TO END THE NIGHTMARE ONE MUST FIRST WAKE UP

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B083C2Q4PB/

Milo James Fowler's new book came out yesterday, and it is a tour de force.  

It is quite an accomplishment of prose.

 When Man at last wrecks havoc upon Nature, 

will She take it personally?

Here is my book review:

TO END THE NIGHTMARE 

ONE MUST FIRST WAKE UP

AFTER THE SKY, BOOK ONE of Spirits of the Earth series, is one that will stay with you for a long time after you turned the last page to look off into the shadows reflecting on the epic tale you’ve just finished. 

But be warned, it will not be finished with you.

It is a suspenseful, grim cautionary speculative fiction that asks the important questions:

WHAT MAKES US HUMAN?

ARE WE MORE THAN OUR PAST?

DOES ISOLATION FESTER THE DARKNESS WITHIN US?

ARE WE COMPELLED BY OUR VERY NATURES TO SELF-DESTRUCT?

Dystopian futures are a reflection of our current fears.   

We may well arrive in a future not too dissimilar from the one presented in AFTER THE SKY if our leaders are not wiser than our past ones have proven to be.

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it.  

 AFTER THE SKY highlights the quandary to that thought: who determines what is THE truth?

The world to this novel is vast in its perspective and scope … which is why the author uses multiple points of view.

One of the key benefits of multiple points of view is the ability to show the reader what multiple characters are thinking and feeling. 

The reader gains a greater sense of the relationship between the characters and the overall world because they have more perspectives and more data.

 The reader then knows more than any one character. 

This provides the opportunity for the author to create dramatic irony, where the reader thinks “No don’t trust him!” 

because they know what is behind that man’s easy smile and manner while the character does not. 

Dramatic irony is a great technique to create tension, suspense, and faster pacing. 

And Milo uses it expertly.

The story is bigger than any one character, so multiple points of view was needed to get all of the plot points and information to the reader. 

Seeing into the fractured minds of certain characters was like watching a ticking bomb hidden from the rest of those around him.

AFTER THE SKY reveals the truth of who we are and who we may become.  

 But beware: truth revealed is like lighting a match; it can bring light to your world … or burn your fingers.

 I truly enjoyed this novel.  

 Pick it up and find yourself swept up into a tale you will not be able to put down.

Go to its book page on Amazon,

 check the LOOK INSIDE, 

and see if you agree. 

MAKING YOUR BOOK GO VIRAL

 

There's a fate worse than not having your book noticed.

It's having your book go viral.  Yes.  Sounds strange but there it is.

Harper Lee and Bill Watterson both found that out.  What do you do for an encore?

With every book we write we go back to zero for the next one. 
No single creative success can be sustained. 

That’s why you can’t create solely for profit or praise. In the end, the thrill never lasts.

If you want to be an artist, there has to be something more than fame that sustains you.

I can hear you: 

LET ME WORRY ABOUT THE ENCORE.  

TELL ME HOW TO DO IT THE FIRST TIME!

All right:


1.) FILL THE CURIOSITY GAP

During World War II researchers in Britain and the U.S. studied how rumors could be weaponized. 

They discovered that when something happened (like a big noise) and there was no "official" explanation for it, rumors proliferated in this information void. 

There are still areas where there isn't much real information or data available. 

Find out what people want to know more about and give it to them. 


2.) DON'T BE THE WHITE RABBIT

Be timely.   

 Is there some new trend you hear being talked about around you? Be the first to write about what's happening, then emphasis the urgent and timely nature of your content. 


3.) PROVOKE CONVERSATION

 When asked about WORD OF MOUTH , people often cite conversation as a primary motivator. 

Contradicting commonly held wisdom will typically lead to people starting discussions about your book,

 as will including open-ended questions within your storyline and implying real-world applications of concepts you've covered. 


 4.) Viral books are often “high concept.” 

 (rather than character-driven, even though they introduce great characters),

with exceptional execution across all the story basics.


5.)  They also deliver something else, almost without exception:  

they seize the inherent compelling power of underlying story physics in ways that exceeds the competition.

These two realms of story –

compelling concept, 

with exceptionally strong underlying essences, is what gets you into the viral game.


YAWN! 

Right?  Isn't that what everyone does?

Not really. 

They don’t address these as goals.  


Some authors just write their story, write it well, let it evolve organically, and hope somebody out there gets it.  


This may get them published, but it doesn’t usually get them on Oprah Winfrey.

 The viral book is driven by hero empathy, 

while delivering a vicarious ride.

  It isn’t the plot, and it isn’t character.  

No, this is about the reader.

  It’s about the reader transporting themselves into this world… going on this ride… feeling it… wanting to be the hero…

wishing it was them… 

The reader completely engaging in this journey 

on a personal level.

I hope this helps in some small way.

Gotten a NEGATIVE REVIEW online?

Try not to cringe too much.

Take the Great Wall of China ...

Yes, it has gotten more than 9.000 Google reviews:

“Not very tall. Or big. Just sayin. I kinda liked it. Sort of.”

or this one:

“I don’t see the hype in this place it’s really run down and old … 

why wouldn’t you update something like this? No USB plug ins or outlets anywhere.” 

Or take Shakespeare ...

Yeah, that guy.

Take the 2 Star review of Hamlet on Amazon:

 “Whoever said Shakespeare was a genius lied. 

Unless genius is just code word for boring, then they’re spot on. 

Watch the movie version so you only waste two hours versus 20.”

The Washington Post recently reported that a third of American adults 

use a computer or phone to buy something at least once a week:  

“about as often as we take out the trash.” 

And as you have read ... 

trash is what many online reviews are.

 Yet, with the many reports that many 5 Stars reviews are fake, 

people may depend on negative reviews more than positive ones 

because they see them as more trustworthy. 

 Reviews are subjective,

and the tiny subset of people 

who leave them aren’t average.

Duncan I. Simester , a Nanyang Technological University Professor of Management Science, 

MIT Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology,

said in a 2016 study:

“Very few people write reviews. 

It’s about 1.5%, or 15 people out of 1,000. 

Should we be relying on these people 

if we’re part of the other 985?” 

Another reason to be wary is roughly one in 15 people review products that

they haven’t actually purchased or used or read, according to Dr. Simester. 

 The problem is consumers are bad at determining which reviews are based 

on actual experiences and which aren’t, said Dr. Simester. 

“We are easily fooled.”

WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT ONLINE REVIEWS?

HAVE BEEN BURNED BY ANY 

THAT YOU FELT WERE BIASED?

Now, for a bit of 
inspirational music

to counter-balance 
all these statistics: 

IN THE KEY OF SCREAM

You have a radio in your bedroom...

so you have all frequencies in there:

BBC, Radio Moscow, ABC, 

but, of course your radio is tuned to one frequency—

you’re decohered from all the other frequencies.

 The universe vibrates 

and

 there are vibrations 

of other universes 

right where you lay in bed. 

There are the universes of dinosaurs 

 because

 the comet didn’t hit 65 million years ago;

 an alternate Earth with aliens from outer space 

looking at the rubble of a world that already is destroyed

—All in your bedroom

The Occult Key 

for which Hitler searched

was actually the sound

of the death screams

of a hundred million dying souls

flaying the fabric of reality.

The Infernal Gate 

has been unlocked

and

Hell itself 

has come out to play.

Mark Twain: EDIT YOURSELF A BESTSELLER!

{courtesy Brian Wasko}

" A tale shall accomplish something and arrive somewhere."
-Mark Twain.


Samuel Clemens, ghost here, to help Roland out a mite.

Seems the saw-bones has told the boy he is suffering from exhaustion and the flu, and he needs to sleep more and write less.

Now, me being a ghost and all, I have slept more than I want and need to write to feel alive again.

What you modern folks call a win/win situation, don't you know?

My quote next to my picture seems a bit self-evident, don't it?

Well, I just taken and read 2 books from Roland's shelves, THE PASSAGE and THE TONGUES OF SERPENTS.
 
Both meander worse than a sluggish Mississippi at ebb tide.

But they got published you wail. 

I was wailing, too ... after I read them.
 
Sure they got published ... after a string of good writing by said authors.

But Cronin pushed his readers at a distance with page after page after page of narrative summary. Leave the lecturing for the classroom, Justin.

Naomi Novak, poor girl, just seemed to lose her fire, having no danger, no crisis breathing down the neck of her heroes. She managed the impossible:

She made a book on dragons boring.

I struggled like you pilgrims to get published. I learned my craft in the newspapers at which I worked one after another clear across this nation.

And I learned a few rules:

1.) The role of a writer is not to say what we all can say, but what we are unable to say.

Ever hear two people tell the same joke? Both tell it differently. One always tells it better.

One tears it from his guts. The other pulls it out of his overcoat pocket. Talk to the heart of your listener, and you will never go wrong.

2.) Told or unfold?

Histories belong in the classroom. Novels are the place for scenes.

A scene takes place before the reader's eyes. He sees the mysterious stranger being feared, not being told what a hoodoo he is. Your hero runs down the alley, ducking zinging bullets.

The reader sees it happen. He isn't told about it after the fact.

3.) What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers.

I've read a good bit of what passes for novels these days. They're leaner and meaner. No more Norman Rockwell, exact details down to the slightest freckle.

Novels today are impressionistic like the paintings or a film by that Hitchcock fellow. 

Why, the most horrific story I ever heard centered on a monster only hinted at, never seen clear ... and the more fearsome because of that.

4.) Less is more when it comes to writing.
 
If you hit the poor reader over the head with your point, you'll blunt your point and won't do much for the reader either.

5.) The best words are actions.
 
What did that Anton Chekhov fellow write?

Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass.
 
Actions pulls your reader into the flow of the story. Preambling just shoves him back to being a distant observer, not a participant.

Give the reader the taste of the wind, the feel of the grit in the badly cooked food, and the ache of a broken heart.

For me, a page of good prose is where one hears the rain and the noise of the battle.

No second-hand prose. Draw the reader into the sound and feel of the actions. He will forget he is reading. He will become a part of the world you have created.

6.) The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Franklin D. Roosevelt originally wrote in his famous speech of December 8, 1941 "a date that will live in history." Later the President scratched out "history" and instead wrote "infamy."

And that line still rings down the corridors of time.

The amateur writer draws attention to himself ...

why, isn't that a beautiful description I've just pounded you over the head with for five pages?

The professional author knows that to draw the reader's attention to himself with mechanics is to draw it away from the story.

You want the reader to be so absorbed in your world that they're not even aware you, the writer, exists.

7.) Writing is not apart from living.

In fact, writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice.

Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind.
And remember:

The novel you finish ain't necessarily the one you started.