Tag Archives: Fey

Book 2 Progress

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wpid-imag1323_burst005.jpgThis is just a quick wee update. I just started writing the final chapter, we’ve had zombies, a race against time, heroism, and some big revelations about Jack’s world. To be honest I’m pretty pleased about how this book has gone there are obviously some kinks to be ironed out but that’s what editing is for.

I expect that tonight my first draft of ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’ will be complete. I’ve made the decision this time to do the first edit run before I hand it over to my beta testers, that way I’ll (hopefully) avoid wasting their time with typos etc. and instead they can focus on the story and tell me about continuity errors and the more glaring problems in plot that I might not have noticed.

Book three is also an issue for me now as I want to put a preview at the end of book two just as I did with book one. With this in mind I’m going to have to set some facts in stone about a book that’s only in planning at the moment. The alternative (and the option I’m warming to) is that I start work on book three whilst book two is getting beta tested. That way I’ll know what’s coming next and I’ll even have time to add some tiny hints inside book two before it goes to press.

Another issue I now have to deal with is cover design. Now that there will be two Jack Reusen books sitting side by side on the shelf I want to be sure that they look unified in some way. With that in mind I think I’ll be putting together a overarching theme to the cover art for the Jack Reusen books.

Once its decided I’ll get book two’s artwork finalised and once that’s off to the printers I’ll rework ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ to have a fancy new cover. I’ll also take that opportunity to deal with the odd wee typo that has come to light since it went to print.

Once again I’m in the strange little window at the end of writing a book where I feel less and less like I have any say in what happens. The characters and the plot have taken me to a point, and if I try to fight against it the book will sound convoluted. Right now I’m fully caught in the flow and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

If you’ve finished reading ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ yourself please feel free to contact me in the comments on here, I’d love to hear what you thought to it. All the best, John

And as simple as that, here they are…

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wpid-imag1318_burst002_1.jpgThe books have arrived! The official book launch for ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ will be in Fun Junction in Perth this Saturday (21st February). I’ll be reading excerpts from the book and talking about stories and writing. There are three sessions scheduled, at 1pm, 2pm, and 3pm and they’ll go on for as long as kids look interested.

My last few nights have been spent reading through the book to find the best, most exciting parts to share with those of you who can make it to the launch. I can’t wait to see what kinds of reactions I’ll get on Saturday.

I’ve also been working on book two (while not chasing up book deliveries etc.) and I’m fairly happy with the book’s progress, though I’ll need to knuckle down on Sunday if I want to meet my deadline of the end of the month. Provided I can get it done by then, I’ll have four to six weeks to edit it and neaten it up (and beta test it a little/lot) before sending ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’ off to the printers.

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday in Perth (if you can make it along), all the best, John

Reusen Writathon

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starling-216086_1280Just in case it looks as though I haven’t been doing anything I thought I’d pop down a wee log of progress for book two (‘…the Spark of Dreams’). Currently I’m sitting near the end of chapter five with 11,846 words.

Today’s words written so far are 1,186, not a huge amount this morning but Jack has just met four new characters: a boy with no arms, a hedgehog girl, a fawn, and a bird-girl with her own special skill.

They all took a bit of work for me to be happy to start writing about them so that was a good portion of this morning’s activity.

Now stopping for a spot of lunch and then it’ll be school-run, feeding the kids, getting homework done and bath night, then hopefully sometime around nine I’ll be back at this keyboard to get to know more about these new characters.

In the mean time I’d love to hear what people think to my using a character with no arms and what kind of things you think might be worth thinking about for him. Pop your responses in the comments section below.

Until tonight, thanks for reading, all the best, John

One week on

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wpid-wp-1422646240603.jpegThis time last week ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ went live on kindle, since then I’ve sold a lot more copies than I expected to in Jack’s first week. I’ve also had a few people reserve copies of the print edition which should be on the shelves soon (printers’ schedule permitting).

The response to Jack’s world has really surprised me and I’m really touched that so many people have shown support for my wee book series either by buying a copy, or simply by liking the facebook page and following on twitter.

On top of this I now have two book talks booked for the coming weeks. One of these might be expected (for those of you that know me anyway), as it’s a book reading/talk and signing at Fun Junction in Perth.

The other event came as a real surprise as a teacher that I know who works in a Stirling school asked if I could join in with their World Book Day event which draws in three schools. Needless to say I jumped at the chance.

However, of all the brilliant things that have happened this week I have to say my favourite is the fact that one of my son’s friends at school came up to him and told him that his dad’s book was ‘awesome’. He’s six and he’s been reading it himself after his mum bought a kindle copy this week.

That was the whole point of writing this and I hope he’s still enjoying it. It still feels kind of odd knowing that there are people out there who know Jack, and Fynn, and all the others. Part of me still feels as though the characters just live inside my head, it’s lovely to think that they’re now alive in a bundle of other people’s heads too. That probably sounds a bit weird but you know what I mean.

Anyway thanks as always for reading, if you’ve had a read of ‘…the Fey Flame’ I’d love to hear what you thought of it in the comments below, Cheers, John

The only way is up

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World-Book-DayJust had an interesting chat on facebook messenger with a teacher I know, got some scheduling things to work out but it looks like I’ll be doing a world book day event sometime in the week starting 2nd March for up to three different schools.

Totally elated, this is a much bigger event than I had prepared for but I’m looking forward to it. I’m trying to figure out what might work best, whether to tell them about writing, read from the first book or write up something specifically for the day.

To be honest I’m inclined to keep it simple and work on my presentation, the main thing for me to remember is that I’ll have an audience of kids from five years and up to keep entertained. Now I just need to figure out what the basic material will be.

What kind of thing do you think primary school aged kids would enjoy in a book talk? If you’ve already read some of ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ have you got any suggestions about a good chapter/section that I could read for them?

It’s been an amazing few days, thanks for all the support for the books, I’ll get on here as much as I can as things progress to keep you updated on events, book progress, or just to check in and share other bits and pieces I’ve come across. All the best, John

Off to the printers

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jack reusen and the fey flame cover 8The next step in introducing Jack to the world has been made. Just a few hours ago I sent a full draft of ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ to the printers.

The next step is for me to go out and do a few events, the first of which will be brief reading and talk-about session at Fun Junction in Perth. I’m really excited about this because I wasn’t expecting to be able to use my workplace to show off my book.

I’ve taken part in events in the shop before; previously I took part in a ‘pirate day’ event in the Perth store as ‘Captain Jimbo’ the pirate. I read stories and led children around the shop on a treasure hunt, it was a whole lot of fun. I’m hoping that I can do something that will be just as entertaining for everyone with Jack Reusen’s world.

Another avenue that I would like to try would be local libraries or schools. I’ll have to keep my fingers crossed on that one though as it’ll probably be a little tricky, given that I’d be dealing with local authority and some of the red tape that goes with that. All the same it would be amazing. I’m not completely sure what kind of event I’d put together in that kind of venue but I’d love to give it a go.

If you have a class, club, or group which you feel might benefit from a talk about writing, or a chapter reading, then don’t hesitate to contact me either in the comments below or over on Twitter (here’s my twitter account and here’s a link to the official Jack Reusen twitter feed) or you can contact me via the Jack Reusen Facebook page.

As always thanks for reading, seeing the reader count for this website go up is always great and it makes me hopeful that Jack’s adventures will be a hit.

I look forward to keeping you up to date in the coming weeks as I embark on my month-long writing marathon to complete book two (and make a start on book three). It’s been a whirlwind over the past few weeks (especially the past couple of days) and the reaction from people so far has been brilliant, all the best, John

Finally…it’s here!

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jack reusen cover front2After a couple of late nights and more than a few editorial stumbling blocks ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ is finally available on kindle (http://goo.gl/rovYtF).

The next step is the physical printing which I’m sorting out today, and then it’s all in the printers’ hands.

Sorry for the delay, I had a little incident with the cover that took some fiddly finicking but as you can see it’s all sorted now.

Jack is out in the world and I’d love to hear what you think of him, the first chapter and a bit are available for preview from Amazon so please have a look and leave a comment on here, or chat about it over on Twitter, thanks for stopping by the Jack Reusen website, hope to see you over here again soon, Cheers, John

Almost There!

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Winner-2014-Twitter-ProfileThe drafting is complete, visual edits are done, main preliminary work on the cover is finished (though still not finalised). The process that began with National Novel writing Month is almost complete. I’ll be at work today so there’s less time for me to finalise things but I’m pretty sure we’ll be ready to launch the kindle edition this evening/ later tonight.

This has been a strange process, editing a fiction book is new to me (I’ve written non-fiction before). The main issue, surprisingly, came from my main ‘beta tester’. I’d joked about it, but actually having a six year old listen to the story was one of the most important editing decisions I made.

Characters that I didn’t think were all that significant gained a special place in my son’s heart, while scenes that I thought offered comfort and stability made him yearn for the excitement of the action scenes.

I really feel that the balance is right now but if it hadn’t been for Logan, giving me input with an honesty only a six year old could deliver, the book would have looked very different.

As I said, the digital edition of ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’ should be live tonight and I’m really excited to see how people feel about it. Work on the next two books has already begun but as my previous post said, February will see my writing go into overdrive.

I hope you all enjoy the book and I welcome any feedback that people have. Jack’s adventures are an ongoing project and I want to make the books the best they can be. All the best, thanks for reading, Cheers, John

February will be Jack Reusen Writathon Month

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Writing with pen on paperIn February I’ll be back to my daily writing totals from Nanowrimo because I’ve come to realise that the only way this whole writing business is going to work is if I actually, you know, write.

My final edit is almost done (something like a chapter and a bit left), all I can do is apologise for how long its taking and take on board what I’m learning for the other books I’ll be releasing this year.

Book two has four chapters drafted, I’ve planned out most of the plot and only one or two new characters will be joining Jack and the gang for this one (so not too much work to do there). It would be easy for me to get complacent with this, after all I’ve said that ‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’ will be out in April. Just now that feels like a long while away but I can’t take that for granted.

I need to remember all these little mistakes I’ve made in scheduling the release of ‘Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame’. To be honest this post is as much for me as it is for you, it should hopefully stand as a reminder for me to leave a lot more time for revisions and cover design in future.

‘Jack Reusen and the Spark of Dreams’ will be out in April, I’ll be releasing another Jack Reusen book in September, and a mini book for Christmas (about 8 to 10 chapters). Keeping all of this in mind I should really be working on this solidly. That’s why I’ve decided that February is Jack Reusen month for me, just like I did with Nanowrimo I’ll be setting myself daily targets. As I go along I’ll blog about my progress and possibly even include the odd wee spoiler on here (really really minor ones mind you, I can’t let too much slip).

To anyone still waiting for the first book’s release, it is coming, slowly but surely, I promise it will be here soon. It will be out on kindle first. This is simply because I’ll need to figure out a lot of bits and pieces with the printers for the print edition, but I can handle putting together the digital edition myself.

To put a fire under my tail I’ll put out a deadline just now (I work well with deadlines) so I’ll say that the digital edition will, at the latest, be out next Saturday (24th January) and the print edition will be available just under two weeks later (provided all goes well with the printers) on Thursday the 5th February.

All the best, thanks for popping by and I’ll introduce you properly to Jack in just over a week, Cheers, John

Remain Vigilant (boredom is death)

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charlie-chaplin-392926_640I’ve been reading my first full draft of Jack Reusen and the Fey Flame with my eldest son Logan (he’s six) and generally I’ve been able to relax, safe in the knowledge that what I’ve written seems to keep him interested, entertained, and amused. However there is one chapter where the story moves to look at Jack’s parents’ lives before he was born. For some reason it seems unable to hold Logan’s attention (I’ve a feeling it’s because its all about the grown ups).

So do I just leave it as it is? It is only a small portion of a book that overall has kept him asking for more. I could try and excuse it as a necessary evil; that some characters may need a back story that a child might not be interested in, but I’d be kidding myself. It’s a children’s book, if it doesn’t entertain children I’ve done it wrong.

So I’m reworking a full chapter and it’s having a ripple effect on the rest of the book. It’s disheartening, it’s time consuming, but I’d rather hear from my son that a small portion of my book needs work (when I still have time to fix it), than wait and wonder why I’m not selling more copies once it hits the shelves.

This book is supposed to be exciting and it’s supposed to be able to engage with an age group which isn’t always targeted by fantasy writers. Occasionally this has been a challenge for me; I really love the world-building aspect of fantasy novels but there just isn’t much room to do that in a book aimed at early-school-years children.

I have to keep a fairly fast pace, maintain the action and adventure, but at the same time I like to include aspects that feel comfortable and familiar (it should be fine to read a chapter before bed without inducing nightmares). The domestic and the fantastical aspects were sometimes at odds during early planning stages but I’d ironed most of them out.

Unfortunately this chapter is my last remaining vestige of full-on world-building but like the rest of the book I’m going to have to just allow Jack’s world to be revealed through the action. This shouldn’t be hard to change actually, and with a few careful tweaks of a very small portion of the book I think I’ll have it. Then I can finally drum up print and kindle editions and release them out into the world for you lovely people to enjoy and (hopefully) talk to me about.

It did make me wonder though, who out there enjoys overt world-building? Would you rather learn about a fantasy world on the fly, as the action progresses, or do you like to have some aspects of the world explained to you so that the action can just move along on its own unabated? Let me know in the comments below, all the best, John