Michael Selden

I’ve begun to try to learn a little bit of the French language in preparation a my planned research trip to Provence. Last year I was in Italy for almost 3 months, researching this same book: DISOBEDIENCE. Part of the book is set in Rome and the area around it, part in Provence, and part in Baltimore.  I’d been to Rome many times, but never with the same focus, and not having researched a specific timeframe (1880-1920). I’d planned to be in Provence this spring (in time for lavender season), but The Balance is running behind schedule, so I’ve postponed my trip till the fall.

I’m starting with a simple class, just to refamiliarize myself with French vowels and pronunciation. When I was learning Italian, I initially focused on pronunciation and grammar and then moved on to building vocabulary. Having learned some Italian is helpful, since there are many root words shared with French, but they are obviously two different languages. I plan to combine tutoring with software and web-based programs to listen and I’ll get a grammar and a verb book, as well as a dictionary and a phrase book. If my experience in Italy in 2000 is any gauge, I’ll be lost at first, no matter how prepared I think I am.

DISOBEDIENCE is a supernatural thriller I started to write while in Baltimore. That’s where most of the book occurs, but parts are set in other places. This will be my first attempt at writing a book like this. Before DISOBEDIENCE, I plan to complete the first draft of I AM and then to get it ready to publish. My planned book releases are:

The Boy Who Ran 2013 (completed)

The Balance (Book 1) Spring 2015

I AM 2015 Late or Spring 2016

DISOBEDIENCE Early 2017

The Balance (Book 2)

The Balance (Book 3)

I have more books outlined beyond this—we’ll see how my plan goes.

Michael

Beware of a web link called “meistercremeshop”. I clicked on it because the site seemed to be offering my book for free and it tried to download and launch an app onto my computer—fortunately my security isolated it. I suspect they are advertising lot of things to get people to look at their site. Now I also understand that there is a legitimate web site in the Netherlands by that name that actually sells skin creme, or something. This seems like my click was hijacked . Anyway, don’t click on it if it returns from a search for my book and beware anything that advertises stuff for free—lots of scams out there.

Surf with care.

I spent the latter half of December and the first part of January making language edits to The Balance, and am now also working with John Hudspith to edit the book on a part by part basis. I’ve decided to divide the book into 4 parts, and while I was working on revisions of Part 2, John edited Part 1. I’ll be sending him Part 2 on Monday or Tuesday of next week. I am taking 6 additional passes through every chapter before going to copyedit.

The office where I work is on the second floor of my home, there’s a kind of second living room up here, just outside of my bedroom, that I’ve converted into a office, although I put another TV and a couple of chars to sit in here as well. The stereo  uses the same speaker system as the TV and is usually on while I work, served by music from my mac.  I use a Mac Air as my primary computer, although I recently bought a 30-inch monitor to help my eyes a little, and I added a small Norwegian wood stove to keep the upstairs warm (see comment on windows below)

I took a few photos of the office and a couple of shots out of the office’s 4 windows (my house has 26 windows and they all leak air).  It’s a nice, warm place to work, even when it’s -15F outside. My house sits at the edge (or even inside) Pike National Forest, in teh town of Woodland Park (The City Above the Clouds) and is at an altitude of 8500 ft (2600m).

John Hudspith’s Facebook page can be found here:

John’s Facebook Page

In 2008, I broke down and finally bought an e-reader, in my case it was a Kindle DX. At the time these were expensive, and I think I paid around 500 dollars for my Kindle DX—this is the large one, with a greater surface area, so I could use large fonts without having to turn the page too often. They are much—much less expensive now.

Up till this point, I’d avoided even thinking about an e-reader, but my lifestyle, that of a voracious reader and someone who was spending months at a time on the road for work, drove the decision. I was conducting a series of flight tests for a system my team had designed, developed, and built. We would alternate flight testing between Hampton Virginia and Houston Texas, using NASA facilities and NASA aircraft. Each set of tests lasted between 2 and 3 months, thus we’d be living in hotels, although spending most of our time at the flight hangars—flight testing days are usually 12 to 16 hour days and my team worked 7 days per week. I tried to give the team a break by dividing them into two teams, then rotating those I could back home for a week and then in the field for a week, when possible, but not everyone could rotate. Whenever I wasn’t working, I was reading.

Reading takes your mind away from the world for a while and puts you in a different reality. It’s a great escape, and I managed to read a different book every day or two. That winds up being a lot of books, more than you want to carry in suitcases. The other important feature for me was that I could wirelessly buy new books whenever I wanted. I often can’t find what I’m looking for in bookstores—if you can find a bookstore. In the year 2000, I was in Italy most of the year—this time setting up and testing a brand new astronomical observatory and it’s laser system, used to measure distance to different objects in orbit, or on the moon. There, it was very difficult to buy what I wanted, when I wanted. And since I keep on traveling to Italy and other places even now, I like to be able to buy books. I can with my Kindle—anywhere, any time. All I need is a 3G wireless signal.

E-readers are great. Mine has a built in dictionary, so I can look up a word I don’t know, or highlight a passage. It remembers where I was in every book—if I stop— and I can even ask it to read aloud, although my older one doesn’t sound great. My computer is very good at reading aloud, and I use that to read articles to me while I do housework.

All told, I’m glad I made the jump to an e-reader. It holds thousands of books, the charge lasts a week—even for me—and I can read mine in direct sunlight with no problem. Also, the books are cheaper. If you buy a book per day, this matters.

I’m glad to see that Amazon has my book in stock again. It makes me feel better about the partnership.  The Boy Who Ran is available in Paperback, Kindle, and E-Pub versions—The paperback can be bought at Amazon or Barnes & Noble (if Amazon is out), and the E-Pub Version at many SmashWords partners, including Barnes & Noble.

New Review of The Boy Who Ran, and enter to win one of a limited number of Kindle version copies:

Read Stacie Theis’ review at BeachBoundBooks:

http://www.beachboundbooks.com/blogging-about-books/the-boy-who-ran-by-michael-selden-book-review-giveaway

A photo I snapped at 11 mile reservoir, just at the beginning of the hiking trails. There are 2 signs, one for bears and one for cougars.

Patterson Park is a 137-acre (55.26 ha) park and recreational area in southeastern Baltimore, and a just few blocks from my condo in Canton. The northwest corner of Patterson Park is its highest point and is called Hampstead Hill. This was the site of the American defensive line during the Battle of Baltimore, the war of 1812. The guns at Ft. McHenry held off the British ships (The Star Spangled Banner was written at this time), making it impossible for the ships to support the land invasion from the east. Still the 10,000 American defenders were driven back to the defenses in Hampstead hill and the 100 cannon emplaced there before the British commander decided that—without naval support—the battle could not be won and retreated.

Patterson Park is also the place of an important scene in one of my future books, DISOBEDIENCE. Before I left the city in July 2013, I made sure to walk along the paths, once again, where different scenes I intended would happen in Baltimore. It’s important to get a sense of the feel of where things happen, not just the events themselves.

I attached a few of photos from one of my walks here.

Disobedience takes place mostly in present day Baltimore, although there are parts of the book that happen in Rome, between 1880 and 1920, and in Provence, France from 1920 until the outbreak of World War 2. I spent two and a half months in Rome this past winter, researching the changes that happened in a part of the city and plan a trip to Provence this next spring. There is a part that happens in Boston as well, but it’s short and mostly at night.

Disobedience is a supernatural thriller. I started the novel well before leaving Baltimore, but put it on hold until after I AM is completed next year. I AM, my next book—after The Balance—is a science fiction story, also started some time back.

I ride my motorcycle around the mountains here in central Colorado pretty often—at least when there’s no ice on the roads. One of the places I go for my regular exercise is Mueller State Park. I like State Parks, they’re  as nice as the national parks but often less crowded. I hiked up the short, but steep, path to Grouse point recently (again) before taking a longer  trail (Mueller has about 62 miles of trails) and took this photo. It gives you a good perspective of what the Colorado mountains are like. This point is about 10K ft. (maybe a hair less) above sea level.

A review for The Boy Who Ran was posted on Epic Book Quest today. It was given 4-stars and a “Highly Recommended” rating.

http://epicbookquest.com/2014/10/03/the-boy-who-ran-by-michael-selden/

Cheryl Carpinello published an interview with me on her blog. It can be found here:

http://carpinelloswritingpages.blogspot.com/2014/09/meet-mg-author-michael-selden.html

I added the last chapter that will be included in the sample download this morning. Chapter 9: Daniel.

I’ve got almost all chapters up to level 3 now and will be working to push their maturity to level 5 in October and part of November. The book will go through design in November, proof reading in December, and I plan to release it in January, just after the new year.

I plan to release a soft cover, Kindle, and E-Pub at the same time, although I learned that sometimes they can get a little out of phase with each other, despite my intentions.

The Balance excerpts can be accessed at: https://michaelselden.com/the-balance

Life can be confusing. Sometimes Phoebe can’t tell if she’s living in an old borrowed memory, though another person with whom she’s connected, or if she’s really there, as herself. She’s the last Sensitive created by the Order before they were all killed or driven into hiding—she’s one of a kind and trying to hide what she is from the Council of God. The curse started for her when she was just two years old, and as she grows older, she grows more sensitive to others around her—but Phoebe has another problem and she doesn’t even know.

The Balance is a Young Adult novel set in a post-apocalyptic future—almost 200 years after a global thermonuclear war nearly wiped out humanity. Phoebe is a product of the Order’s Future Man Project, a genetically-engineered Sensitive, like her mother before her.

The Balance is her story and the story of the clash between the Council of God, with its distrust of technology, and the Order, an organization steeped in science and engineering. The Order sees Phoebe as key to their future, but all she dreams of is to be a normal girl. But Phoebe would have no future if the Council discovered her identity.

The Balance, will be released this winter from Woodland Park Press

What does it cost to write and publish a book?  There’s no single answer to this question, because it depends on how much trouble you go through on the book.

First, it’s going to take an inordinate amount of your time—thousands of hours. Get over it. This will be spread between writing, revisions, revisions (and did I say revisions?), then more time reviewing developmental and copy editor’s comments—usually more than one iteration, and it may be many.

For The Boy Who Ran—after it was written— I began with developmental editing. Some people give opinions for free but if you want a professional look you need to engage a professional Next, you’ll take the input, or inputs you’ve received and probably do some revision to the plot. Every plot has holes and they need to be fixed if you’ve got any sense of pride in doing a good job. Once you think the book is in decent shape, you need to engage a professional copy editor—don’t be cheap here, you want someone who works in the industry and has a record of editing many books like yours.

Editing costs for The Boy Who Ran (total) were around $2500 —and that was really a single shot, since I’d done so many revisions that the copy going in was in exceptional shape, and the book only had about 37,500 words (The Balance actually peaked at 150,000 words)

Design and artwork costs: Count on paying a quality professional for the interior design, say another 500 to 1000 dollars. You’ll need artwork for the front. I was lucky in that a close friend volunteered to draw the cover art for free, but then the cover needed a design, too, which was another $750 (not including artwork)—these are competitive prices, but through a proven quality house.

Next, the e-versions of the book will need to be scrubbed—say another $300 to make sure they’re in good shape—e-pub in particular usually requires that your book pass a test to be included in many catalogs, and it’s not even in high school.

There are also setup fees from the printer, and then (if you want copies) printing and shipping costs.

Next comes Marketing—the most expensive part of all. I hired a publicist to help me set up my web site and to get me started. His fee was around 3000, including some advertising. Most books get a budget in the thousands / month for ads. In my case, I’ve spent around $300 to $500 per month for a while.

Totals for The Boy Who Ran: Editing 2500  Book Cover Art: Free (unusual) Design: 1500 Marketing: 9000 Book Setup and Printing for copies: 2500

Around 15,500 + Trip to IPPY Awards Dinner  and driving around to various bookstores

All told, the project has run me close to $20K

What do I get when a book’s sold? Less than $2, whether it’s a paperback or an e-book, sometimes less. Fewer than 7% of books sell even 1000 copies. Do the math. This isn’t a reliable way to make money, so if you’re in it for the money—don’t be.

The Boy Who Ran went live tonight on Google Play.

I added chapter 8, entitled “The Sister’s Eyes”, to the sample text today (Aug 31). In this chapter, we meet a few of the renegade members of the Order.

The link to the page is:

https://michaelselden.com/the-balance

What is “rational speculation”?  Well I look at it as a way of applying the rules that govern the universe to new things that I’m speculating could exist. This means that when I apply this rational speculation approach to a particular book, whatever is new will be governed by the same rules  that govern things like gravity, or electromagnetic waves. The new thing can be supernatural (beyond what we think of as natural), but it will follow these rules. Things like conservation of energy and force at a distance relationships, or does the geology really work this way?

The story of The Balance takes place in a fictional place called, The Land. While this place doesn’t really exist, the features and other characteristics were drawn from a number of different places—the Land is very much like a real place. For example: I situated it in a spot on the Earth to be near different ocean currents, but lifted its geology from another place. Within the story I try to be consistent with the laws of physics to the maximum extent possible, while creating new abilities for some of the characters. Phoebe, for example, is a Sensitive, created to have the ability to connect with other people’s minds. We don’t create Sensitives today, but I can imagine that elements of certain brains might develop, or be caused to develop, a structure and signal that make it possible to do so. In the world of The Balance, the Order would have zeroed in on these characteristics to enhance and amplify this ability. Phoebe is the product of over 200 years of this kind of development. The story uses this and the fact that the Order was banished to underscore that Phoebe isn’t aware of why she feels so strange, she just thinks of herself as a freak and wishes it would all go away.

Still, if we are to accept that this characteristic could exist, then we ned to apply the rules of physics to understand how it might work. Her ability isn’t magic, its speculative science. That means that there are rules that will govern how a Senstive’s mind and powers will work. I surmised that they would work like any other transmitted force, using the 1/r2 (one divided by the range squared) loss of signal strength. That means that if you double the distance from her mind, the signal strength would decrease as the square of the distance, so at double the range the signal would be one fourth as strong, at ten times the range it would be one one hundreth as strong. The Order might well have designed ways to enhance this range, much like using an antenna. An antenna focuses the energy of a transmitter to provide amplification (or gain) and can extend the range, but antenna are also governed by rules, like the limit of the focused beam being proportional to the wavelength of the energy divided by the diameter of the antenna.  When I wrote the book, I factored these kinds of things into how I designed the Sensitives and how I would have seen the potency (or range) of the sensitives increase over time.

This is just one example of rational speculation. I don’t always constrain myself this way. For example: the book “Disobedience” is a supernatural thriller. It’s slated for some time in the future. I still rationalize about why things happen, but in that story I use powers that I speculate would require some deity-like being or demon to be involved who is not constrained by the rules. But for the book The Balance and for I Am, I try to stick to rational speculation—as much as possible.

Another example: for the book I Am, I projected the orbit of a comet and placed in in time so that I can tell where each important object in the solar system is on every day of the story. This was more than just for fun. I wanted the main co-character, an astrophysics student, to be able to track the orbit as the story progressed, and I wanted to be able to time other events of the story such that the comet’s arrival and its passing of certain events would coincide.

Does this make me crazy?  Maybe, but I think obsessive is probably a better term. I want to create good fiction, in the plot, the characters, the writing, and the rationale. But the world should make sense, too.

It’s 4000BC. Horses have been extinct in North America for about 6000 years, the bow won’t be used for another 2 or 3 thousand years. Instead, people use the Atlatl. This is a throwing lever, used to hurl long darts—longer than arrows—tipped with stone or bone points for hunting.

The people of the time were hunter / gatherers and followed the game over the plains during the hunting seasons, drying and storing meat and grains for winter. The sometimes had permanent winter dwellings, partially dug into the ground.

Recently found cave art shows something of their beliefs, where people and animals transform, a change of spirit.

The Boy Who Ran is set in the Mid-Archaic Period, 4000BC. This ran from about 8000BC. People migrated to the continent between 12000 and 15000 years ago—the first immigrants, the first to become Native Americans.

The novel follows a boy, the sole survivor of a massacre, who was taken in but never fully adopted by another village, his struggle to overcome his past and his desire to become one of the People.

Smashwords included The Boy Who Ran e-pub version in their premium catalog. That means is, or soon will be, available at in following new places:
Sony
Barnes & Noble
Kobo
Apple
Diesel
Page Foundry
Baker & Taylor Blio
txtr
Library Direct (Libraries can buy it this way)
Baker-Taylor Axis360
OverDrive
Flipkart
Oyster
Scribd

It’s already available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle formats and can be order in any bookstore in the world that receives distribution from Ingram books as a POD book

This week I was interviewed for the web site BeachBoundBooks, by Stacie Theis. I’ve provided a link, below, to that interview.

BeachBoundBooks Interview