The Psi Squad Continues

The third installment of The Psi Squad now available at Amazon. The Psi Squad and the Unhappy Valentine offers significant new information about J.B, Rhea, William and Emily while serving up yet another fun story involving a library haunting ghost and a cranky school janitor.

Also, work is well underway on the fourth book in the series which is promising to end up novel length instead of adhering to the shorter format of the first three books. The Legend of Harry House is intended to be a proper haunted house mystery. The book opens with visions of a grisly murder and hits the ground running from there as our heroes prepare for seventh grade.

Presently, the word count is just shy of 16,000, not much shorter than the entirety of Book One of the series, and I've barely scratched the surface. In fact, everything so far has taken place during the summer break, with travels and camps splitting the Psi Squad apart. I'm looking forward to the start of the next school term!

Psi Squad 3 Update

Hi there! Me again. Still plugging away at editing Psi Squad and the Unhappy Valentine and very happy with the material, just always running short on the time necessary to hack through large swaths of it.

Expectations are to have it ready by the end of summer. I'm anxious to get on with the fourth book in the series (The Legend of Horry House) and not having book three finished is weighing heavily on my mind.

With any luck, it won't be another 5 months before I'm posting the next update.

A Message from the Great Beyond...

Hmmmm...

It's getting on two years since I last posted to this blog. Who knew the kids' public school & college years could get even crazier than when diapers needed changing and the kids couldn't feed, dress or bathe themselves?

Although my contributions to the written word have slowed since the release of The Psi Squad & the Atherton Ghost, I have not been completely inactive. The third book in the Psi Squad series has been drafted and awaits a more critical eye; the outline of a new book intended to be an adult comedy/mystery is beginning to take shape from notes and short scenes scribbled on scraps of paper; and the fourth Psi Squad book is slowly taking shape in my mind.

The Frilly Beds and Naked Midgets collection of blog posts (see above right at the top of this blog) has, for now, been shelved. Not to say it will never come to pass. There simply hasn't been enough time to work on it and when there has been I've elected to work on the other books.

The end result will be the release of The Psi Squad & the Lonely Valentine within the next couple months. Look for more word about it here.

"The Psi Squad" Press Release

Below is the official press release for "The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost." So far, at least one newspaper has run the release (see The Pilot: Psi Squad Press Release), which is one more than ran a release for the first book. Of course, it might have helped if I had written a press release for the first book…

Without further ado, here it is!

North Carolina Author Releases Second Book in Series

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: March 2014

Pinehurst NC, March 2014 – North Carolina author Mark Feggeler has released the second book of his middle grade paranormal adventure series, “The Psi Squad.” Available in paperback and for Kindle, “The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost” is a family-friendly book that continues the story of three middle school students in Durham, NC, who discover they have extra-sensory abilities.

The series is told by twelve year old J.B., a sixth grader living with his grandparents and who regularly sees spots before his eyes. As he settles in to his new surroundings, J.B. becomes friends with two fellow students who help him realize the spots may be more than they seem. Although there are nine books planned for the series, “The Psi Squad” began as a single book written for Feggeler’s children.

“Children’s books tend to skew either toward very young kids or teenagers,” Feggeler said. “I wanted to write a story that was suitable for a middle grade audience and then make it a relatively quick read. Once that first book was written, I thought it might be great fun to write a series of books about these characters.”

“The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost” keeps its focus on the middle grade audience (ages 9 and older). Similar to “The Psi Squad: Book One,” the sequel is less than 100 pages. Although the book is at its core a ghost story, the author is careful not to use gory imagery or profanities.

"The stories are about the characters, not about scaring the reader," Feggeler said. "Much of what the characters experience are things I learned about twenty years ago when I worked part-time for a parapsychology researcher. In that regard, I like to think there's more science to these books than scares."

A resident of Pinehurst, NC, Mark Feggeler studied writing at college and is a former journalist. He returned to writing fiction in 2010 and has since released three books. He also maintains a blog titled “Ramblings of a Very Pale Man.” Both books in “The Psi Squad” series are available in paperback or for Kindle at Amazon.com. Paperback editions are available through The Country Bookshop in Southern Pines, NC.

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/The-Psi-Squad-Atherton-Ghost-ebook/dp/B00IWEQ6E0

Paperback: http://www.amazon.com/Psi-Squad-Atherton-Ghost/dp/1497313902/ref=la_B004MKBUS0

END

Psi Squad 2 -- Now Available!

Get your copy now!!!

"The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost" ebook is now available at Amazon.com. Click the link below to go to the site and purchase your copy for only 99 cents!

http://www.amazon.com/Psi-Squad-Atherton-Ghost-ebook/dp/B00IWEQ6E0

Book Blurb:
After their first adventure, our three heroes haven't exactly managed to come together as a team. The newly formed Psi Squad club seems doomed before it even has a chance to get started. Until, during a field trip to the historic Atherton Homestead, strange things begin happening that will require the combined paranormal skills of J.B., Rhea and William to find out what's going on. 

"The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost" is the second book in "The Psi Squad" series of paranormal adventures for reader age 9+.

Psi Squad 2 Set for Release!

No more waiting!

I will be hitting the PUBLISH button on "The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost" next Tuesday morning, March 11. By the end of the day -- the digital gods willing -- the book should be available or purchase as an ebook from Amazon.

Shortly thereafter, the paperback will also be available from Amazon.

The Year of $100

One-hundred dollars.

That's roughly how much money I earned last year as a direct result of my writing. Three books and this blog as a platform to tell the world about them and all I managed to make off those books was one-hundred dollars. Sounds about right to me, and let me tell you why I think so.

For starters, I ain't no Shakespeare.

I realize that, as an author, I should be the first person shouting from the rooftops about why you should buy my books. I should be that person you avoid at parties, the one who'll bore you to tears with details about the painstaking care I took to plan out plot twists, afflict my characters with bizarre yet endearing traits, and leave the story dangling precariously at the edge of a precipice so the reader achingly yearns for the resolution offered in the sequel. But, even after years in sales, I've never been a fan of the hard sell.

What do I think of my books? I like them. I enjoyed writing them. They were fun to outline, fun to write, and fun to edit. I had a good time creating the covers. And while they are far from perfect, I think you might like them, too.

Secondly, I never planned to make a living off this.

Hobbies should be just that -- hobbies. The problem I see is when people experience the smallest taste of success or attention, they tend to run wild with it and get way ahead of themselves.

One of my lifelong dreams was to write a book. Just because I realized that dream doesn't mean my book is any good, or that I deserve legions of adoring fans tripping over themselves to hand over their hard-earned money. That I have a collection of blog posts and two finished fiction books to my name (with a third coming out in the next few weeks) means just as little. All I did was find the time in my busy schedule to indulge in my hobby. Nobody owes me anything for that. It's the difference between chasing your dream in the hopes of realizing fame and fortune and chasing your dream because it brings you a sense of fulfillment.

Sad to say, on those occasions when I do peruse the blogs and websites of authors with similar track records to mine, it seems these authors spend far more time than I working the market, buying ads, attending book signings, managing social media, and for what? So they can end the month having sold seven copies of their books on Amazon? No, thanks. I have far more important things to do (like spend time with my family and earn real money by being good at my real job).

Thirdly, I'm cheap.

If my hobby were wood-working, I wouldn't spend hundreds for a professional to design the rocking chair I planned to build in my basement. If my hobby were painting, I wouldn't seek out a mentor at a national art gallery for pointers on how best to paint a picture of my dog.

Likewise, with writing as my hobby, I'm not about to spend hundreds of dollars on cover designers and editors, regardless of how many times established authors tell me I should if I want to be taken seriously as an author. I'm a hobbyist. By definition, I don't give a crap if people take me seriously.

Of course, I do feel warm and fuzzy when people compliment my books in reviews, or tell me in person that they enjoyed reading one of my books. I'm not immune to feeling a sense of pride or accomplishment when someone shows appreciation or admiration for what I've created, but I try to keep it from going to my head. Publishing success (either through self-publishing or traditional publishing) is, like any other success in life, equal parts hard work and luck. Call me a no-fun practical stick in the mud, but I'd rather put my energy into my day job which yields success in the form of a paycheck every two weeks.

So, at the end of the day, I enjoy writing and hope that my skills improve with each book I complete. If what I write brings a few fleeting moments of enjoyment to friends in my neighborhood or strangers halfway around the world, so much the better.



© 2014 Mark Feggeler

Ready for Beta!

"The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost" is officially ready for beta readers!

It's remarkable to think I started this project roughly one year ago, almost exactly. When time is precious, as it increasingly proves to be, it can be difficult to find bits of it here and there to write, edit, rewrite, re-edit, and do all the other things involved with the creation of a book. Among those other things are putting together a cover and preparing the text for ebook and paperback formats.

Unlike the first "Psi Squad" book, which was mostly written late at night when the rest of the household was nestled snuggly in bed, this second installment in the series was written during early morning hours, and primarily on Tuesdays. I'm not sure if the change in writing schedule is in any way reflected in the narrative, but I definitely felt more capable of the task in the morning. Perhaps it's a sign of my advancing age that I can no longer burn the candle into the wee hours and stay focused.

In any case, I found "The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost" a thoroughly entertaining book to write, if for not other reason than it changed my expectations of the series.

The first book set the stage, almost literally. You met the primary characters -- J.B., Rhea and William -- and were introduced to the semi-fictitious world in which they live. Those were the only goals of the book, and I believe they were well achieved.

This second book takes what has been set up and sets it in motion with character arcs and plot developments that will span the next seven books. But it's early, yet, and I don't want to give away any secrets.

Watch for the book on Amazon in the coming weeks!

Wrapping Up Book Two

Only one more chapter left to read to the focus group (my sons) before taking all my notes back to the computer for the next round of edits. 

So far, there haven't been any significant problems identified. The worst was tonight in Chapter 10, in which I caught myself rushing through a scene. I forgot to apply the brakes as the adventure draws to a close in order to avoid going into the final chapter at full speed. If that's the biggest challenge facing me, then I'm in pretty good shape.

For my money, I'm quite pleased with the trajectory of the storyline and the balance between the paranormal adventure and the character development. I would be lying if I said I was never concerned about the potential depth of the relationships between the three main characters. Would J.B. seem too bland? Does William come across as too much of a sidekick? Does Rhea's foul-tempered angst make her unlikeable? And for all my worrying, once I found the correct situations in which to place them, the characters' personalities became apparent and they made it easy for me to represent them on the page.

I'm also a big fan of a couple new characters who pop up in the book. It's always interesting when a minor character suddenly helps serve a purpose beyond your initial expectations. One character, in particular, resulted in a redefining of the "Psi Squad" club for future installments in the series. Not that the outline of the planned nine-book series has changed, just my understanding of who makes up the secret club and why.

So, one more chapter to read aloud, then on to final edits and reviews before formatting the content and finalizing the cover. Keep an eye out for "The Psi Squad and the Atherton Ghost" on Amazon in the coming weeks!

Edit Me, Big Boy!

You might know that I've written and self-published two books. One is a murder mystery written for an adult audience ("Damage"). The other is a paranormal adventure for middle-grade kids ("The Psi Squad").

Well, I finally finished the first draft of the second book in the "Psi Squad" series and am set for the most rewarding part of the process -- edits and rewrites. Writing a book is like assembling a model with parts that fit roughly together, leaving bumpy bits and sharp edges. Editing and rewriting are like taking sandpaper and paint to that model to make it all smooth and pretty.

It's good to have a high opinion of your writing while you're writing it. After all, if you aren't excited about writing your book, you can't really expect anyone else to be excited about reading it. But you can't let it bring you down when, upon review of your completed first draft, you quickly begin to realize it isn't the masterpiece you hoped it would be.

The other night, for example, I read the opening chapter of the new Psi Squad book to my sons. I had already performed a quick and sloppy edit on chapter one and believed it to be in excellent condition. After reading it aloud -- one of the best things anyone who writes anything from an epic novel to an off-hand Facebook post could ever do -- it became clear there were at least three harsh transitions and a moderate amount of unnecessary verbiage.

All this despite the fact my editor had already reviewed the material and assured me it was error-free. In fact, I believe the words "perfect" and "no mistakes" passed his lips several times. I know you're thinking "get a new editor," but that's easier said than done, since my editor is half of the twins that are my sons.

Noah (the Italian) is an avid reader and connoisseur of some of the finest literature ever to pass through a middle school library. According to the asinine Lexile system presently being thrust mercilessly down the throats of students in our school district, he is a sixth-grader who reads at a college freshman level. Mind you, he is still expected to show growth in his reading skills, which means he is required to consider reading books that fall within his lexile range such as those by Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy. Or, he can read a nice nonfiction book, like Stephen Hawking's "The Origin of the Universe." But I digress…

In short, Noah got the job of editing my manuscript for three reasons: Nepotism, No Cost, and Begging. (I should point out that he begged me to let him edit the book, not the other way around.) He pestered the living daylights out of me for months about wanting to edit the next Psi Squad book, although I suspect his motives were less of a helpful nature than they were selfish. He wanted to read the book before anyone else, most especially his twin brother.

His "editing" of the first few chapters magically required no red ink and resulted in not a single criticism. He found no typos, no grammatical mistakes, no incorrectly used character names, and no plot holes. This is what happens when you hire a drooling fan to do the job of a slash-and-burn critic. Fortunately, the errors I am finding while reading the book to the boys are easily rectified. Even better, the boys chuckle when they are supposed to and I haven't had to explain any parts of the book to them after the fact.

Now that I know better than to trust a twelve-year-old who loves me to edit my book, I can start searching for a proper editor. I wonder if my Mother would be interested?



© 2013 Mark Feggeler

A Brief Update from a Busy Life

It has been far too long since I turned my wandering eye to this website and provided an update.

Even the Pale Rambler, my mainstay blogging alter ego, must be scratching his pink and balding scalp and wondering what has become of me. After all, he was created for the sole purpose of providing a creative outlet for the wanna-be writer trapped deep inside of me. He hasn't always had profound things to say, but he had been posting fairly consistently up until recent months.

Truth be told, time has been scarce. What little spare time I've managed to get my hands on has been devoted to writing the second book in the "Psi Squad" series. I've never written a series before, and to date I've only completed two books, but I take seriously the challenge of completing the nine-book series as originally outlined. That leaves little time for pale ramblings or other online shenanigans.

Some day in the distant future, when I smell like my Grandfather and worry more about the regularity of my bowel movements than the earning of a paycheck, I might find the time to sit and write all the day long. Rather than scratching down errant sentences or paragraphs here and there on scraps of paper in the hopes of tying them together into a collective whole, my energies can be focused from dawn to dusk when the mood strikes and the ideas are flowing.

It's a pleasant dream, just not one to be realized today. Today is meant for more important things.

Today was spent bringing a meaningful wage into our household. Today was spent calling the school (and being called by the school) to straighten out my twin sons' schedules on their first day of middle school. Today was spent talking with my daughter over breakfast as she prepared for her first day of eleventh grade. Today was spent sitting at the dining room table as our entire family of five attempted (and failed) to solve a sixth-grade math problem. Today was spent enjoying a quiet lunch in a noisy restaurant with my best friend.

As time continues to pluck hairs from my head only to plant them in my ears, I realize how fleeting are the opportunities to carpe the remaining diem of my children's childhoods. The memories of walking Sara through the hallways of middle school for the first time have hardly faded, yet here we are entering her critical college-planning year. Two years might sound like a long time, but for a parent looking at the prospect of sending a first-born to college it might as well be two weeks.

And so, the Pale Rambler waits patiently, as do the "Psi Squad" characters. They'll be there when I need them. They'll come running when I call them out to play.

In the meantime I will cling tightly to every hug, capture the essence of every laugh, collect kisses and wipe away a few tears. Those are the things that make up a life, and they are far more valuable than any silly dream.


© 2013 Mark Feggeler

Critical Reaction

Now that a handful of reviews have rolled in on Amazon for "The Psi Squad," I'm finding it interesting to see what the readers have to say. In most cases, and since the reviews have so far been of a positive and praising nature (despite the fact my Mother did not write them (all)), I'm in agreement with many of the comments made.

After all, if there's anyone who should be able to recognize the good points about my writing while simultaneously turning a blind eye to anything that might draw criticism, it's me. Aren't authors supposed to be wildly optimistic and pathologically in need of complimentary fawning? And who doesn't enjoy getting their ego stroked?

Even so, I fully expected at least one negative review by this point, and I'm sure it's coming eventually. Some reader somewhere won't like the main characters, or the story, or the brevity of the book, or the simplicity of the cover, or the price, or the spelling of my last name. You can't make everyone happy, which is why I stopped trying to a long time ago. Honesty, though, I am disappointed I haven't yet received a negative review. Praise might be the thing we desire, but criticism is what we really need. How better to grow as a writer than to have someone publicly point out an error, be it in style, or continuity of character, or simple grammar? A little humiliation never killed anyone, particularly when the critic is correct.

Perhaps the best review I've received hasn't come in the form of words, written or spoken.

When I received my first small batch of "Psi Squad" paperbacks, I donated one copy to the library at the Pinehurst Elementary School where my boys are finishing their final year before heading to middle school. One day last week the media specialist who runs the library stopped me and asked for ten more copies. It seems so many kids have checked out that first copy in the past few months that the book is showing signs of wear and tear.

And aren't those kids the readers I was writing for in the first place?

Word Count Envy

I'm not one of those fortunate few able to spend countless hours each day writing to my heart's content. When I see comments by authors on blogs or in group discussion threads wherein they refer to writing two thousand words a day, or eight thousand words during the course of a weekend, a fleeting sense of envy does surge through me.

Imagine my output of published (albeit self-published) works were I capable of dedicating similar quantities of time to writing. The remaining eight books of "The Psi Squad" series would be finished by the end of 2013. And those two murder mysteries I've outlined? I'd be celebrating their sales by this time next year!

Instead, I'm lucky to manage three thousand good words a week. Why?

Well, let's see. Among the things getting in the way of daily writing are: cycling class, breakfast, bringing the boys to school (sometimes), bringing my daughter to school (sometimes), work (and that handy thing called a salary that comes along with work), business travel, meetings, phone calls, laundry, lunch, more work, picking the boys up from school (sometimes), picking my daughter up from school (sometimes), dinner, helping with homework and projects, dance, hockey, church, church youth group, marching band boosters, band concerts, after school meetings, and sleep. Oh, yes, don't forget that every now and then I wouldn't mind spending quality down time with my wife and children, which is why I don't even think about writing on weekends.

It seems my problem stems from not being able, or willing, to give any of that up. All that stuff makes up my life, such as it is at the moment, and it's all meaningful and rewarding. My resulting writing time consists of a maximum of two, maybe three, hours wrenched in bits and pieces from each busy week, but that's okay.

If nothing else, I've discovered a slow pace has forced me to think more about what I'm writing than I otherwise might have. It allows me to fully consider the seven-hundred words for the new murder mystery (working title "RevPAR") and the four-hundred words for the second "Psi Squad" book I cranked out in an hour Tuesday morning before I advance to the next scenes. All that time for extra thinking helps me catch plot holes and fix mistakes before I get too far ahead of myself.

You other writers go ahead and write your two thousand words a day, if only because some oft-quoted remark from Stephen King has you believing you're not a serious writer if you don't achieve that daily goal. Go ahead and celebrate NaNoWriMo by cramming during the month of November to complete an entire novel in thirty days. I did enough last-minute, panic-fueled, late-night writing during college to last me a lifetime, thank you very much. If self-imposed deadlines and massive word-count goals are the things that feed your passion for writing, then God bless and best of luck.

I'll continue to envy your production levels, but I'm not interested in trading places with any of you.




© 2013 Mark Feggeler

Outlining a Book

By the time I started writing my very first novel-length book, I had read so many different how-to articles, columns, essays and blog posts on writing techniques that I should have been an old pro long before I typed the first word.

The reality is, however, that most of you people -- and you know if I mean you -- don't know what the hell you're talking about. Not that you aren't smart people, or that you haven't figured out how to get the most out of your own writing time, just that you don't know me. You do not have the necessary understanding of my personality, work ethic, bad habits, good habits, and mental deficiencies in order to authoritatively declare what will or will not work for me when it comes to writing a book. Trouble was, having never written anything longer than fifteen pages, neither did I. After piddling around with the idea of writing a murder mystery for a brief period of time, say twenty or so years, I decided to put aside all the conflicting advice and get to it. Write the damn book, already, and get it over with.

So, the experiment began with me believing I could jump in and write the bits I felt strongly about and fill in the open spaces between. It took less than three days to see the error of my ways. In order to maintain consistency of tone and character traits, it would be necessary to start at the beginning and tell the story straight through to the end. But how is a person with a memory like a sieve supposed to do that? With an outline, of course. Easy solution. Outline the story, noting important actions and scenes, to provide a roadmap. Okay. Great idea. Now, how do I go about creating an outline?

The first outline I threw together was a pages-long, micro-detailed rant that essentially was me telling my future self: "Hey, stupid! Write what I'm telling you to write and don't stray an inch from the path laid out for you."

Apparently, not only do I behave like a pissy little girl when other people tell me what to do, it turns out I behave like a pissy little girl even when it's me telling myself what to do. Psychiatrists around the world, had they been able to observe those early days of the writing process, would have had a field day watching me argue with myself about the ridiculous character notes and story elements I was telling myself to force into my own book. The uber-specific outline lasted only a couple weeks before being replaced with something much looser.

Too loose, it turned out. Instead of the seventeen obsessive bullet points per chapter of the first outline, the second outline allowed too much freedom and not enough guidance. It was like suddenly going from living with the most controlling, uptight parents in the world, to living with communal, pot-smoking, free-loving spirits to whom things like goals and objectives were just tools "the man" used to keep you down. Clearly, the proper outline for the kind of writer I was striving to be lay somewhere between the two extremes.

And that's exactly where I found it. A couple bullet points to serve as reminders of the most important things to have happen in any given chapter, a note about a character or important bit of dialogue to introduce here or there, and then get going. Structured, but not rigid. Informative, but not detailed. A roadmap, but one that offers options along the journey.

Now, after having successfully completed two books using this method, I begin two more secure in the knowledge I am gradually moving closer and closer to the realization that I don't really know what I'm doing, but I can fake it if I'm smart enough.



© 2013 Mark Feggeler

Salvaging An Idea

Somewhere during the process of writing the first draft of Damage, one of my former coworkers asked if the murder mystery I was writing took place in a hotel. This was not in any way a strange question, since I have worked in the hospitality industry for more than 13 years and have a wealth of stories I have gathered from my experiences. The immediate answer, however, was no, Damage would not involve hotels.

But the question got me thinking how fun it might be to weave some of the bizarre tales I'd heard and lived through at the seven hotel brands I have represented throughout the years into one comical story. A fun murder mystery, in which the mystery is a minor support element to the real story: the interaction between diverse and eccentric characters brought together under the roof of a single hotel.

The biggest problem facing me was this story could not serve as a sequel to Damage. Good or bad, Damage is a serious-minded murder mystery that deals with death and suicide in a manner as realistic as the limits of my writing talents would enable me to present them. There was no way for me to take the main character, Ray, and drop him into a farce without whittling away significant aspects of his personality in order to cram him into lighter fare. So, I cast the idea aside and continued with the more serious task of finishing Damage.

Still, the idea of using the hotel setting to throw some memorable real-life characters together for a night or two nagged at me. Every time I thought I had put it out of my mind, another idea would pop up for a scene or a snappy line of dialogue. Unfortunately, I simply couldn't develop an image of the lead character, the hero. He, or she -- I had no prejudice -- was stubbornly refusing to present himself, or herself.

Then, only recently, while sitting on cold metal bleachers one night and waiting for my sons' hockey practice to end, it struck me. There was a minor character in Damage I had used for a little levity and to help move the action along. A senior reporter at the local newspaper at which Ray works, Walter would be perfect to carry this new comical story. He is opinionated, intolerant, self-centered, sexist and boorish -- all wonderful qualities, to be sure, that did not get much opportunity to shine through when he was merely a supporting player.

Any reservations I might have had about making him the lead for a comedy/mystery vanished when I started giggling like a schoolboy at the myriad ways I could torture him with a hotel full of people he hates. Now, only six pages into the first draft, the ideas are coming so fast and furious I find there's barely enough time to jot one down before the next one comes along.



2013 Mark Feggeler

Finding the Right Writing Group

The first, and until recently the only, time I joined a writing group was way back when during my college years.

I had written several short stories, one of which won an annual fiction award sponsored by an alumnus, and had been told writing groups were the thing to do if I intended to be a serious writer. A writing group would offer constructive criticism, support, and a chance to test out on others bits of what I had recently written. So, I joined. After attending only three times, I realized it wasn't for me.

I had absolutely no problem with the constructive criticism I received, because I never received any. Nor did I have an opportunity to sample the support a group of fellow writers might have given me. Nor, again, did I have the chance to receive feedback on my writing from the group.

You see, the problem with the college writing group in question was that it was not so much a collective of writers banded together to support each other as it was a small gathering of bootlickers huddled together to feed the egos of two group members whose poetry had been published by small local presses. These two poets, who cumulatively had not netted enough advance to pay for a pitcher of beer, were the unofficial leaders of the group because they were published. They lorded over the meetings, reading aloud their latest poetic offerings, monopolizing the conversation, and spiking my blood pressure with their dismissal of others in the group. Little wonder I don't care for poetry...

Fast forward twenty-some years, and there I was considering the possibility of joining another writing group, as if I hadn't got my fill of bloated windbags the first time around.

Two ladies from my church, it turns out, had been meeting monthly to discuss the children's books they were writing. My wife, who regularly encourages me to attend author presentations and events at our local independent bookstore, suggested I contact them to ask if I could join their meetings. Reluctantly, I agreed it couldn't hurt to try again. As a result, I've come to realize through recent months that all writing groups are not created equal.

The three of us meet for two hours once a month. We start off talking about recent developments with our existing projects and how we've applied, or disregarded, each other's comments and suggestions from previous meetings. Then, we take turns sharing new writings and inviting criticism. No egos, just simple and honest give and take of ideas, which is exactly what a writing group should be. Best of all, my confidence and productivity have both improved.

Who knew?



2013 Mark Feggeler

Welcome to Books by Feggeler!

There's been quite a bit of activity since the start of 2013, even though most of the hard work came long before that.

After more than a year of waiting patiently for me to finish writing about them, the characters of "The Psi Squad" finally saw the light of day when Book One of the series went live in January. Now available as an eBook for Kindle, Nook and Kobo, "The Psi Squad" has already garnered some stellar reviews at Amazon and www.Goodreads.com. Written for middle grade readers (age 9-12), this book is intended to help fill the gap between children's literature and more mature YA material. I've already begun drafting Book Two and am very pleased with the shape it's taking.

Click HERE to learn more about "The Psi Squad."

And another project three years in the making became available in February for Kindle, Nook and Kobo in the form of "Damage" -- a murder mystery set in North Carolina. My first novel-length book follows a week in the life of newspaper reporter Ray Waugh as he finds himself personally involved in a murder investigation. This is not a book for kids: there's a little foul language and a bit of violence sprinkled here and there. It is a murder mystery, after all...

Click HERE to learn more about "Damage."

Links to purchase "The Psi Squad: Book One" and "Damage" can be found on the HOME page or by clicking the tabs at the top of this page.