Writing update Nov 24

Okay, finally time for another writing update. Nov. 24 to be exact. 

First a word on my Indie project. Still stalled-probably stale too for that matter. The person who is suppose to be double checking it for Boulder Co stuff decided to check it for more--I may have said that last time--and now she has overtime and doesn’t have the time to work on it. (Rolls eyes heavenward) that makes the fourth or fifth person to have that problem. I may decide to cancel her work on it. And I may have changed my mind on spending the money on getting a pro cover drawn the way I want it. Dean Wesley Smith is holding an Online workshop on how to do pro covers. $300. That’s in Jan. If I can take it, it will save tons of money and maybe time, even if the cover isn’t quite what I want. Plus I can use that knowledge on the covers for my story sets. 

I have been writing a lot. One looong story at work. That one will be over 22,000 words. I haven’t done one even close to that long for a long time. Kinda of ironic with this one. It’s the sequel to a previous story. That story is just under 3,000 words. I believe I will write on more about this team of Steampunk Special Ops agents--maybe two--so I can get a word count of at least 33,000. I will then design a story set to sell all of them. I know what the third story will be about but I don’t think it will be enough to reach 33,000 words total. So one more very short story, probably between 1200 and 2200 words. 

Speaking of looong stories I am also working on another one at home. So far 17,000 words. It might reach 20,000 but I would be surprised if it ends up being 22,000 like the other one. This one is the sixth story about a certain Urban Fantasy hero I made up a while back. I changed his name twice but I think I have settled on Simon Sayz. That’s his known name and his painter name. He was born with a much longer one which he rarely uses. He’s kinda of based on Harry Dresden but with lots of changes so no one will think I copied him. And of course my own way of how “Magic” works. One difference is that he doesn’t have a car, second he went to a mage school disguised as a private high school, third is he has a girl friend already-someone who doesn’t know about his abilities. There is a Secondary world with elves, unicorns, dragons, and other fae beings but it’s not the same as never-never. Once I make sure I have seven stories--I still need a short one dealing with a guy Simon has to find and convince to be his apprentice. I introduced that character in a previous story so I would need to not let that just hang there. I have part of an idea for that one and hopefully it will be rather short. More than likely it will be the last story in the story set I plan on doing with these tales. 

  

On top of that I have one more story I started and will finish after I finish the Simon one. It too will be longer, even though maybe just over 10,000 words, and it too is part of a series. I think story six of seven but maybe story five. 

The Friday after Thanksgiving I will be home--maybe most of Thursday too. I hope to get another story set ready for E-publishing.  A series of short quirky tales. I also want to get one story ready to send out--maybe two. And of course write, maybe get a long way into my Q1 WotF story--due the last day of Dec. 

Speaking of that I am also working on that one. It’s one I hand wrote out at work on five by three notepaper pages. I have around 3500 words on it already, while translating it to computer I am changing things and even redoing some of the order of the scenes. I figure I’m maybe one fourth to one third done. 

Not doing good at sending out stories, I just keep forgetting or putting it off to write. Part  of that might be that I am getting tried of complete rejections. I say complete because, as I have mentioned before, some markets have more than one form rejection. F&SF does and Lightspeed does also. They may use pretty much the same forms. Beneath Ceaseless Skies usually gives one to three sentences of personal comments explaining why it was rejected--very rare--sometimes they say something encouraging...I hear. It’s the same with another market but I’m not sure which one that one is at the moment.  WotF gives out Honorable Mentions--Sliver HMs even though Dave Farland doesn’t seem to do them--Semi-finalists, Finalists and winners. So far Dave hasn’t though much of my writing even though I am doing better than the last Executive editor they had. 

Speaking of online Workshops--I was just a few minutes ago. There is another of Dean’s workshops I would love to take in Jan. Dealing with “Character Voice and Setting” . I think I am doing good with setting but I know I could use some help with character voice. I will have the money for one but I may have to convince my wife I have it for the second one too. If they are still both open by the time I do that.

By the time I get done with these three or so stories I am doing I may have like five or six story sets to Indie publish. Three will be stories in a series. 

Oh another thing I want to do with my time off is set up two of those story sets. I mean count the stories to make sure there are seven and decided which stories go where. I will still have to check for typos, misspellings, bad commas etc and revise two to four stories but at least I know what other tales I may need to write. Oh and redo parts of my Simon Sayz tales. For one I changed how the “magic” worked, for second, as I stated, I changed his name. I think there was something else that needed updating but can’t think of it right now. In either case I am getting anxious about getting those stories out there. 

My wife may have me doing things like decorating for Christmas and some shopping so we will see how much of all that I want to do, I will actually get done. 

Well, that’s it for now...unless I can remember what else I wanted to say. I believe last time there was a PS and there could be one or two PS-s again.

Casting Crowns Part Two

I should have thought of this when I did the original post on Casting Crowns but I guy I communicate with on Google + posted a link to a video of a band he loves and it hit me. I could do the same for Casting Crowns. I have a link to a web site that shows CCM videos so I figured it would be easy. They didn't have any CC videos WHAT?  However two steps later and I found this list.

So here are some of their song videos on YouTube on a page that looks to be sponsored by three groups. But there is an ad in the beginning of many of the videos or an ad on the bottom of the screen so you will have to watch them first.

Here is one of their latest:

Already There


One of the first ones that got me hooked on the group.

East To West

Praise You in This Storm

And the first song of theirs that caught my attention

Lifesong

And even though I had original thought four songs were enough I decided this next next one is powerful enough to be listed here.

Just Another Birthday

Review Devon Monk's Dead Iron.

An apology here for those who have read this already...I evidently used terms such as "his" in this review,  Devon is a she.  Surprised no one took me to task over that. And I used the word "word" when I wanted world. Hopefully I caught all of the mis-pronouns .

I hadn’t planned on doing this so soon but I did a shorter version of this review on a writer’s forum I belonged to and had a couple of extra minute so here it is:

I have been reading a book in a semi new series. "Dead Iron" by Devon Monk. Oh boy he is some writer. First of her's I have read even though he has out a few.

This series--with three now--is hmm, well I'm not sure. They call it steampunk but is it? It is but it's more than that. I want to say an extreme version of Steampunk but that's not quite right either, it's like steampunk took a sudden left turn. More like Gearpunk? That's not quiet right either. Hmmm, SteamgearStrangepunk? Yes, strange has a capitol letter. You have to read the book to get the significance of that. 

It's set in Western times, about the time they built the railroad. It has what are probably elves and dwarves but they are not called that. The short, wide men dig tunnels and stone talks to them. 

Not sure how to talk more about without giving away major plot points but I think it’s worth the read. I will say that the Strange are dark beings who want bodies--any type but especially human. I believe that even the good guy’s from the other Realm are called Strange but they are different.  

However I will say one things--well two things. One is that a part of the ending is strongly hinted at. I won’t be the only one to figure it out. At the same time there are surprises and one or two times someone different than expected shows up to help.  

The second item I will mention is a tiny spoiler. It has little to do with the plot. What a warwagon where in you know what did that come from?? There is no warning, it just kind appears to hold off one set of good guys. What is Devon a fan of John Wayne, Kirk Douglas and/or directer Burt Kennedy? For those who don’t know it’s an old Western.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_Wagon

There's danger, a curse by a god, guys that turn into wolves, Magic, a witch, adventure and great writing. It's action packed with little time to catch your breath. There is some but as I said little. The world Devon invented has characteristics of UF and Western fantasies but he adds some twists so it’s not the same old. Monk is another one to model writing after, he knows how to do action scenes. It forced me to read past my allotted time. 

That's it for me for this one. 

Oct 18 Update PS

Warned you'll/

   One thing I forgot to mention, I have changed a few things about my Hero in the UF series of short stories I have referenced. Things like his name. He is still an artist but now his painter name is Simon Sayz, I haven’t quite decided on a mage name, but it will be close. Neither name is his birth name. He has four and I am trying to think of a name that is close to Simon. Probably a Spanish name since his mother was Hispanic. Speaking of that I haven’t quite decided if his parents are still alive. I think I had them dead in the first story but I’m not sure. Maybe alive but completely out of the picture. 

A couple of his friends while growing up have been changed,  

And what I call things will be changed, it is no longer “spell”. And the world with the fae and mythological creatures is called the Secondary world. It is in the same place as the First world but different from it in many ways. 

All that means I need to go back and change names and add a sentence or two when I redo the stories to get them ready to place in a story set for e-publishing. I can do that. 

And I want to use two real life settings that Laura Resnick’ used in her Esther Diamond series but I will have to find them myself to see if they really are real.  :)  And if you have not read them DO it!  Great stuff, a bit on the lighthearted side with at least a dash of romance in them. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/laura-resnick?store=allproducts&keyword=laura+resnick

As to the hard SF flash I referenced in the main update post: for a few seconds I considered trying to expand it enough to send it to WotF. I would need to add at least two thousand words to it. David like longer stories because you can put in more stuff he likes but shorter stories can make it. So I would need to add another try-fail cycle maybe two more, some emotional angst, more setting, more of an explanation of what happened. But I decided it wasn’t worth the effort. 

Oh, yes the original 450 word story was inspired by a pic on the Speculative writers community of Google+. If you join G+ and the community you might be able to see the pic. Just look for my profile and you will find all my posts.  

And that story I think is so good, that gets complete rejections, has been sent to Intergalactic Medicine Show or IGMS. I don’t know if they have different levels of rejections like F&SF but hopefully I can get a personal comment on it. Love to send it to John Joseph Adams formally or F&SF now of LIghtspeed and various anthologies, but it’s too long for Lightspeed I believe. I will double check to make sure but I really believe it’s too long. If if happened to be two or three hundred words over I probably would cut out some of it but I’ll be surprised if even that is the case. 

One more thing on Indie publishing. I have a story set of eleven quirky or odd stories but I’ve been too busy to get them ready. I keep forgetting about it. Wouldn’t take long once I got going with it.   

So that’s it for this rather long PS but there could be another...Yikes. 

Oct 18 update-WotF, ethnics, short stories.

 Okay, time for another writing update. This one has a very short Indie update:

I’m still stuck on my video for Kickstarter. I experimented and found I will have problems focusing with just me doing it. Plus finding a good level for the camera to be set at. I asked three different places for suggestions but so far no responses.

Now to writing. My last WotF story failed, completely. I really thought this one had better writing and could get a HM but nothing. It’s out at Fantasy and Science Fiction. They seem to be taking longer these days...that’s not saying much though. At one to three days longer they are still have about the fastest response around. Lightspeed is faster by far as in it takes JJA one to three days, there’s another one--I forget who at the moment--that is also quick but F&SF is faster than even most cyber magazines. Anyway, I even more think of this story as my best so far--especially in writing but the story is good too--I hope for a personal comment at least but...

I have problems trying to remember to send out stories, I usually send a bunch out on a Saturday and/or Sunday. Most of them being over the internet these days. I think I will try one a day and see if that works better. 

I am working on three stories at the moment: a steampunk Special Ops team form the POV of the Lieutenant in charge-it’s the second in a series, a UF story--the latest in a series abut a male mage--most of mine lately have been female mages, and the latest in my Urban Alchemist series. This last one has six or seven stories in it. Most are short and what I call simple stories. No world saving, not even any person saving. One story my hero Samuel has to find the clothes of a group of people. The clothes, including purses etc, just vanished. And the people are locked out of their homes. It does take Samuel three tries to get the clothes back but is in danger, he learns something in the precess. Another story deals with a Gnome plague someone has.  This last one is a combo. I seem to be doing a bunch of Gnome stories. That was the third one. I may do another one soon. 

I did a hard SF flash. It’s at least close to hard SF anyway. I sent that one to F&SF today. I originally wrote it as 460 or so word story but I expanded on it, delated some stuff, changed some details, added details etc, and now it’s around 720 words. I may try to add enough to send it to Futures, which wants hard SF stories from 750 to 850. 

The story I have now at WotF is still good writing--for me and a good story--I think. It may also have the novelty that David Farland wants. I use characters that aren’t so novel but I put a twist to the plot. I hope. 

Trying to decide on which story to do for the next quarter at WOTF. I have one story there now but it won’t be judged for at least another month. I think I will do one story I have hand written out. I didn’t do it on purpose but it came out the type of story they like. So with a little modifying here and there I think it will fit better. The writing is another problem though. But I still have another type of story I thought of two quarters ago. I know pretty much the whole plot. Never wrote it out though, very recently I came up with the opening. Maybe I do it the next quarter but start it sooner. The one I hand wrote might be different enough too plus it does have try and fail cycles like David wants, plus using the five human senses for setting and other things. We shall see how he likes this one. Finally got back the rejection before I could post this....He doesn’t-of course. So as I have said before only one pro editor likes  my writing and he’s not taking any stories at the moment.

I am tempted to work on NaNoWriMo this year, more on that here. But they want you to do a 50,000 word novel during the month of Nov. Fifty thousand is rather short for a novel but it’s a good range for a month. I have done it four times. This time I want to do the version where you can do short stories as long as they relate and are a total of 50,000. I have a couple of ideas on that but I have also thought about rewriting-as from scratch-a couple of novels I started but never finished. That was years ago and I’ve learned so much about writing since I would have to change so much it would be easier to just start over. One is Space Opera, one is UF actually set in the same world as the one I am trying to get Indie published, and a third is epic fantasy-I think. But I am also tempted not to do it. A whole lot of rushing around doing just that story plus a tiny bit on other stuff. I need to start my next WotF story and revise a couple of short stories plus work on getting that novel ready to go. 

And speaking of ethnic MCs--not that anyone was at the moment--but I have decided that one of my next MCs in UF will be half Arabic and half Mexican. I mean as in from Mexico. Or I may make the UF guy I am doing now that fusion. I have a story with a black MC and one with a half fairy and half Armenian. The number two book for Two Struggles will have a black mage and hispanic plus one in a wheelchair. Actually I have already introduced the hispanic one but he will be around more in the second. Even though I dislike Political Correctness very much--too demanding and dictatorial no matter how it started--using different ethnics, females, and even people with disabilities goes beyond PCness in my viewpoint. Nothing wrong with it--of course being forced, one way or another to do it is Totally and Way wrong. 

That’s it for this time unless I remember something I forgot, I haven’t had a PS for a while but it’s still possible.  

Some of My Favorite Music-Casting Crowns

This is contrary to my last post but it also has been on my mind for a while I decided I had time to do both today.

  A change of subject from my very serious venting last time.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a post on music but I was listening to this album a month ago and decided I wanted to say something about it, I finally am.  

Casting Crowns is what I call my favorite still together group. My all time favorite is Petra but they broke up years ago. CC is obviously still together. I discovered them years ago when they came out with “Lifesong” even though when it played on the radio I never heard it was them. I thought it was by the group Lifesong. The first song I really caught on was from them is “East To West”. Lifesong came out in ’05 and East To West in ’07. 

Petra was Rock, no mistake about it but I’m not sure of Casting Crowns. Rock-Pop maybe. They do some that have large Rock flavor to it but they also do a few that have a Country flavor. 

The album Is “Come To The Well” by Casting Crowns. It’s their eighth I think. Maybe tenth if you count a couple of Live albums from previous releases. It came out in ’11 but I haven’t listened to the whole thing very often. I have certain songs from it on my iTunes which I listen to a bunch. 

Mark Hall the lead singer gas dyslexia but it hasn’t stopped him from becoming a Youth Paster and Lead singer for for the award winning Casting Crowns. I heard an interview with him where he talked about it. Yes he does makes mistakes in the songs on stage but he doesn’t seem to let it bother him. The band just keeps playing and most probably the audience doesn’t notice or if they do it’s no big deal. 

Anyway “Come to the Well” is a great album.  “Courageous” was used in a movie by the same name. 

My favorite songs from the album are: “Jesus, Friend Of Sinners”, “Already There”, “My Own Worse Enemy”. “The Well” is good too.  Actually, all the songs are good. Very well done too. All of the voices are excellent. “Just Another Birthday” is a powerful song about a daughter who wants something from her dad who is no longer in her life. The signing is very well done and the whole story is as I said powerful. There is a story behind it but I haven’t had the chance to hear it, even though it is on their web site. On the Video updates page.  I also like “Praise You In The Storm” Very Good. “Voice of Truth” “Until The Whole World Hears” Excellent video on that one. “Who I am” and “Glorious Day” also. There are others but that gives you an idea of how many of their songs I love and there are some I like too. 

Speaking of which here is their web site: Casting Crowns They have a lot of interesting pages. Including videos of the members talking and a online community you can join. And some Bible teaching by Mark. 

Here is their page in the iTunes store Here   and for  "Come To The Well"

World Affairs Venting

Just want to do a little venting here: I apologize for this has nothing to do with writing, music or anything else I usually post about.  But the first part of this has been on my mind for months. 

This was brought by the attack on the Mall in Kenya. But I’ve felt the same way the various Idiots who have attacked schools, Navy bases, movie theaters etc. here. They are a bunch of idiots whose names should be changed to Mr. Zero. I really don’t care why they became idiots even though if we could keep a better eye on some of them in the US we might be able to stop them. Not all because not all of the attacks were done by people with mental problems. But we could better than taking away guns from honest citizens. Some of those guys had bombs and there have been those who used knives. 

Anyway back to the Kenya idiots: they seem to think they are special killing innocent people for a cause but those types of bad guys(Swine? Dogs?) have been around since Adam and Eve’s children. This group is just another in a long line of such types who rationalize killing innocents in the name of religion, politics, or just because. There’s nothing special about this new group--just a bunch of people who wanted an excuse to kill. Nothing more. 

The Overly extreme Islamists--please notice I said “Overly extreme” not all--seem to be worse than usual but they are doing the same thing Communists, Nazis, other religions, IRA and many other groups throughout history. Again I say just a bunch of people who rationalize killing innocents. Nothing More. They allowed themselves to be blinded into becoming Idiots, dogs and swine. Part of me kinda of feels sorry for them because in most cases they have been lied to in one form or another. That goes double for all of the Overly extreme Islamists. But it is still their choice to believe the lie and it’s their choice to go as far over the cliff as they have. 

As long as the choice to do things like this they will be Idiots, Dogs and Swine. Not deserving of respect or rewards. To kill unarmed innocent people does not make them heroes or worthy of honor...they dishonor their religion.  No wonder they need to force people to follow their teachings--remember I am still talking about Overly extreme Islamists not every Muslim. 

So that’s it I finally said a couple of things I’ve wanted to say for months. 

Indie-Writing update Sept 15 PS

I do have a PS already completely forget this. 

There is one type of story I have been wanting to write. An epic fantasy as in Lord of the Rings. I’ve had one idea floating around in my head for a couple of years involving dragons waking up and the MC having to learn how to control them or beat them but I don’t know it doesn’t seem to be right even though I have the opening scene in my head.

However something reminded me of a story I started probably at least ten years ago. I would have to start over since it is on a Floppy disk--an original one. For those who don’t know the original home computers had what was known as a floppy disk. A disk about five to seven inches wide(I forget for sure), very thin and it flopped around if you held an edge. Soon after they shrunk them to about two to three inches wide and placed them in plastic holders. Google them and the punch cards-yes you punched holes in them-and reel to reel tapes they used before that. 

Anyway, No way for me to excess the floppy now. Well, maybe of I looked hard enough someone could get to the data on it but it’s not worth the hassle. I’ve learned so much that I need to rewrite everything anyway and I recall some of the scenes. Back then I didn’t know there were rules or guidelines or how to write models. I just wrote what I wanted. 

I think this story will be a novella or novelette depending on length. It will be way over 10,000 but could very well be significantly over 20,000 especially when I add things like the five human senses and more detail. Not sure when I will but it is an epic fantasy and I will enjoy doing it whenever that time is.

Indie and Writing update Sept 15

First an Indie update.  I now have two stories sets up with Premiere catalogue at Smashwords which means they are available at other sites too. Such as Amazon, and Barnes and Noble. Still no sales yet though. I figured there would not be a lot for these but still expecting a couple or a few maybe.

I am working on a Odd story set, Because most are short--less than 2,00 words--I’m doing eleven stories with that set. Next I will do a Urban fantasy set--that one will be significantly longer since most of my UF stories are over 5,000 words. So a seven story set could be 37,000 to 50,000 words long. 

Still need to find the time to experiment with a video for kickstarter, unless I can find someone to do one for me cheap--as in less than fifty dollars.

-----------------------

Sent in my Q4 story for WotF. It is........... :)    

Seriously:

It is my second story for Q4. The first one didn’t see to work right. Most readers didn’t get what it was about and there were other problems so I switched stories. It's one of my favorite stories but not sure about the writing. While someone made a comment during the critting I realized I had two info dumps one right after the other. Maybe even 2.5. I moved things around a bit, redid some sentences-it was also pointed out that in four places I had an extra word left over from previous sentences. Yikes, I don't think I've had that many for quite a while. 

Something else was pointed out but I left it in so we shall see if Dave gets very far with it. After all the work and the fact that I like the storyline I hope it gets at least a HM. A Semi-finalist with a critique would be great too. My next one is still up in the air. I wanted to rewrite a story form five years ago but I have done a couple since I decided to do the rewrite that I like. One isn’t quite done but could work.

Quarter 3 hasn’t been judged yet. David Farland still seems to be reading stories so it could be another three to five weeks or as has happened before he could surprise us and it be next week we hear. I still think my Q3 story is some of my best writing--which may not be saying much though. I hope it gets a HM at least.

Been busy writing. Wrote a rather long story at work...on note paper. Something like fifty plus pages. Wrote a much shorter one on the same type of notepaper too. Only about ten pages. I may have mentioned it here but for my fantasy story set I wrote a new story of less than 1,000 words for a bonus story. This one on the notepaper is a sequel to that story. I may save it for the next fantasy story set. I didn’t set out to do a sequel but I thought about using the same type of opening and it just ended up being the same city therefore it had the same minor character. 

I wrote a new story, the fifth-in a UF series. I keeping sending the stories out but by the time I write number seven I may go ahead and E-publish them in a set, unless one sells. I am doing number six in another series which will end up the same. 

I need to start rereading my grammar books again with an emphasis on commas. I’ve read-reread and reread-three books and two online sites about commas and I still don’t get them right. 

I’m on a couple of writing communities on Google+. One has a lady who places a picture every week for anyone to write a flash story from. Last week or the week starting with Sept 8 if you are reading this later, the pic was of a girl about five who was holding the hand of a woman. They were both walking away but the girl is looking over her shoulder. The girl has fairy wings on her back. It’s a photograph not a drawing. There are trees around so it could be a forest or park. I would link to it but I think you would have to be a member of G+ if not also that community to see it. 

Anyway, my muse most have liked the picture. I came up with at least three ideas. I wrote down two. A 257 word tale and a 203 word story. I may pst them on my blog some time. 

I have not worked on any novels in the last few weeks because I have been working on the WotF stories, some short stories that wanted done now plus some odd and ends.

I need to send out more stories. I have five maybe six out, that’s nothing compared to what I usually do. Or have done, I’ve gotten out of the habit of sending out stories the last two years or so--I think I have mentioned that on pervious posts--with the exception of WotF and Fantasy and Science Fiction. I sent out three last week but one came back already. I forgot they only take stories for the first six months. Oops, I usually remember that.

I will probably be doing some more for Penumbra.  They do themed editions, The ones for next year sound very interesting. You can find the list here. Penumbra

That’s it for now. I haven’t done any for a few posts but there could be a PS for this post. There has been for previous posts. 

Oh, one PS already. I kinda of hate to use it because the deaths and destruction but the rain in Colorado made my muse sit up and take notice. The MC in the novel I am trying to Indieize lives in Boulder. I can see her in the rain, hair messed up--she has short hair so it’s not in her face-her clothes are soaked, she has to fight a demon--or some such while trying to keep her feet and not get blown down. Her friends are working on saving people but their power doesn’t stop something natural that big. They can only work on helping a couple people at a time.  Of course by the time I do another book and get that far the flooding will be over a year in the past. But still...

Dave Farland's son charity and contest

Didn't plan to post another post so soon but here:


Check It Out

For those who aren't on hatrack or the WotF forum the executive editor (Or what his title might be, for some strange reason I keep forgetting) David Farland's son was in a Bad accident a while back. No insurance so various people and groups are working on raising money for him. This is one way and it's a good way.

A writing contest. Fee isn't that much and the Farlands get half. It's one of the very few pay contests I will enter.

But if you want to try hurry deadline's the Sept 9.

Among other types of story telling, Urban fantasy is good.


A PS You can enter more than once if I understand the rules correctly. I think I can enter three to five stories.

Indie and Aug 24 Writing Update

Warning!!!

This double update is rather long:

       First the indie update.

I decided to do Kickstarter as I believe I mentioned last note. I will need a thousand dollars to have my novel copy edited and the cover done. Maybe 1,100 to have some bookmarks made. The only thing keeping me off of Kickstarter is the video one needs to do it properly. I need to find the time to do one. I have thought out what I want to say. I would like to show a picture of the cover but I would have to spend 520 of my money to do that. I would be surprised if Kickstarter or those who would decide to help me, would appreciate me paying myself back with the kickstarter money. If I could find some of the Strange New Worlds Ten-s I still have I could show one and offer a couple as gifts on a certain price range. But they might be hidden in a closet, under heavy stuff. 

   I took a picture that might work as the fantasy set story cover so I need to work on that. I may add two stories to that batch. I noticed on CreateSpace the lowest amount of stories is around seven not including Dean Wesley Smith’s stories and story sets. I may think on that for another week. I have other things to do so I probably would be waiting anyway. 

   I will be waiting on the marriage set. I want to send one new story to at least one market first and that won’t get back to me for a couple of months. I may make it two markets but have to decide on the other one. I have one picture I can use for the cover of a heart but I would like a couple of more I could mix together on a cover. 

  

   Writing Update:

    Written a bunch of stories since my last update, the current one I am sending to Q4 of WotF has been given a prophecy of Doom by one critter. Not for the writing but for the content of the opening. A bit too controversial evidently. I won’t go into more detail but there has been an ongoing emotional debate at a certain large writer’s group. To be PC or not to be. Evidently David Farland is on the PC side. Other well known writers are on the non-PC side. They reacted rather angrily to a statement made by the PC side. Another writer did also on his blog. All three over reacted especially the guy on his blog but at the same time I can understand why. Personally I think if you start worrying about offending some people, that is all you will be doing because someone or group will be offended no matter what you do. I have to admit I do that I do sometimes change something so as to not to offend or to be PC but I try to restrict myself.  In other words there are limits for me. 

Sorry not to name names and to be vague but it’s suppose to be smart to do that while talking about a WotF story. They can be strict about the judges not knowing who you are. 

   I entered a story for a gaslight fantasy themed issue of Penumbra. Nice little story--just barely under 3,500 words. I decided I will be writing more with that MC. Gaslight is sort of like steampunk but with at least a touch of horror evidently. Or so I hope. When they reject it I will send it to Beneath Ceaseless Skies. They like steampunk. 

Oh, I seem to have broken away from Urban Fantasy even though I am working on a Western Fantasy. It’s is a longer story-would not be surprise if it’s over 10,000 words by the time I get it done. It’s almost done. I am hand writing it at work which at 125 to 460 words per day is slow going. And when I get done I will need to type it out. Which is why I hate writing things out by hand but sometimes it’s just too hot for my laptop--or so I think but I might be too paranoid about that. 

Today I was reminded of two very short general fiction stories I wrote quite a while back. This paragraph is here not in the Indie update because it’s more about writing.  I may have to rewrite them for I think I lost them. One is about someone losing his Bling--suppose to be lighthearted and another dealing with a guy with a unique way to celebrate. I probably will try to make a story set of them. But there’s only two. One more gen fic story but I haven’t finished it for it’s sad. But still three stories isn’t enough for a set. I may do a mix of very short stories. Three gen fics--one from the marriage set--a western and some SF and Fantasy. Maybe I can write a couple of more Gen fics and one more western. Some people like a variety. 

I’m doing four crits--one in a row--for Q4 of WotF. After one and a half and reading one of the stories I say not David will have a variety to choose from. And good writing. Maybe a batch of melancholy tales also, at least a few. Don’t know if that last is good-bad-or in-between but I’ve noticed that some editors like less than happy endings. Part of that might be because they get few well done ones. So it’s a nice surprise when they do.  

I’ve done a guest post for the first time that is here.  And in the next two weeks I will be doing another one. The first one deals with Indie publishing and the second will be advice on writing. 

I think this is it for this update. As usual if I recall something that I wanted to say but forgot there will be a PS.