SUMMARY OF A TRILOGY

Soon, the first book in THE GOD GAMES TRILOGY will be on the market. The first book (Legend of Kor) introduces four energynauts who work for ONE answering the prayers from His children who live in different planets across the Cosmos. It is the story of four races of human beings who reside on the planet Kor, in the Strang Galaxy. The green Selves have a mega-maniacal dictator named Gog who has a passionate hatred of the orange Wales and has set up internment camps with crematoriums to address the Wale problem. He has written a treatise calling for the total extermination of all the Wales, and the total enslavement of the blue Emons and lavender Vouns. The energynauts are sent to Kor to listen to the prayers of all of the people and see if there might be someway to depose Gog, free the slaves, and shut down the internment camp and crematoriums. The four energynauts, Ed and Ann Nelson, and Tom and Glenna Boyle, are the protagonists in all three books and we follow them and their adventures as they accept the will of ONE and help out His children in distress.

The second book is a prequel (Heaven & Hell) in which we follow one of the energynauts, Ann, as she plans for her next life game on the planet Earth. First (in Heaven) we watch her trip through the various challenges of the houses of Heaven to structure her new life game and make choices as to her sexuality, complexion, date and place of birth, parents and family members, and relationships. Then in the Hell segment, which is what life is like on all of the planets you might choose to be born on, we watch Ann as she lives a very difficult life game and makes choices that often lead her off of the golden pathway. The last section of the book is called Heaven Again, and follows Ann as she dies and returns to Heaven to see if she has won her last life game. We also meet Glenna, Ed, and Tom who help Ann get through the three tiers of Heaven and then all four become energynauts and serve ONE for all eternity.

The third book of the trilogy is called, Satan's Challenge, and follows Satan as he challenges ONE to a re-match of the Job story, requiring that one human being be tested by Satan until he comes to a point where he denies the existence of ONE and places his faith in Satan, at which point Satan has won the challenge with ONE and is returned to a high place in the celestial order. One of the energynauts is chosen to be the person that Satan tempts and tries to destroy.

I believe that this trilogy may morf into a fourth book, and maybe more, as we follow the lives of the four energynauts and their assignments from ONE.

Thank you so much for your interest in the process of publishing and marketing THE GOD GAMES. I hope that they will bring you hours of joy and excitement; they are great fun to write and even more fun to read and to violently like; or maybe have another opinion just as violent.


Monday we will see how we are coming along as we wait and prepare the manuscript for publishing.

A DREAM BECOMES A BOOK

I promised you that I would tell you how THE GOD GAMES: Legend of Kor came to be written, and so we will begin at the very beginning.

The first thing to be noted is that I am Bi-Polar and am rapid-cycling, which means that I have frequent shifts in mood between what is sometimes a deep depression and long stretches of being manic. When I am manic my brain seems to work at a very high speed and I sometimes have several projects going at once. I might be illustrating a story for my granddaughter, painting a picture for a new great-grandchild, typing on the book, and writing a third book in all the "empty" moments. My brain seems to have very fertile dreams with a great deal of detail and recently I have even begun to remember my dreams the next day. I seem to live the stories at night and work out the details of the story in a very general sense. It is when I sit down to put pen to paper that the real details begin to flow from SOMEWHERE??

One day, in 2008, shortly after the passing of my daughter, Rebecca, I was very depressed and in deep mourning. One morning as I doodled on a pad of paper I heard a still small voice inside of my soul that said very simply, "Davalene, I want you to write down what you are going to hear. You are going to write a book in which ONE expresses His love for and acceptance of every one of His children, exactly as they are right now. But you are going to write it hidden inside the story of four energynauts who are sent by ONE to help answer the prayers of His children across the Cosmos. It will be a three-book set of stories following the actions of the four energynauts as they address issues in several dimensions and on several different planets across several universes in the Cosmos.

I was told that many people around the world would also be writing about the subjects of love and the unity of all humankind. That a revolution of love was afoot and all of the writers would address those issues in a slightly different manner so that no matter what you liked to read, the subjects would be covered. I was told that people hunger for acceptance and approval and that my books were to speak to each person's heart to let them know that they were unique and loved just as they are.

The rest just "happens." I do research to get my facts straight, or at least colorfully so, think about my dreams, say a prayer for inspiration and then put my pen on the paper and start writing. But it is like "magic", suddenly I am writing from some character's point of view that I had never thought of before. As I write, the character takes on its own personality and grows as the story moves along. I am rarely sure where the story is going to next, or what a character will end up saying, so I just write what I hear in my mind and somehow an intricate pattern develops and the story moves on to its conclusion. When I begin to study what I have written I am usually amazed at what it says because up until then the thoughts had not been in my conscious mind. I am not sure how much being bi-polar affects my writing, but I suspect that it is a direct connection-not that all writers are bi-polar (I would be interested in how they receive their inspiration though)-but that in my case my brain chemistry does give me a leg up in that I have been able to grow and develop into using both sides of my brain and so can see a problem from many directions at once.

Legend of Kor, is a story about a horrible holocaust and an evil dictator, Gog, who has determined to exterminate the hated orange Wales and enslave the blue Emons and lavender Vouns. As a green Selve, Gog hates every other race because of their different colors and cultures. I released my fervent feelings about the Holocaust in this story and felt like I was fighting the battle with my own fists, and definitely with my heart.


Tomorrow, will be a short preview of the other two books in the Trilogy so that you can see how the story moves along.

MAKING CORRECTIONS

For possibly the 20th time in the two years I have been writing Legend of Kor, I am once again combing the manuscript for mistakes in grammar, usage, typos, and any problems with the logic of the book. It has been thoroughly edited by my editor, Adam McGinnis, and he really helped me pull all of the stories in the book into one cohesive narrative. The rest of the mistakes I find were caused by slip-ups made by myself when I was typing the book. WHEN I was typing the book; I am still typing the book and so to make sure that I don't miss any details I read the chapter aloud when I finish typing it. I still have 10 more chapters to type into the format required by Outskirts Press.

I hope to be requested to narrate the book for an audio book, so I work on my delivery while I am reading each chapter aloud. One great tool I have found, is to read the book into a cassette recorder and then play back what I have read and listen to it to see if it sounds right. It is quite interesting to lay on my bed and listen to a reading of the book. It brings it to life for me and I can spot logic problems a lot easier when I listen to it relaxed and hoping to just enjoy the story.

I have settled on the cover and it is very simple. The planet Kor with Lumena (its moon) on a backdrop of a dark, starry universe. Add the title of the book and my name on it, and it becomes a simple visual tool to try to attract the attention of any reader who happens to get a glimpse of it. I pray that it does indeed do this, but I guess I'll find out in the near future.

Writing the acknowledgements and dedication were challenging because so many people have contributed to the writing of this book, but so far it looks pretty good, and I think I have covered the most important names.
But I could be wrong, so I'll think about that for awhile. I don't want to forget anyone who has been especially helpful and supportive.

Tomorrow I will be talking about how the book came to be in the first place. It had a spiritual start, and that theme is underlying to the whole structure of the book, although it is not "in your face" about spirituality. Have a very good evening and think of me when you are typing on your own manuscript. Thanks!

THANK YOU, DEAR ONE

Yesterday I met with my son, David, about helping me with funding the hardware and software needed to get the book published and marketed. He found quite a few changes I need to make, but his answer was YES!

He is going to go on-line with me and cover the things I need with his card. The fee for cover design, the Adobe Acrobat Distiller, and so much more. I am so grateful to him for giving me this opportunity and I thank the good Lord for favoring me with a positive answer to my prayers.

Now, I must redo my idea for a cover design, and change some of my other not-so-good ideas. But Dave had a lot of good ideas and he has actually read the book and really feels that it is strong. So, I am encouraged and am starting the corrections today.

I must design another cover for the book and I am about done with that. Then I must make the other changes to the book introductory pages and that will take about a day. It will take me about another 10 days to finish typing the properly-formatted book, and then I hook up with the Outskirts Press and within 1 month to 3 months, I will have my book on the market. I am wildly excited, but I know there are challenges ahead as I learn to use PDF and face I am sure another round of corrections.

I have been at the doctor's all day and am getting this blog out very late. But I wanted you to hear the good news first, and tomorrow my blog will be more meaningful and helpful than what I can think of to say today. So I say have a good night and I will see you in the morning once again.

PRESENTING THE BUSINESS PLAN TO THE BACKER

Well, Sunday came and went and there was no meeting with my hoped-for backer, my son, David. He was not feeling up to doing business and asked if we could meet tonight instead. Well, I want him at his best so I said sure. So I used the day to go over every little detail and found quite a few flaws in the presentation. Good thing I had more time after all.

I feel prepared and calm, but I am going to practice giving the plan over a few times this morning and then I should be able to sweep him off of his feet and gain his support. In order to insure David against any loss he might take on this project, I updated my will to say that the first monies from the book go to David directly until his investment is covered. I think I am standing on solid ground because David has a kind heart as well as great business acumen and I am sure I can touch him with my presentation.

In the meantime, I am still re-typing the book into the format that Outskirts Press requires. I'm slightly more than half-way there, but should be finished by the middle of next week. It takes a great attention to detail when you type this last edition because what you send them is exactly what will be published; all the typos and incorrect grammar and punctuation is what will be published and bear your name forever. So I knit-pick like crazy, and read and re-read, and read it out loud, and try to pick up on those crazy little errors. I feel that it distracts the reader's attention from the flow of the book when they come across errors and typos, so I will scrub up to the last moment when I send her across the frequencies to a far-away publisher. It's a good thing that I really like reading my story, because I must have read it over a hundred times and I still can't wait to see what happens next. Also, I've fallen in like/love with all of my characters especially my four protagonists. Some of the characters I absolutely hate because they are rotten human beings.

I can hardly wait to "finish" the process of publishing Legend of Kor, so that I can get started on the next adventure of the energynauts and I can spend more time with them. Kor, is a real place to me, and the people of Kor I have come to love over our adventures. And I never know what my character is going to do next until right after I have written it; it is as if they had their own free will and make choices as they go along in the story.

Well, I will sign off for today so that I can practice my presentation, and tomorrow you will know how things went for this project.

CREATING A BUSINESS PLAN

I must convince my son, David, that he should invest $2,000 of his own money into the needs that are necessary to actually get the book published. There used to be two ways to publish a book, have your book bought by a big publishing house, with an advance and a certain promise that you would receive so much money for each book that is sold, and "vanity" publishing where you put up several thousand dollars to publish X number of books, then you had to sell the books yourself and possibly not make back the money you invested and since no one helped you sell your book, you may have the misfortune of never selling many books and taking a lot of loss.

For some time now, but most recently in the last six months, a new way to publish a book has materialized. There is still the process of actually writing the book and then paying to have her edited by a professional-and that costs about $400-$2,000, depending on the size of the book and the rate the editor charges for his work. If there is a lot of work for him to do, then it costs more money, but it is a necessary step in the process.

So you have your edited manuscript; what next? Well a lot of authors, including those who have previously been published by one of the big houses, are now choosing to use the new publishing and distribution services offered by a number of relatively new publishing/distributing houses because your royalties are a much higher percentage of sales and because so many books are now being published in e-book format as well as in print. There are a number of publishers, the one I chose to work with, Outskirts Press, is a division of Amazon.com. You no longer have to have thousands of books printed at one time and then figure out where to store them while you attempt to sell them. Instead they Print On Demand (POD) and the instant your book is sold, they print up a book for the order. In the case of an e-book, it is instantly available.

The new publishers/distributors charge only for services rendered, and they usually have a lot of service for a relatively small amount of money. For my publisher they have 40 different services that they provide for $999.00. They print your book hard or soft cover, with black & white interior, and a colored, newly-designed cover that you help design if you want to. They  market and distribute your book through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Kindle, and several other e-book and print book outlets, as well as having it available world-wide. You have an agent that works for you and a marketing manager who helps you to sell your books and get the word out about your new book. Your royalties are 70% of the sales of the book. In my case I have to buy a few things for my computer in order to put out the copy to the publisher. I need Norton Backup, and Adobe Acrobat Distiller for formatting the files from Word to PDF.

In short, I need to ask David for $2000.00 to back up my project, and then my book should be ready to be placed in stores and on e-book sites for sale within the next three months instead of waiting another 1-2 years for slow-go publishers to get around to publishing the book. It is an exciting new world for publishing.

Yesterday I made an Excel spreadsheet to show what different publishers charge for their services and what services they provide. Outskirts Press really led the pack as far as what they offer you and the distribution with them is through many sources and outlets. I also had to include things like postage and business cards, charges for a return policy, and 250 announcements that the book has been published.

I made a chart showing how much revenue you can expect from say a $2.99 e-book; which is $2.09 each, and I wrote up a sales plan detailing the work I would do with my internet presence-blogs, e-mails, forums, facebook, and twitter, and I am sure I shall find other avenues to promote the book.

Today I am writing out the business plan and that should take about one or two days to get right. I am also re-typing the book into a format that Outskirts Press requires.


Tomorrow is the Sabbath so I will not be writing, but on Monday I will be able to tell you how my meeting with David goes, and if we are in business together.

PUBLISHING THE "LEGEND OF KOR"

Dear friends, I am so sorry to have left you hanging out there with no word from me. I caught the flue rather suddenly and have been off of the computer. We are feeling better and need to get back to you so I can share with you the next steps in publishing THE GOD GAMES: Legend of Kor. It looks like the next three months will be finishing formatting the book, getting it ready for a PDF file, learning about PDF files, getting a cover for the book designed, and going ahead with the publication. The book will be out in a soft-cover print book and as an e-book over most services including Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kindle, and most other retailers.

I thought you might like to go on the run with me and maybe you will soon be publishing your own book.

I am a novice and so will probably sound like it at first, but I figure we will learn together.

First you have your manuscript and you revise it and revise it, and revise it, and on and on until you feel in your heart that you have done the very best that you can do. I am in step 1, at the very end of that process-which I begin to think will take me the rest of my life nit-picking over it-and am now typing out the final copy formatted the way they requested: Times New Roman 12, justified, single spaced, auto-hyphenated and no page numbers or, in my case, no header or footer.

At the same time I have designed a cover-let's see if I can pull it up for you:

But it is not a professional job and I will be paying $299.00 for a real artist to take my ideas and make them into a smooth work of art for a cover. But I think you have my general idea. Any comments or suggestions for change would be greatly appreciated.

Now, I have to draw up a business plan to present to my son who is going to help me afford such things as an artist and a new PDF program and to pay an agent and many office supplies. I am not sure how much all of the little incidentals is going to cost. The publisher is going to be the Outskirts Press, a division of Amazon.com.

So, today I will have to show how many books I will have to sell in order to cover expenses and support myself so I can continue writing. I must be able to show that a profit can be made to at least cover what I will be asking David for. Shouldn't be too hard, ha ha, but it is a very necessary starting place.

I am wildly happy that my book will soon be published and I would be glad to sign any book that you buy or send you an e-mail of thanks for your support. Look for an e-book copy to run $2.99 and a soft-cover print book to be between $9.99 and $15.99 depending on the cost of production of each volume.

THE GOD GAMES: Legend of Kor introduces four new energynauts that are sent by ONE (God) to answer the prayers of His children on the planet Kor, who are being threatened by Gog, the egomaniacal dictator of the green Selves. Gog is carrying out a genocide of the hated orange Wales and seeking to enslave the lavender Vouns and blue Emons. Can the energynauts bring peace to this shattered planet?
(Avatar meets the Holocaust)

Tomorrow we will look at the business plan and see if it sounds rational.