A.J. Race's Blog, page 27

Cult of Racewood Calendar Collection

his year, in an effort to further my quest to take over the world… er… I mean… build a brand for myself and gather a legion of loyal followers who will do my every bidding…  hopefully create some kind of fanbase, I’ve decided to add to my collection of Cult of Racewood brand goodies, A CALENDAR!

Each month I will be designing a new calendar which I will feature at the beginning of the month featuring interesting/important dates in Cult of Racewood history or… Racetory. Unfortunately this idea did not occur to me until just yesterday, so February’s will be available today rather than on the first of the month when a normal calendar would. I’m actually super excited and I don’t know why I didn’t think of this idea sooner. I’d already created a bevy of backgrounds specifically for the computer so why wouldn’t I add a calendar too it and give it more use than just as a pretty background? Each month will feature a different design and a different piece of Racetory depending on what happened, and may even include important dates as noted in some of my novels

You can right+click this photo and save as to get the full screen version below.

 

Creative Bake

ecently it occurred to me that after book 3 is finished, I have a total of six books planned to be written. Six?! Seriously? Somewhere in my head while calculating the number of ideas I had for books I was pretty sure there were a lot more that I had to work on than just six. I have no idea how long it will take to write said six books, but if the Secrets of Witches trilogy is anything to go by, it’ll probably be in the realm of about two and a half years, which will exciting is also a little terrifying. Maybe it’s a little melodramatic to assume that this will be the end, that I won’t come up with any more new ideas, because frankly I know that I’ll come up with new ideas, I come up with them all the time, whether or not I’ll find them usable, but these six are full blown stories. Some of which I’ve been working on for quite some time now. They’re ideas that I’ve been mulling over for years, at least two of which I’ve written several drafts of (not unlike Secrets) and it’s kind of a terrifying thought to consider that once these six books are done I probably won’t have this similar opportunity to let these stories mull over in my brain for a few years and evolve. I’d like to think that that may be a good thing, after all some of the best ideas have come more recently, but there’s something to be said for the fact that I’ve had the general plot for these six novels baking in my brain since at least 2007 (several of them anyway, there’s at least one that’s only been around for maybe two or three years, but the point is, unless I come up with an idea this year that I may not end up being able to write until after these six are done, I’m not going to be able to let them bake again.

PS: It’s entirely possible that the majority of my concern isn’t so much that I’m worried about not coming up with ideas (or for that matter not coming up with any more good ideas) my concern is that I’ve been working on these for so long, that once they’re over, I won’t have them to look forward too anymore. I can’t hold them off for forever, nor would I want too, but, like the Secrets of Witches trilogy, when you’ve spent so much time anticipating writing them, having them finished is a bizarre, surreal feeling.
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the Almost Epilogues (cultofajracewood.wordpress.com)

The End of an Era

aybe it’s because I spent so long discussing Goddess of Carnage and because I’ve spent the better part of 2012 working on it, but it’s actually hard to believe that I’m on the final Secrets of Witches novel. With Bridge of Memories I knew there were two more after that, and with Goddess of Carnage I knew that there was still one more novel to go before it was all over but now… this is it. It’s the end of the line and it’s still very surreal to think about. I’ve thought about how I would feel when it was all over and when I finally got to the final book and I have to say, it’s not really like I imagined. Maybe I’ll be more emotional when it hits me, after all I’ve been working on this storyline and with these characters for a decade but while a part of me is stunned, I’m actually also very glad that it’s finally coming to an end. I’ve enjoyed writing this storyline and in the end it’s definitely come out far better than I ever could have imagined ten years ago, if not far darker and crazier, and I have to say I wouldn’t change it for the world.

Ultimately, I know that this is only the beginning. Sure, Secrets of Witches is finally coming to an end, but now I can move on to bigger and better things, and that part of all of this makes it incredibly exciting. It’s a new kind of adventure that I can’t wait to go on, and I hope that all of you will be coming with me. In the meantime, I still have quite a bit of work to go before book 3 is finished…. come to think if it, I should probably get back to that.

Breaking Fifty

‘ve been decidedly quiet about my progress on book 3 lately (with the exception of 3 a.m. updates on Twitter from Scrivener) but, as I get ready to cross the threshold into fifty thousand words (and almost my halfway mark, which is actually 62,500) I have to say I’m actually really excited. It took a while for me to finally get to the part of the book that I actually was excited to get too, but I knew there were important things that happened at the end of Goddess of Carnage that required some acknowledgement in the final novel. I knew it wasn’t going to be fun but it was necessary. Part of the reason I’ve been so quiet about it is that honestly there hasn’t been a whole lot to say, up until a few days ago I hadn’t been making much headway on it, and I was trying not to rush myself. Recently however I decided to create a new deadline for myself, March 1st and see where that got me.

I’m still a few thousand words off from 50k, but I should be there by Thursday if I stay on track. My current deadline requires me to write 2,500 words a day which I may be a tiny bit behind on, but I’m working my hardest to make sure I get back to where I should be before midnight. Wish me luck, I’m definitely going to need it.

Design and the Indie Author

ou can’t judge a book by it’s cover… only, everybody does, don’t they? Recently I’ve been really starting to debate this idea because I’ve seen a lot of indie books that have (in my personal opinion) pretty sad, unprofessional covers, and yet the books seem to be doing pretty good in spite of already having one thing against them, a bad cover. In my alternate line of work (graphic design) creating a cover is about creating something eye catching that one would hope, also conveys a story related to the story within.

Obviously I’m not going to call out any author on their cover, no matter how bad I think it is, that isn’t my place (unless of course they ask my professional opinion in which case I will be honest with them) obviously they thought it was good, or at least passible. So who am I to judge? Except a reader and a professional in the field. Of course, I’m pretty difficult to please, for instance one of my teachers has a rather unimpressive website that he proudly admits he designed himself and I personally wouldn’t be so proud of that, but then, maybe there are some who feel my own website is a little too heavy handed.

Art is subjective, cover art, even writing, what someone likes or hates depends entirely on a million unrelated factors. Obviously, Fifty Shades outsold Harry Potter, of the two I’d rather gouge my eyes out than read Fifty Shades of Grey. 

Plot vs. Style

iterature, like art, is subjective. What is Rembrandt to some is finger painting to others, and there is virtually no piece of artwork or literature that everybody agrees is good. There are those who think Twilight is literary gold and there are those who believe that Harry Potter is just an updated, magical Iliad. But one thing can be agreed upon, these books in spite of their flaws have sold incredibly well, and so have a lot of others.

Love it or hate it, Amanda Hocking’s Trylle Trilogy started off as an indie series, and I’ve read a few reviews of it that were not exactly the most flattering, but like Twilight and Harry Potter I also know that it’s sold exceptionally well. I don’t really have an opinion on her trilogy myself mostly because I’ve never read it, but from what I do know about it, the plot seems fairly interesting.

Three different books, three different writing styles, and two things in common, popularity, and an arguably good plot, (the plot for Twilight has never seemed interesting to me personally, but I’m sure many could argue to the contrary).

You can argue good and bad points to all three authors writing style. Overly wordy, sounds like they swallowed a thesaurus for no good reason, etc, etc. There’s a lot of debate that can be had about the style but I have to wonder is a really interesting plot enough to keep people interested in an otherwise terribly written story?

Implied Darkness

hat’s more chilling, seeing (or in this case) reading something bad happening? Or the implication that it happened, and allowing your own imagination to decide how bad it really was?

I knew it was coming. From the moment I started book 3, I knew it was going to be a very dark book that was going to be venturing into areas far darker than I had ever written before. I knew that going in, but truthfully knowing that it’s coming, is nothing compared to actually writing it.

It’s difficult not to feel the emotions of your characters as you write them, occasionally this is more true in writing a scene than in others. With certain scenes, you can feel the anger, you can feel the heartbreak and the tension, and with some, you’re surprisingly numb. Maybe it’s because in a way it hits too close to home, or maybe because you just don’t feel it, but whatever the case the only thing you can hope is that at the very least your readers feel it.

I cannot say with certainty whether or not the darkest part is over, I feel certain it probably isn’t in fact I would venture to guess that in the case of this book the darkness has only begun… however, for the time being (in that I’ve stopped writing for the night, this being four a.m.) it’s over.

Creative Storm

arlier this week, Jordanna East, expressed on her blog her… well undying hatred probably wouldn’t be an overstatement, for the rain, something I rather enjoy but rarely see here in the high desert (I have no idea why they call it that, exactly). Coincidentally, this particular weekend, we seem to be experiencing a bit of what others might call gloomy weather. It’s been grey and a bit rainy since Thursday and I absolutely love it. I do my best work at night and in the rain, and the fact that it’s been grey and gloomy just really makes me happy in ways I can’t even begin to explain. I’m not sure why exactly either, it’s not as if taking your laptop out on the patio in the middle of pouring rain is ever a good idea. I mean sure we have a roof over it, but rain in Vegas tends to fall diagonally, when it really comes down which means chances are, the laptop would be soaked. Notebooks are just as bad, if not a bit more water soluble, at least in the case of a notebook it will most likely survive a rainstorm, not in particularly good condition, but far better than a computer would certainly. Which leaves opening the window and listening to the sounds of rain and thunder. It’s absolutely magical.

Only one time was it ever a problem… a few months ago, we had a particularly bad storm and I had my window open, the rain was coming sideways and I found that there was water coming into my room. This might not have been a problem except for the fact that there is a light socket right underneath my window with both sockets plugged in. I quickly unplugged them both and closed my window, just a little bit terrified someone might get electrocuted. Thankfully no one did, and it never happened again, I still can’t help but wonder though, who puts an outlet right underneath a window?

Writer Interrupted

s a twenty something college student, I’m well aware that reality often likes to interrupt this little social experiment we call being a novelist. Between school work and friends deciding to kidnap you for the night, or a new episode of the Carrie Diaries, or Scandal there’s really no end to the amount of pressing real world problems that will interrupt a writer in the process at any given time. So I shouldn’t really have been surprised when this particular quarter was no different.

To be fair, I had expected life to be a little calmer because I decided to take this quarter off from college. It’s not really advised, but then when you’re having an existential crisis on a weekly basis, I don’t think not taking the quarter off is really advised either. So, I bit the metaphorical bullet, pushed back my grad date one more quarter, and gave myself a break. I really should have guessed it would never be that easy. Because by the first week of my non-attendance I got a telephone call from my school informing me that I hadn’t been there much this quarter, and if I didn’t show up I would be dropped. It’s all very standard and I understood that, the problem is… I had already signed all the forms to take the quarter off, so if I’d showed up I think that would have looked really weird on my part. I quickly called back to settle the problem and I was sure it was taken care of until… Thursday afternoon. I got a call from my mother informing me that I had to call the school because they had withdrawn the money that they get each quarter from my loan or her loan or something… even though I wasn’t actually going to be there.

Ten minutes and three different redirects between departments to sort this all out, we realized that it had all been a misunderstanding because apparently the paperwork I signed, I was supposed to give to another office, but as I wasn’t informed of this, I just took it home with me, wondering why I was the one left in charge of it. I figured it was just for my records or something and that was that. I’m by no means upset in fact the whole thing is pretty funny, except for the part where I was finally getting somewhere good with book 3 and the telephone call and subsequent calls on my part, interrupted all of that, throwing off my groove and ultimately forcing me to write this blogpost.

Writing and Relationships

I’ve been sitting on this post for a while now, but I seem to have a blog-writing block so here we are.

I have always wanted to ask a writer, who is married, or even dating, how the hell they do it. Particularly if they’re not dating another writer. Writers are notoriously full of baggage, we can’t help it. Some of us, of course more than others, but a lot of baggage comes with the hundreds of stories that roll around in our heads every day. And don’t even get me started on how most of us are control freaks.

I’ve heard (or rather read) that the best writers are eternally optimistic… where do you even get that from? I can’t remember the last time I knew an optimistic writer. I would argue we are more hopeful than optimistic, and that’s a big difference. We want to believe, for instance, that we’ll be able to do this forever, that we’ll be able to quit our day jobs and simply write novels until we’re old and gray. We tell ourselves that it’s not that unrealistic, but it’s hard to say we’re optimistic when that familiar dark side of our minds tell us it will never happen. That we’re just deluding ourselves. But maybe optimism means continuing in spite of all our self doubts (although I understood that to mean perseverance).

For all my fellow writers who are married, or dating, or in some form of relationship that doesn’t include living vicariously through your characters (as I myself do), how do you do it?