Mission accomplished. The book is done.

At about 1 a.m. this morning, I sent the final pages back to my editor (Tristi Pinkston at Valor Publishing) for review and inclusion in the master copy of the manuscript. Changes were accepted. I can finally say, the book is done!

Copy editing is the next step to get it ready for typesetting, but those changes are expected to be minor. During the edit, Tristi mentioned that I must really like water because of some of the imagery in my book. Yep, I do. It is calming to me. I have spent some of my best thinking moments on the banks of a stream or river. So, the image above of a peaceful lake seemed appropriate for this post.

And if I must say so myself, the book is quite good, better than I had ever imagined when I started out on this writing journey. I look forward to seeing comments from my readers when the ARCs are sent out!

Oh. I almost forgot. If you want to experience the satisfaction one can only experience through the creative process, sign up for NaNoWriMo. It starts tomorrow!

Happy Halloween, everybody. I’m going to go celebrate by robbing candy from my children this evening.

Note: The photo was taken by a friend of mine, or rather, adopted daughter, Stephanie Haven. She now has a website: http://stephaniehaven.com 

OH! ONE MORE THING!!! Don’t go yet!

Valor Publishing is having a HUGE book launch party for Mark Shurtleff at the Barnes & Noble in the Gateway Mall, Salt Lake City, on Tuesday evening. For details, please click on the Valor link above. Everybody who is anybody is going to be there. Even some who are nobody (like me) will be there. Come say hi!

Tags: Book Signings, Manuscript, My Books, My Writing Life, NaNoWriMo, Valor Publishing

My editor at Valor Publishing, the illustrious and talented Tristi Pinkston, has been working with me this week to get “The Chronicles of Gan: The Thorn” ready for publication. All kidding aside, she has greatly impressed me with her skill. I had no idea editing could be such a load of fun. If you folks ever get the chance to work with her on a project, don’t pass it up. We will be on chapter 6 tonight (I do my corrections at night, because my day job gets in the way).

Someday I hope to make the writing gig the day job.

By the way, how do you like my new blog template? Cool, eh?

Tags: Manuscript, The Thorn

It is official! I now have a publishing contract in my hands!

This has been a long time coming, but I had a lot to learn. I am so excited for this journey I am about to embark on. For those of you out there who are writers, don’t give up! Keep writing. Keep submitting!

After I get some direction on what information to release, I will certainly pass it on. Thanks to all of you who have been so supportive of my writing!

This much I can say: The story is called (tentatively) “The Thorn”. It weighs in at about 90,000 words, is speculative fiction, is targeted for an adult audience. Publication date is scheduled for this coming March. Just in time for the LDS Storymakers Conference. I can’t wait!

Tags: Manuscript, My Writing Life, The Thorn

I believe I have proven to myself that there are no rules in publishing. Books are published in any ol’ fashion the publisher’s editor wishes to publish it. The publisher can allow the author to reuse words over and over and over and over again in a short amount of space (if you didn’t see the inside joke up above, I am sorry). Can format the page in any way they want. Can be picky about the punctuation and grammar (or not). And can permit any other rule, written or unwritten, to be ignored.

I have a book on my Goodreads list that I have gotten stuck on. I am not going to name it because I am going to give it another chance when I get the time. The reason I got stuck was “head hopping”. There are POV issues with it. When the reader gets sucked out of the story because the Point of View changes between characters in the same scene, and the change is not handled very cleanly (in other words, the reader has to go back and re-read a few paragraphs so they can figure out who is thinking/talking/acting), then the POV shift is a problem.

Now, you may think that I know what I am talking about here. Perhaps I do, just a little bit. I started reading this un-named book right about the time that I finished an UGLY edit on my own manuscript. I had been fixing POV problems. Danyelle Ferguson, Tristi Pinkston, and Matthew Buckley, each of whom had read either all or some of my story, were the ones who pointed out the specific examples to me. I thank them for their help!

Anyway, they pointed the problems out, and I read a lot about POV Shifts, and I practiced, and I listened to their suggestions, and then all of a sudden the light went off. Rather on. The lightbulb over my head is usually off, and when it goes on, it really gets my attention. I digress . . .

*sigh*

Yep. I had a pretty good idea as to what a POV Shift was. And this un-named book had one. And then another. And then possibly another. I WAS STUCK. I couldn’t finish the book. I started to think, “Hey, this isn’t fair. This book has POV issues. And yet it is published. WHY did I just spend about 80 hours fixing all of the issues in my book? Some of my chapters required an entire re-write because of them.”

Yep. That is what I thought. So I put the un-named book down.

On Monday I finished a well known book, a New York Times Bestseller. “The Alchemyst – The Secrets of The Immortal Nicholas Flamel” by Michael Scott. Guess what: It has POV shifts, mid-scene, MANY times. It freaked me out. Last week I had started another book, “One Last Chance” by Jerry Borrowman, and found IT has POV shifts. There is a courtroom scene near the beginning of the story where we go back and forth between several characters participating. It is almost dizzying. To the authors’ credits, in both books the POV changes are done in such a way that there is no mistake as to which character is in charge at that moment. I am not done with “One Last Chance”, but I presume the writing will continue to keep me on track.

So what is the deal? I thought POV shifts were a no-no. I did read that epic fantasy used to do it all the time. But then I read that editors wanted writers to get away from doing it. There are a couple of places I remember reading about the LDS publishing market and how POV shifts are particularly annoying to these editors. Doing so can get your manuscript rejected.

These were the reasons, in addition to the recommendations of three authors I respect a great deal, that I went to all the trouble to fix those shifts in my own work. Don’t get me wrong, I am glad I did. It made the book much stronger. In fact, I hope I didn’t miss any.

Maybe I just don’t understand the rules?

Let me know what you think.

A side note: The picture for this post was done by a very good friend of the family (one of my adopted daughters), Stephanie Haven. Check out her blog if you get a chance: http://stephaniehaven.blogspot.com/
_

Tags: Book Reviews, Manuscript, My Writing Life

Today the manuscript went to Cedar Fort Publishing. It is a bit of a long story, but Kirk Shaw at Covenant Communications was very complimentary on my writing style and the general storyline found in the synopsis, and although he wanted to read the entire manuscript, I think he must have gotten a bit overwhelmed by all of the great submissions he got after the LDS Storymakers conference. I can’t blame him there. He did say that I could try again if I changed the setting of my story to “Old-Testament Israel” rather than another planet. Covenant is fairly conservative about that kind of thing.

Well, the whole point of the story is that it is on another planet. I could make the setting change and still create a good story with it, but maybe later. I am going to run this thread to the end and see if I get any takers as it stands. If not, Kirk will hear from me again.

So wish me luck. I now get to wait a few months to hear back from CFI. Time to get working on my other project and see if I can get that one done. It is time to write again!

Tags: Manuscript, My Writing Life

The good: Finally satisfied with my manuscript, I sent it in to Covenant Communications. What a fantastic feeling. The writers conference a week ago was outstanding. While there, my pitch session with the editor went well, and although there is a chance the publisher still won’t take it after reading the entire book, at least I will get some great feedback. Do you have a list of “life goals” you wish to accomplish? This was one of mine. Since my goal said “write a book”, and not actually “become a published author”, I think it counts. I have added a new line though – To see the book on store shelves. To do a book signing. Those are the new goals.

The bad: Mexico. Right after the conference my wife and I participated in a company paid rewards trip to Cancun. We had an enjoyable and relaxing time. Until the last night there. Room service fajitas. I have been sick for 3 days now. No, it is not the swine flu. In light of the symptoms, I am pretty sure it is food poisoning. If not cleared up by tomorrow, I will have to pay a visit to the doctor and get some drugs to kill off the little parasites.

The ugly: The next couple of weeks are going to be nerve wracking and frightening in a life changing sort of way. I can’t say more than that at the moment. Stay tuned.

Congrats to all of the authors who won awards in the First Chapter Contest and the Whitney Awards. What an awesome group of people!

Tags: Manuscript, Miscellany, My Writing Life

I am so very grateful for the scriptures. In Gospel Doctrine class we are right in the middle of some of the best chapters of the Book of Mormon. The Savior’s visit to the Americas, or rather the record of it, it absolutely wonderful. It is simple, inspiring, and life changing. I know the Book of Mormon is true . . . with all of my heart.

On another note, I am feeling better about the editing of my manuscript. As I have gotten further into the story, I have found fewer and fewer problems with it. Perhaps I will get this thing done yet.

Thanks to all of you wonderful authors and publishers who have blogsites. I just could not imagine trying to figure out this whole writing/publishing thing without them. What in the world did we ever do without Google and Blogs?

I am getting closer to the end of my manuscript cleanup. Danyelle Ferguson did a great job with her editing of it. She made so many suggestions, however, that it has taken me two months to fix all of the things she found. I have about 2 more weeks to go, I am guessing. It is not as if the manuscript was terrible. I blame the clumsy first drafts on the fact that I have not been in an english writing class for over 22 years. This has been a great experience. I look forward to the next one being so much easier.

Another thing I thought I would do: I want to post my first stab at a “teaser” for the book. I will be tweaking this a little bit for my query letters, but the general idea of it will probably remain. Let me know what you think.

To be honest with you, I have actually struggled with “genre” on this. After much research, I think it would land in the “Christian Fantasy” section in on-line bookstores, and perhaps just the “Fantasy” section of brick-and-mortar stores. I may be wrong though.

What is the book about? Think Old-Testament on a distant planet.
Here is the teaser:

***
Under the twin blue suns, Azure and Aqua, war rages between the tribes of Gideon, Daniel, and Uzzah. Jonathan son of Samuel, the last living Heir to the Throne of Daniel, finds himself staging an opportunistic rescue of his childhood friend Eli, Uzzahite Warrior and a Temple Priest, from a small band of Gideonite soldiers. After the swift skirmish has ended, a young Gideonite soldier by the name of Pekah joins Jonathan in the cause of the Tribe of Daniel, and discovers the truth about the true motives of the Gideonite Emperor. Pekah’s eyes are opened, and he becomes the instrument by which the Three Brothers are united once again. Jonathan, Eli, and Pekah, with the help of some very wise Gideonite soldiers, work together to keep General Rezon of Gideon from accomplishing his evil designs — the total annihilation of the other two tribes. As peace returns to their lands, Pekah finds himself a changed man, and with a new found love by his side, they watch together as the promised sign of a special birth appears in the heavens above Gan. Worlds away, “The One Who Would Suffer” has been born.

***

One last item . . . I think I need to get involved in a writer’s group, but I don’t want to wait until the LDSStorymaker’s conference next spring to meet people. If you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Tags: Manuscript, My Writing Life, Scripture Study

POV. I hate that acronym now. Holy Cowpies Batman! Fixing POV problems is not very fun. I just spent over three hours working through 6 pages. Most of the work was on a single page.

Shame on all of you authors for making me work so hard (so that I don’t sing when I read your compositions, yet puke when I read mine).

Ah… the stench of manure. I hope to get this mess cleaned up by the end of the year!

Tags: Manuscript, My Writing Life

This will be a short post. I have my edited manuscript back from Danyelle Ferguson now. I have quite a bit of work to do, but I knew that would happen. All the pain to fix things will be worth it, right? That is what I hear. I am looking forward to the time in the next few weeks when I can go print it and send it off to a publisher. Maybe by the end of September, if I work real hard? Actually, I think it will take longer than that. My wife tells me to keep my chin up. DO the edit. Send it in. That is why I wrote the thing in the first place.

May the muses of editing and word choice pay me a visit. Thank you Danyelle!

Tags: Manuscript