Sever Bronny's Blog, page 13

Epic Fantasy Adventure Book ARCANE Now Released

At long last, I can declare my book published, my dear friends!

Warlocks before their time …

Fourteen-year-old Augum and friends Bridget and Leera dream of becoming warlocks. But with a kingdom in total chaos, it will take courage, sacrifice, and an iron will to make that dream come true

The Lord of the Legion, a vicious tyrant, has overthrown the king in a relentless and murderous quest for seven mythic artifacts–and Augum’s mentor, the legendary Anna Atticus Stone, possesses one. While Augum struggles with demons from a painful childhood, a betrayal puts him, his friends, and his mentor through a harrowing ordeal that threatens to destroy them all … and change the course of history.

Arcane, the debut novel in the fantasy adventure series The Arinthian Line, follows three friends as they navigate an ancient abandoned castle, endure grueling training, challenge old mysteries, and learn that a bond forged in tragedy might just be the only thing to save them from a ruthless enemy.

——

The paperback is 349 pages and you can buy it and the ebook from Amazon here:

http://www.amazon.com/author/severbronny

If you want to get a notice of the other book releases in the series, subscribe to my mailing list here:http://eepurl.com/HIxzX

My Goodreads page:

https://www.goodreads.com/severbronny

It’s been a long and challenging road to get this thing published. My goal is to have most if not all of the series published next year. The hardest part is over, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your support.

My review of WIRED FOR STORY, a book on how to hook readers from the first sentence.

Me holding a copy of Wired for Story I ordered online.

All right, wow. There are four seminal books that have made major impacts on my writing, in the following order:

1. Self Editing for the Fiction Writer by Renni Browne and Dave King.

2. A Writer’s Guide to Fiction by Elizabeth Lyon.

3. On Writing by Stephen King.

4. The Elements of Style by Strunk and White.

But it is, without a shadow of a doubt, Wired for Story that takes the top spot now. Cron has artfully and articulately worded what I, as the writer, have been searching for: just how to write a good story. Not how to flower my language, not how to edit, not the mechanics of writing, but exactly how to consciously write a story that interests the reader.

Can I understate how important this book should be in a writer’s arsenal? *Expletive* NO! It’s written with a clear voice, a voice comfortably familiar with the art of the story. Cron’s experience in writing for film and TV shines through with her ability to efficiently get her points across without the muddle. Her use of neuropsychologists combined with select quotes from known word-brain surgeons like Hemingway buttress the foundation, but it is the upper floors of this structure that yield the greatest fruit.

What exactly makes a story interesting? Check. Exactly when to start one in the character’s life? Check. How to write a quick yet nuanced character biography while leaving out the unnecessary drivel? Check. Differentiate between the banal and the important in a scene; description overuse; narration and exposition errors; conflict and resolution misfires and solutions …

Check, check, and checkmate. And on and on it goes, until by the last page you feel like a cyborg perfectly outfitted for war.

My one minor gripe? A few too many grand questions (specifically, but not exclusive to, the end of the chapters summaries), that left me feeling overwhelmed. I prefer things I can answer, not questions that have infinite possibilities and leave my brain trying to find answers to them even though I’ve moved on already. It’s a pitfall I commonly find in How-to books though, one almost impossible to leave out. A side effect of these questions is one has the tendency to re-read the paragraph again and again in some vain hope one will understand the scope and significance of the question.

But what Cron does best is hammer across what is important. She shatters myth after myth (eg: A story is what the plot is about. WRONG. It’s about how the plot affects the characters!). She concisely explains what loses readers, but rewards you with how to capture them. This isn’t one of those books that only points out the flaws, leaving you groping for guidance like a child without a parent. It is satisfying and comprehensible, a panther of a read written by a master in her craft–and there are few storytelling masters that truly share their secrets in a way the layman can understand.

I wrote six detailed pages of notes. Six. I pre-empted the wear those notes are going to receive in my writer’s binder by applying those O-ring reinforcements to the holes in the paper, for I plan on studying those notes like an eager freshman in medical school.

My final thought? The writers who have read this book will have a superior advantage over those that have not. Period.

A note: I first posted this review on the book’s Goodreads page.

The Arinthian Line fantasy series book one cover reveal! #fantasy #rpg

At long last, after over three years of work, I can reveal the cover to Arcane: The Arinthian Line, book 1.

Arcane cover. The Arinthian Line series, book 1. Fantasy adventure.

Arcane print book cover. The Arinthian Line Series, book 1.

Warlocks before their time…

Fourteen-year-old Augum and friends Bridget and Leera dream of becoming warlocks. But with a kingdom in total chaos, it will take courage, sacrifice, and an iron will to make that dream come true.

The Lord of the Legion, a vicious tyrant, has overthrown the king in a relentless and murderous quest for seven mythic artifacts—and Augum’s mentor, the legendary Anna Atticus Stone, possesses one. While Augum struggles with demons from a painful childhood, a betrayal puts him, his friends, and his mentor through a harrowing ordeal that threatens to destroy them all … and change the course of history.

Arcane, the debut novel in the fantasy adventure series The Arinthian Line, follows three friends as they navigate an ancient abandoned castle, endure grueling training, challenge old mysteries, and learn that a bond forged in tragedy might just be the only thing to save them from a ruthless enemy.

97,000 words. Approximately 275  pages on electronic media, 409 on print.

The book will be released sometime this month. To receive an email of release and how to get yourself a copy, sign up here.

If you would like a free pre-release advanced copy in exchange for a fair review, email me at severbronny[insert at symbol here]gmail.com

Thank you kindly for your support, your advice, your friendship.

With warm regards,

Sever

For the self-publishers in the crowd: just updated the #self-pub and #indiepub checklist

Forgive the hashtags in the title (I know, I know!), but this blog is synced with twitter and I’m not in the mood to make a second twitter post. Anyway, I just did a massive update to my self-publishing checklist, which is extensively researched and real-time.

I’m close, guys, real close. This is really going to happen! Just over a month to go; I’m so excited I could barely sleep last night. It’s all coming together nicely.

Some new things on the list: I decided to do print-on-demand with createspace, choosing the 5″ X 8″ template with cream paper and a glossy cover. The book is 416 pages in this format (!), which I am strangely very happy about (it is, after all, fantasy!). It was a big pain in the ass to format the book properly, but next time it’ll be easy because I’ll know what to expect (in fact, I urge all authors who are thinking of using createspace to use one of their templates when starting a new book in Word!).

You’ll also notice that there’s a three month window after the release of book 1 in what’s called KDP select. I’ve chosen to enroll the first book in this Amazon exclusive program as an experiment. The downside is that I won’t be releasing the book to any other distribution source (kobo, smashwords, etc) until after that three month exclusivity window expires. Which means, for my fellow Canadians without a kindle, a second release date (Mar 1).

Now I’m off to draft the hard copy spine and cover via createspace – wish me luck! :)

Sever

The horribly obsessive need to be perfect. How do you balance doing a good job and obsessing over your work?

How do you do it? How do you balance doing a good job and obsessing over your work?

It astounds me how much my need to be perfect holds me back. If I could only let go, give myself permission to be average, to make mistakes, I think a tremendous weight would lift.

If anyone’s reading this, do you have any tips?

Coming Dec 1st: ARCANE, book 1 in a new fantasy-adventure series. Warlocks before their time …

Click to enlarge.

Warlocks before their time …

Fourteen-year-old Augum and friends Bridget and Leera dream of becoming warlocks. But with a kingdom in total chaos, it will take courage, sacrifice, and an iron will to make that dream come true.

The Lord of the Legion, a vicious tyrant, has overthrown the king in a relentless and murderous quest for seven mythic artifacts—and Augum’s mentor, the legendary Anna Atticus Stone, possesses one. While Augum struggles with demons from a painful childhood, a betrayal puts him, his friends, and his mentor through a harrowing ordeal that threatens to destroy them all … and change the course of history.

Arcane, the debut novel in the fantasy adventure series The Arinthian Line, follows three friends as they navigate an ancient abandoned castle, endure grueling training, challenge old mysteries, and learn that a bond forged in tragedy might just be the only thing to save them from a ruthless enemy.

A novel by Sever Bronny. Coming December 1st, 2014.

97,000 words. Approximately 275 pages.

Subscribe to receive a notice of release.

The novel’s Pinterest.

Cover reveal coming soon.

Essential for crafting imaginary worlds …

My Open Source Low Budget Self Publishing Author Marketing Campaign

I’m fine-tuning a low budget marketing campaign for Arcane, my debut fantasy-adventure novel from The Arinthian Line series. The aim is rather simple: gather 50 core people that enjoy the book enough to talk about it.

This is a fluid list as I come up with more / better ideas, and will take into account suggestions from others.

What I have so far, in order:

Cover + blurb reveal on kboards (with release date?)
Cover + blurb reveal on facebook / twitter / myspace / my music website / this blog / my email list (with release date?)
Post a 50 page sample (at end of sample give link to buy rest of book – if logistically possible, give discount for buyer)
Announce release date on all relevant social media (and update gravitar / widgets / connect blog to google+, etc. The key is uniformity of message.)
Respectfully solicit reviews on Goodreads / Amazon / twitter / LibraryThing / relevant blogs (emailing a free copy of book). Or maybe just email the book and not ask for reviews; if it happens, it happens. Choose either Goodreads or Librarything (I don’t have energy for both).
Find influencers (regular people, not industry pros) in my genre and give them a free copy to read. Look for ordinary people who can’t help but tweet about their favorite fantasy books. [EG: Search for "fantasy reader" on twitter and add them]
Politely ask other Fantasy authors to contribute an endorsement tagline
Reddit: Been a redditor for 2 years. Only post to r/fantasy after months of spending time there, and only then — so this is a maybe right now, depending on time constraints. For anyone else even thinking about posting on reddit, read THIS first. I’ve witnessed plenty of crash and burns, so tread at your own risk.
Small Blog tour (maybe 2-4 a month). It has been suggested I do more. (Oh, and I still have to learn exactly how to do a blog tour, hehe).
Print business cards of book and give them out like candy
Go to this board and ask these guys where to get the word out. It’s a java based irc applet, but those guys know fantasy.
Paid advertising: ENT, BookBlast, KindleBooks, Bookbub (with enough reviews that is).
Go to the Kboards Tips & FAQ and carefully read and implement all points.
Possibly do a small print run of 50-100 copies and hold a physical book launch in ONE local store and invite ALL my goo friends. I could offer said bookstore exclusivity to sell it in town. (Opinions?)


RELEASE THE BOOK! (oh God, what do I do for release day — get drunk?)
You may post one thread about your book, in the Book Bazaar board (again, kboards). You can use that thread to introduce your book, include a brief review, etc.

- Price: $2.99 for a 98,000 word ebook (and when three in series are released, make 1st one perma free)

- Should there be the demand, release a print book and an audio book (will use funds from sales).

The Russell Blake rule: After release, spend 75% of my time writing book four in the series, 25% on marketing.

That 25% will consist of the following:

90-95% of the time tweeting about my indie publishing journey / things I’ve learned / fantasy / writing how-to’s / advice columns / advice blogs; the remain 5%-10% on my personal book and blog. Tweets scheduled using Hootsuite (I love that app!).
Blog tour / commenting on other blogs I find interesting
Be a little more social on facebook (sigh … I hates FB)
Post photos of the writing life in all it’s glory (don’t read into that you)
Be creative — come up with a video for book (and if you haven’t seen my last video for my music, it’s HERE)
Build email list, only emailing for releases
Blog Once a month (I’m a convert of slow blogging, as introduced to me by Anne R. Allen in this post).

So did I miss something? Have a trick to add to this list? Let me know! And of course, use what you like for your own campaign :)

Thanks to the following for throwing in ideas for this specific post:

Cindy Johnson

Kathryn OHalloran

Pamela Kelley

Joe Nobody

jtbullet

Sandra K. Williams

Why It’s Important to Follow Your Dreams on a Daily Basis

“This is your life and it’s ending one minute at a time.”

– Quote from the movie Fight Club



I often scroll through an ocean of blog and article links looking for quality content, content I can grow by and use practically. Time is precious online, especially because we’re so easily distracted. All it takes is for one of those links to strike the right interest chord and there goes ten minutes of your time. Sometimes that interesting link leads to another, or to a video, and next thing you know, an hour has flashed by.

Scientists have discovered that we get a miniature heroin-like does of joy from clicking links and reading articles. Infotainment is actually that addictive. And therein lies the crux, for amongst this sea of cerebral masturbation one must separate out what is valuable and what is useless. Working from home poses these challenges; we must discipline ourselves to skip those things that hamper our goals.

So what are your goals? Do you want to own a house, have kids, work in a certain career? Do you want to work from home, have a wife or husband, or travel the world? Do you want to make a certain amount of money a year? What is success to you? What do you want to spend time on?

The hours add up quickly. Our daily micro judgements on what we spend time on become valuable. The framework for making those judgements becomes valuable. At work, we are paid hourly for our time. Everything we own is on loan, paid for with time. We give it all back in the end; we can’t take anything past death. Time is the new currency.

Now apply that to following your dreams. Imagine your time is worth, say, $20 an hour. If you spent four hours surfing the internet looking at infotainment, you spend $80 of your time doing so. Now here’s the question: did you gain back $80 worth of knowledge from that surfing?



These are just ideas in productivity. I’m not saying we shouldn’t have any fun — no, what I’m saying is we must be conscious of the daily micro decisions that add up the grandiosity that is our life (and learning to relax and enjoy ourselves is another skill beyond the scope of this blog post).

And that’s why it’s so critical to follow our dreams on a daily basis. Step by step, word by word, link by link, we build the lives we want. The lucky ones do it consciously; assert greater control over their micro decisions; choose progress over lethargy.

Imagine getting paid for doing things we love. Imagine finding love in what we already do. I believe that, if we are conscious of our daily micro decisions, these things just … happen, yet they happen slowly. Only when we pause and look back can we appreciate how far we have come.

Time is precious. What you are doing this moment is your life; who you are right now.

Procrastination — A Uniquely Tailored Enemy.

Procrastination is a failure of the watch, so to speak. It’s a uniquely tailored enemy that’s different for all of us. It attacks when it senses weakness and thrives on each subsequent indulgence. We crave it though, feeding the beast with distractions, excuses and entertainment. It’s a particular nuisance in the digital age, where the entirety of human understanding can be accessed at the click of a mouse; any person can be reached by a single text; any object (or food) ordered without leaving the house.

Writers are especially prone to procrastination, for we tend to spend many hours at home. I find how I start the day impacts my output greatly. If the first thing I do in the morning is check reddit, well, it sets the tone until nightfall. Thoughts tend to wander that much more; my eyes flick about searching for visual stimuli; my hands wring and grope for texture instead of remaining on the keys.

Everyone’s different, but here are a few things that work for some: try keeping your visual sight lines simple, the phone off or out of reach, noise reduced to nothing but the low hum of a computer (or nothing at all. Oh and do we still use words like “computer”?). Some writers even disconnect from the net and shut themselves in a dark dungeon of a room, with perhaps nothing adorning the walls except for a miserable floral embroidery.

You know what really works for me? I write in the bath. Yup, I actually sit in the bath and write, the laptop perched on a small table beside the tub like an electric vulture (insert electrocution joke here). You know what’s hard to do while writing in the bath? Get distracted. Silly, I know, but it works. Now I can’t stay in the bath too long (six hours is all right, isn’t it?), so inevitably I slither out like Voldemort in snake form to settle at the dining table.

When on dry land, however, sometimes I get up and pace. Invariably my eyes stumble upon all these pretty objects that somehow need attention right then. A little mental battle ensues (I think of it more like a paper joust). Usually the driven side of me wins and I return to writing, but other times I suddenly realize I’ve been playing sudoku for the last hour, an hour that can never reclaim its rightful productivity.

But procrastination is a clever adversary. You draw a blank while writing a particularly demanding scene and your mind uses that moment of hesitation to rudely butt in with its crack-dealer voice: “Hey, remember that thing you were supposed to do last week? You know, that thing. Why not do that now? Wouldn’t that be great? You deserve a break anyway.”

Those are the times we must be brave, friends, and plow through the insufferable whining of our needy selves. Yes, we are our own worst enemies. Just do it; just keep going. Sheer determination and discipline (some call it ambition) melts procrastination like a cheap plastic dummy subjected to the torments of a pyromaniac child.

And there are tricks I tell you! But don’t be fooled – our greatest strength, and still the greatest enemy of procrastination, is simple discipline. The “just do it” mentality. You can trick yourself only so far, but your determination / drive / diligence etc. is what will get you through, day in and day out, week after week and month after month — for the really big projects, the glorious ones, take a long, long time to conclude, especially if you’re interested in quality.

All right, let me share my tricks (the ones that actually work, mind you):

- Getting up and turning on the laptop first thing, prepping it for writing

- Making a liter of tea. After lunch, another one (two bags a day keeps me focused, I find)

- Eating a strong but light breakfast (mental note: stop skipping so many breakfasts)

- Drawing a bath (snicker all you like, it works!)

- Leaving all email / reddit / surfing / forum / marketing tasks for after the writing

- Rubbing my hands together in excitement. This trick is particularly effective for down times. I’ve used neurolinguistic programming (thanks, Tony), to map this gesture to adrenaline. It gets me going quickly and resets my thinking when my mind wanders.

- As a last resort, I read something that inspires me. Sometimes it’s a how-to book, sometimes a novel.

These tricks served me through three record albums and now three books. Maybe they might help you too :)

So, that said, do you have any tricks to share?