Guest Blogger Darren Craske: My Road to Publishing

My Road to Publishing

Guest post by Darren Craske, author of 

The Cornelius Quaint Chronicles

Way away back in 2006/2007, when I first came up with the outline for the first of the Cornelius Quaint

Chronicles, it was always intended to be an ongoing series.

Fusing my love of writing and drawing my own comic books with my love of things such as Doctor Who, Indiana Jones, a bit of Sherlock Holmes and a dash of James Bond, I wanted to create a story set in Victorian England about a travelling circus that gets mixed up in a conspiracy involving serial murders and lots of sly goings-on, with a few steampunk/supernatural elements thrown into the mix.

I approached writing the book in the same way that I approached writing comics. I wanted to create a group of people with different skill-sets (super-powers, for want of a better hyphenated word). Just as with any good super-team, I knew that I needed to have various types of characters to balance it out: a strongman, an acrobat (or two), a skilled knife-thrower, a clairvoyant fortune-teller, and the grizzly, short-tempered conjuror who leads them. I wanted my main character to be in his mid-fifties (purely because that’s how old Bruce Wayne was in ‘The Dark Knight Returns’ by Frank Miller, which I devoured and adored in my teens) and it also gave me the chance to give him any sort of back-story that I wanted, or give him no back-story at all. The possibilities were endless.

I knew exactly what story I wanted to write, how many books it would take me to get there, and what was going to happen after that, but what I didn’t know was that the journey to get to that point would not be easy.

I was rejected many times when I had submitted pieces of work to publishers and agents (this was long before self-publishing or even ebooks came along) and after many years of trying and failing, I was lucky enough to find a website where you could publish the first few chapters of your book, and then get constrictive criticisms from your peers (there are a lot more of these around nowadays, such as HarperCollins’ authonomy site). A clever points system for characters, writing style, plot and setting was introduced, and those excerpts that scored the highest were shown to a professional publisher, with the possibility of getting a publishing deal.

I had received so many rejections from previous attempts, so I didn’t hold out much hope. But then I was contacted by a gentleman called Scott Pack who, at the time, had just moved on from being the head buyer for Waterstone’s book stores to being part of a publishing company called The Friday Project, whose aim was to spot talented authors on the internet and transform their books into reality. Scott spotted and enjoyed the first few chapters of what was to become The Equivoque Principle and he wanted to read more. One thing led to another and after a couple of months I was offered a publishing contract.

With the benefit of knowing exactly where I wanted my main characters to go, I walked into that initial 1 book contract full of ideas for the future, and when it changed from being a 1 book to a 4 book contract, I was able to sow the seeds in each of the first 3 books, leading up to the status quo changing revelations contained within the fourth. Everything fell into place, but I was careful to leave a few threads dangling so that I could pick up on them once I had concluded the initial 4 book arc. 

Now my 4 book contract with The Friday Project (owned by HarperCollins) has come to an end, and it

feels like my love for the characters has been rejuvenated, now that I am no longer tied to telling their origins. With the advent and accessibility of self-publishing, it means that I can write what and release it whenever I want, so to me whilst this is an ending of sorts, it is only just the beginning for where the series is going to go next.

*

Darren Craske began his career writing and illustrating comic books before his first published work, The Equivoque Principle in 2008. Since then he has written 3 more volumes of The Cornelius Quaint Chronicles, plus 2 short stories featuring the enigmatic conjuror, with the 5th book in the series, The Monarch Key, due later in 2013. He has also written several other books for adults and younger readers. Craske lives in the United Kingdom with his wife and two children.

Get Darren Craske's books on AMAZON

 

The Quaint Chronicles

The Equivoque Principle

The Eleventh Plague

The Lazarus Curse

The Quaint Christmas

The Enthusiastic Amateur

The Monarch Key (2013)

For mature(ish) readers

Above His Station

Before His Time

Beyond His Years (2013)

For younger readers

The Lantern Menace

The Argonaut’s Almanac Vol 1: Mythbound

Follow him on Twitter @DarrenCraske

Ready…Set…Write! By Guest Blogger Jennifer Harlow

Ready…Set…Write!  

By Guest Blogger Jennifer Harlow

Today I began work on my tenth (holy crap!) book, the second in The Galilee Falls Trilogy (the first is now available in the Kindle Store). Really, I started work on this one years ago on many a sleepless night. The main characters, the basic story arcs - they've been locked away in my brain for eons, and now it's time to finally put pen to paper and bring my imaginary friends to life.

I've been staring at a blank page for an hour.

I know exactly how it begins. I have the scene playing in my brain but I just can't pick up the pen. I hate this day. It's the hardest day of the project. The start of countless hours, months of diligent work start TODAY. And it is hard work, damn hard. I was once asked why I wanted to be a writer.

The pay's crap, there's no guarantee the work will be seen (this one's already been sold so it probably will), and on average it takes six months to get a complete manuscript, and that's before the trillion edits it'll need. The truth is, for me at least, I can't NOT write. I wish I was meant to be a doctor or psychologist or even a stay at home Mom, but since I was a child I've always known I was meant to be a writer. And selling six books before age thirty is a good guidepost that I was right.  And most days I love it. I love the inception, the research (and there's a lot for this one), the character sketches, even later the editing. I just don't like today.

Maybe it has to do with physics. Yes, I'll blame Sir Isaac Newton and his first law: "An object that is at rest will stay at rest unless an unbalanced force acts upon it." It all comes down to drive. I've always been a very driven person but as I get older I get...well...lazier. It gets harder and harder to pull myself away from cult classic movies and BBC America. I can do research and sketches while watching those but not when I really need to concentrate. I have to sit at my desk or the library 8+ hours a day for months with only music for company. But really, that's not it. Really, it's fear. 

A hundred horrible thoughts race through my mind as I'm sitting down on this day. What if I can't pull this off? What if my characters are unlikable? What if I can't pull of the voice? What if it's just total and utter crap? What if I'm not good enough to tell this story? I'm usually a damn confident person. Just not today. But I will solider on because this is important. (And I have a hard deadline.) I will pick up that pen, I will write that first word. Then the next, then the next 80,000 and when I see all my hard work sitting in a bookstore and when I receive lovely e-mails from people who enjoy my book, today will be nothing but a distant memory.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to defy Newton's law.

Jennifer Harlow spent her restless childhood fighting with her three brothers and scaring the heck out of herself with horror movies and books. She grew up to earn a degree at the University of Virginia which she put to use as a radio DJ, crisis hotline volunteer, bookseller, lab assistant, wedding coordinator, and government investigator. Currently she calls Northern Virginia home but that restless itch is ever present. In her free time, she continues to scare the beejepers out of herself watching scary movies and opening her credit card bills. She is the author of the Amazon best-selling F.R.E.A.K.S. Squad and Midnight Magic Mystery series. For the soundtrack to her books and other goodies visit her at www.jenniferharlowbooks.com  

or find her on Facebook or follow her on Twitter @JenHarlowBooks

 

Three Essentials of Writing a Complex Series by Guest Blogger Geoff Wakeling

Three Essentials of Writing a Complex Series

When it comes to writing, I’m a total pantser – that’s flying by the seat of your pants, aka, not having a clue what you’re writing till you sit down. That’s fine when you’re working on a standalone novel. It’s even fine when you’re starting off a series. But when it comes to later books, such as books four and five of my Inside Evil series, problems start to arise. Those throw away lines that you made in Chapter 3 of your first book suddenly need tying in with everything else. The character developments you wrote on the spur of the moment start to throw up all kinds of issues. Even worse, if you’re writing fantasy, creating worlds or setting laws in place to govern systems, such as magic, breaking the rules in later books to ‘make everything fit’ might result in the wrath of your beloved fans.

 

Let’s face it: I’ve found this out the hard way. The first two books of Inside Evil were a breeze to write. Then I had to start thinking – yes – actual thought processes away from the keyboard. That’s really not so fun. I like the spontaneity of taking my characters where THEY want to go. I have milestones to reach, but most of the story is ultimately unknown until my fingers allow it to unfold.

But with creating a fictional town, an ancient curse and a new parallel world come all manner of rules, myths and intricacies that have to be carefully spun together as you wind down a series.

I’m a HUGE fan of SF and Fantasy television, and I think it often shows when a series has been carefully formulated before even airing. The executives from Fringe, for example, already knew exactly what was going to happen. They were then able to drop in hints and facts in the initial shows to tie together later. However, despite loving Vampire Diaries to start with, the totally chaotic nature of the series and the writers breaking almost every one of their initial rules to try and create an engaging story has left me cold. It was inspired by a book series, but departed from this 90s literature fairly quickly.

So, if you’re writing a series, what should you be looking out for and doing?

Take Notes

It really doesn’t matter whether you’re a pantser or consummate organiser, taking notes is essential. If you write that the bite of a butterfly is venomous in one world and not the other, write it down. If a character says they hate beer in one book and then is guzzling down cans in later novels, you have a problem. Again – write it down.

Plot, Plot, Plot

I might be wrong, but most authors I know have a definite end to their series. They know where they’re headed, they just aren’t always sure what’s happening in between. If possible, take the time to create a skeleton outline for each novel. It doesn’t have to be scene by scene, of even chapter by chapter, but stating the obvious points, milestones and important events will help tie in all your series’ qualities.

Write Back Story

I’m a huge fan of back story. I’ve got reams of pages about worlds, laws, creatures and characters that will probably never see the light of day. By writing these down you can figure out the important details and side-step the hurdles rather than realising there’s something wrong AFTER you’ve already published the first few books. And, if your series really takes off, you can offer this encyclopaedic info as a short story, website post or even a reward for fans signing up to your newsletter.

 

Writing a series is complicated. I wish I’d known this before I started! I’m always a fan of complex television and book series, and often think ‘How did they manage to combine all of this?’ Inside Evil continues to astonish me, especially when things I wrote in the first novel suddenly start meaning a lot more later on. Honesty, sometimes I didn’t have a clue at the time. But, if there’s anything I’ve learnt, it’s that preliminary plotting, note taking and back story writing is essential if you’re to let your characters have their way without jeopardising some of your story’s complexities.  

 

Follow Geoff on Twitter @GWakelingWriter

Check out Geoff's website HERE

Check out his books on AMAZON