Richard Stephenson's Blog - Posts Tagged "richard-stephenson"
Writing "Collapse" - A Behind the Scenes Look
When I first began writing Collapse, it started with a thought that had been mulling around in my head for years. In my fifteen years of law enforcement, I have worked at a maximum security prison. After I left the military, I worked for a brief period of time for the Louisiana Department of Corrections. The most fascinating thing about the experience was that the two week academy was at Angola State Prison, one of the country's most famous maximum security prisons. The 1995 Academy Award winning film Dead Man Walking , starring Susan Sarandon and Sean Penn, was based on a true story set in the same prison.
I remember very clearly sitting in class one day and the instructor said something that stayed with me till this very day. He said "Don't think for one second that you are any better than the inmates in your charge. Each one of us is one bad decision or being in that one place at the wrong time away from being an inmate. It could happen to any of us. You get behind the wheel drunk and kill someone, you come home to find your spouse in bed with someone else, any number of things can turn any law-abiding citizen into a convicted felon."
I couldn't stop thinking about what he said. What would land me in prison? The thought haunted me for several years and was the first tidbit that turned a simple idea into a book. The character of Richard Dupree began over a decade ago with me sitting in a classroom at Angola State Prison. The crime that ultimately led to the ex-Navy SEAL being in prison is one of the few things that would most certainly land me in jail if the same thing happened to me.
As the chapters began to take shape on my iPad and Mac, I found that the easiest way to write anything is to write about what you know. Drawing on your own experiences and knowledge is probably the most interesting vehicle to story-telling. I'm sure that many a writer would agree with me. Looking into the mirror and finding the darkness in your life and confronting it can be soul-wrenching, but putting that darkness into words can build the foundation to an incredible story.
"Which character is you?" My wife asked me that question after reading the introductory chapters to each of the three main characters in Collapse. The truth is, all three of them are variations of me on some level. No, I was never a Navy SEAL and I'm certainly not the world's richest man. The personalities of all three men are inspired from the journeys the created the man I am today.
The first character I created was Chief Maxwell Harris. I created Maxwell and turned him into a burnt-out drug addict with chronic pain. Before you start judging me, know this, I am not a drug addict and never have been. I have dealt with chronic pain and fully understand how easily it can be to get addicted to pain pills. In early 2011, I woke up one morning in the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. I could not stand up straight and spent most of the day laying on my bedroom floor. I would later find out that I had two bulging discs in my back and a torn muscle at the bottom of my left shoulder blade that didn't heal properly from an injury I sustained in the military. Over the next six months, I visited a chiropractor, a physical therapist, and frequented a pain management clinic. That six month period was one of the worst times of my life. I was in constant pain. I also took generous amounts of Vicodin and Soma prescribed to me by a physician. I was not fond of the drugs making my mind foggy and making me tired all the time. I was however, quite fond of being high as a kite. It was fantastic to have a perpetual sense of euphoria. I was never foolish enough to let the pain meds take control of my life, I love my job and my family far too much to jeopardize them. Once physical therapy worked out the problems with my back and the pain doctor gave me a shot in the damaged muscle, I haven't taken either of the pills since. What I did take away from the experience was the understanding of addiction.
Max also shares another quality with me. He's content to coast through life on auto-pilot. The phrase Max says to Elizabeth "A life without ambition is an easy one" are words actually spoken by me up until I started writing this book. I have a beautiful, loving wife and two wonderful children. My life is a pretty good one, why bother for more? It wasn't until I started writing this book that I realized that my life was absent passion and determination. I was happy to do my best as a loving husband and devoted father. I'm sure my wife would tell you that she hasn't seen me so invigorated and full of life since I was a teenager. As I have awoken to try to attain my full potential, so will Max.
The second character I created for this book was Richard Dupree. Living in Southeast Texas, I am a veteran of many hurricanes. Two of those hurricanes, Rita and Ike, disrupted the comforts of daily life and on many levels, served as a true test to the survival skills of many people. I remember when the sun rose after Ike exited my hometown, we were in a complete and total communication blackout. No cell phones, no internet, no cable, no radio or tv stations, nothing. I remember thinking very clearly that aliens could have landed on the White House lawn and we'd have been none the wiser. We were on our own, if only for a brief period of time. Later that day we found bars on our cell phones and called our loved ones that we evacuated to safety. Hurricane Ike opened my eyes to survival and set the stage for the downfall of America in the year 2027. Richard Dupree represents the survivor that imagine myself to be.
The last and without a doubt my favorite character in the book is Howard Beck. Once I gave Howard Asperger's Syndrome, he became in my mind the adult version of my son, who also has Asperger's. Howard also represents me in many ways. When I was thirteen, I was placed in the gifted class at my middle school. I was given an IQ test and was later told that I have a genius IQ. Telling something like that to a thirteen-year old boy does wonders for his ego. I graduated high school and college both in three years. A few months after my twentieth birthday, I had my Bachelor's degree. For my entire life I have had a mind that races in multiple directions at once. The race car in my head has caused me to suffer insomnia for many years and at one point led me to believe that I was going insane. Howard is definitely much smarter than me, but he is cursed with the same race car in his head. Where I have been able to pump the brakes on my race car, poor Howard has never had the same luck.
I have also enjoyed putting my own likes and interests into the book. My childhood idol was and still is Captain Picard, just like Howard. My favorite science fiction books are the Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke, which quite obviously are the inspiration behind Howard's digital assistant. Max loves to play video games, particularly Modern Warfare, just like me. Richard is locked up in a prison, an environment I am quite familiar with. There are many more examples sprinkled onto the pages, far too many to list.
My years of military service have also given me insight to write much of the book. Howard meets two soldiers at one point in the book, both of which are named after my former CO and First Sergeant. In late 1999, I was with the 204th Military Police Company and held the honor of being a member of the last military unit stationed on the Panama Canal. I spent many a day at the front gate of Fort Clayton looking at the Miraflores Locks watching many extremely large vessels pass in front of me. My interest in those ships gave me a fondness of naval battles and was the inspiration for The Battle of the Port of Gibraltar.
It is also a lot of fun to give special winks out to my friends and family. The President of the United States is named after my best friend, his wife is the President's Chief of Staff. When you first visit the Clinton Room, my relatives pretty much fill the room, they know who they are. A revision was made to the sneak peek and the aircraft carrier that takes back the Port of Gibraltar is named after my father. For the past four years, I have been active in the employees union at my job. Later in the book there is a meeting and many of my union brothers will find their last names mentioned in quite a humorous setting. When I wrote about Richard Dupree's daughter, I pictured my daughter when she was a toddler. Once you finish the book, you will understand just how hard it was for me to picture her sweet little face and mousy voice. Even both of my cats are in the book. Elizabeth's little spaz, Callie, is the same cat that sits in my lap while I write my book. Howard's grumpy cat, Nala, is our oldest cat, one that I haven't picked up since she was a kitten. She growls and swats at everyone except our daughter.
Write what you know. You will be amazed at how easily telling a story can be.Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek
I remember very clearly sitting in class one day and the instructor said something that stayed with me till this very day. He said "Don't think for one second that you are any better than the inmates in your charge. Each one of us is one bad decision or being in that one place at the wrong time away from being an inmate. It could happen to any of us. You get behind the wheel drunk and kill someone, you come home to find your spouse in bed with someone else, any number of things can turn any law-abiding citizen into a convicted felon."
I couldn't stop thinking about what he said. What would land me in prison? The thought haunted me for several years and was the first tidbit that turned a simple idea into a book. The character of Richard Dupree began over a decade ago with me sitting in a classroom at Angola State Prison. The crime that ultimately led to the ex-Navy SEAL being in prison is one of the few things that would most certainly land me in jail if the same thing happened to me.
As the chapters began to take shape on my iPad and Mac, I found that the easiest way to write anything is to write about what you know. Drawing on your own experiences and knowledge is probably the most interesting vehicle to story-telling. I'm sure that many a writer would agree with me. Looking into the mirror and finding the darkness in your life and confronting it can be soul-wrenching, but putting that darkness into words can build the foundation to an incredible story.
"Which character is you?" My wife asked me that question after reading the introductory chapters to each of the three main characters in Collapse. The truth is, all three of them are variations of me on some level. No, I was never a Navy SEAL and I'm certainly not the world's richest man. The personalities of all three men are inspired from the journeys the created the man I am today.
The first character I created was Chief Maxwell Harris. I created Maxwell and turned him into a burnt-out drug addict with chronic pain. Before you start judging me, know this, I am not a drug addict and never have been. I have dealt with chronic pain and fully understand how easily it can be to get addicted to pain pills. In early 2011, I woke up one morning in the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. I could not stand up straight and spent most of the day laying on my bedroom floor. I would later find out that I had two bulging discs in my back and a torn muscle at the bottom of my left shoulder blade that didn't heal properly from an injury I sustained in the military. Over the next six months, I visited a chiropractor, a physical therapist, and frequented a pain management clinic. That six month period was one of the worst times of my life. I was in constant pain. I also took generous amounts of Vicodin and Soma prescribed to me by a physician. I was not fond of the drugs making my mind foggy and making me tired all the time. I was however, quite fond of being high as a kite. It was fantastic to have a perpetual sense of euphoria. I was never foolish enough to let the pain meds take control of my life, I love my job and my family far too much to jeopardize them. Once physical therapy worked out the problems with my back and the pain doctor gave me a shot in the damaged muscle, I haven't taken either of the pills since. What I did take away from the experience was the understanding of addiction.
Max also shares another quality with me. He's content to coast through life on auto-pilot. The phrase Max says to Elizabeth "A life without ambition is an easy one" are words actually spoken by me up until I started writing this book. I have a beautiful, loving wife and two wonderful children. My life is a pretty good one, why bother for more? It wasn't until I started writing this book that I realized that my life was absent passion and determination. I was happy to do my best as a loving husband and devoted father. I'm sure my wife would tell you that she hasn't seen me so invigorated and full of life since I was a teenager. As I have awoken to try to attain my full potential, so will Max.
The second character I created for this book was Richard Dupree. Living in Southeast Texas, I am a veteran of many hurricanes. Two of those hurricanes, Rita and Ike, disrupted the comforts of daily life and on many levels, served as a true test to the survival skills of many people. I remember when the sun rose after Ike exited my hometown, we were in a complete and total communication blackout. No cell phones, no internet, no cable, no radio or tv stations, nothing. I remember thinking very clearly that aliens could have landed on the White House lawn and we'd have been none the wiser. We were on our own, if only for a brief period of time. Later that day we found bars on our cell phones and called our loved ones that we evacuated to safety. Hurricane Ike opened my eyes to survival and set the stage for the downfall of America in the year 2027. Richard Dupree represents the survivor that imagine myself to be.
The last and without a doubt my favorite character in the book is Howard Beck. Once I gave Howard Asperger's Syndrome, he became in my mind the adult version of my son, who also has Asperger's. Howard also represents me in many ways. When I was thirteen, I was placed in the gifted class at my middle school. I was given an IQ test and was later told that I have a genius IQ. Telling something like that to a thirteen-year old boy does wonders for his ego. I graduated high school and college both in three years. A few months after my twentieth birthday, I had my Bachelor's degree. For my entire life I have had a mind that races in multiple directions at once. The race car in my head has caused me to suffer insomnia for many years and at one point led me to believe that I was going insane. Howard is definitely much smarter than me, but he is cursed with the same race car in his head. Where I have been able to pump the brakes on my race car, poor Howard has never had the same luck.
I have also enjoyed putting my own likes and interests into the book. My childhood idol was and still is Captain Picard, just like Howard. My favorite science fiction books are the Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke, which quite obviously are the inspiration behind Howard's digital assistant. Max loves to play video games, particularly Modern Warfare, just like me. Richard is locked up in a prison, an environment I am quite familiar with. There are many more examples sprinkled onto the pages, far too many to list.
My years of military service have also given me insight to write much of the book. Howard meets two soldiers at one point in the book, both of which are named after my former CO and First Sergeant. In late 1999, I was with the 204th Military Police Company and held the honor of being a member of the last military unit stationed on the Panama Canal. I spent many a day at the front gate of Fort Clayton looking at the Miraflores Locks watching many extremely large vessels pass in front of me. My interest in those ships gave me a fondness of naval battles and was the inspiration for The Battle of the Port of Gibraltar.
It is also a lot of fun to give special winks out to my friends and family. The President of the United States is named after my best friend, his wife is the President's Chief of Staff. When you first visit the Clinton Room, my relatives pretty much fill the room, they know who they are. A revision was made to the sneak peek and the aircraft carrier that takes back the Port of Gibraltar is named after my father. For the past four years, I have been active in the employees union at my job. Later in the book there is a meeting and many of my union brothers will find their last names mentioned in quite a humorous setting. When I wrote about Richard Dupree's daughter, I pictured my daughter when she was a toddler. Once you finish the book, you will understand just how hard it was for me to picture her sweet little face and mousy voice. Even both of my cats are in the book. Elizabeth's little spaz, Callie, is the same cat that sits in my lap while I write my book. Howard's grumpy cat, Nala, is our oldest cat, one that I haven't picked up since she was a kitten. She growls and swats at everyone except our daughter.
Write what you know. You will be amazed at how easily telling a story can be.Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek
An Independent Author's Guide to Free Promotion
Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek
Advertising is hard. I don't know how the guys on Mad Men do it. I had to jump right in it with both feet because I had little choice. I'm an indie author. I exemplify "independent" in every possible way. I have no agent, no publicist, no major publshing house behind me doing the heavy lifting so I can focus on nothing but writing. All I have are some close friends and family reading each chapter as I finish them. They call me on mistakes and try to poke holes in the plot so I can fix them.
I had a very naive expectation that all I had to do was plant a seed about my novel and with little intervention from me, the seed would sprout into a mighty redwood, attracting enthusiastic booklovers from all over the land. "What is this exciting novel about?" "Please, tell me more about your book, dear author, please!" "When can I buy your book?!" I would sit back and toss tidbits of information to my growing fanbase while I could focus on writing.
I was in for quite a shock. My vision of letting the advertising fire burn bright and long with the occasional log tossed in by me was a joke. Advertising is hard. Promotion is hard. It requires much more work than I imagined. One thing is for certain, no one outside of your friends and family will buy your book if they don't know that it exists. If you are just a regular Joe Blow like me, you have to get the word out yourself.
The most popular means of self-promotion is without a doubt social media. You can create your own Facebook Page for your novel free of charge. With a little work and inputting some details, you can create the page in no time at all. So, you've got 300 Facebook friends, that means that at least half of them will click the "Share" button and help spread the word, right? Don't count on it. You get tired of the requests to join someone's Mafia or water someone's crops in Farmville? Do you get irritated with the status updates claiming that if you don't click "Like" or "Share" it means that you kick puppies and support poverty? Out of my friends and family, only 19 people clicked the "Like" button. Anytime I post something about my novel, I simply ask "Help me out and click the share button". You'd have thought I was asking someone to click "launch" on a nuclear missle. I'm lucky to get three or four people to click "share". It bothered me at first, but then I thought back to all the times I would growl at my monitor "Don't tell me what to do!" when someone was trying to guilt me into sharing a story. Turnabout is fair play I suppose. A little support would have been nice, but I'm not begging for it anymore. Well, actually, I'll stop begging after this. Please hit the like button and share this. Pretty please? OK, now I'm done with the begging. Moving on.
Facebook http://on.fb.me/HsSci2
The next challenge was Twitter. I could not for the life of me understand the need for it. I have Facebook, if people want to keep tabs on me, they can do it there. Why do I need Twitter? I relly don't care about every random celebrity thought. I created a Twitter page and came back a week later to find thirty followers. And half of those were spam, dirty spam if you really want to know. I decided to spend an afternoon with Twitter and I finally got it. Twitter is a great way to connect with people from all over the world that share the same interests. What is your novel about? Who is your audience? Reach out to them and find them, they have no reason to find you if they don't know anything about you. Once I figured that out, I made it past 400 followers in a week. I actually got a little overzealous on Twitter and they temporarily suspended my account. Guess they thought I was a spambot or something. I had to reply to an email and promise to dial it down a few notches. Hopefully they will let me back on the playground soon.
Twitter http://bit.ly/I6gQVu
Along with Facebook and Twitter, I did similar things on Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Digg, and a few things that I can't recall this second.
The next phase in my free advertising plan was to create a YouTube video, simply a two minute trailer for my novel. I sat down in front of my Mac and fired up Microsoft Powerpoint. (Yes, I got Microsoft Office with my Mac purchase, figure that one out.) I figured I would keep things simple. Its nothing like a trailer for a summer action movie. I used a solid black background and white lettering. The hardest part was deciding on the music. I fiddled around with Garage Band for about an hour and gave up on that idea. My musical talents are non-existent and I was getting nowhere fast. Then it came to me. Non-copyrighted material that could be downloaded for free use. After scouring a few sites, I narrowed the finalists down to six pieces. After my own private American Idol contest, I decided on a winner. Here's a bit of behind the scenes trivia, the piece is a group of monks chanting. No instruments, just a beautifully eerie chant that was perfect for the video.
YouTube http://bit.ly/Hn9NF3
The most successful means of self promotion was the free sneak peek that I offer. I made my chapter outline and figured that I could make the character introduction chapters and the following three chapters that set the stage for the book into a sneak peek. Nothing beats positive word of mouth. It is the ultimate goal of any advertiser, get the consumer to tell other consumers about a product. I polished off the first seven chapters and uploaded them to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Much to my disappointment, they couldn't be free, a minimum charge of 99 cents applies. Wanting the sneak peek to make it to the masses for free, I uploaded three versions of it to Rapidshare and to a torrent site for the Bit Torrent community. As far as a I can track, the sneak peek has been downloaded over 600 times. It could be twice that for all I know, once you put something into the bit torrent cloud, it has a life of its own. See for yourself, I uploaded it to one site, just one. Look at it now.
Google Search Results http://bit.ly/HjHgzE
Does this all seem like a little too much for you? Do you have a hard time just keeping the formatting straight when you type? Did you know that ebooks have several different formats? Do you know how to convert the formats? Does making and uploading a YouTube video seem impossible to you? Do you know how to upload a file to the file sharing community to distribute your work? Can you do it?
I can. I'm a computer nerd, a real tech-head. I'm the guy that you bring your broken computer or laptop. I'm the guy you ask about what smartphone is better. I'm the guy that helps you decide between a Kindle Fire or an iPad. When I made the detailed plan to promote this book, I realized that I could offer the same service to other aspiring authors. Once I looked at the competition, I knew I could do it for a better price. I was shocked to discover that other companies only give authors about half of the royalties, some as low as 40%. Armed with the technical know how, I founded the Stephenson & Powers Publishing House. My business partner, Carl Powers, is along for the ride. We plan to offer aspiring authors 75% of the royalties of their book. No money up front, we don't make a dime until the author does.
Homepage http://bit.ly/HGUv0F
Once I finish my first novel, I will be able to focus on getting the company off the ground. I hope that I can help out my fellow authors.
Advertising is hard. I don't know how the guys on Mad Men do it. I had to jump right in it with both feet because I had little choice. I'm an indie author. I exemplify "independent" in every possible way. I have no agent, no publicist, no major publshing house behind me doing the heavy lifting so I can focus on nothing but writing. All I have are some close friends and family reading each chapter as I finish them. They call me on mistakes and try to poke holes in the plot so I can fix them.
I had a very naive expectation that all I had to do was plant a seed about my novel and with little intervention from me, the seed would sprout into a mighty redwood, attracting enthusiastic booklovers from all over the land. "What is this exciting novel about?" "Please, tell me more about your book, dear author, please!" "When can I buy your book?!" I would sit back and toss tidbits of information to my growing fanbase while I could focus on writing.
I was in for quite a shock. My vision of letting the advertising fire burn bright and long with the occasional log tossed in by me was a joke. Advertising is hard. Promotion is hard. It requires much more work than I imagined. One thing is for certain, no one outside of your friends and family will buy your book if they don't know that it exists. If you are just a regular Joe Blow like me, you have to get the word out yourself.
The most popular means of self-promotion is without a doubt social media. You can create your own Facebook Page for your novel free of charge. With a little work and inputting some details, you can create the page in no time at all. So, you've got 300 Facebook friends, that means that at least half of them will click the "Share" button and help spread the word, right? Don't count on it. You get tired of the requests to join someone's Mafia or water someone's crops in Farmville? Do you get irritated with the status updates claiming that if you don't click "Like" or "Share" it means that you kick puppies and support poverty? Out of my friends and family, only 19 people clicked the "Like" button. Anytime I post something about my novel, I simply ask "Help me out and click the share button". You'd have thought I was asking someone to click "launch" on a nuclear missle. I'm lucky to get three or four people to click "share". It bothered me at first, but then I thought back to all the times I would growl at my monitor "Don't tell me what to do!" when someone was trying to guilt me into sharing a story. Turnabout is fair play I suppose. A little support would have been nice, but I'm not begging for it anymore. Well, actually, I'll stop begging after this. Please hit the like button and share this. Pretty please? OK, now I'm done with the begging. Moving on.
Facebook http://on.fb.me/HsSci2
The next challenge was Twitter. I could not for the life of me understand the need for it. I have Facebook, if people want to keep tabs on me, they can do it there. Why do I need Twitter? I relly don't care about every random celebrity thought. I created a Twitter page and came back a week later to find thirty followers. And half of those were spam, dirty spam if you really want to know. I decided to spend an afternoon with Twitter and I finally got it. Twitter is a great way to connect with people from all over the world that share the same interests. What is your novel about? Who is your audience? Reach out to them and find them, they have no reason to find you if they don't know anything about you. Once I figured that out, I made it past 400 followers in a week. I actually got a little overzealous on Twitter and they temporarily suspended my account. Guess they thought I was a spambot or something. I had to reply to an email and promise to dial it down a few notches. Hopefully they will let me back on the playground soon.
Twitter http://bit.ly/I6gQVu
Along with Facebook and Twitter, I did similar things on Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Digg, and a few things that I can't recall this second.
The next phase in my free advertising plan was to create a YouTube video, simply a two minute trailer for my novel. I sat down in front of my Mac and fired up Microsoft Powerpoint. (Yes, I got Microsoft Office with my Mac purchase, figure that one out.) I figured I would keep things simple. Its nothing like a trailer for a summer action movie. I used a solid black background and white lettering. The hardest part was deciding on the music. I fiddled around with Garage Band for about an hour and gave up on that idea. My musical talents are non-existent and I was getting nowhere fast. Then it came to me. Non-copyrighted material that could be downloaded for free use. After scouring a few sites, I narrowed the finalists down to six pieces. After my own private American Idol contest, I decided on a winner. Here's a bit of behind the scenes trivia, the piece is a group of monks chanting. No instruments, just a beautifully eerie chant that was perfect for the video.
YouTube http://bit.ly/Hn9NF3
The most successful means of self promotion was the free sneak peek that I offer. I made my chapter outline and figured that I could make the character introduction chapters and the following three chapters that set the stage for the book into a sneak peek. Nothing beats positive word of mouth. It is the ultimate goal of any advertiser, get the consumer to tell other consumers about a product. I polished off the first seven chapters and uploaded them to Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Much to my disappointment, they couldn't be free, a minimum charge of 99 cents applies. Wanting the sneak peek to make it to the masses for free, I uploaded three versions of it to Rapidshare and to a torrent site for the Bit Torrent community. As far as a I can track, the sneak peek has been downloaded over 600 times. It could be twice that for all I know, once you put something into the bit torrent cloud, it has a life of its own. See for yourself, I uploaded it to one site, just one. Look at it now.
Google Search Results http://bit.ly/HjHgzE
Does this all seem like a little too much for you? Do you have a hard time just keeping the formatting straight when you type? Did you know that ebooks have several different formats? Do you know how to convert the formats? Does making and uploading a YouTube video seem impossible to you? Do you know how to upload a file to the file sharing community to distribute your work? Can you do it?
I can. I'm a computer nerd, a real tech-head. I'm the guy that you bring your broken computer or laptop. I'm the guy you ask about what smartphone is better. I'm the guy that helps you decide between a Kindle Fire or an iPad. When I made the detailed plan to promote this book, I realized that I could offer the same service to other aspiring authors. Once I looked at the competition, I knew I could do it for a better price. I was shocked to discover that other companies only give authors about half of the royalties, some as low as 40%. Armed with the technical know how, I founded the Stephenson & Powers Publishing House. My business partner, Carl Powers, is along for the ride. We plan to offer aspiring authors 75% of the royalties of their book. No money up front, we don't make a dime until the author does.
Homepage http://bit.ly/HGUv0F
Once I finish my first novel, I will be able to focus on getting the company off the ground. I hope that I can help out my fellow authors.
Asperger's Syndrome In Fiction
Quick! Name a fictional character that has Aspergers!
....
....
....
What did you come up with? Perhaps Dr. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory? Good one. Anybody that is even remotely familiar with Aspergers knows that Sheldon is a textbook Aspie. He has all the telltale signs.
How about Dr. Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds? Yep, all the telltale signs are there once again.
Any Parenthood fans out there? A married couple has to cope with the diagnosis of their son having Asperger's. Very touching stuff. My wife and I watched the first few episodes in tears because it hit so close to home for us.
OK, well, what about in books?
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon comes to mind. Excellent book told from the first person point of view of an Aspie.
In the Millenium series, and in the recent film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the main character, Lisbeth Salander, is an Aspie.
One of my favorite literary characters from my childhood, Sherlock Holmes, is thought to have Asperger's. Many psychologists have had a little fun and given a "fictional" diagnosis to the character.
Which brings me to the point of this blog entry, yes, I do have a point to make. If you have read the sneak peek to Collapse you know that one of the main characters, Howard Beck, has Asperger's Syndrome. I knew that when I started writing this novel that one of the three main characters would have Asperger's Syndrome. It was never a question, that's just how it was going to be. Never occurred to me not to do it.
Why?
My fourteen-year-old son has Asperger's. He was diagnosed at the age of four. Dealing with the diagnosis was an ordeal for me and my wife. We had never even heard of Asperger's, when we found out it was on the autism spectrum, we immediately assumed the worst. The only frame of reference that we could lean on was Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. We pictured our son requiring constant care, even into adulthood. Patience and education was our saving grace. We absorbed everything that we could find on the subject.
It didn't take long into our journey for me to figure out that I very well could have Asperger's myself. I've never been formally tested, but I share a lot of the characteristics. I become fixated on something to the point of obsession. I am awkward around people that I am not comfortable with. I seldom look anyone in the eye when they talk to me. I can retreat into my mind and stay there for a very long time and not come out. All of these traits I share with my son.
I feel that I have a duty to help raise awareness. People need to be educated when it comes to Asperger's. Parents need to know what it is so that they can recognize it and get a head start on treatment. Our son was lucky, before he started kindergarden he been regularly attending speech and occupational therapy.
Parents also need to know that an Asperger's diagnosis is not the end of the world. Their child will grow up to live full and productive lives. Some of the most influential characters in history are thought to have had Asperger's. Men like Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Mark Twain, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Speilberg, and Bill Gates are all thought to be among the ranks of Asperger's.
I'm proud to offer up a fictional character in the name of Asperger's awareness. I'm not pretentious enough to put Howard Beck on the same level as the references I have made in this entry. That being said, if anyone opens up Collapse having never heard of Asperger's, I hope they can close the book and have a better understanding of Asperger's. If that happens just one time, I will be satisfied.
Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek
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What did you come up with? Perhaps Dr. Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory? Good one. Anybody that is even remotely familiar with Aspergers knows that Sheldon is a textbook Aspie. He has all the telltale signs.
How about Dr. Spencer Reid from Criminal Minds? Yep, all the telltale signs are there once again.
Any Parenthood fans out there? A married couple has to cope with the diagnosis of their son having Asperger's. Very touching stuff. My wife and I watched the first few episodes in tears because it hit so close to home for us.
OK, well, what about in books?
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime by Mark Haddon comes to mind. Excellent book told from the first person point of view of an Aspie.
In the Millenium series, and in the recent film The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, the main character, Lisbeth Salander, is an Aspie.
One of my favorite literary characters from my childhood, Sherlock Holmes, is thought to have Asperger's. Many psychologists have had a little fun and given a "fictional" diagnosis to the character.
Which brings me to the point of this blog entry, yes, I do have a point to make. If you have read the sneak peek to Collapse you know that one of the main characters, Howard Beck, has Asperger's Syndrome. I knew that when I started writing this novel that one of the three main characters would have Asperger's Syndrome. It was never a question, that's just how it was going to be. Never occurred to me not to do it.
Why?
My fourteen-year-old son has Asperger's. He was diagnosed at the age of four. Dealing with the diagnosis was an ordeal for me and my wife. We had never even heard of Asperger's, when we found out it was on the autism spectrum, we immediately assumed the worst. The only frame of reference that we could lean on was Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man. We pictured our son requiring constant care, even into adulthood. Patience and education was our saving grace. We absorbed everything that we could find on the subject.
It didn't take long into our journey for me to figure out that I very well could have Asperger's myself. I've never been formally tested, but I share a lot of the characteristics. I become fixated on something to the point of obsession. I am awkward around people that I am not comfortable with. I seldom look anyone in the eye when they talk to me. I can retreat into my mind and stay there for a very long time and not come out. All of these traits I share with my son.
I feel that I have a duty to help raise awareness. People need to be educated when it comes to Asperger's. Parents need to know what it is so that they can recognize it and get a head start on treatment. Our son was lucky, before he started kindergarden he been regularly attending speech and occupational therapy.
Parents also need to know that an Asperger's diagnosis is not the end of the world. Their child will grow up to live full and productive lives. Some of the most influential characters in history are thought to have had Asperger's. Men like Thomas Jefferson, Albert Einstein, Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Mark Twain, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Speilberg, and Bill Gates are all thought to be among the ranks of Asperger's.
I'm proud to offer up a fictional character in the name of Asperger's awareness. I'm not pretentious enough to put Howard Beck on the same level as the references I have made in this entry. That being said, if anyone opens up Collapse having never heard of Asperger's, I hope they can close the book and have a better understanding of Asperger's. If that happens just one time, I will be satisfied.
Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek
Read My Latest Interview With Hercules Editing and Consulting
Richard Stephenson is from Beaumont, TX. He is the author of COLLAPSE, a dystopian, post-apocalyptic novel, set fifteen years in the future. COLLAPSE tells the story of the downfall of America. “No zombies, no alien invasion, no nuclear holocaust, no pandemic that wipes out 98% of the population (I am a sucker for all of those, by the way). I wanted to do something different, something a little more grounded in reality. The collapse of society does not have to happen overnight, it can be gradual, a collection of events that reaching a breaking point. That's the story that I wrote: the breaking point. One catastrophic event like a nuclear war or a killer asteroid makes for great story-telling, but the reader can find comfort in the fact that such events aren't likely to happen. I hope that COLLAPSE can grip the reader and hit them close to home. I want them to finish the novel and think ‘Wow, that story could really happen!’” July 6th is the release date, but there is a sneak peak of the first seven chapters here: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/... is the first book in a four part series entitled NEW AMERICA.
Stephenson lets the experiences of his own life inspire him. He has been in law enforcement for fifteen years and currently works in Southeast Texas, very close to the Gulf of Mexico. One of the downsides to his profession is that he cannot evacuate when a hurricane comes to town. “In 2008, Hurricane Ike hit our region and, like always, I had to evacuate my wife and children to safety and return. The storm hit us in the middle of the night. When the sun came up, we spent the next twelve or so hours in a complete and total communications blackout. No cell phones, landlines, internet, cable TV, broadcast TV, not even radio stations on the dial. I remember thinking that aliens could have landed on the White House lawn and we would have been none the wiser. I then imagined what the entire country would be like thrown into the same chaos. It terrified me to think how fragile our civilization can be and it has ever since.”
Stephenson was told at the age of thirteen that he has a genius IQ. He graduated high school a year early and went on to do the same thing in college. He says his mind has always flown a dozen different directions at the same time. He has struggled with the “racecar in my mind and writing is the best way to pump the brakes.”
The very excellent Laura Wright LaRoche, www.llpix.comdesigned Stephenson’s cover to his book.
Stephenson’s greatest challenge in writing is editing. “I'm in such a hurry to get the words on the page that when I slow down and take the time to read it, it's a mess.” His favorite author is Lee Child, whose writing, according to Stephenson, “is so intelligent and gets inside your head. His lead character, Jack Reacher, is such a fascinating character. It also doesn't hurt that the character is an ex-Military Policeman like myself.” Stephenson is also impressed by “pretty much every indie author that has ever made it on the NY Times Best Seller list.” He is greatly influenced by Stephen King, Vince Flynn, Lee Child, and, Dan Brown. “I've learned from all of them that you can't take your time telling a story. You have to get to the point! Readers have better things to do than to read a book that drags on and on.”
Look for Richard Stephenson promoting his book COLLAPSE on Twitter and other social media, and for COLLAPSE’S July 6th release date!
**Note from BZHercules: I am looking forward to this one and hope that Richard considers posting COLLAPSE for sale on this site!
*Original Link*
http://www.bzhercules.com/articles/ar...
*Add Beth Lynne as a GoodReads Friend*
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/87...
*Follow Beth Lynne on Twitter*
@BethLynne1
Stephenson lets the experiences of his own life inspire him. He has been in law enforcement for fifteen years and currently works in Southeast Texas, very close to the Gulf of Mexico. One of the downsides to his profession is that he cannot evacuate when a hurricane comes to town. “In 2008, Hurricane Ike hit our region and, like always, I had to evacuate my wife and children to safety and return. The storm hit us in the middle of the night. When the sun came up, we spent the next twelve or so hours in a complete and total communications blackout. No cell phones, landlines, internet, cable TV, broadcast TV, not even radio stations on the dial. I remember thinking that aliens could have landed on the White House lawn and we would have been none the wiser. I then imagined what the entire country would be like thrown into the same chaos. It terrified me to think how fragile our civilization can be and it has ever since.”
Stephenson was told at the age of thirteen that he has a genius IQ. He graduated high school a year early and went on to do the same thing in college. He says his mind has always flown a dozen different directions at the same time. He has struggled with the “racecar in my mind and writing is the best way to pump the brakes.”
The very excellent Laura Wright LaRoche, www.llpix.comdesigned Stephenson’s cover to his book.
Stephenson’s greatest challenge in writing is editing. “I'm in such a hurry to get the words on the page that when I slow down and take the time to read it, it's a mess.” His favorite author is Lee Child, whose writing, according to Stephenson, “is so intelligent and gets inside your head. His lead character, Jack Reacher, is such a fascinating character. It also doesn't hurt that the character is an ex-Military Policeman like myself.” Stephenson is also impressed by “pretty much every indie author that has ever made it on the NY Times Best Seller list.” He is greatly influenced by Stephen King, Vince Flynn, Lee Child, and, Dan Brown. “I've learned from all of them that you can't take your time telling a story. You have to get to the point! Readers have better things to do than to read a book that drags on and on.”
Look for Richard Stephenson promoting his book COLLAPSE on Twitter and other social media, and for COLLAPSE’S July 6th release date!
**Note from BZHercules: I am looking forward to this one and hope that Richard considers posting COLLAPSE for sale on this site!
*Original Link*
http://www.bzhercules.com/articles/ar...
*Add Beth Lynne as a GoodReads Friend*
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/87...
*Follow Beth Lynne on Twitter*
@BethLynne1
COLLAPSE is Now For Sale!
Click here to buy it on Ebook (Amazon US & UK) or Paperback. Nook will be coming soon.
http://bit.ly/LEa0Lc
Well my friends, the day is finally here. The last five months have been a roller coaster ride I will never forget. I started this endeavor not having a clue as to what I was doing (other than writing). I learned a lot. The second book in this series will be a much easier process, not to mention a more relaxed one. Twelve months to write a book compared to five very inexperienced months will make for a happier author (not to mention the author's wife).
I have no idea what's in store for me. Glad you are along for the ride!
Click Here For A Chance To Win An Autographed Copy
http://bit.ly/LTNA6X
http://bit.ly/LEa0Lc
Well my friends, the day is finally here. The last five months have been a roller coaster ride I will never forget. I started this endeavor not having a clue as to what I was doing (other than writing). I learned a lot. The second book in this series will be a much easier process, not to mention a more relaxed one. Twelve months to write a book compared to five very inexperienced months will make for a happier author (not to mention the author's wife).
I have no idea what's in store for me. Glad you are along for the ride!
Click Here For A Chance To Win An Autographed Copy
http://bit.ly/LTNA6X
"Independent Author" - An Oxymoron
Independent Author
That phrase for me is the textbook definition of an oxymoron, like "Act Naturally" or "Jumbo Shrimp". I understand that the term was coined to mean independent of the Big Six publishing houses. The meaning of the term should stop right there and should never be used in any other sense.
I started writing "Collapse" back in March. I wasn't even sure I was going to write a novel when I sat down in front of my iMac. I just wanted to see if I could do it. I spit out a few chapters and eventually made an outline. I let my wife and best friend read it and they were impressed. They encouraged me to keep writing and told me I had talent. After the first seven chapters I was excited to get the word out and decided to release a sneak peek. I dumped each chapter into an online grammar check website and made a lot of corrections thinking it was polished and ready for distribution.
Holy cow was I wrong!
I got a lot of feedback from friends and family about how much they enjoyed the story, a few told me that it had some typos and grammar issues. They also added that it didn't take away from the story, but the mistakes were there. About a week later I did a Google search of my novel to see if any interest was growing and found my way into a forum on a book lover's website. They tore me to pieces. After highlighting a few glaring mistakes on the first page, I took the time to slow down and investigate. Sure enough, the first page had two pretty big grammar mistakes. I slowly and carefully read the first chapter to find more and more mistakes. Just hold on a second, I proclaimed, what about the online grammar checks I did? Surely they caught everything, right? Nope. Not even close. It was clear that I needed help, lots and lots of help. It was time to find an editor.
I took down the sneak peek and received a gift from God. It turned out that I knew a retired high school English teacher and didn't even know it. My sister-in-law's mother-in-law had been very excited about the news that I was writing a novel. I simply thought that she was a supportive fan. She always replied to my Facebook posts and shared the news on her's. She kindly offered to edit out the mistakes from my sneak peek and she did a fantastic job. She informed me that in her spare time, she edits for friends and family (books, magazine articles, etc.) Within a few days, the sneak peek was back up I asked Susan if she would be willing to look at the chapters as I finished them and she enthusiastically said yes. She stuck with me to the end and polished my manuscript into what it is today.
With an editor on board, I realized I still needed help. I needed proof readers to give me input on the story. The story made perfect sense to me seeing as how I was the one writing it. I had to make sure that it would make sense to the average reader. My proof readers were there to point out when the story starting getting confusing. They also pointed out contradictions and factual errors that I didn't catch. The most memorable one was during Chief Harris's introductory chapter. I wrote that one of the hurricanes he weathered, Hurricane Ike (one that I weathered myself) was a Category 5 storm. Well, it was pointed out to me that Ike was not a 5, he was a 3. You would think that the memorable event of a raging hurricane passing over me at 4am would ensure I would get that detail right. That mistake was one of many I made during the creation of "Collapse". If I didn't have proof readers to help me out, the book would have a lot of embarrassing errors.
Once I decided on a release date for my novel, I knew that the book needed a cover. While I like to think I have a talent for writing, I know without a doubt that I have absolutely no artistic skills whatsoever. While I am quite the computer nerd, I have no talent with graphic design programs. Play "Draw Something" with me on your iPhone and see for yourself, I'm a horrible artist. I was fortunate enough to have interacted with a wonderful artist on Twitter. Laura Wright LaRoche at www.llpix.com did a fantastic job. After exchanging a few emails detailing exactly what I wanted, she sent me the design in just a couple of days. I only wanted a a few minor changes and got this masterpiece.
http://rastephensonauthor.blogspot.co...
My advice to any aspiring independent author, get help. You're going to need it.
That phrase for me is the textbook definition of an oxymoron, like "Act Naturally" or "Jumbo Shrimp". I understand that the term was coined to mean independent of the Big Six publishing houses. The meaning of the term should stop right there and should never be used in any other sense.
I started writing "Collapse" back in March. I wasn't even sure I was going to write a novel when I sat down in front of my iMac. I just wanted to see if I could do it. I spit out a few chapters and eventually made an outline. I let my wife and best friend read it and they were impressed. They encouraged me to keep writing and told me I had talent. After the first seven chapters I was excited to get the word out and decided to release a sneak peek. I dumped each chapter into an online grammar check website and made a lot of corrections thinking it was polished and ready for distribution.
Holy cow was I wrong!
I got a lot of feedback from friends and family about how much they enjoyed the story, a few told me that it had some typos and grammar issues. They also added that it didn't take away from the story, but the mistakes were there. About a week later I did a Google search of my novel to see if any interest was growing and found my way into a forum on a book lover's website. They tore me to pieces. After highlighting a few glaring mistakes on the first page, I took the time to slow down and investigate. Sure enough, the first page had two pretty big grammar mistakes. I slowly and carefully read the first chapter to find more and more mistakes. Just hold on a second, I proclaimed, what about the online grammar checks I did? Surely they caught everything, right? Nope. Not even close. It was clear that I needed help, lots and lots of help. It was time to find an editor.
I took down the sneak peek and received a gift from God. It turned out that I knew a retired high school English teacher and didn't even know it. My sister-in-law's mother-in-law had been very excited about the news that I was writing a novel. I simply thought that she was a supportive fan. She always replied to my Facebook posts and shared the news on her's. She kindly offered to edit out the mistakes from my sneak peek and she did a fantastic job. She informed me that in her spare time, she edits for friends and family (books, magazine articles, etc.) Within a few days, the sneak peek was back up I asked Susan if she would be willing to look at the chapters as I finished them and she enthusiastically said yes. She stuck with me to the end and polished my manuscript into what it is today.
With an editor on board, I realized I still needed help. I needed proof readers to give me input on the story. The story made perfect sense to me seeing as how I was the one writing it. I had to make sure that it would make sense to the average reader. My proof readers were there to point out when the story starting getting confusing. They also pointed out contradictions and factual errors that I didn't catch. The most memorable one was during Chief Harris's introductory chapter. I wrote that one of the hurricanes he weathered, Hurricane Ike (one that I weathered myself) was a Category 5 storm. Well, it was pointed out to me that Ike was not a 5, he was a 3. You would think that the memorable event of a raging hurricane passing over me at 4am would ensure I would get that detail right. That mistake was one of many I made during the creation of "Collapse". If I didn't have proof readers to help me out, the book would have a lot of embarrassing errors.
Once I decided on a release date for my novel, I knew that the book needed a cover. While I like to think I have a talent for writing, I know without a doubt that I have absolutely no artistic skills whatsoever. While I am quite the computer nerd, I have no talent with graphic design programs. Play "Draw Something" with me on your iPhone and see for yourself, I'm a horrible artist. I was fortunate enough to have interacted with a wonderful artist on Twitter. Laura Wright LaRoche at www.llpix.com did a fantastic job. After exchanging a few emails detailing exactly what I wanted, she sent me the design in just a couple of days. I only wanted a a few minor changes and got this masterpiece.
http://rastephensonauthor.blogspot.co...
My advice to any aspiring independent author, get help. You're going to need it.
Indie Author's Guide To Twitter
When I started writing Collapse at the end of February, I did painstaking research on how to promote the book to the masses. Most of that research pointed back to Twitter and that bothered me a great deal. I couldn't understand Twitter for the life of me. My opinion of Twitter up to that point was "If people want to know what is going on with me, they should just check my Facebook page." I started up a Twitter account and set about writing my novel. I checked back a week later and had gained a minuscule amount of followers (most of them porn or spam, would that be considered porny spam or spammy porn?)
I was determined to figure out this mystery that was Twitter. I had absolutely no clue how it worked. I did so many Google searches it was ridiculous - What is this "RT" that people keep putting in their tweets? Why are people using the pound symbol # and what does it do? And the acronyms, oh the acronyms! FF, DM, FYB, and many more. I still find myself searching to find the meanings for this little twitter codes.
I've decided to share my knowledge as I understand it. Please comment if you care to add some helpful information.
TWITTER BASICS
If you have the basics down, feel free to skip down to the next section. This is for the people that were like me at the beginning and had to search for the meaning of "RT" - it means "Retweet" by the way.
Followers - Your most valuable asset on Twitter. How do you get followers? We will discuss that in the next section.
Following - Are the people that you are following. The easiest and most effective way to get followers is to follow people in the hopes that they follow you back. At the start, you can follow up to 2000 people before Twitter enacts a follow limit. As an indie author, who should you follow? We'll discuss that later.
Tweets - The micro-blogging feature of Twitter. You can send out tweets up to 140 characters.
Hastags (#) - You can put a hashtag symbol in front of keywords or phrases to help categorize your tweets. This function helps people do searches for tweets by category. More on this later.
RT - Retweets. If you find a particular tweet that you like, you can hit the retweet button and share it with your followers. This is also a very valuable tool in supporting other indie authors.
DM - Direct Message. Other followers can send you direct messages that can't be seen by the public. It is important to note that if you send a tweet to someone it is public for all to see.
GAINING FOLLOWERS
This aspect is what puzzled me the most in the beginning. I thought for some reason that I would just automatically gain followers as time progressed. Like I mentioned earlier, I set up the account and came back a week later to discover the only followers I got were porny spam (I like that term better, LOL).
Simply put, you gain followers by following other people and count on them to follow you back. As mentioned above, you can initially follow 2,000 people before Twitter before a follow limit is placed on your account. After that limit is in place, some secret algorithm kicks in that allows you to follow between 200 to 500 more people than are following you. You will want to weed out the people that you are following that are not following you back. Some free websites out there tell you who's not following you back so that you can unfollow them. One site that comes to mind is who.unfollowed.me. There are a few others out there like it. A word of warning, if you follow and unfollow large amounts of people too quickly, Twitter will put your account in Twitter Jail for "follow churn". My advise, don't do both on the same day. If you want to weed out your unfollowers, do it once or twice a week and never on the same day that you follow a bunch of people.
Who should you follow? Well, if you are trying to promote your book, you want to follow people that read books. Search for hashtags that will bring up book readers like #bookworm, #booknerd, #booklover, #bookaholic, #lovetoread, or terms like "avid reader" or "book suggestion".
SENDING OUT TWEETS
The best way to get word of your book out to the masses is by tweeting about it. However, it is even more important not to spam your followers, which I was very guilty of in the beginning. If enough people report you for spam, Twitter will suspend your account (commonly referred to as "Twitter Jail") I had to learn this by trial and error since I had no clue what constituted spam. During my free time I would sit in front of my computer surfing the internet and watching TV and would send out tweets every five minutes. That is WAY too much. A good rule of thumb is to send out tweets no more than every twenty minutes. If you want to send out more tweets, I wouldn't recommend sending them out any less than every fifteen minutes.
Another important factor in tweeting is to have a long list of tweets. If you send out the same three tweets at twenty minute intervals, your followers will consider that spam. If you send out three tweets an hour, that is seventy-two tweets in a twenty-four hour period. I would shoot for a list of at least forty-eight. If you can bump it up to seventy-two, that would be ideal.
Make a list of tweets and ensure that they are no more than 140 characters. Make a list of shortened links to your book and/or your blog. I highly recommend using the website bitly.com. Just copy and paste your link into the website and in return you will get a shortened link. Some people use tinyurl.com and that's fine, however, bitly will give you a link that is on average five characters shorter than tinyurl More characters mean longer tweets. Twitter does have a feature that will shorten your links automatically, but I advise against it. I used it for a while and many people responded saying the link didn't work. Maybe Twitter has worked out the kinks? Not really sure, I like bitly.com and use that exclusively.
What should you tweet about? Well, you are a writer so I would hope you have the creative juices to come up with some on your own. ;) The key to tweeting about your book is advertising. Draw people's attention and make them wonder about your book. Make the tweet a little vague but not too much. Make people question "What is this about? Let me click on it and find out." I would advise against empty claims about how amazing your book is "Check out my book!" "You can't miss this exciting read!" "This is your next read!" "Don't miss the next big thriller!" The best thing to do is simply present your book and let people draw their own conclusions.
What genre is your book? You can start there. "Looking for a good romance? Check out ..." "Are you a fan of spy novels? Check out ..."
Another good thing to tweet about are the reviews for your novel. " (Title) has 23 Five Star reviews!" "(Title) has been called (insert snippet of review)"
You can also use pieces of your promotional blurb from your novel. "Detective John Doe will find out that his next case will define his career" "John Doe will discover the secret of a lifetime" "How long before John Doe meets the woman of his dreams?"
Do you have a blog? Drawing readers to your blog is another fantastic way to spread the word about your book. Make up tweets about each of your blog posts. You can rest assured that I will have a few tweets about the very blog post you are reading now.
Anyone in the advertising business will tell you that you need to come up with several tag lines that define your book. For my novel I came up with several, the most effective one being "In 2027, America Will Fall" Other taglines were "Second Great Depression. Terrorists On Our Soil. Major Cities Locked Down." and "Are you prepared for the Collapse?"
HOW TO SPREAD YOUR TWEETS
Now that you've come up with your tweets, how do you spread them into the Twitterverse? You can use several hashtags that indie authors use to help promote each other. Just include them in your tweet and other indies out there will retweet them for you. The two best ones that I know of are #BYNR and #authorRT. Just include those hashtags and other indies will help you spread your tweets. Ensure that you return the favor. I have those two hashtags as saved searches. I call them up a few times a day and retweet five to ten at a time. Sometimes my tweets get retweeted up to ten times in a day. Great way for indies to help each other out.
There are several twitter accounts that will retweet your tweets when you mention them in your tweet. I know I'm only scratching the surface here so I hope that people will comment with more. The ones I use are @WritersRT, @WritersReTweets, @BooksForPromoted and @IndieAuthorSuccess.
A word of caution: don't use too many hashtags in your tweets. Twitter advises two to three hashtags per tweet. If you venture beyond that, your users will consider it spam. I learned that from a very irate woman that sent me a tweet asking me to please die in a fire and stop spamming the hashtags. (No joke, she actually tweeted that) Lesson learned, while she was far from tactful in her request, she was in fact correct. Try your best not to spam the hashtags.
The best way to spread your tweets is over at the World Literary Cafe. Every day, you can sign up to be on a tweet team. Each team consists of ten team members. You post your tweet and include #WLCAuthor and the other nine members of your team retweet your tweet. In return, you have to tweet the other nine people's tweets. In addition, you must also tweet the Daily Tweets designated by the website. You can be on as many teams in a day as you want, you just have to be sure to retweet everyone. Fantastic group of people. Really helps spreading the word.
SERIOUSLY? THIS SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF WORK
Well, yeah, it is a lot of work and can consume time that is better spent writing books. There are several great programs out there that will schedule your tweets for you. You simply input your tweets for the day and either a specific time or time interval (remember my tip, every twenty minutes). One of the most popular is Tweet Deck.
If you are looking for a program that does it all, I highly recommend Tweet Adder. It cost a little money but it is worth every penny. It does it all. You can create lists of tweets and save them for later use. It will automatically add followers based on search terms that you input (refer to the above section - Gaining Followers). It will even unfollow people that have not reciprocated your follow for a certain amount of days (I recommend 2-3 days).
Good luck in the Twitterverse! :)
http://bit.ly/NYYXtN
I was determined to figure out this mystery that was Twitter. I had absolutely no clue how it worked. I did so many Google searches it was ridiculous - What is this "RT" that people keep putting in their tweets? Why are people using the pound symbol # and what does it do? And the acronyms, oh the acronyms! FF, DM, FYB, and many more. I still find myself searching to find the meanings for this little twitter codes.
I've decided to share my knowledge as I understand it. Please comment if you care to add some helpful information.
TWITTER BASICS
If you have the basics down, feel free to skip down to the next section. This is for the people that were like me at the beginning and had to search for the meaning of "RT" - it means "Retweet" by the way.
Followers - Your most valuable asset on Twitter. How do you get followers? We will discuss that in the next section.
Following - Are the people that you are following. The easiest and most effective way to get followers is to follow people in the hopes that they follow you back. At the start, you can follow up to 2000 people before Twitter enacts a follow limit. As an indie author, who should you follow? We'll discuss that later.
Tweets - The micro-blogging feature of Twitter. You can send out tweets up to 140 characters.
Hastags (#) - You can put a hashtag symbol in front of keywords or phrases to help categorize your tweets. This function helps people do searches for tweets by category. More on this later.
RT - Retweets. If you find a particular tweet that you like, you can hit the retweet button and share it with your followers. This is also a very valuable tool in supporting other indie authors.
DM - Direct Message. Other followers can send you direct messages that can't be seen by the public. It is important to note that if you send a tweet to someone it is public for all to see.
GAINING FOLLOWERS
This aspect is what puzzled me the most in the beginning. I thought for some reason that I would just automatically gain followers as time progressed. Like I mentioned earlier, I set up the account and came back a week later to discover the only followers I got were porny spam (I like that term better, LOL).
Simply put, you gain followers by following other people and count on them to follow you back. As mentioned above, you can initially follow 2,000 people before Twitter before a follow limit is placed on your account. After that limit is in place, some secret algorithm kicks in that allows you to follow between 200 to 500 more people than are following you. You will want to weed out the people that you are following that are not following you back. Some free websites out there tell you who's not following you back so that you can unfollow them. One site that comes to mind is who.unfollowed.me. There are a few others out there like it. A word of warning, if you follow and unfollow large amounts of people too quickly, Twitter will put your account in Twitter Jail for "follow churn". My advise, don't do both on the same day. If you want to weed out your unfollowers, do it once or twice a week and never on the same day that you follow a bunch of people.
Who should you follow? Well, if you are trying to promote your book, you want to follow people that read books. Search for hashtags that will bring up book readers like #bookworm, #booknerd, #booklover, #bookaholic, #lovetoread, or terms like "avid reader" or "book suggestion".
SENDING OUT TWEETS
The best way to get word of your book out to the masses is by tweeting about it. However, it is even more important not to spam your followers, which I was very guilty of in the beginning. If enough people report you for spam, Twitter will suspend your account (commonly referred to as "Twitter Jail") I had to learn this by trial and error since I had no clue what constituted spam. During my free time I would sit in front of my computer surfing the internet and watching TV and would send out tweets every five minutes. That is WAY too much. A good rule of thumb is to send out tweets no more than every twenty minutes. If you want to send out more tweets, I wouldn't recommend sending them out any less than every fifteen minutes.
Another important factor in tweeting is to have a long list of tweets. If you send out the same three tweets at twenty minute intervals, your followers will consider that spam. If you send out three tweets an hour, that is seventy-two tweets in a twenty-four hour period. I would shoot for a list of at least forty-eight. If you can bump it up to seventy-two, that would be ideal.
Make a list of tweets and ensure that they are no more than 140 characters. Make a list of shortened links to your book and/or your blog. I highly recommend using the website bitly.com. Just copy and paste your link into the website and in return you will get a shortened link. Some people use tinyurl.com and that's fine, however, bitly will give you a link that is on average five characters shorter than tinyurl More characters mean longer tweets. Twitter does have a feature that will shorten your links automatically, but I advise against it. I used it for a while and many people responded saying the link didn't work. Maybe Twitter has worked out the kinks? Not really sure, I like bitly.com and use that exclusively.
What should you tweet about? Well, you are a writer so I would hope you have the creative juices to come up with some on your own. ;) The key to tweeting about your book is advertising. Draw people's attention and make them wonder about your book. Make the tweet a little vague but not too much. Make people question "What is this about? Let me click on it and find out." I would advise against empty claims about how amazing your book is "Check out my book!" "You can't miss this exciting read!" "This is your next read!" "Don't miss the next big thriller!" The best thing to do is simply present your book and let people draw their own conclusions.
What genre is your book? You can start there. "Looking for a good romance? Check out ..." "Are you a fan of spy novels? Check out ..."
Another good thing to tweet about are the reviews for your novel. " (Title) has 23 Five Star reviews!" "(Title) has been called (insert snippet of review)"
You can also use pieces of your promotional blurb from your novel. "Detective John Doe will find out that his next case will define his career" "John Doe will discover the secret of a lifetime" "How long before John Doe meets the woman of his dreams?"
Do you have a blog? Drawing readers to your blog is another fantastic way to spread the word about your book. Make up tweets about each of your blog posts. You can rest assured that I will have a few tweets about the very blog post you are reading now.
Anyone in the advertising business will tell you that you need to come up with several tag lines that define your book. For my novel I came up with several, the most effective one being "In 2027, America Will Fall" Other taglines were "Second Great Depression. Terrorists On Our Soil. Major Cities Locked Down." and "Are you prepared for the Collapse?"
HOW TO SPREAD YOUR TWEETS
Now that you've come up with your tweets, how do you spread them into the Twitterverse? You can use several hashtags that indie authors use to help promote each other. Just include them in your tweet and other indies out there will retweet them for you. The two best ones that I know of are #BYNR and #authorRT. Just include those hashtags and other indies will help you spread your tweets. Ensure that you return the favor. I have those two hashtags as saved searches. I call them up a few times a day and retweet five to ten at a time. Sometimes my tweets get retweeted up to ten times in a day. Great way for indies to help each other out.
There are several twitter accounts that will retweet your tweets when you mention them in your tweet. I know I'm only scratching the surface here so I hope that people will comment with more. The ones I use are @WritersRT, @WritersReTweets, @BooksForPromoted and @IndieAuthorSuccess.
A word of caution: don't use too many hashtags in your tweets. Twitter advises two to three hashtags per tweet. If you venture beyond that, your users will consider it spam. I learned that from a very irate woman that sent me a tweet asking me to please die in a fire and stop spamming the hashtags. (No joke, she actually tweeted that) Lesson learned, while she was far from tactful in her request, she was in fact correct. Try your best not to spam the hashtags.
The best way to spread your tweets is over at the World Literary Cafe. Every day, you can sign up to be on a tweet team. Each team consists of ten team members. You post your tweet and include #WLCAuthor and the other nine members of your team retweet your tweet. In return, you have to tweet the other nine people's tweets. In addition, you must also tweet the Daily Tweets designated by the website. You can be on as many teams in a day as you want, you just have to be sure to retweet everyone. Fantastic group of people. Really helps spreading the word.
SERIOUSLY? THIS SEEMS LIKE A LOT OF WORK
Well, yeah, it is a lot of work and can consume time that is better spent writing books. There are several great programs out there that will schedule your tweets for you. You simply input your tweets for the day and either a specific time or time interval (remember my tip, every twenty minutes). One of the most popular is Tweet Deck.
If you are looking for a program that does it all, I highly recommend Tweet Adder. It cost a little money but it is worth every penny. It does it all. You can create lists of tweets and save them for later use. It will automatically add followers based on search terms that you input (refer to the above section - Gaining Followers). It will even unfollow people that have not reciprocated your follow for a certain amount of days (I recommend 2-3 days).
Good luck in the Twitterverse! :)
http://bit.ly/NYYXtN
My First Experience With KDP Select
http://rastephensonauthor.blogspot.co...
Collapse was released on July 6th, 2012. In the month or so leading up to its release I had made the decision to go exclusively with Amazon in the KDP Select program. I had done my homework, it seemed like the smart thing to do. Just before the release, I had several people ask me if they would be able to get Collapse on the Nook. Not wanting to disappoint them, I figured it wouldn't hurt to make Collapse available on other formats until sales dropped low enough to make the switch to Select.
An acquaintance (more like a friend of a friend, I'm not sure I'd recognize the guy if I saw him on the street) had already self-published a few books the previous summer and I always kept a close eye on his rankings. I also kept a close eye on his reviews, which were far from kind. Some of the most horrible one star reviews I'd ever read adorned both of his books. One of his titles had many accusations of being plagiarized pornography stolen from an erotic fan fiction forum (dressed up as science fiction for some reason). "This man is a blight on the literary world, his grasp of the English language is tenuous at best" was one of the reviews that I remember most clearly. He has since taken both of the books down and figured the third time's a charm with his recently released title. His latest entry is also suffering similar reviews blasting his poor grammar skills and confusing plot.
Okay, what does this have to do with KDP Select you might ask. Thanks to the handy ebook tracking tool at Kindle Nation Daily I was able to track the progress of his work. His work would usually hover around the 60K neighborhood on the rankings. The days following his free promos, he would skyrocket into the 1-2K rank, even going as high as 692. The next day, he would very quickly spend the next two days plummeting back to the 60K range. This impressed me a great deal, clearly there was something to this KDP Select thing. If the free promotion could propel a very poorly written book (based on reviews mind you, I only read the sample, which was awful) into the top 1000 then it was definitely worth giving a try.
Collapse had been available on non-Amazon outlets for almost a month and it was time to evaluate sales. Here is where I was at when I made the decision to go Select. (Does not reflect paperback sales)
Amazon: 162 sales
B&N: 31
Kobo: 2
SmashWords: 1
The decision wasn't hard to make. I had pointed the majority of my promotion back to the main sales page for Collapse here on this blog. It's quite clear from those statistics that Amazon truly does hold the vast majority of the ebook market. Going Select just made sense to me so on August 2nd I pulled Collapse from the other outlets and went exclusive with Amazon.
On August 4th and 5th I had my first free promo weekend. On August 3rd I spent a great deal of time getting the word out to potential readers. I was very fortunate to have a comprehensive list at my fingertips thanks to Rachelle Ayala's blog. I made as many notifications as I could and programmed TweetAdder to start informing the Twitterverse of my upcoming promotion. I also used the very efficient Tweet Teams at the World Literary Cafe to help get the word out. For more information on how to effectively use Twitter for book promotion, please read my blog entry.
The free weekend was a huge success. Collapse made it to #17 on the Top 100 Free list and stayed at #1 on the Free list in both of my categories (War and Political). On Monday morning, the instant my eyes opened I logged on the check the final stats - 13,957 downloads.
The terrific promotional tool of staying on the Top 20 Free list right next to the Top 20 Paid list and staying at the top of my categories' Free lists was great exposure, but did it pay off in terms of sales?
Absolutely.
For the month of July, I sold 191 digital copies of Collapse on Amazon. In the two days following my free promo weekend, I sold 218 copies and 51 borrows. That's right, in two days, I sold more copies than I did the entire previous month. I should note a disclaimer, I priced Collapse at 99 cents for the four days following the free promo. Some might think that was the wrong move since I was missing out on a lot of money. Maybe that's true, but I'm thinking long term exposure. I am writing a series of four books and my goal is to get the first one out there to as many readers as possible so the series will be an overall success. Also, I'm not financially dependent on my writing in any way at all so I'm free to gamble on my promos to find out what works best. I was originally only going to keep the 99 cent price for the day following the promo, but darn it if the book didn't keep climbing up the ranks all the way to 1,159 and in the Top 10 on both of my categories. Once it peaked and starting slipping back the other direction, I raised it to the regular price.
I have no regrets when it comes to Select, best decision I've made in terms of marketing.
Collapse was released on July 6th, 2012. In the month or so leading up to its release I had made the decision to go exclusively with Amazon in the KDP Select program. I had done my homework, it seemed like the smart thing to do. Just before the release, I had several people ask me if they would be able to get Collapse on the Nook. Not wanting to disappoint them, I figured it wouldn't hurt to make Collapse available on other formats until sales dropped low enough to make the switch to Select.
An acquaintance (more like a friend of a friend, I'm not sure I'd recognize the guy if I saw him on the street) had already self-published a few books the previous summer and I always kept a close eye on his rankings. I also kept a close eye on his reviews, which were far from kind. Some of the most horrible one star reviews I'd ever read adorned both of his books. One of his titles had many accusations of being plagiarized pornography stolen from an erotic fan fiction forum (dressed up as science fiction for some reason). "This man is a blight on the literary world, his grasp of the English language is tenuous at best" was one of the reviews that I remember most clearly. He has since taken both of the books down and figured the third time's a charm with his recently released title. His latest entry is also suffering similar reviews blasting his poor grammar skills and confusing plot.
Okay, what does this have to do with KDP Select you might ask. Thanks to the handy ebook tracking tool at Kindle Nation Daily I was able to track the progress of his work. His work would usually hover around the 60K neighborhood on the rankings. The days following his free promos, he would skyrocket into the 1-2K rank, even going as high as 692. The next day, he would very quickly spend the next two days plummeting back to the 60K range. This impressed me a great deal, clearly there was something to this KDP Select thing. If the free promotion could propel a very poorly written book (based on reviews mind you, I only read the sample, which was awful) into the top 1000 then it was definitely worth giving a try.
Collapse had been available on non-Amazon outlets for almost a month and it was time to evaluate sales. Here is where I was at when I made the decision to go Select. (Does not reflect paperback sales)
Amazon: 162 sales
B&N: 31
Kobo: 2
SmashWords: 1
The decision wasn't hard to make. I had pointed the majority of my promotion back to the main sales page for Collapse here on this blog. It's quite clear from those statistics that Amazon truly does hold the vast majority of the ebook market. Going Select just made sense to me so on August 2nd I pulled Collapse from the other outlets and went exclusive with Amazon.
On August 4th and 5th I had my first free promo weekend. On August 3rd I spent a great deal of time getting the word out to potential readers. I was very fortunate to have a comprehensive list at my fingertips thanks to Rachelle Ayala's blog. I made as many notifications as I could and programmed TweetAdder to start informing the Twitterverse of my upcoming promotion. I also used the very efficient Tweet Teams at the World Literary Cafe to help get the word out. For more information on how to effectively use Twitter for book promotion, please read my blog entry.
The free weekend was a huge success. Collapse made it to #17 on the Top 100 Free list and stayed at #1 on the Free list in both of my categories (War and Political). On Monday morning, the instant my eyes opened I logged on the check the final stats - 13,957 downloads.
The terrific promotional tool of staying on the Top 20 Free list right next to the Top 20 Paid list and staying at the top of my categories' Free lists was great exposure, but did it pay off in terms of sales?
Absolutely.
For the month of July, I sold 191 digital copies of Collapse on Amazon. In the two days following my free promo weekend, I sold 218 copies and 51 borrows. That's right, in two days, I sold more copies than I did the entire previous month. I should note a disclaimer, I priced Collapse at 99 cents for the four days following the free promo. Some might think that was the wrong move since I was missing out on a lot of money. Maybe that's true, but I'm thinking long term exposure. I am writing a series of four books and my goal is to get the first one out there to as many readers as possible so the series will be an overall success. Also, I'm not financially dependent on my writing in any way at all so I'm free to gamble on my promos to find out what works best. I was originally only going to keep the 99 cent price for the day following the promo, but darn it if the book didn't keep climbing up the ranks all the way to 1,159 and in the Top 10 on both of my categories. Once it peaked and starting slipping back the other direction, I raised it to the regular price.
I have no regrets when it comes to Select, best decision I've made in terms of marketing.
Random Trivia about COLLAPSE
SPOILER ALERT!!
If you have not read Collapse, STOP NOW! I'm going to be discussing the book at length and will no doubt give away key points about the plot.
Last warning! Don't spoil the book!
Okay, if you're still here, then you should have already finished Collapse. When I started writing the book, I made pages of notes, detailed character bios, and a chapter outline. As the story developed, I made a great deal of changes, whether it be cutting parts of the story out for editing purposes or I just went in a completely different direction and changed my mind. I read over my original notes and some of it just cracked me up. Figured I would share in the hopes that it might give you a chuckle or make you say "Hmmm, that's neat."
Chief Maxwell Harris
*The story of Chief Harris changed the most. I had an early chapter with him discussing his injury with his Dad and his father was going to provide the reader with some exposition on the horror and carnage of Hurricane Luther. The chapter was really slowing down the pace so I cut it and sprinkled the important parts in later chapters. I had another chapter that detailed the chief's time as a Texas State Trooper, mainly his failing marriage and the details of his injury. I figured it would be more dramatic to have the chief tell the story to Elizabeth and further strengthen their relationship.
*Elizabeth Reid, Chief Harris' desk sergeant and love interest, was supposed to die. I tried to kill her several times but just couldn't bring myself to do it because I was really enjoying the character. Elizabeth is modeled after my wife, who told me repeatedly "You better not kill me!" When Elizabeth got shot in the city garage, she was supposed to die. When Jack and his merry band of rednecks robbed the police station and left Max handcuffed to Charlie, Jack was going to find the command post and kill everyone there. Max would then chase after Jack and deliver some retribution. Max was spending too much time in Texas and I really needed to get him up to Colorado, so the idea was axed. I wanted to kill off Elizabeth to torture poor Max and really make his character sink as far as he could so the catharsis would be that much better. Max experienced enough anguish and torture in his life and Elizabeth was the only good and pure thing in his life. They needed each other, so I let Elizabeth live.
*Naming the Texas hurricane was an ordeal. The Florida hurricane that happened a month prior was named Luther for the obvious parallel to my favorite comic book villain. With a male name that starts with "L", that meant that the next hurricane had to be a female name that started with "M". My first choice was to name the hurricane after my wife, Mary. (Sound familiar? The book is dedicated to her) I thought it was a very cool idea and that she would get a kick out of it. She did not. She did not like the idea at all. LOL So I decided to use the female equivalent of Chief Harris's name as a little joke for Elizabeth to use against Max.
*The recollections that Max has about Hurricane Ike in his introductory chapter are my own.
*I wrote the majority of the novel with the intention of not giving Max's little Texas town a name. At the end of the novel when Max meets Howard Beck, I wrote myself into a corner and had to give Max's town a name. I decided on Santa Fe, TX, a real town outside of Houston. I did employ a little artistic license and made the town much smaller than it actually is.
*Max's cat is named Herbie after our first family cat.
*Elizabeth's cat is named Callie, one of the two cats in our home.
Howard's cat is named Nala, the other grumpy cat in our home that swats and hisses at everyone but my daughter.
*Chief Harris' badge number is a combination of my initials and my badge number.
*In the town of Truth or Consequences, NM, the lawman is named after my first true "fan," Eduardo Sanchez. When I released the sneak peek, he was the first person outside of my friends and family to respond about how much he liked the story. My wife saw something on the Facebook page for Collapse and asked me who he was. I was convinced I went to school with him, served in the military with him, or was an old coworker. Once it dawned on me that he was a perfect stranger, it was an awesome feeling to know that more than just my friends and family would read the book.
*Max is addicted to Vicodin. For the better part of six months in 2011, I had to take Vicodin for my back while I underwent physical therapy. I never battled problems with addiction, but I gained an intimate understanding of how and why Vicodin can be so addicting.
Howard Beck
*Howard's first name is a reference to Howard Hughes, the reclusive billionaire.
*Howard is a hardcore Star Trek fan just like me. I actually had a lot more Star Trek references in the book but my proofreaders and editor convinced me to cut the majority of it.
*Howard has Asperger's Syndrome as does my teenage son. I imagined my son as an adult when I wrote the character.
*In my original character bios, Howard wasn't the world's richest man or even a billionaire. He was a millionaire owner of a chain of camping and outdoor supplies. He was going to escape into the Rocky Mountains with his family and ride out the collapse.
*Howard's son, Marshall, was originally a bad guy that was going to invade Beck Castle and take it from his father. I changed this when I wanted to display Howard's growth as a person and his need to connect with others, especially his family.
*Howard's sister, is named after my sister-in-law. Her son and Howard's nephew is named after my nephew.
*Captain Butler and First Sergeant Bankhead got their names from my favorite commander and first sergeant in my military unit.
Richard Dupree
*The location for the Highland Valley State Prison is actually real place as described in the book. The prison isn't real, but the location for the prison is real. Log on to Google Earth and go fifty miles due west of Las Vegas and you will see the valley with mountains on three sides, the entrance to the valley is fifteen miles south and is the location of the town of Highland Valley.
*To make Richard stand out in contrast from the racist filth of the skinheads, he rarely uses vulgarity when he speaks. He never uses a racial slur to convey hate or intolerance.
*At my current job, I am active member of the employees union. The scene in the warden's office with the warden discussing the coming disaster with his executive staff was a nice little inside joke for me to write. The executive staff that run the prison are named after the union officials I have worked with for years.
*Dupree's escape from the prison was modeled after a real life escape that occurred at a Colorado state penitentiary. An inmate there actually made it over the electric fence in the same way I wrote it in the book. After the inmate conquered the electric fence, every prison in the country with an electric fence retrofitted their fence to ensure that it would not happen again.
*Before Tank's character even made it to the page, I knew that Richard was going to kill him at the end of the book.
I created the character of Tank as a monster. He started out as six foot five and three hundred pounds. I later increased it to six foot nine and three hundred twenty-five pounds. His disfigured eye is meant to evoke the image of a cyclops. Tank was the hardest character for me to write as I find racism the bastard child of ignorance and hate.
*The character of Head was written as a self-deprecating jab at myself. I have a very large head. Like Tank, before Head made it to the page, I knew that he would die during the escape.
*I am a fanatical fan of the TV show Lost. Writing Head's gross misinterpretation of the show was a lot of fun to write.
*In the chapter about Richard's first escape, my two favorite authors - Vince Flynn and Lee Child are mentioned.
*Dr. Diana Stone is modeled after my mother-in-law.
*Oswald Jefferson's wife is named Lolita in reference to the 1956 novel of the same name. In the novel, a college professor becomes sexually involved with a twelve year old girl.
*The murder of Oswald Jefferson was the hardest thing in the book to write. It took me hours and hours to write two pages. I had to constantly fight the image of my own children in the room. I stopped repeatedly for fear of having a panic attack.
*In early drafts, Richard and Tank were going to be captured by a gang of teenagers, Richard would recognize one of the gang members as his son.
The White House
*President Powers is named after my best friend. The president's chief-of-staff is named after my best friend's wife.
*The USS James Russell is named for my father. If the last name confuses you, he is actually my step-father that raised me from the age of two. He is the only father I've ever known and I've never in my life thought of him as a "step"
*In the meeting in the Clinton Room, almost every person in the room is named after one of my family members - my brothers-in-law, my father-in-law, and my sister.
*A fellow author friend of mine, Steve Konkoly, was in the Navy and gave me some advice on the Naval references and helped me fix some errors that would have been obvious to current and former Navy.
*Iran does in fact have a underground bunker in use right now that the United States in unable to penetrate with a bunker bomb.
*I knew from the start that a coup de tat would overthrow the government. It wasn't until I created the character of Simon Sterling that I knew who would be the architect.
Miscellaneous
*The creation of the Obama-Camps was not meant as an insult to President Obama, but rather to serve as a parallel to the Hoovervilles from the First Great Depression. I knew that the homeless couple was going to live in a "homeless town" of some sort and wanted to give it a name. I'm surprised that I haven't been criticized for the Obama-Camps and been called anti-Democrat or anti-Obama. Honestly, I'm neither Democrat or Republican, I think that both parties are seriously flawed. Sadly, most presidential elections for me come down to the lesser of two evils.
*In Super Bowl 2020, I created the fictional NFL team, the Oklahoma Sooners. I attended college at Oklahoma Christian in Oklahoma City. Also, one of my close friends is a die hard Saints fan, that fact that the Saints were losing to the Sooners was a little joke aimed at him.
*The General Manager of the Wal-Mart store, Chester Stephens, was modeled after a real supervisor I had many years ago. He was so dedicated and loved his job that he actually told me that he wanted to have the company logo drape his coffin at his funeral. I'm not talking military here, nothing wrong with your coffin being draped with an American flag to signify your military service. He wanted the company logo of our our employer to adorn his coffin. I thought he was joking. He was quite serious.
*William Sanderson becomes a lieutenant in the 519th Military Police Battalion, the actual unit I served under in the military. I had intended on killing William at the Port of Gibraltar when the Iranians took back the port. I decided that the battle would not take place until the next book and by doing so, William survived. Little tidbit on Resistance - William and Lindsay will play a major role.
*I wrote Lindsay Sanderson as a devoted mother that would go to the gates of hell and back for her children. I modeled her after a friend who is a mother of five. I'm constantly amazed at her devotion and tireless dedication to her children.
*The Sandersons were created for the sole purpose of witnessing the EMP.
*The EMP was originally a nuke that was going to strike DC.
*A third hurricane was going to hit the eastern seaboard and demolish New England in the same fashion that Luther demolished Florida. I didn't want to write a "hurricane book" so the idea was quickly scrapped.
Vist my blog http://rastephensonauthor.blogspot.com/
If you have not read Collapse, STOP NOW! I'm going to be discussing the book at length and will no doubt give away key points about the plot.
Last warning! Don't spoil the book!
Okay, if you're still here, then you should have already finished Collapse. When I started writing the book, I made pages of notes, detailed character bios, and a chapter outline. As the story developed, I made a great deal of changes, whether it be cutting parts of the story out for editing purposes or I just went in a completely different direction and changed my mind. I read over my original notes and some of it just cracked me up. Figured I would share in the hopes that it might give you a chuckle or make you say "Hmmm, that's neat."
Chief Maxwell Harris
*The story of Chief Harris changed the most. I had an early chapter with him discussing his injury with his Dad and his father was going to provide the reader with some exposition on the horror and carnage of Hurricane Luther. The chapter was really slowing down the pace so I cut it and sprinkled the important parts in later chapters. I had another chapter that detailed the chief's time as a Texas State Trooper, mainly his failing marriage and the details of his injury. I figured it would be more dramatic to have the chief tell the story to Elizabeth and further strengthen their relationship.
*Elizabeth Reid, Chief Harris' desk sergeant and love interest, was supposed to die. I tried to kill her several times but just couldn't bring myself to do it because I was really enjoying the character. Elizabeth is modeled after my wife, who told me repeatedly "You better not kill me!" When Elizabeth got shot in the city garage, she was supposed to die. When Jack and his merry band of rednecks robbed the police station and left Max handcuffed to Charlie, Jack was going to find the command post and kill everyone there. Max would then chase after Jack and deliver some retribution. Max was spending too much time in Texas and I really needed to get him up to Colorado, so the idea was axed. I wanted to kill off Elizabeth to torture poor Max and really make his character sink as far as he could so the catharsis would be that much better. Max experienced enough anguish and torture in his life and Elizabeth was the only good and pure thing in his life. They needed each other, so I let Elizabeth live.
*Naming the Texas hurricane was an ordeal. The Florida hurricane that happened a month prior was named Luther for the obvious parallel to my favorite comic book villain. With a male name that starts with "L", that meant that the next hurricane had to be a female name that started with "M". My first choice was to name the hurricane after my wife, Mary. (Sound familiar? The book is dedicated to her) I thought it was a very cool idea and that she would get a kick out of it. She did not. She did not like the idea at all. LOL So I decided to use the female equivalent of Chief Harris's name as a little joke for Elizabeth to use against Max.
*The recollections that Max has about Hurricane Ike in his introductory chapter are my own.
*I wrote the majority of the novel with the intention of not giving Max's little Texas town a name. At the end of the novel when Max meets Howard Beck, I wrote myself into a corner and had to give Max's town a name. I decided on Santa Fe, TX, a real town outside of Houston. I did employ a little artistic license and made the town much smaller than it actually is.
*Max's cat is named Herbie after our first family cat.
*Elizabeth's cat is named Callie, one of the two cats in our home.
Howard's cat is named Nala, the other grumpy cat in our home that swats and hisses at everyone but my daughter.
*Chief Harris' badge number is a combination of my initials and my badge number.
*In the town of Truth or Consequences, NM, the lawman is named after my first true "fan," Eduardo Sanchez. When I released the sneak peek, he was the first person outside of my friends and family to respond about how much he liked the story. My wife saw something on the Facebook page for Collapse and asked me who he was. I was convinced I went to school with him, served in the military with him, or was an old coworker. Once it dawned on me that he was a perfect stranger, it was an awesome feeling to know that more than just my friends and family would read the book.
*Max is addicted to Vicodin. For the better part of six months in 2011, I had to take Vicodin for my back while I underwent physical therapy. I never battled problems with addiction, but I gained an intimate understanding of how and why Vicodin can be so addicting.
Howard Beck
*Howard's first name is a reference to Howard Hughes, the reclusive billionaire.
*Howard is a hardcore Star Trek fan just like me. I actually had a lot more Star Trek references in the book but my proofreaders and editor convinced me to cut the majority of it.
*Howard has Asperger's Syndrome as does my teenage son. I imagined my son as an adult when I wrote the character.
*In my original character bios, Howard wasn't the world's richest man or even a billionaire. He was a millionaire owner of a chain of camping and outdoor supplies. He was going to escape into the Rocky Mountains with his family and ride out the collapse.
*Howard's son, Marshall, was originally a bad guy that was going to invade Beck Castle and take it from his father. I changed this when I wanted to display Howard's growth as a person and his need to connect with others, especially his family.
*Howard's sister, is named after my sister-in-law. Her son and Howard's nephew is named after my nephew.
*Captain Butler and First Sergeant Bankhead got their names from my favorite commander and first sergeant in my military unit.
Richard Dupree
*The location for the Highland Valley State Prison is actually real place as described in the book. The prison isn't real, but the location for the prison is real. Log on to Google Earth and go fifty miles due west of Las Vegas and you will see the valley with mountains on three sides, the entrance to the valley is fifteen miles south and is the location of the town of Highland Valley.
*To make Richard stand out in contrast from the racist filth of the skinheads, he rarely uses vulgarity when he speaks. He never uses a racial slur to convey hate or intolerance.
*At my current job, I am active member of the employees union. The scene in the warden's office with the warden discussing the coming disaster with his executive staff was a nice little inside joke for me to write. The executive staff that run the prison are named after the union officials I have worked with for years.
*Dupree's escape from the prison was modeled after a real life escape that occurred at a Colorado state penitentiary. An inmate there actually made it over the electric fence in the same way I wrote it in the book. After the inmate conquered the electric fence, every prison in the country with an electric fence retrofitted their fence to ensure that it would not happen again.
*Before Tank's character even made it to the page, I knew that Richard was going to kill him at the end of the book.
I created the character of Tank as a monster. He started out as six foot five and three hundred pounds. I later increased it to six foot nine and three hundred twenty-five pounds. His disfigured eye is meant to evoke the image of a cyclops. Tank was the hardest character for me to write as I find racism the bastard child of ignorance and hate.
*The character of Head was written as a self-deprecating jab at myself. I have a very large head. Like Tank, before Head made it to the page, I knew that he would die during the escape.
*I am a fanatical fan of the TV show Lost. Writing Head's gross misinterpretation of the show was a lot of fun to write.
*In the chapter about Richard's first escape, my two favorite authors - Vince Flynn and Lee Child are mentioned.
*Dr. Diana Stone is modeled after my mother-in-law.
*Oswald Jefferson's wife is named Lolita in reference to the 1956 novel of the same name. In the novel, a college professor becomes sexually involved with a twelve year old girl.
*The murder of Oswald Jefferson was the hardest thing in the book to write. It took me hours and hours to write two pages. I had to constantly fight the image of my own children in the room. I stopped repeatedly for fear of having a panic attack.
*In early drafts, Richard and Tank were going to be captured by a gang of teenagers, Richard would recognize one of the gang members as his son.
The White House
*President Powers is named after my best friend. The president's chief-of-staff is named after my best friend's wife.
*The USS James Russell is named for my father. If the last name confuses you, he is actually my step-father that raised me from the age of two. He is the only father I've ever known and I've never in my life thought of him as a "step"
*In the meeting in the Clinton Room, almost every person in the room is named after one of my family members - my brothers-in-law, my father-in-law, and my sister.
*A fellow author friend of mine, Steve Konkoly, was in the Navy and gave me some advice on the Naval references and helped me fix some errors that would have been obvious to current and former Navy.
*Iran does in fact have a underground bunker in use right now that the United States in unable to penetrate with a bunker bomb.
*I knew from the start that a coup de tat would overthrow the government. It wasn't until I created the character of Simon Sterling that I knew who would be the architect.
Miscellaneous
*The creation of the Obama-Camps was not meant as an insult to President Obama, but rather to serve as a parallel to the Hoovervilles from the First Great Depression. I knew that the homeless couple was going to live in a "homeless town" of some sort and wanted to give it a name. I'm surprised that I haven't been criticized for the Obama-Camps and been called anti-Democrat or anti-Obama. Honestly, I'm neither Democrat or Republican, I think that both parties are seriously flawed. Sadly, most presidential elections for me come down to the lesser of two evils.
*In Super Bowl 2020, I created the fictional NFL team, the Oklahoma Sooners. I attended college at Oklahoma Christian in Oklahoma City. Also, one of my close friends is a die hard Saints fan, that fact that the Saints were losing to the Sooners was a little joke aimed at him.
*The General Manager of the Wal-Mart store, Chester Stephens, was modeled after a real supervisor I had many years ago. He was so dedicated and loved his job that he actually told me that he wanted to have the company logo drape his coffin at his funeral. I'm not talking military here, nothing wrong with your coffin being draped with an American flag to signify your military service. He wanted the company logo of our our employer to adorn his coffin. I thought he was joking. He was quite serious.
*William Sanderson becomes a lieutenant in the 519th Military Police Battalion, the actual unit I served under in the military. I had intended on killing William at the Port of Gibraltar when the Iranians took back the port. I decided that the battle would not take place until the next book and by doing so, William survived. Little tidbit on Resistance - William and Lindsay will play a major role.
*I wrote Lindsay Sanderson as a devoted mother that would go to the gates of hell and back for her children. I modeled her after a friend who is a mother of five. I'm constantly amazed at her devotion and tireless dedication to her children.
*The Sandersons were created for the sole purpose of witnessing the EMP.
*The EMP was originally a nuke that was going to strike DC.
*A third hurricane was going to hit the eastern seaboard and demolish New England in the same fashion that Luther demolished Florida. I didn't want to write a "hurricane book" so the idea was quickly scrapped.
Vist my blog http://rastephensonauthor.blogspot.com/
Meet The Voice Actor For the Audiobook of COLLAPSE
I'm pleased to announce that I just got off the phone with David Gilmore, the voice actor who has agreed to create the audiobook of Collapse. I'm very impressed with David's talent and his audition blew me away!
https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=A1N9OB...
Our goal is to have the audiobook available for download prior to Black Friday, just in time for the holiday season.
From David's website:
http://www.davidgilmorevoicetalent.com/
About Me
My name is David Gilmore. I’m a professional male voice talent. If you’re seeking a mature, distinguished-yet-versatile voice to enhance your company’s services, please listen to my demos. See if I can deliver the sound you’re looking for!
I’ve been speaking before audiences for 35 years in a variety of roles, primarily as an educator charged with getting high school students excited and enthused about physics, biology, physiology, and forensic science. Eight years ago I began reading novels aloud to others. Their response has been overwhelming!
I trained for my professional voice career with the best: Edge Studio in New York! My delivery has been described as:
Warm Friendly Engaging Mature Educational Personable
and the closest thing to Edward Hermann ever heard!
My humor, timing, and character work have earned high praise, as has my voice control and modulation.
Audiobook Credits: Top Cases of the FBI, by RJ Parker;
kiDNApped, by Rick Chesler;
Case Closed: Serial Killers Captured, by RJ Parker;
Women Who Kill, by RJ Parker;
Paranormal Portal to a Parallel Universe, by Walter H. Parks
Member: Audio Publishers Association
https://www.acx.com/narrator?p=A1N9OB...
Our goal is to have the audiobook available for download prior to Black Friday, just in time for the holiday season.
From David's website:
http://www.davidgilmorevoicetalent.com/
About Me
My name is David Gilmore. I’m a professional male voice talent. If you’re seeking a mature, distinguished-yet-versatile voice to enhance your company’s services, please listen to my demos. See if I can deliver the sound you’re looking for!
I’ve been speaking before audiences for 35 years in a variety of roles, primarily as an educator charged with getting high school students excited and enthused about physics, biology, physiology, and forensic science. Eight years ago I began reading novels aloud to others. Their response has been overwhelming!
I trained for my professional voice career with the best: Edge Studio in New York! My delivery has been described as:
Warm Friendly Engaging Mature Educational Personable
and the closest thing to Edward Hermann ever heard!
My humor, timing, and character work have earned high praise, as has my voice control and modulation.
Audiobook Credits: Top Cases of the FBI, by RJ Parker;
kiDNApped, by Rick Chesler;
Case Closed: Serial Killers Captured, by RJ Parker;
Women Who Kill, by RJ Parker;
Paranormal Portal to a Parallel Universe, by Walter H. Parks
Member: Audio Publishers Association
