About Writing and Selling

Terra-Prime: The 2nd American Civil War, the prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga is coming along nicely! (Yes, I've made a slight change in the title.) Thus far, I've written 92 pages (11 chapters) and I'm nearing a major transition point within the story. I'm still on track for a May 2014 e-publication dates.

The flow on this book is similar to that of Crisis on Terra-Bravo, more action oriented.

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Once I have Terra-Prime published, I'll see when Kyle is ready to tackle our next book in the Terra-Bravo Saga. If he's still out of pocket (family/work/college), I may press on with an idea for a new, military-adventure series tentatively named "Roman's Legion". It's set in the modern era and involves a group of former military members who set up a paramilitary/soldier of fortune/adventurers organization. I've pretty much outlined the first book in my head. Now to put that on paper and prepare to write it sooner or later.

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Foothold on Terra-Bravo and Crisis on Terra-Bravo continue to sell on the Kindle Store at Amazon.com. Still waiting for a sale of Honing Your Instructional Skills. Need to do some vigorous advertising all the way around.

So, if you know of any science fiction or adventure fans out there, please pass along the links to the Terra-Bravo Saga e-books.

Likewise, if you know of instructors or teachers who may want to look at some new approaches to take in their instruction/teaching, please share the link to Honing Your Instructional Skills.

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Enough for now! Have a great week folks and remember...let's be careful out there!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Honing Your Instructional Skills - 9 Steps to Improving Your Teaching!

One of the greatest adventures of my life was serving as an instructor at the USAF/US Army Fire School at Chanute AFB (Rantoul, IL) and later at the DoD Fire Academy at Goodfellow AFB (San Angelo, TX). My tour at Chanute began in April 1986 and ended in November 1992. My time at Goodfellow began in April 1994 and ended in October 1997.

As much as I enjoyed my time "on the floor" at the various fire departments at which I served, I really enjoyed my time as an instructor. Thanks to mentors such as Senior Master Sergeant Robert Trowbridge, Master Sergeant Don McGee, TSgt Jerry Blaisdell, Mr. Kenneth Medlen, and others I achieved Master Instructor status within 2 years and won numerous instructor awards to include Junior Enlisted Instructor of the Year (1988). During my time at the DoD Fire Academy, I earned two additional awards: the Goodfellow AFB Civilian Technical Training Instructor of the Year and the Air Education Training Command Civilian Instructor of the Year (1996).

More importantly, over the years I developed an approach to engage my students and bring out the best in them. As a result, my student test average was approximately 94%. Over the years, I've encountered many of my former students and found they had translated their success in Tech School to success in the field. Many of them have returned to the DoD Fire Academy to serve as instructors themselves.

For several years, I've tried to boil down my approach into a book that instructors could use to improve their instructional skills. My initial thought was to focus on Fire Service Instructors. With the advent of e-publishing, I decided to revise the book so that any instructor/teacher could use the approach.

Last week, I e-published Honing Your Instructional Skills - 9 Steps to Improving Your Teaching! on Smashwords.com. Through Smashwords, it is available at their site and at Barnes & Noble (b&n.com). Tonight, I put it up on Amazon's Kindle Store as well.

I hope instructors will take a look at this book and apply the approach to their instruction.

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Looking at the view count for my previous post, it appears that some folks may have been put off by my title of "Sacrificial Lambs." The post was about how authors create some characters merely for the purpose of killing them off to move the story along. Guess I need to work on my titles a bit!

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More snow and ice predicted for tomorrow but nothing is supposed to last. I plan to get some writing in on the prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga this weekend (hopefully 2 chapters worth!!!) and maybe write a Hub or two.

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Stay safe!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Sacrificial Lambs - Creating and Writing Characters Who are Doomed!

I was chatting with one of my readers the other day and she told me she cried when one of the characters died. I thanked her for the compliment which surprised her. I told her I had written that character for two purposes...one of which was to die heroically.

You see, quite often in fiction, a character's primary purpose may be to serve as the sacrificial lamb to:
-- move the plot forward
-- grip the readers' attention
-- elicit strong emotions

Think about your average murder mystery. No corpse (or supposed death), no mystery! Think about all the slasher films. Definitely got your attention, eh?

Then think of all those stories in which a beloved (or even hated) character dies! You feel bad when the beloved character dies and great when a hated character dies. (Sorry, Yeller. or Sorry about that, Emperor Palpatine!)

As an author, I will use that plot devise. And I freely admit, there are some characters I've written whose sole purpose to exist at all is so that I can kill them at some point in one of my stories. If they elicit a tear or a cheer from my readers at the proper moment, then they will have served their purpose.

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Made more headway tonight on the prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga. Wrapped up Chapter 8 and got our stalwart heroes out of a jam. They have a long trip ahead of them with more danger along the way and still more waiting for them when they reach home!

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Honing Your Instructional Skills has received Premium Status on Smashwords.com which means it will be pushed out to places like Amazon's Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble, and many other fine e-bookstores soon.

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Think I'll sign off for tonight. My eyes (and the rest of me) are tired!

Stay safe!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014

Finally!

I have worked for quite a few years on a project near and dear to my heart...a book to help fire instructors improve their instructional skills to become highly effective instructors. Over those years, I would take the manuscript out, tweak it a bit, get frustrated, and put it away. And thus it languished.

The book was never going to be a long one, maybe 50 to 75 pages in print. You know, a bathroom book that can be read in a couple of sittings! My hope was to publish it through Fire Protection Publications' FPP imprint (for non-validated books) like Chief Dennis Compton's wonderful When in Doubt, Lead series. However, in recent years FPP has published fewer and fewer books of this size.

Then my family convinced me to write and e-publish a science fiction story I'd played around with for an equally long time. With (my son) Kyle's help, Foothold on Terra-Bravo was written, finished, and e-published and quickly followed by Crisis on Terra-Bravo! This re-awakened the writing bug in me and I looked once more to my instructor book.

I knew this book would not be about training personnel to become fire instructors...but one for fire instructors to improve their attitudes and behaviors and positively impact their instruction! But if I wanted to publish it and FPP was no longer publishing such short books, where could I get it done? Going to a competitor was against my strongly beliefs. E-publish maybe?

As I worked on the latest version of the book, I came to realize that the ideas I was presenting could apply to any type of instructor, teacher, college professor, etc... Perhaps it would be better to genericize the material, strip out as much material directly related to the Fire Service Instructor, and take a broader approach.

This resulted in an even shorter, tighter manuscript. I broached the idea of e-publishing with our Managing Editor at FPP and he agreed I could and should e-publish it! With a broader approach, it was no longer strictly Fire Service related and was outside the realm of FPP. He even teased me about chasing the big bucks by going for the broader audience. (Well, there is some truth to that!)So, I prepared my manuscript for e-publishing through Smashwords.com; editing, formatting, more editing, and finally, shooting a cover.

The cover was a long time in development as I wanted a specific type of look. Not artwork, but a photo. Finally, an idea jelled. I asked a friend, Lori Raborg, who works in our Curriculum Division to appear as the instructor. We arranged a classroom, set the stage, and shot the first sequence of Lori as the "highly effective instructor" giving an animated lecture. With those pictures shot, Lori stepped out of the room, changed into some scruffy clothes, messed up her hair, and returned. We gave her an old stool to sit on and an old, warped ruler to use as a pointer. It took a few shots for Lori to devolve into a tired, worn out, burned out instructor but she was a great actor and made it happen.

Fortunately, through the years, I've learned some photo manipulation tricks and created a split screen effect: ineffective instructor on the left and highly effective instructor on the right. I added in the title info and BOOM there it was!

A little more editing and formatting, some time running the book through Smashwords formatting program (lovingly name MEATGRINDER!) and VOILA! A new book: Honing Your Instructional Skills (9 Steps to Improving Your Teaching!).

Honing Your Instructional Skills is currently available in multiple formats at Smashwords.com. Once it passed its review at Smashwords, it will be pushed out to other e-bookstores such as Amazon's Kindle Store, Barnes & Noble, Versent, and others.

I've priced it at $0.99 solely because of its length.

I hope to set up a Facebook page for Honing Your Instructional Skills in the near future. I'll keep you posted!

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I'm 59 pages (in Word) into the prequel to the Terra-Bravo Saga. I've just wrapped up a major battle scene and moving into a grand escape. But there are battles aplenty ahead. This new novel is a lot of fun to write. I find myself losing track of time as I write which means it's holding my attention quite well.

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Well enough for tonight. Once again, the Polar Vortex is pushing Southward. Stillwater may get significant ice, sleet, and snow tonight through tomorrow evening.

Y'all be careful out there!

Jeffrey

© Jeffrey M. Fortney - 2014