Time to Combine?

Welcome to my site. Look! It’s Jon Mast’s site! Woo!

But there’s this other site. https://dawnsbrook.com/ — It’s for writers who just can’t wait for their next book! Yeah. It says that right at the top of the page.

If you take a wander through the pages, you’ll see that all the books are also by me.

So why do we have two sites?

When my wife and I started Dawnsbrook, I was still publishing short stories in other places. You can click the tab of “published works” to see a list full of stuff. Those stories aren’t Dawnsbrook, so it made sense to have them listed on a separate site.

At this point, though, pretty much everything I publish is through Dawnsbrook.

So is it worth keeping two sites? Honestly, there’s no purpose to having the two of them. So it’s probably time to combine the sites and do a reworking of them.

Why bring this up?

When you’re attempting to not just write a book but live the luxurious life of an author (we have enough money this week to eat!), you need to be purposeful about what you do. Running on automatic ain’t gonna help you connect people with your books. It’s important for authors and small presses to have sites. Many readers check those sites out! And it’s important on occasion to take a look at the sites and ask, “Is this fulfilling its purpose?”

But… yeah. No need for two. Not anymore.

When will the collapse of society/this site happen? No idea. Maybe not today. Maybe not tomorrow.

But soon.

Are You a Dragon?

It started with a book.

A friend left a book for me. PLenty of my friends know I love older oddities, and this was certainly one. The book looked ancient, with a weird title: How to Be a Dragon. No author listed. No publication data. Just… a book.

And the content of that book? It spoke about how dragons hid themselves as humans, and many forgot that they’d ever been dragons. This book was intended to wake those dragons up. Remind them of who they were!

I researched. Oh, I researched! I’m pretty sure the book was released in London in 1882, and I think the author is the mysterious Almana Gwynedd. And this slim volume really is an oddity. Things like realistic fantasty or urban fantasy were not in existence yet.

And after a lot of work, I’ve finally reproduced the text and added in a bunch of footnotes so others can go on the same journey of discovery I did, as well as make their own conclusions.

The Kickstarter isn’t live… yet. But I’d love for you to click the link and then click, “Notify Me on Launch.” I want to get this curiosity to you. It’s so weird and delightful!

How to Be a Dragon — help me ressurect this weird book!

Stories from the Car

It starts with a laugh, then frantic typing on my phone.

My oldest daughter is driving. She’s in the process of learning. As she gets the hang of just driving around an empty parking lot, we’re chatting a bit. And we begin telling a story.

And now it’s going to be our “car story.” I love the beginning:

Yep. That’s my corpse in jail. Again. It’s probably most annoying thing about being dead, always having to track down your corpse after it’s been reanimated by a peppy necromancer. 

I mean, come on. That’s a solid start. If I picked up a book and read that as the opening line, I’d have to buy it.

We’re not far in, because the focus is learning to drive, not writing a story. But we’ll be picking it up the next time we go out.

I have no idea where it’s going, but I’m eager to find out!

Too Close

Well, I’m journaling now.

About a month ago I started therapy. There’s a lot going on in my messed-up head, and I was finally convinced to go to therapy to get some help. And it’s been good. I don’t know that it’s directly helping yet—we’ve just gotten started after all—but I’m finding the time worth it as the therapist helps me work through my junk.

One of the things the therapist suggested is that I journal. Let out all the feelings. Just get them on the page.

And it’s kind of funny. I’m a writer, after all. I’m used to spilling terrible things in ink and letting the page soak up emotions too dark to be spoken out loud. This is part of what a writer does.

But as I write this journal (which shall not be shared!) I’m finding it… cold. Distant.

I’m afraid.

I can write about another person’s suffering. There’s enough separation between me and a character. Even though I can 100% identify because I have the same emotions, it’s safe to write what they’re experiencing. It’s not me experiencing it.

So right now it almost feels like I’m blogging about myself to myself. I’m reporting things that happen.

I suppose it’s a start. And I need to start somewhere. I do think this will help. It’ll be a healthy outlet.

But for the moment, yeah, it’s not the easiest thing for me to do!

Silly writer not being able to write about himself.

The Problem with Fast Writing

I write fairly quickly, averaging about 40,000 words a month. There are definitely writers that pen their opuses much more quickly, but I’d say I’m still working at a decent speed. That’s good. Most of the novels I write are about 40,000 words, so I can put out about a novel a month.

But there’s a little problem with this.

I’ll spend some time before a project outlining. At that level, I can close up any big plot holes and make sure I’m set for the major arcs of the story. Then I draft. Then I do a quick revision, closing up any plot holes that popped up and making sure I actually seeded what needed to be seeded for a proper finale.

And after that, I hand it off to an editor.

And there’s the rub: I’m working faster than my editor can. And what’s worse, I’m sleeping with my editor.

My wife’s a professional editor. She does great work, I trust her implicitly, and when she says something needs work, she’s right.

But she also edits slower than I write. She’ll do an edit, leaving me all sorts of comments on things that need to be changed. I change them. Hand the document back to her. She does another edit. I change everything again. And then she usually moves on to proofreading at that point.

But… I’m currently more than six books ahead of her…

Um…

Yeah. It’s a problem. I don’t think the solution is writing slower. It may mean I need to take more time to polish. Or maybe find another editor or someone else to help at some point in the process.

But for now, well, I just write too fast.

I guess it’s a good problem to have?