The Author Interviews: Ian Nathaniel Cohen.
My next author interview is with Ian Nathaniel Cohen. 
Ian Nathaniel Cohen is a native of Miami, Florida, where he grew up immersing himself in swashbuckler literature and film. He graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2003 with a BA in Radio/Television Production and a Minor's Certificate in Applied Computer Science. He also received his MA in Asian Studies from Florida International University in 2006, where he teaches the course Asia Through Film as an adjunct lecturer, in addition to working in IT for the Government Publishing Office. In 2010, his essay "Heroes & Villains of the East", analyzing the evolving depiction of the Japanese in Chinese and Hong Kong martial arts cinema, was published in FIU's Japan Studies Journal. He also writes a guest blog, the INCspotlight, on the website Channel Awesome, reviewing classic films, comic books, and video games.Website: http://iannathanielcohen.weebly.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IanNathanielCohen/Twitter: https://twitter.com/INCspotlightWhat made you want to become a writer?Writing is one of many things I’ve had an interest in and enjoyed doing, and it's an interest that's been encouraged by family, friends, and teachers alike. It’s a skill I’ve been able to market in various ways, from working as a writing tutor to authoring process documents and training materials – including (but not limited to) an online course and its content. As for fiction writing, I'm always coming up with ideas for all sorts of written works, novels included, and the encouragement I’ve received over the years led me to just finally go ahead and try my hand at actually jotting stuff down. What are your thoughts on the indie vs traditional publishing argument?The traditional publishing model undoubtedly has its advantages, such as distribution and advertising. However, publishers are unlikely to take a risk on a rookie author and/or a genre outside of whatever ones are currently trending - and honestly, I can’t say I blame them for that. That being said, indie publishing allows for more writers to get their work out there, paving the way for more diverse genres and new voices alike. While such easy access makes it hard for some new authors to make themselves distinctive and stand out, it’s still an easier way to get one’s work out there and read, rather than being at the mercy of a literary agent or publisher. Tell us about your latest novel.My literary debut, THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACK FLAG, takes place in 1721, when the newly-United Kingdom is threatened by pirates, Jacobite rebellions, and economic crisis. The protagonist, Michael McNamara, is having a rough time of it career-wise when we first meet him. First he was wrongly discharged from the British Royal Navy after thirteen years as an officer. Now he’s lost his job as a fencing instructor, thanks to various factors beyond his control. With no other prospects in England, he sets sail for the up-and-coming city of Kingston in search of a new start. Thanks to some lucky breaks, he makes the lovely Dona Catalina Moore and – much to McNamara’s disappointment – her fiancé, Captain Stephen Reynard. Once the most feared pirate in the Caribbean and beyond, Reynard is now hunting pirates to earn a royal pardon and prove himself worthy of Catalina’s love. Eager for the adventure and the opportunities it could bring, McNamara joins Reynard’s crew and his quest for redemption. His travels pit him against untrusting shipmates, bloodthirsty buccaneers, and an insidious conspiracy that threatens countless innocent lives…including Catalina’s.The Brotherhood of the Black Flag is basically a love letter to the classic literary and cinematic swashbucklers I grew up on as a kid, and it’s a story I’ve spent at least twelve years turning into a finished novel.Please give us your top 3 marketing tips.Know who you’re writing for.Be persistent without making a nuisance of yourself.You have to believe in your story, or you won’t be able to persuade anyone else to.Please give us your top 3 productivity tips.Even if you’re not actively writing, plan and brainstorm in your head when you get the chance to – work commutes, while exercising, that sort of thing.I’ve found that totally immersing myself in the genre or topic I’m working in – reading books, watching movies and TV shows, and playing video games – does a lot to get the wheels turning.Take your chances to write when you can, but balance those opportunities with other needs – work and family, for instance.Tell us about your typical writing day.I don’t really have what I’d call a typical writing day. Between work and family responsibilities, I take my opportunities to write when I can, and the inspiration doesn’t always come – and even then, inspiration comes in short bursts, and I have to take advantage of opportunities to write when I can.What is your definition of success? Would you say you are a successful author?Completing a novel to the point of actually getting it completed and published is undoubtedly a mark of success for any author. We can't control whether people buy or read our work, regardless of our marketing strategies, or whether we'll win any kinds of awards for our writing. However, it's up to us whether we can follow through with the process of taking a hazy idea for a story and turning it into a finished book that someone else can actually read. Any author who can do that, in my opinion, is a successful author.Share some of your writing goals with us. Have you met any of them yet?Getting THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACK FLAG completed after at least twelve years, from kicking around an idea for a swashbuckling adventure story with lots of swordfights to having a finished book that people have actually purchased, was definitely one of them. I have other books in the works, and with BLACK FLAG published, I'm now thinking that if I could do it once, I can do it again, hopefully in less time.Another writing goal I was able to meet was maintaining a weekly output for my blog, the INCspotlight, which is hosted on the website Channel Awesome. After my first reviews were posted, I was determined to meet a weekly schedule for as long as I was able to. And for the first 100 reviews, I was able to. I think I only missed one week due to travel, but when I first started, two of my reviews were posted on the same day, so I guess things balanced out. These days, due to additional time constraints, I try and post at least one review a month, and if I’m lucky, I can sometimes pull off two.How do you deal with negative reviews and criticism?As of the time I'm writing this, I've yet to receive any reviews for THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACK FLAG, positive or negative, and that’s harder to take than any negative reviews. I have to keep reminding myself that the book is still new and reviews take time. When negative criticism comes, as it inevitably will, I'd like to think I'll take it in stride and learn from mistakes I've undoubtedly made. As for criticism from beta readers and editors, the point of that is to catch any issues I've overlooked and to make the final draft as close to perfect as I can. Do you have a favourite author for fiction and non-fiction? Why are they your favourite and which of their books would you recommend? Why?For fiction, my favorite author is Rafael Sabatini. Not only does he write exciting swashbucking adventure novels, the kind that have inspired my own works, but I simply enjoy his lively banter and the sheer audacity of his protagonists, such as Captain Peter Blood or Andre-Louis Moreau, in terms of the risks they take and how they use their wits as well as their blades. For these reasons, I would recommend Captain Blood and Scaramouche to any historical fiction fan (the latter is one of my favorite novels). The 1935 film adaptation of Captain Blood is a delight to watch, and the 1950 adaptation of Scaramouche should be avoided like the plague.When it comes to nonfiction, I like historians who also understand how to be storytellers, such as David McCulloch and David Cordingly. McCulloch’s John Adams and anything Cordingly has written about pirates are on the top of my recommendation lists.Where do you get your ideas/ how do you find inspiration?Most of my stories are tributes in one way or another to favorite literary or movie genres. I like to take different elements and try and find interesting ways to piece them together that I haven’t seen done before, or untapped potential in various works that I’ve come across.Can you share any free resources or tools you have found helpful?For researching, fandoms, re-enactment societies, and online communities are an invaluable resource if you’re looking for very specific information, or you want to identify the most useful sources if a lot of information is already out there. The people who are members of such communities tend to be sticklers for accuracy, which is a boon to any author who cares about this sort of thing.Another one is internet critics, particularly the reviewers – past and present – of Channel Awesome and Chez Apocalypse. Not only have I gotten a lot of enjoyment out of their work, but the hilarious way many of them highlight recurring writing issues in so many of their reviews – too much or not enough exposition, character inconsistencies, continuity errors – has really stuck in my mind. (To the point where I can actually picture being shredded for them while self-editing.) More importantly, they’ve also raised my awareness of certain tropes that I would rather not invoke, and I’m grateful to them for said awareness.Please give us your top 3 world-building tips.Strike a balance between giving a reader as much information as they need to picture the setting and set up the plot without killing the pacing of your story.Never underestimate the value of minor little details. Not only do said details give a sense of authenticity to the world you’re building, I’ve built entire character arcs and changed the entire premise of an in-progress book based on a stray sentence tucked away in a book I’m reading or a minor little detail a research resource wanted to make me aware of.Try and think of your world as a place that feels lived in, rather than just a backdrop for the action. What’s it actually like to live in this setting?How do people spend their days, and how does history and geography shape that?Do you outsource your work (editing and cover design specifically)?Editing and cover design, definitely. We all need another pair of eyes on our own work to catch the things we overlook. Also, because of my lack of a systematic method of writing and tendency to make drastic changes, I need someone to make sure everything still fits together and there aren’t any inconsistencies.As for my cover, I wanted something that would look reminiscent of a movie poster from the 1930s and 1940s, rather than Photoshopping random images together. My cover artist, Luke Reznor, and I have been best friends since 1999, and when I decided to self-publish, he was my first choice for doing the cover. He’s (all too) familiar with my love of classic swashbuckler movies, and understood precisely what kind of aesthetic I was going for.Are you a plotter or a pantser? Please tell us why and what your pre-writing processes are.I don't think I have any sort of definable process, and I'm inconsistent as to whether I'm a plotter or a pantser. Sometimes I'll mull over a certain aspect of the story or someone's character's development for weeks on end. Other times, I'll throw stuff in on a whim or from a sudden flash of inspiration and hope it works out. The only thing I do consistently is write out of order. Just as filmmakers don't usually shoot movies consecutively, I'll write the scenes I have the inspiration for, put it all together in some semblance of an order, and see if anything needs to be added or removed. But to say I have a process for doing any of that is an exaggeration at best.Why do you write?I have different reasons for writing different works. Sometimes an idea will just pop into my head, and I’ve just got to turn it into something and get it down on paper. I started the INCspotlight partially as a way to share my love of classic movies and comic books, among other things, and encourage my readers to give them a try. Also, given that THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACK FLAG is a tribute to classic swashbucklers, I wanted to give myself some credibility as a fan of said genre.What is your mission statement?As much as we need new stories, new protagonists, and new storytellers, we shouldn’t forget about authors that have come before us. There are so many classic books and movies out there that only hardcore enthusiasts know about, and they deserve to be remembered and appreciated by newer audiences – while also recognizing that they may have some serious issues that need to be confronted, rather than swept under the table and forgotten about.What do you love the most about writing and why?I love the alchemy of writing, taking various elements and trying to find interesting ways to piece them together. It’s especially fun when working with mythology and folklore, and there are so many versions of the same story – how do you pick and choose, and how do you deal with conflicts and contradictions?What do you dislike about writing and why?Honestly, there isn’t anything about it I dislike, although I wish I was faster when it came to fiction writing. I see people able to write book after book after book, and I can’t help but wonder how they do it.Do you ever visit other authors' websites and if so, what do you look for? Why?Sometimes I do, mostly to see how they market themselves and their work, to see what I can do better or to see how I can stand out – an essential part of any serious attempt at marketing.In order of importance (most important first) when shopping online, what do you look at first? Cover design, formatting, reviews, description, price, publisher, author name, page count, preview, formats available.1. Description2. Formatting3. Preview4. Price5. Author Name6. Reviews7. Cover design8. Formats available9. Page Count10. PublisherI agree that indie publishing gives the author more control.Y/NI agree that indie books should be difficult to identify amongst traditionally published books.Y/NIn order of usefulness (most useful first) when marketing your book, which techniques do you recommend from these options? Social media. Media coverage (newspaper, TV, podcasts etc). Blog tours. Perma-free/ giveaways. Writing more books.1. Social Media2. Blog tours3. Media coverage4. Perma-free/ giveaways5. Writing more books (time-permitting)Writing is my dream. Y/NI agree the ideal price for an e-book on Amazon is 99c-$2.99. Y/NI have suffered writer's block in the past. Y/NCause of writer's block: Obsession over perfect wording or getting stuck on a plot point.How you resolved it: For the perfect wording obsession, just continuously chipping away at it until it’s something I’m happy with. For the latter, I rely on trusted beta readers to bounce ideas off of.I use (Word Processor):Microsoft WordI tried and failed to get a publishing deal and/ or literary agent or had one in the past. Y/NI outsource my editing.Y/NI outsource my cover design. Y/NI outsource my formatting. Y/NI write to a specific word count every day. Y/NI set goals and frequently review them. Y/NI write across genres. Y/NAbout Ian's book:Pirates. Jacobite rebels. Economic crisis. England in 1721 is a good time to be skilled with a blade. Unfortunately for Michael McNamara, wrongfully discharged from the Royal Navy, not even his expert swordsmanship can secure him employment. With nothing for him in England, he sets sail for Jamaica to find new opportunities. His capture of a gang of brigands makes him a local hero, earning him all sorts of attention. Among his new admirers are the lovely Dona Catalina Moore and - much to McNamara's disappointment - her fiancé, Captain Stephen Reynard, a former pirate. To earn his pardon, Reynard has sworn to capture seven pirate captains, and he only needs one more. Seeing this adventure as a ticket to fortune and glory, McNamara earns his place on Reynard's crew thanks to his his fencing prowess, despite his new captain's odd reluctance. The hunt pits him against treacherous seas, untrusting shipmates, and bloodthirsty pirates...and ensnares him in a conspiracy that threatens thousands of lives, including his and Catalina’s.Leave a comment or note of thanks for your readers?Thank you to everyone who took a chance – or who is willing to take a chance - on a first-time novelist! I hope you enjoy The Brotherhood of the Black Flag as much as I enjoyed writing it!
Ian Nathaniel Cohen is a native of Miami, Florida, where he grew up immersing himself in swashbuckler literature and film. He graduated from the University of Central Florida in 2003 with a BA in Radio/Television Production and a Minor's Certificate in Applied Computer Science. He also received his MA in Asian Studies from Florida International University in 2006, where he teaches the course Asia Through Film as an adjunct lecturer, in addition to working in IT for the Government Publishing Office. In 2010, his essay "Heroes & Villains of the East", analyzing the evolving depiction of the Japanese in Chinese and Hong Kong martial arts cinema, was published in FIU's Japan Studies Journal. He also writes a guest blog, the INCspotlight, on the website Channel Awesome, reviewing classic films, comic books, and video games.Website: http://iannathanielcohen.weebly.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IanNathanielCohen/Twitter: https://twitter.com/INCspotlightWhat made you want to become a writer?Writing is one of many things I’ve had an interest in and enjoyed doing, and it's an interest that's been encouraged by family, friends, and teachers alike. It’s a skill I’ve been able to market in various ways, from working as a writing tutor to authoring process documents and training materials – including (but not limited to) an online course and its content. As for fiction writing, I'm always coming up with ideas for all sorts of written works, novels included, and the encouragement I’ve received over the years led me to just finally go ahead and try my hand at actually jotting stuff down. What are your thoughts on the indie vs traditional publishing argument?The traditional publishing model undoubtedly has its advantages, such as distribution and advertising. However, publishers are unlikely to take a risk on a rookie author and/or a genre outside of whatever ones are currently trending - and honestly, I can’t say I blame them for that. That being said, indie publishing allows for more writers to get their work out there, paving the way for more diverse genres and new voices alike. While such easy access makes it hard for some new authors to make themselves distinctive and stand out, it’s still an easier way to get one’s work out there and read, rather than being at the mercy of a literary agent or publisher. Tell us about your latest novel.My literary debut, THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACK FLAG, takes place in 1721, when the newly-United Kingdom is threatened by pirates, Jacobite rebellions, and economic crisis. The protagonist, Michael McNamara, is having a rough time of it career-wise when we first meet him. First he was wrongly discharged from the British Royal Navy after thirteen years as an officer. Now he’s lost his job as a fencing instructor, thanks to various factors beyond his control. With no other prospects in England, he sets sail for the up-and-coming city of Kingston in search of a new start. Thanks to some lucky breaks, he makes the lovely Dona Catalina Moore and – much to McNamara’s disappointment – her fiancé, Captain Stephen Reynard. Once the most feared pirate in the Caribbean and beyond, Reynard is now hunting pirates to earn a royal pardon and prove himself worthy of Catalina’s love. Eager for the adventure and the opportunities it could bring, McNamara joins Reynard’s crew and his quest for redemption. His travels pit him against untrusting shipmates, bloodthirsty buccaneers, and an insidious conspiracy that threatens countless innocent lives…including Catalina’s.The Brotherhood of the Black Flag is basically a love letter to the classic literary and cinematic swashbucklers I grew up on as a kid, and it’s a story I’ve spent at least twelve years turning into a finished novel.Please give us your top 3 marketing tips.Know who you’re writing for.Be persistent without making a nuisance of yourself.You have to believe in your story, or you won’t be able to persuade anyone else to.Please give us your top 3 productivity tips.Even if you’re not actively writing, plan and brainstorm in your head when you get the chance to – work commutes, while exercising, that sort of thing.I’ve found that totally immersing myself in the genre or topic I’m working in – reading books, watching movies and TV shows, and playing video games – does a lot to get the wheels turning.Take your chances to write when you can, but balance those opportunities with other needs – work and family, for instance.Tell us about your typical writing day.I don’t really have what I’d call a typical writing day. Between work and family responsibilities, I take my opportunities to write when I can, and the inspiration doesn’t always come – and even then, inspiration comes in short bursts, and I have to take advantage of opportunities to write when I can.What is your definition of success? Would you say you are a successful author?Completing a novel to the point of actually getting it completed and published is undoubtedly a mark of success for any author. We can't control whether people buy or read our work, regardless of our marketing strategies, or whether we'll win any kinds of awards for our writing. However, it's up to us whether we can follow through with the process of taking a hazy idea for a story and turning it into a finished book that someone else can actually read. Any author who can do that, in my opinion, is a successful author.Share some of your writing goals with us. Have you met any of them yet?Getting THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACK FLAG completed after at least twelve years, from kicking around an idea for a swashbuckling adventure story with lots of swordfights to having a finished book that people have actually purchased, was definitely one of them. I have other books in the works, and with BLACK FLAG published, I'm now thinking that if I could do it once, I can do it again, hopefully in less time.Another writing goal I was able to meet was maintaining a weekly output for my blog, the INCspotlight, which is hosted on the website Channel Awesome. After my first reviews were posted, I was determined to meet a weekly schedule for as long as I was able to. And for the first 100 reviews, I was able to. I think I only missed one week due to travel, but when I first started, two of my reviews were posted on the same day, so I guess things balanced out. These days, due to additional time constraints, I try and post at least one review a month, and if I’m lucky, I can sometimes pull off two.How do you deal with negative reviews and criticism?As of the time I'm writing this, I've yet to receive any reviews for THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACK FLAG, positive or negative, and that’s harder to take than any negative reviews. I have to keep reminding myself that the book is still new and reviews take time. When negative criticism comes, as it inevitably will, I'd like to think I'll take it in stride and learn from mistakes I've undoubtedly made. As for criticism from beta readers and editors, the point of that is to catch any issues I've overlooked and to make the final draft as close to perfect as I can. Do you have a favourite author for fiction and non-fiction? Why are they your favourite and which of their books would you recommend? Why?For fiction, my favorite author is Rafael Sabatini. Not only does he write exciting swashbucking adventure novels, the kind that have inspired my own works, but I simply enjoy his lively banter and the sheer audacity of his protagonists, such as Captain Peter Blood or Andre-Louis Moreau, in terms of the risks they take and how they use their wits as well as their blades. For these reasons, I would recommend Captain Blood and Scaramouche to any historical fiction fan (the latter is one of my favorite novels). The 1935 film adaptation of Captain Blood is a delight to watch, and the 1950 adaptation of Scaramouche should be avoided like the plague.When it comes to nonfiction, I like historians who also understand how to be storytellers, such as David McCulloch and David Cordingly. McCulloch’s John Adams and anything Cordingly has written about pirates are on the top of my recommendation lists.Where do you get your ideas/ how do you find inspiration?Most of my stories are tributes in one way or another to favorite literary or movie genres. I like to take different elements and try and find interesting ways to piece them together that I haven’t seen done before, or untapped potential in various works that I’ve come across.Can you share any free resources or tools you have found helpful?For researching, fandoms, re-enactment societies, and online communities are an invaluable resource if you’re looking for very specific information, or you want to identify the most useful sources if a lot of information is already out there. The people who are members of such communities tend to be sticklers for accuracy, which is a boon to any author who cares about this sort of thing.Another one is internet critics, particularly the reviewers – past and present – of Channel Awesome and Chez Apocalypse. Not only have I gotten a lot of enjoyment out of their work, but the hilarious way many of them highlight recurring writing issues in so many of their reviews – too much or not enough exposition, character inconsistencies, continuity errors – has really stuck in my mind. (To the point where I can actually picture being shredded for them while self-editing.) More importantly, they’ve also raised my awareness of certain tropes that I would rather not invoke, and I’m grateful to them for said awareness.Please give us your top 3 world-building tips.Strike a balance between giving a reader as much information as they need to picture the setting and set up the plot without killing the pacing of your story.Never underestimate the value of minor little details. Not only do said details give a sense of authenticity to the world you’re building, I’ve built entire character arcs and changed the entire premise of an in-progress book based on a stray sentence tucked away in a book I’m reading or a minor little detail a research resource wanted to make me aware of.Try and think of your world as a place that feels lived in, rather than just a backdrop for the action. What’s it actually like to live in this setting?How do people spend their days, and how does history and geography shape that?Do you outsource your work (editing and cover design specifically)?Editing and cover design, definitely. We all need another pair of eyes on our own work to catch the things we overlook. Also, because of my lack of a systematic method of writing and tendency to make drastic changes, I need someone to make sure everything still fits together and there aren’t any inconsistencies.As for my cover, I wanted something that would look reminiscent of a movie poster from the 1930s and 1940s, rather than Photoshopping random images together. My cover artist, Luke Reznor, and I have been best friends since 1999, and when I decided to self-publish, he was my first choice for doing the cover. He’s (all too) familiar with my love of classic swashbuckler movies, and understood precisely what kind of aesthetic I was going for.Are you a plotter or a pantser? Please tell us why and what your pre-writing processes are.I don't think I have any sort of definable process, and I'm inconsistent as to whether I'm a plotter or a pantser. Sometimes I'll mull over a certain aspect of the story or someone's character's development for weeks on end. Other times, I'll throw stuff in on a whim or from a sudden flash of inspiration and hope it works out. The only thing I do consistently is write out of order. Just as filmmakers don't usually shoot movies consecutively, I'll write the scenes I have the inspiration for, put it all together in some semblance of an order, and see if anything needs to be added or removed. But to say I have a process for doing any of that is an exaggeration at best.Why do you write?I have different reasons for writing different works. Sometimes an idea will just pop into my head, and I’ve just got to turn it into something and get it down on paper. I started the INCspotlight partially as a way to share my love of classic movies and comic books, among other things, and encourage my readers to give them a try. Also, given that THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE BLACK FLAG is a tribute to classic swashbucklers, I wanted to give myself some credibility as a fan of said genre.What is your mission statement?As much as we need new stories, new protagonists, and new storytellers, we shouldn’t forget about authors that have come before us. There are so many classic books and movies out there that only hardcore enthusiasts know about, and they deserve to be remembered and appreciated by newer audiences – while also recognizing that they may have some serious issues that need to be confronted, rather than swept under the table and forgotten about.What do you love the most about writing and why?I love the alchemy of writing, taking various elements and trying to find interesting ways to piece them together. It’s especially fun when working with mythology and folklore, and there are so many versions of the same story – how do you pick and choose, and how do you deal with conflicts and contradictions?What do you dislike about writing and why?Honestly, there isn’t anything about it I dislike, although I wish I was faster when it came to fiction writing. I see people able to write book after book after book, and I can’t help but wonder how they do it.Do you ever visit other authors' websites and if so, what do you look for? Why?Sometimes I do, mostly to see how they market themselves and their work, to see what I can do better or to see how I can stand out – an essential part of any serious attempt at marketing.In order of importance (most important first) when shopping online, what do you look at first? Cover design, formatting, reviews, description, price, publisher, author name, page count, preview, formats available.1. Description2. Formatting3. Preview4. Price5. Author Name6. Reviews7. Cover design8. Formats available9. Page Count10. PublisherI agree that indie publishing gives the author more control.Y/NI agree that indie books should be difficult to identify amongst traditionally published books.Y/NIn order of usefulness (most useful first) when marketing your book, which techniques do you recommend from these options? Social media. Media coverage (newspaper, TV, podcasts etc). Blog tours. Perma-free/ giveaways. Writing more books.1. Social Media2. Blog tours3. Media coverage4. Perma-free/ giveaways5. Writing more books (time-permitting)Writing is my dream. Y/NI agree the ideal price for an e-book on Amazon is 99c-$2.99. Y/NI have suffered writer's block in the past. Y/NCause of writer's block: Obsession over perfect wording or getting stuck on a plot point.How you resolved it: For the perfect wording obsession, just continuously chipping away at it until it’s something I’m happy with. For the latter, I rely on trusted beta readers to bounce ideas off of.I use (Word Processor):Microsoft WordI tried and failed to get a publishing deal and/ or literary agent or had one in the past. Y/NI outsource my editing.Y/NI outsource my cover design. Y/NI outsource my formatting. Y/NI write to a specific word count every day. Y/NI set goals and frequently review them. Y/NI write across genres. Y/NAbout Ian's book:Pirates. Jacobite rebels. Economic crisis. England in 1721 is a good time to be skilled with a blade. Unfortunately for Michael McNamara, wrongfully discharged from the Royal Navy, not even his expert swordsmanship can secure him employment. With nothing for him in England, he sets sail for Jamaica to find new opportunities. His capture of a gang of brigands makes him a local hero, earning him all sorts of attention. Among his new admirers are the lovely Dona Catalina Moore and - much to McNamara's disappointment - her fiancé, Captain Stephen Reynard, a former pirate. To earn his pardon, Reynard has sworn to capture seven pirate captains, and he only needs one more. Seeing this adventure as a ticket to fortune and glory, McNamara earns his place on Reynard's crew thanks to his his fencing prowess, despite his new captain's odd reluctance. The hunt pits him against treacherous seas, untrusting shipmates, and bloodthirsty pirates...and ensnares him in a conspiracy that threatens thousands of lives, including his and Catalina’s.Leave a comment or note of thanks for your readers?Thank you to everyone who took a chance – or who is willing to take a chance - on a first-time novelist! I hope you enjoy The Brotherhood of the Black Flag as much as I enjoyed writing it!
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