I had my share of feeling run-down during December but right now I am suffering from a full-blown flu. I’ve been to the doctor, but apparently they don’t have a cure for that yet! I live in 21st century America. I want to take a pill and be all better!
I’ve been writing a bit on both Astrid Maxxim and 82 Eridani and both are coming along well. It’s a little Jeckyl & Hyde going from one to the other, but there you go.
Mark Coker at Smashwords reports that Smashwords authors have enjoyed a 76% increase in sales through Apple iBookstore after Christmas. See the original post here. This is aggregated from 125,000 Smashwords titles, so it’s too early to tell if that has had an impact on my books, but it sounds good. Apple has been my best selling outlet for a while now.
On a related note, sales are up for my books at Amazon’s Kindle Store too.
Obviously having a small sales increase (of the amount that I might hope for) won’t immediately make me wealthy or allow me to retire from teaching and focus on writing, but anything that makes you feel good about writing can be a great motivator. And getting my books out into the hands of readers makes me feel good.
82 Eridani: Journey is going to be the first book in a seven book series. I was kind of inspired by Game of Thrones (which I have not read, but have watched). I thought “I need to write a story like Game of Thrones.” One filled with sex, violence, and violent sex; one based loosely on historical events; and one that plays out over a vast setting and over a multiple book series. Of course, there is already a Game of Thrones– so I’m not going to write it again. Besides, I want to tell my own stories, so instead of writing a fantasy story, I thought I would write a space/sci-fi series.
The first book, Journey, as the name implies, is all about the journey to the new solar system. There is a plot in the story of course, but it is also about introducing characters and themes that are continued throughout the series. Here are a few hints of what is included so far: genetic manipulation, robotics gone wild, adultery, serial murder, spying, and lots and lots of space sex (which is just sex, but in space).
I’ve had the basic outline for what is becomming 82 Eridani for about 10 years. The basic premise is a starship from Earth arriving in a distant solar system. The overall plot is based on events occuring during the exploration of America in the sixteenth century.
Originally I had planned my alien solar system to be Vega. I have read several great sci-fi stories that use Vega as their setting. But as I began thinking of the various things I wanted my setting to do, I thought that the one I had picked might not be quite right. I spent a few weeks reading about the stars in our Earth’s neighborhood, finally settling on 82 Eridani as my best choice.
Tomorrow, a little bit more about this story.
I read chapter four of 82 Eridani: Journey to my writers’ group last night and received generally favorable feedback. Writers’ groups are a great resource for any writer and mine “The Shared Word Writers’ Group,” despite being quite small, has been a great help to me.
I’ve shared the first four chapters, but I’ve written six so far. These are fairly long chapters and this will be one of my longer books– 4,000 word chapters x 30 chapters = 120,000 words. Of course, that’s just how I’ve plotted it. My books usually tend to end up shorter than originally planned. For instance, The Voyage of the Minotaur, The Drache Girl, and The Two Dragons were all plotted out at 125,000 words and they ended up being 110,000, 105,000, and 106,000 respectivley.
Stay tuned tomorrow, for a little background about the book.
Wow. Looking back at my notes, I see that this time last month, I was about sixty days ahead of my writing goal. Now I’m about two weeks behind. This has been a trying time in may day job and it’s not only taking time from my writing, but it’s dragging me down mentally and emotionally so much that when I do have time, I can’t quite get into it. Those of you who have never worked as a teacher do not and cannot know the amount of daily pressure that teachers are under. It sounds like I’m whining– and I guess I am a bit. The events of the past week just illustrate one layer of the stress that goes along with the job.
Teachers are expected to be educators, counselors, clergy, parents, social workers, and friends. They are expected to care for their students as if they were their own children, to provide for the students what their parents can’t provide, and to lay down their lives if necessary to protect them. Most teachers know this and are ready to do so. On the other hand, teachers are criticized and blamed for every problem that their students have, whether it is low test scores or bullying. My cardiologist, wondering why my blood pressure was so high asked me “is your job stressful?” I said, “You have no idea. You’re only a heart surgeon.”
Anyway, three more school days and I’ll be out for two Winter Vacation weeks. Hopefully I’ll be able to write something then.
For Astrid Maxxim, like any of my books, I have copious piles of notes. I thought I would share some of them with you. These are the character notes I wrote before I ever started the first book. There were a few changes as I wrote, but they’re mostly the same.
Astrid Maxxim (11-4-97)
Girl Inventor
Mom, Kate Maxxim, CEO of Maxxim Industries
Dad, Roger Maxxim, Inventor (Mad Scientist)
Toby Bundersmith
Boy Astrid Likes
Dad, Martin Bundersmith, Widower, Engineer at Maxxim
Denise Brown
Astrid’s Best Friend
Dad, Dennis Brown, Head model maker at Maxxim
Dad, Jeffrey Richards, Coffee shop owner.
Brother Dennis
Valerie Diaz
Astrid’s Other Best Friend
Dad, Sergio Diaz, Head of Security at Maxxim
Mom, Sofia Diaz, Housewife
Robot Valerie
Girl Robot with Valerie’s memories.
Christopher Harris
Toby’s Best Friend
Dad, Carl Harris, Engineer at Maxxim
Mom, Winnie Harris, Chemist at Maxxim
Austin Tretower
The New Kid
Lives with Grandmother, Pearl Tretower (retired)
Gloria Maxxim
Astrid’s Cousin (Parents: Carl and Loren Maxxim)
Think’s Astrid is a nerd.
My books have gotten many reviews– mostly good. I’m proud to say that I have more 2 star reviews than 1 star, more 3 star than 2 star, more 4 star than 3 star, and more 5 star than 4 star. Some of those are very well-thought-out and some not so much.
I usually try not to look at reviews, but sometimes I see them and can’t help myself from reading them. I recently spotted the only review for Women of Power on US Amazon. It’s a 2-star review, but I really enjoyed reading it. First of all, though it has some real criticism, it is constructive. Secondly, it has some positive things to say too.
Here’s a part I like.
“The sad part is that this author writes amazingly well. The whole book is modern
language type writing, making it easy to understand. And the author certainly
knows how to craft an action scene. It’s exciting and you’re never lost or
wondering where one character is, in relation to another, or even to the
environment. The author creates great superhero/villain names for the
characters. I’m a big fan of the Atomic Jack-O-Lantern, the name alone tells you
what an awesome character it is. I cannot sing enough praises for this author’s
ability to make me want to keep going one more chapter. Just one more… just
one more… till I suddenly find myself at the end of the book.”
**** SPOILER ALERT ****
One of the characters in Astrid Maxxim is a robot. She’s Robot Valerie, imprinted with the memories of Astrid’s friend Valerie Diaz.
Robot Valerie has two purposes. The first is just that I wanted a robot character. Orignially she was going to be a robot version of Astrid’s other friend Denise. I had Denise and Robot Denise for a long time in the draft, but Denise already has a complicated family life, so it just seemed natural to change the robot to Robot Valerie.
The second reason for Robot Valerie was as a plot device. The bad guys are after Robot Valerie, naturally, because she’s a cool robot. It’s just one more thing for Astrid to worry about.
For some reason, people just like robot characters. People generally love Patience in His Robot Wife, and of the comments I’ve gotten so far about Astrid Maxxim, probably 75% talk about Robot Valerie.
Astrid is the title character and the main character in Astrid Maxxim. As a character, she has two facets. On the one hand, she has to be interesting, so she has her foibles and flaws, but on the other hand, it is her eyes from which we see her world. Therefore, she has to have a solid center.
Astrid is extremely intelligent, but she is also intuitive and empathetic. She is kind and friendly, but shy and unassuming. She loves science and technology and is easily frustrated by superstition and silliness. She is supremely confident about herself, but not so confident in her interactions with others. This along with a certain rigidness regarding change, I associate with her being an only child.
Astrid is a fun character to write and I hope to do a fairly long series of her stories. It all depends on how long I last, I suppose.
City of Amathar 