Category Archives: Writing

Music

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I like to listen to music when I write– instrumental, because songs with words distract me.  I must have listened to Ravel’s Bolero about 50 times as I was writing Astrid Maxxim.  My wife kept walking by and saying “that’s not the right music for that book.”  This is because she knows the music from the Blake Edward’s movie 10.  The Bolero scene in that movie is a really great one, but that’s not what I think about when I listen to it.  I usually think of building action– like that scene in (Arnold’s) Conan the Barbarian, where they sneak into James Earl Jones’s orgy.  Although they had new music for that scene, if you watch it I think you will see, they were copying Ravel.

Anyway, some of the other tracks I listen to while writing include: One Million Miles Away by J. Ralph, the title theme from Zulu, and The Kiss from Last of the Mohicans.

Book Sales

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I checked my email and saw that today at Smashwords somebody bought a copy of His Robot Wife.  Somebody else bought His Robot Wife, The Drache Girl, and Women of Power.  If you are either of those people, thanks.

I check my book sales frequently.  At Smashwords, I get real-time feedback, but I check at Amazon usually once a day, and I the other ebook stores as frequently as possible.  Book sales are only one indicator of success as a writer– feedback is another, as are posted reviews.  Book sales are really gratifying– that someone thinks enough of your writing to purchase a book, especially if they are buying the second or third book in a series.

To all of you out there who have purchased one of my books, thanks.

Women of Power – First Draft Finished

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Women of Power is done; at least the first draft is done.  In fact, as I write this, I’m about a third of the way through the first revision.  It’s going quickly for reasons I’ve mentioned before.  This will definitely be out before the end of August.  After that I can work on revising Blood Trade– a much bigger job, both because it’s longer and because it’s rougher.

In the meantime, I’m about a quarter way through the first draft of Astrid Maxxim and her Amazing Hoverbike.  More details to follow.

First Draft Completed!

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The first draft of Blood Trade is done!  I’m so happy, I’m giddy.  I’ve been working on this since early March.  There is still a lot to be done.  I just read chapter six to the Shared Word Writers Group, and while the reception was positive, there were many typos and mistakes to fix.  There are also more than a few rough spots that need to be smoothed out and some major revision to be done.

I’m setting it aside for at least a week, so that I can get a set of fresh eyes.  Then I’ll do the second draft.  That should only take me a few weeks.  I’ll let you know when I get there.  For now… Hooray!

On the Last Chapter

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Yay!  I’m on the last chapter of the draft!  I should have about four more pages to write.  This means, as I predicted that the draft will come in a bit shorter than originally plotted.  93 pages instead of 104.  That is primarily due to some huge rewriting at the end.  Everything originally plotted happens, but not in the same way or the same order that I originally thought it up.

I’ve been kicking myself because I haven’t been able to write the four pages a day that I originally planned.  But today?  Five pages!  Woot Woot!  Okay so that means the publication date is going to be somewhere near September 1.  A couple of weeks for draft number 2.  Three weeks for editing.  Maybe a draft 3.  And then I can forget everything I know about vampires.

First Week as a Writer

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Well, I spent the week trying to write.  My original goal was to write 8 pages a day, though I was hoping for 4.  I didn’t make either goal.  I wrote 9 pages the whole week.  I’m on a tough chapter, but mostly my brain hasn’t been focusing.  I’m going to give it another try this week (and the week after that).  Hopefully I’ll get more done.

First Day

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Today (as I write this– Monday) is my first day as a “professional full-time” writer.  I’ve vowed to write each day, five days a week and get a minimum done.  I got a bit of a late start today, as I had to deal with a couple of emergencies (IRS and car problems of all things), but now I’ve got those squared away and I’m sitting down to get back into chapter 7 of Blood Trade.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

Work in Progress: Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Queen of Aerithraine

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I wasn’t planning on writing another Eaglethorpe Buxton anytime soon, but I knew that the next one would be Eaglethorpe and the Queen of Aerithtaine.  Then I thought up a really funny line and had to write it, so I ended up writing the first few pages of the story.  Eaglethorpe Buxton stories are really short (though this one might be bit longer) so I could sit down and pound it out pretty quick, but I’m probably thinking I’ll wait till this summer.

The first two EB stories are out there as free downloads, and a new one would be too short to charge even 99 cents for, so I’m thinking I might write two this summer and package them with the first two (maybe rewritten) as the Many Adventures of Eaglethorpe Buxton.  If I do, the fourth story could be any one of a number that I have rattling around in my head, but the most likely would be Eaglethorpe Buxton and the Werewolf.

My Writing: 2011

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I knew that if any of my books was likely to capture attention, it would be His Robot Wife.  His Robot Girlfriend was being downloaded by the thousands each month, despite not being my best work.  So I really worked to finish a book that was much better written than the original.  I also for the first time had letters from over a hundred people who had questions or suggestions about a sequel to His Robot Girlfriend.  That was pretty strange– that kind of feedback was definitely new to me.  I finished it and published it in February with a goal of selling 8,000 ebooks in a year.  It seems like I might make that goal.

I promised myself that I would finish five books this year, and I’m going to be a full time writer this summer.  I usually write after school and on weekends anyway, but I’ve been sick now for almost two months and just don’t have the energy.  But I’m going to get it done!  I have ten projects in various stages of completion and it’s only a matter of which one comes first.  I’ll tell you about them all over the next few days.

My Writing: 2010

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By 2010, I had mostly given up on traditionally publishing the Senta and the Steel Dragon books.  I entered the Voyage of the Minotaur in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest, and though it made it to round two, it was very disappointing.  I was very unhappy with the feedback I got from the publishers who were evaluating the books.  Some of the criticism was valid, but some I felt was very mean and some was just incorrect.

I decided to publish it myself and did.  I also decided that Senta and the Steel Dragon shouldn’t just be a trilogy, but a series.  The three books I had written (as one long one) took place three to five years apart.  I thought I should write books to fill in the void.  So my original three books became:

Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 1: The Voyage of the Minotaur
Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 3: The Drache Girl
Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 5: The Two Dragons.

I sat down and wrote Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 2: The Dark and Forbidding Land.  It was a real challenge making it fit between two already completed books.

I finished it and published book 2, then revised book 3 again and published it.

I also decided that I would write a quick and short little prequel and so Senta and the Steel Dragon Book 0: Brechalon, was done.

In the meantime, I was playing a lot of Rock Band on my Wii.  This inspired a story that just popped right out of me, seemingly without much effort on my part.  It became Tesla’s Stepdaughters.

So, I had five books published in 2010, and I started having visions of dozens of Wesley Allison books or even scores.  If I write 5 books a year, I could write as many as Edgar Rice Burroughs before I die.