Software Review: yWriter 5 By Spacejock Software

During my journey into author-hood this past year, I have been following several prominent blogs and author websites, and I have seen a number of reviews for applications designed to help writers write.  

Back in the beginning of my journey into author-hood, I thought I could just pound out a novel in no time, using nothing more than that old behemoth from Redmond, Microsoft Office.

I have learned two things in the year since I began writing:

1.       Writing a novel creates a time warp in which everything takes at least twice as long as intended, so the novel that I was sure I could finish in two or three months is due to be published right at the one year mark.

2.       Oh how quickly I learned that Mr. Gates, while obviously a superb businessman and a techno demi-god, was not quite as adept at designing an application that fulfilled the quirks of writing a novel.  With nowhere to put my lists of characters, locations, plot outlines, and other random thoughts, I was reduced to a notepad or journal sitting beside my keyboard in order to feel as if I were staying organized.

After a month of constantly transferring my thoughts from the journal to the computer, I decided there had to be a better way. I tried demos of several apps designed specifically for writers, with mixed success. All had the basics; the ability to organize characters, plot outlines, locations and other elements into a manageable format, but each one lacked something for me. Until I came across yWriter from Spacejock software.

yWriter was designed by a bestselling author who just happens to be a software programmer as well, and the program is a result of his two skillsets. yWriter looks and feels like a scaled down word processor application with numerous enhancements made just for the writer.  The interface has a familiar basic windows-type feel to it, with clearly broken out panes separating the various parts of your work in progress.

One of the main problems I had with a couple of the other programs was that lack of an ability to import a project from my word processor, in this case, Microsoft Word, but yWriter imports flawlessly. You do need to make sure you meet some basic formatting guidelines, but they are simple to setup in most word processors and they will allow your project to be fully managed within yWriter.

Once your project is in yWriter, you can begin to really explore the multitude of features that will make writing you novel just that much easier. Elements such as character bios with pictures are supported, as well as sections for locations, items, project and scene notes, goals, and much more.

Projects in yWriter are divided into chapters containing multiple scenes. Adding, deleting, and moving chapters and scenes are simple mouse clicks or drag and drop functions, so reorganizing while in the middle of an edit is a piece of cake. Word counts are tallied for the entire project as well as by chapter and scene, and yWriter supports numerous reports and export functions for putting any information you want into hard copy for reviewing offline. I’m sure I’ve missed a few key features,  but the program is free so there is no reason to avoid trying it for yourself.

As with any product there are a few areas that could be improved, and yWriter is no exception. I have not been able to utilize the undo feature, so if you delete something by mistake, you will need to retype or go back to an earlier saved file. So far this hasn’t been an issue for me beyond having to occasionally retype a sentence or two, and I usually determine the sentence wasn’t needed anyway.

The other issue is the extreme bare bones word processor features. I couldn’t find any support for em dashes or any variation of punctuation marks at all, so if you need to do anything beyond italics or changing the font, you will need to do as I do and clean it up in a full word processor during final edits. But yWriter doesn’t claim to be a full featured word processor, so again, I wasn’t that deterred by this minor issue.

yWriter is a clean, simple-to-use product that can help writers get their digital novel organized no matter where they are in the process, and is flexible enough to integrate into most authors’ writing processes. Give it a try, the price is right!

Review: WATCHERS: THE COMING OF THE KING

I came across WATCHERS: THE COMING OF THE KING as part of my increasing involvement in the author segment of the twitter-verse. I followed author William Meikle, and he followed me back. One of his tweets caught my eye, and as I am wont to do, I checked his profile. That lead me to his blog, and the rest as they say, is history. In this case, it is a slightly altered history of England and Scotland complete with vampires, magic, religious mysticism, and several satisfying twists to historical and even biblical stories.

THE COMING OF THE KING follows Martin, the son of the Thane of town called Milecastle, and his friend Sean as they go on divergent yet connected quests. Martin goes searching for evidence of an impending attack by the vampire hoards, and Sean must protect a young woman that plays an important part in events to come. Along the way they meet a world-wise Scottish traveler that may be critical to their survival, magical allies thought to be nothing more than myth, and of course, vampires.

Combining fantasy, horror, and history into a unique world all his own, Meikle spins a tale that draws you in quickly and doesn’t let go until the last page is turned.  The only downside is a few places in the story that feel as if the pacing is slightly off, usually during the lead up to a battle that draws out a bit too long. However, never to the point where you lose interest or come out of the story. In fact it wasn’t until I went back to look for this review that I even noticed it, so it was relatively minor.

Definitely a good read, and I will be purchasing the next book in the series, WATCHERS: THE BATTLE FOR THE THRONE very soon.

Review: Contract of Betrayal by Tammy Salyer

Aly Erickson is back and better than ever!

Contract of Betrayal is the second book in Tammy Salyer's Sprectras Arise Trilogy. The first book, Contract of Defiance, created a universe populated with a variety of exciting and well-rounded characters. The adventure that begins in Contract of Defiance transitions smoothly to Contract of Betrayal, and the characters continue to naturally develop as they face new challenges.

Salyer introduces several new characters in this book and seamlessly weaves them into the existing cast, providing more depth and complexity to an already rich series of relationships. Some of the character interactions originating in the first book are expanded and developed in this story, and we find out more about the backgrounds of some of the main characters, which equates to being able to relate to them all the more. Salyer's characters are the foundation that support the story, each bringing their own individual flavor to the overall story, and doing their part to advance the story smoothly and effectively.

The story builds smoothly around this superb cast, picking up where the action in Contract of Defiance ended. Having completed their original mission, Aly, Vitruzzi, and the rest are working on a new plan for taking on the Admin when things are thrown into chaos by the arrival of a new ship to Agate Beach. Complete with rekindling of old flames, battles with old enemies, and of course, a good dose of betrayal, Aly has her plate full once again. Without giving any spoilers, let me just say that the action picks up quickly and progresses at a rapid, yet controlled pace throughout. Things come to a fulfilling conclusion for the crew, while still dangling the promise of even more excitement to come in the last book of the trilogy.

Salyer has a very smooth and easy reading narrative style, and both of the books in this trilogy can easily draw you into a single-sitting completion if you aren't careful.

Metamorphosis

According to Webster- a : change of physical form, structure, or substance especially by supernatural means

OK, so some people call it a mid-life crisis, but I think the definition above is more fitting (except for the supernatural part). And it is what brought me around to being a writer. You see, I toyed with creative writing in high school long (really long) ago, but the military, marriage, kids, jobs, and just life in general conspired to push the writer to the back for decades.

Then last year, frustration with my current career track had me second guessing my life choices and thinking about making a career change. But with the economy the way it is, leaving a good stable job for the unknown is akin to financial suicide, so I was stuck. A few months of frustration and semi-depression set in and things looked grim.

But then one day I saw some blog from an independent author that had started writing later in life, and a light went off. I could brush off some of those old writing habits, and see if something came out of it. I read a LOT of science fiction and fantasy books, on the order of three or four a month, so I went with the "write what you love" mantra and dug in. Now almost a year later, I have a 90K word novel going into it's final edits, and due for publishing in July, and another YA fantasy novel about 1/3 of the way through rough draft stage. I spend a few hours almost every day writing, and here is the best part; my satisfaction with my current job has gone back to the way it used to be.

You see, the job didn't change, I did. I took the focus off of the daily grind and put it onto other things, writing being foremost among them. But I also added exercise, a new passion for Scotches, Bourbons, and other whiskies, and pipe-smoking. Many friends and family members joked about me becoming the archetypical writer during a mid-life crisis, but it was just a series of coincidences that led to this combination of hobbies and passions. But what is important is that it is what worked for me at this point in my life.

So if you are stuck in your job, your marriage, your health, anything, take my word for it, and start your own metamorphosis. You have the ability to emerge a better person if you put your mind to it.

New Excerpt

Get a brief glimpse into what is happening to Dr. Mackland Luther and his friends as Jerrington tries to make them co-operate. Welcome to the world of Dark Luminance, due out in July, 2013!

Everyone in the room except for Jerrington and his guard moved as far away as possible from the dead woman shambling towards them. When Lily tried to jump up and escape, the guard dropped a large hand on her shoulder, pinning her to the seat. Jerrington waved a hand toward her, "Please use the plasitcuffs to restrain Ms. Decker to her chair." As the guard moved to comply, Jerrington turned to the others in the room. "Mr. Tao, if you would be so good, please escort our guests to the adjacent room so that we can continue our discussion."

Ming couldn't remain quiet any more. "Brad! What the hell is going on? We need to put that thing down now before it does any damage!"

Jerrington took several steps until he was directly in front of the dead woman. She appeared to have been an attractive brunette woman when she was still alive, and from what Mackland could see she hadn't been dead very long. She still had most of her hair, and aside from some cuts and bruises that would never heal properly now that she was dead, she didn't look that bad. But the blank, vacant stare of her dead eyes and the slack muscles throughout her face left no doubt just how far from human she was. Jerrington ignored all of that and turned his back on her to address Ming and the others. "She is no threat to anyone unless I determine she is. She is fully under my control, so please refrain from further emotional outbursts, and take our guests next door."

Ming persisted. "What about Lily?"

"Ms. Decker will be remaining in here for the time being until we conclude our discussion. If all goes well, she will be joining us shortly."

Mackland looked ready to explode and blurted out, "No way, you bastard! We aren't leaving her here with that thing!"

Grizzly advanced slowly towards the Jerrington with murder in his eyes. "Ya ain't gonna do nothin' but get smushed, unless you let us outta hear, ya uppity shit!"

Jerrington dipped his chin towards the zombie, who placed herself in Grizzly's path. "Enough. Either you three follow Mr. Tao into the other room in the next five seconds, or I will instruct my young lady to bite Ms. Decker a few times. I don't know for sure how much bodily fluid is required to transmit the drug in sufficient quantity to begin the transformation, but I would expect four or five would do it." He held up one hand and began counting down. "Five...four...three..."

Ming knew his former friend wasn't bluffing, so he put his hands out to corral the other three men and move them toward the door. "Ok, ok, we're going. Just keep that...thing away from her."

What's The Ratio?

Followers vs. Following is now the (not-so) age old question. As a novice to the twitterverse, I still have less than a hundred of either; but I routinely see Tweeters (I'm pretty sure the plural would be Twits, but I don't want to offend anyone unnecessarily) with thousands of both. I mentioned to my teenage daughters that I was now past fifty followers, which didn't impress them in the least, but did prompt my youngest to ask how many people I was following. Not sure what she was getting at, I told her it was around ninety, and she gave me one of those smug teenage looks indicating that I was about to receive a piece of invaluable knowledge. "Only people that are desperate follow a lot more people that are following them." A final eye-roll told me just how old I really was, and she was off.

But it made me think about Twitter in general, and more specifically, how I was trying to utilize it. I freely admit, as one of my earlier posts indicated, I didn't just jump onto Twitter (or this blog, for that matter) out of a desire to suddenly garner a few thousand new friends. I am going to be publishing a book in the summer, and my research led me to believe that social media was a vital component in that endeavor. So I'm blogging and tweeting more than the above-mentioned daughter with her One Direction obsession. (Don't get me started on the hidden evils of boy-bands!)

But now I'm on Twitter, and as I considered my daughter's words, I think she had a point, but not the way she meant it. I don't think it's so much a statement of desperation if your followers severely lag behind those you are following, because of the nature of conversation. Twitter is nothing more than a HUGE expansion of conversations between individuals. You can talk one on one, or you can jump into a conversation with literally hundreds of people. But in any conversation, someone has to initiate it, and that is what happens when you follow someone that hasn't followed you yet. You are reaching into the ether and inviting them to your conversations. And at least in my case, I only follow those that appear to have similar interests to mine. There really isn't much sense in me following someone that is a cheese connoisseur, when I can't tell a Cheddar from a Gouda.

However, the caveat is that if you follow someone, and they don't follow you back after a period of days, or a week, I think you should unfollow them at that point. They many not have followed you because they have so many followers already they have stopped automatically following back. They may be like me, and only follow those that seem to share their interests. But for whatever reason, that person has indicated they aren't really interested in a two-way conversation. It's not a fault or a problem, just the way conversations work, or don't work in this case.

So what's the ratio? Well, that's up to each person and what they're looking for from social media. In my case, I'll probably shoot for a one-to-one ratio in the interest of promoting actual dialogue. Call me old-fashioned that way.

Just Write

For the past few days, I've been lucky enough to have been really in the groove as far as writing goes. Every time I sat down to the keyboard, the words just seem to flow onto the screen as if I were nothing more than a middle-man in this literary transaction. Regardless, it has been a great feeling, but one that is not always that common.

There have been many times over the past months where I sat and twisted my brain trying to make a line of dialogue fit, or sought the right tone of voice for one of my characters, to no avail. And the frustration would build up over the course of a few days and nights. I'm a new author, I couldn't possibly have writer's block yet! I haven't even begun to tap the storehouse of ideas contained within my head!

It wasn't until a few months ago that I came up with the solution to these temporary roadblocks, while reading one of the multitude of writer's blogs I frequent for advice. That blog had said one of the most important things when writing was to schedule a consistent time, and set a reasonable goal for writing each day, which is not necessarily bad advice. But as I sat and thought about that nugget of knowledge, I realized it was still too specific for me. So many writers have full-time jobs, families, and other commitments that preclude them from assigning things like times and quotas; and that is where I was at. Which is when I realized that the ONLY criteria that mattered, for me at least, was to JUST WRITE.

It doesn't matter how much you write, or when you write. That's the beauty of it! You write what works for you; nothing more, nothing less. If things are flowing well, and you are feeling it, write more, even if you keep going until you fall asleep at the keyboard. If things are stuck, and you only get a few paragraphs of stilted dialogue between two characters that even you can't stand to read, then pack it in early, and start fresh tomorrow. If you are really at an impasse with yourself, then just start a new project, or write a new blog entry. Just make sure you write something.

Because the truth of the matter is that we all have days in which writing is a struggle;  adding schedules and quotas only provides more obstacles when you need them the least. In the military, we had the KISS methodology. Keep It Simple, Stupid. And that applies to writing as much as any other endeavour.

So when you are stuck, keep it simple. Just write.