10/15/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone! I'm glad it seems like we all made it through the weekend, even if it felt all too short. There are a lot of times when I wish every weekend was a three-day weekend, but then I think about how long that would mean my workdays are throughout the week and I take that back.

I'm starting to do my annual writing slow-down in preparation of NANOWRIMO, which is good in that it means hopefully I won't do damage to my wrists (well, any additional damage), but also sad in that any ideas I currently have either get to be put on the back-burner or will drive me crazy until I cave and write them down anyway. Not to say that's happening now, but I know my luck and am trying to prepare for it. As always my goal will be to get through the 60,000 words before Thanksgiving, and as I've mentioned before there is a bit of concern this year with that day being on the 22nd, but I'll do my absolute best and not cry if I can't make it by then. I'll at least be close and it'll just be a matter of getting the rest down in order to finish up.

I'm roughly 1/4 of the way through my notebook containing 'Daughter of the Shackled King' and it feels nice to revisit that story since I was being lazy about it. I like this method of writing in that it lets me add details that I either left out or was in too much of a hurry to write down when I was handwriting it, so it feels more like a content edit than simply transposing it. I know that's not true, but it's a nice feeling. As I've mentioned previously though this is an incredibly slow progress, and that does drive me a special kind of crazy.

As you all are likely aware by now, my weekends are generally filled with gaming of some sorts. I would like to say a word about that, mostly because of a situation that I find is still bothering me several days later. I won't go into the rule-specifics, but what I will say is that if you're at a friendly gathering of people who are involved in a casual tournament and you happen to be playing against someone who has a crappy deck build and is the only girl there, don't be a jerk and assume they don't know what they're doing. That's what happened to me, and when it initially happened I was rather tired and just didn't want to deal with arguing about rules, but when I was more awake the next day it was still on my mind and I went back through what happened and discovered that was actually the situation. So yes, don't be an ass is my recommendation there, it just makes you look like dirt.

Anyway! I hope everyone has a good start to their week. My Wednesday post will be up, but it will likely be a bit later. I'm going to be doing the point 'on the road' and by that I mean I'll be writing it up while I'm getting my car worked on. Until then, I hope everyone has a great couple days, and I'll see you then!

10/12/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Hello everyone and welcome back on this Friday morning! I don't have a whole lot of time, so I'm going to get right down to the good stuff. Besides, that's why you're all here anyway, isn't it?

Today I bring you 'Ours Is Just A Little Sorrow' by Gwen Hayes. It's a steampunk novel that, rather that playing on the idea of an alternate history like most have, took it another route and set the story in the future. After the world ended it was up to humanity to rebuild, and looking back at what historical records were left, the colony of New Geneva rebuilt itself based on the Victorian Era, since everything seemed to go wrong after that.

The story is about a young woman named Violet who is purchased from an orphanage by the man who owns Thornfield Abbey as the governess to his youngest son. However, his two older sons have taken a liking to her and want her for their very own. The only problem is that something else has noticed her, and it's going to have her, even if the ghosts that quietly haunt the abbey need to be awakened and everyone is taken to hell.

I picked this story because for one, it's been a while since I've played with another steampunk story, and two, I do like the concept the author used for it. As I mentioned above, most steampunk stories are set in an alternate past, usually in England (though there's been a rise in old west style lately), but this one took the opposite route and used it as a method humanity is trying to rebuild after a cataclysm.

'Ours Is Just A Little Sorrow' is available on Smashwords for $2.99, which is a reasonable price for the length of the story. I encourage everyone to pick it up and let the author know what you thought of it.

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I hope everything sees you well this weekend. I'm looking forward to relaxing, seeing friends, and also seeing my blog reach 4000 views! How exciting is that! I'm still waiting for Barnes and Noble to post the new edition of 'The Light Rises', but I'll post that up as soon as I see it. If anyone's see the new edition on Apple, please post your link! I don't have access to the iBookstore, so that would be lovely! Until then, I'll see you on Monday!

10/10/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Hello everyone and welcome back! I hope the week has started seeing everyone well, we're at the halfway point, so that means just a little bit more to go until the weekend! If you follow me at Twitter (@ExplodingRunes) you've probably seen me spamming the internet regarding the new edition of 'The Light Rises' as well as it's FREE short-story companion 'Uncrossed Paths'. I would like to say I'm going to be slowing down, but that would be a lie...advertising is super expensive, which is what brings us to today's topic.

Advertising is expensive. I seriously can't stress this enough. If you go the cheapest ways, or the seemingly cheaper ways, you're likely going to be look at Facebook, Google, or doing actual promoted posts on Twitter, or even (awesome) Project Wonderful. All of these services charge per click, and you also set what you're daily "budget" is going to be. Sometimes you can go as little as $2.50 a day, which may not seem like a lot, but quite honestly my statements don't seem to reflect that at all. I have been completely turned away from Facebook's version of the ads, mostly because it has recently come out (and please correct me if this isn't actually happening) that their own system will click on the ads to boost how much traffic they're seeing. I have seen evidence of this on my pages, where I've seen the visits go up into the hundreds in one day but not a single sample (which is free) was downloaded. With "Uncrossed Paths" it was even more obvious since the entire story is free and there weren't any new downloads (aside from the one or two that generally happen a week) for the month. Google was a bit more reasonable, but it still didn't help with sales.

The other option that is available, that costs an absorbent amount of money, is to go through a promotional service. These are people who make it their lives to promote people's work and businesses, and they know they're good at it. A lot of the time you pay for packages (typically with the Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Adamantium levels) and each package will get you a different level of work they'll put into your product. I've looked at these as well and suddenly the cost I ended up paying for both Google and Facebook didn't seem so bad. I've also talked with people who have used promotional services before and they say the level of success is about equal if not less than average. Quite frankly I don't care for those odds.

In my experience the most successful route is the 'word of mouth' method. This is where social networking is a viking, especially Twitter. You tell someone about your product, let's say you have 20 people who follow you; if even one person tells their friends/followers, that opens your product up to let's say another 20 different people. This numbers continue to grow exponentially to the point where the amount of people talking about your product are seriously higher than anything you imagined. I always ask people to tell everyone they know and love about my books because I know this method works the best. Sometimes it's just friends helping friends, family helping family, but it's when you get that one person who isn't either talking that you're going to start making a lot of headway, since the likelihood you know any of the people they're telling isn't very high, which means your work is getting out to an entirely new audience. Facebook is similar since you can make Pages for your products and spam your news feed (guilty) until more people find it. There's also putting your links into your signatures in forums you frequent as well, since people there will click all on sorts of stuff.

Thanks everyone for stopping by again today. I hope this wasn't just seen as a rant and that it actually helped people make some choices regarding advertising. It's a tough world out there and I know that any bit of publicity helps, which was the whole point of this blog in the first place. For the most part indy authors aren't made of money, so paying some ridiculous price for advertising isn't very helpful. I'll be back on Friday though for my normal review, until then I hope everyone has a great rest of the week!

10/08/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Welcome back everyone! I hope your weekend was full of fun and excitement. I was tired through most of mine, but I'm hoping to make up for it today. While I don't care for not having PTO, I do appreciate having banking holidays off, so I'll take whatever I can get.

According to Smashwords, the new edition of "The Light Rises" should be appearing in the other retailers soon, since it says it digitally shipped on Friday. I'll keep everyone posted though and will post links when they become available. It was a rewarding and humbling experience, and I'm glad it seems to have turned out well. I'm going to keep this all in mind for future projects as well.

I'm still trying to get mentally geared up for NANOWRIMO. I know I still have a few weeks, but it's good to get the creative brain juices flowing now so that I have less chances of getting stuck during the writing explosion that is November. As always, my goal will be to get finished before Thanksgiving, and since it's on the 22nd this year, that means I will need to average almost 2860 words a day. I'm a little worried about that number, since last year I averaged 2100, and while I did manage to achieve my goal, that did a number on my tendonitis riddled wrist. I just need to remember that pacing is important but that doesn't change my concern.

That's why I am letting myself rest as much as possible before that time comes. While the transposing work is slow on 'Daughter of the Shackled King' in the end I think the speed is probably for the best. It lets me work on something without doing more than I likely should. As I go through the month of November I'll continue to post my progress, and if anyone would like to do the same here that would be wonderful and fun. I know there are people who can do the entire 60,000 words in one night, and to those people I say "Congratulations" and also "Are you a robot?" because quite frankly that is just a staggering number that I can't comprehend doing in a 24 hour period.

It's really nice seeing some things come together, and as I also ponder getting ready to actually edit 'Rending the Seal' and how huge of a task that's going to be (mostly because the thing is super long) I can't help but wonder what it's going to feel like when one third of the whole story is told. It's going to be an experience, that's for sure.

Again I'd like to thank everyone for stopping by. As another plug at shameless self promotion, I'd like to remind everyone that "The Light Rises" is available on Smashwords. It's the new edition and I would appreciate everyone telling all the people they know and love about it. Advertising is expensive and I'm trying to save costs wherever I can, and word of mouth is the best kind of advertising. It's up there for $2.99, and if you've already purchased it, you can also get the new edition as an update to your e-reader, so you won't need to purchase it again. Thanks everyone and I hope to see you all back here on Wednesday!

10/05/2012 Fantastic Friday!

Hello everyone and welcome back on this day! I hope your week has seen you well. With a lack of time this morning to do a bunch of searching, I have decided that today will also be about shameless self promotion, so listen up!

Today I bring you 'The Light Rises' by me! It took a lot of blood and sweat, but the new edition is finally completed. It's been polished and made pretty for everyone to love, enjoy, and tell their friends because advertising is really expensive!

The story begins with a homicide detective and freelance necromancer, Keagan Gillette, returning to England after leaving two years prior in a bout of drunken grief. When he comes back he finds the world has moved on without him, including his friends, and for once he thinks he might be able to have a normal life too. That is until he sees a man in a white suit hold his hand up to the sky and create a blizzard in the middle of August. Seeing that he's once again been thrown into the thick of it, he must repair the bonds he severed and get ready to save the world from the coming Apocalypse.

I like this story, not just because I'm the one who wrote it, but because after not looking at it for about a year I can really appreciate where I pulled everything from. I'm a mythology buff, and I wanted to be as close to accurate to the source material as possible while still taking a bit of creative license with it. It helps me feel motivated to jump into editing for 'Rending the Seal' and also get ready for NANOWRIMO so I can start work on 'Through the Broken Mirror'.

'The Light Rises' is currently available on Smashwords for $2.99. It will be available again, at least the new edition will be, at the other retail locations once it goes back through the review process for the premium catalog. We needed to do some work on the cover image, so it needed to be resubmitted, but I'll let everyone know the second it digitally 'ships' to the other locations. In the meantime, check it out and tell your friends!

Thanks everyone for stopping by again today. I hope you all have a great and fun weekend once this Friday is complete. I appreciate all the visits I get to this blog, it really helps keep me motivated to keep it up, so again I thank you for that. Until Monday, I hope everyone has a great weekend!

10/03/2012 Writing Wednesday!

Hello everyone, I hope your day is going well so far. I apologize for the late post, but I wanted to give my back as much rest as possible. That's a better excuse than I just wanted to be lazy, right? Anyway today will be when I hopefully complete Phase 3 of 'The Light Rises' overhaul. Then it will be sent off to Harper Voyager and also to Smashwords for everyone to enjoy.

All this editing though is seriously making my head spin. I know, and I have stated before, this is the step in the writing process that takes the longest, no matter how hard you try to make it not. If it wasn't for the fact I have a deadline to meet I would like likely be taking it slow, but since that isn't an option I think my head is going to actually explode. It doesn't help that I have decided that working on transferring from notebook to digital is going to be too slow of a process for NANOWRIMO as well, so my brain is going to melt, I think I just need to accept this.

With NANOWRIMO so close (in that there is now less than a month before it starts) I have been trying to mentally work out any kinks that will slow down the creative process with the story I will likely be working on for that month. I'm kind of nervous because I feel like I am going in at half-strength, and I really don't want to risk not getting to the 60,000 word goal. This is the point where solidifying plot becomes vitally important, which is what I wanted to talk about today.

So let's say you have your main character, awesome! They are dynamic, strong, have their own faults, and are basically a person. The question then becomes what are they going to do? Do they have goals, dreams, aspirations, and how do they work with the plot? These things need to fit together, since if you have someone who's dream is to become a steamboat captain and your story is about a post-apocalyptic wasteland of death where there is no water (kind of like the opposite of Waterworld, I guess), there's going to be some clashing. The point is that the people need to feel like they fit in the world you're making, and that's the only way the plot is going to feel organic.

This also goes back to what I mentioned previously about making your antagonist. They also need to fit into the world in a similar fashion, but it's alright is they go against the grain a little. If they didn't, they wouldn't really have a reason to be evil, right? There's something about the world they are against, and they are going to do everything in their power to make it go with them, and that's one way you can make your plot work. While the protagonist works to gain allies, fight the bad guys, and save the day, it's the antagonist that is helping drive the plot and create the problems the hero has to fight against. If you can make these two people fit together you will strike gold.

You also need to decide what kind of plot you're going to make. Is it going to be an overarching epic of fantastical journeys and magic? Or a coming of age story where someone needs to learn what it really means to find their place in the world? Both? It can be both, nothing says it can't, but if you do make sure it doesn't feel forced.

I hope this helps, it actually helped me remember things about my villain and such for the third story in 'The Light Rises' trilogy, so that's a step in the right direction. I appreciate everyone stopping by, it's really a big motivator for me. I also see we're almost to 4000 views, which is simply a staggering number. I hope we can get there by Friday, that would be super awesome! I will be back on Friday with my normal review, so I'll see everyone then! Have a Good rest of your week!

10/01/2012 Magnificent Monday!

Hello everyone and welcome back. I hope your weekend saw you all well. Mine was filled with friends and fun, which is nice even if it didn't feel like I had a day to just relax. That's fine though, that's what Wednesday's for, right? Well that and a couple errands-running adventures, but other than that, relaxing!

Right now I'm in my mini-break-ish period while waiting for someone to finish looking at 'The Light Rises' to let me know whether or not it makes sense and where I need to adjust a few things. I've been working more on getting 'Daughter of the Shackled King' out of its notebook and let me tell you, I am still shocked at how slow of a process that is. I was convinced that taking something that I wrote down and just typing it out would be something that would happen at a reasonable pace, but even after working on it all week I feel like I've only added two or three pages to the digital document. It's kind of bizzare.

I'll admit I'm a little concerned for the page difference I'm seeing right now. My notebook is on page 36-ish while my Word document is about ten pages less than that. If that page difference holds up I think it will be alright, but I have the feeling that gap is only going to become larger. I just hope the final document still ends up being over 120 pages; at least then I can feel like it's a real novel and not just a super (and ironically) long short story.

I'm also working on getting my brain in gear for NANOWRIMO, so at some point I'll have to take an actual writing break so as not to destroy my wrist during November. I must remember how I handled pacing last year and also decide what I'm going to work on for it. Likely it will be 'Through the Broken Mirror' so I can get the jump on finishing up that trilogy, but we'll see. There are still some details I haven't fully worked out yet, though I'm hoping they will happen in the form of grand epiphanies!

Thanks everyone for stopping by today. I hope everyone has a great start to their week. This week looks like it's going to be a little tough, but I'm sure it'll all work out in the end, and Wednesday will be a nice cool-down day. Until then, have a good couple days!