Archive for the ‘Novel’ Category

Laura Horn: Part II Done

Posted: April 6, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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One of the creatures I think represent Laura Horn. It definitely captures her spirit.

I was starting to doubt I’d get this done before I left for my study abroad trip, but I got through Part II of my novel-in-progress Laura Horn. This brings me a bit closer to finishing the entire novel, and I’m happy to say it’s really starting to take shape.

Laura Horn is a story of a girl who is a victim of sexual assault but never told anyone about it. When she gets her hands on something belonging to elements within the American government, she becomes the one person who can bring down to stop a plot against the United States of America. At the same time, she must also face her past and learn to walk to the future. That was the concept that I started writing with, but since then it’s also morphed into a very different story than the one I originally envisioned. Along with being a story about overcoming the past (with a political thriller plot in the background), LH has also become a story about learning to trust again, about being a true friend in times of crisis, and about being courageous in the face of overwhelming odds.

If this book were written by any other author, it might make for great YA fiction. But since it’s me, I’m not sure it could really count as YA fiction. Heck, Reborn City has plenty of elements of YA, but I doubt you’d call that YA either, given the thematic nature of the novel. And Snake? No way in hell can that be called YA. That’s straight thriller with elements of a slasher film.

So now for the page and word counts. And remember, when I say “page”, I mean 8.5″ x 11″ paper with twelve-point Times New Roman font. That’s the thing with doing these counts: there are those who care more about the page count, and then there are those who measure with word counts, usually other writers who distinguish the differences between short stories, novels, and everything in-between using word counts. It’s a weird dichotomy, and one of these days I’ll write a blog post about it. But now is not the time for it.

Anyway, the page counts for the Prologue, Part I, and Part II were 10, 43, and 107 pages respectively, for a total of 160 pages. And the word counts are 2,190 for the Prologue, 12,019 for Part I, and 29,634 words for Part II. That puts the total word count at this moment at 43,843 words. Wow, that’s quite the increase in page and word count since I finished Part I. We’re well into novella range, which I define as between forty-thousand and sixty-thousand words (60,000+ I define as a novel).

Anyway, I might take a break from fiction writing tomorrow and just veg out on TV. Then on Monday, assuming my homework isn’t trying to bury me, I’ll start Part III, which I’ve entitled “The Ringleader”. Maybe if I’m lucky, I’ll finish it before I leave for Europe. Not likely, but I can hope.

Anyway, that’s all for now. I’m going to bed, so goodnight to you, my Followers of Fear. Pleasant nightmares, one and all!

Conversations with Angela Misri

Posted: March 31, 2014 in Author Interciew, Living and Life, Novel, Writing
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Some of you may be acquainted with Angela, or have heard me gush over her awesome feedback to my novel Snake. But did you know that Angela’s first novel, Jewel of the Thames, has just been released (I’ve already got it on my Kindle)? When I heard about it, I was so excited for her, and I got the chance to interview her before JotT came out.

Angela was born in London, England, but currently she lives in Toronto, Canada with her family. She has been writing for a number of years, most notably for CBC Radio as a journalist. She also does freelance and digital projects on the side, but currently she’s been devoting her time to the Portia Adams books she’s been writing (last I checked she’s got around eight or nine casebooks in the series).  She is a fan of mysteries, Doctor Who, and most stuff Sherlock Holmes (but not Elementary).

RU: Hello Angela, it’s a pleasure to talk to you. Give us an idea about what Jewel of the Thames is about.

AM: Sure Rami: Jewel of the Thames is the first book in a series of stories about aspiring detective Portia Adams. It is also an homage to my favourite detective novels – the Sherlock Holmes books, the Nancy Drews, the Hercule Poirots. All of the books I read from childhood till now, and all the great authors who inspired me to create this character. So far in this series, I have written ten casebooks – cases that Portia has taken on – and the first three make up Jewel of the Thames.

There is a lot that had to happen in the first book – Portia needs to find out what her link is to the property she has inherited in London, and she needs to start standing on her own. The whole book is three casebooks wrapped in a mystery driving towards a big reveal at the end. You’re gonna have to read it to find out what the heck I’m talking about.
RU: Considering my level of confusion and intrigue, I will. Now tell us a little about your protagonist, Portia Adams. Who is she exactly?

AM: Hmm, what can I tell you without spoiling it? She’s a 19 year old Canadian who at the very beginning of the books loses her mom, leaving her a poor orphan in 1930s Toronto. It is at the reading of her mother’s will that she discovers she has been left a mysterious property in London and that she has a guardian – Mrs. jones from New York.

Portia is an intelligent introvert who has always preferred books and quiet to social situations, she loves school, hates fashion, often forgets to eat and has no friends. This is partially because she’s viewed as odd and anti-social despite her mother’s best efforts. Her overwhelming curiosity leads her to what interests her rather than what others are focused on, and gives her a focus most don’t understand.
She’s tall and slim, with dark brown hair which she wears unfashionably long and usually in a bun, with startling blue eyes. Feel like you know her a little better?
RU: Maybe just a bit. What do you say your writing process is?
AM:  write long-hand in Moleskin notebooks, so for Jewel, my writing time was my commute back and forth to my full-time job in downtown Toronto. So for 30 minutes in each direction on transit twice a day I would write about Portia Adams, ignoring the smells, sounds and closeness of the Toronto Transit crowd. As a result, I have about 30 Moleskin notebooks filled with my handwriting in lots of colours detailing Portia’s adventures.

Angela and her moleskin notebooks

RU: Wow, that kind of writing schedule requires tenacity. What do you think will draw people to Jewel and to Portia?

AM: Hmm… I guess the same things that drew me to her – a young female protagonist who is learning to stand on her own – I find that premise compelling. Her relationships are part of what make her the woman she is, and as those develop I think she will become an unforgettable character, as will the recurring characters around her like Brian, Sergeant Michaels and Mrs. Jones. That’s how I feel about her at least, I find that even when I’m not writing about Portia, I’m thinking about her. I’ve got a bit of a WWPD mentality in my own life, so that when things happen, I often think What Would Portia Do?

It doesn’t hurt that the setting is London in the 1930s, a really interesting time in history between the two great wars and smack in the middle of the great depression. I hope that people come to care for Portia, because I know from my own experience as a reader that a connection with the characters is key. I guess I will be looking for that kind of feedback from book 1 as I get into the editing phase of books 2 and 3.
RU: Speaking of Books 2 and 3, are you going to continue writing and editing on the bus to and from work, or have things changed since you found out Jewel of the Thames was going to be published?

AM: Things have indeed changed, but actually before I got my contract for Jewel. Last June, after I finished writing the third book in the series, I decide it was time to concentrate my time on this part of my life. I’ve spent the past 14 years working as journalist for the CBC, I think it’s fair to try ‘something else’ for a while.

So I work from home now as a freelance journalist and so far I’m loving it. I try to write a few hours every morning (in the series on book 4, blogging, research) and then spend the afternoons working my freelance contracts. I think I’ve hit a rhythm that works for me, so we’ll see how it goes.
RU: I’m glad it’s working out for you. And you know, I feel kind of bad, because I forgot you were also a journalist for the CBC. How did you get into writing and journalism in the first place? What inspired you to go down that path?

AM: (Laughs)  Don’t feel bad about that! But to answer that question, I’m going to steal from the bio I wrote for my publishers last week:

“Everything changed for young Angela Misri one spring day in 1992 at an assembly in the gym where, as per usual, she was giggling and whispering with her friends in the audience. Suddenly her name was called by the Principal of the school and she was jostled out from the safety of the herd and to the front of the room. Having not really listened to the preceding speech, she was shocked to learn that a poem she had written as part of a school assignment had been published in an anthology of like-quality poems by Canadian children. The Principal smiled the biggest smile she had ever seen on a teacher, and handed her a copy of the coil-bound anthology, turning the young poet towards the audience of her schoolmates and starting the applause that followed her back to her safe haven between her best friends.
That was the moment when Angela discovered that despite being of Indian descent, there were in fact other options for your life’s work than medicine or engineering.”
So there you are! That was the moment for me, and I’ve been writing ever since. I wrote my first book when I was your age, Rami. It’s a historical fiction called ‘Savitri’ and it’s sitting upstairs in a binder. The only other copy is on a floppy disk (no, I’m not kidding, that’s how long ago it was since I was your age ; ) . I haven’t read it in about 15 years and I will admit, that I am scared to. I’m worried that the vision of the story (which I still think is the best I ever wrote) will not live up to reality.
RU: That’s a problem that a lot of authors face when they think of their early stories. So how did you come up with the Portia Adams stories?

AM: It was after reading the Stephen King short story called ‘The Doctor’s Case’ that the idea for Portia came to me. If you haven’t read it, I suggest you do, it’s one of my favourites. As the title suggests, its an original Holmes-Watson story with a twist – Watson solves the case before the great detective. I loved that idea, and Portia started to form in my mind as a kind of homage to King and Conan Doyle.

The first case I wrote jumped straight into the jewel thefts and was over in less than 12 thousand words. I read it over a few times and realized that if this was going to be more than a short-story, I need to write some backstory for my detective. So I went back, created a beginning for Portia, and did a whole bunch more research into the time period, the whole family tree of Holmes, Watson and many others from the original canon. Once I had expanded Portia’s world to about 20 thousand words, I had the idea for the third case in the book – the one that happens on the train. I wrote that in two days and then, rereading it, decided I needed another case between the jewel thief and the train story because she was moving around too much. I felt she needed more time to get to know London and to get comfortable with her new College, so I wrote the casebook I called “A Case of Darkness.”
RU: What’s next for you?
AM: Wonderful, an easy question! I have written books 2 and 3 of this series already, so my next steps are to edit the heck out of them for my publishers and get them into production! I have also started a new dystopic novel that I’d like to carve out some time to write.
RU: Ooh, that sounds interesting. Now just a couple more questions. First, how have your family and friends reacted to the news about Jewel?

AM: They’re very excited but not really surprised. I guess it’s normal for me to be the most nervous about putting my work out there (since it’s mine) but most of my friends and family told me it was just a matter of time before I would get published. I don’t know if they were just saying that to be supportive, but I was no where near as confident. Now that it is really happening and there is a date when a physical book will be available in stores, their excitement has doubled. Seriously, I have the most supportive network – and that includes this blog and you Rami!

RU: I’m happy to be a part of that network, and I’m glad you’re a part of mine. Now here’s a fun question: if some big Hollywood producer came up to you and said they wanted to make a movie or TV show about Portia, who would you want to play the characters?

AM: I LOVE this question as you well know, because I’ve spent too much time thinking about it.

So I would love Katie McGrath (of BBC’s Merlin) to play Portia. I think she has the right balance of beauty and bark that my detective needs. I believe Jensen Ackles (of the CW’s Supernatural) would make a kick-ass Brian. And I think Irene Jones would benefit from the beauty and wit of someone like Lynda Carter (original Wonder Woman).
RU: Since I don’t know who those people are, I’ll take your word for it that they’re perfect for the roles. Final question: If you were stuck on a desert island and could only take three books with you, what would those books be?
AM: Hmm.. I guess Stephen King’s The Stand, Tolkein’s The Two Towers, and Conan Doyle’s Complete Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. If I had a fourth option I’d have to take an Ann Rice. Can I please take my iPad instead Rami? I’m going to need more books than the average human.
I’d say yes, but there’s the question of charging it when the battery gets low. And the lack of a Wi-Fi network. Anyway, thanks for joining us, Angela.
If you would like to find out more about Angela, you can find her on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and Pinterest, as well as on her blog a Portia Adams adventure.

I Now Have A Thesis Advisor

Posted: March 25, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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As if one piece of great news wasn’t enough for today, I got some more: I finally have a thesis advisor! His name is Professor Martinez, and he’s a professor in the Creative Writing department at Ohio State. I emailed him about 16, 17 days ago (I was emailing just about everyone with a “Professor” title at that point) and got an email back two weeks ago, asking to take a look at some of my material. Today he emailed back and said yes.

I’m very happy about finally finding an advisor. I seriously wanted to do a novel for a thesis for all the benefits it could do for me as well as for the challenge it presented. Unfortunately OSU’s staff tends to be more literary fiction-oriented than genre fiction-oriented. That, and a lot of the teachers I asked were either too busy or uncomfortable with genre fiction or novel writing to work with me. I’m really glad I was able to finally find someone willing to work with me.

Also, it looks like I’ll be working with another student. In the email, Professor Martinez mentioned that I was going to be working with someone named “Paul” and that we’ll be critiquing each other’s work. I have no idea who Paul is or what his work will be like, but I like the idea of working with not one, but two people giving me feedback and helping me shape this novel I want to work on into something great.

Well, that’s all for now. If anything else comes up, I’ll let you know. Wish me luck. I’m going to try and get a grant for the thesis even though the deadline is past to apply (you need a thesis advisor to apply for grants, and I got mine after the deadline). Good night, Followers of Fear.

Getting Reacquainted With Laura Horn

Posted: March 20, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I just finished going over what I have so far of Laura Horn. I honestly thought it wouldn’t take this long to get through less than twenty chapters, but at least I got it done sooner rather than later. Now I can start working on original material.

For those of you who are not very familiar with my WIP yet, Laura Horn is the story of a girl who inadvertently becomes the one person who can save the United States from forces within its own government. However Laura is a damaged soul, a girl with a traumatic past that often paralyzes her in the face of danger. So in order to save her country’s future, she has to confront her painful past. I came up with the idea for the story by wondering if I could write a genre story where a character with a seriously damaged past could grow in spirit throughout the story and become a hero at the same time. The rest of the story came from that.

I started LH last July but had to put it on hold in October because of an increasing amount of homework and because I was working on Video Rage, the sequel to Reborn City, at the same time. It was just too much to cope with, so I had to cut back (which may have actually added to my stress levels, but that’s a story for another time). When the semester ended in early December, I focused on getting Video Rage done first. Then when I finished that back in January, I worked on several short stories and articles, and finally during spring break I began looking through Laura Horn again.

My first impression going through the first twenty chapters was this: I remembered writing much better prose than what I encountered going through those chapters. Then again, this is a first draft so it’s supposed to suck a little. Anyway, while reading through the early chapters I found myself doing a lot of editing work so that the story would flow better and so that I could continue without obsessing over this or that mistake or inconsistency. At the same time, that extended my rereading of the early chapters so that I ended up needing a few more days to get through the first twenty chapters.

Well, I’m here at this juncture in the writing process now, the point where I can contribute some new original chapters to the manuscript. Better late than never. And now I’m going to reread the outline for the book, and then I’m going to see about starting on the next chapter before I get ready for bed tonight. With any luck, I’ll be able to get a few new chapters of LH done before I leave for my study abroad trip in May (trust me, I won’t be doing a lot of writing or blogging during that time).

Well, wish me luck, my Followers of Fear. I’m going to get back to work now. Have a good night and a great weekend.

Amazon BreakThrough Novel Award 2014: Reborn City Made It To The Second Round!

Posted: March 18, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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I’ve been meaning to blog about this since I found out the good news this morning. Unfortunately I had work, and then I had classes, and then I had a 2-hour orientation for my study abroad trip and then I came home and started on homework and laundry, and these next two days will probably be crazy as well, and–whack!–I just slapped myself to stop me from rambling on. My friends are right, I would make an interesting late-night host or sitcom character.

Back to the point of this post (if we were ever at the point of this post to begin with): I submitted Reborn City to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award in the Fantasy/Science Fiction/Horror category about a month ago. I figured that it was free-of-charge, that it couldn’t hurt to try, and that even if I didn’t get a cash prize, after a certain round or two you got reviews from the judges. At the very least I might get a few more people to read RC. So why the heck not? I submitted RC through my account on Createspace, and I went back to my life.

This morning, keenly aware that today was the day that the results would be released letting authors know who got to the second round, I went online to find out if I was among the lucky winners. I scrolled through the list of 400 authors and novels in my category, trying to find my name and RC‘s title among them. And on the third or fourth page, my name popped out at me. Rami Ungar. Reborn City. I’d passed the first round.

I was ecstatic! I’d figured that since it was my first novel, RC probably wouldn’t make it past the first round. Sure, I’d gotten some amazing reviews off Amazon and from friends and family who were in the middle of the book, but I was sure I was too inexperienced an author to get to the second round. Well, just goes to show that authors can be the worst judge of their own work sometimes. RC passed.

Now that the first hurdle has been overcome, it’s time to get ready for the second round. I believe instead of an excerpt of RC, the full manuscript is required, so I’m going to try to upload it tonight. I don’t believe I’ll get to the finals or win the whole contest (like I said, it’s my first book and I’m not as good as I could be yet), but I’d like to at least get to the quarterfinals. At that stage they give reviews of your book, and any feedback, positive or negative, is welcome.

Well, I’ve finally blogged about it, so I’m going to get everything else out of my way so I can focus on getting to the quarterfinals (which are announced on April 11). I’m so excited, and I’m extremely grateful to be given this opportunity to possibly expand RC to a wider audience and to get some constructive feedback from experienced professionals. Wish me luck, Followers of Fear!

Katniss vs. Zahara

Posted: March 16, 2014 in Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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I got The Hunger Games: Catching Fire on DVD on Friday and watched it this afternoon. If I were to do a review, I’d say it was a very good adaptation of a book I absolutely hated for a number of reasons. However, I’m not writing this post as a review for Catching Fire. I’m writing this post because, after I took the DVD out and went to make my dinner, I thought to myself, “There is such a difference between Katniss Everdeen and Zahara.”

And indeed, there is a great difference between the two characters. And I’m not just talking about upbringing, religious identification, and their experiences. I think the biggest differences between Katniss and Zahara is their access to choices in their lives. (Okay, there’s also major differences in character development, but since all three books of The Hunger Games are out and only one book of the Reborn City series is out, I won’t go into that lest I spoil something).

In THG, Katniss rarely has any sort of choice in what she can or can’t do. Except for certain memorable instances, Katniss follows a script that someone else wrote, whether that be the Capitol or someone associated with the Capitol, or District 13 and someone in the rebellion. Sure, the moments when she gets a chance to make her own choices are pretty momentous. She volunteered for the Hunger Games, she nearly committed suicide using poison berries, and she killed President Coin in an act of revenge. But other than those moments, she’s mostly dancing to the tune of someone else’s fiddle. And she’s either unaware of it or she’s aware of it and so pissed off about it.

Zahara, on the other hand, has a little more leeway. When I wrote Reborn City and started planning its sequels, I obviously wasn’t planning on writing about Zahara’s choices. But after she’s forced to join the Hydras, she does find that she has a bit of choice in the events that occur later on in the story. And those choices do end up affecting the Hydras in several ways, whether  it involve a gang war about to go wrong, or by a simple encouragement that changes the way someone thinks. And as the series goes on, Zahara will get to make more choices, some of which will have greater effects than the previous ones she’s made.

Why the difference? Well, I guess you’d have to ask the authors. In addition to wanting to create a story that was a commentary on both our addictions to violence and reality TV, Suzanne Collins also wanted (I’m assuming) to allow readers to relate to the feeling that our lives are not our own. We’ve all been there, had those moments when we felt our lives weren’t our own, where we felt like our lives are being directed by someone else. Maybe our parents, our employers, our teachers, our government, our spouses, etc. Basically we have to subordinate our lives to the needs or whims of others. This speaks to plenty of people, particularly teenagers and young adults who are constantly pressured to fulfill the wishes and pressures of the adults around them. I can only guess as to why Mrs. Collins wanted to weave that theme into her trilogy, or if she even realized what she was weaving in until it was already there. What is obvious that Katniss exemplifies that theme of lack of control over one’s life, and it’s part of why people identify with her.

With Zahara and RC on the other hand, the intentions were very different. I realized early on in writing a novel about street gangs that people in gangs or in slums or broken families or several other similar situations that they feel like they can’t leave the situations they’re in. This attitude, which seems to perpetuate itself over generations in a terrible self-fulfilling prophecy, horrified me. Imagine people who didn’t try to change their horrible lives because they felt that trying was impossible, that it would only lead to pain and regret. Where they were was where they belonged. Throughout the trilogy I try to fight that belief through the travails of Zahara and the Hydras, making choices and fighting for not only their lives, but also to live their lives as they wish.

So I guess this difference in opportunity and choice for Katniss Everdeen and Zahara Bakur really just boils own to the intentions of the authors when we were writing our stories. I strove to write about teens fighting against a world that oppresses them and tries to control them, while Mrs. Collins seems to have written a story about a world where, among other things, the lives of others are maddeningly not their own.

It’s interesting what the intentions of the autor can do for a single story, isn’t it?

That’s all for now. Tomorrow school starts up again, so I’m heading to bed to get ready for the big day. Goodnight, Followers of Fear, and have a great week.

Snake: Three Months Away

Posted: March 10, 2014 in Novel, Progress Report, Writing
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Yes, this is the novel's cover layout. What do you think of it?

Yes, this is the novel’s cover layout. What do you think of it?

Hard to believe with the new year already in March (how did that happen?) and so much else going on in my crazy life, but it’s already three months away from when my next novel Snake is released on June 10th. And as I’ve said in previous posts, that’ll be two years to the day I started working on Snake, which is both symbolic and more proof that time just seems to fly by.

For those of you who haven’t become familiar with Snake yet, it is a thriller novel I wrote back in 2012 and which, with the help of author Angela Misri, I edited throughout 2013 and January of 2014. It is the story of a young man who becomes a serial killer in order to save his girlfriend from a powerful organized crime family. It’s definitely one of my darker stories, at times even scaring me. I also think it’s one of my best stories, and I hope people like it and the characters as much as I do. Oh, and there are no actual snakes in the book. I’ve had people tell me they won’t read it just based on that title. I’ve heard you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover (especially when it has a naked lady on it) but that’s ridiculous.

If you’d like to read an excerpt of Snake, you can click here to read the first chapter. And if you look below this paragraph, you’ll find the book trailer for Snake, which I created through iMovie after school one day. It’s very dark and gritty, which I think reflects the novel very well.


I’ll bring up Snake again when we get a little closer to the release date. I’m looking forward to it. Are you?

Conversations With Becket

Posted: March 7, 2014 in Author Interciew, Journalism, Living and Life, Novel, Reflections, Writing
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becket

Today’s interview is with indie author Becket, whose books include The Blood Vivicanti series and the Key The Steampunk Vampire Girl books, including the recently released The Tower Tomb of Time. When not writing, Becket works for author Anne Rice and is supplementing his education with a degree in psychology.

I had the chance to email Becket and learn a little bit about him, his books, and what it’s like to work for Anne Rice. It was definitely an enjoyable correspondence.

RU: So Becket, you’ve had quite the interesting life, working as an author, working for an author, and at one point you were a Benedictine monk. Makes me curious about what else you’ve done, so could you give us a brief history of yourself?

Becket: I entered the seminary when I was 21 because I wanted to deepen my relationship with God as well as be a minister of hope, faith, and love. I spent three years in the seminary, during which time I also finished my BA in music composition. Then in the summer of 2000, I entered a Benedictine monastery, St. Joseph Abbey in Covington, LA. The spiritual charisma of the monastic life appealed to my personality type. The monks lived a very silent life, guided by two principals of work and prayer. During my first year in the monastery, Anne Rice requested a harpsichord for a book signing in New Orleans. We monks had a very nice one; and the abbot asked me to deliver it because of my musical background – I had studied the instrument in college, along with several others. That was when Anne and I first met. We developed an email rapport over the next few years while I was earning my MA in theology. When I completed my degree in 2005, I decided that it was time for me to re-enter lay life and, needing a job, I emailed Anne, asking her fi she had a job on her staff for a former monk with a few degrees. She replied with a job offer. I’ve been with Anne ever since, studying the craft of writing under her guidance while also earning an MS in psychology.

RU: What is it like, working for Anne Rice? Besides the amount of jealousy you must receive from fans including myself, I mean.

Becket: What is it like, working for Anne Rice?

Working for Anne Rice is like working for a childhood hero. I first read Anne’s books when I was a teen. Being a lonely adolescent, an outsider, Anne’s words spoke to me powerfully – because her words have a wonderful way of showing empathy for the outsider/reader. Many days she and I talk about literature and the book publishing business. It is a continual learning experience. Every day I learn something helpful and significant about my writing, about the publishing of my own books, about my own capacity for problem-solving, about many things. But every day is a new experience because every day I’m presented with a new challenge. Before I started working for Anne, I had never used Photoshop. So to assist her as best as I could, I learned many new skills, such as photography, shooting video, proper lighting, sound engineering, etc. I also learned several programs in the Adobe Creative Suite, namely Photoshop, Illustrator, and even Premier Pro and After Effects. Most of those programs I use every day, whether it is creating an app for Anne, or posting an image, or editing a video for Youtube. And today all those programs have helped me greatly in my own work; they are invaluable book publishing tools. A successful indie author cannot live on Word alone.

RU: Tell me about it. iMovie and Photoshop have been great tools in the past for me. Now, you’re new book is the latest adventure for your character Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl. Tell us about her and the new book.

Becket: Key’s new adventure picks up where the last book left off: Key has just escaped from the Dungeon of Despair. Yet unlike the last book, which takes place over the course of 250 years, the course of this book happens in a single night. Key gets to do what she has not done in over two centuries: She gets to explore the City of the Dead. She rides a Hobbeetle, she meets the Worm King, she visits the Grave of the Grim Goblin, whose not as grim or dead as some people might think, and she does so much more! Ultimately she finds herself at the Tower Tomb of Time, which allows her to visit the moment when she was first made a vampire. She discovers the mystery behind her mom and dad’s disappearance, as well as the reason she was taken to the City of the Dead in the first place. In other words, The Tower Tomb of Time explores questions that were raised in The Dungeon of Despair.

RU: Some people would hesitate to write a vampire novel these days when most people associate vampires with Twilight. What made you decide to write about vampires?

Becket: Before there was Twilight, there was Anne Rice. She was ground breaking (and indeed she still is) in the sense that she made the vampire a Byronic hero – someone whom we could easily identify with. Moreover, being a vampire isn’t the story of Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl – which is fundamentally the case with Bella, the heroine of Twilight. Bella actively seeks to become a blood drinker. Key, on the other fang, like Anne’s Louis or Lestat, never wanted to be a vampire at all. Becoming what she is happened to her, and then lots more terrible things happened to her, and so she has to make the best of her situation. That kind of narrative ambience is what I strove to create when I wrote Key. I hope readers will associate with her story and say to himself or herself, “I know how she feels being in the Dungeon of Despair, or confronting the Worm King, or revisiting a past that was hitherto forsaken.” Additionally, I hope readers would also feel inspired by Key’s successes and victories over personal demons. Key’s story is a coming of age story.

RU: What is your writing process like for you?

Becket: Generally my process begins with an idea, which usually comes to me while I’m writing another book. I write down that idea, and if it stays with me for some time, I will jot down notes about potential plot development, prose style, themes, and so on. When I finish one novel, I immediately begin another; there is no waiting for me. I write every day. It is a routine. And the routine for starting new novels is grounded in two goals: (1) the long-term goal of my book, and (2) the short-term goal of my daily writing. My long-term goal is the size of the book that I want to write, and I generally determine that by comparing it with other books. For instance, I know that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is about 25,000 words. So if I am seeking to create a children’s story, such as Key the Steampunk Vampire Girl, I will make the long-term goal of my first draft comparable to 25,000 words. My short-term goal is the amount of words that I will write in a day. On average my goal is at least 1000 words a day; usually I write more, often twice as much; and some times I write fewer words. The point isn’t perfection: It’s progress. As long as I am writing, I am coming closer to the completion of a book.

RU: I admire your tenacity. Now what are some tips you might have for other self-published authors, such as myself, on writing and getting your work out there?

Becket: The beauty of indie-publishing is in the word “indie” – independent. This is a quintessential word to keep in mind because, if a writer gets embroiled in the industry of professional book publishing, that writer would lose some degree of control. The writer would usually not be able to control, for instance, interior or exterior formatting. In other words, you would probably have little to say in the creation of your book jacket. I can’t tell you how many times I have heard professionally published authors complain about their book jacket, how it does not look like the story they told. Other authors have complained about the struggle they have with their editor or copy editor, how important words will be edited out, or how sometimes sentences or pages completely rewritten. There are some authors who want to be controlled like that. And that is good! Great books have been written with the help of excellent editors. But finding such an editor is like finding love in your life: It usually happens when you least expect it. Being an indie-author means controlling every element of your work. I like this, not micro-managing, but being purposeful and meaningful with every element that I produce.

RU: I love that independence too. It’s gone well for me. So what’s next for you, Becket?

Becket: The Blood Vivicanti Parts 5 and 6 will come in March and April. And after that, I will be publishing a book titled, The Door to Heaven, which is about a boy whose life is changed forever when he encounters an old man’s face on the doorknob to the Door to Heaven.

RU: That “Door To Heaven” sounds very Stephen King-ish. Last question: If you were stranded on a desert island and could only take three books with you, which books would you take?

Becket: Well, I am a man of faith and prayer, so I would probably take the ESV Bible (because I like that translation), The Imitation of Christ, and a book of blank pages, so that my mind could fill it up with my own stories.

RU: I love it when authors say they want to bring a blank notebook with them. Shows their true writing spirit, in some ways. Well, thanks for joining us, Becket, and best of luck to you.

If you’d like to find out more about Becket or check out some of his books, you can check out his website, his Facebook page, Twitter feed, and get personally autographed copies from the Changing Hands Bookstore.

Our next scheduled interview is March 31st with author and dear friend Angela Misri, who will be talking about her debut novel Jewel of the Thames. So get excited for that!

The Last Eight Short Stories

Posted: February 11, 2014 in ideas, Living and Life, Novel, short story, Writing
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After finishing “A Haunted Man” two nights ago, I’ve decided that, although I’ve got so many short stories I’d like to work on, I need to narrow it down to a few choices so I can return to my WIP Laura Horn. Yeah, I know I can just get through all the short stories I want to get through before I get back to the WIP, but I don’t like to leave a novel unfinished like that, and I would prefer having several short stories unwritten than have a novel languishing unfinished on my flash drive.

Besides, as I recall most of the chapters of LH were pretty easy to get through, so I don’t see it taking too much time to finish up. Then during the summer after I get back from my study-abroad trip, I can spend the whole summer editing my other novels and working on short stories. Besides, I’ll most likely be working on a novel for my senior thesis in the fall, so it’ll work out in the end. At least, I think it will.

So I’ve narrowed the number of short stories I’m going to work on to about eight, and I’m going to try to get through as many of them as possible before mid-March, when I plan to start working on LH again. I picked the short stories based on a couple of factors, namely that I thought the ideas behind them were exciting, that I knew where I wanted to go with the story in terms of plot, and that I think they could be published in magazines, especially ones that pay for their published work (I know that sounds crazy, but it helps pay the rent, so I’m trying to get into more magazines that pay for their work). Oh, and one of the short stories will be submitted as a homework assignment to one of my classes, so I could get a very good grade on it.

So that’s my plan for the next four weeks or so. I hope to at least get two to five of these short stories written. Among the eighty-odd ideas for short stories I have written down, these are among some of the best, so I think I’ll enjoy writing them. When each of them is done, I’ll write a post and let people know how they’re doing.

I’m also going to try to come up with an idea for an article. A friend of mine runs a magazine, and I want to write an article for it. Just the question of the subject that’s getting to me. We’ll see what I can come up with.

Oh, and one last thing: I’m thinking of posting a few stories on WattPad all at once. Would you be interested in reading anything of mine if I published it on WattPad, even if it wasn’t strictly horror?

Well, that’s all for now. I’m going to prepare myself mentally for writing later this evening. Wish me luck.

Reborn City: New Lower Price

Posted: February 8, 2014 in Novel, Writing
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Reborn City

I don’t usually do this sort of advertising, but I figure what’s the harm in trying? Reborn City has gotten its price lowered on Amazon for paperback, down form a little over $11 to $8.99 (I’m not sure why Amazon lowered the price, but if it gets more people reading the book, I’m not going to complain).

As many of you already know, Reborn City is the story of Zahara Bakur, a girl who joins a street gang in Las Vegas-style Reborn City after her parents are killed for being Muslims. The gang she joins, the Hydras, become a family for her, but that family is under threat by older gangs, who dislike the Hydras rise to power, the fact that they’re interracial, and that they accepted Zahara, who is Muslim. In addition, there is a connection between the Hydras and the Parthenon Company, the corporation that runs Reborn City and other metropolises like it. The choices Zahara makes as she tries to become part of the gang and protect her friends will change the course of her life and the lives of others for a long time to come.

I hope that sounded interesting to you. So far, RC has gotten four reviews averaging around 4 or 5 stars. I’m very happy about the response, and I’m hoping that if more people buy the book, more people will add their feedback as well and let me know what they think. Honestly, I love reader feedback.

You can check out Reborn City at Amazon.com, as well as on Smashwords. The paperback is $8.99 like I said, while the e-book is $2.99. Hope you enjoy reading it and have a lovely evening, Followers of Fear.

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