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
During the Age of Reason, the question of the day was empiricism verses logic. Those on the side of logic argued that logic alone could be used to describe the universe. Those on the side of empiricism argued that empiricism alone could be used to describe the universe. The question was deeper than that however. We haven't looked at logic--yet. We will. Using logic, I can describe and understand things that both exist and don't exist in physical reality. Mathematics is an example of a subject that is governed by logic and does not exist in physical reality. I'll explain how when we get to logic. Be that as it may, empiricism can only be used to look at subjects (things) that are physically real. The real battle during the Age of Reason was between the reality of the physical world that can only be described through empiricism and the real world that requires both logic and empiricism. Both sides were wrong, but the wrong side won.
Because the empiricists won, we entered the Age of Enlightenment with a prejudice against logic and anything that couldn't be proven by empiricism. Thus, Thomas Jefferson, because he was an empiricist couldn't imagine the Gospels with miracles and wrote his own version with the miracles expunged. Thomas Jefferson was a logical man, and he understood the legal-historical method--his prejudice did not allow him to conceive of anything outside of the empirical universe. This mindset has permeated the modern world--so much to the point that people unintelligently require empirical evidence for everything. Unfortunately, there can't be empirical evidence for anything that can't be repeated. I can only apply empiricism on events and subjects that can be proven using the scientific method. The scientific method only works for repeatable events. You must use the legal-historical method for events and subjects that can't be repeated. In other words empirical proof must take into account the legal-historical method. There is another important tool to know truth--it is logic.
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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