Jason R. Koivu's Blog, page 2
August 3, 2017
The Process
As many of you know, I found a publisher, Black Rose Writing out of Texas. They will be putting out the first book in my fantasy series in Fall 2017!
This is a project that I've been working on since 2009, back when I began what will now be book #2. I fiddled with it and improved it some for a few years until deciding that a prequel was needed. I don't know if it's needed for readers, but I needed to write it. I wanted to get to know the main character and I felt like I needed to step back in time and investigate his past to understand who he was. When I began that journey I soon realized there was a potential book there. So, I pushed the old book to the back burner and began with a new "first" book, which I'm calling Beyond Barlow.
I finished Beyond Barlow a couple years ago and I could have chucked it out there as a self-published book, but I wanted to see if it had the goods to pass a publishing house's muster. Without an agent or much of a track record, I aimed for the medium to small houses and finally latched on to Black Rose, who has been in the business for over ten years now.
I'm glad I didn't push Beyond Barlow out when it was first finished. The past two years has given me ample time to improve upon it and catch my MANY grammatical eras...j/k. No, but seriously, I'm terrible with that stuff. I and a number of others have made approximately a dozen passes over the thing and I'm sure there are still errors. I hate mistakes and would continue to correct the manuscript forever, but I'm learning when to let go.
This process has also been good for the original "book #1". Man oh man, am I glad I didn't rush to publish that one! Recently I went back over it and, although the writing was adequate, it was not exciting in the least. The plot needed work, too. I think when all is said and done it's going to be so much better. With the little I've done to it so far, I've turned a ho-hum adventure into a suspenseful thriller. I don't know if I factor into Black Rose's future plans, but going through this process has made me confident that book #2 will have no trouble finding a home.
This is a project that I've been working on since 2009, back when I began what will now be book #2. I fiddled with it and improved it some for a few years until deciding that a prequel was needed. I don't know if it's needed for readers, but I needed to write it. I wanted to get to know the main character and I felt like I needed to step back in time and investigate his past to understand who he was. When I began that journey I soon realized there was a potential book there. So, I pushed the old book to the back burner and began with a new "first" book, which I'm calling Beyond Barlow.
I finished Beyond Barlow a couple years ago and I could have chucked it out there as a self-published book, but I wanted to see if it had the goods to pass a publishing house's muster. Without an agent or much of a track record, I aimed for the medium to small houses and finally latched on to Black Rose, who has been in the business for over ten years now.
I'm glad I didn't push Beyond Barlow out when it was first finished. The past two years has given me ample time to improve upon it and catch my MANY grammatical eras...j/k. No, but seriously, I'm terrible with that stuff. I and a number of others have made approximately a dozen passes over the thing and I'm sure there are still errors. I hate mistakes and would continue to correct the manuscript forever, but I'm learning when to let go.
This process has also been good for the original "book #1". Man oh man, am I glad I didn't rush to publish that one! Recently I went back over it and, although the writing was adequate, it was not exciting in the least. The plot needed work, too. I think when all is said and done it's going to be so much better. With the little I've done to it so far, I've turned a ho-hum adventure into a suspenseful thriller. I don't know if I factor into Black Rose's future plans, but going through this process has made me confident that book #2 will have no trouble finding a home.
April 20, 2017
I've Got A Publisher!
I just signed a contract with Black Rose Writing, who will publish the first book of my fantasy/adventure series! I can't wait to start spamming the frick out of all my GR friends with review requests! WEEEE!!!
February 7, 2017
January 10, 2017
2016 Year In Review
Check out every book I read in 2016 in this here videogram set to musical accompaniment!
https://youtu.be/ZxD7z8Fy1eY
https://youtu.be/ZxD7z8Fy1eY
January 4, 2017
George RR Martin Book Review
Got a new video up:
https://www.goodreads.com/videos/1140...
It's a review of George RR Martin's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
https://www.goodreads.com/videos/1140...
It's a review of George RR Martin's A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
November 22, 2016
My Version of a Book Haul
I've got a new booktuber video up, wherein I make an ass out of myself, as per usual...
https://youtu.be/GJAFCqoOwxo
https://youtu.be/GJAFCqoOwxo
November 20, 2016
My Love/Hate Relationship with Book Clubs
I have a love/hate relationship with book clubs.
I love them, because...well...it's about reading books. I love the idea of a group of people getting together, reading the same book and discussing it. That was one of my favorite things to do in school. There's something awesome about discovering that other people fell in love with the characters the same way you did or how the plot foiled them as well. It's just as awesome when people have a completely different experience with the book than you had, when they see something you missed or give you their take on what the author intended with such and such a passage. Book clubs in that respect add a whole new and absolutely delightful layer to a book.
I hate book clubs, because in my experience half the time people don't get around to reading the book. Many members bring nothing to the discussion. You also end up reading what the group has decided to read, what Oprah's pushing, or what one of the members talked the rest into reading because "I LOVED this book when I was a kid!!!" Those books are hit or miss at best when it comes to whether or not I'll enjoy them. The end tally feels like a miss. After a while of being in a book club I start to dread the book of the month and how it forces me to read something I'm not interested in, while taking up valuable reading time for things I'm yearning to get to.
I've been in at least a couple book clubs in my adulthood that I can remember. I'm not currently in one now and I have no plans to join one anytime soon. However, every now and then I get the hankering for the good parts of the book club experience. Perhaps I'm romanticizing the whole thing, but I feel like somewhere out there, in some form or another, there's a book club with my name on it. So, I guess I should start looking for "Jason Koivu's Book Club". Drop me a line if you've heard of it and know where it's at.
I love them, because...well...it's about reading books. I love the idea of a group of people getting together, reading the same book and discussing it. That was one of my favorite things to do in school. There's something awesome about discovering that other people fell in love with the characters the same way you did or how the plot foiled them as well. It's just as awesome when people have a completely different experience with the book than you had, when they see something you missed or give you their take on what the author intended with such and such a passage. Book clubs in that respect add a whole new and absolutely delightful layer to a book.
I hate book clubs, because in my experience half the time people don't get around to reading the book. Many members bring nothing to the discussion. You also end up reading what the group has decided to read, what Oprah's pushing, or what one of the members talked the rest into reading because "I LOVED this book when I was a kid!!!" Those books are hit or miss at best when it comes to whether or not I'll enjoy them. The end tally feels like a miss. After a while of being in a book club I start to dread the book of the month and how it forces me to read something I'm not interested in, while taking up valuable reading time for things I'm yearning to get to.
I've been in at least a couple book clubs in my adulthood that I can remember. I'm not currently in one now and I have no plans to join one anytime soon. However, every now and then I get the hankering for the good parts of the book club experience. Perhaps I'm romanticizing the whole thing, but I feel like somewhere out there, in some form or another, there's a book club with my name on it. So, I guess I should start looking for "Jason Koivu's Book Club". Drop me a line if you've heard of it and know where it's at.
November 18, 2016
Revisioning!
I'm revising a book I wrote a draft of about six or seven years ago and I just arrived at a chapter that's 20k words long...a 20,000 word chapter! Isn't that like the size of the "novels" James Patterson is writing these days?
November 14, 2016
LIBRARY TOUR!
Here's an all too brief tour of one of my favorite and most visited libraries. It's the Santa Barbara Public Library, aka Central Branch, of Santa Barbara, California. This video also includes a few photos of the adjacent historic courthouse, a must-see if you visit the city!
https://youtu.be/cA6NmE14ZcU
November 3, 2016
Booktuberin'
Check out my review of Edith Wharton's Age of Innocence as well as other personal issues in this, my latest videogram:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8gD8...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8gD8...
