Elias Returns.

Another short going up soon.

     That is right, my third short starting Elias will be coming out on Kindle/Amazon.com soon.  I have a little more tweaking to do with it and I will be putting it up.  This was written as a quick break from the world of Grimmack which is also coming along nicely.  I just need to figure out a name for it...

     I have some goals I am trying to achieve in my third edit of Grimmack.  The first is tightening up the language and prose so it reads more smoothly and professionally.  I want to add a touch more world building and detail, two things I know I'm sparse at when writing.

      Life is busy.  I have been working on my Network+ certification and I’m a couple weeks away from taking the test.  Kids have started school again, and we have been stumbling over ourselves to make sure all the million and a half forms sent home by teachers to be signed are attended to.  My work schedule is also shifting, which means my school schedule is shifting.  Good times.

     My goals are still before me.  I am working on my outline for the story I want to write for NaNoWriMo this year.  When November 1^st hits, I want to be ready to meet it head on.  I am poking at agents and soon a couple of publishers on Grimmack’s behalf.  If I don’t have him published traditionally by mid-summer next year, I will instead look at doing self-publication through Amazon. 

     I still have “The Dragon’s Apprentice” to finish editing as well.  My daughter really liked that story and keeps pushing me to get it done.   It will also look at traditional publishing before I consider self-publishing.  I am more than aware of my own limitations, and I know time wise I’m not In a position to market myself if I do self-publication.

     Otherwise, I have no issue with self-publication.  As a matter of fact, with the way trends are turning and media is sliding towards the electronic devices that rule us, I think self-publication will give some traditional publishing a run for its money in the near future. 

     That being said I know a lot of people are hesitant to touch anything self-published and with good reason.  There are some really big steaming piles of crap out there.  But there are also diamonds hiding in the self-published field.  I can think of a couple of authors who self-published first.

     You know, Christopher Paolini and Larry Correia.  Both have written great books, and if I remember right, both were self-publishing before they were picked up by traditional.

     That is my update for now.   Working on writing, working on not just claiming to be an author, but to put myself in the headspace where I can consider myself an author which is probably just the difference between author and aspiring author; Confidence. 

Until next time,

Ben Marble