I’ve been meaning to make a book trailer for about a year now, perhaps longer. Lots of things have been stopping me, the biggest hurdle being I don’t know how to make a book trailer. The software I have is limited (I want Adobe After Effects, but my old Mac is incapable of supporting it), I’m a writer and not a video editor, and the only voice I have for the voiceover work is my own. Continue reading
I’m asked this question a lot: “How are book sales going?” I know when people ask, they mean well. They know I’ve written and published a book, and they’re making friendly conversation, being supportive, and so forth. I know that, I know that, I know that. But that’s not how I hear the question.
***EDITED NOTE added Jan 11: I got a comment (you can read it in the comment section) suggesting that this post has me come off as defensive and negative. That was never my intention, as I strive to make all of my posts swing more positive, attempting to execute my mission through humor and dry wit. Therefore I’ve since gone through and colored the existing jokes green (because green is a nice color) and even added more jokes to it alongside the existing joke by using parentheses (I love parenthesis, can’t you tell?), so you know I’m not a meanie or constantly feeling sorry for myself. I say “constantly” because sometimes I do feel sorry for myself. Especially when it’s cold and I’m hungry. Who doesn’t? But I didn’t write this hungry or cold. I’ve also highlighted some important text blue (blue is another fantastic color) so it jumps out. If there is bold blue text beside it, that was added. Anything bold has been added to the original post. END NOTE.***
You know how at the end of the year everyone gets all gushy about what happened in the past twelve months, and all hopeful for what will come in the next? Yeah, I do that too—I’m not unique. Continue reading
I played around in Illustrator and Photoshop with typography. Below are the results!
I’m often asked about the plot of my novel, which isn’t a big surprise, yet I’ve never really taken time to explain it in my own words. Jaden Baker is a psychological thriller, and if you’re wondering what makes a book a psych-thriller rather than a mystery or action thriller, I pulled a definition from Wikipedia (at the risk of being trite, for citing a definition in the opening of a post):
I finally finished implementing edits into the book, and have just uploaded the newest versions for Nook and Kindle. The iBookstore version will be available soon, and I’ll give the new printed version to Ingram shortly!
Publishing a book is extremely exciting. I was so thrilled to finally have completed Jaden Baker that I couldn’t wait to have it published. I had several people read through the book searching for errors, and I read through it at least seven times before publishing it. But catching all the errors is just impossible. A few guys emailed me when the book first came out and said they’d spotted a couple of errors. Let me address that first.
Two questions are asked when I say I’ve published a novel. #1 “What is the book about?” and #2 “How did you get published?” To which I respond: “I published it myself.”I’ve already written about the self-publishing stigma and ways to overcome it. But the fact remains that the stigma is there. People tend to turn up their noses to self-published books (especially people who work in big corporate bookstores, at least that’s been my experience thus far), because they assume a self-published book was denied traditional publication, and the author self-published as a last ditch effort to get their book out there. Read: they think the book is worthless.
I cannot speak for all self-published novels, but being turned down was not the reason I decided to publish my book myself. In fact I never tried to get an agent and jump through all those fiery hoops. I had a local publisher who wanted to publish it. So, why did I do it all on my own?
Because I could. Continue reading
A villain doesn’t think of himself or herself as being a bad person. They have virtues and morals just like everyone else, only with a twist. Below are some of the common life themes Joseph Madrid, the antagonist in my novel Jaden Baker, lives by:
“Well, there’s no catalyst,” Libby said, reading over the biography again. “We’re missing Severus Snape.”
Jaden grimaced. “What?”
“Snape. Oh,” she said, “that’s right, you’ve not read that one. Unbelievable. What we’re missing is the reason for it all, the string that holds everything together. The source…”
~an excerpt from Jaden Baker
An excerpt from Jaden BakerWilliam tossed him into his room, and Jaden collided with the door as it slid shut. The anger he felt was real, even though he was following his first rule of resistance when beneficial. He’d scored a tiny victory in keeping Dalton out of his head for one more day. Today’s rebellion rekindled his desire for immediate freedom.
I don’t want to know how the world will end. I’d rather the when, how, and why be totally mysterious. Maybe I won’t even be alive to see it, having died peacefully in my sleep before the end comes. Though should I be around for the event, I hope it rains cupcakes, not frogs, fire, or anything too hellish. I can always hope, right?
Imagination has no limits; physics does.In my novel, Jaden Baker, the title character can move things with his mind. Before I wrote the story from start to finish, I studied this ability, its strengths, its weaknesses, and most of all, its limitations. If a character could move something with his mind, what laws did it obey? If Jaden could do anything, and he was without constraints, where was the drama and the tension of the story?
“You can move things. With your mind,” she said again. “Like a Jedi Knight.”
Jaden sat up in his chair. “Exactly like a Jedi Knight.”
“So you’re saying you’re like Yoda, only taller, less green, and without the backwards talk,” Libby said.
Jaden nodded to himself. “Yes, and no hair in my ears,” he added.
“Right, but other than that, you’re all powerful and move rocks and X-wing fighters with the lift of a finger.” She looked at him sideways, a doubting but playful curl to her lips.
“You don’t believe me,” Jaden said.
Libby leaned back. “What gave me away? My tone or my body language?”
~from Jaden Baker, Chapter 25
Why do I say that? Assumptions. When I said I’d published a book, I got a few variations of the same reaction. Everyone offered congratulations, but a fraction bought one of my books. Maybe it was foolish of me, but I admit to being surprised, sure that everyone who at least knew me a little would get a book. Until I started thinking…