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Albert Camus

Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Guest Post and Giveaway: The Man Who Became Frankenstein's Monster by Robert Daicy

Description:

New York, 1926 - Anyone can make a good life for themselves if they are just willing to work hard for it. William Barker is such a man. He has a good job, a nice house, a son named James, and a marriage he is trying desperately to hold together. A tragic accident takes this life away and William finds himself alone in his house with terrible mental and physical scars that are a constant reminder of what happened. With no one willing to employ a man with such visible and disturbing scars, William is lost and has no answers for how to live his life. That is when he meets the man who will change that life forever, Roland Skelton, the owner of Skelton's Spectacular Traveling Carnival. Where others saw a man to be shunned, Roland sees a man he may be able to help. Roland convinces William to join the Carnival as the headliner of the ten-in-one. With the name Frankenstein's Monster, William is a hit with the paying audience and finds that being onstage is a release from his pain and guilt. In time, William realizes that those he works with understand him better than he could have hoped. While working at the carnival, William finds a new happiness, an enemy, purpose, and even love. The Man Who Became Frankenstein's Monster is a moving novel about a man who rises above adversity set against the backdrop of the golden age of the carnival.

GUEST POST
My Writing Process 

A book takes a long time from idea to a finished product and everyone goes about it in their own way and at their own pace. Some can crank out a book in a month, while others take years between offerings. I have heard about people who have planned every detail of their book before they ever set a sentence down, while others just look at a blank page and the story seems to form in front of them. There is no right way to write a book, but here, I’ll detail my way, from start to finish. 

First is the idea. I get my ideas from all sorts of places. The Man Became Frankenstein’s Monster came to me when I was sixteen, while The Mourning of Mary Turner was inspired by a real artist I had read about. Once I get the idea, I let it stay in my head and try let it grow on its own. Usually this mean not writing about it for well over a year for me. During this time, I tend to think of scenes, a title, and the ending, but sometimes, it’s just some different scenes. I know when the idea is ready to go to paper when I can’t get it out of my head and feel I have a good grasp of where I want to go. 

I strive to write ten pages per day when writing, but this can vary. I do work, so sometimes, I can only get five, while others I can get twelve or fifteen. The important thing for me is to make some progress each day and after a month and a half or so, I typically have a rough draft. There’s a couple of people who read my work as it’s being written and that allows me to get a good idea about what’s working and what isn’t and I make notes about their comments for when I go back and edit. 

It is important for me to get away from the story for a while once I’m finished. I need at least a month to separate myself from it, but often take three or more before I go back and edit it with a fresh pair of eyes. During this downtime, I work with a cover artist, as that can take a few weeks to a month by itself. The first edit is the toughest, as I’m making content changes along with looking for grammatical errors. Two more bouts of editing are done before I send the work to my editor. 

Getting the book back from the editor is when I really know I’m almost done. I go through the suggested changes and then all I have to do is format the book and it’s ready to go out on the Kindle and to be published, but then there is the matter of promoting the book. I have found that this way of doing things works best for me and I can write a couple of books a year doing this. One thing I do know for a fact is that there is nothing like holding a copy of your own book in your hands, knowing just how hard it was to make.

About the author:
I have been writing off and on since I was eight and it has been something I have always loved to do and wanted to do for a living. I tend to write the stories I want to hear and sometimes those stories have a darkness to them on some level whether they are more suspenseful stories or drama. I like to jump around the genres because I do not want to get bored writing the same thing and because I have eclectic taste. I was born and raised in Maine and have lived there most my life and am currently residing in a Victorian house in Fairfield, Maine.

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Titlul spune multe, si sper ca, pe cat de adevarat e titlul, pe atat de adevarat sa fie si continutul. Mi-as dori sa vad un adevarat "om care a devenit monstrul Frankenstein".