After completing two Fantasy novels, one which is self-published (but also taking a run at the slush piles) and a second that is making the rounds to publishers and agents now, I had to make a decision.

What do I write next?  I could start the second novel for either series and stand on solid ground or I could step away and try something to stretch myself.  Since I believe writing is actually a learning experience, I began to explore a couple of options – the first was a full blown Science Fiction novel ( A genre I do read) and the second a Mystery (Something I don’t read) set in a small resort town.  I tossed both ideas out to my reading group and they were enamored by the Mystery.    I even wrote a couple of scenes to see if I could set the tone.  I surprised myself and my readers – there was a good mix of humor as well as a solid (according to them)  start.  ”Wow,” I thought to myself. “… now the real work begins.”

As an aside – I have to say I’ve become a huge believer in outlines.  With an outline in place, I actually have a story to tell instead of wondering what comes next.  Surprisingly, it only took a couple of days for the base outline.  My last novel (Afterlife: Rebirth) took two weeks to come up with a base outline.

Now with their blessing, I sat down and created a complete base outline – from start to finish, but the details still need development and expansion.   I have everything in place from protagonist to antagonists, the romantic interest(s) and the ties that bind the story together.  Here is sort of how I created the basis for the story.

Mysteries are very new to me – I’ve never really been a reader of the genre, but my wife is a huge Mystery fan and so a lot of what I consider is passed by her immediately.  My other major source of knowledge comes from the many police, detective and mystery shows on TV.  I realize most television shows work on a simple format – initiate the story, introduce the characters involved and then find the resolution.  Unfortunately, I am not a huge follower of the format.  Nine times out of ten, I can pick the ‘bad guy’ out when he or she is introduced as a ‘background’ character.  So it is very important to me to be certain the real story is not in the traditional format.

I am also pulling out all the stops, the protagonist is female (mind you – this too is out of my normal realm of possibilities being a male)  In order to write a fair character, I am relying on my readers to ‘Gibbs-slap’ me when I start adding male brain things to a female brain.  It’s important to me to have the lead come off as genuine.    Yes, there will be romance involved.  I’m not yet certain how far to push the envelope, but I’m taking an open view on this.  I’m not a fan of erotic fiction, but I do believe there is a place for mature matters to come into play.   The question is where will I draw the line?

I wanted a locale that is not common and since my hometown is in the Adirondack Mountains, I decided to create a resort based on the 1960s village of Lake Placid.  What that means is it is a Summer/Winter resort with serious Spring and Fall off-seasons.  When I was growing up in Lake Placid, there was a private club which was restricted to members and members guests only.  In the 1970s it changed and became far more public.  My idea is to use the mix of periods, but set it in today’s world.  The village itself is a place where everyone knows everyone else and their business.  (Can’t say that about Lake Placid today – a very transient community with a smaller community within of true ‘locals’).

Okay, I have the protagonist and locale – now I need a mystery.  Here is what I came up with.  ”A local teenage boy is found dead at the same time a 17-y/o girl on vacation goes missing from the Resort.   The question that faces the sheriff is “Are these two separate incidents tied together?”

Now admittedly, I have a much deeper story line involving all sorts of odd characters and unexpected twists as the sheriff investigates the ‘crimes’.

Now all I need do is learn how to write a mystery that works.  Stay tuned!

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I probably take a bit of a different approach to creating my worlds than some other authors.  I’ve had the chance to listen to a few accomplished people on this topic and I do try to take what they have said into my own style.  I tend to build a huge world in which the characters live and much of it will probably never be seen.  This may stem from my days as a D&D Dungeon Master far, far so very far in the past.

Enough about me.  Lets get started.

What is the overarching intent?

   While I am sure there are probably many LOTR epic style SciFi stories out there, I haven’t come across any myself (discounting of course Star Wars type story lines).  So I wanted to try to create something that has many of the LOTR elements – an epic evil,  protagonists with little chance at accomplishing an overarching goal, a world far beyond anything they could imagine.  and of course some sort of magic.

Okay so my first concept involved in this intended series has to be what is the ultimate goal?  Here were my first thoughts.

• Just how wide spread is this to be?  Should it take place on one world or across a galaxy?
• What if there were multiple ‘evils’?  One would be the danger threatening the entire ‘region’ while the other might be set on a single planet or even city.
• Are these two things related in some way.

(Hmmm … its so much easier to make these decisions in a place like Middle Earth.)

Here is what I decided.

• Book One should be set on a single world that is threatened with destruction sometime in the future.

Who are the main characters?

I wanted to create a protagonist and one or more antagonists that people will remember.  (Who doesn’t – we’d all love to create a Harry Potter!)  These are all things I feel are important to take into account.

• The Protagonist
• What is his/her greatest desire?  Her biggest fear?
•  Strengths?  Weaknesses?
• How old is the character when the novel starts?
• Why is the lead drawn into the overarching story?
• The Antagonist
• Why is this person a problem?
• Here is where you really need to develop a character in depth, a history and goal.  If you talk about “Sauron”, then even the ultimate evil needs a reason to be evil.  Just being evil does absolutely nothing.
• Look at your Protag and create the same type of background.
• Why is there a relationship between the Protag and the Antag?
• What is and Why is there conflict?
• Secondary Characters
• Just who is part of the Protagonist’s life?
• You can develop some of these characters to the same level as the Protagonist.  (Consider Raymond Feist’s Pug in the Rift-World series – many of Feist’s books are about characters other than Pug, but Pug is always the central character of the series)
• Who is under the spell of the Antagonist?
• Do you intend the overarching evil to be something unreachable?
• If so – then each book needs a separate antagonist (sure – the same one for potentially several books)

In my next column on World Building (Monday, Feb. 6th) I will go deeper into the development of my characters for the new novel.  See you then!

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Yes!   Today Amazon.com has begun listing ” The Mist of Allmharach ” and you can purchase the paperback version immediately.  Please feel free to do so

 You can also continue to purchase it through my website.  If you have a special code you might be able to save up to $3.00 off the website purchase.

BUY MY NOVEL AT AMAZON.COM

BUY “THE MIST OF ALLMHARACH” IN TOM’S BOOKSTORE

The Mist of Allmharach is a fantasy novel in the tradition of Lord of the Rings, but set in the modern era.

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Yes folks … The Mist of Allmharach is now available for purchase! 

TOM’S BOOKSTORE

   You can purchase The Mist of Allmharach directly through my bookstore today.  It will be available on Amazon.com in paperback by January 27th and on Kindle shortly afterward.  Check out the price and information in the bookstore.

   In about six weeks, the novel will be available through most bookstores online and well as in the real things.   You may have to request it from many.  I expect the Nook version to be available at about this same time and am working on distribution through all of the eBook retailers.

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The Mist of Allmharach will be available during the week of Jan.23rd on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle versions.  You will also be able to purchase it directly on my website.   I should have the date within a few days.

You can now read a preview of my first novel:

THE MIST OF ALLMHARACH   

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I received the proof of The Mist of Allmharach today and now I just need to give the publisher a go ahead to have it on the market in both paperback and Kindle formats.

The decision I have to make is fairly basic – do I want to ‘self-publish’ this title or not.

Here is why there is a problem.  I began this novel 10 years ago and have put a great deal of work into it over the years.  A couple of years ago I re-wrote the entire novel from scratch and have put a huge amount of work into it.  I set it aside about a year and a half ago and went to work on a different fantasy novel which has been completed and is out to the good old slush pile.  In December I had this crazy idea to simply self-publish The Mist of Allmharach and sat down to take a look at it.  It was better than I remembered and my Friday readers group pushed me to spend some time on it.  I did and I found CreateSpace.com – a subsidiary of Amazon.com.  While technically a self-publishing company – it’s actually a ‘publish on demand’ operation.

I actually like the system CreateSpace.com uses where I maintain complete control over everything.  The onus of selling the book is on me and that may not be such a major obstacle. I have a few ideas on how to advertise it that are not the normal channels.

Okay, fine.  I received the ‘proof’ today and I’ll be damned, but it looks good.  All I need do now is authorize CreateSpace to release it and it will be on the market on AMazon.com and available to all other types of book sellers.

Now comes the dilemma.   I actually think it’s good enough to send to the major publishers and it may have a nice niche all its own.  I literally have begun that process.  I know with CreateSpace, I own all the rights and can pull it at any time for any reason.  That means if a major publishing house expresses interest, I can sell it to them.

The problem now is should I release the novel or should I hold it for several more months as I wait to hear back from some agents and publishers?  I do have another novel – Afterlife: Rebirth already out there making the rounds.  Should I toss out a second?

I guess I have a decision to make now.

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   What is it you ask?

   It’s the dreaded waiting period from the moment you send in your first query and/or manuscript.  You begin knowing you need infinite patience, but patience is a virtue few have control over.  I’ve often found myself battling the need to relax and wait even though I know exactly when the hour is coming.  Each minute becomes an hour and each hour, day.  I hate waiting.  Lines drive me insane.  Even one person ahead of me at the grocery store is – to me – a waste of my time and energy.

   Oh well … I’m in an industry where time means little.  It works at its own pace and doesn’t concern itself with those desperately awaiting answers.  For my own sanity, I have tried to come up with my own 5 Writers Steps to Acceptance.  These steps are even based a bit on the 5 Steps to Acceptance for those dealing with death.  

Step 1:  Excitement

The first query is in the mail.  You are excited and you begin making those plans that will make you successful and famous.  You can’t wait for the return envelope with the offer to purchase your epic work.   That’s Day 1.   And Day 2 and so on and so on until you realize it takes much more time than you hope.  That’s when you face …

Step 2:  Anger

What’s taking them so long?  Can’t they see its one of the greatest literary creations since Gutenberg’s printing press (which of course was created just for this moment in history).   You tell yourself to calm down, but you want to make that phone call to someone, anyone. Fortunately calmer minds surround you to remind you it’s only been a couple of days.  You decide there must be another way and begin …

Step 3:  Bargaining

… to attempt to find a way to nicely contact the *publisher/agent* to let them know your amazing manuscript should be on their desk, but maybe someone misplaced it.   Then you turn to prayer, each night offering some small piece of yourself if only … and then it happens …

Step 4:  Depression

… You know no one is going to accept your manuscript.  No one knows your name or even cares that you wrote this third rate garbage.  You know the *publisher/agent* is never going to send you a rejection much less call you.  Maybe you even decide to give up writing, choose a new career path – trash hauler or janitor or if you are absolutely at the bottom of your depression, you decide the state must take care of you – yes, welfare sounds exciting.  Time passes and you remain in a deep funk until one day you finally …

 Step 5: Acceptance

… come to acceptance that it’s only been a week.  It does take a bit more time.

   While this is meant to be a light look at the process each and every writers faces, there is some reality in the process.  Admittedly, this is an industry where time is of little consequence.  Sadly many within it don’t even recognize the stress and emotions so many writers go through because of time. 

   It’s funny in some ways.  I am going through the 5 Writers Steps of Acceptance right now and I haven’t even mailed out the manuscript or queries.  I expect to put a couple in the mail in the next week or so.  Afterlife is complete and I am just waiting for a final spelling/grammar check to be dropped off at the house.  Then I can do a final format and mail it out.

But I can feel every bit of the itch already.   That tiny irritation has been niggling at my toes for a couple weeks and I really want to scratch it, but I know better.  I need patience … unending fortitude in the wake of my efforts.

Maybe I should start working on the next brilliant novel.  Yeah, that’s the ticket.  I’ll forget I submitted anything and start from scratch.  That way my toes won’t itch.

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I know I’ve thought this before, but the journey I have taken over the past two years has taught me the realities of this business.  I am thankful for all those I’ve met along the way and the assistance, both active and passive, I have received from each one of them.

I began this journey believing I could write.  When I look back on everything, I now realize I could tell a story, but I needed to learn how to write the story.  My initial efforts included ten years of work on a novel yet to be completed.  The entire story of that novel has been set down on paper, over 120,000 words worth, but the reality is – it’s nowhere near ready for the light of day.  

Now my second effort is the one I focused on the past 18 months.  Afterlife: Rebirth took me about 6 months to write.  I began the novel in July, 2010 and played with it until about the middle of August when I decided to put a serious effort into it.  I completed the initial draft in about 8 weeks and kind of thought I was ready.  I wasn’t.  Yes, I began the steps to get it published, sent a few queries out here and there, even won a contest on Savvy Authors website for my opening line in a query.  (Sadly, I never heard back from the supposed agent who was going to evaluate it after she said she received it.)    But there is a truth behind all of this I have come to learn.

“Don’t think your novel is complete until it is complete.”

I continued to ‘refine’ the novel until April 2011 and was reasonably happy with what I wrote.   I have two wonderful readers who helped me immensely, particularly with grammar and spelling errors and we worked on those things.

… and then golf season struck.  Somehow my attention was diverted.  Okay I admit it – I lost focus.

In October, I remembered I had a novel to finish fixing.  Funny thing – as I was reading it, I found so much missing from the story, so much detail and background and not enough conflict between characters.  I took the novel from page one and began to study what each chapter needed to make it better and began to add scenes, modify the interactions of my leads and secondary characters and finally learned how to make the writing actually flow.

For the past two months I’ve lived this novel.  I’ve spent anywhere from 6 to 10 hours a day, seven days a week  of intensive effort to reach this point.  I’ve learned so much about my world and my characters it amazes me.  But you know what?  I really believe I have a solid story to tell and one that may be good enough to be published.  (Yes, I know – I can self-publish, but that is not what I want at this time.)

My friends and I are just finishing those final little details – mainly making certain every word is spelled correctly and every sentence works, but this won’t take more than a couple weeks maximum, perhaps much less.

One thing I am certain about – I am really a writer now.  Maybe not quite yet published, but definitely a writer of novels. 

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