J.B. Garner's Blog, page 66
June 11, 2014
Intermittent blogging HOOOO!
I’ve mainly just been hard at work on sequels as well as prepping for a second edition release of the first two books.
Wait, why would you do that, James?
Well, because no matter how dedicated your volunteer readers and you are, typos can still happen. The human eye can easily transpose letters in ways that fool spell checkers. Lots of reasons. The point being that there are still very minor errors sprinkled through both books.
As any writer does, I want to deliver my stories in the highest quality format as possible, so more editing, more revision, and a re-release. Fortunately, thanks to the power of ebooks, 99% of the people who have bought my books will pay nothing to get the new revision. MAGIC BABY!
June 9, 2014
Want to be a beta reader? Here’s your chance!
Ever want to help a writer out as well as getting free copies of their books?
Here’s your chance!
If you have read some of my work and like it, you may have a shot at being a beta reader. What that entails is that you get the rough draft of my ongoing novels during the writing process, in whatever format or amount you wish, and provide direct input and criticism as the writing process continues. For your time and energy, you get not only early access to the completed novels, but free electronic copies of the finished edited products.
If you’re interested, drop me a line at my e-mail address: jbgarner58@gmail.com
Thank you
June 6, 2014
A Sneak Peek: The Tale of the Tape Chapter 3 Strip Search
And here it is, the final sneak peek, for now, of The Tale of the Tape, the second book in Three Seconds to Legend! Stay tuned, there may be more previews and peeks behind the author’s curtain for both books further down the road. Here’s the link:
June 5, 2014
A Sneak Peek: Indefatigable Chapter 3 Archer
Here is the last of my first round of sneak peeks into Indefatigable, the second book in The Push Chronicles! Here’s the link:
June 4, 2014
The Tale of the Tape Sneak Preview: Chapter 2 The Lioness’ Roar
Part 2 of 3 of my sneak preview of the work on the next book in Three Seconds to Legend, The Tale of the Tape. Here’s the link!
June 3, 2014
Daily Musings: The importance of outlining
If you wind up deciding to ever write a full length novel or other long piece of literature, you may be tempted to ‘wing it’, to undertake the task with only a basic idea of story and characters in your head. After all, it can work well for short, unconnected subjects. Why not take those same spontaneous story-writing skills and upscale them to a larger piece?
While that may sound doable, in truth, it’s a recipe for failure. I don’t want to seem like I am totally trashing the usefulness of the ability to spontaneously write creative fiction. It’s an important skill and very useful in writing larger works. However, you cannot rely on it to write a coherent 60, 000 word plus novel. Continuity, coherence, and minor details start to get lost as you string each chapter along like another short story instead of weaving it into a single tapestry of words.
At the same time, too much structure and planning can be just as catastrophic. Characters, events, and personalities can and must be dynamic to be believable. It is quite possible to be following a well-laid out, logical plan for your plot and suddenly hit a point where something no longer clicks properly because of how your writing for a particular character or event has evolved *as you have written it*. This isn’t a bad thing; this is a good thing. It is using that spontaneous writing skill to keep a story fresh, dynamic, and realistic.
How do you achieve a middle ground? Every writer has differing methods, but one thing I have seen as a commonality among most long-subject authors is an outline approach. Loosely outlining a structure of events and characters in chapter order is a good idea. You have important things laid out in an order that fits the flow of your story. As each section of the outline is semi-independent, it can be easy to move sections of the outline around in the story to better fit the flow you discover while you write. As you haven’t devoted endless hours to minutae, it is also far more painless to delete or radically change sections of the outline. In essence, it provides structure, but not too much structure. It’s that ‘just right’ porridge for long-subject writers.
This is obviously based on my opinion and personal experience. What do you think? Do you use similar techniques when you write or is there other advice you would give struggling authors?
June 2, 2014
Writer’s block
Excellent stuff here for any writer. We have all fallen victim to writer’s block … don’t deny it! It’s TRUUUUUEEE!
Originally posted on Street of Dreams:
the abyss.
a freshly fallen torrid
that stretches as far as a the eye can see.
a blank page
what do you do when the cursor
when the pen and paper
leave you snow blind?
A Sneek Peak: Indefatigable Chapter 2
More preview goodness as I finish Chapter 2 of Indefatigable, the second book of The Push Chronicles. So far, no one has had any issues with deviantART links, but please let me know if you do. I have no problems posting full bits here directly. Here’s the link:
June 1, 2014
#YesAllWomen fear being raped
This is important and very real. ‘Nuff said.
Originally posted on Anna Bayes:
The #YesAllWomen hashtag is powerful: not only in the sense that it raises awareness but in showing the world how real sexual harassment for women has been, and still is. Yes all women fear being raped. It is not an irrational fear, it is not only a concept. It is a real-life, genuine fear that women deal with every single day.
Just type that hashtag on Twitter and read the stories of women who have been molested, been told that they were to blame for being sexually abused. Read the violence and injustice that women have experienced, and then, let’s begin really speaking up, every single day, until one day the hashtag #YesAllWomen becomes only a historical reference on textbooks.
There was a part in Christopher Moore‘s book, Bite Me: A Love Story that explained why Jody would prefer to remain a vampire even when she had the chance…
View original 110 more words
May 31, 2014
If you read my blog posts, you win!
Well, you win a coupon anyway!
I’m handing out some coupon codes for those that want to read my novels, but aren’t quite sure if they want to spend full price for them. It’s okay. I understand. New novelist, new genres, untested waters: we’ve all been there. So, for my blog readers out there, here’s a chance to dip your feet in my waters for 50% off.
These codes are only good for the appropriate book and specifically from Smashwords. There’s a link in my novel list page, but I’ll also include another link to my Author page at the bottom of this post. These codes expire on June 8th, so redeem while you can!
If you want to purchase Indomitable, the code is: RQ82C
If you want to purchase The Opening Bell, the code is: ZH95V
Finally, the link to my Smashboard Profile, which has links to both books, is:
https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/megatarget
Thank you and enjoy!
