dennis batchelder’s blog

Well, I’ll call them the dubbies until somebody comes up with a more clever name.

 Why dubbies, you ask? The years had double zeroes, Dubya was there for most of them, and “eighties, nineties, and dubbies” sounds like it could work.

This post is about looking back and looking ahead.

Last year was great for my novels, thanks to the burgeoning ebook market. With a really aggressive ebook pricing strategy, SOUL IDENTITY has been read (or at least downloaded) by 20,000 of you wonderful readers. I’ve gotten a hundred Amazon reviews, and scads of others spread out over the ‘net. I also released SOUL INTENT in September, and 2,000 of you have already bought it. Thank you!

I’ve also had a great year reading. Here’s my top three: I want my next book’s characters to be as compelling and its plot to be as immersive as these books.

1. The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
2. The Help, by Kathryn Stockett
3. City of Thieves, by David Benioff

Here’s what I learned last year:

1. Since it’s all about attracting readers, indie authors can’t afford to miss the ebook wave. It’s the place we can compete with the large publishers, both on price and distribtion.
2. I need to give my readers deeper and more balanced characters. When I think about the great books I’ve read, it’s the people and their personal struggles that stick with me. I owe my readers more than just clever ideas and fast-moving plots: I need to provide more characters they can laugh and cry with, yell at, and, most importantly, live through.
3. Patience is really and truly a virtue. It takes two long years to get each novel written: almost a year to get the first draft out, and the rest of the time to make it readable. I’ve found that it’s much better to wait and tell the story right than to try to squeeze it out.

And here’s my resolutions for 2010:

1. Write and edit every day. I’m pretty happy with my outline and characters for SOUL INTEGRITY:  now’s the time to buckle down and get it written. I’d like it to be published by the end of 2011, which means I need to have the first draft, maybe two, nailed in 2010.
2. Lose that last 15 pounds that’s clinging to my waist. I hope to do this mostly by keeping my mouth shut (it’s worked for 105 pounds so far), but I also want to spend at least twice a week sweating my way through a Bikram Yoga session (Irina finally got me to try it, and I’m loving it).
3. Read more for enjoyment. Lately I’ve been cheating myself by spending too much time analyzing a book’s characters, plot, what works, and what doesn’t. I’m going to spend more time relaxing.

Happy New Year to all!

After 25 long months, Soul Intent, the sequel to Soul Identity, is now available world-wide! Here’s the description: I hope it makes you want to rush out and buy it

A VILLAIN’S REQUEST
In 1946, soon-to-be-executed Nazi General Hermann Goering asks young Soul Identity overseer Archibald Morgan to take his looted gold and deposit it in a soul line collection, there to await his soul’s rebirth.

A GRIM RESISTANCE
Flora, a seventeen-year-old Gypsy girl whose father died in the Dachau concentration camp, is sure that Goering stole the gold. She struggles to persuade Morgan to reject the Nazi’s deposit, but Morgan prevails.

A MYSTERIOUS THEFT
Sixty-four years have passed. A repentant Morgan opens Goering’s collection and discovers the gold is gone. In its place lies a cryptic journal. Morgan asks security expert Scott Waverly to find the thief and recover the gold.

A THRILLING ADVENTURE
Scott must race through Europe to uncover the elusive secrets of what really happened in Nuremberg… secrets that threaten to reopen old wounds, settle old scores, and lead to the gold’s—and his own soul’s—recovery.

Although its launch is today, Soul Intent has been available for three weeks on amazon.com. In that time, I’ve sold 700 copies, and I’ve gotten some great reviews. I want to share one particular 5-star review with you, from evpseeker in Virginia, who discovered Soul Identity and Soul Intent on kindleboards.com.

This is the first book review I’ve ever written outside of book reports for school many years ago. So, this review isn’t going to be filled with a lot of fluff, terminology or $25 words. This will be a straightforward review written by your average book lover. So here goes.After reading “Soul Identity” I had high hopes for “Soul Intent.” I am happy to say I was not disappointed one bit. The book was well written, captivating, humorous, thought provoking and emotional. The author does an awesome job of giving you just enough facts and history about WWII to place you there but not bog you down with details that detract from the story. You’ll find that you seamlessly travel between the past and the present without confusion. Thoughts of “what happens next?” will keep you turning the pages.

The characters are so well developed you will start to feel as if they are people you know and can relate to in real life. Flora is a fireball. She will have you laughing at her sharp tongue one minute then crying for her the next. Her triumphs are great, her sacrifices are greater.Archie is a driven man with a vision. He’s very by the book and uptight. There will be times you’ll want to reach into the pages and smack him then the next thing you know you’ll want to hug him. He is a very complex character that tries to hold it together at all times.Let me ask you a few questions.

What would you do if you had to push aside every sense of right and wrong to follow a set of rules you were bound by? If you didn’t follow those rules the price could be your life. How strong are your morals and ethics? Are you willing to die for what you believe is right? Could you deceive the person you love for 60 plus years and still look them in the eye every day? Would you help an evil Nazi that killed some of your family to carry on his Soul Line?

Have you ever had “opal fever?” You might after reading this book. Do you know how to kill a vampire so that it will stay dead? Yeah, you will after reading this book.

Most of all I ask you….. What would you leave in your Soul Line Collection? It’s the biggest question I’ve asked myself at the end of both “Soul Identity” and “Soul Intent.” As of right now I still do not have an answer for that question. One of these days I just know I’ll come up with something so awesome that others will have Soul Line Collection envy. LOL

Bottom line, this is a GREAT book and Dennis Batchelder has gained a reader for life with me. I would give this book 10 stars if Amazon had it as an option. There’s a little something for everyone in this book.

So, thank you for reading my review. Now click on out of here and buy both “Soul Identity” and “Soul Intent.” With the very low price point of both you have no excuse not to, unless…… you are afraid to do a little “soul searching.”

You can buy your very own copy of Soul Intent on amazon.com in paperback and kindle. It’s in many other online bookstores too. And if you use a different ereader than Amazon’s Kindle, the smashwords.com edition is here.

Today is Day One of Soul Identity. This morning Scott Waverly and his parents sneak a gun through security at BWI, and this afternoon he’ll take photos of a bluefish’s eyes.  If you want to read it in near-realtime, today’s a great day to start!

I started writing Soul Identity on New Years Day 2006. We had been living for a few months in Hyderabad, India — part of a 2 year contract — and we were sweltering in the heat. My resolutions: write every day, and complete my first draft before going home to Maryland. I chose August 16 because it was a long way out, and it was the birthday of my fourth child, my then-youngest son (today he turned five, and we’re celebrating at home in Washington state with his two younger brothers).

I’m so excited that this day has finally come! If you haven’t read Soul Identity yet, I invite you to give it a whirl.

Oh, and not to steal any thunder from Soul Identity’s big day, its sequel, Soul Intent, will be released in paperback on 9/9/9 (though Amazon’s Kindle Store has jumped the gun and already is selling it here).  Soul Intent takes place in both 1946 and October 2010.

Lately there’s been a ton of Soul Identity sales, sparked, I presume, by its aggressive Kindle price of only one penny.

But you may be asking what Soul Identity is all about, and whether you will like it. Should you blow the penny (on the Kindle/iPhone; ten bucks in paperback), take a chance, and download it? Or is it a waste of your time?

All are good questions. I don’t like wasting time on the “wrong” books: I tend to hurl them at the wall when I can’t get engaged. And since I don’t want you to bust your Kindle or iPhone, I thought I’d help you decide if you’d enjoy reading this novel.

My protagonist Scott Waverly is a computer security guy, like me. But he’s more funny than I am, and maybe a bit more smart-alecky. He’s got a sense of adventure, he’s in business with his parents, and he falls in love (and scores) as quickly as he can whip out a new piece of code.

Scott will tell you the story about his new client and how he’s trying to save them from insolvency. They’re a strange organization: they believe they’ve found how to track people’s souls throughout their lives. He travels from Maryland to Massachusetts, then to India and Italy, and he meets some really wacky people along the way. This journey lets him explore his own feelings on reincarnation and relevance.

Soul Identity is a quick and fast read. It’s mostly believable. It’s not intellectually deep; it’s not literary fiction. It should be entertaining, and hopefully it’ll leave you something to think about: what would you leave in your soul line collection?

I hope this helps. And if you do choose to order and read Soul Identity, I hope you enjoy it!

I’ve gone ahead and listed Soul Identity for only a penny on the Kindle. Here’s why:

1. Kindle and iPhone readers are kinda techy, so they’re more apt to be attracted to my book.
2. My sequel, Soul Intent, will be released some time before Christmas.
3. Attracting many readers is more important than large royalties.

If you don’t have a Kindle or an iPhone, you can find Soul Identity for a penny on mobipocket.com: they have all sorts of ways to read books on your phone or computer. You can also get it for free from smashwords.com: they support the Sony Reader, Palm, and PDF formats.

And now that I’ve cleared all the roadblocks, why not give Soul Identity a try? I’d love to hear what you think about it.

Happy reading!

Night Owl sent me a review copy of their Soul Identity screenplay, and I immediately dropped everything to read it. Ninety minutes later I put it down and apologized to Irina for not helping get the kids to bed. Then later that night I couldn’t sleep–the movie wouldn’t stop playing through my thoughts.

Night Owl modified the story a wee bit, and they consolidated a few of the characters, but it was great seeing Scott and Val embark on their round-the-world reincarnation adventure.

I can’t wait for the movie to be made! In the meantime, I hope you’ll get yourself ready by reading Soul Identity - the novel.

today is scott waverly’s 3rd birthday.

i started writing “soul identity” on january 1, 2006, as part of a new year resolution. we had arrived in india for a 2 year stint the previous july, and i had promised myself that i wouldn’t return before getting the novel out of my head and onto paper… it had been kicking around inside of me since 2001.

we had flown to the philippines right after christmas for a wedding on my ex-wife’s side… this allowed us to see the three older kids. it also allowed us to pick up a pregnancy test kit in singapore (we could find none in india), and irina confirmed her pregnancy with her second (my fifth) the day before. we assumed irina, her mom, and nicholas would be returning to the states at some point to have the baby, and i’d be left alone, and this was my motivation to get the book started, so it could keep me company during the year we’d be apart.

seven months later the first draft was done. christopher was born in august, and irina came to india in march to help me pack and return to the states. i published “soul identity” in july, and i immediately started on “soul intent”.

“soul identity” came about in 2001 when irina and i went on vacation to aruba with my uncle and aunt (the inspiration behind george and sue). my uncle was explaining his current spending spree: he said, “because coffins have no pockets.”

and then i asked myself, “but what if they did have pockets?” and the organization of soul identity was born. then i spent the next four years trying to figure out a story to write around the organization, and come up with a way to actually identity a soul: one that could have worked 2,600 years ago.

i modeled scott on me: he’s a lot quicker with his comebacks than i am, and he doesn’t have any kids, but he’s got a hott russian girlfriend, great parents, and he loves his security stuff, just like me. i put characteristics of my family into many characters, and used their middle names (my twin girls’ middles names are rose and marie), and hijacked some characteristics from an old boss and made him my villain.

and that’s the story of scott and soul identity happy birthday, scott!

I’m so jazzed about this news: Night Owl Entertainment, LLC (www.nightowlllc.com) has optioned the rights to create a screenplay and then a feature film of Soul Identity!

From their web site: “Night Owl Entertainment is an independent film company formed in 2004 to develop and produce high quality, low violence, efficiently budgeted projects. Working in all genres and targeting specific audience niches, Night Owl endeavors to create exciting, edgy, emotional, marketable films with a high IQ and a low violence quotient.” Night Owl’s run by co-presidents Ephraim Schwartz and Armand Garabidian, and they seem as excited about this opportunity as I am.

And although I’m thrilled that Scott and Val and Archie and Madame Flora may really end up one day on the big screen, what makes me really excited (and just a wee bit humbled) is that Night Owl believed enough in Soul Identity to take a bet on it: they’re off in some dark hole getting their draft written, investing their time and money to give this a shot.

There’s probably a-thousand-to-one odds of the screenplay making it all the way through the system until it’s a movie in a theatre near you, but I can’t imagine being happier than I am already. Thanks, Night Owl, for your belief in Soul Identity!

Great news: Reader Views rated Soul Identity as a General Fiction finalist!

(Austin, Texas) “Soul Identity” was selected as a finalist for General Fiction book of 2007 by Reader Views Annual Literary Awards. Reader Views Annual Literary Awards were established to honor writers who self-published or had their books published by a small press, university press, or independent book publisher.

“Reader Views reviews more than 2,000 books per year from budding authors who have worked hard to achieve their dream of being published,” Reader Views Managing Editor Irene Watson says. “Our Annual Literary Awards recognize the very best of these up-and-coming authors, all talented writers who we know have very promising writing careers ahead of them.”

You can check out the entire 2007 Reader Views Literary Awards here.

Between the books you bought and what I gave away, somewhere around five hundred of you have read Soul Identity. A big THANK YOU to all of you, and please tell your friends about it!

The end of the year is rushing at us. I thought I’d take a moment to reflect on the writing lessons I’ve learned this year:

1. Writing is easier than it looks, and it’s lots of fun to live in the dreamworld of the first draft.
2. But writing is just the tip of the iceberg: revising, rewriting, and editing make up the bulk of time spent on a book.
3. Procrastinating on research drastically increases the time spent refactoring a story.
4. Writers have to be sensitive enough to create ficticious worlds, but hardened enough to handle real-life criticism.
5. Amazon’s Kindle just may work. I want to figure out how to sell better in an electronic world.
6. Lousy and well-promoted outsells great and obscure. Here’s to the end of obscurity!

I published Soul Identity in July, and immediately started writing Soul Intent. I also had a lot of fun on the Amazon Discussions, and ended up reading over 30 self-published books this year (check out my Amazon Listmania to see which ones), and that taught me a lot about what works and what doesn’t.

Happy new year, everyone! And if you haven’t read Soul Identity yet, may I humbly suggest that you put it on your new year’s resolutions?