Here is the unofficial unveiling of my official cover for my 2014 NaNoWriMo project. Special thanks to Nick Briggs for the hours of work on multiple cover concepts, and the polishes and tweaks I pestered him with. "Yesterday's Future" is due out in 2015.

Why we write

Before I get into the meat of the post, I want to give a shout out to my Google+ Community "The Wordsmith Inkwell" I formed this group a couple of months ago and I have found some amazing people there, special shout out to Ray, Vex, and Elesha, for making it something I look forward to everyday. Vex, an author hailing from South Africa, posted a question about why we write, and then used the discussion to form her latest blog post. It is one of my favorite blog posts I've seen this year, check it out http://vexvaudlain.blogspot.com/2014/11/is-it-love-or-insanity-why-writers-write.html.

There are two things I want you everyone to learn from this. One: Being a part of a writing community where you can share and learn is a huge leg up on conquering your writing goals. Two: There are times where someone else can spurn something deep inside of you, and that is exactly what her post did. What usually is a short response to a discussion on my community, turned into a post I am proud of because it is my truth to why I write. I have posted here before on why I write, and its importance to me, but here it is again, raw, and honest. I challenge you to do the same, revisit the reason you write, you may think you have the answer, but you may surprise yourself. Below is my post taken straight from my Google+ Community.




I must write to stay sane. Since I was a kid I have had stories, characters, what-ifs, things that seemed so real to me I had trouble separating my thoughts between life and imagination. I would spend hours, each day thinking about being an astronaut, soldier, scientist, teacher, serial killer, detective, doctor, time traveler, and so forth.

I escaped in my head to places from King Arthur's Court, to walking on the moon, to winning the World Series, to traveling to the future and meeting the first aliens. I survived in these places, to help ignore the disasters of growing up in different homes, group housing, and many days not knowing where I would go to sleep or what I would be able to eat.

I made homes in these imaginary places, I made friends with these characters, I grew up in these stories. And now I learn to write them. I learn everyday by writing, and reading, and thinking, and talking about writing. I endeavor to master my story telling, my style, my voice and my technique. I was and continue to be deeply inspired by story tellers, the great writers,  and the worlds they build, and it is my hope that I can give my readers the same wonder, the same emotion, and the same escape that was given to me when I needed it most.

I must write to tell the stories of the people and places that saved me from my darkest moments. I feel their stories are as important as any others I have read, they have always spoken to me, in my heart where stories belong. I can only hope that my stories will find the readers that need them most, and maybe, just maybe, after reading something I have written, they too will be inspired to take the journey and to share their stories with others, and most of all I hope, in the darkness, there is a little bit of sanity.

                                                                  *   *   *

I am reluctant to share what's above in some ways, and maybe that is the reason I didn't post it quite like that in a previous post. Don't let me misguide you to think I had the worst childhood, because I didn't, in fact I'd say I had better than most. I post it because it is deeply personal for me, and I hope it brings the same out for you. I believe that if you can truly peel back the layers inside of you, and get down to why you write, then you will get a step closer to finding the permission to write that every writer searches for.

A look at the future of indepedent publishing

Our world of writing and publishing is going through the largest change since the printing press replaced the necessity to hand write every story. We are only beginning to understand all of those changes, how they have impacted our business, and unless you were blessed with a crystal ball we can only guess where we are headed. It may feel like things are starting to calm down, but I believe we are a long way from things being settled.

The world belongs to the independent author and self-publishing your own work. We have already seen this dynamic shift from the Big 6 publishers, small presses, and literary agents to doing it all yourself. Indie authors have proven they can edit and format their books like pros, present seamless covers, and execute marketing plans that would make any one of the Big 6 glow with envy.

The advent of the e-book and the technology of the e-reader have given virtually unlimited power and scope to the individual so as long as they are willing to do what authors have done from the beginning, write great stories and amaze the reader. And a handful of cunning, determined, and creative authors have proven year after year, book after book, that the independent author can win, and can remarkably outperform the giants of publishing.

We are only beginning to realize the independent author’s potential and the future of the readers who hunger for the next great story. Authors are beginning to work together, collaborate on projects, beta-read each other’s works, and offer advice to other authors through blogs, online courses, coaching, and a multitude of self-published books on every aspect of writing. This is only the beginning.

In the future, probably much closer than any of us think is possible, we will see another shift in the publishing world. The hordes of independent authors will form groups, teams, and take collaboration to another level. Instead of the majority of authors going alone, occasionally sounding off on other authors, they will begin to band together in a new way.

This idea may seem entirely counter to the independent author recipe, but I believe it will be the foundation of the future. Authors will soon work together in teams, sharing skills, knowledge, and experience with their small groups. Out of these collaborative efforts we will see rise to groups of three to maybe even dozens of authors, working together under their own collaborative brands.

These new brands will be the publishing houses of the future. Instead of being dominated by administrative cogs, literary agents, and executives looking to make the biggest dollar possible. These places will be used to bring authors together for the benefit of the whole. Authors will offer their skills such as editing, proofing, formatting, cover design, marketing, and using the contacts to strengthen their group, and ultimately improve their products for their readership.

These groups will form websites that will offer a one stop shop for readers to find their next great story, and to expand their horizons. Many of these groups will specialize in specific genres, while others will try to incorporate writers from every market to increase their site’s traffic. The writers may openly collaborate on a project together, or just simply stick to being a mastermind discussion group to hone their craft and polish their stories.

A day is coming where these groups will employ graphic designers for covers, trailers, and advertisements. Editors and proofreaders will be on staff to edit the stories churned out by these groups. This will offer a secure future for those people who have trades that rely on writers for product to work with, and in turn it will provide a more consistent quality for the reader.

Authors will work hand in hand with “in-house” editors, designers, and marketers. They will work independently and collaboratively on the individual products and properties, but this will be inextricably linked to the group and the strength derived from the whole.

While the writer will still have to work in a solitary environment between themselves and the paper, they will still have to find their own stories to tell, and figure out how to find their voice in which to tell them, this will only be the ticket for admission to a team to help push the writer to the next level.

This all may seem farfetched, impossible you may say, but there will be a select few authors at first who understand and are willing to challenge the notion that independent publishing isn’t a competition to see who can make the most bucks or has the biggest name, and that it isn’t me versus everyone else. In reality every author’s success means more success for the rest of us. Anytime any author is able to convert a non-reader or an occasional reader into someone who cannot get enough of books, much like most of us, we all win.

The days of my book versus your book, my dollar versus your dollar will fade, and we will work together, not in large publishing houses with thousands of employees, but with small teams working together to help everyone in the group succeed. Independent publishing will take on a whole new look on the inside, and while readers may never notice a difference, they will keep coming back for more of what will never change: enjoying the elegant beauty of a well told story.

How are you keeping your motivation up?

The first week of NaNo comes to a close today, which means today is a perfect day to do a "check in" and see how are you fairing. After today you should be at 11,669 words, but that isn't the most important piece of your "check in". A check in is where you take a few minutes and think about where you are in your novel, how you are feeling, what is going well, what sucks, and so forth. I think these check ins are critical because they can allow you the chance to avoid pitfalls as the word count gets higher. It is really easy to start writing yourself into a corner and when you start hitting the 20K word mark and more, you will feel lost and frustrated, and may end up quitting all together.

Here is my check in, condensed, to help show you some methods of checking in with your story:

What is going well? I really like the strength of my supporting characters, and how there are several story arcs occurring at the same time, and instead of it being focused on one person, the story is a mass of people moving toward circumstances out of all of their control, and I can't wait to see how they react.

What is not going well? My speed, and because of that, my flow is suffering. I know that I can routinely hit 2,500 words an hour and often a good bunch above that rate. Last year I hit more than one 3,000+ word hour. This year my best hour has barely exceeded 2,000... I find that is is impacting my rhythm if nothing else, and I am behind my 100K word goal. I know that the primary reason for this is because I am using a narrative style and POV I have never used. I will go into that more in another post, but I am using an Episodic Third Person Cinematic POV focus which isn't something I am truly comfortable with yet, but is is fun, and quite challenging.

What is the biggest surprise? I spent a good deal of time working on an outline, character sheets, and plotting this story before November, and now I have moved off script after my 10th scene. I have a strong idea on how this story is going to move, at least for now, which as a writer keeps it fresh and interesting for me since I am not following my blueprint. The blueprint helped me get to where I am, which means it wasn't a waste, but now I am in uncharted territory.

How do I feel about the novel? I feel nervous about my choice of POV. I like my characters, I think the plot is engaging and keeps me moving through it, but the POV zaps a lot of energy. Once I get into the rhythm I really get some momentum, but it can be hard to get into a groove.

What is the biggest challenge in the near future? It will be a major transition where the protagonist is separated from the rest of the immediate cast that has been in the book so far. So how will I keep up with their story lines when they don't interact with the MC, and how will my introduction of the second MC coming into play a few chapters away. I will only know when I get there.

What will I do differently from here? Going forward, since I am completely off my plot outline, that I will take some time every 8-10K word to create a mini outline. Kind of like taking a road trip and asking for directions somewhere along the way for clarification. I will let you all know how this goes.

You can use some of these questions, or some of your own. And if you feel like sharing some of them, please do in the comment section, I'd love to hear it, and who knows it may help someone else out who is suffering through the same thing.

Now, we'd all better get back to the word grind, it is a long way before we get home. 

How's your novel?

Did you make it out to your NaNoWriMo kick-off party this weekend? How are the first two days of the challenging treating you? Are you making the word goal of 1,667 a day? Comment and let the group know!

As for me, it has been a good start to things. I did make it out to my kick-off party on Friday night. There must have been 100 people there, most of them dressed in costumes, and the conversations were great. The two MLs, Wave Cloud and the Innovation Pavilion all did a great job to put on an awesome event, and let's not forget all of the great food the members brought, nice job everyone!

My word count has been steady over the two days. Not where I wanted it by my standard, though well ahead of the Nano goal, but I also didn't anticipate being down with a head cold, which is actually a bonus because I would have put money on having strep when I got up on Saturday morning. My daughter dodged the strep, but my son had it all week. And somehow Mom, like usual, dodged both the head cold my daughter and I have and the strep bug. Go moms!

I finished the day just shy of 10,000 words, and I have written 7 scenes in the book. There have already been some surprises along the way from my characters acting on their own, and some neat plot wrinkles have shown up. In fact an entire scene and a half showed up to really add to the action and character development that didn't make the outline, or even occurred to me until I was writing it, I love novel writing surprises. I put in some solid hours into the project, and I would be closer to probably 15-18K with the time put in, but things have been a lot slower this project. I am using a POV system that I have never played with before, and have only read a couple of authors ever use before. It is a experimental project for sure, but it has yielded some surprising results. I will try and post some material during the week from the book in progress.

We also enjoyed a power outage at home after hen someone was pulling a u-turn down our busy street and hit a power line pole hard enough to knock it over. The whole situation was bizarre, my daughter didn't fall asleep for her nap because her nightlight shut off, and our apartment complex made a mass exodus, Walking Dead style, out to the curb to watch. Granted they didn't have much else to do when the Broncos game was cut short in the second quarter, though it may have turned out to be more of a blessing for the Bronco fans.

Tomorrow I am back to work, but there is a write-in about three minutes from my store at the time I get off from work, so I may find myself at the Atlanta Bread Company typing my fingers off while my wife enjoys a PTA meeting, I think I win that one for sure. I am also going to try and jam out a few words at lunch.

How is your word challenge going after just two days? Are you getting your word grind on? Don't forget to post your word count in the comments below, and make sure you update your word count on nanowrimo.org along the way. Denver alone is at 1.8 million words from the last time I checked, which has to be a region record!

Grind those words until your hands hurt! You can always rest in December.!

NaNoWriMo will change your life

It's time to share your mantras Grinders, post them in the comments below. "There is room for one more!"

NaNoWriMo is 29 hours away, most of you are fretting about outlines, character biographies, scheduling writing time, and just trying to psych yourself up for the adventure ahead, I know I am!. You already know it won't be easy, in fact it is damned hard, but I am going to tell you how NaNoWriMo will change your life.

Last year when I sat down last year to write my NaNo I was boasting a strong record of 0 wins and 3 losses, good start right? I didn't know what the answer was, and I had every idea how to write a novel, but no clue how to finish one. One year I sat down halfway through the first week and started writing, about a scene in my head and 15K words later it died. Another year I wrote down six different plot ideas on slips of paper and drew them out of a hat, funny right? What's funny is I drew the first one, didn't like it, and kept drawing until I ended up starting three of the novels and gave up on all of them. Another year I wrote 30K, feeling good, and then my apartment was broken into and I had my computer, laptop, flash drive and back up hard drive stolen. I gave up that project and started to hand write an autobiography, (I felt very introspective after losing years and years of writing, dozens and dozens of short stories, poems, novellas etc. I never got them back...), that failed around the 20K mark.So how did all of this change my life?

In 2013 I sat down to try again at NaNo, I wrote and wrote, and kept on writing. I hit 50K in 14 days, and nearly hit 100K in the full 30 days. I couldn't tell you what changed, and what was different, other than I kept writing, I never let myself give up. That was the key piece for me, I didn't give up, I kept at it. The lessons I learned from digging in and holding my own against the challenge taught me something I am only now starting to realize. I can do what I set my mind to. Not in that public service announcement kind of way, or in the your parents will tell you anything to get you out of the house kinda way. I learned it for myself by doing. I WROTE A DAMN NOVEL! It wasn't great, it wasn't awful, it was simply mine, it was something I made and only I could have done.

Like many things I only learned how to do it after it was done. Not what you wanted to hear? Just hang with me for a minute. I learned that we all already know how to write a novel. What? I heard that sound of disbelief. You heard me right, you all know how. The same determination you used to learn to play an instrument, play a sport, raise a child, care for a parent, lose weight, fix up your house, finish school, heck even getting out of bed and so forth. None of those were easy, you thought about quitting and doing something else. You may have walked away, but came back. But you did it, and now that you are on this side of having learned whatever lesson that was, you know how to do it, but you didn't then, just like writing a novel.

Use that determination to help drive your writing each word in NaNo, because all of those things I listed aren't accomplished in a day, or even weeks, it takes trial and error, try and try again, and going when the going gets tough. It takes grit, courage, spirit, and some moxie. And if you think about all of the tough things you have accomplished, you will realize suddenly a novel isn't so hard.

I'm going to let you in on a secret, once that novel is done (and I know it will be, this year is your year), you will feel a sense of accomplishment and empowerment you never imagined possible. And it will stay with you long after that novel is done, believe me.

Last year I sat down on November 1st to write a novel, and I thought it would be hard, but it would be fun. And in the end I learned more from writing that novel than just building characters, developing a world, or making something fun, I learned I can do what I set my mind to.

It may sound silly, but because of that novel I gained the confidence in myself to do a lot of other things I never thought possible. I changed some habits, made new routines, and set bigger goals. I have been much more successful at my job, published stories, and even lost 80 pounds this year. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that writing a novel will help you lose weight, but it will help you accomplish the things most important to you. If you can write a novel, you can do anything.  

Time to get your grind on.

What is your writing fear?

Grinders, did you find your first write in you plan on attending? Where is your kick-off? Will you be going? How is the novel prep going?

I ask the last question because I have been hearing from several people that they are scared about November, and all of the writing pressure they will face. I know first hand that facing this fear can be tough, because you can only really face it alone, and learn to overcome it for yourself. There are tips, tricks, and shortcuts that people can offer, but there is no other solution than finding the way through with your own two legs, or in this case with your two hands.

The fears themselves can be all over the place such as a fear of: not finding the words when November starts, getting started and getting lost or feeling like giving up, not finding the time, not being good enough, fear of another year of failure. The list can go on and on if we let it.

Today is the perfect day to take a minute and look inward and look those fears in the eye. For me it is a wide, vast, and powerful list of fears. I am scared of not finding the right words when the time comes, I worry that my characters will be boring and I won't care for them after a dozen pages, I fear that I won't finish. I am scared that I will let others down, let myself down, and let the project down by not being equal to the task. My greatest fear changes everyday, and it does for most of us.

Tonight, I worry the most about all of the changes in the publishing world, and that I won't be equal to that challenge. I fear that there isn't any room for another author, that I won't be smart enough to overcome the challenges ahead of me, and that I will let everyone down. And it is damned hard to try and move my mind away from these fears.

I don't have a fix for these fears. I'm sorry. But I am telling myself one simply mantra until I believe it. I say it knowing that the publishing world is going through a transformation, and it won't be done for years to come. There are a lot of smarter, more talented, and stronger people out there trying to get published who are impossibly ahead of me. There is no denying that for any of us really. So I say this when the going gets tough and I feel like giving up, "There is room for one more."

There is no logic in trying to be smarter, better, faster and anything else I worry about it. I just need to never give up. No matter how long it will take and the challenges that I will face, it doesn't matter. Because I know deep down that there is really is room for one more, and that is my spot, and I need to invest my time in earning it for myself.

My challenge for you isn't going to be to name, write, or point to your fears, you already know exactly what they are. I am challenging you to come up with a similar mantra. Make it simple. Make it stupid. Make it silly. But make it and do it right now. Now I want you to write it down on a piece of scrap paper and post it somewhere you will see through out your writing in November. It is going to be your personal ethos, your individual slogan, your single tagline to get you through the darkest times in November, and push you to the other side.

Grind out that mantra and get back to the words that matter most.