Some News

There is something I want you all to know. I have been told by some readers of the book that it appeals to the younger crowd. They said anywhere between 12 and 18 years old. I didn't realize that at first. A mistake on my part. I have changed my marketing strategy accordingly. I also have been told it is the creation of a new 'superhero'. You'll have to read the book to understand that. So to all the 'tweens' and teens out there. check it out and let me know what you think. I am editing my next book to address some other issues that reviewers have brought up to me. Please understand that this book is the first book I ever wrote. If you think of ways for me to improve please let me know. I posted my first review here. If you saw it you'll know what I mean. If you didn't see it please read it. They're are some good things and some not so good things in there. I am treating it all as both praise and constructive critisizm.  I understand alot more about writing and I believe it makes me a better writer. I need all the feedback I can get as this is what helps me write a better story for you.

Be Happy and Be Safe! 

Staying in touch

Just to stay in touch with my readers. I must say first, Thank you to all who have purchased the book. That is the reason I wrote the book and those that will follow. To imagine those curled up in there favorite chair and reading my work gives me more pleasure than any money I will make on this or any other book. I must admit, sales are not going through the roof. That's okay though, I didn't expect them to. I have to pay my dues the way any other author has to. I read about the young lady who wrote 'Fifty Shades of Gray' and sold 10 million copies in 6 weeks. Wow, I wish I could do that but I certainly don't expect it. I don't need to be rich in the monetary sense. I have never been rich that way and frankly I believe rich people have a complicated life. I am not interested in that. The riches I want are in people enjoying my work. That would make me very happy. Again I thank all of you who have given me that by getting my book and hopefully enjoyed reading it. I have discovered there are libraries who have bought the book and keep it on the shelf for check out. If you get books from your local library, please ask for mine, alot of libraries will get the book so you can check it out if you ask for it. Please do that if that is the way you get books. Some people prefer to get books from the library rather than buy books. That suits me fine. As I said I don't care if I get alot of money for this I would rather people read the book and hopefully enjoy it.

I haven't done this before but I believe now is the time to tell you a little about myself in case anyone is interested. I really am just a regular guy. I graduated high school in my home town of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. That's why I wrote this book based there. They say write about what you know, so that's what I did. I do have other places I have written stories about but I wanted my first one to be in the place where I grew up.
I went to college at the local community college in Harrisburg as well. I studied computer science and have my degree in that. That is the field I work in now at my regular job.
When the book came out I took several copies of it to work and displayed them at my desk. My co-workers all said they were happy to know a future famous person back before I was. I laughed at that and said I don't really expect to be famous nor do I care to be. They said they look foward to seeing me on Letterman. Believe me I had to take alot of grief from them as a result of the book. It was all in good fun though. All of them were seriously happy for me and said so many times. I did sign the copies I took and offered them to the co-workers I knew were readers. I made them promise to actually read it before I gave them out. They all said they would and some of them actually did and said they liked it.
Well enough about me for now, I will tell you more in future posts. Please feel to leave coments on here about anything you have read here or anything else for that matter. I would love to hear from you. Until next time, be happy and be safe.

My First Review

This review was written by Sean Stubblefield

(Please also read my opinion after the review)

BRIEF SYNOPSIS (spoiler free): A woman is granted what seem to be magical abilities, in preparation for a coming time of crisis. Abilities that will prove to be her family’s legacy. 

PROS: The basic story, though flawed and awkwardly composed, is interesting and conceptually solid. I especially like how the magical aspects are normalized and secondary-- kept in the background as a B Plot within what is primarily an old school detective story.

At first glance, I was perturbed by the crudeness of language. Not vulgar or profane (although there is minor profanity), but very simplistic and written at maybe a third grade level.

But then during chapter 3, I realized "the language, style and tone resemble the kind used for stories in pulp magazine up until the `60s. Not only in the aesthetic style, but the characters` Gee Whiz mannerisms and speech are indicative of fiction from 1950. If this effect or approach was intentional, then that is a daring and brilliant creative choice-- and should / could be used as a selling point. It would be a hard sell for today’s audience, but it has a charming nostalgic or historic quality that may enhance the book’s appeal. Sometimes, it almost has a Young Adult vibe (this could also be a bad thing, depending on POV).

The Silver is the first of a planned trilogy, and might be treated as an origin story for an alternative kind of super hero.

CONS:

Unfortunately, the author confesses the old pulp style is accidental was not an intentional gimmick. This just makes it seem badly written and poorly edited.

Even accepting the stylized pulp mag approach, that writing style from a previous era can be difficult to relate to by today’s standards, today’s readers. Also, even excusing that, the writing could still use a lot of adjustment to refine the pacing, flow and sentence structure. Not to mention development of various narrative aspects. Many elements could use more elaboration or explanation, and further re-conceptualization (in my opinion).

RECOMMENDATION: Despite the clumsiness of composition, the story itself is not bad.  

If you engage the story as being told in the old pulp magazine style (as I did), you might find The Silver appealing. Assuming you like that sort of thing.

The Authors Opinion

I have posted this review as I will post every review I get, good or bad. This one is both unfortunately. I do agree with some of what Mr. Stubblefields says here, and not just the complimentary parts. I have learned a few things about my writing from what he says.

I disagree with some of what he says also. The first thing I believe is that he over complicates it. While I do believe there is such a thing as a style of writing. To suggest the book is written at a third grade level is insulting to say the least. That is his opinion and I will respect it as that and that alone. I don’t have to agree with it to respect it. I worked very hard to make the story flow as best I could. My publisher told me there are abrupt scene changes throughout the story. That was intentional because I didn’t want the reader to be bored with the boring things that occur in everyone’s life. Those parts are meant to be inferred rather than actually written about. Let’s face it there are boring parts of everyone’s life. I intentional didn’t put those in.

He said the book was written in a fifties ‘pulp fiction’ style. I did tell him it was accidentally written that way as I wasn’t aware there was a fifties pulp fiction style per say. You have to realize I have never taken any writing courses. I just have stories in my head I want to write. I define my writing as a story, that’s it. I fail to see why it has to be complicated and dissected to the point that Mr. Stubblefield did. Sometimes a story is just a story, you know what I mean. While I realize that not everyone will like my story. Like it or don’t like it just because you do or you don’t like it. Take it for what it is, without dissecting it.

I also want to address the ‘Gee Whiz’ factor he alluded to. Hopefully I am not revealing too much when I say this story is about the emergence of a new kind of superhero. This was intentional also. You have to understand that my intention is to write three books to fully tell the complete story. This book is the first third of the story. I intended this book to the beginning of the overall story and the ending to this part of the story only. I wish to site examples of this very thing. The great Stan Lee wrote “Spiderman”. Remember Spiderman wasn’t always Spiderman; he started out as Peter Parker, a bright and bungling college kid who supported himself as a photographer. While Superman was an alien sent to earth and had his powers from the start. He spent his youth on a farm in Smallville as just another high school kid named Clark Kent. In both of these examples there is a ‘gee whiz’ part of the story. Also we must understand that in both of these examples the hero didn’t become a hero just because of some magic power. They had regular people, there families, to help them in the emergence of the hero inside. That was my intention in writing the first book of my story. I realize I probably revealed too much but I feel it is necessary in this case.

In closing, I just want to say I don’t write stories about some far away galaxy filled with alien characters. I realize that those kinds of stories are entertaining; I just choose to write my story on earth with characters that are human. If that makes my story old school then so be it. If my story is in a pulp fiction style I can’t help that. I believe in the style I write. Accept it or not it is totally up to you. I believe there is an audience for this style of writing. All things old can become new again. I want to thank you for reading my opinion.

R. L. Harlan

Book Cover

Just to keep you informed. I am working hard to get my name out there. It is a long and diligent road but I am doing my best. I have a book order in with my publisher to get copies for book signings. If you think I get them for free you would be wrong. I have to pay for them. You have to be a lot better known then I am for my publisher to do that.

I don’t mind. I take pride in the fact that I have to take the long hard road to get where I want to be. It will make it all the more satisfying when I do make it.

I have told you earlier that this the first book of a trilogy I am writing. In order for my publisher to publish the other two books, this first one has to do well. I am doing everything I can do to make that happen.

Just in case you haven't noticed. I have posted the cover of the book. Send me a quick comment to let me know what you think. You can go to Amazon and get pictures of the front and back covers. Unfortunately I accidentally deleted the picture of the back cover I had. I can't get it back. (how careless of me.) I am going to get a scanner and scan it into my computer. I have the galley hard copy of the book. I will scan it from there and put it in here.

I want you to know I will appreciate any and all who buy a copy of the book from any source. I'm sure you noticed if you went to Barnes and Noble or Amazon the price is cheaper. Buy it from there and save some money. I don't care. I just look forward to someone contacting me in here, on facebook or twitter and telling me they enjoyed reading it and look forward to the next one. That would make me happier than any money I would make. Please can you help out a starving author, lol! Till we speak again, be happy, be safe.

An update

The first thing I want to let you know is my job now is to promote my book. I am currently doing everything I can to get my name and the name of the book out there. I thank you all for helping me with that. While it is a lot of work to do this, I must admit I’m having fun doing it. It is exciting to correspond with people and have them correspond back with interest in my work. My next step is to get copies of the book and go out and do some book signings. I have the order in to get the books. When I get them I will contact book stores and libraries in the area and make arrangements to do that. I am also working on getting people ‘in the know’ to review my book and give their opinion. I would appreciate any of you who got the book, and read it, to give me your opinion. Whether it is good or bad I don’t care. I realize that not everyone will like it. It is a fact of life that people have different opinions about what they like to read. Any opinions I get would be beneficial to me. I am currently working on the third book of the trilogy. The second book is already written and is being edited. I have to admit my strength is in the writing of the story and the creation of characters. My grammar is terrible and my spelling isn’t far behind. How’s that for an admission from an author lol. That’s what editors are for.

Thank you all for your interest in my book.

R. L. Harlan  

New Links

Hi Everyone I wanted to give you some links of where you can go to purchase my book. On amazon you can go to http://www.amazon.com/The-Silver-R-L-Harlan/dp/1612041078/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1335379133&sr=1-2. I realize it is long but you can copy and paste it in your browser or can just click on it to get there. On Barnes and Noble you can go to http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/The-Silver?store=book&keyword=The+Silver.  Or you can just go to my author website at http://sbpra.com/RLHarlan/ to buy it.
I also want you to know that I am on Facebook I am at www.facebook.com/people/RL-Harlan/100003526419047. Plase give me your comments either on my blog or on Facebook. I would appreciate it. It is very important to me to know what you think of the book. Thank you for your interest in my work.

The Book is Out

I want to announce that my book has been completed and has been released for sale. It is available at www.sbpra.com/rlharlan. It is also available at http://www.barnesandnoble.com/. It will be available at www.amazon.com soon. The cover is beautiful as well as the back cover. I am very proud of this book. I will be publishing future books. The Silver is the first book of The Silver Trilogy. The second book will be available only if this book is successful. I am sure you will like the first book and equally confident you will like all three! I still can’t reveal the title of the second book as it will give away too much about the first book. All of my books are exciting and have a surprise ending. I hope you like them. Again I want to thank all of you for following my blog and hopeful you will appreciate my work. I have plenty of stories to tell. I want to tell them all! I wish you all the best and hope you are all well.  

Update to my book.

Once again I do apologize for not posting enough. I don't really know what to say in here. I hope I haven't driven anyone off by not posting in awhile.

I do have news about the book now. I am in production; there are a lot of decisions I have had to make concerning cover design, artwork and the text layout. I'm sure I have many decisions left to make. It really is a complicated procedure. This is my first published work with many more on the way.

The Silver is the first book in The Silver trilogy. I hope you will all like it.

I have learned a lot about the publishing world in this process.

The book has been professionally edited and the “text block” (that is the manuscript has been formed to fit the pages) has been completed.

I am now working, with my publisher on the cover design, press release and author bio.

I have to include a photo of myself. I am going to have a photo taken by a professional photo studio for that. I promise I clean up pretty well, lol.

I must say even though I have had to make many decisions and have many more to make this has been very exciting for me. It has been a dream of mine for a long time to publish my work. I have many stories to tell. A lot of them are written already.

My publisher tells me if I sell 1 thousand copies of the first one they will publish the rest of them. I hope I can do that.

I want you to know that I am not as much concerned with the money I can make, (even though that will be nice), but with good people like you contacting me and telling me they enjoyed reading my story. That will mean the world to me! To know I gave the pleasure of reading a book they liked while curled up on the couch or in whatever genre you read in would give me great pleasure.

The Silver should be on the market in late spring or early summer of this year.

Please enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it for you.

Thank you so much.