Get To Know The Six Pack Series: Brad Lawson

Moving on with my series about the Six Pack characters, let me introduce you to Brad Lawson.

Brad is 18 years old (you've probably noticed a pattern... the Six Pack members are the same age). He has a lean build, short, blonde hair parted to the side and ice-blue eyes. He is classified a "low achiever" in secondary school. Students are grouped into "achievement levels" based on their test scores. However, Brad has always shown an interest in science and nature. I think of him as somebody who is smarter than people think, but he doesn't test well.

Brad's father served in the military and was killed while overseas. Between the loss of his father when Brad was young and what Brad believes are the schools predetermining what his role in society will be, he has a skeptical, sometimes pessimistic, view of life. He finds it hard to trust other adults, thinking they have their own agendas in mind rather than what's important to him. But even though he is a "low achiever," he became friends with Tyler Ward even after Tyler was designated a "high achiever" after the two bumped into each other when they first enrolled in secondary school.

Where I relate to Brad is that I tend to be a skeptic when approaching something, though with Brad, it's more pronounced because of his life growing up and his perception that he's not allowed to explore his interests because other people have their own ideas. But what I like about Brad is that he learns to overcome his doubts and figure a way to trust people, even if he doesn't always agree with them.

Brad not only formed a friendship with Tyler, but with Jessica Harrison, who saw him on enrollment day and thought he was cute. I explored his friendships with both of them and liked how he not only learns from them and how he can grow as a person, but the way he observes how the other two act and helps them to grow as people, too.

He gains enhanced vision, which comes from his marksmanship skills. This was probably the most difficult of the special abilities to write about, because it's tough to illustrate how he's able to focus on objects from a great distance, or how he can precisely hit targets. I tried to make up for that by focusing more on who he is as a person and how good he is at observing how other people interact.

Get To Know The Six Pack Series: Stacy Sanders

I continue discussion of my characters in the Six Pack series with Stacy Sanders.

Stacy is 18 years old, has blonde hair that she always pulls back in a ponytail, blue eyes, and she is Tyler Ward's longtime best friend. The two grew up next door to each other and think of themselves as siblings. She enjoyed climbing trees when she was young and, when she went to secondary school, took up gymnastics. Those activities helped her improve her agility and balance. Consequently, she gains the power of enhanced agility.

As for her personality, she's calm, optimistic, level-headed and friendly. She tries to find the best qualities in everyone -- the trait she shares with me. She's the type of person who wants to get along with everybody and does her best to show patience. It's rare that she will get upset or angry. Most of all, she values the importance of family and bonding with other people.

I wanted a character who kept a positive outlook despite the dystopian world in which the book is set. Stacy may struggle once in a while with her optimism and wonder if things will progress the way she hopes they will, but most of the time, she finds her optimism justified.

I think her relationship with Tyler is important because I think everyone who has natural leadership qualities needs somebody to fall back upon and be reassured that he or she made the best possible decision. That's what I found Stacy provided for Tyler, even if she might not agree with his decisions. I also touched upon her relationships with the other Six Pack members because I liked how she interacted with each of them. I think she's the type of person that few would say they dislike. She has a way of connecting with anybody.

The enhanced agility was a power that allowed her to be more physical than some of the other characters. I don't picture as being a tall girl, but she is athletic, so I believe she could handle herself well in such situations. Her power did present a challenge as to the situations in which she could be useful, but I think I pulled it off well and, hopefully, readers will agree.

Get To Know The Six Pack Series: Jessica Harrison

Continuing with my series of posts about the characters in my forthcoming novel Six Pack: Emergence, I want to talk about one of the main supporting characters, Jessica Harrison.

Jessica is 18 years old and has long, wavy brown hair and brown eyes. Her mother died when she was 10 years old and she became somewhat distant from her father. She is intelligent but has a stubborn streak -- a trait that runs in my family. But she has a big heart and tries to empathize with the plight of others. She has leadership skills but finds herself ranked behind Tyler in school. She tells herself that it could have been her at the top of the class, but struggles with the idea that she could be jealous of him.

Jessica's stubbornness is the trait I most identify with in her. I often think that the way I would like to do things is the way things should go and I'm sometimes resistant to changes in my life. That describes Jessica pretty well -- she's been used to living life one way and finds herself adjusting to a new life. I can imagine a lot of people would have difficulty adjusting to changes in their life, though. I think we all get into a comfort zone with the way things are when we grow up, but when we enter a new environment, it can take us by surprise.

Jessica has a deep interest in the fine arts. She likes to sketch, paint and create works of art and her career interest leans toward architecture. Her ability to create things with her hands and mind, along with her intelligence, leads to her gaining the power of telekinesis. It was something I didn't want to overdo, though. I limited her usage of it to situations in which I believed it was warranted and didn't want to use it for jokes. I believe Jessica is the type of person who will try not to use her power unless it's necessary, though there are moments in which may use it out of frustration.

When I wrote the book, I found myself empathizing with Jessica more than my other characters, because she wants so much more for herself than what she thinks she's received. But as she learns the truth about society and herself, she starts to realize she's been in a good position and she doesn't need to worry about what could have been. She probably showed the most growth among my characters and I hope readers see it the same way.

Get To Know The Six Pack Series: Tyler Ward

Now that my upcoming novel Six Pack: Emergence is heading toward publication, I thought a good way to promote the book would be to talk about some of the characters.

These will be short posts in which I talk about characters and what inspired them. Regarding the main character and the five primary supporting characters, they each have a little bit of me in them. That's typical for a lot of book characters, though -- at least one of their traits will be shared with the author.

So let me talk to you about the main character, Tyler Ward.

Tyler is 18 years old and has dark brown hair and gray eyes. Those physical traits are one I share (well, I used to share with the hair before I started shaving my head). He is intelligent and inquisitive -- not only is he good at absorbing information, he wants to learn more and doesn't stop asking questions. But while he learns information well, he doesn't always put what he learns into practice well. He's the type of person that could memorize the instructions for putting together a complex piece of machinery, but when he tries to put it together, he can't get it to work.

He has natural leadership skills but is sometimes reluctant to use them. Most of all, he questions himself a lot and sometimes wonders if he made the right choice.

Along with the physical traits, Tyler shares the intelligence and inquisitiveness I have. As far as his role as a leader goes, I like to think of him as most of the best leaders throughout history -- those who struggled with issues and what was the best way to go, even as they did well in getting people through tough times. I know a lot of people look for leaders who represent the things those people would like to be, but while those people get the perception the leaders are those things, you often find out those leaders weren't always like that. That didn't make them bad leaders; that made them human.

Tyler gains the power of mental telepathy. It was something I had fun with when I was writing the book and I hope people enjoy what he does with it. It was one part of the book where I took a chance with some things, so I'll be interested to see what people think when the book comes out.

A Publisher Was Found... So Now What?

November, as most writers knows, is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) but, while I had hoped to participate, my recent agreement to have my first book published by Clean Reads has changed those plans.

Long story short: I had to spend some time completing pre-edits on my first book before sending it back to Clean Reads, so I had to delay other writing projects I had planned.

Instead, I'll be using the month of November to accomplish two things: To spend some time talking up my forthcoming book and to complete the third edit of my planned second book.

Regarding the first book, I can tell you that it will first be released as an e-book and will be available through multiple sites (Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Smashwords, iTunes) but it has to hit a certain threshold before it will be made available as a print book. I don't have a date of release yet -- keep in mind things are still early in the publishing process and I'm still working with the staff on edits as I speak.

As for what I plan to discuss about the first book, I want to talk about the characters I created and what went into creating them. One thing I can tell you is that all of my primary characters have a little bit of me in them (that's not unusual among writers) but I worked in other traits I've observed in other people (as many writers will tell you, observing the actions of others is often how they come up with characters).

As for the third edit of my second book, that may come along slowly given that I am needing to prioritize my first book. I'm hopeful, though, that I can work in enough of the second book to get it finished by the end of the month.

I can tell you my excitement level has increased knowing that I'm that much closer to having a published novel. I hope to build your excitement and interest, too.

For everyone who has stopped by the blog, thanks for following me and being patient as my journey into the publishing world has progressed.

Why Do We Hate Editing?

I read a recent blog post from Ani Alexander, 17 Signs That You Are A Writer, and found that I could relate to the majority of the traits she described. One stood out in particular because I was in the middle of pre-edits on my novel in preparation for publication.

That would be point number 15: "You hate editing."

Whenever I wrote stories for newspapers, I never liked editing my own material. I often told people that I didn't always catch mistakes in my own writing. But as I thought about what Ani wrote, I wondered if there was more to it than the claim I made about editing.

So I thought about some reasons why I didn't like to edit and I imagined that many of those reasons apply to other writers. Here are those reasons that sprang to mind.

1. Editing can be more time consuming than writing.

When I write, my thoughts shift to putting the fingers to the keyboard and letting words spill onto the screen. I fall into a rhythm and keep moving, sometimes not wanting to stop until everything I want to write is finished.

Compare that to the editing process, in which we must go over what we wrote, fix mistakes or ask ourselves if that's the best way to write something or if there's a better way. Sometimes we notice an error and understand what needs correcting, but if we read a sentence that doesn't sound right, we start thinking about what would be a better way to write it. We can then lose track of where we are at if we think too much about that.

Writing, to me, is a smoother process than editing. The smoother a process is, the more likely it will be completed in a short time. A rougher, tedious process takes more time to complete, and that's what I find editing to be.

2. We start questioning ourselves.

Let's go back to the previous point. We read what we have written, come across a sentence that doesn't sound good and ask ourselves if there's a better way. That's when we may ask ourselves if we are cut out to be a writer and why can't we write the perfect sentence the first time around.

It's not unusual, though, for any human to review something he or she did and, if something didn't look right, to ask what could have been done better. Questioning ourselves is not fun to do and sometimes we'll struggle with a decision we made the first time, but reconsider upon further review.

With writing, we are able to change things that didn't work in the first draft. But each time I review a draft, I keep asking myself questions. And those who keep asking themselves questions may dread reviewing anything they have done, lest they start to wonder if they got it right.

3. We notice mistakes others make but don't like noticing our own.

Have you ever read a published book, article or essay and noticed a mistake? We're only human and, while we try to get all mistakes corrected in our writing, an error or two may slip through. But because of my writing experiences, I get hung up on misspelled words and grammatical mistakes. And when I read a book and notice such a mistake in a published work, a small part of me feels annoyed.

That's no different from how most humans judge one another. If somebody brings you the wrong order at a restaurant, you notice. If a cashier incorrectly rings up the price of an item, you say something. On it goes... we notice the mistakes others make and want them corrected.

But when we go over the things we do ourselves, and don't get them right, we don't like it if somebody points it out. And so it goes with our own writing: We review what we wrote, we notice the mistakes and we don't like it. So we don't look forward to editing, because it forces us to recognize our own mistakes.

4. We realize we have to cut stuff we don't want to.

Ah, the writing advice that gets passed around: "Don't be afraid to kill your darlings." Every writer is told to prepare to cut something out of a story if it doesn't make sense, it doesn't add to it or it seems unnecessary.

Often, those things we are told to cut are characters we loved, plot devices we thought were so cool or scenes we enjoyed writing but, upon further review, didn't move the story forward.

I don't think there's a writer out there who enjoys "killing their darlings." It's an unpleasant process, but it's often a necessary part of the process. But I imagine most writers don't look forward to it.

5. We realize we aren't perfect.

Everybody wishes they were good at everything, never got anything wrong and receive all praise and no criticism. But we are human beings and we will get things wrong and must accept criticism alongside praise.

The editing process is one of many reminders that we don't always get it right the first time. In some cases, it may remind us we don't get it right at all. Even with all my writing experience, I make typos and don't always put the comma in the right spot.

While most people realize that nobody's perfect, that doesn't stop us from acting like we should be. That's especially true for certain professions, whether it's those who work in them or those who are served by them.

And when it comes to writing, I like to think of myself as somebody whose writing is just the way it needs to be, because I'm the one who wrote it. But then comes the editing process, which is the unpleasant reminder that my writing may not be as good as I thought.

I imagine some of you will relate to these points, but perhaps you have others. Or maybe you are one of those writers who loves to edit as much as you love to write. What are your thoughts?

A Deal Is Done!

Did I say last week on Twitter I'd have a blog post but it would be delayed? I did, didn't I?

So a lot of things got in the way and I didn't get this up as soon as I wanted to, but now I can share the details.

I've signed a contract to have my novel published!

Earlier this week, I signed a deal with Clean Reads to publish Six Pack: Emergence. I spent the what free time I had the past few days finishing pre-edits, in preparation to send a final manuscript to the publisher. Of course, there are other forms I need to complete to get the process going.

But the good news is that I cleared a major hurdle toward getting my novel out into the public's hands. I can talk more about the novel itself and what it's all about and not so much about my adventures of trying to find somebody willing to take a chance on my work.

In the weeks to come, I hope to sit down and talk more about what inspired me with my novel, the themes and the characters.

It's exciting to know that a published novel will soon be reality. Now all I need to do is make sure everything is ready to go and find out if people like my work or not!

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On a sad note, the president of the Kansas Writers Association, Kurt Campbell, passed away about a week ago. I am dedicating the novel to him... Kurt offered to be a beta reader and gave me plenty of insight about how to improve the writing and some plot points. I remember the first KWA meeting I attended in July 2015, how he welcomed me aboard and showed enthusiasm for writing. I owe him a lot for how far I have come.