PS One More time

Oh yes. One other reason I have done more work lately is that I haven't played around for almost two weeks. Niice. Thanks be to God. That almost always takes up my writing time and gets me no where.



Gotten in some good writing on New Mage today. Now I'm moving toward the end.... finally. I'm going to have to rewrite chapters two and three though. I have said the first three chapters but I have already redone One.  Revisions on it all of course but that's not the same.

I finished two of my small short westerns including that one I want to send to those three-four markets but I still have to revise them. Right now I won't do that sequel to the western I wrote a couple of years ago so I can do that one I mentioned last note. The one that is different for me.

One more time... Update

Okay been working on my novel New Mage On The Block. An aside here but I need a new name for it. It's not what I envisioned for that title. Still a great story I believe... in fact out of the three novels I did last year I think it's the better storytelling and plot but that's my opinion.

So I barely worked on it in the last couple of months, partly because I was stuck. I finally wrote a scene I had in my mind for a year but part of it didn't come out quite right. My MC invaded the bad guys lair and he sees her but does something and leaves her. The something and the leaving wasn't coming out right. But I think I finally worked it out. Not quite one hundred percent of what I wanted for that scene but it's a whole lot closer than what I had written. I can live with it. So now I want to get going with it again. Let's see if I can keep it up.

But than again there's NaNo. All next month I need to work on another novel... a space opera this time.

Last year's NaNo novel is stuck. I need to go revise it and fix the chapters after number seven but haven't worked on it for months. And I need a beta reader for the rest. I may have one. Thought I had three but two haven't responded to chapt one. If I can get to sending him chapt two.

Storm Born is stuck too. I keep forgetting to revise and send out chapt two. My wife wants to take a week off to catch up on her crafts and I need a couple of days to catch up on my novels.

Started a different type of SF story-for me- for Quarter two-'12 of WotF. peaking of which they are sending out rejections for Q4-'11. It's been a week or so and nothing. Every time I see I have mail on the LDW web page my heart clenches but so far nothing. I need some good news in regard to my writing.

Been spending too much time on Google + Because hatrack has been down for three.. four? days, which is one reason I did as much as I did on New Mage.

Spaceport America

Some of you may know this already but I thought it was worthy of pointing out.


Not quite what we write about but still something.

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/spaceport-america-1318958229-slideshow/

Speaking of the Color Nook

As you know I bought one a while back- I still like it a lot- and I finally bought a cover for it. And I got it for free. I got a gift card for B&N a few months ago from my bank. I had planned on using it and what cash I had to buy the Nook but I ended up not using it. They have a lot of nice covers, some quiet expensive some not so much. I got one of the not so much ones. But I figured it was a good writing cover.
Took me three trips to B&N to remember the card but I finally did today.
 
You can look at it here:  http://tinyurl.com/mynookcover


And from my reading I still think my Nook as good as the Fire by Kindle except maybe the colors are brighter on the Fire.  

And now Nook has out a writing app for kids. Nice.

Letter to the editor

Here:
http://www.fresnobee.com/2011/10/21/2584581/tea-party-is-democracy.html

There's one they didn't print I'll be posting on the blog soon with some more addition.  It's down right hard to say what I want in only 200 words.

And here is an addition I will be adding to the online discussion if I get my password. Can't recall for sure which one it is.

Anyway:

Without responding on any of the comments here I would like to add a couple items I didn’t have room for in the letter.  

    There is one thing both TEA Partiers and Occupiers have in common, you may have heard it already. The bail outs given to the finance companies. I believe TEA Party are against them for two reasons at least. One is that it’s an example of big government sticking its nose into businesses. Second its an example of government overspending. Some partiers may believe some CEOs should be in prison for reacting wrongly to a bad situation. 

     Of course people are hurting, duh. We are in a major recession and the government is doing the opposite of what should be done. People were in pain during the Great depression and later in the Jimmy Carter economy. But that doesn’t mean we should throw a fit for more taxes and more free stuff or that someone going to jail will help.  

     I will add that those of the middle class that are joining the Occupiers, should work with the TEA party movement instead. They have better, proven ideas of how to actually get out of the Recession. 

   And I would add that while because there are so many Partiers in a wide variety of places, there are bound to be real bigots and other kooks there are very small in number and the regular people police them. However after one poll in one city and various comments by Occupiers in variety of places there are a whole lot more kooks-including other types of bigots in the Occupier movement. 

One last comment by more family friendly I mean no women running around topless, far fewer obcenties and such. 

steampunk and me

An online friend had a guest blogger on her blog. A writer of steampunk who explained what steampunk involves.  The link has the author's name not the name of the online friend.

http://tinyurl.com/Sarahsteampunk

Anyway, I have more understanding what makes up steampunk so I think I am ready to do a SP story. Of course I'm still working on those shortee westerns and maybe one longer western so I don't know when I will do it but I think the idea needs to gel some more anyway. I'm not quite sure what the story will be yet. Maybe something on the moon... yeah steam powered rockets. :)   We shall see though.

I could try for a steam punk western that is possible, or combine my idea for an Alt western world with other modified cultures(Like India and Roman) but again we shall see.

Yet another mini update but different

Decided to do a mini or a bit larger, westerns. Today at work I was thinking this over and decided to make a western e-book anthology. Maybe. I say for two reasons. One is that if I do all the stories I thought of it will take me at least six months. Who knows what will change by then. Second: I decided to do a non-violent story about a family on a farm. If it turns out to be half as good as I think it could be I will be sending it to three possibly four markets. Glimmer Train contest and Pedestal for two. So we shall see how it comes out.


And since I have three of what I call Specwest -- sci Fi Fantasy westerns-- I would put them in their own e-book. And so I will end up writing maybe three more of those. That could at least six months too.

So by the time I do them, if I don't get side tracked, we shall see about the e-books

Another mini update

Didn't have a story to work on at work so I started mini western. I wanted to do a couple so that is okay. But like most of the others it might be a bit long for a mini. The last two stories I did were 700 and 800 words long.

Not sure where the story I'm doing is going even though I have an idea or two but be kind a fun seeing. I may come up with an idea for a second.  Maybe I'll see how I do and end up writing a bunch of shorter westerns. But we shall see.

I do have one western story and so maybe a few shortees will work well with it in a E-book. As I said we shall see.

NANoWriMo again

Think I've mentioned I am thinking of doing the novel in a month thing again.

But suddenly:


I have half a dozen ideas to choose from.
I mentioned the space opera but I recalled there's an epic fantasy that has been floating around in my head for almost as long. I know the beginning and I've thought about doing from the POV of a character who isn't the big hero... like Frodo was the main hero. My MC will be one of four to seven people on a journey to reach a location where they will be able to save the day. Each person will do something to save the day but there's usually one main guy/gal who has something very important to do. So my MC won't be him/her. But since he can talk to dragons he will still be important.
And I may have one of those four to seven get killed and/or be permanently injured.

There's also the Angel novel sort of, kinda of, maybe along the same lines of Thomas E. Sniegoski 's Remy books. I originally came up with the idea during Buffy but have slightly modified the idea since reading the Remy books. I have a great opening scene for it but I'm kinda of not sure if I should make him forget he's an angel or not. At first.
I got a new idea for a half angel character tonight who has to learn who and what he really is. Sounds like a YA book to me.
and There was one or two other ideas.

But I have three fourths of a month to decide.

Other ideas:
A space opera but deals with a militia type of force. Even though a certain planet is in a larger star nation it's on the outskirts so rarely sees any of the space navy. They have their own small space force.


Or a fantasy where the group goes on a epic journey like Lord of the Rings but set in contemporary times. Don't think I've seen a lot of those.

Or a SO with a newly minted captain of a small warship who has a family tradition to uphold even though he's not the best student, hence the small warship.

It would probably by good for me to do it this year. I seem to be in a writing slump. I do some at work but at home I tend to play around too much and end up with ten to twenty minutes for writing. Not enough time to finish a novel and revise a story for WotF. For some strange, unknown reason it's hard to get back into the habit of writing instead of playing. Actually, I think I know part of the reason.

Update on mini stories

Thought I had finished the last one today at work, but I remembered there might be one more I haven't done. I say might be because I remember starting it on my computer but can't recall finishing it. I'm going to have to search for it. I might be remembering writing it out by hand.

There are also two to four of those stories still on paper I still need to type out. Since they are super short it won't take long. Then I'm going to have to revise them all. Of course the ones that are really minis won't need much revising. I may see if I can get a couple of people to crit them. Maybe a butch of them-- probably all of them are less than 6,000 words.


It's been fun and who knows I may not be done. Twice now I said I'm done but then remembered another story I had in mind to write. Some of these are a lot longer than I expected. One is a bit over 1,800 words, another a few over 1,700, a couple of others are over 600 but some are under two hundred. Not sure about the one I did today.

So far I have SF, fantasy and UF and two or three general fiction. I would like a couple of westerns and romances but that last could be hard to do even though I went over one romance idea today.

I may send the gen fic to ZZYZZA(whatever those letters are) and to Pedestal if they are not too short. If I haven't I will send two other general stories to those two markets too.

Hard to think up names at times

http://www.gocomics.com/pearlsbeforeswine/2011/10/02


Pretty much says it all.  :)

Music

I have a chance to see three music groups.  One in Oct. One Nov. and one in Dec.

Third Day will be at our local fair in a week or so. It's a work day but I decided I am missing too many shows waiting for Friday and Saturday concerts. And I now really like Third Day.


Second does happen to fall on a Saturday night and it's only ten dollars. Newsboys, Kutless, and a couple of others I would love to see. I mean usually it's way more than ten to see one of those groups. And as I said it's on a Saturday night. Love the new Newsboys even though I wished I could have seen them with their last lead singer. His last record with them is something else. Love it... most it that is. And I wonder how the new guy does those songs and if he does.

Mannheim Streamroller  in Dec. That one is a touch expensive especially with ten dollar fees added one but still a great concert. I saw them once and I want to again!!  Surprised they are here this year since they were here last year but I missed last years.  I have the money but it's on a weeknight and my wife doesn't like me out there that late. But I can park in the parking lot instead of the street.