Steven Neil Moore's Blog, page 3

What I would like for all you fabulous readers to get from this.

The key message for my book is very simple… It’s all about the power of choice. The young man in my book has been plagued with a hard life, and the consequences of choices, by his hand or others, are the result. Using all the standard cliché phrases, he has persevered, triumphed, “dealt with his demons” (that last one is a bit ironic), and still manages to come out on top. That’s always a great ending to a story.

Oops… Did I give away too much? Probably not, but if you want to know the full scoop, you will have to check out my book.

My characters are really plot driven. Each one adds to the overall value of the storyline allowing the reader to “connect” to them and the story. I mentioned before, that the best types of stories are the ones where you can get emotionally involved. All of these characters, whether they are big or small, have to make choices, which determine their path. Some are rewarded: some are…well, let’s just say they should have thought more before making their choice.

The most important aspect is that choice holds a lot of authority. Most people take stuff like that for granted. Some, are not even aware of the path they have ultimately taken because of a choice that they weren’t even aware that was made. There are multiple layers in this book where giving credence to both plays out.

Every choice or decision has either a reward or a consequence. It’s almost like parenting. You try to teach your children by examples from your experiences. They either choose to listen, or experience it the hard way. The hard way tends to have more consequences.

The moral of this bit is choice has more power than we know; stop and think about the downstream effects. The more subtle moral is that children should listen to their parents. We are not as dumb as you think.

The last sentence is totally unrelated to the book. Just wanted to give a shout-out to all my fellow parents.… I feel your pain.

Don’t let the title fool you.…

Some people may be discouraged, put-off, outraged, or even embarrassed by the imposing word “Glorious.” It holds a number of different meanings depending on how you interpret it. Oh no! Not another religious book! . . . pass.

Here is the skinny on the title and the context . . .

Glorious in this case, means epic, massive, enormous, mind-blowing, of biblical proportion. If you come from a religious background, then yes – there are remarkable similarities that stay true to scriptural facts. But then again, so did the Da Vinci code, (somewhat). If your interests are in action, suspense, and intrigue with deep characters and a tight storyline that happens to have a supernatural element with epic magnitude that make you think… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ?????

My goal was to do something different with this book. This was written with the general fiction lovers in mind. No one had any issues with Bella (human) falling in love with Edward, (vampire), while Jacob, (werewolf), existed heartbroken— a victim of unrequited love. There’s really no difference in the structure of my book.   Well… There’s not a love triangle involved in the storyline, but the flow of the characters in the layers are the same.   I just use a more widely known supernatural focus with a bit more complexity and depth. Don’t get me wrong: I read all of her books and watched all the movies. The storyline was there. She used vampires and werewolves; I use angels and demons.

This first book is not about teenage love between a human and “something else.” This is about a young man who has had a very hard life that just wants to cause a change… and uses a corporate setting to do it. He gets in way over his head when he’s tossed into the reality that has always been there and is now very real. How would you feel about graduating from college and getting a job in a big company, only to find yourself in the middle of an age-old war and picked to be the destine leader of everything? That’s a lot of pressure for a kid. One of my national reviews called it a mix between Mission Impossible and, ironically, the Da Vinci code. That’s pretty cool, I’ll take it. Some of my more personal customer reviews said they couldn’t put it down. Well,… I’ll take that too.

When I read, I like to be entertained from cover to cover. That’s how I wrote this book. For those that have given it a chance, many thanks for taking it to the next level.

The old adage – “don’t judge a book by its cover” is cliché, but in this case very appropriate. Everyone needs to decide for themselves. Please don’t take my word for it, though. The first four chapters are free online at Amazon. If you want to see something unique and different, check it out for yourself. Sounds like a sales pitch, but it’s not.

If the word “Glorious” has people skittish, what is the word “Chaos” from the title of the next in the series going to do?

The most exciting part of writing Glorious Incorporated… and the most frustrating.

The thing I liked most about writing this first novel was the storyline and the way it evolved. The idea for a corporate setting had always been there. I wasn’t sure at the time of conception how I was going to weave in the “supernatural” elements, but I knew I wanted them because they were a necessary part of the story. Hence the word, “glorious”.

When I started writing, I developed a storyboard for the overall structure. I’m more of a visual guy than anything else, so I created index cards. They held some of the key themes of what I wanted to write about. After about 20 to 30 cards, I started putting them in the order of what I thought was a good flow. Different layers of the story started to emerge. Some of the cards blossomed into additional sections; some went bye-bye. The whole process was very dynamic for me. As I built out the storyline, I began the actual writing. I knew how I wanted to begin the book so I was good to go. As I worked through the story, the sections became bigger and the index cards grew to show even more layers. Some of them went beyond what I wanted for the first chronicle, so those are tucked away for the next. As I said, it was very dynamic. I kept thinking “how in the world am I going to converge these threads.” Bringing the relevant layers together for book one to hit the climax was a huge thrill.

A rule of thumb for me (#23) was not to be tied down to the specifics of the index cards. Whatever came out during the writing for a particular section is what I went with, even if it changed some of the storyline. When the inspiration hits, you just kind of want to go with it. I didn’t get crazy with it though. I mean, come on…

Some of the best advice that I ever heard was from an interview with Brad Pitt who validated that process.

“You never want to preplan a scene, you’ll just screw it up.”

Okay, just to recap… The content of the index cards was important for setting the scene. The details were whatever my imagination came up with at the time.

The most frustrating part was… and still is, finding the time to write. Another rule of thumb (#51) is that there is never any free time to do anything, you have to make time for everything. Easier said than done with a busy life. All these ideas and thoughts swirled around in my head at any given point during the day. If I didn’t carry around my iPad constantly to capture them, I would’ve lost most of the cool stuff in this book. In fact, I wrote the entire book on it.

You write when you can…

Inspiration for Glorious Incorporated

Glorious Incorporated had been an idea that I had for over a decade and really did nothing about. As with all grand ideas like catching a blue Marlin off the coast of Ireland, playing drums out on tour with Paul McCartney, and creating the “Great American Novel”, it was put by the wayside with everything else that I didn’t have time for. I was a pragmatic realist back in that life. I was working my way up the corporate ladder, and really didn’t have time for nonsensical fairytales when my time could be better spent on really important corporate stuff, like walking around in a circle slowly with my head down.

There were two big things that caused me to re-evaluate an attempt at creating something special: The quality of today’s entertainment, and my mortality. As an avid reader and movie watcher, I look for things to keep me always guessing and interested; a piece of work that is compelling and makes me feel like I’m actually living in the story. To have compassion for the hero and anger for the villain is an emotional investment, and a good sign of a tight and suspenseful storyline. Some of today’s entertainment is lacking qualities that have little, if any, substance at all. After reading and watching certain things that are becoming popular within mainstream, it makes me sad for the hard-working people who pay good money and get ripped off. Cheated out of the answers at the end of the series is not going to generate a popular following or keep them “coming back for more.”

When a health crisis hit my life, I thought it was now or never. If I am going to leave a legacy for my children, it’s going to be well written and a fun ride. Why settle for a carnival Ferris wheel when you can have a park hopper at a major theme park?

An Overview of Glorious Incorporated

In the ongoing war between good and evil, many battles are fought on many fronts. Leaders emerge from the unlikeliest circumstances to tip the balance of power. The power of good is embodied in Jonah International, a powerful corporate entity whose only interest is in ensuring mankind’s freedom of choice and thwarting evil at every turn. The world is falling under an influence of darkness and is in desperate need of a defender to lead them into the light. The leaders at Jonah believe that the answers lie in Joshua Arden, a young man with a hard life whose destiny could change the face of humanity and faith forever. The choice to accept this responsibility is his own. How will he choose?