{"id":1930,"date":"2012-11-28T20:03:27","date_gmt":"2012-11-29T01:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/?p=1930"},"modified":"2012-11-29T08:18:23","modified_gmt":"2012-11-29T13:18:23","slug":"mindbenders-sequel-taking-and-changing-shape","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/28\/mindbenders-sequel-taking-and-changing-shape\/","title":{"rendered":"Mindbenders Sequel: Taking &#8211; and Changing &#8211; Shape"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/paper-pile-sm.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1935\" title=\"paper-pile-sm\" src=\"http:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/paper-pile-sm.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"225\" height=\"287\" \/><\/a>I began working on the &#8216;Mindbenders&#8217; sequel before the first book was published. I expected to have it completed by now.<\/p>\n<p>But nooooooooo&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>That book, &#8216;Mindbenders: The Big Dream,&#8217; battled me to a draw. I had a <span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">finished<\/span><span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">\u00a0<\/span>first draft months ago. The problem was, it wasn&#8217;t much good. I had a decent storyline, but my books are character-driven and, in this book, the characters were lost in plot and set pieces. I had the externals but no clear grasp of the emotional landscape, which is the only one that matters to me.<\/p>\n<p>In addition, the beginning of &#8216;Big Dream&#8217; was plodding, way too dense, because I was trying to move the story forward while explaining at the same time what had happened to Renn, Kate and Greg in the six months between stories, a period when they&#8217;d all been traveling separately. I had a bunch of writing about that period that I liked\u00a0but\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">trying to stuff it into the first sixty pages of &#8216;Big Dream&#8217; just didn&#8217;t<\/span>\u00a0do it justice.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1944\" style=\"width: 510px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/netuna-besar-village.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1944\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1944\" title=\"netuna besar village-sm\" src=\"http:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/netuna-besar-village-sm1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"207\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/netuna-besar-village-sm1.jpg 500w, https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/netuna-besar-village-sm1-300x124.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1944\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The stories go to the South China Sea&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So finally, I realized what now seems obvious : &#8216;The Big Dream&#8217; wasn&#8217;t Book 2; it was Book 3 in the series.<\/p>\n<p>I pulled out the best of those solo adventures and turned them into short stories. I also found myself writing a bunch of new stories to fill in gaps and simply because I got inspired by this new approach.<\/p>\n<p>The best news is: the characters came alive again. They\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">got deeper and goofier, the<\/span>\u00a0stories went places I never expected.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_1933\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/brno-czecho-j-levy-web.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1933\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1933\" title=\"brno czecho j levy-web\" src=\"http:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/brno-czecho-j-levy-web-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/brno-czecho-j-levy-web-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/brno-czecho-j-levy-web.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1933\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">There&#8217;s a street fight here&#8230;<\/p><\/div>\n<p>So I still have a few pieces to finish on Book Two but my plan is set: Sometime in the next month or two, I will start publishing several of these short stories right here on this website. Shortly after, the sequel will appear on Amazon. This book will cover Renn&#8217;s, Kate&#8217;s and Greg&#8217;s adventures on their own.<\/p>\n<p>And hopefully later in 2013, I&#8217;ll have\u00a0<span style=\"line-height: 24px;\">&#8216;Big Dream&#8217;\u00a0<\/span>finished and published.<\/p>\n<p>So here&#8217;s the audience participation section: I don&#8217;t have a title for the new book yet. Any thoughts about these choices?:<\/p>\n<p>1) Mindbenders: Between Storms<\/p>\n<p>2) Mindbenders: Separate Streams (or Separate Paths)<\/p>\n<p>3) Mindbenders: Going It Alone<\/p>\n<p>If you have a better idea, let me know; I&#8217;m not committed to anything yet.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m really excited. I think this new book will be exciting, funny and really deepen the &#8216;Mindbenders&#8217; universe.<\/p>\n<p>So that&#8217;s where things stand at the moment. Spread the word. More details (and short stories) coming soon &#8211; watch this space!<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I began working on the &#8216;Mindbenders&#8217; sequel before the first book was published. I expected to have it completed by now. But nooooooooo&#8230; That book, &#8216;Mindbenders: The Big Dream,&#8217; battled me to a draw. I had a finished\u00a0first draft months <span class=\"excerpt-dots\">&hellip;<\/span> <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/28\/mindbenders-sequel-taking-and-changing-shape\/\"><span class=\"more-msg\">Continue reading &rarr;<\/span><\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[148,20,48,3],"tags":[51,196,181],"class_list":["post-1930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-marketing","category-e-books","category-mind-power","category-my-books","tag-mindbenders","tag-mindbenders-sequel","tag-mindbenders-the-big-dream"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1930"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1942,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1930\/revisions\/1942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tedkrever.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}