How Do You Find The Time To Read?

Stephen King is quoted  saying, "If you don't have the time to read, then you don't have the time, nor the tools to write."

Well, as a part-time writer, it is difficult to find time for either, so I try to get in some time or both reading and writing when I can.

With a J.O.B, trying to find time for either is tough enough, but I do try. I write after 5:00 and on the weekends. My job allows me to, from time to time, work from home. But when I do, I usually work through lunch because I am not distracted by office going on's  and I can get a lot done. Or sometimes the client needs me at lunch time so I work through lunch if they need me. When I do work from home, I switch laptops at 5pm and work on my craft from 5:00 until light's out.

I am dedicated to my work from 8-5, sometimes later than 5.
I am dedicated to my wife and home life most any other time.
I am dedicated to worship on Sunday morning, and sometimes evening as well.

So when do I have time to read?
I make the time.

With Kindle apps available on any electronic deice, I can carry a full library with me anywhere I go.  So, I can't make any excuses for not being able to take any reading material with me. It is there, if I just use it. So the question is Time?

Electronic books are only a few dollars, and some are even free. Also, with a Pay-pall account being free, all I need is some sort of banking account with available funds. So I can't make any excuses for not being able to afford any books. This is my business, if you will, so I can invest in some books to read. They are out there if you will just go get them.

But the question is when how to find the time to rad with such a full life?

When I go into the office to work, if I have the time to take an hour or so for lunch, and IF there are no meetings scheduled and IF the boss hasn't asked me to go to the local pub for a burger, I open the Kindle app on my phone and I read at my desk.

Or, if I have an idea on my book, I open Google Docs on my phone and make a few notes, and then read some more. If I am not reading some sort of fiction, I am reading something to help me with my writing craft. Something on marketing, or other business aspect to my writing career. I find the time to read when and where I can find it. I make the time.

Because I live in Atlanta, GA, and the morning traffic is very thick, I find myself stuck on the highway parking lot quite often. Now, pay attention here...

I am not asking you, suggestion you, or even telling you, to do this. I am simply telling you HOW I FIND TIME TO WRITE.... this is not something I would ever say is a safe thing to do or even legal, so if you do this, you do so at your own risk and I take no responsibility in your doing so.

DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK.

I read in traffic.

I know I know, now hush and let me clarify... It is a parking lot out there and I am stopped a lot. I open my phone and bring up a book and read... ONLY WHEN I AM DOING ZERO ( 0 ) miles an hour. I am stopped. I am not making any forward movement at all. While I am stopped at a light for those three minutes, I read. While I am in a jam and we are not moving, I read a few pages. Again, I only read when I am not moving. Once traffic starts moving again, I put the phone down and I pay attention to the road.

Another time I read, is at night after my wife falls asleep. She is asleep before I am (I am a night owl) so, again with the kindle app, on my i-Pad mini this time, I open the book I was reading while in traffic and I pick up where I left off. Sometimes it helps me to wind down and go to sleep and sometimes it has the opposite affect. It keeps me up longer than I wanted. But I read when I can.

I read on the weekends. My wife is an artist so on the weekends, after we do some yard work, usually only a couple of hours, we spend the rest of the day together up in her art room where she will work on creating with a brush on canvas, and I work on my laptop. I either write, research a subject, or... yup, you guessed it, I read.

Bottom line is, Stephen King is right, writers, need to be readers as well. And, Mr. King as not the only one to say this. To become a masters of our craft, we need to study, and that means reading.

Read all you can. Grab a book at the grocery store, or download a book onto your device, or what ever your favorite medium is, and read when you can.

Grab a book and invest in yourself.
Invest in your craft.
Invest in your book you are working on and read something. When you are not reading, write. When you are not writing, Read.

- See you on the shelf

New book release Announcement is on its way!!!!

 Coming soon......
 PRESS RELEASE

In a few weeks, I hope, I will be making the announcement of my new book. Title to to be announced then. As well as the location on where to go to pre-order.

Please subscribe to receive notification first.

I will make the announcement here, sending off e-mails to my subscribers first, a few days before announcing it on Twitter or Facebook.

NEWExciting New Release from Tom Fallwell - Dragonblood Throne: Legacy

BLURB

Orphaned as a young child and growing up alone in the forest, Delina lives a life of isolation; her only companion a saber-toothed panther. Her strange eyes frighten those she occasionally encounters, so she keeps to herself, until a young, wounded warrior ends up at her doorstep. As she nurses him back to health, she discovers she is more than just a young woman with unusual eyes, she is a dragonblood, destined to become the ruler of Almar.

Now hunted by the dark sorcerer who murdered her father, usurped his throne, and killed all her kin, she must find out how she can release the essence of the dragon inside her to defeat him. Everything depends upon her willingness to embrace her legacy and reclaim the Dragon Throne.

Excerpt from Dragonblood Throne: Legacy, by Tom Fallwell

Copyright © 2017 by Tom Fallwell – All Rights Reserved

Ignoring the two scribes fidgeting nervously behind him, Kargoth anxiously watched the cosmic tableau of the moons unfold in the darkened sky from his balcony. The rare, lunar eclipse was only moments away from its apex, the new moon phase of Tibel almost centered within the bright ring of Sianor behind it.

While he would never admit it, not even to himself, Kargoth was fearful as he waited to see if the prophecy was true, if there would be a sign indicating a dragonblood still lived in Almar. The words of that prophecy played continually in his mind as he waited with bated breath.

Ring of the heavens,

Ring shining bright.

Darkness the lesser

Than greater moon's light.

When the ring glows bright

As the moons above turn,

Blood shows the sign

Of the dragons return.

A dragon reborn

From an innocent child.

The power will grow

As emotions run wild.

The dragon will rise

When all hope seems lost.

All evil will pay

The dragonblood's cost.

The dragonblood comes,

The darkness will die.

The dragon wings spread

And the dragon will fly.

“Here it comes,” Kargoth said, never removing his gaze from the moons. “Now we’ll see if there is any truth to this prophecy.”

The scribes trembled, fearing their High Lord's wrath, as Tibel firmly centered itself in front of Sianor. The light in the night lessened momentarily as Tibel covered much of Sianor's full and bright splendor.

The slim circle of light around Tibel began to burn brightly, becoming a brilliant glowing ring in the night sky. For a moment, the scholars hoped that perhaps the prophecy was false, but a red glow began to fill the darkness of Tibel. It was as if some celestial being had poured a bowl of blood into the mold of the darkened Tibel, now glowing with a red, unearthly light. The eclipse became a white circle filled with a blood-red glow.

The prophecy was true! It was a sign of blood! Of dragonblood!

The scribes slowly backed away from the balcony in fear, anticipating the wrath of their lord. They could almost hear Kargoth's rage brewing inside him as he suddenly turned on them, his steel eyes boring into their souls.

“It's true! That beast, Jeraldin, had another child!” His anger turned on the two robed figures. “You should have known this sooner! You impotent cretins!”

He raised both hands in front of him, palms outward. The terrified scribes turned to run, but it was too late. A dark fiery energy streamed from both his hands, as jets of black, searing flame engulfed the two men. Their horrifying screams of agony echoed throughout the chamber and into the halls beyond as their bodies were consumed by the deadly power Kargoth had loosed upon them. Within seconds, only smoldering piles of ash remained on the floor.

Dropping his hands in frustration, a deep and tortured frown peeked from the shadows of his hood. Kargoth stormed toward the throne room door. “Guards! Guards! Get my generals! Now!”

Whoever this dragonblood was, Kargoth had to make sure they never lived long enough to be a threat to his power. He would scour the entire kingdom and find this dragonblood. He couldn’t allow one of their kind to live.

 About the Author

Early in life, Tom Fallwell discovered a love for fantasy and science-fiction, delighting in the wonderful escape into realms undreamed of. Weaned on the greats like J.R.R. Tolkien, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Robert E. Howard, Roger Zelazny, Robert A. Heinlein, and Michael Moorcock, just to name a few, Tom's imagination was forever inspired by those marvelous tales.

One day, he discovered a simple book of rules called 'Chainmail', by Gary Gygax, and found a new love: the love of creating adventures and stories of his own. 'Chainmail' evolved into 'Dungeons & Dragons', and Tom played consistently with friends as both a player and a dungeon master (DM) for decades. Such activities helped him develop his ability to create worlds and stories for other players to enjoy.

Now retired from his long career as a software developer, Tom writes all the adventures and characters that constantly fill his mind and shares them with the world.

Website: http://tomfallwell.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorTomFallwell

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Tom-Fallwell/e/B00IV2JSJI

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/11303749.Tom_Fallwell

Rangers of Laerean Series: https://www.facebook.com/RangersofLaerean

Dragonblood Throne Series: https://www.facebook.com/DragonbloodThrone

Where to buy

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073SYDP68

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/735008

It's Your World, You Decide

In a post on one of the many writer's Facebook pages I am a member of, someone posted a question about his story-line. To protect the innocent, I will say that she asked about the functionality of a certain group. She stated that her friend said it would not work, and was stupid.

WOW! I mean, really?

Back in the day, someone decided to put a straight man in tights, place a cape on his back and a huge letter "S" on his chest and made him fly. Look how that turned out.

I would be willing to bet that one of his friends may have even said, "Men don't fly. That's stupid."

Here are four points to remember as a writer. (and yes I have to remind myself of these as well)

1)      You can't make everyone happy.
                   Ann rice said in a video, she still gets reviews staying that Interview With a Vampire is the worst book ever written.

2)      Your momma's opinion doesn't matter.
                     I love my parents big-time and they will be supportive of anything I work on.  However I know I probably won't get constructive comments about my work. If you want honest opinions, ask strangers. Although when working on REVERSION, she stopped reading because it was too graphic. That was the highest compliment I could receive.

3)      It's your world, you are the creator.

                    If you want to leave a car parked in the lot at the airport for three years, make it so. Is it possible for a car to be left there for that long, maybe not, in real life, but in your story, which is FICTION by the way, it can happen because it is part of your story.

James Patterson "does not write realisms"... his words not mine. He writes just beyond that. In one of his books, kids were part of an experiment, and one of them grew wings. NOT POSSIBLE!!!! some might say, but it was in his story.

4).     If a woman can write about a geeky little kid with round glasses that learns magic, then you can do anything you want.

It's your world so you decide what exists there, in what color, in what size, and for how long. 

-See you on the shelves.

Word Count

I see, in some of the Facebook pages I am a member of, folks  asking questions about word count. For chapters and total word count for the book.

They ask questions like:

"How many words per chapter?"

"How many chapters should my book be?"
"How many words should the book be"?

Basically they want to know what the "norm" is.

I believe that there is no norm.... but there are guidelines.

Let me explain:
I do not recall reading any books without chapters so I had to look it up. I found that there are authors like Marilynne Robinson, who wrote several books. I was interested to find that she wrote GILEAD and did not use chapters.

Another author known for writing chapters books is James Dickey, who wrote Deliverance which was later made into a film.

And before I forget, Marilynne won the Pulitzer in 2005, so I say, if a Pulitzer winner can do it, then so can you or I. Scrap the chapters if you like, or make them as short or long as you need to make them to tell your story. Remember, it's YOUR story. Not Aunt Sally's, not next door neighbor Bob's, and not Frank from Facebook.

It's your story.

Ever hear of James Patterson? He uses chapters to break up just about every scene in his books, at least the several that I have read. So I ask, what IS the norm, really?

There is no hard fast rule in word length of stories, although there are some guidelines. For example, a children's picture book for the really young kids should be about 500. This comes to me by way of my publisher in NY. And some publishers may reject a "novel" if the word count is too low, so keep the guidelines in mind as you write, but don't hurt yourself trying to meet the count.

A quick Google search shows the following:

Novel - 40K or more

Novella - 17,500 - 39,999

Novelette - 7500 - 17,499

Short Story - under 7,500

Flash Fiction - anywhere from 300 - 1500 words

But these are just guidelines.

Obviously, you wouldn't want to try to publish a story of a thousand words and call it a novel. You may get laughed at or a poor review. 

I try to keep within the "guidelines", to play it safe. I am currently working a collection of what I might call "short stories". However some of them are 1200 words where a few are over 10,000 words. So, based on the data above, my collection of short stories might have a few "Novelettes" in the mix as well.

Chapters, if you decide to use them, are used to break the story up. Either to break up the scenes, the time of day, to bounce between character's subplots, or what have you. Some writers use no chapters, and that is their choice so you decide what is best for you and your book.

You make the rule.

Or think about this: Some readers like to use chapters as stopping points. Imagine a woman is in the living room reading Sparks' latest novel and her husband calls out to her to come to bed. Her response might be, "Okay, let me just finish this chapter and I will come to bed."

For me, in the novel I am working on now, I am using chapters to break up each scene and it seems to be working.

If you can, make each chapter be it's own little story. In each chapter, tell a tiny little  story that will keep the reader doing what you want them to keep doing -reading.

Make each chapter is a little story, make it a cliff hanger so the reader will WANT to read the next chapter. Make each chapter tight. Fill it with conflict, suspense, or comedy, or what have you. Make sure the chapter poses a question or answers a previous question. If there is a question hanging out there, the reader will keep reading to get the answer to the question.

Just don't make it a lame answer.

Keep your reader wanting more. Wanting to kill the bad guy, or girl. Wanting to know if the lost found their way out of the maze. Make each chapter a best-seller so the reader will do just that, want to know more and keep reading.

Each chapter needs to be as long as it needs to be to tell the part of the story that you want to tell. Period.

I read a book once, maybe James Patterson, that had a one sentence chapter.

Bottom line is just write your story. It will take as many words as it takes to tell the story. Have fun and put out the best work you can produce.

Good luck and I will see you on the shelves.

Set A Time To Write

          If you are a part-time writer, because you work fulltime at a J.O.B, you may have to write when you can. A Little here and a little there, and it can be daunting, frightening, or even intimidating to deal with the pressure of taking the time to write. Well, it is not that difficult to set aside some time. It does need to be done, however. Just bite the bullet and pick a time. Here are a few things to think about that may help you along this part of your journey. You are not the only writer that has had to deal with finding time to write.

          Distractions

Make it a time when there are the least amount of distractions floating around.

• The dog will not need to be walked during this time. 
• The kids will be gone or asleep. during this time.
• You can turn off the phone and TV and other electronic devices so you can have this time for yourself. ( I like a little music going so my iTunes is playing.............quietly)
• Once you set the time, make an announcement. Make sure all family members know to not interrupt your writing time. (unless someone is bleeding to death or choking.... you know, the stuff that is more important than writing.) 

          Location

Once you have the time set, morning noon, afternoon, think about where you will be writing.

• Do you have an office? 
• The kitchen table, or dining room table. Think about the distraction factor. If you plan on writing at the dining room table, will there be any kids there doing their homework as well? Keep that in mind. 
• In the bedroom (with the door closed and a "Do Not Disturb" sign hanging on the door.) 
• Fast food restaurants. Many a morning I have spent at a local fast food franchise with wifi working on a chapter or two. As long as you order something, it has been my experience that most places won't mind so much if you are there a while. Just don't overstay your welcome. 
• At the campus library, if you are a student. 
• The student center of your religious affiliation.

          The ideas on locations can go on and on. The point is, once you decide on a location, to keep the distractions down to a minimum, if not zero.

          Time

          I'm not talking about the time WHEN you plan on writing, but the amount of time you will actually be writing. How long do you plan on writing? I work, on average, 8-5. When I set aside some time, I try as hard as I can to not think about work. I try to get in at least an hour a night. Sometimes, and more often than not, I get a few hours in so in the end it all works out. So, my WHEN varies, but is still the same... "After Work" I work from home so this is convenient. I can close down the work stuff and open my outline and work for a couple of hours.

          Word Count

          Maybe you plan on writing five hundred words, a thousand words at a time. That could take a half hour, or it may take three. Come up with a plan and then work the plan. I know that sounds a bit cliche-ish, but it works. Plan on an hour, or plan on two thousand words. Bottom line is to try and stick to it. If you find that you are in "The Zone" and you feel you need to go further, then by all means go for it. This is a plan and plans change so write as much as you want to or need to.

          I find the biggest distraction, not mentioned above, is myself. So while deciding to set the specific amount of time or the number of words you wish to write, remember two rules.

• During this time you don't actually have to write... 
• But you can't do anything but write...

          What I mean is that during this time, if you do anything, the activity must be writing.

          

          No research, no phone calling, no making your lunch for tomorrow. You must only write. You don't have to write, but you can't do anything else. You can, if you are at a blank spot, just sit there for the hour, or pace the room thinking, but you can't do anything else.

          No vacuuming your office or organizing your files. You can however, work on your blog. That is what I am doing now. I am at a point in my book outline where I feel the story ran stale, so I am taking a break from my book and am working on this article for my blog. I am not writing in my book, but I am writing. See?

Writer's Block

          I am not a fan of this term, because I don't personally believe in it. I don't believe a writer is ever truly, actually, hopelessly, without a doubt blocked and has nothing to write. If you are in a dead zone, one trick I found that works for me is to write.

          That's right, write away writer's block. Allow me to back up a bit here...
Writing is my passion. I don't care if I am writing for my blog, working on my latest mystery, or polishing up a children's book, I enjoy the writing process. Which is odd because I didn't do so well in English class and I sure didn't enjoy writing the essay assignments I was given.

          But, now, I love to write. And, like every writer out there, I too experience writer's block. If James Patterson admits to hitting a wall from time to time, I think it is okay to admit it as well.

          It's not easy to get into a groove, but once I do, its great. Characters are working together, the scenes flow and the conflict is great and the resolutions are hard to see, which is preferable. I don't want an easy-way-out solution, I like solutions that are not all that obvious and have a twist to them. The solution is "X" but it reveals something else, something new, something unexpected.

          I don't like to call it writer's "BLOCK" because I am not really blocked, I just hit some dead air, a lull in the story-line, an air pocket, if you will. The writing just went flat for this specific scene. I can still write, just not on this specific scene. I have my own method to get over the block, or to get back on track and into the groove, but I was curious what others do, so, off to Google I went. I found some things that other writers do to get out of the lull, the rut, get around the obstacle.

Some writers:

• Get physical: ride a bike, take a walk, do something physical –exorcise, hunt down the pesky squirrel in the back yard, build a barge and launch it in the nearest lake.

• Change of Scenery: Taking a walk as mentioned above will give you a change of scenery. Like me, for instance—I work from home so the four walls in my basement tend to close in on me so every other morning or so I head to the nearest Mickey D's for some Vitamin C (“C” is for coffee). The drive is only about ten minutes, so this is a quick escape.

• Put it away till the next day and start over: I have done this before but it is not my favorite way to get past the blocked words. If I am not careful, I put it away and get distracted by some other project and before you know it, six months have flown by.

• Some even take a nap: I can't even take a nap on Sunday afternoon after church. There is too much to do and –I don’t know about you… but I only get 24 hours in a day.

          However, as I stated in the two rules above, I can't do anything BUT write so that is just what I do...

          Since I write on my laptop, and everything is electronic these days, I simply open a Notepad file and start typing. Blah Blah, or what ever...

          Writing, no matter how plain, dull, bland, senseless it is, gets me going again. For me, when I am writing about everything or nothing in general is like priming the water pump to get the water flowing again. For me, writing gets me writing again.

          Another option is to write  "TBDL" (To Be Decided Later) and move on to another area of your outline or book. In one scene, I may be thinking about how to play out a fight scene, so I write, "FIGHT SCENE" and then move on to something else and come back to the fight scene and work it out.

          Commitment

          Now, what ties all this together is commitment. Commitment from your friends and family to give you some privacy, quiet time, a time out or whatever you decide to call it and .....let you write. Also, you need to commit yourself. Commit to start at the designated hour, go to your writing place and do nothing but write.


Good luck with your journey. I hope this is helpful.

Happy Father's Day

Being the middle child, you may think I would get a lot of hand-me-downs. Well, thank goodness I am in between two girls. I have an older sister and a younger sister so the hand-me-downs from my older went directly to my younger sister and bypassed me all together. About the only hand-me-down I got from my older sister, was aggravation, and I got lots of that.

The hand-me-downs I received was more information that my father passed on to me. I learned quite a bit from my father and the information he passed down to me is the basics of any young man coming of age.

He taught me things by lessons and some by example. He would tell me to go put on a dirty shirt or a work shirt and I knew we were going to get our hands dirty. He taught me how to change spark plugs on all of our vehicles. I learned how to drive a stick on an old Volkswagen camper bus. The gears were on a diagonal, not straight up and down. The reverse on that bus was odd. At least it was odd for a fifteen-year-old boy... you had to push the gear shift stick down and then into Reverse. It was kind of cool.

He taught me how to change the fan belts, yes belt(S) plural, in our cars and my truck. This was a time when you have four or five belts running at one time. Now a days you have but the one serpentine belt. Did I spell that correctly? The one belt wraps around every pulley and keeps it all going. I was able to help myself if I ever was to find myself broke down on the side of the road with a busted fan belt or a flat tire. Most fathers taught their sons these little tasks when he was growing up and he passed them along to me.

I don't know if fathers do this anymore. I would like to think they, I hope they do, but if not please take some of your knowledge and skills and hand it down to your child. If that child be a girl or a boy, it matters not, teach your child some basics.

My father took me fishin' many times while I was growing up. If he had to work, my grandfather took me. I remember being in a boat with my my dad, who can't swim by the way, and he would take me in a boat out to Grassy Pond and we would go fishing. I loved those times. He taught me to love the outdoors and fishing.

Remember that old Volkswagen camper bus I told you about, the one I learned how to drive a stick in, well, he would take me camping in that bus a few times as well. I remember going to Alligator point and we spent a couple of nights. Reed Bingham State Park, in Adel, Georgia. I don't think we ever fished there, but we camped there a lot because it was so close to Valdosta.

The things he taught me by example was how to treat a lady. My father actually loves and cares deeply for my mother. I see the way he treats her, respects her, and loves here every day of my life. Both when we were younger and now. My mother knows this and appreciates it. I try to live by his example and love and respect my wife as well.

I really enjoyed those times we spent together. Take your son or daughter camping, teach them how to change the oil in a car, change the spark plugs, and the ONE fan belt. Teach them about the outdoors, fishin', huntin', campin'... or what ever your hobby is. Spend time with your children.  Spend time with your dad if he is still around. Take him fishin' or just for a ride in the boat. Go buy him a beer or a Coke, or a cup of coffee. Spend time with him and tell him you appreciate and love him.


Happy Father's Day