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. Although the example I gave yesterday was all about a trial, the Legal-Historical method can be used to prove any event in history. Let's put it another way, the Legal-Historical method is used to prove historical events. Some events have fewer witnesses or evidence than others, so you can't prove every event, but you can prove any event that has sufficient evidence and witnesses. This is true of a trial as well. Sometimes it is impossible for the state to prove a crime beyond a shadow of a doubt--this level of evident and witness is true of other historical events.
In history, those things that are not recorded are the every day and the ones everyone knows. I ask my classes all the time if they could reproduce any church service based only on the information in the churches prayer book and their bulletin. The answer is always no. There is not enough documentation to describe the entire service as it is enacted by the people and the pastor (priest). This is largely true of any religious service. This is largely true of any led, hosted, or directed event. I use this church example because it is an easy one for most people to understand.
In history, we would like to know how each of these daily or weekly occurrences took place. Today, we have videos of services, so a historian can recount them and understand them. In the past, there is usually less documentation that today. The point is, that for even relatively simple and yet important events, like a religious service, we don't have enough data in history to perfectly reconstruct it. Historians wish we could. The understanding of religion and religious events in history is very important to the understanding of a people.
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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