writing

The Six Hundred and Eleventh Post: The One Where I Tell My Character To Have A Seat on the Couch and Tell Me How She Feels…

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Can an influencer be sympathetic? That’s the question I am mulling over while I outline the second draft of Serve Me Now – the horror novel I want to get finished by the first quarter of 2025. She’s an “adult” influencer and model, meaning she does a lot of skin-showing and other things for a living. For this to be a good horror novel, I need to make her sympathetic…can we feel sympathy for someone whose only job is to lopok pretty? That’s my question.

I can go the old tried-and-true route of ‘hates her job’. I feel though I come back to this well a little too often with Evan. I could make her cynical of people. After all, her job is just to look pretty. She could hate going to the gym as much as I do, but she needs to go to keep her perfect shape, which leads to the real problem when she starts down the path she does in the book.

Maybe she likes her job for the attention but hates the work. NO\o choice in going to the gym. No choice in really what she can or can’t eat. Sure – she wants that slice of cheesecake, but she knows that that isn’t cheesecake, but an additional twenty minutes on the treadmill. She would like to put on sweats and eat a bag of chips and watch Hallmark movies, but that’s not bringing eyeballs to her OnlyFans site.

I think that’s the route to take. Everyone can find something wrong with their job, right? I mean, the key to having a sympathetic character is having something that the reader can relate to in their life. I’m sure we’ve all had jobs where if it weren’t for one thing, we would actually like it.

Here’s another one for the main character – for all the attention she gets, she’s lonely. I know that the whole ‘intimidated by my beauty’ thing is a little…cliched. All the messages she gets just amount to how much that particular person wants to sleep with her, and what kind of person she is in bed. No one comments on her stance on international affairs, or asks her what her favorite book is. They just want to know if she swallows or not.

What if she were a lot smarter than people think? Not super genius mode, but certainly someone with a good head on their shoulders. What if the person that knows her the best is her boyfriend Ian? I mean – he should know her the best because they’re in a relationship. This makes his inevitable departure even that much more painful because this was her tether to a somewhat normal life. When he’s gone, all she has are the empty platitudes of her fans. Even those begin to trickle away.

Yes. I think this is the route I am going to take. I just need to keep this in mind when I work on the outline. Can I show her loving the attention? Sure. There’s a little bit of narcissism in her to lap up the looks and leers. She could suffer from low self-esteem, which would explain a lot of things with her.

Well – that wasn’t so hard.

Now, I just gotta fold this into all the other things that are going on in the book. I am hoping to get it finished in time for publication by the end of the first quarter of the New Year. I want to have my schedule cleared for all the other books that I need to write. Wish me luck!

The Six Hundred and Tenth Post: The One Where I Get In Another Post Barely On Time!

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Deadlines, amirite?

I am working on the history of my fantasy world, and let me tell you – it’s harder than one would think. I have two discrete time periods that I am trying to join. One of them is typical fantasy – swords, elves and the such. The other period has guns and is patterned after the Wild West. In the later period, there are no elves. They’re stories told to children. My problem is two-fold. One: how to join these two time periods. Two: what happened to the elves?

A lot of times elves are always goodness and light…

Or dark dominatrix.

I really want to go in a different direction with the elves here.

So…why not make them like marauders? Hear me out.

The main continent is home to a race called the rahsaya – clouds of self-organizing, sentient magic. They were there first and lived for centuries before the elves came from their home continent. From there, they discovered two things: a resource rich land, and magic for the taking. Like all good colonizers, they take everything that isn’t nailed down and take a crowbar to what was. When they found the rahsaya, they didn’t see them as sentient beings, but as another resource. The rahsaya had no cities, no written language – barely could be considered living. Trapping them in the rare ore orchilarium, they were turned into batteries of magic. Entire fields and families were sucked into devices to make the lives of the elves easier.

Then a few elves discovered an old work called the Khesu-Kher. In it is the secret of immortality. Yes – elves are long lived, but they will still die. Why should the party stop simply because you do? The only problem is the Khesu-Kher was found incomplete. While many of the formula and spells were complete and useful, the one that was desired was incomplete. The cabal of elves spent time and fortunes to find the rest of the spell. This group came to call themselves Masters, and worked behind the scenes to further their research. When the war between the rahsaya and elves involved some humans called the Kuonradi, and started to go badly the elves fled the continent, finding another place to take root in.

This little snippet of history solves most of my problems. I have the elves, so I can continue with Rhona and Anya (if I ever get a good idea) and continue the story of the Masters and Tyro in the later eras. I’ve got a rough outline so far. There are seven ages with Rhona in the Age of War, and Tyro in the following Age of Man. I’ve even plotted a little further along with the Ages of Exploration, Colonization, Rebellion and Progress. Would the Masters see these ages? I don’t know, but it’s fun to contemplate one of the Masters laboring over a computer and bemoaning the loss of good scribes.

Well, that’s all I have for now. I know I should be working on the outline to Agonizing Alibi Day, and I’ll throw down a couple of bullet points before I head to the gym. Wish me luck in sweating!

The Five Hundred and Eightieth Post: The One Where I am Ready To Write 50,000 Words!

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I can’t wait for tomorrow – I’m writing this on October 31st, Nanowrimo eve. I haven’t finished the outline for the novel, but I am confident that by the time I get to the last chapter I have outlined, I will have an idea where to thake the story. I think when it comes to me outlining…as much as I hate this saying: less is more. My outline for Voices Abroad is enough so that I could hand it to anyone and they could write the text based off of my notes. Sadly, I have come to a point in the outline where I don’t really feel like putting anything down. I want to get the outline finished, but I’m just daunted? Is that the right feeling? I’m chomping at the bit to get going for the main book. The outline? Not so much.

I’m also working on the Gothic horror story’s notes and outlines – speaking of chomping at the bit. I might end up starting it on January and push back the hardcore fantasy for a few months. I’m not really motivated to take up those other two novels right now. I’m not despairing right now, I have the whole year to work on them, and this Gothic novel really is hitting the right spot for me. It’s not going to be a Kellas Donovan novel – so sex and violence will be at a minimum. I’m even buying a couple of books that are literary analysis of Gothic literature just to make sure I have all my I’s dotted and T’s crossed. I’m taking my time with this one because I really want to get this one right. I can feel the fire in my bones. This is going to be a good one. I might even try to get this one published through traditional means.

I had a good birthday – got “The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires” and a new t-shirt for the gym. It was a good Sunday. I am hoping that the rest of the week and the next that I have off will be just as productive. Slept in a little…meaning I got up at seven in the morning rather than four-thirty. Working when I feel up to it, and playing some Baldur’s Gate 3 when so moved. It’s been a fun time so far.

That’s it for now. This time tomorrow, I am going to have my little ‘writer’s moment’ and plop myself down in front of my writing laptop and write away. I can barely wait. Might even take a nap and wake up at midnight to get going. Probably not.

The Five Hundred and Seventy-eighth Post: The One Where I Grow Impatient About Several Things at Once!

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I don’t really think I am going to finish the outline by the end of the month like I had hoped. It’s over halfway through the month and I am on Chapter Six – not even up to the first killing. This might end up being one of those ‘work on the book during the morning and evening and outline during lunch’…which had never happened to me. Then again – I don’t usually outline this extensively. We’ll see if I can still make my overarching deadline of a manuscript finished by the end of December. Don’t look for this book to come out any time soon. I am taking my time with this one.

The Writing Process in a nutshell…

Speaking of not getting jack done – I am finally getting Baldur’s Gate 3 today! I’ve been waiting for this game since I saw the cinematic opening (which I have linked for you – enjoy!). I have never completed the first two games – came close with the second one, which remains my favorite, but I can’t wait to get home and try it out. I am going to measure out the time I spend with it. I do have other priorities after all.

Even though it is October, and I still have two months left in the Year of Horror – I am looking forward to the Year of Fantasy next year, and I think I am going to work on The Deadly Barrow first, because one – that’s a on-going series and two, I can monetize that fairly quickly. I just need to get back to it and get it finished before releasing it as a serial. I really want to get back to something that’s a little more grimbright than what I have been writing. I like writing about people fighting the status quo, even if they fail. I don’t know if my merry cast of characters will fail, but it will be nice to see how they do.

Well, that’s all for now. Just me counting down the hours until I can get the game I’ve been waiting for what feels like decades. I promise to maintain this blog, but there are going to be times when I blather on about the game, and like I’ve told my wife ‘just nod your head and pretend to pay attention and I’ll be fine’. Ta-ta for now.

The Five Hundred and Seventy-sixth Post: The One Where I Actually Open Up About Something That’s Bothering Me…

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Can I get real for a minute?

I’m getting ready to write the outline for my next, and last horror book of the year.

I’m going to write about a native Kenyan schizophrenic coming over to America and losing his mind. I’m a pasty white boy from Virginia who’s never crossed the Rockies, much less been overseas. I’m no schizophrenic. I’m not sane either (heh). The only thing I have going for me is that I have done a lot of research into schizophrenia – in fact, this book is based on a study I happened to have stumbled across while looking for something else entirely.

I don’t have the background for this.

I don’t even think this is my book.

I’ll just quietly retreat from all of this and go back to comedy…

Now, I have written about murder, without having committed a murder. I’ve written about elves without having pointed ears and a six-hundred-year outlook on life. I’ve written about cannibalism without having so much as biting someone in anger. Why do I feel so nervous about this particular book?

Is it the climate that this book is being written in? The fact that I have put in the kind of work that I have, and my whole career can be killed even before it gets off the ground by someone calling a racist? Even if I take the time to defend my position, would anyone bother to hear it? The pessimist in me (a loud, old man to be sure) says that no one is going to care. The label will be slapped on me and that will be that.

If only that many people *read* the book…

Should I write this book, though? I could easily hand it off to someone else. Someone who has more experience than me in certain matters. I can finish the outline, drop off photocopies of everything and say “Good luck! Remember me in the author’s dedication list!”. Being a ghost writer is an honorable profession. So is using a pseudonym. We can ask Anne Rampling how that worked out for her.

I would hand it off to someone, even offer to write it for them and give them credit…but my ego would never allow it. I could not stay quiet if I gave this away and it became a success. The bitterness would overtake me so fast, it’d make your head spin. The rest of my life would be chasing that success to reclaim it.

What should I do, then? Write it and then quietly smother the baby in the crib? Set all my research aside and hope to find someone willing to be the front face of this particular book? The pressure behind the sunk-cost fallacy is real.

The Five Hundred and Seventy-Third Post: The One Where I Need Two Matches for One Candle…

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I am so ready to end this current project. It’s not boring, it’s that I am ready to start my Nanowrimo project, even though I am not anywhere near finished with the research. I’m going to finish the current one first, obviously, because I can see the finish line – I think I have to write two more chapters and touch up at least one – and the other one is really interesting to me. I don’t think I’m going to finish it in a month. I’m aiming for 90,000 words, and I don’t think I can get that done in a month, even if I go into ‘burning candles on all three ends’ mode.

Shown: November

This is why it’s so hard for me to finish projects. I get so entranced with the next one, I abandon the unfinished one. I’m a dog on a highway – there are so many tires to choose from! I’m honestly surprised I finished two books this year and I am very close to finishing a third one. I have to focus. I have to hunt down that one car before I take off after that eighteen-wheeler.

Shown: Next Project

I’m also trying to look it as this: the fact that I finished two books is a sign that I am learning and growing as a writer. I also see it as divine influence, and I really need to get back to other projects. Next year is definitely the year of Fantasy with finishing The Deadly Barrow and The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show and working on something else if I get those two done before the end of the year. Don’t know what – might be Unbound…might be something new. I might rob a bank. I might get ice cream. I’ll decide in the car.

I think that’s it for now. I just have to put the screws to my thumbs and get finished with this disastrous Christmas party so I can torment people with schizophrenia. The joys of being a writer!

The Five Hundred and Seventy-second Post: The One Where…am I Getting Stuff Done?

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I’m getting close to finishing The Catastrophic Christmas Party. I’ve hit the main scene I’ve been wanting to write ever since I came up with the idea. If things work out, I should have it done before the end of this month. Nancy can read and edit it September and October, edit it out in November and put it up for sale in December. I am considering making this a Kindle only offering. I say that because getting it formatted to paperback is a pain in the butt.

I’m having some fun researching for my Nanowrimo project. I had no idea that the voices schizophrenics hear are natured by the culture of the afflicted. Voices in America and Europe tend to be horrifying, while India and Africa tend to be gentler. I took this off of a single study I read about, but it’s nice to see that this study has been replicated. The problematic nature of this book has been solved for me, at least. I can continue forward with some confidence.

If I can finish these two works, I would have written four rough drafts in a year. This is unprecedented for me! One book is a minor miracle for me. Possibly having four rough drafts? Inconceivable!  And that I’m getting one book edited to be put out next year (I am being optimistic for this)! Things are looking up for me writing wise.

My Agent agrees with me

Next year, I am going to switch to fantasy – which means I probably won’t get to the werewolf story any time soon. The first thing is going to be to finish The Deadly Barrow and get it edited, then work on Medicine Show and get that edited. I’m slowing down a little, or it’s going to look like, but these books are huge. The Deadly Barrow is the first book in the series and that’s going to be a minimum of 80,000 words. Medicine Show is going to be over 100,000 words. If I have some time, I might work on the sequel to The Deadly Barrow…which I can’t remember the title to right now.

For the immediate future, I’m going to throw myself into outlining and researching my schizophrenic book project once Christmas Party is over, which should take me through the latter half of September and through October. November is going to be writing and maybe the first half of December. Editing won’t be for a while, but it will be done.

Good news on the weight front! I am down to 252 pounds! This new medicine is working great for me with no side effects. It’s just a single injection that I have to do once a week, which is better than two pills twice a day. Did I mention I have no more embarrassing side effects? I couldn’t have comfortably gone to GenCon without this shot. I am so thankful for it!

That’s all for now, hope you all are doing well. Catch you on the next one.

The Five Hundred and Seventieth Post: The One Where I Listen for the Whoosh of a Possibly Blown Deadline…

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My confidence that I am going to complete the novel The Catastrophic Christmas Party by the end of August is waning rapidly. I have only myself to blame: I took on overtime which does cut into my writing time at home, but I need that money for next summer’s vacation. I am certain I can still get it done and published before the beginning of December. This one is not going before the writing group. My wife will read it and give advice, but this one’s going straight to Amazon like The Dreaded Day Job.

The novel itself is coming along in fits. The first part of the current chapter was a bit of a slog to get through, and the second part is coming along a lot better. I might want to consider coming back to that first part and tightening it up a bit when I begin the revisions. Having the whole conceit of the book ultimately being Evan at Christmas parties and various things going (hopefully) hilariously wrong does limit the scope, but I am having fun introducing the future love interest Sunny. It might not end up being a full 50,000 words, but closer to 40,000.

What else is going on? I got back the proof for the cover for The Show Must Go On and I am delighted with it. Next up is finish raising the capital to pay off the artist, who I will use definitely in the future. I do have tog et things together for the photoshoot for Christmas Party. I just wonder if my wife has a Santa’s cookie tray she doesn’t mind having a drill hole in it. Or maybe I’ll just buy one and sacrifice it for art. Also, need to buy an obnoxious Christmas sweater. For art, I swear.

Something less classy than this…

On the writing front there is not a lot going on beyond trying to finish this project and getting started on another (what it’s going to be is based on when I finish this current one). I haven’t even finished the outline for the werewolf book. It just slipped under the radar in the rush to get Christmas Party started. I might start it since I have quite a few chapters outlined, and just write the rest of the outline while I’m writing the first part of the book. Try to kill two birds with one stone as it were. Or hit two werewolves with one silver bullet.

I guess that’s all for now. Wish me luck in finishing up this slight interruption to the Year of Horror. I’ll see y’all later.

The Five Hundred and Sixty-seventh Post: The One Where I Am on a Roll!

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Well, I have good news! I finished The Show Must Go On, at least the first draft. Now it sits aside for a couple of weeks, and then I begin the re-writes on it. I’ve finished two drafts in one year – and the year isn’t over yet! I might be able to get a couple more out. I think I am going to take a bit of a working break from writing for a week or two. I’m still working on the outline for Your Tribe, Our Tribe – my werewolf novel. I should have that done in a couple of weeks and I’ll start on it and try to get the rough draft on that one finished before November and Nanowrimo. I’m still going to do Immigrant Voices for that, and that might be the last horror novel I do for the year.

Next year, I am going to make it the year of fantasy and finish up two projects and try to have them ready: The Marvelous and Malefic Doomsday Medicine Show and The Deadly Barrow to have them done and in the hopper for being reviewed by my writing group after the horror is finished up.

I really feel that things are coming together now. I’ve gotten a cover artist for The Show Must Go On and if things work out well, I might have her do the covers for Serve Me Now and maybe Immigrant Voices if I can afford her. She’s getting $1,000 for the first cover, and I hope this isn’t money misspent.

This is not me…

What I really need to do is churn out something for immediate consumption. Something that doesn’t go through a strigent review process. Maybe go back to Catastrophic Christmas Party? I think I had most of that done, I just needed to pad it. I might do that now and work in the werewolf outline on Sundays, work on re-writes for Serve Me Now on Saturdays and dedicate the weeks for Christmas Party with an eye for December release.

Did I just make a plan? Am I going to follow through with it?

Yes to both of those.

Wish me luck.

Oh, in case you didn’t know – my first novel The Quietest Heart is free for the remainder of the week. So snatch it up before you have to pay for it. Also – I have a couple of other books, ranging from comedy to horror written by me and several dear friends. Check them out and send some love their way.

Stay well.

The Five Hundred and Sixty-Fifth Post: The One Where I Try to Plan Ahead!

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Well, I am amid killing the final anatagonst in The Show Must Go On, and I am at a quandary as whether bump the main character’s kill count to three and axe the producer, or should I stick with the two? No doubt there are people in the entertainment industry who are not producers screaming their opinions at the screen right now. I might being the main character to the brink of doing just that, and then have the cops come in and arrest him. I don’t want this to turn into a legal drama, so…maybe? I’ll have to think about it for a while. I haven’t gotten a good handle on that part yet.

I’m also trying to figure out which story to write as far as Nanowrimo goes. Yes, I know we’re smack dab in the middle of summer, but I want to do as much pre-writing as possible. For that I have several choices:

  1. Immigrant Voices: A schizophrenic Kenyan discovers that the voices don’t travel well
  2. All I Want for Christmas Is My Two Front Fangs: a young woman is turned into a vampire. This story is played for horror and humor
  3. A Game of Chinese Whispers: In a world interconnected, madness is the web’s undoing.
  4. Breeder: A woman inherits a haunted house, and the spirit that dwells inside wants out.

I have quite a few ideas, and I hope to get through two of them by the time the year is up. I’d like to do the first two. The first one is an idea I’ve had for a while, and I think it’s ready to be put to paper. The second one kinda tickles my funny bone. At first it was going to be super serious and a deep dive into the horror of being a vampire, but my natural sense of humor kept creeping up in scenes I would write in my head.

The last two are certainly good ideas, but they’re still a little half formed, with the last one needing to interview some women about child birthing and how society views that. So, those two might be held back for a while longer to get them ready. These are the four ideas that are coming to mind right now, and if I have some better ideas, I will certainly expand on them a little bit.

Right now, as far as reading goes, I am in the middle of Maeve Fly and I am liking it. It’s got an American Psycho feel to it, which is always good for me. My current break from fantasy is complete for the year. Not reading any, not writing any until next year, when I hope to finish Medicine Show and begin the editing process for that piece of work.

Well – less than a month out from GenCon. I can’t wait for the vacation! Four days of gaming and relaxing. I really can use it. I have some rules, which are going to go up the day GenCon starts, which is a Thursday. With any luck, there won’t be any gaps in posting, since I’ve been fairly good about it up to this point.

Please take some time to peruse the offerings on the right side of the blog – both from me and very talented writers. Have a good day and stay safe.