The Arrival Part Two: Wired For Sound

For as frightening as the prospect of people reading and, in turn, reviewing, "Pray" is, it is thankfully currently being overshadowed by a somewhat regular stream of adrenaline and enthusiasm.  In other words, I'm amped.

It's a pretty fantastic feeling, really, although I'll admit that it's made logging hours at my day job even more tedious than normal.  And perhaps this is the only time when I'll feel this way, assuming that I will end up either basking in the glow of wonderful reviews and incredible sales or or reading horrible reviews while wiping my tears with pages torn from the stacks and stacks of unsold books.  Still, I have a thing for eve's, the night before the main event, and right now I'm riding an extended eve before the book campaign moves into full swing.

Which, coincidentally enough, kind of sort of starts tomorrow.  While the books has yet to be officially released to book stores, it will be available for them to order soon.  Getting bookstores to order a book by a first time author about an unknown person is probably about as hard as you would think, which means they'll take some convincing -- and there are a lot of bookstores out there.  It would be great if there were some way for me to talk to a lot of different bookstores in one spot, in one afternoon...

And, lo, I live in Los Angeles, and this weekend is the Los Angeles Time Festival of Books!

My publisher sent me an information sheet for the stores to use (ordering info and the like), as well as bookmarks good for any occasion (but mostly for promoting the book).  So tomorrow I will brave the bright California sun as I make my way from booth to booth, trying to convert bookstore managers to the "Pray" cause.

It's kind of an impressive step for me to take, to be honest.  I'm generally a misanthrope with periodic bursts of overly enthusiastic social tendencies.  I also generally dread anything that I plan in advance.  Needless to say, I'll probably be pretty nervous tomorrow.  But I think the fact that it's a book fair will put me at ease.  These are people who are in the business of books, but who also love books.  And while they might be flooded with hundreds of new books every month, they still want to find the best books for their store.

So, please, wish me luck.  And if you know anyone who's going to the LA Times Festival of Books on Saturday, tell them to get in touch with me, or look for me: I'll be the sweaty guy trying to give things away.

The Arrival Part One: Six, Twenty-two Pound Boxes

The book on the floor in my living room. It's real!

I got my copies of "Pray" yesterday.  They arrived just as the title of this blog says, in six boxes that are currently stacked up in our living room, much to the interest of the cats.

Nicole is actually out of town at the moment, but through the wonders of technology (also known as Skype) we were able to video chat while I opened the first box and pulled out a copy of my very first book.*

It was kind of a weird moment.  I would imagine it's probably a miniature version of having a child.  This was a joyous occasion, after all.  It had been years since I started "Pray" and even more years since I first put pencil to paper and fancied myself a writer.  For all the one off short stories in online journals and self-published books, this was it: my first real breakthrough.  My first tangible moment.

And yet.

Actually have these books in my possession makes all of this very real; it also marks the beginning of the next phase, which is getting people to buy the book.  I have to get out there and I have to promote it, and that's kind of terrifying.

I think anyone who knows me is probably thinking "are you kidding me? You should be great at promoting the book!"  Because, when I finally coerce myself to be out going, I can run with the best of them.  But I'm not promoting my Microsoft Office skills to my boss at a job that I know is beneath me.  I'm not talking about my relationship with Nicole, one of the few things in this world that I am confident in.  I'm not even talking about my usual nerdy things, like comic books or music or television.  No, I have to go out there and promote a book that I wrote, something I put years of my life into, something that means an awful lot to me.

I have to convince people that not only is this a book worth reading, but that I'm a writer worth trusting.

Even scarier is the idea that if I convince people to buy "Pray," they'll then write reviews about it.  By default, this is going to be the most widely read piece of work that I've ever created, so by default it will end up getting the most feedback.  And as I'm sure most writers would tell you, our egos fluctuate between gargantuan and minuscule -- and that's on a normal day.  Throw some reviews in there and who knows what you'll get.

Strangely enough, the one area in which I feel no pressure concerns the fact that this book is about my grandparents.  Yes, I do feel a bit nervous about the idea that some of the men my grandfather served with might read this and take issue with some of the finer details.  But I know that my family will enjoy the book and I know that my grandmother will cherish it, and, in that respect, it's enough for me.  I think my grandfather would be happy.

I started writing "Pray" with two goals in mind: to do my grandfather's life justice and to take a big step into the literary world.  I'm confident in the first; here's hoping I can do just as well with the second.

The Making Of, Part 2: Skills

I have a Master's degree in Creative Writing.

That's set-up, not bravado.  As they say, my degree and $17 will get me a cup of coffee (I actually don't know how much a cup of coffee is these days, but I figure that's about right).  I think it would be safe to assume, though, that I, at the very least, have some knowledge on how to write, just as I think it would be safe to assume that someone with a degree in Spanish probably has some knowledge on how to speak Spanish, at least more so than those of us who didn't pursue that degree.

Technically, my degree is in Creative Writing Fiction, and that should be your first clue as to where this is going.  All of the work I did for my Master's not only involved writing fiction, it consisted entirely of short stories.  That's what I did for those two years and kind of what I did before those two years and almost exclusively what I did after those two years.

I spent most of my time writing fictional short stories and then decided to write a non-fiction book.

That would explain a good part of why it took me so long to write this thing.

The Making Of, Part 1: Time Keeps On Ticking

A reasonable facsimile of the making of "Pray"

I started "Pray" in January of 2006.  The version that Hellgate Press read and agreed to publish was ultimately completed at the end of 2009, just shy of 4 years after it was started.  And "Pray" wasn't even the first book I wrote.

No, that distinction goes to a novel I started in late 2002.  The current, "final" version of that wasn't completed until, oh, the summer of 2009.

A year ago, I started writing a YA (young adult) book.  I recently handed the first draft to my in-house editor (more on that later).

The obvious thread among these little snippets is that a book takes a long time to write.  While my novel didn't get to the point where it was "finished" until 2009, the initial first draft -- the one I was willing to let people read -- took roughly a year to write.  In fact, the initial first draft of "Pray" took a year to write...just like the initial first draft of my YA book.

Apparently, one year is my time frame for completing a solid first draft, which is actually pretty impressive, given that I have a day job.  It's considerably less impressive when I factor in all the revisions I end up doing, which results in something like, oh nearly 7 years going by before I'm comfortable with my novel.  It is interesting to note that the copy of my YA book that I gave to my in-house editor has already undergone some substantial revision, perhaps more so than any other book I've given to her, which is a result of how much less time it took to write the initial draft.

Not at all what my editor is like.

Now, there are a number of reasons for this.  Obviously, I'm getting better and the whole "writing a really long book" thing.  And a YA a book that features monsters and magic and teen romance?  Well, that's right in my wheel house (it also offers fewer opportunities to be horribly self-indulgent, which is one of my biggest flaws as a writer...and as a person, really).  So it make sense that writing my YA book was a smoother process.

But I think the main factor was the fact that I'm older.

On one hand, I could chalk it up to realizing that my dream of writing for a living is starting to fade away with every candle I add to my birthday cake.  On the other hand, I think that, as we get older, we tend to put things into perspective.  I know the things that are important to me and I waste less time on the things that aren't.

Honestly, I think that's a byproduct of writing "Pray."  I think it's a byproduct of learning how my grandparents lived their lives.  I'm still distracted by all the various and sundry gadgets and flashing lights of the modern world, but at the end of the day I feel far more focused than I was, say, ten years ago.

This new found maturity is also a result of the influence of my in-house editor, Nicole, who is also known as my wife.  I could point to a lot of ways in which Nicole and I work well together -- some of which are actually in "Pray" -- but on a purely symbolic level (and I'm a sucker for symbolism), it's hard to beat the fact that she's an editor and I'm a writer.

Much closer to what my editor is like.

Granted, Nicole doesn't edit books, she edits those fancy moving pictures all the kids are talking about.  But editing is editing, particularly when it comes to story.  She knows what is needed and what is fluff.  She knows what works and what doesn't.  The fact that she reads a lot helps a great deal, too.  Oh, and she's absolutely not afraid to tell me if something is awful, even if it hurts my delicate writer ego.

It should come as no surprise that the first book I ever wrote was written before I met Nicole and, in turn, took the longest to get right.

All of this has me wondering: how long will it take me to write my next book?  You know, it would probably take substantially less time if I didn't have a day job...

Street Team!

Back in the day, before everyone knew how to use the internet, "indie" bands (as they came to be known) had to depend upon the kindness of strangers to spread the word about their music.

Basically, they would get fans to sign up to be a part of their "street team."  These fans would then be tasked with promoting the band in their particular neck of the woods.  When the band came to town for a show, the street team would put up fliers, often sent to them by the band itself.  When a new album came out, the street team would do whatever they could to make sure people knew about it.  Stickers often came into play.  Sometimes there were patches

These street teams were like an advance squad, sent to lay the ground work for the coming force.  And the success of that force could often times be directly connected to the success of the street teams.

I've decided that I need a street team or, more specifically, that "Pray" needs one.

I've managed to live in a few different parts of the country over the span of my life, and I've manage to make some friends who have moved to even more parts.  Were I an international man of intrigue, I would say that I have a network of spies set up around the country.

My hope is that these kind souls -- and anyone else who might be interested -- will decide they'd like to help me out, that perhaps the cause of promoting "Pray" is a worthy one.

So if you're interested, let me know, either here or on Facebook.  I probably can't offer anything besides my undying gratitude and perhaps a few freebies.