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; however, most events are not repeatable. Almost everything in the natural world is bound by time and only occurs once. For example, a person is only born once. A person only dies once. I can use the scientific method to study births and deaths, but not to study a birth or a death. All I can do for singular non-repeatable events is to record and describe them. This is how the Legal-Historical method got its name--it is first about historical events and documenting them in a fashion that they meet a legal criteria.
The Legal-Historical method is used to document everything. It is used to prove non-repeatable events. The proof comes in the form of evidence. For example, the evidence of your birth might be a birth certificate. The certificate itself might be enough of a legal document to prove your birth. A historian would evaluate the certificate in terms of the signatories, the material (paper), the date, the evident age of the materials, the information on the certificate. The historian could go further and research the time of your birth. She could compare your certificate with others from the same time. The historian could check and find the original or the record of your certificate. Each of these are bits of Legal-Historical evidence that becomes the proof of your birth at a specific time, place, to specific people, etc. The Legal-Historical method is the most powerful means of proof--and it is the least taught. It is the means that the court system uses to convict people of crimes and it is used by the government to document your wrong-doing and your tax payments. The Legal-Historical method is the most important means to prove truth--we shall look at it in some depth.
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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