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Author's Note
10 years ago
Three Years, Eleven Stories, Thirty-Five Hundred Views, and One Crossroads
Hi everyone,
Well, this is a rather sombre occasion. For the longest time I thought I'd never get to this day, The Hunters is complete. It all ends where it all began, this particular chapter of my life is closed.
For those of you in the know, I posted the first chapter of The Hunters the same day I finished writing The Mourner. It was a form of closure for me. Unable to find any buyers for my books I posted the stories online in an effort to ensure that someone – anyone – would read them, to make sure the characters wouldn't die with me.
I made myself a promise that day. I vowed that I wouldn't stop writing, wouldn't stop badgering agents and hounding publishers, wouldn't give up on the dream until I had the complete Hunters series posted. I made a deal with myself to keep writing until Tommy's story was done, to not give up on my goal of becoming a published author until my first and favourite character was cold in the ground.
Well, this is that day.
Yeah, I'm being over dramatic. It's not that bad, I've still got a couple final tricks up my sleeve for getting published, but right now the chances are looking slimmer than a Police Dog's paunch. I really did think that I had what it takes, both the talent and the tenacity, but at some point you have to look around and ask just where the last decade has taken me. I've yet to see my name in print and my fingers are getting darn tired.
So why am I telling you all this? Long story short, don't expect to see too many more posts from me in the foreseeable future. I've now posted all my furry material (with one major exception!), and I'm not sure if I'll be writing much more right away.
It's not all doom-and-gloom though. This is no rage quit, and I'm not pulling an “I'm leaving the fandom forever!” here. I just need to figure out the way forward. For all the bad stereotypes of the community I've made some great friends here. Two-hundred posts and I haven’t had a single piece of negative feedback. A huge thank-you to everyone who's commented and chatted with me, not to mention those who have helped me edit and improve my work. It's been absolutely great meeting you all.
So, what does the future hold for this world-weary-wolf? (A... wwwolf, if you will. Now you at last know the secret of what it stands for!) Good question. If anyone reading this has any contacts in the publishing industry, I'd love to talk to you. And, on a related note, there's a good chance I'll be opening myself up for commissions. I'm not too sure how much interest there will be in commissioning me, so we'll take it one step at a time.
TLDNR Version: Thank-you all for reading, I'm taking a break for a while, and we'll see what the future holds.
So, from Tommy, Rebecca, English, Jon, Max, Griss, Aggy, Graham, Brown, Amstys, Molly, Crit, James, Forty-Two, Richard, Mary, Trevor, Jonathan, Llyal, Sixty, Forty-One, Archer, Forty-Seven, Robert, Alice, Ophois, Johnathan, Emma, Manson, and me... wwwolf, thank-you for hearing us out.
Hi everyone,
Well, this is a rather sombre occasion. For the longest time I thought I'd never get to this day, The Hunters is complete. It all ends where it all began, this particular chapter of my life is closed.
For those of you in the know, I posted the first chapter of The Hunters the same day I finished writing The Mourner. It was a form of closure for me. Unable to find any buyers for my books I posted the stories online in an effort to ensure that someone – anyone – would read them, to make sure the characters wouldn't die with me.
I made myself a promise that day. I vowed that I wouldn't stop writing, wouldn't stop badgering agents and hounding publishers, wouldn't give up on the dream until I had the complete Hunters series posted. I made a deal with myself to keep writing until Tommy's story was done, to not give up on my goal of becoming a published author until my first and favourite character was cold in the ground.
Well, this is that day.
Yeah, I'm being over dramatic. It's not that bad, I've still got a couple final tricks up my sleeve for getting published, but right now the chances are looking slimmer than a Police Dog's paunch. I really did think that I had what it takes, both the talent and the tenacity, but at some point you have to look around and ask just where the last decade has taken me. I've yet to see my name in print and my fingers are getting darn tired.
So why am I telling you all this? Long story short, don't expect to see too many more posts from me in the foreseeable future. I've now posted all my furry material (with one major exception!), and I'm not sure if I'll be writing much more right away.
It's not all doom-and-gloom though. This is no rage quit, and I'm not pulling an “I'm leaving the fandom forever!” here. I just need to figure out the way forward. For all the bad stereotypes of the community I've made some great friends here. Two-hundred posts and I haven’t had a single piece of negative feedback. A huge thank-you to everyone who's commented and chatted with me, not to mention those who have helped me edit and improve my work. It's been absolutely great meeting you all.
So, what does the future hold for this world-weary-wolf? (A... wwwolf, if you will. Now you at last know the secret of what it stands for!) Good question. If anyone reading this has any contacts in the publishing industry, I'd love to talk to you. And, on a related note, there's a good chance I'll be opening myself up for commissions. I'm not too sure how much interest there will be in commissioning me, so we'll take it one step at a time.
TLDNR Version: Thank-you all for reading, I'm taking a break for a while, and we'll see what the future holds.
So, from Tommy, Rebecca, English, Jon, Max, Griss, Aggy, Graham, Brown, Amstys, Molly, Crit, James, Forty-Two, Richard, Mary, Trevor, Jonathan, Llyal, Sixty, Forty-One, Archer, Forty-Seven, Robert, Alice, Ophois, Johnathan, Emma, Manson, and me... wwwolf, thank-you for hearing us out.
I am writing a book as well and I've been talking with "newbie" authors who managed to get their work published. They have given good pieces of advice. First, never give up. It might take time to find a publisher that wants to publish your work, but that publisher certainly exists. Just be persistent and send it to as many publishers, both big and small, until you find them. Publishers usually give good critique and advice regarding your text, and sometimes even tell you another publisher who'd be more suitable for your text than they are. Also revisiting your text and adding/removing content might make it look like a totally different script in the publisher's eyes and make them want to publish it, even if they had declined it earlier.
I'm not sure if this is helpful at all or if it makes you feel any better, but I'm sure there is going to be a day when your text will be published and brought to many interested readers. You can do it man :D And when you do, I'll be among the first to preorder your book.
Good luck and take care!
I wasn't aware you were working on a book. Let me know if there's anything I can do to lend a hand.
And it's definitely nice to know that you think I'm good enough to get published. And, hey, if I do there's a good chance your art may be on the cover!
You've been nothing but supportive, and your assistance with PD2 was invaluable.
Someday I'll have to convince you to read The Hunters series!
As for edits or improvements, I'd love to help...if you want. Just let me know.
I'm sorry I disappeared on you, twice now. I've been fighting a war with myself for a long time and that shit doesn't need to be anyone's problem. Suffice it to say that vanishing is one of my deepest regrets, yet I'm not who I once was and the writing I've done since reflects it.
If this has to be the end...don't lose your faith in the word. You've created worlds and one of the greatest crimes an author can commit (believe me I should know as King Incomplete) is to stop writing.
Whatever you decide, thank you for everything.
I'm always up for any suggestions you have for my work. I'm still looking to improve as it's obvious I have a ways to go yet.
I hope not to 'stop' writing, but at least for now I'm off my game. I'll need to find a new angle to use if and when I pick things back up.
Thanks again, and thank you for reading!
So far I've been using Calibre software to easily transform a text into ebook format most readers could accept (Epub, Mobi, or AZW). But before I take up on parsing and ripping through the PDFs you supplied, I wanted to ask if maybe you already had some works converted into ebooks.
Also, double thumbs-up for using LibreOffice. Open source software ftw! :3
Some folks have reported good luck using Amazon's automatic pdf->Kindle import service, but I don't have the tools to test it.
Actually, I just tried using Calibre to convert The Hunters a couple of months back (I'm a Linux geek!). It was able to do it from the base .odt file, but there was definitely some oddities.
I don't think FA allows ebooks format uploads, it limits to doc, docx, rtf, txt, pdf or odt.
If you'd like a quick 'n dirty convert I can see what I can do. PM me and we'll go from there. Though fair warning I'm not spending as much time around here as I used to, so it might take me a while to get back to you.
Oh, and a quick glance at your profile, you may also be interested in one of my other series, Police Dog.