Twelve Days and Counting

Yep, only twelve days!!! I really thought I would have more news about what's going on, but I don't. That's mainly because I've decided to sit back and watch things unfold until the book is actually out. Once that happens I'll jump into action and hopefully have more to report. I'll update as things unfold, but until then it's kick back and let the publishers do their thing.  

Call me paranoid, but...

About three months ago I got bored and decided to pitch my story, Empiphany, to American agents. I expected rejections on every front, and wasn't disappointed. However, this email came through this morning, and fed the paranoia that almost all who have created something would have when reading it... 'THEY'RE GOING TO STEAL MY IDEAS!!!' (They're not really, well, maybe a one percent chance they are, but I can't help but worry a little).

Here's the email.

'Dear Stephen,

Thank you so much for sending us your query and especially for your patience in waiting for a resoponse. I'm happy to say that I enjoyed reading your first few pages and see a lot of potential in your writing and style. I found however, that your descriptions lack a certain touch of detail that prevented me from connecting or envisioning the sorroundings and connecting with Blair. The story also has aspects that are too similar to another project I'm currently pitching, and so I'm going to have to pass on further consideration. I wish you the best of luck and look forward to the opportunity to read more of your work in the future.

Regards,
Marisa

Marisa Corvisiero
Literary Agent
Corvisiero Literary Agency'

I know I'm over reacting, as of course someone else in the would could have had the same or very similar ideas as me, I'm not that unique, and why would the agent bother to reply if they were stealing my ideas, but there's a part of me that will always get irrationally protective of my work. When you spend thousands of hours on something you can't help but be a little paranoid at times like these.

Ultimately, there's no way of knowing what the circumstance are around this situation, and I'll just have to forget about it. However, I wanted to do a little blog about this just for the fun of it as it's another experience on the journey.

Review Time: In Search of Gods and Heroes, by Sammy HK Smith

As always I've used the review set up that I've adopted. This is me giving my thoughts and opinions on the Pace, World/Environment, Themes, Characters and Originality of a story. I've decided to change this set up a little and put the Characters section first as it feels better that way.

Intro:

In Search of Gods and Heroes is a story that I'm honoured to finally review. A few years ago I stumbled across the writer’s forum called Authonomy. There I became friends with Sammy HK Smith and we shared our stories. This was when I first had the chance to read this story and enjoyed it from the start. I am so glad to see In search of Gods and Heroes finally published and have the opportunity to share my thoughts on it.
Below is my review and please feel free to take a look at the description of this story, and if it appeals to you buy it- How else will you enjoy the creativity, the epic scale and scope, and the vast number of unique characters that In Search of Gods and Heroes has to offer? Okay, enough jibber jabber- on with the review!!!

Characters:

I.S.O.G.A.H. follows Chaeli as her life is thrown into chaos. Chaeli lives in a medieval style world where a number of Gods, aka Immortal deity's, are worshiped (not unlike the Ancient Greek Gods).The catalyst for her journey is the appearance of a demon who attacks Chaeli. She manages to flee but this revelation that the forces of the underworld are after her turns her world upside down. As things unfold we quickly see that the forces of good are trying to help her, but because of their rules of minimal intervention they struggle to do so. Chaeli then begins an epic journey that balances between good and evil as she tries to discover her role in the events that are happening around her.
Chaeli is certainly an interesting character with many strengths and flaws that make her interesting to follow and share this journey with. She is not one I personally had complete empathetic attachment too, but as always this is subjective. Being a man does put me at a disadvantage from the start because Chaeli’s character and the events that happen to her do make her more suited to female readers. This, however, does not make the story any less enjoyable for male readers as Chaeli is interesting to follow and there are so many reasons this story is enjoyable, i.e. the concepts, the epicness, and the fact there are male characters to become attached to, such as Nathan, Adely, Daro and Eli.
  There are so many other unique characters, which would fill up several pages to write about, so I’ll just say I believe most female readers will be able to relate to some of Chaeli’s struggles and other reader’s will still be able to find at least one of those character’s to side with. For a story to be able to do that is very impressive, as so many characters could make the story a bit to chaotic but I didn't feel that at all with I.S.O.G.A.H.

Pace:

Although this story is reasonably long it does not feel so. The pace of the overall story, the character development, and the action is well balanced and structured so I never became bored, which can happen easily if, like me, you have the attention span of a four year old. The wide selection of character perspectives that are followed in this story also helps the pace as it gives an ever changing and fresh feel to the story.

World/Environment:

Out of all the reviews I’ve done so far this certainly has the most scope and grandness to the plot and world. The world focuses on the land of Ibea, which itself is well detailed to make it believable, but we also get to see and visit the underworld and divine home of the gods, which adds to the flavour of the environment in this story.

Themes:

Good versus Evil: This comes in the familiar form of the mortal struggle between the two opposing forces. This intertwines with the other obvious theme of Choice, Inaction and Consequence, which I’ll touch on in a second. The contrasting philosophies of good and evil are developed well by using the formula of the evil side trying to force situations and take control, while the good being inclined to sit back and give choice to the mortals so they have a chance to prove themselves. The interesting element to this is that the immortals are fallible and subject to choice too and this adds an interesting layer to the story.

Choice: As mentioned choice is a common theme. ISOGAH explores the nature of choice making, doing nothing, and being overly controlling. This is done in way that is thought provoking but easy on the brain-cells too.

Love/Lust: This theme is tackled in a very interesting way as there are often blurred lines between love and lust in this story. These blurred lines are good to explore as often what is lust, and what is love, isn’t always clear, and sometimes it is. (The way it is explored isn’t explicit by any means, but some more conservative readers may not find this theme to their taste).
  There is also a love triangle, which I think Twilight  has killed, but I have it on good authority that the reason love triangles are so popular to female readers is because they are a frequent dilemma for the fairer sex. I personally hate them (love triangles, not the fairer sex) and am bored of them, but I acknowledge the appeal. If I put my own feelings aside on this matter then the love/lust triangle in ISOGAH is an interesting one as each individual’s feelings and desires are explored in detail. This gives the reader a good insight into the characters motives and personalities. Some of the circumstances that do unfold are enjoyable because it is always good to have complex subjects explored.    

There are obviously other themes but these are the three main ones that stood out to me.

Originality:

This is subjective, as I’ve clearly not read every story this world has to offer, but I like to give my little opinion on whether I felt the story was original, especially as originality is something I crave. I am happy to say that ISOGAH was very original to me. Yes, it follows some very familiar themes as all books do, but if a story can weave them in a new way it makes me a very happy reader. I love the original feel to the world and scale of this story; and along with the unique characters and verity of perspectives, ISOGAH has a very fresh and new feel.

Last Thoughts:

As you can tell I’m a fan of In Search Of Gods and Heroes and anyone looking for something that is a quick paced adventure and layered deeply to provoke thought then this is the book for you.

Life Just Keeps Getting In The Way, Or Should I Just Get A Life?

The problem with writing stories is that I can get frustrated, and perhaps selfish at times because it’s what I want my paid job to be. I’ve come a long way in four years since naively and innocently thinking that this was going to be easy. However, knowing how difficult this path is doesn't stop me wanting it more than anything. I know people will think I'm arrogant, but I still believe my stories are good enough to accomplish this goal- I guess when The Book of Prophecy is released it will be an indicator if I'm right or not. However, it can just be a bit of a struggle waiting and trying to do what's right for my life and the goals I want to achieve. Especially at the moment when there's so much change going on in my life.

The main change that effects my writing is my job situation. As mentioned in previous updates my job has been a miracle and allowed me to write while on the nightshift when it’s quiet and I’ve also had a lot of time during the day to write as well. There are some limitations to how much I can write, as I’ve also previously mentioned, but I’ve done well at balancing it all.

Now, however, I’m changing jobs and this luxury of time to write is possibly going to vanish. (Some reading this might say, ‘Wow, go get some real problems,’ and in a way they’d be correct in saying that, but I have those real problems too, but writing about those is not what this blog was for. This blog was to do with writing and so that’s what I’m sticking to). Ultimately, it could be my choice if I get to have the time to write or not, depending on what hours I choose to work. (Yes, I am grateful that I actually have a job, but trying to achieve what I am I have to be willing to sacrifice, but it’s hard to know what is okay to sacrifice and when to do so). I’m just unsure whether to throw myself into the new job to earn the money I need to pay off my debts, or for maybe another six months just work the minimal I need to so I can survive and get another writing project finished. I have one in mind and would be a straight forward project of four novella’s to make into a collection of my writing diversity and creativity.

I am swinging towards just doing the latter as I’m too stubborn to take even a slight step back from my goal just yet. It may be the wrong choice and continue to make me struggle financially, but without great risk there will be no great reward. Plus, The Book of Prophecy is due out the first of August and I want to throw myself into marketing that when I can. So I may just keep my focus on writing and see what happens. It’s just annoying that I couldn’t stick with my other job for another six months or a year, but the night-shift was taking its toll on some of my health struggles and going to a job that is day-shift should be better for me.

Everything is pretty uncertain to how it’s all going to work out, but isn’t it always? As ever I’ll do my best to adapt and accomplish the goals I have and then see what happens. Maybe that’s selfish of me, but if I achieve my goals, my life, and more importantly the lives of those I love could be improved. It’s a risk I have to take, at least for a little while longer.

The next blog update in two months will no doubt cover what choices I made and how things are unfolding with how much I’m writing. After that update it will only be a week and a half until The Book of Prophecy is published J.

In Other Writing News

Cat Story

My five hundred word cat story, The Caterpillar of Catastrophe and the Catatonically Drunk Cat, was published in the collection titled Felinity. The link below will take you to where it can be purchased.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Felinity-F-E-Smith-ebook/dp/B00JSC8VSY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1400670993&sr=8-1&keywords=felinity

Book Two of the Chronicles of Elementary

Due to the job change and other distractions this had to be put to one side. The massive re-write that occurred was very productive and although there is still a lot to sort out and things to add, I’m glad to have such a significant amount done. When I do go back to finishing it off it will be seven months less work if I hadn’t done what I’ve done.

The Book of Prophecy

I am currently getting edits back from a wonderful and very talented editor. We are over halfway through. The book is shaping up nicely and next time I blog it will almost be for sale in beautiful paperback and ebook format. At some point before then the marketing is going to have to be worked out, but we’ll build that bridge when we get there. No matter what happens with my job situation, and how much effort I can put into this, it will be a very happy and exciting time.

A Special Date Made More Special, Update and...Cats??

Special Date Made More Special

The Book of Prophecy: Book 1 in The Chronicles of Elementary. Cover Reveal!!!

Some of what I’m about to say won’t make much sense to most people, but it needs to be recorded. 16-2-14 is an important day and made more so by becoming the day my book cover was revealed to the world. It was a lovely, selfless gift to be revealed on that day and I’m thankful that the 16-2-14 has two reasons to be memorable.

As for the book cover I absolutely love it. The artist employed by the Kristell-Ink (www.kristell-ink.com/about), Ken Dawson (www.ccovers.co.uk), brought my ideas to life and I’m thankful for all the hard work he put in to the cover for The Book of Prophecy. I really feel this cover stands out and will draw people to it, but I guess only time will tell. A publication date has also been given and this is 01-8-14. Does anyone have a time machine so we can skip to that date already :).

Update

Nurture Fails, Nature Remains: Book 2 in The Chronicles of Elementary. Update.

Book 2 is now 151,000 words and I have one chapter and an epilogue left to do. Once that’s done it will be going back and adding the dates. This will be tedious, but I like having the dates and I think it adds a little realism to the story. After the dates are done there are 19, ‘things to add or check,’ and after this a chapter by chapter read, focusing on some world building, will take place. Then a final read all the way through and hopefully it will be done and ready to show to a few people to get feedback. All of this may take another month or two, but that's good as it keeps me busy. It has taken a lot longer than I thought to do this re-write but I’m so happy with how book 2 will be when it’s done.  

Cats??

A few weeks ago I was asked to do a flash fiction of 500 words for an anthology called, ‘Felinity.’ The theme was a sci-fi or fantasy story that had some link to cats. After an hour I had constructed a piece called, ‘The Caterpillar of Catastrophe and The Catatonically Drunk Cat.’ It was very fun to write this story and for once not be overly serious. I believe Felinity is currently being formatted, but the collection will be on sale shortly.

4Y, 3Y, 2M, 1C.W/Dodging Plot Holes In The Road

4Y, 3Y, 2M, 1C.W.

4 YEARS! Yep, it’s been that long since this journey began. It’s also been: 3 years of writing this blog, 2 months since the last update, and still one crazy writer who hopes for the fourth time that this will be his year.

Dodging Plot Holes In The Road

In the last couple of blogs I think I mentioned how it was hard to know what choice to make in terms of reviewing, or doing my own writing. I chose to focus on book two in the Chronicles of Elementary as I hoped it would make time go by fast, which it certainly has. It also turns out it was the right choice because I found a plot flaw in the Book of Prophecy when I went back to check something that was mentioned in book two. It was only a small thing, and only a few lines of information, which was easy to clear up, but it was a case of too much plot revealed to early. So it was taken out and all is well. I’m very glad I was able to put it write as especially as BoP will be out this year.

Furthermore, as I’ve written the second book, which is now 110,000 words and counting, I’ve seen a few plot holes (weaknesses) in it and been able to strengthen them dramatically. It’s so good to see how far I’ve come over these four years and I'm very happy that I can now spot the weaknesses and change them to make my stories more organic and realistic. It’s exhausting though, as there’s so much to try and remember about the plots of two books, and the others that are to come, but then I guess that’s one of the skills a writer should have. I'm thankful for those who have helped me with editing as each person has shown me what to look for and how to improve; I couldn't have become a better writer without their wisdom.

Conclusion 

I actually don’t have much else to say except that 2014 should be an incredible year. As far as I’m aware people are working behind the scenes to make the Book of Prophecy the best it can be and I want to thank them with all my heart- THANK YOU! You all know who you are and I’m looking forward to thanking you all in person one day.

I just can’t believe it’s been four years. I have four years of built up energy, and four years of love and hate for this journey, but in the end both the positive and negatives are just fuel for what is to come. I’m ready to share BoP with the world, but until then I must be patient for a little while longer. Hopefully in another two months, when I blog again, there will be more news on what is happening with BoP. Book two’s re-write should hopefully be finished as well.

The Calm Goes On/Life Lessons/Selfishness

The Calm Goes On

There has been no change to the writing situation in two months, which is fine. It’s what I expected and it may not move forward for another few months, which again is fine. I’m trying to keep my excitement for publication at bay and I think I’m doing well. I just keep doing my little bit of writing each day at that keeps me distracted.

Life Lessons

Over the last few years there have been some difficult times and they have been the fuel for another writing project. Each experience has given me inspiration for this project and it’s allowed me to be creative in a consolidated way. I’m thankful for the difficult times and the life lessons because they help give all my writing essence and substance.

Selfishness

I know I said I’d try to keep reviewing, but I've decided to be selfish and work mostly on book two of the Chronicles of Elementary (now at chapter 11, 55,000 words in, but not even close to half way yet, yikes!). This has been for one reason and one alone- it will pass the time quicker. If I focus on this project it will keep me busy for many months and keep me focused. I’m not good at juggling things, or multitasking, so focusing on one thing at a time is the best option for me. After it’s done and B.O.P is out I can take some time to read some stories as I have a growing list.

Conclusion

So the calm of not much change continues. In a way I've actually come to love the tranquility and serenity of just focusing on writing book two. That said I am really excited for the Book of Prophecy being published, but must keep that excitement under control. I’ll probably update in another couple of months and things may be the same, or things may have moved forward. Either way I’m very content with the writing situation at the moment.