Michael Selden

Yesterday there was an author’s showcase at the Woodland Park Public Library for local authors. There were six authors present and a number of different genre’s represented, from a picture book, to fiction chapter books, to non-fiction historical books.

The authors present included:

Celinda Reynolds Kaelin, from Florissant Colorado (local history book author)

Diane J. Reed, from Woodland Park, her most recent novels being Twixt, Robin in the Hood, and Stone of Thieves

Jill Smith, from Lake George Colorado with her audio book that included chapters from stories of living on a cattle ranch, specifically about the Hayman fire.

Sarah Drummond, from Colorado and her picture book created from wood and linoleum blocks called Raven and the Red Ball

Terry Odell, from Divide Colorado with several of her books from series that she had authored. Her web site is http://terryodell.com

And myself.

All of the other authors had compelling stories to tell about how they started writing and about the works they offered.

The Boy Who Ran, in paperback, is available locally in Woodland Park at Brenda’s Boutiques at a significant discount off the list price.  For those who want me to sign the book, leave it at the store. I try to have breakfast in the Hungry Bear once a week, across the street from the store, and will stop in to sign books.

On April 9 at 2pm, there is an author’s showcase for local authors. I’ll be there too and will answer questions about the book, then will walk to Brenda’s to be available  for an hour or so, after the event.

Woodland Park (City Above the Clouds) is located in Colorado, about a 30-minute drive west, into the mountains, from Colorado Springs. It’s a town of about 7600 people and is at an altitude of around 8500 feet.

The Attached Photo is from my bedroom window, taken this past summer / fall.

Just for cultural awareness, I started posting from among the almost 12 thousand photos I have of different places, projects, and times in my life as a link under the “About the author” page.

A link to the photo page, which I will add to from time to time is: HERE

If you’ve had a chance to read “The Boy Who Ran” and want to read more, there are two unpublished chapters available on my web site.  These include:

The Original Prologue As I was writing and revising, I also sought feedback from test readers. Unfortunately I didn’t have younger readers available to me, but then the book was written for 10 and UP.  I liked the original prologue myself, but then I knew where the story was going. Because the book starts out with a measured pace and there are a lot of details about the way The People live and teach before the pace picks up with The Group Hunt, some of my readers suggested that the original prologue was a little slow and the book needed something more visual up front.  I had already visualized what had happened so it was easy to write the alternative prologue (the one in the book).  I replaced the original prologue before I ever got close to the copy editing stage, so it’s not as clean as it would have been, but it reveals a little more about the boy’s personality and the intensity of what he feels about being perfect.

The Past and the Future is another chapter I didn’t publish, mainly because it would have interrupted the faster moving chapters towards the back of the book. This chapter was intended to provide a little insight into Great Storm’s character and to reinforce the value that was placed on Morning Song.  The Chief Elder spent a part of his youth in the north with the people of the great water—the great lakes—as a part of the arrangement for his being allowed to mate with a woman from that village. While there he became a very close friend of the man who would become the chief elder of that village.

In addition to these unpublished chapters, I have a page discussing the authenticity of the details in the book.  Like any fiction that deals with a time before a written history exists, some literary license had to be taken but I tried to be as close to what might have been the situation as possible.  The facts were researched and where I needed to fill in the gaps I researched the traditions of the descendants of The People.

Finally, my second book: The Balance, due out later this year, is in revision, but I’ve posted chapters from it under the page entitled The Balance. There are three chapters posted and I intend to post a new chapter every month or two as I get closer to release later this year. The final version will probably have 50 or so chapters total. The Balance is a much different story, a YA tale set in the future and with a mixture of eras.  While the people have enjoyed advanced comforts in their past,  most technology has been banned by the Council of God, the theocracy that emerged when The Balance between a spiritual society and a technological one—or between The Order and The Council was lost. Thus there is a mixture of the futuristic and the obsolete.  The main character, a product of the Order’s genetic engineering program is among the last vestiges of their organization. She suffers from the effects of her design and its a struggle to get through each day without being discovered—a death sentence. The three chapters posted are: The Prologue, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2. Prologues have a place in my books. They are out of the time of the story, or a way to covey some other important aspect of a character. They provide a glimpse into something  important to the overall story—although how they fit in isn’t always obvious at first.  Think of them as Chapter 0 if it helps.

The giveaway contest ended March 16 with 10 winners selected by the GoodReads team using their algorithm: 7 from the US, 2 from Canada, and one from the UK were selected. The copies were mailed out from Colorado March 17 a little before 12 noon.

I posted a third chapter of THE BALANCE under its page.

I’m working on the Twenty Second revision of that book before I publish it. This one is a significant rewrite since I’m changing the perspective for about half of the chapters and strengthening some of the writing. I rewrote about twenty chapters while I was in Italy, although each of these is rougher than the previous revision, so I’ll be going back through each several times before going to copy edit.

Ben Allen is acting as a sounding board on the plot and helping me with light copy editing on the chapters I post, although it’s possible that these chapters will have some very minor revision in the future too, which is why I call them draft.

A description of THE BALANCE with links to each of the three posted chapters can be found here:

THE BALANCE

The three chapters are: The Prologue (and yes, its a chapter too), Chapter 1, and Chapter 2

I was inspired to tell this story, based on its original theme of seeking perfection. This concept evolved as I wrote the characters and the story unfolded. The boy—he has no other name—feels alone and isolated in the village. No one speaks with him and most people believe that there is something wrong with him.

Up until the late summer when the story happens, he’s found satisfaction in dedicating himself to being the perfect runner, especially in the woods. Perhaps he is following his mother’s last command as she tried to save him from the massacre, but whatever its origin his idea of perfection is to move through the forest as fast as he can, and without a sound. I expanded on this in the original prologue—which I chose to replace, but which I still think provides a good insight into his character. The original prologue and another unpublished chapter are both available on my web site at https://michaelselden.com.

The character Red Sky was another person in the village with the need to work toward perfection in his chosen skill. He was initially inspired by the character of Kyūzō, one of the seven samurai in Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film, although Red Sky’s character was tempered by recent events in his own life.

Ultimately, most good stories are about growth and change, and the initial makeup of people in a story a starting point. I think that the interesting stories in our own lives are those that bring change.

GoodReads will have a contest to give away up to 10 copies of THE BOY WHO RAN, starting March 6 and ending March 16. I’ll mail copies of the book to the winners selected by the GoodReads team.

Click on the entry widget below, if you’re interested.

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Boy Who Ran

by Michael Selden

Giveaway ends March 16, 2014.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Heading home to Colorado Monday.

Its been about 10 weeks, I’ve rewritten around 20 chapters for THE BALANCE in the past several weeks, but there’s a lot of work yet to get it out this year.

I collected data on Rome for the two periods of the city that I will include in the book—the mid 16th century and the period from 1880 to 1920.

There are a myriad of other things to do. I scheduled a book signing in Colorado Springs in March and there is an author’s showcase for local writers in Woodland Park in April.

The rewrite of THE BALANCE goes on. I’ll probably post a third chapter some time in March, or at latest April. It’s also time to dust off the chapters I started on I AM and to prep for that book’s completion the next year. If things go well, then I’ll probably go to Provence in May-June instead of late this year. This is another research trip for DISOBEDIENCE.

It’s always good yo be heading home, even if its from nice places like Italy.

The re-write of THE BALANCE is going along. Since I’m making significant changes, its more rough again, but I’m getting help from an editor as I go for some chapters and as a reader. Hopefully that will reduce the number of rev’s necessary for it to reach what I consider to be a decent copy. Ben Allen is helping and did a brief copy edit pass on the posted chapters this week—which I updated.

Ben was the proof editor (after copy editing and book design at Belle Étoile) on THE BOY WHO RAN and is advising me in his own time, since he has a full time job as an editor at the publisher Little, Brown. He helped me to improve some of the wording and, of course, certainly  knows the Chicago style guide by heart.

I’ve asked for his help as a reader, evaluating the updated plot, pace, and story telling. David Yoo read the last version (actually Rev 17 and I am working on Rev 22). I need critical reviews to constantly get better. There is but one way to become a better writer and that’s to write, but it’s important to get honest feedback and then to write some more. I’m gradually building up a network of talented professionals with whom to work in much the same way I did as a physicist / Principle Investigator—a fancy word meaning chief scientist) / program manager when researching and developing Electro-Optic systems.

It’s about 1:30am here near Camerino Italy (in Marche), usually I work till 3 or so, but since I just finished a rewrite draft of Chapter 16, I think I’ll stop for the night / morning. Drove up from Rome today to spend a few days in the province of Macherata.

Ive posted two chapters from my second book, the Young Adult novel THE BALANCE on my web site (https://michaelselden.com). Here is a link to a brief description of THE BALANCE and here are links to the two chapters: Both chapters should be considered as rough drafts and have not yet been edited, so parts may change, but the story of THE BALANCE was completed already, but it’s going through a revision. I expect to publish it in the fall of 2014. The version before re-write had approximately 50 chapters, I may combine or separate them differently before the book is published.

Prologue

Chapter 1: Is This Real

All work is copy write protected by Michael Selden

To be published by Woodland Park Press LLC.

I’m in Rome to research the aspects of life and how the city looked and how its changed since the period of 1860 to 1920 and now. This research is for certain chapters of the supernatural thriller DISOBEDIENCE, which I plan to publish some time in 2016.

I’ve been to Rome, perhaps, fifty times, but in the past I wasn’t looking at the city as a writer might see it. From 1994 until 2000, I was both managing and acting as physicist & principle investigator (which is a formal name for the lead scientist) for a project for the Italian Space Agency, called The Matera Laser Ranging Observatory.

The company I worked for at the time (AlliedSignal) had a contract to develop an astronomical observatory that was equipped with an advanced (best in the world at the time) laser measurement system, used for tectonic plate motion measurements, precise orbit determination for satellites, and could also support measurements of targets left on the moon during the Apollo program to support lunar science and experiments for relativity’s principle of equivalence. IN the year 200, I spent around 9 months in Italy since we were integrating the system with the facility and performing acceptance testing. The system had been developed in the US.

I’ve visited Italy almost every year since 1994, and sometime for extended periods, as in 2000, but now I no longer work as a physicist. I’m a full time writer and I’m looking at Rome with different eyes.

DISOBEDIENCE takes place mostly in modern Baltimore, but there are elements to the book that happen in Rome during two different periods and in area of Provence France, which I plan to visit later this year or next year.

The book takes its title from the opening verses of John Milton’s Paradise Lost.

I posted it out of sequence, but here is the fourth day of the author’s showcase virtual tour. The question asked was how would I use THE BOY WHO RAN as a teaching tool?

Actually Theresa Picket covered this in her review as well, but this was my stab at it:

http://www.karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/2014/01/14/using-the-boy-who-ran-as-a-teaching-tool/

Day 3 of the “The National Writing for Children Center” author’s showcase virtual tour for THE BOY WHO RAN and its author Michael Selden

The topic of the day was writing tips and I rushed through the text of the quasi interview, so it was rough and reads as such.

http://mayrassecretbookcase.blogspot.com/2014/01/writing-tips-from-childrens-author_23.html

Day 2 of the “The National Writing for Children Center” author’s showcase virtual tour for THE BOY WHO RAN and its author Michael Selden

Day 2 is hosted by Terri Forehand, a freelance writer, critical care nurse, and the author of The Cancer Prayer Book.

The questions asked for this were as follows:

What is a typical writing day like for you? Where do you write? How long do you write each day, week, or month, etc.? Do you prefer to write on paper or on a computer?

http://terri-forehand.blogspot.it/2014/01/welcome-to-day-2.html

Content:

Welcome to Day 2 of the blog tour for author Michael Selden. His post gives you insight into his writing life.

 

As I write this, I am in a hotel room in Matera, Italy. It’s about 9pm and I am thinking about going out after a meal since some restaurants just opened.

For me, writing is not always structured the same way. I have times of intense focus when I write (or read) to the exclusion of almost everything else, and then I have times when I don’t write. Generally, I’d say I read or write three to six hours per day—that’s an average. But, I can go months without actually writing at all, especially when I am working on something else—like moving my home, for example. I also write anywhere I can, even in restaurants sometimes when I travel, although I prefer writing at my desk with a larger monitor. I use an Apple Air laptop and purchased the commercial version of Office for my work.

I don’t have a specific time I write, I write as I find time when I want to do so. During the writing of THE BALANCE and THE BOY WHO RAN (I wrote the first drafts sequentially and revised them in parallel), I followed the three to six hour guideline, but I spent twenty hours writing one day when the momentum for THE BALANCE was high. The first draft of THE BALANCE was about 85K words and it grew to about 140K words before I started cutting. The first draft took me six weeks to write. THE BOY WHO RAN required an initial week of research on the period and its first draft of about 31K words took me three weeks to scribble out. But, first drafts are only 10% of the creative work.

I write exclusively on a computer now. I used to write in longhand (when I was in my teens) and then struggle typing on an old manual typewriter, but the word processor has been a blessing. I’m sure I went through THE BOY at least 200 times; imagine that with a pencil—I guess writers of old were better at their first drafts than me. But I write anywhere, even in restaurants if I’m eating alone and traveling.

The Boy Who Ran received a new positive review from Motherhood Moment. Link is provided below:

http://motherhood-moment.blogspot.com/2014/01/consumer-critique-boy-who-ran.html

The Boy Who Ran received a positive review from Theresa Picket (of TheresaReviews.com).  A link is provided below

http://voices.yahoo.com/the-boy-ran-book-review-12462820.html?cat=4

Theresa’s Reviews can be found at:

Home

The Boy Who Ran is a narrative tale and a parable. Besides its main goal of telling a story in an interesting way—or so I hope—I also wanted it to inspire young readers with the principle of dedication and focus, but also to show how any virtue, when taken too far, can lead to a kind of inflexibility, even destructive behavior.

The original inspiration for The Boy Who Ran came from of a theme I remembered rather than a complete story.  For some reason, I was thinking back to a book I’d read in 1976 called “Jonathan Livingston Seagull” and its theme, a kind of seeking perfection trait. I recalled the single-minded determination of Jonathan, a rather unusual seagull, to fly ever faster.  Seagulls are not especially constructed for fast flight, but Jonathan was an exception. While it was not exactly realistic, the story demonstrated this theme of a singular determination to be perfect at something.  I wanted to imbue some of this characteristic into the boy, although I also wanted his needs and desires to be more complex than this.

The boy’s character was founded in the event that changed his life and the near unbreakable spell (of sorts) that his mother cast on him at the time. She hoped this would make him safe.  The tragic event, and what followed over the next few days, forged a purpose in him in a way that is hard to duplicate artificially, but it also wounded him, much as his alter ego in the story (White Flank) had been wounded at some time in the past.

There was another character with a similar tone of dedication to perfection. Red Sky was initially inspired by Kyūzō, one of the seven samurai in Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 film. This samurai had dedicated himself to swordsmanship, almost to the exclusion of all else, although it made him somewhat inflexible too. But The Boy Who Ran is as much about change as it is about anything else, not about inflexibility. Red Sky had already begun to change when we meet him at the beginning of the story and the softening of his attitude was intended as a harbinger of the changes to come for the boy, I hope in a subtle way.

Some of the other characters had initial inspirations as well, but these inspirations only serve as a starting point for me. The characters immediately evolve into his, or her, own unique selves rather quickly. The inspirations are a starting nap shot and no more.

There are other less-obvious themes in the book, although I hoped to show a constructive use of his determination to overcome adversity. He focuses on things he wants to happen, tirelessly, and with a dedication not found in many.  In my experience as a physicist, principle investigator, and program manager, this focus is vital if you are to accomplish anything difficult.  I’ve told this to young engineers and leaders before. Complex problems don’t solve themselves and the barriers to success are countless. There is always a reason, some excuse, for why we can’t get something done. There is only one reason things actually do get done. The happen when you, and everyone working with you, are determined that they will be done and you find a way to make things happen, even if it looks impossible.

THE BALANCE—a #YA (Young Adult) novel, set in the distant future was written in parallel with the #MG Middle Grade novel THE BOY WHO RAN.  Each revision of the work was allowed time to ferment and mature as I worked revisions of the other.  THE BOY WHO RAN is told in a parable-like narrative and takes place six thousand years ago and THE BALANCE is revealed as a novel in the usual sense, although it too contains elements of a history at times.

THE BALANCE is a part of an epic tale, futuristic in some respects, but founded in the strong feel of a young adult story.  The main character through most of the book is a seventeen year old named Phoebe.  This is her story, although it is a part of a continuum of a larger story that takes place almost two hundred years after an apocalyptic global nuclear war and revolves around a power struggle between two major organizations: The Order and The Council of God. One side seeks domination and the other seeks The Balance.

I posted the draft prologue for THE BALANCE—a scene taken out of time from the main story, but a part of the continuum of the long tale. It’s available on my web site by clicking on the link below.

The Prologue for THE BALANCE