June-T. Lynn Adams new book released

[charlie]

I just was on goodreads that T. Lynn's new book, Lair of the Serpent, will be released June 11 by Sweetwater Books. I think this is an imprint of Cedar Fort. Hopefully T. Lynn doesn't get so famous she forgets us. Although I do hope she gets the recognition she deserves.

So be watching for Lair of the Serpent, 3rd book in the Tombs of Terror series. I will be.

Has anyone heard from Gary in any way? I am beginning to wonder if he fell off the end of the world.

[rahmuss]

Haven't heard from Gary.

I got her book on May 31st actually. Haven't had a chance to read it yet though. I've started; but we're also trying to sell our house and build a new one and we've been quite busy getting our house repaired to sell. Our baby #6 is due in a month (she'll likely be induced on July 16th) and our anniversary is in a couple of days. Kids are all doing great. Writing is still coming along, slowly but surly. I've got about half of it written so far (my first book).

How is everyone else doing?

[paulwest]

Glad to see someone is still here.

I haven't had a chance to get T. Lynn's new book yet. My daughter challenged me to read Harry Potter, and that's taking up a lot of my time. Now, I'm sure I've mentioned that I'm not a huge fan ot fantasy or sci-fi, so this is a real challenge for me to be sure. I've made some comments about it on my FaceBook blog at www.facebook.com/pages/Paul-West-Writer/284357001596275?skip_nax_wizard=true. Come take a look at my blog and "like" me if you wish. Make comments if you will. I seem to have a few followers. They're probably wondering if I'll ever grow to like Harry Potter, LOL.

I've also been out of town a lot for my job. This is my busy field season.

My wife and I went down to Moroni for the Miracle Pagent last Thursday night. It was wonderful, but cold. Did any of you get to see it?

When I get a chance, I'm still working on writing a good query letter for my first novel. I just can't seem to get it right - according to the critics at Absolute Write, Query Hell.

[charlie]

I have not read T. Lynn's new book either. Paul, I am not a Harry Potter fan either. Haven't read any of that series. My daughter-in-law thinks I'm strange because haven't read Orson Scott Card, but I'm not into syfy either.

I am seriously thinking of publishing a couple stories through CreateSpace. Any comments, pro or con, would be helpful.

[paulwest]

A couple of things occur to me as I view the CreateSpace site:

1. It looks like a great company, but frankly I hadn't heard of it before this
2. What is the cost? How many copies would you/they have to sell (i.e. royalties) to even break even?
3. How much marketing would you personally have to do? Probably more than you would if published by a traditional publisher
4. It could be a quicker road to getting published
5. You probably have more input/control over content and marketing efforts with this company
6. ... and I keep coming back to this, if it's not good enough for a traditional publisher, it's probably not good enough (I think that's a lot of my problem). However, for short stories, this may be a better route to publication as traditional publishers have a hard time accepting short stories unless you submit an anthology to them.

I've probably been more negative that I should since you're probably talking mostly about shorts while I'm thinking about full length novels, so take what I say with a proverbial grain of salt.

[rahmuss]

Funny, I'm a big fan of Sci-fi and Fantasy. I say that yet my first two attempts at writing (not including my attempt in 7th grade) have not been Sci-fi or Fantasy. Oh well. I still enjoy reading it. Orson Scott Card and Brandon Sanderson (both LDS) are two of my favorite Sci-Fi / Fantasy authors.

Never heard of CreateSpace.

I'm going to participate in a couple of writing groups this July and hope to write about 30,000 words this month while giving and receiving critiques. We'll see how it goes.

Someone needs to create a good July thread.

[paulwest]

"Someone needs to create a good July thread." I agree. I could probably come up with someting catchy, but I simply don't have the time.

And Michael, good luck with your writing groups. I wish I could do something like that someday.

As for your not writing fantasy, I can't say I blame you. Fantasy requires creating a whole different world and that can be a daunting job.

As for Orson Scott Card, I read his "Ender's Game." While the basic novel was pretty good, I have to say, in my opinion, he delved in child pornography. There was absolutely no reason why Ender and the girl (can't recall her name, had to show up in one scene naked. Granted they were only 9 years old, so sexual atractions aren't all that strong, still there was no reason to have that in there.

[paulwest]

Taylorsville Dazz was great. My wife and I went to the fireworks display. It was great. Then a couple of days later we had a wonderful Independence Day. We watched the fireworks in Washington DC on TV. They had a great show. Lots of patriotic music and entertainment.

But did any of you see the New York show? I was greatly saddened. Not one patriotic song. Not one! Just a lot of rock-n-roll to accompany the fireworks. The fireworks over New York harbor was nice, but without the patriotic music it was just that, a fireworks display with no meaning.

I think that kind of mentality is taking over our nation. It seems anything pro-American or pro-religion is tabu.

Sad.

[rahmuss]

Agreed Paul. It seems we're moving away from those values that made us great.

[paulwest]

I'm just really surprised that no one has commented on that; not Rush, Glen, Shawn, or even Doug Wright. (bytheway is he related to you?)