Sat, 18 May 2013 10:09:11 -0800WeeblySun, 10 Mar 2013 19:45:20 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2013/03/zombies-evolved-now-available-on-smashwords.htmlWell, after quite a long time of leaving the book up free here on ZombiesEvolved.com, I've decided to publish the book through Smashwords and Kindle Direct Publishing to increase the number of readers it finds.

The Smashwords publishing process was really easy to do, and resulted in the file being made available in several formats. I wish I had published through Smashwords earlier.

The Kindle publishing mechanism is also straight-forward - however it can result in errors without any indication of that the problem is. After trying several things, I believe I've figured it out.

One big downside of Kindle publishing? You can't set a price of free, like you can through Smashwords. This means people who download the book on the Kindle will be asked to pay 99 cents (their minimum charge for an eBook). Smart Kindle users will grab the .mobi file from Smashwords and email to their Kindle account.

The Smashwords release is now online. The Kindle release is awaiting review and should be online soon.

After one day of Smashwords availability, the book has already been downloaded 70 times. Nice!]]>Fri, 30 Sep 2011 11:42:34 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/narratives-and-tense.htmlAs my first fictional book, I'm wrestling with issues around narrative and tense. Specifically, who narrates the book and what tense should it be narrated in.

Here's what I've decided to do. After reading some articles online about these topics, I'm not sure if it is ideal, although it doesn't seem incorrect.

I have two narrators in the book. I've decided to use a slightly different approach for each.

The primary narrator is Detective Rob Stack. I'm using First-person present tense for Rob.

The secondary narrator is the omniscient viewer. She narrates all of the scenes that Rob is not around to see. I've decided that the omniscient viewer should narrate in the Third-person, past tense.

This way, it will be easy for the reader to tell who is narrating a scene - Rob, or not-Rob.

I've thought about changing the book so that Rob can be in all of the scenes - but this is far too limiting for the plot's development. I've thought about just using the omniscient narrator - but that has character development limitations I don't like as well.

Anyway, I just spent the last few hours going through the entire book to be sure that the tense is correct for each scene, using my strategy above.

(When I'm writing, I'm not very good at sticking to the correct tense. I'm sure I still have tense issues that will need to be caught in edit.)

Anyway, if you'd like to download the version with tense corrected - it is online now! ]]>Thu, 29 Sep 2011 21:35:15 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/23-days-later-zombies-evolved-is-drafted.htmlWow. I can't believe it's only been 23 days since I started writing this book, and now the first draft is complete!

The book comes in at just over 51,000 words. Not a very long book I recognize, but just the right size to make a movie. ;-)

There are some improvements I may make to the book in the near future - adding sub-plots, getting a proper edit pass done, that kind of thing. But for now - it is time to celebrate!

If you haven't had an opportunity to read the book yet, this is the version you want to read. I've been hearing good things - I do hope you enjoy the story. Let me know what you think. ]]>Thu, 29 Sep 2011 01:00:41 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/chapter-12-salvation.htmlEverything finally comes together with this chapter folks. This chapter was the most fun to write.

Just one more chapter to go, and then I'm done with the first draft!

Enjoy.
]]>Wed, 28 Sep 2011 04:14:56 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/chapter-11-extinction.htmlWow - I'm a writing machine! This is the second chapter in two days - and I only have two more chapters to go!

Thank goodness, as I'm in my last week of my sabbatical.

Phew!

As always, if you are reading - I would greatly appreciate if you could drop me a line, or fill out the poll with your thoughts.

Thanks, and enjoy! ]]>Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:58:09 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/chapter-10-regret.htmlAnother exciting chapter. The end is near - only three chapters left to write!

I'm excited to be almost finished (my draft release anyway - which I will call the 'Alpha Release').

At the same time, I'm also finding it difficult to write. I know how I want most things to go - can't this book finish itself?  :-)

Don't worry - i'm pretty sure I'll get it done this week.

Hit the Poll - let me know what you think of the book so far! ]]>Sun, 25 Sep 2011 06:46:29 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/chapter-9-trust.htmlShould Dana trust Rob with her secret?

Should Rob trust Dana with his?

We will know soon...

The book has been updated to include Chapter 9. Enjoy! ]]>Sat, 24 Sep 2011 10:19:56 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/chapter-8-the-plot-gets-all-twisty-like-a-pretzel.htmlWhy are the bad guys creating zombies? What was Dana's picture doing up in Kelowna?

These questions are answered in Chapter 8 - and more!

I took a couple of days off from writing to enjoy Maui.  It was quite nice! But now I'm back at it.

I have been keeping a long list of things to improve in the book. I've been trying to to revist old chapters much - have to keep moving forward, or I'll never finish!

But for those of you that have been giving me suggestions, ideas, and even edits - let it be known that I will eventually be going back to past chapters to clean them up.

Thanks!

Derick ]]>Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:14:27 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/chapter-7-is-complete.htmlLearn more about zombies from Doctor Zachman, and the story behind Steve's death.

Dana gets to kick a little zombie a**, and we learn more about who might be behind it all... ]]>Mon, 19 Sep 2011 22:55:20 GMThttp://www.zombiesevolved.com/1/post/2011/09/im-a-writing-machine-chapter-6-is-now-published.htmlThe plot is starting to come together... connections are being made.

And we get to see more of Jake in action!

What will Rob and Dana do with their new information?
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