James Ashman

I have a day job. I have also written two books in the course of two years. One is complete and the other is being edited. Which is what this is about.

Book writing for the first book was 6 months of casual writing, then another 6 months of constant revising, revising, editing, layouts, pictures, more editing, and finally self-publishing an almost complete product. To date, I’ve only found 2 errors in my self-published TLP book, but both are minor.

The second is a 2009 National Novel Writing Month project in 11/2009. Started and completed in November. It’s still not published, and now it’s April. The editing? Casual, or none at all for weeks on end. Still, 5 months! Unacceptable, but why has it taken longer? Why haven’t I done more until now?

Every time I sit and seriously decide to write or even edit, it’s enjoyable and creative. But beforehand, there is a perception that it won’t be.

I’ve come to realize, and this is just my case, is that my viewpoint is only that of someone who has a normal job during the day. Now, recent stats have 750,000 self-published/indie titles being produced in 2009, while traditional publishing was only 1/3 of that. I imagine quite a few of those were published by normal folk who write after their day job. The more I meet, read about, and know about people who are actually making a living at writing, the more I discover that many write all day long as their day job. They approach writing as their job. They love their job.

I like my day job. But when I get home, it’s tough to think of writing as a job I need to do now. “I’ve worked my portion, made my living for the day.” Or it seems like writing when not on a day off of work will somehow be less productive.

These are all perceptions. And as we should all be learning, there is no reality, only perception. The reality is, this is something I enjoy, I love. That’s the truth. Which means that whether or not there is a “real job”, the true issue is making sure our perceptions match what we truly like.

“Do I like (this)?” If yes, then it can be enjoyed, whether or not the constraints of outside life try to distract you.

394 words I could have used to write a novel.

First post, to be buried quickly. But just to give it some gusto, some information for those who start at the beginning. I know I do it too.

James Ashman, Self-Published author. By choice. I have never pitched an agent or submitted a query of any kind. I have not been rejected or accepted anywhere. I can explain why another time. No established genre yet. But most of my ideas will be either be Science Fiction or Fantasy, sometimes a mix of both. I have too many links to where I am everywhere, so there will probably be something more complete in the future linking it all together. Eventually an About Me section should arise and cover more.

I have also written two books so far, the first was started in 2008 and published in 2009. The second is in-process. This first one is the first in a Fantasy series/saga that will cover a good amount of time. It starts at the main character’s young age of seven. The second book in that series jumps to age fourteen rather quickly, by the way. So this series is starting very much in the Young Adult fantasy genre, and may continue in it for a while.

The second completed novel is a National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) project written only in the month of November. Editing, on the other hand, has taken about five times that. More on that another time. When it’s ready, it’ll first be at Createspace, and should move into Amazon and Kindle rather quickly. As well as at Smashwords, where it was first uploaded (still in process, that copy is far outdated as of this writing). It’s more of an example of what I can do, rather than a real concept I have in mind. It’s a Space Opera, and modeled after what I could remember of the anime version of Legend of the Galactic Heros. It’s a little sci-fi, but it focuses on the characters, not the technology, which ends up only barely mentioned anyways. Drama in space! It has a ridiculous title, inspired by the games and utterances of a five-year-old.

In the future, there will be more books to follow in the “Together with Silver” series, and various other projects. There is an older project that I’ll be working on in the future. It’s a book I started in 2007 that is subject to change. It will be somewhat cyberpunk, somewhat inspired by what I’ve read of in the genre. It takes place in a future U.S.A. where the government has lost much of its power and corporations are the real authorities. The main character is female, B Erins, and works for a background screening agency. In real life, my current day job is background screening for employment, so the basic inspiration is obvious, but that’s as far as the real-life influence goes. B Erins, along with most of her corporate peers, has an integrated computer in her head and a semi-artificial intelligence that resides with her. One day she arrives at work, and no one remembers her. And thus she tries to find out why. That’s the basic start, for a basic first post.

I also am planning on a table-tennis themed high school novel. It’ll be a tournament-type, action filled, and… epic. A tournament-type, in my view, is usually a show or manga where the focus is on a main character and their progression through ranks of rivals, whether those are other people or other schools. It’s only an idea right now, but I cannot wait for the day it sees paper.

And of course, there is more. But this is who I am, what I’m doing, and an expectation of what’s to come. First and foremost, this should be about writing. And then whatever else, which there should be plenty of.

711 words I could have used to write a novel.

(Different counts by Word, G-Docs, WordPress, so I’ll just use WordPress’ counts. All words as counted by them before posting.)

After 5pm writing

James Ashman, Author

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