Where's the time?

Eons ago, you could write a book, print it out, send it off in a book box and get a rejection or, if it appealed to someone, find an agent or editor. 

No longer so!

Now, you need an "Author Platform;" A presence on the web, really on the world, that says you are somehow connected, not just five ways to Kevin Bacon, but to half a million people you have never met in person. These are people who like to read your written word.

I do understand. It's a built in audience for your book. What I do not understand is how you have the trim to write a book, when you need to build a website, blog, tweet, LinkedIn, and be entertaining on Facebook, which I find to be quite a depressing site whose main function is to point out to me, "Am I REALLY related to these people?" I am already convinced that I did not go to school with half the people who say they were in my class. My memory cannot be that bad.

So, my apologies for being missing from my site for so long. I have been running another edit to cut wordcount. It has either tightened my work up or killed it dead. I have long ago decided I am not the person to judge my own work, so, in the near future I am thinking about putting up two clips. 1. from when I started the book, and 2. after twenty-five edits. We shall see, because right now I am focusing on my Author Platform.

I found a nice article on The Creative Penn. There is a ton of information on building your platform and what it is and isn't. One is A Definition of Author Platform by Jane Friedman.

Now, I know that I need "visibility, Authority, and reach." I think I also need about twelve more hours in a day. Guess I shall give up my afternoon nap. I cannot give up housecleaning as I gave that up long ago.

The magical Moon Tree world from "MOON TREE MAGIC"

This is a map of the fictional Moon Trees that reside in Yellowwood Forest.

There is a real Yellowwood Forest in Indiana and several spots have been the inspiration for scenes in Moon Tree Magic. You should be able to find web pages for at least two of these areas: Stepp Cemetary and Gobbler's Rocks.  There are several web sites that mention Stepp Cemetary. One is: Ghosts in Stepp Cemetary

Stepp Cemetary is off the map to the north/west. However, there is a real Stepp Cemetary in the 'real' Yellowwood forest area and it is said to be haunted. 

Gobbler's Rock is in the trees, to the north. It is featured in one scene in book one, but will feature prominently in book two. It is also based on a real phenomena of huge boulders that have somehow gotten placed in the tops of trees. While, one of the Gobbler's Rock Trees toppled over a few years ago, there are purported to be two others in the area. You can read more about these huge rocks in the tops of trees by googling: Gobbler's Rock Trees, or visit: Gobbler's Rocks

Another spot shown on the map is the Moon Trees campfire. Once a month, the children celebrate holidays, lunar eclipses, meteorite showers, and life in general by having a dinner of foods they enjoyed in their previous lives. Since their world's technology is basically that of the pre-1800s, and the fairies who cook their food are very concerned with the ecology of the earthy, they eat many foods that are plant based on a day by day basis.

The eagle's tree, the bottom item on the left, is the tree where our protagonist, Austin must collect an aetite.  On his second attempt, he retrieves the stone within a stone, but falls and dislocates his hip. Now, he must find out what it is for.

The Moon Trees were an idea that sprung up partly from reading about Astronaut Stuart Roosa, who took tree seeds on his orbits around the moon. As with most of my writing, it starts with a "What if?" Read the full story by googling Astronaut Roosa and the Moon Tree Seeds.  One, of many, interesting sites regarding this is: The Moon Tree seeds

The actual seeds grew perfectly normal, even though some containers burst during decontamination, but what if they had gained magical powers from their orbits in space? Read Book one, Moon Tree Magic, and find out what could happen. 

It can get mighty crowded in that tree

Characters in Moon Tree Brothers

There are currently fourteen teachers. One is a rare Izzet, others are a Bengali Fairy, a Dwarf, an Apache Mountain Spirit, a water Spirit, a Sylph, a Wood Elf, and several mixes of Pixie, Fairies and Elves.

The Counselor is a Black Dragon man, with scales, wings, smoking nostrils and glowing eyes. The Forest Survival teacher has a secret which will play a part in book one.

It can get mighty crowded in that tree.

Twenty-four students, out of more than two hundred and forty students total, have a part in the first book in the series. Their heritage is as diverse as our country is: European, Ugandan, Japanese, Native American, and arabic, to name a few. But, the heroes of our story are three brothers.

 Twelve-year-old Austin is the youngest brother. He has a house fairy on his shoulder, but she has been dropped from book one and, I'm sure, appearing somewhere else.


Cody is the middle brother. At fourteen, he finds his powers difficult to control and immediately begins growing wing buds, but just cannot become an animal with wings. His first shift is to a worm; with wings.

Jesse is the eldest, at sixteen, and he is the scholar of the bunch. His favorite books is The Art of War and he is beginning training to be a General.

Austin, Cody and Jesse Vilness have accepted the invitation of Hino, Thunderer of the Iroquoise Nation, to live in the Realm of Yellowwood. They will receive an education and be schooled in battle tactics.

What they do not know, is that Hino suspects they are the "Saddest Brothers" fortold by the Katchina - a fire elemental named, Masaw, who will help to save their world.

There are currently fourteen teachers. One is a rare Izzet, others are a Bengali Fairy, a Dwarf, an Apache Mountain Spirit, a water Spirit, a Sylph, a Wood Elf, and several mixes of Pixie, Fairies and Elves.

The Counselor is a Black Dragon man, with scales, wings, smoking nostrils and glowing eyes. The Forest Survival teacher has a secret which will play a part in book one. 

My Writing Process

My writing methods are not complicated. It is not in my makeup to do extensive outlines and have it all plotted out ahead of time. Sometimes, I wish I could work that way, but I simply sit down and write the story in my head. I start at the beginning and end at the end.

Then, I go back and fix it. While I am fixing it, I fuss and grumble and tell myself I am going to buckle down and learn to plot things out ahead of time. Then, I wake up in the middle of the night and the beginning of the next story is rumbling around in my brain and I am off again on the next adventure.

I do massive editing. For the first four or five chapters, I will start each morning at the beginning and, edit as I read. Then, I will continue my story. When that begins to take too long, I start at the last chapter or two I have written. This gets me in the book's world and reminds me of what I need to do next. By the time I am at the end of the book, I would imagine the first chapter has been edited a hundred times. I work seven days a week, unless life intrudes. Sometimes for ten hours, sometimes for two.

I do eventually get around to organizing my plot. I found some great plotting help online at http://ticket2write.tripod.com/mysplot.html.

I found this when I was writing a Mystery and having a problem with plotting, but I find it works well for this Middle Grade Story also.  The Link is The Classic 12-Chapter Mystery Formula I am currently working on the plot for book two, as I am also writing it, from the start of my story.

More than anything, I love the adventure of writing. I love waking up in the middle of the night, with a great idea, and I love waking up in the morning, not knowing where the next adventure is heading. I love doing research and finding a new character, object or landmark, I just have to add to the book. I even loved the day I realized a character, that I was very fond of, would have to die and I sat there writing his life, with tears in my eyes.

Keep the questions in your head.

What if you were offered a chance to live with a group of mythical people who are in the beginning phase of war? Would you join them if it meant trading technology for magic?

What if you were being abused and it meant leaving some of your siblings behind, would you have the strength and determination to help fight their battle to save your siblings?

These are the questions twelve-year-old, Austin Vilness, and his two brothers must ask themselves in Moon Tree Magic.

Moon Tree Magic a/k/a Moon Tree Brothers is a stand-alone book that will appeal to youths living in a multi-cultured society as they question the size of man's footprint on earth and the consequences of that print.

This is not from my query but is definitely questions I asked myself as I wrote Moon Tree Brothers: Magic.

Moon Tree Brothers Book Trailer

This is my Moon Tree Brothers book trailer. I would love to hear comments from my loyal, yet incredibly silent, following.

My nifty new award, my book tailer and REMEMBER to read your manuscript aloud

Wow! Now that I have this nifty writers blog award, and from a site that is right up my fantasy alley, I better get blogging.

I have been doing a little of it on my personal blog, but as far as writing, I have just successfully edited out about 6,000 words in my Middle Grade book. It is with an editor, who is focusing on grammar and mostly punctuation, but I am still amazed to see the stupid mistakes she is catching in it: Redundancies (ie saying the same thing twice in a sentence),  other odd things such as that.

I was so excited when she offered her services that I did not do the final 'out loud' read through on the revised manuscript. Always a mistake.  You have to read it out loud to really hear it.

My book trailer is up on YouTube. I created it by creating several drawings and then using words in between. The thing that really sets it off though, is the music. I have a credit for the composer at the end. The piece I found just fits so perfectly. It has a low native sounding drum building up, for this book that has a lot of elements of the First People in it.  You can find it at by searching YouTube for Moon Tree Brothers. My videos are at http://www.youtube.com/user/SAVanVleck  and include my grandson's Country music, as well as odds and ends.

In amongst this, I seem to have a heart attack epidemic in my family. Mom ended up in the ER with a heart attack and has taken days to recover. Hospice is now coming out to her apartment and that is a comfort. The other family member is mom's little Chihuahua. I have to make sure she eats before she gets her heart medicine and some days she just does not want to eat. The vet doesn't have a lot of hope for length of her life. 

So, your blog award was a bright spot in my day. Thanks, so much Storybook World. Click on my award for a link to their site. http://astorybookworld.blogspot.com