Month: October 2012

After the Storm…

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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.

Planning Ahead…

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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.

Dude, Where’ve You Been?

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I received this email from a friend this morning, and thought I’d share it with you:

Dude… where’s the writing/publishing updates?

I need to know what’s going on with my writing friend’s authoring endeavors (perhaps because I may somewhat slightly a teensy bit be living vicariously through said endeavors?)  🙂 🙂

Anyway … why is it so quiet on the website?

Hope all is well. And that you’re still selling many books.

And finishing the third book in the Jefferson Road series……….

🙂

Greg

This is what I sent in reply (slightly edited for personal content):

I’m still plugging away at stuff. Concentrating mainly on Topheth (Coppersmith sequel) and previously mentioned JR. Just figured out a major plot point in JR this morning (I do my best writing in the shower for some reason).

The book sales have petered off since the first major push of September. I’m needing reviews on the next two books (Spilled Milk and Eye of Darkness) before I can do any more formal promoting (something about five reviews needed minimally, though my publicist wants ten for the next one we promo. Yikes!).

So I’m just concentrating on getting something new finished. I’ve also been helping a friend with his book covers and formatting. He’s leaving his publisher and going indie, so I’ve been commissioned to assist. It’s good for a couple hundred bucks.

I plan on NaNoing this year (from NaNoWriMo – National November Writing Month and the attempt to crank out 50K words in 30 days), so I’ll use that time to get one or both of these books off my plate.

Other than that, I’ve been doing a lot of home repair. Just finished reinstalling a sump pump in the basement. The seal on the previous pump’s motor broke, and the entire motor housing got contaminated with water. Electric motors and water don’t mix. Anyway, they had an older pump down there that the motor still worked, but the pump fan was damaged. I repaired it with JB Power Weld and reinstalled. Hope it works!

So between housing repairs (washer, dryer, sump and vacuum cleaner), and overtime, I haven’t gotten a lot written. But I am still writing!

How ’bout you? What’s new on the homefront?

– Michael

Yes, it’s true, I’ve been somewhat absent from the site for a while. I should add that I’ve also begun the next installment on The Dragon’s Eye Cycle. Spending time with that when the main projects are just getting a little too frustrating. The advantage of fantasy is that I don’t have to do that much research as with other books.

The other thing I’ve realized – and this is essentially true of the Jefferson’s Road series, is that every new book gives me less and less freedom than the book before. The previous works constrain me in ways that a new novel doesn’t. I have to ensure that I’m maintaining consistency throughout, and the more I write, the harder this gets. My hat goes off to others who’ve done this and done it well (JK Rowling comes to mind – radically different genre, of course, but still: seven sequential books that have to remain consistent with the previous installments, or there’s hell to pay!)

At any rate, I hope to have some new material for y’all soon!