Blogging about Writing---mine and others'

New Review!

8/14/2018

For those of you that read this but might miss the notice on my two Facebook pages, I've received a new review of Just Lucky, Book 2: Love and Hate.
You can read the very complimentary review, plus a long preview, here: https://redheadedbooklover.com/just-lucky-2-love-and-hate-fred-waiss/
I hope you enjoy the review, and, more important, I hope you read and enjoy both volumes of Just Lucky--the story of Ron Russell, his friends, enemies, and the women he loved. And his several brushes with death, which he survived because he's...well...just lucky.

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Reading Forward But Writing Backward

8/10/2018

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On the reading front, I'm overdosing on Stephen King. I'm still working on Wizard and Glass at work. At home I brought out a big (BIG!) hardback that's been on my bookshelf for a long time, unread. It is Four By Midnight, by King. That's the one I'm reading at home, and I'm about half done.
Four by Midnight is a collection of four stories in that awkward range—too short to be novels but too long to be short stories.
I have a general rule about reading stories or books that I've already seen the movie derivation. I don't. But this time I did. The first of the four stories is "The Langoliers." I'd seen the three-hour miniseries. I must admit that it helped to enjoy the story because I "knew" what the characters looked like from having seen them. And, what a surprise, the movie followed the story about as exactly as one could expect.
The second story, which I just finished, "Secret Window, Secret Garden," I found kind of annoying. It is a story told in limited third person about an author. King seems to like writing stories about authors. He has three that I know of—this one, plus two full-length novels, The Dark Half and Bag of Bones. If he's written more, I haven't seen (or read) them. Both of those have been made into movies.
On the writing front, I am experiencing a bit of writer's block on the fantasy novel. I know where I'm going, I just don't know how to get there. I'm also having to learn how to write a series. This is a first for me. Every time I want to abbreviate an explanation or a flashback, I remind myself that I don't need to abbreviate! In fact, extending those flashbacks is a requirement. Detail the settings! Detail the characters! But don't use too many exclamation points!
So I was writing a scene and I realized it would be a perfect place for the first flashback, to introduce one character and expand the history of the two main protagonists. So I wrote backward.
Flashbacks are a great way—perhaps the best way—to introduce facts about the characters that will be significant in the future. I used several of these in Witchery. I presented anecdotes from Teyla's childhood and her teen years—two of each if I recall correctly, plus two more of lesser detail regarding events from before Teyla was born. Starting the story at the beginning of Teyla's life and proceeding in chronological order, even if only hitting the high points, would be dull. Most readers would never get to the good parts. They'd be bored long before the action—which takes place when Teyla is nineteen or twenty—ever comes. No, a story needs to start with a sentence or two that will grab the readers' interest.
I used fewer flashbacks in Prophecy of Honor, but still there to explain what has gone on in Collin's life that has formed the man he has become.
Both Just Lucky books have an entire chapter that describes the significant trauma the character suffers that makes him and her the people they become.
Inexperienced writers often do not realize this necessity. I was an inexperienced writer...or perhaps I still am...so I know. New writers tend to tell a story linearly. They want to write it the way it will be read. Front to back, beginning to end, the way you'd have to tell it if you were offering it as an oral presentation.
But when creating the story, an author must often go back to add details, subtract details, or change them. As the story goes forward it may be convenient or necessary to change something previously established about a character or setting or even a plot point. So do it. That may be the very best thing about a word processor program. It makes it easy to do that. My very first novel, written in the late 70's, was horrible. There were many reasons for that, but one was that I wrote it with a typewriter and did not have the patience or experience to go back and change things, rearrange things, add here and subtract there that was necessary.
That wouldn't have saved the novel anyway. There were many other flaws, caused mostly by immaturity as a writer. I like to think that I've worked past that particular flaw, anyway. I still have many others to try to conquer.
Football is back. Let us celebrate, but please don't let your interest and viewing of football interfere with your reading or writing.
Thank you for your attention.

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Odds, and Hawaiian Generosity

7/18/2018

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I'm inclined to indulge in a political rant, but my urges have been restrained.
So, a few other things.
One thing is to mention, in case folks read this page and none of the others, that I have created an Author's page on Face Book that features excerpts from my four novels. I'll add one about every ten days, to tease you with what you'll find if you read the whole book.
We get more snail mail from Publisher's Clearing House than any other two or three sources, easily. But the mailman tells me that their mailings help keep the Post Office operating in this generation of electronic bill paying and email. But, GEEZ!! I gave up long ago looking through them and jumping through the hoops to get one or two little stamps hidden among dozens to stick on to the one piece of paper to mail back. My wife has more time, though, so she still pursues the dream. I used to go through that on the principle of pot odds.
Pot odds is a poker term that means (more or less) that your bet—your investment—makes or does not make sense depending on how much you risk against how much you have to gain. So I figured that the cost of a stamp, plus twenty minutes of my time would be good pot odds for winning a million dollars. Not anymore.
The current odds of winning PCH's $1,000 a day for life...or a new car priced at $50,000...are 1 in (drum roll) 6,200,000,000. That's one in 6 billion, 200 million. That is, one in the number of people on the entire earth in 2001.
Here's another: the contest to win one million dollars has odds of one in three billion, one hundred million. That is almost one thousand times the population of the United States.
The chance of being struck by lightning in a lifetime is about 1 in 12,000.
The odds of winning $1,000 in PCH's current contest are 475,000 to one. If you were to find someone willing, bet them one dollar against one thousand dollars that you will be struck by lightning in your life time. Your odds of winning that bet are about four times better than your odds of winning that thousand from PCH. Pot odds no longer apply.

On another subject, there are a certain number of rare excellent people in the world, and I am privileged to be acquainted with one of them though only through the cyber and print worlds.
If you go back to my 5/13 blog, I included a totally unsolicited but glowing review of Just Lucky, Book 1. That gentleman, Larry, when I asked, said that yes, he'd like a signed copy of Book 2. The cost was a few cents under $20, including postage. He sent me a package that contained an envelope with $20. It also contained a can of macadamia nuts, three boxes of chocolate covered macadamia nuts, a 2019 calendar featuring girls of Hawaii, a word-find puzzle book featuring Hawaiian words, and a book of Hawaiian ghost stories. Oh, and a Hawaiian bottle opener and a zippered insulated bottle wrap for one pint bottles.
Larry, if you are reading this, Mahalo Nui Loa, Hoaloha!
For the rest of you, please keep reading. And writing.

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Regression

6/30/2018

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I have no good excuse for taking so long between posts. It does help if I have something to write about, and there's been very little.
One of the most important rules of writing is: Show, don't tell. I usually keep this in mind and seldom fall into the trap of telling. A really good example of showing a situation instead of telling appears in my novel, Prophecy of Honor. If I was to tell it, I would have said that the five Keeps in the Free Lands are named, and the man that is in charge of the keep is titled the same as the name of the Keep. So, the main character, Connor, has the title of Honor because he is the leader of Honor Keep.
But I never told the readers that. I showed them. First, we see almost immediately that his subordinates address him as "Honor." Later, when his friend, Lars, visits, Connor greets him as "Fair" and we find out later that Lars is the leader of Fair Keep. Later still Connor greets the leaders of the other three Keeps by their titles before the ritual is finished and they address each other by name. I showed the custom, gradually. One of the traits of the new or inexperienced writer is to be in a hurry to establish any new or unusual customs, technology, or linguistic characteristics. They do that by telling the reader about them right away instead of having the patience to show the readers in the natural progression of the story.
Apparently I have suffered a regression in my skills because that is exactly what I did.
I was re-reading the first few chapters of Saving Atlantis in preparation for submitting those first chapters to an agent. And I realized I was reading something where I was telling instead of showing. No wonder the agents have all declined. Of course, that might not be the only reason...
So now I must go through the manuscript, make sure that is the only occurrence of this crime, and then fix it.
And, if the word subtraction is enough, I might be able to add one of the subplots back in.
On the reading front, I finished The Waste Lands and have started Wizard and Glass, Book 4 of The Dark Tower series.
And on your reading front, I have Just Lucky, Book 2: Love and Hate available for those that want a signed copy. I've sold several already and answered demand for a few more, including one to Hawaii. And no, it's not going to the volcano.
Thank you for reading, and please continue to do so...my writing or someone else's. If you like humorous mystery, try Anne R. Allen's novels. If you like crime fiction, C. Hope Clark's stuff is very good. If you like fantasy, besides my two novels, Anthony Wedgeworth's Altered Creatures fantasy novels are worth the price and the time. I'm reading one of his most recent creations right now.
Be well.

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Brief Notification

6/12/2018

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A notice here to supplement the one on my FB page: I've created an author's page on FB. The primary purpose will be to post excerpts from my novels to entice readers to read my books! Each excerpt will be be there for 7-10 days, then will be replaced by another excerpt from a different novel. To read these, please go to FB page F.G.Waiss, Author
Thanks!

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Back From Vacay

6/10/2018

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My apologies for not posting here for so long. I had very little writing time during our vacation. Lots of driving time, though. Lots of sitting-around-visiting time, too.
It was kind of cool to drive 80 mph across most of Wyoming on I-80, and then the same speed on I-70 in Utah.
The primary reason for the visit was to attend our granddaughter's high school graduation. It was the hi-light of the trip, even though it took over two hours. They graduated over 650 seniors; they used the Maverick Center in Salt Lake City to hold the ceremony. The boss had to struggle a lot to get up the outside stairs, then walk a ways to an elevator (she used her walker) and then down seven or eight small steps. Our former son-in-law and his wife helped a lot. My thanks to Rob and Toni.
My wife actually did very well the entire trip, and she continues to do well and improve. Strength and well-being is improving, though relatively minor new problems plague her now.
My granddaughter graduated with honors in Theatre Arts. She likes the back-stage stuff—building sets, applying makeup, and the other necessary things that make a production work.
If I never have to drive in the metropolitan area of SLC again, I will be just fine with that.
Having said so, I expect we will have to do it again next year, when our recent graduate's younger sister graduates, and also probably with honors in theatre arts. But she prefers the on-stage activities—acting, plus directing and even writing.
Our other daughter also lives in SLC and we spent time with her, also, plus her two kids, ages thirteen and nine, boy and girl respectively. We brought that granddaughter back with us. We went from SLC south to I-70, by Grand Junction and stopped overnight in Glenwood Springs before driving into Denver. We took our son and his three kids (two step-daughters and the son he and his wife produced) out to dinner and enjoyed the visit.
Then we had dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Brighton with our oldest and best friends and enjoyed a nice visit.
Then out to Brush to spend a day and night with my father-in-law and siblings-in-law. This made sense because Brush is on the way from Denver to home anyhow, and it cut about an hour off our trip the next morning.
I saw something on the television I want to share. While watching the local news there was a public service commercial. I can't remember the words exactly, but it was something like this:
A lady about thirty-years-old (give or take a few) looked at the camera and said (approximately), "My friends ask me if I hide my weed."
Then she opens the kitchen cupboard door behind her to reveal a boy about six completely in the cupboard.
She says, "Of course. Because kids can get in anywhere. Don't give your kids access to your marijuana."
A bit of a culture shock to those of us in a backward state where marijuana—even medical marijuana—is still illegal.
I couldn't help thinking that they should have similar messages in all fifty states regarding prescription painkillers.
On the writing front, Just Lucky, Book 2: Love and Hate is now available on Amazon and most other on-line booksellers (Barnes and Noble, etc.) in all e-formats, paperback, and even exclusive hardback for a higher price. Hopefully I'll have a bunch of copies, plus a few more of Book 1, in my possession for sale well before the end of the month. If you want to get it early, or save money and get the e-version, go to Amazon or the other sources and buy, buy, buy! For any that want a signed copy (with a new spiffy bookmark), you'll just have to wait a week or so. Sorry.
Book 1 garnered a five-star review, which you can read here: https://wp.me/p9ghAg-3Nk This is, honestly, a bit less satisfying than the one I got from Larry (see previous post), but still a big up-lifter and more far-reaching commercially.
I'm still sending inquiries out to agents for Saving Atlantis and waiting for responses to all those already sent.
Hopefully I can also start making serious progress on Lying Swords.
I did write another erotic short story—about 1200 words. Again, those are just for fun and practice when I don't have the time to get really involved in a more serious project. If anyone wants to know where they can read these revelations of perversity, contact me through my web page and I will reveal...maybe. I'm frankly not sure if I want my nom de plum generally known.
On the reading front, I'm still reading Waste Lands at work. Sometime this week I'll acquire Tony Wedgeworth's Outraged for home reading.
And I wish again I could afford to work part-time so I'd have more time for writing. Oh well, maybe someday soon...
Thank you all for dropping by, and please read!

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Two Good Reviews!

5/13/2018

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Happy Mothers' Day.
Speaking of mothers, my wife continues to improve. She seems to get a little stronger every day. She's eating better, too. Hopefully she'll be pretty much problem free on our vacation.
On the writing front, Just Lucky, Book 2 is, I believe, ready to go. Alexis Allinson, the head of Gnome on Pig Productions, sent me the proof copy, just as it will be presented for sale, after any errors are corrected. I found two in the Table of Contents, but that's all.
I suspect that after we release it, readers will discover a goof. But maybe not, and anyway it won't be because we didn't take our best shot at perfection.
I received an outstanding pleasant surprise yesterday on my Facebook page. Let me give you some background: Larry and I and about a dozen other rabid Denver Bronco fans participated in a Usenet News Group for the Broncos...this was before various other forms of social media. All the NFL teams had a newsgroup for fans. It was not unusual for fans of one team to visit other teams' NGs and comment. A little more than half the time, the visitors' comments were positive or neutral, or "talking trash" in a friendly way. Visitors from the three division rivals—KC, Oakland, and San Diego—were usually polite. Some weren't. The real reason I developed a strong dislike for the New England Patriots was because their fans, those that visited, were almost universally rude, braggadocious, and generally obnoxious.
Larry is a teacher on Oahu. We have never met personally, but have an acquaintanceship that precedes our Face Book friendship. He posted a review on my time line which I offer up here:

I read between 10-20 books each year, and if this non-fiction/history/biography guy reads fiction at all, it's usually from the "classics" or "literature" list in my head. Until now!
Finished Just Lucky and totally dug it! A great read, Fred! Well done! I look forward to catching Bk 2 this summer.
And I'll keep them displayed prominently around the house so I can point them out to visitors and crow, "You want an entertaining read? Try these! Great characters exercising traditional themes with lots of action...yeah, I know the author, too. Great guy! And a Bronco fan!"

He included a selfie (I presume) of him giving a thumbs up with the book obscuring the lower half of his face.
As you can imagine, I thanked him profusely and complimented him on his good taste. I'm still tickled.
And I received another positive review on May 5th. Red Headed Book Lover Blog gave a glowing review of Witchery—five stars. You can read it here: wp.me/p9ghAg-3EH She would also like to review Just Lucky, Book 1, and I will submit that to her for review soon.
I finally finished the edit-for-length of Saving Atlantis. From 106,000 words it is now down to 88,000. It hurt. It hurt bad. Stephen King said, approximately, that when the time comes, you must cut out the unnecessary words. It feels like killing your children, but it's got to be done.
The story is no longer as good as it was. But it is now more saleable, and that's the point. It doesn't matter how good the story is if no one will read it.
If I use up the supply of reputable agents without success, I may choose to self-publish. That is still an option, but one I resist simply because it requires an outlay of dollars that I can't really afford.
We shall see.
On the reading front, I finished Insomnia. The ending surprised me a little, though by now King never surprises me a lot. Now The Waste Lands will be my reading at work. I don't know what I'll read at home. Maybe nothing for next week. But that's me, and it will be (if it works out that way) a big exception to a pretty firm rule.
As for all of you, please continue to read voraciously...my writing or someone else's.
Thank you for reading this, and, as Red Skelton signed off his weekly show, "May God bless."

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New Review!

Reading Forward But Writing Backward

Odds, and Hawaiian Generosity

Regression

Brief Notification

Back From Vacay

Two Good Reviews!

Author

I'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.

Archive

Categories

New Review!

Reading Forward But Writing Backward

Odds, and Hawaiian Generosity

Regression

Brief Notification

Back From Vacay

Two Good Reviews!

AuthorI'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.

Archive

Categories

Author

I'm a former teacher and current warehouse grunt that loves writing.