'Writing' Music, Writing 'Music' and Writing.

I've recently had some serious encouragement from a writer and film maker who will remain nameless. Whether he was intentionally encouraging me maybe up for grabs, but it is too late. I am very encouraged. I was so happy to hear that so many of his preferences and processes are/were similar to mine. Not because I need validation. But, I definitely like validation.

Anyway, when asked what he listens to as he lays pen to ink he told me about a great trailer music composer/group. So, I am currently listening to Audiomachine. I'm digging it.

My wife is getting ready put out another album, I'll keep everyone apprised of her progress. She has been writing some amazing stuff. Certainly some good stuff to create by.

I wanted to call the next fantasy western ebook SkyGate, but then I remembered to make sure that there were no other books of the same name. There were. And I really liked the name, too.

In the next ebook, we will find ourselves in a story preceding Brimstone Deep. This will give more background on many of the characters. Also, we may see a side of some that may make us have mixed feelings about them going forward. Or at least, I hope you will.

Prepping for Nanowrimo

Yeah, I know it's early. But, I work full-time and write in my spare time. For those of you who are not familiar with National Novel Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo), it is 30 days of daily writing with the goal of 50,000 words by the last day. November is the month and yes, I am already preparing.

50,000 is not too bad if I have nothing else to do, but I have a sizable family, community and work responsibilities, not to mention other types of self-imposed projects. Just because I have 1667 words to crank out, does not mean that my four- and seven-year-old "will understand" why daddy is not making eye-contact and paying attention to all the concerns of their little worlds. I'll never look back from my last moments and think, "I sure wish that I spent less time with my kids and more time honing my writing skills.

Anyway, I will be posting two exceptional options later on and track my progress through this blog. I would love to have a vote between the two options and write it based upon reader votes. I'll keep everyone posted.

If any of you have had a chance to read my short ebook, please leave a review here. I thrive on these reviews. Thanks!

A Silver Bullet to Put Down Wild Ideas

Hollywood does weird western and steampunk poorly. I love the genre's, but the best things that we have are Wild, Wild West and Cowboys and Aliens. The Lone Ranger, I thought, was going to change that. But, alas, it was for not.

It was the last one that I want to discuss, however. It was the Lone Ranger (not the movie), that really fueled the steam engine between my ears regarding an American west milieu. A thought nagged at me about 10 years ago.
Why would the Lone Ranger use silver bullets, if not for werewolves? 
After that, it was all I could do to keep from building that world. Unfortunately, I had overlooked the whole Copyright infringement thing. But, instead of burying my ideas in a shallow, unmarked slush pile, I reinvented the whole idea, and viola! Brimstone Deep was born. Obviously, this short story is not the whole story. But, I certainly wanted to gauge the reaction and interest that many might have to the western fantasy with yours truly at the helm. There have been enough encouraging words that I getting ready to release more from that world. Tentatively, the book will be called SkyGate SkyRift.

Anyway, I am going to write a workable script for Brimstone Deep and see if it might be possible to market it, as I do have a few avenues through which I can.

I feel like I've stretched my fingers now. Back to writing!

Bathroom Humor and Zombie Plague

Inspiration for my writing comes in many places and forms, but here are my Top Five:

1. History Podcasts. One in particular that I should mention is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. History already feeds my imagination, but HH brings out a voice that seems to adhere some of my wackier thought processes to actual truths. The possibilities...
2. Lectures. It does not matter what it's about, really. Anything to which I was ignorant prior. Sometimes it is simply a word or phrase to which I'm exposed. A vague concept or theory can be the skeleton of an entire idea or setting for a book. Our words become worlds.
3. Dictionary. Oh, yes. A good, old-fashioned dictionary, with phonetic spellings, rich etymologies, and definitions galore are the malleable ingredients of the wordsmith, world builder and word nerd alike. At least this word nerd.
4. Bathroom. Ahem. This is the writer-king's porcelain palace of plot practice. It has a throne and everything. Go ahead. Say it. Say, "He gets all his ideas on the toilet." I don't care.
5. My kids. They have the imagination energy of a thousand suns. It pays to listen to your kids. Especially mine. They must get it from their mom.

For a story that I'm outlining, I wanted to use the plague idea, but found that it was coming too close to the zombie plague. Sure, I could do it. Yeah, it's hip. But, as much as I love the idea of using a zombie plague, "I'm not gonna." I need something else to chase my protagonist across otherwise foolish landscapes and corner my heroes into a noble fight. There are lots of great writer's who do this well. I would rather read them than write it, frankly. By the way, the plague that I was playing with was one that turned human flesh into mechanized, clockwork copper. I think I could even make it work. Oh, well. Back to the drawing board. Or bathroom.

Intuitive Writing and Transitional Housing

I have been encountering a really neat scenario while writing. It's happened several times and find it to be really fun. From time to time, I will through something into a story without any research. After, establishing the workings of the idea, the name of an individual or whatever, I'll do a little research and find that: The name of the milieu or character means or gives foreshadowing or purpose to the character's story arc; There was a character or event similar around the same time; How the parts of the story interact with each other are actually true.

It reminds me of Tolkien's essay On Fairy-Stories, where he deals with the idea of sub-creation. At least, that's what I took from the essay. It may have been about anything for what I can remember.

So, I am the director of a non-profit in my city designed to help people's immediate needs as well as direct them toward longer term process. I am thinking about setting up a fund for our next endeavor: Transitional Housing. We have talked about this for several years but, done little to get this rolling. Now, however, we may have a solution. Cargo Container Homes. This may sound funny initially, but it is a low cost option and is rather trendy. Hit Google and check it out. Let me know if you have any feedback. Thanks!

Also, if you have any feedback regarding my ebook Brimstone Deep, please leave a review here.

Butter In My Coffee and Other Tales of Suspense

I am currently on the Bulletproof coffee bandwagon and have been for about a month. The simple reason is health. I like coffee and I like butter. And I am being encouraged to like them together. I am not hardcore, as I do not actually buy any of the Bulletproof products, but I am putting grass-fed butter and coconut oil in there. So, in about two more months, I will make a judgment as to whether or not, butter in my coffee does, in fact, promote good health. Even if it does not, I think I'll continue to put concentrated oils (sounds silly when I say it this way) in my morning coffee.

As to writing, I am at a real crossroads. I have been writing (rewriting) a story for my children for several years and am going to kill my darlings. I lose track of the story with these characters, and frankly, I believe they deserve their own book. So, as much as I hate the idea, my band of outcast mercenaries with the hearts of a gold-ish substance must be stricken from the record. For now. Here are the reasons:
1. My story is aimed at mid-grade readers; these characters make it much more mature.
2. It bisects my story beyond what I believe I can handle as a writer.
3. I am beginning to picture another world for these characters altogether.

Ok, so maybe I am not really killing them, but they have been a part of this story in my mind and my children's imaginations for so long that I am concerned that we will miss them in this context.

If any of you have read my ebook Brimstone Deep recently, and have had any detectable emotion about it, please consider leaving a review.

Nothing A Little Superglue Can't Fix

So, I have some friends who decided that it would be a good idea, after soundly shearing a gouge out of their westie's fur, to superglue some of the shorn clippings back to the dog. I originally thought the dog had a bullet hole in it's shoulder, as the spot looked like a small, blood black scab. But, nothing so adventurous as that.  No blood was involved in the clipping of that embarrassed animal.

I am pleased to announce that since the release of my Weird Western ebook Brimstone Deep (You can get it here for only 99¢: http://www.amazon.com/Brimstone-Deep-Laurian-Smith-ebook/dp/B00KKBYRQM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1403473815&sr=8-1&keywords=brimstone+deep ), I have sold and given nearly 550 ebooks until the present! This is a little more than just exciting for me, as this is my first time to use Amazon's publishing infrastructure. The marketing aspect is a little exhausting, but I really love the possibilities.

Next up for the ebook? Audio. I am gearing up to record my ebook and publish to Audible.com and iTunes through acx.com. The process itself seems like it would be enjoyable, and with a little help from my genius singer/songwriter/producer wife, I think that we can make a quality recording. I'll keep everyone posted.

As for my next endeavor into the alternate West, I am in the throes of polishing an e-novel that I will again release to Amazon. Hopefully, I'll be able to answer some of the questions that many people have been asking about the world and it's character's. I'd love to hear any feedback about this.

Thanks to everyone who has been so supportive with the ebook! I am so honored by the attention, reviews, follows and 'Likes'.