Major Big Earth Shattering Announcement Time!

Hello to all, whether you are a longtime reader of Johnapedia or you have been enticed to open it for the first time due to the presence of a BIG ANNOUNCEMENT. And I hope not to disappoint.

My announcement is that I have written a novel. Late last October, a friend of mine suggested that I participate in National Novel Writing Month during the month of November. The object was to write 50,000 words of a novel. Initially, I said that I was not going to participate because I didn’t even have the slightest idea for a plot. Anybody who has known me for a while has heard me describe how painfully difficult of a time I have conceiving of idea—once I get an idea, I can write with relative speed, but the idea is pretty integral to the process. But then, in a rare moment of utter competence, I thought of a germ of an idea at around 8 a.m. the next morning at work. And then, throughout the day, I thought of some story beats and subplots. By the end of the day, I had developed the vast majority of what would eventually comprise Cemented Minds.

Cemented Minds is the name of the book. Although I failed in my mission to finish 50,000 words by the end of November, I did write a substantial portion of it and, unlike any ambitious writing project I had ever pursued, positioned myself to actually want to finish it. It is the first book I have ever written, though hopefully not the last.

The book is available here on Smashwords.com and should be available in multiple formats. From what I can tell, pretty much all of the major book-reading formats are available with one "purchase". If for whatever reason you don't want to register but are still interested in reading the book, I can send you a copy through Microsoft Word, though your diversity of reading options will be limited. I strongly encourage everybody who is interested in checking out this book to pay nothing for it—speaking from my own experience, I wouldn’t want to pay for an e-book of an amateur first-time author, so I certainly wouldn’t ask somebody else to put forth money before they know what they’re getting into. More than money, I am hoping for reviews—even if you dislike the book (which, really, that seems unlikely), please review it and spread the link to any friends or family who you think would enjoy it.

It was a weird process to write, revise, and finish this book. I wanted to write the sort of book I might enjoy reading and...I don't know if I accomplished that. It's kind of hard to remove myself from it. But I sure hope it's good. And I sure hope you guys like it.