Portal 2 Has begun!

Well, at long last I've finished Demon Hunter: 21 Days! It was really beginning to be the project-that-wouldn't-end. I had hoped to finish it in Jan 2006 and here it is, Aug 2006. But, it's finished and I really think it's a superb work. Hopefully the publishers will give it a little more love than they've given Portal to the Gods.

On that note, I think the most exciting thing about being finished with Demon is that I can move on to the huge stack of other projects I'm eager to tackle. There are so many stories to tell and so little time. I've been writing a little on Portal 2. I've been calling it: The Other Side of Existence: Portal to the Gods Book 2. (Ok, I know it sounds a little weighty, but if you have any better suggestions...) Anyway, I finished chapter 1 and I really think it's pretty strong. It ended up being everything I wanted it to be, plus some. Today I just started chapter 2. I've only gotten a page or two written, but I like it considerably so far.

Stay tuned...

Writing Lapse

It's funny how even the best laid plans can go south in a hurry. Going into this summer I had all these grand plans to write write write all summer (like I did last summer). And what has happened? I haven't even managed to finish Demon Hunter yet, which I've been writing since last Oct. I was hoping to finish Demon three weeks ago and The Dead End Road and Portal to the Gods 2 by the end of the summer. Now here I am knocking on August's door and I haven't written a word in over two weeks.

I suppose you can thank my wife for that. We went to Branson, MO. for vacation and I've spent the last week and a half remodeling the house. My stories remain unwritten, but the house looks great. Still, I was hoping to have Demon Hunter finished nearly 8 months ago. Right now I'm really knocking on the door. Now that the remodeling project is complete, the writing should resume. Throughout the project, I was simply to braindead every night to write so much as a paragraph.

PS..
Right now I'm reading Scott Oden's Men of Bronze from Medallion Press, the publisher that I'm hoping will pick up Demon Hunter: 21 Days. I'm a little over halfway through it. I'll post a review when I'm finished (not that anyone will ever read it!). Come to my blog...tell your friends!

Review of AuthorHouse

I thought I'd take a moment to give a short review of what I thought of AuthorHouse's services. As you all know, they're the Print On Demand company through which I published Portal to the Gods.

As far as POD publishers go, I thought they were wonderful. I really have no complaints about how AuthorHouse functioned within their industry. They were wonderful to work with. They were helpful at every turn. They took my (somewhat lackluster) artwork and made a great cover. The galley looked really good. Everything moved along on a pretty good timetable. I pretty much got everything that I asked for.

My mistake was in choosing to do Print on Demand in the first place for a fantasy novel. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great (albeit expensive) technology and really fills a much needed niche. When I get around to writing my family geneaology book, I will DEFINITELY use AuthorHouse again. Also, I have a nonfiction book on step-parenting that I plan to write in the future and may be inclined to self-publish through AuthorHouse. But it was a mistake to publish Portal to the Gods there.

The problem lies in the per unit cost. I was hoping to be able to buy copies for around $5 each. To do this P.O.D., I'll have to buy 2000 copies. Otherwise my per book cost is around $9. Geez...I can't afford $10,000 for 2000 books that I may not be able to sell. As it stands, who is going to buy a writer's first fantasy novel for $15 bucks? That's what I'd have to charge to be able to even GET it into a bookstore and make maybe a dollar for myself.

But it was a great learning process. It is one thing to have a manuscript typed up in a word document, but it is something else entirely to see it printed and bound. It was a wonderful experience.