My First Novel, The City of Smoke & Mirrors is now Available!

Today, a friend of mine attended Phoenix ComicCon. She told me in advance that Kevin Eastman was going and that she planned on meeting him. I immediately asked if she would mind delivering a copy of my book to him. She was ecstatic to do so, since she loves Dill and has drawn him a couple of times. She gave him a copy, explained that it was free, and said that the Turtles were a big influence on the work. He said, "Oh neat!" and was visibly thrilled to get a copy.

And now...I have photographic proof that he has a copy....



Holy shit.

HOLY SHIT.

Kevin "Co-Creator of the Ninja Turtles" Eastman has a copy of my book.

KEVIN FLIPPING EASTMAN HAS A COPY OF MY BOOK.

...

:aaah:
 
Sorry to necro the thread again, but this is relevant enough.

When my book first came out, many of mine friends shared the Amazon link to help me promote it. A friend of a friend of mine, on the recommendation, ordered it and loved it.

She loved it so much, in fact, that she's decided to use The City of Smoke & Mirrors...in her high school classroom!

She'll be using it to talk about the progression of plot, character development, and all the other good stuff that comes with writing a story.

Check out this board she put together. She'll send me more pictures soon because I want to know what the "best part" card says. :D

 

Dave

Staff member
Yeah...that's...not going very well. :(
I hear ya. Just the fact you got the first one out was amazing. Writing books is a lot harder than most people think. But you know what? You've DONE IT! And that means you can do it again.
 

Dave

Staff member
You know, have you ever thought about the sequel actually being a prequel? You could tell the story of how Dil and Don Kimodo met and why they are at odds...
 
You know, have you ever thought about the sequel actually being a prequel? You could tell the story of how Dil and Don Kimodo met and why they are at odds...
Who's Dil and Kimodo? Unless you mean DILL (two L's :)) and KOMODO (like a Komodo dragon). :p

But honestly? Nah, I'm not really one for prequels. Part of how I wanted to write this series was as a series of mostly self-contained adventures like the old pulps. Moving forward, rather than looking back.

But yeah, as I said in the Rant thread (or was it the Whine thread? Can't remember), I'm struggling even with a brand new adventure that I started from scratch, putting the other sequel on the back burner for now.
 
Dave might have the right idea. Not that the next book must be a prequel, but maybe the reason book 2 is giving such trouble is because it's not a story ready to be told yet. Maybe come up with a different Dillo mystery/story to tell next and then come back to the one you're trying to do later on.[DOUBLEPOST=1388934123,1388933967][/DOUBLEPOST]
http://twistedsense.com/2014/01/har...e-the-city-of-smoke-and-mirrors-by-nickpiers/

Well, this was unexpected. Someone reviewed my book recently. I'm pretty certain I didn't give this one out to them for a review, either.
If you'd just fixed the ones I told you to, those typos wouldn't have been there :p.
 
Dave might have the right idea. Not that the next book must be a prequel, but maybe the reason book 2 is giving such trouble is because it's not a story ready to be told yet. Maybe come up with a different Dillo mystery/story to tell next and then come back to the one you're trying to do later on.
That's exactly what I did...and now I'm struggling with THAT book, instead.[DOUBLEPOST=1388934189,1388934131][/DOUBLEPOST]
If you'd just fixed the ones I told you to, those typos wouldn't have been there :p.
I thought I got them all. :(
 
That's exactly what I did...and now I'm struggling with THAT book, instead.
If your fingers and eyes and computer work, you can write. Put words down. It doesn't have to make sense, it doesn't have to fit with the rest, because even if you write something shitty, you've then eliminated one possible route, and maybe discovered something that could work in the long run. Make sure to get to the end of the story, even if the last third of it doesn't match up with the previous two, even if a character's personality has changed entirely, even if you've written it in a way that makes you have to change or scrap a bunch of other stuff. Then go through the whole thing and fix it. It's much easier to fix a broken story once it exists than to try to fix something in your head that doesn't exist.

The important thing is to get something out. So what if you have to re-write a lot of it? At least that's getting something done, which is not the case when you second guess yourself into writer's block.
 
It's funny how one review and a little bit of social networking makes all the difference. Today, when the review went up, several people passed along the link, tagging me in the process. I gained about half a dozen new Twitter followers in the process.

One follower shared a link for a free consultation with a gentlemen by the name of Dan L. Hays. I was hesitant, of course, because it was only for a 20 minute consultation on getting more publicity for your work. But I'm honestly glad I did because he turned out to be a really great fellow. He had a lot of helpful ideas, like buying a domain name for both nickpiers.com and nickcpiers.com, then having said domain names automatically redirect to my blog. At least for now, until I decide to do a full-sized website. He also gave me some great suggestions to spruce up my blog a little to really emphasize my book, like more links to its Amazon page and such.

The big thing he suggested in focusing on the Amazon page, though, is something I can't believe I hadn't considered. And this is where you guys come in:

For anyone here that has read my book, even if you don't think it was a full monty, 5-star gig, could you please write a review (however long you want) on Amazon? @Dave, I know you had some issues with it and you're welcome to voice those. Not everyone is going to think it's the ZOMG GRETIST BUK EVAH and I think the reviews should show that.

Do so for @Zero Esc's book while you're at it, too!
 
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For anyone here that has read my book, even if you don't think it was a full monty, 5-star gig, could you please write a review (however long you want) on Amazon? @Dave, I know you had some issues with it and you're welcome to voice those. Not everyone is going to think it's the ZOMG GRETIST BUK EVAH and I think the reviews should show that.

Do so for @Zero Esc's book while you're at it, too!
I'm ahead of the game--wrote my review when it first came out!

And thanks for plugging, Nick, but I think the only person who read mine already reviewed it.[DOUBLEPOST=1388956838,1388956307][/DOUBLEPOST]No need for hugs :p. I don't think the self-publishing game is for me and I'm gonna look for an agent for the book.
 

Dave

Staff member
I loved DILL, Nick! I thought some of the phrases were a tad forced and Dill's temper was kind of erratically written, but I think the same thing of the Dresden books and I love them as well. Hell, I've read your book at least three times and my daughter has read it as well.
 
I loved DILL, Nick! I thought some of the phrases were a tad forced and Dill's temper was kind of erratically written, but I think the same thing of the Dresden books and I love them as well. Hell, I've read your book at least three times and my daughter has read it as well.
Whoa, you hadn't said your daughter read it, too. That's awesome. :D

But yeah, if you could put some of those thoughts together and write up a short review on its Amazon page? I'd highly appreciate it!
 

Dave

Staff member
Done. Be aware that my reviews show up under my wife's name since we share an Amazon account.
 
Whoa, you hadn't said your daughter read it, too. That's awesome. :D

But yeah, if you could put some of those thoughts together and write up a short review on its Amazon page? I'd highly appreciate it!
Hey, I think this has been asked but I can't remember: is it better for you if I buy a physical copy vs on the Kindle?
 
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