Get ready for Summer Reading!

Have you picked out a book, or even a couple, for your summer reading?

This is one thing I always like every year. Even though I never stop reading, there are always a great bunch of new books that come out at this time of year for everyone's summer reading. I like this because the pool of books gets bigger and my choices are greater.

What are your habits? Do you read constantly or do you anticipate that summer break or vacation where you can just sit back and read without being disturbed? Or do you fall somewhere in the middle?

Wherever you fit, I hope you have a great summer and find that great book that you will remember always and will want to tell all of your friends about.

10 Thing Brandon Sanderson Wishes He’d Known Sooner

A year or so ago, my daughter signed up to attend a “Teen Writer’s Boot Camp” at a local university. And then a pandemic happened. So, when the scheduled time came for the boot camp, it was moved to Zoom. As a result, I happened to be walking by my daughter at the dining room table as Brandon Sanderson was delivering his keynote address, so I stopped to listen.

Am I glad I did. First of all, Brandon Sanderson is a phenomenal writer, the kind I aspire to be, when and if I grow up. In addition, he is a very engaging speaker, and his advice, especially on advice, is well worth noting.

So let me share with you ten things Brandon Sanderson wishes he’d known earlier in his life, so long as it involved no time travel where he could go back and give himself advice, because he assured the audience that time travel never ends well.

[Note: I settled on calling the famed author “Brandon” below, but this should in no way be construed to mean the two of us are on a first name basis (I wish…). I was going to refer to him as “Mr. Sanderson,” but that sounded a bit too unctuous to me. For the sake of brevity, I considered using his initials, “B. S.”, but that seemed both too familiar and also prejudicial to the content of the article. So, “Brandon” it shall be.]

1) Advice can be good for some people but bad for others.

“There are as many right ways to write stories as there are writers to write them.” -Brandon Sanderson.

Brandon told a story of when he was first starting out as a writer, looking for all the advice he could lay hands on to help him figure out what to do. He said he came across some advice from Orson Scott Card, which was to plan out everything before you start writing. That way, you know the ending and all the steps along the way, which will keep the story on track and avoid meandering.

Years later, he read some advice from Stephen King, which was to plan nothing. King reasoned that if you planned out every last detail it sucked all the life out of it, because you would be so sick of the story before you started writing. [Ironic, isn’t it, that Stephen King would try to avoid an undead story?]

Which left Brandon with the conundrum of which of them was right. The answer turned out to be that both were, and neither were. Both were accurately describing the process that worked for them, but neither could express what would work for Brandon.

So, look on advice less as a secret to success that must be followed exactly, and more as an approach to try that may or may not work for you.

2) You don’t have to become a professional writer…

"I write for no other purpose than to add to the beauty that now belongs to me. I write a book for no other reason than to add three or four hundred acres to my magnificent estate." -Jack London

If you meet someone for the first time, and introduce yourself as a writer, the usual response is, “What’s your book called and when will it be published?” There is an underlying assumption that anyone who calls themselves a writer must be a professional, that is, trading words on a page for a paycheck.

What if we made that assumption about everything? Brandon asked one of the crew off screen what he liked to do, and the response came back that he was fond of golf. “So, how many majors have you won? What’s the next stop on your tour?”

Clearly, not everyone who golfs does it for a living. They simply enjoy playing golf. The same can be said for writing. There is no reason not to write for enjoyment alone, without a goal of earning a living at it.

3) …but it is a viable job choice.

"A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom." -Roald Dahl

On the other side of the issue, it is also a common assumption that only one in a million writers actually make a living at it. This has not been Brandon’s experience. He said that of the 25 people in his writing class in college, he knew that four or five had become successful. That’s way better odds than one in a million.

Also, be aware that there are many writing jobs other than “novelist” that can provide a satisfying career.

4) Nobody will make you become a writer.

"I write for the same reason I breathe; because if I didn't, I would die." -Isaac Asimov

Another way of saying this is that any motivation to write has to come from within yourself. While Brandon was explaining what he meant by this advice, I was thinking of the education principle of “Inspire, not Require.” While you may be required to write an essay in school, no one is going to force you to choose writing as a career or hobby. If you want to be a writer, it’s because something has inspired you to seek that goal.

Maybe you enjoy the creative outlet. Maybe you recognize talent in yourself that you want to nurture. Writing takes effort. It is work. Whatever the reason you want to write, you have to stoke your own fire, or you will run out of steam before you get there.

5) You may not end up writing what you think you will.

"Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day. The good writers are the ones who see five or six of them." -Orson Scott Card

Brandon told the story of a friend of his who set out to write epic fantasy novels. He wrote quite a bit in that genre, but found that he had a hard time being satisfied with the results. One day he found himself having an animated discussion on a different topic, and he realized that he had a passion for an unrelated genre, and has become quite successful there.

Don’t be afraid to explore other areas. Write what you are excited about. If the genre doesn’t already exist, go make it.

6) Tastes vary; and that’s okay.

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it.” -Moses Hadas

Writing requires skill, and skill requires practice to acquire. Hence, writing requires effort. Do not take this to mean, however, that once you have acquired enough skill to be good at writing that everyone will like what you write. Brandon still gets bad reviews, and when he does, he often looks up reviews of some of his favorite authors, like Terry Pratchett. Sir Pratchett [no chance of being too obsequious; the man has a knighthood] is an excellent writer, but not everyone likes his stories.

Don’t expect that everyone will love your stories, and don’t accept all feedback as an indication that you need to change your writing. Instead, analyze the critiques to determine if it applies to your writing skill, or is simply a difference in taste. Accept the former and work on improving, but ignore the latter.

7) That said, successful writing is usually created using techniques you should learn.

“I always think it's pathetic when writers resort to phrases like ‘Words cannot describe...’ It's the writer's job, after all, to find words that do describe.” -James P. Hogan

Writing requires skill, and skill requires practice to acquire. Hence, writing requires effort. You may have heard that before somewhere, but it bears repeating. A natural talent of expression can get you a long way, but not as far as you might think.

The work needed to become a good writer is one of the reasons you need to be inspired to write. Without that inner drive, you won’t ever get around to putting in the work.

8) Revision is a different skill from writing, but it is important.

“A successful writer is one who takes a good story they have written and makes it great.” -Brandon Sanderson.

Brandon doesn’t like revising. Instead of revising, early in his writing career, Brandon would take what he had learned and start a new book. He said that was a major reason that it was his seventh book that eventually got published. He still doesn’t like revising, but he has learned that it is a skill that is necessary to acquire right along with writing.

"Books aren't written -- they're rewritten. Including your own. It is one of the hardest things to accept, especially after the seventh rewrite hasn't quite done it." -Michael Crichton

9) Determination is more important than talent.

"Make black marks on white paper. That little detail of writing is one that is neglected by almost all the aspirants I meet." -Sinclair Lewis

This advice relates to many of the themes already covered. Since it bears repeating, I will remind the reader that writing requires skill, and skill requires practice to acquire. Natural talent may determine your starting point in the level of acquired skill, but the determined writer who continues to gain skill will leave the unmotivated writer in their wake, regardless of their innate talent.

10) It doesn’t have to be fun, but it should be satisfying.

“One day I was speeding along at the typewriter, and my daughter, who was a child at the time, asked me, ‘Daddy, why are you writing so fast?’ And I replied, ‘Because I want to see how the story turns out!’” -Louis L'Amour

Writing is work, and sometimes work is no fun. Just ask Brandon how he feels about revising his stories. Fun isn’t a requirement for writing, though. It’s nice when it works out that way, but don’t quit writing simply because it’s not fun. That feeling of accomplishment you get from sticking it out to the finish line is worth all the trouble.

7 Points To Let your Book Opening Hook Your Reader

 

We’ve all done it. We’ve picked up that book that looked exciting and read the first chapter and put it down, never to finish it. 

Why is that? Why did we put it down? 

As a reader, sometimes we don’t know, or couldn’t say. As a writer, all I can say is what I have heard from many others; first chapters are HARD!!! Personally, I think that is one of the greatest understatements of all time. 

Let’s ask ourselves a couple of questions; what should I put in my first chapter and how do I make it work to hook the reader?

An ideal first chapter should have the following 7 points:

1) Introduce the protagonist.                                                                     

You always want to open your novel with a scene involving the main character. In other media forms, this is not always the case, movies and TV often start with others and move to the MC but they move quickly and the audience can follow the progression.

Usually, we bond closely with the characters we meet first in a book. If characters that we’ve bonded with get killed early in the story, we feel cheated. (Hush now, I never mentioned George R. R. Martin.)

For me, I think one of the most important things to hook the reader here is also the first line of the novel.  It needs to draw the reader in. Preferably a line that tells or infers as much as possible about the protagonist as possible

That first line should try to project the gender and age of the MC. Also if possible the show the social status or position in society, but most of all, that first line needs to project the emotions the character is feeling in the scene. It sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? It is not impossible. Usually most of it will be inferred but it helps set the stage.

 

Here’s how I open Forged By Betrayal:
“I guess now I will finally get to find out why my life has been flipped upside down and I’m headed down to this muddy fringe world instead of starting Marine Leadership Command School.”

I haven’t used any description of the protagonist yet, but we can tell a few things from just this first sentence. The Protagonist is:

·        Coming from another planet.

·        In the Marines.

·        Not happy about the change in her life.

·        Wants answers to why they are here.

We can also identify with the stress of her not knowing why she is on the new planet and feel her frustration. She’s in an unknown situation and we hope to find out her future and see her succeed.

2) Help the readers want to follow your protagonist through their journey. 

This is the important part. The readers have to WANT to see her succeed. What makes the readers care? I don’t think there is any formula that will always work, especially for different genres. You just have to make your MC into someone they care about and create problems they can identify with and tell a good story. Easy, right?

We are always reading and being told that every ‘good’ story needs a “sympathetic” protagonist, but that doesn’t necessarily mean a person you’d like to go to a ballgame with.

Spock is cold to those around him and holds his emotions back from everyone, but he is one of the most influential characters of the last half-century. Dexter Morgan is a sociopathic serial killer. Even Han Solo is a lawless smuggler. It could be argued that some of these were not the protagonists of their stories but they were still characters that drew the audience to follow their story.

Your MC doesn’t have to have such obvious flawed as those characters. But they do need to have weaknesses. My protagonist, Sheli Chowdhury, hates not being in control and finds herself in a completely new environment where she is far outside her comfort zone. This leaves her floundering and sometimes, lost.

There are some readers who prefer aggressive, dominant characters, and others prefer a more laid-back, thoughtful hero. Sometimes it just depends on what genre you are writing in.

What you can’t have is an MC that is pushed by the story instead of being his own hero. He or she needs to make the story happen. The story can’t happen to them. The first chapter needs to show that hero being a hero in some way. It could be a small way this early in the story but they need to start here.

3) Ignite conflict.

I think the next most important thing that we need in the opening chapter is actually one thing that comes in two parts. We need conflict. Without conflict, we have a wonderful ‘day in the life’ memoir, but not an actual story that will pull a reader in. We need conflict not only here in the opening chapter, but we need an overarching tension that will propel your plot throughout the novel.

In our second book Day of Reckoning, the burning question in the opening scene is whether Lieutenant Monica Samuels will survive on having been left on a ship full of mutineers. But the larger conflict is with the orders she was given by Captain Brighton before he was forced off of the ship. Is she just supposed to survive or is she supposed to fight back? When the conflict of the opening scene is resolved, we still keep turning pages because of the underlying tension from a bigger story question—what will she do and how will she survive if she decides to fight back?

Setting conflict does not mean that you have to have an actual battle. It can sometimes just mean a character is having an argument with themselves. The reader just needs to see that the character has a problem that they need to solve and then watch them try to solve it.

The second part of the conflict equation is introducing the antagonist. An antagonist is someone/something that keeps the protagonist from reaching his goal.

I think sometimes the term “antagonist” is hard to understand. I know for me, when I first started, I wanted to use the term ‘antagonist’ and ‘villain’ as meaning the same thing. It is not quite the same. Of course, the villain of your story would be the antagonist but, in some stories, the antagonist can be the whole society, an addiction, a judicial system, or anything that might keep your hero from achieving their goal.

Even if you don’t have a specific villain, you need some kind of antagonist, and you need to introduce them in the first chapter.

4) Tell us about the World.  

This is the first chapter so you don’t have to give a huge amount of description, but there is quite a bit that you can do here. And again, I think there are three pieces to this section. The first is ‘World-building’.

Several years ago, I took a SF novel-writing class and Michael Stackpole was the instructor. He is a great author and I thought he was a greater instructor. One of the first things he had us do was make a list of the six things that the reader needed to know about our world. These things, he said, needed to be in our first chapter. Preferably in our first few paragraphs. Since the novel I was writing for that class was Forged by Betrayal, here is the list that I created for that novel.

·     Limited FTL travel is possible through jump gates and several worlds have been settled outside the Sol system.

·      National and planetary governments have been co-opted by rich Corporate ‘Families’

·      These Families are loosely governed by a Ruling Council formed by representatives from each Family.

·      The Ruling Council controls the Earth Combined Fleet but not each Families’ fleets or militaries.

·      The Fermi Family Governor of the planet Humboldt hasn’t been complying with humanitarian laws.

·      Sheli Chowdhury is a young officer assigned to her first command as a Combined Fleet Marine on Humboldt.

 

Don’t try to show too much in the first chapter. Tell the readers what they need to know and fill in the rest of the details, in pieces, throughout the rest of the novel.

The trick is to tell us enough to give us a picture of the scene that’s taking place, but don’t slow down the movement or action.

The second part of setting up your world is setting the tone of your novel. What do you want the reader to feel?

You don’t want to start out a murder mystery with a light dialogue or open a romance with a serial killer slashing a throat. You want to your reader immersed in the book’s world from your first sentence. You need to use your words to convey that tone because there is no other method available in the novel. Describe the weather, to set the tone. Change the pace of your sentences. Short, quick sentences increase the pace and show danger. Mocking, first-person joking can show a different tone. Or sarcasm can show anger repressed in the MC. Use their voices to set the tone, and do it early.

The last part of building your world is to let the reader know the theme of the story. I have to say, this is not something I do well because I don’t think about it often enough. If you plan to deal with a particular theme in your novel, you don’t have to make a big play in the opening chapter but you can throw out some hints. Foreshadowing is never wasted.

This is the opening paragraph of our book Day of Reckoning:

“Ensign Monica Samuels dispassionately watched Clint Morrison in his engineering enlisted uniform tap the butt of his pistol on the door frame before quickly bringing his prisoner back in its sights. The hatch opened and he eyed the young officer as she passed into her own quarters. The barrier closed again, and the metallic click indicated that it would not open again until someone on the other side came for her.”

You know right away that Ensign Samuels is in trouble, she’s locked up, she’s a prisoner, and she’s alone.

5)  Show the readers the protagonist’s goal: what does he/she want.

The readers need to know what the MC wants immediately, which in the story above, is to get out of her room.

But we also need to know pretty early in the story what your hero really, really needs before the end of the story. Going back to our story Day of Reckoning, her ultimate goal was to take the ship back from the mutineers.

Of course, the MC’s ultimate goal doesn’t need to be outlined in chapter one. But we do need to see something early that will lead the MC to that ultimate goal. Show the readers something in chapter one that will lead them to that goal.

6) The MC needs to have a life-changing event.

Just like closing each chapter with some kind of mini-cliffhanger to pull the reader into the next chapter, you need a big, life-changing event in the MC’s life to kick your story into high gear and pull your readers in. This ‘inciting event’ is what starts your plot moving and it needs to be in the first chapter.

This event is what gets your protagonist off of his couch and moving forward to solve his goals. It should also be what hooks your readers and pulls them into the story and pulls them from chapter one to chapter two.

This event is usually easier to get into the first chapter if you are writing genre stories.  In the new book I’m writing now, it is a murder mystery, I just had to throw a dead body and a serial killer into the first chapter and the story is off and away.  

For other genres it might get tougher but make sure you do it, it will definitely pull the readers along.

7) Let your readers meet the other characters. 

Let’s be careful here. In the first chapter you only want to introduce characters who are going to be major characters in the novel. Don’t confuse the readers with characters who they are never going to see again. You are trying to hook the reader into reading the whole book. Don’t confuse or upset them. They’ll put your book down and find someone else’s.

(One thing I saw in a book I was reading a few years ago was two characters who’s names were very similar. At the beginning of the book, it was hard to tell who was who. Try to avoid doing things that confuse the reader that way.)

These are my opinions on how to hook a reader in your first chapter.

What are your thoughts?

***

Author Interview

Last year at WonderCon, we were approached about doing an interview for a fan's blog, "No Wasted Ink."  I'm posting it here for anyone who's interested.

Please introduce yourself.  Give your name and a brief summary of who you are. This is not about your books, we want to know about you as a person in the opening of the interview.

We are three of seven brothers who grew up on the north Oregon coast.

Jeff-   I am living in Northern Oregon and working in the Computer Manufacturing industry. I have three grown children (one still living at home) and am living with my wife in a small town in the woods. I am brother number 2.

Craig-  Though I'm an Oregon native, I'm currently living in Utah with my wife and children.  I have a day job as an electrical engineer, which is constantly offering me new challenges.  I am brother number 4.

Jared-  I am also an Oregon native, and Oregon has been home for most of my life.  I have had brief stints elsewhere, and have traveled extensively in my twenty plus year technology career.  I have worked as a global technology executive and leader for more than a decade, which has provided some great vignettes for writing.  I am brother number 7.

When and why did you begin writing?

Jeff-  I had to write a short story for a junior English class in high school and the story never gave itself up inside my mind. I kept expanding it into a novel length story in my head, though I never finished writing it. I kept writing other stories and those I did finish. With that first story, I started to see stories everywhere and wanted to write them.

Craig-  My first attempt at writing a novel was in 1992, though it's always been an interest of mine.  I was living in the same city as a different brother (#3), and we had a great idea for a Star Trek story based on Aleksander, Worf's son, when he grew up.  We had quite a bit done, but The Next Generation was still airing episodes, and eventually Aleksander's history changed to the point that our story wouldn't have worked, and we never finished it.

Jared-  I actually began writing in high school, with three different stories that I am still working on.  J  I have always read extensively and have always enjoyed recounting stories.  Writing has been a natural extension of that throughout my life.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Jeff-  It wasn’t until I finished Dead Reckoning, our first book. Up until then, it had just been a hobby that kept me way too busy. When I was able to stick to the end and finished the project and get it all the way to publication, I truly felt like a writer.

Craig-  Writing is still not my principal employment, though I'm trying to move that direction, so I don't think of myself primarily as a writer, even now.  The first time I felt confident in my ability to write was after I entered a writing competition and won the runner-up award.  That was my first positive feedback from someone who was neither family nor friend.

Jared-  In my college studies, I spent an entire year working on a thesis with a very well published thesis advisor.  When I completed it, and he signed off on it as publish worthy work, I began to take confidence in my capability for technical writing as well as storytelling work.

Can you share a little about your current book with us?

Dead Reckoning is the first of four books in the Pathfinder Series. We have just finished the series and really enjoyed the process. Dead Reckoning starts the series as a loyal captain is thrown into the void of space with a few of his loyal crew. They are told they can survive by going to a nearby planet, but the captain is obsessed with regaining his ship and decides that he and his crew have the resources to take their small shuttle back to Earth and return with a crew to take back the ship.

The book tells the story of the captain and his small crew trying to survive, overcome immense obstacles and return home safely.

What inspired you to write this book?

Jeff-  We had wanted to write a book together for some time and we got together and chose a theme that none of us had already written on. It was an adventure trying to figure out how to write a book with three separate authors, but it was great fun. 

Craig-  Honestly, it was a combination of lots of things.  The main impetus was the desire to work together so we could hold each other accountable to finish what we start.  Before this, I had probably started writing a dozen stories, at least.  Then the question arose of what to write, and we decided it wasn't fair to take a story that one of us had started, because that one would feel too possessive of it.  So we decided to create a new story.  Some of the elements of Dead Reckoning are loosely based on the book Men Against the Sea, which is the story of Captain Bligh and his loyal crew sailing a tiny boat 4,000 miles across the Pacific to reach civilization after The Mutiny on the Bounty.

Jared-  Several of us brothers had wanted to write together for a long time before we decided to find a story that we could create together and tell in an interesting way.  The opportunity to work with my brothers on something fun and creative was my motivation.

Do you have a specific writing style?

Jeff-  I like to plan out the basic plot but write each chapter creatively. I usually have a list of things that need to happen in each chapter but not how they will happen.

Craig-  I am mostly a planner, which is really a necessary thing when writing as a group.  There are lots of instances of me sitting down to write according to plan and coming away with something very different, however.

Jared-  In order to work closely with my brothers, it requires us to plan closely together.  My style leans more towards creative flow, and I tend to see and hear the story playing out as I write in order to make sure it flows well.

How did you come up with the title of this book?

Craig-  Dead Reckoning refers to a means of navigating without having any landmarks to work with, where you keep track of your heading and speed to deduce where you are.  It was used frequently in Men Against the Sea, and it seemed to fit our book as well.

Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

Jeff-  There wasn’t one when we started, but we wanted it to be a survival story, so the persistence and overcoming obstacles was a big part of the story.

Craig-  I think the overall message is to keep moving forward.  Bad things happen, but if you persevere, you can still find success.

Jared-  For me, it also resonates that you can’t just allow things to happen to you, no matter the circumstances, you have choices and you have to take whatever opportunities you can.

Are experiences in this book based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

Jeff-  Not any of the stories, but some of the characters have a basis in some of the people that I know. Things that I like and things that I don’t like.

Craig-  Not really, though one of the stories the crew tells to pass the time actually originated in that Aleksander story I wrote years before. (Never throw your writing away!)

Jared-  Nothing specific, although one of the very frustrated engineers experiences a series of events that drive an outburst I have felt brewing in a few engineering situations before.

What authors have most influenced your life?  What about them do you find inspiring?

Jeff-  Robert Heinlein is probably the biggest in my early life. Also, Anne McCaffrey. They turned me into a reader at an early age and turned me into a SciFi/Fantasy reader and into science as a profession.

Craig-  Robert A. Heinlein's juveniles were my favorites as a kid, especially The Moon is a Harsh Mistress and Sixth Column.  The most impactful books I have read are The Count of Monte Cristo by Dumas and Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Pirsig.  The former is not about revenge, as most people think, but about justice.  The latter just has tons of little tidbits of wisdom about how to interact with the world.  Also, Shakespeare's plays are great reference material for studying how and why humans behave the way they do.

Jared-  As a very young reader, J.R.R. Tolkien and some of the classic Sci-Fi authors, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Phillip K. Dick, Anne McCaffrey were what introduced me to untold worlds.  McCaffrey’s Dragons of Pern brought me back around to a thirst for great stories that I found in fantasy fiction, including tragedy and heartbreak, along with the soaring human (and dragon) spirit.  I continued to read Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Historical Fiction, Environmental Fiction, traditional western civ classics, along with a lot of business and engineering books over the years. I will forever be grateful to my college Honors professors for interweaving so many classic stories & novels into my education. I will have a bit of nostalgia for those early influential authors.

If you had to choose, is there a writer would you consider a mentor? Why?

Jeff-  There are a few that I would name. Michael Stackpole has taught a class at ASU for novelists that I have taken and he has been a great help, answering questions and making comments on my work. Robert Vardeman has also been a part of that program as has Joe Nassise. All three have been helpful in mentoring my writing. There have also been numerous critical readers along the way.

Who designed the cover of your book? Why did you select this illustrator?

Craig-  My brother-in-law, Mark McCormick, did a marvelous job on the original Dead Reckoning cover.  When we decided to create a boxed set for the series, I created the covers to match each other.  I think it's a good design, but definitely more sterile than the original.

Do you have any advice for other writers?

Jeff-  Keep writing! Believe in yourself. Study what you are doing and keep working at it. If you don’t have success with your first effort, start again!

Craig-  I've heard lots of good advice over the years, but the best was this:  "Be married to your book while you're writing it, but be divorced from it while editing."  You have to be emotionally invested for your writing to be any good, but when it comes time to trim and fix, if you're too emotionally invested, it can blind you to its flaws and keep you from cutting out what really needs to go.

Jared-  Plan your outline carefully to make sure you have all of the nuances the story will need. Then, as you write, don’t be afraid to change the plan when the story needs to evolve, but don’t lose your direction. Let the story come to life, and let inspiration come when it can, but don’t feel like it has to be there all the time. Keep writing no matter what.

Do you have anything specific that you want to say to your readers?

Jared-  We really appreciate our readers.  I have actually been thrilled to find people we don’t know who have read our work and have great things to say about it.  I actually appreciate those that buy it and have anything to say about it at all, but we like the positive ones better.  J

***

Finally, not as part of the interview, but for the blurb at the bottom that goes with your book's cover art:

Your Author Name: Jeffery L., Craig J. and Jared L Cheney

The city and state in which you live: Outside Portland, Oregon and Ogden, Utah

The Title of your Book: Dead Reckoning

The name of your cover artist and a link to this artist:  Mark McCormick & Craig J. Cheney

Name and link to your publisher, if applicable: 7 Cs Books, LLC; www. 7CsBooks.com

Links to where your book can be purchased: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, etc.:

https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Reckoning/dp/B00AIE5N00/

https://www.amazon.com/Dead-Reckoning/dp/1939223024/

www.7CsBooks.com

Your personal social media links: Facebook Author Page, Google+, Goodreads, Twitter, etc.:

https://www.facebook.com/JefferyLCheney/

https://www.facebook.com/CraigJCheneyAuthor/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/133841723289/

https://twitter.com/jlcheney10

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1680385.Jeffery_L_Cheney

A one or two sentence description of you as a writer.

Three brothers who write military SF adventures, mysteries, and fantasy novels – often at the same time!

--

Wendy Van Camp

No Wasted Ink

http://nowastedink.com

wvancamp@earthlink.net