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Listen to Loose in the Wires for free
Far-Fetched Fables has released the audio version of “Loose in the Wires.” The narrator, Eric Luke, did a great job. This story was so fun to write. If you haven’t read it yet, go give it a listen. It’s free. You’ll also be able to hear the flash fiction piece, “Older, Wiser, Time Traveler” by M. Bennardo, narrated by Rish Outfield. The podcast is the perfect size of a commute.
Presentation for Brandon Sanderson’s class
Here is the PowerPoint that I used in my presentation for Brandon Sanderson’s class at BYU, March 23, 2017.
2017 Sandersons Class indie vs publisher
And here’s the Excel spreadsheet you can use to compare revenue numbers.
Author earnings as Indie vs working with Publisher
Enjoy!
Did you like BAD PENNY? Nominate it.
If you enjoyed Bad Penny, you can nominate Frank, Sam, Carmen, and the gang to be considered for The Whitney Award.
Here’s how it works. The public nominates novels they like by LDS authors. A panel of judges reads through all the nominations and selects no more than 5 finalists for each genre. Then a “panel of industry professionals, including authors, publishers, bookstore owners, distributors, critics, and others” vote on the nominations. The winners get some good PR and exposure. It’s not Oprah, but getting the word out is critical, and every bit helps.
To tell the judges to consider BAD PENNY go here: Whitney Nominations. You have until December 31st.
Hope you all had a wonderful holiday.
Drovers Update: second draft finished up to climax!
I have been making progress on my next novel. Today, I revised the second draft up to the climax. Tomorrow, I get into it. It’s going to be an awesome battle with lots of heroics. Can’t wait. You’ll notice the progress meter. I thought the book would be 35k. A quickie. But it’s probably going to end up at 60k. Almost twice as long, but still the shortest novel I’ve ever written.
You can see some of the images I’ve been gathering for this on Pinterest.
The thing that’s eluding me at this point is the name of the series itself.
Writing update: Servant proofs & cover, Curse battle finished, events
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, I typed 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
801-229-1611Saturday, 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.
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John,
I’ve enjoyed your site. That Dewitt Jones video is great, I saw it once years ago. I was at the Life, the Universe, and Everything Symposium last week, and attended your address on writing killer stories. I was wondering if I might get an electronic copy of the handout you had there. I was at the back, and we ran out. Thanks.
Austin
austinmcraig@gmail.com
Austin,
That video is great. Worth watching at least once a year. I love it.
There’s a PDF of the handout on the site. Just click on the “Writers” category in the sidebar and scroll down–you’ll see it.