Those who know me personally know that I'm a fan of JA Konrath and an avid follower of his blog A Newbies Guide to Publishing. Recently he issued the Eight Hour Book Challenge. The challenge is simple enough. Write, edit, format, create a cover and publish a book in eight hours. Oh, it's on!
Being a little bit crazy I dove right in. We just barely squeezed in under the deadline but we got it done. My darling wife sat up late cheering me on and helping with image issues for the cover art. The result? Storm Over San Juan.
Storm Over San Juan is a 3,500 word short about a Rough Rider killed in battle at San Juan hil. The story doesn't end there however. He finds himself resurrected by a hoodoo priest to battle an evil witch controlling an ancient storm goddess.
If that sounds incredibly random then that's ok. Since this was just for fun I let my inner ADD kid out to play and boy did he run wild! Running is exactly what it took to write this so quickly. Much of it was done on my phone using the notes app. Almost 2,000 words of this were done with just my thumb.
I gotta say this was a ton of fun. Is it perfect? Oh heck no! I can think if three things I missed just off the top if my head but they're nothing major. Mostly just little things. I'll probably go back an polish the cover at a later date but considering it was made in about 5 minutes it looks sharp enough.
Storm is on sale on amazon as I write but don't go buy it yet. Did he just say DON'T buy it? Absolutely! Starting the 30th it will be free for five days. Go get it then. I hope you enjoy reading it. I know I had a blast writing it. Storm will definitely find its way into Encounters when it's compiled. Fair warning though there is some profanity in it. Sorry Mom! Since it was written from the perspective of a soldier I felt it was necessary.
I definitely learned a few things from this challenge. Number one is that with a little determination and inspiration I can churn out a nice word count. 3,500 words is not a bad days work.