How to Make the Dream Come True
Every journey begins with a single step.
Derek Murphy helped me navigate and overcome the obstacle course between me and my destination of becoming a successful Indie fantasy author.
We met online after I’d completed my first medieval fantasy novel. I was lurking around his website, CreativIndie. As I remember, I entered one of his giveaways for his book covers and a publishing course in 2016 as a step toward publication.
The first thing he did for me as a stunned winner was create a fabulous book cover in E-book and paperback for Falcon Heart, Falcon Chronicle I. You can see it on Amazon, permafree, which he also showed me was a good idea, and helpful for readers. Then he proceeded to teach me how to run a book giveaway myself, helped me gain a starter following on Twitter, FB, and Amazon.
He had a lot of helpful videos and learning material, and lent a generous ear to my questions. One of his articles was about how to Write 100 Blog Posts in a 100 Days.
That sparked my interest.
What if I wrote blog posts about fantasy adventure and speculative fiction that shows imaginative fiction lovers why they are enthralled by stories of adventure in far worlds, and how they benefit readers? If I quoted my favorite fantasy, speculative, and imaginative fiction authors, using their awe-inspiring books as examples of great story gained from the depths, then we could explore the vast ocean of fantasy together, in daring dives after the bright treasures of the sea.
So Fantastic Journey – The Soul of Speculative Fiction and Fantasy Adventure faced sun and storm and became an epic experience.
I wrote the first few posts, diving into the fantasy realm repeatedly. By this time, I had published book II of the Falcon Chronicle, Falcon Flight. Then my personal journey took a turn.
I moved from Oregon to Idaho, and my writing slowed due to a new job. Still, I lurked and learned from various experts in the writing and publishing field as I found opportunity.
My hoard of blog posts grew.
I polished and cut and shaped. All that work, and they would just remain blog posts? At last I stumbled across Nina Amir’s How to Blog a Book. And I grandly dreamed of writing all the posts at book length, then taking excerpts or bullet points of the gems from each. Only I found I had a problem.
The blog post chapters I wrote tended to be long (for a post), and I didn’t feel that taking bullet points from them did justice to either the resulting posts or the book form; it was either cut too brief to inform fully, or the heart of each chapter was already told as an unpolished gem. My course changed again.
Publishing a few of the complete shorter posts to my blog, I wrote the rest as chapters, by subject of interest, such as: Special Powers in Fantasy – Are they a Talent, Gift or Magic?; How the Best Fantasy Tests the Hearts and Souls of Men; and How do Unique Races Become Best Friends?There were multiple sub-chapters or dives within each chapter, of course, each centering around the particular riches of an author: True Name the Fabulous World with Spellbinding Strength (S.D. Smith),Think Your Way Around Pandora’s Astonishing Box in Hostage Run (Andrew Klavan). Or, Join an Ultimate Quest in the Sword, the Ring, and the Chalice(Deborah Chester), and Unmatched Fantasy Tears and Training in the Arena (Karen Hancock).
So I kept on, from RJ Anderson’s Knife to K.M. Weiland’s Wayfarer, though by this point it was years after I’d begun to run (sometimes crawl) with Derek’s 100 blog posts idea. But it was important, and I found I decided not to give the book idea up. For the secret of imaginative fiction is vital to our souls.
Our inner well-being, let alone the future of the fantasy genres, hinges on retaining that sense of mystery, of beauty, and of adventure. Of fostering our fascination with truth.
How imaginative fiction impacts us as readers in the spiritual arena, the wide world of ideas, and the sphere we breathe in gives us a taste of that zest for life – from middle grade books to enchanting young adult series and standalone novels. For the best books shape us as epic imaginative fiction authors and as readers, just as much as reading the greatest literature.
We unveiled the elusive secret of imaginative fiction, these authors and I, framing and displaying what I can see of its riches, though it is but a partial picture, a few facets of the glorious hoard.
Dive into the sea of fantasy from blog to book in Fantastic Journey.
Find that which is the wealth of souls.
But there I’m waxing poetic, which belongs in the book. You can preorder the $0.99 special here, releasing January 1, 2021.
All punning aside, Derek knows his business and hones his craft. I’m still learning and lurking, from his collaborative writer FB group AAYAA, (An alliance of Young Adult Authors) to this site, CreativIndie, and Derek’s coming courses. And I’m looking forward to his preorder special of Bookcraft. Don’t forget to reserve your own copy!
The 3 secrets to book marketing, and a haunted castle tour. Totally free. Get it here.
I’m a philosophy dropout with a PhD in Literature. I covet a cabin full of cats, where I can write fantasy novels to pay for my cake addiction. Sometimes I live in castles.
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