Publishing: My Thoughts

It's somewhere in the back of our minds. All the time, we feel it. That maybe, someday, we'll complete this novel, revise it to perfection, and publish it.

Maybe you're writing the novel. Maybe you're revising it. Maybe you're looking to publish it. Or maybe you're just a writer trying to get better. Nevertheless, we always have that little dream that we'll get our story out there. It won't be a print-and-send-to-relatives tale, but a genuine published work of art.

That's why I wrote this post. This isn't a guide to success, but rather an analysis of where and how you should publish.

In a way, you could refer to this post as another in the teeming multitude of posts on what many of us call the Great Publishing Debate.

Because really, for the young writers, there's two options. You try the hard route of getting published traditionally, which requires rejections, queries, agents, and all of that jazz. Or you self-publish, which is increasingly becoming a viable do-it-yourself option. You could even do eBook-only, which just requires basic computer knowledge.

In a way, I might seem biased. After all, I already went the self-publishing route, right? The War Horn is already on the market for any reader who wants to check it out. But still, the debate goes on, and the forces are evenly matched. For the young, unpublished writer, it's a hard decision.

Why? Listen up and I'll tell you.

At first, self-publishing looks better. After all, you get tons of money (which is debatable), you do it yourself, and more importantly, you don't have to go through the lengthy process of actually getting noticed. Getting published traditionally looks like a lot of work!

Nevertheless, traditional publishing has several advantages. First, they have reach. They're trusted. They're well-known. They can reach audiences you can never get to on your own. Christian fiction authors Donita K. Paul and Wayne Thomas Batson have each sold over a quarter million copies of their books. That's a ton of readers!

Traditional publishers also have the advantage of bookstores, which, despite online retailers like Amazon, are still a fantastic source of advertising. Even if the books aren't bought, they're seen. Physical books on a physical shelf in a physical store seem somewhat more compelling. Some people I know buy their books primarily through bookstores.

Okay, now the publishing scene sways in favor of the traditional publishers. But there's one huge problem with traditional publishers: money.

Let me show you.

On Amazon.com, the average digital Christian fiction eBook costs ten dollars to buy.

Also on Amazon, my own eBook (The War Horn) costs three dollars to buy.

Okay, so traditional books are more expensive. But wait, there's more.

One Christian author once stated that he averages about fifty cents per book he sells. That's a twentieth of the list price.

When I sell one book on Amazon, I get about two dollars. That's seventy percent of the list price. So that author's book is three times more expensive than mine, but I would make four times as much money as he does per book. Those are tough statistics!

Using those stats, it also means that even if this guy sells four times as many books as I do, we'd be making the same amount of money. If I sell a hundred books, I'd get two hundred dollars. If a this author's book sells a hundred copies, he'd get fifty dollars.

That's a big difference, and now it looks like self-publishing is in the lead.

But he makes more money than I do. Why? Because he has a big following. How did he get that? Through traditional publishing.

And just to stir things up, a third paradigm is emerging: independent publishers with high royalty rates, unlike traditional publishers. Marcher Lord Press is a high-quality Christian speculative fiction publisher that releases tons of great books. If a book has Marcher Lord Press's name on it, I'd read it. Their name is almost synonymous with great Christian fiction.

Independent publishers are spreading, too. Scott Appleton is a Christian fantasy author who started Flaming Pen Press. It's published several great books thus far, such as J. R. Parker's Kestrel's Midnight Song and the soon-to-be-released Out of Darkness Rising by Gillian Adams. Another publisher to watch is the newly-launched Magpie Eclectic Press, which was started by Nichole White, who did the cover art for The War Horn.

This is the Great Publishing Debate, and it's highly confusing and controversial. It's constantly being changed by innovations in the market, such as Amazon's Kindle Select.

Now that you've seen it, here's my stance.

Marketing is a huge advantage. I've learned that for myself. The War Horn occasionally picks up a few sales, but without a sizable following or a big name behind it, its progress is slow. Unless you've written something that has an insanely awesome plot (and an equally good synopsis) that makes it as compelling as the newest thrillers from traditional publishers, chances are, you'll have a hard time attracting random people to your books.

Still, it can be done. I know a writer named Gregory Downs who has sold thousands of copies of his eBooks after self-publishing with KDP. Again, I know another Christian writer who put his eBook up as free for one day and had ten thousand downloads. Getting your book out there takes a lot of commitment, though.

My thoughts? I've self-published The War Horn, but I had several reasons for this. First, the book is just a bit longer than a hundred pages, hardly a publishable size. Second, it's a pretty normal historical fiction with an Arthurian twist. Not the most interesting genre.

I'm going to continue my self-publishing experiment with my science fiction short stories, but again, a collection of short stories is less-than-marketable. Novels are much better for publishers.

Once I've written a book that I consider good enough - I'm hoping that Tornado C will be "the one" - I'm going to test out the waters of traditional publishing. Who knows what'll happen? Marcher Lord Press now appears to be accepting YA, and AMG Publishers is also looking open. It's worth a try. Publishers can get you an audience, and once you have an audience, self-publishing suddenly looks good again.

My recommendation to you? Wait until your book is ready to think about publishing. But once you're ready, I'd suggest trying out traditional publishing first. It has the advantage of a wide market.

So what's your opinion on the publishing debate? What do you think about this whole thing? What are you planning to do once your novel is finished and ready to be taken to the world? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

What Is This Theme Stuff, Anyway?

What exactly is theme? Why does it matter? How do you even write it?

This is yet another of those rehashing-stuff-I've-mentioned-or-written-about-before posts. Yet every time you look at something, you get a new insight. An apple appears red at first; but then you can tell it's darker in some places and lighter in others. Then you get past the simple look and find that the inside isn't really red at all. And it tastes good, too.

My point is, theme is one of the most important parts of fiction for the Christian fiction writer, and must be studied, therefore, more than once. You get new stuff out of it with each fresh look.

What is theme?

Theme is simply the meaning in the story you write. This is not to be confused with the subcategory of theme, which I've nicknamed story-with-a-theme, partners to story-with-a-message and story-with-a-faith. (Rather confusing on my part, sorry.) In this post, however, theme simply means the meaning in a story and encompasses all three categories.

Now, theme is an essential part of every story. Without theme, a story is meaningless. It's fluff. It has no impact on your life. It's escapism. Not bad in itself, but why waste your time on a meaningless story when you could be doing something that's actually constructive?

Theme, however, is a big subject. There's a multitude of different ideas about how to do theme. I divide it into three aforementioned categories: theme (a "moral of the story"), message (a more concealed Christian theme, such as in allegories and Narnia), and faith (the kind of story in which faith in God is an integral part: Bryan Davis and Christopher Hopper's books are examples of this).

In this post, however, I'll address the action and abandon the analytics. (Alliteration. Hah!) Before you read much further, however, make sure you're in the right place. Your writing isn't yours, remember. It's God's. If you're trying to manufacture a theme without Him, and all truth is in Him, then are you really making a theme?

Now, there are many different opinions about writing theme. Writing genius Jeff Gerke, whom I respect quite a bit, suggests that story is king; you'll write a story and discover that you'll get a theme on the way. I disagree.

I am of the opinion that you need to find your theme to write it. I manage to work pretty well off the seat of my pants, but before I ever touch pen to paper, I know my theme.

How do you find your theme, then? What do you find in a theme? How does a theme work?

List time!

1) A theme must come integrally from the plot and characters. They all work together.

In my Will Vullerman short story, The Reality Ring, my character gets into a mess because he rather recklessly traps himself in an alternate reality. Why? Because he was a little bored with life. Running missions for the ASP was his life, and when that was taken away, he didn't have much left. The theme of the story was about Will rediscovering his purpose in life, and having a pretty rollicking adventure along the way. The story was tied to the theme, and vice versa.

This is why theme is often hard; because you're trying too hard. If you look closely, you'll find the theme was in there in the plot all along. All you need to do is find it and show the reader what it is. In battles, you'll find courage, heroism; in the quest, you'll discover perseverance, fortitude; in the long journey, friendship, fellowship, camaraderie; in the characters, redemption, love, and sacrifice. The themes are there, but like a diamond in the rock, you need to dig them out and make them shine.

2) A theme often involves character change.

As we saw in the above example, the theme is often found in a character change. In other words, my character learned something.

In The War Horn, my main character embarks on a quest, and the quest changes him. In the end, he can't be who he was anymore. He gives up himself and becomes a better person as a result, learning what freedom truly is. The theme drove the plot, so to speak. As Daniel Schwabauer puts it, a character changes when the cost of not changing becomes too high.

The theme quite often revolves around the character. Because in the character, we see ourselves. If we truly empathize with a character, it's because we understand him. When the character changes, we find that we can change too.

3) To show theme, thread it through the story.

Once you've discovered your theme, to make it most effective, you need to thread it through the story. Another of my Will Vullerman stories, In Stasis, had the theme of God's mercy woven throughout it. The ending was meaningful because I had foreshadowed it, so to speak, by introducing the theme in the beginning of the story. Again, in The Reality Ring, the theme was introduced from the very first page and tied up in the ending.

In The War Horn, my character repeatedly was given opportunities to truly see freedom as it must be, and not as he saw it. He failed each time, and each time the stakes grew higher. But by the end, the cost of not changing became too high, and he finally chose correctly. In that way, the theme was continued throughout the story, and finally resolved in the end. In fact, the last word of the book is free.

4) To help in showing theme, embody it in a symbol.

I first came up with the concept of a war horn after listening to an inspirational One Year Adventure Novel lecture called Symbols. In that lecture, Daniel Schwabauer explained that a theme or an ideal can be embodied in a symbol.

In The War Horn, the horn is the symbol of freedom, and also a reminder of my main character's lost father. At the climax of the story, rather than saying that my character chose freedom, I used the war horn to show my character's choice. (But for the full details of that theme, you'll have to read the book yourself!)

Symbols often make the reader dig for meaning. They create a feeling of satisfaction deep within the readers' souls that a simple statement can never do.

5) Reach out of the story and into real life.

The thing that makes a theme a theme is that it matters to us. The characters we love are the ones that spur us on. In a way, we say, "If he did it, so can I."

Thus, a theme shows us something that matters in actual life. In The Thirteenth Call, yet another Will Vullerman short story, Will comes to the conclusion that he can't do his mission alone. Time has run out and he has a slim chance of saving his friends' lives; and all the time he is haunted by the failure from his past. That's relevant to all of us, because we all have failures in our past that haunt our present, and we all need to know that there is Someone who is sovereign over it all.

Ultimately, our job is to point to the greatest Author of all. We reach out of our tale and show our reader that the God of this story is the God of their story. He's the Author of the saga of this world, and His gospel can be traced throughout the world's bloody history, the light in this otherwise dark tale. And He can take the darkness in each of us and transform us in His light.

So what do you think about theme? Are there any other ways you can think of to write theme? Can you think of any great themes in books you've read? Theme's one of my favorite subjects, after all. Let's talk.

Outlining vs. Non-Outlining

Writers are generally divided into two categories: those who outline and those who do not. I fondly call non-outliners "SOP" writers: we write from the seat of our pants. We usually have no plan, unless it's in our head. There are also outliners, however: those who use outlines to structure their stories.

Each type of writer often looks upon the other with suspicion. Old and grizzled outlining veterans sometimes claim that outlining is the better way. Equally grizzled SOP writers claim the opposite. Truth is, they're both a valid way of writing a novel. Different people prefer different things.

This post is something of an analysis of both, with my own opinions shamelessly inserted.

First off, outlining.

What makes it preferable to non-outlining?

First, it gives you a direction. Many SOP writers (myself included) can write themselves into a corner and have no idea where to go next. Outlining makes it so that you always know where you're going. This doesn't make you immune to the common writer's vices, such as procrastination and "writer's block", but it helps.

Outlining also gives you clarity. It's easier to make it clear to the reader where the story is going if you actually know where it's going.

It's also a huge help with foreshadowing. This is probably the greatest use of outlining for me. With outlining, you can foreshadow things that are going to happen later in the book because you actually know what's going to happen. SOP writers like me (that plan vaguely in their heads) can do this to a lesser extent, but for intricate detail work and shocking twists, outlining has no equal.

Outlining can help you with your speed. If you know where the story is going, it's possible to write faster. There are exceptions to this, of course. I did NaNoWriMo 2011 with no outline at all, and wrote over 45,000 words in nineteen days. (Needless to say, I think I burned myself out...) However, when writing by the seat of your pants, speed can sacrifice quality. There's quite a bit of plot revision I need to do on The Prophecy of Einarr, for instance.

This method also eliminates excess prose. Outlining often helps your story to get where it's supposed to go without wandering around too much. Some SOP writers struggle with thousands of words that don't need to be there. An example of this would be Christopher Paolini's Inheritance Cycle. As much as some people love his books, the plot is almost nonexistent in some places.

All right, so those are the perks of outlining. How does SOP writing compare?

First, SOP writing provides a certain amount of freedom. SOP writers who try outlines often complain about how it "restricts" their writing. Restriction isn't bad, but many writers prefer freer prose. Anything can happen. Tolkien famously wrote, for instance, that he was as surprised as Frodo when Gandalf didn't return to the Shire.

SOP writing also can have unpredictable plot. Christopher Hopper, author of the White Lion Chronicles, writes that "if I don't know where things are heading, I'm confident that my readers won't either." This lends a certain amount of superiority over outlining, since it's easy to make an outlined novel predictable. You have to go back and foreshadow the plot twists, of course, but it is nonetheless a good way to keep things unpredictable.

In some ways, this kind of writing can also help keep things realistic. The plot of a novel is one big chain reaction. Everything happens because of something else that happened. Sticking to an outline can sometimes cause plot problems when the outline backfires. Something may happen in the outline that should cause something else, but doesn't.

At first glance, it looks as if outlining is far superior to SOP writing. After all, outlining gives you direction, clarity, speed, good foreshadowing, and keeps you from writing useless prose, while SOP writing keeps things unpredictable and is rather fun to write. The pros of outlining outnumber the pros of non-outlining.

However, here is where my analysis stops and my own opinion begins. Here's why I am a SOP writer:

I usually don't have to worry about clarity. I know where I'm going in my plot. I don't know it as good as an outliner, of course, but I know it well enough to write it. I also don't have to worry about excess prose. I naturally write straight-and-to-the-point prose that doesn't wander around...too much. I've already proven that even SOP writers can write with speed just as well as outliners.

That strikes out three of the pros of outlining. Now SOP writing and outlining are evenly matched: SOP writing provides unpredictability and freedom, while outlining provides direction and a chance to foreshadow things before you write them.

Here's what makes me a SOP writer, though. When I write outlines, I generally have to work very hard on them in order to make it so that it's not boring.

Those who read The War Horn may say otherwise, but The War Horn took an enormous amount of work to make it as good as it is today. (The War Horn is my only novel so far that was fully outlined.) By far, it was the hardest novel I had ever written, partially since it was a historical fiction story. With outlines, then, I lose unpredictability and I have to work harder. (Hard work isn't a bad thing, though. The War Horn did turn out pretty good!)

That makes SOP writing verrrrrry tempting. Not only is it easier (and rather fun for a character such as me), it provides a balance to my tendency to creating boring plot. That makes SOP writing a better option for me, as a writer. I can write more and write better if I write with no plan.

So that's why I'm a SOP writer.

And as a side note, there's a weird hybrid method that I used on The Book of Shaldu, which I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2010. I wrote the outline of the next chapter or two, and then wrote those chapters. It was like shining a flashlight down a twisting tunnel: I couldn't see the end, but I could see my next few steps. I never fully outlined to the end, actually. Most of the way through, I tossed out the outline and just wrote from the seat of my pants again.

That method allowed me to do NaNo at a speed that I can't achieve now: over 2,000 words an hour. I got the benefits of outlining—direction and speed—with the benefits of SOP writing: unpredictability and balance. You might try it sometime. I prefer the pure method of non-outlining now, but it might work for you!

In summary, outlining offers guidance, foreshadowing, and direction. If you can write up a good plot but you have a tendency to go on rabbit trails, outlining is the thing for you. On the other hand, you have fingers. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.) On the other hand, seat of the pants writing offers unpredictability and balance to the novelist who has trouble coming up with great plots.

Of course, there are other reasons you might choose one or the other. Can you think of any?

So what about you all? What do you think? To outline, or not to outline, and why?

Join the discussion!

Marketing

All right, I admit it. I was preoccupied with The War Horn's release. I was rather absorbed in revision and formatting too, jumping through Amazon's hoops to get The War Horn on the market.

And I say it freely (but with some pain): I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to marketing.  (Although I did manage to create the above banner. It's not half as bad as I thought it would be, but I'm no digital artist, so I kept it simple.)

I've heard it said that half the success of bestselling books comes because they're well-marketed. Oops! Because until The War Horn's initial sales rush started slacking off—about three days after the release date—I hadn't really put much thought to it.

However, I do have an inkling of what I need to do. To spread the word, there are several things I can do:

1) Get The War Horn going on sites like Goodreads and Shelfari.

Check. Here's The War Horn's Goodreads page, by the way, and here's The War Horn's Shelfari page. Feel free to take a look!

2) Get reviews and have readers spread the word.

This part doesn't depend on me. While I know that you all have busy lives—after all, I'm a "reader" of other blogs too—if you read The War Horn and truly liked it, I'd appreciate if you'd spread the word on Goodreads, Shelfari, and especially Amazon.com. That would be an enormous help.

And even if you don't have the time to plaster reviews, if you read The War Horn, shoot me an email and tell me what you thought.

Other than this rather meager plan, though, I have no marketing strategy. (It really embarrasses me to say so, but it's true.)

So I decided to ask you. Do any of you have any advice on the matter? Have you picked up anything from other authors that might help in spreading the word and getting The War Horn "out there"? Any particularly good resources? (I'd ask for book titles on the matter, but my choices in books are mostly limited to what I either buy or what I'd get through Kindle Lending Library.)

Thanks, all. You're awesome. :)

The War Horn - Now Available!

Last night I uploaded my novel to Amazon, over the course of two hours. (We had a lot of technical difficulties.) But by the time the clock hit 10:00 PM, we were done and The War Horn was submitted to review.  I described it thus on my Facebook:

"I have this awful tearing-up feeling in my gut. It's a cross between going to a writer's workshop for the first time (now THAT was something else), meeting someone from online for the first time (almost as bad), going to an American party (eurgh), and eating too many banana muffins...after you had a sandwich. Yeah, it's bad."

I woke up this morning and - glory! - to my great wonder and excitement, The War Horn was live.

(I'd put a screenshot, but it doesn't seem to be working, and other sorts of pictures are in short supply.)

You heard me right.  After a long journey, of which you all played a part, The War Horn is now available to purchase on Amazon.com's Kindle Store for $2.99.  Don't have a Kindle?  No problem.  There's a free Kindle App - you can find it here.

Now, without further ado, here's the Amazon link to The War Horn:

Purchase The War Horn here!

Now, where to go from here?

I'm not much of an advertising person.  Actually, some people I know didn't even know that I was publishing a novel until now.  But to get this book out here, I'm relying on one thing: you guys.

I'll be spreading the word, of course.  But the greatest advertising comes from word of mouth.  Blogging about it, telling friends about it: those things are much more powerful than some rich, professional advertiser that makes his living selling books.  If someone tells you to read a book because it's good, you actually know that person and trust their recommendations.  In the same way, readers are more likely to pick up a book because someone they know recommended it.

So I'm asking you, reader: if you read the War Horn and liked it, please take the time to write a short review on Amazon, add tags to the novel, etc.  Maybe even blog about it, or tell friends to read it.  It's only in that way that it'll get out there.

And thank you.  Without you guys, I don't think I would've done something so daring as to publish a novel.  You made it possible.

Oh, and a word to the pre-readers: your endorsements are on the first page.  You might enjoy re-reading it, too - I made a few changes here and there (such as adding on a few paragraphs to chapter eight and chapter nine) since you read it.  I also just smoothed out the prose in places.

Thank you, all!

Soli Deo gloria!

(*now feels the leave to release the pent-up excitement*  GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!)

*ahem*

EDIT:  I'm working on adding The War Horn to sites such as Shelfari and Goodreads, which are also influential when it comes to reviews and ratings.  The War Horn's Shelfari is here, and it's Goodreads profile here.  If you read The War Horn and like it, consider rating or writing a review of it on either site.  I, myself, am on those sites as well, so feel free to check me out.

The War Horn - Official Cover Art!

Though my blog has been rather quiet lately, work on The War Horn is going on at a steady pace.  The formatting is ready and almost all the endorsements are in - after I polish the text a bit and get two more critiques, it'll be ready to be uploaded!

In the meantime, my patient blog readers, feast your eyes on this: The War Horn's official cover art!

"Tobias" is my middle name and the name of my great-grandfather; thus, being much more awesome than "Jake", I used it as my pen name.  

Let me know what you think.

And in the meantime, how's writing going for all the rest of you? 

Signing out.

A Worldbuilding Fiasco

This post will be short, but I have a couple points to make about worldbuilding in a fantasy or science-fiction world.  Don't worry, more news on The War Horn will be coming soon: hold your horses and I'll get to you as soon as I can.

So I just have one question...does anyone else feel the pressure to worldbuild like nobody's business?  Like, on a "Silmarillion" scale?

That's what's been plaguing me lately.  I'm five thousand words into a document titled "A History of the Elathim".  And I'm not even halfway through with my "worldbuilding".

You see, this document basically records the history of this fantasy world, and specifically of a certain people.  To give you an idea of how massive this project is (in comparison to writing out a "quick" history), I'm writing the history of seven nations, their fall, and the rise of the three other nations (or mini-empires, more like) that took their place.  Right now, I'm done with the preliminary histories of TWO of those first seven nations.  That's what took up five thousand words.

Besides this, I've written out a royal genealogy for two of the nations (and hope to write one out for each nation), in addition to drawing out a detailed map of all seven kingdoms.  And I created a non-Roman calendar.

Seriously.

I really did think that I was just writing out a short little background on the history of this people, but it's looking like this little project will end up being more than fifteen thousand words, minimum.  One thing led to another, and I had all kinds of things to sort out.  It's actually like exploring new territory.  I've got a genealogy with 36 names on it, and each name has a story behind it.  (Resist the urge to explain, resist the urge, resist the urge...)

So that brings me back to my first question....does anyone worldbuild obsessively like I do?  I feel kind of alone here. XD If so, feel free to let us know how you do it, at least for my state of mind.

I'll leave you with an example of my madness...a quote that touches on primitive genetics.

"It seems to me to be evident that....the traits of the Elarasters are passed on from one generation to the next, like a family heirloom might; but this is contained within their blood, in packets, if you will, of information that determine the life of a man or woman....however, I estimate that it only manifests itself once in a thousand births, or less, and only among the Elathim." — Loc Shallin, "A Treatise on the Origins of the Elarasters" Printed in 829 W.C.

I have to admit, though...this worldbuilding is great fun.  XD  You ought to try it.  

Who Gets to Pre-Read?

The time came to draw names. And then I discovered that I had no hat. (Sadly, my fedora was left behind in the States.)

So I improvised and used my sister's trenchcoat pocket. What's cooler than a trenchcoat, anyway?

However, I'll belay the talk and cut to the chase:

The winners are....

LARK

FARRAH

ELDRA

CIARA

and

DAUGHTEROFLIGHT

Congratulations, winners! I'll send you The War Horn in your respective formats ASAP. Since internet is limited, however, there might be a delay. Be patient and good things will come, as the saying goes.

Remember: you need to read this within two weeks and, if you liked it, write an "endorsement" that's less than a hundred words long.

Many thanks to all who participated! If you didn't win, no worries: I'm hoping to have The War Horn available before February reaches its end. Once the cover art is finished and the pre-readers have read the book, then it's just a matter of days before The War Horn comes to a website near you.

Want to Pre-Read The War Horn? Read This Post!

There comes a time where a writer gets so familiar with his work that he can no longer detect what mistakes may remain.  You can always keep revising, but the work in question will never be perfect.  Novels that are actually published aren't perfect, they're mostly perfect.

With The War Horn, I've done all the editing that I can do.  The final revision is finished.

So what do you do?

You get pre-readers to read the work in question.

And, my blog readers, those pre-readers are you, and this work in question is The War Horn.

Yes, readers, your wildest dreams have come true. (At least, I hope that this is your wildest dream. O_o) This post is the "READ THE WAR HORN FOR FREE!" post.

This'll be very simple.  There will be five lucky people who get to pre-read The War Horn.  However, before I go on to explain how these five lucky people shall be chosen, I need you to read something.  In order to pre-read The War Horn, you need to be able and willing to do three things:

First, you need to be able to read the War Horn within two weeks, if not sooner.  The War Horn is just over 110 pages print length, a quick and easy read, so this shouldn't prove to be any trouble for you.

Second, if you have any feedback whatsoever, please send it to me.  If you see a typo or an inconsistency or a passage that just strikes you as awkward, let me know.  This is the last polish before The War Horn is put for sale, so it's important. (This doesn't mean that you should do an in-depth critique.)

Third, if you liked the book, please write a paragraph of one hundred words or less telling why you liked the book, and send it to me in an email. This will be the equivalent of an "endorsement" and will go in the front of the book, along with your name or alias.  (If you're willing, you can also put your age in the endorsement, and your blog address, if you have one, but those are both optional.)

By participating in this pre-reading contest, you agree that you are able and willing to do the above.

Now, what do the readers get out of it?  You will, of course, get to read my novel before everyone else, and get your name in the front of the book with your endorsement.  Like I said before, the endorsement bit is only if you liked the book.  In addition, I'll mention all of the pre-readers - whether or not you actually liked the book - in the acknowledgments.

Here's how you can get your name in the hat:

Comment below (or email me) and tell me you want to pre-read The War Horn.  Include your email in the comment, or, if you're not comfortable with that, send it to me in an email.  That's it.  If you want to earn an extra "entry" in the hat, you can blog about it.  Send me the URL either through a comment or an email to validate your entry.

If you have a preference for format, let me know in the comment section while you're entering.  I can send it to the winners in either .doc, .pdf, or .prc format. (PRC is Kindle's format.  If you have a Kindle, all you have to do is hook it up to the computer and copy-and-paste the file.  You can then read it on your Kindle.) If you don't specify a format, I'll send it in .doc.

The contest starts right now and will close next Friday, on the 3rd of February.  Once the contest closes, I'm going to literally draw five names out of a hat. If you win, I'll email you a copy of The War Horn in your format of choice, as well as write a short blog post announcing the winners.

Let it begin!  Allons-y!

Back—In Blue

I'm back, but not in black. I'm wearing a faded blue Kansas shirt. (Faded because my poor *snif* Kansas shirts are slowly deteriorating. That's your cue, Darth Vader: "NOOOOOOOOOO!")

And guess what? It's another update. Not quite as exciting as something like "GET A FREE COPY OF THE WAR HORN!" (although that's coming soon, muahahaha!). However, I hope it proves to be informative, if not entertaining.

Right now, I'm still hard at work with The War Horn.

You see, I lost a day this past week, and I still can't figure it out. All of a sudden, it was Friday, and I didn't even know what had happened. I seriously thought it was Thursday. So that meant that schoolwork went in Blue Overdrive mode and also produced a vial of Stop Writer's Cramp because of some weird chemical reaction. Go figure.

See, that's much more interesting than "I was busy with school so I couldn't revise", wasn't it?

However, sources tell me that I said to my parents, "The War Horn will be finished on Sunday!" so we'll see what happens. If that's true, then the "GET A FREE COPY OF THE WAR HORN" post will be coming soon to a blog near you.

For a more serious update, here's a post-within-the-post in reply to some comments made on my previous post.

Firstly, I do eat one meal a day. And now I can't think of eating three meals a day. Meh. (And, while I'm on that thought, I find it funny that people say "How can you survive on one meal a day?", because it's perfectly normal here.) It's a wonder I didn't swell up and roll around like a soccer ball. Or football, as the locals call it. I think I'll forever eat this much in times to come. In all seriousness, though, our entire family is a lot healthier than we were two months ago because of our change in diet.

However, the conditions we live in are not as healthy. It's almost crazy, what's been happening. My sister, when we first arrived, had an extremely minor case of typhoid. But that was just the beginning, and it centers mostly on our pets. Every single one of our pets has had some sort of accident or sickness that could have proven fatal, or did.

So here it is: we got a dog, it died; we got a mongoose and it temporarily paralyzed itself and couldn't walk for a week; we got two more dogs, and they both died of roundworm; we got another dog, and it got bit by a dog that might have had rabies and is now quarantined; and we got a cat that jumped off a top bunk and had a seizure so bad that we thought it was going to die. It did, however, recover, and continues to attack us in the middle of the night. (There's a reason she's named Ninja.)

That is, in brief summary, some of the weird happenings.

But I digress: back to the questions.

Concerning life-or-death situations...well, I don't think so. We've had some situations that were tense and could have been dangerous (a drunk guy yelling at us, men smoking drugs nearby, a supposed plot to steal our welder), but I have yet to have a life-or-death encounter.

Belly-laugh? Nothing that stands out, although there are little family-related jokes here and there. :) There was that one time that some children were yelling "Chinese man!" at us, peppering it with "Ching change gong gong!". One white person is the same as another, I suppose. ;)

Similarly, I was driving one time with another white person once who had lived here for quite a while, and had married a Liberian. When we passed a group of white people, he leaned out the car window and shouted "White man! White man!" in Liberian English at them. They didn't even look up.

Something that normally wouldn't happen at home? Everything. Heh, it's such a large category. We go to an outdoor market for much of our food, we walk most everywhere we go (or catch a taxi), all of the children wave at us when we pass (oftentimes saying "White man!"); the list goes on. Anything more specific? XD

Oh, and we all (probably) had worms. :P That was fun. Dewormer is cheap here, thankfully. And I think my entire family is just waiting for me to come down with malaria. The mosquitoes like me too much.

As far as I know, there are no elephants. Liberian "bush" is basically a sub-Saharan jungle. There are, however, monkeys, mongooses, genets, various kinds of birds, lizards, and other fauna.

Cassava is one of my favorite Liberian foods. It's a leafy vegetable: cut up, and put with peppers and onions and garlic, and then mixed with the meat and cooked. It has a dark green look to it and is rather oily. (In fact, the first Liberian dish that I ever had was cassava with goat. It was in America, months before I came here, and I thought it rather weird.) I have not, however, heard of it being in cake. O_o

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I've got a storehouse of information in my noggin. I haven't even scratched the surface of my life here. Which is why I have trouble writing coherent blog posts. ;)

As for me, folks, I think I'm going to go swimming soon. :D

Au revior!

The Reports of My Death Are Assuredly False

Well, it's been a sight longer than I expected, folks. I've so many stories to tell that it would take ages to recite them: so I'll settle for a few scattered tales to update my dear blog readers. Pre-written blog posts are great, eh?

First of all, I am alive.

Second, I'm in the midst of my final revision of the War Horn. Be prepared for a post about pre-readers soon!

Third, I'm doing One Year Adventure Novel again, with my sister. This time, it's a fantasy. I've got some epic ideas for it. Here's the preliminary synopsis:

"Elijah Finarod. Once, he was the pride of his people. Now he's imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit and haunted by the one he did. A bloody war is raging across his world, and Elijah is unexpectedly freed to seek a way to end an ancient curse, the only hope they have of stopping the war. But he's being pursued by unknown assassins and he's being hunted by his own people. Nevertheless, Elijah is determined to stop the war at any cost. For Elijah Finarod started the war, and now he was going to end it."

Fourth, I've never been so grateful for chicken and beef. For the first two weeks we were in this house, we ate fish and nothing but fish. (The fish was in the sauce over rice, of course...not fish plain. That would be a nightmare.) And did I mention that I abhor fish?

Fifth, I wrote out a genealogy of the House of Finwë from Tolkien's "The Silmarillion". Go figure. (Finwë fathered Fingolfin, who fathered Turgon, who had a daughter who was named Idril who married a mortal named Tuor, and they had a son called Eärendil and he married the half-mortal-quarter-elf-quarter-Maia Elwing and they had two sons, Elrond and Elros...) And yes, "Finarod" in the synopsis above is a nod to Tolkien's characters "Finarfin" and "Finrod".

And last, I miss all you crazy and wonderful writers. ^_^ You're all awesome.

That is all.

*ahem* Kidding! Considering the time I have with no internet to waste my time on (actually, between revisions and school being renewed once more, it's not that much), I ought to write something a bit longer, eh?

Here are a few notes that I've composed concerning life in Liberia. However, I'm not even sure what you all want to know...so shoot me a few questions in the comment section, and I'll write another blog post in response. Fair?

Concerning FOOD:

The fundamental elements of food are thus: rice, sauce, meat. The meat is in the sauce (or soup, sometimes), and it is poured over rice. That's Liberian food in essence. The sauce may include something like palm nuts, potato greens, cassava, etc. The meats include goat, beef, chicken, and fish. And maybe lamb, but I have yet to eat lamb here. And the food always has peppers in it.

My favorite is "pepper soup", followed closely by cassava. Pepper soup is, essentially, a soup with some sort of tomato sauce base, with a meat and lots of peppers in a broth; sometimes over twenty peppers in that soup alone. As I said on Facebook the other day, "IT BURNS US!" (To give you an idea of the heat of the little Liberian pepper, it is ranked the same on the "heat" scale as the habenaro pepper.)

Concerning ENVIRONMENT:

The place where we live, as I have described elsewhere, is a concrete building with tile floors, and you can only reach it by crossing a wooden monkey bridge across a freshwater lagoon. It's a moment's walk from the beach: you can look out the window and see the sea along the horizon. This means that we get a sea breeze during the day and night, which is phenomenal. The windows are always open to let in the breeze, and in the shade, it's not actually that hot. Sitting in the sun is another matter.

Right now, we're in the dry season. It hasn't really rained for weeks, and the weather is steadily, degree by degree, climbing upward. I have no idea what the temperature really is, however, save that it's somewhere over ninety every day; that was the temperature three weeks ago.

Concerning CHANGES IN LIFESTYLE:

This is a fairly big category. Below, I shall list the changes that have taken place in general life.

Firstly, we don't have running water. We have to go out and manually pump all the water we use. So that means I use a dipper, half a bucket of water, and some shampoo when I get grimy enough to take a shower. We have plans to dig a well, however, and use an electric pump to pump water to a mini water tower, which provides the pressure we need for running water.

Second, our meals have decreased. We now dine in what we think is a typical Liberian manner: one meal a day, commonly in the afternoon. If we get hungry later on in the evening, we eat a small plate of leftovers from dinner. In the mornings, we eat fruit, and, some days, popcorn.

We've also learned to conserve electricity and computer charge. Because we need our computers for school, we turn on the gas-run generator most nights, which gives us electricity to charge electronics and run certain things. We do, however, have some solar power. We recently received a fridge/freezer that runs on solar power, and half the lights in the house - one in each room - run on solar power.

Most Sundays, we've had house church instead of going to church. We dig out a few hymnbooks we brought with us from America and sing hymns, afterward praying and then studying some Scripture.

Concerning PETS:

Inevitably, we've gotten pets. You've probably already heard of our mongoose, Mae. Or Minkey, as my sister calls her. She's extremely accident-prone, so much so that she seems to be disabled. Three of her four legs don't support her very well, and we're not entirely sure why. However, she did hit her head some days earlier and it swelled up; afterwards going down again. We think this might be the issue, some sort of damage to the brain. Right now, though, she's still eating and drinking and going to the bathroom on our beds, so that's a good sign, and her legs still retain movement.

So far, we've had four dogs. The first one (whom we named "Jax mi Dog" after the "Jax mi Katt" character in Jill Williamson's epic trilogy) died after a week, contracting some sort of illness. We buried him beneath a palm tree. Several days later, we got another puppy, whom we called Pippin. He's a typical Liberian mutt. We made sure he got shots, and right now he's a troublemaker in good health.

We also got two German pointer mix puppies from an American family. Their mother is huge and scary, so we're hoping that these two puppies - "Stan" and "Valli" after two West African missionaries we knew in Kansas - will grow up likewise.

You see, dogs in Liberia are not only pets (and to Liberians, they aren't really pets at all), they're guards. They're as good or better than a security guard, especially the big dogs. I've witnessed it myself: the mother of our German pointer puppies scared the pants off of one of our Liberian friends.

And lastly, we got a grey kitten who enjoys exploring my bed and playing with my shirt while I'm trying to sleep. We mostly got her to make sure the mouse/rat population stays down. At least, that's why Mom and Dad got her.

Concerning LIFE:

Get up. Do school. Eat dinner. Revise/do OYAN. Go to bed.

That's life right now. Pretty interesting, eh?

So, how are you all doing? How's the writing? How's life in general?

And if you have any questions, ask away. I'd be happy to answer them...but don't expect to get an answer right away. I have over four hundred unread emails, and the only internet I get is from a USB internet stick that's slow as molasses. And I rarely use it, anyhow.

Farewell, write well, and stay out of the heat!

Er...cold...

Never mind.

How to Meet Me in Five Easy Steps

Step One: Buy The War Horn.
Step Two: Buy the One Year Adventure Novel (OYAN) curriculum, if you don't own it already.
Step Three: Do the OYAN curriculum.
Step Four: Sign up for the OYAN Summer Workshop.
Step Five: Go to the OYAN Summer Workshop.

The reason step one is there is because The War Horn is funding my quest to go to the Workshop. ^_^  If I can somehow get two thousand dollars...I'll be there!

So!  I've got news.

First and foremost, I received an email from Amazon shortly after I published my last post on The War Horn. In short, they gave me the go-ahead for The War Horn.  (In length, they said that *I* couldn't publish it on my parents' account, but my parents could publish it on my behalf.  Which is the same thing. XD)

So I've been working on The War Horn, and I'm hoping to have my parents and also pre-readers be reading it by mid-January or sooner, so we'll see.  Right now I'm doing some research to make my historically inaccurate novel more accurate.

I have, however, come up with a few plot kinks that need working out.  Because I had received numerous critiques of my opening scene (and I rather agreed with them) I cut it and I'm working on finding another one. But it's difficult, since the novel (after the scene I cut) opens with my character waking up.  Which is not a good place to start a novel.  It's positively boring.

See, the problem with my novel is, it gets steadily better in terms of plot/excitement/stakes as the novel goes on.  If my readers stop at the first chapter, they won't realize what they're missing.  So I need to do something to really catch their attention - BUT, I *need* to start at the beginning.  Which is normal life.  So I'm going to work on two things.

1) Questions.  I'm going to raise a few questions in the first chapter and work with my monologue so that, even though the questions aren't particularly intense, they'll want to keep reading.

2) Prose.  I'm hoping to establish an easily-readable writing style that draws the reader in.  Because there's certain books you read that just draw you in if only for the writing style, right?  Mark Twain's work, for instance, is epic because he writes in such a clear voice that it's a joy to read the most boring of things.

However, I think I've pretty much gotten my research covered, so I'll be moving on from that to working on the first chapter.

So, writers, how's your writing coming along?  Written anything you're particularly proud of lately?

And, on a completely different note:

^The official trailer for "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey", coming out in December 2012.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!

2012 is far too long to wait!  I can't stand it! D:  It doesn't help that I'm rewatching Lord of the Rings, either.  This trailer is, in one word, EPIC.

What do you think of it?

Talk to you later, and remember to check out the rather important poll on my sidebar.  And thank you to those who have already voted!

The War Horn - Plans and Schemes

Of late, I've been scheming.  Plotting.

I posted about this on my other blog, but in essence, I want (very badly) to go to the 2012 OYAN Summer Workshop, which I went to this past year.  Problem is, plane tickets cost mucho money, eh?

So...I had an idea.

It was midnight.

I was staring at the ceiling.  Again.

And then I had the brilliant idea to publish The War Horn as an eBook and make thousands of dollars and be rich and have enough to go to the Workshop.

Right.

So I started on my quest - I went to CreateSpace and looked into their Kindle Publishing options.  If I would publish The War Horn, it would be self-publishing.  It's such a weird little book that no one would even touch it.  At 25,000 words, it's a short little novella, and the genre is very hard to define.  It's supposed to be somewhat historical, but, as I've said before, it fails in that respect.  It does, however, have fairly good writing quality (by my standards) and one of my greatest endings.  (I only have a half-dozen endings to choose from, anyhow. ^_^)

Turns out, Amazon has this thing called Kindle Direct Publishing.  It's really straightforward: upload your book, upload a cover, select a few options and set a price, and BOOM! you're published!  And they have a fantastic 70% royalty rate.  That's seventy cents out of every dollar. $700,000 out of every million.

Problem is, they have an 18+ age rule.

However, I'm fairly certain that I could use my parents account to publish without violating their rule, since I would have parental permission and an account for payment methods.  I emailed them about it, but the only reply I've gotten so far basically said, "We're busy right now, we'll email you later."  Except, much longer and more diplomatic.

So, what do you think?  Good idea, bad idea?

Also, I may - just maybe - be looking for people to pre-read the novel.  And critiquers.  Not before my family, of course ;) they'll read it as soon as I'm done with my own edits.

Thoughts?

Oh, and one more thing.  If I published the War Horn as an eBook, would you buy it?  Speak truthfully.  The price would be somewhere below four dollars.  I'm setting up a poll on the sidebar - take a look and vote, and/or comment below.

Until we meet again,

The Wonder

As the recent months have passed, my writing had become strangely silent. After a frenzied period of time where I raced to finish up my edits on The War Horn, it just...stopped. I submitted TWH to the contest, and that was that. (I'm still waiting to hear back from the contest, actually.) Schoolwork came, our move hung over my head, and my keyboard's smolder turned to ashes.

I could claim that my life was busy. I could claim that inspiration had deserted me. I could claim that I procrastinated. (I did, really, but that's not the point.)

Some might call it writer's block, but nothing was really blocking me. I just didn't do anything.

Here's what happened: I lost my drive. No, scratch that. My drive was still there. I still wanted to tell a good, meaningful yarn to the world and glorify my Creator.

But I lost my desire to fulfill my drive and accomplish my goals.

I keep telling myself I needed to write this or write that or torture a character or something. But I never did it. Sure, that's procrastination, but there's a reason behind procrastination as well.

Where was the allure?

Writing had begun to boil down to words and mechanics and editing. And it took this little short story to regain what I had lost.

Hearken back to when you first started writing. Why did you do it? Why would you write a story? What lured you? (Keep in mind, when I say "Why did you do it?" I don't mean, "What drove you?" but "What drew you?")

Maybe it was a desire for fame. Or a desire to create a book like the ones you read all the time. I know that the latter was part of my desire to write.

But here's the thing. There's something about writing that draws us.

I've been pondering it all day long. And yes, in the shower too. It's the Thinking Room, wot.

There is something about a blank sheet of paper. There's something that clicks, something that hums, something utterly amazing that happens when a writer sits down at a computer, pulls up a blank document, and writes.

Anything could happen. And anything will happen.

When I first began writing, I found it utterly engrossing. I had a childlike fascination with it. It was magic, really. You could create, you could make something out of nothing. You could tell a story.

Those words have lost their magic. In this context, the simple words "you could write a story" are amazing. You have the entire world at your fingertips. You could write whole species into existence, whole worlds could be created, and history could be rewritten. You have all of your infinite imagination to fill.

Daniel Schwabauer said, "People read to live vicariously." (i.e. to live through their imagination.) And the same is true for writers.

This, in my opinion, is the allure of writing: we can write to live vicariously. We get to choose what we want to do. We can race against time to save the world, we can fly with dragons across an azure sky.

And so, we write, not only for ourselves, but so that we can share it. We want others to see the glory that we see. And for Christians, we also want others to see the glory in Christ that we see and experience.

And that's why my writing ground to a halt. I lost the allure. So much of my writing had come down to revision and grammar and mechanics that I lost what got me writing in the first place.

That changed, however. I started writing a little story. I've begun so many stories and never finished them, but this one...this one had potential. It had allure.

And then I wrote this section. In that moment, my keyboard lit, my imagination roared to life, and the ultimate lure and desire to write came rushing back.

--

"He wanted to see home before he died," Rodney said, taking in a deep breath and letting it out. "He wanted to see the grasslands and smell the free breeze. He wanted to taste Kanai fruit again. He wanted to see his old house by the creek and the wood."

--

In that little section, I caught a glimpse into my character, and not only that, his homeland. In this little story, I saw a new world. And it took my writing back to life, because now I want to see new worlds again. I want to write new characters and explore new places. The very word "write" takes on new meaning.

Write well, readers. And when you write, don't leave the wonder of writing behind. Keep ahold of it. Don't let it diminish.

--
Jake

Guess Who?

I'm back!

(Warning: I WILL ramble.  I'll be a little random.  I'll be incomprehensible at some points.  Hang on.)

And no "Guess Who?" is not Doctor Who. ;)  He's going to be back in...two days.

I had to slide a Who reference in there.  Sorry.  It's an urge that I cannot resist; but don't worry, no more Doctor Who...for the moment.

I'm back, and it's been far too long, blog friends.  I've had no one off which to bounce my latest literary jokes; no one to bother with my writing musings; no one to write to while blasting soundtrack in my ears.  And it's no wonder my mom says I'm deaf...

Anyway, so, what's been happening for all of you bored blog readers?  Doing well, I hope?  Read any good books?

And I find it interesting that my blog followers increased while I was gone.  Do I take that as an insult or a compliment?  Maybe my silence is indeed more interesting than my gab. ;)

But when I saw all of those comments (including Dad's, who has been nagging—reminding—off-screen a well as on-screen), I thought to myself, "....Tomorrow."

Tomorrow turned to the day after, and the day after, and I read a great book (review coming); unfortunately, my blog stayed still.

So here I am, back at last, and I'm not wearing black, either.  (Okay, time to revise THAT one...ouch.  That was terrible.)

Now, as for my life...it's been busy.  Very busy.  A LOT has happened since I last blog.  Not the least of it is that I was kidnapped by my novel—yes, the rumors were true!  It held me up at plotpoint and...wait, have I used that before?  I can never keep track of which jokes and play-on-words I used where...

*ahem*

Also, I'd like to bring to your attention a blogger whom I have followed for some time: Gillian Adams.  I've been haunting her blog for over a year now, and her writing is fantastic, and she has a passion for Christ and His word.  She, having submitted her novel, recently received word that a publisher had accepted her novel/novella for publication!  Young aspiring Christian writers are making a mark out there, readers, so don't lose hope and keep on writing!  Click on the above link to hear more about this fantastic news. :)

Speaking of writing....The War Horn is now fully revised and rewritten in spots; it's certainly my best novel so far, in general writing quality.  On the fifteenth of August, 2011, I submitted it to my first real-deal-with-real-prizes contest, open to those who have used the OYAN curriculum.

A little background on what's happening with the War Horn:

I view the War Horn as an experiment.  It's my first (and I think last; it was agonizing to write) historical novel, though it almost falls under the legend-history category of novels. This is also my first completed novel where I have no explicit Christian messages; few characters mention God (excepting monks and a few scattered phrases), and there was no "redemption" theme to try and share the Christian message in a different manner.  Instead, I embedded the truths and themes of Christ into the characters and the plot: freedom and the self-destroying aspect of bitterness are two recurring themes among many smaller ones.

It'll be fantastic to see how God can use it in ways my other novels cannot be used.  And I really hope it does well in the contest. ;)

So, I'll have more posts to come, but that's about it for now.  I have a few rattling around my head, waiting to be written, and a review is on the way too; so stay tuned, and bother me lots about it!

And watch out for marshmallows; they're rather vicious.