Inkabout L. Darby Gibbs

Science Fiction & Fantasy author

My Publishing Worlds

If you travel back in time, you better know the rules

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PhotoTime Travel has rules, but they vary by user, which is the
point of this post.  I have read a lot of
time travel novels over the years and gotten into a few strange conversations
with my husband. He views me as a sort of armchair specialist in this
area.  Well, I do talk a good talk, but
in reality, forward or backward, I find it just as confusing as the next
person.
  1. You can go back,
    but everything you do is already done according to the future you are a part
    of.
  2. You can go back,
    but everything you do will change what has already occurred in the future you
    are a part of, so be prepared for huge change.
  3. You can go back
    but only as an observer because time has a mechanism to keep you from changing
    anything.
  4. You can go back, but any changes you make will create an
    alternate universe running alongside the one that was and still is in existence,
    but you probably won’t know that and therefore won’t be concerned.  If you are aware of the new universe(s), it
    will either bother you because you really messed up or make you happy because
    what changed worked out well for you or those you love.
  5. You can go back,
    make change, return and live to enjoy it. 
    But be careful, some things are dependent on other events you altered
    along the way.
  6. You can go back; it’s the return that is tricky.   Good luck with that one. 
  7. You can go back, but avoid running into your self who you might not get along with, may cause serious problems for, might endanger by making people angry at the other you thinking you’re her/him, and it just gets crazy from there.
  8.  This is the one my
    time travel novels are based on:  You can
    go back, but we all make mistakes and those are the things that just keep
    tagging along, baggage we have to face because for the time traveler every move
    is still forward.

Add to my list:  what
other time travel rules have you noted while reading or writing the genre?

Book 2 of the Students of Jump just went live on Smashwords

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No-Time like the Present is published on Smashwords as of just a few minutes ago.  It has been a busy month pulling the last bits together, editing copy and preparing the cover.  I had the best help from fellow author Marcy Peska, who as my beta reader provided advice I could not have managed without.  Check out her books at Amazon.com.

My daughter helped me put the cover together.  It would not be the beauty it is without her eye for detail and design.

Look for the second book in the Student of Jump series at Amazon, Barnes & Nobel and other booksellers in the next week or two.  For the remainder of July, the book will be available for 50% off at Smashwords.  Use coupon SSW50.  This coupon will work with all four of my books until the end of July.

I have just spent the last three hours working on novel blurbs

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I’ve written two versions for the first book of my series.  That took the first hour and doesn’t include all the previous ones I have written, none particularly good.

I wrote four more for the second book in the series which I hope to publish in just a couple of weeks.  I don’t think I like writing blurbs.  And now there are five.

I know what I want them to do. But they are not doing it.   Excuse me while I go scream.

Well, that didn’t help.  Perhaps some sleep and another stab at it tomorrow.

Please respond with all tricks, advice and personal experience that you think can help me with this endeavor.  The dogs don’t like it when I scream.

Update:  final version complete, and I still have my hair and my dogs have their hearing.  Thank you, Marcy.

The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks is published!

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Narrative Frameworks

My newest book The Little Handbook of Narrative Frameworks for writing novels and stories is now available for download at Smashwords and will soon be available at B&N, Sony, Apple, and Amazon, along with a number of other distribution sites. 

The organization of a story is dependent upon its structure.  That is, of course, obvious, yet it can be overlooked so easily in the process of writing or reading.  But the conflict formation or the character development is essential to the story.  This handbook is about that unpinning, the structure that carries a story.

In addition to the examination of classic plot and character development, I have included worksheets after each framework for use in designing a story as well as for examining a story for its organization.  My intention was to create a resource book for reviewing and examining the structure of a narrative for design and understanding.  My hope is that writers and readers will find it a practical addition to their resource libraries.

News: In Times Passed is back at Smashwords

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Back in September I took my first novel in the Students of Jump series out of publication to make some additions to the text and finish some small cleanup. Life was very busy: teaching always keeps my personal life on hold from September to May each year. But I still managed to complete the draft on the second book in the series, No-time Like the Present and worked on In Times Passed to get it back into circulation.

Which brings me to now.  I uploaded the updated version last week and have waited until now to announce it because I wished to wait till the book was reviewed and placed in the Premium Catalog which will make it available at other e-book sellers.

Summer is coming; I feel it flutter behind my heart, which means I will be writing again.  I can now prepare the second book for upload which should occur by July 2013 and begin the redraft of book 3, Time on my Hands.

L. Darby Gibbs’s Smashwords Author Profile: http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/LDGibbs

See my book page to sample or purchase In Times Passed: http://smashwords.com/b/77866

Or see my book page to sample or purchase my anthology Gardens in the Cracks & Other Stories: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/177065