Neal Kristopher

eBook Thoughts - #1 - Writing What You Love

Self Publishing eBooks.  Yeesh. I have so much to say about this, yet I find myself struggling to decide where to begin... I guess with my books. That would be a pretty cool place. I read a lot of blogs about writing and post regularly on a few forums, but I also know a few people read this blog that have no toes dipped into that pool, so I'm going to start with pretty beginner stuff here. After all, I'm a beginner.

I've always wanted to write, I filled long notebooks of rambling fantasy stuff back in junior high, longing for a computer or typewriter at home I could use to make them official. For a long time though, the urge faded. I'm not sure why, I was certainly as interested in reading as ever, but the writing side of me lay dormant.

Then my wife started writing a novel and it lit that fire again, seeing how much enjoyment she got from writing made me want to try too. So I started two very different books. A childrens novel and a book about a zombie attack. I also came up with about a dozen other ideas that I've since started to plot out.

I'm not a conventional typist, I hunt and peck with the best of 'em, however, usually just using my index fingers with an occasional tap or two from my other fingers, and writing a long book was a challenge. (Still is) But I kept at it, surprised at how the creation of the story in my head, even if no one else would read it was so therapeutic and exciting.

But a lot of my ideas are kind of unconventional. Sure, zombie books are hot right now (though I've been a fan for decades) but mine is a small scale novel, taking place in one location over the course of one eight-hour shift at a drug store. And it's told in short chapters from different points of view. My kid's book? Old school all the way. A little slow moving and good-hearted, with humor but not the scathing sarcasm that passes for humor nowadays. Mr. Pale Steps Out is a classic revenge novel that happens to take place in an alternate timeline 1960's where a biological weapon explosion has killed 85% of the population and left the rest infected or struggling to survive. And it's a short novel, pulp sized.

So I decided to write novels and promptly set about writing a bunch of books that I will never be able to sell conventionally to "Legacy" publishers. Then eBooks reared their digital heads... That's more like it!