It’s a question of ’conversions’.

At least that’s what my bare-bones marketing training and experience tells me.

I spend an unusual amount of time thinking about how to get more readers. How do I convince people to take a chance on ‘A God in the Shed’? Should I do character sketches? Another video? A giveaway?

While these are all good methods and have their merits, I think I need to get back to basics and stick to what’s important.

This is going to be a good book. 

‘A God in the Shed’ has gone through a few revisions already and been in the hands of several test readers and the response has been overwhelmingly positive. I’ve been told it doesn’t need it, but the story is going to get another re-write and with the experience I have working with editors and Inkshares I know they won’t let me get away with anything less than an excellent novel.

The characters are compelling.

What I love about ‘A God in the Shed’ is the cast of characters. The core group is a few ordinary kids that deal with the extraordinary events of the book. Venus is a genius level girl who’s spent her whole life as a fish-out-of-water, either because of her intelligence or eccentric parents. Penelope is a fiercely independent and ambitious young woman who has difficulty with her set life plans being interrupted by the supernatural happenings. Donald is the kind of guy who’s always had it easy in life but still managed not to let himself be spoiled by things while Abraham has maintained a facade as the strong-but-dumb kid, caring for his ailing father. 

Surrounding them is a second layer of main characters, mainly the families of the young cast. Venus’ uncle is a bizarre man with strange secrets while the village idiot, Sam Finnegan is quickly revealed to be a layered onion. First affable, then a monster but then a victim again.

The magic is fascinating.

The gods have their magic but so do mortals. Either by using loopholes in the functioning of reality or by creating pieces of Art so convincing as to trick the universe itself, old disciplines have opened up the door to strange magics. Not to mention that objects and people touched by gods are irrevocably changed.

There’s a tight majesty to how magic works in St-Ferdinand and the world of ‘A God in the Shed’.

Mainly, it’s a story about beauty.

I use the expression ‘a story about terrible beauty and beautiful terror’ and I mean it. ‘A God in the Shed’ is about that place in between horror and majesty where you can’t be sure what is light and what is shadow. It’s from that doubt that the ‘horror’ of this fantasy tale comes from.

I’ve added Chapters 7 through 9 to the project page. I’ll try to give out more information about the setting and about the story, without too many spoilers, as we get closer to the end of the Nerdist Collection contest.

Help make this book happen. Talk to your friends and family and get them on Inkshares. They’ll get 5$ credit just for signing up and if they use your reference link, you’ll get 15$ of credits yourself!

Support the arts. Support my dream. Pre-order ‘A God in the Shed’.

And if you’re already a supporter: thank you. You’re the kind of person who makes things happen.

JF

Hello Friends

This is just a quick update to thank you for your support. I remember when the contest started a month ago, and I thought, “If I receive 200 pre-orders I’ll have a chance to rank in the top 5.” A couple of weeks later I thought the number was 250, and I knew that would be an uphill battle. Today I have 270 readers, and I know I still need many more if I want to win this prize.

But quoting the most important man in the universe, The Doctor, “I am and always will be the optimist. The hoper of far-flung hopes and the dreamer of improbable dreams.” So I think this is not impossible.

I want to encourage those of you who are following me but have not pre-ordered yet to please do it. If you are on the fence about it, feel free to reach out to me by e-mail (ricardophenriquez@yahoo.com) or through my twitter @RHfromTheGlen. I am always happy to talk to readers or other authors.

This weekend I will not be posting another funny video because I will be out of town (I know most of you are devastated by this news :-)  ) I will be running 18 miles around Central Park in preparation for my upcoming marathon. So wish me luck.

Have a wonderful weekend!

The other night I read a review of the new Lizbeth Salander novel, written by somebody other than the Millennium trilogy’s original author, who died before The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo was published. And I wondered, not for the first time, why any self-respecting writer would want to write anything involving characters created by somebody else.

Actually, I have done this twice.

In my second novel, You Can’t Kill the Multiverse (But You Can Mess With its Head), I needed a character who was an assassin by trade and who would plausibly see destroying the multiverse as his greatest coup. Who better, I thought, than Michael Moorcock’s Jerry Cornelius? In this case, I asked Moorcock for permission to use the character, which he graciously granted.

I have also written a short story called “Portrait of a Spy in the Twilight of Empire” that features James Bond. (I could do this because Ian Fleming’s novels are actually in the public domain in Canada; unfortunately, it is illegal for me to try to sell it anywhere else in the world, which kind of limits my options.) The story is a 4,000 word deconstruction of the Bond myth which includes copious nods to the original novels, including a lot of Fleming’s stylistic tics. I’m actually very proud of it.

Notice, though, that in both cases, I used existing characters to further my own artistic agenda. The point of writing those stories was not to mimic a dead author’s style in order to fill a publishing company’s coffers (a practice you may get the sense I’m not overly fond of). There are characters I would love to work with (cough Dr. cough cough Who cough), but only if I could do it on my own creative terms. If not, I don’t see the point.

Hi everybody! I've been a little quiet here in terms of activity/updates/content, mainly because my wife and I welcomed a baby boy last week. Anyone among you who has kids or watches kids or is aware of kids knows that while this is a very joyful and exciting time, it's an extremely draining time as well. I'm devoting most of my attention to my family at the moment (and snatching minutes here and there to send appeal emails and do a bit of writing).

I just wanted to update you and let you know that I am most definitely NOT resting on my laurels...or really resting at all. I'm still in this thing til the end, just not at the computer a whole lot.

That said, this is when I need help more than ever. Sharing the project link and word of mouth are great ways to do that. Tell a family member, a friend, your spouse, a colleague, your book club compatriots, exterminator...especially your exterminator. Please help spread the word about SINGLE VERSION!!

Encourage people to read the sample chapters (I continue to get great feedback on them so I feel they are effective), and to add their names to the reader list!

https://www.inkshares.com/projects/single-version

With love and many many thanks,

Scott