Hello, all!

There’s a great little quote that pops up on the AuthorSalon.com website from time to time. It reads “There are no great writers, just great re-writers.” I am very focused right now on becoming the latter! Now that I have a healthy pause between graduate school classes on my hands, I am spending a lot more time re-shaping THE PROVING into the story that I hope it was meant to be. Here are some of the highlights of the revised plot, again based on input from readers and professional editors:

1) Most importantly, the core story arc of The Tome of Greystone remains intact. The style and shape of the presentation is being re-wrapped around the same main points.

2) The number of point-of-view characters is being reduced. All of the same main characters will still be in the story, but the action will be told from the viewpoint of Argand, Kosin, My, and Darian for the protagonists, and King Balon, Pinneron, Julian, and Lucian for the antagonists.

3) The action is being condensed considerably, so that The Proving event itself happens just past the middle of a 100k word or so book. As a result, the training of the good guys (the Elect of the Silver Phoenix) and the introduction of Julian and the Blood Knights as bad guys (the Elect of the Red Phoenix) will all happen much sooner than before.

4) Princess Darian’s role in the story is increasing, as is the Bard My’s. Due to the change in points-of-view, the roles of most of the other male characters (besides Argand) are reduced slightly.

5) The threat that the protagonists are facing due to the public’s distrust of magic is being strengthened. For the past twenty years or so, royal and local authorities in Greystone have been tracking down “Emergents”, people who begin to display inexplicable, magical powers (remember, magic doesn’t exist in the modern Land except in old Bard’s Tales).   Emergents are considered a dangerous threat to society since the vast majority of them go murderously insane within months of the emergence of their powers.

The good news is that re-writing like this is a MUCH faster process than the original writing effort. The bad news is that the changes are significant and need to be pulled off without sacrificing the flow and pacing of the story!

That’s it for now! Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions on these changes, and stay tuned for lots more posts  and updated over the next four weeks of intensive re-writing.

~Kevin

Hi, all!

I think it’s time I go into more detail about AuthorSalon.com, the online community for writers that has led me to some of the changes that the past few posts describe. I can’t say enough positive things about my experiences with Author Salon so far, so you can certainly consider my opinion biased. But my bias comes from the fact that I have enjoyed more progress on The Tome of Greystone in the past month with Author Salon than I had during the previous year. Yup, I am a fan.

The website describes itself as a place which “creates and maintains a rigorous work-to-publish writer conference environ and enhances it with a professional social network for beginners, veteran writers, and published authors”. The creators of Author Salon then up the ante by integrating editors, literary agents, and publishers directly into the mix, so that authors at all stages of their creative efforts get the one thing every author craves: exposure!

When I first joined the community, I thought that it was no more than a glorified Facebook for wannabe writers. But I was quickly impressed by the rigor of the Author Salon process. It begins by having each writer fill out a lengthy, multi-part profile about their work-in-progress. This is far more tricky than it might sound, requiring one to boil down their synopses, their pitches, their hook, descriptions of characters, and information on setting within a preset template. These profiles include writing samples of both dialogue and descriptive writing. Why such a comprehensive profile? Because THAT is what is used to begin the Salon’s peer review process. After profile reviews are completed (and multiple rounds of them in most cases), each writer’s work is able to move along to the next phases of the process.

This is why I included the word “serious” in my post title: unlike the label “Author Salon” suggests, this website is NO day at the spa. I could immediately tell that the experts who put the concept together wanted to weed out writers who were not prepared to go the distance with their work. This produces  a great side-effect; those that remain are pretty high quality writers, and therefore are able to provide high quality feedback in the peer review process.

And then there are the experts. I never would have expected or asked for this, but some of the administrative staff of the website (experienced editors, published authors, agents, and the like) occasionally take the time to engage Author Salon members in one-on-one discussions about their work-in-progress. Like, in depth discussions. The type of advice that I would have paid real money for if someone had  offered me the chance to spend it! I cannot say enough about how great that has been for the progress of THE PROVING and the rest of The Tome of Greystone. Because the only thing better than feedback… is EXPERT feedback. While not everyone may get the chance to interact with Author Salon staffers, the mere fact that it can happen is a big deal.

So the bottom line is this: if you are a writer, and you have a book that you are just sure would be one of the next-big-things if you could only get it published, and you are willing to WORK on it and take feedback and make changes, you need to come to AuthorSalon.com. Look me up if you do. I’d love to be in your peer review group!

Later!

~Kevin

Hi, all!

Feedback is an amazing thing. It helps sharpen, focus, and tailor one’s writing so that it can become the best it can be. I have always heard that critical feedback can be hard to take, but I have personally never bought into the notion. When I know someone is on my side, I can rest assured that their feedback is intended to help my writing improve! Not tear it down.

Expert feedback, however, is another thing entirely. It is something with which I have had no experience… until now. Expert feedback is so much more intense, cutting straight to the point of each issue, and so much more focused on the bottom lines of writing and getting published. And I thought changing a TITLE was scary! No, working with expert feedback? THAT is scary.

And I love it.

I flat out love it. And so, with apologies to you guys and ladies that have already read the current draft of EMERGENCE which some now know as THE CALL TO VENTURE, I am re-working and re-writing the first book. A lot of the content in the current manuscript will remain while some will disappear, and some of the content now in book 2 will be in book 1.  And there will be new stuff to make it all work. In other  words, I am rearranging the story’s flow as well as its starting and ending points in response to some excellent expert feedback.

So… I will need the services of you early readers once again. Please let me know if you are interested! If you are already reading EMERGENCE, feel free to continue, but know that I will be asking you to read the new variant of book one of The Tome of Greystone quite soon.

The new working title? Are you ready for this? Yeah, it’s THE PROVING. As in, the original title that I wanted a year and a half ago. Before I decided to break the story into three parts. Book one is once again THE PROVING. This is a working title I suppose, but I have the strongest feeling that this one will stick.

More… LOTS more, to come. And soon.

~Kevin

After a few days of ruminating, I can confidently pass on the leader in the clubhouse for the new title of Book One of The Tome of Greystone.

THE CALL TO VENTURE

It’s definitely growing on me. And it totally fits the plot of the book. More than anything else, the book is about the main characters emergent supernatural powers and the fact that all of them are feeling the call to travel to Greystone City and register for Venture (if none of the above makes sense to you, or if you are a new reader of the blog, check out the earlier posts). So if the title can’t include something about emerging, it really should focus on the over-riding theme of Venture.

It’s a little disingenuous I suppose, since the protagonists never actually GO on Venture… at least not in the same way as all of the other brave/foolish souls in the Greystone Protectorates. But it’s the call that matters most. Their call to venture is all about their discovery of their REAL calling. The call to The First Proving.

But that doesn’t start in book one.  First things first.

So, opinions? Thoughts? How does THE CALL TO VENTURE come across?

~Kevin

Well, now I’ve done it.

I’ve always had a nagging feeling deep, buried within that I would never really move forward with a one word title to the first book of The Tome of Greystone. I like “Emergence”. It certainly fits what happens in the book. But then an experienced agent and editor commented that it sounds more like a Crichton book or a Sci-Fi title than epic fantasy. And he’s right. Look up Crichton’s title’s if you doubt it even for a second.

So I need to change it, and it’s SCARY! First I thought I would go with a title with the word Phoenix in it somewhere, since phoenixes are the new dragons (see prior post if that makes no sense to you). But every title I came up with that included Phoenix just sounded… pretentious. Almost snobby. One thing my books are not is snobby. They are quite casual, the characters very much on-the-level, and even the mysterious big picture mysteries feel accessible to me. So I am pressing on towards a new name, something that fits the action but doesn’t feel overblown.

Sigh. Easier said than done.

And consider the irony… I have mapped out the detailed plot for 9 books of about 125k words each. And I have (what I think are) AWESOME names for ALL of them! Except for the first one. The first stinking book! The one that is already FINISHED!

Ah, well. At least I don’t need to worry about the other titles… yet.

🙂

~Kevin

Reprinted from the AuthorSalon.com website:

Golden-haired princesses, elves that are beautiful and magical and powerful and the most powerful race, grumpy dwarves that live underground, talking dragons, magical swords, white steeds, unicorns, vampires in general, looming castles, wizards with staffs (seriously why can’t they have some other enchanted object?), female characters that are thin (particularly protagonists), the prince is always the most desired choice for a boyfriend, Caucasian protagonists and races, other races that resemble humans (Elves, dwarves, orcs are all roughly humanoid), female characters that are able to talk with animals, some magical object of power that will save the world that everyone is after, helpful hermits that always turn up at the right time, green eyes … 

So it’s time to talk about originality again. The above paragraph comes from the intro of an article called “Restoring the Troll Trope”, a lengthy discussion about which tropes (traditional themes, stereotypes, etc.) modern fantasy authors should use and which need to be avoided at all costs because they are just plain played out! The list above was given as the short list of highly overused fantasy tropes.

And I LOVE IT!!!

Because I somehow managed to avoid them. Well, most of them. 

The Tome of Greystone will have a few dragons in it, this is true. But they don’t make their presences known for another book or two. And yes they talk. But they are still quite different from the normal portrayal of dragons in current fantasy writing. And yes, there are a few magical swords and the like… but they are not centrally important items in and of themselves. And we have already discussed the fact that I have permanently turned my back on Tolkien-esque non-human characters. To me, these have been worn out since around the time I graduated from high school. No dwarves, no elves, no orcs or orc copies (with apologies to Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, which I love to death!). Just humans. Then some totally new monsters/creatures. The occasional surprise dragon hidden in plain sight. And a LOT of plot.

So yes, I am going to get an ice pack for my shoulder after spending the past twenty minutes patting myself on the back. But hey, when something appears to be working, you might as well enjoy it, right???

Later!

~Kevin

Hello, all!

Time for an update now that we have safely made it through the long holiday season. A few things have changed regarding naming conventions and plans for the books, and there is news on the literary agent front.

• I have  decided, a little tentatively, to dispense with the concept of having a “The First Proving” trilogy as well as occasionally referring to the entire set of planned books as “The Tome of Greystone”. As I read some of my own notes and the old+new query letters, I realized that the multiple names were confusing. And if they are confusing to me – and I came up with them – it’s very likely that I need to simplify. So I am now referring to the completed “Emergence” as book one of “The Tome of Greystone” series. “Knights and Watchers” will be book two of The Tome, and “The First Proving” will be book three. So… no more trilogies. I am just going to number them in order.
• I was able to make significant progress on “Knights and Watchers” during my time off. I made some edits (deletions, really), then wrote a bunch of new material that got the heroes past their encounter with an incredibly scary creature and onto a fancy ball. Trust me, it will make sense when you read it. So as of now, the book is 54,000 words long and consists of eight chapters. My target length is 125,000 words in order to match the length of “Emergence”. Given the material I have yet to cover, I predict there will be a lot more deleting in my future. I am not quite to the middle of this chunk of the story, but I should be! I am hoping, work and grad school permitting, to have Knights and Watchers completed by April 15th of this year. Why the 15th? ‘Cause it’s tax day, and therefore easy to remember. No other reason.
• Things are still quietly simmering on the agent-hunt front. There are currently three agents actively reviewing the manuscript of “Emergence”, plus another three or four publishers (I just got my first rejection from a publisher earlier today… pretty sweet!). I have had by far the most contact with The Zack Company, run by Andy Zack out on the west coast. Via comments on his blog, he let me know that I might know more about his thoughts (or his reader’s thoughts) on Emergence in February. Pretty exciting! Of course, I have been trying like crazy to not get too wound up over any one potential agent or publisher, but easier said than done.

That’s it for now. I am hoping to get a lot of writing and at least one more blog post in over the coming weekend. Thanks for reading!

~Kevin

Hello, all! Christmas vacation is in full swing here at the Jackson household, and so is my deep-dive back into the Tome of Greystone work. As you might have read, I have been actively querying literary agents and publishers (the few publishers that don’t require agent representation) about the completed manuscript of Emergence. As expected, my queries have resulted in a LOT of rejections, but to my surprise I have also seen some interest on several fronts. Only time will tell if any of those leads will pan out, but I will keep you posted.

In the meantime, though, I have decided to re-tool my query letter and start a whole new wave of submissions. My initial query letter from the June-July 2011 time-frame was pretty poor, and that’s not just my opinion. I came across an expert in the field of getting published here in the Cincinnati area, and he was nice enough to review and edit mine at no cost. I have taken his suggestions and written a much more detailed query that tries to summarize Emergence while teasing the greater story arc to come.

* * *

Dear So-and-So of the Such-and-Such Literary Agency,

Allow me to introduce Emergence, a completed 125,000-word fantasy novel the begins a planned series of books called The Tome of Greystone. While Emergence is technically epic fantasy, it is part of a multi-generational story arc that has a very urban/contemporary fantasy feel. The books are set in a world of kings, queens, and mounted knights, but lack many of the trappings of traditional fantasy (such as pre-existing magic systems and Tolkien-esque non-human characters).

Emergence introduces the Land of Greystone via the stories of three groups of young men that begin to manifest magical powers during a time when any belief in the supernatural is considered a sign of dangerous insanity. Argand Mason, an accomplished swordsman at only 20 Summers old, and his close friend Kosin Fletcher are traveling through the Land seeking their fortunes. Through encounters with murderous thieves and river pirates, Argand discovers that he can detect the presence of others through strange, pulsing sensations in the ground. Kosin is increasingly shocked by his own extreme accuracy with bows or throwing knives. Despite their concern that they are both losing their minds, they know that their abilities are keeping them alive.

Loric Sarindon, the son of a famous huntmaster, believes his career is already at an end. He has begun hearing a voice in his mind, a known sign of impending madness. Loric intends to check himself permanently into Greystone’s royal cuperative (hospital) before he becomes a danger to others. Two of his good friends, West Currier and Surk Brayburn, agree to accompany him on this last trip together. But to Loric’s shock, West discovers that he can change the form of ordinary objects with nothing but his thoughts, and Surk learns that he has supernatural strength.

Within the ranks of Greystone’s army, the Grey Shields, we meet Max Chemael and his friends Brien and Varix. Max, nephew of one of the five Dukes of the Greystone Protectorates, has been hiding the fact the he seems to have the gift of foresight and often hears the thoughts of others. A disastrous fire in a crowded tavern reveals that both Brien and Varix also have special talents, and that Max can sense their various abilities.

The three groups of travelers are drawn to the capital of Greystone City in order to register for Venture, the dangerous journey into the Black Mountains through which brave souls prove their worth and earn knighthood. A series of assassination attempts near Greystone Castle itself thrusts all eight young men together. They soon discover that they have more than special talents in common; they have also each noticed menacing, black and shimmering silver-clad figures darkening their trails.

As the story unfolds, Queen Lorillin Greystone and her daring daughter Princess Darian are introduced as they struggle to maintain control of their increasingly lawless nation. In addition, tensions are growing between Greystone and its historical enemy, the nation of MasMindon to the west. We meet King Balon of MasMindon, strangely active despite his advanced age and questionable sanity, as he plots against Greystone with his advisor Pinneron and eight young grandsons known as the Blood Knights.

As Emergence closes, Argand, Loric, Max, and their friends have yet to learn that their powers, the growing troubles of the Land, and the dark plans of King Balon are all connected. But they will soon discover their roles within a millennia-old battle for the future of mankind that will be decided by the cataclysmic confrontation of supernatural powers… and by the choices made in the hearts of everyday people. The Tome of Greystone series continues in book two, Knights and Watchers (about half-finished at 55,000-words), as the young heroes realize the true nature of their powers and of the challenges that lie ahead.

If you are interested, I will gladly send you a synopsis, additional chapters, or the entire manuscript and glossary of Emergence. Thank you very much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Kevin E. Jackson

TheTomeWriter@gmail.com

TheTomeOfGreystone.Wordpress.com

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What do you think? Too much? Too little? Just right? Any comments are welcome!

Thanks!

~Kevin