Six More Weeks

Hey y'all,

Well, summer's over, my daughter's back in school and the wife's back to work. We had a really great summer, this being the first time we've all been together for the entire summer. We squeezed in a few trips to the coast, twice to Beaufort and once to Charleston, to visit my wife's two kids. We worked side by side in the garden and had a really great crop this year.

I'm about 75% through with the writing part of Fallen Mangrove and 100% through my own editing, up to this point. I'm taking a large chunk of this month's royalties to invest in a new professional developmental editing service. Until now, I'd relied on proofreaders and copy editors only. My new developmental editor will spend a few weeks scouring the pages of my manuscript, to help develop both the plot and the characters, on top of looking for misspellings and improper punctuation and grammar. I should be able to submit it to beta readers in three or four weeks, then to the editor about 9/24.

As always, I'll utilize specialty beta readers also. I've found these people to be extremely valuable in finding discrepancies. For instance, in Fallen Pride, I'd written a lot of interaction between the pilot, Dave, and air traffic control. Two of my beta readers for that book were pilots and one was an air traffic controller. We wound up scrapping 70% of the dialogue and polished up what was left to make it a whole lot more realistic. I choose my beta readers, usually ten to twelve, by their expertise. Since much of Fallen Mangrove will take place on the island of Elbow Cay in the northern Bahamas, I'll be asking people who are very familiar with Elbow Cay to read it prior to release.

This will be very important, because Fallen Mangrove will be the first book I've written with a location I've never been to. Sure, I've visited the Bahamas, I've even been to Great Abaco in the northern Bahamas, which is the main island that Elbow Cay is a barrier island to. Until now, I've kept my writing to places I've been to. Well, except for Cuba. But Fidel can't live forever and I WILL dive the Cuban reefs one day.

Because I've never been to Elbow Cay, I spent a lot of time early in the writing of this book researching this location. Fallen Pride so far has taken the longest to write, nearly four months start to finish. I started writing and researching Fallen Mangrove in April, nearly four months ago. At publication, it will have been over five months. A friend from high school owns vacation rental property on Elbow Cay and her property will be featured as part of the setting and she will be one of my beta readers.

My other books have been pretty straight up, as far as plot goes, with a single protagonist group and a single antagonist group. Fallen Mangrove will be a bit different, with more than one antagonist group coming at Jesse and friends from several different directions, a new familial character, and secret help from more than one unknown source.

Here's a forewarning. Fallen Mangrove will be just a bit racier than previous books. Nothing graphic, but the extracurricular activities of several characters will be explored.

I still expect it to be available in early October, which will be the anniversary of the release of my first book, Fallen Palm. I should be able to narrow down a date in the next few weeks. The very first print copy I receive from the printer will be signed and given to one person chosen at random from my newsletter mailing list. Also, those on the mailing list will have the exact time and date of the release special, where Fallen Mangrove will be reduced to only $.99 for Kindle users for one day only. You can sign up on my website to be eligible. I usually send out an email about every ten to fourteen days, but ramp it up to a couple of emails in the last week before the release.

That's it for now, back to writing.

Semper Fi,
Wayne

Cover Reveal and Change in Donation Recipient

Hi everyone. Sorry it's been so long since I posted. Summer's are really busy around here with harvesting and we've made a few trips to the coast. School starts in a few weeks, so we're home for a while now.

After going back and forth for weeks on the title of my current work in progress and a lot of contests on Facebook to see what my readers liked, I've made a decision. I contacted my photographer in Florida, told him what I wanted and asked him to search through his files for a photo. Again, Tim Ebaugh has knocked it out of the park. I've known Tim and his family for nearly forty years. His dad, Bob was a photographer for NASA before retiring. Tim has learned a lot from him and coupled that with his natural affinity for light, color, and composition. Tim was the photographer for the cover of Fallen Hunter and did the graphics on all four titles. What do you think?

 

Another friend in central Florida is retired Paratrooper, David Isnardi. Snard and I grew up together in Melbourne, Florida. Not long ago, he was instrumental in creating Space Coast Paratroopers Association and through that Home for Warriors, a non-profit organization dedicated to remodeling and adapting new homes for central Florida's Wounded Warriors. 

I'd been donating half the profit of Fallen Pride to Wounded Warrior Project, a nationwide non-profit, but after seeing what Snard's doing on a local basis, I decided my money could do a lot more in the community I grew up in. To that end, I changed the Fallen Pride donation to go to this charity. I plan to go home from time to time and help with upcoming projects they're involved in.

I'm roughly half way through writing the first draft of Fallen Mangrove, formerly Fallen Coconut. Jesse has bought the seaplane featured in Fallen Pride, which belonged to a friend. One of the great things about writing is the research. This plane, a 1953 deHavilland Beaver, is a beautiful and very versatile aircraft. I've been communicating with Tripp Wacker, of Ryan Aviation Seaplanes in Palm Coast, FL, getting details about the plane just right. I may go down there and take a flight in Tripp's Beaver. They're one of the few places that provide training in this aircraft. This video features Tripp and his DHC-2.

I'm still planning an early October release for this book. I should have the first draft completed by mid-September. Then it'll go through a week of beta and proof reading, before going to the editor.  October 8th will the the anniversary of the publication of my first novel Fallen Palm. I'd really like to schedule the release of Fallen Mangrove for that date. 

I just downloaded Just Needs Killin, by my friend, Jinx Schwartz. It's the sixth book in the Hetta Coffey series and I'm currently reading the fifth, Just the Pits. I highly recommend this series about a woman who lives aboard her yacht in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico and all the trouble she runs into. The first book in the series is Just Add Water (Hetta Coffey Series Book 1). 

Semper Fi,

Wayne

First Donation to Wounded Warrior Project.

I feel really blessed today. Yesterday, I was able to make a $700 donation to Wounded Warrior Project for the sales of Fallen Pride. What's more, I know my donation on 7/31 will be $800 and my donation on 8/31 will be $1000. These amounts are based on half of what my profit is on Fallen Pride. The vision of WWP is "To foster the most successful, well-adjusted generation of wounded service members in our nation's history." They make a huge difference in the lives of returning Warriors, who have been injured in battle. While I've donated in the past, it's been in the $10 to $20 range every few months. This book gives me a platform that I fan make ongoing donations from.

Sales through June were amazing. The release of Fallen Out on 5/31 was scheduled to coincide with a large promotional campaign on all my books. The result was a single day of sales totaling 1872 books on 5/31, of which 180 were Fallen Out, launching it into the top 6,000 books on Amazon and resulting in a "Hot New Releases" listing for 28 days. Fallen Out was #1 in the Sea Adventures genre for nearly all of those 28 days and is still #1, four days after falling off the list. June was the first month I completely trounced my old income as a truck driver. Previous months had pretty much replaced it, but June was more than double. Thank you to all my fans who have enjoyed my books for allowing me to follow my dream. There's not a day that goes by now, that I'm not completely humbled by the fact that you are willing to pay your hard earned money to read my sea stories.

I'm still struggling with the title of the novel I'm currently writing. The working title is Fallen Coconut, but that brings to mind Gilligan's Island. A short synopsis of the book is this. Clues to the location of buried treasure are carved on a coconut, sealed in a chest in 1566, and placed in the bough of a mangrove tree. As time goes by, the tree grows around the chest on the uninhabited island. The tree is toppled by a hurricane just after the American Revolution and an ancestor of one of Jesse's friends finds it. It's handed down for generations, but nobody can solve the riddle. Until now. As the treasure hunt mounts, east European gangsters get wind of it and try to beat Jesse and the team to the treasure buried somewhere on Elbow Cay in the Bahamas.

I like the name Fallen Mangrove, but is it too many trees with Fallen Palm? Or maybe start over with another tree, another constellation (Did you know Fallen Hunter is named for Orion?), and another emotion? Palm, Hunter, and Pride, followed by Mangrove, Scorpion, and Honor? Hey, I'm open to suggestions. Email me any time.

Current word count is 27,000 for a planned 100,000 word novel, so I'm 27% complete. My goal is 1,000 words a day and I started it on 6/1, so I'm 4,000 words behind. I took a few days off to go down to Folly Beach, in Charleston, to put my toes in the sand. I expect to have the manuscript ready for editing by the middle of September, with a release by early October.

I'll be announcing some special deals, via email, as the release date gets closer, including the first printed copy, signed personally to one of my email subscribers. To get my weekly (okay, maybe every two or three weeks) email, go to my website and sign up.

Right now I'm reading a really great book, actually two books in one, by my friend Michael Reisig. It's called "Brothers of the Sword/Children of Time". The first half is a swashbuckling tale straight out of the pirate days of the 1700's in the Caribbean, while the last half is a more modern tale of pirate days in the Caribbean. The two stories are interwoven by characters from the first, who find one another again in a later life. Michael is a real master story teller. If you've finished my books, take a look at his. Here's a link to the one I'm reading on Amazon. Brothers Of The Sword/Children Of Time.

Semper Fi,
Wayne

How I Do What I Do.....

Earlier this week, I was asked by another author that I have great respect for, Rosalind James, to participate in a "blog roll". Now most of you who know me, know that I was never big into blogging. In fact, my 12 year old actually had to tell me what a blog was, initially.

Rosalind, like me, started her "writing career" later in life, I won't say how late, but it was just a couple years ago, after a career in publishing and marketing. Also like me, she decided to write a book pretty much on a whim, and to her surprise, found writing immediately consuming her life. Six weeks after starting her first book, she finished it and quit her job to write full-time. Rosalind writes bestselling Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense stories about rugby, New Zealand, the United States, reality shows, industrial espionage, and quite a few other things.
You can see her books on Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/Rosalind-James/e/B0094AB0UQ/.
Her author website is: http://www.rosalindjames.com

Her blog post, where she answered these questions is: http://www.rosalindjames.com/my-writing-process-blog-roll/

What this "blog roll" is supposed to do is show others how and why I do what I do, by answering the same questions that Rosalind answered in her blog and what other writers I know will answer on theirs, which I'll post a link to on here once they do. It should be interesting. Well, here goes.

1.   WHAT AM I WORKING ON?

I just published a prequel to my three book Jesse McDermitt series at the end of May. A friend and fellow author told me once that the secret to his success was to always keep writing. "Write, publish, repeat," he told me. Well, I'm the kind of guy that always tries to build a better mousetrap, so I added one word to that mantra. Write. Publish. Promote. Repeat. When Fallen Out (the prequel) launched on 5/30, I spent the next 4 days, working up to 16 hours a day, promoting it and my other three books. Fallen Out made the Amazon Top 5000 Best Sellers List in two days and #1 in Sea Adventures on the 3rd day. On the 5th day, I set it aside and opened a new file. Step one was location. My other books are set in south Florida, the Keys, Cozumel, Mexico and Cuba. Since I'd ventured south and west, it was time to hoist the sails and set an easterly course. The Bahamas. I'm now 4 chapters and 17,000 words into my fifth book, a 100,000 word novel titled Fallen Coconut. The setting is the Florida Keys and the northern Bahamas. Elbow Cay in the Abacos, to be precise. The book will revolve around the search for Spanish treasure lost 440 years ago and of course will involve fast boats, beautiful tropical scenery, bad guys with guns, plot twists, and probably one or two beautiful women in bikinis.

2.   HOW DOES MY WORK DIFFER FROM OTHERS OF ITS GENRE?
Firstly, I write action/adventure. But, my books are quite a bit more adventure than action. I've received some bad reviews because there wasn't enough action in them and I just take that in stride. Yeah, there's action. An occasional bar room brawl, gun fight, even explosions, but mostly I try to convey the essence of life in the tropics. The REAL tropics, not the tourist traps. Have you ever been to the Florida Keys, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands, or the Bahamas? Did you know the bartender that served you a "Hurricane" or "Bahama Mama", the charter boat deck hand that kept your line baited and cleaned your catch and the taxi driver that took you back to your hotel actually have a life outside the bar, the boat, and the taxi, once you leave paradise? Seriously, they have friends, family, cars that break down and everything else like you have back home. It's that essence of actually living and working in paradise that I try to get across to my readers. Also, there's a bond between my characters. Some of them are bound by the laid back island lifestyle, but many are bound by something stronger. The bond between men (and women) who have served our country. You see, most of my "island bum" characters are prior military and our bond is stronger than the bond between many siblings. Throw in a little levity and romance and you have the REAL life in the tropics.

3. WHY DO I WRITE WHAT I WRITE?
I met a friend the other day that I hadn't seen in a couple of years. I was talking to another friend who asked about my books, and my old friend, having overhead, said, "You wrote a book?" When I told him that I was currently writing my 5th novel, he said, "Let me guess. They're about a Marine, or a charter boat Captain, or the Keys, right?" As Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain once said, "Write what you know." I'm an avid reader and go through at least 3 or 4 novels a month. It's really easy to pick out the authors that haven't "walked the walk". An author living in Kansas, who has never seen the ocean, would have a really hard time describing the pull of an undertow. But, if I had to survive a blizzard, that's the guy I'd want to turn to. I've lived next to the sea most of my life, rode on her surface, surfed her waves and dove to her depths, both for enjoyment and to earn a living. I've worked as a deckhand on a freighter, a divemaster on a charter boat and pulled fish from the water to sell at a local market. I know how Mother Ocean looks, feels and smells at night. I can actually feel the pull of the tide. I write about these things, because I haven't the slightest idea how to hunker down in a blizzard. Write what you know.

3.   HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS WORK?
This is a tough question, because I really have no idea. Seriously, I don't have the first clue how my books will end when I start writing. Nor do I have the slightest inkling what the next chapter, nor even the next paragraph will be about. Like my readers, I'm anxious to get to the end to find out what happens. I've always been a story teller. In the Marine Corps they're called "sea stories". Kind of like the old tall tales about Paul Bunyan and Babe, the blue ox, but with a decidedly nautical theme, a good "sea story" gets better and better with the retelling. As with all my books, I first pick a destination I think my readers might be interested in. Over the years, I've actually worked in many of the places I describe in my books and most of them are considered exciting tourist locations. To me at the time, they were just where the next job was. Once the destination is decided, I work on developing a story line and characters to take the reader there. Viola, a sea story.

5. AND ANOTHER PART OF THIS QUESTION, HOW DOES MY WRITING PROCESS NOT WORK?
In just about every other aspect of my life, I'm very organized. Okay, except the garage, it's a mess. Oh, and my closet, but I'm working on those. If you were to ask me how many copies of any of my books were sold on any particular day, I can not only tell you, but I can tell you what the price was on that particular day, how many were digital and how many were physical, and whether it was trending upward or downward. Organization doesn't work in my writing life, though. I'm constantly having to go back to a previous book to find out what color someone's eyes are, or what kind of boat they had. I'm working on this, too. Out of necessity. Going into my 5th book, I sometimes can't even remember what book something was mentioned in. I plan nothing in my writing, I just let the story take me where it goes. It's sometimes frustrating when other authors tell me about the plot outline they just finished for a book they plan to write ten years from now. The 3rd book in the series. Not the series they're currently writing. Not the series after the one they're writing either. Seriously? I'm pushing 60, there's just no way I can plan things out like that.

PASSING THE TORCH, OR WHO'S NEXT?
I've met some really cool people through my writing. Readers who tell me I caused them to openly weep, while in a tree stand, hunting deer. People who said I nailed the relationship between two Navy SEALS, or Recon Marines. I've also met some wonderful authors who have been quite successful and more than happy to pass on the knowledge they'd acquired. Writers who took me back to a 16th century galleon, sailing the trade route to the West Indies, or brought back memories of the Florida Keys in the carefree 1970's. Here are some some authors that I initially was a fan of and now I call friend. They are going to be answering these same questions.

Meet Randy Mixter.
Randy lives in Pasadena, Maryland, with his wife Veronica and their five cats. He writes in a variety of genres including Fantasy, Action/Adventure, Romance, Mysteries, and Suspense Thrillers. He currently has eleven novels and three short stories available, and has just completed writing his novella of love and redemption, The Road To Yesterday.
Randy's Website
Randy's Blog where he will answer the same questions I just did.
His book "Sarah of the Moon" takes the reader back to the summer of love, in 1967's  Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.

Fallen Out is LIVE on Amazon and only $.99!!!!

The day has finally come, a day ahead of schedule. Fallen Out is now available on Amazon for Kindle. Just click the cover image to the right to download it on Amazon. The paperback version will be available starting Saturday, 5/31.

Fallen Out is the prequel and now first book in the exciting Jesse McDermitt Action/Adventure Series. It starts with our hero, Jesse, experiencing his last day in the Marine Corps, where his retirement is a bittersweet end to 20 years of service and the beginning of his new life as a civilian. It ends with the first time he sees the beautiful Alexis DuBois, after being a charter boat Captain for almost three years.

In between, he's involved in bar fights, one night stands, and surviving a hurricane in the Everglades. Though a shorter read than the other three in the series, it packs every bit as much action and adventure. Guaranteed to keep you turning pages and easily read during a weekend at the beach.

For a limited time only, the Kindle version is available for only $.99. To celebrate the release, Fallen Palm and Fallen Hunter will also be priced at $.99 from Saturday morning, 5/31 until midnight on Monday, 6/2. You'll be able to get all four books for under $7 this weekend and this weekend only.

As always, half the proceeds from Fallen Pride, the 4th novel in the series, will be donated to the Wounded Warrior Project.

Fallen Out Release Date Announced, 5/31/14.

Fallen Out is nearly complete. The manuscript was submitted to my Proofreaders and Beta Readers last week. I got most of their recommendations back early this week, made my edits and submitted it to my Copy Editor for final review. Tomorrow and Friday, I'll be working on the Copy edits, scouring the manuscript for any more last minute proof or beta edits and will submit it to Amazon Friday night.

Fallen Out is the prequel to the first three books in the Jesse McDermitt series and ties in a lot of background details that many readers have asked about. It covers the time period from the day Jesse retires from the Marine Corps, to the day he meets his future wife, Alex, about 2-1/2 years.

It's a much shorter read than the previous books, only about 60% the length, and can easily be read during a trip to the beach. But, it does pack enough action to keep the action/adventure junkies happy.

It was a lot of fun to write, because the number of characters was considerably lower than the last book, Fallen Pride and it takes Jesse from his last day as a Marine to being a total noob in the Keys, a place he's visited many times, but never lived.

If everything goes the way I plan, it will be available on Amazon in either paperback or Kindle by Saturday morning, 5/31. I have a huge promo going that day on Fallen Hunter and hope to be able to take advantage of the sell through to other titles in the series and get it up and off the ground in a big way. The initial price for paperback is a low $8.99, plus shipping and the initial Kindle price will be a super low $.99. No, that's not a typo, less than a buck.

I Quit My Day Job!

After five years with the same company, I just up and quit. I'd been planning on it for quite a while and even set the date. I chose Independence Day. Having been an over the road truck driver for over 11 years, I was ready to get out of the truck and spend more time with my family. My writing was going to enable me to do just that and become completely independent.

Since my book sales have increased over the last three months, I informed the company three weeks ago that I wanted to do local driving, starting the following Monday. They have two divisions. The over the road drivers are out a week to three weeks at a time and the local drivers are home just about every night and always on weekends. Monday came and I was dispatched on a run to upstate New York. Living in South Carolina, that didn't quite fit the bill as a local driver. I accepted the load anyway, but reminded them I wanted to be local after that and put it in writing, in the form of an email to the owner, the General Manager, the head of HR and the head of Payroll. The following week I was local, never more than 250 miles from home, but didn't get home a single night. When I finally got back to the yard on Thursday, I was told I'd need to move out of my nice, new truck, which I'd just been assigned in January, and move into a five year old truck. The reason I was given was that my truck was needed for a new, over the road driver. Word travels fast on the yard and I learned that the new driver was to be a local driver at the Richmond yard. I was being dissed.

The GM is kind of a control freak, and I realized he was using that control against me, for no other reason than he could. Ours was a mutual hate relationship. He didn't even come out to tell me to move himself, but sent someone else, the owners son. I told him that I was already planning to quit and since moving out of a truck is a pain, taking several hours, I'd go ahead and give him a weeks notice now and move out next week. He got on the phone with the GM then hung up and said I'd have to move into the older truck that day. The GM was sure I was bluffing and he had me over the proverbial barrel.

I just smiled and said, "Then tell him to consider this my one hour's notice" and started cleaning out my truck. It felt great. I was ecstatic, looking forward to this new chapter in my life, just beginning. I had a few of my books in the truck. I put one of each of the first three in an envelope and gave it to the owners son, asking him to give them to his dad. I signed each one, thanking him for the opportunity to work for him. I also gave the owners son a signed copy of my first book, Fallen Palm. Since I was no longer bound by any of the company's ridiculous regulations about side work, I carried a box full of my books into the garage and sold 8 copies to my now ex-fellow employees.

Now, I'm home and not going anywhere. I've set up a schedule to write three hours every morning and then spend three hours networking and promoting in the evening, working in the yard and in our subsistence garden in between. The next six weeks will be a little bit of a struggle. I chose Independence Day because that's when my larger royalties will start being paid, due to the publication of my third book in April. We'll get by easy enough though.

For those that say dreams don't come true, sorry, they do. I've dreamed of being a full time writer since the '80's. Life and a non-supportive ex-spouse got in the way, and I set the dream aside. My wife now, is a very supportive and motivating person. She's also my biggest fan.

I'll finish the book I'm currently working on, Fallen Out, which is a prequel to the first three, by early next month and then start to work on the next one in the series. I hope to publish at least two more before the end of the year and five next year.

Life is good.......

Your Carolina interview.

On Monday, 4/21, I made a guest appearance on WSPA, the local CBS affiliate in the Greenville, SC area. It was a lot of fun talking with Megan Hiedleburg about my books and the Wounded Warrior Project.


My Interview With Megan

First Book Signing

A great place to have my first book signing. The Corps Store in Beaufort, SC on Recruit Graduation Day, Parris Island. Met some fine young Warriors and talked about my time in the Corps and what they might have to look forward to. The pride was clearly visible in their parents eyes. I only sold four books, but still had a great time.

Fallen Pride is now published.

It's been a hard four months, but I think it's been worth it. Last night, just after midnight, I clicked "Publish" for the third time, making the third book in the Jesse McDermitt series available. Through the magic of the internet, it's now available for download to Kindle, just eight hours later. The paperback version should be available in another few hours.

This book has been difficult to write at times. It involves a young Marine, recently returned from war, who suffers from post traumatic stress. Some parts are raw and emotional, but throughout I tried to carry the common theme of the brotherhood that exists between all our military people, while still trying to convey the essence of the Florida Keys.

I hope you will like this offering and remember, half the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to Wounded Warrior Project.