Randall Seeley's Blog

For those of you who bought a paperback of Dragonlyst, you may have noticed that it has a release date for Dragon Born for the Spring of 2014...well...whoops...that didn't happen (the problem of print...it's permanent). My rationale for drastically missing this self imposed deadline? One of my friends once described me as "irrationally optimistic." Enough said I guess. Well...despite me being way off my original goal...I'm still alive, I'm still writing, and I'm writing aggressively. Here's an update. I have two prologue novella's 90% complete, Dragon Born is on it's final draft, and I have two more Novella's in the works. Goal is to publish them month after month once I've wrapped them up. I'm not putting down a date so I can avoid the embarrassment of the past one! Hope you all are doing awesome!

Finally!  I finished digitalizing the map of Ardonor.  Here it is!  This is the entire continent of Ardonor, which is the setting for all the Prologues and Main books.  Alderidon is it's capital city and for those who have a  difficulty finding it, it's the big city just offset from the center.  If you've read Dragonlyst, that's the city it takes place in.

Let me know what you think!

© 2014 RANDALL SEELEY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Goodreads Book Giveaway








Dragonlyst


by Randall Seeley

Giveaway ends August 10, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

There is a signed autographed copy of Dragonlyst available on Goodreads!  Go and enter today for your chance to win.  Thanks!

So today Scrivener is running a 50% off promotion for their writing software.  I've been using Scrivener for the past two years and it has been a complete life saver for my writing.  

One of the main reasons I love it is because Scrivener provides a great workflow to follow that matches the way I process my writing.  It's set up into folders that you can add a great amount of detail to - whether you want each folder to be it's own chapter, scene, or whatever.  I use each folder as a chapter.  The benefit of this is that as you are writing, if you decide you want to reorder the flow of your book, you just drag the folder to where you want it in the outline.  This makes it incredibly easy to add, move, or takeaway chapters.  There is no menial cut and pasting happening as the program handles all of that for you in a visually appealing way.  The organization is incredible.

It's also very easy to edit.  Before Scrivener I would write in Microsoft Word or Pages, and although I liked the track changes feature, many times I'd find myself with several different chapter documents that had many different versions in it.  Sometimes I would have four or five documents of the same chapter with only slight edits on them up on the screen at the same time, and I'd find myself wasting valuable writing time referencing what I changed.  Scrivener has a track changes option, but also allows you to take snap shots any time you want.  It keeps these snapshots and it's very easy to reference them.  That coupled with the folder system keeps all my files in a central location so making edits is organized and simple.  It's great.

Another reason I absolutely love it is for the compiling process.  Scrivener excels in this area in two ways; universal formatting and publishing final products.  

The nice thing about formatting is that Scrivener either allows you to format as you go, or do it universally during the compile process.  The benefit to having these options is that if you enjoy formatting and want to see it formatted a specific way while you write, you can.  But if you think you've missed formatting somewhere along a 500 page novel--which is highly likely--Scrivener will universally format at the very end.  It's wonderfully simple!

In addition, once a work is complete you'll need to turn it into a .mobi, .epub, pdf, etc. in order to have it ready for the different publishing options.  This is a very manual and painful process if you only have a word document.  With Scrivener, they do it all for you!  In addition, their compiling process is so effective that if you are publishing via Smashwords, Scrivener's .epub will pass the meat grinder test and you'll be published on the Premium Catalog.  No need to go through the Microsoft Word formatting guide...which is awful.

As a result, if you've been looking for a wonderful professional writing app, go get this while it's on sale.  It's well worth it for the full price, so it's a complete steal right now.  Even if you aren't looking to write the next great novel, Scrivener would be very helpful for any and every kind of writing, from journaling to research papers, to a place to jot down thoughts.

Enjoy it! 

I meant to post this a little while back but things got a little hectic, so now this is slightly delayed but still very pertinent.

I got by paperback copy!  I have to admit this was THE dream come true.  Publishing an ebook was one thing, but whenever I would read it in iBooks or on a kindle, it still kind of felt like a college essay (which of course I would get graded A+ with an amazing comment from the professor...which by the way...where are all the reviews from everyone!!!).  

The day I opened Dragonlyst and pulled out the first copy! 

But when my paperback arrived that was something else.  Part of the reason it was so poignant was because I had ordered 50 copies, so that was a little intense by itself.  But opening the box and seeing my name and the words I had penned come to life on a page was pretty amazing.  This was a dream come true!

I immediately took a handful of the copies and put them on my bookshelf right next to some of my favorite authors: Terry Brooks, Robert Jordan, Brandon Sanderson, Raymond E. Feist, and others.  My one book (and a short novel at that) looks tiny in comparison, but hopefully in the coming months--I promised Spring which I'm holding too--Dragon Born will be shelved next to it and soon I'll have a small footprint on my bookshelf, and hopefully the bookshelves of others!

The one question I had in my mind as I carefully held and turned each page of my book was how I was going to treat it.  I kept a pristine copy(ies) for myself because I can't stand when there are creases in my books!  I have often been known as someone who is slightly anal when it comes to my books, but I just love holding a crisp copy of a paperback.  Some of my friends and family growing up would make fun of me because I would barely open it all the way (my books never have creases when I'm done) but that's just the way it is with me.

In fact, I'm so anal about reading my books that when I agree to let someone borrow a book I have them promise it will return in pristine condition or they'll have to buy me a new one (sarcastically I might add--I just pretend to be that tough).  I've never really enforced this, but I have had a few people give me a brand new book back when they "return" the book they've borrowed.

Here is my list of pet peeves when it comes to paperback books:

Leaving the book open and setting it down on a hard surface, only to put something else on top of the bookDon't you love it when you open a book and then it opens itself to a different page?  You end up fighting the book the entire time you read it!!!!Using massive bookmarksThank you for the random wide spaces in my book.  Makes it super helpful when I'm turning pagesFolding down pages as bookmarksThis is an insult to me...Opening the book as wide as it can so that it stays open without handsDon't we have hands for a reason?  Like point one above, this is useful the first time you read it on the page that you are on, but once you are off that page you end up fighting the book the rest of the time you read it....

I could keep going on and on but I'll stop there.  Yes, I know I'm strange with liking pristine books, but...it's the way it is.  I will definitely have a few copies of Dragonlyst that will never be touched.  For you, read it how you'd like!  Just don't show me if it's destroyed!  (And this implies buying a copy first to begin with :)!)

It's finally official!  Last night I wrapped up the last few bits of editing (remember, I'm not an English major so have some mercy if you find mistakes) and hit the publish button!  Dragonlyst: A Short Novel is now available on Amazon.com, Smashwords, and will soon be published on iBooks, Nook, and all other major ebook retailers.

If it sounds interesting to you, please go pick it up at your favorite ebook retailer!  And leave a review!  Unless you don't have something nice to say, and if that's the case, keep it to yourself!

I'll share additional updates when Dragonlyst becomes available at other ebook retailers, and especially when the printed paperback version becomes available.

Click the picture/link below to purchase it on Amazon.

Dragonlyst: A Short Novel: A Prologue To The Drahiad Chronicles

Just signed off on the final version of my cover!  Super excited about it and looking forward to actually publishing the book!  Tomorrow I'm going to edit Dragonlyst one more time and then publish it through Amazon and Smashwords.  Hopefully this means it will be up and running in a day or two depending on how long it takes to get approved.

Let me know what you think of the new cover!

Well here it officially goes.  With my cover almost complete, I've decided to turn on the website.  Hopefully we'll get some good dialogue with people who are interested in the book, and I'll also use this to share updates, releases, and event dates (when they come).

I am very excited to publish my first book.  I should have my cover art in the next few days and so barring any tweaks, there is a chance that Dragonlyst will be published (at least on Amazon) by the end of the week.

I'm going the Smashwords route for all other channels, so it may take a couple more weeks before Dragonlyst shows up in iBooks, Nook, etc.

I seriously can not wait!

So today begins a new chapter in my life.  First with the creation of this website and then with the publication of my first novel (short novel if I'm being specific).  

First, the website.  I've always wanted to have a website, but the time I don't spend with my family and my "real" job is spent in a world filled with dragons and Templars, so I have little to no time left, and that time I definitely don't want to be spending figuring out how to host, build, and manage a website.  That's where the Broncos come in.  I've been an avid Broncos fan since I was a little lad, so this year I was especially excited about the Broncos performance and ecstatic about the Superbowl.  But within the first few minutes of the game two things happened.  The game spiraled out of control and became painful, demoralizing, and depressing.  I went into such a funk that I ended up turning off the game and for a short while I just sat on the couch, commiserating about the season, and hoping that I was in some kind of weird nightmare that I would wake from at any moment.  I never did awake, and the cold dark truth that the Broncos got annihilated sunk in.  The reason it became a win is because one commercial stood out.  Squarespace.  I had never heard of it, but I figured that maybe this was the whole reason I was supposed to watch the Super Bowl.  Maybe I should check them out.  So check them out I did.  I have to say I can't be more impressed or excited about using them.  They make websites look awesome, while making it easy enough that I can figure it out during the little spare time that I have, and I am actually bullish that I will keep this blog up.  So thank you Squarespace!  Oh--and just in case I made anyone not want to read my books because I said I'm a Broncos fan; well played Seahawks, well played.

Now on to the real reason for this website.  My book.  Dragonlyst: A Short Novel is going to be published any day.  As soon as I finalize the details of my cover design, I'll plan on having that created and hopefully in two weeks it will be up and running.  I honestly can't wait.  This is something that I have dreamed about since I was a little boy, so I'm thrilled to finally see this dream come to fruition.  I'll write more on Dragonlyst in the near future--so stay tuned.