Well, I’m one giant step closer to releasing “Salazar.” I’ve finished the first draft — 8,000 words or so — and my carefully selected group of test readers are going over it.

I’ve also looked at a couple of distribution channels for the story. I don’t think I’ll make it available on its own in print format, since it’ll just be too short to be worth it, but I definitely plan on printing it with The Empty City. I’ll probably offer it up on a couple of the different e-bookstores around for probably around $2 or $3, but I haven’t set anything in stone yet. No matter what, though, I’ll have links to wherever I publish on the main Section 51 site.

Part of my dilemma is DRM. I’m a bit paranoid about piracy, but I’m also looking at the fact that practically every musical group has DRM-free content on iTunes or AmazonMP3, and they’re not doing too poorly for themselves.

I definitely got over the favorite child syndrome I mentioned earlier after reading the first few chapters again. I still think it’s pretty good, but I needed to rework the first chapters some. I’m tempering my nervousness with the realization that I’m always self-conscious about my writing, so if it is good, my test readers should clear up a lot of that doubt. Plus, I know I’m not going for The Greatest Story Ever Written, but instead a good plot and interesting characters. “Salazar” is all about defining who the title character is is and where he comes from, and I think it’s a fascinating story.

Comments (0) Nov 13 2009

I didn’t plan “Salazar” out the way most writers would, I guess. It’s part of my writing style: I come up with a vague idea of the story and just work towards it.

The plan was to write a short story, maybe 5,000 words or so, to accompany “The Empty City.” It’s similar in theme and the two stories are designed to weave together at one point, but TEC was supposed to be the main story.

And, without revealing too much, I knew of five (now six) major plot points. Let’s call them A, B, C, D, E and F.

Now, seven chapters and 5,785 words in, I just got to point D (which, by the way, is the shared point with TEC), and points E and F I know are going to be complicated. I still need to finish my rewrite of TEC, which has already lengthened that story, so I’m looking at a thicker book than I anticipated. (Not necessarily a bad thing, since longer books aren’t that much more expensive to print.)

Plus, I’m facing a favorite-child dilemma: I’m liking “Salazar” a lot more than TEC. It could be because it’s a much more personal story (TEC is about, well, a city, and “Salazar” is about, well, a person), but it’s still a much different theme than I see Section 51 taking. (Heck, “Salazar” is barely sci-fi; I never planned on introducing the sci-fi elements until E and F, and so far, it’s a simple realistic drama. Or whatever the literary term is.)

Another couple of days, and I’ll probably have the first draft of “Salazar” done, and judging by my complete lack of self-doubt on it, it shouldn’t take too long to revise. I don’t think it’s going to be long enough to offer in print, but I’m leaning towards releasing it as a low-price e-book while I wrap up TEC, and still bundling the two together. Maybe under the title “Section 51 Origins.”

And I know I promised an excerpt, but I do have a couple of copyright concerns regarding that. I think I’ll wait until I’m all done and I’ve submitted the story to the Copyright Office before I post it. (Either way, it should be available on the e-book retailers I’m looking at.)

Comments (0) Nov 10 2009

I’ve been working tonight on (1) battling the bug I’ve been fighting for more than a week, and (2) expanding the short story I had mentioned in previous posts, sort of a prequel to “The Empty City” about one of the supporting characters and how he ended up where he is. The story, “Salazar: Section 51 Origins,” is turning into quite the work, if I do say so myself.

In one evening, I’ve expanded the first chapter into three chapters that, together, are already longer than the rest of that story. It’s definitely a much different animal, too: the sci-fi that’s going to be a cornerstone of the Section 51 series doesn’t actually come in till the end, and it has a much darker tone. I was actually feeling a bit depressed when I finished the first chapter, which ends in tragedy.

What’s interesting is the work I’m dipping into. A while ago, for fun, I wrote a few screenplays for a non-sci-fi dramatic television series that I never expected to publish or produce. I fell in love with two of the characters in that work, coming up with pretty elaborate backgrounds for them, nearly ignoring the rest of the characters. (I might end up adapting that series for more prose fiction, but I still have yet another book project that’s been in my mind since I was 12.)

Anyway, now that the cat’s kind of out of the bag with Section 51, when I’m done writing it, I’m debating releasing “Salazar” as an e-book before I publish “The Empty City.” It’s probably not going to be long enough to be printed on its own, but I would probably still include it at the end of TEC as a sort of extra feature. There’s one event that’ll be in both stories, not to mention the shared character, so it should fit together nicely.

Stay tuned. There’s a possibility I’ll post an excerpt right here.

Comments (0) Nov 08 2009

Here’s the new ad I promised last night:

The music is by Kevin MacLeod, but I’m thinking about swapping it out for something of my own later. I just couldn’t make a good score in GarageBand.

Comments (0) Nov 07 2009

I finished a second draft of the book a week ago, adding a couple of characters and a subplot, and now I’m working on the third draft. By third draft, I mean that I’m taking each chapter and rewriting it.

So why rewrite, you ask? Tone, mostly. This week, I wrote a short story I’d like to include at the end of the book, and I’m really quite happy with it. But it made me realize I was putting in too many jokes into the main novel, which I figured were too much of a distraction from the main story, which is rather dramatic.

I also realized that the ending seemed a bit abrupt, so I’m sprinkling in a few references to what was going to be a big secret. Plus, part of my business model – sequels – would be hard to implement if I kept that a secret.

In that vein, I’ve renamed the book “Section 51: The Empty City.” The original name, “Emptiness,” was just kind of lame, and Section 51 was the name of the series I’ve had since the beginning. (Since before the beginning, in fact.) I’ve owned www.section51hq.com for a month or so for this. (The more obvious domain, without the “HQ”, is owned by a cybersquatter. Grr.)

But what is Section 51, you ask? You’ll just have to wait for the answer.

In other news, I’ve been working on a new ad for the series. I’ve redone the main character using the excellent Michael 4 character from DAZ3D.com, so the ad I have would need to be reworked a bit anyway. Plus, I’ve moved the setting from a fictional city (which I had needed to use when the project was an animated series) to Albuquerque (a much more believable locale for the story), so the buildings are inaccurate. And, since I’m planning to publish in early 2010, the “SUMMER 2011″ graphic was inaccurate anyway. The ad isn’t ready quite yet – I still need to add in music and tweak the animation – but when it is, I’ll have it on the front page of this site.

And I have a few ideas for some viral advertising that came straight out of rewriting Chapter 3. (I kind of fantasize that this is going to be one of the coolest marketing campaigns ever for a self-published book.)

Comments (0) Nov 07 2009