Robert Allen Johnson's Blog
November 6, 2015
May 20, 2015
6 Free Short Stories From Ancient Rome!
During the Summer of 2014, I wrote a handful of short stories centered around different characters from my first book.
Click the link, scroll down a bit, and you'll find all six in chronological order. If you like what you read, check out the full-length books as well. Enjoy!
https://robertallenjohnson.wordpress....
Click the link, scroll down a bit, and you'll find all six in chronological order. If you like what you read, check out the full-length books as well. Enjoy!
https://robertallenjohnson.wordpress....
May 13, 2015
Homeless Guy Duty
This is a short story about an actual event in my life that happened in early 2001. It's funny how the most random events in life can sometimes be the most life-changing ones.
http://wp.me/p4EAi1-65
http://wp.me/p4EAi1-65
May 1, 2015
An Ocean, or Yonder, Thither, Home Again at Last: Chapter 3
AUTHOR’S NOTE: “An Ocean. . .” is a side project I’m currently working on during my down time from the MAGNUS series. This is a story friends and family have been bugging me about for years. Yes, it is epic. Yes, it is unbelievable at times. It is the true story of how my wife and I met eleven years ago. Follow the link for Chapter 3: Scouting for Knowledge!
https://robertallenjohnson.wordpress....
https://robertallenjohnson.wordpress....
An Ocean, or Yonder, Thither, Home Again at Last: Chapter 2
AUTHOR’S NOTE: “An Ocean. . .” is a side project I’m currently working on during my down time from the MAGNUS series. This is a story friends and family have been bugging me about for years. Yes, it is epic. Yes, it is unbelievable at times. It is the true story of how my wife and I met eleven years ago. Follow the link for Chapter 2: The Mysterious Asian Girl!
https://robertallenjohnson.wordpress....
https://robertallenjohnson.wordpress....
An Ocean, or Yonder, Thither, Home Again at Last: Chapter 1
AUTHOR’S NOTE: “An Ocean. . .” is a side project I’m currently working on during my down time from the MAGNUS series. This is a story friends and family have been bugging me about for years. Yes, it is epic. Yes, it is unbelievable at times. It is the true story of how my wife and I met eleven years ago. Follow the link for Chapter 1: The Next Bruce Lee!
https://robertallenjohnson.wordpress....
https://robertallenjohnson.wordpress....
July 27, 2014
The Spring From Which Inspiration Flows
One of the most fascinating questions you could ever ask a creator is “What inspired you to make this?” The answers you will potentially receive are limitless and open a revealing doorway into the mind of the artist. Whether it’s a film director, author, architect, songwriter, inventor, or any number of other professions, the answer promises to be an enlightening one.
The Summer of 2000 was a pretty significant year for me. After a short stint interning for a large but failing recording studio in Dallas, TX, I temporarily fled 2 hours south to the smaller college town of Waco. During that two month life detour, I fought off thousands of grasshoppers underfoot, was freaked out by the mammoth spiders surrounding me, and crashed on my brother’s living room couch as I waited for a phone call that would never come before returning to the big metropolis up north and pressing forward in life.
While I would later face two other life-altering periods spanning two months each, the Summer of 2000 was the first of its kind for me. It was the summer of discovery for a twenty-one year old whose big plans just fell apart. It was also the first time I had stumbled upon the first two Godfather films, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, and This Is Spinal Tap; the first time I confronted my ridiculous fear of spiders; and most importantly, it was the summer I fell back in love with books.
After navigating through a handful of the classics, I finally decided to pick up The Hobbit and plowed through it in a day and a half or so. While I found the book entertaining and enjoyable, it didn’t compare to Watership Down, the book I had finished just prior to it. Nevertheless, I wanted to continue the saga of Middle Earth and opened the first page of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. What can I say about the experience? Quite simply, I was forever changed.
Have you ever been so lost in a book that you felt like a citizen of its world? Has a deep, indescribable sadness overwhelmed you as the last page was turned and you’re confronted with the heartbreaking truth: the journey has at last come to an end? As soon as I finished the final page of Return of the King, that was the emotion I felt. It was so strong, in fact, that as I sit here reflecting upon that moment, I can still envision my reaction quite well. I placed the book on my chest, let the silence overtake me, and literally came very close to crying.
Since then, I’ve run across my fair share of moving books. I could, if given a day or two to consider the task, run through a list of books that have had an overwhelming influence on my life and emotions. Despite that fact, Tolkien’s works were the first that truly moved me and the ones with the greatest life impact by a long shot.
I stumbled upon historical fiction during the first months of 2006 and was introduced to Ancient Rome later that same year. It was a pivotal year in my life and one that saw my taste in books shift quite drastically for the years that followed. Gone was my love for fantastical novels. It was instead replaced with real life paths, temples, towns, and squares that can still be seen and visited today. After completing one novel or series set in Rome, I quickly moved on to the next in my pile until the characters filling the pages became more common to me than Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, and the rest of the Middle Earth crew I had grown to love so much.
As the stories of end-of-the-Republic era Rome became common knowledge to me, my emotions and fascination kept turning to one cog in the Roman wheel that was constantly skimmed over or overlooked entirely: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, otherwise known as Pompey the Great. While it would take a few years for me to gain a respect for him as one of Rome’s greatest men, my initial attraction to his story stemmed from a side-character who has always been but a footnote in history: his slave-turned-freedman Philip.
I realized early on in the writing process of Rising Sun why I adored the character of Philip so much. It dawned on me one afternoon as I was rearranging the books on my bookshelf and hit me like a ton of bricks: Philip was the real life version of Samwise Gamgee, Frodo’s ever-faithful servant (and my favorite character) in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The realization was so strong that I adapted the ending of Triumphator in December 2013 to give a nod to Tolkien’s ending of The Two Towers, in which the book ends with its focus on Sam and not Frodo.
After all the years of studying Roman history and leaving behind one of my unquestionable first loves, I find it quite fitting that my greatest inspiration for undertaking the quest of writing MAGNUS was, in truth, Middle Earth. As far as the third book in the series goes, you can rest assured the similarities between Samwise and Philip continue on in a sometimes alarming and poignant way. For this, and many other reasons, I’m sure Tolkien’s world will be an overflowing spring of inspiration for me in the years ahead, and why not? The world he so lovingly created all those years ago is just as fascinating and awe-inspiring as the ones we can still see, touch, and explore on our own earth today.
The Summer of 2000 was a pretty significant year for me. After a short stint interning for a large but failing recording studio in Dallas, TX, I temporarily fled 2 hours south to the smaller college town of Waco. During that two month life detour, I fought off thousands of grasshoppers underfoot, was freaked out by the mammoth spiders surrounding me, and crashed on my brother’s living room couch as I waited for a phone call that would never come before returning to the big metropolis up north and pressing forward in life.
While I would later face two other life-altering periods spanning two months each, the Summer of 2000 was the first of its kind for me. It was the summer of discovery for a twenty-one year old whose big plans just fell apart. It was also the first time I had stumbled upon the first two Godfather films, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, and This Is Spinal Tap; the first time I confronted my ridiculous fear of spiders; and most importantly, it was the summer I fell back in love with books.
After navigating through a handful of the classics, I finally decided to pick up The Hobbit and plowed through it in a day and a half or so. While I found the book entertaining and enjoyable, it didn’t compare to Watership Down, the book I had finished just prior to it. Nevertheless, I wanted to continue the saga of Middle Earth and opened the first page of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. What can I say about the experience? Quite simply, I was forever changed.
Have you ever been so lost in a book that you felt like a citizen of its world? Has a deep, indescribable sadness overwhelmed you as the last page was turned and you’re confronted with the heartbreaking truth: the journey has at last come to an end? As soon as I finished the final page of Return of the King, that was the emotion I felt. It was so strong, in fact, that as I sit here reflecting upon that moment, I can still envision my reaction quite well. I placed the book on my chest, let the silence overtake me, and literally came very close to crying.
Since then, I’ve run across my fair share of moving books. I could, if given a day or two to consider the task, run through a list of books that have had an overwhelming influence on my life and emotions. Despite that fact, Tolkien’s works were the first that truly moved me and the ones with the greatest life impact by a long shot.
I stumbled upon historical fiction during the first months of 2006 and was introduced to Ancient Rome later that same year. It was a pivotal year in my life and one that saw my taste in books shift quite drastically for the years that followed. Gone was my love for fantastical novels. It was instead replaced with real life paths, temples, towns, and squares that can still be seen and visited today. After completing one novel or series set in Rome, I quickly moved on to the next in my pile until the characters filling the pages became more common to me than Frodo, Aragorn, Legolas, Gandalf, and the rest of the Middle Earth crew I had grown to love so much.
As the stories of end-of-the-Republic era Rome became common knowledge to me, my emotions and fascination kept turning to one cog in the Roman wheel that was constantly skimmed over or overlooked entirely: Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, otherwise known as Pompey the Great. While it would take a few years for me to gain a respect for him as one of Rome’s greatest men, my initial attraction to his story stemmed from a side-character who has always been but a footnote in history: his slave-turned-freedman Philip.
I realized early on in the writing process of Rising Sun why I adored the character of Philip so much. It dawned on me one afternoon as I was rearranging the books on my bookshelf and hit me like a ton of bricks: Philip was the real life version of Samwise Gamgee, Frodo’s ever-faithful servant (and my favorite character) in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. The realization was so strong that I adapted the ending of Triumphator in December 2013 to give a nod to Tolkien’s ending of The Two Towers, in which the book ends with its focus on Sam and not Frodo.
After all the years of studying Roman history and leaving behind one of my unquestionable first loves, I find it quite fitting that my greatest inspiration for undertaking the quest of writing MAGNUS was, in truth, Middle Earth. As far as the third book in the series goes, you can rest assured the similarities between Samwise and Philip continue on in a sometimes alarming and poignant way. For this, and many other reasons, I’m sure Tolkien’s world will be an overflowing spring of inspiration for me in the years ahead, and why not? The world he so lovingly created all those years ago is just as fascinating and awe-inspiring as the ones we can still see, touch, and explore on our own earth today.
May 31, 2014
When Destiny Throws You Overboard
February 2013 was a downright terrible month. In retrospect, I suppose 2012 was just a precursor to the wretchedness that would surround St. Valentine’s Day of the following year.
Perhaps I should back up a moment to shed some light on the subject for you.
In the summer of 2011, I was flown to Fort Wayne, Indiana for three days. My flight, rental car, hotel, and meals were all paid for as I interviewed for my dream job: a coveted position as Sales Engineer for the world renowned Sweetwater Sound. It was a job I had lusted over for nearly a third of my life. No, really. Ten years earlier, right out of college, I had applied, interviewed, and failed to ever hear back from them again. Ten years later, it was still my goal in life to get that job.
The second time was the charm. I woke up one morning a week after coming home, checked my email while getting ready for work, and literally freaked out. I got the job. I was right all along: it was the career I was destined for. And so, with a smile on my face and the future looking spotless, I uprooted my small family – a wife and two young kids – and moved from Texas to northern Indiana.
It was a dream come true. Well, for a while, I should say. Within a few months, the rigors of a 100% commission job began to take its toll; especially as soon as the inevitable stress-inducing forest fires began to occur. $5000 guitar doesn’t ship out on time? Overnight shipping paid for by me. Customer calls in to complain about an issue while I’m out of state on vacation? “Robert will pay for that,” says the unaffected coworker. One of the most disappointing occurances was when a new customer called to order a $4000 keyboard. Our website clearly stated that the synth had built in speakers. It didn’t. So it was either take the keyboard back – and the commission that came with it – or send him a pair of $400 speakers on my own dime. Farewell, decent paycheck…
What started as a dream come true slowly morphed into the most stressful job I’d ever had in life. To make matters worse, I kept convincing myself that it was the job I would retire from decades down the road. I will work through it, I said. I can handle it. Then came February 2013. A host of unrelated problems reared their heads – including a company-wide system crash that prematurely shipped a $10,000 order out and lost me a high-dollar regular customer – and the dreaded timer began to count down my eternal demise with the job I considered to be my life’s destiny.
Soon enough, the T-Word was uttered. Terminated (That’s the nice way to say You’re fired. Neither one sounds any better when the hammer drops, in case you were wondering). My bosses were disappointed with how I handled irate customers (I’m too nice) and February was not the month of love between myself and some of my customers. Two weeks later, after repeatedly asking when I could come and get my stuff, I took the final walk of shame with my box through the large, cheerful building. Making it all the more worse, two guitars and $800 worth of other gear had just arrived with my name on it. None would be going home with me.
D-Word. Depression. What’s an unemployed former ESL teacher/banker/sales guy to do these days? I begrudgingly applied for a finance position within a large company despite repeated warnings from my family that it wasn’t the right job for me. “I don’t have anything else to do,” I answered. It was a terrible feeling. To make matters worse, I then started hearing voices in my head:
“If you write it, they will read.”
Yes, it was pretty much just like a Field of Dreams moment – well, minus the corn field, old-timey doctor, and sentimental game of catch with my dad – as the ancient story of Pompey the Great refused to release its grip on my daydreams. It was a tale that had intrigued me for five years, especially since it was a story no fiction author had ever attempted to write. Sure, the Roman Alexander was always featured in books taking place during the last century B.C., but a novel that was 100% devoted to him? Nothing but crickets. Not a big deal, I suppose…merely an unclaimed, fascinating true story that’s a few hundred years overdue, is all.
MAGNUS. It means Great in Latin. The story of Gnaeus Pompey’s life really is an undeniably great one when you consider it. For weeks, I thought it was too great for a guy like me – a guy who had recently failed when given the chance to fully embrace his dream job – and so I ignored the whispers in my head calling “You can do this! I’ve given it to you!” And so, on a bright Sunday afternoon in 2013, I set my course for the positive voice and set out on a journey to pen the tale of Pompey the Great in three volumes. I called it MAGNUS.
Soon enough, a revelation hit me. All that I had been through, all the failures that had piled up in my recent life, had led me to that Sunday. I was a writer. A storyteller. I had been since I was about six years old. I wasn’t a sales guy (although the tools of the trade are necessary for any author, believe me!) and banking was behind me. I wasn’t a disappointment to anyone, including myself. Sometimes purpose is found through failure. Sometimes you have to shatter the mirror to find the secret passage hiding behind it.
I return to my old stomping ground across town on a semi-regular basis. It’s weird, I know, to show up at the place that fired me on a cold day in the Winter of 2013, but I still play guitar and I still have friends who work there. The picture on the back of my first book, Rising Sun, was taken there almost a year to the day of my now-appreciated demise. The last time I stepped in for a visit, I saw the man who hired me during the Summer of 2011 and fired me nearly two years later. We made eye contact. I smiled and waved. He stared at me for three seconds, averted his eyes, and ignored me. I laughed. How can I be bitter when you helped make my life better?
I’m sure he has no clue that I’ve just finished my second book. He probably wouldn’t even care, to tell you the truth. Nevertheless, I still feel gratitude for the man who just kept walking. Thank you, sir, for tossing me overboard. I can admit that I wasn’t a good enough sailor. Thankfully, though, as the waves threatened to pull me under, I learned my strength was in something I never once expected while rowing along in your boat.
Swimming.
Perhaps I should back up a moment to shed some light on the subject for you.
In the summer of 2011, I was flown to Fort Wayne, Indiana for three days. My flight, rental car, hotel, and meals were all paid for as I interviewed for my dream job: a coveted position as Sales Engineer for the world renowned Sweetwater Sound. It was a job I had lusted over for nearly a third of my life. No, really. Ten years earlier, right out of college, I had applied, interviewed, and failed to ever hear back from them again. Ten years later, it was still my goal in life to get that job.
The second time was the charm. I woke up one morning a week after coming home, checked my email while getting ready for work, and literally freaked out. I got the job. I was right all along: it was the career I was destined for. And so, with a smile on my face and the future looking spotless, I uprooted my small family – a wife and two young kids – and moved from Texas to northern Indiana.
It was a dream come true. Well, for a while, I should say. Within a few months, the rigors of a 100% commission job began to take its toll; especially as soon as the inevitable stress-inducing forest fires began to occur. $5000 guitar doesn’t ship out on time? Overnight shipping paid for by me. Customer calls in to complain about an issue while I’m out of state on vacation? “Robert will pay for that,” says the unaffected coworker. One of the most disappointing occurances was when a new customer called to order a $4000 keyboard. Our website clearly stated that the synth had built in speakers. It didn’t. So it was either take the keyboard back – and the commission that came with it – or send him a pair of $400 speakers on my own dime. Farewell, decent paycheck…
What started as a dream come true slowly morphed into the most stressful job I’d ever had in life. To make matters worse, I kept convincing myself that it was the job I would retire from decades down the road. I will work through it, I said. I can handle it. Then came February 2013. A host of unrelated problems reared their heads – including a company-wide system crash that prematurely shipped a $10,000 order out and lost me a high-dollar regular customer – and the dreaded timer began to count down my eternal demise with the job I considered to be my life’s destiny.
Soon enough, the T-Word was uttered. Terminated (That’s the nice way to say You’re fired. Neither one sounds any better when the hammer drops, in case you were wondering). My bosses were disappointed with how I handled irate customers (I’m too nice) and February was not the month of love between myself and some of my customers. Two weeks later, after repeatedly asking when I could come and get my stuff, I took the final walk of shame with my box through the large, cheerful building. Making it all the more worse, two guitars and $800 worth of other gear had just arrived with my name on it. None would be going home with me.
D-Word. Depression. What’s an unemployed former ESL teacher/banker/sales guy to do these days? I begrudgingly applied for a finance position within a large company despite repeated warnings from my family that it wasn’t the right job for me. “I don’t have anything else to do,” I answered. It was a terrible feeling. To make matters worse, I then started hearing voices in my head:
“If you write it, they will read.”
Yes, it was pretty much just like a Field of Dreams moment – well, minus the corn field, old-timey doctor, and sentimental game of catch with my dad – as the ancient story of Pompey the Great refused to release its grip on my daydreams. It was a tale that had intrigued me for five years, especially since it was a story no fiction author had ever attempted to write. Sure, the Roman Alexander was always featured in books taking place during the last century B.C., but a novel that was 100% devoted to him? Nothing but crickets. Not a big deal, I suppose…merely an unclaimed, fascinating true story that’s a few hundred years overdue, is all.
MAGNUS. It means Great in Latin. The story of Gnaeus Pompey’s life really is an undeniably great one when you consider it. For weeks, I thought it was too great for a guy like me – a guy who had recently failed when given the chance to fully embrace his dream job – and so I ignored the whispers in my head calling “You can do this! I’ve given it to you!” And so, on a bright Sunday afternoon in 2013, I set my course for the positive voice and set out on a journey to pen the tale of Pompey the Great in three volumes. I called it MAGNUS.
Soon enough, a revelation hit me. All that I had been through, all the failures that had piled up in my recent life, had led me to that Sunday. I was a writer. A storyteller. I had been since I was about six years old. I wasn’t a sales guy (although the tools of the trade are necessary for any author, believe me!) and banking was behind me. I wasn’t a disappointment to anyone, including myself. Sometimes purpose is found through failure. Sometimes you have to shatter the mirror to find the secret passage hiding behind it.
I return to my old stomping ground across town on a semi-regular basis. It’s weird, I know, to show up at the place that fired me on a cold day in the Winter of 2013, but I still play guitar and I still have friends who work there. The picture on the back of my first book, Rising Sun, was taken there almost a year to the day of my now-appreciated demise. The last time I stepped in for a visit, I saw the man who hired me during the Summer of 2011 and fired me nearly two years later. We made eye contact. I smiled and waved. He stared at me for three seconds, averted his eyes, and ignored me. I laughed. How can I be bitter when you helped make my life better?
I’m sure he has no clue that I’ve just finished my second book. He probably wouldn’t even care, to tell you the truth. Nevertheless, I still feel gratitude for the man who just kept walking. Thank you, sir, for tossing me overboard. I can admit that I wasn’t a good enough sailor. Thankfully, though, as the waves threatened to pull me under, I learned my strength was in something I never once expected while rowing along in your boat.
Swimming.
May 7, 2014
Triumph and Defeat
Down time.
It can be a brutal master, don't you think? This past Monday, after putting the finishing touches on MAGNUS: Triumphator, I convinced myself to take a week to recharge and refocus before jumping headlong into the final chapter of Gnaeus Pompey Magnus' story. Easier said than done! What does a guy do with all this free time? It gives me no excuse to shirk duties such as lawn mowing, house cleaning, and errand running.
In truth, I do realize that a short break is needed in order to mentally prepare myself for what's to come in Book Three and to also put the 100,000 words/400 pages of Book Two behind me. I suppose before I do that, however, I should first pause for a moment and take a look at the title of Book Two and its importance to the second arc of the story.
While the title for Rising Sun was quite fitting - after all, it's the incredible true story of a young man who goes to war, faces tragedy, finds himself on the wrong side of a civil war, and eventually rises to prominence in Rome despite the customs of their ancient culture - the title "Triumphator" has just as much significance and deeper meaning for me.
So what's a triumphator? It's a Latin word for an individual who was granted a triumph - or ceremonial parade - in Rome after an overwhelming victory on the battlefield. In the case of my protagonist Pompey the Great, it's a rather weighty title to bear. Gnaeus Pompey Magnus was such a custom-breaker throughout his life that the middle part of his story can be summed up in a quote from Bruce Barton that's captured within the book's opening pages:
"We pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats."
After struggling for weeks and weeks to find two quotes that fit the tone and theme of Triumphator, I easily latched on to that one and never let it go. The words above are such a fitting description of his middle years that it would be an affront not to use them as the bridge that leads my readers into the second part of his story. Triumph and defeat, victory and loss...each side of the spectrum is clearly defined in Triumphator; so much so, in fact, that I literally found myself shedding tears more than once while penning the story.
Another quote from David Brinkley that I scrapped in favor of the one above is worth noting, though:
"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him."
As true as the first quote is in regards to Pompey's life, the same can thankfully be said of the second. I can't wait for you to continue the story of Gnaeus Pompey Magnus this July! Keep your eyes out for it and my upcoming book tour across the Midwest this summer!
While you wait for its release, follow me on my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/authorroberta...) and pick up a copy of Rising Sun if you haven't done so yet (http://bit.ly/magrissun).
It can be a brutal master, don't you think? This past Monday, after putting the finishing touches on MAGNUS: Triumphator, I convinced myself to take a week to recharge and refocus before jumping headlong into the final chapter of Gnaeus Pompey Magnus' story. Easier said than done! What does a guy do with all this free time? It gives me no excuse to shirk duties such as lawn mowing, house cleaning, and errand running.
In truth, I do realize that a short break is needed in order to mentally prepare myself for what's to come in Book Three and to also put the 100,000 words/400 pages of Book Two behind me. I suppose before I do that, however, I should first pause for a moment and take a look at the title of Book Two and its importance to the second arc of the story.
While the title for Rising Sun was quite fitting - after all, it's the incredible true story of a young man who goes to war, faces tragedy, finds himself on the wrong side of a civil war, and eventually rises to prominence in Rome despite the customs of their ancient culture - the title "Triumphator" has just as much significance and deeper meaning for me.
So what's a triumphator? It's a Latin word for an individual who was granted a triumph - or ceremonial parade - in Rome after an overwhelming victory on the battlefield. In the case of my protagonist Pompey the Great, it's a rather weighty title to bear. Gnaeus Pompey Magnus was such a custom-breaker throughout his life that the middle part of his story can be summed up in a quote from Bruce Barton that's captured within the book's opening pages:
"We pay just as dearly for our triumphs as we do for our defeats."
After struggling for weeks and weeks to find two quotes that fit the tone and theme of Triumphator, I easily latched on to that one and never let it go. The words above are such a fitting description of his middle years that it would be an affront not to use them as the bridge that leads my readers into the second part of his story. Triumph and defeat, victory and loss...each side of the spectrum is clearly defined in Triumphator; so much so, in fact, that I literally found myself shedding tears more than once while penning the story.
Another quote from David Brinkley that I scrapped in favor of the one above is worth noting, though:
"A successful man is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks others have thrown at him."
As true as the first quote is in regards to Pompey's life, the same can thankfully be said of the second. I can't wait for you to continue the story of Gnaeus Pompey Magnus this July! Keep your eyes out for it and my upcoming book tour across the Midwest this summer!
While you wait for its release, follow me on my Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/authorroberta...) and pick up a copy of Rising Sun if you haven't done so yet (http://bit.ly/magrissun).
May 1, 2014
Writing Process Blog Tour
I was recently asked by fellow writer Victoria Addis to participate in the currently trending Writing Process Blog Tour, a request I'm more than happy to partake in. Victoria is currently working on a fascinating medieval fantasy series entitled "Wulfrun: The Ghost Detective," which is aimed at middle schoolers. You can check out her progress here and await its release as eagerly as I am:
http://thecharminghermit.blogspot.co....
As for myself? Well, here we go:
1. What am I working on now?
Right now, I'm busy wrapping up the final edit of my second book "MAGNUS: Triumphator." It's the middle book in my series about Pompey the Great and will be released in July. Writing this book has been a complete blast! The response to the first book, "Rising Sun," has been phenomenal so far, but I'm even more excited for people to get their hands on this next chapter. Although I'm incredibly proud of "Rising Sun," "Triumphator" exceeds it in every way possible. The difference between the first and second books is so great, in fact, that it's led me to believe I will need to go back and rework "Rising Sun" later this year to bring it up to the same level as "Triumphator."
After "Triumphator" is complete, I'll be moving on to Book Three in the MAGNUS Trilogy. While I had previously given it a title - and prematurely announced it to the world, no less - I've decided to change it to a phrase at the end of "Triumphator" which has great significance to the overall theme of the third book. "What is it?" you ask? Well, I suppose you'll have to wait until the end of "Triumphator" to find out!
In what little down time I have, I've also been tinkering with another project that won't see the light of day until the summer of 2015 at the earliest. It's a completely original work this time around that will be a far cry from the Ancient Rome depicted in the MAGNUS series. I have a feeling this one will be more geared toward the Young Adult crowd (but don't hold me to that!). It's basically the story of three siblings in a fictional land resembling feudal China that become separated during a crisis. How do they deal with life when each child is alone and under the impression that his/her other siblings are dead? Okay, that's enough of a spoiler for now...
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
There are two differences that come to mind. The first is simple enough: the protagonist, Gnaeus Pompey Magnus. While he's always been a player in the story of Julius Caesar - whose story dominates the Ancient Rome genre by a long shot - he's never had a book devoted to telling his own story. I'm thrilled that I'm the first to tackle it, as it's an incredible story that truly deserves to be told.
The second difference would be the content of the books. Many writers in the Ancient Rome genre focus on the blood, battles, and violence of the era and tend to leave everything else as secondary or nonexistent elements. While war and violence factor into each book of the MAGNUS trilogy, I'd have to say they are certainly not the main focus of my books. I frequently spend less time describing the violence in war than I do the internal turmoil of decisions my main character makes. As much as this was the case with "Rising Sun," "Triumphator" scales this fact up quite a bit. One of the things that has thrilled me thus far into "Rising Sun's" exposure to the world is that women have seemed to love the book as much as men. I believe this has to do with my central focus of the story - relationships and emotions - and the tension those two things cause the protagonist.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I definitely write about what interests and enthralls me. Today I'm 200,000 words into the MAGNUS trilogy and can honestly say that I've not been bored once! I first fell in love with Ancient Rome seven years ago and my love has only increased with time. It's a fascinating era full of incredible characters so that makes it much easier to stay interested.
4. How does my writing process work?
With the MAGNUS series, I was fortunate enough to have the timeline already supplied for me as the story sticks to purely historical events. The life of Pompey the Great was too massive to capture in one novel, so the first step was to figure out the logical places to divide the books. Once that was done, I had to decide which portions of the story to keep and which were unnecessary or out of place with the rest of the story.
The first two steps were by far the easiest parts of the process! Although I had a timeline of events, it was now my job to fill in the details. While a handful of conversations or speeches from his life are still available to us (such as the phase he spoke which gave me the title for "Rising Sun"), his story is mostly written by historians as: event after event, who was there, what happened. With the skeleton now in place, it was then my job to add the organs, muscle, and skin in order to create a living, moving being.
Once I had my main events in place, I basically focused on building a chapter or two around each event. For the most part, I can get through the first draft of two to three chapters in one week. As I work best in the morning, I block that part of the day aside for writing. Recently, I've tried to go back and do second draft editing in the evenings, which is the part of the process that really tends to flesh out the story in significant ways. Coffee and writing work hand in hand under most circumstances!
Once I've finished the first two drafts, I go back and reread the story to fill in small details, change some of the wording, drop unnecessary segments, and make any other number of changes that pop up while writing the rest of the story. After this step, I hand the third draft off to two unbiased readers in order to get their feedback on the story's content and flow, make those recommended changes, and submit it to an editor for proofreading/editing.
Whew! Now that I think about it, that's a lot of work! I'd better get back to it if I want to finish "Triumphator" in time for a July release. You can follow its progress on my Facebook page here:
www.facebook.com/authorrobertallenjoh...
http://thecharminghermit.blogspot.co....
As for myself? Well, here we go:
1. What am I working on now?
Right now, I'm busy wrapping up the final edit of my second book "MAGNUS: Triumphator." It's the middle book in my series about Pompey the Great and will be released in July. Writing this book has been a complete blast! The response to the first book, "Rising Sun," has been phenomenal so far, but I'm even more excited for people to get their hands on this next chapter. Although I'm incredibly proud of "Rising Sun," "Triumphator" exceeds it in every way possible. The difference between the first and second books is so great, in fact, that it's led me to believe I will need to go back and rework "Rising Sun" later this year to bring it up to the same level as "Triumphator."
After "Triumphator" is complete, I'll be moving on to Book Three in the MAGNUS Trilogy. While I had previously given it a title - and prematurely announced it to the world, no less - I've decided to change it to a phrase at the end of "Triumphator" which has great significance to the overall theme of the third book. "What is it?" you ask? Well, I suppose you'll have to wait until the end of "Triumphator" to find out!
In what little down time I have, I've also been tinkering with another project that won't see the light of day until the summer of 2015 at the earliest. It's a completely original work this time around that will be a far cry from the Ancient Rome depicted in the MAGNUS series. I have a feeling this one will be more geared toward the Young Adult crowd (but don't hold me to that!). It's basically the story of three siblings in a fictional land resembling feudal China that become separated during a crisis. How do they deal with life when each child is alone and under the impression that his/her other siblings are dead? Okay, that's enough of a spoiler for now...
2. How does my work differ from others of its genre?
There are two differences that come to mind. The first is simple enough: the protagonist, Gnaeus Pompey Magnus. While he's always been a player in the story of Julius Caesar - whose story dominates the Ancient Rome genre by a long shot - he's never had a book devoted to telling his own story. I'm thrilled that I'm the first to tackle it, as it's an incredible story that truly deserves to be told.
The second difference would be the content of the books. Many writers in the Ancient Rome genre focus on the blood, battles, and violence of the era and tend to leave everything else as secondary or nonexistent elements. While war and violence factor into each book of the MAGNUS trilogy, I'd have to say they are certainly not the main focus of my books. I frequently spend less time describing the violence in war than I do the internal turmoil of decisions my main character makes. As much as this was the case with "Rising Sun," "Triumphator" scales this fact up quite a bit. One of the things that has thrilled me thus far into "Rising Sun's" exposure to the world is that women have seemed to love the book as much as men. I believe this has to do with my central focus of the story - relationships and emotions - and the tension those two things cause the protagonist.
3. Why do I write what I do?
I definitely write about what interests and enthralls me. Today I'm 200,000 words into the MAGNUS trilogy and can honestly say that I've not been bored once! I first fell in love with Ancient Rome seven years ago and my love has only increased with time. It's a fascinating era full of incredible characters so that makes it much easier to stay interested.
4. How does my writing process work?
With the MAGNUS series, I was fortunate enough to have the timeline already supplied for me as the story sticks to purely historical events. The life of Pompey the Great was too massive to capture in one novel, so the first step was to figure out the logical places to divide the books. Once that was done, I had to decide which portions of the story to keep and which were unnecessary or out of place with the rest of the story.
The first two steps were by far the easiest parts of the process! Although I had a timeline of events, it was now my job to fill in the details. While a handful of conversations or speeches from his life are still available to us (such as the phase he spoke which gave me the title for "Rising Sun"), his story is mostly written by historians as: event after event, who was there, what happened. With the skeleton now in place, it was then my job to add the organs, muscle, and skin in order to create a living, moving being.
Once I had my main events in place, I basically focused on building a chapter or two around each event. For the most part, I can get through the first draft of two to three chapters in one week. As I work best in the morning, I block that part of the day aside for writing. Recently, I've tried to go back and do second draft editing in the evenings, which is the part of the process that really tends to flesh out the story in significant ways. Coffee and writing work hand in hand under most circumstances!
Once I've finished the first two drafts, I go back and reread the story to fill in small details, change some of the wording, drop unnecessary segments, and make any other number of changes that pop up while writing the rest of the story. After this step, I hand the third draft off to two unbiased readers in order to get their feedback on the story's content and flow, make those recommended changes, and submit it to an editor for proofreading/editing.
Whew! Now that I think about it, that's a lot of work! I'd better get back to it if I want to finish "Triumphator" in time for a July release. You can follow its progress on my Facebook page here:
www.facebook.com/authorrobertallenjoh...
