Category Archives: War Mage

Heading to WorldCon!

“War Mage,” the short story, is headed off to the editor, but we’re really concentrating on WorldCon at the moment.

I just finished editing Blood From a Stone, my NaNoWriMo from a couple of years back. It’s a murder mystery, with a gay protagonist, who wants to keep himself firmly in the closet. But by the end of the story, he at least thinks about coming out. This is a one-off, non-magical story–just a straight up murder mystery.  With a transvestite, too.

So next week I might not blog, or I might just blog a little bit to let you know how things are going in California. I’ve got a little bit of packing to do, and then I’ll be ready.

So come to San Jose to WorldCon and visit me. I’ll probably be at the table because I have crowd anxiety.

War Mage – outta my life!

So, the good news, is I decided to make War Mage a short story instead. It will be a 99 center, selling at the venues for a buck a book. I can’t think about it anymore. It’s taking up so much room in my head, so much time and effort, that I finally had to just write down the main plot and get it over with.

What’s next on my bucket list is finishing “Devour”, a multi-part story on the Maxwell Thomas website. I’m also picking at a Grimaulkin anthology, backstories of different characters and scenes that Mike wasn’t privy to, such as Aunt Jane’s death or how Ritter became a knight.  I’m stopping myself from doing Grimaulkin: TNG because I personally hate when an author goes that way with his characters.. Grimaulkin can’t last forever (unlike Harry Dresden that just went on and on and on…).

I’m waiting until after WorldCon to start on Air. I’ll be at WorldCon in two weeks! It seems so close now. I’ll be on WNRI.com on Tuesday at 9 a.m. with Wayne Barber on the Authors’ Hour. I’ll be talking about poetry, podcasting, and Grimaulkin Redeemed, how it feels to write the last book in a series.

I’ll probably do a quick hello from Worldcon.

On my mind

War Mage….

How tough it is to write. But I have to; there’s a fan base that’s looking for it. Or there may be after the Cons I’m going to.

I’ve written eight parts of the “Devour” story on Maxwell Thomas’ website, but I’m putting up one part a week. Right now there’s two parts, so things are going to get interesting.

Writing War Mage is like work. There’s so many things I want to put in there, and so many things I want to make sure I don’t put in there. Like too many vampires. I have to put in the Black Lions, and the dragons, and the werewolves, and, of course, the soldiers, what they’ve gone through. Someone I know suggested I go down to the VA and try to talk to vets there and get information. I don’t know how to go about that, but it’s an idea to try.

My poetry has stalled. I went to a poetry/prose reading and it turned into a revival. Now me, not being Christian, felt a little out of place. After what they did, I’m going to read “Trigger”, a poem about school shootings at the next poetry get-together. The other thing I want to do is try hymns to the muses, or the gods that I believe in and work with. I don’t know how that will go over, but that’s what I’m itching to do. Maybe the muses will give me something before the next reading.

Episode 21 is up and ready of the Dark Mystic Quill. It’s about Success and what it means. It’s available on Apple podcasts.

The book tour

Today I’m going to  an LBGTQ store located in my area to try and pitch my books to put them on their shelf.  Mister Sister is located on Wickenden Street in Providence. Even if they don’t put my books up, I still would advertise them.

We’re getting ready for WorldCon in San Jose. We have no idea what table we’re at (I am suspecting it’s a first-come, first-served kind of thing), but as soon as I find out, I’ll tweet it. My twitter is @warwriter or @MaxwellTAuthor .

I’ll be on the radio at WNRI.com (again!) on August 7 at 9 a.m., talking about Grimaulkin Redeemed. And this time I promise I’ll talk about the book, not about me.

I’m still writing War Mage. Hopefully this time it’s the charm and this will be the last draft for this book. I have to fish or cut bait on this one; ten drafts is enough.

How big are those bathrooms, anyway?

WorldCon 76 is just about a month away, and we plan to have a large presence there. There will be not only my books–Grimaulkin Redeemed is now available and it’s a really nice contrast to the dark colors of the first two, a great eye-catcher.  There will also be books by J Dark in her Glass Bottles series, Building Baby Brother by Steven Radecki, and Children of the Wrong Time by Flavia Ada.  And dragons. And card readings.

I had an event yesterday and sold one book, which I was happy about. These small fairs, though, are a real crapshoot. Most of the people who come to them are older folk looking for stuff for them or their grandchildren. I happened to get lucky and get a 15 year old who was so excited to read his first “New Adult” book that he kept saying, “I can’t wait to read this!” He probably started reading it in the car.

After the event, I decided to sit down and start War Mage again. I’m following my own advice and making up stuff based on research. The history is all wrong, there is no Firebase Jackson, there is no Colonel Parlance, but there is a 10th Mountain Division. I just put them there because from what I’ve read, those guys kick ass. I have the sinking feeling, though, I’m not going to get 50K words out of it. We’ll see what happens.

A new podcast is up at Dark Mystic Quill. It’s about magic and writing. Together.

Fire is on hold until after WorldCon while the publisher gets things ready for that. All I care about is fitting in the bathroom on the plane. If I don’t, you’ll see me on youtube and CNN as the idiot lady who got stuck in a JetBlue bathroom. I’ll be famous! And sell lots of books!

 

Anything but War Mage

Finished Fire, and sent it off to the publisher. It’s a first draft, and I did a cursory glance over it.

I don’t want to work on Air just yet. I feel like I need a break from the erotica. Or more akin to male-male romance stories with spice.

What do I work on now?

War Mage is a monkey on my back. I promised to deliver that over two years ago, and I just can’t do it. I was talking to someone at a poetry open-mic and I told her I wrote m/m erotica. She said she did too, and wanted me to read her stuff. She told me the backdrop, and she said she can’t seem to complete it because it takes place in the Civil War and “I want to get the history right.”

I told her, “It’s an alternate universe. Make it up.”

That’s when a light went on. I can be close to history but not exact. I can make up the villages, the outposts, the FOB’s, the men and their units…I don’t have to be on target. As long as I make it believable, people will come along for the ride and suspend belief long enough to follow. I will, of course, get some people who say, “The 1st Indiana was in Kabul, not in Aslamabad”, but I’m not writing this for military fanatics. If I get the weaponry and typical standard operating procedure right (thank God for Sebastian Junger), I should do fine.

Now comes time to write it. For the tenth time.

Rained out

I had an event scheduled for yesterday, but it got rained out. Even though it didn’t rain. (They decided to cancel because of threat of thunder showers–but this is New England, and the weatherman is 88% wrong.)

Grimaulkin Redeemed is still slated for July 1, but we’re having technical difficulties, so the print version may not be available at that time. I had hoped to have it for my Shastea appearance next Thursday, but such is life. I doubt I’ll sell anything there anyway.

Hm, let’s see. I’ve been working on Fire and am finding myself with a writer’s block on “Leo”. I’m adding some light BDSM to it, and I have to research it. I was upset when I got a $2.99 book from Amazon, and it was a chapter of a book. A chapter! We sell whole books for $2.99. This is why my erotica is more story than sex now.

Anyway…I used Storymatic to generate a new idea, and it was “A long awaited invitation” and “poet”. I was going to do Walt Whitman as Gemini, but then I dropped that idea. I decided to check out Wattpad because that’s where all the cool kids go these days. Wattpad is fanfic, according to my son, so why can’t I just twist history around, and have Walt Whitman have a relationship with Henry David Thoreau?

Bingo!

So for giggles, I’m writing a really bad fanfic of those two getting together, even though they probably never did. I noticed that if I free myself from reality then the story happens. This is what the problem with War Mage is–I’m too stuck in its reality. in satisfying people who were there, that I can’t write it. Maybe I’ll try it in Wattpad to see how it goes.

Success!

Had a successful meet and greet yesterday. Sold a bundle of all three books I have published (other than Water), plus the shorts, all for $30. See, if you come visit me, you get free stuff AND cheap stuff too!

I didn’t have enough space to read cards, so I owe her (she’s an author in ARIA). She’s also in charge of the Lively Literati which I will be the featured author for on the 28th of this month. I’ll have stuff, but I don’t think I can read cards there. It’s a very busy place.

I had really good neighbors, and networking was a plus. We all traded how we do things, what events were successful, what to watch out for, things like that. My neighbor and I were the only fantasy authors there. He was more high fantasy while I’m contemporary fantasy, so we didn’t conflict.

I was over the moon with the sales. I’m so easy to satisfy.

In other news, Earth should be out next Friday, at least the e-books. We’re waiting on a few things, but the pre-order is up if you want to get in now. Maxwell Thomas is tweeting almost daily. We’re working on building up his followers. He’s on twitter @MaxwellTAuthor.

Grimaulkin Redeemed is almost ready to go for July 1. I hope to have copies for the Lively Literati on the 28th, but I should definitely have copies for Richmond’s Author Day on July 14. It will be bittersweet to see the last in the trilogy…however the publisher is thinking of me doing an anthology consisting of some of the characters in the Grimaulkin story, like Ritter and the Knight in the Atheneum. Maybe. But I’m working on Fire right now. My personal goal is to get that one done by October.

Oh yeah, and then there’s War Mage. Um…yeah. Still doing research on it. I’m listening to War by Sebastian Junger, which is all about soldiers in Afghanistan in 2008, three years after my book takes place. It’s still pertinent because they didn’t have glatis plates on the bottom of Hummers to stop IED’s from killing people in the armored personnel carriers. It’s a very interesting and insightful book, something I should have read before any others.

 

Audiobook! More books! Poetry! Maybe War Mage?

Hello! I’ve had two cups of tea this morning already so I’m raring to go!

I received the first eight chapters of Grimaulkin in audiobook form. Despite my friend saying “He sounds like a computer” (I told her “You haven’t heard the Lore podcast”) I think it’s awesome. The point is, she laughed in all the right places, lpointed out things that she wasn’t clear about (though it was because either the GPS voice cut in or she wasn’t paying attention). She’s not an audiobook listener, either. I don’t think she’ll ever read it. It’s okay…it’s not her style.

Went to my first poetry open mic last night and it was fun. I’m going to another one on the 31st, and I will be the featured author on June 28. I’ll be there with my books, and I’ll read “The Joint”. Meanwhile, my poetry was so well-received that I might write some more poems for open mic nights.

I’ve been filling out the trusty outline for War Mage, and although I’ve got the story lined up, the actual draft is horrible and short. I feel like I’m writing jigsaw puzzle pieces, and at some point they will fit together. This, like poetry, is a new method of writing for me. It’s like wearing loud prints when all you’re used to wearing is block colors. It’s a weird feeling; you think everyone’s staring at you and judging you based on what you’ve always worn. And now you’re daring something new? It blows people’s minds, not to mention your own. But you get used to it, and so do others, and eventually it may become, if not the norm, then at least accepted.

In between my “homework” (my personal enrichment) I plan and write War Mage. Some days it’s a scene, other days it’s a few words. But a little bit every day is better than nothing at all.

Writing when bored

I was bored yesterday.

I had finished Grimaulkin Redeemed, and it’s at the editor. I “finished” “Taurus”–it could go on for a couple more scenes, but I like ending it where it is.

I had the urge to write. I wrote a poem that I’m going to read at the Lively Literati which is sponsored by ARIA, and is kind of a poetry-prose open-mic evening of readings and public speaking.  Because that poem’s depressing, I’m going to write a more fun one today.

Okay, so I did the poem, which took me an hour, and I was still bored. What to do next?

I opened up Scrivener. Maybe something would come to me. I had downloaded an outline template for Scrivener and it was first in my list. I opened it up. I was initially going to take out my trusty Story-matic cards that have helped me develop stories in the past, but then I thought about War Mage.

The outline template is called Fool-Proof Outline, from the book of the same name that I had downloaded through Kindle Unlimited (when I used it briefly at the beginning of the year). It’s a series of questions to get you thinking, preparing, and help you write a crappy first draft. But it’s still a first draft.

I had sent to the editor what I had written with War Mage version 7, along with what I planned to do with it. He hasn’t gotten back to me (I wonder why….after all, I’ve sent him a novel, two novellas, a short story–and there’s not only me in his stable–plus he has a life… 😉 ) But I thought, eh…what the hell.

I filled out a few of the questionnaires, and restarted the first scene. I’m changing Brent from the easy-going guy he was in Homecoming to someone a little colder, calculating, and suspicious. That’s a lot like Mike, so it’ll be interesting to see how I make Brent into someone slightly different. The next thing I knew, four hours had passed and I was thinking of War Mage as fun, not a chore.

Maybe the eighth time’s the charm.