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The Aftermath of a Query Letter

It feels like only yesterday that I was pulling my hair out over writing a query letter. Oh wait, it probably was. Well I have good news folks, I have retained my sanity, and have been diligently working on my query letter with decreasing amounts of stress!

Yay!

The letter has come a long way, and I feel like it is close to being finished, which is so relieving! I was considering posting it on here so you guys can see what I've been beating myself up over, but I've decided to keep it under wraps. At least until I get my book published, that is. ;)

So because I've been boring you all so much with my blabbering about my personal life and the struggles of being an aspiring author, I figure I should give you something more exciting! Now, this isn't a promise, but I recently finished writing a short little horror-ish story. I'm just doing some quick editing, nothing too serious as it was just a side project. But maybe if you're good I'll post it up here.

Keep your fingers crossed while I go study copyright law!

Query Letter - Invention of the Devil

As you may or may not know, the query letter is the most important piece of writing an author can write for their book. Why, you ask? Because it is what you send off to a literary agent to get them interested in reading your manuscript. Every word is paramount in a query letter, so you can understand the stress in creating one.

This is why I am stressed.

Over the past couple months, as I have finished the rough draft for my novel, I have been working on my query letter. Last night, after work, I sat outside on the windowsill for three hours rereading and rewriting my query letter until around midnight. I probably looked like a crazy electronic zombie, glued to my computer screen.

But my obsession did not end once I left that windowsill. Last night I fell asleep thinking about the sentence structure and content of my letter. I awoke this morning and the first thing that popped into my head was how I could make it more dramatic. And then, on my day off, I drove to work to have my coworkers read what I've written so far, and to work on it again some more.

These are the most exhausting 200 words I have ever written.

You may laugh and brush off my crazed insanity, but these three paragraphs are the key to getting published. I guess I just need to go with my gut and hope that some agent fancies them enough to read my novel.

Wish me luck!

A Midsummer Day's Heat

I apologize for the lack of updates recently. The heat has been nearly unbearable this summer, and all my strength has been put towards survival. But anyway, I'm not here to complain. I am here to tell you that my recent book is going through round one of proof reading before I begin the initial editing! It's very exciting, though it is taking a while for some of my readers to finish. 

In the meanwhile I am working on a short story which I have almost completed titled On the Third Day. I haven't decided if I am going to publish it here when I'm finished or not. Let me know if you guys have any interest in reading it.

Stay cool,

Eryk

A Novel in the Making

Good news friends! Today marks that day that I have finished the first draft of my novel!

It turned out to be quite longer than I had anticipated at 95,524 words, but after the first round of editing I'm hoping to trim it down a bit. There are plenty of holes to fill in and connections that need to be made, so I am pretty excited about going back to work on it.

I know I should give myself a couple days to separate from it, but I'm just so excited!

Oh, and I promise there will be a real blog post soon!

Eryk

Happy Fourth of July to all those in the US!

I know I haven't updated this in a while, but I have a good excuse, I promise! Recently (as in two days ago) I finished writing the climax and the ending for my current book! Now the ending is something I am focusing a lot of energy into, but right now it is in a very rough stage. I don't even remember half of what I wrote, it was all just coming so quickly that I was letting the inspiration carry me. That being said, I have one more section to finish up and then the epilogue, and after that I begin the second draft!

I can't even begin to convey how I excited I am that I have the main story finished! It turned out completely different than I had imagined, but in its own way it is perfect. I guess that's what you get when you start with a beginning and a vague ending, and then just start to flow with it. That also means that you end up with quite a few holes that need filling, which will be the big task for the first round of editing.

Anywho, I just wanted to stop by and let everyone know that, yes, I am still alive, and share the great news of the almost complete first draft of the novel, as well as wish everyone a happy fireworks day!

Now all you cool cats stay safe tonight. And when you look to the night sky, watching those fireworks explode in their brilliance, remember that you are not looking up, you are looking out.

Eryk

What's NaNoWriMo?

The beginning of the week brings little to no inspiration when it comes to blogging. I've sat here in front of the computer, in a blank word document, thinking, willing my fingers to type out something witty and entertaining, but they have failed me. It appears that the only thing I've been able to write recently is my book. 

It's a book I started in November, for this thing called NaNoWriMo, which is short for National Novel Writing Month. The idea is that you set out to write 50,000 words in the month of November, which will eventually and hopefully be turned into a novel. Now, I never reached the 50,000 words in November, but as the record stands I am at 86,291. To give you a little perspective on the true length via word count, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone contains 76,944 words, and the first Twilight book contains 115,362 words. 


As you can see I am currently somewhere in between, which is exactly where you want to be if you have any hopes in getting your first book published.

Now, for the shortest summary of my book that my brain can squeeze out:

A 20-something named Fay lives in dual realities; one in the waking world, and one in her subconscious, created by her ability to lucid dream, where she must traverse the slippery slope of a new found romance while uncovering her own secrets which have manifested itself in her dream world as a dark entity bent on complete domination and destruction of her mind.

Finishing this book is my current focus, and shouldn't take long, as I probably only have ten more pages to write. 

This is a very exciting time for me. I've fallen in love with the story and my characters from day one, and can't wait to see everything wrap up! I'll keep you posted!

Eryk

A Reintroduction

I woke up this morning and immediately the first thing I thought about was what to blog. Should I talk about my dreams? No. Or the fact that I woke up with an extremely full bladder? Probably not. So then what? The topic escaped me. It wasn't until my arms felt like they were going to be ripped from their sockets while at the gym that I nearly screamed out, "A reintroduction!"

Yes, it was perfect. My first introduction was kind of...lacking. I was probably in a hurry and just exhilarated that I had finally decided to make a blog that I really didn't put much thought into what my first post should be. So before I bring you home to meet the parents, why don't I tell you a bit about myself?

My name's Eryk. Yes, I know it's spelled with a Y. I think it's pretty cool, and I think my parents are pretty awesome for spelling it that way.

This is me.

These are the people responsible for my existence.

I have a brother too, I just don't have any pictures of him.

This is my dog Elsie, and behind her is my dog Odin.

They live in Kona, Hawaii with my parents and my brother. I miss all of them.

As I stated in my first post, I live in California, about 45 minutes outside of Hollywood. I have lived here for about three years now. It's treated me well so far, but I go back and forth on whether I truly enjoy living here. As one of my friends told me once, Los Angeles is a city best seen at 35 miles per hour. 

Now don't get me wrong, I love the city and the night life, the glamour and the celebrities and all that jazz. But I feel like there's something missing - a key piece of the puzzle that would make Los Angeles an amazing place.  It could be because whenever I thought of Hollywood when I was younger, images of night-long parties and flashing lights and movie stars filled my imagination. I always considered it to be like Vegas, just less trashy. But in reality all the bars close at 2 am, I don't think I've ever seen a celebrity, and Vegas is cleaner.

Anyway, I moved out here after high school in Hawaii, which I won't talk about now, but I'm sure you will hear about it at some point. I was born in Chicago and spent 13 wonderful years there. I don't care what anyone says, I love snow. Now I live with my Grandma. 

That's her. We do Reiki and a bunch of other stuff you'll hear about.

I'm an avid fan of the movies, especially thrillers, horror, mystery, sci-fi, and fantasy. I love reading books of the same genres. Every since I was a child I've been fascinated with the paranormal, the supernatural, and anything beyond the normal confines of our reality. My two favorite authors are Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. And, as you now know, I dream of being a writer. 

I turned 21 in May and I feel like my life has just begun.

So, there you have it. That is my reintroduction. 

I guess you could say I'm your average 21 year old, or maybe not. I like to think it's all about perspective. So I'll let you decide. 

Check back tomorrow! I'm feeling a movie review coming up, or maybe a stream of consciousness piece. Until then!

Eryk 

Well, I completely forgot I had this blog. I'd ask if any of you missed me, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say no, none of you did. But that's okay. Hopefully in the future our mostly one-sided relationship will form a stronger bond.

Now, for the reason I have returned to this hallowed place - which I so rudely neglected over the past several months. I have a new mission. My mission is to get my voice out there. No, not the kind of 'out there' that ufologists talk about. I'm talking about literary mediums; magazines, websites, books, movies, you name it. But in order for me to get my voice out there, I need to find my voice first.

I was brainstorming with a friend the other day, and he had a wonderful idea to create a blog. Now, at first, blogging doesn't seem like my thing. "But wait!" I told myself, "A blog can be much more than the mundane rantings of some random person. A blog can be an entirely different entity. It can be a living, breathing piece of art, that feeds on its very own creativity, exponentially growing into different branches of life and thoughts and feelings that stem from reality to the maddening depths of a writer's subconscious."

In essence, a blog could be the best writing exercise ever to be created - ever.

I understand this is arguable, but that's my conclusion and I'm sticking to it.

Back on topic! Voices. It took me a really long time to figure out exactly what a voice was. It all started as I was gathering intel on how to get a literary agent and querying to publishing houses for my book, I kept coming across this thing called a voice. According to nearly everyone it was the missing link between being a writer and being a successful writer.

But what is a voice? Where do they come from? How do they manifest themselves? These were some grueling questions that I slaved over for months on end. And then one day, when I was talking to my friend about her art project, it hit me like a giant knowledge filled water balloon. The epiphany cascaded over my mind as I explained to Taryn - the friend - that she had to find her own unique art style. I explained that it was this style that rang out through the dark murkiness of mediocrity, and helped to make you memorable.

"Think of Tim Burton," I told her. "You can see any drawing by Tim Burton and know it's him. Or take The Oatmeal. You see one of his comics online and automatically you know."

It was through this explanation that I had my Aha! moment. This voice that everyone talks about exists outside of writing too! It's in music, and art, and anything creative. Your voice is like your trademark, it's your style.

So that brings me back to my starting point, the blog and my voice.

Climb aboard and you will be treated to everything from the rantings of a Starbucks barista, to movie reviews, prose, musings on life and existence, short stories, long stories, jokes, ramblings, and anything else that wiggles its way out of my mind. It'll be exactly like falling down the rabbit hole, yet vastly different.

Hopefully through this exercise I can find more out about myself and my voice. And, if we're lucky, it'll prove to be an entertaining ride. So sit back, relax, and make sure you visit often, cause I'm just getting started.

Eryk

Hello everyone.

My name is Eryk Carlson.

I've been thinking it's about time to start a blog, so here I am.

A few things about me: I live in sunny California. My favorite color is orange. I am currently 20 years old. I love to write.

In fact, it is my aspiration to become an author. Right now I am working on several projects which I am very excited about, and very excited to share with you. That is one of the reasons for this blog.

Another reason is I want to get to know you, the readers. And by creating this blog I think there will be enough give and take that we can both get to know each other.

So bare with me as I get used to this whole blogging thing, and begin to release my creative freedom.

Eryk