(2/27/22)
I am delighted to report that my hardcover has been adopted by the Anna Porter Public Library in Gatlinburg, TN. If you live in that wonderful town, please be sure to check me out!
My wife and I still try to visit the Tennessee Mountains once every year. This past November, we arrived just in time to enjoy the beautiful leaf change. There’s no place in the whole wide world quite like the Smoky Mountains in the fall. Even that fire they had a few years back failed utterly to dampen the area’s ancient majesty.
Beta News!
I have some other good news as well, and Lord knows we need it. My second book is coming along nicely. My wife and I are now 2/3rds done with our pre-beta edit pass, and I’ve even come up with a cover idea, though the title is still up in the air. Maybe by the time we are done that will have come to me as well.
This time, I’m going to try to source beta readers from participating libraries (i.e. libraries that stocked the hardcover of my first novel, AWB). Here are some of the details I’ve come up with, which are all subject to change:
WHO
Any avid reader interested in the following bargain: In exchange for reading and providing detailed timely feedback on an 115,000 word novel manuscript, participants will receive a written acknowledgement in the finished product, as well as a signed hardcover copy of same.
WHAT
The synopsis and logline will come later; but this is my beta pitch: TITLE PENDING is a brand new stand-alone character-based low fantasy adventure story written for all ages. Featuring drama and comedy, the tale is supposed to be just as serious as it isn’t. This is not A Witch’s Burden—a book written with a message—but a genre piece intended for escapist retro readers of the mass market.
The work does have sequel potential but is entirely self-contained. I have nothing against short series authors, but that’s not me. I think if you put a book—a story—together, it should come complete with a beginning and an end.
This effort is my attempt to write the sort of story that I enjoy; and, for this reason, before you agree you probably need to know more about me.
I grew up in what I consider the golden age of fantasy gaming. Heard of Gary Gygax? I met him at the first DragonCon in Atlanta. He signed my D&D Players Handbook. And I met Michael Moorcock there as well—even before I’d read the first book of his Elric saga. The reason I mention gaming first is that the era brought about a fantasy literature renaissance. And that’s not all; gaming became highly influential in manga and anime as well. I want to say Hajime Kanzaka, the creator of Slayers, is about my age, and, like me, was inspired by his gaming back in the day.
This new book I’ve written is my Slayers, though it isn’t really anything like Kanzaka’s work. Well, it is, in one critical respect having to do with adventure vs. plot. My story has a plot, but the plot—I hope—doesn’t swallow the characters. My story has a plot, but also not at the expense of all the little adventures along the way.
Do you remember what was good about the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer? (Another slayer… though this focus is not intentional.) It was the strong characters, their wonderful interactions during those fabulous first two seasons of adventure and discovery. Before Joss destroyed the show later with too much plot and too much misery… I wanted my new book to be a little like that, if any of what I am saying here makes any sense at all.
In any event, you now know I like old-school gaming, fantasy novels, manga, and anime. I like the strong characters of shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer. And add to all this, my deep love of the South, where I was raised, and you’ll perhaps get the flavor—a vague idea of the kind of story I have written.
WHEN
Hopefully, I’ll have the beta manuscript ready for readers by the end of spring. I know I’ve been pokey, but it’s a lot of work, and the distractions this stupid world has thrown my way have slowed me down.
WHERE
Check my page HERE for libraries that stock the hardcover of my first novel. I’m hoping librarians at these institutions can put me on the path to three to five readers. In any event, no more than ten, with their only qualification being an interest in the genre.