Not All Who Wander Are Lost

In the last two weeks my publishing company has found and identified two different pirating sites. We've all since rallied together, sent them cease and desist emails and gotten our books taken down, but after a little bit of research I find it's kind of like keeping your finger in the dam to stop the leak. I spent a little bit of time last night typing in my various book titles and seeing what popped up. It was a little distressing to find five different options (that all suspiciously lead to the same log-in screen) that offered free pdfs of my books. I also found a message thread on a book site in which someone asked if anyone knew if there were a free pdf of Ascent of the Fallen out there since this person really wanted to read it. There were then five or six replies. None of them knew where to find the free copy and a couple of the comments were flattering my author ego. One of them stated that the poster couldn't imagine their life without this book. Another said t...

Every writer has a slightly different process they use to get the story out of their heads and onto the page. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. There is no "one way." Most writers, though do some sort of outlining. I've heard of authors who outline everything! Down to some descriptions or dialogue. When I heard that the first thought I had was, "what's the fun in that?!?" I prefer broad, rather sweeping outlines. For example, I'm working on "First of the Fallen" right now. "First" is also a prequel to "Ascent of the Fallen." It takes place during the Christianization of Ireland, soon after the fall of the Holy Roman Empire. So, a lot of my notes are historical notes in all caps in parentheses--either questions that I need to know the answers to in order to keep the research strong, or answers to previous questions I'd asked that need to be worked into the narrative.  My actual outline notes are also in all caps ...