Category Archives: Grimaulkin

One of three completed!

Grimaulkin Redeemed has been finished and is at the editor. I feel pretty good about this story. Even though I didn’t tie up the loose end from Grimaulkin Tempted, I developed Grimaulkin into a reluctant hero, which was the point of this book. It’s the last in the series, but I don’t know if it’ll be the last we hear of Grimaulkin. I love him so much, I can’t give him up; and, of course, it depends on if he has fans who clamor for more.

Next is Earth. “Virgo” is at the editor’s also. I’m not thrilled with that story. I’m working on “Taurus” and it’s right now meandering into a long, drawn out, denial-of-love story that I hate. But maybe it’s one of those kinds of stories that others love.

Lastly, of course, is War Mage. Yes, I know–I can’t seem to get past getting things “right”. My initial thought about magic in the military is that they’re not utilizing it to its fullest extent. That mages have a high turnover because they’re in the front line. I keep thinking about the single star review saying, “There’s no story here except for the last twenty pages.” So I tried to make it a murder mystery instead. But it’s really hard for me to change one character from a non-trusting enemy to a steadfast friend. It’ll take a lot longer than 40K words to do it, and I’m not sure I have the patience. If I don’t have the patience, then neither will the reader.

At the moment, I have no other ideas. I kind of want to get out of the magical realism realm, but it’s what I know. I can easily write that kind of thing. In fact I just bought a couple of books on ceremonial (“high”) magic. It’s where my interests lie. I don’t want to make a Harry Dresden copy-cat, though there’s plenty of them around; and I allude to further adventures that Mike has in “Family Bonds”.

Maybe I will keep Grim alive.

Continuing the race from a new starting block

Thirty-eight thousand words. It’s all downhill from here, right?

Well, my plan is to come up with another twenty thousand words. Though I don’t think that’s going to happen, because the story wants to end. I don’t want the story to end. It’s a conflicting feeling. You work on a story for a long time, or work with a character for even longer, and then you get to the end of the book or the series. It’s sad, disappointing, yet there’s a sense of completion.

However, I can set up Grimaulkin for “The Next Generation” if I feel like doing that, but I think, after thirteen years of playing him and writing him, it’s time to let him live exclusively on Champions Online. Until I get bored or there’s a sudden influx of fans.

I don’t want to get bored with Grim. I love the guy. We’ve been through hell together. He won’t die at the end of this book–I can’t do that to him. I’m already showing his tender side, which is more apparent in “Family Bonds,” the tie-in short story for this book.

Personally, I’ve gone through some intense mental health work that has cleared my mind and put me in the starting block of a new way of thinking. It may find its way in my writing. I can see some introspection on Mike’s part that I never went through before. When I rewrite, I’ll bring these new skills I’ve learned into the writing–maybe.

 

Is it worth it?

Did an event yesterday. I sold one book, and I’m very happy for that. (Thanks, Jennifer!) I called my dad and told him, and he said, “You sit all day and sell one book. Is it even worth it?”

I immediately said, “Yes.” And here’s why.

It’s not the book selling that I’m there for. I’m there to learn how other authors are doing things. I’m there to see what works, and what doesn’t. I happened to sit next to someone who was involved in sales, and she showed me a few tricks of the trade. I noticed, too, that it takes me a couple of hours to get warmed up enough to get people’s attention and engage them.

Plus, the four people I sat next to were a blast. We were the loudest group in the room.

I’m also there to meet people. I passed out business cards, put myself out there. I passed people to other authors that could help them or that would have books of their interest. I told them about my publisher and gave out a couple of brochures.

People asked a lot about audio books. By the way, the narrator of Water is going to narrate the Grimaulkin series and I could not be more happy–he’s absolutely terrific. Even if you don’t like gay erotica, go buy one of the Water booklets and just listen to the guy. Grimaulkin’s audiobooks are coming out (hopefully) by August. I was handing out the Grimaulkin business cards left and right to get people to remember to either buy the ebook or the audiobook when it comes out. Homecoming, I didn’t push as much (mostly because I didn’t have the room), but I told them that the audiobook was good for a Boston trip. A lot of people seemed interested in Homecoming, too…which means I need to get my ass in gear and write War Mage.

Grimaulkin Redeemed is slowed down to 37.5K words right now because I’m doing stuff for personal reasons. I am entering a short story in the Association of Rhode Island Author’s anthology for this year. It’s depressing, but I think it’s pretty good. It’s a rewrite of my first chapter of the second draft of Grimaulkin. By the way, Grimaulkin, as he’s published now, is my fifth draft, Grimaulkin Tempted my first draft, and Redeemed is my first as well. Me and my editor are getting better at this.

The end is nigh

Grimaulkin Redeemed is at 39K words, and I just started what I believe is the beginning of the  ending of the main plot. I have to throw in a few side plots for filler. I’m especially concerned why a certain antagonist is even in the story. If I take him out, a lot of really good stuff goes with it; not to mention about 10K words. Kill my darlings? No., that’s too easy..I’m going to fit that damn square peg in the round hole.

I didn’t do my homework last weekend, working on Redeemed and my own personal homework instead.  While doing laundry, I can work on Earth, specifically Virgo, and at least get that one in the can. Taurus is giving me trouble because, well, it’s pretty obvious that a Brokeback Mountain scenario just screams for that one. Yes, there’s a cowboy involved. Yes, there are cows involved. (Steer, not cows…gotta get that straight.) But I can’t copy Brokeback Mountain. And it’s sounding a lot like Cancer right now, so I have to do something to twist it.

My son asked me about War Mage and I kind of wanted to hide under the seat. I have such a hard block with it. I want to make it realistic. But I don’t want to get hate mail from veterans saying, “You got this wrong.”  And because the internet and books are somewhat classified, I can’t get the full picture and the details. I tried to read a critically acclaimed book about soldiers at war, but the print was so small I couldn’t see it. Audible to the rescue (I hope it’s in there)!

I hope to get to 42K by next week, as I will be busy for the second half of the week and may not get to write. I’ll do laundry and get Virgo out.

What happened in the year 2000?

I’m on medical leave (long story, not going into it) so I have some time to write. I try to write at least 1000 words a day, in between the recovery. I’m coming up with some good ideas, and I’m over half-way through the novel. I’m stuck a little on how the police handle mail, and what they had available in the year 2000 with computers. Did cops or the feds have hackers on the payroll?

MySpace and Twitter didn’t exist, neither did Facebook or other social media sites. AOL and Usenet were the big community sites. I have to cast back in my own memory what AOL was like at the time. It’s challenging, because the old memory isn’t what it used to be, and I have no idea what cops could do then. Did they look up IP addresses? Did they know how to find people from an email?

Of course, I could just gloss over it like I plan on doing with War Mage. Though it bothers me.

“Capricorn” is finished, edited and ready to go. I had planned on working on Earth this weekend but I got distracted with other recovery work. “Family Bonds,” the short story tie-in for Grimaulkin Redeemed, is also done and formatted. When I do the laundry, I’ll work on Earth (because it’s on the computer in the laundry room).

In two weeks I’ll be at the Warwick Public Library selling books, signing them, and giving away the short story tie-ins (that are very cool). April 21 from 10-2. Hope to see you there!

Keeping Time

My aim was to get to 40K by the end of March, but it’m up to 29K at the moment. I’ll probably get up to 30K by today, and then it’s all downhill from there.

I took two days off and then started writing, and realized that I had messed up the time sequence. That’s the problem with me, sometimes, when I take time off. I have to go back to the beginning and read what I had done. Scrivener has a place that you can put document notes, and I’ve started to utilize that section.

Grimaulkin Redeemed takes place on November 1, 2000. I have to check an online calendar (though Scrivener gives me the option of saving the image of that calendar) to follow the days and dates, and now I need to make note of the moon phases. I’ve also made it more difficult for me–or for Mike–to get out and do things because now he has a job that takes up his mornings.

I’m also having trouble with the main plot. It pervades the story, but it’s not in your face all the time. And I need to figure out the motive of the antagonist–why does he do what I want him to do during the climax? Mike is paranoid about the antagonist; does that mean his paranoia is justified? Or would that make things way too obvious and easy?

The strange thing about writing, sometimes, is that you want to make it complicated for the reader, but not obtuse. You don’t want the reader to say “Huh?” But you want to keep them guessing, letting them try and figure out what you’re doing. If you make it too easy or obvious, readers get mad and won’t read your next book. But if you spring it on them without any foreshadowing or clues, they get mad too. It’s a fine line.

I was listening to a interview of an author (Steve Barry, I think) and the interviewer said that the ending came out of nowhere. That kind of ending would irritate the hell out of me. My editor said the same thing about Grimaulkin Tempted. I had dropped a few hints that only really astute readers would pick up on. During the rewrite, I made it more obvious that time around with an internal dialogue.

There are a lot of threads to keep in mind when writing: Time, place, character feelings and growth. Some of these come naturally, and can stay in my head. Other times, I get confused. Brothers of the Zodiac had a full time-line that I did one boring day at work about four years ago, but it got eaten by the website (it no longer exists). I had character names, places and dates. All gone. How ephemeral the cloud is.

Scrivener helps me keep track now. Full moon is coming up, and Mike is going to be a bit busy. I hope.

Life suckage

I’m up to 27K words in Grimaulkin Redeemed–almost half way there! About half-way. My goal is 60K words, but with my luck, the story will end between 50K and 60K.

Life has been getting in the way recently. Suffice it to say I’ve had to scale back some things. One is the game, not because it’s a bad thing, but because I only have a finite amount of time during the week and weekends, and I’m trying to concentrate on writing and my hoarding issues here at home. I haven’t played the game in 3 weeks (one week was due to no electricity). I’m feeling guilty, but there was only one person I played with on that game. Unfortunately I haven’t seen him when I’ve checked in, either, so maybe he’s running into the same issue that I am–Life intrudes.

“Capricorn” is finished and gone through its first editing pass. The as-yet-unnamed story tie-in for Grimaulkin Redeemed also went through its first pass and was just returned. The publisher and I are not in a hurry for that one, but the novels are what I’m being pushed to deliver. Gee, wonder why? (laugh here)

I plan on trying to get a podcast out this week or next weekend, and it will be about this statement: “A bell isn’t a bell if it hasn’t been rung; a song isn’t a song if it hasn’t been sung.” This statement pisses me off.

Procrastinating

Today I’m procrastinating writing. I’m cleaning out the litter boxes, picking up my office, staring at the cats…anything but working on the blank page of Grimaulkin Redeemed.

I wrote the exciting part that had been running around in my head for the better part of a week, and now there’s nothing after that. I have to write an hour-long conversation, which I suspect will be boring on the page, but I’m not sure what to do to make it exciting. So I’m staring at sleeping cats, hoping something comes to me.

I purchased some Ernest Hemingway books for the 6 hour plane ride to San Jose in August, and I’m trying to refrain myself form reading them. That would probably help with the conversation I have to do. I’m doing research for the conversation, because Mike has to talk to an expert in something that I know very little about.

The good news is that the short story is done, though the title is still in flux. Maybe “A Family Gathering”. That is the tie-in to Grimaulkin Redeemed. Sort of. You’ll see.

Well, the cat moved out of my office. Guess it’s time to get down to business.

Maybe if I watch some Hulu…

New Short Coming Soon

For my short story tie-in for Grimaulkin Redeemed, I decided to rewrite an old story I did in November 2014 for Thanksgiving. I put it in Scrivener, took out references to City of Heroes, and reread it. However, I was reading the original. The story with the parts taken out were still in my head and I kept putting them in. The story made perfect sense to me, but it felt wrong on the page. I had my editor read it. He gave me great feedback, and explained that Mike was very angry in that story and not at all sympathetic. “Apparently, Mike (and you) were in a different place then.”

So I went back in my journals that far. Yes, I have them from 2012 and sporadically around the house since 1980. I was pissy in 2014. I had been passed over for a promotion (yet again). I was fighting to get my son diagnosed as being on the spectrum. My supports were ripped out from under me in the summer of 2014.

Now…I’m rewriting the story again from scratch. It has a good scene that I’m trying to keep, but I don’t think it’s going to work. Mike is a little less angry in this story, a lot more accepting, and things have changed. When I finish the story (title might be “Our Normal Thanksgiving”), I’ll point you to the original and you decide which one you like better.

I’ve left off in Grimaulkin Redeemed with the line, “Ribs dropped onto plates with an almost unified clatter.” I’m itching to continue it, because I know what’s going to happen next, but I know if I continue, I’ll write until I’m “stuck”. Then who knows when I’ll get back to it. So I’m doing “Thanksgiving” so it’s ready to go.

As of next week, I will officially be committed to go to WorldCon 76 in San Jose. I’m aiming to get Grimaulkin Redeemed done next month (22K words now), ready for publication in August and sale at WorldCon. I may pass War Mage on to someone else to do, because I can’t seem to get it going. Earth is mostly done. I have to wrap up Virgo and write more with Taurus.

Episode 17 is up for the Dark Mystic Quill. It’s about guns. It might be a little political, but it goes into mental health (my “woe” section of the podcast).