Nouveau Indie Author Buzz

It's official! I've joined the proud ranks of the Indie author. With the help of a great editor, illustrator and formatter, Book I of the Whirlwomen Trilogy was published without a hitch. At present it's available on Smashwords at https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/153216. Early next week it will be available on Amazon, Barnes&Nobles, the iBook store and several other ebook outlets. As much as I'd like to kick back and relax for a few weeks, preferably on a Caribbean island, the work goes on. Now it's marketing time as well as time to go full throttle on Book II, Flicker, which I plan to publish in October. Don't want to keep readers waiting too long.

I've learned quite a bit on this journey. One, anyone can do it. I used to hate when people said that about writing a book, but that's the fact, Jack. The thing is, not everyone will do it because it takes a lot of time and effort and there is always the chance that no one will read it. The pay sucks, too.

But the payoff is tremendous. Especially if you have a passion for the written word and a good story. I do, which is why it's on to the next one. I'll share more about the experience and specifics such as what you should expect to spend, the benefits of a good editor and more in upcoming posts.

On a side note: My book is dedicated to my Mom who passed five years ago on April 28th. She was my biggest fan. She always said I could do it and read everything I sent her and gave me notes. She was a voracious reader who turned me on to the likes of Louis L'Amour (yup, westerns), Sidney Sheldon, C.S. Lewis and many more. Thanks Mom! You were right.

Kick starting 2012

It's taken me more than two months to launch my pitch on kickstarter.com for funding to publish "Flung," the first book in the Whirlwomen Trilogy. The first week, I was paralyzed by acceptance. The second week, I had to talk myself into it being okay to ask people for their hard-earned dollars. The third week, I started shooting the video, which took me two weeks to edit and is still "imperfect in many ways." But I'm a writer, not a videographer.

I spent another two weeks going over and over, and then completely rewriting the prologue which is available for download as part of my proposal. It would have taken me another two weeks if I'd included Chapter One as well, so I made an executive decision to move forward with just the prologue. Here you'll meet the sisters--Rhutnya, Yasmina, Vashia and Laila-- learn why they must flee and get some insight into their developing powers.

You will have to buy the book to meet Duffle, a street-wise, nunchuck wielding teen who lost his family in Katrina. Or Dr. Weiss, a respected and accomplished academic with b-girl roots. Nomi Seerge should pique your interest as well as she's lived many centuries and hungers for the Whirlwomen blood to enhance her own powers.

If fantasy fiction is your thing, I think you'll enjoy my tale.

Rewriting and funding are my focus now. Being successful on kickstarter.com will be a huge boost and allow me to move the project through its final stages. As usual, I'm scared crapless that I'll fail, but trying not to let my thoughts gain any momentum in that direction. (Breathe, downward dog, tripod, balancing stick, savasanah...shanti....)

So, support if you can at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/289275151/book-i-of-the-whirlwomen-trilogy. Every dollar helps and you can donate just one if that's what you have handy (then tell 10 friends to donate one, too;-). Prayer, positive, successful, creative, courageous energy and love are accepted as well, though they are not tax write-offs. Thanking you in advance. Here goes....

Literary Fiction v Mainstream Fiction

I just finished reading "The Heretic's Daughter: A Novel" by Kathleen Kent. What a great read! It's historical fiction surrounding an actual family persecuted during the Salem Witch Trails. While I was, indeed, hoping someone would actually turn out to be a witch, I suffered no disappointment that no one did because the story was so rich with period detail, the characters were so finely developed and the prose quite engaging. This, in my opinion, is definitely literary fiction.

Ah, there's the rub!

I used to read books like that and feel a little, well, less then. I'd lament over how many rejection slips I'd received, how many times Stanford was sorry to inform me I would not be the recipient of a writing fellowship and question whether these were indications that I should just give up. My writing was not "literary" enough, I concluded.

But neither is a lot of other writing that's published. A good story, however, is a good story--literary or not. And a good storyteller shines through whether they write stories acclaimed by "The New Yorker" or not.

I'm a good storyteller, a creative thinker, and (I can finally say it) a good writer of what will be considered mainstream or genre fiction. The difference between the two is that literary fiction is considered to have greater character development and psychological depth, while mainstream fiction is more concerned with narrative and plot.

That is not a hard and fast rule. The characters in my upcoming Whirlwomen Trilogy will be memorable and psychologically dimensional. There will be passages of fine prose. The reader will be satisfied when they read that final sentence. And that right there is literary enough for me.

Oh and one more thing! I DID get accepted by Kickstarter.com to submit my request for publication, marketing and distribution funding for "Flung" the first Whirlwomen novel. More on that later.