Throwing myself out there (writing)

[Grover]

Hello! I know I am still a proverbial noob in comparison to most folks on the forum and in the almost three months I've been here, I have to say I've enjoyed myself more than on any other forum I've ever been apart of. /runonsentence.

Now that I've kissed everyone's ass...

It's been a few years since I've dedicated myself to doing any serious writing outside of poorly written poetry and in the past week I've decided to get back into it.

A little background: The idea comes from my time writing in various 'eWrestling' communities. I'm sure your first question is, "that's cool, muppet, but what the hell is eWrestling?" Well, I'm glad you asked! It's a group of people who create personas (of wrestlers) and work together to create angles, story lines and write matches all under the banner of a fake wrestling association or federation. I did this for a number of years with some awesome people (Comey included). The Asylum was one of these places, but was based loosely on MMA institutions such as PRIDE or UFC, except weapons were illegal. In the history of Asylum, the place was eventually shut down and deemed illegal because of their business practices, so it went underground in a Fight Club kind of way. The Asylum was active from 2000-2007.

Most of the characters I'm writing were mine during those years. Sloan Ambrose was created specifically for this story, but Hayden Ashcroft and Koji Tamura have both been characters of mine in various fashions for the past 12 years. As of now, these first three pieces I've written, there are no connections between the characters except for The Man, a shadowy figure who runs The Asylum.

Now, what I'm writing doesn't involve any of that silly eWrestling stuff because I'm writing solo, but it certainly involves elements of it because of the characters and settings used.

That was a bit long winded, but I hope it clarified a few things. Anyway, I'm wide open to criticism, complaints, thoughts, compliments, anything you folks are willing to provide. I suppose I wouldn't share these with you if it were otherwise.

I'd like to thank any of you who read in advance and hope you enjoy what I'm putting together. I'll continue to post future pieces in this thread as things progress if there's any interest in what I've done.

Back to the Asylum: Part One, Hayden Ashcroft

Back to the Asylum: Part Two, Sloan Ambrose

Back to the Asylum: Part Three, Koji Tamura

[Draft Dodger]

does this mean the Cincy Jungle gig didn't pan out?

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

does this mean the Cincy Jungle gig didn't pan out?

Yeah. They wanted to bring me on, but I got a new job and the time constraints wouldn't allow me to dedicate the time they wanted (18-24 hours a week).

[Draft Dodger]

that's a lot of time

[Grover]

You're telling me. That's a lot of free labor.

[Draft Dodger]

yeah, I get paid to do it and I don't spend that much time

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Draft Dodger

yeah, I get paid to do it and I don't spend that much time

I also felt like Cincy Jungle does a poor job of putting news out there. There's a lot of useless stories that clutter up the main page. Most of the SBN blogs I read have a much cleaner presentation... not to mention the writers on Cincy Jungle have brutal grammar... such as proper use of apostrophes.

Probably for the best I'm not writing there.

[Julio Riddols]

I used to be in a couple E-feds back in High school.. Would probably do better now than I did then, but I did manage to win a few minor belts and had fun living in my own little world for a while.. When I lost interest in wrestling my interest in eWrestling faded as well..

I have to admit seeing this post woke a little bit of that old feeling.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Julio Riddols

I used to be in a couple E-feds back in High school.. Would probably do better now than I did then, but I did manage to win a few minor belts and had fun living in my own little world for a while.. When I lost interest in wrestling my interest in eWrestling faded as well..

I have to admit seeing this post woke a little bit of that old feeling.

Same for me, once I stopped caring about wrestling it was hard to maintain the interest in eWrestling. I don't think I could ever go back to it, but I'm having fun re-imagining a few of my characters.

I do miss my days in fWo though.

[Grover]

Back to the Asylum (Part Four, Madeline Gost) | Inherently Meaningless

Here's part four, if anybody had actually made it through the first three.

[Marc Vaughan]

Just read the first three - have to say they're blooming good ...

If this was a novel I'd buy it

(ever considered releasing them on kindle?)

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Marc Vaughan

Just read the first three - have to say they're blooming good ...

If this was a novel I'd buy it

(ever considered releasing them on kindle?)

Wow, thank you for the kind words!

As far as a novel, that could be the long term goal. Right now there's really no direction, though I am obviously tying each character's story together. The fifth part will be the final character, Donaven Winters and things will start to tie in from there moving forward.

And Kindle? I wouldn't even know how to go about releasing them on Kindle!

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Grover

Wow, thank you for the kind words!

As far as a novel, that could be the long term goal. Right now there's really no direction, though I am obviously tying each character's story together. The fifth part will be the final character, Donaven Winters and things will start to tie in from there moving forward.

And Kindle? I wouldn't even know how to go about releasing them on Kindle!

Both Amazon and Apple have programs for authors who just want to get their stuff out there. Amazon's is called "Kindle Singles." Details here: Amazon.com: Kindle Singles Submissions - Policy, Editorial Guidelines for Kindle Singles eBooks

Apple iBook stuff here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5071

I haven't read your stuff yet (I'm sorry, my queue is really long) but I will now make a concerted effort to put them into a format so I can use them on my Kindle and iPhone Kindle app.

/tk

[CrimsonFox]

*swings his bat and hits you back*

[Grover]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

Both Amazon and Apple have programs for authors who just want to get their stuff out there. Amazon's is called "Kindle Singles." Details here: Amazon.com: Kindle Singles Submissions - Policy, Editorial Guidelines for Kindle Singles eBooks

Apple iBook stuff here: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5071

I haven't read your stuff yet (I'm sorry, my queue is really long) but I will now make a concerted effort to put them into a format so I can use them on my Kindle and iPhone Kindle app.

/tk

Thanks for the info, tk! Looks like I'd have a lot of work to do to get it into submission ready format as everything is a bit here and there at the moment.

And no hard feelings on you not having read any of it yet

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Grover

Thanks for the info, tk! Looks like I'd have a lot of work to do to get it into submission ready format as everything is a bit here and there at the moment.

And no hard feelings on you not having read any of it yet

FWIW, I'm also asking around in my book club if anyone has any tips on self-publishing for ya. If I get any useful replies, I'll let you know. I know that club has a few "bigger" authors as well as a handful of people that have self-published. But the group is kinda weird, they can be mean to people who just join the group to pimp their stuff/spam the group.

/tk

[Grover]

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

*swings his bat and hits you back*

Who's to say I'm a baseball in this metaphor!

[ozias]

Holy crap...SACO?!?!?!

You're in the next town over from me.

I live in Dayton...small world.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by ozias

Holy crap...SACO?!?!?!

You're in the next town over from me.

I live in Dayton...small world.

Wow! Indeed it is. I've been here for 28 years.

[ozias]

30 years here. Went to Thorton, graduated in '85.

[Izulde]

FWIW, you might want to consider avoiding putting the whole thing on wordpress/the Net. Not sure what wordpress's copyright policy is.

[Grover]

Originally Posted by Izulde

FWIW, you might want to consider avoiding putting the whole thing on wordpress/the Net. Not sure what wordpress's copyright policy is.

Thanks for the heads up. I've been trying to read through some of the legalese on the TOS, but as usual it's too wordy.

Terms of Service — WordPress.com

[terpkristin]

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...elf-publishing

Also I put your first 4 stories onto my Kindle, so I'll read them soon.

/tk

[korme]

Originally Posted by ozias

Holy crap...SACO?!?!?!

You're in the next town over from me.

I live in Dayton...small world.

I live in Dayton.....Ohio. Big world!

[Grover]

Originally Posted by terpkristin

http://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...elf-publishing

Also I put your first 4 stories onto my Kindle, so I'll read them soon.

/tk

Awesome! Thanks for the link and to your various writing friends for their links.

Very, very appreciated.

[terpkristin]

Originally Posted by Grover

Awesome! Thanks for the link and to your various writing friends for their links.

Very, very appreciated.

That's an odd group. I'd go back there every now and then. Sometimes, threads seem to go away and then come back a month later. If I see something get posted that might be useful, I'll try to let ya know.

/tk

[Grover]

Back to the Asylum (Part Five, Donaven Winters) | Inherently Meaningless

Part five. Violence is ramping up and this is the end of the introductory phase with the characters.

[Grover]

Back to the Asylum (Part Six, The First One’s Always Free) | Inherently Meaningless

Part six for anybody's reading displeasure.