I’ve been working on a collection of short stories that I hope to release before Halloween. I do have a pretty cool cover for it already that you may or may not have seen already.
For those interested, here’s one of my favorite passages from the new book. The re-write still needs work, so what you read isn’t final at all. It is a just a taste of what I have been working on with my latest novel.
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Once inside, Tom could see people scattered across the pews praying and kneeling before their Lord. As he walked and looked at them, kneeling or sitting there in the light gloom of the church, their heads changed – turned – morphed – into the heads of sheep. Then their eyes suddenly lit up with red light, and these sheep heads turned to stare at Tom. From somewhere in the back of the church he heard a dark and evil sounding – “BAAAAAAAA!”
Tom stopped, turned, and looked to the back of the church. The devil was standing there in his dark angel form. He pointed at Tom, gave him the thumbs up, smiled, and then poofed out.
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The lead character Tom Never is a wayward sole, lost his faith at a young age. This story is about him finding himself again, the church, and reconnecting with those he left out of his life all the while trying to fend off the devil. I wrote it years ago around the time I got baptized. The story kind of popped in there when I was preparing to become a Christian. I plan to chase agents for a bit with this one and if it doesn’t work out then I will self-publish it. One way or the other, I will get it out. I believe this is probably my best work.
How about a little Christian Heavy Metal to close this post?
Curious, fellow writers, what time of day works best for you? Are you a morning person like me or do you work best at other times of the day? Once my son gets up, and we start our day, if it doesn’t happen early or at nap time then by bed time I am a no go. Usually the couch and sleep are the only things I want once 7 at night rolls around.
I decided to retry sending out information to agents this morning. I figured that it couldn’t hurt. Now that the self-publishing options are so large it is a great fall back plan when agents refuse your work. I honestly believe my work gets overlooked because you can’t categorize it. You can’t push it into one specific little genre, wrap it up in a bow, and say here it is world. I have also noticed that trend in the indy scene as well. A lot of short stories and novels I see or read that are self-published seem to not fit a particular category or genre. In this world of “it has to sell now” that probably hurts most authors who write outside the box – like me.
How about you? Do you write in one particular genre or do you try to blend several into one? Are you also done with agents or do you still try from time to time?
Here’s a little self plug for my short story The Imp, which is doing okay as a free download so far. It is available free until 10/5/2014. By the way, if you have something free, please leave me a link to it in the comment’s section below. I would love to read it.
Are the legends true? Does an Imp live in that haunted house able to grant riches? Find out for yourself if you dare: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00JJMOW2C
I have been going round and round with my Microsoft Word files the past few days. I’ve now discovered a new way to make my EBooks look great in the Kindle and other EReaders – I think. It seems to be working so far, but it involves a lot of trial and error.
The problem I am having is that when I wrote most of my stuff it was meant for print. I just popped open a Word file and started banging away on the keys. With EBooks though you got to nurse it, massage it, take it out to dinner a couple of times before it gives up the goods. You have to go in and manually set a lot of the margins, tabs, and so forth. It is a nightmare on an OCD guy like me. At what point do you just let it go? I could tweak on these things forever. And on top of all that I keep hearing how Word is the devil when it comes to making EBooks. Again, it’s all I have ever used, so my stuff is frozen in Word. Guess I got to just work with what I got.
Your thoughts. Do you hire people to do make your EBooks or are you one of those who go in like I do and try to do it themselves?
If you have an EBook you might want to look into these two sites. Both helped me along the way, and are helping me still.
I don’t know about you, but when I write or re-write it just consumes me. I have woken up the last two days feeling like I’m coming out of a deep dormant sleep. Coincidentally, I put the finishing touches on my re-write yesterday morning. It’s like my body knows when to push me and when not to push me. That’s what inspired this Haiku.
Anybody else feel that way when they go on a creative binge?
A Poetry Journey 
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