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Update: Imminent Release

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

The week of Christmas is here! I hope this post finds you well and in good health, as well as in the position of achieving your goals. If you’ve been thinking of implementing something new into your lifestyle or have been wanting to set goals for yourself, there’s no better time to start than within the next couple of weeks. New year, clean slate, many more opportunities! I have a few important items to discuss, so here we go…

The Faces of the War Collection

This past weekend, I completed the final edit of Imminent, which is currently available for pre-order and set to release on January 8. The final word count came in at just over 46.6K, which is almost 1,000 words less than my previous book, Unguarded. Resistant‘s word count came in at just under 38K. Just figured I’d give you a snapshot of the word count across all three books.

cover_6

In terms of the discounts and deals going on with these books in the lead-up to Imminent‘s release, there has been a little change:

Resistant will be FREE from December 28 until January 1
Unguarded will have a Kindle Countdown Deal from January 13-19

Due to the price change I made on the Unguarded ebook ($4.99 to $3.99), there can’t be any promotions made until the book has sat at its new price point for 30 days. So instead of promoting it the week before the release of Imminent, it’ll come the week after. I really wanted to relay this change in information so that you aren’t blindsided by it, and perhaps can better plan for purchasing if that’s what you were going to do!

I still have until next Monday, December 28 to submit the final version of the book file to Amazon, so I think I’ll take today and/or tomorrow to read through the manuscript one last time for good measure.

After Imminent releases, I plan on beginning the process for the next book. As far as my plans are at this point, it will release sometime in 2017. For now, I’m planning on writing the fifth and final book of the collection simultaneously, bouncing back and forth between the two projects for the writing and editing parts of the process. It’s something I want to try with regard to my writing process and style, and in an effort to test my boundaries. I have the stories pretty much planned – I just need to iron out the details then begin the actual writing!

YouTube

For this week’s video, I plan on posting it on Thursday. It will be brief, because I want my readers and followers to enjoy time together with their families and friends, not stuck glued to a TV or phone screen. The following week’s video will probably be more along the lines of a normal video. If you haven’t subscribed to my channel (where I talk about my writing and teaching lives, as well as travel and other things), you can click the link above or search Eli Kale in YouTube.

I think that will about do it for this post. I want to wish you a Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, or whatever you prefer – I just hope that wherever you are and whatever you’re doing, that you’re with family and friends. I am excited for the coming weeks and the prospect of new goals to be conquered, as I hope you are too. Take care and be safe this week!

Until next time,

-Eli

Details All Around

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

I’d like to start off today’s post by remembering the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on this day in 1941. It’s the event that acted as our catalyst for war, resulting in our involvement in both the Pacific and European theaters of the war. Without our entry, things may have turned out very differently. So please, take a moment and think about how this day 74 years ago changed the course of history, and be grateful for the victorious outcome our country achieved in its aftermath.

~ * ~

I’d like to thank you for reading this post, and to welcome you to my blog. If this is your first time reading, you’ll find information in my blog posts related to my writing projects, as well as to other things going on in my life such as teaching and traveling. If you’re not new, then you already know! Let’s get into this week’s content…

The Faces of the War Collection

In my WWII historical fiction collection, I’ve made some good progress on my third book, titled “Imminent.” At the moment, I have about 13K words remaining in the manuscript that still need edited and placed into the final draft file, so things are progressively coming to a close. I got a good chunk of work done yesterday, and I’ll continue to chip away at it over the coming weeks. A reminder from last week’s blog post: the new release date (more than tentative but not 100%) is January 8. If not then, it will be around that time (like the following Monday the 11th, for example). I am wrapping up communication with my cover designer this week, so you can expect to see a reveal next week. There will be other book/story details given at that time as well, so keep your eyes open!

If you haven’t yet checked out my first two books, you can find them on Amazon in both Kindle and print formats: Resistant and Unguarded.

Writing Tip: A piece of advice I was once given stated that when writing, don’t be too liberal with the exclamation point. The person said, “If the character isn’t on fire, don’t use it.” If used too much, it can take away some of the urgency or emotion in the dialogue, which can negatively affect the story.

The Short Story Collection

I’ve said recently that I plan on developing the next volume of short stories simultaneously with the fourth book (writing begins in January), and that I hope for a summer release. I currently have the three story ideas in place; I just need to plan them out in detail. From there, the writing could take anywhere from 2-6 months. My focus, however, will be on my WWII projects, so the short stories will be tended to here and there.

If you haven’t yet checked out my first two volumes, you can find them available for the Kindle on Amazon: Volume 1 and Volume 2.

Writing Tip: When writing story text (dialogue or otherwise), don’t include too many commas in any one sentence. In most cases, those lengthy sentences can be broken down. Having too many commas can lend to reader confusion. 

YouTube

I’d like to thank those who have subscribed to my YouTube channel and who’ve watched my videos. I make these videos to document my life – writing, teaching, traveling, and personal – because I want to share my experiences with those who will listen. We all grow in our own way, but having a part of that growth be in the form of connecting through an amazing platform as YouTube is pretty awesome, and I want you to join me on the journey!

You can subscribe to my channel here, where you’ll find weekly videos posted about my writing projects, my teaching life, my travels, and certain aspects of my personal life. And if you’d like a more detailed look into my work, as well as to connect with me and fellow readers, I encourage you to join my mailing list. You can email me at elikale.author@gmail.com with a quick “hello” letting me know you’d like to be added to the list. I welcome anyone and everyone!

That will do it for this week’s blog post. Be sure to check out next week’s post where I’ll reveal the book cover for Imminent and detail book/story details.

Until next time,

-Eli

“This Is Sparta!”

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

Welcome to yet another week – another opportunity – to achieve greatness. In the words of Leonidas, “Prepare for glory!” Let’s get into today’s content…

The Faces of the War Collection

Toward the end of last week, I came across some things I had jotted down while doing the skeleton planning for Book Three, and it got me thinking. After some careful consideration of historical facts and other things I had discovered in my research, I decided that it was best to revamp some of the planning I had done and change up the story outline just a bit. Now that that is done, I can move forward with more confidence that what I’ll be writing will be more realistic in appeal and closer along the lines of what actually could’ve happened.

That’s part of the trick with writing historical fiction: everything little event that occurred in the past doesn’t have a personal account to go with it. That’s just a fact historical writers must deal with. So when writing, the gaps in what could have happened are filled with the writer’s creativity fueled by contextual knowledge. In other words, the writer creates an event in the story that contains people, actions, and so on that could have existed at the time.

That’s what I do with my stories when there isn’t much substance to certain things I want to put into my story. With Resistant and Unguarded, my first two books, this method of writing was executed fairly well I think. In my third book, I am currently expanding and experimenting with this method in the second half of the manuscript, and I must say that it’s a fun thing to do. And I think that’s part of what writing should be about – experimenting and trying new things to see how far you can take yourself in your work. I should add that the developments in the story with which I’m experimenting are rather bold, mostly because the events that are taking place very well could have happened and it’s very hard to tell either way.

The word count is approaching 25K in Book Three and I’m about to send the word to my cover designer to get things rolling. As of now, I’m resetting the tentative release date for mid- to late-September. I’ll be writing as much as I can throughout the rest of the summer, and hopefully I’ll be able to produce a quality book to add to the first two.

YouTube

If you haven’t seen my videos on my writing process, you can easily find them on my channel. Since finishing my writing process videos, I’ve switched gears and am now doing weekly vlogs by recording footage throughout the week and posting a video on Friday.

Please subscribe to my channel and join me on my journey through both my personal and writing lives. And if you have family or friends who might be interested in me and my work, please pass the word along. I enjoy getting to meet new people!

And if you want to go a step further and get more out of the content I produce, you can join my mailing list by clicking this link and filling in the information. I send out a newsletter vie email every couple of weeks, and it includes details about my projects, fun facts, Q&A posts, and much more. It’s easy to do and fun to be a part of!

Other News

I have hinted before that there are other projects on my plate behind the scenes, but I haven’t really elaborated on that point. I’m not going to right now, either (sorry), but I will tell you that a pretty cool thing is in the works and in the coming weeks I’ll share with you about it.

That’s just about all I have for right now in terms of news. Thank you for your interest in my work and for following my blog. I truly appreciate it!

Until next time,

-Eli

A Little Bit of Everything

/ Eli Kale / Leave a comment

Friends,

I hope this blog finds you in good health, and that you are fairing well in whatever project you might be working on!

This past weekend, I forwarded the first part of Unguarded (roughly one-third of the book) to my editor, and writing has continued on the second part. I am getting very excited to see where the next couple of weeks take me in my writing. I am even more excited to see what you, my readers, think when you first journey through the story.

I would like to encourage you to subscribe to my mailing list, if you haven’t already. I send out a newsletter twice a month via email that includes book-related information and behind-the-scenes details of my upcoming projects. Not only would you receive the information before “everyone else” in the Eli Kale community, but it is more detailed information tailored to a VIP-type of audience. I want to really have a personable relationship with my readers!

Here’s how you can subscribe:

1. Go to this link: https://elikaleauthor.wordpress.com/mailing-list/

2. Input your name and email address, and include a little note to me stating that you wish to be added to the Mailing List. 

3. You’ll receive the newsletter that is next in line to be published. If your subscription is close enough to a recently sent out newsletter, I’ll send a late copy of it to you personally!

And that’s all it takes! There is already some good information coming out through these newsletters regarding my upcoming book, Unguarded, which is the second book of the “Faces of the War” collection. You can find sales links and reviews for the first book, Resistant, here. The next issue of the newsletter will be posted this week, so sign up today!

Here is a new review for Resistant from Amazon:

“The book is a fictional story of a woman’s journey as a resistance fighter during WW2 in France. Something I noticed at times was a grammatical error or interesting sentence structure, which is okay since the book is self-published, and at the same time I thought it was brilliant if it was intended. The reason I think it would be brilliant if it was intended is because the narrator is a French woman by the name of Rienne. It is written in a way as if she is talking to you telling you the story. I pictured her as an old French lady with a French accent, so it would only be natural that she might have an error or two as she speaks since English wouldn’t be her first language. It made me appreciate the story even more and relate to her character.

The best part of the book was the description of the battle scenes. The author strikes an amazing balance between carefully detailing the scenes without hitting you over the head with details so you know exactly what is going on and can picture it in your head. The main character was also very likable, which is a huge plus. I recommend that you check it out.”

I hope that you too will leave a review and star rating for Resistant on Amazon if you have already read it or plan to read it. I would greatly appreciate it!

I would like to leave you with a quote I really like:

“We are all inventors, each sailing out on a voyage of discovery, guided each by a private chart, of which there is no duplicate. The world is all gates, all opportunities.”                                                                              –Ralph Waldo Emerson

Until next time!

-Eli