Month: January 2016

In Imminent’s Wake

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

I hope this post finds you well and ready for a new week ahead! There is very little this week in terms of writing news, but there are some other cool things going on, so let’s get to it…

The Faces of the War Collection

When I published Resistant, and then again with Unguarded, I downloaded the ebook to my Kindle app and read through the story. The purpose of this type of read-through was to make sure the formatting looked how I wanted it and also to find any typos or other errors of the kind. I did the same thing with Imminent since its release on January 8th, and I have to say there were a few more errors (both formatting and spelling/grammar/diction) than I would’ve liked to have upon release.

Even after a handful of read-throughs, which I normally do every time, there still managed to be some things that slipped through the cracks. It just goes to show that even when you think you’re careful as a writer, you can’t be too careful. But I’m not taking this as a negative; rather, it’s a positive thing that’s resulted from my devotion to the storytelling and desire to produce a sharp book. Could I have waited a few more weeks to release the book? Perhaps. But at your core, when do you really know for certain when your story is “ready” as opposed to when you think it is?

Currently sitting at around 60% of the way through the story, I can say that I should soon finish my post-publication read-through in the coming week or so. The good news for you, my readers, is that the ebook price will remain at $2.99 until that time comes. For when I finish the read-through and edit the manuscript file in order to re-upload it, that will be when I up the price to the normal $3.99 (which is the price of the other ebooks, except for Resistant which is $0.99).

Aside from the fact that this read-through seems mostly focused on finding errors, another reason I do it is for the sake of improving my craft. If you’ve watched some of my YouTube vlogs before, you’ve heard me talk about this and how important it is. I may not take copious notes during this read-through, but I do take stock of issues that I can try to amend through writing habit in projects yet to come. That’s part of why I enjoy writing, because it gives me something to work on, results to strive toward, something that’s more than a hobby to be passionate about.

In the meantime, I’m also working on the beginnings of my other two books in this collection. I’m honestly focusing more on the read-through of Imminent for the time being until it’s done, but I’m also going over my story notes and ideas to see what can be developed and how the story can go. This is another exciting aspect of the writing process!

Writing Tip: If you release an ebook (no matter the platform), it’s good to download a copy in order to check the formatting. Even when it looks good before you hit that Publish button, it might look differently when it comes down the pipe on an actual e-reader with the actual book file others will download. Plus if you purchase a copy, you get royalties. It’s a win-win!

Other News

As part of my teaching occupation, I recently was asked if I’d like to spend a day at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, OH for a school event that’s coming up. I’ll be just one of many staff members there who will not only help run a program for current students, but I’ll also be available to answer questions of prospective students and parents. If you’ve been with me since at least last April, you’ll know that I went to the same base after completing a book fair in Dayton the previous day. It was an awesome sight, to see planes and other pieces of history on display there. I didn’t get to see everything I wanted on that visit, so hopefully I’ll catch what I missed this time around.

That about does it for this post. Thank you so much for reading and following my work. If you’re new, please feel free to browse around my website to see what I’m up to. You can also join my mailing list so you can receive my monthly e-newsletter; it’s where I give more of an inside look at what I’m doing – more details than what you see in the blog posts, essentially. I hope you have a great week, and thanks again!

Until next time,

-Eli

On to the Next Project!

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

First off, I’d like to say that on this day of celebration in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. I hope that we can keep in mind our past and the struggles that many faced to bring about change in our world. Things can get pretty dark at times, and the civil rights era was just one of those times. The fight against racial discrimination continues today, but in different ways than before. Whatever your stance is on politics or religion or simply the proper way to act toward others, I hope that you can push yourself toward being kind and considerate and (perhaps to some degree) tolerant of those different than you. Life is a precious thing; it would be a shame to waste it by hating others. It’s not important that Martin Luther King was black – it’s simply because he was human that made his struggle so great.

As 2016 continues to unravel and reveal what’s in store for us, I hope that you’re finding yourself striving toward achieving your goals and reaching for your dreams and aspirations, as well as being the best version of yourself that you can be. I have only a few items to talk about today, so let’s get down to it…

The Faces of the War Collection

With the release of Imminent in its second week, I am pleased to say that so far it has been received well. It was fun to research and write, and I’m glad that it went off virtually without any major hitch. The pre-order price of this book was $2.99 and I ended up deciding to leave it as such since the book went live. But that won’t last too much longer, so pick up your Kindle copy before the price goes up! The print price, of course, is still $8.99. Now that that story is behind me in terms of new writing, my focus now shifts to the next project.

I’ve mentioned in my YouTube vlogs before that I plan on writing the final two books in the collection simultaneously, testing my boundaries and experimenting with new things. And I think that doing it this way might lend to keeping the content I write fresh in my mind so I’m not sticking to the same project for such a long time. So today marks the beginning of the next stretch of my writing journey, but this time I’ll be tackling two books.

The tentative release details for Book Four include a date sometime in late 2017, with Book Five releasing sometime in 2018. This, again, is because I’d like to have some uniformity and a streamlined look to the books and their details. Here’s what it will look like when it’s all over:

Resistant (2014)
Unguarded (2015)
Imminent (2016)
Book Four (2017)
Book Five (2018)

You can see how my OCD and attention to detail really kick in here! So that’s where things currently sit with my WWII historical fiction work, and I hope that I can produce two more stories with the same feel yet explore new or unique perspectives and challenges for my characters. Most important of all – I hope that you will join me on this journey (or stay with me if you’ve been a part of it for a while) and we can see how it ends, together.

Writing Tip: When writing action tags for your characters, try to picture yourself in their shoes in order to get an idea of sensory details in any given moment, especially during an action sequence. 

The Short Story Collection

At the moment, I am working toward completing the next volume in the collection. The tentative release date is sometime this summer. I’ll have more details as winter turns to spring and progress is made on the stories.

As for my most recent volume (#2), there will be a free promotion all next week! You can find the Kindle ebook on Amazon and pick up your free copy if you don’t already have it. This volume was the follow-up volume to my first, which released in the fall of 2014. I hope you enjoy it, and would appreciate a review or direct feedback to me via email or social media. I like to know how I’m doing and where I can improve!

That’s about all the news for this week. I am very excited to get things rolling on these new WWII books, and I hope you’re excited to read them when the time comes. Thanks to all who have offered me encouragement and support, and to my readers – for without all of you, my work would be nearly impossible!

Until next time,

-Eli

Reflection: Writing Imminent

/ Eli Kale / 1 Comment

Friends,

I hope the New Year continues to go well for you in these first weeks, and that this post finds you in good health and spirits! What I write to you today is my reflection on the writing and publishing process of my newest book, Imminent.

The planning was first completed in the early fall of 2014 with the writing beginning in earnest in that December. I completed the Prologue and Epilogue first before moving to the body of the book; this was mostly because the story that takes place in these parts envelops the story that comprises the book’s body, so it made sense to write it this way. I completed these bookend story parts before New Years Day 2015.

cover_6

Cover of Imminent, designed by Ilian Georgiev

I then spent time writing and re-planning, then rewriting, the main body of the book, where the meat of the story takes place. There were a few major changes that took place in the first 6-8 months of 2015, most of them the result of my attempts to refine the story that came from my initial planning. I wanted to make this one unique in its own right yet familiar and relatable to the others before it, in a way to link the stories together in an abstract manner. This is one of the primary challenges with each book because it’s something that I want to get right, but can at times seem rather difficult to accomplish.

Once July had come and gone – a month where no new writing had taken place – I found myself refreshed and recharged to continue chipping away at my desired word count. Keep in mind, I advise that it’s not good to let a desired word count dictate the creation of the story in the strictest sense, but that it’s good to have a word count for which to aim when writing. The books in the WWII historical fiction collection are considered novellas, so I want them to not exceed 50K words. As a point of reference, my first book (Resistant) was just shy of 38K words, my second book (Unguarded) came in at just under 48K words, and Imminent is just under 47K.

As the process drew to its closing in the late fall and early winter of 2015, I finalized the cover design based on ideas I had from 2014. Most of the final covers that you see are very close to my original design ideas, if not the actual designs themselves. After a handful of revisions, we landed on what you saw above in this post. There is reason behind how the cover was designed, which I’ll detail in another post in the near future. I then finalized my manuscript and submitted it to Amazon with a few days to spare before my pre-order deadline of December 28.

I’d like to give special mention to one of my writing friends who edited the story for me, and who also gave me some great insight into writing and editing, as well as some much needed tips. At her request, I came up with a ghost name for her: Bella Migliorare. Here’s a little fun fact – in Italian, bella means good or nice, and migliorare is the root form of the word improvement. Since she made a “good improvement” to the story, the name made itself. So to my editor, I thank you!

As of this post, the Kindle and print versions of the book are available, so if you’re interested in this story or in my work in general, I encourage you to check it out on Amazon – the Kindle version is currently $2.99 and the print is $8.99. Don’t tarry in picking up your Kindle copy, for the price will go to the normal price of $3.99 soon. And I’d very much appreciate a review when you’ve finished, if you’d be so kind. With this project completed, it is time to move forward with the next one: Book Four in this collection should be started in the coming week or two, and I’ll continue to post details of its progress in the coming months.

I thank you for taking time out of your day to read this post. Your encouragement and support mean a great deal to me. If you aren’t yet on my mailing list, I encourage you to subscribe to get the inside scoop on my work and my writing life. I’d love to connect with you and share my journey and experiences with you.

Until next time,

-Eli

Imminent Launch Week

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

Welcome to a new year! I hope everyone’s holidays were fun and safe, and that you got to spend time doing things you enjoy with the ones you love. This is a big week for me, so let’s get on to this post’s content…

The Faces of the War Collection

We’re in the final days of the Imminent pre-order, with the book releasing this Friday, January 8. If you haven’t yet picked up your discounted Kindle copy of my third WWII historical fiction book, you can do so here.

cover_6

I am very excited to get this book off the ground and into the hands of readers, and am even more excited to hear what you think of the story. So if you do get your hands on a copy, I’d be delighted if you left a review on the Amazon sales page telling me your thoughts on the book.

In addition to the release of Imminent, this week also marked the highest volume of downloads of any of my books to date – over 500! The book in question is my debut story, Resistant, which was free this past week. In one day alone there were over two hundred downloads, so I thank you all who took part in this promotion. It truly made my week!

As for Unguarded, the second book in this collection, there will be a Kindle Countdown Deal from January 13-19. You can go to the book’s Amazon page to get your Kindle copy if you haven’t done so already. This whole month is a great way to kick off the New Year, so come along with me for the ride!

YouTube

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now, if you are a regular viewer, that I haven’t posted any new videos since before Christmas. This is mostly because I wanted to focus on time with family. I’m sure you can understand how important family is around the holidays. That being said, I intend on picking back up with my vlogs this week, posting the first video of the New Year on Friday alongside the release of Imminent. If you haven’t yet checked out my channel, you can find me on YouTube here.

That about does it for news this week, so be sure to pre-order Imminent this week, or at least check it out in the coming weeks, and let me know what you think. And as always, you can subscribe to my mailing list to keep as up-to-date on my work as possible. Thank you for your encouragement and support!

Until next time,

-Eli