Your Stories on the Big Screen?

Ever picture yourself on the big screen? I have. Not so much acting or anything like that but I have pictured my story on the big screen. Yeah I know, kinda silly but hey, why not? When any of us, Authors and Writers that is, writes anything, it has usually been played out in our heads over and over.  Whether it is action or dialog between character they are scenes that are dramatic and worthy of anyone’s attention. How well we express these scenes is another thing altogether. Sometimes I’ll have an actor or actress playing out the scenes I write. Other times the characters are unique to themselves and they are played out by characters that only your own imagination can come up with. It makes me think that the whole casting process for a movie can be quite interesting.

Well, I just wanted to put some of my thoughts on this out there in front of you. At times I have felt silly for thinking such things but when it comes down to it, we all start out thinking that the piece of fiction or fantasy going through your head is a little ridiculous. But then it becomes a full-blown story that you are trying to push on Amazon or Smashwords. So why not a movie? Why shouldn’t Your Story be on the Big Screen?

I must have done something Right

After I wrote The Mission I did nothing with it. I set it aside and worked on other ideas that were floating around in my head. Occasionally I would show the story to someone, my mother, my children, my wife and even a friend or two. Eventually I sent out query letters hoping to get someone interested but had no takers. When I found out I could publish The Mission on my own through Kindle Direct Publishing and Smashwords I wondered who would want to read it. I have to admit that I felt ridiculous putting it out there in front of the public.

With the first few reviews that I received for The Mission I thought people were just being kind or that I was somehow doing a great job of faking it. Ms. Tricia Kristufek has written the 11th review for The Mission and with that I am beginning to think that I must have done something Right.

Ms. Tricia Kristufek is an Editor and Reviewer. You can catch her Review for The Mission at Musings of a Writing Reader. Under the review you’ll find a link to “View all my Reviews”. Hit it and check out all of the other books Tricia has read and reviewed. She has been very busy.

Thank you very much Tricia Kristufek.

Not the Fastest

Sometimes it seems like it takes longer for Your Dear Old Uncle Bill to write a story and get it out there than it should. I began the story I am currently writing, Shield of Health, July of 2011. and by my guesstimate I’m hoping to have it done by July of 2012. A year to write a book? Is that bad? Sometimes I feel like it is but then I look at some of the books I have read in the past and realize that perhaps it is not. It takes Donaldson between 2 to 3 years to get a Thomas Covenant book out. I realize his novels are more than twice the size of mine and I dare not compare the quality of my writing to his, (Donaldson is God like) for I can only dream of being the writer he is, but either way, I am thinking for a self published book a year is not too bad.

So, I’ll give Kudos to those who can put out a quality story in what seems to be no time at all and I’ll have to be comfortable with my snail pace. I received a message from Tricia Kristufek that she has read my first published novel, The Mission, and that she’ll be posting a review for it soon. She told me I did a good job and has even mentioned at one time that she liked my characters. This comes from someone I have a lot of respect for in the business. Not because she likes my book, but because other writers have had good things to say about her work as an editor. But anyways, I guess what I am trying to say is that perhaps the pace at which I write works for me and I shouldn’t be concerned about it.  So what if I’m not the fastest.

Settling for Nothing

So, November is coming up faster than it feels like it should. Soon we will be voting for the lesser of two evils. Why? Does anyone up there really have a grip on what this nation and the world is dealing with? I think not. The cost of living is rising fast and the economy we used to have before we started invading other countries seems to be years away. The jobs that are out there seem to only be available through staffing or temp services. My guess is that employers have no confidence in this economy and don’t want to be stuck paying benefits to workers they can’t keep. No one wants to take that gamble. That is too bad, because I feel that is one of the problems with our economy right now.

 

Hello, it’s me again

Hey there all of my Facebook friends. It’s been a couple of days since I have opened up my browser and jumped into my Timeline or anyone Else’s. It’s going to be a little while before I do. As I have said in my last post on Facebook, I have a couple of books that I want to wrap up and spending most of my time on FB kind of made that difficult to do. It’s a great place to promote your books but it’s an easy place to get drawn into. And me? Well, I’m a sucker for such things. It’s not just me though, I have seen a lot writers voice their concerns, feeling like too much time was spent online and not enough writing. Myself? I have gone into my office with every intention on writing, only to tell myself that I was going to jump into FB real quick to check on things and then be there all morning. I would bullshit myself into thinking it was something I had to do and that I could write the following morning. By the end of the next day I would be telling myself that I needed a break anyways.

I’m not going to say that I have broken away from FB, because I haven’t. If everything is configured right you’ll be getting a link to my blog when I publish this post through my profile. And that is good. I definitely want to stay in touch with all of you. I have been neglecting my blog and should try to write and post something meaningful on it sometimes anyways. And at some point when I figure out how to get a grip on my addiction to FB, I’ll come back in moderation.

I hope you are all doing well. I actually miss you all.

Your Friend on Facebook or anywhere, Bill Talcott.

As a writer, I drag myself out of bed early, sometimes hours before I have to go to work just to get a couple of pages of something written. Well, it is not always a couple of pages. Sometimes it may only be a couple of paragraphs. Sometimes, the only thing I accomplish is to decide that I didn’t like what I wrote the morning before.

In the past I have been asked about my writing process. Writing process? Process would indicate that there is consistency in what I do but since every story I work on is different, that is kind of impossible. Even the scenarios I create in my stories from chapter to chapter create a kind of chaos that would shoot any real process all to Hell. But if it were consistent, it might be kind of lame. Maybe it is a process; a process of inconsistency.

This weekend, Tomorrow to be exact. Sunday, March 4th I am putting my first published work, The Mission out there as a free download. There was a lot of that chaotic process in this book. I wrote The Mission at 4 in the morning, the afternoons, and the evenings. There is a lot of myself in The Mission and I’m not just talking about the work that I put into writing it. I hope that anyone who downloads my first published work enjoys it.

 

Download The Mission

Download The Mission

Writing a Love Story

The writing I do now is the result of a wild imagination that I have had since I was a child. It was always about action or adventure. It was about that imaginary guy driving the Hotwheels car over bridges that were collapsing and making it across just in time to go off to save the day. Or maybe I was flying that model of the Starship Enterprise around the confines of my bedroom and then beaming down to some planet to once again, save the day.

As I got older I would close the book at the end of a chapter and think about how I would proceed. Sometimes the author of the book and I were dead on but most times I found that I was just borrowing the writers characters and taking them on my own adventure, but they were always action adventures. There were television shows that I did this with as well. Batman the Animated Series. There was an episode where a little girls father would visit her nightly. He was gong mad and becoming a danger to her. By the time the episode was over, the Darknight would visit her at her window at night to make sure she was okay. Would you know that as this little girl grew up and fell in love with the Darknight and would eventually give her life to save him? Of course not. But I knew because this was my idea. Perhaps someday I’ll write the story. But it will probably be an action adventure story.

With the encouragement of others in my life, I began to write. Most of the ideas I have had for any story have been action. There is a lot of feeling in action and usually, action worthy of most stories is the result of something really profound taking place. Love has always had its place in action. Love has set the stage for battles. Men will conquer for love, do good and evil as well for love. But even so, I have never let the aspect of love in any of my stories turn that story into a love story. It was never intentional, it is just that my goal has always been to write action adventures in a scifi setting.

Then comes the story I’m working on now. I originally thought it was an action adventure story set in the future. Some of the action scenes are glorious! But there was something about the story that I couldn’t quite figure out, so I just put it aside.  About a year later I had read a novel by Ashley Fontainne and I realized that it was her style of writing that the story needed. She had done a book giveaway for me and worked pretty damn hard to help me promote my book that weekend. I also had the opportunity to see just how much of herself she put into promoting her own work. Afterwards I wanted to thank her for what she had done for me and had no real idea as to how I would do that. The only thing I could think of was to ask her if she would want anything to do with the story idea that I had. I was really surprised when she accepted my offer.

It was after we began to work on the story that Ashley opened my eyes up to what it was we were working on. During her Friday Night Radio Show, while interviewing me, she asked if I would ever consider writing a love story. Even though I didn’t know the answer to that question, she did. Like some clumsy fool tripping over his words I told her that a love story might be possible down the road. Anything is possible! What I didn’t realize for quite a few days after, was that she was talking about our story, Corporate Affair. She knew long before I did that we are already writing one. Even when I came to realize what she was talking about I asked myself, really? Is that what we are writing?

Not that I have anything against writing a Love Story; I’m actually quite excited about writing it! There is a lot of emotion and passion at work here, well of course. I’m just saying that the action in this futuristic thriller or love story, is going to be that much better. With love, there is always much more at stake. One thing I have learned from Ashley, is to know the story you are working on! She is quite an impressive writer. So as of now, I am a co-writer of Romance. But don’t worry, the Queen of Revenge promises to keep this story quite interesting! And you know something? Perhaps that Darknight story that I have wanted to write is really a love story after all. Who knows?

A New Road Ahead

Dear blog, I have been busy writing for quite a few years now. My first story was a learning experience. It was a freakin mess. I loved the story but the way I wrote it was a train wreck in the making. But hey, it was my first story. I will return to it someday and make it right. My second story, the one I published, was also a learning experience but it was much better than the first so I gave it a shot and self published it. My third, I’m feeling pretty good about. It’s actually a prequel to the second story I wrote. Keeping track of all of this? Cause I think I just lost myself back at the first story.

So I’m pretty close to having my third book finished. It deals with characters I have come to know and care about a lot. And I even have ideas for the third book in this series in play. But I feel I need to give it a break for just a while. The thing is, I have some exciting ideas for another story.  And a good friend of mine has been developing the lead character for it. She has done a fantastic job of it as well. her descriptions of Anastasia far exceed what I had imagined her to be. She understands Anastasia far better than I could have ever hoped to.

So, as excited as I am about finishing The Shield of Health and putting it up for sale for all to read, I am just as excited about starting this new project with Ashley Fontainne. When I first published The Mission I never imagined that it would lead to this. In many ways, I am living the dream.

Blogtalkradio Welcomes Indie Author Bill Talcott.

Yeah, That is me, Indie Author Bill Talcott. A while back a friend of mine was doing a live Radio Interview and told me I should try to set myself up with one as well. I remember telling Ms. Ashley Fontainne that I was just way too shy. So what does she do? She gets herself a gig as a Radio Host! I have to hand it to her, she is one busy woman! Well, to go on with my story, Ms. Fontainne asked me to be her first guest.  It was an honor to be asked by such a fantastic Author to be on her first Radio Show. So as shy as I might be, I jumped at the chance.

Join Ms. Ashley Fontainne as she makes her debut as a Radio Host interviewing Yours Truly! Friday, February the 10th 9:00pm cst  blogtalkradio

 

Ashley Fontainne on blogtalkradio

Welcome Indie Author Bill Talcott

To End the Weekend

It was a big weekend for me. I used some promo days that Amazon gave me when I decided to sell my book through their select program. Basically, for two days I gave away my e-book, The Mission in an attempt to raise its rankings and to just get my story out there to the people. I’m sure that Amazon used the event to get customers to join their Prime program as well. I think it was probably a good deal for both Amazon and myself. If I have done at least a fair job of writing the book, I should see some halfway descent reviews come back. This in turn should help increase sales of my book in the future.

I have mixed feelings about this weekend. Being an author, an artist of sorts, I feel a real need to get my work out there to the people. And even though it would be nice to make some money doing it, it isn’t the most important thing. The most important thing is to get my story into the hands of those who want to read it. There is something in me, that for good or bad, needs to hear how someone else feels about my work. Did you enjoy it? did you hate it? Did it piss you off? Did it make you feel anything?

Well anyways, Amazon has always done a great job of helping people sell stuff, most of all books, for quite sometime now. Amazon’s Kindle select program is a powerful tool that can be used to help promote us authors in a good way. I have taken full advantage of it this weekend myself. But I can also see where it can be harmful to an industry that is currently changing if it is not used in the right way. I am just reminded of an old adage, “Competition is good for you, Good for us all,” and just hope that in the years to come, there will still be healthy competition.

Having said my piece, I just want to thank everyone who downloaded a copy of The Mission. With my book in the hands of so many people, I can honestly say that I now feel like a writer.

Thank You, Bill Talcott