Musings of Two Creative Minds

Building an audience and marketing yourself... These six words strike fear and terror into the hearts of almost every new author I meet.  It also has the same effect on some of the more experienced authors I know as well.  Why?  Because there isn't a 'silver bullet' that will solve the problem for you.  There are so many different methods out there to try and raise audience awareness of your work and who you are.    Plus there's no guarantee which method is going to be the right one for you.  So you have keep trying and trying until you find one that works.  This is especially hard if you don't have a good budget to work with.  Many sites will promote your books for a fee.  Oh there are some that will do it for free, but the results vary from author to author.   You can also hire a publicity group to try and build hype, but even then you have to be careful.  The words "Buyer beware" applies to hiring someone el...

Don't trash that crappy first draft! Oh it may be full of grammatical errors that would send your high school English teachers into hysterics but that's not reason enough to throw it away.  And maybe the plot line may move like a 1920's Model T going backwards up the crooked mile, still is it truly worth destroying?  And perhaps most of the characters may be as shallow as a puddle, and probably deserve to be drowned in one, but do not throw that draft away!  Instead I want you read every last word, e ven if it's hard as hell to get past the first few pages, keep reading!  Do not stop until you've read the entire thing .   Why? I hear you ask.   Because, that shitty first draft may be the most important one you ever write. I'm being serious here folks.  And no I'm not going to be going on about how every journey in writing starts with a first draft, or something like that.  What I am going to tell you is that first drafts...

For just about all writers, the choice of voice or perspective to use is always a challenge.  Although many write in the third person voice, there are two options.  Do you do 'limited' where we only know what's going through one characters mind, or do you use the 'omniscient' version where the readers get to know what's going through everyone's mind at the same time, even if the characters are not sharing all their thoughts with each other. I did the 'limited' third person point of view in my first two novels.  However I kept changing who's head we were inside with each chapter, giving a nice build up and differing points of view.  So in the new novel I'm working on  "The Vampyre Blogs - Coming Home" I wanted to try 1st person perspective, but still do multiple points of view.  So, with my wife's advice, I chose the same method Bram Stoker used to write "Dracula".  He did 1st person from many different points of...

 I n case you hadn't heard, I started attending the California State University at Monterey Bay in August and the workload had been fairly manageable, until recently.  Things are heating up and I have less and less time to work on my novels, including "The Vampyre Blogs".  I had planned on getting the latest draft finished, edited, beta-read, etc. so I could have it out in time for Christmas.   Unfortunately, that is not going to happen.  I've said before I will not release a book until it's had all those things done to it.  Currently, I'm still trying to finish the 2nd draft and I'm still not entirely happy with the piece.  Plus I haven't even started on a cover for the book.  I have one that I made with the computer. However, I'm not totally sold on this version really.  I'd prefer to try and do a soft pastel piece and then super-impose this image on top of the scene I create with the pastel. Furthermore, with ...

*UPDATE:  THE NEXT BOOKS IN MY PARA-EARTH SERIES WILL BE...* After giving it a lot of thought and listening to feedback from readers both here and on my blogs I've come to a final decision on what order the next few books will be coming in... Late November 2014 "THE VAMPYRE BLOGS" will be released first.  This will be the first of at least 2 books.  The story line I've been creating has grown to such an extent that it cannot be told in just one novel   So I will do what I've been doing with the other books.  A complete story will be told with a few dangling plot lines that will be addressed and wrapped up in the 2nd book which will come in time for Christmas 2015.   In May 2015 "THE DOOR" will be released and will take up where both "THE BRIDGE" and "THE SHIP" left off.  It will reunite Alex, Veronica, Cassie and Julie.  I won't give any spoilers away except to say that not only with the looming confrontation w...

Sorry for the lack of posts lately.  After lining up my Beta-Readers, the allergy season kicked into unbelievably high gear and knocked the breath out of me literally!  What energies I've had have been dedicated to working on The Vampyre Blogs novel itself and formatting "THE SHIP" to be ready to go to Smashwords, Kindle and Createspace once I hear back from my beta-readers and make a few changes to the manuscript. This brings me to today's topic.  Formatting your book to go to press through these three outlets can be trying at times.  I've only had to go through it once so far and that was a little over a year ago when I published "THE BRIDGE".  Luckily, I did remember a lot of what I learned back then for dealing with Kindle and Createspace.  Smashwords is taking a little more effort and I will address that topic in another entry very soon. Today, I want to focus on a shortcut I've discovered that has made my formatting efforts for Creates...

"Welcome to Pointer, West Virginia" For those who have never heard of this place, do not fret. It doesn't exist.  I made it up to be the setting for "The Vampyre Blogs".  A good setting is extremely important to any story.  Your story's setting can shape your character's personality depending on how long they've lived there.  For instance, if they've been there a short time there's the getting to know the place and the people.  Certain action sequences may take place in particular areas.  The town's history may come into play.  If they've lived there all their lives, they should know a lot of people, have a reputation (are they considered cool, friendly, or weird by the other people?  Etc., etc...)  Already you can see the importance of your setting and you should know the place at least in your own mind, so you can convey it to the readers.  I don't care if it's a real place here on Earth or another world.  You need ...

Over on "The Vampyre Blogs--Private Edition" young Marisa is back with a new entry.  Today she's talking about her Dad.  A simple everyday guy who is not a fireman, not a policeman, or an EMT.  He's just an ordinary fellow who manages to save a life.  Come on over and find out how he did it by clicking on the link below.  You'll be glad you did. http://thevampyreblogs.blogspot.com/2014/03/marisas-musings-my-dad-hero-october.html

I know, I know, I haven't even put out "The Ship" yet, and I'm already working on another book?  Well, I'm waiting for feedback from some of my beta-readers who are going over "The Ship" so there's not much I can do on that front at the moment.  And it felt so darn weird, sitting at my computer and not working on something, other than doing Facebook and games. Besides, I've been getting a lot more views on "The Vampyre Blogs--Private Edition" blog sites that have been looking very encouraging.  I really hope my creating those sites will lead to me having a really good sized audience clamoring for the book when it finally comes out in December.  In this day and age of Indie Authors and self-publishing, one has to try and be inventive to build an audience for your work.  And I keep hearing over and over again about how important it is to get the word out about your works (both finished and in progress). But what I really want to ...

I changed the name of my vampyre blog, because the name would be exactly the same as the book's title.  I wanted to keep the two similar but not identical.  Some people might get confused, so I decided to add the words "Private Edition" which is actually appropriate.  Since none of the entries appearing on that blog will be showing up in the actual novel, it seemed appropriate. Readers just wind up getting a bit of free background info on the characters, as well as scenes that can be considered free short-stories.   I've already decided that since that blog has already had over 400 views in the month and a half that it was put up, I will continue to keep it going even after the novel comes out in December of this year.  I find I enjoy doing these little shorts about my vampyre and the people who's lives touch his. I also plan on doing more novels with him, if the first one does well.   So in the meantime, come see what's been happening at his dance ...

Just put up a new entry over on my Wordpress version of "The Vampyre Blogs".   Today, I have my vampire's godson talking about him.  I thought it might be nice for all of you to see Nathaniel, through the eyes of someone who's known him for years.   Nathaniel's been in a kind of dark mood on his entries, but he's not always like that.    He's rather a fun fellow, just kind of shy. So why not come over and see a different side of the man who's walked this earth for over a 150 years. http://thevampyreblogs.blogspot.com/2014/02/brians-e-journal-january-7th-20.html

Before I get into promoting my new blog, I thought I should explain myself to you all.  The reason why I've created "The Vampire Blogs" was simple.  It's part experiment, and part story building.  With the popularity of vampires in books, it was only a matter of time before I found myself getting drawn in, although I had sworn to avoid the genre.  Yet, like any writer, I couldn't help speculating on  "Well, if I did a vampire story, I'd make it more original and do this, this and this..."  Naturally, an idea came and began to snowball on me. I wanted to keep most if not all the typical strengths and weaknesses of the traditional vampire, while at the same time making such a being fit into my Para-Earth Series world.  The being I would have a reasonable explanation for the various abilities such as shape-shifting, turning into mist, etc.   I would also give him a few new traits that fit with the being I had made him out of.  I won't go in...