2013 in Foresight!

2012 is almost gone. Hard to believe isn't it? A lot has happened over this past year. My second child was born in February, I drove a 3,000-mile book tour to Colorado, my third novel was released in the Spring, I signed on with the MacGregor Literary Agency, and prior to Christmas I received the preliminary contract for the last four books in The Sword of the Dragon series!

So what is in store for 2013? Three new novels from Scott Appleton, all centered around The Sword of the Dragon series! The first is In Search of Dragons, the sequel to Key of Living Fire. Then I am going to release the first two books in my new series, Neverqueen! In the midst of all that I am going to try to finish my steampunk novel, Star Train.

Next month I will be working with an artist from Germany who will illustrate the Neverqueen books... Stay tuned folks! This is going to be a fun year!

In the mean time, AMG Publishers has reduced the cost of the Kindle version of Swords of the Six... Now only $2.99! Please tell your friends to check it out here.

Entertainment and Pleasure: finding the healthy balance

It is amazing how easily we Americans sink into pleasures. We have so many opportunities and arguably this is the predominant factor in our decline as a society. Pleasure is good. God intended for us to enjoy things and people. But everything is best in moderation and our society is far from being moderate in our use of pleasure.

Pleasures can relax and rejuvenate us, or they can overwhelm our senses and steer us away from wisdom, prudence, and compassion. It is my prayer that, as a Christian author, my writings will entertain but also instruct in wisdom and encourage to holiness.

In the utilization of pleasure we must not forget the needy, the orphans, the widows, the handicapped, and those who are spiritually searching for the Hope that we have. That Hope, of course, comes by Jesus Christ.

What are your thoughts on pleasure and entertainment? Where do we go too far?

Hope amid growing spiritual darkness

Especially after the results of the recent presidential election here in the U.S., people are scrambling to stay positive. We already know that the president is a strong supporter of abortion, the gay lifestyle, and liberal spending policies. The projections of financial planners and spiritual leaders points to the ruin of the freedoms we enjoy.

But I am not interested in re-hashing all of that. I was reminded the other day, while listening to the Christian radio station, that American Christians have lost sight of what really matters. We hear all around us the doom and despair, but where are the cheery countenances of thankful people pleased to live in the midst of darkness in order that their spiritual lights may brightly shine?

As Christians, we have a responsibility (no, a privilege) to look beyond the temporal world. We have hope, and a Hope empowering. As the world around us sinks into greater darkness, then and only then can the blinders of godlessness be removed from their eyes.

I feel that this country is like an old sailing ship. For over two hundred years we have dropped anchor in the port of Christ and let Him clean the barnacles off of our hull. Gradually we have made our stops more infrequent, until now our ungodly leaders think we are ready to do without a cleaning. And so the ship sets sail into the waters of the godless, little realizing how many holes the barnacles are opening. Will the ship sink entirely? It remains to be seen, but praise God we cannot sink with it. We have hope and assurance of rescue by the Lord himself who will take us out of this world.

If I could paint, I would paint a picture of our ship out in an ocean of deep blue. But surrounding the ship would be a pool of blood; the blood of the deceived souls who died there and the blood of the innocent babies murdered there.

Hope shines. This is our opportunity to show how great the Light is within each of us. This life is not about us... It is about those deceived souls who despise every fiber of what we stand for.

Star Wars VII; what's in store?

There was once a young boy who was playing on the floor in his Grandfather's house when all of a sudden he saw something that stirred within him a dream of fantasy stories embracing the power of good versus evil and the triumph of light over darkness. That boy was me, and that something was the movie Star Wars IV: A New Hope.

Have you heard the news? Disney bought out LucasFilm and in 2015 they are going to continue the Star Wars saga with a new film that will pick up where the original movies ended.

Some fans are worried that Disney will mess this up, but considering that Steven Spielburg's right-hand lady is at the helm... I think this is going to be fantastic. Disney proved with At World's End, and with the Voyage Of The Dawn Treader that they can do classic, darker films that do not just appeal to kids.

So what is in store in Star Wars VII? I am going to put my vote out there that Disney produce the Thrawn trilogy, based around Timothy Zahn's original novels.

What do you think? Will the blue-skinned master strategist finally make a film appearance?

Edit-as-you-go

Something that I find fascinating about the writing/creative process is the edit-as-you-go opportunities that present themselves. Unlike many writers that I have spoken with, I do not like to write an extremely rough draft of a book and then go back and make a ton of editorial changes. I tend to perfect the piece as I go along so that, at the back of my mind, there is a little voice saying, "You can move forward with this story because you've put your best into it."

My mother taught me good grammar and was very diligent to make sure I had put my best effort into my work. I think that instilled the right habits into my writing for the present day.

Would it surprise you to know that my third published novel, Key Of Living Fire, underwent only one major draft before I sent it to the publisher? And my editor was very pleased with the results. I say this because I believe that making our first efforts our best efforts is better than allowing a sloppy or second-rate job.

I imagine that some of the historical authors that I respect and admire did the same. They had to write it all out by hand, so the editorial process would have been even more involved if they did not pay attention to sentence structure, grammar, and the flow of the story. I can picture Jules Verne and H.G. Wells pondering hard over their stories before actually touching their quill to the paper.

Stories that grow with the audience

I have been writing the second book in the Neverqueen series. These stories are an expansion to The Sword of the Dragon storyworld, following a new heroine, Violet, and the histories of the peoples along the Eiderveis River.
Something that I am noticing is, these stories (especially book 2) is a bit darker. And it deals with a few situations that will not fit with my younger readers. I am going to recommend these for older teens and adult readers.
There is a lot happening in the new storylines and I can hardly wait to share them with you!

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