Author Archives: Joshua K Johnson
Point of View – Why 3rd (Limited)
Which Point of View method an author decides to use when writing his/her book is often based on what story the author wants to tell and which POV will allow the author to do that in the best way.
For my works, I almost exclusively gravitate toward 3rd Person (Limited); that is: a story told from an outside point of view but where the information conveyed is limited to the knowledge of the target character.
I think that my fondness for this format springs from the fact that I’m very heavily read in 3rd(Limited). David Weber and George RR Martin make heavy use of 3rd(Limited) and I have more books by Weber than any single author.
It isn’t that I find anything wrong with 1st person POV, I’ve just found it very difficult to finish first person novels lately. I have decided to at least try to write a novella or a novel in the first person but for now I think I’ll avoid that.
For The Cerberus Rebellion, I decided to take a page from George RR Martin and use a multiple character approach to the 3rd(L) POV.
I went with this approach because I knew that the story I wanted to tell would need more than one approach. With a single POV story, I tend to run into the problem that the antagonist is one-dimensional. You typically only see that character from the protagonist side of the story
With a multi-pov I’m able to give my antagonist a voice and shown why he does what he does.
I chose the Limited rather than the Omniscient (wherein the author “head-hops” into the mind of various involved characters) because it helps maintain some mystery to the events that are taking place.
I think that many stories would be far less interesting if we were able to read the thoughts of every character involved.
What is your take on pov?
That Self-Pub Stigma
I’ve been writing for most of my life at this point. No one in my family can remember a time when I didn’t have a notebook and pen in hand, scribbling down my latest world.
For the longest time, I wrote for myself. I didn’t intend for it to really go anywhere, I just knew that I liked to create worlds and the stories that went with them.
That changed a few years ago when I became serious about getting published. This was before ebooks even existed, so I sent off my queries to agents and got back the standard form letter rejections.
I looked into vanity presses but the fact that you needed thousands of dollars up front put me off from that rather quickly.
As I got a little older and gained more responsibilities, my writing dropped off. A couple of years ago I wrote a novella that I posted on fictionpress.org. To my surprise, I got a lot of positive feedback from it. So I decided to give publishing another go.
I pulled the novella off of fictionpress and rewrote it. I added in new a new character arc and refined the writing a bit. But as I was preparing to send it off to agents I heard about the boom that ebooks had become and learned tthat self-publishing was a viable option that wasn’t going to cost thousands of dollars up front. I submitted my novel to a couple of small ebook publishers and got some solid feedback from several of the. That novel would need to be rewritten before I was ready for primetime.
But this time I wasn’t dissuaded. I had just stumbled upon a solid idea for a novel and I went to worn developing what wwould eventually turn onto The Cerberus Rebellion.
Now, the reason that I told you all of that was to give you a background for my point.
My brother texted me the other day and asked what I was planning tl sell my book for. I told him my planned price point and how much it would net me in royalties per unit.
When he asked me who I was going to work with for promotion and distribution, I told him that I was going to be releasing as an ebook through Amazon initially and that I was on my own for promotion. That brought up the question of what it would take to get my novel on bookshelves and I told him that first a major publisher would have to make an offer and that I would have to accept it.
He asked “Why wouldn’t you?” That lead to a conversation about how the publishing world has changed and how I would likely be making a fair amount of money by the time anyone noticed me.
I think that it was just revealing how many people don’t realize that the publishing world has shifted and a lot of people still look down on those who self-publish as of we aren’t really published authors.
One Universe – Endless Opportunities
This post was originally going to highlight how my current working universe started as a random short story tapped out on my phone and converted itself first into a “historical fiction” type book and then into a Gunpowder Fantasy.
Instead, I thought I would talk about how a single universe can be a wealth of opportunities for multiple story lines and independent series.
I was reading A Way with Worlds post on cultures, and it came to me that building out a detailed world is not only important for immersing your readers in your world, but can spawn new ideas. As I was putting down some background information for my supporting short stories when some of the background turned itself into the basis for a whole new series.
Now, writing two separate series in the same universe can be tricky. If you choose to have the two stories work closely together, you have to worry about writing both series simultaneously or risk revealing too much about one storyline.
If you choose to have the two more loosely related, as I intend to do with my Griffins & Gunpowder and Red Dragon’s War series, then you have to focus less on either story revealing too much and more on making sure that any interactions between the two series are consistent between the two.
One of the advantages of this approach, however, is that your secondary and background world building is already done for you. You also have the ability to make your world more detailed. Where telling about a certain nation would be an info-dump in Series 1, in Series 2 you can go into great detail as part of the story.
What do you think about writing more than one series in a shared universe? What other challenges or advantages do you think would come with the territory?
Cover Progress
So this afternoon I received the fully shaded with background copy of my cover for The Cerberus Rebellion.
All that is left to do is have the image colored and add the typography.
Greyscale image of The Cerberus Rebellion
I’m going to have the uniforms black with red accents. The flag will also be black with the Cerberus in red.
So, what do you think?
Blurb, Round 2
So after so work, here is the 3rd draft of my Logline/Blurb.
Logline: One hundred years of peace and prosperity. War changes everything.
Blurb:
On the world of Zaria, Elves, magic and mythical beasts coexist beside rifles and railroads. The futures of two nations hang in the balance as rebels and revolutionaries trade gunfire with loyalists and tyrants.
A war on the other side of the world has awakened the nation of Ansgar from its century long slumber. Before the armies of Ansgar are able to sail to war, a rebellion threatens to tear the nation apart.
One paranoid king determined to keep control. Two brothers, each with their own agenda. One maverick rebel, leading a fight to freedom.
In a war, little is held back; in a revolution, nothing is safe.
Finding the Time…
…to write.
This post is inspired by a posy I saw on Kindleboards in the Writer’s Cafe.
I’m a workaholic, I will readily admit that. While I like the income from two jobs, it’s a terribly wearing thing to do and leaves little time for family-time and less time for writing.
My ultimate goal in my quest to finish my novels and publish them is to be able to afford to quit my day job. I know that it’s a longshot and that it may take some time to accomplish my goal, I feel that what I’m working on is unique and compelling enough to eventually carry me into that realm.
But first, I have to find the time to write and edit.
My wife and I recently made a rule: while our 15 month old son is awake, we only use technology when it is absolutely necessary. With the exception of Sundays. This cuts out around 2-3 hours on weeknights but I’m okay with that as I’m not particularly productive between day job and night job anyways.
So I cram all of my work into Friday and Saturday nights after 10, except when we rent a movie, and all day Sundays.
During the week I’ll use my smartphone to type up plot ideas or character arcs, so some of the back end stuff doesn’t require my attention during my designated writing periods. It’s still difficult to cram all of that work into such small periods, but I’m a workaholic, I can do it!
So when do you find time to write?
Logline and Blurb
Getting your novel to sell is a complicated process. I would think that the biggest part of having a successful novel is have a good novel. Well written and well edited. I think I’ve got half of that equation out of the way and I’m working on the editing now.
Another part of selling your novel is having a good cover; from the sketches that I’ve been sent by the cover artist I’m working with, I think it’s going to be a stellar piece that conveys the feeling of The Cerberus Rebellion perfectly.
Finally, there is the log line and blurb. I think I’ve got my log line down:
As the nation of Ansgar prepares to celebrate a century of peace and prosperity, a war thousands of miles away begins a chain of events that will lead to rebellion, treachery and betrayal.
It’s my blurb that needs work. This was the first draft:
The nation of Kerberos has suffered under the subjugation of the Ansgari throne for one hundred years. Now, after a century of scheming and decades of preparation, Magnus Jarmann is ready to launch a war of independence that will free his people and return his country to its rightful place among the nations of Zaria.
Eadric Garrard was raised to believe that he was the rightful King of Ansgar and that his fearful subjects, even his loyal nobles, answered to his every whim.
He has spent most of his life looking over his shoulder for assassins with one eye and looking for ways to increase his prestige in the eyes of his allies with the other.
So when an opportunity arises to seal two alliances by sending his armies across the Vast Sea, Eadric sees the chance to further his standing with two powerful nations and remind his nobles who rules Ansgar with one action.
Little does he know that his actions will bring about events that will change his nation forever. He will discover that his subjects are not as fearful as he thinks, and that his nobles are far from loyal.
Raedan Clyve was an ordinary boy until an Elven ritual involving a griffin’s heart turned him into something more. Fifteen years later, Raedan still struggles with the magics that he gained and the consequences that come with them.
His problems were compounded when he was thrust into a nobility that he was not raised to have. Now he struggles to rule over a territory in the middle of rebuilding while facing pressure to find a suitable wife and father an heir.
When the King orders levies raised, Raedan fears the loss of men will cripple his wounded Barony and he must wrestle with obeying his sworn King or doing what is right for his people.
While his brother struggles with his newly-granted nobility, Hadrian Clyve has picked up where their father left off and works to expand his family’s influence.
His aggressive negotiation of alliances and shrewd choice of marriage agreements has earned him respect, and resentment.
Hadrian’s loyalty to his Duke has put him in a unique position to shape both the destiny of his family and the future of his nation.
The Cerberus Rebellion is set on the World of Zaria, where Elves, magic and mythical beasts coexist beside rifles and railroads. The futures of two nations hang in the balance as rebels and traitors trade gunfire with loyalists, mercenaries and pirates.
It was definitely too long by about 200 words so I had to trim some of that down.
Draft 2:
The Cerberus Rebellion is set on the world of Zaria, where Elves, magic and mythical beasts coexist beside rifles and railroads. The futures of two nations hang in the balance as rebels and revolutionaries trade gunfire with loyalists and tyrants.
Magnus was born to rule a nation that has been subjugated for a century fights. His fight to free his people will bring him face to face with a king that will not let him succeed.
Raedan been thrust into his role as a noble of Ansgar by fate and clever politics. He struggles with the responsibilities of his title and the magics that were granted to him through an ancient Elven ritual.
His brother, Hadrian, has made it his goal to make his family a political and economic powerhouse in the nation of Ansgar. He will see his family’s name raised to heights of power through political maneuvering, clever marriage agreements and pure force of will.
King Eadric’s grip on sanity is tenuous at best and he sees assassins in every shadow. The fracture of his nation is an affront to his authority and he leads his armies to bring hislost sheep back into the fold.
So, what do you think?
Blog Tour
Today, I signed up with Goddess Fish Promotions (interesting name, no doubt) for a series of Blog Tour stops.
I decided to go with the more economical route of a “Book Blurb Blitz” in which my book and a blurb will be posted on 5 blogs in the middle of August. That will be followed up by a Review Tour where I’ll be featured and a review will be posted on 5 blogs during the last week of August.
That will be followed up with an interview blog tour of 2 weeks (10 stops, each weekday) across the first and second weeks of September, which will run into the two promotions I’ve signed up for with two of the larger e-book promotional sites.
Hopefully, combined with a LibraryThing giveaway I hope that this will provide enough buzz for a bump in sales to get the ball rolling.
Done!
After 8 months, 2 days, 93k words (not including excised chapters and snippets), The Cerberus Rebellion is ready to go into Alpha-stage 1, a full read in Scrivener.
I have 5 weeks to get it through 3 Alpha-Reads and 1 Round of Beta along with all of the revisions to go with them. I’m shooting for a July release at this point so I can get some momentum going into the promotions I have planned for September 14!
I’m still looking for a couple of beta readers. I’m just looking for plot, pacing and structure feedback. I’ve got an editor lined up for the more detailed stuff.
Gunpowder Fantasy 