Comments on Author Exposure: Author Exposure Welcomes Guest Blogger, author R.J...

Hello Everyone, It looks like everyone forgot to...

2009-10-08T22:54:00.054-04:00

Hello Everyone,

It looks like everyone forgot to supply their email addresses for the giveaway.

So we randomly chose Jamie. Congratulations, you won a copy of Tractrix! Please leave your email address so that we may contact you for additional information.

Thanks to all the bloggers and readers who partici...

2009-10-08T21:00:37.322-04:00

Thanks to all the bloggers and readers who participated in the discussion today. We will announce the winner of the "Tractrix" giveaway copy tomorrow. Good luck!
R.J. wanted to thank everyone for their comments and questions. Unfortunately, he had to leave early because of a family emergency. Please be sure to visit his website, www.seedsofcivilization.com, and signup for his newsletter.

The book covers for the Seeds of Civilization seri...

2009-10-08T19:30:09.908-04:00

The book covers for the Seeds of Civilization series were all designed by my wife, Marty. I guess I forgot to list “graphic designer” in that long list earlier. She’s been a graphic designer her entire professional life and co-owned a design firm in Guadalajara, Mexico, before returning to Portland, Oregon, to start her own firm. I should mention that The sphere on the Tractrix cover and the tsubute on the Tsubute cover were done by professional computer artists who are also personal friends. Marty did the triangle on the Triangle cover.

I've been taking a closer look at your book co...

2009-10-08T19:09:00.211-04:00

I've been taking a closer look at your book covers and they are great. Who designed them? Are you happy with the outcome?

Libby: Thanks for asking! The new series will inc...

2009-10-08T16:06:36.202-04:00

Libby:

Thanks for asking! The new series will include one book “starring” each of the four main characters from the Seeds series and the first three all take place along the exact same timeline. From the beginning I had planned to have conversations that take place between characters (I call them “intersects”) and thus appear in more than one book. I started writing Tony’s book and got to Chapter 6 before I realized that I was never going to be able to keep everything in sync if I wrote the books serially. At that point I took a hint from my own series title and decided to try writing the first three books in parallel, finishing one chapter of each book before moving on to the next chapter. So far, I’ve completed 5 chapters of Jim’s book and 5 chapters of Linda’s book, so I’ll soon be caught up. In the process I’ve also reordered the books and Tony’s is now the third rather than the first. This has to do with the sequence of events in each story and trying to make sure an earlier book doesn’t give away too much of a later book’s plot.

The new series will include, in order, The Scientists (Jim), The Informants (Linda), The Guardians (Tony) and The Teachers (Frank).

Can you tell us more about how your "Parallel...

2009-10-08T15:48:10.929-04:00

Can you tell us more about how your "Parallel Ops" project is coming along? What chapter are you writing now?

Carol: Those would be the famous Nazca Lines that...

2009-10-08T15:20:54.204-04:00

Carol:

Those would be the famous Nazca Lines that date to somewhere between 600 BC and 100 BC. They are one of the many unsolved mysteries I referred to earlier, but my interests are in civilizations that fly in the face of current academic thinking – in other words, those that may have existed early than about 5,000 BC.

As for another “Seeds” book, probably not. I’m currently working on a four-book follow-up series that will be more conspiracy theory and less archaeology. I doubt if there will ever be a “Son of Seeds” series.

I watched a documentary on the National Geographic...

2009-10-08T15:11:48.003-04:00

I watched a documentary on the National Geographic Channel a couple of days ago. It featured ancient drawings of astronauts and airplanes, plus the giant drawings of a spider and an astronaut in Peru(?) that have to be seen from the air.

Have you given any thought to setting one of your books in that area? I know Tractrix had some scuba diving in it, and so does Tsubute. I'm reading that now. From earlier comments here, I can tell that's your hobby. I'm sure you could find some bottomless lake or underwater cave in the Peruvian mountains?

Mike: I’d love to have a video trailer, but they ...

2009-10-08T15:11:04.318-04:00

Mike:

I’d love to have a video trailer, but they cost even more than an audio book and the Seeds series is a “budget constrained project” to say the least! However, I’ve always believed that the series would make a great foundation for a TV series such as Relic Hunter. I’m not saying this because I’m the author, but because there’s a little for everyone in the series – science, speculation, mystery, adventure, sci-fi and even some conspiracy theory.

Libby: Thank you for the website comments! All th...

2009-10-08T15:03:52.823-04:00

Libby:

Thank you for the website comments! All the credit for the site goes to my wife/webmaster/PR agent/editor/best friend, Marty. The “Behind the Scenes” section is there because my goal is to blend fact and fiction into a writing style I call “faction.” I try to blur the distinction so much that the reader will never know when I’ve shifted from one to the other. The links are to real places and things that inspired events or locations in the books and they help reinforce the “fact” part of the story line.

In Tractrix, for example, you’ll read about a place in the Yucatan called Loltun. These caves actually exist (I’ve toured them) and they were used by the Maya for centuries. They’re also the place where the Maya made their last stand against the Mexican Army at the beginning of the last century. Those are facts. As you read Tractrix you discovered some fictional qualities of the caves that historians might take issue with!

RJ Have ever given consideration to promoting yo...

2009-10-08T14:50:14.455-04:00

RJ

Have ever given consideration to promoting your book via book trailer? Since, the series in written, it would be great to put together something that will help convey the mystery/message in these books for the non-scientific type readers who might give it a try?

How did you come up with the idea for your website...

2009-10-08T14:31:49.438-04:00

How did you come up with the idea for your website? I really like it--especially the "Behind the Scenes" feature. Everyone should check it out! www.seedsofcivilization.com

Carol: Thanks for your compliments! As I mentione...

2009-10-08T14:17:22.081-04:00

Carol:

Thanks for your compliments! As I mentioned earlier this morning, Mayan history/mystery just happened to be a subject I was doing some research into when I decided to try my hand at fiction writing. If my “inspiration” had come at a different time in my life, who knows what I might have cranked out! :-)

However, once I got into the whole “lost civilizations” thing I discovered that there were enough unsolved mysteries in the world for a whole series rather than just one book.

Rita: The process changes, as backlash from the a...

2009-10-08T14:01:40.382-04:00

Rita:

The process changes, as backlash from the author community surfaces, but the worst-case scenario would be ebook rights. With any copyrighted material, there are a myriad of “rights” that an author can sell or otherwise convey individually. Some of these include movie rights, foreign rights, audio rights, and ebook rights. In the case of the Kindle there’s a new legal issue currently pending because the device has the ability to do text-to-speech conversion. Some authors who signed over their ebook rights are now complaining that Amazon is in violation of the authors’ audio rights!

I couldn't put Tractrix down once I started re...

2009-10-08T13:51:07.928-04:00

I couldn't put Tractrix down once I started reading it. I liked the way you had a team of 4 heroes and more than one "villain." It seemed so real I could imagine myself right in the middle of the action.

How did you come up with the idea for Tractrix?

A little background on the audio excerpt. My wife,...

2009-10-08T13:49:09.042-04:00

A little background on the audio excerpt. My wife, Marty, and her youngest son, Mike, came up with the idea as a Christmas present to me. Marty created the extract, which is the better part of chapter condensed down into a 10 –minute script. There were five characters plus the narrator so Mike located the necessary voice talent (6 separate individuals) on the Internet and emailed each one their part. When the digital recordings came back to him, he pieced it all together to create what you hear. It was a much bigger task than either of them imagined!

So, when you sign up with Amazon to Kindle your bo...

2009-10-08T13:41:14.763-04:00

So, when you sign up with Amazon to Kindle your book, are you turning over rights? or just digital rights?

I can't believe you are live blogging. Pretty cool.

I'm considering a Kindle but I hate that I can...

2009-10-08T13:40:21.221-04:00

I'm considering a Kindle but I hate that I can view it prior to purchase. So, I'm procrastinating on the big purchase.

R.J., I'm glad you mentioned your Tsubute audi...

2009-10-08T13:37:51.446-04:00

R.J.,
I'm glad you mentioned your Tsubute audio excerpt! I really enjoyed listening to it and the voices the narrator gave to the characters.

Carol: As a matter of fact, yes! However, hiring ...

2009-10-08T13:30:37.071-04:00

Carol:

As a matter of fact, yes! However, hiring the voice talent to do either a podcast or an ebook version can be very expensive. My step-son (mike@DACMusik.com) produced a short sneak-peek into Tsubute, the second book in the “Seeds” series that you can check out at http://podcast.com/show/6432/ but we’ve haven’t done an entire book yet.

Libby/Karl: Our issue with the Kindle is that Ama...

2009-10-08T13:29:15.970-04:00

Libby/Karl:

Our issue with the Kindle is that Amazon can continue to sell your ebook even if you terminate your agreement with them. Google and Amazon are beginning to have a significant impact on the publishing industry and it’s not all positive!

I don't use an e-reader, but have you consider...

2009-10-08T13:26:06.447-04:00

I don't use an e-reader, but have you considered audio books and/or podcasts?

I don't have an e-reader yet. I've been ba...

2009-10-08T13:17:37.383-04:00

I don't have an e-reader yet. I've been battling the debate over Sony or Kindle but I believe I'm going to pin it on the Kindle. I like the instant accessibility and there has been a number of books available on the Kindle way before they are available on Sony. I have a friend who owns Sony E-reader and complains about it all the time.

Jax: Yes, I fought that battle every day! In fact...

2009-10-08T13:16:26.032-04:00

Jax:

Yes, I fought that battle every day! In fact, Tractrix is more than 130,000 words long because of that very problem. When I started shopping it around I received some negative feedback just due to the length. I didn’t know this at the time, but publishers want fiction books by first-time authors to be right at 100,000 words because that translates into a one-inch thick paperback, which can be faced out three deep on a typical three-inch bookstore shelf. How’s THAT for a stupid constraint on an author’s creativity? I didn’t change the length of Tractrix, but I was more careful with Tsubute and Triangle.

RJ, I'm curious did you find yourself having ...

2009-10-08T13:07:42.341-04:00

RJ,

I'm curious did you find yourself having to cut out some of your writing because there was so much information or because of your nature to be detail-oriented? Did you have an fights like that while writing?