Tooting My Horn!

One of the most intense moments of being a writer is reading a review of your work by somebody else. These are the fruits of your labors, the children of your creativity, and you have now sent them out vulnerable into the world to be greeted with accolades, scorn, or indifference. The intensity multiplies when that reviewer is somebody who runs a website or publication that features reviews. You know that they have gone through a lot of material, and their opinion carries weight.

So it was something of an experience for me to have not one, but two of my works reviewed over the course of five days.

First of all, Majanka Verstraede of I Heart Reading posted a review of Shades: Eight Tales of Terror.

It appears she liked it, and I thought it was cool how she did a story by story mini-review of each work in the anthology. Shades was my first attempt at a self published anthology, and it got sort of orphaned without any attempt at marketing after I published it. Now I've finally sent it to a couple of reviewers so I'm hoping it continues to be well recieved.

Then, five days later, Matthew Scott Baker of Shattered Ravings posts a review of Dead Stop.

It appears the novel was well received as well, which is always a relief. I like that he zeroes in on one of the things I intentionally focused on in the novel...reinventing the graveyard zombie in such a way that it actually makes a little sense, and operates in a fashion that would be rational for such an entity. So it was a bit of a delight to see somebody recognize that.

So now I head into the weekend feeling pretty good about the world. I've dusted off Argiope, and started writing on it again. So far, so good...but as I said before, no promises. I'm also beginning to feel the hint of a short story or two tickling at the edge of my consciousness. So things look promising.

Oh well, back to work!

Post Partum Decompression

Well, my latest progeny has been out in the world for almost two weeks, and I've been busy promoting, posting, and pestering every book blogger I think might even have a chance of being willing to review Dead Stop. Paperback copies of the novel have been mailed as far as England. Heck, I even got one blogger to review the book I released earlier this year...Shades. And I'm playing with the Amazon KDP Select promotions as well, trying to learn that. That's been educational as well.

So I've been busy.

But what I haven't been doing is writing.

The thing about marketing is that it requires a certain mindset and focus that somehow seems antithetical to writing. It's like you can't do both at the same time. Currently that is okay, but I do need to get back to writing soon. But for now, I just want to focus on getting Dead Stop the best start I can. So I'll focus on marketing a little longer. And since i can't seem to write, I'll get some reading in instead.

So it's all good.

Cover Art Candidate

Picture above is the current candidate for the cover of the upcoming Shades anthology. Click the picture for a larger view. Please everybody, let me know what you think. I'm still at the stage I can change things, if I need to.

I think the first sentence of the blurb may be problematic.

Where Things Are

Just a little update.

Things progress merrily along. I'm working on converting the manuscript into a .pdf file that I can upload to Createspace and turn into a book. I'm doing this while I'm learning on the job, but I am learning. A lot of what I've learned is how to use Word 2007 in ways I never had before. Such as learning how to start page numbers at a given page on a manuscript, or how to make a title page, or how to make headers, etc. I'm currently waiting to see if I can get some information on a couple of fonts from the man who designed my cover before going forward with headers.

But as it stands, I will hopefully be able to upload a .pdf to Createspace in the next few days. This time I will be trying to publish the physical book first, then I will immediately move to the ebook. There are two reasons for that. One, if I already have a physical book being sold on Amazon.com, then Amazon DTP will automatically try to link the ebook to it when they publish that. Second, I'm going to have to learn some new things to publish this ebook the way I want it, or maybe even have to pay to have it formatted for me, so I just wasn't ready to put out the ebook yet. I want it to have a clickable Table of Contents, and I currently don't know how to do that. It may be over my head.

So that's where things stand for now. Things are getting done.

Booya!!! They're Done!!

This morning I finished the rough draft of "Legacy of Flies", the eighth and final ghost story needed for my Shades anthology. It weighs in at 12, 631 words, a novelette like most of the other stories in the collection. These eight stories should result in a decent sized book that has about seventy thousand words once finished. (edit; a quick word count obtained by adding the different manuscripts reveals a count of 69,457. That could change as time goes on.) I still need to write an introduction, but that's only a few paragraphs and doesn't really count. The point is I now have all eight ghost stories I needed to make this anthology what I wanted it to be.

The stories are... (in no particular order)

Storm Chase,
A Memory of Me,
Death and White Satin,
An Echo of Blood and Mirrors,
Legacy of Flies,
A Singularity of Purpose,
Dance of the Ancients,
and
A Long, Cold Forever of a Night.

All exist in different stages of refinement, but all are written. Yet a lot of work remains.

Now begins the editing. I intend to go through the tales, story by story, and edit each one with a highly critical eye. I will need to review the stories for flow, and also figure out the order in which they should appear in the anthology. I pretty much want "A Long, Cold Forever of a Night" to be the last one, but other than that the order is open to whatever works best.

Then, once I have the introduction written and the stories edited, arranged in order, and all put together in one manuscript, I'll need to decide how I will format it for publication. Do I attempt to format it for the kindle myself? I've done a couple of single short stories, but this would be a much bigger project and I also want a couple of bells and whistles like a clickable table of contents...things that are currently beyond my skills. I will also have to decide if I want to go through Createspace and make a physical copy of the book. I would kind of like one of those...which means I'll have a lot more to learn.

So that's where things are now. An important milestone has been reached, but I still have a long way to go.

But the adventure is in the journey :)

Climactic Pauses

I think I've started to notice that part of my struggles with writing come from something I'm now going to call "the climactic struggle". It seems that the nearer and nearer to the climax of a story I get, the slower and slower I write.

I'm currently working on the last story of the Shades anthology, and I'm now at the point where the protagonist struggles to survive her encounter with the above pictured menace. And I'm now at the point where I'm literally writing "sentence by sentence". Every sentence, every word, is being measured and weighed...and often deleted and restarted. Last night, I worked for four hours to complete just one double spaced page of writing.

I think it's because of the emotion of the situation. The climax is the emotional highpoint of the story, and that's where I start getting very cautious.and critical...maybe overmuch. But if a story is going to work, the emotion desired has to be achieved. Whether it's fear, joy, sadness, or laughter...the story has to deliver.or both the reader and the writer have wasted their time.

Come to think of it, the climax is kind of like the package that the hook promises to deliver. You use a hook to draw your reader into the story, and the climax is the highpoint that convinces the reader that a further relationship with the writer is worthwhile....

...hmmm.

Okay, I'm heading into metaphors I think I'll just leave alone.

Anyways, hopefully sometime this coming week I'll be announcing that the rough draft of Legacy of Flies is finished and I'll have be ready to write my introduction and move on the the next phase.

Go me :)

Lethargy

Physically, I've been next to useless for the past two days.

My CMT has been acting up, and I've also been flattened with this crushing bout of lethargy. It's all I can do at times to get out of my chair. I'm not sure what has causes this, since I've been careful and I'm sure I haven't eaten any gluten lately. Sometimes, I guess Charcot Marie Tooth doesn't need a "trigger" to act up. I suspect it's the CMT because not only have I been extremely lethargic, but my hands have been trembling to the point it's very difficult to type.

And we certainly want me to keep typing.

Not only have I added ten thousand words to Argiope since I've dusted it off and unshelved it, but last night I had inspiration for my next "Shades" story while I lay there in bed trying to go back to sleep. Think young junior high ne'er-do-well getting crosswise with a hatchet toting Victorian farm wife type of tale. I've already got several scenes of this story fully realized in my head, I just need to string them together into a good yarn.

But I also need to get a move on and shake this lethargy off.

I have Rowan's therapy today, and I have to pick her up from school at twelve thirty to take her there. Fortunately, they have a Starbucks practically next door so I can caffienate myself into a vibrating frenzy while she is there. I also have to take Sheridan to a Cub Scout recruitment tonight, so I have to find the energy for that. But theres even more. The kids snacked on chips yesterday and took advantage of the fact I haven't had the energy to keep up with them.. So the carpet is sprinkled with chips and the house is scattered with debris of wild children run amok. And since my friend Cheri Galbiati is coming over to watch Rowan tonight while I take Sheridan for his Cub Scout encounter, I need to find the energy to muck the place out so Rowan won't be able to hide under all the mess.

I'm too old for this!!!!!