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 three tests used for all documentary evidence in history are: the bibliographical test, the internal test, and the external test. Let's see how we can use these tests.
The way people think about the world is rooted in their religious (spiritual) view of the world--no kidding. There are four stages in religious thinking (religions):
1. Animism - gods in everything, man is fated
2. Pantheonic Paganism - gods rule certain things and both man and god are fated
3. Mysterium - gods rule and man can know god through rituals and education
4. Gnosticism - god is there and man can be like him through knowledge
At first the Mysteriums were viewed as a cult or an addition to normal paganism. That's how they usually become powerful in a culture. Mysteriums don't ignore or reject the other gods, they just focus on one god or on a leader. This is why Christianity (most properly teen hodos) in the first and second century looked a lot like a Mysterium. The concept of the Mysterium got its start in the West almost exactly around the time of the beginnings of philosophy--about 500 BC. As I wrote before, the beginnings of philosophy begins the Mysterium just as literacy begins patheonic paganism.
You can see many Mysteriums in the modern and ancient world. Just look for a secret initiation ceremony, monotheism, focus on a leader, a mystery that has to be revealed in stages. The most obvious Mysteriums are Buddhism, Islam, Mormonism, and Masonism. There are more. As I mentioned, in the ancient world Christianity looked like a Mysterium, but isn't; therefore, it shouldn't be surprising that you would find Christian Mysteriums. The Masons are a holdover, but there were many back in the early time of Christianity. You can also consider Mormonism a Christian Mysterum, but it has a focus on a very different leader and god--Moroni and Joseph Smith. The name of the group many times points to the focus. I already wrote that classical Greek Mysteriums are named after the god or the leader--thus, Greek called Christians, Christians after the god and the leader. Christians originally called themselves teen hodos (the way) in Greek. Christianity also helped usher in the next wave of religious thinking--Gnosticism.
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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