The EPIC WIN Thread 3: SON OF EPIC

Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Tinwhistler said:
My novel is finished. Final word count: 105K

I've re-written and gone over the drafts easily 4 or 5 times. My wife and I went through it over the weekend to weed out any final kinks. I have a couple of other people reading it now, just for good measure, and to make sure that the writing flows well and is interesting. But bottom line: I'm done. Anything from here on out is just a minor tweak. I've contacted an artist to work on the cover art, and hopefully will have that part done by the end of August.

I've placed the first chapter on Google Docs. Feel free to take a look and let me know what you think :)
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I know you're saying you don't want to wait for chasing an agent, and then waiting for them to chase a publisher, and that's fine, but please wait to publish it. Why? As much as you've gone over it, as annoying as it feels to read it again and again, my advice would be to step away from it for a few months after you get those tweaks in from other people reading it. It's frustrating, but you may be glad you did when you come back to it, read it once more when you haven't been steeped in it every day for months and months, and are absolutely sure it's all set as you want.

EDIT: Can't read everything right now--writing flows fine, much better than most independent stuff I've seen (and that's a hard jump for many people; they tend to over-write their prose). The margins look a bit extreme though; I'm not sure if that's the Google doc or how you set it.
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Tinwhistler said:
Margins were set at .5" all around in the original document.

As for setting it aside, I hear what you're saying. I've done that twice already, with years gaps between working on it. Now that it's finished, I'm all antsy to wrap it up. I'm like a little doggie wanting to chase the squeak toy ;)
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I get that feeling, and I'm not saying to put years between now and then; I'd just give it a pause still despite all the work you've done.

And if that's your margins, then yeah, it's Google making it look like that.

Either way, good luck. You and Chaz in that other thread have given me a lot to think about with that stuff; I've been chasing agents for some time now, and since all you get if they don't ask for more is a form rejection, you never know if it's your writing they don't like, or if it's not their kind of story, or if it's the query that didn't sell it to them--zero indication of what the trouble is. The mystery can be maddening, because you have no idea what you're doing wrong, or if you're even doing something wrong.
 
Officer_Charon

Officer_Charon

Kudos to you, Tin!

How does the self-release thing work? I, too, had always thought that the publisher/agent route was the only way to get your stuff out there...
 
Hailey Knight

Hailey Knight

Officer_Charon said:
Kudos to you, Tin!

How does the self-release thing work? I, too, had always thought that the publisher/agent route was the only way to get your stuff out there...
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Ereaders like the Nook and Kindle have changed things. You can go through Amazon or Apple; though you'll need to get someone to format it for eReaders (like Lulu or other private companies, for pay), or download a program for it.

I think getting an eReader and print on demand set of options is a good idea. Doing it all right can cost a little money though, which you may or may not ever get back, depending on if people buy the book.
 
Mathias

Mathias

Tinwhistler said:
Margins were set at .5" all around in the original document.

As for setting it aside, I hear what you're saying. I've done that twice already, with years gaps between working on it. Now that it's finished, I'm all antsy to wrap it up. I'm like a little doggie wanting to chase the squeak toy ;)
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Stephen King recommends giving it to 9 people who are close to you and brutally honest.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

From my chemo-rant, one of the drugs has the side effect of lowering lung function. So I have to quit smoking. I tell my best friend this last night, while telling him I am smoking my last pipe. He tells me to wait one more day to quit. So we are going to my favorite bar tonight and we are going to pollute the 'mother' up. Two cigars each should do the trick.

So one last time for our normal Friday night ritual... pitchers of $4 beer and cigars. His wife calls it our 'Mandate.'
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

My Chemo Doc was kinda funny, and shy. He told me after my offer to quit smoking... "As a Doctor I can not 'tell' you that it is OK for you to go back to your cigars when the treatment is over..."
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

So, as of late last night, I'm now a temporary U.S. citizen. I've moved to Presque Isle, ME for the University of Maine's Education program. The town is tiny, tiny, tiny. It's a huge change from Toronto, but I'm digging it. Gonna be weird not needing to transit or bike half an hour or more to get anywhere. School doesn't start until the 29th, but everything's already set.

Oh, and my new place? Holy crap, it's huge compared to my tiny, hole in the wall basement bachelor I left. It's a 1-bedroom and man, just the living room alone is bigger than my last place.

But the absolute best part of the whole thing? Found for $10 at the Salvation Army? Hell, this alone was worth it for the whole damn trip. This was worth getting accepted into UMPI. Check it out:



Y'know those dads and granddads that fight tooth and nail to keep some ratty, old, P.O.S. recliner?

Well, guess what, bitches?! I'm not letting go of this 'til the day I die!

And then you can burn it all to hell.
 
sixpackshaker

sixpackshaker

I had my niece up visiting. And just about the only movie that she could watch was The Princess Bride. The pure joy that a six year old goes through watching that movie is great. I had to skip the RUS's on the second viewing though - too scary.

She slept through Star Wars. Too slow in the middle for a little tyke. She really dug the light saber and R2-D2.

This morning we did Mentos and Diet Coke fountains.
 
Cheesy1

Cheesy1

Yeah, good on you Six! When my niece gets older, I'm totally turning her into a sci-fi/fantasy nerd. It'll be a dual win because:
1. It'll be great to share all that cool shit with her;
and most importantly
2. My sister, her mother, absolutely HATES sci-fi! So if I can get her daughter to love it . . . MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! :D
 
ThatNickGuy

ThatNickGuy

Nice, Six! I got me a niece that pretty much worships her Uncle Nick. We now have an annual tradition of watching Gremlins & Gremlins 2 every Christmas.

When she gets old, I'll introduce her to my other annual Christmas movie: Die Hard. :D
 
Tress

Tress

Cheesy1 said:
2. My sister, her mother, absolutely HATES sci-fi! So if I can get her daughter to love it . . . MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! :D
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Hehe, I did this to my niece's mom. She hates sci-fi/geeky things. She's also a vapid pop/country fan. Naturally I've done my best to make sure my niece is a zombie-loving, star wars watching, hardcore rock fan. Muahaha! :D
 
Officer_Charon

Officer_Charon

My daughter is showing geekish tendencies already... she wants to hold on to the X-Box controller (the old, broken one), she giggles whenever I make murloc or wookiee noises, enjoys watching Phineas and Ferb (okay, not necessarily a geek thing, but definitely a "Daddy, not Mommy" thing)... when she gets older, I'll be busting out Star Wars and later still, the Warhammer 40k stuff... My wife is horrified (she wanted a girly-girl) *trollface.jpg*
 
Sparhawk

Sparhawk

My girl, about to turn 18, is a Geek Princess. Not only does she love Star Wars, but has actually received birthday cards from some of the original cast. She grew up on Batman: The Animated Series, Superman and comic books. Now her mother, isn't against it, but does just occasionally shake her head when we get into deep discussions about the science behind this or that technology. But we, as a couple, haven't been able to get her into fantasy, but we're still trying.
 
Gusto

Gusto

So far I'm going into it expecting to have dinner and a beer. :)
Added at: 17:45
If it goes poorly I may amend that to several beers.
 
checkeredhat

checkeredhat

Wait, so TNG, you're no longer in Toronto? DAMMIT. And I might actually be moving there this year.
Hey, am I now like, the Halforums ambassador to the GTA or something? Gusto's all the way in Waterloo.
 
Made Ya Blush

Made Ya Blush

checkeredhat said:
Wait, so TNG, you're no longer in Toronto? DAMMIT. And I might actually be moving there this year.
Hey, am I now like, the Halforums ambassador to the GTA or something? Gusto's all the way in Waterloo.
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TNG is no longer in Toronto. LOL nope as I'm located in Toronto. If you need anybody to show you around the city etc feel free to message me. I'd be glad to help. :)
 
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