Perceptions of Recent Events

I’ve been under the weather of late so I’ve not been very active in either writing or being online. It’s nothing personal, people catch bugs and need time to regain their strength and enthusiasm and no one (I believe) is more lethargic than me when I’m not feeling well. Anyway, enough excuses for my diminished productivity. I’ll clap erasers after School, Teach.

Lights and Shadows is moving forward at a pace that makes glaciers appear speedy by comparison but progress is being made. I won’t get into specific word counts because I don’t feel that they are that important. I’m planning on publishing it sometime in December.

Parallax: Genesis’s development is still ongoing but realistically speaking, I probably won’t get started with the actual writing portion until at least the First Quarter 2017. Multiple projects, go figure…

Anyway, this is me peeking out of my cave. Have a good one. 🙂

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Stop and Go: That Marketing Thing

Yep, it’s going to be one of THOSE conversations…

As many of you know, I have been experimenting with Amazon Marketing Services to get some sort of marketing thing going with my books. Unfortunately, I tend to have a leap before I look approach at times which while making for great anecdotes, leads to me slamming on the brakes when Reality sets in.

Me: Hot Damn, I want to do this.

Reality: You need to save up the funds to do this and develop a better plan of attack. You’re not quite the bestselling author yet, you know.

Me: But…but…

Reality: Patience, Wallace. You can only do so much. You’re a writer, not a salesman.

Me: But…but…

Okay, that’s generally what goes on in my head and while my head and my gut don’t often work in tandem (except for that one party a number of years ago that involved copious amounts of alcohol but that’s a story for another day) but when they do, it’s a rather jarring experience that leaves me at a brief standstill while I figure out what the heck happened.

I suppose the message here is to fight those impulses and move slowly unless you are fully confident that you are moving in the appropriate direction. Trust your first instincts.

Adding Backstory to Your Backstory

One of the things that I enjoy the most about writing fiction is the world building aspect. Every story should have some history behind it no matter how much time passes within it.

So, I’m planning out the plot for Parallax: Genesis and considering the first scene where my intrepid heroes are stuck in Hyperspace and trying desperately to escape before their life support systems fail (Time works a little different in Hyperspace) and I wanted to share a story that the main character tells about a ship lost during the early days of Interstellar Travel. I’ve gone through several iterations of how that would play out when it occurred to me to have my people actually find the lost ship and cannibalize some of its parts to get them home and in the process solve the original mystery (Pratt has a knack for doing heroic things and ultimately bring unwanted attention upon himself…hehe).

My point here is that when you add historical elements that are particular to your story universe, you add depth and flavor that can potentially spur the reader forward. After all, when you are painting on a canvass that is as expansive as the Universe, you have plenty of room to fill in the corners.