Why write about WWII? - Part 2

Happy Friday! Well, soon anyway.

You know how, when you're with a really good friend and the conversation comes to a stop for a little while? But it's a comfortable silence, as opposed to the awkward kind? I like to think that my not posting for a few days is like that. It turns out that the silence was comfortable for me, and I felt no need to fill it (you know the type, right? can't stand two seconds of quiet?). No offense intended if you're that type . . .

The first World War II book I ever read was Up Periscope by Robb White. It was first published in 1956 and was later made into a movie starring James Garner. Raise your hand if you know who Garner is. :)  It was a Scholastic Reader book I bought with my allowance in the fifth grade (about 1962). No snickering, please. A couple of years ago, I was able to find a copy on Amazon and I reread it. It was quite fun. 

A couple of months before my first short story sale I knew, instinctively, that I would write about WWII. This was in the fall of 2003. I'd been mulling over ideas and settled on a character who would be in the army. My original plan was to then follow his life throughout the war, then on to the postwar years. Now, ten years and two books later (why it took so long is for another time) I'm sticking to that basic idea. The question arose as to who this guy would be, and I chose to make him a sergeant and a member of the new U.S. Army Rangers. 

Once I had that information, the rest came down to building his background, and then creating the story line, also known as the plot. When I'm working on a book, I use Excel to build the plot as opposed to a narrative outline. This works for me. 

Some writers swear they don't plot, and I'll take them at their word, but for me, I have to know where the book is going. This doesn't mean I don't change the plot because I always do; that's the creative part of writing, but without the plot in Excel, I can't keep track of who's where and when, etc.

Advice to writers:

Plot may be a four letter word, but it's acceptable in the writing world.

Journey to publishing successful! Links to Kindle and the paperback on Amazon. Why write about WWII? Part 1

A happy day for me! The new Sgt. Dunn novel Behind German Lines is now available on Amazon:

Kindle

Paperback

My hat's off to Amazon: the Kindle version was available within 5 hours of my clicking the publish button and the paperback was ready long before the expected 5 to 7 days.

Now that the book is published, I will be working on the third Sgt. Dunn novel, unnamed yet, but my posts will be more along the lines of what's below. I also plan to provide "advice" for writers based on my work habits and what works for me, as well as tips about self-publishing and any other things might be interesting.

If you have specific questions about anything, from my books to World War II to writing, please leave me a comment. I promise to reply as soon as possible. 

Why write about WWII? Part 1

I grew up in the 50s and 60s, a child of postwar United States. At a young age, I was enthralled by the many WWII movies that seemed to run on TV every weekend (although they really must not have - there were only 4 stations in Kansas City, and one was PBS). When I got into the 8th grade, I'd started reading first-hand accounts by fighter pilots. I even gave a book report on a book about several pilots and their amazing performances. I was the only one to do a report on non-fiction. Not a lot of applause there. :)

I built many model planes including the Avenger torpedo bomber, the Hellcat, the P-38 Lightning, and my favorite, and still my favorite, the P-51 Mustang. It's no coincidence that one of the central characters in both books is a P-51 Mustang pilot, an Ace (5 kills), of course (Captain Norman Miller).

In Kansas City, there is a World War I (not WWII) memorial across the way from the Union Station, Liberty Memorial. I visited it several times as a youth and was fascinated by the items there, the torpedo, the rifles, all of the accouterments of war, as were my friends.

In high school, I joined Army ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) and the organization and structure of the army suited me at that time. This was during the Vietnam War, however, and sometimes when we were outside performing close order drill (marching) with firing pin-less Garand M1s, we would be called baby-killers by groups of people driving by. We weren't too naive to understand the implications. 

Fast forward to 2001 and the Band of Brothers. Here was a thoughtful, and pretty accurate depiction of what happened in Europe during WWII. I watched every episode, then bought the dvd box set. I watch it annually. 

In 2000, the year before, I had started writing with a new intensity and with a goal, shorts stories, though, a novel wasn't even on my mind. I gave myself five years to get published. If I didn't, then I would consider giving it up. Thankfully, I didn't have to face that fork in the road, for in November 2003, I sold "He Wasn't Always Old" to GRIT magazine, which had a circulation of 100,000. When I got the acceptance letter and check, I felt validated and was overcome with emotions. Someone thought my work was "good enough!"

Thanks for sharing your time with me.

See you next time. I may not post on Sunday, the 27th. I "plan" to take a day off. Well, we'll see if that really happens. Why? Because I just love writing. It's that simple.

Upcoming post idea: how do I actually plot my books?

And why?

Journey to publishing update #15 - The new Sgt. Dunn novel, Behind German Lines, was just published!

Hello everyone!

I clicked the publish button on Kindle and for the paperback!

The second Sgt. Dunn novel, Behind German Lines, Kindle version should be available within 12 hours from 8:30 pm CDT, so I hope to see it on Amazon Saturday morning. Amazon sites outside the U.S. could take 48 to 72 hours.

The paperback will be available in 5-7 calendar days.

While I don’t have the link to the new book yet, you can search for “Ronn Munsterman” and find it. Once I get the link (tomorrow) I'll post it here.

Thanks for following me the past few weeks.

Future posts will focus on World War II, writing, and other odds and ends. If you have any questions, please leave a comment.

See you tomorrow!

Journey to publishing update #14

Clicking the publish button tomorrow night! I'll post here right after that.

The Kindle version should be available sometime Saturday the 26th (usually between 12 and 24 hours after publishing). I'll have the link to the new book after it shows up on Amazon.

Sunday, the 27th, will be my first day "off" from writing since the All-Star game last July. Really. And what fun I've had.

In case you're curious, yes, I have already started thinking about the next Sgt. Dunn book, which will the third. I know it will start the day after Behind German Lines ends and have a few ideas on what Dunn and his men, as well as Saunders and his bunch will be doing.

Thanks for checking in.

See you tomorrow.

Journey to publishing update #13

Yay!

Files uploaded to Createspace and submitted for review. This step takes them about 24 hours. After that, I can review online a proof copy of the book. Created the book on my Kindle Bookshelf, which is where I upload the cover and the book. If the proof looks a-ok then I plan on publishing Saturday morning, 10/26. Wish me luck! 

Since I write about WWII, it stands to reason that I would actually read about it, too. Here are some of the books I have read and use as reference. The links go to the Amazon page.

The Anatomy of the Nuremberg Trials: A Personal Memoir 

Citizen Soldiers: The U. S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany

To Fly and Fight: Memoirs of a Triple Ace This is written by Col. Bud Anderson, a Triple Ace P-51 Mustang pilot. He read my manuscript for Operation Devil's Fire and wrote a nice endorsement which appears on the back cover of the paperback.

World War II

The World War II Desk Reference

The VICTORS : Eisenhower and His Boys: The Men of World War II

See you tomorrow,

Journey to publishing update #12

There's light at the end of the tunnel! 

After working through a few issues with photoshop (probably user-induced), I managed to complete the back cover file and then uploaded it to Createspace. It looks the way I want it to, which is a big relief.

Finished the book description and the about the author and entered that in Createspace - this shows up on the book's Amazon page.

Spent quite some time finishing the details of the book layout page by page. Things like setting margins chapter by chapter to justified. Can't justify the whole book at once because of the chapter numbers and I include a location, and date and time which all need to be left justified. 

Had a little disappointment - when a chapter breaks in time or place, it's customary to insert a few lines and a graphic of some sort - sometimes just asterisks. I had created a great looking staff sergeant (4 stripes) jpeg and inserted three of those for breaks and it printed great from Word. When I converted the file to pdf, which Createspace requires, the images became just slightly fuzzy. Enough to be unacceptable. Ended up using a Word wingding instead, which I really like, too. It's similar to the star found on much of the U.S. equipment:

µµµ

So all in all a good day's (and night's) work.

Tomorrow night, I'm going to write a post about some of the books I use for my research and reference. Where possible, I'll include their Amazon links.

Thanks for sharing your time with me today!

See you tomorrow.

Journey to publishing update #11

The file for the paperback is almost done. It turned out to be 342 pages plus all the front stuff, title, copyright, etc. and at the end the author's notes and about the author. This file, when completely done and reviewed, will be converted to a .pdf file, then uploaded to Createspace. 

The back cover, which has the book description needs to be finished.

I need to create the files that are used for the "Look Inside" feature.

Thanks for taking the time to read the blog.

See you tomorrow.