Month: May 2011

This Memorial Day weekend, I’m excited to join over thirty authors thanking the men and women in uniform who serve and protect this country. Check out the Indie Book Collective, the brains behind this weekend’s tour.
I am really honored to be part of this tour. Thanks to Richard Sutton, a great writter in the Historic/Fantasy genre that came before me in this tour. (if you did not stop by, please go, you will have the opportunity to get a great FREE book for you and one for a Troop. Click here)
I am the last stop in the tour, but if you have not walked the whole tour, go to the first stop of the Tour. Amber Scott (who is one of the organizers of this great tour, thanks!) writes Paranormal and her site is here.
When you finish reading this, make sure you leave a comment to win a copy of my novel The Writer, for you and for a Troop.
I’ve teamed up with a daisy-chain blog we’re calling Blog Tour de Troops to celebrate our freedom with a heavy dose of free! For starters, I’m donating a free copy of my ebook, The Writer, to our troops for each person who posts a comment to my blog today! So post your comments and spread the word to give our troops a book!
That’s not all, what’s good for the troops is good for you too! Everyone who comments on my blog today will also receive a free copy of The Writer. Be sure to include your email address in your comment so I know where to send it.
Do you think that’s all. NO, that’s not all! Everyone who posts a comment will also be entered in a drawing for a free Kindle! You can’t beat that deal!
Here is the description of The Writer:

George  Mason published the three books that made him famous. His secret is that he never wrote any of them, and when a fourth one shows up he decides to destroy it. That generates an adventure of intrigue, crime and mystery. George runs looking for the missing clues putting his life and the life of those around him in great danger. Will George succeed or be the protagonist of a fifth manuscript?

We constantly celebrate stuff in this country, some things are important, some are not. Sadly in all these celebration we sometimes take for granted that we can do just that; live in a country where we have the freedom to celebrate. That is a luxury that many days we take for granted; we forgot it is a privilege and think it is our right. There is no right in life, life is a privilege.
So today we are honoring our Troops, and we will also give you something free for you to remember them. This is for the men and women who have put on our country’s uniform to protect our way of life, because they deserve our respect and gratitude. We should be grateful that they defend our freedom everyday.
Don’t forget to post a comment so both our troops and you will receive a free copy of The Writer. Make sure to include your email address so I know where to send it.

I write fiction, specifically Mystery/Trillers, sadly sometimes the characters died.
In my novel The Writer, some characters died, and honestly, I didn’t remember that were hard to kill. When I wrote the second book (a Novella to be published in the Fall) characters died, and I had no problem.
 
I begin last week the next book, and got stuck. I had learn that I get stuck when I need to do something that I don’t want or when I don’t want to do something that I need to do, in this case, potentially kill a character that I like. I wish I can be one of those writers that plan, and can tell the character and the story were to go, but I am not, the story shows and I just scribe, my job is to tell the story I am listening, and not the story I want.
In this moment, I may need to kill a character that I like, or fight with the story, in case of doubt I don’t think I will win, ever, I can fight the story, I did it on The Writer, but wasn’t until I understood that my job was to listen, that the book came out right.
As a writer as well as a reader, is hard to see good characters died, but as a writer, you invest so much in your characters, that if they do sooner, you have no one to tell about it.
I don’t wat to kill Mr Banana, and I hope I don’t need to, but at least it’s going to be in extremely danger for the next days.
 

Have you heard of the Blog Tour de Troops? If not, add it to your things to do this weekend. Not only can you enter to win a Kindle, another one also will be sent to a troop!
What could be better than getting a free eBook? Giving one away to the men and women who protect this country! This Memorial Day Weekend when we have a blast blog hopping to dozens of authors sites where each is giving away not only an eBook to each commenter, but another one to a troop!
 
The commenter can designate a specific soldier they would like their eBook to go to or allow BTDT to select one for them! Please help us make this Memorial Day one to remember!  #supporttheauthors #supportthetroops
For more information on participating authors and sponsor reviewers, visit the official website Tour de Troops.

Today, after more than 155,000 words my first novel is out. “The Writer”. This is actually my Third Novel, (if you don’t count manuscripts that I have simply delete, the first Novel I did on 1994 called “Esperando Agosto”, the second one in 1999 but I quit in because it was awful).
I begin writing this novel in November 2009 for NanoWrimo. I remember when I finish the first manuscript, at the end of November, and finally read it in January. I toss it in the trash, it was awful. In february 2010 I begin the second manuscript for this novel. Another massive failure, 59,000 words later, I toss it in the trash, and begin the third manuscript.
In January 2011, I finally finish the manuscript that you can buy in Amazon Kindle, Paperback, Barnes and Noble Nook and in SmashWords. Thats when I begin studying in detail how to self publish, and after a lot of trial and error my novel is out.
I had learn so much during this process, it has been an incredible experience, and now is real.
This is the excerpt of the novel:
George Mason published the three books that made him famous. His secret is that he never wrote any of them, and when a fourth one shows up he decides to destroy it. That generates an adventure of intrigue, crime and mystery. George runs looking for the missing clues putting his life and the life of those around him in great danger. Will George succeed or be the protagonist of a fifth manuscript?
 
Thanks to all those that help me make this real, and thanks in advance to all those that will read it in advance!

I am not writing anymore, I am done with following the dream, I am over this idea…
That’s what i told myself in 1,999, and I did, I stop reading, writing and got serious in life. My writer knew how to be writer, but didn’t knew how to have a more complete life.
When I decided to get back into the boat of writing in 2009, ten years after I had quit, my writer continue to be this brat kid, that want it to write, and no more, but he found himself with a wife, a baby, a mortgage, car payments and more, and he had trown so many tantrums at all those, he want it to write, to sit in a quiet place and write.
Did I mention that I spend a lot of time at home with a two year old? I love my baby, she is amazing, but she will interrupt you every fifteen seconds, sometimes every five seconds. I love that, when I am not writing, (or reading) but when my writer show up (everyday if you ask) it drive him nuts, he want silence, he want a steamy cup of coffee (good coffee mind you) and silence.
Some mornings, when that is not available, he quit, he announce that he is not writing anymore, and among other things then is my job to bring him to the chair to write again.
Write is a hard work, when you learn to write into that quiet environment, without distractions, train yourself to a different kind of writing is hard, but it’s possible and is doable, you just need a lot of attention on the training part.
Since 2009, when I decide to begin writing again, and accomplish my dream of being a writer, I finish a novel. I have tell here, that I wrote it 3 times, because I hate the first two manuscripts. This novel is called The Writer and is in the final editorial steps and should be in kindle, paperback, nook, kobo and sony by the end of the month. I also had work on a short Novella (around 30,000 words) called Putsch, and I finally finish the manuscript and I am under the third revision now. If this one continue as it goes so far, should go to the editor next week, and to publishing soon after. I send to the editor, then to beta-readers and then if changes happen to the editor again. (That’s the reason The Writer is back in the editors hand)
Update your passions, and integrate them in your life is hard, actually is painful, especially if you discover those passions early in life, before many of the real and self created responsibilities were created, but is your job to understand how far you want to push those passions, how far you want to enjoy them. I may or may not be able to generate the income to be a full time writer anytime soon, but I am enjoying any moment that I can sit and write, even when my writer comes and said: I am not writing anymore.

Microsoft acquire Skype was the great news yesterday. Many tweet that I read were talking about the end of Skype, talking about need it to find a solution to replace it, and in short words the dead of Skype,

I don’t know what Microsoft is going to do with Skype, I don’t think Microsoft is clear exactly how and what they are going to do with Skype yet, there is a lot proprietary information that they will need to study and understand in order to really know were are they going to take Skype.

It potentially means that many of the users of Skype are going to be forced to leave Skype and look for other solutions, maybe, maybe not.

The problem is that people is worrying about something they don’t know yet, people is assuming that Microsoft will mess up Skype, will ruin the experience, and it’s possible, but not sure, yet.

I am esceptical, I am not, a big fan of Microsoft Products, but there is no reason to worry or begin changing and looking for the new solution until we understand that significance, of what they are going to do. As Microsoft has many crappy solutions, had others that are great, maybe they keep Skype on the great side.

Technology is an interesting beast, people is looking constantly to fix problems that doesn’t exist. That works fine if you are a programer or software developer, but terrible when you are an user. If you can’t build the solution, and the problem is not yet real, you are just going around wasting your time, and worrying for something that you don’t even know if it’s going to be relevant.

If you don’t like dealing with Microsoft, you can deactivate your Skype account today, use one of the alternatives, otherwise observe and wait, trust me, if Skype get’s mess up, a better solution will show really fast, the business opportunity will be to good to let it go.

I am a confessed geek, and a fan of eBooks, and have been a fan of eBooks for a long time. Recently I got a couple of advance readers copies, and had create the question on my head on why this advance copies are not eBooks instead of books.
I stop reading Hard Cover long time ago, they were heavy and not really convenient, and I have been trying to read exclusively in eBook format since 1999 or 2000. Sunday night while I was finishing one of these advance copies I was really annoyed, the book is incredible, the story compelling, the physical book instead was a pain, was heavy and I was tired, but I want it to finish the book, sadly I quit, the book was incredible, but I could not handle the book any longer.
I don’t have a Kindle anymore, I mostly read on the iPhone or the iPad, using the Kindle app. I tend to prefer the iPad but when tired, nothing beats the weight of the iPhone. Last night I would have love to finish reading the book in the iPhone. I forget how much I love not only the convenience, but the weight of the ebook.
I stop reading hard cover because not only they were more expensive, because when I was reading ebooks in 1999 or 2000 they were sometimes as expensive or more, but heavier, and it wasn’t easy to read in bed, or the couch, and I tend to forget how much I love the weight of the eBook, the ability to read in bed without additional light (at least in the case of certain devices), the ability to use only one hand, to increase the font size if I am tired, and many more things that make ebooks great.
I love ebooks, but I am not sure I love paper books anymore. I begin getting rid of my paper library some years ago, even buying good books again in eBooks, and the more the time pass, the more books I want to get rid of it, the less physical books I want to carry. When we move to California in 2003 we move nineteen boxes of books, when I move to Indiana in 2011 we move five. I don’t care for the smell (actually if they smell, I do something immediately to eliminate the smell), I don’t care for the space, I don’t care for the weight, I don’t care for physical books anymore, they are something of the past maybe, that big library full of books that I once dream as a kid, I don’t want it anymore, give me a eBook reader, and leave the walls empty, if you most, put the shelves. One more thing, don’t forget that I would prefer one with backlight or some kind of light, I don’t want to turn any other light around me.[Augusto Pinaud, 5/10/11 7:51 AM]
 

I work on text files on my novels until they are ready for primetime, read, until someone else are going to read them. Until that moment most of the work happen in Text Files, that sync with my Dropbox and Scrivener in my mac.
After I write that first raw draft, the fun (or I say so) begins, editing the manuscript, this is a two to ten more readings of the whole thing. ‘The Writer’ (the novel that I will be publishing at the end of this month) was read, and edit fourteen times most of them in the iPad, wasn’t until I share to my beta readers that I begin working on the word file in Pages. Until then, it was in text files that I work on, edit, play and read.
It’s really cool, to carry the novel with you, to sit and edit another page, to discover something else. I am this week beginning with the third read on the new novel, the story is out, and I am looking forward to take the stuff that I tell about and make the content evolve so I show more and tell less, a really hard and complex work, at least for me, but one of the most entertaining things, when you accomplish them.
I remember on one of the really earlier manuscripts of this novel, on the original idea (that went directly to the trash)a paragraph that reads:
“Peter love the speed that a Porsche could generate, he love the feeling that the adrenaline make in his body, the feeling going at ninety miles approaching the curve and feel how the car grab the road with desperation, like a little kid grab the hand of their parent when is afraid, that scary grab that bring security and peace, but that not only the little kid know can be break but the driver knows it could be a matter of seconds to be out of the road”
That desperation feeling, that little kid grabbing the side of the road or the hand of the parent, letting you see the fear on his eyes, and hoping you will hold, you will hold them tight and keep him safe…  That is what you look when you begin the editing process.
The iPad will not do the final editing, but allow me to work on those, not yet ready files, and edit the manuscript, work on it, and allow the manuscript to evolve to the show stage from the telling stage in witch usually all manuscripts are.
 

Doesn’t matter how cool is to finish the manuscript, doesn’t matter how great it feels that the artist sent you the cover of the book (this week I received the cover art of my next novel, ‘The Writer’, that will be published in the end of May, and trust me, it feels cool) I finish the second draft of the next book, the next novel, but as people know writing is not a one time deal, in order to really write, you need to re-write, and when you are done, you need to re-write again. In the perfect world (the ones writes would love to create) you finish writing, type: THE END and the mistakes, inconsistencies and more that you create in the first draft, will correct themselves.
So you finish the story, the novel is done. The problem now, (and the cool thing) is that you know where the story goes, I work based on a light outline, and let the story change, evolve, and go places. For example in this novel (the one I am editing right now) there was a character that in the outline was going to die in the last chapter, and instead was killed four chapter earlier. Why? Because that’s how the story roll, because that was the right moment, because there were things in the story that I didn’t see until he was ready to died.
Editing the book feel more like re-writing than actually a fun activity, writing the book is a blast, there is full of opportunities, you can go right or left, make the character jump, cry, be sad or happy, editing instead, is about not telling more about the story and begin showing the real color of the story, is hard (at least for me) and it is not always the most fun of the jobs.
Editing the book is sitting with Steven Pressfield Resistance, in the same table to read the manuscript, and it’s that Resistance the one holding the red pen. Your job is to notice the changes, and made them, the Resistance job is to tell you how bad your book is, and how bad of writer you are. In a way the Resistance is correct, a first draft is bad, (even the second one) is full of little inconsistencies, little details, is telling about emotions instead of showing them, is telling about the character instead of letting the reader see the character, is telling a story that is full of holes.
The first, second and usually third draft are simply rocks, if you show it to most people they will only see a rock, a simple worthless rock, the Resistance knows this, and work incredible hard into force you to see that it is a worthless rock, your job now, as a writer is simple, show to the Resistance the Diamond inside. Your job is to Write, re-write, write again, re-write again and remove from the rock all that it’s not part of that diamond, eventually the Resistance, stop fighting and wait until you begin writing the next book, and it’s that moment when she quits, that the process is fun again.