Author: ChanAtkins

Interview With Author Alec John Belle

~ ChanAtkins ~ 1 Comment

Welcome to my second author-to-author interview. This time I am really excited to introduce a great new talent. Alec John Belle is only seventeen years old and already has two novels, Before I Break and Forbidden Darkness under his belt. I came across Alec on Facebook and liked the sound of Before I Break, which is a novel dealing with homophobia among teenagers, as well as issues such as self-harm and suicide. I decided to check it out and was suitably impressed. Alec has self-published both his books, but has just recently been snapped up by a small press. Personally I think if Alec can write this well at only seventeen, he is definitely an author worth watching! Over to Alec.

1)      How old were you when you first started writing?

I was in fifth grade when I first started writing.  I was obsessed with the Goosebumps books by R.L. Stine and one day in class we had a free write, where we could write about anything we wanted.  I decided to write a horror short story about a kid who goes to see a fortune teller who makes all his wishes come true.  My teacher was shocked at how well it was written for a 10 year old, so she asked me to write more.  That year I won a writing award for school for another story I’d written about a human who woke up to realize they were an alien.  It was then that I knew I wanted to be a writer.

2)      How would you describe your work?

The best way to describe my work would be “gritty and raw”.  My first book, Before I Break, explored topics such as bullying, discrimination, LGBT teens, self harm, suicide, and a few others that would be spoilers.  It really was a lot to write, and sometimes even I had to take breaks because it was too much to take in.

My new series, in the paranormal YA genre, called The Forbidden Darkness Chronicles, follows similar topics.  It’s about a girl who discovers she is a Monster Hunter one year after her best friend’s attempted suicide.  In the series, there’s a physical entity called Darkness that feeds off of negative emotions, such as depression, anxietym bipolar, etc.  That’s what makes the Darkness strong.  Once again, with a less realistic approach, there are still real world topics that make it fall under “gritty and raw”.

3)      What is your writing process/routine?

This may sound weird, but I actually don’t have one. For me, it’s just whenever I get the urge.  I may go a week without writing, then one day feel the push.  People think that actually means it takes me longer to write a book, but when I do write, I make up fot missing days.  I can write the first draft somewhere between 1-3 months.

Also, I’m a night owl.  So all of my good writing is done at night.

4)      What are you working on right now?

Both of my books, Before I Break and Forbidden Darkness  (the first in my new series), are being reprinted under the publishing house, Booktrope.  While going through that process, I am working on the second book in The Forbidden Darkness Chronicles, titled Shadow’s Wings.

5)      What else have you got planned for the future?

The Forbidden Darkness Chronicles will have 8 books, plus some short stories in between I hope.  I also am hoping to make Before I Break a trilogy.  The second Before I Break novel, titled Once I Fall, is kind of on the back burner for now, but I’ll get back to it eventually.

6)      What is your approach to self-promotion?

Self-promotion is the hardest part about being a writer.  For me, I just post on social media about my books ALL the time, especially my WordPress site.  It’s helped bring in some new readers.

7)      Where do you get your ideas from?

My ideas are usually pretty random.  I got the idea for The Forbidden Darkness Chronicles in 7th grade when I was on a Hayride at a Halloween event.  That idea sat in my head for years, which created a story that now needs 8 books.

Before I Break came to me one day when sitting in Spanish class when I went to public school.  Suddenly, a question popped into my mind: “What if a homophobic straight male became friends with another guy without knowing the other guy was gay?”  Then next thing you know, the whole story just flooded into my head, including the ending.  I knew exactly what would happen at the end by the time class was over.

8)      What would be your advice be to other young writers?

My advice, as cliche as it may sound, is to keep writing.  Write your heart out.  Think your idea is stupid?  Write it.  Think your idea isn’t good enough? Write it.  Think it’s too controversial?  Guess what?  Write it.  Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t write. If I did, Before I Break and Forbidden Darkness wouldn’t be Amazon Bestsellers.

9)      What advice would you give to a writer embarking on the independent path?

It’s difficult.  It took months for Before I Break to hit the Bestseller list on Amazon.  You also won’t make the New York Times Bestseller List.  But you will build a fan base.  It won’t come overnight and you’ll need to try and try and try and try before you start selling even one book a day, but it’s so worth it.  Trust me.

10)   Can you describe your highs and low so far?

The highs have included a few.  The first high was getting my book published.  Before I Break came in the mail and it was so overwhelming.  Same with Forbidden Darkness.  Another high was making the Amazon Bestseller List.  I cried when that happened because it was so overwhelming, and while some say the Amazon Bestseller List means nothing, it does.  I also love book signings and being able to meet new readers and talk about some of these issues.  It gives me great joy being a figure some people look up to.

The only real low is not many sales.  As an indie author, the sales haven’t been that great, but they’ve been alright.  Self-promotion is difficult.  I just hope that with my books being reprinted under Booktrope, my sales will start to get better.

You can connect with Alec on Facebook; http://www.facebook.com/alecbellefanpage

or follow his blog here; http://alecjohnbelle.wordpress.com/

Find my previous author-to-author interview with Kate Rigby here; https://chantelleatkins.wordpress.com/2015/02/11/interview-with-author-kate-rigby/

Top Tips Tuesday; Editing

~ ChanAtkins ~ 4 Comments

In an ideal world us independent authors would all be able to afford an editor. And ideally of course, we all should employ an editor. But there is no way in this world that I can afford an editor, so I have had to employ other means to get my books to the best possible standard for publication. These are my top tips for editing the hell out of your book without paying for it.

1) First write your book. Write it like no one is watching and no one is ever going to read it. You can edit as you go if you like, but personally I don’t. I just get it all out. It’s one big messy splurge. It’s up and out and done. Then, breathe.

2) Go back to the beginning and do your first edit. Wherever possible amend your grammar, spellings and so on. This time you can imagine that a really good friend is going to read this manuscript at the end of this edit, so it needs to be reasonable enough for that. Check for plot holes, inconsistencies in characters, believable dialogue and so on. For me, this first edit is usually a bit like a read through. I remind myself of the whole story and get to experience reading it in one go.

3)Do your second edit. This one is more ruthless. Continue to check for typos and mistakes in formatting. Be ruthless and cut out anything that does not absolutely need to be there. Try to imagine someone else wrote it and this is your first experience of the story. Does it make sense? Does it waffle? Is every chapter gripping or do some wander? Does the narrative get repetitive? Do the characters sound flat or cliched? Imagine yourself with a huge knife and keep slashing until things are neater, faster and have a bigger impact.

4) Fourth edit. Repeat the steps above. Eliminate those typos, for you will continue to find them. Check your grammar and spelling. Change the story if you need to. Rewrite if you feel the need, but you should ideally be cutting out, not adding. Check for clunky, slow areas. Get rid of anything that does not propel the story forward.

5) Hand it to you first reader. This must be someone who reads a lot, someone educated to a higher standard than yourself if possible. You want this person to pick up grammatical mistakes and typos that you missed and will keep missing. They will make notes on each chapter, what works, what doesn’t, where it is slow, where it is good, what confused them, what excited them and so on. They should send each chapter back to you one at a time with their notes. Get them to give their honest overall opinion. This person must be someone who is not afraid to hurt your feelings and you must not be too precious about your work at this point. Lay yourself bare, put your pride to one side and listen to everything they have to say.

6) With notes to hand, go through every chapter one by one. Again, eliminate those pesky typos. Check it is formatted correctly. Check the plot holes are filled in. Loose ends are tied up. Every chapter grips the reader enough to make them want to read the next as fast as possible. This is the sixth edit and you will be sick of it by now.

7) Send it to someone else. In fact, even better, send one copy to the person who has already helped you and another copy to someone else. If you can rope in a few more beta readers, then great. They should all be prepared to be completely honest with you, and again they should all help eliminate typos and obvious mistakes.

8) Take a break from it at this point as it will inevitably be doing your head in! Work on another project until this one calls you back. Only go back when you are ready to. You need to want to do it.

9) With all the beta readers notes, criticisms, amendments and suggestions to hand, now do the eighth edit of your book. Make final changes if you feel the need. If not, just make it as tight as possible. Keep the pace and the flow and make sure from a readers point of view, there is nothing glaringly terrible in it that will let all your hard work down.

10) This is now your finished manuscript. If you are feeling brave you could send it to one more person to check. Hopefully they will not find anything to amend. Hopefully your gut feeling as an avid reader yourself, is that this is the best you can do and it is finished.

I am not saying that all of these steps can possibly replace the skills and experience of a professional editor. Of course not. Maybe one day you will be able to afford one, and what a great day that will be. But until then, these steps should at least make sure your indie manuscript is good enough to go out there and fly the flag for the indie cause. It won’t be perfect. No doubt it will be a bit raw, perhaps a bit rough around the edges. Perhaps every now and then you will feel the urge to pull it in once more, just to check it.

And one more thing before I go. My biggest tip to anyone when it comes to writing, editing or proofreading your own book? Read. Read a lot. Read every day, whenever you can, as much as you can. Read good stuff and terrible stuff as this is the only way you will be able to recognise what is good and terrible about your own writing. Writers, in my opinion, should be readers first and foremost. The more you read, the more you will be able to do justice to the craft of writing.

Too Like You

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Memories evoked by music are a bit like dreams sometimes…

You can feel the emotion, there is no avoiding that. That is the thing that hits you over the head, blind sides you and stops you in your tracks. Christ yeah…I forgot about that song…I forgot about that. As well as the emotion there is something visual there, something tapping at the corners of your mind, something stealing into your vision, a bright flash that fades again just as quickly as it came. Like a dream you try to hold onto it, try to hold it still for examination but the more you try to see it and explain it, the more elusive and teasing it becomes. It’s like it does not really want to be caught or defined.

It’s all you can do not to cry, or just sigh. It’s fleeting, like everything in life, here one minute and gone the next, just like the moment itself, when it happened all those years ago. I don’t want to keep getting older and forgetting all of these things.

Money Mark singing Tomorrow Will Be Like Today. That was a new CD you bought over, and it was a small garden, enclosed by tall panel fences. The smell of yesterdays barbeque lingering in the air with cut grass. My knees pulled up onto the plastic garden chair. A crack in one leg playing on my mind. Too Like You. Hand In My Head. Makes me smile and think of you.

Did I become more like you, or did you become more like me?

I used to be the negative one, the worrier, the anti-social, and you used to be the smiler. Sandy haired and loose limbed, you used to say it all of the time; don’t worry. Don’t worry. Don’t ever worry about anything.

But that is not you now. Now I am the one who encourages you to see the light and to smile. Now I am the one who says don’t worry, and you are the one reluctant to go out there and deal with people and time and life.

You rubbed off on me. That was the way it happened. From moments like that, always with a new album playing in the background. So much of our story has a soundtrack. That’s why it happens like that when I hear a song, when it takes me back. Bang and I am young again. Not sat in the car staring solemnly at the rain on the window while you nip into the shop to buy some bread and milk.

How easily we grew up. It’s not really fair the way it happens like that. It takes you by surprise, because you are never paying attention as the years creep up. Then suddenly a decade has passed, and then another. It’s sometimes like we are still back there, existing back in time. We are two lots of people. Them and us. Then and now.

I am too like you now because you got inside my head.

You say that tomorrow will be like today and I say that sometimes you are wrong. I can’t remember what happened to that day. How did it end? Where did we go? What did we talk about and laugh about? I can just remember the feel of the plastic chair under me and the wobble, the give, from the crack in the leg. I can just remember the music, and that it was summer. I can see your face and the way you always smiled about everything and I can see you walking in with CD’s in your hand. I miss us.

Rainy Day Book Shop…

~ ChanAtkins ~ 2 Comments

Half term. Raining of course. Oldest child wants to stay in all day watching Supernatural on dvd. 10 and 7 year old want to keep playing their car game on the landing. I’ve got plenty to keep me busy too. Another load of washing. Floors to clean. Wet dogs to rub dry. A baby to entertain. But it’s half term, no school! We should be doing something together as a family…

So we force them out. Into their coats and into the car and out into the world and the empty wet streets that lead down to a favourite haunt. Every time we go looking for it I worry that it has gone. That we didn’t go often enough, didn’t keep an eye on it and it vanished, faded away when we weren’t paying attention. Good things do that sometimes. You forget they are there, and then when you need them you find out they have moved on.

But not so The Crooked Book. Push open the door and the smell brings a smile to my face, and I am carrying in the baby with the feeling that I am introducing him to a warm and wonderful place. Which it is anyway. On first glance, on first smell, old and musty and reminds me of my Nan’s house when we were growing up. Old things well cared for. Ceramic basins and wooden spoons. 1920’s wardrobes. 1960’s coats. An ancient typewriter or two. I wonder how many words were tapped out on its keys… Tables and chairs, mismatched and eccentric, two men in suits chatting about a business plan. Free wi-fi. Tea, coffee, cake and soup. But those are not the reasons we come.

We make our way slowly to the back. Where the books are. Piled high and higher still, on clumsy shelves and scruffy displays. The familiar face at the till says hello how are you? We are fine, and we move on, carefully, trying not to knock over anything precious or valuable. Like the books, I want all of the things…And the smell…

The smell of books and thoughts and feelings and dreams. The smell of pages thumbed and worn. The smell of cracked spines and cricked necks. It makes me sigh. My shoulders relax. I hug the baby tighter, and feel the urge to show him all of the books. A whole world, I want to tell him. In fact a million, million worlds. A million, million, million words and ideas and tragedies and triumphs.

It feels safe here. Close and comfortable and sheltered. We huddle in the kid’s section while 7 year old laments the fact they never have the Diary Of A Wimpy Kid book he is after. But we find him a Doctor Who annual to keep him smiling. 12 year old as ever has an armful and we have to cajole her down to just two. 10 year old finds a book on dragons and a book on vampires. I’m lost. Or is it found?

I suddenly remember that I want to read Toni Morrison, so me and the baby hunch down and find M on the bottom shelf in the left hand corner and there is Beloved. Something I have wanted to read for years. Happy, but not done. I find a book by Roddy Doyle that I have not read, and a whole selection of Douglas Coupland novels catch my eye. In the end I choose Beloved and Girlfriend In A Coma. At the till husband is in a world of his own with Marx and Engels…

Fifteen pounds worth of books, smiles all around, priceless and a collective urge to get back home. Back into the warm with a coffee and a biscuit. Our books under our arms, we run back to the car, jumping puddles, job well done. We came, we browsed, we conquered. I feel slightly bereft as always for all the books left behind. Goodbye The Crooked Book. Until next time.