Free Time

When I'm not spending time with family, working on my writing projects, or sleeping (which is overrated by the way), these are a couple of the 'free-time' things I've been up to lately...

Currently, I'm reading House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. I'm a little more than halfway through the book, and I have to say this is probably the creepiest book I have ever read. I'll admit that aside from the Han Solo trilogy - which is my all-time favorite book series, I consider Stephen King's Dark Tower series to be my second favorite.

Until I started reading House of Leaves.

This book's premise is a bit too confusing to sum up outside of a full-blown book review (which I will definitely be doing once I'm done reading it), so I'll just leave you with this Goodreads link, and you can check out a description and reviews of the book yourself - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/337907.House_of_Leaves. To say the least, I absolutely love this book. It does lean heavily at times into some heavy sexual content, but other than that, the book does a tremendous job of pulling you into its multiple layers.


When I'm not reading, I am usually gaming. I grew up with video games (my dad introduced me to the Atari 2600 and the Commodore 64 when I was growing up), and it is by far my favorite past time now. The only problem is that I can be very ADD with video games, playing them halfway through and then moving on to others, sometimes playing three or four at a time, but never really fully appreciating any particular one because the plots, controls, characters and other aspects get lost in the confusion.

I've been consciously making an effort as of late to focus on one or two games and stick with them until they are beat or mastered. The only exception is Half Life 2: Deathmatch, which I play everyday on my lunch break. The two games I'm currently playing right now are Guild Wars 2 (which I'm always constantly jumping into anyway, even though my computer has to push itself to the max just to run it at all in lowest graphic settings), and....

Dead Island. Dead Island is a game I picked up about a year ago and promptly returned a few days later. I just couldn't get into the game for some reason, but I found it at a bargain price a couple of weeks ago and decided to give it another try. I sure am glad I did. Once you have the mechanics of the game down, it's a fun and satisfying zombie slashing adventure. It also has a lot of collection elements to it, and a decent loot system, which makes it an all-around favorite for me.

Webster's New International Dictionary - 1920

Over the past couple weeks, I've been busy working on the website and the timeline while I wait for edits to come back on Black Earth: Dark Masquerade. So while we all wait for the release of Dark Masquerade (which will be soon, I assure you), I thought I'd (finally) post some of the old books I acquired during my last trip to California.

The first in my collection isn't one I acquired for free - it cost me $3, and that was after I talked the guy down from $5. Call me a cheapskate if you will, but I call it bargaining. And when you don't have $$$ and you're trying to build a collection of books, you get what you can take. This little treasure is a 1920 edition of Webster's New International Dictionary. This book is HUGE!

The book's condition isn't stellar, but it isn't the worst condition I've seen a book in either. Pages are worn, as are the tabs, and the binding is a bit loose and the cloth of the binding is frayed in certain places.


















When you first open the cover, you're greeted with some old newspaper articles and clippings that the owner of the book glued in. I actually don't mind this because it gives little pieces of history with the book.









The pages are India Paper, some of my favorite to be found in old books and Bibles. Because of how thin the paper is, some of the pages in the dictionary are ruined from the 90+ years this book has been around, mainly because they became folded when the book was shut and it creased the paper permanently, or the book was dropped and the pages took a beating.

What I love about this version of the dictionary is the added content. The cover states this version contains a reference history of the world, which is a nice section in the back that references exactly what it states - the history of the world. Broken down in chronological format within categories of countries and periods, it details key events in countries around the globe.


Elsewhere in the book you can find, among the basic dictionary entries, pages full of key information, like flags of the world, cathedrals, or human anatomy. This thing reads more like an encyclopedia in certain areas than a dictionary, but that's okay with me.

The thing I love about these older books is the treasures from previous owners that are hidden within random pages. Here's a document written (a list of dictionary words?) by who I'm assuming is the original owner of the dictionary - Ida M. Hays from Palto Alto, California 1920 - which is exactly what's written in the first blank page of the dictionary.

Ah, just blogging about this book excites me. I find it remarkable how much care and craft was put into creating this stunning dictionary, a literary item many of us take for granted, especially us writers. Of course, many of the dictionaries nowadays aren't this stellar, used more as quick, convenient tools than in-depth reference material, which is why I wanted to bring this lovely masterpiece home and add it to my small but growing collection of book gems.


As far as the history of this particular edition of Webster's New International Dictionary, I haven't been able to pull up too much information on it. Wikipedia has information on a 1909 and a 1934 edition, but the edition I have is clearly a 1920 according to the title page which states it is a revision of the 1890 and 1900 edition. There is a copyright page which lists copyrights for 1909 and 1913, but beyond that, I don't know much about this beautiful tome. Doesn't matter though, it's going to sit beautifully on my shelf until maybe I have the money someday to have it restored and preserved for the generations who come after me.

April Update

I have a plethora of blog posts I want to do in the next few weeks, but for today I'll just give you all a brief synopsis of what I'll be up to in the next month or so.

The biggest project I am working on right now is, of course, the end of my Black Earth novel series. As many of you who follow my blog know, the third book in the series - Black Earth: Dark Masquerade - is already in the hands of my editor. I am also currently in the middle of penning the fourth - and final volume - in the series, and I would say I'm about a third of the way through it so far. In fact, even though the deadline for me to hand it off to my editor is May 15th, I'm going to shoot for May 1st. This will give me all of April to finish things up.

As I start to wrap the series up and hand things off to my editor, I am going to start diving into the cover design for the last two books in the series. I'll be posting exclusive sneak peeks at the cover designs, and the process that goes behind each, over  the next couple months.

While everyone waits for those two novels to come down the pipeline, there are many ways for you to keep busy.

One is to check out the blog posts I did showcasing exclusive draft work from Black Earth: Dark Masquerade. The links to those posts are listed here:

Excerpt #1: Hortus Tenebris - The Dark Garden
Excerpt #2: The President's Dark Advisor
Excerpt #3: The Westgate Plaza Mall
Excerpt #4: Pearl's Sorrow 
Excerpt #5: The Black Cathedral

(I even included an exclusive one in last month's email newsletter.)

For those who are interested in a peek at the draft work for the final book in the series - Black Earth: Bridge to Eternity - I am not going to post any draft work from it until shortly before the book's release, and that's only if I decide to post any draft work in regards to it. There is so much going on in the final book in the series, I may very well end up spoiling many a fine story line if I post anything from it, especially if Dark Masquerade hasn't even been released yet.

Starting this Wednesday, and continuing each Wednesday thereafter until they are all posted, I'm going to post some flash fiction which takes place shortly before my Black Earth series. I posted these pieces a long time ago on my website and pulled them down shortly after due to a website overhaul. Each one revolves around a specific character from the Black Earth series.

Aside from writing, I have a variety of other blog posts I'll be putting together in the near future. I've found myself taking more of an interest in certain anime series lately, and I'll be posting some reviews on series' that I find interesting, when I have time to watch them and write out reviews for them. It won't be a regular occurrence on my blog, but I'll do it when the opportunity arises. The first anime review I'll be doing is on the Gun x Sword series which I just finished. That should be up later this week or early next. (But I will say it was one of the best animated series I have seen in a long time.)

On top of all that, over the next couple weeks I'll be posting a few more glimpses into the trip to California I took week before last. More importantly, I'll be showcasing some of the old books I picked up while I was out there. (Seen in the picture at the top of this post.)

Good stuff! Just wanted to keep everyone updated. Have a great Monday!

My California Adventure - Sonora

Many years ago my grandfather moved to Sonora, California. There was a point back in 1994/1995 that my family and I lived in Salida, California - only an hour drive from Sonora. Now in Arizona, I try my best to make at least a few visits per year to see my grandfather and to get away from the disgusting Arizona heat. The drive from Gilbert, Arizona to Sonora, California takes us about fifteen or so hours, depending on how many stops we decide to make along the way.

Last week we made one of these visits to see my grandfather. Most of the time we spend up there consists of my grandfather driving us to different attractions and landmarks, such as Yosemite, Ironstone Vineyards, or even Mark Twain's Cabin.



One of the days spent in Sonora this trip consisted mostly of us walking up and down the main street of downtown peeking in antique shops and the like.

One of the shops, Funky Junk -

is where my grandfather, who builds birdhouses and butterfly houses, sells some of his creations.

My absolute favorite place in downtown Sonora is Legends Books, Antiques & Old Fashioned Soda Fountain. The shop contains one of my favorite spots - an underground passageway full of old books.

Another staple of downtown Sonora is the Veterans Memorial Hall and Military Museum.

My grandfather designed the Korean War Veterans memorial stone.

And you can see his name on the list on the back - Earl N. Bailey USAF.

Of course, no visit to Sonora - or California in general - is complete without dinner at my favorite pizza stop - Round Table.

And I left with my own little set of treasures from one of the antique shops. (Pewter and only $2 each)

Next week I'll post some pics and whatever info I can find on some of the old books I brought back from California. (One of them was purchased from the Legends bookstore, but I am going to hold off on showing it until I can dig up some info on it.) Some date back to the 1800's, they are so old. And since this blog is about writing and self-publishing, well, they will fit in perfect around here.

Endangered Memories Proof Revision

There's a lot that goes into paperback production of a book. A lot more than most people give self-published authors credit for. There are many factors involved with book design - font, text size, cover design, paper color and quality, cover formatting, etc, etc, etc. If even one little setting is off in your word processing program, or one minor detail isn't caught the hundredth time through, it can leave a nasty scar on an otherwise beautiful creation, not to mention a bad taste in a reader's mouth.

I have a number of paperbacks to my name and I seem to learn something new each time I go through the process of turning my blood and sweat drenched manuscript into a physical form for my readers to enjoy. I'm by no means an expert - I realize that every time I go through this process - but I seem to be getting the hang of what to watch for before finalizing the physical editions of my fiction.

Just recently I ordered the proof copy of my latest work, Endangered Memories. Surprisingly, it turned out with minimal issues. The cover came out the way I wanted it to - including the spine and back cover w/barcode. The internal components came out pretty good:

Font is big enough ( Times New Roman -11)...

the hyphenation came out good...

the chapter headings are decorative, but not too fancy...


















The only real issue I've come across is the giant space at the bottom of each page, between the page number and the bottom edge of the page.


















This mistake is one I made in a paperback I created years back. In those days, I was so excited just to have my work in print that I refused to go through multiple proof copies to get things down perfect and my books suffered for it.

This time, within minutes I realized my footer size was set at .7" instead of the .5" I meant for it to be at. Although it seems like a minor correction, resetting my footer from .7" to .5" threw off all of my spacing, hyphens and page layout. After fixing everything, I managed to get the page numbers down another line and closed some of that gap at the bottom.

Now that the book is in the process of populating to Amazon, I'm off to get edits done on the second book in the series - Lost Birth - so I can start formatting that. For anyone who's interested, here's a link to the paperback on Amazon - http://tinyurl.com/42w6kye.

Awakening Evarun and the Appeal of Short Story Series

I recently had the honor of reading the first installment in Tom Barczak's new short story series, Awakening Evarun. If you've never heard of Tom Barczak, I can understand. Awakening Evarun is his first 'published' piece of work, but I found this debut piece of fantasy to be quite entertaining.

I had the opportunity to speak with Tom on the phone a while ago and we had a chat - author to author - about how we found the idea of short story series to be quite compelling. I think in this age of self-publishing, with authors having control over every aspect of their work, it's neat to think in terms outside just writing novels.

I've always been a huge fan of the Star Wars universe. Although I love the writing of most of the authors that are given the privilege to write books in the series, I have always been more enamored with the simple aspect of diversity. The Star Wars universe started with a group of main characters and has branched off into a whole universe of fictional goodies. Novellas, short stories, cookbooks, merchandise, novels, movies...the list goes on and on. It's easy to pick up a book and read it, understand what's going on, and want to dive into other parts of the universe.

This delightful appeal is one I have aimed for in my own series

I've had plans in the works for a couple years now to start an episodic short story series called the LZR Project. I have five or six drafts of episodes done already and am hoping to resurrect this project and start writing on it again this next year. I did the episode thing with my novella, Picture Perfect, before I combined the episodes into book format. I just like the idea of readers being able to bite off little chunks of a grander story here and there, weeks or months at a time. It's a nice diversion to keep my readers entertained while I continue to carve away at the novels, which take considerably more time and effort.

In that regard, when Tom told me he was wanting to try out this short story episode idea, I was excited. Especially considering he is also a talented artist who is illustrating parts of these stories.

Check out the first installment of Awakening Evarun if you get a chance. It's well worth the $2.99. Below is my review.

Awakening Evarun is a great start to what Tom plans on being a six-part short story series. The pace of the story is easy and intriguing, making it a quick read that feels satisfying, yet leaves you wanting more when you're finished. Tom's writing style is definitely a gift and I look forward to more from the author.

On top of that I have to praise the illustrations. It's not that often you come across an author who can also illustrate his stories with such great detail. It's also not that often you come across an illustrated story as this. What a treat. For the price, you get great artwork and an intriguing storyline. Tom Barczak is definitely an author to check out. 

Purchase Awakening Evarun on Amazon -  http://tinyurl.com/4x3th44
Tom's website - http://www.tombarczak.com 
Tom's blog - http://www.tombarczak.com/blog
 

The Indie Author Guide

 

With self-publishing becoming more and more popular than when I first ventured into it years ago, I figured it would be a great time to catch up with some useful strategies that are current with the times. That, and I had some Borders Bucks to burn. So, I grabbed a copy of The Indie Author Guide by April L. Hamilton. I know, I know, another book on my to-read list. At least I can say I'm reading this one for work.

My 2011 Reading List

Here I am at the beginning of another year, with a desk covered in books that I still have yet to read. Some of them have been sitting here for over a year now and it's really starting to irritate me. On top of these, I have two books I promised other authors I would read - which are first on my list.

A few weeks ago, I made the decision to list the books in order of what I want to read when. The following are a few noteworthy ones, while my list is at the bottom of this post...

The first novel, or series, on my list is The Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin. If you are friends with me in Goodreads, you'll notice I have these three books listed as read already, which is true. The thing I absolutely love about these books is that I can read them over and over again and never get sick of them. I originally read The Paradise Snare, The Hutt Gambit, and Rebel Dawn when I was a senior in high school and immediately fell in love with them. Of course, I am a fan of Star Wars in general, but the way Crispin wrote these really gave me some insight into Han Solo, my favorite Star Wars character, and also gave me inspiration to draw from when creating characters of my own.

Number six on my list is to finish the Dark Tower series. I've read The Gunslinger, The Drawing of the Three, The Wastelands and Wizard and Glass. I have The Wolves of the Calla on my desk and have yet to purchase Song of Susannah or The Dark Tower (final book in the series thus far). I even have Stephen King's Everything's Eventual in my collection, a nice little short story compilation with The Little Sisters of Eluria - a Dark Tower story - in it. Aside from the aforementioned Han Solo Trilogy, the Dark Tower series has by far become one of my favorite of all time.

The twelfth entry on my list of books to read this year is House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski. By far one of the most bizarre books I've purchased, I heard of this novel about a year and a half ago and it took me about a year to find it used, which I did in a local Bookmans. House of Leaves is the story of a young family that moves into a house which they come to discover is actually bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. The book is written in an unconventional style with some pages coming to only a sentence or a word, and the style of the typesetting adding to the book's horror feel. Other pages contain highlighted text, footnotes within footnotes - some referencing books that don't exist, and even poetry. I've been fascinated with this unusual format and have wanted to read the book not just for it's plot, but for the way the book is put together.

The seventeenth entry on my list is the entire Bourne novel series. I've seen the films - loved them - and have been wanting to read the books for some time now. I have four of the books on my desk - The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy, The Bourne Ultimatum and The Bourne Legacy. I know there's eight in all so far, so I'll probably need to make another trip to my used bookstore to grab the remaining four when I get to that point.

Along with the list, I am also reading other non-fiction books on the side, both to better improve my writing and character design and to improve my marketing skills: - Bullies, Bastards and Bitches by Jessica Morrell, Writer’s Guide to Character Traits by Linda Edelstein, Blogging Business by J.S. McDougall, The Freelance Success Book by David Taylor, The Complete Guide to Self-Publishing by Tom and Marilyn Ross, The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Scott

***This list does not include Star Wars novels, save for the Han Solo trilogy. I have an entire stack of Star Wars novels, and I am trying to decide which order I want to read them in. I would really, really like to start reading the Star Wars books in chronological order, so it's taking me time to collect them from used book stores. This list also does not include the comics I am trying to catch up on - Fathom seasons 1,2 and 3, Executive Assistant Iris, and Cyber Force Hunter Killer - nor does it include the two novels I am trying to read by good author friends of mine. 

And, as a final note, there is one other fiction book I am reading on the side that is not included, only because I'll be reading it here and there in the midst of everything else - The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks.

So many books, so little time. Here's my list for anyone that would like to compare. If you've read any of the same books, let me know what you thought. No spoilers though, please. ;)

2011 Reading List

1. The Han Solo Trilogy by A.C. Crispin
2. On Writing by Stephen King
3. The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks
4. Timeline by Michael Crichton
5. Dust by Elizabeth Bear
6. Finish the Dark Tower series by Stephen King (Need books 6 and 7)
7. The World of the Short Story by Clifton Fadiman
8. The Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck and Jeff Grubb
9. Eon by Greg Bear
10. This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti
11. Brother Odd by Dean Koontz
12. House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski
13. James Bond: The Union Trilogy by Raymond Benson
14. Everything’s Eventual by Stephen King
15. The Wayfarer Redemption series by Sara Douglass (Need books 2,3,4,5 and 6)
16. Odd Hours by Dean Koontz
17. The Bourne Series by Robert Ludlum and Eric Van Lustbader (Need books 5,6,7 and 8)
18. The Entire Rogue Angel series by Alex Archer (Need book 4 and books 6-28)

Nothing Beats a New Book

If I have one wish in this life, it's that books - in their physical form - never become outdated. Don't get me wrong here. I think that there is definitely a niche and a market for online stories. I have partaken in such things myself, writing short stories that are only available online. However, nothing really beats going down to my local bookstore (or ordering online) a brand new book that I can hold in my hands. A book that I can bring with me to the coffee shop. A book that I can sit on my patio and read. A book that will stare at me as it sits on my nightstand, begging me to open it up and read it's beautiful muse. Kind of like my cat when it wants to be fed, but more sincere.

The appreciation for the written word hasn't died down in my opinion. Even with the rise of online this and web that, I think there will always be a love for a physical novel in one's hands, a tome of endless adventures and romance that we can get lost in whenever we so choose.

Just recently, I headed down to my local Borders and, with one of their generous coupons, purchased a new novel to read. Granted, I have a half dozen novels on my bookshelf that are still only half read or haven't been opened up at all. But I love the experience of purchasing a new book and I don't think that anything quite equals the ecstatic joy that I feel when I do. And at only a couple of dollars, who could pass up such an opportunity?

 For those that are curious, I picked out Star Wars: Allegiance by Timothy Zahn. Star Wars books have been some of my favorite since high school and I don't think that will ever change. Timothy Zahn is a craftsman in the Star Wars universe, quickly becoming one of my favorite authors for the series next to A. C. Crispin who did the Han Solo Trilogy.