Author: authorrowland

Contest? Sure!!

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Remnant is up and live for Pre-Order on Kindle: PRE ORDER HERE!!  In the mean time I have a couple of copies of the proof versions laying around and thought I would give one or two away.

That being said you can also get the print version now: Like paper better? Get this one!!  The process of linking the e-book and print version can take a couple of days, but when they do you should be able to get a free copy of the e-book when you get the print version.

So I figured anyone that comments on this blog, responds to the tweet (like, etc), likes or comments on the post to the Facebook page, even those that actually review the darn thing, will get a chance to win one of those old Proof copies, signed by me, cause I mean we all know it will be worth a lot some day.

I do have to confess though, these are older and missing four chapters, but the honor of having my signature should offset anything like that.  I will let this run till the end of June and them pick someone based on sticky notes with darts thrown at them on a wall, or some other random determiner.  This also means you can have multiple chances if you comment and/or like on the multiple platforms.

Just throwing that out there…….

Expectations

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Being that my first book will hit next week, I just picked a random date, but it seemed good, I thought it would be a good time to talk about what I expect. In reality I don’t expect much. If I can get a copy or two sold that would be sweet.

I have a Tweeter and Facebook page that has a few likes, I mean you have to start somewhere.  So that should at least get me a little exposure, not in the suggestive way though.  In a perfect world I will move enough copies to cover the editor(s) for the next book.

I think I find that keeping expectations low si a good thing.  I can cross my fingers and imagine a couple thousand copies moving, but the market is a bit saturated.  That is what Self-Publishing brings to the table.  More books, which is good for readers, and for writers that want to get their work out there, but bad for exposure.

There is always hope though, I mean Twilight sold a lot and bad Twilight Fan Fic got three movies.  I don’t know if you have ever read that, but it is utter crap.  How the hell can something like that even get published?  There is bad writing, slow reading, and other things that can make a book bad, but 50 shades does it all and even invents some crap.  So yeah, hope is there.

My stuff isn’t going to win awards but at least it is competent.   So here I am waiting to get it out to the masses and see where it lands.

Getting There!

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Had a couple of days away apparently. Traffic and my car don’t really want to cooperate. The one thing I can say though is that when something is on the horizon that you really want to do, then everything seems to be high stress right before it.

Here I am a week before I toss my hat into the writing world and even little things seem to be getting me all stressed out. I spent most of today going over the formatting of the book, making sure all of the number of lines for the first page of each chapter are the same.

Talk about anal retentive. I was also fretting over the back cover blurp, because what else is there to do when you are getting close. I have found myself resubmitting the interior file about once every two days. Are there rewrites? Missing content? Nope. Just the little things, like making sure the page numbers in the table of contents are right. Or adding this web address, or making sure I am plugging the next two books in the series (as if this one is going to be a big hit).

One never knows though, so better safe than sorry. So I find myself going over the darn thing time and time again to make sure that it is fine. I mean I am happy with the actual context of the book, but I had to rearrange a couple of things as well. The data dump at the start was a bit much. I had originally written it as two chapters. That is the problem with a story that takes place in a world the the writer creates.

We have to make sure that you have enough information to know what is going on, but at the same time not bludgeon you to death with exposition. In the case of my story you have to know what is going on, as well as how the culture works. Character is the main thing though. So I have to introduce you to the people, but make sure you have an idea about the stakes. Thus world building is key.

There is world building throughout the story, but I needed to get some of it up front so the reader can know why it is important, there in lies the dilemma. I am hoping I made it a little better. We shall see, shan’t we?

Till next time.

Feel the Action!

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Just a small scene with some action from my upcoming tale:

When a pause came in the action, Jessica placed a charge on the door handle. Then her and Kenny went down the stairs. She pressed a button on her arm and then an explosion came. She quickly ran back up the stairs and tossed a container through where the door had once been. Then her and Kenny ran as fast as they could out into the street.
Just as they reached the street the entire third floor of the building erupted in flames. The grenade she had thrown in was known as a building crusher. If used on the first floor of most buildings it could bring the whole thing down, used on the top floor it would clear everything out.
The cadets that had been with Kenny were seeing to their injured teammate when the woman who Jessica had talked to walked by them. She picked up one of the weapons that had been set down on the ground. Jess saw her approaching, she also saw her raising the gun and point it at her. Jessica didn’t even freeze, she pulled her own weapon, raised it, and fired it before the woman traveled more than three steps.
The woman fell to the ground with a bullet wound center mass in her forehead. She was dead before she even knew she had been fired at. Jessica reholstered her weapon and was down by the side of her injured cadet asking for an assessment. Soon they all heard the arrival of backup.

authorrowland

This is my little slice of the interwebs where I can ramble, rant, and toss out the things I write about for mass consumption, or minimal, depending of how many people come by for a visit and a glimpse of senility.

My first book, Remnant, if up for Pre-Order on Kindle now on Amazon HERE.