A Writer's Haven

Next weekend is Autumnfest, so I’ll be there for three days with Paper Angel Press stuff, in addition to my own stuff.

I have a podcast ready at Dark Mystic Quill, and it’s about history in writing.

I’m still working on Air, which is due in February. Fire will be out in October. War Mage is finished and ready to be out on the 1st. It’s short, and I apologize, but I couldn’t get a whole novel no matter how I tried.

I have no idea what to do for NaNoWriMo. My Vegas Fey character is intriguing, with a communicative sword,”with the attention span of a gnat on meth.” I’ll have to take him out of Vegas, though. Put him off the coast of Newport maybe? On a houseboat? Hmmmm…

Time to break out the little booklets and plot books for ideas.

War Mage is finished, and books are on their way to me. I’ll be at the Autumnfest next week in Woonsocket, RI for the whole weekend, selling my books and books from Paper Angel Press. They will include Books 1 and 2 of the Glass Bottle series, Building Baby Brother and Children of the Wrong Time.

My books are Homecoming, War Mage, Grimaulkin, Grimaulkin Tempted, Grimaulkin Redeemed, and the erotica series, Water and Earth. (Fire is later this month.)  In addition, my free short stories “Self-Defense”, “The Joint”, and “Family Bonds” will be available FOR FREE. FREE, FREE, FREE!

Lastly, I’ll offer Tarot readings for any purchase.

I’m working on research for Air’s first story: a Revolutionary War spy. Guess what sign that is?

I’m writing on my lunch hour. I get about a hand-written 8×10 page finished every day. I can’t seem to write the sex scenes, though. It’s like the environment isn’t conductive to that kind of thing.

So, I’m feeling much better than I was last week. It seems this week has been pretty good healthwise (Knock on Formica).

Fire’s final proof got sent back to the editor with a few corrections, so that’s expected to be out in October. Also in October will be “War Mage”. I will also be at the Autumnfest for three days in Woonsocket, RI. I don’t expect to sell lots of books there, but I expect to have good food.

I’m working on Air, to be ready for February of next year. After that, I have no idea what to do. Blood From a Stone might be something, but that’s a stand-alone murder mystery. After that…no idea. Well, I do have an idea for continuing with Grimaulkin, either adventures he has on his own or adventures he has with Ash, his nephew. There’s also an idea of an anthology for other Grimaulkin characters, like how Aunt Jane died, where Ritter came from, who Cavalier really was…that’s a possibility.

I’m also going to try to enter more contests and anthologies next year. Maybe get my name out there somewhere.

Last weekend I went into the hospital because my kidney (yes, I have only one) isn’t working well and I had to stay overnight. This weekend I slept wrong, and I have pain, I mean almost labor-like pain, in my neck, left shoulder and arm weakness.

I say all this not for pity, but to explain that if you’re not healthy, you can’t write.

It took me all day to do something that would normally take me 3 hours. I edited the three Fire stories, “War Mage,” and produced the new back-flap of “War Mage.” I couldn’t (and still can’t) type for long periods. My day job is agony.

I’m going to Physical Therapy for it, but it’ll take some time before it heals. In the meantime, I’m skipping the October fall festivals and going to concentrate on RI Comicon. Hopefully this pain will be gone or at least eased up by then.

So I have nothing else to report. I do suggest that if you’re going to write, that you try to stay as healthy as you can because without it, you can’t do anything else.

I sold a total of 18 books at WorldCon, my new record. I doubt I’ll beat that record at RI Comicon, but I’ll try.

Fire is being edited as we speak; “War Mage” is next on the docket. I sent Blood From a Stone for a read-over to see if it’s worth producing. What’s next is a story for a possible anthology next year. I’m writing character sketches about them right now, and the story is relatively formed in my head.

One thing I’ve found out in my writing and editing is that I have to work on my endings. They seem abrupt and quick, coming out of nowhere and just “ending”. I need to learn to pull them out a little more and make them not sou out of left-field.

I noticed how my writing has improved and changed over the years by looking at “Aries” versus, say, “Leo”. Aries is full of detail, superfluous in places, showing off my knowledge. Leo tells the damn story. As my editor says, “Your writing is clean and sparse.” It tells the story without going off on tangents or down rabbit holes. Aries didn’t do that. Aries is my “I know a lot about WW2, and I’m going to show you.”\ I wrote that story off my obsession with WW2, which is why it goes down rabbit holes and goes into detail.

Even seeing Homecoming versus Grimaulkin Redeemed, I can see the difference. Perhaps my writing is getting better. Perhaps I’ve found my voice, finally.

What next? Well, I could continue the zodiac theme by dividing them into Cardinal, Fixed and Mutable signs. I could have the planets as Gods on Earth. I was going to do the seven deadly sins, but that’s been done so much. Have the seven graces been done? That would be a switch. That would be Max’s story.

As for me…the short story, maybe some poetry. An anthology of stories from Grimaulkin.

We shall see.