November 2017 - Gary David Gillen

The Dead Key by D M Pulley

Introduction

The Dead Key by D M Pulley is a story about two women separated by time but connected by a secret involving an abandoned safe deposit box. In 1978, Beatrice Baker interviews for a job at the First Bank of Cleveland. In 1998, Iris Latch is an architect who is examining the First Bank of Cleveland building for a redevelopment project. The Bank was closed twenty years before and has been abandoned for all those years. The safe deposit boxes are still locked from the day the bank closed. Iris must figure out what happened at the bank in 1978.

Summary

The chapters alternate between the two viewpoint characters. Beatrice gets an interview with Mr. Thompson at the bank with the help of her Aunt Doris. Beatrice is young and naïve but gets a job in the secretarial pool. Max, who is another secretary, takes Beatrice under her wing. Mr. Thompson, Aunt Doris, and Max all have secrets and Beatrice must discover the truth, or someone will end up killing her. Iris has been doing menial work for her architectural firm. She is assigned to assist Brad in drawing floor plans for the old First Bank of Cleveland building so that the building could be redeveloped.

Iris sees the locked safe deposit boxes in the building’s basement and is curious about their contents. She is involved with her coworker Nick both romantically and work-related. This complicates Iris’s life. Beatrice and Iris’s stories are connected through one man, Ramone. He was a janitor in 1978 and has served as the lone security person for the entire building from 1978 to 1998. His knowledge is important to both women.

Recommendation

There is a lot to like about this novel. The background is interesting. The writing is clear. The mystery is complicated. I find that the protagonists keep this novel from being great. Beatrice is sympathetic because she is young and thrown out of her element. She should have grown more as a character because of all the stressful events that occurred during the story. Iris is simply unlikeable. She smokes, has a superficial relationship with Nick, and is frankly dumb. Iris does risky and foolish things in this novel. She stumbles onto the truth despite her shortcomings. I wasn’t rooting for her to succeed and thought that she ended up where she should have.

Links

This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Dead Key by D M Pulley.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22914448-the-dead-key

This is the link to my review of The Unclaimed Victim by D.M. Pulley. Ethel from March 1938 and Kris from April 1999 are connected through the Torso Killer of Cleveland. They are targets. Can they survive?

Unclaimed Victim by D.M. Pulley

The Crimson Campaign by Brian McClellan

Book #2 of the Powder Mage Series

Introduction

Will Tamas escape from the Kez army and save Adro? Can Adamat rescue his wife and children from Lord Vetas? Will Taniel shake off his demons and defeat the demi-god Kresimir, again?

Summary

Tamas is at war with Kez. He becomes trapped behind enemy lines with two of his elite brigades. They face a long and dangerous journey to find their way back to Adro. Adamat must rescue his wife and children from Lord Vetas. He enlists Taniel’s friend Bo to help him defeat his foe. Bo is the last Privileged in the city of Adopest and Adamat goes to great lengths to secure his help. Adamat’s story is one of family and sacrifice and Adamat must extend himself to save his family. Taniel starts this novel in a haze den, unable to come to grips with what occurred at the end of the previous novel, Promise of Blood. He breaks his melancholy as the forces of Kez attack deep into Adro. Taniel is the last Powder Mage on this front. Taniel and his faithful companion, Ka-Poel, fight back the invaders. The looming battle between Kresimir on the Kez side and Mihali on the Adro side concludes with Taniel caught in the middle.

Recommendation

This novel is a great follow up to the first novel in the series, Promise of Blood. The action is non-stop and the three main narrators have compelling stories. Bo becomes an important character as well. The potential relevance of Nila and Vlora is hinted at but they remain underdeveloped characters. This middle novel sets up a gripping conclusion in the third novel of the series which is called The Autumn Republic.

Indie Author Day 2017

Introduction

The Indie Author Day as held on October 14, 2017, at the South Euclid-Lyndhurst branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in South Euclid, Ohio.

Link to Cuyahoga County Library website

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

There were four activities presented at Indie Author Day.

Summary – Anna Kopp

The first activity was a lecture by Anna Kopp entitled So You Wrote a Novel: Now What? A Crash Course on Today’s Publishing Options.

This is the Goodreads link to Rise of the Chosen.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30553316-rise-of-the-chosen

She presented four steps to consider after your novel is finished.

Step 1. Revisions. Find beta readers and an editor to help on revisions.

Step 2. Pick a Publishing Path. There are three; traditional publishing through an agent, traditional publishing through a publisher, and self-publishing.

Step 3. Make sure that you are ready. Have a finished and revised manuscript for fiction. Research agents and/or publishers to submit query letters or self-publish.

Step 4. Building an author platform. Get followers on social media, do book signings, create author merchandise.

Final tips. Write, read in your genre, don’t despair, do your research, get help, and don’t give up.

After Indie Author Day, a librarian e-mailed Anna Kopp’s power point presentation to anyone in the audience that wanted a copy of it. It was helpful to review the presentation later.

Summary – Presentation

The second activity was a presentation about the free services and resources available at the library. The event was held at the William N. Skirball Writer’s Center. The librarian talked about upcoming workshops, author’s presentations, monthly self-publishing roundtables, and the Self-E program. During this presentation, pizza and refreshments were available.

Summary – Videos

The third activity was a series of internet videos displayed on the projector screen. The topics were about writing and publishing. The videos can also be re-played.

Use pressbooks
Write a fantasy novel
Market your book
The costs of self-publishing
Get your book into libraries
Publish with Ingram Spark
Produce a professional book.
Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing
Draft 2 Digital and Smashwords
Create Space and KDP Direct.

Videos #1 to #7 can be found at indieauthorday.com/resources

Videos #8 to #10 can be found at Teachable.com in the A to Z of Self-Publishing program.

I watched the first two videos before I went to the fourth activity. I watched the rest of the videos online later.

Summary – Book Whisperer

The fourth activity was an appointment with the book whisperer.

From 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM Deanna Adams, the book whisperer, had 15-minute one-on-one appointments to discuss questions about writing and publishing. In my appointment, I went over a query letter for my novel, Assassin in New Marl City, with her. She helped me in finding better words to use in the query. My goal is to send this query to agents to acquire representation for my novel.

This is the Goodreads link to The Writer’s GPS.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27810622-the-writer-s-gps

Conclusion

The four activities presented at Indie Author Day 2017 were well worth the time invested for independent self-published writers and writers considering self-publishing.

Links

I attended the Indie Author Conference and Showcase on November 12, 2016, at the Parma-Snow branch of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Parma, Ohio. This is the link to my recap.

Indie Author Conference and Showcase

Writing Progress Report November 2017

This is my Writing Progress Report November 2017.

At the Ohio State Buckeye Football Game on October 7, 2017.

Ohio State 62 and Maryland 14.

Writing Progress from October 2017

I wrote one blog post for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for October 2017 linked below.

Writing Progress Report October 2017

Wrote Chapters 15 and 21 of Assassin in New Marl City

The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been submitted to magazines.

Statistics of magazine submissions since December 2016 are; 5 different stories submitted a total of 15 times with 0 accepted, 1 pending, and 14 rejections.

Events from October 2017

I attended the Indy Author Day on October 14, 2017, at Cuyahoga County Public Library at Lyndhurst, Ohio

This is the link to the Cuyahoga County Library.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/

This is the link to the writer’s center at the library branch.

https://www.cuyahogalibrary.org/Services/William-N-Skirball-Writers-Center.aspx

Writing Goals for November 2017

Continue to work on Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (98000 words total). Write Chapters 12, 19, and 23 of the novel this month. Chapters 25, 29, and 31 remain.

Type the Edits for Chapters 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, and 26 of Assassin in New Marl City.

Type Chapters 10, 13, 14, 15, 17, 21, 22, 27, and 28.

Polish and submit the stories Hybrid-Dog Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humors, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction magazines.

Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.

Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.

Planned Events for November 2017

Purchase an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first ten chapters of Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program, Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for Assassin in New Marl.