My Routine: One Writer’s Habits

One of the more common questions I’ve heard is “How do you get through writer’s block?”  or “How do you find time to write?”

In my blog “confessions,” I talked about my work day.  I’m going to delve into that a bit more, but what I hope to address is the distinction between “finding time to read,” “writer’s block” and just plain prioritizing.

I’m a big believer in routine.  I think consistency breeds consistency.  Perfect practice leads to perfect performance.  I’m not perfect by any stretch of the imagination in any regard, but I’ve found a thing or two that works for me.

First:  My schedule.  I usually wake up at 6 a.m.  I get up, go the the bathroom, go right back down to my room and shut my eyes for another 10-15 minutes.  I don’t like waking up early.  I worked night shifts in my younger days, and the routine stuck.  My brain usually comes alive around 3.  My current schedule, my bosses and my students don’t and shouldn’t care bout my sleep work cycle, but it’s how I’ve always worked.  This is honestly harder each year.  Already, my body demands an earlier bedtime than it did four years ago.  Still, the thing that gets me out of bed is the fact that my students are there, and I love helping them.  My friends are there, too.  So I get up, get dressed hit the road and arrive to work on time.

I leave my job anywhere from 4:30 to 7:30 depending on a host of factors.  Do my students need extra help?  How much do I have to grade?  Am I prepared to teach whatever it is I’m teaching tomorrow?  Will I have to be early tomorrow?  How long has it been since I’ve worked out?

More often than not, I’m home no later than 7:30.  I’m happiest when I’m home by 6:30.  As impossible as it is to tell when I’m going to get home, I still get there.  If I get home first, I clean up and start/order dinner.  Once everyone is home, I take the time to hang with my family.  This goes until about 8:30.

Then I go back to work.  Only this time, it’s my dream job.  It’s the occupation I want to put on my tax form. (I do that now, but I’d like for my income to grow).

A Call to action:  My call to action book was On Writing by Stephen King.  I’ve recently read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.  Both books talk about a premise that I hold to be true.

If you want to be a writer, you should probably write.  I’ll blog about this at a later date.  Anyway, to write, you have to build a routine that works.  Some of you may disagree.  That’s fine.  This is just what works for me.

Step one:  Establish the Command Center

So when I go downstairs, I bring some diet soda and a few snacks.  I snuggle up in my chair and pull my table with my lap top right up against it, trapping me in what I call my Command Center.  You see, I grew up watching Voltron, and I liked the feel of having my chair lock me into my own version of a battle robot.  I’ve occasionally been heard making sound effects.  Don’t judge.

The term Command Center came from an old boss of mine.  He once told me, “You can’t win a war if your command center isn’t squared away.”  I hadn’t joined the Navy at the time, and he was a crusty old Sailor.  The term made a lot of sense to me.  I finish off the command center by making sure my 49ers blanket is wrapped around me in a cowl, my references are near to hand, and my distractions are literally out of reach.  I make sure I have a pen and something to scribble on is near by. So my command center is established when I’m locked in, everything I need is close to hand and everything I don’t need is out of reach.  The 9ers blanket is just because I love my team, and I like being warm.

Step two:  Clear the Distractions
This is a bit of a trick.  Before I understood the importance of social media, all I had to do was make sure the X-Box controller and remote controls were out of reach.  Social Media has made that harder.  I can’t focus if I think there’s other stuff to do.  I think very quickly, and if I think a problem is coming, or I need to handle something, I jump to fix it.  This takes me away from writing.  So I have to clear the virtual distractions, too, so I do my rounds.   I have a Facebook, WordPress, and Twitter account.  I do whatever sharing, following, and Tweeting I feel is necessary.  I check on my sales.  I check my emails.  I make sure I’ve addressed everything that can come up.

Step three:  Establish the Mission

So being in the military has given me an affection for being told what to do, even if I’m the only one giving orders. I COMMIT to what I’m going to do.  I PROMISE myself I’m going to achieve something, and every now and then, I promise myself a reward for meeting the mission goal (right now I reward myself by watching episodes of Naruto).  I’ll ORDER myself: “I WILL write 1,000 words” or “I will edit this chapter” or “I will write this blog.”  Then I offer my self reward.  I’ll say, “…and after I finish, I’ll watch ONE episode of Naruto,” or whatever I have to. NOTE:  It’s CRITICAL to me to be as strict with my reward as I am with my mission, otherwise I write one thing and watch TONS of Naruto.  That’s bad.  It’s a betrayal of my mission and a failure of my efforts.

Step four:  Clock in.

Lately, I’ll signal this by sending Quintessential Editor a quick message via Facebook saying, “Clocking in.”   We both know this isn’t an excuse.  It’s a commitment.  He knows I’m working.  He’ll usually tell me he’s working or how long he’ll be before he goes to work.  The point is, we’re professionals, who go to work.  We see our work as an occupation.  It’s not a hobby.  It’s not something we get around to.  It’s our job, and we have to do it.  We may only have to do it because we choose to, but the point is we’ve chosen to.  If you want to be a writer, write.  If you want to make money off your writing, treat it like the job you want to earn an income doing.  So I go to work, and I clock in.

Step five:  Meet the goal

Whatever objective I established for myself, I reach.  Sometimes, it’s fast.  For me, it’s fastest when I’m drafting and slowest when I’m editing.  That’s not to say there aren’t days when drafting is a pain.  Trust me:  The most important time to write is when you don’t feel like writing.  Now some disagree with me on this, but I have a few tips (which I’ll elaborate on in future blogs).

First…if what you’re trying to write isn’t working, write something else.  I have several projects going.  If Caught is really not working, I still work until I’ve met my objective, but I may take a different sort of break.  No, I don’t go to the digital water cooler and talk to Corey.  Instead, I shift gears to a different project.  Right now I’m drafting Images of Truth, world building Sojourn in Despair, reading something for my writers group or scanning 1,200.  Be wary.  If you ever want to be a PUBLISHED author.  You have to finish something.

I shift gears to another project only as long as it takes me to get a sense of momentum (more on this later).  Once the muse (I subscribe to King’s theory on the muse by the way.  I really do.) has had a chance to use the imaginary bathroom or finish his last beer (see “On Writing”), and I can hear him talking to me, I move back to my objective project.  I don’t take a break yet.  I won’t let distractions fool me into thinking I’ve actually done anything.  I finish the mission.  Again, I was trained as a Sailor.  I may have to take a break from photography or writing an article to stand watch or clean a compartment.  Those are important jobs too, but they’re not my main mission.

When I finish those collateral duties, I go back to work and finish the job I PROMISED myself I’d finish.  This is the hardest trick to figure out, especially if you’re someone like me who’s a fan of linear, one-at-a-time tasks.  But momentum is more important to me than anything.  The more I gain momentum, the easier it is for me to keep it.  If I stop, I’m hosed.  That’s all there is to it.

Once the juices are flowing, I step away from the side project (promising that said project will in time become my primary mission) and get to work on my current objective.  I knock it out.  Then I revel in whatever reward I’ve promised myself.  If I’m on a role, I let it ride until I feel like I’m forcing it.

Rinse.  Repeat.

I can’t do one thing for extreme periods of time.  I need to shift gears.  I’ve learned I work best with about an hour of productivity and 20-45 minutes of rest.  This is just what works for me.

On a good night, I get through about three rotations.  On a great night, I get through three rotations, and it’s not yet midnight.  That almost never happens, but it’s beautiful when it is.  If I’m particularly sleepy or drained, I only do one rotation.  But I ALWAYS do one rotation.  Midnight is a benchmark for me.  If I have more time, or I feel particularly energized, I push it.  I usually end up going to 1 or 2 in the morning.

Momentum is everything.  I know myself, and as an author, you need to know yourself.  Identify your resistance (if you subscribe to Pressfield’s dialogue).  For me, I know I WANT an excuse not to write.  I want an excuse to step away.  That’s why I have to establish my command center.  I make sure I don’t have the “excuse” to get up to find something I need.  That’s why I clear the distractions.  I make sure I don’t have the “excuse” that I’m worried I forgot something.  Etcetera.

The more I write, the more I will write.  The more I accomplish the more I will accomplish.  The consequences of stopping?  A few weeks back I had a terrible headache.  I took the night off.  Now it was the right thing.  My head hurt so bad I saw spots and couldn’t see very well.  My body said, “Matt, get some sleep, or I’ll PUT you to sleep.”  So I let myself turn in early (very early).  I was fine the next day, but I didn’t get anything done for about another week.  Even when stopping is the right thing to do, it totally derails my rhythm.

I don’t believe in writer’s block.  I believe people don’t have momentum, so they stop because they can’t get started.  When I say it that way, with brutal honesty, do you see how little sense that makes?  It may be a real thing, but I’ve never had it.  Maybe something wasn’t working, but the trick I mentioned above always gets me back on track.

My routine PROBABLY won’t work for you.  It’s mine.  Maybe some theories will work, but you have to find a routine that works for you.  I hope mine has given you a few ideas.  This routine has evolved over twenty years now.  It started when I read “On Writing” and learned the muse needs to know when to come by.  (roughly translated it means go to work when you say you will, or write at a consistent time.)  It evolved and evolved as I found more distractors or potholes on my road to success.  I think it’s pretty solid now as I’ve written six books, and I’m about to publish my second book.  The main point remains.

If you want to be a writer, you should be writing.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

The Wrath of Cons: An Indie Author’s Guide to Conventions

So a while back, I posted my blog about finding new readers.  Quintessential Editor brought up a great idea in which I post some of my successes and mistakes.    Being the dutiful Brown Piper than I am, I sat down and wrote it my next “blog writing” day.

How to Find Them:  Well, in some cases, they found me.  They found my website or my book and shot me an email.  What this should tell you all is it’s a business.  They have table to sell to vendors, and you’re vendors.  If you go to one convention, they’ll have flyers for pretty much every other convention you could dream of.  Snag the flyers.  They usually have tables themselves, so you can ask them for an “artist alley” form and sign up.  (More on that later).  I’m based in Maryland, so I just google “Maryland Comic/Supernatural/(INSERT RELEVANT THING) Conventions,” and start shopping.  Just shop for the right ones.

Which Ones Should You Go To:  The closer they are to your genera or plot, the better.  It’ll be tempting to just got to every one you can, but trust me, it SUCKS to sit at a table for 8-hours a day for three days for no reason.  Don’t go to who will have you, go to the ones your readers are going to.  For me, comic conventions, science fiction conventions, Supernatural (the TV show) conventions are all great opportunities because that’s where people who love my book will go.

Big or Small:  My second convention was Awesome Con.  Another author told me it was a bad choice.  You see, that convention is huge, and the table price was higher because of it.  My table selection wasn’t smart (I PROMISE I’ll get there), but I wouldn’t trade that convention for anything.  I sold about 10% of the books I’ve sold so far at that first event.  Maybe that’s not good for most, but there’s a few reasons for that.

(TANGENT):  That author was right in one way.  I was at a table with one book.  That meant the most books I was going to sell per customer was, well, one.  Any author there with more than one book could literally sell twice as many books per customer as I could.  This is why I advise self-publishers not to go indie until they have at least two books ready to go.  It opens doors for marketing and repeat business.  I may be alone in this, but it made sense to me, and I saw it work in practice.

Artist Alley:  There are usually a  few types of booths.  You want an artist alley table, not a vendor table.  What’s the difference?  About $300.

How Many Books to Bring:  I get a lot of varying opinions here.  I made the mistake of buying a BUNCH of books, thinking I’d sell out at my first event.  It didn’t work out for me.  I sell about thirty books an event.  That’s on the low side.  I mentioned one reason above, the other reason is the price per book.  I made a lot of mistakes in publishing Bob, that cover price is one I’m literally still paying for.  I didn’t pick it.  I sell it on my website and at conventions at the biggest discount I can.  The next convention I go to, I’ll have Caught available.  I’ll bring sixty (thirty of each) to the event.

Matt’s Guide:  Don’t buy a table for more that $200.  Bring enough to profit $200.  This means you’d have to sell enough to earn that money plus what you paid to get that table.  Don’t forget to factor in gas and/or lodging.  If you sell out, celebrate, and adjust your inventory for next time.  (Any of my other indie authors out there, PLEASE don’t hesitate to comment on how many you bring to an event).  The more inventory you have, the more you should bring.

Marketing or No Marketing:  I always bring something, but I honestly don’t think I’ve sold a single book from any of the cards or bookmarks I’ve given out.    What they DO is open the door.  If you offer them something free right off the bat, they’ll probably be ready to hear your pitch.

Have a Pitch:  You better be ready to talk to people.  I have what I call an elevator pitch and then a small series of tidbits that helps.  One thing I do is something I learned when I heard an author speak a while back.  I forget what she calls it, but I call it the blending technique.  I take two things that are similar to my book.  I tell people the book is “Supernatural meets Dead Like Me.”

Those who say I shamelessly rip off Odd Thomas are also correct.  I don’t just say that to say it.  I genuinely feel that my book takes the tone of Supernatural and the situation of Dead Like Me and combines them into something new.  Give them the plot hook.  Have reviews ready. Have a  sell display.  That’s just a small stand-up display that you put on the table that has some reviews on it.  Me personally, I just print out multiple copies of a few and hand them out.
Tables Are Barriers:  If you have a  corner table, life is great.   I try to stand in front of my table four an hour or so, then I sit down for a while.  I wouldn’t do this if I were in the middle of a row.  You’re in the way of customers and other people trying to sell their hopes and dreams.  I’ve seen people spend the whole convention on their feet, in front of their table, and it worked.  They were in a corner table.

The Gretzky Approach:  A person not spoken to is a sale not made.  I’m confident I have a  pretty good feel for people.  So if a guy walks in with an F-U tattoo on his forehead just for me, I leave him (or her) alone.   I’m not there to jump in people’s face, and they’re not there to be accosted.  But I do say hello to EVERY person who walks by my booth.  I do offer them whatever I have to give, and I do ask them, “Can I tell you about my book?”  Boy do I love it when that beautiful cover of mine draws someone over.  That thing does half my work for me.  But at the end of the day, you have to be approachable.  Saying hello and BEING personable helps.

J.R. Handley offered some advice in the comments section of the blog mentioned above.  It all lined up with what I’ve seen.  He mentioned Dead Robots Society Podcast and Kristen Martin.    I’d be a fool not to mention them, and I think anyone about to start marketing at conventions should check them out as well.  J.R. If you have the direct links to either of those specific podcasts or Vlogs, please thrown them in the comments section and I’ll switch up the links.

I mentioned bookmarks.  Every convention I went to had some sort of cover.  I’m frankly too broke to buy much more than the table I sit at, and the promotional stuff I bring.  I’m not saying its a bad idea, I’m just saying I can’t do it.

Take Credit:  Not for your work, I’m pretty sure your name is on the book cover.  I mean have a  way to take credit.   I have a  pretty good split between cash and credit customers, but having that option means a lot.

Steal Ideas:  I saw one author create a display.  She offered to autograph that for people who bought the ebook from her QR Code reader.  I did it, and it does work.  That also did a LOT to help me reduce the pain of that cover price.  The e-version of my book is every bit as entertaining, and I make about the same profit.  This gives them the book, gives you a reader, and let’s them have something you can sign.  I think everyone wins.  That’s an idea I stole from someone I saw selling well at an earlier convention.

Bring Help:  Usually tables come with at least one other badge.  Take it, invite a friend.  Let him or her have fun, and have that person sit in for you when you have a panel or need a break (or you want a picture with that awesome person you’re a huge fan of.  No Corey, I’m not going to post that picture, I’m too afraid it’ll appear as appropriation.  I do make every effort to meet people I’d like to meet. I DO NOT try to sell THEM my book.  In fact, I try not to sell vendors my book.  They’re at the convention to sell products, work, and earn a living just like me.  If we just buy each other’s stuff, we’re not making any money.  Anyway, having someone there to help is great.

Sign Up For Panels:  Every convention has a request form for a panel.  Get a group together and have one.  I’ve done about three panels.  They’re fun, and they’re a great way to meet those ever elusive new readers.

Get Pictures:  Oh do I suck at this, but I mean to get better.  Getting pictures and posting them on social media really does a lot to legitimize your presence.  The help I mentioned above would be awesome for that.  Whatever you do though, get pictures and post them.  (NOTE:  all kidding with Corey aside, make sure you inform the customer what you’re taking it for and what you intend to do with it.  They have some rights.  You do too, but save yourself a lot of pain and just talk to people, especially if they’ve already bought your book.)

These events are DRAINING!  I love them, but they’re a ton of work.  If you have the time to take a vacation day, do it.  You should be exhausted, but you should also have fun.

Anyone else have a  few tips I haven’t mentioned?   I’d love to see them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

SIBA Update

Tomorrow is Sept. 1, and the Summer Indie Book Awards are scheduled to open voting.  If you sign up here for the newsletter, they’ll send you a genre link.  You can also vote through Facebook at this link.  You can get a bit more information on the host’s page.  The folks at Metamorph Publishing are committed to making this event a success.

As you all know, I was nominated for the award’s fantasy category.  If you’ve been following me on Facebook, you already know, but I’d like to make it official.  I’ve also been nominated in the paranormal category.

I can’t begin to describe how happy I am to receive one nomination, much less two.  Every artist appreciates being recognized, and receiving this nomination is a form of recognition in itself.  I still encourage everyone to vote only for the books you’ve read and enjoy, but I’d like to summarize the rules.

The poll is being run through pollmaker, and you’ll be allowed to vote one time a day from the first until Sept. 11.  You can vote for just one category, multiple, or all of them.  Also of note is the fact that you can vote for multiple books in a single category.  I appreciate that this allows for people to vote, but I’ve always been a sort of one or none guy myself.

You’ll see each choice with a box next to it.  You’ll be able to check each option you wish and then click vote.  Be sure you’ve clicked all the options you want to support before you hit the vote button, and make sure hit vote.  You can vote only once a day, but you can vote multiple days.

I wanted to take a few moments update you all and remind you to stop by tomorrow and vote.

Thanks for reading

Matt

Book Review: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling

Spoiler Free Summary:  17 years after the Battle of Hogwarts, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are all grown up with children of their own.  Harry’s youngest is the odd man out.  It picks up right where the last book left off, only we find out who young Albus Potter sits next to on the train, and it’s the most unlikely person.  Albus struggles to be the boy who’s the son of the boy who lived, and he and his friend Scorpious find all the wrong ways to make a name for themselves.  When they find a mission for themselves, a mission designed to fix one of Harry’s past mistakes, they only end up discovering the costs of trying to be heroes.

(NOTE:  This isn’t a book.  It’s a script.  I think it was wise and kind of those involved to let people who love that world see what the next chapter is, and they did so in the most immediate format available.  If you just want to KNOW what happened, this does the trick.  Also, this isn’t a Harry Potter book.  He has a significant role, but the book isn’t really about him.)

Character:  This part frustrated me a bit.  Albus has a solid arc, and he’s very proactive, which helps, but things seem to move a little too quickly for my taste here.  It doesn’t hurt the book exactly, but readers should be ready to let a little development slide here.  You can probably give some of that to the performance as this is a script, not a novel.   I have to say this.  The lesson and arc Albus goes through is far less external than Harry.  I can see the reasoning here.  Harry had to beat the overlord.  How do you improve on that?  Options:  Bigger villain, or more dramatic focus.  The most interesting part of Albus is the lesson he learned because it was the only one there was for him to learn.

Scorpious, on the other hand completely steals the show for me.  I found him more compelling anyway.  He’s a young man who has to struggle with his family’s mistakes, and all he wants to do is be a kid.  My opinion, this story falls short if Scorpious isn’t in it.  Where Harry was clearly the hero of the last generation, Scorpious carved a place for himself in my heart.  Sure, Albus does some cool things, but he wasn’t nearly as heroic as his friend.

Exposition: This was a script, so we get a little insight into emotions and stage direction, but this is heavy based on dialogue.

Worldbuilding:  This is where I think the book falls short.  The writers are asking readers to believe that nearly two decades have passed, and there wasn’t a hint of progress in the world?  Where the Mistborn world and even The Last Airbender worlds evolved, there’s nothing in this book to show any passage of time.  This will be grounds for argument for anyone who cares to waste oxygen on it, but if the only reason they’re still using owls to communicate is because they always have, then what significant contributions are there to be made in the wizarding world?  Especially with a Minister of Magic who was raised in a muggle world.

I think this is a failure on the part of the writers.  I was glad to see more of the world of Harry Potter.  We even get a peek at some magical developments.  So if want you want is pretty much EXACTLY the same world you left, then you’re in luck.  Of course, if you really wanted that, you could actually just reread the original series.  For me, if I read a book nearly two decades after the last, I want some worldbuilding ways to note said passage of time.

Dialogue:  I don’t actually know if the dialogue is “good” here.  There’s a lot of it.   The character’s voices feel unique.  I’ve never read a script before, so perhaps there’s some expectation the actors will bring the words to life.  It’s honest to say it didn’t meet my expectations, but that my expectations were higher because I knew dialogue would drive the story.

Description:  Again, this was a script, so there’s not much there.

Overall:  It was nostalgic to go back to this world and see what’s happened.  I can say what I want about the worldbuilding, but that doesn’t diminish the wonderful characters in the story, nor does is make this book unentertaining.  It is a fun, fast-paced story that I’m glad was published.  I love knowing “what happened next,” and this book does that for us.  I read this in about two days (which is fast even for me).  Yes, I was more happy to see these characters in a new story than I was impressed with the actual plot, but it was still enjoyable.  If you love Harry Potter, I imagine you’ll like this next chapter.  If you didn’t love the world and style of the books though, you’ll be disappointed because it’s the same in this book.

I’m not actually one of those who sing the praises of J.K. Rowling.  She did a lot for this industry, and I really enjoyed the saga.  I’m just a bit less in awe of her actual writing, and I had some serious problems with Deathly Hallows.  Regardless, I was very happy I read Cursed Child.   I was glad to see the characters again, and I’d look forward to more from this new generation.

Thanks for reading

Matt

Book Review: Magic-Scars by C.L. Schneider

One great thing about being on vacation is I can read much more.  I reblogged my review of the Summer Indie Book Award-nominated Magic-Price last week anticipating I’d be ready to post my review of Magic-Scars today.  This review also gives me a chance to try out my new format for reviews.

A note on format:  Reviews are essentially opinions.  Everybody has one, and at the end of the day, a person either likes a book or doesn’t.  The real question is how to be objective.  As a writer myself, I love an overall opinion of my book, but I also look for honest feedback.  So I’m taking a page from the writer’s group I was in while stationed in San Diego.  It allowed me to be objective.  It also allowed me to separate myself from what I think of the person.

This format came from what I like about books and what I look for when I read books.  My hope is that if readers don’t care about a certain aspect, they can skip to one they do. I’ll also give an overall opinion, which you can also scroll to directly.  Please feel free to comment on the format below as I want to help authors improve and readers find books they might like to read.

Spolier Free Summary:  Magic-Scars is a sequel to Magic-Price.  Scars is the second book in the Crown of Stones Trilogy.  It takes place a few years after Price.  Ian Troy is still fighting with his friends to stop his father from using magic to take over the world.  The readers get a lot of treats here in terms of secrets revealed and progress in the story.

Character:  Ian Troy is awesome.  He’s why I liked book one, and he’s why I’m eager to read Magic-Borne, though I do want to read this Potter book I’ve heard tell about first.  (NOTE:  This has more to do with me trying to read The Cursed Child before someone spoils it.  I’m actually more excited to read Borne at this point.)  The first-person narrative drives Ian home, but I’ll be honest, I’m officially frustrated I can’t see more of the other characters.  The world is so deep.  As much as I love Ian, I’m upset that I can’t get into any other heads.  It doesn’t necessarily hurt the book at all because, like all books that do first-person narrative well, Ian is a wonderfully sympathetic, proactive character.  This is my number one requirement of all books.  I don’t care how cool the magic system is.  I don’t care how intricate the world building is.  If the main character isn’t sympathetic and proactive, it doesn’t rank very well on my book.

Ian isn’t the only reason to keep reading though.  There’s a whole cast of characters that are fascinating.  First-person narrative allowed Schneider to keep the scope of the world from getting out of control, but I’d have happily read two or three more books in the series if it meant I could have gleamed more insight as to the motivations of the other characters.  Like I said, it doesn’t hurt the book.

Exposition: Another benefit of first-person narrative is the fact that it sort of cheats the bulk of exposition.  Schneider didn’t beat us to death with exposition, but there’s a lot of it.  It’s woven in well with great dialogue, and it’s only something you notice if you’re up at 4 a.m. reviewing a few chapters to get a feel for it.  In my opinion, if a reader has to go back to the book and look for exposition, it was done right.

Worldbuilding:  This is one of Schneider’s two main strengths.  The magic system is complex.  As I think on it more and more, I’ll do what I always do and start looking for ways to punch holes in the system.  That’s the cool part about fantasy books like this.  As deep and well designed as the world is, there are a few questions about how the magic works that I’m hopeful the last book addresses.  The world itself is intricately designed, as are the cultures, histories and races of this series.

Everything feels real while reading this.  Yes, there are things about the magic system that give me questions, but I’m willing to let it go until I read the last book.  None of those questions feel like cheats.  Usually, by book two, I like to have a pretty solid feel for how a magic system works.  My gripe is that, while the basic premise is easy to grasp, I still can’t quite summarize the mechanics of how the system works.  This may be because the system is a part of the plot.  As we learn about the magic, we understand what’s going on in the book more.  To just come out with it would cheat the reader of discovering certain things for themselves.  Only those obsessed with diagraming and breakdown of abilities would be disappointed.  Bonus points for the Eldering.  Their history was a nice touch.

Dialogue:  This is sort of in the middle for me.  The characters all have a unique voice.  The exchanges feel more-or-less natural.  I can’t pretend to know what makes dialogue “better,” but the dialogue here isn’t bad at all.  There are a few instances where some readers might argue some of the interactions, but I’m not one of them.

Description:  I have a better sense of the world than I do the characters.  I naturally see Ian more clearly in my mind that the other characters.  I confess characters don’t sit well in my imagination to begin with.  What I do know is that all the characters get their fair share of description.  It’s not enough to get through my particularly thick skull, but I think most readers will be fine with it. I think the settings are stronger because they bring better images to my imagination.  What Schneider does well though is weave those things in.  I hate being beaten to death with description or minute detail.  Not once in the book did I skim over a section because I felt it was just overwritten description.

A note on content:  There are some adult scenes in this book.  Normally, this is an automatic turn-off for me.  I’m more a “Fade to black” scene kind of guy.  Things get steamy in this novel, but it’s not over done.  In fact, one of my favorite parts in the book (one that sums up Ian rather nicely) is in such a scene. These scenes don’t oversaturate the book or get in the way of the plot.  It’s a well-done balance in my opinion.

Overall:  I was a big fan of Price, and Scars is much better.  Scars pays off on the potential Schneider demonstrated with Price.  It’s a great second act that has just enough cliffhanger to make you want to jump straight to book three without robbing you of feeling like you’ve finished reading a novel.  (I absolutely hate true cliffhangers).   I’ll rate it on Amazon and Goodreads because they help authors, but ratings really are more or less an awful tool.  People either like books or they don’t.  So I won’t be providing a rating here because I wouldn’t invest 1,200 words on a book I didn’t love.  I wouldn’t have already bought the next book in the series either.    I’ll end with this…

I’ve made no secret that Schneider is a friend of mine.  What I feel is important to point out is that she became my friend because she’s a wonderful person who’s been an amazing help to me and my own development.  What made me seek her out was an amazing cover and a damn-well written book.  I sought her out because she has skills I admire in a writer.  If you’re looking for a great, fast-paced book to read, look no further.

Thanks for reading

Matt

Book Review: Over Your Dead Body by Dan Wells

I still feel as if Dan Wells is one of the most underrated authors out there.  The John Wayne Cleaver series continues to be an amazing story about a young man who knows he’s capable of evil, and in fact desires to be evil, and chooses to be good.

This reason alone makes the book worthy.  OYDB is more predictable than some of the other John Cleaver stories, but I wonder if that wasn’t intentional.  For me, this book was less bout the identity of the monster and how it operates and more about the effect that information would have on John.

Where The Devil’s Only Friend bridged the first three books to this new direction, OYDB continues to push the potential of the series into new directions.  It takes place relatively soon after the events of TDOF.   The wit is every bit as charming.  The conflict is every bit as compelling.  The ending was every bit as tragically beautiful as I’ve come to expect from Wells.

This is part of a series, so if you haven’t started with book one, I recommend you do.  You’ll be the lucky one though as you can read the whole series up to this point in a row; where as I had to wait for each book.

Thanks for reading,

Matt

 

Dolor and Shadow by Angela B. Chrysler

Dolor and Shadow is the first book in the Tales of the Drui series.  Like most first books in a series, it’s got a fairly steep learning curve and some development points that need to be established for future books.

The main characters Kallan and Rune, steal the show.  The rest of the cast is interesting, but not quite built on.  Luckily the character of Kallan stands on her own.  She’s a compelling person with an interesting internal conflict.  Rune is a solid counter to her.  I was most happy with the book when they were in the thick of the plot.

I gave this book 5-stars because it is a great start to a series, but, like I said, it has a lot in common with other great starts to books.  I absolutely love Eye of the World and Dragonflight, but those books start slow and sometimes drag a bit.  My brother asked me to read the first one hundred pages of Eye of the World before I said anything, and I’ve never been happier to listen to him.

Dolor isn’t much different in terms of the amount of set up it requires.  This is a deep world with a lot of backstory to it that requires a few viewpoint shifts and early chapters that can slow a reader down, but don’t stop because the reward is a great “cat-and-mouse” plot that drives the story quickly once everything is established.

I’m a fan of the setting and the magic system.  I’m a big fan of epic landscapes and solid magic systems.  This is still fairly soft, but the magic system is a plot solution device, it is, in fact, a source of conflict from my point of view.

Fans of heroic women will enjoy this story.  Kallan isn’t a normal heroine.  She may be one of the first “broken” female heroes I’ve seen.  I don’t know that I’d go so far as to call her an antihero, but she isn’t the “pluckly lass” from down the road.  She’s a queen and a young woman nearly broken by stress.  Her journey alone makes the book worth reading.

Thanks for reading,
Matt

Caught: Deleted Scene

One of the issues I had with the last draft of Caught was the scope was too big for the size of the book.  Like most writers, my story tends to grow in the telling.  I fall in love with characters, so I want to give them more air time.  The problem this creates is the reader then wants more time.  Dom and Kira are, quite frankly, awesome.  They’ll be featured in Caught’s sequel, which I plan to begin writing some time next year.  The problem is, as awesome as they are, it’s not their book.  They’re secondary characters in this portion of the trilogy.

Just because a scene isn’t right for a book doesn’t mean it’s not great content though.  This is cannon. It may be a little rough, as it’s from a draft of the book, it did happen.  I just had to pull this out to limit the viewpoints in the book and help the book flow better.

This used to be in Chapter 8.  A special operations team is about to assault a rouge military compound.  Kira and Dom are the other half of the team.  There’s a scene break here, which jumps forward in time.  The other two members of the team are doing cool stuff.  That part is still (probably) going to make it into the book.  There aren’t any real spoilers here, so no worries.  It just allows me to present to you some part of the book I’m still hoping to put out in a few months.

Caught Deleted Scene

From her and Dom’s position to the south of the warehouse, Kira took slow, regular breaths.  Looking through the night-vision scope of her PSG-1 sniper rifle, she had the north tower’s look-out lined up.  Dom, working as her spotter, helped her set up.  She knew her M-4 would be just to her left.  Dom was good like that.  Once you told him how you wanted a weapon to work and how you wanted it placed, Dom made it that way every time.  Now it was just the minor miracle of hitting her target just before the EMP went off.

“Fifteen seconds,”Dom whispered.  “Four knots, coming west.”

She gave her target a little room to the left to account for the wind.  Focusing her thoughts, she lightly squeezed the trigger.  Five seconds.  Press…press…press..pr-POP!  She saw the spray of red mist flow out from her target just as she heard the rifle fire.

“Hit,”Dom said matter of factly as he flipped off his scope

“Go dark,”she whispered over the radio, turning off her scope.

She only just managed to turn it off before a blue light blossomed from the north.  It wasn’t overly large.  From her vantage point, it looked about the size of a basketball.  That gave her about one minute to take down one more target.  No pressure.

They had worked out her targets ahead of time, and Dom was already giving her wind velocity.  “Three knots coming west.”

She turned her scope back on and scanned east to her nearest target, who was already making his way down the steps.  He reacted quickly, which was smart.  Leading her target and adjusting for wind, she put him down before he could reach the platform between his tower and the ground.

“Hit,”Dom said again.  He had a way of making the most impressive feat sound like something any cross-eyed 2-year-old could do.

The compound exploded with activity.  There were no alarms, which meant Brandon’s little toy had worked, but that didn’t keep the company guarding the place from reacting.  They’d planned for it.  The general was nothing if not prepared.  Too much to hope they’d have an easy time of it.

They scurried toward exits, probably trying to mobilize the Humvees parked a few hundred yards from the compound.

“Go,”She said.

“Moving,”Dom barked as he grabbed up his gear, his own M-4 and her PSG-1, and ran east.

Kira switched over to her M-4 and used short, controlled, bursts to provide Dom enough cover fire to move to his secondary position.  It was up to Steve and Brandon to infiltrate the perimeter.  She and Dom would do what they could from their positions.

*  *  *

Something, in Dom’s opinion, was wrong.  Oh sure there were plenty of decently trained corrupted traitors dying in the team’s containment zone, but not enough.  Not that Dom was anxious to kill.  He had switched over to the PSG-1, and one man trying to reach the east tower died in Dom’s sights a moment before the bastard could climb behind a M-240-B machine gun.

No, it wasn’t that he wasn’t killing enough.  It was the fact that there weren’t enough men reacting to the assault to account for an entire company. “East side clear,”he barked into his headset.

“South side clear,”Kira said.

“Go,”he replied.

Switching back to his M-4, Dom kept his scope to his eye scanning the area.  He heard Kira’s footsteps as she passed him.  He started laying short controlled bursts of fire anywhere he saw potential threats.  Kira dove behind a barrel.  She raised up a hand, four slender fingers straight up.  He stayed in position and continued his cover as she reloaded.  She started shooting in the blink of an eye.  The woman worked weapons faster than anyone on the team, except for himself of course.  He couldn’t actually see her blue eyes, but he felt her wink at him.  She’d tease a man in the middle of armageddon.

He reloaded his own M-4 and moved to her position.  The large thirty-gallon barrel looked fairly small, unless you needed it for cover.  Filled with rocks, it made as good a place to hunker down behind as any.

“I know.  There’s not enough man power-out there,”Kira said.

Dom opened his mouth to suggest she see where the rest of the enemy company was, but she cut him off.

“Steve said no Delta Techs.”

That was the end of that.  Nothing to do but continue the plan.  Step three:  Infiltrate the east side and flank the enemy.  “Moving!”Dom shouted.  He heard her resume her cover fire moments before bringing his rifle to his shoulder and charging to the base of the large metal swinging gate that marked the compound’s entrance.  Suddenly, a rumble erupted from the largest building in the compound.  It had a lot of square footage, but it was too low to the ground to be a hangar in Dom’s opinion.  Flames burst out of what few windows the building had.

Dom reacted on instinct, ripping off his ocular to keep the night vision from blinding him in the blast.  He instinctively stepped to the side to cover Kira.  She shoved him back.

“I’m fine,”she barked.  Oh she didn’t like the idea of any man protecting her, even with actual bullets flying and the possibility that she might be blinded by the explosion.  “My eye is closed, Breach.  I’ll switch the damn thing off in a moment.”

Dom began laying fire down.  The rest of what Dom was sure comprised the enemy company began charging out of every exit in the building.  Go to work!  he told himself.  Everyone had their skills, but Dom was, in fact, the best at this.  He literally put every one of the team’s weapons together, and he could use every one better than any other team member.

Dom put a .556 round into one asshole’s forehead before thumbing his selector lever to Full using fully-automatic fire to keep the bastards suppressed.  It was horrible.  The plan was perfect for any normal company.  But what asshole would order his company to burn the building down before they could secure their exit?  What morons would actually follow that insane order?

* * *

Caught is anticipated to be released in the fall of 2016.

* * *

If you enjoyed this scene, I think you’ll love the book.  If you’re interested in learning more about me or my work, feel free to contact me.