Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Taking Your Ideas

In my last post I asked for suggestions on a name for the main character. After mulling over your wonderful suggestions, I've decided on names for all the characters in my next book.

The main character is going to be names Jason Ray.

I had a couple more suggestions which were excellent, but seemed to fit better for other characters. I have a key character who will be taking on the name of Sampson.

I'd love to tell you more about these characters but I don't want to give too much away, so this is where I change the subject before I spill the beans.

As of right now, I am outlining and doing some research. I have been studying different foods that people might eat when they are desperate.

Have any of you eaten, or know someone who has eaten, anything strange? Rodent? Cat? Weeds? Bugs? What did it taste like? What drove you to eat it? Go out and talk to your depression-era grannies about desperate times and desperate measures.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

A Break From Stories

I haven't been very good at writing new short stories, but it's not a bad thing. I've been spending time outlining and researching my next novel. I'm really excited about this one.

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Lately I've been looking into the amazing success stories of Amanda Hocking and John Locke. They've been all over the internet for the past several months. Both are authors, and both are self-publishing millionaires. I would love to reach that kind of success for several reasons. First being the fact that I would love to make a living from writing books. But chances are it's not going to happen -- and I'm okay with that.

Hocking and Locke have a lot of things in common. They both write short novels, they both write fast, they both write series, and they both got lucky. I use the word luck only because there is no other word to describe that magic element that draws readers to one author over another of equal talent. I'm not saying their success was all luck. No. They both worked hard and made marketing plans and fought hard for attention just like every other serious author.

Why do I bring this up? Well I've been thinking about how I define success. For me, creating has always been something I need to do. I don't know why, but I always feel compelled to write another song, learn how to paint, or write another novel. I can't help it. Most of the time my creations are enjoyed only by me, but occasionally someone I don't even know finds my creations and falls in love. That is how I define success.

My goal for this next novel, is to write somebody's favorite book. Just one person. If I can achieve that, I'll count myself successful.

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I'm having trouble coming up with a name for my main character. I need a strong male name that is not overused. Any ideas?

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

First Stop on The Book Blog Tour.

Today I stopped at a little South African book blog called "All the days of". Check it out for a more in-depth look into the writing of The Cause. 

http://allthedaysof.blogspot.com/2011/09/dystopian-author-interview-clint-stoker.html




 

Monday, September 5, 2011

The Cause Blog Tour

Starting tomorrow, I will be traveling the internet to promote The Cause. I'm feeling a little dubious because many of my blog stops will be for professional / semi-professional reviews. So, just to be safe, I'm expecting the worst.

Besides reviews, I have some interviews coming up. The first interview is scheduled to be published tomorrow. I'll keep you updated.

Speaking of book blogs -- I've noticed that most book bloggers are female. There isn't anything wrong with that, except that I don't write books for girls. I looked everywhere for some kind of man-blog for guys who like reading, but I've been coming up empty-handed. This is only making my marketing battle more difficult.

Besides my fears, I'm really excited to start really promoting The Cause. I'll keep this blog updated over the next several weeks so you all can follow me on my blog tour.