Trusting the Journey

Posted Sonlight Press Author, Author Blog, Faith, Gabby Wells, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells - Book 2, Gabby Wells - Book 3, Gabby Wells - Book 5, Gabby Wells - Novella 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Novel, Novella, Screenplay, Writing

God never seems to draw a straight line. I wish he did.  It’d sure make life a lot easier. The path I’ve been on in writing the Gabby Wells Thrillers is one of the most convoluted one could conceive.  Two years ago, almost to the day, I posted about this strange unfolding.  Back then I […]

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Kneel & Prey – The Proof is in the Proof

Posted Sonlight Press Gabby Wells, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Independent Publishing, Novel, Novella, Screenplay, Writing

It took eight years to get my original idea into a printed book.  Through three screenplays, two 13-episode television series scripts, two novels that were scrubbed and four novellas that were augmented, Kneel & Prey, the kick off of the Gabby Wells Thriller series, is finally complete. It was a long journey with far more […]

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Kneel & Prey Draft Complete

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Blog, Gabby Wells, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells Novel, Novel, Novella, Writing

It’s taken writing over 500,000 words to get here. From the first attempt of converting 13 television scripts into a novel to 100 drafts later to a near finished product to tossing it out and starting over.  From turning the idea of five novels into five novellas and five novels to then deciding to write […]

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Off to the Beta Readers

Posted Sonlight Press Author Blog, Gabby Wells - Book 1, Gabby Wells - Book 2, Gabby Wells - Book 3, Gabby Wells Novel, Novel, Novella, Writing

I’m relieved. The first novel, Kneel & Prey, has been sent out to our first group of Beta Readers.  These readers will read the book and let us know of any outstanding issues with the plot, character or grammar that we missed. Sending it off to Beta Readers is an important step.  It means you’re […]

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The Ampersand Dilemma

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novel, Novella

Now that we’re turning the novellas into novels, we’ll have to change some of the titles.  Here’s why. The original titles of the five books included an ampersand.  The first two are Water & Blood and Shadows & Lies.  For marketing purposes, we’d want to make all of the titles consistent, so we’re going to […]

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Word Count and Finding Your Voice

Posted Pete Bauer Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novel, Novella, Word Count, Writing

I finished the first draft of Lost & Found this week and the writing process for this novel allowed me to finally find the correct voice and tone for all of the Gabby Wells novels.  It was weird to me that it took two novels (that have since been trashed) and three novellas to find […]

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Writing as a Business

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novel, Novella, story telling, Writing

Whether you are independently published or traditionally published, the majority of the ownership for your success falls on your shoulders.  It is up to the author to write good stuff, build a fan base, establish beta readers and street teams and marketing plans. It’s why real writers treat writing as a business.  It’s where the […]

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Life After Gabby

Posted Pete Bauer Faith, Gabby Wells, Novel, Novella, Writing

The completion of the Gabby Wells storyline will take me some time.  A couple of years.  Not including the time it took to convert screenplays into novels that have since been tossed, just getting the novellas written, edited and published will probably take a year in total. We’ll release the novellas, one at at time, […]

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Word Count and Wreaking Hovac

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Gabby Wells, Novella, Word Count, Writing

Been very efficient this past week, typing out over 12,000 words.  I’m nearing the end of the first draft of Lost & Found and I must say I’ve really enjoyed putting Gabby through hell. Writers have an odd relationship with the characters they love.  They create them, cherish them, give them hopes, dreams, goals, loves […]

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Writing is a Lot Like Golf… or an Ex-Girlfriend.

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Blog, Gabby Wells, Novella, Writing

Writing is a lot like golf. It only takes one good swing to keep you hacking away for another 18 holes. While working on the first draft of Lost & Found I inadvertently setup a really awesome situation.  The options were limitless.  With that came pressure not to screw it up. So, I tentatively started […]

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Word Count and 50,000

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novella, Word Count, Writing

Plotting out Lost & Found has really come in handy.  In a week I’ve written nearly 8,000 words.  The story is humming along.  I’m about half-way through, so it should end up in the 30,000 – 40,000 range, like the rest. I have been amazed how changes in the market, or new information I have […]

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Wordcount and Writing Backwards

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Blog, Gabby Wells, Novella, story telling, Word Count, Writing

I’ve been chugging along slowly, but surely.  Mostly slowly.  I was able to draft almost 7500 words on the Lost & Found novella before I slowed things down.  I realized that I knew the end of the story, but some of the middle parts were fuzzy. And, since I was diving head first into writing […]

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Word Count & Novella 3 (Really 2)

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Gabby Wells, Novella, Word Count, Writing

I finally finished the first draft of Skyway, one of the novellas of our five novella series.  It’s placement in the series has shifted, as I mentioned before, moving from novella #2, to novella #4.  The current word count is just over 40,000 and will probably need another 2,000-3,000 when all is said and done. […]

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Independent Publishing

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Blog, Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novel, Novella, Writing

It’s time to dump the term “self-publishing.”  Lets call it what it really is, independent publishing. A decade ago, the only legitimate way to get your book to the masses was through the traditional publishing houses.  Sure, there were some print-on-demand options available, but the quality of those books suffered in comparison.  The marketplace also […]

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Word Count & Nearing the Finish Line

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novella, Word Count, Writing

Getting over the hump sure has helped.  In a little over a week I was able to write 10,000 words and probably have another 3,000 ahead of me before putting Skyway aside. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, the scope and placement of Skyway has changed and the ripple effect of those changes […]

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Shifting and Shuffling

Posted Pete Bauer Author, Faith, Gabby Wells, Marketing, Novel, Novella, Writing

Funny thing about writing.  It’s a lot like life.  Just when you think you’ve got it all planned out, it changes right before your eyes. I’m nearing the completion of the second novella Skyway in our five novella Gabby Wells series.  The goal of the novellas was to introduce the readers to the characters and […]

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