Off Again
Oh, Phoenix. I wish I could quit you. You know, because I’m tired of flying across the county every other week to see you.
So, I’ll be back in a couple of days, but in the meantime here’s a picture of …
BB, The Most Confident Rabbit in the World!
You’re welcome.
I’m Not the Only One
You know how I’m always going on about what a genius Vincent Chong is?
Seriously, did you think I was making that up?
Thanks, Folks!
So very tired. Must. Not. Check. On. Book.
I’m not going to lie to you, Marge. It was a hell of a launch weekend.
That said, next time I suggest that a good launch date might be during a holiday, feel free to give me a good smack. Tired or not, though, things went way better than I expected, all thanks to you.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to bed. FOREVER.
Launch Day: Walker
Walker Launch Day
Twenty-four hours ago Daniel Thorsen discovered that he had the power to walk between worlds.
Twelve hours ago he was contacted by others with the same gift.
Tomorrow he will be running for his life.
What do you say when offered a lifelong position in the most powerful and corrupt secret organization in mankind’s history?
If you want your life to last longer than the job interview, you say yes.
In exchange for wealth, power, and training for his newly discovered powers, all Daniel has to do is help them reach a new, unsuspecting world.
To make things worse, a group of desperate escapees pin their thin hopes on him, willing to risk everything on a miracle that Daniel has no idea how to provide.
Shackled with a restraint bracelet, constant surveillance, and superhuman captors, he must outsmart an overwhelmingly powerful enemy and seek freedom in the one place that is left to him, a new world that only he can reach.
Walker is now available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords!
I’d like to thank the following people for helping me get out a second book this year, which I frankly didn’t think was possible.
Vincent Chong – Artist, genius, and all-around nice guy. The cover for Walker is simply stunning, and I can’t thank him enough. Check out his portfolio of amazing work here, and see his notes on this cover here.
Diana Cox – This was my first time to work with Diana, but it won’t be my last. Walker clocks in at about 90K words, and not only did she handle the job in record time, but her attention to detail bordered on the miraculous. If you find a mistake in this book, it’s because I failed to follow her advice. She’s that good. Of course, that’s not surprising for someone recommended by JA Konrath and Blake Crouch. Find her here.
Team 52Novels – Once again Tina at 52Novels proves that she can work with anyone, no matter how crazy. She routinely handles weird formatting requests, inline graphics, and vague rambling from me with grace and aplomb. Thanks, Tina! Thanks also to Rob and Amy Siders for their quick responses and professionalism.
Debbie Semple – One of the things I’m happiest about in my books are the hand-crafted graphical touches that Debbie creates for me. She has a real knack for turning text descriptions into spot-on representations of things that exist only in my imagination. Don’t let the size of her creations fool you, there’s a ton of work in each one. You can get in touch with her here.
The Wife – As always, thanks to my wife Susie for patiently putting up with me day in and day out. Especially the days when nothing seems to be coming out right 🙂
And, of course, thanks to all of you for your patience and encouragement along the way. It means more to me that I can say.
Thanks.
Tag-a-Palooza 2011
I’ve called you here today to enlist your help with our mutual friend, Amazon. Yeah, I know. We all like the guy. He’s funny, always polite, and who can forget the time he drove Patty home after that party, even though she lives in Norway?
But it’s time we faced up to something we’ve all thought, but never talked about. The guy is dumb. Sure, he knows the difference between a fridge and a tire (usually), but once you get past the big distinctions, he’s kind of lost. Especially about books.
To help him out, I’d like you to tap him on the shoulder and give him the benefit of your experience. How, you say?
- Click here
- Look or search for the word ‘Tags’
- Check the box next to ‘Supernatural Thriller’
Thanks.
A Word from Vinny
Vincent Chong, the mad genius behind the covers for Bad Radio and Walker, has a post up on his blog where he talks about creating Walker’s cover. You can even see a shot of the cover without the typography, which is pretty cool.
Take a look.
International Infamy
I was flipping through reviews of Bad Radio in the various places where it’s available, and I noticed that I have some lovely ones from as far away as Belgium, Denmark, Australia, and the UK. Just one more thing that tickles me about ebooks. Very cool and much appreciated.
Thanks, guys!
One quick note: I’m traveling this week (Hello, Arizona!), but I expect to be back in time to launch Walker, as well as resume my normal posting schedule.
Walker: Sneak Peak
“Yeah, the cover looks cool, but what the hell is it about?”
This is, of course, the number one question I get on on Walker. As part of the countdown to release, here’s a sneak peak at the final blurb copy:
Twenty-four hours ago Daniel Thorsen discovered that he had the power to walk between worlds.
Twelve hours ago he was contacted by others with the same gift.
Tomorrow he will be running for his life.
What do you say when offered a lifelong position in the most powerful and corrupt secret organization in mankind’s history?
If you want your life to last longer than the job interview, you say yes.
In exchange for wealth, power, and training for his newly discovered powers, all Daniel has to do is help them reach a new, unsuspecting world.
To make things worse, a group of desperate escapees pin their thin hopes on him, willing to risk everything on a miracle that Daniel has no idea how to provide.
Shackled with a restraint bracelet, constant surveillance, and superhuman captors, he must outsmart an overwhelmingly powerful enemy and seek freedom in the one place that is left to him, a new world that only he can reach.
So, there you go. See you on release day!
Getting Close
Walker is officially out of my hands and off to the formatting gurus at 52Novels.
I won’t lie, it feels pretty damn good. And it means that we’re still on track for the 11/15 release date.
Whew.
Working in the Word Mines – Software
Let’s talk about writing tools. You don’t really need anything more than a text editor to get the job done, but unless you’re a real stickler for the minimalist approach, there are a lot of options out there to lighten your load.
Being a nerd, of course, I’m always tempted to optimize everything to within an inch of its life. That usually means trying to find the perfect tool for every job, or trying to cram every job into a single do-everything tool. It turns out that neither approach works very well for me, so I’ve settled on using the smallest number of tools possible to get the job done.
Here’s a look at what I’m using:
Research, Recording Ideas – Evernote
I used to carry around a Moleskine notebook so that I could jot down random ideas and thoughts whenever and wherever I might be when they struck. This had two problems: going back to look for something sucked, especially across multiple notebooks, and having my ideas on paper and my associated research on the computer.
Evernote lets me use my phone when I’m out and about instead of a notebook, which means one less thing I have to lug around, and access my notes from anywhere. And the search is incredible. It even has the ability to make text in a picture searchable, which is pretty dang cool. And since I do 95% of my research on the web, it’s easy to clip anything I find into Evernote and tag by related topic. Now my notes and research are all in one place, and I can actually find stuff when I need it.
Brainstorming, Plotting – Springpad
Evernote is awesome for collecting notes and research, but it’s missing one thing that I need: index cards. When I’m working out the plot for a book or a series, I like to write down events and scenes at a high level and lay them out in front of me so that I can visualize the flow of the story. I also like to shuffle them around when I make changes. Using index cards like this is a common technique, and there are a ton of software alternatives to carrying around an actual pack of paper cards.
Unfortunately, most of these alternatives are based on particular tools that can only accessed from a specific location or device. Springpad neatly solves that problem by having an index card ‘corkboard’ in their web interface, as well in their apps for IOS and Android. For me, the best part about Springpad is being able to get away from the PC and noodle on the plot on my iPad. The board interface is beautiful and very touch friendly. Perfect for lounging around somewhere pleasant and thinking.
Now I have a place to do my plotting that’s accessible from anywhere if an idea strikes me, plus I can stick my brainstorming notes in the same place. The board is just one function of Springpad, in other respects it serves the same purpose as Evernote.
I would have liked to replace Evernote with Springpad to keep the number of tools to a minimum, but the clipping function in Springpad just isn’t up to par. Instead of grabbing the actual content that I want to save, it saves the URL and a screencap of your browser window. That means search is limited to the URL and your tags, and if you want to go back and read it, you need to go back to the page and hope the content is still there.
Information Repository, Timelines – Liquid Story Binder
Liquid Story Binder is actually an all-in-one writing tool. It has functions for everything under the sun, but for me the most useful parts are dossiers and timelines (shown above). Take a look at their site to get an idea of what it can do.
I used to use LSB for plotting as well, but since it’s a PC only program, I always had to be at my desk to get things done. Now that I’ve discovered Springpad, I may drop this. I find that if I do my index cards right, I don’t really need a separate timeline.
If you’re looking for an all-in-one tool, however, I highly recommend this one.
Writing – Word
Yeah, good old Word. Why not write in Google Docs? Or Liquid Story Binder? Or even Scrivener?
Mostly because I’m used to it and it works well for long-form writing, but also because it’s the de-facto standard when I’m working with editors, proofers, and formatters. You can export from lots of other tools into a .doc file, but without exception, I find that I have to go back afterwards and massage the results.
I don’t use much of the formatting capability that Word has, but what I do use is easy to setup. I typically create a template that I use for each chapter, which is a separate file. So, for each new chapter, I simply open a new doc with that template and I’m good to go. Separating the manuscript into chapter files helps me keep organized and allows for a modular structure that’s easy to work with.
As I said earlier, none of this is really necessary. If I were brutally honest, I could probably get along with nothing but Evernote and Word, and be 99% as productive.
Maybe after this next book …
Fugitive Prose 