Hiya!

BagfootBandit

BagfootBandit

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Hello everyone!

I'm a 26-year old wannabe adventurer with a lot of stories to tell, mostly through fantasy. My past year includes a 6-week scuba diving adventure in Roatan (wherein I became a divemaster) and living with bears in the wilds of Alaska. I graduated college with a BA in psychology. I'm also a black belt in Taekwondo :p I mention these adventures (partially to brag...but also) to let people know what I know, so I can give back to this fascinating community.

I self-published my first book, a historical fantasy set in 1860's Colorado, exactly five years ago this week! I also have an ongoing project that's basically the other half of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters which I post on Tumblr every now and then. I'm terrible at self-promotion, but I've been told my work is good by professionals, so I'm trying to get better at it. I'm sure everyone here has this ambition, but I'm reaching for bestseller. I have a bad habit of biting off more than I can chew with my writing, mostly because I bore myself working on anything smaller. Smaller in the sense of ideas, not smaller in word count.

My favorite authors and thinkers are Carl Jung, Tolkien, Jordan Peterson, and of course C.S. Lewis. I've been inspired by Neil Gaiman as well, but I'm still working on reading his stuff. I'm a big fan of stories that delve into the mythological.

My current novel, Godslayers, is almost finished. I'm done with the draft and first revision, but I'm at the point where I can't really progress without outside help. Working for five years on the same project makes you go cross-eyed. I've always been solitary with my work, mostly because I never met quite the right people in my day to day life. I'm working to change that and find my writing community.

I'm open to beta reading as long as it is a mutual exchange (at least for now). I have a lot of life decisions on my plate, but they've been somewhat delayed due to breaking my collarbone a couple weeks ago. Blessing in disguise, as it was the only reason I finished my revisions and why I have a spare brain cell to finally join this forum and reorganize my life!

Looking forward to getting to know ya'll.
 
RobertlewisIR

RobertlewisIR

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A pleasure to make your acquaintance. Seems like we read quite a bit of the same stuff. I'm a Colorado boy, myself, so I'd be curious to hear more about your historical fantasy.
 
BagfootBandit

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It's called The Western Gods. It's about a Native-American goddess who falls in love with a priest as he attempts to convert the Arapaho. I took some local history and put a spin on it. I too am a Colorado native!
 
regdog

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:welcome:


Take some time and read the Newbie Guide and the Stickies found
at the top of Forum pages. They are your best guide to learning about
Absolute Write.


Stop by the Weekend Progress Report each week to brag about your weekly writing accomplishments.
Awesome smilies and awards are given out.




Please read the FAQ about posting photos.




In fact we have lots of brilliant FAQs check them out.




Members who want to start a thread in Share Your Work to have work critiqued need
50 posts. Don’t make a mad dash to reach your 50 posts. That is frowned upon and can lead to your posts being deleted.
Take some time to greet fellow newbies, critique other members’ works, or join a discussion.




Announcements, Events and Self Promotion is for active members only. All obvious spam will be deleted on sight!
Here’s how to Promote With Aplomb.


Try stopping by Writing Exercises, Prompts & Whimsical Pursuits and give the Flash Fiction Challenge a try.
 
DanielSTJ

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Jung's work is enticing to me. Nice!

Sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Good stuff.

:welcome:
 

MatthewSteele

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BagfootBandit said:
Hello everyone!

I'm a 26-year old wannabe adventurer with a lot of stories to tell, mostly through fantasy. My past year includes a 6-week scuba diving adventure in Roatan (wherein I became a divemaster) and living with bears in the wilds of Alaska. I graduated college with a BA in psychology. I'm also a black belt in Taekwondo :p I mention these adventures (partially to brag...but also) to let people know what I know, so I can give back to this fascinating community.

I self-published my first book, a historical fantasy set in 1860's Colorado, exactly five years ago this week! I also have an ongoing project that's basically the other half of C.S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters which I post on Tumblr every now and then. I'm terrible at self-promotion, but I've been told my work is good by professionals, so I'm trying to get better at it. I'm sure everyone here has this ambition, but I'm reaching for bestseller. I have a bad habit of biting off more than I can chew with my writing, mostly because I bore myself working on anything smaller. Smaller in the sense of ideas, not smaller in word count.

My favorite authors and thinkers are Carl Jung, Tolkien, Jordan Peterson, and of course C.S. Lewis. I've been inspired by Neil Gaiman as well, but I'm still working on reading his stuff. I'm a big fan of stories that delve into the mythological.

My current novel, Godslayers, is almost finished. I'm done with the draft and first revision, but I'm at the point where I can't really progress without outside help. Working for five years on the same project makes you go cross-eyed. I've always been solitary with my work, mostly because I never met quite the right people in my day to day life. I'm working to change that and find my writing community.

I'm open to beta reading as long as it is a mutual exchange (at least for now). I have a lot of life decisions on my plate, but they've been somewhat delayed due to breaking my collarbone a couple weeks ago. Blessing in disguise, as it was the only reason I finished my revisions and why I have a spare brain cell to finally join this forum and reorganize my life!

Looking forward to getting to know ya'll.
Click to expand...


You certainly do get around! I am a bit of a traveler myself but I can't say I ever lived with bears. Also my blackbelt it in Kung-Fu :p. I find it encouraging to see a fellow appreciator of C.S. Lewis. Not many people have taken the time to read Screwtape Letters (Myself included haha but it's one of my wife's favorites.) I am working on finishing up a YA novel based in modern time around people that have developed special powers. I would be happy to do some exchange and mutual assisting!
 
rainbowsheeps

rainbowsheeps

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Welcome! I'm new myself. You have some interesting experiences. I don't read much fantasy, but your ideas sounds fairly interesting. It's really cool you got some positive feedback from professionals, too. I don't know that much about self-publishing myself, but can I ask, do you feel publishing that way has gotten what you've wanted out of it? Any regrets about that process, given that you're not a big fan of self-promotion, etc.?
 
BagfootBandit

BagfootBandit

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Awesome! Your novel sounds interesting; I'd definitely be willing to exchange!

- - - Updated - - -

MatthewSteele said:
You certainly do get around! I am a bit of a traveler myself but I can't say I ever lived with bears. Also my blackbelt it in Kung-Fu :p. I find it encouraging to see a fellow appreciator of C.S. Lewis. Not many people have taken the time to read Screwtape Letters (Myself included haha but it's one of my wife's favorites.) I am working on finishing up a YA novel based in modern time around people that have developed special powers. I would be happy to do some exchange and mutual assisting!
Click to expand...

Awesome! Your novel (and your life) sounds interesting; I'd definitely be willing to exchange!
 
Last edited:
BagfootBandit

BagfootBandit

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rainbowsheeps said:
Welcome! I'm new myself. You have some interesting experiences. I don't read much fantasy, but your ideas sounds fairly interesting. It's really cool you got some positive feedback from professionals, too. I don't know that much about self-publishing myself, but can I ask, do you feel publishing that way has gotten what you've wanted out of it? Any regrets about that process, given that you're not a big fan of self-promotion, etc.?
Click to expand...

For small fry like me, I'd say I got what I should have expected. I was a little too overconfident in how well I would do. The primary issue I had was that I'm not really a guy who understands the organizational component required to make self publishing successful. I don't regret it, especially not for my first book. I learned a lot about how to do good self-promotion and how to get quality reviews. For me though, once I've done all I can to make my writing is as good as it can be, I don't want anything to do with it anymore (aside from talking about it with my readers). I learned that if I want to get paid for my writing I personally need to go the traditional route. I'm not market savvy, and the kind of writing I do fills specific niches I'm not sure how to reach. I tend to fall short in the application of what I've learned in these areas as well.

It did teach me to be confident in my work; you have to sound confident to sell. When all was said and done, I sold somewhere around 200 copies. Mostly friends and family of course, but I managed to sell to one or two to random people too.
 
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