This is not what I wanted to write about, but technology has failed me again. For some unknown reason, my Bluetooth keyboard can not connect to my PC. I know – for you this is Thursday and you came here for updates to whatever project I am working this month (Tribal ia atill coming along, I’m getting ready to make a major revision). Instead, I am going to complain about my keyboard because that is peak storytelling right there.

Sure, throw that in my face, Bruce.

When it comes to keyboards, I am very picky. I want to have a certain feel to the keys. I want a particular sound. I want to hammer at the keys and see words come up on the screen (or see my little character from BG3 move around). I used to have one of those portable keyboards that all rubber, and I got rid of it within a month of buying it. The keys were too stiff for me. It felt like I was using a training speedbag rather than typing. Maybe it helped my typing speed, but it was too laborious to use it.

Am I crazy? I mean – above and beyond the normal level of madness writers have. I liked the springiness of the keys on my Bluetooth keyboard. It made a nice, professional clickinb sound when I was in a good writing mood. Not to disparage the keyboard I am using now. It did come with the PC and the keys feel deep and responsive. As far as free keyboards go, it’s fine. Better than what I would expect, but it’s not my Bluetooth keyboard.

Don’t worry, I’ll skip all the other stages of grief and get to acceptance soon enough.

As I said earlier, Tribal is coming along. I’m writing a scene that I wanted to revise and try to subvert expectations. I want to show Edgar still has a long way to go in becoming a real part of the pack. So – he’s going to get a beatdown at work because…why not? Let’s be realistic here – he’s only been a part of this werewolf fight club (yes, you read that right) for only a couple of months and he’s only been a full member of the pack for a few days. There’s practical knowledge and there’s experience. Edgar has very little experience.

The outline for Unbroken is very slowly coming along. I think things are going to pick up once I get into new territory. As it stands right now, I am still in the stickball game scene and the tides have changed as far as who has the ball. I can’t wait to get a little further along.  I have so many ideas!

I think that is going to do it for now. This keyboard is starting to grow on me, but I am going to try to get the Bluetooth fixed. I am not going to give up! I am going to take advantage of this denial while it’s here!

Here’s the issue I’m having. I’m writing the outline to Tyro’s series, and I am judging myself harshly on what I am puuting down for the outline. I’m bored with it. To quote Happy Hogan: “There’s no new ground being broken here.”

I know why that is: This story has been in my head since 1997 in one form or another. It’s boring because I have been tweaking the story since I was a young man. I’m writing down the outline and thinking that this is the most boring step. I want to go ahead and start writing it.

So – you mad genius and literary light of Gen X – why not write it now? You’ve been blathering about it all this time. Isn’t it time to nut up or shut up? I can hear you say to your computer screen. There are a couple of good reasons:

1. I am still working on Tribal and trying to get that finished before year’s end. While I am working on Tyro’s novel, I am going to publish Tribal and a couple of other books over the following year so I can try to gauge interest in my horror offerings versus my urban fantasy. If I drop Tribal, I might not be able to pick it up. I’ve got two other novels planned after this one (The Crab Bucket, Serve Me Now) not to mention planning another horror novel and possibly a couple of cheeky romances.
2. I want Tyro’s series to be really good. I mean not self-published to die a lingering death like a Victorian Era orphan. I am going to put this out for mass market. So, I’ve got to make sure that everything is on point and that means outlining this thing to death.

I have to remind myself that I am not being judged on the outline. I am going to be judged on the final product. That final product relies on me having a good outline with a clear set of directions. I’m writing the second draft of Tribal because I got to the point with the first draft where I didn’t know where to go, and I still had story to tell. I’m not going to fall prey to that with Unbound. Same thing with Serve Me Now – I got to a point where I just summed things up and that didn’t satisfy me. I do have to get to the outline on that one, however. I just need to carve out some time and all that.

Well – I do need to get to work, so I will let you go. Wish me luck and don’t forget to feed your authors.

Ever heard of folk horror? Think of movies like Midsommar and The Witch. The British really pioneered this movie genre with Wicker Man (the good one), Blood on Satan’s Claw among others.

This guy knows what it sounds like to be stabbed in the back…by stabbing someone in the back.

Well, while scouring YouTube, I found a channel that deals with horror writing, and there was one such entry about folk horror. Thinking, well why not? I clicked on it and watched. As I watched, I realized that this was a genre of horror I could get into. It ticked all the boxes for me: the creeping sensation that something is wrong. Knowing that something is wrong, but no one will or wants to believe you when you warn them. The subversion of the notion of society. Where has this been all my life?

And while I watched it, it hit me – this is the sequel to The Quietest Heart that I have been looking for. For decades (yes, decades) I’ve been trying to continue the adventures of Anya and Rhona, but I never came up with a good idea. I wanted to test the relationship. I wanted to explore more of Anya. I wanted to put the two up against something and see how everything shook out.

I grabbed a notebook and re-watched it, making notes about the qualities of the folk horror genre. Sure – it’s a tried and true trope, but can fit fantasy so wonderfully, and to be honest – who would see it coming? A friendly village in the middle of the woods. Everyone has smiles and waves…to one person. The other is treated with minor deference, but the stares are little too hard for her tastes. The whisper campaign is getting a little heated.

I can’t wait to get started…eventually. I literally just last week. I’m still deliberating about having certain characters in this book, or should I get rid of them? They would tip the power scale over the protagonists’ side quite easily. I’ve got to think about that one.

Also – the story takes place on a fantasy world I created that has undergone several changes in history, societies and populations. So, I’m going to have to carefully write this one so that the world can fit into the abridged history I wrote for the region. It’s a small worry, but I’m still going to obsess about it because it’s me. Anxiety? I’m soaking in it.

Is this new addition going to delay any of the other projects? Nope. I’m still working on Tribal, outlining Unbroken and making characters for my meager attempt at literary fiction called The Crab Bucket. Do I have a lot of irons in the fire? Yes. Am I enjoying myself? Also, yes.

I should get to work with…something. I hit my word count for Tribal today (not a huge amount) and I got let out of work early. I might outline Tyro a little, then make some more notes on folk horror. I should watch Misommar again to pick up some other things about this genre.

Ta-ta for now!

Guess Where I Am?

(Editor’s Note: I’m a writer, math is not my strong suit)

The novel Tribal is coming along. I am injecting a little humor into this one scene where Edgar tries to tame the wolf within him. I figure that this will be the palate cleanser before the next major scene where Edgar learns a little bit more about the pack and tries to even the score against his nemesis Carlton. I can’t wait to write that scene! I’ve gotten some new ideas since the last time I wrote it, and I want to see how they’re going to look. I just hope to have it finished by year’s end now.

The outline for Tyro’s first book creeps along, but that doesn’t need to be finished until the end of the year either. I’m still on fire to get the project started next year. I’m enjoying what little of the outline I have started, as I am jumping into Tyro’s voices very early. I just don’t know if I am going to keep them as voices that kinda talk to her off camera, or if they can control or influence how she functions. I’ll have to think about this one a little bit while I am working on the outline and the notes.

I think another thing I am going to do is get some more books released next year. I’ll (in what little spare time I think I am going to have on the weekends) edit down Alien Voices and get that set up for a release next year. Maybe also edit Agonizing Alibi Day and get that out there. It’s been way too long since I have put anything out to be read. That’s a major goal of mine – to get more out there into the reader’s hands. I need to get going on that, like the song says (unless Google is lying to me).

I am going to be on vacation next week, so there will be no regular post. So, have fun, relax and I’ll see you after next week. Tat-ta!

I’m just going to do it. I got the second to the last of the things I wanted before I started Tyro’s outline and notes. The only thing that’s missing now is a pen for me that’s a bit of a treat. If any of my fans want to get this for me, I won’t say ‘no’. With the notebooks in hand, I just decided to go on ahead and start with the notes. The idea for all of this is to make something so that if I should meet misfortune, someone can pick up my work and continue on.

Come here often, Miss Fortune?

I also want to get all the facts right so that if I end up continuing it past the triology, I have a substantial body of work to draw from for inspiration. I can’t keep this in my head forever, you know.

I’m also on fire to get this novel started. I know I’ve said that in the past, and usually this is the “burn out rather than fade away” sort of thing, where I am intensely interested in it for a few months, then it fizzles out.

Classic.

I have the feeling this is different. This is a second draft, so I know what’s going on in this. I have new scenes that I want to put in, and this is an idea that’s been with me for a while. Maybe this is the Universe telling me that this is what I should be working on. I’m just so wound up about the whole thing.

I am still working on Tribal. I’m not going to ditch it, I’m adjusting the due date for me so that I can write it during lunch and still have some time to work on notes. This is going to be the last project I finish before working on the first Tyro novel. I’ve got something going through my writer’s group, and I have a couple of other projects that need some tending to as far as mistakes. I can release books next year (and maybe I should..) and still work on the big one.

Well, I should get started on things, so I am going to leave this here and scramble off the figure out where Tyro’s personalities all came from. Ta-ta!

I don’t know if I am going to finish Tribal on time. I’m only on chapter five, and I have yet to introduce the other werewolves in depth. This should not surprise anyone who is a regular reader to this blog.

The F-35 Stealth Deadline — you’ll never see it coming or going.

I might have to divide my time between writing the book and the outline for Unbound – which is going to start January 1^st, 2026 regardless of where I am at with any other projects. I’ve got to get this done. Did you know I started this in 1998? All I have to show for it is an old manuscript that I have disavowed and a bunch of scenes and world building in my head that needs to get out. This is my baby, and now it’s old enough to vote, drink and smoke – probably doing all three while waiting for me to get to it.

That’s going to change ina few months. I’m spending the last three months of the year working on the outline for the first book, then work on the novel for the rest of the time. My only goal is to get at least one of the books in the trilogy finished…now that I have the theme of the third book a lot more solidified in my head. I’m not going to rush this series, as much as I want to get it out into the wild, I also need to take my time and get it right. Tyro deserves no less than that for my efforts.

Speaking of Tribal, it is coming along, just a little slow. I am going to take advantage of the three-day weekend to get caught up and even pad the word count a little. Right now, Edgar is meeting the other werewolves and he’s getting introduced into the fight club with the pack. This is the beginning of the second act, were we see him starting to adopt some of Jimmy’s philosophy. Not to worry, I am going to work my ass off to get this one finished on time. Editing can come in a few months while I am writing the Big Project.

I also want to announce that one of my friends has a new romance book out and you should get it! Now, I am not one to read romances all willy-nilly, but this is the one exception that I heavily endorse. She’s a great writer and a good friend. Go get it! Now!

That’s all I have for now. I do need to get some writing done since I got so little done at lunch. Ta-ta for now!

The more I think about it, the more that Tyro appeals to me as a Western. I’m not going to go back on the fantasy aspect of it. She’s still a collection of parts animated by the last ebbs of a dying magic. It’s the theme of the individual’s flight from society that appeals to me. Tyro is fleeing the society of her Master and slavery to a society that values personal freedom and the responsibility that comes with it. Her losing things is the act of stripping away those old parts of her new “life” as an usability.

I can’t wait to get started on this project next year. I’m going to start the outline in September of this year, so I really need to get on the stick and finish Tribal. I do want to end this year with a finished novel. I also need to get on the stick and edit The Show Must Go On to start sending out queries for it. There are so many things to do and hardly any time.

I should play the lottery. It’s guaranteed money, right?

Another theme that I really want to expand on in this book is the end of an age. In the spiritual prequel to this series, The Marvelous And Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show (God, I love that title), we see the beginning of the end of magic with Ehren. This trilogy is set some long time later. How later is up in the air. I’m thinking two hundred years because I want most of the regular people to have no frame of reference for the powers of the past, but some of the supernatural creatures to remember. I should get back to that book after next year.

Well, having the next two years planned out writing wise is a relief. I just have to get started on it. Wish me luck and take care!

I can’t stop fiddling with things. I popped off a toenail completely from its bed because I couldn’t stop fiddling with the thickness of it.

I can’t stop fiddling with the first chapter of Tribal. I don’t feel that the very first part really hits as hard as I want it to. I think this is the third time I’ve messed with it. I need to stop and get on with the rest of the book. I have managed to finish chapter three, but I keep going back to that beginning and wonder if it’s good enough. My wife and beta reader says it’s good enough…but I don’t think that bodes well. I need it to be unsettling, but not so unsettling that it makes the reader put it down. This is a very delicate line I’m walking on. I want to set the bar high and consistently leap over it. I’ve been reading splatterpunk, so that might be coloring my opinion. Yes – the author I had chosen actually wrote something that made me set the book down and I have as of yet to re-open it. Kudos to him, though – that’s a hard thing to do.

I should try to put this scene in the back of my mind and press on – there’s plenty of gore to go around for this book. Not like Aron Beauregard, but I am not going to pull any punches on this book either. This is my first official horror book. I want to get this one published in mainstream/small press. The Show Must Go On is another one, and that’s being reviewed by my writing group. So far, they seem to like it. I don’t know, though.

Stop fiddling.

I don’t know if I have said this before, but I am in a bit of a rush to get some horror novels at elast to first draft because next year, I am doing nothing but Tyro’s novel. Right now, I am reading Louis Lamour’s The Sacketts series, I picked up a book about defining genres to see what makes a Western a Western other than horses, tipped hats and six-shooters.

Tyro feel to me like Western because of the theme of the individual escaping society – which is what Tyro and her merry band of ushabit are doing. Instead of hitting the wilderness, they’re escaping into another society – itself taking on some growing pains expanding and changing into a ‘modern’ society. I would say that it’s changing from an Age of Myth to an Age of Reason. Tyro might be the bridge for that change. We’ll see. Until then, it’s an hour of reading and an hour of highlighting. It’s fun, really. I’m learning a lot.

That’s all for now. Check out my books on the right, I am trying to get something new up there. If things change, you all will be the first to know. Ta-ta for now.

Working on Tribal, still. I might have to change a scene to keep him in the dark about being a werewolf. I showed him changing and reacting, but that kind of makes the reveal superfluous at the end of the third chapter. I can change it, but I really need to have my notes near by when I’m writing. I tend to shoot from the hip without the notes to keep me in line. Doing that makes things harder, and I want to get this manuscript done as quickly as possible. By quick, I mean by the end of the year. ‘Quick’ is a relative term.

Per usual, I am looking way far ahead, and I am going to work on my Western/Fantasy series all next year. I want to get a couple of novels under my belt so I can get more published. I should use this Saturday to finish the editing of Agonizing Alibi Day and start the edits for The Show Must Go On. I think the later should be sent through the ringer of traditional publishing. After that, I need to finish the outline for Serve Me Now and call that the last one I am going to write this year.

I need to read some Westerns, since I’ve described this novel (Unbound) as “Lord Of The Rings meets Frankenstein on the set of Lonesome Dove”. I’m starting with my wife’s suggestion to read some of the Sackett series by Louis L’Amour. I think after that I am going to try Zane Grey and look for some different authors. Research.

I’m also teaching myself literary theory, and I have learned that I am not going to write literature any time soon. My current work list is more than proof enough of that. I’m not completely eliminating the idea that I will write literary fiction, but I am far more comfortable with the genres. I just don’t feel…qualified? Confident? Literary fiction seems something written by men in tweed jackets who fret about postmodernism versus mimesis. I fret about whether or not someone changing into a werewolf would remember it. Not exactly screaming “Pulitzer”, is it?

That’s all for now, I should get to work on something and not be distracted by YouTube.