Wynne McLaughlin is a video game designer, screenwriter, and television writer. He is a member of the Writer’s Guild of America, west and the International Game Developers Association. His first novel, “The Bone Feud,” an action-packed true story of dinosaur bone hunters in the Wild West, will be available as a free download from Amazon.com on Tuesday, November 18^th and Thursday, November 20th .

Of Dinosaurs and Desperadoes—Writing “The Bone Feud”

“An action adventure novel about dinosaur bone hunters in the Wild West? How did you come up with an idea like that?” Great question.  For me, the journey that eventually led me to write The Bone Feud began when I was just five years old.

Today, the North Shore Shopping Center in Peabody, Massachusetts, is a huge, multilevel mall, but in the mid-1960s, it was an open-air shopping center with a small selection of kiddie rides at one end. The year I entered kindergarten the shopping center sponsored a dinosaur exhibit. They brought in a number of life-sized fiberglass models of dinosaurs on wheeled trailers and parked them beside the amusements for the kids to gawk at. There was a giant Tyrannosaurus Rex, a Stegosaurus, a Triceratops, and an enormous green Brontosaurus (which today we know to be an Apatosaurus) that looked very much to me like Dino, the family pet from one of my favorite cartoon shows, The Flintstones. I’ve no idea how accurate these representations were, only that, in the wide eyes of a five year old, they were magnificent. It was right then and there that my lifelong fascination with dinosaurs began.

I immediately proclaimed that when I grew up I wanted to be an “archaeologist” and dig up dinosaur bones, but my mother patiently explained to me that archaeologists don’t dig up dinosaur bones, and that what I actually wanted to be was a paleontologist.

In the years that followed I fell in love with all things science. My father took me to the Harvard Museum of Natural History to see real dinosaur skeletons. I began to collect rocks and a few small fossils. I became enraptured by the Apollo space programs and watched in the grainy footage of Neil Armstrong’s first steps on the moon in awe, on a tiny, flickering black and white television. I owned a chemistry set, a telescope, a microscope, and a working scale-model German steam engine that I’d won in a contest, for building a whacky Rube Goldberg machine that ate spaghetti. I was determined to become a scientist of some kind.

Science is Hard

My disillusionment came in junior high school when I discovered that a large part of any science degree involved advanced mathematics, something for which I had no natural talent. I was “numerically challenged,” but I loved to read, and for me, reading science fiction was the next best thing to studying science. I was such a voracious reader that eventually becoming a writer was inevitable.

I began to write screenplays and eventually moved to Los Angeles. I was in my early 20s, waiting tables and tending bar to pay my bills while I wrote. Eventually I got my break and ended up spending the better part of ten years writing for film and television. Today I make my living writing and designing video games.

The Bones of Contention

Before I left the film industry, around 2000-2001, I stumbled upon a nonfiction book by author and newspaper journalist Mark Jaffe. Entitled The Gilded Dinosaur: The Fossil War Between E.D. Cope and O.C. Marsh and the Rise of American Science, it detailed the history of the events known variously as “The Bone Wars” and the “Great Dinosaur Rush.” These events came about when two paleontologists made a remarkable series of discoveries, unearthing the remains of some of the greatest of the Jurassic dinosaur species we know today.

A straightforward re-telling of their story would have been somewhat dry, and ultimately quite depressing. These two men, Professor Edward Drinker Cope and Professor O.C. Marsh, were compulsive, jealous, driven men, and their bitter feud ultimately destroyed them both. But the events surrounding the story captured my imagination. This happened in the late 1870s at the height of the American Wild West. In the course of their travels, Cope and Marsh crossed paths with an amazing array of colorful characters who have been heavily romanticized in Western fiction over the years: Wild Bill Hickok, P.T. Barnum, the great Sioux leader Red Cloud, and many others. As I read their stories I began to see within them the bones of a fantastic adventure tale. I saw wonder and magic in these events, and I became determined to take their story and make it my own.

“The Truth Is Bound To Be Somewhere In Between.”

I made notes on all of the most interesting characters and events and wrote them on a series of index cards, posting them on a giant corkboard. I moved them around, combined some events, and altered others. I compressed timelines and took liberties with historical fact. In the end, I was satisfied with the structure of the story I’d created, but there was something missing. I needed a lens to view the story through. In short, I needed a storyteller.

At about this same time I read the fabulous revisionist western Little Big Man, by Thomas Berger. I’d become aware of the novel after seeing the Dustin Hoffman film of the same name. Both the novel and the film used a framing sequence—“bookended” scenes—that had Jack Crabb, the 121 year old main character, recounting his story in flashback to a curious historian.

I’d learned, from Mark Jaffe’s book, of a newspaperman who had published a number of stories about Cope and Marsh’s feud in the New York Herald. I made William H. Ballou my stand-in for the historian. But who would be telling him the story? I didn’t want to use Cope or Marsh, or any of their known associates. I wanted an outside perspective; someone peripherally involved with the story, but not a scientist. I wanted someone the reader would immediately identify with. An everyman.

As I was sitting at my computer thinking about this, our cat leaped up onto my lap. He was an older cat, an orange tabby that had been with my wife for over a decade before I met her. He was the star of a hundred stories my wife had told me over the years. Garvey had the most adventuresome spirit of any animal I’d ever met. If only he could talk.

And just like that, my fictional hero James Garvey was born.

Breaking All The Rules

I finished the screenplay for The Bone Feud a few months later and was convinced that it was the best thing I’d ever written. I had my agent send it out, and I had some initial interest, but ultimately nothing came of it. It broke all the rules. It was a big budget period piece. It had an ensemble cast rather than one or two starring roles. And it was a Western. Westerns have been a hard sell since their golden age in the 50s and 60s. So, I put it on a shelf, but I never forgot about it. I’d fallen in love with this story and these characters. I couldn’t get it out of my head. I just couldn’t give it up.

A few years ago I dusted it off and began to turn it into a novel. I knew, as written, it would be a short novel, and I briefly considered padding it out. I could add more descriptive text, additional scenes, or more back story to make it a more marketable length, but when it came right down to it, I didn’t want to do that. This was exactly the story I wanted to tell, and the way I wanted to tell it.

The Parts That People Skip

One of my writing heroes, the great Elmore Leonard, said, “When you write, try to leave out all the parts that readers tend to skip.” That was his style. He left out big descriptive paragraphs, kept things as lean and as fast-moving as possible, and revealed character through dialog. That’s what I tried to do. In the end, I wanted to create a novel that filled the reader’s head with images, and kept them compulsively turning pages.

My favorite early review said that one of the things they most enjoyed about The Bone Feud was that “It was almost like watching a movie in my head.” That was entirely my intention. I hope the rest of my readers feel the same way.

FREE Download!

You can download The Bone Feud for free today, Tuesday, Nov. 18^th, or on Thursday, Nov. 20th, at Amazon.com. If you enjoy it, and you’re willing to post a review of the book on Amazon, I’ll be forever grateful.

Richard Fitchen, BA MA MLIS PhD, was a firefighter and National Guardsman before teaching at the University of Washington and the University of California (Berkeley and Santa Barbara). He served as the social sciences bibliographer in Yale University’s Libraries and retired as bibliographer and reference department head at the Stanford University Libraries. He now writes full time and enjoys traveling with family.

Publishing electronically rather than in traditional print seemed a smart choice to me, like online retail versus newspaper ads.  Then Linda at eFrog Press explained the print-on-demand option.  Voilà, the best of both worlds!  When I met Linda, I mentioned projects in which I had participated to convert paper bound information to electronic files ranging from cutting-edge scientific journals to archives of the World Trade Organization.  She made the connection:  give readers of my fiction the same advantages!   I had tried putting up an electronic file but with no more success than I found earlier sending material to print publishers.  Now with editorial and technical guidance by Linda and her expert staff, my new book is properly launched.

United by Covenant, Ben’s America is the first of five books to be published in a series called An American Saga.  Three of the remaining four volumes are already in draft form, and we anticipate publishing at least two in 2014.  It helps to have design and layout decisions already set for the series by volume one!

I began writing United by Covenant because I could not bear to change a very long but personally cherished prequel.  The prequel rivals books like Hawaii and Shogun in length and complexity, and many letters to editors/agents plus meetings at a writers’ conference convinced me no publisher would undertake such a leviathan tome from an unknown author.  No doubt, I’m not the first to be consumed by unsalable abundance of creativity!  The prequel was polished occasionally and given ever better titles, but in the end a fresh start was needed.

Fortunately, the prequel experience helped enormously in writing United by Covenant, in many ways allowing me to learn from experience.  Writing it was very satisfying (ditto its sequel), perhaps partly because the project was planned from the very outset to comprise five volumes.

My previous career in American universities required highly developed research skills and a depth of subject knowledge, and I’ve drawn deeply on both to produce this title.  Its central character rises above the story’s dramatic fray to articulate the political faith that unifies partisan and cultural antagonists in America.  The covenant of American life reaches a peak of success in preserving the union through civil war, massive immigration, and sweeping industrial transformation.

United by Covenant is FREE today and tomorrow

After years of researching and writing, it is exciting to see my book come to life both as a print and ebook version. In my first attempt to connect with readers of historical, especially American, fiction, I am making my book free today and tomorrow, January 29 and 30. Please spread the word, download the Kindle ebook, and post a review. I wrote the book to make U.S. history as interesting to readers as I have always found it, and the best way I know is through story. So if you enjoy United by Covenant, standby as more volumes are coming soon in this American Saga.

SLL: Hello, Althea! So, I imagine that you have some strong feelings about the book industry that humans have created. Is that correct?

Althea: Oh, yes, indeed I do, Susan! As I’ve told Sara, I believe that humans who write words on paper must at all times remain conscious of the fact that trees gave their lives for that paper; and you must honor that sacrifice with well-chosen, vivid, concise words—the very least one can do to conserve paper and respect our natural world. Too many books spend too many pages saying too little that is worthy of the paper upon which it is printed. It’s a waste of precious tree lives, in short.

SLL: Do you think we should stop printing books on paper then and read exclusively on electronic reading devices?

Althea: Well, no, because not all humans have access to technology, and I have learned that illiteracy is as harmful to this planet as wasted trees. So, I believe you humans need to strike a balance, as we fairies do in Nature. I believe that you must print some paper copies of books, but definitely balance out the paper copies with ebooks. And definitely get more children to read on screens whenever possible—and to be conscious of not wasting paper when they write, too!

SLL: How can kids avoid wasting paper?

Althea: Be concise and precise!

SLL: Like poets?

Althea: Yes, indeed—by writing memorable words!

SLL: That’s the name of one of my blogs: Writing Memorable Words (www.susanllipson.blogspot.com)!

Althea: Blogs? Those are the electronic alternatives to paper journals and newsletters, right? Hurray for alternatives to tree chopping in every form! For every tree chopped down to make paper, tree fairies are displaced; remember that!

SLL: Your tales in The Secret in the Wood certainly make us remember that! What was the worst part about having your tree chopped down?

Althea: The worst part was ending up on Sara’s bedroom wall without roots for energy or the natural world for company. But then again, I never would have met Sara and learned so much about your human world if I had merely followed the fairy kingdom rules without questioning them . . .

SLL: Are you implying that young readers should also be rule-breakers?!

Althea: Not rule-breakers, necessarily. NONCONFORMISTS. I changed my life and the lives of Sara and Jonathan for the better by not conforming to the rules of the fairy kingdom. But now, with my new perspective, I respect the wisdom behind those rules and follow them because I choose to, not merely because I have been ordered to follow them.

SLL: In other words, you’ve branched out, spread your limbs, grown up . . .

Althea: Yes! Just like a tree! Oh, how much better life would be if everyone lived like a tree!

SLL: Ah, you just stated the chorus of a song I wrote, “If Everyone Lived Like a Tree”! That song will soon be added to the soundtrack I’ve written for The Secret in the Wood.  People can already hear the first song on my author-teacher website’s Songs page, a haunting song called “Dance of the Trees” (www.author-teachersusanllipson.com) or click on the picture of the trees.

Althea: Do all writers write songs to enhance their books?

SLL: No, and I don’t write them to enhance the books either. The songs just start playing in my head as I’m writing. I have songs for everything I write! Words and music just seem to flow in my head.

Althea: You must live around trees then, for tree fairies harness the music of the wind and fill human hearts with songs.

SLL: I do live around a lot of trees! I guess I should thank the fairies for the flow of inspirations then . . .

Althea: You’re welcome. And I hope a lot of people buy your new ebook!

SLL: Thank you, Althea.

FREE Ebook: Save Trees!

The Secret in the Wood by S. L. Lipson is available Tuesday, October 29, 2013, for FREE on Amazon. In The Secret in the Wood, Sara is feeling sorry for herself about moving out of the home she loves until she discovers a lively tree fairy named Althea trapped in a wood panel of her bedroom wall. Sara reluctantly teams up with the boy who will be moving into her room so they can help free the fairy. This ebook version of the original Knock on Wood, by S. L. Lipson, contains interactive hidden images, as well as sheet music for musical readers to try playing an enchanting song called “Dance of the Trees,” written by the author as part of a soundtrack for the story. The Secret in the Wood is a story of relationships: between family members, friends, mentors and pupils, the living and the departed, and Nature and society. And it is a story about moving out and moving on in life. For ages 9-12.

Please share

What do you think about the ebook revolution?  Do you read more ebooks or more print books?

When my friend, Ruth, and I get together, usually at a table in Barnes & Noble, we talk about books and reading, teaching and writing, golf and poetry, and always about our families.

At one of our meetings Ruth spoke about having written a letter to her eight-year-old great granddaughter in which she recalled memories of her first Christmas.  She also told me about her most recent letter in which she shared her memories of learning to read.

Telling stories to children helps them to grow up, to learn about families, neighborhoods, and about other people, places, and cultures.  Most importantly, reading stories helps us to learn in an entertaining way about ourselves.

Reading and writing hold a special place in Ruth’s life.  She earned a degree in reading and spent many productive years teaching elementary school children reading and writing skills, and encouraged them to develop a love for words.  Even now as a great grandmother, books continue to fascinate Ruth.

After you read Ruth’s letter, perhaps you might also write to one of your young relatives to share memories of your reading experiences.

“I have never lost my love for reading.” Ruth B.

Dear Mia,

I have been thinking of you. So—I decided to write to you.

Is school out for you this Friday? What are you going to do every day this summer? Be sure to read every day. Now that you are a good reader you need to keep the reading skills that you learned so—read a few minutes every day.

I am going to tell you about what happened to me when I couldn’t (didn’t) read all summer long. Then I went back to school. I was very happy. You can probably guess what had happened to my reading skills though.

The summer had been very long for me. When I was a little girl living on a big farm, I did not have outside friends to see and to play with. I did not have books to read. So, I played outside mostly by myself. I made up imaginary friends. I talked with them.

I was so happy when school started again and the teacher gave me my reader. But, I found out I could read the easy words. However there were quite a few words that I could not sound out. I had to ask the teacher for help time and again. After she pronounced the words for me, she finally said not to ask her again. I felt so humiliated. I hope you never have to feel that way. Anyhow I quickly relearned what I had lost in reading skills.

I have never lost my love for reading.

At about this time in my life, “Big Little Books” were published. They cost ten cents. My Dad bought them for us children at home. We kids at home were my brother Glen, who was older than me, my sister, Velva, who was younger than me, and Marvin, my baby brother.

Hope I hear from you soon.

Your Great grandmother, Ruth

I love you!!

Please share

Ruth’s  expresses her passion for reading through the fine art of letter writing. Have you every received a letter you treasure from a grandparent or great grandparent? Share what you would like your children, nieces, nephews, grandchildren or great grandchildren to know about your love for reading?

eFrog Press is delighted to share the publishing journey of another indie author. Lindsay Woolman is a freelance writer and young adult (YA) author who has always wanted to write books for teenagers. Her favorite kinds of books are ones that make her laugh and make her cry. She loves when she can get so engrossed in a story that she simply cannot put it down. She likes fast moving, funny books with twists and turns and quirky characters who tell the story and make her forget everything else.

Every author has a different story of how their book was born. My “first born” (The Perfect Pull) is actually a nine year old—a book that I wrote over a nine-year period of time that is. While I don’t recommend taking almost a decade to write your first book, it is what happened to me, partly because I was playing the traditional publishing game.

Everything about my book, from the topic to how I approached my query letter, was always designed to sell it to a publisher. That is what I had been taught—that getting a publisher is the end goal.

I’m happy to say that the process of navigating self-publishing a print and ebook has been a million times more satisfying than I expected and actually a blessing. For authors who are new in their career, handing them a contract and allowing them to “sit and wait” must be exciting, but it could also be to their detriment.

The fact that my success is solely dependent on me (and not a faceless publisher “out there”) is, I think, more of a recipe for making it long term. Maybe it doesn’t come with fast cash with an advance, but knowing I can log right into my Amazon account and see the sales numbers makes it all the more real.

What Is the Story That Only You Can Write?

When I was growing up I had this weird disorder that I never spoke of. I loved how it felt to touch and twirl my hair and one day I started pulling it out without knowing why. When it came to a topic for my book, I decided that exploring a character with this same problem (but 10x worse) would be something unique and potentially interesting, as I know teenagers are drawn to anything out of the ordinary.

I got a summer job working for the forest service and started playing with the idea. The only problem with writing about something close to your heart is it’s hard — REALLY hard. It was almost beyond my capability. But I was using logic here (for once!) because I knew this topic could be a recipe for getting noticed. The disorder, known as trichotillomania, usually develops between the ages of 11 and 13 and can become a lifelong problem.

If I would have just wanted to publish something (anything) by writing a YA book and putting it right on Amazon, I would definitely have picked easier, less personal subject matter. However, I’m glad that I stuck with this idea and kept hacking at it.

Moving Toward the Goal

In 2007, as soon as I completed the first draft, I entered a few chapters in a small Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) writing contest and won. Then I quickly (we’re talking 48 hours later) used that leverage to find a literary agent from Children’s Writers Market. She started sending my manuscript out. As we got feedback from editors, I continued to tweak it, trying to create the “perfect manuscript.”

There were near misses, but as the interest waned my book went into a black hole. No more curious editors and fewer emails from my agent. Honestly, it could have stayed in the black hole indefinitely. My agent didn’t keep in touch with me very diligently. It was up to me to check on any progress, and to have the courage to end the relationship a few years later.

Once I was free of my agent and the idea of finding a big publisher as the end goal, everything happened fast. I decided it didn’t need to be perfect—it needed to be PUBLISHED. I found the costs of self-publishing were not a big scary deal at all. I was between jobs and had time on my hands. I was astounded at the ease of and the reality that the publishing world had completely transformed right before my eyes.

Making Stuff Happen—Publishing the Book

When I came to eFrog Press for help with marketing, I had published The Perfect Pull two months earlier, with both a print version and ebook. I felt like I knew it all and also had NO IDEA what I was doing. I wanted a teammate.

It is very disorienting to spend all this time writing alone and then suddenly share what you’ve created with the world. It feels like you are feeding this thing to the wolves (Haha). This is brand new territory and I really wanted ideas and support beyond what my friends and families can give.

I wanted help with the little things, like how to use categories and keywords on Kindle Direct Publishing, and the bigger things like a marketing plan and exploring speaking opportunities locally.

Download Free

The Perfect Pull is available free on Tuesday, February 26, at Amazon. Don’t have a Kindle? No problem. Download the free Kindle app for your smart phone, tablet, or computer.

Please Share

Tell us about your publishing journey. Have you worked with an agent? Have you self-published? We would love to hear your story.