Author Pic Contest

HAI YOUS GUYS. Tomorrow I'm doing some author headshots (photos, you guys...no firearms involved) for my illustrious Critique Buddy.  She's having a really cool voting contest to help her decide the final pic for her book! Check it out and maybe you'll win the gift card :D

http://nofilterinstalled.blogspot.com/2013/08/help-pick-my-author-pic.html

Crap.

Eh heh.  I started writing another book.  Book number 3.  Which is probably a stupid thing, I know.  I've heard repeatedly to only work on one at time, but I can't seem to effing help it.  I know of others that have also succumbed to this so-called authoring "faux pas," so at least I know I'm not alone.

Anyway, I'm calling this one Dyad for now, mainly because I'm too lazy to come up with anything cleverer.

So, I have my robot story in the works.  I'm co-writing a zombie story with a friend.  And now I figure I'll pump out an alien one as well.  I've always wanted to write an alien story, and I figured I may as well get a jump on it while I have ideas.

Dyad is the tale of a human woman and a male alien "creature" crash-landing on an uninhabited planet after a harrowing space battle.  The two remain at odds with each other until they learn that they must put up with each other to survive.  And some kinky stuff might happen.  Depends on how weird I make the alien guy.

So, yep :D

SCWC: Package Submission

This is in regards to when you’re ready to submit your manuscript to an agent.

Package Submission

-        Query letters/synopsis for submission to agents

-        A good query letter should be brief—sell yourself and sell your book

-        Do your research and adhere to the requested format!

-        Need to capture reviewer right at the start, then elaborate a little further on stories/characters

-        Explain why you’re qualified to right this book (your bio should be relevant to the story)

-        Don’t copy a generic submission template

-        You’re applying for a job—be pleasant and business-like.  Present yourself as someone your agent/publisher would want to work with.  Your bio is your resume.

-        Agent website/blogs tell what they require and some talk about what they like/don’t like to see in query letters.

-        Synopsis—sample of your writing skills.  1, 3, and 5 page overview of story.  Don’t leave cliffhangers/surprises.  Tell it all.  Touch on major characters, conflict, resolution, key story element.  Start with 5 pages, then cut down to 3 pages, then cut down to 1 (working backwards is easier to get the meat of the story down to a one-page synopsis for submission).

-        Follow agent’s directions for initial story submissions (first 3 chapters, first 50 pages etc).

-        You have to be really damn good in order to break the rules.

-        Looking for an agent: http://pred-ed.com/ and http://aaronline.org/

-        http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/lunch/free/ - newsletter, see which publishers are selling/popular/good ratings

-        http://duotrope.com/ - search publishers by genre, etc

-        “Submishmash” - http://www.submittable.com/ - manage submissions

-        Send multiple submissions at a time

-        The bigger the agent the better, but relationship with agent is important too (may find that a smaller agency is more agreeable).

-        http://www.shewrites.com/

-        An agent is good to have so they can fight your publishing/publisher battles for you.

Do As I Say, Not As I Do.

For the love of God...don't do what I did a couple nights ago.  I was attempting to consolidate all the chapters of my manuscript into a single document, and...well, I fucked up.  The worst thing that could possibly happen, happened.  I committed the cardinal sin.  That one thing they warn you about.  The one thing that only dumb asshats like myself do.

I ended up deleting about 80% of my manuscript.

First off, I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing.  I was cutting, pasting, deleting, cutting, pasting, deleting...watching TV, yawning, eating, drinking, yawning, and then...*delete*  I deleted.  The wrong.  Document.

No problem, right?  Just go to the recycle bin?  Wrong.  I was working with the files on my thumb drive, and once you delete them from there, they don't go to the recycle bin.  There are just gone.  I did a computer recovery, setting it back to what it was a few days ago, but that didn't help.  The auto backups don't include the thumb drive.  Learn from me, my friends.  Learn from my stupidity.

So to the Internet I flew.  I downloaded multiple free file recovery programs.  Some were crappy, some were okay.  You get what you pay for.  Thankfully, because Baby Jesus loves me (or maybe not, because he allowed me to fuck up so badly), I was able to recover most of my stuff.  Some is corrupt for some odd reason, but I just happen to have a stash of various chapters (in varying stages of completion) buried on my computer hard drive at home and at work.  I can piece it all back together, but I'm going to have to re-write some.

Well, that's better than re-writing the entire thing, I suppose.

I leave you with this little nugget of advice, something I see every day on the wall at the office:

Well, here I am.

Greetings, gentle reader.  Inexplicably, amid the vast abyss of the Intarwebs, you’ve stumbled across my page.  Perhaps you’ll stick around awhile.

Let me first introduce myself as “C”, and for the moment I am neither male, nor female.  I am simply…C.  I will remain luxuriantly anonymous and dancing naked in the cyberstreets until I’ve met my goals.  Speaking of which, my goals are thus:

-       Gracefully exit the military around the year 2021(ish).

-       Become a published author relatively near that same timeframe

-       Earn a reasonable living off my creative works.

-       Maintain or exceed my current lifestyle.

It’s not that I’m against the military or anything.  I have no regrets about joining; it’s been good to me.  But I don’t want to do it for the rest of my life.  I’ll be satisfied with my twenty-year stint.

I’ve already started working on a story, one I’m convinced will make me an extravagant millionaire, so that I may get to live comfortably while my spouse continues slaving away in the workplace.

…Okay, maybe that’s a little unrealistic.

I’d like to have my book ready to go, complete and prepared for submission to agent at least 1.5 or 2 years before my departure from the military.  I’ve done some calculations, and according to my research, I’ll need to write about seventeen words a day for the next eight years if I want to achieve the 50,000-word novel mark.  Seems doable, considering I write a lot more than seventeen words each time I sit down to add a little here and there.  But then again, I don’t do it every day.  I should probably consider making that regular routine.

But yes, my story.  It will be science-fiction in nature, taking place across a long span of time.  I’ve been using a lot of details based on my own personal interests and professional experiences, so there’s definitely some military stuff going on.  I’m also a bit of a science nut, but it’s more of a hobby.

The main character’s name is James.  I haven’t decided yet if I like it, or if I’ll change it.  For the moment the name is serving as a placeholder.

I won’t give away too much just now, but I’m considering dropping hints along my journey.  That’s why I’ve created this blog, so I can share in the learning process and document my frantic scramble to attain my dream.  As you can see, I’m not in too big of a hurry.  I’d like to take my time and learn everything there is to know, start to finish, about the process.  And perhaps, once I’ve become outrageously famous, I can also use this blog in an official capacity to entertain and inform fans.

So, feel free to tag along for the ride.  Maybe we can learn a thing or two together :)