Coming Soon!!

Coming this July, 2013: Bark returns in another exciting adventure. Our hero is now a full fledged student of the United League of Heroes. Aside from taking classes in heroism, physical conditioning, and law, he has met an ancient martial arts master who has taken him under her wing. His relationship with Frost is getting better every day, and Dr. Tobias Glyph has come up with a small device that provides a voice to our hero. Life is good. Unfortunately, trouble is brewing behind the scenes. Someone at the ULH is preparing a trap to sell out all the other heroes and students to the evil Marshal Dae. Bark is left with little help when he must find a way to save the ULH and the students before they are all hauled off and never seen again. Can he save the ULH? Who is behind all of this? Who would betray their fellow heroes?

                         Find out in Bark 2: Seven Days at the ULH

Hello all. I have started the plans for publishing book 2 in the Bark series. Again it is a short novella, not a full length novel. It will also be free, just like the first one. I hope to have it out by the end of July, when I will have a release event with contests and prizes and lots of fun. What I am planning is to hold a Daniel Peyton Author event to promote all of my work, but to highlight the Bark 2  book. I hope to get donations from other authors so we can have a lot of great prizes, but right now it is just in the planning stages.

Side note: Again, I have been asked very often about why my Bark books are free. There was a whole post about it right here. What bothered me recently was an author who got a little angry with me about it, saying that I was hurting other authors by offering my books for free. I don't know about that, this is a novella, it isn't a polished masterpiece. It is just a bit of harmless fun for all ages. Aside from the publicity it provides me, I also have an obligation to the company that owns the rights to the base storyline. I was only allowed to publish it if I did so for free, otherwise they would have issue with me making money off of their property. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings, but honestly I don't believe my three Bark books being free are going to ruin the market for anyone. In fact it might help by drawing more people to pick up and read ebooks and decide to venture into the ebook market more.

If you have not read the first Bark book, it is FREE! Check it out on Nook, Kobo, Sony, iTunes, and many other formats.

Why I started

Just a picture of a cat.

I have said many times that I began writing in the fourth grade. From there it just exploded into being a part of who I am. My friends and family all knew that I loved to write. By the time I was in fifth grade I was spending more and more of my spare time just writing. No purpose, no class assignment, just for me. There wasn't another kid in my school who did that, I was unique. Okay, unique is the nice word, the real word is weird, but I love being the weird person.

How it all started. Well, back in fourth grade my teacher, Mrs. Rogers, allowed the class to have a section of each day to just free write. We weren't given more than half an hour each day, but in fourth grade that was excruciating for most kids. For me, it was like giving me chocolate for the first time. I loved it and wanted more. I began writing my own versions of tongue twisters, but then I tried actually creating my own story. I still know the story to this day, the adventures of Private Eye Peyton....corny but hey I was only in fourth grade. I was damned proud of that three page novel and even dressed up in costume to read it to the class. Private Eye Peyton had several stories, all where he is solving the crimes and saving the day.

Back story: I grew up with a mother who loved Simon & Simon, and Magnum PI. So, it certainly influenced my writing. But, what most influenced my work was the other television show/movies that she introduced me to at an early age....Star Trek.

Continuing: I continued writing stuff for a couple years, and had an urge to construct my own Star Trek story. Again, the central character was yours truly. My first attempts were childish, but I was just having a lot of fun. Then, in the ninth grade I had an English teacher who once again added a free write time to our day. We were using the block scheduling so our classes were 2+ hours long each, instead of just 1 hour. We had extra time some days. Mrs. Smith suggested that we write stories and keep working on them with each free write and then at the end of a certain period of time she would take them up and grade them as extra credit. My own personal practicing all those years paid off and  prepared me to create a more solid storyline. For the first time I planned it out more, I bought the encyclopedia of Star Trek (no kidding) and started jotting down notes as often as they came to my mind. This was my first true venture into novelizing.

Star Trek: The 11th Fleet was set during the Star Trek Deep Space Nine storyline, but in a distant part of the federation away from the main story. It told of a captain and his crew on a federation space station in orbit of Tarven 4. To prepare for the up coming Dominion conflict, starfleet orders the refit  of hundreds of outdated ships in a junkyard in the same system. Thus building the eleventh fleet to bolster the lines of the Federation when war broke out. The main character, the Captain, has to be convinced to come back since he was the one who came up with this notion years ago and knows more than anyone about the old ships and how they work. Unfortunately for them, he doesn't like Starfleet any longer. Ten years ago he was part of a team that made contact with a race of people called the Hakashans. The Hakashans took him in and treated him like family when he was facing a difficult time in his life. But, when they called for help from Starfleet, Starfleet turned it's back on them leaving them to be surrounded by enemies for ten years. Now, Starfleet needs him, and he gives them an ultimatum. He will return, but they must agree to allow him to lead an armada of starships into the Hakashan system, and drive out the enemy. What he was not prepared for was finding a small group of the Hakashans on his doorstep when he reaches the station. They have been lost and looking for help for nearly ten years now and he is their only hope of seeing home again.  There are Borg encounters, The Maquis, Dominion conflict, love, adventure, family, humor...all the right stuff to make a fun Star Trek story.....if I do say so myself.

This is one of the Hakashan's, and his son

I never intended on getting this published initially, but I had a change of perspective. My teacher, Mrs. Smith, took my story home with her and read it, graded it and then let her own mother read it. Her mother was an English professor at a State University and absolutely loved the story. She even brought it with her back to class and wondered who among her students wrote this. She had mistaken my work for a college students, and in her judgement a good student at that. When it finally made it back to me it had a note pinned to it from the mother telling me that I had something special and should think about becoming a writer. Not too long after that I won the writing section of the PTA Reflections contest. That year was a good year for my writers ego. I decided that one day I would find a way to publish my Star Trek adventures.

Unfortunately, there is a better chance of someone breaking in to Fort Knox, stealing every last ounce of Gold, and then getting away completely free than getting a new Star Trek novel published by an unknown author. So, I almost gave up on the idea of being a published author. What use was it to write when what you wanted to write was never going to see print? Fortunately for me I have a mother who doesn't give up on me as quickly as I do. She pushed me to write my own story based on my own ideas and see what came of it. I actually fought this notion for some time, but eventually a thread of logic hit me. All I could do was fail? So, I started writing again, this time solely with my own characters and story.

So far my only experience in traditional publishing has turned out to be fraudulent. But, I will hold onto hope a little bit longer. I am not the first author to be rejected, and I won't be the last. I don't know when my breaking point will be, but some day I will either make it or finally give up. That day hasn't come yet. For now, I write.

Check it out!!

A while back, okay several years ago, I met a fellow writer on Facebook. Wendy Siefken, who introduced me to other authors and to a Facebook page called Master Koda. I was, and am, relatively new to the authoring world and didn't know many people who were  going through what I have gone through. On Master Koda's Facebook page I learned I was not alone. I encountered many authors who choose the independent route for publication. Some did so because they wish to avoid traditional publishers for their own reasons. Some are like me, they simply cannot find a publisher who will accept them.....yet. Any way you look at it, we had many things in common and felt that helping one another was the best way to go.

Previous Bookcover 

Jump ahead and Master Koda decides to open up a publishing house all their own. They are a small operation with a BIG love of authors, books, and the industry. This has not made them cold to indies, if anything they now have new knowledge to share with those who wish to remain independent. They soon called for submissions. Let me tell you something, in the book writing industry, submissions are like ants to a jar of honey on a hot summer day, soon you have more than you can count. They accepted a few authors early, and one of them was....Wendy and Charles Siefken, Charles is her son. Wendy's book, Kai's Journey
had been a Kindle book for a while already, but Master Koda decided to refit it and bring it to an even better level.

Now much happened along the way with them, editing, rewriting, and a lot of internal book stuff. I was not privy to that, but I did see a lot of updates from Wendy and I noticed her looking around for an image to use for the book cover. I realized that they didn't have an unlimited budget and were hoping to get some pics off of the internet to use, by permission of the artist of course. That was proving to be more difficult than they realized. So, I jumped in and gave them a hand....you should know this by now, there was a long post about the cover art. If you haven't read it yet, check here.

Now, jump ahead another bit and it is finally time to release the new and improved book. On May 31, 2013 Master Koda Select Publishing released Kai's Journey: The New World Chronicles (The Kai and Clover Series.) 2nd edition.

I am very happy for them, and hope for great success. The book covers several popular genre's right now,
including Zombies and a hint of Fantasy. But, there is a level of pride involved with this release on my part. I am more than pleased to see my artwork being used as part of the bookcover. I knew it would be, but to actually see it was really rewarding. I hope it helps them be as successful as possible.

Now I am highly anxious to see the next book's bookcover that I helped with. But, if I have learned anything in dealing with the publishing industry, it's patience.

My writing battery

Recently I had a fellow author friend on Facebook mention that she was finding it difficult to write. She was attempting to influence her mind with music and other various methods so that she could jump start the creative process. I can tell you this now, when it isn't time to write, don't write. If you do, you will find that your work is substandard and you will most likely erase most of it in the long run.

For me it works out that at times I have a lot to write and am eager to get to my computer every day. The ideas flow and I am constantly working on them. My friends recognize these times because I will fade off and look distant for a few moments. Usually I am considering a scene or story point that just popped into my head and am working it out. These are some of the best times when I am deep inside my story and the characters.

Then there are the in-between times. When I finish a novel and am at the editing and smoothing out stage, my brain is cooling off. The writers battery is drained. It bothers me at times. When I finished my first novel and couldn't seem to get myself up and running with the next right away I actually worried that I only had one good book in me. I fretted, which is a hobby of mine. But, after a while I found my battery was good to go and I started in again.

Now, during the down times, I still write. It is during these times that I write shorter stories and add a little
more to my unpublished work. The Bark stories were part of this recharging period. Nothing too deep, just fun and simple. I have mentioned before that I wrote some Star Trek novels that are unpublished. Well, that is another area where I can just fun-write. I have a huge backlog of short episodes in my own little Star Trek story line with my own characters and events, each one hardly long enough to be called a short story, but I don't really pour myself into them. I don't worry about the idea of them being published one day, or needing to be edited all that much, just write for writings sake. Just about the only use I get out of them is during long car rides I will read them aloud like a radio show.

It can take me as long as writing a full length novel to write a 100 page short story because I take it easy. During this time my battery gets recharged and I am ready to write again. That doesn't mean that I will pump out a new novel every year, sometimes I simply am not inspired and I keep plugging away at the shorts. But, I never stop writing, and I try to not worry about it. If I begin to worry, then this will become real work and I just don't know if I am ready for that.

Last note: When my battery is really low and I am not even wanting to write a short story, I let it go. I read,  draw, stitch more, watch movies, listen to music, do anything that is inspirational. I am not trying to inspire a book, just keep my creative nature nurtured and primed for when novel inspiration strikes.


p.s. if you ask nicely, I will tell you about my Star Trek story.

More art

I am feeling a little down right now and don't want to sit here and write up a whiny drama filled post. So, instead I am just going to post some more of my art. I hope you enjoy it.

I'll start with something I drew at Church. On Wednesdays I took a class at church, but I was always half an hour early because I also worked the Food Pantry Wednesdays. So, while I waited I started to play with the dry erase markers and drew on the board. Everyone liked it so I kept adding more and more to it to see how long it would take before they erased it. Here is the progression. 

Week 1: Thought it was fun to draw, expected it to be erased by the next weeks class. (The room is used by other classes and groups during the week.)

Week 2: Okay, they did not erase so I decided to add to it for fun. 

Week 3: Now I find that they have drawn a line on the board showing that they won't erase, just use half the board. Now I am intrigued. I add the lion and keep watching. 

Week 4: Okay, now I am really curious as to how far I can take this before they give up. I add the arc. 

Week 4.5: This is the last night of classes and I have even more time so after drawing the arc I ask myself, "Well, do I leave them a little board space or use it all? Use it all of course" 

As of Week 5: Still there. 

Okay, done with that. Here are some other pieces I have drawn. They were mostly for fun, but I expect to use them in upcoming novels for the Bark story. 

< B&W pencil

Detailed & colored>

This is Colin Wayne's superhero, named Arx, which is Latin for stronghold. He will have a cameo in the next novel.

<Next we have Colin Wayne posing for Bolt, as I wanted a full figured drawing of Bolt and this worked perfectly. Not sure if I am going to add color or not. 

 Stopped by an overlook near my hometown and took a few pictures. East Tennessee is such a beautiful place to live. >

And last we have the project that I am working on through a correspondence class from the Embroiderers Guild of America. This is pulled thread work. Never done this before, not sure if I have the hang of it yet. I will show you the project as I progress alone.  

Mother

I know this is a day behind, but I like to post in my blog on Monday's so you are just going to have to accept it. This is a mothers day post in honor of my own mother.

My mother has been many things in my life, my educator, my inspiration, my encourager. She was often also the disciplinarian, the rule setter, the one who broke up the fights between my brother and me. She was the first one to truly push me to write. I had already shown an interest, but never the passion to seek this is a profession. But, she wouldn't stop pushing. I had written a lot of Star Trek fan fiction and a little poetry, but nothing that I ever intended on publishing. I thought that authors had to be highly educated people with degrees and decades of experience behind them. I was too young, and I do not have a degree in anything.

One day, she just said "All you can do is fail." What I took that to mean is that I will eternally fail if I never try. So, I sat myself down and wrote my first novel. When I was done I was scared to let anyone read it, I thought it stunk. She took it from me and read it, and told me that it was good. Now, I know that as my mother she will never see my work without those rose colored glasses. But, she does have a constructively critical side to her that she will always use on her children. Even though she will not say anything I write is just plain bad, she is willing to point out flaws and offer suggestions.

Next she took on the role as editor, offering to take my work and scrutinize it and help me smooth it out. She will be the first to admit that she is no pro, and I do need the help of a pro to finalize any project. What I rely
on her for is content more than structure. She can point out glaring grammatical mistakes, and does so quickly. But, her best job is in asking the questions that all readers will ask. "Where did he come from there?" "Didn't he loose his weapon a few pages back, why does he have it in his hand now?" "You forgot to mention that she is 300 years old, that is important." And most important of all, "Your readers will want to know..... (fill in the blank) " These questions direct me to see where I had screwed up continuity, or left a question that really needs to be answered. Often times I watch movies or read stories and see these kinds mistakes and wonder where all those high paid editors are. Mom does all this for free.

Secondly, she is my sounding board. I will come up with story ideas, scenes, characters, whatever and talk with her about them before I write them. She offers me advice as to if these ideas are good or not. Often I find myself talking through a writers block with her just listening. I go in expecting to get her to help me break the block, but before I am done talking it out in front of her I have overcome it on my own. Yet, for some reason, if she weren't there listening, I would never had made it work.

Last, and possibly most important: She is my censor. I want to write family friendly, clean, good work. If you want dirty and grim, watch the news. How I know what I write is clean enough? If I would be ashamed for my mother to read it, then it is edited out. Simple as that. Very, very seldomly have I come up with something that she has frowned at me over, and often it was the double entendre that I completely missed and quickly fixed to eliminate the unintended message.

As a result, Mom has made it into most of my stories as a character. If you read my first book, the witch Gorgeous is based on my mother. If you read The Crystal Needle you will find some of mom in Elsabethe, and most obvious is in my Star Trek novels, there is an Admiral who has the same name and most of the personality traits of the real life person.

My mother taught me to stitch 23 years ago. My mother made me a part of Sigma Alpha Iota which has turned into one of my favorite experiences each time I get to be with other SAI. My mother has always encouraged me to follow my dreams no matter how difficult and far away they might seem. For Mothers Day, belated of course, I say thank you Mom.

Note: The pictures I posted here are some of my moms favorites among my drawings, in case you were wondering about the reason they are here.

Art for Art's sake

I am an artist. No, I am not a hippy who stacks garbage and then labels it some obscure name to elicit profound thoughts. Never in my artistic life do I want to create art solely for the point of attempting to change the sociopolitical atmosphere of  a nation, to me that is a silly notion.  I just love to create things that just happen to be considered forms of art. Am I good at it? I am not privy to say. The definition of art is in the heart, mind and eye of the beholder.

What have I dabbled in? I have worked on stage as a dancer/singer/actor, I have been a student of embroidery for over 20 years, I draw a little and I like taking pictures. And last, but certainly not least, I write. I have written short stories, poems, and books. None of the above has been all that successful but I simply cannot stop myself, I love to create. Out of all that I do, I think that writing remains my favorite. I began to want to write books in the fourth grade and that particular side of me has been the strongest and loudest. So, I have attempted to make it a profession, though that hasn't proven entirely too successful yet.

My favorite hobby of art is split between stitching and drawing. Often I have absolutely no reason why, I just draw or stitch to do something to pass the time. I will be bored and simply grab a blank piece of paper and draw or if my stitching supplies are nearby I will picked up a scrap of mono-canvas and stitch. No purpose, just because I love to create. Often I will either give away what I do or eventually incorporate it into something else like a book.

Here are some examples of pointless art from yours truly: