I pushed the buttons yesterday, and today the ebook for Supporting Ragnarok is available, paperback should be up soon. My profuse thanks to Jolie for helping with the blurb last week! Writing this book was quite the experience, as it was a tandem project with my husband. I did all the writing, it is true, but he was with me every step of the way as we crafted plot, he checked my military terms and pointed out how things would (or wouldn’t) work in that culture, and since I was writing tight third-person on a male character, helped me stay on track there as well.

One of the things I used to get all wound up about when it came to writing was being original. I got hold of the idea that if it had been done before, what point was there for me to do it again? I have, needless to say, gotten over this. Somewhat. I’ve come to realize that we all have a perspective on life that is most likely unique, and this means that what take we have on a central plot is likely to be unique as well. If I sound like I am hedging on words here, well, I am. Thing is, people are predictable. We want to think we are unique and special, but there are directions we’re likely to head which form patterns that can be deduced. Either from someone who knows us personally, or a very broad ‘human nature tends in this direction’ kind of prediction.

This is also not a bad thing when writing. If you take off on your own whimsical way, trying to do something truly original that no one has ever done before, you are likely to lose your readers on the book. Where is this plot going? they ask themselves. Finally, confused and bored, they close the book and wander off. Or they are repulsed by it, thinking that it’s not normal for characters to act like_________ (fill in the blank). If the book is unnatural, which anyone trying to write something that had never been done before is going to achieve, the readership is going to be very limited. It has all been done before. Nonsense, free verse, lack of punctuation, you name it, someone has experimented with it.

Readers want something they can understand, can relate to, can enjoy immersing themselves into the story. They enjoy a plot twist, but not so much of a twist that it snaps the character or plot to the point of breaking. They want fresh, new work… as long as it is like what they enjoy reading. This is human nature. There is nothing wrong with this. As writers, understand this: readers want more of the same. Some readers want to be out of their comfort zone. This is why psychological thrillers and painful family dramas are so popular, so comfortable readers with mostly-happy banal lives can feel the exquisite sensation of fear and pain for a while, then close the book and return to their safe lives. Some readers are looking to step away from reality and into a place where they wish they could live, see the ever-popular cozy genres (not just mystery any more!). Some readers hate to see their peanut butter touching chocolate, and reject anything that doesn’t fit a genre they like, and heaven forbid you attempt any genre mixing. All these readers are valid and deserve good books.

Your job as a writer is not to scold or shame your reader. Your job is to tell the story you want to tell, in the way you want to tell it – not the way you think you should, to make it avant garde or unique. Then, your job is to find the audience for that book. Let me tell you now, the second will be harder than the first. This is what I’m facing with Supporting Ragnarok, not that the book and it’s premise is ground-breaking, it is not. No, it’s the perception that military fiction (military fantasy in this case, only I’ve been asked if it is fantasy because there’s no magic in it? and the answer is that not all fantasy has to have magic, but some readers think it does, see above) must be all about combat and support is dull and boring. In my book? the support people who wind up in an afterlife devoted to endless battles wish for dull and boring! Finding my audience may be tricky for this one. Frankly, I’m hoping people will like it, because it was a labor of love, not only in working with my beloved on it, but writing it for my Dad, my husband, my son, and many friends who were support in the military. The unsung, who would not be happy for me to call them heroes, even if they did make the same oath and lay their lives on the line between liberty and death. However the readers take it, or any of my books, it’s not my job to educate the angry reviewer. I can look at the feedback, decide if it’s pertinent, and move on.

There is nothing new under the sun. I think that’s from the Bible… not going to look it up and I trust the comments to tell me more. I have trellises to put up this morning and need to finish the essay! The best we can do is take what makes each of us an individual (another new and insidious concept in the history of the world, relatively) and put that into our writing. Mix it in well, and what you write will be different, and it will be interesting to someone out there. Trick is to find that someone, and ironically, the best way to attract readers is to give them a hook comparing your work to the work of an author they know and like. Velcro, if you will, connecting the whole thing together and helping readers find books they will like. This is also why readers get angry with blurbs that offer false promises, or if that reader feels the new author is flying too close to the sun by comparing themself to a great in the field. Amazon tries to help with the also-boughts, which is… not always accurate. May be helpful, may (shakes magic 8-Ball) be unclear at this time.

Any new release is like that. You think it’s wonderful, because it’s the child of your mind. The readers? May think it looks like the love-child of Winston Churchill and a baboon. Friends and family will tell you it’s the best thing since sliced cheese. But the reviews? Those will give you a unbiased view of your work. Want to know what your work is like? Look at a good review of your book, one done by someone you don’t know. Click on their username and see what else they praised, and for the same reasons. This is a good way to see where the Velcro is hooking onto the readers. They want more like this.