Update on this week’s events / news

Here’s the link to my Feb 3rd radio interview on a big 50,000 watt radio station in Cincinnati, Ohio hosted by Bill Cunningham

Click Here

Next link is to a feature story in the February edition of Methuen Life magazine.

Click Here

For all radio show links Click Here

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Broken record section below!

Still looking for more supporters to step up, so if you are ready to review Journey, here are the important links - (If you have reviewed it and liked it, please consider lending your copy to a friend and ask them to review it)

http://www.secretagentman.org/PR.pdf 
Read this document after you have read the book and Before you review it on Amazon & Goodreads - it shows some of the real-life connections to the book and contains good examples of my Method-Writing technique, which is the real selling feature that distinguishes this book for ALL others.

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-SecretAgentMan-Mykl-Walsh/dp/1941758479

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25915392-journey

Please consider sharing this update on Inkshares and on your social media feeds!

On Twitter I’m @RFSaunders

https://twitter.com/RFSaunders

My FB account is https://www.facebook.com/RichFSaunders

Thanks again for all of your support! This book promotion thing is tough business! Even tougher because gaining a little media attention doesn’t always turn into increased book sales. It takes a LOT of attention, but even more important is Word of Mouth recommendations and reviews! We gain followers one person at a time, so if you get just One person turned on to this project this week, that is HUGE!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Kind regards,

Rich Saunders

All, thank you for the support. I am currently near the end of completing the re-edit/re-writing of Soulblade (I had included extra characters into the plot in both Soulblade and The Dragon’s Slumber) with twenty pages to go until I’m ready to consider funding the project. But before then, I wish receive more invaluable insight and feedback from you lovely readers so that I have the proper ground in which to put my feet on.

I wish you all the best, and again thank you so kindly for your support and hope to hear from you soon!

Hello everyone!

The re-writes and fixes are moving along nicely and I’m definitely on track to hand the manuscript over to Inkshares in May… Then the work of turning it into a real physical book really kicks off!

In the meantime, I wrote a piece for John Robin’s World Builder series that will give you a little bit more insight into the setting I’ve created. The map is still a work in progress, but a more polished version of it will likely find its way into the book. Go take a look!

Inkshares is running a series contests with Nerdist and Geek and Sundry over the coming months - first up is Space Operas! Lots of great books to check out both in the contest and out. 

A couple of contest books that already caught my eye are Christopher Leone’s Champions of the Third Planet and Jake MacMillan’s Dangerous Thoughts; As different from each other as they could be and still be in the same genre, but both well worth a look and a pre-order!

And let’s not forget all the other great books that are still funding on the site! A couple that I’d like to recommend in particular:

-For the epic fantasy fans, John Robin’s Blood Dawn is a must.

-For anyone looking for a good laugh (and I mean is seriously funny!), Billy O’Keefe’s These are my Friends on Politics is for you!

More updates as stuff happens! Likely every month or so :)

SCREENWRITING TIP #2: CHARACTER

Let’s start with the main character, the person we accompany on their journey, who, in a sense, we become. Generally we take to a character because of how they are written. The strength of that character on the page will hopefully attract a great actor to the role and help you get the screenplay made.

I generally start by creating a little bio of my principal characters (this includes the antagonist – very important). I jot down what they look like, how they dress, how they speak, down to details like what kind of car they drive, the sort of music they listen to, what they order on their pizza, whatever comes to mind.

But the two most important questions you should ask of a character are - what do they want? And what are they afraid of?

In “Mr. Holland’s Opus” Holland want to be a great composer. He’s afraid he doesn’t have the talent. His desire and fear are the yin and yang of his problem.

In “Courage Under Fire” Colonel Serling, a professional soldier wants to be a good leader of men but is afraid that he was a poor leader and maybe a coward.

You must dig deep into your character. They can’t just want to be famous, you must ask why they want to be famous. What drives them toward this need? They can’t just want revenge, you must know why revenge is so important to them. Are they delaying the mourning or/and loss of the one that initiated this revenge? Create a backstory as if you were the actor chosen to portray this person. Where were they born? What was the relationship with their parents? Detail their teenage years, sex life, love life. Most of this will probably never appear in the script (a curse on all needless exposition) but you the author must know it.

Now a really important note about pro-activity. The biggest mistake I see beginning writers make is that the story happens to their main character. Yes, something in the beginning may happen to them, but it is how they react and then deal with this problem that makes them interesting. Even if it is the wrong action, it will lead to another situation that they have created. Good characters don’t react, they act. They are in search of something, even it that something is within themselves.

Hand in hand with pro-activity is the fact that we usually learn about characters by what they do – or won’t do, not necessarily by what they say. In fact, a character’s dialogue can be totally contradictory to what they are doing. A cowboy who says he is against violence but is shooting everyone is his path is telling us a lot about his true nature.

Another caution – a bunch of screenwriting books and thusly more than a few development executives urge you to reveal everything about your characters as soon as possible. I advise you not to give up all your cards at once. Piecemeal this information. In real life you don’t find out everything about someone during the first hour of conversation. You get their story a bit at a time. This continues your interest in them. You should do the same in your writing. Peel your character like the proverbial onion. And a little character surprise doesn’t hurt. Add a character flaw or eccentricity that surprises you but somehow fits. It humanizes them and makes them more interesting.

Here’s an update for you!

Enjoy that Super Bowl thing you may have heard of and remember those of us overseas who might not see it right away when you start posting spoilers on social media!

Thank you all, we have made our goal! I am so grateful and excited to have this book released. I will update as the book comes together, new cover art, editing, etc. And of course you may keep ordering if you haven’t already, there is no cap on the number of orders before publishing. 

I will continue to release my screenwriting tips, one will follow this update shortly. Hopefully they inspire many of you to pick up your own pens and create something for yourself. It is truly gratifying to one’s voice with the world.

Again, thank you very much.

Pat