I say jumpstarting as I’m taking a still-born idea from over a year ago and using those characters and location as a rough framework for this novel. Re-writing and re-editing (yes, I know: editing is for December; but if I didn’t do it now, I couldn’t have used any of that material) gave me about 1,000 words, gratis. There was a NNWM Write-In here at the Licking County Public Library – although I’m the only one here – and in the past 90 min, I was able to add another 1,000. Good first day. It’s my typical “start the story in the middle” approach, and even then, I’m jumping about with flashbacks. Still not quite got the hang of horror writing, but I’m sure I’ll work something out. The closing of what I did today is below the fold.
Tag: novel
Updates
Only fourteen days left until NaNoWriMo begins. About a week ago I finally dug out the script I’d written for what would have been the webcomic, Poisoned Hearts, thinking I recalled it well enough to serve as a first chapter.
Oops.
While I did recall most of it, the characters were already reforming in my mind for the new story; so, personalities are different, huge timing changes . . . at least the locations…. Nope: I’d reimagined what the lab at Neuroi looks like, based upon my horror short.
So as it is, what was a first chapter of material is now a stack of notes for Cursed Hearts. That still puts me miles ahead of where I started two years ago with The Fourth Law: one mental image and a 20-second sound bite. Barring any unforeseen RealLife consequences – as such happened last November – I’m feeling very good about this project. Of course it’s tempting to actively make notes now, but I think that violates the spirit of the month-long challenge. Dreaming, okay; notes, not so much.
My other October project: converting my father-in-law’s oral history into written history, has also not gone as well as I’d hoped. Once I sat down to write all that I recalled as a framework for him to add onto, I realized just how much I’ve forgotten over the past ten years. Sure, I can ‘see’ the images: him and his cavalry detachment caught in the second floor of a Polish cheese factory when a Red Army platoon motors up. Him in a AVO prison, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs to his right and a 2-star general to his left. I think I shall reallocate this to January, when it’s dark and cold and we’re all inside (December will be given over to editing then publishing Cursed Hearts by Christmas).
Not much meat in this post, but that’s what happens when a writer is between project. Expect things to get very interesting quite soon. Cheers!
Honestly…
… I don’t think they’re going to attack. I could be wrong: it might be a huge loss of face for their chieftain to suddenly call this off, but there are ways. Knowing you’re about to break the tip of your spear is a great reason to call off a battle. Just how barbaric are they? I’ve no idea. But I suspect something else. We’ll see.
This episode was a pleasure to write! I hope I can keep it up for a bit until I can find a stop-point to Part III, allowing me to work on my kid’s book. I refuse to rush either.
NaNoWriMo 2015
If it’s November, it must be time for a new novel!
Follow the link to the introduction of “Crosses and Doublecrosses.” Enjoy!
Book Tour – Day 1
I’d like to give a huge THANK YOU to Rogue Angels for having the daring to be the first up to host “The Fourth Law” on its virtual book tour!
If you’ve questions or comments as a result of what you read there, please let’s chat in their comments section. Also, please look around the rest of their site; so many interesting things!
“Where’s the world going?”
October Book Tour… Clear for Takeoff….
Alright, so that’s a bit clichéd. Nonetheless, well sponsored by GoddessFish Promotions, almost a year on, I’m finally getting ’round to promoting “The Fourth Law.”
This virtual book tour includes interviews with me, with some of the characters, blog entries… all sorts of neat things! I’ve much to say not only about this story, but also about creative writing, editing, and self-publishing. Almost each and every day I’ll be hosted by a new website, with their own series of questions and/or comments. I promise to do my best to attentively address whatever anyone may want to discuss about “The Fourth Law” and Machine Civilization.
I think this is going to be a tremendous amount of fun, and look forwards to it very much!
Loser. I am.
Apologies for the utter dearth of posts. I’m a rather uxorious person, and in the last month a cousin of my wife, along with his daughter, has been out visiting from Hungary. That means I’ve been alone for the last month. No, really: I don’t have any friends anymore, either. So, in my spare time, I’ve been drinking myself to death.
On of the nice things about working third shift is that you don’t have a sleep-time, just a series of naps. That helps with the psychosis.
4th Book-wise, I have imagined so much! Sylvia’s recruitment, her thoughts of error, her arrest – just as she is arresting the police chief of Albuquerque – Clive on the stern of the ‘Death Ship’ just before the Chinese orbital kinetic energy weapon…. I really need to find a reason to write all of this down.
In the mean time, here’s one of the triggers for my first novel. Really!.
“Echoes of Family Lost”
I’m very pleased to announce the release of my second novel. “Echoes of Family Lost” is a sequel to my first book, “The Fourth Law,” and takes place in my future history of Machine Civilization. The story of Ai’s and Lily’s families – and how they are increasingly intertwined – continues.
Hardcopies are available here and the $0.99 Kindle version is here. Thanks to everyone for your on-going support! I hope to have a very short story from this series posted tomorrow as a way of saying thanks.
Where Next?
I keep asking myself. I think I know what I want to write… there’s just, oh, what to say, no fervor in the idea. Likely, if I set an irrational deadline, it will get done, but I keep messing about. Rambling and mild spoilers below the fold.
“You don’t have a Soul; you are a Soul. You have a Body.” CS Lewis
CreateSpace is now processing my final changes to “Echoes of Family Lost;” with luck and grace, it should be available this week. So, what’s next?
“Henge’s Big Day!” I’ve never written for children before. Why not see what I’m capable of doing? In an earlier post I mentioned the library at the school my two girls attend. I’ve been a volunteer in said library for years… stacking, shelving, reorganizing. I’ve had plenty of time to look at those books in the “E” section. Easy? Early Reader? Don’t know nor care. But I started paying attention to the format.
“HBD” will be about 10 x 10″ with a hardcover – if I can afford it. I’d like to: we withdraw softcover kids books after only two years of use, on average; they’re just too damaged. Kids are natural entropy-bots; it’s one of the things that make them interesting. I’d lost my point… so, about ten inches square (that’s blib quatloos for you on the metric system). I thought about a story… I thought about Henge (pronounced “hen-geh”) the youngest of Machine Civilization and also something of a hybrid… although that explanation really doesn’t come out until late in “EFL.” Even so, late in “T4L” Henge overhears a comment by Lily, and immediately applies it to herself.
On the one hand, MachCiv is all about so-called AI’s; on the second hand, I keep hammering away at their nature as people. On the gripping hand, “T4L” is shot through with Lily’s re-discovered Christianity. What if one of them looked at the evidence and wanted to become a Christian?
How do you baptize a string of code? Throwing water onto a rack of servers would be a very bad idea. But… the rest of the idea….
I cannot draw; once upon a time I could make 3D-parametric design software dance, sing, bring drinks and empty ashtrays. Now…. Below the fold are some awful sketches from my 20-page “Henge’s Big Day!” I wont say ‘don’t laugh,’ as I have, too! I use it to try to let illustrators know what I’m looking for. What’s sad is that I’ve gone looking for illustrators here and here and here, freely talking four figures of money, and after a month I have only a single, possible lead. Is everyone so satisfied with their day-jobs?! Is everyone so narcoleptized by the dole? Why is finding an illustrator this difficult? Twenty pages! Little background! Watercolors!
Sheesh. It’s enough to drive a man to drink. Let me get another Martini, then tell you about Book Four. Now, that’s killing me.
Continue reading ““You don’t have a Soul; you are a Soul. You have a Body.” CS Lewis”
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