Richard Stephenson's Blog, page 3

May 21, 2012

Free Sneak Peak of COLLAPSE on SmashWords

I want to thank everyone for all of the support and feedback for COLLAPSE. Writing this novel has been the most exciting experience in my life. I'm looking at a late June release. In the meantime, I hope you will take a look at the sneak peek, its a quick read and I hope you enjoy it.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/...


I've connected with many indie authors here on Goodreads, it is a true pleasure to support other writers out there.


Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek by Richard Stephenson

Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek
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Published on May 21, 2012 07:50 Tags: collapse, dystopian, post-apocalyptic, smashwords, sneak-peek

May 13, 2012

Are You A Doomsday Prepper?

Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek

Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek by Richard Stephenson


For those of you that don't know by now, I'm writing a book. (If you don't know by now I really need to step up my promotion.) My novel, "Collapse", deals with the downfall of America. No zombies, no killer asteroid, no alien invasion. I tried my best to make the collapse of American society realistic. I even went so far as to sprinkle bits of current events into the novel and create believable "what if?" outcomes to events happening today.

I am a firm believer that society is fragile. History has proven over and over again that the mightiest and most advanced civilizations can be toppled. It can be gradual and take decades or centuries like the Roman Empire, or it can be swift and appear to happen overnight like the Soviet Union.

Can the same thing happen to America? What would it take? I don't think that any one event would tip us over into anarchy outside of a nationwide catastrophe or World War III. OK, I'll throw a bone to the zombie fans, who knows? If you have been following the news you have seen that evidence has been uncovered that reveals a Mayan calendar extending past December 21st of this year, so we can cross that one off the list. So, what would it take?

I think that a continuing, ongoing chain of events could easily take us there in the near future. A prime example is, well, outlined in my first novel. Check out the free sneak peek and see for yourself. If it sparks your interest, read the full novel when it is released in late June. Consider it a cautionary tale.

Based on this blog entry and the plot to my first novel, you might assume that I am a hardcore Doomsday Prepper. Well, I am a little bit of a prepper. I have a stash of non-perishable food and extra water set aside. Nothing really out of the ordinary for anyone that lives in a hurricane region. I also have a "Go-Bag" or a "72 Hour Bag" depending on what you call it. In a hurry, I can snatch up my go-bag and head out the door with my family and survive for 72 hours in a disaster zone.

If my delusional dreams of becoming an international best-selling writer come true and I get a movie deal, maybe I'll start building a doomsday bunker. I might even let you into the bunker when the world ends. Well, if I like you.

What about you? Do any prepping?
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Published on May 13, 2012 12:35 Tags: doomsday-prepper, end-of-the-world, shtf

May 8, 2012

The Journey to the End

Anyone that knows me is very aware that I am a huge fan of the TV show "Lost". I devoured every episode and obsessed on every tiny detail. Every single thing about the show was so impressive to me. The production value, the acting, and most of all, the writing. How they managed to keep so many threads weaving in and out of the characters and the plot always blew me away.

I recall that throughout the show, critics often stated that the showrunners had no idea what was going on with the show, they had nothing planned out and they just made it up as they went along. I just couldn't believe something like that. I still don't believe it to this day.

I remember listening to a podcast from the showrunners, Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelhof. In the podcast they addressed the claim that they were making it up as they went along. They stated something that I think holds true to any writer. Allow me to paraphrase, "We definitely have the story planned out from start to finish. We know how it all ends, we know what the island is and why these people were brought to the island and what they are supposed to do. The story is like a journey that starts in LA and ends in New York City. We know why they are going to New York and what they will do when they arrive. What we don't know are the finer details of the journey. How will they get there? Will they stop in St. Louis on the way? Will they hop on a train for part of the trip? Who makes it to the end and who doesn't? Those kinds of details are something you can't really plan, the story determines those details. The story shapes and molds the details as you go."

That stuck with me when I started writing "Collapse". Before I began the first chapter, I spent about a week charting a chapter outline, detailed character bios, and how the plot would carry the characters to the end. When the chapters began to add up, I always kept that thought in the back of my mind. Sometimes great ideas from the outline seemed really cool but slowed down the pace of the story. I even had a few chapters planned out that were essential to the plot, but didn't warrant an entire chapter. Those chapters ended being whittled down into a story one character told to another character. Along the journey to the end of the book, many details have ended up changing because the story demanded it.

When the novel is complete and the readers embark on the journey to the end of the novel, I suppose I will dust off my notes and see how different the end product turned out. Might even be fun to tell the readers some of my original ideas and give them a peek behind the scenes.
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Published on May 08, 2012 09:35 Tags: collapse, lost, writing-process, writing-tips

April 18, 2012

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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Published on April 18, 2012 21:16 Tags: asperger-s-syndrome, autism-awareness, collapse, richard-stephenson

April 6, 2012

An Independent Author's Guide to Free Promotion

Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek by Richard Stephenson

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.
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April 3, 2012

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 Collapse (New America, #1) Sneak Peek by Richard Stephenson
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Published on April 03, 2012 11:24 Tags: author, collapse, richard-stephenson, write-what-you-know, writing-tips