Just updated with 3 more chapters for the month. Hope everyone has an excellent holiday season. Spread the word if you're enjoying the book. The book is completed I just need help editing it and obviously publishing hence my presence here. Thank you everyone who has followed this book it's awesome to know people are taking an interest in what I've written.
As promised, with 25 preorders, I have uploaded Chapter Three of Shadow Incandescent. I'll upload Chapter Four when I reach 50. The completed work spans 24 chapters, all ready to be released for consumption. As I've mentioned before, an earlier version of Shadow Incandescent was my MFA Thesis, and I've spent the last two years revising and adding to it. But...that's not all I've been up to.
Very soon into writing Shadow, I realized there was more to the story than what I planned on telling in this volume. Shortly after finishing the first draft, I sketched out rough outlines for four planned sequels.
As part of my Thesis defense, I had to present a critical defense of the narrative techniques I employed. Though I had been twitter-pated with unlimited, omniscient, self-aware, metafiction-style narrative during my undergrad, when it came time to write Shadow, I had developed a preference for a much more limited and unreliable narrator. I reasoned that by choosing a first-person narrator, I would limit my influence over the character's development and story, and thereby achieve a more authentic telling of the story.
Thom wants his life (story) to follow a certain path. All the other characters want their stories to follow their preferred path. All exert as much influence as they can in pursuit of their goals, but all have to contend against the others and their goals. Drawing from my high school theater experience, I put myself in Thom's shoes and allowed myself to know only what he could observe about his environment and the other characters. In other words, I tried--as best I could--to let the characters determine the path of the story.
In doing this, I learned that Thom's ideas about other people are flawed and incomplete. In preparation for my Thesis, I had written short stories from the perspective of each of the principal characters. I knew who they were, but Thom's understanding of the others was severely limited. Like us, Thom cannot understand the full context, emotions, or meaning of the words and actions of others.
Consequently, the path of the story surprised me almost daily. Although it still headed in the direction I intended, how the characters got there and which ones survived were completely different than what I expected.
All of this is a very long way of saying that for the sequels, I decided to write them from other characters' points of view. Each continues from where the previous left off, as is typical of a series, but with different characters taking the lead. In doing so, I hope that the readers will be able to appreciate the characters for not just what they have to say about themselves but also for what the others have to say about them.
Book Two is titled Blink Unremitting. It begins about a month after the final events of Shadow and is told from the perspective of a character you won't meet in Shadow until about the halfway point. She's a blast to write. Confident, smart, and passionate, but also deliciously flawed. And we see a very different version of Thom from her perspective. It's progressing pretty well.
Thanks again for your support, but don't keep Shadow Incandescent to yourself. Share it with all your reader-friends.
DB Greenhalgh
Hello Lovely Readers!! First, I just wanted to let you know that I updated my description page. I used some wonderful advice from John Robin in a thread on Goodread and hope that it is simplified and more useful. All critiques are welcome!!
Secondly, the preorders have definitely hit a lull, so I am thinking about just going for the Quill "light" option in order to move forward with production- what do you guys think? I'm a bit below halfway to the full option, and would love to make it, but am wondering what to do. If anyone wants to discuss/offer advice or criticisms, you can reach me at jliggan@gmail.com. I really appreciate all you have done so far and want to close by telling you that...I am so excited to participate in the inaugural Inkshares Review-a-Thon!
If you haven't heard about it yet, I am pasting the information about it from A.C. Weston below. Please share, spread the word and join in!
On December 19th, all authors and readers are invited to leave reviews on currently funding Inkshares books using the Inkshares "leave a review" option.
Throughout the day we'll be hanging out on Twitter in the#InksharesReviews tag as we share our favorite book projects, answer author Q&As, debate the merits of astronauts with swords versus cavemen with lasers, and more!
Then, from 6 - 8pm ET, JF Dubeau and Paul Inman of theWriteBrain Podcast will be hosting a video livestream filled with author interviews, review readings, and live announcements of prize winners!
Prizes?!?!
Everyone who leaves a review on December 19th by 6pm ET will be eligible to win one of our fantastic general prizes:
Readers: Peruse the "currently funding" books on Inkshares and leave as many reviews as you want on Dec 19th. You could even start up a "must-have" list of books to order in case you win a free pre-order or the $30 in credits!
Authors: Join our review exchange to leave three reviews in exchange for two guaranteed reviews on your Inkshares project and a chance at author-exclusive prizes! Email me at cara.c.weston@gmail.com to learn more and get on the list.
(And authors, if you're in, please copy the message above and include it in your next update!)
It's gonna be fun.
Hey followers... special update.
Happy holidays! I have been busy with work since it's the season for that. I have been editing several chapters and changing minor things with the storyline/plot. Hope to have another chapter up for everyone to enjoy by this week! So stay tuned!
Today is the last day of NaNoWriMo and I'm currently at 40,933 words. It's been weird doing NaNoWriMo the same time as trying to promote this book and I admit I've not been on top of the updates as I should be. Honestly, with a book that has already been written its hard to say "hey there's a new chapter completed... but it's for the other book which I'm not even pitching to you guys..." so for me there's a little bit of awkwardness. I'm waaaaaaay too excited about where the second book has gone and you guys haven't even gotten a chance to read the first book yet!
Okay, let me catch my breath here.
Have I mentioned just how excited I am about the new book, which is a sequel of SO YOU MIGHT BE A VAMPIRE? Funny story: this was planned as a trilogy mainly because the initial single novel that it was supposed to be was getting really bloated. Like 1000+ pages. So I took a realistic look and what the three stories were and broke it up.
So NaNoWriMo was essential in getting through a lot of the writing. First half of the second novel took the better part of a year to write (about 60K words) and in the past 30 days I've reached 40K words. It really helps to have a boot on my ass at times, especially when the story is getting really good.
Thing is, this whole thing started as a NaNoWrimo novel a couple of years ago. So it's kind of fitting (and cool) that I'm back with NaNoWrimo for some part of the second book. Might be a tradition at this rate.
In any case, book 2 is almost completed and it's a wild ride which I hope to share with you guys, my supporters. Now I have to brainstorm and get more supporters on board so that book 2 will see the light of day. It sucks when a book is written and there's no one around the read.
Thanks for your support! If you have any ideas on how I can reach more people, I'm very interested in hearing them.
-Rodney