Category Archives: Brothers of the Zodiac – Earth

Non-fiction is hard

I’m in the midst of writing my memoir, and it’s been really hard. Going back ten years, and gathering bits and pieces of conversations, moments of getting together, things said, people spoken to, quotes and how things went…feelings of other people, and, really hard: my own feelings.

I was numb then. All I knew was I have to take care of things.  It reads like a newspaper article. There’s no feelings here and there. Maybe I didn’t have any. I don’t know. I don’t remember that.

I told my son that he can read this after I’m dead. If he wanted to publish it then, that’s fine. But I can’t see myself publishing it when I’m alive because it makes me look like I was cold and uncaring. After I’m dead, he can do whatever he wants with it.

I don’t even know if I can drag it out for 50K words. Right now it’s almost 9K. I suppose half of it will be “how to handle grief and loss” or something like that. Something I need to research and regurgitate.

On a more happy note, Grimaulkin Tempted is complete and ready for printing. Hopefully I’ll have some copies for sale at the Expo on December 2 (though I don’t expect to do a booming business there due to 124 other authors being there as well). Maybe I’ll do a “2 for $25” deal–books 1 and 2 for $25. Or even $20. I’d prefer $20. That would be a good sale, and being that we’re all a bunch of cheap Yankees…

I’ve also written a story of Mike’s prison time called “The Joint” which is also complete though we only need a cover.  That won’t be ready by December 2 unfortunately. I don’t know when my next appearance will be, but I’m going to strive next year to go to the RI Comicon. Yes, I know, it’s expensive, but I think I can sell more stuff there. So instead of the Narragansett thing, I’ll save my money for Comicon. I need a banner for that.

After NaNo, I’ll tackle Earth.

Oh, and next week I’ll be on WADK at 10:30 on November 8. Only about 15 minutes though. A two-hour drive and $8 toll for a fifteen minute spot. Not worth it, but what the heck, right?

My interview on WNRI was great. I plugged the Press, and Zarra, plugged all my books, and we talked about writing and publishing. It was excellent. I didn’t get to plug my podcast, but that’s okay.

So onward. If I can squeeze out 2K words today, I’ll be happy. I tried to get 3K words yesterday, but the muse was reluctant. And I kept getting interrupted by a bored kid. If I do 2K a day, I’ll succeed.

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.

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.

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.