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Writing

It’s NanoWriMo Time!

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That’s right, November 1st. Time to write. Ok, sure every day is technically time to write, especially if you’re a writer.

NaNoWriMo, in case you don’t know, is National Novel Writing Month. The idea is straight forward. Write 50k words, in 30 days.

I saw a blog post about how NaNo launched a career and thought I’d share my own “How NaNoWriMo launched my career” post.

I’ve participated in NaNo off and on for about a decade. I’ve only (so far) ‘won’ once. In 2016.

That was Space Rogues.

The idea is you write 1667 words a day. That’s great, then you miss a day, now you need to write 3334 words. It’s thanksgiving, you see family, etc, skip writing a few days, and now you have to write 6668 words to get back on track (assuming you were on track by Thanksgiving). It can build up fast. Usually, I fell out around a week in when I took a weekend off, and now had to catch up, and didn’t quite know what I wanted to write.

None of that happened in 2016.

In 2016 I kept going. I had super productive days and no-writing days, but they averaged out. The stars aligned, conference work was light, etc. So I wrote. And around mid-month was like, “Holy shit. I’m still going, AND I’m ahead of the moving average!” And around noon on 11/30/16 I typed ‘the end’

I celebrated. I threw together a cover, I read it over once, let a few friends read it, then uploaded to Amazon (That was a bit premature, but oh well). I had ideas for Wil’s next adventure and couldn’t wait to tell them. I was excited and energized. I still am.

Now it’s 2019

The Space Rogues series is 5 books deep (You can pre-order book 5 here, it releases 12/23). You can order a 5 book bundle here (you’ll get book 5, three days early)

I just put the first draft of Adventure Inc. to bed while I NaNo Space Rogues 6. I’ve spoken on a panel at a convention. I’ve got an Author Alley table at an upcoming convention. I’ve got a local author happy hour soon, and more. Things I never would have done had I not done NaNoWriMo 2016.

And of course, I’ve sold thousands of copies of my books. (About 16,000 this year, as of today).

Am I writing full time? No. Though I love doing my conferences so would likely do them even if I could (at least for now).

Am I a USA Today bestseller? Nope. Though that’s really more about your ability to market than anything else, not to diminish those who boast that accolade.

But I have gotten emails from fans telling me they like my work, which warms my heart.

Maybe one day you’ll see the crew of the Ghost on a screen but for now, you just have to use your imagination.

 

All of that to say, if I hadn’t won NaNoWriMo in 2016, I doubt I would have kept writing.

Meet the Crew of the Ghost – Bennie

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Ben-Ari Vulvo is a Brailack. He’s also an asshole.

He met Wil early on in Wil’s career as a smuggler, helping him get an ident (Space drivers license) and a clean, albeit fake, transponder id for the Ghost (Then the Reaper).

When Wil brought Maxim and Zephyr to Fury for clean idents of their own, he sent them to Bennie.

After some sewer crawling and general abraisiveness, Bennie and the wayward ex-Peacekeepers make it back to the Ghost and begin a life of being “Space Rogues”.

Bennie has issues with personal space and property, often hacking into Wil’s personal data archive to watch Earth movies and TV shows. He also views door locks as minor inconveniences and often visits the rooms of his crewmates when they’re not around. Often ‘borrowing’ things he finds.

Kudos to Dan once more on capturing the crew so perfectly!

Space Rogues book one new cover

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I know, this isn’t the first time I’ve posted about cover updates. The (of countless) upside of indie publishing is being agile.

Space Rogues new coverI love the Ghost! Greg did an amazing job of capturing her. But my initial cover updates simply replaced the old version of the Ghost with Greg’s. I love(d) those covers. The Ghost, in space, over a planet or fighting a monster spaceship. Most weren’t very dynamic.

That is (slowly) changing. Book One is the first. What do you think?

Some common knowledge in cover design is to capture a moment from the book. Book Two did that best. I wanted to bring the rest of the books in the series up to that standard.

Another bit of “common knowledge” in cover design is to fit the genre. While I think the previous cover fit the genre of Science Fiction overall, I don’t think it did perfectly. I mean there’s a spaceship on the cover, so “Scifi” is pretty well addressed. However showing the Ghost in flight, fighting, I think says “Action-adventure Scifi” much more clearly.

I just changed the cover last week so we’ll see if it leads to any better sales.

Meet the Crew of the Ghost – Maxim

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MaximMaxim (Also no last name because, Peacekeepers)

Maxim is the tactical officer aboard the Ghost. He’s Zephyr’s Significant other and the team stoic.

Like serious stoic.

As a Peackeeper his last assignment was a intelligence analyst and operative.

Maxim is fun to write because he is truly that strong and silent type, but he’s incredibly competent. When he speaks the team listens and takes note.

He also is a massive fan of bacon.

Once Dan Voltz did an amazing job at capturing the crew!

WIP Thursday 10/24

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I’m nearly done with Adventure Inc. Book One: Let’s Adventure (It’s a working title). I’m really liking this group of characters and can’t wait to see what adventures they get into.

 

Sofia handed Jason a pistol from one of the guards and knelt to rummage through the myriad pockets and pouches in their uniforms. She withdrew zip ties and moved to take care of the three unconscious men. Looking at the one with the knife wound she looked at Jason, “Savage.”
He shrugged, “I said I was sorry.”
Thinking he had an opportunity the African man took a step toward Jason, who immediately re-aimed his pistol center mass on the man. “Cute, not stupid,” He said smiling. The other man scowled.
Sofia walked over and gestured for the man to put his hands behind his back. As she secured him with two zip ties, she leaned towards his ear, “Coulda been so much fun.” She tutted.
Jason shook his head as he watched her. “So inappropriate.” He leaned down and hefted one of the smaller guards up over his shoulder, “Let’s put ‘em in one of the far rooms.” He nodded toward one fo the doors set in the wall opposite the doorway that lead back to the main complex. As he started to head toward the indicated door the floor shook again.

Sofia is the team muscle. I had initially planned on having Jason be equally as capable, but liked the idea that he wasn’t in fact an operator. He’s sometimes clumsy, not a gret fighter, and has pretty mediocre aim. Sofia doesn’t even allow him to have rifles on missions usually.

It’s looking like early 2020 is when you’ll see Adventure Inc. Book One: We’re On a Boat! (It’s a working title)

My First Con(vention) Experience

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Me at my first Con tableSo this past weekend participated in MileHiCon. It was… Just ok. I don’t put any blame on the organizing team per se. It sounds like last year they went really big (50th Anniversary), and this year the programming chair took ill and ignored (Probably rightly if they were ill) email starting in April (Not sure why they didn’t say something sooner, shrug)

I had a 2 hour slot in the Author Co-Op, a shared table space next to Author’s Row. I also had a seat on a panel.

I ended up paying for an extra ticket (I bought a ticket for nicole and myself at the end of September) but that’s ok, it wasn’t a lot, and the volunteers didn’t seem to have a ton of information (even those assigned to the participant greenroom) so it wasn’t worth puzzling out with them. Or dealing with that puzzlement, as several seemed highly disinterested in being helpful. I don’t know if it’s normal for this Con or not, but the volunteers seemed to have little to no knowledge of, well, anything. How to check people in, how do deal with participants, etc.

Author Co-Op

We (My amazing and supportive wife came along) made sure to arrive an hour before my spot at the Co-op table. I met my (assumed) table mate, JT Evans, great guy. We chatted while the current occupants of the Co-Op packed up. Then we realized there were 5 of us there to set up.There were 4 spots. Oops.

Flashback

About two weeks ago I got an email confirming the Co-Op stuff, there was a tiny screenshot image of the schedule, I was on it. The gist of the email was confirming participation, essentiially If you’re on this tiny image, you’re good to go. Or not as it turned out.

Back to now

There’s a tripod sign with some kind of hand sign up for the open Co-Op spots and someone had written themselves in. Hence the problem. Thankfully one of the organizers came over and explained the illness and the wholly borked internal stuff she was dealing with, including a disconnect between the previous person, and the tools they were using to organize things. She very kindly found me a table. Upside, I had a whole table to myself. Downside I was at the end, alone and in front of a door to some type of kid’s activity room.

There is definitely a “Gravity” aspect to these things (I think. My sample is small right now). JT had been on a panel or two before our time slot and many people came by having seen him and bought books. The guy next to him, also sold a few books (He may have sold books no matter where he was, not trying to imply otherwise). I sold none, but did give out a few business cards to people interested in eBooks more than paper (Can’t blame them). I don’t know if I’d have sold any sitting next to JT or not, but since I wasn’t selling, I was watching :) He had by far the most visitors. He’s also been around and knew a lot of people so had lots of friends stopping by. People are drawn to crowds (Gravity, right?)

So that was a bit of a bust, but a great learning experience. I’m glad I wasn’t selected for the Author’s Row my first time out. That might have been a bit much for my first time out. I’d be curious how those folks did, since the four hours I was there, i never saw a crowd, ever. At best a trickle of a few people here and there.

The Panel

I was selected for a panel on “Createspace, KDP and you” or something to that effect. Basically Self Publising 101. It was at 7pm. Next door was “How to write good sex scenes” and in the main area was the Cosplay parade. I had low expectations for turn out.

We actually had a not bad turn out. The room probably held maybe 30 and we had about 12 or so. Oh and the moderator was a no show.

Flashback

The same email with my Co-Op spot on it, included a few PDFs one of which was a panels 101 kind of thing with the questions the moderators of other panels planned to ask their panelists, so everyone could be prepared. My panel wasn’t included. I didn’t think anything of it, figuring the moderator was going to wing it. In hindsight I’m guessing the moderator didn’t even know they were the moderator.

Back to now

The panelists have all showed up, I shared the table with Jonathon Brazee, that was cool, he’s a great guy. No moderator. I don’t know if the time keeper reached out to an organizer or what, but at 7 he closed the door and kind of shrugged, “Guess it’s just you all” and sat down in the back row. The guy at the end, a small publisher, took the lead as moderator since the rest of us didn’t much care. He didn’t do a horrible job, but was very anti Amazon, which given the title of the panel was a bit surprising. I’m no fanboy, but still.

The panel went fine, some great questions from that side of the table, and great insights from our side of the table. I even gleaned a thing to try out :) The stand-in moderator did an admirable job.

It was a bummer it was a manel, I don’t know if the moderator was also a dude, but in their absence, manel for sure. I know it’s hard to avoid, but I’d have given my spot up in a blink to an non-dude. Ah well, not my circus, not my monkeys, as they say.

takeaways

  • As I said, I’m glad I didn’t end up with a table in Author’s Row. Two and half days would be a lot. Especially with only one panel to break up the time.
  • Go for more panels. I was a little humble in offering myself up, and assume that’s why I was on the self-publishing one only. Be bold nex time. Especially if you’re (me) planning on going for a Author’s Row table and will have to be there all weekend. It seems like a smart idea to try to have 1-2 panels a day just to break things up.
  • Assume you won’t sell much. I was super worried I wouldn’t have enough on hand and ordered a bunch more book One’s and more Book Three so I have nearly twenty of each. I didn’t bring ALL of that but did have twenty Book One, Ten Book Two, and six each of Three and Four. I mean for a weekend that might be more appropriate numbers but not for a co-op spot.
  • Don’t be shy and chat with your table mates and neighbors. And do the book swap. It’s a thing and a great way to make new author friends. You’re sitting there, give ’em a book, take one of theirs (If offered). It was great to meet a facebook author friend in person after exchanging comments here and there.
  • Ask where everyone else is going. What other cons are worth the time (and money) and which aren’t.

Conclusion

I’ll give MileHiCon another shot next year, the folks were all very nice, and the other authors were great. Nicole accompanied me and did some surveillance around the con and picked up that this year was a bit lackluster after last year. Less budget after the spend last year, and overall disorganization. I’m well aware of what goes into events, so am not holding this year against the team.

 

 

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