Month: February 2019

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So that’s what frying brain cells smell like…

Or, how I pumped out 15 thousand words over the last three days. Really. I guess that I should specify that this work was done on the sequel to my first novel, and not on the first book itself.

Book one is about as done as I can get it, short of paying for professional Developmental Editing. Book two currently has 50k plus words, and Book three is hovering around 60k words. Confused yet? Me too…:)

Essentially, Book three used to be the sequel, but after getting input from Aimee I decided to go ahead and split Book one at a convenient stopping point, and that left me with about 35k words already written that could be used as the basis for Book two. Unfortunately, I had already been working on a sequel, which is now Book three, and…

Well, you get the idea. Yet another example of how not to write a novel. I suppose if I was better organized, and had a clear concept and roadmap laid out before starting I could avoid these types of situations, but that just ain’t me. Besides, I would never have discovered, nor written, some of the coolest parts of these books had I done so.

I guess my sloppy methodology must have something going for it after all. Unfortunately, once the floodgates opened three days ago I was unable to shut them off, and while happy with the result, my brain is definitely fried. I feel fortunate that I was not only able to tie my own shoes this morning, but I successfully navigated my way home after doing the Daddy Uber thing for my wife and kid.

Sleep has been infrequent, and rarely lasts longer than three hours. Pretty much par for the course when I get on a roll. I suspect that there has to be a better way, but if so, I haven’t discovered it yet.

Still…there is much to be said for the feeling of accomplishment one feels as a vague idea turns into something worth reading over the course of time. Now I just have to survive the birthing of these novels…:)

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…And on the 8th day the Devil created the Hallmark Channel

It’s true. I know it is. How else can a man explain the steady diet of pablum that our women feed on by the trough-load. Only the Devil could have come up with something as horrific as the so-called movies that are generated for this TV channel. Movies stuffed to the gills with B-list actors and downright insulting plot-lines.

In fact, I am convinced that he may reside in Canada, over-seeing the destruction of the female brain with the mindless drivel that is dished up to the willing victims. There seems to be some sort of Stockholm Syndrome relationship between women and this channel.

I’m certainly not the only male to have noticed either. Leonard Stegmann did a small piece that is available on Amazon (I bought it last night…best dollar I ever spent.) and if you swap out a name or two it could be me and my wife. Seriously. I have to leave the room every single day because I can’t stand to see another one of their wretched movies which she has watched a minimum of 15 times. WTF? I can’t even watch a movie that I love more than two or three times, and certainly not in the same week, much less the same month. I feel as if I should stage an Intervention.

Think I’m exaggerating the whole ‘created by the Devil’ thing?’ Not even close. I barely tolerate Christmas crap during the actual holiday, but the Hallmark Channel does this thing called Christmas in July. Thirty days of the same shitty Christmas movies they shove at our hapless women in December. So not only do they screw up part of the Winter, now they want to ruin my Summer as well.

To add insult to injury, the Devil decided to double-down. If one channel corrupting the psyche of millions of women is good, why not add a second? The Romance channel was bad enough, but there is also a Mystery channel. Same formula, same stable of mediocre actors, and essentially the same plot-line for every movie they shoot.

I have threatened to block these channels on numerous occasions, and only the thought that there is probably subliminal messaging that ensures a woman will castrate any man who dares to do so, keeps me from following through.

Its not fair. I suffered through years of Nickelodean and the Disney Channel with my daughter. I’m pretty sure that on the Karmic scale I fall on the good side. And yet, the glares and comments I get if I want to watch a football game that airs at the same time as one of these god-awful movies…well it’s not good.

I propose having the Vatican send out their best exorcist to the Hallmark studio. If we can successfully drive the Devil out we will be doing humanity a great favor. Or at least men. Something has to be done. Please God, let something be done…

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Progress on the novel

I’m sorry that posts have been few and far between recently, but I have been grinding away at book one of the trilogy. Yes, trilogy. After meeting with Aimee and going over her questions and very solid recommendations for how to improve the story, I decided to go ahead with splitting the first book into two separate novels. I had been tossing the idea around for several months anyway, but Aimee’s input solidified the idea.

As we chatted, and later when I started processing the notes/comments she had made on the draft I asked her to read, I realized that to fit in all of these changes the book would simply grow too large. The obvious solution was to give it room to breathe, and two books allows for that far better than one.

And so, as of today I have 72k words, and climbing, as I revise the manuscript. My goal, as such, is to top out at 90K or so…for book one. That feels like an appropriate number, and should allow me to fill in some of the holes that Aimee pointed out. I have to be honest, getting a woman’s perspective on the writing has been very helpful, but… embracing any sort of inner woman that may lurk in the depths of my dark soul has been difficult at best. My brain just doesn’t work that way…lol. To be fair, I find it far easier to write action sequences than I do anything that might help the reader understand why a character does or says the things they do. Its a flaw. And a big one, I must admit.

Even so, I persevere. Once these issues have been identified I find it impossible to ignore, and must resolve them. I anticipate finishing up the first pass at fixing these problems some time in the next week or two…then it’ll be back to Aimee for round two. I cannot express just how grateful I am to her for taking the time to not only read my stuff, but to provide an insightful and much needed critique of the work itself.

Thanks, Aimee. You are the best….:)

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Apologies for technical difficulties

I’d like to apologize to anyone who has tried to leave a comment but has not been able to do so. I thought that I had this site set up correctly, but it appears that there was still some tweaking to do.

It should be working now, but please feel free to test that theory.

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