zoe_w

I was getting ready to do my live reading today, and just started feeling like crap. I couldn't make myself do the reading, and once I logged out, I realized I was running a fever. So I took some aspirin and had a lie down. Then I worked a very small amount on fixing a chapter in a book, and I went over an editing job.

About the editing. It seems that in spite of me being an utter bitch last year and turning down the job offer to run two magazines without training, the glass company has come back with a counter offer. Now they only want me to edit and format a few press releases at a time, and I get paid a fairly decent rate for what is mostly easy proofing work. So yeah, if they're offering it as steady work, I'll probably take it. Right now it's supposedly only a "few extra articles." But that still works out to almost €300 for me, and that's almost another payment to my editor, depending on which book I send to her. I'm thinking it will be the shorter one, and since I'm cutting some fluff from the third chapter, it will arrive to her in an even shorter state.

I still don't get credit for this editing job, and in that respect, it bugs me. Okay, I'm something like an assistant editor, and I don't do that much. But at present, it's still not something I can include on a resume. "Occasionally edits for various sources."

I suppose if I start working for regular pay again, I'll have to stop calling myself retired. Which would be fitting. I never could get a job working as a computer animator. No, instead I became a computer technician. So, wouldn't it just be fitting if I can't sell a book to a publisher, and I end up becoming an editor instead? Oy.

Oh, and obviously, I didn't get a podcast reading done. I don't mean to procrastinate on it, really! I sat down this morning and opened a word document to type up the show intro script, and I just blanked out. I didn't recover my head until hubby got home, and once he's home, it's flat out impossible to record a podcast. I'll try and recover from whatever has hit me this time, and hopefully, I'll still be able to get a podcast out this week instead of next week. Double oy.

And on a lighter note, I've now hit 1,000 posts at the horror forum. For some of the heavy posters, that's probably nothing. But for me, it's a big deal that I can stay ANYWHERE long enough to make 1,000 posts. I usually end up wandering at some point, and I always come back to this place. Either for advice, or just to take a break and lurk, it's been a good place to visit. So for my 1,000th post, I said thanks. It felt fitting. I TOTALLY was planning to explode and have a sarcastic rant, but I just couldn't find any inspiration for it. Oh well, maybe at 2,000. ^_^

All right, beddy time, for me.

Later...

Today, I tried to sort out why the e-book versions of "Redemptio Lost" were having problems displaying certain characters properly. I spent most of the day trying to make the conversion work, and in the end, I had to make up a new version of the document with all capital letters in place of stuff with small caps.

So, where there were only two source files, now there are four. Got that? Why is that a problem? I'm going through the LIT file to check the all caps section, and I spot a use of who's that should have been whose...riiiiight, open up all four source files, locate the line in question, and change it four times. Then save and export all four to get the completed e-book file. I'm just about to close when I notice Part 1...but every other part is Part Two, Part Three, etc...riiiight, open the four files again. I could give more examples, but you get the idea. Yes, it was annoying, but hey, I'll have to do this anyway once the other proof copy comes in. I'm just getting a head start, is all. ^_^

I finally finished that, and I worked a little bit on revising another book. Not much luck there. I know that a scene needs to be fixed, but I still drawing a blank on how to fill in the missing details. I'm finding this is a problem a lot in the later half of this book. The scenes are mostly conversations, and there is little to no descriptions of anything. No, I mean no descriptions of the scene, the character's actions, or their feelings. It's like a script with no visual cues. I know it shouldn't be that way, but now I'm having trouble seeing what the scene was supposed to look like.

Anywho, tomorrow, I will try to record a podcast. For now, it's bed time again.

Today, I finished reading the second proof copy of "Redemption Lost." During the first proof, there were lots of little nagging problems with the layout, and the cover had an interesting problem because I didn't rasterize my fonts on the sine. So all of the letters flipped...good to know before going into production...m'yep. ^_^ But, I didn't actually check the proof for typos or missed errors. The first time was just to check and make sure I had the right layout. I didn't. The fonts were too big, the margins were too small, and the gutter was too close to the spine

On proof two, I got all of that stuff fixed, so this time, I had to worry more about the search for typos on the inside. I opened up the Microsoft reader and made a LIT file, and I had "Sam" read it. The default voice of the reader sounds stupid, but it forces me to hear and confirm every word. Can I still miss stuff? Yeah, probably. But Sam helped me pick up a LOT of stuff, even things my editor missed consistently. Apparently, we both have a problem reading though and seeing through. Even in my editor's draft, people were flying though the air, and people were walking though doors. I wanted to cry, really. ;.; I wanted to throw the book though the air, really I did. At the same time, I actually feel better know we both missed it. Because that little missing r is so easy to lose in that word, even when the reading program is passing over it. But I caught them all, I think...I hope. Let's move on.

The cover was still not right. The problem is, I was using too much shading to help make the white text easier to see. I've lightened most of the book and put in a shaded box for the back text blurb. I've lined up all of the logos better, and the ISBN block was shrunk just a hair to allow more of the full-wrap image to be seen. (The regulations say I can shrink the default Bowker bar code size to around 92%. I did about 96%) So, if the logo and the name of the front aren't too washed out in the third proof, I think this will be our prize winner.

But that's why there's a third round of proofs, and joy of joys, I'm still working within my schedule. I'm glad I did it this way, because I've had a chance to really make sure everything is right.

So...here's the plan. The third proof copy will show up in one week, and then I'll run this version through the voice reader as well. I very much hope that I will be able to release the third proof. Because if not, then I will be late. And that's bad, m'kay? Heh, can you tell it's time for bed? I can. ^_^

Just a couple of updates. First, I don't know what I have, but I am feeling cruddy. I have packed sinuses, a cough, and fatigue. Last night, I couldn't eat dinner. I took two bites and started barfing. So I had to make do with only having milk, ice cream, and snack cakes. Everything tasted weird, so I'm not sure if I have a cold or if my MS is acting up again. Every time it acts up, I stop being able to taste things properly.

In writing news, I've started another story, this one continuing the progress of Jobe and Gavin. This is going well, and I know how most of this story will play out, in theory. The problem is, I may have just thrown a wrench into my own machine.

For a while now, I've been pondering the fate of a character. I've had to ask myself whether or not I should just kill them and move on, or whether I should later resurrect them using the trusty unreliable narrator method. This was the original plan, and changing it would have major implications for the the rest of the outline. But lately, I've had doubts about bringing this character back, because there's already someone else who dies and will come back. I'm planning stuff to happen over a lot of novels, and over a very big cast. But it seems to me like I should only try to go to that cliché one time in the entire series.

I went over to the horror forum, which is becoming the place I usually go first for writing advice. One writer offered a short question as their answer: which serves the story best? This led me to believe that it really was for the best to stick with the original plan.

However, a few other writers tried offering suggestions to make sure the character can be dead, but still a part or the overall plot. Obviously, a ghost angle might be possible, but there's logistics issues that need to be worked out.

Which brings me back to the story about Jobe and Gavin. If I accept that the other character died, then I can create an "Intermission," or a series of breaks in the main story to move another character into the time line. Previously, this person was a bit character, and I never was sure what to do with her. She'd remain something of a bit character in this next story, but the general idea would be to push her into a more prominent role in the overall series.

And so I'm temporarily stuck, because both ideas sound equally good. The original plan would continue the development of a major villain. The alternative is passing the role off to the character's half-sister. And since I needed to do something with her, this would be a fantastic chance to help her grow from her lowly origins into a character of real substance. Almost all of the character's issues and abilities are shared by their half sister, so a lot of the original outline can remain intact, with only minor tweaking here and there.

So...what to do? I must ponder this more.

Later..

Today, I continued to work on fixing the back story for "Blood Relations." I got some really great suggestions from the horror forum regarding the one fight scene I'd mentioned in my last post. But that led me to notice how I needed to add more detail to all of the back story. So that's what I did for most of the night.

However, around 4 AM I had an idea for what might make the fantasy story more exciting. So I wrote a scene with the introduction of the first werekin cub. And I have to say, it's not bad. It starts out like a couple of other scenes, which isn't hard, since the whole book takes place in an endless forest. But the thing is, it's just a wee human child; just a little, savage pup of six or seven. Heh.

So yeah, I think this ratchets the suspense up quite a bit, and this is one of several cubs, not to mention the cursed orc the team has to find. So, if I can balance out the action and the tension better through the rest of this story, it won't require quite as much tinkering.

And I was going to ramble more about where the larger story is moving, but I keep looking up and reading gibberish. So it's probably time for bed.

Later...

Well I suppose it wasn't a bad day. But hubby and I had a minor spat over something goofy, and after that, I never really was able to recover my creative streak.

I did read through this one scene in "Blood Relations," and it felt wrong. So I ran the idea by hubby and went online to the horror forum to solicit opinions there too. And it turns out the scene was historically inaccurate for some of the bit characters being armed with guns. Not in Scotland in 1939, which is when the scene has to take place in order to maintain historical accuracy with what Vicky's said in other stories. So I've written up a new version of the scene without the guns, but I'm not quite happy with it yet. I'll have to come back to it in yet another revision.

I did work some on the fantasy story, but this is a lot harder than anything else I've done, and despite me reading a lot of straight fantasy, I'm struggling to make this story work. The two places it feels weakest to me are in physical descriptions, and in world building. There's no sense of scenery in many cases, it's just a brief cap of the location, and then the situation is laid out, or the dialogue is given. Even if the team is a bit unconventional, the story itself feel like a formula that I'm just plugging numbers into. It's looking like: Character X requires Y item to complete their quest. Character E has bonding moment with side character A. Fight scene. Character E has bonding moment with Character B. Bit character #2 bites the dust. Magic scene. Fan-service lesbian-elf-sex scene. Heh, okay, that last part would be hard, since there's only one female elf on the team. And if she's playing with herself, that would be masturbation, not lesbian sex. It's entertaining, to be sure, but...but probably not really needed to advance the story.

Where was I going with this? Oh, right. The thing is, I try to think of something which isn't so formulaic, and I think I have it. But then I write an idea down, and the editor in my head reminds me that it's still part of the same kind of formula. So even if I can figure out how to get this story to a rough draft stage, I suspect it's going to need a lot of work to make it something more than just standard fantasy fare. It doesn't matter if the story is canon to the rest of my series. If I can't make it exciting, no one will want to read it. But no matter what basic idea I come up with, it feel like the end result builds up tension, only to drain it away too early. And that's not good.

So...meh. I'll head off to bed and ponder how the heck I'm supposed to fix this. I have a hunch that what I need to do is finish this out, and then do a complete rewrite. Then I can know what to keep, and what to toss in favor of something more exiting. Or, that's one possible theory...we'll see what happens.

Later...

Last night, just before I went to sleep, I started going over "Blood Relations in my head, and I realized I hadn't mentioned Amber's age. It's only mildly important to establish this detail, I suppose, but my thoughts before bed became a mantra, "add Amber's age." Yeah, kind of alliterated, I know.

Well, I got up, and hubby took off for a gaming tournament at Casa Dei Giochi. So I realized it was probably my best time to attempt to record a new podcast episode. I got to work, and many, many hours later, I finally uploaded the new episode.

Then we went out to dinner at Pastarito, and I have Cavatappi with some kind of "Messicanna" seasoning. They can claim it's Mexican by just putting in beans, I guess, but I had to dump a lot of red pepper on mine to make it less bland. And yeah, my stomach is just trilled with me, believe me. -_-

I got back home and sat down, and I thought, "What did I forget? Oh yeah, Amber's age." (She's twenty-four, if you're wondering) I edited it in at two places, which also helped me to add in more of an explanation for Amber's motivations in the story.

I guess what I'm trying to aim for with these revisions is to make the story more emotional. I want people to feel creeped out in the right places, and scared in others. That's really, REALLY hard with a vampire story, I know. It doesn't help that the focus is pretty much on the plight of the blood drinkers, taking away some of the reader's ability to relate to the protagonists.

On the one hand, I'm thrilled by the way may vampires are amoral about feeding. They're not turned humans, so they were born needing blood to sustain themselves. On the other hand, hubby has pointed out how this book is kinda harsh to humans, who end up being cattle more than characters. But then, I think that was kind of what I was aiming for. I wanted to make a vampire book where the focus was on the vampires, and for once, their sense of self-loathing had nothing to do with them hating their existence.

Most of the vampires don't suffer from self-loathing. It's just Vicky having problems. She's developed recent self-esteem issues in the aftermath of "Redemption Lost," which are in turn compounded by her distant past. But she's got no problems killing a random human for food, and she doesn't care if they're good or bad. That feels appropriate for a vampire, in my humble opinion.

Tomorrow is probably going to be a half-day off for me. I'll still work on the corrections and revisions for two of my stories, though not with as much intensity as I've been using most of this week.

Next week, perhaps I might take out the fantasy story and see if I can bridge the gap from my current point to the "big twist." If I can make it to the twist, the rest should play itself out pretty quickly to the end, in theory.

Anyway, I'm babbling, so I'll go to bed.

Later...

I got a podcast recorded, just not the next podcast episode. Instead, I was recording part one of "Dating in the Post-Zombie World," and it MIGHT be appearing on someone else's podcast, someone who has traffic...unlike myself.

After I finished the edits on the podcast, I went ahead and finished up revisions on "Blood Relations," my vampire story. I added in more information about Vicky's past, and about Ellen McCullough's past, which is only hinted at in "Redemption Lost." I also corrected a date problem in both "Redemption Lost," and "Blood Relations." Vicky makes a comment about herself that she saw part of World War II in Europe. She says she wasn't sure if she saw it in her teens or her twenties.

Well, the thing is, I had Vicky in Glasgow in 1932, and at 19. Because of a weird quirk with my vampires, Vicky didn't know her age then, but it didn't matter, because she didn't stick around in Europe for a decade.

So in one book, I changed the comment to Vicky not being sure if she was in her twenties or her thirties during the war, and I advanced the date of her arrival in Glasgow to 1937. In truth, she would have been 22 at the start of World War II, but again, Vicky wouldn't know her age. It's a quirk of my vampires that they have trouble remembering their true age. They understand it more in general terms, as they measure progress in decades. But more than that, vampires don't really celebrate birthdays. Counting individual years is kind of pointless to an eternal creature.

I finished those revisions and shifted over to doing revisions on "The Lesser of Two Evils." It will take me a while before I can afford to send it to the editor for the professional treatment, but I feel happy with the changes I've made so far. There's more internalization, and I've cut some redundant dialogue out. Once the editor does go over it, I'm hoping the fourth edition is the final edition.

This will of course mean that I have to go back and edit "Trail of Madness" as well, and I'm just now starting to do a weekly live reading of the book in SL. And right off the bat, the first thing I notice is that it's sometime confusing to figure out who is talking. So that's the first thing I'll want to fix. And again, this will be going to the editor before I attempt to publish the revision. Yeah, it's a lot more expensive this way. But frankly, I'll feel a lot more confident in what I'm selling once I know an editor has signed off on the work. I think a lot more people will give it a chance as well if they know the book has been seen by a qualified professional editor. Or, that's the theory, anyway.

All right, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow, I'll be looking to record a podcast from part two of "The Lesser of Two Evils," and then I can work on the revision for part 3 of the same story. Soooo exciting!

Later...

Okay, I'm just not having the best of luck recording a new podcast. I AM making recordings, but each one has horrid flaws. Yesterday, I couldn't get my accents right, and today, there's a lawnmower and a weed-eater working the property next to ours, and even being on the top floor in out building, my microphone is picking them both up as a low rumble. The noise canceling on the microphone doesn't seem to be able to stop this, and noise removal makes the sample sound like I'm talking into a tin can.

So, I'll try again tomorrow. Today is truly a lost cause, even thought it's only 3:30. See, the trains are returning to the station behind me, and they of course all have to blare warning horns every few seconds. By the time the landscapers finish, hubby will be coming home, and recording with him at home has not once worked out. About the best time I could record is late at night, and I can't, since this place has no soundproofing, and it would wake hubby up. Whimper.

Well anyway, I can get back to doing corrections and worry about the podcast tomorrow...lord, I hope I can record it tomorrow. -_-

Later...

Okay, first I put together the photo slideshow for the Amsterdam trip:
(avoid day two entirely if you don't want to know about the Torture museum)

Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Days 4, 5, and 6

After this, I went back to work on merging the editor's changes, and I've completed the prologue and the first two parts. I think it's safe to say that I'm happy with my editor's work, and I wouldn't mind working with her on future projects.

At this pace, I'll be able to start working on the page layouts soon. But tomorrow, I have to post up the last part of "Wake Up With the Kimellians," and if I'm feeling up to it, I need to record a podcast.

But for now, bed time. -_-

This sums up my feelings perfectly right now, but then I know why it is. I finished writing a story, and I'm cranky because I have nothing in me right now. Since there is no one source for this frustration, the emotion wanders, trying to look for targets. Most often, I won't let it settle on anything, so I spend most of the day making pathetic little sighs of discontentment.

However, I'm not really unhappy. I've been told the business tax forms were mailed off to finish registering the publishing label with Lightning Source on Monday, so I'm expecting word back soon with the confirmation of the account.

I've got "Redemption Lost" back from my editor, and last night I paid her and asked her to provide a basic critique. And yeah, there are some problems. I'm just not sure how to fix them yet. My editor and I came to terms over the term magi, and so that will end up staying, even if it is technically wrong. *shrug* I just think magi sounds nicer than mages. According to the Firefox dictionary, neither are words. ^_^

I guess this funk isn't so bad though. The day before yesterday, the cat ruined one of my USB keys by chewing the connection. This key was the secondary backup of all my work files. Instead of shouting at the cat, I was checking his teeth to see if he was having plaque problems on his back teeth. Then I went to the store the next day to pick up another key. Meh, I still had another backup, and now I have two again. So, no harm done. I wouldn't be quite so proud of myself over this, but I'm in a pissy mood, and I didn't shout at the cat. That's a new level of calm for me. ^_^

So, moving to writing news again, obviously this next few weeks will be dedicated to going over my editor's recommendations and merging her changes into the final draft. I think this will end up being my main project for the next few weeks, though I plan on getting back to recording podcasts too, and I'm going to start live readings of "Trail of Madness" in SL.

Finally, in non writing news. I'm going to start editing the photos from the Amsterdam trip. It's just that there's 2700 pictures, and out of those, I'll only select 100 or so for the tour. And once I've selected them, I'll take them into Photoshop to clean them up. THEN I can upload them to Photobucket and torture people with my boring vacation pictures. ^_^

And that's the news for now. I'll get to work on those piccies now.

Later...

I'll have to go with a short update, as my brain is crispy from fatigue. I finished the rough draft of the vampire story, and I've tinkered with it somewhat before having hubby start a test reading. He had some suggestions for one section, and I changed those and had him check over the changes before he moves on with the rest of the story tomorrow. I'm not sure how to gauge hubby's reaction here. It seems to me like he's not as enthusiastic about this one, probably because it's a vampire story, and he's not that big on vampires. (He's more of a zombie guy) But he is making good suggestions, and durring today's reading, he went through five chapters pretty quickly. We shall see what he thinks as he get closer to the middle.

I got "Redemption Lost" back from the editor, and for the most part, I like the changes. Except one, and I'm going to have an in depth discussion with her on the rules of mages versus magi. I think it's okay to use magi as the plural for mage, and I think the dictionary is backing me up on this one. She claims that to use magi, I have to shift all the singular forms to magus, a term which I don't care for. I shall be pleading my case later and presenting my evidence, and hoping she won't mind too much if I ignore her on this one point. Everything else I've seen makes sense, so hopefully she can forgive me for being stupid on this one point.

Anywho, we're having a weather shift which is kicking my ass, which is why I'm going to bed really early tonight.

Later...

I worked on my new story for most of the day, bringing me up to 27K on the word count, and fifty-one pages. The tension is starting to ratchet up in both the the present, where Amber has been taken prisoner by a wyrm and poisoned; and in the flashback chapters, which are detailing Vicky's first relationship with a halfling.

Dimitri is confusing the hell out of me, and as an antagonist, he's hard to pin down. I think that's the point. What he says is the truth, to a certain degree. But he'd bending the truth around to suit his needs, and his agenda is difficult to sort out.

I also have a problem problem of how to handle Amber's illness. I mean, I'm pretty much making this poison into something really bleak and icky, and I'm having the antagonist offer Amber a sense of hope, only to yank it away from her repeatedly. Which makes it seem like he's enjoying mentally torturing her. The thing is, I'm not sure if he is enjoying it or not. Maybe he's just so good at being evil that he confuses me too.

Anyway, I'll get back to work on it tomorrow, and maybe I'll hit seventy pages. ^_^

Later...

I didn't get much done today because we went to Fnac, and then out to see The Dark Knight. Fucking MEH. I could rant a lot more, but I'll just say this. While several performances were stellar, the script was shit. Good acting cannot save bad writing. Flashing explosions and cool fight scenes cannot save it either. And this movie had a LOT of lousy writing. Like four baboons bashing on a typewriter bad. You can't tell me the Gotham police are so stupid to leave the Joker uncuffed and alone in an unlocked room with only one guard? No, no cop is that stupid, and this is only one example of the gaping logic holes in this movie.

I say again, fucking MEH.

Okay, so once I got home, I didn't start writing. Instead, I read over what I'd written and made some minor corrections. Then I wrote one and a half chapters. Which sounds great, but one of those chapters is only two pages.

Oh well, tomorrow is another day, and I'm definitely not running out of creative steam for this story yet. I just got distracted, is all. =^P

Later...

So, the mental masturbation story petered out. Heh. Well honestly, I liked it, but somewhere after the fourth chapter, I had the silent editor sneak up on me and comment, "It's not very original is it? You're just retreading old themes and tossing yourself in as an overly powerful Mary Sue."

I'd no sooner agreed and tossed it aside when the editor and the muse ganged up on me. They reminded me that I did have a story I was ready to start. And 27 pages later, I took a break. Yes, 27 pages in one day. It's not a personal best for me, but it is something to feel proud of.

I'm working on a story about Amber McKenzie and Vicky, whose relationship is starting to heat up after two stories. Amber and Vicky meet in "Touched," and their relationship continues to evolve as a side story in "Redemption Lost." Here in this book, their relationship becomes the focus, while the side stories are about day to day life in a vampire coven.

There will be appearances by characters from other stories, and rather than plan out a trilogy for each set of characters, I'm instead writing a group of stories which all take place with different characters around the same time span. This is kind of like a choose your own adventure story where readers will choose who they want to follow to learn about the world. The current teams being planned for books are:

Dimitri, Erick, Luthar...etc. (it's a big cast for a fantasy story): Erick's Journey (working title)
Erick is a daoine sidhe, a black elf tasked with a mission to stop a war before it can start between the orcs and the lycanthropes. He is joined in the task by a rhyndarhim royal guard, a daoine sidhe mage, and a half orc, half dwarf paladin who has been wandering in a monastic quest through the harshest environments Lissand has to offer in search of nightmare. But what should be a simple mission becomes horribly complicated when Erick catches the attention of Dimitri, a wyrm who has just been released from his prison inside a tree. Dimitri offers to train Erick in shadow magic with no strings attached to his offer. But even if Dimitri is telling the truth, the training begins taking a toll on the young black elf, and soon Erick must decide who he can trust. His friends? Dimitri? Or no one at all?

Amber McKenzie and Vicky: Blood Relations
After being on the run for months, Vicky stumbles onto a vampire coven in San Antonio. The leader of the coven tells Vicky she's been rendered sterile by the damage she suffered in her battle with the rogue soldiers, and Amber suffers guilt bordering on physical pain for having a part in Vicky being wounded. So Amber leaps at the chance to become a surrogate mother without considering the cost to her humanity. Now Amber has become a blood drinker, and the urge to hunt is taking over. Amber and Vicky are confronted by an ancient creature of shadow, a wyrm who has taken an interest in Amber and the child growing inside her. Terrified for the safety of her partner, Vicky must unravel Dimitri's agenda and find a way to save Amber and her unborn child before Dimitri's manipulations transform Amber into something far worse than a vampire.

Jobe McKenzie and Gavin Lebowitz: Berserker
Jobe and Gavin are finally recovering from their wounds at the hands of the rogue soldiers and their magi leaders. They're still hiding out under the "protection" of the FBI, remaining locked in a safehouse on the outskirts of San Antonio. But their respite is interrupted by a portal opening, bringing with it a huge bear-like beast which wounds Gavin. The wound heals far too quickly, and suddenly, Jobe can't stand Gavin. The taint of the lycanthropic curse is changing Gavin, and in spite of his medications, Jobe is unable to prevent his darker half from emerging. Can the two still work together to hunt down the werebear tearing through the countryside? Or will their unique cursed natures push them apart?

Davis Briggs, Stephanie Callaghan, Cora Collins, and Wendy Stoffel: Witch Hunt
This is the only book I don't have a proper blurb for yet. I'm still not sure how to sum this one up. But I can say the halfling and the wounded mutant vigilante will be tangling with daemons from Heil. In the absence of her partner Joel, Cora will try to take Wendy as her partner, only to be rejected harshly. Wendy and Cora both have different ideas about how they should be dealing with the daemons. Cora favors a form of cautious diplomacy, while Wendy is angry enough to go with "Shoot first and ask questions later." But ultimately, both must work together to banish the daemons on Earth, or else Mammon will be encouraged to send in more than just a handful of scouts.

Joel, Miguel, and a whole slew of other magi: Magi (like you didn't see that coming)
Joel wakes up from his coma to discover the world is slipping into chaos. Starting first in San Antonio, wraiths begin appearing seemingly from out of nowhere. Then attacks are being reported all over the world, and Joel realizes he must act to halt the flood of living shadows pouring into their world. With only Koontz, Cora's feline familiar to guide him, Joel hitchhikes to San Antonio and joins forces with a group of familiar magi who are also attempting to investigate the origins of the wraith invasion. But once they discover the answer, the magi must decide who their loyalties lie with. Do they side with the mystical races, their allies? Or do they offer their aid to the humans, who are woefully unequipped to deal with the full horror of a hungry screeching wraith? Joel remains convinced of their need to maintain a neutral role, but he's fighting a losing debate against a band of children who are confused, angry, and ready to lash out at the first signs of trouble. So what else can go wrong? Everything.

So, some pretty exciting stuff coming next year. Or, rather, I'll finish the drafts next year. No telling on how long it will take me to find a publisher. But I think I might have a shot because all of these stories will be stand alone, and can be sent out to publishers without bothering them about the details of a larger series.

Readers won't have to read the first trilogy to get into these books. They won't have to read all of these books to get into the world either. Each one is meant to be a ride all its own, and if I can get the mixture of action to information just right, I think I can convince people to take more than one ride in my world.

We'll see what happens.

Later...

It shouldn't be a surprise that I got back to work once I came home. I started writing, and I'm not sure if this is something to take seriously, or just something I'm doing as mental masturbation. The main character is a total Mary Sue, and I'm borrowing a lot from my time with Luche to make a story about a psychic living abroad. The story is starting to shape up as being in the same modern fantasy world as my other characters, and while I like it, I think it might be kind of close in theme to other stuff I've written.

Still, I like the story, and if I decide to shelve it after I finish, well it doesn't hurt every once in a while to write fluffy crap intended only for my own personal amusement. ^_^

Okay, I'm off to bed. It's been a long night.

Well the temperature is now consistently warm enough to be causing health problems for me. This means swollen legs and feet, back pain, and fatigue. Yay, whee. This means I have to lay down a lot, so I'm taking the e-book reader with me, and I'm doing one chapter at a time before switching to other books.

In between reading sessions, I edited Part 3 of Wake Up With the Kimellians, and I posted it up on my site here.

I got my ISBN publisher prefix, my SAN, and my block of numbers today, so I took the first steps in applying for an account with Lightning Source. Much cheering ensued, followed by worried hand clenching and questions like "Will it work?"

I went online to read something for the other crit group I've joined, and I read the story and liked it. But I was writing the review before I caught the twist. So I go back and read it again and was really impressed on the second reading. It's a good idea, and very subtle.

Then after that, I finished up revising chapter 7 and moved into chapter 8. Funny thing about getting an idea that seems simple: sometime a small change early on has a major effect on conversations for the rest of the book. This one change I've made has a massive ripple effect, requiring many conversations to be truncated greatly. I consider this a good thing.

Chapter 8 is where I intend to dedicate 2,500 words or so to the FBI investigation, or more specifically, I have to explain why the investigation got derailed so quickly. I know why, so it's not hard to sort that out. Instead, it's working out how to explain the background on certain characters without getting overly wordy, or relying entirely on dialogue. So I may end up not working on this until after I get back from my vacation next week.

Anyway, I need to lay down again. I'm going to bed early, but in spite of the extra rest breaks, I think it's been a productive day.

Later...

I'm still working on chapter 4. This is because I went to bed still feeling like something was missing. I've felt this way every time I read through this section, but until today, I didn't notice what the problems were. So I read through again and told myself to be really picky and keep asking questions during every scene. So by asking who was doing what at every POV shift, I noticed how I neglected to mention a key detail about one of the distant family members, and I'd taken it as a forgone conclusion that readers can guess it happened.

I know what to fix there, but I'm trying to sort out if this information needs to go in 4, or if it makes more sense to reveal it in chapter 5, or possibly even 6. So my work progress was a bit slow today.

I'd also left a side character out of a key scene, which didn't make sense. There's also another problem. I hadn't spelled out why she didn't speak up earlier. Once I've addressed the issues, I think I'll be able to move on. Or that's the working theory.

Later

Okay, I went through chapter 3 and fixed all of the problems that were nagging me. I know the word count is going to be a tough sell if I keep this up, but my last edit reduced this book to a lot of talking head monologues where nobody moves, or reacts much. They emote a bit, but that was it.

And then, chapter 4. Wow. I was already happy with this before, but I got ideas here and there to help flesh out the scenes more, and I think I struck a happy balance between being descriptive, and being purple. I'm going back through 4 again tomorrow to look for any typos I might have added in during the revision, but I'm really liking how everyone's motivations are clearly explained without anyone getting emo on people. I think once events play out, people should understand why the main characters do such crazy, awful things. They have their reasons, and they aren't quite good. But they are logical, and should make sense.

We went out for dinner tonight to Fang Jong. I ate way too much, and I regretted it even during the walk back home. I might have been able to do more work in chapter 5 tonight if I hadn't needed time to lay on the couch groaning "Oooooh, so good, but soooo painful!" Chicken still remains my one weak point. I can practice restraint and keep myself from having stomach problems with most any other food. But set any kind of chicken dish in front of me, and it's like the cavewoman in my had bashes common sense with a club. Then I'm completely lost to Nom lust...NOM NOM NOM! =^P

Anyway, I'm off to bed. Oh wait. I should mention that I'm reading "Every Dead Thing." So far, it's been good with the exception of the portrayals of the cops. I don't care if Charlie Parker's dad was some kind of killer or not. When a cop calls up the station sobbing and wailing because his wife and 3 year old daughter have been brutally mutilated, no one, not even a cop with fucking ice water for blood is going to stroll into the house and demand, "Yo bird, you wanna tell me what happened here?" I know this is just back story and has little to do with the plot of the novel, but I was half tempted to stop reading right there at the prologue for the sheer stupidity (and callousness) of the cops who would look in the kitchen on this gruesome scene and think, "Yeah, a cop would do that." Yeah, fucking right.

Oh, and we've already had one random act of police brutality as well, so apparently, I'm being set up to think of the cops in the book as either 1)idiots, or 2) assholes. Either way, I'm having trouble buying it.

The rest of the writing hasn't been bad, and I'm hopeful that some of the other cops in the story will help balance out these sticking points. But if it turns out every cop is a walking penis looking to hold a pissing contest, I'm making this a one star wonder, and the rest of Charlie's books are going to be cheerfully ignored.

Okay, now I'm going to bed.

Later...

I whipped through a second edit of chapter 2, and then I read through chapter three without doing much in the way of edits. I wanted to see first what should be changed, and I have a better idea of what I need to do. This is a really dialogue heavy chapter, and I need to break it up a bit to help prevent reader fatigue. Most of the dialogue is not fluff, so it can't be cut much. But I need to work more on describing the scenes and the character's emotional states.

Aside from that I spent a few hours partying in SL with friends, so I didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked. But eh, I need a break sometimes, and I haven't been taking weekends off lately. Anywho, I'm off to bed. Tomorrow I expect to fix chapter 3 and do a quick pass through chapter 4. I like working this way, since it gives me a chance to abosrb all the little details and decide what's relevant.

Okay, bed time.

Later...