Hello, and welcome to my last blog post of 2018.
Don't worry, though, I'll be back in 2019.
The personal notes first. We had planned to drive to Metamora, Illinois, today (Thursday) and visit our granddaughter for a day or two. But our female dog (she's about 13 years old) has been in pretty bad shape this week. Yesterday we thought she might not live out the day. She just lay in one spot on the floor and her total movement was to change positions in a circle on that spot. She hasn't been eating, she's been in pain, and her tail, which is usually wagging whenever she's awake, has been mournfully motionless. We made an appointment with the vet on Monday for today.
She has pancreatitis. So they gave her a shot of antibiotic and another for pain. We'll have to give her pain medication for the next seven days, so our trip to visit our granddaughter will be delayed. Maybe next week.
On another sad story (or not, depending on you POV), the Denver Broncos are 6-9. However, there are extenuating circumstances. Out of the eleven starters on offense, eight of them are out injured. There's a reason backups aren't starters, and when a team has to start its fourth-string tight end, or start their back-up tackles in the guard positions, a lot of success can be hoped for, but not realistically expected.
I am frankly having a difficult time with the fantasy series. There are two—well, at least two—reasons for this. The most obvious one to someone looking in from the outside is that I've never written a series before.
Yes, I did write a two-book story, the two Just Lucky books, and there might be enough left for a third. But it was never a series. It was written as a single book. A single book of over 300,000 words.
By the way, did you know that Lord of the Rings was a single book? Yep, originally Tolkien wrote it as a single book. But at that time paper was not available in sufficient supply to publish a decent number of books that size. So, for the purpose of publication and sales, he broke it into three separate volumes.
I did the same but for a different reason. The chances of having a 300,000-word book published by an unknown author may not be impossible, but the odds ain't good. Even a well-known author with a proven reputation will have trouble. Stephen King's volume VII of the Dark Tower might be close to that, but King's salability is a matter of record.
Anyhow, that's the obvious reason—I've never written an intentional series before.
The less obvious reason is that all my creative writing--books, stories, poetry—has come from external inspiration. Something I've read, or heard, or experienced inspired me to write the story or novel.
I suddenly had an idea for a story.
Not this time. Instead, I decided I would write a fantasy series of at least three books. There was no external inspiration for the story.
When I made the decision, it took me only a few minutes (really!) to come up with the main theme of the series. And I'm now 14,000 words into it. I have ideas for several events, characters, problems, puzzles, etc. beyond the six significant characters introduced so far. But...
This as close as I can come to a cliffhanger in a blog post.
Next time I will expand on that "But..." and tell you the silly reason I decided to write a fantasy series. Also, which kind of series should I write? I haven't quite decided that, either.
Until then, please be safe, be well, and be well-read.
Don't worry, though, I'll be back in 2019.
The personal notes first. We had planned to drive to Metamora, Illinois, today (Thursday) and visit our granddaughter for a day or two. But our female dog (she's about 13 years old) has been in pretty bad shape this week. Yesterday we thought she might not live out the day. She just lay in one spot on the floor and her total movement was to change positions in a circle on that spot. She hasn't been eating, she's been in pain, and her tail, which is usually wagging whenever she's awake, has been mournfully motionless. We made an appointment with the vet on Monday for today.
She has pancreatitis. So they gave her a shot of antibiotic and another for pain. We'll have to give her pain medication for the next seven days, so our trip to visit our granddaughter will be delayed. Maybe next week.
On another sad story (or not, depending on you POV), the Denver Broncos are 6-9. However, there are extenuating circumstances. Out of the eleven starters on offense, eight of them are out injured. There's a reason backups aren't starters, and when a team has to start its fourth-string tight end, or start their back-up tackles in the guard positions, a lot of success can be hoped for, but not realistically expected.
I am frankly having a difficult time with the fantasy series. There are two—well, at least two—reasons for this. The most obvious one to someone looking in from the outside is that I've never written a series before.
Yes, I did write a two-book story, the two Just Lucky books, and there might be enough left for a third. But it was never a series. It was written as a single book. A single book of over 300,000 words.
By the way, did you know that Lord of the Rings was a single book? Yep, originally Tolkien wrote it as a single book. But at that time paper was not available in sufficient supply to publish a decent number of books that size. So, for the purpose of publication and sales, he broke it into three separate volumes.
I did the same but for a different reason. The chances of having a 300,000-word book published by an unknown author may not be impossible, but the odds ain't good. Even a well-known author with a proven reputation will have trouble. Stephen King's volume VII of the Dark Tower might be close to that, but King's salability is a matter of record.
Anyhow, that's the obvious reason—I've never written an intentional series before.
The less obvious reason is that all my creative writing--books, stories, poetry—has come from external inspiration. Something I've read, or heard, or experienced inspired me to write the story or novel.
I suddenly had an idea for a story.
Not this time. Instead, I decided I would write a fantasy series of at least three books. There was no external inspiration for the story.
When I made the decision, it took me only a few minutes (really!) to come up with the main theme of the series. And I'm now 14,000 words into it. I have ideas for several events, characters, problems, puzzles, etc. beyond the six significant characters introduced so far. But...
This as close as I can come to a cliffhanger in a blog post.
Next time I will expand on that "But..." and tell you the silly reason I decided to write a fantasy series. Also, which kind of series should I write? I haven't quite decided that, either.
Until then, please be safe, be well, and be well-read.
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