Owning Up

People make mistakes. They screw up, miss deadlines, get your phone wrong by one number. Jeez, people are touchy at 8 am.

So, I missed posting last week. In case anyone noticed. Or in case you didn't notice. Anyway, I did. Now, I have any one of a dozen things to which I could attribute it to. Class 5 came back from the editor for work, which I powered through and got back to her, which then came back and I've been working on formatting for Kindle and Createspace. I have it out to a handful of readers for some opinions pre-published, but I'm currently looking at a Sept. 1st release. So lots of excitement there.

I was also going through some testing to join a firefighter/emt training program. Didn't fail any one portion, but didn't make the final cut. Ah well. That was a bummer.

I've also been sucked into Candy Crush Saga. Yeah, horrible, I know.

So I was actually pretty busy last week, I thank you very very much, indeedy. Of course, none of those are an excuse. I still could've easily found the time to write up a post if I had tried, and I did have a few I started. Which brings me to the main reason I didn't get one done. I couldn't think of anything really to write about.

Anyway, my point is that when you make a mistake, you should own up to it, accept it as your own, fix it if you can, and then move on. It's a personal philosophy which applies to all aspects of life. After all, how can you learn from your mistakes and improve if you refuse to acknowledge that you've made them and try to sweep them under the rug? If you make a mistake, you shouldn't be able to just ignore the consequences.

So, the release of my second book is notable for a few reasons. It's notable that it's my second book, and that it was written with a much higher level of confidence than my first. Now, the thing about it being my second book, is that in addition to the attention it'll get on its own, it will also bring attention to my first. My first book not being the best example of what I can do.

Now, as of yet, I'm unsure how to un-publish a book printed through Amazon and Kindle, in addition, my book has popped up on a few other sites that I have no control over. So it's out there, and no matter what I do, I can't take it back. I also freely admit I made mistakes with that first book. Mistakes which, considering the amount of reading and research I did, shouldn't have been made.

Now, I've spent the past couple months trying to re-write and fix some of those mistakes, to make my first book a bit of a better representation of me, but without yanking it, re-doing the whole bloody thing, there's only so much I can do without making it a different book.

Now there's a thought.

Pull what I can from the public availability, re-write it, new cover, new title, and re-release it as a new book, maybe even under an alias. Avoid all the bad publicity from the poor reviews it's gotten and start fresh.

I don't think so.

I made mistakes when I published that first book, and I'm not going to hide and pretend I didn't. While it is true some of the readers that did those poor reviews are probably readers I'll never get back, I would feel even worse if one of them happened to pick up the new book and actually noticed it was simply the old book with a fresh coat of paint.

I wrote that book, had it edited and put it out there for people to read, while asking for money for it. I've EARNED every one of the reviews The Unknown Neighbor has, the good and the bad. I'm not going to re-release it under a different name and try to start from scratch. I screwed up, I admit it and I accept all the criticism it gets.

That being said, it's going to get an influx of attention with the release of my second book. So while I recognize it needs work and I've been trying to fix it to some degree, I know it's still not the best it could be, and there's not a whole lot I can do about it aside from putting off releasing my next book for another 3 months or so while the first gets re-edited. So currently, I've uploaded the most recent version with a lot of changes to Kindle and I've dropped the price to as low as the system will let me. This way, if someone snags it and feels offended by the time it took to read, they're not paying much for it. (I also want to leave this little reminder that you can get refunds on Kindle books within 7 days of the initial purchase.)

So in the next two weeks, my second book Class 5 should be up and available on Kindle and on Amazon through Createspace for $2.99 and$8.99 respectively. In addition, The Unknown Neighbor will be available on Kindle for $0.99 at least until I can get it re-worked a bit more and I feel comfortable charging more for it.

In the meantime, if you read The Unknown Neighbor and feel offended by it, the best I can do is apologize and say I'm aware it has issues. Thanks.

Also, in case you're curious what the cover art for Class 5 looks like, here's that too.

Enjoy. And thanks.

~ Shaun

The Importance of Proper Editing

You've written a book, gone through it a dozen times on your own, revising, editing, spell-checking, making additions, deletions, and modifications. Now what? Now it goes to a professional editor.

Why? I've been through it myself a dozen times already?! I ran spell-check AND grammar-check! Why should I pay someone else to look through it before I send it out to agents or self-publish it?

Simply put, Professional Editors do it for a living. You probably don't. Let's look at a few more specific reasons. 

1. You've already been through the manuscript over a dozen times yourself. When you're writing, you tend not to see some of the mistakes you make. Your mind knows what it meant to write and after reading through a few times, it starts to replace the wrong words with the words you meant. Spell-check usually won't catch these because the words aren't spelled wrong, they're just the wrong words. In addition to little grammatical details, you know your characters better than what is put on paper. Certain passages might make sense to you because you know a few extra details in your head, but you may have neglected to include those details in the script somewhere, making those passages confusing to the readers. 

2. English is a complicated language, and nobody knows or agrees upon ALL the rules which govern it. The Oxford comma, for example. While generally accepted as a good idea, there are still a lot of people who argue about the necessity of it and choose not to use it in their works. While you're busy writing, it's doubtful you know all of the nuances and subtle rules of the language you're writing in. For a professional editor, however, it's their job to know as many of these tips and tricks as possible.

There are also different types of editing you can have done, each one offering something different to enhancing your work. 

Developmental Editing: This goes through the basics of the manuscript, checking the plot, characterization, pacing, dialogue, and conflict. It makes sure the story as a whole actually works and is told properly. 

Copy Editing: This is a step closer to publication. It looks at things like flow, basic fact-checking, timeline, and word choice. 

Line Editing: The last level before Proofreading and publication. This looks at the words, the grammar, punctuation, and past/present/future tense issues. This is what makes sure you're using the English language properly and that your work isn't a strain to read. 

You can see there is a lot going on in professional editing. Yet there seem to be a lot of books out there which fail miserably in these regards. You would think there would be no reason serious authors would choose to publish without this major step.

I've seen authors have the opinion that they can't get their work edited professionally for two main reasons. 

1. They don't want anyone messing with their "voice". 

- This can be an issue with some worse editors, but mostly, these authors have the opinion that their words should read as if they were speaking them. This is wrong. Spoken words have inflection, coupled with non-verbal signals which allow people to understand what you mean. Written words have nothing but the ink on the page to express themselves with. A lot of works written with worry about the author's "voice" are either expressly simple or extremely difficult to read. Sentences are short and don't use words more than six letters long, or sentences run on for entire paragraphs without comma's or periods, and many times are full of slang and words used improperly. Some people think this makes the work "raw" and more emotional. I'm sorry, it doesn't, and believing otherwise is simply an author being lazy and trying to take shortcuts.

2. Editing is too expensive.

- This may be true, but it's not an excuse. Editing is the difference between selling a few copies to friends and family and selling hundreds or even thousands of copies. If you just want a book with your name on it to show off to relatives visiting from out of state, by all means, save yourself the money. If you want to write professionally though and make money off of your writing, you only hurt yourself by skimping on editing. Bad writers with badly written books generally build up a reputation of that and their books get reviews saying so, making people avoid them. Even if you turn around further down the road and start putting out professional works, it takes time to change a reputation and that is time wasted that you're not making sales because you didn't want to pay out in the first place. 

So, how important is proper, professional editing? Very. It generally means the difference between a best-seller and a bottom-of-the-bargain-barrel pile of recyclables. No one writer is good enough to play both author and editor of their own work. Even Stephen King needs an editor. 

~ Shaun

Review: Pacific Rim

This is the big monster movie of our time. At least until Legendary releases the new Godzilla next year. 

For me, this film worked on a ton of different levels. The level of detail in the monsters (Kaiju) and Robots (Jeagers) was just amazing. There is a lot of real thought gone into their designs, how they move, and how they work. The scale was also well done, making the Kaiju and Jeagers building-sized, but not overly so. 

There are a lot of giant monsters vs. robots that have come before this. In movies, television series, anime and manga. Pacific Rim seems to pay homage to all of them by not screwing up. Granted, it was in the hands of Guillermo Del Toro so there really wasn't a lot of worry to begin with. 

The Monsters: The Kaiju are alien monsters from another dimension, given codenames based on their appearance and category status upon sighting based on their size and weight. 

Pictured: Knifehead, Category 3

The Kaiju forms are all based on actual animals, with modifications to include physical weaponry and to account for some alien morphology. So the monsters are believable because even though they're giant and alien, we still get that sense of familiarity with them. We find out more about them as the movie progresses, but I'm going to do my best here not to leave any real spoilers. 

The robots: The Jeagers are giant robots we built to take the fight directly to the Kaiju. As expected, there are several classes, based on their power source, technological advancement and when they were built. Each country builds their own, the appearance reflecting its country of origin. 

Pictured: Striker Eureka, Class 5, Australia 

The Story: The story is very familiar if you're a fan of anime, as there are honestly just so many ideas to come up with to make giant monsters and robots fight each other. One is the invader, the other is playing defense. There are several aspects which make the story behind Pacific Rim fairly unique though. One of these is Drifting, which is how the pilots work the Jeagers. It also takes two pilots per robot, creating a left side / right side brain dynamic. There is also an idea that the Kaiju are evolving, learning our strategies and getting stronger than the Jeagers we've made so far. 

I would say 95% of the movie is pure awesome, unless you're a romance only movie-goer. The only real complaint I have, is that there are several attempts at humor in the movie which do nothing more than cause irritation at the break in action. One scene in particular, in the middle of a fight no less, involves a Jeager's arm punching into an office building. The camera follows the fist in until it finally reaches full extension and stops, just touching someone's desk just lightly enough to set his Newton's Cradle in motion. Then the arm withdraws, and we go back to the fight. Fifteen seconds of screen time that nobody would miss. The need for tension-breakers in some movies is very strong, but you expect them more in horror and thrillers, not in-your-face action movies. 

One of these if you don't know what a Newton's Cradle is.

Overall, it's an awesome movie and bodes very well for fans of the giant monster genre. The company that made Pacific Rim, Legendary Entertainment, is also currently working on a new version of Godzilla, due out next year, and rumor has it that a script for Pacific Rim 2 is already in the works. Looks like a bad time to live in a major city, and a great time for lovers of destruction. 

~ Shaun

Doing your Homework

Lots of jobs have special training you need to take or college courses to master before you can claim to be proficient at work. This is true of Firefighters, Doctors, Lawyers, and even Politicians. Not so much for writers. Sure, you can go to community colleges and universities and walk out with English and Creative Writing degrees, but those are more for your own enrichment than anything that's going to help you be a professional writer. Publishing companies don't put you higher up on the list for being accredited.

Let's be honest here, too. You can only take so many classes about adverbs, clauses, and semi-colons before there's nothing more to learn, and most of those classes don't immerse you in the nuances of the language, the corner cases, and in some cases, how even to properly use all the different participles in your writing.

So, how do we learn to write properly? How do we learn all the nuances of the languages we write in? 

By seeing how other people do it. By reading. 

"If you don't have the time to read, you don't have the time, or the tools, to write." ~ Stephen King

That is how writers learn properly, that is how we figure out description, characterization, pace, plot and everything else there is for us to know, as well as how to put it all together.

In the past 7 months, I've read more books than I have in the entire ten years prior. This includes classic horror tales which I feel ashamed to have not read before while calling myself a horror fan and author. I've read independent books, traditionally published books, recent works and books of which you can find copies which border on fifty years old. Here I'm going to list some of the books I've read along with some of my thoughts on them.

Turner by Karl Drinkwater. I interviewed the author of this excellent book last month. This was one of the best reads I've had this year, and the lack of attention it seems to get just leaves me in awe. Self-published in 2011 through Amazon, it's a book easily comparable to ones which are traditionally published by the Big 5 publishers, and I greatly encourage anyone with an interest in Horror to give it a chance.

Hell House by Richard Matheson. This is one I expect to get some flack for not having read before. Lauded as THE haunted house story, it has become the basis for several movies. Traditionally published by Bantam Press in 1972, it was labeled even then as one of the great novels of the occult. I have to admit, I was holding off on reading this for the dumb reason of trying to avoid mainstream work. Several people have said though, that this is one of the scariest books they've ever read and between that and an idea I have for my own haunted house novel, along with the author's passing this year, I figured it was time I gave this piece a try. I am very glad I did.

The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty.  Another one I expect flack for. We've all seen the movie which is now required viewing in just about any film study that looks at Horror. It has spawned sequels, prequels, copies, knock-offs, even toys. Published in 1971, the book is fairly dated, with a pace most younger readers won't be able to appreciate. Still, this book is considered a classic for a reason, and some would say it deserves a place at the top with Bram Stoker's Dracula and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I would have to agree with them, and a must-read for any fan of Horror.

Worm by Tim Curran. This is a short and quick, but fun read. I picked it out of a discussion on Goodreads and I'm glad I did. There is some mystery of where the worms come from, but it's lost in the action of the story with some scenes reminiscent of Stephen King's Dreamcatcher. Looking for something short and fun, this is a good book to pick up, but I wouldn't expect it to be on the New York Times Bestseller's list anytime soon. A good example of how people react differently to the same thing though, if you're looking for things to learn from.

Origin by J.A.Konrath. I will probably never stop singing the praises of J.A.Konrath and his blog, A Newbie's Guide to Publishing. I probably wouldn't be published today if it wasn't for all the information he pumps out so the rest of us can learn from his experience. Origin is one of his books that I like the most, an original premise, a horror techno-thriller incorporating religious themes and mixing it all together into one of the most unique smoothies of a book you can find. Some of his other works I haven't cared for, but this is one I definitely recommend. He even has whole blog posts where he talks about the path this story took to finally seeing publication.



So, there you have a good sample of what I've been digging into lately for my own homework. Trying to expand my mental experience, seeing what tricks other writers are using in their attempts to scare and traumatize their readers. Getting an idea of what is selling, what works, and what isn't.

I recommend all of the books above as ones to read for those who are fans of the horror genre in books. Some might have a bit of flavor you're not used to, but all make for fair and fun meals.

Finally, I leave you with this simple and easy homework assignment. Go read a book.

~ Shaun

31 Days of Monsters: Whew, Uncle, already.

Well, I made it halfway at least. 

I'm calling it quits on the post-a-day challenge. Doing a post a week makes it seem like it really wouldn't be that difficult, but a post a day really is a whole other monster of its own. The sheer time it takes in writing, posting, and advertising such an ordeal leaves little for actually getting much else done. Time I could be better off spending writing a new book or trying to fix the leaks my first book has. As it is, my second book is nearing the final stretch and I really should be devoting more time to that as well. All this on top of other things which I've set aside for this challenge.

The time it takes notwithstanding, the amount of advertising I've been doing, posting every day on Twitter, Goodreads and on my Facebook page makes me feel like I'm spamming more than anything else. It's not technically the case, I know, but that's how it feels and I don't particularly enjoy that feeling.

Another reason is that I'm discovering the subject I chose actually doesn't run as deep as I thought. When I first chose the subject of cryptids to focus on for the challenge, I set a few rules for myself. 1. I wasn't going to use monsters which were predominantly supernatural. That means no vampires or werewolves, faeries or gremlins, no wendigo or Jersey Devil. 2. I wasn't going to use monsters which tended to being more extraterrestrial in origin, so out goes the Dover Demon and the Flatwoods Monster.

It seems most cryptids fall into one of the categories to which belong creatures I've already covered. Lake and sea monsters, relatives of bigfoot, giant versions of known animals and animals we know of being spotted in areas they aren't known to live. I've already covered most of the most well-known versions of each and a lot of others just don't have the information to really dig into for a blog post. Granted, there are critters which I could post on, but not another 15 - 16. The Loch Ness Monster, Champ, Skunk Ape, Jackalopes. Maybe at some point in the future I might come back and give them their own post, but as you can see, those there are simply two more lake monsters, a bigfoot relative, and a hoax.

Granted, I rushed into this without giving myself much time to plan it out, so I may give the challenge another go later on down the road, but I'm going to sit down and have the entire month planned out first. So. To those who were enjoying this feature and were looking forward to the rest of the month, I apologize, and I hope you won't be too harsh with me for bowing and ducking out rather than struggling through it and putting up sub-par content for a further two weeks.

Now, as I said, my second book is entering the final stretch, so in addition to my apology, I'm going to add in the back of the book blurb for you all to check out. Enjoy, and thanks for reading along.

Seguro, Arizona isn't a town with a bustling night life.

However, on this night, a mechanical malfunction has triggered a desperate and vicious pursuit through the desert. Hunter and hunted alike are willing to do whatever it takes to succeed in their missions and neither is going to let anything stand in their way.

Unfortunately, for the residents of Seguro, their quiet little town is about to become the center of a deadly game of hide and seek...

 ~ Shaun