Debut Novel: UNCERTAIN HEIRS

It's finally happening.

My first novel.

Uncertain Heirs, the fantasy/steampunk novel I've been working towards publishing for years, is finally launching. 

It'll be available in paperback for $15.99 and on Kindle for $9.99 (available now for pre-order). If you want to collect both, buy the paperback first, then select Matchbook for a $2.99 Kindle version! If you have Amazon Prime, you'll be able to read it through KindleUnlimited for free!

You'll notice there's now a separate "Novels" page listed at the top of the site. Stay on the lookout, because there'll be fun things added soon, aside from the ebook and paperback links, and they'll appear under that tab.

Danke schön, everyone!

New story on the horizon

Hello everyone,

It's been a busy start to the new year -- aside from battling the flu, I've been working diligently to get all of the Queen of Seasons quintet written out. I've begun book 3, so I'm slowly chugging along.

The other story I've been working on is my short story "Evening Hallow", which is hopefully in its last stages of revisions. I have it tentatively planned for publishing through Amazon Kindle for February. In the middle of writing this month, I'll be making the cover up for "Evening Hallow" and debuting it here in advance of the story's publication.

As for Uncertain Heirs, I know I haven't mentioned it lately, but it's still out for agent queries. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll have something better to report on it in the immediate future.

Take care for now, folks, I've gotta get back to work. ;)

Revisions, revisions, revisions

Whew, August just blew by. Where on earth did it go?

I've made several accomplishments this week that I'm quite proud of, which I would like to share with you folks:

We Can See It Through The Window -- this is a tribute to one of my favourite works, Waiting For Godot. The title, of course, has been a placeholder until I could think of something suitable that would connect with the work itself. Finally after months of waiting, I dreamt up Cabover Cabaret, a title that says exactly what's in the book: social commentary that takes place majorly within a truck. Once that was out of the way, the ending to the story finally came, and I was able to complete the first draft. And now it's shelved for a few months so I can come back to it with fresh eyes.

Speaking of fresh eyes -- I started revisions on Lightning Strikes 1,200 Times. This little flash fiction is on its way to become a full short story, complete with a new opening that highlights Holly's breaking point. Holly being the main character, of course. Once I finish this second draft, it'll go back to my favourite critiquing group for evaluation. If it's anything like Thoroughbred, I should have it completed and up for sale through Amazon within the next six months.

Aside from those two things, I'm still receiving rejections for Uncertain Heirs, which means I'm doing something right that the agents are actually looking at my query instead of it ending up in their slush piles. I've got another round of query submissions to prepare, and I'll have those out this upcoming week.

In the meanwhile, I'll keep you all posted on these current and future projects, as I really can't wait to share them with you all. Anyway, take care until next weekend! :)

***

Currently Reading: Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman
Currently Watching: WVU v. Alabama (then later, Doctor Who)

Revision in Progress: Lightning Strikes 1,200 Times
On Deck: Evening Hallow

A little about the author

I realize I haven't taken the time to actually tell you about me. I've told you about my works, but not me and why I write. Which is rather surprising, considering I've been keeping this blog for over a year. Anyway, I suppose I should start from the beginning, yes?

I was – oh, geez – still in elementary school, growing up on Transformers G1 and Transformers: Beast Wars. Mainframe and HASBRO had just started airing the third season of Beast Wars, and by the second episode – the introduction of Depth Charge – I finally found my favourite character. The whole season introduced us to the animosity and history between Depth Charge and his nemesis, Rampage, and I couldn't sit still between the episodes to wait for more. Somewhere about this time, I stumbled upon the now-defunct Beast Wars Anonymous fanfiction website, and by Primus! had I fallen in love with all the wonderful side adventures the folks at BWA had come up with. It inspired me to try my own hand, and I posted some things to other websites (BWA was no longer being updated at this point in time), and began the slow process of evolving as a writer. Long story short, I was about ten years old when I first started writing.

I can't say I've ever finished the current incarnation of my fanfic, although I'm still picking at it here and there, but my original works are now my priority, so the fanfics will only be updated between those. I'm proud to say that I do better on finishing my original works, though. Uncertain Heirs (out for agent queries) and Thoroughbred are entirely completed, and I have several other first drafts that I'm currently editing. Uncertain Heirs took me about a year and a half to properly write, edit, revise, repeat, until it was done; on the other hand, Thoroughbred took around six months. I've got two long short stories/short novellas that I'm in the process of editing now, one of which I completed just this past July for Camp NaNoWriMo (The Cardinal's Direction), the other I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2013 (We Can See It Through The Window). I'm hoping those'll only take me an average of a year to finish in their entireties.

The reason it takes me so long to complete these works is because I'm doing a 40-hour a week day job, so I only have (if I sit down and focus) about 3 hours a night to write and edit. The weekends are always up for grabs, as those days depend on what "real life" demands of me. And sometimes "real life" doesn't take my writing seriously, which I think is because I do all my writing on the computer, and most people these days presume that if you're on a computer (or any mobile device), that you're just using social media. But see, if I'm not writing, I am still on the computer, but I'm putting together research, pinning down business plans for self-publishing, or just trying to get my questions answered. Social media really only takes up about . . . eh, I'll shoot high, and say I spend about an hour and a half total on social media each day, but my Twitter usage is limited to advertising and marketing what I have for sale.

It's somewhat surprising how involved self-publishing can become. Someone who's just doing the basic Kindle book and limited advertising won't spend that much time on the business side, but when you really get into wanting to publish your own works under your own name – and by name, I mean press name – then you have to start looking into business plans, record keeping, accounting methods, licensing, short- and long-term goals, marketing, so on and so on. It can become an involved process, especially if you're doing it all on your own like I am.

Which reminds me: if you're going to self-publish, and do it seriously because you want to make money, then you need to develop plans to get your writing from point Imagination to point Published. A good number of my stories come from unique dreams that I've had, and many of them have an open-endedness that I have to fill in to make complete stories. The way I do that is to write out what I have, then consort with critiquing groups (Scribophile is my favourite, as it has a straightforward system, and like-minded folks who're there wanting just as serious of feedback for what they're giving) to discover the holes I can't see. Based on their feedback, I fill in, cut, edit, polish, revise, and do everything else it takes to make the story viable and marketable. If it takes me three rounds of editing, then it takes me three rounds, same as if it takes me nine. You can't be afraid to work on something if you want to have a finished product.

And that might just be the most interesting thing about my writing process, in that I use my patience to get me through the process. Yes, it does look daunting sometimes, to have just finished one round of edits to only have to go back and start all over again.

But trust me, it's worth it.

Hammering out the details

Howdy, folks! I know my posting habits have been erratic as of late, so I'm going to start keeping a Saturday schedule. This might be a little easier for us all, and this way I can compound my thoughts and progress reports for you in one update.

 

This past week, I've been tying up the ending on The Cardinal's Direction. It's been a bit of a pain, I'll be honest, for all the story I dreamed up, I had to Y-plot to fall between X- and Z-plots. Yeah, I've got my ending, but you can't end a story without tying up the loose threads.

 

I don't know about you folks, but I hate a story that has too many dangling plot lines. So I try not to do that, and I try to keep everything as solid as I can. Tis why I edit, re-edit, then edit again, and edit once more for good measure.

 

While working on The Cardinal's Direction, I've been conceptualizing the characters in my story. Below, I've been working out what the nightmares look like so I can better describe them in-story when I go through and begin my editing process. As you can see, I've gotten them pretty well worked out, aside from their feetsies. Boy, those claws are hard to translate to paper what I'm seeing in my head. Eventually, I'll get it, and hey, you've got some official art from me of the nightmares.

 

Once I finish up work on the initial draft, The Cardinal's Direction is going to join the rotation of stories I have in edits. Of course, I'll keep you posted on the progress of the others.

 

 



























In other news, there's nothing new to report on the progress of Uncertain Heirs. I've had no responses since last week, but hopefully I'll hear at least a "No" from an agent soon.

And finally, as a reminder, Thoroughbred is still on sale for .99c. You can get it through Amazon for your Kindle or Kindle App for your mobile device or computer. Also, if you're trying KindleUnlimited, you can get it for free!

That's all for now, folks. Tune in next Saturday for more updates on my querying adventure and writing progress.

August already

A brief update on my many, many things in rotation:

Camp NaNoWriMo has drawn to an end, and though I didn't finish my current project, I did at least meet my word count goal. I've got an estimated 5-10 pages left to write on this project, The Cardinal's Direction, which will wrap up a combination of dreams that I managed to tie into one story. I'm looking forward to editing it after I get the final bit written. I know, I know, I say that every time I come out with a new project, but editing really is the fun part for me -- I get to watch my babies grow up into finished drafts.

***
Thoroughbred is still on sale -- so you can get it now for .99c, or! -- you can get it for free using the new KindleUnlimited feature offered by Amazon. They're still sporting the 30-day trial, so if you decide to take advantage of their offer, you can take advantage of a free read of Thoroughbred, too.

I'm excited to see that the sale price has appealed to a lot of folks, and if you all keep buying copies, I'll be able to invest in doing an audiobook copy for those who like to have their books on the go. If this is something that interests you, then please encourage your friends and family to buy copies of Thoroughbred, too, as it'll get us faster to the audiobook option.

***

Sunday has become my day for sending out agent queries. Still getting rejections left and right, but that's all par for the course. The ones I sent out recently were all mailed, so I may be looking at 6-8 weeks before any type of response for those. The others I have out by e-mail should take about 2-3 weeks for responses (that is, if the particular agents can/will reply).

For now, that means that UNCERTAIN HEIRS is shelved while it waits to be picked up by an agent, and while I work on my other projects. I'm in the middle of researching all the extras I'll have to worry about if I do inevitably go with self-publishing this novel. Especially since, ya know, I'll be a lot more involved with the novel since I want to be able to sell it through more websites than just Amazon.com.

***

And then sometimes that dreaded thing known as Personal Life gets involved and shoos away every writing muse I have. Lately, some things have kept me from outright working on my shorter stories, so I've shifted myself into a different schedule. I'm able to still work on my projects, just not as quickly as I'd like to. I never want to rush the process, just because rushing makes for sloppy work, but I don't like to completely stop, so I compromise, and take a little progress over no progress at all.

I wonder -- because I'm thinking of doing it for myself, but would it be interesting to you all if I posted progress bars of my work status for my various projects? I couldn't do something as complicated as a NaNoWriMo counter, which wouldn't suit my purposes anyway, but just a simple percentage graph.

Anyway, time to get back to work. Catch you all later!

More projects and agent updates

No reason we can't work on other things while querying agents. Camp NaNoWriMo is almost halfway through, and I've got a short story/novella project in the works that's almost finished, and almost on the word goal I originally anticipated.

I like to write these stories as they come to me (mainly so I don't forget them), and then in the downtime between new things I work on them, polishing them to make them ready for public view. This one I'm working on, I'm particularly proud of, and I can't wait to edit it and put it up alongside Thoroughbred. If you're interested, you can read the blurb (and see the tentative cover!) here.

In other news, I've sent out another round of queries, including a snail mail one that made me feel all kinds of excited in a nostalgic kind of way. I know it sounds weird, because this is obviously my first time querying by mail, but it's a new experience, a thrilling one at that.

As always, I'll continue to keep you posted with my progress on all things, the queries and the new projects. Goodnight for now!

Being brave

Coraline can teach us a lot about being brave. Even though we're scared to do something because it's new, intimidating, or because we have a lack of confidence in ourselves, we can always overcome the odds by being brave. We go after the things we want, we accept the challenge life's presented us, and we do these things because we want to make ourselves or our circumstances better. We can fail however many times it takes us to succeed, and so long as we overcome the challenge, the adventure, and our rising to the occasion, was worth all the gold and more in the world.

Publishing is much the same way. Since I've started querying just over a month ago, I've sought out ten agents, and I've been respectfully rejected by seven of them (the other three stated they would only respond if they liked the material).

I'm not disheartened by this in the least. This is my challenge that I've accepted, and I will rise to the occasion because I want to publish Uncertain Heirs and share my story with the world. All it takes is one agent to say "Yes", and I'll have successfully leaped the hurdle that I'd only been dreaming about two years ago. All I need is perseverance, time, and a positive attitude, and I know that not only can I dream big, but I can win big as well.

So stay tuned with me, keep checking back for updates, and I will keep you posted on this incredible journey towards being published.

***

As you may have noticed, I mentioned Coraline by Neil Gaiman above -- this is because I just finished reading the book as part of my goal to read 25 books in one year. I'm so glad I read it during my querying venture, because Coraline was the gentle reminder that I needed that things can be overcome, and all you have to do is be brave.

My rating for Coraline is five stars out of five.

Looks promising

I'm only just starting agent queries, and I got a "Maybe, Please send more - No" within my first five agents. That's highly promising! I only hope that somewhere down the line Uncertain Heirs will connect with an agent who'll give it the chance to fly.

Wish us luck :)

Oh and two

Two rejections came back -- form letters, of course, but that's better than no response. Frankly, I'm giddy with delight -- two rejections is par for the course, normal for everyone. 400+ rejections is considered normal, so at least I'm on the right track. I'll keep you all posted as to how that goes.

One giant leap

Last night: I finished the fourth draft of Uncertain Heirs.

This morning: I queried my first round of agents.

Right now:

Another hurdle passed

What an incredible feeling! I've just completed edits on Chapter 9, and that only leaves three more to tweak before I can start sending out agent queries. Truly, this is the turning point in my progress that I've been waiting for, and I know you folks have been waiting for it, too. I can't wait to share with you the next leg of my journey, and I hope you'll continue with me.

I know the blogs have been kinda slow lately, but that's all because I'm focusing on the novel as I promised you. However, if you'd like to keep in contact with more real time updates, please consider following me on twitter. @joshinyasha

Catch ya later!

Dividing attention

I've had this thought lately: "How do I focus with two projects vying for attention?"

Uncertain Heirs is my priority, there's no doubting that, but in the last few months I've gained clarity on a story I started four years ago. A story that, while originally one tale, has expanded itself into four, possibly five novels. So with that clarity came the whispers "write me, write me" while I'm trying to stay on task with Uncertain Heirs.

I'm not sure what to call it yet, but this once-abandoned story keeps poking and proding me at odd hours of the day, showing me where it's meant to go, filling in the plotholes I couldn't get around the first time. It is, for all intents and purposes, finished in that I know what happens now, where it goes, and what I need to write. The problem is making time to write it.

For now, I've figured out something that works for me. Basically, I keep a dedicated time carved out on my calendar -- my hour of lunch during the day job is spent editing on Uncertain Heirs, and my 8:30PM-10:30PM time block is also spent editing on Uncertain Heirs. Those are my absolutely writing times, dedicated to nothing but writing. Of course, given a good day, and no where else to be, I may work from 5:30PM on, so I'm free to write on Uncertain Heirs whenever I want.

The thing is now, with this other story vying for my attention, I've had to figure out ways to appease it while still making my (self-imposed) required writing goals. So, I've come up with a way that makes sense. This once-abandoned story is a side project, a pet project, if you will, and I have to give it attention like any pet. When it howls and insists on playing ball, I turn away from Uncertain Heirs and write on whatever scene had come to the forefront of my thoughts. I write, and write, and write until the pet's worn out, until it doesn't want to play anymore for the night. Then I put it to bed at 8:30PM, and get back to my block of time dedicated to finishing Uncertain Heirs.

If I'm out and about even, and I'm outside my lunch block or out to dinner with friends, I scribble what notes I can on the pet, so's I can save them for another time. Writing it (despite being out of sequence) when I can makes it so much better for me when I can lay it to rest for the night and focus solely on Uncertain Heirs.

So far, this is the best method I've discovered, but I realize it only works because it's only two competing projects. A few months ago, I wanted to work on everything at once (short stories included), and I ended up freezing, unable to work on anything. It was only after I tried focusing only on Uncertain Heirs that everything else, save the once-abandoned story, calmed down.

I can handle two, just not twenty.

Starting strong, ending strong

What was the last book you struggled to read? Do you remember what it was about the book that made it difficult? Did you give up reading it, or power through until the end?

These are questions I fret over when I'm starting what I think will be a good book, only to find out it's a disappointment. These are questions I worry will come about with my book.

Polishing for presentation

Ugh. There's nothing sadder than editing the fourth draft and finding a glaring mistake.

As it turns out, I'm either too unobservant, or my eyes are just tired of checking my own work, for I found an instance where I wrote the wrong word every single time. This is as bad as my lead ≠ led discovery. I'll tell you what it is, too. I wrote altar once, and then alter every time after that.

Silly, I know, but had I stopped at the third draft and sent my manuscript out to agents, I'd have been laughed at if they'd made it as far as Chapter 3. On the upside, the problem is fixed, and future chapters have been corrected, too. Hopefully, I won't find any other mistakes like that. Hopefully.

On the flip side of things, I've been composing a list of positively rated agents to submit to, and if all goes well, I should be submitting to the first come June or July. This'll be the biggest step I've taken to date, and I hope you'll all continue to the journey with me.

Changes a-comin'

You may've noticed some changes over the last couple o' weeks. A bit of spring cleaning, some layout changes, and even-- *points up* --a new domain name!

That's right, folks, because of your loyal readership, I've procured the rights to www.ashlitton.com to make it even easier for you all to navigate here. So update your bookmarks accordingly (and even if you don't, ashlitton.blogspot.com will redirect for you).

I am still combing through the verbiage for the Uncertain Heirs summary, getting it ready to go out to the agents. This is by far one of the most difficult things I've had to do, to prepare a summary for a 95,000+ novel that can fit all on one to two pages. I'll be sure to keep you apprised of that journey, especially once I start submitting to agents.

The edits are on schedule, and it's simply fascinating how I can be on the fourth draft and still find things to add or delete. My goal is to make sure that everything ties in, and there're no plots left hanging.

But now I must get back to work. Catch you all again soon! :)

Synopsis shuffle

With all the work on short stories and such that I've been doing as of late, I bet you thought I'd neglected UNCERTAIN HEIRS. ^_~

The truth is, I've been focused on the fourth draft and preparing the synopsis. I want to begin querying agents, but I can't do that yet without perfecting this beast. And it's everything people make it out to be -- the synopsis is, I think, the most important selling point for any agent. All the websites I've read agree on that, but they all have their own approach. So, for now at least, I'm going to follow their example and take my own approach by writing my summary out as if I were talking to a bunch of friends, trying to get them interested in reading my work.

I've done three versions so far. Each time, I rewrite the next synopsis without referencing the ones that came before, looking for the key plot points, verbiage, etc. that reoccur. There'll probably be at least ten separate versions by the time I'm done with it.

And ten's a smart way to average out what I need and what I don't -- but I'll let you know in a few weeks how that works out.

Until then, enjoy the copy of Thoroughbred that I have up for sale over at Amazon.

See ya, space cowboy!

Projects abound

A writer's work is never done, it's true, because just as soon as we finish one thing, we're off to start another. Right now, for instance, I've got Uncertain Heirs out with friends and while I'm waiting on feedback, I'm pursuing some of my projects I started during NaNoWriMo 2013.

I gave "I Told the Witch Doctor" over to my peer group to see what they think of the initial draft. I haven't yet touched "Lightning Strikes 1,200 Times", but I'm sure I'll be giving it a once over this week before I turn it over to my peers.

We Can See It Through the Window is a special bird. I never finished it during NaNo because it put me over the 50K mark, and, well, I got lazy and couldn't come up with much more to add to it. I've been glancing at it today, even managed to write out approximately 1 page of new material for it. Oh, and have I mentioned it went from short story to novella? Novellette, maybe? I dunno for sure, but maybe if I can resolve the ending on it this week, I'll have a better idea of what it'll be marketed as.

Oh, and of course, I need to plug this because Writer's Prerogative, but for those of you who've not been around lately, I did publish a short story! You can buy a copy of Thoroughbred from the Amazon Kindle bookstore.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00IHOTTQW

Enjoy! :)

Minutes to midnight, or, How I got through my fourth draft and made the leap toward querying agents

There's a cocktail of anxiety that's one part excitement, one part worry, and two parts "Remain calm, it'll be fine". It all comes from realizing that you're steps away from starting the query process. I've made changes to Chapter 1 (4th draft!) and I've got my query letter started. It's only a matter of time now before I can take the big step in the writing process. I'm completely prepared to not hear anything from the first (four-hundred) agents I query, because that's the nature of the business, but I've got my fingers crossed that I'll find somewhere to fit in.

Wish me luck :)

Marching forward

The third draft of Uncertain Heirs is officially done!

And now to start the fourth draft off by doing yet another scene rewrite. I guess it's true what they say, that the end draft never looks like the first draft.