Darius Jones's Blog: A Writer Begins, page 30

Rare B Sides: The Invention of Morel

[This post is part of a series on literary works that deserve a wider audience.]

This is the first in a new series of posts I’ve been thinking about starting for a long time: Rare B sides. The whole point of these posts will be to share literary works that I think deserve a wider audience. They will usually—but not always—be works of fiction.

Think of it as the literary equivalent of listening to those rare B sides of your favorite musicians that are so hard to find.

First up is a B side that is...

Finally, My Blogs United

Just united my Goodreads and WordPress blogs as promised long, long ago. So, what does this mean?

First, going forward the sole place I will be adding new posts is my WordPress blog here at

http://dariusjones.wordpress.com/

The WordPress RSS should, hopefully, push out to my Goodreads page and blog.

For those with more interest, I started my blog on Goodreads on July 20, 2012. So, now if you trawl through the archives you will be able to find posts from July 20, 2012 through Aug. 7, 2012. Don’t...

Late Night at the Claxton

Life is burning fast, friends. I had an interesting night out, in a writer’s way, last weekend (before St. Patty’s) and I wanted to share.

I was invited to a friend’s birthday party at a rooftop bar (we’ll call it the Claxton)downtown. So, I went. Grabbed a wine (Pinot Grigio) and started mingling. Soon, the conversation turned to my writing (which a few close friends know about). My friend, I*, started asking some questions and congratulated me on getting out the book and the sales figures....

Historical Novella Almost Done

Hey everybody.

Just wanted to let you know that I’ve been working on a historical novella and it’s almost done.

I just finished it today and wanted to get this out. I still want to put it through a good copyedit and proof, however. So please, have patience.

The novella is set in the ancient Middle East and is based on a Biblical theme. It’s historical fiction with the emphasis on “historical.” That is, I tried to keep it historically accurate. That means no vampires, werewolves or magic. Sorr...

The Craft: Writer’s Mind, Warrior’s Mind

[This is part of a continuing series on writing fiction.]

A writer, like all craftsmen, is constantly looking to elevate his game. There are a lot of things you learn just by writing and editing your pieces. But sometimes you learn something from a wholly different field and bring it back to enrich your writing. In fact, I’ve learned something about writing from playing video games.

A while back I picked up a copy of Rome Total War. I quickly became addicted and lured in a few of my friends to...

My ‘Ghost’ Short Story Is Free Today

Real quick: My short story, The Truck Stop, is free today (Feb. 27) on the Kindle store.

Some have called it a ghost story, some have called it a “Weird Western.” I just call it a story.

Please drop by, download, read and leave some “likes” or reviews on the Amazon page. Thanks, everybody.

The Craft: Are You Experienced?

Today, I’m writing the first in a series of themed postings for my blog. I’m calling the series, “The Craft.” This series will continue intermittently, will be posted when I feel like it and will include musings on the craft of fiction writing. I hope you find them useful.

The first subject I want to take up is experience. After writing a novel and a short story and seeing them to completion (a total of 62,100 words), I like to think of myself of as an experienced writer. But the truth is I h...

My Novel on Nook, Finally

My novel, The Library of Lost Books, is finally and permanently on Barnes & Noble’s Nook store.

Now, for a bit of an explanation on why it took so long. I put Library on Nook earlier (October 2012) and after 3 sales in about a month, I decided to take it right off again.

Why?

Simply put, I got a better offer elsewhere. Amazon offers free promotions for your ebook through its KDP program. But the catch is that it has to be exclusive to the Amazon Kindle store. So, it was bye-bye Nook.

It was the...

No Rules, No Principles, No Limits

So…Where to start…

Surfing around Twitter the other day I dug up a Russian writer I’ve been thinking about now and then, Victor Pelevin (I liked his Babylon aka Generation P). So I became a follower and then I saw this recent Tweet of his.

У меня нет вкусов. То, что мне нравится в литературе, музыке и кино, нравится мне не потому, что подчиняется каким-то принципам или правилам

— Виктор П. (@VictorPelevin) February 7, 2013

Allow me to translate to the best of my ability (I have spoken some Russi...

My Book Is Free Today – Last Chance

In a weird coincidence, my novel, The Library of Lost Books, is free today, Feb. 14 or Valentine’s day. Not that the book has anything to do with Valentine’s or romance, it’s just a weird coincidence.

It will probably be the last time the book is given away. I plan to put the book on Nook (and keep it there this time). So, there will be no more Amazon KDP giveaways.

So get it for free while you can!