I am still going to try to pull out the Nanonovel, but I am more than likely to try to get as caught up as I can get during Saturday with the write-in. It’s really going off the rails, but I am going to stick with it because I’ve gone this far and there is no reason to turn back now. Thankfully, I’ve got the vacation coming up, so I can gain a lot ground and hopefully get to the 50K mark by the 29^th and try to get a little over just for pride’s sake. After that – the story goes away to get a little further done in my head. I’ll try to get back to it, but it’s going to be one of the back-back burner stories. Don’t worry – I am not giving up on it, but I’m thinking I should have let it grow more in my head. Lesson to the rest: don’t rush a project. Let it grow and build on its own. You’ll know it’s finished… or at least when it’s ready to be abandoned.

Everything is coming along as far as the first novel goes – I need to get the final edits down so I can get the artist my final page count. I am shooting for an 80K novel – short for a fantasy, but I think in the right range for romance. I do have an idea in mind for a sequel concerning two of the secondary characters, but not for the main characters yet. Which is OK – I am right now focusing on the Nanonovel and getting the first one out of the door on January 1^st. Going to be a great week next week – mostly because of me not being at work. I can feel that everything is coming together in this novel. Just got to make it for the final sprint and speaking of final sprints, I have written the blurb for the back cover:

The elf Rhona fleeing her past hears a voice calling her in the deep woods.  Taking up an urgent quest from creatures born in an age of myth, she must rely on her wits and skills to survive the task.  Bringing the Scholar Anya to her aid, Rhona finds herself fighting against evils older than her kind and the malice of humans around her.  The stakes grow increasingly perilous the closer to gets to her rendezvous with the Blade of Everthirst.  What will she surrender to save the world?  Her music?  Her life?  Her heart?

Hopefully, this will entice some people to read the book. Honestly, this took me sweating blood to get it out. 50K novel? No big problem. 100 word blurb summarizing that novel? Dammit, Jim – I’m a novelist, not a miracle worker.

All of this reminds me – In a month and a half, the latest volume of Empowered comes out! Looking past the kink and the fan service, this is a well-crafted series about accepting one’s destiny regardless of how uncomfortable or desperate it makes you. I recommend it highly and it’s one of the best OEM out there.

Well, I should try to pull the Nanonovel out of the fire and put it back in the pan. Thank you for reading, and I hope you all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

OK – when I feel that a novel is starting to go off the rails, I stop it and go on to something else. I go on to something else because everything isn’t coming together right at that point, so there is no need to spin my wheels as it were. Well, that would be all well and good, except that the project that going awry is the Nanonovel. The one that I am trying to get to 50K by the end of the month and it’s not going as planned. So, now I’m just trying to get along with it, but honestly, I can feel the call of other projects (sounds like a concert in my head with all the projects I have) – particularly my horror works. I’m just going to have to tough this out and see if I can get to at least 50K and then set it aside and work on it after I have gotten some distance and a better outline. Oddly enough, the whole thing is coming apart about where the current outline ends. Hmm…

Anyways, Thanksgiving is almost here and I’ve got to get everything together. Since it’s pizza, this might be the cheapest dinner to date. Seriously, I am going to cook some turkey meat (or chicken) and put it on a homemade pizza crust – stuffed of course – and bake it with pepperoni, cheese and maybe some ground beef. Spend the rest of the day watching football and maybe outlining something during the commercials. Yes, I don’t vacation very well when it comes to writing. Well, that and I am finally getting my feet under me as far as working projects go – thanks to the Chromebook. Seriously, the Chromebook has a great platform for office work (and writing) but it doesn’t have anything as far as games go – sorry Chrome, but the best game you have is Tetris. Granted, I like Tetris, it’s a great time waster – but I have it on my phone, so I don’t really need it on the Chromebook. Even better, I can set up multiple accounts, so I can separate horror from romance from fantasy from smut. In case you’re wondering – no, I am not getting anything from Google or Chrome for this…yet…. (hint)

With the vacation coming up, the only other plan I have after I am done writing for the day is to settle down and play the latest DLC from Bioshock: Infinite – which is still a game that I highly, highly recommend to everyone. This current DLC is supposed to take place in Rapture before the Fall – and I must admit that I bought the book that supposedly chronicles it, but I haven’t read all of it yet. I wish someone would put it out on an e-book format so I could take it with me. I’d do it, but I have a lot of better things to do than sit in front of a computer and type out someone else’s words.

So – with all of this said and working on my second cup of coffee, it’s time to put on my YouTube playlist… you know, the one I cannot play in front of my pastor and get working. I hope y’all have a good day, feel free to submit comments and thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I have another vacation coming to me next week, where I’m out for six days, then I have another four day weekend and that’s it. No more days off until (hopefully) February when I am going to try to get the Winter Olympics off. With this vacation, I am going to get the final changes to the novel done and aim for the New Year’s Day release. I also need to get the blurb written for the back cover and see if it’s too late to send it to the artist. As far as the NaNoWrimo novel… sigh… it’s going off the rails a little, but I want to get through the 50K limit and then I might set it aside and try to get Tyro’s novel finished and get away from fantasy for a while and get to some horror. It’s not that I’m burning out from writing romance/fantasy, but when a book starts to shudder through the turns, I know that it’s not ready for the first draft.

So, the horror story that I am working on is going to be I/O Error. I still like the concept and I am going to re-do the outline to get it to fit in the structure. The idea of robots and ghosts is (as far as I can see) a fairly original idea. I am not going to say anything else right now since I am going to work over the outline and I don’t want to put anything down yet until it is done and in ink. Speaking of ink – I should get some ideas together for the celebratory tattoo for both books: the first novel (The Quietest Heart) and my first book. The tattoo for the first book is ready; I just need to get it on my forearm. The second one? Not so much, but I am willing to field some ideas. No faces, please – the idea of having a face on my body is a little disconcerting for me. I am working on getting Tyro’s first novel finished by the middle of the new year and I am going to get I/O Error started in December and aim to have it ready for editing by end of March.

I can’t believe that Thanksgiving is around the corner, which means I need to get the stuff together for the pizza. Yes – I said pizza. I am going to make a stuffed crust pizza topped with turkey, pepperoni and ground chicken. For dessert, there will be cheesecake and more football than you can shake a stick at; followed by napping. Lots of napping and dishes for me, but it’s part of my week off, so I can’t complain. After that, I need to get stuff together for Christmas – such as the marathon list. Anyone have any ideas of horror films for Christmas? I’m not really focused on ‘holiday-themed horror films’ but I want to have enough films to stretch the whole day. I like J-horror as long as it’s subtitled. If you have any really good ideas, feel free to put them in the comments.

Well, I’ve got to get my word count in for today and a shower. Thanks for reading and I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Tomorrow is going to be an interesting day. I have to get up at 7:30 AM and get out the door by 8:00. I get to go to the writer’s group and get started at 9:30 (and they keep creeping the time up on me…) and try to stay awake until they close everything at 1:00. Now, you might be telling me that it’s only three and a half hours and I should suck it up. You’re right…I’m getting up earlier for this than I get for my day job. After that, I duck out for a quick lunch and go to the NaNoWrimo write in from 2:00 to 5:00 and try to make up a 3,600 word deficit from Wednesday. I did about 2,000 today in a couple of hours, so getting the 3,500 in three hours shouldn’t be a big deal. Even if I get half that, I will come home and start the laundry, do the dishes and make up the difference while half listening to a hockey game. As long as I hit 3,500 by midnight I’m good.

Am I complaining? I hope I don’t sound like it (except for getting up at 7:30, that just sucks balls). It’s going to be a  good excuse for me to eat out for all the meals, this cutting down on the numbers of dishes I will have to do. I’m spending time writing, which is what I want to do for a living and I like hanging out with other writers, still it’s a good way to network. The only downside is that I’m not going to have any time to get caught up on any of the series I’m watching when I do watch TV. Speaking of which, I got the series package for “American Horror Story: Coven” this week. Next week, I’m going to get caught up with “Sons of Anarchy” and maybe in the first of December I’ll indulge a private vice if mine and get the current season of “The Ultimate Fighter” and gaze at Rhonda Rousey.

As far as the first novel, I’m getting ready to give the artist my step of approval and see if I can get a blurb for the back cover before anything goes to print…which I am still looking at getting it out there at the first of the New Year. After that, I’m going to focus on only one novel at a time. I thought I could do double duty, but that is sadly not the case right now. Maybe when I can dedicate more time to writing, but not right now with the day job. All the more reason to work hard with getting the first novel our and finish the Tyro novel. The Nano-novel is going to be a low priority. I’ll finish it (hopefully by the end of November) and set it far aside and get back to the Tyro novel and get it done and ready to be released as the second novel of the year and try to get the second novel finished and out the door before year’s end. After that, I think I’ll work on I/O Error and give fantasy and romance a rest.

Well, I’ve got an hour and a half until the marathon day. I’d better get my iron pills and caffeine ready. I’m sure you’ll have a more restful day than me, but it won’t be as fun.

Sincerely,
Seething Apathy

I did get some writing done in the morning before I went to sleep – four hundred-ish words, so if I can get another 1,400 today I will hopefully get back to at least getting the 50,000 word count by the end of November. I kinda doubt that the novel will be fewer than 50K. More than likely, it’s going to get to the 75K point and wrap up quite nicely. A wonderful and rare thing from me: a one-shot novel. No sequels, no branching tales or anything like that. Personally, I am a little stunned. Usually when I work on something, I’ll get caught up with the characters and the world and keep on going in my head. Not with this one. The main character rides off into the sunset with the girl, cue credits. A nice change if you ask me, especially considering most of my one-shot novels are my horror stories where…well…something gets the girl.

Only the Japanese are going to appreciate the love scenes…

I am working on the post-Nano projects, since it looks like I am going to get the first novel released by the end of the year. I’m going to split my attention between two works: the Nano-novel if incomplete (as certain as the tide rises and falls in my flooded basement [speaking of Cthulhu]) and trying to finish the Tyro novel. After that, I am going to work on I/O Error and depending on how long it takes me to finish the other projects; I will also work on the second Tyro novel. The only thing that will keep me from working on two things at once is if splitting my attention detracts from the work. My only goal at this point is to finish something again and build upon the successes. 2014 is going to be my year…just in time for the collapse of e-publishing.

I have been re-reading The Shining to get ready for Dr. Sleep and I forgot just how unnerving some scenes were for me. Growing up in a similar setting to Danny, there are certain undertones that I’m picking up on now that I might have missed in the previous times I read it. I’m also reading it under the lens of everything that happens to Jack Torrance is a hallucination and we’re sitting in the front row of his breakdown. It’s also going to be interesting to read some of his older work to compare and contrast with his newer work. I don’t know about you, but I could tell there was a tonal shift concerning his work after the accident. Not just supernatural horror versus psychological horror, but just a shift in the darkness of the tone. I wonder if I am the only one who has been picking up on it. Then again, I’ve been reading his work ravenously since I was a kid and consider him one of my writing professors (whether he knows it or not…more than likely not).

Well, time to get back to work and try to get a decent amount. I am resigned to this Saturday being the big makeup day, so it’ll be a day of travelling, writing and eating out for all three meals. As you can tell, I am completely heartbroken.

Thanks for reading and I hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

I am hitting a brick wall when it comes to the Nano-novel today. I got up early and already my day has been changed because I have to do a couple of errands that I couldn’t put off until I got home from work. I am such a creature of habit that I am out of my writing groove and it’s already after 12:00 pm here. I think I am going to declare the day over and go on to something else once my PC has done all the updates (at least this time it didn’t shut itself off before I had a change to save some pictures) and restarted. I am another day behind on the novel and I can only hope I can make it up either tomorrow or Saturday with the all-day writing event. It is days like this that I seriously wonder about the practicality of doing this full time. I say this now, of course, since I am not at my day job. After a couple of calls, I am certain that I will say even a bad day of writing is better than a good day at work.

Oh! I got the first draft of the cover from the artist back today. It looks goooooooood:

© Renu Sharma

Wow. That’s all I can say about this. The artist got the color of the cloak exactly right. This is definitely worth what I am paying her for (about a whole paycheck for me) and I am definitely going to hire her again for other covers. She has my complete endorsement. If you’re a writer and you need some cover art done – you can’t do better than her.

Well my computer is going to shut down. Surry everyone, but with everything that is happening here, I am going to call it and get my shower and lunch together. I hope your day is a little more productive than mine.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Hello, all. I am doing this a little late since I’m trying to catch up with missing writing the Nano-novel Sunday. I think I’m back on track to finish on the end of the month (whether or not I’ll be done with the story is another thing). The One thing I am trying to remember as far as writing this is something that one would think I’d have down by new: it’s the first draft. It’s going to suck by design.

Some of you are probably telling at your screen now, reminding me that I’ll need to write many, many drafts before the final novel is done and that I need to be patient so that the final product – what everyone is going to see – will be the perfect draft. No one cares how the hot dog is made, they only care how it tastes in the end. I’m obsessed with everything being right as soon as the words hit the screen. Granted this is good when I’m editing it for the first time, or plotting everything out in my head. When I’m writing the first manuscript? I need to allow myself the luxury of being sloppy. No one is going to see the rough draft outside my writer’s group or maybe a close circle of writer friends (applications pending), so I can be a little bad. I need to maybe have that cross-stitched and hanging on the wall next to my favorite Stephen King quote.

Sorry If I seem like I’m rambling, but trying to catch up has me a little exhausted today. Saturday it’s going to be a default long day for me: writer’s group followed by the NaNoWrimo write-in. Thankfully, it’s being held at a local coffee house. Sure, I’ll end up buying enough coffee to float a luxury liner and the drive home will be interesting if I get caught in a traffic jam at the wrong time (“Officer, you should know better than most people that you only rent coffee. Well, I rented a lot of coffee. Besides, it’s not like as anyone goes swimming in that river…”).

Well, the Tyro-novel is languishing where it is. My only goal now is to get the Nano-novel finished and out to rest before the first round of edits. With any luck it’s going to be shortly before the end of November and I can get back to Tyro’s novel and start outlining the horror novel. I need to start to establish some sort of ordered routine. Maybe I’ll get to that in December.  Maybe I’ll get a nap in first.

Mmmm… naps.

I hope you all have a good day and thanks for your reading patience.

Sincerely,
Seething Apathy

Hello, everyone! Today I sit down in front of my PC and admit that I have failed the letter of Nanowrimo, but certainly not the spirit. Yes, I took a Sunday off to go see Thor: The Dark World and it was worth it (stick around after the end credits). I did have my doubts at first, but they were allayed as the movie unfolded. This is definitely a must see in the theatres. After that, I had a nice dinner of chicken and dumplings and came home to some football. Nary a word written in inspiration and nary a twinge of guilt in the process; but I can’t see how authors like Stephen King have such a monstrous output and write every day without having some sort of burn-out. Don’t get me wrong. I loves me some writing, and some people say that I’m good at it – but even I need to take a break every now and then.

Speaking of the novel, I am getting ready to run Danny into Rhonda and get the main plot finally going along. I think that since I have a set word limit, I am trying to hit all the major points on the plot line, which is frankly what I should be doing anyways for the first go-round since it’s easier to add than it is to take out…or that’s how it is for me when I write the first draft. When I go for the first set of edits, I’ll start cutting things down and try to get close to the final word count. Speaking of final word counts and all of that, I also need to get to the first novel and get that edited down. I think that should be a weekend thing, since I want to have time to do it without feeling any more pressure than what I’ve already put on myself now. So, for the weekday, it’s the Nanonovel and then Tyro’s novel if I have the time, on Saturday it’s the re-writes for the first novel and the Nanonovel. Yeah – Tyro’s novel is getting the short end of the stick this time, but since I am so far ahead as compared to what I am bringing to the writer’s group, I can slack off a little bit. Besides, I just want to be able to finish the Nanonovel on time for once. I’ve also been trying to figure out what to do once the Nanonovel is done, and I think I am going to get back to I/O Error just to write some horror. Get back to what I hope I can really shine in: horror fiction.

Week after next, I get another long vacation: 6 days off and after that, I think I get another long weekend. I am going to use them for writing and trying to get some more stuff down on paper (or Scrivener) for the New Year. Is it just me or has this year seemed to fly by?

Well, I need to get to Nanowrimo and regain the lost ground. Hope y’all have a good day.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

One of the few times you will hear this and not shrink away! I’ve gotten the novel back from one of my beta readers and there are a lot of changes that need to be made, but I can work on those during the weekend since I still have Nanowrimo and Tyro’s novel to work on during the weekdays (still maintaining the pace to finish the Nanowrimo novel a few days before the end of the month). I’m a little bleary eyed right now, but I am going to perk up with some caffeine in a few minutes. Working double duty is hard, but if I can keep it up for the duration of the month and finish something then I will be sitting very pretty as far as getting stuff to print. I am married to the goal of getting three novels finished in 2014 and getting at least two of them printed in that same year. Slowly, I am tottering towards getting out of my current predicament. Right now, I just need to focus on getting one thing: finishing a novel.

Speaking of novels, I am getting to the next good scene in the Nanowrimo novel in which Danny and Rhonda meet. Don’t know how that’s going to happen – should I make it light hearted or a bit more serious? Well, either way there’s going to be a dead horse involved. I’ll have to think about that. I am trying to work on another project a work which I am calling Eat me, Drink Me and it’s about the feeder fetish. I don’t know where these ideas come from, but I am going to work on them all. My philosophy with this is pretty standard and can be summed up with the notion of the golden BB. I just need that one novel to get me going, so until that one hits – I’m gonna keep throwing out everything but the kitchen sink. I need my kitchen sink because where else am I going to do the dishes? If I did dishes… I kid. I do some dishes. Cups, saucers and the occasional cooking utensil on the rare times I do cook. What is the key to success for all of you writers out there? Two words: paper plates.

Pro tip: if you’re slow to wake up like I am, don’t put on ambient music like Brian Eno. I almost slipped into a coma listening to him. I think I’ll buy the album (was listening to it on my YouTube channel) and have it on standby if I am suffering from insomnia. What’s more my steam (ha-ha) as I am finding out is bands like Abney Park and Dr. Steel – which I should break down and buy one of their albums soon.

Oh! Almost Human premiers next week on FOX. I am a bit of a Karl Urban fan, so I am looking forward to this. I also hope this won’t get in the way of any future Dredd movies… if there are going to be any. Let’s face it, Urban was far better than Stallone. Seriously. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, go buy it on iTunes or Netflix and watch it in HD. It’s well worth it.

Well, I need to get to the Tyro novel and get our main character out of the village. As always, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll answer them as long as they’re not spam (mmm…Spam…).

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Today I go back to work. *sigh*…. I had a rather productive vacation. Got back in contact with someone from my Twitter feed and they were nice enough to promote my book here:

I can now say that I am an internationally known writer…without laughing… and oh, yeah—I’m on Twitter, too: @admiralnowhere

I’m well into the second chapter of the Nano novel, which I am going to work on more when I get home. The Tyro novel is going to star back up as soon as I am done here. Some time with Borderlands 2 and time spent with a good friend on my birthday made for the best vacation in a while. I’m off back to the grind with a renewed sense of purpose (finish something and get it out there). The Chromebook I have is amazing. It’s fast to start, dependable and I actually don’t need an Internet connection for it to work (but it helps). It’s a really good, lightweight laptop. Yes, tablets are the way of the future and I have finally gotten down the Swype keyboard so that I could use my Kindle in a pinch, but I really like the feel of a keyboard. When I go the Galaxy tablet, I bought a Bluetooth keyboard so I can use it at work (pointing back to the renewed purpose) and try to fill those empty six hours I occupy at the desk.

More details about Nanowrimo novel you ask? OK – it’s coming along quickly. I’m finding that getting the minimum is easy now. 2K is a good possibility to hit consistently now that I’m getting to the meat of the story with Danny finding out what’s happening with is body and running into the wraiths. The next big thing will be running into Rhonda and learning more about that. As far as Tyro goes, we’re still in the village, but that’s going to change quickly if I can get to it today. I’ve got so many irons in the fire right now (Tyro, Nano and the First Novel), I hope that I am not spreading myself out too thin. Well with the First Novel, the only thing I am waiting for now is the beta reader to finish making the recommendations and getting them done so I can at least hit the 80K limit so the artwork can fit. After that and the giddy moments of knowing that I have 2 book out there to blabber about, I will put my focus on getting Tyro’s novel finished and maybe getting the Nano novel edited down. After that… I might change direction and work on that old chestnut I/O Error and get that ready for more hard work. It might be good to take a bit of a break from fantasy/romance to get back to horror to cleanse the palate before I work on the second Tyro novel.

There is little else to say here. The vacation is over, but the next one is in 2 and a half weeks and I hope to be in the home stretch for Nano!

Well, I hope y’all have a good day. Thanks for reading and always feel free to leave a comment or a tip.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy