Three stories we are sick of...

As we touch the mid-point of the spring season, I am reminded of three things: 

1) Put away everything of value so the next tornado cannot blow it all far and wide.

2) It's too late to plant that garden so no reason to get out the tools, seeds, and fertilizer.

3) The book writing business is not suitable for man nor beast, so why bother? 

Right away I will likely get rebuttals. Some may ask why I stay in this gods-forsaken alley of wind and I bluntly repeat "The Day Job! The Day Job!" Others may decry my sniveling rant as an affront to the precious Gaea and her bouncing bosom, an excuse the lazy pull out whenever it suits then, green thumbs or not. And there are those who would chastise me for supposed Puritan vanity, as though only my books suffered the outrageous slingshots and arrows of cliches. Enough said then!

Throughout this new year, I have been able to ascertain there are three stories, types of stories, or story memes retold that nobody is willing to welcome any longer, and henceforth should be exiled to the dustpins of hosiery! Here they are in all of their unspoken glory--and beware the variations, too.

The love story. Emotional linkage. Moreover, two young romantics slathering over each other. Worse yet if one of them is of some special, protected category such as ghost, gremlin, zombie, homeboy, vampire, wolfboy, fairy, fairytale meme, or English teacher. It is enough that we recognize that people have this flaw, this need for completion, this urge to copulate with another person or "person"; must the rest of us read all about it? see it splayed open across the grand screen? discuss it through the night on social media, as though it were a traditional recipe for disaster? Sure, we have the so-called "anti-romance"--but isn't that just another sheep of another color than black? Let them do what they do in private and leave the rest of us alone, thank you very much. 

Variation: The love story set in a dystopian society where good is evil and black is white and everyone is out to get everyone else because that is the way of the world and nobody is better or worse than anyone else and the equal ones are slightly more equal than the others who are not. Often they must play a game to determine who is most equal.

Example. A Beautiful Chill, an oft-repeated cliche of campus unions and reunions where Art and Letters rejoice in depravity unyielding up to the final revelation of slaughter. Woe is me, sayeth the love-lorn Author. (Credit for keeping it real; that is, on Earth and in modern times.)

The discovery of a new world. In this avenue I would add all the usual doorway, portal, gateway, wardrobe, tunnel, and wormhole stories where one of "us" goes somewhere else and woo-hoo it's almost like where we came from or it's quite different and aren't we amazed! And what does our hero/heroine do there? Exploit the darn place to within an inch of its lifeline! Such stories have been foisted upon us as warnings of what we have become or what we shall or might become if we do not pay attention, pay through the nose, or pay the first-born child of every family in debt to our fanatical financials and lords of leisure! And yet we take no heed and continue to fall into our dubious inheritance. No more! "If it ain't here, it ain't real," quoth one long-lost quotation master. Who should care for a world of pure invention?

Variation: The parallel universe, the time travel story, the dystopian tale--all of them poor representations of the main theme, all relying on our knowledge of our existing set of circumstances in order to make pun of all that we hold close to us and dreary. They mean to trick you. Smoke and mirrors, just smoke and mirrors. Mind not the poor excuse that is what you have now, for life could be far, far worse over there.

Example: The Dream Land, a lengthy tome [read 'trilogy'] ostensibly of interdimensional [read 'doorway, portal, etc.'] intrigue [read 'political skulduggery'], alien romance [see above complaint], and world domination [yet not, thankfully, in a sexual bondage sort of depravity]. Too many giant war rabbits to my liking.

The medieval family clash. As a variation on new worlds is the old world meme. I speak here of our vainglorious return to the days of yore as they stick in our craw and decay forthwith. Either said stories are poor recreations of history mismanaged or they are faux pas histories which serve only the purpose of greasepaint stages of perversity. Need we more of that? There is good reason those days of yore are done, and none too soon: we who represent the greater good in our species are simply too embarrassed by what we are capable of bestowing upon our peers. While we may wish to relive the highlights and even selected lowlifes, the sum total of all our aspirations is a rousing return to that which never was and cannot be all in the name of trying it again for the better and falling, indeed, crashing from great dragon-borne heights to the fire-pit below! Then we know the mirror has finally broken and we lie splintered and bleeding.

Variation: The story that hides in a return to mythological creations and through them and their unfolding narrativity seek to impress us with the drudgery of life in those ancient days. Be glad of the life you have now and forget those of long ago. Yet such creatures and the winsome gods and goddesses themselves make for poor judges of our tastes today. Be not fooled or made a fool!

Example: After Ilium, where the narrative necessarily parallels the standard liturgy yet is viewed through the rose-colored lenses of a neophyte (often called 'the lucky loser') for the purpose of excising emotional dewing from unwary readers. Quite dubious in the depiction of an infamous battle. The major sex scene is a fruit basket of delights, however.


Solution. Seek not for such misguided diversions but instead search out only the fair and acceptable solutions to the diversions you crave, for they do exist. Break free and live a life beneath a tree, in the fields of the locust, all barefoot and squishy, with fluffy-bunny clouds overhead and the wind in your hair, like all good little munchkins who have survived remakes of wizard-themed films. And if that fails you, then there likely is little hope; you might as well embrace your day job (night, whatever) with hardy gusto, for you are not worthy of being entertained by the likes of we. Good day to you, Sir!


[The preceding was discovered by a couple of lovers whilst they sojourned on a newly discovered world after reading about ancient wars and played a game of trumps. Authorship has yet escaped confirmation. It is presented here solely for amusement, for it has no other discernable use.]



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(C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Got any Dry Patches of Skin?

Introducing my latest novel...a work-in-progress...

A Dry Patch of Skin

[literary/paranormal/romance/adventure]

As the meme goes... "I don't always write new novels, but when I do it's a weird experience."

Years after the Twilight phenomena has ended (well, for most people), I have decided to join the club. The vampire club, that is. However, me being me, I cannot simply latch onto some fan fiction kind of writing. No, I have to put my own unique spin on the subject.

Some experiences in my life recently convinced me that there was a worthwhile story in my agony. Nothing serious, don't worry. Just a spark--but not sparkly skin. Let me compose a suitable blurb...right now...

Returning from his parents' funeral, Hungarian-American medical technician Stefan Székely embarks on a love affair with Penny Park, the TV reporter he met after a dangerous tornado ripped through their city. Just when things are becoming serious, however, Stefan discovers a dry patch of skin on his cheek, a sign of something he fears and yet cannot decode. 

Going in search of medical answers, he struggles to maintain his relationship as he pieces together his parents' lives as dedicated physicians who tended the forlorn inmates of an insane asylum and shunned society. As his condition worsens, Stefan seeks far-flung treatments in the hope that he can find a cure and return to his beloved Penny, only to finally realize what his parents have been shielding him from all of his life: he is doomed to transform into a vampire like them. 

Can he stave off the symptoms, or reverse them? Can he salvage some kind of life with his Beloved? Or will he be doomed to walk the earth as yet another of the Undead?

How is that?

I see this as a work of literary fiction rather than a true paranormal tale. The difference is that the vampirism is treated as a medical condition, not as a supernatural phenomena. The main culprit is the disorder known as porphyria, and similar disorders. It is not a pleasant disease; it is terribly disfiguring. Not at all a sexy, sparkly vampire. I have wound up my pathos machine and intend to let it roar with full fury as Stefan's journey through hope and hopelessness intensifies. 

The opening chapters were fun to write, before the misery and anguish begin. I fictionalized parts of my own life, changed people's names, and made fun of several episodes from my real life...all to portray a fun, loving romantic relationship between two people. Then, as the blurb indicates, I shall destroy it chapter by chapter.

I know how the story ends. However, I am sworn to secrecy. All I can say is that it is not any kind of conclusion the typical reader of vampire books would expect. And yet it is as perfect as...a bloody kiss!

Book cover to follow.

Here are the opening pages:

 1

It is without much amusement that I have come to accept the truth of my situation, although I am fully appreciative of the irony involved.

It is not that I mistrust the words of Mother and Father. It is not that I doubt what society has shown me. Indeed, I accept it all as easily as a starving puppy takes the meatless bone.

I stare into the mirror and want to deny everything, yet I know deep down inside me there is a bomb, a time bomb of sorts, ready to explode when just the right elements come together. And I do not know when that will occur.

For my parents, it began rather late, after age fifty—or so they confessed; I have not seen them face to face since I left for college and thus had no incontrovertible visual confirmation of it. They begged out of my graduation ceremony and I took a job far from them. Later, they died. Before that, there were plenty of letters and phone calls, of course, and with the advancement in technology, also emails and text messages. When finally they succumbed to their own bomb, my mother dared to leave me a note outlining what I should expect. She added that my father did not approve of such a warning, considering it a black mark or a red flag that would ruin my life, keep me from enjoying the good years I had, but she had deemed it a necessary kind gesture that any mother should make for her son.

Then they took their pills, far too many of them, and died in peace before the open windows, a full day’s sunshine raining upon them.

I attended their funeral—closed coffins, of course, as befit their physical condition—and gave the eulogy to a gathering of twenty empty chairs. The priest showed no emotion; it was a duty to be performed. He praised the irony in my speech, however, then remarked how much I resembled my parents.

The Dalmatian coast on the Adriatic was not what I would have expected as my parents’ retirement destination. The town of Makarska, just south of Split and a hundred miles north of the much more famous Dubrovnik, was a lovely choice, however. It was close enough—we are of Hungarian ancestry, after all, a land-locked nation. But they had their life and I had mine. I never thought to question them since they continued shuffling money to me on special occasions.

I took a few more days in that resort town, with the cedars and cozy beaches nestled between rocky hills, stretching far in each direction from my hotel balcony. So after a long nap and half a bottle of Merlot, I tried to enjoy myself the rest of the week. After all, I had gone to some trouble to be able to take off from work and make the long trip from the States to Croatia.

As I presume my parents eventually did, I have removed the mirrors from my home.

[and so on....]

For fans of literary fiction, I offer two books already available: AFTER ILIUM and A BEAUTIFUL CHILL. Click the links in the upper right corner of this blog for further information or read their individual pages on this blog.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Where is Alex Parris?

April is the cruelest month, says T. S. Eliot who loved April more than life itself.

It's also a great month to catch up on reading that you may have put away for Spring Break and perhaps the books you received as holiday gifts. Perhaps you got a book as a Valentine gift. Perhaps you finished all of those books and are ready for something new. Perhaps...?

Back in 2012, I offered up this short novel to try the indie publishing system and it has remained a favorite ever since. Unfortunately, it slips below the radar every few weeks or so. It's still good for a weekend read: one long evening or split between a Saturday night and a Sunday afternoon. 

AFTER ILIUM

Kindle 

Alex Parris has been fascinated by the Trojan War all his life, but when he meets the seductive Eléna on a cruise to Turkey, he cannot help but see the two of them as a modern Helen and Paris. However, following seduction in Istanbul and their tour to the ruins of Ilium, Alex is forced to fight his way back to his lover—if he can even find her, and if the rugged Turkish coast doesn’t kill him first.

It's a twisted love story, a war memorial, an action adventure, a morality tale, a blast from the past, and a tragedy with dark humor--everything you want your weekend to be!

Here is a review of AFTER ILIUM at The Dark Side. 

Available in paperback, too, which features the wonderful artwork of Ceri Clark, legendary librarian, web guru, and cover artist, not to mention fellow Myrddin author with her own YA paranormal novel and internet how-to guides. 

Or try a book from one of our other great Myrddin authors! 

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(C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

What would you pay for a good Ebook?

Many of us think nothing of spending $10 to $15 per ticket to enjoy a movie for a couple hours. 

How about spending that amount on a book which will likely entertain you for many more hours?

As a discussion topic among authors, the pricing of ebooks is near the top of the list.

How much to sell an ebook for? After all, it has no paper, no physical materials that need to be considered in the cost. It's just text - mere words on a screen. Words don't cost anything, after all. Unless you put them into a book made of paper, such as a dictionary - or a novel. So the actual cost to a reader is only whatever time and skills were needed to put all those many words into a certain arrangement to tell a story or present other kinds of information.

So what is that time and skill set worth?

Time is, of course, worth at least "minimum wage" - currently $7.25 per hour. How many hours does it take to write, say, a 300 page novel? First rough draft? A thorough going-over of a subsequent draft? A full edit? The skill set necessary to write a book may be innate, may be pure talent from God, or it may be the result of years of training, probably at the cost of classes, tuition, and craft books read. More likely a combination. How do you put a price on that?

Some people may argue that the quality of the writing should determine the price. Or the length of the book. Both are true. Who would pay more for a book full of editing and formatting problems? (But what if the story is still compelling despite its technical issues?) It makes sense that if a 200-page book sells for $1.99 then a 400-page book should sell for $3.99 - unless the second 200 pages is not very interesting, of course. Or is that latter portion of pages simply a risk the buyer must take?

How about a children's book then? The text may be rather rudimentary, nothing demanding a high level of education, no fancy $20 words. The writing may not be very sophisticated or require any research. It may, however, include graphics - which would bring an artist into the cost/price equation. However, even a true "chapter book" (and most adult books, as well) has certain elements which must be considered in pricing, such as:

The plot. Where does a story come from? How does a writer invent such things? How does a writer arrange the telling of the story to create suspense, conflict, humor, tension, resolution, denouement? It's all imagination, right? And imagination is like ...air: it's free to everyone. So why pay someone for his or her imagination? Thanks, author, but it's not like you really did any work, no heavy lifting; you just thought for a while.

Characterization. Every story is told not by an author but by an invented person. Such characters may be based on real people or totally made-up, or be a combination. Does the real person who originated a fictional character get any share of the price? If a character is based on a real person then it's not actually invented, hence, it should be free. Right?

Action and dialog. Fist fights and car chases, the stuff of excitement, of entertainment. We can see them for free on television anyway. And in the greater scheme of writing, dialog is also considered action, just as much as a fist fight or a car chase. If the author overhears two people talking, say, at a Starbucks one afternoon, and writes that conversation as part of the story, do those speakers get a well-deserved portion of the price? What if the author changes some of that original conversation?

Setting. Sometimes it's the first, sometimes the last thing we think of in a story. Surely some stories would not exist if they were placed in a different setting, a different time and place. If the author went to such a place and looked around to get a feel for the landscape, the mood of the city, to see the way the cliffs actually crumbled down into the sea that our fictional hero must dive into - is that part of the cost? Is it the same, cost-wise, as attending a professional conference to perhaps hear what other authors have to say about writing?

Editing. Finally, we have something a bit more tangible in regard to the pricing of an ebook. Someone is actually hired to read and fix whatever problems may exist in the text, whether large such as organization or continuity, or small such as correcting typos or a grammar glitch. It's nothing against the author when something needs to be corrected - unless the author is also acting as editor. However, when a second person is employed, there is a real cost to be factored into the pricing of the book, even an ebook.

Artwork. Children's books rely on art but so do adult books, even ebooks. They all have a cover and most have cover art. It seems the cover does provide value to the story itself. People do judge a book by its cover. Many a book has been purchased, I would guess, because of the attractive cover. Therefore, authors have always been advised to pay well for competent artists to create enticing images to attract readers. More costs to factor in!

In the final analysis, we can easily see that there are actual costs for the editor and the artist which must be accounted for in what the author spends on producing the book. The author is due something, as well. The publishing venue, such as Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing, may also have criteria the author must follow when determining the price of an ebook. But how much? In the marketing business, selling a high volume of a product will usually cause its price to be reduced. Cost savings. Simple supply and demand, right? However, in the book business, well-known authors begin with high prices. Lesser known authors begin with lower prices. And some ebook sites will actually raise the price if there is more demand for a book, completely defeating the principles I learned in Economics 101.

Questions still abound.

How much do you think an ebook should cost? Does it matter what genre it is? How about the length? Does the first few pages (usually available for preview) determine the price for the whole book? Should the use of graphics in the book (number and quality of images) affect the price?

What if the author used an expensive marketing service? Would that warrant a higher price? Would you accept a higher price if you knew the author employed an editor, artist, and a marketing service? Does the cover art matter for ebooks? for the price of ebooks?

Would you pay more for a well-known author’s ebook? Should the price of an ebook correlate to the day of the week, the month, or the holiday season in which it is launched? What is the highest price you have paid for an ebook? What is the highest price you are willing to pay for an ebook, and what conditions would be necessary for you to pay that higher price?

Authors want to know. We want to provide the best value for your dollar but we also want to feed our children. (Sure, most authors have day jobs for feeding the children but the principle still applies.) There is a fair price in there somewhere. 

Please share your thoughts.

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 (C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Spring Break Reading That Got Away!

You had the best of intentions. You downloaded some books, promised to read them, and then Life ...or assorted or sordid Spring Break activities somehow got in the way!

We understand.

Or perhaps you had the best intentions of getting into some exciting new reading but did not get to download the books before leaving for your Spring Break venue.

We still understand.

No problem! 

Books, 

like all the particles and elements in the universe, will always exist!

It's NOT too late to catch up on your spring reading!

At the beach or at the pool or in bed late at night, here's my recommended list of readables (most are available in both Kindle and paperback versions but [wink] we know you want to take them with you on a small portable device, right?):

THE DREAM LAND Trilogy

If you have cravings for a genre-mashing epic of interdimensional intrigue, two geeky lovers, two worlds, a cast of millions, steam-powered cars and airships, cruel overlords and cheap drugs, exoskeletons and jungle girls, rogue cops and war rabbits, ancient history and modern science, a sleepy planet and a fatal comet, then perhaps The Dream Land trilogy would be an excellent choice.

The Dream Land I "Long Distance Voyager"
Kindle or Paper 

The Dream Land II "Dreams of Future's Past"
Kindle or Paper 

The Dream Land III "Diaspora"
Kindle or Paper

AFTER ILIUM
A young man's summer trip to the ruins of ancient Ilium (Troy) is interrupted by a quick affair with an older woman...which sends him on his own Odyssey across the Turkish coast.

Kindle or Paper 

A BEAUTIFUL CHILL
An unlucky professor gets lucky but turns obsessive to keep control over the beautiful art student he picks up one dark and stormy night.

Kindle or Paper

AND CHECK OUT MY FELLOW AUTHORS AT MYRDDIN PUBLISHING!

Paranormal, Sci-Fi, Epic Fantasy, Romance, Psychological Thrillers, and Literary genres!

Both YA, New Adult, and Adult books!

All in ebook format and most also in paperback.

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(C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

Got Spring Break Reading? Try these!

It's Spring Break Time! 

Time to break those rusty old springs and get your reading groove on!

At the beach or at the pool or in bed late at night, here's my recommended list of readables (most are available in both Kindle and paperback versions but [wink] we know you want to take them with you on a small portable device, right?):

THE DREAM LAND Trilogy is Interdimensional Travel "realistic" fantasy at its weirdest!

The Dream Land I "Long Distance Voyager"
Kindle or Paper 

The Dream Land II "Dreams of Future's Past"
Kindle or Paper 

The Dream Land III "Diaspora"
Kindle or Paper

AFTER ILIUM
A young man's summer trip to the ruins of ancient Ilium (Troy) is interrupted by a quick affair with an older woman...which sends him on his own Odyssey across the Turkish coast.

Kindle or Paper 

A BEAUTIFUL CHILL
An unlucky professor gets lucky and turns obsessive to keep control over the beautiful art student he picks up in the rain late one night.

Kindle or Paper

AND CHECK OUT MY FELLOW AUTHORS AT MYRDDIN PUBLISHING, TOO!

I will be listing these books all through the week. Check back often and stay safe!

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 (C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The I'ds of March

Well, here you go: the first blogging of March. It's the 9th and it's the day we return to Daylight Savings Time, and it's a Sunday with sunshine (at least here; sorry if not in your time zone). Such a momentous occasion. In like a lion, out like a lamb, right? The start of spring. Mid-term. Spring Break. March Madness, basketball and ordinary forms of madness. The merry month of marching: left-right-left-right about-face!

More likely, this is the month of I'd.

As in: I'd like to have something interesting to blog about.
As in: I'd prefer to have spring happening right now.
As in: I'd rather be sleeping late instead of changing clocks.
As in: I'd better be writing something and not wasting so much time online.

So, let me take a stab at those.

1. I am blogging about having nothing to blog about. Done.
2. It was or did, but now winter returned for 29 hours. More spring is promised for next week.
3. I vowed to sleep until I could sleep no more, and only then change a clock.
4. I did spend my first two hours this morning writing my new novel, so that's covered.

Am I done now? Is that enough? Blog, blog, blog, blog, blog, blog, blog!

Oh, Public Service Announcement: Read my books! They're pretty good. They will make you think. They will change your life. They will entertain you so much you will forget to go to work or school, maybe forget to eat. They will be with you the rest of your life, influencing you like a mild yet effective drug. There is no antidote. 


NOW am I done blogging?

After all, I'd rather be outdoors, under the cherry blossoms, cuddling with my Beloved, sneaking kisses between lines of poetry, pinches of cake, and sips of wine. 

It's the I'ds of March, isn't it?



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(C) Copyright 2010-2014 by Stephen M. Swartz. All Rights Reserved. No part of this blog, whether text or image, may be used without me giving you written permission, except for brief excerpts that are accompanied by a link to this entire blog. Violators shall be written into novels as characters who are killed off. Serious violators shall be identified and dealt with according to the laws of the United States of America.

The Top 10 Reasons to Make a Top 10 List

How to make a Top 10 List in 10 easy steps!

They're all the rage these days: the lists, the numbers, the numbered lists, and all the advice given out in the form of lists of 10 or 7 or 5 or 3 things you need to know about anything, absolutely anything at all! 

Here are the 10 steps to making a Top 10 List:

1. Type the number 1.
2. Type one example of your idea, or whatever you want to make a list about.
3. Add more numbers and more items until you have compiled ten of them.
4. Arrange in order of most important to least important, or, if you wish, put them in reverse order.
5. Go have lunch, or, in the alternative, a drink of your favorite beverage.
6. Review the list; edit, proofread as necessary.
7. Take a nap. In the alternative, daydream.
8. Practice reading your list aloud; if bored, use a voice with a foreign accent or a cartoon character.
9. Run spellchecker; or, if you choose, start the entire project over from scratch.
10. Sit back and admire your list. If flexible enough, pat yourself on the back.

Seems easy enough, right? Anyone can do it. The beauty of such lists, of course, is their flexibility. Say it with me: Flex-I-Bil-I-Ty! Stay flexible. Anticipate changes. Embrace alternatives. Reward yourself for absolutely anything you can. And always count to 10 before and after making such a list.

Lists of 10 are useful for many different things. For example, steps to do something.

To demonstrate (etymology: "to strut like a demon") the process, I shall construct a list of the 10 steps I go through when I am writing a novel. I choose this topic because it's one of the few things I actually know how to do. Also, I was thinking of it recently as I began a new novel.

I spend a lot of time teaching the Writing Process and reinforcing the Writing Process for multitudes of college students who worship my model of the Writing Process, especially for its flexibility and all of the fun diversions that are de rigueur in any true process.

This is the usual pattern I have discerned from hindsight:

1. Get idea, write for fun, see where it goes.

Usually it's something I read, hear about, or a life experience that gives me the idea that something may make a good story, hence I should write a novel about it. For example, AFTER ILIUM began in a Classical Rhetoric class where we studied the Encomium of Helen, a speech in support of Helen being a victim and not a co-conspirator in the Trojan War instigation. So I thought: Wouldn't it be weird if a guy named Parris met a woman named Helen today on the way to Troy? A BEAUTIFUL CHILL began with my actual experiences on campus, then turned into a what-if kind of scenario.

2. If it goes somewhere, keep going, form longer idea.

Like the step states, I write and see if it goes anywhere. A fruitful idea will go and go and never stop until I just plain get tired of typing. A weak idea will usually run out of steam rather quickly; then I'll dismiss it.

3. Pause to research, write a little.

Eventually I'll get to a point where I cannot write further without checking some facts, doing some research, making sure I'm on the right track. So I'll pause in writing to do that research. I'll continue writing, of course, but usually in smaller portions and with longer intervals between the writing sessions.

4. Repeat step 3.

Yes, I do repeat that step. Because it's an important step. I cannot write if I do not know what I'm writing about, so in this stage I am switching back and forth often between the researching and the writing. While working on THE DREAM LAND III, which involved a comet's approach and a planet-wide evacuation plan, I researched spacecraft requirements, life-support systems, astronomy and inhabitable planets, and naturally comets, all rather extensively...and continued to write pages between the researching.

5. Write longer portions using research.

After sufficient research has been done and the relevant knowledge incorporated, I'm able to writing in more extended sessions because I now know the details. I still might pause to check some facts.

6. Keep going until done.

Now comes the long haul of writing. Writing sprints are helpful. Also helpful is no distractions or disturbances or poor health. On a good day I can write forever. It's fun and I am reading a new story as quickly as I am typing it out.

7. Edit.

Yes, I usually edit a bit as I go; each writing session I edit the previous portion of text as a warm-up to the fresh composition. But here, in this step, I do a serious deep edit from start to finish. Much rewriting may occur, including cuts to some "darlings" and additional text added.

8. Research, check everything for technical correctness.

In this step I tend to get a little paranoid, worried that some expert somewhere may read my book and shake his/her head at the facts I present. So I recheck crucial data, facts, and information--just to be sure. Also, sometimes new questions arise in the writing and so I return to research late in the process. This is also where I check for technical consistency. If the spacecraft is designated V-77 in chapter 23 I need to also call it V-77 in chapter 29, not V-75.

9. Edit for style.

I check for the voice of characters, vocal quirks, grammar, and so on. I make sure the voice of the narrator is consistent. I play with the wording of key phrases and sentences, choosing the best word(s) for the effect I want. This is a long step involving repeated readings of the same passages.

10. Proofread.

Beyond spellchecker. I read everything with my own eyes several times...and yet I still miss things and, embarrassingly, find them at the last moment while reading a proof copy of the book. A few tips to catch such errors: 1) read aloud; you will hear what your eyes do not see; and 2) read from the last sentence forward to the first sentence, at least within each chapter; forced isolation of the sentence, taken out of the flow, helps pinpoint any flaws in syntax or grammar, as well as checking spelling and punctuation.

Then I am finished. At least with the writing! There is certainly another 10 List for publishing a book. Perhaps it has 20 items. I lose count after a while, anyway.

By the way, in my "just begun" novel A DRY PATCH OF SKIN (my "vampire" story), I am at step 3: after a good run to get the story started, I'm pausing to do research before continuing with the writing. Meanwhile, of course, I have five novels to offer you for your weekend entertainment. Please click a link in the upper right corner of this blog. Thanks! And enjoy!

Oh! I almost forgot to give you the Top 10 reasons for making a Top 10 List. Sorry for that slip. That's probably worthy of a list itself. Well, here they are, but I'm sure you'll find them quite mundane.

1. People like Top 10 lists.
2. Compartmentalizes information in an easily digestible form.
3. People can count to 10.
4. Counting creates excitement.
5. People are often bored.
6. Counting prevents boredom.
7. People hate boredom.
8. Counting gives people a sense of progression.
9. People like the word 'top'!
10. At the conclusion of a Top 10 List, people are likely to debate whether the items should be on the list.

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