Tag: circle of vengeance

I've Landed! …in the iBookstore!

So after spending one night typing, copying and pasting over my Mac keyboard, I have finally found myself actually submitting a short story (thirty six pages of short) through the iBookstore and seeing it “published” to the masses. By masses, I mean Apple Users. By Apple Users, I mean only those who own an iPad. Well, lesson learned. I’ll work on getting it into more places as the process was interesting enough to learn and simple enough for anyone to complete. 

In case you’re interested in the finished product, click this link and remember… only available for iPad. Not sure if its available for Mac as well, so please if you download it to one of those… let me know!

Currently making some decent headway on the novel of doom… I’d rip the remainder of my hair out, but I’m already bald. There are some definite gaps and some actual moments of decent writing. I originally was worried, but some spans of writing are quality. After reading a bit, I forgot I was supposed to be editing and just kept reading. Hopefully that’s a good sign! Either way, that’ll hopefully be ready for the end of the month, if not then the new year!

Also, it appears my PDF version has gone live as well (Whoo more exposure!) but the ePUB version is broken virtually beyond repair (It took 37 pages and turned it into 1373 pages… I’m definitely not editing that). That link is over here and if you like it, please share it freely. After all, I made it free so I could get more feedback on my writing style (and to see if I have one).

Well, once again, it is past that midnight mark and I am growing tired. Looks like tonight was no time spent on the ole novel of doom, however I did watch Thor (which was awesome) and got my story more audience. All in all? Win! I just have to stay away from eBay… that place eats not only time, but money too! Take care out there, and thank you for your kind support! Also, if there is a format you’d like to see for future (or this) story, let me know!

El Sporadic Update – The 20% Mark

So I am now officially 1/5th of the way to my target of 100,000 words. For only writing one hour a day, I am making fantastic progress! This waking up early thing has been the most rewarding and probably challenging thing I have ever done. I mean yesterday was my day off and I did four loads of laundry, three loads of dishes, cleaned the house, BBQ’d some lunch, still got in some writing and critiquing and then still cooked dinner as well! Perhaps there is some truth to all those crazy people who say wake up with a purpose and you will achieve higher levels of productivity and success! I still hate mornings (I don’t drink coffee or tea… so mornings are hard…)

That being said, I haven’t broken my story into chapters or gone back over any of my writing thus far. I am doing what some may call SOMP Writing (Seat-Of-My-Pants) with little or no planning at all. I have found this style of writing extremely rewarding. I know the direction I want to go in, so I am now ensuring that people feel the way I want them to while dropping subtle hints about who the antagonist is. For the moment, it seems magic is the evident antagonist as young Jefferson is trying to figure out how far he can push himself and good magic has its limits.

The world I have built is roughly based around travelling circuses and a time where Magicians stole the show with their tricks. However, these magicians are part of an order which secretly protects the rest of the world from the dark magics. The way magic works in my world is good magic only can draw upon the life force of the user exhausting their energy levels or depending on the power of the spell, causing harm to the user. This restricts the use of overly powerful spells, as they come at great risk. However the forbidden arts or dark magic are based off of using the life force of others and those around you. As this does not fatigue the user or harm them, extremely powerful spells can be used with little regard for the lives around them. Because of the power at no risk and the harm to others, use of magic in that way is forbidden.

This has made some battles interesting and good characters will fall victim to the evils of the world. More so than the bad guys. In this sense I am writing a story in which of course the good guys win, but at what cost? I have been enjoying the characters I have brought into the story thus far and I feel it is moving along at a decent pace. Will this turn into a trilogy? No. I sincerely doubt it. The plot kind of goes as such: Jefferson gets recruited. Jefferson becomes integral to recruiting new members. Antagonist appears. Jefferson builds order to fight Antagonist. Good triumphs, but who survives?

So at the moment I have just begun my second plot point where for the next 20000 words will be recruiting and adding a few more members to the order, while staging the appearance of the antagonist. I already know that those 20000 words will be roughly the hardest points for our protagonist which strengthen his resolve to build the order stronger in the next 20000. The final 20000 will start off with the end, and then the aftermath. Maybe if I still love writing about this world, I can toss in the possibility for a second story.

In the meantime, as a sidebar to this story I have been involved in critiquing the works of others on a website called Review Fuse. In order to get three reviews, I must give three reviews. This type of reading and editing all for my own benefit has been both fun and challenging. Sometimes people will have fantastic writing skills, but have written the most boring story ever. Character developments fall flat, moments which could be epic run dry and I actually read a story that had none of the following: A plot, Characters, A setting, Dialog. It was eight paragraphs of this writer telling me things, about names with no people attached and I don’t think I could have cared less. He introduced drugs, killed one of them off and apparently no one in his story noticed or cared that the guy had died. I guess I felt as empathetic as they did. Not at all.

Still, everything counted, I am writing at least 2000 words a day between my story, my blog and my reviews. It has felt great to get back into it and with the resolve to finish this story. The earlier I finish, the more time I have to edit. Also I have another million ideas to write about after this, so I guess I will continue to get up at five in the morning to write until I am a millionaire telling stories to the world. If I can get paid to write, there is no greater honor and that is the dream!

For everyone out there, I’d like to thank you for supporting me. Whether you are family, friend or total stranger. If you’re a writer yourself or know one, pass this blog along as I would love feedback on the existing stories I have out there and the past work I have done. I’m hoping to get my final three reviews on Circle of Vengeance so I can slap it up on the iBooks store (it’ll be free!) and perhaps even the kindle store! That’s the near future, hopefully if everything goes well and smoothly it will be up by the end of the month. Maybe it’ll be up in time for my birthday! That would definitely be the best birthday present ever! Until the next sporadic update, adios amigos!

Thank You Mr. Bradbury.

For any budding writer, there comes a point when you simply stop and ask yourself:

“Can I go on writing?”

For me this question comes every time I attempt the illusive novel I’ve been working so diligently on. I can create a thousand stories and histories for a world, but to create a single novel feels like trying to climb a mountain while towing a mack truck. With the right tools, maybe.

Nevertheless, I had actually stopped working on it for a few days and began to feel my muse creeping up on me. Well I decided to devote to the other side of writing, reading.

With the new household iPad in tow, I gathered a number of the books I own in PDF form and some I didn’t. One of the books that caught my eye was actually a book by Stephen King. On Writing seemed like exactly what I wanted, one writer’s journey into success.

I could not have been more wrong.

I read in about seventy five pages, then skimmed roughly thirty more. What I realized? Stephen King was a terrible writer. The one thing I gathered from his book however, was he was an excellent editor. Not a bad note to take from a book, but I had wasted some time reading it. I could have spent it coloring or writing my own work.

After I rinsed the words from my eyes I decided to give Ray Bradbury’s book, Zen in the Art of Writing, a go. I mean after reading Stephen King’s memoirs, nothing except Twilight or Fifty Shades of Grey could be worse. I sat down and started reading. Then I kept reading. Then I had to do dishes… yet I continued to read. Then I sadly had to go to work.

I had only managed to read a third of the book, but I realized that Bradbury’s love for writing matched my own. Even at his age his imagination ran wild, frolicking in the meadows of his mind, arm in arm with his muse. Reading his word play and seeing his passion come to life in these humble pages, it completely rejuvenated me! I spent my evening thinking of ideas I would immediately put into play as soon as I could.

But first…

I continued reading, completely entranced by this man’s words. I realized many things while reading his book.

One, I’m no where near publication ready.
Two, write more short stories… and then write more.
Three, write one thousand words a day.
Four, ignore the temptations of wealth.
Five, read more.
Six, do not search for the ultimately unique idea, that is nearly impossible.
Seven, embrace all the senses when writing.
Eight, everyone should read this book.

I continued through to the end and felt more satisfied in the conclusion than in any fiction I’ve read recently. The man stood and delivered from his soapbox, a message that should never be lost. I’m still absorbing what he crammed into those tiny pages, but he gave me exactly what I needed.

Inspiration.

You see, I’ve been overwhelmed with the creation of an entire world. I think I may not believe in God now because one being simply could not create so much without getting distracted by their own creations. One man has two children and suddenly there are hundreds of stories of them separated from each other, together and then in pairs. Then, they arrive at an inn with a blind barkeep who has large scars across his face.

What’s his story?

Well he was attacked by a werewolf and now after taking a sideshow cure, he must remain indoors as he only transforms if he is bathed in the light of the sun.

But what of this sideshow?

Calcorious Malinex, the leader of the circus, began the show when he happened upon a free elephant and a bearded lady. Thinking his luck too good to be true, he continued on until one night he was viciously attacked by a wolf. After slightly curing himself, he now infects others so that he may then sell them the vaccine which may cause death, dismemberment or some random transformation alteration.

What about this glorious cure for werewolves?

Well, when Calcorious began experimenting he found that he had somewhat cured himself, gaining control over most of his transformations. That is until any lunar or solar eclipse, when he uncontrollably transforms and releases the pent up aggression. Other symptoms include daylight transforming, hairless transforming, were-human (always wolf, except human on full moons), control over transforming (except on full moons), weekly transforming and finally weather transforming.

So, I find myself going crazy trying to focus on the story I am trying to write. A long time ago I told a friend of mine that if we wanted to make a game, we couldn’t start out with something huge. We should start small, so we could work as a team and hone our individual skills before embarking on an epic quest to create the one game to rule them all.

It’s ironic that despite being the one who gave the advice, I never followed it either.

I’ve been trying desperately to write the “one novel to rule them all”, and in doing so, began to despise the one hobby I truly love: Writing. As I read of Bradbury and his almost obsessive compulsive writing habits, I realized that his short story writing habits would help me greatly.

So, that brings us to this week.

I finally decided upon an ending I wanted to write and after that, the rest began to fall into place. I imagined the ending I had being the very top brick in a pyramid and from there I began to almost build backward and forward. The story quickly ran away, with me trying to hold on for dear life.

In five days I easily wrote over 8500 words, only really stopping to work, clean, live and edit. This made me consider many things. In five days, I had written one tenth of the first Harry Potter book worth of words. Also, I didn’t stumble over my own creations. I only added what back story was necessary and kept only the main characters with interesting names. I also cut down my word count by changing the main character’s mentor to Jason instead of The Mentor or Her Mentor.

Anyway, without further ado, here is my latest short story. I’m not a praying man, but please, if you read it feel free to leave me any feedback either through the website, my email or even facebook. Any sort of feedback both positive or negative would be extremely appreciated as my plea on facebook fell on deaf ears!

The aptly named “Circle of Vengeance” is a story about an eight year old girl who’s father leaves with a mystery man, only never to return. Ten years of training later she is ready to confront her father’s killer, the self proclaimed greatest swordsman in the realms, and sets out on the journey to his mountain top castle.

It may sound like the typical story of revenge, but please, read it and get back to me! Thanks so much and I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s post!

One final note, this story exists thanks to Mr. Bradbury helping me get past my own hurdles. Thanks Mr. Bradbury. I wish I could have met you when I had the chance!