Tag: reading

October sci-fi/ fantasy book giveaway.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/sopera52020/axjhj67t4b

I like a good ole fashioned book giveaways. It’s a chance for emerging authors to showcase their work and give readers a chance to discover them.

In truth, it’s a hard concept for an author to truly commit to. All the time, effort, and not to mention money, that went into the project makes the thought of gifting the book a hard concept to swallow.

Nonetheless, the success of an indie author relies on building a genuine reader following and in today’s world, it’s maddeningly hard to do that. With that in mind, sometimes we must sacrifice our pride and do what’s right to help our (business) grow.

Check out the book giveaway above! You just never know what treasure you’re going to find.

My first book in the epic fantasy series, The Kingdom is available free though this giveaway. For more information about the book or series, check out my website.

Happy hunting!

Author Cameron Kielb

What’s stopping you?

Have you had a great idea for a book? A story that sang to your soul and made you excited. Did you then fail to translate that idea to paper, left instead to decay in the recesses of your mind— or maybe on a scribbled notepad/word doc left to be forgotten.

Bummer.

But you’re not alone! Unfortunately this happens a lot, denying eager readers the amazing material they wanted.

I’m putting together a series of tools and advise that I found helpful while writing The Kingdom.

First off— word count goal!

What are your word count goals? Is it daily? Weekly? Even monthly?

Do you have one at all?

You should and here’s why-

Creating a story requires disciplined writing week in and week out. The ability to stay steady and consistent is what separates those who have completed a story and those who have not.

It’s easy to come up with a story idea— maybe even a vague story outline, but having the patience to sit and transform an idea into a book requires work.

Word count goals are an excellent way to keep yourself motivated and moving. It can be sooo hard to continually pick up and start a story over and over again, and frankly the writing will probably suffer for it.

Individual goals for how much to write will, of course, differ from person to person based off of time constraints, writing goal, etc. but I encourage you to create one that pushes you to write and continue to make progressive project.

When I wrote my first epic fantasy series- The Kingdom— my work and home life allowed me to shoot for a 5k week minimum which worked out well. As I work on my newest book and juggle time marketing my author website and previous books my current goal is scaled back to 3-5k a week. This may be small to some, but for me it keeps the story moving in the time available.

Try it out and keep it reasonable!

Author Cameron Kielb

Indie Author Struggles

Any new indie author can relate to the struggle of starting out. If you’re like me, you started writing not to get into the publishing/marketing business, but to create a story for others to read.

The problem though, is even gaining that readership. Though we first and foremost write for ourselves, it’s disheartening when it feels like we’re talking to an empty room.

The solutions vary and can be quite time consuming depending on what you read. I personally felt like I had to choose between writing or publishing/marketing tasks with what time I had available to “work” on my author work.

One commonality, though, is to have a strong platform (website) to serve as the hub of access for you and sales. I made the mistake of trying to cold sell my fantasy books straight through social media sources which really just turned into a colossal waste of money. Instead, create a well made platform that showcases your work and talent. Then you’re attention turns to invoking people to check out your site. It’s much easier to click on ‘view my website’ then ‘buy now’. No one wants to feel like they’re being hustled.

People that feel inclined to check out your site will make better audience participants because they obviously have an interest for what you’re offering.

With that said, I’ve been seriously vamping up my website and will continue to improve on it as I move forward with my works. Between this and focusing on growing my list— I feel I’m laying down a more solid foundation for my future as an author.

In the meantime I’m continuing to work on my rough draft of an upcoming book- title yet to be revealed, now that The Kingdom Series is completes. (Check it out!)

‘Til next time,

Author Cameron Kielb

Back on the train

Author Cameron Kielb

— It’s rather disorienting when you finish off a story (not to mention a full series) and proceed to the next. All that work; the descriptions, personas, background information, everything! The details of The Kingdom remain in my head. They didn’t just disappear when I typed, ‘The End’. Voice is a big one— I find the voice of my previous characters trying to come out in my new work. But Arthur (the character I’m working on) is not Mox.

I think acknowledgment of this from an author’s mind is necessary to help move on. True and practiced mindfulness has a way of catching a lot more than we realize. In addition, creating and falling back on outlines and character maps also becomes a great asset. I’ll post a separate blog about my experience with outlining, character mapping, and planning in general, but bottom line— it is important!

Now it’s time to get back on the train. I’ve created my outline and hard as it is to leave the last station behind, the best part is in front of me back- writing. Word count goals are back in action. Let’s see where the tracks take us this time! 😀

Author Cameron Kielb

Eternal Affairs

A science-fiction flash story by Author Cameron Kielb

 “Oh! Not again…”
Horus analyzed the world under his watch, ‘Neruj’. For more than a millennia he had done his best to help preserve this planet. Ironically, in all that time, just once had the need for intervention been external. A large asteroid from the Gynus galaxy had taken a direct line for Neruj. Horus had briefly wondered if it had, in fact, been purposely cast by one of his competitors— probably Xan! He had no proof of that and wasn’t about to cast such wild accusation to The Creator who was known to rule with an iron fist.
Supposedly, a snap of his strong iron fingers and, poof! You were gone and replaced by another competitor hoping to gain access to the upper rank.

It was funny, he mused. Most of the people living on his land would’ve thought there be no higher position as ‘God’ of a planet. To be immortal and live forever… what an idea.
What they didn’t consider is that a social hierarchy existed, even among the Gods and that only the lowest class had been tasked the mundane job of a planet overseer.

There was hope, though. In a contest between all the overseers, there was a promise that whichever God’s planet thrived the most at the end of a century would win acceptance to the upper class.
The problem… his people were idiots. It seemed they only thrived on destruction. Constant violence. Not just wars between nations either! Blood seemed to spill from every corner of the globe.
And if that didn’t kill them, their ridiculous upkeep of the planet would. He watched, incredulously, as so many strived to keep their personal homes tidy and clean yet what of their ultimate home? It was almost laughable. Maybe The Creator liked a good comedy… probably not. Without radical change he knew he was destined to watch the planets wicked affairs for all of eternity.
Thinking of The Creator, what would he do? Wipe the planet clean, of course. Start from scratch, again. And perhaps he should. But one thing had prevented Horus… a small whisper among his people, maybe, but possibly enough. It didn’t take much for a whisper to magnify to a shout.
Fool!
It could also be snuffed out like a flickering flame. Sucked into a vacuum, never to be heard again.
Horus sighed. He’d give them just a little longer. Hopefully he wouldn’t need to start over again.

Thanks for reading! Flash fiction and short stories, though perhaps unsettling, are an awesome ways to flex our creative muscles with a new idea and try stuff out without committing to a large scale project. In fact, it’s how I came up with the story I’m currently writing- ‘The Masked Assassins’. Just coming off finishing The Kingdom series, my new book is at the early stages but I’m excited with the outline I’ve drafted up and am eager to dive into exploring my new world.

Who knows– perhaps an intergalactic war between lowly Gods is up next in the queue. Hmmm…

Unity came out yesterday and I’m so excited about it! If you haven’t already, check out my website for information about the series including a link to get book one and two bundled together.

Feel free to leave any comments or hit me up with questions!

Author Cameron Kielb