Author Topic: Author In Progress  (Read 253598 times)

Offline Tasmin21

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #30 on: November 28, 2006, 04:00:13 AM »
New to the boards, but I've been lurking a bit and thought I'd throw my two cents' in.  Call me Tas.  It's an online name from a million years ago, and I've never managed to shake it.

I was reading by age 3, and I'm fairly certain I started writing shortly thereafter.  The first "grown up" book I remember reading was The Hobbit...at age five.  And I've been in love with fantasy ever since.

I wrote my first complete novel in highschool.  It's total drivel.  Someday, when I think I can do it without wanting to gouge my own eyes out, I'll revisit it and make it palatable.

In the meantime, I am currently working on a trilogy (working title for the first one: The Avarice).  Standard fantasy adventure/political intrigue whodunit kinda thing.  I have been lucky enough to find a friend online who has turned out to be an unbelievably good editor, and I am more hopeful and confident now than I have ever been.  My goal had been to have the first one finished and ready for submission by this Christmas, but an unexpected battle with cancer this summer has put me behind schedule.

I also have two different urban fantasy stories percolating in my head (darn them, don't they know I'm trying to write something ELSE right now?), one of which I intend to write as a form of therapy for my own zombie phobia. (don't ask)

I think I will always write, whether I get published or not.  It's not what I do.  It's who I am.

Offline Tex

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #31 on: November 29, 2006, 06:11:39 PM »
Howdy, I'm Tex, dangit, already a stereotype.
anyway, I'm simply a wannabe writer, currently engaged in spinning out a story that encompasses a lot of my favorite genres. I've got about a thousand pages of attempts and failures, under a hundred pages of back story and just general ideas and theories. I'm just all out for something that's been boiling in the back of my mind. Well, thanks for listening, er, um, reading. Take it easy.
Mortal enemies, like the scots and other scots. Damn Scots, they ruined Scotland!.-Groundskeeper Willie.

The voices may not be real but they have pretty good ideas.

I am the endseer, the last being to view the end of it all-Veren Saras.

Offline prime_spirit

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #32 on: December 07, 2006, 03:57:36 AM »
Ooo… aspiring inspirers. I’m humbled.  :)

My name is Liza and I too am a fantasy reader. Writer is a vague sense because I made a promised that I get myself a job and grounded before I embark on a magical journey.

But I've made my homework on the future of any books I may be able to publish and it's not looking good. Fiction reading is not a large market here (most of us Asian are business driven and no time for a book and a cup of tea). Majority of English fiction are imported, thus it's all way out of the local price range at the age range I've targeted. I myself sneak into bookstores and stay there for hours; Borders, MPH, Times, Popular, Kinokunya, all the security guards there know me by face and nods at 'that girl who never buys anything'.

But hey, all that doesn't mean I can easily ignore my dreams. Nothing bestseller, just a hardcover with my name and story title on it. I've even looked into self-publishing. I don't have anything I've wrote with me at the moment. It's high-fantasy so I'm currently making an outline of the world I'm working on (characters, species, secret of magic, specific locations, that sort of thing). The Dresden Files really helps me in choosing a particular writing style. Maybe one of these days I'll start on the Codex Alera.

Here's what I got so far. It's five book series but I'm thinking of making it longer as soon as I see how the first set turns out. It's plot driven, in third person and I've even invented two different languages for it (my style though, nothing like the Tolkien's or Forgotten Realms'). I haven't got a title for the books but the series is called Suvon Story, even though it's more of Kia's story.

Quote
Book One:
A sequence of actions led a young Malaysian girl into an alternate world called Suvon. Kia's wish to return back to Earth lies in the hands of a baby boy who she calls Niq. Together, they must travel across a war-torn country as refugees to Niq's homeland, where in the capital, Niq's true origins were revealed.

Book Two:
Kia knew that her actions was not without ramifications and she was feeling the pain of its effects as Earth's magic contradicted with her Suvon energies. She returns to Suvon to find a cure and found that years had passed in her absence but none of the wizards or sages could help her foreign condition. It was with Niq, now a student caster on the verge of manhood, who's misadventures led her to a forgotten and very forbidden secret.

Book Three:
Kia had vowed that she would never go back to Suvon and was ready to travel to London permanently to receive her long-lost mother's legacy. But dark creatures attacked her world as a major shift had aligned Suvon's and Earth's timelines together. Kia and her half-brother, Salil, had to walk a fine line through the secrets and deceits of the Nobility Circle, of which Niq, a grown man, was once again at the centre of it.

Book Four:
The secret of Kia's magic branded her as both a traitor and a freak. After being rescued by the leader of the Unshackled rebellion, Kia instead turned toward her enemies' stronghold on a flying island in Suvon, to find Salil and Niq, despite questions regarding their true loyalty. On top of all that, Kia's pain of her magic returned and she wonders if she could even survive long enough to secure the safe passage for the outcasts to Earth.

Final Book:
It was final battle of an event that happened 1200 years ago on Suvon and 170 years ago on Earth and Kia's the catalyst. A painful incident was her final cure but the price she paid with was her faith. She isolates her emotions from her family and friends, keeping focus on saving the future of both her worlds and a possible dark ending. Especially when the man Kia loves was ready to kill himself to protect her and her cause.

Yeah, ambitious for a possible self-publisher. I'm writing the books for me and duly hope to get it distributed. There's just something about browsing for your favorite titles and suddenly seeing your name on the same shelf as theirs. But for now, I have to keep my essentials. Study first, job next, and the dream will come true.  ;)
« Last Edit: December 07, 2006, 04:10:55 AM by prime_spirit »

Beta-testing: December 2007

Offline Aerhen

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #33 on: December 11, 2006, 09:43:04 PM »
As I said in the previous blog... I am an aspiring writer... but i have done a great deal of fantasy rpg.. and sci fi rpg..

I have many ideas that i want to convert into books eventually.

One is an alternate reality time line where the civil war was not about blacks being slaves.. but about the emancipation of the Demons who were being used as slaves.. and what h appened when Lincoln attempted to free the demons..

Another .. demon oriented.. is the world is invaded by demons from 7 gates... about how our world changes.. how we might fight them... and how they were defeated in the past..

but the one i am currently working on .. is an epic saga..

an evil theocracy is trying to conquer the last group of nations that have escaped its grasp.  5 great heroes are bound to save the young man who is destined become an emperor and begin a war to hopefully overthrough the theocracy for good.  but they soon discover that there is more than just the theocracy at work.. a deeper darker threat eventually emerges and challenges their understanding of the world they know.. and they begin to see that their world has become the last stand for an evil which refuses to forgo its existence

Offline Aethon

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #34 on: December 12, 2006, 12:46:37 PM »
I coulda/shoulda posted in this thread a while ago, but I'm kinda lazy and yeah...

My name's Jake and I'm sixteen.  Most of my experience as a writer comes from one or two dedicated role-play sites, including the number two site in the RPG-Directory.  I've got two or three ideas for books, but I want to try them out as an RP site first.  Once I get a reaction from the members there, I hope to make them into something more.  Also, I've got the first few chapters of another book that's been greatly inspired by Mr. Butcher and a few others.

I hope to get it finished by the middle of next year.

I used to take photographs like crazy and be okay at it, but then my friend dragged me to an RP site the middle of '05 and I've been hooked since.

Writing isn't about making money.  It's about the stories.

For me at least,
~ Jake

Offline pinkdoom

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #35 on: January 11, 2007, 04:53:08 AM »
Name's Amanda, I'm a college student, part-time librarian, and fledgling novelist.  The title (cause I finally have one) of my modern-day fantasy novel is Chaos Unbound.  I'm writing it, most importantly, for me, to show myself that I can indeed write a novel.  It actually started out as a drabble...just bits and pieces of things, and then one day I sat down and saw that I had a...gasp!...novel forming.  It went from there, to become this fully-fledged world...I'm sure most, if not all, of you know what's that's like.  I'd say I'm doing all right so far...190 pages, 17 chapters, typed, and counting.... :-)

I wanted to encompass elements that I love about modern fantasy novels, like Jim's and Kim Harrison's, but I also had something I really, really wanted to focus on...a team.  With the story being first person, obviously one member sticks out from the rest, but I wanted the reader to feel as if they'd been thrown in with these four people, and they were seeing it from Lauren's (my narrator) point of view.  Maybe this is pretentious, but I wanted to throw the reader into the situations and have them, perhaps, feel as Lauren feels...like they don't have all the pieces sometimes, but they will eventually. 

It's my first attempt at a longer first-person narrated story, and I must admit, after writing in third-person for so long, I'm really enjoying doing it from one perspective.  Lauren's an interesting gal, and her relationships with her team members are very different, given that some of the members haven't been a part of her life as long as...well, Morgan has.  And no, that's not a reference at all to Jim's Morgan...I started writing this novel before I read any of Jim's books, so it's just one of those funny coincidences. ;-) 

I don't know about the rest of you, but I enjoy a story with a puzzle to it...I know when I read Storm Front I had a great time trying to piece out Harry's puzzle right along with him.  So I tried to encompass that kind of element into my novel.  We'll see what happens...if I think that, eventually, I've edited it to a point where I'll send it into a few publishers, great...if I get rejected (which will happen, I know), no big deal.  My life's pursuit isn't staked into this novel.  I wrote it for me, like I said earlier...I've got a few friends that want to read it when I'm through, and that's all fine and good.   I will be writing at least one more book, if not three or four to go along with Chaos Unbound, but I plan those to be later...far later in the future, unless by some ungodly chance my novel gets picked up by a publisher.  That's a different matter. :-) Good luck to you all...happy writing!
-There's ADD, ADHD, and then there's the undiscovered, but highly dangerous WWDMTW...Wizards Who Don't Multi-Task Well.
-Right now, my arsenal of spells includes puff of air and ball of cheese.  I don't think either one's going to be of much help, though.

Offline Drew

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #36 on: January 13, 2007, 03:22:00 AM »
Hi, I'm Drew Henriksen.  My third novel comes out this summer.  I was very LUCKY to final get published.  If anyone gets a chance to come to I-Con, come say hello.  A group of stuntmen asked me to write a low budget slasher flick.  They liked it and it looks like it will get made.

Offline Mack

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #37 on: January 19, 2007, 12:48:11 AM »
Hi, I'm Alyssa.
I like to write short stories, and I'm told that I'm good at it. Though I try long stories, since I have so many ideas, my brain needs a secratary to file them all, but I can't come up with the "little things". The "quirks" so to speak. The beginning, the middle, and the end come to me like moths to a flame, but how to get from points A to B to C all the way to Z are freakin' hard!

Let me share with you a little story of my own life about my writing...
In 10th grade, I was taking world history with a teacher that I paid more attention to than any of my other teachers (mostly because a had a bit of a crush on him, but that beside the point). We were doing a section on the Romans and then we had to do the classic 3 paragraph essay on it (Intro, Info, Conclussion). I was really into it and my paper was 2 pages long, handwriten, and I have small handwriting. The paper came back to me with the teacher's comments in the margin stating, "You didn't have to write that much. But good job." I got a nice A out of that paper.
It's one of those memories I like to remind myself so that I never loose interest in writing.

Offline Drew

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #38 on: January 19, 2007, 03:15:56 AM »
Sounds like you have the knack to let it flow.  Write a story that takes place back in the days of Rome.

Offline etoiline

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #39 on: January 19, 2007, 03:47:53 PM »
Hello all...

I'm Jennifer, but everyone online calls me Cal.

I've participated in NaNoWriMo for the last three years, and while only one of those resulted in a story that I actually got to write "The End" on the last page, I think all three have promise. This last year's story is the most polished and I'm seriously thinking of trying to get it ready to run the gamut of rejection slips that is publishing. I write fantasy and there's quite a lot of Jim's influence in my books.

The three stories are, respectively, a modern-day King Arthur story (Artorius Rex Novare), a story about the missing archangel Gabriel (Artist of Heaven), and The Sixth Ring, set in a land where bells toll to bring the news, and the sixth ring foretells destruction...

I've also got a big piece I've been writing since I was in middle school, and a vampire-werewolf horror romance bit.

I'm really looking on advice on how to plan fight scenes. I'm not very good at it, possibly because I never had a chance to play any role-playing games ;) T6R has a moderately complex battle in it, and I'm not quite sure how to write it.

Thanks for any help, and if you want to check out some excerpts, I have a livejournal.

Good luck to all! I hope to see you in print someday...

~Cal
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aspire to the stars: http://etoiline.com

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #40 on: January 22, 2007, 08:04:22 AM »
Shad here. I've been working on a novel off and on for awhile now. It's my take on the usual stuff. It's about vampires and there's magic and demonic flying fire breathing squirrels that try and claw your eyes out and werewolves. A lot o' werewolves. the usual. It's kinda epic. Pretty much been writing everyday even if its only for a few minutes a day. It's a pain at times but I love it and hope to do it professionally one day. A lot of good ideas floating around here I've noticed. Hope to you all in print one day as I hope to get published myself. Good luck!

Offline Josh

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #41 on: January 22, 2007, 02:38:12 PM »
I might as well toss my coin into the wishing well.

My name is Josh (Hello, Josh) and I've been an aspiring author for yea these past five years. Always have loved writing and reading since I could first do either, but the first book I tried to write kind of discouraged me a little and I put off the career change until my sophomore year of college. (For reference, my first book attempt was when I was eight, and it ended up being three pages long, single-space, and in the end I killed everyone off)  Right now I have an agent I am working with, shopping a novel around, and I've managed to get a few short stories into magazines. While waiting for that first signing of my blood on the dotted line, I continue to work on new stories, both fantasy and science fiction, plus I have my little corner of the internet and a blog, which, for anyone who wants to drop by and say hi, I try to keep daily stocked with links on writing advice, resources, authors, magazines, other blogs, and just fun, cool, spiffy things having to do with the speculative fiction world, and the occasional tidbit about my own writing ventures.

www.jrvogt.com

That's the main website and the blog is linked from there, if anyone is so inclined. I'm enjoying these boards, and am grateful that there is a lot of dedicated people out there who enjoy this craziness as much as I do.
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Offline Deneb

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #42 on: February 05, 2007, 05:09:25 AM »
 I guess I might as well since I finally found the URL for here again.
 
  Hi I'm Alex (pen name Jynx-of-Time) and I'm an aspiring author. I'm slowly re-writing and writing a fantasy story which I hope one day to turn into a novel or graphic novel. So I'm constantly on the look out for an artist while on the side improving my very own limited drawing skills. I'm hoping to find a good editor out there so I can get my work proof read and killed through an editor so the final product will be gold. I've been working on this book for maybe a year....so I don't feel that bad that's I've only got maybe 4 chapters that aren't that polished out there.
 If you feel like reading the piece I'm working on it's currently titled "Trails of Fate" and in my DeviantArt gallery here http://jynx-of-time.deviantart.com/

Offline Drew

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #43 on: February 06, 2007, 03:28:31 AM »
I guess I might as well since I finally found the URL for here again.
 
 So I'm constantly on the look out for an artist while on the side improving my very own limited drawing skills.

Here's the guy who illustrated my last one and working on my new one.


www.paintedjesterstudio.com

Offline Druwydd

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Re: Author In Progress
« Reply #44 on: February 06, 2007, 05:37:55 PM »
Greets,

Yes, an aspiring author here, never published. I seem to do well with the initial
skeleton overview of a story or world I want to begin putting together and then,
almost inevitably, my eyes glaze over and a string of drool begins forming at the
corner of my mouth.  Anyway, new to the Board and wanted to say "Hi"

Dru
Does an "X" work?