I’m so excited to have Dan Antion of No Facilities here today to talk about his new book, KNUCKLEHEADS!
Knuckleheads Kindle Edition
Knuckleheads Paperback
Dan’s Author Page on Amazon
The Dreamer’s Alliance series chronicles the challenges and dangers faced by two men who have been gifted with paranormal abilities. From their struggles to understand and control these powers through their battle with the attempts of corrupt authorities to exploit them.
Zach and Billy didn’t ask for the paranormal powers that were beyond their capacity to understand, or control. Zach, interacting with his lucid dreams, and Billy, “gifted “with shadowy glimpses of the future struggle to make sense of the world around them. Adults in authority in the nineteen sixties have no time for what they consider mental outliers of the baby-boom. The boys are institutionalized, marginalized, and ignored. Zach’s father learns of the challenges they face as children and knows the dangers they will face as adults. With no way to comprehend how these boys perceive and move within their world, he must find a way to guide them.
Dan Antion was born outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He grew up and attended college in the area around western Pennsylvania. Dan has written and published the popular No Facilities blog since 2011. A lifelong interest in writing became a reality after he retired from a successful 42-year-long career in information management.
Knuckleheads, published in June 2022, is the first book in the Dreamer’s Alliance Series. This story introduces the main characters in this series, in which the next two books will follow in late summer and early winter 2022.
Dan lives in Connecticut with his wife, a few pets and all the wildlife they can feed.
Marian, I want to thank you for inviting me to share One-Liner Wednesday with you and to help me promote my first novel, Knuckleheads. You said you wanted to know about the process, how this book came about, and how the other books affected this one. It’s complicated.
This book was never going to be written. The parts of this book that are important to the next two books in the series were going to be dropped in by way of the main character’s memory. Not quite a flashback scene – more of a moment where Zach is lost in thought. That was getting ugly.
You know me, brevity is not my forte. The book was hard to follow because I wanted to tell too much of the backstory. It wasn’t necessary, but I wanted it to be told. Teagan Geneviene suggested I publish the backstory as a novella.
I switched gears and began writing Knuckleheads. I quickly blew past the word count of a novella. When I thought I was ready to publish it, several people cautioned me. They said I should wait until the other books were written, in case anything in those books changed things in the first book. I didn’t see how that was possible until, in the third book, I needed a character who had died in the first book. Could I have used a different character? Could I have made up a different history? Yes, to both, but the guy from the first book was the ideal character to use.
Things like that continued to pop up. In fact, during the climax of the third book, things happen in such a way that I had to make a serious edit to Knuckleheads, and to several scenes in the second book.
I was explaining this to a friend of mine who was one of the beta-readers. I said, “Of course, I doubt anyone would have noticed the minor incongruous facts.”
He was shocked. “That’s exactly the kind of thing I would notice. I’d dig out the earlier book and chase it down.” I thought that was something only I would do.
Once all three books were complete, I started to focus on preparing them for publication. I had several people who had offered to be beta-readers. I told them that I was mainly interested in plot issues, inconsistent character actions and paranormal elements that went too far. Four of those readers told me they couldn’t skip over grammar, sentence structure, etc. My daughter, who edits communication for a living, and my brother, who corrected papers for 30 years as a teacher, suggested they would also function as proofreaders. My friend, the one who required consistency across the series, also said he couldn’t ignore any mistakes.
So, in addition to a review via ProWritingAid, I had three live proofreaders. I bought them each an author proof copy, gave them a pack of Post-it notes and flags and a red marker. They all found errors (lots of overlap, but not 100%) and they all suggested that I rework certain things that either didn’t make sense or didn’t seem to fit the character. The fourth, Cheryl Pennington, has sent me screen shots with things that needed to be fixed as she was reading a PDF copy. If you enjoy(ed) the book, you have them to thank for it.
As a result of that process, I (finally) arrived at the one-liner I will share:
“I read Knuckleheads so many times, I could be a living book in Holly Jahangiri’s Earth English Living Library.”
Thanks again for inviting me to join you today.
The other stops on Dan’s tour:
Sunday: Priorhouse Blog
Monday: Dreaming Existence
Tuesday: Teagan’s Books
Wednesday: Here
Thursday: Writing and Music
Friday: The Showers of Blessings
Sunday: Blog Reflections
Wednesday: Fiction Favorites
Knuckleheads Kindle Edition
Knuckleheads Paperback
Dan’s Author Page on Amazon
This post is part of Linda G. Hill’s weekly blog hop, One-Liner Wednesday. If you have a one-liner or just like them, follow the link.
A WRITING PROMPT FROM ME TO YOU: Knuckleheads
MA
Dan Antion
June 22, 2022 at 7:18amThank yo so much for helping to promote Knuckleheads, Marian. I know you understand the process, and I’m sure you can imaging the newbie mistakes I made. I’m so glad the book it out, and people are enjoying reading it. I still might ask for a job in Holly’s library if things get rough, but I’m enjoying this for now. Thanks again!
Marian Allen
June 22, 2022 at 7:50amAlways glad to help out a pal. Writing is hard, but promotion is harder.
GP
June 22, 2022 at 7:37amMarian, you and I don’t know each other, but we sure have a talented mutual friend here in Dan!
Marian Allen
June 22, 2022 at 7:51amWe sure do!
Dan Antion
June 22, 2022 at 8:18amThanks GP. Marian brings a wonderful mix of topics, recipes, cat stories, doors and short stories to her blog. She is well worth following.
GP
June 22, 2022 at 1:50pmI’ll be back to see her.
circadianreflections
June 22, 2022 at 8:38amNicely promoted, Marian! Dan’s book is sure to be a success!
Dan Antion
June 22, 2022 at 10:05amThanks Deborah. I am grateful for all the help people have been providing. It’s nice to be here.
circadianreflections
June 22, 2022 at 11:48amI think we’re both blessed to be in really good blogging communities.
John W. Howell
June 22, 2022 at 9:48amThanks for supporting Dan, Today, Marian. Congratulations, Dan
Marian Allen
June 22, 2022 at 10:58amAlways a pleasure to support a pal!
John W. Howell
June 22, 2022 at 11:39am😊
Dan Antion
June 22, 2022 at 4:53pmThanks John/
Priorhouse
June 22, 2022 at 10:54amOkay!! Thanks Marian for your post. So now we know why there are three books ready this year! That makes sense and going from the novella to the book length shows that Dan had a layered story to tell here!
Also / with so much care for the grammar and consistency – that will be a gift to readers – so right on Dan for not rushing this and skipping important advice or suggestions.
–
Marian Allen
June 22, 2022 at 10:56amDan never does things half-way!
Dan Antion
June 22, 2022 at 4:55pmThanks Yvette. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get those corrections. And yes, the story needed to be complete before putting the books out there.
Suzette Benjamin
June 22, 2022 at 11:01amCongratulations Dan on your book! Thank you for sharing the process of wombing this book to life. Fascinating details. Thank you Marian for this engaging post. Cheers.
Marian Allen
June 22, 2022 at 1:40pmCheers back! Dan did all the heavy lifting. 🙂
Suzette Benjamin
June 22, 2022 at 1:42pmAwesome!
Dan Antion
June 22, 2022 at 4:56pmTanks Suzette. This was a frustrating process at times, but I like the way things ended up. I’m glad you liked this post.
Suzette Benjamin
June 22, 2022 at 8:34pmMy pleasure. Thank you!
Teagan Riordain Geneviene
June 22, 2022 at 12:12pmThis is a marvelous post. Marian, thanks for hosting Dan today. That was a great question. Dan, thank you kindly for the shout-out. Kudos on a fabulous tour. Hugs all around.
Marian Allen
June 22, 2022 at 1:41pmHugs, Teagan! Dan is a pleasure to be with, even virtually. 🙂
Dan Antion
June 22, 2022 at 4:57pmI’m glad you liked this post, Teagan. Marian is a delightful host, and it’s fun to be here for a one-liner day.
Marian Allen
June 23, 2022 at 1:17pmAw, pshaw! Glad to have ya.
dweezer19
June 22, 2022 at 12:14pmSo happy you are part of the Knuckleheads book tour, Marian! Great question for Dan. I loved these books and the ‘characters’ who inspired the characters in them. 😉
Marian Allen
June 22, 2022 at 1:41pmDan’s the best!
Dan Antion
June 22, 2022 at 5:00pmThanks Cheryl. This tour has been so much fun. Marian’s question was scary at first. I was discovering this process as I went along.
Marian Allen
June 23, 2022 at 1:17pmSometimes it’s hard to reconstruct your process. You just know you HAD one….
Jan Sikes
June 22, 2022 at 1:52pmWriting is indeed an arduous process and especially with a series. I agree with your beta-reader. If the character had died in book 1 then popped up in book 3, I would have noticed. It’s great to have guides along the way! Great post. Thank you, Marian, for hosting Dan today!
Marian Allen
June 23, 2022 at 1:35pmBeta readers are life-savers in more ways than one!
lois
June 22, 2022 at 3:22pmHoly moly! This was a very interesting and eye-opening post about the writing and editing process. I am so glad you asked about this, Marian, because I had no idea how much went into this. And it is way more than I could ever imagine.
Marian Allen
June 23, 2022 at 1:16pmLois — SO MUCH EDITING! And, with a series, you have to hold the whole story in your head at the same time. Story “bibles” help you keep track of eye color, height, age at any given point of the story, but there’s so much more.
Miriam Hurdle
June 22, 2022 at 4:16pmI’m always interested in the backstory, Dan. You had an interesting writing process of your series. Thank you for hosting, Marian! 🙂
Gwen M. Plano
June 22, 2022 at 5:16pmI’m celebrating along with everyone else, Dan. I’m so happy for you and I look forward to seeing you on Monday at my site. Congratulations!! ✨🎉✨
acflory
June 22, 2022 at 7:32pmCongratulations, Dan! I loved reading about your process and found myself nodding so many times I thought my head would fall off! lol I published the first book of a long story not realising how much subtle changes would affect the rest of the story. I’m struggling with that now. With the next story I held back until all 3 books were finished and /proofed/! Like you, I had to go back and make some changes. And like some of the others who commented, they were changes I would have noticed as a Reader.
Best of luck with this launch and the ones to come. 🙂
hilarymb
June 23, 2022 at 1:01amHi Marian – nice to meet you, and great to have Dan here and see his process to writing his series. I think if I saw that number of post it notes … I’d have apoplexy and retire from the author-world! Well done Dan on working through those supportive notes and thoughts – cheers Hilary
Marian Allen
June 23, 2022 at 1:36pmNice to meet you, too, Hilary! Dan’s Post-It manuscript looked like something my late mother had been through. Nothing got past Mom!
Oddment
June 23, 2022 at 7:32amProcess is what ages a writer, yes? It’s work, and no mistake. Misery loves company, as is said, and I think writers take some twisted comfort in knowing what other writers go through. A good book-tour question.