Writing has begun on Book Three of the Taesian Chronicles

After about a month of planning and research, I have created a Plot Event List and have begun primary composition of the third book in the Taesian Chronicles. At this point, my working title is The Paragon's Call. Stay tuned on that.

My production rate is currently averaging 3,100 words a day, but unfortunately I'm only writing one day a week. Part of my problem is I rarely have the creative energy to write in the evenings after work. If I could do that, then I'd have my book written in a month.

As has been the case with my first two books, Ohlen's Arrow and its sequel, Ohlen's Bane, I'm relying heavily on the brilliance that is called Scrivener, from Literature and Latte. This program is a serious productivity tool for writers.

Ohlen's Bane is now available

Ohlen's Bane is coming soon!

I am now in the process of publishing my second novel, Ohlen's Bane. It is the sequel to Ohlen's Arrow. It is currently available for Kindle from Amazon.com, and will soon be available for Nook tablets at Barnes & Noble, and for iOS devices through the iTunes Bookstore. Stay tuned.

I have made a free preview edition available in PDF. You can download it here.

Ohlen's Bane on target for Thanksgiving release

I have finished all revisions to Ohlen's Bane and released it back to my editor for mechanical editing -- grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. -- and am on target to have the book ready for release by Thanksgiving.

Ohlen's Bane will be available for sale for Kindle at Amazon.com, for Nook at Barnes & Noble, and for iOS devices at the Apple iTunes Bookstore.

In additional news, I have begun the concepting phase of the third book in the Ohlen's series, which is as of yet untitled.

Could Ohlen's Arrow turn into a trilogy?

Ohlen's Arrow is published. The rough draft of Ohlen's Bane is completed and is now in the revision-editing phase. That was my original intention, just the two books. In the meantime, I had an idea for a new book that would be completely unrelated to the Ohlen's series and it has been bursting inside my head, eager to get written.

A friend gave me the idea of modifying my new story idea so that it can begin where Ohlen's Bane ends, effectively creating a third book in the Ohlen's series. After brainstorming some ideas, I found a way that I think may work. I am going to spend the next two weeks nailing down the overall plot points.

Once that is done, I will finish my revisions to Ohlen's Bane and move it forward into editing, then I will create a plot event list for the third book and move ahead with that.

Hiatus

I am currently on hiatus from writing while I get my new post-divorce life situated and settled. Stay tuned.

Ohlen's Bane status update

This is just a quick update on the status of my second novel, Ohlen's Bane. Two out of four beta readers have provided feedback. Based on their comments, I am on the fence about how to proceed. The book has promise but needs some work. I may revise the story based on that feedback, or I may scrap the book I have written and start over with a brand new story.

Stay tuned.

Ohlen's Bane goes to beta readers

This past weekend I completed the first round of revisions to Ohlen's Bane and released it to my team of beta readers, one of whom has never read the prequel, Ohlen's Arrow. Their feedback in particular will tell me if Ohlen's Bane can be read on its own without the reader getting confused by not having Ohlen's Arrow under their belt. That was my intention when writing it.

When I receive the feedback from my beta readers, I will make another round of revisions based on what they tell me, then I'll hand the book over to my editor for a final edit -- this time focusing on the mechanics of the words: punctuation, grammar, spelling, etc. This is often called a line edit.

Then I'll proofread the book one last time before publishing it and making it available for sale. My goal is to have it online for sale by March 31st.

And so it ends

I have reached the end of Ohlen's Bane, having written the last scene over the weekend. I still need to go back and add some parts to fill in a few plot holes, but the first draft of the book is more or less finished.

The next step will be to read what I have from front to back, notebook in hand, and make notes of things that are wonky, missing, extraneous, or erroneous. Writing is the exact opposite of carpentry. The woodworker measures twice and cuts once. The author writes numerous times, and then measures once, right before publication. And sometimes even after publication.

As I discovered with Ohlen's Arrow, the revision and editing phase of a book project can often take longer than the writing phase. This is where the rough stone gets polished, hopefully into a diamond. And this is where my editor and beta reading team really come into play. Without them, every book would be nothing more than wasted paper (or electrons).

And so it begins

This is just an update on my progress on the sequel to Ohlen's Arrow, Ohlen's Bane. I've written 39,000 words and expect the completed book to be about the same length as Ohlen's Arrow (which finished at roughly 64,000 words). These books aren't quite as long as some authors think they should be, but they have a lot of action at a decent pace, so by the time you're done reading them, you will have the same sort of breathless "Wow, that was fun!" reaction that you'd get after a roller coaster ride.

Thanks to designer Steven Novak, I also have a tentative cover design completed for Ohlen's Bane. I'll release it when I get closer to finishing the book, just in case the story takes an unexpected turn that influences the cover design itself.

Stay tuned.

How Scrivener Makes Ohlen's Bane Possible

As I have mentioned on this blog and on The Ardent Scribe, Scrivener has proven to be a wonderful tool for my writing and creative productivity. It's not about putting words to electronic paper -- a basic text editor can do that -- it's about organizing and maintaining that text as the process unfolds.

My second book, Ohlen's Bane, is possible because I am using Scrivener.

I started out with a plot event list. This is basically a list of sentences, each describing a specific scene in the book, in chronological order of how they will appear in the book. Once that is done, I begin my work in Scrivener.

I create a new scene, or text card, for each sentence. The scene title is 2-5 words describing what happens, and the full sentence I created in my plot event list goes into the card description. I drag and drop those scenes into roughly equal length chapters.

In the research section of Scrivener, I create cards for each named character in the book that describes their physical characteristics, personality and background. I also create a page of place names and yet another filled with randomly created names that I may grab from as new bit players turn up in my story.

Once Scrivener is pre-loaded with all of my research and scenes, I fire the trigger and begin writing.

Ohlen's Bane started off somewhat slowly. I wrote the first six chapters, about 10,000 words, and then read over what I'd written. It dragged. I found myself growing impatient for the good stuff to start happening. Thanks to Scrivener, I was able to drag and drop scenes to rearrange their order. I scrapped entire scenes -- not by deleting them, but by putting them into a Scrap chapter. This gave me recourse in case I found a use for them later on, or even just to grab fragments of scenes.

After paring it down and reorganizing scenes into a better order, I was able to start cranking away again. Now that my story found a good rhythm, thanks to Scrivener's ability to keep my book organized, I was then able to crank out 12,000 words in a single weekend.

When I finish one scene, I open up the text card for the next. Since it has a brief 2-3 sentence description of what happens, I am up to speed on what happens next and can bang it out in record time.

Scrivener really is a brilliant piece of software, and I don't think I'd ever get my second book written without it.

Be Willing to Kill Your Babies

When I was in high school, typing was a required course. We used IBM Selectric typewriters rather than computers. By the end of the one-semester course, I was the fastest in my class, banging out 90 error-free words per minute. It was the most useful thing I learned in high school.

Since moving to computers, I can edit as I type. I still type close to 90 wpm, but thanks to the backspace key, I type backwards even faster ... clickity clickity clickity WHACK WHACK WHACK clickity clickity clickity, etc.

Where am I going with this?

I'm working on my second book, the sequel to Ohlen's Arrow, tentatively entitled Ohlen's Bane. The first weekend I worked on it, I cranked out over 12,000 words. I typed a lot. Since then, my word count is up to 15,000. I decided to read over what I had so far, and although it was interesting, it wasn't engaging.

The last thing I want is for my book to require the reader suffer through to the fifth chapter before anything good happens. One of the things going for Ohlen's Arrow was its pace. It started with action and maintained an engaging level of action with few pauses throughout the story.

I am now killing my babies. As I read through my first four chapters, I am looking for sections that can be rearranged to maintain a better pace. I'm also looking for sections that aren't important at all. When I find them, I kill them. I'm not tied to the words I created. I can remove them and write new ones, better ones. The story also has sections that take far too long to get across what can be conveyed either indirectly or simply.

Because of my technical background, I tend to be rather verbose in my descriptions. I am learning to adopt a more compact and dense writing style, conveying an equal or greater amount of information in fewer words.

My goal is to write 100,000 words for Ohlen's Bane. I'll probably write more than that, because I know that during the revision and editing phase of the project, I'll be whacking the backspace key a lot more than any other.

I am willing to kill my babies.

NaNoWriMo and Ohlen's Bane

November is National Novel Writing Month, or NaNoWriMo. The goal is to write 50,000 words in 30 days. I had already begun writing my new novel, Ohlen's Bane, at the tail end of October, a process that included brainstorming and then creation of a plot event list. I set up Scrivener to have proper chapters and scenes based on that plot event list and had even begun writing Chapter 1.

Now that November and NaNoWriMo has come along, the timing is perfect for keeping me motivated. Over this past weekend I cranked out over 12,000 words on Ohlen's Bane and am now neck-deep in Chapter 4.

I set up Scrivener to have a project goal of 100,000 words, and a session goal of 3,000 words. It's very rewarding to see that 3,000 word goal whoosh by with tons of creativity and energy left in me. I think 50,000 words by November 30th is a very achievable goal.

Announcing Ohlen's Bane

I have begun writing the sequel to Ohlen's Arrow and have tentatively titled the new book Ohlen's Bane.

For the observant among you, you'll notice the A-B sequence between titles. This is intentional, but 'Bane' is not mere alphabetical coincidence, it is very apropos to the story.

Although I won't give away any spoilers, I can tell you that Ohlen and his friends will face the biggest challenge of their lives in this second book of the series.

Series? Does that mean there will be perhaps a third book, making it a trilogy? Honestly, I don't know. It's possible, though. Stay tuned.

Search for editor and cover designer for book 2

UPDATE 11-14-2013: I have hired an editor for Ohlen's Bane, but am still seeking a cover designer.

I have begun the process of creating the sequel to Ohlen's Arrow, and part of that effort involves interviewing editors and cover designers.

When writing Ohlen's Arrow, my first novel, I engaged the services of two different editors. Both contributed to the process but there were some lessons learned along the way. On this second book, I intend to make the selection process a bit more formal, with an actual interview and trial edit. The editors I hired for my first book were individuals that I already knew on a personal level, which by itself isn't inherently bad but it did introduce a few complications, including the fact that one of the editors wasn't professionally qualified.

The graphic designer I hired for the first book was talented and a joy to work with, but she had no cover design experience. Furthermore, she has opted to get out of graphic design for a while to spend more time with her newborn son. She's not available to work on the second book, so I need to find someone knew.

Reviews of Ohlen's Arrow from Amazon.com

I would like to quote the following reviews of Ohlen's Arrow, posted to Amazon.com:

"I enjoyed taking this journey with Ohlen and his friends. The balance between action and character development was perfect and the story was easy to follow. That can't always be said of a book in this genre and as a reader, I appreciate it. I'm happy to hear the author has begun the sequel, and I'm anxious to find out what's next for our hero."

"I was waffling on how many stars to rate this work. Since this was Mr. Williamson's first publication I decided to round it up to a 5 because I think his book is a great read and rounding down meant taking away a well deserved extra 1/2 a star which seemed wrong. His characters felt true to themselves and their environment. Their interactions were complex but fresh and not contrived. Mechanically it is a good story but it was the character development that made this first book such a great read. Most writers do not have Mr. Williamson's dexterity at crafting such realistic characters. I do not think this is the end for Ohlen and his friends. I look forward to seeing where Mr. Williamson takes this group next - especially my favorite character the one we last checked in on before the story closed - talk about a delightfully complex character construct."

Excerpt from Chapter 10, "The Dead Man Speaks"

As Merrick Stonehorn stood in the back of the crowd gathered in the courtyard, he watched Hadrick Burgoyne emerge onto the wooden dais erected before the Keep's main entrance. An entourage of sycophantic advisers and attendants surrounded the fat, grey-haired man whose clothes were needlessly regal beyond the occasion. Despite Burgoyne's physical size, Merrick considered him to be the smallest man he'd ever met.

The ruler began speaking to the assembled crowd – it was a monthly ritual. His speeches were flowery and puffed up civic decrees that had little substance but were intended to remind the citizenry that he was still in charge.

Merrick sensed someone was watching him. A short, wiry man with brown, expressionless eyes emerged from behind a food vendor's cart, stood next to the giant innkeeper, and said, "His speech is especially interesting today, don't you think?"


Both men kept their eyes toward the fat man on the dais as they conversed. The big man shrugged his shoulders and said, "'Interesting' isn't the word I would choose."


Rinn discretely glanced around to make sure no one was within earshot. "I'd say he's doing a good job for a dead man."


"I don't like the guy, but that doesn't mean I want to see him dead."

"Too late."

Merrick gazed nonchalantly toward the shorter man standing next to him. He caught a glimpse of a rare smile from the rogue.

"We need to talk. You know where," Rinn muttered before fading back and disappearing amongst the vendor carts.

Ohlen's Arrow now available on iTunes Bookstore

Over the weekend I spent several hours formatting Ohlen's Arrow in iBooks Author. It took a while, but I finally got it submitted to iTunes Bookstore. After nearly a week in their review cycle, Ohlen's Arrow is now available for sale ($2.99) on the iTunes Bookstore.

Now available for Kindle, Nook, and iOS devices

Ohlen's Arrow is available as an e-book for Kindle from Amazon.com. The price is $2.99 and visitors can download a free sample of the book as well. It is also available for Nook from Barnes & Noble, and for iOS devices on the iTunes Bookstore.

This is my first novel and as you can imagine, I am super excited about its release. The entire process from conception to publication took roughly a year. I spent three years writing the first three chapters, mostly just to write for the sake of writing. Once I decided to take it seriously and turn it into a book, I wrote the remaining 17 chapters in three months. Editing, proofreading, revisions, and graphic design took nearly nine months.

I intend to write a sequel and already have some general concepts in mind for major plot points. I even have a working title and cover design in my head. To date, those that have read Ohlen's Arrow have been clamoring for its sequel, and I don't intend to disappoint my readers in that regard. It is my goal to shorten that one-year process down to six months.

How Edits Feel

Elmore Leonard once said, "Write the book the way it should be written, then give it to somebody to put in the commas and shit." This is a good viewpoint to hold when you're a writer, because when you give your work to a copyeditor and they take their red pen and bleed all over it, you can't take it personally.

Otherwise I would have stabbed myself in the heart with a rusty nail weeks ago.

As I've received edited chapters from my copyeditor, I got a brief sense of panic when I noticed the sheer volume of suggested changes. It makes me feel like I just started learning English a month ago. I also wonder what went through her mind as she reviewed my work. "This guy thinks he can write a book? What audacity!"

It has helped me to realize that this is part of the process. No writer, no matter how skilled or successful, produces flawless prose on the first try or even the 30th. As Elmore Leonard pointed out, it's not really the writer's job to do so, either. Focus on the creativity, the tone, the emotion, the description. Get the basic mechanics of your writing down, then allow someone else to do the editing, to put in the commas and shit.

I only have three more chapters to review from my copyeditor, then I need to read through Ohlen's Arrow, cover to cover, one more time before I put it up for sale. I'm very excited about this as you can imagine, but it has been a very long, tedious process. The editing and revision phase of a book project is far more difficult and tedious and time-consuming than actually writing it; I am really looking forward to getting it finished.

Copyediting Ohlen's Arrow

I have hired a copyeditor to go over the latest (and hopefully the last) revisions of Ohlen's Arrow. My goal is to have Ohlen's Arrow revised and edited and back on the Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble e-book store shelves by the end of August, and so far that timeline appears to be very realistic.

Stay tuned.