Double extra internet points if you get the reference.

I’m still juggling two projects, but that’s honestly nothing new for me. What’s new for me right now is that I am not ditching the first project to completely throwing myself into the second one and making that empty promise that I’ll get back to it someday. Someday is the graveyard of promises.

Maybe I’m maturing as a writer? Stop laughing.

I’m only writing the outline for this next novel, Your Tribe, Our Tribe, with the notion that is something happens, I can hand off all the notes to someone else and they can pick up and follow through. I also tend to forget scenes and I have to scramble to add them in when I do the re-writing. With the outline, I hope to have all the scene there and noted. No more forgotten scene!

I am still writing The Show Must Go On, and I am getting to the big reveal for the main character that he’s being cheating on. I’ve been waiting to write that scene for a while, but I couldn’t figure out how to make it subtle enough so that the reader could think that Chip is making a mountain out of a molehill. I think I have the idea – just a simple hip bump from Lin onto Joe. It looks innocuous enough, but it definitely clues Chip into what’s going on.

I’m not really sure what to do after the werewolf book is done. The haunted house story can’t really do forward until I do a little more research. I also want to dig into the vampire story I have – this one bringing gore and horror back to vampires – and it’s a little more formulated in my head. I might just do that one after the werewolf story. I am still trying to get four novels out of this year of horror. Next year is going to be fantasy and finishing up a couple of novels abandoned to the land of Someday.

This month also has a lot of good movies opening up. The Flash, Spider-Man across the Spiderverse, Asteroid City (never seen a Wes Anderson film before, so this looks like a good introduction), No Hard Feelings (can Jennifer Lawrence do comedy? We’ll see), and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. All of them look like great films, and it looks like my pace will slow down a little this month, but it will be worth it if these are good films.

Well, that’s all for now, speaking of pacing. I should try to get back to work and get some more of this chapter down before Chip realizes he’s being done wrong.

Ta-ta and stay safe.

Edging…is not a term you’d think you’d run into in a blog about writing, but that’s what I am kinda doing. Well – I’m working The Show Must Go On, but to satisfy that itch in my head to write Your Tribe, Our Tribe, I am doing all the prep work. Naming all the characters, writing down the beats and listing the ice cream scenes to make sure I don’t skip anything. For this one, so far there are only these: Edgar’s awakening in the woods, Edgar and Moe, round one; Edgar and Moe, round two; the chase through the park, the final fight. Not enough to flesh out a 70-80K word novel, but I can get there. As long as I don’t sit down and start writing the text, I’ll be fine. Really. Stephen King does this all the time (I’m sure).

The current project is coming along, a bit reluctantly. I’m on the cusp of writing one of the newer ice cream scenes with the main characters being invited to be on a panel at a convention for paranormal enthusiasts. That’s where the big reveal for Lin’s infidelity with Chip (if people haven’t figured it out by now) will happen, but first I have to get through the haunted schoolyard. This part feels like it’s dragging a little, and it might get cut down or changed a little during edits. It is coming together, but it feels like everyone on the set would much rather be somewhere else. Or maybe I’m projecting. Who knows?

This weekend I am going to start the re-writes for Serve Me Now and I hope to keep it up through out the year. I am anticipating finishing the whole thing by next year, if not a little later. I don’t know if it needs one or two rounds – all depends on whether or not I should try submitting this for publication or not. Still haven’t made up my mind about that, yet. I can certainly use the feather in my cap, but I also want to have a little more control over it. I don’t really know. This would be a big step for me. I guess it all depends on how impatient I am about getting this out into the world. I’ll have to do some research, obviously, and find some small publishers looking for a horror novel. That doesn’t bode well, sadly.

Well, that’s all for now. Please check out the books to the right, make a purchase or give me some coffee to support the blog. Ta-ta and stay safe.

Ooh, I can feel that itch. That new story itch in the back of my mind. While I am working on The Show Must Go On, my head is working out Your Tribe, Our Tribe. I’m going to admit, it’s hard to stay the course when I get a new idea, so I am trying to satisfy the itch by working on little things: names of characters and the basic outline and motivations of the various characters until it comes time to start writing…which will hopefully be by the end of next month. Not tying myself to a deadline – for that way lies madness. I am trying to hold onto the goal of finishing four first drafts of novels (at least) by the end of the month. A secondary goal is to get one of those titles published by Hallowe’en.

Your Tribe, Our Tribe as also one of the few times I ma going to write horror – or anything for that matter – with a explicit message. Trust me. I am the last person to be spinning a morality tale, but the idea is something worth doing, and hopefully I can do it right.

I’m also counting down the day until Gen Con and my first big vacation of the year. I’m not going to miss an update though. I might post some pictures when I get back home, but I am not going to be writing there – it’s only four days and I know I am going to be exhausted from walking around. It’s going to be a great vacation.

There isn’t much else going on – Serve Me Now is getting reviewed by the writing group and (speaking of conventions) The Show Must Go On is getting a convention chapter after I finish the current one…which I have little idea what’s going on in this one. That’s the life of a pantser writer.

Stay safe out there, and hope to talk with you soon.

I have to admit, there is a difference in writing during Nanowrimo (camp or otherwise) than writing other months of the year. With the down months, there is a little more freedom. I’m not obsessing over numbers and word count…not that seven hundred words is a lot. I’m a little more relaxed. I don’t worry over not hitting the word count for the session, and missing a session doesn’t put me into a funk for the rest of the day.

So why do it? Why do I put myself through the gauntlet now twice a year?

Your services will no longer be required…

The reason is because while I am doing it, I get a sense of accomplishment. Sadly, I don’t finish most works I start (I swear, I’ll get to them one day). With Nanowrimo, I have a goal, I have a plan and I have other people working with me. It makes it all bearable. Would I recommend doing it? Sure. The only way you’re going to see if you have the stamina to do such a thing is to do it. Okay, this isn’t like running a marathon in a physical sense, but there is some discipline to it.

So, right now I’m working on The Show Must Go On. This one is a little bit of a challenge for me since I don’t write first-person point-of-view often, if at all. This one is another horror offering to keep up with this year’s theme of horror novels only. Serve Me Now has been finished for a few days – actually finished it ahead of schedule! – and is getting ready for re-writes, of which there will be plenty. I need more conflict between the main character and her boyfriend. I don’t think I really hit the ‘cosmic horror’ vibe I was looking for, either. Look for this to come out no sooner than next year to be honest. It’s going to take a while through the writing group.

That’s all for now. I’m keeping pretty busy and hoping to get another novel finished this year. My overarching goal is to write four: Serve Me Now, Breeder, The Show Must Go On, Your Tribe, Our Tribe. I’d like to write more, but those are the only ideas I have for now. Thanks for reading, and I hope you have a good day!

When someone says ‘muse’, I’m sure the image of gauzy dressed women standing in a perpetual gentle summer breeze whispering little phrases into the writer’s ear (maybe with a light nuzzle or a peck on the cheek) comes to mind. After all, muse is a special thing – a spirit of inspiration for the artistic sort.

This is my muse, and it is not all neck kisses and summer breezes.

Uh-oh

As much as I was looking forward to pitting myself against the Camp Nanowrimo challenge, I am only a person. I did stumble a little and took a night and a morning off – I was tired from waking up at 4 A.M. and working until 10 P.M. Was I refreshed? Did I feel better? Am I attacking the assignment with a sense of renewed vigor?

Your word count’s a little low for today…

I felt tired, still. I feel a little tired still the next day. As much as I tried to relax for this little time, I couldn’t. The word count and the guilt hung over me like the keyboard of Damocles. Don’t get me wrong – I love writing, but it’s not the romantic, patient love of a parent for a child, or a spouse for one another. It’s the obsessive love of a fan for a star. It’s the love that burns like a dirty grease fire – water doesn’t put it out, it makes it worse.

Can I stop writing? No. My muse won’t let me. Like a Catholic nun, it wields guilt. The God of writing is the God of the Old Testament. It will not suffer false idols. Fire and brimstone await you if your word count is under 2,000 today. Writing is a grim, cheerless religion.

This is also by no means a healthy view of it. Is this what I have to do to become successful? I can’t not write. I’m always thinking about it. I’m always writing stories in my head. I’m always reading to steal notions. Ideas don’t stop in my head. Writing is as much a part of my being as my hands, or eyes or feet. Does anyone else feel like this? Maybe not about writing, but about anything?

Maybe I’m writing this as a roundabout way to ask for help, but I don’t know what kind of help I need? More coffee? Stronger drugs? Realistic expectations?

What am I going to get out of Camp Nano? Physically? Nothing.  A little blast of serotonin for completing a task, but there is no money (unless this gets published). Bragging rights, but to who? Readers of this blog and my writer friends – other people with their own muses and forces driving them. Will they think less of me if I fall? No. Will I think less of myself?

We all know the answer to that.

In the end, I know I have to step back and take an honest stock of this small event. I know I tend to obsess about things like this, so I just need to re-evaluate my priorities and take a good stiff drink.

I’m typing! I’m typing!