Time Is Running Out - Both Offers End April 6

99-cent Sale on Half A Mind:  A dark, scientific thriller, direct from the pages of today’s medical research.
Enter coupon code RN34R at the Smashwords store:  https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/617931.

Book Giveaway:  Mind in the Clouds:  A suspenseful whodunit...where not all the suspects are human. 
Enter for a chance to win one of two signed, proof copies at:  https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/177845-mind-in-the-clouds.

My Extremely Succinct Response to the Question: Why Did You Become an Author?

Who would argue with a fortune cookie?

 

Book Giveaway

Enter for a chance to win one of two signed, proof copies of Mind in the Clouds:

Goodreads Giveaway of Mind in the Clouds

99-cent Sale: Half A Mind

A dark, scientific thriller, direct from the pages of today’s medical research.

Enter coupon code RN34R at the Smashwords Store (click here).  Kindle, ePub, and other formats available.  Coupon good until April 6, 2016, when book 2 in the series will be released.

Mind in the Clouds Available for Pre-Sale Now

 

60 Days until Mind in the Clouds Release with 2.5 Versions…and Counting?

Time flies when you’re writing. 

By my countdown clock on Mind in the Clouds, I am just 60 days from its release.  And by the word counts on my various drafts, I have enough material for about 2.5 books.  Of course, every author writes and re-writes paragraphs, even chapters.  And on occasion, I save my drafts until I am certain which way I want to go.  But interesting to me, that word count I mentioned before includes two independent and relatively complete manuscripts.
 
I am not sure how it works for any other author; I am not even that confident that this is typical for me, as I am talking only about book 2 here, not number 27.  But, for the first two, I ended up with a couple of viable drafts even just weeks before going live.  Don’t misunderstand me, I am not talking about two different stories, but rather the same story, but with substantial differences in timing, emphasis, and tone.

I understand the source of my dual-manuscript predicament.  It is the result of my reluctance to show anything to anyone until I have a complete draft.  And that reluctance stems from the fact that, in lieu of an editor (whose services I can’t afford even if I could obtain one), I am taking advantage of my friends.  I know I need someone to tell me when the suspense has slipped away.  I know I need someone to say when I have gotten carried away with backstory.  And I know that, on occasion, someone needs to slap me upside my head when the psychological theory I quote is longer than the narrative.  But I can only abuse my friends so much, and that means, I cannot be coming back to them every month with a new chapter 2.

So, until I hit the big one (a best seller, not the lotto), I guess I’ll just be writing a couple of books for each one I publish.  And the night before it goes live, I’ll be sitting there at my laptop, finger poised over the submit button, debating, version A or version B…

Happy writing,
BmP

Why I am 9% of the Way to Becoming a World-Class Author

Ever hear of the 10,000-hour rule?  If not, then like me, you never read the book, Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell.  (Or, if you are more interested in the original work, the research of Psychologist K. Anders Ericsson, some of which I have read.)

In the book, Gladwell suggests that the key to achieving world-class skill in virtually any field – sports, music, business, and yes, writing – is largely a matter of, you guessed it, 10,000 hours of deliberate practice.

So, with 10,000 as my goal, I started tabulating my hours…

I have writing scattered across a long career, and even allowing that this activity was only a small portion of my job, I am sure I have spent at least 6,000 hours already.  Great, 60% of the way to becoming a world-class author!

But wait, that was technical writing, which is not quite the same thing.  I am sure of this supposition, as I would guess it took me 20 seconds to find the quotation marks on my keyboard the first time I tried my hand at dialog.  Who ever heard of quotation marks in a technical paper?  And I am still working on typing, “Dunno”, rather than, “I do not know”, or worse yet, “The data are insufficient for drawing a conclusion with certainty.”

But while some might argue that my technical writing background is a detriment, I am going to give myself 75% credit for the hours I have spent.  Where did 75% come from?  I made it up, but doesn’t it sound good to claim I am 4,500 hours or 45% of the way to becoming a world-class author.

Of course, a claim that 10,000 hours of practice makes perfect is not going to go unchallenged.  Perhaps one of the strongest tests of that generality is a study that statistically combined results from 88 experiments on the effect of practice hours on skill mastery.  While this study did not report findings for writing specifically, it found that practice could explained as much as 21% of the variance in becoming an expert musician…which is close enough for my purposes.  So, I am 45% of the way to obtaining 21% of the goal, or 9.45% of the way to becoming a world-class author.

What, you might ask, is the source of the other 79% of being able to pen the next great American novel?  No one knows, but among the factors most commonly mentioned are personality, cognitive ability, imagination, creativity, motivation, passion, inspiration, opportunities, encouragement, support, and just plain luck.  Personally, I’m counting heavily on luck.

Happy writing,
BmP