A Moment in the Sun

Here's a link to a post from my other blog. Enjoy.

http://rumblingheartseries.wordpress.com/2011/11/10/a-moment-in-the-sun/

Writers and Honesty

I am going to get some hate mail for this post, but this will be nothing new for me.

Being that I am a writer by profession, I obviously know a ton of other writers of various genres. While in college, I was an English major so I know a thing or two about literary writing. Not saying I am the all knowing, just saying I know good writing when I see it. This is my 2 cents.

While not concentrating on my writing, I occasionally have people ask me to read their work who want "an honest review." I am ok with that. I'm not the kind of person to massage another's ego just so they can feel good. If i see flaws or what I feel are flaws in someone work, I point it out. I feel i give real literary reviews. I don't just tear into a work and say hateful things like "THIS IS AWFUL!" or "This author sucks!" No. Sorry. That's not professional or helpful in any way. What I do point out are both the good points and the shortcomings of a book. Perhaps a character was left underdeveloped or maybe there was a loose end that was left untied. I will point those things out in a heartbeat. I will also offer praise if warranted. If the story was solid with good character development and keep the reader interested, I will say that as well. I very rarely give 5 star reviews because I feel that almost any book can always be better. That being said, I;ve discovered one thing in the writing community.

Writers do not want honesty.

They want someone to rub their shoulders and tell them that they're the next frickin Hemingway. They want only reviews that make their work sound like it's the next Harry Potter series. It's not! It's clucking horrifying! Ok, maybe not that bad, but it can definitely use some work. I cannot tell you how many people have stopped following me on twitter, have placed me on ignore, and have flat out just lied about me all because I gave what I felt was a very honest and objective review of their work. I had someone unfollow and ignore me because I gave their work a 3.3/5 on a competitor's website. Hey, last I checked, 3.3 out of 5 is not too shabby. It's obviously not perfect, but I'm also not calling your work complete and utter dog [expletive deleted].

To all my fellow writers, I say this: Grow thicker skin! The world is not a nice place. People are mean and vicious and some of them will only want to tear you down. If you get a legitimate, critical review of your book, take those words and think about them and learn from them. As a writer, I do feel we are on the same team. Heck, the same family, and like a good and loving brother, I will tell you when you need to brush up on a few things. I've had people call my work complete crap and that's ok. I've also had beneficial reviews and because of those I am becoming a better writer.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Image via Wikipedia[/caption]

Early On

Through the first 6 chapters, the rewrite is looking so much better than the original. It is pretty insane just how much you learn about yourself in a year. I think I've finally found a writing style that fits my personality. I think early on I was trying too hard to make certain language and insight work, so much so that some of the message was lost in translation. I am simplifying those areas that were too obtuse and making the language easier to comprehend. There are still a few things in there that are purposely difficult to understand and I am keeping them in there for certain reasons pertaining to the story itself.

Once the rewrite is done for RH, I will move onto RB. Emily will need minimal rewrite, maybe a little tinkering here and there to make sure story lines are kept in tact.

Once EM is done, then it's back to the final book. I am already 70 pages onto it. The last one will need major editing when i get finished with it. As it has progressed, I have no doubt that it will easily hit 200k words, probably even 230k which is too large. I don't want it to be any larger than say 215k words and that's pushing it. I would like to see it stay around 200k at the most so that people still get all they can from the final installment, yet do not start falling asleep toward the end.

You can still purchase the current version of Rumbling Heart over on Amazon, but I won't blame anyone for waiting till the rewrite is done. I don't see it taking anymore than 10 more days.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="240" caption="Image by Phillie Casablanca via Flickr"][/caption]

Caption

Caption

While reading the times and looking out the window,

I wonder sometimes as to why I am being watched,

constantly by the carbon products of my internet life.

 

The drilling of information seems far exceeding my needs, yet

before I begin with my microblogging nuances, I feel the need

to read the newspaper which is still dutifully delivered to my door every day at 5am.

 

After I have had my fill of coffee, a bite of a bagel, and a story

about the city council asking for another municipal bond,

I find myself on the computer, hunched over my keyboard

just as I was 15 minutes before I fell asleep last night.

Rewriting

Through the past year, I've learned a lot about myself and about writing. I've learned that there are times when I need to dive into a little more detail and there are also times where I can be long winded. I've slashed thousands of words out of my work since I began, but sometimes thousands just isn't enough. I also believe I've found my place in the writing world. On more than a handful of occasions, I've been told I tend to write more as a story teller. That may seem like a general term for a writer, but I believe it's not. Sometimes people write simply to inform you on certain events so that you know what happened. Other writers, story tellers, take you by the hand and let you walk with them as they lead you down the very same road it feel that they once took. So often I am asked if the events in my book are real because of the way I've written them. For many, it feels to them as if I am presenting to them a glorified anecdote and calling it a book chapter. I am ok with that.

It is for that reason that I am going through my previously released works and rewriting certain portions of them. Obviously, even after going over them countless times, there are still a few piece of the books that simply do not flow as well as I want them to and even a handful of grammatical errors. From my very first serious work to Rumbling Heart to my latest release Emily Martin, my style has morphed and become something very different that how it originally started. I've discovered my shortcomings and taken hold of my strengths. For this reason, I have decided to take on a simpler, story telling approach to my work from here going forward. In the first book, there is quite a bit of story telling, but I believe I made certain instances far more complex than they needed to be from a grammatical perspective. For this reason, I am sure that RH will go from about 220k words to something a little smaller; maybe about 210k. Still quite large, but smaller and still telling the exact same story. At one time I was going for more of a Hemingway type approach and style, but it seems that many of her techniques died with him all those years ago as some of my critics are calling portions of the work "old" when it comes to style. It was for this reason that I tried what I did with Recorded Butterflies. I took on a very different perspective with this work and I think i did alright. It still wasn't exactly what I was wanting to do, but I did it.

The latest book Emily Martin is the one I am the most proud of. I found my strengths with this book and I was able to really connect with my Emily character as she tells the story. While I felt I was almost one in the same when it came to my character John, it turns out that I was more in sync with Emily and the way she saw her life and handled her station in life. It was obviously not the way she grew up or the life she lived, but it was more of the place she found herself as an adult. The feelings that she had kept pent up inside her were something very close to my own so I was able to really speak from her perspective. I will make updates to this work as well, but only for the sake of continuity. Even after the release of my final work in the series, I think I will still be most proud of Emily because of the way I was able to convey my feelings through that character.

That being said, I have work to do.

 

Visit Richard's Amazon author page here!

Writocrisy

It seems there are countless people out there who want to tell you how to write. I find it rather alarming that there are more people looking to change my style of writing than there are people reading my material. To have someone tell you to change your writing style while never having read your work is absolutely ridiculous.

If there is any confusion as to what I am saying, here it is in plain English: there is no one, single way to write.

Write the way you feel is best for you. All these people out there telling you to write this way and that way are completely full of crap. Example: I've had three different professional editors tell me three different things and of course each of them thinks the others are full of it. So...who is correct? Maybe none of them are. Maybe they are so self serving that they don't even realize that they are just hurting themselves by constantly disagreeing with each other. Each of us has our own style of writing and our own methods. For anyone to come out and tell me what I am doing is wrong while not even taking the time to read any of my novels or short stories, or even my poems has no place in my life. Read my work, look at it from a literary standpoint, then maybe you can offer some critical review. Until then, I could care less about your "writing advice." Sharing experiences is fine, but when you tell me I am doing it all wrong, maybe you need to look in the mirror and say the same thing to yourself. You cannot say you support all writers, yet tell us we are all wrong in one form or another. Just as I have never said I am perfect nor is my work, I have also never told anyone they are wrong in the methods used for their creativity.

Pushing ideals on people is wrong, especially when you can't do the same thing for yourself.  And as I've always said, you cannot force people to do things they do not want to do. In my mind, doing that is a form of slavery and no one respects a slave master.

Amazon Author Biography

I spend a little time and worked on the biography on the author page I have set up on Amazon.com. It seems pretty solid and I think I will leave it as it is, but I wouldn't mind a little feedback. I tried as much as I could to focus on the work and how it came to be. Although I don't have any reservations about keeping many of my personal details out of it, I still wanted to make the page about the books so that could be focused on and not so much on me. I figure if people really are that interested in the work, then they will eventually want to find out more about me. That will come with time. Have a look at the page here and let me know what you think.

I duplicated this data for the Smashwords bio page as well which can be viewed here.

No Breaks

My attempt at forcing a break from writing is not working. I wanted to give myself a good month from it so I can prepare to head back to Austin and just so I can unplug, but it's not working. I cannot stop thinking about the final RH book. I know it won't stop bothering me until I just up and write the darn thing so I might as well do it in between the times where I am looking for apartments and permanent work. Unfortunately, writing isn't paying me much. That being said, I did get a royalty check the other day which was nice.

The name of the last book? Not saying, at least not now. I am just going to work on it and get it outlined and first drafted. I don't want it to exceed 450 pages, but we'll have to see how it goes. This will be the first time I've written where I am looking to keep pages to a minimum. I want over 375, but less than 450. We'll see how it all goes.

 

Emily Martin and Last Night

All Links are live. You can access them here.

Ty all for the continued support. I've found that even now, I have a few people lingering around that would rather see me fail in my attempts to make something of myself. I also know there will always be people who hate me because I am able to do something they are not. I will not recognize their attempts at trying to derail my passion by mentioning them by name. All I will do is just keeping doing what I do. As the old internet saying goes, "haters gonna hate."

The development of my short story into a film is proof that persistence can pay off. I spoke with the director last night and we have come up with some very workable ideas and it looks like we can really make it happen. It may not be tomorrow or next week or even next month, but it will get made. It will be taken to various film festivals and hopefully, we will gain some recognition not only from our peers, but also from those who never stopped believing in us.

We may not become rich or famous, but we will change people's ideas about the subject matter that we cover. I think when all is said and done and our film is made, I can look back at all the hate that's come my way and laugh a little, knowing that all their harsh words did was strengthen my resolve.

Not everyone can write a poem or a short story or a full novel for that matter. It takes endless nights of tedious editing and corrections to get the story exactly the way you want it. Not everyone can pull that off. I've done it now for the third time. There will be at least one more. I find it funny that people who say my work is terrible have never even read it so...how could they possibly know? I can understand criticism if you'd read at least one of my works, but to say my material isn't any good when you've not even looked at it shows only a lack of self respect. I feel sorry for people like that because those same people who hate me are the ones that know deep down they could never do what I do. I'm not saying these things to show off my ego because I really don't have one. Just as I do not hate those who work in other professions and do their jobs well, I would hope that others would at least do me the courtesy of being decent, but that's people for you. People fear what they do not know and they hate others for no other reason than that they possess or have accomplished things they never could.

I may not end up with an Academy award or a Pulitzer in my hands, but I will still have my books. Even after I am gone, those will still be here. For generations to come, my words and stories will echo through time. What will you leave behind? What will be your legacy? Bitterness? Hate? Obviously, those are not very admirable traits. I know I'm not nearly a perfect person, but I do have things most yearn to have: passion, love, persistence, patience, and plenty of stories to tell.

You have a choice. You can either listen as I tell them or hate me as I move forward and write more. Heck, even ignoring me shows more than standing around and hating me. When you stand there and speak badly of me, it only goes to show that I've got your attention so I must be doing something right.

Maybe one day people filled with hate will be ready to move on and do something more with their lives. I don't have the greatest life and I do not claim to be famous or rich or even popular. I am just me. A writer's life isn't all that glamorous. I sit in a room in front of a screen, typing out endless ideas and making them into something that might touch people...and I am ok with that. If I choose to give my art away, that's my choice. After all, it's my talent and not yours.

Who knows really when all this writing will end. Ultimately, that's up to me. I've openly stated that I may not write another novel after the final RH installment. Maybe that's all I have to give. Maybe I've said what I needed to say. Only I can make that decision. Know this though, when I'm heading out the door, I want to leave my work with people who will protect it's artful quality and do something meaningful with it.

[caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="107" caption="Cover of Last Night"][/caption]

Last Night - The Movie

I've spoken to a director about some of my work and we are currently discussing taking one of my stories and turning it into a short feature film. While the talks have just gotten underway, it is still a very exciting idea that one of my works could be made into something more substantial that just a few words on a piece of paper. It's still very early, but we will continue our dialog as the weeks progress and hopefully, it will take us somewhere. Sometimes things like this can take a lot of time, but I am hoping we can get the ball rolling fairly quickly. With time, the two of us plan to sit down and rewrite the story into a workable script, something that can be converted into film while still getting the message across. Depending on the length of the script, we're not quite sure at this point just how long the short will be. I'm not a film director by any stretch of the imagination so I will leave those estimates up to them.

Still, the prospect that this could turn into something more is very exciting as I'd love to have one of my works expanded upon like this. While I was hoping that Rumbling Heart would be looked at, I have no problem starting small as Last Night is a much smaller, easier story to turn into a film as the production costs will be very light and workable. RH on the other hand would require possibly millions to produce.

We all have to start somewhere. I hope this pans out.

You can check out the short story for free over at Smashwords.com or by clicking here.

[caption id="attachment_1093" align="aligncenter" width="442" caption="Cover of Last Night"][/caption]

The Synopsis - Emily Martin

Emily Martin will be available Tuesday September 27th, 2011 @ Smashwords.com, Barnesandnoble.com, and Amazon.

Emily Martin Synopsis

Dreams like this must die.

After hearing some of the most shocking news of his life, John Allen is beside himself. Although his suspicions about his wife hiding something were supported, he never once thought she’d be hiding something as big as this from him.

In this installment, the third book in the Rumbling Heart series and follow up to Recorded Butterflies, the way in which our story is told shifts and looks to John’s best friend Emily as she tries her best to share her insights, telling the tale as it unfolded following the months after that fateful night in Los Angeles. As Emily escorts John through what will ultimately be the toughest time in his life, she too is forced to look within herself as she deals with the reappearance of a man she wished she’d never met. As the months go by and the day which she and John fear the most arrives, she finds her life slowly spiraling out of control all while taking on even more responsibility that she never imagined would be entrusted to her.

As she fights to maintain her poise through it all, she is constantly asked to endure more and more and before she knows it, she begins to feel as if she is carrying the world on her shoulders. Stress reaches its maximum and soon she is forced to watch her best friend’s mental state gradually devolve into deep denial all while his wife slowly slips further and further away.

As she recalls the various memories from that time, she thinks about John and about how much he’s changed her life and she soon reveals what many of us thought all along. She also thinks back to the times she spent with John’s wife Olivia, and it doesn’t take her long to come to the conclusion that she didn’t love her simply as a friend, but instead, more like a sister.

Filled with heartache, drama, surprises, laugh out loud moments, and ultimate loss, Emily Martin takes you on a journey of the world as seen through her eyes, telling the story of her best friend John and how he is forced to deal with one of the hardest situations a person could face. She also exposes you to her inner most thoughts as she explains her decent into madness due to the near constant torment from the man that took her dignity from her as he works his way back into her world. As time marches on, the subtle cracks in her character slowly begin to become evident, but that suddenly seems like a side story as you are treated to an ending so wrapped in lunacy, you may begin to question yourself. Could this be it? Could this really be the end? All dreams must come to an end, but in some cases, they die a long and painful death.

Many Thanks

I just want to take a moment to thank all of my Twitter and Facebook followers and fans. Because of your continued support, I have cracked the top 50 on Smashwords.com. Of all the authors up there, as of this moment I am currently #42 most popular / viewed which is a terrific achievement. Hopefully, we can keep it going. It would be amazing to crack not only the top 10, but maybe even become #1.

Be sure to tell all your friends about the free work I offer there which include copies of the original Rumbling Heart as well as Recorded Butterflies which is the 2nd book in the series. There is also a new short on Smashwords as well called On The Way Home which is written by one of the RH characters. Its sort of a tiny peek into what you might expect to see from the 4th and final installment in the RH series.

One additional work on there is a short called Last Night about a struggling writer and a conversation he shares with an ex athlete. While it may not seem like much in the first few pages, by the end, you will find yourself questioning not only the narrator, but also the decision that he makes regarding his friend. You will either nod your head or be completely shocked. At about 5600 words, it's a short read and it's free so be sure to give it a look.

Ty all again for the continued support and I hope to keep you all entertained.

UPDATE!

I've moved up in ranking, currently sitting pretty at #12. Top 10? Let's hope for it!

http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/richardallen

 

[caption id="attachment_1083" align="aligncenter" width="466" caption="On The Way Home cover"][/caption]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recorded Butterflies is Now Free

I've dropped the price for Recorded Butterflies to free via Smashwords.com. Currently, Rumbling Heart is also free so you can download both books for absolutely no cost to you. Head on over and check it out while you can. You can download it as a PDF or you can DL a file that will work with your Kindle, Nook, and several other popular eReaders. Thank you all again for your continued support of my work and I look forward to feedback. Be sure to follow me on Twitter @RichardAllenRH

"Emily Martin" Release Date Set

On Tuesday, September 27th, Emily Martin will be available for purchase from BN.com, Amazon, and Smashwords.com. A Facebook event has been created which is located here. Thank you all for the continued support as I look forward to getting more feedback on this next installment of the Rumbling Heart series. With just one more to go, this book will bring several things into perspective and get you all set for the final book.

 

Emily Martin switches gears a little and tells the story from the perspective of John Allen's best friend, Emily. With just one last installment to go after EM, this book gives readers an inside look into Emily's mind as she reveals what she really thinks about John, Olivia, and even the meddlesome Donna as she journeys with him through one of the most difficult times in his life. While giving her two cents on virtually every detail of John's life, Emily is also dealing with her own problems as someone from her past comes back into her life, looking only to cause major issues for her. Being the woman that she is, she finds a way to cope, albeit a questionable one, and soon that decision sees her walking down a path she never thought possible.

Full with intrigue, heartache, loss, and at times, laugh out loud humor, Emily Martin will take you by the hand and show you a side of her you never knew existed, and when the final two chapters are upon you, you will see something so unexpected, you will find yourself begging for the final book as you will not be able to wait to see how it all ends.

4th and Final "Rumbling Heart" Book Underway

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="300" caption="What will the next book be named?"][/caption]

17k words into the final book all while I still have Emily Martin in editing. The final book in the series is already turning out to be much more than I'd first anticipated. Within the first chapter, the characters have already gone through something completely different than any of the other books. Several lines will be crossed and already they've done that. Expect much more craziness from this book as all the madness will come to a climax and I promise an ending that will both satisfy, shock, and make your heart beat a little faster.

As I've stated in previous posts, I have held back EM as I wanted to be sure that I was able to get in all the information I wanted to and so that both books will tied together nicely. That being said, EM should still be out hopefully no later than early to mid October, maybe sooner depending on how much more I feel I need to do with it. EM was last sitting at about 170k words. I expect the 4th and final book to be slightly larger; perhaps 185k. As with EM, the final book will have different perspective and views, but in the end, it will ultimately go back to John, the original narrator. He started it so he should be the one to finish it, but not before a couple of others have their say. I am breaking the book down into 4 parts and as it stands, I'm not too sure as to which part will be the largest. Probably the 4th and final part, but who knows. Often times I find while writing I tend to go off into a different direction and toss in a few smaller, subplots before getting back and delivering the main point. Any extras will only further develop the characters as I don't really like to toss in too much unneeded fluff.

The overall diction will remain middle to high as far as narration with the occasional lowering for certain plot elements. I've toyed with the differences between narrators, but with just a few adjustments for characteristic play, I doubt much of it will change.

I look forward to getting more feedback from all my readers and as always, thank you all so much for your continued support.

Final Installment of "Rumbling Heart" Series

With Emily Martin almost complete, I've decided to already begin work on the final book in the series. I already settled on a title, but I am still keeping it under wraps. The main reason I am already starting on the final book is that as with all final works, I want to make sure I tied up all the loose ends and give satisfactory endings to all the story lines. Now, keep in mind, by satisfactory I do not mean "happy." All I am inferring there is that there will be wrap ups and questions that have been sitting out there from all the way back in the original Rumbling Heart will be answered. Is it possible that some of the story lines have happy endings? Of course, but people will view them in very different ways.

One thing I've definitely done different than many of my fellow American writers is break from the norm of giving a "Disney-Like" ending to my work. Do things get worked out? Yes, they do, but not all endings are hearts and flowers  as readers of my works know. I try to keep my story lines and endings very close to the chest and very much situated in real life. Sure, sometimes it's nice for things to work out perfectly, but as with real life, not everything is perfect. All I can promise is that all the questions I've been asked about my work as far as the overall plot will be answered. Along with the answers to those story lines will also be a few curve balls that no one could have seen coming. I want the story to mesh really well and I don't want there to be any holes so for that reason, I have already managed to write about 10k words of the final book.

I am also holding off on releasing EM. I was looking at a release as soon as mid September as most of you know I like to get things done and published so my readers can get their fill. I want to enrich the overall experience for those dedicated readers that went through each and every book. I want to make sure all questions are answered and when my readers on on the last pages of the last book, they will find themselves thinking back to other parts of my previous works and either smiling, crying, or perhaps both. I already know how it's going to end. I've known for several months now. While a few things have changed with the overall plot, the ending is still the same as it was when I dreamed of it.

That being said, please forgive me for holding onto Emily Martin a little longer than I thought I would. Please believe in me. I will try my hardest to delivery two of the best works of my life for you.

When Should Books Have Warning Labels?

As many of you know, I am putting the finishing touches on my latest work Emily Martin which is the third installment in the Rumbling Heart series of books. As the books have been released, I've found myself straying a little away from the original idea of the books which is something I am actually fine with as it only enriches the overall story line; therefore, the reader gets more out of it. In the writing of the last three books, I have come across situations and circumstances that have had me questioning which audience my books are intended for. When I first got started, I figured that since I was going for the Drama genre that most of the people who read my work would be adult females. I am perfectly fine with that. However, I've noticed that a handful of the people reading my work are a little younger than I had anticipated, but not terribly young as I tend to use middle diction with my work that maybe occasionally rail on high. It's very rare that I fall to low diction, although there are small amounts of it here and there, usually when the character calls for it.

Still, diction is hardly the reason why I am thinking of perhaps adding what some see as a death stroke to my work at the very beginning of the book. As with some music available today, there are certain works, topics specifically, that are considered much more adult and therefore shouldn't really be viewed or listened to by younger people unless given to them by their parents. I am speaking specifically about maturity level. I have seen some 15 year old's that act quite mature and therefore, I feel, can handle certain topics in the best way possible. On the flip side, I've met 32 year old's that cannot handle talking about something as adult as marital infidelity without making fun of others so I'm not really talking about age restrictions.

I'm sure you all have seen television shows that sometimes offer a message at the very beginning that say something to the effect of "This show is intended for mature audiences. Viewer discretion advised." I never really thought of my work as adult in nature by any means. My work doesn't contain massive amounts of sex and violence, although those topics are touched on here and there. I also, from time to time, touch on other politically motivated topics such as abortion, race, end of life care, and equality of the sexes. The most brought up issue I've seen when it comes to young people reading books is usually the use of four letter words. Again, my work isn't laced with f-bombs, although, from time to time, a character may utter certain words or phrases, but normally only when they are expressing a strong emotion. Out of anger or great despair, we've all uttered f-bombs and used other works that wouldn't make it on prime time television. My question is if a book contains any of those supposedly objectionable topics or words, should that book have some sort of warning label attached to it?

I've read every type of genre from horror to suspense to drama and even erotica. I tend to keep my mind open as you never know when you may stumble across a great work. I already see those sorts of prejudices with regard to certain works out there simply because of their genres. In fact, I've been conversing back and forth with a particularly "Trashy Writer" that writes erotic fiction. Does that mean that their work should be labeled as unfit for certain audiences? When compared to hers, my work is relatively tame when it comes to sex. Still, to say that my work is "better" because of the topics I discuss or the way the material is laid out seems rather unfair. To be completely fair, one of my books contains a scene where two people, different minorities (one Spanish and one Asian) that discuss race and how they each view it in the United States. As a means of understanding each other's opinion, they used racial slurs such as "Jap," "Spic," and "Wetback" all while trying to understand the topic more and not simply to offend anyone. It can be argued that since they are using those words for educational purposes, they would get a pass. I can offer even more.

In my latest book, I developed a character who uses racial slurs specifically to offend and belittle people. While the character is obviously designed to be hated, should the book be labeled as "Mature" simply because of the way the heel character is portrayed and the language he uses? Further still, the narrator occasionally tosses out F-bombs because that is part of who she is. While she may not use those words in a business setting, she isn't afraid to use them while with her friends. Does that make her any more right that the racist character?

What do you think? Labels? Exceptions? What's right?

 

Emily Martin - Cover Art

I think I am sticking with this cover I've come up with below. It's simple like the others, but with a sutble difference. Obviously, there is a reason for that which I am sure the readers of the previous works will understand. I may go bigger for the next and final installment of the series, but I am not jumping in on that cover yet.

Rumbling Heart - Garnering Attention

It's nice to see the 5 star reviews. I truly appreciate them. Seems like all that time that RH has been free on Smashwords.com is starting to pay off. I just got a new 5 star review for the book on that site which is terrific. I am glad that the book is entertaining and that people seem to like it. If you would like to secure your free copy, head on over to Smashwords and check it out.

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/81600

Emily Martin will be out sooner than later so be sure to check out Rumbling Heart for free and it's follow up Recorded Butterflies for $.99 @ Smashwords, Amazon, and BN.com.



Also make sure to let Amazon low about the lower price so they can offer it for free as well. Once free on Amazon, it will almost instantly increase the exposure of the work 100 times over. The link for RH on Amazon is here. I appreciate the support and look forward to more reviews.

Emily Martin - 2nd Draft Done

Got through the 2nd draft really quickly. Was happy to see that I only had to cut a few sentences here and there and of course fix grammatical errors. I added a couple of small story parts, but that was expected. Maybe 2 things about the overall story don't flow well so I am working on those, hoping to get them done ASAP. I've actually already gotten about 4k words into the work that is expected to come after EM which will be my last, at least in the foreseeable future. At this point, I just want to get this series done because it was all I ever really planned to write anyway. A few short stories aside, I don't really plan to write anything else, but of course; things can change. With my impending move back to Austin, I will be tied up taking care of those things and trying to get a good start back there. All I want is to have a job where I won't eventually kill myself and that pays me well enough to where all my bills are paid. I want my own place where I can just rest and not have to worry about roommates or anything of that sort. I will continue to push the books, but I also have to accept that they aren't very good. They were mostly just something I felt I wanted to do before I died so at least when it's all over, I can say I left something behind.

All that being said, I am going to get back to work on EM so I can get it finished up and ready for publication.

First Draft of "Emily Martin" Finished

First draft is done and I am not taking a break from it. I am getting right into editing as I know there are a handful of things that need work. So far, we're looking at 157,691 words and looking to get bigger. I see it coming in at about 160k words, much longer than RB, but still shorter than RH. Page count should come in at about 350-370 depending on what gets cut and added. May be out of town this week, so some of the work may have to wait. Also waiting to hear back about my Fin aid which strangely enough has still not shown up on my DMC page. We'll see how that works out.

First Draft of "Emily Martin" Almost Done.

I've adopted a different style for this next work which has allowed me move between scenes differently. It makes sense because this book will be different than the previous two in a very noticeable way. As soon as the reader gets started on it, the will instantly see what I am talking about. I imagine I will be done with the first draft by no later than Sunday and editing will start right after that. Still working through a few story points that may not make the cut and thinking of some that will be added. As with the last book, the ending will be very explosive and have people flipping out in a good way. Book 4 will wrap everything up for my readers and I feel that the ending I have come up with will satisfy just about everyone out there. Happy? Sad? Middle of the road? I'm not saying, but it will be...something.

Rumbling Heart is Free on Smashwords

That's right. The one that started it all is now free on Smashwords.com. The direct link to the book is right here.  I would greatly appreciate it if you were to download the book for free to please also let Amazon know that my book is going for $0.00 on Smashwords so that it could possibly be lowered to Zero on their site as well. My writing pal Melissa Foster just had massive success when she offered her book for free and since then, it has hit #1 on the Kindle book lists. It would be amazing to be able to do the same thing with my work.

You may be wondering how exactly to let Amazon know that the book is free elsewhere. Here's what you do. Check out the book on Amazon here.  Scroll down to where is says Product Details and there, you will see a link that says "Tell us about a lower price." Click it. Then, just fill out the data it asks for which is not much. There small window you will see will look like this.



The Link you would want to post there is this one:

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/81600

And that's it! Enjoy the book. I enjoyed writing it. Feel free to let everyone know and I look forward to seeing your reviews on Amazon. Thank you again for all the support.

Writing and Celebrity

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This is a response to a blog post I read regarding privacy and how much of it you should keep. The blog post started out talking about sales numbers, but also dove into personal privacy as well. You can read the original post by Tamworth Grice here.

"True that some data is good to keep to yourself. One thing however that I think a lot of eBook writers are missing nowadays is that one key element still holds true to a certain degree: people want to know about the authors writing their books. I've talked to a few people and many of them have felt irked by the fact that a lot of eBook authors give little to no information about themselves so readers lose interest. It's true that you should not have to give out certain info, but you have to remember that readers will often read books and make a personal connection to them. Because of that, they feel the need to learn more about the writer. Especially in this day and age where you can essentially make up a personality on the internet and pass it off as yourself, people in general want a little honesty with their celebrities and that's how they see some of us. I in no way think of myself as a celeb, but people from other countries see me as one for some reason. It's for that reason that people search for me and want to know more about me. They want to know where the story came from, why i wrote it a certain way, and probably the most asked question i get "is this from real life?" Sure, we all want a little privacy, but as writers, we need to open ourselves up to the fact that with great success, we become celebrities and as most celebrities do, we have to give into the fact that we, in a sense, become part of the public domain where we will be discussed and talked about in various circles."

Emily Martin Update

Writing this book is among the hardest things I've ever done. Not even through the first draft and I am having difficulty with making scenes work. Could also be that I have been in constant pain these last few weeks. The words are coming just fine, but I have had to stop numerous times due to pain. Even with meds, it's very hard to deal with. At least once a day I just turn everything off and just lie in bed and hope it will stop hurting. I've contemplated calling for help, but it's pointless. They'll just charge me $3k for a shot and tell me there is nothing they can do. I've been looking into free clinics to see if I can at least get into a pain management program, but not many in this area of the state. Still, I just keep on chugging away, trying to get this book done all while planning for school, looking for work, and trying to get my name out there so people might take notice.

The story has taken some interesting turns and things I didn't initially think of have made it into the work. Some of them are very good, others not so good and will probably be cut. I try to make it a habit not to do much if any cutting while I am writing because it distracts me from the work. Anyway, I have already come across a public domain photo for the cover. Hope you enjoy it. 

90k Words

It's not a lot to me. I've gotten that far in a short period of time. It all felt really easy and I was doing fine. I think I wrote too much today and yesterday though. Today I hit about 16k words and yesterday about 12k. I'm pretty sure that's a lot for two days. I also got a few personal things done so I am rather exhausted.

Dealing with some significant pain as well. I've always been able to find ways to manage my pain since I've not had access to Vicodin. I had a feeling the time would eventually come when OTC's just weren't enough. Last wednesday, I OD'd on OTC pain meds. It was accidental, I assure you. My average pain lingers at about 3. Wednesday night and into Thursday morning I was at a 10 almost constantly. It got so bad that I started hallucinating. I maxed Aleve, but kept taking more. I then switched to Ibuprofen which I never take. I took 4 to start on top of the Aleve and then i went from 8 to 10, even with that much in me. After that, I kept thinking I hadn't taken any meds so I just kept taking more and more. At some point during the night, I also though it was a good idea to start taking my diphenhydramine. I'm not really sure how much of that I took, but it put me out.

I'm fine. Didn't end up in a hospital or anything. Just had a really mad hangover the next day and I'm sure my liver was severely pissed at me. Thankfully, I rarely stress it so it seems to be working just fine. Only thing worrying me is that my average pain isn't a 3 anymore. Now its closer to a 5 with suddenly spikes to 7. I'm not gonna lie. I'm worried.

I am still going to finish this series though regardless of what happens. Of course, if i suffer a brain aneurysm from these massive headaches then there isn't much I can do to stop that. Hopefully I can finish though before something serious happens. I'd like to say this is just stress, but I know it's not. The one good thing about all this? The dreams have been amazing.

First Review of Recorded Butterflies is in.

Got a review. Here is the link. Enjoy.

You can purchase the books here.

 

New Teaser Trailer - "Emily Martin"

The teaser for the 3rd installment in the Rumbling Heart series.

 

Last Night

On a whim, I wrote a short story of about 5700 words. I'm not trying to sell it at all, just did it for fun. The link is right here. You can share it all you want. Enjoy.

Commercial for "Rumbling Heart."

To go along with the sale I am having for Rumbling Heart, I put together a short commercial. Nothing spectacular, but it's something. Here it is and enjoy.

Recorded Butterflies Commercial

I previously mentioned that I would begin exploring video advertising and this here is my first attempt at it. It's nothing great, but it gets the message across...sort of. I am working on a newer version that is a little longer that may offer additional insight into the contents of the book. This is all new to me so don't expect amazing results.

 

Recorded Butterflies - Synopsis

Here is the synopsis I wrote up on Recorded Butterflies. It's not perfect, but when your book has this many big secrets, you really have to be selective with what you write and how you write it. I hope it sparks some interest. The link to the Facebook event is here. 

In this follow up to his first book Rumbling Heart, Richard Allen continues the story of John as he moves forward with his life after dealing with the demons of his past head on.

It is October 2012 and John Allen has just gotten back into Eureka, California after spending several months on the road. Looking forward to meeting back up with his best friend Emily, he realizes that she is purposely refusing his phone calls and text messages. He finds her sudden absence from his life disturbing and feels as if she is phasing him out of hers. While his ideas as to why she’s suddenly disappeared continue to swim around in his head, she quite suddenly is thrust back into his world, and he eventually finds out the reasons behind her withdrawal. As Emily finally opens up to him and lets him in on all that has happened, he finds the truth about her hard to swallow, but then takes a step back and realizes just how hard life must have been for her since he left her side.

All the while, John is still managing his relationship with his new found love interest shortly after getting back into town after his time on the road with her. After some very serious consideration, he finds himself contemplating something that he felt he would never do again in his life. Finally realizing just how strongly he feels for her, they explore the reasons why they would want to permanently tie their lives together, and the two of them begin a journey that promises to change their lives forever.

Life seems good, and John feels that there is no way it could be any sweeter. While helping Emily deal with a major issue that shakes her to her very core, he still feels that life, as a whole, is looking up and that nothing could possibly bring him down. Little does he knows that just a few short months later, his world would be throw into chaos by something so devastating that it would quite possibly send his life into a tailspin, and that he could soon see himself heading back into that downward spiral he found himself in just a few short years before.

Filled with secrets, intrigue, love, heartache, and moments so sweet they would make most men blush, Recorded Butterflies explores John and his dreams, and offers insight into his mind like never before. It will even ask you to take a different look at him and his friendship with the beautiful and confident Emily as he finds himself looking at her like he never has before. After a few significant twists and turns, you are treated to an ending so explosive, you may want to have your heart medication close by, and you will find yourself begging for the next installment in the series.

Recorded Butterflies Release Event

Put together a little something for the official release via Facebook. If you would like to show your support, the link to the event is here. 

While I really feel that Rumbling Heart was a great accomplishment in my life, I think that Recorded Butterflies, as far as writing goes, is superior in many ways. I grew and learned from RH and because of that, the reader should get an overall better experience with my latest work. Be sure to mark "Attending" for the event as I will be giving away a couple of PDF copies of the book during the time the event is going on.

Again, thank you all for your continued support and I promise, cause Hillary asked me to, I will try my best not to offend anyone. Heh.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Recorded Butterflies - Done

It's finished. A few slight oversights aside, it is ready for Amazon and BN.com. I kept getting feedback that my first book was quite long. Anyone who got through that work and felt that way will appreciate the fact that this one comes in at a whopping 278 pages so its much shorter. I would still recommend reading the first book though as this one picks up where the other left off. With the first book, I had to lay a lot of groundwork and with this one, all I had to do was simply touch on some of it as a sort of reminder. As a stand alone book, this one still has some good chops, but I think to really get into the characters, it will benefit most people to give Rumbling Heart a read as well.

All I really have left to do is type up a Synopsis and upload the work and it's all done. I hope this book satisfies my loyal followers as it focuses on the same characters as the first book and continues to explore their lives. There are at least 2 major twists in this work. They are so big that they are pretty hard to miss...in fact, they may club you in the face. Be sure to check out the Facebook event as I will be giving away at least 2 copies of RB to those attending. Great thing about the event...you don't even have to go anywhere or be somewhere at a specific time. All you have to do is click attend. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Questions and Comments on Rumbling Heart - Part 3

"There are a lot of loose ends in RH. It seems as if you forgot to end a lot of things."

All on purpose. I wanted there to be a sense of ambiguity to the work. The very end gives you a certain amount of closure, but, as with real life, you don't always know how certain things end up. You just have to sort of make things up on your own. Some people have told me that they were happy with the ending, but it wasn't exactly what they thought it was going to be. You have to realize something though. I wanted to leave certain avenues open to interpretation. Sometimes things in life happen and as much as we'd like to see one thing happen over another, things don't always turn out as planned. I also purposely put in small bits of story lines and left them open not only so people could finish the story in their head, but also so I could always pick up where I left off with the first book should I decide to keep the story going. Obviously, I've decided to keep it going. Part of the reason I decided to keep going was because I looked at RH as I would a movie or a television series. We've all found a particular show that we absolutely loved. In this case, I wrote a book I felt I would like to read and as most writers do, I fell in love with my characters. Sometimes those shows we love get cancelled and we never get a good ending. Sometimes we are left with a cliffhanger and then we find out we will never know what happens after that and it really bugs the crap out of us. I didn't wanna do that. While somethings are left unsaid, the core of the story offers an ending so if there was nothing else after RH, most people would still be satisfied. However, I was not happy with that so I decided on my own that I wanted to keep it going. In fact, As I've told some people, after Recorded Butterflies, there will be 2 more books so in a sense, it's like getting a television series that gives you 4 good seasons. I had thought of maybe going further with it, but as we all know from some TV shows, by the time season 10 comes around, most are but a shell of their former selves and I did not want my characters to become stagnant and boring. 

"John seems damaged, but level headed in most situations. The first chapter however has him decking a man and sending him to the pavement. Will he continue this trend? lol!"

John for the most part is a pacifist. In a sense, he is like me in that way. He is usually rather calm and it takes quite a bit to get him to react to you if you are trying to get him angry. However, he doesn't take kindly to being grabbed as most of us wouldn't. As I was writing Recorded Butterflies, I was actually thinking that I would have him take out someone in each book as a sort of running gag, something to sort of make you go "Ha! he did it again," but that seemed kind of hokey to me. As far as the characters go, Emily is the one who is a bit more of a hot head. She has that mouth on her and she is pretty no nonsense. You'd think that she would be the one laying people out, but you'd be surprised. Both John and Emily are protective of each other, and that plays out in the book. 

"Do you think of certain people in your life as you write? Do you see those people as you write dialog?"

I write with avatars. What I mean by that is that I have a certain person that I see in my head each and every time I write about them. I think of the situation and I have that avatar play the scene out in my head. I've told some people who I think about when I write for a particular character and they have given me mixed feedback. I knew that would happen though as people generally do the same thing while reading as I do while writing. We all have a person we think of that takes on the role of the character and we use that image as we read. I do that all the time as I work and I'm sure I'm not nearly the first to do it. As far as who those avatars are, I won't really say unless someone specifically asks me as I don't wanna ruin their idea of who the characters are.

"What do you think the other books after Rumbling Heart will be called?"

Well, obviously the next book to be released is Recorded Butterflies. The title is both literal and abstract, double entendre. The book after that one I have decided to call "Emily Martin." It will be a slight change in the way the story has been told up until the end of RB, but it's done for a good reason. So far, the story has been told from John's point of view. The story teller shifts because of the events at the end of RB. I did consider leaving it as a first person narrative from John's perspective, but given what happens in the story, I decided to hand off the story telling to Emily for this particular time period. I think people will like this idea as I've noticed that, by far, people seem to really like Emily as described by John. It will have a different feel to it though as those people will get a first person look at her. To have someone tell you about another person is one thing, but to hear from that person directly is very different. In a sense, John has sort of looked at Emily through rose colored glasses so it's not unusual that people really like her. With her telling the story though, you get a more inside look at what she sees and what she thinks. While John was able to retell some of what Emily displayed to him, it will be different to see what she really thinks while not going through John's filter. As far as the 4th and final book in the series, I am still debating the title. I have a good idea of what it will be, but it's not set in stone.

"It seems that some of the characters change the way they react based on John being around them. Why?"

We all do that in real life as well. Sometimes having someone around you changes the way you look at the world or the way you react to certain situations. Emily, Chris, and a certain other character, in their own ways, admit that the are different when around John because of the person he is. Emily for example is a very attractive woman and is used to having men hit on her, but when she first meets John, he does no such thing. It is because of that instance that Emily pays attention to him even after their initial meeting. In a way, she had gotten so used to being the object of desire that she is almost surprised that John doesn't try anything with her. Even after seeing her again and again, still John doesn't sway in the way he sees or speaks to her. Chris is different from Emily, but there is still a connection there. Chris makes the effort to look after John just as he is getting into a relationship with (unnamed character). By the end of RH, you see why people react to John in that way and hopefully I laid it out plainly enough for everyone to see that. I also hope that the main reason people react to John in that way isn't simply because he carries charisma, but because those people in a way also affect how John views the world as well. With out them, John isn't the same person just as they, without John, are not the same either. 

"How rich have you gotten from the money you made off RH?"

Are you kidding? I can barely feed myself. If it weren't for the kindness of my family, I'd be homeless. I was never really in this for money. Sure, money would be nice and I'd be a fool to turn it down should a significant sum come my way. I'd just like to make enough money to have a decent life with. I don't have to drive a Mercedes or own a 6 bedroom home. I don't have to have a fancy apartment on the 20th floor of a building nor do I have to be followed around by fans. I'd just like to make people think for a few moments on how they look at people. In a way, that was really the ultimate goal of it all. Just as I know some people look at me with disdain, I would hope that they'd see that we are all very different and regardless of our differences, we can still learn from each other. If I can do that, I will be happy. If I do en up making a fortune off this, I think I would help my family and some of my really close friends. I'd probably also move out of Texas and head to Japan or the UK if i made it that big. I hope with the release of RB, I will increase my exposure and maybe catch the eye of a big name out there.

"Do you think you are romanticizing the characters in your book? Some of the situations seem almost unreal."

The idea of a book is that you can read a story that helps you escape from the real world. That being said, certain elements of the story, such as the friendship that John and Emily develop, I've actually experienced in real life. While they may not be common, they do happen. Other elements of the book are somewhat unbelievable, but then again, who's to say they haven't really happened? We simply do not know. It's been said that real life is stranger than fiction and I believe that is true. Sometimes our lives lead us down very strange roads and by the time we get to the end of the journey, we ourselves cannot believe what's happened. With this book, John is on that road and there will come a time when he gets to the end of it. When he does, he may reflect just as any of us would. By the end of it all, you will see that all of the characters live some absolutely amazing, painful, heartbreaking, unbelievable, and down right insane lives. All that will ultimately come to a beautiful  and bittersweet end that may not be all hearts and flowers, but it is an end nonetheless. 

"Is Emily Martin real?"

No. She is not real. 

"Are there any other writers that you look to for inspiration in regards to RH or its followups?"

If you are asking about famous writers, I would have to say Hemingway as I love his minimalist style. If you are asking about perhaps some indie writers, the only ones I've really gotten into have been Tamworth Grice and Melissa Foster. I like Tamworth's work because it, in an odd way, reminds me of Hemingway. How? It's minimalist. She lets you fill in a lot of the blanks with your own ideas. Melissa is different. Her material seems to be more along the lines of what I would write, but in most cases I would write from a different perspective. One other author I'd say would be George Carlin. His books are based mostly on the material he did in his comedy shows. Still, toward the end of his career, he was still amazing when he was on a roll. I can see how he has affected my life in the way I speak my mind. He got away with his spiky dialog because he used it in the context of a joke. I don't get that same pass because I'm not nearly as funny as he was. 

 

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Questions and Comments on Rumbling Heart - Part 2

"Do you listen to music when you write and if so, who do you listen to?"

I do listen to music a large portion of the day. Depending on what I am writing depends who I choose to listen to. My play my writing pretty close to the chest and I have found, at least for me, the best way to get good work from me is if I almost live what the character is going through. Obviously, I cannot go through certain events like death and breakups and other forms of heartache on a personal level everyday, but I purposely put my state of mind in those situations and let them play out so I can see what sort of reaction I can bring out. Based on what I am trying to feel, I play music that gets me there faster. Obviously, if i wanted to express a joyful mood with my character, I will play more upbeat music while at other times, say when I want to feel what it's like to have my heart broken by someone, I play much more somber music. While I am just free writing, I generally put on some sort of classical piece, generally something with a piano. I find the instrument quite comforting and I hope to learn how to play it some day. I obviously have my favorite bands and musical acts, but they aren't who some would expect. When I was a teen, I listened to a lot of Nirvana and Pearl Jam and other alternative bands. While I do still listen to them, I rarely do while I write. Lately, it's been a lot of Tool, The Delgados, Olivia Lufkin, Caroline, Velvet Revolver, and The Smashing Pumpkins. That's just a small portion as I tend to listen to all kinds of music.

"What's with you and Lisa Edelstein? Is she really your FB friend? Does it have anything to do with your book?"

One day, I was playing around with an idea. I watched all of the people I normally conversed with on Twitter and thought to myself "Who would play that person in a movie about their life?" The first person I remember thinking of was my twitter pal Melissa Foster. I looked at her photo and it reminded me of Lisa Edelstein who played Dr. Lisa Cuddy on House. I wrote a small tweet similar to "I choose @Lisaedelstein to play @Melissa_Foster in the movie about her life." I went on to write other somewhat funny comments about other people, all of them flattering. I got a lot of positive feedback and some of my tweets were retweeted. Melissa got back to me and asked why I said that and I told her she reminded me of Lisa. Soon, our conversation shifted and it became "Lisa Edelstein would be a great Megan for my book Megan's way." We both liked the idea so it sort of snowballed from there. Melissa retweeted the tweet and I supported her by continuously retweeting something similar. Soon, I found that a handful of people were behind the idea and it went from there. Coincidentally, that was the same day that Lisa Edelstein started up a personal facebook account. Before I knew it, both Melissa and I were added to her account as friends. It was pretty interesting. Obviously, Melissa and I don't know Lisa personally and many other people were added to her account as well, but it was sort of funny that the same day I created the tweet was the same day she did that. I think that's why the idea took off so well because people were already talking about her. I later found out that Melissa was able to talk to one of Lisa's people about possibly getting her a copy of Megan's Way to read so she could consider taking a role in the film which is being developed about the book. She and I both know it's a long shot, but it would be pretty amazing to look back at this a year from now and see it happen and think wow, I played a role in getting Lisa to do this film. As far as a connection to the book, there isn't one. I did this essentially as a way to give a head nod to my friends on twitter. I wasn't trying to make my name bigger by doing this.

"Chapter Five is hard to get through because of the material it covers. Was all that real? Did that really happen to you?"

As with all writers, we take certain aspects of our lives and put them into words that sometimes end up in our books. I will say this concerning chapter 5 and the entire book really...it's all fiction. The book is fiction. Some of the things that happen in 5...did they happen to me? I really can't say because people may make assumptions about other people in my life and I do not wish to cast certain others in a negative light. It was never my intention to make certain people from my past look bad. Fact is only those people who were there during those years know what happened to me. A few others I have spoken to may know, but that is for their ears and their ears alone. It's a matter of public record that yes, I did suffer abuse while I was in my 20's, but to what extent, I will not say. It's not something I generally talk about unless I am being bothered by it and the person I choose to talk to had prior knowledge on said events. As far as the person who is looked at as evil in that chapter, the person who some might associate that character with in real life is a good and decent human being. Fact is we were simply toxic toward each other and that is ultimately what caused the issues. As far as that link is nowadays, we are civil. We do not talk all that often, but we both agree that being away from each other was the best thing we could have done. I still care for that person a great deal. You cannot spend that much time with someone and not care. I forgave them for what they did and I, by no stretch of the imagination, am innocent of any wrong doing during that time in my life. We both made very bad decisions. We also do not want them to haunt the rest of our lives. We can both look back at that time and think about the mistakes we made and know that we learned from them so we could hopefully avoid those issues in our future endeavors. In a future work, I may allude to more of that situation, but I have not decided yet. 

"Is it true that you dreamed the entire book?"

For the most part, yes. The core idea for the book came from a lucid dream I had. It was so vivid that it stuck with me for days. I ended up writing the dream down as it was just something that wouldn't leave me alone. I found myself having the dream over and over to the point where I thought about writing it down as more than just a blog post. That was really how it all got started. Through the process of writing the story, I continued to have dreams surrounding the book and I sort of just let those dreams write the book for me. Oddly enough, the original person I saw in my dream was not what ultimately led me to developing a character that came from it. While I saw that person, I heard someone else's voice. Once I figured out whose voice that was, they are who became that character to me and I took it from there. Through the months I spent writing, I kept dreaming of that person and it was as if they were guiding my writing and helping me to develop the story. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced in my life. It's one thing to dream of an idea, but it's something else to have that person come to you again and again through the course of the writing process. I guess it can be attributed that once I figure out who that person was, I spent a good deal of time studying up on them and reading about them so it makes sense that I would have dreams about them every now and then. However, the dreams at one point were virtually a nightly occurrence. Even now as I am finishing up my followup to RH, I still have dreams of them and they aren't letting up. I guess when I stop having those dreams, I may not want to write anymore. I can't really say for sure. 

"Will your next book offer anything else regarding the development of relationships between that characters?"

Yes. The story will continue, and in my next work Recorded Butterflies, relationships will be tested and everyone of the characters will go through something that will change their lives forever. One character in particular about halfway in gives up the ghost on something so tragic that it might change the way my readers look at them. I spent several days constructing how I would write it and I think I do it a great justice with the words I use and the way I weave the telling of that arch. I hope that the readers will notice the absence of a particular word through the entire telling of that arch and appreciate the way I managed to exclude it. Also, at the end, something so explosive will happen that it will leave the readers breathless. I promise though, as soon as I am done with RB, I will immediately start work on the next book to follow it because there will be huge questions that people will want answers to. It's not a cliffhanger, at least to me it isn't. A cliffhanger leaves you wondering what something could possibly be. I, on the other hand, provide you will an answer. The only question after that is how is the aftermath handled. 

"In the book, you make small references to religion. Are you religious? Why did you make those references?"

I do not follow any religion. I did when I was a kid, but that was sort of forced. As an adult, I tend to ask more questions and that seems to piss off some religious people. As with other matters, I don't wish to make people angry on that front. I just don't understand some of the things people take as fact regarding it. I'm not exactly against religion. I look at it this way: if religion helps you get through your day and makes you a better person, then I say have at it. As with most other things in the world, it's the few bad apples that make religion difficult for the rest of us. As long as you're not out killing people or forcing your beliefs on anyone else, I am ok with it. I think of myself as agnostic. I'm not really sure what there is and if there is something, I will accept it as long as scientific proof exists. The religious mentions in the book are played against the characters themselves. There is a little more to those images and I leave very very subtle cues that some people may not pick up on as I don't generally make everything literal. While no character has come out and said that they follow any particular religion, I'd like to believe that they would at the very least be somewhat spiritual; some more than others. There is one particular image that is given in the book that will play out across the entire series of books. Religion will be explored more in the next couple of books, in the third most notably. 

 

Be sure to catch part three.

[caption id="attachment_916" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="RB possible cover"][/caption]

Question and Comments on Rumbling Heart - Part 1

I've had a few comments and questions regarding my most current release Rumbling Heart. Although I was asked about being interviewed sometime in the next week or so, I will address a few comments here and now. The questions or comments in some cases may not be verbatim, but the general idea is kept in tact.

 

"Your book is really long, almost an epic."

I wasn't really going for any specific length. I wanted it to be a good size work and I knew I had to lay a good amount of pretext and background story as well. I wanted to give a great amount of detail while not letting the story get too boring so while there is a great amount of material there, I hope I was able to keep the story interesting by keeping it on the move and rarely letting characters just sit around while they watch paint dry. I wrote the book with the idea that I could let it be a stand alone , but I also wanted to give myself some room to continue the story if I chose to. Obviously, I am choosing to write more on these characters so the works following this one will not be nearly as long as most of the groundwork has already been set. 

"Your book is $2.99 while some authors have chosen to make their books even less expensive."

Oddly enough, this was not really my idea. When I'd finally tested the waters on pricing, I was considering making the book very inexpensive, but then I found that because of the size, Amazon wouldn't allow me to make the book any less expensive because of the costs associate with its delivery. I actually reformatted the original release to make it slightly smaller and reloaded it to Amazon, but they still did not allow me to lower the price which is why it's still currently $2.99. Regardless of the price, I would like to think that $3 is not a huge amount to ask for my work considering its size and I also feel that the overall quality is relatively good when compared to other independent authors. If in the future I am allowed to lower the price on RH, I will seriously consider it. BN.com doesn't put such constraints on pricing, but for the sake of continuity, I left that pricing the same to match Amazon. I am considering a BN only sale where I price the book even lower, but I am trying not to isolate my fans who use a Kindle. 

"Do you think your book is being looked at in an unfavorable light considering the article you wrote about Casey Anthony?"

In some circles, maybe. I've made it well known that I don't always say things that are popular among certain crowds, but the book has absolutely nothing to do with Casey Anthony. It was thought of and written well before the verdict made the news. I think less than a few pages in, people will see that it has no connection whatsoever. I occasionally write up articles on current events. They are separate from my novels. I doubt I will ever write a book on a topic such as Casey Anthony as that's not really my style. I can write up a few pages about it, but after that, I tend to get bored with it. I thought the article I wrote was good, but it's far from perfect. I'm not saying that my views are the be all, end all of the way people should look at it. I was just trying to make the point that we all have our own opinions on it. Another was that we need to do our own research and then perhaps come to a decision on how we feel about it. There was irony in the article to a certain extent, but people didn't seem to understand that. 

"What about the death threats?" (followup to previous question)

I'm not worried about it. I seriously doubt that anyone would try to hurt me. If they did, they would just be tarnishing their own cause. There is nothing wrong with feeling passionate about a cause. I've felt that way about things that I've seen and heard of, but never to the point where I considered killing someone. That just seems completely unreasonable to me. Maybe it's just the fact that I'm not violent by nature. I would rather hug someone than strike them. As with many things in life, we should simply agree to disagree. I don't dislike anyone for having a different opinion than I do. Kind of like people getting at me for saying things that they think are mean and rude. You may think it's ride, but I don't. We just see it that way. I'm not trying to tell you that you should be like me, yet people still feel the need to tell me that I am falling out of the social norms by saying certain things. At the same time, I have others telling me that if I am pissing people off with my words then I am doing something right. I don't say mean things to get a response from people, but some are going to think that way regardless. People have said means things to me and I am ok with that. I think one difference could be that at least I feel I know who I am. I know I'm not easy to get along with and I know that bowing out of a friendship or relationship would be better for certain people in my life. Up till now I've made it well known that I know I am at least a little crazy. At least I admit that. I think it's also good that I at least admit that I come across as an ass sometimes when compared to other people's ideas on social standards. If I am an ass, so be it. I am what I am. People either tend to love me or hate me. If you choose to threaten my life or to severe ties with me if I do not change, then just save yourself the breath and do it. If someone chooses to separate themselves from me, there isn't much I can do about it, now is there. 

"4 a guywho writes bad poetry and blogs out of boredom, U sound terribly interesting." (Via twitter)

I don't think I am all that interesting. I'm just a guy who says things that cause a stir. I don't wake up in the morning and think to myself about what I should do to piss people off. As far as poetry goes, I know I'm not great, but I like to play around with the format. Some people have told me that my poetry is quite good, but I am my own worst critic. I am the same way with my novels. I suppose I owe my small, poetic accomplishments to a handful of poets...people such as John Keats, Billy Collins, and Emily Dickinson. I also looked at a work by Stevie Smith call "Not Waving, but Drowning." In it, she alludes to suicide and speaks about what one person sees, another might not and so on. As far as blogging, I really do get rather bored at times so I type up articles on various topics. Some are good, some are not so good. 

"Are any of your characters based on real life people?"

I wouldn't say they are based wholly on a single person. When I was coming up with the characters, it was very much on the fly. I simply thought to myself what would someone in this situation do in regards to a certain circumstance? I wanted the characters to have a very human side to them. I didn't want these characters to be perfect or come across as "Holier than thou" or anything like that. I wanted them to be people you could possibly know. In a way, they are all small extensions of me. John is obviously quite calm in a lot of cases unless things go absolutely haywire in which case a disturbed reaction is understandable. If he stayed perfectly calm during say a nuclear attack, that would seem a little odd. Emily is quite different from John. She tends to be a little more off the cuff and direct while John tries to be a little more diplomatic. She has a mouth on her, but not to the point where you question her intellect. Chris is kind of like how I see most twenty-somethings in this world. They are looking to dig in their heels and get their life started, but it doesn't always work out. They lack the wisdom that someone even a 5-10 years older than them has. Trevor is somewhat similar to Chris in that he is also in his twenties, goes to college, and thinks he knows exactly what he wants. Like Chris, he also is often blindsided by things that he doesn't see coming, but not because he keeps his eyes closed to them. He just never thinks certain great things could ever happen to him and when they do, he loses his cool because he doesn't know what the next steps are. He's never been through them so he is flying blind in a sense. 

Look for part 2 to the questions and comments on RH.

Recorded Butterflies Almost Here

I did a massive amount of work on the next book yesterday. My eyes finally began to fail me after editing and revising 162 pages. I found myself rereading certain parts 4 and 5 times which wasn't bad, considering toward the end I started missing things so it was a good idea to stop. I am back at it today and I am hoping I will be done with all edits and revisions in no more than 2-3 days. At that point, it's back to figuring out cover art.

I've also been exploring other means of advertising my work. Someone gave me the idea of making a small video using only sounds and words to draw additional attention to them so I am looking into that. To create such a video is rather easy. While it's far from the best video creation software, Windows Movie Maker should work just fine, but I am also looking into other free software to use. I've also considered using my own voice as a mini narrative to accompany the images. I will be using only images that I've created and photographed and a few Public Domain images. I may also create some video. Thankfully, my trusty digital camera shoots video, both standard and widescreen at up to 720p so that should work out well. I think if i can pull it off, it will change the game a little for me so I have to make sure and do it just right. I've also discovered a man by the name of Kevin Mcleod. He creates royalty free music and some of his stuff is quite good. All that the asks is that you give him a mention which I would be more than happy to do so if I decide to use music, it will probably be from him.

The Facebook page is doing alright, considering I haven't really pushed it all that much. For those interested, the link to it is here. Feel free to visit and "Like" it. I'd appreciate the it greatly.

To follow will be a short write up on a few points concerning my first work Rumbling Heart. Be sure to check out that post as well.

Recorded Butterflies - First Proofer Run

First time through a proofer and not nearly as many issues as I thought there would be. Still, the story overall is slightly shorter than I wanted it to be. Through my final revision and one more go through an editor I will hopefull add about 5k-9k more words. I have an entire arch I can add so that will help. its small so I can plug it in almost anywhere. The book will be available on both Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

All this is moving along well, but I still need to secure a cover for this work. I am sticking with the black and white theme I used on the first book, but I am torn on what image to use. I can use a butterfly, but I don't want it to be taken too literal. I am also looking for a few concert images that are public domain. If you happen to know of a few images available for free use, please let me know. As of right now, these are the two images I am looking at. The butterfly I can go with as its a PD image. The other I cannot because I do not hold the rights to it. The second one however is more along the lines of what I am looking for.

[caption id="attachment_916" align="aligncenter" width="500" caption="RB possible coverRB possible cover-like image"][/caption]

New Review of Rumbling Heart

Check out the latest review for my book Rumbling Heart.

http://tiny.cc/scoar

Break Out

Broke out of the slump and getting back into the swing of things. Finished revisions on Chapter 5 and it looks pretty good. Will obviously go over it at least one more time, but all in all, it turned out really well. Moving right on to Chapter 6 revisions and I am also writing down an idea that came to me very late last night as I was trying to sleep. It's something completely different from what I've written before...ok, maybe not completely different, but different characters and a different story. I will plot it out after thinking about it some more, and when I figure out of I have the knowledge to pull it off. There is only so much you can get off the internet, but I hope that's enough.

On a side note, why I am having such a hard time getting people to follow me on Twitter? I know I'm not all that entertaining...but I'm not very annoying either! I am like a gold fish in a goldfish bowl. When you get bored, you come over and look at me and smile, but then don't feel the least bit bad when you ignore me the rest of the day. I guess I can live with that. Any way, if interested...

@richardAwrites