Great news! After much hemming and hawing, I’ve decided to publish The Devil and Casari: Ad Hominem on Halloween. Oh yeah, spooky times are a’coming. Preorders are available now here. Go over and pick one up. Start reading on Halloween morning when it delivers, then finish after you’re done Trick or Treating with the kids…if you dare!
Category Archives: Updates
The Slow Crawl of Publication
In brief – no agent, no publish, no new bites.
But….
Two priests are in the process of reading the book, one local and one currently in Canada. Movement there.
Fox has officially announced a series of the book “The Exorcist”, so movement in the public eye.
More people have read it for content and are excited about it. Progress there.
Perhaps my personal publishing ice cap block is thawing?
Submission Time
After an essentially dry period of non-submission (’cause one in 60+ days can’t really count), I’m back on the agent submission train. Sigh. Every agent site says things like, “For the love of God don’t sent anything through the post office”, which makes it difficult to get their attention with those little gimmicks like sending in Rosary beads or cards with St. Michael’s prayer to get their attention, but it is what it is. Not like I’d actually be creative enough to DO those things; it’s only because they say we can’t that I suddenly start thinking that I could. Anyway…off go the submissions. Wish me luck, sure, but I’d prefer prayers. Thanks and God Bless!
My No Good, Idiotic, Totally Overreaching Writing Goals
Last year I decided to stretch myself; this year it seems I’ve moved into flat-out masochistic pretzel-like twists. Yes, I know that sentence should have had commas, but tell me it didn’t read better as is. It had a more maniacal feel, which is exactly what I was…AAAAAAARGH, STALLING TACTIC!!
My writing goals for 2016 are as follows:
1) Complete the rough draft of The Twenty Three Cities by the end of February. Get into hands of Alpha v2 reader by then. Beta by March, publish on Kindle by May
2) Outline AND COMPLETE TDaC2 by end of September. Beta back by end of November, Publish in early 2017 (assuming no agent).
3) Apply to the Choose Your Own Adventure company I found with at least the ideas, write at least one, get paid.
4) Send three agent letters per week till either (1) I get accepted, (2) I run out of agents, or (3) May 15th. If May 15th rolls around, publish myself on Kindle.
If course, any and all of these are subject to change if something were to absolutely take off, but given a typical straight line trajectory…these are them. Two books plus one or more adventures plus continuing to write for Black Chicken (shameless plug)…and that’s just the writing. Still, one can’t get to good without aiming for great, or something like that.
Scheduling Success
Looking back on the year of writing, I find a real transition point came when I started scheduling myself time to write. At the end of 2014, I sat down to make a series of goals – NOT RESOLUTIONS – that I wanted to achieve in order to become the person I hope to be. I’ll be the first to admit that I totally boffed my physical goal (unless we’re in opposite land), but I DID succeed in my writing goal. I took a half finished book that I’d been working on for 18+ months and more than doubled its content in seven months. Because I scheduled my time for it, I have a polished and publishable book looking for an agent and a breakthrough home. Not. Too. Shabby.
As I look forward to 2016, I find myself casting about for my new set of goals. Should I put a temporary hold on my speculative writing and go straight for the paid stuff, or should I push through on the second The Devil and Casari book? I WILL finish my first draft of The Twenty Three Cities (T3C), but after that? Focus on short stories? Edit/rewrite my epic fantasy novel? Work up that computer game I’m dreaming about and try to find a partner to publish? Finish my zombie novel? Poetry? Go pro at StarCraft 2: Legacy of the Void?
Whatever I do, I’ve discovered my own personal secret to success: schedule the time, make the time, use the time. Remember that success is how you define it, not how others do. For me, success is getting something past the idea stage, through the midpoint, and actually finishing a project. Maybe next year I’ll define success as being picked up by an agent or selling X copies of a book. Whatever it is, I’ll schedule it or it won’t happen.
Additionally, another not-so-secret secret I use is having someone to back you up when you feel like backing out (thanks Kim!) and someone to cheer you on when it’s good and burst your bubble when
it’s bad (thanks John!). These alpha/beta/cheerleader people are terrific for calling me out on my garbage and lifting me up when it rocks. Not everyone needs them; in fact, some established authors refuse to let anyone read their stuff until it’s done. Something tells me I’ll always need that feedback, and I’m fine with that.
So yeah, that’s probably a wrap for this year, barring awesome of exceedingly depressing news. Been a great year. Still writing, just not posting about it. See everyone on the flip side!
NaNoWriMo Update #12 – Flashing Back
Been pecking at this the last few days with minimal forward motion, which is ironic since I’m in the section where I need to go backwards to progress. Yep – flashback time! The way I’m structuring it right now is a section in the present, a flashback, and the result of the first portion combined with the motivation from the flashback. Every time I type the separation asterisks, I hear the flashback noise from Lost.
I remember reading once that flashbacks were tricky things to write simply because people could get lost in the transition, so I do everything I can to make it clear that there is a scene break followed by information that makes the transition clear without being jarring. Yep, I’ll admit – tricky.
Word count increased to over 17k. Two days of writing coming up soon; need to cross 30k by Thursday to get back to goal. Ugh.
NaNoWriMo Update #11 – To 10K, and Beyond!
Have to take a moment out from writing to celebrate the 10,000 word mark. Not so much because I hit the number, of course, but because I get the badge of honor from the NaNoWriMo site Again, oddly motivating.
I genuinely have no idea how long this book should be in terms of pages or words. I have an inkling on chapters, but only because it looks nice on paper. Will have to see how the story grows before I make any type of commitment.
Modified the formatting a bit but still looking for something snappy in the between pages section. It’s a little thing, granted, but good to think about nonetheless. It’s like how the eureka moments come on – we think on something, put it aside for a while, and move on to something else only to have the answer come back and smack us full in the face! Fun…not the fish smacking so much, just the eureka moment.
NaNoWriMo Update 10 – Alphas and Catchups
Since the last two posts didn’t go through right, figured condensing them into one rather than reposting late.
Done introducing new characters for now. Little ancillary ones, of course, but no new mains for another 12 chapters or so. Got a good read from my alpha reader with excellent feedback. Changes a few things in context, reinforces a few other things, helps with formatting, and above all great idea on keeping people straight for the readers.
Word count updated. At present rate, should finish the goal of 50k words on Christmas Eve. Not acceptable. Need to find another gear now that I’m finally shaking this cold.
Writing this one with an eye towards Kindle/iBook release only. Why waste time on an agent for a “throwaway” book, right? Right?
NaNoWriMo Update #7 – Pecking
Home with the kids while the wife is off bringing home the real bacon. Side note: would love to bring home enough writing bacon that we could trade places 🙂
Picking at the keyboard between cleaning tasks and breaking up fights is interesting. It gives me a chance to think through what these characters will do and why in a different way. The disjointed nature of walking away after a paragraph really gives me a chance to express the disjointed nature of a character’s thoughts.
Short word count so far this morning for obvious reasons. Looking to crank out some this afternoon and evening. 2-3k would put me close to weekly goal. Maybe some additions tomorrow will get me on track.
NaNoWriMo Update #6 – Introductions
Still sick but slightly better off than yesterday. Bah, who cares, on to the writing!
Wondering if I’m introducing too many characters at once but plowing through the fear. The brevity of the chapters is offset (I hope) by the method of time actually flowing as opposed to giving a snapshot of all new characters at the same moment in time. Hopefully this will act as a kind of secondary character. Time, I mean. By having time move along at a steady pace while introducing new characters, I hope to make things flow in a steadier, more understandable pace. Will have to rely on my alpha reader for some feedback there. Good luck, Kevin.
Am reaching the end of the book’s first day, which is actually set two days before something big happens. Everyone knows it, is no surprise, but it’s still tense. In this manner, I hope to bring the reader in without blowing all the action upfront. Again, go go gadget alpha reader!
Word count increased to just under 6k. Need to get it up to 10 k to get on track for 50k end. A 50k word book – that’ll officially be my shortest one ever.