Jefferson’s Road

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Finished!

Took me a lot longer than I thought it would – largely due to my inability to find time to sit down and write (when I actually have energy – er, maybe that’s a discipline issue), but the good news is that I’ve finished The Elixir of Life. I’m quite satisfied by the ending, now. I don’t think I’ve overwritten any passages – even in my attempts to beef up the word count. Overall, I think it’s simply strengthened the story and given me a chance to include some details in the story I’d meant to add at one time, but hadn’t included in the first draft.

Final word count: 74K. It’s still a little shorter than I wanted it to be, but I think I can live with it. Now it moves into the editing phase, but I’m not going to put a lot of time into it until I’m closer to a submission date. Given that I probably need to wait until The Lost Scrolls comes out before offering Ellechor a sequel, this means I can at least move on to Eye of Darkness, which I hope to wrap up before the end of September.

Speaking of September, my sister is asking me when Patriots and Tyrants will be available in paperback. I’ve gotten this question a couple of times now, and I’m beginning to think that I ought to release it sooner than I’d originally planned. They don’t teach you this stuff when you decide to become an independent author (actually, nobody teaches you anything. You have to figure it all out on your own. Hmm… might be a series of valuable blog posts there…), but releasing your book at the right time is as critical to your success as writing a quality manuscript. There are certain periods where readers buy. I’m going to do a little more research on this, but look for Patriots and Tyrants to come out sometime next month.

Given that I’ve got people demanding even The Tree of Liberty, I’m pondering which book to work on after Eye of Darkness. My original plan is to work on Topheth first, and then Tree, but I might reconsider. Regardless, I’ve got some time before that becomes an issue.

Now, I’m gonna help my wife get the house ready for company, and then I’ll disappear back into my man-cave once the guests arrive (’cause they ain’t here to see me!).

Feels pretty good to have this book done, though.

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I’m thinking about employing a new strategy. For a few months now I’ve been struggling to finish some of the projects I’ve been tackling of late, making very little headway on any of them. It’s occurred to me that holding four separate novels in my head simultaneously might not be the best way to accomplish this.

For the record, I have the following projects in various stages of completion:

The Elixir of Life word count = 64,007
Eye of Darkness word count = 56,382
Topheth word count = 25,584
The Tree of Liberty word count = 11,886
Total All Books: 157,859

So you can see, I’ve been plenty busy. It’s just that I haven’t gotten some of these off my plate yet. Perhaps they’re taking up too much room in the fields of my imagination. Better to harvest them and get them out of the way, and then move on to the next with a little more energy.  I only need about 10K more words or so to wrap up Elixir. Eye only needs 20K more or so. Topheth needs 50K. And Tree needs 65K at least. That’s assuming I reach my baseline goal of 75K words per book. Bear in mind, this is a minimum target. I’ll write until the story is finished, naturally, but it does give me a sense of how much more there is to go. I suppose it’s possible that Eye could run for another 50K words, though I doubt it at this point.

Regardless, I think this’ll help break the logjam and get me rolling again. The only downside is that I won’t be able to release Elixir due to contractual obligations (Ellechor gets first crack at any Jon Munro adventure – really, any Christian adventure fiction I write).

After this, I can take a serious look at the other projects languishing in forgotten corners of my mind (like Descent, my story about alien abductions, or The Novem, a sci-fi thriller about children with neural implants that connect them directly to the internet), and that’s not considering the remaining sequels in the series I’ve already begun (Janelle Becker books have two more; Jefferson’s Road has three more after Tree; Jon Munro has at least two more, possibly three; and Lucas may have as many as three more.).

I’m starting today. I’ll let you know how it works out.

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Well, I don’t have the final sales tally for Smashwords just yet, but overall it looks like my sales tanked in July. At least, as far as Amazon goes, they did. I could be wrong (given that I show Nothing selling through Smashwords’ various distributors), but that’s where it stands right now. Call it the summer slump. Speaking of slump, I had real trouble summoning up even the interest in writing last night on my overnight. Could be that I’m just tired (that first night is a killer), or it may be that I need a vacation, but I’ve noticed this a little bit more lately. I’m hoping it isn’t burn-out. Maybe I just need to refill the barrel by reading more, but the library hasn’t had anything of interest to me in a while. My friend Greg C. just sent me a note inviting us over this week. Gotta talk to the boss first, but I think we can do it. He also sent me this:

RE: your signature … stop writing other books! You have to finish the Jefferson Road series! 😉
:p – No worries, Greg! It’s getting written!  But I’m determined not to rush this one. I’ve no plans to finish it before next Spring as it is, and I want to be sure I get the story right. I don’t know what that says about my other books (naturally, I want to get them right as well). Maybe because it’s a six book series I feel more invested in it. Or maybe because I feel that this series, more than anything else I write, is more prophetic. I dunno. It’s just different with Jefferson’s Road. I’m not writing it for fun, y’know? I mean to say something with it. Something important.
Anyway, guess I’ll get back to work now.
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Nearing the end of July, now, and my big plans for writing Eye of Darkness in a single month have, of course, failed to pan out. Nevertheless, I’m still pleased with the experiment so far. I’ve composed almost 60K words as of tonight, and probably in excess of that by the time August 8th rolls around, which will represent four months since starting the book. It’s been difficult, and I don’t know whether or not I’ll be able to improve on this pace with a different work or not. Admittedly, I’m both out of my genre and out of my depth, but I’m still getting more done and more quickly than if I weren’t shooting for the moon on it.

I’ve gotten bogged down here and there on the story, and many times lost any interest whatsoever in writing it. Sometimes, just to keep going has been a major effort. Naturally, I’ve taken time off to work on The Tree of Liberty, or fiddled around with Topeth a bit.  And the thing is: I don’t think it’ll be ready to publish as soon as I finish it, either. This thing is gonna need some editing and a little rewriting before I dare release it to the public. I want to put forth my best work, of course.

I was doing pretty well for the first 40K words, but that’s when the trouble started, and I got bogged down. I don’ t know if this would’ve happened had a) I stayed in a more familiar genre, or b) had I let the story be a little more “formed” before trying to put it down on paper. There’s a very real sense in which a story doesn’t really take shape until you write it (to paraphrase Nancy Pelosi (of all people!), “We have to write the story to find out what’s in the story.”).

But like I said, I have to be pleased. I’ve gotten a lot done, and this pace at least allows me to triple my story output (three books in a year as opposed to just one), even if I’m not all the way where I want to be just yet. Rest assured, I’m going to keep trying to get more books done in less time, because the sheer number of stories I have to tell has not diminished at all.

On a positive note, I’ve edited Topheth to the point where I’ve been able to start work on it again, and just as soon as Eye is done, I’ll be tearing into it big time. With only 50K words or so left to write on it (or more, of course), I don’t know that it will take me that much longer to release another one.

And as August is right around the corner, I’ll be in touch with Ellechor soon to talk about The Lost Scrolls, due in March. We’ll begin the editing process on that one shortly (at which time I’ll want to put the finishing touches on the sequel, tentatively called The Elixir of Life. Meanwhile, I continue plugging away at The Tree of Liberty, even though I’m not looking to have it finished until next April.

Busy, busy, busy!

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In view of the recent shootings and bombing in Norway, I composed the following as the Author’s Note to Jefferson’s Road: The Tree of Liberty, but it speaks to the rationale behind the whole series.

Author’s Note

As I write this, I’ve been reading about yet another terror event. This one took place in Oslo, Norway, at the behest of Anders Behring Breivik, a self-described Christian ‘Culturalist’ Knight. He set a fertilizer bomb to explode at the offices of the Norwegian Prime Minister, killing seven people, before attacking a Labour Party youth wing summer camp on Utoya island and shooting to death at least seventy-six more.

Most of them were students.

Jefferson’s Road is not written advocating this kind of violence. What I am attempting to do, fictitiously, is explore how and why incidents like this occur. Pundits on the Left decry the Radicalized Right for promoting “Hate.” Pundits on the Right assert that the madmen alone are responsible for their actions, as if nothing had incited them. And while individuals such as Breivik and McVeigh are indeed responsible for their own actions, it answers nothing to ignore what might have incited them to violence as the only acceptable alternative. In answering the questions of “How?” and “Why?” this happened, I lay the blame for these kinds of incidents squarely at the feet of the Cultural Marxists and the forces of radical Islam.

That war makes strange bedfellows may be the only explanation for the curious union between the Left and Islam. Both appear to believe they are using the other to successfully dismantle the Christian West. Who’ll wind up on top remains to be seen—though I’ve little doubt that the Islamists will prevail.

If the Right is radicalized, it is so because of the insidious attacks from this curious union. This is the whole point behind the stories. It is not my attempt to justify Breivik or McVeigh—but to explain them. The rifts in our culture—and the wider tears in Europe—are there because Cultural Marxism and Islamism are shredding the moral and social fabric that holds everything together. Such things cannot be destroyed without violence erupting, if only because it is the same moral and social fabric which restrains humanity’s more violent passions to begin with. And if you think it’s only going to occur in isolated instances, think again.

The violence is going to get worse.

Then again, this is precisely what the Cultural Marxist wants. The increase in violence is seen as a precursor to the Proletarian Revolution that will finally dispel the old age and usher in the new, Communist Utopia. Marx himself taught that violence is an acceptable and necessary means to an end. Toward that objective, it really doesn’t matter if the violence is perpetrated by the Left or by the Right, so long as it serves to destabilize the society and further the aims of the Cultural Marxist.

The Islamists, of course, fully embrace violence in service to their god. Anyone who believes differently is obfuscating the facts and ignoring the newspapers.

Andrew Bard Schmookler wrote in The Parable of the Tribes that once one group of human beings begin to exercise power over another, the ways of power inexorably dominate all the other groups (in his terminology, tribes). It is an irresistible force that eventually overwhelms even the most peaceful people.

It may well be that violent revolution is in our future, whether we want it or not. But the outcome of such a revolution is not predetermined. Perhaps neither the Marxists nor the Islamists will find themselves on the winning side.

Anyway, those are my (recent) thoughts on the matter. Jefferson’s Road isn’t light reading. I just pray I can tackle the issues in our culture honestly without inspiring the likes of Breivik or McVeigh.

[twitter-follow screen_name='AuthorMichaelJS' show_count='yes']

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The good news is that I’ve finally broken through the log-jam I’ve been experiencing with Eye of Darkness. I admit that I was stuck right around 50K words or so for a few weeks there. I suppose we could chalk it up to vacation or my folks visiting (not that I’m complaining), but I think the reality is that I ran out of steam sometime around the end of May. Regardless, I’ve broken through, and we’re steaming ahead toward the finish line.

In the meantime, I’ve released The Coppersmith in paperback form through Createspace. It’s a dollar more than The Spirit of Resistance because of it’s size. I priced it as low as possible, and I haven’t paid the $39 charge to get it listed in the premium catalog – which I probably won’t do unless it starts selling like hotcakes or something. But it’s there if anyone wants to snag a physical copy.

I’ve almost got the sales figures in to wrap up my first year. Three days more will represent a full year of selling books, and I’ll report the final tally once I have it. The good news is that Smashwords updates their sales figures on the fifteenth, so I’ll be able to incorporate those numbers as well.

I received a very nice note from a reader the other day. I’ve asked her to post a review on Amazon, but this is what she had to say:

Finished Jefferson’s Road last night….wow!  Can’t wait til the next installment!

Now if that isn’t short and to the point, I don’t know what is. But now, I’ve got to get a shower in (yes, I’m writing this in my bathrobe. Sigh.).

[twitter-follow screen_name='AuthorMichaelJS' show_count='yes']

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In less than two weeks we will hit the one year anniversary of releasing Jefferson’s Road: The Spirit of Resistance on Kindle. It’s been quite a ride, I must admit. I can look back on a year ago in amazement at how little I understood about independent publishing, and that only draws me to realize just how much more I’ve yet to learn. In fact, I think it safe to say that I only really began to understand what I was attempting to do in the last six months. I’ve got a much clearer sense of it now–though who knows where I’ll be or what I’ll think of it all in another year.

We’ll probably have sold a hundred copies of The Spirit of Resistance by then. That’s not much, but when you consider I’ve sold more copies of this book in the last six months than I did in the first, and when you combine that with the fact that I’ve sold easily twice as many books total in the last six months as in the first, it gives you a sense of perspective on what we’ve learned here. Especially when considering that, in the last six months, I’ve nearly doubled my sales from the last quarter compared to the first quarter. This suggests that my marketing success has increased exponentially, which is why I’m hopeful for my future as an author.

Last night I spent a couple hours going over Eye of Darkness, realizing that I had a problem with the timing of events. Basically, everything was happening way too fast. I had to insert days into the events (making them break for camp and then resume the next day, that sort of thing), so that the events of the story stretch out over a matter of weeks rather than days.

The night before, I worked on Topheth. I rewrote the second chapter completely, and now I think the book is ready to be edited – just to bring it up to snuff before continuing. I have about a third of it done, so once I wrap up Eye of Darkness, I’ll begin working on it in earnest, getting it finished to release some time over the summer.

So, look for new releases soon, and I anticipate that we’ll have five books selling by the end of August as opposed to just three right now. And, of course, I’m still plugging away at The Tree of Liberty. Next month, I’ll be contacting the good folks at Ellechor, and we’ll begin getting The Lost Scrolls ready for release as well (and yes, that means I have to put the finishing touches on the sequel before long.).

All in all, this is shaping up to be a very productive year.

[twitter-follow screen_name='AuthorMichaelJS' show_count='yes']

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Sometimes the fastest way forward is taking a step or two backwards. I’ve been stuck on Eye of Darkness for a little more than a week now, just not finding the right passion to go forward any. True, part of that was vacation, where I did a little writing, but on the whole I just didn’t get anywhere.

Last night I hacked from my story about half of what I’d written on vacation and started fresh. Not surprisingly, I’ve regained some of the momentum I’d lost on this tale, and now I’m moving forward (finally!) into the 50K range.

For some reason, this particular book has had more rabbit trails than anything else I’ve written. I don’t know if this is a function of writing it far faster than anything else I’ve put together or what, but it sure does slow things down. I’m determined not to sacrifice quality for the sake of quantity, which may be why I have to go back repeatedly and rewrite major plot developments into something that will do what I want. This book is untamed.

I don’t mind a story going where it wants to go – kinda like letting a horse take you some interesting places by giving it the reins. But this is like riding a horse that is unbroken, and keeps trying to buck me off. I’m going to be real interested to find if that holds true with future works.

On the other hand, considering how many novels I’ve started and stopped after 25K words, maybe it happens more frequently than I care to admit – except this time I’m not letting the horse (er, story) dump me. I guess we’ll see.

Naturally, I moved on to something else while stuck on Eye. Started working on The Tree of Liberty again. Truthfully, I was inspired by the compliments and greetings I received from so many people at my nephew’s graduation party (I really did try to keep it about him). There were a lot of readers there – people I didn’t know had bought the books – including two who’d finished Patriots and Tyrants already. Nothing lights a fire under me like readers eager for more. I gave my nephew a copy of The Spirit of Resistance with an inscription to the effect that I’m looking forward to reading his published work soon. He’s a regular word factory when it comes to writing. He hasn’t even hit twenty years old yet, and he’s got to be halfway to a million words by now. I can tell by conversations with him that he’s improving his craft – his sense of story is getting stronger – and I won’t be surprised at all to see him publishing successfully before he’s twenty-five. I’m honored to provide what little mentoring I have.

Anyway, when I put the book in his “gift basket” my sister spied it and kissed my cheek saying, “Thank you so much! We’ve been dying to read this and have had no way to get our hands on it – but everyone keeps talking about it!” (Er… I didn’t state the obvious: she coulda bought the darn thing! Or for that matter, just told me sooner that she’d have liked a copy. Doesn’t cost me that much to get one).  She calls me the next day and says, “You know those books where you have to work to read the next chapter, where its ponderous to turn the page?” I’m thinking, “Great. She hates it.” I’ve already had someone put it down for being too political. Then she says, “This ain’t one of them.” She snagged it outta Collin’s gift basket and has already plowed through the first three chapters. I don’t think the poor kid even had a chance to crack the binding yet! NOTE TO SELF: Give Sandy her own copy of Patriots and Tyrants as soon as it’s in print.

I’m glad she’s liking it. Yeah, I know. Family always likes the writers. Still, my family is cynical enough that genuine praise is a rarity. When it happens, it’s earned. And that feels pretty frickin’ good, frankly.

On a related note, my sales this month continue to climb. We’ve sold more than thirty books already, and with a few more, might even crack thirty five. That’s almost twice as much as April or May. Maybe it’ll slack off a bit in summer, but we’ll see. I just hope I can have Eye done soon, to keep the ball rolling.

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Back from vacation, and I’m startled to find that June, so far, has been my best month in sales yet! Of course, it helps to have had the updated sales figures from Smashwords come in, but still! I’m moving almost three times as many e-books as I did in February, and twice what I did in March. Naturally, outside of the hiccup from March’s print release of The Spirit of Resistance, my income is well above the norm, also. Actually, my e-book sales have surpassed March’s numbers, making this June the highest grossing month for my e-books yet. Now that’s something nice to come home to!

Since I’ve done this before, I’ll give the chart again:

Title Copies Earnings
The Spirit of Resistance 95 $209.85
The Coppersmith 42 $17.08
Patriots and Tyrants 7 $14.75
Total all 3 books 144 $241.68

I have to credit it to the fact that I’m releasing multiple books. They seem to be having the desired effect: feeding readers from one into another, and so forth. It’s encouraging me to keep going and get more books ready for release.  To that end, I’m continuing to work up Eye of Darkness, though it isn’t going nearly as fast as when I started. I still hope to have it finished in the next couple weeks (I know, I’m missing my end of June deadline, but what with vacation and putting off Patriots and Tyrants till the first of June, what can I do?).

In the meantime, I’ve begun taking a second look at Topheth, which is the sequel to The Coppersmith. I only have about 26K words on it done so far, and easily 3 to 5K of those will need to be cut out from the start. Probably more. But there’s some good stuff in there that I have to keep. I have a new sense of what to do with Special Agent Janelle Becker now, and especially since giving her the drug addiction. I think this will be my next effort after I finish Eye.

And, of course, I continue to work on The Tree of Liberty when I can – essentially when the mood strikes me. I want to get this one right, and I don’t think I should rush this series (even though I really want to get it out there). My goal with the Jefferson’s Road series is to push out one a year, so I’m not exactly behind the eight ball on this one.

Also, relatively soon, I have to get in touch with the good folks at Ellechor and see whassup with The Lost Scrolls, which ought to be coming out next March. I have the sequel, The Elixir of Life, nearly finished, but contractually, it has to go to Ellechor first (which is just fine with me).

By far, the biggest surprise in the sales figures from Smashwords has been how many came in through Barnes and Noble. I must admit, I was a little taken aback by that. The numbers have nearly caught up with Sony, which was my other big seller. Go figure. I’m not sure what’s happening there, but I like it. I’ll have to see if there’s anything else I can do to assist those sales.

On a side note, I got a rejection letter for Jefferson’s Road: The Spirit of Resistance today. It’s been almost a year since I released it electronically, and it remains my bestseller so far. Oh well. Kinda odd to see that they’re still coming in. Makes me wonder whether or not I’ve got any others floating around out there, waiting to land somewhere. I don’t know what I would have done had she asked for the whole manuscript. I suppose I would have sent it to her, along with an explanation, I reckon. Still, it makes me feel a little weird. C’est la vie!

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Having worked in the direct care field, I have some experience with nits. These
pernicious little buggers are almost impossible to get out of someone’s hair (believe me. I’ve done it). You need to use a serious, fine tooth comb just to find them all (I used an electric comb with great success. Zaps ’em dead), and even after you think you’ve got them, they can still be hidden down near the roots of the hairs.

Finding typos in a manuscript is just like that. Especially when the typos are actually spelled correctly – just the wrong word in the wrong place.

Sigh.

A friend sent me two identified typos in Jefferson’s Road: The Spirit of Resistance which I have since corrected, but now I’ve had to submit a new interior to the book and to all the e-formats to get the corrections made. The good news is that he only found two. Actually, he thought he found three, but foundering is an actual word (Ha!).  Still, I’m grateful he pointed them out to me, and I’m glad the corrections are in place.

On a positive note, I just learned that JRSOR has been picked up by someone in the Expanded Distribution catalog from Create Space. This is a distribution through major booksellers, libraries, schools, and other organizations. The downside is that I think I’m about to be hit for $25 for making the changes. Live and learn.

At any rate, here are the stats as we close in on a year of selling books:

Title Copies Earnings
The Spirit of Resistance 85 $196.18
The Coppersmith 28 $10.17
Patriots and Tyrants      4 $8.39
Total all 3 books 117 $214.74

So you see, I’m getting somewhere with this. Just not anywhere fast. Like Joe Konrath has said, “This is a marathon, not a sprint.” It’ll be a while before I can make a living doing this.

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