J.H. Powell

24Mar 2022 by dvadmin No Comments

#RevPit

Architecture

So last week I submitted the manuscript of The Ember of Change to #RevPit. It's a great opportunity for professional feedback, assuming my book even makes it past the initial look. I'm taking the opportunity to partake in #RevPitWaiting on Twitter as well where each day we do something else relating to our book. Today was our logline (pitch). Because I don't think I've posted it here before, here's mine: When a group of rebels rescue a wizard, they begin an adventure to oust the tyrant who hoards all the world’s magic for himself, but magical assassins, mysterious interlopers, and political schemes threaten their quest. Tomorrow is a mood board. I've never made a mood board. Finding the right kinds of pictures is proving to be difficult.

04Mar 2022 by dvadmin No Comments

Officially Querying

Architecture

After sitting on The Ember of Change for nearly a year, I opened it back up the other night, made a few last little tweaks, and decided it was time to bite the bullet and see if I could find an agent. Tonight, I sent out those first two queries after days of research, scrolling Twitter, and getting my wife to proofread everything about twenty times. I'm putting my best foot forward in the hopes that I can find someone who falls in love with these characters as much as I have. Their story and antics have given me so much joy already and I can't wait to share all of that with the world. I'm also trying to decide about the Brandon Sanderson kickstarter that launched this week. I'm pretty sure…

27Jul 2021 by dvadmin No Comments

New Projects

Uncategorized

I started a new little project tonight. It's something that's been rolling around in my head for a few days so I figured I'd get it out into real words and see where it goes. I got a few chuckles out of Anita in the first page and a half, so that's a good start I guess. I've been stewing on the Liberator Chronicles the past few months. I have a few beta readers that have provided feedback but I am still hoping to get a little more before I dive headfirst back into that project. I've had conflicting reactions on several of the same points so it's a little hard to judge exactly what I need to do or should do, so it's just still sitting out there for…

02Apr 2021 by dvadmin No Comments

Physical Drafts

Uncategorized

As of last night, mine and Anita's edits through the book are complete. I've already sent it to a few people in digital format for them to give me some feedback, and I'll be delivering some physical copies of it over the weekend to several more people that are local. I did manage to nearly kill my little laser printer that I've had for more years than I can remember. Printing an entire book (even at two book pages per physical page) is just too much for it. So I upgraded to a new laser printer that is better suited for my use cases now anyway. And now there's the dreaded wait for people to tell me how horrible it is. I'll never be mistaken for a glass half full…

29Mar 2021 by dvadmin No Comments

We Have a Name! (at Least Tentatively)

Uncategorized

Two important things tonight: Halfway done with my edit. I still have to go back and incorporate some stuff that Anita found that I missed for a few chapters, but still nice to be halfway done page-wise with my heavier editing. The majority of what's behind me now was written years ago, during some difficult times, so it's been rougher around the edges than I remembered.I finally have a "working" name for the book and the series. The series is now tentatively called "The Liberators Chronicles", with the first book tentatively titled "The Ember of Change". It's exciting to see the name of the book instead of just "Book1" staring at me in Google Docs, even if it does get changed later. I hope to be reaching out to some…

25Mar 2021 by dvadmin No Comments

Editing, Editing and More Editing

Branding, Decoration

I'm sitting in a hotel room in Muscle Shoals, AL editing chapter 8 right now. I've turned the first 7 chapters over to my lovely editor-in-wife for her to bleed all over with her red pen. From what I've seen so far, I still seem to be passing her writing course! I start a new job on April 12th and I have that as a hard date to finish this first round of editing and have the book in the hands of a few people to give me some deep feedback. So far I am on track to easily hit that deadline, and I am not going to let anything jeopardize that. In the meantime, I am letting the plot points for the rest of the series stew around in…

16Mar 2021 by dvadmin No Comments

Can it Be?

Architecture, Branding

I'm pretty sure I just wrote the last sentence for Book 1. That doesn't mean it's done by any stretch, since there's still tons of editing to do and I left a few sections with notes to myself to go back and flesh out descriptions later, but overall... this feels really good. Word count right now is around 83500. That'll grow by another couple thousand with editing and some more descriptions here and there. I always intended this book to be an introduction to the series - it's very action packed, throws you right into the middle of the action with the main protagonists, and doesn't slow down. In fact, the entire book takes place over just roughly 21 days. The next book, which is already completely fleshed out in…

08Mar 2021 by dvadmin No Comments

Milestone!

Branding, Decoration

Hit a fun milestone tonight. Finished up the big climatic battle and broke the 80k word barrier. Several loose ends to finish up, a little setup for the next book, then tons of editing ahead of me. A special thanks to my wife, Anita Powell, for letting me bounce all the action writing off of her, even if I did upset her with some of my decisions. It is my hope that I can get others to make such strong connections with these characters that I know and love.

13Feb 2021 by dvadmin No Comments

Excitement (and Sleep!)

Architecture, Branding, Decoration

I had to force myself to stop writing tonight. It's 12:30 AM, and I'm right at the start of the climax of the book - an epic battle sequence that I've been playing over and over in my head for a couple of years. I want and need to do it justice, and trying to plow through it at this time of night when I am tired and my eyes are giving up is not the time to try it. Tomorrow we get to meet with the realtor that is going to sell my late mom's house and the house she sold to me several years back. It will be a gigantic load off of me to get that process started and going. My hope is that tomorrow evening I…

09Feb 2021 by dvadmin No Comments

Something Tangible

Architecture, Decoration

Until tonight, everything about this project had lived in a Google Doc on my Google Drive. I printed out a few chapters to get some feedback from my wife and it stirred a lot more emotions than I thought it would. It is something tangible, more concrete now than just a nebulous thing living in the cloud. I am more determined than ever now to finish this up and be able to tell the entire story of these characters that I have grown to know so well as they go on this wonderful adventure in my head.