Two Separate Paths: Looking at R. Brady Frost.

Why I find it fascinating to follow R. Brady Frost.

     Yes, I'm calling out a fellow writer whom I have known since High School.  To be fair, several years passed before we reconnected via Facebook, and I have seen his physical present since we were both young and skinny.  Well, he still looks kinda skinny.  We have however, had several moments of correspondence. Read each others work, and traded opinions here and there.

      We both have a lot in common.  We are both fathers who are tackling family, jobs, and other such things.  We both work in IT, (though he is well established, and I'm up and coming as I'm still in school.)  We also both face challenges on a weekly basis on getting our writing done as one would figure from the things mentioned above.

     There are differences too.  Brady is focused more on a Sci-fi path with his current work on Clorophyllium 9: A Final Hope.  And his short stories are more inspiration based than mine.  Well, he does have the zombie one, but his focus is in different areas, that are still fiction based, than I generally pursue.  I tend to focus more on fantasy, urban fantasy, and horror.  His attention to small detail in writing is something I would love to develop and emulate as I find myself often skipping the little stuff and having to add it in later.  I know he has mainly discovery written, while I like to outline.

     The biggest difference I see is that Brady seems focused on being self-published, while I am looking towards trying to be traditionally published.  Now, I say that fully realizing that I have short stories that I have written and put up on amazon.com.  For my book though, my full stories, I plan on trying to pursue traditional publication.  Brady has always (and I could be wrong) seemed focused on self publication.

     Now, there is nothing wrong with either path.  My pull towards traditional publishing comes from the lack of desire to have to work hard on marketing myself at this point.  I also am not sure about how to market myself beyond growing an internet presence and putting up the odd short story to hope I garner some attention.

     Brady has a great website rbradyfrost.com.  He has a podcast he has been working on at hunting the muse.  And is often a lot more present on social media that I manage to be.  His podcast has writing prompts on a weekly basis, and they are great for getting you to think about different ideas. He is constantly working on his writing and even has a book, COMA: The Cataclysm on his website so people can read and actively give him feedback.

     I compare that to the fact I tried to start a Facebook page for prospective writers, and it fizzled after a couple months.  I have wanted to podcast about things myself, but have never really sat down and banged out what I would need to do one.  I don't even know what platform I would go for, as writing is not the only think I would like to discuss.

    So why do I follow Brady and make comparisons? Well I will tell you.

    It fascinates me to see what he is able to accomplish with his time.  It gives me a standard to compare myself to, that is more realistic than looking at a published author such as Larry Correia or Jim Butcher.  Those folks are published and established.  With Brady I can watch him develop and achieve success form the ground up.  It makes him more relate-able to me.  Of course it helps that I remember him from when we were younger as well.

    I also watch, because as he finds success I can learn from it.  I already know I'm not great at sitting down and writing daily.  Though I do put out a good weekly word count.  I am constantly developing my stories in my head as I go through out my day, and I have goals I am starting to set and meet better than I ever have.

    So fellow authors, who do you watch and learn from?  Who are those you look up to that may not be already published big name authors, and why?  How do you learn from these folks?  How does that fit into your goals?

Ben Marble

Please drop by and visit R. Brady Frost at his website rbradyfrost.com and/or check out his podcast at hunting the muse.  You can also find his short stories at Amazon.com for your kindle or e-book reader.

As always, if you would like to support my clubbing of select baby seals, you can always purchase on of my short stories at Amazon.com as well.

Nailing my Priorities

Guess who’s back, back again!

     So, it has been a little bit.  Time for an update folks.

     Grimmack has passed through edit number three and has now been pushed to a publisher’s inbox whom I won’t name.  I have some hopes here, as I think my story is very fun and solid.  The final product was just north of 50k words which is on the low end of young adolescent to teens which is where I’m aiming this story.  That being said I feel it is something that appeals to older readers as well.  According to the website I should get a response between Thanksgiving and Christmas time.  I was surprised actually as I know that Tor (not the one I submitted this too) has about a six month turn around on a response.

     Now, honestly I am bracing myself for a rejection letter while hoping for an acceptance.  I do believe my story is good, but it is up to someone whom I have never met who digs through these manuscripts to decide if it is something they want to publish. They hopefully will love my story, but they may decide they don’t.  Or they may decide it’s not a fit for their publisher, or… well there are many “ors.”  I have done what I can for now within my sphere of control, for now I have put the story to the side as I wait for judgement.  I also am looking for plan B, C, and so on for if this publisher rejects my story.  Because it doesn’t fit one place doesn’t mean it won’t fit anywhere.

      I have been a little distant from my writing otherwise.  I have been cramming the last few weeks for my Network+ certification and thankfully I have passed.  Now I am on to learning Security Fundamentals and then Security+.  For now, I can take a small breath, but a new test will be on me soon.

     So, what am I working on then?  Well, I am still writing Grimmack 2 on the side.  I also am going to be working on editing “The dragon’s apprentice” which is the other book I have finished that needs some love.  That one I have had on the back burner for a while for a variety of reasons, but I have finally figured out a few things I want to do to fix the story, and while it might mean sacrificing a few darlings, I am looking forward to getting it to a point where I can submit it.

     Oh, and there is this little November thing called NaNoWriMo I am hoping to do again this year.  If you haven’t done it before, you should.  It is a fun challenge for aspiring writers.

      Otherwise life is moving on.  I am continuing in school, working on watching for ways to advance myself in my new chosen career path.  Yes, I want to write for a living, but until I get to that point I do need to pay the bills.

      So, there you have it.  A lot of fun, and work to getting to where I want to be.

      Because, let’s be honest, this is all about priorities.  If I don’t prioritize my writing, then all I am doing is talking.  That doesn’t help anyone, least of all myself.

Ben Marble

If you want to support Ben Marble you can buy his short stories at Amazon.com

A Fey Deal

So, my new short story is out.

     This one was a new experience.  I half wrote this a few months ago, and then picked it up and finished it at work.  This new job I have gives me time to do schoolwork and writing etc. In between calls so it's been kind of nice.  I'm looking forward to getting through school quicker, and getting more writing done now than has been possible in the past.

     In this book, my character Elias has his story continued.  It also acts as sort of a bridge between the two other shorts I wrote, "The Choice," and "The Black Oak,"  (I might need to work on more original naming schemes)

     I am going to try and do something else different this time around as well.  The other two shorts I released I did a "Free for five days deal."  That isn't happening this time.  Doing that garnered no reviews or feedback and didn't seem to do much for my stories.  This time around I am going to keep the price at the $0.99 and see what I can do with that.  If someone decides they didn't like it, all they are out is a buck.  If they do like it, hopefully they will go back and check out my other shorts.

    I am presently working on getting a battery for my Laptop.  When this arrives I will be able to write and work more efficiently at my job. No emailing files back and forth.  I look forward to it.  Then I will have the Dragon's apprentice Book  1 finished in the next couple of months as far as edits go, and I will hopefully have Grimmack the Goblin poke his head up sometime as well.

    I am looking forward to considering myself a writer again, as I've kind of had a hiatus from working on my projects due to school and work.  I'm glad to be back.

Ben Marble

   

Support Your Local Writing Friends.

     So, you have a friend who has self-published.  Or even traditionally published.  How do you support them best?

    Look, this is a question on my mind as I've now delved into the world of self-publishing.  Not only do I wonder how to best get people to support myself, I ponder the best way to support my friends who are venturing into this abyss where you cast you net of words and hope to pull something back from it.  I have thought of a few ways.

     First and formost, buy their book.  Look, if it's $0.99 it's not a big deal.  If it's a tad bit more expensive just remember that you are supporting someone.  When you are first starting out on this adventure every little sale makes your heart leap and gives you a bit of a grin.  I know I have purchased a couple of R. Brady Frost's books from the Nook Store, and when his latest Chlorophyllium 9: A Short Story comes to the Nook I will buy it too.  This short story I have already read (and enjoyed) but it's not about just reading it to me.  It's giving that little ego boost that every author needs every now and then.

     Rate their books honestly.  Now wait a moment before you raise and eyebrow and hear me out here.  I know you want to give your friend a five star, ultra awesome, changed my life rating.  That's cool because you are a good friend.  However, think of what it will do when someone browses over his book, see's that 5 star rating decides to give it a go.  If the story does not live up to that hype this prospective fan could be turned off.

     Think of it this way, there is a movie you really want to see.  You hear all these rave reviews, your buddies tell you it's awesome, and everything builds the expected Wow factor higher and higher.  Then you see this movie.  The movie can be good, even great, but if it doesn't meet  that Wow factor you have build for it you feel a sense of dissapointment.  The same kind of feeling can happen if you read a bunch of five star reviews, then find you don't like the story or you feel it's not that good.  The sense of betrayal you get could turn you off of an author before you get to see some of their work you might really like.  This could also cut your friend off from prospective fans if you oversell the experience to them.

    So give them a rating that fits the story for you.  You can speak positively about what you like about their story and try to sell it for what it is.  If you don't have anything nice to say, don't leave the review.  Seriously, it's O.k. to tell someone you didn't like their story.  If your are writing you have to accept not everyone will like what you write.  It might sting initially coming from a friend, but be honest and tell them why and they might be able to improve their writing off the feedback.  If not, well like I said above not everyone is going to like what you write.  That includes friends.  And family members.

     I have already decided that when the day comes that someone tells me what a crappy writer I am, and how horrible my story or writing is that I'm just going to smile.  Then I'm going to thank them for taking the time to read my story and tell them I'm sorry they didn't like it and keep it at that.  I know when the time comes it will harder then just writing these words down and making the plan, but I feel this plan is solid.

     My last bit of advice is help your friend share their story to the world.  Take a moment to share their link on facebook.  Retweet a link for them.  Talk about their book if it comes up in discussion and do what you can the help raise awareness.  I think of it this way.  If all my friends have one hundred friends on their Facebook accounts, and two share my post.  That is two hundred more people that will glance at my book that I may have not reached.  That number only goes up with each share I get.

     Most of all, just be supportive.  Let your friend know your excited they are writing and taking the risks that come with it. (Rejection, Mental Breakdowns, Self doubt, and all the other fun)  Let them know you are happy for them every step of the way.  Even if I never sell a single copy of anything I write, I know just having people like that in my life helps keep me writing.

Ben Marble

P.S.  My short story The Choice is now available on Amazon.com.