Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors Review discussion
Current projects
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What are you working on at the moment?
Yes, dieselpunk often involves alternative diesel technology, so engines have their place in this genre, cars, planes, airships, etc. But I think the connecting thread is often, but not always to be found in the period rather than the diesel engine itself. If you're interested I think this is a pretty good piece on the subject: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...
Dave wrote: "I'm working on it as fast as I can - just have to devote time to the writing that pays the bills, too.
(Especially as they went up when stepdaughter moved in along with her 25 stone boyfriend)."
Dave, writing to pay those bills might be the least of your worries... Keep safe. I hope your stepdaughter's boyfriend doesn't eat you!!!
(Especially as they went up when stepdaughter moved in along with her 25 stone boyfriend)."
Dave, writing to pay those bills might be the least of your worries... Keep safe. I hope your stepdaughter's boyfriend doesn't eat you!!!
I'm currently working on book 2 of The Firebird Trilogy at the moment (fantasy fiction type stuff) and I think it's trying to kill me. The Man (book 1) made suggestions as to the location of the second book, but I'm hoping this one will drag readers further down the rabbit hole/through the wardrobe/into the mirror (and any other fantasy portal fiction example I can grab at a moments notice!)
I'm also now trying to establish The Lost and Found Sock Appreciation Society page, which has nothing to do with writing but extends a helping hand to the local sockless community by reuniting them with lost socks :)
I am currently working on a few different projects:The sequel to Checkered Scissors: I haven't decided on a title for this one.
Pickled Bananas and Other Schwartz Stories: I got my pile of edits to go through from my editor. I've cleaned up two out of the fourteen short stories. Is it wrong that I am so entertained by reading my own stories?
Peggy (a game engine): This isn't a work of fiction. A few years ago, I started constructing a web-based game engine for tabletop games. It's meant for indie game designers (like myself) to help prototype games and share them publicly without the printing costs.
The Curse: A script for my buddy, Phil, who wants to get into creating short films for YouTube. If you know anyone like this, let me know and I'll share the script. We would like to see what some of our other film-maker friends do with it.
I actually dropped a couple other projects earlier this year due to the lack of time to give them enough attention. Anyone else have too many ideas and can't find enough time?
I wish everyone success on their current and future W(s)IP!
Douglas wrote: "Anyone else have too many ideas and can't find enough time?"That sounds all too familiar. I think I have that same problem, but I'm trying to get my focus right. One at a time, that is the plan, and I'm sticking to it, hopefully.
By the way, I love that title: Pickled Bananas and Other Schwartz Stories.
Hákon wrote: "Douglas wrote: "Anyone else have too many ideas and can't find enough time?"That sounds all too familiar..."
A happy curse. Write the ideas down at least. Then work on prioritizing. Ideas partially formed and never realized might be a waste, but they're far better than suddenly finding you've got no ideas at all.
Just looked at my projects list: not including the published ones, I've got 18 novel/novellas and 5 short stories/novelettes started.
The real issue is time. Having to work full time to pay the bills is a real productivity killer. **Grrrrrrrrrrrr**
I hear you Micah. I could get a lot more done if I didn't have to work all the time. ;)
I'm working on the sequel to my only released book, 712.9.It's going. That's really the best I can say about it :/
1-I'm writing a side story to my series (a SciFi/Fantasy). One of my beta readers suggested it to me.2-I'm beta reading for a friend.
3-And I signed up for an online writing course (7 weeks).
So I'll be busy for a while. :]
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Too many ideas? Nah, I don't know anything about that. ;)
Here's an update to what I'm currently working on. I've finished the edits with my short story collection (Pickled Bananas and other Schwartz Stories). I need to do the last few things to it: formatting, send to the Copyright office, assign ISBNs, etc.Also, the board approved the peer writing group for our local library. I'll be organizing and preparing things for our first meeting in September.
Then, back to the sequel to Checkered Scissors.
K, here goes ...I'm trying to get reviews by doing review dances (similar to rain dances, but there's a lot more crying/laughing/weird movements going on, scary, right?) to the gods, I'm still trying to figure out who they are, or even 'if' they are.
I've started the 2nd book in the trilogy, following is a shameless plugaroo Don't Let The Demons Eat Your Heart and it's going to be called Silver... nah ah, I'm not ready for that reveal yet.
Also, like Christina, above, I will be taking a walk down the dark side to one of my female protags, yeah, (nods head in a scary way) but I'll also rein it in so that it doesn't kill ya, know what I mean?
By the way G.G. 7 week writing course? you rock! oh, and when you're done with it, have yourself a glass of Dom Perri or better yet, maybe something for a 10th of the price.
Question: Why do you write? I write because it allows me to be someone far removed from my boring real self, well, that's just one of the reasons. you can find a couple more at my Amazon author page and here at my Goodreads profile. Links ... https://www.goodreads.com/author/show... and http://www.amazon.com/Turhan/e/B00JGP...
Mod
I write to keep myself sane...ish.
Chapter 27 of 28 editing a massive scifi epic. Will be glad to see the back of it as it has consumed my August and sent me to the doctor.
Christina wrote: "Hey, Turhan, I am curious as to where you got the name Daughters of Darkness? I have a cult in my Eyes of The Sun series with the same name. I named mine after a schlocky movie about Elizabeth Bath..."You're obviously not as 'ancient of days' as I am Christina, but, I remember a looooong time ago when Tom Jones (have you heard of him?) used to sing a song called, yep, you got it 'Daughter
So, what's the moral of the story? There isn't one! But you have to admit 'great minds' yours/mine think alike, right?
Oh ... and 'ish' is a good balance.
Vanessa wrote: "Chapter 27 of 28 editing a massive scifi epic. Will be glad to see the back of it as it has consumed my August and sent me to the doctor.""doctor" ... like shrink, kinda doc?
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Well, ancient of days is subjective. I've had twenty somethings who were young enough to be my children tell me they were 'old' before. But I'll take the compliment. ;)
Yep, I've heard of Tom Jones, but not that particular song. Never got the fascination with him though. The film I referenced apparently came out one year after the song.They missed an opportunity for a tie-in.
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Richard wrote: "Like a mythic hero, I'm still single-handedly battling the Beast of message 6..."Dude ... stop. It doesn't work like that. If you're writing (gotta do that right?) then network, interact, have fun talking to your peers and readers, improve your craft, respect that 'if' you have what readers want, they'll give you the heart of the "Beast" Most of all, stop chasing rainbows, they disappear and turn into your nightmares.
@Turhan tis, I'll settle for Concord grape wine. :) The course is fun, and there's a few hundred writers and people just loving the art. We learn we write we comment of each other's writing. Nothing hard and also a one time fee for a life time subscriptions. (Twice a year) :)
Have you tried r&r here on GR? It's a great way to get reviews and your book to be read by people. Easier than Review dance. ;)
G.G. wrote: "@Turhan tis, I'll settle for Concord grape wine. :) The course is fun, and there's a few hundred writers and people just loving the art. We learn we write we comment of each other's writing. Noth..."
Yup, I did the R&R thing in a couple of groups, it's actually how I got my one-and-only review. I've had others request a mobi etc from me and after sending it to their emails, months have passed by and I never heard back from them.
Right now, my plan is to get 5 reviews, glowing or not, and then I'll start reviewing again myself.
Your course sounds like fun G.G. good luck!
Christina wrote: "Turhan wrote: "You're obviously not as 'ancient of days' as I am Christina"Well, ancient of days is subjective. I've had twenty somethings who were young enough to be my children tell me they wer..."
Check this out ... I was just surfing around and looking for indie book reviewers to review my book and look what I found https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2... ... maybe we should all form an alliance of some kind and look at the moon at the same time once every year and chant some crazy other-worldly utterances! Yikes!<---I totally over-use that term.
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You say this like you don't perform such rituals nightly. I must be the only one. ;)
Seriously though, that's funny. After inadvertently naming my first book after a band and a Doors song (and catching all kinds of flack for my grammar mistake that wasn't actually a mistake but intentional), I'm quick to Google all ideas before I commit to naming my books these days.
Turhan wrote: "Christina wrote: "Turhan wrote: "You're obviously not as 'ancient of days' as I am Christina"Well, ancient of days is subjective. I've had twenty somethings who were young enough to be my childre..."
I take it as a sign you have great taste when it comes to title. :P
Sounds a bit like me. My book came out end of may The Legacy: Destiny and look what I found that came out in the beginning of june: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
Both almost came out within a week from each other.
The difference is mine is book two of The Legacy Series, while his is book one. Too funny.
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I try to come up with a great title for my books, but so many good ones have been taken. I always do a search to make sure it hasn't been taken.
Christina wrote: "I suppose with so many of us these days, we're bound to run out of titles eventually, right?"True :) Unless you create your own words and then people will think there's a typo in the title. :P
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*sigh*
Too late, I think that's the title of R2D2's autobiography.
Christina wrote: "My next book will now be called Erp Bleep Blorp Wooeee. *sigh*
Too late, I think that's the title of R2D2's autobiography."
LOL
If I'm struggling for a book title, I write a sentence on what the book is about (the longer the better, more like a paragraph) and then take the first letter of each word and play with it until I have enough words to make a title. Hasn't worked yet, but one day I might just get lucky - procrastination at it's best! :)
Yesterday, I got
available via Amazon's KDP Select program.I'm back onto the sequel to Checkered Scissors (No title yet).
Plus, I will be having the first meeting of our writer's guild with the local library next week, so I have some stuff to prepare for that.
I don't know how I juggle all of this, a family, and a day job, and still have time left over for Doctor Who. Oh well. Whatever works. :)
Mod
Okay, this is freaky. I thought nothing of this the other day since I was not familiar with the term Cambion. However...
I was just doing a little research and came across this word on an index of demons. Why am I freaked? Because one of the characters in my next series is a 13th generation witch born of a virgin who was visited in her dreams by an incubus! I'm calling her a Nyx (child of chaos) instead of a Cambion, but that's still weird.
Congrats, you have just moved up the list to " person whose book I am reading as soon as I finish the one I am reading now so that I don't end up writing the same thing!"
Christina wrote: "Turhan wrote: "since some of my female protags are Cambion offspring from crazy demons."Okay, this is freaky. I thought nothing of this the other day since I was not familiar with the term Cambio..."
Weird how that kinda stuff happens ... By the way, I have a 'twist' to my Cambion children. They are the female children, born directly from the Succubi womb. Any research you do on Cambion children has the Succubus collecting the semen from a human male (while having sex) and then pass that semen to an Incubus who then impregnates a human female. But I like breaking rules :)
Dude ... that's an awesome name 'Nyx' and 13th generation is perfect! Oh and I know great minds think alike, but I just know you'll be unique ... Good unique!
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Christina wrote: "Thanks! I like breaking the rules too. My succubus is a more like a vampiric praying mantis and my incubus has no form outside of dreams. I think I might have inadvertently challenged myself to rew..."Maybe your succubus should be a vampiric 'preying' mantis and yeah, tinkering ... that innocent little innocuous term. Gotta luv it!
ETA: Hey, I just checked out your profile and noticed you like to cook vegan, are you vegan? I used to be vegan (5 years) but now I eat fish and cheese. Is there a correlation? eat vegan, author books about odd stuff, perform weird rituals, and just generally be awesome!
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I'm *mostly* vegan. I've been vegetarian for years, but my husband decided to go full on vegan this year and since separate meals would be a pain, I went with him. My only exceptions are cream for my coffee and the occasional cheese binge. Between the two of us, we have so many dietary restrictions that we took it upon ourselves to create interesting meals and it turns out, it's fun!
But no, I haven't opened up the fridge to find a portal to another dimension, or a block of talking tofu that has all of the answers to life, the universe, and everything... yet.
About about two months ago I wrote in this thread: "Still working on my second novel, now with 16 finished chapters. About 62,000 words. Working toward 90 to 100 thousand."
I now have 26 finished chapters, 98,500 words, and starting on 27 with the certainty that this book will easily top 100,000 words. I know its ending, and it's pretty close, but I'm trying to find the natural progression to that ending, so it won't feel either too rushed or too slowly drawn out. Already it's the longest, and best, thing I've ever written.
I now have 26 finished chapters, 98,500 words, and starting on 27 with the certainty that this book will easily top 100,000 words. I know its ending, and it's pretty close, but I'm trying to find the natural progression to that ending, so it won't feel either too rushed or too slowly drawn out. Already it's the longest, and best, thing I've ever written.
Hello Everyone here is my WIP, the synopys The Lost City: King’s Inheritance
King family was killed on their throne when Raphael attacked the Caribbean, looking for the location of the boy of the prophecy.
The King family sent Noryad, their fourth and strongest son, through a portal to the Guild Never Too Late, one among them, but not before Noryad watched how his brothers and sister being killed in front of his eyes. As the portal closed Noryad heard Raphael say to him “I will look for you when you are older. You cannot hide forever.”
Noryad, now 24 years old, is forced to leave the Guild he dedicated his life to because his powers are getting out of control. His departure happened for another reason too. His parents left him a mission for when his powers got to be too much to deal with.
Go my son. Reclaim what is yours by right. Look for the Sword of Kings, the one our ancestors used during their leadership. Make our army of the dead comeback to life. Make the King of Camelot kneel before you and recognize you as his descendant.
Noryad, left with no other choice but to return to the place that has many dark memories for him, goes through a portal and into the unknown to look for something he’s never heard of.
He must learn to control his powers as he faces something sinister waiting for him in his Kingdom, and the Demon he hates the most.
Will Noryad be able to control his powers, find the sword his parents were talking about and make them proud of him? Or will he be too consumed by his revenge to claim his inheritance and lose all that he holds dear.
Can't resist this one.WIP's:
My debut series "Followers of Torments" based way, way, way back. Back when there weren't any humans. It's definitely interesting to work with the characters: Elves, dark elves, faeries, were animals, vampires, the mythical works. Started from a role play scenario that decided to take on a life of its own.
Thought I was done with book 1, and actually pushed it out to publication, then realized I missed something rather important. I had place holder words in italics, but when it bounced, and I couldn't fix the formatting, I blew the formatting and the markers. So, now having to go back and find all of the words to replace with ones that aren't at risk for infringement issues. Hoping to get that done before the book is discovered by too many more.
In the mean time, in between re-reading that, working on school work, and trying to find time to read current stuff, I'm working on book 2 in the series. This one was supposed to be out early November, but at the rate of slippage I'm experiencing, late November is more like it.
The basic story of the series revolves around the main character: A pukah who went terribly, horribly wrong. He was raised to be a fighter in the gladiatorial pits of the dark elves, and eventually wins his way to freedom. But, he doesn't actually win freedom, just a different set of shackles - ones that aren't seen. He rebels against this, and starts a personal war against the culture, but finds himself completely exiled. To win his way back, and to finish his plans, he has to bring with him fighters who will win in the pits, since he is barred from fighting in them himself. However, he wasn't actually supposed to become a fighter in the first place. He was supposed to be something else. Books 1 and 2 deal with his days of slavery and seeming freedom, book 3 should deal with the wrenching dislocation experienced once he realizes who he thought he was isn't who he is really, and books 4 and 5 will deal with the choices he has to make in order to achieve his proper position, or if he decides to walk away and leave it all behind forever.
What I'm doing: I've just finished my edits on the short works collection (The Cut-Up Man: And other Posthumany Cycle stories). I'm now receiving test read comments and corrections on it and working through one bugger of a Kindle formatting issue (or something, the danged Kindle for PC app keeps crashing on me on one page and I can't figure out why).Ken wrote: "I try to come up with a great title for my books, but so many good ones have been taken. I always do a search to make sure it hasn't been taken."
All the talk about titles...Someone on GR did a search for one of my Posthuman Cycle books on Amazon and came up with a 2012 book using the same series name. But, as the author of that other "series" apparently only has the one book of the series published in the past two years, and since I have a novella and two short stories (and the collection mentioned above coming soon) published in my series...I figure I'll just stick with my title. I out number him 4 releases to one ;P
Incidentally, the titles in my Posthuman Cycle books all come from Pink Floyd lyrics (although usually obscure lines from lesser known songs):
NightBird Calling - novella, title comes from The Narrow Way ('You hear the night birds calling you')
"Watching the Watcher" - short story, title from Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun ('Over the mountain watching the watcher.')
"Born Into Shadows" - short story, title is a misheard lyric from Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun ('Morning to birth is born into shadow.' The actual line is 'One inch of love is one inch of shadow' but I kept the misheard lyric because the plot includes an element of deception so I found the misheard line to be appropriate.)
The Cut-Up Man - novella, title is from Ibiza Bar (' I feel like a hard-boiled and cut-up man')
(Please Don't) Put Your Wires In My Brain - novelette, title is from If ('If I go insane, please don't put / Your wires in my brain.')
It was only after I had started this trend that I found out Alastair Reynolds had a book out called Born on the Steel Breeze...
**shakes grumpy fist**
Richard wrote: " What I'm confronted with, the void I'm staring into, is that most profound (and possibly unanswerable) of all philosophical questions: how to promote your writing without promoting it..."Unless someone's paying you to think about it...I've always considered philosophy to be little more than an interesting waste of time.
Just write. Worst thing that could happen is you'll waste a lot of time that you might otherwise spend pondering how to promote your books without seeming to promote your books (most of which you've never even written!).
I mean, if you enjoy writing. If not and you just want to make a bazillion bucks...then you need to brush up your erotica and romance skilz. Maybe add in personal motivation books and then big speaking tours.
Go watch Star Wars. Listen to what Yoda says. "Do or do not."
I figure when you've got 20 books in your catalog then you can worry about your sales.
I'm probably in the wrong group to say what I'm actually working on these days, becuase it's not sci-fi, speculative fiction, fantasy or horror, but a Christmas short story for a collection that will probably see the light of day in 2015. When that is done I'll get back to my alternative history novel which I hope to finish this winter. And maybe I'll try to getting the two flash fiction collection published, and, well, the list of things to do goes on for a while.
Do or do not, that is the question. I think I'll chose do.
In addition to lots of notes for stories, currently I am focused on a trilogy with sci fi and paranormal, and a near future novella. As an indie, I'd like the 3 books in the trilogy to be published within a few months of each other for maximum impact. So progress is slow with Book I at the edit stage with 61k words, Book II at 15k and book 3 at 5K with many gaps to fill between my ideas for the start and end of each Book.
I want another book out soon if possible, so the novella makes sense, if I can expand to 20k. I just posted a piece on my blog http://AuroraSpringerNovels.blogspot.com
I'm more than halfway through writing my second book. It's the 2nd book in a series. I'm at the 52K word mark and my idea sheet still has another couple of pages of ideas for upcoming scenes. I recently had an idea for a twist that will require me to go back and lay the foundations earlier in the story. I think it's a great idea, so it will be worth the effort.This book has several different story lines that need to converge at the right moment. There's also a long term story arc that spans the first 3 books. I know the ending for books 2 & 3 even though I don't know all of the details yet.
I took some time off from the book earlier this year to write a short story. I got part of the way into it when another story demanded my attention. I put the original story aside and finished the new one. When I need a break from writing the novel, I'll return to the short story and finish it.
My free time and peak energy times don't line up very well, so making effective use of my time is a challenge. I'm hoping to be more diligent than I have been in the last few months.
A little over a month ago I reported that my current project was coming along well. I had 26 finished chapters, 98,500 words, and expected it to top over 100,000. Right now I'm at 120,000 words and 31 chapters. I'm working on chapter 32, which will almost certainly finish the book. I edit and revise each chapter as I go along, so it's almost a finished product. But I'll still go back through and look for inconsistencies, plot holes, etc. Months ago I set a finish date of around the end of October. Looks as though I'll make it; if not, I'll still be close.
currently halfway through the third book in the agency series "line of fire" and started with the second book in the signet series "enter a shadowy figure " . also finishing the final draft in a new paranormal fantasy "a guiding light" and going through beta read of final draft for "spellbound". I work on several projects at once lolz
Earlier this month I reported having some difficulties with book 2 in my series, due to school issues. That hasn't really let up, but I have still managed to top the 100k mark. Then either my computer turned wonky (which is possible) or I goofed (which is also possible) and I lost a substantial chunk of progress. It set me back to somewhere around the 94k mark. With a book being prepared for school, I haven't had the time I wanted to devote to finishing this project. Oh, and add to the mix that book 3 is really starting to rattle the bars on its cage. I've got most of the character's backstories written. And, though this will probably not show up in the book, it amounts to somewhere in the neighborhood of 12k words to pick and choose from that did not get devoted to finishing up book 2.
Book 1 is back with an editor. Trying to make sure I caught all of the words that should be in italics and see if it can be tightend up a bit more. (And, from what I'm hearing back, instead of getting shorter in the editing process, it will be growing again. Hoooboy!)
Definitely going to be late November before Book 2 is even presentable as a finished piece, though I have a hunch it will be sent out, and then go through a heavy revision once it's been out awhile and I can afford the editor. (Really got to work on that timing a bit more, don't I?)
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Sci-Fi, fantasy and speculative Indie Authors...
Books mentioned in this topic
Against the Eldest Flame (other topics)Daedalus and the Deep (other topics)
Rarity from the Hollow (other topics)
To Summon The Blackbird (other topics)
Reconfigure (other topics)
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I mean the whole "Yesterday's Tomorrow" motif you get in movies like Sky Captain.