Joshua P. Simon - The Accidental Author

I’ve been pretty quiet on the blogging front for a while. It’s not because I’ve been slacking. I just haven’t had the time or energy to write anything for the blog outside of a couple Music Monday posts here and there. I've been really busy with writing, editing, outlining a new series, and my day job.

I'm taking a few minutes away today to let everyone know that I’m working on the last round of edits for Forever Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book Four. The goal is get this last Tyrus book released during Labor Day week (the week of September 5th for those not in the States).

So stay tuned to the blog, keep up with my Facebook page, follow me on Twitter, or sign up for my newsletter for the official release!

I’ve wanted to write this blog post for over a month now. The fact that I’m only getting to it now should let you know how continually busy I’ve been. This is mostly due to a promotion at my day job which resulted in me working most of the old position and new position until my old role had been filled. That transition is finally under way. Unfortunately, work won’t completely ease up yet since there are quite a few projects I’m leading or co-leading.

With that being said, I wanted to share a few notables that I’ve recently reached in my writing career and then take a quick look at 2016 and beyond.

Milestones:
- On Christmas Eve 2015, I published Resurrected Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicles - Book Three. This was my ninth full-length novel and my twelfth published work.
o With that book, I have now published over a million words (just a bit under 1.1 million). That’s a pretty awesome thing to type.
o So far the novel has been well-reviewed by my readers, and the series as a whole continues to be well-received by veterans or soldiers currently serving their country. The latter especially means a great deal to me.
o It has sold very well, and due to its release, I received a spike in sales across my full catalog resulting in my biggest month of sales in January 2016.
o During the early part of January, I even managed to crack the 50,000 mark in total book sales.

Updates:
- On the downside, I had hoped to release a third book in 2015 which for various reasons didn’t happen (partially due to work, partially as a business decision).
- Though I am making good progress on Forever Soldiers, the fourth and final book of the Tyrus Chronicles, it is taking a bit longer to get through the rough draft than I had expected. Therefore, it is very likely that it will be the only full-length novel I release in 2016 (at some point during summer).
- Once Forever Soldiers is finished, I’m hoping to spend the rest of the year hammering through one of several ideas I’m considering for my next series. My goal is to release two books for that new series in 2017,  then shoot for a minimum of two releases a year thereafter. I’d like to release 3-4 books a year, but with work as it currently is and other my obligations, I think I’d struggle to meet that goal.

Hopefully your 2016 is a good one!

In January of 2014, I posted the following writing related goals. The results are bolded.

1. Write two to three books. This will probably be Book Three of The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel (currently working on this…about 35K into the rough draft), completing Book Two in The Tyrus Chronicle, and either working on Book Three in The Tyrus Chronicle or going back and doing Book Four of The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel series.

Done. I wrote The Tower of Bashan: The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel, Vol. 3 and published it this past summer. I also wrote Wayward Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle – Book 2 which is currently with my editor. I’ve started The Maze of Hidesi: The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel, Vol. 4 (over 50K written so far) and will finish it early this year.

I was hoping to be a bit further along in Volume 4, but overall it’s been a pretty productive year considering what I’ve published.

2. Publish four to five novels. This will be the first three books in The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel and at least the first book in The Tyrus Chronicle. I’m hoping I might be able to publish the second book in The Tyrus Chronicle as well, but I’ll have to play that by ear. If I do get it out it will probably be around December.

Done. I later decided it made more sense not to push things and publish four books in 2014 (still quite a bit of work) rather than kill myself and my wife trying to get one more out.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how the year turned out from a writing/publishing perspective.

2015 Writing Goals

1. Publish Wayward Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book 2
     1A. Hoping to get this published in February 2015.

2. Finish writing The Maze of Hidesi: The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel, Vol. 4
     2A. Hoping to publish this in Late Summer 2015.

3. Write Resurrected Soldiers: The Tyrus Chronicle - Book 3
     3A. Hoping to publish this in November or December 2015.

4. Start writing either Book Five in The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel series or possibly the last Tyrus book. This will depend mostly on my state of mind at the time I’m ready to start working on these.

5. Maybe publish a short story I’ve got lying around that needs a bit more polish and a cover. It would be a good way to get one more thing out this year from me if I can get it together.

6. Release the first three Andrasta and Rondel books in audio format. I’ve hired a voice actor/producer I’m really excited about these. The plan is for all three to be available before the summer months.

So, those are the writing goals. If I can accomplish all of it, I’ll consider it a very successful year.

What are your 2015 goals?

Deadlines can be, and will be, a point of stress in everyone’s life. Lately, my life has revolved around deadlines. New duties at work have brought on a wealth of deadlines that grow by the day. My personal life is always full of deadlines, especially now that we’re in the process of getting our house ready to try to sell at some point in the next few months.

However, no deadline causes me more stress, aggravation, and frustration than the ones relating to my writing. In part, this is because I push myself more and more to outdo the last one. However, it is also because no matter how much I try to plan for everything, ultimately too many things are out of my hands. I can write and edit as fast as humanly possible, but I’m beholden to how fast alpha and beta readers give me comments or to my editor’s and cover artist’s schedules.

I plan and then plan some more, building in buffers and so on. Yet, things pop up that almost always cause me to either alter my schedule or work thrice as hard once the ball is back in my court to meet my original deadline.

I wish I was the kind of person who could shrug and say, “Oh well, it comes out when it comes out.” But, I can’t. Missing a deadline or knowing that I didn’t do everything possible to meet my goal is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night, makes me nauseous, and makes my ADD go into overdrive. To me, missing a deadline is a poor reflection of who I am.

Am I the only one who has trouble just letting things fall into place as best as they can? What do you do to keep from stressing out when your deadline is affected by things outside your control?

Writers often talk about how reading your work out loud can really help during the editing phase. I know I’ve mentioned it in the past myself. I found that early on this helped me most when trying to ensure my dialogue sounded “real” and “natural” rather than mimicking my prose.

As I’ve become more experienced, I’ve read my work out loud less and less. In part, I feel that I’m a much better writer than I was several years ago so the necessity isn’t quite as great in my mind. However, the biggest reason why I’ve gotten away from doing this is because the process isn’t always easy to implement.

I can’t exactly read my work out loud in an airport (which is where I am typing this blog post), can I? I mean, I guess I could. But considering what I write, I’m sure I would get a lot of strange looks (and maybe a call from security as I describe a mace smashing someone’s skull). Well, maybe I might not get as many looks as the guy yelling into his phone about his hot new co-worker. He seems to be pretty oblivious to the people around him shaking their heads in disgust at him.

Anyway, I do most of my writing/editing at home in the early mornings. I can probably read out loud then in a low voice without any issues. However, I also try to write/edit on lunch breaks and any other spare chance again. So, if I decide I’m only going to read the WIP out loud during one editing pass, the process could take a lot longer if my window for doing so is smaller.

Now, here’s the bright side. I’ve been traveling this week for work and had the “luxury” to be in a hotel the last few nights. I took advantage of the opportunity and decided to make a pass through my current WIP by reading it out loud.

I wanted to read it out loud for several reasons.
1. Because it actually worked out where I could.
2. Since this will be the first book in a new series (hoping to release it in October or so after the next two Andrasta and Rondel books), I want to make sure it is as good as possible before sending off to beta readers.
3. It is in 1st person, which is something I’ve only done in short story form before. I really want the change in style to work.

I’ve found that, as before, the process to be really beneficial whether tweaking a word or two, adding a sarcastic comment, or smoothing over a scene transition. The WIP has improved.

I think I may have to start making time to do these sorts of passes in the future.

In January of 2013, I posted the following writing related goals. The results are bolded.

1. Publish Trial and Glory, the last book in the Blood and Tears trilogy. DONE.

2. Secret project for Rise and Fall: Book One in the Blood and Tears Trilogy. DONE. This was the audiobook. I’m happy to say that all three books in the trilogy are now available in audio form.

3. Write and finish Forgotten Soldiers - Book One in The Saga of Tyrus. DONE.

4. Write and finish Book Two in The Saga of Tyrus. NOT DONE. I’m only about halfway through with this. The reason is because I shifted gears and instead wrote the first two books (and started the third) in the Epic of Rondel and Andrasta series. I consider that a pretty decent trade-off.

5. Decide how I want to approach publishing The Saga of Tyrus. DONE. These will be indie published for now.

6. Write four to six short stories. I have outlines for three of these. The ones I have in mind would run the gambit: a post-apocalyptic modern world, sword & sorcery, and science fiction. NOT DONE. I think I only finished one short story in its entirety and I decided to hold on to it for a while. I actually started four to five others, but just lost interest. I don’t know what the deal is, but I just don’t generally enjoy writing short stories like I do novels...therefore, unless a short story idea really moves me or I have the time to pursue them at my leisure, I won’t be worrying about them for some time.

7. Possibly indie-publish one to three short stories. NOT DONE. See note six above for why. However, I do have an older short story that is in good shape I might try to put up next year.

8. Finish outlining and start writing Book Three in The Saga of Tyrus. NOT DONE. As mentioned in point 4 above, this is because I switched gears in focusing my time in the second half of 2013.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with the way the year has turned out as I’ve managed to write well over 300,000 pretty clean words (much more if you count the short stories started, but not finished). Although my focus shifted temporarily from one series to another, I really didn’t miss a beat. Because I wrote so much, I should be able to make up for only publishing one novel in 2013.

2014 Writing Goals

I’ve decided to keep this list pretty simple this year.

1. Write two to three books. This will probably be Book Three of the Epic of Rondel and Andrasta  (currently working on this…about 35K into the rough draft), completing Book Two in the Saga of Tyrus, and either working on Book Three in the Saga of Tyrus or going back and doing Book Four of the Epic of Rondel and Andrasta series.

2. Publish four to five novels. This will be the first three books in the Epic of Rondel and Andrasta and at least the first book in the Saga of Tyrus. I’m hoping I might be able to publish the second book in the Saga of Tyrus as well, but I’ll have to play that by ear. If I do get it out it will probably be around December.

So, those are the main goals. I’m sure I’ll try to do more, but so long as I do the above, I’ll consider it a very successful year.

What are your 2014 goals?

Time for another writing update…

Here are the three projects I’m currently juggling:
1. The City of Pillars of my new sword and sorcery series called The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel– The manuscript currently stands around 89K and is with Leah for the first alpha read (content related). Once she finishes the read, I’ll probably do two more drafts and give it back to her for a line edit. My goal is to get it back to her within about two weeks of getting her comments. I’d love to get this to beta-readers before the end of the year.

2. After the Plague – This is an older short story I wrote well over a year ago. It is much different than anything else I’ve written as it takes place in post-apocalyptic setting. I’ve done some extra polishing on it and will get a bit more feedback on it in the coming weeks. I’m thinking I might want to self-publish it once I feel the text is tight and I can get a cover together.

3. The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel short story – I’m currently working on the first draft of a story that takes place between books one and two of the series. I’m hoping to get this wrapped up by the end of next week (first draft and first two to three edits). I’d like to get this to beta-readers sometime in December.

4. The Tyrus Chronicle short story – This would take place in another series I worked on earlier in the year. I haven’t worked on the novels recently, but I’d like to do a short story before the end of the year. One, because I miss the characters. And two, I think it would give me a nice break from the characters in The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel series before jumping into Book Three.

5. The Tower of Bashan of The Epic of Andrasta and Rondel – At a minimum, I’d like to get this outlined before the end of the year (hopefully started in late December).

Yes, it’s a lot to try and do by the end of the year…and honestly, it might not all get done (especially since the wife and I are juggling a few things on the personal front). However, I like to aim high and push myself because I usually find a way to meet my self-imposed deadlines.

One of the most popular pieces of advice I hear thrown around about anything and everything (especially writing) is the 10,000 hour rule. The rule comes from the book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. The rule essentially states that in order to be successful at something, you have to first work 10,000 hours at it.

The basic idea of the rule is sound, which essentially states that is nothing in life is free and we must all work for what we want. However, it seems that according to Gladwell, you can’t be successful without those 10,000 hours of work. Most people who quote or tout this philosophy feel the same.

Personally, I think that is a bunch of garbage. The amount of work it takes for someone to achieve success varies with each individual. Some people may reach a level of success after a few hundred hours or a couple thousand hours. Others may take 20,000 hours until things click, if ever.

Therefore, I say putting a number on how long someone must work at something is not only presumptuous (that everyone needs the same amount of work), but also limiting. Besides, working hard is only a part of the equation of success. Let’s not even get into what defines success.

Personally, I much prefer a motto that has stuck with me since I was a kid. It is one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard even though it comes from an unlikely source.

"Work smarter, not harder." – Scrooge McDuck.

Scrooge believes, like most, that it is possible for everyone to do almost anything, if there is just enough persistence involved. However, the amount of work you put into something becomes insignificant if you’re doing the wrong things. You must not only work hard at something, but you must also focus on doing things efficiently, while ignoring insignificant tasks.

It’s been a few months since I’ve done a writing update so here we go . . . .

1. Audio books
a. Steel and Sorrow was completed a couple weeks ago. Now, I’m just waiting for ACX.com to approve the files and upload to Audible, Amazon, and iTunes. Hopefully, that should happen sometime in the next month or so. Keep checking here for the official release date.
b. Trial and Glory is currently in production. I’m hoping for it to go live before the end of the year.

2. Short Stories
a. I had planned to do a couple of these this year, but I don’t see that happening right now. I actually did start a couple short stories earlier this year (a couple thousand words on each). However, I lost interest and moved on to the two series below. I guess my heart just isn’t into writing shorter fiction at the moment.

3. Rondel and Andrasta series
a. Book 1 is done and will be going to beta-readers this weekend. It’s around 84K words and is a sword and sorcery adventure story.
b. Book 2 has been started. I’ve written about 16k words on the rough draft. I hope to have it completed and off to beta-readers by the end of the year.
c. I also hope to start Book 3 by the end of the year.
d. My plan is to make these mostly stand alone adventure stories with Rondel and Andrasta visiting various parts of the world for each book. I have quite a few story ideas right now. My goal is to keep the books between 80-100K words which will allow me to write them at a quicker pace.

4. Tyrus series
a. Book 1 is done and has gone through a couple of edits. It’s currently around 80K words.
b. Book 2 has been started. I’ve written about 45K words on the rough draft.
c. Although I love the series so far, it will probably be a while before any of it is released. Since it’s told in first person POV, I feel like I want all four books written (or at least the first three done) before I release Book 1 in order to make sure the series is paced well.
i. That being said, it will probably take me a while to finish the series because I’ve decided to work on these books intermittently between the Rondel and Andrasta series.
ii. The general premise of the Tyrus series is that a great ten-year war has ended and some of the soldiers are finally returning home. The world has changed drastically from what they remember and each has to find their place in it.

Considering the above, it is very likely that other than the audio books for the Blood and Tears series, I probably won’t be releasing any new material this year.

Conversely, I’ll probably end up releasing 3-5 books next year to make up for that. So, that’s definitely something to look forward to . . . .

. . . and the story comes to an end!




Trial and Glory: Book Three of the Blood and Tears Trilogy can be purchased from the following locations for only $3.99 in ebook form. Use Smashwords for your non-Kindle, Kobo, and Nook ereaders.



If you do not have an ereader or a phone capable of acting as an ereader and are interested in reading the story, you can always download the Amazon Kindle application for your desktop or laptop and read it from your computer.

Trial and Glory will also be available in print at Amazon for just $14.95. However, the link for the product has not gone live yet. I expect it to in the next couple of days.

Here is a brief synopsis of Trial and Glory (warning, contains some spoilers for Rise and Fall and Steel and Sorrow).

A warleader seeks redemption. A High Mage doubts his success. A commander faces his past. A queen hardens her resolve.

Tobin’s domination of Hesh has left him feeling empty, the cost of victory too high. A recurring nightmare drives him to learn the one truth that could ease his heart. Just when he thinks he may have found peace, an unlikely foe pushes him back into a life he wanted to avoid.

A High Mage is on the cusp of victory when a power he did not anticipate reveals itself. Rattled, his aggressive strategy changes to one of caution. He searches for a way to overcome the new threat while guarding himself against traitors among his would-be allies.

Kaz’s returned memories of wife and home are a mixed blessing. The memory that brings him the most joy causes pain to someone he cares for greatly while the memories of his brother only inspire hate. Before he can return home he must win a battle against insurmountable odds. More than ever, the support of the Hell Patrol will determine his success.

At the High Pass, Queen Elyse’s war-torn army faces a massive horde of invading warriors. In Lyrosene, her throne is threatened once again, but by someone she never suspected. The two conflicts consume her night and day as she wrestles with a solution to her problems.

Following the events of Steel and Sorrow, Trial and Glory is the third and final book in the Blood and Tears Trilogy.

To read an excerpt of Trial and Glory, click the “Sample” button below. However, I would warn you not to read a sample unless you’ve already read Rise and Fall and Steel and Sorrow as the sample does contain spoilers for the first two books.


If you enjoy the story or any of my other works, please consider leaving a rating or review at the site of purchase as well as other places such as Goodreads and Librarything. Like many other indie authors, I do not have a marketing team working for me and a positive review (even if only a couple of sentences long) can go a long way in enticing others to give my works a try.

You can also shoot me an email at joshuapsimon.author@gmail.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks!

The secret project I’ve been mentioning recently is out! Rise and Fall - Book One of the Blood and Tears Trilogy is now available as an audiobook through the following outlets!!
You should be able to listen to a small sample at each location.

Though you can purchase the book at any of the three locations above, I’d personally encourage you to get your copy through Audible.com. If you join the site, you will receive a deep discount on the list price. There are four different levels of membership based on how many audio books you plan to listen to on a monthly basis. The cheapest plan is $7.49 for the first three months (it increases to $14.95 a month after that). That means that if you plan to only buy Rise and Fall, you will only pay $7.49 for the audiobook. The membership may be canceled at any time. You can read about the membership details here.

Full disclosure: if you join Audible.com and if Rise and Fall is one of your first three purchases, as the author, I will earn a bonus (as long as you keep the membership for 61 days). So, it's a win-win situation for both of us!

Regardless of where you purchase the audiobook version of Rise and Fall, I do hope you give it a shot (even if it isn’t your normal way to enjoy fiction) as I’m very excited about the finished project. Jonathan Waters narrated and produced the book and did a great job bringing the characters and story to life.

If all goes well, Steel and Sorrow (Book 2) and Trial and Glory (Book 3) will also be released in audio form later this year.

As I’ve mentioned before with my previous releases, please leave a review at the place of purchase and spread the word to others. The best form of advertising for authors is through word of mouth and reviews act in this same way.

Thanks!