Cover Art by Jason Pedersen
Welcome to my attempt to improve my Tuesday posts. I’m going to look back at each of my books and end with a Questions 3 finale. Best place to start is with Legends of Windemere: Beginning of a Hero. This was Volume 1 of my first series and is currently on Amazon as a FREE eBook.
Where to even start with this one? I created the foundation for Windemere and the rest of my series with this book. Luke Callindor was introduced as the ambitious, reckless hero who was in over his head. Fizzle showed up and might be considered the mascot of Windemere entirely. So much happened in this book to get the ball rolling and set up a 15 Volume series. There was a lot of juggling, but it didn’t feel like much of a challenge at first. Worked on this book for a little more than a decade before self-publishing on Amazon in 2013. I can’t even remember most of the sessions since I’d gone through so much during that span.
As much as I love this book, I don’t think I can ever read it again and it definitely shows my newbie status. A big reason for that is because I was so new to writing that I thought everyone knew better than me. So, I would take every suggestion to ‘improve’ Beginning of a Hero and it was turned into a mishmash of styles. I think the only tip I ignored was to change Luke’s first name to something else since Luke Skywalker existed. Nothing fit him, so I stuck with it. That should have taught me to trust my instincts, but I kept mucking around with my writing style. When I decided to try my luck with Amazon, I looked at this book and was horrified by what it turned into. It took me 3 months of daily work to get it back to what I felt was closer to my style, but I still see some shaky areas where I might have been listening to others on some level. Am I still proud of it? Yes, but I will always remember the brutality that I put this manuscript through due to my own lack of confidence.
I wouldn’t try to rewrite it either. That crossed my mind a lot, but I was worried I would lose the parts that came out really well. Going back to the drawing board because I listened to too many people seemed wrong. This is why I did editing run and editing run until I was happy with the final product. I think having a book like this out there helps me see how far I’ve come too. When I’m having imposter syndrome moments, I can look at Beginning of a Hero and see how I’ve improved. I know many authors who junk their earliest works and pretend they never existed. That doesn’t suit my personality where I like looking back to see how far I’ve come. Our past is what makes us, so why bury it?
All that being said, this book taught me how to transfer game events into a book. Dice rolls tend to cause unexpected twists, but you can’t have that occur in a book without it throwing off the flow. So, I needed to list the big events that were going to occur and see how I can make them fit. I did this a lot by making sure characters had the proper flaws to explain their successes and failures. One of the reasons Luke Callindor is so reckless is because I needed to show how he could make terrible mistakes and unexpected victories, which happened due to the dice. He became a character who depended on luck just as much as skills. That was born from needing to transfer events from one medium to another and this book is where I learned how to do this.
Overall, this book will always have a special place in my portfolio. I mean, it was the first one I really got to publish and promote. The first one to get on a Top 100 Amazon list and the first one to earn me a royalty check. Needless to say, Beginning of a Hero had a lot of milestones, which is to be expected.
Questions 3:
- Do you ever think back to the first book you wrote?
- What do you think about authors taking all advice given to them?
- Do you enjoy Coming of Age stories? Why or why not?
Legends of Windemere 
I have not looked back at any of my books – terrified of what I might see! Luckily I had a really good critique group that helped me write my vision so well that I could ignore everyone else! I do love coming-of-age stories – they are very uplifting and remind me that there can be great courage and determination in young people.
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Thanks. I tried a few critique groups. Never works out because I’m usually the lone fantasy author with nobody else interested in the genre. So, I get very little advice beyond grammar and spelling.
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That’s really too bad – mine has sci-fi, romance, women’s fiction, and memoir. It’s good for us to look critically at other genres!
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Always find a lot of memoir authors. Not sure why.
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Wow! That’s great! It’s the first book of yours that I read. 😊
1. I usually don’t, because it is out of print. It was a work-for-hire book of songs for kids.
2. Taking every piece of advice doesn’t sound wise. You have to consider the source a lot of times.
3. I enjoy coming of age stories. Characters make mistakes and grow in wisdom. Nowadays too many characters come out of the gate all powerful and never seem to change or learn anything. Coming of age stories show growth through the decisions—good and bad—that the character makes.
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Fully agree with #3. I tried that powerful right away thing with Clyde. Nyx as well. It was tough to create evolution. You have to focus on their personality and relationships instead of physical abilities. Not easy.
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Clyde and Nix learned from their mistakes and were relatable because they got into so much trouble. And Cyde had a lot of humor. But many books I’ve been told about lack humor. And the characters are so overpowered and complacent about it, I’m rarely drawn to the stories.
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Humor seems to either be lacking or over the top these days.
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I never think back to the first book I wrote. I believe what is done is done.
Authors who take all the advice given to them will end up really confused or will quit writing.
I do not enjoy Coming of Age stories because I get a little frustrated at the troubling process, and the writing is usually not very accurate on the emotional side of things.
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I’ve never noticed that with Coming of Age stories. What do they usually do wrong?
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The angst of coming of age is usually covered with simple plots to make everything come out right. Very seldom does a protagonist in a coming-of-age story end up badly. It doesn’t make for happy readers.
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I think that’s part of the genre. It’s usually to help teenagers understand their own plights and emotions. The heroes succeeding can show teens how to handle their problems and give them hope.
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1) Do you ever think back to the first book you wrote?
Yes, and I laugh because it was in high school and I got all the way through to discover I didn’t have an ending.
2) What do you think about authors taking all advice given to them?
Advice can be helpful, but it takes time to develop the judgment around what advice is good and bad.
3) Do you enjoy Coming of Age stories? Why or why not?
I don’t like or dislike them any more than other types of stories.
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Ouch on not having an ending. Ever figure out what happened?
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I leave my early works out there, too. They’re like the foundation stones of who I am today. They’re rough around the edges, but a few people enjoyed them enough to keep me going.
We have to winnow through advice. Even today, some advice is helpful, but other is well intentioned, but not as helpful.
I love coming of age stories. Everything needs an arc, and this is a classic way of getting one.
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Nice way of thinking about early works.
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Question 1. Yes, I think about my first book and, like you, I thought about rewriting it, or just re-editing it. But I have so many others in my head that I don’t think I’ve got the time to do it. After all, I’m now getting on in years and want to at least finish the series. And I’ve another series on the go, too.
Question 2. I think you should take the advice with a pinch of salt. You know best what you want for your book. Some things are OK, such as grammar errors, but style is personal.
Question 3. It depends on the story If it’s a good story, I like it. If it’s not, I don’t. It could be said that all stories with a positive arc are Coming of Age stories. I never thought of my Vengeance of a Slave as a Coming of Age story until a reviewer called it that.
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Interest thought on #3. Never considered that.
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