In the Shadow of Angels will be released today. Released here being a very relative term. The book is finished and ready for publication, but no one can reasonably obtain a copy of it until at least Monday and probably later. More information on purchasing it will follow.
The back cover copy for In the Shadow of Angels, often called a blurb, has been finalized. I have never attempted to write back copy before, and it turned out to be tougher than I imagined it would be. My goal (as mashed together from dozens of idiot’s guides to blurb writing) was to 1) Use strong buzzwords to evoke mental images. 2) Give a hint at the genre of the book. 3) Introduce characters and hint at the stakes of their situation. 4) Leave the reader with questions that can only be answered by reading the book. 5) By virtue of having achieved steps 1-4, rook them into buying the book (which can hopefully live up to the expectations I have set). All that in about 150 words, and without giving away anything of the plot. Right. To put that into perspective, I have used more words in this Continue reading Back Cover Copy finalized
My first novel, In the Shadow of Angels is complete (as much as it ever will be) and will be released very shortly. After having spoken to a couple of acquaintances regarding editing options, I’ve made the (probably horrible) decision to release the first edition without further editing. The decision to release without editing is because the likelihood of it actually selling to anyone other than me seem infinitesimally small, so it seems a waste of money. It was suggested that I print copies for friends and family and then just wait. If I sell 100 copies, I will have it edited and re-release it. Don’t miss out on your first chance to own a first edition! Check out the (work in progress) website
While loading World of Warcraft recently I saw a ling to a creative writing contest. I haven’t really sat down and written a short story in a while, so I figured I would give it a go. Without further ado I will post that story here, reserving my notes for after. The sun’s rays were just beginning to spill over the tops of the mountains of Kalimdor as Pedan stole silently through the streets of Orgrimmar. The streets were near deserted in these pre-dawn hours, with only an occasional patrol from one of the city guards (Grunts as they were called) disturbing the now calm city. This was just as Pedan liked it; his task was easier performed in silence. As he made the turn into the Valley of Spirits, he took another look to make sure he hadn’t been followed. Satisfied that he was indeed alone, he took up Continue reading A short story
I have been working on a new Arthur Witles story. In this one I have decided that it is time for Witles and Ampere to tackle a tough issue: God. Not God in the sense that you or I would think of it, but God in the sense that a written character would think of it. After all, the characters would not exist were it not for me writing about them. I am having a lot of fun writing this one. The story was going to be about how Ampere met his wife, but as I began to write the story I went back and read over the dialogue that was supposedly spoken while our heroes were in peril and realized that I had them speaking as though they were at a cocktail party. I found that pretty humorous. Here is an excerpt: It was a lazy afternoon. Well, not Continue reading Witles
It seems that writing is not my greatest skill. I am probably the last person on earth (counting only those who have read my writing) to realize this. I realized it rather suddenly only about ten minutes ago. How could it have taken so long? When I refer to writing I am not talking about the mundane things like grammar and punctuation, nor the archaic art of penmanship (which I failed constantly all through grade school), but of the actual writing part of it. I can have a story in my head and see it happening in vivid detail, then type out the most bland 20 pages you have ever read when I try to describe it. If I were to tell the story verbally I am sure that I could get it all out there and make other people see the vision that I see, yet writing doesn’t seem Continue reading September 30, 2005
Today’s post brings good and bad news. The good news is that I don’t have any desire to talk about John Saul, or books at all for that matter, today. The bad news is that I did yesterday, and while I completely forgot to post it, I am just gonna throw it on the bottom of this page since I have all but run out of issues to tackle. Let that be a lesson to all of you who are thinking about starting your own website, especially if you are palanning to try to put up news with your own opinion or snark, don’t start in an election year! For the first six or eight months that I was doing this site I could easily find some news item to go off about, yet now it is all politics. Actually it really isn’t so much about politics as it is Continue reading Commercials; Government; Writing
I had every intention of having a new post on Monday, but then we decided to go out to dinner and I lost the interest to write anything. Yesterday I would have posted but there was a DOS attack at the server that made it so that I was not able to check my email or view my site, not to mention killing any hopes of getting an ftp connection. So I said screw it and played some DiabloII instead. Funny thing, DiabloII, it is just so comforting to play. I think it is sort of the way that people really long for their favorite foods from childhood when they are really starving, something familiar and comforting. Just like DiabloII. What could be more comforting than beating the ass of the most powerful beings that Hell can come up with? Nothing, damn right. Of course I have been playing on Continue reading Diablo; Huge hot dog; writing
Well there was nothing new posted here yesterday. I am likely the only one in the world that knows this, save my wife and a friend or two. I would love to throw up a glorious reason why that happened, but there just isn’t one. I started to update my Archive page, which required skimming over most all of the posts that I have made then typing brief descriptions of each. That took a hell of a lot longer than I thought it would since I had not done it since, oh, about my 9th post. I was also trying to get another Arthur Witles story done. Well, I was trying to get a completed story online anyway, but I found myself trying to redo it as I went. That led to the first page being as long as the entire story was. That was really not what I was Continue reading Witles
Well, I uploaded yesterday’s update to the wrong folder, not that it matters with my current readership being only me. It was still accessible had one clicked the link for ‘Next Update’ at the bottom of the page. So that means that there really was a good reason why I put the link to the next update on there, even though about 99% of the time it is a dead link here on the main page. The good news is that after uploading and reading that update, it was probably better that it not grace the front of this site for even a day. Not that I think it was particulary bad, just that I had hoped to be somewhat impartial with what I write here. Yesterday’s update was far from it, in fact I actually wanted to flame myself for some of the points I was trying to make. Continue reading Meta; Witles