The End of an Era

There comes a time in every Blogger user's life when he or she decides to switch to Wordpress.

I already talked about doing this once, but I was kind of promising more than I could handle at the time. A lot has changed since then. I've learned a lot, and my priorities have changed. At this point, I've started to see this blog as a big mess. There are tons of entries that are kind of junky and meaningless, or that started things that never led anywhere. The formatting is extremely frustrating for me, too--still can't get that Twitter widget to look right.

Overall, though, it just doesn't offer the things that a Wordpress blog does. I've been using Wordpress quite often lately, both for my group blog, Obscure Authors Alliance (which is itself just getting up on its feet), and for my contributions to Operation Rainfall, a news site for video games. Each experience has taught me a lot about the site, and why it's beneficial to go there. I feel more connected to other people that way, and it's easy to find and mess with all the aspects I want. It's even fun to mess with the layout, in my opinion, and you might see it shift quite a bit.

After this point, I'm going to have two more entries that I'll post to both blogs. That will give a little bit of transition time, but I'd like people to follow the new blog, called Ephix Books, from now on.

So go on. You can find Ephix Books by clicking here.

Nonfiction Review: "Your Path to Publication"

Continuing from my last look at a few books about writing, I wanted to give you a peek at the latest one I've finished.

Your Path to Publication by Kim Wright is a little book that gives you a truly realistic view of what to expect if you want your book traditionally published. It's a tough world out there, and this isn't going to kid you about that. It's just going to give you all the tips you need. You'll learn where to go to meet an agent or publisher, how to interact with these people, and, of course, the art of the good old-fashioned query. It's brought up a lot of options that I didn't even know existed! Also, it does touch on self-publishing for a chapter, but that's really not what this book is about, and if you're going that route, don't waste your time. Read this book if you're serious about getting a deal with a publisher.

Sorry to give you only a short post after several days without one. Hopefully, this will tide you over until I bring out my news tomorrow.

Ask Eibmoz!

As The Third Face's publication date draws ever closer, I'd like to announce a very special video event, coming March 28th--one week before the book comes out.

One of the most pivotal, and well-liked, characters in The Third Face is Eibmoz. Eibmoz is a dead guy who's made his way from the Underworld back to the realm of the living. He's really out of his mind, and he loves being silly and making everyone around him uncomfortable. In essence, he brings humor to an otherwise dark and depressing world.

Eibmoz also seems to be very powerful, as he leads the organization, Redhand, that eventually takes Rasuke in. He works to free those seen as evil from the oppression of the ones who call themselves good. How he manages to band together an entire army, with his odd personality and quirks, is anyone's guess.

In fact, there are a lot of mysteries about him, in part because he prefers to just say silly things rather than actually explain anything properly. So, I'd like to give everyone in the audience the chance to solve those mysteries... if they don't give away too much, that is.

Comment or otherwise contact me in order to give me your questions for Eibmoz. Then, we'll take the questions and have an interview with him, which will air on March 28th.

Looking forward to all the silly shenanigans that will surely ensue!

Nothing

There have been times when I had so many things to say that sometimes I had to hold back, so I wouldn't overwhelm everyone. Things probably got lost at those points as I waited for the right time to bring up a new subject.

In all that, I've said my piece over and over again, and probably some other people's pieces too. And today, since it's been a few days since I last did so, I wanted to say another piece. Well, it turns out that I'm out of pieces. Yup. Nothing to say.

I talked to a couple of friends about it, and here's how that went: "Blog about that."

Now, obviously I ended up listening to this advice, or you wouldn't be reading this right now. But at first it seemed silly: Hey, I don't know what to write. The end!

It's a form of writer's block, I suppose. I don't normally get this type during my fiction work--there are a million other kinds of writer's block and I get one or a few of those--but it kind of came back to hit me this time. I guess I always had a feeling that if I kept blogging, eventually there would just be nothing left to say.

So, here's my next blogging mission: how does one go about finding a subject for these entries, day after day? It's obviously an important one, because many people don't find a topic for weeks at a time.

First, though, I want to ask you, readers: What do you do when you have nothing left to say?

Learning

I spend a lot of time looking for more tips about writing. In fact, out of the books I've read each week this year, three of them were just that.

Of course, not everything you read is worthwhile. The three books I bought caught my eye because of their descriptions on Amazon, and I looked through the reviews to see if they were actually as good as they were played up to be. It turned out that just about every book on the subject that I could find got really good reviews, but I couldn't just spend all my time and money on every single one. I had to go with my gut.

What follows is a quick look at each of the books I read, and how I feel about them. A mini-review, if you will, but an honest one, based on my overall experience with writing materials. I've already reviewed one book on writing here in the course of all my other book reviews, but I decided to make this sort of a separate realm.

So, without further ado, let's see what I've got.

Progress

Lately, I've been talking a lot about the ebb and tide of emotions--the ability to keep moving. I've risen past both doubts and exhaustion, so now it's about time that I really got to work.

That's why I'm getting started on my final offensive, as it were, on The Third Face. After this work, there shouldn't be much left to do on it. I'm not rewriting it again (thank goodness), but some scenes definitely did need to have some big changes made to them in order to get them working in the context of the big plot. I may have to add and delete a few, too.

In other words, you can definitely look forward to things picking up here. April 5th is about a month and a half away, so the excitement is about to start building. Expect me to start bringing it up more often, talking a bit more about what the book is exactly, and throwing more and more tidbits out there.

It's even safe to say that I have a cover artist lined up. I had made a big deal about a cover art contest before, but I had very few entries and nothing really jumped out at me. So I finally decided to be active about it and actually look for a specific artist. Negotiations are going on right now, but I have a feeling the work of that is going to begin very soon. Once that's done, you'll know, because I'm probably going to start showing it off everywhere--this artist is a winner.

But, in the meantime, I can't celebrate until I've actually done the work of it. Every chapter needs to be looked at, both by itself and as part of the whole. I wouldn't be able to do this without a great group of friends and editors backing me up, of course. With their help, this novel is finally going to get done right.

Rest

When you meet resistance, you can either force your way through, or back off until you get your energy back.

If you're the type of person that pays close attention, you might have noticed that even though I've been pretty consistent about posting a lot lately, this is the first one I put up since last Friday. Why is that? Well, it has to do with vacations.

Actually, having three days off in a row from my job was just a happy coincidence of scheduling. On Sunday I set out to read an entire book, not to mention beta read about 20 pages, and to follow up on my hunt for a cover artist. I e-mailed one artist, got halfway through the book, and didn't beta read anything. On Monday, my goal was to finish the things I wanted to do on Sunday. I managed to read another quarter of the book, but that was it.

Before long, I realized what was happening. I was trying to get things done on days that simply were meant to be lazy. For the rest of Monday, I just relaxed. Watched TV. Napped. Played games. Maybe it was a waste of time, but I felt like I was recovering from something. Yesterday I just did a little cleaning and then relaxed again, and then I was completely ready for today.

This morning I went back to work. Conditions were tougher than they've been in a while, but I pushed through. After that, I came home and got started on that beta reading after all. And, of course, I finally managed to get a blog post done.

I'll admit, I haven't exactly accomplished greatness in the last week. Still, the downward spiral of productivity has come back to an upward direction. It seems like the reason for that is the time I spent resting. It's fair to say that such patience is sometimes what we need to balance ourselves.

Just don't take this advice as a license to be lazy all the time, please.

Rising Phoenix

Strength is in conquering things that have brought you down.

In a recent post I talked a lot about having doubts as an author. But like many other negative things in the world, as long as you don't give in to them, doubts clear up before too long.

The phoenix has always been a bit of a personal symbol of mine. If you don't believe me, look at the address of the page you're on right now--it starts with beyondphoenixian. I named it that because I originally wanted to call the world of my novels the Phoenixian Universe. (I later reconsidered because Phoenixian is really hard to spell and called it Ephix instead, but Ephix is still, in fact, the name of a phoenix.)

Of course, I don't need to tell you that the phoenix is all about rebirth, rising from the ashes and all that. I do, however, want to speak to how important that concept really is. Because when people who are defeated come back with renewed determination, they are always stronger than ever.

In fiction, this is true of a lot of characters right before the end, when they rise up to take the final victory. In real life, though, only some of us manage to parallel that experience. Why is that? Because we're allowed to give up. We're allowed to back down. Unlike fictional characters, who have to fight to the finish, real people don't have to finish what they started. And I think that's a shame. After all, it's only when we do finish that truly great things come out of it.

I'm not saying that I finish what I start all the time. Far from it. Outside the world of writing, my pile of unfinished projects is staggering. But within the writing world, the one that I care about most of all, I've learned over the last couple of years to keep going.

That's why my doubts, my second thoughts, are gone. It's been a hell of a week for me. But I know that this time, for once, I'm going to keep my promise. I'm going to fight to the finish. And you should too.

The Value of Feedback

I think every author that wants to have success with his or her work will have to get feedback at some point. In the face of the many drafts it can take to get a real, publishable winner, everyone needs a little help.

Some people go to their friends for advice, and inevitably get flowery words of kindness that don't really help improve anything. Others look up professional editors, forking over the cash for it. There are writer's workshops as well, but it's tough to get much on more than a piece of your work. What we really need is a fellow writer who's willing to give honest feedback from start to finish.

So, across the internet, there are many places where we can ask for this (my personal favorite being the Absolute Write forums). But the funny thing is, it's just as important the other way too--if you need this help, so do the rest of us. Offering to look through and give someone an honest, thorough opinion is a great way to make friends in the writing community.

One of my fellow authors, Kat Mellon, just made a blog post on some of the best ways to band together with other writers. It's packed full of great information. She gives at least six valuable tips--all I have is this one, but it's definitely my favorite way of interacting with other writers.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have quite a few projects to go read and comment on.

Second-Guessing

Let me put this up front: The Third Face might not be coming April 5th.

Now I know what you're thinking. I just spent the last two months rabidly rewriting it to make it great, then I released a portion of that to the general public. And I still have two more months to polish it. How can I be unsure that I'll be done with it in time?

Second-guessing. Doubt. That which afflicts every writer at some point or another. I'm just asking the same questions other authors ask themselves at certain stages in their writing. Is this going to be good enough? Will people really want to read what I'm writing? Can I even finish it like this? Should I just start over?

These hauntings affect us all differently. Some people give in to them immediately, and they really do start over, writing the beginning to the same story over and over. Or, they scrap it altogether and try another one, only to put that down, too. The worst victims are the ones that decide to end their writing careers and move on to some other dream.

Even when people do finish, they eventually look back at their work and scream in frustration: how could I not see it? This isn't going to cut it! These people often go through the same set of responses that in-progress authors do, rather than face the horror of revising.

I've started over countless times. I think part of it is that I was never truly sure of what I was doing, no matter how many times I wrote it and presented it to the world. When you read a book, it seems like that's the only way that the author could have told that same story, but the truth is, there are an infinite number of ways to "remix" the same characters with the same issues and the same inevitable confrontation. Out of these, only a handful are on a path to something that will be successful.

The question, then, that every author is really asking is: Have I found the right way to tell my story this time?

All our second-guessing and doubt comes from fearing that the answer to that question might be no. And, even after learning from the pros and writing more drafts than I care to count, I still have that fear, too. Until I can conquer that fear, either by confirming that this draft is the right one or by working the story to that point where it is, there's no guarantees that I can make.

Today's question might be a difficult one, but if you can, leave a comment: what doubts are you most afraid of?

Book Pile Acquired

Writers read. Or at least, we're supposed to. For a long time, I wasn't reading all that much at all. I probably got through a book once every couple of months.

Of course, as you all know, I've resolved to read a book every week this year. My recent slew of orders from both Barnes & Noble and Amazon is going to, at the very least, get me started on that goal. The books are pictured above, in no particular order (although the boxsets do make pretty good bookends).

From left to right:

• The Dark Tower Volumes 1-4 Boxset by Stephen King. I had already read The Gunslinger and loved it, but I didn't own a copy, so it made sense to add these to my collection.
• Inheritance by Christopher Paolini. A conclusion to a great series. I've been meaning to get this for a while.
• A Game of Thrones by George R. R. Martin. Honestly, I bought this for the hype more than anything else.
• The Tribe of One Trilogy by Simon Hawke. In these fantasy novels, a young man with serious mental issues leaves his desert village, where he doesn't belong. Sound familiar? It's a lot like The Third Face. Naturally, I was curious to see how it compares. I'll let you know in my review of the trilogy soon enough.
• The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. The Discworld series, recommended by my buddy Duth Olec, is supposed to be the height of comedic fantasy. Where can I go wrong with that?
• Speaker for the Dead by Orson Scott Card. Since I really loved Ender's Game, I of course wanted to check out the next in the series.
• City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. I know nothing about this book, but it won Book of the Month over at the West Michigan Sci-Fi and Fantasy Fans group on Facebook. I think I can trust them for a good recommendation.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians 5-book Boxset by Rick Riordan. I read The Lightning Thief back in high school, and I enjoyed it a lot, but I don't even remember it very well. This time, I'll read through the whole series.

How big is your pile of books to read? What's in it?

Public Beta

Also known as Advanced Reading Copies, except they're PDF files and anyone can see them. Yes, I've decided to release Parts 1 and 2 of The Third Face to everyone.

The Evolution of Plans

On New Year's Day, many people make their resolutions. Some are more serious about it than others, but in the end, what you plan to do is usually not exactly what you end up doing. Some people give up before long, but others find themselves having to make adjustments after a little while. Today, I'm starting to see what those adjustments look like.

In Endings, 2012, posted on the last day of November, I was already making a few promises, mostly regarding The Third Face. I outlined my schedule for this year, which included finishing that draft mid-January. In fact, I actually did finish it a few days ago, as some of you noticed. Why didn't I write a post about it? Well, I was still in the midst of the "Obscurity" talk that started with my post on struggling authors and culminated in launching the Obscure Authors Alliance. Already, there's something that wasn't in my plan. Not only that, but I've decided to refrain from my lonely Script Frenzy in April, instead focusing the month on marketing The Third Face, as well as possibly recording an audio edition!

Then, in Looking to 2013, which I posted on New Year's Eve, I outlined my actual resolutions: to publish two novels, beta read four, and, each week, read a book and write three blog posts. I was lenient with myself on that last one, and you can see why--though I wanted to do a Drabble Thursday for each of those weeks, well, it's Thursday and there are no drabbles. I don't plan on doing one every single week anymore, but I do still want to do three blog posts, counting entries both on this blog and on Obscure Authors. When I do post the drabbles, it may not always be exactly a week's worth--just a few, here and there.

All in all, though, I'm sticking to my goals. Already, in the first few weeks, I've made a lot of progress on some of them. I've changed them in small ways, in order to make them possible and to root out the things that are just not realistic or useful, but they're still essentially the same ones I started with. That's what goals are all about: sticking with things, seeing your progress, and making little fixes to your plan. We can all learn a little bit from this.

Obscure Authors Alliance

Well, I've been talking about it for a while, and I finally did it. I've created a home for authors who are really struggling, who fight tooth and nail for every friend, follower, and book sale they make. I'm here to pool my resources with every other author I can find, whether they want to contribute posts, join in discussions, or just call themselves a proud member of this group.

The Obscure Authors Alliance is a Wordpress blog dedicated to all things writing. Eventually, I hope to create an article base that covers everything from character building to getting a sale, featuring the talents of as many authors as we can. In the meantime, though, we're a pretty small group, and I'd like to get to know everyone who's involved. Thus, I suspect we're going to have a heavy emphasis on chatting through comments at first.

Anyone can join this site and start making blog posts as part of the group. I personally believe that by contributing to a group effort, everyone benefits. The Obscure Authors Alliance has the potential to attract more readers than an individual's blog, and these readers in turn will see the individual members who write their favorite articles or are helpful in discussion. Thus, the more you participate, the more discoverable you become.

If you're interested in becoming a full-fledged author at the blog, all you have to do is fill out the form with your name and e-mail address, and I'll reply with an invitation as soon as possible. I can't do this alone, so I strongly encourage all of you to try your hand in this adventure. We're just getting off the ground, and every person can have a huge impact.

The Meaning of Obscurity

The blogging world has been a tough one for me. I'll save you the story of my failure to get into a "blogging tribe" (a small group of bloggers) since I don't care to badmouth other people in the community, with or without mentioning names.

Today, though, I saw a post about the "Liebster Award," where the writers of "small" blogs promote one another. Thing is, apparently their definition of "small" is less than 200 followers. Please, people. I have four.

Yup. Super tiny blog here. But I bet there are bloggers out there who don't even have followers at all. Is that because they're bad at blogging, or don't know what they're doing? No. It just means they haven't gotten to a point in the community where people notice them. At 25 followers, people start to have buddies they can partner with, and get the ball rolling. At 50, groups form.

But what about those of us who are still struggling to get to that point? We all want to reach out to the community, but we're so obscure that we can't even find each other out there. And believe me, I am working hard to try and find even a handful of writers who are languishing at the same level that I am. This is the hardest point for an author to be at, and yet it's the one where we have the least support.

After all, when you're where I am right now, you start to question whether you can really do this or not. I read success stories about breakout authors, and they all start along the lines of "I couldn't even sell a hundred books in my first year." You know how many books I sold in six months, print and ebook sales combined? Twelve. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of those went to close friends and family.

I'm looking for people who have that same level of frustration--whether they've already written their book, are still working on it, haven't started or are years deep in the marketing rut. I want to form a sort of alliance here. Does that mean more popular people can't join in? No, of course they can. But only if they can set aside that bit of success they have, and work with us.

Drabble Thursdays #5

Only six drabbles this week--I had a lazy day Wednesday.

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

The Marketing Game

What is marketing about? What is it that writers are trying to do when we set out to find readers for our work?

I used to think it was about flat attention. The idea was to tell everyone I could think of, and ask them to tell everyone they knew, in order to appear in as many places as I could. Yeah, I wanted to be liked, too, so people would actually bother with that, but overall it was a pretty shallow look at things.

Recently, I began to look at things in a new light--not just in marketing, but in life in general. What's important is not attention, but respect. I realized that respect is the key to just about everything.

That leads to the obvious question: how do I get respect? The answer, quite simply, is to command it. Be sure of the things you have to say. Know that they're important. When you have conviction, it's obvious. The tone of everything you say changes. Also, be a leader. Take charge of something. If you don't have a place to take charge, start something you can lead. Create situations where people look up to you. (I'm working on a bit of that myself--more on that soon enough!)

That's really all there is to it. I say it in simple terms, because that's what it is. You just have to change your attitude. There will always be an element of giving other people what they need--advice or the like--because in order to get respect, people need to see value in associating with you. But you don't need to just pander to everyone. In fact, that's counterproductive. Let people see that what you have to say is valuable, and that you refuse to waste their time with anything less.

Like I said, commanding respect is useful for all things in life, especially when it comes to careers. It can even make you more attractive to the opposite gender! So try doing everything you do with a little more confidence--stand up straight and speak with conviction. I promise you, the effort will more than pay off.

Drabble Thursdays #4

Finally back on board with this.

DISCLAIMER: Drabbles may suck.

Two Thirds Face

Yes, I am now officially two thirds of the way through rewriting The Third Face. Edition 2.

Pun aside, I just wanted to say that I'm proud of myself for this. What I have down is already 5,000 words longer than the first edition ever was. It's amazing how much real work I can get out in a couple of months if I just push myself all the time. Some of you will think my progress is insanely fast, and I agree--you'd be right to think that it's eating my life a little. (I can do other things when it's done!)

It's amazing to see how the story is shaping up, too. My main character, Rasuke, is turning into a real character that's worth following. His massive mental issues have evolved from being just one more mystery for the reader to solve, into something that he actually has to overcome in the course of the book. Even the villain, Ius, is getting a little bit of character arc as he struggles with being rejected by the one he answers to. And the subplots? Well, they're all falling into place.

I've packed more surreal and horrifying battles, internal struggles, complex relationships, and of course, hilarious Eibmoz moments into this novel than ever before. I know many of you haven't seen any of the content of this novel before, but let me just say this--there's a little of everything in it, and I trust myself to execute it well.

But underneath all the carefully-crafted alternate world and religion, underneath the powerful magic, this is an adventure, wherein a hero of great untapped power is rudely introduced to an enemy of even greater power. And you have to ask, is he fighting out of a hunger for self-worth--or just for his life?

First Week of the Year

Vacations are weird.

I'm sure most people had at least a little one somewhere around New Year's. For me, the vacation was a couple days off work and not writing any drabbles for a couple of weeks starting around Christmas.

You probably noticed that I haven't blogged so much lately, either. There's an element of vacation to that, too, but the fact is that I've just been plain busy. I find that the only way I can get anything done at all on a day off from work is by having a million deadlines and way too much to do. Otherwise, I subconsciously write the day off as one where I can be lazy, and end up doing nothing!

So this week, I organized my To-Do List, which I hadn't used in quite a while. It consists of some of the writing goals I mentioned in my last entry, a handful of free online learning courses, and some commitments I've made to communities (such as keeping up the Facebook group).

I may be a little behind on this blog and my drabbles, but as for beta reading I'm swamping myself halfway to Hell already. Even though I'm just getting started on Duth Olec's Slubes for my second pass, I went over to Absolute Write and started talks with four or five different people about how I can start beta reading their novels. They range from an in-progress story to a 130,000 word epic, but I'm excited about all of them. Needless to say, just getting started on that has really kept me busy by itself.