Hello all, thank you for following the book, I wanted to let you know, that the book is progressing very well.  My fiancé is reviewing the first part of the adventure and letting me have her thoughts.  I hope to have this upload before the week is out.

In the meantime though I have created my book cover which I am really excited about, it was a tough choice deciding between all of my photos but I believe it has been a great choice.

225 preorders - WOW! I feel like we ought to have a balloon drop or something! Thank you all SO much...

Hello Friends

I was waiting for the book’s release date to be set before sending my next update, but that seems to be taking a little longer than expect it. So, in the meantime, I’ll share the latest regarding the production of The Catcher’s Trap.

Last week I had my kickoff meeting with my Production Editor at Girl Friday, Bethany Davis, and Marketing gurus Avalon Radys and Matt Kaye from Inkshares. I’m not going to bore you with the details of the meeting. The following GIF represents my feelings afterwards.

If everything goes according to schedule, the book will be fully edited by mid-June. After that, there are many other pieces to the process, including the whole marketing side, which will be another four months, at least. My hope is releasing the book in November, but, at the end of the day, is not up to me.

What I can tell you is that there is a dedicated group of people working hard to make sure  The Catcher’s Trap is a great book that you will enjoy.

I also met my developmental editor, Ryan Boudino. Ryan is an author and has a lot of experience with the fantasy genre. So I think we are going to make a good team.

This is all incredibly exciting and still hard to believe. There are so many people to thank, including all of you, but especially those who went above and beyond the call of duty to make sure my book funded. You know who you are and, trust me, your names will be printed in the book’s acknowledgment page.

If you want to read some of my writing while you wait for The Catcher, follow my project Ysolda and The Coven of Fire. I will be adding chapters regularly to gather plenty of feedback before I go into funding mode (it will be a long time before that)

Lastly, there are over 100 people following this project who have not pre-order the book. I encourage you to do it. If you are hesitant, and you want to learn more, or if you are an author and you want to make a swap, reach me at ricardophenriquez@yahoo.com.

Have a fantastic rest of your week.�

Only a week left for pre-orders. If you have any interest in preordering (and getting a Felicia Day headshot, which she’s extending to all hardbacks ordered before 2/22) definitely do it now. Onto my next writing column:

SCREENWRITING TIP #3: Plot (1)

Some describe the plot of a screenplay as the spine of your story. Some say it is a series of red dots, each red dot being an important emotional or/and expositional step in the story being told. And then there is the old architectural standby, the plot is the support beams, the super structure upon which rests your story and characters.  Whatever you call it, what you are trying to lay out is the inevitable order of your story.  Not one scene too many, not one scene missing.

I think the best screenplays are the ones told with the minimum number of scenes, each one a truly BIG scene, not a string of little moments but a series of monumental scenes with as much depth of character and plot as you can muster, full of conflict.  Also with as little shoe leather and transition scenes, as possible.

You also want the audience, the reader or the moviegoer to become a participant in the story telling.  The human mind is always trying to make order and sense out of everything around us.  We look at the stars and without the proper science, make a mythology to explain what we see up in the night skies.  We explain the illogical untimely deaths of beloved men and women with conspiracy theories. So a good writer takes advantage of this predilection by leaving out parts of the story, the pieces that are obvious, and making the audience fill in those bits, forcing them to become a participant in the storytelling itself. Making them invest in the tale.

The hazard is that you can leave out too many bits and confuse your audience – and lose them.  Once they pull out of a movie and turn to the person next to them and ask, “What’s going on?” you have lost them. The suspension of disbelief you’ve worked so hard to achieve is gone and you have to start all over again.  Difficult enough the first time, even harder the second. So abbreviate carefully.

Also, be careful that you don’t beat the audience up with one big action or emotional scene after another.  A scene can be important, BIG, but still be quiet.  There is a natural rise and fall in good drama where the valleys are as important as the mountains.  As in music, the silent rests are as important as the notes. A grace note here and there can give the audience some respite and also set them up for the next tense scene. 

More about plot in the next update.

Let’s talk about reviews.

Make no mistake - this is the Big Ask. This is more important than you pre-ordering the book in the first place. This is what separates a nifty thing I made for all of you from a CULTURAL JUGGERNAUT. This is what takes the signal from AM to FM. This is what gets me closer to the dream. This is what gets you closer to owning a highly-prized First Edition Asteroid Made of Dragons instead of owning a Dusty Paperback Your Friend Wrote One Time.

When you receive your copy (soon!) and you turn the last page of the story proper - before the Acknowledgements, before the Author Info, before anything - I’ve added in an Author’s Plea. It’s a bald-faced request for a review. That is how important it is. More powerful than marketing, more potent than cover design, more influential than scores of social media posts - an honest review is what makes people read new books.

Sidebar: an honest review. What do I mean by that? I mean don’t just run  and give me all 5 stars to help out.  It will not hurt my feelings if you think AMOD is a 4 star book, or a 3 star, or a...2 star....or.....a.......1.........(faints)

Where am I? Who took my pants and replaced them with no pants? An honest review is what I want and what new readers need. I have personally read and loved books BECAUSE of bad reviews. The thing one person hated about a book - lo and behold was exactly why I knew I would LOVE the book. An honest reaction to a book - warts and all - is invaluable, because it cannot be bought. It cannot be manufactured in a Marketing Department. I almost always read a couple of reviews or articles before I try out a book that is an unknown quantity - most readers are the same.

Here’s a review I just wrote for The Life Engineered by JF Dubeau. I think a lot of you know that we’re bunkmates on the Sword & Laser shelf, and if you like great worldbuilding and robots this book was written just for you. I really liked it  - but I had some cranky quibbles, and I was honest about them here. As far as I know, JF has not launched any Capek assassins in my direction - fingers crossed. This is the type of review I love to get. Feedback, validation, criticism - what you liked, what you didn’t. I’m still growing as a writer and I benefit immensely from this kind of data.

One last thing: I need 100 reviews on Amazon. 

That’s the magic number, the tipping point if you will for that site’s algorithms to take more notice of the book. Amazon is the 500 lb. gorilla for better or worse and for the book to succeed, that’s the platform the book needs to be visible on. If 1 out of 4 of my followers here on Inkshares leaves a review - we’ll hit the magic number.  Actual written reviews are better, but even just taking the time to leave a star rating is all that is needed. 

Okay - I’ve yammered about this enough FOR TODAY. It’s just over six weeks until the official launch of AMOD, so I’ll be bringing this UP again. Give me some feedback here - does this make you feel weird and imposed upon? What other sort of topics can I regale you with?

As always - thank you so much for your support and attention. Crazy to think we’re coming up on the year anniversary of the Sword & Laser Contest that started this all in motion.

“STOP IT” shouted Barbara as she dialed the police on her phone.  After two rings she heard, “Sherriff Lowery.” 

“This is Barb down at the Mini-Mart.”

“Yeah, what’s going on?”

“Dave and Barley are fighting, right in the middle of the store.”

“What are they fighting about?”

“I don’t know but someone is going to get hurt and I’m afraid they’re going to bust up the place. You gotta get over here quick.”

“OK, I’ll send a unit.”

Switching to his radio Sherriff Lowery called Officer Paul Tate.

“Unit 3, come in?”

Preceded by a staticky crackle Officer Tate’s reply came back, “Yes Sir?”

“Apparently there’s a dust up over at the Mini-Mart between Diegert and Cummings.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah.”

“A half breed vs. a half-wit, this could be ugly.”

“Well you can shit can the name calling and get over there.”

“Yes sir!”

If you want to know what happens next you’ll find out in Chapter 1 of Tears of the Assassin. 

Enter the dark and dangerous world of David Diegert and journey with him as he descends into the underground world of hired assassins. Reviews and recommendations are greatly appreciated. Thank You.