Grinding wheels in the mud

So I've been feeling stymied lately.

Not just that it's time and effort to find an agent.  I knew that.  I expected that, and I shall persevere.

No, it's that I had a great writing routine set up:  kids would go to bed, then I'd write for a couple of hours before bed. 

Then my middle son (almost 4 years old) decided to hate sleep.  I've been spending over an hour a night trying to put him to sleep...which makes me very tired as well.

On top of that, I have to get up very early for work.  This has combined to make me chronically tired.  I don't want to be tired, so I try to write...but I'm too tired to write, but I'm not asleep, so nothing good happens.

Fortunately, summer is on its way, and with it, freedom!

Thanks for reading.

If only...

You know what I wish?

I wish that I could write for a living.

I wish I could stay home and play with my kids, and then work when they're in bed, and never leave the house.

I wish that I could make my living in an industry that values creativity, originality, and imagination.

I wish I could inspire others to want this as well, just as I was inspired.

I wish that I could have the chance to reach an audience, and my career would live or die based on that audience's decision, rather than standardized tests or my failure to do paperwork.

I wish that I could help others do the same.

Fighting the battle, waging the war

So, here's the progress I've made so far:

I've submitted Chains of Prophecy to a few agents; I already got one rejection (hooray?).

I've finished my edit of The Ragged Man, and am changing the title to The Drifter as the first title was already taken by a best-selling novel.

I received back a critique of my query letter from a Writer's Digest Webinar; these things are awesome, and you get to keep the materials afterward.  I highly recommend that, if a webinar applies, you do it!  I'll be working on correcting my Drifter query letter today and finding new agents to submit it to.

I wrote a three-line pitch, or "elevator pitch" for Chains of Prophecy and used that to submit it into a savvyauthors.com pitch contest.   I like my chances with that three liner, and I'll post it here and on my website later.

I've gotten back into my third novel, and, once again, the events are surprising me.  I did not expect for the writing to take quite as dark of a turn as it has.  I like it :)

My Twittering is working - I'm over 470 followers in about a week of work, so that's pretty good.  Special thanks to all of you who may be reading this.  I appreciate the support!

I...think that's about everything.  I plan to be updating my website soon so check that out at www.jasonpatrickcrawford.com, and thanks for visiting!

A good review! The landslide begins! (I hope :)

About a week ago, I sent out the first draft of my new novel Chains of Prophecy to my alpha readers.  I got my first reply back today.  I quote:

"Couldn't put it down.  A real winner!"

I'll be speaking to this reader later to talk specific points of good and bad, of course, but the fact that I wrote something that someone couldn't put down just...made me all glowy inside.

What about you?  Have you ever made or created something that someone else found amazing?  I'm sure you have, so you know what I'm talking about.

I've already made a couple of edits to Chains of Prophecy, including fixing a really bad continuity error (note - if you ditched the car three scenes ago, don't let your protagonist drive off in it.  <.< >.>)  I think that this book is definitely better written than my first...which is no surprise since it's NOT my first :)

Also:  I have increased my Twitter following by 400% or so in less than 24 hours.  Of course, I was only starting at 18, so this is not as impressive as you might think, but I'm on my way to establishing my writing platform!

Everything's working out today!

(ducks as the other shoe drops)

Expanding Social Media Presence

So social media for writers has been described as "icing" or "gravy" compared to their writing.  I agree with this.  Writing is, of course, the most paramount skill for writers, much like surgical skills for surgeons or driving skills for race car drivers.  However, as someone who enjoys meat and potatoes and cake, I can tell you one thing:

I like my meat and potatoes with gravy, and I like my cake with icing.  Thank you very much.

To that end, I have undertaken a major expansion in my social media presence.  In the last 40 minutes, I have expanded my Twitter following by over 40% and made contact with other writers on their blogs.  This will be an ongoing effort and I will do my best to keep you all posted. 

In case you want to join the Crawford revolution, you can follow me on Twitter at @jnewmanwriting, and/or my facebook account at Jason Crawford.

Thanks for coming!

The second is better than the first!

My wife (one of my alpha readers) is currently looking over the first draft of Chains of Prophecy, the second novel I've completed.  She tells me that she likes the writing style and the technique used in the book much more than in my first novel, although she insists that she really likes the story of the first one, The Ragged Man.

I guess this is another example of practice making perfect, and supports what other authors say:  the more you write, the better you get at writing.

Keep on writing, and reading, and reading about writing or writing about reading!

And...we start with a setback.

So, I was looking to see if my new website had showed up on search engines yet (it hasn't) by typing in first my name and then the name of the first book I have put up there (unpublished as of yet):  The Ragged Man.

Turns out that The Ragged Man is the title of a very excellent book written by Tom Lloyd; you can find it here.  It's part of a series, and I very well might pick the whole thing up if I can get them on my Nook.

Anyway...

Curse you, Tom Lloyd, for getting to my title first, despite the fact that our books have nothing to do with each other!  Curse you!

*goes thinking about new titles, grumbling.*

We Begin!

Hello, fellow lovers of reading and writing!  This blog will be about my trials and travails as I attempt to become a bestselling author of fantasy and urban fantasy novels!

...Hey, at least no one ever said I was dreaming small ;)

Anyway, stay tuned for posts about ideas I have, progress I make and setbacks I suffer, and the random little things that inspire an author (like me!) to dive into yet another fictional world.

So, in the words of the late, great, Robert Jordan, as spoken by Ishamael the Forsaken: 

"I win again, Lews Therin."