Yes, it was exciting. But I also had some concerns. Even though my publisher had arranged everything, I hardly expected anyone to show up:
It was on a Saturday at 1 pm, when most people would either be home getting ready for lunch or at a children’s costume party (it’s the middle of the Greek Carnival).
Even the publisher’s PR guy, the one who had arranged the presentation, had told me beforehand he would not be showing up, as he had to be elsewhere (presumably at a bigger author’s event).
My author friends had warned me that Ianos hosts four such events every single weekend, so it was unlikely…
First, I look seltzer with ice. Soda in general, but I really love having a cup of flavored seltzer with ice. I don’t know why it tastes so good and I guzzle it down in a state of yummy bliss. Okay, I just had to say this since it’s what I’m drinking now. It’s Polar Strawberry Lemondae flavored. Trying not to blast through the Starfruit Lemonade flavor since I only have one box of those. Hmmm, I guess I wasn’t quite down with the topic this time.
Guess I don’t really have much to report since this week was going back to work/school after Winter Break. It was mostly getting back into the schedule, which wasn’t as easy as I thought. Not because of anything happening at school. The temperature dropped into the 20’s on Monday and that’s when my itching came back. Yeah, I’ve definitely got an ‘allergy’ that’s connected to temperature. I thought it was stress, but I think it was mostly my body temp going up. This meant I was taking Benadryl at night and just conking out without much of a fight. Not the best type of sleep. I also did the ‘genius’ manuever of taking half a dose of Benadryl in the morning when I woke up itchy. Trying to stay awake for the first half of the day was a struggle and I felt rather embarrassed. Hopefully that’s done since I took a 24-hour antihistamine today and I’ve been fine. Think I finally found a solution and I only really need it when it’s in the mid-30’s and lower.
You can tell this is going to be a rather lame and odd post. The truth is that I didn’t get to do any writing beyond two blog posts. Part of it was the allergy and another part was that I was just tired. I also got hooked on this:
At the writing of this post, I’ve only finished through episode 6 because I binged the first 4 last Sunday afternoon. Then, I would only watch episodes when I was comfortable and had no distractions. It’s got more drama and angst than I expected, but the action, comedy, and characters are great. The story is pretty good too. Makes me want to hunt down the graphic novel. I have realized that it isn’t the easiest series to explain because it involves time travel, superheroes, vigilantism, sibling rivalry, speaking to the dead, talking chimpanzees, donuts, and the end of the world. I’d give it a few episodes to see if you really like it. There were a few that felt rather slow, but I enjoyed getting to know the characters enough to ignore that. Not sure why, but Klaus became my favorite. I think I just needed to laugh and he had some pretty funny scenes in the beginning. Then, an event happened and he became amazingly, realisticly human.
Now, this weekend is going to be a little laidback and then busy. I’m going to finish chapter 5 of War of Nytefall: Eradication today (edit: already seeing issues here), but probably won’t be able to tackle chapter 6 until next weekend. The reason is because I’m taking my son to an autism friendly showing of ‘Aladdin’ on Broadway. It’ll be his first Broadway show and my second because I’m not big into theater. ‘Aladdin’ appeals to me because it’s a story that I like and grew up with. My son liked the movie and is excited. That’s the big event for the weekend and maybe the month.
It’s another 6.5 weeks before I get another break, so I’ll probably be preparing more blog posts for April and May. Still hoping to release War of Nytefall: Rivalry in April, but I’m juggling a lot. I really need to write those blurbs and I’m aiming to have those ready for a public showing next Sunday. The cover art is coming along and the editing is done to the best of my ability. Had one person look it over and added all their edits, so fingers are crossed here. Life has just been so busy and I know many have told me to not even try to release a book, but I need that last piece of normalcy. To do this is a sign that I can continue writing even if it’s at a slower pace. I took extra time editing this book to make sure I’m not letting the stress cause trouble. Book 4 might be a little tougher since I’m writing that when I’m still a little off, but it’s helping me recover. The slower pace is a benefit here because I only write when I feel mentally ready. Some day, I’ll master all the balancing, but I’m getting there. I’ve already decided that the summer is going to be primarily preparing blog posts and tinkering with another Ichabod Brooks collection, which might take more than a year to put together.
For a week where I didn’t do much, I sure had a lot to say. What are the goals?
Drink more yummy seltzer.
ALADDIN!
Work hard and sleep harder.
Finish chapter 5 of War of Nytefall: Eradication.
Do at least 6 April blog posts.
Write more next weekend.
Finish watching ‘Umbrella Academy’.
Biking.
Finally:
Still looking for War of Nytefall: Rivalry blog tour volunteers. Also, feel free to suggest blog post topics if there’s something you want me to write about. It might take a while, but I always apprecitate requests from the audience when it comes to my blog.
Hints and clues
Scattered about the pages
To create a network
That spans the void
Connecting heroes
Who may never cross paths
Weaving a tapestry
Of the finest mental silk
The author can muster
*
Must one read all?
To fully grasp each tale
Or can they stand alone
Joined by whimsy
And a shared world
That grows with every volume
Blossoming into a web
That can snare the mind
Of all who entire
Don Massenzio This edition of my author interview series features Anna Chiapetta. It’s always interesting to see what questions each author selects for their interview. It definitely gives us insight into what makes them tick. Now, without further delay, please … Continue reading →
From your comments, it’s obvious that you most of you hate Gutenberg. Some, however, were on the fence. And a few have actually used it and seemed to enjoy it.
There are some advantages to Gutenberg. We will have more control over the layout in native WordPress. We currently have a lot of control with builder themes and plugins, but with Gutenberg, we have a high level of control without needing a third-party product. We will need fewer plugins. Some of the features that we normally use plugins for are built into Gutenberg.
Whatever your feelings about it, we seem to be stuck with it. So, I thought I’d give you a quick description of how it works, with the help of Aspen Grove Studios. Just bookmark this post and come back to it if you wish to give Gutenberg a spin (or WordPress forces it upon us).
As usual, here is your warning that this story has cursing, sex (not graphic), innuendo, and violence. It’s my Rated-R action adventure called Derailing Bedlam. This is the fourth outing (third official) for Cassidy and Lloyd, so feel free to click on one of the two covers to see how it started. Each one is 99 cents!
In Crossing Bedlamand Legends of Windemere: Prodigy of Rainbow Tower, I had the heroes go on traveling adventures. This meant deciding on locations, events for those locations, and how long they stayed in each place. There’s a lot of organization here that I never really talked about in previous posts. So, I thought I would give a step-by-step for planning out a journey. This is going to get a little odd at times because I’m going to try for the steps involved in an Earth story and a Windemere story at the same time. This way you get to see the overlap:
Decide on the overall story and why the journey is happening. This doesn’t mean that you know the end, but you know the reason for traveling.
Get a rough idea of how many stops you want for the overall story. You can always add and subtract later. Personally, I try to aim high and whittle things down as I move along.
Fantasy: This is when you start plotting your path by listing either the real names or placeholder names of each stop. You can add marks here for traveling sections as well, but this is optional. There’s no need to write descriptions just yet.
Earth: Same as #3, but you need to look at a map here. For Bedlam, I chose the beginning and ending States (For example, New York and California for the first book.) then did a Google driving route. I would list the other States that appeared along there as well as any that are close enough to make detours.
Here is where you can start writing descriptions of the stops and see if anything comes to mind for a location-based adventure. Maybe there’s a brief delay that will take a chapter or two to settle. It helps to treat these like short stories in order to flush out the details.
Fantasy: Choose how long the characters will be at the stop. Much of what you do here will be decided upon either with the outlining stage or just writing. With fantasy, you can leave a lot more up to your whims than Earth. So, this is probably where I’m going to end the Windemere side.
Earth: Choose your cities and towns that you want to use. Many people stick to the capitals and larger urban centers. I prefer to have some of those and throw in some smaller towns for fun. You never know what you will come across when you see a curious name on a map and look more into it. Most of the stops in Crossing Bedlam and Chasing Bedlam came from this wandering eye curiosity.
Research the stops in an Earth-based story. It doesn’t have to be extensive, but get an idea of the culture and history of each location. This can tell you what your heroes might run into. Agriculture, major corporations, and landmarks can come in handy as well. The deeper you go, the more real the location will be. It also means you can avoid locals complaining about your bad depiction.
Design a challenge at each location that connects to your research. Unlike fantasy, you really should stick to what’s already there. Don’t add a mountain to a place that doesn’t have one just because you want a climbing adventure. There are plenty of things to use and you really should look for more unique facts to cling to. For example, I used Thomasville, Georgia in Chasing Bedlam because it had a connection to roses and I wanted to have a beautiful city among the destruction. The localized adventure was about slave traders, but this gave me an interesting setting.
If it helps, print out a map and mark it up as you move along. This way, you maintain an idea of distance and progress. For fantasy, you can even make your own map to achieve this step.
I’ve mentioned a few times that I write ensemble cast stories for the most part. Legends of Windemere is the easiest example since you can’t really say any of the champions are more important than the others. This wasn’t any easy trick to pull off either. Many people picked Luke Callindor or Nyx as the main heroes because they did take the spotlight more often, so I can’t say I was perfect here. Yet, every hero had at least one book to shine in, which meant the others had to step back. Moving from the spotlight to the shadows ran a few risks and challenges, but I think I did it as well as I could. After all, you don’t see it very often in books.
This is where planning came in handy because that helped me position all of the characters for the story. I chose the focal character for the main story with maybe one or two others to act as full supporting. The others were there with moments to shine and things to do or had a side story. For some clarity, here is a breakdown of Legends of Windemere: The Mercenary Prince:
Delvin Cunningham had the main story of traveling to the Yagervan Plains to find his tribe. This took the lion’s share of the story and would eventually cross with the others for the conclusion.
The other champions were following Delvin until they ran into a problem that divided them even further. This had a few scenes that were used to allow time to pass for Delvin.
Luke Callindor ended up on his own at one point. This helped create a bridge for the two stories.
Another bridge was what was going on with Nyx.
Now, I use ‘shadows’ in the title, but the other characters aren’t really that far back. You can see that they are still operating even though Delvin is the focus. This way, nobody falls behind in terms of story and development. They might not be leaping ahead like the main character, but they are growing enough to be ready for their next push. One thing I learned here is that you can’t have an ensemble cast grow at identical rates. Each path can overshadow the other or you can just get a mess of events with the characters growing for no real reason. This is why I gave each character at least one book to get that major boost of development then gradual grow throughout the others.
You do run into a slight problem at times because some characters become more popular than others. I had many requests for Fizzle stories with Nyx and Luke not being that far behind. In contrast, people really didn’t seem that interested in Timoran Wrath or Dariana. Yet, I couldn’t let them fall behind because that could harm the finale. Having several champions weak and underdeveloped would be sloppy. Besides, there was always a chance that their big events could bring more people to their fan base, which I’d like to think it did. The point is that I couldn’t ignore anyone, so cycling them from front row to back row was the best option. Reminded me of playing Final Fantasy games where you have to switch characters in and out to make sure nobody is under powered. Made a mistake of not doing this in FF8 and got stuck with a team too weak to continue through the game.
While I don’t think I’ve tried it, you can also shift the characters over the course of a single story. Maybe I did this by accident or the main/side story system I had covers this, but I’m too dense to realize it. The trick here is to give each character ample time to develop without rushing either one. If they go alongside each other then the switch can allow for a ‘time passing’ transition like I mentioned before. It’s almost like a three ring circus where the spotlight moves to another act while the other gets ready for something else. Don’t think I’m doing well on the analogies. Anyway, you need to make sure you don’t spend too much time on one story. If you do then the other one will atrophy and it will feel odd to go back there. You can counter this by having it stop on a cliffhanger that ties into the main one, but that still runs the risk if you wait for too long. Best to do a 1-1 or 2-1 or even 3-1 chapter/scene breakdown. It really depends on the importance of each path.
So, I think I hit the subject correctly, but I’ll admit that I can’t be sure. I thought it would be more complicated, but it really isn’t if you think about it. Make sure characters get decent story time and moments to be the focal point. The more often you shift them back and forth, the more the audience accepts that they are a group of protagonists instead of a solitary hero. Once that’s established, you can be a little freer in your usage and not worry as much about finding perfect balance.
The presentation banner 
Legends of Windemere 