Blog Posts

Wrestling with the fictional past.

3/3/2019

Writer's Block. I've claimed in the past I don't suffer from it because I always have something to write. That's true. I just finished submitting a short story to Page and Spine. It's actually a portion of the Just Lucky story that was cut from the final draft. But I shaped it, edited it, tried to make sure it could stand on its own, and submitted it.
I've tried this kind of thing twice before, without success. Maybe third time will indeed be the charm.
So, though I am not suffering from writer's block, I do find myself stymied in my construction of Lying Swords, Volume One.
The story going forward is not a problem. The backstory, however, is giving me a lot of grief. Not so much what happened, but when it happened and the order of events. I've written some back story already, but I need another portion of the characters' history, and nothing is coming to me. I find this very frustrating.
When I wrote Prophecy of Honor, and Witchery, the back stories came easily and naturally. Not this time. I suspect part if not all of the reason is that those two stories were fully developed in my mind before I sat down to actually write them. And with Just Lucky, I told that pretty much in chronological order. All flashbacks were early in the narrative—like the one I just submitted as a short story—and eventually got cut anyway. The flashbacks in Saving Atlantis are also limited in scope and occur very early.
But I do not have the whole story of the Lying Swords in my mind yet. I discover more almost every day as I think about it, but the flashbacks here involve more people and more interaction than those of my previous efforts.
I have a page of notes I call "Saving Atlantis Prep." It's my notes on characters and plot points, mostly. I added a section called "World Timeline" with the intention of writing down the chronology of events before the "present" of the story.
I got nothin'.
I am sure I'm going to have to go back and wipe out at least a little of what I've already written and rewrite some more so that the timeline I finally decide on—the one that makes the most sense to support the current story—will be smooth and sensible.
At the end of last year I'd written about 14,000 words. I've added less than 5,000 words so far this year. Some of that is due to the week off for vacation, and the time spent shoveling snow, but a lot is simply the difficulty I've been having with the story. And this is only the first draft. (groan) This project will take longer than expected.
On the reading front, I'm still working on volume Seven of King's Dark Tower series. Since I only work four days a week, I only get two hours of reading time per week for this book, so it is taking a long time.
Meanwhile, the books at home are some of Piers Anthony's Xanth novels. These novels involve unlimited amounts and types of magic and an unlimited amount of puns. For example, a Nightmare is a black horse that brings bad dreams from the hypno-gourd, where the dreams are created. There is a drink called boot rear, because when you drink some you get the feeling of being booted in the butt. The world outside of Xanth (which is shaped like Florida, complete with the Kiss Me River and Ogre-Fen-Ogre swamp) is called Mundania.
So, the two types of fantasy fiction literature are about as far apart in tone and structure as is possible.
That may be one reason why I like fantasy. I haven't thought of that before right now. Romance literature, Westerns and Mysteries all have fairly restricted forms and plots. But fantasy and, to a slightly lesser extent science fiction, have limitless possibilities. I mentioned a couple of entries ago some of the fantasy series I'd recommend reading, and I'm sure there are many more. And if you read them you'll discover they are all very different in almost every category—plot, characters, tone, and the fantasy elements. Shucks, my two fantasy novels, though similar in style, employ a different tone, totally different attitudes and properties of magic, and even though the themes are similar, the plots are different.
Thank you for reading, and please continue to do so—whether my words or someone else's.

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Vacation and Murphy

2/14/2019

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Happy Valentine's Day. May all your hearts be welcomed.
I'll regale you with tales of the personal journey first. Journey is the word. My wife and I journeyed by airplane from Madison to southeastern Florida for a week-long stay that included a two-night cruise to the Bahamas.
We started out on Sunday, January 27. Frontier airlines had a pretty good price...but we had a two-hour delay of takeoff for maintenance.
Our trip was a promotional deal that included a rental car with unlimited miles and two days and two nights at a Ramada Inn in Orlando that included a 4-hour hard sell presentation to buy a time-share. We didn't, but the hard sell and the duration drove the boss back to smoking. I hope we can get her back to not doing that.
After those two days we drove south to West Palm Beach for the cruise. It would leave on the 29th, do a round trip to the Bahamas, and return on the 31st. Then we had that night plus the day-night of the 1st and fly back on the 2nd.
The best laid plans, etc.
We needed an original birth certificate or a passport for the cruise. Did you know that "an original birth certificate" is not really an original birth certificate? We do now. The birth certificate issued by the hospital in 1950 is not acceptable. It must be a state-issued certificate. Hospital-issued certificates are now considered to be good as souvenirs only.
I have no objection to this...but I'm pretty pissed that no one told us. In hindsight, we should have applied for passports. Then we would have found out the truth before it was too late and corrected the situation. But passports would have been $60 each, and we felt that we didn't need to spend money for that since a birth certificate was acceptable.
I was not allowed to board the ship.
Shucks and other, stronger exclamations.
So, the two nights and lots of meals we'd already paid for had to be paid for again for the time we weren't on the boat. We did go to the beach and take a leisurely drive back to Orlando. But those two nights and six meals mounted up, cost-wise.
And, no, we will not get any kind of refund. The cruise line's standing is that we didn't bring the proper documentation, so it was our fault.
But wait! Murphy's Law was not done with us yet. Our flight Saturday morning was leaving at 7 am. I wanted to be at the airport by 5:30, to return the car, go through security, and make the flight.
We didn't leave the hotel until 5:30. We checked in our bag, TSA hurried us through as much as possible and still do their jobs, and we arrived at the gate ten minutes too late. Nobody's fault but our own.
We were able to book the same flight with the same seats for the next day. Meanwhile, our checked bag made the plane.
So I got on the phone and found a hotel with shuttle service to the airport and not too expensive, made the reservation, and didn't have to wait too long for the shuttle. I will say that the Country Inn and Suites we stayed at that night was distinctly superior to the room we had at the Ramada. But that was another about $130 we had not planned on spending. The best thing about the trip was that we missed the week of the coldest temperatures and a fair amount of snow.
Our flight back to Madison was uneventful. Fog was very thick the entire two-plus hour drive back to PDC,
But there is something sort of spooky to include. We had to wait about an hour to get our bag that made the trip the day before, so when we finally got on our way we were pretty hungry. We hadn't eaten in about six hours. So we found a Perkins, had breakfast, and then the boss wanted to order two of their special offers—burger, fries, and piece of pie for ten bucks.
While I waited near the counter for the take-out, a guy about my age came in to pick up his phone order. He met an old friend and they spoke for just a minute. The arrival urged his buddy to google him and bragged that he was "the second-most googled Irv." As he left I asked him who was the first, but he didn't know he said he just knew he was the second.
I thought, the minute I heard him, that the most googled Irv was probably Irv Brown. Many (most?) of you won't recognize the name. Irv Brown was a very successful college baseball coach in Colorado, and a highly respected college basketball referee. But perhaps his bigger claim to fame was a sports talk radio show that he hosted for years in Denver on two or three different stations. That's how I knew who he was, and I even met him once when he was doing his show from The National Western Stock Show.
I've been in Wisconsin for over twenty years now, and haven't thought about Irv for many years. But I did that Sunday.
The spooky part? Monday morning, while reading the internet newspaper, I discovered that Irv Brown had died Sunday, another cancer victim. He was 83. If you want to know more about Irv, just google him.
Only one writing note this time. I have often mentioned, and recommended, the online magazine Page and Spine https://www.pagespineficshowcase.com. The chief editor and publisher of P&S is Nancy Wagner, an author and poetess extraordinaire herself. She now features her own web page, https://nkwagnerwriter.com/ The class and general impression of her web page match, in my opinion, the lady herself. And one really outstanding thing: her blog includes a link to my web page! Thank you, Nancy!
And that's it for this round. Keep telling yourself that winter can't last forever.
Stay well, and well-read.

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Looking Forward

1/24/2019

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Hello. There is no truth to the rumor that "hello" is a shortened version of "Hell, no!" and altered from a negative to a positive. No truth at all.
This is going to be even shorter than usual. I have things to do. The Missus and I are going on vacation to someplace warm and we have various preparatory tasks to perform.
I have finally got through the tough part of the fantasy novel. When I first conceived this story, most of my ideas—hold for a moment. Let me explain something.
I jokingly refer to my writing creation by saying that I think up great fight scenes, and great love scenes, and then figure out a story to include them. That's not really accurate, but writing those scenes is a big part of what I enjoy about writing.
So, when I began thinking about this story, mostly what I thought about were the battles, skirmishes, conflicts, and weapons-based disagreements, all in the fantasy world.
But the story needed to be started with what occurs in this world. The end of this first volume will end there, too. But I had not conceived a lot of that part of the story, so telling it has been a struggle.
But now I've finished that part...at least, the first or second draft. Now my protagonists have made their way to the fantasy world and the action can begin.
Fight scenes will be plentiful. Love scenes, not so much. Three of my four published novels, plus the paranormal romance/thriller, Saving Atlantis, that may not be published for many months, have fairly intimate love scenes—erotica. Witchery had reference to sexual episodes, but no portrayal. This was primarily to keep it more appropriate for a larger audience. Although Witchery is written to be enjoyed by any fantasy fan of any age, I especially wanted it to appeal to girls thirteen years and up. Erotica wouldn't fit that goal. So, while love-making is referred to, it is not described.
The same will be true of Lying Swords. The romantic details have already been established for the two main characters.
I'm not planning to have a lot of graphic violence, either. Prophecy of Honor and Witchery have scenes where blood is spilled in copious amounts and other forms of violent death are described with loving detail. Not this time...probably. Something might happen that will call for that. But I'm not planning it right now. Stories tend to write themselves to some extent, and I never know for sure where the characters and their unique circumstances might take me.
But isn't it odd, in this country especially, that graphic violence can be doled out without concern for the effects upon children and young adults, but love-making and sex will be censored from the eyes of those same young people?
Maybe you could ask yourself, and others, why that is. Those of you that get any answers are more than welcome to provide them to us here, on the contact page or on the comments tag at the bottom of this blog.
Thank you all. Please drive and walk carefully on the snow and ice while keeping in mind that others may not.

Also, I've posted an excerpt from Prophecy of Honor on my Face Book page, F.G.Waiss, Author

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IN THE BEGINNING...of 2019

1/10/2019

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Hello, and welcome to my first blog post of 2019.
As usual, I'll mention the personal trials, tribulations, and positives on the personal level first.
2019 is starting out with an ominous trend. Less than two full weeks into the year, and I've had to take my wife to the hospital twice. The first was a five-night stay for an infection. The second was what looks like a two-night stay (she's there now) for complications from her diabetes. Those two episodes have put the kibosh on our planned visit with our granddaughter. And oddly, that may not be so bad because she has been having her own health issues.
The good news on the writing front is that Page and Spine (www.pagespineficshowcase.com) will publish my poem "A Brand New Man", tomorrow, Friday, January 11th. I hope you will read it along with the rest of that issue.
If you're new to this blog or just because it bears repeating, Page and Spine is a free read that pays their authors. The publish a new issue every Friday, and each one contains a continuing serial, "Coffee House Chatter" plus a new short story, one or more new poems, observations on writing, and in the tab "The Reading Lamp" you may find a story, poetry, or an essay. One of the best sources of new literature on the internet.
To get back to where I left off last time, I have some decisions to make regarding the fantasy series I'm beginning.
There are two types of series. The one type is just like a normal television series. The same characters, plus often one or two guest characters, have a different story every week. This type is especially favored in mystery or crime novels. Earl Stanley Gardner and Rex Stout were two such, featuring Perry Mason and Nero Wolfe, respectively. Doyle's Sherlock Holmes was another. Other well-known series are The Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew.
Now, C. Hope Clark has two such series and Anne R. Allen has one, too. And both those authors also publish newsletters or blogs to help writers.
But in fantasy, the other type of series is more common—the very long single story that takes three or more books to tell, and designed to do it that way. I've mentioned King's Dark Tower series before, and that's one example. The Swords of Shanara trilogies and the Thomas Covenant trilogies are other examples, plus, of course, Anthony Wedgeworth's six-book Altered Creatures series. And David Eddings wrote at least three different fantasy series. All of these fantasy series I've mentioned, I recommend.
This was the story I had in mind when I decided to write one. But now I'm playing around with the idea of writing the other kind. Each novel would feature the same main characters: four protagonists so far. The antagonists might change from novel to novel, or reappear, as seems appropriate.
If any of you have any suggestions or preferences, please let me know, either here on my website or on my Facebook author's page at F.G.Waiss, Author.
In the meantime, I'll see what I can get accomplished.
You all please do the same, and, as Gary Moore signed off his shows, be kind to each other.
Be well, and be well-read.

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The End of It All...of 2018.

12/27/2018

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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.

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Beginning the End, And Beginning the Beginning

12/14/2018

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While I was away I finished Song of Susannah and I'm now well involved with the final volume, The Dark Tower.
One of the really different things about this part of the story is that Susannah, a beautiful black woman with no legs below the knees, had become pregnant by a demon. As part of the complication, she develops an additional personality, a white woman named Mia who is the mother personality for her baby—her "chap."
What is very different is that Mia actually splits from Susannah and becomes a physical person—with legs. There's some spooky psychology going on there, also, and King is outstandingly creative with the situation...and of course just the situation itself is outstandingly creative.
There are some horrible incidents in this series...violence, demons, cannibals, vampires, and suicide. But this is definitely not a work of horror. I doubt an author could produce a seven-volume series of horror without getting pretty repetitious. So, any of you that are inclined to not read this because it's written by King and King writes horror, don't cheat yourself.
This is a far-reaching and unusual fantasy series. And it's really good.
As for my own writing: Saving Atlantis is still being considered by two publishers. One of them, Red Sage Publishing, has had it for about four months. They say that if they like it initially, four months or longer may be the wait time before an author hears back. After the first of the year I'll send them a follow-up letter if I haven't heard back from them.
When I submitted the manuscript to Gnome on Pig Productions, who published my Just Lucky books, the editor/publisher said she really liked the synopsis. They are busy with other stuff, so I don't expect them to respond until late January, if then.
I'm 12,000 words into the first/second draft of the first volume of the Lying Swords series. It's the first/second draft because lately there's been so much time between writing sessions that I need to go back at least a few pages to get a feeling for the flow. While I reread, I make alterations.
One of the neatest things about writing novels is when the story surprises the author. I had just such a surprise during my last writing session. The swords, that had a semblance of sentience anyway, since they were able to answer questions, unexpectedly developed even more. They don't like to be touched by any but their owners.
This provides all kinds of possibilities going forward. Part of the ongoing story will be that people—some bad, some good—covet the swords. But it will be difficult to control two deadly sharp blades that don't like their handlers.
There is also the matter of a second, almost identical, set of swords that don't speak. They do have their own unique properties.
That's it for now. I've posted another clip from one of my novels on my author's page, F.G.Waiss, Author. Please take a look if it pleases you. And, please, read something!

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Exploring Other Worlds

11/26/2018

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I did warn you that I might not be able to add to this until Christmas. If my work schedule develops as the bosses seem to think it will, then, yeah, that'll be the case.
On a positive note, I was able to finish and submit the holiday short story I was working on, and I was also able to submit another story to another contest. The best thing about those was that there was no entry fee!
Surprise! Had an eight-hour day on Sunday and Monday. I have time to do this!
On the reading front, I'm still enjoying Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I'm now about half way through Book VI, Song of Susannah. This book gives us a surprise character: Stephen King! King includes himself as a younger man, encountering his own creations. The meeting is a bit traumatic, as you may imagine, not only for King, but for Roland and Eddie Dean as well.
King does not portray himself in a particularly favorable light...which is good. I think he honestly tries to imagine how his younger self would have reacted to such a situation.
I want to bring up one point...well, at least one. Might develop into more. This volume, plus the one prior (Wolves of the Calla) explores the idea of characters in fiction actually existing in their own worlds...that each world may be completely real to the characters even though they are "created" by a writer. He introduced the idea of multiple worlds, with death as one of the doorways between them, in The Gunslinger. The idea of "leakage" between Earth and Midworld continues throughout the series, but is seldom seen as more than a sidelight.
This concept was explored pretty thoroughly, and differently, in Robert Heinlein's The Number of the Beast and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls. I must include that many of the characters and settings for those two books are introduced in his Time Enough for Love. These do not constitute a series, exactly. Except that TCWWTW ends in a sort of cliff hanger that nevertheless serves as an adequate ending, yet is wrapped up in the following book, To Sail Beyond the Sunset, which was Heinlein's final novel...except that he had four books published after his death, though one was with Spider Robinson collaborating by finishing an unfinished work...which I have not yet read. Another of those four is a resurrected novel Heinlein wrote much earlier in his life...in fact, his first novel. The other two books published post mortem are non-fiction.
Whew! Sorry about that tangent. I'm a big Heinlein fan. To continue the tangent (unapologetically), for those that are not familiar with Heinlein's name or work, I here offer a quote from the back jacket of his novel, Job: A Comedy of Justice.
"Following World War II Robert Heinlein emerged as not only America's premier writer of speculative fiction, but the greatest writer of such fiction in the world. He remains today as a sort of trademark for all that is finest in American imaginative fiction." ---Stephen King
All right, back to the original subject.
Obviously, there is much more to those excellent science fiction novels than just that theme. There are interesting characters (including some from Heinlein's earlier works), romance, war, mystery, and sex. But if you want to explore this particular idea, reading those novels will give you a real look at some of the possibilities. Like, seeing a character literally erased from a scene.
More about King's work, my reading, and who knows what else next time.
Be well, be kind to each other, and READ!

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Wrestling with the fictional past.

Vacation and Murphy

Looking Forward

IN THE BEGINNING...of 2019

The End of It All...of 2018.

Beginning the End, And Beginning the Beginning

Exploring Other Worlds

Author

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

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Wrestling with the fictional past.

Vacation and Murphy

Looking Forward

IN THE BEGINNING...of 2019

The End of It All...of 2018.

Beginning the End, And Beginning the Beginning

Exploring Other Worlds

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.