Writing with David Priest

It's been a good weekend of writing so far.  "Inside the Skull of David Priest" is really coming together.  As planned, I should have a complete rough draft done by the end of the month and the finished novella polished and published at Smashwords by the end of February.


My goal is to reveal his character and environment though 24 hours of his life, from the start of one shift to the start of the next.  If it gets attention and I have time, I'd love to write a novel.


Right now, I have most of his shift and some of his late-night adventures.  I only need to fill in the closing of his shift, his morning, and his afternoon.  I hope to get most of that done tomorrow.


Until then, read my rough draft.  I'll keep updating it.  I'd love your feedback especially about what doesn't fit, what doesn't sound right, and what things a non-restaurant person doesn't understand.


This contains Adult Content.  This is never going to be a book for the kiddies.  Sex, drugs, and a small amount of rock & roll.


Inside the Skull

Last Call for Free Cathartes Aura

I'm doing it.  KDP Select.  CA1 and CA2 will be available only at Amazon for $2.99.  I'll be committed for ninety days.  After that, who knows?


So I'm making last call.  Giving everyone one last chance to get them for free at Smashwords.com.  By tomorrow night or Sunday morning, I'll have pulled the trigger.


Now, to get working on that David Priest rough draft.

My Smashwords Page

My Amazon Page

I love Smashwords.com and they've made it so easy for me to get into so many markets, helped me format my books, and given marketing advice.  Mark Coker is doing so much for independent e-book authors.  My loyalty has made me a bit blind to the fact I don't have to be exclusive.  So much so that somehow it took me until yesterday to get Road from Nowhere for sale at Amazon.  I just never got around to it.


Smashwords has reached agreements with most major e-book retailers.  They are still hammering out an agreement with Amazon.  They may never work it out.  If you publish at Smashwords they will automatically distribute you to Kobo, Diesel, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple and more.  But not Amazon.


Now I'm faced with the elephant in the room that is Kindle Direct Publishing Select.  It requires me to exclusively be distributed at Amazon but with the benefits of exposure to Amazon Prime customers and a chunk of $700,000 or more monthly set aside for KDP Select authors.  I'm only committed to stay with the program for 90 days.


Now, both Cathartes Aura books are currently free because post-apocalyptic epic poetry hasn't been selling well.  I won't complete CA3 for at least three months, so do I have something to lose?  Let's see what happens in the first 90 days, then I get my freedom back.


A long explanation for a short answer that is:
My Amazon Page

Cathartes Aura 3 Page

Trying to be more deadline-oriented this year.  I functioned well in a school environment and now I find I'm more successful if I give myself assignments.  I've completed my first assignment.


I vowed to get the first chapter of CA3 done last night and I did it.  "Last Call Mall" is the working title, but I'm not sure I like it.  Any suggestions?  Something involving shopping and armageddon and of course beginning with "Cathartes Aura".  Easy, right?


At the top of the blog next to David Priest you'll find the Cathartes Aura at the Last Call Mall page link.  I'll keep updating it as the project moves along.  No deadline yet for the completion of the whole piece.  I am having another baby in March.  That might take up some writing time.  Can't figure out what to name him either.


Next deadlines:


Finish the first 24 hours of the David Priest story by the end of January.  I don't expect it to be perfect by then, but as soon as it is I'll publish it at Smashwords.com as a free novella.


Participate in this Flash Fiction Contest.  First weekend in February.


Pursue publishing for CA1 and CA2.  Submit to numerous publishing companies until I'm just plain sick of it.


I can't lie on a blog, so I have to do these things.  Enjoy Chapter 1.

86 at the Chase Gallery

"Untitled" is on display at the Chase Gallery in Spokane.  I will be attending an artists' reception at the gallery Friday, February 3, and reading there Friday, February 17.  Everyone is invited.  I hope to read from "Apocalypse Zoo", but we haven't hammered out the details yet.  My friend Jill Skeie also has poetry there.  I'm very happy to be part of this.  Hopefully part of a very big year for me.  I finished verses seven and eight of CA3 this morning.  What do you think about "Cathartes Aura at the Last Call Mall"?

Chase Gallery in Spokane

I went down to see the exhibit on my fifth anniversary.  The best five years of my life.  "Untitled" was written a few years before I met my wife and is the most successfully depressing thing I have ever written.  Good to see how far I've come since a time in my life when I couldn't find a reason to get out of bed.


And if you haven't read "Untitled" yet...


Untitled