Welcome to the latest stop on the It Takes All Kinds of Characters blog tour.

In the previous episode, urban fantasy and science fiction author Scott Moon talked about his smooth operating, gunslinging, ex-soldier Kin Roland of Moon's Enemy of Man and Son of Orlan books. Kin is a tough-minded fighter, who goes to great, and sometimes dangerous, lengths to protect the ones he cares for.

Scott invited me to take part in the Tour and I was happy to join in!

The character I decided to talk about today is the main protagonist from my upcoming Second Star series, Lt. John McNeal.

Enjoy!

1. Describe how you came up with the idea for your character:

John grew out of my need for a character whose name is “John”. He was originally an astronaut, then a space fighter pilot, and then eventually a futuristic jet-fighter pilot. I needed a character that could lead my other characters against their enemies and connect to the source material. (I don’t want to give too much of the secret away)


He is calm and collected and has no time for bullshit, but at the same time has a healthy sense of humor which helps him cope with the conflict around him. 

2. When and where is the setting of their story?

The story is set in the not so distant future, say the 2060s or 70s. The “where” is secret, but it is basically an alien world that John is pulled into by accident. This planet has been ravaged by a war much different than the wars of John’s home, Earth and fortunately for us (not so much for John) he has been thrown right in the middle of it.

3. Tell what things you want people to know about them.

John is intelligent and determined. He is a patriot, but also a realist. In his time wars are fought at the whims of the corporations that fund the military. John’s strength comes from having a desire to serve, but he wants to serve for the right reasons and in his time, and on his world, it is impossible for him to do that. His weakness is speaking his mind, even at times that it isn’t appropriate to do so. His time in the service has also disillusioned him and the idea of service to a higher good no longer means what it use to. 

He is extremely reluctant to get involved with their conflict, it's not his fight after all and all he wants to do is go home. But as he spends more time among them and see what they struggle to live through, he becomes more and more certain of what he must do.

4.Their main conflict, and how they develop from dealing with it.

The broad strokes of the story are that the group of people John finds himself with a small band of freedom fighters, fighting against an oppressive government. With John’s unexpected arrival they begin to see hope and if they can convince him to help them, maybe they can bring an end to many long years of fighting.

5.Title of your work.           

The story is called Second Star: Breaking Through and is the first book in a planned series of five novellas. Right now the book is with my editor and I should have it back by the end of the week. I’m hoping for a late October release. 

I invited Kory M. Shrum to follow me on the tour, be sure you check out her post next week!

Writing…it’s what I do.

Because I’m so close to releasing my first book, Second Star: Breaking Through, I’ve been thinking a lot about what I’m trying to get out of this whole “writer” thing. What goals am I trying to accomplish and how am I going to measure success? Of course, numbers are important, but is that all it really boils down to?

Yesterday, while watching my writing partners swim around aimlessly in their own little private world, I decided that numbers weren’t really the driving force for my writing, and that I would count it a success if I sold one copy or one million copies. Hell, I’m going to be writing anyway, I’ve been doing it for years before I even learned about the world of Indie Publishing.

I mean, if I’m going to be writing anyway, whatever money I make is just a bonus, right?

As I was writing Breaking Through, I constantly worried about it if would sell or not. Of course, I want people to enjoy the book, but for some reason I had it in my head that if it wasn’t a breakout hit, it would be a failure.

This weekend, I read an article about Elmore Leonard, an extremely successful and popular Hollywood author. It covered some details about his life and described how he struggled to become that popular writer. You see, he wasn’t always successful and popular, in fact, it took him thirty years of writing to finally have a breakout hit. Thirty years.

That’s when my own light bulb came on. DING! I didn’t have to write a breakout hit with my first book. Don’t get me wrong, that would be awesome, but I was putting so much pressure on myself thinking that if the book didn’t immediately soar to the bestseller list in its first week then what was the point? When selling books really isn’t the point at all, its writing them and knowing that people are reading them. Even if it’s only twenty people.

I write because I enjoy writing. 

You say, “But doesn’t it cost a lot of money to publish your work?” Well, sure, it does, but then I would come back with this, “what hobbies don’t cost money?” And my follow up would be, “and how many of those hobbies pay you back?”

Now, granted, I’ve only made a grand total of $5 on my first published story, The Watch, but I’m completely okay with that. There are people out there that have read my work, and from the feedback I’ve received, it appears that people enjoyed it. That’s enough for me.

Now, I’m not saying that writing is just a hobby for me; I take it very serious and dedicate a lot of my time and energy to perfecting my craft. Whether it's working on posts for my blog, doing reviews or author interviews or playing around with cover art, it's all part of my passion to create. 

I don't plan to hit it big; in fact, I don't even plan to hit it any size. I plan on writing stories, then making those stories into the highest quality book I can and putting them out there for people read. If it took Elmore Leonard thirty years to make it big, why should I care if I make it big with my first book?

When I was considering going back to school a few years about, I was talking with my Dad and I told him it was going to take forever to graduate. I said, “Dad, at this rate I won’t graduate til I’m 40.” His answer to this was so profound I literally blew my mind and changed the way I look at almost everything I set out to do, he said, "Well, son, you're going to be 40 anyway, so you can be 40 with a degree or 40 without one." 

Mind. Blown.

If by some anomaly it sells a gazillion copies, well, I’ll probably freak-out for a few days and then I’ll write the next one. If it doesn't sell a gazillion copies then I'll still be writing the next one, and the next one, and the next one. 

It’s what I do.

First off, I’m not sure if I went through some kind of time/space portal-wormhole-rift or what, but I’m pretty sure I lost a whole month.

August was a busy month for me and when I sit back and think about everything that happened, I’m surprised I was able to get any writing done at all.

I spent a week working in a completely new unit at my day job, spent a few days learning how to train people to do my current job, oh, and I had a baby. Let’s not forget that! Of everything that happened in August, that was notably the most important. Baby is healthy, cute as can be and already giving Dad fits! I wish I could sleep half as well as she can.

…and one of my fish died…

August also marked the first time I sent work out for beta reading. I was nervous as hell, and really not sure what to expect. I set a fairly conservative deadline for my beta readers and gave them a list of everything I was looking for in the way of feedback. I imagined the process going one of two ways: either they’d all love it, or they’d all hate it. I couldn’t have been more wrong.

The feedback I received was extremely helpful, even though some of the things people pointed out I had to slap myself on the forehead while thinking, “How in the world did I not see that?” From little things like spelling and grammar, to bigger things like story and consistency. 

To say that I’m grateful would be an understatement. Jimi, Tricia, Ruth, Chris, Scott, and Samantha, you guys are the best! Thank you so much!

So now, after spending a few days working through beta feedback and another round of self-editing, Second Star is off to my editor. While I wait, on pins and needles, to see how badly it gets ripped apart, I will continue working on Book 2, squeezing in writing between feedings and burpings and changings and sleepings. I’m excited about bringing all these characters to life and exploring everything they have to offer. The first two books have changed slightly since I plotted them a few months ago, but the heard of the story remains! 

I can’t wait for you guys to experience it!

I also did a little work on Second Star’s cover, but I think I might have been a little premature in posting the “final” cover art. I’ve had some feedback over the last day and a half, which suggests a different take on the font used for the title. So, work on the cover continues. But so far, here’s the newest version:

I’m hoping to have the book back from my editor in the first week in October and I’m aiming for a November release! *crossing fingers*

And now I have to go feed the baby…