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.
If you remember the mathematical proofs you had to do in geometry, you know how to develop a logical proof. You start with definitions. It looks like this:
1. Define the terms
2. State assumptions
3. Produce proof
4. Logical conclusion
A mathematical proof is used to see something that can't be proven or shown directly in the physical world. I can, for example, demonstrate simple math physically. In the ancient world, the number you used for infinity (or a lot) was based entirely on the number of fingers and toes you had available to count--certainly not a proof of anything, but a concrete use of math in the world. So, in a barter culture, I can count to forty. Thus, the Hebrews used the euphemism forty days and forty nights to relate a long period of time. In a barter culture that requires a priest for transactions, like the Babylonian culture, I have three people, each with twenty fingers and toes available, thus I can count to sixty. Therefore, the Babylonians based their numerical system of timekeeping for the sacrifices on base sixty--sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour. The Egyptians invented the 24 hour in a day scale--that had little to do with fingers and toes and much to do with ten hours of darkness, ten hours of light, and one hour of twilight between them. Kind of interesting that the number of hours was defined by the twilight time. In any case, real math, as compared to theoretical math quickly became a problem. The first problem was Pi.
Why is Pi a problem? The circumference of a unit circle equals a non-repeating number that can't be represented by a fraction--it is an irrational number. Did you get that? Pi is an irrational number--it can't be represented mathematically; therefore, we use a symbol--the Greek letter Pi. The Egyptians had fractions. Pi was a big deal to them. They got it and in the minds of the Egyptians and the Greek Osiran Mystereum, Pi was a wonder. It was a piece of the real world that represented the spiritual. The reason it represented the spiritual is that it could not be represented by anything in the real world. It was a critical number, but you couldn't write it. If you think back to your math studies, you know there are more numbers like this. To the ancients, numbers like Pi pointed to the reality of mathematics, and especially mathematical proofs, as a means to prove concepts outside of the physical world. Well look at some of these proofs (like Zeno).
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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