Redirect To Brett Post Script…

Ah, hello there. As of this moment, I will not likely be making posts on this blog that deal with my writing exploits or anything related to authorship. For those posts and others linked to writing and books, please refer to my other blog under my pen name, Brett P.S. (Post Script).

Here

Feel free to follow him…er me.

Sweetness! I’m Published!

Granted, I’d less than hastily call it a great achievement to have published a short story, but I did it.

Within the next 6 or 7 hours, according to Amazon dot com, it should appear on the Amazon and Kindle Marketplace as an E-Book. Yay for me!

Title: Grimoire Fantastica
Price(USD): $0.99
Genera: Fantasy

Feel free to like Grimoire Fantastica on Facebook here…
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grimoire-Fantastica/201912339894159

February Decision Go!

Just need to press the Submit button and my short story goes public on amazon kindle and what I assume are a whole host of other e-readers.

That said, I now need to think of what my next writing project should be. I’ve got a few that already have some track on them, but I can’t seem to find myself too enthusiastic about either idea just yet.

::Star Touched::
A sci-fi fantasy novel about a crew of interstellar traders who are thrown into a mess and a fight for survival against an ancient force.

Pros:
-Got 10 chapters done already, which should constitute 1/4 or 1/3 of the finished piece.
-Has a nice setting with intricacies that I think are unique.
-Aliens are cool.
-The writing style is recent, so it doesn’t look bad when I read it.
-It’s just one book, so its simple enough.

Cons:
-It’s been a while since I wrote the the chapters, so getting back into the fray may require some adjustment and practice.
-The main character so far is not a very rounded character. In fact, he seems to play a minimal role, which should change shortly after chapter 10, but that’s kinda late for him to be getting all sentimental.

::The Endless Abyss::
High Fantasy about Gods and Mortals and a struggle between the two groups. It revolves mainly around the central struggle of an exiled knight and his companions.

Pros:
-It’s my dream novel, I guess. You know, the one I’ve been working on since high school.
-It’s already 100% written.
-It would be a waste not to do something with it.

Cons:
-Most of it is written from earlier in my life, so the writing is what I would consider a C.
-Any editing to improve the work would require extensive rewrites of entire areas, so basically I’d have to draft another copy in order to bring it up to A rank.
-If I did choose to rewrite it, the process would take months at least…perhaps a year.
-It kinda was written to be a book series, which means I kinda have to publish more than one after this one.

::Conclusion::
Well…Huh…you know, looking at these choices, I kinda hate the fact that The Endless Abyss has so much extra baggage…In order to make it into the book I want, I’d pretty much have to do a complete rewrite.

On the other hand, the only real challenge with Star Touched is getting back into the swing of things.

I hate to see TEA be put on the side lines, but I may have to just put it on the bench. I wonder if there are authors who have one or more books that never saw publication. I wonder if it really is the best thing to just…let it go.

Is It Really This Easy?!

For crying out loud, I feel so stupid!!!!

For my short story, I managed to snag a nice editor who agreed to do the job for free, but unfortunately, days and weeks would often go by before I would hear word of a chapter revised. It eventually got to the point where the project was abandoned.

However, I buckled up and started looking for a new editor, finding out quite quickly that rejection is a big part of the game.

After being rejected by about 15 or so potential volunteers…mind you this is a 20 page short story, something akin to a long essay…I took a stroll down to the writing center at EIU. Within 20 minutes I was able to find someone who would be interested in a paying job.

Half way within writing this post, the editor emailed me back saying that the job is done.

I feel so Stupid!!!

So, the moral of the story is: Money is the best policy when it comes to people showing interest and getting work done.

Youtube Channel Praise: Foner Books

Sometimes I come across a Youtube channel in which the author is well mannered, interesting and which is underrepresented. Fonerbooks is such a channel. It is a channel devoted to the act of self publishing and provides a more philosophical brand of mentoring that young authors may find themselves appreciating.

The author of the channel fonerbooks, Morris Rosenthal, puts on an original and interesting act with a voice that just makes you keep on watching.

For a sample video, check out this one here…

I encourage anyone interested in self publishing to subscribe his channels, as will be linked to below…

http://www.youtube.com/user/fonerbooks/featured

http://www.youtube.com/user/WebOneO?ob=0

My New Favorite Channel

Browsing through youtube, I came across the following video. Be warned! It contains some curse words…

I was surprised that, although the video is much longer than 10 minutes, it kept me entertained and laughing the whole way through. The guy is an artist with this sort of thing, which becomes apparent quite quickly.

I encourage you to check out his channel if and when you get the chance. Here’s a link…

http://www.youtube.com/user/egoraptor?feature=watch

The Endless Abyss: A Summary of Effort

My current novel in progress, if you count out Star Touched, is The Endless Abyss: The Warrior’s Journal. Some time ago, about early 2011, I had produced my first finished manuscript, albeit only a rough draft.

It was time to look for an editor!

Without too much trouble, I found one, but it was quite an ordeal after that. I expect most authors have to go through more than a few editors before they actually find one they like, but I’d scarcely believe they have to go through more than one in most cases to find one who is willing to do the job.

After quite a bit of back and forth through summer and fall semester, I find relatively close to the end of the year that my editor has abandoned the project.

So for new year’s, I was left with a hulking manuscript and for the past three quarters of a year, nothing to show for it. I admit that I’m a bit irritated, though I’d scarcely imagine being foiled by this sort of thing. I am determined to send this one through the proper channels, but I’ve made a promise to myself that it has to look good.

My mind is made up. I just have to find another editor.

Nova Lancer and The Endless Abyss For PC On Indievania

Yep, after a few days of waiting, my games were finally published on…
http://www.indievania.com/

Nova Lancer…
http://www.indievania.com/games/nova-lancer
is marked as free for the moment…probably forever.

And The Endless Abyss…
http://www.indievania.com/games/endless-abyss
is marked at $0.99 for what will likely be a similar amount of time.

I will try my best to get more of my games converted from the Xbox 360 to PC. The only aspects I really need to change are button graphics. Other than that, I’m going to need to consider some kind of demo-mode time limit to build into the games themselves. Xbox Live has a 10 minute time limit built into their viewer, but I may need to engineer that myself for the PC.

Indievania, My New Favorite Game Dev Heaven

First off, if you haven’t heard, here’s the link…
http://www.indievania.com/

Second off, indievania is an indie gaming site where essentially people submit games made with nearly any software and put them up for sale.

Of course, you don’t have to sell your game at all. It can be free for all they care.

I’ve only recently discovered this particular site, but there are games made with game maker, rpg maker and many others, sometimes selling in upwards of 5 to 15 dollars.

Not sure if they’re making any sales, but whatever. The point is, you have an alternative, a clear and cohesive site that you can put games up for sale.

I’ve submitted a few of my indie titles and am waiting for approval. The process seems about as slow as on Xbox Live Indie Games, which would be about 2-4 weeks, but that isn’t really a loss.

I would recommend indie game developers who want to publish games for the pc, mac and linux in various programming languages to check out this site.

December Project…Still Going?

Apparently, one can’t easily write a short story over the course of a month! Of course, the book itself was finished in about 2 weeks. However, the editing process is proving to be quite tedious, especially since I’m not the one doing it.

However, all hope is not lost. At the worst, this one month writing project will only turn into a two month instead. Not a total loss, I’d say, right?

Still though, check out the facebook page for my short story here…
Grimoire Fantastica