Book 2 Excerpt From a Lazy Writer

Okay, so I'm too lazy to come up with a blog post, so I'm going to post an excerpt from Book 2 of Korin's Journal instead.  Well, maybe it's not laziness, but the desire to get a bit more writing done tonight.  I had originally planned to knock out a good chunk of my current chapter and then work a little on a short story I'm toying with.  Alas, the chapter I'm working on has decided to be difficult(yes, I'm blaming the chapter instead of the person writing the chapter) and the short story must be put aside yet again and my planned blog post constrained to this paragraph and a small excerpt.  So, the following is from a dream sequence in the latter third of the book and the first line afterwards.  Enjoy. 

Brian Beam

The World of Tomorrow

A little Wizard of Oz is all it takes for sleepy time

There was a time when I swore I would never use an eReader.  See, I love the smell of books, the feel of the pages, and the feeling of going into a bookstore and doing my shopping based on what I find there instead of by reviews on websites.  Then, about 2 years ago, I took the plunge.  I'm not sure what made me change my mind, but now I buy nearly all my books on the Kindle.

Public Service Announcement...or Something Like That

Starting him early.

Alright, time to step up on this soapbox for a moment.  To anyone with children who reads this, I want to plead for you to expose your child to books as early as you possibly can.  Take a step back and look at today's youth.  Today's children live in a generation of iPods/Phones/Pads, video games, television, and parents who are happy to just let them remain transfixed by such devices to keep them out of their hair.  I know I'm still relatively young, but even in my youth, this was not the case.

My parents exposed me to books very early on.  Both read to me regularly and I remember the excitement of going to the public library and bringing home a big armful of books.  I even partially taught myself to read due to that love of books and stories instilled in me at such a young age.  

Books, in my opinion, are critical in a child's development.  They expand their vocabulary, speech, logical thinking, communication skills, and encourage the use of their imagination(once they're beyond picture books).  Also, books can be a wonderful bonding tool in a child's first years. For example, reading a book to your child every night before bed is time just between you and them, and they will remember that.  

Remnants of the Past Part II

So, a few posts back,  I posted the prologue to a manuscript I abandoned years ago.  I figured that since I was nine chapters into it, I may as well use it for something and post bits from it every now and then.  The following is chapter one.  Be prepared to see some familiar names if you've read The Dragon Gem.  Korin was the name of the protagonist in this story as well, and a character named Menar serves as the villain at first.  Alright, here's chapter one of The Secret of the Kolari: Book One of the Broken Cycle Saga(It has seen no editing, so no promises on grammar, spelling, etc).

If you missed the first blog with the prologue, you can check it out first: http://brian-beam.blogspot.com/2012/08/remnants-of-past.html

Running Through My Head

Yeah, I'm so cool I run in the rain.

So, if you're a writer like me (the ones who don't fully outline your stories except for in your mind), you run into snags or plotholes more often than the (probably smarter) outliners.  This just happened to me last night with Book 2 of Korin's Journal. It wasn't even the part I was working on.  It was something from the next chapter that I didn't feel was going to connect the way I was going to want it to in Book 3.  My productivity was killed for the night.

So, this morning, I went for my triweekly jog...is that the right word?  Anyway, running is my go-to to think things through with my book, and generally, when I do hit snags, I not only think my way through them, but discover ways to make the story even better with how I approach the solution.  In this case, what was to be a small scene in the next chapter will now be at least a couple times longer and will provide more emotional impact, allow another glimpse at the main villain of Book 2, and tie into exactly how I see Book 3's story flowing.  All plotted in about 3.13 miles.