Frank’s an ex-con, trying to go straight. Then an old cell mate shows up and . . . let’s just say things go downhill from there. Throw in a Mormon, some drug lords, and a good helping of guns, and, man, was this book a blast to write!
You might be interested to know that this story was inspired by a fine old brother in my church in Ohio who was one of those salt-of-the-earth folks who also happened to have been at one time a bank robber.
When he got out of prison, he determined his life would change. He married a good Methodist girl he met at a church dance, went into the laundry business, and never looked back.
It was my privilege to record his life history. Not a single event or detail in the book is about him. But I can tell you that his story deserves a book. Hopefully, my character Frank ends up doing as well in life as he did.
The new release sale will run this week only. Same great prices as the last time. Get ’em now while they’re hot.
I’ve been working the last two weeks like a freaking elf from the North Pole trying to get these distribution channels set up, but the holidays seem to have stretched out the channel lead times.
So here’s what you do: email me right now (click on my face in the sidebar) and tell me which platform you’re interested in. When the book goes live on that platform (and that should be soon), I will set it at the new release price and email you with the news. It’s that easy.
See how good I am to you? (grin)
AHolidaySideNote
If you’re lying around on the 24th and don’t know what to do get the holiday spirit, please watch Merry Madagascar. It’s short, you’ll have a good time, and if you’re not already a King Julien fan, you will be.
Malak and Revan of Dungeon Crawlers Radio will be doing a live interview with me tonight on UtahFM at 6:20 PM Mountain time tonight, Oct 4th(that’s 5:20 pm Pacific, 7:20 pm Central, and 8:20 pm Eastern). You can access the show by going to www.DungeonCrawlersRadio.com and clicking on the listen live link. This is going to be fun. Here’s your chance to show up and ask questions! Or submit them early by contacting them via their site. Maybe I’ll reveal how I almost became a cult leader. If you have an iPhone with a blue tooth adapter you can stream it through the phone with the UtahFM app. Contact Dungeon Crawlers Radio for more details.
I’ve been busting my chops these last three weeks. CURSE is finished. RAVELER will be finished tonight. I will be putting them both on sale at smoking hot prices for those that have signed up for the newsletter in the next few days.
This is also perfect timing for the Salt Lake City Comic Con. I’ll be there, participating on panels, chatting with readers, and selling copies of my books at a table in the Artist’s Alley (White, booth 40). I’ve invited two other awesome authors to join me at the table–Cheree Alsop and Eric James Stone. This is going to be a great event. If you’re going, please drop by at the table to say hello. I’ll have more on Comic Con in a post in a few days.
A cracking good story idea requires five critical elements.
Until you have all five, you’ll struggle to plot. You’ll write a few scenes and run out of gas. You’ll feel like the story just isn’t going anywhere.
And that’s because it isn’t. It can’t. A story isn’t a story without all five elements.
However, once you develop these five things, your story will suddenly roar to life. There are a few other elements that are important as well, but these five things form the core of the story setup.
In this course you’re not going to merely learn about all of those story elements. You’re going to go deep and learn what can only be learned by actually doing the work and developing story idea after story idea with personal one-on-one feedback from someone who knows what they’re doing.
When you finish, you won’t just know story theory. You will be a story idea machine. And you will be that because you have put in the work. The right work.
Again, this is not a course full of lectures and videos. This is a course where you’re going to work. And develop the insights and skills that only come from doing the work.
You’re actually going to:
Come up with story setup after story setup after story setup
And improve them with one-on-one feedback.
It’s going to:
Eliminate years of you wandering about in the story wilderness trying to figure things out on your own.
Put you miles ahead of other writers who have no idea what’s really at the core of story.
You are going to learn how to develop killer story ideas on purpose instead of on accident. Which means you’ll be able to do again and again. Reliably. Like clockwork.
Course details
The focus of the class is not on learning about story, although you will do that. The majority of your time will be spent on developing stories.
You can’t become a carpenter by watching videos and reading books about it.
You have to get out on the work site, cut wood, and pound nails. You have to make the mistakes all beginning carpenters make, get feedback, and improve.
The same goes for writing.
And you’re going to work in this class. You develop 21 story setups. In fact, you develop more because the 21 are just the ones you turn into me. And with each one your skills, insights, and abilities grow.
In the beginning, your setups will be bare bones. By the end, they’ll be fully developed setups that beg to be written. Setups you can use to immediately write the first draft of your novel, whether that’s in outline or chapter form.
Here’s what you do each week.
Week 1.
Uncover the secrets of what’s really at the heart of story and how to generate ideas.
Define your genre requirements
Create story setups 1-3
Week 2.
Uncover the secrets to compelling characters
Create character sketches
Create story setups 4-7
Week 3.
Uncover the secrets to formidable obstacles
Create story setups 8-11
Week 4.
Uncover the secrets to interesting casts
Create story setups 12-15
Week 5.
Uncover the secrets to managing multiple storylines and series
Create story setups 16-19
Week 6.
Create story setups 20-21. These are your capstone projects where you apply everything you’ve learned and take it to the next level
In this class you develop story idea after story idea after story idea. You are going to be marinated in the work of developing characters, THOMs, goals, obstacles, settings, casts, and more. And because of that, each week will not only bring an explosion of insights, but new skills and abilities.
Every week you get two private, one-on-one, live sessions with me where you get encouragement and feedback on what you’ve developed. And you’ll have access to a private Facebook group where you can apply the principles to brainstorm even MORE ideas for each other’s stories.
At first you might feel a bit shy and worried about your ideas and abilities. But you’ll soon get over that. By the end of the course you’ll be one of those people that can generate terrific ideas easily. And you’ll be able to do that because you will have put in the work to become a different writer.
What’s the price?
Hours of one-on-one instruction from a professional editor or author costs thousands of dollars. An MFA program can cost $25,000 to $30,000 or more!
But this course won’t cost anywhere close to that.
Plus you’re going to learn things here you’ll never get in an MFA program (I know. I was accepted into a top-ranked program).
The cost of this course is $799. And I personally guarantee your results. You’ll be totally oh-my-gosh-I’m-so-happy-I-took-that-class satisfied, or I’ll give you your money back. No questions asked.
Now’s your chance to stop spinning your wheels. I can’t tell you how much I wish I’d had something like this when I’d started:
The secrets about the true core of story.
The secrets about how to come up with ideas.
Actual work with personal one-on-one feedback.
Laser focused on what actually matters, not a bunch of ridiculous writing rules.
When you finish, you will be a story idea machine.
You won’t know plotting. That’s a different course and set of skills. You won’t know how to write chapters. But you’ll know how to create the engine that powers all the rest of that. You’ll know how to create the core that makes awesome plots and chapters possible.
If you want to take this course, click the button below and contact me. I will tell you exactly how to apply.
I’m not going to be able to accept everyone who wants to take the class. I have a very strict limit on the number of students I can work with. So you need to get your application in before the deadline of midnight, December 11th.
Two bits of news about Servant of a Dark God. I received the proofs for the paperback version in the mail this week as you see below. The cat is used because he deserves a cameo. This is Panther giving us either his “Sigh, whatever, I’ll submit to your weird human ways” or “Umm, scratches” looks. He’s the last of the original eleven cats we inherited when we moved to Laketown back in 2003 (nine of them were black, one was a gray tabby, another a sort of tortoise color). Dutchess, the one who liked to tear open our bread bags while we weren’t looking and eat the bread, got run over. Three others, including our talker Tabby, we think were stolen by a woman looking for “stray” cats because, golly, the rattlers keep getting all hers. Ours were obviously strays because we live in 2.5 acres surrounds by dozens and dozens of acres of open land around us and we let them roam the hills! A few were shot, we think, by a kid who came to visit his grandfather who lived 1/2 a mile down the road. We think coyotes might have gotten the rest. So Panther is the last survivor. 7 years old. We love the old man.
I have just a few days to go through the proofs and find any typos and punctuation errors and get it back. The paperback version is scheduled right now to be released in November. And here’s the cover the publisher is using on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. You can see the difference between it and the hardcover by comparing it to the image in the sidebar.
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As for Curse of a Dark God, Ityped the last word of the final battle and climax on Saturday. As it now stands, the final battle required 34,429 words to write. Holy schnitzel! Again, many adult novels average around 90,000 – 110,000 words total. So this is a significant sequence. For those of you who like to think in pages, it’s going to be anywhere from 100 – 140 pages depending on how the publisher configures the book. I have one more short chapter to write and the draft is finished. Well, I have a few things to seed into earlier chapters so that the ending etc. works, but that’s small stuff. The next step is to have a few readers go through this draft. Make any necessary edits. Then get it out to my agent as quickly as possible. Once my editor accepts it, we’ll be able to set a release date. And I might feel the sword of editoral doom lift just a little from my head.
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Finally, just wanted to give folks a heads up about the following events I’ve committed to.
Date
What
Area
Details
Saturday, September 18, 1-4 PM
Book signing
Orem, UT
The Orem, UT Barnes & Noble is having an authorpalooza. Come meet a boatload of authors.More details here: http://store-locator.barnesandnoble.com/store/2626 University Crossings Barnes & Noble
330 East 1300 South
Orem, UT 84058
801-229-1611
Saturday, October 9, 2010, all day
Writers conference
American Fork, UT
The American Fork Arts Council writers workshops have become so popular that they’ve decided to start holding one conference in the spring and one in the fall. These conferences focus on giving concrete advice and encouragement to aspiring writers. I’ll be giving a keynote speech and participating in some breakout sessions. I was really happy to be invited back since I had to bow out of the last one two days before it was scheduled to run because of a death in the family.
Life, The Universe, & Everything is an awesome writer’s and science fiction & fantasy conference. This year’s will run Thursday, Feb 13th through Saturday, Feb 14th and is going to be packed. There will be presentations and panels with Orson Scott Card, Brandon Sanderson, LE Modesitt, Jessica Day George, Lisa Mangum, Larry Correia, and dozens of others.
For those who missed my presentations at LDStorymakers last year, this is your chance to see them.
VIVID & CLEAR (Friday at 7:00 PM)
Despite the often repeated 11th commandment for writers—show, don’t tell—writers NEVER show. They can’t. It’s all tell, tell, tell. The trick is to tell in a way that helps your readers imagine with such vividness and clarity that your story triggers an emotional response. In this hour we’ll explore a number of simple but powerful prose techniques that help you do just that.
STORY TURNS (Saturday at 9:00 AM)
Story turns–cliffhangers, rugpulls, plot twists, reversals, surprises, revelations (and more)–are a core part of an exciting plot, pacing control, and making a reader want to turn the page. In this workshop we’ll explore the main types of story turns and how they work so you can use them in your writing.
I’ll also be participating in the RULES FOR WRITING MAGIC panel (Friday at 5:00 PM).
Servant is now officially released! And for those who have stuck with me I’ve put it on a super sale this Tuesday and Wednesday: 99 cents for the ebook, $12.99 for the trade paper, which is almost right at cost (this is a nice fat book, clocking in at over 500 pages).
I love the ebook, but I must say the trade paperback version is gorgeous. The color and illustration at that size by Victor Minguez is just awesome.
Enjoy!
And Merry Christmas.
P.S. Bad Penny is right around the corner.
2 Comments
Got it today, read it today. You do some great work, John. More than met my expectations. I can’t wait for the next one. I posted a review on Amazon. Hope I did the book justice.
Thanks for making my Christmas so enjoyable.
Dan,
That is such good news to my ears (or eyes, seeing I’m reading this). I am so happy the book was a match. And I will also say that I’m flattered by the comparison to Koontz. I love, LOVE, his thriller The Good Guy. Enjoyed the heck out of The Husband. Thank you so much for posting the review and coming here to let me know.
Glad to know I helped give your heart a workout on day reserved for lying about.
Boom, baby! Today is thriller day.
I’ve been busting my chops these last three weeks. CURSE is finished. RAVELER will be finished tonight. I will be putting them both on sale at smoking hot prices for those that have signed up for the newsletter in the next few days.
Got it today, read it today. You do some great work, John. More than met my expectations. I can’t wait for the next one. I posted a review on Amazon. Hope I did the book justice.
Thanks for making my Christmas so enjoyable.
Dan,
That is such good news to my ears (or eyes, seeing I’m reading this). I am so happy the book was a match. And I will also say that I’m flattered by the comparison to Koontz. I love, LOVE, his thriller The Good Guy. Enjoyed the heck out of The Husband. Thank you so much for posting the review and coming here to let me know.
Glad to know I helped give your heart a workout on day reserved for lying about.