Author J. R. DuBois

 So this is fun! I joined SEVERAL groups on Facebook about writing/authors and fantasy and beta readers/critique partners, and have agreed to basically manuscript-swap with three other authors who I do not know. I have had folks I don't know read my work in the previous beta reading rounds, but never critique partners. It is exciting to have my final draft be read by other writers as critique partners -- which are different than beta readers, given the fact that they are writers as well and look at text and story-telling completely differently. Nicole with Candy Store Stories did SO WELL at TEARING APART my book that it made it so much better. We'll see what these guys say. This being the case though... it's probably not my final draft anymore. Yar! Oh well. I still have until May to wait and hear back from the rest of the agents I queried anyway, so what better way to pass the time than perfect my manuscript even more while helping others do the same? All while still worki...

What do you enjoy about fantasy books? (Or books/reading in general?) For me, I love the immersion into a world that is different than the one in which we live. That said, the world must be familiar-enough that I could see myself in it, immerse myself into the role of the characters, regardless what gender or belief-system they have. It is, in essence, an escape, but not necessarily because I dislike my life, but because it is a chance to explore new things and experience situations I might not otherwise be able to -- including the ability to do what humans simply cannot: magic. Stories, to me, are one of the best ways we can communicate with one another, to share our experiences, to record history, and to learn lessons. And communication is one of the most important aspects to connecting with our peers. Which is why I am extremely humbled and grateful to God that I have the opportunity to be a part of building that connection. A little about Chronicles of Liren. Firstly, Liren tends t...

Hey friends. Update on Book 1: Active rejections received: 6 of 33. Most won't reply to my query unless interested, so I'm basically waiting three months to hear nothing before submitting directly to publishers. Update on Preconceived Notions: I was wrong about the rights with regards to traditional publishing. Apparently such things can be negotiated. This grants me much relief, as I'd like to go the publishing route, but will get my books published regardless. I intend to continue querying to agents and pursuing traditional publishing until I'm done with the first draft of Book 2, wherein I might consider self-publishing then. It'll also give me a chance to save so I can publish a high-quality book if I DO have to self-publish. Updates on Book TWO: I have drafted the entire thing. Sat my happy butt down two days ago and spent 3-4 hours doing nothing but writing the intricate details of the plot of Book 2 and MY, I think it might even be better than Book 1 and I th...

 Hello fabulous readers. Rejections keep coming in (yay!), and I'm not sure if I'm more sad about this or eager to get them all done. I would love to be represented by the Big 5, but I think I might end up self-publishing, depending on what all these guys say. I am not too keen on selling the rights to my book, and frankly, I'm not writing for the money, so advances mean little to me. I just want the books on a shelf in bookstores. More than that, I want them to be READ. I haven't been to a bookstore myself in years. I buy online. Either way, I want them in print and I want them read, and I want them published. So. There's that. I've got a few months before I hear back from all agents, and depending on what they say, I'll figure it out from there. The cost of my book, because it's so stinking long, is going to easily be $5000 if I publish it, probably $6000, because I'll need to pay both for copy edit and proofread and then cover design and formattin...

 So there's one thing I've been able to be pretty productive about despite my crazy stress/grief-filled week last week, and that's submitting my query letter, synopsis, and excerpts to a plethora of agents that are accepting submissions for debut authors. There were 74 or so that popped up on the list via Reedsy, but many were at the same agency company, and you can only submit to one. So between that and the agent's desire for a particular type of fantasy, I was able to submit to 33 of them (it takes MUCH longer to submit and make-personal each one). That was all done between 2/2 and 2/6. Since, I've received 3 rejections. I expect to receive rejections from them all. Am I saying this out of sorrow? No. I'm being practical. What I wrote is not really in the market right now, but I do believe it is a good story, and will only get better as the series continues. I've had many of my betas tell me the plot moves, is a great story that keeps them turning pages a...

 Book One is finished. Finally. I think. I've edited for a thousandth time (just a minor exaggeration), have had beta readers read it more than once -- and have even had the some of the same folks read it again -- have deleted even more words, written up the synopsis, the query letter, and condensed the entire thing into one sentence. BOOM. I'm sure there's more to do; there will ALWAYS be things you can tweak and polish. But honestly, I am not sure what else I can do. I am basically beginning to just manipulate sentence structure. Or if this paragraph should be before this one. Or if I should switch "he paused," to before or after a quote.  Stuff like that indicates that the REAL work is pretty much done. And given how many times I've reworked it... I'm ready for submission. Now, that said: following the last blog post, James Islington gave me some great feedback and tips on how to self-publish my novel and what to use and what was invaluable and which wa...