I hate writing them…
Here’s a taste fo the one I am currently working on.
Seth Jackson, American expatriate and Captain of the European starship Montgomery, holds humanity’s future in his hands. He can save the European Stellar Union from conquest, escape the destruction of his career, and repudiate the prejudiced idea that he is nothing but a glory-seeking Yank, but to do this he must kill Minou Shippen, the woman he loves.
I have finished a new short story, the first in months. I have another edited and ready to send off to a market for it’s customary rejection. I’ve had two good conventions in rather short order and I have two more coming up the as many months, so I really have little to complain about. So I won’t.
This Sunday night I plan to go out to the drive-in theaters and relive that bit of childhood memory. (not teenager memory never had a car as a teenager and only went to the drive-in once as a teenager. By myself, on a bicycle, to see 1979′s Dawn Of The Dead.) This sunday will be a double feature of CONTAGION and APOLLO 18 for $8, hell you can’t beat that.
This past weekend here in San Diego we had a fine little SF convention named Conjecture. Our Guest Of Honor was SF Author Allen Steele. This was a rather different experience for me than other local smaller cons as I was on five panels during the three days of the convention, three on friday afternoon and two On Sunday afternoon.
I had a blast. I moderated one panel and while my lack of knowledge on the subject could have doomed the panel, I had some great panelist, including Hugo award winning author Verner Vinge, and they saved my bacon. I must say that being on a panel in many ways is much more fun than watching a panel. When the odd idea or random connections occurs to me because of the conversation of the panelists I don’t have to hold back, or hold my hand up to offer a shortened thought, now I can speak my mind. (yeah I know that is a dangerous thing.)
Today I managed to get back into the swing of writing too. Nearly 1000 words on a new short story that I had failed to launch three times before. If I can get it into shape in time this one might go to the Writers of The Future now that I am no so mad at them anymore.
So Saturday I worked 5 hours of OT at my day job. Nice money but tiring. Sunday I saw Cowboys & Aliens, decent flick but not good enough to add to my library when it is released on blu-ray. I love Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig in the movie, frankly the whole cast was hitting their strong performance. The weakness is the aliens, the more you think about them the less sense they make.
I was pretty tired by the end of Sunday so there was no Sunday night movie.
I printed up copies of Love and Loyalty for the beta read and I will handing them out tomorrow. Here’s hoping that this novel will be the one that sells.
So I’m working on a story that has no potential for sale or submission, but I’m writing it just the same. It’s crude, very crude, but likely to be short. I think under two thousand words. after that hardly anyone is ever going to see it.
My self published e-anthology of horror and dar Science-Fiction stories, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades, is now available for purchases as most ebook retailers. At all the retailers the price is just 99 cents. That’s one slim dollar for five stories of of ghosts, murderous computers, unnameable things from beyond, and terrifying benevolence. If you are reading this odds are you are family or friends. If you do download a copy and read I ask one favor, please leave a review on the retailers website. Leave an honest review, 1 star if that what you think.
It is currently available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and the apple iBook store.
After finishing Love & Loyalty I kind of took a break from writing in general including my blog. This will not last long, writers have to write even if no one reads it.
I’ve started a short story called The Old and The Dead which is a zombie story set in a retirement home. The initial 750 words seemed to go over well last night at the writer’s group.
My anthology Horseshoes & Hand Grenades: Tales of technology and terror has begun shipping to the major ebook retailers. In about two weeks I’ll make the official announcement that it is ready and you’ll be able to purchase it from the major retailers for just 99 cents.
I still have not taken my post novel treat. I was very seriously leaning towards the Vegas trip, machine-guns and Manilow, but without a bird to keep her company I know my sweetie-wife would get very lonely, so I’ll defer that trip to the distant future. (like six or more months.) So now I am leaning towards the Universal Studios Trip. That would be just a day trip.
After a stint of short story writing I plan to return to the Nationalized Space setting for another Seth Jackson novel, m,ost likely Command And Control. (Wow, something about my titles lately run to the & format.)
The edits, inserts, and assembly for Love & Loyalty are finished! I added 71 pages to the manuscript in total with new sub-plots and extended sequences. I think it is a strongly novel and better written now, but only beta-readers can really answer that question.
A copy has been handed off to my sweetie-wife for proofing and after that I will hand it out to beta-readers.
So, I’m about to start on the assembly portion of Love & Loyalty. For my others novels this was a very straight forward process. I write from an outline, proceeding in a linear fashion from cause to effect, beginning to end. I write the manuscripts, chapter by chapter and then put all the chapters together in sequence to make the file of the manuscript.
Love and Loylaty is not working that way any more.
When I started the editing on this pass, it was because my sentence level craft had improved and I wanted the book to reflect that. (It was not well written enough for professional publication before, now it might be.) I also made a decision to open up the number of points of view which allowed me to introduce new characters and new scenes that better explained th plot, provided more dramatic troubles for the characters, and hopefully hightened the tension. These scenes were written out of sequence, but I know roughly where they would be insterted.
Then after reading chapter 3 to my writers’ group the feedback came back that this should be chapter 1 and I agreed, so sequences were changed, events were changed so cause and effect would have the proper relationship to the events.
Now it is time to assemble the manuscript and I’ve had a thought and for the life of me I cannot determine if it is a good idea or not.
Love and Loylaty is primary the story of two people, Seth Jackson and the woman he loves Minou Shippen. The story alternates between their two plotlines until their lives intersect again and from there the story is the tangle of duties, loves, and betrayal that push these characters into conflict.
So the manscript went like this, a Seth chapter, then a Minou Chpater, back to Seth, back to Minou etc until they met and then it’s a combination from there on out.
The idea that occured to me is a book format. Book 1, Seth Jackson, all the events in his life until he runs into Minou again at Earth. Then Book 2, flashback and we see Minou’s life until she runs into Seth. Then Book 3, their combined story and conflicts until resolution.
I have no idea which way is better….
Core edits on Love & Loyalty are done!
Now I have to assemble the chapters and scenes in their new sequence, along with the insert scenes, editing them as I do so, and I will have a copy for my sweetie-wife to proofread.
Oh I am so excited….