Epub Version for all non Kindle devices $1.25 *note you will have to download Adobe Digital Editions to read this version, it is a free application and also works on computers.*
Collector's Edition Hardcover- $32.53
Trade Paper Back $15.43
Kindle Version-$1.00
Nook Version-$1.00
Perception is reality. What if you woke up one morning and everyone around you saw a peaceful normal day, but you saw a nightmare? This is where the Calling begins, when Eden Monaghan awakens to a psychotic nightmare where dreams and reality are blurred. At the end of this transformation Eden is given a choice, to go back to normal, or live in a world where nightmares are reality. Eden picks normal, but destiny has other plans.
As his destiny unfolds Eden’s world is opened to vampires, werewolves, magic, and other paranormal entities. A prophecy tells of a Seer, a being of immense powers, his only goal the world’s destruction. As the Seer’s arrival nears, Eden must protect the forces that stand to stop the apocalypse. Will he succeed, or will he become Earth’s greatest nemesis?
*The best way to help if you're interested is to obviously buy it, but to also post about it on social media sites, buy it for people that you think may be interested in it and or tell people about it. Also writing reviews on amazon.com or wherever you purchased the book is great too! Thanks, sincerely yours,
-Stephan Lawrence Theodore Clifford
Qualia is the first book in the Calling Series...check out the first two chapters below.
Chapter One *The best way to help if you're interested is to obviously buy it, but to also post about it on social media sites, buy it for people that you think may be interested in it and or tell people about it. Also writing reviews on amazon.com or wherever you purchased the book is great too! Thanks, sincerely yours,
-Stephan Lawrence Theodore Clifford
Qualia is the first book in the Calling Series...check out the first two chapters below.
Chapter Two
Publishing Qualia the Story- From Manuscript to Book to Ebook
About Qualia *Spoilers-this really is for people that have read the book, or people that don't like surprises*
- Why Qualia?
- I began imagining Qualia or portions of the Calling Series when I was ten years old. After you read the Epilogue you'll be acquainted with the blue crystal. This is based off of a short story I began when I was ten called the Burning Light. I can't say too much more about that now, but that the Prologue takes place in the world (Serasia)that I created when writing about the Burning Light.
- Over the years Serasia, a world I began creating in the Burning Light, and in later stories about Dragon Lords and the such, has been playing out in my mind. The mythology, the continents, the stories, the history, the culture, it's been in my mind and multiplying since that long ago time when I was just tapping ( yes tapping, I didn't know how to type then) on the Apple 2GS keyboard. I can't even tell you how many times I've drawn the map for the world of Serasia, I find them all over my house stuck in books or in old folders.
- But that doesn't really answer the question does it? So Qualia is a concept I was briefly introduced to while in Dr. Cerruti's Behavior and Heredity class in the fall of 2009. He talked about percetion and that when one person sees red and I see red we both know it's red but he could be seeing green and I could be seeing blue, it's just that our brain maps it out that we can call it red. Don't get stuck on it, just let it rest it isn't a concept that is meant to be conquered.
- I had been working on a story called The Corpse, pretty much the majority of chapter 1 and 2 of Qualia was "The Corpse". I had had a dream (this happens a lot, most of Qualia was the result of dreams {sometimes nightmares} and a lot of daydreaming), and then I think also my cat Willow, a tuxedo female kitty that we've had since 2001, had killed a rat and left it under our bed much to our displeasure. As I crept down to remove the rat from under the bed I started to wonder why the hell I was so terrified. Thus began "The Corpse" a story about Quinn Hunter. Years went by as I thought about this concept, but I wanted it to be more, so I set it aside. Then I went into the last 16 months of finishing my psychology degree and it just started creeping up again. Learning about the brain in Dr. Barkley's class, Qualia with Cerruti, Schizophrenia with Sandberg, it all just started to mesh together. Not to mention my just overall displeasure with how the millenial 20s and early 30s were playing out for myself and my friends during two wars and a recession.
- So about December 2009 Ryan (my best friend, and Chef, not my personal chef but the character chef is based on him) and I went to Barnes and Noble and he helped me pick out a leather journal. Well then it just went crazy from there. Qualia wasn't the Corpse anymore, it was The Calling, and the Calling turned into a series, six books (maybe more but I have a direction and an ending so don't worry it won't be like a soap or anything), and Qualia was the flagship. I finished up my final quarter of undergrad and didn't get accepted to grad school and couldn't find a job, so while I was looking and volunteering I started to write. From March 2010 to May 23rd 2010 I wrote the first draft of Qualia.
- So the first draft was awesome (oh my poor ego), but ya know it wasn't perfect, it wasn't anywhere NEAR perfect. So as any good writer does I shared it with my peeps. Yvette, Emily, Tim, Ryan, Melanie my #1 fan, Bobbi and chapter two amost made her wet herself with fear, possibly others, I was emailing that damned thing all over the place. I got a lot of great feedback, so began drafts 2 through 4, and about three different endings. It's damned hard to end a series book, because it isn't the REAL ending, it's a chapter!
- So then I let my woman read it, my inspiration for Lily, my love. She told me she didn't like it. I was crushed. So after tears and some yelling we managed to communicate, thus began edits 5 through 10. Which is funny because I originally said 10 edits and publish, because honestly you don't want to kick something so much that you tire of it. Honestly I can pick up Qualia every day of the week and get lost in it, and that still amazes me.
- I finally got accepted to grad school, which gave me about eight months to try and publish. I was probably on draft 8, but I wanted to try my hat at selling a paranormal series. I mean with True Blood, Twilight, and all those other crazy series out there selling like hot cakes I figured I had finally found something I could sell! I was finally marketable baby! Well I just couldn't do it. Selling art is sleazy and hard and demoralizing. Following/friending/liking agents on social media just makes you wanna kill yourself. They are the gatekeepers baby and they don't just let anyone past. So writing an amazing query letter is like writing an amazing resume, and both require a cover letter. I'm a fiction writer, not a techical one, but that aside I'm not a salesman, I tried that before and it didn't work out for me. I'm not even sure my cover letter/query letter were bad, but I can tell you I never got a single response. I got drafted letters and silence. I can't even say that I got a million of them and kept on marching, I imagine I sent out about 40 query letters and got maybe 5 rejections. I was beginning to lose track of who I was even sending them to, so I stopped. My idea of the perfect agent would be one helluva confidant, a friend, a friend with the skills to sell like nothing has ever been sold! I was just looking at names and twitter feeds of people that I didn't feel I could relate to, and thus dejected I stopped trying that avenue. I was hearing all about people like Amanda Hocking, making their own damned luck.
- If you think about it, just getting an agent is like winning the lottery. Then selling the book to a publisher is like winning the lottery again. Then people have to buy your book. Do you know anyone that has won the lotto three times in one lifetime? Yea me either. I have a totally different career, and I'm never going to stop writing. Would I love to win the lotto three times in this lifetime, hell yea I would, but the reality is I just don't have the patience to deal with the rejection. I would rather work and write and leave it up to fate and my ability to spread information across mutli-media. I just hope that the people that do find my work, enjoy it.
- So as I kept working on my 9th edit I researched a lot about how to publish and decided to do it across as many types as I could, that way someone that digs the kindle and someone that digs hardcovers could still read my book if they wanted. So that's exactly what I did.
- So that's the story thus far.
- The Calling means so much to me. It's this idea of perception and how the mythology of the universe and Earth have played out and how I get to re-write that based on my imagination and some of my true feelings. It's about being a man pushing 35 and not having a sense of direction. It's about finding love and being totally unwilling to let it go.
But that doesn't really answer the question does it? So Qualia is a concept I was briefly introduced to while in Dr. Cerruti's Behavior and Heredity class in the fall of 2009. He talked about percetion and that when one person sees red and I see red we both know it's red but he could be seeing green and I could be seeing blue, it's just that our brain maps it out that we can call it red. Don't get stuck on it, just let it rest it isn't a concept that is meant to be conquered.
No comments:
Post a Comment