Jo Grix's Blog

"There are a hundred ways to prevent conception permanently and temporarily and a hundred more to stop a pregnancy. For some reason, you had that little girl in there. You conceived her, carried her to term, and you brought her into your home. Maybe you need to take a moment and remember why you did that."

 

so, my characters are time traveling and their leader has an issue about being wanted by others so her best friend takes a moment to have a chat with her parents.

I never promised to be regular about posting my blog, did I?  Well, I have good news at least.  Warrior's Pride, the paperback book of A Prince's Pride and Warrior's Rage, has been published!  It's only available at Lulu.com, but it's published.  I have held a copy in my hand.  I'm excited about that.

I realized something recently that really surprised me.  I plot better if I have someone to talk to.  There's a  difference between writing down an idea, and sharing an idea.  I realized this because I've been plotting a surprise for my usual sounding board and therefore haven't told her what's going on.  Then I got excited and started telling a friend and I just spotted thirty-seven issues in ten minutes.

I guess I'm just one of those people who needs a bit of inspiration.

As we begin 2014, I find myself looking back on 2013.  It's been an incredible year for me as a writer.  Not only my short stories, but I released A Prince's Pride and Warrior's Rage, the results of fifteen years of writing.

2014 is looking to be just as exciting for me.  I've finally found a cover artist and she is amazing,  KC Designs. Warrior's Pride, the paperback combination of Pride and Rage will be coming out in February.  I'm looking to get the next novella in the series, Fighter's Heart, in April.  Call of Home, as it's currently titled and the first of the full novels from the Technomancer's War verse, should be out in July.  King's Peace, the end of the elven books, will be out by the end of the year so that next year I can release Fighter's Peace.  So, busy year behind me, busy year ahead of me.  I'm excited.

Here's hoping that all of you have a fun, exciting time in 2014!

As a self publisher, I often feel that I don't do my work as a publisist.  Frankly, I don't really get into talking to people on social media.  Not because I think I'm an idiot, but I just don't really feel like talking to a bunch of people.

Last night/this morning (after midnight, before I fell asleep) I republished Warrior's Rage on Smashwords.  As the second of my Elven stories, I've been looking forward to getting it off KDP just for that purpose.  I was tired though, and once Rage was published, I went to sleep.  I woke up this morning to a gleeful message from Smashwords, Someone has purchased something!

While I was sleeping, someone bought a copy of Pride and Rage before I could even make a big announcement that both stories were available on Smashwords.

That, plus my eternal quest for a cover artist (I've officially decided I can't afford one and am asking for money towards one for Christmas instead) makes my November pretty decent.  Considering my complete inability to update my word count on regular basis for NaNo.

That's about all for today, have a great Thanksgiving ya'll!

This week, I choose to release a new story, The Storyteller's Call, which is a short story that has ties to a novella I've got on the back burner.  It has, specifically, a talking fox and hedgehog that are Avatars of a Goddess, and there are mentions to other animal Avatars that are not seen.

My writing has tapered off a bit due to just a general lack of interest, but I'm trying to get myself back into it. I have two novellas in progress, Fighter's Heart and Summons of the Nexxus.

I'm also working on developing my social media platform, although that will be taking some time.  I'm not always comfortable reaching out to talk to people, but I'm sure with I can do it if I push myself forward.  My day job at the moment is in a call center and I've noticed that when people have the annonymity of a phone call they can be downright vicious at times.  I am fairly positive these people do not call people such ugly names in person, but with the lack of a face, they feel free to say a lot more.  I am hoping to take advantage of that self-same factor and use it to put myself forward.  Until my work starts becoming best selling and all, I can have the freedom to speak as I wish.  The catch is that when the day comes that I am that famous and people start noticing me, the things I said before will probably come back to haunt me if I'm not careful.

In other news, I'm trying to write down all the worldbuilding for the Technomancer's War 'verse because it is very complicated. There are the novels (Daniel Anders: Agent of Earth) novellas (Blog of a Teenage Superhero, Ruby Quest,) and short stories (SoulSibs, Ancient Power, and It Is Defended), and then there are the planets and cultures, (Ilan, Fyla, Javor, Aurin, Amarantha, Earth).  There's a lot of stuff that goes into the backstory and world building for Technomancer's 'verse, and that's always the most interesting part of it for me.  I mean, with actual notes, I can make sure all my stories are kept straight and eventually, I can allow others to build in the 'verse not unlike Star Wars and Star Trek. Seriously, when I first started building the Technomancer's War 'verse, I did it because I was amazed at how vast and complicated Star Wars and Star Trek had become and I wanted to do the same thing.

Goals are important to being a writer, and this is one that I will take years completing.

Warrior's Rage has FINALLY been released on Amazon!  It's been a few days, but I've been busy lately doing other life stuff. Here's an excerpt from Warrior's Rage, the sequel to A Prince's Pride and second in the Trebon's Journey quartet:

 

Tename glanced at Cailiyan, “He has changed,” she said quietly. The slender, black haired Elven woman tucked her hands behind her back, looking from Trebon to Cailiyan.

“He wants people to respect him,” Cailiyan replied. He crossed his arms and watched his charge disappear into the equipment shed. “They will not respect him if he does not play by their rules. He hates it, do not doubt that, but he has learned their rules. The question is what will happen when Trebon is no longer willing to play by their rules, but still demands their respect.”

“Warrior’s rage,” Tename replied.

“Warrior’s rage,” Cailiyan agreed. He stepped forward as Trebon approached them, gesturing to the targets.

Tename glanced up, as Trebon’s other guard stepped up beside her, “I’m Andalon,” the young Elf said with a shy smile. “I’m from the south. What does warrior’s rage mean?”

Tename turned to watch as Trebon began shooting at the targets, “Have you ever been angry, Guard Andalon? Do you remember the fire you felt, how you saw red, and forgot your common sense? That, that is nothing compared to a warrior’s rage. A warrior’s rage is clarity, it is to see and think clearly. It is like the ice that floats on the sea, you see the tip of it, but the danger is what is underneath, what you cannot see or predict. In the heat of anger, you lash out to hurt, in the ice of a warrior’s rage, you kill. You know the volcano, Guard Andalon; pray you never meet the iceberg.”

Andalon cleared his throat, “I see,” he said.

“You do not,” Tename told him, “not yet.”

 

So I decided to add more to my site here by creating a page where people can hire me for freelance work. I'm not anticipating much now, but I hope that if I can keep writing, and keep building a network through all the different sources that exist out there that I could actually manage to make it. I even offered to do freelance writing at a job interview on Friday. If that works as I hope, then things will be working out awesome.
Another thing I'm planning to do more work on is my 'other' blog. I want to use that more for the writing stuff that I adore talking/writing about and this blog as more of a document of my journey into publishing in different mediums. That way when I write my memoirs, I can refer back here to help my memories.
It's scary to put yourself out there, but you have to take the chance, or you'll never actually get anywhere.

One of my favorite things about writing is world building. It's not just mountains, trees, and flowers, but all the intricate background pieces that define a world.  Keep an eye out here for a series of posts on world building in all of it's many forms. From alien planets and space going vessels to city blocks and the depths of culture, religion, and more, world building takes your story from: Jan lost her ring. Dan and Eric helped her look for it. Dan found the ring. Into a story of intrigue, stress and adventure.

I've had a lot of inspiration lately in terms of writing, and it's driving me crazy.  These are the ideas that will put money in my pocket with time and effort, but there are so many it's hard to keep track of them all.  I'm trying a few ways to keep track of ideas in the hopes that they can become more.

Write it down- always keep pen and paper close to hand so you can scribble down everything related until you can start writing it.Don't be afraid to start a new story- you're muse is a fickle sort, taking the time to start something when it's fresh can save you emotional pain later on.Talk about it- share your thoughts with a friend, you never know when you'll fix a plot hole that way.That's pretty much what I have now, but it's worth it to keep track of everything.  After all, the rewrite of a fifteen year old story idea has become the best selling item I've written.

Right now, my second novella is in the hands of a proofreader...

Who is on vacation.

I don't say this to be a snot, really.  I'm happy(/envious) that she's off having fun somewhere.  I just enjoy the feeling of publishing a new story every so often and I really like feedback.

In other news, I'm trying my hand a freelance writing (again) using fiverr.  Why fiverr?  Because it has reasonable rules and boundaries that make me feel comfortable using.  I can say straight up if I don't want to take on a project, and I have reasonable time periods in which to complete the work.  My only complant is how long it takes to get the payments cleared.

I've begun some minor outling for one of the three novellas I have in pre-write condition, having recieved inspiration for the plot recently, and I am also chasing an idea for a short story based on a number of things.  The idea is sort of taking a legendary version of a story and then fitting it around the more comedic "true" story.

Stuff like:

Then the two warriors were brought before the governor

Nik got in trouble will flirting with a pretty girl and we were arrested because she was the governor's "pure" daughter.

Except more details on the "true" version.