This is the Week

Here I am. This is the week that I get to check out my book again. I've purposefully kept away from the tome for exactly one month so that I can check it out with a pair of fresh eyes, and today is the day that I re-read it for the final time before I send it off to my agent and readers. 

For those of you who want to know what is going through the mind of a writer (or really any creative person who has made something from nothing), I found this interesting piece that pretty much encapsulates it:

1.- This is awesome.

2.- This is tricky.

3.- This is shit.

4.- I am shit.

5.- This might be ok.

6.- This is awesome.

For every sentence I will be reading over, for every paragraph and chapter, those six steps will be going through my mind one right after the other... hopefully. Hopefully I will land on number six at the end. We shall see. 

This "Month on the Shelf" Business

One month. One single, solitary month. What to do, what to do...

Let me tell you what there is to do. Like I mentioned in an earlier post, I was going to use this period of time when my book is finished and sitting "on the shelf" for a month (a sort of self-imposed break I take, which, when it is over, allows me to read the work again with fresh eyes) to start work on the art for the interior and cover of said book. 

And that I have done! For the cover piece, I've hammered out a few dozen thumbnails, decided on one, arranged my models, and even started my sketch. I would show you what I've got so far in that department, but the cover is supposed to be this cool surprise, you know, there's usually this big "cover reveal" day where the cover is displayed and people "ooh and ah" over it, or mostly just shrug and then click on a video where some cute puppy falls asleep next to some equally cute baby.  

Such is life.

But what about writing? I've heard that writers need to write every day. Since I am fairly new to this writing business, I of course hear things like this and immediately start to feel inadequate, thinking, "Oh my God, I haven't written a friggin' thing all day! I'm fooling myself. I suck." So to alleviate this feeling of incompetence, I've decided to start writing short stories in the morning. At first, I thought it would be difficult to come up with ideas for stories, but it actually didn't take long. I just sat in my living room with the kids playing upstairs, sipped coffee, and stared out the picture window. It was nice. Relaxing. And lo! I now have five ideas for short stories that I'll be hammering out over the next month! 

I'll keep you posted as to how they're coming along. Right now, I'm doing research on the first one. I haven't decided on a title yet, but it takes place in 1920's America. There's a milkman, his daughter, and a crow. Weird combination, but there it is.   

Book 3 is DONE!

... and now let me qualify that sensationalist title. What is really "done" is the first draft for book three of the "In the Time of the Dead Trilogy." And by "first draft" I mean that I have written 100,000+ words, there is a beginning, middle, and an end, and it seems to be reasonably kick-ass.

With that said, I am now in the process of reading through the whole of the manuscript, checking for any little (or big) issues that may present themselves. This means things like, "Do I really need a comma there? Would that guy really say that?" and "Wait a minute, what day is that happening on? How could they get to the location they are in that short amount of time?" as well as, "Oh man, I completely do not remember writing this, did my kid get on my computer and hammer out these pages?" 

You know, stuff like that.

In a few days, after I'm done this read-through, I get to put the sucker on a shelf for a month! That's right, one month! And then, after that, I get to pick it up, dust it off, and attack it with a fresh mind... or as fresh as its going to get- which actually means it has a slight amount of moss growing on it along with an old, withered man in a loincloth walking around inside, banging on its walls with his cane, saying, "This sucks, sonny. Oh, yes, she sucks!" 

From there, I get to send it off to my readers and my agent. 

Now, lest you think I am sitting back and taking my leisure in those thirty days, let me assure you that I am only sort of doing that. In those intervening days, I shall be working on the cover and the interior pieces for the book. So... stay tuned! I'll be putting some artwork up here in a bit! 

Later gaiters. 

The Thing with Blogging

Ye gods, blogging is tough. 

Is it, though? I mean, you're a writer. You've written novels. You're writing one now. What's so big about writing a blog?

It's just... the TIME! You don't understand. It's just hard to think about sitting down to write a novel all day and then, somewhere in there, think about having to sit down even longer to write something in a blog. And it's not just the writing. It's the thinking up content; something that's going to be interesting for people to want to read. And what's the use anyway? Are my thoughts really so awesome, someone out there in the world wants to read them?  

Blah. Blah. Blah. Just write and stop complaining. 

I'm explaining. Not complaining.

Sounds like complaining to me.   

What you've just read is the conversation I have in my head when I think about blogging. I'm constantly going back and forth on whether it is worth having a blog when I have all these other ways of connecting with readers. There's the big one, Facebook, and then there is Twitter, Instagram... and all the others. It's exhausting to think of trying to keep up with providing content for all those sites, writing and researching for my current and future books, doing the illustrations for those books, on top of blogging. It's just... yeah. A lot.

So is it worth it? Not really sure. I read everywhere that in order to have any kind of writing career, you NEED to blog. Is that true? Let me know your thoughts. As you can see, mine are engaged in a heated debate with no real decision in sight. But wait... here I am, blogging... that's gotta tell you something. Right?

Cover Reveal for THE WARRING DEAD!

Check out the new cover for my next zombie book, "The Warring Dead!" Cover Reveal

The Zombie Axiom! Re-released!

It's HERE! Re-released by Severed Press, grab a copy on Amazon... and if you've read it, drop a review! Click on the image above, or here: The Zombie Axiom @ Amazon.com

The New Cover is UP!

It is true! The new cover for THE ZOMBIE AXIOM is now up on Mybookaddiction.com! Head here: My Book Addiction and check it out. Not a bad job, if I do say so myself!