I’d like to thank everyone for their support and encouragement over the last two weeks! It’s been a busy time between the release of my newest novel, The House on Candlewick Lane, and the cover reveal for my next novel (coming in September), Highland Peril.
For those of you who missed the reveal on social media, here’s a look at the cover for Highland Peril:
What do you think?
There are just a few things I wanted to remind people this week.
First, if you have read The House on Candlewick Lane and left a review on Amazon or your blog or somewhere else online, THANK YOU! For those of you who’ve read the book and not left a review (good or bad!), I would ask you to consider taking a couple minutes and doing so. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, reviews are important for lots of…
Not really sure where to go with this post because it kind of speaks for itself. I’m having a real problem finding a way to promote Legends of Windemere: Ritual of the Lost Lamb. This book would reveal the finale for Legends of Windemere: The Spirit Well and what is going on with one of the characters. Then again, I’ll have to do the same in the blurb that I’ll be testing next month.
This really feels like a lose/lose situation. I have to blurb and promote the book, but people get so touchy about spoilers these days. Maybe there’s some cushion since people will know what happened, but not how. As long as they care about the how. That’s something that an author can’t entirely control. Needless to say, I’ve been wracking my brain and running in circles. At least the 14th and 15th books don’t have this problem to this extent. You kind of know that the finale will be a fight against the Baron and the 14th book follows an essential side adventure that needs to happen before the finale. Not going into details since that isn’t what this post is about.
My concern is that I’ll share too much and people won’t bother with The Spirit Well or Ritual of the Lost Lamb. This is why I’m kind of happy that all future series won’t have this type of adventure. The books are connected, but rather self-contained. For example, Book 1 of War of Nightfall has the Dawn Fangs first appearing and the second has the revelation of another difference between them and the original vampires. You can read the blurb and teasers for the second book without spoiling the first. This continues throughout the series. Live and learn, I guess. Funny how Legends of Windemere is so close to my heart, but can be such a pain in my ass.
So, what do you do about books that hold so many spoilers? How do you promote? Do you just take the bullet? What do you think as a reader? Do you give the author some leeway if it’s a later book of a series?
Today we sit down with John Howell, author of the John J. Cannon series and wonderful blogger. John gives us some great insight into his writing as a craft and as a business.
Please enjoy this edition of A Perfect 10
If you want to check out past interviews, you can find them in the following links:
Also, if you are an author and you want to be part of this feature, I still have a few slots open for 2017. You can email me at don@donmassenzio.com
1) Does writing energize or exhaust you?
I must say there are times when I experience both. When I’m having a particularly tough time with a plot point, I feel as if I have gone ten rounds with a welterweight. I’m not…
It is that time. I need your help to spread the word on the relaunch of My GRL. I will be posting the announcement on Tuesday, February 28th so anytime after that a post from you will be great. I will mail the material out on February 27th
The only thing you will have to do is copy a file and paste it into your native post page. I will send complete instructions with the material.
If you would like to help, please send an e-mail to:
johnhowell (dot) wave (at) gmail.com (trying to foil the spammers)
Now, I thought about doing a review of John Wick Chapter 2 since I saw it last weekend for Valentine’s Day. Before anybody says anything, the wife tends to choose action movies for this holiday. We both loved the first one and have been waiting impatiently for the second. Not to mention she wanted to do her part to make sure we get a third one and stick it to that other movie that people seem to expect her gender to make a beeline towards. Only if they paid her a million bucks and she’d probably sneak out during the trailers with the check.
Where was I? Yes, the review. I don’t really know if I can review this movie because I don’t trust myself to avoid spoilers. It was great! I want to see it again and plan on grabbing the DVD when it’s out. My birthday is in April and I’m thinking of telling one person to hold off and get me it if they can. Pre-order even! I want to do a John Wick marathon so badly to see how all the pieces fit and evolve. As you can see, I’m restraining myself. There are two things I can mention though and they’re the reasons I loved this movie so much.
World Building
In the first movie, they gave a little insight into the world of assassins. We saw the coins used as payments, The Continental that was neutral ground, and learned some of their society’s rules. It had a sense of honor that was taken seriously. John Wick Chapter 2 built upon this and revealed more of the world, which was amazing. You don’t get a lot of the history, but you find out more about how things work. What happens when somebody breaks a rule? Is it the same around the world or is NYC run differently? How do contracts work and get sent out? Just seeing the meat of this world made it worth the price of admission. You simply don’t see a lot of action movies go this deep into the world and reveal a level of crafting that one tends to see more in sci-fi and fantasy.
I’ll give an example as best I can: John Wick has to take a job. To do this he needs some supplies and info that comes from three different sources. Instead of one scene per person, you get a scene that does seamless jumps from one meeting to another. You get to see how the coins come into play, hear the assassin lingo that isn’t confusing at all (weapon buying was talked about like planning a multi-course dinner), and see how much planning goes into a job. There’s some humor in here too, but I loved how you got to see the cogs that would be behind the assassins.
Action Scenes
One of my biggest issues with some of the more modern action movies is that they use a shaky camera or have scenes so chaotic that I can’t follow things. That isn’t the case with this movie. Just the beautiful choreography involved in fights that range from shootouts to hand-to-hand. For those that don’t know, the directors were stuntmen (or maybe coordinators) on The Matrix trilogy. So these guys know their action and it shows every time. The first movie was great, but this one surpassed it. This is one of the big reasons that I can’t do a worthy review. You simply have to see how well done these are. Sure, you have to be interested in action and be able to handle the violence, but it’s not like the movie hides that.
Honestly, these are the way my action scenes turn up in my head. If any of my stories become movies or TV shows then this is how I would want them to be done. You get to see every move and not be confused on who is doing what. It’s like watching a real fight in person where the scenery doesn’t feel like it’s tilting for no reasons. I get the whole ‘sense of chaos’ thing, but the audience should still be able to follow the action. That’s what happens here and it really set my personal bar for other action movies. Going to be really hard to top or equal this. I’m looking at you, Logan.
I will say that there was one addition that I didn’t like because it seemed to take a little of the danger out of it. So, there are imperfections. Not enough to reduce my enjoyment, but I’m not a nitpicker. Really praying they can make a third because the ending is a perfect set up. I’m even willing to wait another two years for something this good. Guess I’ll have Deadpool 2 next year to tide me over in 2018.
A great creepy YA tale that adults will find equally intriguing.
Teri Polen’s SARAH is the stuff that will keep you up at night. It’s the perfect blend of lighthearted teenage banter and blood-curdling horror elements.
Well developed characters, twists and turns and excitement to last these teens a life time! This will keep you guessing and turning pages well into the night.
If you’re an Amazon Prime member, Sarah is also available on KDP Select for a limited time.
There we go with the promotional part of this post. Might do another tomorrow since I totally forgot what I was going to write about. It’s been one of those weeks where things were busy and tiring. The proof is that I managed to sleep later and it was one of those deep sleeps instead of my usual lightweight, easily stirred style. Guess stuff finally caught up to me after I released the latest adventure of Cassidy and Lloyd. Funny how it doesn’t seem right to me if their names are put in reverse. Is it alphabetical or because Cassidy came first in the planning stage? Something to ponder in the future.
Managed to finish Resurrection Bowl and Toy Tower for the Ichabod Brooks collection. This leaves me with four more stories to write and then I can figure out the next stage. Was thinking of beta readers who can finish reading the 11 stories by May and search for a cover artist. Oh, I did realize one oopsie on my part with this short story collection. I may have been saying that I had 12 stories planned. Seems I really only have 11 and it’s always been that way. Imagine my confusion when I counted how many were left and then counted how many I remember writing. Needless to say there was a lot of notebook rummaging on that one.
I mentioned yesterday that I’m going to start in on setting up the April posts. My son has his Winter Break all week, so I’ll only have nights to work. Figure I can get Ichabod Brooks & the Jester Flute written using the weekend and Monday when the wife is around. Then I’ll use nights to prep for April. There’s a big family event going on at the beginning of that month, so March may be more chaotic than I realize. As far as next week goes, I’ll have my hands full entertaining the munchkin. We need to get fitted for suits for the event, but I also promised LEGO BATMAN and want to go to a local preserve for some fun on a day that’s slated to be warm. This means I’ll be rather tired by the time the sun goes down, so aiming for a 5 section short story and April posts is probably the best idea.
Dang it. Almost remembered what I was going to post about tomorrow. Forgot and now I don’t remember what I was doing for Tuesday. Maybe it was a John Wick Chapter 2 review. Honestly, I shouldn’t do much on Sunday because I won’t be near a computer that much. Going to have a lot of company and I’ll be solo-parenting that day too. I’ll have the phone, but the instant my son sees that, he asks to look up baby animals, superheroes, and supervillains. Oddly proud that he’s asking to look up characters like Clayface and Poison Ivy. Still won’t let him near the collection though.
Something else I need to figure out is what to do in March. I’ll probably finish the Ichabod Brooks stories by the 10th, but I shouldn’t tackle any projects that require me staying on point for the rest of the month. That April event, which happens right before my birthday and my son’s Spring Break . . . How the hell do I get anything done here? My point is that I can’t take on a full writing project like the post-Legends of Windemere story, Derailing Bedlam, or the first War of Nightfall books. Kind of a shame because I’m missing a full month. I’m considering editing the last two Legends of Windemere book in March, but I don’t know if I’d finish in time. Another idea is to tackle the next Dawn Addison book that will be posted throughout October. It’s rather low key and short. I can edit Book 14th if I finish that one with the three weeks. 31 sections and 3 sections a day? Totally possible. Then again, there’s that unpublishable project I keep poking at. Could just do that one in March and get it out of my head.
Okay, I’ve rambled enough to myself here. Time to state the goals:
Write Ichabod Brooks & the Jester Flute.
Write the April posts.
See Lego Batman.
Go to an animal place or nature preserve.
Cook dinners.
Read more Fairy Tail.
Fiddle with the unpublishable story. Honestly, this one is starting to simply bug me at this point since I can’t do anything with it even if I finish it.
Who is Eddie, you might ask? Truth be told, I have no idea. Mary Natalie has been babbling away for a couple of months now, but these past days has been fixated on a single word: Eddie. Which is a …
1) Does writing energize or exhaust you?
