And some more updates

I'm feeling the need to start working on Angel Kin again. I haven't wrote in it for probably three months at least. Not enough time and I didn't feel as excited about it as some of my novels but that seems to be changing.

Working on revising Two Struggles this month but haven't touched it for a week. Looks like I will have to work on it next month too, and will have to wait for my vacation to revise my space opera I did for National Write a Novel Month.

At the moment I am thinking of going the Ebook route with Two Struggles but if it is as good a story as I think--oh I may have solved when to put in some of her back ground I cut out. A talk she has with a friend, just have to decide when to have it.

Redid a story for a challenge on hatrack. It needed the term Command of Love or Command For Love to honor a hatracker who has a story by that second title in WotF 28. The winner of the challenge gets a signed copy of the book, by various of the winners. I think this year I at least have a chance. Probably not that great of a chance but better than last year.

Worked on my next story to WotF- revising it with help from a hatrack group. But I started revising the wrong version which I kept for some strange unknown reason. So I have to start over again... UGH.

My inspiration

  I wrote this originally for a comment on another blog but I thought it might be of interest of anyone who is following my blog.... Thanks To Those Who Are.


A good majority of my ideas seem to come from pictures. Not all the time though, sometimes it’s; a line of a song, other story-, an idea from a practice session-contest, a scene will just pop into my head or during a discussion about certain plots. The other day I got the beginning of an idea while reading what type of stories a certain market might want. One, a streampunk moon colony, just caught the attention of my muse... that is my inner self that comes up with some of these ideas. 


Sometimes the pictures come from my own mind and I try to writer out what I see. Sometimes it isn't that easy. The other day I got an idea for a steampunk story from various titles of steampunk novels. Clockwork something or another.  That seems to be the newest fad in steampunk titles. 

Wow asteroid mining

http://tinyurl.com/spacemining     Yahoo News


Or soon that is. 

E-novel by some one I know

A friend from hatrack e-published a book. I haven't read it yet but I know she is a good writer. "Blood Will Tell".

Her Book

That link is to her web site

 and here is one to smashwoords

here is the book

and on Amazon

And here it be too

So buy a copy...on smashwords you can by gift cards for it, I believe. Read it and enjoy. Good adventure and romance if I recall correctly from her web site.

Wow views

They have change they way they do the blog. A different set up, more thing sI can d even though I don't know them all yet.

Anyway, they now list the views each post gets. The Starship Allegiance one has over one hundred views. Whoa, that is a surprise. Some might be me but no where close to a hundred.

No comments though, hey guys-gals leave a couple.

A couple of others are 25 or so.

That's neat but in repeat a couple of comments would be nice too. :)

More on Urban Fantasy

I started this in the post for Gilman and thought of something to add to it a couple of days later.


I mentioned that I thought Jim Butcher was the King of this round of the Urban Fantasy rage. I wasn't suse if Gilman or another female writer was the Queen. They might be tied. :)

But I was thinking there is another male who may have had a hand in the rage too. Not as great as Butcher but still up there.

John Levit and his Dog Days series.

http://jlevitt.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

Most of what is on the site is blank today, don't if they are having problems or if he is in the process of doing away with it. But his books are still up.

Update thingie three

Been working on Stone Within at work and may switch it to home, I want to work on it more.

Haven't worked on the revision of Two Struggles for three days, since I needed to work on the crits for hatrack WotF. But I will start it up again. Thought I had a revised first chapter but can't find it so maybe I don't, I had planned on sending it out to someone I am trading crits with but can't now.


Monday I think I will start that steampunk story finally. I have an idea I want to try. I will have to work on it at work though. Less time for Stone and that means the two stores I started will have to sit longer.

Wrote a new letter to the editor and sent it out.

As far as of right now I will be E-publishing Two Struggles even though under another title, something that says the same thing but in a different way.

A paper Enterprise?

Yep someone did it.

http://tinyurl.com/84pfzxk


Check out the whole slideshow at Yahoo Games

More on Laura Anne Gilman

A bit more on her.

I loved the Wren books and one of my MCs is sort of, in a way, kinda, based on Gilman's world in that series. Completely different magical system, -- even though it's not really magic :)-- the MC is female but she is more wild than Wren more like Bonnie in the second series except for when it comes to sex, my MC is less sure of herself, has a different job, there is no (Oh good grief can't think of his name been way too long since I read those books) partner in my book, my MC has three friends she hangs with-- one doesn't have the same abilities and doesn't join in with the other two who do.

Reading a new book by Laura Anne Gilman

I started "Tricks of The Trade" by laura anne gilman,

It's the third in a series by Gilman. The unique thing about this series is that it takes place in the same city, and time as a previous series.  The Wren(Or is it Wen Yicks I should know) or Retriever series. Bonnie, the MC of the current series, was a very minor character in the first one.  I'm surprised that Wren hasn't shown up in this one yet they live in the same building after all. Gilman says that Wen is suppose to guest in the next book.

I partly credit the Retriever-therefore Gilman- series for this explosion of Urban Fantasy. I have said that Butcher is the King of UF and Gilman is the Queen. But I modified that a bit. One Rachael Craine (?) might be the true Queen since her Storm Warden series was first. But Gilman must be a close second.

I would have to reread the first series again to be sure but I believe the second series is written differently. At least in the first book, my impression was that it was written for YA while the first series was written for adults.

I like Wren better than this series but this one isn't at all bad. This series is also more of a mystery style while the first one is more adventure so that might be the difference I am sensing.

If you like mysteries with magic and some personal emotional turmoil mixed in then you will like the second series. Yes, they use magic to solve cases but it's a tool like anything any mundane detective would use. There is danger even though not as much as usual for fiction books these days. Again that could be because of the mystery style.

I would recommend both series even though you can decide which one to read first or if you are adventurous read both at the same time.  There are now three and soon will be four in the second and somewhere around eight to ten in the first- which is all there will be for the time being.

Having read the first series I know some of the things that will be coming up, in fact I'm surprised there aren't more signs of those things yet. The cover of Trade though looks like a certain event in the first one but that event didn't happen 'till later in the first series so I don't expect it to be the same event.

Update thingies part two

I split up this update since it was getting long.

Still no response form WotF Q1. But they had a ceremony thingie tonight and were busy setting it up. Probably this next week. That happened last year at this time.

Taking my time doing this one since the Awards ceremony thingie is on right now. Just saw one of the hatrackers there. My nemesis, from an earlier here post, may have been there. Can't recall her name off hand though. Too late I thought about asking the person I did know there to say hi to her for me if she was there. But than again she probably wasn't come to think of it. Oh well.


Well, I've had two different people say good things about two stories so maybe I'm re-finding my voice. I may have lost it while trying to find the techniques that editors want. I don't know if that is my major problem or not but it couldn't hurt. I referenced them last post.

I forgot to say that I started chapter four of Stone Within. And I may change the title to Set In Stone. I'll see what works better for the tale. I know the ending, pretty much the is, but not so much from where I am to there. She has to meet again with the police officer she met in the first chapter. Maybe start to like him, in that case that should I should add him to this chapter. I really wasn't thinking of romance for my MC even though use is gougious

And yet another update thingie

      Now back to writing:

And an update.

Working on crits for WotF Quarter 3. I’m in a group on hatrack, it’s large enough that they split it in half. One group does the other members stories, than we trade groups for another round of crits.  This round I have four stories to read and crit. Need to get going on them.

The story I sent out is one I started months ago, actually finished it I think. Anyway, as I was revising it I decided that if I added some more struggle it might be good for WotF. I might have explained this already in an earlier post, forget if I posted it here though. In either case the story is Urban Fantasy which WotF may not be that fond of. But I thought I would give it a try with one with struggles in it. Yes plural; a physical confrontation, a chase and an emotional struggle. In fact the emotional one is what I want to be the main one. Don’t know if that comes over.   Writers are suppose to stretch themselves anyway. 

Have a story someone is looking over... I had hoped to send it out today to F&SF but she still has it. She sent a crit but evidently something happened to her comments she has to do them over. It’s the second round. She said the second one was significantly better and she liked it now. So if she gets it back to me tonight or tomorrow I may send i to Lightspeed first. JJA is quick enough I  can get it back by next Saturday so I can send it to F&SF. I hope John Joseph Adams thinks along the same lines she does at least enough for another personal note.

Working on Stone Within. I don’t know all that is about to happen but I feel the same way about the story-- so far-- as I do about New Mage renamed Two Struggles. My best tale. I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s just personal tastes, maybe my inner Muse knows something I don’t or maybe God is trying to tell me something. Be nice of that was true. 

But my MC just had  a fight with some fairies of the Tinkle Bell variety, she made friends with the Queen of this tribe or nest. And she discovered a new ability. I may give her one more that goes along with where her powers come from. She inherited them from generations ago.

As I said I am working on Stone Within, I stopped working on two stories. I’m not quite sure about either one. I will probably finish them some day but I don’t think they are going as I wanted them to. I may redo one of them. The other one is darker than I usually do even though I have two other dark stories.

Speaking of New Mage, I finally got over chapter two. I had to take out some more stuff from her background and I have no idea where I can put them in but at least I am going forward. I added to a fight scene and split up the chapter. So now instead of ten there are eleven. I am half way to three fourths of the way through revising chapter three. It’s going quick. I hope the others will too... I am tired of seeing others sending in queries or getting something published or E-publishing something on their own. I have five novels finished I need to get at least one out one way or another. I started the revision of chapter four today. Only eight more chapters to go--including four--unless of course I add enough to add another chapter. 

  

Found it

I found the letter to the Editor, I was half right. it was under a different title but one I should have figured out if I saw it which meant I skimmed right past it when I looked for it.

Anyway here it is, remember heavy duty political comment here:

Some say Obamacare is constitutional because it’s needed for those who aren’t insured so they can get medical help. That is not what makes a law constitutional. It doesn’t matter if it helps or hurts when it comes to the Constitution. 

     The Constitution does two things, foremost it restricts government to only a few powers. Second it frees the individual. Obamacare does the opposite of both of these. It doesn’t matter when the point of sell is or that it is needed to save money, what it boils down to is that it forces the individual to make a contract with a private company and changes the way the individual relates to the government. If this is ruled constitutional, the government will be able to use the same excuses and reasoning to force us to buy certain cars, join a gym, maybe even buy a cell phone to call 911 and a number of other commerce activities.

     A short word on Obamacare; yes people need help but we don’t need a monstrosity of a bill that gives many new powers directly to the Security of health and indirectly to the President to get medical help to those who need it. 

Now the extra stuff I wrote out-- parts are repeats from the Letter:

At first I thought the Founders and writers of the Constitution made a bad mistake, even with all their hard thought out freedoms and restrictions on government they left out something important. But then again they probably never thought of the idea that someone would control us by using the commerce clause to force us into commerce. But as I thought more I realized they may have covered it as one of the many ways someone would use the power of government to control us. They said that the only power the government has is what is listed in the constitution. And forcing us into a contract with a private company is not listed. 

Of course liberals like to add things to the Constitution that they find hidden: the right to privacy, the separation of State and Church and now this, are a few examples. We know what the Writers meant by the different phrases in the constitution because we have their writings on the subject. Even though there is one letter that says Separation of Church and State we also know what the context of the one letter was. There is nothing in the Federalist Papers that quotes that. And we can see by their own speeches--some of which could have been sermons--by their actions and the very first Thanksgiving what they meant. And I doubt that there is anything that would hint that the Federal government could command us to take part in commerce even if it was for our own good or would save everyone money--I don’t believe it really would but that’s another matter. 

Lastly there is the purpose of the Constitution, to list our rights, to restrict the government and to make us free. Forcing us into a contract does the opposite of all of those, even if it is the only way to help those without insurance. It isn’t, there are many ways to get health care to people. Notice I said health care not health insurance.

Yes, those on the other side like to give a couple of cases as examples of the Government using the commerce clause. But what contract was the pot farm lady forced into? With Social Security and Medicare etc. we pay the government not a private company. But in either case just because the government gets away with an action does not make it constitutional. 

Not so political

For newcomers. This blog was original going to include a lot of stuff besides writing- thus the name Musings- but it mophed into a writing blog. However I still put in a political post now and then, like I do with religious and/or music posts and/or Real Life posts. And I try to warn if it's not writing.



I sent in a Letter to the editor to my local paper but they didn't print it so I will be posting it along with another comment I wrote. The letters can only be 200 words even though I believe that is not concrete so the letter might sound a bit compressed and/or like something is missing even though it all makes sense.

I will be posting when I find it, that is. Hopefully I didn't delete it. I could have placed it in a different folder than I thought I was putting it in or I titled it something strange and can't remember what. I've done that before. So when I find it I will post it or if I can't I will go with just the second comment I wrote. I could have waited for this post but I wanted to get the first part of it up.

Happy Easter-- Resurrection Day

I'm bit late with this but I wanted to get a link to a couple of sermons at my church. Took me longer than it should have to do the search.

Anyway here is one Guest speaker  He mentions almost as a side point to his main topic that we are saved by grace not works even though other religions do have their people "working".


Today's sermon isn't up on the web site yet. So I'll link it when it appears.

"Terminal Descent of the Starship Allegiance" Star Trek

 I believe I have mentioned that I have the Star Trek Ships Of The Line Calendar this is a link to a picture from it-- April's 




 Ship here




Interesting and colorful picture of a Star Ship losing to a Borg Cube. I don't
know if this battle was ever mentioned in a book or movie or TV show but great detail.


And it wasn't a completely one sided battle. The cube has at least three chunks
missing and is one fire in at least one place.