James R. Vernon's Blog: The Three Moons Realm, page 4

Founding a Fantasy Village

I’ve come up with a fun experiment that could either be a lot of fun and interesting or be a complete fail.  In my first fantasy novel (which is completed and proceeding through rounds of beta reading and self editing before professional editing) the majority of the story takes place in the land of Ven Khalida.  Sandwiched between two mountain ranges to the east and west, the land also sits between two other lands to the north and south.  Sitting on the southern border is the newly founded village of Eleajia, situated on the west bank of the Melcoi river and with Rensen Forest to the north.  Will this village grow and prosper?  Or will bandits and being so close to the lands of the Shadaer Umdaer people spell doom for Eleajia’s future? Here is the fun part.  You get to decide!

The more people that like and follow The Three Moons Realm on Facebook, the more the village will grow.  Here’s how it will work.

A) For every 20 likes, a new villager or family will move into the village. Each person will provide a service to the village; builder, hunter, fisher, carpenter, etc…

B) For every 50 likes, a minor building will be constructed.  The purpose can range from woodworkers or stone smiths to stores or buildings that provide for a better life for the village inhabitants.

C) For every 100 likes, a major building will be constructed.  These are major improvements that increase the overall happiness, productivity, and safety of the village.

For instance, at the moment the page has 142 likes.  That means 7 families, 2 minor buildings, and one major building has already been constructed.  For the families so far, the town has two fishers, a small vegetable farmer, an apple tree farmer, and two hunters.  The 7th family has constructed a wood shop attached to their home as one of the two minor buildings.  The other minor building is the village granary where all of the food brought in and can be stored properly, allowing it to last longer.  The major building is the town’s warehouse.  The largest building in the village, it provides easy access for current and future crafters as well as provides a reason for traders to start coming to the village.  As you can see, its barely anything at the moment.

The Start of E

All of these decisions have already been made, but from this point on any major decision on the next area of growth will be decided by a poll of the members that follow the page.  With 8 more likes, we will be at the next multiple of 50 and fans will get to chose what building goes up next. Like I said, this is an experiment and could crash and burn, but I honestly hope it turns into something much bigger that helps draw more and more people into the Three Moon Realm.  I guess we will just have to see!

Short and Sweet Update

The few months before Christmas I sat down and started really focusing on my novel (which is why I haven’t posted anything since then).  Thankfully its been done, in the hands of one beta reader so far, and now I’m working with a great editor.  This has freed up a little amount of time, so I plan on started to post more as well as get back to reading and reviewing books.

That’s the hope at least.

I’m Not Dead! (Although I can’t say the same for some of my characters)

Its been a while since I’ve posted here or done much but retweet on twitter.  A new school year means more time spent on my students and what little time I have left with my family and my son.  This of course only leaves the tiniest windows of oppertunity to write, usually before my homeroom or late at night if I’m not too exhausted.  But I do still continue to write!

At the moment, I have three mini stories in the works towards another collection of short stories set in the Three Moons Realm and I’m at about the 2/3 spot in my full length novel.  The short stories have really helped keep the creative juices flowing, as I don’t like to work on the full length novel when I only have 15 minutes here or 10 minutes there.  My plan is to have at least 6 mini stories to put together for my next release of short stories, with some being continuations of certain characters’ stories while others will introduce completely new characters.  One of those characters was even inspired by a fan!

Overall its a busy, but still exciting time for me as an author.  Hopefully I’ll have more soon from the Three Moons Realm for my fellow authors/readers soon!

First Interview and Five Star Review from the Open Book Society

Hello everyone!

Its been an exciting few weeks.  I’ve made a lot of progress on my first full length novel set in the Three Moons Realm, progress is coming along on the cover art which should hopefully be ready by the middle of October, AND I received my first 5 star review and had a great interview with the wonderful people over at the Open Book Society.

The review was very nicely done, and the interview questions that proceeded it were very well thought out and made it clear that the interviewer had read and liked the characters in the short stories.  Both the interview and the review really made me feel like an actual author and has boosted my desire to finish my first full length novel.  So again, I want to thank the Open Book Society for everything!

Here is there Review.         Here is the Interview.

Check them both out!

Past Halfway Done $50 Gift Card Giveaway!

Past Halfway Done $50 Gift Card Giveaway!.

Past Halfway Done $50 Gift Card Giveaway!

Hello everyone from the Three Moons Realm!  This weekend I just moved past what I consider to be the halfway point in my first full length novel Bound to the Abyss set in the Three Moons Realm.  To celebrate, I’m giving away a $50 Amazon gift card on Saturday, September 29th to one person.  Here’s how its going to work;

1)  On Sunday, Sept. 9th (the day after this blog post has been posted) I will be offering my collection of short stories set in the Three Moons Realm for free on Amazon.  The link can be found here.  This short collection of 5 stories over  62 pages is just a glimpse of the world that I’ve created.  Last time I offered them for free I had 99 downloads so I’m hoping to top that this time.  Those that have already downloaded are of course eligible as well for the gift card.

2)  In order to be entered into the drawing for the $50 Amazon Gift Card you must:

A) Download the Story

B) Post an HONEST and detailed review on Amazon of the stories (reviews posted on GoodReads are also

appreciated but will have no impact on the contest).

C) Reply to this post with the Review Name you used, your favorite character, and why.

3)  On Saturday, September 29th I will randomly chose one person that followed the above instructions to receive the $50 Amazon Gift Card.  I will announce at the bottom of this post who won and ask for the email address you would like the electronic gift card to be sent.

If this contest is a decent success, I will probably run another one on the completion of the first draft of my novel that will follow the same rules and all participants of this contest (minus the winner of course) will have another chance.

Good luck everyone and thanks for supporting Indie Authors!

Ever Want to Place Yourself in Someone Else’s Fantasy World?

How often have you been reading a book and thought “I would love to be able to put myself into that world and make an impact on what is happening?”  Whether it was something as simple as being the owner or the Prancing Pony and watching Frodo’s first encounter with Strider, or something as epic as being an Aes Sedai cutting through legions of Trollocs with flames at the Last Battle, I’m sure we all have wanted to play our small part in the amazing worlds others have created.  Well now I want you to be in mine.

I am currently working on my novel set in the world of the Three Moons Realm, which I already have filled with dozens of characters that won’t even appear in the first story.  I’ve already released a small collection of short stories which can be found here that takes a glimpse at five characters, all of which may or may not make appearances in the novel (alright the first character, Zin the Imp is a major character in the first story).  But any fantasy world is a big place and can hold many minor characters that can still have an effect on the world. I want you in mine, or more specifically, a character that you’ve created.  So my plan is to have a contest to see who can come up with an interesting character that I can shape to fit into my world.

Here is the idea.  You create a character.  He/she can be anything from a beggar in the streets to a powerful warrior, but their profession can not be the only thing that defines them.  I want to hear about a beggar that secretly is a well off merchant that punishes himself for his evil trading practices by being a beggar for a week at a time.  Or a warrior that wields twin knives but refuses to fight anyone that does not resemble the man that burnt down his family’s home.    I want characters that you care about and want to see succeed or fail, and that can be semi-permanent characters in my world (semi because everyone dies eventually, even major and minor characters).

The contest: I want you to post a brief description of your characters under this post.  I’m going to keep this little game open for at least a week, possibly more depending on how many people I can get involved.  At the end, I’ll take any submissions and look at two factors, 1) How interesting is the character, and 2) Can I mold them to fit into my world.  If you want an idea of what the world is like, I’ve given some hints on my other blog here.

For how interesting the characters are, I don’t need someone over the top, with a dozen weird personality traits (although you are more than free to create a character like that as long as you have reasons for all of his/her problems).  I want a character with history, with their own story to tell, and most importantly their own future to explore in my world.   If your also an artist feel free to submit a sketch as well!  The more details the better, and feel free to give them special abilities or skills.  Part of the fun for me will be taking those skills and making them fit into the culture I’ve already created.

Rewards:  As I mentioned, I recently released a small set of short stories set in the world.  Well, I want to increase the number of those stories from five to six.  If your character is chosen, I will immediately get to work on creating a short story to add to my other five.  We will work together to shape the character into something that fits in well with the world.  Your character might then go on to help shape the direction of the world, or just happen to be at the right place at the right time in future novels or short stories.  Who knows, they might even get their own full length novel.

The Big Question, why should you care if your character exists in a world where the first novel isn’t even finished?  Many of you that I follow and follow me on twitter are either established writers, writers that just released their first novel, or like me are still working on their first novel.  This is an opportunity for you, regardless of where you are in your writing career, (or hobby if you are not a writer but want to be involved) to think outside of the worlds you have already created on paper or in your head.  Think of it as practice, think of it as a way to work on something new, hell, think of it as a way to get more publicity for your own stories.  The reasons you try don’t matter, I just want to see what interesting and colorful characters you have floating around in your imaginations.

 

How long should short stories be?

Over the past two years, I have been working on my first novel, with a great deal of the time being spent on taking the plot/main characters/locations of the story and filling in all the details.  The outside details that many readers of the story won’t see much of right away; village and city names outside of the story arc, how magic works, what types of governing bodies exist, as well as creating a whole secondary world, the Abyss, and filling it with all types of creatures and power struggles, have been a lot more fun then I expected.  It’s also been a distraction because as I created this world, I wanted to further explore different parts that were outside of the main plot of my novel.  Which is how my collection of short stories (and the basis behind the title of this post) began.

A few months ago I released a collection of short stories as a kind of primer to start building a fan base or at least to get people interested in The Three Moons Realm.  The characters inside range from Zin the Imp who plays a heavy role in the first novel, to characters and races that might only be mentioned briefly in my first book.  While they have been a lot of fun to write, as each character is different, I do wonder if they are enough to justify an actual release on their own.  Which finally brings me to the question of the post.

Do casual and huge fans of reading fantasy/sci fi/anything interesting care how long short stories are?  Do you read short stories at all?  If you do, what makes you toss those four quarters to Amazon for a glimpse into a world someone else has created?

I’ve spent a bit of time looking around at short stories online, both ones for sale and ones that people have simply posted on blogs, deviantArt, ect.  The short stories I’ve found on the blogs usually take up only a few pages, while the ones ‘for sale’ have ranged anywhere between 21 pages to over a hundred pages.  Mine, according to Amazon, is 51 pasges.  So does length matter, or are their other contributing factors that make a person want to check out a new story?  Obviously the quality of the writing and the story are huge factors, but with so many new writers appearing (myself included) you don’t have an idea of what they have done and word of mouth is very rare, at least at the beginning of a person’s career.  So back to my questions.

How long do you expect a short story or set of short stories to be for your money, and more importantly, your time.

Do you prefer one ‘long’ short story or a collection of stories about different characters?

Do you even care about short stories that give a glimpse of a world, or are you more interested in only following main characters through a larger plot?

I would love to hear you’re thoughts fellow readers and writers!

Review Trading: How to Help Yourself by Helping Other Authors

If you consider your novels to be your children, then a good book review is their college fund. Let’s face it, in today’s market of self publishing and ebooks, authors have to be their own marketing tools. Between blogs, twitter, linked in, Goodreads, Shelfari, and many other social networking sights, building a following as an independent author is a full time job. We write blogs, post updates on twitter, search for authors / reviewers / editors all on our own. I learned this early on when I started to write my novel and search out other independent authors. The one thing I kept hearing from successful self-published authors is that you have to build your own brand and you have to start building it FAR in advance of actually releasing your novel. Then, once you have everything set up AND keep it updated on a regular basis, the next best tool to build a following is to receive good reviews and to receive those reviews from other authors.

Now, I know that many of us have so much going on between writing, blogging, networking and of course everything else that goes on in our lives that doesn’t involve being an author that sometimes its hard to find the time to read, let alone review, a book. To be successful and build our brand though, it is vital that indie authors support each other with reviews. A good review, especially from another author that a reader can go and search out, can make the difference between someone buying or passing on a new series.

Make the reviews honest, but fair. Try to focus more on the positives rather than the negatives, but certainly point out any problems you find in grammer/editting/pacing to the author in private. Yes, this means that you might hurt some feelings, but as indie authors we have to accept that we have plenty of room to grow as we write more and more. Most importantly, if an author reviews your story then you should try your hardest to return the favor. Of course it’s possible that you don’t usually read that authors particular genre, but give it a try anyway as it might surprise you. And what could be better then a positive review by someone that admits to not being a fan of the type of novel?

So in closing, help out your fellow authors by reading AND reviewing their novels, give your stories away in exchange for reviews, and most importantly keep your reviews positive or if that’s impossible, let the author know what was wrong and how it could be fixed. Remember, we may be our own best form of advertising, but other authors providing assitance is certainly the next best thing.

Review Trading: How to Help Yourself by Helping Other Authors

If you consider your novels to be your children, then a good book review is their college fund.  Let’s face it, in today’s market of self publishing and ebooks, authors have to be their own marketing tools.  Between blogs, twitter, linked in, Goodreads, Shelfari, and many other social networking sights, building a following as an independent author is a full time job.  We write blogs, post updates on twitter, search for authors / reviewers / editors all on our own.  I learned this early on when I started to write my novel and search out other independent authors.  The one thing I kept hearing from successful self-published authors is that you have to build your own brand and you have to start building it FAR in advance of actually releasing your novel.  Then, once you have everything set up AND keep it updated on a regular basis, the next best tool to build a following is to receive good reviews and to receive those reviews from other authors.

Now, I know that many of us have so much going on between writing, blogging, networking and of course everything else that goes on in our lives that doesn’t involve being an author that sometimes its hard to find the time to read, let alone review, a book.  To be successful and build our brand though, it is vital that indie authors support each other with reviews.  A good review, especially from another author that a reader can go and search out, can make the difference between someone buying or passing on a new series.

Make the reviews honest, but fair.  Try to focus more on the positives rather than the negatives, but certainly point out any problems you find in grammer/editting/pacing to the author in private.  Yes, this means that you might hurt some feelings, but as indie authors we have to accept that we have plenty of room to grow as we write more and more.  Most importantly, if an author reviews your story then you should try your hardest to return the favor.  Of course it’s possible that you don’t usually read that authors particular genre, but give it a try anyway as it might surprise you.  And what could be better then a positive review by someone that admits to not being a fan of the type of novel?

So in closing, help out your fellow authors by reading AND reviewing their novels, give your stories away in exchange for reviews, and most importantly keep your reviews positive or if that’s impossible, let the author know what was wrong and how it could be fixed.  Remember, we may be our own best form of advertising, but other authors providing assitance is certainly the next best thing.