MathiasCavanaugh.com

So, 2014 is underway.  Time to layout the plan for this year.

As of right now, I am still shopping my manuscript for Under the Darkened Moon around.  Been a little lazy about it, and will keep chugging away.  Nothing’s changing on this front.

I now have 3 short stories that, I think, and so does my focus group, are ready to go out into the world.  These will be submitted to various contests and publications throughout 2014 to see if they can garner any attention.

Hopefully one or more of them will be noticed and published.  If not, I plan on releasing them in various formats for download.  Plans are right now that they will be free, in preparation for what might be the need to self-publish my manuscript at some point in the furture.

I’ll keep everyone appraised of my progress on these plans as the year unfolds.  Wish me luck!

Yesterday, something wonderful happened.  I completed the manuscript for Under the Darkened Moon.

It’s been a wonderful journey, considering that it is the first novel I have been able to completed in darn near twenty years of attempting to write a novel.  I’ve gone through a whole range of emotions from joy (at having done it), to sorrow (at realizing my characters, my children, are all grown up), to fear (at realizing that now the hard part begins as I search for an agent and publisher).

The whole experience of writing this story began last year on July 18th and has spanned, officially, 517 days (44,668,800 seconds) of my life. It’s hard to believe, but I’ve spent over 2,000 hours either directly working on this story or thinking about it.  That’s a lot of time.
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I see a lot of authors (generally those who are self-publishing) dismiss bad reviews of their books.  Google the topic and there is no end to the number of budding authors explaining why they don’t care if someone gives their book a bad review.  Or, even worse, why they don’t even read what other people say about their book.

Well, I say that’s a bad attitude.  I think it is a dangerous stance to take where you choose to shelter yourself from criticism.  This is especially true, I believe, for indy, self-published authors.  I think you SHOULD care about bad reviews.

Look, unless you are Stephen King or J.K. Rowling, and going to sell books no matter what you write, then not caring about criticism only hurts you.  Face it, only once you are at a point in your career where you actually don’t have to worry about the critics, because you’ve proven yourself as someone who knows how to write and sell books, should you even remotely consider no longer worrying about the critics.  Frankly, most my fellow authors out there whom I have seen state they don’t care about their critics are not at this point in their careers yet.  In fact, most of them are FAR, FAR, FAR from that point. (more…)

Every day I get asked the same question, “Why are you still editing that novel of yours?”

I don’t think the answer is that complicated.  I simply want to produce a quality story in the end.  And, while I and others who have read Under the Darkened Moon think that the story is good, I personally don’t think it is good enough quite yet.  Although, I do think it is quickly getting there.

For me, there is no rush.  I’ve been writing off and on for over twenty years.  My very first novel, which I started back in high school, had three years invested into it and never got even half way done.  For Under the Darkened Moon, I opened the file (started writing the story) on June 18th of last year.  It is now October, nearly November a year later.  I could have pushed this work out there six months ago, at least according to some opinions, but certainly not my own.   As one person in my review group said, “It’s already better than 95% of what is self-published on Amazon and other sites like that.” (more…)

Last month, as you all know, I wrote about my thoughts concering Harper Voyager opening itself up for direct submissions until October 14th.  I could have easily hit that deadline and had Under the Darkened Moon edited and formatted.  And for a few weeks I was seriously contemplating doing just that and submitting my novel for consideration.

However, after much thought, I have decided not to take advantage of the opportunity.  Yes, even thought his opportunity may not come around again to directly submit to Harper Voyager.  Some people might think that it is foolish for me pass up any opportunity.  But, as I have learned in my life, just because opportunities present themselves does not mean all should be jumped at.  I’ve had my fair share of opportunities that I took simply because they were opportunities and have been left holding the proverbial bag. (more…)

A friend of mine, who adores my current WIP (Under the Darkened Moon) asked me, “So, when are you publishing?”

I don’t know, I said, probably once I find an agent and they find me a publisher.
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The Fantasy-Faction Anthology has begun releasing it’s long list of 30 stories from which the six for publication will be selected.  The anthology received about 1,700 submissions.

The first five titles for consideration were released yesterday, and over this week the remaining 25 will also be announced.  And no, my submission Second Chances did not make the cut as of yet.  With so many submissions, the odds were never really in my favor, but I thought I would try anyway.

So far, the fist five titles on the long list are:

You Have Only One Chance by Vasso Christou

Winter Unicorn by Rose Taylor

Alderwood Bodies by Steve Erdal

Ninety-nine Macaws by Leslianne Wilder

The Dealer by Miah Saunders

It was kind of exciting when I heard that Harper Voyager was opening itself up for direct submissions for its e-book publishing department.  Harper Voyager, the Sci-Fi & Fantasy imprint of HarperCollins, is looking for, according to its site, submissions to fill an apparently gaping void in publication schedules of ebooks.

“Currently, we are looking to acquire enough content to release a new Harper Voyager digital title each month,” the company announced.  How many months however is a mystery.  It could be a year, two years, or a couple of months.  No one knows how many books they are looking to acquire.  Even so, expect Harper Voyager to get flooded by authors with big dreams when they open up the submission process on October 1^st.  The submission period ends October 14^th.

However, my initial excitement has been kind of tempered since reading this.  What follows are my thoughts as I have worked through whether or not Under the Darkened Moon, if polished in time, might in fact get submitted. (more…)

Ok, so I have been thinking about my “plan” for moving forward as I seek to get my work published.  My wife and I are currently on Chapter 13 of the live read edit for Under the Darkened Moon, and I have given myself a deadline of the end of September to have it, and the edits that come from it, done.  Boom, put it to bed.  It will be, by that point, as polished as it is going to get without the cost of professional editing.*

I am going to start the process of querying literary agents at that point.  I will be doing batches of 10 at a time and give each batch two or three weeks to reply before I send out the next round.  Some agents, I realize, don’t work that fast, but I figure it will give some nice overlap moving forward.  Oh, and BTW, if you are a literary agent and would like to see my work before I start querying, then by all means drop me a line to get at the top of the list!  I love it when people show initiative!  It’s a trait that I highly admire in people! (more…)

Writing contests are crap shoots. Just because you don’t win doesn’t mean your work sucks. First of all, the more entries there are, the stiffer your competition is. Your story can still be great but loose because others stories were simply greater.

There is also the problem of the specific tastes of the judges themselves. I don’t care how unbiased they try to be, they still have their preferences to what they do and do not like.  And if you’re not what they like?  Well, the odds are stacked against you even further. (more…)