We’ve all heard of Writer’s Block – where a person has a hard time getting their writing started. I just went through a session of Writer’s Logjam. I am beginning the next book, which is set in the Janus Unfolding world. I had a dozen or so ideas and they all wanted to be first in line, sort of like logs floating down the river and getting jammed together. I broke through the logjam and am in the third chapter.
Author – System Upgrade!
Chanticleer Author’s Conference 2016 like other CACs was very focused on helping independent authors be successful. I’m in the process of putting the good ideas I received to work:
- Book Covers – I went to Jeff Brown Graphics and asked Jeff to create new covers. Jeff is very creative and great to work with. They’re shown here and also make a fine new header image for the website.
- Perfect the product – I asked Sara Stamey, award winning author of The Ariadne Connection and Islands for editorial assistance.
- Social Media and Branding – I asked Shari Stauch of Where Writers Win to help me create a social media platform. This work is still under way. I also subscribed to the WWW Winners Circle which gives you access to a great deal of information about reviewers, book clubs and other helpful things.
- Promotion Strategy – James Wells, award winning author of The Great Symmetry, made a presentation at CAC16 about marketing eBooks. It was clear and actionable.
- Reviews – The services I will use to help with the promotion strategy look at the author’s online presence and the number of reviews. Some of the services don’t require any reviews, some require a minimum of ten and some require more. I had three at the end of May. The number is growing slowly and I value each new review. Thank you for the reviews!
Soon the new covers and interiors will be up on Amazon and B&N, and I’ll be ready to apply to the promotion services. I’m optimistic about the possible results, and hopeful that I’m underestimating them…
Emergence wins Cygnus Award for Speculative Fiction
Emergence, Janus Unfolding
Janus Unfolding: Emergence has won the Cygnus First Place Award for Speculative Fiction. This is one of Chanticleer’s most competitive writing competitions. It’s wonderful to get this recognition.
The Carter Kovak mysteries
I’ve begun writing the first novel in the Carter Kovak mystery series. Carter and his wife Natalie are former intelligence agency employees. Carter worked for an agency that doesn’t exist anymore, he laughs and says, “…actually, it didn’t exist while I was working there….” Natalie worked for the FBI as a person who could find the answer to any question and provide the analyses needed to support the field agents. They met while working on a case together. I’m very excited about what these two will get into and how they will work their way to successful conclusions.
Third book draft complete; Second book in paperback
The first draft of the third book in the Janus Unfolding series, Inheritance is completed and in editing.
The second book in the series, Emergence is now available in paperback.
Whew! That took a while.
I found out what was stopping me from finishing the third book. Soon I’ll be able to say, the first draft of this one is done. 🙂
Weeding, Reading and Writing
Doing more weeding and reading, than writing. In the back of my mind, I am working on how to finish the third book in the Janus Unfolding series. I have tried to begin that work several times and it doesn’t come. I don’t want to force it so I’m Weeding and Reading.
“…indistinguishable from magic.” Janus Unfolding
As I write the Janus Unfolding series, Arthur Clarke’s quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,” comes to mind.
Janus Unfolding Series Banner
Suppose we are the less advanced people (easy enough to imagine that). Then ask: What would be so advanced relative to our experience to seem like magic to us? For example.
Magic – Moving from one location to another instantly, perhaps without being seen in transit.
Magic – All children are loved, clothed, fed, sheltered and given an education, and all women are treated with respect and empowered to fully participate in society. We may as well throw in that there is no more war or armed aggression and bullies do not prosper.
What would we have to understand for the first one to seem common place?
What would a world have to be like for the second one to be the norm?
Chanticleer Review of Janus Unfolding: Emergence
JANUS UNFOLDING: EMERGENCE by C.A. Knutsen
Rating: 
Genre(s): Crime Thriller, Fiction, Lab Lit – Scientific Thrillers, Lab Lit/Science, Literary Fiction, Mystery, Thriller/Suspense
Publisher: C.A. Knutsen (2014)
Please help promote the author by liking the review at:
In the remote town of Frazier, Washington, a house fire burns so inexplicably white-hot that the firemen are forced to retreat. There are no known materials used in home construction or interior decoration that can explain the heat and ferocity of the blaze. Upon closer examination of the charred remains of the structure, the firemen discover a body burned so completely that only bones survived. And in the surrounding property, they find the comatose bodies of three professional assassins, clearly laid out for the authorities. Read More at
“Mimsy Were the Borogoves”
The 1943 science fiction short story Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett is about a toddler and his infant sibling who do things that are quite unusual.
It is a story I am reminded 
of this whenever I see young children playing, unfettered by ‘impossibilities’ that are so obvious to adults. It’s not so much the specific story line as the concept that there is more to our existence than can be described by our senses and the associated four dimensions.
In my writing, I present characters with something that is ‘impossible’ and then ask them to find out how such a thing could occur.
I’m often surprised by what they come up with.