Writing Paranormal Privateers – What’s THAT Like?
I just finished Writing Paranormal Privateers and I thought my readers would like a description of what it’s like to write and self-publish a novel.
How does one even start a novel, let alone a trilogy like the Life After Life Chronicles?
It all started with a fried turkey, in October 2015.
How a Fried Turkey Led to Writing Paranormal Privateers
First of all, don’t do this when frying:
I was safely frying a turkey for my family in October, testing out our new fryer, in preparation for Thanksgiving. Caterpillar offered me a retirement package I couldn’t refuse, and my last day was October 30th. (Cue The Godfather theme music.)
I decided I might as well enter NaNoMo, National Novel For November writing month. They challenge writers to complete a 50,000-word novel in a month. I just needed a good idea. I wanted to write something light.
As I placed the golden brown turkey on the table and I said, “I think it’s done. I don’t see this turkey coming back anytime soon.”
Then one of my family said, “Unless it’s a zombie turkey.”
“Zombie turkey! Imagine if the turkeys came back to life from the dinner table.”
“I could write a novel about that! In fact I will.”
There and then I decided to write a comic zombie novel, Zombie Turkeys.
Writing Paranormal Patriots – the Sequel and Prequel
I thought that if Zombie Turkeys was a complete flop I could write something else. But it wasn’t. I got positive reviews from the very start. So then I had to write the sequel: My Undead Mother-in-law.
I amped up everything for the sequel: more zombies, more action, more jokes. Then I created a villain worse than zombie turkeys. Finally I added plot twists. Then I published it.
Next, I had to write a third novel, to create at least a trilogy. My Undead Mother-in-law was the prequel to Paranormal Privateers.
Writing Paranormal Privateers – the Surprise
Now I had to top myself. What more could I do? How about I start out writing a standard comic zombie turkey/human/corgi/bull novel, but make all the zombies privateers, complete with a letter of marque from the President? Let’s put the zombies on a five-hundred-foot superyacht too. And then, partway through the book, I completely change the book from funny zombie satire to funny science fiction–with zombies?
Now here’s the back cover, with a picture of the paranormal privateers’ yacht:
I wrote this during Novel For November and hit my fifty thousand words–and was only halfway through my outline! I pushed on for two more months to hit ninety-eight thousand words and then trimmed it back to ninety-six thousand by January 31st. My editor got it down another thousand words.
Here are the top reviews so far:
Top customer reviews
Tell me what you think of each of these books! The best comment on each gets a free ebook of that book!
More tomorrow!
Andy Zach