A Writer's Update

It’s been a busy few months here in my office, and the result is I haven’t had time to add much to the blog.

So it’s time for an update.

Work continues on the Medicare Wars series of books to focus folks’ understand of Medicare. Two have published, the third is on the way and three more after that. The idea is to create pamphlets to provide bite-sized information to everyone interested in Medicare as it is, it’s history, it’s future and the concept of ‘Medicare for Everyone.”  With my partner, we provide solid information and direction on how to apply, what people should expect and the pitfalls all around us.   Good news is the first in the series, Medicare Wars: A Radical New Approach, Lear, Fight Win, will be FREE July 4 through 8.  

Grab your copy, spread the word http://amzn.to/2tp5fNF Don’t forget to visit our Facebook page at http://bit.ly/MedicareWars Tell your friends about that site as well. We love visitors and welcome questions. We also get very excited about honest reviews so please do post one at Amazon, Goodreads, wherever you talk about books.

In addition to the Medicare Wars series, we’re just about to publish the sixth Comic in the Chronical of the Eggs series, Planet of The Eggs: Worlds Collide. Do check out the series starting with the first comic, Planet Of The Eggs – Cracked Open at http://bitly.com/POECrackedOpen and don’t forget the Facebook Fanpage  as well at  http://bit.ly/EGGPLANET and the great review of another in the series “Eruption” at Readers’ Favorites 

http://bitly.com/EruptionReview. The sixth adventure completes the first volume, but there will be more! Visit, like the page and watch for what’s coming next

And don’t forget the first installment of our kid’s Read To Me books, Look At Me, Look At You! http://amzn.to/2ccMqoi.

Have a great summer and we’ll just keep on writing and illustrating!

Best Childrens books in years - Egg Chronicles - Planet Of The Eggs

Happy autumn – another year is racing by.  The holidays will soon be screaming down upon us – and a new year in the offing.

As seems to be usual lately, as the time spins by, the children’s comic book series, Planet Of The Eggs, part of The Egg Chronicles family, is taking up a good deal of my time along with that of my writing/creative partner Charlene Brash Sorensen.

We’ve completed five books in the Planet Of The Eggs comic series for Children and are working on the sixth Children’s comic in the series, Worlds Collide. The script is written and we’re about six pages into creating the illustrations to tell the tale! We hope for a release date somewhere in late Nov. or early Dec. Add it to your Christmas list!

Our most recent interview on the Planet Of The Eggs series is with Lisa Haselton and you can see it here   Do stop by today and leave a comment with your thoughts. Share it with your friends. Explore Eggland.

In other news, my latest short story, Skykicker, has just been published by CowboyJamboree magazine. The PDF of the magazine is free to download and contains the short story.  Enjoy!  And I’d love it if you could leave a comment there or here on this blog on what you think.

Upcoming are more books for the Egg Chronicles family- including more children’s comics in the Planet of The Eggs line and more early reader books for the Read To Me series.

Meanwhile I’m settling back and watching the change of the seasons while I contemplate how in the world I’m going to get my romance novel finished – Serpent’s Tail. Not even a tentative date set for that one, but it’s definitely in the hopper at about 2/3 done. 

Enjoy the lovely crisp weather and awesome colors of fall!

A Scattered Blog Post for Writers & Readers

Yep, autumn has come to my little corner of the world, temps in the low 40’s when I got up this morning.  And, since this time of year tends to make me a bit scattered with the need to pull it back together I’ve decided to treat my readers to a scattered post. A bit of a few things to let you know about, to give you a little something and to hopefully make your day.

With the sun shining outside, the green tea on my desk and access to the web coming and going this morning I’ll do the best I can – so here’s the first thing on my small list.

The publisher, Baen has introduced their FREE library and are offering free electronic versions of some of their books. You can read online or download in a variety of formats.  Nice. Thanks Baen.

And wait, there’s another free resource. Ebook Lobby They offer free books, more of the non-fiction variety, but a few children’s books as well. Also free to download.

And, if you write pretty much anything, there might be a time when you want to grab a copy of Elements Of Style – you can get that free here. 

On another subject, a friend of mine, author Robbie Cox, has a great series going with two installments already completed which I’ve read and enjoyed.  It’s the Warrior of The Way series. 

The first is Reaping The Harvest $2.99 on Kindle  It kicks off with -

“On his way home from a moving job, Rhychard Bartlett heard a scream and ran to help. That action changed his life forever and tossed him into a war between the Way and the Void. Given the Guardian Sword, assisted by an ellyll who only stands two feet tall, and bonded to a mind speaking coshey the size of a Newfoundland canine and a taste for pepperoni pizza, Rhychard must stop the demon Vargas from carrying out his plans. Once he finds out what they are, of course. In the meantime, he longs for the girlfriend who left him because he suddenly had too many secrets. Not only must he save the day, but he also must convince Renny Saunders he's not the cheating lover everyone thinks he is.”

And the second is Lore Master $3.99 on Kindle 

Robbie is an excellent writer with a gift for drawing in the reader and giving him a great tale.  Check him out on facebook.

And his website at The Mess That Is Robbie Cox.

And wrapping it up for this week – what am I up to? 

Work on the sixth installment of the Planet Of The Eggs Children’s Book Series under The Egg Chronicles banner with writing/creative partner Charlene Brash Sorensen.  

We’ve blocked out the story line, figured out the illustrations we’ll need to create and are about ready to start creating that book titled Worlds Collide.  You can still get the first in the illustrated stories for kids by going to our Facebook page (hopefully giving it a like while you’re there) and click on the sign up button for our newsletter. This will only continue through the end of the year so you might want to get a move on to grab your PDF copy of Cracked Open FREE

 and start the series that just keeps getting better as light battles dark and the heroic egg warriors confront the depths of evil!

On the back burner for The Egg Chronicles is our next Read To Me Picture Book for very young readers (and the parents who read to them). No title yet, but we’re playing with ideas. Meanwhile, check out the first. 

Since our ‘egg empire’ is expanding we’re planning a whole reboot at the beginning of 2017 with the creation of The Egg Chronicles under who’s banner will be the children’s series Planet Of The Eggs (six issues in Vol. 1 now complete with Vol. 2 in development), the Read To Me Picture Books for Young readers, and more to be announced.

 

Thanks for reading!  Have a great autumn and I’ll be back with the next post soon!

Meanwhile, watch out for Puff the dragon-

he's growing up fast!

Update on A Writer's Journey

Autumn is coming to where I live and the flowers are bursting forth in a purple and yellow display that’s breathtaking. I can see them from my office window which makes my office an exceptionally nice place to work this time of year as the temperatures begin to cool.

It’s also a great time to take stock and figure out what’s coming next for this writer.  After all, we’re heading into winter – the traditional time for hibernation, and for writers the perfect time to curl up with a computer and really put out some great stories and more while the fire crackles on the hearth and the hot chocolate steams in the mug.

First and, these days, in the forefront is the Planet of the Eggs Comic series brought to you by The Egg Chronicles, that I co-create with creative partner Charlene Brash Sorensen. Yep, we’re working on #6 – the final story in this first volume of the comic series, titled Worlds Collide. Its great fun and our readers are going to love it. Don’t forget you can visit the Facebook page where we keep folks up to date on what’s happening and where you can sign up for our monthly newsletter – or you can just sign up for it HERE. You get the first Planet Of The Eggs Adventure, Cracked Open FREE when you join enthusiastic readers on the newsletter list.

That’ll wrap up this first series of adventures, but there are more to come. Got any ideas for these brave an intrepid warrior, scholarly and medic eggs? Go ahead, post ‘em in the comments section below, we’d love to hear your thoughts.

In that same vein,  also under The Egg Chronicles banner, we’ve begun

creating our new line of Children’s Read-to-Me Picture Books! The first one is Look At Me! Look At You! Now available as digital release for your Kindle and in paperback as well on Amazon. Share them with your kids and grandkids. We’re thinking of creating coloring books as well – what do you think?

On another note I’m working on converting my vampire western (titled

artwork by Gabriel Hardman

Bloodlines) screen script to novel format. That’s going to take me into early spring since we’re doing so much work with our Eggs. It’s back to novels on that front and it’s also great fun to do even if I do have to keep my nose to the keyboard to keep up.  The two styles of writing (novel and script) are pretty far apart, so there’s a lot of detail to fill in and small errors to catch as the writing continues. 

Come on over and visit me at my facebook page and webpage as well. I’m delighted to welcome new followers and read comments my readers share.

Writer Peggy Bechko Discusses What's Coming Next

Seems like a Writer's work is never done!  But that's a good thing!  

Onward. 

This week I'm talking a bit about what's coming next for me -- 

There are a number of irons in the fire as usual. I have a romance novel that needs finishing - I'm about 3/4 of the way there. 

Work continues at a slow pace for the conversion of one of my movie scripts, Bloodlines, into a novel companion. It's a vampire western full of the paranormal. I hope to have that complete by late fall or early winter. No promises though!

Why is progress on Bloodlines script to novel slow? Because Planet Of The Eggs, the comic book series I partner in with Charlene Brash Sorensen, is taking priority - we have four books in the comic series out now with the fifth to be released later this summer.  The fifth is nearly finished in first draft form. Here's the first page from that new adventure - tentatively titled Saving Dot. We'll let you know of any changes in title and the release date. Check it out here or visit our Facebook page. 

And, in addition to the new book, the fifth of six in the first volume, there are big changes coming to our series as our characters evolve and mature. And Volume Two is already an evolving idea. 

But as to the next adventure, Saving Dot, what do you think?  Do we save Dot? She's hanging on to a dragon and the flight is bumpy.  Her egg friend, Sala is in the dragon's clutches and the rest of the gang, Cyrus, Nightfist, Twilight, Smudge and Skink along with Dot's human companions, Smith and Dave are laying plans to get them back! The girls are strong, it may not be them who need rescuing!

There's mayhem and tragedy ahead - stay tuned, keep reading, and let us know who's your favorite character and where you might like to see them go next in space and time.

Writing Tips Anyone- Why they Can Be Absolutely Useless Plus the Writer's Update

First - an update for our readers:

Our latest comic in the Planet Of The Eggs Series, Eruption, is now available in paperback as well as Kindle editions. The latest newsletter just released as well. Join the fun at www.facebook.com/PlanetOfTheEggs - tell your friends and click the sign up button to be sure to get your copy of the next newsletter filled with character interviews, freebies, contest notifications and more! 

And now on to the pros and cons of writing tips:

Writers seem inclined to want to learn. That’s why writers, both newbies and old hands, are always on the lookout for tips to help improve the writing, speed the writing, promote the writing, create compelling characters – pretty much any aspect of writing.

But here’s the problem. There are tons of tips and instruction out there. Some of it is really good, other, not so much. In any event it’s tough to tell which can be chucked and quickly deleted from the brain bank and which is worth keeping. It’s so overwhelming the studious writer can end up simply wasting time…lots and lots of time. And time is where the true value lies for the writer for the amount of time to write for most is limited. Sometimes tucked into neat segments at designated times.

But some things learned are so valuable they’re not to be missed. You’ve learned to fine tune your adjectives. You’ve reduced your adverbs. You’ve brought more emotion to your writing.

Right – all that’s good and writers generally have a mental inventory of writing tools and techniques they regularly employ. Problem is a writer can reach maximum saturation with so many tips and teachings flowing through the brain cells that it throws everything off. It can even cause writer’s block (I’ve never experienced this, thank goodness, but I can see where it could happen).

So what’s to be done? Probably less than one would think. The trick is to codify all that learning into sturdy, straight-forward techniques that work for you (and you is certainly a broad audience – each writer sees things differently).

Think about the many hats of creativity. Walt Disney was said to have claimed to wear many different ‘hats’ when he attended creative meetings. There was the dreamer, the critic and the realist. The dreamer creates, the critic picks things apart and the realist pulls it all back together in a powerful way.

When I break my thinking down that way I can see my ‘dreamer’ comes up with the ideas, extrapolates them and creates, infusing characters with life and the story with energy. I give my dreamer full rein in the beginning. Anything goes.

My critic then does a dandy job of picking at all the lose threads, finding things that don’t work and criticizing sentence structure, story ending and everything else. All the while those tips and teachings I’ve picked up over the years are on alert, watching out for floods of adjectives, verbs that just lay there, repetitive words and a whole host of other details.

Until the end when the critic is told to shut up and the realist within takes over to slap on the last polish, pulling it all back together into the comprehensive story it was meant, from the beginning, to be. 

So, the moral is, don’t toss out the tips you come across as a writer, but don’t allow them to swamp you in a sea of bits and pieces either. When a new idea on how to create the perfect story comes along let it join the others in your toolbox and see how it improves your writing. If it doesn’t, let it go. There is not right and wrong way to write the story.

Writers And Readers Websites Wednesday

I admit I haven't had time to keep up with this on a regular basis - but that doesn't mean I've given up on providing cool sites when I find them!  

Today's is KidLit TV (and radio and more). It's at www.KidLit.TV. Don't just sit there - go on over and check it out! Helping parents and educators explore the world of children’s literature.

Creating Comics - an abbreviated how to

Since our newest in the Planet of The Eggs series, Eruption, is now releasing in paperback, I decided this week to talk a bit about the creation of the comics. It takes a whole lot of work, but the creation process is such great fun I thought I’d share a bit of it with our readers.

 

I really can’t tell folks how to find a story idea other than to be open, to research and to be aware of the weird world around you. I can, however give some practical tips.

There’s a lot to it, but basically my writing and creative partner Charlene Brash-Sorensen and I use Comic Life software (you can try it free, but there is a low cost to buy - no, I'm not an affiliate so I won't make any money if you buy a copy) to create the actual comic, but prior to that there’s a lot of prep work.

Since neither of us are sketchers or artists of any variety, except the manipulation of pictures into our stories, we depend on photography and occasional clip art to create our books. So one of my first tips is your camera. Your phone camera, whatever will take decent pictures. There’s scenery and events all around you that can make great backgrounds for stories (be aware of not taking pictures of people without their permission), but if you need plants, mountains, forests, animals, whatever, keep that camera handy and take lots of pictures. We even have mini ‘photo shoots’ using things like (in our case) eggs

we’ve painted against white background for easy cut-out in photoshop, feathers of various colors from various angles against white, again for easy cut out and a whole lot of other items which makes the images our own and we don’t have to worry about copyright. I’ve even taken close up pictures of flower bouquets and a vigorous fennel plant for backgrounds. 

Beyond that there are places online where you can find free and royalty free pictures that can be used.  We use Pixabay a lot and of course a google search for ‘commons’ photos and illustrations can yield other resources such as Open Clip Art and many others. If you want to use any pictures you find online make sure they’re royalty free and free to use in any fashion. Or purchase the pictures you need and be sure the license covers what you’re using them for. Read the requirements and follow them. Copyright infringement is a no-no.

We use Photoshop a lot for cutting out characters, changing colors, etc. But, there are phot manipulation tools available that are free. Check out Gimp and Paint.net for a couple I know about. We even use Powerpoint to create some images when we won’t want to work with all sorts of layers and effects. What is created can be saved via Powerpoint to Jpg or png formats.

The whole thing sprang from a simple idea – Heroic eggs determined to save their world. We’ve had to learn a lot to put our books together – I haven’t even mentioned the required dimensions and details here that are required for digital and print publishing. The fun just never stops (and I mean that truly and sarcastically.)

 

Dive in if you’re of a mind – see what you can create – oh, and while you’re at it, grab copies of Planet Of The Eggs comics –

Cracked Open

Grimoire Book Of Spells

Mummified Egg

Eruption ---

          Available in Kindle Edition and Paperback with more to come!

And visit the Planet Of The Eggs Facebook Page to get the first in the series free and join the adventure with a FREE collectible monthly newsletter with freebies, updates, character interviews and more.