HubPages was delighted to hear that our own Hubber, Alexander Van Dorph (Resolver2009 on HubPages), has published his first novel just days ago on December 5th. Since many other Hubbers also aspire to publishing, we wanted to share his story, as well as a bit of advice for authors-to-be. He’s kindly agreed to do an interview:
Your first novel has just come out. Could you tell us a little bit about it?
Yes, sure thing. These are exciting times (for me at least) as only mere days ago, my first novel was published. It is entitled Cognitive Disturbance, which gives the reader a vague hint of what to expect, without giving too much away. The plot takes place in Los Mirra, a fictional dystopian metropolis run by nefarious criminal gangs and corrupt politicians. Amidst the ironclad skyscrapers of the city we find Leopold Von Tiller, a man who has grown successful despite the ruthless conditions. His fortune takes a turn for the worse as he encounters brutality with a deadly outcome.
It is this deadly outcome – happening within his inner circles – that causes some disturbances in Leopold’s cognitive apparature, as we can see him slowly deviate from the norm as the story progresses.
The story contains its fair amount of intrigues, action, unreciprocrated love and betrayal. It is also worth mentioning that a couple of the characters have some unique baggage from their military service in Afghanistan – which may play a factor throughout the storyline.
I understand that your book had its beginnings on HubPages, and that you were inspired to publish by the supportive comments you received. Could you tell us the whole story?
I was, yes. I was on the lookout for an arena to receive constructive feedback from other writers, and seeing that I had already fallen in love with HubPages at the time, I decided to post excerpts/episodes of the rough ideas that would later be polished into chapters, or parts thereof, in the finished product.
After 3-4 episodes posted on HubPages, I suddenly noticed that certain Hubbers were pushing me on, wanting to read the next episode and so on. This happened at a time when I was insecure about my writing, and in many ways the positive comments from Hubbers helped me see this project through. My sincere thanks goes out to all the Hubbers that supported me through the writing process, and helped ‘Cognitive Disturbance’ get as far as it has today.
Do you have any insights to share about the novel-writing and publishing process, as an author?
Well first and foremost, make a rough plan, which you add twists and events to until you have a pretty good layout for what the book will be like. Then it is all about routine. Put aside 1-2 hours each day for writing (one hour is great, two is excellent), and you will feel a natural flow and connection to the characters in your story like you’ve never done before. It is quite an exciting process. Novel-writing is all about routine and having fun.
Stay positive throughout the process, embrace the construcive feedback you get (don’t take it personally, it isn’t) and work hard towards the goals you have set along the way.
What advice do you have for your fellow Hubbers who dream of publishing a novel one day?
At the risk of sounding cheesy; believe in yourself. Don’t be afraid to get your feet wet. Throw yourself into the creative pool head first. Before you know it you’ll be having a whale of a time with your creation process. If I had to formulate it in list-form, I would place emphasis on the following:
- Stay positive.
- Embrace constructive feedback.
- Indulge in the creative process, don’t be afraid to let your mind go. Then, all you have to do is follow.
People who want to find out more about my book, Cognitive Disturbance, can do so at Amazon or via my website: www.alexandervandorph.com where I also have a list of distributors. I sincerely relish feedback from fellow Hubbers, so if you choose to read my novel, please be sure to leave a comment, one Hubber to another.
All photos courtesy of Nicole Lisa Photography, used here with permission.
HubPages Blog 
Congratulations on your first novel. It takes discipline to accomplish such an amazing task.
Congratulations on the publication of your new novel. Most especially you have inspired me to gain the momentum to be a writer again I used to be after a year absence from hubpages.
congratulations. well done
Please let this be me someday! Please, please… Best of luck to the fledgling author I hope that I can be as fortunate as him someday!
wow! This is so exciting, I am so thrilled for you. Is there some other way I may get a copy of your book? I don’t do any business what so ever with Amazon. I wish you much success and I can’t wait to read many more of your novels.
Be blessed and Happy New Year! 🙂
Hi Joanne,
Alexander’s website has a list of other places (besides Amazon) where his book is available: http://www.alexandervandorph.com/?page_id=21
Congratulations! I have also written my first novel that I want to publish. My issue is with the editing, what to remove, what to rewrite, what to add on to what’s already written, etc. I’ve been editing a lot already and was ready to publish but then got negative feedback from one person and that stopped me from going through with it. But now I want to return to the novel and make final edits and finally publish it but not sure where to begin with the editing process again.