Justin Wright's Blog, page 3

What I Did This Week

It seemed like not much was going on this week, but when I look back, it looks like I actually accomplished something.

The first thing I completed this week was a map of Kallodhan which can be viewed in my previous post.  After that, I finished formatting the print version of  A Brother's Will, which was more time consuming than expected.  I hope to have the first printed copies sometime near the end of November.

After those items were checked off my list, I completed various graphics and made a few changes.  But now the big news.  I finished plotting the second part to A Brother's Will.  The preliminary title is A Brother's Promise, but that is subject to change.

I also re-plotted the ending of Where Shadows go to Die.  With that finally out of the way, I can move forward with the final seven chapters, which I've already begun.

It feels good to be writing again and not worrying so much about the marketing aspect.

On another note, Age of Becoming is in the final beta reading phase.  Once the last changes are completed, copies will be printed and I'd like to schedule a Goodreads Giveaway.  The tentative release date at this point is May 3rd, so I'm hoping I can have everything in place by then.

New Kallodhan Map

It's been a long time coming, but I've finally created a new map.  The first is a map of Northern Kallodhan.  It was created using a site called Inkarnate (inkarnate.com)

Age of Becoming- First Chapter Sample

A Loving Father
 
The small barn shook in the morning wind.  It was old, but sturdy, having stood for nearly fifty years.  Most of the boards had been replaced and the roof re-thatched by Samantha’s father, Gorden.  The large door smacked against the wall so Sam climbed from her stool and closed it.  The breeze had been gentle when she woke, but now it turned cold and threatening.  She sat back down and latched her hand onto Esmerelda’s teat.  The cow stood still as Sam pinched and slid her hand down, squirting a tight stream of milk into a bucket.  She’d done the chore countless times and was able to let her mind wander as she worked.  She thought about the coming winter and how she hated the snow, but a fond memory of she and her mother making a snowman one winter morning surfaced.  She smiled to herself and with one last squeeze, filled the bucket.  She climbed from her stool, hefted the bucket and opened the barn door.  The wind blew the door from her grasp and it slammed into the side of the barn.  Sam nearly dropped the bucket, but managed to balance herself at the last second, spilling only a few drops.  She shut the door and latched it before heading back to the house.           She entered just as her father burst into the kitchen smelling of early morning booze and blood.  He swayed for a moment then propped himself up in the doorway.  He eyed his wife and daughter who had both jumped when he entered.  “What’s this now?”  he pointed to the table.                Her mother smiled though she looked frightened.  “It’s a cake for your daughter’s sixteenth birthday.”  Lines from her eyes were more prevalent these days and the heavy blue bags made her look perpetually tired.                Drunk again?  Sam hated it when her father came home like this.  It occurred more often than she cared to admit.  She didn’t know why she’d expected him to be sober on her birthday.“Hmm,” He looked at the cake and then Maria.  “Fetch me a drink, will ya?”  He demanded of his wife while wiping his bloody hands on his jacket.“I’ll get it, mother,” Sam said and took a wooden cup from the counter and went to the bucket of fresh water she’d collected early that morning from the well.“Not water, wine.”  Gorden grumbled as he shook off his coat.  His tunic was covered in blood stains as well and Sam knew that her father had endured another rough night bouncing people from The Inn.“The last bottle was emptied.” Maria said.Gorden turned on her in anger.  “When?”Maria swallowed and Sam could see the fear in her mother’s eyes.  “Last night,” she whispered.Gorden’s eyes narrowed and he smashed his fist on the wooden table.  “Impossible!”  He pushed her aside and scoured the cupboards for alcohol.Sam raised her voice to Gorden, something she’d been doing more frequently in a bid to take the burden from her mother.  “There’s none here.  You drank the last of it before you stumbled out the door last night.”  She was fed up with her father treating them like common gutter trash when he was drunk.  She backed towards the corner of the kitchen, knowing she might receive a beating for her outburst.“Why you...”  Gorden started for her, but Maria grabbed his arm and pulled him back.“Leave her alone!”  She shouted as she struggled to pull Gorden away from Sam.  Gorden turned and caught Maria with a quick backhand to the side of her face.  Sam started towards her father, unsure of what she would do.  He turned on her, his face dark.  “Don’t you move a muscle.”  He spun back to Maria and grabbed her tight, his giant hands digging deep into her bony shoulders.  He smiled an ugly grin.  “I like it when you’re feisty.”  He licked his lips.  “Go on, hit me.”  Sam watched with mounting horror.  “I said hit me!”  Before he finished, Maria slapped the side of his face with a crack.  She scowled while he rubbed his face where a hand mark was beginning to appear beneath his stubbly beard.  He grinned and pulled Maria close, attempting to kiss her.  She backed away, but he forced his lips onto hers.  He then spun her around and pushed her face onto the table top.  He looked to Sam.  “You needn’t be seein’ this.  Now get out!”Gorden’s tone was threatening and Sam knew she should leave, but she wanted to help.  She looked towards her mother’s downcast eyes.“Do as your father says, Sam.” she said with a shaky voice.Sam’s rage burned hot, but she was only a fly to a man the size of her father.  She darted from the house as Gorden began lifting Maria’s skirt.  She ran while tears burned her eyes.  The cold wind drying them as she ran, but more kept coming.  She ran into the forest and found a large boulder that sat next to the river.  She’d been going there since she was a little girl, usually when she was upset.  She found that she was spending most of her time there lately.  The rock was smooth and comfortable, with a deep groove that cradled Sam as if it were made specifically for her.  She’d shed many tears there, enough to almost fill the river, or so she thought.  A cracking branch startled her and she quickly turned.“I thought I’d find you here,” said Landis as he emerged from the brush.  His boots were muddy and his long black hair hung in his eyes, greasy from sweat.  A piece of wheat jutted from his mouth and his straw hat shadowed most of his freckled face.                “You scared me.”  Sam turned away to hide her tears.                “Pardons, I thought you heard me comin’.”  He scratched the back of his head.  An awkward silence hung for a moment.“When did you get back?”  Sam asked while drying her eyes on her sleeve.  It felt like an age since she’d seen him.  He was always away nowadays- working with his father- and they had drifted apart because of it.  It seemed that not so long ago he invited Sam to come on a trip with them, but she knew her father would never allow it.“A few days ago.  Been busy in the shop though.”  He tried to look at Sam’s face, but she shied away.  “You been cryin’?”  “No.”  Sam lied.  “Just trying to block the cold wind is all.”“It’s not as cold as the water, I bet.”  Landis slipped off his boots, rolled his pant legs up to his knees and walked into the river until the water reached the top of his ankles.  “It’s freezing,” he said through chattering teeth.  Sam flashed a half smile.  “Are you gonna tell me why you were cryin’?  I’m not getting out of this water until you do.  You wouldn’t want my feet to freeze off now would ya?”                Sam shook her head.  “I wasn’t crying.”  She waved for him to come ashore.  “Now come out of there before you catch cold.”                “Alright, but you’re not a very convincing liar.  Your eyes are redder than a tomato.”  Landis waded from the river and sat on the boulder next to Sam.  “It was your father again, wasn’t it?”                Sam looked at Landis.  She knew it wasn’t hard to guess why she’d been crying.  It was always her father and everyone in town knew it.  “It’s nothing.”                Landis nodded.  “Yeah, it’s usually nothing.  Did you hear about the nothing he did to my father?”                Sam raised an eyebrow in surprise.  She knew her father had a reputation as a town bully, but never thought he would do anything to hurt her friends.  If he’d hurt me, why wouldn’t he hurt them?                  “Let’s just say, that thanks to Gorden, father will be bed ridden for weeks.”  Landis’ smile vanished and his careless sense of humour evaporated.                “Is he alright?”                “He’ll live, but things weren’t looking so good last night,” he shook his head.  “All over a few coppers owed to Jonas.”                Sam remembered the bloodstains on her father’s tunic and wondered if they were from Landis’ father.  “That’s awful.  Apologies.”                Something flashed in Landis’ eyes.  Something Sam had never seen in them before.  “Don’t you ever...  apologize for him!” he sighed and the anger left his eyes as he relaxed.  “Sometimes, I wish I could just get away from here, ya know.  Got out on my own.”  He rested his hands behind his head.  “One day, I think I might just pick up and leave.”  He looked at Sam.  “Would you come with me, if that day ever came?”                Sam remained silent.  She’d thought about running away on countless occasions, but could never force herself to do it.  Everything and everyone she ever knew was in Dolomina.  “I don’t know.  Things are bad here... sometimes, but they could be worse somewhere else.”                “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”  Landis said, looking past the treetops to the clouds.                Sam shook her head.  “I couldn’t leave mother and she’d never leave father, no matter how poorly he treats her.”  She climbed from the boulder and headed towards town.  She didn’t want her head to become filled with fantasies of running away.  She knew she was stuck in Dolomina, probably for the rest of her life.  She wasn’t sure if Landis was serious about running away together anyways.                “Where’re you going?”  Landis called after her.                “To the bakery.  It’s my birthday after all.”  She felt a change of subject was needed.                “It is?  I’ll buy you a tart.”  Landis hurried to put on his boots and catch up.                Sam looked over her shoulder.  “That’s the plan,” she smirked.

Auston Matthews- Unbelievable

  If you're a diehard Toronto Maple Leaf fan like myself, then you were watching the game last night where history was made.  Auston Matthews, in his first ever NHL game, scored four goals.  Never before has that happened.  Not even the likes of Crosby, Lemieux or Gretzky accomplished that feat.
Expectations for Matthews were high, but he has exceeded them by a mile.  The only problem I have with this is that now people may expect too much of him.  Scoring four goals in a game is no small feat, but he may never do it again in his career, though I hope he does.  
It was a debut for the ages and something Leaf fans have been waiting for, for a long time.  The young players looked great with Mitch Marner standing out as well, though his effort was over shadowed by Matthews.
They may not make the playoffs this year, but this at least gives Leaf fans something to be excited about.
Bold prediction:  If Matthews plays 60 games this season, he will be made Captain next year.

Where Shadows go to Die- Update

I've been working hard on marketing material for Age of Becoming, but I haven't forgotten about my other projects.  Where Shadows go to Die is more of a psychological/ western/ horror I'm writing that is not part of the Kallodhan universe.  It will be a standalone book and once Age of Becoming is released, I'd like to get back to this and finish the first draft (which is 80% done).

But the ending of this book is giving me some trouble.  Perhaps I'm making it too complex.  Endings are supposed to be the best part of the book and most fun for the writers, but I find they bring a lot of pressure.  If the ending is terrible, the reader will feel like they wasted their time and probably won't read anything by that author again.

The ending I have in mind for Shadows is awesome (to me), but I'm having trouble translating it from my brain to paper.  Maybe I'm being too much like the main character in Secret Window, searching for the perfect ending.

World Cup of Hockey

So it's come down to this... Canada vs Europe.

It isn't a surprise to see Canada in yet another final as they've dominated every best on best tournament since the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.  With players like Crosby, Toews, Stamkos, Doughty, Tavaras and Price, we are truly witnessing the golden age of Canadian hockey.

It is however a surprise to see team Europe in the final.  No one gave the nomads much of a chance (shown by their 33-1 odds) and no one expected them to beat the like of the USA and Sweden.  This is especially true as they didn't look particularly organized  in their first two pre-tournament games against the youngsters from North America.

The best of 3 series starts tomorrow in Toronto and I look forward to watching the immense talent on display.  This kind of tournament doesn't come around too often (The last World Cup was in 2004) and hopefully Canada only needs 2 games to take the series, but you can't count out the Europeans with the way their playing.

Go Canada Go.

The Dragon's Run Update

This is an update regarding the third book in the Kallodhan series.  Even though the second book isn't out yet, the third one has been coming along nicely.  I've also temporarily decided on a title- The Dragon's Run.

This book still needs a lot of work and I've decided to add a second POV character.  Currently, there are 10 chapters, a Prologue and an Epilogue.  The 10 chapters are all from Myra's POV while the Prologue and Epilogue follow a character named Yannon.  I'm hoping to have this one out early 2018, but there is another book I'd like to release first.

Editing on Age of Becoming is coming along and a lot of the promotional material is ready.  I'm still aiming for an early 2017 release and hope I can stick to the deadline I've given my self.  So far so good.

Book Marketing

I've recently been doing a lot of research on book marketing and have learned a lot.  When I released my first book, I did virtually no marketing at all.  The only marketing I did was send an email around the office and mention on Facebook that I wrote a book, after it was already released.

With the upcoming release of 'Age of Becoming', I'm really trying to do something different.  I've been listening to podcasts, reading blogs and generally trying to take in as much as I can.  For this release, I've created a ton of banners to be posted on my website, Facebook and Twitter.  I've completely redesigned my book covers and website and even went as far as to register a new domain name.  I have book marks being printed and once the editing is complete on 'Age of Becoming', I will be printing 50 copies.

I've also started an Author Facebook page (which isn't quite finished just yet) and I'm debating on setting up a b0oth at local events next summer.

With 'A Brother's Will', I was just happy to have something out there, but I would like 'Age of Becoming' to surpass it in every way.  Not only will it be available on Amazon, but I hope to publish it on Smashwords and Kobo as well.

I will continue to research marketing methods and see what else I can do to get my work out there.

Black Mass

Just watched Black Mass last week and I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it did remind me a lot of Goodfellas, which is one of my favourite movies.

Before watching the movie, I watched an interesting documentary on Whitey Bulger.  It seemed like the story was tailor made for a Hollywood script.  I was also surprised that Johnny Depp was more of a supporting actor as the main character seemed to be John Connolly, played by Joel Edgerton.

While Edgerton's character had more screen time, it was Depp's portrayal of Bulger that stole almost every scene.  One particular scene that stands out had Bulger accosting Connolly's wife in an upstairs bedroom.  Deep down you know nothing is going to happen, but the eeriness of the scene and the creepiness of Depp's acting make you fear for her at every moment.

There were a few other notable actors that popped up briefly.  Adam Scott from Parks and Rec had a few moments of screen time while David Harbour who I first saw in Stranger Things seems to be popping up everywhere these days.  (Look for him in Suicide Squad).

It was enjoyable overall and it was good to see Depp playing something other than a pirate.

I've never really given a star rating for anything before, (I've also never really written a movie review before either), but I'd give this 4 out of 5 Stars.  Well worth your time if you're in to gritty crime dramas.

New Kallodhan Covers

I'm proud to present the new covers to 'Age of Becoming' and 'A Brother's Will'.  It has been some time since I've done any Photoshop work, but I think these turned out well.  Some future tweaks may occur, but these will be the themes I use for future Kallodhan covers.