Cover reveal for my new dystopian fantasy novel, Death of the Grinderfish. Available for ebook preorder now.

Amazon.com: Death of the Grinderfish eBook: Brown, Douglas R., Murphy, Steve, Brown, Becca: Books

Coming soon

As we move through the Corona virus here in Ohio and the rest of the world, I’ve found myself returning to one of my loves. I have a few passions in life. My family, friends, and work come first. But I also love choking my friends unconscious in jiujitsu. Wow, that sounded weird, huh? I might have issues. But anyway, what this blog is about is rediscovering my love of writing. I’ve decided to rededicate my efforts to reviving my dead career, not for money but for the love of creating.

Writing for success is a losing battle for most of us if success is measured by book sells. While I started writing a long time ago because I loved it, selling books became more of my focus than writing them. Losing my publisher and most of the momentum I had built discouraged me greatly. I realized I was measuring my success by how many books I was selling and my sells fell into the crapper. But being locked in my house 75% or the time (I still go to work as a firefighter) encouraged me to delve back into writing as a hobby with one subtle difference. I am no longer concerned about selling thousands of copies of whatever I write. Or even one. Of course, I hope I sell some, but that’s not my goal. It wasn’t at the start of my career and it’s not once again. I want to write to write.

Part of the creative process that I’ve enjoyed includes the presentation of my work in a professional manner. Years ago that meant one needed a publisher. But now, with the internet and freelancing, I can achieve that goal on my own. Reaching people will still be the challenge, but I’m not going to worry about that anymore. So, my big announcement is that I am self-publishing from here on out. Ahhh. That feels good. No more agent searching or publisher querying. Just putting out what I want and seeing what happens. Self-publishing used to mean to some people that an author’s work just wasn’t worthy to be read. Well, that may still be the case. But I don't give a shit. I think my stuff is good and I have plenty of reviews to know others like it as well. Maybe my future stories will suck and someone who buys them will feel ripped off. I truly hope not. All I can do is promise that I will always put my entire heart into presenting you the absolute best story I can.

Here’s my loose schedule. I have begun completely revising my Epertase trilogy. As I said, I want what I present to be the best I can make it. Part of that is fixing flaws that I have since determined I had early on with my writing. When I wrote Epertase Book One, Legends Reborn, I was an amateur in every sense of the word. My writing has improved greatly since. I might still suck, but not as bad as I did.

My current manuscript is titled Death of the Grinderfish. It is a stand-alone, dystopian fantasy loosely using the Robin Hood theme of stealing from the rich to give to the poor. I will spend a chunk of money on this venture, which is different than when I was with Rhemalda, but it’s worth it to me. I likely won’t sell enough copies to recoup those expenditures since I'm selling them on my own, but that’s fine. The one thing I can guarantee is that I’ll only release something I am 100% excited about. Maybe you’ll buy it. And maybe you won’t. We’ll still be friends either way. In the coming months I will reveal the cover here as well as updates to the May, 2021 release. I hope you’ll join me for this next adventure.

Swing and a Miss

Writing books can be a bitch.

I recently put the finishing touches on my latest fantasy novel, Death of the Grinderfish. While this manuscript has been a WIP for many years, I finally buckled down and finished my dystopian world. I was ecstatic with the results and couldn’t wait to get it into the hands of my beta readers. I even read through it one more time before sending it out just to be sure and I loved the adventure as much as when I first came up with the concept. This story was a result of years of tireless hard work. My beta readers were going to be blown away. Or so I thought.

With excited anticipation I gave out my heart and soul to the same beta readers I’ve used for each of my novels. Now, it was just a matter of waiting for the adulation to come pouring in. I might note that during the editing phase my aunt’s less-than full-throated enthusiasm should have been my first hint that something wasn’t right, but I ignored any doubts because of how much I loved the story.

My mom was the first beta reader to get back to me. She was engrossed in the story and loving it. So far so good. But at some point she lost interest and set the book aside. When I grilled her on what had happened she wasn’t exactly sure. She said she had just lost interest and would get back into it at some point. She never did. Yikes. That’s not good. But fantasy wasn’t her thing, so let’s wait for some other opinions.

Slowly, each beta reader returned their notes. While none of them confessed to not liking my story, none of them were blown away by it either. Most of their critical notes were either technical in nature or minor stumbles like a chapter that dragged on too long or a conversation felt too stilted. Those types of critiques. But behind all of their minor criticisms was a lack of enthusiasm for the story that I hadn’t received before. I soul searched and read through the manuscript again and again I loved what I had created.

I didn’t and still don’t understand what’s wrong with the story. I have never experienced this. I’ve had bad reviews and good reviews and I understand how stories rub different people in different ways but these are my beta readers. These are the ones who support my writing and generally like what I’ve written which is why I settled on them in the first place. To have received such lukewarm responses told me the future critics and readers would be brutal. My philosophy (stolen from someone much wiser than myself) was if I wrote something I personally liked, then others would like it as well. That has worked well for me to this point, but now I’ve lost a little faith in that approach.

As an optimist I decided to move on to something else and put the Grinderfish on the back burner for now, but I have a new problem. I have lost some confidence and enthusiasm in my own writing. This isn’t me pitying myself, it’s me trying to move on without understanding what went wrong in my last venture. I don’t trust my stories anymore. I usually take between a year and two years to write a book, but now I am finding it difficult to muster the effort when I’m not sure how the final product will be received. For example, when I run into a tough part I’m more apt to close my computer and walk away. Sometimes I go weeks before I return and muscle through my stumbling block.

As much as I’d hate to say it, but the loss of my publisher, combined with the enormous effort and time in my Grinderfish failure has taken something from me. But more than that, I don’t know where I went wrong. If I open my Grinderfish story today and start reading it, I love it. Is this just a case of thinking my children are wonderful when the rest of the world sees them for the heathens they are? If so, how do I trust my judgement in the future? How do I bleed and sweat into an idea if I have no way to determine if the honey is worth the hard work? I’ve written things that I ultimately didn’t care for and relinquished them to the wastecan of my computer, but this one is different.

In saying all of this, I must add that I am confident that I’ll be fine in whatever I do with my writing. I am fortunate to be an optimist. When I get knocked for a loop, I tend to move on and heal to be better than I was before. I’m working on something new now. My newest manuscript has just hit 40,000 words of a planned 80,000. I’d like to say I’m liking the progress, but I don’t trust my opinion at the moment and need to reserve my opinion until I see how it turns out. My new story is tentatively titled The Thin Line and it’s my attempt at a new direction.

Let’s hope it doesn’t suck.

Let’s hope I can tell if it does.

Let’s hope it’s not Grinderfish part deux.

I’ve posted the first chapter of my Grinderfish story on my blog if you’d like to see it. Here’s a link. Ch. 1

Black Friday blowout sale for Epertase

Got a kindle or kindle app? Looking for something to read? Check out the biggest blowout sale ever for my fantasy trilogy, The Light of Epertase. For under 3 bucks you can own the entire trilogy for your kindle or for the kindle of someone you love. This is a one day only sale so get it now. http://amzn.to/1iiFFS5 Enjoy

Lemons into Lemonade

As I begin the re-launch of my books (see my announcement about Rhemalda closing here), one of my first orders of business is changing the covers in my Epertase trilogy a bit. Thanks to Steve Murphy, I couldn't be happier with the results. Here is a look at Epertase covers 2.0.

Next, I will be getting the ebooks up and running so that I can keep the reviews and rankings at Amazon and others. I'm also using this re-launch opportunity to revisit Legends Reborn and tweak it a bit, because I feel my writing has gotten smoother in the years since I wrote it. I'm like George Lucas except that I'm making my trilogy better. (Yes, that was a shot across the "Greedo shoots first" bow.) Legends Reborn won't change much, just some of the flow. I'm also fixing a couple minor inconsistencies that had been missed during the first run.

Short of the covers, I'm not changing A Kingdom's Fall or The Rise of Cridon at all. I'm happy with them. The paperback versions of all my books should be available in a month or so.

As far as Tamed goes, the cover will be identical minus the Rhemalda logo, but I may tweak the interior a bit on it as well. That'll be next week's project. I'm overwhelmed with work, but once it's finished it'll be worth it. Keep an eye on this space for more.

When your Editor Crushes your Soul

This blog is aimed at those of you who enjoy writing.

OK, so you've written your masterpiece. You've spent months, maybe years, tweaking it so there is no way anyone could find fault in even a single word. You've let your friends and proofreaders have the manuscript and go to town on it. It is now perfect.

Or so you think.

Then you send it to an editor. Maybe it's your publisher's editor, or maybe it's an editor you've hired to get your manuscript into tip top shape before starting that long, hard journey to publication. Whatever it is, you're ready for the praise to come flowing into your inbox. All that's left is to sit back and wait for the editor to write you back and say, "This is the best manuscript ever. I didn't even have to get out my figurative red pen." After all, you've looked at the story 100 times and from every possible angle and it's flawless.

As you have experienced if you've been through the process, or will soon experience, it doesn't take long for the inevitable punch in the face to come back from that editor. The red on each page is like blood from your own artery.

A Long Journey

Today is a very cool day.



A little over four years ago Rhemalda Publishing gave me and my writing a chance by contracting me for my fantasy trilogy, The Light of Epertase. At the time, I had book 1 written with big plans for the rest of the series. Though I knew the major plot points for books 2 and 3, that was about it. Everything from what the covers would eventually look like to how the story would ultimately play out was little more than a vague idea in my head. I never dreamed we would be at this day. Today is Epertase 3's birthday. Though the e-versions will be available any day now (it has to go through Amazon's and BN's system) today is officially release day.



Over those last four years, I have worked with some talented people on this trilogy including editors Kara Klotz and Diane Dalton, my aunt Bobbe Ecleberry, my proofreaders and friends, Emmaline and Rhett Hoffmeister, and the talented artist Steve Murphy. This story couldn't have been told without them and I am overwhelmingly grateful for their help.



It seems almost surreal that the story I started many years ago (Rasi was actually created when I was a teenager) is finally finished and has turned out better than I could have ever imagined. I love the story as a whole and I hope you all give it a chance.

 

Aren't they Purdy together?

Updates and an Opportunity for Writers

I have a few things to share today as it relates to writing. Let me start with a pretty cool opportunity that my publisher is giving writers who are seeking a home for their work. If you're like me, you despise the querying process. You spend weeks and weeks tweaking your query letter while never knowing exactly what an agent or publisher is looking for. Then you research who to send your query letter to. And then you wait weeks, months or longer for a response, sometimes never getting one at all. Well, Rhemalda Publishing is giving you a unique opportunity to skip the querying nightmare for the next two weeks. You see, Rhemalda is asking for a two-sentence hook about your book and from that hook, they will request manuscripts from the ones they find intriguing. Pretty freakin' cool, huh? I wonder if they have any idea of the amount of work they're about to fall into. So, are you looking to be published? Sick of the querying process? Here's your chance to wow a publisher with a simple hook and bypass the querying nightmare altogether. Just make sure your manuscript is finished and in the best possible condition before it gets requested, so you have the best chance at a contract. Go through Rhemalda's FB page or Twitter @Rhemalda. Here is the announcement.

 

Beginning April 2, 2013 Rhemalda Publishing's Emmaline Hoffmeister (Owner) and Diane Dalton (Acquisitions Editor) will be hosting a two-week, two-sentence, query blast. Authors will be invited to post up to two sentences about their completed, polished manuscript. Hook Emmaline and Diane with your awesome, fresh idea and they will then request a full manuscript from you! This is your chance to skip the initial full query letter and seemingly endless wait for a full request. The specific genres Emmaline and Diane will be searching for are as follows:

Contemporary Fiction
Contemporary Young Adult/New Adult Fiction
Romance
Contemporary Romance
Historical Romance
Historical Fiction
Jane Austen Adaptations
Sports Memoirs
Crime/Detective/Procedural
Young Adult Paranormal and Dystopian

Get ready for April 2nd!

Please share with every author you know. See More

Next on my agenda are the results from my bookbub.com promotion. As of yesterday I have numbers. As you may have read in my last blog, Bookbub is a site that sends emails to readers about sales on books that they may be interested in buying. On Thursday of last week, my werewolf novel, Tamed, went on sale and was sent out in their email. (The sale is still on for another day at Amazon, BN, and iTunes, BTW, in case you've missed out.) Anyway, during the first four days of the sale, 504 ebook copies of Tamed were sold with steady sales continuing as of this writing. If you are an author or publisher, you may want to try bookbub because it has been wildly successful for me. (I have no affiliations with the site, I am only recommending them from my own marketing experience.)

Third, a quick update about my writing progress. Rhemalda has the final book of my Epertase trilogy, The Rise of Cridon, and I am waiting for their editor to hack away at it. I think as a story it has turned out great. In the meantime, I am closing in on finishing a first draft of my newest dystopian fantasy which is turning out to be pretty cool. I'm excited to finish the first draft because that is always my least favorite part of writing. I like the tweaking stage the most. We'll see how things turn out over the next 15,000 or so words. At this point, I'm very hopeful.

Well, that's it for my update today. If you're a writer, get your two sentence hook ready because the two weeks start at midnight (April 2, 2013). And if you even slightly like werewolves, check out Tamed. I doubt you've ever read a werewolf book quite like it.

Cover Reveal for Epertase 3

Well, we're moving right along with the final and, might I say, best chapter of my Epertase trilogy. The Rise of Cridon will be released on Aug. 1, 2013 and I am excited today to show off the gorgeous cover by artist Steve Murphy.

Epertase 3 is a bittersweet book for me for a couple of different reasons. Firstly, it is the final book of my current four-book contract with Rhemalda. What that means is that anything I write from here on out will need to be submitted and accepted by some publisher or agent in hopes of receiving another publishing contract. Though I have full intentions of submitting my next work to Rhemalda first (as we have had a great working relationship), there is no guarantee that what I submit will be worthy of acceptance or fit within their plans. To be honest, I don't know if I have the energy to start all over again in search of a publisher, so let's hope what I write next doesn't suck.

Secondly, this book marks the end of my world of Epertase as far as my writing goes. With this release, I will be saying good-bye to Rasi, Alina, Simcane, and the entire cast to move onto something new. These are characters that I have spent countless hours creating and melding and in some cases killing and they hold a special place in my heart. I am a bit saddened to know that I won't be revisiting my Epertasian world anytime soon, if ever, and it's strange to finally say, "good-bye."

But the opposite side of that coin is how exhausted I am with that world. Writing a trilogy is long, hard work. Years and years of work for some people (and yes I am one of those people) and to come to its end is a bit of a relief as well. I am a different writer today than I was when I wrote Epertase 1. I feel I have evolved and improved and I am looking forward to showing you those improvement in new adventures far away from my Epertasian world. I am sooo ready to focus on other worlds and ideas, like I did with Tamed.

But mostly, I am excited for readers of my Epertase trilogy to experience what I believe is a worthy and exciting conclusion to my story. So, here is the cover for The Rise of Cridon, the final book of my Epertase trilogy. I'd love to hear your thoughts.

 

And here is the full cover art for the wrap-around cover.

 

 

 

How to Break Out of a Writing Slump

Since this is the end of the year, I want to tie my year-in-review to some actual writing advice. I titled this blog "How to break out of a writing slump" and I have a clear answer. Before you get too excited, I will warn you that it is the same advice you've heard again and again from other authors in the past and it is hard work, but I think it needs repeated. I'll get to that advice in a moment, but first you have to read through the rest of my drivel. (Or skip to the end, I suppose.)

This year has been a great year for me in my writing career while a tough year for my actual writing production. I saw 2012 bring me not one but two book releases from my publisher, Rhemalda Publishing.

In January, Rhemalda released my werewolf tale with a twist, Tamed. I celebrated the release of Tamed with a television interview on NBC4 in Columbus, Ohio. You can watch the interview on the left side of this blog. That was by far my most visual exposure yet.

Next, I had a successful book launch at Barnes and Noble in Pickerington, Ohio, with Tamed. Its release also led to a request from a California production company to shop Tamed around for movie rights interest, and I granted that request, of course. That process is still active, though I am not sure how it will pan out.

In May, Rhemalda and I decided to offer Tamed as a free giveaway as part of Amazon's KDP program and proceeded to give away 22,000 copies of the eBook in only five days. Coming off that giveaway, Tamed continued to sell fairly well for the next couple of months. My biggest surprise with Tamed was that I initially thought the book was a good fit for young adults and older, but I have been pleased to learn that Tamed has gained a pretty steady following from the youngest teens who are looking for something a little different from the Twilight saga.

In August, Rhemalda released the second installment of my Epertase trilogy, which I feel is my best writing yet.

With three published books under my wing, I attended the Mid Ohio Comic Con. The president and vice president of Rhemalda traveled to Ohio to support me at the show. With their help and the help of the fantastic artist of my Epertase covers, Steve Murphy, we sold and signed over 100 books. Unfortunately, I sold out of Tamed at the show and had to turn potential readers away. Here's my booth.

Despite all of my successes this year, I have struggled with the actual art of writing. I don't know if you could call it writer's block, but it definitely resulted in a lack of production. I've heard of writer's block before and have even experienced it briefly on occasion, but usually I have been able to push through it without too much pain.

However, this year has been a different story.

My first major slump came during my initial draft of Epertase 3; I struck a wall at the halfway point. I spent several months (yes, I said months) struggling with how to make a crucial transition that was imperative to the story. Every idea I came up with didn't seem to work. If this wasn't the last book in my trilogy, with everything in the first two stories tied to this finale, I could have scratched the idea altogether and changed how the story went, but I was in a bit of a box. It was killing me and putting me way behind schedule. I have deadlines, after all.

BTW, I am in love with how Epertase 3 finally turns out and I think fans of the series will be as well, but I think the fight with Epertase 3 took something out of me.

My second slump is in full gear now. Over the last two years I have been working sporadically on a new dystopian fantasy that I am really excited about finishing. But even with my breakthrough and subsequent finishing of Epertase 3, I realized I still wasn't writing with as much inspiration as usual. Heck, just look at the number of blogs I've churned out lately (none)-- my lack of production should be evident.

Here's the problem: I know what I need to do in order to break this slump, just like I had to do to break the Epertase 3 slump, but I'm having trouble doing it with any consistency.

How do you break your writing slump? It sounds easy. You have to write.

You have to write today. You have to write tomorrow. Don't feel like writing on Friday? Too bad, you have to write on Friday, too. It's just like going to the gym. If you miss a few days, it becomes easier to simply miss a few more. But, when writing becomes habit, it's harder not to do. Just like working out. I am by far not the first author to say this. In fact, I have read this very advice several times by major authors. It's easier said than done.

"Wait a minute," you might say. "That doesn't help me through my block." Well, yeah, it actually does. By making yourself sit down and write, you will write through that block. It might not turn out just how you want that section to be, but that's what revisions are for. After you plow through that part of the story, you will fall into the flow again.

When you force yourself to write every day, even if it is only for a couple hours, you are lifting the weights . . . I mean, you are writing . . . and that's the important part. Does that make sense? Every slump I have ever gotten into (big or small) has been broken by simply sitting down and writing. And as I look back, I see that the slumps that lasted the longest were because they frustrated me to the point of not writing at all.

Now, I know sometimes it seems impossible to push through that block (like it was for me in Epertase 3), so here's another way to get through it. My initial advice still stands that you have to write, but you can cheat a little. Skip that part and work on another section of your story. It will trigger your creativity again and get you moving. You will be surprised at how well this will help you to actually fix the section you were stuck on without even working on it. Yeah, it's like magic.

These two suggestions are my best advice on breaking your slump. Sure, many other more famous authors than me have recommended the same actions, but I believe the advice is worth repeating. Now, why are you sitting here reading my blog? Go write!

Happy Holidays, everyone.