Thar She Blew!

What a night last night was!

There are times when I experience an all night insomniac episode, but when you can't get a good night's sleep because of an all-night storm, that's another thing entirely. Howling winds, enormous lightning flashes crisscrossing through the dark-gray sky, complimented with the heavy downpour of rain and the crunch of hail, all add up to one ferocious evening. Just what I needed to remind me of what a wicked storm is actually like. Good thing I'm still cleaning up chapter 10. No kidding. It's about as messy as the branch-strewn streets out there. Be careful!

A few mental walls assembled themselves in front of me at the beginning of this month, but I'm finally getting around them, much to the help of four new Alpha readers; Michael, David, Julia, and Andy. You know who you are, and welcome aboard the Schlock Express (Even now I can hear the rain prattle on the roof in the hallway just outside my door...awesome).

September is coming to a close, but I am way excited for October. No. It's not because it's my birthday month. It's because of a few new books that are releasing that I've anticipated for quite some time. James Dashners's The Maze Runner, and John Brown's debut novel, Servant of a Dark God. Both will be released in time for my 27th year on this fine world of ours. Can't wait!

Updates: Chapter 10 of the collaboration was such a mess that it clearly needs an overhaul. I was not in the right frame of mind when I drafted the thing, I suppose. The Committee said that it read like watching an Anime. Really? I haven't watched Anime in a while, mostly. That's fine though. The biggest snag was a magical implement that I wanted to use that they felt was unnecessary, but when I told my readers that I was taking it out, I received multiple cries of protest. Give the people what they want, right? Thankfully, the Committee and myself have come to an agreement that we can keep the magical implement, so long as I don't make IT the primary focus.

Forerunner is in the hands of a few readers who have yet to read it, and, with any luck, it will pass the test. I want to mail that story soon. I REALLY really want to mail it soon!

This weekend will be a busy one, with family coming to visit from Chicago, but my plan until then is to finish the rewrite of chapter 10 and continue plowing through the previously finished chapters, clean inconsistencies, incert new posts and plot elements that we missed before, and so forth. Chapter 1 is practically perfect. Chapter 2 is almost finished as well. Oh, and I still have the short prologue to add. Wish me luck. I've never had much luck with prologues.

Until next time, keep the badgers out of the kumquats!

"It's one thing to hear about something, but it's another thing altogether to see it for yourself." - untitled project

Dusting the Shelf

It's hard to imagine that the middle of September is already here. What a fast moving end of summer this is turning out to be. Rain and a lightning storm has made for some neat weather to look at. How ironic that my current chapter has such a storm in it's setting?

This has been a slow week as far as accomplishing new material is concerned. I'm a little sluggish, or, running on creative emptiness here. The creative genius behind my latest novel was in a car accident earlier this week. No worries. He's not hurt, but you can imagine that the stress is enough, after a major accident like that. As a result, I have not seen him much in the last two days, so this current chapter is at a standstill. However, we felt that a song or a lullaby needed to be incorporated into this current chapter, so I wrote a draft of lyrics and handed them over to him, since music and songwriting is more up his cup of Willy Wonka. That would be tasty.

Updates: Still working on chapter 10, but 12 pages in. I think this is going to be the biggest chapter yet, but I have not edited anything extensively either. Also, because of some new ideas that have surfaced, I pulled out some of my shelved projects to see if I can incorporate them into my old writings. Turns out, I can. I revised my short story Forerunner (which, surprisingly, my critique group hardly had any suggestions for improvement) and I started a new Prologue for my 11 year old junk of a novel. It was my first completed novel writing attempt, and Sci-Fi epic. I think I know what I'm doing with it now. Your complaints have been heard at long last. The opening dream sequence is gone. No more eagles in space. This new beginning is huge and gripping. Once the second half of Forerunner is finished, I'll pack it up and finally send it in to The Writers of the Future Contest, as originally intended three years ago. Wish me luck.

Until next time, keep the paperclips in the pantry. You never know when or where you'll need one.

Falling into the Groove

First I want to say, welcome to September!

September: A promising and dreadful month. If you are still of schooling age, this month chimes for you the bells of school. A wanted and unwanted occurrence, depending on the child. For the adults, it's time for the weather to cool down, but it's not cool enough to light the furnace yet. As for me, the Fall season has always been my favorite. Not because my birthday rolls around this time of year, or because I'm not in school anymore and can say "HAHA" (in my mind) to the kids walking to school (to which I then realize that those kids have it better than I do as I back out of my driveway, headed for work), but because of the color and the beauty that the season brings. One can only hope, in the Fall of their life, it will look and feel just as beautiful.

Updates: Chapter 9 is finished and chapter 10 has started. Moving right along. Also, I stumbled upon something that I never knew about until I watched The Universe, a series on the History Channel that I own and finally got around to watching. Quantum Fluctuation. It's a bit of a HUGE concept that even I do not fully understand yet, but this theory may be the key to resolving the problem behind all of my science theory flaws in the Sci-Fi Trilogy that I wrote as a teenager, years ago. Wait. Years? Did I just say that? Oh boy. I think my age is showing. Anyway, with a little study, this may be the theory that I need to revive and rewrite that 400k word monstrosity. We'll see.

Little to report on this week, friends. I will keep working hard and avoid the street leeches as best as I can. They're pretty harmless, if you're not made of metal.