My adventure as an author has undergone a change of direction.  It was an expected change, and planned for, but that doesn't mean I really had much of an idea in which direction it was going to go.
     Of course I've already had some skinned elbows and knees, perhaps even a cracked skull on my adventure thus far.    
     Back when I was barely out of the starting gate, I remember my first official critique by my writer's group, the mighty CALIHOO.  I was chomping at the bit to get my first one, so that I could either show off what I was capable of, or know which direction I needed to go.  I have to admit I was hoping for the former, but I prepared for the latter. 
     When I handed out my manuscript, carefully kept at the maximum number of words allowed, I handed out a red pen to each of the other writers in the group along with it.  Then I waited, not so patiently, during the intervening week.
     First let me tell you, because of that manuscript, the group changed the maximum number of words allowed downward.  That was blow number one.  Then they each started to let me know what they thought of my effort.
     Now, having attended one of the meetings as a guest, years before I joined, I knew they could be brutally honest in their assessments.  But let me tell you, witnessing it from the outside is vastly different from sitting in the chair of the critiqued.  The next two hours were some of the worst I'd endured in my entire life.  I knew the rule, you didn't argue or defend your work, which makes sense.  If you need to defend your writing, then you didn't write it well enough.  If you need to explain outside the work, then, oops... well, you know.
     They had all used the red pens I'd given them, and bled freely over the pages of the manuscript.  I'd expected it, truly, but the bloody massacre was almost more than I could take.  I questioned myself whether I really wanted to be a writer many times that evening.  I almost stood up several times, to apologize for my mistake and leave.
     But I didn't.  I took copious notes, along with everything they'd written in their copies.  I listened.  Then I went home to bind my wounds.
     Each time after that there was less blood on my pages, and more little hearts or smiley faces on parts they liked.  Eventually it got to the point where I heard, more than once, the story had gripped them enough they forgot to look for my mistakes.
     They say every writer needs to write at least a million words before they start to get good.  Well, I busted out those million as fast as I could.  I didn't keep track of where I was on that scale before I started getting great positive feedback.
     I'm still improving, hopefully I always will be, but I'm ready now for the next step of the adventure.
     Our group had the great privilege of being visited by two authors who've spent some time on the New York Times Best Seller List.  Both of them gave very similar advice about how to succeed as an independent author.  At the time neither one of them were very impressed with the changes traditional publishing had undergone.
     What both of them told us, was to get three books published, ideally involving the same characters, before you start your marketing.  They said when people finish reading the first book, and they like it, there was a fairly good chance they'd start reading the second.  If they finished that one, and still liked it, there was a greater chance they would move straight into the third.  If they liked that one, then we would have them hooked and we'd have some dedicated readers.  Readers who would most likely buy anything we put out after that.
     Well, I just published my third book in the series, Out of the Mist, so I'm ready!
     The next leg of the journey is beginning, and I have to say, it is more daunting than all I've done before.
     Marketing,  the one thing most authors dread.  We can't write our way, for the most part, out of this trial.  We have to talk to people, we have to talk about our creations instead of letting them speak for us.  We have to put ourselves out there.
     We also have to overcome peoples disbelief and impressions.  We've all read stuff we didn't like, quite often by new writers who haven't honed their skills yet.  So when a new author comes along and asks people to read their stuff, many of us dread digging in, afraid it's going to be torture, as well as fearing letting the writer know it's bad.
     I've received enough reviews of my books, by people whose opinions I trust, to know most readers are going to enjoy them.  Now I just have to convince everyone else.
     So, tallyho, here we go.  I have my salakhoff (the pith helmet most call a safari hat) and am ready to march into the jungle!

I just finished my fourth novel, right on the heels of my third, which is being edited, and I've run headlong right into a wall.  Unlike the first three, which are modern, mythological fantasies, this one is more of an erotic thriller.  Though still fiction, it is separated from the others by at least a few degrees, genre speaking.  So I am confronted with the possible necessity of publishing it under a pen name.
     There are several reasons why I should probably do this, of course.  Readers tend to like their authors to write in just one genre, otherwise they are perceived to be too much of a "Jack-of-all-trades", and their books probably aren't as good as an author who sticks to just one genre.  I've already noted this phenomena in my career as a visual artist, where I indulge myself in painting, photography, and sculpture, as well as commercial art.
     Many authors of the past and present have used Nom de Plumes for this very reason, to keep separate their various readerships.  Okay, it's common practice, so why do I hesitate?
     The biggest reason, though, for me personally, to consider using a pen name, and thus try to build two reputations instead of just one--which is hard enough, believe me--is because of gender bias.
     I just read a string on one of Goodreads' forums about this very question.  The general opinion there was that men tended to be better at writing tight plots, while women were better at writing deep characters.  The posters on that string were quite convinced--for the most part--that neither gender was very good at the other, respectively.  The feeling was that they were more likely to read a male author's contributions in female dominated genres if that man wrote under either a gender neutral pen name, or one of a woman, both of which are common.  Once that--I hesitate to use the word deception, but lets be frank--had been accepted, and the work judged for itself, the readers were more likely to accept the author, even if they were to find out it was a man.  Now, don't get me wrong, this happens in the opposite direction as well, with women authors in male dominated genres.
     My big question, I suppose, is why we, as a species, do this.  Why does there have to be a conflict.
     If you were to read my new book, which is written first person, from a woman's point of view, would you automatically discount the character, thinking that I, as a man, cannot properly write that character.
     When it comes down to it, that is the only real reason I am considering coming up with a pen name, to give that character a fair chance of being accepted for who she is.  I don't really care if some readers think I'm too much a Jack-of-all-trades, because, let's face it, I am.  I don't really care if some people will be turned off the erotic elements in the story and may judge my other works because of that.  I mean, sure, I want to be successful as a writer, and to be that, I need to make money doing it.  But, bottom line, the real reason is I want that character, and that story, to be judged on their own merits, and not by the person who happened to write them.
       

As I was going through the posts on Facebook this morning, an activity that consumes the time for many of us these days, I came across a discussion that had little to do with the post that started it.  In the post, one of my friends mentioned that she had many "religious" friends who were progressive.  At that point, another friend, piped up and took umbrage at being labeled a "progressive", which he equated to being called a "socialist/communist".

Labels, a tool that we use in our daily lives as a supposed aid in understanding, in most cases--if not all--becomes just the opposite in my opinion.  As soon as we hang a label on someone, we hang all of the meanings that people have associated with that label, like the chains and chests burdening Marley's ghost.

Think of all the labels you know, Democrat, Republican, Socialist, Communist, Progressive, Gay, Artist, Worker, etc. ad infinitum.  What thoughts do each of those things bring to mind, what attributes are you attributing to the person by using the label?  Does the label fully describe the person you are hanging it on?

All of these words used to be adjectives with which we could describe something.  They were never meant to be end-all phrases to entirely define a person.  But, quite often, that is exactly what we do.   And, most often, the labels, with their associated meanings--quite often at odds with the associated meanings hung on them by another person--have nothing to do with the original meaning of the word.

This is not a new trend, unfortunately, and probably won't end soon, but I am dedicating myself to stop using them.  They do an injustice to the person being labeled, and they do an injustice to my own understanding of that person.

Well, I finally got my second book published on Amazon.  Apache Moon is the second in the series, Out of the Mist, following Ancient Memory.

The back cover reads:
Following an incredible transformation in Ancient Memory, the first book in the
Out of the Mist series, Chance Black must find and rescue Onawah Vaishali, another of the Ancients, an immortal race of beings who used to be worshipped as Gods.

Chance is aided by Aine McCarthy, a sorceress who used to protect Chance’s Ancient sister, Creirwy. They are accompanied by Koi, a clever and mysterious modern Apache warrior. Together, they must solve the mystery in the Superstition Mountains of Arizona.

Meanwhile, the surviving priestesses of Creirwy find themselves running from the Ancients with whom they used to be allied. They must find out what happened to their missing Goddess or fall.

The first draft of this book took me a mere two and a half weeks to write and then over six months to edit, rewrite, edit, and rewrite again.  It went from 48,000 words to nearly 76,000 words.  It was quite a journey, both with my characters--which I very much enjoyed--and with the learning experience of the whole thing.  The writing group that I belonged to, Callihoo (facebook page, Callihoo Publishing--this is a group of extremely talented writers, I highly recommend checking out some of their work), helped me a great deal in learning how to polish my skills as a writer (an ongoing process) as well as teaching me how to edit.

Now the adventure turns a different direction: marketing.  A successful author recently told me that being a success at the business of writing is 30% writing and 70% marketing.  Most writers I know quail at this prospect (most of us are a bit introverted and aren't excited about pounding the pavement and selling our product).  Don't get me wrong, I love talking to people, especially if I can indulge in deep conversations, the deeper the better.  But selling is a different matter, especially if the product is one of my own.  The reason isn't what most people think, either; the fear of rejection.  I know that not everybody is going to like what I do, and that doesn't effect me.  It is really that I don't like being a pushy, buy my book, buy my book, buy my book, kind of guy.  Oh, by the way, buy my book.  That just doesn't work for me.  Unfortunately, being a self published author, I'm all I've got.

Now, no pressure here, but I am looking forward to the day, when somebody has read my book, and we can get into a discussion about the characters, the plot, the world (which is ours, actually, with some tweaks).  That would make my day.

As I was working on the picture above, I thought about that famous--infamous--cliche--saying many times.  The amount of time that it took me to paint it, was roughly the same as it took me to write half of the first draft of the novel the scene takes place in, some twenty thousand words,  The picture, as it happens in the book is described in perhaps a paragraph, maybe less, though, being but an instant in time, actually takes place between one word and the next.

It would take perhaps a thousand words to sufficiently describe the image, but they would be words no one today would have the patience to read, especially in an action novel.

Just some musings on the state of things.  Let me know what you think.

It was an incredible day.  There have been many times lately when I questioned my ability to manifest positive things into my life, but today reversed all of that.  Hopefully that faith will last awhile.

I just finished my second book, "Apache Moon", in my series, "Out of the Mist".  I decided to take a break before I did my rewrite of "Animus Rising", the third in the series and continue with a second series that I have in progress, "Free".

The books in this series are going to be illustrated (perhaps heavily).  I decided that it would be best if I found models for the characters, at least for the lead character.

Sunday, I went to East Creek reservoir for a day or recreation.  Of course, I cannot just spend time on recreation, so I drew what I thought my lead character would look like (drawing to left).

I had no idea of where I would find a model for this character, but today I thought I would trust to the Universe.  I got on my bike after doing some painting for a friend, closed my eyes and decided to let the Universe lead me to her.

Normally, when riding my bike I am extremely aware of everything around me (from a sheer sense of survival), but today, all I was aware of was where I was being led.  I tried using senses centered around my head and felt as if I was being led.  However, just the heat of the sun on my face seemed to interfere, so I decided to follow my heart.

There were a few times that I wandered off course, but quickly recovered.  I ended up at the center of one of the areas malls where I felt the sense that was leading me stop.  I closed my eyes to try and feel more, but felt nothing.  Then I opened up my eyes and the woman that I had drawn the day before was standing right in front of me, light curly blonde hair and all.  I told her the story, gave her my number, and now we will see if she calls.

Well, I've finally published my first novel, it is available on Amazon.com in both e-book (Kindle only for the first 90 days) and paper back.  I am also offering a limited edition (for details see: http://arthurscreations.weebly.com/writings.html)

Although it took almost a year to get this one done (writing and editing, rewriting and editing) I am in the process of re-writing the second one in the series and I have written the first drafts of books three through four and partially into the fifth book.

I have to thank Barbara Loewenhagen, my daughter Marianna and my writing group, CALIHOO for helping me get this book done.

Whew!

Check it out and write a review on Amazon.