A few interesting things...

I've always been a "bullet-pointer." Know anyone like that? I like to put bullets in my emails to keep things organized and easy to read. I also like to keep things short. If you've read The Solstice Treaty, you know that I like relatively short chapters (Helps those who only have time to read in short bursts and finishing a chapter can give you a good sense of accomplishment!) and short(ish) paragraphs (I can't stand paragraphs that go on and on - I get lost!). So, bullet points help when I have multiple things to say. So, here's some interesting stuff that happened in the last few days...

1. My first shipment of books arrived. Pretty fun going through the box and even though the book is out digitally, it was sure something to see it in print. Pretty happy about that. I'll put up a photo after this post. I sent a half dozen to Judy (my LA agent) to see if she can drum up some interest in la-la land.

2. I decided to sell my book at this big book shindig called Virginia Festival of the Book. It's in March so I wanted to ensure the print copy was looking good. Saw a few things I want to change but I have enough time. On a similar note, it looks like I'll be interviewed on the local radio station a few days before I sit there begging people to buy one :)

3. I've decided to make my digital book exclusive on Amazon for 90 days. It's not that I have anything against Nook owners but I have heard good things about the KDP program Amazon offers and, TBH, the vast majority of folks downloading the beast use Amazon. So, we'll see how things go. If you found the book through this promotion, welcome to the Shade :)

Finding an agent

Sooooo, now that I had finished my first draft and then edited it to the point that I felt comfortable sending it out, I started down the path of finding a Lit agent.

Now, something you should know about me is that things have always gone relatively smooth as far as my career goes. I had published dozens of games from the Apple II and Commodore 64 to SNES to DVD to massively multiplayer PC games. I figured with this would be no different. Why should it be? I had a cool book and a cool background.

Sheesh.

I had heard all the horror stories about finding an agent and for me (for the most part) that was true. You see, the market was in major shift when I started looking. Borders closed down. Big deals for books went by the dodo. Men are disappearing from the book landscape and vampire romance is in full swing. Finding someone to represent (let alone publish) an urban fantasy with a WWII twist was a tough sell. And it was. I sent out dozens and dozens of queries (all very professional), created a killer website, illustrations and book trailer. I did get some folks interested in reading partial manuscripts and fulls but that ultimately didn't work out.

Friends were gracious reminding me how JK Rowling was snubbed as well and I understand all that. Still it was tough as I felt (and do feel ever more) that the novel can stand on it's own against any other urban fantasy.

On the other side of the coin, I found a wonderful LA agent (Judy Coppage) who liked the novel and has been great in helping me get it ready to be pitched in Tinsel Town. I met Judy through a friend and she has been very supportive. So, we will see where that goes.

More later :)

The first draft

It didn't take me long after writing "book 1" or part 1 of the book to finish the first draft. It was definitely nights and weekends for about 4 months. It's amazing how different the draft was from the way I had initially sketched out the chapters. Because I was open to it, I found that some characters I thought would be prominent ended up less so while others (like Grace or Elijah) ended up having a more central role.

So a few years ago I saw this 20/20 thing where there was a symphony-writing prodigy who thought that the music he wrote the first time was perfect and didn't need to be altered (even though the greatest composers ever constantly altered their works). I thought the kid has a lot to learn. Fast forward to my rough draft - I thought it was brilliant and wouldn't need much editing.

Hahaha.

I have edited this novel dozens of times. Basically, I stopped editing about a week ago. So that means that I basically edited it for 2.5 years. Of course, the thing I learned that worked best was when I would step away from it (sometimes more than a month at a time) and then return and look at it with fresh eyes.

So, there you have it. I wrote the first draft then edited for years while I tried to find an agent.

Oh, boy. Let's get into that next. :)