Writing Update May 10 '14

     Well, it’s been a while since I posted an update on my writing-been thinking of of doing it for two weeks at least, so I decided I better do it now before I put it off again.

    I just started the final revision of chp 5 of the indie novel I have referenced before--as of right now it is still titled “Two Struggles” even though I still want a better title---something more dramatic that says the same thing, if I can think of one. Anyway, I am still aiming to have it all ready to place online by the last week of June. 

I believe I have mentioned I have three theme story sets I want to Indie publish too. Each set is about one certain character. One is a Urban Fantasy series around 56,000 words total. Seven or eight stories. From about 3,000 words to almost 32,000 words. The second sets is a steampunk Special Ops series. This one has a story that is just under 3,000, and one just over 21,000 words. The others are around 9,000 to 10,000. There are five stories there. The last one is an Alchemy series. It will probably come in less than 45,000 words total with 3 stories under 3,000 words two over 11,000 each and one about 4,000 words. I am still working on the last story which is already over 14,000 words and could be over 15,500 by the time I get done. I just barely started revising one set, even though certain stories have already been revised for I have sent them out. However those stories need some work for I changed names and such. I have a day off at the end of this month--which is May for anyone who might read this in the future--and I plan on just working on one of those story sets. Maybe the steampunk one. 

I am still working on Writers of the Future contest even though my last two stories were among the first ones rejected for that quarter--this might be because I may have forgotten to number the pages like they want. Last quarter the first batch of rejections went out like a month or so before the second batch etc, went out which supports my idea that it was a technical rejection not a rejection of the writing. I may send that story back in next after next quarter. I have one there now and evidently Dave Farland is reading them and has decided on some.  I have a story in mind for the next quarter. I want to send it to a certain market that sends a couple of lines of feedback and see what they say about it, then I add some more opening setting that Dave likes and maybe more personal angst and effort that WotF seem to like. I just got that story back from Fantasy and Science Fiction and it made it to their third level rejection. Not good, but it gives me hope that there is something in this story. 

I am planning to look over the lectures that both Dave Farland and Dean Wesley Smith are offering. They are not as good as workshops but a whole lot cheaper. Both also offer online workshops that you do in your time--I took one from Dean and badly want to take at least two more.    I can't find a place on his web site for online workshops and lectures but he mentioned them in a couple of Kicks. So here is a link to his Daily Kicks Right Here

For Dean's Lecture series try Here  He has a menu button for his live-coastal and online workshops

I am still working on two novels at work. In Stone Within I just turned the corner toward the conclusion but I still have a chapter, probably two, before I do that in the other one--Angel Kin. However in that one my MC has just started digging a hole that will lead down to a passageway that was partially filled in. I want to place this beginning in a previous chapter--two, maybe three, chapters earlier. So she can be digging yet also have some other adventures during the digging process.

I have also written ten or eleven very short stories about another UF hero. By short I mean 144 words in two, 500 some in two and in-between in the others. Eventually I want to do like 22 and publish them, but I think I will be--some time or another--be placing them on my blog. I kinda of would like to get some E-mail addresses and E-mail them out by one or threes depending on length. 

I have three stories that still need to be revised--I started one, but it’s a bit long and may take me a month to get though with all of the other writing I do. 

I think that is all for now--possibility that I forgot something so there could be a PS.

OH! And Yes, I do have two story sets--one fantasy and one SF at smashwords under L. E. Doggett check them out---not my best writing in some, but I think they are not bad either. They are on smashwords.com

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.

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. 

  

Stone WIthin

Been thinking about this novel more. I have the third chapter almost done... I paused so I could finish a series of short stories. More on that in a previous note.

Anyway, the story is UF even though my MC doesn't do magic. But I want her to do a couple of tricks that may seem like magic but goes along with who she is.

She can make a shield that is proof against most magics and a lot of physical objects etc.. but it uses her life force so it's very hard on her. The larger the shield the more it takes from her. She figures it could kill her if it lasts long enough but that she will probably be unconscious therefore would release the shield, before that happens

Second idea: I may give to someone else instead of her is the ability to glide. I don't mean she can take off, she has to jump or fall from a certain height. She would be able to slow her fall.

Third: She can blast people, animals etc.. again it takes her life force so she can only do it a little. And it harms certain types of beings more than others.

Fourth: she can catch a spell sent her way and send it back to the person who cast it at her. She has to be ready for it and actively concentrating on it. And it doesn't work if the spell is powerful enough. Like the ability for spells to slide off of her. Most spells would but the ability is not 100 percent. Some spells may effect her for a little while but others could kill her or worse.

As to what she is that comes up later maybe in the second book. That isn't unusual. I base this idea on two UF series. Both have MCs who are more than human because of something in their ancestry. One could be as many as fifty generations ago. The other one I'm not sure. But in both cases the MC didn't discover exactly what it was for at least a book. One was given a strong hint in the first book but it wasn't until later that she found out what the hint meant. So my MC will just have to wait to find out.

Still an update

Been going to bed a bit early still so not so much writing and criting. But I had a sudden thought about my new novel "Stone Within". Something that would change the plot a lot, shift the paradigm. At first I rejected it but kept thinking about it and planning it out. So Starting with chapter three I am introducing a ten year girl, not sure if I can think like a troubled, rejected, not sure who to trust young woman but I guess I'm going to give it a try.

Need to work on my next WotF story, need to send out some stories--got one back today, literally. They must have had a change of address. Need to go online and see if they are still in business and need to send one to F&SF this Saturday.

Want to write a letter to the editor but when I have the time, in the evening, too many other things to do. Maybe Saturday, Sunday or Monday since it's a holiday.

And I want to redo that story for Universe annex one more time. Thought the last was it but one or two people said something that may mean a change or two.

And I checked my nemesis received a First place in WotF. Wonder when she is going to come out with her first book. Wonder if I will be even close to where she is now or even close to where she was when I last new her online. Doesn't look like it if God doesn't step in. I'm still forgetting things, people are telling me basic things I should have gotten years ago, still mediocre  Just can't break through that level.