Tag: Duilleog Page 5 of 6

Missed Deadline

On February 4, 2015

In Duilleog Volume One, The Art of Writing

So I have missed my own assigned deadline for my first novel. It has sat untouched for a few months now. I have lots of excuses though. I wrote a cookbook and had it printed. That’s one excuse. I started a Distance Learning staff course in September and that may have been the biggest mistake.

I’ll complete the course – I have no choice – but it was a mistake because it thrust me firmly back in military writing AND it eats up just about all my spare time. More accurately it eats into the spare time I had allotted to writing. And to be more honest, the course demands a lot of writing and after a while you get tired of writing.

I haven’t forgotten my book. It won’t let me forget. It whispers to me all the time. Spooky stuff. My goal is to get it to my editor BEFORE I turn fifty.

The good news. There has to be some, correct? The good news is that I am more ‘sure’ that the first novel is correct in its present format. It is in two parts, you see. The first part is all lovely fun stuff with a great character. The second part is really gloomy stuff but critical stuff. I was thinking of merging the two and I have really thought long and hard about that. I have decided not to. I am happy with the way it is. So there nagging brain voice. Shut up already!

More good news. I have solved a problem in my other novel. My sci-fi one. I just need oodles of time to write it now.

Lastly, I have the most amazing gem of a new idea for a story in my head. It makes me giddy just thinking about it. I mean, it really excites me and I need that to write it. Its urban fantasy and life after death and other stuff and it just kind of hit me one night as I was trying to go to sleep. Why is it that all my great ideas happen when I am trying to go to sleep? And why is it that I solve my writing problem whilst I am running? No idea.

Speaking of running, I’m doing this: George Washington Parkway Classic 10 Miler. Should be fun! It will be my first race in a new age category of M5059. That’s good, right?

Ciao!

Progress Report

By donald

On September 9, 2014

In The Art of Writing

I am getting through my first revision much faster than I expected it would take. And, surprisingly, it is actually fun. I thought I would be slicing and dicing but in reality I am adding content more than I am taking away. I also found a small plot problem so that works.

Duilleog (Volume One) looks like it will be around 100,000 words – or about 250 paperback pages. That seems reasonable for a first novel. I have decided, today, to include an excerpt from the second volume in it at the end: As an incentive to buy the second one, don’t you know. All-in-all its positive progress!

What I wish is that a free editor-person would fall out the sky and say “I’ll professionally edited your book for freeeeeeee!” That would be something!

Kindle Book Cover for Duilleog

By donald

On September 6, 2014

In Duilleog Volume One

Kindle Cover for Duilleog

This is the Kindle version. On a kindle you only need the front cover – not the spine and back cover. So much easier! When doing a full cover you need to determine what the spine width will be and that is calculated based on the number of pages and the type of paper you use. Fun times building the full cover. Tell me what you think about the tree in the middle. I thought it would catch the eye, but it might be cluttering things. Ciao!

The First Book Cover

By donald

On September 6, 2014

In Duilleog Volume One

Duilleog Full Cover

Well here it is. This is my first book cover. Hopefully this will stand out against the thousands of other books on Amazon. It was fun creating this and now I have a template to use for future books in this series. I’ll post the single cover page as well in a moment. That will be the cover for Kindle uploads. The empty white box is where the bar code gets printed by CreateSpace. Just in case you were wondering.

All images and graphics were obtained from www.123RF.com – a royalty free website full of images and such. So I paid a fee for each image and then I need to credit them – which I do under the copyright page. I had to ‘modify’ the images a little – hopefully that doesn’t piss off the artists. Shouldn’t.

I was so surprised when I stumbled upon the top image – the one with the castle in the background. It popped up with another search string and shouldn’t even have appeared. But it did and I immediately knew it was right for my book. I love it. I stretched the image across the front and back – some is hidden off page and below the lower section. If anyone is interested I’ll post the image up on its own with artist credit attached.

This is not a cheap adventure in hindsight, but my goodness it has been fun so far. I begin working on the second draft today. That will be hard work. I’ll have to trim a bit and that will be like cutting a couple of inches off one of my children…le sigh…

Mahalo!