A Typical Day In This Authors Life

After another late night of proof reading for the bazilianth time another of my Bears and Eagles Series books, my dogs are clamoring to be let out. Fall out of bed, stumble over to the coffee machine, get a pot brewing and take the dogs out into the cold crisp winter morning. The coffee is done, I have four e-mail messages from DHL saying to pay customs on four shipments of books.

So, a guy orders 100 books from the printer and they send them in four separate packages with four separate tracking numbers and now I have to pay four separate customs duties on one order? I’m confused.

Check out the cost of shipping for myself. To make a profit, I’d have to charge over $30 a book! Yikes.

Ok, ADD kicks in, I get a little side tracked on the internet like usual. Oops it’s lunch time and the dogs have to go out again. OK, back to work. Nope! battery is dead on the trusty laptop. Where did I leave the charger?

Ut oh, it’s time for the skype meeting with my editor. Back in time to 1918 I go.

Get a comment on the blog site. Ok, is this guy for real or is it spam? Not sure on this one.

Oh man, Good reads is screwing up my new book page already!! Try to get that fixed.

Ok, #2 son shows up and it’s now supper time. Nother day of no new writing.

So, the new comment asked where I get the information to write my novels. There is no simple answer to that question. The book I am writing currently is in the now and I thought it would be a good thing for my guy to have his own airplane. I spent about a week researching aircraft until I finally settled on one that would suit his needs. Then another couple of days reading performance specs, pilot check lists, maintenance requirements and because this thing can and does some pretty amazing things other than fly, finding out how all these things work and how my hero and his buddies can use them to their advantage.

So, now I am in a conundrum. I have to shift from jet age back to almost horse and buggy days, plus get book two published and marketed. Argh! Fun times indeed.

So back to the original question.

My new hero is a member of a reserve army unit. It does exist in the real world. I have a plot and main character. Now to fit everything together. Research has to be done on what the real world regiment does, the equipment they use, the uniforms and decorations. Then other characters need to be introduced and researched. All this takes time, because while this story is fictional, and while certain licence can be taken, the story still has to feel and sound real.

Generally, I just write after that. Things come out and go on paper. Then I walk away for a few days and re read it, pulling it apart and putting it back together again. Finally it starts to come together out of a jumble of thoughts. Book four was written the same time the other three were. Originally, it was all one book. Yikes! A monster.

While I am reading my stuff, I find something that needs to be redone, for whatever reason. Example, my hero is troubled and needs to go away for a while. Or, a change in location needs to be dramatized. I let my mind drift and let sights sounds and smells come from my memories or even what I see out my window. Or, I ask myself, how would I feel or react in that situation.

For me, the whole point is to make an imaginary world come to life on a page. In this day and age where images are constantly bombarding us, our imaginations are not being used to the fullest, In my opinion.

Anyway. Somebody asked. So that’s this one authors perspective on it.

Ok, ADD, back boy back! Get focused Wooly, your hero needs to land that stupid plane of his. The bad guys are doing bad things and he needs to save the world.