Ricky Balona's Blog: Ricky Balona Author Page

The131 Maikop Brigade participated in the First Chechen War of 1994–96, suffering heavy casualties in the New Year 1995 assault on Grozny.

The post 131 Maikop Brigade. 60 Hours in Hell. Grozny 1994. appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

Hi and welcome back!
Last night I finished my first attempt at creating a YouTube clip. Actually finished it and posted it at 5 am our time. As I explained in a previous post it is possibly a good way to steer readers in your direction and of course your books.

Promoting your e-book on YouTube.

Here is the link and you can see for yourself how it turned out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q2NLmw-8khc

The post My first YouTube Clip ! appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

Hi ! I mentioned in my last post that I was going to set up a YouTube Channel in order to promote my e-books and print books.

Well, this is what I have come up with and I will show you how I did it so that you can do the same for your books.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAx7xOhBEdwAMD4AOhrnHxA

The first thing I did was create a YouTube Channel dedicated to my books. It’s a pretty straightforward thing to do. Follow the instructions on YouTube and create your channel.

I then downloaded 4k Video Downloader.

https://www.4kdownload.com/products/product-videodownloader

Using the 4K Video Downloader I searched through clips on YouTube that I felt depicted what my books are about (Military Fiction) mostly and as I am starting to do Historical documentaries, it fits with the channel.

For the introduction video on my site or the “About” clip, I copied the YouTube videos onto the 4K Video Downloader. These clips were then downloaded onto my computer as Files.

I then downloaded Video pad Video Editor. https://www.videowinsoft.com/videowin-video-converter.html?gclid=CjwKCAjw1uiEBhBzEiwAO9B_Ha4DccNKspwHbk_gfH53TT9oeaNHDKk11IZDjltnTGiw7Z3QuqavuBoC97AQAvD_BwE

Follow the instructions and download your files. In the editor, you can cut which pieces of the video you would like to feature on your own video promotion for your book.

There might be some copyright issues, depending on what you download. There are copyright-free clips and music on the internet for use as well.

In the video, for Steele’s Dien Bien Phu I had copyright issues and any money from ads on this particular clip goes to the movie companies for using their work. This is not a big thing for me as I am hoping to pick up on sales for the book.

Once you have your Video clip ready and you are happy with it, add a background audio track.

After that, you can either use the text option or plug a microphone into your computer and press the “record” button to add narration.

Yeah! I know that most of us are introverts! My voice sounds weird and my accent is so strong! But what the hell?

I hope this helps and please take a look at my site.

Thanks and have a great day.

Ricky.

The post Promoting your e-book on YouTube. appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

My beautiful wife has a new song on her channel. Please take a look and like and share!

Thanks, hope you enjoy it!

Ricky.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Mv0z54Fnqs

The post Something New and really cool! appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

Hi Everyone!

I have been looking around on Facebook and on Google. Have any of you seen a promotional video of an e-book? I did not. There are posts on how to promote an e-book etc but no actual video on an e-book by an author that I have seen. I may, and probably am wrong but I did not come across an e-book clip.

I remember (not showing my age, (ha-ha!) Music in the 80’s took off when Duran Duran did amazing videos to their songs as did others.

Tonight as it is 02h09 as I write in New Zealand I will share with you what I have done and tomorrow I will show you how and with which Apps or whatever it is called I did it.

Tomorrow I will add the audio to the clip and then I will send it off on my Youtube channel and see what happens.

We are all learning at this point. If you know more and have better ideas please let me know. I would love to hear from you. We are all in the same boat, working our butts off, and at the same time, we know that we can have a better and more fulfilling life as a writer.

If we can create brilliant YouTube clips for our e-books that bring in sales, why not? We have spent months and even years on our work, lets try this out. As I said, some of you will be ahead of this and making a YouTube video clip. But for those of you starting out maybe I can help.

Below is the link to the YouTube clip which is still in progress. Tomorrow in New Zealand is Mothers Day. I am Taking my Mum bowling with my girls, then taking my wife to lunch. After I will do the audio and then set out an explanation of how I did it, so you all can do the same for your books.

Have a great Mother’s Day to all Kiwi’s and if it is not in your calendar as Mother’s Day have a good one anyways!

The post Bloody Brilliant Idea! appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

Stuck in Lockdown and need something to read?

http://rickybalonabooks.com/books/for-sale/Please feel free to download a free copy of Sacred Retribution! If you are really cool you can subscribe to my site for more news and upcoming books.

Best wishes.

Ricky.

The post Sacred Retribution Free Download! appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

Following up from last nights post I have converted one of my eBooks on Calibre. What I find is easiest when I want to convert eBooks and then set them up on my site as a free download is publishing on Smashwords first. https://www.smashwords.com/

Smashwords convert your eBook into different formats. As the Author, you will be able to download your eBook in different formats free of charge. Download your eBook in the e-pub file and copy it on your computer.

From there download it onto Calibre. Select the output files as Mobi, E-pub and P.D.F. Save in a folder and then add it to your site. Readers will then be able to download it in multiple formats.

Thank you all so much for the kind words and nice comments.

Please take a look at the Sacred Retribution tab in the books section on my site http://rickybalonabooks.com/books/for-sale/ to download your Christmas gift!

Best wishes.

Ricky.

The post Free Download! appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

Hi and sorry for not writing much lately but I have been really busy. I would like to offer anyone who has an e-book the opportunity to post a link to your book on my site. We are here to learn together and help each other so why not? Think of it as free advertising and a way of introducing your work to others.

A few years ago I set up a WordPress site and offered one of my eBooks for free. Little did I know that most people could not download it as it was not compatible with their device.

I later found out that there is an App called Calibre. Here is the link to the App. https://calibre-ebook.com/

“For the e-book nerds amongst you, calibre has a built-in editor that allows you to edit e-books in the most popular e-book formats, EPUB and Kindle. The editor has many sophisticated features to make editing the innards of e-books as easy and efficient as possible.” This is a quote from their site.

It allows you to download your eBook in different formats. This enables people to read your book on most, if not all eBook readers and computers.

I have used it many times and it works really well. I am not a computer wizard but even I managed to follow the instructions and set things up correctly! It is free to download.

Another idea I had was to publish photos of certain places I had written about in one of my books. https://www.amazon.com/Sacred-Retribution-Ricky-Balona-ebook/dp/B07QLHJD7F

It is a Thriller set in Queenstown and Arrowtown. Arrowtown is fifteen minutes away from us and one of my jobs is in the beautiful town. I sometimes go gold panning on the banks of the river. And yes, I have found a tiny bit of gold!

This is the church where some parts of the story happen.



Banks of the Arrow River where the story begins!



Buckingham street in Arrowtown.



The Common in Arrowtown.

Obviously downloading photos of your Sci-Fi World with three moons and purple vegetation will be a little more difficult! If it is a place you have visited it helps readers better visualize the exact locations mentioned in your book.

Thank you for all the comments and I sincerely hope that some of you will share a link to your eBook. I will write another post over the week-end.

Best wishes and thank you for taking the time to read this.

Ricky.

The post Link to your e-book! appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

The world you create for your characters is the visual frame that your readers associate with your story. It grounds your readers within the world the story is set. When we hear the words “Moby Dick” or “Master and Commander” we automatically see images of old sailing ships, the sea and feel a sense of impending danger. Think of “The Hunger Games” and an image of a science fiction dystopian world comes to mind.

Your early settings are important as you establish characters and the stakes in their normal world. Later additional settings raise the stakes and is a basis for contrast when your main characters world changes dramatically.

I spent five years living in Paris. I found myself immersed in the history of the city. We stood on the spot where Marie Antoinette met her fate with the guillotine. Numerous buildings are still scarred with bullet holes from the war. I visited old Roman ruins and Napoleons Tomb amongst other many fascinating experiences over the five years I was there.

One of the many interesting situations I found myself in which I describe below might help someone writing a Historical Fiction novel or even a Time Travel Science Fiction story. Describe in detail using the scenes what your character feels, sees, hears tastes and smells in their world.

We often had a few beers at a pub called the guillotine which was situated on the left bank of the Seine just over the river from Notre Dame Cathedral. An antique guillotine stood menacingly in the narrow entrance. The pubs had to close in Paris at 2 am but the party would continue on in many establishments. Most places had a basement where all the locals would retire to when the lights had been turned off and the door locked at street level. We were told of the fascinating history of the pub and its original use and shown around the two levels below the street.

During the 16th century and up until the late 17th century the property was what was called an “Oubliette.” The definition is a dungeon with only an opening on the top. It was, as the word suggests somewhere that a person would be forgotten. It was reputed to be a place where Royalty or their consorts were sent. It was discreet and the victim simply disappeared from Court life overnight.

Imagine if you will, your heroine is a beautiful young girl. She and the Prince fall madly in love but an antagonist is hell bent on destroying their relationship for political, romantic or any number of other reasons.

Our heroine, let’s call her Claudine, retires to her comfortable room. She falls asleep in a soft bed, drawing up the lavender-scented covers as the handmaiden extinguishes the candles. Still tasting the roast meat with seasoned vegetables they had for the evening meal, Claudine falls asleep listening to the gentle breeze blowing through the apple orchard.

In the early hours of the morning, three men burst into the room. How would she feel? What would the rough unwashed men smell like in contrast to her pleasant surroundings? A sack is violently shoved over her head. Bundled into a rickety cart covered with a foul-smelling tarpaulin they drive through the deserted city reaching a destination unknown to her.

What would she be experiencing at that moment? She is then dragged through a heavy wooden door into a dank and foul smelling room.

That room is the exact room where we were having a beer centuries later. According to what the owners told us that night and from further research I have done, the poor girl would have been beaten and stripped of her clothes. Describe in detail her emotions, her disorientation, the shock, pain and humility she would be feeling. How do her new surrounding contrast with her comfortable bedroom and home?

She would then have been taken down a very narrow and steep set of stairs carved into the stone. This was the room one level below ground where she would have endured hours of beating, torture and I shudder to think of what more would have been done to Claudine. Her battered body would be lying on a cold stone floor strewn with dirty straw, excrement, blood and vermin. What would she be thinking of at that moment? What would she see, hear, feel, smell and taste in that state?

I stood there trying to imagine what the poor souls endured in that room so long ago. The owner pointed to a circular metal cover on the floor. He lifted the cover and all we saw was a black bottomless pit. Claudine would have been shackled in irons and then dropped through the hole in the stone floor. We descended a metal ladder and with the aid of small lights situated at intervals along the underground cavern we looked to our left and right.

Claudine regains consciousness after hours of torture and a ten-foot drop onto the stone floor below. Would you not lose your mind waking in terrible pain in a totally dark and freezing cavern. You manage to move a few feet either left or right as you feel your way along the jagged walls of the tunnel carved out of the solid rock.

To our left we noticed another hole in the floor. Water from the river Seine was visible through the hole. If Claudine moves left in the pitch black she falls into the cold waters of the river. She has shackles and heavy chains on her wrists and feet. Claudine would sink below the surface and drown. There would be no witness, no inquiry, nothing. Claudine simply dissapeared.

Had Claudine moved to her right in the dark, she would have followed a small and narrow tunnel where three or four hollows had been cut out of the rock, just large enough for a person to lie down in. Describe the horror she feels realizing that she has been thrown into an “Oubliette”. Would she be alone or are there others in the subterranean hell? Using her senses, try and put yourself in her place. You are Claudine, what are you going through emotionally and physically at that moment remembering only a few hours ago you were living a comfortable and seemingly secure life.

Claudine has no idea if it is day or night above ground. Totally dependent on the meagre rations dropped down the hole by the jailers. She clings fervently to the hope that her Prince will rescue her. The stakes have never been higher. Does she recover physically and hatch an escape plan? Does she escape and take her revenge?

In the cramped and confined area of the dungeon, we can create an entire world. It is Claudine’s entire universe for the moment.

Below is a short Template which might be helpful when you are creating your world.

Fantasy Setting Worldbuilding Template

Physical Setting:

FloraFaunaGeographyWeatherCosmologySciences: Laws of Physics

Cultural Setting:

SwearingEconomyReligionLawsPolitics + GovernmentLandmarks/WondersClass systemCustomsPhilosophyFood loreLanguagesMusicFashionFolkloreGender RolesWeaponsTechnologyWarTravelHistoryHuman RightsPrejudicesEducationArchitectureJobsLaws of war

I wish you a pleasant day and will write again soon.

Best wishes.

Ricky.

The post Crafting your World appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.

How many times have you planned to write another scene or chapter when you get home from work or after dropping off the kids at school? Somehow life just seems to get in the way!

Between two jobs, 3 kids and a two week school holiday, this last week has admittedly not been very productive on the writing front.

On my day off I had planned to wake up early and get stuck into the next Chapter. We ended up going to almost every playground in Queenstown and then the Gardens, and we did have delicious cream doughnuts!

Gardens in Queenstown

Time spent with family is really precious so I never regret each moment spent doing things together. I have tried working around the challenges that pop up every day that either distracts me from writing or makes writing impossible like going to work.

Routine.

At work during my break, I research, read up on how to improve my writing or other related subjects. Once I get home in the evening the normal family routine takes place. Dinner, cleaning up and bathtime. After that, which is usually around 9pm most evenings I have the choice of watching Mama Mia or Toy Story for the millionth time with the kids or listening to my wife belting out songs on Starmaker. ( She is really damn good!) So I retire to a tiny room where I pinned a note on the board of what I am going to write the night before.

A song by my beautiful wife!

In this way, I have managed to set aside time each night between 9.30 pm until around midnight. It is my time where I can concentrate on what I would like to be doing and something I am passionate about. I treat it as a job, the one I would desperately like to make my career.

Set goals

At any one of my two other jobs if I do not meet certain standards or efficiency I would be in trouble. Why is it okay then to not take writing as or even more seriously than working for someone else? There are no immediate consequences for my actions, or are there? I can keep working my life away at jobs that don’t interest me simply for the weekly paycheck. But then my dream slips further away each day. Or I could take my writing seriously and one day be doing something I enjoy and am passionate about. At night when I take a moment and realistically jot down the following evenings goals I already know what I am going to be doing and can have some idea and think about my goal for that evening during the day. It seems much more clear and precise. I have set out a timeline of what to work towards and what I need to do on a daily basis to achieve my goals.

Believe in what you are doing.

I feel my heart beat faster when I see another review posted on one of my books. Sometimes I am elated for the entire day, they enjoyed my book and wrote a great review. Sometimes I feel despondent and guilty that a reader bought one of my books and did not enjoy reading it. I wish I could transport a reader into a world that they are captivated with, characters that they care about and want to know if there is a follow-up book on the cards. But unfortunately that is not the case for any writer. We all have different tastes and a book one reader rates as a five star masterpiece another will give it a single star.

I try and think of all the people who have enjoyed my books and take the criticism from others seriously as a leaning experience in order to do better.

Make it your Happy Place.

You are planning to spend countless hours in a tiny room with your computer and a wall papered with notes, ideas and character sketches. Make it a place you want to be. A comfortable chair, a small desk and a playlist on the computer are essential, large amounts of coffee and chocolate biscuits are pretty high on the list too!

It is now a few minutes past midnight here in Queenstown. I have jotted down ideas and goals for tomorrow and will visualize what I am going to be working on tomorrow night. For now though, it is time to get some sleep before starting work at 8am tomorrow morning.

Wishing you all the best.

Ricky.

The post Author Mindset appeared first on Ricky Balona Books.