Monthly Archives: April 2014

April 28, 2014 · 12:49 AM

Camp Ramblings 4-28-14

As of this writing I am less than 5000 words away from my goal of 50,000 words.  (Until the clock ticked past midnight I was on par.)

I’m back to working on Book One – the third possible beginning to Book Three got to the point that it was running into the rest of the book, so I went back to part of what I had planned to be doing.

The good news is that there is a lot more than 5000 words needed to finish Book One – it was a little short on word count but should come out about 100,000 – I think.  (Give or take an edit or two.)

The bad news is that I haven’t touched Book Two.  (But on the other hand I’ll have something to do next camp session.)

I just wish I could shake the feeling that everything that I’m writing is crap that is going to get cut because it doesn’t advance the plot, but as one of my cabin mates said, at least I’m writing.

And as I keep reminding people, “you can’t edit what’s not written” and “you can’t fix up what’s not written down.”

Why is it so hard to listen to your own advice?

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April 27, 2014 · 1:01 AM

Sunday Excerpt — April 27, 2014

More from Sanguine, a science fiction novel (still in progress) with elements of semi-paranormal M/M romance.

(I am done with beta readers, and Sanguine is in next-to-final-edit stage, so this is still a work in progress and the following lines may or may not have been hacked and recombined and creatively punctuated to fit into 10 sentences.)

Skipping ahead a bit to start introducing some other characters – and a few bits of Gregor’s past.  In this post, Kaen and Gregor have gone to clean out Gregor’s quarters on the station.  Kaen  has been looking through a photo album while Gregor packs.  Picking up more or less from last week’s snippet – Gregor has flipped to the last image in the photo album.

 

“This is Sergiu.”

Kaen looked down at a photo of a bearded dark-haired man and a younger version of the man in his arms.  “The two of you?”  

“Taken the day we left Earth.”

Kaen tightened his grip on him. “What happened?” he asked softly, his eyes never leaving the photo:  this, too, was one of his people…

“We were captured.  They… they wanted him to betray his friends on Solovei.    And  then she arrived: a vampire, a Ferrastin.  She knew of our Blood and she tried to get him to join her, to offer his blood to her and he refused. She tried to Compel him and he resisted. She… she had him tortured.  I was forced to watch.  She told me the same things would happen to me unless I… unless I let her… offered her…”

 

 

 

 

 

Check out Sunday Snippets for great stuff from other writers.

My other novel, Song and Sword is currently available for Kindle and all other e-readers. 

Song and Sword cover

Available for Kindle at Amazon

and at Smashwords for all other e-readers.

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April 25, 2014 · 1:09 AM

Camp Ramblings 4-25-14

I did it!  I got caught up!

Well, until the clock ticked over to midnight I was caught up.  I still need to get today’s words in and I’ll be caught up again – and hopefully a bit ahead, even though I have to go back to work today.  But, yeah, I can definitely do this.

And I will definitely never do this to myself again – let myself get this far behind on a NaNo event.  I’ve been enjoying the challenge of getting caught up, but I don’t think I want to do this on a regular basis.

I have been working on Book Three of The Other Mages trilogy instead of Books One and Two as planned.  I now have a totally different beginning to it.  (This is my third beginning of it, in case anyone is keeping count.)  I’m pretty sure that I like it better than the second one, but it’s missing a lot that I like from the first one, so…

What to do?

The answer is easy – keep on writing this one until it merges into the body of the original, then, when the time comes, print both of them and see what I can do about changing and recombining.

And don’t worry about it until then because the chances are that Book Two will lead to more changes for Book Three anyhow.

(Someday I will learn how to not write books out of order.  On second thought, given the mess that is The Academy of the Accord series, it’s too late for me – save yourselves!)

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April 21, 2014 · 2:13 AM

Camp Ramblings 4-21-14

Well, I finally cracked the halfway point, with 25,026 words written.  That means that I still have 24.974 words to go, and need to write an average of 2498 words per day to finish by the end of the month.  (And at my current rate I’ll hit my goal on May 12.)

I’m still going to try, though, especially as I’m on a roll, of sorts.

See, the original plan was to finish Books One and Two of The Other Mages trilogy, but then I realized that 50k wouldn’t be enough to finish both books, so the plan became to finish Book One and use any extra time (and words) to continue Book Two.

Both plans seem to have amused my muse, however, because early this morning I had a burst of inspiration for… Book Three.

I’d be more upset by this seeming disobedience if said burst of inspiration didn’t also solve a huge logic problem at the start of Book Three. (It does come with a few logic problems of its own, but they are a lot less troublesome – and more easily fixable – than the one that was already there.)

I do feel rather like I’m cheating, though.  I really wanted to get Books One and Two finished this month.  On the other hand, at least I am writing, and it is the same series…

And there’s always next camp….

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April 20, 2014 · 1:01 AM

Sunday Excerpt — April 20, 2014

More from Sanguine, a science fiction novel (still in progress) with elements of semi-paranormal M/M romance.

(I am done with beta readers, and Sanguine is in next-to-final-edit stage, so this is still a work in progress and the following lines may or may not have been hacked and recombined and creatively punctuated to fit into 10 sentences.)

Skipping ahead a bit to start introducing some other characters – and a few bits of Gregor’s past.  In this post, Kaen and Gregor have gone to clean out Gregor’s quarters on the station.  Kaen  has been looking through a photo album while Gregor packs.  Picking up a couple lines from where I left off last week – Kaen has asked Gregor to tell him what happened to Sergiu.

 

“We were captured,” he said, his voice flat and emotionless.  “They… they wanted…”  His voice broke for a moment and he took a deep breath to regain control.  “What do you know of the Erid’thu, Master?”

“Not much, I’m afraid, only that they have been warring with their nearest neighbor, the Solovei for — well, pretty much since they first met each other.”

“Do you know about the Ferrastin?”

Kaen winced as a pain shot through his head. “Yes, but I — I don’t… it seems… familiar, but…”

“They are vampires — a subclass of vampires – not true vampires, not what you are, but they are closer to what the popular myth is.  They are… they are evil, Master. They arose during a dark period of vampire history…”  He took a deep shaky breath.  “They still exist, and they have made Erid’thu their home world.”

 

 

 

 

 

Check out Sunday Snippets for great stuff from other writers.

My other novel, Song and Sword is currently available for Kindle and all other e-readers. 

Song and Sword cover

Available for Kindle at Amazon

and at Smashwords for all other e-readers.

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April 18, 2014 · 2:02 AM

Camp Ramblings 4-18-14

Well, here it is, Friday again, and I feel like I’m falling even further behind, probably because I am.  I did get a burst of words in late yesterday, though, which gives me hope that this is still doable, even though I have to write 2354 words per day in order to finish on time and I’m lucky to get a thousand in on work days.

I have gone from stilted and probably repeating myself and through focusing on a minor character’s back story, to probably being too preachy, but, hey, that’s all stuff to worry about when it’s time to edit this mess.

I may also have to retcon and rewrite a few parts, but… Yep! You got it!  That’s something to worry about in the first round edit.

Right now I have enough to worry about with the word count, but on a brighter note I’m discovering that sitting down and making myself write seems to be pushing the blocked feeling away — the more I write the better the words flow.

I’m working the next three days, so most likely won’t get more than another 3k written over the weekend.  I’m off on Monday, though, and have no plans to go anywhere, so maybe, just maybe, I can make some inroads on my word deficit.

Besides, I’m just too stubborn to give up.

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April 14, 2014 · 1:40 AM

Camp Ramblings 4-14-14

So, April is nearly half over and I’m just over a quarter of the way to my word count goal.

So, am I going to do something rational like adjust my goal?

Of course not!

In order to finish on time I only need to write about 2000 words a day.  I can do that.

Well, okay, maybe I can’t do that on work days but I’m doing pretty good at getting about a thousand in on work days, so if I can do three to five thousand on my days off…

Yeah, it’s still doable!

Totally.

Granted, I’d feel more confident if I had a detailed outline to work from, but I can still do it.  I’m not sure that both novels will be finished, but I will hit 50k.  And if the words are all for book one of the trilogy, that’s okay.  It’s really too short as it is and could use another 50,000 words.  (That might make it too long, but I am pretty sure that I’ve been repeating myself a lot lately, so it’ll be easy to shave some stuff off when it’s time to edit.)

I’m also spending a lot of time with a minor character who has become more important than intended.  (He’s the second character in this trilogy to do that.)

Anyhow, my two days off this week are pretty packed, especially Wednesday, but I’m going to try hit 25k by Friday.

Doable?

If I can stay awake…

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April 13, 2014 · 1:01 AM

Sunday Excerpt — April 13, 2014

More from Sanguine, a science fiction novel (still in progress) with elements of semi-paranormal M/M romance.

(I am done with beta readers, and Sanguine is in next-to-final-edit stage, so this is still a work in progress and the following lines may or may not have been hacked and recombined and creatively punctuated to fit into 10 sentences.)

Skipping ahead a bit to start introducing some other characters – and a few bits of Gregor’s past.  In this post, Kaen and Gregor have gone to clean out Gregor’s quarters on the station.  Kaen  has been looking through a photo album while Gregor packs.

 

“How long have you been gone?”

“Six years, Master.  I left when I was sixteen, traveling with my Uncle Sergiu.”

“What happened?”  Kaen asked, hearing an odd note in Gregor’s voice.

“He…”  He took a deep breath.  “It is a long story, Master.”

“Tell me.”

Gregor sighed.  “We were in the Kirril quadrant, and we got caught up in one of the spats between the Solovei and the Erid’thu.   We were safe enough – we were passengers on board a Paragon class trader – but when we went planet-side we… We landed just before an assault team of Erid’thu.” 

“He was killed?”

“Not… not right away.”

 

 

 

 

Check out Sunday Snippets for great stuff from other writers.

My other novel, Song and Sword is currently available for Kindle and all other e-readers. 

Song and Sword cover

Available for Kindle at Amazon

and at Smashwords for all other e-readers.

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April 11, 2014 · 12:30 AM

Camp Ramblings 4-11-14

Bribery.

Sometimes, that’s what it takes.

The deal was that if I got to 10k by the end of the day yesterday I could look at some of the sites that sell rat cage accessories (hammocks, etc) with proceeds going to rat rescue groups.  (And knowing me, as I look I’ll make a wish list.)

And if I hit 15k by the end of the day today I can order something.  (Depending on how my checking account looks after bills, of course…)

So, did it work?  Well…

I wrote 3484 words yesterday, bringing my monthly total to just over 10k. I’m still over 6,000 words behind where I need to be, but I seem to be back on track now and I’m hoping to hit 15k before today is over.

(I work the next four days so writing will be at a minimum, but I’m still hoping to hold to about a thousand words a day so I don’t fall too much further behind.)

But the really good news is that I do seem to be back on track.  The story is rolling and unfolding, and although I’m not quite sure where it’s going, at least it’s going somewhere.

I may need to cut out a large part of what I’m currently writing, but then, an unexpected gem of inspiration might pop out of it, rather like the vision that I was expecting to happen.

And I’m leaving myself the usual notes to make sure that previous conversations happened, and to show not tell – but I’m letting myself tell for now just so I can get on with the story.

In short, I’m enjoying the process again.

And that’s all that matters, right?

 

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April 7, 2014 · 1:21 AM

Camp Ramblings 4-7-14

Well, I’m still behind by about two and a half days.  I’ll do my best to close the gap some today.  (I’m hoping for a 3k day — I’m too “out of shape” to think I can do 5k.)

But the good news is that it’s getting easier.

I’ve been using 750words.com to get myself to write, and for the first couple days it was hard: each word felt like I was pulling it out of a concrete block.  (I haven’t gone back and re-read what I wrote, but I’m guessing it reads like a concrete block, too.)  Yesterday, however, the words flowed much more easily.  I’m pretty sure it’s still stilted and awkward, but it’s getting better,  and I’m learning to go with the flow of the story again.

No, that’s not quite right.  I’m learning to let the story flow.

I don’t really have an outline for this — just a few points that need to be covered — so I’m sort of pantsing* it.

I normally do work with an outline:  it keeps me on track, and the more detailed I make it the faster and easier my writing goes.   But in a way, it does interrupt the flow of the story.  This one has just branched off in a direction I hadn’t expected, with a minor character having a vision that is going to be reflected in Book Three, which happens almost 20 years after this one.  It’s genius!

Or it would be if I had, you know… planned it…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*pantsing: writing by the seat of your pants

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