Monday, September 20, 2010

New Book, New Cover!

Oilspill dotcom will be withdrawn on October 15th and reissued by Three Clover Press with the new title: The Accidental Activist.

The Accidental Activist will be launched at the Northern Californian Independent Booksellers Association's trade show on that date.

More details will be forthcoming in the next few weeks. Please click here to see the new cover. Thanks Lily for all your hard work and a great job.

Good Writing,
Alon

http://www.alonshalev.com/

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Labor Day of Love

It's been a crazy ride. On Labor Day, after writing 10-15 hours a week, I wrote the magical line:

The Alliance Trilogy: End of Book One.

Eighty thousand words later, a rough draft that my eleven-year-old and I began under flashlight in the Humboldt Redwood National Park has been completed.

Of course it is still rough – I haven't even read through it fully once myself and we already found one part where a character miraculously is riding his horse, when he had left his noble steed miles behind in the previous chapter – but it has been a wonderful ride for me sharing the journey of writing with my son.

The best moment came after I wrote the final chapters alone. When he read them, I was enjoying a rare Labor Day afternoon nap, and he burst into our bedroom full of excitement.

Two thumbs up never looked so good.

In trying to write a fantasy novel, I thought I would read behind the scenes from one of the masters. Terry Brooks, as well as 19 bestselling fantasy novels, wrote a book called: Sometimes the Magic Works: Lessons from a Writing Life.

I don't know yet if the magic worked within the pages of our novel, but it certainly happened in the process. Now for the next lesson in a writing life: some serious editing!

Good Writing,
Alon
www.alonshalev.com/