Results tagged “ken scholes”

Here are the other book, DVD and movie releases for the week!

HARDCOVER BOOKS

• The Child Thief by Brom
• Dark Slayer by Christine Feehan
• Flight of the Renshai by Mickey Zucker Reichert
• Dreamwish Beasts and Snarks by Mike Resnick

• Must Love Hellhounds by Ilona Andrews, Charlaine Harris, Nalini Singh, and Meljean Brook
• All the Windwracked Stars by Elizabeth Bear
• Green by Ted Dekker
• The Drowning City by Amanda Downum
• Dark Vengeance by Ed Greenwood
• Witch Craft by Caitlin Kittredge
• A Lion Among Men by Gregory Maguire
• The Soldier King by Violette Malan
• The Storm Witch by Violette Malan
• Rosemary and Rue Novel by Seanan McGuire
• The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia A. McKillip
• Night’s Cold Kiss by Tracey O’hara
• Ravens of Avalon by Diana L. Paxson
• Flashforward by Robert J. Sawyer
• Lamentation by Ken Scholes
• Anathem by Neal Stephenson
• The Scourge of God by S. M. Stirling
• Trick of the Light by Rob Thurman
• Fugitive Prince by Janny Wurts

• Braveheart [Blu-ray]
• Gladiator [Blu-ray]
• Heroes - Season Three
• Impact
• Supernatural: The Complete Fourth Season

• Gamer

Editing a book can be such a gratifying and horrifying experience.

I finished the first draft of The Dark Thorn two weeks ago, a book I have high hopes for as it is easily the best thing I’ve written to date. It took just shy of a year to write. By the end of that year I felt really good about the book and how it came together—the character arcs are solid, it is loaded with fantasy elements woven into our world’s history and the overall story has a subtextual resonance for those who enjoy such things. Reading over the last few chapters to make sure I didn’t miss the conclusion to an open plot thread, I knew I would have an easy time giving the book a quick line edit and getting it out to the agent who is interested in it.

After taking two days off to celebrate, I started editing from the first chapter on.

And was aghast.

I have a fairly critical eye and even more so when it comes to my own work. I don’t become attached to something I’ve written or feel the need to protect it at earnest like many young writers do. Able to separate the work from my ego, I saw a book I could not possibly have written.

I still have a hard time taking responsibility for the first few chapters. What the agent initially saw in them I’ll probably never know.

Here is what I do know.

I am in the middle of reading Lamentation by Ken Scholes and so far I am greatly enjoying it! It is quite unique and very well written, two things I demand of fantasy these days, and if you haven’t read it yet go out and buy a copy! Good stuff!

To read the Prelude and Chapter One, click HERE!

One of the simply great things surrounding this series, The Psalms of Issak, is the fact the first two books are completely finished and edited while the third is near completion. Canticle, Book Two, won’t arrive in bookstores until October 13, 2009, giving Ken a great lead time on Book Three. For those of you who like authors to deliver at least once a year, Ken Scholes is the author for you!

The other wonderful thing I am seeing from Tor-Forge is consistent cover art on Ken’s books. I like that. A great deal! And I know the fans do too. Irene Gallo is one of the best art directors in the business and she has outdone herself when it comes to Ken’s covers. Again, great stuff!

Irene and Tor.com have posted a fun and informative article about cover art and the progression artist Greg Manchess took from sketch to finished product as he created the cover art for Canticle.

Enjoy!

In the almost thirteen years I’ve been working in the publishing industry, that time spent frequenting publishers and bookstores and websites and writers’ lives, I’ve learned a great deal about the business of publishing—from editor in chiefs to readers.

The saddest truth I’ve discovered in all of that time from readers is this:

• There are a lot of people in the world who consider themselves writers.
• Few of those people actually finish a novel.

You would think with so many sitting down with a pad and pencil or before a keyboard that there would be more people completing what they have started. It isn’t the case though, at least from what I have seen. Every day I receive emails from fans of established authors broaching the subject. Those email discussions go something like this:

• “How do I get published?” the curious emailer asks.
• “Have you finished your book?” I write back, already knowing the answer.
• “No, I haven’t,” the curious emailer responds. “But I just want to know how to get published.”
• “When you finish your book,” I reply with, I have to admit, a snarky grin on my face, “I will help place you on the path to getting published.”

99.9% of the answers are similar to that very simple exchange. And despite my very sincere offer of helping those people get their work in front of agents and editors, only twice has someone written me back after completing their book. Twice! Out of thousands of emails I’ve received and responded to.

The sad part of that equation is that many people don’t know what it feels like to finish a novel.

And oddly, from what you will read, maybe they are the lucky ones!

Yesterday I finished the first draft of The Dark Thorn, a book I am calling an “urban quest fantasy,” as it has elements of urban fantasy and high fantasy thrown together in a hybrid incorporating Celtic mythology, the history of the British Isles, the history of the Vatican and Arthurian legend. Having finished one book before, I am also aware of the amount of work still needing to be put in. There are scenes that need to be rewritten. There is an overall line edit I need to complete. There is a query letter to write and rewrite until perfect. There is a summary and an outline I should create in case I am asked for them. There is a marketing platform I should put together to show why and where my potential sales will come from. All important.

While that forthcoming work hangs upon me, I am still giddy with the realization I finished my second novel. When I wrote the last word of the book and saved the file, I sat back in my chair, stretched, took a deep breath, and all other ills in my life went away. I had done it. I had finished it. There was not another word to write. A complete story had been saved on my computer—and backed up elsewhere. I left my apartment to visit my favorite watering hole. I didn’t take my laptop for the first time in a year. I had a glass of wine. I sat and watched the USA beat Trinidad & Tobago in a World Cup Qualifying soccer match and didn’t feel guilty about not working on a story centered around other characters. After all, that story was finished!

But what is it like when an already published author finishes a first draft?

How do they feel?

What goes through their head?

I asked several of my writer friends last night what they feel upon finishing a first draft. Here is what they had to say:

BOOKS

• The Judging Eye by R. Scott Bakker
• The Valley of Shadows by Brian Cullen
• Steal Across the Sky by Nancy Kress
• Tuck by Stephen R. Lawhead
• Escape from Hell by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
• Lamentation by Ken Scholes

• Butterfly Effect (2004) [Blu-ray]
• Dead Like Me: The Complete Collection
• Freddy vs. Jason (2003) [Blu-ray]
• Quarantine
• Sabrina the Teenage Witch: The Fifth Season

• No new movies.

Ken Scholes is a new author releasing his first book in February, but that by no means means he is new to the industry.

Ken is responsible for writing dozens and dozens of short stories, many of which have been published in several reputable magazines. He also won the Writers of the Future contest a few years back. Ever quirky and always fun—as evidenced by any number of photos on his website—Ken was then dared by his friends to write a full-length novel based on one of those short stories.

Lamentation, released in mid-February 2009, is the fruits of that dare. I’ll let Ken describe the rest!

Here is Five Questions with Ken Scholes! Enjoy!

Suvudu: When did you start writing? Why do you write?

Ken Scholes: I started writing pretty young. I was stapling together little books (self illustrated) when I was in the First Grade. I started writing short stories when I was about fourteen—I’d read Bradbury’s essay “How to Keep and Feed a Muse” and it had shown me what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I tend to process my life through writing. Whatever my subconscious mind is processing tends to turn up, dressed as fiction, to be worked out on the page. I used to say that writing was a way of knowing myself. While that’s certainly still true, there’s also now a part of it that is just the love of telling a story that engages people, makes them think or feel, entertains them.

S: Describe your writing day? How many words/pages do you write a day on average? Breaks? How much time do you spend editing and how do you go about it?