Maybe I should delete my review, he thought. He moved the curser over the delete button and hesitated. So many thoughts and feelings seemed to overwhelm him.
Instead of clicking delete, he opened the folder containing his own novel.
Song of Silverglade.
He knew Bombo would hate that title, and knowing that made him smile. He double-clicked the icon, and the file sprang to life on his laptop. He had a lot of work to do if he was going to self-publish this story, and now was as good a time as any to get started.
THE END
Author’s Note
from Kevin G. Summers
Writing fiction is often a lonely pursuit. Stephen King suggested in On Writing that an author should write their first draft in a room with the door closed. My office door was closed when I wrote the first draft of LEGENDARIUM, but thanks to Facebook, it felt like Michael Bunker was in the room with me every step of the way.
I don’t know how Bunker is as prolific as he is. I’ve Facebooked with the man at all hours of the day and night. When I get up at six a.m., he’s online. When I finished the first draft at two in the morning, he was online. I’ve heard about Amish work ethic, but I’m convinced that the man never sleeps.
I do my writing in an office in my barn. Right now there are ewes lambing in a stall directly below me. As I sat up here working, typing away as fast as I could, I was engaged in an ongoing dialogue with my co-author about nothing and everything. When I needed to know something about Bombo Dawson, I went right to the source. When the ravens named Fear and Doubt came tap-tap-tapping at my chamber door, I asked Bunker to scare them off so I could get back to work.
I read somewhere that when Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman wrote the Dragonlance books, Margaret wrote the verbs and Tracy the nouns. Legendarium was written in four drafts. I did the first and third, Michael the second and final. With each draft, the story grew in style and complexity. At this point, I’m not really sure who wrote what, except for the parts about donuts. Bunker wrote all of those.
When Bunker asked me if I was interested in working with him on a project, I jumped at the opportunity to work with an author I greatly admired. We became friends when we both wrote stories in the world of Kurt Vonnegut for Kindle Worlds. Since then, I’ve read a number of his books and consider myself a fan. Michael is a workhorse, and frankly, his technique of marketing the story before it’s done scares the hell out of me, but here I am, writing the author’s note on a story that was pitched only thirty-four days ago.
The characters in this book spent a good deal of time talking about books and the publishing industry in general. No matter how you look at it, the industry is in a strange state of flux these days. It’s a great time to be a reader, what with so many writers vying for your attention. Sure, there’s a lot of crap out there—always has been—but there’s a lot of great writing as well, just waiting to be discovered. If it helps, I’m giving you permission to just put down any book that you don’t like. Give it a chapter, or even just a few pages, and if you don’t like it, just walk away. It’s okay, really. Life is too short to read something you don’t like.
Our characters mentioned a good number of authors through the course of this story. I want to assure you that even if Bombo or Alistair insulted your favorite author, that doesn’t mean that Bunker or I feel that way.
Finally, I want to thank you for reading this book, and do hope you consider it time well spent. I know that there are a million other things you could be doing, and investing a few hours on a story from a couple of independent authors should earn you a commendation in my book. But since I left my commendations at home, I’m going to have to ask you for a favor.
Getting readers to notice your book is the hardest part of publishing. Goodreads ads and Facebook posts and Tweets don’t sell a lot of books, but what does are reviews and word of mouth. So, I’m asking you to please take a few minutes more of your precious time to review this book on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Goodreads, Audible, or wherever you might have purchased it. And if you feel like telling a friend or two, well, Bunker and I would certainly appreciate that as well.
Fiction begins in the mind of the author, but it ends with the reader. That makes you part of the team, and we need you to do your part. okay?
That’s all folks.
-Kevin G. Summers
Author’s Note
from Michael Bunker
Bombo Dawson is a comedic character that I made up for my publishing/zombie satire Hugh Howey Must Die! For the most part, Bombo is a cartoonish version of me. He’s not really at all like me, except that he is an accidental bestselling author who finds himself unexpectedly writing books that a lot of people love. Also: Bombo loves food, hates exercise, and doesn't bathe often enough. So actually we may be more alike than I’d like to admit. I’m probably a little more cerebral than Bombo, but maybe if he heard me say that he’d argue the point. Of all the characters I've created as a writer, Bombo is the one about whom I receive the most fan mail and questions. People like the Pennsylvania and WICK stories, but they absolutely LOVE Bombo Dawson. At one point I was receiving an email or two every week from people asking me when there would be another Bombo Dawson story.
A year had passed since HHMD was published, and in all that time I’d intended to write a second Bombo Dawson adventure. But I’d gotten so busy with other projects, I just never seemed to get around to it. I would get wrapped up in these other, more serious projects and I’d start to forget about ol’ Bombo. Then I’d get an email from someone begging for another Bombo Dawson story, or from someone telling me how much Bombo made them laugh, and I’d think… what can I do? Bombo wants to have adventures too!
Okay, while this was happening, over that same year, I'd had maybe ten or twelve other authors contact me about doing some form of collaboration. I love the process of collaboration, and there were so many authors with whom I’d truly want to work, but again… I had so little free time. Unhappily, I kept having to say no.Then a friend (who is also an author) who’d asked to work on a book with me told me about Joe Konrath's brilliant idea for collaboration. Check it out on his blog.
Now, I'm no J.A. Konrath. We can all agree on that. Heck, Joe probably wouldn't even work with me because I'm still relatively unknown, but I have to tell you… his plan was brilliant. Basically it boiled down to this… Authors submit story ideas to Joe that include Joe's character Jacqueline (Jack) Daniels. If Joe approves of the story, the two authors sign a very simple contract and collaborate on the story. Joe takes the story, rewrites it, pays for the cover, editing, formatting, and all publication costs. Then he splits the royalties fifty-fifty with the other author. The other author maintains control, can publish or un-publish whenever he/she wants, and controls all marketing and promotion. For the author it’s a great deal: they get to co-publish with the great Joe Konrath. And Joe gets to help out aspiring author/publishers and gets more titles out there for his readers. Everyone wins.
So this friend suggested that I look into doing something like this. At first I rejected the idea. It seemed like it was a big idea for a big-name author. I'm virtually an unknown and I'm just getting started in my own career. But the reality kept striking me in the face. All of these readers were asking for more Bombo Dawson, and at the same time, other authors were asking me to collaborate. So finally I decided to look into it. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. It seemed to me to be a great way to help out my author friends AND satisfy my own readers.
LEGENDARIUM is the first book out of the chute for the Bombo Dawson franchise, and I hope you’ve really enjoyed it. Well, actually if you count Hugh Howey Must Die!, it’s the second book out of the chute, but it’s the first collaboration in the Bombo series. I hope there will be many more Bombo stories for you to enjoy, and I really hope Kevin will work with me again and perhaps Bombo and Alistair will revisit the Legendarium in the near future! It has been such a joy to work with Kevin (who is a fabulous writer… check him
out!) that I would work with him anytime he wants. No questions asked.
Thank you all so much for reading the book, and I want to revisit what our pretend Tolstoy told Bombo (who told Alistair) in the story…
This story now exists. It is a part of us (the writers), and it is a part of you too. It is now part of the Legendarium. In the old days (before indie publishing), the relationship was very one-sided and mercenary. You parted with your money (or perhaps you borrowed the book from the library) and in exchange, the writer gave you a tale to read. Power brokers decided what books changed the world and what books never got read, or never saw much of the light of day. All of that has changed. The power is now shared equally between author and reader, and everyone else in the chain is just the hired help. This is the way it should be.If you enjoyed this book, like Kevin said… please review it on Amazon. And please force someone else to read it—even if you have to do so at gunpoint. Just kidding (a little). But anything short of gunpoint and we’re on the same page. ;)
Thank you all again!
Your friend and publishing partner,
Michael Bunker
P.S. I’m still taking queries for Bombo Dawson stories. If you have one in you, make sure to drop me a line!
Connect with Michael Bunker:
Website: www.michaelbunker.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MichaelBunker
Twitter: www.twitter.com/mbunker
Subscribe to Michael’s E-mail List
Connect with Kevin G. Summers:
Website: www.kevingsummers.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/KevinGSummersauthor
Twitter: www.twitter.com/KevinGSummers
Subscribe to Kevin’s E-mail List
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