His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue

PatienceHis Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue is now available at Smashwords.  Readers of this blog can pick up a free ebook version by using the following coupon code: DZ53L.  You can find the book by following this link.  The coupon is good from now through July 30th.

It is the year 2037, when men are men and robots are cute. Patience, the robot wife, has a new friend– Wanda. Wanda, another Daffodil, has been having difficulty bonding with her human, the recently divorced Ryan. She hopes that with Patience’s mentoring, she’ll be able to help Ryan accept her into his troubled life. But even Patience isn’t prepared for what happens when they take a joint vacation cruise to Antarctica. His Robot Wife: Patience is a Virtue is a science fiction story in a world where technology is more than just a pretty face.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

PatienceAs I’m writing this, it’s about 3:00 PM on Wednesday afternoon July 3.  I am exhausted.  About 2:00 this morning, I completed the first draft.  Now I just can’t find the energy to do anything.  Today, I’ll make some changes to the manuscript suggested by my writers group Tuesday evening, but I’m not going to seriously start the revision process until Monday (that’s tomorrow for you reading this.)

I have two main things that I will be especially looking at as I do my first revision pass.  The first is to make sure that I haven’t flipped from one point of view to the other.  This story is more from Patience’s point of view, but I know I’ve slipped in a few places and given the reins to Mike.  The second is to balance out how much sex is in the story.  In the first two books, there are some strong allusions to sex, but not a blow by blow, as it were.  This book has a couple of fairly descriptive sex scenes and one not so descriptive.  I have to decide how I’m going to play it.

Of course there are plenty of other changes I’ll have to make.  I need to get them all done before I start editing.

Keep an eye on this blog, because I will be giving out coupon codes for free ebooks as soon as it’s done.  Thanks to everyone who has stopped by or written to tell me how much they enjoyed the other books and how much they are waiting for this one.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

PatienceI finished writing chapter 12, and just like the last chapter, it took me five days.  That is it took me five days, if you consider writing away at 2:30 in the morning of the sixth day, to still be in the fifth day.

Unlike the last chapter, everything that was supposed to happen in this chapter did.  Well, almost.  A little dialog planned for chapter 12 has gotten pushed back to chapter 13.

I was also lying in bed last night and came up with a different way to do a particular plot point.  I had originally envisioned something happening a certain way, and now I’ve decided to change that.   Looking back on it, I think the original idea was kind of stupid– even though I was basing it on real events.  I think I would have been ‘jumping the shark’ for Patience and Mike, and I don’t want to do that, because lately I’ve been coming up with some other story ideas for them.

Anyway, three to four more chapters to go, depending on how they play out.  I’ll keep you updated.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

PatienceOkay, so at the pace I’m writing now, it’s five days to finish a chapter.  I just finished chapter twelve.

The funny thing (maybe) is that after I finished chapter 11, I looked at my outline and found that I hadn’t included anything that was supposed to happen in chapter 11.  So that means they happen in chapter 12, along with what was already going to happen in chapter twelve.  This is actually a good thing for me.  I sometimes feel that I don’t have enough going on in the story.  So, this next part should be good.

I’ll post an update when I finish chapter 12– hopefully in 5 days or less.

You can also see that I’ve tweaked the cover a bit, with a new font and by increasing the size of my Patience model.

The Ungodly Pace of Technological Change

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

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.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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.

Update: Patience is a Virtue

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

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.

Patience is a Virtue: Ryan

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.