No. 27 - Becoming an Indie Author

by Zoe Winters

Started: November 8
Finished: November 12

Notes: If you are trying to make it as an indie author, aka a self-published author, in this modern digital world, you really need to be checking out the blog of paranormal romance indie author Zoe Winters. Though I don't normally read paranormal romance books, for some little time now I've been following Zoe's career and some of her advice. Because she has a lot of good advice to give! Zoe can be quite opinionated at times, but I find her funny instead of aggressive, and in my experience she only gives out grief to people who deserve it. Anyway, Zoe recently released this e-book about her path to successful indie writing/publishing, and I couldn't turn down an opportunity to read it.

Mini review: Indie author beginners, I highly recommend this little e-book. No, it won't hold your hand and tell you every single, little step to take, but it's not too far from that. At the least, this e-book offers plenty of good advice, and it points you in the right direction. Wish I'd written it, honestly.

100 Days of Fantasy: Day 86

This is an ongoing series looking at books that have influenced me as a fantasy writer.

World's Finest #256
by Dennis O'Neil

To be fair, Dennis O'Neil penned the main story of this comic book, and one other. World's Finest was made up of one main story plus a handful of shorter tales, and other writer's worked on those other stories.

But I'm focusing on the cover story.

A purple werewolf. From Krypton, Superman's home planet.

Will the world ever be the same?

Maybe, maybe not. But it didn't matter because it was just a comic book and we knew the heroes would win in the end. This comic book was from back in 1979, so it was before comic books had become dark and gritty and ... well, had become more adult. Not that there's anything wrong with more modern comics, because I've enjoyed many of them and consider some downright literature.

But I also have a fondness for the old-style, somewhat goofy comic books. Back when spandex was still considered hot stuff.

By today's standards, many of the story lines would be considered silly, sometimes awful, but not always. And still, even if some of the stories were a bit childish, they were written for the target audience, children.

As a writer, I've learned a lot from comic books over the years, and this particular issue of World's Finest always had a strong appeal to me because it was the first comic book I remember reading that included more than just one story and one main character or group of characters. Batman and Superman had the cover, but inside were also tales of Green Arrow, Black Lightning, Black Canary, Hawkman, Captain Marvel and a few other side characters.

To the nine-year-old version of me, this was more than just a comic book. It was a new universe, one that featured all possibilities and any kind of character.

And yes, it was all kind of silly.

Nuthin' wrong with that from time to time.

My senior moment

So I'm browsing through a used book store yesterday when I realize the song playing in the store is from Smashing Pumpkin's Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness album. I like the album, so I hung around to see if just the one song was playing or if it was the whole album.

It was the whole album. Which was great for me, because I hung out to hear four songs total, and it was great for the store because it kept me in there longer and I ended up purchasing a couple of more books than I would have.

As I'm checking out at the front counter, I realize there's only one person working the entire store, a young twentysomething, which is no surprise since there's a university dorm literally just across the street.

I compliment on his music, and thank him for it.

He looked at me, smiled, and said, "Yeah, I love the old stuff."

Cringe.

Then I realize when the album came out he was probably just out of diapers.

Hey, at least somebody still listens to good music, even if it is "old."

100 Days of Fantasy: Day 85

This is an ongoing series looking at books that have influenced me as a fantasy author.

Foundation
by Isaac Asimov

Imagine an empire so humongous it stretches across the Milky Way galaxy. Imagine a mathematical formula that can actually prove future events. Then imagine that formula predicts this galactic empire will soon crumble and a new dark ages lasting at least 30,000 years will follow.

If you can imagine all that, you get the gist of Foundation by Isaac Asimov and the beginning of a highly regarded series of books in the science fiction genre.

What happens next is a group of people try to find ways to circumnavigate, though not necessarily halt, the new approaching dark age.

Asimov isn't for everyone, and I can't admit to loving his prose. But his ideas for plots are top notch. This book, and the series of books that follow it, are proof of this.

Asimov's writing is often considered too dense for the casual reader, and there's some truth to this. If you like your science fiction with lots of action and ray guns and alien spaceships flying about, Asimov isn't for you. But if you like hard science fiction based upon hard, indepth science, this Asimov is probably right for you, especially the Foundation series.

I first stumbled upon this series back in the early 1980s. In a bid to expand my reading experiences, it was a selection I ordered from the Science Fiction Book Club. It was my first experience with hard science fiction, and though it wasn't enough to become a major fan of the genre, it was enough to make me realize the genius of author Isaac Asimov and the potential for hard science fiction.

From time to time I'll still read some hard science fiction, but as is the case with me and overly literary fiction, it's something I enjoy from an educational and intellectual viewpoint, but it's not something my mind can digest on a regular basis without some mental strain and outright boredom. So, I space out my readings of such material.

Still, Foundation and the rest of Asimov's books in this series are worth reading for the education alone. These novels can really get you thinking, and can open your mind to much of what science fiction has to offer at its deepest core.

Up next: World's Finest #256

100 Days of Fantasy: Day 84

This is an ongoing series looking at books that have influenced me as a fantasy author.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon
by Stephen King

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon is a small novel. Not only is it a short novel, a little larger than a novella, but it is small in scope. At least compared to many of the works of its author, Stephen King, who has been known to pen many a lengthy tale, sometimes into the thousands of pages.

I read an interview with King once in which he said something along the line that he wrote two types of novels, one with the focus upon a single character and another which focused upon many characters.

The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon focuses upon one character, 9-year-old Trisha. The plot is quite simple. During a hiking trip with her mother and brother, Trisha becomes lost in the deep woods. Her story is one of survival.

But it's also a bit more than that. For an adult, this would be a story about madness, the madness of facing one's imminent death while stranded in an isolated place with little food, water, shelter or protection of any kind. For Trisha, the tale borders on madness, but is more about a child's willingness to adapt and overcome one's own fears.

This is by no means one of King's most popular novels. In truth, I've run across a number of his fans who detest this book. I'm not one of them. Actually, I think it's one of the best things he wrote in the 1990s, the book itself having been released in 1999.

Why do I like this book so much? Despite the darkness it sinks into, especially concerning a child, it is in the end one of the most uplifting tales I've ever read. It is about the spirit of survival in all of us, a spirit of survival that focuses upon the humanity in all of us, not because of ties to any particular nation or religion or what-have-you. It is a novel of high spirits, of the links that can bring all of us together as human beings.

That is why I love this book.

And since it concerns a child, I'll let the reader know that despite the horrific elements of this tale, it is one most appropriate to a child. Should you read it to your own kid? Well, read it yourself and judge for yourself. I personally wouldn't have a problem reading it to a 10-year-old, but I tend to think kids are much more versatile than most of us give them credit. But then, I don't have kids of my own, so who am I to say?

Oh, and if you need to know who Tom Gordon is, he was a professional baseball player, at one time a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, of which King is a huge fan. And yes, he is quite important to this story. Not as a character, but as a figure of myth, as someone to believe in, almost as an Arthurian figure in some ways, or perhaps a Merlin figure would be more appropriate.

Up next: Foundation

Bayne's Climb: Part I of The Sword of Bayne

Brief description

Waking amid battle, the warrior Bayne has no recollection of his past, of his life, of himself. Believing the mad emperor-mage Verkanus holds the keys to his past, Bayne pursues the wizard across years and unto a mountain. Here, Bayne must climb to find Verkanus and to find himself, and among the crags are oddities and dangers never witnessed by lesser men.

In part an allegorical tale, the novella Bayne’s Climb is the first part of The Sword of Bayne trilogy.

This novella also takes place in the same world as the author’s Kobalos Trilogy, but nearly 2,000 years before the events of those books.


Where available
At Amazon for the Kindle:
Bayne's Climb: Part I of The Sword of Bayne
At Amazon UK for the Kindle:
Bayne's Climb: Part I of The Sword of Bayne
At Barnes & Noble for the Nook:
Bayne's Climb: Part I of The Sword of Bayne
At Smashwords for all other formats:
Bayne's Climb: Part I of The Sword of Bayne


The skinny

In case you haven't guessed by now, my novella, Bayne's Climb: Part I of The Sword of Bayne, is now available in e-book formats. It's been available for about a week, but I put off doing any promotions for it because I wanted to give all the different retailers time to get all the info up on their sites.

For now, this novella is selling for only 99 cents, though I might raise the price to $2.99 eventually.

This was a different type of project for me in several ways. It's somewhat literary, somewhat allegorical, somewhat Sword & Sorcery. My beta readers for this novella have surprised me on the literary front by thinking certain things in the story stood for ideas or "things" in the actual, modern real world. The truth is, I wasn't trying to make any intentional social commentary, at least not consciously.

The story is also different for me in several ways. The plot is linear. That was intentional. I wanted to tell a story straight through (with one exception, a flashback toward the end) with a very simple plot. I suppose I could be accused of pushing back characterization and plot for the sake of my ideas, but I'm not hiding from that notion.

Also, there is some action in this tale, but not an abundance. The violence within Bayne's Climb tends to come in great big whallops, then flitter away for a while before returning once more.

The same type of writing will continue through the next two novellas in this trilogy. I am already at work on the second novella in this series, and hope to have it finished and ready for readers in January.

Will it succeed? Hell if I know. The readers will have to decide. But at only 40,000 words, hopefully it won't take up too much time for any readers who loathe the tale. And what would this new revolution in publishing be without some experimentation?

And what's next after I finish with this trilogy of novellas? I'm not sure yet, but probably something more traditional. Perhaps another Kron Darkbow novel (I've got a few hundred ideas). Perhaps a horror novel. Or maybe another literary novel (yes, I've got one, but haven't published it ... yet).

100 Days of Fantasy: Day 83

This is an ongoing series looking at books that have influenced me as a fantasy author.

Scaramouche
by Rafael Sabatini

Scaramouche is in interesting novel in that in many ways it seems to mirror the works of Alexandre Dumas, specifically the novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Here we have a story set in France at the beginning of the French Revolution. Also, this is a tale of one-man's vengeance against an authority figure who slew a friend. And there's lots of swashbuckling adventure, as well.

Considering the similarities between the two novels, it is not uncommon to compare Andre-Louis Moreau, the protagonist of Scaramouche, with Edmond Dantes of The Count of Monte Cristo. In my opinion, Dantes is the more haunted and more drastic figure, though Moreau might be the better swordsman. Also, Dantes depends much more upon his own resources, whereas Moreau seems to have a bit of serendipity that comes to his rescue from time to time.

That being said, Scaramouche is also a darn fine read. Though Sabatini's plots are not quite as complicated or strong as those of Dumas, his characters are almost as likable and his writing style is more fluid and more easily digestible by modern readers. Also, I would give Sabatini a slight edge when it comes to action scenes; Dumas could write quite well a good sword fight, but for swiftness and pure joy of action, I give a slight nudge to Sabatini.

To be honest, I would like to have read more of this author's work, and so far Scaramouche is the only work of his I've gotten into. At the very least, I'd like to read Sabatini's Captain Blood, though for what it's worth I have seen some of the movie versions.

I've been asked before, what is the title in reference to? Scaramouche is the name of a clown-like figure from Italian commedia dell'arte originally from the 17th Century. The commedia dell'arte was sort of a traveling, artistic acting theater, of which there were many in the 16th through 18th centuries in Europe. The main character in the novel Scaramouche eventually joins such an acting troupe and dons the mask of the comedic figure Scaramouche.

If you love historical fiction, especially swashbuckling adventure fiction, do yourself a favor and read this novel by Rafael Sabatini. You won't come to regret it. And if you're one of those people who is leery of reading the classics, have no fears here. Though Sabatini was writing early in the 20th Century, his prose comes off as pretty modern and easy to read.

Up next: The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon