Yeah, I'm looking for money. But I'm also looking for shares, tweets, or anything else you can help me out with. And hey, if you happen to have $10 to spare and feel like being generous, I'll be happy to take that too.

But this isn't just any crowdfunding campaign. It's a contest.

In the world of Galadir, there are eight elements: fire, water, earth, air, life, death, time and shadow. I've set up perks in this campaign to correspond to each element, and the element with the most takers at the end of the campaign will win something cool. I'm going to have my lovely wife design an exclusive book mark just for the winning element, and ship one to each and every funder who chose that element. This is a one-time deal. This bookmark will never ever be made available again.

That's not enough to entice you?

Indiegogo has sharing tools that let me track referrals for each person who shares it. You simply need to have an account on their site and use the referral link provided on the campaign page. If I hit my funding goal, I will give the single person with the most referrals at the end of the campaign a $250 Amazon Gift card. How's that for incentive?

Here's the Details

I'm looking for $5,000. This will be used to pay for editing, publishing, printing costs, advertising of the completed trilogy, hard cover production, and anything else related to the launch of the third and final book in the trilogy.

Go here to see the campaign!

I'll be sending out regular updates on this, and keeping y'all informed on which team is winning.

The Perks

What would a crowdfunding campaign be without perks? If you're not sure what a perk is, it's an incentive I use to get you to give me your hard-earned money. I'm not just going to take it and give you nothing.

Here's a list of things I'm offering at the start of the campaign:

• Exclusive wallpapers.

• eBooks of all three books.

• Autographed paperbacks of all three books.

• Poster-sized maps of Galadir.

• An exclusive Time Weaver Chronicles T-Shirt that you will only get through this campaign.

• Hard covers of all three books!

As the campaign goes on, depending on how well things go, I may put more stuff up for grabs as well, but you have to admit, that's a pretty good line-up, right?

So come one, come all, and help me realize my dreams. I'll be eternally grateful for any and all donations, no matter how small.

And then the first review comes in.

And they complain about the editing.

And you're crushed.

We've all been there.

Self-editing is hard. You get used to your story and the way it's written. This means that your brain, at a subconscious level, knows what you intended to write even if your hands developed a mind of their own. You read a sentence and see nothing wrong. Meanwhile, there's a glaring typo or grammatical error. Even your spelling and grammar checker forsake you as the sentence still technically works.

You need help to break your brain out of its know-it-all state and get it seeing every word again. This is where we begin.

Read it Backwards

Strange but true: if you read your manuscript backwards you will un-train your brain and get it looking at what you've written as though it's brand new. Take it one paragraph at a time, and do it slowly. Read every word, and make sure what's there is what you intended. This is also a good time to ensure that each paragraph can stand on its own.

Make a List

Chances are, if this is your first book, you won't know what your most common mistakes are yet. But keep your eyes open because as you edit you will learn what they are. Don't trust your memory to remember them all. Write it down into a list so that the next time you write something you can easily search for those mistakes and eliminate them. You will make the same mistakes over and over. It's nothing to be ashamed of. That's part of what makes you unique as a writer. That doesn't mean you can release your book with those mistakes still present though.

Your goal should be to become known for your fantastic writing, not your consistent mistakes.

Read it out Loud

This is a fantastic idea for new writers. It allows you to hear what your story will sound like in your reader's heads when they read it. If you stumble over a sentence, word, or paragraph, or something doesn't sound right, highlight it and move on. Don't try to edit while you read it out loud or you'll never get anywhere.

Better yet, record yourself while you're reading it and play it back. You should sound fluid and consistent when you read it. If you slow down or miss words, or change things as you go, mark it for revision in your manuscript. Be sure to follow along as you listen so you can compare what you said to what you wrote.

Look for Common Mistakes

There is a wealth of information online about the common mistakes writers make. You can look up these lists and use them to your advantage. I've used a number of them and always find some new mistake that I've been making that I turn around and correct. This is probably something you'll want to do as step one or two in your process.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Writing is a journey with many lessons to learn. Always keep an open mind about what you're doing and be sure to recognize and learn from your mistakes. Oh yes, you will make mistakes. I know I have. At every step of the way you will learn new skills, new tricks, and new methods and ideas. Welcome these lessons and grow into an author of the future.

Don't Edit Tired

You're going to want to get through the editing and get your book out into the world. I promise you, there will always be readers. In fact there are probably more active readers now than there has ever been before. But be patient and don't burn yourself out. You'll do better, more consistent work if you make sure you are well-rested. Editing while tired will cause you to miss more as your brain goes into a sort of auto-pilot mode.

Take your time, get into a groove, and you'll be writing much cleaner in no time. The second book will be much easier to edit, and the third even more so.

The Most Important Lesson

Don't go it alone. Writing may be a solitary job, but editing doesn't have to be. Get feedback from your peers, hire an editor, join local writing groups and get them to help, but above all else don't do this alone. I certainly don't. I'm an independent author who depends on a whole team of people to get my books published. I couldn't do it by myself and you shouldn't either.

It may be a lot of work, but the reward when the good reviews start coming in are totally worth it. Keep at it, and always move forward.

Eventually you'll get there.

Wherever "there" is.

Twenty-plus years of role-playing has spawned countless characters, many of whom went on to be heroes in some way. This doesn't make me an expert, as I'll explain, but it does make me experienced. Not every character I've created is a hero, and some that I thought were promising turned out to be utter failures.

But there have been a few, and some of them were unexpected. See, the problem with building a hero is that you really can't build one. It just sort of happens. Whether you are creating a character for D&D, or writing the next great fantasy novel, you can't force a character to be a hero. You can try to nudge them in the right direction, but when it's really time to lay the cards down and step up and do something truly heroic, you have to stand back and let it happen, and either the character will pull through and make you proud, or they will fail and fall apart.

Most of the time they fail.

What really defines a character as a hero is not something you can write down. There are feelings involved, and that creates gray areas that can be quite vast at times. It's easier to tell you what a hero is not, which might help you more than trying to create a road map.

Heroes aren't always good.

It's true. There are countless examples of characters who started out bad and ended up doing very heroic things. Comic book character Spawn is a prime example. An assassin who was killed and recruited into hell's army, only to turn against his creator. His story is a sad one, but very heroic.

One of my favorite characters of all time started out as a bad guy. He's the topic of an upcoming novel of mine, where I get to tell his story in its entirety for the first time. I won't spoil the book for you, but he ended up taking a bad situation and making it very good for himself. In the end, though he would tell you otherwise, his actions saved a lot of lives, and brought justice down on some very bad people.

They aren't always strong.

Bilbo Baggins was a mild-mannered hobbit who never went on any adventures, until of course a wizard came calling. If you know the story of The Hobbit, by J. R. R. Tolkien, you know that this one tiny hobbit performed some amazingly heroic feats. He didn't need a lot of muscle to do it. Just some quick thinking, a little intuition, and a lot of luck.

They don't always know what they're doing.

A favorite of mine is Jaxom from Anne McCaffrey's The White Dragon. He saved one runt egg, and impressed a dragon who was unique amongst all dragons on Pern. All Jaxom saw was the injustice of what was happening. He wasn't trying to be a hero. But his actions eventually brought an end to a major political crisis, and he made some important discoveries about the planet's past.

Many of them never wanted to be a hero.

My character Seth, from The Time Weaver, grew up on Earth and had no idea who he was or where he came from. When he was taken to Galadir for the first time, he was taken by force. If he'd had the choice, he wouldn't have gone. There are a great many characters like this, who start out reluctant and grow into their hero role. These are the ones who would rather stay in bed and never venture out of their hobbit holes.

They rarely do it alone.

With a few minor exceptions, heroes almost always have help with their heroic deeds. In fact, I would argue that one of the defining characteristics of a hero is their choice in who to surround themselves with. Sometimes it just takes the right person to shove them into a heroic role so that they can fulfill their destiny.

So what is the one defining characteristic that makes a character a hero?

There isn't one.

No magical weapon, super power, secret sauce or mystical prophecy can make a character into a hero. In the end, it's a lot about personality, timing, a little courage, and a lot of luck.

See, I've been having trouble coming up with blog topics, which is part of the reason why I went a month and a half without posting a thing. Perhaps my focus has just been too fixed on Reprisal to come up with anything, but I just haven't been able to write on any other topic.

It's the proverbial wall, and we all hit it at some point.

The writing world is full of encouraging words. We should take our time, build a following, be patient and it will come. Work hard, practice your craft, write often, read even more. There are a thousand things we need to keep doing, and at all costs, we can't get discouraged. It's a marathon, not a sprint, after all.

Yeah. Try it some time.

Finding inspiration when you're feeling defeated is tough. At some point during your writing career, whether you are indie or traditional, you will feel the icy grip of defeat take hold. You've worked for hundreds or even thousands of hours, improved your writing incrementally, sent out hundreds of queries, and you've still to see any kind of fruit come of those seeds you sow. You set up a Twitter account, a Facebook page, a G+ account, and do everything right. Blog tours, reviews, giveaways, promotions. Shouldn't you be seeing some kind of reward by now?

I thought I would. But then again, I have friends in the writing world who spent ten or more years just writing. Working on perfecting their craft before they ever let anything see the light of day. I tend to work faster than that.

For me, finding inspiration to write something beyond my current task is a monumental undertaking. If you understand at all how my mind works, you would know that I keep one task in my head at a time, and that gets the lion's share of my unconscious thought. Nothing else really takes a piece of that. For me, the last few months have been dominated by Reprisal, which is almost finished now. To be honest, blogging hasn't been a priority for me.

This is the source of my defeat.

If I ever want to grow beyond being an indie author with a few sales each month, I have to discover the inspiration to write beyond my current project. I need to find content that is inspiring and interesting to people who would be interested in the books I write. That's not an easy task, particularly for somebody like me.

So answer me this: What do you do for inspiration when nothing else feels like it's working?

Don't be afraid to sing.
Don't be afraid to dance.
Don't be afraid to speak.
Don't be afraid to listen.
Don't be afraid to learn.
Don't be afraid to run.
Don't be afraid to read.
Don't be afraid to write.
Don't be afraid to look back on your past. Learn from your mistakes.
Don't be afraid to forge your future. Only you can do it.
Don't be afraid to be there for somebody. They may have nobody else.
Don't be afraid to make a choice for you. It's okay to be selfish sometimes.
Don't be afraid to walk in the rain. It can cheer anyone up.
Don't be afraid to do something crazy. Step outside of your comfort zone.
Don't be afraid to say what's on your mind. Your opinion matters.
Don't be afraid to pour your heart out. Everyone needs to sometimes.
Don't be afraid to take a chance. With great risk, comes great reward.
Don't be afraid to chase a dream. Accomplishment is the greatest feeling in the world.
Don't be afraid to do nothing. The world will keep on spinning.
Don't be afraid to be silent.
Don't be afraid to live.
Don't be afraid to die.

Sing. Dance. Speak. Listen. Learn. Run. Read. Write. Look back on your past. Forge your future. Be there for somebody. Make a choice for you. Walk in the rain. Do something crazy. Say what's on your mind. Pour your heart out. Take a chance. Chase a dream. Do nothing. Be silent. Live. Die.

But most of all...

Don't be afraid.

Does the character abide by all local laws of the land and live an orderly existence, or rail against authority and thrive on chaos? Do they strive to do good by everyone they meet, or snuff out life any chance they get? These things are determined by alignment. Each specific classification has its quirks, but lawful evil is one of the most challenging alignments to get right.

This alignment rests at the extreme end of two spectra that don't mesh particularly well, and actually mastering this alignment takes great skill on the writer's part. Having a character who is evil by nature, but who also lives by a strict set of rules, respecting law in some form is quite hard.

Being lawful does not necessarily mean that the character lives by the laws of the land, though. In fact, it may simply mean that the character adheres to a personal code of conduct, even if that conduct includes doing things that would otherwise be considered immoral or illegal. Writing about a character who is lawful evil can take you to a dark place.

The other side of this alignment, evil, does not mean that the character is malignant, thoughtless, or heartless. A lawful evil character is calculating and methodical. They won't hesitate to torture or kill, but will never do it for no reason at all, and certainly not solely for pleasure, though they might take joy in performing the act if it is done in accordance with their own personal code of conduct.

So you can see how walking the lawful evil line can be a challenge.

Why bring it up?

If you've read Legacy, you've already had a brush in with a character who walks this line. Gladius meets him in Findoor, and puts himself in the debt of this shady character. He's an assassin, but he doesn't take just any job. Chronic gamblers who have taken out more loans than they can pay back, or shop owners who bought from the guild, but have failed to make payment and are dodging the collectors, or anyone who has crossed the guilds of Galadir for whatever reason. When a person can't be found, they turn to Taraxle.

He tracks them down, unafraid of whatever deep, dark hole they have crawled into, and makes them pay. When a job is handed to Taraxle, it's beyond cash payment. He doesn't care for their groveling or begging. The law has already been broken, and his job is to carry out punishment. There are no judges and no juries, their fate is decided.

Taraxle is by far one of my favorite characters of all time, which is why he is set to become the subject of my next trilogy. The Spell Breaker Chronicles will focus on Taraxle and how he became one of the most dangerous criminals, and yet, possibly one of the greatest heroes Galadir has ever known. But how do you take a character who is lawful evil, and make them a hero?

That's the big challenge. That's where learning to be lawful evil is going to be imperative, because in order to write about a lawful evil hero, everyone else must be worse than him.

The Spell Breaker Chronicles will take Galadir to a dark place I've never explored before, and I hope you'll journey with me.

It should have been #1.

The truth is, if you are an indie author, and you are trying to make it in this wild new world of publishing, the one sure fire way to get noticed is to forge strong, long lasting relationships with people. All the followers in the world aren't going to help you if nobody is actually listening to you. Get what I mean?

I've read a number of books on marketing, and the common theme running through every single one is the idea that you must forge strong bonds with lots of people in order to get anywhere. This isn't just a numbers game. Well, it is, but not that kind of numbers game. The biggest misconception that indie authors currently face is this: having thousands of followers will sell your books.

This. Is. A. Lie.

The most disappointing thing I see these days is indie authors on Twitter following me, and then a day later unfollowing me again without ever trying to connect with me. They don't really want to connect with me. All they want is a follow-back. Big numbers to make them feel like they are accomplishing something, but they really aren't.

If you amass a list of five thousand people who automatically followed you back on Twitter, do you know what you have? Five thousand people who are highly unlikely to be watching anything you tweet about. Maybe one percent of them will actually watch your tweets, and even fewer will care enough to respond or retweet.

Here's a new trick: find people you are actually interested in, and follow them. Now don't just read what they tweet, but respond to it, talk to them, connect with them, and form a bond. If you are interesting, and you show them that you find them interesting, a friendship will form. Take all the time you are spending following and unfollowing people, and put that into forging one meaningful relationship per week. Fifty meaningful relationships will be far more valuable to you than five thousand vacant followers.

At the beginning of this month I released my second book, Legacy, Book II of The Time Weaver Chronicles. Its sales have been steady, and the exposure I gained through its release has bolstered sales of my first book. The reason? It certainly wasn't my marketing efforts, which have been lackluster at best. My successful launch has to do with all my friends and fans who banded together to not only buy my book, but also to spread the word about it. I have them to thank.

A list of followers is only as good as the relationships you have with them. So ask yourself this: in the last week, how many times have you written, tweeted, or posted something that was an honest effort at building a relationship?

This IS a Numbers Game

But not that kind of numbers game. The big sales come to two kinds of people: the extremely lucky, and those who work hard at forging relationships. The more lives you touch, the more people you build a meaningful relationship with, the better results you will get out of any marketing campaign. You'd be surprised at how far even a single tweet can go when there are actually people listening. In almost all cases, if you don't build a relationship with a person, they aren't listening.

Publishing is all about name recognition. The more often people see your name, the more curious they get about it. But here's the trick about name recognition: If people see your name in a positive way, they are more likely to accept your work in a positive way. It's true. You can influence how people see your work, simply by the way you act toward others. This isn't manipulative, it's human nature, and there's never anything wrong with being nice to people and helping them out.

This is the Road Less Traveled

There's nothing easy about this. It's a long road, but it doesn't have to be lonely. Seek out people who want to connect. Get to know them, and actually network with them. It's a lot of work, but in the long run, it's the only way to really get noticed.

What have you done lately to nurture professional relationships with others? Share your thoughts below!

1. Writing is Hard Work

This was something that I didn't expect. I mean, of course it's hard work, but you would never imagine the degree to which it is hard until you try it. It took hundreds of hours of work to finish each of my books, and no matter how close to finished they got, I was always able to find something else to tweak or fix. If you're not prepared to spend a substantial portion of your life with your face glued to a computer screen, writing may not be for you. I'm not trying to discourage people from the craft, it's just the honest truth. Know what you're getting into when you tap out those first few words.

2. Make it Right the First Time

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. I know, it's a horrid cliché made worse by deodorant commercials and parental words of wisdom, but it's true. Releasing a work that is full of mistakes, only to pull it, re-edit it, and re-release it, looks amateurish at best. At worst, you've lost credibility with your potential fans.

3. Nobody EVER Gets it Right the First Time

We all make mistakes. That's an invariable part of being human. The greatest authors on earth have had books that were total flops. Don't get discouraged if you make mistakes. Learn from them, and move on. You may have to endure some bad reviews, but what does that mean, really? In the long run, nothing. Always strive to improve your craft, and forgive yourself when you get things wrong.

4. It's a Jungle Out There

The publishing world is a big scary place full of vipers that are just waiting to sink their teeth into you. Since I started writing, I've learned about so many bad contracts, bad publishers, and scam artists, that it almost makes me want to curl back up in my cave. I even almost fell prey to a bad publisher (Fantasy Island Book Publishing) but managed to get out before any real damage was done. My best advice is this: read and understand everything before you sign anything. Make sure you understand what you are getting yourself into because some of the contracts I've seen are so horrible, they could plague you for the rest of your life. It's very easy to get wrapped up in a dream only to discover that you've dropped yourself into the middle of your worst nightmare. Writers are a passionate folk. If we weren't, books wouldn't be so fun to read, but getting published in a big way is a big dream that some would do anything - and sign anything - to fulfill. Be careful.

5. Relationships Are Everything

The most successful indie authors out there built their career on a foundation of good relationships. This is such an important concept for every indie author out there to learn that I may make a blog post devoted to just this. Your success as an indie author will not hinge on how many Twitter followers or Facebook friends you have. It won't matter how many likes you have on your author page, or how many people have circled you on G+. None of the numbers matter, at all. What matters is building strong relationships with other people, because it's those people who are going to buy your books, and share your posts, and support you on this journey. If you don't build strong relationships in this business, you will fail. Yes. You. Will. Fail.

6. There's No Such Thing as an Overnight Success

We hear it all the time: somebody gets picked up in Amazon's recommendation engine and it sends their book rocketing to the #1 spot. Think... Mill River Recluse style. Despite the fact that these books often rocket to the #1 spot very quickly, what you seldom ever hear about is the years of effort the author put into writing and editing and rewriting the book to make it great. You never hear about what a load of work it was to build up a following, and get the word-of-mouth marketing working in your favor. You certainly don't hear about all the nights the author thought about giving up the whole thing because they thought they had failed. With very few exceptions, the only place an overnight success exists is on the news when they report about the latest #1 sensation. We all worked hard to write and publish our books. Very few can truly say they achieved success "overnight".

7. With Great Effort Comes Great Reward

I believe in Karma. What you put out into the world, will invariably come back to you. It's all about interpretation. I can't describe what it feels like each time a person marks my book with 5 stars. It's an amazing feeling to know that something I poured my heart and soul into over the course of hundreds of hours and months of work is being appreciated by other people. Not because I asked them to, but because they wanted to. I keep writing because I'm now addicted to the rush I get when I read a good review of my work. If you're not there yet, keep working at it; trust me, it's a great feeling.

8. Check Your Ego at the Door

Not one of us is perfect. At some point in your writing career, somebody is going to tell you that they don't like what you've written. It's almost certainly going to be sooner than later. In most cases, unless you've hoarded your work until the very last second and published it without ever letting anyone else read a word of it, it's going to be somebody you care about. A friend, relative, or fellow writer is going to weigh in on your work, and they are going to be honest. Rather than blow up at them, or get angry, or give up, take their words under advisement and try to find your flaws. It's the hardest thing in the world to accept your flaws, and even harder to fix them. Admitting you have a problem is the first step. (Hat tip: my unedited drafts are RIFE with missing or misplaced apostrophes, repeated words, and mixed up sentences.) [Editor's note: don't forget about the excess commas!]

9. They're Called Rules for a Reason

There are rules to be followed in order to write a story that is well crafted and interesting. Rules. Not guidelines. I can't count the number of times I've talked to somebody who waxed poetic about using their "creative license" when writing their books, only to actually read their writing and find out that it's so abysmally bad that it's almost unreadable. When you are an A-list author, you can break the rules. Until then, focus on writing a great story, and stay within the safe zone. You have a far better chance of being taken seriously that way.

10. Don't Ever Give Up

It may take two, or three or four, or six books in order for you to start seeing some real recognition in the market for your writing. Write the best book you can, focus on building relationships rather than followers, get plenty of feedback, learn to be humble, work hard, take every opportunity you can to expand your mind, and eventually, all that hard work will pay off. I've only just released my second book, and already I'm seeing the rewards from all the wonderful people who support me.

Thanks for stopping by. If you like what you see, check out my award-winning debut novel, The Time Weaver.

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Once upon a time...

...a warrior of light defeated an insane wizard, but behind every heroic story lies a truth never told.

A man washes ashore on the island of Arda after a terrible storm, remembering nothing but his name: Krycin. The blue wizard Gladius finds him, takes him in, and is determined to help Krycin regain what he's lost.

The Fates have other plans. Krycin's presence on Galadir is disrupting the fabric of the universe. The solution? Eliminate him, by any means necessary. When Gladius sides with the council, his efforts to destroy Krycin spark a war that threatens all life on Galadir.

In order to save himself and what remains of his people, Krycin must defeat Gladius, but time is running out. Every step Krycin takes to destroy Gladius makes things worse, and now a massive army is marching on Findoor. Krycin must come up with a way to defeat Gladius before it's too late, and forge his legacy for the future of Galadir.

Buy the Kindle eBook

Buy the ePub eBook

Buy the paperback

Continued support for Reglue!

I tossed around the idea of supporting a different charity with a portion of the proceeds from Book II, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. Reglue means a lot to me, both for what they do, and what they stand for. Sure, there are other PC giveaway programs out there doing very excellent work, but none of them have Ken Starks at the helm, and he's just awesome. So, as with The Time Weaver, $0.50 from each eBook, and $1.00 from each paperback sold will be donated to Reglue to help keep them going.

DRM-Free, Because I Care

All of my books are released DRM free, which means you can buy it once, and copy it to any device you own, and even convert to to other formats. If you are looking for a great piece of software that will help you do this, Calibre is fantastic, and very easy to use. It's also free and Open Source.

Speaking of Open Source...

I consider myself an avid user and supporter of Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). All of my books were written, edited, formatted, converted, illustrated and published using 100% FOSS. In fact, my household has been Microsoft-free for a number of years, and I don't foresee that changing any time soon. Truth is, I find the FOSS tools to be not only adequate, but quite good at doing everything I need them to do - in most cases, better than the proprietary cousins of the programs.

I'd like to thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for being a part of my journey. It really means a lot to me that you take the time to not only drop by on my website, but also purchase and read my books. It takes hundreds of hours of work to put a novel together, but you all make it worthwhile. Thank you, and I hope you enjoy Legacy.

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