FAQ

What is Free Read Friday and how does it work? 

Free Read Friday is a project that I came up with to encourage myself to write more, even if it is at a slower pace and isn't on my two main projects, The Sealer Saga and the Maple Springs series. I use to do a lot of writing on FanFiction.net and Fiction Press, and one of the things I've noticed about my current work is that I miss getting live feedback from people. I've been writing for over two and a half years (seriously) now and still haven't released a finalized book. Yet I want to share something I am doing with others. Writing is often a solitary thing, yet I'm social. I'm hoping this project will help with that.

The way that Free Read Friday will work is simple: every Friday, I will be uploading the latest chapter of my current Free Read. Then you, your friends, and your pet iguana can all come read it and tell me what you think. It's a totally win-win situation. You get something free to read, and I get readers and (hopefully) a bit of feedback about my work.

Why did you choose Entwined as the project that you would write this way? 

Entwined is the first book in my eight part Tales of Ellithica series. I've had this series sitting on the back burner for over a year now, I've been dying to start writing it, yet with The Sealer Saga and the Maple Springs books taking so much time to write and edit, I didn't feel comfortable taking on more.

What changed? I came up with Free Read Friday.

While this will add a bit more writing to my schedule, lets be honest here: I'm a major procrastinator and I can get into a real slump sometimes. While I may let myself take a week or two to sort something out with my other works, though, the unique challenge I'll face with Entwined will be that I'm promising my readers a new chapter each week. It's a reasonable goal, I shouldn't have trouble delivering, and if this works out the way I hope it will, the feedback from readers will make me very motivated to keep it on schedule.

I think that every author has to know what it is that he or she seeks from writing, and I know that for me, the actual sharing of my stories with others is my strongest motivator. I'm hoping that with Free Read Friday I can really use that to my advantage.

What are your long term plans for Entwined and the rest of the Tales of Ellithica novels? Is Entwined only the first Free Read we'll see? 

The long term goal with Entwined, as with any of my work, is eventually to self publish it and have people be able to purchase it in ebook and print formats. Next to actually having people read it, physically holding a completed book in my hands is the thing I want most.

Once the draft that I show on here has gone through betas and edits and is ready to be released publicly, I will take the current Free Read--in this case Entwined--down, so it won't be confused with its finished version.

As for whether Entwined will be only the first Free Read, that depends on two things: (1) Whether this idea kicks off and people are interested in reading my work, and (2) Whether I can actually keep up with this project and still get work done on my two other series. (The two should not compete, as stated above, since I'm a world class procrastinator.)

I saw a button that says giveaway. What's that about? 

To encourage reader participation and to hopefully build momentum for Free Read Friday, I'm going to be doing monthly giveaways for at least the three months or so that Entwined will be written in. You can find the full details for the current giveaway, if one is available, on the giveaway page.

Can other writers / authors get involved with Free Read Friday? 

Absolutely! In fact, Free Read Friday is something I came up with because my friend Krystle Jones did a mini-story for her Red Sector Chronicles on her website. I was thinking about that, thinking about Tales of Ellithica and thinking about the fact that I want to actually share something I'm writing, even if (for now) it is free... and the rest is history.

I'm happy to host samples, do book cover reveals, do guest posts and interviews, and pretty much anything else you can imagine. I do also run a book blog, I Write, I Read, I Review, but that primarily focuses on young adult and new adult fiction, where I'm likely to be more open here. Hopefully with time I can turn this place into something that not only showcases my own work, but which can help others as well.

Aren't you scared that someone will steal your work? 

Yes and No.

I am very aware that plagiarism is alive and well in the writing and blogging communities. But I also believe that if we put too much energy into being afraid that someone will steal our work, that we're just going to cram it all into a desk drawer or never write it to begin with. There is risk in sharing my work here. There's going to be risk sharing my work anywhere--be it theft, rejection, ridicule or any number of other things. But in the end it's worth it. Because I can tell myself these stories in my head. When I write them down, the point and purpose is to share them with others.

With that said, I don't think anyone would really be doing themself a favor trying to take something from me here anyway. I'm only planning to post the original draft of the story. I do tend to write fairly solid if I have an outline, and I do have a good outline for Entwined. However, I have no doubt that it will need thorough editing, both for grammar and style, as well as for content. Someone trying to steal it would, in my opinion, gain no real benefit. There will still be a mountain of work to be done to it before it would actually be worth stealing.

Have a question about Free Reads Friday that I didn't answer here? E-mail me at:

maoonthego (at) gmail (dot) com