Selling Your Soul To The.....Customer?

So I was thinking a little about the upcoming conventions and conferences and such this year and thought back to some advice I'd been given.  I've been looking into self publishing through a company that specializes in that sort of thing, though I can't right now since I don't really have the money.  One of the things that I've heard is that even if you don't have a book finished you should still advertise yourself to your audience.  Set a deadline goal and then promote yourself and your book to the public.  Something that was suggested was going to events that focus on the audience you were looking for and get out there and talk to them. 

I've been debating on doing that for a while now and really in the long run it would depend on how much a table would run me.  Annoying things like rent, food, gas for my car, etc always seem to get in the way of the things I want to do.  How dare real life get in my way? 

I believe the next big event around here would be CONduit, a local science fiction/fantasy convention and it has the audience that I'm looking at.  Would it motivate me and give me a poke in the side that I'd need to finish the book faster?  Maybe, I can't be sure....unless I do it.  It's an investment either way and I guess if I went to something like that, find out if people actually like the idea of my book, then it would be something to tell me "Hey, people actually would read this thing...it might be a great idea."  It's definitely a nice boost to the ego to be able to know you have an audience out there demanding product.  In the end I have to be happy with my story, but it is nice to know that people outside of my awesome writing group would love to hear more of my story.  Though honestly if my writing group were the only ones to buy the book I'd still be really happy cause I love those guys. 

So if I could get a table at the convention, just a small one mind you, I was trying to come up with ways to promote the book.  Banners and stuff are always nice and you see people walking around with those nifty bookmarks but I don't really have cover art for my book and I'm sure that'll cost me some money too.  I'll look into it but I was also thinking of maybe printing out a pamphlet type deal with a preview of my book...maybe say the prologue and the first chapter?  I know the convention's coming up soon so I have to make a few decisions soon.  Any artists out there wanna give me a hand with a cover design?

Also on a side geek note, I just bought a board game from my friend's store, Fongo Bongo Games.  I really shouldn't have but I couldn't resist.  It's the Star Trek Expeditions Game based on the newest Star Trek movie that yes I actually liked, and yes I am a Trekkie/Trekker depending on how you want to say it.  Haven't played it yet but I'm getting off the computer soon to try it out.  It's kinda nice cause it only requires a minimum of one player to play.  Yay!

Since When Is Sleep a Good Thing?

Okay so after yesterday I got the message...sleep is a necessary thing.  I guess I just figured I could make it and cram as many things into my day and sleep later....yeah that didn't work, even with caffeine.  What I should have done is sat down in front of the computer or pulled out my notebook cause I get some interesting things when I'm sleepy but I didn't.  I'm doing some research as I finish up my chapter nine.  Mostly in my head research first, get the creative stuff down and write a kind of 'bible' for my book.  It doesn't have be set in stone but it's nice to have this whole notebook full of history and plans and character details.

Speaking of chapter nine I'm debating on whether or not to follow my usual formula.  The chapter starts with a conversation between three archangels.  Now in past chapters whenever I had a conversation between say God and the angel, and Lucifer and Lilith it became the whole chapter.  The scene between these characters are usually the entire chapter then I move onto Galen and his interactions with others.  So my question is whether or not to have the entire of chapter nine focus around these three archangels, or include what I want to happen with Galen as well.  At this point it's about just going with it and see what happens. 

I recently started reading Beyonders: A World Without Heroes by Brandon Mull and it's some pretty cool stuff.  It starts out pretty crazily but I like that zaniness about it.  Pretty good start for my mission to read more, especially since I have a really long list to finish.  Luckily several of the books on my list are audiobooks.  Call me crazy but I love being read to.  If you find an excellent narrator it can be just as good as watching a movie.  With some books when I've listened to them several times it's also excellent to help put me to sleep.  Sounds bad I'm sure but it turns into a kind of white noise that's very soothing.  Right now I'm loving the narrator for The Looking Glass Wars series.  Makes me think of who I could get to narrate my book once it's finished.

One thing's for sure I definitely know who I'd want to star in the movie of my book :)

Demons Are Real....Wait...What?

So world creation's interesting.  I have a lot of research to do but I'm going to try and not get caught up in it and just skim.  It'll be my side thing to do when I get stuck with the book or I get frustrated or the characters are being stubborn and what have you.  Research and Firefly, two great stress relievers.  There are others but we won't get into that cause that'll be an extra long, long ramble.

So I was doing some random searching on the internet for links to the different writing groups and events I've gone to or that I belong to or that I plan on going to in the future and I found some extra interesting things.  I now have a list of writing contests that I want to enter.  Contests always make me nervous because when I write it's for me first then my audience and it's meant to be fun and out there.  I mean in the end you need to pay attention to the technical details but you've got a lot of time to worry about that stuff later.  With contests you need to pay attention to the creative and technical stuff right off the bat.  But it'll be fun and a good exercise to keep me writing so that's always good.  I also have to remember to post some of those links to my group's website, so keep an eye on that guys :)

I can't wait to participate in the A to Z challenge in April.  That also seems like it might be fun and I'm already thinking I should make a list of possible topics so I get a good start.  It's an interesting challenge.

Side note I have to go into work tonight ugh.  I'm going to keep some paper or have my word processor up in case I feel like writing something tonight.

Mmmmm Coffee......

So here's to a fresh start.  I look back on my posts and they seem so impersonal.  I basically forced myself to write something and it had to purely be about writing.  Well this is a writing blog, not a personal diary, but then I realized that my writing is me.  It's completely personal, it's how I think and feel and that shouldn't have to be put into some sort of format.  I'm not going to sit here and ramble on about work or my date last night (ha), or that fender bender I got into last week (heaven forbid).  I'll talk about my writing and everything I'd connect to it, and I'll say it in a way that makes me feel like I'm actually talking to people. 

So on that note I attended one of the most awesome writing conferences two weeks ago.  LTUE or "Life, the Universe, and Everything" over at Utah Valley University.  A three day conference devoted to science fiction and fantasy writing.  Oh yeah, geekgasm.  It was so much fun.  I learned a lot and met a couple of really cool writers.  Even attended a couple of non writing panels such as The Secret Mind of a Serial Killer and a panel on ghost hunting.  Way cool.  I've really been stalled lately and it got the juices flowing.  I finally started my chapter nine!!!!!

If you check out the blogs of a few of my friends they've got more details notes on the conferences panels but I'm not going to go into that.  Going to stuff like that really gets me thinking.  It's one of those events that tells you that maybe you really can do this and be happy with what you produce.  My big questions is always about whether I'm good enough to do this or not.  Then after the conference, specifically the keynote address by James Owen, I realized that I have to be the one happy with what I'm doing.  I want to write for my audience, want other people to love what I'm writing but I don't like what I'm writing then what's the point?  I am the first audience for this book/story/idea and if I don't have fun doing it then I shouldn't be forcing myself. 

Totally attending this conference next year. 

So now a revamped blog, trying to keep a very positive attitude, and get myself out there learning and meeting new people.  Also, love my writing group! I've said it before and I'll say it again, they rock.  Without their support I wouldn't be writing at all, let alone attending conferences and digging into the process of writing.  If you haven't joined a group yet join one and if you don't have one and happen to live in Salt Lake City join our group.  Yes that was my shameless plug for new members....but I'm not sure that works if no one but my writing group is reading this.....lol oh well it's worth a shot. 

Holiday Delays

It's always interesting how the holidays seem to put everything on hold even when you don't mean to do it.  I don't have any family here in Utah but with my friends keeping me busy on top of all the phone calls I need to make on those important days I'm far from free.  Despite that I'm going to try and keep up with things. Try...that's the keyword there. 

In my last post I mentioned a workshop that I was co facilitating.  That turned out to be a lot of fun and it did get my creative juices flow for a bit.  I managed to write a section of conversation between Galen and the angel.  It's not the next part in the story but who says that anything has to be linear?  I'm just happy to add more to my book.  I always seem to get more inspiration from group sessions with fellow writers than anything else.  Music is the next best thing when I've got writers block.  Talking through things though is always the best.  Hence the reason why I'm always grateful to anyone who's willing to listen to me babble even when/especially when I'm not making any sense.  Thank you very patient people :)

I also entered my Zombie School short story into another contest.  Keep your fingers crossed!!  I should hear something from the first contest next month if I won anything.  No matter what it's good practice and I'm trying to keep myself moving forward by writing short stories set in the universes I've established.  I can't do it for every story I've written, but Harbinger and this one manuscript I wrote set on a space station in a kind of Alice in Wonderland world have broad enough settings and worlds that I can write multiple stories from different and new characters.  I'm not much of a short story writer so it won't be so hard to try and stick to already established places....I hope.

Christmas is around the corner and that holiday is even more hectic than Thanksgiving.  It's also my second favorite holiday.  This having been said I might not be posting as much next month though I am going to try.  I haven't touched my book at all either and I really need to get moving. 

Here's a thought....what's Christmas like in a post apocalyptic western world?  Does Christmas exist?  What about the other holidays? 

What about your worlds?

Blog entry titles are hard to come up with...

So an interesting and exciting development.  The Community Writing Center who sponsors our writing group is having a Speculative Fiction Class and guess who's co facilitator?  You guessed it, it's me.  I remember going to this workshop almost four years ago and having a blast so I'm really looking forward to it.  Mostly I'm just looking forward to geeking out with fellow fans of sci/fantasy.  Here's also hoping that this workshop drums up some new short story ideas.  I'm still working on my book but a short story would be a great way to get the juice flowing and maybe even help come up with some new ideas.  Maybe even a short story set in the universe of my book....hmm....

Overdue

So I'm already terrible at keeping up with this blog and my goals.  Though that doesn't mean nothings happened between then and now.  I've finished a short story that was just in time for Halloween.  My first horror zombie story and I think it turned out pretty great.  There's still some tweaking to do but otherwise it turned out the way I wanted to.  I've entered it into a horror writing contest at WritersDigest.com and I'm entering it into another contest on the same website for short short stories.  It fell just below their 1,500 word count limit.  Come to think of it, that was the first short story I've ever written and finished. 

Writing that story came me some interesting perspectives.  I've found that when I write a novel I don't have much rigid organization.  I'll write notes and character profiles and plot ideas but otherwise outlines and such don't really work for me.  Believe me I've tried.  I guess in a way I do write a loose outline.  Most of my notes involve research but also plot ideas and points that I want to keep in mind for later on.  The rest of the details are in my head, which I also should really write down. 

Short stories though are the complete opposite.  When writing this story I knew exactly what I wanted to happen and how.  I didn't write a physical outline but I did write one in my head.  Point A to point B to point C.  I didn't allow myself to deviate or leave out.  Novel or short story things can always be trimmed so there was no point in leaving anything out till I was done.  So as an exercise I think I want to try and come up with some more short stories and see how that improves my writing in general. 

I hear about the contest results in December and the next contest entry isn't due until November 15.  Wish me luck, I know I'll be on the edge of my seat.  Either way it's a good experience for me and it gets my writing out there.  I can't publish the short story I wrote as part of the contest rules, but if I don't win you'll find the story published here for people to read if they wish. 

Also I would just like to say that my writing group rocks!! If it wasn't for them I probably would have quit most of my current work a long time ago and wandered off to another idea.  They keep me in line and keep me writing my book so I'll finish it.  Thanks a lot you guys!!