It’s been a while since I talked about Divided We Fall, the sequel to my novel We, The Watched. In fact, it’s been a while since I updated this blog. Sorry about that, guys. The good news is that the lack of posts is due to my focusing on writing the book–which is what you would want me to doing, anyway, right?
The new novel is going well and according to my outline I’m finally getting close to finishing! I know basically how the story is going to end and how the characters are going to get there. I estimate there are just a few chapters left to write. After that, I plan to go back over the novel and flesh out a few of the subplots where necessary. Then the editing process begins. I’m the kind of author who does a lot of editing while I’m writing, so I don’t expect to find the novel in complete disarray. However, when you’re writing in long form it’s absolutely imperative to comb through the whole thing from cover to cover. This ensures that everything is consistent, there are no plot holes, and you didn’t forget to tie up any loose ends (unless, of course, that was your intention all along).
I may have mentioned this before, but a writing program called Scrivener (released last month on Windows) has been absolutely key to my progress on this book. This is a much more complicated tale to tell than We, The Watched. Divided We Fall is told through two points of view and across two time periods. There’s a lot of action. It’s also a love story. And boy is it epic.
I’ve been following the DC Comics reboot with a lot of interest. I’ve always been a comic book fan but for the last several years have felt a bit left behind. Too many conflicts in the so-called “continuity” had made it hard for even a fan to explain what was happening. Some heroes had died and come back, others gone evil and back. Or both, in the case of Green Lantern.
So I’m glad they’ve decided to start fresh and renumber every comic back to #1. I know some people out there are miffed at the lost history, but I personally was getting tired of having to go to Wikipedia every time a comic referenced a mysterious super vortex first seen in issue 367. I was also getting sick of all the crises constantly afflicting the DC universe. Seriously, they had a “Crisis on Infinite Earths,” an “Infinite Crisis” and a “Final Crisis,” and the last two happened in the span of a few years. I don’t care about earth-shattering events; I just want to read a good story!
Swamp Thing #1: Better than you might think!
And good stories they are. DC so far has only released about 14 of the planned 52 books labeled #1 this month, but there have already been some winners. I’ve read five of them — Justice League, Action Comics (Superman), Detective Comics (Batman), Swamp Thing and Batgirl. Justice League is a great introduction to the DC Universe and has more action than a Michael Bay picture (in a good way). If you’re looking for something a a little darker and more sophisticated, check out Detective Comics, which is a classic Joker story with a twist, or Swamp Thing, a devilish tale of horror (environmental horror?)
Action Comics reminded me of old-school 1940s Superman, but didn’t wow me as much as the others (though I guess some might find it interesting seeing Superman in jeans and a T-shirt). But then, I’ve always been more of a Batman fan. The Batgirl book has strong writing, but feels very much like the first in a larger story arc. Oddly, it also seems to require some knowledge of the character’s past.
The thing I think is really going to boost sales at DC Comics isn’t the narrative reboot, though. It’s digital comics.
Have you heard about this yet? You can now buy digital versions of all of the new comics, the day they are released, and read them on your PC, smartphone or tablet.
This addresses two of the main reasons I stopped buying actual issues of comic books:
I had to make special trips every time I wanted to go to a comic book store. The two shops I know of in Washington, DC are in Georgetown (which takes a Metro ride and a bus transfer to get to), and Union Station (which also requires a $2 Metro ride)
I have very little space to store comic books.
Digital solves both of these problems. I can buy a comic with a mouse click or a tap on my phone’s touch screen, and they’re all stored online so I don’t have to buy an entire filing cabinet. The price per comic feels a little steep since it’s the same as what you’d pay for a print edition, but damn if it isn’t convenient. Longtime comics fans might scoff at the idea, but I am sure it’s going to bring in a lot of people like me who were having trouble keeping up.
What do you think of the DC reboot? Does digital distribution make the difference? Please leave a comment below!
I’m happy to announce that We, The Watched is now available on Amazon.com and in the Kindle store! That means the ebook is now sold in the stores of all the major eReaders, including Sony, Apple and Barnes & Noble.
As a happy Kindle owner myself, this particular edition has been a long time coming. I had originally hoped to publish to Amazon through the good folk at Smashwords, but the self-publishing company has had difficulty making a deal with Amazon. Fortunately, doing it myself directly through Amazon turned out to be easier than expected. I even put together a snazzy press release to herald the news.
As with the other editions, the Kindle eBook is $2.99 on Amazon. If you’ve already read it and have a minute, please leave a customer review on the Amazon book page. Thanks for your continued support!
Update (5/3/11): Check out my new author page on Amazon.com here.
To everyone waiting for the sequel to my dystopian novel, We, The Watched, I thought I’d provide an update with a few juicy details.
First of all, the title is Divided We Fall. I’ve been couching that as the “tentative title” for a while now, but it’s been that for long enough now that it’s unlikely to change. Besides cleverly bringing the word “We” back into the title, the title nicely captures two major elements of the story — the made-up nation’s masochistic conflict between “Patriots” and “Heretics,” and the complicated relationship between our hero Seven and the lover from his former life. Originally I was calling the sequel “The War Comes Home,” but I decided that was a bit too literal.
Here’s some trivia for you: The original tentative name for We, The Watched was “Ignited.”
Divided We Fall is divided into two parts. Each is about the same length or a little shorter than the entirety of We, The Watched. I’ve completed writing Part One and am a few chapters into Part Two. I’m planning this as the conclusion of the Seven storyline, though I’m not writing off the possibility of coming back to this world later.
Of course, if you haven’t read We, The Watched yet, you’re missing out. You can sample the first few chapters of the Kindle, Nook, iPad and PC-compatible eBook for free at Smashwords and other popular eBook stores. If you like what you read, you can get the whole thing for only $2.99 (about the price of a Starbucks coffee).
My novel WE, THE WATCHED is featured on the Bargain eBooks blog. The blog showcases eBooks that cost less than $5.00. Definitely a great place to get recommendations for good reading as the eBook revolution gets under way.
