grayarmybrat.com

Good morning All.

In honor of Memorial Day, I am giving away three signed paperback copies of BLACK KNIGHTS OF THE HUDSON BOOK I: SHADOW OF THE FLAGS (1860 – 1868). 

For more information, please go to GOODREADS.com or click this link to the BLACK KNIGHTS giveaway. 

Thanks to all of the service men, women, and their families who have dedicated their lives to the safeguarding of our flag and country.

In the course of getting the first book in the BLACK KNIGHTS OF THE HUDSON series produced as an audiobook, I received ardent criticism from my narrator.  He said that the covers were far too austere and confusing.  I must plead guilty to that charge since the only difference between them is that the subtitle text changes.  The iconic West Point Cadet Chapel is a breathtaking piece of architecture but, as it is gray granite, it lends line and dignity but little color to catch the eye.

There is a reason for this.  When I decided to self-publish the books last fall, I had no idea what sort of reception they would receive or if they would even appeal to readers.  Consequently, I was far more concerned with the text of the books and more focused on my initial test of the eBook waters than on a captivating cover.  I also wanted an image that would be recognized easily by military (particularly army) readers and their families since this series is, in many ways, a tribute to them.

Based on the response of all of you and the expansion from just eBook to print to audiobook, I am tweaking the covers of the first five books in the hope that they will be more eye catching and easier for you’all to tell them apart.  So, I’m now exploring the wonderful world of stock images and graphic arts.  With a brand new update to my old Corel Suite (thank you Corel for providing me with a code to upgrade my antique Corel 12 to your super Corel Suite X6), I embarked on learning graphic design.  Now, I’m the first to admit that I’m not an artist.  However, via sites like dreamstime and the wealth of public domain images available via the Internet, I’m able to manipulate Corel® PHOTO-PAINT™ X6 well enough to dress up the covers for now.

Part of the fun for me, whether writing or cover designing, is to trace all the little bits and pieces of cultural history I encounter along the narrative path.  So, when I stumbled across a marvelous public domain image of the West Point Cadets tossing their covers (hats) into the air at graduation, my reaction was “What an ideal image for Book IV: Long Gray Line!”  Right on the heels of elation, however, followed the inevitable historian finger-shake under my nose.  “Ah, ah, ah, not so fast there.”  (Yes, I do talk to myself and answer, too.  Indeed, I often have long, lovely conversations in my head.  While I prefer to call it running dialogue or designing scenes, I’m afraid it really is just a personal idiosyncrasy.  However, as I’ve done it all my life, I don’t think it’s indicative of anything serious…well, no more than it’s ever been.) 

At any rate, while the novelist in me was delighted with the image, the historian in me put her foot down.  Although I write historical fiction (which allows a bit more latitude than scholarly non-fiction with regard to research and supporting documentation), I do try to stick as close to historical fact as possible.  For example, with a family of West Pointers, I wanted to know when they would have started wearing class rings.  I discovered that West Point was the first school to wear them (before Navy, Harvard, Yale, etc.) and instituted the practice with the graduating class of 1835 (or 1836, depending on the source you check).  Thus, after finding the lovely sight of white covers tossed high in the air above gray uniforms, I typed my search question, “When did graduating classes begin throwing their caps in the air?”

The answer?  1912.  Okay, a few years later than the target date of 1903 but close enough that I was comfortable to fudge the date a little; at least for the cover art.  Then, just as I was getting ready to close the search window, I saw it.  ANNAPOLIS!  Yes, folks, that’s right.  The Naval Academy’s graduating class of 1912 is credited with being the first to throw their covers into the air.  This created a quandary.  Do I just use the image anyway and to heck with Navy tradition?  Who would know?  Who would care?  It’s just a book cover, dang-it.  Most readers wouldn’t even notice.  But no, I would know as well as my MacKendricks who most certainly would frown at such deception (not to mention a large number of Naval personnel who might, someday, stumble across this series and read it in a weak moment while waiting for the next C.S. Forester or Patrick O’Brian to come along).  As a staunch daughter of the Army, I’m always willing to give my Father’s service the edge.  But, the rivalry between Army and Navy is a friendly one; filled with mutual respect and honor.   Both academies not only encourage but demand fair play in all contests; even one as minor as an Army Brat’s book cover.  Thus, with a heavy heart, I turn away from that splendid image (at least for Book IV).  Congratulations, Navy, you win this time.

Epiphanies = Self-Publication = Joyous Freedom

Earlier in this series of articles, I explained that I had experienced three epiphanies through the years in the course of writing fiction: 

1. Do I write to please myself or do I write to please others
2. What are the odds of emerging out of a Slush Pile
3. The advent of the eBook as a viable alternative to legacy publishers

As I’ve ventured into this new realm of self-publishing, I have reawakened my joy of research and writing and experienced a sense of freedom I had not anticipated with regard to writing.  An unexpected development in this process is the recovery of control over my time.  Hours that were once dedicated to searching agent and publisher submission requirements, in the hope of finding just one that might be interested in the series to which I’ve committed my efforts, can now be used for writing the novels themselves.  Hours spent on composing just the right query letter can now be spent on writing the novels themselves.  Days, weeks, and months of waiting for a response to a query letter can now be transferred to writing the novels…well, I’m sure you see the pattern here.

Another unforeseen development is that, after years of viewing my work as a craft, where I expected any book that was published to be the result of a team effort, I now view it more as art.  Self-publishing allows for a direct link between writer and reader.  It’s no longer a process where the writer’s original words are edited and modified to suit some other individual’s or company’s taste or style preference or re-formatted to fit a standard number of words due to material costs.  I came across a book last fall by one of my favorite authors.  I thought I had read everything she had ever written but this one had somehow eluded me.  Frankly, it was one of her later books and not one of her best.  But, she had one little paragraph that stood out for me.  In the story, a novelist is answering some of her fan mail.  She reflects on the pleasure of communicating directly with her reader via the mail as opposed to the production line that usually stands between her thoughts and those who read them.  Self-publishing also provides that delightful sense of direct communication without any kind of filter between writer and reader. 

This communication works both ways to an extent it never could when there were several layers of traditional print publishing between the writer and the reader.  Just as the writer can reach the reader with composition that has not been filtered through multiple hands, the reader can respond directly to the writer via reviews, comments on the writer’s blog, email, or Facebook, and Twitter.  Since a self-published writer is in control of the production now, it is an easy matter to make revisions to the work.  Thus, if a writer notices a growing trend of comments, he or she can be far more responsive to the readers.  For example, consistent critiques of the cover art might indicate that the writer needs to replace it with something more eye-catching or appealing.  If many readers find the ending a dud or shocking (and not in a good way or the way it was intended), a writer has the ability now to pull the work and rewrite it to address such issues. 

“Ah, but that makes the readers nothing more than guinea pigs,” is the retort one hears from the legacy crowd.   Umm, yeah, I reckon.  However, it is no different than the hot new debut writer that one of the legacy houses puts out in the belief that they are the next J.K. Rowling or John Grisham; only to be met with reader indifference and who then vanish into the obscurity of the bargain table at the front door of the closest bookstore.  Readers always have the final say.  Some authors have risen like flaming suns with little help from their publishers while others, with the entire brunt of the publisher’s marketing division behind them, are greeted with a cricket-laden silence.  Readers have always been someone’s guinea pig and I don’t’ really see much difference between a reader judging the work of a solitary self-published writer or the book that has gone through three or four different hands to get from manuscript to dust-jacketed glory in a bookstore window.  It’s still up to the reader ultimately.  All it means now is that readers have a far greater scope for their choices.  As a reader, I never liked someone else choosing my books; not in school via a literature teacher’s list and not through the hands of an agent and publisher; who may have ignored a story that would have appealed to me tremendously only to release a tale that didn’t catch my heart or imagination.  I’ve always been quite capable of selecting my own books and I suspect most readers feel the same way. 

Now, there are some who will decry, “But, without an agent or editor, you can’t be validated as a writer.  How can readers expect to put up with the occasional typo or poorly constructed sentence, or incorrect usage of Point of View or Theme or Setting that is rampant amongst the undisciplined writers who DARE to think they’re good enough to publish on their own?”  My reply to that one is, “The same way readers put up with the occasional typo, or poorly constructed sentence, or incorrect usage of anything in legacy published books.”  Pick any book published since the innovation of Gutenberg’s Printing Press and I guarantee that readers will spot issues.  It is incumbent on ALL publishers (legacy, small press, self-published writer) to produce the best product possible.  Those who do not will not find and keep readers.  It’s very simple.  Self-published writers who don’t sell their books or who see a lot of returns will either hire someone to help with the weak spots or they’ll lose interest and go find something else to do.  This idea that legacy publishers serve as some sort of Literary National Trust to protect readers from incompetent boobs is nonsense.  Writing is far too subjective and dependent on individual tastes. 

Look at the best sellers.  Top of the sales charts or not, they still won’t appeal to every reader.  I myself have not purchased many new books recently because, somewhere in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, the legacy publishers put out books that didn’t interest me.  It wasn’t that they were badly written or produced (although the number of typos and grammatical errors did seem to creep up at the same ratio the publishers were merging into a few great big houses in the ‘80s and losing staff), but mostly I just didn’t like the stories or the style of the authors.  To find what I wanted to read, I had to rely more heavily on libraries and out-of-print searches.  As a reader myself, the fact that I can go to Amazon or Barnes and Noble and search a topic or keyword and suddenly have a treasure trove of stories at hand makes me feel like Aladdin holding his lamp with three wishes to go.  Just as the eBook evolution has freed me as a writer, it has also freed me as a reader.  As to validation, every time someone clicks, downloads, and reads one of my books, I’m validated.  That’s what it’s all about – writer to reader – the thoughts in my head communicated to another person via his or her eyes (or ears, when the audio books become available) who then interprets those thoughts in her or his own imagination.

I’m going to quote something I came across the other day since it strikes me as a near-perfect analogy for what is happening in the world of writing.  This quote is an excerpt from an interview with the author, Donna Fasano.  It appeared in April 2012 on BIG AL’S BOOKS AND PALS.  The Big 6 refers to the six largest legacy publishers and their assorted imprints (Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Group, Random House, and Simon & Schuster).

“Let’s talk crayons. The Big 6 (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) are solid colors, perfect for drawing that rainbow at the end of which sits a pot of gold. The focus of The Big 6 is the gold, so they stick to the bold, well-known colors.

Indie authors are like the Crayola™ box of 120 crayons, plus the box of neons, and the box of glitter ones, and the metallics, and the watercolors, and don’t forget the markers from bold to subtle. Indie authors offer a much wider variety when it comes to colors. Granted, not everyone is going to like every hue, and some of them won’t be worth the wax they’re made of due to the lack of product control (which includes everything from talent, to editing, to formatting, etc), BUT if readers are willing to take a slight risk, rather than viewing the same (albeit beautiful) rainbow over and over, they can choose from a huge shimmering, iridescent palette. (Okay, I’ve probably taken this color thing a bit too far, but you get the drift.)” – Donna Fasano

The decision to self-publish was the correct one for me.  It suits the way I write, the types of things I write, and my desire to communicate as directly as possible with my readers.  Initially, I was only going to create the series in the eBook format.  As I got pulled deeper into this venture, however, I discovered that I was comfortable with the production side of things and can now offer the series in paperback as well as in audio book (that is in the early stages so I’ll address that separately when I’m further along in the process).  One of the coolest aspects of the online reading/writing experience for me is that shelf life no longer dictates how long a book will be available.  Thanks to eBooks and Print on Demand, books are no longer in danger of being remaindered.  These titles can sit “forever” in a database so that writers don’t have to make an immediate impact to be deemed successful enough to keep their books available.  This luxury of “virtual” availability time for writers means that discovery and word-of-mouth can now work for them.

I hope that you, my readers, will continue to enjoy my Black Knights and their journeys from West Point into the grim demands of the World Wars and challenges of the 20th Century.  There are many adventures ahead for all of them (the MacKendrick ladies as well as their men folk) and I know that I’m looking forward to seeing what becomes of them.  For those of you who stumbled across this blog while seeking answers to your own writing dilemmas and dreams, I urge you to investigate other writers’ blogs (self, indie, and legacy) as well as the writing communities such as ABSOLUTE WRITE.  Not all of us are in agreement about this breakthrough in self-publishing and it is important for a writer, particularly a new or inexperienced one, to study all sides of the issue before choosing his or her own journey between the dream of your story and the execution of your book.

In conclusion, I leave you with the following citations.  Keep in mind, that I spent last autumn in a writing stupor (with a good part of my consciousness lost in the 19th Century as I followed my MacKendricks through their saga).  I came to my epiphanies independently, over the course of several years, and with little input from the writing communities with which I was no longer involved.  With the exception of the Michael Allen quote, to which I have directed you before, I found the others after I had published the first five eBooks in the BLACK KNIGHTS OF THE HUDSON series.  They underscore and confirm what has turned out to be my own preferred path and it is both a revelation and a comfort to learn that I’m not alone in this new territory of the written word. 

“The rewards of this new strategy, though limited, should not be underestimated. Perhaps the most important of them is that the pro-am approach allows writers to write exactly what they want, when they want, in whatever form they want. These are rare privileges, unknown to those who play the corporate game…”

             – Michael Allen, “On the Survival of Rats in the Slush Pile” ____________________

“Books live or die on word-of-mouth. Unless an author is in the rare position of having a significant built-in audience, and merely has to announce a book’s release to catapult it to the upper reaches of the charts, they will depend on readers who discover (and enjoy) the book sharing that opinion with others, whether that’s through online reviews, social media, email, reader sites, or plain old conversation…”

            – David Gaughran, “Jodi Picoult and the Myth of the Segregated Marketplace”

_______________________

“Right now we’re in the middle of a revolution. These are exciting times. It’s easy to get caught up in the ebook/self-publishing momentum and spend all of your time thinking about how to publicize your books, or position them correctly, or decide which platforms to commit to.

But at the end of the day, the one thing that truly matters is writing a good story. Because without that, there is nothing to sell.”

            – J.A. Konrath, “Writing Matters”

This is just to offer a quick “thank you” to all of you who have taken the time to read and/or comment on this blog.  I look forward to sharing more comments, articles, and even the occasional short story with you. 

I hope you’all are having a lovely and happy spring.

Writer as a Pro-Am

Welcome back.  I assume you followed my recommendation and read Michael Allen’s article, On the Survival of Rats in the Slushpile, as noted in Part II of this article.

Pretty interesting stuff, huh?  It certainly made me stop, take a deep breath, and do some serious re-evaluation with regard to my writing of fiction.  In my case, it took about three and a half years (although part of that was due to being side-tracked by moving from apartment living to building and owning a house).  Hopefully, it will help you crystallize your thoughts a bit sooner than that; unless you too are enthralled by the concept of having dirt and actually being able to plant a garden for the first time in over thirty years of apartment dwelling.

I make a good living as a professional technical writer/editor.  Now, there are writers on the forums (to whom I referred in Part II) who scoff and say, “Oh, but that’s not REAL writing so that doesn’t count.”  These are the individuals who view “real” writers as only those who receive an advance on a book (preferably hardcover) that is sold in a brick and mortar store.  I don’t bother to argue the point with them because they tend to be intransigent.  To me, a professional is someone who does a job for which someone else pays them a wage.  I get paid to write technical materials as well as edit the work of other writers who receive remuneration for their efforts – consequently, I am a professional technical writer/editor.  It’s not freelance or done in my spare time, either.  This is something I have done on a daily basis, for eight hours a day, five days a week, in an Engineering firm for thirty years. 

With regard to writing historical fiction, however, I consider myself a hobbyist.  I don’t make my daily living writing fiction.  I don’t utilize my degrees in history for academic research but only as a way to provide settings, historical personages, events to that fiction.  I am not represented by a literary agent nor am I published by a legacy publisher or even a small press.  I do not have hardcover or paperback books sitting in their splendor on the shelves of the local stores.  However, I do bring a professional eye to the fiction.  I edit and proof a manuscript multiple times in an attempt to catch the little errors that escape attention regardless of a writer’s diligence.  I apply what I know of history to make sure that the story doesn’t drift into the realm of fantasy or science fiction.  Thus, when it comes to writing fiction, I view myself as a Pro-Am per Michael Allen’s definition.  The trouble is, if one views the writing of fiction as a past-time along the lines of collecting stamps or building model railroads, what is the end result?  For a stamp collector, it is the pursuit of beautiful, miniature works of art to be catalogued and placed in an album for display and enjoyment.  For the model railroad engineer, it usually means a large platform with terrain features, buildings, and one or more engines with cars racketing over the tracks.  A few years ago, a Pro-Am writer didn’t have many options that resulted in a viable book; unless one was willing to cough up a great deal of money to a vanity press or run down to the local copy store and have something printed and bound.  At about the time I was wrestling with flooring samples, paint colors, and “to sod or not to sod the new house’s backyard”, a little device (that had been a mere curiosity to me in previous years) erupted with a vengeance on the world of writers and readers.  It took about a year for me to really come out of the “I just bought a house” mental state but when I did, the device hit me square across the eyes and I experienced my third epiphany.

I had observed the eReader concept for some time.  I almost purchased one of the early versions in a bookstore in the first or second generation of the technology.  I was dubious about reading on a screen, however, so I passed.  However, I was fairly sure that, eventually, someone would figure out a way to make them palatable to those of us who were accustomed to books looking and feeling like…well, books; with mirrored pages and some sort of cover.  But the rise of the Kindle, coupled with the Amazon online shopping venue, took me by surprise at the speed with which it rolled into the market place.  It took my breath away when I returned to the writers’ forums after my absence of several years and discovered that the “goofy eReader topic” was no longer confined to a few snide snickers.  In those intervening years, the discussion shifted from shoulder shrugs of “Readers will never turn to eBooks” to serious conversations on the methods for ePublishing; how to market self-published books; and should one use Kindle Select for Amazon exclusivity or Smashwords for multiple distribution…  In short, eBooks had arrived while I was busy putting in a garden. 

Throughout the Spring and Summer of 2011, while the roses I had planted with my own hands bloomed, I pondered my three epiphanies.  I concluded that I was no longer bound by a method of publishing that had never suited me or my work.  I was no longer dependent on current trends or styles or the inner-office politics of a literary agency or publisher.  I now had a way to deliver my stories directly to any reader who might enjoy them.

Placing my characters in historical situations captures my imagination again.  Research into biographies, battles, and cultural history oils parts of my brain that had become dull with rusty disuse.  Writing fiction is fun again and I have turned to self-publishing with joy and gratitude to the innovators and engineers who have provided the next link in the evolution of the written word.

To be continued in Part IV

What is my goal as a writer?  Do I write to please myself or do I write to please others?

For those writers who seek commercial success, there is always going to be some compromise involved in either style or genre.  Once you place your manuscript in the hands of agent and publisher, it no longer is strictly yours.  It may go through significant changes in order to improve the crispness of the writing, make it fit a genre better, appeal to a wider audience, in short, make it sellable.  After all, publishers and agents are not in this business to stroke their authors’ egos.  They’re in it to make money.  Now, before the legacy crowd gets their socks rocked, I’m not one of those self-published writers who think they are evil or wicked or mean.  It is just that, after thirty years of effort, I have determined that their method is not the one that works for me.  I’ll repeat that, their model does not work for ME!  I’m not speaking for other writers here.  I wouldn’t presume to tell someone else how to handle their own book dreams.

It is glorious for all concerned when a new author is discovered and everyone watches in delight as a book they took a chance on, soars to the highest level of the best seller lists.  Realistically, how often does that actually occur?  Given a pool of a thousand writers, how many actually rise to those dizzying heights of the stratosphere?  Twenty?  Ten?  Five?  One?  Maybe.  More often, out of each representative thousand, there won’t be any.  There are just too many variables.  It isn’t just about good writing.  If that were the case, the entire endeavor could be formulized so that Writers A, B, and C could just plug in their words and, zoom, they too would top the lists and make buckets of money for all concerned.  There is no formula, no script for success.  Luck has a lot to do with it all the way down the chain.  A writer has to hit the right desk of the right agent at the right time to even get a big toe in the door.  Then, the agent has to hit the right desk of the right editor at the right time.  Even then, the manuscript may be shot down in flames because one of the editor’s associates just doesn’t see the appeal or the selection committee prefers to go with the book that is being touted by the senior editor.  If it does get through the final evaluation, the reading public may just not want to read it in sufficient numbers to make it a success.

This brings me to the concept of Black Swans (see the link to Michael Allen below) and my second epiphany.  In 2007/2008, I went through another writing spell.  This time, I promised myself, I’d do things properly.  In the few years between the agent who wanted me to rewrite the Black Knights as an historical romance and my reawakened interest, the Internet had bloomed with a treasure-trove of resources.  I was no longer hampered in locating a writer’s colony in geographical proximity to where I lived.  I soon discovered a number of Internet writing sites.  “Oh goody, here were others who aspired to improve their craft and learn the almost-mystical process of finding the right agent and publisher for a specific genre.”  It soon became apparent to me that writing forums were similar to graduate school with all the snobbery, cliquishness, and earnest help one would expect.  There were the haughty literati who scorned anything that was, gasp, genre.  There were the successful writers who had books in actual stores who dazzled with their ever-flowing witticisms and wisdom.  There were the mid-list authors who had just been dumped by their publishers and were trying to find a new home.  There were the writers who viewed their work as art and the others who considered their efforts a craft.  There were the new writers who had stories but little how-to knowledge.  There were the authors who had never been published themselves but were quick to criticize opposing viewpoints, sometimes quite stringently.  Basically, the usual mixture you get for any subject matter on Earth; a lot of grains of salt and some very valuable insights.

Per the culture of most writing sites, I placed my work in progress (not the historical, but something else I was working on) in the appropriate forum for review.  By the time I had addressed all of the comments and rewrote to appease the perceived weaknesses, I was quite ready to give up entirely.  The work was a muddled mess and I loathed it.  Just as in graduate school, the opinions were wide-flung and varied.  Most of them, frankly, came from writers who were still learning themselves and who had not yet learned to critique but relied instead on subjective prejudices for and against.  It was a definite case of trying to please too many people at once.  On one of the lowest days of my writing life, I stumbled across the following article.  It is critical for anyone who is deciding whether or not to roll the dice and self-publish.  It is also a good read for those who prefer the legacy model.  If nothing else, it may give you a reality check for your expectations as a writer.

As you read Allen’s article, keep the opening of this section in the back of your mind:  Do I write to please myself or do I write to please others?

Michael Allen On the Survival of Rats in the Slushpile

Allen’s article is also available at Smashwords

Read it.  Read it again.  We’ll pick up the conversation about a writer as a Pro-Am and how that fits into the self-publishing model after you have had a chance to assimilate Allen’s views.

To be continued in Part III

I have received several more emails regarding my series BLACK KNIGHTS OF THE HUDSON.  First of all, I want to thank all of the readers who have downloaded BOOK I: SHADOW OF THE FLAGS as well as those who have purchased the sequels.  I can’t begin to tell you how much it means to me that you’all are willing to spend some time with my Army folks when there are so many fine writers with wonderful stories out there for you to read.

One of the recent emails came from Vince T. in Wyoming.  He likes the books and says that they are a nice balance between history and fiction.  However, he wondered why I had taken the route of self-publishing eBooks instead of sending the series out to a publisher where, in his words, “the books would have been that much better for the extra editing”.  It’s a fair question and I agree that another set of editorial eyes is beneficial to any written work.  No matter how often a writer goes back and proofreads, it’s very difficult to catch your own errors.  The brain is clever at reading what it thinks should be there, rather than what is actually there.  In order to address Vince’s comment comprehensively, I’ll need to break my thoughts into several separate articles.

The decision to self-publish the BLACK KNIGHTS was not done casually or on a whim.  The journey from concept to published eBooks was a long one with many dead-ends and odd pathways.  In 1990, a small press purchased the manuscript of the first book (the original SHADOW OF THE FLAG, which was comprised of what is now the first and second books in the BLACK KNIGHTS series).  That publisher sat on it for three years and then, abruptly, went out of business.  A second publisher picked it up and went out of business six months later.  The book finally saw the light of day and was received well in Indiana and bordering states.  It was a definite thrill to see the book on the shelves of the local Borders, Waldenbooks, and Barnes and Noble.  I relished the author signings and speaking to the readers who were kind enough to purchase the book.  By this time, I had the second manuscript completed and, based on the reception of the first book during its brief life, I started submitting the sequel.

Unfortunately, in the mid-90s, life got in the way and I stopped writing for a few years.  Periodically, I would send off the second manuscript.  The agents and publishers who responded with detailed rejections were enthusiastic and positive; but they were still rejecting the work.  One agent recommended that I rewrite the series from the women’s perspective as she felt it would have more appeal commercially as an historical romance.  She went so far as to almost guarantee representation if I managed to shift the Point of View to just the Army wives per her suggestion.  I picked up several books in the genre to get a feel for the current trend in historical romance, worked on the rewrite for six months, and came to the conclusion that it was not the story that I wanted to write.  That was my first epiphany in the process. 

I already make my living as a technical writer which means most of what I write is to someone else’s requirements and to a specific format.  The thought of confining my fiction in the same way, where I have to write in a certain style or genre for just the chance of representation, just doesn’t appeal to me.  Telling my story the way I want is more important than finding representation or even a publisher.  I believe this is the first objective every aspiring author must determine in his or her innermost hopes and desires:  What is my goal as a writer?  Do I write to please myself or do I write to please others? 

To be continued in Part II

Several of the readers of the BLACK KNIGHTS OF THE HUDSON have been kind enough to contact me to let me know their opinions of the books.  It’s a bit of a self-pat-on-the-back, but all of them have been positive about the stories.  This means a great deal to me as a writer.  The only way I know if I’m on the right track is via communication from my readers either through book reviews on the site where the books were purchased or through emails to the CONTACT information on the main GRAY’S ARMY BRAT website.

Mary N. of Wichita sent me an email via the contact information to let me know that she is reading the series and is on BOOK III: CHANGING OF THE GUARD.  She made the comment that the minor characters seemed to be as “important and as real” as the major characters and that she enjoys that aspect of my writing very much.  She wishes more authors would do that.  After the initial glow faded (it’s always nice when someone says they like your work), I considered her observation.

I suppose that minor characters are rather like extras in a TV or movie or the chorus in a Broadway musical.  Some might be important enough to have a line or two.  Others are little more than manikins used for stage dressing and setting the atmosphere.  Yet, for their brief appearance, they are in the eye of the audience and are still expected to convey a sense of atmosphere.  There is a wonderful scene in the film PARIS WHEN IT SIZZLES (William Holden, Audrey Hepburn) where Tony Curtis is given a lecture by a Paris police inspector.  The point of the discussion is that he, Tony Curtis, is giving far too much effort to a part that is likely called “Second Policeman” without a name or a history.  Yet, Tony Curtis (portraying a method actor) is determined to give that role a heart and an identity.

I look on my own minor characters as individuals with histories and lives.  In BLACK KNIGHTS OF THE HUDSON, they may not have much of a role or even a line.  Yet, in the universe of the imagination in another book, by me or another writer, they might be the protagonist and the MacKendricks minor characters to their story.  Whenever possible, I try to give these minor characters a name or at least some sort of identity.  I hope the reader believes that when the minor characters leave the MacKendricks’ scenes, they go on with their own lives rather than turn into so much imaginative ash.  This may be their only chance to emerge into the light and I feel I owe them at least some depth instead of cluttering the books with a lot of “second policemen” manikins.

Occasionally, a minor character surprises me by developing into a secondary character and becomes far more important than conceived.  This happened with Lieutenant Jefferson Stuart Morgan.  He moved from a two-line role to a strong secondary character in BOOK V:  WAR CLOUDS IN THE EAST.  By giving this minor character a little history and identity, I uncovered far greater potential for Stuart as well as the narrative than if he had just been the kid visiting his wounded pal in the hospital at the Front.  I wish to thank Mary N. for her kind words.  I’m delighted that at least one reader enjoys these other characters who, I hope, lend more dimensions to the narrative of the MacKendricks.

Welcome to the first article on GRAY’S GUIDONS, the LIBRARY of my web site.  This blog focuses on writing, editing, and publishing.  It is also the central core of my web site as writing is my profession and my favorite leisure activity.  It is my profession because I have been paid to be a technical writer/editor for almost thirty years.  It is also my favorite leisure activity.  There is nothing so satisfying to me as doing a bit of research, creating a historical setting, and then tossing a character from my imagination into that setting.

Upcoming articles will discuss the craft of writing Historical Fiction, the concept of the writer as a Professional-Amateur (Pro-Am), the dreaded Writer’s Block, and the impact of eBook publishing for writers seeking to find a way to reach readers.  On occasion, I may take a discussion from a writer’s forum or other source on the Internet to expand upon here with my opinion.  In such cases, I will always provide the link to the parent article or discussion so that you may read others’ opinions on these subjects.  Time constraints will not permit a daily updating of this blog.

My main purpose in creating this web site is, quite frankly, to introduce readers to my books.  There will be those who enjoy the books but have no interest in the blog.  There will be those who may follow the blog but won’t want to read the books (not everyone enjoys Historical Fiction).  Regardless of your purpose in visiting here, all of you are welcome and appreciated.

I do ask that those who take the time to post comments maintain a level of courtesy and civility to other commentators and to me.  If offensive language is used against this site or one of the other readers, such posts will be moderated and deleted.  I believe in free speech but this site is my home on the Web and I expect visitors to behave respectfully; just as I would expect you to be considerate if you were visiting my house.

For those of you who have read this first article, I appreciate your time and your visit.  Thank you very much for entering upon this new journey with me.