I had a really great idea for the cover for Destiny, Book Two of the Last Paladin Series, and then I realized that I wouldn’t be making it to the part I’d initially planned to end the second at. I know it’s very common for writers to make covers for their books that have nothing directly to do with the story, but personally I find that extremely annoying. I love to see the vision the writer had of the main character or some important part of the story.

Unfortunately that means the cover I’ve been planning to use for Book Two, even before Book One was finished, now isn’t relevant to the story within its pages, since that part of the story will now be pushed to Book Three. That sucks to such a high degree of suckatude that I cannot even begin to express my annoyance. If you’ve never tried coming up with a cover for a story that captures the essence of the characters/action/story, looks good on the front of a paperback book cover (you have to plan for the smallest possible size), looks exciting/interesting and is overall good enough to encourage writers to pick-up your novel, out of the thousands of other books available, to read the back cover, then you understand how unbelievably difficult this is to do.

Seriously, the goal of any cover is to be good enough eye candy to encourage readers who are into the genre you’re writing about to pick-up your book and check out the back story. It’s your primary form of advertisement before everything else. Your second and third primary forms of advertisement are the back cover snippet of your story and the front inner flap excerpt. These show the readers your writing style and the general concept of your story, hopefully getting them to read the sample Amazon and other websites offer. At this point you’ve sank your hooks into them, metaphorically speaking. You’ve pulled the reader into your world and hopefully they’ve enjoyed the experience and will come back for more.

So back to finding a cover for Destiny, recently I’ve been letting my mind wander as I write the last quarter of Book Two hoping to come up with a new concept that will fit my requirements for the cover. As I’ve talked about before, usually as I write I run through graphic images I’ve pulled out specifically relevant in one way or another to the current story I’m working on. Most of the images are from Deviant Art’s website. I might see if what the artist has in regards to posting his works on other websites or even if I can ask to be allowed to share his work, but first I have to find where I originally pulled the image from.

Anyway, the image is from the Ultramarines: Warhammer 40,000 universe. It’s an action shot from the perspective of the enemy attacking a group of Ultramarines that just rocks. I was thinking I could use the concepts and layout the artist did for this shot for something relevant in my own story. The scene would be in a large cavern. The viewpoint is if you were the attacking enemy charging the group. Picture a large stone statue of a gorgon reaching up to the sky (or cavern ceiling) in the middle of the scene, near the base a large Minotaur warrior in legionnaire armor holding to two enormous double-headed battleaxes shimmering with magical power and is in the process of turning to face an oncoming enemy. Picture ornate chest armor, shredded billowing cloak, armored shin guards over black hooves and elbow high metal gauntlets. Back-to-back with the Minotaur is a modern NATO soldier caught in mid-turn with their rifle swinging around. Maybe she’s a female sergeant with short hair and her helmet off. Lower in front of them are maybe two more modern soldiers, one injured laying on their back with the other shooting back over their shoulder as they try to drag the injured away from the oncoming enemy. Another Minotaur is in the front right of the picture falling backwards with one arm slice off at their upper arm, while the other has a fist spike weapon. Lastly on the left side of the screen are two more Minotaurs rushing up with a large shield in one arm and a fist spike in the other.

I’m still trying to picture the scene. It can’t be too much or it won’t display properly on the cover size allowed on the site. What do you think? Does the scene sound interesting? Would it catch your eye and encourage you pick-up the novel to see what the story is about? Do I need to go back to the drawing board and try for another image?    

Even though this was a short week I’ve managed to squeeze in several more novels from John Conroe’s Demon Accords. An amazing series btw if you’ve hadn’t checked it out yet. I’ve had a couple friends point this series out. This weekend I’ll be sure to give Mr. Conroe some well deserved reviews for his writing. Since I’ve started writing there is never just a “pleasure read” so to speak.

It’s not that I’m not fully enjoying the writers I talk about in my blog, but there are really important examples of how the writers have done something in particular that I’m also researching. It’s one of the best things about writing. I can research and learn while enjoying great stories. Gotta love that!

What’s really interesting about John’s main characters are that they are so incredibly overpowered. For those of you that have read Flight, then I expect you can understand my interest in how he handles his characters stories. I know some people might instantly think that an overpowering man character would make for a dull story, but that’s entirely not the case. No matter how powerful you are, there are always things that make you vulnerable. Also, I just enjoy the raw power of the main character and how it's welded into an incredible plot line. I take my hat off to John for his amazing stories. As enjoyable as the “Good Intentions” series is, the Demon Accords are just as good. Although not at the same level of eroticness they are definitely worth reading.

Just in case you were wondering, the answer is "yes". I was also researching the different levels of sexual/eroticness between the stories to assist in my own learning/writing of my own stories romantic scenes. My ideas are definitely falling somewhere in-between these two writers flavors.

For those of you wondering how I can write and read in an evening, I tend to finish off most normal sized books in around six hours or less. Yea, we are not talking about Wheel of Time books, those just give me a headache because it takes me like three or four sittings to finish a freaking book, although great stories. So far I’ve been faring better when I read first and write afterword, since the reading will keep me up to 4 in the morning, but the writing I’ll go to bed by 1. It means I get a little more sleep for my work day.

Right now I’m working on the Elven part of my story. All of my characters are there in the middle of it, so it’s like not “ALL” Elvish, if you know what I mean. But there is so much culture involved that it keeps my mind working full time on getting the flavor where I want it to be while bringing the world to life. It would have been easier to just make one species of elf, but in all of my time playing D&D or reading Fantasy. Just having one type of elf didn’t seem right, hence why I have three distinctive Elven cultures in the story.

Anyway, it’s time to get writing tonight, so I’ll blog again another day.          

So I’m off Monday and Tuesday this week, which means family time. Even so, I wanted to share some quick thoughts I’ve had on writing.

I’ve heard a lot of questions from people on different forums questioning how to deal with writers block and thought I would throw my two cents into the mix. So far in my short time of writing of two and a half years I haven’t really run into this, but not because I haven’t shared that feeling that so many other writers get. I think this is because of how I plan out my stories and how I deal with that initial “writer’s block” feeling.

I’ve read many articles on writing styles. The two main agreed upon division lines are that people a planners or creators. Planners typically plan their whole world out ahead of time before they write, while creators make up the story as they go creating everything on the fly. I myself do both when I write a story. This flexibility I think helps me deal with situations where I could be hit by writer’s block. Typically I do a whole outline for the individual book I’m sitting down to write. In some spots this outline can be extremely detailed, but mostly for me it’s just the general flow of the events of the story, main plot lines I’m planning on following and approximately where I want my book to wrap up at when I write “The End”.

Another thing I do to help deal with “writer’s block” is to just start writing the chapter I’m struggling over. This can happen where I’m struggling with how to start a certain chapter or I’m struggling on getting the correct flavor. Just writing the general thoughts down that I have in my head, even if it flows terrible, is enough to get me started. It breaks me out of that jammed place I’m stuck in and then either I continue onto the next chapter or I go back to the place I was stuck in and start tweaking it until it flows right. Actually either way I end up going back to it to fix it up, but it doesn’t have to be right away. Usually when I go to sit down to write I read the chapter before to get pick up the flow of where I was at and many times I start smoothing out that rough chapter. So far I haven’t been forced to completely re-write one of these chapters … well not entirely. Sometimes you don’t know if something is too much or too long until you get it down on paper and have your friends check it out.

Lastly, I find a lot of ideas from watching TV Series, reading my favorite authors and watching Movies, along with looking at digital art from graphic artists across the web. Even from friends as we discuss different plot ideas for the story. I usually keep my mind open to different ideas and ways to flavor my own story and make it better. Many of these ideas help to add to my current story outline to make the individual plot lines more detail and realistic. This is not stealing ideas. Your ideas in your head are yours and yours alone, but you can always pick up additional concepts to enhance your story and characters within it.

Okay, that’s about it. My family is chomping at the bit for me to get moving, but before I go, I want to make one last comment on World Building. I am no expert on how many writers fall into each category and I know many “world building” writers that takes years upon years to create their world and then have moved on to become very successful, but I find this very hard to do solely. Much of my worlds are build from dreams I’ve always had over my life, and although these different worlds have been with me forever. I have not sat down and actually created the world in detail. I tend to do this when it is required detail for the story. This even includes adding in non-main characters. I consider them similar to extras in a movie. There are many times that you run into characters that you need to pull up and give brief detail to flesh out the story, but it is not something you need to plan down to the last remote detail before you ever sit down to write your story. I am so careful about “NOT” doing this, mainly because I love story planning. I have spent years planning different aspects of words that I like, but then I never actually simply write the story. I think this can become a trap for many writers. We get so hung up on the details that we never actually take that first step and begin writing. As I write my stories I have discovered that suddenly in a scene I need a squad or two of soldiers, or maybe I need three squad cars with an officer in each. Unless they add something to the overall story, I don’t worry about documenting their characters in the story, unless it’s needed. Also, many of your characters take on their own life in many ways that you have to tweak parts of your story to fit their growing character development. Planning that ahead of time is not always possible.

Ha, well not a short “one last note”. Talk later…

Okay, well maybe not such a “quick update”, but I can’t help it once I start writing!

It’s been a crazy week at work and at home, between the two I’ve missed my normal blog posts. I decided to get a quick post out before I went to the movies to see Lucy. For those of you who haven’t seen the trailer, it’s here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVt32qoyhi0 I hope it’s as freaking awesome as it looks!

Wednesday nights are our movie nights at the Taunus Theater. You can find it here: http://www.shopmyexchange.com/ReelTimeTheatres/Movies-Wiesbaden.htm Although not much of a selection, it’s still a nice theater for those of us serving overseas. The next two movies I’m waiting for are Guardians of the Galaxy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89q_HH-3ghk and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZZ0PnDZdZk

Hey don’t judge, I know I’m a geek =D

I’m still trying to decide on a title for Book Two. Hopefully my next post will have the top four Titles that I’m struggling to decide on. I’m hoping I can get a vote as to what people like best and then decide based on everyone’s feedback.

I will also be posting my experience on the process of getting a new edition of Flight’s printed edition up on Amazon. Although I update the Ebook whenever I hear of an issue someone found within its pages, I haven’t updated the printed edition. My wife just had a friend want to give her husband a copy for his birthday and I was horrified when I’d realized I hadn’t updated that version yet.

Until now updating the printed version hasn’t been an issue. People typically buy Ebooks or Audio books, but rarely does someone actually buy the printed edition, which is why I’ve been somewhat lackadaisical on getting it corrected. Now if I had my books in bookstores across the world and in the airport this would have been a priority, but since I’m and Indie Writer it hasn’t been top on my list. Well now my wife has properly motivated me to update the printed edition too.

My daughter just had her eighteenth birthday party this last Monday. Although this was the small party for her girlfriends since it was a school night, the girls danced and sang until 0500 in the morning. I think I passed out sometime around 0230 from exhaustion … not drinking. It was entertaining to hear everyone singing and dancing though.

I’ve also been working with my daughter on learning to drive. She’s doing awesome with the learning the manual and I’m really proud of her. I think it’s always smart to be able to drive any car, no matter if Google is trying to make knowing how to drive obsolete =D You never know when you’ll be stuck somewhere trying to escape a Tyrannosaurus Rex and the only vehicle available is some manual transmission jeep. Sigh, my daughter rolls her eyes at that, but I know some of you know what I mean.

I had a fan named Nic ask me when I’m planning on having Book Two out, and I’ll post what I told him. If RL allows me to finish Book Two in 2014, then I’ll have it out this year, but if not then I’m planning on the first quarter of 2015. While Flight was 88,040 in length, I’ve already written over 65,000 words of Book Two. Although that sounds like a lot, Book Two is turning out to be a lot bigger story than I’d originally planned. I know where I want the story to end at, but as I’m writing the story I’m discovering there is a lot more story then I’d realized and I have no desire to skip over the details. I’m doing my best to get it out as soon as possible though and I normally write a little every night … except on the weekends. My wife has nixed any writing on the weekends after Book One was released. 

Eitherway, Book Two is turning out awesome. I really love how the story is turning out and I hope everyone who reads it feels the same!

I’ve said this Series will have four books, although that doesn’t mean the story is over. I already have a second series planned that picks up where The Last Paladin Series stops. The planned name of the next Series will be “The Demon Wars”. I had originally thought this was a spoiler … and maybe it is. Once you’ve read Book Two it will make more sense ^^

Also, I have two prequels planned for the Series. One will be the stories of the Paladin Ilmarinen Ironwolf and his Werewolf wife Novastar Ironwolf (Startüm’s parents), which will cover the Tuonellian invasion up to their death. The other Series will cover Startüm’s life on Earth.  

After writing back to Nic I just decided I had to share the information with everyone who checks out my blog. Again, thanks for letting me know how much you liked the story Nic. It made my day!

Anyway, I think that’s enough of an update for now. I’m going to try to get a little bit of writing in before heading out to the movies.