Category Archives: Writing

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

I haven’t had too much time to write, but I did manage a few pages this week.  I’ve been splitting my time between Patience is a Virtue and 82 Eridani.

I’ve gotten a lot of emails this month about His Robot Girlfriend and His Robot Wife.  People seem to be enjoying them and that’s great.  I wish I could tell everyone exactly when I will have the new book done, but I can’t.  I’m really planning to finish this summer.

I walked into school the other day and the first thing anyone said to me was “Four weeks till spring break, and ten more after that.”  So, I’m not the only one counting down.  I’d really like to get caught up during Spring Break, but I don’t know.  At least I’ll keep plunking away.  Whenever I get a page written I’ll have to give myself a little celebration.

Too Many Irons in the Fire

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Things really seem to be conspiring to keep me from writing.  I’m spending more and more time away from school working on lessons.  I definitely have more homework than the kids do.  In addition, we’re working on a reenactment battle of Gettysburg, which has its 150 anniversary this year.  I was out in the wind all day maneuvering the troops around– you have to give it to those Civil War soldiers.  You should see my kids trying to perform a “right wheel march!”  If that wasn’t enough, I’ve only got three weeks until the deadline for your yearbook.  I’ve got twenty kids working on it with me, but I seem to be the only one stressing out about it.  I don’t know if that’s because they’re confident or just don’t give a crap.  When I got home this evening, I just passed out in my comfy chair.  Anyway, I’ve got about two hours till bedtime, so I’m going to try and get a few pages done.

82 Eridani Update

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82 Eridani Journey

I finished chapter seven today and wrote a good portion of chapter eight.  I spent longer on seven than on most of the others.  I think it’s because it was one of the few chapters so far without much in the way of sex or violence.  Chapters five and six both had both.  They’re a lot of fun to write.  Chapter eight has some violence but no sex.  It’s a really fun chapter to write though, because I get to tear one of my characters apart– or at least to have him fall apart.

Most of my favorite characters are the really flawed ones.  The character in chapter five is a person that is so physically and mentally perfect that everyone else hates her.  And her flaw is that she hates herself more than anyone else does, for the same reason.  She hates her own perfection.  The chapter six character is a loving family man on the surface but has a deep and compelling need to kill people.  The chapter seven character is (maybe a little stereotypically) an introverted nerd, who is interested in a woman to the point of obsession.  The chapter eight character was a completely normal, well-balanced guy though– until his perfect world falls apart.  So now, he can be one of my favorite characters too.

Two Steps from Hell – Continued

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I mentioned the other day that I had purchased the album SkyWorld from Two Steps from Hell and that I wanted to listen to it while I write 82 Eridani.  Well, I am, and I really like it.  What I would like to do is identify each track with a particular character so that I could play that track while I write that character.  I haven’t done that yet though.  Maybe I will think about it today as I write.

Today is the first day in a while that I’ve reached my daily writing quota.  I kind of feel like I’m setting myself up for failure, because I’m already 200 pages behind for the year.  I hope that I’m able to catch up this summer…. come on Summer!  Come on Summer!  And not just because I want to get caught up on my writing.

I have another problem now too.  As I write this, my chair keeps descending.  I either need to lose weight or get a new chair… guess which one is more likely to happen.

I Had a Dream

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I had a dream last night.  It was the first dream I’ve had that I remembered in a few months.    I used to remember them all.  Well, despite the fact that my dream starred Lliam Neeson and Charisma Carpenter, I actually think I can use it in 82 Eridani, book 2.  I can’t remember ever using something I came up with in a dream before, though I often use events from my own life.

I’m not going to give too much away, but the dream involved characters named “the rose queen” and “potato soup.”

Two Steps from Hell

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As I have mentioned before, I like to listen to instrumental music as I write.  Well, I discovered Two Steps from Hell, a music company that writes a great deal of music that we hear in movie trailers.  They have several albums out, but I just purchased Sky World on iTunes, as it has a science fiction feel and I want to listen to it while I write 82 Eridani.

82 Eridani Starship

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Spacecraft

 

As promised, a bigger image of the 82 Eridani Starship.  Sorry it took so long.

Porn and Getting Things Done

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I usually visit Smashwords each day to check on sales and see if there is anything new ( I also check Kindle Direct Publishing daily).  Each day when I log on, there are new books on the main screen at Smashwords.  Hundreds of books are published a day there, so that’s no surprise.  What I was noticing was that usualy at least 3 of the 4 books shown are some kind of short porn story erotica.  They are usually between 3000 and 6000 words and sell for between 99 cents and 3 bucks.  I can’t help thinking WTF?  Are people buying this stuff?  You know you can get free erotica all over the net.  And these are barely long enough to be stories.  I’ve got novella’s that took me weeks to write for $1 and books that took me over a year selling for $3!

I’ve written well over 3000 words today… and yesterday and the day before.  I’m in a pretty good groove finally– for the first time really since the holidays.  Of course I have a lot to get done this year.  I have five books on the previews page and I plan to have them all out this year.  I think I can do it too.  At least I can do it if I keep going at close to the pace I’m at now.  I’ve just finished another chapter of Patience is a Virtue.

Patience is a Virtue: Wanda

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Wanda is the most important new character in Patience is a Virtue.  Like Patience, she is a robot– a Daffodil Amonte 2.  She is a bit on the short side and very curvy, with lots of wavy red hair.  She belongs to Ryan and was built to his specifications.

Wanda is far more robot-like than Patience and the latter becomes her mentor, teaching her how to be more human-like.  Wanda is shocked and frightened by Patience’s general disregard for the laws of robotics.

Having someone to tutor in the ways of the world has given me a chance to play with an entirely new side of Patience and it’s turning out to be a lot of fun.

Patience is a Virtue: Ryan

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His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

Ryan is a new character in this book.  He becomes an unlikely companion to Mike– unlikely because the two of them are really nothing alike.  Ryan is, or rather was, an outgoing boisterous fellow, and is a car salesman.  Recently his life has been turned upside down with the discovery that his wife was cheating on him and his subsequent divorce.

I was thinking about my stories the other day, and realized that I had numerous stories going on that all had cheating wives in them.  I don’t know why that’s on my mind, as my wife is as faithful as a Barsoomian calot.  I suppose it’s something that just tends to be on a man’s mind at a certain time in his life– a sort of evolutionary imperative, if you will.  But I have a cheating wife here, one in 82 Eridani, and one in Kanana the Jungle Girl (currently in limbo).  At least two of them will see the light of publication this year.