Elgon Williams's Blog, page 30

A Tree Born Crooked by Steph Post – Coming September 30

One week from today A Tree Born Crooked by Steph Post will be available from Amazon in both Kindle and paperback. You can still pre-order so that you will automatically receive your Kindle download the moment it is released.

A little over a year ago I met Steph at and online get together for Pandamoon Publishing. We are both part of a select group, what I’m sure will someday be referred to as the ‘First Gen’ Pandas. In the past few months I’ve gotten the chance to get to know her and work with her on a few projects as well as interact with her in conference calls and meetings. We have interviewed one another and and shared ideas on a number of topics related to writing. She has to be one of the nicest people I know. Having read A Tree Born Crooked a couple of times, now, I’m in awe of her skill as a writer.

She is one of the rare one-third of Floridians who are native, born in St. Augustine and raised in the land of contrast: beaches and swamps, pine trees and palms, sunbathers and sunburn, alligators and ‘crackers’…well, you get the idea. Currently she teaches at a high school for the performing arts in the west central portion of the state, is married and plays mom to a couple of very cute dogs. She is obsessed with the TV show Justified and is extremely supportive of other authors and their work.

Her book is about the side of Florida that people may not see all that often but that doesn’t mean it’s not here. She writes in a style that is authentic to her roots developing memorable characters.

“James Hart, with a tough-as-nails exterior and an aching emptiness inside, does not want to go home. Yet when James receives a postcard from his mother, Birdie Mae, informing him of his father’s death, he bites the bullet and returns to the rural and stagnant town of Crystal Springs, Florida, a place where dreams are born to die. James is too late for Orville’s funeral, but just in time to become ensnared in the deadly repercussions of his younger brother Rabbit’s life of petty crime. When Rabbit is double crossed by his cousin in a robbery-turned-murder, James and a local bartender, the unsettling and alluring Marlena Bell, must come up with a plan to save Rabbit’s skin. A whirlwind road trip across the desolate Florida panhandle ensues as James tries to stay one step ahead of the vengeful Alligator Mafia and keep his brother alive. With bullets in the air and the ghosts of heartache, betrayal and unspeakable rage haunting him at every turn, James must decide just how much he is willing to risk to protect his family and find a way home.”

#StephPost #ATreeBornCrooked #NewReleaseBooks #Florida #GritLit

Biking USA – Orlando Style

Many of you know that I ride a bike to and from work. Pretty much I ride a bike everywhere that I need to go. You may also know that Orlando, where I live, is not what I’d call a biker-friendly city. Few places in America are. And the alternatives to using an automobile for commuting are few. Mass transit here exists but is largely a joke when trying to reach most places. But that’s a subject for another blog.

This time we are focusing on the experience of riding a bike in O-town. And since road rage for a biker could very easily turn into road rash I thought a more passive aggressive approach might be best for venting some of my frustrations with my commutes.

Shards of glass from broken bottles. I’m not certain why it is necessary for some people to break bottles on the sidewalk but it is enough of a problem that there are at least a couple of mine fields I have to navigate in my commute. A few times I have halted and brushed the glass into the grass , which I’m sure presents an entirely different hazard for someone or something walking along the side of the walkways.
Wild animal obstacles such as deer, armadillos, tortoises, cranes and – my personal favoraite, – kamakazi geckos. Unlike the cute little guy in the Geico commercials, these are small lizards that regardless which side of sidewalk Ithey happen to be on and whichever side of the sidewalk I am riding my bike, they will invariably make a mad dash to the side furthest from them thus exposing them to the great probability of being run over. I really try to avoid them as I do not like harming any living thing but sometimes its unavoidable and the carcass becomes a feast for the ants that I see the next day as I ride through. Yet, undaunted other geckos play their version of frogger, which we will call Lizzer, with my bike tires.
No matter the direction iI raide it is always into the wind. Yes, I get it that if I am doing twenty miles per hour that means that even on a calm day that is at least a twenty mile-per-hour headwind. But it always seems the wind is actually blowing in my face even when I stop the bike.
Pedestrians sharing the sidewalk tend to be text messaging or wearing earbuds – sometimes both – and not paying ay attention to my calling for their attention so that I can safely pass by them. Then they seem upset that I scared them or that I would dare use the same sidewalk they walk on for riding a bike. Well, you talk to the city about putting in bike lanes. I’ve tried. They claim they need to have enough biker demand in an area to justify it but I feel it is more a matter that if they built the lane more people might use bikes for short trips. Heaven forbid that a city might be laid out with some intelligence for that the people who live in it are not totally dependent on automobiles. Again, that’s a subject for another blog.
Spider webs in the dark are a periodic hazard that allows me to demonstrate my superior no-hand bike pedaling ninja skills. Unfortunately it is also dark and very few people have ever witnessed the spectacle. It is quite impressive though.
Trees branches overhanging the sidewalk are largely invisible in the dark, even with a bike light. They are just low enough for me to run my head into because the people who maintain the landscape trim the trees to accommodate those on foot and people who are not basketball players.
Other bikers and/or joggers coming the opposite direction are also a problem, especially if the sidewalk is narrow. It’s hard to judge distance and whether there is enough room, so usually one, the other of both take to the grass and hope that there isn’t any of the aforementioned shards of broken glass hidden.
School Crossing guards with school kids in the queue present one of those strange situations. If you wait to cross with the kids the drivers who are waiting look at you funny. What’s a fifty-something man doing going to school anyway?
The busier intersections having walk lights that cycle whenever the oncoming traffic is halted. And then the countdown starts when you are in the middle of the intersections as if to subtly say hurry up your slow ass. Cars wanting to make a right turn on red think the biker is waiting to cross in front of them so they sit miffed that I’m not going with the light – in the other direction – before it occurs to them that I am waiting..
And my favorite, the 9:30 PM pup chase. You see, my neighbor lets his two dogs out to do their business and if I happen to come home around that time, both dogs give chase. They have ambitions of catching me, though I’m not sure they would know what to do with me. Refer back to my ninja skills. One of the dogs has long enough legs to give a decent pursuit provided he was in better shape. The other’s legs are shorter than his grand ambitions of catching me.

There you have it., the ten things I least like bout riding my bike to and from work.

#biking #commute #humor #alternativetransportation

Excerpt from A TREE BORN CROOKED by Steph Post

Originally posted on REVOLUTION JOHN:

Crystal Springs, population six thousand on a good day, hadn’t changed much over the past thirty years. It wasn’t that it was a town stuck in the past; it just didn’t know what to do in the present. The town’s single claim to fame was that Elvis Presley had once spent the weekend there on his way to Orlando. The motel where he had stayed, the Sweet Dreams Lodge, still charged extra for tourists to rent out the room he had slept in, but no one came to Crystal Springs because of Elvis. The town was a place to pass through. On the route from Gainesville to Lake City, college kids and exhausted tourists stopped to get gas, eat a quick meal and buy some cheap souvenirs. Most didn’t stay through the night.

Occasionally a pack of University of Florida students would feel like slumming it and come up from…

View original 926 more words

Some Thoughts On The Unbounded Series by Teyla Branton

There are at least two ways to write a series and variations on each. The author must decide whether to write each book as a stand-alone or write the entire series in draft and then work on finishing each book one at a time. Then he or she must deal with the necessary backstory elements in some relevant way before continuing with telling the overall tale.

I’m not sure what is the best overall approach. It may depend on the story. It might differ by the author as well but ultimately the expectations of the reader prevail in determining the success of the author;s effort.

It may seem silly to write a series and pretend that each book is a stand alone to the extent of recapping every major point of the series in each of the books. Then again, it depends on how much of a lag there are between releases of the parts of the series. Publishers require the author of a series to write at least a summary of the major points of each preceding book and present it as a Forward to any sequel.

The problem with recapping the facts from the former books into each new installment is that when the series is completely published and a reader can start at the beginning and read straight through the recapping is sometimes glaringly redundant. A good case can be made for a synopsis added into a Forward in that when a reader is plowing through an entire series sequentially he or she would have the option to skip that material or use it as more of a reference.

The real problem I have with providing the backstory is that it distracts from advancing the story.

I mention all this because until reading Teyla Branton’s Unbounded Series I hadn’t really felt that any author did a particularly good job with recapping the previous story while telling of a sequel. Anyone wanting to see how to do it well should read Branton’s four books: The Change, The Cure, The Escape and The Reckoning. She treats background as almost an unobtrusive reminder of what went on as it relates to the present dilemmas. This is an excellent approach.

It is  in the nature of a serial that the larger story spans several books with interim climaxes and cliff hangers. Branton constructs her series well, establishing the main characters in the first book, then adding in other important characters as the plot progresses. The resulting flow feels natural enough despite the paranormal story stretching possibilities. At the conclusion the major questions have been answered and the conflicts addressed sufficiently to end the story. But there is enough left in the background to ruminate and fester in the readers’ minds in case Branton decides to continue the storyline in another series. Personally I hope there is another series – Unbounded II?.

By the time The Reckoning begins Erin has become as seriously badass as her principal love interest, Ritter, but in a complementary way both physically and emotionally. As their bond has grown so has their connection through their skill set as evidences in thwarting the efforts of both The Hunters and the Emporium.

The Reckoning delivers us into the aftermath of The Escape. Erin has a little present her nemesis Delia left inside her. The mystery is not only what is the black coiled snakelike thing but also how to get rid of it – or at least keep it contained and controlled. We also discover the identity of the near corpse that was rescued at the end of The Escape. As has been the case all along the reader is in for a wild ride as the Renegades battle the Emporium.

Despite how well Branton does her thing with bringing the reader back up to speed while continuing the story, I highly recommend reading this story from the beginning. No worries, though. The Change is Free to download. So consider it a way of giving the series a test drive before you buying into it. Be warned, you will end up reading all four books, though – just because it is that kind of story.

The Reckoning (Unbounded Book 4)

Author Ken Donaldson Interviews Me

I’m not enigmatic and I’m not reclusive though it occurs to me that some think I am. It’s probably because I spend a lot of time in my creative space writing and because of that I’m not out carousing. Anyway, in an effort to tell more people about me I’ve been giving interviews. The following is a recent one my good friend and Australian author Ken Donaldson did with me and posted on Goodreads. It is used here with his permission.

KD: I have seen you online, as I am sure many other readers have who are familiar with you from the self-publishing forums. Give us a little insight into your background as a writer.

EW: Since I was 13 years old I have wanted to be a writer. I recall picking out a pseudonym that I have never used. In high school I wrote a few creative things and was a co-editor of my high school’s newspaper. That’s how I became interested in journalism, which is what I studied at Purdue University. While there I took several writing and literature courses and wrote a manuscript, portions of which eventually were incorporated into my first published novel, From the Inside. A few years later, while I was in the Air Force I served as a historian for my unit and composed an award winning 400+ page document, which was technically my first publication. Over the years I suppose my various muses and I have not always been on the best of terms. At one point I decided that I needed a lot more life experience before I could write the kinds of novels I wanted to produce. Mostly, I think I had to find my author’s voice and, of course, establish a better connection with my personal muse. In the mid 1990’s I drew together my notes and drafts that turned into the manuscript of my first novel in 2001.

KD: Tell me what other authors do you enjoy, who inspired you or influenced you the most to become a writer?

EW: I drew a little from Kurt Vonnegut Jr. and Douglas Adams. I like the sense of irony in the works of both men. Also I particularly enjoyed Samuel R. Delany, Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein. I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy. In college I learned to appreciate a variety of other genres. I was particularly fond of Hermann Hesse’s Siddhartha, Steppenwolf and Beneath The Wheel. Ernest Hemmingway was someone whose simple writing style I came to admire. Lately I’ve been enjoying a number of up and coming authors like Teyla Branton, Karen Perkins and Margaret Snowden. There are a lot of really gifted storytellers out there who at the moment are obscure but I’m confident you’ll be hearing about them very soon. I’m fortunate to call many of them my friends.

KD: What made you decide upon the genre you are currently pursuing?

EW: As I said before, I read a lot of sci-fi and fantasy when I was younger. So it felt pretty natural to slip into that genre. It affords a writer great latitude in expressing his or her creativity. Since I’ve been told I have a wild and vivid imagination I tend to push the boundaries a bit and have never felt confined to the real world. Reality is an illusion, anyway.

KD: What is special about how you write? Do you have any set routine of method you follow?

EW: Early in the morning seems to be my most productive time, before the world around me wakes. When I start laying out a novel, I create the character profiles first and through dialogue I allow the characters to expose the conflicts. Later I go back and write the narrative pieces that connect things together, describing the settings and establishing the mood. Otherwise it is used to facilitate action sequences. However, sometimes the action is delivered through arguments between the characters. Novels with excessive narrative can be tedious to read and I personally feel narrative is more boring than dialogue. A reader should feel as if he or she is part of the story, maybe one of the characters or a bystander listening and observing what’s going on. Dialogue can drive a story in an immediately intimate and compelling way. The realism of the exchanges between characters is key to telling a story. I spend a lot of time making certain that dialogue flows well and sounds as natural as possible.

KD: What are the future plans you see for your writing next?

EW: I’m working on a sequel to Fried Windows and several other projects. Always have at least two or three things going on at a time so that whenever one hits a snag you can move on to another. That is how I combat writer’s block. The next novel I have coming out is Becoming Thuperman, which is scheduled for release in January 2015. It’s a fun departure from Fried Windows about two kids – a boy and a girl – who are best friends. It’s summer vacation and like most kids they enjoy riding their bikes to the community park where they play baseball. There’s a big scary dog that lives down the street in the old house that everyone says is haunted. A spinster and her brother live there. Oh, and by the way, the kids are just discovering that superpowers run in their families.

KD: Do you have any brief thoughts in passing you would like to share with the readers?

EW: I’d like to express my gratitude for everyone’s support of my writing. There are more authors out there these days and there’s a wide variety of stories from which to choose a next favorite read. When someone tells me they have enjoyed Fried Windows or one of my other books it makes my day. Every author feels the same way. If you love an author’s work support him or her with a review – just a couple of lines telling other potential readers what you liked about the book. You don’t realize how important that is in the decision process for the reader or for the success of an author’s story reaching as many people as possible.

KD: I do wish you all the best in the future. Certainly has been a real pleasure Talk with you Elgon. That is where we conclude this Interview.

Link to Ken’s Amazon Author’s Page:

http://www.amazon.com/Ken-Donaldson/e/B00E6Y02E0

Link to Elgon’s Amazon Author’s Page:

http://www.amazon.com/Elgon-Williams/e/B001K8TYXU

#Interview #ElgonWilliams #KenDonaldson #Writing #Authors

 

Review of Teyla Branton’s The Escape, Book 3 of The Unbounded Series

The Escape is the third book of the Unbounded Series by Teyla Branton. If you aren’t familiar with the series, here’s a brief overview.

Erin is Unbounded meaning she is quasi-immortal. Like other Unbounded she was born like every other human but around the time she turned thirty she experienced the Change. The Unbounded have the ability to recover from serious, injuries that to mortals would be fatal. Their bodies are designed to survive and regenerate. This also means that their reproduction is almost a certain consequence of sexual intercourse.

Erin might live for two thousand years unless someone severs the connections between her brain, hearts and reproductive organs. She belongs to a group of other Unbounded called Renegades. A rival group called the Emporium wants to take over the world and subjugate all mortals to servitude and to do so they must overcome resistance of the Renegades either converting them to their cause of eliminated them – usually the latter unless the renegade possesses an ability the Emporium desires for their breeding experiments.

Meanwhile a group of mortals called the Hunters want to get rid of all both groups of Unbounded, Fortunately for the Unbounded the Hunters aren’t all that bright. Still, they are dangerous adversaries.

In The Escape, Erin is learning more and more about her special ability, called sensing. In the previous episode she realized that she could sometimes borrow abilities from other unbounded and she also learned that sometimes she could penetrate the mental defense of others. Here she must use what she has learned about herself in combination with the abilities of others we met in the previous installments. The objective is facilitating the escape of Renegade prisoners from the Emporium strong hold in New York City. In the process of planning Erin discovers the nature of the Emporium’s evil plans to take control of the government through subterfuge and murder.

Although I’m not normally a huge fan of paranormal novels I have seemed o read a number of them in the past year. II enjoy the unleashed imagination that is possible when characters can defy the laws of physics – or rather utilize or explore other, undiscovered levels of the physical universe. It makes for good fantasy, especially if the story is told with enough realism that a reader can easily be drawn into the story.

Branton excels in character development giving us an array of people to care about throughout the telling. This volume has action, mystery, suspense and romance blended together with a healthy dose of political intrigue. I am looking forward to reading The Reckoning, Unbounded Book 4, already available at Amazon.

The Escape (Unbounded Book 3)

The Escape is the third book of the Unbounded Series by ...

The Escape is the third book of the Unbounded Series by Teyla Branton. If you aren’t familiar with the series, here’s a brief overview.

Erin is Unbounded meaning she is quasi-immortal. Like other Unbounded she was born like every other human but around the time she turned thirty she experienced the Change. The Unbounded have the ability to recover from serious, injuries that to mortals would be fatal. Their bodies are designed to survive and regenerate. This also means that their reproduction is almost a certain consequence of sexual intercourse.

Erin might live for two thousand years unless someone severs the connections between her brain, hearts and reproductive organs. She belongs to a group of other Unbounded called Renegades. A rival group called the Emporium wants to take over the world and subjugate all mortals to servitude and to do so they must overcome resistance of the Renegades either converting them to their cause of eliminated them – usually the latter unless the renegade possesses an ability the Emporium desires for their breeding experiments.

Meanwhile a group of mortals called the Hunters want to get rid of all both groups of Unbounded, Fortunately for the Unbounded the Hunters aren’t all that bright. Still, they are dangerous adversaries.

In The Escape, Erin is learning more and more about her special ability, called sensing. In the previous episode she realized that she could sometimes borrow abilities from other unbounded and she also learned that sometimes she could penetrate the mental defense of others. Here she must use what she has learned about herself in combination with the abilities of others we met in the previous installments. The objective is facilitating the escape of Renegade prisoners from the Emporium strong hold in New York City. In the process of planning Erin discovers the nature of the Emporium’s evil plans to take control of the government through subterfuge and murder.

Although I’m not normally a huge fan of paranormal novels I have seemed o read a number of them in the past year. II enjoy the unleashed imagination that is possible when characters can defy the laws of physics – or rather utilize or explore other, undiscovered levels of the physical universe. It makes for good fantasy, especially if the story is told with enough realism that a reader can easily be drawn into the story.

Branton excels in character development giving us an array of people to care about throughout the telling. This volume has action, mystery, suspense and romance blended together with a healthy dose of political intrigue. I am looking forward to reading The Reckoning, Unbounded Book 4, already available at Amazon.

The Escape (Unbounded Book 3)

My Goodreads Review of Crimson Forest by Christine Gabriel

Crimson Forest by Christine Gabriel

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The small town of Buffalo, Wisconsin, population 650-something, is noteworthy for one thing, its Crimson Forest. A major attraction to hunters during the season legend has it that mysterious creatures prowl the forest looking for unsuspecting victims, something supported by random disappearances in the past.

Seventeen-year-old Angelina and her mother own and operate a popular bed and breakfast. When the poor girl was twelve years old her father disappeared in the forest leaving them alone. Five years later, during the fall after her graduation when many of her friends from her graduating class have gone off to college, Angelina remains at home helping her mother prepare for the onslaught of hunters in anticipation of the season.

All Angelina has ever wanted was to be normal but like the forest she has secrets. It’s just that she hasn’t yet realized what they are. But her life is about to change dramatically and the adventure will lead her to rediscover secrets about herself and the mysterious forest. In the process she will learn how far from normal she is.

Some of the memorable characters are endearing while others are despicable, as Christine Gabriel has created a creepy setting for all kinds of unpredictable paranormal activity. She has blended realism with fantasy in a way that makes the outrageous seem plausible, creating a world where magic exists as surely as the strange red colored moss that covers the forest’s floor and clings to the trunks of its trees. The question becomes what sort of mythical creatures don’t inhabit this strange world? Although this is not a book about vampires, there is one named Stephen who offers a bit of comic relief. For example, he gets excited over the mention of a potential blood bath toward the climax of the story and later on Angelina tells him to go stake himself.

Crimson Forest is the first in The Crimson Chronicles series. It launched on August 30, 2014 with the sequel Crimson Moon set to follow sometime in Spring 2015.

View all my reviews

Success And Failure In Writing

Over the course of my working life I’ve acquired a pretty thick skin with regard to being rejected. That’s a good thing to acquire if you’re going to write – a thick skin. And you need to get used to being rejected. It happens a lot. As anyone who has worked in sales learns not to take ‘no’ personally, you have to understand that ‘no’ often means ‘not yet’. Some might state that as ‘no’ doesn’t really mean ‘no’ as they refuse to ever take it for an answer. It’s part of the mindset of countering rejection. Like a persistent, pestering five-year-old they refuse to give up on their heart’s desire. Like a hungry bulldog on a piece of raw meat they…well, you get the idea.

I was never all that excessive as a salesperson and that is probably why I was only moderately successful at it.

I had no trouble selling something I believed in or liked, though. Those things usually sell themselves. Just explain the features and benefits but have a sales ticket handy to close the deal. Things like that, the easy sells, don’t pay top commissions because less effort is required. Selling some unnecessary something to someone who doesn’t want it is what pays the most. And something someone doesn’t want pretty much defines that book you just wrote, especially if you’re an obscure first timer.

I know you don’t want to accept that, but it is the truth. And despite knowing that greed is one of the seven deadly sins, some of us are greedy. So you want to become rich and famous as a best seller author. Otherwise, why go through the agonizing experience of spending years writing a book and another year or two getting it published just to have no one want to buy it? We’re taught from an early age that this is a material world and one’s success or failure is often measured in terms of possessions and accumulated wealth. We sell our souls, at least figuratively, to the idea that more is always better when it comes to having ‘things’. The weight of those things and maintaining status becomes our fervent obsession. But is that really why you wrote that book? I mean, be realistic. There much more immediately lucrative endeavors and your time should have been spent pursuing those if, in fact, your overall objective was to become a rich and famous best selling author.

Not everyone makes it. You know that. We all play the game to some extent but usually we give up somewhere short of becoming rich and famous because we realize that we aren’t all that good at playing. A few of us gain some perspective and enlightenment from observing others and witnessing the results. It is almost a bromide that it is better to be unhappy and rich than it is to be unhappy and poor, so we opt out of the system at a point where we find a way of living comfortably between the two. But we are unjust as unhappy as we ever were because whether we are writing or not determined if we, as writers, are happy.

After years of playing the game, succeeding and failing like everyone else who doesn’t write, accumulating stuff that made it difficult to choose leaving high-paying, bad jobs with abusive working conditions, I gave up nearly everything I have in order to pursue writing. In retrospect I should have done it long before. I couldn’t have ended up any worse off. Perhaps it was wrong to do what I did for so many years, opting to be practical instead of pursuing my dreams. But the past couple of years I have learned how very little a human being truly needs in order to survive.

Yeah, I’m not rich. I don’t really need to be rich nor do I want to be. I’m pretty content having just enough. In the rankings of the rat race I’m poor. But as I refuse to participate in that competition what difference does it make. I’m not out to impress anyone with a flashy car, a big house, expensive clothes, watches and gadgets. Everything I have, except for my bicycle, will fit in the truck of a car. Imagine that! I have little stress in my life other than what I determine is necessary. I have goals that I set for myself but they are attainable and I am responsible to very few others. I have a couple of part time jobs to help cover expenses. Otherwise, what I do is write. That’s important knowledge and pretty radical in this material world, right?

Thirteen years ago when my first book was published I wanted it to be best seller. I promoted it amongst my friends, coworkers, relatives, people I had known in the past, neighbors and even total strangers. I personally handed it to book critics who didn’t want to read it just because it wasn’t validated by some major publisher’s seal of approval. Although I’d signed on with a small publisher that won’t good enough. They equated that with using a vanity press even though I had not paid to be published.

I drove miles from where I lived to pitch my novel at bookstores. I donated copies ot local libraries. I attended fairs and conferences to pitch my wares. I sold a few copies. Moreover I learned something very valuable from the experience. Other than me and maybe my immediate family, no one cared about the book I’d just published. It was immaterial that I’d spend years writing it, that I’d spent countless hours revising, editing, and everything else involved in just getting it to a publisher. It was inconsecquential that I’d spent another two years working the book through the production process just to finally hold a copy of it in my hands. I signed a few autographs – on the off chance I ever became famous – and some people read it and gave me their feedback. The book was a first in more ways than one. It was enlightening to learn that hardest part of publishing a book was actually getting anyone to buy it.

As crazy as it may sound, part of the realization in my situation back then was that the true objective of a writer is to be read. If people decide to purchase a book the writer might earn at living at it. But truly, that is not the objective or writing. I also understood that success for a writer is measured in how many strangers read his or her book and like it, not how many friends, family and acquaintances feel obligated to buy it just because of a level of familiarity.

So, as much or as little as I have promoted my books over the years, posting things in social media of late, and having scores of people I have known over the years congratulate me on my achievements, I have not sold all that many books to people from my past. That’s fine with me because I completely understand the process now. It’s just weird, isn’t it, having someone you knew when you both had pimples tell you that he or she has written a book. If you happen to read the book do you hear the squeaky voice of that kid you grew up with – that nerdy dude who used to sit off to himself or that shy girl who never spoke much. Why would anyone want to read a book he or she wrote?

My youngest daughter best expressed the sensation of reading one of my books. “It’s kinda creepy hearing your voice in my head as I read.” Okay, enough said. I get it.

When I write, what I compose is intended to be enjoyed, not the source of creepiness. Someone who feels forced to read it out of some obligation borne of friendship or shared genetics probably shouldn’t buy the book. Writers want to make happy readers not tormented souls. When I write I imagine it is for a person I haven’t yet met because I no longer expect anyone I know to read my books. For those of you who know me personally, if you ever read one of my books, I think you may be surprised at what you’ll find. Anyone who knew me way back when I was that weird kid was largely ignored actually had no idea I could string a few words together into something half-way coherent. Now there’s a book or, actually, several. Who would have thought it possible, right?

For all writers whether published or yet aspiring, I offer some advice suitable for having carved into something you could hang above the workspace where you write:

1) Most people you know won’t read your book.

2) Most people you don’t know won’t read your book.

3) Most people won’t care about your book whether or not they know you.

4) Until your book hits the New York Times Best Seller List, most people won’t know or care that you write.

5) After you make it as a writer, some people who buy your book won’t actually bother reading it.

6) But, because you don’t write for any of those people who won’t read your book, why should you care?

#Writing #ElgonWilliams #FromTheInside #ToTheCloser #OneOverX #ColonialAuthority #TheResurrection #TheAttributes #FriedWindows #Success #Failure #Publishing

Teyla Branton’s The Cure Continues The Adventure

Teyla Branton’s The Cure, Unbounded Book 2, is an ambitious sequel to The Change. There are some new characters we meet while strange universe created in the introduction to the series is expanded along with the godlike abilities of the quasi-immortals. Again we see things through Erin’s point of view as she continues the wrestle with the reality of who and what she has become along with her origins and those who were important to her before her Change.

There is a trick to writing a series. The author must keep the readers from earlier books happy with the advance of the storyline while writing in a way that can stand alone should someone read only the one book or read the series out of sequence. Of course the objective is to entice every reader into becoming a fan of the entire series. Some would give a prologue with all a summary of the previous story. But Branton has chosen the better alternative to battle the fabled sophomore jinx, continuing the story while filling in the background where necessary and in such a way that it is not obtrusive to anyone who read the previous work. After all, there may have been some gap between reading the books and a little refreshing of the storyline doesn’t hurt. Readers of a serial will naturally compare the books and some will find each successive sequel lacking in some way while others will enjoy how the story is continued with the characters they already know. The critical way to judge a series is whether the story is consistent between books and is the plot carried forward. The Cure meets both criteria.

While Branton covers the necessary elements she deals with the unresolved tensions between characters and advances their relationships. The addition of new blood in the story, Mari, Oliver and Benito lends a feeling of authenticity to the fictional world as it grows to accommodate more complexities. Each new character has a key role in the story validated in action lending sufficient depth and backstory.

There is a lot more action in this fast paced installment as the Renegades continue their war against the Emporium. Although The Hunters are involved early on in this story and are mentioned throughout they are not as large a factor in this part of the story as the rivalry between the two factions of the Unbounded. Romantic elements established in the first book are also brought into the mix as we get to know more about Ritter and Keene as well as Erin.

The objective of the Renegades is to rescue scientists who have been working on a cure for autoimmune disease. In doing so they must go into the jungles of the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico to thwart the Emporium’s murderous attempts to suppress the technology. The Emporium, being heavily invested in the pharmaceutical industry in the production of medications for treatment of the disease, has no desire in allowing a cure to be made available.

It’s a tough challenge writing the follow up for a popular book. Sometimes the story dictates where the author must take it and, as most writers know, trying to guide where a story will go doesn’t always work out for the best. With The Cure, Branton has taken her readers exactly where we should go in preparation for the third and fourth books of the series. I’m glad they are already available because I plan to work them into my schedule. Expect reviews of the next two books of this innovative paranormal series in the near future.

The Cure (Unbounded Book 2)