Need a Killer Title

Tomorrow starts Script Frenzy, the April version of NaNoWriMo that promotes film, stage, and graphic novel scripts. I participated last year and generated a full two-act stage adaptation of my recently released novel, Steven George & The Dragon. Now I’m ready to try my hand at a film script. Here’s the tagline:

Cyber-sleuth Dag Hamar takes to the streets when he discovers a link between stolen identities and real women abducted from the streets of Seattle.

It’s a younger look at the hero of my book For Blood or Money, when he was just getting into computer forensics. Think “Taken” with an actual human as the protagonist instead of a superspy (and a story-line). It’s packed with action that Dag is completely unequipped for. The world he knows is inside the gray box of his computer, but the world he is thrust into runs from executive board rooms to the violent depths of human trafficking and focuses on the intersection of the two.

 

My working title “No Escape Key,” is frankly boring. I wouldn’t see a movie with that title, so why would I expect anyone else to. I liked the fact that it implied a world where the conventions of the computer that Dag is used to no longer work. And that there was no way out of it. But it needs something that actually sounds interesting.

 

I’m taking suggestions. Got any?

Post-Opening Euphoria

I’ve experienced it in the theatre on many occasions. You slave over the scenery, lighting, sound, action, and publicity. Three hours before opening curtain, when you are getting into makeup and costume, warming up your voice, running a hair dryer on places where the paint is still wet, you hear that the house is “small.” But it is opening night and the rip in your tights, the door that won’t open, the sudden allergic reaction to spirit gum, can’t bring you down from the excitement you feel. “Overture. Curtain. Lights. This is it: the night of nights.”

 

The curtain opens. The house is much bigger than you were led to believe. Your mother (or her ghost) is sitting in the front row. The energy you get back from the audience laughing, applauding, even weeping, propels you to the top of your game and before you realize it started, the final curtain comes down and you take a bow.

 

That was last night and the launch of Steven George & The Dragon at Jitters. The house was literally packed. As many as 65 people were buying books, sipping coffee, standing in line for my autograph, and listening enthusiastically as I read passages from the new book.

 

Then everyone was gone. We packed the car. Lissi vacuumed the floors and Maggie cleaned up the espresso machine. The DW and I left and realized we hadn’t eaten yet, so stopped at Red Robin for a late burger & fries. Then it was home. We’re still here, looking at the remaining unsold books, trying to reconcile the reports of credit cards and cashbox with the inventory. And asking the big question that hits after every opening; Now what?

 

Does selling more than our goal last night make me a famous author? Will royalties, movie contracts, and bids for my next book come rolling in? Will I finally get a decent night’s sleep tonight? Any of these would be fine.

 

In theatre, you face a closing curtain. You start rehearsing the next show. With publishing, you start looking for another audience. A book has to have a run of more than one night, and you need an audience that doesn’t share your last name (literally or figuratively). You need Amazon sales and Barnes & Noble. You need to see the hits on your website and plan the next reading. As the famous title says, you need to “get your act together and take it on the road.”

 

But for today—just today, mind you—it is okay to enjoy the euphoria and glow of that opening night.

Day of the Dragon

This is it! Steven George & The Dragon is now officially released!

Steven George has known since his earliest memories that he would be his village’s dragonslayer. He has had the best education the people of the village could give him. He learned from the village elder, the hunter, the shaman, and the wise woman. As a young man, he is as ready as his village can make him.

When at last he is sent to slay the fearsome beast, Steven realizes he doesn’t know what a dragon looks like, exactly where it lives, or how to slay it! But Steven’s village has fostered the talent of telling tales. Steven trades once-upon-a times with a melon farmer, a village idiot, a tinker, a woodcutter, a knight, a merchant, a thief, and a gypsy. Each remarkable story leads him a step closer to understanding the true nature of his quest and that all that looks like a dragon is not a dragon.

Lost, robbed, and in despair, Steven finally discovers that all roads lead to the dragon, but a dragon may not look like a dragon!

Steven George & The Dragon is available in paperback and non-encrypted ePUB eBook from http://stngeorge.com.

Available for NOOKbook from Barnes & Noble.

Available for Kindle eBook from Amazon.com.

Available in paperback from Amazon.com.

Available in paperback from CreateSpace.com.

Release party open house at Jitters Coffee in Redmond from 5:30-8:00 with readings at 6:00 and 7:00. Come on over!

 

Pass the word. Today we meet the dragon!

What’s a deluxe PDF eBook?

I’ve been experimenting with eBooks for ten years now. I love the industry standard ePUB format and am committed to producing all books I publish in both that and Kindle versions. But sometimes the vision for a written work exceeds the technology that is available. Let’s face it, I miss big fat leather-bound books with letterpress type and hand illuminated illustrations.

 

Okay. I never actually lived in an era of that kind of book, but I have some of them and they are cool. I imagine my words on those soft textured pages, being pored over by my inner child discovering a world outside the confines of my little log cabin.

 

Well, no one I know can afford to produce that kind of a book. They aren’t practical. Would cost too much to buy. Shoot! We don’t even have coffee tables to put them on anymore! But…

 

We do have the miracle of computers, and as an artist I’m able to realize my dream in pixels instead of paper. That’s where PDF comes in. I’ve had a love/hate relationship with that file format for years. Right now, I think I can use it to the best possible effect in showing people what my inner vision of my book looks like. My intent is to produce a deluxe PDF version of the book on a CD-ROM that will play on your computer. Yes, I know that isn’t the greatest reading environment in the world, but it is a great display environment for artwork. I’ve started by producing a test book, just 16 pages total. Here’s a picture from inside.

Now doesn’t that look like something you’d like to read? Turn the pages. Smell the musty odor of old paper?

 

It’s going to take longer to produce an entire book if I take the care I’ve taken with this sample. So, I’ve taken the buy button off my website for that particular edition. But I do have the sample available and would love your comments on it. You can click the link at Steven George & The Dragon titled “What the Sergeant Didn’t See” in the bottom right corner of the page. This is a story that doesn’t appear in the book, so you get a bonus story as well as the cool deluxe layout. You can go straight to the PDF with this link: What the Sergeant Didn’t See.

 

What could be better? Free story. Beautiful book. New concept. Let me know what you think.

Writing Was the Easy Part

Fortunately, I knew what I was getting into when I started this project. I’ve been working in publishing for 30 years in one aspect or another and I specialized in electronic layout, design, and production of documents. I designed and produced several magazines in the 80s, training manuals and curriculum in the 90s, and both paper and electronic books in the 00s. My designs and production won prepress, printing industry, and technical communication awards and I traveled the country converting traditional publishers to desktop technology. Yes, I have credentials when it comes to the publishing process.

 

But even I was surprised by the time and commitment it took to publish my own book. Sure, I’ve published other people’s books and even my own through a publishing company where there were other people to depend on for editorial and marketing services. But in becoming an independent publisher, I suddenly realized that writing was the easy part.

 

I can sit at my computer and generate a thousand good words at a sitting (out of 5,000). The story ideas flow so fast that I keep a file of opening lines and chapters for works I want to pick up later. I have a publishing schedule of completed works that goes for the next five years. Editing, designing, laying out, and producing those works takes months.

 

Take, for example, editing. Steven George & The Dragon went through several editorial passes after I had finished rewriting the book to my own satisfaction and before it was ready to lay out. In a traditional publishing house, the book would have been read by a professional editor who would compare it to other books of a similar nature currently on the shelves. She would be an expert in young adult literature and would recommend changes based on a tightly defined target market. When I wrote Steven George & The Dragon, I didn’t even realize it was a young adult novel. It was my first independent beta reader, Katy, who told me precisely where it would be shelved in a bookstore. Jason, the book doctor, reviewed the “finished” draft two years ago and made substantive suggestions, largely focusing on story arc and transitions. Michele, the copy editor, sought out typos, missing punctuation, bad or confusing sentence structure, and places where words were poorly chosen. And finally, when I thought I was ready to design the book and lay it out, I sent it out to half a dozen beta readers, including some in my target market. They gave me feedback on what was missing or confusing, additional missing punctuation, and words that were too hard or unfamiliar.

 

I had to manage that process myself with this book. A staff editor might have used the same processes that I did, but when I finished it would have the validation of an independent third party. I guess that means I could have said someone else was responsible and relieved myself of the onus of the final say. But it all rests on my head now.

 

I’ll be writing more about the production process in the future, including a May article in Line Zero magazine and a presentation at the PNWA members meeting on April 21.

 

But I still say, writing was the easy part!

Changing Hats, Again

I wear a lot of different hats, both literally and figuratively. This month, for example, I’m wearing my chef’s hat a lot. I’m promoting the sale of my cookbook at Studio East’s production of “Singin’ in the Rain,” but I’m also cooking for some pretty big groups. I had 14 men over for breakfast earlier this month and served baked apple-cinnamon French toast. That went over big. Last Friday, I did both Greek pastitsio and baklava for a hundred people at the gala opening of “Rain.” This coming Saturday I’m doing Umbrian pasta sauce for 100 at Northlake UU Church. And then there is the release party for Steven George & The Dragon coming up on the 25th and I think I’ll be serving baklava at that.

 

But I have hats of almost every shape and style for different occasions. Andrew once commented that I seemed to have a hat to go with every outfit I have (and they aren’t all black!). Jo commented that I was so well coordinated with my two dogs when I wear a black jacket (Lucy) and a golden tan hat (Bliss). I didn’t actually buy the hats to go with the various sport coats or jackets or dogs. I bought the hats because I “didn’t have one like that.” That just happened to leave me with a hat for all seasons.

So it was natural to have a hat as one of the central characters in Steven George & The Dragon. It is a sheepskin hat, modeled in my mind after a kaciula hat from Eastern Europe. The idea of decorating the hat with feathers, snakeskin, a talisman, and a chicken bone came from our NaNoWriMo municipal liaison, Mandrina. She challenged everyone to include a duck that sat on the head and made a strange sound in our novels that year. And thus came the Implausible Hat. Steven includes something about the hat in each of the stories that he tells, after the fashion of “country people who tell fantastic tales of the adventures of various items of clothing,” as the thief tells his guests. I keep thinking that I should wear such a hat when I read from the book at the release party.

 

Hmmm. I don’t have one like that!

Changing the name of my office

In honor of the release of Steven George & The Dragon, I’m changing the name of my office. Here’s how it came about in the first place.

 

A few years ago, my wife and daughter shared a small office in my basement that they dubbed The Wolf Lair. I had the larger office/storage room next door. They called it The Wolf Lair because our big greyhound, Val, shared the office with them.

 

About the time I was beginning to conceive the idea for Steven George, I was sitting in a lobby wearing my greyhound sweatshirt (Hundus Speediensus: Latin for Fast Dawg) when I spotted a little girl about 4, I’d guess, who seemed fascinated by the stylized picture of the greyhound on it. I attempted to engage her, asking whether she had a dog and telling her about my greyhound. Finally, she pointed at the shirt and said simply, “I thought it was a dragon.”

 

Thus was born the idea of a dragonslayer who really didn’t know what a dragon looked like, where it lived, or how to slay it.

 

We changed around our offices to accommodate my teen daughter’s life and she got my office as a living suite. I got The Wolf Lair and my wife moved her office upstairs to the guest room. Sadly, Val passed away and now there are two more greyhounds taking grudging turns lying in my office. But every time I see them I think, “I thought it was a dragon.”

 

So, in honor of Lucy, Bliss, and Val, and the release of Steven George and The Dragon, I’m officially renaming the office, The Dragon’s Cave.

 

You can decide for yourself it it refers to the dogs or me.

The Prequel Timeline Dilemma

When I wrote the original draft of For Blood or Money, all the action took place in 30 days. The sequel, Municipal Blondes, took place in the next 30 days, and this year I wrote a second sequel, Stocks & Bondage, that took place on the following 30 days. That started five years ago. The novel I just finished took place four years ago according to this timeline. Sue Grafton has done this extraordinarily well with the Kinsey Milhone alphabet novels. They started years ago and the timeline has remained consistent. No cell phones clutter Kinsey’s world.

But times—and technology—change, and I find myself wanting to challenge my hero with today’s tech instead of what was available four years ago. And this problem is multiplied when I consider writing a prequel to For Blood or Money that follows Dag Hamar soon after he has become a computer forensics detective. In the timeline of that world, strictly speaking, the book would take place in the late 80s or early 90s. But that seems so dated.

So, the question is whether to write according to the strict timeline of the first story (which by the way, has no overwhelming construct of dateable tech and holds together well as a “contemporary” piece rather than a “period” piece) and deal only with the world as he would have seen it in the 90s, or do I simply write in the moment for each book I develop. I’m thinking the latter is the right course for Dag as he deals with a case of stolen identity and possible human trafficking. The tentative title is “No Escape Key” and I expect to develop it as a screenplay first and a novel later in the year.

Any suggestions?

Step 37: Panic!

I’m reminded of Hemingway’s supposed comment that “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.” When I hear about people in awe that someone wrote a book, I have to say to myself, “That was the easy part.” I wrote Steven George & The Dragon in 30 days in 2007. I edited it for two years. But even that was comparably easy.

It was (is) putting the book through the publishing process that was (is) hard. I’m not sure it will be easier with the next book, either. I wrote an article in the current issue of Line Zero magazine titled “10 Reasons You Should Become an Indi Publisher.” I decided to validate my reasons against a live project. So, I’ve been documenting the process with Steven George & The Dragon. Great story, publication ready manuscript, care for design. Check check check. Realistic expectations, knowing who will buy. Check, well… sort of. Let me put it this way: I know a lot more people who have said they will buy the book than have ordered it. But, I’m still getting the word out and it’s early, so I’m not going to let that stop me.

Business in place, funds to invest. Check, well… sort of. There’s always a money crisis. What I didn’t think about was that the cost of the books is not the only cost. There are promotional materials (even a fee for the email invitations), postcards, posters, ISBN numbers (lots of 10 for $250), membership in the Pro-plan for publishing, Website setup cost and domain registration, Paypal fees, and what we used to call in the building industry “sweat equity.”

Marketing plan, check. Family and friends willing to do the author promo and sales bit. Reluctantly, check. No illlusions about how easy this will be. OUCH!

That’s where step 37 in the process comes in. When you find out your books will be printed in South Carolina and will be shipped to you via the Panama Canal unless you pay double to get them on a steam locomotive across the country, or quadruple to get them by truck with the possibility they will arrive for the release party… Panic! When your social media promotions yield minimal results for your surveys and pre-orders… Panic! When you discover you’ve scheduled your release party opposite a performance in the theater… Panic! When you cut the quantity of books to be ordered in half so not to become the cliché author with a garage full of unsold copies… Panic! When you find a misspelling on page 37 after the print order has been shipped… Panic! When you are two weeks away from release and still don’t have the ePUB design finished… Panic!

And after you have hyperventilated, hug the dog, go for a walk, write it all down, and keep going. Because that’s what you committed to in the first place. Follow the plan and you will get there. As Leonard Bernstein said, “To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time.”

The Joy of Paper

I know. For years, I’ve been extolling the virtues of eBooks and electronic reading. I’ve worked in the industry. I’ve produced eBooks of my own and others works. I’ve filed patents. I’ve designed defaults. I’ve done everything but digitize myself and live in the computer.

But even I succumb to paper.

Holding my new paperback proof of Steven George & The Dragon that arrived yesterday is an unfathomable experience. Granted, two of my novels were included in After Hours anthologies that were printed. One of my books came out in eBook three years ago and paperback last year. And they are all exciting. But this one…

I think it is part of the “launch” concept. Remember when Microsoft launched Windows 95? There was so much pre-launch buzz that my 80+ year-old father-in-law who had never touched a computer in his life was asking me if he needed to get Windows.  Now I’m sitting here with a copy of my book in hand thinking of all the things that need to be done before the release party on March 25th.

What do you mean the invitations haven’t gone out yet?????

Everything is so real now that there is paper in my hands. I’ll be ordering the first print run today. The evites will to out today. Paper invitations will start going out this week. (If you want one, let me know your address!) The poster will go up this week. The ePUB version will be finished this week and checked into Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The deluxe PDF on CD-ROM will be designed in the next 10 days and a special sample will go out.

And it’s all because of this little stack of paper that I hold in my hands. The word "proof" has so many meanings!