Alberty's Blah Blah Blog

Answering questions about the Galadahnia Web Project

I do apologize if this is a repeat for some of you. You have seen this already, if you are on my Galadahn mailing list. But I have had some people ask me questions about the Galadahia Web Project, so here is a reprint of that email.

I only have until January 13^th to fund my Galadahnia Web Project, and I am now 1/3 of the way there.

Questions & Answers

What’s the Galadahnia Web Project?

The GWP is a website that will serialize a fantasy trilogy that I’ve written. Each week, people will be able to go to it and read the next chapter for free. They can also download it to an e-reader or download an audiobook version of each chapter.

Why not just publish your book?

Well, that’s kind of like saying, “Why don’t you just make a movie.” Getting a book published is really tough right now. Trust me: I’ve tried. Even in publishing’s heyday, Stephen King received thousands of rejections before his first book was published. Also, creating my own website does several things for me. It allows me to keep creative control of my novel. It also allows me to get my work out there and let people read it.

How are you going to make any money from this?

I might not. If the GWP gets funded from the Kickstarter site then I have a better chance of making money. In theory I will be able to sell ad space on the Galadahnia web site. That way people will be able to read my novel for free, but I will still be able to get a little cash from the work I’ve done.

Why do you need so much money?

Simple: I don’t have the web skills to do what I really want done. I have to pay someone else to create the site for me. I could just use basic blogging software, but my dream is so much more than just a serialized blog site. I want the GWP to be interactive.

What do you mean by wanting the GWP to be interactive?

It will be more than just a serialized site:

There will be a web page for people to interact with maps of the world I created.

There will be an encyclopedia of the world of Galadahn.

People will be able to send in questions that will eventually expand the encyclopedia and the world itself.

I also want people to be able to write spin-off stories based in my world. They will be able to upload those stories to the GWP for other people to read.

They will also be able to upload their own images and music to the site.

That’s what I mean by interactive.

That sounds pretty ambitious!

That’s what the money is for. This is a donor funded grant. The only way I get to do this project is if people donate money to grant the project.

Say I donate money through your Kickstarter site. What happens if you don’t reach your financial goal?

If I don’t reach my goal, your transaction is not processed. You don’t lose any money. In fact, I don’t get any money unless I have at least $6000 in pledges to my project.

That’s a lot of money. Who gets it?

Well, Kickstarter gets a little of it, as well as Amazon who charges a fee for processing all the transactions. But the lion’s share of it will go to the web designer who has designed the site and will create it for me. Money will also go to my illustrator who has been working gratis for a couple of years now. I also will pay the guy who created the cool video on my project site.

What do you want me to do?

Well, even a donation of $5 or $10 would help. But one of more the important things you could do is forward this email to friends and relatives — people you think might find it interesting.

I truly believe this is a groundbreaking new form of publishing: the interactive, serialized, online novel. Please help me break this new ground by spreading the word about the Galadahnia Web Project.

And don’t forget to click on this link — Kickstarter.com — to donate money and find out more about the Galadahnia Web Project.

Please feel free to contact me with any more questions or comments. Just hit contact me in the menu.

Thanks.

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I took a leave of absence from teaching to write my first novel called Darnan, an eponymous eco-fantasy about a young dwarf who has found himself on the adventure of a lifetime. I worked on it five days a week for about nine months, writing anywhere from 500 to 2000 words a day.

Now, if you’re not a writer, 500 words in a day may not sound like a lot. Our most prolific living writer, Stephen King, averages 2000 words a day. And when he says day, he means day. I was working only in the morning. Writing even 500 good words a day is tough.

I had the idea for Darnan years ago. In fact, the first three chapters had been sitting around for about five years before I decided that I had to finish it. Writers like to call that nesting. I had time to build a hell of a nest.

As I was writing Darnan, I had the luxury of having a writing friend edit each chapter as they came off the printer. That really helped to focus my writing and give me almost instant feedback, so things changed as the writing continued.

I also started with a pretty good outline. But the book really did take on a life of itself. Some of the major characters popped in from nowhere and have stayed for a long time. And many of the events surprised me as they occurred. I had even planned to have my main character and his love interest get it on during a scene that I had outlined. But things occurred — as they do in real life — and that magic just wasn’t there, and it subsequently won’t ever be, because the plot has taken a turn and they have grown apart from each other. That was a true surprise.

Another surprise was the length. I had planned on this story taking only one novel. But as the writing continued it became clear that the scope of Darnan’s journey, the nature of his quest, and the breadth of the world I had created was going to take considerably longer to work out. By the time I was done with Darnan, it was 90,000 words long. That’s a book around 375 pages. I was kind of shocked.

It also meant that I had to continue, which scares me a little.

But it forced me to rethink the concept of the project. And that really got my juices going. I love my concept and I shopped it around for a while. I got nothing but rejection letters.

Well, that’s not true. I got a publisher in New York that was interested in it. But they had never published a fantasy novel before. The first thing they wanted me to do was to get rid of the Dwarven language. I asked my friends who had read the book. They were split down the middle, half saying do it, the other half saying it would be crazy to get rid of it.

I was pretty conflicted until I looked at who was saying get rid of the language and who was saying to keep it. To a person, the people who told me to keep the language were avid fantasy readers. The people who told me to get rid of it were either casual fantasy readers or, in the case of my wife, fantasy novel haters. (It’s always good to have a dissenter in your camp. It makes you fight for what you believe in.)

That event made me want to retain creative control of the book. Which led me to my next epiphany.

I want to publish it on the web. Not only that, I want to create an entire web universe around the world I created for the novel: the world of Galadahn.

Here is an explanation of my project, as clear as I can make it.

There are three web components to The Galadahnia Web Project:

The Novels Page

This page consists of the serialized chapters of the Galadahnia Trilogy. Each week a new chapter is released to the web site. Along with the text on the web site, readers can download the chapters to an e-reader, and they download the audiobook version of the chapter.

The World Page

This page consists of an interactive map of the world of Galadahn as well as an Encyclopedia that deals with that world. Readers will be able to mouse over the map and click on links that will explain cities or regions. Other links on the map will take them to the chapters that take place on that spot in the map.

The Encyclopedia will act as an annotated text for the content of the novels. As people read online they can click on a word or phrase such as “Galzharlich Gom, the festival of the Great Elves’ Door.” Clicking that link will take them to the encyclopedia entry for that item, which will explain the history of the festival as well as any legends or famous poems or events connected to that festival.

This part of the site has serious cool potential. But it gets better.

The Fan Page

This page consists of several components. There will be a “Mead Hall” for readers that will act as a chat room or a comments page. There will be a “Library” where readers can upload their own stories based in the world of Galadahn. There will be a “Museum” where readers can upload art and music created with the world in mind. And there will be a “Book of Wonders” where readers can submit questions and suggestions that will be incorporated into the map or the encyclopedia.

This is my dream. And I think it’s a cool one.

I have friends that don’t get it. And I understand that. They don’t think people will have the time or the interest to visit a site like this. But they also don’t get the EverQuests (700,000 users) and the World of Warcrafts (12 mil.) and the Second Lifes (690,000) and the Farmvilles (63 mil.).

I feel like I am at the cusp of something really remarkable and ingenious. I am standing on one side of this great chasm and I can see the silver city across the way, a new world shimmering and beckoning on the far side of the cliff. And there is no bridge.

I am not an engineer, so I have to find or pay for someone to build this bridge for me.

That is what I am trying to do with the Kickstarter Grant Site.

If the idea of The Galadahnia Web Site is even remotely intriguing to you, please click here. It will take you to my Kickstarter Grant Site.

Please send this blog post to anyone you think might find it intriguing. I only have until January 13^th to reach my funding goal. If I don’t reach $6000 in pledges by that date, then I don’t get any money for this project.

Help me build my bridge to a new world.

Thanks.

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Happy New Year!

Boy, a lot of stuff to talk about.

Blog Format

The first thing I want to discuss is a bit of a format change in Alberty’s Blah Blah Blog. I did a pretty good job of daily posting last year, but not a great job. I was actually surprised at the stress it added to my life. The stress was a bit unnecessary, since it was a self-imposed thing. It got particularly stressful when I had some paying writing gigs. So, this year I am pulling back to three posts a week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We’ll see how that works.

Resolutions

I hate resolutions. Mostly because I have such a lack of discipline that I end up feeling bad about something otherwise innocuous. After some reflection, I think my problem is that I over-resolve, I simply over-estimate what I am able to do: “I am going to lose 30 pounds this year.” “I am going to work out every day!” Bullshit. Not happening. So here are my hopefully realistic resolutions.

I will remember to put the receipts in the receipts thingy. This is a domestic thing that we are trying to do to get a better grasp of our finances. I started off with an easy on, okay.

I will work out at least once a week. This may seem pathetic. Okay, it is pathetic, but honestly, that’s about all I can give right now. I have a Total Body Gym in my downstairs bathroom. I actually don’t mind working out on this thing. When I was cleaning the basement this weekend I set it up, so it’s ready to go. All I have to do is decide to do it. This “work out” could also be walking, which will be easier once spring rolls around.

I will meditate at least once a week. Again, pathetic, but attainable … I think. I love meditating. I haven’t done it since before my son was born. I am in such a better place when I do meditate, it’s kind of stupid that I don’t do it.

Part of my problem is time — isn’t that everyone’s problem? I’m either taking care of the boy, which is my most important job, or I am working on writing when he’s napping. Sometimes I’m doing housework. Sometimes I’m so tired I have to nap when he’s napping. By the time my wife comes home I’m pretty tapped. I cook dinner, then I usually just want to do nothing. If I’m directing then I’m gone at night.

Goings On

I’ve got a couple projects already in the works for this year.

I am directing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for our theatre this spring. Auditions are in March and the show opens in May. This is going to be a tough show for me. It’s a large cast. There are at least four kids (I don’t feel like I’m very good directing kids). The script really isn’t that good. And most everyone will come in having seen the movie. We are not Broadway: we don’t have the budget and the wherewithal to do a movie on stage. This show kind of scares me.

I’ve got three more Writers Room shows: February, April, and June. These involve meetings and writing and performing.

And the Galadahnia Web Project. Things aren’t looking good for Galadahnia right now. We need $6000 dollars in pledges on our Kickstarter site. Right now we only have $915 in pledges with 10 days to go. If we don’t reach the $6000 in the next 10 days then we don’t get any of it. That means I can’t afford to have the site built. We’ll see what happens.

Finally, I have been commissioned to write a play, so that is a big number on the list.

A New Year is kind of like a do-over, a bit of a mulligan. Even though, in reality, it is merely a conceptual artifice that we’ve all agreed to. But, like so many things we deal with, it’s all about perspective.

I’m looking for a positive perspective in 2011.

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