Free copy - As Angels Weep, v2

The SMASHWORDS sale is over, and because of the late posting I had only a week of the month-long sale to put the new Juno Letters book - As Angels Weep - out for review. So I have decided to offer an ebook version for the months of August on my website and through this blog as I do the final revisions and edits.

If you are interested, go to: As Angels Weep - Bookcard and simply follow the directions.

The ebook is available in all popular formats - but only through August.

Book 5 is in full swing and I am developing a whole new spate of characters I think you will enjoy, as well as a twisting plot. You can read a teaser of The Scavengers of Graveny Marsh at this link.

Good reading this summer!

As Angels Weep - at SMASHWORDS

"As Angels Weep" is now available at SMASHWORDS in all popular ebook formats. It will be FREE as a part of the SMASHWORDS SUMMER-WINTER SALE (don't ask my what the name is about - I never could figure it out) until July 31. The Print-on-Demand version through CreateSpace is in review, and barring any missteps on my part should be ready in a few days.

Finally publishing a new novel is one of the great joys of writing. It takes over four months to create one of these masterpieces (my review - might not be supported by peer review). I will be passing the completed manuscript to California Times Publishing next week for inclusion in the Amazon catalog.

In the meantime, Kindle users can download a version for their reader from SMASHWORDS, as well as iBook users (the epub version). The enhanced iBook version will be ready by the end of August.

For you audiobook fanatics - my most favorite readers - Gary Regal has promised me he can start working on "As Angels Weep" right after school starts.

In the meantime, I have started Book 5 of The Juno Letters series - The Scavengers of Graveny Marsh. You can read a teaser online at THIS LINK.

A quick note ...

I have finally completed "As Angels Weep" - book 4 of The Juno Letters series. Now the task of publishing rears its ugly head ... or spine, depending on your preference of format. Look for an announcement of the published product by the end of the month.

I have begun to write Book 5, and have outlined a basic story. The tentative title is "The Scavengers" (aka, The Market Lady). There has always been a lot of speculation that General George Patton was assassinated - conspiracy theorists love that one. But did you know there was a plot to assassinate him right before D-Day? No? Can't find it in the history books? Maybe because you will only find it here, at The Juno Letters! More to come.

Wish I Was Here - a film by Zach Braff

The Indie movement needs to support its own, and we have a great opportunity to send a clear message to the status quo in the movie industry. Zach Braff has produced and directed a crowd-funded movie called "Wish I Was Here" - a comedy drama. In the great tradition of Star Wars, Jaws, and Star Trek the studio executives rejected the movie. It took a crowd-funding effort to raise the $2M to begin the project - a feat accomplished in only 48 hours.

Regardless of its eventual commercial success, "Wish I Was Here" sends a message to the film and publishing establishments - your business models are broken. The power is shifting to the creative people, and you'd better change or ... . Well, maybe that's a little too "social media" but you get the point.

Go see it when it hits the move theaters and celebrate a victory of Indie over The Black Death. (I may have had too much coffee this morning.)

More information online at: Wish I Was Here

Meet Three Angels - As Angels Weep

Book 4 of The Juno Letters series is "As Angels Weep" - inspired by this photograph taken in the 1930s. It is the story of the Kindertransport - the effort by people of conscience throughout Europe who worked to save its children:

Throughout Nazi-occupied Europe, amidst tyranny and terror, common people gathered around their kitchen tables and plotted treason. It was a crime against the state to save a life.

"As Angels Weep" is the story of just three of the survivors hidden during the Holocaust by these quiet heroes. They remain mostly anonymous. We can never know how many there were. We can never know their names. We must be content to know they existed, and stood against a great evil ... alone and resolute.

I used these three girls as the heroines of the story - and their picture gave me inspiration through the tough times, fighting writer's block, juggling story pieces, thinking "why am I doing this?" and finally finishing the first draft, and going into editing.

Look for "As Angels Weep" - Book 4 of The Juno Letters in August.

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Interested in trying an AUDIO Book? A limited number of free audio book coupons for The Juno Letters - Book 1 and Cross of Fire - Book 2 are available from AUDIOBOOKS.COM, an Amazon company ... email me at larryh@hewittmbm.com for information and the FREE COUPON.

D-Day 70 years ago

Seventy years ago today in the greatest amphibious assault in history the forces of freedom stormed the beaches of Normandy to liberate western Europe. As a student of history, I studied D-Day from nearly every angle, but nothing prepared me for what I felt as I dug my hands into the sands of Omaha and Juno beaches, and peered over the cliffs at Point du Hoc. I stood in the German command bunker overlooking the approaches to Courseulles harbor and imagined what the young German officer in charge would have seen - staring into the face of a sea of ships.

Men died on the beaches, in the flooded fields, and in the hedgerows. French civilians died in the bombardments, from the shells of tanks, the assault of infantry. By the end of the day, Allied forces carved out a thin foothold on the continent. The communes at Courseulles and Berniers were among the first to be liberated. The film of the Canadians landing at Berniers is one of the iconic images of this, the longest day.

I wrote The Juno Letters to commemorate the sacrifices of all who faced that terrible morning. It is a small effort, insignificant in the scheme of things. When I think of what these men faced, I am humbled beyond words.

I had planned to be there today, but one of my foster boys graduates from high school today. I have to be content to know that The Juno Letters books are there in the museum bookstore, and my heart is standing with all those who served on the beaches in spirit.

God bless you.

The Story Draft

How do you write?

On Linkedin there are several writers' groups that share ideas regularly. One of the ongoing discussions is about methodology - how writers craft a story, whether they write to a conclusion or let the conclusion flow from the creative aspect. As you can imagine, there are many different styles. Some are notorious outliners, and plan every detail before they begin. Others rely on more fluid process, and let the story "talk to them."

I am definitely a free-writer - thanks to a class I took years ago at Evergreen College from Peter Elbow, one of the country's sage authors and professors of writing. I write in what I call "snippets" - disconnected pieces of stories within a general theme. And the word "general" is used very loosely.

But you cannot write a novel this way. At some point you have to begin the process of assembling all these ideas and fitting them together. This is where I use my "Story Draft." The Story Draft is a spreadsheet that serves as an outline that I make when I have completed about 2/3 of the initial writing - but it is much more than that.

Each of my snippets is numbered by chapter and section, and the spreadsheet lists the number of words in each. In "As Angels Weep" - book 4 of The Juno Letters - I have five parallel stories that follow the lives of three girls who have escaped from Berlin, a Gestapo captain consumed with finding them, and the investigator seeking to locate the girls as women in the present day. Each of these separate stories were included in a single chapter initially and written pretty much from start to finish - by sections. The completed book, however, would be difficult to follow that way. That is where the number comes into play.

My story draft comes together when I take my snippet listings and rearrange them in the logical sections and breaks which become the final chapters. The numbering lets me easily find them in the initial manuscript and allows me to move sections around easily - renumbering as I go. The word numbering allows me to keep the groups of sections balanced so I don't inadvertently skew the narrative one way or another. I also color code certain relevant sub-ideas so I can make summaries of such things as sections primarily dialog, narrative, girl 1 story, back story, etc. I can tell at a glance where I have to make improvements.

When the first story draft is completed, I print the document and do editing manually - often moving sections around. It is very easy to simply make a note - "Insert 10.3 before 12.6" - for example. It also shows me where I need to cut or add narrative to achieve the balance I am after.

I am about halfway through the story draft of "As Angels Weep" and discovered that I have overwritten one girl's story and left out some important parts of the "back story" - the present day narrative. The spreadsheet view shows these anomalies clearly.