Masculine Christian Fiction
Word count: 3,355.
I spent the bulk of my writing time finishing the revised outline to Topheth. The story has grown in such complexity from when I first began it five years ago. It might take longer to wrap up, if only because there’s so much more depth to it than I’d originally imagined. Nevertheless, I’m going to endeavor to complete the book in October no matter what.
I’ll be returning to The Tree of Liberty with today’s efforts.
Word count update: 2,615.
Most of that went to The Tree of Liberty. I did finish the next chapter of Topheth, however, and realized something significant: I am so far off my old outline that there’s no hope of recovery. No matter, the story is far better now. But it does mean I’m gonna have to map out the rest of the story sometime today if I’m going to finish it this month.
Yay! It’s National November Writing Month!
Egads! It’s National November Writing Month! One thousand, six hundred sixty seven words a day for thirty days straight.
The good news is: I finished the new outline for Tree of Liberty, which means I should be well positioned to git er done before the end of the month. The bad news is: between Tree and Topheth, I’ve got about 55,000 words needed to finish both books. Thus, I’m going to be busy. Very busy.
And, of course, nothing changes during November. I still have to work full time. We still have a major holiday to contend with. I still have to produce a sermon for church every week (and no, none of that writing counts towards NaNo.). And I still have co-op lessons to write.
On top of that, I’ll be teaching my course on how to publish independently at the Webster Public Library on Tuesdays, November 13 and 20 from 6:30-close.
At any rate, if you want to follow my progress, you can check how I’m doing here on the blog, or at IndieAuthors.com, where I’ll be posting daily updates.
Well, we survived my sister’s wrath (inside joke. Gotta know my family), and the kids and I spent this morning cleaning up debris along our street – especially helping the neighbors who had some downed trees in their yard. Nothing too big to handle. It always kills me when people act shocked that neighbors help each other out. My God. What kind of society have we become that such is so unusual. Neighbors are supposed to help each other out. That’s why we live in communities.
Proverbs 27:10 says, “Do not forsake your friend or a friend of your family, and do not go to your relative’s house when disaster strikes you— better a neighbor nearby than a relative far away.”
At any rate, we’re fine and so is everyone else on our street, too. Power’s still out, though RG&E’s website says it was restored at 11 am. It’s a waiting game, I reckon. In the meantime, we’ve got propane to cook with, and a gas water heater for showers and such. Freezer on the back porch will keep the milk cold till things start working again.
Thanks to everyone for your prayers.
In the meantime, I’m still gearing up for NaNoWriMo, and I’ve picked up a new reader for In the Widening Gyre, so I really do need to wrap that book up in December. I’m at the library right now, using the local internet (wireless is out), just trying to wrap things up before the session times out. I’ll be going in to work an overtime shift tonight (called in “sick” last night ’cause we were under evacuation orders. Had go-bags packed and everything, but turns out we didn’t need to leave.). Hopefully, I’ll get some progress done.
I’ve gotten most of Tree of Liberty outlined now, and I think I see where the problem is. I’m gonna try to use the rest of today to finish outlining the story. Maybe then I can actually get this sucker done.
So I’ve agreed (in principle, at least) to use this year’s NaNoWriMo to finish The Tree of Liberty and Topheth… and if I have any time left in December, to wrap up In The Widening Gyre as well.
The Tree of Liberty has been giving me particular fits. I don’t want to give anything away, but let’s just say the whole thing feels like I’ve been swimming through mud. It just doesn’t have that particular urgency to it that I expect it to have. Thing is, I know exactly where this story is going and how the whole series ends, but I’m just sorta stuck right now.
There are two things I’m going to try, beyond just plowing through it in November. One, I want to strip the whole thing back down to outline (and I’ve never outlined a Jefferson’s Road story before), and see if I can’t figure out how to speed things up. The second is an insight my son gave me last night (And I don’t know how he recognized this). In the first two books, my main character, Peter Baird, is primarily reacting to what’s going on around him. He does act and make choices, of course, but he’s essentially a reactive character. In this book, I’ve been using him more as an actor, less as a re-actor (there’s a nuclear joke in there somewhere. Like, maybe that’s why the book has no energy? Guffaw.). So maybe the character himself has been resisting what I’ve been trying to do with him. It’s something to consider, at least.
Topheth is steaming along fine. I should have no real problems finishing it… so long as I can keep the heat on (shameless pun).
In the meantime, I’ve finally started successfully outlining the next Jonathan Munro Adventure. I’ve been wanting to do a story that takes place in Russia called The Music of The Spheres, but until this morning, I just didn’t have a good sense of what happens. But I picked up my pen and paper around 10:00 this morning, and now I’ve got almost six handwritten pages of outline done, with lots and lots of stuff happening that’ll keep it going right on till the end, I expect. This is good, because the second Jonathan Munro book comes out next Spring, and I wanted to have a third one ready to send off to my editor as soon as it does. This will give me a head start for the new year, and I should be able to get the whole thing finished in plenty of time.
So for the rest of the day, I’ll be writing up the outline for The Music of The Spheres, and then tearing into The Tree of Liberty.
As an aside, in a few weeks I’ll be teaching a class on Tuesday nights at the Webster Public Library for how to publish independently. We’ll be meeting in the common area on November 13th and November 20th from 6:30 on. The cost is $20 apiece if you want to attend, but I’ll basically be teaching how to design covers, publish, and promote online. It’s the same material I’m presenting in our homeschooling co-op, just taught in two, two hour sessions instead of eight thirty-five minute classes.
I just discovered that I’ve made my first landing on French soil. Yes. Someone in France has downloaded Jefferson’s Road. Now, I’m not one to think more of myself than I ought, but neither do I dismiss small beginnings, so to speak.
Given that France’s new socialist President is threatening to put a confiscatory 75% tax on the wealthy (See The New York Times), I’m wondering just how well my anti-Marxist, Freedom-oriented book will do over there.
Regardless, we’ve broken past 6.1K books and are still climbing.
This has to be one of the craziest months I think I’ve ever experienced, writing-wise, that is. Not only are we in the midst of this major publicity push for The Spirit of Resistance, resulting in a readership that is shooting exponentially through the roof, but my publisher for The Lost Scrolls has been cranking down hard on the publicity there, as well.
I just got off the phone with Irene Watson, doing my first “live” interview for The Lost Scrolls. That was fun – a little nerve-wracking, if I do say so. The whole time I’m talking I’m experiencing this, “Oh Jesus, please keep me from saying something stoopid!” kind of feeling, and just kind of babbling on. Well, there’s a first time for everything. If I do come off as an idiot, it’s probably accurate, but I’ll still blame the overnight shift and four hours sleep I’ve had.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from this month so far:
In Political Fiction for e-books, we’re in the number two spot for the day!
Jefferson’s Road: The Spirit of Resistance is available as a FREE Kindle download from Monday (August 6) until Wednesday (August 8). Everyone loves a great deal, so grab a copy while it’s free!
The first 100 people to Tweet the book or post a link to Facebook will be entered into a drawing to receive a free autographed copy of the paperback book.
Just sign up for my newsletter, then shoot me an email with a copy of the link, and I’ll enter you in the drawing! We’ll post the results next week in the newsletter.
It’s been a little over two years since I started publishing my own material, and in that time I’ve sold just over 530 books. Total.
Pathetic.
With that in mind, I’ve secured the assistance of a publicist – someone who comes highly recommended from a friend in my writing community – who has agreed to help me sell my books for a percentage of the sales.
This works much better than an upfront fee, because a) I don’t have any money to pay an upfront fee, and b) I know that it will motivate her to help me sell as many books as we can. I don’t have a whole lot of details just yet, but I have been given some tasks.
We’re starting with the Jefferson’s Road series. She’s asked me to redesign and upload new cover art for the books (which coincides with the interior redesign I’ve been doing anyway for the print books), and to secure some additional reviews for Patriots and Tyrants.
So far, I’ve done what I can – as far as the cover art is concerned. I’m including the new covers below for you to “ooh” and “aah” over. Frankly, I think they look a lot better than my first attempts. I’m actually getting quite good at this, if I do say so myself.
The second part involves asking any of you who’ve read Patriots and Tyrants to please, Please, PLEASE go to Amazon.com and leave me a review. It won’t take much: just a paragraph about what you thought of the book. You don’t have to give it all five stars – unless you think it deserves them, of course. I’m seriously interested in an honest take on the book. I’d like to get as many reviews for Patriots and Tyrants as I have for The Spirit of Resistance.
That being said, here are the covers (and I’d love your feedback on these, too, if you want to share it).
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