One Month

It's January 31st, and I've had a successful month, I would say. A blog post every day (albeit a couple of them after midnight, but they still count), for a total of 31. Different topics, of course, but I'm trying to stick to mainly writing here, with some farm stuff as well. And the occasional rambling topic, because that's part of the fun of blogging.

For writing, it's been the most productive month I've had in quite a while. A book published, and the sequel begun. Another book published, and the sequel almost ready to go already. All in all, that's a darn good start to 2023.

As for farm stuff, it's January on PEI; not much farming going on. Just keeping the birds and bunnies fed on a daily basis, and planning out what we're going to do in the spring with the gardens. So, that's in sort of a holding pattern right now. But February will get busy as we ramp up for the early planting.

What else is going on? Not a lot, frankly. Dannielle is getting her business underway to bring extra money in, and Tanner is excited about starting his first group D&D game ever. I think it will be a lot of fun, for him and the other kids. But we shall see how it goes.

So, a short post tonight to keep things going, and a very satisfying conclusion to January. I hope February will be just as good.

Short Stories vs. Novels

Some people love reading short stories. Some people love writing them. Some people prefer novels; I fall into the latter category.

The online courses I take from Dean Wesley Smith all include a short story submission; you send it, he reads it and gives you feedback. I've sent a few in, but not many. It's just a tough style and structure for me to make work. Some people are fantastic at it, and to those people, I tip my hat. But I like to let my stories breathe a bit. That's not to say I've never written any short stories; obviously, I have. There's a whole anthology of them, A Universe of Possibilities, that I wrote and published. But it's definitely not my preferred style.

The thing about short stories is that you really have to get right to the meat of the story; there's no room for an appetizer, so to speak. There can't be more than a few characters, there's no room for anything but the most basic character development, and things get to the climax almost before there's been time to set anything up.

Now, I'm sure that there are short story writers who will disagree with me, and that's fine; if we all liked the same thing, we'd all eat spaghetti. I know there are people who write tremendous short stories; I just prefer the longer format myself.

Then, of course, there's the middle-road, the novella or novelette. By today's standards of door-stopping megabooks, these are practically short stories. They're usually around 20-40,000 words, which gives them a lot more room to work in characters, development, subplots, etc. than your typical short story. On the other hand, they don't drag on in endless descriptions of scenery, philosophical discussions, or technobabble pseudo-scientific backstory. They get to the point, they just take a bit longer to get there. My Cameron Vail mysteries, such as Final Exam, fall into that category.

But for me, I love the longer format of a novel. The best example of it that I've written would be Apprentice, the first book of the Shadowmage Saga. It's intended to be the beginning of an ongoing series, but if you ignore the last page of the epilogue, it can stand alone. Now, I didn't fill it with scenery, philosophy or technobabble; I put a lot of action in there, in the spirit of the old pulps. But it's a story that takes time to tell. It wasn't going to fit in a short format, or even a novella. It needed to be big. And it is, at 75,000 words. That's actually shorter than I expected, but as I said, I didn't pad it out with extra weight. It is what it needs to be.

So, what type of story do you prefer? Short, medium, or long? Let me know in the comments. And if you can't decide, check out the books I've linked above to help you make up your mind.

Living in the Twilight Zone

For the past fifteen years, my wife has been an adamant opponent of role-playing games, in particular Dungeons & Dragons. While she never fully articulated the reasons for her opposition, I think it boils down to two. One, it's not meant to be a solo activity, and I admit that I did spend a lot of time when I was younger playing solo D&D. Two, and this is the main one, my wife sees it as a 'nerd' thing. She grew up around the same time I did, when D&D was most definitely NOT the cool thing. On the high school social scale back in the 1980s and early 90s, RPG players ranked below the Glee Club.

And then, she married a writer of fantasy fiction and raised a son who grew up loving fantasy books and movies, especially Harry Potter, which he is really into right now. And she found out, to her horror and confusion, that there is a homeschooling gamers group here on the Island.

And so, after a decade and a half, my wife has finally relented and will allow Tanner and I to play D&D, as long as it's not just the two of us. Which I'm fine with. I'll get to be a DM for the first time in years, I'll get to play with my son, and he's going to have some friends to play with as well. He's already got a couple of friends who want to play, and we'll be having our first game this coming weekend.

But here's the best part: My wife asked how many people should be playing, and when I told her at least four or five players plus myself, she actually advertised the game on the homeschooling group. My wife is actively looking for players for us. Mind. Blown.

So, the question becomes, what version of the game? After all, there have been so many of them. Original D&D, BECMI, five editions of AD&D, countless clones built on the OGL...what to do?

Well, I don't play the newer versions, and there's no way in hell we're going to be buying any new materials. I have plenty of stuff here. I've got almost a full collection of the BECMI line (that's Basic, Expert, Companion, Masters, and Immortals for the uninitiated), but I've also got the 1E project I've been working on which follows the history of the game and its development. I'd really, really like to do that, especially since it's set in the world of Meterra. Either one will be easy for the players to learn, with character creation taking far less time than it does in the newer versions. Fifteen to twenty minutes, and we'll be ready to go.

I've got a week to decide, but my gut is telling me to go with Meterra and the 1E project. It will be a good introduction for the players, and there's a natural narrative that I developed as I went through the early stages of the project to explain the various changes that happen in the game world. Not to mention, it's a bite-sized chunk instead of a whole world, so it will be easier to get into it.

Decisions, decisions.

To get an idea of what the world of Meterra looks like, check out the first two books in the series: Arrival, and The Devil's Playground.

Working on Book Two...

I'm reading through the second book, or rather the second half of the whole book of Kane, and I'm on chapter 40. I'm running into the part of the book where I had skipped ahead because I didn't know how to write out a certain section and I wanted to keep moving. But then I went back and filled in the missing section, so now I need to review the last few chapters to make sure they fit with what I wrote; it wouldn't do to have two characters meet for the first time when they actually met two chapters earlier. That would be awkward.

I worked on this book back when I was doing a lot of writing in 2020. I actually got this far into the whole book (about eighty chapters or so at the time) by March or April. But I wasn't able to afford a cover artist at the time, and I really wanted to get a professional cover. That will have to wait for now, but I was tired of waiting to get the actual book out. And since I've gotten some very nice compliments on the cover art for Crimson Moon, I saw no reason not to go with that artwork on the book and get it published. It was the same with Apprentice, the Shadowmage book, although the cover art for that is a bit less on-point than I might like.

So, what to do for the next book? I'll need another cover, obviously, and I haven't started looking for it just yet. I hope I get lucky like I did for the first book. If not...well, I'll come up with something.

When I was deciding how to publish the entirety of the story, I debated whether I should cut the book in two or three parts. In the end, I went with two, since the end of Part IV was a natural break in the story. I mean, there are several natural breaks; the first book does cover about forty years, after all, and there are very long skips in time in there. I mean, I could have broken this up into five or six smaller books if I really wanted to, but that seemed excessive.

The thing about writing a book in multiple parts like this is that there are several climactic sequences, not just one big one at the end. There are seven parts to this book, and each one has its climax, followed by a denouement, and possibly an interlude before moving on to the next part. But the whole story is so connected that splitting it up would have taken away from the story's impact.

My thought right now is to get the second book done and published by the end of February (an easy goal to achieve, assuming I can get cover art that fits), and then do a hardcover of the whole story as one book. After all, a hardcover is expected to be thick and full these days.

In the meantime, though, I still have to finish the second book, and there's already one out there to be read. Check it out, and by the time you're done reading it, the next book should be ready to go.

Hardcovers Too?

As I was getting the final work done on getting Crimson Moon up on Amazon, I noticed that Amazon is beta-testing a hardcover option. I haven't thought of doing my books in hardcover as of yet, partly because the option wasn't there yet, and partly because I'm not exactly making the best-seller lists at this point.

Still, now that I know it's an option, I'm going to look into it a bit more closely. I mean, it's great to have my books in paperback, but hardcover? Long-lasting, looks great on a bookshelf...yeah, I could go for that.

Still, before I worry about hardcovers, I'm going to start getting more of my other books into paperback format. I'm going to get Apprentice into that format as well this weekend, and I'm going to see about getting at least one Cameron Vail book into paperback as well.

The issue for me is still cover art; I got lucky with Crimson Moon, but I can't count on finding that kind of artwork for free on the internet on a regular basis. I need to figure out a way to commission the art I need. I would like to use Fiverr again, but you have to be careful with that; I tried to go cheap on one cover, and was that ever a mistake. I'm glad I got greyghost to do the art for three of my books; he did a great job.

And, of course, I have ten more books to get finished this year. So, I'd better get back to work. While you wait for something else, check out my latest release, Crimson Moon, the First Book of Kane, available now in ebook and paperback format.

Crimson Moon: The First Book of Kane

And it's here!

And, as a bonus, it's available in paperback, as well! Same day, too. I was up until two in the morning last night, but...totally worth it.

I mean...what else is there to say? Oh, and that's two this year (yes, I'm counting Apprentice as a 2023 release). Ten to go to reach my goal.

Noble Titles

It's looking pretty good; tonight, I'll be putting the book up on Amazon. There's only one thing I still need to do, though: The book needs a good title.

I mean, when you think about it, the title is really the most important thing about the book. Why? Because it's the first thing, other than the cover art, that people will see. So, it has to be a title that will get their attention when they see it.

Some titles are short and to the point: Final Exam, In the Beginning, The Awakening. Some are longer, more drawn out: Bard Conley's Adventures Across the Solar System, A Universe of Possibilities. But either way, the title needs to give someone a reason to want to read an author they've never seen before.

So, what will I call this one? My original idea, back in the day, was simply 'The Chronicles of Kane'. But I've already got the Chronicles of Meterra and the Saga of the Shadowmage. I don't want to get in a rut. Since this is a two-book set (the whole thing would have been massive at well over five hundred pages), I'm thinking I'd like a two-punch pair of titles that go well together.

And, I think I've got it. The first book will be Crimson Moon. The second is Crystal Lilac. Yeah, I like that. That will work.

So, back to it. Time to get Crimson Moon published. I'm getting tingly feelings just thinking about it. And I want the paperback for it done as well; no sense in sticking solely to e-books. Paperbacks are more real, anyway.

Cover Art for the New Book

I have to say, I wasn't expecting to find much available for free on the internet. Okay, let me rephrase that; there's way, way too much out there for free on the internet. But I was looking for a picture that would suit the new book and be usable as both an ebook cover and a wraparound paperback cover. And, lo and behold, I did.

Not bad, eh? It isn't perfect; I'm not going to find a picture like that which includes a picture of a samurai or a ninja or something like that, but still. I like it. And, it will do until I find a suitable cover artist who can do the kind of cover I really want. And no, it won't be an anime cover. I don't do anime.

So, it's time for a final review of the book, and then I'll get it uploaded for publication. I'm planning to have both the ebook and paperback out simultaneously, or as close to it as I can get.

Getting Another Book Ready

I was hoping to get the second Shadowmage book done this month, but that's not going to happen. But I do have another book in the hopper that I will have ready before the end of January. It's fantasy, but a much different one than what I've written before.

This book dates back a long, long time. In fact, it's the first book I ever finished. It was the first book I sent to a publisher. And...it was the book that convinced me that I wasn't going to be a successful writer since I got rejected. I know, I know...I was young and foolish; it was literally half a lifetime ago. But a couple of years ago, I decided to give it another try. Unfortunately, I had lost the manuscript, and I didn't have access to a floppy disk drive to get it back from the saved copy I had.

I wasn't kidding when I said this was a long time ago. Do you even remember floppy disks? Are you old enough to know what they are?

Anyway, I didn't have the original, but I had the story in my mind. I knew it very well. So, I rewrote it from scratch. I had to change a couple of character names that I could not, for the life of me, remember in their original incarnation. But most of it was still there in my mind, so I wrote it again. Not word for word, of course. But I have learned a lot about writing over the years since then, and I think I gave the book a greater weight and maturity the second time around. And, since it was literally twenty-five years since I'd written it, it didn't feel like I was wasting my time or anything like that. It was actually fun.

So, what's the story about? As I said, it's fantasy. But it's got a very different setting. Back in the day, I was a big fan of martial arts and Asian culture, specifically Japanese. And that's what I wrote. A westerner in a far-away land, cut off from everything he knew and having to grow up in a foreign land. It was very exciting writing it the first time, and even moreso the second time. There's a different feel to the magic in this land, a magic that exacts a price from its wielder.

I'm going to release the book in two parts; it's actually seven parts altogether, but I'm splitting it into two books. I debated on making it an actual trilogy, but I'm comfortable with two. I would rather have had it as one book, to be honest, but it would be a doorstopper; it's running at about eight hundred pages. Yeah, it's big. But two parts will work well; there's a natural break after part four that works to split this into two books.

Well, I'd better get at it; there's still some work to be done, and I need to find a cover for it. In the meantime, here's a link to my first fantasy book, Arrival, which introduced the land of Meterra, which is not where the new book is situated. But it's still a fun read, so give it a try.

Generation Gaps

It's tough to be a parent sometimes. Especially when you and your kids have similar interests. Or at least, one of your kids. The oldest one and I don't have much in common except that we're both male. So, that's something, I suppose. And the youngest, being autistic, has that in common with me, although he's much further into his own world than I ever was.

But it's the middle one, Tanner, that mirrors me in a lot of ways. And yet, even our similar interests diverge in key areas. For example, we both love to read fantasy. But it's like pulling teeth to get him to read the classic fantasy books such as Howard, Leiber, or epics like Homer and Gilgamesh. I know, he's a teenager, and they like different things. I know that I loved reading books like that when I was his age, but then, I was weird. Still am, according to my wife.

We also like gaming, specifically role-playing games like Champions and D&D. He's asking some of his friends if they will join in a game with us, which should be a lot of fun. I'm going to be trying to teach them some old-school style gaming. I haven't looked at the newer editions of D&D since 2007, but from what I have heard, they can get pretty wild with the character options. Maybe it's the 'get off my lawn' old geezer in me, but if playing a dwarf or an elf isn't fantastic enough, you're pretty jaded. Fortunately, he does want to play an elf, so we'll see how it goes with his friends.

The thing is, there's just so much out there to see in fantasy fiction, but it has really become formulaic and rote. I mean, everything seems to be either a Lord of the Rings pastiche or a Harry Potter ripoff. The more 'creative' stories are basically mashups of the two big stories. And that's disappointing, because there is so much more that can be done with fantasy. I'm trying to do things a bit different in my writing, but it's tough to get traction with an audience that only knows one or two possible versions of fantasy writing.

Still, it's worth the effort, because we need to break out of the ruts that we've found ourselves in. Science fiction doesn't have to be Star Wars/Star Trek or cyberpunk. Fantasy doesn't have to be kids in a school or an epic quest to find or destroy something. And the genres don't need to be separated and walled off from each other; that's what the pulps were all about, mixing and meshing things together in wild and creative ways that were really entertaining. And yet, for the past forty or so years, no one has known about that sort of writing.

It's time to bring some of that creativity back. I'm doing my part with my newest book, Apprentice, the first book of the Shadowmage Saga. Take a look, and see if it sparks some imagination in you.