Thursday, June 30, 2016

New Story is out Tomorrow

"Trinity and the Sick Kids" is going to be released tomorrow on Amazon and Kindle enabled devices. I'm particularly proud of this story because it introduces a whole new family of characters to Westrock, but they aren't new to the neighborhood. In fact, they have been around for several months but why haven't the kids met them before?

This story will address the need for inclusion with children who have special needs and health requirements in activities enjoyed by the community. People often consider a disability as an obstacle. This might be true, but an obstacle is not a dead end. Obstacles are challenges and everyone has to face them. 

I invite you to consider the challenges and solutions that I propose in this story. A way of keeping us all in the game.




Friday, June 24, 2016

The Rundown

Here's the rundown on my writing projects:
Two short stories of the "Trinity the Troublemaker" series have been completed. The first one about ‪‎bullying‬ is available now as an eBook. The second one about childhood illness‬ will be released on the first of July, eBook.
The third story titled "Trinity and the Sad Child" is almost finished with the first draft. This one deals with a child's grief over losing a ‪‎parent‬ to war. Once the third story is in publication, I will be including the first three stories in a single collectible volume and it will feature never before seen art and stories from the blog I have written following the events of a character from the first story.
I have a novel that I am continuing to work on, and giving some extensive rewrites to polish it even further. It will focus around the adventures of a World War two soldier and the tale of his capture and escape. However, the escape is only the beginning of an epic as the soldier is compelled to take the war into his own hands.
Now, for an announcement. In addition to the works above, I have decided to tackle the horror‬ genre. It'll deal with a creature of supernatural origin, and the origin is something I will leave as vague. It takes delight in terrorizing others and finding clever ways of forcing friends to turn on each other. More on this later.
I've been contacted by several alleged publishing companies, but they all want an initial payment from me to begin working on my stuff. Something only in the amount of $3,200. I don't even have $3.20 to waste, so I'm going to decline these companies. The genuine articles don't charge you up front, and that is right around my budget.

Sunday, June 19, 2016

Coming to Print

I have in my hands a paperback copy of "Trinity the Troublemaker: Trinity and the Bully." It's a sample "proof" copy in which I get to see a bound edition of my short story. As I go through reading it, I make corrections and review it for further errors.

Once that process is complete, and I have finished polishing and finalizing everything the book will be available. In print, and something you can hold in your hands. The smell of fresh paper, the texture of a nice matte cover and the sound of the pages as you flip through them.

There are no illustrations, other than the books cover. The cover art is my own, a nice single picture of Trinity. She's the star and a hero for all ages. Meanwhile, the eBook is still available through Amazon for the Kindle and Kindle enabled devices.





Tuesday, June 14, 2016

The Continuing Adventures of Trinity the Troublemaker

I have been very busy these past couple of weeks. Not only from marketing the first Trinity story, but also from doing the artwork for the books. And also trying to enlist help from charities that my books are centered around. As well as preparing the next two books for their release.

In the first story, Trinity and the Bully, our young hero faces a bully on three occasions. She makes new friends each time and helps save her school from the menace of the bully. I am so proud of this book, and honored to share that the story was downloaded a total of thirty times during the free promotion that I ran on Amazon. So far there are no paying customers, but I know it takes time to catch things up for a new author.

My second story for Trinity is called, Trinity and the Sick Kids. This is a story which will bring Trinity to meet a new friend that isn't able to join Trinity and the other kids in their football games. Or can she? To find out, you will have to wait for the story to be released on July 1st, 2016. As usual, I will run a free book promotion when it is released so wait until it is marked free before you download it. Also remember, that the Kindle reader app is a free download for desktop, laptop, and tablet computers as well as most smart phones.

My third story is going to focus the attention of the kids from Westrock to a young boy who has lost his father to the Korean war. Perhaps the most difficult topic of any that I have written about so far. Bullying is already a difficult issue with a wide variety of approaches, and origins of the nature of bullying. Including children with special needs and disabilities in activities with other children who don't struggle with those issues was also a rather unique challenge.

How then, on the first Christmas after his father was killed, will Trinity and her friends be able to make it a special and happy one for the boy and his mother? I hope that the story will warm your heart and make you remember to always appreciate your loved ones for all of the days that they are a part of your lives. Nothing is promised, not tomorrow, not the next hour. Telling someone that you love them is something you have to do often because you never know when it could be the last thing you'll ever say to them.

This story that I have named "Trinity and the Sad Child," will be released in August of 2016. Once it is completed, I will also be releasing a special collectors edition of the stories of Trinity that will contain all three of her first stories. In addition, I will include some never before seen artwork of the children of Westrock, as well as the stories following up with the bully from my first story. You can catch him in another blog that I write as he adapts to life after the events of the first story.

Big things are coming, and I am only too happy to be sharing them with the world. I hope my stories will go to help children and parents alike, however I encourage everyone to read them and consider the ideas that I have brought up. If we work together, we can make this world a better place to live for our children in the future.



And for the stories of the bully, please visit:

http://mr-erich-davis.blogspot.com/2016/06/saint-clark-boarding-school-day-1.html

Sunday, June 12, 2016

We need a better world

I hope this blog post finds you well my dear readers. It is with a sad acknowledgment to the victims of the shooting at the Pulse club in Orlando Florida. There is no words I can say to extend my sorrow to those impacted. In addition, I also express profound sympathies for the family of singer Christina Grimmie. We live in a sad world that is marred by inescapable tragedy. It needs to be a better world for future generations.

The world needs heroes. I don't mean superheroes or vigilantes. And I also don't mean we only need to count on our police, firefighters, and armed forces. We need to be the heroes. All of us, and every one of us need to work to promote compassion and a sense of fellowship between each other. It can be done at a small scale, like opening the door for someone or surrendering your seat to an elderly or infirm couple. Or it can also be large movements that attract attention and promote the wellbeing of others. Charity, organizations dedicated to awareness on an issue that causes trouble and needs a remedy.

Whatever it is, large or small, get involved. Do it consistently, and for the reasons of promoting fellowship with your fellow beings. Make it the reason you do something good, and after you do it long enough you will form a habit of kindness towards others. This is not to say that we need to allow others to be dependent on us, oh no. When someone falls down we need to help them up. Help them to their own feet and have genuine concern for their welfare.

This is part of what I am trying to accomplish in my books about "Trinity the Troublemaker." I am trying to paint a picture, using children of a better way of living and treating each other. Showing how problems impact us all and that by working together that we can find a solution. Children are indeed our only hope, because we have a lot of people in society now that use their influence to divide us and create a world where we are safer if we close ourselves off, and we don't care about our neighbor. We destroy the beauty of the world and only to make ourselves wealthy or comfortable.

I am not asking for the world to mindlessly conform to my way of thinking. That is what the people who want to rule over us all want us to do. Free thinking is the enemy to those such people. I am calling for a different brand of unity. We need to realize that not all of us are the same. We have different religious beliefs, different preferences on the way our lives are led, we have the rich and the poor and everyone else in between. Despite all of our differences though, we all have common problems. So let us use our individual talents to create a better world through our treatment of each other and the way we treat our home, the earth.

We must put aside our pride and think outside of our own personal interests. If you need a better reason, think of your own survival. The survival instinct is something that is important to most of us, so what better way to appeal that to show a practical way that cooperation will benefit you?

Who will give you blood if you need it? Who will work to save your home if it is in jeopardy? Who will stand up for your rights when they are being violated? These are but some of the things that you should wonder, if there ever comes a time when it is your survival at risk. However, you cannot wait that long to get involved. Cooperation requires a little bit of good faith. Give, before you get. Earn, before the return.

This is not socialism or communism. I am not advocating for a change in our economy. I am asking for a change in our social interaction that would hopefully one day eliminate tragedies like the ones suffered recently. I ask that we help each other instead of standing idly by, or even worse, do harm to others.

I'm just an author. I want to earn a living by selling my stories. However, I don't want to be so preoccupied with making a living that I forget to live. And our lives would be enormously enhanced if we cooperate, rather than compete. I want the lessons of my stories of Trinity to carry a message to us all about compassion and empathy so that we do not deteriorate into chaos, disappear in the night.

Fighting fire with fire will end up with us all burning in a huge conflagration. There are times when force is appropriate, and that is an option that needs to be left at an incident driven discretion. For the world at large, in the big picture we must come together.

Consider these sources for your thoughts and relate them to the message that I have shared with you.

http://www.earthguardians.org/

http://boo2bullying.org/


Wednesday, June 8, 2016

Doing my own artwork

My reading and vocabulary is definitely at or beyond the college level. However, my art is right around the third grade which is perfect for the target audience of my Trinity series. I never practiced or was raised with art nurtured, although I have taken several attempts to improve on my own.



My second books cover is a hospital building because the topic of my second book will be tackling the issue of including children with special needs or disabilities into activities with children who do not struggle with those obstacles. Trinity is the little blonde girl and the is featured on the cover of my first book. Although she is accident prone, she always makes amends for the trouble she causes. 

Colin is the young man in the picture below her. The setting of my stories is centered in the fictional town of Westrock, Virginia in the year nineteen fifty. This is in the days before schools were desegregated, however Westrock is not big enough to justify two elementary schools. Colin is the first victim seen being attacked by the bully from "Trinity and the Bully." 

The first three stories of Trinity are going to focus on the topics of bullying, childhood illnesses, and losing a loved one to war. Nineteen fifty was also the beginning of the Korean war. My stories are going to be rich with not only cultural diversity but also conflict and conflict resolution. It's going to be a spectacular adventure and I hope as many people will be able to be a part of it. 

The goal of my stories about Trinity is two fold. First, I want to help cultivate an educational source to foster a sense of empathy in children. The trait of empathy is something that does not have to be left up to the experiences of the child alone, but it is also important for parents to guide their children to be understanding of others who are different from them. Second and as equally important, a portion of the proceeds from the sales of these stories will be donated to a charity associated with the topic that the story covers. 

These children, although they aren't expertly drawn they are going to do some charitable work for our country and perhaps one day the world itself. 

Tuesday, June 7, 2016

First Published but not the First Written

As of today, my first published work is the first book in a series I have titled "Trinity the Troublemaker." Her adventures are going to center around various topics of concern to children. Things that need to be addressed that may not come to mind. And some things that do come to mind but are difficult to confront. "Trinity and the Bully" is a story focusing on not only the problems that children experience when they encounter bullies, but also a story for the parents who show a blatant disregard for holding their own accountable.

I have stories that will center on difficulties experienced by children with special needs as well as when a child loses a loved one. This series is set in the year nineteen fifty at the beginning of the Korean war, which will serve to play into future stories of Trinity.

As of now, there have been twenty downloaded copies of her adventure with the bully. I consider that a success after five days of running the free promotion. My desire of doing the free promotion on her debut is so my friends could obtain my book without having to pay to read it. I'd feel too funny taking money from my friends, even if it's only $2.99 on Amazon Kindle.

Initially I began her story as an attempt to obtain a writing credit. I have another novel I am saving in my back pocket until I find representation with a publishing agent. However, the more I wrote about this accident prone, caring, loving, flawed, and spirited child the more I began to truly love her and the world I created. Also, the opportunity presented itself that I could accomplish something truly good with each story.

As I release the Trinity the Troublemaker series, and with each topic I address, I shall be donating a portion of the proceeds to a charity associated with the issues I address. Not only will buying the stories help me, but by buying them the reader will also get the satisfaction of having done something to help a charity accomplish something for those in need.

We are living in this world together, and what we do will have repercussions that we may never see or know. Not always will isolation and "minding our own business" prevent negative repercussions. So, if we consider the wellbeing of our communities, neighborhood, the country, and our very planet as our business and we make strides to make a positive change we can create a resonance of cooperation. Please, let it be so.