Announcement: My editor sent a round of emails last night concerning the back cover materials. That included the book teaser and the author bio. They looked good. They also sent the covers for the individual novels. I'll put up the covers when I can. The proposed 3 in1 cover and info can be found at www.ancientlight.com. I'll keep you updated. I should have three new books out soon.
Introduction: I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon. This was my 21st novel and through this blog, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing. In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes. You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel beginning with http://www.pilotlion.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-novel-part-3-girl-and-demon.html.
I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published. I'll keep you informed along the way.
The four plus one basic rules I employ when writing:
1. Don't confuse your readers.
2. Entertain your readers.
3. Ground your readers in the writing.
4. Don't show (or tell) everything.
5. Immerse yourself in the world of your writing.
All novels have five discrete parts:
1. The initial scene (the beginning)
2. The rising action
3. The climax
4. The falling action
5. The dénouement
The theme statement of my newest novel, Valeska, is this: An agent of the organization becomes involved with a vampire girl during a mission, she becomes dependent on the agent, and she is redeemed.
Here is my proposed cover for Valeska:
The purpose of a novel is to reveal the protagonist and usually the protagonist's helper, the author needs to place them in circumstance that allows them to reveal themselves. The means can be conversation, exploration, discovery, other's conversation, confession, accidental discovery.
There are three ways to know truth: the scientific method, the historical-witness method, and logic. The scientific method can only be used to prove repeatable events. The question then is what kinds of sources are trustworthy and how can we tell. The first and basic measure of a scientific source is if it is being used to truly test something that can be tested through the scientific method. Since the scientific method can only be used to test repeatable events, if the event isn't repeatable, the scientific method can't be used to prove it. A great example of this is the beginning of the universe. If the beginning of the universe happened more than once or could be reproduced in the lab, then you could use the scientific method to prove it--otherwise you are up a creek. Now, don't get all frazzled, you can use the scientific method to prove all kinds of scientific facts around the beginning of the universe, but this is why science has so many problems with the concept of the beginning of the universe--it can't be proven or disproven using the scientific method.
Other similar historical-type scientific ideas and events are equally problematic for the scientist and for the scientific method. For example, evolution and historical progression. These concepts can be snuck up on with scientific concepts and experiments, but they are not repeatable and therefore not testable through the scientific method. To that end, if any scientist tells you that the scientific method was used to prove any of these ideas, they are lying. I tell you this as a scientist myself. This is just one of the basic ideas everyone needs to know and should have been taught when they were in elementary school. Next is the reliability of data.
More tomorrow.
For more information, you can visit my author site http://www.ldalford.com/, and my individual novel websites:
http://www.aegyptnovel.com/
http://www.centurionnovel.com
http://www.thesecondmission.com/
http://www.theendofhonor.com/
http://www.thefoxshonor.com
http://www.aseasonofhonor.com
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