Weekly Goals - June 29, 2010

Things have been on a huge boost this week...getting into the heavy action scenes of my latest novel, and have gotten quite a bit done. Definitely thinking I could finish this round of edits this coming week...

Results for this week:

1. 19100 /5000 words completed

And now the goals for this coming week:

1. Finish The Cure edits
2. 5000 words edited on "Seeker"
(had to add another since I finished goal #1 Wed night)

Submission status for the week:

Short stories:
"Collateral" (since April 1)
"Deadly Decisions" (rejected, need to re-submit)
"Shell Games" (ACCEPTED)
"Trespass" (ACCEPTED)

Aston West
novels
short stories
writing goals

Picking Your Projects

There are those who start a project, then finish the first draft, then go back and edit it a few times, and finally submit it off while they start their next project and work it in the same order.

And then there are people like me…

At the present time, I currently have two full-length novels in work. One is in final edits (and should be complete in the next month or so) before I send it off to the beta readers. The other is in the middle of a first draft.

Add on top of that my short stories, of which I have several in the submission queue (two of which I just finished the final drafts on), one that I finished the first draft on and need to get back into, one that’s still in the first draft mode, and just under a handful that are simply plotlines waiting to be molded.

So, how do I choose which project to work at any given time?

A number of factors go into my decision. Sometimes it’s whatever I feel like working on at any given moment, subject to change on a whim. As an example, I had a great idea a few weeks ago for a short story. I plotted it out and immediately started drafting. A week went by and I got bored with the story so I put it aside. I’ll likely come back to it sometime, but nothing good comes from a writer who sits and stares at the screen for hours, wondering where the story should go (and this, with a plot at the ready).

Sometimes, there’s a more pragmatic method behind the madness. Finishing a project is a great boost, and so a project that’s languishing might need to come to the forefront and be the primary focus until it’s finished. As another example, the novel I’m currently editing was actually taking a back seat to the first draft (of my third Aston novel, which I was working in order to bring out for the fans). At some point, I realized it would be quicker to get this novel completely edited and sent off. Frankly, I think this one might be a really good chance for me to obtain representation (versus the Aston novels, which no agent out there wants to touch), so naturally I’m a bit stoked about finishing it because I think it has real potential in the marketplace. They claim you should never write for what you think will sell, but write what you’re most passionate about. Maybe I’m just passionate about selling lots of books?

Sometimes, things have to happen a certain way to keep the flow moving. As my various short stories get picked up for publication, the number I have in the submission pipeline is reduced. To keep stories out there in queue, I have to generate them in a timely fashion. So, I might take a few weeks here and there to generate three or four more stories for submission.

And then, ultimately, the people paying the bills (editors, magazines and publishers) ultimately have a huge say in what I’m working on. For example, an editor I’m familiar with recently presented me with an opportunity I really wanted in on. Unfortunately, two of my stories that would be involved in working this were just in draft mode. So, I dropped my other projects and went off to edit and polish those two stories. Once all of that was completed, I returned my focus back on completing my edits on this novel.

So, ultimately, there are any number of ways to decide what to work on and when. There’s nothing wrong with working one project at a time, but for the rest of us, variety is the spice of life. Hopefully these suggestions have been helpful, and if you have ways that work well for you that aren’t listed above, feel free to chime in.

***

T. M. Hunter has always had a fascination with interstellar travel, spacecraft (and aircraft) and beings from other worlds. Twice a top ten finisher in the P&E Readers Poll for his short stories (2007, 2009), his book HEROES DIE YOUNG earned Champagne Books’ Best-Selling Book of 2008 award. FRIENDS IN DEED is his latest novel. For more information, including links to his published short stories and novels, please visit AstonWest.com. You can also find T. M. Hunter (under the Aston West moniker) on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace as well.

Weekly Goals - June 22, 2010

A few more words this week on the short story (along with editing), but got sidetracked with some other projects that I hope to be able to announce in a short amount of time. Given the project, I'll still count it as a good week...

Results for this week:

1. 6100 /5000 words completed
2. 400/1000 words on "Tangled Love"

And now the goals for this coming week:

1. Edit 5000 words on The Cure

Submission status for the week:

Short stories:
"Collateral" (since April 1)
"Deadly Decisions" (since June 8)
"Shell Games" (submitted June 19)
"Trespass" (submitted June 19)

Aston West
novels
short stories
writing goals

Friends in Deed (Paperback) Now on Amazon

Just wanted to let everyone know that my latest book, Friends in Deed, is now available as a paperback over on Amazon. Enjoy!

And if you haven't heard about Friends in Deed:


Aston West was condemned to life on the prison planet Lycus IV for spitting in a man’s face. Being forced to reside with the likes of murderers and thieves, he owes his freedom to Lars and Elijah Cassus, who orchestrated an escape. Now the twin brothers call in the favor and force him to return with their team to Lycus IV to rescue crewmate Leah Jordan.

Aston discovers Leah’s desire to leave the twins forever, but Lars and Elijah use fear and intimidation to control their group and no one leaves alive. It’s a case of kill or be killed and Aston will need to become more like the brothers than he ever wanted.

Find out more, including an excerpt of the first chapter, over at my site.

Weekly Goals - June 15, 2010

Almost got there, but nothing happened on the new story. In other news, received an acceptance on a different story, so the week wasn't a total loss.

Results for this week:

1. 5800 /5000 words completed
2. Nothing

And now the goals for this coming week:

1. Edit 5000 words on The Cure
2. 1000 words on "Tangled Love"

Submission status for the week:

Short stories:
"Collateral" (since April 1)
"Conventional Wisdom" (ACCEPTED)
"Deadly Decisions" (since June 8)
"Shell Games" (in beta edits)

Aston West
novels
short stories
writing goals

Saturday Special - Interview with T. K. Toppin

Greetings everyone! Today, we're going to have a special treat for the Saturday feature. My first interview (that I myself have given)! So, sit back and enjoy the question and answer session. And if you have any additional questions, feel free to leave a comment and T. K. Toppin should be by in a while to answer.

Me: Tell us a little bit about yourself. What makes you tick?

T.K. Toppin: I was born and raised in Barbados and this is where is still live with my husband, two geriatric dogs, and a humanoid cat. I’ve been (still am) a graphic artist for over twenty years now. I’ve always done creative things, whether it’s drawing, writing, making things…I’m just a general doodler/tinkerer. What makes me tick? I’m not sure. I like being on the sidelines, watching and observing and then reacting – or not. Coming from a Japanese background, living in a Caribbean setting, I’ve been observed and watched all my life. I sort of stood out. So, I just like to return the favour. People who know me will say that I am not in the least bit quiet or reserved, which, on first impression, they think. But I am. Really, I am. So stepping out onto the writing platform was a big deal for me. If you’ve ever read my blogs, I’ve written about my obvious aversion to public nudity – and writing is like exposing your inner self for all the world to see. Eek!

Me: Were there any authors (or anyone else for that matter) who inspired you along the way?

TKT: Are there any authors out there you just have to read when they have a new book out?
I’d say yes to that. I like to read this “In Death” series, done by J.D. Robb (Nora Roberts). Every time she puts out a new one in the series, I grab it and read it. It’s different to her other books she writes under her real name. I don’t really like those. I’ve got two sitting on my ‘to read’ shelf right now. Dean Koontz is another, especially his “Odd” series. I like his quirky way of writing. Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series is one of my favourites, that was my induction into the futuristic world of science fiction. He knew how to create worlds! Other’s I enjoy are Jonathan Stroud (Bartimaeus Trilogy), Eoin Colfer (Artemis Fowl series), of course JK Rowling, Diana Gabaldon. I like J.R.R. Tolkein as well, but it’s a hard read. Well written and detailed, but hard stuff! Its like reading history books sometimes. I recently read The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo by Steig Larson, and its sequel The Girl Who Played With Fire. I await the third, The Girl Who Kicked A Hornets Nest, to be translated and published in English – unfortunately that will be it since he’s passed away. But I loved the detailed way he wrote, keeping you thoroughly engrossed in what was happening.

Me: It’s been said that promoting one’s book is more difficult than actually writing it. Do you find this to be the case? How do you handle it?

TKT: I’d reply with a proper invective to agree – but I’ll keep this reader-friendly. But, most emphatically, yes!! Promoting the book has been the hardest, and possibly the hardest thing I’ve ever done. But, I do enjoy it since it’s a new area to explore. I’ve had to re-learn all my years in advertising and then learn about the literary world and how that rotates. Since my book is an e-book, I’ve also had to learn about the electronic and virtual world. I’ve never felt so thinly spread and exposed in my life. I mean, hello? I can be Googled now!! How cool is that!

Me: So tell us about The Lancaster Rule. What’s it about? Did anything inspire it?

TKT: Basically, it’s about a young woman who enters into a stasis pod, one that her scientist father constructed as a prototype. She ends up sleeping for 300 years and awakes into a greatly changed future. She now has to learn how to survive in this future but, of course, encounters all sorts of problems. She soon discovers that her past, and her future are so intricately linked (which is why it’s a trilogy). She finds love (gotta have romance, right?), she finds happiness, and she finds her true self.

The only thing that inspired this story was because I love to read books, or watch movies that are ‘epic’ in nature. You know, the ones that move you into that whole new universe. Where you go: wow! Where you fall in love with the characters, the places, the happenings. I wanted to create that feeling you get – full of adventure and intrigue, excitement and lots of wow-ness! I hope I got it. But judging by how some people have already reacted to it, I’d say it’s a close: yes!

Me: I notice The Lancaster Rule is listed as both Science Fiction and Fantasy. Is it more one than the other? Do you enjoy one more than the other (either reading or writing)?

TKT: Um…it’s a little of both. I mean time travel (fantasy) and technology (sci-fi) are borderline almost. They sort of go hand-in-hand. If I wanted to right pure fantasy, I would have done away with all the techie stuff, but then, I would’ve been a whole different story. As regards to reading it, yes. But I’d have to say, I prefer to read fantasy because you can make up anything and it’ll be real, in that world. For sci-fi books to grab my attention, something in it has to be based on something half-realistic or believable. Like I’d want to know the technicalities behind it. I like Star Trek, but I’d want to know how you can ‘energize’ people from one place to the next without losing bits of them. Well, I hear it’s been known to happen, but you know what I mean. I tried, with my book, to keep it as realistic as possible, with an open window for unreal. Like stasis technology is realistic, it can happen. If you sleep, rather than if you’re frozen. Cause to me, frozen means pretty much dead.

Me: If you could, describe your writing in a word or short phrase. Why should a reader want to desperately read your work?

TKT: Oh my god! Bleep-bleep, there goes another invective out my mouth…haha. I would have to say, that I HOPE they would desperately want to read my work. That I hope I’ve managed to create a new world that takes your imagination into an exciting and unforgettable ride. I hope you find the characters engaging and interesting – and funny, because that’s what I hoped they’d be…I basically wanted to write a character-driven story.

Me: When reading, sometimes secondary characters end up being as interesting or more so than the main characters. Were there any characters in The Lancaster Rule which begged to have more attention than they were originally planned for? Are there any you plan on giving their own story later?

TKT: Yes! There’s at least three characters, while I wrote about them, I decided along the way, that they were quite interesting and that I’d have to incorporate them more, or would have to incorporate them, into the sequel books. Some I’d planned on having back in the next books, but one character was just too interesting in LR to be ignored. His part was small, but it was like a wild card surprise when I decided that he would be the right momentum to carry book two. I developed his character more and added a nice little twist for the second book.

Me: If your book was made into a movie, who’d star in the cast?

TKT: Ha! Good question. I’ve answered this before, and since then, I’ve had time to think about it. For the heroine, Josie, I’m still not sure. It’s a toss up from strong female actresses like Kate Beckinsale (she just kicks ass!) to Keira Knightley (she’s got the softer, quirky side). For the hero, John, he’d have to have an equally strong presence, like my first choice, would be someone like Karl Urban. He’s got that silent, brooding look he mastered in Chronicles of Riddick. But physique-wise, I’d go for a Brandon Routh type from the new Superman…although, he’s a bit youngish for my hero. It’s hard since I’ve already formed an image in my head of all the characters, that to see a different face portray them is a little disorienting.

Me: What’s next for T. K. Toppin? Do you have any more novels in work? Publications coming up on the horizon?

TKT: I’ve completed the second in the series, The Master Key. It’s still not ready to be handed in for publishing. I’ve got some more polishing to do with it, get the kinks out. The third, The Eternal Knot, is so very close to being complete, but it needs to tie in smoothly with the second book in order for it to make some sense. After that, I’ve two more books, completely unrelated to the Lancaster series, that I’d like to write. Very contemporary in theme and nothing to do with sci-fi.

Me: How can a reader find you on the web?

TKT: You can find me spread out across the universe. Eek! First of all, you’ll find me listed at my publisher’s site. There’s Twitter if you feel like following me (I’m really not that interesting), or a Facebook page called The Lancaster Rule you might want to join that will keep you up-to-date on LR happenings, my blog page or my website (still under construction but in working order) with all the links if you wanted to buy the book. Or, ha-ha! Just Google me.

Me: Thanks for stopping by, T. K.! And now, for all those readers out there, here's a short blurb from The Lancaster Rule:

The world loathes Josie Bettencourt's kind – pod-survivors from the past. When death is certain, an ex-military and friend to the pod-hunters, saves her life. Unfortunately, she is soon arrested and taken straight to the Citadel, the heart of the Lancaster regime where they have ruled tyrannically for over fifty years. Now, young John is in power, hoping to make a change, to erase the wars, famines and unimaginable terror. When Josie meets the frighteningly powerful John Lancaster, she has to ask, is he really the so-called tyrants' spawn? She soon discovers who the true tyrants are by unraveling a deadly plot to take over the world. And she realizes that her life in this new future are indelibly linked to the one she left behind.

The Lancaster Rule, the first of a three-part saga, takes you on an exciting rollercoaster ride, 300 years into the future!

Weekly Goals - June 8, 2010

On a roll...hoping to keep it up.

Results for this week:

1. 8800 /5000 words completed
2. Submitted two short stories to magazines
3. 2000 words on a new story "Tangled Love"

And now the goals for this coming week:

1. Edit 5000 words on The Cure
2. 1000 words on "Tangled Love"

Submission status for the week:

Short stories:
"Collateral" (since April 1)
"Conventional Wisdom" (since June 6)
"Deadly Decisions" (since June 8)
"Shell Games" (with beta readers)

Aston West
novels
short stories
writing goals

A Pair of Plugs (and Giveaways)

Been quite a busy summer so far, and it's only going to get busier...

Check out my latest interview over at The Lancaster Rule Blog, comment (or ask additional questions) and get yourself entered for a free copy of Friends in Deed. Winners will be picked from anyone who posts before tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11:59 PM.

And if that wasn't enough, I'm also Author of the Week over at Candice Gilmer's blog, Inside an Author's Mind. Check out the blog, and be sure to stop on by throughout the week when we'll be doing various giveaways. Especially get over there Wednesday, when we'll be experiencing the return of Useless Movie Knowledge (and a free giveaway of Friends in Deed)!

Enjoy!!!

Know Your Weakness

As a new writer, one of the biggest traps we fall into is to continue writing exactly as we did the time before. Perhaps if you were published with world-wide distribution the first (and every subsequent) time you submitted your manuscript, this is a real possibility. For the rest of us mere mortals, it’s important to work on our writing, to continuously develop it until we begin getting more acceptances than rejections.

So, how do we accomplish this?

First, we need to figure out what exactly it is that may be driving our rejection rate up. In that, we have to take a hard look at what our weaknesses might be. Dialogue stiff and stale? Characters uninteresting and one-dimensional? Plots not moving anywhere? No growth in the characters?

One of my own is a lack of description, for both the characters or the surrounding scenery. I suffer from being a writer of minimalist proportions. In other words, if I don’t see a point to giving a description of something, I leave it out. For example, if it really doesn’t matter whether someone has blue eyes or brown, I don’t think to include the information. Even if that character is a main player in the particular story, it still gets dropped.

Needless to say, this is likely why my novels end up being so short, and probably why I still get a sizeable number of rejections.

So, now that we’ve determined what our weaknesses are (and I’ve limited my discussion just to this one, even if I have several others), we need to work on eliminating them. Make time in your writing schedule to work on exercises which will serve to strengthen those writing muscles. In my own example, I’ve made it a goal to write several stories in which I’ve gone out of my way to develop more description of things I’ve never thought were important before.

Now this isn’t to say that this overdone description will eventually make it into the final product. Part of the remaining process will be in determining what should stay and what should go. Getting it out on paper and developing our writing technique to overcome our weakness is only the first step. As with any development, it will take time, but the end result should be well worth the effort.

So, figure out what needs work in your own writing. Once you know your weaknesses, develop your writing to overcome them.

***

T. M. Hunter has always had a fascination with interstellar travel, spacecraft and beings from other worlds. Twice a top ten finisher in the P&E Readers Poll for his short stories (2007, 2009), his book HEROES DIE YOUNG earned several accolades, including Champagne Books’ Best-Selling Book of 2008 award. FRIENDS IN DEED is his latest novel. For more information, including links to his published short stories and novels, please visit AstonWest.com. You can also find T. M. Hunter on Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace.

Weekly Goals - June 1, 2010

For better or worse, even though I was at a convention this past weekend, I still got quite a bit accomplished.

Results for this week:

1. 5200 /5000 words completed
2. Completed the first draft of my untitled story

And now the goals for this coming week:

1. Edit 5000 words on The Cure

Submission status for the week:

Short stories:
"Collateral" (since April 1)
"Conventional Wisdom" (need to re-submit)
"Deadly Decisions" (rejected, need to re-submit)
"Shell Games" (with beta readers)

Aston West
novels
short stories
writing goals