Day Job and A Little About Shattered
In the past few weeks, I was lucky enough to spend some time pretending to be a “full-time” writer: get up, write for a while, try to take a nap, try to arrange marketing, try to take a nap, write for a while, so on and so forth. It was pretty damned nice, but, as with everything that’s enjoyable, it had to end, and I’m back to the day job now.Well, temporarily, at least
I’m still hoping that the re-release of Like Glass and the release of Shattered will change that (hoping, not expecting). So, I’m considering it “long-term temporary” for now.Speaking of Shattered, I’m still waiting to hear back from my early reviewers on that one. Trust me, as soon as I have something to post about what they say, you’ll hear it (well, read it). I guess that it’s about the right time to tell you more about it, since the story line itself probably isn’t going to change much in whatever drafts are left to work on.
If you don’t already know, Shattered is the sequel to Like Glass, and it picks up the story of our “hero”, Rob, a few months after Like Glass ends. Without going into too many details (because they’d not only spoil Shattered, but possibly Like Glass as well), Rob takes back to music with much more passion this time around. Things don’t go that great though, as he’s forced to deal with fun stuff like depression, suicide, and the death of a close friend.
Remember, if I’ve said nothing else about the book, I’ve said it’s supposed to be darker than Like Glass…
Anyways, I need to start getting ready for the grind again. Make sure to pick up your copy of Like Glass, now with a 20% discount throughout the end of the year, when the first edition will not be available anymore. Catch you on the flip side.
–Matt
Shattered Finished; Now What?
Okay, so it’s been a while since I’ve done much posting here, but I hope you’ll understand: Shattered is now finished. I know I briefly mentioned this before, but the rough draft has been given it’s first editing pass and I’m trying to figure out what to do with it next. It hasn’t technically been accepted by the publisher yet, but since Like Glass was only accepted a couple of weeks ago, I’m not in too big a rush to get it taken on yet.So, that begs the eternal question: what’s next? Honestly, I’m not sure. I have another book in the “Rob Jackson” universe in mind, but I’m thinking I may want to take a break from him for a little bit and see what other trouble I can stir up. I have a couple of other ideas I’d thrown around for a little while, I might take some of them out and dust them off.
Something else I’ve been wanting to try my hand at is writing a supernatural thriller, following in the footsteps of one of my inspirations, Stephen King. I’ve done some minor works that I’m quite proud of, and even started a novel of that nature that I got distracted from (I’ve looked back at it since then, and trust me: it’s a good thing I got distracted from it…).
The only problem is, as strange as it may sound, it’s more difficult for me to come up with something completely crazy and unfounded in reality — like a book about ghosts and vampires and monsters — than it is to write something that may be happening next door. It’s not impossible, just not as easy to make sure it’s real enough to where the reader can get into the story.
I know, I know. Supernatural stuff isn’t supposed to be real. That’s kinda the point. But it still needs to be real enough to where the reader can believe in it to some degree.
Anyways, I think we’re getting a decent storm building around here, so I’d better tie this off before the power goes out and I lose my internet connection. Make sure to keep an eye out for further details on Shattered though!
Big News for Shattered and Like Glass
Alright, it’s been some time since I’ve posted anything here, but trust me: the wait was worth it. I’ve got some big news for you today, a couple of items, and they’re mainly what I’ve been waiting for before posting again.Before I start though, a quick FYI: the matthewcory.com domain is down for the moment. I’m working on getting it back up as soon as possible, but until then you’re stuck with this ;)
Okay, first bit of real news: Shattered is done. Well, the rough draft is, at least. It’s printing as I write this — hard copy is so much easier to edit. It’s a little shorter at the moment than I’d hoped for, but it ended where it was supposed to end. I’m sure it’ll shrink and grow during the editing process, so I’m not worried about it. Nevertheless, no more updates on Shattered saying “It’s coming along.” It’s a total of 38 chapters (or 37 and an epilogue; I haven’t quite decided yet), and I’ll be editing them chapter-by-chapter, so any updates should really have some kind of progress marker in them.
Anyways, that ain’t nothing. Here’s the real big news. Are you ready?
Like Glass has been picked up by Vanilla Heart Publishing and is tentatively scheduled for a Spring 2009 release date! You can check out my own page at their site by going to http://www.vanillaheartbooksandauthors.com/Writings.html (it’s at the bottom of the page). There you can find info on the book, links to a video trailer, and links to a Cafe Press store where you can get shirts and coffee mugs and all sorts of cool Like Glass gear. (I’ll soon have the links here as well; my brain’s still a little fried from my writing marathon today to finish Shattered.)
I’d like to give a big thanks to Mary Quast, a fellow VHP author who introduced me to them. I was actually giving up on trying to push the book when she contacted me, and I sent my query on a whim. Thanks Mary!
Trust me, there’ll be further news as events warrant, but for now I’m going to take a bit of a break.
Update: Starting Over with Shattered
It’s been a while since I posted anything on Shattered, and with good reason — there hasn’t been anything to post. The book kinda died on me. It just wasn’t going anywhere — the direction I wanted it to go, nor did it choose it’s own direction. It just kinda stalled out, and I wasn’t able to revive it.However, all is not lost. I’m restarting it from scratch, and I’m going about it differently this time. I probably won’t post as many status updates as I did before, because I’m a bit superstitious on that and I think those killed it (it’s a bit hard to explain why; just accept it as reasonable in my mind for now). I’m also trying to plot it out more than the last attempt, so hopefully this one will be better organized.
I’m also probably not going to be moving quite as fast, either. I want to take my time with this one and get it right (well, as right as a rough draft can be). The past attempt was just writing from the seat of my pants — almost free writing, actually — with very little … hmmm … impression? of what each scene was supposed to be like. If you’re a writer, I’m sure you know what I mean: those times when you’re just dead to the world because you’re so involved in the scene? Yeah, I didn’t have that many of those in the last go-round, and I’m going to try and keep what writing I do without being in the zone down to a bare minimum.
So, that’s what’s going on with Shattered.
Like Glass, on the other hand, is starting to get some killer reviews in. You can read all of them at Amazon.com, or go to the CFD home page here to read some snippets and get links to the originals (seriously, the originals are on some book blogs you should really check out). It’s garnered about 3.5 stars at Amazon so far — two 4-star reviews and one 3-star (Amazon’s rating system shows 3.5 to my eyes), which is much higher than I ever let myself expect. Special thanks to those who have reviewed it so far, and those who haven’t: what’s the hold up?! (Just kidding — take your time).
Anyways, need to run. Make sure to get your questions in for the mailbag for your chance to win a free digital copy of Like Glass — remember, it’s rated at 3.5 stars now!
Quickie Update on Shattered
It’s been a little while since I mentioned Shattered, the upcoming sequel to Like Glass, and with good reason — it’s had to take a bit of a backseat to other things going on in life. But, I’ve been working on it a little bit this weekend, and things are (still) moving along slowly but surely.Right now, I’m moving through the sappy love story that it needs, and we’re starting to get some of the first hints of some bad times ahead. I promised you it was going to be darker than Like Glass, and that’s what I’m getting into right now — just a hint, but you can’t just dive right into it or it loses all it’s flavor.
Aside from that, if things go well there should be lots of progress on it over the next few weeks — if things work out like I’m expecting them to (seriously, when does that ever happen?), then I may even be done with the rough draft by the Like Glass release party. No promises, of course, but it’s possible. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
Got to run — need to make some phone calls and maybe get back to work on the book.
Another Quick Update On Shattered
Don’t have much time this morning, but I figured I’d post anyways. Shattered is still trucking along; I’m on Chapter 12 out of about 45-50 planned. We’re starting to get into the good stuff now though; I told you it was going to be darker than Like Glass, and this chapter is where there’s the first hints of trouble.Gave the first three chapters to my sister-in-law yesterday for an early review; we’ll see what happens with that. Everything’s rough as hell right now, so I’m hoping to get some good feedback before thing get too deep.
If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been breaking some of my primary rules with this project so far. The number one rule is that I don’t talk about projects while I’m working on them — mainly because I have a tendency to bail out on stuff in the middle of it. So far, it looks like I’m keeping up with this one fairly well. Related to that rule is that I don’t show anyone what I’m working on until it’s finished — I’m breaking that one as a trial for now, in hopes that something good might come of it. Like I said, we’ll have to see what happens.
Need to start getting ready for that “day job” thingy.
Marketing & No Vacation
No work on Shattered this morning; been too busy trying to work out a marketing “campaign” (and I use that term loosely) for Like Glass. I think it’ll be decent, it’s just a matter of tracking down the people I need to contact.Other than that, it doesn’t look like I’ll be getting a vacation anytime soon. Too much going on at work. Which, of course, means I’m not going to be working on Shattered full-time for a while. No biggie; I think I have a good idea where I’m going with it (for now — this is probably the third time I’ve thought the same thing), so what time I am able to spend on it should go pretty smoothly overall.
Running late though, so I need to cut this short.
Quickie Status: Shattered, Etc.
Just wanted to post a quick update this morning. Shattered is moving along, still slowly but surely. I’m shooting at a finished date of December — what we would call in the software world as “feature complete”, though it will still need editing — and a release date in Feburary. Of course, this is all dependent on work. I’m hoping to get some vacation time in the next couple of weeks, and I’ll be spending most of that working on it (well, that’s the plan; I’ll probably spend most of it playing with Facebook).Then again, if I get a killer publishing deal on Like Glass, then I should be able to quit my day job and work on Shattered a lot more (hint hint hint).
I’m also trying to keep myself more focused on the “rough” aspect of the rough draft: I’m going for quantity over quality at the moment. It’s a lot easier to edit stuff later on when there’s something to edit, than to frustrate yourself while you’re writing. If it’s garbage when I look at it later, I can scrap it or fix it; no need to worry about it now, just worry about getting the damned thing out first.
I’m not going to give too many details about Shattered — mostly because I don’t know them myself yet — but I guess I can tell you a little bit about what I’m playing with.
For starters, it is a sequel to Like Glass, and it takes place almost a year after the end to the first novel. We’re still dealing with Rob, now as Caitlain’s adoptive parent. Marty’s got a bigger part in this one, and Lisa’s come back as well — she’s married and has had her kid by now. There’s a new character in this one, another pianist named Carolyn, and she’s going to have a big part in everything.
That’s about all I can say at the moment, other than two things that I’m adding as “rumours”: 1) I’m planning on this one to be “darker” than Like Glass was, and b) things are kinda the opposite as they were in Like Glass — Rob gets to play Janet’s role to some degree.
Those last two are, as I said, strictly rumours, and I’m reserving the right to change them as I see fit — so don’t get upset if you pick the book up when it’s finished and it’s all happy-go-lucky. (Yeah, right; as if I’ve ever done anything happy-go-lucky…)
Okay, need to get ready for the next lap in the rat race. Have fun.
Changing Direction
It’s a lovely Sunday here in the desert — not too hot, a little breezy, but really nice. Perfect day for doing absolutely nothing.Instead, though, I’m trying to figure out where to go with Shattered, the sequel to Like Glass. And it’s one of the things that I both love and hate about writing, too. I had a bit of an epiphany this morning, on how the book should play out, and it completely threw everything out the window.
I’m not going to go into details, because I don’t know if it’s going to stick or not and I don’t want to be held accountable for it. But basically, instead of the sequel being focused on the further trials and tribulations of Rob, the protagonist of Like Glass, Shattered looks now like it’s going to be focused on a new character’s problems, just from Rob’s perspective. Basically, instead of Rob dealing with his own crap, he’s going to be dealing with someone else’s crap.
Should be fun, if I can get it figured out alright.
Like I said though, that’s what I both love and hate about writing: just when you start to think you know the story you’re going to write, one of your characters comes along and says “I don’t think so, bubba, it’s gonna be like this.” And you have two options: you can either force your will upon them, which — since characters are real people too, in a writer’s mind — will normally piss them off and they’ll go somewhere else; or you can sit back and listen to them, and normally they either have a better idea or they can at least give you something to work with.
It’s a lot like life — you telling someone “It’s my way or the highway,” in which case the only people that stick around aren’t really much help, or you tell them “hey, that’s not a bad idea; I can work with that and together we can come up with something even better.” Then you get people around who help out, who may not know exactly what’s going on but can still contribute enough to keep the ball rolling until it gets past the goal line.
I hope it’s obvious which method I try to use; whether I succeed in that is entirely up for debate though.
Okay, enough blabbing, on to trying to listen to our new friend.
Shattered Moving Slowly, but Moving
Shattered is moving along, slowly but surely (well, very slowly and not very surely). I don’t feel as connected with it as I did with Like Glass, but that’s probably because it’s harder to work on it — trying to squeeze in a few words here and there during work isn’t exactly conducive to getting deeply immersed in the story.It’s okay though; I’m looking at this stage as a rough draft, a “just get the damned thing out and then worry about it” kinda thing. Once I get the rough draft finished, then I can print it up and see where things went stupid, and where things went super-good, and try and level it out. That’s what I’m looking forward to the most, getting that rough draft in hand and getting something tangible to look at during a smoke break. Gonna be a while at the rate I’m going though; I think if I’m lucky, I might be averaging about 200 words per day — not exactly blazing through it. But, at least it’s something.
Also, might be getting reviews on the web for Like Glass within the next month or so — keep your eyes peeled, and I’ll be sure to let you know about them when I have more info to go on.
Anyways, need to get moving.
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