Author: jongraylang

The last few days have been fun, interesting, sad and annoying.  We had gone up to South Dakota and had a lovely time in the Black Hills.  Beautiful countryside, enough wind to keep it cool and good company all around.

It was on the way back home that I realized that I had lost my phone.  This is a first for me.  I have completely destroyed a phone on accident but I have never lost one.  Just like anyone else, my brain is stored in there.  Random thoughts, notes, calendars appointments and the like were no longer available to me.  In some ways it has been refreshing, in many others absolutely troublesome.  But c’est la vie.

I came to realize that I had damaged my wrist when it was my stint at the wheel.  Steering became arduous but as I was to learn over the next few days, many other things were difficult.  Typing was painful as was reading a book or magazine.  Playing my ukulele, which is one of my stress relievers, was now a burning experience.  But c’est la vie.

Then the car blew a rod and we rolled to a stop in a tiny town on a Sunday in Wyoming.  Thank goodness my wife had cell reception otherwise I’d still be there.  But you know what?  No one works on a Sunday in the middle of nowhere or well not many people that is.  We finally got it towed to Nebraska and ended up staying the night since that was all we could do.  Qui n’avance pas, recule, right?

After the wonderful assistance of my friend Rosy (may fortune smile forever upon her), I was able to call into my regular job and let them know I would not be coming in at all.  A quick wander back to the repair shop and they won’t be able to look at it for a few days.  But I needed to get back so I could work.  Car rental prices to Colorado, for whatever reason, are insane.  My friends Bob and Sarah (may fortune smile forever upon them) drove all the way out and picked us up. Apres la pluie, le beau temps.

So we made it back home and I could go back to work.  But my computer decided that now was the best moment to break.  Oh and the car was still in Nebraska.  No problem, I can fix the computer and we will get the car towed down here.  Little did we know that there would be a delay of three days before this could be done?  Three days and our other vehicle just made it out of the shop.  Timing is everything.

The computer is back and there was much rejoicing.  I have to wait another day for the car to get down here and then probably until next week to find out if the engine will need to be replaced.

Un jour sans vin est comme, un jour sans soleil.  And boy do I need some wine.

Slowly but surely I’ve gotten replies from some of my beta readers in regards to the latest version of Twistin’ Matilda.

The biggest problem, so far, has been that a large section of the story was missing.  Now I didn’t notice it was missing but it was deftly pointed out.  It was like this, one of the characters got from point A to point B but there was no explanation as to how.  There wasn’t even an answer as to why.  So I wrote it up, perused it twice and sent it back out.  As of now, it has received solid approval.

The overall consensus is that it’s a much better story.  It fits with the first one much better. The characters are true to themselves and the story flow doesn’t bog down.

I have a few more responses I am waiting for from my accomplices… err I mean my test audience.  I can’t wait to see what they have to say.

When I sat there quietly wondering what else I didn’t know, a voice came to me, “You know nothing, Jon Snow.”  Thanks Ygritte.

But she’s right.  Oh how little I knew.

Should I set up a publishing company?  If so what kind?  If not, should I just create a DBA?  What’s needed to get an ISBN, LCCN and Copyright?  How many ISBNs would I need?  Should I get an ISBN or no?  If I don’t have an ISBN, I can’t get an LCCN.

The follow up is then what formats do I need and where to make it available?  Mobi, epub or kobo are the main formats used by most retailers for ebooks.  But what about print books and all the tweaks on formatting for those?   And each one would require its own ISBN.

Should I cross my fingers with a traditional publisher then?  My book is not a traditional length as it is so this may hurt it.

Luckily, ye olde internets was here to offer me almost every conceivable answer on every question.  I know more now but I am still working away at the eventual decision.

Thanks Ygritte.

It looks like I have a lot on the stove when I look at where I am.  I have three books in various states of doneness and I am looking to start a fourth before the year is out.

Each of the books is at a completely different phase of its existence:

• The Matilda is done and I am finalizing how I want to get it out there.
• Twistin’ Matilda is getting ready for its latest revision after my reviewers are done with it.
• Black Matilda is into its second / third draft cycle.
• Waltzing Matilda is getting prepped for writing.

On top of that, I have been pounding out short stories on the side while working through Nun with a Gun.  That story has already turned out to be longer than I expected.

I might be doing a collaboration story in the near future too.  Life is pretty crazy… But I am having a grand time at it.

Well, now I had a book written and I had edited it a few times.  I was generally pleased with it and had received a request for what happens next.  What to do with it?  Should I go traditional publishing or e-book?  How little I knew.

Luckily, I knew that I didn’t know much. Now you know that I knew I didn’t know…  Well you get the drift.  So, I researched like a madman and I came up with as many questions as I found answers.  Sometimes the internet has too much information.

So back to the books as it were.  I jumped into a class run by a very interesting man Othneil Seiden (https://www.amazon.com/Othniel-J.-Seiden/e/B001H6MOGE).  He covered the options I knew of as well as a few others I hadn’t come across in my own research.

I had a better understanding of how the upfront costs for On Demand publishing are generated.  I now knew how long it would take via traditional publishing before my book (if it gets accepted) would be available.  I also knew what I would need to take care of on my own if I did epublish.  I had also learned about partnership publishing, its upfront costs and its values.

I was now down to a handful of requirements: Formatting for the various epublishing, ISBN, LCCN and Copyright.  Oh and track down a book cover artist.

Makes me wonder what else I don’t know.  Progress right?

Hello?  Is this thing on?  Am I doing this right?  Isn’t that the question?  After a while you begin to second guess yourself.

The struggle I felt while writing my third book in the series really brought me down.  The first was a labor of adventure and surprise.  The second had a tough start but the rest was a breeze.  In comparison, the third one was a fight from the first word to the last.

I learned so much from each one and some of those lessons were hard. I tried to use an outline on the first one and the characters made other plans.  The second just flowed through and was a pure delight.

The third one didn’t want to cooperate. I had to create an outline and follow it every step of the way.  The characters spoke to me hesitantly.  Frustration ensued and joy in the process was lost.  I persevered through it but kept wondering what was I doing wrong?

I found a few classes to help me out on this part of my journey. I took a class from Rick Gustafson (http://www.rickgustafson.net/) and he covered quite a bit of structure.  He covered points that I seemed to know but hadn’t put a word to.  And I was happy to find that I was doing the right thing in regards to my struggle.

Perseverance was the key.

I finished my third one and it was drudgery.  All my best laid plans were to waste.  Did I really want to continue doing this?

I went back to Twistin’ Matilda after I took a short break to collect myself.  I sat down and began to work on it again and something about it didn’t feel right.  I made some changes but realized I didn’t know what was wrong.  I had to reread The Matilda.

It was simple and yet somewhat daunting.  You see, it was the characters.  They had altered quite a bit and they didn’t seem like the same people.  Well, as with any story, they were integral to the plot.  Their needs and desires were what made the story.  If the characters were off, then the story didn’t work.  And if that didn’t work then it simply didn’t work.

The benefit was that it was fixable.  I poured through the first book and worked my way through Twistin’ Matilda.  I threw chunks of it out.  The flow was better and I was once again happy with it.  It has been sent off to my test audience, editors, and proof readers (what have you).

I await their responses so I can get this one whipped into shape.  In the meantime, it’s now back to Black Matilda to revise it.  It has so much potential!

So there I was, two thousand zero zero, OUT OF TIME.  I jumped off the Twistin’ Matilda train and hopped onto the next car, Black Matilda.

I had the points I wanted to hit, the directions I thought the characters would take and where the story would end up.  Besides feeling a little rushed, I felt prepared.

But I wasn’t.  I had no idea how unprepared I was.

It was a battle to get every single word down on the page.  The characters didn’t want to do what I needed them to do but they didn’t offer any suggestions in return.  Days spread into weeks and weeks into months.

The first novel took a little over five months to write.  The second book only took twenty days.  This one took two and half months for the first draft.  I hated almost every minute of it.  I had to go back to my original plan and reverted to using an outline to finish it. It turned out to be the longest story I had written yet.

After it was done, I had to keep in mind the words of Terry Pratchett, “The first draft is just you telling yourself the story.”  It wasn’t a wasted effort.

So, all in all, I had written the longest story I had ever done.  I also knew somewhere inside of me that there was plenty to work with on the written pages.  And best of all?  I had persevered.  So a big one for me.