tattoine-625x276I’ve totally revamped Out of Oblivion the last 6 months after an epic bazillion words. When I got to the end of the first serious draft I was not happy with the ending. I don’t settle.

Recently I got together with two of my genius friends to discuss the end of Out of Oblivion. I sent them a message on Facebook prior to meeting basically saying the following:

What Makes a Story Great?

Let’s use Luke Skywalker’s “moment” in the finale of Star Wars over the Death Star.… Read more

12308775_10207271787625708_8364153024136053772_nWhat’s the most important thing a writer can do when writing a book? FINISH!

No matter how rickety the construction, get…it…done! I learned this with Blood & Soul. To me, my struggle was monumental because I put a lot of pressure on myself to write the best book I could write. I labored long, long hours to find the theme, the message, the climax for the first book.

What is the moment of resolution for Out of Oblivion?… Read more

I’m a few days away from completing the first draft of Out of Oblivion, the next book in the Creed of Kings Saga. I suspect it will take a few more drafts before it goes to my editor, Andrew Doty at Editwright.com. Like Blood & Soul the next book can be read separately.

Thought I’d share a couple of recent reviews of Blood & Soul. To see on Goodreads click here.… Read more

A picture and quote inspired from a book from one of my favorite fantasy fiction writers David Gemmell. I hope that I can approach his skill someday. I have literally wept tears of awesomeness reading his books. He wrote action-packed heroic fantasies that rang with realism. He infused his characters with great heart, great depth, mighty inner struggles and epic noble actions. I’ve read about two-thirds of his books. Every time I start one of his books I brace myself for that WHAMMO!… Read more

Before I tell you the FREE days (and the reason) let me catch you up because it’s been awhile since I’ve updated. Blood_&_Soul_Frontcover_FinalAGB

  • Blood & Soul did this on July 30. Fantasy: #1 in Metaphysical & Visionary, #2 Epic, #2 Sword & Sorcery, #2 Coming of Age, #159 over all rank.
  • Blood & Soul is still on the bestsellers list and it’s been there for a solid month and a half in the fantasy niche Visionary & Metaphysical.
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Today is the day! Buy Blood & Soul for $0.99. Thank you! If you wanna know more…keep reading.

Last night, blurry-eyed and exhausted, I uploaded the final edits to the First Edition of Blood & Soul on Kindle Direct Publishing for e-readers and CreateSpace for print readers. Blood & Soul has been in a preparation mode since I uploaded it about a month ago, without counting the 7-year, million-word brainstorm.

As a writer I’m at a loss for words and deeply moved by all the sacrifices good friends and colleagues have made to go the extra 100 miles in the last moments.… Read more

Blood_&_Soul_Frontcover_FinalAGBAnyone reading this can self-publish a book. I swore never to do it because, in my opinion, it labeled the author as vain. Basically it meant the author’s book was below par compared to published authors. This is true for the most part. Paying somebody to print your book was vanity.  Getting published was like making the pros. But it also meant giant publishing companies would not take a chance on an unknown author. Who wants to push Stephen King or J.

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The Hero’s Journey is not built well on stereotypes. It excels on archetypes. Below I have listed the sequence of the hero’s transformation. These are recognized patterns in great stories. It is seen in indiana-joneseverything from High Noon to Star Wars to Lord of the Rings.

  1. Discover the hero in his ordinary world, but hinting at the seeds of change.
  2. Call to adventure. The hero must do something. He has to undertake a challenge.
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Blood & Soul – Will it be on audio? A couple of people have asked about this. The short answer is YES! I will make it available on audio…eventually. I’m not sure of the cost yet. Since my book is 430 pages it might be cost prohibitive for a while due to the hourly rate for voice talent. The “VOICE” is extremely important. When I listen to audio books I prefer a male voice with a British accent.Read more

I’m publishing Blood & Soul in July through Amazon on Kindle and CreateSpace. After 90 days it will be published on all other popular e-readers such as NOOK and on iBooks. There’s a significant amount of work going on behind the scenes in preparation. Friday I received the finalBloodandSoulalonesplatter edits from my editor. 98.5% is done. There are two minor story lines that need to be wrapped up. Those additions will be checked by my editor.Read more