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Blogs by M L Stidmon
Back in the Saddle 6/19/2013 3:46:07 AM
For my first posting I would like to announce that I will be re-publishing my first book, Thomas Monroe and the Greggs of Kesselt, as The Greggs of Kesselt through Smashwords. In 2004 I published my first book with my former publisher naively not knowing much about the publishing industry. As a result I lost many years and I am basically starting over trying to re-boot my writing career through Smashwords.
So why the title change? It’s been said that an artist is never satisfied with their works. I remember watching a video of Picasso creating a simple piece of work. About half ways through I figured the art work was completed. Not to Picasso who continued to add paint to the point that the canvas was all covered up and essentially a blob of paint. The point Picasso was making is that even though the painting may appear complete, to an artist it’s never really done. I have heard this same sentiment stated from contemporary artist of different media.
When it came to my first book there were elements I did not like. The title was one of them. Thomas Monroe and the Greggs of Kesselt was a compromise title. Obviously it is clunky. I hated saying the title when people asked what it was. It wasn’t cool like The Once and Future King or Game of Thrones. By shortening it to just The Greggs of Kesselt I believe it’s less clunky.
Another aspect of the book I hated was the main character's name. As I was first writing the manuscript I wanted to name him Thomas Kinkaid. I thought it was a cool name. And to some extent I wanted to honor Admiral Thomas E. Kinkaid of WW2 fame. I always thought he was short change by historians. However, as I was polishing the book and talking about it with friends and family there was a concern that my Thomas Kinkaid would be confused and lost to the popularity of Thomas Kinkade the painter. Also, I wanted to use Thomas Kinkaid in several stories and at the time Kinkaidian did not sound cool for a dynastic name. Monrovian sounded better. But once again popular culture has intervened with my naming of the main character. When NBC debuted Revolution I was very distressed to see that the villain's name is Monroe. Not to mention the evil sounding Monroe Republic. I did not want to compete with NBC. That did it, Thomas Kinkaid was reborn.
Another aspect of the book that concerned me was the first couple of chapters. I started writing the manuscript in 2002. I wanted to write a book to introduce the world of Kesselt and the guardian Greggs. I also wanted to write a hero type story like the ones I enjoyed in my youth. In those stories a lone guy was often transported to another world under mysterious means. Well in my book I thought, hey, why not bring a plane full of people along with the hero to Kesselt. So imagine my chagrin when ABC debuted Lost in the fall of 2004. I loved Lost. It was a great story. But the only similarities between my story and Lost are that we both used a plane as a means of transport to start the story. I have decided that the stories are so different that I will maintain the plane to Kesselt element.
Within the body of the book nothing much has really changed. I mostly tweaked here and there. In the end I hope I have achieved a good read that sets up the mythology and setting of Kesselt for more enjoyable stories.
As for what's coming, I would like to take a moment to tease the future.
Next on my list is to polish and publish through Smashwords: A Princess of Kesselt. Then I will immediately finish the three Kesselt stories with A King of Dormir. Then I want to break from the mold and finish my historical fiction novel about the First Minnesota Infantry during the American Civil War. From there I don't know. I have three other Kesselt stories outlined. I have an epic Space Opera in a preliminary outline stage. Plus I have a series of four crime thrillers I want to pursue. And then, to satisfy my political wonkiness, I have another four stories following a politician's rise to power. And then I would like to do something with my Green Knight stories. Finally, I would like to write some more historical fiction about the Civil War and other wars and eras.
