3rd Person Omniscient or Limited

I like third person omniscient, but the word seems to be that third person limited is the preference. At least among editors. And I'm not so sure I am in the same boat with them.

Because, to me, third person limited is almost like a first person narrative. You are only supposed to write, or the reader is only supposed to know what is up with that one character in whose head the writer is "in" during each scene.

But I grew up reading third person omniscient. And I have grown a hatred for first person narratives. In fact, whenever I start reading a first person book, I drop it like a hot potato. Can't stand that type of novel.

I made Killer of Killers into a third person limited, because the editors at Melange insisted on it, and it wasn't such a difficult thing for that one to be changed. But The Vase is different. The story makes it almost necessary for it to be third person omniscient. I'm exploring the possible ways to change that, but I'm thinking it might not be possible.

There are just some stories that by their very nature must be a certain type of narrative. And I still don't buy into the argument that readers get "confused" by third person omniscient. Unless the writing is just plain bad. Maybe that's just my opinion. But I don't think so.

What about Josh Jones?

Since Amber Heard is the perfect actress for the part of Samantha Jones, what about the brother of Samantha Jones, Josh Jones? He has an important role in Killer of Killers, too. But casting an actor for that part won't be easy. Because Josh Jones is 6' 7" tall, and built like an NFL defensive lineman. That would mean he's about 280 pounds of solid muscle.

I don't think there are any Hollywood actors who would fit that description. It's one of the reasons the role of Conan was so hard to fill. And Hollywood keeps thinking Arnold is he answer, as I've just learned that Arnold is reprising his role as Conan in the near future.

As a matter of fact, Killer of Killers has a whole bunch of characters that are extraordinarily tall. I suppose that the special effects people can make actors appear taller than the really are. If KOK is ever made into a movie, that's something they can do. I heard that one of the recent Sleeping Beauty movies used special effects to make normal sized actors look like dwarves. And look at how well the LOTR movies did with making actors look like short little Hobbits.

And there are NFL players who might just welcome a chance to show what they can do as actors. A lot have already made a good transition from the gridiron to the silver screen. Bubba Smith, Alex Karras, Howie Long, Jim Brown, and Fred Dryer come to mind, and that's just off the top of my head. Even Brett Favre has made a few cameos.

I wish there was a current day Chuck Norris for the main character of Trent Smith. But like I've said, Dustin Clare would be great. Just give him some martial arts lessons, and being a great actor, he could pull it off no sweat. Heck, if David Carradine, who's had no formal martial arts training whatsoever could pull off Kung Fu, it can be done by any decent actor. That's all.

Writing, yeah, but Promotion, too

Of course, it's about the writing. First and foremost, a novel, or any book for that matter, must have good writing. It must be a well-written book. Otherwise, what's the point of writing a book in the first place. Sure, I've heard how some books became famous even with writing that wasn't good. But the first rule of writing a book, to me, is write the book well.

I only became a good writer after I wrote my first book. And then I had to go back and virtually rewrite the book. An agent told me straight up, my story line was "terrific" but the writing wasn't "strong" enough. That's a polite way of saying I didn't write well enough at that point.

But I didn't just quit. I went back and revised, revised, revised, to the point that I had virtually rewritten the book. I added scenes, subplots, and deleted a lot of it, and changed a lot. I mean right up to the point of publication and beyond, I continued making the writing better.

And now the writing is pretty darn good. And now that that is taken care of, it's all about promoting it. Killer of Killers, martial arts thriller, needs to get out there. People need to know about it. Particularly if they like martial arts stories.

And when it comes to promotion, there is no quitting there, either. Oh, if I only knew all the ways. But like writing, I'll be learning how to do that, too.

Samantha Jones-Here she is-Amber Heard

No, I am not infatuated with Amber Heard. I've never even seen an Amber Heard movie or TV show. I simply ran across this even better photo of her and felt compelled to post it here, because in this photo she looks exactly how I envision Samantha Jones to look like.

In case you don't know, Samantha Jones is the lead female character in Killer of Killers, and she is a  police detective. But she happens to be a very beautiful police detective. With blond hair and blue eyes. And this photo depicts her perfectly.

The funny thing is, when I wrote Killer of Killers, I had a blond Jessica Alba in mind. The way she appeared in the Fantastic Four movies when she played the part of Susan Storm. But time goes by, and Jessica will be too old pretty soon, just as Casper Van Dien is quickly becoming too old to be Trent Smith.

So what can you do? Well, you find someone else, and Amber Heard, as she appears in this photo is the Samantha Jones. More so than Jessica Alba ever was. And Dustin Clare has become my first choice for Trent Smith, mostly because I was so impressed with his performance as Gannicus, the champion gladiator in the Starz series Spartacus.

I'm still waiting to see who readers will envision as Trent Smith and Samantha Jones. That will be interesting to me. We'll see.

Sales Seem Good

So if you go to Lulu and check the sales ranking, it seems that Killer of Killers is selling pretty well. I googled what the Lulu Sales Ranking means, and found out that it doesn't mean number of sales, but rather the dollar amount sales have brought in.

And the reason for that is that some authors or sellers price their books or eBooks at 99 cents each, and generate a lot of sales that way, and Lulu figured that is not a fair indication of sales. So they calculate their rankings on how much money each book has earned instead.

I read that the total number of books on Lulu is around a million. I don't know if that is true, but it's what was written on that site I looked up. All I know for sure is that when I checked other books, and when KOK first came out, the figures were in the five digit levels.

About a month later, the figures for KOK had reached the four digit levels, and I was happy about that. In the last couple months, the ranking has fluctuated between the 5000s and the 8000s, and considering most books I checked were in the 30,000s, I think it's pretty good.

I don't know which books are in the triple digit levels or even the double digit levels, and I certainly think that if KOK ever reaches that level, I would truly have something to celebrate. But the book is young yet. We'll see how the coming months go.

Dustin Clare and Amber Heard

Now that Killer of Killers is published and out there, and people are actually reading it, the characters might be referenced as particular actors who are also out there right now. And right now, as I've posted once before, my first choices for the parts are Dustin Clare as Trent Smith, and Amber Heard as Samantha Jones.

And who knows? It could be made into a movie one day. I've seen a new martial arts thriller movie being advertised on TV, and it's directed by Quentin Tarantino, who has already made the Kill Bill movies which could be called martial arts movies, too.

So, martial arts movies have been popular for a long time, and if Killer of Killers would be made into a movie, I bet it would be a great one. And those two actors would be my first choices as the male and female leads.

Actually, my first choice for Trent Smith was Casper Van Dien, but now that he is in his forties, that choice is fading fast. If Casper Van Dien was to play that part it would have to be right now. Better five years ago. 

But Dustin Clare is young enough yet to be good for another ten years as Trent Smith.

And Amber Heard is the perfect actress for Samantha Jones. I mean absolutely perfect. 

Anyone else out there? I suppose the casting director would have something to say about who gets cast, but if I had my say, these are the two who get the parts. Here's hoping. In the meantime, buy a copy of Killer of Killers and see for yourself if it wouldn't make for a great movie. And if you do, let me know who you think would be great for the roles of Trent Smith and Samantha Jones.

Why This Cover?

I talked about the cover design to Killer of Killers yesterday, so I thought I might explain why I came up with it. To be clear, it was the Melange Books cover artist who came up with it, but it was based on an idea of mine that I got from an online image.

I posted it some months ago, thinking it would make a good cover, but as it turned out, Melange came up with an even better one. This one.

But what I was thinking at the time was that since the title of the book was Killer of Killers, a skull image would be appropriate because skulls symbolize death. And being a killer, the main character, Trent Smith, is a bringer of death. Of course, only to those killers who deserve it. He's not some mad dog murderer, no, he's more like a seeker of justice, a vigilante, or maybe more accurately, an executioner. And again, only to those who should have already been executed, or at the very least, imprisoned for life.

It's the story line that makes this concept intriguing, because even in real life we've seen murderers go free, or escape the justice that screams for them to be put away for life, or executed for their brutal crimes against innocents. Heck, it seems to happen regularly, and over the years, it seems to be getting worse.

And in the story of Killer of Killers, it is worse. And it's because of a drug. A drug? Yes, a drug. But this is a very special drug. One that you might think was a miraculous drug. But as it turns out, it's not so special at all.

Buy a copy of Killer of Killers. It's an exciting adventure of a man who wants justice. And he does make a habit of bringing justice to those who thought they had dodged it.