THE BLACK SKY Book Trailer Is Live

The trailer for The Black Sky is officially live. Make sure to watch to the end ;)

THE BLACK SKY Book Trailer Premier Announcement

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01.01.2020

12:00PM EST

Book Trailer Premier

The Black Sky Begins

FINALLY

Jan 2019 Update - The Black Sky, V2

At my personal blog at the end of 2018 I posted by year end review of goals and goal setting for the new year. I also included this bit about the book:

The Black Sky moved forward in a big way, but then took a step back. Here's the gist, as I don't want to go into too much detail: in January, one of my query letters landed me representation with an agent at a large NYC literary agency. This was a dream come true, I was on the proverbial cloud nine for days. We talked on the phone, went over the particulars, the time frames, the (realistic) expectations and such. Immediately the manuscript started going out to publishers and then... well, kinda nothing for months. That's how it goes, waiting to find the right home. I outlined the sequel, and waiting to hear something. Every couple of months, I'd check in and get a short but courteous "we're in the process, it takes time, be patient" response. By the end of the year, after I had a call with my agent and later learned about some issues at his agency, we ended up parting. To be fair, he sent out the manuscript to the folks I would ecstatic to get to read it, and provided me the feedback he received, but it was clear he wasn't going to be reach out to smaller publishers, so at this point I've taken The Black Sky back under my wing and am looking for another option in 2019. I'm also considering a revised title.

So that happened. What this doesn't include is that I got some extensive feedback on the book that gave me pause. This is my first novel, and I didn't pretend that the first draft was best. I sent it out to some friends at first, who gave me things to fix here and there, but it wasn't dramatic. I knew I was on the right path overall. But the new feedback I received made me realize there was a bigger task ahead - starting from the beginning, tearing it all down, building it back up.

I used to watch of number of auto restoration shows, and often they would pull a classic car into their shop, which was maybe in okay shape, but clearly needed some work, and just tear it apart. Why? Because the frame, the bones of car, were good, and upon that, the car could be made even better than initially appeared. The bones of The Black Sky are good - story, characters, theme, etc. - everything to build upon. But I made a few first-novel mistakes, and I aim to correct them.

That doesn't mean going in with a red pen and making a few changes, that means stripping it all apart and starting over, but with the bones in tact. We'll see how this goes, I had a 500 a word day minimum for the original writing excursion, and I'm hoping to revisit that daily goal.

Update: 8/10/18

Quick Update: While the book is out making the query rounds, I've started the very long process out loosely outlining the sequels that have been in my head for the last year. I'm not going to lie, like the book itself is influenced by my childhood movie viewing as much as my reading, the thought of sequels immediately landed me on a trilogy inspired by the ebb and flow of the original Star Wars trilogy. What does that mean exactly? It doesn't mean there will be space battles or mystic powers that get magically retconned in prequels. But, there is definitely a much darker chapter to follow (interpret that as you will).

Music: Brian Eno

During the writing of The Black Sky, I posted about music I was listening to at the time that provided inspiration. I didn't get to all of the music, as my playlist became massive - almost 2,000 songs by the end. However, one I failed to mention that really deserves a post is Brian Eno.

I didn't start listening to Eno with the writing of the book. I actually started months before, as I was searching for morning music while I worked at my regular job. I found music with lyrics early in the morning to be jarring and distracting, and searched out instrumental ambient music to put on while I was groggily sifting through emails in my inbox or working on Excel and Word docs. I had heard about his ambient series, specifically Music for Airports, and decided to put that on one morning. I believe that became my morning routine for several months after. If you checked my Spotify profile and what I was actively listening to, you'd think I was stuck in a loop. In retrospect, that was appropriate.

Once I started on a regular daily writing schedule with The Black Sky, I explored the entire Eno discography, including his collaborations with Cluster, Harold Budd, Moebius and Daniel Lanois. All of the music became essential in the creative process, as I have found that silence is a killer for me when writing. I need some sort of "other" going on in my brain, and Eno's music did and does that. It's subtle and unobtrusive, activating my subconscious in a way I cannot explain. Music for Airports, Neroli, The Drop and other Eno albums work in all situations for my writing purposes, whereas other artists and albums I might use as inspiration for specific scenes (i.e. more uptempo or dramatic music for an action sequence).

The Black Sky Gets The Wonder Plan Treatment

Recently made the acquaintance of fellow Buckeye, author/illustrator/speaker Jason Tharp at a local school event. Afterward we had coffees and talked publishing, and Jason was super nice to put together this in about five minutes - does this look like the cover a novel or what?