Inside the Mind - Ron Glick

Starting at a young age, as I read books, I always imagined different variations, different stories, different ideas. Reading, in other words, made me envision telling stories myself, which of course led to a desire to write stories of my own. Through the years, that has evolved from simply wanting to tell stories to wanting to explore ideas and eventually into sharing experiences and knowledge. My inspiration to write was never one thing - it has been a constantly growing and expanding process of understanding that I strive to discover words to share with others.

The latest book I am working on continues the saga of the Godslayer Cycle. Unlike the first three books in the series though, the fourth book is an Interlude - a break in the series devoted to devoping the backstory of the series characters. The Godslayer Cycle was always designed to be a trilogy of trilogies, separated by a two interludes. This book, Bracken, is the first of the two planned interludes, calling upon the outcast dwarf to return to his roots, and along the way better understand his true purpose in his own history.

I do not see characters as being created as much I do grown from a kernel of an idea. When I develop my stories, I introduce a character that is needed for a specific purpose, but the character is never restrained by that initial purpose. Through a technique I call method writing, I place myself into the mind and motivations of each character I write, letting the character decide where to go and what decisions to make. So though a character starts with a specific purpose, often the character can move completely contrary to the purpose for which he was introduced, or even become a more critical character to the story than he was originally intended - all based upon whatever the character's own motives and personal motivations are.

Typically, I try to just set myself outside my normal life - usually that means a coffee shop, restaraunt or somewhere else I can sit and work on writing. Nothing special, just removing myself from the distractions of my everyday life, letting myself focus on the work.

Regardless of whether it were as an indie or establishment author, the answer would always be the same: being recognized for my work, for the ideas and entertainment I share. I have always strived to bbe of worth, to have value, and to leave a legacy behind my actions. Writing, being able to be published as an indie author, gives me that accomplishment.

The greatest challenge has always been marketing, raising awareness of my work. I come from a position of being a disabled person with both physical and financial restraints - which means simply buying advertisement or publicity is beyond my means. As such, getting exposure has always been a challenge, and will likely always be.

Not particularly. So long as I have a laptop and a word processor, or even if I had to default back to a typewriter or pen and paper, so long as I have a method to share my thoughts and ideas, those will always be what I treasure.

Though this may sound like the most obvious advice, if you want to write, just write. Don't worry about chapters, or length of the story, or even completing it at the start. Simply get the idea on paper and then you can always expand on it once you have the idea in physical form. Not everyone writes a book from start to finish in one fluid act - most write in sections, then come back and revise those sections as necessary. But if you can get words onto a page - even only a handful - you will have taken the first step onto the path.

Mostly, my book promotion defaults to word of mouth. I do offer free PDF copies of my work in exchange for book reviews through my website, but honestly, people need to find my site to take advantage of this. And so few do on their own...

As mentioned above, my current book I am working on is the fourth installment in my Godslayer Cycle series.