A very happy birthday to Sasha Small, main character of Renaissance Calling and the Renaissance Army series, born February 10th, 2459.
Sasha has many more birthdays and stories to go through before she’s done.
Category Archives: Uncategorized
Goals for 2018
I didn’t mean to wait until halfway through January to post about my 2018 goals, but somehow that happened. In some way, the lateness flows into my main goal for 2018: to be more of a writer.
I don’t just mean write more, though I do want to do that. What I mean is I want to be involved in the writing community more. I know people who get short stories published and set up literary events. I want to go to more conventions and blog more.
A friend has said several times that self-publishing is like a business, you have to work on it every day. While I am proud of my accomplishments as a writer in 2017, I can’t say I have stepped up to that challenge. So my goals for 2018 have to do with improving that.
Specific Goals for 2018
Attend four conventions: I am already signed up for Manticon 2018. I want to find three others to sell my books at.
Blog regularly: There are a lot of things I want to blog about, so I’m going to have to make this a priority. I’m already using a habit website to help me track a lot of improvements for 2018, including blogging.
Publish Book 2: I want to get Book 2 out and get started on Book 3.
Finish my fantasy Trilogy: I have finished Book 1 of a fantasy trilogy, and I want to finish the whole thing before I start revising and editing. I want to work on that some.
Find and take advantage of other opportunities: Going to require some research, but there’s no reason I can’t get into more writing relating groups, organizations, etc.
Simple, right? At least on paper. There’s still a lot of work to do on all of them in execution, but I’m ready for the task. To the writing-mobile!
-Michael
Birthday Check In
Yes, it’s my birthday. And since it’s been a while since I posted, I wanted to take this opportunity to check in and let you all know I’m still here, working hard on Book 2.
Book 2 is largely outlined, with only a few gaps to connect. I’ve got about 70,000 words written and plugged into yWriter. And I’ve got all the Kickstarter-created characters figured out. All in all, it’s just some hard work to get the draft finished.
I’ll try to post more on here in the future, but it might be spotty until Book 2’s rough draft is done.
In the meantime, Happy Birthday to me! Last year I had just finished my Kickstarter campaign and was happily on my way to publishing Renaissance Calling. What a good year it’s been.
Cheers!
Accidentally Published on Amazon
The story of how I accidentally got published.
So the fun thing about setting up books with printers (in this case Createspace and Ingram Spark) is you have to decide a publication date. Since I have never done this before, I was a bit optimistic about when I could get everything proofed and prepared. When I started setting everything up in February, I believed I could get it all done by early March. March has turned into April, since the hard cover turned out to be a bit longer to proof than the paperback was.
While this was happening, because the paperback (from Createspace) was already approved, I forgot to change the publishing date from early March. So two weeks ago, I realized that Renaissance Calling was already on Amazon. I had been unofficially published and I didn’t know it.
Surprise to me.
Shortly thereafter I got a 5-star review from a Hall of Fame reviewer. That was a nice start.
So, as things stand the eBook and paperback are on Amazon. The hardcover has been approved but is still tricking through the internet to get posted (the hard cover printer isn’t affiliated with Amazon, so it takes a few weeks to get put up).
Anyway, you can now buy Renaissance Calling on Amazon.
I am, officially, a published author.
A different type of writing
Right now, I’m going through a bit of a rough writing spot. I fulfill a requirement for my Kickstarter, I need to write a number of segments of mechanical (think social studies) styled articles. Which, let me tell you, is a different type of writing.
As a reward in my crowdfunding campaign, backers are slated to receive the ‘Backer Booklet’, a small book that rounds out the world of Renaissance Calling. The topics chosen for the book were selected by four polls run during the campaign, and they all turned out to be pretty similar in their scope:
- From State to Kingdom: History of Minnesota
- Life in Walker County: How the Protagonist grew up
- The Kingdom of North Mississippi: The setting of the story
- Countries of Atlantic America: A survey of foreign powers
Some of them could easily be Wikipedia articles, and the rest could be found in some scholastic journal. All world building.
It may sound easy, since you’re not writing with dramatic prose or worrying about ‘show don’t tell’, but I’m not coming up with sixty pages of mundane facts. ‘Life in Walker County’ is not a counting of population and agricultural production. It is a look into the life of the main character, explaining the world she grew up in. It needs to be interesting and informative.
One easy assist it to add in graphics. I’ve got maps and flags planned, and I’m leaning towards commissioning a few pieces of artwork to round it all out. That definitely goes a long way to keeping it interesting. But it can’t save a book where the writing is too mechanical.
At the moment, what I’m working on is getting the information down, so I have a good starting place. It will be dry, sure, but I can worry about crafting the words later, once I know what the data is.
I can tell you this, though. I’m looking forward to getting back to some good, old fashioned fiction writing.
-Michael
Two weeks to Publish
Two weeks to go, and 70% there.
Renaissance Calling is almost funded! That’s exciting news, isn’t it?
If you haven’t checked out the campaign, now’s a good time to do so. There’s still one Backer Poll to take part in, and we might have some sketches coming soon for the cover art.
Thanks!
Michael
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/michaelbernabo/renaissance-calling?ref=user_menu
Slow and Steady Publishes the Book (I hope)
I did not expect it to be three months between posts. I really thoughts that my next post would be announcing a Facebook page or a publishing plan. Maybe some word on Crowd Funding or Publishing Dates…instead, I’m not there.
That’s not to say I’ve slacked off for three months. My book is getting edited, and I’m closer to having artwork for a campaign. I’m writing two other books that are coming along nicely.
But when it comes to publishing, there are so many options the possibilities get intimidating to consider.
I could ask for a lot of money and do a bulk package from a website, hoping that the extra expenses pans out for me. While this seems simpler, I’m not a fan of how much it costs versus how little I can expect back, and how little control I may have over it.
Or I could start a publishing company and do as much of the work myself, working to get several books out there and establishing a name for myself that way. This gives me more control, but I’m not sure that I know enough to use it correctly.
Lots of research to be done, and soul searching. Whatever plan I go with, I’m going to be going with for the first several books I publish, so it’s got to be something I’m comfortable with.
Moving on
I failed to fulfill the NaNoWriMo goals, which is okay. The fact is I have a lot of goals I’m working on, and adding one more to the plate before I finished off a previous goal was a bad idea. Someday, I’ll get to the challenge, but not now.
On the positive side, I finished my revisions for my book. The next step is to sit down and figure out what to do with it. I’ve been alternating between splitting it into two books or serializing it. Both have their advantages.
I also need to go through my bag of goodies from the AWP (Associated of Writers and Writing Programs). I had some ideas of submitting work to reviews and journals, and some contacts who might help me with the marketing and promotion of my book.
Slow and steady wins the race. Focus on what I’ve got in front of me and finish something. Then move on.
Five things I want to avoid when writing
A simple list of five things I want to avoid in my stories.
1) The Mary/Gary Sue Protagonist
The character who is always right and always wins. Every likes her. No one can defeat her. She never does anything but always comes out on top.
2) The Cartoon Antagonist
He’s evil because he is. No depth. No personality beyond opposing the Protagonist. You can’t really hate him, because there isn’t enough of him to hate.
3) Consequence Free World
Buildings are destroyed, vehicles crash, banks robbed, people hurt or killed, but in the end everything turns out okay. Sometimes with music.
4) Static Characters
The character wakes up, goes on an adventure, experiences pain, fear, joy, and victory, and wakes up the next day the same character.
5) Repetitive Challenges
The Antagonist only interacts with the Protagonist in one or two different ways. No real variation in their stories, and the Protagonist is never really challenged to grow.
Orphan Folder
Nothing sucks more than remembering that you had a great idea, but not remembering the idea.
Several years ago, I started to combat that problem by opening an Orphan file. It’s nothing more complex than a folder where I store flashes of inspiration. A line of dialogue, a scene, the basic concept for a story, it goes in the folder. An outline that I’m slowly working out? Saved.
It’s nice to know that I have all these ideas saved, and I have raided it a few times to get ideas enough to get around Writer’s Block. I doubt I will actually get to use all of them, but I’m okay with being more creative than productive. It means I’ll never run out of things to work on.
Happy writing! 🙂