FLEE Audiobook finally here!

It's been months since I started the approval process (the files were last submitted on January 25th!), but I'm pleased to announce that my first audiobook, FLEE, is finally available on Amazon.

You may have already caught some of these chapters on my YouTube channel, but much of this audiobook has been re-recorded with professional equipment. I personally think it sounds a lot better than the old version!

So if you're a fan of audiobooks, consider checking this one out!

Tiny update!

It’s been almost a month since my last post, and I know things have been pretty quiet here since, so I thought I’d write up a short update for you all.

The audiobook (including re-recorded chapters) is finally complete and is currently going through Amazon’s Audible review process. This has been a bit more tiresome of a process than I originally anticipated, and many chapters were rejected multiple times due to minor sound issues (some of the peaks were too high, some of the narration was too soft). Each review process can take from 7-10 days, and each time new files are uploaded the process has to restart, so it’s taking a much longer time than I’d expected.

As always, jumping into a completely new medium was a tremendous learning experience, and I’ll be releasing a podcast episode soon on a few of the practical lessons I came away with. A lot of them apply to public reading and speaking, and many of you might find them useful in your own talks/readings/ministry. Reading is such an essential part of what we do as Witnesses, but there’s so much more to it than just speaking words from a page. Stay tuned for the podcast and you’ll see what I mean.

Of course, in spite of all the experience gleaned from this audiobook, I’m still a novice narrator (performer?), and there’s plenty of room for improvement in future books. My goal at present is to begin work on the audiobooks for STAY and STAND once FLEE is released. Once the trilogy is done, I’ve got other ideas for projects that I’d love to dive into as time permits. More than likely, this’ll mean that there will be no new books coming in 2020, but if you’ve been following my work for any length of time you’ll know that plans can and will change, so we shall see!

And I’m done! Sort of…

So today I uploaded the final chapter of my first audiobook, FLEE, to my YouTube channel. Recording and editing all twenty-one chapters more involved than I was anticipating, but as always, I learned so many valuable things from the process. In the end, I was able to get into a good routine (establishing routines are always so important for creative projects). I’d wake up a little early each morning, when the apartment was quiet and the traffic noises outside weren’t too obnoxious, and would record a single chapter, which I’d then edit later in the evening when I had some spare time. (Since I’m not doing any of this full time, it’s sometimes a struggle to find the time here and there to work on things)

Of course, in spite of being done with all twenty-one chapters, I’m not really finished. Since I purchased a professional microphone midway through the project (which is why everything after chapter nine sounds so much better), the quality of the two halves of the book are vastly different. In addition to the technical aspect of recording, my reading and voice acting skills also improved quite a bit as I went along. I could feel myself slowing down and really savoring the reading and getting into the mind of each character (as opposed to just reading words on the screen to get through the material in the beginning).

So all of this adds up to me really needing to redo the first nine chapters, three of which I’ve already recorded in the last couple of days. I’m working much more quickly than I was in the beginning so I’m not expecting the final six chapters to take all that long, but once they are done I’ll be uploading the entire thing to ACX, Amazon’s audiobook site. Once that’s done, I’ll probably put together a little video for those of who who haven’t used Audible (Amazon’s audiobook app) to show how to purchase and listen to the book if you’re so inclined.

As always, I want to express my appreciation to those of you who had the patience to wait for the release of each audiobook chapter, which weren’t really uploaded according to any sort of discernible schedule (I did them as I found time for them). Also appreciated were the tips and suggestions, usually in the form of comments on YouTube. This feedback is vital, and I feel it really helped me improve as I went through the process.

Although I’ve got plenty of room to grow as a narrator, this project was unexpectedly enjoyable, and I found myself doing more research than I’d originally intended to capture certain accents (Mexican, Colombian, Indian, Southern, New Orleaniean, Canadian). Some of the voice acting is still in need of improvement, but I hope the next two books will afford me exactly that opportunity for growth.

Thanks for listening!

I’ve decided to bite the bullet!

Hi all! Well, I’ve jumped straight into a new project since the completion of STAND, and in the last three weeks have produced about half of the audiobook recording for FLEE. It’s been a fun project, and has provided a unique challenge quite unlike anything I’ve attempted before.

I’ve come to realize that audiobook readings are less reading and more performing. It demands a lot more energy than writing the original story, and can take quite a few takes to get just right. Often, a single line of descriptive writing or dialogue can be read in a multitude of ways, and picking the right take can be challenging. In addition, performing this particular story, with its varied cast of characters, has meant performing various accents and ethnicities, requiring some amount of research (ie, watching videos of various speakers on YouTube) to capture. I’m not completely sold on my own performances, but I’m certainly learning from the experience, and it’s forcing me to improve in my reading skills. (This is particularly useful for me, since I’ve been in a foreign language field for the last twelve years and rarely read aloud in English.)

Since I’m enjoying the audiobook process so much (and there seems to be significant interest in full audiobook versions of my books), I’ve bitten the bullet and purchased a professional-grade condenser microphone. I’ve also purchased the materials to build a small acoustic box for my home office to dampen out any ambient noises. This has been a real pain for me in previous recordings, because our apartment building is right beside a busy highway, and the traffic noises inevitably seep into the audio. (Please excuse the occasional honks, beeps, and screeches!)

Once the new microphone arrives (an Audio Technica ATR2500, if anyone’s interested), I’ll use it to record the rest of the chapters, uploading them as usual to my YouTube channel. Then, once that’s done, I plan on going back and re-recording the initial chapters. With the experience and practice I’ve gained from the last few weeks, I know I’ll do a much better job the second time around, and the audio quality should be much higher.

When all twenty-one chapters of FLEE are completed, I will be uploading them to ACX, Amazon’s audiobook publisher site. Once that’s done, the full audiobook will be available for purchase on Amazon, Audible, and iTunes. I have not determined what I will set the price at, but it will likely be a few dollars more than the paperback version of the book. After doing some research online, I feel this is a fair and affordable price, as audiobooks can range from $20-60. While I’ve never primarily been focused turning this into a career, I do need to make it worth my time investment, and those who would prefer a lower-quality version can always listen for free on YouTube.

After FLEE is released, I will see about doing other books, likely starting with STAY and STAND. Many readers have expressed interest in having the entire collection of this series in audiobook form, so we’ll see if I can set that as a goal for myself.

Mark your calendars, STAND is almost here!

Hi all! Well, I'm happy to finally announce the release date for STAND, the final book in the FLEE trilogy. It's been a long and somewhat arduous process, but the book is completed and the editors have written back with their final feedback. As always, it's proven invaluable in helping me to deliver the best possible reading experience.

I'm excited to let you all know that STAND will be available on August 10th! That's just 6 days from now, and in the remaining time I'll be finishing the cover design, setting up the products on Amazon, and submitting the final documents for paperback printing.

At the same time, I've finally gotten around to recording an audio book for FLEE. The test reading I did a few days ago was a success, (thanks for your feedback), and I've released the second chapter on my YouTube channel. Now that I have what feels like a good grasp on the recording and editing of a reading, I'm a little more confident to say that more chapters will be released soon. I'm still not sure if I'll do this with all my books as I'd prefer to use the free time I have to create new stories, but we will have to wait and see. Perhaps, if the audio book of FLEE proves to be popular, I'll continue it for the rest of the series.

For those who've asked for the audio version on another platform such as Audible, I'm not yet certain I will go that route. I'm currently leaning towards the idea of leaving the audio recordings on YouTube. It's completely free to listen to and does not require a whole lot of work on my end (going the Audible route would require a whole other registration and validation process). However, we'll see how it goes!

A test reading of FLEE

For the last three years I’ve thrown around the idea of doing audiobooks for my novels. A lot of readers have asked for this over the years (some have poor vision, making reading difficult, others are simply too busy to sit down with a book and would rather listen on the go). I’ve always said no, because it was simply too big of an investment in time and resources.

In spite of all that, with STAND finally in the bag and about to be released, I’ve decided to do a ‘test reading’ of one of my books. This means I’ve recorded one chapter (the first chapter of FLEE) and uploaded it to my channel. Depending on its reception, I will either continue to upload chapters or not.

Going into this project, I knew that one of the most daunting aspects would be that of voice acting. While film, directing, and acting are all interests of mine, I don’t believe I have the chops to portray characters on camera, and I’m not sure I’d do much better on a solely audio format.

So, this is a test. If you enjoy this snippet, help me out by leaving a ‘thumbs up’ on the video. If you feel it’s lacking, don’t be afraid to give it a ‘thumbs down’. In a few days I’ll look at the votes and decide how to proceed. Thanks, and I hope at least some of you will enjoy! (I’ll admit, it was fun to do!)

On a roll!

So I'm going to be cautiously optimistic and make it official: I'm on a roll with the writing of the final installment of the FLEE series, STAND. It can be a tricky thing to determine if momentum on such a large project is temporary or stable, but I'm feeling pretty good about this book after taking a few months off after The Bloom of Youth. I'm back on track and hitting daily writing goals and it feels great. There's still plenty of work left on it but we're still looking good for a late Summer release, so stay tuned!

In the meantime, check out the newest podcast episode. I've been asked in the past about the tools I use to write novels, and while I've talked here before about MacJournal, I thought a video of me actually navigating the program would be helpful. Enjoy!

Writing a Novel - Outlining a Scene

I’ve said before that I don’t like to outline my books. I tried breaking this habit (just to try something new) in Critical Times, and the result was that after just a few scenes I’d strayed so far from the original outline that I almost never referred to the outline again. So yeah, that was a couple of wasted days. I guess, in the end, it's just not the way my brain works when I set my ideas to paper. Some writers like planning it all out, I don’t. No big deal.

However, one technique that I’ve started implementing with my last couple books is scene outlining. It’s pretty straightforward. The way it works is this: before I start narrating the scene or crafting the dialogue, I go through and create a kind of shorthand description of everything that happens. It’s the mental equivalent of fast-forwarding a movie/TV show (ah, the old days of VHS) and catching the gist without having time to notice details. Here’s an example of a scene outline for the first scene in FLEE:

Peter Burton’s living room. It’s late. Wife’s in bed (name?) Elders sit around table. Nervous faces, silence. Soft enough to hear a clock ticking? The conversation here is strained, cryptic. Letter from branch is discussed. Audience doesn’t know the contents. Tension builds. Nothing about evacuation mentioned. We need to see Peter here as being experienced elder but lacking confidence, deferring to others. (This gives him room to grow) (Needs mentor here, maybe older elder??) BOE is small (4? 5? Why so small? Where is this cong located?) Must be tense, but must also feel love of elders to flock. A look behind the scenes feel. Documentary-esque. Endear reader to these men.

If you’ve ever studied theater or film making, you’ll probably notice that the above outline looks a lot like a screenplay (with the exception of dialogue, which is absent in my description). It’s like a 2D sketch on the surface of a rough slab of marble. The idea is there, and that's a large portion of the cerebral work, but now it’s a matter of chipping and chiseling away everything that isn’t the scene until the result is something that resembles art. (If you want to read the final version of the scene, click here. You can decide for yourself how successful I was!)

I like writing these scene outlines before I jump into writing, because it gives me the general atmosphere and the goal of the scene, and I’ve found that this is often half of the battle. The other great thing about this for me is that if I have to stop writing in the middle of a scene (which happens nearly every time I sit down to write), I can come back to it later and not spend fifteen minutes twiddling my thumbs or wasting time on YouTube videos trying to figure out where my head was when I left my desk. Also, as you can see from the above example, this quick brainstorm helps to reveal gaps in the story (in this instance, Who are the other elders? Why is their congregation so small? Who is Peter’s wife?). I can then either address the issues immediately or set them aside to discuss later (for this reason, I also keep an “unanswered questions” document on hand and refer to it constantly as I move through the story).

Of course, just like the story outlines that I can never seem to stick to, I often change a bunch of things as I go from scene outline to first draft. Still, it’s a great launching pad, and it’s become one of my go-to writing tools, so I thought I’d share.

In other news, Book 2 of the FLEE series (working title: STAY) is coming along surprisingly well! I’m nearly a third through the first draft, and it’s only been a month since I started. Of course, this could mean that I’m due for a three-month-long writer’s block, but I’m trying to keep my hopes up, my head down, and my fingers to the keyboard. We’ll see.

A place to discuss "FLEE" [Spoiler Alert!]

Hi all. So I've gotten quite a few messages from readers asking if there's a place to discuss the latest book. I know that many of you have already finished it and have questions, or things you'd like to discuss with other readers.

So, feel free to leave comments on this post regarding the latest book. We're entering spoiler territory here, so if you haven't yet finished the book, I'd recommend holding off until you're done. If you have finished and would like to talk about it, add a comment to this post.

I'm always open to feedback, and constructive criticisms help me grow as an author. So if you've spotted any errors in the book, or found things you don't like, you're welcome to comment on these as well. If I have an explanation, I'll provide it as a reply. Thanks!

FLEE paperback now on Amazon

Good news! The paperback version of FLEE is finally available for purchase directly in the Amazon store! You can grab a copy here, or by clicking the image to the left.

After reading the book, consider leaving the book a review if at all possible. It doesn't have to be lengthy (a sentence or two is fine), but reviews are important because they help potential readers determine whether or not a certain book is something they'd be interested in. With theocratic fiction, a lot of first-time readers spend a good bit of time on the fence, but seeing positive reviews from other Witnesses can help them come to a decision.

For those who've already written reviews, thanks so much, and I hope you enjoy FLEE!

Onward to Book 2

Well, the latest book has been out for only a few days now, but judging from emails and comments here and on the FLEE blog, it seems that more than a few of you have already finished it! (I’m not sure whether to be flattered or pressured by the fact that so many months of work went into something that only took a few hours to read, but so it goes with creative projects!)

For those of you already chomping at the bit for the second book in the series, sorry, but you’ll need to wait. While the second installment is well under way (I started it on the same day I finished the final draft of Book 1), it’ll be months yet before I’ll be able to announce a release date. However, I’m going to do my best to shoot for Spring of 2018. That gives me a good 6-8 months to write and edit it together, which feels doable at this point.

The nice thing about writing a book series like this is that I’m working with a good deal of momentum on my side. I know the characters and their individual plights, and I know generally where I want them all to end up, so it’s now just a matter of putting to paper their experiences along the way. In this aspect, Book 2 in the series has been smoother sailing than other projects. There’s no need to think up a new premise, characters, etc.

On the other hand, the second book in this series carries the weight of readers’ expectations, which is an intimidating thing. Still, I got into this project knowing roughly the pressures I’d face writing a trilogy, and I firmly believe in constantly challenging myself, regardless of the nature of the endeavor.

Before I go, I’d like to take a moment here to thank my incredible team of editors, without whom FLEE in its current form would not exist. They offered hundreds of wonderful suggestions and tidbits that I would’ve never thought of myself, and I’m greatly indebted to them for it! Thank you, Jordan, Jodie, and Veronica. You guys are amazing!

FLEE Available Now

UPDATE: Kindle version now available here!

And we're live! You can get the book on CreateSpace now here! (CreateSpace is the company I use to publish, print, and ship all my books) Unfortunately it will be a couple days more before it will show up in the Amazon store, but I will post immediately here as soon as it's ready. I apologize for this inconvenience!

Of course, if you'd like to read a sample first, you can preview the first chapter here: www.fleenovel.blogspot.com

Happy reading!

FLEE Release Date

Good news for those who've been waiting patiently for my latest book, FLEE: The final draft is finished and I'm in the process of submitting and reviewing my files through Amazon's CreateSpace platform, which I use for publishing my books.

As I've stated before, FLEE will be immediately available, in full, as both a paperback purchase and a digital download through the Kindle Store (or on Amazon.com). This is a little different than how I've done things in the past, and I'm hoping readers will prefer having this option rather than waiting for months to get the full story. Incidentally, if you're reading on a iPad or an iPhone, I highly recommend getting the Kindle app. You'll have instant access to the book (it'll be very reasonably priced) and it has lots of cool features (like making notes for other readers to discover, leaving comments and reviews on Amazon, and a bunch of other stuff).

I'll also be releasing a full chapter per week on www.fleenovel.blogspot.com for those of you who prefer enjoying it as a serial. You'll be happy to know, though, that the entries will be much longer than in the past, since I want to get the entire thing released on the blog within a year.

So, when can you expect to read it? Soon... as in... Next week Monday! That's right: on Monday, September 4th, you'll be able to get the new book. Hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing it!

In other news, I've already begun on the second book in the series. The goal is to have it done within 6-8 months, but I'm not making any promises just yet, so stay tuned for more details on that. In the meantime, enjoy FLEE!

"FLEE" blog now live

Just a tiny update to let everyone know that the blog for FLEE is now live and can be reached at the following address:

www.fleenovel.blogspot.com

There's not much there to look at now, but it might be worth bookmarking!

“Flee" now in final stage

For those who've asked and emailed, good news! FLEE's third draft has been successfully completed and is now in the hands of a small team of proofreaders. After I get the results back, I'll go over the feedback, make the needed changes, and that's that! That means it should be no problem to get the book done by September as promised. (Whew!)

However, with this book and its sequels, the online blog release and Amazon release will work a bit differently. In the past, I'd start releasing chapters on the blog first, and the Amazon download and paperbacks would follow some months later. This time, I'll be releasing both at the same time. That way, readers won't have to wait months to get the whole story. For those not in a rush, you'll still be able to get the entire book for free on the blog (one chapter a week as usual), and once all the chapters are released I'll put the epub and mobi files up for download. I think this is a great way to reward readers who are purchasing books and helping me to sustain this hobby of mine, without excluding anyone else.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you all for being so supportive of these writing projects, whether by purchasing books on Amazon or by via small donations. As this hobby of mine has evolved over the years, I've become much more disciplined with my approach to writing, researching, and editing, and that has meant an increase in time spent on each subsequent book, so support in any form means a lot.

New book synopsis

What do you think of when you hear the word flee? Perhaps your mind conjures up images of an officially-mandated evacuation as a natural disaster looms on the horizon. Or you might think of something more ancient–something Biblical–in which a person (or, more often than not, a group of people) fled from one location to another by divine decree.

I imagine, since the announcement of my fourth novel two weeks ago, there's been some curiosity as to the nature of this new story, and I'm happy to finally provide the synopsis here:

As the Great Tribulation begins, a series of puzzling instructions from the branch tests the faith and resolve of Witnesses worldwide. Follow the experiences of Peter Burton, an elder in a congregation in Northern California, his wife Rachel, and their extended family and friends as difficult decisions and heart-wrenching sacrifices are made to be obedient and loyal.

The novel is progressing well, and if all goes according to plan, it should finish with a length of 90,000 words. (That's right between the length of All Things New and The Unrighteous). However, for FLEE, I'll be trying something new: a trilogy.

Now, I know trilogies (whether film or literary) can be a bit cringe-inducing for audiences, as they  sometimes take what could have been condensed into a single installment and stretch it into a more profitable franchise. Rest assured, that's not the motivation behind my decision. (I mean, I give my books away for free, after all.)

In outlining the story, I realized that I really wanted something that had scale to it. Whereas Critical Times sort of rushed through some of the elements of the Great Tribulation as the story charged along to its climax, I wanted this one to really let the readers savor all of the details. I wanted to show exactly how the populace (not just governments) turned against religion, and I wanted to depict more of the behind-the-scenes work of how the organization cared for Jehovah's people every step of the way. Additionally, I wanted to explore a larger cast of characters, and really give readers a chance to get to know them over a longer period of time. Simply put, if Critical Times was the movie adaption of the Great Tribulation, FLEE was to be the miniseries.

That said, I suspect this series won't be for everyone; I'm planning on releasing a book a year, so readers will need to be patient to get the full story. But hopefully, that means the payoff will be all that much more rewarding. Either way, it'll be an experience for both of us!

Stay tuned! 😁

Sneak peek at book number 4...

I'm happy to finally release the cover for my fourth novel, FLEE. The design went through many iterations before I finally settled on what you see here. Hopefully it aptly conveys the mix of tension and hope that I was aiming for.

A full synopsis will be shared here soon, but in the meantime, you can probably figure out the general gist of the novel, no? ;)