It's Gonna Be The Future Soon

Big changes are coming. After eight years of sitting quietly on Amazon, I'm going to pull five of my books, give them a new cover, revisit their titles, and give them a fresh release. Every two weeks one of these will be hitting the store, but that's not all.I have felt a rebirth on the writing side, and I've been writing every day. This has resulted in half a Fempiror novel in the last week, and I hope to finish over the next one. I have a 2nd Maze book finished already, and I plan to complete them in time to hit between the Fempiror novels of the same numerical designations. Once Fempiror 5 is complete, I will write a couple Maze books before doing Fempiror 6. From there, I plan to alternate writing Fempiror and Maze series books as fast as possible so that there is never a lack for these stories.

Fempiror, as a reminder, is my story of genetically altered warriors from the past who live a very long time and have some sweet tech as a result. They play with the vampire tropes without ever crossing into vampire territory which adds an element of interest to this very heavily fantasy influenced series.

The Maze, by contrast, is mostly straight-up sci-fi, but it's all about time travel. Three people live in something they only know as the Maze that drops them at various points in history across the universe to complete something. They just don't know what. It has some significant differences from Doctor Who, but enough in common that fans of the BBC series will enjoy it.

I'll be creating a mailing list fairly soon, so perhaps you'll want to sign up for that to get more updates as they occur. Stay tuned.

Next Fempiror Status

Last week was not a good week for writing anything. It sounds like an excuse, but when it comes to the previous weeks of my life when I just wasn't writing anything, I could at least say I was choosing to do something else. Last week was a bit of a mess. I did get in a few thousand words, so I'm up to 18,000 at this point. I'm shooting for at least 60,000.

I also find that I'm moving through my source material a lot quicker than I anticipated. I'm just shy of halfway through, which will definitely make me come up short if I don't find some untold story in there to fill it out. I'm not talking about fluff. I'm talking about something relevant that will enhance the story that is already there. I'm starting with what amounts to a script for a TV show on this one, so it is intended to move quickly from point to point, but in a book, while you want brevity and movement, you also have the time to tell a story more completely.

This is akin to what I did with the third book and the backstory of Vladimir. That whole 17th century sequence was not in the original screenplay. I recognized that it would be good to back up a few steps and tell a second story that filled out Vladimir's backstory, and in doing so, I expanded the size of the book from a bit short to the longest one to that point.

That's what I'm looking for in this one. I mean, there is a significant untold story in there, but I have to decide which of the untold stories are good for right now, and which should be saved for later. We are dealing with 2004 in this one, and David is in the United States. We do have the untold story of how he arrived, but I sort of wanted to do that as its own tale...if there is enough there to make it so. There are quite a few other characters in this new series, so tangents with any of them are more than possible. I just have to see which ones best fit the overall story arc of the moment.

The Modern Fempiror Chronicles

I don't know if that series title will stick or if it'll just the "The Fempiror Chronicles" with another number. When I started The Fempiror Chronicles, the intent was never to attach numbers to them because I designed the series to be very fluid and with the ability to plug stories into the gaps. In fact, I have an idea for a storyline to fit between books one and two involving Beth. If you've read them, them you'll think that's a cool idea. If you haven't, seriously, you should be reading that instead of this...no, finish this first, and then read that.

Anyway, I had once envisioned sorting out the series order by cracking open the front cover to check the date or by assigned a date number for the core story to the spine instead of a flat out 1, 2, etc. So book 1 would actually be 177506, book 2 would be 178510, book 3 would be 181902, book 4 would be 188808 or 188906 (I'm kind of on the fence), and book 5 would be 200410. I use book 5 very loosely because I had another idea which would have a number of maybe 191005. Of course, the trouble with this numbering system is that it only has the month, meaning I'd have to drill down to the day for the Beth story idea since it would start as 177506 is ending, meaning that it is also 177506. I'd have to go through the whole idea and make the numbers 8 digits instead.

I digress.

You want to know about the one I'm actually writing. The 200410 story. Yes, that does mean the date on the story is October 2004. Non-spoiler answers since I'm dealing with an established series here. Is David Taylor still in it? Yes. Is he a major character? Yes. Is he the main character? Hm. Here's the thing. This particular aspect of the Fempiror storyline was written as a bit of procrastination from writing the fourth screenplay (at the time), and it was written as a virtual series. This means there are many characters to follow, and it keeps going after this one is over.

This is a reason I'm considering a different series name, but it is also still The Fempiror Chronicles. It's also why I'm considering the date based numbering system. It could get really confusing really quickly.

Anyway, that's the first book on my writing desk. The Modern Fempiror Chronicles, or The Fempiror Chronicles: The Modern Era. Not sure yet. But the book title, itself, departs from the "This of the That" title format, and is just called "Lost and Found."

Probably.

Date? Well, this one should go quick since it's based on an existing teleplay (or three, depending on length). Let's say August 1, and I'll really try to fulfill that or have a good excuse if I don't.

Looking Forward

This is a new beginning. On here, I'll try to be short and relevant. Give single topics of interest to you who might follow what I'm doing, but not overwhelm you with tons of info on a single post. After all, we all have better things to do. I have better things to write, and you have better things to read.

The last post on this blog was in 2011. That's a long time ago and a lot has changed. The idea for many projects has fallen by the wayside and I primarily focus on writing books at this point. I have seven books on Amazon now of a variety of genres. Four of them are of the Fempiror Chronicles, one is anew series called The Maze, and the other two are sort of one-offs. Well, one says "to be continued...'' but we'll see.

All of my books are available to purchase on the Kindle as well as being available to borrow with the Kindle Unlimited subscription service. In fact, for the foreseeable future, I plan on making all of my books available through this Kindle Unlimited, so a subscription to that is like unlimited future reads of whatever I write. I'm not sure if that's motivation or not.

After completing the fourth Fempiror book, I'm turning my focus to The Maze, primarily, but I have ideas for others as well. I would like to increase my book output considerably, if I can, but I know that means focusing more time on it. You know, instead of focusing time on other things...like video games and Facebook.

So in the spirit of keeping this short and relevant, this is where I'll end this. knock on wood, I'll use this blog for short, relevant posts related to bigger things as opposed to lengthy rants about politics, religion, and the way of the world. Seriously, that's what the books are for.

Plans for 2011

So we have a new year upon us, and I figure it's a good time to look at my long range plans and see where I actually stand. I wanted to have produced another feature or two by now, I had planned to complete another novel as well, and I wanted to also have completed one of my concept recordings at least. Well, as life tends to go, I got very little of that done.

If I weigh out what I could realistically complete, I have the following ideas:

1. I recently finished the first draft of the 3rd Fempiror book, so I could have that one in the bag in a few months.

2. My two favorite low budget features are Alien Proof and Inexplicable. I want to start working on Inexplicable first since it requires no digital effects for any part of it. Alien Proof is Sci-Fi, so I at least need some kind of spaceship effect along with either a way to fake my way around a spaceship set or an actual set. Bit more of a budget there, but the script is hilarious.

3. I always want to do something album related, but I'm not sure of the best way yet. I could probably record 100% of it myself, and if I limit myself to 10-12 songs, it might be more doable than the concept album.

4. Beyond the 3rd Fempiror book, I have other stories I want to write. One is a sci-fi epic along a completely different vein from Fempiror called The Armor of Belial, but it's also only one book. Like Fempiror, it's a screenplay I wrote, but the budget on that one would be so high that without an existing novel, no one would ever make it. I figure once I have the 3rd Fempiror book done, I'll write that one while I'm working out the story for the 4th Fempiror. I also have a series of children's books in my head, but I'll either need to work out my art skills or have someone else good at art to illustrate.

Such are the plans. I want to be more active in updating this blog with actual progress, which means I have to make actual progress.

Status Update

It's been several months since I've posted and I thought it would be fair to post an update as to where we stand. The One Night soundtrack is at a complete standstill partly due to time and partly due to no female singer. All attempts to solicit a female singer have met with failure leading me to believe that maybe now isn't the time for this.

I'm wanting to temporarily move on to another feature in the hopes that maybe I'll run into someone who can sing who knows someone else interested in completing this One Night project with me. I would really like to complete it in the near future. It should never have taken this long. That seems to be my mantra, doesn't it?

For a feature, I've got Inexplicable on the brain as well as two others: one is called Alien Proof which is a comedy I'd done with some Australians a few years back and another is incomplete for the moment, but is an Amnesia thriller. I've been writing it specifically to utilize locations that I should be able to easily get. It's about halfway done, but since I'm writing it under part of a challenge, there's a due date of September 7 (I think) to adhere to. Therefore, it will be done in a couple of weeks. So with three features sitting right there, I'm seriously considering doing more than one at a time. We'll see...

The only other thing is the third Fempiror book, and I've been dreadfully slow at getting it written. I'm on Chapter 3, which is slow considering how quickly I had the first draft of book two done. Need to work on it.

The Fempiror Chronicles: Genesis of the Mutation

The second Fempiror novel is available and has been for a few months now. I had posted it on Facebook, but never did on here. There hasn't been much to report.

Logline: David Taylor investigates the emergence of a new evolution of Fempiror.

Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Adventure

Get it on CreateSpace

Get it on Amazon

Updates to Fempiror and One Night

I've complete the first draft of Genesis of the Mutation, gotten through the big rough draft revision, and had my number one reader go through it for an initial critique. I have to read through it again and finish the artwork before I can order the first proof. Once we have that, we'll read through it again a couple times and I'll probably revise again before it's finished, but we're close.

On One Night, we're very nearly done with the instrumental tracks and will start on the vocals soon. If all goes well, by May, we should have both projects out there and available.

Distribution of Fempiror through Ingram Distribution

I found out what the "thousands" means in this Expanded Distribution Channels. It appears that books that elect to be distributed through this additional channel are added to the database for the Ingram Content Group depending on your election (http://www.ingramcontent.com/default.aspx).

This is a huge distribution company that does supply physical book retailers, libraries, educaitonal institutions, etc. Not sure how they'll catalog all of Createspace's content, but they have physical and online catalogs available as well as a host of other services for their buyers.

Hence, yes, we will definitely be electing these additional services despite the fact that it will increase the price of the book. However, we will have a code available to reduce the price if you elect to purchase the first Fempiror book or any future ones through Createspace. Can't do anything about the increase on Amazon or across the world.

Oh yes, Ingram does have international distribution as well.

Now, this does NOT mean that it will be instantly shipped to outlets across the world. What it does mean is that roughly six weeks after I make the change, you can walk into Barnes & Noble and ask if they'd be willing to order my book. They'll look into their database of available books, and see it as an option to order, since (according to Ingram) Barnes & Noble uses them as a distributer.

A Necessary Price Increase for Fempiror

So CreateSpace has a new program to expand the distribution of The Fempiror Chronicles: The Initiation of David. Here are the details as given by CreateSpace:

What is the Expanded Distribution Channel?

The Expanded Distribution Channel (EDC) offers you the potential to distribute your book to a larger audience through more outlets including: retailers, bookstores, libraries, academic institutions, wholesalers, and distributors. Through the EDC you have the potential to distribute your work to thousands of retail and wholesale outlets throughout the U.S. Regardless of whether or not you include your title in the EDC, all CreateSpace titles can be distributed through both the Amazon.com and eStore Channels.

How does it work?

Most online retailers, bookstores, and libraries find books through purchasing relationships with large wholesalers. If your book is not listed with these wholesalers, some retailers may not be able to buy your book, even if a customer specifically requests your title. Through the EDC you can make your title available to these wholesalers who in turn make your title available to thousands of online retailers, bookstores, and libraries.

There are three distribution outlets available through the Expanded Distribution Channel:

• CreateSpace Direct - make your book available directly to certified resellers through our wholesale website.
• Bookstores and Online Retailers - make your book available to major online and offline retailers.
• Libraries and Academic Institutions - make your book available to libraries and academic institutions throughout the U.S.

--End quote of other site.

This is a very exciting development, and there is no up front cost to do it, but there is a catch: there is a higher backend cost associated. At the current book price, we would actually lose over $2 per copy to do it. Hence to go this route, the book price would need to go up from it's current list price of $9.68 to $12.99. The Kindle version can remain priced at $7.99, and we'll probably add an additional discount to Willson Projects to allow a lower purchase price, if you go through CreateSpace, since the actual manufacture cost of the book isn't increasing. It's the new channels that are expensive.

This change will be implemented at the end of the year, so going into next year, this book might be a bit more widespread. The current discount code for 15% is still good, so feel free to use it on any of our projects when you get them through CreateSpace. You can also combine CD and Video orders to help with shipping. Strangely, you can't couple these with a book order. Don't know why...

Genesis of the Mutation Draft 1

The second installment of The Fempiror Chronicles is coming along just fine. I completed the first draft of chapter seventeen, which according to the current layout, means I just have chapters eighteen and nineteen to go along with a prologue. From there comes the dreaded rewrite phase, which can easily take as long or longer than the first draft because I have to read it so many times, and then I hand it to my wife to read as well.

She's a big reader and was invaluable in editing the first book. It's coming though. Still a few months off, but it's coming.

Plans for the Future

So from here, we have several projects that are written and lined up, just waiting for the time to get them done. Here's the calendar as it stands right now. There are no dates here as we plan on going onto the next project as soon as the previous is done.

1. No Kind of Life Soundtrack - This is already done. I'm just waiting for the proof to test and approve before it's available. It's mostly therein case you thought the music in the movie was cool, and couldn't live without it. The songs are really good, but it sounds rushed (which it was).

2. One Night - a concept album for a musical. Backgrounds are coming from a sequencer with excellent sound quality and mixed by Robert, my brother and sound guru.

3. Inexplicable - our next feature which is a collection of four horror tales

3a. Soundtrack for Inexplicable depending on how the music turns out.

4. Amehr - another concept album for another of my musicals. It needed a lot of work story-wise when we did it, but the music was really good.

5. Feature Number 3 - This was going to be a script called Jagged, but I'm not sure about that at this point since Jagged needs a lot of work. I might get it done before we get to it though. Otherwise, I'll see what else I have.

5a. Soundtrack for Feature 3 again depending on how the music turns out. Gotta be worth an album.

6. Ron and Julie - This would be a concept album using ALL of the music from the show and putting together what we have for this show in its most final incarnation. It's last on this list because I'm not sure how much work it'll take.

7. The Fempiror Chronicles - the novels will be written during the rest of the projects and come out periodically over the years. Several of the stories are already written so it's just a matter of converting them into novels.

8. Solo/Band Album - This is something I've been thinking about for awhile. I have a lot of songs I've written here and there and it might be nice to take the best of the best and record them.

That's the plans. You can see that the product list will grow little by little, but we're not one hit wonders. I'd also like to point out that this is just my material to get us started. I'm not opposed to doing stuff written by other people as well if it works for me. We'll see what happens, but I'll keep blogging progress on everything so if you happen to read about it, you have something to keep up on. This is probably the only place that everything will be until the site comes up. Even then, this'll be the main place for updates.

That's it for now. Keep you in the know though.

The Fempiror Chronicles: The Initiation of David

Into the novel foray, we have The Fempiror Chronicles. The first book, The Initiation of David, was published in August and is available on Amazon.com and on CreateSpace, which is the outlet we have for all of our materials. Because we're just getting started, sales are very, very slow, but those who have read the book have really liked it. They've said it's original, easy to read, and draws you in at a certain point to where you just have to finish it to see what happens.

The second book is underway. I'm fifteen chapters into the first draft, so there's still time there before it's done.

Genre: Science fiction, Fantasy, Adventure

Logline: A young tailor evolves into a different person and finds himself in the midst of an ancient war.

Links:

The Fempiror Chronicles: The Initiation of David on CreateSpace

The Fempiror Chronicles: The Initiation of David on Amazon