Lou Paduano | Urban Fantasy Novels | Sci-Fi Crime Series

The Clearing Author Commentary 2

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This time around, I’m talking about the insane cover design process to get to the final (awesome) product. Suffice it say, it was a stressful time in the Paduano household.

The Long Road to Design

I’ve spoken about this before, but when I started DSA I had clear images in my head for the covers to Season One. So much so, that I went ahead and drew them out.

My talent still amazes me…

This was drawn back in 2015. I’m sure I’m a much better artist now. (I’m not.)

In 2016, I went one step further. I took a course in designing my own covers using PhotoShop. I figured this is how I would get a leg up on the competition. If I could get soooo good at designs then I wouldn’t have to pay for covers and would use the funds for marketing/ads/etc.

It came out all right. Maybe?

Anyway, I ditched the idea of becoming adept at PhotoShop. It still pains me to use the damn thing.

2018 came and went with the drafts finally ready for publication. Now it was time to find a designer.

The Cover Design Disaster Begins

Early in 2019 I found one. Nat was freaking amazing and communicative, which is big with me when it comes to working with people. I hate yelling into the void when things need to be done, and she was fantastic to work with through the process of putting together not only the Greystone: Complete First Cycle box set but the cover for The Clearing.

I even went ahead and revealed this cover on the blog back in 2019.

Reaching out to get the final files of the design, and start work on Promethean, Nat…vanished. Poof. Gone.

That void I was yelling into never clued me in on what happened. This went on for months. I would send an email and receive nothing but crickets. I wanted to work with this woman, but as time went on, all I really wanted to do was find out she was still alive and well. It was scary stuff to be going along all fine and dandy and then nada. No word.

The summer of 2019 was quickly fading, and I needed a new designer with some speed and a willingness to put together six covers in about two months time. (and put up with a frantic author…)

MiblArt to the Rescue

MiblArt is based in the Ukraine. They are AMAZING. An entire team of designers is at your disposal to help with whatever you need. I think they designed all six DSA books and Hammer and Anvil in about six weeks. It was crazy how quick the files were sent my way.

I can’t thank them enough for getting me out of quite the jam.

Being unable to put out a new project during the pandemic has been tough, being unable to see the awesome work MiblArt does to make my books the best they can be has been even tougher.

I still remember when this cover arrived. You wouldn’t believe the number of people I sent it to just to show it off. I love the design to this day.

But, holy crap, what a process.

That was the cover debacle of 2019. Let’s hope it never happens again. Please.

Next up: learning to juggle the lead characters!

The Clearing Author Commentary 1

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Welcome to the author commentary for The Clearing. I love sharing behind the scenes details about the creative process, as well as the many mistakes I make in putting books together. There will be SPOILERS ahead. You have been warned!

A Mess of a Start

The Clearing was one of the most difficult books I’ve had the pleasure of putting together… so far. If you’ve read my intro to the commentary last time, you’ll already know how my original plan for the series was to structure weekly installments with two or three sub-chapters per week for readers.

The shift to novella format was a blessing and a curse. Mostly a blessing, as it allowed each book to breathe a little easier without the strict structure previously put in place. Because of that extra room available, I started to rework the book.

A lot.

The initial version of The Clearing focused entirely on Ben’s character. He’s the reader’s POV in entering this new organization and finding out all the craziness out in the world. It made sense to follow him throughout.

Except this isn’t Ben’s series. Not entirely.

The Ensemble Cast

Morgan Dunleavy has equal billing when it comes to the DSA. You can also argue for Susan Metcalf in that regard. The fact became apparent relatively quickly that centering every event around one character wasn’t going to fly. Every member of the cast had a role to play and their importance to the overall story was necessary to illustrate right from the start.

A Deviation

In writing about the ensemble cast, I remember back when I first conceived the series. In truly keeping with the episodic television show aspect of the DSA, I envisioned actors and actresses playing each of the characters. I heard their thoughts on the scripts as they were coming out and how they perceived their roles in them.

It might sound strange that way, but it really gave me the drive needed to beef up everyone’s role in the book. I took a step back to see why each character was acting the way they were, and what direction they were headed in the series.

For a time I thought about creating mock-interviews with these “actors” talking about their characters. That would have been fun to do. Maybe down the line…

The Many Mistakes of the Opening Sequences…

Knowing each character needed a moment to shine brought me back to the opening of the series. The Clearing had to sell the reader on these people and why they are important. Why do we care about any of them?

In order to justify their existence, I rewrote the opening sequence of events quite a few times.

The initial first chapter from the earliest draft was the Wilson Dupree scene in Bellbrook. It is the inciting incident and the main thrust of this book’s narrative, so it made sense to me to open with that.

Unfortunately, it created a timeline problem.

Recruiting Ben became infinitely more difficult because of that disaster hanging over the reader. Plus, it put the characters below the plot, in my opinion.

So Wilson and Bellbrook got shunted to Chapter 5.

The first four chapters in the book didn’t exist at this point. In the early drafts, once Bellbrook is established, the story picks up with Ben’s conviction and subsequent recruitment by Metcalf and we’re off and running.

No Wex Avenue house. No keypad to a secret facility with hints about something called The Utopia Protocol.

Just the trial and his chat with Susan.

There was even a draft where Metcalf fakes Ben’s death. The bus that was supposed to take Ben away explodes in the middle of their chat. Then I had to explain how a look-alike snuck on the bus (and then off the bus) before the explosion. It was a mess of explanation and did little for the story.

Finding the Right Story Beats

I pride myself on trying to key in on character more than plot. The people in the story serve a greater purpose than to bounce from event to event. They should be driving the action, the tension, the entire dynamic of the narrative throughout.

So when I started looking at how to open The Clearing, I realized character was the key. If Ben’s conviction is important, let’s show what happened and how it can link to his worldview. That’s where Wex Avenue came in play.

Looking at the DSA, a key event in the series is the fall of Jacob Grissom. Draft after draft came along where we never saw the fall, which if you’ve read the whole season seems like a terrible idea considering what happens to poor Grissom in the aftermath.

Chapter Two became that moment. Not only do we get a crucial piece of backstory for the DSA to drive their actions throughout the season, we get to see each of our characters react to the moment and provide the reader a starting point of who these people are. Lincoln is gruff. Ruth is a leader, but in name only. Morgan is the healer, fighting for every second of life for all those around her. And Metcalf… well, her cold, calculation gets her in a lot of trouble, wouldn’t you say?

It all started here, by pulling these moments apart and reworking the story.

Lincoln and Morgan

Lincoln and Morgan never had a story beat in early drafts. They were passengers on Ben’s journey. When I realized my error in this, considering their roles going forward, I needed a baseline beat to show the readers who they were.

That’s where Chapters 8 and 9 came from. Two small chapters that give you everything you need to know about Lincoln and Morgan. Through Lincoln, you learn how pragmatic he is when it comes to attachments, yet also how Ruth has somehow broken through that barrier in his eyes.

Morgan’s was more about residual emotions regarding Grissom. It set up the tension in Promethean, and her inability to have faith in Ben as a partner out of fear of losing another one.

Next up: Cover Design Nightmare!

DSA Season One Author Commentary Intro

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Welcome to the author commentary for DSA Season One! This has been a long time in the making, and I am so excited to share tidbits on the writing process. DSA was such a challenging project from start to sort-of finish (there are still more seasons to put together).

What is an author commentary?

I’ve always loved reading and watching behind the scenes info about a creative project, be it a film, show, book, or comic. To see how something came to be, from the original inception to the end product is truly a marvelous process. Each one is so unique, yet the challenges are pretty universal.

With my author commentary, it gives me a chance to share the process with you. Almost like a post-mortem for myself, this is where you’ll see all the areas I botched the writing, the pacing, the plot points, and everything else imaginable during the creation of the DSA.

Spoilers ahead…

Will there be spoilers? Absolutely. I am going to talk about the book in detail. Why characters are the way they are, why events happened the way they did, etc. What I will not be spoiling is where the story goes next. That’s off the table.

So for The Clearing, I will be going in depth on the climax of the novel, but I will not delve into where The Witness goes from there or any other plot point to be revealed in a later book. (And boy are those answers coming soon!)

Hints are allowed.

DSA Season One

There are six books in the first season of DSA. I’ll be going through all six over the course of the year.

As a primer, I thought I would share the original design of the series as it is one of those areas that changed wildly as time went on.

I developed the series back in 2014. Originally, it was meant to be released in weekly installments either by newsletter or through a service like Patreon. Each book was written in twelve parts with two or three sub-chapters making up each part. There were also bonus back-up stories to offer readers interested in more information on the characters or the series.

I don’t recall the exact reasoning for abandoning this approach. It may have been due to the fun I’d had working on Greystone’s First Cycle or simply because I thought novels would work better as a selling point, but I switched directions on the series.

Each book was rewritten, top to bottom. The twelve sections were gone. Scenes were rearranged. Some were cut. Some were expanded upon (most were expanded upon). The backup stories were folded into the novels themselves. There was one in Promethean that ended up being a crucial scene in the book, so hooray to me for figuring out how not to screw that up…

Instead of treating them as these digital-only entities, every book in the DSA series became fully fledged novellas/episodes in the series.

What’s ahead?

The Clearing is up first. This book…well, let’s just say it went through A LOT of changes over the course of its development and I can’t wait to share them with you.

Writing Update – March 27, 2023

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This writing train just keeps on chugging along. Check out this month’s writing update below:

Writing Update

Alpha and Omega

It hasn’t been easy to return to Greystone. I knew the transition wouldn’t be simple after so long away, but what it really came down to was my own pressure about coming back to Portents.

Greystone deserved the best, and I worried I wasn’t up to par. There were scenes I pulled apart for hours trying to figure out a way in from Loren’s perspective, from Soriya’s, from Mentor’s… all these little voices needed to find their way back into play.

Portents also played a big part in the series, and I wanted to keep that up. For a while I wasn’t sure how, but while piecing together the history of one of the major set pieces I remembered what makes the city work (or not work as is the case). Finding that thread, figuring out the secrets of the city, was one of the keys to really making this script come to life for me.

It took some time, but everything managed to slide back into rhythm. It was like a happy homecoming with old friends.

So yes, the script is DONE!

187 pages of Soriya and Loren and all the chaos that comes with a Portents novel. Some of the visuals are haunting (I hope I do them justice in the draft). The banter between Loren and Ruiz is still one of my favorite parts of the series, and there is a joke in the script that I really hope makes it to the final book. It has me in stitches every time I think about it. (It’s probably only funny to me.)

Next month, I’m diving into the draft. This is my first foray into a 300-page behemoth in quite some time so it might be slow-going, to say the least. Fingers crossed I still remember how to do this!

Reading List

Project Hail Mary

Andy Weir’s latest is so flipping incredible. I didn’t want to put it down. Every chapter had me begging for more. The science was, of course, well over my head but I always love the narrator’s voice and how down to earth Weir’s characters can be. A truly fantastic novel you should definitely check out.

Hulk: The Dogs of War

Paul Jenkins wrote the majority of this book and it dates back to 2000 – 2001. I remember loving this. Jenkins hit all the right notes with me. Banner on the run. Hunted by the government. Split personalities, different Hulk personas.

This time around didn’t carry the same feeling. I still think the book is visually outstanding. From Ron Garney to Kyle Hotz to John Romita Jr., the book is gorgeous to look at page after page. Story-wise, it never really gets past that initial plot point of Bruce dying of ALS and the threat of this Devil Hulk thing that never really pans out. It reads like Jenkins had way more story to tell and didn’t get the chance, and that is unfortunate because I feel like he had a great handle on the character at this stage in Bruce’s life after the loss of his wife.

The back matter is where this book shines. Brian Azzarello and Richard Corben put together a four-part tale called Banner and it is phenomenal. Every panel is a treat for the eyes. I could read that story over and over again. Top notch stuff.

It’s all author commentary next month, but the writing update will return for May!

Thanks for reading.

Finding the Rhythm Again

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My eternal struggle can be summed up in one phrase: finding the rhythm again. There is an ebb and flow to writing, a certain amount of mental preparation necessary on a daily basis, and a helluva lotta luck. So after two years of lockdowns and teaching little ones from home, masks and the constant fear of infection or spreading infection, how do you find that rhythm again?

Back to the author life

I made a promise back in September that 2023 was going to be my year. I walked away from the blog in August of 2021 knowing the challenges before me with a new baby in the mix, but after watching her grow by leaps and bounds over the last year, I needed to put my focus back into my writing.

Writing, though, was always the easy part. Writing is like breathing to me. It may appear difficult at times, especially with the many distractions constantly buzzing in my ear, but when push comes to shove I am always aware of the plan in my head and can get something–SOMETHING, not perfection–on the page.

That’s how you get back into things: words on the page. That’s the key to figuring out how to make things work.

But again, the writing is the easy part…

Blogs and newsletters

I agonize over the marketing side of my life. AGONIZE. Everything is a struggle, because I want to give my readers the world and know that it is impossible. I am never going to be publishing a book every month, unfortunately, but I do what I can to keep things interesting.

That’s the challenge here. How do you keep readers engaged enough to be there when you need them? Like, say September, when The Wellspring launches…

It is figuring stuff like that out where I struggle and where the time starts to dwindle for the work. It’s part of the gig though, so what I’ve done over the last couple months is find pockets to put all the marketing aspects into. Blogs are done on specific days. Newsletters come in between accomplishments on the writing side (hopefully…)

By working out the schedule in this fashion, I can completely segregate the writing from the marketing, and find my rhythm with my work.

In-person events

I’m heading to a number of conventions this year. I’m scared out of my mind over it. I feel rusty and awkward, and I don’t even know if the world is truly back to normal enough to warrant venturing out in it.

Concerns range from: What should I wear? to What is my pricing structure going to be? to my favorite, How should I arrange my table?

Ridiculous amounts of focus goes into each of these brain-busters. I hate it. Writing is easy. Figuring out everything else? SO HARD.

Work/Life Balance

Life wins. It’s a hard fact to realize, but it is the truth. My work will always come second to my wonderful family and that is the way it should always be.

That doesn’t mean I don’t set up certain systems so I don’t go insane from not working!

Lately, I’ve been heading to the local library one night per week for work. It’s amazing what you can accomplish in two hours without a baby monitor on your desk.

Scheduling out in advance is pretty much my go-to move for everything nowadays. I have all my goals for the year written out and know what it takes to hit each one. So building out days where all I do is work is crucial to survive this chaotic lifestyle I’ve chosen.

So is taking a day to play board games with the kiddos.

Finding the rhythm

Finding the rhythm, figuring out how to make things work will always be a work in progress. The baby is going to change sleep patterns. There are going to be birthdays and home improvement projects and concerts and who knows what else to get in the way of writing.

Frustration is inevitable. I feel it every day. Then I hate feeling that way so I get upset at being upset and around and around and around we go…

Take a breath. Pivot. Reschedule. Figure things out.

That’s what I have to keep telling myself.

Process Junkies

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I love talking about the writing process. To me, it is the most fascinating aspect of the whole endeavor. Sometimes I can go entire days thinking about nothing else but the work that goes into the actual work. That might just be me, but I wanted to share how my process has evolved over the years as well as where I would like to improve going forward.

Writing process

I still follow the same steps I have since the beginning.

  1. Outline – a chapter by chapter breakdown of the novel
  2. Dialogue – a hand-written version of the character’s conversations throughout the novel
  3. Script – the mashing of the outline with the dialogue to produce a beat by beat spine for the novel
  4. Draft – the actual writing of the book, using the script as a guide
  5. Edit – turning my jumble of words into something impactful and coherent

This works for me. I’ve thought about dropping the dialogue and script phase to increase my speed. On the whole, though, I don’t think it would add anything other than more editing steps down the road. The dialogue and script portions of the process tend to weed out a number of soft points in the outline. They also help flesh out subplots and smaller character roles by giving them some time to breathe.

I like to think of each step as its own level of editing as well. It really is. By looking through the narrative multiple times during the writing process, everything by the end is a million times more thought out than it was at the start. (I hope…)

Changes to the writing process

It’s funny to think about, but I have noticed a need to work from beginning to end more and more. At the start, I always talked about being able to jump in at any story point and go. This might mean following a specific character through a novel (or season) or a subplot or just a plot point.

Lately, though, whether it is through outlining, scripting, or drafting I have started at the beginning and worked my way through to the climax more and more.

I don’t know why. Maybe it is my tired dad brain telling me to keep things simple. Maybe I have a better grasp on the narrative as a whole so I no longer need to attack it willy-nilly. (Sure, let’s go with that… but it’s probably tired dad brain…)

The staggered approach

Once upon a time, in the golden days of writing, I typically followed my process from start to finish with a book. I don’t remember the last time I did this.

DSA Season Two was outlined at the end of 2018. It was scripted in 2020 and drafted in 2021. Edits took over the last five months of 2022 and it is finally seeing the light of day in September of 2023. That’s a ridiculous process with way too many distractions stuffed in between.

Greystone almost followed suit. I outlined the back half of the series in 2020. Insane, right? I am taking my time to put each book together separate from the rest for the rest of the process. No scripting the whole thing (though I debated doing this…), drafting, and then editing. Each book gets the time it needs, and then the additional details will come at the end if necessary.

Hopefully…

Continued evolution

Every book is different than the last. I continue to find that the most fascinating point of the entire exercise. I certainly never get bored. There is always something new to figure out, or a new revelation on the process to integrate into the steps to make the best book possible.

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