Title for the Fifth Novel

First of all, I must apologize for not writing sooner. I'm not going to make any lame excuses, but I will say it's a little surprising how crazy life gets sometimes.

In between counting birds this weekend for the Great Backyard Bird Count (go to birdcount.org for more information), I'm actually working on my fifth novel.

And believe it or not, I'm finally past the rewriting stage. It took me a lot of time because I sent it off to two very helpful readers, who pointed out a few things that didn't work or just didn't seem quite right. That led to me discovering a few other problems, so I had to put in quite a bit of time to tweak and rewrite. I'm not complaining: I'd rather get it right! Thanks to Bill and Deb for your help.

At some point, however, I realized that I HAD TO STOP REWRITING. That's one of the hardest things for me to do! I keep thinking there's one more error to be caught, and I keep reading it over just in case. I could keep doing that forever, but it's a little hard to get it published that way.

So here I am. I've signed it up at the KDP site and now I'm formatting the whole thing. This involves several steps: adding the front and back pages, setting the margins, justifying the text on all sides, adding drop caps and setting the trim size. After that, I need to scroll through the whole thing page by page, looking for awkward breaks in sentences. For example, I don't want a character's whole quotation and name to be on one page with "said" on the next page. That one little word looks lonely by itself, so I have to tweak things so it can join the rest of the sentence. You might find this surprising: I don't consider this process tedious at all. In fact, I enjoy it. I don't know if it's because I'm crazy or because I realize that I'm actually getting closer to finishing the whole process, but I don't mind spending the time.

The good news for you is that when I signed it up on KDP, I had to submit the title. That's right: there's finally a title ... and here it is!

The fifth novel will be called Parting Shot.

Some of the characters and events in Another Shot are mentioned in Parting Shot, so I like the similarity in titles. I hope it helps tie the whole series together.

You may be wondering if this is the final novel in the Penumbra series. The short answer is that I don't know. I had five novels in mind when I started, and this one sort of ties up a lot of things, but I can't guarantee that I won't find that I want to explore these (and possibly other) characters some more in the future. Or I might start a new series. The only guarantee I can give you is that I won't stop writing. I might not publish again, but I can't promise that either. I'm going to leave that open for now.

I will let you know as I proceed, especially when Parting Shot is available.

Stay tuned!

Unwriting

Writer's Block.

The mere phrase strikes terror in the hearts of writers everywhere. Nobody wants to think about it, but it happens to all of us.

I have several methods to deal with it. I go for walks so I can think. I listen to my favorite music. I read books by other people. I reread my own books (to remind myself that I can do this).

Lately, though, I've recognized that something else is called for. This one took me a long time to figure out when I first started writing.

Here's what's happening: I write a few sentences and then it's as if my characters stop and look at me to ask what's next. I write a few more sentences and they stop again. They're not running out ahead of me like they usually do. They're looking at me as if to ask, "What are you doing?"

After this has happened several times, I finally admit it to myself: they're doing this because something is wrong. If I can't figure out what happens next, it means I'm not happy with where I am. Somehow, I've gotten off track and I shouldn't be here.

So I do one of the hardest things for a writer: I "unwrite." In my case, that involves cutting and pasting text into a Rejects file, in case I want to use some of it later. Basically, it means removing a big section of what I've written most recently. That hurts, especially when I've been battling writer's block and I'm so proud of myself for actually writing something, anything. It has to be done, though. My characters are telling me that they shouldn't be here, so I have to take them back to where we went wrong and start again.

This has worked for me in the past. I think my subconscious recognizes that I went astray at some point, and I just have to figure out when that was and correct it. Once I get it right, my characters usually run out ahead of me again and we're all on track together.

Meanwhile, I've also recognized a major plot mistake in this novel, so I'll be trying to correct that.

All in a day's work for a writer.



Thanks for reading my blog. Feel free to post comments. Happy 2017!

Break It Up

I read a book last week that had a very complex but interesting plot, as well as characters that seemed well-rounded. It was a thriller and it kept me reading throughout, even though it was 400 or so pages. When I put it down, I thought that I might like to read more by the author, except for one thing: I don't want to wade through conversations that are very hard to follow anymore.

It's a shame, but we all have to decide where to concentrate our reading, since there are SO MANY books out there. Maybe I'm being unfair to this writer, but it's also not fair to read a book while thinking how frustrated I am with the writing. So I'll spare the writer further denigration. (Obviously, I'm not going to name the writer here.)

I've already written a blog about how to use "he/she said" and here it is: He/She Said

Now I'm going to expand on the fourth method: not using "said" at all.

This is my own example that I just made up, but it gives an idea of what I was seeing:

     "You can't do that." She took a step back and frowned.

Who do you think made that statement? "She," right? Wrong! In several cases, the writer would have a statement like that and follow it immediately with the listener's reaction in the same paragraph.

Please don't do this to your readers! I was forced several times to go back to where "Jack said" told me who was speaking. Then I had to count lines down to this statement to find that Jack said it and his girlfriend was reacting to Jack saying it. Very confusing!

The solution is so simple:                                 Or even better:
     "You can't do that."                                         "You can't do that," Jack said.
     She took a step back and frowned.                 She took a step back and frowned.

Whenever you have two people speaking and reacting to the other's statements, please make it clear who is speaking and who is reacting. You don't have to use "Jack said" on every other line, but don't mix characters. If the statement is made by one person and then another person speaks or reacts, put that in a separate paragraph.

Give it a try. Your readers will thank you.

Out of the Habit

Some habits are bad (like that mid-afternoon snack of Pringles chips I just had). Some habits are good (such as using a seatbelt or brushing one's teeth). It seems to be easy to fall into a habit if you don't want it, and hard if you do want it. (For example, regular exercise is difficult for me, although I've been working on that lately with more walking.)

I've had habits come and go throughout my life. Some of them are pretty weird: when I take a carrot stick from the refrigerator, I always tap it twice against the rim of the container and then shake it once over the sink to get the excess water off. At bedtime, I start by lying on my left side and then turn over onto my right side when I'm ready to sleep. I'm sure there are others I'm not even aware of.

Could I break these habits if I wanted to? Yes, if I put my mind to it ... but there seem to be more important things to worry about than these little quirks.

However, I find I've lost one habit that I had for a long time: writing. I think I need to clarify that: writing fiction. For years, it seemed the most natural thing in the world for me to be working on two or three novels at the same time. Short stories also swirled through my brain. I was always scribbling down ideas or daydreaming to bring the ideas into better focus.

Then I got my first novel published. Suddenly I had to concentrate on the details of the novel (fonts, front pages, title, back cover text, etc.). Then I had to worry about book signings, copyright protection, marketing and social media. So I worked feverishly on all of those things.

Somewhere along the way, I stopped writing. I've done plenty of rewriting (enough for a while!), but the ideas have dried up. I'm pretty sure it's just because I got out of the habit. Unfortunately, this isn't a habit that comes easily, at least not this time. I've been trying, but there aren't any ideas in my head yet. It's going to take some practice. I'll have to get into the habit of putting myself in front of a keyboard and forcing myself to find words to put on the page. (I think that short story I wrote last Halloween was a good beginning.)

I know it will come back sooner or later. There are hints of images or considerations in my head. I just need to tease them out and turn them into something resembling a story. I'll probably write some pretty terrible stuff before I get something good.

Don't get me wrong: I'm very glad I published my novels. It's been an exciting ride, and I'm not done yet. It's just that I'm ready to get back to creating more of them!

Update on The Other Side: the artist is working to make the cover image a little lighter. I expect to hear from her in the next few days. After that, I'll submit the new version and order a new proof copy. (I'm getting into the habit of patience, not entirely by choice. Ha!) Stay tuned, and thanks for your patience.

Try Again

Things are moving on The Other Side again. As you know, there was a delay because there was a problem with the cover image being too dark, but once again the artist has come through for me and provided me with a revised image. We really hope this one will work!

I made a few tweaks to the story and resubmitted the cover image. After about twelve or so hours, CreateSpace gave me the go-ahead on the files, so I ordered another proof copy today. The ETA is May 2, but I'm hopeful it might arrive a little before that. Then ... cross your fingers that the cover will be okay!

I find it a little hard to believe that it's almost May and my novel isn't out yet. I never would have imagined that it would be delayed this long, but that's how things go. At least you know I'm trying very hard to get it right!

Once I get the proof copy, I'll have to read it one more time, just in case there's one last thing I missed. If nothing horrible jumps out at me and the cover is okay, this novel might finally see the light of day!

Thanks for your patience. While you're waiting, please spread the word about the series and consider writing a review on Amazon for one of the novels. I'd really appreciate it!

Park

I'm afraid I don't have much to report about The Other Side. The cover image continues to be an issue, but I'm hopeful we can get that fixed soon. I'll keep you updated.

In the meantime, the pleasant weather has prompted me to take a few more walks in the wooded park north of town. (This is the one whose skeleton I enjoyed earlier in the year.) I'm happy to report that the yellow-rumped warblers are back! I heard a faint buzzy sound and followed it around with binoculars for a while before I spotted the first warbler. Then I saw several others in the same area. Despite their rather ungainly name, they really are beautiful birds and I was happy to get a chance to see them as they pass through this area. If you want to see a photo or learn more about them, here's a good site: All About Birds-YR Warbler

I also had a rather startling encounter as I was walking toward the parking lot. My mind was wandering but it vaguely noticed a rather long reed or piece of grass that was draped across the path. As I started to step over it, however, I suddenly realized it wasn't a piece of grass, just as it realized I was rather large and close. You would have laughed to see it because we both recoiled, just like in a cartoon. I stepped back and it slid into the nearest patch of grass, where I couldn't see it anymore. My initial look, though, has me convinced that it was a rough green snake. I'm sorry I didn't get a better look because it was a lovely shade of green and I would have liked to admire it. Maybe next time.

Already the leaves are starting to come out in the trees. As much as I like being surrounded by green as I walk, it makes birding a lot more difficult. I had trouble with some unknown bird calls today: the birds easily disappeared amid the canopy ... and then they sang and called just to taunt me, I suspect. "Ha, ha, I'm in here somewhere, but you can't see me!" I suppose birds aren't really that mean-spirited, but it sure seems like they are sometimes.

That's all I have to report for now. I've done a little rewriting on The Other Side and it's mostly ready to go, so once we get the cover problem solved, things should move along. (I'll be able to take it out of park and get it in gear.) Fingers crossed!

Closet Spaceship Part 18

(NOTE: This post refers to events from In The Shadows. I hope you've read it!)

Everyone needs a private place, a place to think one’s thoughts and escape the world for a while. For many of us, that’s home … so it’s a place I don’t want to invade.

I’d always visited Reggie aboard the ship, whether it was Outsider or Penumbra, but there was a time, while he was recovering, that he wasn’t there. I didn’t think Cyril was ready to see me, so I avoided him, but that meant avoiding Reggie, too. I wondered if I should just leave him alone.

This left me with another problem, though: as long as Reggie was recovering, the others were living their private lives, too. I didn’t want to drop by their homes unannounced, but I couldn’t hang out with them on the ship, and I didn’t think I should overdo it with Sean.

I missed them.

I was working on the next novel, polishing it mostly, so it shouldn’t have been such a problem, but rewriting is a lonely business. I was dealing with words, not characters, and sometimes words don’t want to be wrangled without an exhausting fight.

I finally broke my own unwritten rule. Let’s face it, I’m sort of making up the rules as I go along, so occasionally there will be adjustments.

There wasn’t any snow, but it was still cold. I walked around a little, flapping my arms and shivering. I eyed the rocks circling one of the trees. I walked around the storage shed in the far corner. I thought maybe I shouldn’t be there.

Then the back door opened.

Reggie backed out and closed the door. When he turned around, I was startled to see him leaning on a cane. He took a few steps toward me, but I darted to join him so he wouldn’t have to go any farther than necessary.

“I’m sorry,” I said, “I didn’t know—”

“Forget it,” he said. “I’m bored as hell anyway.”

“Are you supposed to be walking?” I asked. I knew he’d been badly injured, but I’d managed not to think about it. The cane made it impossible to ignore, though.

“Sure,” he said. “Thought I was so smart: I lost the cane so even Cy couldn’t find it. So what’s he do? Buys me another one, damn it.”

I checked his expression to see that he wasn’t angry at his brother.

“It’s mostly for balance,” he said. “So why are you here? Not much to see, is there?”

“Rewriting,” I said, as if that explained everything.

It didn’t. Reggie looked puzzled.

“Take your favorite book,” I said. “Now read it ten times in a row.”

He nodded. “So you’re bored as hell, too.”

“Pretty much.”

He laughed. “We’re just a couple of winners, right? Got it made.”

I smiled. “That’s right. Top of the world.”

“Give it a while,” Reggie said. “I’ll get back, so will you.”

“Yeah, I know.”

And he was right: The Other Side is coming soon. Stay tuned!

Update on The Other Side

Rewriting The Other Side has taken a lot of time, as you can tell by looking at the calendar. This is the latest I've ever gone without releasing a novel, but I feel I need to take as long as necessary to get it right. I'm sorry for the delay.

Right now, though, I'm formatting. That's good news because it means the rewriting is mostly finished. Yea!

The initial formatting is done because I put together a binder with instructions on how to do it and that really helped. There are a lot of steps involved with margins, gutters, headers, drop caps, etc. and my brain doesn't like to remember all of that after a year so it's nice to have a reference.

That means I'm at the hard part: making it look good. I think I've written about this before. Sometimes when I'm scrolling through the document, I'll see a sentence that has a paragraph at the end of one page and a single word of that paragraph on the next page. It looks terrible!

For example, I found this on one page: Lamont turned on the radio. “This is Captain Ben Lamont asking you to cease fire. Who are you and what

On the next page I have this: do you want?"

That's not the worst example I've seen, but it makes the reading a little awkward. I'll have to check the first page to see if I can remove a word or two so the last part of his question can go with the rest of it.

It's amazing how hard that is sometimes. I've written it the way I want ... and now I have to change it! I'm trying to add words on some pages and remove words on others. It can be frustrating.

I'm hoping to get the bulk of it done this weekend, however. After that I'll get an ISBN and we can move forward!

If you want to review the teasers I've given about the novel, here they are: Teasers

Please remember to spread the word to your friends and family (and complete strangers) about the Penumbra series. Word of mouth is the best way to let people know about it!

Also, if you happened to buy a copy of any of my novels on Amazon, thank you and please consider writing a review there.

Thank you! I'll keep you posted.

Blank

I got a statement for my 401k plan this past week. When I opened it, I looked in the box that lists my current balance and it said $0.00. I know the stock market is bad, but really!

Fortunately, the person in charge of our 401k plan at work had already notified us that we would see this, due to our plans being transferred from one company to another. I'm glad she did that or I might have freaked out. In a few days, we should get a new statement that tells us our real balance. I'm certainly hoping it will be over $0, although I'm not sure I want to know the real balance right now until things settle down in the stock market.

For now, it appears that the account is empty ... and ironically enough, that's what's happening in my head right now, especially regarding this blog. I'm out of ideas!

It's not that there's nothing going on in my life. It's not that I have no thoughts whatsoever (that would really be scary!). It's just that everything is either too boring or too personal to write about. It's also one of those common things I have to deal with occasionally: writer's block.

My characters don't seem to want to talk to me right now. I haven't even been able to squeeze out a Closet Spaceship episode, and those are usually rather easy because they're a fun diversion from the novels. I have no constraints; I just start imagining a conversation with one of the characters and go from there. Right now, though, the characters are hiding and silent. Even Nick!

That's okay. I've been through periods like this before and I always got through them. This blank feeling will pass and the ideas will come back to me. It's just a matter of paddling the canoe through the still waters to get back to the rapids.

Meanwhile, work continues on The Other Side. Paddle, paddle.

If you have any topics you'd like me to cover, or any questions, feel free to leave me a comment.

Teasers

WARNING: This blog post contains some minor spoilers. If you haven't read Another Shot or In the Shadows, you might consider skipping this one. (The obvious solution is to read them now!)

I just watched a trailer for the new episode of "The X-Files," which will air next Sunday, Jan. 24. It's one of those shows that my significant other and I enjoyed for years. We loved the creativity of the storylines, we enjoyed most (but not all) of the conspiracy theories, we laughed at the corny jokes, but mostly I think we enjoyed the relationship between Mulder and Scully. The trailer makes me think the series will keep those strengths and add some new elements. I'm looking forward to seeing what they can do with it.

It occurs to me that some of you might be thinking of The Other Side in the same way. Will it have the same characters? Will it have the same chemistry? Will I crash another spaceship? Will I be able to do anything new? (I am very aware that crashing another spaceship would not be new, and I think I've managed to avoid it this time!)

Unfortunately, The Other Side won't come out right away, due to some extensive rewriting, but I haven't said much about it ... so maybe it's time to give a few teasers.

First of all, this novel will include the return of Sean Foster. He won't be a major factor in the story, but he will make an appearance. I hope that's good news for you.

We'll need to see how Reggie Hawkins is recovering from what happened near the end of In the Shadows. How inactive has he been? How long can he stay that way? What's his brother like?

If you recall, Lamont's crew had a mission for In the Shadows that they didn't get to fulfill: investigate the new wormhole. This time around, they're going to take a look ... and there will be some unexpected results. What is on the other side?

You'll see a little more of Gwen Radcliffe and pay a return visit to T.J.'s Bar. And you might want to review Another Shot before you read this one, although it isn't necessary.

I think that's all I'm willing to divulge for now. I hope it's enough to keep you interested while I try to finish the novel. I'll keep you posted!

Thanks, as always, for reading my blog. Feel free to leave a comment.

Onward

Happy 2016!

I've done some of my year-end tasks: changed the calendars, taken down the Christmas lights, put away the tree ... oh, and run some year-end sales reports.

Whew. That added a solemn note to my day. If you include all formats of my novels (paperback and Kindle), I sold 78 copies in 2013, my first year at this. That was with only one novel out.

In 2014, I had two novels out and I sold 36 copies in all.

In 2015, I had three novels out and I sold 16 copies in all.

Ouch. Sixteen copies all year! That's not the direction I saw things going. It was easy to feel gloomy about that, and I did for a while.

But then I took a step back. When I first released Outsider, I thought I'd probably sell about three copies (mostly to family). I've sold a few more than three, so I think I can be proud of that.

Besides, sales weren't really the point. I started writing Outsider because I thought it was fun. As I went along, I realized I cared about my characters and wanted to explore them some more, so I wrote a few more novels. At some point in the continuous rewriting of Outsider, I decided it was time to stop doing that, so I published it. I really wanted to share my characters with other people. And I've done that. It's pretty amazing to me that Lamont and Reg and Sean can live in other people's heads, not just in mine. They can do that if people share copies of the novel or check them out of a library, which won't show on a sales report.

So I'm going to do what I was doing before I ran the reports: go back to making The Other Side as good as I can make it. I'm going to fix the problem chapters, determine when I think it's ready and then publish it.

That's what I do. I write and rewrite. If I sell some along the way, that's great. I really appreciate all of you who have bought a copy or two! It would be nice if we could make 2016 better than 2015 ... but if not, that's okay. I'll be working on the fifth one!

Me & You

Half of this blog will be about me and half about you. Are you ready?

First: me. I was getting rather close to feeling I'd finished The Other Side ... but then I met with two I.T. guys at work to discuss some of the scenes. We had a fun half-hour chat about sci-fi, wormholes, ship computers, physics and warp drives, which I thoroughly enjoyed. At the end, though, I realized they'd given me some things to think about. Sorry, but that means a slight delay on the novel. (I know! I've done this too many times! Sorry about that.) I'm hoping to release The Other Side in January or February, and I'm also hoping to have some time to really work on it over the holidays.

Now it's your turn. I have a few questions about you:
Who are you? (You don't have to give your name. Continue reading.)
What are your interests?
What brought you to my blog?
Have you read my blog more than once?
What do you like most about it? Least?

I've read other blogs and I'm always fascinated by the number of comments they get. People will disagree or agree with the article or add their own insights. Sometimes a lively discussion ensues. Sometimes the comments are more interesting than the original article!

I know some people look at my blog because my stats say so, but I don't know if anyone actually reads it or what their opinion of it might be (except my very kind parents). That's where you come in: I'd be very appreciative if you'd take a moment to leave me a comment on this post. You can tell me as much or as little as you want. You can tell me my blog is a waste of time or it's the greatest thing ever. You can say you wish I had written this one about "The Force Awakens." You can say whatever you want (although I'd prefer you keep it G-rated).

Thank you very much! And if you're a regular reader, thanks twice!

I wish everyone a very merry Christmas and happy holidays!

Edited to add: I have now adjusted my settings so you don't have to be a Google user to leave a comment. I hope this will make it easier for you!

A Writer's Enemy?

If you want to alarm or vex a writer, mention the word “adverbs.” It’s almost guaranteed to provoke a reaction, usually along the lines of wide eyes or an instinctive reach for the Delete key.

Adverbs are the enemy. They must be eradicated!

But I’m not so sure. I’m reasonably certain I can think of a few that aren’t evil.

There are some adverbs you’ll almost always want to avoid: happily, sadly, angrily, excitedly, etc. Emotion should be conveyed by the verb and/or the circumstances. If Smith is down on his knees with his head in his hands, I don’t need to tell you that he’s going to speak sadly. If he’s pumping both fists in the air, I think you’ll know he’s happy without me telling you that.

Let’s face it, adverbs are like anything else in writing: you should use them judiciously and in moderation.

Sometimes they can make a big difference. Let’s consider our friend Smith.

Smith knew her.

Smith knew her instantly.

^ Do you see the difference there? In the first sentence, the relationship is vague and there’s no real indication of any emotion we should feel or what’s happening. In the second sentence, you can feel a little tension: something has happened that makes Smith’s knowledge of her identity important. Whether he saw through her disguise or just stumbled upon her body, it’s more significant that he knows her.

Smith shambled (or stumbled, or shuffled).

Smith walked unsteadily.

^ This one’s a little less clear-cut. The first sentence is perfectly fine and uses the verb to tell you how Smith was moving. This is preferable when you can find the right verb. Verbs are a writer's friend, as long as you don’t stretch too far to use something like peregrinated. You don’t want to confuse the reader. I also like the second sentence because there are subtle differences in how someone walks and none of the verbs was exactly right. This is a matter of personal preference. You’ll know which works better for your particular sentence.

My point is that adverbs are not the evil plague that some writers claim. You want to minimize them, but using a few of them won’t make you a terrible writer.

Besides, if you use Word’s Find function to seek out and destroy all words that include ly, you might accidentally wipe out burly or fly or lyric, so be careful!

If an adverb works, use it deliberately and proudly.

Keep It Short

As if I didn't have enough distractions to keep me from working on The Other Side, I'm now in the process of trying to write a short story.

This all started when the local bookstore, Spellbound Bookstore and Cafe, posted on Facebook that they're having a costume contest and a short-story contest this month. I know I would fail miserably if I tried to come up with a good costume (although one year I did go as a Ghost Writer), especially one based on a fictional character, but writing is sort of up my alley.

One problem is that the story is supposed to be scary. To quote their Facebook posting: "In 1,000 words or less, writers are challenged to weave a tale of fright and intrigue that will leave our customers with the shivers." A tale of fright and intrigue is not exactly up my alley. I find that I tend to go for the upbeat, not the horrifying. (Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily!)

The main drawback is the maximum word count of 1,000. I don't write short stories, usually, because ... well, because I'm wordy. You should know that if you've read any of my novels. I do know how to go on, but not necessarily how to get to the point (or how to limit myself to only one point).

And I guess that's one reason I'm doing it. I need to rein myself in, learn to get to the point a little sooner. I need to see what's really important in the story, instead of throwing a lot of words on the page and hoping something good comes out of them.

Also, it's a chance to do some "real" writing. What I mean by that is writing, not editing or rewriting or trying to come up with a blurb. Creative, fun, "all-new" writing, which I haven't done much of for a while.

It's a lot of fun. It's frustrating as can be. I hope it's good for me.

If nothing else, it's good practice. We'll see if I can come up with anything good.

As always, thanks for reading my blog.

Escape

I had an interesting vision the other day while I was sitting at work, wishing I could be at home working on The Other Side. I pictured my purple three-ring binder, which holds that tale, on the table next to the computer. Then, unexpectedly, I saw the binder flip open and my characters start to climb out.

It was kind of fun, a bit of whimsy to break up the workday. It also reminded me of two important facts:

1. My characters do not only live in that binder. They live in my head, in the novels published so far, in novels yet to come and in the heads of my readers. (It means a lot to me that they live in someone else's head now, too.) I need to keep in mind that they're "real" characters and they need to be portrayed as such, not as cardboard cutouts. I need to stay true to each of them.

2. What is in that binder is a story, not just a lot of words that I have to shepherd into place. I might write the greatest scene ever, but if it doesn't belong in the story, out it goes. Once I've made sure I have everything worded the way I want, I need to double-check to make sure I still have a story that's fun to read and worth the time.

All of that from one little fantasy! That's one of the fun things about being a writer: you can have crazy little random thoughts ... and then you get to interpret them so you can make something out of them.

The Other Side Update

I haven't given you much in the way of updates lately for The Other Side, have I? I am working on it, but things are a little slow in that department. Here's why:

When I started on my novels, I wrote Outsider first (no surprise there) and then I slowly wrote four other novels. In between writing, I would go back and edit/rewrite on previous novels. After a while, I realized that the third novel was too short, so I combined it with the second to create Another Shot. What started as the fourth novel was now the third, and I was having some real trouble with it: I couldn't come up with an ending that worked. I rewrote and rewrote, but it never ended to my satisfaction. Finally, with more than a little regret, I realized that the novel would never work as it was and I discarded it. (Believe me when I say that was not an easy thing to do.) The final novel was now referring to things that had never happened!

I wasn't happy with only three novels, so I resolved to write one to go between Another Shot and the final novel. As it turned out, I managed to fit two novels in there, In the Shadows and The Other Side. This means the final novel also neglects to mention big things that happened in those two novels! As you can tell, that last novel is going to need a lot of work.

In the meantime, however, I have to deal with The Other Side. Since it was technically written last (even though it isn't the last novel in the series; how confusing is that?), it has had the least work. Some of the original writing came as late as 2008 or after, so I haven't been through it as many times as the other novels. Since I don't write things perfectly the first time (or even the second or third time), I'm having to do a lot of rewriting. I've also been adding scenes that should have been in there but somehow weren't.

All of this means I'm doing more work on this one than I even did on In the Shadows. (You might remember how much work I did on that late in 2014.) The good news is that I'm doing this work over the summer instead of over the fall, so I've given myself some more time. I'm still aiming for a release date of January, although that isn't set in stone.

Meanwhile, just to make things "interesting" for myself, I'm trying to create a video for In the Shadows. Sometimes it gets confusing and I have to remember which plot line I'm working with, but it means that things don't get boring!

That's the latest update. I appreciate your patience and I thank you for reading my blog (and my novels).

Remember Your Readers

I was browsing on Facebook today when I ran across a site that had posted a list of 10 rules for writers. It mentioned reading, outlining and not waiting for inspiration, among other things. As you can imagine, it inspired a lot of comments from writers who agreed or disagreed with one or more of the rules. Most of the comments were very thought-provoking and insightful.

One of them, however, made me roll my eyes and shake my head. The person stated that creativity is more important than grammar or spelling. As if to prove the point, the person used "your" instead of "you're" and randomly inserted commas in inappropriate places in the sentences.

Sigh.

I'll be the first to admit that I throw words at paper without worrying whether they're what I want, spelled correctly or even coherent, but that's why it's called a rough draft. After that, it's my job to make sense out of it ... so my readers can make sense of it.

I'm a writer because I love to write, but I never forget that I intend for someone else to read what I write, so I need to keep that person in mind as I polish the rough draft. I can't expect someone to read gibberish.

All writers should remember this:
If you don't care about your readers, they'll know it.
If you don't care about your readers, why should they care about you or your writing?

Write for yourself, but edit for your readers.

Distractions

I've been trying to work on the fourth novel but there have been a few distractions.
I finally got over my virus, only to be struck by monstrous allergies, which are threatening to rob me of my voice again! Argh. (See last week's blog about my voice.)

I also spent some time finishing up my second video, this one about my second novel, Another Shot. If you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to do so here: Another Shot video  Let me know in the comments what you think. It was fun to make, although this one seemed a little harder than the first one. I think I was trying too hard this time around because I wanted it to be better than the first. I don't know if I succeeded or not, but at least it's out there.

I've also been spending entirely too much time on Facebook lately. I "blame" it on my good friend Bill Zahren (we met at Morningside College), who keeps posting updates on his first two novels. He's hoping to get the first one published this year and I wish him every success. He has a page where you can follow his progress here: Bill Zahren-author FB Page

Despite all this, I am getting some work done on the fourth novel. I'm pleased with the first seven chapters (although they could always use a little tweaking), but now I need to move on to the rest and make them better. In a few weeks, I'll let you know the title of the novel, but I'm still swirling it around in my head to see if I think it works.

The local bookstore, Spellbound, is planning some type of event for local authors in Pittsburg, KS, next weekend and I'm hoping to take part in it. I don't have any details yet, but I will post them on Facebook, Google+, my Amazon author page and my Goodreads author page as soon as I get them. Stay tuned!

And that's the latest! Thanks again for your support.

Getting Closer

This is going to sound familiar: the proof copy of In the Shadows is on its way to me!

Let me explain. Yes, I did already receive a proof copy, as I reported earlier, but it wasn't long before I realized I didn't have a finished product in my hands. As I told you last week, the cover seemed to have problems, which I hope we've resolved, although I'm not sure. Also, there were a lot of changes to make to the interior.

Changes to the interior? Wasn't that done? I thought so, but I was wrong. I discovered I had two chapters that were simply too long, so I broke those up. I also realized I'd made a big error in one scene, so I rewrote that. I made a few other changes, too.

Since I made so many changes, I didn't feel right approving the novel until I can get another look at it, so that's why I've decided to order another proof copy. This will be the first time I've ever done that for a novel.

So I'm afraid we're back to waiting. The ETA for the proof copy is January 27, so that will give me a few days to check it closely and still release the novel by the end of January. We'll see if it's possible. I hope so!

Thank you for your patience.

Slight Delays

Now that I have the proof copy of In the Shadows, I thought I'd just sail through the rest of the process ... but I wasn't quite right about that.

My biggest problem is that I happen to have a job where I basically proofread all day. During the week, I get home from work to discover that more proofreading just doesn't sound fun, so that mostly leaves the weekend. By then, though, my eyes are tired and need a break. Because of this, I'm moving a little more slowly than I thought I would.

Another issue involves the cover. When I took the proof copy to the artist, the first thing she noticed was that part of the right side of the image was cut off. When I picked up a ruler, I discovered that the width that CreateSpace lists on their site for my cover design is actually about .25" more than what the proof copy width is, so that's a problem. The artist and I are working on that and hope to get it resolved soon. (Actually, she's doing more of the work on that right now.)

So things aren't moving quickly. I promise I'll keep working on the proofing, but I already see that one scene needs a rewrite, which will take a little time.

I'm still aiming to get this novel released in January, but it's starting to look like it will be late January.

Stay tuned for updates.