A year later

So a year ago, I came back to Utah after a terrible internship experience, with no idea where I was going to live, how I was going to support myself, or what I was going to do with my life.  I was leaving the cloistered halls of academia and venturing for the first time out into the “real world.”

Now, a year later, I can honestly say that even though there have been ups and downs, overall it’s been a great experience.  I’ve learned a ton, both about myself and this “real world” business, and I’ve changed in some surprising ways.

How, you may ask?  Well, let’s see…

1) I never want to be salaried.

This was probably the most surprising thing I learned.  Even if my writing career never takes off, I would rather work for myself and own the value I create than work for someone else and have them own me. Even if it means not knowing where my next paycheck is coming from, I’d rather have the control, the independence, and the satisfaction of working for myself doing what I love.

Sometimes I wonder if we’ve unwittingly become a nation of wage slaves.  So many people work at jobs they hate, only to have the illusion of financial security.  Well, that’s not me, and it’s never going to be me.  I’d rather work for myself and love it than spend the rest of my life counting down the days to my next vacation, or the years to my retirement.  I’m a smart, resourceful guy; I’m sure I can figure things out.

Which brings me to the next point…

2) The idea of being an entrepreneur excites me.

Writing is not just an art, it’s a business, and the more I research the business aspect of it–or indeed, business in general–the more excited I’ve become.  Leaving academia has helped me get in touch with my entrepreneurial side, and surprisingly it’s a lot stronger than I’d thought it would be.

As a writer, I see myself as a self-employed small business owner who creates intellectual properties and licenses the rights to publishers, film makers, game designers, etc.  With ebooks, now I can sell my work directly to readers, and you have no idea how excited that makes me.  It’s not just because of all the hype surrounding Amanda Hocking or Joe Konrath–it goes much deeper into who I am.  All things being equal, I’d rather be an indie author because I see myself as an entrepreneur.

Those are probably the two biggest things I’ve learned.  I can probably summarize the others with a simple list:

  • It’s not possible to work two careers and focus all your effort on only one.  If you really want to be a writer, get a job, but focus on the writing.
  • Temp and part time jobs are much better for balancing creative pursuits, even though they offer less security (which may be an illusion anyway).
  • It takes a long time to naturally grow a blog readership, but once you hit a certain point, it grows very fast.  I assume it’s the same with books and stories.
  • Social media, when used correctly, can work magic.
  • Cheap/free headphones can sometimes work remarkably well.
  • Budgeting is not hard.  Neither are taxes (if you’re poor).
  • Never turn down a job because you think you might get a different one.
  • A creative career won’t give you security, but you can still make it work.

So, looking back, would I change anything?  Not really.  I kind of wish I’d applied earlier to teach English in Korea, but if I had, I’d have started in February, and I wouldn’t have been in a good position to take advantage of the ongoing ebook revolution.  In fact, I might not have even noticed it until I got back to the states.

My plans for now are to focus on my writing over the summer, leave in August to teach English abroad (probably in Korea, though I’m toying around with other places), spend a year or two traveling and earning money to live off of until the writing takes off.

And marriage and family…who knows?  That’s an adventure that still lies beyond my ability to foresee.  One thing is for sure, though; I’d better avoid getting trapped in any comfort zones if I want to make progress on that front.  In terms of work and career, the past year has definitely not been a comfort zone, but it’s also helped me to see what I want to do with my life–more than college, even.

The future is uncertain, but that’s what makes it so awesome.  Even if my writing career never gives me a “secure” source of income, I’m more confident now than ever that I can make it work.  Until then, I’ll be writing.

Good things are coming

…I can feel it.

I got my tax return today, and it was significantly more than I was expecting.  Between that and the money I’m getting from my current temp job, I may have enough to last through this month and the next.  The last time I took a month off to focus exclusively on the writing, I accomplished quite a lot; I’m hoping I can do that again.

My current job is a 40 hr/week data entry position at a local alarm company.  The work is kind of tedious, but I can read blogs and listen to my mp3 player while I do it, so it’s actually kind of nice.

The workplace is pretty laid back, the people are way cool, and the work looks to be steady at least for the next few weeks.  A 20 hour or 30 hour job would probably be more conducive to writing, but for a short term gig this is pretty good.

Also, I’m seriously considering releasing Genesis Earth as an indie ebook if it doesn’t make the next cut in the ABNA contest.  Recent developments in the publishing industry make me think that this might be a better path to go with my career.

In February of 2011, ebooks surpassed all other trade categories (hardback, mass market, etc), taking ~30% of the market.  Just a couple of months before that, ebooks were around 8%.  At the same time, Kris Rusch has evidence that traditional publishers may be under-reporting ebook revenues (and underpaying authors) by as much as 90%.  I can’t go the traditional route without giving up my ebook rights, and with the current climate and royalty rates (14.9% of cover price for the (indefinite?) life of the ebook), that’s looking like a worse business decision every day.

So here is what I’m thinking of releasing, in the order (more or less) of when I plan to release them:

Journey to Jordan: Basically, a combination of blog posts and private journal entries from my experiences in Jordan.  It’s non-fiction, not a novel, but I think it’s the best project to practice on (probably because it will require the most formatting work).  Besides, I put a lot of myself into it, and it deserve to find an audience.

Genesis Earth: This is a full length novel, and has received a lot of positive feedback from friends, reviewers, and people who’ve picked up the free excerpt from the ABNA contest.  If it doesn’t make the semi finals, or (better) if it makes the semi finals but doesn’t win the grand prize, I’m seriously considering releasing it as an ebook.  It would certainly be a leap, but honestly, what have I got to lose?

Sholpan: This is a novella based on Stella’s story from my novel, Bringing Stella Home.  I haven’t shopped BSH around the traditional markets much yet, and I think it could find a home there, which would certainly give my career a terrific launch.  At this point, I’m looking to build my career more than earn a living, so I probably won’t release BSH until after I’ve shopped it around…but Sholpan, I think, would be a good way to test the waters and build things on the indie front.

Bringing Stella Home: At the same time, if Sholpan does well, and things start to take off in a surprising way, I’d seriously consider releasing Bringing Stella Home as an ebook.  I don’t anticipate releasing it any earlier than August or September, but you never know.  Also, this one has an advantage in that it’s part of a series; Genesis Earth is just book one of an unfinished trilogy.

So far, my short stories aren’t doing spectacularly well, but that’s okay–my goal with them was mainly to get some practice, not to make a ton of sales.  And even so, they are selling at a modest rate, though it’s too early to notice any definite patterns.

I’m curious, though, because it seems that readers are drawn more to novels and full-length books than short stories.  Will things be different when I release a few novels?  There’s only one way to find out.

Overall, though, this is very exciting.  As Kris Rusch says, I’ve got nothing to lose, and everything to gain.  I definitely feel that good things are coming my way.

From the Ice Incarnate is now available from Amazon

My third indie published short story, “From the Ice Incarnate,” is now available for $.99 on Amazon.  You can read it on the Kindle, of course, but if you don’t have one then Amazon  has free plugins for just about every device imaginable.

If you haven’t read any of my other stories yet, I would recommend starting with this one.  It won first place in the 2009 Mayhew Short Story contest at BYU, and is probably one of the better pieces of my writing.  It’s also taken from a scene in my novel Genesis Earth, which is currently a quarter finalist for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.

I’ve also reformatted both of my other stories, “Memoirs of a Snowflake” and “Decision LZ1527,” improving the covers and making them look more professional overall.  I also redid the cover for “Decision LZ1527,” changing the font and enlarging the image to make it look crisper.

I’ve already blogged pretty extensively about the epublishing process in the last post, but I’ll say something about it here.  Putting stuff up on Amazon is not that hard, but making it look professional can be a little tricky.  In the future, I think I’m going to use the process outlined below:

Step One: Write the book in Open Office.  Save manuscript as an open document text.

Step Two: Using Open Office, set the font to Times New Roman size 12, bold titles and chapter headings, replace underlining with italics, spacing to 1.5 lines, add in special characters for scene breaks (if needed), etc.  Save as an html file.

Step Three: Using The Gimp, create a cover image and export as a 600×900 jpeg.

Step Four: Using a WYSIWYG html editor, adjust formatting as needed, add anchor tags for the table of contents (if needed), etc.  Save as html.

Step Five: Using an ebook creator program such as Mobipocket, combine finalized html file with cover image and all other interior content.  Edit metadata, create table of contents (if needed), etc.  Export as .prc or epub.

That’s basically the process I used for “From the Ice Incarnate,” except I uploaded the .doc file straight to Amazon and then downloaded their html conversion of it.  Kind of an ad hoc way of doing things, but hey it worked.

This will probably be my last short story for a while.  My reason for putting them out was mostly to learn on them, and I have learned a TON.

My next epublishing project will probably be a full length book, either one of my novels, or an ebook combining my blogs and journals from the summer of 2008, when I went on the BYU Jordan study abroad.  I want to figure out how to do a table of contents and add interior images, and that seems like the best project to learn it on.  Plus, I’ve always wanted to turn that material into a book.

That probably won’t come out for a while, though.  In the meantime, feel free to check out my other stories!  I hope you enjoy them; I appreciate everyone who reads my work, and do my best to write stories that are worth reading.  And if  you feel so inclined, post a review or blog about it.  Every little bit helps!

A word about ebook formatting

So it turns out that ebook formatting is a lot harder than I’d thought. I was hoping to finish chapter 13 in ITND tonight, but I’ve spent the whole #$@! time just trying to get “From the Ice Incarnate” up on Amazon.

Fortunately, I think I have a much better idea of what I’m doing now.

For “Memoirs of a Snowflake” and “Decision LZ1527,” I just uploaded the .doc file and had Amazon reformat it automatically.  The stories were short and simple enough that it worked rather well.

Then I decided I wanted to put the cover in the body of the ebook, and foolishly thought I’d just put it on the first page of the .doc file I was uploading.  Long story short, I discovered that that’s not a good idea–the ereader doesn’t read it as a cover, and it looks like crap.

Also, I discovered that the ideal size for an ebook cover is 600×900 pixels (for a standard 2:3 aspect ratio).  From now on, all the covers I upload will be 600×900.

So then, when I uploaded “From the Ice Incarnate,” I kept noticing these weird indenting problems in the preview.  No matter what I did to change the .doc file, it wouldn’t go away.  Out of frustration, I downloaded the html file that Amazon had formatted it into and noticed these weird <div> tags popping up on short, one line paragraphs where they should have been <p> tags.  Don’t ask me how they got there, but they were a pain to fix.

So then, I tried uploading the modified html file, and found to my great joy that the problem had been fixed.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t see any way to put in the cover–and the cover for “From the Ice Incarnate” is REALLY awesome.

Frustrated but undaunted, I turned to Mobipocket Creator, an open source ebook creating program.  I’d tried playing with it before, but found it complicated and confusing.  Well, now that I knew what I wanted it to do, it wasn’t hard at all to figure out how to make it work.

First, I created a new project in its own designated folder.  Then, I added the corrected html file to the “publication files” page.  Where it asked for a cover image, I uploaded the 600×900 jpeg (I do all my editting in The Gimp, in a much larger .xcf file).  Then, I filled in the metadata, such as book description, suggested cover price, etc.

When I was finished, I hit “build,” and voila!  A slick looking .prc ebook file that looked EXACTLY how I wanted it to.

I uploaded it to Amazon, and it looked great in the preview.  I’m not sure what it’ll look like in the finished product  yet, since it takes 24 hours to upload, but I fixed “Decision LZ1527” as well.  Once I knew what I was doing, it took maybe five minutes to create the ebook on Mobipocket Creator.

So here’s what I’m going to do from now on.  I’m going to bypass the whole .doc thing altogether (since I use Open Office, not MS Word) and go straight from .odt to .html using a WYSIWYG html editor.  For the cover, I’ll use The Gimp, with the project files as .xcf and the finished images as 600×900 .jpegs.  I’ll combine it all in Mobipocket Creator, and upload the .prc ebook file to Amazon / Pubit / Smashwords / wherever.

Sound daunting? (Charlie, I’m talking to you, hehe)  It’s actually a TON of fun, once you get the hang of it.  And let me tell you, when I saw the finished product, it was awesome.  Totally worth it.

Trouble is, I haven’t had any time to work on my novel, which is frustrating, because I’m working an 8 to 5 job now.  It’s temporary, which is nice for a full time artist/creator like me, but man, I’m going to miss all the free time I used to have.  I want to finish ITND before the end of the month, but I’ve still got a long ways to go.

In the meantime, let me give you a sneak peek on my next ebook.  It’s a short story based on an excerpt from Genesis Earth, which won first place in the 2009 Mayhew short story contest at BYU.  Of the stuff I’ve posted up to Amazon so far, I think this one is far and away the best.

Here’s the cover:

Pretty cool, eh?  I ripped the font from Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri.  The image is from NASA, taken by the Hubble space telescope.

So anyways, that’s what’s going on with my ebook venture.  I’m kind of glad I haven’t done much to publicize the other stories, because they need a lot of work.  If you bought one already, don’t worry; the stories haven’t changed at all, just the formatting.  I’m not sure if you can re-download those once you’ve bought them, but if you want one of the new ones, let me know and I’ll figure it out.

And if I’m missing something in terms of html or ebook formatting, please let me know.  I’m not quite hopeless, but I’m still horribly ignorant when it comes to this kind of stuff.  Any suggestions (especially for a good WYSIWYG editor) would me much appreciated.

Just another update

A few updates, in case you’re interested in what’s going on with me:

I’m getting ready to post a new story to Amazon.  This is going to be the one that won first place in the 2009 Mayhew short story contest at BYU.  It’s also an excerpt for Genesis Earth, which is currently in the quarter finals for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.  More news on that as it comes out.

Into the Nebulous Deep is coming along.  Surprisingly, the rough draft follows a very tight, coherent plot structure.  At this stage, every other novel I’ve written is usually all over the place.  This one looks like it’s going to be twenty chapters, with four parts of five chapters each.

Right now, I’m in the middle of chapter 13.  I was hoping to finish it this week, but my sister was in town this weekend, so I spent most of my time with her instead.  Not that that’s a problem; I can probably catch up tomorrow.  I’m hoping to finish part III before the end of next week.

It’s going to be tough, though, because I’m starting a new temp job on Monday.  It’s 40 hours per week at $9, which is pretty sweet, especially since my tax return is basically going to cover all my expenses this month.  Hooray for cheap Utah summers!  The full time work is going to be tough on the writing, though.

Which brings me to my last update: the guys at Pioneer Book called me back today and set up a job interview on Tuesday!  Hooray!  I’m totally stoked–this bookstore job would be awesome.  I might even postpone my TEFL plans for a while if I get the job.  It probably won’t be full time or pay much more than minimum wage, but dude, it’s a bookstore. Plus, part time work is perfect for writing.  As long as I have enough to get by, I’ll be happy.

And to close, let me leave you with this awesome trailer my brother in law shared with me.  I haven’t seen this movie, but it looks absolutely freaking awesome–like the kind of film my old roommate Steve Dethloff would make.

Man, Steve and I would make an awesome duo in a post-apocalyptic world. I should move to Dallas just so we can be ready to team up when it happens. If they made a movie of our exploits together, it would totally be just like this. Lost Vegas…

Steve, if you’re reading this, I want you to know that there’s no one I’d rather be killing zombies with than you.

The Obligatory After-Conference Marriage Post

So in case you didn’t know, General Conference was this past weekend.  General Conference is this huge semi- annual conference broadcast live from Salt Lake City, where the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ talk on a number of topics and issues relevant to the church.  This year, one of the main recurring themes was the need for young singles, especially men, to get married and settle down.

In a church where the holiest sacrament is temple marriage, where husband, wife, and children are considered sealed to each other “for time and all eternity,” this emphasis on marriage shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.  To be honest, I was more amused than anything; just a couple days before, I’d posted a comment on my sister’s blog mentioning how apathetic I am right now about dating and getting married.  Youch.

So anyhow, with my whole family nagging me about this–all of whom are married or engaged, by the way–I suppose I ought to give my thoughts on the subject.

This week’s Writing Excuses podcast was on writing romance, and while I found it extremely helpful in my own writing, I also found the points interesting as a young single adult.  According to Sarah Eden, a regency romance writer who was a guest in this episode, in order for a romance in a book to work, the characters must:

1) fulfill a need in each other,
2) create a relationship that has emotional resonance, and
3) be something for each other that no-one else can be.

Probably the biggest reason I’m not married right now (foregoing the whole “haven’t met the right person yet” question, which is valid) is because I just don’t feel like I have a need that isn’t being fulfilled.  That probably means I’m in a comfort zone, which is a bad thing, but that’s the truth.

It’s not that I’m not attracted to a fair number of women, because I definitely am.  It’s just that for most of the women in my life right now, when I ask myself “do I have a real, hungering need for her companionship?” the answer is “no.”

There have been a couple of times in my life where that wasn’t the case–where I felt infatuated with a girl and really, honestly felt that she was or could be something that no one else could be.  Long story short, for various reasons (some of which I still don’t understand), it never worked out.  Sometimes it was me, sometimes it was her, and now most of my old crushes are happily married…to other people.

And as for why I’m not looking more actively, I could go on a(nother) long rant about why the Utah dating scene really, really sucks for a person like me (doesn’t fit the cookie cutter mold, doesn’t have a secure financial future, isn’t ridiculously attractive, etc etc), but all that is beside the point.

I’ve never really seen the point in dating as a way to get to know people, since first dates are generally awkward and fake, but I’m also really bad at transitioning from friendship to something more than that. So in other words, the advice “go on more dates” helps me about as much as telling someone with clinical depression that they should just “be happy.”

Not that I’m depressed because I’m single.  I’m actually okay with it.  The thing I’m wondering, though, is whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing?

I should probably force myself to go out more often, or to at least try to connect with more eligible young women and make them a part of my life somehow.  And maybe another problem is that I’ve never really seen myself as a married person–though I doubt it, because most of my married friends have jumped into it without really knowing what life is like on the other side.

But the point is, I need to take some time and figure out how to make getting married a priority.  And really, that’s the only thing I can say for sure.

Q1 report, 2011

So in terms of writing, this was a pretty decent quarter.  Nothing too prolific, but definitely making progress on my writing goals for 2011, which include:

1) finish at least two polished novels,
2) finish at least three new rough drafts,
3) start at least four major new projects.

The spike in the graph from the beginning of the month is from the final revision of Bringing Stella Home, which was pretty much just a final polish.  After that was finished, I had a little difficulty picking up the next project, but once I did, I was able to be pretty consistent.

In mid-January, I picked up Worlds Away from Home and worked on that until the beginning of March.  This was a pretty huge overhaul, especially for the end, but it still needs a lot of work.  Basically, this draft was just to get it to the point where I could send it out to my first readers without being eternally ashamed.

After finishing WAFH 2.1 in the beginning of March, I launched right back into the sequel for BSH, Into the Nebulous Deep.  I figured it would be good to have the sequel in hand, in case I decided to go indie with BSH, as well as to practice writing sequels.

All throughout March, the writing was surprisingly steady, but recently things have kind of gone off kilter.  Maybe it’s all the increased distractions (job interviews, EPIK application, the TEFL course, other random crap), or maybe it’s just that I’ve become less disciplined, but I don’t feel like I’ve been writing very consistently in the last little while.  And the graph doesn’t really show that, because I recently started a few other projects which have sort of taken the place of ITND.

The first of these is currently untitled, but it takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of our world which I’ve code named “The Blight.” I don’t want to say much about it, but it’s REALLY REALLY REALLY cool…trust me.  Think lone man, wandering the ruins of civilization two hundred years after its fall, trying to make a life for himself when everyone else around him dies at a ridiculously early age because of this blight that has swept across all of humanity.

I’m having a TON of fun building this world, and the story is practically writing itself.  In the interest of finishing what I start, though, I’m going to sideline it until ITND is completely finished (which should be by the end of April, inshallah…).

The other project is a novella version of BSH, basically taking just Stella’s viewpoints and telling the story of her capture and eventual ascension to the Hameji throne.  This project shouldn’t be too hard–basically, I’m just frankensteining it from BSH, with a few tweaks.  My main reason for writing it is to have a novella-length work that I can release as an ebook, possibly to generate interest in Bringing Stella Home.

Speaking of which, in March I released a couple of short stories as ebooks on Amazon.  It’s a little early to gauge how well they’re doing, but I’m learning a lot from the experience, and the sales are gradually trickling in.  Once I release a few more works and start promoting them, I expect the sales will grow.

So in the last three months, I’ve finished one polished novel (Bringing Stella Home), started two new projects (Sholpan and untitled (the blight)), and made progress on polishing Worlds Away from Home. I wrote / revised through 170k words, about 30k to 50k of which were all new material.  I also ventured into indie publishing and released two short stories on Amazon, which are earning me a buck or two each week.

Overall, it hasn’t been as prolific as other quarters, but it’s not been too bad either.  Now to finish ITND and make some progress on that freaking nashostomo…

Decision LZ1527 is now live

My second indie published short story, “Decision LZ1527,” is now available for $.99 from Amazon.  This is the same story that was published in the December 2009 issue of Leading Edge.  I’ve also included a short author’s note at the end, explaining the writing process from idea to publication.

As with “Memoirs of a Snowflake,” the epublishing process wasn’t that complicated.  The story was short enough that I didn’t feel a need for a table of contents, and Amazon reformatted the uploaded .doc file without any problems.

The biggest difference with this one was that I contacted the artist from the December issue and bought the rights to use the art.  It cost a bit, but not much more than what Leading Edge paid for the story, so overall I haven’t taken much of a loss.

I wrote “Decision LZ1527” back in 2006, when I was a sophomore in college trying to navigate the bizarre dating world of BYU.  It’s about a boy trying to find the courage to ask out his secret crush, as told from the point of view of the little men inside his head, piloting him like some kind of spaceship.

So yeah, I hope you check it out and enjoy it!  If you don’t have a Kindle, Amazon has a number of free apps that will allow you to read it on just about any platform (including your computer).  And if you haven’t already picked up “Memoirs of a Snowflake,” you can get it for $.99 too.

I’ll do an update in a week or two about my indie publishing venture, but so far it’s been pretty fun!  Hopefully, by putting out these stories, I’ll be able to share them with more people than would have read them otherwise.  So thanks, and I hope you enjoy!

NaShoStoMo

So Dan Wells is taking a page from NaNoWriMo and starting his own writing thing for April, NaShoStoMo, aka National Short Story Month.  The rules are as follows:

  • You must write 30 all new short stories between April 1st and April 30th.
  • Each story must have a distinct beginning, middle, and end.
  • Each story must be at least 200 words.
  • You may write more than one story per day to make up for lost days.

It seems like an awesome idea, and I’m going to try it.  I’m not much of a short story writer, but I wish I were, because there are some really awesome short stories out there that I admire–like Endosymbiont, quite possibly the best singularity story that I have ever read (and available for free from Escape Pod).  Novels and short stories are different arts, but they’re both forms of storytelling, so I figure that no matter what happens I’ll learn something from it.

I’m not sure how many of these stories will take place in universes that I’ve already built, but probably a good number of them will.  I have a few characters from Bringing Stella Home that I would like to do little sketches on, possibly for a later novel, and some things I’d like to do in the worlds I’ve already created.

At the same time, though, I’ve got some crazy ideas for standalone stuff that I’d like to play with, like a crazy awesome dream I had last night that made me  lie awake just thinking about it for almost an hour.  It was insane...but I guess you had to be there.

In unrelated news, my writer friend Charlie got me a thing of sparkling grape juice, for me to open when I celebrate my first major publishing deal (though I suspect another motivation was to make me look like a wino while walking around on BYU campus).

Honestly, I was quite surprised–thanks!  I’ll use it to christen my first yacht that I buy from my multimillion dollar first deal, hehe.

Oh, and in other totally unrelated news, my other writer friend Laura started a blog.  So go check it out!

ABNA reviews of Genesis Earth

Today I checked up on my entry for the 2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award contest, and saw that it garnered a couple of very encouraging reviews!

Here’s the first one:

ABNA Expert Reviewer

What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?

I enjoyed the background of this excerpt immensely. The futuristic technology like images projected onto walls, transparent floors, milky skies, cryofreeze.

What aspect needs the most work?

I would avoid using the term “ground zero” as it has such a close association with 9/11.

The idea of generating a wormhole was popularized with Star Trek’s Deep Space 9 series, so this is not an entirely original idea. What is going to set this book apart from existing media on this idea?

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?

This is a strong piece of work. Nicely edited. While the idea of going through a wormhole to explore new worlds is not an original idea, I am curious what this young explorer will find out there? And what will he find within himself and his co-explorer when they wake from cryofreeze? There is potential here.

Not bad!  I’m glad to see the reviewer feels that the story is well edited–I certainly spent a lot of time revising it, and it looks like that’s paid off.  As for the criticism about the wormhole, I’m not too worried about that, since it’s more background information for the story than a central element in the story itself.

Here’s the second one:

ABNA Expert Reviewer

What is the strongest aspect of this excerpt?

The idea of space travel and finding a ‘new Earth’ isn’t a new one. For years Sci-Fi authors have written about the non-sustainability of our planet, of the melting ice caps, the over population and crowding. This author has taken that concept and twisted it into something more unique and young. Our hero is a 17 year old who went on to school at 14 to become a Planetologist. You see his family and friends live in deep space, they’re trying to create an artificial worm hole and find a new Earth. The younger take on how Michael feels trapped both by his parents and the ghost of Earth is fantastic. I love the author’s voice through Michael on deep space, cryogenics and alien life form.

What aspect needs the most work?

The one thing to me that stood out was that it seemed rushed. I think the author knew this and that was why the author even addressed it in the excerpt through Michael and his mentor as he prepares to leave. They just found the other side of the worm hole, there might be alien life, and they send two people within a couple days into the wormhole, knowing they won’t be back for 80 years. I just wish there was a more valid reason then Earth people (who are light years away) would try to send the military first. There has to be away of not making it seem so pushed and rushed.

What is your overall opinion of this excerpt?

Overall this story got me; I really want to know when the full book comes out (or if it’s already out) and read the rest. What about Terra who has a slight sway to schizophrenia? Or the fact that 80 years is a long time and anything can happen, will there be alien life? Is it just another dimension and time? The hook was there and reeling me in trying to get me to keep turning the pages, long past the last word of the excerpt.

Wow, what a nice review!  I was especially surprised to see this person wondering when the full book is coming out.  I don’t have a deal for it (yet), but hopefully, it won’t be long.  Also, it’s good to see that someone really enjoyed the narrator’s voice.  Young Adult can be hard, not just from an artistic perspective but because of so many differing editorial opinions on what a “YA voice” is supposed to feel like.  Good to see that someone thought I got it right.

As for the criticism, I can definitely see how it’s valid.  Part of the reason for rushing Michael and Terra out so fast is to set things up for the sequel, but I suppose I could have them wait a few months before launching the mission.  I thought that’s what I’d done, but I suppose I need to make it more clear.

If you would like to read the 3,000 word excerpt for Genesis Earth, you can download it for free here.  You might need to download some software from Amazon if you don’t have an ereader, but it shouldn’t be too hard.  Their Kindle for PC program is free, so I just use that.

So yeah, check it out.  I hope you enjoy it!