Shadowkill Trilogy is Complete / Happenings In The Outhouse 13-Oct-2017

The Shadowkill Trilogy is complete . . . and published.

All three books are, of course, published separately as well as the complete trilogy in its own box set collection.  Here is the cover for the complete trilogy.

Here is the link for all the ebook retailers for all three separate books as well as the three-volume collection.

Four new stories being published soon / Happenings In The Outhouse 18-Aug-2017

The last time I published anything was in late December 2016, my novel The Christmas Letters.

Since then, I've been diligently working on books two and three of the Shadowkill Trilogy.

Over the past few weeks, I've put together a new nonfiction books about traveling with type one diabetics--still untitled, but brainstorming some ideas--and a short story, which, as of this date, is technically a novelette.  Top word count on a short story is 7,500 words, according to SFWA, and this one is over 10,000.  Not sure how I'll market it, but I'll figure it out.

When these are up and published--these will be published wide, across all e-book platforms--I will let everyone know.

What's Next? / Happenings In The Outhouse 28-July-2017

I have finished the first round of edits for books two and three of the Shadowkill trilogy.

What's next?

Before I run through the final (I hope, crossing my fingers) edits, there are 2-3 smaller projects I want to tackle: a non-fiction book centered around travelling with type one diabetics, and a few fiction short stories.

I love the freedom of being an indie author.  I can write exactly what my heart desires.  If I want to write a romance or a cozy mystery or another thriller in my Central Division series, I can--and I will.  Those are tentatively scribbled in for 2018, at the very earliest.  For the romance, I'm going back and forth about a pseudonym.  I'm weighing the pros and cons carefully.

On the short story front, I have a few I had written before.  So with those, I want to do one pass-through to get a feeling about it being ready to go or not.  There is another short story I had written the bones of before--meaning, I have written about three pages, just to get the idea out of my head--and I have a strong feeling to write it.

Create A Character List Early On In The First Draft / Happenings In The Outhouse 21-July-2017

I'm in the middle of editing the last two novels in the Shadowkill trilogy, and I've come across something that may be helpful to fiction writers: as early as possible, create a character list as you write.

This may seem like a no-brainer to some and a "oh I don't need that; I'll remember all of my characters" to others, but trust me when I say that for most, you'll thank me later.

No matter how minor a character may seem, it's good to jot their name down and maybe add a note on how they're relevant.  About a third of the way through book 2, I discovered I had a different name for an extremely minor character.  I didn't have a note on this one.

This list doesn't have to be some Wikipedia page or anything.  Just a name and anything relevant to the story.

Stats On Third Novel In Shadowkill Trilogy / Happenings In The Outhouse 07-July-2017

On July 4th, while many Americans were celebrating our country's Independence Day, I not only celebrated that, I also finished the third (and final?) novel in the Shadowkill trilogy, titled Storming The Hill.

I started it on 3/19/2017
I finished it on 7/4/2017
Total days is 108

The novel came out at 69,916 words, averaging 647 words per day.

Unfortunately, there were 30 zero word days.  Over half could be attributed to our son's graduation and the vacation to Tennessee, even though I still could've found a few minutes here and there to write.  That's something I'll have to revisit down the road.

When I take the actual writing days into account, which were 78, my average words per day rose to 896.

I'm budgeting the next two months to edit the final two books, prepare covers, write the blurbs and product descriptions, research keywords.  I haven't decided if I will do any pre-orders or not.  I also feel I will publish this on all platforms.  I won't make these Amazon exclusive.

So, what's next?

No worries, I'm already brainstorming what to do next.  I have at least three short stories I may publish in the meantime--while I work on books 2 and 3--so there will always be something I'm working on.

Vacation vs. Writing / Happenings In The Outhouse 30-June-2017

For the first two weeks of June, my family, in-laws, and I were out of town, on vacation.  We drove down to the Knoxville, TN area--more specifically, Pigeon Forge, TN.  My in-laws rented a cabin--a very nice three-story, five-bedroom monstrosity--that overlooked the Great Smoky Mountains.

It was truly relaxing.

Wi-Fi at the cabin was spotty at best, which meant I didn't get much writing done--oh, who am I kidding, I didn't write at all.  I did get a lot of reading done, along with visiting relatives and seeing the sites.  Absolutely no regrets.  I feel like relaxing times are needed to recharge the creative batteries.

Now that I've been back for over two weeks, the third novel in the Shadowkill Trilogy is nearing completion.  I have over 63,000 words written so far.  How much is left?  I plan on finishing by next week--crossing my fingers.  I started this third book on March 19th.  The original goal was to finish by May 19th, but with planning for the trip and our son's high school graduation, writing took the back seat a little.  I still wrote up until the day we left, but it was less and less.

Again, no regrets.

Busy Times, Yet I Still Have Time To Write / Happenings In The Outhouse 19-May-2017

The past month has been extremely busy.  Two weeks ago, I had a daughter who got confirmed at the Lutheran church were we attend, then another daughter had her first communion the Sunday after, and now, on the 26th of this month, our son graduates from high school.

To top it all off, we are going on a 10-day trip to Tennessee, to visit some of my wife's family, less than a week after graduation.

Yet, even given all this chaos, I still have the time to write.  Most of the time.  Let's us be honest, there have been a few days where I have not written a single word, but other days I've made up for it.  And these events I just listed (from confirmation to graduation) doesn't even count for all of my time.  There are plenty that I am busy with, from yard work, cooking, cleaning, being a Dad and a husband, and . . . the list goes on and on.

Storming The Hill, the third book in the Shadowkill trilogy, is around the 50,000-word mark.  I am slowly nearing the end.  I have been averaging 850 words a day.  Depending on any interruptions, I have cranked out 500 to 700 words in a thirty to forty-five minute stretch.  A few Sundays ago--this was probably the day of our daughter's confirmation--I topped 3,000!  My personal goal is to finish the first draft by graduation.

#crossingmyfingers

I will not say that I'm a master at time management, but I do the best I can.  I also know my limitations when it comes to my health.  If I'm utterly exhausted, I'll either take a nap or go to bed.  Even if it's one of those haven't-written-a-word day.

Make A List, Check It Twice / Happenings In The Outhouse 12-May-2017

I messed up.

I have a laundry list of lists: a two or three-year list, an annual list, and even a quarterly list.

But nothing less, like a list for the week or month.  Not sure why?  I typically do, but for whatever reason I have forgotten.

This past Saturday, I changed that.  Boy oh boy, did that make a difference!

Now, my lists have a tendency to ramble on and on, almost like I was clearing the grime away to reveal more that I never saw before, but that's okay.  I then wrote out a weekly list, and immediately went to work.  I have 7-8 items on there, and, as of Wednesday, two are close to be complete.

Some items I list are "pie in the sky", and in a way you need to have some items on your list that will either stretch your abilities or dedicate more of your time.

Don't worry, Netflix will always be there.

I am currently around the 46,000 word mark on Book 3 of the Shadowkill trilogy.  I am nearing what I feel is the third act, where everything is coming to a close.

Stats on 2nd Book in Shadowkill Trilogy / Happenings In The Outhouse 24-Mar-2017

On Sunday March 19th, 2017, I finished Homeland Defense, the second novel in the Shadowkill trilogy.

Also on March 19th, I started the third book, Storming The Hill.  This will close out the trilogy.  Will there be future books in the universe I had created?  I honestly do not know.  There are so many other books/series I want to write, but one never knows when I get a spark of a new idea that I can use in the Shadowkill universe.

I started writing Homeland Defense on 1/9/2017, which brings the total days I worked on it at 70.  This is just the first draft.  When I finish Storming The Hill, I will go back and edit both at the same time.  I'm still shooting for a summer release of both novels, which will include a box set of all three, so I'll be a busy beaver.

Homeland Defense runs at 59,543 words.  I averaged 851 words a day, but when I factor in the 11 days that had zero writing--I even had a day I wrote only 25 words, but that still counted as a writing day--the average jumps up to 1,009 in the 59 actual writing days.

I am currently around the 5,000 word mark in Storming The Hill.  It's a good click so far, and it's been fun.

Stress, life happens, and writing / Happenings In The Outhouse 24-Feb-2017

Last week, Dean Wesley Smith wrote an excellent blog post, titled Protecting Choice, where he explored the reasons behind not writing--the good reasons, not the "oh I just don't feel like it" reason.  It's well worth reading it, as well as pretty much everything else he writes.

I am currently at the 35,000 word mark in the second novel in the Shadowkill trilogy.  When I've looked at the past few weeks on my daily word count spreadsheet, I noticed a number of days lately where I wrote nothing.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Nothing.

Last week, my son had a medical emergency, which required me to spend a night in the hospital with him while the doctors figured out what was wrong with him.  He has type one diabetes, but it appeared not to be related to it.

A few weeks before that, I had vehicle problems--both of my vehicles were down, oddly enough with almost the same problem.

A few years ago, if you recall, I had my own personal medical emergency.  I am taking medication, but one of the side effects are . . . well, some I won't mention, for reasons I won't make clear here, but one of the main side effects are mood swings.  Meaning, bad ones.  Quick to anger, and stuff like that.  I recognize when my stress goes through the roof and feel my anger building up, so I work hard at not snapping at my family.  Some times I succeed.  Other times, I hate to say, I do not.

Life happens to us all.  Find ways to get yourself through it.  Find remedies, be it exercise, relaxation, hobbies.

Setting the big rocks in place / Happenings In The Outhouse 03-Feb-2017

A few weeks ago, I finally came up with "the big rocks" to plot out books two and three of the Shadowkill Trilogy.

What do I mean by big rocks?

Think of ideas as various sized rocks.  Big rocks are the main plot points that are the meat of the story.  This would be the equivalent to the Rebel Alliance stealing the plans for the Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope.  For example, that is.  There are other big rocks in Star Wars, but for simplicity purposes let's stick with this.

Next to the big rocks are smaller-sized rocks.  Imagine the big rocks being placed in a large bucket.  The remaining space fits the rest of the rocks, and eventually down to sand.  Coming up with the big rocks for the rest of this trilogy has changed the scope of these books--honestly, I know what's going to happen in book three, but didn't figure out how to marry the two.

Now I have.

I am currently around the 21,000 word mark in the second book.  I'm shooting for around 75,000 words, as a guideline, but wherever it ends is fine by me.

My answer to: what should I work on next? / Happenings In The Outhouse 24-June-2016

No matter where I'm at in a current project, I'm always thinking about the next one and more.

As I've said before, I find it difficult to plan meticulously each and every book for 12 months in advance because not only do my interests change, so does the landscape of the publishing industry.  My plan for the rest of this year is to finish the current work-in-progress, Book 4 of Central Division Series, and then I have two more seasonal stories to write/publish.  One is set around Halloween and the other Christmas.

Those are a priority.  The ticking time bomb is off and running.

Afterwards, I had planned on writing book 5 . . . until I realized I had, two years ago, written the first book in a trilogy: The Shadowkill Trilogy.

So, after the two seasonal stories, my plan is to write the final two stories to finish out the series.

Afterwards, I'm exploring putting the four books in the Central Division Series in a box set.  Pretty sure The Shadowkill Trilogy will go into a box set too.

Ideas, ideas, ideas . . .

Plans, plans, plans . . .

Keep 'em coming.  Because I have other projects waiting in the wings.

(Hint: I even have two superhero series rolling around in my mind - very exciting!)

Killzone: Book 1 of the Shadowkill Trilogy can now be found on all platforms

Killzone: Book 1 of the Shadowkill Trilogy is no longer exclusive to Amazon.  It can now be found on all ebook publishing platforms.

Here's a link to Killzone's page on my website, which has links to all of your favorite retailers.

You can also subscribe to my newsletter by clicking on this link.

The war on terror the government doesn't want you to know about

Ramadi, Iraq - the summer of 2006

LUCAS SIMMONS and TRE PAXTON are recruited to be part of a top secret military project. Along with a group of four other highly skilled video gamers, they’re brought to a government installation in the heart of Washington DC.

Instead of testing game simulations, they’re powering a team of robotic soldiers called SHADOWs.

The Strategic Hazardous Android for Defensive Operations and Warfare is the latest innovations in robotic technology. These androids look and act just like real people.

But there’s a problem. One of their team members has a secret project of their own, and is bent on revenge for the catastrophic disaster perpetrated on September 11th, 2001.

Are Lucas, Tre, and the other members of Shadow Team strong enough to stop him?

Click here to purchase KILLZONE: BOOK 1 OF THE SHADOWKILL TRILOGY

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Amazon Kindle Countdown: Killzone Book 1 - on sale today!

Starting today, Killzone: Book 1 of the Shadowkill Trilogy is on sale, in the Amazon Kindle Countdown store.

Be sure to pick it up today, starting at $.99!

Link to Killzone: Book 1 of the Shadowkill Trilogy in the Amazon Kindle Store

Killzone: Book 1 of the Shadowkill Trilogy is now a published novel

Yes, you heard correctly.  I spent my 4th of July holiday working diligently on the final edits to Killzone, and it is now on the Amazon Kindle store.  Here's a link to the ebook.

"These are the events the government doesn't want you to know about in the war on terror."

Ramadi, Iraq, 2006.

Lucas Simmons and Tre Paxton are recruited to be part of a top secret military project.  Along with a group of four other highly skilled video gamers, they're brought to a government installation in the heart of Washington DC.

Instead of testing game simulations, they're powering a team of robotic soldiers called SHADOWs.

The Strategic Hazardous Androis for Defensive Operations and Warfare is the latest innovations in robotic technology.  These androids look and act just like real people.

But there's a problem.  One of their team membershas a secret project of their own, and is bent on revenge for the catastrophic disaster perpetrated on September 11th, 2001.

Are Lucas, Tre, and the other team members of Shadow Team strong enough to stop him?

Please be sure to pick up Killzone: Book 1 of the Shadowkill Trilogy from the Amazon Kindle store.

Happenings In The Outhouse 27-Jun-2014 / The final stretch for Killzone

Killzone: Book 1 of the Shadowkill Trilogy is nearing completion.

I have one final editing to do and then . . . it's on to publish.

And just because I already finished editing it, doesn't mean there wasn't anything to do.  Wrong!  In fact, I changed a lot of the way the story was told.  Much of the book is in present tense.  Yet, the bulk of the book was set in 2006, along with the prologue and epilogue were set in either 2009 or 2010.  When I went through the final edits by reading it out loud, I was struck by how confusing it was.

So I changed it.  The bulk of the book is in past tense.

Personally, I think it sounds a lot better.

I'm also striking out complete chapters too--well, one in particular.  It doesn't seem to fit and there's no clear point of view.

My plan is to have this book finished in 2-3 weeks.

What's next, you might ask . . . ?

I have a few things in the works.

As an aside, I got my official website, marksrpeterson.com, up and running.  Okay, not quite, but it's now an official Wordpress site, and in the upcoming weeks, I'll learn more on how to make it better.  It's just a starter, sample page right now.

Happenings In The Outhouse 20-Jun-2014 / No agents need apply

It isn't a secret for anyone reading this blog that I'm publishing my next novel soon.  Very soon.  I've had a few people ask me if I'm going to submit this to any agents or publishers.

No way!

I already spent decades of my life going down that rabbit hole.  And for absolutely nothing to show for it except loads of experience, rejection letters that are probably as tall as the Empire State Building (okay, not really, but it's quite a stack), and a handful of false hopes that, of course, went no where.

Why would I waste months and months of my time when I can start earning money from it right away?

Hence, that's the reason I have a sign on my door that says:

 

NO AGENTS

NEED APPLY

 

While I was going through Killzone I ran into a problem.  Most of the book was in present tense.  Yet, the prologue and epilogue were several years ahead of the time spent in the bulk of the book.  I then thought of the only solution: change the tense from present to past.

 

It worked.  So far.  I'm hoping by the middle of July to have this book ready to go.

Happenings In The Outhouse 13-Jun-2014 / Yes, it's Friday the 13th!

I didn't realize until I started writing this post that today is . . . well, Friday the 13th.

I also have two bits of news to share--okay, three!

First, I finally sold an ebook on Kobo!  Okay, to the vast majority of you, you probably could give three shits about that.  But I've had two ebooks (now three, as of last week) on Kobo since April and I haven't had a single sale.  Honestly, it doesn't discourage me at all, for I'm in this for the long haul, but it was exciting to see that sale number go up by 1.  Thanks to whoever in Canada bought it.

Second, I finished the editing to Killzone.  At least this round anyway.  This was a major rewrite.  Now, I'll go back through it another time, putting on a final polish, and then I'll publish it on Amazon KDP.

Speaking of Killzone, my third bit of news is the cover to the book.  Here it is:

Pretty cool, huh?

What have you been up to this week?  Please feel free to share in the comments.

Happenings In The Outhouse 06-Jun-2014 / The Cancer Chronicles

On the morning of June 1st, an award-winning author passed away--one completely overshadowed by the passing of Maya Angelou.

Jay Lake, science ficiton author of more than ten novels and three hundred short stories, passed away after a long battle with cancer.  What's interesting about Jay's cancer fight is that he's chronicled it all the way--from his first diagnosis to his passing.  He never pulled back and always told it like it is.  His obituary can be found here. 

On the Killzone novel, book one of the Shadowkill trilogy, I currently have four chapters left to edit.  Once I'm done, I will make one more editing pass before uploading it to Amazon.

(And, of course, I'm sure you've heard all about the Amazon/Hachette debate going on.  Frankly, my friend, head on out to thriller author J. A. Konrath's blog for his insight onto it in terms of the indie publishing community.  In fact, if you're an indie author you should be following his blog anyway).

Also, this week, my novella Guest of Honor has now been uploaded into Smashwords and Kobo's book stores.  I already have two of my other shorter works on other sites besides Amazon.  Frankly, they haven't sold much at all--but I'm thinking long-term, so this doesn't bother me.  I'm just going to keep writing.  When I have links to these other sites, I'll share them.