Tag: novel

Tears, sweat, blood

To cite Arkada of Glass Reflections:  ladies, gentlemen, and others, I present to you the final installment of Act 2.5 of “Defiant.”  Yes, you read that right:  the writing component is complete.  Editing and ret-conning the four parts of this 18-month, 85.5k writing exercise into a proper novel will begin.

And therein lies your chance, you followers of this blog and those that have wandered in via my sole social media presence on Gab.ai:  if you so desire, you can d/l and read the entire story between now and Saturday, for free.  It’s very, very rough, but you’ll get what you pay for. Come Saturday, whenever I wake up, I’ll be pulling the entire ‘free webnovel’ down as I begin to turn it into a commercial novel.  As always, I’ll do the first-pass editing myself.  Second and copyediting – and a cover – are as yet an unknown; after the layabout wife and the Dog With the Golden Nose, it’s all ramen and Taco Bell salsa packets here.  My sole, possible, hard-deadline, is January 26th, when I might have another Creative Writing panel at Ohayocon.  If I do, I’d like to say, “since my last panel, I’ve published two books… what did you do?”  Keeps the snarkers from snarking.

Anyway, there’s just over thirty five hundred fricking words below the fold!  Open a bottle of wine or make a pot of coffee, the one right next to that bottle of bourbon, sit back, and, please, see what I’ve seen… and have fun!

Continue reading “Tears, sweat, blood” →

AM or PM?

“Meet me at eight!”

Who hasn’t been there at some moment of their life?  In this case, Nichole and Joe go back to Portland, a diversion to Zom’s, some other characters show up… for dinner…

Oh my God, they leave the battlezone at dawn!  That has them back into the City around 0800!  What the hell am I supposed to do for the next nine to ten hours?!

Continue reading “AM or PM?” →

“You’re a movie”

“Hey.  Aren’t you supposed to be writing?” My wife asked, per our agreement.  I’d spent a few minutes looking at ‘ground view’ on Bing Maps of the north side of the Lewis and Clark Bridge, followed by a few minutes of resting my chin in my hand.

“Yeah.  But I can only write what they show me.”

She nodded at that and returned to her studies.  She learned years ago that I watch a scene unfold in my mind as if I’m sitting in a theater.  When the reel stops, I just write down what I saw.  I’m more a reporter than a writer.

Continue reading ““You’re a movie”” →

“Oh my God! We’re Supposed to Start a War!”

Said Prince John to his brothers and Queen Eleanor, around 1185 in Chinon Castle.

I feel the same way.  From my last post, I knew I’d seen enough to move things forward; not all in one day:  my notes point toward about 11k words of story.  But, time to get going!

So why do I have Teresa kissing Nichole outside the Miller Library?  WTF does this have to do with the Cannibal Army storming the Lewis & Clark Bridge?  Where’s the killing?  Where’s the nerve gas?  SRSLY?

If nothing else, I’ve SEEN when the breathless messenger comes rushing into the room where N and the Mayor are having their very guarded conversation, announcing the loss of the bridge to the Enemy.  That’ll get things rolling!  N has some funny, but pointed, things to say about how/why Japan lost the Pacific War, starting with Guadalcanal, and how that impacts His Honor’s response.

Bleeding Jesus, but I need an Editor!

Continue reading ““Oh my God! We’re Supposed to Start a War!”” →

Heading back Down in the Park

With Pirate Twins, my 4000, er, 17,000 word writing exercise complete, I am now returning to my free webnovel, Defiant, to flesh it out into a proper novel.

. . .

I had nothing.  For about two days.  As usual, at Mass this evening, reflecting on the Gospel reading from Mathew (so you know ‘gnashing of teeth’ will be involved…) about forgiveness.  I don’t know why, but I was led to think about the last paragraph of Act II, when Mackenzie accidently finds out what Nichole is.

In an instant,  I ‘saw’ their conversation and reconciliation.  Later that morning, they stand along the west bank of the Willamette River, watching the slow departure of HMIJS Kongo.  That’s 3k words, right there.  I was going to roll that over into going to class later that day or the next morning, but instead realized, with a smile, they’d be stopping in a Zom’s for a parfait or something.  Add a heaping of Nike and there’s 2k more words.

It’s only when I try do I eff everything up.  Shut up, Clayton, and write down what they show you….

“Cursed Hearts” – published!

At long last, I am very pleased to announce the release of my fourth book – and third novel – of Machine Civilization:  “Cursed Hearts.”  The paperback is available via Amazon and Goodreads.

To make it easier for y’all to celebrate along with me, all three novels, in their ebook form, are available at Smashwords for only US$0.99 each! (note:  you might need to toggle Adult Content: On in the upper right to see CH)

Thanks for everyone’s support and encouragement!

Amazon link!

Goodreads link!

Smashwords link!

Smashwords_eBook

Edit Complete.

Via the talented Monica San Nicolas, whom I very highly recommend, editing for CH is finished.  I shall spend this weekend formatting the pages to 6″x9″ (effortless) and creating chapter breaks at the appropriate moments (not so effortless) followed by a hotlink Table of Contents for anyone who buys the ebook version (easy, but time consuming).

And, even though I’ve days left, I shall make a decision about the cover (see post, below).  No matter who wins, there are some minor tweaks to be made to front and back; and, the winner will need the book’s spine width.

I’m already mulling three new story ideas, but also think that I should be older about Marketing and learning to reach out to agents.  Are there any readers of this humble blog that could illuminate me in those regards?

The Problem…

…with the dictum of “write drunk, edit sober” is finding the time.  To be sober.  Still, I’ve made the time and had three editing passes at CH.  The third and last – of mine – was tonight.  Just after, I sent it off to a copyeditor I hired from Upwork.com, recommended to me by someone I trust.  I wrote up a story summary, what I wanted, and what I was willing to pay.

A week later (sober!), I reviewed the list of about thirty applicants for my job.  Most of the replies were reasonable.  A few were laughable:  “While no editing experience, I’ve a Masters in English from [insert liberal arts college here] and plenty of time to work on your manuscript while working as a barrista!”  I’ve never grasped why we import Central Americans to mow our lawns when someone from Kenyon can do it; and they’re just up the road.

What’s one of my sig lines, kids?  That’s right:  there are no such things as coincidences.  One of the applicants – with lots of experience – also went to UC San Diego.  I didn’t ask if she was Catholic, but with a surname of San Nicolas, I bet she knows where the Neuman Center is, which looms so large in the lives of Cat and Chris.  After a brief exchange to make sure she was okay with sex and violence, I clicked “Hire.”

I look forward to her telling me how awful CH is.  And, how to fix it.

Now:  where to find designers for the cover…

“Two trains leave the station…”

We all hated word problems in math.  To commemorate this, forty years on, I created a word problem for myself in English:  Chris leaves home on day -1, arriving in San Diego on day 0; the story between Chris and Cat unfolds, coming to a head when little sister drops into their love nest on day 12.

From the other side, Maya leaves home on day 1, spends some time in a hospital, travels by freighter then airplane, arriving in San Diego on day 16.

16 – 12 = 4.

Well, crap.  I knew there was going to be a discrepancy, but four days?!  So, putting down the coffee and picking up the wine, I did this to the Chris/Cat side:

 A week had passed since their dinner and the odd ceremony Cat and Anton had performed on him. Although he did not understand, it had been efficacious in at least one way: his need to feed on the life force of animals was significantly lessened. Beyond that, home life with Cat had settled into a simple routine where they helped one another as much as they could. Chris still occasionally wondered whether he was imposing, but never detected that feeling from his cousin. If anything, she grew closer to him, both emotionally and physically, although it seemed something held her back from taking the next step, even after her ‘incident’ in the shower. Ah, well, he thought.

That gives me CC at +3 over M.  Sooo…

“She’s made remarkable progress in her recovery over the past three days, barring her memory, of course.” He took a drink of his coffee.

See what I did there?  Now the stories synch, with all my main character getting together for the bloodletting on day 19.  Back to coffee.