JC Hutchins’ book 7th Son: Descent is out.

This makes me happy.

Not just because it’s good (it’s superb), not just because he’s got a damn snazzy website (although it is pretty damn snazzy), but because any new author trying to make it in the business should take a look at JC Hutchins’ way of doing things.

Hutchin’s has taken the “give it away free first” model and run with it. On his website you can literally try the novel before you buy it, listen to a prequel written just for 7th Son (which is awesome in its own right) and fill yourself up on all the juicy details your infovorous* minds can handle.

You can do all of that at his site jchutchins.net.

This means you (and by you I mean “me too”) can whip yourself up into a state of frenzy for the story before the book even reaches the shelves. 7th Son: Descent is so good that I think it would have done well even without all of the online attention that JC Hutchins’ media savvy/general awesomeness has generated, but combining its quality** with a genuinely inspired approach to new media and internet marketing will push this book through the roof. It’s not a novel for the faint of heart, but Hutchins’ writing grabs hold of your eyeballs from the very first sentence.

You can try this novel without spending any money. You can avail yourself of delicious details on JC Hutchins’s website, and you can check out Hutchins’ other (spooky) novel Personal Effects: Dark Art while you’re at it.

What are you still doing here?***

* I have Tycho Brahe of Penny Arcade Comics to thank for the word infovore, which I’ve twisted into infovorous. Making up words is fun, even if you’re not the first to think of it…

** Yes, no matter how great your marketing/website/interview style is your book still has to be good. JC Hutchins is a very very good writer and he’s platformed the rest of his stuff from that. Bear that in mind.

*** I would consider it a personal favor if you purchased 7th Son: Descent because novels like this should be encouraged and nothing encourages writers more than being paid for their good work.

I’ve just finished reviewing Phil Rossi’s awesome novel Crescent. If excellent sci-fi with a horror twist tickles your taste buds then check out the review right here.

Does your story need violence to make it interesting?

Maybe.

I wish the answer was no, I’ve experienced enough real violence to tell you for sure that it isn’t fun in the least*, but when it comes to stories one of the things readers really respond to is violence.

It doesn’t need to be physical violence though, crippling harm can be dished out verbally by a character who knows how to manipulate someone’s emotions, or ruin their reputations. An emotionally violent character can quickly and easily make their victims wish they’d been punched.

With all that said, the term violence doesn’t really cover what your story needs, perhaps a better question would be “does my story need conflict to be interesting?”

If that’s the question then the answer is definitely yes.

I used to make a distinction between literary and genre fiction, loathing the introspective go nowhere aspect of a lot of literary stories. To be fair this isn’t fair to a lot of literary writers, who have written some really fantastic books, however the books that very nearly put me off literary writing forever were the ones without conflict.

I definitely prefer my fiction with a splash of physical violence, but I’ll read anything that has an intriguing conflict in it. A good example of this type of conflict = interest equation is in Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files books. The protagonist, professional wizard Harry Dresden** is constantly in the middle of multiple conflicts. Not only is he beset on all sides by any number of ghost, goblins, demons and vampires, Harry is also drawn into conflict within his own organisation (The White council of Wizards), and while occasionally violence is threatened, the conflict there is mostly political.

You’d think that’s be enough, but Jim Butcher writes in even more woe for Harry. Dresden is constantly experiencing conflicted feelings for his sometime partner Officer Karin Murphy**. On top of that he’s also dealing with the side effects of being raised by the Dresden File’s equivalent of Emperor Palpatine from Star Wars, emotional attachments to various supernaturally maligned women and a half brother who’s also a life draining succubus.

Dang that’s a lot of conflict, and that’s just one character.

However with all of this multi-level conflict, I have never even once been bored reading one of Jim Butcher’s books. I always want to know what happens next and I’m always hanging out for the next one to be released. Part of that is down to the excellent writing, but a serious part of my interest in the books is down to the total lack of navel gazing.

Bottom Line: You don’t necessarily need violence, you definitely don’t have to have graphic violence, but you must have conflict in your story. No conflict means, for me at least, no sale.

* Violence in the context of sports is fun. I do MMA and it’s a blast. I’m talking about honest to goodness no prior agreement to be gentlemen fight for your life violence.

** To be fair, from Butcher’s description Karin Murphy is smoking hot, and a total badass to boot. I’d be conflicted too.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m utterly unqualified to give advice on writing. It doesn’t stop me trying too mind you, but the qualifications to do so are not present.

To make up for this I try to link to people who are qualified to give you the good oil on writing. Bob Mayer is one of those people. He’s had forty books published, been  a Green Beret, taught writing at multiple university and has a dog named Cool Gus.

Now that’s being qualified to give advice. He current runs the Warrior Writer course and can be found dispensing sage advice and talking about his dog right here.

I’ve just put up another book review of Seth Harwood’s Jack Wakes Up. Just click on those funny coloured letters with the line underneath and enjoy!

I was hesitant about posting this particular article, at least in part because I’m not sure if this will work for everyone.

I also worry it’s going to make me look really stupid.

Still, without this particular set of experiences I would be far further behind in my writing than I am. I still can’t say if I’m any good, but if I am then one of my friends is at least partially to blame.

Because, in abusing this particular friend, lets call him Ross*, I’ve written well over half a million words of creative stories all describing his messy, humiliating demise at the hands of various different people, creatures and occasionally landmarks.

None of it’s printable, and some of it would have us both burnt an the stake, but we’ve both gotten a lot of practice just writing. No judgement, no need to make it good (although there were bonus points for concocting particularly gruesome deaths for each other) and no worrying about it if it didn’t make any sense.

I’m not suggesting you just send a friend an email describing in detail their death at the hands of a rabid wild boar, at least warn them about what you’re doing first. Having warned them though, back and forth emails stories between friends is a great way to refresh your writing and stimulate your creativity.

Plus, you get to send someone a really silly story and you’ll probably get one back. Awesome sauce.**

* He’s guilty as sin, but I’ve changed his name anyway

** The term “awesome sauce” I have lifted wholesale from Dave Kellett’s excellent comic Sheldon. If you’re a fan of excellent comic writing, not to mention funky art, you should be reading it.

I wanted to throw up a link to JC Hutchins’s Website. I’ve just picked up a copy of his book “Personal Effects: Dark Art” and I wanted to encourage everyone to drop by the site. JC Hutchins gives out more free content on his site than you can reasonably get through inb one sitting.

If you’re like me, you’ll try, it’ll just be unreasonable.

Drop by, get free stuff and if you like it, grab a copy of Personal Effects for yourself.

I can’t stop adding links, it’s an addiction! This one is required reading though Nathan Bransford is a literary agent for Curtis Brown LTD. His blogging of writing advice is just plain excellent, if you’re wanting to get published any time soon, give him a visit.