Tiffany Rambles

Savior of the Damned

The idea for Savior of the Damned came to me in the 8th grade. I started writing it my freshman year of high school. All throughout high school and the start of college, I struggled with completely getting this story together. You see, Savior of the Damned deals with heavy topics: rape, abuse, prostitution, escapism, unrequited love, growing up, fighting inner demons...No wonder I had such a hard time. One can't expect a wide-eyed fourteen year old with all types of silly notions about what life has to offer to properly handle a book on that scale. This is the type of story that grew with me. It wasn't until I learned something about myself that I could learn something about Alecia, Augustine, and Levistradimus.

Now that I'll be twenty (lolwut?) in three months, I finally think I understand. It's a wonderful feeling. Here are the notes I frantically wrote yesterday while the boyfriend was working on Sylvana, his very awesome RPG:

It's time to take Savior of the Damned up a notch. I finally feel like I've matured enough to take on the heavy topics introduced. I do feel like I need to fully understand all the characters, their relationships with the other characters, and their ambitions and fears. Figuring this out will lead to a richer story overall. Every year, I learn something new about all my characters. I need to get it all written down. I want them all to be multifaceted. I want SotD to go way deeper than just Alecia's issues with escapism. 

My biggest problem was the end. I couldn't figure out a reason why Alecia should want to become the Savior, and the middle of the story can be a bit soupy too. I need to do a better job establishing that fixing Alecia's Mind Realm and getting rid of her supernatural naivety is a main concern in book one. She can't move forward otherwise.

The story will be told in third person, mostly to accommodate the fact that book two and book three require POV switches. Sure, for book one, I'd like to have an early chapter in Levi's POV and later I'd like to show what Doceon did in Hell's Carnivale when he got separated from Alecia, but I don't think switching POVs is too important for book one. SotD really is focused more on Alecia. I considered going into Augustine's POV, since he spends the majority of the story in Mexico with his father, but that would just throw the story off course. I may have a chapter in Officer Clayton's POV when she's leading the chase, but I'm not certain how to effectively pull it off.

Here are the characters I need to further develop immediately:

• Alecia Crawford
• Levistradimus Haze
• Augustine Haze
• Isaiah Jameson
• Aezra
• Doceon
• Hayner
• Caitlyn
• Nero
• Officer Clayton

I'd like to go more into the dynamics of relationships:

• Alecia x Levi (SPOILER; current story)
• Alecia x Danny (teenager; SPOILER)
• Alecia x Speed (teenager; SPOILER)
• Alecia x Augustine
• Levi x Caitlyn
• Aezra x Isaiah
• Isaiah x Annabelle
• Isaiah x Brandi
• Augustine x Vivica 

I really want the end, where Alecia gets her own ARC, to go out with a bang. I can't show my notes for this section. I mean, MAJOR things happen in the end. However, there will be ghosts, murder, a police chase, time travel courtesy of the Dimension Witch, and an actual meeting amongst all the characters. 

tl;dr: I CAN'T WAIT TO START WRITING SotD AGAIN! IT'S GONNA BE AWESOME, I PROMISE.

For the longest time, I've been wavering between whether I'd like to have SotD traditionally published or self-published. My mind is made up. It needs to be self-published. Why? I have huge things in store for this story, so huge that the publication will involve Kickstarter, Indigogo, artists, web designers, and game creators.

I've been writing this book for damn near a decade. I refuse to NOT give it the biggest, most unconventional publishing and promotion campaign that I can come up with.

Speaking of unconventional....

Self-Help Book

Okay, so I've just realized something. I start college in two months. I planned to have two self-help books and a course and an interactive website completed by August 20th.

If you're not laughing with me, laugh with me. That's crazy.

However, I am going to publish a book on promotion. It'll be called Unconventional Methods of Promotion and it'll summarize all the odd or different ways I or others have promoted stuff. I planned to have The DIY Guide to Book Promotion: Before Publication done by June 15th. That date is still the same. However, now I plan to have Unconventional Methods of Promotion done by the 15th. Really, it'll be a fun and interesting book to write. It shouldn't take me really long if I keep at it.

What are the best things about this change? First, Unconventional Methods won't require me to ask for 5k at Kickstarter. I won't need to worry about paying for materials to create a course or publishing two books back-to-back. I'll only ask for 1.5k. 1000 will be for editing, cover art, formatting, and a limited amount of print copies for giveaways and close family/friends. The remaining 500 will be for promotion.

This day will be dedicated entirely to working diligently on Unconventional Methods.

Reviews

At Reader's Den, I review and promote 1-2 books a week. This month alone I'm reading and reviewing eight books, or 2229 pages. By September I will have read and reviewed 50+ books. It's partly why, after September, I'll only do reviews here and there for Novel Publicity book tours, magazines (such as Self-Publishing Review), and Litstack. Reader's Den will instead be dedicated to literary news and comedy. When college starts, there's no way I can read and review two or three books a week anymore. 


So no, I'm not completely giving up as a reviewer. It's something I'm actually good at, and that makes me immensely happy. I'm just slowing my roll, is all.

If you read this whole post, I love you. I know it's a lot, definitely since I haven't updated in ages, so I appreciate your attention in spite of that. Here's music (I wish I could express how inspirational the Legend of Korra music is) and a funny video (warning, there is a lot of cursing):