far you deserve a round of applause. (And probably not the savage acid reflux you'll get from eating a hat. So, the hat? That's optional, unless it's made out of flowers and cheese...)

Obtaining an ISBN from Smashwords - Some online retailers require that your novel has an ISBNnumber. Getting hold of one of these is expensive and annoying. Smashwords areawesome in this respect because they supply one for you, for FREE. Before we gothere, it's worth mentioning that ISBNs for e-books are a grey area right now.Some folk say you need one ISBN for each e-retailer offering your book. Others sayone ISBN will cover ALL electronic versions of the same book. I'm going withthe latter view because it makes life easier and it works just fine, the wholeISBN thing is a bit of a scam anyway in my opinion. Having said that, Amazon and B&N don't require themanyways, so they get five stars for author friendly open mindedness.So, to get an ISBN for your book - Go to the 'Dashboard' of your new Smashwords account (you'llsee the link after you log in). Click on ISBN Manager on the left side. Scrollto the bottom of the page for a one click solution. Simple!After you've uploaded, Smashwords quite unhelpfully willhave you waiting with 'pending review' status and not tell you why your workisn't being reviewed for AGES (like, weeks). Check your e-mail too for messages generated bythe Auto Vetter. This whole process left me wishing Smashwords would'throw me a freakin' bone'. I had to wait 2 weeks to see if they would accept my novelto the premium list. If you use the nuclear option above it's a lot of horse work,but you'll get accepted. Just take your time.Thanks for reading, I hope, if nothing else, thisarticle has given an idea of what you're up against with Smashwords.
Q. Is itreally worth publishing with them? 
A. Yes, it is. An author needs as manyvenues as possible, but don't expect any positive results from your efforts (i.e:sales) for quite a while as it takes them an age to list your stuff. Because of this, in my book, it's not top priority.

Author interview on Nyx Book Reviews -

I have had a very pro-active week this week, which is why I've been annoying people around me with a massive, cheddar cheese grin plastered all over my face.
My friend Celine Nyx over at 'Nyx Book Reviews' very kindly agreed to do an author interview, which I really enjoyed writing. Hope you enjoy reading it :) Let me know what you think.
Also, please check out Celine's great blog, packed full of interesting articles and reviews! You can find the original post here:
http://nyxbookreviews.blogspot.com/2012/01/interview-rod-tyson-curse-of-ancient.html

Interview: Rod Tyson (Curse of Ancient Shadows)Today's guest is Rod Tyson, the author of the young-adult book Curse of Ancient Shadows. Why should you read his book? Rod shares his writing process with his, and even realises something about himself when answering my questions! Make sure you visit his blog too.
The Interview
Nyx Book Reviews: Hi Rod, welcome to Nyx Book Reviews! Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?
Rod: Thanks Celine and hello planet Nyx. I am a new author behind 'Curse of Ancient Shadows'; a Young Adult fantasy/ adventure novel featuring Cat Celeste. I live in Norfolk in the United Kingdom with my wife, daughter and a cat with no name. During the day I am a humble computer engineer, but by night (after I've had my tea/dinner, and if I can avoid the fatal lure of Twitter) I write stuff that I hope people will find entertaining. 
During my life I've moved around a lot. I spent five years living and working in the USA running my own games company and before that I lived in a colourful bus while exploring the British Isles as a New Age traveller. These days I live in a real house that doesn't have wheels and like to think I've settled down.

Your book, Curse of Ancient Shadows is a young adult fantasy. Why should people pick up your book?
Because it's a magical story packed full of distinctive characters and page-turning action, in a highly detailed world that has a deep history. I like to think Curseof Ancient Shadows will enchant readers and, because it's the first in a series, will keep them coming back for more. It took me fourteen months to write, but the ideas were percolating around in my head years before I got started. The story surrounding Cat Celeste and her struggle to find her parents draws upon this history and detail in a way that I hope imparts the world of 'Ancient Shadows' with a feeling of reality and authenticity.
The process of sculpting the ideas and writing them down was, at times, extremely hard, but I had so much fun, I loved writing this story and I think it shows. I have been gathering ideas for the sequel for a while now. I expect it won't take so long to write because now I'm a more experienced writer.
Do you have any writing rituals?
I walk. I try to do it every day, out in the countryside. The more remote the better. The oxygen stimulates my mind as I turn over characters and plot. As I walk I talk to myself. Sometimes quite loudly. I wave my arms a lot. When I walk along the river, now and again I surprise an angler, they sit upon the bank hiding among the reeds, fishing, pretending they haven't noticed. There's a local legend about a madman who walks the marshes nearby. It occurred to me that I might know who it is.
When I feel I've walked enough, I turn around. That's when the ideas start jumping into my head. As I walk back home I try to answer all the dilemmas posed by the outward journey. If something doesn't work, I chop it up and re-arrange, or throw bits out and try to add stuff that is at complete odds with what I've perceived as the way forward up until that point. It works for me - I get new perspective doing it that way. Then, if I'm not too busy with work commitments, I race home and zing my way through the next scene, on a cool zephyr of coffee and fresh air. That's the ideal. Sometimes I just zing through notes. This question helped me process all that, which is something I feel quite good about. Thanks Celine.
Do you still find time to read yourself? If so, what books have you read lately that you particularly recommend?
I have always been an avid reader. My reading preferences over the years have influenced my writing style - Tolkien, H.P Lovecraft, Dan Brown, Larry Niven, Simon Scarrow to name a few. At this point in time I haven't read a book for over a month because I'm working on my next novel, 'The Orphan Stone', which features Cat Celeste's best friend Hetty Ravensmith. I did read DarkHenge recently by Catherine Fisher, which I'd highly recommend, and Bad Things by Michael Marshall which was a great supernatural thriller. Both books I purchased from a charity shop.
Do you have any tips for aspiring writers?
Not sure I'm qualified to offer other authors tips or advice, but I'll do my best.Get busy. No matter how bad it is, just make sure you write. When writing your story during the early drafts you are only talking to yourself, so embrace thatfreedom. Don't procrastinate too much during the early stages of writing a novel.
It might seem like an obvious point but having nothing written down means your creativity is draining away as you forget ideas. I keep a pen and notepad by my bed as ideas often hit me when I'm in that nebulous mental state right before you go to sleep (which can be problematic if you've got an early start). I make a point of waking myself and writing them down. Your brain will happily juggle ideas for the next blockbuster all day (and night) but that won't do you any good in a month when you've forgotten or switched interest because you didn't keep a record. 
Nurture resilience. On days when you feel the whole writing gig is a complete waste of time, train yourself to ignore the little voice in your head that's making you feel bad about your writing. What's it trying to achieve anyway? To make you give up? Forget it! You know if you gave up writing you'd be back at it in a few weeks with some new ideas.
Thank you for answering my questions! (:
Thank you too for giving me the opportunity to let people know about my work! And thanks to your readers for taking an interest :)

This week's 'Five Sentence Fiction' entry -

Here's my entry this week for the 'Five Sentence Challenge' over on Lillie McFerrin's blog right here -
http://lilliemcferrin.blogspot.com/2012/01/five-sentence-fiction-your-choice.html

This week, the word that the five sentence story is based around is up to the writer.

My words is 'Secrets' -
As she exhaled, a column of bubbles danced up through the water toward the glittering sunlight above. Below her, the unfathomable darkness began to lift, revealing in the murky gloom the broken wreck of an ancient galleon. Its leaning masts, still intact, were wreathed by flags of trailing seaweed that caught the current. Her iron shod boots touched the bottom in a cloud of silt that began following her steps as she fought against the thick diving suit. Before her, the contents of the hulk lay spilled across the sea floor; a broken pathway to secrets known only to the long dead crew of the sunken ship.

Curse of Ancient Shadows gets a four star review!

I'm so elated we're off out on the town tonight to celebrate the good news!
You can see the review on Christie's Book Review blog via the link below, I've also copied and pasted from the original review - Thanks for looking!:
http://www.christiesbookreviews.com/2012/01/curse-of-ancient-shadows-by-rod-tyson.html?showComment=1326736486821#c1953651702002426002

[image error] "Cat had a pretty normal life… or so she thought until her father went missing.  She went to stay with her grandfather because her dad wasn't around to pick her up from school. She hadn't seen her grandfather in years and wasn't sure what to expect, especially not that her family was cursed and the curse was after her. She had to decipher the clues and win the game that had been set in motion. Only one could live in the end, and the past events were not in her favor since her ancestors ended up dead.

Curse of Ancient Shadows was a fast-paced, adventure-packed story. There was not a dull moment, and there was always something going on. There was no option to be bored while reading this enticing story.

Rod Tyson contacted me and asked me to read and review his book. The story sounded interesting, so I accepted the request. Going into this story with no expectations, I came away with a great read. The story held my attention and kept me turning the pages to find out what would happen next. I liked that it had different aspects to it:  there was archeology, a curse, fantasy, treasure and adventure. What more could you ask for? It all fit together really well, and I was impressed with this debut novel. The author created a really interesting world that was fun to read about and kept me wanting more.

The author ended this book well and left the ending with the clear possibility that there could be another book, which I would really enjoy. "