The Six Hundred and Sixty-First Post: The One With an Update!

Hello – I was on vacation last week so that’s why there was no update. I’m back now and ready to blog for love and money (Just kidding – there’s no money here).

The pitch didn’t got as expected, but it did manage to get something out of it. My first book pitch didn’t work because I didn’t have any comparable titles to it. When I off-handedly told the agent about Serve Me Now, she liked the idea. So now I am working on that and have gotten five chapters down. I’ve set up the name character of Sara, shown her relationship to both food and Oliver. In Chapter Six, I need to get down to the horror aspect of it. I need to ramp up the otherworldliness of the hunger.

The pace I have been writing has been a lot steadier than most other books I have written. I haven’t taken a big day off in a while. Even during the vacation, I still wrote and got 1800 words down. I might finish this one on deadline. Cross your fingers and hope that I didn’t just jinx myself.

This book is going to be an exercise on pacing for me, as much as it is going to be about creating atmosphere. I just hope to get everything right and get it out there to be published.

The Show Must Go On needs to get a couple more tweaks and I’m going to start sending it out. I’m going to give it a year. If it’s not picked up by someone in that time, I am going to self-publish it. I’ve got the cover, I’ve got the notes to make at least the first ten pages better. I just need to do it. This Saturday, I am going to throw myself into getting it done.

There isn’t a whole lot going on this week beyond working on getting stuff together for publishing. I’m feeling pretty good about both books. I hope they entertain someone when they are released into the wild.

Well, I do have to get back to work, so I thought I would drop a quick update. Still writing, still editing and hoping for a release somewhere. Good luck to the rest of you. Ta-ta for now.

The Six Hundred and Thirty-Ninth Post: The One Where I Don’t Know How To Quit!

Another issue that I’m having with writing Tribal is that I’m a little shaky on the ending. I guess I’m like Stephen King in that respect. I don’t do endings well. I’m running out of scene I want to get to and I don’t really have a nice way to tie it all up in a bow. This is also a story I haven’t deeply outlined up to this point, so I am navigating dark waters. Well, I still have two more months to figure out what to do.

I am still also behind on outlinging Tyro’s first novel. I’m up to chapter five, and I am expecting to get into the high twenties with this story as far as chapters go. Planning is a pain in the butt, but I need to do it or I’m going to have this very same problem with this novel that I’m having now in Tribal.

Critical Role has started their fourth campaign and oh, man! It’s great! There is a definite change in the DM styles between Matthew Mercer and Brennan Lee Mulligan. If you get the chance, come here and watch the first episode. Warning: It’s four hours long, so pack a lunch and stay for the day. It’s worth every minute.

Anything else of note going on? No, not really. Trying to get one book done so I can get started with another, hoping to get the whole trilogy done next year. This is going to be going out for traditional publication, so I am going to focus on making this the best book I have ever written. I just don’t know if I should put it into a tight trilogy or leave it opene ended so I can keep it an ongoing series.

Choices, choices – so many choices.

Well, that’s all that’s bugging me for now. Ta-ta!