Tidbits About the World of Martapa Part 2

 Here are a few more tidbits about my book series:

1) The Wizards of Shaniko are named after a small town in Eastern Oregon.  When we were going to college in La Grande, (Go Mountaineers), we would drive through the small town when we went back and forth.  I liked the name, so popped it right into my story.

2) Quite a few of the names in my stories are from small towns or fun places we have been. 

3) Some of my elven and Akicitia names are Native American in origin.  Akicitia is actually "police" in Lakota.  Tsalagi, (the main stretch of mountains in Taina), means Cherokee and is pronounced "jah-lah-gee".  That was a nod to my dad's side of the family.

4) There are a lot of nods to my family in the books, whether right out there or more subtle.  The name of the mountain range is definitely right out there.  In my original series Amber, my half elf heroine, was a nod to the fact my dad had to choose between being white or Cherokee at the time.  (Things are definitely different now, but it was a hard decision in the 50's and 60's.)  I don't like to be political, but that was more of a personal subject that affected me directly, not knowing until I was an adult that my grandpa was Cherokee, for sure.  So I expressed it in my writing.

5) The map I made for my writing was slapped together in 5 minutes.  I flushed it out more later, but one of my friends wanted to see what my world actually looked like so a whipped it out.

Happy Writing!

Tidbits About the World of Martapa

 I thought I might share a few random facts about my world of Martapa today, just for fun!

1) The name Martapa is built up of my husband's and our friend's names, plus a few random letters.  Yeah, not the best way to name something, but I like it.

2) All of my main characters were a roleplaying character for the campaign I ran via the internet for our friend, my sister and us.

3) Elly was originally a gnome, because my sister loved gnomes, but I have no gnomes in my story world, so I had to make her a very small human.

4) Tarkil almost didn't live through our first meeting of the six main characters.  It was a good thing my husband wanted our friend to have fun and spared him.

5) Duncan was my husband's and he was not anything like what my husband usually roleplays with mages.  They are usually flashy, all powerful mages who have to show off their power.  He wanted someone who was humble and unassuming, yet powerful.  Thus Duncan was born.

6) There are quite a few scenes and conversations that are plucked right from our roleplaying sessions, though I had to clean them up to make them flow a little better.  I literally was writing a story as I went since I would send anywhere from 1 page to 5 pages out ever three days to my group.  It was fun!  So when it came to writing the first book I had a VERY good outline I'd already written. And though some of the subplots were not in the original sessions, I was weaving in a lot of the main plot, even if we never got to them.

Keep on writing!

The Second Book and Putting Yourself Out There

 So as I spout about making sure to keep on writing, I have been working on my second book to polish it up for publication.  Almost there, just a few editing problems and my cover artist... (cough, college age daughter, cough) is a little busy at the moment.  But the plan is to have it on Amazon by May.  Every time I say, "I'm going to publish my book" I feel very self conscious.  I'm not sure how all of you feel, but here are some notions that have crossed my mind.

1) This is my baby and I want everyone to love it.  Let's be practical, not everyone is going to "love" your book.  You are going to get some bad reviews, but it's okay.  What did mom say, "words will never hurt you"?  It's hard to take criticism, but it is good. It helps you improve.  If nothing else, my critique groups helped me with this concept.

2) Don't beat yourself up if you don't become a super star.  For me, this was all a bucket list sort of thing, anyway.  Yes, the book taking off would be wonderful, but I will take the fact I actually sold some books.  And they weren't all relatives! I even sold a few Kindle copies to people overseas!  My husband calls me an international author because of it.

3) Promote yourself.  I am guilty of not doing this, but that is what my husband, (and fellow Grange members), is for.  But seriously, talk about your book.  It isn't bragging, it's letting the world know that you have made something new to share with the world.  Your book following will not grow if you don't talk about it.

Happy Writing!

The Power of Weather

 When you are writing, the setting and mood are very important to the scene.  This includes the weather.  You never get bad news when it's sunny.  The hero always has a brilliant sunrise as they save the world. When the lovers must leave each other, rain is always an option.  It sets the mood in a way that describing the mood would not work.

I wouldn't use the weather as a mood setter unless you really need to convey a certain mood, such as tension or a great loss, but it never  hurts to describe the weather briefly so your reader doesn't expect something horrible or wonderful every time you mention the weather.  It gives it an air of surprise.

I like to mention things like wind before a battle or interaction.  The wind, for example, will affect how arrows fly or items flying into people as they battle. It's a small thing, but adds to the feel without jumping out and saying, "hey, it's super windy and it's going to make it hard for them to win this battle".

Darkness, because of clouds or rain, can also add to the mood.  When the group is battling at the end of my series this weather adds to the dire nature of the situation.  And as they win and Aiyana uses the magic to heal so many upon the battle field the sun begins to push through the darkness.  It adds to the mood, as well.

Just think hard on not only the setting, but the weather as well, and I think you will have a better way to express the  mood of your scene.

Happy writing!

Happy New Year and Keep on Writing!

 Another year has come and gone and I hope that everyone was able to keep on top of their goal list for the year.  I'd like to say I've stayed on track, but I know I've derailed on occasion.  It's okay!  Keep on writing.  Work on your goals and don't give up.  Even though the end of the road may seem so far away, you can do it.

From my family to yours, Happy New Year and keep on writing!

Holidays and Writing

 As we plunge into the holidays, which ever they may be, we spend a lot of time trying to fit in family activities and our projects go to the way side.  Don't get me wrong, families are very important!  But so is your writing.  Here are a few ideas on how to sneak in a few minutes of writing in-between all the fun family activities, at least what has helped me.

1) The few minutes you are eating breakfast.  Make sure to eat breakfast, of course, but take a notebook to the table.  Think on your story ideas and jot down a few notes.  If you are like some families, where everyone eats together, zone out for a few minutes and just think on ideas.  Then after breakfast, jot them down quick. The same could work for lunch and dinner, even at work!

2) Ten minutes before bed, as things are winding down, jot down the ideas of the day or think on your story to relax your mind.  Just because you don't write anything down doesn't mean you haven't been productive.  Sometimes thinking on the story plot is just as important as the writing.

3)Tell the family you need a few minutes to yourself and dump out your ideas, (or some of them), before you forget them.  Most families will understand the need.  Creativity doesn't happen on a schedule.

4) Don't stress if you can't think of anything.  This last one is important.  With all the hustle and bustle going on during the holidays, it is understandable if you can't think on your story.  Just remember to pick up the pen, (or keyboard), after the holidays.  Don't give up on your dream.

Have a wonderful holiday season and good luck in the new year with your writing projects!

The History of My World

 The world you create is unique to you and you, as a writer, can take it where ever you want.  But what happened before your characters went on their little jaunt?  These are a few things I think are good ideas to look at and look at doing.

1) A timeline.  I made one of these for my roleplaying sessions just so I could make "ruins" or "lost civilizations" my characters could discover.  But this works for books, as well.  Characters will interact and talk about the past, mostly in passing, in your stories, so it is good to be consistent.

2)  In that same vein, a timeline may make you think of other story ideas.  In my case there is the "Time of Chaos".  There is got to be some good short stories in there somewhere, right?  

3) Or knowing where my other story ideas fit in to my world.  I have the Chosen, (War of the Gods), and Noshi and her adventures.  Though I haven't written their sagas, (or nothing I want to share at the moment), I needed to know where they sat because they are referenced to so many times in my novels I am publishing.  Readers want to know there is some thought put into the timeline of things.

4) Fleshing out the past.  I use these as small writing exercises to get my brain going.  I have worked on fleshing out the Temple of the Gods and the kingdom of Janesh, along with other small bits of history.  Maybe I might talk about the founding of the Clan Warriors.  But then you can sneak tidbits in to your main novel, knowing that you will be consistent with what you are writing.

You may not use any of this, but it will help you make out a well rounded world and may just lead to other story ideas! Not to mention keep you writing!

Happy Writing.

Revisions

 I am now in the revision phase of my story writing.  With all four books "written" and the first published I need to make sure everything flows and makes sense.  And that I don't sound like a four year old as I write.  Here are a few things I'm doing to make sure my novels are very polished before I let them loose on their own.

1)Reread the story.  This sounds sort of redundant, after all, you wrote the darn thing.  But sometimes you get your thoughts down and think you are good and coherent and then you realize that thought doesn't belong as you reread the story.  I had one segment I just thought was too contrived and "why would my characters fall for that!" so I rewrote the section.  But I found it because I just read through it like a reader would.

2) Check your language, punctuation and spelling.  This harkens back to your school days and the English teacher berating you for not doing just that.  But if you want your novel to look professional, and you don't have an editor or publishing house, you need to put your best foot forward.

3) Check your facts.  I realized I had renamed something in the first book and now I need to go back and make sure it matches in the next three books.  Just bad form to get the name wrong in your own book.  But that goes with all the facts.  At the end of the second book I had six guards to start with and suddenly there were two dozen.  How did that happen?  So I needed to adjust.

4) Read it out loud.  This was my husband's idea.  Something might look fine as you type it, but when you say it out loud, sometimes you notice mistakes.  I have caught several errors this way.

Mostly, just make sure your story, which you have worked so hard on writing, is polished. You want readers to enjoy your story, not be stuck on your mistakes.

Happy writing!

Organization of Thoughts

 Everyone has their own way they like to organize their thoughts and ideas. My son does everything on the computer, my daughter and I love spiral notebooks, some people use notecards.  Here are a few ideas that might help you find your organizational path.

1) Do you like to write or type?  As I mentioned, I love spirals.  They litter my work area.  So to find anything I label the outside of the spiral with titles such as "characters" and "notes" or "places".  I try to keep my main thoughts and characters toward the front and the lesser thoughts to the back, but after awhile, they just blend together.

2) So the spirals get a little out of hand and I have to move to writing everything on the computer and have folders I can organize with just a move of the mouse.  This is more ideal for some people.  My son spends hours organizing his files, so I'm assuming there are others who like to do the same thing.  For me, it's more of an end process.  I take my spirals and their creative notes and organize them once I get them out of my head.

3) Notecards.  Some people like to put a thought or character on note card and organize them in a way that makes sense to them.  It is a little more time consuming because then you have to physically organize the cards, but if it works for you while you write, then go for it.

What ever method you choose I recommend some major points to write down/keep track of:

1) Characters and where they come into the story.  Also why they are vital, relationships to your main characters, and any secrets you have associated with them.

2) Places.  You want the places your characters go to be consistent.  By giving yourself notes, you will ensure they will be.

3) Notes!  This is probably the most important part.  There is a small section in my story with a side character that I hint at something grand.... and I can't remember what I meant by that "hint".  I pound my head a lot about it and hope I find a note or something amongst all my papers so I can figure it out. Hopefully this never happens to you!

Happy Writing!

Locations in Your Story

So as I began writing more in earnest, (and in a more organized manner), I realized making "Location Descriptions" was also a great idea.  I took the general idea for a character description and tried to make it relevant to a location.  For me, it was a great thing to do for my roleplaying group.  People like to feel as if they are there and the better description you have, the more likely the players and readers will see what you are trying to describe.

Here are the highlights I like to hit:

1) Site name.  This seems obvious, but as you run a roleplaying group, or are even writing, it's nice to make sure you are consistent on the name.

2) Surrounding area.  This gives a reader a good idea of what the area is like.  Is it just a castle out the middle of no where or in the middle of a grand city?

3) Exterior and interior descriptions.  This could be a huge description which you may never need to use, but its a good way to get your creative juices flowing.  Not to mention if you don't flush it out, as a GM a player will definitely ask for a description!

4) People associated with this building/location.  You don't have to flush out the characters here, but when you are writing and want to mention the barkeep for the inn they were staying at who gave them information, you don't want to look through all your notes to find a name.  Trust me, it's not fun.

5) Attitude and dress of people.  This is more of a general feeling so you can give the ambiance of the place and a quick description of those around them.  Trying to remember if a city is the one where feathered caps is all the rage versus more conservative dress, is a pain.

6) Rumors to be found.  This is more for the roleplaying but still is good for planning out your story plot.  Taverns are always a good rumor mill for roleplaying, but you can use them in writing as well. There are several places in my story that the main characters hang out in taverns to see if they can be moved in the right direction.

7) Defenses.  This is more for castles and the like, but it is good to know.  How many soldiers are your characters going to have to fight through to get to the next plot point?  What kind of weapons or magic will they encounter?  How will they counter the defenses?  These are all good things that can be figured out in this section.

Happy Writing!

Outlining Your Characters

 When I started taking writing classes to make my writing even better, one of my teachers mentioned having an outline for your character, to not only keep track of what you've done with them, but also to flush them out before you use them, or even as you use them.  Here are some key things I would suggest you should consider having in your outline for your major, (or even minor), characters:

1) Start with a name.  For some people this may or may not be easy.  My husband takes forever to pick a name for his RPG and video game characters, so you may have to come back to this.

2) Background or bibliography.  What do you want your readers to know and what do you need to know to write this character true.

3) Race, Age, Height, Weight, Body type, etc.  I have a long list of characteristics I fill out, but really this is more for your use then reader use.  It helps you keep consistent on how a character looks or talks or acts.  Trust me, with a huge list of main and almost main characters, sometimes you forget what a character looks like or is dressed like.

4) Career.  As obvious as this may seem, sometimes it's a good ideas to just keep a note on this.  Elly, for example, is now a swordswoman, but originally she was a weaver.

5) Prejudices, best and worst qualities, and even weaknesses.  Krom, for example, has the weakness that he always tells the truth.  He is almost incapable of lying.   Sort of important when he is trying to be incognito.

6) Odd talents.  This is more a personality goody, but it does help you fill out a character and make them feel real.  Duncan is a good story teller and his friend Tres the mercenary is an excellent singer.

For those who roleplay and are GMing, this is also a good way to flush out your NPCs for use in your campaign.

Try this out.  Make it as complex or simple as you want, but have fun!

Happy writing.

Familiars for Mages

 If you notice in my story, Duncan doesn't have a familiar like most fantasy mages.  Most of my mages don't.  It's not so much an oversight, but a personal decision.  Familiars need to fit the personality of your mage and most of my mages, and wizards, just don't have the right temperament for a familiar.

For most of my mages I use their staves as their "familiar".  They require the staff for most of the more consuming magics that take great power, but can still cast without the staff.  The same can be said for mages who have familiars.

I'm not against familiars in my world, but here are a few things to think on before giving your PC a familiar if you are playing in my world setting.

1) If a player gains a familiar, make sure they pay attention to it.  My husband off the cuff said if I rolled a 20 on a D20 I could have a pseudodragon for my first ever familiar.  Guess what, I ended up with a pseudodragon.  But he made me pay attention to that little booger. I had to make sure it had gems, plenty of ale and good food, and was pampered.  I paid for that power in spades.

2) Make the familiar a "player character".  The guys I played with would randomly take turns playing my wonderful familiar.  I think I lost more money to my own familiar then I did to paying for my equipment.  The point is to keep the familiar fresh and upfront.  Plus, as a bonus, those players who are not in the scene or actively playing can have something to do.

3) Ask your player what kind of familiar they would like.  This is as personal as making the character and the player should have a say.  But don't let them get wild and crazy.  No dragons, no demigods, no all powerful beings.  If the player can explain a good reason for that werewolf, think about it, but just remember it could unbalance your campaign.

Happy gaming!

Thoughts on Writing

 As I get back into the groove of writing since I sent both my kiddos off to college this year, I have a few thoughts.  They may even be good thoughts.

1) Set a writing time.  I've mentioned this many times, but if you are in a life transition it becomes even more important.  You want to tell your self I will get to it later or I can skip this one time.  Don't skip your writing time if you can help.  Life happens, but even if you take 5 minutes to say to yourself, "okay, this is what I need to think on," it helps.

2) Keep copies of different versions.  This seems like a weird idea, but what if you don't like your rewrite?  What if the rework becomes corrupted?  Things like this happens.  I had the latest version of my 2nd book, (coming as soon as my college daughter cover artist finds two seconds to make me a cover), and I was going through it for any errors.  I found a sentence that was cut off and unfinished and I couldn't remember what it was supposed to say.  So back to an earlier version and there was my two sentences I some how had deleted!

3) Keep physical copies.  Why?  Hard drives blow, back ups disappear.  Yes, you'd have to retype the whole darn thing, but do you really want to write everything?

4) Have someone to bounce your ideas off of.  Writing in a vacuum doesn't always work.  You may think it's a great idea, but when  you try to explain it to someone else, sometimes it doesn't sound so great.

Happy Writing

Location Spotlight: The Soaring Dragon

 The Soaring Dragon, in Devonshire, is owned by Joseph Sandturn.  The building is three stories high, mostly stout wood, with clay tiled roof. There is a stables in the back large enough for several wagons and about 10 horses.  The inn also has it's own well and a small bath house. The sign is marked by a large, flying platinum dragon and "Soaring Dragon" carved beneath.

The first floor is the tavern, with the kitchen and Joseph's family living space in the back.  The second and third floors are for guests, with small rooms so Joseph can have many guests at once, each room sleeps about 2 or 3 people comfortably.  He has no common sleeping room, but will allow travelers to sleep in the tap room once the tavern is shut down for the night if they can't afford a room or he doesn't have room.

His wife and eldest daughter cook, his youngest sons run the stables.  His only son-in-law helps him run the tap room, now that he is getting a little older.

This is a moderately costing inn, with each room coming with a meal.  He has several bouncers who are friends he made in the militia and live near by.  They rarely have to do anything, since Joseph's clientele are mostly working men and merchants, and like Joseph's wife's food.  

The inn is situated closer to western gate, but is close enough to the eastern gate he still gets caravans coming in from the east.

Happy writing!

Location Spotlight: Duncan's Farm

Duncan's farm, which I believe I have discussed, is the center of a wonderful background for Duncan, not to mention a staging spot for the third book.

This lovely little farm, in the middle of farm country in Bloodhelm's protection, was Duncan's dream, or so he thought.  When he married his wife, though he was not the best builder, he built a large, two story farm house in the hopes he would have many children to spoil.  Of course he didn't, which should make the world so much sadder, but he would spoil his nieces and nephews, along with any child he came in contact with.

The farm also holds a large barn, which he rebuilt three times because of his uncontrolled fire magic.  Of course, at the time, he didn't know it was magic, but he realized it in time.

The size of the farm is about 100 acres, which is big for a farm on Martapa, but some of the land is forested, so when Duncan ran the farm he would thin and sell the lumber a few logs at a time.  His nephew, who took over the farm, continues the practice.

Though just mentioned in the first two books, it is the setting for the party returning together after their separation at the end of the second book.  Growing up around farmers and foresters I enjoy the happy feeling of the farm, even if it is only a side note compared to the main story.

Happy writing!

Character Spotlight: Joseph Sandturn

 Joseph Sandturn is the owner of the Soaring Dragon in Devonshire.  He is merely mentioned a few times in the first book, "The High King's Sword", but he is a vital cog in my story world.

The son of farmers he, like many young men, dreamed of adventure.  He joined the militia, then a mercenary group.  He spent five years fighting bandits, monsters and slavers.  After he saved enough money, he bought an inn in Devonshire so he could live without fear of losing his life.  He married, had five children, and life was good.

He kept in contact with his good friend, Amber, the daughter of Lee the Seer and their children would play with each other. Joseph considered Amber and her daughter, Margaret, part of the family and when they needed aid, he was more then happy to give it.  When Amber died of the winter sickness, Joseph continued to check in on Margaret and Lee.

This becomes vital when the Black Wizards come to take Devonshire.  When Margaret showed up on his doorstep that fateful day, he didn't think twice about taking her in and hiding her.  But he was a man of action and sitting and doing nothing was killing him, so he snuck out as many militia men as he could, along with their families.  He didn't realize the minotuars knew until later, but he was grateful to find out they were actually aiding him in his actions, even if he didn't know at the time.

Overall he is not a huge character, but he is a lich pin and moves my plot along.

Happy writing.

Character Spotlight: Kredoc Bloodhelm

 Kredoc Bloodhelm, father of Tarkil, was supposed to be a background character who just popped in every once in a while to make Tarkil's life complicated, but I found myself giving him a background, (even if not really in the stories), and beginning to like this clearly Lawful Neutral character (if you like to put it in roleplaying terms).

Kredoc is the head of House Bloodhelm's spies and assassins, making sure the House is informed and can take out any issues that may be incurred by the House. He is the second son of House Bloodhelm, Ikaris Bloodhelm being his older brother and the Leader of House Bloodhelm.  He never wanted to be the Knight in shining armor, he wanted to be the man behind the scenes, but he was pleased his two elder sons did want to become Knights.  He was also secretly pleased when Tarkil wanted to be a spy.

In his younger years Kredoc was a rogue. He and his butler, Jarvis, adventured across the country side, getting themselves in all sorts of trouble, making friends and enemies as they went.  When it became time to settle down and become the House spy, he became the serious gentleman he is today, though he and Jarvis always share secret smiles over remembered times. It is hard to see Kredoc smiling about anything with his incarnation in the stories.

He is hard on all his children, wanting the House to have the best protectors possible, but he sees too much of himself in Tarkil and worries his youngest will chaff against the path House Bloodhelm is going down.

Kredoc is a follower of Sircarius, though he keeps his worship more to himself then out in the open, since House members are supposed to follow the Gods of the Light or Neutrality. He doesn't love his wife, per say, but he does not wish her ill will, since a prearranged marriage was neither of their choices.  But as a House scion, it was expected.  They work well together and have raised three fine sons together, so Kredoc feels it was a good arrangement.

In the future, I hope that he becomes a more prominent part in short stories or even further plots for other novels.

Origin of Stories

 Everything has a beginning, from the birth of child to the birth of a story.  My story is no different.

My story started from a few of us getting together for some much needed D&D and me wanting to showcase the world I had so loving labored on for almost a decade and a half.  Here was this world flushed out with enough information to make a roleplaying supplement, (or several), and a bunch of us who needed an outlet since we were all stuck all over the country and kinda on our own.

We used the internet, before Discord or like applications where we could have done our roleplaying in real time, so I had to cobble together emails to make one coherent game "session".  It was difficult, to say the least, but as the months progressed I had reams of notes for a story idea.  I had to change some things, because you can't make 4 people follow a coherent story line to the "T", and add my own twists and turns that could not be used in a roleplaying session.  (If you have ever been a DM you know it's hard enough to get your players to go even close to what you want them to do!)

The more I worked on a story idea, the more I wanted to write the story, (which ended up being 4 novels).  Luckily my  husband, (my inspiration for Krom and Duncan), was all for such an endeavor.  We both knew it wasn't going to happen over night, since we had two kiddos and I was very involved in their activities, but he made sure I got the time to write, which I am eternally grateful for.

So how did your story start?  Was it a long hike? A drive in an unfamiliar place?  Something that happened in your life or in the city you live in/near?  Write that down, too!  Later, if you do get your story published and you have a following, your readers will want to know!

Happy Writing!

Write, Write, Write

 As the fair season winds down and the kiddos are ready to go to school, you might be thinking I need to get back to writing.  I agree!  Even if you never publish, the act of writing is not only relaxing but may help you maintain your brain function as you get older. (I'm a biologist, I worry about these things.)

So here are some ideas to do so, (which I may have mentioned before, so bare with me.):

1) Set aside a certain time a day just for you to write.  Make it like an appointment and put it on your calendar.  I live and die by our family calendar, so I make the 15 minutes after I check emails to be "writing time".  I wish I could say I get to it every day, but life is life.  Just try to make it work and it will keep you writing for the long haul.

2) Don't make yourself write on one story or story idea.  Bouncing might be a good idea.  If you hit a brick wall, (not that any of us have done this), banging your head won't help.  Walk away to another project and get the creative juices going again.  Who knows, you may find a better story idea that way.

3) Shut out the world.  I love my kiddos, but my college students are very talkative.  I have to tell them it's mom's writing time and tune out the world.  It may not be much time, but it's mine.

4) To go along with this, shut off your phone.  I swear my mother knows it's my writing time and calls.  So I just turn the phone off for 15 minutes and then call her back later.

The take away is just keep writing!  Something good may come of it!

The Joys of Life

For many years I've talked about my world, my books and my hopes to publish them.  Sometimes I felt like I was just blowing hot air, other days I thought I would never achieve my goal.  But now I have done it!

This week I self-published my first book on Amazon!  Yeah, I know, probably won't be a New York best seller, but, hey, I did it!

So here are a few things I learned in the process of doing this.

1) Picture art.  They recommend 300dpi for the cover.  My daughter... I mean my cover artist, (she got paid in shopping trips and mom's eternal love), used a lower dpi when she drew it on her computer and so we had a little problem there.  Nothing that can't be worked through, but just bare that in mind.

2) Also, make sure the picture is in the right format, not PDF and orientated the right direction.  She drew it rotated to the right 90 degrees and even when we flipped it in the cover creator, we had issues with it staying where it should be orientation wise.  So save in the right format and orientation to begin with.

3)Use the templates that KDP offers for your actual manuscript.  Luckily, the nice writing teachers I had through our local community college got us set on the right direction there.  Now, that doesn't mean there won't be format issues. I had about 10 pages I had to go in and manually fix before KDP set up would let me proceed.

4) When you set up the financial information, use a checking/saving account that isn't important, just in case.  We had to start an account for a heat pump loan with a credit union so we put the minimum amount in and just let it sit.  Now I'm using it for the spot to send any money I make on Amazon, (haha).  The reason to do this is so if there is some breach of information at Amazon, you don't lose all your money in a major account.

There you have it.  I'm published.  I hope that everyone who dreams of writing a book can and does.  If you are interested in seeing my book, (which I hope you enjoy), it is at Amazon under "The High King's Sword".  

Happy writing and good luck!