Plot twist.

  

I have had a slow week working on the project. I have gotten stuck on a plot twist. I’ve worked the story, or the story has worked itself, to a point that I am not sure what direction it should go. I guess you could also call it writers block. When this happens to me I try looking for inspiration in all sorts of places, but mainly in artwork. They say that a picture paints a thousand words and I can look at an obscure work of art and see a whole story some times, but even this is not working for me this time. I think I will take a bit of a break from the story and instead turn my attention to editing the work that I have already finished. This too can allow me to see something that I have already done in a new way giving me a new idea that I had not thought of or taking me in a new direction. Until next time . . .

Good Luck and keep writing.

Morgan

Title to be determined

With my latest book project (title to be determined) I may have bitten off more than I can handle. To refresh your memory, because I have not posted a blog in several months, I am working on a photo novel. That is a graphic novel done entirely with photo illustrations. I have been working on it none stop for several months now and I have only finished the photos for the introduction and first chapter of the story. And when I say, “finished” I mean taken. I will still have to edit those photos and add text to them to be able to call them finished.

Even thou this project is becoming bigger than I thought it would be I am not giving up. In fact I am more committed then ever. The sets, miniatures, and characters that I have created for this project so far are amazing. I love looking at what I have done and if I am enjoying it this much I am sure that you will too.

I received a boost of energy and inspiration when I revisited one of my favorites, Wallace & Gromit, by Nick Park. On his fist project, A Grand Day Out, Park was working a lot like I am currently, by himself and creating all the props and puppets on his own. That first film took him seven years to complete.

On my previous projects the average number of finished photographs was 25. On this project I am up to 1600 (unedited) and I am less than half way through. The number of finished photos will be less than half of that but still that is a big difference.

I am also trying to stay true to my style of not allowing the photos to tell the whole story. This is becoming a challenge for some of the chapters but I am still up to this challenge. I have, and will go through periods of despair with this book but I just have to stay with it and keep telling myself that it will be worth it. Also there have been, and will be moments of exhilaration with this project when everything goes right. It is at those moments that I don’t have to convince myself of anything. I can just sit back and enjoy the moment. And those are the times that I remember why I do what I do.

Good luck, and keep writing.

Morgan

FYI, NEW PROJECT

New Project

Last week I started a series of photos for my new book project. It is a bit of a departure from what I have done to date. I have listened to the feedback and constructive criticisms of my current works and one thing that has always come through is that people like my photos and story ideas a bit more than my writing. Well, as I have always said, “I am not a writer, I am just an artist who likes to tell stories.” So like with my last book, Flight of the Christmas Witch, my new one has a greater focus on the photo illustrations, but with a bit of a twist.

I have always looked to my childhood for inspiration, and when I was a kid one of my favorite books was Star Trek The Motion Picture; The Photostory edited by Richard J. Anobile. I had several other photo novels from numerous films and television shows all of which were science fiction based. Science fiction has always been my favorite genera and I have always wanted to do a sci-fi project. So that is what I am doing now, and I am turning the story into a sort of photographic comic book. This will enable me to tell a bigger story than I normally do with far less words and a greater focus on the photo illustrations as my fans have suggested. This project will also give me the opportunity to pull more extensively on my filmmaking background. In a lot of ways this book will be like a photo-finished storyboard for a film.

Believe it or not I have never be a fan of comic books. In fact as a boy I only ever had two, The Star Team, and a Star Wars adaptation, So, I have been buying some comic books lately for research and have been surprised to see how little their format has changed over the years but they have provided me with some good insights. I still intend to stay true to my philosophy of not allowing the pictures alone to tell the whole story. My illustrations will still be designed to inspire the viewer to read the written words to find out what is going on in the book, there will just be a lot more of them.

I will continue to up date you on this project throughout the year.

Good Luck and keep writing.

Morgan

Mistakes I have made.

I have been very neglectful lately where this blog is concerned and that is not the only mistake that I have made since my adventure into publishing began back in 2010. The story I want to tell you today is that of my biggest mistake to date and to give others a heads up so that they can avoid the same pit fall.

In 2009 and 2010 I spent a lot of time and money sending my manuscript for my first book, The Deep Black Pond, to many publishers and agents all over the country and in Europe. I received many rejection letters before it was finally accepted, then a few weeks later another publisher wanting to publish that same book contacted me. I told them that I had already signed a contract with someone else but I had just finished and new manuscript for my second book, The Gray Garden, and I asked if they would like first refusal on it. They accepted and to my complete surprise they wanted to publish it. I could not believe my luck! That was where the good feeling ended. That Publisher was Publish America.

Even up until the book was released there were problems and after The Gray Garden came out the problems seemed to grow. The biggest being that no one seemed to be able to buy my book. I was, many times, contacted by people wanting to get a copy and could not. The on line channels did not seem to work. And even when I knew for sure that some copies had been ordered Publish America (now called America Star Books) reported that they had not had any orders. For anyone who has had a problem getting my work I am truly sorry and if you would like to contact my directly I will try to make it right. I have tried for a long time to make the best of it and have tried to convince myself that I did not know enough about publishing and that maybe things like this just were normal issues. Well, four years later I do know better. I do not want to go on at this point; instead I am attaching an article so that you can draw your own conclusions.

http://timetowrite.blogs.com/weblog/2014/01/considering-publishing-with-star-america-beware.html

Good Luck and keep writing. (and Beware)

Morgan

Flight of the Christmas Witch

When I was a young boy growing up in a small town in Pennsylvania, Christmas was a magical time. I know that is so cliché to say but it was true. The looks, the smells, but most importantly the feelings of love and warmth have all remained in my memories of those times. I have, unfairly, judged every Christmas of my adult life by those childhood standards and of course none could compare equally.

One of my favorite things, leading up to Christmas day, was the holiday specials that were broadcast on TV each and every year. I can still remember sitting in my mother’s big red chair searching through the TV guide to find out when each show would be on and I would look forward to it for days in advance. Luckily with the invention of video and DVD’s that is one small part of my childhood that I can still relive every Christmas. My most beloved specials were the stop motion films of Rankin and Bass. Rudolph, Santa Clause is Coming to Town, and The Little Drummer Boy was just a few of my favorites.

When I started working on the photo illustrations for my holiday book, Flight of the Christmas Witch, I used many of the techniques employed in those classic films. Then on one particular Saturday afternoon I was reviewing all the finished photographs and making the final selections for which ones to include in my book, and in that quiet time I was surprised to find that each one of the edited photographs seemed to summon up a different Christmas memory or feeling. Without intending to I managed to capture the look and feel of many of my childhood holiday memories.

This book has become very special to me in so many different ways. While writing it I was in touch with my muse like never before, the illustrations have brought back many distant memories, and the story itself is based on a wonderfully imaginative folktale that I had only recently discovered. My hope is that “Flight of the Christmas Witch” will become part of your holiday traditions and memories, or at the very lest bring a smile to your face this holiday season.

Happy Holidays & Merry Christmas!

Good luck and keep writing.

http://www.amazon.com/Flight-Christmas-Witch-Morgan-Kostival/dp/0989987442/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384663977&sr=8-1&keywords=flight+of+the+christmas+witch

The experiment part 3

OK so I have finished the book and all the photo illustrations, I have sent the book off to be edited, and this past weekend I have uploaded my book to the Kindle store. https://kdp.amazon.com/self-publishing/signin  Know I am just waiting to receive conformation that my book has passed the Kindle review process, then I will be published for the third time. Although this time my book will only be available as an e-book for downloads.

What I want to share in this blog is just how easy … and hard … and frustrating this was. Kindle has made the process of becoming a self published author well within the grasp of most people that have a computer, but the amount of information I had to search through was almost enough to put me off. I was at a bit of a disadvantage because I was needing to upload my manuscript from my Mac to a none Mac supported system like Kindle. Not being a computer wizard I found some of the language unfamiliar and a bit confusing. All the information was there for me I just had to learn how to decipher it. Once I had cracked the code and I could see how my book would look, on a Kindle book, I then needed to go back and reformat my text several times so that it would look right on the device. I am very proud of what I have done. I know that I have not done a perfect job but as I continue to learn I will continue to do better, but for know Spencer the Spider and the Witch in the Wood has been a wonderful success. And while I have not had that same high as when a publisher called and said that they liked my work and wanted to publish it, this process has been far more rewarding.

I have often said that ever since I had my first book published, almost two years ago now, that it has been like being back in college. No, lets say school, because on a day-to-day basis I think I use to learn more in high school and because I knew so much less back then. Do you know what I have discovered about myself? I like to learn. Some times it frustrates the hell out of me when I don’t get something right away but I really like learning again.

Good Luck, and keep writing.

Morgan

The experiment part 2

Well I have gotten my edited manuscript back from First Editing http://www.firstediting.com/ this week. Now I need to sit myself down and go through the changes that the editor has made to see if I agree with all of them. I have learned the hard way, in the past, just because someone is a professional editor that does not mean that they do not make mistakes. After I have gone through all the track changes and accepted those that I like and rejected those that I disagree with I will then send it out to some of my friends whose opinion I trust to get more feed back. I always want my stories to be the best that they can be.

I could send my story to fifteen different people/editors and I could get back fifteen different versions. But I ultimately need to stay true to my voice, my vision, and myself. Here is a great example of what I mean. This is part of a note that I received from my editor:

“What an absolutely delightful story! I'm so glad I was chosen as your editor.

I changed a few words to American English per your request. One that comes to mind is 'gob-smacked', which I know from watching BBC America, but is changed to 'flabbergasted' here in the U.S.

I hope to see more of Spencer's adventures soon!”

I really want it to say ‘gob-smacked’ so that is one change that I will be rejecting. It’s not wrong it’s just what I want. I need to get to work now.

Good luck, and keep writing!

Morgan