Hey just wanted to post an update on what's going on with me. The first thing I am excited to say is, revisions are DONE!!! Sorry, but this one was a task. I enjoyed it in the end, but it was some big decisions to make. I am also about halfway done with book two. I am enjoying the fall weather and it has me in a great writing mood.
In other news I did a guest post for anyone interested over at Kicking Corners.
Anyway this is just a bit of what's going on with me, hope to start getting more regular with my blogs again now that revisions are done. As always have fun and keep writing.
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Writing, Sleepovers and Blood
Well my life has been a lot of things these past weeks, but describing it in one word is easy—full. I am almost done with (hopefully) my last personal revision of my manuscript. I have worked hard on it and as I have been revising it, working on the second volume of the story has become much easier and clearer. The characters have more depth than they did before and some subplots are hashed out a little better. All in all it has been a good experiences this go around.
In other news my children have decided this is the year they will be social. Both have begun inviting friends over to the house and tomorrow—after a week of my wife and daughter planning— seven girls will be invading for a sleepover. It is nice to see them enjoying friends even if the exploitation has already started. My mom always said I'd get paid back for all the times I got my friend to ask for something I wanted. I am enjoying it though, they are growing so fast.
Lastly, I was sitting at my desk minding my own business, when my dog—Sadi—walked up shaking her head and throwing what I though was spit on me. I yelled out and began to reprimand—like she knows what I'm saying—my beautiful, but messy dog. I looked down to find that it was not spit, but blood. So of course I freaked out and began trying to find the source. Soon I found the deep cut in her ear, by this time I was covered in blood she was covered in blood and the bathroom looked like we had combined forces to murder someone. No exaggeration I have never seen that much blood come from a cut. Come to find out one of my daughter's rats had bitten her ear. We both got a shower and I finally got it to stop bleeding she looks so pitiful with one ear bandaged up.
Anyway that is how my life has been, as always have fun and keep writing.
Lastly, I was sitting at my desk minding my own business, when my dog—Sadi—walked up shaking her head and throwing what I though was spit on me. I yelled out and began to reprimand—like she knows what I'm saying—my beautiful, but messy dog. I looked down to find that it was not spit, but blood. So of course I freaked out and began trying to find the source. Soon I found the deep cut in her ear, by this time I was covered in blood she was covered in blood and the bathroom looked like we had combined forces to murder someone. No exaggeration I have never seen that much blood come from a cut. Come to find out one of my daughter's rats had bitten her ear. We both got a shower and I finally got it to stop bleeding she looks so pitiful with one ear bandaged up.
Anyway that is how my life has been, as always have fun and keep writing.
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Fly on the Wall
Wow I didn't realize I was gone for so long. Well I have not been idle in my absence, between adjusting for the kids being in school and having some issue with my computer overheating, I have managed get about two thirds done with my huge revision on Elemental.
I feel like I got some great feedback on a few things from people and the story is now tighter and better shows what I wanted to say. I am glad I was able to rework it in such a major way. I think I had received some really good reactions on my previous draft so it was hard for me to think it needed to be altered, but with the changes I am making the story benefits and I don't lose anything others have really enjoyed in the novel.
I have actually cut my word count as well. It's funny when I was writing Elemental I was worried it wasn't going to be long enough, then after seeing what most people publish in YA I realized it was actually a bit too long. I started writing old world fantasy so it was a concept that confused me a bit.
Also I think I have my schedule down to where I can start blogging regular again. I hope to be sending out new query letters soon as well. Plus I have set a goal for myself, if I have not found an agent for Elemental by next August I am going to try to self publish on E-book.
Anyway I hope you all are doing well and as always have fun and keep writing.
Wednesday, August 22, 2012
Children of the Gods: Uprising
Hey everyone I was wanting to help reveal the cover to Jessica Therrien's Children of the Gods: Uprising . Below is the cover and a small teaser from the book.
Teaser:
We left everything but the weapons. Clothes, food, toothpaste. There wasn’t time for things that weren’t essential to escape. The five of us went on foot in a direction that was meaningless to me. I had never seen what was outside of the edges of the safe haven, not since I’d been here.
When Mac stopped abruptly after our fifteen-minute trek into the woods, we all froze at once, bodies poised and ready to attack, eyes searching for threats.
“We’re here,” Mac announced. “What should we expect Marcus?”
I had never heard Dr. Nickel called by his first name, and it made me realize he wasn’t as untouchable as I had imagined. Just because he was here, didn’t mean we were safe.
“I don’t know,” he answered. “Maybe an army, maybe nothing. Depends on where they are.”
“Everyone best get down on the ground just in case,” Mac decided with a nod. “Weapons ready.”
As I lay belly down in the dirt, I noticed Dr. Nickel pull a gun from his belt, and my stomach gave a heave.
“When I remove the haven walls, there will be a van. Everyone get in back. If anything goes wrong…” Mac paused, uncomfortable at the thought. “It’s been nice knowin’ ya.”
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Changes
Technically summer isn't over until September 21, but for my kids and I it ends tomorrow as they go back to school. As summer moves to fall and leaves change color and the temperature turns cooler, I have to find a new schedule for my writing.
Mostly during the summer I wait until everyone goes to bed, the house grows quiet and I sit down to write. I can go for a few hours before sleep takes me. Now, though, if I'm not in bed at a decent hour waking up to take the kids to school is a disaster. So I tend to change my schedule to writing in the mornings after I've dropped them off.
This got me thinking about the importance of schedule and how it effects my writing. I remember when I first started writing, it was all about the mood. I would say things like, "Oh the mood isn't striking me." Or I might say, "I can't just make myself write whenever, it won't be good." Now I take a more studious approach to it. If I sit down everyday and put something on paper eventually things start happening. The blank pages used to scare me(still do sometimes), but I have learned that I am responsible for my progression in my writing career and no one else is going to sit down and get these stories out and perfect them.
I think part of this progression was getting myself on a schedule. I knew at a certain time I was supposed to be writing. If I was doing something else I could guilt myself into sitting down instead of allowing excuses to be made. Yes at times I would type one word an hour, but at least I was writing. I finished one novel this way and am on my way to completing another, so for me at least having a schedule works.
Has anyone else found having a schedule works for them or do you write when you can? What works best for you?
Anyway have fun and keep writing.
Mostly during the summer I wait until everyone goes to bed, the house grows quiet and I sit down to write. I can go for a few hours before sleep takes me. Now, though, if I'm not in bed at a decent hour waking up to take the kids to school is a disaster. So I tend to change my schedule to writing in the mornings after I've dropped them off.
This got me thinking about the importance of schedule and how it effects my writing. I remember when I first started writing, it was all about the mood. I would say things like, "Oh the mood isn't striking me." Or I might say, "I can't just make myself write whenever, it won't be good." Now I take a more studious approach to it. If I sit down everyday and put something on paper eventually things start happening. The blank pages used to scare me(still do sometimes), but I have learned that I am responsible for my progression in my writing career and no one else is going to sit down and get these stories out and perfect them.
I think part of this progression was getting myself on a schedule. I knew at a certain time I was supposed to be writing. If I was doing something else I could guilt myself into sitting down instead of allowing excuses to be made. Yes at times I would type one word an hour, but at least I was writing. I finished one novel this way and am on my way to completing another, so for me at least having a schedule works.
Has anyone else found having a schedule works for them or do you write when you can? What works best for you?
Anyway have fun and keep writing.
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
WriteOnCon, Amazing
Well I can honestly say I have never been a part of something quite like that before. I guess that means I've been pretty sheltered as a writer up to this point.
I met so many great people and got so much useful and concise advice that my brain is slightly overloaded at the moment.
My computer and me have been just a bit too close these past few days. Whether it was discovering new blogs, critiquing or receiving critiques or a new hobby—ninja stalking—I don't think I got up too often.
I have decided to do another big revision on my first novel ELEMENTAL, after some things were brought to my attention, I feel this may be the revision that does it.
I also feel my brain, butt and possibly even my computer needs a break so I will take a few days and process everything I read. Can't wait for next year and I hope anyone else doing WriteOnCon had as much fun. A big Congratulations on all the people who got request.
Anyway, have fun and keep writing.
I met so many great people and got so much useful and concise advice that my brain is slightly overloaded at the moment.
My computer and me have been just a bit too close these past few days. Whether it was discovering new blogs, critiquing or receiving critiques or a new hobby—ninja stalking—I don't think I got up too often.
I have decided to do another big revision on my first novel ELEMENTAL, after some things were brought to my attention, I feel this may be the revision that does it.
I also feel my brain, butt and possibly even my computer needs a break so I will take a few days and process everything I read. Can't wait for next year and I hope anyone else doing WriteOnCon had as much fun. A big Congratulations on all the people who got request.
Anyway, have fun and keep writing.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Ah that Lucky Seven

Falling halfway to his knees Adrian scrambled around to take in the new danger and found himself staring at death made flesh.
Feeling his mind trying to pull from what he was seeing Adrian blinked several times attempting to get the image to make sense.
Crouched down on now broken concrete was a creature, Adrian didn't know how else to describe it, demon maybe.
Its skin was a mix of putrid greens and yellows, a trail of massive, bone colored spikes ran from its wide brow down the middle of an overly muscled back.
Even kneeling as it was, it dwarfed both Adrian and the gray coated man, its orange eyes taking both of them in, spoke of a predator’s intellect.
“I told you we had to run," the strange man said, "but you didn't want to listen, no one listens anymore. The world has become full of know-it-alls, and each one knows less than the last,” he pulled Adrian to his feet and stepped in front of him.
Anyway hope you enjoy it, I am having a blast writing it.
Saturday, August 11, 2012
The Writing Spirit.
It was three years ago that I finished my first novel. I have not been idle in that time. I have gathered some beta readers, done countless revisions and in the last year started the journey of learning to write queries and sending them off.
This idea to be a published writer comes with a lot of things attached to it. One of the biggest is rejection. I like the phrase, "Getting published is not a sprint it's a marathon." Each time I get a critique I try to use it and grow from it. That isn't to say it is never discouraging, but I am finding the more I write, the more I know I am supposed to be a writer.
With this knowledge I am learning to face things in a better light. I am growing thicker skin every day and also learning how to take some advice and leave others. This is a process and anyone going through it with me I just want to say stay strong, because people do give up and for every manuscript thrown in the fire one more makes it to the next level.
Here are my I will persevere songs this month.
Friday, August 10, 2012
Query up
Well I got my query up at the forums for WriteOnCon. I hope to get some good feedback so I can really get my manuscript to someone who will know what to do with it. Here is a link for anyone interested.
http://writeoncon.com/forum/showthread.php?8737-Ya-urban-fantasy-Elemental
Anyway have fun and keep writing.
http://writeoncon.com/forum/showthread.php?8737-Ya-urban-fantasy-Elemental
Anyway have fun and keep writing.
The Move was a Success
Well it has been a couple of months since I moved from my apartment into a house. Moves can sometimes be jarring when it comes to writing. You lose that(or those) sacred place(s) and there is always so much to do.
It was a definite upgrade on space and having a backyard again is very refreshing. If I feel too stuffy siting at my desk I can just walk around in the woods for a bit and clear my head. I think sometimes we hold energy in a place, not like some voodoo more so just association. There were good and bad times in my last place and while that "energy" can be good for writing it can also be bad.
As a kid I moved a lot, which is probably why my MC moved so much in Elemental. There is something about a fresh start it can invigorate you and allow you to shake off things that can weigh you down. While I was looking forward to this I also worried that it would take me a while to get back into writing and if I'm honest the first week or so here I don't think I wrote a word. I did do some reading, this house has some great reading spots. I started to worry though that I hadn't found a way to get back into the groove I'd had at the old place.
So I did a few things, first was I started this blog, one of my favorite things to do is look up author's interviews on YouTube and I happened to be watching some classes Brandon Sanderson(Elantris, Mistborn) was teaching on writing. He took one of his classes and brought on an old student of his Peggy Eddleman(Through the Bomb's Breath) and she talked about the importance of a blog and its uses.
The second was I bought a few more things for my nerd station, any little weird thing that stirs my mind and rearranged it a bit. This got me to sit in my chair and the first few blogs got me touching my keyboard, the combination soon had me typing on two different WIPs. So far I am twenty thousand words in and writing almost everyday. I guess I can say now that the move was a success.
Anyway have fun and keep writing.
It was a definite upgrade on space and having a backyard again is very refreshing. If I feel too stuffy siting at my desk I can just walk around in the woods for a bit and clear my head. I think sometimes we hold energy in a place, not like some voodoo more so just association. There were good and bad times in my last place and while that "energy" can be good for writing it can also be bad.
As a kid I moved a lot, which is probably why my MC moved so much in Elemental. There is something about a fresh start it can invigorate you and allow you to shake off things that can weigh you down. While I was looking forward to this I also worried that it would take me a while to get back into writing and if I'm honest the first week or so here I don't think I wrote a word. I did do some reading, this house has some great reading spots. I started to worry though that I hadn't found a way to get back into the groove I'd had at the old place.
So I did a few things, first was I started this blog, one of my favorite things to do is look up author's interviews on YouTube and I happened to be watching some classes Brandon Sanderson(Elantris, Mistborn) was teaching on writing. He took one of his classes and brought on an old student of his Peggy Eddleman(Through the Bomb's Breath) and she talked about the importance of a blog and its uses.
The second was I bought a few more things for my nerd station, any little weird thing that stirs my mind and rearranged it a bit. This got me to sit in my chair and the first few blogs got me touching my keyboard, the combination soon had me typing on two different WIPs. So far I am twenty thousand words in and writing almost everyday. I guess I can say now that the move was a success.
Anyway have fun and keep writing.
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Book Tube
Just wanted to post a link to Geek and Sundry. They have some great vids about books and with authors.
http://www.youtube.com/user/geekandsundry?feature=g-all-u
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/user/geekandsundry?feature=g-all-u
Enjoy.
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
Reading Widely
I remember being fourteen and stumbling onto my first Dragon Lance book. I had read other things like the Hobbit and most of the Narnia series, but here was a tale that magnified the hero. The action was grittier and more thorough. I was hooked, if it was Dragon Lance I read it and nothing else would do. Some years later my then girlfriend (now wife) found a book called the Crystal Shard by R. A. Salvatore as a gift for my friend. I wanted her to buy him a Dragon Lance book, but she decided to stick with this one instead. For months after all I heard was how amazing this book was and that he would never go back to Dragon Lance. Obviously my interest was peaked, so I went to my local book store and made my way to the fantasy section.
There it was sitting next to the section of Dragon Lance books, Forgotten Realms, another giant series of books set in one world. I struggled with the idea, but soon enough I pulled the paperback from the shelf and felt like a traitor all the way home. It didn't take me long to understand the praise my friend was giving the book, I finished it in two days, which for me is amazing as I am a notoriously slow reader. I was now enlightened, I understood the error of my ways. Reading only Dragon Lance books was wrong, the right way was....wait for it....to only read Forgotten Realms (yeah I know).
So I went about collecting any Forgotten Realms story I could find and waiting for the new Drizzt book to come out each year. Soon I was hitting the bottom of the barrel at my book store. It was hard to wait so long to read a new book, I saw a solution in my favorite author. Mr. Salvatore had written another fantasy series set in his own world. So without hesitation I grabbed the first three books in the series, The Demon Awakens, The Demon Spirit and The Demon Apostle. Great books by the way, if you have not read them. Again I quickly devoured them and set about to finish the series. This, I believe was the seed that brought about change. I loved this series of books and it made me wonder if there were other great books out there I was missing.
Somewhere in the middle of all this I started writing, as I was reading this type of fantasy I was of course writing this type of fantasy. I would write a few thousand words and get some of my friends to read it, luckily they were the honest type and pointed out my need for growth. This went on for many years until one day I picked up a book called The Sorcerer's Stone. I'd had this idea for a children's book after having two of my own and was curious as to what was out there. Hearing about the success of the Harry Potter series I decided to start there. Like many fans of the series I quickly realized what the hype was all about, the books were successful because of one simple reason, they were really good. This was the book that changed me, I had to know what was out there.
So here we are, in the last few months I have finished The Name of the Wind (by Patrick Rothfuss), Savages (by Don Wilson), Eon (by Alison Goodman) and the first three Dresden Files books (by Jim Butcher). Four quite different genres and enjoyed and learned from each of them. The first novel I completely finished and got praise from my group of critical readers was a YA/Urban fantasy.
I have said before about believing the saying that writers are sponges. Now that doesn't mean take everyone's ideas and copy them, but the more you read, the more types of things you read, the better prepared you are for what and how you want to say the things you do in your writing.
Anyway this is a bit of my reading/writing story. Have fun and keep writing.
There it was sitting next to the section of Dragon Lance books, Forgotten Realms, another giant series of books set in one world. I struggled with the idea, but soon enough I pulled the paperback from the shelf and felt like a traitor all the way home. It didn't take me long to understand the praise my friend was giving the book, I finished it in two days, which for me is amazing as I am a notoriously slow reader. I was now enlightened, I understood the error of my ways. Reading only Dragon Lance books was wrong, the right way was....wait for it....to only read Forgotten Realms (yeah I know).
So I went about collecting any Forgotten Realms story I could find and waiting for the new Drizzt book to come out each year. Soon I was hitting the bottom of the barrel at my book store. It was hard to wait so long to read a new book, I saw a solution in my favorite author. Mr. Salvatore had written another fantasy series set in his own world. So without hesitation I grabbed the first three books in the series, The Demon Awakens, The Demon Spirit and The Demon Apostle. Great books by the way, if you have not read them. Again I quickly devoured them and set about to finish the series. This, I believe was the seed that brought about change. I loved this series of books and it made me wonder if there were other great books out there I was missing.
Somewhere in the middle of all this I started writing, as I was reading this type of fantasy I was of course writing this type of fantasy. I would write a few thousand words and get some of my friends to read it, luckily they were the honest type and pointed out my need for growth. This went on for many years until one day I picked up a book called The Sorcerer's Stone. I'd had this idea for a children's book after having two of my own and was curious as to what was out there. Hearing about the success of the Harry Potter series I decided to start there. Like many fans of the series I quickly realized what the hype was all about, the books were successful because of one simple reason, they were really good. This was the book that changed me, I had to know what was out there.
So here we are, in the last few months I have finished The Name of the Wind (by Patrick Rothfuss), Savages (by Don Wilson), Eon (by Alison Goodman) and the first three Dresden Files books (by Jim Butcher). Four quite different genres and enjoyed and learned from each of them. The first novel I completely finished and got praise from my group of critical readers was a YA/Urban fantasy.
I have said before about believing the saying that writers are sponges. Now that doesn't mean take everyone's ideas and copy them, but the more you read, the more types of things you read, the better prepared you are for what and how you want to say the things you do in your writing.
Anyway this is a bit of my reading/writing story. Have fun and keep writing.
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