Yearly Archives: 2017

What to write next?

Last week was a long, boring week. It seems that I’m not writing much, if at all. I’ve been thinking about doing NaNo, but it depends on when Grimaulkin Tempted gets back from the editor. I can turn it around usually in two weeks, so that’s not a problem. The problem is I have no idea what to write for NaNo.

I looked over War Mage and I have 8K words there. Earth, I have 3K. The other thought is to get Earth finished for NaNo, since that’s what’s next on the publishing agenda.

War Mage is slated for May 2018, but War Mage is like pulling teeth. I don’t want to offend anyone in the armed forces with the book, being that I’m coming at it from a non-combatant’s point of view. It’s not like I didn’t do any research on war–I’ve read four books on the Afghan war and two on Iraq. But I do admit it’s nothing like being in combat, and I somehow have to lie about that when I write. I’ve been told that the first scene of Homecoming was very realistic, so I might be able to pull it off. It’s the little things, the slang, the acronyms, the military language that I don’t know. My target audience for War Mage is people who are interested in the military but want a fantasy element to it. Kind of like John Scalzi but with fantasy instead of sci-fi.

Something–the muses, whatever–wants me to try something else. Memoir, perhaps, because memoir seems to sell well in this neck of the woods. The story in the anthology is based on a story my great-uncle told me about when he lived during Prohibition. (By the way, my story is first in the anthology, a place of honor, as I understand it.) I want to get away from the magic for a little while, not because I’m sick of it, but because I know it all too well. The memoir I have in mind is in three parts: Cancer, Death, and Autism. The title is Torn Asunder. Maybe I’ll do it. I know NaNo is for fiction, but I want to do something that is lucrative. I don’t know if I have enough stuff to write it, and if I want to bare my soul yet (some people involved aren’t dead yet). But it could be only for me. And my posterity. I do want to get it down before I die, and the way things are going, I have about six years left.

Okay, so I amend my first statement. I have a few options. We’ll just have to see what I end up with in the next two weeks.

In the meantime, I’m going to try and write at least once a week on my writing blog. It might not always have to do with the game, even though I’m back to playing it again. I have too many characters in that game to keep track of now! And I keep making more! I’m addicted and need to stop. But I’ll try and write a short story once a week. I read a quote that if you write a short story every week, there’s no way you can write a bad short story 52 times in a row. So somewhere there’s going to be a diamond out of all that crap I spew out.

Don’t try this at home

After the festival, I ended up in the hospital for dehydration and elevated potassium. Oops.

So lesson learned: don’t not eat or drink anything for two days.

Finished the editing for Grimaulkin Tempted, and awaiting a new cover.  Also trying to think up the blurbs for it.

I think I might do NaNoWriMo this year. I have a few days off next month so I’ll be able to do it. I have NO idea what to do since I started War Mage already. Maybe add 50K words to it to make it viable? I also started Earth. Those are the two books that are on the schedule for next year. I don’t want to do Grim 3 because I have just the major plot in mind for that. The muse needs to percolate more ideas for that one.

I would hate to waste a month on something that I’m not going to publish, considering I have deadlines.

Also, I’m in an anthology, Under the 13th Star, which is a showcase of Rhode Island authors’ short stories. articles, and poems. My story is first in the anthology! I’m so excited! It will be officially released on Monday, but it’s on Amazon right now with print-on-demand.

Columbus Day Weekend

Well, the big push for my appearances is over, and I just have to wait until December for my last appearance this year.  I learned a lot of good things from my tent-mates, some of which are in my podcast this weekend. (Which doesn’t have the same quality–I kind of rushed through it.)

I learned that my story is first in the Association of Rhode Island Authors anthology, Under the 13th Star, which should be on sale in November. I was so happy to hear that. It meant my story was good enough to lead off the anthology. I was glowing the whole day when I heard that.

And I found my perfect reader for Grimaulkin on Saturday. She’s bi, likes reading gay stories, and we discussed the fact that there isn’t that much gay literature in the mainstream. “Most of it’s about how awful it is being gay, but it’s not that bad,” she said. She bought a copy of Grimaulkin, and I told her, “I wrote this for you. You’re going to love it.” Another glowing spot of the day.

Sunday was overcast and spotty rain, so I didn’t get any customers, nevermind any buyers. Which was okay; I learned about marketing from my tent-mate.

I got Grimaulkin Tempted back from the editor, and I need to make Mike just a wee bit more sympathetic. The ending that I thought sucked was one he didn’t see coming, so I have to drop more clues in the book to make it more plausible. I remembered the subtle clues–I guess they were too subtle. I also got a cover. After thinking about it, and having it on my background here on the computer, it kind of looks more like a bodice-ripper than a teen story. I have to talk to the publisher about it. Maybe changing the title might help.

Good news, Good news, Bad news, Meh news

Good news: I’ll be on another radio interview at WADK.com on November 8 at 10:30 a.m. That’s a small station out of Newport, RI.

More good news: The anemia isn’t what’s causing my exhaustion. In fact, we don’t know what it is. But my cortisone pills have been increased so I’m feeling much better.

Bad news: No new episode this weekend. I’ll get one out next Monday, Columbus Day, after my stints at Autumnfest and Scituate Art Festival. I’m tempted to call it, “Throwing stuff against the wall: Ways how not to market your book.”

Meh news: I still haven’t done any writing. It’s like there’s nothing there. I’ve got ideas, but no real push to do anything with them. I know War Mage is supposed to be done for next year, and Earth for next February, but it’s like “meh” when I sit down to write it. I’ve stared at the blank page and end up falling asleep. Hopefully the cortisone will kick me back into gear soon.

Hate being sick

I have anemia. Among some of the symptoms is constant fatigue. Because of that, I haven’t been writing. I haven’t been playing games, either. I eat dinner, and an hour later, I’m in bed. Even on the weekends, I pass out for an hour or two at a time. It’s like narcolepsy!

My writing is suffering. My podcast this weekend was three whole minutes.

I have to get a particular shot for the anemia every month, and I’m due to get this shot on Wednesday. Then it takes about a week for it to kick in, so I hope I’ll be better by Columbus Day weekend.

My endings suck

Yesterday, I read through Grimaulkin Tempted in one sitting, and got to the end. It sucked.

This isn’t the first time I realized this. My beta reader for Grimaulkin told me that my ending for that was too short. So I added a couple of scenes, and I suppose it came out more satisfying.

Grimaulkin Tempted‘s initial ending is “the cops came, arrested everyone, and it was over.” Noooooo. It can’t end that way. Too easy.

The idea about endings is that things are ramped up to a point where something breaks.  You have to give the hero something to want throughout the story, and the ending is the climax of either getting what he wants, or not getting what he wants. He has to fight for it, too, which means “the cops came” is not a good heroic ending.

But I hate endings that drag on…and on…and on. I want the book to end, not go on for fifty pages describing the inner thoughts of the main character and how he feels about things. The ending is action. The denouement is reaction. I have the last line in the book, and it’s a hard punch. I have the denouement, and I’m happy with that.

The climax toward the end? Sucks.

I plan on getting this to the editor by October 1.  I’m giving myself a week to come up with an appropriate ending. I hope the muse comes up with something better than “the cops came”.

Started writing Earth/Virgo from the point of view of the gangster. Let’s see if I can make him interesting.

My next appearances will be at the Scituate Art Festival on Saturday, October 7, and Autumnfest in Woonsocket on Sunday, October 8. Check out my calendar for future events.

Insanity

Had the Calamari festival yesterday. Sold one book. (Better than last year, when I sold nothing.) Was not worth the table fee. I’m not going to do it next year. It’s too much money and most people who came had no idea we were there. So they didn’t bring money. I didn’t even get to try any Calamari! But my tentmate helped me with a new elevator pitch for my first book.

My next festival is Saturday at Scituate Art festival and Sunday at Autumnfest. October 10 & 11.

This week I’m going to start the rewrite of Grimaulkin Tempted and develop the elevator pitch with that.

Next time, I’m getting the kid to schlep stuff. I’m too old to carry everything. I’m also going to buy a luggage carrier with wheels because I now have three bags of stuff to carry. Maybe I should just get a suitcase.

Also got the DSM-5 manual for research. My psychologist suggested it, so I could believably put in a mental disorder with some characters. Also interesting to read about my own disorder.

Grimaulkin Tempted…done!

I just finished Grimaulkin Tempted this morning at 9 a.m. Now I need to kick back, celebrate, and let it rest.

Next Saturday I’ll be at the Narragansett Calamari Festival (alone…my assistant bailed on me yet again). Next Sunday will be rewrite day.

So next on my bucket list is Earth. Virgo is the one that’s calling me right now, so I’ll work on that.  We also got an audition for Water‘s audiobook.

Podcast 7 to drop tomorrow, once I figure out what to talk about.

Music to Write To

I have a playlist for Grimaulkin. But I’ve found a radio station on Sirius XM called Turbo that has a lot of the music for the mood of Grimaulkin. It’s hard rock from the 1990’s and early 2000’s, just around the time period that Grimaulkin takes place. (Trust me, I’d rather listen to that than Y2K Pop.) So when you read Grimaulkin Tempted, know that I listened to this radio station which caused a lot of the action scenes–especially during Rage Against the Machine songs.

Water was written over three years. Cancer was written first and set aside; Pisces written earlier this year. Scorpio was initially the prologue, but I didn’t like it because there was no sex, and it didn’t espouse the, er, talents of Scorpio. When I changed my initial Scorpio into the prologue, that set me free to write Scorpio as you see him, which I’m very proud of.

So good news, I was able to put my book in a store! Bewitched of Scituate is a little witchy store in Scituate, RI, where I got a card reading. Afterward we talked about putting Grimaulkin in her store. She said that she would be happy to put my book on her shelf if I would donate one to her library. So I provided three copies to sell (because three is a magic number) and donated one.

Next is getting it in the library. My next day off is September 8, and I’ll get down to the Pawtucket library to beg them to take Grimaulkin. Maybe head up to Worcester to donate Homecoming, too.

Meanwhile, my plan is to hit the 45K mark with Grimaulkin Tempted this weekend (I’m at 44,783 right now, so it won’t be difficult) and start tying up loose ends. I was thinking of continuing a plotline into the next book, but decided against it. I want this to be tidy, because the next book is going to be really deep and conflicted. Maybe I’ll finish it by Labor Day. If so, I’ll put it aside to rest and rise, then work on Earth. After I write one of the novellas in that series, I’ll go back to Grimaulkin Tempted and do the first edit. It will definitely be on its way to the editor in October.

Things are going well!