A Very Busy July

I’m writing this from the Boulder Creek Lodge in Nederland, Colorado. That picture is just outside my door. Unfortunately, I’ve not met a moose yet. It has been a crazy month. Tomorrow, I’m starting a three-day bike-packing trip through the Rocky Mountains. Still, for the last two and a half days, I’ve been acclimating to altitude—around 8,300 feet—and spending some secluded author time, with an occasional real-world work task sprinkled in.

The Nights of the Purple Sky progress  

Yesterday, in my seclusion, I wrapped up one chapter and wrote another, somewhere around four thousand words. I’ve also decided, or am heavily leaning towards, removing the cool prologue that I wrote for this. I think it gave too much away; it featured a POV I didn’t intend to use the rest of the book, and it contains a plot continuity thing I’m struggling with. Pray for me on this; leaving my world as is could turn some sensitive readers from my book. If you want to read more about this, I discussed it in my previous blog post, The Di Vinci Syndrome.

The book and the story are going very well. I’d say it is around 10% done, maybe a bit more and maybe a bit less. I’m on Chapter Six of the rewrite. I like the characters and how they are building in dimensions. I like the world, and someday in 2026, I hope you’ll write to me and tell me you like it too.

Writers Conference Experience

In the middle of July, I loaded up the family truckster and drove to St. Louis, Missouri, for the 2024 Realm Makers Conference. I learned a lot, met some kindred spirits, and came away inspired about what is possible. I didn’t know what to expect, and I suspect that more than 35% of the attendees were also rookies. The good news is that next year, the all-day drive will be cut to about 20 minutes as it will be in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Realm Makers is a Christian Speculative Fiction writer's group, and you can find out more about them at www.realmmakers.com. I don’t consider myself a Christian writer, but a writer who is a Christian. This conference has many of both camps.

When I attended the conference, I had made appointments to pitch Nights of the Purple Sky to two publishing houses. And I signed up to take a three-session class on being an Indie Author. The first session of the class, taught by Julie and Lucas Hall, happened before my pitch appointments. In that first session, they gave all the pros and cons of being an Indie author vs. a Traditionally published author. Julie is an accomplished author; you can learn more about her at juliehallauthor.com.

On that list, some things spoke to me. If I were to go the traditionally published route, after finding an agent and finding a publisher, it still might be up to seven years before my book sees the light of day, and in my author window of at best twenty years, that is a fairly large chunk of nothing for you to read. I think that fact by itself pushed me to this path. The one con that is listed is that you must also be a small business owner. You are responsible for writing the book, picking a cover designer, hiring editors, and building a marketing team to get your book out to its audience. While this is a con for many, other than knowing the indie publishing business, I know how to run a business. I also like to learn. Fortunately, many Realmies are independently published and like to help.

One thing distinguishing Indie authors is their focus on connecting with their readers. You all who are reading this now, before I even published a book, are an encouragement. I ask that you like the posts and interact on Instagram—even just a like helps encourage me—the same with Facebook. If I ask a question, it is to start a dialogue with you all. Participate, and I promise to reciprocate. If you have friends and family who would enjoy my journey, you can refer me to them. Over time, as I get closer, I’ll ask if anyone wants to participate even more, and those details will be coming. That might include me gifting you physical books before they are available to the public so you can write a review for me. I might ask for your help in picking a title. I might give you chapters written from another character’s point of view (POV) or even that fantastic unpublished prologue I wrote about above.