The Quest is Published
The editing process is complete and the book is now available for purchase on Amazon. My links page has been updated to easily take you there. I also ordered a box to sign and sell at a discounted price. I have a couple book signings coming up and will post the details when all of the details are ironed out. Thank you to all of the Beta readers and their comments. They improved the book and I am grateful for each of you that took the time to give me feedback.
The Quest is Finished (Rough Draft)
The story is complete. I finished the rough draft and was surprised that I followed my outline as well as I did. I deviated a few places but for the most part the story is just like I drew it up. All of the characters made their appearance and performed their tasks now I get to add some depth to each one in the next draft. The imagery is sparse and will need some growth to paint a better picture in the reader’s mind. Imagery is always tough for me. I see the story in my head but putting that image in the reader’s only using words is always a challenge. Some believe that Tolkien did it best. I believe he overdid it best. Reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit was almost mind numbing in the details. This story won’t have that problem.
I have experimented with my writing process over the past few years and have settled into a style I’m comfortable with. The last two stories I have written I begin with a run on sentence outline telling the story from beginning to end. Then I write the skeleton which accomplished everything in the outline but without much detail. It gets you from point a to point b without stopping to take pictures and visit the historical monuments. If this stage of the story were a road trip it would be bathroom breaks and gas stops only. The next step I get the characters talking more. Their dialog fills in the missing backstories and adds some emotion. At this point I usually read the draft and think “How Boring” and begin to go through and add more conflict and action. I try to give the road trip some twist and turns. Then finally the road trip gets on a tour bus and the imagery gets written. The characters get to look out the windows and marvel at the scenery.
The Search for the Butterfly Queen
I am now going to try my hand at Youth Fantasy with my new story titled The Search for the Butterfly Queen (a working title). My first book was a science fiction novel that had time travel, multiple dimension, aliens, characters intentionally trying to create a paradox, space travel and religious morality. It was fun for me to write and hopefully a good read for you.
My second book was full on space battle with good verses evil. It had many more characters that were developed further than my first novel. It had parallel story lines that told the story from different perspectives making the book more interesting to read. It had originality in the space battle themselves as combat wasn’t just firing rockets and lasers at each other. There was actual strategy involved that invested the reader in the story.
The Search for the Butterfly Queen is more simplistic. It has one plot thread that follows the princess throughout the story. The princess had a spell cast on her at birth and she can’t smell flowers or see their pretty colors. She has a simple quest to find the Butterfly Queen who can break the spell that has been placed on her. Her journey takes her all over the kingdom where she meets many interesting characters that help her find the castle of butterflies. I am writing this book as a fairy tale fantasy adventure targeted for the young children to grade school genre. I am writing this story for most of my ten grandchildren. All of them play a character in the story along with some adults I know.
Follow along as I give more insights as I write this story.
The New Novel is Out. The IWS QavWan
A few months ago I published my new science fiction novel titled The IWS QavWan. When writing this novel I took a different approach. I wrote all of the action scenes first then wrote the dialog second that tied everything together. This was my first novel to be started but my second to be finished and I really didn’t know how to write effectively. That being said this method did work for this story. The IWS QavWan novel has many more characters and parallel plot lines than my first novel World in a Bottle. When I review World in a Bottle it feels rushed to me. The editing was rushed and it shows. Writing the IWS QavWan spanned a few years. I completed it then completely rewrote all of the characters and some of the plot. Then I did it again. I wanted it to be as good as I knew it could be. When I wrote World in a Bottle I was focused on telling a good story with plot concepts that were 100% original. It is a good story but in my eagerness to get it published the editing was not as good as it should have been. I tried not make that same mistake with QavWan. I have been told by friends and family that read both books that the QavWan is a better book even though it is a space battle story that has been done many times. I do like to think I put some original twists into the battles but at the end of the day the plot is not as original as World in a Bottle. That being said I believe the QavWan novel is a better read than most sci fi novels I have read in the past. It is my hope that you the reader will obtain a copy and let me know if I’m right.
New Novel Almost Ready
After I rewrote the novel, I had some personal issues with my health, so the manuscript has sat dormant for a couple of years. Now I have once again turned my easily distracted attention to the words resting in digital limbo and started typing the things the voices in my head say.
The Cultivation of the Human Alliance is almost ready to begin formatting for publishing. It is a science fiction novel about an old warship and space battles. It is about the injustice of having something done to you and forever being treated as untrustworthy by those around you. It is a story about doing the right thing to help those who imprison you even when they don’t want your help and will die without it.
To read about the character races in the novel check out the page titled “Cultivation of the Human Alliance Novel” a few pages to the right.
A New Book by a Close Friend
I have known Jeremy for a long time and am very proud that he chose to write his story. The link to his webite is Jeremy David Williams. Take a look and buy his book when it comes out. I had the honor of being a beta reader for the novel and now it’s complete. Most stories deal with good vs evil but what happens when good vs good? The fate of two civilizations hang in the balance. What would you do to save your people? Check out the website and the book. If you are a fan of science fiction, you won’t be disappointed.
Another Book is Written
This afternoon I finished the re-write of The Cultivation of the Earth Alliance and changed its status from Rough Draft to First Draft. In the next couple weeks I will go through the book from start to finish and look for the little things I missed the last time through. Then I will unclip it’s leash and let it run wild in the yards of my Beta readers for awhile. Hopefully they will groom it, feed it, talk to it, train it not to bite, and maybe even eventually learn to like it, and when it comes back home it will be better and more civilized. House trained would be too much to ask. After all it’s an outside book not quite domesticated. (All of the dog references are for the benefit of my friend and fellow author Admiral Williams.)
The Light at the End of the Black Hole
Once upon a time I wrote a fan fiction manuscript based in the Star Trek universe. It referenced a couple of starships and some characters from that universe, but it was original EXCEPT for the names and characteristics of the races. The Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Borg, etc… were an integral part of the story and therefore subject to the copywrites held by Paramount and Sony. I tried to publish the story only to be told that if Paramount and Sony wanted a Star Trek story, they would hire a writer to write one. Literary agents treated it like it was for sale on the Ferengi black market and wouldn’t even glance in its general direction.
A month ago I decided that I had put too much time and effort into this story only to see it collect digital dust inside of my computer, so I began to re-write it and purge all things Star Trek from it. After having watched Star Trek Discovery and heard rumors about what Star Trek Picard was like it seemed like a suitable time to distance my story from that franchise. The writing and concepts on Discovery looked like they came straight from a Pak’led’s brain. The Mushroom Drive was either genius or a pile of Spoo (shameless Babylon 5 reference). I lean toward Spoo on that one.
After a month of editing and changing the names to avoid another Axanar Incident the end is finally in sight. I am a big Star Trek fan and had hoped my story would have contributed to the enrichment of that universe, but alas it is not to be. Instead, like a branch in the road of quantum physics a new universe is born where the Unified Cooperative is watch and waiting.
The Cultivation of the Earth Alliance is almost ready for Beta reading.
The New Story
The new novel “Cultivation of the Human Alliance” is in its first draft. This story is a space battle between the Human Alliance and the Unified Cooperative with some back story battles between the Mongloxtan Union and the Traxlon Commonwealth. It has action and strategy story lines. I will be looking for beta readers about the end of July. If any one is interested please send me a message.
New Website Pages
This afternoon I added a couple pages to the website. I added a Blog page for news items related to World in a Bottle. I will be working on getting that information removed from the Home page and put into its proper location.
The second page I added I am very excited about. It is a page dedicated to my next novel Cultivation of the Human Alliance (a working title at this point). It is a story I finished last year that was fan fiction that took place in someone else’s sandbox. Since I did not own the rights to play in that sandbox, and publish my work I am going to pick up my toys and go home. The story will remain the same but the names and places will change to satisfy the attorneys. Since I made up most of the names and details this won’t be an impossible task. I just have to write more backstory that isn’t already a part of our culture.
The World of Earl Dean Spires 