Dale’s Comments (group member since Sep 15, 2017)

Dale’s comments from the Navigating Indieworld Discussing All Things Indie group.

Hi Alex,

The title is good, but it might be improved a bit by finding something stronger than "unwanted." Perilous? Treacherous? I dunno. Maybe unwelcome.

For the blurb, try something like this. I've made a few assumptions about the story that might be wrong, based on the draft blurb. Apologies if I got anything horribly wrong.

-----
He shouldn't have listened.

Cas Dragunov knew his brother's plea for help could only spell trouble. Nikolai created more messes than he could ever clean up. But family was family, and Cas couldn't turn his back on him. Alas, he arrived on Dormero Station to find Nikolai dead but his debt to local crime boss Valen Massio very much alive.

On the hook for the money, Cas is stuck working for Massio to pay it off. It's a simple job. All he has to do is deliver the package that got his brother killed while evading both Massio's bloodthirsty rival and the Federal Security Service.

Piece of cake. Right?

Thank you, all!

Added mine. Thanks!

Hi everyone!

I recently joined this group and figured I should post an intro. I'm a software developer of long experience, an amateur astronomer, a bonsai artist (well, sort of--I have a lot to learn still), and obviously a writer.

I've been writing since childhood, mostly fiction, but since I'm more of a numbers person than a words person it's been a long haul to reach publishability. I have had a few technical articles published in print and online programming journals, and I've sold two essays to "Sky & Telescope."

In late 1999 I was selected to develop web content on my religion, the Baha'i Faith, for About.com, which I did for almost two years before they ran into financial trouble and dumped about a third of their sites. I built a new site and continued writing articles more or less weekly for ten years. My wife and I published a collection of those articles through Publish America, but that didn't work out entirely well. When we wanted to do a second collection, we started thinking about other options.

That led to us starting our own small religious publishing company, One Voice Press, in 2010. Since that time, we've published about 25 books, mostly written by other people. The vast majority of the content is from a Baha'i perspective, but we've always wanted to branch out into other religions (my wife is a Catholic), and are looking for ways to do that. We also have a fiction imprint, Serpent Cliff, that deals with fiction which has a religious/spiritual component.

The first two novels in my Howard County mystery series, The Fibonacci Murders and True Death were published through Serpent Cliff. The third, Ice on the Bay, should be out by the end of this year. I've begun work on HCM #4.

I'm also working on an SF/Humor novel called Space Operatic about a ne'er-do-well opera company trying to eke out a living on the fringes of the solar system. That's in the hands of a couple of beta readers now. I plan to go agent-hunting for that one, as it doesn't fit our own publishing program. And last but not least, I've started a new crime novel based on a couple of characters who debuted in some of my flash fiction stories for Indies Unlimited, Bernard and Melody Earls, he a guy who loves elegance and the good life (but doesn't have it) and she an airhead kleptomaniac who everybody loves. I'm having a lot of fun with those two.

I have more ambition than free time, though, so a lot of this is slow going. And I'm trying to figure out how to build some buzz ahead of the release of Ice on the Bay. I'm not very good at the marketing stuff yet...

Following all of you to this point!

I may be able to top all of you (but you be the judge)...

In the late 1990's, I started shopping for an agent for an SF novel I'd written. I had a couple of "close calls," in particular one agent who said she really liked the novel but she was closing down her agency. Then a friend of mine who had some success as writing for local publications said he'd landed an agent for a novel and suggested I sent my work to her. She accepted it, but asked for a small fee (I forget the amount; it was a few hundred but not near a thousand). Because my friend had signed with her, I figured she would be okay, so I sent in my money and signed the contract and waited. We even had a couple of over-dinner meetings.

But (of course) she turned out to be less an agent than a con artist, and after a year of her doing basically nothing to sell my work, I asked for my money back. As if by magic, she found a publisher for me--which turned out to be a vanity press. Of course I didn't sign with them.

What happened next didn't really occur to me until much later. I stopped writing. I mean, I stopped writing. After a few years, I started writing nonfiction for a website I ran, but I didn't write a line of fiction. After maybe six or seven years, I tried a little fiction, but I pretty much hated the process and the results, so I put it aside again.

Basically, I did no real fiction writing for ten years. When I got the idea for The Fibonacci Murders, it took me another year or so to find a story to fit the idea, and when I finished it and handed it to my editor/wife, her first comment was, "Well, I can tell you're out of practice."

I've now written three novels in that series (True Death and Ice on the Bay which should be published late this year), and I'm only now feeling like I've returned to where I probably was before that ten year hiatus.

Moral: Don't stop writing.

Sure, I'll jump in....

I just joined this group. My wife and I run a small press. My two mystery novels have been published through our company, and I have a third in the works, as well as a couple of other projects. In my day job I'm a software developer. My author profile is here.

Carole wrote: Happy birthday, Dale. That's a nice present.

Thank you!

Theodore wrote: Wow! That's terrific, Dale. Happy Birthday.

Thank you!

Amy,

For next time out, here's a tip. You don't need to spend a great deal of money to make an original cover, so long as you have and know how to use a graphics program like Photoshop or GIMP (the latter is open source and available for free). My wife and I run a small press. We use Dreamstime.com for graphics. (Other similar sites are available, but this is the one we like the best.) You create a free account and put a modest amount of money on it (say, $35 or so if I recall) to purchase credits. You can then apply those credits to download graphics you select from a huge library of images that photographers and artists make available. You're buying a license to use the image. Sometimes it takes some searching, but usually we can find something suitable--and high-quality. Let me know if you have any questions about the process.

--Dale

Carole,

Carole wrote: "Welcome to the group, Dale.

Thank you! I don't know how much time I'll have to participate, but I'll keep tabs on it. I've enjoyed Ted's stories, too. I may have to talk to him about this tendency of his to walk away with the award week after week, though. ;-)

--Dale

Ted,

Yes, I see you cracked the code! LOL It's always good to bring in the cavalry.

Yeah, I've done that before, but not often. I don't like to blitz my FB friends with requests for things. But they're a good bunch and usually come through when I ask. Winning this week was extra nice because yesterday was my birthday. I actually wasn't thinking of that at the time, but it worked out well.

I asked once about the Editor's Choice awards. They're so far behind because the staff is all volunteer and have a lot of irons in the fire. They do get to it eventually, but it takes months. I'm not sure I always agree with their choices, but my first flash fiction piece did win and will appear in their upcoming anthology, so I can't complain too much. ;-)

--Dale

Hey Ted,

Just found this group, and now I see where so many of your votes are coming from. ;-) I admit to doing a Facebook blitz this week to try to get more than the paltry few votes I normally get when I post. Next week I'll take it easy on you. ;-)

Interesting that you're doing a collection of these stories. I pondered that a time or two, but I tend to think in terms of 80,000 word books, which would require a ridiculous 300+ flash fiction stories, so I'm not really considering it. However, you'll recall I emailed you some time back about my Bernie & Melody stories. I've started a novel based on those characters, and might include the flash fiction stories as bonuses.

--Dale