Blogging about Writing---mine and others'

Nine-One-One

9/10/2021

Today is the twentieth anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the twin towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the intended attack on the Capitol that was foiled by the brave actions of a few passengers on that plane that was crashed into the rural landscape of Pennsylvania. Here’s a link to a story about that day you may not have heard—I hadn’t: https://wgntv.com/news/sept-11-anniversary/pilot-recalls-mission-to-take-down-flight-93-before-it-struck-dc-on-9-11/
They just had a short special on ESPN featuring the Mets/Braves game in NYC ten days later. And I thought, not for the first time, about the resilience of human beings in the presence, and then the aftermath, of tragedy and catastrophe. The people of NYC then, the people of New Orleans after Katrina and again now after Ida. The same is true in other countries struck by hurricanes, tidal waves, earthquakes.
Then you can shrink it down to the personal tragedies people face every day with the deaths of family or best friends. They grieve, express their sorrow each in their own way, and then most manage to recuperate and move on.
Part of the story in Just Lucky, Book 1 is the main character managing (sort of) to move on from just such a personal tragedy.
Many gripping stories are about people trying and succeeding to move on from tragedy, and others that cannot or will not move on, and inflict tragedy upon others. These stories are special because those people—either totally fictional or real—are outliers. The inability to move on is considered abnormal.
Change of topic:
I didn’t intend it specifically, at least not consciously, but I’ve realized that Lying Swords will be a fantasy series for young adults (YA). I’m stealing from James Patterson on two points.
One, I’m making the chapters shorter. Not as short as he does, but shorter than my usual style. And, I’ve incorporated a serial killer.
Having a psycho killer with short but significant contact with my two main heroes allows all kinds of sub-plots and character interactions. Near the beginning of the story I introduced two police officers who responded when Cory and Tara called about a home invasion/kidnapping attempt. I’ve intended all along to bring these two (a veteran male officer near fifty and a female officer about twenty years younger)back into the story. This gives me the perfect vehicle to that end.
When in college about five decades ago I discovered that writing can be a learning tool. For example, while writing a report on the Edgar A. Poe short story, “The Cask of Amontillado”, I discovered that a possible nature of the insult the narrator had perceived receiving from Fortunato concerned his expertise about wine. I had never read any reviews of the story that suggested this—the idea occurred to me while I was writing about the story.
Writing fiction has a similar benefit. Coming up with a new idea can give birth to lots of other new ideas.
Introducing a serial killer will provide a tense subplot to the story. But the interactions of the killer with the main characters can start a domino effect, where that contact leads to another, which leads to two or three more with other characters, and so on.
Conceivably, the entire narrative of the series could experience a change of direction.
On the reading front, I’m now out of new material. I just finished the James Patterson book, Mary Mary. As I wrote last time, all these Alex Cross stories are similar. A killer of many people is on the loose and Cross must try to stop him (or her) and end the killing. Meanwhile, he also has his family to consider and there’s usually a romance or the possibility of a romance tied into the narrative. Cross always wins (as he should—he’s the narrator) and he always has a little bit of luck to help him out in the final confrontation.
In the final confrontation in Just Lucky, Book 1, there is no luck. It was all planned. Both the bad guy and the good guy planned what they would do, and then did it. It’s just that the good guy did his a little better than the bad guy, and of course the villain under-estimated the hero.
And that’s all for this time. If any of you are interested in writing, I urge you to subscribe to Anne R. Allen’s blog. It’s free and worth every minute you spend reading it.
And do, please, read.

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August 16th, 2021

8/16/2021

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Oh, man, I really let this go. And for no good reason. The truth is, I’m getting lazy. I get home after work and watch tv, pay attention to the dog (he insists)and yell at the grandkids. We did send them back to their mother Tuesday. Their presence did have a lot to do with my lapse. I’d try to write, but one of them (almost always the 16-yr-old grandson) would come in and want to talk about any kind of random thing, and offer his learned opinion on all kinds of things. He did earn the old cliché: “You should move out of home and live by yourself now, while you still know everything.”
But I would not chase him out. I felt my attention to him was more important. Neither of these kids have had anyone to fill the father role very well…I did, some, while they were here, but that’s about it. Their mother’s current live-in boyfriend (been a couple of years, now) is filling the role to some extent. He’s a responsible guy, a nurse, and there’s no hint of anything “un-parental”, but he’s harsher than the kids would want…but at ages 13 and 16, most kids think parents are too harsh.
Their mother and their aunt do not get along…now in their forties, that part of the relationship hasn’t changed much in thirty years. So these two have a poor opinion of their aunt and, by projection, their cousins. But they had the opportunity to get acquainted a little better at our great-granddaughter’s second birthday party, and they got along. In fact, the boy seemed to get along well with his girl cousin who’s one year younger, and vice versa. They were both sitting outside together (not too close) and I kidded them that the “troubled youths” were bonding. The fifteen-year-old is pretty (as are her older sisters) and her mother told us that she has boys and girls “throwing themselves at her feet.” She didn’t deny it, but didn’t treat it as any kind of serious big deal, either. She seems to be unsure if she prefers guys or girls, but seems favorably inclined to both. The kids got to know their aunt as well, and didn’t seem
On the writing front, I continue to accumulate rejections of Saving Atlantis. About 35 so far, plus another half-dozen or so that are no-response and probable rejections. Many of those rejections are from agents rather than publishers.
All of them have wanted to see anywhere from the first 10,000 words or the first three chapters or something similar. So, probably much too late, I’ve moved one of the last chapters to the front with a little re-write to introduce the rest of the book. We’ll see how that goes. If I’m still outta luck by December, I guess I’ll self-publish.
Both Just Lucky books are now available in Kindle or print-on-demand (POD). I’m ready to self-publish the two fantasy books, but I need to find an artist to do the covers. I’ve had two ladies that were interested and possibly up to the job, but both dropped out due to other personal concerns that would leave them no time. So, if any of you know someone (or are someone) who could produce a professional-looking cover that does not resemble the ones currently seen on Amazon you could earn some money, plus a professional credit. I could have those covers for $300 each, but I’m hoping to get by paying less. Besides, I’ve never been crazy about those covers, especially the one on Prophecy of Honor, so I’d really like to put on another one.
I read another Dean Koontz book titled The Husband. This had some similarities to The Good Guy in that the baddies totally underestimate the good guy. Even his brother, who’s as much a baddie as any of them, underestimates his younger brother, to his regret. I recommend it.
I just finished another of Patterson’s books about Alex Cross and I’m just starting another one. So far they’re allpretty similar. A smart and totally evil serial killer murders many, has a personal animas toward Alex Cross, but is defeated in the end thanks to Cross’s intelligence, a little luck (good for Cross, bad for the killer) and Cross’s determination. And yet, Patterson does keep the reader interested. His veery short chapters help, and he just writes well. He spends few words on “style”—the similes and metaphors that Koontz and King use a lot, Patterson uses very little and when he does it’s not noticeable.
We’re going on vacation next week, to Colorado to see relatives and friends. I’d thought first we’d drive—bringing the dog along, of course. But our son convinced me that flying was a more sensible option. It’s a little more expensive since we have rent a car to get around there, but the time saved makes it worth it. If we were to take the dog on a flight it would cost $300 round trip. Boarding him at the vet will cost about $160. Guess which one we chose.
When I started to book the trip I first went to Frontier’s website. The price looked good. Then they wanted me to buy a “bundle” of perks. That bundle cost more than the round trip for two. I declined the bundle, so then they wanted to charge us individually for the seats--$21 for two seats there and the same back. I said the hell with that—and many other words not suitable for family reading.
I went to Priceline. Got an even better deal on the flight and will only take Frontier on the way back. The biggest drawback of it all is that we have to fly out of and back to Minneapolis/St.Paul. I tried to work it from Cedar Rapids, but it was more expensive and we’d have to stay in Denver an extra day.
And that’s all for this month. Please, all of you, enjoy the summer, stay healthy, and read.

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Happy Fourth!

7/3/2021

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Another month, another blog post. It should be at least two blog posts, but as usual I have lots of excuses.
Actually, I have some fairly decent reasons…at least, I think so.
After many false starts, do-overs, and help from the Kindle Create staff, both by email and phone, Just Lucky, Book 1: Friends and Enemies is available in Print on Demand paperback. I had it all done last Friday except for the Table of Contents. Which just wasn’t going in like it should. I tried three times, same result every time. I finally emailed the Kindle help staff, they suggested I call them so they could walk me through the process. The phone call was productive in that the staff member couldn’t figure out why it didn’t work either. So I emailed him the whole manuscript.
If you have Microsoft Word, put it on the “Home” tab, then go to the right in the “Styles” section. There’s lots of choices. Even more than you see at first look; if you click on the down arrow at the far right of the section you’ll see even more.
The instructions for creating the Table of Contents in the formatting calls for each Chapter title (or number) to be put into a “Heading 1” style. Which I’d done. For some reason not explained, the chapter titles for this book needed to be in “Headings 2” style. I re-did it in that and it worked.
Hopefully I’ll remember everything and can get the paperback for Book 2 formatted and available very soon.
Amazon is (according to at least one source—and I believe it) the easiest marketplace to format a book. As much trouble as I had with it, I’m not sure I even want to try the others. But I probably will.
It also looks like I’ll have to self-publish my two fantasy novels. Double Dragon Publishing has sort of voluntarily quit publishing, and both books are showing limited or no availability. So, I’ll need a cover artist. Anybody know one who might be interested, please steer them my way. For Prophecy of Honor, I want the new cover to look that professional, but I don’t want anything close to the same image. I never was too thrilled with that, but it was the publisher’s decision. Deron Douglas, the head of Double Dragon Publishing, is primarily an artist and his big enjoyment was doing the cover art for the books.
I submitted Saving Atlantis for consideration to Luna Publishing. In their submission info they offer a link to a video that tells you about their submission process. Here’s that link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2HSpCptz28
I wish more publishers offered something similar.
I’ve also submitted two short stories since my last posting.
I’ll admit a high frustration level with Lying Swords. I thought I had a good idea for the upcoming conflict, but now I’m second-guessing and third-guessing myself. If I was giving advice to another author with this problem I’d tell them to just write out what their first instinct was and go on; it can always be changed. I just hate writing down something if I’m not happy with it. But this time I’ll have to forge ahead and do that and then continue the story. When I’ve finished this first draft I’ll see how what I’ve written works and what I’ll need to do then. And who knows? Maybe what I decide now will be the right choice.
On the reading front (or back, as you please) I finished Dean Koontz’s The Good Guy. I recommend it. There are some similarities to Life Expectancy, particularly in the romance part of the story.
I also read Crichton’s Prey. I’ve read two of Crichton’s novels before, The Andromeda Strain and The Terminal Man. Both were made into movies, the former more successful than the latter.
Michael Crichton is a licensed physician who decided to be a writer instead of a doctor. He developed the tv series ER, and published the novel Jurassic Park and some others. As with those, in Prey he spends a lot of time and words on the science involved. This one has not so much plot holes as dead ends. He raises the feature of physical changes such as better fitness, strength, and even good looks in those affected by the run-away science, but never offers an explanation of how or why those benefits accompanied the other less desirable effects. Can’t tell you more without giving the story away.
If you are really interested in speculative science involving nanotechnology or the possible connection with biological systems, you’ll like it. If not, maybe not. I found the construction of the book very similar to The Andromeda Strain. It begins with the science and how the science has gotten out of control, and then at the end the heroics of one man, through a combination of physical determination and quick reasoning bring about the saving of mankind.
If you’re interested, looking up Michael Crichton on Wikipedia will be worth the effort.
We had to go to LaCrosse yesterday. We took the grandkids to North Country Steak buffet, and we all pigged out. Then we stopped at Goodwill for assorted shopping. I was done in ten minutes. Unfortunately, the other three took much longer.
Also unfortunately, Goodwill has raised the price of their books from $3.99 to $6.99. So I only got three books instead of four—Another Koontz novel and two Patterson novels. But you know that inflation is real when Goodwill raises their prices by 75%. I had intended to give the books back to Goodwill so they could resell them. Now I think I’ll continue to donate them to the library.
And that’s enough for now.
As usual, thank you for reading and please continue to read—fiction, poetry, non-fiction, what ever pleases you…as long as it’s in book form or magazine form (even on line.) Twitter and Instagram don’t count.
Happy Independence Day.

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Memorial Day Posting

5/31/2021

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NOTICE!!: Just Lucky, Book 2: Love and Hate is now available digitally on Amazon.
Hello. For those of you with at least a little interest in history, I offer this link: https://www.history.com/news/memorial-day-civil-war-slavery-charleston
It’s a bit of history relevant to Memorial Day that you may not have encountered. I hadn’t. On the ESPN show “Around the Horn,” participant Kevin Blackistone mentioned it, so I looked it up.
As for Lying Swords, the writing goes slowly. I cogitate for a day or three on how to move a scene forward, or to go to the next one, then I spend an hour or two writing it, and then another day or two to think about the next one.
On the reading front, I’ve finished Patterson and I’m back to Dean Koonz with his book The Good Guy. Part of the front cover is a post-it note that says “Kill me instead.”
The book starts with an interesting premise. The protagonist, Tim Carrier, a tall man and a very good bricklayer, is sitting in his usual place at the far end of his favorite bar. A man sits down next to him and asks, “You’re him, right?” or something like that. For some reason Tim responds, “Who else would I be?” Then the man gives him a large manilla envelope and says, “Here’s ten thousand now, another ten when she’s gone.” And the guy leaves. A little later another man shows up, clearly the man the first one expected to meet. Tim tells him he’s changed his mind, and gives him the ten thousand to not kill her. But there was a picture of the intended victim in the envelope, along with a name and address, and Tim does not give that to the second man.
The man leaves and Tim goes to the door to see the man’s car and get the license number. The would-be killer puts a red bubble light on the top of his car, like a non-uniformed cop would have, and drives away.
The tension builds from there.
It’s a good story so far, but, as I’ve mentioned before, sometimes Koonz gets a little too taken with the brilliance of his own descriptive abilities.
Next week two of our grandchildren will be here for the summer. I’m hoping I can get my grandson to climb under the sinks and perform some long over-due plumbing, with a little supervision from me. There are indications that may not work, but I can hope. I just replaced our garbage disposal and that nearly put me in the hospital. Getting old and un-limber is no fun, but better than the alternative. The flight from Utah should be an adventure, as he has never flown before, and they’ll have a several-hour lay-over on the way.
Short post today, but there’s nothing going on. One observation, though: I’ve come to the conclusion that if I was to read all the blogs and comments and newsletters made for writers, and took part in all the on-line classes and discussions, and did everything available to further my abilities as a writer, I’d have no time to write.
Good day to you all, and remember, any day can be a day of remembrance and memorial for those died in the defense of our nation.

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Mothers' Day Posting

5/9/2021

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The song mentioned in the previous post, “Build Me Up, Buttercup,” has this line in it: “I love you more than anyone, Darling.” Have you ever wondered exactly what the line means? Does it mean that I love you more than anyone else loves you, or that I love you more than I love anyone else? Or maybe it means both those things. In poetry, which, of course, song lyrics are and always have been, ambiguity like that is perfectly acceptable. Maybe even preferable. But in prose, that uncertainty of meaning should be avoided. It will probably be important to the plot or character development which of those three possibilities is the correct one.
But a well-written story won’t simply tell the reader which is correct, it will show. It might be something as simple as the character declaring his meaning in dialog, or, better yet, showing through actions and other conversations which of the three is true. The character might not know himself which of those specifics applies, and may have to discover it for himself. I can imagine a whole short story constructed around the theme of whether the protagonist loves Buttercup (or Princess Buttercup in The Princess Bride) more than he loves anyone else (including, perhaps, himself, family members, a best friend, etc.), or if he loves her more than anyone else (Prince, competing suitor, her family) loves her.
In The Princess Bride, Westley demonstrates that he loves Buttercup more than he loves anything or anyone else while other characters show clearly that no one loves Buttercup as much as Westley loves her.
Cable channel A&E has been doing biographies on pro wrestlers. Andre the Giant (Fezzik in The Princess Bride) was near the end of his career, and six years before his death when he made that movie. He’d had back surgery, but his shoulders were so bad that he couldn’t reach up or carry much of anything. When Buttercup jumps from the window and is caught by Fezzik, they had to lower her on a cable.
Andre the Giant (Andre Roussimoff) died alone in a Paris hotel room at age forty-six. He was in France for the funeral of his father.
How’s that for a segue, going from a soft rock and roll song used in an insurance commercial to the sad death of a professional wrestler?
On the writing front, I’ve submitted two short stories to two different magazines and query letters to two publishers for Saving Atlantis.
For the second one I made a slight change to the very beginning of Saving Atlantis. It’s primarily a move of some sentences either toward the beginning or away from it.
I also changed the beginning of Just Lucky, Book 1: Friends and Enemies. I eliminated the Forward and added some of that info to the First Interlude.
Book 2 should be published digitally very soon.
In writing Lying Swords I have finally come to one of the scenes, or episodes, that I first envisioned when I began writing. I wrote several hundred words, then stopped. It was not coming out the way I wanted. I haven’t deleted anything yet, but I am rewriting it in front of the original rejected version. When I get it finished, then I can delete the false start.
I’ve finished reading Double Cross and Cross Fire. Patterson’s books are pretty quick reads. I said last time that Alex Cross gets more than his share of psycho murderers. In Violets Are Blue, which was written before the others I’ve read, the psycho murderers are in California and Washington. He’s in California researching vampiric-type murders similar to the one in D.C.
Yep, more psycho murderers.
It tempts to me to see if I could write a novel featuring a protagonist that is a detective (or maybe a vigilante) and some villain that gets off on killing innocent people in imaginative and horrible ways. I’m not sure I have enough darkness within to do that for a novel-length story. A short story, yeah. But novel length? I think not.
Thank you for reading.
All you mothers, have a great day.

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Nine-One-One

August 16th, 2021

Happy Fourth!

Memorial Day Posting

Mothers' Day Posting

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

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Nine-One-One

August 16th, 2021

Happy Fourth!

Memorial Day Posting

Mothers' Day Posting

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.