A Spark Arises
Well, the old fires are starting to spark up again. Maybe it’s because it’s nearing November, which as any writer who’s spent any reasonable time online can tell you, is NaNoWriMo. Maybe it’s just the changing of the weather — colder days seem to draw out the creative juices a little better for me for some reason. Or maybe it’s just because I’ve taken enough time away from it that I’m starting to miss it and get tired of coding all day again.
Regardless of the reason, the writer in me is starting to stir around again, and I’m once again fleshing out ideas for Broken Peaces. Of course, I’ve still got to get Shattered up to specs, but I think most of Shattered is pretty solid. It needs some clean up — there’s a lot of typos and a lot of stuff that could be worded better — but it’s … well … solid.
The main thing I’m having a bit of trouble with right now is how to come up with a story that can top the drama in Shattered. Like I said quite a bit last year, Shattered is a lot darker than Like Glass was. A lot darker. I was re-reading the last third or so of the novel today, wanting to bring myself back up to speed on that world so I can dig into Broken Peaces, and I was pleasantly surprised at it. It’d been a long time since I’d looked through any of it, let alone the tail end where things really go to hell, and while I’d remembered the genera idea of the plot (i.e. who does what to whom and for how much), I’d forgotten the overall gist of it. It’s kinda like the difference between just hearing a song’s melody and hearing the song with the full band behind it.
Anyways, I’ve got a couple of decent ideas for things that could … well … go wrong. And let’s face it: stories where things go right are pretty boring — something has to go wrong in order to get your interest. The girl has to dump the guy. The aliens have to invade. The super villain has to have his plot to destroy the world unless the world governments are going to pay … one million dollars (where the hell is the Dr. Evil pinky-to-cheek emoticon when you need it?). Otherwise, it’s a yawn fest.
And for what it’s worth, I already know how Broken Peaces is going to end. It’s just a matter of getting there — the journey’s the best part.
It’s going to be interesting to see how I’m going to pull it together though, now that I’m working full time at a job I actually enjoy. When I wrote Like Glass, I was working from home, so I could write while I had some down time. When I wrote Shattered last year, I was taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. Where I’m at now though, I couldn’t take the time off, nor do I even really want to — the job’s actually pretty good.
That probably also has a lot to do with how I’m looking at Broken Peaces and why I’m having such a hard time getting my brain fired up for it. I’m in a much better mind set than I was when I wrote Like Glass, and worlds better than when I wrote Shattered. Now I don’t quite have the same emotions to build from, so getting the juices flowing is going to be a lot different this time around than last time.
At least there’s one thing in my favor for this: I’d never planned on Broken Peaces being anywhere near as dark as Shattered. Probably not as dark as Like Glass either, but definitely much lighter than the last venture into Rob’s world. So that should make it a bit easier to get going. We’ll see though.
Well, I’ve got about three weeks to get things in order before NaNoWriMo starts, so hopefully that’ll be enough time to get the fires lit properly and get some good ideas flowing.
In the meantime though, it’s nigh on bedtime, and I’ve got a couple of projects due at work in the next couple of weeks, so I’d better start heading along. Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
Late Night Thoughts
It’s quite rare that I make a post so late in the night, but I’m trying to wind down and figured I’d get some stuff out that’s rolling through my mind.
Got another rejection letter today. They don’t bother me in the sense of “oh wow, someone doesn’t like what I wrote.” I’m past that, believe it or not. They bug me in the “damn, I wasted my time waiting a couple of weeks to hear that.” Seriously, the ones that come back the next day — or even later in the day — are perfectly fine. But waiting a week or two to get a form rejection just annoys me.
So, I have one more agent I’m waiting to hear back from; she’s reading Like Glass right now. And I’m not exactly getting my hopes up — call it a self-fulfilling prophecy if you’d like, but I’m really expecting another rejection. The only problem is that it’s going to take forever, I’m sure, and that’s time that could be better spent elsewhere.
Well, that’s not entirely true. I’m not just spinning my wheels waiting to see what happens. I am making plans to release Shattered in the spring, and I’m moving towards that as quickly as possible. Actually, if I know myself as well as I think I do, it won’t be released in the spring; it’ll be out in a couple of weeks (well, as quickly as possible, anyways).
Book stuff aside, I’m also thinking about releasing my music on a CD. Not that I think anyone will really buy it, but just so I can say “I put out a CD.” The only problem is that (and if you thought otherwise, you have my apologies) I’m not actually playing the piano on any of the tracks. I wrote everything, sure, but that’s my computer doing the performance. Trust me, if I could play that well, I sures to hell wouldn’t be pushing books on to anyone who couldn’t run fast enough 
So, in order to make people not feel cheated (even if it is only in my mind) for shelling out $10 (or whatever) to hear a computer play, I’m thinking of re-editing the music, making it more digital sounding (i.e. toss some weird effects on it), and releasing it as electronic music. A shit load of work, but then I can have my CD collecting dust in a box next to Like Glass and Shattered.
Okay, so that’s what writing a post at 2:00 AM is like 
Yeah, I’m not terribly impressed either, but it was good enough to kill time while I smoked a couple of cigarettes.
Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=4c891e3d-670b-43c8-aabf-3cd59f6a4b17)
After A Little Thinking….
I’m sure that, if my wife knew I was writing this post, she’d be a little upset with me. She prefers that I keep my “public persona” as clean as possible, and I admire her for that. But, at the moment, I’m a little upset and I’m going to shoot myself in the marketing foot.
Now that I’ve had a little time to think about what happened this morning, I’ll be flat honest: I’m pissed. I wasted an entire month of my life thinking that this would play out to be a fair start to a career, time I could have spent marketing Like Glass on my own, time I could’ve spent looking for another publisher. Hell, I was actually going to give up when I got the email from VHP, and I could’ve been working on my software development skills in this time, instead of worrying about building up an audience.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not going back on what I said earlier — I’m still very grateful to both Ms. Williams and Ms. Quast for what they’ve done for me. I’m mad at myself. Instead of making sure that everything was signed, sealed, and delivered, I kicked my feet up and trusted that things would take care of themselves.
It was my own stupidity/naivete, and it bit me in the ass. Now I know better.
I don’t think I’ll be spending any more of my time pursuing agents or publishers. I’m satisfied with the job that CreateSpace does for production, and I’ll be a little arrogant: I like to think that I can do a fine job in creating the promotional materials myself. I won’t turn down a reasonable offer if whatever Gods there may be decide to send me one, but I’m not going to waste my time to pursue it further.
I also think that I’m going to leave the series with Shattered. I had originally intended there to be a third, final book in the series, but as much as I hate to leave it at two books, I feel my time is better served looking elsewhere for financial support (i.e. actually trying to do well at my day job, instead of just putting up with it until I get that “big break”).
Note that I reserve the right to change my mind at any time, and I probably will once I get over this. But that’s where I stand at the moment.
So, here’s the current plan: Like Glass is still available at CreateSpace; you can find info on getting a discount if you go to the Like Glass page (click the link at the top to get there). Shattered is undergoing review by some friends of mine, and further information will be forthcoming once I’ve received their opinions.
I may pull the plug on Like Glass at the first of the year, and I may not release Shattered to the public. I haven’t completely decided yet. But, as of this moment in time, what I just wrote is the closest thing there is to a plan, for better or worse. Just don’t take it as the gospel, at least not until you have a copy of Shattered in your hands and you see Like Glass still for sale in Febuary.
I need to get back to pretending to work. Again, thanks to Kimberlee and Mary — it was fun while it lasted.
–Matt
Like Glass No Longer a VHP Title
The title pretty much says it all; officially, as of today, Like Glass will not be published by Vanilla Heart Publishing. I will continue to distribute it via the current channels (i.e. Amazon and CreateSpace) at least until the first of the year, though I’m unsure whether I will continue to pursue it after that.
I’m at work right now, so I can’t really discuss the subject too much; suffice to say that it’s better for all parties involved that the novel finds a different home.
I would like to sincerely offer my thanks and gratitude to Kimberlee Williams, the editor at VHP, for the time and effort she and her staff put into what work had already been done on the novel, and for putting up with a rather tedious client. I’d also like to once again thank Mary Quast, the author who introduced me to VHP in the first place; even though it didn’t work out, it was still a wonderful experience that I wouldn’t have had without your assistance.
Okay, back to the rat race.
–Matt
Update on Shattered
Shattered’s coming along nicely so far. God, I wish I could tell you what’s going on, but I can’t, so you’ll just have to wonder If you want a bit of food for thought, I’ll give you one word: “Tin”. Make of that what you will…
We’re a little over the halfway mark of the rough draft. I know a lot of people don’t go off of a word count, but I do, just because I could condense the story into a couple of paragraphs if I wanted to. I’ll go until the story’s done, but I’m going to try and make sure it’s done in about another 20 or so chapters. Look for it to be about the same length as Like Glass, maybe a little longer.
Of course, I’m still on the rough draft, so I reserve the right to change anything — including the planned length — without notice. I might even change it to where “Tin” — which, while not exactly a plot point, does have a relation to the story — is completely meaningless.
Aside from that, a little birdy told me you might want to stay tuned over the next week for some … news. No details yet (stupid bird), so I’m as anxious as you are. But keep this site in mind as you make your daily rounds over the next few days; maybe there’ll be something worth reading
I’m off to dream land now, or as close as I can get to it while keeping what few threads of sanity I have left.
–Matt
Networked Blogs (on Facebook)
