Challenges of an indie author

Obviously, number one is to convince others that it doesn't necessarily mean that the author is necessarily from India.  It took me a while to get that out of my head, especially since I'm a fan of The Big Bang Theory.

Marketing is a pain in the neck. Juggling this, writing, and all other demands on my time (including kids, yard work, house work, getting out of the house once in a while), egad...how dreadful.  If I had more knowledge of how markets worked and to find the right niche of readers most likely to enjoy my book, maybe this wouldn't be so painful.

One nagging bit of inquiry...how do I get my story reviewed by someone who has a reputation?  If only I was on the radar of the NYT or Washington Post, then more people would read it.  I wonder what other indie authors find as stumbling blocks, and more importantly, how to overcome them.

How It Started

What started as a project to help my autistic son with his writing, turned into a novel and eventually a series.  Language arts tend to be a difficult subject for people with autism.  I have two sons, and my older son has autism.  I set out to create a story with the both boys and decided we would do maybe a ten page tale of a superhero duo.  The characters would have my kids' names.  I couldn't decide who was who, so I named one Jimmy Miller temporarily.  Since I envisioned a pair of male heroes, I thought to bring a female character to bring some balance...the Princess Leia of the group, if you will.

I gave her the name Annie because my wife's grandfather had called her this most of her childhood instead of her actual one.  My sister's middle name is Ann and I had a friend, when I was a child, named Annie, short for Anastasia.  She was only eight and tragically died--a victim of a heinous crime.  Anyway, the more I brought the character to life, the more I fell in love with her.  It's a fictional resurrection for that girl I knew who perished way too young.

As for the villains I placed Etyouth (pronounced Et-Youth) in New Mexico not because of the Roswell/UFO/government conspiracy cliche, but I had a grandfather who sexually abused me most of my childhood and had an associate, and both of them went to New Mexico every winter.  He often desired to take me with him and when I was eleven, while my parents' separation was heading towards divorce, he did attempt to abduct me, hoping to abscond with me to his place in New Mexico...only, I ran off.  This was back in the late '70's and early '80's, still the dark ages for sexual abuse, when kids were never believed.

Anyway, not to dwell on my personal childhood trauma, the story in some ways is allegorical to my own background.  However, it's told as a science fiction story. So...this is a behind the scenes look at the evolution of Jimmy Miller, The Super Powerful: Forecast Acid Rain.

Girl Superhero

In the story it's obvious that Jimmy Miller has super powers.  What I don't say on the book in hopes the reader will make this discovery is that his 9-year-old friend Annie Marshall has them, too.  Annie has some terrifying abilities that fortunately she uses for good.  She is somewhat temperamental, so she is likely to strike out in anger.  Jimmy and Annie have powers that they have together that they don't have separate.  Annie has to overcome her mother's struggle with drug and alcohol addiction.  This often charming, manipulative brunette had to deal with an abusive step-father and often living in life-threatening situations.  By all rights she should have more behavioral problems, but her friendship with Jimmy is such a positive influence that she is surprisingly resilient.  Her younger brother, however, has some issues.  Being the preteen that she is she has a crush on singing sensation, Jonathon Bubber. 

Annie is a champion for kids (or former kids) who have dealt their own history with abuse, neglectful parents, foster care, and even school bullying.  Too bad for that step-father who dared to return and attack this girl's mother...he'll never do it again!

Updated book trailer

Here's an update to the book trailer.  The music is obnoxious, so any input or criticism is welcomed!  You can also find it here.
  

Where to buy

Remember, buy it at Amazon in paperback (now 13.99 plus s/h) or for Kindle (3.99 and no s/h).  Also,  buy the paperback here: CreateSpace.   Of course, you may find it other places, such as Barnes and Noble.  The Nook version is also 3.99 and looks good.  Just make sure you get the current revision of the book.  Check eBay because sometimes I will auction a copy starting $0.99.

Chapter 1 excerpt

There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.

Chapter 1:

Captured by Etyouth

(Excerpt)

I could see the mess of blood and human tissue staining its hideous paws and its mouth. There it menacingly stalked me on its hindquarters humanlike with its fangs and claws. Shaking my head and crying quietly, I knew it reduced my entire family to nothing more than shredded flesh. Now it prowled after me. This beast loomed over 50 feet tall and had a dog-like snout. Fluffed brown carpeting covered its body, and it sniffed for me—hungry for my 9-year-old body. It would show no mercy to me so I cowered inside my house, peeking outside the window in the living room. For some reason my house sat furniture-less, and I could see the beast desperate to find me. Carved in red-jagged lettering sprawled across its chest, was a name that read “HTUOYTE.”

As it moved down the street, a girl on a bike came from the other direction. She had light brown hair cascading wildly to her shoulders, deep brown eyes, and freckles. The girl looked familiar, but I couldn’t remember who she was. She couldn’t have been much older than me, but she acted like she didn’t even see the creature. If it couldn’t find me, it would certainly use her as alternative prey. Wearing a halter top and shorts with pink and orange stripes, she pedaled past my house, until she finally noticed the beast. Her face became flush as she realized a meager 20 yards separated them. She didn’t even brake, but bounded right off the still rolling bike, and skidded hard on the pavement. Wincing at her left elbow that now sported a nasty wound she remembered her more pressing, life-threatening problem with the creature now rapidly approaching. That thing would kill her for sure, but she just laid there unsure of what to do!

Even though I wanted to stay safe in my house, I couldn’t let her become the next meal for that beast. Risking my own life, I ran out the front door to the sidewalk she laid on, and I said in my high, nasally child voice, “Get up!” I offered my hand, and she took it. Then, I pulled her up onto her feet. “Run to my house!” So, I gestured towards my front door, which I left wide open. Not wanting her to die, I indicated to her to go ahead of me. At first she stared at me like I was crazy for letting her go first, and the terror in her eyes told me that the creature was closing in right behind me. “Get out of here!” I commanded through my tears, knowing I was making a self-sacrificing choice. She quickly scrambled to the safety of my house, while the beast pounced on me. To this horrific cat, I was a mere mouse. The creature sank its teeth into my body and my bones crunched. Realizing I had been bitten in half, I screamed…

Then I awoke. Thank goodness it was only a dream! But wait! Where was I? Motionless, I lay with all four of my extremities shackled to some kind of dentist-type chair. My arms were bent back over my head, exposing my bare chest. I couldn’t feel anything, my body completely numb. What a nightmare I now faced—worse than the one that invaded my sleep. My heavy eyelids resisted opening. I lost my ability to distinguish reality from fantasy. Something happened to me, but what? Visions of lightning perhaps from a thunderstorm kept escaping from my memory. I struggled to remember.

(You can read all of this chapter if you preview the book on Amazon)

Prologue

PROLOGUE

You should never  swear on live T.V.!  Trust me…your life will suck if you do.  My friend Jimmy Miller found this out the hard way.  In this stupid, crazy, unfair world adults could say whatever the heck they wanted.  However, when a kid, especially a nice one like my friend, says anything like this…well…let’s just say, it can get quite ridiculous.  Before his foul-mouthed slip-up, people only talked about how wonderful he was and how grateful they were that he saved their sorry hind-ends. All I can say is that…they’re all lucky it happened to Jimmy and not me—I would have ripped them each a new you-know-what!

Now, this story really is all about Jimmy told in his words, but before he got his say, I wanted mine.  You see, I don’t care what any of you think.  Jimmy, on the other hand, is a sensitive 9-year-old boy, and for some reason, is obsessed with the world’s opinion of him.  I wanted to give you losers a brief introduction of how he got his super-human abilities before he started his story.  

Who am I?  I’m the girl stuck with being best friends with him.  Don’t get me wrong—I love the kid.  And, it’s partly my fault we ended up with our unique friendship.  Mainly, our screwed-up childhoods brought us together due to events totally out of our control.  Without going too far into my background I will tell you that my mom is a complete mess and although I love her, I’m ashamed of her—for putting drugs over the welfare of my brother and me.  Some of you may wonder if I’m full of anger.  Well, what the heck don’t you understand about all this?  God dealt me a mother who needs her own 9-year-old daughter to look after her—so she won’t screw everything up again! 

Anyway, getting back to Jimmy, there was a time you all were itching to know the details of how he became super powerful.  For those of you losers who still might actually care about the scoop on him, I’ll give you a brief run-down.  You know the government?  I’m talking about like the President and the Congress over in Washington, D.C.?  Well, you see, these geniuses gave a ton of money to a corporation called Etyouth, meaning “Eternal Youth.”  The money went to fund several research projects to “improve” human life, and the greatest effort went into the engineering of genetically-altered food.  When my friend Jimmy was four, his mom died of an aggressive form of ovarian cancer, and Etyouth, subsequently, hired his dad, scientist Robert James Miller, as head researcher, developing fruits, vegetables, and grains that would provide unprecedented health benefits, such as immunity to ailments like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and general stupidity.  To combat the rising number of obese people in our country, the food hopefully would fool the human body into thinking it was exercising, even if someone never physically moved off the couch.  Due to the fact Etyouth and the government wished to keep this top secret, they restricted employees from leaving the facility, located near a military base in the New Mexican desert.

Jimmy lived there, too, with his dad in an apartment provided to employees.  With no other children around, he lived in a world surrounded by adults.  Instead of school, he learned through private tutors.  Etyouth built a playground for his exclusive use, providing him a cocker spaniel for companionship.  All this drastically changed when William McDonnell, the director of the corporation, decided to use Jimmy as a guinea pig to test out the experimental food.  He didn’t even notify his father!

Before Jimmy, the animals previously used for testing died—every single one!  Every day he ate his lunch at the employee cafeteria, but Etyouth secretly prepared a special plate just for him.  He swallowed it all, completely unaware of what he just put in his body.  Over time he became very sick, eventually sliding into a coma, necessitating a stay at the military hospital.  A month went by before he came to, but he quickly recovered, fully regaining his health.  Etyouth resumed their research efforts on Jimmy, until his dad found out.  Robert had some time to eat lunch with his son in the cafeteria, and he briefly filled in for the cashier who needed a bathroom break.  He happened to stumble upon the head cook preparing Jimmy’s meal, and instantly recognized the experimental food.

Enraged, he confronted William McDonnell, terminating his employment at Etyouth.  Instead, though, they placed Robert and Jimmy under house arrest.  Major Camp, head of security, ordered their apartment under guard 24 hours a day.  One night during torrential rainfall, Robert and Jimmy escaped out the bathroom window, climbing aboard the SUV they utilized around the compound and military base.  Unfortunately, off-duty security officers spotted them, spurring Camp to mobilize a chase.  They quickly overtook Robert and Jimmy, the squadron of Camp’s men blockading the vehicle, and dragged them both outside into the mud, placing them in handcuffs.  Major Camp mercilessly beat Robert several times, as the horrified Jimmy cried out in protest.  However, in an amazing feat of strength, Jimmy broke out of the handcuffs, ran over to his dad, and pushed Camp into the side of the SUV so hard, it knocked him out.  Breaking his father’s handcuffs, helping him to his feet, they proceeded to run on foot, hand-in-hand, as the security guards rushed after them, some of them slipping on the mucky, desert floor.  Much to their surprise, Jimmy and his dad accelerated at an incredible speed, eventually breaking the sound barrier with a boom.  Their velocity exponentially increased and for a brief moment, they stepped out of time and space. When they stopped, they found themselves in a swamp in the Florida Everglades.

While struggling to figure out their new surroundings, not to mention the unusual circumstance of how they ended up there, a 15 foot alligator bolted out of the water, seizing Robert by the neck, plunging him into the bottom of the shallow swamp.  Jimmy rushed over and pried the animal’s jaws open, releasing his dad from what should have been certain death.  Getting underneath the reptile’s body, he hurled it away.  As Jimmy dragged his dad to more solid ground, he detected a broken neck.  Then, while Jimmy held him, Robert’s injury miraculously healed.  Using Jimmy’s new found running speed, they departed the swamp.  They arrived at the front door of his grandparents in Sturgis, Michigan, where they lived for about a month. 
During this time they discovered more of Jimmy’s super-human abilities.  Aside from having quick speed, they realized that his body developed hardness greater than diamonds, making him nearly indestructible.  They eventually determined all his powers as follows:  invulnerability, extraordinary speed, molecular manipulation, healing the injured or sick, walking through solid objects, lifting up to 2000 pounds, and exceptional buoyancy in water.  Oh, and did I mention that he could fly as fast as he could run?

Not only that, Jimmy could transform into a man in an instant, and his powers changed as an adult.  He acquired infinite strength, but lost much of his speed, most of his molecular manipulation, and all of his healing ability. However, he retained his capability to fly, but like I said, much slower.  The most impressive attribute had to be when he went colossal, something only possible in his adult form.  He grew into a giant over 50 feet tall with almost the same amount of infinite strength, but he couldn’t fly and he did not have any exceptional speed.  However, he did cover a lot of ground in a single step.  In review, Jimmy’s powers changed depending on the form he took—child, adult, or colossal.

Eventually, they settled into a house of their own in Battle Creek, Michigan, where Jimmy would attend a regular school for the first time.  He and his dad tried to assume a life as ordinary as possible, fearing that one day Etyouth would catch up to them.  And when they did, Jimmy would display his powers in front of the whole world, dragging even me, his best friend Annie Marshall, into a dangerous, yet extraordinary adventure.  

So now that you all know a little bit about him, get ready for Jimmy to tell his story.  As for me, I've got better things to do.