Tag Archives: Writing

A quite busy life

I’ve been away from the ‘net, but it is because real life has been ratehr hectic and busy. Not all of this busy has been a bad thing. I am continuing work on my new Seth jackson novel, today I passed 25,000 words and I still have not grown to hate it, I’m awaiting results for Q2 Writers Of The Future, I saw a dear friend during Comic-Con (which I did not attend but she did) and I have started work on a space RPG system building off the D20 open game content.

I have also been a little stressed at the day job has been very busy and my arthritis has been acting up, however I will not cry into my soup.  I am on the whole happy and productive.

 

 

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I’m back

It was not my intention to keep away from my blog for almost ten days, but life has been hectic.

The day-job has been very busy, and that is a good thing because it means my job is secure in the troubling economic times.  In the evening I have been working hard on getting through what I suspect will be the hardest part of my book to write, a massive space battle of ninety ships, with characters scattered and a lot invented tactics to try to slip into the exposition. I’ll be very happy to be back among simply character scenes and emotion dangers versus space battles.

On the plus side I have finished the first draft of the space battles and I’m now about 15,000 words into the novel. I’m happy with the progress and I am looking forward to the rest of the book.

 

I’m going to try and be better about my blogging, I have things to say, lots of things to say, but my time seems to slip right on by me.

 

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A General catch up post

Sorry my blogging has been slight of late. The principal culprit has been the fact that my eyes are telling me it is time for a new set of glasses. Each year since I have turned 40, my eyes fade a little and I have to get new specs. This year appears to be no different. I have always been fairly susceptible to eye strain headaches and so after a full day working at the computer, my eyes are hurting and I often have a headache. This has kept me away from my computer at home and killed by writing output. I think it will likely be three weeks before I am back to normal with a new set of lens in an old frame.

 Thanks to having a NOOK I can continue to read for pleasure by simply bumping up the font size, so my biblical reading has continued. I have now made it through Samuel 1 and I have just started Samuel 2, though it confuses me how any can take the text as inerrant. This is not mean as a slight or insult, but the simple contradictions would be tough for me to retcon away.  I mean did Saul kill himself after his armor-bearer refused to, or did someone else kill him at his request only to later be executed by David for slaying a King? It really can’t be both.

I have sent my first story to a major magazine that doesn’t publish SF or fantasy or horror. My espionage thriller ‘The Escape’ has been sent to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. That puts me as having 4 short stories out of consideration and 1 novel. Tomorrow that will rise to 5 short stories as ‘Lady Jane’ will be sent to Asimov’s SF Magazine. Mayeb I can win by sheer volume!

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Writing update

First the sad news, though in the scheme of things is not very sad, my mystery story “A Question of Justice” is failing to launch. I’ve gotten several hundred words into the story and I can feel that I am on the wrong track. I can’t see what the right track is, but I know I am not on it.
On the upside, my novel “Command and Control” is working. It has taken me a bit of work to get back into the rhythm of writing, and as anyone who knows me can assure you rhythm is not my strongest trait. Thursday night I managed to complete a 1st draft of the opening chapter. It surprised me by coming in at a whopping 32 pages. That’s a very large chapter for me. I may let some people read just the chapter for early feedback.
Because it was written with Scriveners and that ahs changed my approach in a mechanical sense, I’m not sure how much of a content and stylistic change it might have effected in my prose.
Still, I am very happy with the direction to novel is taking and unlike the short story I feel entirely comfortable with its trajectory.

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Getting back into the groove

So now that injuries, illness, and contests have been taken care of, at least for a little while, I can get back to the writing schedule I was trying to maintain.

Today I managed to pull out the short story “A Question Of Justice,” and resume work. This is the mystery story and represents a departure for me. I have never written a mystery and certainly never one that lacked all the fantastic elements found in SF, Horror, and Fantasy. (Though I suppose an argument could be made that ghost stories are often mysteries, with the reader and protagonist trying to unravel the reason for the haunting. My story “The House Of Bad Blood,” falls into that vein, but I would still maintain I have not written a proper mystery before.)

While I did not get much written today at lunch – when I am working on short subjects – I did get the story moving again. (Sadly I was unable to resist the sirens of the internet.)

Tonight I will get back to work on “Command and Control,” my new Seth Jackson novel. If that goes well tonight then I shall be happy to be back in the saddle.

 

I’ve also had a setting, more properly a concept, floating around in my head for a new SF novel. It would concern a nebula as seen from Earth, but from a vantage point much closer the nebula vanishes and instead there is a planetary system with inner rocky planet and out gas giants. Of course a ship is sent to study this stranger system up close.

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A surprisingly productive year – so far

I’m a little astounded at how well my writing productivity has turned out this year.  We’re not three months into 2012 and I have completed three short stories, two are about to be sent out for possible publication and the third is for a special project with the Mysterious Galaxy Writer’s Group. I have outlined and started a new novel. (A project delayed due to injury and illness at home, but now that both are safely in the past tense I can get back to work on Command & Control.) I’m now writing a mystery short story that has no fantastic elements, a genre I have never attempted, and several more short stores and a new setting for a novel are beginning to come together in my mind.

For a short period, less than 90 days, this has been a real race horse start to my writing year.

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Sprinting Towards The Goal

The 31st is approaching fast and with it the deadline for entries into this Quarter’s Writers Of The Future Contest. I made the goal this year to enter each and every quarter of the year and stopping only if I was awarded a winning place.

I did not win last quarter, did not even place in honorable mention as I have done hour times before so by my stated intentions I am committed to having an entry by Sunday.

I have one short story, “Lady Jane,”  ready, it is written, edited (though not reviewed by my sweetie-wife) and turned out interestingly. It represents a two fold experiment. First I explored the concept of the Captain/Ship romance, so common in science-fiction. Secondly I used this story as an attempt to sketch characters, with distinctly different traits and personalities with as few words as possible.

I think I succeeded in both attempts; however I’d prefer to hold off entering this piece. I am currently trying to complete a cosmic horror SF story entitled “Lies I tell myself” in time for this quarter. This story, the core concept something I have thought about and attempted for over 30 years, is coming along nicely. The question is can I finished it, and polish it before Sunday rolls around?

I think “Lies I tell myself” would be the stronger entry, but only if It is finished and not slapdashed to a “The End” late Sunday afternnon. If that turns out to be the case I will enter “Lady Jane,” a story that I have gotten zero feedback on.

 

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