The world of Indie (or self) Publishing has really come into its own in the last year or so and many good authors are making connections with new readers and new markets. One of the greatest advantages to Indie Publishing is the ability to write many different genres, without being labelled a “horror” or “sci-fi” or “mystery” writer.

Michael Bunker, bestselling author of the WICK series and The Silo Archipelago, has embraced this whole-heartedly and in the last two years has published nonfiction, fan fiction, dystopian science fiction and now has even created his very own genre; Amish Science Fiction. If your first reaction was to arch an eyebrow, you wouldn’t the first; I certainly did. But after reading his latest book, Pennsylvania, I can honestly say that he knows what he’s doing. It’s a wonder no one had thought of this before.

Pennsylvania was originally released in five parts over the past year and on April 29th all the parts will be published together in the Pennsylvania Omnibus. Release dates are always big things and Michael has decided to kick it up a notch. A few weeks ago he announced plans for a “Book Bomb” on his website and newsletter, in an effort to get his readers to convince other readers to buy the book all on the same day, April 29th.

In response to this massive release party of sorts, I contacted Michael about doing an interview along with the review of Pennsylvania that I already had planned. The response I got absolutely blew my mind. Not only did he want to do the interview but also the responses I received were more than I ever expected. In fact, they were so great that I decided to dedicate an entire blog post to our conversation.

So without further ado, Ladies and Gentleman: Michael Bunker.

Josh Hayes: First, thank you for taking the time to sit down and chat with me.

Michael Bunker: Thanks for having me.

JH: You have written books in many different genres, with Wick and your Wool fan fiction and now your Sand fan fiction and you seem to have no difficulties making the transition between genres. Now, with your most recent project you have even created your own genre, how did you come up with the idea for Pennsylvania?

MB: It was actually a very natural progression for me. I live off-grid in a "plain" community in Central Texas. Yet, I have an office on my property that is powered by off-grid "alternative" energy (solar power and generators.) Every day I experience both worlds, and even in my office I have this very serious meeting of the old world and the new. As I answer this question I am typing on a laptop computer powered by solar power, but in my office I have no electric lights, no running water.  My office is heated by a wood-burning stove.  

Still, people see my lifestyle and then they see that I'm online and on Facebook and since they don't know anything about the "why" of how we choose to live, they see it as a contradiction (or worse, a hypocrisy.) But the truth is that every single one of us is making decisions every day about what new technologies we choose to adopt, and just how far we intend to go down that road.  No person on earth accepts every technology that is out there. We all draw lines. We all experience the challenge of trying to live deliberately in this world that is changing so very fast.

As a "plain" person, I make decisions just like you do. I consider what is good for me and for my family and for my community, and I choose (very deliberately) what technologies I will use and when. No Amish person or plain person is "anti-technology." We all use technology. A frying pan is technology. A toothbrush is technology. The plain people just draw the lines in a different place than the rest of the world, and they do it deliberately and based on what they feel is best for themselves, their community, and their families. There is no hypocrisy. We all do it.

So I, probably more than most people, experience and think about these contrasts and tensions. I imagined the Amish in the 1600's and after that -- during the period of colonization -- coming to Pennsylvania from Europe. They would have gotten on massive ships that were every bit as strange and wonderful and frightening to them as a spaceship would be to us today. They partook in this space age technology in order to go to a place that advertised religious freedom, and good, cheap, and available land.  

This, for all intents and purposes, was identical to our Sci-Fi concepts of planetary colonization.  So this is how the idea came to be.  I thought about my life, and whether I would get on a spaceship to colonize another planet if I could get the things I want for myself, my community, and my family... and I would do it!

JH: I hear people all the time complaining that they don’t have enough time to write, and yet I constantly see you posting on Facebook and your website. What do you like most about interacting with your fans and how do you find time for both writing and communicating with your fan base?

MB: I think it is very natural for me as a creator who makes a form of art to be fascinated with how other minds experience my work. So my favorite part of interacting with fans is kind of layered. I like experiencing people almost anthropologically - watching how different people with different backgrounds and different ideas relate with my work and my career. And then it is also great to be around people who love something that I love. I love literature. I love to read, and I love to write. The people who really get into the Indie publishing movement and interact are the true book lovers out there. Probably the most intense and pure book lovers in the history of the world are at the forefront of the Indie publishing movement -- as readers and as writers -- and it is a joy to interact with them.

I would also say that we are in a very exciting time for literature. The technology, the talent, and the "system" coming together in a strange and exciting confluence of events means that for the first time in history readers have unprecedented access to their favorite authors. The authors that allow this, and encourage it, and participate in it in a very authentic way are going to find themselves in a better position to succeed in this new and dynamic market.  I think that most authors (almost all of them) are getting it wrong, but that is always the way when something like this happens in the culture.

How do I find time to write AND communicate with my fan base? I make time.  Of course I anger some writers when I tell the truth about the minuscule amount of time authors spend actually writing.  One of the biggest myths in the history of the world is the myth of the writer pounding out words all day every day for years to write a single novel. Some writers perpetuate this myth, but it is nonsense and they are not being truthful.  The Internet is finally exposing that little lie and I say that it is about time for that myth to come crashing to the ground.  I try to write every day, but if I can get in a few hours of writing, that is all it takes for me to push out a LOT of books. Polished, well-crafted, professionally presented books.  Actually, most of my day is spent in the business of being an author. Emails, social media, messages, interviews, signing and shipping books, working with my team to edit and format the books, etc.  So communicating with my readers is a part of what I do every day. It is both my job, and a great joy. I don't see it as a hindrance or a pain or anything. I enjoy it. These are my friends and getting to spend time "at work" with your friends is more of a bonus than it is a chore.

JH: Many writers (myself included) have started projects, been excited about it and when confronted with the ominous uphill battle that is traditional publishing, gave up and threw away the manuscript. What was the pivotal moment in your writing career when you decided you were going to start (and finish) a story and then to self-publish?

Wow! That is a very good, interesting, and difficult question and will require a vague and rambling answer! I have been writing in one form or another all of my life.  I wrote a full 350 page novel when I was 22 years old. I was writing that novel when I first met my wife. But I never really tried to get it published. The whole system of submitting and querying in the mainstream system seemed very daunting and dehumanizing to me.  It still does.  I wanted to write, and I would have liked to have been read, but I wasn't willing to prostrate myself at the feet of the system in order to be successful, so I never really tried.  That novel went into a drawer (actually a filing cabinet,) and never saw the light of day (thank goodness!).

Frankly, that is one of the only good things I can say about the long history of the mainstream publishing industry.  A lot of really embarrassingly bad first-books—written by good writers—never got published.  Clearly, a lot of really good first-books didn't get published too, and that is a shame, but as for me... I'll always be thankful I never self-published my early writings.

Anyway, when the Internet really got going and the blog revolution took place in the very late 90's, I started writing a blog that got really popular. By 2009 I was writing every day, and in 2011 I wrote and published my first big non-fiction book on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) which proved to me that I could make money writing books. That non-fiction book was a smash hit and went to #39 in all of Amazon.  

So after that, I was starting to think that I might be able to write for a living full-time someday.  I wrote my first fiction novel (in the modern era!) in 2011 and published it in March of 2012. So that was my first experience actually writing fiction for publication. That book (The Last Pilgrims) did well, but I learned that writing fiction is MUCH harder than writing non-fiction, and fiction is harder to sell.  It took me awhile to research and study the business, and learn how to do it in a way that could possibly be successful. I learned about Hugh Howey and WOOL that summer of 2012 and began studying his process and his thoughts on publishing. That is what really drove me to seek to be an author as a career.  I worked with an old high school friend (Chris Awalt) on the WICK series, the first of which was published in the very end of December of 2012.  In reality, my "career" started on December 26th, 2012 because that is when we hit "publish" on WICK 1.  That was probably the most pivotal moment for me, when I was casting off all of the ropes and tethers, and that was when I decided I would be an author full-time. All-in-all, I haven't been doing this very long!

JH: When it comes to the process of actually writing there are seemingly infinite was to work on a project. I think the battleground for Linear and Non-linear writers would be a fierce contest. What is your preferred method? Do you write from start to finish (from A to B) or do you jump around from scene to scene?

I'm not sure if anyone can do a pure A to B writing of a book, but for the most part I do it that way. Of course, within that process I do jump around a little when necessary.  Maybe later in the book I'll think "this will be understood better if there is an earlier scene where Dawn and Amos talk about this topic," or "wouldn't it be cool if this item appeared or this situation happened way back then so that it would make this later situation mean more." That sort of thing.  But for the most part, I write from the beginning to the end.  During editing, the book is fleshed out -- expanding like an accordion. Maybe this is why I like the concept of time-travel so much. Because writing a book is very much like traveling back and forth in time.

JH: Does the finished product resemble the original story you had in your head when you started writing?

MB: Almost always. Completely.  Although there may be a few surprises here and there, and the details are usually unknown to me until they happen, the overall "bones"... the structure of the story... ends up like I first imagined it.

JH: What's next for the world of Bunker?

MB: Thanks for asking!  I have a lot on my plate right now... I'm writing a serialized, seasonal fiction novel entitled DIGGER with the man who is probably my favorite living fiction author right now... Nick Cole.  Nick wrote the fabulous Wasteland Saga which started with The Old Man and the Wasteland. I'm very excited about that project.  I'm also co-writing a few books in the Bombo Dawson Adventure series with some friends.  Kevin G. Summers and I wrote LEGENDARIUM, the first Bombo adventure (after Hugh Howey Must Die!) this past month, and we are currently at work on LEGENDARIUM II.  I am also working on two non-fiction titles.  I am working with the very talented Tim Grahl on a top-secret non-fiction book, and I am working with my talented daughter Tracy Bunker on the first in a series of Beyond Off-Grid Living "how to" books.  On top of that, there are two of my fiction series, which are still on-going.  Cold Harbor will be the sequel to The Last Pilgrims, and Oklahoma will be the sequel to Pennsylvania.  So, I think I have plenty to do!

JH: Well, I won’t keep you from it then! Michael, I had a fantastic time chatting with you, thanks for taking time out of your schedule to talk with me. I look forward to reading more of your work and wish you all the best!

MB: Thanks, Josh! I enjoyed it.

Check out my review of Pennsylvania and be sure to share this post and review with your friends! Let’s make Michael’s “Book Bomb” go nuclear!

You can pick up copies of all of Michael’s books here: Michael Bunker’s Amazon Author Page

For more information on Michael Bunker and his books, check out his website www.journal.michaelbunker.com and his new blog at http://michaelbunker.thirdscribe.com/.

His Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/MichaelBunker and Twitter: @mbunker.

I have dabbled in writing off and on for the better part of twenty years; it’s always been a fun hobby and until recently, I never really thought about it as actual work. I can’t count the number of projects I’ve started, loved and worked on, only to get bored and lose focus halfway through. The amount of unfinished stories I have laying around is silly. Maybe one day…

Throughout my life there have been times were I would write every day for hours, but usually those periods of inspiration were separated by weeks—even months—of not writing a single word. Little voices in my head told me I would have time to finish the book later, that eventually inspiration would hit and the book would write itself. Surprisingly, this never happened.

Until recently, my “writing career” has consisted of unfinished projects and ideas that never seem to make the transition from my brain to paper. It was always been just a fun pastime, something I really didn’t take very seriously. Of course, I’ve always dreamed of seeing my books on bookshelves, even thought about becoming rich and famous, something always held me back. I’m not exactly sure what that was either. Maybe it was the dread of submitting the completed manuscript to a publisher or worse: that people would hate my work. (I know on some level that fear is still there.) 

But you know what I discovered? If I don’t ever finish a book, no one will ever have the opportunity to hate it and more importantly; love it. About the same time this light bulb went off a second blinked on right beside it: books don’t write themselves. They take work, and finally for the first time in my life I made the decision to take that work seriously.

My first hurdle was not having a deadline. Anyone that knows me can tell you, I’m quite possibly the biggest procrastinator in the entire world. Hell, I put off vacuuming until 5 minutes before my wife gets home when I’ve had all day to do it. Not having a deadline was killing my writing. I could put off working on a project indefinitely because it wasn’t due…ever.

So, I stated this blog and decided that no matter what I would have something posted every week. I planned several post for this blog, as well as posts that I will write for my reviews page, and gave myself deadlines for everything. Looking at my “work” calendar can be slightly overwhelming sometimes, but having something due every week reminds me that I need to sit down and write.

After developing my work schedule for the website I decided to push the envelope even further and give myself a daily word count that was completely independent of the words I wrote for my blog or reviews. 500 was the lucky number and I created a spreadsheet to track and calculate my daily, weekly and monthly totals.

At first, I told myself I needed 500 words EVERYDAY but after the first week, I realized writing seven days a week wasn’t the best idea either. I didn’t want to burn myself out. There is a reason the workweek isn’t 7 days, body and mind require rest to work properly. So I decided to give myself a break during my writing week as well. I set aside two days during the week that I’m not required to work, even though I probably will.

Week 1 is officially in the books and so far, I have met my goals (with the exception of Sunday--Bad Josh!) What’s interesting is that the more I hit “Publish Live” on by blog and the more numbers I punch into my spreadsheet, the more I want to write. Finishing a book is a great goal, and one that you should work hard at, but sometimes that can been too much to handle. If you’re anything like me, that goal seems so far away that some days I doesn’t even seem reachable. So, instead of having one massive goal give yourself smaller, more manageable ones. 

Having reasonable and attainable goals will keep you motivated and make you WANT to reach the next one. Sometimes it feels like it takes forever to reach that 500th word, but other days I surpass it and keep right on typing. Even Stephen King can’t write a novel in a day but he can (and does) punch out a few hundred words each day. 

Set yourself a goal: a page a day, 500 words a day it doesn’t matter. But whatever it is, stick to it no matter what. So, finish reading this silly blog, pull up your project and start typing. They don’t have to be good words; they just have to be words.

Because if you don’t take your writing seriously no one else will.

Now go write.

Josh 

Growing up my family moved around a lot. My Dad served in the Army and every 2-3 years he would get orders to a new base and we would pack all our things, load them on a big truck and move on to a new place. When I was about 13 or 14 my Dad was stationed at Fort Drum, in upstate New York and during our first winter we learned that "lake effect" snow isn't like any other snow we'd ever experienced before. The first time it snowed took my Mom, brother and I, the better part of three hours to shovel out our driveway. Of course, after all that work there was some serious fort building that followed. My brother and I quickly became the Official Snow Fort Engineers for the block.

Coincidentally, this was also the time in my life when I started writing. I wrote a story called “The Final Frontier” in a one-subject notebook with a red cover. I've kept it in a black briefcase and carried it around with me wherever I've moved. As you can see it was TOP SECRET, and it will remain as such. Likewise, its sequel “Armada” (which I also still have) will remained stored in an unmarked box in the garage. I never submitted these outstanding pieces of literary history--the market just wasn't ready for them. (And I had no idea where I'd submit them even if I'd wanted to.) Had I submitted them, I have no doubt they would have been picked up by any number of agents or publishers...and promptly thrown in the nearest dumpster.

Where was I?

Oh yeah, New York.

Unfortunately for our Snow Fort Engineering Career, winter doesn't last all year--even though sometimes it seemed that way and we had to find other ways to have fun. Luckily for us, warm weather brought with it baseball, and that meant plenty of afternoons watching the Watertown Indians play. This farm team for the Cleveland Indians, played in a small stadium, had a dirt parking lot and most importantly; had hot dogs that weren't $15. 

The Minor Leagues were just as enjoyable as the Major League games we went to and we could go to a lot more simply because they were cheaper.  Interestingly enough, in all the games I went to, I never heard anyone say they would rather be at a big league game or that they wouldn't come to another game or that the game-play was sub-par to the Majors. Sure, much of young talent still learning but they were honing their skills and putting the work in to get better.

For every Major League athlete making $50K a game, there are a hundred Minor League athletes making $100 a game.  It doesn't necessarily mean they are worse players either; the right scout just hasn’t seen them at the right time. Indie authors, in my opinion, fit into this category.

For every big name author out there, there are hundreds of midlist writers just getting their start. Hell, some aren’t even on a list. They put their time in, sitting in front of blank computer screens, furiously typing away for hours before holding the backspace key down and deleting everything. Then they start again. The process is the same for Indie authors and traditional authors, well mostly. Write, edit, rewrite, edit, delete, write, edit, and publish.

There seems to be a lot of resentment of Indie authors, I read a blog post the other day that said independent authors shouldn’t call themselves “authors”. Really? I'm sure that every person playing on the Watertown Indians considers themselves a baseball player! It's not like they have to score a specific amount of home runs before they can call themselves a real baseball player. 

What's difficult for me to understand about people not liking Indie authors is that the "indie scene" has been around for years. Ever heard of the Sundance Film Festival? I've seen many Independant Films that blow the socks off most of the movies coming out of Hollywood these days. That not good enough for you? How about music; I Googled "indie music festival" and only got around 114 MILLION hits. I’m sure, the person singing in a cover band downtown at your local bar considers themselves a singer. So why do so many people look down on Indie Authors?  Even with the amount of Indies that publishers are picking up and the amount of midlist authors putting out great books, there is still this stigma surrounding it. 

I don’t like the phrase “self-publish” because what we do is much more than just “publish,”, but I am a proud Indie. I also don’t like to call myself an author (not yet anyway, maybe someday); I’m a writer. But I'm a writer putting in work now so one day I can call myself an Indie Author, and when I do I'll be proud to do it.

The Minor leagues is a great place to be and with the tools and resources like CreateSpace and Amazon and Nook available right now, it’s a great time to be here. And most hot dogs (or books) are only $3 or less.

Below is a list of some great Indie Authors, writers that put in hard work and are creating great books, check them out and show your support! 

www.journal.michealbunker.com

www.scottmoonwriter.com

www.samanthalafantasie.com

www.jasongurley.com

http://www.hughhowey.com/

http://www.jakonrath.com/

This morning I woke up knowing that I would be typing these words: THE END. The first draft of Beast is now finished, but I have mixed feeling about it. I am very excited (but equally nervous) for the draft to be complete, even though “complete” isn’t quite the right word.

This morning marks the first time since I’ve really dedicated myself to writing (and finishing) a story, that I’ve actually completely finished a planned first draft. When I started Beast I had several scenes that I knew were going to be needed, and basically outlined everything before I started writing—something I’ve never done before—and now all those scenes are written.

Several new ideas have popped up throughout the writing process, both good and bad, some of which I even included in the first draft. But I came to the conclusion a week ago that if I didn’t have a serious plan for completing the draft, rewrites and edits that the book might never get finished. So I moved all my new ideas and rewrites into a completely different folder and focused on finishing what I had planned and told myself that I wasn’t allowed to work on the new material until the old was finished. I’m not sure if that is a completely logical way of doing things, but being able to mark then end of one stage and consciously moving on to the next was a big milestone for me and makes me want to reach another.

Now comes the process of editing, rewriting and editing and polishing and ultimately publishing. This project started out as a short story and has grown into much more. Hell, even the main character has changed, but I feel that the overall story blows my original idea out of the water. (Now, whether it’s actually good or not, that’s still up for debate.)

The writing was the fun part, the publishing part, however, terrifies me. My goal is to have the book ready to publish by this summer, I think it’s completely doable, but since I’ve never done this before my estimates could be off. The entire process is a little overwhelming; I’ve broken it down into several stages and having just completed Stage One I feel confident that I’ll be able to power through the remaining stages.

So, with as much certainty as I can have, I would like to put this out there:

Beast by Josh Hayes COMING SUMMER 2014

Welcome to the new and improved Josh Hayes Writer website!

I really liked using Blogger but after deciding to do reviews every other week and blogs and get you guys updated on my projects, it just didn't have what I needed.

So after a few hours of research and checking out several different options, I have found that Weebly has the tools and functionality that I need and want to take my writing and my website to the next level.

Take your time and look around (even though right now there isn't a whole lot to look at).  New blogs will be up every week and check back for updates on current projects and ideas!

Josh