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Friday, September 23, 2011

Productivity... or Lack Thereof

I know that I am way overdue for an update on my progress, and for that I apologize. Just chalk it up to the productivity problems I have been having for the past month. Let's just say that I am trying my hardest to get The White Thread out as soon as possible. I have been, however, severely hampered by exhaustion ever since school started up for the year (it's difficult to get revision work done when every time you sit down to work on it, you fall asleep!). I have a great teaching schedule at work this year, I'm just... tired. I'm recovering now from a bout with the flu, too, which hasn't helped things. Once I started to feel a little better this afternoon, I got about an hour's worth of work done, so that's good, and I'm going to try and hammer out the rest of the fact-checking and revisions starting this weekend and into next week. I think it's going to be very difficult to have book 3 done by Sept. 30th, but if I can't make that deadline, it will be finished in early October, THAT I can promise!

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Student Questions, Take 2

Q: What inspired you to name the new world Alitheia?
A: This is a pretty simple question to answer. When I set out to write this series, I knew that I wanted most of my names to have very particular meanings - meanings that would tell the reader something about the place or person. Many of my names have been taken from Greek words, and "Alitheia" is one of those. I won't reveal what it means, but if you're interested enough, you should be able to figure it out!

Q: Did you base your books on The Lord of the Rings?
A: Not directly, no, but I have made it no secret that The Lord of the Rings is my favorite fantasy series of all time. There are aspects of my stories for which I have drawn inspiration from Tolkien's works (such as having the narks be a type of elf), but The Gateway Chronicles is a much different type of story. I really wanted to write something that was more The Chronicles of Narnia meets Harry Potter.

Q: How long does the publishing process take?
A: Well, I can really only speak to the self-publishing process. It really just takes as long or as short as I make it take! Createspace is very quick on their end of things as far as turning over the manuscript after review and the proofing process. What takes the longest for me is the revision and editing process, but as quickly as I get that done is as quickly as I can get the book published. All things considered, from the time I begin to write a novel to the time it is available for sale, about 4-5 months pass. Although I have not traditionally published, I have heard that that process often takes much longer.

Q: How many more books do you think you will write?
A: 15? 20? 30? 100? Lol, I don't know! All I DO know is that I already have multiple projects on the back burner. The project I am going to start after I write the final three installments of The Gateway Chronicles is a trilogy. Then I have another trilogy in mind, and after that a project that will be the sort of series I can continuously add books to (but I'm waiting for some public domain issues to clear first for that). I have another 3 or 4 book series partially planned after that, and... the list goes on and on. Let's just say that, God willing, I will write and publish at least one book a year for the rest of my life! (This actually answers about six questions I had to this effect).