Joshua C. Cook's Blog, page 3

Blood of a Fallen God

FINALLY.. Blood of a Fallen God is out.. for pre-sale! And there was much rejoicing. Truly.. much, much rejoicing.

So the first book is now done. Much thanks to my editor, Michael Rowley for all his help, and beta readers, and my family for giving me time to get this thing done. It’s been nearly two years since I last launched a book. I never ever thought it would take me this long, but with writers block, and a complete change in the plot, things took a lot longer. A lot longer.

So now what? Well I’m pushing marketing a lot more than in the past, I’ve been busy doing a hella lot of research on how to market better, run amazon ads better, trying new tricks with things like Reedsy Discovery, thinking about NetGalley, etc. Hopefully they work out. I have also gotten involved with a few more Author Marketing Facebook groups, and gotten good info from them.

But I’m just happy Blood of a Fallen God is done. So, here’s to working on Book 2! Book 2 I hear you think, what’s Book 2? For the longest time I had planned on this being a standalone book. I really wanted it to be one in fact. But somewhere in the story I realized I wanted to explore this world more. And so, Blood of a Fallen God, is in fact Book One of a series I’m calling the ‘Forgemaster Cycle.’

What will happen in Book 2? Well… I can’t say, not yet at least. Maybe after book one launches. When does it launch I hear you ask? Oct 17. I’m giving a lot of time for the ads to run, and *hopefully* for pre-sales to go. So, that’s my major update, so follow the link and get a copy!

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Maps, Books, and finally, really coming soon.

Maps. I love maps. As a child I remember spendings hours pouring over maps in Lord of the Rings. I loved the maps. I wanted to know what each thing was, what each section was. Maps, to me, bring the world that I’m exploring into focus. It shows me just how much more there is that the little part that the story touches. Maps give me the key to fleshing out what the writers imagination has created.

So of course I needed maps for ‘Blood of a Fallen God.’ I’ve shared these on social media, but not here for some odd reason. So here they are, two maps. one of the land of Palnor, one of Ture, the Capitol of Palnor.

[image error]Map of the Land of Palnor



[image error]Map of the capitol of Palnor, the city of Ture

Hope you like them as much as I do. In other news, the book.. is just waiting for cover art! Once that is done, I’ll be sending it out to those who have agreed to do pre-release reviews for Goodreads, and finally, the Book will be done. At least book one. It’s been nearly two years since my last book release, and I think I’ve learned a lot since then. I hope so. Stay tuned on that front.

I am looking forward to seeing what people think of this book, it’s by far longer than anything else I’ve written, and I’ve thrown myself into it in ways I did not before. But hey, everyone has an opinion

AI and Faith

Let me start by saying, I’m not scared nor bothered by the idea of AI. In fact I find the idea rather interesting. Though in truth, I doubt we will ever create a true ‘Artificial Intelligence’ ever, and certainly not in my lifetime. I do think we will create some really interesting ways to doing things with neural networks, and pushing the boundaries in how a computer system and software works out a problem. But true artificial life? No.

However, when I was thinking about what to tackle next as a writing project, (Since I’m querying Blood of a Fallen God now) I wanted to explore something a bit different. I don’t consider it horror, but sci fi thriller. Imagine a starship, small unassuming, on that ship, built into that ship, is an AI. This is a new AI, one created by another AI. It’s not connected to us, to humans the way older AI’s are.

This AI discovers religion, faith. What would something like this do? Would it embrace the good? Charity, honesty, selflessness? Or would it turn dark? Would it, not being human, place itself outside the rules for humans, as it’s not one? Would it decide perhaps, that it is more? An angel? Or.. a devil? The crew, trapped onboard, with an AI who has decided it is a devil, or even the devil, above them, to punish them, purify them?

The tentative title, ‘The Stars Burn Cold’ is in the works now. three days or writing, 5894 words done. So far, so good. I think after I finish this I’ll go for something lighter by far, as the dark tones of Blood of a Fallen God, now followed by this book is enough for me for now! I have an idea, just have to explore it more, but that’s for the future. Now, the world of AI, Faith, and outer space calls to me.

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INTP – Fiction writing

I’m a fan of Myers-Briggs, if only because it does, for me, encapsulate a lot of my traits both good and bad. When I was younger I came out as an INFP, but for the last 15 years or so I’ve been an INTP, and haven’t deviated from that as of yet.

But as an INTP, some of those traits both help, and hurt writing fiction. And because I’m me, I wanted to write a blog post exploring that. Besides, it’s my blog, I can write what I want. *Insert maniacal laugh here*

So INTP’s are logical, clear headed, and tend to strongly make decisions based on facts and logic. This overall serves me well, as once I get the facts, I can make clear decisions. I almost never second guess myself once a decision is made, though getting to the point of making the decision can take longer than I’d like, if only because I’m gathering information.

Writing as an INTP has it’s challenges however.

I tend to keep almost everything in my head. – Good or bad is subjective, for me it’s only a challenge because I fall into trying to lay it out mentally. I always fall back to seeing a story as a tree. The trunk is the main plot, branches are subplots, characters are twigs, events are leaves. Everything grows together, in a system. I like systems.Emotional writing – this is my biggest weakness. My characters tend to reflect my own reticence with basing decisions on emotion. While I’ve gotten a lot better about this, emotional aspects of my characters is something I have to force myself to expand on. If only by saying to myself – if I were in this situation, how would I NOT react? Talking about my writing – I do write about it easily. But I HATE talking about my writing. I don’t like to even describe it. I’ve found myself unwilling to even acknowledge that I DO write. I actively try to find ways to avoid attention.

Those three challenges can be overcome of course, and I’m trying hard with #2, and some with #3. The first point will be a sticking point for a while I think LOL

Being an INTP has some advantages as well however, I’m very good at not making consistency errors. Meaning, if I say something in chapter 3, it needs to line up when the subject is brought up again in chapter 38.

There are other advantages, I don’t get into things like mood boards, music playlists, or arguments over best program to write with.

*NOTE* Some of those things are essential to some writers, I’m not knocking them at all, but for me, and my process, they are fairly useless. I write with total silence or at most white noise. I write with just Word, and I’m still not clear on the use of a mood board.

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Pitching… and a hit?

So I did a thing. I pitched my book. And pitching was easier than I thought. Way back when I thought that Kindle Scout would be around, the plan for ‘Blood of a Fallen God’ was for me to attempt to get this book traditionally published. When Kindle Scout went away, (see here) I was not happy. I hate selling myself and my work in the direct way, I never was a very good salesman, makes me feel slimy. Maybe it’s just the salesmen I’ve met in my life that make me feel that way.

But anyway, once I finished Blood, I didn’t know what to do. I could self-publish again, but since I’m crap at marketing, did I want to just throw it out there and have it do nothing? Again? No, I didn’t want that. Then, I remembered, pitwars/pitmad. Where you make up short pitches, tweet them with the appropriate tags on the right day for agents and publishers to see. If they ‘like’ your tweet, then you send them the requested information, and see what happens next.

I like this because I don’t feel like I’m forcing my way into their awareness. I know that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but for me it works. Pitwars is a bit different animal, maybe I’ll write a blog post on that down the road, but the next pitmad was coming up.. March. I can do that, I can get ready, give me a month to perfect my query letter, my synopsis, etc.

Then I found out #SFFpit.. the morning of the event.

SFFPit is like pitmad, but just for SciFi/Fantasy. I had no query letter, no synopsis ready, but I pitched anyways. And got likes! More than one, more than 5, less than 10. So in one day I put together a synopsis, a query letter, and sent off the requested info.

I’ve gotten one full request so far, and the others haven’t answered back yet. I’m a bit surprised. Nothing may come of all this, but still, it’s good to hear from an outside source, who doesn’t know you, that your first three chapters were great, they love the story, and that your writing is very good.

So, maybe pitching isn’t so bad after all.

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Bit dusty in here, time to change that.

So it’s been what, 6 months since I updated the blog? That’s sad. Dusty old posts, full of promise and hope, and then silence. Well I’ll change that now. Not sure who even reads these but here’s what’s new, what’s happening, and what my current plans are.

What’s new?

Well, not a lot. I’m still editing Blood of a Fallen God, though I’m close, very close to being done. I have a page of sections I’ve noted down that I want to improve. More emotion, better wording, clarification, and a small plot hole. I hope to have those changes made sooner rather than later. I’ll go into why later on.

What’s been happening outside that?

Well my day to day life has been busy, but good. Kids getting older, lots of trips to Disney (thanks to winning annual passes) trying to get into better shape, via the rowing machine. I bought one right before Christmas, and while someday I hate it, it’s been a great workout. And while I haven’t lost a ton of weight on it yet, it certainly does a good job toning things up. My biggest issue with exercise has always been me getting bored with whatever I’m doing. I’m working to stick with this, but we shall see. So far, so good at least.

What’s the current plans?

I’ve been giving a lot of time thinking on this. My goal with this book was always to try and get it published via Kindle scout. But since that program is gone (booooo!) I’ve been unsure what to do. Self publish again? Traditional publishing? I was torn. I think however I’m going to throw myself into the world of #pitmad. Pitch the book to agents, see if I can move this forward this way. I have no idea what exactly I’m doing, but I think that’s a good thing. Gotta grow someway, right?

I’m also going to try and be more active here, and on social media. I’ve always been so bad at marketing, but mostly because I always feel like I’m ‘bothering’ people. I’ve got to get over that. So, I’m going to try.

So that’s what’s new with me? What about you?

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Creativity, Writing, and Role Playing Games

Creativity or at least trying to have a creative outlet was the whole reason I started writing. (You can see more about that here.) I like having that outlet, I find it enjoyable, even if this go around has been far longer than normal. But I digress. See when I was younger, much younger in fact, I was pretty heavy into D&D, or for you reading this who don’t know what that is.. Dungeons and Dragons. I loved it, classes, races, exploring fighting, done all in a story telling environment. It was all pretend, and it was all fun.

My son has started exploring that world, and I’ve been along for a ride somewhat. What’s interesting to me now, is how much it’s all changed. Now I played what’s known now as “1st Edition” rules. Old school. Like 6 races, a dozen or so classes, that’s it. These days there’s so many variants, half-breeds, sub-races, etc that really, I can’t keep track. My reaction to this has been interesting. One one hand it’s pretty cool to see SUCH a huge range of choices for a player.�� You want to be a half jinn warlock in a pact with a fae lord? Sure go ahead.

But on the other side I kind of feel that SO many choices ruins a chance for the player to explore other aspects of role-playing. Finding new ways to make a character unique. Here’s my personal example..

Back when I played,my favorite character of all time was a Dwarf Fighter. Boring you think? Predictable? Not at all! See this particular Dwarf (Named Barstile Ironpeg, a name I’d use many years later when I got into MMO’s) had a quirk. He was deathly afraid of Doppelgangers. In D&D terms a Doppelganger is a monster/creature who can basically mimic any one. Copy them and BE them, until discovered. They don’t have to be evil, and a great many aren’t. But in my characters backstory, an evil doppelganger had tricked his village into letting him in, and he betrayed them to a band of gnolls. Ever since Barstile was constantly worried that everyone he met MIGHT be a doppelganger. He spent every drop of treasure he could get on making sure people weren’t. if I had a good DM who went along well with this quirk, things got really interesting. I even got to the point once where I’d have Barstile stay up till everyone else was asleep and take a blood sample from each other character and use a “magic” item he bought that was supposed to tell him if they were a doppelganger or not. (Note: it was a fake magic item, Barstile was easy to dupe that way)

The reason I bring this up, is that in a lot of fantasy/sci-fi I read, I don’t see a lot of this sort of thing. Giving something common a quirk, a twist. Instead I seem to find a lot of crazy rare races/powers/etc, but yet they act fairly normal. Taking this farther, in my current WIP (Blood of a Fallen God) one character, in this world of dead gods, creatures, and (rare) magic, has turned to drug use to cope with something. It’s not working out for him, but it gives what could be a ho-hum story line something to bite on. Creativity can be mental, not physical.

 

Lesson: Don’t be afraid to take something normal and give it a twist, instead of making something fantastical, and making it normal.

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Annoyed, and maybe a bit embarrassed

OK, so I haven’t updated the blog in well.. a long time. A VERY long time. There’s a few reasons…and for my being annoyed.

I got lazy. Yes, the number one reason is the fact is.. I got lazy. I didn’t have anything really interesting to say, so I didn’t say anything.
Rewrites are a pain. Yes, I’m STILL doing rewrites and edits on Blood of a Fallen God. It’s taking forever.
I’m working on creating my own covers again. I was going to pay for a cover for Blood, but… I don’t want to spend the money. LOL

So those are the three reasons I haven’t updated the blog. That’s why I’m a bit embarrassed, because honestly, they aren’t good reasons. They are however NOT why I am annoyed.

Now I found out about this back in early April, .. Amazon Scout.. is no more. Now this really annoyed me. My ‘Master Plan’ for BOAFG (As I’ll call the book for short) was to write it, get it cleaned up, and submit it to Kindle Scout. I really wanted that shot, that CHANCE at getting it published under the Amazon Imprint for Sci-Fi/Fantasy,  47North. Amazon’s publishing contract is a VERY nice one, and very generous to writers. Yes I knew it was a long shot, but hey.. it was nice to have a goal.

However, back in early April, Amazon stopped taking any submissions, and in fact are shuttering the whole thing. Hence, the annoyance.

I don’t blame them in many ways for shuttering it. I did read after the fact that of all the submissions they’d taken over the years, they only picked 238 over 4 years for publication. Those are VERY long odds. But still, I really liked the idea of finding new writers/authors based on what readers think, rather than jumping through the whole agent/publisher fight.

Yes, I’ll continue to self-publish. But I’m HORRIBLE at marketing, and I can’t afford to really pay for it either. So truthfully the end of Kindle Scout is the end of the chance of me really doing this full time… Which I guess.. is ok. Not ideal. Not what I wanted. But, OK.

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2017 – A look back in walls, delays, and writing fails

2017 was not a banner year for me as a writer. It started off not great and never really got moving. To start with, January 2017 saw books sales fall like a brick. In particular, the second book in The Echo Worlds series, titled Bridgebreaker, was not doing well. I was am still rather proud of the book. I had really taken feedback and good criticism of the first book, Bridgefinders into consideration, and had written something I though had the story I wanted, but carried a more emotional ‘umph’ than the first book had possessed. But by January 2017 which was 4 months after the second book had come out, it was apparent that the book wasn’t doing so well.

I did a massive ‘blitz’ in terms of using book lists, advertising services and the like to give sales a pump. In retrospect it was totally a foolish move, as I signed up for to much all at once, and it became nigh impossible to figure out which service was working, and which was a waste of what little money I had to spend on the marketing. On top of it, it didn’t really help much and sales stayed flat for the entire year of 2017.

This did harm my motivation a bit, so I sort of pushed off the third book of the Echo Worlds, which I had been planning on writing right away, to explore something else. I had a few ideas floating around, but only one I had fleshed out to any degree. With my normal goal of two books a year, I pushed forward with writing something called “Worker Road”, a post-apocalyptic story. However about a quarter into it, I realized I was struggling with the story. I was having a hard time with the main character, and after several weeks of back and forth in my mind, I shelved the story. I may pick it up again, someday….Maybe.

So, now a bit more discouraged, I sort of started looking at some previously started but never finished stories I had floating around. One a YA sci-fi book, and the other a fantasy novel I hadn’t really fleshed out other than to know it involved Blacksmiths. The YA book I had previously started and shelved in 2016, and I still had a core of a story. But after reading through what was there, the knowledge became quite clear, I’m not a YA writer. I wasn’t much of a teenager when I WAS a teenager. To serious for my own good, I tended to find some of the antics of my peers to be.. annoying. And so, writing YA was a struggle, as I tend to color my writing with a main character who was to serious by half. That story still sits, half done. I might take parts of the ideas for that one and use them else where, someday.. Maybe.

Book Blurb – Blood of a Fallen God

So in between rewrites, edits and trying to figure out what I’m going to do about a cover, I have been working on the book ‘blurb’ for the back of the book, and for it’s Kindle Scout listing, etc.  I always find this hard for some reason, so I’m putting this out and hoping to get some feedback…Book Blurbs are hard!

 

 

“Two Gods went to war with each other, and both fell in that war. The death of two Gods changed the world, and allowed for power to be seized, and fate to be changed. Now hundreds of years later, the post Godsfall order is under threat. Forces and people have started down a path that will change the world again, for one simple reason…Gods don’t stay dead forever.

William and Duncan Reis are cousins, and the last two members of the Reis family line. A family line descended from the last Forgemaster, the blessed of Amder, God of the Forge and Creation. A family line that has been watched and kept ignorant of its place, and what it could do by those who crave power more than piety.

Zalkiniv is the near immortal High Priest of Valnijz, the God of Blood and Rage who fell in battle with Amder so many years ago. Seeking only the return of the Blood God, Zalkiniv has worked for centuries to make that one thing happen. A chance discovery has accelerated his plans, and set into motion the possible return of Amder as well.”

 

I always find doing a  book blurb kind of hard because it’s such a fine line between giving the book away, and yet trying to entice readers to have interest. This is an ‘epic fantasy’ book, long, multiple characters, multiple settings, and several intertwined story lines. Multiple POVs.. all of it.

 

So, feedback?

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