Had fun Friday with the writing workshop. After a short presentation on the principles of characterization and why it matters, I tasked the group with a character building exercise, which forced them to learn about their character by interviewing them. And they had to answer the question in their character’s voice.

The only restriction: no wizards, werewolves or vegetarian vampires. I was impressed at the large number of students who not only answered the challenge, but also took it to the next level and sketched a back story accounting for their new characters motivations.

A very sweet moment: they knew about one of the greatest characters in fiction, Hannibal Lecter. That and they watched Glee.

Really, what else matters?

As part of Blogmania, the Cajun Book Lady featured an interview with me about The Last Track which ties into a giveaway.

Read the interview and take a chance ( NOTE: Contest last one day only April 30, 2010 )

Also, at 1PM today, leading a workshop on character creation for a group of high school students. By the end, they will have some new tools for building more credible and memorable characters. If I do my job right, that is.

Several  people asked me how The Last Track is selling. The short answer: check back in August. That will be the six month anniversary, and will follow some nice promotions the publisher arranged in June and July. I have not asked for sales figures for a reason.

Six months after the release is a good point to take stock of where things are. At a large publisher, a new title  gets about three weeks to grow legs and walk. If the title isn’t shipping a month after the drop date, the promotion basically ends. At ninety days, the returns start, so even if sales did pick up after the promotion faded into memory, the book has to fight upstream just to break even. And that’s a long hard walk, I’ve been told.

This is one of the reasons I’m fine with being at a small publisher. Less titles means more focus. If I learned anything in martial arts, its that when the smaller opponent fights their fight, instead of the larger opponents, mutes any advantage in size.

But I do know we moved past the friends and family point. There’s questions about the book coming in from people that read it and started following me on Twitter or reading the site, and I don’t know who they are. Perhaps they were lurking quietly all along, but something prompted them to write as of late.

Any way, for those interested, some tour announcements and interviews will follow shortly.

In the meantime, have a cupcake.