EXIT STRATEGY - Ryan Potter

Hello,

I'm switching to Blogger as of today, meaning this is the last post on this blog. Here's the new URL: http://lovethecraft.blogspot.com/. Come and follow me!

Thanks,

Ryan

Hi,

Tricia O'Reilly, Flux's Marketing and Publicity Director, asked me some great questions about EXIT STRATEGY. If you want to know the real story behind the story, I recommend checking out our interview here. No major spoilers, either! Thanks, Tricia!

Ryan  

Hello,

Although the official release date of EXIT STRATEGY is less than 48 hours away as I write this, Amazon pre-orders have already arrived at customers' doorsteps. This is my first novel, and it's a very strange-in-a-good-way feeling knowing that complete strangers are officially reading my work. 

What's also surprising is the pre-release interest the book is generating from bloggers I never even contacted. I'm smiling as I type this sentence, because I owe a big thanks to these folks for mentioning my book even before it's been released.

Two examples:

1) Lisa over at "A Life Bound By Books" picked ES as this week's Waiting on Wednesday choice.

2) Valerie at "I Should Be Writing" chose ES as her Waiting On Wednesday pick back on February 9.

Thanks again to anybody who has talked about my novel prior to its official release. I really appreciate it.

Ryan

Hello,

Fellow YA and upcoming Flux author Margie Gelbwasser was kind enough to interview me for the wonderful Flux Friday feature of her blog. Click here to check it out! Thanks so much, Margie!

RP 

Hello,

I'm giving away five copies of EXIT STRATEGY on Goodreads. You can enter to win a copy here through the end of February! Good luck!

RP

http://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/2826-exit-strategy

Happy belated 84th birthday, Elmore Leonard!

I'd like to thank you for...

1. writing stories. Three authors made me want to be a writer. You're one of them.

2. single-handedly creating your own genre. Bookstores need to pull your novels out of the crime section and put them in an Elmore Leonard section.

3. coming up with those 10 writing rules. I live by them and they've saved me more times than I can count.

4. staying in the Detroit area all these years. You could have easily bailed for someplace more exciting, but you didn't. 

5. taking the time to talk to me that day outside of Mountain King in downtown Birmingham three years ago.

Okay, you probably don't remember this, but you gave me more time than I ever thought you would. I mean, when I recognized you and said hello, I figured you'd simply say hi and be on your way.

But no, that's not how it played, because...

...YOU ACTUALLY INVITED ME OUTSIDE, WHERE WE TALKED BOOKS AND WRITING ON THE SIDEWALK OF OLD WOODWARD FOR SEVERAL MINUTES!

I mean, what famous author even does that? I mean, I actually have the luck of meeting a master, and he turns out to be the coolest master I could possibly imagine. It was perfect. The whole thing. Perfect.

And you know what? As I watched you walk back to your car that day, white carry-out bag dangling from your hand, I realized I'd learned more from you in five minutes than I had in any writing class I'd ever taken.

Seriously.

Thanks again.

RP

Nathan Bransford had a great post a few days ago. He asked a simple question: How important is creativity over craft? Well, that one simple question has generated 200+ comments to date, a healthy number even for Nathan's popular blog. Obviously, then, this issue is a hot one among writers.

Now, I could take the easy way out (many who commented did) and say, Well, it's both, of course!

But it isn't both. At least for me it isn't.  

Find the story and write it the way you see fit. There. That's my one-sentence defense of creativity. Seriously. If the writing rules you learned in school get in the way of how you want to tell a story, then it's time to throw the grammar book out the window. Creativity sets your story apart from all the others. Without it, you have nothing.

Look, I have no clue what  dangling modifiers and past participles are. And you know what? I really don't care. Writing is a feeling as well as a process. Writers (and readers) know when something's wrong with the writing. It's a sense that builds and improves over time. The more you read and write, the stronger that sense - that feeling - becomes. I think you unconsciously learn the rules of grammar that way. To put it another way, reading and writing are the only two grammar classes you'll ever need.

As for the meaning of dangling modifiers and past participles, I'll let the grammar purists obsess over those.

In the meantime, I'll be reading a great novel and writing what I want to write.

RP 

One of the cool things about having a book available on Amazon is their new Author Central feature. I've created a profile page and you can find it here.

And don't forget to pre-order EXIT STRATEGY while you're at it! 

RP

Very cool news! You can now pre-order EXIT STRATEGY from Borders and Amazon!

*Pre-order from EXIT STRATEGY from AMAZON.

*Pre-order from EXIT STRATEGY from BORDERS.

Thanks!

RP

Came across this totally by chance the other day. Five years ago, TOASTED CHEESE published the first short story I ever wrote. I don't think EXIT STRATEGY would have happened without them.

http://www.toasted-cheese.com/ctg/