baen publishing – Gunpowder and Ink!

My Main Character is not me. Plus, writing, writing, writing.

Before I get to that… the Rough Draft, minus the Final Giant Battle (FGB), is done for the sequel. I’m now working on filling it out and fixing things.

The FGB is gonna be awesome, just like the last one. And it’s always the most exhausting thing for me to write. I don’t know why, I really enjoy writing action more than anything else. I think it’s because it’s such a culmination of so many characters and moving parts, and there’s a brand new faction for the book that… geez… I want to talk about but I really shouldn’t because it’d ruin the surprise.

But let’s just say the battle is going to include Pterodactyls.

There.

That’s enough of a hint.

So the FGB includes giant leathery birds… Cause, why not? Seems cool – and my motto is that if something seems cool, you should always do it.

Speaking of that, I went out to eat at my favorite Mexican restaurant with some close family friends. And there was a truck parked outside the door with an empty giant metal cage in the back.

It took my wife’s adamant restraint to keep me from getting naked and climbing into the cage to terrorize people coming and going.

Seemed cool. Should always do it.

Unless your spouse doesn’t want to be embarrassed. And in retrospect, it was probably kind of stupid.

Now I’d just like to publicly state: My main character is not based on me.

Yes, I’d do a lot of things that he’d do. But he does a lot of things that I wouldn’t do also.

In real life, I’m 6’4″ and 245lbs (hey! I’m bulking…) and good with a Glock and AR/M16 platform (I shot Expert Award every time we qualified in the Marine Corps, so I’m no slouch, and YES – my first time was with Iron Sights.)

Jedidiah is a stumpy six feet tall and 185lbs and pretty good with revolvers and a badass Winchester 1886 rifle. And a Bowie.

See. Not the same.

But I did base the Love Interest off my wife.

Cause she’s a total babe.

Edit – In case you’re interest what I’m talking about. Here are the excerpts. If you like it, I’ll send you the entire thing for feedback.

West of Prehistoric

California and the irrational fear of cosmetically dangerous weapons!

Ironically, this felony arrest for having an evil pistol grip and an even ‘eviler’ flash hider took place on the eve of Memorial Day. The very holiday where we take time to celebrate and reflect on the sacrifices of over 1.5 million Americans who died defending the rights and freedoms that you can be arrested for enjoying in California.

StocktonPD2ndamendment

Bravo coppers…

Your citizens will now sleep safe, knowing that while you’re confiscating scary weapons with non-lethal features, their children only have to worry about wading through ankle deep mounds of human feces, lines of homeless tent cities, and discarded needles to get to their plastic straw free school zones in your fine, upstanding state.

By the way, I got curious as to what CA’s Law Enforcement Code of Ethics is. It seems pretty standard, but obviously meaningless for those who are sworn to uphold it. .

Code of Ethics

AS A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the Constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality and justice.

Well….

You’re doing a terrible job at fulfilling your oath, but a terrific job at supporting the tyranny of your elected officials.

Congratulations, you fearsome law dogs.

***

On the subject of my book. I’ve been contacted by a small publisher. It was rather ego-flattering, except after digging in a bit more into the books they’d published I was pretty let down.

The reviews for their books appeared good, at first. Then I noticed they were 5 star reviews from the exact same four people, and the other reviews were either sketchy, or brutal in bashing the story and editing.

So, on we go down the long path to publishing.

My current plans are to give traditional publishing a solid year in hopes of getting on somewhere good. (Looking at YOU Baen!) In the meantime, I’m going to keep writing the sequel, and outlining the next few books… as well as passing my current novel around to anyone interested. The more feedback the merrier, and I didn’t write this just to keep it all to myself.

(If you’re interested, here’s the link to the first four ‘chunks’: RAWR! Pew! Pew! Pew!)

Anyways.

Freedom ain’t free. And California will probably never be.

Deep breath… and…. -submit for publishing-

I think I’ve gotten enough feedback to take the leap for rejection or publication.

There are still a lot of copies floating around out there, and I just sent another one out this morning. I’ll keep updating my manuscript as I get feedback, but at some point you’ve got to poop or get off the pot.

I finished the novel almost six weeks ago, and the feedback I’ve gotten since has been overwhelmingly positive. I’m confident enough that I’ve created something great and entertaining, and now I want to get it into print. Besides, I’m currently deep into writing the sequel, and I’ve at least three more books planned for the series. (Including a couple spin-off characters/series.)

But this is going to be a long wait.

Submitting an unrequested/unagented manuscript means I go into the publishers Slush Pile. Which means they will give it a glance when they get a chance. (Expect 9-12 months!)

THEN, if it passes their muster, it goes into editing/rewriting. After that, it goes into rotation for printing. Which could be another year before seeing the light of a bookstore/amazon shelf.

So all that kind of stinks. But it is what it is. I’ve a lot of writing planned in the meantime. Including a story about Marines in WWII stranded on a pacific island with some hostile Japanese POW’s and Sea Monsters. (I just want to write about using a flame thrower on a sea monster… and since 95% of the ocean is unexplored, I can make a LOT of stuff up!)

For those of you who’ve read this book, you’re more than welcome to read the sequel once it’s completed. 🙂

Honestly, I’m extremely confident this book will see print. It’s good. Real good. I’ve enough strangers telling me that now to not have any doubts. And seriously, who doesn’t love cowboys, apes, and dinosaurs?

But I’m also a bit egotistical. So we’ll see how it all pans out.

As for my first choice to submit to?

Baen.

They’ve a great reputation for helping new authors build a reader base. And they don’t particularly care what your personal religious/political opinions are. And since I’m the sort who won’t stop saying what I believe, I think I’d do well with them.

Besides, they’re located in Wake Forest, NC. Just a few hours down the road. 🙂

So…

Baensubmit