Category Archives: “His Robot Girlfriend”

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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Patience is a VirtueI finished chapter ten of His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue today.  It’s plotted out at 17 chapters, so I’m well past the halfway mark of the draft.  I mentioned the other day that if I continue working at the present pace, I’d have it done near the end of August.  I certainly don’t expect to take that long.  I really want to kick it into gear.

I’m getting up each morning and getting some writing done.  Then during the day, I’m trying to get something else done each day– like work on cleaning my garage  or exercising.  Then at night, I do a bit more writing.  It seems to be working pretty good so far.  I’ll update again when I get to the end of chapter eleven and we can all see how long it took.

Of course, after I finish the draft, there is the inevitable editing, revision, and rewrite.  Still, it’s all good.

The Ungodly Pace of Technological Change

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Patience is a VirtueIt may seem odd for a science-fiction author to complain about technological change (though I remember Ray Bradbury before he died, complaining about ebooks), but that’s what I’m thinking about today.  Sometimes I love technological change, like when I want a new iPad and I need an improved model to convince my wife that I need to upgrade.  Other times it’s a pain, like when I’m trying to write.

Somewhere I have a sheet of German Postage Stamps printed in the early thirties.  They were 1 Mark stamps, but as soon as they came off the presses, they had to be sent back in to be printed over with 100 Marks, because of the horrible inflation that Germany was experiencing at the time.  It was changing so fast that they literally couldn’t print stamps or money fast enough to keep up with it.

I kind of have that feeling today.  Some of the technology I describe in His Robot Girlfriend and His Robot Wife seems quaint now, and some of the stuff in the new book is already sounding antiquated.  I’m going back and making some changes, particularly to how processes are processes.  I already know I’m not going to get too far in front of the change, but I at least want my story to be up-to-date with present technology.

Specifically in this case, Mike pays with a cash card.  Credit cards and debit cards are already facing extinction.  It won’t be long before apps on telephones replace making a purchase at a cash register or a store counter.  Think of it– scan your item, press pay, authenticate (probably with a thumbprint) and walk out of the store.  No more standing in line, no more waiting, no more identity theft.  It’s a lot closer than you think– much closer than 2037, when my story takes place.

 

What Needs to Get Done

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Patience is a VirtueOne of my main goals is to be at least partially supported by my writing by the time I retire from teaching.  Last year, my wrinting was responsible for about 5% of my net income.  In some ways that’s more than I ever could have hoped for, and I can’t help but be very happy.  But I’m going to have to drastically grow that amount within the next six to seven years.

I’m going to do that by building my name as my brand,  following simple but effective marketing, and most of all by getting some writing done.  When people read a book and they like it, they need to be able to find another book by that author.  They also need to find one that they like as much as the first.  For that reason, I have to get writing.  I’ve gotten really good at getting caught up on the extra stuff that comes with writing– researching, edition, designing, promotion, this blog.  Now that I have some real time, I need to get writing.

So what are the dates I’m shooting for?  If I follow my current speed:

His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue — August 5, 2013

82 Eridani: Voyage — November 25, 2013

The Sorceress and her Lovers — April 14, 2014

That’s not good enough.  Not only was I expecting to finish The Sorceress and her Lovers in 2013, I was expecting to finish Blood Moon too.  I got to kick it into gear.  The writing is the thing.

His Robot Girlfriend at Smashwords

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His Robot GirlfriendMike Smith’s life was crap, living all alone, years after his wife had died and his children had grown up and moved away. Then he saw the commercial for the Daffodil. Far more than other robots, the Daffodil could become anything and everything he wanted it to be. Mike’s life is about to change.

His Robot Girlfriend is a science-fiction love story.  It has been downloaded more than 450,000 times.  You can get your ebook (in a variety of ebook formats) free by following the link below to Smashwords.

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1864

The Rewritten Chapter

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Patience is a VirtueI told you the other day how I lost (or wrote over) a chapter of my book in progress The Sorceress and her Lovers.  I felt like I had to rewrite that piece before I could go on to anything else, so I sat down and over the past three days, I’ve finished it.

The problem is, it’s not as good as it was.  I don’t have the original with which to compare, but I remember it as being better.  The new version is longer and has more characters.  It did what I wanted the scene to do.  But I just can’t help feeling it was much better before.

Well, I’m not going to work on it more now.  It’s set aside at least until I finish the His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue, and possibly until 82: Eridani– Voyage is done.  By then I’ll have enough perspective hopefully to rewrite it and make it as good as the original.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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Patience is a Virtue

Well, I read chapter three to the Shared Word Writers Group last night, and as usual, they were very helpful. I’m pretty happy with the story as far as I’ve gotten.  However, I find myself going back again and again to tweak certain parts.  Sometimes by the time I finish a “first draft” of a story, I’ve actually revised the earlier portions at least a dozen times.

I’m almost done with Chapter Ten.  As plotted now, there are 17 chapters total, but there are a couple of spots which might be expanded. This is a character driven story, so the characters have to be just right.  It also probably has more dialog than any book I’ve written before.  I think this is probably because I know these characters so well at this point.

Nine more days of school left for me, and my exams and lesson plans are written.  I’m going to see how much I can get done before the end of the year, and then I’ll really take off.

Tired

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I don’t think I have ever been so tired in my entire life.  I can barely drag myself home at the end of the day.  Then I type a few words, sit down and watch some TV, climb into bed.  Then I’m back up in the morning and it all starts over again.

I have a little post-it note on my monitor at school that tells me how many school days left.  Twenty days as I write this.  God, I hope I can make it.

I’ve also had a terrible misfortune.  Having managed to avoid it for the past 19 years, I somehow let myself be made Social Studies Department Chair next year.  I’m too old for more work!  I’ll do my best of course, but…  Hey, at least I’m not doing the Yearbook next year.  Always look on the bright side of life.

Also I’ve been having “lubricant” injected into my knee over the past few weeks and my last injection is tomorrow.  Hopefully it will make walking a bit easier.  It’s pretty painful right now.  If you think it’s a coincidence that Mike has knee problems in the next His Robot Wife book… it’s not.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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Patience is a VirtueOkay. I found my USB drive with the pages of His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue on it and I am back to the grind writing.

I’m surprising myself with this book in two ways, the first of which I mentioned the other day. Looking back at His Robot Girlfriend, I was always a little embarrassed about it. It was one of my first books and I it just isn’t as good as I would have written it today. His Robot Wife was better, but I think it’s far from my best work. Reading through the first half of this new book, I’m pretty happy with the writing.

The second thing is, I’m surprised how easily this book is flowing. I haven’t had any writer’s block or difficulty in putting the plot together. Of course, like the first two books, this one is a more dialog and character driven tale. Plot takes a back seat, but there is one there– more than one. There is a plot for the book and there is a plot that will carry over into a series.

Well, back to work.

P.S. I’m playing around with the fonts on the cover. It’s a work in progress.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Now that I have Astrid Maxxim and her Undersea Dome in the can, I’m hard at work on His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue.  I’ve written a chapter and a half in the last few days, and am just past the halfway point now.  I’d really like to get the book done by the end of June, and I think that I can.  After June 6th, I’ll be out of school and able to devote all my time to it.  That doesn’t mean I won’t be working on it before though.

I went back last week and read the first seven chapters through and was surprised how much I liked the story.  That may seem weird, but that’s how it is sometimes.  You write and write and you can lose perspective about what you’ve written.  If you can set it aside and come back to it later, it helps.  Although it’s also pretty easy to fall in love with your own writing.  After all, you’re writing a story you would want to read.

Anyway.  I just finished writing a bit of dialog where several characters play The Last Supper game– where you list the twelve people you would like to invite to a dinner party.  Patience has her own unique list.

Now, if I could only stop losing my USB drive.  I lost it last week and it had two chapters of Astrid Maxxim on it.  Thankfully I found it had fallen out of my pocket and rolled beneath the bed.  Today I can’t find it, and it has two pages of Patience is a Virtue on it.  But I think I left it stuck in the computer at work.  I’ll find out tomorrow.

His Robot Girlfriend Audiobook

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Some enterprising person going by the name of Clay Mann has a running feature on YouTube called “This Week in Audiobooks” wherein he posts a computerized-voice audiobook each week.  He has just posted His Robot Girlfriend.  I didn’t have anything to do with this and hadn’t heard of it until I ran across it by accident, but it’s pretty well-done for a text-to-speech program.  You can also read along with the text.

I’m not sure where the text came from– possibly Manybooks, in which case, it’s not as well edited as I would prefer.  Also, comments to Mr. Mann are disabled.  I’d like to send him a hello and thanks.