I’ve had a fair number of positive comments on the sample chapter of Crystal Tech. That said, I think I’m starting over. I’ve hit a few obsticals that are just getting me hung up and I can’t move past. I’ll enumerate them as a warning for other authors:

1. First person perspective – It’s just sloppy. I’m putting myself in place of the main character and he needs to be his own man…so to speak.
2. No outline. I had one in my head, but as the book moves along, I’m losing track of it and now the whole thing just stalled. I’d it stalled in Act II, but it just seems like it’s still in Act I and going nowhere. An outline would have helped. A lot.
3. Too many characters. I wanted to make it an ensemble thing (which is where mistake #1 is really biting me in the butt), but it’s just too much. I need to make this more personal, focus on the main character.
4. The world is epic and cool…but I leave it all behind for a sea adventure in the first two chapters. That was just stupid. This is a steampunk/spellpunk world and we don’t get to see any of it while the ship is on the run. Again, I’m dumping the ship and the crew and focusing on one character. That isn’t to say they won’t come back, but that’ll be where the outline comes in handy.

Well, that’s that. Back to the drawing board. Hope everyone had a great holiday and has a fantastic new year.

Tags: Shardlore, Word Count

I’m getting out-of-the-loop on Podiobooks.

Phil Rossi, author of the fantastic sci-fi horror novel Crescent and novella Eden, has a new book out, Harvey. Check it out. I’m about four chapters in and am hooked.

I’ll warn you now, his stuff is scary and graphic, but well written with fantastic life-like characters.

Some days I wish I had a native accent like his. Gives his reads that dirty, down-home feel.

Tags: Phil Rossi, Podiobooks

The story I narrated for PodCastle, On Bookstores, Burners, and Origami is now live on PodCastle.org. Swing by and check it out. Very good story that was a lot of fun to read.

I’m very excited to be a part of PodCastle and the whole Escape Artists machine. They’ve provided hours, nay, DAYS of high-quality audio fiction for Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Horror. I’m just glad to contribute one more hour to that growing mass of goodness.

Tags: PodCastle, podcasts