And The Stars Go With You

Well, a ship is about to set sail in my book.  Every event from here on out leads to the end, and everything comes full circle.  Of course, there is an emotional twist in the end, and I don’t mean one of those endings where you’re like “Oh, I should have seen that,” no, it’s more like when the killer stands up in the middle of the room in the original Saw.

In answer to one of your questions, no, I will not be sending the book off this Christmas.  It’s not just that it’s a horrible time to submit, but there are several things that have to be done first.  Chapter 26 needs a rewrite.  I still have to find someone to edit the entire novel, and the dreaded Library of Congress send out that takes entirely too long if you ask me.  The book will be done by Christmas, but a whole lot of work will begin.  I’m aiming for around the end of Spring for submissions.

Ah, I will miss these characters.

Novel Writing Made Easy

As an author, I admittedly started off with a typewriter.  I hated the damned thing, too.  Then I moved on to the PC.  It was very nice, and quite an upgrade from the frustrating machine before it.  Then, I made my favorite purchase: A new laptop.  It’s fully equiped with Microsoft Office 2007 as well as a nifty little program called One Note.  One note is great for storing little notes and things of that nature.

However, I recently came across a program, which I purchased by the way, called MyNovel.  It is far superior to Office and One note as far as writers are concerned, because of the simple fact that everything you need and would want when writing your novel is right there in front of your face.

Sure, when you first open the program it looks kinda like Office.  Don’t be deceived, however.  One of the most fascinating aspects of this software is the ability to make a story template, change the details of your novel, add diagrams, events, characters, places, objects and even check progress/completion like the little tracker thing on my site.  You can find inspiration for characters and places, change the color scheme, view a list of publishers and agents (in the UK mind you), and best of all… you never have to stare at a blank page.  It keeps track of all of your characters to the left of the screen with detailed descriptions of them, and clicking another tab will do the same for individual chapters with ease of access.

Mynovel has a very easy to use interface, and you will find yourself planning and mapping out your book with diagrams that will make you look at every aspect of your novel in more detail.  You guys should check it out!  There’s a free demo of it at www.mynovel.biz

I know I sound like some lame advertiser Merilee, but I find that the software is very useful for novelists.  I apologize to you guys for not being around in a while, but now that things are wrapping up in my new book I am going to attempt to make at least two posts here a week.

Milton Be Damned

So, I had an incredibly vivid nightmare, one that only a fever could produce.  Some people say that it’s simply your subconscious attempting to speak to you, or a reflection of emotions surfacing.  Well, I’m not one to serve in Heaven or rule the depths of Hell, Milton be damned.

Sigmund Freud and William James would undoubtedly debate with me concerning the importance of the unconscious mind in understanding conscious thought and behavior.  Dreams, at least for me, are reflections of imagination.  Creativity is a powerful thing.  Everything mankind has built in life is a reflection of his imagination.  The Empire State Building was first conceived before it was physically built, just as my novel is already written in my mind, and I have only to dictate it onto paper.  However, if a horrific murder occurs in one of my dreams, that does not tell me that I have murderous tendencies or even thoughts concerning such.

An Angelic Story

Here’s a video that turns out to be a science fiction short story by the group Delirium.  I love their work, and this piece is definitely inspiring.  Click the image below.  What do you think?

Vanishing Act

Just wanted to drop a line in here.  It’s been a week since my last post, and with good reason.  I have been writing a lot in the new novel, and I still have every intention of beating my Christmas deadline.  By the way, thank you J.C. Hart for reading a little tiny bit of my book.  For anyone who doesn’t know J.C. Hart, you can find her link to the right under Blogs I’m Reading.

I’ll try to update more frequently.

No Greater Thief

Someone once told me that there is no greater thief than a bad movie.  After careful contemplation, I developed my own contention concerning the matter.  How very true that you pay to see a film and it winds up being immensely painful to the eye, or mentally offensive.  However, I find that the true thief doesn’t peruse the rental shelves awaiting some poor unfortunate victim as much as his big brother.  The greater thief would have to be a truly bad novel.

The bad novel does not even have to be poorly written.  It might contain horribly irritating characters like a fly that you just can’t seem to swat.  It could be a jumble of cliche ideas, or an ending that makes you say to yourself, that’s it?

After reading close to a thousand pages of a particular novel, the story took an extremely contrived twist by thrusting the entire planet into another galaxy and introducing aliens, not to mention that all of the characters… every single one… that I followed for eight hundred pages died.  What the hell is that about?  There is still two hundred or so pages left, and now I’m introduced to a slew of new characters that I’m not emotionally attached to.  Taking this sort of action makes me feel robbed, and that the author clearly must have been smoking the reefer when he decided to write the ending of the book, which leaves more holes in the story than craters on the moon.

How do authors such as this one even get published?  Do they hold a gun to their agent’s head?  A movie is only typically two hours long, but a bad novel feels like it is around six months in length.  Hate would be a weak word for me to describe the moment that I finished the novel.

Ah well, back to some Phillip K. Dick.

Have any of you ever been robbed by the greater thief?

The times, they are a changin’

On July 14th, I turned thirty.  The big three-oh!

A lot has happened, and a lot has certainly changed in my life.  I remember when I was the guy who would say: “Nah, I’ll never get married.”  Alas, I am married and I have a daughter.  Looking back, I wouldn’t change what I have for anything in the world.  There is nothing more rewarding than being married to my best friend.

The world has changed.  America has changed.  Cost of living has changed.  In some cases, for the good.  However, most seem to be for the bad.  Bod Dylan had it right.  Hard times seem to be the definition of living these days, the standard.  It’s hard to find a good job, and it seems to be consistently difficult to provide for those who matter the most.

No matter what is going on in America today, at least I still have my family… and my laptop.  Let’s face it.  I’m a thirty year old storyteller-father.  And I’m loving every minute of it.  I may have been in a slump as far as writing this week goes, but with a death in the family, a terminally ill grandfather (on my wife’s side) and Christa’s bruising antics, I would hope that most people would understand why.

Luckily, I bounce back pretty well.  I hope to finish the new novel before Christmas.

Also, and completely unrelated to this post, thank all of you for checking out my very first movie review for “Let the Right One In” on babble-on-five’s website.  Apparently, my review had almost 400 hits on it.  That made me happy!

The end of the world

So, apparently the world is going to end in 2012.  The Mayans were fully aware of our impending demise, and with all of their supernatural capabilities, they didn’t so much as leave us with a friendly how-to escape future cataclysms guide inscribed on a stone tablet amidst cryptic glyphs somewhere in the jungle… bastards.  I know what you’re thinking.  Is 2012 going to occur the day after tomorrow?  Nope, but it’s from the same director: Roland Emmerich.  You know, the guy who brought us such wonderful films as Godzilla and Universal Soldier.  Sigh.

Do you recall the hysteria that was Y2K?  I have friends who still have their basements filled with bottled water and canned goods, because, you know, the apocalypse ignores basements.  Everyone will over-react when the year approaches, and when 2013 arrives, so will another prophetic prediction.  I say, sit back.  Relax.  Drink a glass of wine, puff on a good cigar, and watch the world not burn.  However, you may want to do your grocery shopping before the big new year.  You know, before the shelves are emptied and their contents stored in basements and underground compounds meant to shelter their inhabitants from malicious alien invasions and blizzards in Florida.

Calling All Writers

Tim Pratt has helped me greatly the past couple of years.  His advice, guidance, and encouragement have assisted me more than a simple thank you could repay.  The author of the Marla Mason series, Tim has captured a devout audience.  He mailed me an autographed copy of the novel Blood Engines, which to this day I have read countless times.  The generosity to his fans depicts the kindness of the man, who is married with a baby.

Unbearable circumstances have befallen Tim Pratt.  His son suffers from congenital glaucoma, and his wife was recently laid off at her job.  Now, his family is relying on his wonderful story telling capabilities to keep a roof over their head, and to keep up with their son’s medical needs.

What can you do?  There is a free novel from T.A. Pratt available online that follows Marla Mason’s early adventures.  The site also contains an option for donations to Tim Pratt’s cause.  My heart goes out to this man and his family, and with the support of fellow writers, I hope that we can help him in this time of need.

Please visit http://tapratt.livejournal.com/ OR     http://www.marlamason.net/boneshop/ for more details.

I’m a writer, and if there’s one thing I have in ample quantity, it’s stories to tell.

- T.A. Pratt

First Line

In eager participation of Not Enough Words fascinating game, here is a “first line” from one of my short pieces.  First, however, a few thoughts of my own on first lines…I find this topic interesting, especially considering the fact that now writers can spend all kinds of time studying, reading self help books and articles, and attending workshops to perfect ONE sentence.  Wonderful.  Who cares about the story, that was a great sentence!  As I stated in a previous post called the science of fiction, fiction stories should never be bogged down by transparent formulas and mathematical boredom.  So, I agree with you Not Enough Words.  Authors put far too much importance on the first line.  And now, as promised, here is one of my own…please feel free to leave your own thoughts!

When I was little, a fascination wrapped itself around my heart under an impossibly blue sky.”

To read the rest of the piece, please visit