Thursday, September 16, 2010

Another Day, Another Novel


While back, feeling expansive and sure I could write anything, I sat down and did a straight mystery novel. Set it in Portland, protagonist being one Tyrone Candle, a gunsmith. It has a lot of shooting hardware, guys pumping iron in the gym, a romance, an old friend in trouble -- the usual.

The market was soft and I wasn't able to sell it, but as one does, I tucked it away and went on about my business, of which I had plenty at the time.

Ranging through old files, and I came across Curse the Darkness, and thought: Hey, this isn't such a bad book. Maybe I can make a pass and turn it into another handy-dandy e-novel, since it isn't doing me any good sitting here at my house.

A rule for writers: Never, ever toss anything you write. You never know when it will come in handy.

So I'm going to format the sucker for Smashwords, clean it up a bit, and see how it feels. Might ask for a reader or two to see how it plays once I get it done. At the moment, it's in a bunch of plain-vanilla text files that will have to be merged and made ready for the Smashwords converter, which will require getting rid of all kinds of invisible formatting commands, justifying and centering the text, changing fonts, etc. Probably take a few days.

Cover art is open for discussion, me having figured out there are a lot of folks out there who know more about such things than I, but it'll serve as a placeholder ...

10 comments:

Justin said...

A guy named Candle? A book called Curse the Darkness? I see what you did there.

Anonymous said...

Font would look better in papyrus...

bourgon said...

Fwiw, I like the cover. Clean, simple, good font.

Ed said...

Looking forward to the ebook.

I like the cover a lot - Browning Buckmark Silouette - no forend or hooded sights? I take it that is one of the ones you used when competing? I had a Varmint model a long, long time ago - still want to get the 5.5" Field version.

How bout adding in the background of the ebook title a reverse "Mel Gibson" target (orange or black)- has a frown instead of the smile shot into it....for that matter use the smiley if you want it more upbeat but the frown goes with the curse theme. Mel could use the smile again.

J. Steven York said...

Sounds like one I'd like to read. Put that baby on Kindle and you got a sale!

Anonymous said...

Have you thought about submitting it to publishers again? With all the cop, detective and spy shows on TV, maybe the market for your book is stronger now?

(I do own a Kindle but I prefer dead-tree-ware in my hands.)

Scott said...

Cool. Just bought Champion of the Dead, will be happy to pick up another.

Steve Perry said...

Should be up on Kindle/Smashwords in the next week or two.

I prefer treeware, too, but even if the market was hot, it would be a year before the book made it from submission to print in New York -- in most cases. And with an ebook, all I have to do it push a button and it's ready to go.

Problem with print-on-demand is the cost. usually from $15-20 for a paperback.

Steve Perry said...

Yeah, Browning Buckmark, with the sight hood and front stock removed. I didn't like the shroud's sight picture and the added weight of the stock while shooting offhand.

It's a tackdriver with target ammo.

Steve Perry said...

A bit on the new cover design. I wanted the brightest part of the image to be under and surrounding the title, with the rest of the cover shading a bit darker. I also wanted it to be in black and white, save for the pistol grips, which add just a touch of color. This goes t the quote:" It is better to light one candle than to curse the darkness." which is where the title comes from.

The font is Plantagenet Cherokee, by Ross Mills. Mills, according the the web pages, drew his inspiration for Plantagenet (1996) from Neoclassical typefaces, especially those of John Baskerville and Pierre Simon Fournier.

To the the white background and shadow effect, I shot the picture in the bathtub, lit only from the frosted glass window. I was pleased with how it came out.