And So It Begins

Day One of "Vacation of Champions" began on a hot note. We went to Kemah Boardwalk, south of Houston, and it was toasty. That, and the absence of any shade worth mentioning made Nate a tired camper. The kids had fun though, and ran their little selves ragged.

They are now being given a bath by their Mom up in our room, while I'm using the wifi hotspot here at the resort snack bar. I don't anticipate any trouble getting them to bed.

Got a second opinion on my fantasy story, The Flight of the Coral Horn, and the reader made some good points for leaving it the way it is. It's actually a very grounded ending, and although a tad bleak, does have depth to it. It's also consistent in tone with other stories from the world of Nur. So we shall see. The title is still a problem though.

For now, I gotta go as the wife will not be pleased if I'm gone too long...that whole "parenthood is a shared responsibility" kind of thing. Ya'll know how it is.

Preliminary Things

So I finished the first draft of The Flight of the Coral Horn.

The thing about writing is, at this stage nothing is set in stone. I am not convinced I went the right direction with this story, and I'll be printing it out for proofing later. And while the title is nice, I'm not convinced it fits the story well, and that might change yet too. So other than the title and plot, things are static.

I guess since I use this blog to sort of "think out loud" as I go along, it kind of shows how projects can change and morph as they move towards completion. I'm not just writing, I'm planning titles and book covers as well. This means I do a lot of preliminary work that can be radically altered before the final product is submitted for publication.

You can kind of see that process going on in my other project, now currently titled "Shades." It was originally envisionede as a four story ghost anthology, that has now morphed into a series that will one day end in an anthology instead. That project is much more mature, and is in pretty much it's final form...at least the first story. There is still a chance the second may have a different ghost on it's cover if I can come up with something decent.

Well, that's it for now. I will try to update the blog from Galveston when I can over the next week. I don't know what kind of internet access I will have, or what kind of opportunity I will get to use it. We shall all just have to wait and see. That's just the way that both writing and life works. You never know what you're going to end up with until you have it.

The Countdown Has Begun

One more day...

Only one more day before I pack myself into a Toyota with two noisy kids and a dubious wife, then head out for two and a half hours on a Texas Interstate in August. Yep, vacation is upon me.

Seven glorious days of kids in the sun, kids at the boardwalk, kids on the Strand, kids at the water park, kids at Moody Gardens, kids in the resort room, and kids in the bed with me. It's almost more fun than any one man can take while sober.

somebody shoot me

And we shall have fun. Oh yes, we will. And I will bring my new high definition camcorder to record all the carnage.

But first we must pack. More fun. Packing makes me happy. I will enjoy packing. I will pack with enthusiasm. Hooray for packing!

I'm also closing in on finishing The Flight of the Coral Horn. There is a reasonable chance I will have a very rough draft done by tomorrow evening. It still needs a lot of work, and the name may change yet again, but getting that first draft done is always a good feeling. The funny thing is I'm not totally sold on my ending, and may write the story two different ways to see which I like better. Oh well, at least once I've got it finished once, any other version is a bonus.

It's all good :)

It's Going to be an Interesting Autumn

In the spirit of these, already coming out August and September...

I will also be having these...

Yep, I will be running two series of noveletts and short stories on the Kindle.

The Barrow Wolf will be republished with a new cover, an authors note, and a blurb at the end promoting The Ways of Khrem. The Flight of the Coral Horn is still being written but will hopefully be ready to publish by October, if not sooner. The Tales of Nur series will all be set in the world of Nur, the same world as The Ways of Khrem, and will feature monsters, charactors, or places mentioned in the novel.

The Barrow Wolf features a monster (the Barrow wolf) briefly mentioned in the prologue, and it takes place in a country (Issil) which is mentioned several times. The witch in the story, (magrit) is actually the witch mentioned in the last chapter header in the novel. She and her apprentice are scheduled to make an appearence in a later Khrem novel.

The Flight of the Coral Horn is much the same way, although it takes place out on the Cambriatic Sea and includes the Tagarr, and a creature that Cargill mentions in the novel as well.

Yep, I'm going to be really busy when I get back from vacation. If things go according to plan, I will have all four stories available on the Kindle early this fall. Then I can turn my full attentiont to writing the sequel to The Ways of Khrem.

Hopefully, I can do both series of stories justice.

Sometmes No News is Just No News

There has been little to nothing to report. I took some Nyquil and went to bed early last night, and Karla had to drag me out of bed this morning. Nothing going on other tthan being part of a strange dream of joining a line of a thousand authors, all wearing pullup diapers and marching in a circle around Walmart...while snapping our waistbands to the beat of Bolero.

Yeah.

Try turning THAT into a story.

So I'm just trying to get through the week, get Rowan to her therapists, and find a little bit of the house under this mess before we have to leave on our yearly vacation this friday. It will be our annual jaunt down to Galveston, to enjoy the fun and the sun....and who knows, maybe a hurricane and an oil spill for variety Actually, the weather looks okay so far, and the oil spill seems to have gone to Florida.  Besides, we probably won't go to the beach anyways. These days the water parks are the prime destinations.

Sunday Notes

Well, I took the boy to see Toy Story 3 yesterday. We had a good time, and I've pretty much come to the conclusion that Pixar is just incapable of making a bad movie. Their batting average is pretty phenomenol. The only downer was I tripped and spilled about a third of our popcorn into the aisle. I would have been embarrassed but it was dark and nobody seemed to notice. Sheridan never even shut up, just continued his running monologue about whatever he was talking about while I pulled myself up on a chair. I guess he's used to seeing Dad hit the floor =P

On another note, I now have my fantasy story about the Coral Horn up to 7,100 words and there is still more story to go. So it will be a full novelette, just like The Barrow Wolf. That's good. I like to think my customers are getting their full ninety nine cents worth. I'm thinking of naming the series that will contain The Barrow Wolf and this one, "Tales of Nur." I will include a little authors note about what that means at the beginning or end of the story.

Oh well...I got this and the two Shades stories to get ready.

Busy, busy, busy!

Just Because

Rowan made me play it fifty thousand times, so I thought I would share.

Shades

So this is what I'm now considering; A series of novelettes and short stories titled "Shades."

The first in the series, "Shades: Death and White Satin" would be released in August, soon after I got back from vacation. "Shades: A Memory of Me" would be slated for a September release. They would be priced at .99 cents each on the Kindle.

While I would like to release one of these a month, quality control will be paramount and nothing will be published until it has been polished free of blemishes. Each title of "Shades" will also be in it's own shade... haha, I kill me... but the above colors are not necessarily the final ones. It occurs to me that "Death in White Satin" might be more appropriate in a white, or at least ivory, hue.

Well, that's the idea as it sits right now. I kind of like it, but I still have time to evolve it further.

I'll be going on vacation on Friday the 30th, so this weekend will probably be devoted to housework and other such stuff. Lots of laundry to do, and things to pack.

A New Idea

I was talking to a publisher on the kindle boards the other evening, and he pointed out that I ought to consider approaching my "4" project in a different way. Instead of writing four stories then releasing them in an anthology, why not release one story at a time under a series name...then make an anthology called by the series name when I've reached whatever desired number I was shooting for.

For instance, a "Shades" series with the first story released being "Death and White Satin." He said I could even use the same cover for each story in the series, just with a different title...although I'm not so sure on that idea. But it is worth considering. I could have Death and White Satin out by mid August...with Remember Me following in mid September or earlier.

I would also have a series for my fantasy stories. Since I set them all in the world of Khrem, I would  need a series name that identified them. Unfortunately, I've never officially named that world (it's actually called Nur, just like the river that flows through Khrem) so finding a unifying name for the series from the novel might be difficult. I would simply republish The Barrow Wolf as the first in that series...with Fate of the Coral Horn hopefully out by late September, early October.

The other nice thing is that I've been more productive than I thought this year. I forgot to include my christmas story in my completed short story count...so if I finish the first draft of Fate of the Coral Horn next week, then I'll have written six short stories in seven months. That's only one short of the pace I like to keep, and it doesn't include the three flash fictions I wrote, nor all the work I did on Argiope.

I still need to step it up though. I want to start working on the sequel to The Ways of Khrem sometime this autumn.