Welcome to my blog

Hello visitors. On my blog I'm talking about my books, but also about what I'm currently working on and, maybe, some other stuff. Browse through my posts and don't forget to check out my older posts in the archives. If you are interested in my books, please, visit my website Fictitious Tales for more information and a few excerpts. Also, take a look at my second blog Herbert Grosshans, where I talk about fun-stuff and things that concern me.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

The Xandra, Book Five, Escape from Paradise


 The book has been released by Melange Books today. I don’t have the pdf copy yet. To read more about the book click on ‘New Releases’ at the top under the picture. Before reading this one, you should read Book Four,Lure of Seduction, first, because Book Five is a direct continuation of the story. It was too long to be published as one book. Book Six was scheduled to be released in May, but when I checked the upcoming releases at the Melange Books’ site, I saw that ‘Bullet of Revenge’ will be my next published book, which is fine. Bullet of Revenge is a contemporary thriller. It contains no explicit erotica. I hope my readers won’t mind. I’m hoping to attract a different category of readers with that novel.

I’m at over 20,000 words now with Book Seven in the Xandra series. I can’t believe I’ve written so many books in one series. There may even be more coming, depends on the interest of readers and how I feel. The series has potential. The more I write in the World of the Xandra, the more complex it becomes and the more possibilities for additional books arise. 

The Xandra, Daughter of the Dark, was my first novel to be published in 2005 by Midnight Showcase. I never foresaw then that it may become a series. After that followed Book two, Mother of Light, and then Book three, Goddess of Light. The way the series is developing, Book 4 - 7 should have come after the first book, and Book 2 and 3 should be last in the series. Should I write more books in the Xandra World, I may write still some in the time before Mother of Light, but I probably will write a few after the events in Mother of Light and Goddess of Life. I can't say now. There are vague ideas floating around in my head, but I also want to write in other genres and about other worlds. For instance the trilogy 'Lizard World' intrigues me very much. There could be more books in that universe I created, but it would be under the overall title 'The Spider Wars'. Anyway, that's what I had planned.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Death of a Hero

In the fast moving world of e-publishing books come and go. With new releases every month older books drop away from the awareness of readers and sometimes a good book disappears in the cracks. My contemporary thriller 'Web of Conspiracy', published in 3 volumes because of its length (180,000+ words) is one such book. I don't think it received the attention it deserved. It took me two years to write the novel and hours upon of hours doing research. The novel is about war, soldiers, a murder-mystery, an adventure story, a thriller, with a little bit of romance and erotica thrown in for good measure. I learned a lot about Iraq and other places while writing the book and I enjoyed writing it. It would be a shame if the novel slipped into oblivion without being noticed by more than just a few readers.

So I'm offering a few pdf copies for free to anyone who sends me an email to hegro@shaw.ca and tells me he/she read about it on my blog.

Please, go to my website Herbert's World and read another excerpt.

Escape from Paradise

Book 5 in my The Xandra series is scheduled to be published April 29. So, please, come back and find out more about it.

I'm busy with writing Book 7. No title yet, but I usually never know the title until I'm finished with the book. I'm at around 13,000 words right now. It is going slow. I've been busy with other stuff and somehow I always seem to find something else to do, but now I'm getting anxious to write the story. I already have the general gist of the story in my head and when I write I am excited to get into it.

I have to stop spending so much time on the internet, reading other blogs and group posts. It is amazing how much time one can actually waste on doing that. I get a lot of e-mails with the note: 'send from my i-phone'. I don't have an i-phone and I don't believe I ever will have one. It seems to be a gadget that can really take time out of your schedule. My simple cell phone is good enough for me. I need it only to make calls. If I want to take pictures I will use a camera. If I want to go on the internet or send e-mails I will use my computer or laptop. If I want to watch a movie I will watch it on my big-screen TV and enjoy my surround sound. I just don't see the point in watching movies on a tiny phone screen.

Progress is fine and dandy, but not everything is useful or even desirable. People get so caught up in new gadgets and believe they need to have them just to keep up. That is not necessarily the case.

Wednesday, April 04, 2012

Editing...editing...editing...


Writing a story is fun. To write a good story a writer must immerse himself (or herself) into the story, even to the point of almost becoming one of the characters. In our minds we must live in the world we create, and if we create a world full of adventure, mystery, intrigue, and romance, we are sad when the story ends. Sad to leave that wonderful world, but also sad and a bit anxious because now begins the work of getting our great story ready to be published.

While we experience the adventures in our imaginary world and while we put those adventures into the written word, we don’t care much about grammar, spelling or consistencies. All we care about is to get our tales onto the pages of a scribbler or, these days, into the hard drive of our computers, eager to leave a record of our dreams and imagination behind. Perhaps to read it some day and relive the experience, but if we want others to experience the great joy we felt when we spun our tale in our mind things change. We can’t just have a mess of misspelled words, unfinished sentences, long sentences without any commas or periods, or paragraphs that go on for pages and pages without breaks. If we want to pull our readers into our world, we need to make sure the writing flows. Inconsistencies need to be fixed, stated facts need to be true, timelines need to be consistent, and so on. We can’t have a character have blue eyes in one chapter and brown eyes in the next, unless the character wears contact lenses. And the reader needs to be informed of that. If we make up names for our characters, which is the case in fantasy and science fiction, we must take care not make them unreadable and we have to spell them the same every time. Readers don’t like to stumble over words.

Now to the job of editing. Writers use different methods to edit their work. Some people advise to just write the story and then worry about spelling and grammar. I don’t work that way; I already edit while I’m working. Once I’ve written a sentence, I read it again to make sure it says what I wanted to say. It makes editing the whole manuscript a lot easier later on.

When I’m done with my story I read it again and check the flow of the story. I look at grammar and whatever catches my attention. If I find misspelled words, I correct them, but I don’t really look for them. Then I read it again. This time I concentrate on searching for misspelled words and wrong words. After that I run my Spell-check program, which will call my attention to ‘misspelled’ names. Those are the names I created. When Spell-check prompts me, I add the ‘misspelled’ names to the dictionary. That way I will be alerted if I spell a registered name wrong. Spell-check will also find actual misspelled words if I missed them the first time around. However, I will never rely on Spell-check alone, because there are many mistakes in the program.  Most of the time I will ignore the ‘suggestions’, but I do pay attention to them.
After the Spell-check, I usually put the manuscript away for a few days. Then I’ll read it again in the hope to find anything I might have missed. After this I'll print it out and let my wife read it. She also checks for mistakes and marks them on the pages. It is always a good idea to have somebody else read it,. Different eyes see different things.
Then I send it in and carry on with my next project.

When I get my edited version back from my editor, I don’t just go through the edits and blindly accept them. I read the manuscript again, very slowly. If I find an error or if I feel a sentence or word needs to be changed, I do so at this time. When I come to the editor’s comments and suggestions I make sure the suggestion is correct. Editors are human and make mistakes. That is a fact. I may not always take the editor’s suggestion, but I may make a change in the sentence or word the editor didn’t like.

When I started publishing, I was in a great hurry to get my novels published. I remember going through a finished novel with Spell-check, relying completely on the program to find all of the errors. I usually read the novel only once before I sent it in. Also, I accepted all of the editor’s suggestions without questioning them. Reading my earlier publications now, I find many errors that should not have been there. I’m not blaming the editors for that. I blame myself for being in such a hurry to send in my novels. After all these years and having published and edited over twenty books, I know how easy it is to miss things. We may have written the word ‘track’ when it should be ‘truck’; our eyes see that, but our mind will accept it as correct, (as will Spell-check!). Or if we write ‘if’ instead of ‘is’, a common error, our mind will convince us that it is correct when we are reading the whole sentence. Even missing words will be filled in subconsciously. That is how we are wired. We are not robots but human beings who are not infallible. We make mistakes, but with a little bit of care we can fix those mistakes.

As far as I’m concerned, editors are not there to rewrite our stories or to even correct our misspelled words or our grammar. Their job is to make certain there are no inconsistencies which we may not be aware of, improper or offensive content, and finding the odd error that slipped through our scrutiny. I'd like to call editors the 'final product checkers', but in the end the onus lies with the author to produce a product free of blemishes. We cannot rely on others to do that, be it our reading partner or the editor. Like anything in life, people have to take responsibility for what they do, and writing a story for others to read is one of those things. Just my opinion.

Like any good tradesman (I refuse to use the word ‘tradesperson’. It sounds stupid.) we writers have to make sure we are skilled in the use of the tools needed to put down the stuff brewing inside our heads. Those tools are called ‘words’. We have to know how to spell them and how to string them into comprehensible sentences. We need to know the correct grammar and whatever goes with it. We need to study our language and keep on learning. Few of us will ever be perfect, but we can strive to give it our best.

Sunday, April 01, 2012

Free copy of Lure of Seduction

Thank you for visiting. It won't be long now until Book 5 of my Xandra series, Escape from Paradise, gets published. Lure of Seduction is part one of Rob Cameron's story and should be read before Escape. Book 6, Iceworld,  is scheduled to be published by Melange in May. The story takes place on the fifth planet of that star system and it explains the fate of the researchers mentioned in the first book, Daughter of the Dark. The story will continue with Book seven, which I am currently writing. There will be a few surprises in Book seven. No title yet.
The Xandra series is highly erotic, but also an exciting Space Opera/Fantasy. My first three books were bestsellers at FictionWise. Unfortunately, our books aren't sold anymore at FictionWise since my new publisher Melange Books took over Midnight Showcase, my fist publisher. FictionWise was always a good indicator how my books were selling. Now I don't know anymore.
If you would like a free pdf copy of Book 4, Lure of Seduction, please send me an email at hegro@shaw.ca and ask for it. I would be happy to send  you one. Please, come and visit again. Also check out my website Herbert's World to read a few excerpt of my other books.