It’s me again, Lance.
I can’t reasonably ask one of my characters to come off the page to apologize for me. That’s mean. Even to a fictional being.
So, here I am, a touch embarrassed that my several plans for reaching out in June came to nothing.
Ideas refusing to grow up
I’ve four ideas sketched down, outlined, or drafted, all flailing along in these various stages of development from blastocyst to embryo to fetus with a recognizable lede, theme, and conclusion. Undeveloped, but distinctly there. Nothing ready to come out into the world. So, I’ve decided to let them gestate until they are fully formed and can accomplish what I have hopes they can.
Time to Catch Up
This time, I wanted to let you know I am, in fact, alive and kicking and working. Rather hard, mind you, even if it doesn’t look like it.
As you might or might not know, I’m a member of the Brooklyn Speculative Fiction Writers (BSFW). You can find us here: http://www.bsfwriters.com and on FB here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BrooklynSFW. That’s a private FB group, but if you’re cool, you can get in. Just ask. There are nearly 300 of us, give or take, in total.
Daily Writing Challenge
One of the things BSFW does is have a Daily Writing Challenge. Each participating author reports how many words they write in a given day, and as long as it’s over 250, a link is added to our “chain”—the number of days in a row we hit that mark. There are points, but that’s not as important for me as the chain†—days in a row of 250 plus words written.
I accepted that challenge January 11th, after it had been running for a couple of weeks, and I now have a chain of 192 days in a row of writing at least 250 words. Almost all of these are writing and rewriting Walking the Darkmaker’s Way (WtDMW).
The word count? As of July 21th, exactly 68,518 words. All but a few hundred devoted to that one book. This averages out to be about 357 words a day. Every day. Even on vacation. Even jetlagged, sitting in a strange hotel room, or riding, exhausted, on a bus or sitting in the back of a car on the way to a convention.
This follows the advice Gore Vidal once gave when answering the question, “How do you become a writer?”
“Writers write.”
As simple and hard as that is.
I know it’s more nothing for you to read, but words are being crafted and put in order. The new beginning is inches from being attached to the old ending. Then, with a few subplots to wrap up, it will sit for a bit before being polished up for a Beta Read. Let me know if you are interested in being a Beta Reader—reading the first fully polished draft with a chance to shape the final draft. I’ll put you on a special list for notes exclusive to that. Just hit reply to this email and ask about Beta Reading.
WtDMW and BoV
Not that I’ll stop when I let WtDMW rest. Hell, no. I have its sibling, the Book of Visions (BoV). There are thirty-plus chapters presently drafted or outlined, and with what I now know of this world, I’ll be able to blaze through that drafting and rewrite. Plus, I think I’m a much stronger writer now. I’ve still got plenty of room to improve, but….
So, two books. With ideas for a slew more. And short stories. Fingers crossed.
Marketing, or Getting People to Know I Exist
In the meantime, I’ve been working on APB. Or rather, working on getting it into people’s hands. Promoting it and gearing up for Amazon Ads. While preparing for that, I discovered I’d sold a few more softbound copies than I had known. From iUniverse. At a steep discount.
How or why?
Hell if I know. But I’m surmising that iUniverse was initially marking each copy up substantially. Then, it can offer discounts to large players like Amazon. I’ll get a few bucks for them. But I’m not moving enough of the Advanced Reader Copies I have on hand. Still, I was promoting the ebook and sold softcover versions. That’s exciting for a writer. Even if it’s only a handful of copies.
I also discovered more customer reviews on Amazon and Goodreads. YAY! (This is one of the main ways a book gets discovered, so if you’ve read APB, do leave an honest review. If you haven’t read it yet, I have some Advanced Reader Copies here collecting dust. Just ask, and one can be yours. Just hit reply to this email and say, “I want a copy.” The ebook version is available, too. No worries.
Videos
About actual fingers-on-keys writing—I made a short video. Okay, it’s 24 minutes long, showing what I’m doing with workshop comments. You can check it out >> here << if you are interested in getting a taste of the process. (And getting a peek into Scrivener, the writing software I’m using. )
I might have another one or two videos in the wings, including an interview.
Next time, I hope to have a guest writer stepping off the pages of one of these books. While I try to get those ideas that aren’t playing nice in my head to play nice on the page.
We’ll see.
Oh, if you’d like to see more video or hear audio content, let me know. I’m just toying with those ideas night now.
Next time, I’ll have tales of BSFW at ReaderCon in Quincy, Massachusetts. (Which was really cool. 😉
