Suggested Reading: Encouragement for Those On The Path to Better Writing

This was a wonderful article I found this morning with a lot of great tips for aspiring writers:

Encouragement for Those On The Path to Better Writing

Big To-Do List for the Week!

So this past weekend, I joined an Indie Author Group on Facebook and they have so many resources and info for me to go through.  It is a wonderful, interactive community and I realize now that there is so much I would have missed out on if it wasn't for a group like this.

This week will be full of "fun in the sun":

• Collaborating on the graphic artist for the new book cover for "Heir Of The Blood King"
• Absorbing all the info from the Indie Author Group
• Networking myself on Twitter and Facebook
• Continue work on Book 2 for Adventures of Adam
• Setup Facebook Ads to promote book starting next weekend
• Watch paint dry
• Typical Life/Work duties and responsibilities
• Drink Coffee

1980: Year of the Ducky

In the Spring of 1980, change was in the air. A recent downpour of rain had blanketed the Mississippi Delta and the sleepy little town of Lake Village, Arkansas, began to wake up and stir.

My mother and I were walking along Main Street towards Lake Chicot, which laid outstretched on the east end of town. As we walked past Murphy's, a local mercantile store, we stopped in front of the Sam's Feed and Seed. I could hear chirping coming from inside.

My mother, Jeanette, took me by the hand and led me inside.  My seven year old eyes lit up with excitement as we walked over to the pens that held a large number of baby ducklings.  As my mother talked with the owner to get the price, I looked them all over and one in particular had a gleam of mischief in his eyes.  That was the duck that I wanted.

The man at the counter grabbed a tall, brown paper bag and picked up the duck I had selected. I smiled ear to ear as I looked into the back and Ducky chirps happily at me.  The man also gave me some food and I placed it inside the bag with Ducky and he ate his fill.

Once we returned to our home on the corner of Hwy Street and N. Court Street, we placed Ducky in a small cage and kept him in the kitchen. I would take him out and let him run all around the place, many times to my mother's disapproval. Where we lived, we were attached to a larger house where my grandmother and step-grandfather lived, along with my Uncle George.  Luckily, we had a door on the west side that led to a fenced off portion of the yard where Ducky and I would play.

As Ducky got older, just as school let out in May, we would take walks together all the way back to Main Street and to the Old Water Tower located on Wayne Street. I would even sometimes pull out my tan and brown BMX bicycle with the long, brown, tan and orange banana seat and let Ducky ride on the handle bars. There I was, wearing my polyester button down shirt, red and green plaid jeans, brown shoes and my Alfalfa haircut with a full grown duck riding high, flapping his wings as we went.

My other best friend was a boy named Marcus Anderson.  He and I were a couple of scrawny little runts that practically lived on the streets.  When the other, bigger kids would come around, they enjoyed running over us.  Until Ducky came along, that is. When the big kids came around and we were with Ducky, he would flap his wings, honk and chase after them.  The other kids even accused Ducky of having rabies.

Ducky decided to stay with Marcus one night. It didn't work out since the next morning, Ducky was sitting on my porch. Apparently Marcus' mom wasn't too happy with him for bring Ducky over as a bunk mate.

Once the Summer began in June, it was time for me to take a trip to stay a few weeks with my dad who lived thirty miles away in Hamburg.  Mom said that we were running out of room for Ducky and that my dad lived on a large farm and had plenty of room for Ducky to roam and make friends with the other ducks that my dad tended to.  So Ducky and I packed it up to visit my dad for the Summer.

Dad told me that Ducky was a girl, not a boy, but luckily the name I picked worked either way.  I didn't get to see much of Ducky after that because once my dad introduced her to the pond, she didn't want to leave.  When it was time to return home, I left my best friend in the world behind.

When I had to go back to my dad's for Christmas, it was then that I had discovered that Ducky did not make it long on her own. My father said that she had built a nest and laid some eggs near the tree line just outside of the fence and that an animal had taken her.

Ducky brought a lot of joy in my life that year.  Memories that remain with me in my old age. So the next time you see some weird kid with some strange animal and that kid is bouncing around without a care in the world, just smile and nod. That kid has found the best friend they will ever have.

A Nice Day To Write

Yesterday was a confusing day for me.  I was pulled off track on the work I've been doing with my book by a surprise encounter with an old friend.  This brought to light a need to prioritize my life and my writing.

So after a pleasant night of peaceful sleep, my mind was fresh and awakened to new ideas that I quickly scribbled down.  Something to tuck away for that next proverbial rainy day.

When you are a writer because you love what you do, inspiration can be derived from unusual circumstance.  All in all, take the blows, swallow your pride and write.

In the end, you will always win.

Last Day To Download My eBook for Free!

The centuries old necromancer king is dead. In eleven days, the Heir will awaken to the power of his blood magic, thus will he begin the conquest to dominate the kingdoms and enslave their peoples. Powerful organizations scramble to locate and capture the Heir, intending to control him and to use their positions to rule through his power. 

Adam’s home is destroyed and he flees for his life. With his fate uncertain, the unskilled orphan must fight for his freedom against dangerous enemies who give pursuit. Adam is also faced with the challenges of survival against the untamed wilderness and its dark denizens. 

The Heir of the Blood King will rise, this has been divined.

So I'm Getting a New Book Cover Designed

I had a wonderful email conversation with Lola over at Lola's Blog Tours about my book and preparing it for a book tour.

Lola's site offers book blog tours, promotions and free advice.  She came across as very personal with a fast response to my questions and she held back no punches.  Her tone was courteous and engaging while she critiqued my book cover and blurp.  She also complimented my author bio and said she found it intriguing that my writing influences were connected to being an avid gamer.

At this time, Lola did not feel my book was ready to be promoted, so she graciously declined representing my book.

So this week, I will reallocate my budget and focus on finding a designer to work a concept I have in mind for a new book cover.  I have one designer that comes highly recommended, so I hope that they considered my request.

In the mean time, Barbie and I are going to work on a new blurp for the book so that it conforms to Lola's suggested edits.

When I am ready to do my tour, Lola Blog Tours has become my top choice as an organizer.  I highly recommend you check out her services for self published authors.

 

Writing, Writing, Writing

My ebook, Heir Of The Blood King, has been downloaded over 70 times so far.  Most of that is friends and family, nevertheless, I'm still very happy about it.

Most of the promotional stuff that I'm planning is several months away as I work on booking my blog book tour at the end of the Summer.

Today, I think I'll shift gears and pick up the manuscript for Adventures of Adam Book Two and see if I can crunch out 5,000 words or more today.  It's my therapy...

How Self Publishing Makes Me Want To Pull My Hair Out

Ok, this is cheesy public domain pic kind of day!  Obviously, I'm a dude and the picture isn't, nevertheless, it conveys my sentiment this morning.

Yes, I know that I only uploaded my self published work to Amazon just a few days ago.  I had also expected this to be a marathon, not a sprint.

My original idea was to setup a blog tour for August.  I've reached out to several tour organizers and I haven't heard anything back.  That's cool and all.  I know that I stay pretty busy myself, so they must be busy themselves.

But I'm not a sit back and wait kind of guy.  I like to take initiative.  Action is always better than inaction.  When I don't take charge of something that is important to me, I quickly drown with apathy.  I know, I should be more Zen, find just the right balance.  However, like a chihuahua, I'm up and down all over the place, barking and chasing my tail and nipping at the heels of every stranger.

I decided that while I waited, I would go ahead and find some bloggers who might be interested in doing a review.  The fact is, quite of few of the bloggers that I found on Google by searching "Young Adult Book Blog Reviews" in fact, are not accepting submissions.  Still, others will not accept submissions from self publishers.

When I weighed the options of going publisher vs. self publishing, the main reason I decided to self publish was because I thought by doing so, I would potentially contribute to the successes of self publishing authors.  Publishing houses have been notorious in the past for being nit picky.  For example, J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter was thrown into a trash can and rejected more than a dozen times before someone saw what they had right in front of them.

To me, self publishing is how we can tap into all the potential on this planet so that writers can write without fear of rejection.  That fear can inhibit the creative process.  Yes, there would be more books to sort through to find those rare gems of genius, but the benefit far outweighs the struggle.

So this is my rant.  Maybe I'm just not in the mood today to run into barriers.  For now, I believe I have done what I can.  I can use this time to set up my twitter account instead and write this blog post.  I will try again tomorrow.

Download Heir Of The Blood King for Free

If you follow my Amazon link on the left side of my page, you can download my novel for free until April 21st!

Once you are finished reading it, I would be very grateful if you would leave a rating and review on Amazon and Goodreads.  This is just the start of a very long promotional campaign that I will be finishing in August with a blog book tour.
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I cannot overstate my thanks to you in this endeavor!

~Will

Heir Of The Blood King is now available for review on Goodreads

I was surprised to see my book available on Goodreads the same day that I published it.

It will take a few days for them to approve my author page so I can update it with my information, but in the meantime, you can always follow the link and add it to your read list.

Heir Of The Bloodking is LIVE on Amazon

The centuries old necromancer king is dead. In eleven days, the Heir will awaken to the power of his blood magic, thus will he begin the conquest to dominate the kingdoms and enslave their peoples. Powerful organizations scramble to locate and capture the Heir, intending to control him and to use their positions to rule through his power. 

Adam’s home is destroyed and he flees for his life. With his fate uncertain, the unskilled orphan must fight for his freedom against dangerous enemies who give pursuit. Adam is also faced with the challenges of survival against the untamed wilderness and its dark denizens. 

The Heir of the Blood King will rise, this has been divined.

Waiting for Amazon!

So today, we finally finished the final draft of "Heir Of The Blood King", the first book of the Adventure of Adam series!

I submitted my copyright application today, so far so good.

It was such a relief to have my baby ready to publish.  There may be a couple of errors left, but we couldn't find them.  I was very nervous about the formatting.  I've read many horror stories of people uploading their work to Amazon only to discover a formatting nightmare.

I got my copy uploaded and used the virtual device simulator and I was amazed at how nice the finish product looked.  The copyright page itself looked a little goofy.  My OCD kicked in and I thought about doing an edit and resubmitting again.

But then, I stopped myself.  The remainder of the book looked wonderful on every one of the simulated devices I tried.  Besides, I've seen a lot of ugly copyright pages in my day being a reader.  So I left it as it, just to eliminate the risk of creating a nightmare of my own making.

Now I'm waiting for the 12 hour Amazon review process to be complete.  I hope it is finished well beforehand so I can publish a link for my friends and family.

~Will

Almost There!

Yesterday, Barbie and I completed proofing 50 pages of the book.  Planned to knock out 50 more today, but there was a power outage.  Hope we can get 25 done at least.  I'm so ready to get this book published already!

~Will

A New Journey

So with this first blog post, it begins. The start of a new day. Finishing my book this week and I will have it uploaded to Amazon. Now I need to setup my FB page, Amazon Author Central page and Goodreads. This will be a great adventure! Thank you! I welcome everyone to join me! ~Will