Plans for the Future

[Recent launch. Source: Unsplash.]

This blog is about my indie writing career and what I'm doing with it. As you probably noticed, I launched my first book and made it available to you last week. I blogged about it last week. The book is about three kids and their super animal companions fighting off the Doomsday at the talons of The Bird, the evil Dog of War's right-hand monster. It's an action-adventure coming-of-age romp based on "Chicken Little." It's perfect for kids 8-12 or readers whose skills fall in that range. Adults have also read and loved it. This book series has the tone of a Percy Jackson book and is reminiscent of Animorphs. If your kids like books like those, this is for them. 

Some years ago, I made available a prequel to this series. You can read it for free on Amazon here. It can be read before or after any of the stories. It simply expands on the lore. 

[Book 2 illustration]

My next book is called Doomimals Book 2: "Cat-a-clysm" and is based on "Three Little Kittens." The three kids from book 1 team up with three kittens to try to retrieve the Mittens of Cataclysm before they are used to destroy the world. The rough draft was written some years ago and was rewritten more recently. I'm right now working on deepening the emotional context of the tale. I'll then run it by my beta readers. I hope to launch it in October. 

[Spanish. Source: Unsplash.]

Meanwhile, I'm working on a Spanish language translation of book 1 since I'm bilingual and having my nephew, TPAW aka TPA Wulfric, and whose books you can find here, do a high-quality audio recording for Audible. I made a superhero cape for him when he was a toddler, and now, he's helping me fly. His own little ones now wear that cape. He's been one of my greatest supporters and helped me reconceptualize my story structure. With both Audible and translation, I'm hoping to make it available to more people. 

[Chickens!]

I'm now working on helping Ax the Narrator, my own right-hand man and son, rewrite his masterful spin-off of my book, Just Us Chickens. The first book is called The Misadventures of the Just Us Chickens. Mine is focused on the kids and their struggles to reunite their family and save the world. His follows the adventures of the animals, particularly a group of super chickens who will save the world if ever they can stop tripping all over their own feathers. 

He took my scaredy Chicken Little, named Drumstick, and swept him into this new team. As I said last week, he wrote the first draft when he was 13 and just learning to write. It won second place in the kids' book contest against much older writers. He's now rewriting it to make it zanier, crazier, more human but also more fun. He takes his inspiration from books like Captain Underpants and The Bad Guys, though it's for a slightly older audience. We're shooting to launch this book in September, date forthcoming. 

[Writing. Source: Unsplash.]

Meanwhile, I'm working on reaching out more to you, the reader. I'll be blogging a lot more often. I'm enrolled in an online class that will help us learn how to bring my pieces to more people. I'll be donating my books to libraries and working on getting them into bookstores. I'm eager to share my books will everyone I can. I'd also love to hear from you. What do you look for in a book? 

Launched!

[The Doomimals Kids]

Doomimals features three kids striving to save the world from the evil Dog of War. She's sent the sinister Bird to hunt down three kids and their super-powered animal companions. Book 1 kicks off the whole adventure and is an action/adventure romp for kids and is based on "Chicken Little." The kids' rooster tells them the sky is falling; in other words, bad things are coming. Davis, a nerdy boy, Kitt, his heroic twin sister, and Tessa, his sweet cousin, have to fight their way through a gauntlet of animal enemies to tell the mayor the world is in trouble. Only their pets' help will help them survive. 

[Delayed launch; source]

I apologize for the delay. I thought I was ready to launch and was focused on researching how to publish on Amazon when I had my friends, Theresa Furbish and Evelyn, her daughter, play the part of final beta readers. Thanks to them. They helped me see the books still needed some work to be ready for you to enjoy. It's finally ready! Expect updates a lot more frequently now that book one is done. 

[The Cover]

Book 1 is now available for you on Amazon! Pick it up today in ebook, paperback, or hardback. Here is the link. This would be perfect for kids who love Animorphs or Percy Jackson or even "Phineas and Ferb." Included in book 1 is a link to a prequel, "If You Give a Cat the Boot," based on "Puss in Boots." If you'd just like that short story, here it is. It's free there as well. 

[Just Us Chickens]

As for what's next, five years ago, Ax the Narrator, my 13-year-old boy, won second place in the children's book category of the League of Utah Writer's annual contest. He went up against several writers like me with degrees and years of experience. My reviewers always give me feedback to help me polish. The reviewer simply loved the characters and zaniness and said, "Send me an email when it's published. I must have a copy." 

[Chickens!]

Ax has written around 20 novels and several short stories, among other things, since his first novel. They're all in various degrees of completion. With all of his years of experience behind him, he's now rewriting the original book 1 to add more depth and fun. He'll include that original award-winning manuscript for free with book 1. We're shooting to have it finished and polished in the next couple of weeks. 

[Doomimals Book 2: Cat-a-clysm]

Meanwhile, I'll be pushing to complete a final edit of Doomimals Book 2 using the help of my friends. I'm hoping to get it done in September. I'll keep you posted. Buy your copy of book 1 today.  

Twice the Chickens, Twice the Fun

[Super Chickens]

My teenage boy, who will be going by Ax the narrator, is the other half of my writing partnership. He's the wildly creative half of our team who is unrestricted by adult fears and limitations like I have been. All you have to do is have a slip of the tongue, throw out a crazy wordplay, or watch a movie and play with him, and he spins off into a new character, subplot, or a new book, which he can churn out in a few days. It was his slip-of-the-tongue when he said Alpacalips that my brain started churning, and Doomimals was born. I, meanwhile, have the master's in English and the practical sense of grammar, structure, writing, and literary depth. I run into writer's block frequently, and he bails me out with his wild ideas. He'll spin out a crazy scene for me, and I'll weave it into something ready to be read. 

[School of Rock-source]

Recently, we watched the Broadway musical "School of Rock," based on the early 2000s movie with Jack Black. Even though it's about a slacker scamming his way into a substitute teaching, he must have done something right because during my Master's program, my whole group of budding college English instructors was taken on a field trip to see the movie in order to learn to teach in a creative way. But in the eyes of my boy, this became the inspiration for a crazy plotline about super chickens substituting at a high-brow school, where they end up having major super battles with possessed teachers. 

[The Bad Guys, a silly book series recently adapted for movie theaters. Source]

While I'm finishing up the editing process and doing the last items to prep my first book for publication, my boy is churning out zany Captain Underpantsesque/The Bad Guys-like insane books. I was going to release one of my books then one of his books, but it's pretty clear his go a lot faster than mine. How does this translate to your experience? The new plan is to put out one of my books then, the next month, release one of his then, a month later, another of his. Doomimals will come out every third month or so while his are going to come out a lot faster. As soon as my first is done, we'll immediately focus on pumping out his, one after another. It's something to look forward to in the near future. 

A Complicated Juggle

[Juggle-source]

I'm back around to working full-time as a transcriber and online college instructor, which means I'll be juggling work with writing.  On the bright side, I made it through the first trilogy of my series, Doomimals.  I have rewritten all three books over the summer, one per month of the summer, basically.  It's been wonderful to have time to take books that weren't bad and turn them into books you will enjoy reading.  On the not-so-bright side, things will slow down some since I have to reprioritize and have urgent items to deal with for a while.  

[An illustration from book 3 by Ghostelle.]

Last time I blogged, a month ago, I was just then puzzling over book three.  It was a book with a protagonist who was fairly weak, who was not much of an actor in her own story.  The normal world was her cousin's world and not even hers.  The climax was confusing and weak.  The whole thing needed to be rewritten.  And in the last month, I found Tessa's voice.  I found a way to start in her world, with her family, and to allow her take charge of her underworld, slowly gaining confidence through the adventure.  The climax is exciting and triumphant because I turned to my creatively genius boy to help me write it.  

Now, I'm ready to start working on book four.  It should be fairly simple because it already has a strong voice, and its events are fundamentally sound.  It mostly needs a polish. And I'm looking forward to getting it ready for you. 

Finding Writing Contests

 

[source]

I've always found writing contests motivating.  I've rarely won anything (a few first-place prizes almost 20 years ago from League of Utah Writers and a few miscellaneous prizes since, 2nd place on an essay in college, honorable mention from Writer's Digest, and a few others), but it's still fun to either come up with something fresh or to polish something you've had sitting around in a rush against the deadlines.  My son and co-writer won 2nd prize from League of Utah Writers in the children's book category--bypassing several adults, many of whom have degrees--a couple of years ago on his first novel, one he wrote when he was 13.  

[The first illustration in The Misadventures of the Just Us Chickens.]

As I'm also working on editing my stories for you, we'll be making a push to enter pieces into that same contest again.  It won't necessarily get anything officially published, but the prize money and bragging rights could be fine.  The feedback we get is usually very helpful as well.  My boy's feedback on his prize-winning book was, "Tell me when this gets published, so I can buy it."  It would be great for him (or me) to get more of the same this year.  Besides this, this will give us a chance to edit some more pieces, so they're more polished when they get to you.  

[Cover of my short story on Amazon.]

My boy, Ax the Narrator, has been wanting to write a silly story called "Just Us Chickens vs the McGuffin Puffin," a sort of Indiana Jonesish story for a few months now then get it published on Amazon as a sort of teaser for his books.  That will happen very soon and will probably be your first chance to read the Chickens.  You can already read the first of my Doomimals stories on Amazon, in "If You Give a Cat the Boot."  It's even free on Kindle.  We look forward to getting you more material in the near future.  If ever you're looking for motivation to move your writing forward, keep contests in mind.  

What Is It about Early Chapters?

[Introducing Characters-image by Ghostelle from Cockadoodle-DOOM!]

 I've noticed rewriting early chapters seems to take so much longer than later chapters.  I wrote and rewrote and rewrote again chapter one of book one of my chapter book series, Doomimals.  I seriously spent five to ten times longer on it than I did on all of the others because I needed to make sure it did all the important things: establish the characters and why the reader should care about them, establish the setting, stick my toes into the adventure that was about to hit like a tidal wave, show the characters making decisions that would lead them out of the normal world and into the metaphoric underworld, and make it all seem engaging and fun.  That's a lot for one chapter to carry.  And it all had to be done in as short a space as possible, so the reader would keep reading. 

[Editing-source]

 I've gone back to it multiple times and only occasionally find something to tweak.  That's when I know I did it right.  It will be better yet when I have readers go through it and tell me they felt the same.  I still have to go through that same draft and see if my husband and son can find more things to "funny up," places to make more engaging, endearing, amusing, or in other ways make the reader feel.

 

[Funny Characters-source]

I've now gone through the first chapter and made sure, as writing experts say, it ends not where it did end, by getting into the adventure with a new set of characters, but on a cliffhanger that hints at the adventure to come.  I'm now working on making sure chapter two is as compelling and engaging as it can be.  I want to make sure the character is consistent, funny, and endearing, as with the main character of the first book.  In short, I'm working hard to make these books as fun for you as I can. 

Beta Readers and Roadblocks

[source]

There's good news and bad news.  The good news is I'm about to have a break in my work schedule due to the holidays, so I will have serious time to work on my books.  Most days, I only get some editing done on my boy's books at the end of a day filled with hours of other work.  It would be so nice to do this full time.  Also, I finally have found some readers for my books, so I've at least had most of the first half of my series read by someone else and have had feedback given.  Two of them are willing to tackle more. 

[source]

The bad news is my illustrator has had serious technical difficulties and may not be able to proceed much further with illustrating.  She was all but done with the second book.  This leaves 8 books to illustrate and 9/10 needing serious revision (the first one is mostly done with revision, though it still needs some).  But I have time for a while to knock out illustrations, figure out Scrivener in order to work over the whole set, and have been told by a handful of readers that they've really liked what they've read.  This all gives me hope that in the next month, I can really accomplish a lot, possibly get this first set ready to go.  Here's hoping.