Grammatical Rage

For those of you who have read the Brink of Distinction trilogy, you’ve seen what continues to cause me minor embarrassment: grammar mistakes.  There are faint mistakes sprinkled throughout, but it’s enough to distract an avid reader who’s trying to get engrossed in the story.  I can’t really defend myself, since it’s my fault there are errors.  I guess if I were a professional instead of a hobbyist, those mistakes wouldn’t appear.  However, I have to make these two comments:

I AM a hobbyist, which is why I can’t afford an editor.

I AM an asshole, which is why I only suffer minor embarrassment.

For book one, Burden of Sisyphus, I hired an editor who was also part of the agency representing the book.  Much like the agency itself (which you have heard mention of before in previous posts), the editor sucked… big.  Not only did he not correct all the faults, he actually added some.  In one instance, he changed “raw power” to “war power”.  The paragraph no longer made sense.  He was the unprofessional editor.

The problem was, the editor, albeit crappy, was expensive.  Even independent editors cost money.  More than I’m making writing thus far, I might add.  Instead, I rely on family and friends to review my books and make corrections.  They’re not professionals, though I respect them more than most people in the industry.  Errors still slip through… it’s something I’ve come to terms with.

There are certain errors that will not appear in my books if I can help it.  We’ll call it Grammatical Rage.  When I see these mistakes (most commonly seen in the comments section of a CNN article), my world goes red and I want to choke the public education system in America.  I don’t care that the public education system in America (PESA) is a vague machine made up of hundreds of underpaid and mostly uncaring individuals.  I don’t care that PESA is not supported financially by the government.  I don’t care that PESA is best personified in a joke by comedian Louis Black, when he explained that the 49^th ranked state in the US showed students pictures of microscopes, since they couldn’t afford the real thing.  And yes, there was a state worse than that.

My fury is with the basics:

To, Two, Too

Their, They’re, There

Your, You’re

Anything that involves text lingo (to include, but not limited to: h8r, sk8r, rofl, u, r, ur, luv, and lol except when referencing cats)

I didn’t grow up in the US.  My formative years were spent abroad, learning proper English from international schools.  It saddens me that while I was learning English, Japanese, and Thai simultaneously, we have people born in the US who act like English is their second language, although they don’t have a first.

All I ask is that people utilize they’re language properly.  It’s not two difficult.  Take pride in you’re language.  Take pride in yourself.  Realize that there’s no such thing as urself.  Lol.

Writer's Isolation

I recently (see: still in the middle of it) took a vacation for the sole purpose of writing.  The idea was simple: take a trip to a familiar location where I wouldn’t be distracted by the urge to sight see or enjoy the outdoors, take only my laptop loaded with music and Microsoft Word, and complete as much of my new novel “Rage” as possible.

It wasn’t a popular idea.  To my wife, who I have to defend by saying that I left her with an 11-month old son to care for by herself, she just couldn’t understand why I didn’t stay at home and write there.  My family couldn’t understand why I wanted to stay at a hotel, cut off from society.  Only fellow writers, of whom I only have a few that I consider more than passing acquaintances, understood what I was doing.

I was, for the first time since finishing my science fiction trilogy, Brink of Distinction, dedicating myself to my craft.

Being in the Army, there have been numerous times that I’ve been required to stay late to complete projects or, more often than not, just to get yelled at for something I did or failed to do.  I would leave for work at 5:30 am and not get home until after 11:00 pm (2300 for my European and military friends).  Although that frustrated my family and friends, they understood, since the Army is my occupation of choice.  When dealing with your job, it’s expected that sometimes you’ll just have to work some overtime to get a project completed.

Why is that different when it comes to writing?

I’ve read numerous articles about the “process of writing”.  Nearly every one gives the same advice, which is “force yourself to write at least 30 minutes every day”.  I’ve tried, but what I’ve found happens if I do that is that my work is complete rubbish.  I FEEL like I’m “forcing” myself to write, which lowers the quality of the product that I produce.  I think the original trilogy came out as well as it did because I was completely passionate about damn near every word I put on the page.  If I lack that passion and write a novel just because it’s being “forced”, how can I honestly expect the quality to match my expectations?

Though my writer’s vacation has not been popular, I will say that it’s been highly productive and, in my eyes, beneficial.  I found my optimal writing time (2200 – 0200, unfortunately), and have completed nearly 100 pages in the novel over only three days.  At this pace, I will have “Rage” done shortly after I return to the Seattle area.

And, since “Rage” represents such a personal topic with me (and you too, Ed), if I’m not passionate about the work, how can I expect these very real issues to be represented as well as possible on the paper?  There’s a whole different blog that I’ll post someday talking about the similarities between my life that those of Jonas Vega, the main character from “Rage”.

The moral of this entire post is this: I consider writing as much an occupation as my job in the Army.  Yes, it is entirely supplemental income and could never sustain me and my family if I did it full time.  Currently, I’m up to an astounding $3,000 US annually in royalties off all three books.  However, writing was never about making money.  It was about writing and completing something as astounding as a 300-400 page novel from scratch; something that people genuinely are excited about reading.  But if writing is a job for me, then isn’t it understandable that sometimes, like these ten days of my writer’s isolationist vacation, when I’m going to have to do a little overtime?

The Day the Sun Stopped Shining

Recently, I was invited to participate in a blog tour called "The Day the Sun Stopped Shining".  It was a great opportunity for independent authors to get together and promote each other's work.  Due to my complete lack of long term memory, I forgot that the blog tour started 3 days ago.  So, because I'm now a dirt bag, let me do what I can to catch up.

First and foremost, as part of both the Holiday season and in support of the blog tour, starting tonight at midnight (PST) and running through 3 January, the first two books of the Brink of Distinction series "BURDEN OF SISYPHUS" and "FALL OF ICARUS" will be absolutely free for download for Kindle!  Consider this my payment for starting late on the blog tour.  The books can be found at these links:

BURDEN OF SISYPHUS

FALL OF ICARUS

I encourage you all to check back with this blog regularly to see any comments and links to other writers' blogs.  There are some phenomenal writers associated with this blog tour, and many free offers during this time being presented by the authors.

Check out the Sun Stopped Shining Tour blog as well, by clicking on the image below:

Financial Feasibility of Writing

When you're young, you have pretty wild ideas of what you want to be when you grow up.  Of course, if everyone stuck with their original ideas, the world would be full of nothing but astronauts, firemen, and police officers.  Well, and three ninjas.  All things considered, probably not all that bad of a world.

Around my middle school years, shortly after arriving in the United States, I took a shine to writing.  Most of my work was amateurish - the written word version of Weird Al.  By my high school years, the writing had developed.  Not improved, mind you, but at least my desire to write had matured to novel work instead of just parody.  Finally, by the time I was in college, I dove into writing with a true passion.

And it was horrible.

Don't believe me?  Just ask my mom.

The dialogue was unbelievable.  There was no character development.  And the story became so painfully difficult to follow, it was rubbish.  I gave my mom a copy of the novel I was working on "EYES IN THE NUTHOUSE", without directions to read it or to not read it.  She did.  She politely didn't inform me for years that if I had personally handed her the money to buy my novel, she would have rather spent it on a grossly overpriced cup of coffee.

For nearly five years after college, I just didn't give my writing much more thought.  I came up with some story ideas, for which I mapped out the storyline.  Then, I simply filed them away on the computer for some unforeseen future use.  Then, I deployed to Iraq for my second time.  I was stuck in Baghdad for 16-months, without much to do after my convoys or paperwork.  At the prompting of some of my coworkers, I started writing a story arc that had been bouncing around in my head.  16 months later, the Brink of Distinction series was complete (as much to my surprise as anyone else's).

Yes, I sent it to my mother.

Yes, she liked it this time.

And so I began stage two of my work: getting published.  This is the crux of this entire post.  Is it financially sound to make a living out of writing?  If you read my first blog post, you'll know that I firmly believe in transparency.  That's why, today, I'm going to throw out some numbers for you and show why this could never be anything more than a hobby.

In 2008, I found an agent/editor.  For anyone who has done any writing, you know that a combination like that will end horribly for the writer.  Any agency that asks for money from you before they plan on taking it to publishers does not have your best interest at heart.  They have their's.  And their interest is money.

I paid them way more than I should have for editing that was subpar.  Following that, I decided to go the self-publishing route.  There's a pretty great agency that works with Amazon.com that helps you self-publish.  I paid for one of their big packages, which produced a real quality novel... but put me even further in the hole financially.

So what does my finances look like just for book one of the trilogy?  Let's take a look:

Professional (subpar) editing: $2600
Cover artwork: $75
Professional publishing package: $800

Taking nothing else into consideration (such as advertising), I was $3475 in the hole, before I started making a single dime off the books.

So what does my net gain look like so far?  Let's take a look:

Kindle sales ($2.06 per book x 104 copies sold): $214.24
Paperback sales ($2.30 per book x 9 copies sold): $20.70

Total royalties so far?  Approximately $235.  I'm not a math major, but that still leaves me roughly $3240 in the hole financially.

I don't want anyone to miss the purpose of this posting.  I'm not trying to discourage anyone from writing.  However, I started my writing career reading a blog by John Scalzi, who I will admit is a exception rather than a rule to publishing.  Within three years of being published, he was bringing in over $64,000 a year just off his science fiction work.  He is a remarkable writer, but I can't tell people that you will make that kind of money off the bat.

The truth is, by the second book, I had learned my lesson.  Here's the full breakdown for book two in the trilogy "FALL OF ICARUS":

Edited by friends: $0
Cover art: $100
Self created cover and interior: $0
LCCN and Pro Package through the publisher: $80
Total: $180

Kindle sales ($2.06 per book x 110 copies sold): $226.60

Paperback sales ($2.30 per book x 9 copies sold): $20.70

Total: $247.30

So what's the point?  The point is that I've learned to publish my own work, edited by friends that care about the writing I do, and make the smallest margin of profits.  $60 doesn't seem like much, and it's not worth quitting your day job over.

So if it's not for the money, then why do I write?

Because behind me on my bookshelf, there are currently two paperback novels with my name on them.  Because at the end of the day, even though it was self-published and hardly for a great profit, I'm a published author.

That's why.

Check out BURDEN OF SISPYHUS (Book One) for Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Burden-Sisyphus-Brink-Distinction-ebook/dp/B0054RK2CA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1324259944&sr=8-1

Check out FALL OF ICARUS (Book Two) for Kindle:

http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Icarus-Brink-Distinction-ebook/dp/B005D50D8Q/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

Transparency

When I decided to first start writing novels, I realized one simple, undeniable fact about myself: I never finished anything I started.  I quit Karate just before getting my black belt.  I quit Boy Scouts one badge short of my Eagle Scout (one effing badge!).  I enjoyed the chase, but hardly enjoyed the reward at the end.

For a long time, I assumed that my lack of ambition was a shortcoming.  And from my family and teachers, they thought the same thing.  I was a "big ideas" guy.  I came up with great concepts, but often failed to follow through.  What chance did I have to finish a 400-500 page novel?
It wasn't until much later in my life (I'm now in my 30's) that I realized I hadn't been a failure.  I was fickle, no denying that.  But my pursuit of so many different ideals was because I constantly loved to challenge myself.  When I became comfortable, I simply chose a new path and reinvented myself.  I was an athlete in high school, a surprisingly well-spoken public relations major in college, an alcoholic while serving in Korea.  Finally, I found my true calling.  No, not as a writer.  As a leader of US Army Soldiers.

Twice now I've found myself deployed to Iraq, both times serving in the heart of Baghdad.  I served as a personnel officer once and, the second time, a Commander of over 450 Soldiers and officers.  It was exhilarating.  I watched young troops grow and develop under the tutelage of me and my First Sergeant.  It was what I was meant to do with my life.

Now, as a Commander once again with the prospect of going to Afghanistan in the near future, I once again feel that yearning to lead Soldiers into combat.  My friends call me insane.  Then again, so does my wife.  And I can't blame them.  Looking at it from the outside, it seems crazy that I would go out of my way to put myself into harm's way.  I once tried to explain it to someone, and this is the best I could come up with:

I know hundreds of people who feel that they've contributed to society.  I don't just mean the police and firefighters of the world.  Even the day-to-day factory worker knows that his little slice of the factory contributes something vital, like a small cog in an incredibly complex watch.  Despite its insignificant size, the watch simply can't run without it.  But the contributions they feel every day just can't compare with what you feel in combat.  As a medical officer, I've held someone's hand while they died.  But I've also loaded a patient onto a helicopter and said with pride, "You're going to be fine; have a beer for me when you get home".  I've looked into someone's eyes and known that I've made a difference in their life, even if they only get to see me as their life is coming to an end.

That feeling of accomplishment is what drove me to write during my last deployment.  I had a story to tell, and the emotions that I felt every day - fear, joy, deep sadness, loss - poured into the words that I typed into my computer.  It was science fiction, but I kept it "Approachable Science Fiction".  What does that mean?  It means that nothing happens in the books that can't be explained using modern science.  Never do I introduce a topic so complex that I lose the reader due to technical mumbo-jumbo (hell, I just used "mumbo-jumbo", so you can tell my level of scientific expertise).

Instead, you have an amalgamation of war and science fiction, with a realistic take on how battles end: often badly.  Main characters die.  Characters you like still die.  Characters that do everything right still manage to die.  I like to think that my books are a strange combination of Saving Private Ryan and Starship Troopers.  Mash them together, let the dog eat them, and whatever it vomits up is close to the literary masterpieces I create.

Try my books out.  They're available on Kindle for only $2.99 each, so you can skip McDonald's tonight and read a book instead.  See, I'm looking after your health and educating your mind.

Burden of Sisyphus can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/Burden-Sisyphus-Brink-Distinction-ebook/dp/B0054RK2CA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1311032169&sr=8-1

Fall of Icarus can be found here:
http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Icarus-Brink-Distinction-ebook/dp/B005D50D8Q/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1311032226&sr=1-1