What I Have Learned Through Swordsmaster (and the Vaunted Cats of War I Pre-order Promo Continues)

I’ve finally completed the rough draft of Swordsmaster. It currently stands at just over 57,000 words – by far the longest thing I’ve ever written, and yet not as long as the 70,000 words I had expected. Of course, that count was supposed to be for a COMPLETED manuscript, and Swordsmaster is FAR from completed.

Still, I have reached the END, the DENOUEMENT, and for that I should allow myself to celebrate.

Yay.

I can see why some people NEVER finish their novel. Heck, right now I am SOME people – at least until I complete what needs to be done.

What have I learned?

Every writer has a process that works for them, and although mine might vary slightly due to each story’s needs, by and large my process stays the same. I thought I knew mine pretty well, and that I just had to stretch things a little to go from Short fiction to novel.

I was WRONG.

My internal editor can stall a short story, but it is DEATH to a novel. There is no way I can write every word perfectly to begin with, and the added volume increases the chance that my writing will stall from not being to get the exactly right word in every spot.

There are inconsistencies throughout, some just from my poor memory, complicated by the writing being extended over seven months. I tried to help this with notes. And notes about the notes. And notes about the notes about the… you get the idea. Other ones have to do with tone / voice, which was hard to maintain over all the stops and starts of those months. Or because when I was maybe 20,000 words into this when it occurred to me that this might be a Young Adult novel, and that changed the way I was writing it.

And mostly because I realized partway through this that I could not manage the writing the same way as a short story. You see, in short fiction, it would take almost no time at all to flip back a couple of pages and put in something I forgot, or fix an inconsistency, or add details, and then I could get back to writing and finish the story. With more words came more opportunities to go back even further and fix things, and that becomes its own drug. I realized that if the overall story framework was going to have any hope of working, I would have to leave holes in the details until the foundation was laid in.

There are notes in the margins throughout, reminding me of just SOME of the things it occurred to me I would need to address. I have learned A LOT, but I have a lot left to learn.

There is so much research I still need to do – about medieval commerce, agriculture, weather, sea vessels, weaponry, wildlife, religion, culture (yes, I can go on and on) – so many questions that I didn’t even know to or how to ask until the basic story played out.

So that’s what I have now – a plot that works, with characters that need more fleshing out, settings and a world that need more detail, and all of which needs to be wrapped up in a consistent and appealing voice.

For now, I’m going to take a break from Swordsmaster to write the last two short stories I need to make this year’s goal. And then it’s “once more unto the breach, dear friends!”

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

So in the continuing saga of William’s attempts at marketing… My next ePublication will be Cats of War I - a collection of my first three Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire stories (“Purr-Mission”, “Nipped in the Butt”, and “Cat and Mouse”.) The stories are set in a cat-dominated world and include space adventure, treachery, political intrigue, germ (and other) warfare. And yes, it’s humorous, too.

RELEASE DATE:  November 20^th

The collection is available as a pre-order at multiple online retailers for a REDUCED PROMOTIONAL PRICE from now through its release. The price will increase after the release weekend.

IN ADDITION – if you purchase Cats of War I on Smashwords, use coupon code WF25Z at checkout to save an additional 67% off the $2.99 promo price (that makes it only 99-cents – such a deal!) This coupon is only valid from now through the end of the November 20th release day. Here’s the Smashwords link:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588921?ref=NoTimeToThink

And here’s the Amazon link for pre-ordering Cats of War I: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017E9TPFK?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest story collection And Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND) can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To CONNECT WITH HIM (and LIKE and FOLLOW), go to

His site on Wordpress: https://williammangieri.wordpress.com

 “William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook at:

 http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

His Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri

What I May Never Learn About Self-Promotion (and the Vaunted Cats of War I Preorder Promo)

Tooting my own horn doesn’t come easy for me. I don’t understand why. Aside from the fact that I do have a trumpet, and I can play it (yeah, I know, it’s not the same thing – I’m just stalling…) I’ve never been comfortable with self-promotion.

There are people who know me who will dispute this. I don’t seem to be averse to drawing attention to myself. I speak in stage whispers all the time (that’s when I say something in a tone of voice that sounds like a whisper, but can be heard at the back of whatever room we are in. I have this gift of vocal projection that served me well in my theatre days – maybe it has something to do with the formation of my mouth or jaw – my wife swears I have no table manners and I make too much noise when I eat, but my lips are sealed the whole time. I’m stalling again, aren’t I?)

There’s a difference between drawing attention to myself and promoting myself. The act of writing (and publishing it) is my way of drawing attention. But it is a totally different thing to say “Hey – I have some pretty good stories here, you should read them.” (you should, you know?)

They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks. Well, I’m old, but I’m not a dog (even my wife hasn’t called me that yet), so maybe there’s hope for me. As uncomfortable as I am about self-promotion, I do understand that publishing without promoting is the equivalent of leaving a book on a park bench and hoping that someone will read it (and how would I know unless I spend the rest of my life hiding in the bushes to watch?).

The first step on the road to recovery is to admit that you have a problem (at least one.) Then you have to learn how to solve the problem.

This would be easier if I didn’t care whether my stories were being read. But I do care. I don’t just want to put words on paper – I want to be successful at this. I must create a plan to promote my work, but the hardest things to plan for are the things we don’t know that we don’t know. So I’m fumbling around with ways to promote my work effectively.

First I just published, but the stories weren’t jumping off the shelf on their own. So I created a facebook writing page. Then Author pages on Goodreads, Smashwords, Amazon. And then I blogged in one – two – three different places. I tried Kindle Select. I tried FREE Promotions. I ran coupons. I tweeted. I created my WordPress “William Mangieri’s Writing Page.”

Baby steps. After all, Rome was not built in a day, and I’m not THAT ambitious (how long did Muleshoe Texas take, anyway?) I’m only coming up on four years of INDIE PUBLISHING, after all.

I can tell from what stats I can see that my page(s) traffic is increasing. If anyone searches for “William Mangieri” on Google or Bing, I now dominate over the other William Mangieri(s) out there (ask yourself why anyone would search my NAME in the first place to see if that’s significant…)

The next tool in the publishing bag (and one of the biggest and most powerful, according to Smashwords’ Mark Coker) is PRE-ORDERS. So I’m doing my first one this month for Cats of War I (my first Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire collection – links are below.)

Of course, doing pre-orders requires more stringent, organized planning than I’ve been doing so far. Prior to this release, I have had a private (only I knew it) ePublishing schedule – dates set 4 weeks apart, at which time I would pick my oldest or most travelled (sent to and returned from the largest number of traditional markets) and usually put together the ePublication in a week.

That won’t work for pre-orders, so to take advantage of the tool, I need to decide which book I’m going to publish at least a month in advance. Well, I can do that – just requires a little more discipline and time to do it properly.

A part (a LARGE part) of me rails against having to take this extra time on the publishing side to do this. I would rather be using my limited time to WRITE, but if I want to succeed as a writer, part of it involves making sure my stories are READ. In the (fairly) new world of Indie-Publishing, you have to do it all. And who knows – if I can get enough people reading, maybe that will create the opportunity for more writing time.

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

So in the spirit of improving my marketing… My next ePublication will be Cats of War I - a collection of my first three Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire stories (“Purr-Mission”, “Nipped in the Butt”, and “Cat and Mouse”.) The stories are set in a cat-dominated world and include space adventure, treachery, political intrigue, germ (and other) warfare.

RELEASE DATE:  November 20^th

The collection is available as a pre-order at multiple online retailers for the REDUCED PROMOTIONAL PRICE from now through release. The price will increase after the release weekend.

IN ADDITION – if you purchase Cats of War I on Smashwords, use coupon code WF25Z at checkout to save an additional 67% off the $2.99 promo price (that makes it only 99-cents – such a deal!) This coupon is only valid from now through the end of the November 20th release day. Here’s the Smashwords link:

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588921?ref=NoTimeToThink

And here’s the Amazon link for pre-ordering Cats of War I: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B017E9TPFK?*Version*=1&*entries*=0

<<<>>> 

The coupon for my latest collection: And Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND (containing the stories “The Red Barrens”, “Dempsey’s Debut”, “Look Both Ways”, “The Final Ending?”, “Close Enough”, and “The Wolves Will Come”) expires today - here’s the smashwords link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/587154?ref=NoTimeToThink  

Use coupon code UA97J to save 80% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – all six stories for only $1.00!) The coupon is good through November 2^nd. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest story collection And Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND) can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To CONNECT WITH HIM (and LIKE and FOLLOW), go to

His site on Wordpress: https://williammangieri.wordpress.com

 “William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook at:

 http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

His Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri

OPEN TODAY - CATS OF WAR PREORDERS

In my continuing efforts to learn how to do better marketing, I’ve just finished setting up preorders in Smashwords for Cats of War I (the collection of the first 3 stories in my Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire series.) Here’s the link:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/588921?ref=NoTimeToThink

Use coupon code WF25Z at checkout to save 80% off the cover price (that makes it an even $1.00 – such a deal!)

Speaking of Broken Windows and the Coarsening of Culture (and an Unrelated Smashwords Coupon)

(** this was initially intended to be about the coarsening of language, but culture involves more than just words, and so it couldn’t help but expand into other areas.)

There’s a theory in law enforcement that revolves around broken windows. If windows are broken in a neighborhood, and the windows remain broken, people think it means that other laws and limits are not enforced, and social degradation increases. If you want to make sure that people obey the big rules, you enforce the small ones, and the practice of adhering to standards provides the foundation for civilization. New York City was cleaned up by not letting the little things go.

People pay attention to what they see going on around them and behave accordingly.

Morality (or ethics, if morality is too religious for some) is much like that – if you want people to pay attention to the big rules, you can’t let the little ones slide.

It used to be that people KNEW (because it was TALKED ABOUT PUBLICLY) that there were behaviors that were not socially acceptable. That isn’t to say that the behaviors weren’t occurring, but they were NOT done openly, and if someone did get caught violating the RULES, they would at least be shamed, if not prosecuted. They would definitely NOT be praised or idolized for it.

Something happened on the way from then to now – the entrenchment of MORAL RELATIVISM. There is no longer a definite RIGHT and WRONG – it has somehow become socially UNACCEPTABLE to say IN PUBLIC that something is wrong, or even that you simply don’t agree with it. Shaming someone for doing wrong? No, the shamers are now the shamed.

If you aren’t allowed to point out that someone’s windows are broken (or even that their broken windows are a problem), why would anyone know they need to fix them? The ability to solve situations and make things better is dependent on being able to SPEAK THE TRUTH. You have to be able to identify what is wrong if you want to succeed in righting it.

If there is no speaking against bad behavior allowed, no shaming practiced, then the behavior itself is all that is seen, and it is viewed as equally good with any other choice. Which means the young and impressionable around us are more likely to choose the wrong example.

It’s like handing out condoms at school – failing to say that a behavior is wrong is tantamount to endorsing it. It is also taken as meaning that the behavior is not only OK, but EXPECTED (you’re going to do it anyway – EVERYONE does, and there must be something wrong with you if you don’t.).

Coarseness of culture and language has become the norm of the day. We now glorify the people who were the bad behavers of yesterday, and denigrate those who try to maintain standards.

There was a time when comedians had standards of decency that they had to maintain, but at some point the balance flipped, and coarseness and crudeness became the norm – you were EXPECTED to curse, and if you didn’t, then you were abnormal. AND inferior.

You can also be treated as abnormal now if you don’t write life the way “the powers that be” want it to be. Political correctness has taken precedence over what used to be a solidly understood right and wrong. This means that some things just can’t even be written.

This is a problem. Good fiction is supposed to be a way of discovering and exploring the truths about what it’s like to be human. There is a difference between writing a fantasy about people, and fantasizing that people are different than they are. But if there are truths that you are not allowed to write, then what is the point? What are you leaving out? And what does that teach?

What’s our responsibility as writers?

Maybe we should think about the examples that we put out there in the worlds we create. And maybe we shouldn’t kowtow to the feeling that we MUST use coarse and vulgar language to be taken seriously. There are ways to convey what the gutter is like without having to grovel in it.

And maybe our worlds – as much as they are imagined into creation - should be a balanced reflection of the span of human experience, capability, and character instead of just forcing ALL HUMANITY into the mold of the lowest common denominator.

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

This week’s coupon is for my latest collection: And Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND (containing the stories “The Red Barrens”, “Dempsey’s Debut”, “Look Both Ways”, “The Final Ending?”, “Close Enough”, and “The Wolves Will Come”) - here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/587154?ref=NoTimeToThink  

Use coupon code UA97J to save 80% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – all six stories for only $1.00!) The coupon is good through November 2^nd. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To CONNECT WITH HIM, go to

“William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook (and LIKE and FOLLOW), at: http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

His site on Wordpress: https://williammangieri.wordpress.com

His Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri

The ORIGINS of Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND (and a Smashwords Coupon for the Collection)

At the end of each of my collections, I include a section in which I touch on WHERE each story came from, and since this week’s coupon is for my third collection (Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND), I thought the ORIGINS would make a good blog posting. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

Writing is a risky proposition. What I’ve read about it is that, if you’re doing it right, you’re putting your own innermost experiences, feelings and thoughts on paper for criticism and rejection. Each story contains some personal revelation – you’re putting your heart and soul on the line.

How can this be, you might be asking yourself right now. If you’ve gotten this far into the book, chances are you’ve now read all six of the included stories. How could any of these things have even a remote connection to my life and who I really am?

You be the judge.

“In Robert’s Memory” started out with the idea of a sort of Titanic in space, awaiting rescue after a calamity. The pun of a title may have been the germ of the story – but I’m not sure. This is a story about a ship’s computer whose memory becomes contaminated by human inhabitants. In a way, he loses himself while trying to save them, but grows into something more. Has this happened to me? Not hardly, although I have been thrust into situations I didn’t want to be in, with people I didn’t want to deal with, and grown from the experience (no, I’m not going to name names.)

I wrote “My Reality Show” because I just talk to myself too often to believe that there isn’t someone else there, and I’d graduated from doubting that to wondering why any other consciousness would want to be in there. I have not fallen into the obsession with “reality” television that’s come about in the last few years – that fascination is as alien to me as, well, some of the voices and ideas I hear in there. How would you react if you realized that someone was invading your privacy like this – AND FOR FREE?

I’m stretching here to try and offer an explanation for where “The Body” came from.  If you neglect people in your life and only pay attention to what YOU want, don’t expect those people to sit idly by without exercising their own, alien agendas. Admit it – for most people, it’s all about ME (without some degree of selfishness, ME would not survive THEM), and anything going on outside us might as well be an alien invasion.

I love time travel stories, especially the variety of theories on how it could work (if it could work – I’ve heard that the idea is now discredited, and should be moved from science fiction to fantasy. Snobs.) We all have things we regret about our lives, and that we wish we could do over, but there is no do-over in life. Have you ever gone back to a place you used to live after a few years and tried to reconnect with the place and the people. Your relationship isn’t the same as it was, no matter how much you want it to be. You can’t jump in and out of ( a place/a time/people’s lives ) and recapture what you’ve lost. We all have to live life in sequence – You are not the same person you were before the problem that you now want to avoid. None of us have the option of “Choosing the Right Time.”

“The Sheila Wulf Chitinoid Sessions” is NOT about problems with space crabs. I just wanted to play with the mistake we make about assuming that other life (and people) have to be the same as us, looking and behaving like something familiar to us instead of something alien. And if we can have tools and tricks to help us communicate with them, why can’t they?

Derangement is rampant in our world – people persist in believing in things with no evidence. What if believing in those crazy ideas was actually an advantage on a job application. How would you answer the questions in “Thank You for Your Interest in XenCorp”? (Admit it – as much as the world has been turned on its head lately, don’t you wonder whether space aliens could really have something to do with it?)

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

This week’s coupon is for Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND (the collection described above) - here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/419552?ref=NoTimeToThink

Use coupon code ZM35Z to save 80% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – all six stories for only $1.00!) The coupon is good through October 26^th. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

My next ePublication will be “And Yet Still Even More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND” (my sixth collection, containing “The Red Barrens”, “Dempsey’s Debut”, “Look Both Ways”, “The Final Ending?”, “Close Enough”, and “The Wolves Will Come”) – follow or like whichever of the CONNECT WITH HIM SITES below you prefer and you receive notices and coupons and such…

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “You Can’t Question the Dead”) can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To CONNECT WITH HIM, go to

“William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook (and LIKE and FOLLOW), at: http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

His site on Wordpress: https://williammangieri.wordpress.com

His Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri

The ORIGINS of More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND (and a Smashwords Coupon to Go Along With It)

At the end of each of my collections, I include a section in which I touch on WHERE each story came from, and since this week’s coupon is for my second collection (More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND), I thought the ORIGINS would make a good blog posting. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

People have on occasion asked me how I write - more specifically, how do my stories “happen”. I’m not a great planner - even in life I tend to fly by the seat of my pants, and my writing process reflects that.

I spend entirely too much time thinking – I’d blame it on my writing, but the fact is the writing is just a by-product. I love rolling ideas around in my head; they’re usually safe in there – it’s when I tell people about what I’m thinking that it gets a little dangerous. Good thing I’ve decided to start shouting them out to as many people as I can, huh? Writing is a dangerous place for insecure people…

I don’t do outlines - at least not for a first draft; it would be foolish, since I rarely know where the story is heading (I know where I want it to go, but I can’t be sure it will get there.) I just need a starting point; it can be a phrase (I’m fond of puns and double-entendres), a single word, a full sentence, a piece of tech that I’ve read about or envisioned. I start writing, and the story pretty much builds as I go. I rarely try to write a story to a particular word limit - the story is as long as it wants to be. Sometimes, I don’t know how it’s going to end until it does.

“Sasqwhat?” actually began with a look in the mirror and the observation that even though my hair is silver, the roots (as well as the hair at the back of my neck) is very dark; it was almost as if someone had been secretly coloring my hair silver while I slept to make me think I’m older than I really am (don’t I wish!) What if I wasn’t who or what I was? An alien hidden among humans? This started the ball rolling, but then somewhere in the writing the aliens became sasquatch-like, then just “normal” sasquatch, and Ben went from being an apparently old man to an adolescent human with an evolutionary issue.

“The View From Up Here” was just written at a time when I let my imagination wander (more than usual) and wrote from the fear that I might have a terminal disease. And because I always talk to myself, that led to the what-if-the-voices-in-my-head-are-real angle; that made the conversation more interesting.

“Inheritance” came from a combination of grave-robbers, the artifacts AND servants buried in tombs, and a touch of being careful what you wish for. Wealth isn’t always what you think, and just as one man’s trash is another man’s treasure, it works in reverse, too.

“The Human Interface” was a simple comparison between demonic possession and software insecurity, colored by my past experience in IT customer service.

“Riding the Devil” was started by a vivid dream someone shared with me. They were so struck by it that they thought it would be a good basis for a story, so they left me a voicemail detailing it: A protagonist who rides a symbiotic vehicle that makes him dried up and skeletal. He uses the vehicle to get away, while the vehicle sucks life from him. He melds into it, his flesh sealed to it, his bones pop as they’re displaced to conform to the vehicle's needs. He’s used up more each time he rides, and he’s training a new rider. This happens in an arrid place - most of the details of the ride entail dangerous drop-offs and narrow places - hilly, big open spaces, narrow, small areas. AND this is NOT cowboys and aliens. Well… you can decide how close I got to it.

“Last Call” was a flash competition entry for a writing workshop – I don’t remember what the trigger was. I managed to keep it to exactly 666 words, but before it left the competition and travelled the route that eventually resulted in publication it went through a couple of rewrites, and the word count didn’t seem as important to me as getting it “right”.

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

This week’s coupon is for More Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND (the collection described above) - here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/351846?ref=NoTimeToThink  

Use coupon code DP84A to save 80% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – all six stories for only $1.00!) The coupon is good through October 19^th. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “You Can’t Question the Dead”) can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To CONNECT WITH HIM, go to

“William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook (and LIKE and FOLLOW), at: http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

His site on Wordpress: https://williammangieri.wordpress.com

His Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri

Wasting Words (and Your Weekly Smashwords Coupon)

Well, I knew it was coming, and now it’s finally happened. There I was, within striking distance of the 50,000 word goalposts (the dividing line between a NOVELETTE and a NOVEL) – in fact, this posting was supposed to trumpet that milestone. Instead, I find that Swordsmaster was going off the rails and I have to back up. 4,181 words wasted.

I wonder – were they wasted? I have such a reluctance to throw away words once I’ve set them down; it’s hard not to think of it as a waste. I rarely throw anything away when I’m writing short fiction, and HECK – I’m about to discard more words from Swordsmaster than are in most of my stories. How can I throw that away.

“Hang on a minute, Bill; who do you think you are – Heinlein? Sure, maybe he could write a story without rewriting and send out the rough draft to be published, but you? Do you really think that everything you put down is perfect? Or even necessary?”

No, of course I don’t. I’ve been saying for months that I was dreading the number of rewrites that were in store on this novel, and here comes one.

This time around I think what happened is I got cocky – I already knew where the story needed to wind up, and I thought, heck, I’m almost three quarters of the way through on my way to where I’m trying to finish the story, why on earth would I need to outline anymore?

BECAUSE when I don’t outline and set up some guideposts, the story starts losing focus and wanders off the path and into the woods like the Thorin’s party in Mirkwood (and despite similar warnings.) This happened with Swordsmaster once before – the first time I started writing it some… tens of years ago. That time, a character who was designed to die became too big a part of the tale, and I didn’t want to backtrack and fix what he had done to the story’s direction (that’s right – I had nothing to do with it), so I gave up.

Well I’m not giving up - not this time

I need to look at those 4181 words not as a waste, but as an exercise in which I was able to explore my characters a little more. AND as a reminder to keep planning ahead.

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

My weekly coupons have run through all my non 99-cent stories, so it’s time to switch to the collections. This week’s coupon is for Things I Could Get OUT OF MY MIND (my very first collection, containing “Passed Life”, “A Dish Best Served”, “Business is Business”, “B.I.T.”, “Quiet!”, and “Through Her Eyes”) - here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/178302?ref=NoTimeToThink

Use coupon code KY65W to save 80% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – all six stories for only $1.00!) The coupon is good through October 12^th. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “You Can’t Question the Dead”) can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To connect with him, go to

“William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook (and LIKE and FOLLOW), at: http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

His site on Wordpress: https://williammangieri.wordpress.com

His Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri

The Danger of Historical Fiction (and Your Weekly Smashwords Coupon)

Swordsmaster is fantasy, NOT historical fiction. Boy, am I grateful for that! Sure, I still need to do tons of research so I get my reality anchors set (when you create a world, some of it needs to be like we’re used to, so that it will be easier for the reader to accept the fantastical parts.) I need to have trade, weaponry, agriculture, and cultural details that make sense from somewhere around the middle ages. If I don’t do that, then the magic I layer on top of it is a little more believable.

The REALITY I’ll try to simulate is in no way intended to be taken as what life was REALLY like in those times, but I have a feeling there will be some readers who will treat it as though it’s a bit of a history lesson. Education in America is not coming from schools so much; more and more; it is coming from our entertainment. Games, movies, television, music, books – this is the way the masses seem to get their details about many things.

How many of you know that Sarah Palin didn’t say “I can see Russia from my house!” That was Tina Fey on Saturday Night Live two days after Sarah Palin answered a question in an interview by saying “They’re our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.” Do they really sound like the same thing?

I was listening to an author on NPR talking about a book he wrote about the tail end of the Reagan presidency, in which he has a host of characters in this HISTORICAL FICTION say things that there is no evidence they ever said, but, based on what we know, it makes sense that they MIGHT have said them.

Tell me – if you have a conversation with your spouse, and later you can’t remember exactly what they said, do you think it’s a good idea to make up what they said from what you know of them, or talk with them again?

When The Da Vinci Code hit popular culture, there were people who thought that everything in the book was true; yes, they were on the fringe of reality themselves, but there were many more who absorbed some of what was in the book almost as though it was a primer on Catholicism or the life of Jesus. Sure, it was fiction, but it was bolstered with HISTORY, which means some of it MUST be true, right?

That’s like relying on one of the checkout line tabloids for your facts. There is SOME truth in there, but it’s just there to make the rest seem credible (instead of INcredible.)

The internet is a wonderful thing; you can find out about anything you want with the touch of a button (after you enter your search terms, of course.) Just think of the power that gives you! Well, remember, with great power comes great responsibility. Figuring out what’s fact and what’s fiction out there on the web can be challenging, but it’s something you need to do if you want to live (and succeed) in the REAL world, if you want to be TRULY educated.

Even the NEWS is no longer just the facts (if it ever was); now there is so much opinion and tailoring the news to fit the desired NARRATIVE out there, it’s hard to know what the real story is. And the fact that the news is also dumbed down to include cute stories and fluff pieces (to keep the attention of what they must realize is the poorly educated public) means that even where people should be able to get the facts is lacking (what serious, possibly crucial piece of news did they choose to leave out so you could see that a cute panda was born?)

Think Responsibly.

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

My featured work this week is “Gladius” (more alien abductions and a minotaur who may not be as bull-headed as he appears) - here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/556125?ref=NoTimeToThink

Use coupon code MG28J to save 67% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – only 99-cents!) The coupon is good through October 5^th. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Endangered”) can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To connect with him, go to

“William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook (and LIKE and FOLLOW), at: http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

His site on Wordpress: https://williammangieri.wordpress.com

His Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri

So, What’s Going On with Swordsmaster? (and a Smashwords Coupon)

At this posting, Swordsmaster (my first REAL attempt at a novel, for those of you who are new to my blog, or who my blog is new to, or who… whatever) has just slogged across the 43,000 word mark, which right now seems to be about 2/3rds of the way through the rough draft.

Not where I had hoped to be at this point. When I set my goals for 2015 at the start of the year, I said I would write my first novel. In my mind I was thinking (yes, that’s where it happens), “Sure, I can finish a novel inside a year – 70,000 words is well within my weekly 3,000 word goal (the best I’ve done has been half of that quota, but that still makes the 70,000 words a possibility.

I started writing April 1^st (I did have other things to do – there are still some short stories in my goals that needed to be written, and I had to decide which novel I was going to write), and I was pleased at first with the progress I was making, but a month or so into it, the difficulties a novel would present to me began to become a reality rather than just fear (writers have to deal with fear all the time – that just seems to be part of the territory. It keeps us from even starting to write, and shuts us down, too.)

For one thing, when I write short stories, they’re … short. It takes me maybe a week, at most a month to write the rough draft. That isn’t enough time to lose track of ideas, characters – the feel/voice of the individual story. I make a pass for obvious errors (technical and narrative), and then another pass with a fresh eye a couple of weeks later, and I’m done.

I knew a novel would be different – more like writing my Jimmy Delaney detective series, or my Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire (Cats of War) series. In each of those I go months between finishing one story and beginning the next, and I have to reread what came before so the latest story still has the same feel. I accumulate more and more notes about the “world” I’ve created for each, and as the “history” grows with each tale, it becomes more and more difficult to keep track of details and maintain consistency. But I’m able to do it (with effort), I reasoned, so how much harder could a novel be.

Ha.

Ha.

Ha.

I put a safeguard in place that I never use in writing short fiction – an actual OUTLINE. I’m taking far more extensive notes. I’m even drawing maps and layouts (the earldom, individual towns, and even some buildings.) But no matter how many details I think I’ve secured, there always turns out to be something I didn’t bother to keep track of now needs to be nailed down, and more and more notes appear in my margins reminding me to “make sure what I said about this in <<some>> other place.

The details are not the most difficult part – that falls to overall consistency, which this many words into the rough draft I’ve had to forgive and forget myself for. Part way through I decided that maybe I should be writing this as a YA (Young Adult) novel, and that impacted the tone of some of what I’ve written since. Then the fact that I’ve been at this now for over five months, stopping and starting again (to write a couple more short stories, or just because LIFE HAPPENS), results in a slightly different feel between sections, and even more difficulty remembering what came before. If I did not tell myself – “It’s okay, Bill – for now, just finish writing the story – you can go back and clean it up later”, I would never finish this draft.

It would be a powerful variation of that INTERNAL EDITOR problem that is the bane of all story-telling (you can’t write a word without telling yourself it’s not right and going back and fixing it and fixing it before a rough draft is even completed. You need that rough draft DONE so that the story will be there – THEN you can go back and clean it up (and try to avoid the infinite rewrite hazard.)

In previous postings (I’m not counting how many) I have already bemoaned the number of revisions/rewrites I believe this will result in. I’ve revised my plan to complete the first draft by end of summer (didn’t happen, obviously), and finish the novel by end of year (who was I kidding?), and changed it to a more reasonable FINISH THE ROUGH DRAFT BEFORE THE END OF 2015.  

A blogger for Creatspace wrote that his favorite part of writing is when he gets to rewrite. I hope he’s right, because I know I’m going to get to do A LOT of rewriting. We will see; I do have my doubts about it becoming my favorite thing...

I’m thinking I must sound like some sort of masochistic whiner (“Come on Bill, NO ONE is MAKING you write”.) I really am enjoying the ride – I’m just venting and fighting back frustration with the inherent effort I didn’t have the wisdom to realize would be involved. I had some idea of what I was up against, but the reality is tougher than I gave it credit, and I wonder (loudly) if I would have started had I truly realized it, or would instead have chosen to just stay in my short fiction comfort zone.

But I did make the novel choice, and come hell (yes, it can be) or high water (okay, I can float), I will not quit (I NEVER tip my king); I will finish this story.

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

My next ePublication (“You Cannot Question the Dead”) will be due out this Friday – like my writing page, or follow me on Facebook, or Twitter,  or this blog and you’ll receive notice when it’s out there.

<<<>>> 

My featured work this week is “Cat and Mouse” (My third Herc Tom, Champion of the Empire story, in which trouble at home and an unexpected visit from yet another enemy puts his whiskers in a twist) - here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/527214?ref=NoTimeToThink  

Use coupon code KL64T to save 67% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – only 99-cents!) The coupon is good through September 28^th. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Endangered”) can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To connect with him, go to

“William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook (and LIKE and FOLLOW), at: http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Or his Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri

Memory Issues (and a Smashwords Coupon)

Friday was the 14^th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Each year, we have official memorial services and specials to help us remember, but I’m not sure that many of us really do. (9-11 was one of those events that people consider seminal – everyone who was alive when those planes crashed usually remembers where they were and what they were doing at the time.)

Before 9-11 there were these people at war with us, except we didn’t know it. 9-11 woke us up to this, and for a time we were UNITED in opposition to those who would kill us. We had LEADERSHIP who understood that this was a war we needed to FIGHT, and that it was not going to be over quickly – this would be a generational conflict. We needed to stay strong and resolute and keep our eye on the ball.

Where is the ball?

We have a memory problem in the U.S. - or maybe it’s not memory, so much as a focus issue. We are the Attention Deficit Disorder nation. We are focused like a laser until we get distracted by something else. By Ferguson, or folders full of women, or American Idol, or Beyonce.

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.

Almost four score years ago, this man by the name of Chamberlain made a deal with another man by the name of Hitler, who had been very clear about his intentions, and once they had an agreement the world burned.

Now we have a man named Obama who listens to the leaders of another evil regime being very obvious about their intentions (people who chant “Death to America!” are not having a Kumbaya moment with you), and thinks that he can make a deal with them, and for him the world won’t burn.

Learn from history or you’re doomed to repeat it.

Actually, you have to be able to listen to history before you can learn from it. But why listen to history – it’s so passé. And why listen to the 70% of your own citizens who are opposed to this deal? And why listen to the nation of Israel (that other country the Ayatollahs sing songs about)?

A nation founded by the survivors of The Holocaust, with a motto of NEVER AGAIN might be worth listening to. At least they don’t seem to have our memory issues.

There have been many murderous regimes throughout history that we could learn from. The sad thing is that you don’t have to remember some vague piece of history that no one alive has experienced. You don’t even have to go as far back as Hitler and the Holocaust to know what can happen here. You just have to remember fourteen years ago (when most of us were alive already) to understand the ideology we’re dealing with. And just listen to their latest chants to know their intentions.

Why should the 70% of us who did learn from history still be DOOMED to repeat it because someone else wasn’t paying attention in class? Doesn’t seem quite fair, does it?

Just saying…

<<<>>> 

My featured short story this week is “New Antiques” (Tim Crabtree takes time out of his daily harassment by the local bullies to wonder why his new neighbors have built a forty-foot pole in their backyard. Are they trying to get hit by lightning? If he only knew...) Here’s the link: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/499431?ref=NoTimeToThink

Use coupon code YY92P to save 67% off the list price at check out on Smashwords (that’s right – only 99-cents!) The coupon is good through September 21^st. Enjoy!

<<<>>> 

William Mangieri’s writing (including his latest ePublication “Endangered”) can be found in many places, including:

• His Amazon Author page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008O8CBDY
• Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/william-mangieri?store=book&keyword=william+mangieri
• Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/NoTimeToThink
• Createspace: https://www.createspace.com/pub/simplesitesearch.search.do?sitesearch_query=william+mangieri&sitesearch_type=STORE

To connect with him, go to

“William Mangieri’s Writing Page” on Facebook (and LIKE and FOLLOW), at: http://www.facebook.com/NoTimeToThink

Or his Goodreads author page: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6893616.William_Mangieri

Or on twitter: @WilliaMangieri