Tag Archives: Writing

Still Busy

Today I visited my headache doctor, met with his physician’s assistant and we went over my progress. It’s been over two weeks without any headaches and that has made me really happy.

I have continued to work on Love and Loyalty. I will certainly be re-ordering the events of the novel based on the feedback from my writers group, but I still hope to have a beta copy ready in a couple of months.

Horseshoes and Hand Grenades is coming along. I’m learning how to operate photoshop. I have plans for combining elements from a couple of NASA photos to create my no-cost cover. This experiment in self-publishing is going to end up costing nothing but time.

 

I watched part of movie Sunday night, but grew too tired to finish it. That is a shame cause 1941 is one of my favorite films.

 

 

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Apologies

Sorry for having been absent from my blog the last couple of days, however life has been sick and busy.
The cold I have is slowly, and that is the operative word, slowly, receding away. However I still end the day tired and without any get up and go.

Saturday in addition to dealing with the cold, I had the taxes to finalized and file. Yeah, I love writing checks to the government. Also on Saturday we finalized arrangements to replace all the windows in the condo. The windows we currently have were installed when the condo was built, 1977. They rattled in a breeze and barely muffle any sound at all from the quite busy streets and freeways near our home. Replacing the windows is, of course, expensive, but it is something we have wanted to do from the time we moved into this place. We’re getting dual paned, argon-filled, casement windows that should look handsome and stop heat and sound from traipsing back and forth like invited vampires.

I’ve also been working on the short story anthology, Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. I’ve done a light edit to the stories, just spelling and grammar, and now I am working on cover art and author’s notes. I hope to have it ready for sale via Barnes & Noble and Amazon soon (weeks not days).

I have also continued work on the newest version of Love & Loyalty. A whole new chapter has been written and now needs to be edited.

So you see, I have not been lazy.

 

 

 

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Surprisingly productive

Despite have a cold this week that has taken a lot of wind from my sail leaving me mostly becalmed in terms of energy, my week has been surprisingly productive.

I have gotten two and a half chapters edits on Love and Loyalty, and nearly a thousand words written on one of the new scenes for that novel. A character who was a minor, but important character, in the first version is really starting to come into her own and I find I am really enjoying writing her scenes. Man I do love competent villains and strong women, and I love them even more combined.

 

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A project idea

There has been an idea rolling around my head for sometime now that seems to suddenly be gaining traction and momentum. The idea is to take the four short stories of mine that have earned Honorable Mention at the Writers Of The Future Contest and publish them as a small ebook.

I would also add in a copy of my first short story sale, What Everybody Wanted, bringing the word count of the entire collection to about 50,000 words. Equal to the small SF novels of the 50’s and 40s. I have found the means to publish it as an ebook that would be available to all the major ebook readers such as the Nook, the Kindle, and the iPhone/iPad. I was thinking about a price of 99 cents for the collection.

A couple of issue need to be resolved before I move forward on this project.

First, do I want to re-edit the stories? I have changed, particularly in my sentence construction, since these shorts were written. On one hand if I edit them they will be stronger for it, yet then they will not represent the stories that almost placed in the contest so in someways it feels dishonest.

Second, if I re-edit them then the project I think should be shelved until I finish the re-write of Love and Loyalty. Do I have the time for such a project?

Third, What about cover art? I have looked at royalty-free images and I can license an image quite reasonably for my purposes. (well under $50, so the investment would be minimal.) However would that look good enough? That sort of talent seems to escape me.

 

Opinions? What do you people think?

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In a state of flux

My novel that is, not me. Last night was another meeting of the Mysterious Galaxy Writers’ Group and I read the first half of chapter 3 of Love and Loyalty to the group. I think I can fairly state it was well received with an interesting bit of feedback. There seems to be a consensus that this is really my chapter 1.

I really can’t say that they are wrong either. The precipitating event that drives the entire plot of the novel occurred in the section I read and everyone seemed to pick-up on its importance. I myself knew that the story didn’t really roll until chapter 3, but I had no idea how to fix it. I know I need what’s in Chapters 1 & 2 to set up the characters and some of the troubles that lay ahead for them. Luckily the group had some fine ideas there and I think I see a way forward. It will not mean tearing the novel apart as much as shuffling a few scenes and a bit of minor re-writing. (which I was doing anyway.)

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Well I’ll call it improvement

Things are getting better on my rejection slip front. While I have not made any sales recently. (Sigh, two years.) I am now seeing frequent, though not constant, comments in my rejections slips. I do not always get the form rejection these days and I will call that an improvement.

 

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On Writing

The curious thing about writing for me is how much I avoid it before I get started. This, from what I hear, is not unique to me. In fact amongst SF writers I heard it gets called, ‘vacuuming the cat.’ That writers will come up with the most creative lists of thing that have to be done before they can get to work, such as vacuuming the cat.

I don;t make lists and excuses I just have a hard time avoiding the time sink that is the internet.

What’s curious, at least to me, is that once I have started it’s fun and I enjoy whatever process I am working on. Tonight I hemmed and hawed before settling down to work, but once I did I flew through ten pages of edits. ou would think something I enjoy wouldn’t be so hard to start.

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A new software suite coming soon

So, in order to get my sweetie-wife the speed she needs for her own internet needs I have purchased a second computer. (A used iMac a little faster than my current system.) I’ll take this second computer as my own and this system I am now using will becomes hers in the bedroom. (Or vice versa I will really leave it up to her.)

Anyway along with this change I will be transition most of my writing from the software I use now, Pages, to MS Word. Le Sigh. Word, and MS in general are not things I an enamored with, however there are a number of really good reasons to make the switch.

Foremost, Word is very much an industry standard and it will make my life easier once I started selling. (yes, I am still expecting rather than hoping to sell consistently someday.)

Also Word has a number of features that Pages either lacks or has in a less well-defined version, such as the ability to merge files and Track Changes. I write my novels in chapter files, each and every chapter gets its own file and them I have to cut and paste together into a final assembly. Word would allow me to do it just by merging files.

rack Changes is something I am just learning how to utilize and I can see the real advantages to it for copy edits, particularly when someone else — such as the wonderful Sweetie-wife — has done those edits. With both os us using Word she can make the changes, I can use track Changes to see and approve or reject and so get a clean copy with less paper used.

Buut I will use more MS product. Oh well.

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Money comes in, Money goes out, never a miscommunication

So this week I got my yearly bonus from my Day job and that certainly felt good. My sweetie-wife has been laboring under a very slow desktop computer so it was time to do something about that.
Here computer needs are much simpler than my won, so I purchased a used iMac for myself and she will now use this machine. Luckily, the bonus covers it nicely.

I finished creating 3×5 cards for each chapter in Love and Loyalty and now I can start playing with the order of the chapters. I’ve read about writers use do this with card and I have never been one who has, but this is a novel situation for me. (Yes, that was an intended pun. I do not do that accidentally.)

The whole novel is now going to turn and be driven by the main character’s choices — so much stronger as a story that way — but that means I have to move something around and some cause and effect is changing. I am really quite excited by the re-write process.

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Writer’s Group report

So tonight was another meeting of the Mysterious Galaxy Writer’s Group and I have to say we are bonding and coming together nicely. People are much more comfortable reading their prose out loud and the critiques are always in the proper spirit, helpful not snide or snippish. I have really lucked out finding this group.

I read out my experimental piece The Haunted Wood and it was well received. The general opinion seemed to be that this represented a real improvement in my prose style.

Ghods, that made me happy.

 

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