Publication

My First Major Publication

/ Damean Mathews, Author / 1 Comment

I want to start here by thanking everyone who has supported me to no end. Your loyalty and guidance has meant more to me than you will ever know. I love you all and I want to remind you that without you none of this would be possible. I thank God for giving me this gift for words that I hope to use to make a name for myself in the world and hopefully inspire countless generations of artists to carry on the great and noble work. Thank you all again.

From there I go on to make my announcement. I have finally self-published my first major short story. It went live on Amazon Kindle sites worldwide a little before 1 A.M. this morning. Thank you all for being here to celebrate with me. I hope you will all follow the link and get your copy of this story that I hope is the beginning of a hugely influential and amazing career. Thank you all again, and as always feedback is more than welcome.

http://www.amazon.com/Reservoir-ebook/dp/B00ED1T5Y4/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1375850563&sr=1-1&keywords=Damean+Mathews

Working on a Masterpiece (part 2)

/ Damean Mathews, Author / 3 Comments

As I mentioned before, passion is a very crucial thing when it comes to writing. Your passion will make your audience love your work even more, which is going to help you in the long run of course. But another bit of caution I must throw out there in relation to this fact, and to the first half of this post has to do once more with rejection.

There is a very good chance all of us are going to be rejected at least once at some point or another and we must learn the best way to react. There are a number of ways rejection can happen, just as there are a number of ways we can take it when it does (and yes, one is likely going to rely on the other). One thing that you must not do, however, is despair. Rejection does not mean your career is over. Not by a long shot. You have to keep trying. You’re never going to get published if you don’t get your stuff out there. That is one of the truest things I could say to you, really. You have to try and spread your work before your work can reach the world, and I have to remind you again; the world deserves it. If you don’t send your work out there, it will never get the chance to gain an audience. Rejection does not mean that you are a failure by any means. It just means you have to try all that much harder. The world deserves it, your work deserves it; You deserve it.

Your reaction to rejection is a very deciding factor in your career. You can’t just receive a rejection letter in the mail and then throw your work away and quit. That suggests that writing was never really anything more than a route to fame; which is usually the air mark of someone who wasn’t really destined to write anyway. Your rejection may give you a chance to fine tune your work and turn it into something even you didn’t imagine it could be. There are many possibilities for improvement that are presented us, and we can’t take every rejection as a shutting down of or a direct attack on our work. That will only lead to bitterness and a loss of the real essence of the craft, which is shameful. Too much has been done to the art of writing over the years for those who are meant to continue the legacy to join in on the cheapening of the craft, but alas that too is a different post.

Largely the point of this post is going to be summed up here. Passion is typically the ruling factor in things of the heart, which is what real literature is; a direct line to the writer’s heart and soul. We are all going to be passionate about our work at some point, and many of us are going to be passionate about all of our work all of the time. That is why it is crucial for us to keep a level head when we feel our work come under scrutinization of any sort. If we react harshly it could basically ruin our potential career. I’ve heard of people who have been rejected who’ve gone off on the person who rejected them, taken helpful criticism as cheap shots to their work, given up on the craft of writing and even destroyed their work. This is the exact opposite of what we as authors should do. We, who are supposed to be lovers of the craft, should respect it, and by respecting it we should be able to handle criticism and opinions of our own work and actively work to fix whatever problems that may exist in order to better honor the real art of writing.

My next post will, I think. be about maintaining the sanctity of our own work when under criticism, and making sure our work remains our own. As always feedback is welcome in any form. Hope this was helpful.

Working on a Masterpiece (part 1)

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

Your work has to be what you love. I’ve said that enough that you are all probably very tired of hearing it, but that doesn’t make the information any less relevant. The best piece of literature is going to be written by someone who is passionate about it. “It” being both literature in general and the specific topic the work is centered around. Granted, it also tends to be very enjoyable to read the work of someone who is experimenting with an idea they are interested in, the best work is going to be completed with and full of passion.

Passion is the biggest deal maker, and deal breaker, in this field. That is the big purpose of this post really; to discuss the truth of passion. Passion can give the world a work of art unequaled in its excellence, but without the proper means of distribution the world won’t know it. With your passion will come a very defensive nature regarding your work, and that is what can be our seller- or our killer.

When we attempt publication of our work, we have to find the real market for what we’re trying to sell. That is a very key element of publication. Your audience knows what they are looking for, and they know where to look. What is left to you is to first find the proper agent, company, self-publishing venue, whichever method works for you, to publish your masterpiece and put it out in the proper markets.

In this search you are very likely to meet the bane of an author’s existence; rejection. Whether pushing for a short story, poem or novel, you are more than likely going to meet the face of rejection. This is not necessarily going to be anything against you or your work. Perhaps the person you submitted to just doesn’t accept the genre you write in, or they were just full already. The list of possibilities is endless, but the biggest thing you have to keep in mind is that you just can not give up. If they give you feedback and ask you to make changes, make the changes- but if you do make changes you have to make sure that your work remains your work; you can’t let them take the essence that makes it unique and gives it the feeling you want it to have. But that will be another post.

Rejection is hard to handle, believe me I know from experience, but it happens to the best of us. One great example is Stephen King. In his book “On Writing” he talks about his history with rejection. He got so many that he began putting them on a nail on his wall. Eventually the nail got so full that he had to trade it out for a railroad spike. A railroad spike! And this is Stephen King we’re talking about! My point is that rejection does not mean we give up. Nothing justifies that. Now, I will be back with the other half of this post tonight. As always feedback is welcome.

Apology

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

I have to apologize for my absence of late. I have been working hard at my research and trying to regain the full level of my inspiration by immersing myself in all things vampire. I have been reading Dracula and preparing to read its sequel and looking over legends and myths that give me the true essence of my work. In addition to this, I am looking very hard for a publishing deal and all of the required additions to put my first novel Maverip on the market and make it available to you all. I’m currently considering trying my hand at self-publishing/e publishing one of my early short stories, and if I do I will be sharing that link with you all on every venue I have. I hope you all can relate to my dedication to my work, and I hope you all understand. I’d love to hear from every reader to see how their work is going, how this blog has or has not helped, or anything else you would like to say. I promise to post more helpful tips as soon as possible, and I thank you all for bearing with me through my obsession. More is definitely coming soon, and I again welcome every bit of feedback you are willing to give. Thanks,

Damean

Beware Inconsistencies

/ Damean Mathews, Author / 2 Comments

I have recently become a victim of my own creativity. That is something an author must always be on the lookout for, and I’m ashamed to admit that I made such a rookie mistake. I started working away on Maverip 2 and forgot a couple of minor details that I’d already covered in part 1. Granted that mistake wasn’t too huge, and was easily fixed, it could have been much worse. Any real mistake or fluke in your writing can be something that could seriously cripple your career, or even end it before it began. You have to know every detail, both major and minor, about your work front and back and have things working in serious order. Self-contradiction in your work is something that will cause most agents and/or publishers to immediately disregard your work. And if they don’t catch it, by chance, then your audience will and it will likely ruin your fan base before you even build one. You have to pay very close attention to your work, and everything that involves it.

That being said, I am going to go and work more. I apologize for the short length of my posts of late, but I am in a roll and trying to take advantage of my lack of writer’s block. I think I will soon post another piece of my work if you all think it is a good idea. In the meantime, take heed that you do not contradict yourself or ruin a piece of your own work with inconsistencies. It can be the death of an author.

My First Published Short Story

/ Damean Mathews, Author / Leave a comment

As promised, I have decided to post my first published short story to give you all an example of my writing style. I hope you enjoy it, and perhaps even find some inspiration from it. Feedback is, of course, welcome.

The End

By Damean Mathews

 

            “The system has failed you,” the professor said, raising his eyes to the mostly full classroom beyond the boundaries of his desk.

 

            “The government has failed. The militaries have destroyed all hope for survival. The world has begun its quickening decline from civilization and we don’t matter anymore. The battle will rage,” he spoke sternly while walking around his desk, “and we will cease to be of any importance.”

 

            His students stared, the usual low rumble of the incessantly distracted pupils now nonexistent. They didn’t know what to make of this speech. Their professor had never been this forward with them and they were a little unnerved by the sudden change.

 

            “The totalitarian form of government that has controlled the world under the guise of democracy has turned its back on us. The attitude toward citizens is now the age-old saying “every man for himself.” There is no fate that has been set supposedly, but this certainly seems to be the closest thing to fate I’ve ever seen, and the powers that be have chosen ours for us.”

 

            The professor stopped, rubbed his temples, and leaned back against the desk. He slowly picked up his water and drank deeply, savoring the chill as it ran through his body. He looked at his pupils through his thick glasses, and saw the faces of the next generation- Generation X- looking back at him in vague confusion.

 

            Standing, he spoke again, “You all have not experienced true betrayal yet, but it is coming. The world will slowly take back that which belongs to it. The wild which has been cut back will take back the hold it once had. As many people who have been born on this earth will not be enough to save it, or, for that matter, themselves.”

 

            “What are you saying sir,” one annoyed young lady asked.

 

            “That there is no hope for human kind. As a whole, we have almost no chance of survival in this matter. The big groups will be targeted, then the smaller ones. Individuals will be slain mercilessly. In effect, this will discourage life as a society, and as an individual, causing us to break all the bonds of civilization, and lose the will to live alone.”

 

            “Are you saying the world’s gonna end? So, what, like are we gonna be attacked or something,” interrupted a student.

 

            “I don’t know how it will come about, but it will happen. You see, every now and then Mother Nature just has to do something to show us that we aren’t what we think we are. We created the system to protect us in a hostile environment, so it makes sense that it be used against us. We think we own the Earth, and it is about time the Earth proves us wrong.”

 

            “So, you’re saying that the Earth is going to use our own defense system against us?”

 

            “No. The system is not something that can just be controlled, that’s what I’m saying. We have been treating it like a tool, thinking we have won, and that it’s all ours. Humans take advantage of all this. We will learn. The system will see to that.”

 

            He was met with silence after this stern speech. Slowly, as he stared intently into the crowd of pupils facing him, the murmur built up. Turning around, he walked back to his seat and resumed his work. The pupils continued the hushed conversations for the short remainder of the class, then gathered their things and left.

 

            Going home, a few of the students thought of their professor’s speech, wondering if there could be any truth to it. Sooner or later, however, all thought of the old man’s absurdity was driven from their minds. The evening rolled on into the night, and the students went about their lives as usual; either partying, studying, or sleeping.

 

            At midnight, the bombs began to fall. The System had won.