An Exciting Announcement

Since the effort is underway, I feel confident in finally making this announcement and keeping myself accountable here. The rumors are true: I'm currently working on getting The Everyday Divinities Project short stories to your e-reader of choice!

Now that I've made that bold declaration, let me give you the story behind it.

I'd always had it in my mind to take the short stories here on my blog and package them in one convenient and easy to read file format. I imagined all of them collected on one .pdf with a great layout and design, made available here to anyone who wanted it. The problem I had with that, however, is the same problem I have with theatrical releases of TV shows like The Simpsons and The X-Files: Why would I want to pay money for something that I could get for free?

The answer, of course, is that you'll be getting something better than what you'd get for free. Granted, that's another bold statement coming from me, but hear me out.

While I'm still going to pursue the traditional publishing route with my trilogy after I iron out its kinks, I want to get the ball rolling with my fictional world. I want to start putting The Everyday Divinities Project out there where everyone can find it, not just those who stumble across my site. And I want to make it as accessible as possible to as many people as possible. The divinities demand it, and who am I to deny them their request?

To make this possible, I'm broadening the scope beyond just a .pdf release on my blog. I'm looking into the .mobi format for Kindle, maybe even a spot in the new Kindle Singles if the finished product meets their submission guidelines. I'm looking into the .epub format for other e-readers like the Nook, because I hate monopolies and I believe in the literary equivalent of wide theatrical release over limited engagements. That's not a guarantee that it'll be available in all of those formats, but I'm definitely putting in my research. And yes, I'm still looking into putting an easy to print .pdf up here, too, for those who want a dead tree edition.

Whatever the format, you'll get an anthology of my short stories, all under The Everyday Divinities Project umbrella. Well, almost all of my short stories. The Copier won't be in there because I have other plans for that particular tale. The other five will definitely be included, though. More than that, my previously unedited stories are getting the spit and polish treatment right now so they'll be print-worthy. That's right, three of the five stories in this anthology may actually be notably different in the final product! Add in an introduction to the anthology, some honest to goodness layout and maybe even a spectacular cover, and you'll have a fine piece of e-publishing from yours truly.

I should get back to it, though. Break is over, and there's still much work to be done before an actual release date is announced!

Finally, A Breakthrough!

The past couple of months have been torture for me and my little kidlit trilogy. Every chapter I wrote felt like I was pulling teeth, and read like it, too. It was dull, dry, and completely lacking what made the first draft so much fun to write. I know writing can be a chore sometimes, but really, if I don't like writing it, why would anyone want to read it?

I started thinking it was because I switched the narrative from first person to third, but that shouldn't have made that big a difference. Sure, I was losing the conversational tone of my main character's inner thoughts to guide the story, but gaining the ability to follow other characters should have added all sorts of awesomeness to my narrative. The problem I was really having is that I had lost my narrative voice and didn't know how to bring the fun back.

That's when I came upon the solution at last, the missing puzzle piece that would not only make my story fun to write again, it would make for a much more engaging read than in any of the previous drafts. Plus, it will draw the reader even deeper into the fictional world I've created, and that's definitely a good thing. I can't tell you what this magical solution is just yet, but I hope to have more news on this soon.

Oh, and I should also have some good news relating to my short stories soon. Stay tuned, exciting things are on the horizon!

Between the Lines - The TV and the Remote Control

Ladies and gentlemen, loyal fans of all ages, I present to you the second part of my Between the Lines series! Since I kicked this feature off with The Alarm Clock, I thought I'd follow up with the second short story of The Everyday Divnities Project...

The TV and the Remote Control

To start, a little background on why I wrote this story. After The Alarm Clock story introduced the concept of gods attached to inanimate objects, I wanted to show a little of the "behind the scenes" action that goes on when someone uses your average household appliance. As adults, we're all familiar with how remote controls work. As kids, however, we sometimes make up fanciful explanations as to why some things work the way they do. Our ancestors did the same thing with everything from natural disasters to physical ailments, attributing it to unseen forces wielded by powerful divinities. Why not turn that same fanciful thinking to something as mundane as turning on the TV? This story, then, is my way of explaining that process through the lens of my fictional world.

It should also be noted that this is another case of not being objective about my writing. Why I thought it was a good idea to edit my own writing before putting it up is beyond me. Previous drafts of my novel were always read by other writers and creative folk, and their suggestions always made my writing stronger. I'll eventually come to realize that and run future stories past someone for editorial critiquing, but that won't happen until The Desktop and Laptop Computers story. Sadly, you'll have to suffer through my poor judgment until then.

Also, this story features more human narrative than the last one, bookending the story with familiarity. While I strive to make my divinities more human by mirroring their world with that of the adult working world, and thus easier for an audience to connect with, I also wanted to create more of a connection by putting some more human faces in there. Remy and Lily were characters from the original draft of Inanimate Gods that didn't survive the transition from single novel to trilogy. Rather than continue to use the boy from The Alarm Clock in this story, I decided to reuse these two characters here for some diversity. Also, any similarity between this Remy and the one I'm friends with is purely coincidental and completely unintentional. (Hi, Remy!)

As for the divinities themselves, the choice to mirror their work with your typical office procedures was an easy one. Ancient mythology often mirrored the societies that created them, giving the ruling gods their own domain, subjects, and symbols of power and authority. They were just like the people who created them, subject to the same character flaws that governed humanity, with some exceptions. In creating the divinities that govern inanimate objects, one only has to look around their own home to realize that we're talking about hundreds of thousands (and that's a modest estimate) of divinities, with domains as diverse as cars, tables, pens, sporks, buildings, chairs... you get the point. We're not talking about twelve deities who can sit on top of a mountain and get the job done, we're talking about a sprawling pantheon of gods who, from top to bottom, could function very much like any modern corporation. You'd have the chief gods on top plotting the course of things, and the lesser divinities on the bottom who enact that vision. The details might change in the divine realm, but the overarching structure of a corporate pantheon made sense when compared to our modern world.

Finally, on the decision to use How I Met Your Mother as the TV show Remy wanted to watch. I confess that I've never seen the show once, despite the fact that two of my favorite actors are on the series. I just needed the name of a funny, sitcom-style show for him to watch, and that was the first name to pop into my head. Sometimes it's just that simple.

Do you have a question you'd like to ask about The TV and the Remote Control story? Go ahead and post it in the comments section below, and I'll post the answers on this very page!

Tell the Truth Tuesday, Belated Edition

I was busy on Tuesday, when I should have written this, so very busy with geekiness and my beloved. You'll just have to find it in your heart to forgive me as I come clean about a few things today.

1. It's been very windy here toward the beginning of the week, and I think it blew around a whole lot of crap that doesn't like me. Because of this, my allergies have convinced my nose to go on strike. Hopefully, the nasal work force will be back to work soon, and preferably before I run out of tissues.

2. I still haven't finished my rewrite. I KNOW! I hadn't finished it last year, when I said I would, and now it's 3 months into 2011 and I'm still not done with it! But to be honest (because this IS Tell the Truth Wednesday Tuesday), I think it'll be better for it. I've decided to change up the voice of my narrator, which was feeling pretty blah and you don't want blah in your YA novel. I've also decided to add back in a character I'd originally written out, because he adds a lot of tension and drama, and it kind of needs more of that in the middle part.

3. I did, however, finally FINALLY read Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, and I need to get the rest of them now. I'm such a sucker for Greek mythology, and this gives it a great modern twist that I really enjoy. If you heard that the movie wasn't very good (or saw it for yourself), I'm here to tell you that the book is leagues better than the film adaptation. Is it too early for a reboot? Can we call it a do-over? Or can we at least hand out copies of the book to everyone who saw the movie as a way of apology?

4. Intensely excited for the upcoming book of The Dresden Files later this year, called Ghost Story. Jim Butcher is one of my literary heroes, because it took him 9 years to sell his first Dresden story, Storm Front. (Just 3 more years to go for me! *cheers*) Harry Dresden is a fun character to read about, and Mr. Butcher's novels keep getting better and better with every book. If you're caught up on the series and can't wait to find out what happened after the last book's jaw-dropping cliffhanger, you can read the first chapter of Ghost Story here!

5. In non-book news, I bought Season One of the awesome zombie TV series The Walking Dead. Though I haven't read much of the comic books, their televised adaptation is, at the very least, exciting and engaging. It makes me wonder why it's taken them this long to realize "Hey, zombie movies are popular. Zombies are blowing up (literally and figuratively) in comics and novels. Why don't we make a zombie TV show?" If you have the means, and you're not squeamish about corpsified people shambling about over the 6(!) episode season, I highly recommend it.

6. Also, I bought that and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Six through Amazon ON MY PHONE. And the only reason I bought them is because they were more than half price. Who could resist? I know I couldn't, and though my wallet begrudgingly gave up the money, he's glad they were at such an amazing price.

7. My allergies are killing my concentration. Time to wrap this up.

8. Wow, this entry is linkalicious. So much good stuff made by good people for you to check out! And I'll be shameless and mention that, if you're tempted to buy any of the awesomeness linked above, a portion of the money made through those Amazon links goes to support your penniless writer as he works tirelessly in the literary forge to craft for you the very best YA urban fantasy novel he can. (What? I have to pay for photocopies of my manuscript somehow, don't I?)

9. I actually thought about linking to my Windows 7 phone up there in #6. I think my allergies are making me a little link-happy.

10. I'm putting together a steampunk outfit over the course of the year. This is not relevant to writing at all, but certainly fits my geeky pursuits. So there.

OK, time for me to dive into the comfort of my bed so I can sniffle myself to sleep. More goodness coming later this month, mark my words. Which are already marked. In this blog. ...Yeah, I'm done.

The Hero's Journey - Resurrection

The end is nigh! THE END IS NIGH!

No, really, it is! The Journey is nearly complete. We’re heading back home to the Ordinary World, but we’re changed by the trip. Our old selves are gone, replaced by a new self that incorporates all that was experienced along the way. This, then, is our Resurrection.

A lot of Heroes undergo a Resurrection in the course of their Journey. Typically, this happens toward the end of the story, at the climax. The Hero appears to have died, but returns renewed to the fight to finish off the villain and lead his allies to safety. It’s no coincidence that some of the best stories incorporate this into the final part of their narrative. Not wanting to spoil some of those stories, I won’t spell out any of the greatest examples of Resurrection in storytelling, but I will direct you to some excellent books that illustrate this phase of the Journey so very well: The Princess Bride, the Harry Potter series, and the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, just to name a few.

The most obvious case of Resurrection is the aforementioned literal meaning, an actual death and rebirth situation. Seemingly vanquished, the Hero is miraculously healed and leaps back from the brink of death to finish off the Shadow or otherwise right a wrong. Not so obvious is the metaphorical Resurrection. This would be the death of an old way of thinking or being, something that isn’t as easy to see on the surface but nevertheless affects the Hero in a deep and lasting way. This happens most commonly in love stories, but it can happen in any sort of story where the stakes aren’t quite as epic as risking life or limb for the sake of humanity/the planet/the universe/etc. Regardless if we go with literal or metaphorical, it can’t be an arbitrary Resurrection. Such a monumental event needs to happen organically within the framework of the story, and the rejuvenated Hero who emerges should resonate with what has happened in the story thus far. Nothing ruins a mood more than random death, and the new way of being that emerges must make sense when put in the context of the narrative.

The metaphorical example of Resurrection fits perfectly in Rob’s ongoing story. Now that he has a novel in the bag, his old mode of thinking – that he can only write short stories – has perished in the wake of his accomplishment. He knows it’s a goal he can achieve, and he hungers for more. The hesitant aspiring writer has given way to a confident author, a change that isn’t as dramatic as coming back from the dead, but is just as life-changing in his world.

I hate to say it, but our Journey is finally reaching its conclusion! We’re turning off of the great literary freeway and taking the few surface streets back home, where we’ll share our tales with those who were left behind, entertaining and instructing them with our adventures, making their world that much better with the wonders we bring back. Coming soon, the final stop - Return With the Elixir!

Quotables

"Don't annoy the writer. They may put you in a book and kill you."
—Anonymous (pulled from Quotes4Writers on Twitter)

My Beloved

Okay, yes, this is a blog about writing, but it's also a chronicle of my journey as a writer, and I'd be doing everyone a great disservice if I didn't delve into one of the great landmarks of my journey thus far. And as Cupid's favorite day approaches, I think it's only fitting that I discuss one of the great influences in a writer's life, and certainly a tremendous influence in mine - the significant other.

Now, I don't know about other writers, but I pull inspiration and encouragement from everyone around me. I try to surround myself with wonderful, creative (and often geeky) people who will influence me in positive ways. It's a wonder, then, that I always ended up dating people who were the antithesis of that. Oh, sure, they might be creative in their own right, but they were less than interested in my own pursuit. It wasn't that they were trying to sabotage my efforts or anything. None of them were malicious toward my writing in any way. No, it was worse, they absolutely did not care about my literary pursuit. Not one bit. It's hard to find much inspiration in that.

That was then. Now, I get a text that reads like this:

"You are fantastic, amazing, wonderful & treat me extremely well. I love you so very, very much. <3 also="" br="" something.="" write="">
Finally! A partner who GETS IT!

Writers write. That's what we do. It's hard enough to remove ourselves from the world to do what we love without someone trying to make us feel like horrible ogres about it. I've been given epic guilt trips for wanting some time to myself so I could write in peace, with the implication being something along the lines of "Why do you not want to be with me?" The answer, of course, is never one that they want to hear: "I do, but I need to do this, too." They don't understand, or can't, and take it to mean that they're somehow less important than a computer or a notepad.

This is, needless to say, completely untrue.

I can't speak for working writers, those who make a living from sitting by themselves in front of a computer and stringing together words to form sentences. Maybe it's different if there's a tangible gain from one's writing, some sort of proof that writing is important in the form of numbers in an account. For me, however, someone who holds a day job then comes home to write, there is no tangible gain other than a growing word count and pages of words that will, one would hope, end up being read by thousands of people one day. It's hard to explain why writers toil away like that, and harder still to reconcile that with someone who thinks you're wasting your time.

Fortunately, I found someone who makes it easy for me. Though we've only been together for a handful of months, Loki has been the ideal significant other. He's smart, he's funny, he's a geeky gamer like me, and he's incredibly understanding of the fact that a writer needs to write. He offers encouragement when I need to sit down and work my wordcraft, and lends a sympathetic ear when I need to work through the trickier parts of creating a compelling story. Maybe it's because he wants to be a sci-fi/fantasy editor (I know, it must be fate) but he gets it like no one else has. I realize I'm extremely gifted to have him in my life, and I tell him so often.

In fact, I think I'll do so again: Thank you so much, beloved, for your patience and understanding toward your writer. You are so very much appreciated.

Got a writer or a writer's significant other in your life who you cherish? Add your praises in the comments below!

First Post in 2011!

What an awkward year to type! 2011. It doesn't even sound right. It doesn't roll off the tongue like 2010 did, nor does it have any great significance like our upcoming year, 2012. If the first part of it is any indication, however, this will prove to be my best year ever!

Unfortunately, I don't have a completed Book One in my hands (or hard drive) as I was hoping I would. As I'm toiling over this rewrite, I'm just not feeling it like I did previous drafts. I love my outline, I love my new characters and the changes to the old ones, but I'm having a hard time using them to fill a whole young adult book. As such, I'm going back to the drawing board (or the writer's board, so to speak) and trying to figure out what would make my little high school adventure more exciting and engaging... to me, the writer, if no one else.

Don't take that to mean that I'm resting on my laurels, loyal followers. (And where did that expression come from? Leave a comment below if you know its origins!) I'm turning my attention back to writing short stories in the hopes of provoking some breakthroughs in my trilogy, so expect new entries in The Everyday Divinities Project over the next few months. I'm also reading more, which is something I keep forgetting to do as a writer, and just started the great Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series.

And, of course, I'll be updating my blog more, having largely neglected it for the past couple months. I have The Hero's Journey to finish up, and the latest entry of that is half written as we speak. (Read? Write? I hate getting all meta in my blog.) I also have more Between the Lines stories to write up, as well as all new quotes and quick takes to round things out.

2011 may not sound thrilling, but good things are on the horizon this year. Stay tuned, loyal followers, to see how events unfold!

Happy Holidays!

If I had finished my rewrite of Book One on time this year, I'd be posting a holiday-themed story for The Everyday Divinities Project. Maybe next year. For now, you'll have to settle for this little holiday post.

It's getting late here at my dad's house in Colorado, my baby sister is in bed, and Santa is busy placing presents under the tree for her to discover in the morning. I'm getting my writing in while I can, but even so, I have to pause and take in the wonder of the season. The holidays are such a magical time of year, and while the commercialism of the shopping season threatens to overshadow that at times (which I'm sure pleases the inanimate gods), we still understand the essence of it. It's family and friends, good meals with good company, and giving unconditionally of our food, our time, our love. That's what I get out of the holidays, at least, and I hope you do, too.

So, from your penniless writer and his family, I give you all our best holiday wishes. May this season bring you and yours limitless comfort and joy!

Between the Lines - The Alarm Clock

This is an idea that's been brewing in my head for a while, but I've been so busy with other things - not the least of which is my trilogy - that it's been consistently put on the back burner for other things. Finally, in an attempt to keep my poor blog from being neglected while I write the next great YA series, I thought I'd give it a test run and see how it goes. Consider this a "story behind the story" feature that I like to call Between the Lines. We'll kick off this first installation with the first of the short stories that I've posted here...

The Alarm Clock

First off, let me say that I should never edit my own stuff. I'm not objective about my writing at all, and what makes a great story in my head doesn't necessarily translate that well onto the page. For the first short story of The Everyday Divinities Project, I should really have let someone else read it first to see if it made for a strong intro to the world that I'm creating in my fiction. Oh well, I'll eventually figure that out later on in the Project.

That said, I wanted the EDP to focus more on the inanimate objects rather than the people, a contrast to the style of storytelling I'm using for the trilogy where the focus is on a human protagonist. The first story, then, was going to set the precedent for featuring the divinities over the mortals, which is why the boy barely gets more than two paragraphs to himself. I also wanted to start strong with a god that is often abused and rarely gets any appreciation at all. I don't know about you, but I dread my alarm clock going off in the morning, and I can imagine that enough people thinking similar thoughts would adversely affect such a divinity. Garvin, then, would give as good as he gets.

It should also be noted that the alarm clock god was one of several featured gods in the initial draft of Inanimate Gods, albeit under a different name. His character changed radically enough in the rewrite, however, that I decided to revive his original concept here for the EDP. Sometimes ideas that don't work in one fictional arena work just fine in another.

As an aside, Garvin is a modification of someone's actual name. No one I know personally, but I borrowed the name and altered it to fit with the peculiar naming conventions I'd set up for my divinities. With that, Garvin was born!

Oh, here's one more little tidbit about this story, straight from the Twilight Zone. After I'd posted the story up on my blog, my alarm clock refused to work. Well, that's not entirely true. It still displayed the time, but the alarm function refused to work. It simply wouldn't wake me up anymore, as if silently protesting my portrayal of him in my story. Either that, or he decided to move on to a new position in the divine hierarchy, satisfied that he had finally received the attention due to him after all these years of faithful service.

Do you have a question you'd like to ask about The Alarm Clock story? Go ahead and post it in the comments section below, and I'll post answers on this very page!