Category Archives: Writing

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).

I’m in a real store!

I’ve just brought my book to a real bookstore and it’s on a real shelf for sale! It’s at Stillwater Books in downtown Pawtucket, across the street from Slater Mill and (hopefully) near the new Pawsox Stadium. It’s actually down the street from where Scott’s store is located.

I’m going to do a podcast about a subject near and dear to my heart: Guns. It kind of crosses the line into political, but it has to do with the “woe” part of my podcast. It should be up soon.

Grimaulkin Redeemed is up to 22K, but I’m working on the short story that will come out in conjunction with it. It’s an old story I did on my old Champions Online Stories blog, rewritten and updated.  It needs a title.

Otherwise, things are quiet.

 

California, here I come!

As you can see by my playlist, I listen to a lot of hard rock when I write. It’s not necessarily the song lyrics that I pay attention to, but the cadence and rhythm of the song. “Coming Undone” and “Good Man” have pertinent lyrics to what I’m writing. I do know that if anyone ever makes a movie of Grimaulkin, I don’t necessarily want anything to do with the casting because I don’t watch TV or see movies, but let me curate the soundtrack!

I’m up to about 18K words in Grimaulkin Redeemed, and wrapped up one of the subplots. The muses are working on how to get me out of a box I painted myself in with the main plot. In the meantime, I’m writing another subplot, and I plan on stealing an idea from Twilight (yes, I know, that’s very bad).  When you read Grimaulkin Redeemed, you may not notice. First one who does wins a signed collection of all three (by then) Grimaulkin short stories. But I’ll run this contest after Grimaulkin Redeemed comes out.

I’m going to WorldCon 76 in San Jose! We just got approved for a table, so we’re in! I won’t be at the Loof this year (August 11) because I’ll be sending my table display to San Jose for August 15. Hopefully I will get everything back by Columbus Day in October so I can set up at the Autumnfest and Scituate Art Festival this year.  I won’t be at Narragansett or the Big E. I may be at RI Comicon in November if I can scrounge up the money for the table.  I’m going to try to set up at Richmond and Scituate Farmers’ Markets if they do them again, but not during the month of August. And probably lastly will be the Author Expo in December. I missed last month’s meeting so I don’t know what’s coming up.

I am definitely going to be at the Warwick Public Library April 21. Come visit!

Episode 15 of the Dark Mystic Quill is up and ready. Want to get rich? No, that podcast won’t help you with that, but it may help you pay some bills.

 

A great week for writing

I had my talk at Mount Pleasant High School. I think I went a little over their heads But I had four good questions that I want to answer here.

  1. What inspired you to write gay characters?

I played City of Heroes (the teacher knew what it was!) and I explained that in the gaming world, if you play a girl, the guys all rush in to try and save you, no matter how well you play. I wanted to play a guy, but I also wanted to flirt with men. So I created Grimaulkin as a gay character, but a tough one, not feminine. I played him so well that the gay community online accepted me as male and was surprised to find that I was female.

2) How many gay characters do you have?

I told them 40, but when I went and checked, it’s closer to 60. The follow up question was “How do you keep track of them all?” I explained I use Scrivener or One Note, or index cards and they laughed that off as too old-school.

3) What inspired you to write Homecoming?

My husband was into the military, the guns, the tanks, the whole thing. I kind of got into it through him. After my husband passed, I wrote the book in memory of him. That elicited “Awwww.”

4) How did you get published?

I explained the typical way of getting published: sending out query letters and waiting for rejections. I told them a friend of mine started his own press and asked if I would write some books for him, which I jumped at. Then I joined the Association of Rhode Island Authors and that’s how I got to speak in front of them. I told them that small presses are more receptive to new authors and if they want to get into publishing, to try those first.

After that, a few people came up to me. One showed me her poem, which was about rejection, and excellent. I told her it brings forth an emotion, and that’s what you want poetry to do. Another young man gave me his story (I haven’t read it yet, but I plan to today) and asked for a critique. A few people said they were happy to know they weren’t alone writing gay characters and trying to get them into mainstream fiction.

All in all, a great time, and I would love to do this kind of thing again.

Saturday I had an event, and sold Grimaulkin and Grimaulkin Tempted. (Note: bundles are a really good draw.) The Valley Breeze (a weekly free local newspaper) was there with a photographer and I might get noted in there. I’m going to pick up the Breeze next week to see.

I also found out that I was the last author picked for a Warwick Library Meet and Greet on April 21. Details forthcoming. I think it’s 10-2 but not sure.

I’m up to 7K words on Grimaulkin Redeemed and it’s going along smashingly. In fact, at the event yesterday, I had an idea for a scene that I’m itching to write. But first I have to get my podcast out–I’m two weeks late. After that, I’m writing.

 

When the muse speaks, listen!

I decided this weekend to tackle Earth, to try and get it finished. As I talked with my publisher, he said, “How about you work on War Mage?”

Okay, for a different way of looking at things, sure. It’s been cooking for about a few months, so I should be able to get right back into the swing of it. A new story, a new character, new setting. I have an idea of where the story was going to go (after all, I’ve written eight drafts of the damn thing) so it should be easy. Right? Right?

I sat down, reread what I wrote up to the point I stopped and thought, “My God. This just sucks.”

I’m tempted to say, “To hell with the whole War Mage idea, let’s just not continue it.”

This made me reach for the comfort food to console my depression. After eating a few Belgian waffles, I went upstairs to my Windows computer (the computer that has Scrivener, Internet, and game on it) and did some mindless button-mashing in game.  Then I said to myself, “What happens if I start Grimaulkin Redeemed?”

I left the game, started a new project in Scrivener, and started writing. An hour later, I had done a thousand words (would have been more if I didn’t self-edit) and it flowed! This, this is what I like to feel when I write. The instant flow of words, the story just comes out, and it’s not work. It’s enjoyable. It’s play.

This is what every writer’s “zone” is. When the work takes over your life, and you enjoy it. It’s not a job. It’s not something you keep wanting to procrastinate. It’s a flow, a river.

I had a dream last night, and now that I think about it, I know what it means. There was a metal pipe that fed to a creek in the back of the house, and it was clogged, with water backing up against the foundation of the house. I had just grabbed a stick and planned on poking the end of the pipe to try and dislodge what was blocking it.

That’s Grimaulkin Redeemed. It’s unblocking the pipe of creativity. Maybe Grim will be my go-to for stories when I’m stuck. I still role-play him in the game (Champions Online–I’m @maulkin if you want to hit me up), so he may be around for a long time.

Further updates: Water will be an audiobook very soon. Grimaulkin is in production for an audiobook (yay!). I’ll be at the Cumberland Library Meet and Greet from 10-2 on February 17. Come down for some exclusive swag! And buy a book, even!0

Podcast is on hold for this week. I think I’ll try and get it together for next week.