HELLO EVERYONE (or at least the four people who will read this). I’m DG, and this is my first ever personal blog post. Can you believe it? Thirty-four years of keeping all my thoughts locked in my head…how am I not insane yet? I digress, up front, I just want to thank you for reading this, and I would really appreciate it if you could drop a like / follow / whatever on my social media pages. Those of you who know me personally will see my ancient, hardly used accounts cross-posting a lot. I thought about just renaming all my social media accounts to my author profile, but then changed my mind. Separation of church and state and whatnot. I’ve read it is important for authors old and new to have a social media presence in this day and age, and it would be very cool if you could:
Follow me on Instagram
Follow me on Twitter
Join the Official Afflicted sub on Reddit
Drop a Follow on my Twitch Channel
There’s not much content on them yet, as we’re at the beginning of this wonderful journey, but I promise as time goes on, I will do my best to provide interesting, engaging content and some cool gaming clips for your viewing pleasure!
Like I said in the beginning, this is my first blog post…well, that’s not entirely true, I guess this is the first blog post I’ve shared with others in the hopes of interacting with people and getting some interest in the website and content. The blog, the social media…it does not come naturally to me. I’m not a big sharer, and am generally a private guy…so doing this is a big deal for me. My aim is to deliver as personal and unedited/unfiltered posts as I can (you’ll probably even find a spelling and grammar mistake or three!). My favorite author is Brandon Sanderson, and not just because he writes incredible stories. I’ve always admired the way he interacts with fans and the people who read his work, and I want to adopt a similar approach of being, well, approachable in the social media sphere and open about my work and its progression. Many (probably all of you) reading this now are people I know personally, or people I know through gaming and Discord. For those of you who don’t know me, I recommend a quick glance through my ABOUT page!
So, what’s my deal?
Well, with the support of my lovely wife and those closest to me, I’ve decided to pursue my lifelong dream of becoming a full-time author. I’m not getting any younger, and I am tired of being miserable professionally and letting others have all the fun. I’ve tried to have what you’d consider ‘normal’ careers, and in the end, things always seem to go the same way. I’ve had nothing but bad experiences in office workplaces to date, and at the end of the day I feel like the universe is trying to send me a not-so-subtle message! Saying this, I’m not an idiot. I understand the odds of attaining the level of success I have my sights on is high, and will require some more suffering and a good bit of luck.
I wouldn’t be taking this risk if I didn’t believe that my end product is good enough to not just be published, but be popular as well. I have confidence in my work, which is another big step for me. If anyone reading this likes writing, or is any sort of artist be it a painter, musician, performer; you probably understand that you are your harshest critic. I am no different. I am absolutely brutal on myself. Psychologically, I know where this comes from, but I also believe that every word I type on the page is a very small sliver of my heart and soul, and the standard I have for myself is astronomically high. In the beginning of 2020, before Covid-19 hit us, I pledged to myself that I would turn my own criticism on my writing into a more positive experience in myself, by focusing not on what I did wrong, but what I did right and how my improvements couldn’t have happened without the initial work, and I made the conscious choice to believe in myself and my talent, and choose to believe that it will pay off in the long run. Being positive is better than being negative, right?!
So, this is the beginning of my journey to publishing. The work is done…now for the hard part. I intend to publish a blog post every couple of weeks and in those posts I will detail my progress and share any insights I’ve picked up. ‘Getting published’ is daunting, but finding an Agent? That is hard. I know a thing or two about being an Agent (in a different industry, but still). Right now, it seems like applying for any other type of job. You have Query (Cover) Letters, your social media links, and writing sample (CV/Resume). You shouldn’t copy paste applications, and should tailor each query to the specific Agent, and you should only apply to Agents that specialize in your genre and who are open to submission. Beyond this, I feel as though personality mesh and chemistry is going to be important. I definitely want to try my best to publish traditionally before pursuing self-publishing routes, though I have resolved that my work is getting out there, one way or the other!
Into the Future
My debut novel is AFFLICTED PART ONE, a science fiction thriller set in a harsh post-apocalyptic world. You can read the AFFLICTED PAGE on my website, and visit the sub-Reddit FAQ POST for more information on the project itself. It is not available for purchase at this time, though you should be able to view a sample chapter (Chapter One of the novel) on the Afflicted page of this website very soon.
Thank you so much for reading! Again, please, please, please…check out my social media pages and throw some likes and follows around like candy on Halloween! My next blog post is going to be an in depth almost ‘behind the scenes’ style piece on the Afflicted universe: its origins, the ideology behind it, why I ended up choosing this concept out of many, the themes I wanted to explore, and a look at my writing process, and I hope to have this up by next week. For now this is DG Lewis signing off, and retreating back into the harrowing world of the first draft of Afflicted Part Two.