Writing Update 24 Jan 2014

I have two stories vying for attention at the moment to be in the next book, which I tentatively plan to call At The Turn Of Midnight.

The Forbidden Knowledge story keeps popping into my head for some reason.  Maybe I should take that as a sign.  The latest way it popped into my head was via the main character’s name:  Nathaniel Scribner, which seems to fit a librarian character from the mid-1800s in my mind for some reason.  Maybe this weekend I’ll see if this story is serious about wanting to be written, or if it’s just taunting me with trying to stay in my mind for some reason.

Of course, at the same time, the untitled zombie story keeps popping into my mind, though not as intrusively as Forbidden Knowledge.  It doesn’t want to be forgotten either (as I wrote at the end of Vivarium), but definitely has spoken to me about changing its format from simply a “first person zombie story” to something more.

I also plan to sit and edit some.  My method for self-editing takes two forms.  First, I read each sentence one at a time in reverse order (since I’m already familiar with the story, this is the best way to see if each sentence works alone).  Then, I’ll just read through and make sure that no story/plot/character flaws stand out to me.

I need to set a deadline for editing and cover art for Dark Stories For A Restless Night so that I’m at least forced into trying to meet it.  I’ll have to ponder just when that might need to be.  I imagine it’ll take at least a good month or two to get both done.  And maybe a month after that to get everything set to pull the trigger on publishing.  Which means I should probably pick a date about three months before I plan to publish.  Whenever that is.  Maybe right at the start of summer for the available online dates?  Feedback would be appreciated.

I’m toying with the idea of using an actual photo for the cover art, or a “sketch” of the photo.  I’ve found some decent photo to sketch sites.  This one does just grayscale:  http://www.dumpr.net/sketch.php, while this one does color sketches:  http://www134.lunapic.com/editor/?action=color-sketch.  I think our concept is going to be a table set up for a garage sale or antique  store with items related to each story on it.  This stems from the story Mary’s Painting in the book where she buys a painting from an antique store that leads to the story line.  I’m not sure what item would be there from each story yet, but I like the idea.  I just don’t know which might prove to be better - a sketch of “live” photo.   

There are eight stories in Dark Stories For A Restless Night.  Some stories lend themselves easily to what the item or items on the table could be, while others aren’t so easily.  Here’s a listing of the stories included in the book:

Mary's Painting - A woman buys more than she expects when she purchases a painting on a whim

Sins of the Father - A priest defends the mission he presides over

The Fall - A young boy awakens after a bad accident while playing

Darkness - A group sets out on a rescue mission in the Mexican jungles and finds themselves at peril

Cat's Eye View - Find out why cats behave the way they do

The Viewing - Witness the last days of life on a distant planet

The Journey - A man travels exestentially through the cosmos

Un-Separation - A man's unhappy and unexpected reunion with his wife

That’s all the news directly related to my writing projects.  There has been some that affects my ability to write.  This past week saw me lose my laptop.  It also saw me figure out a way to salvage a laptop from two unusable laptops.  I took the hard drive from my most recent laptop that won’t even power up any more and put it in the older laptop that wouldn’t boot up completely and system restore couldn’t fix.  I was able to get system restore to reset the newer hard drive’s software to work in the new laptop, but also had to reinstall any software that I use regularly like Microsoft Office.  Fortunately, I still had one more install available for my last Office purchase.

That is all of the writing related news.  For those of you that are interested in other stuff, feel free to read on.

In the past few weeks, everyone in the house has gotten sick in some way or another.  Gabe and Candice have both gotten strep.  Grandma has some mystery illness but hasn’t gone to the doctor about it yet.  Donna and Megi got a stomach bug that saw them both throwing up.  Poor Megi was throwing up for the first time and was terrified.  And I had an intestinal bug the other night.  I’m hoping that the girls and I don’t catch the strep that is making its way through our family.

That’s all I have for this entry.  Thanks for reading!

Vivarium

Well, yesterday, my laptop overheated.  I let it cool down and started it up again so I could shut it down properly.  After that, it wouldn't even entertain the though of turning on again.  This is very frustrating, because the budget doesn't have any room to get a new laptop or have a major repair of this one.  I have a friend who is going to look at it and let me know just how bad it is.  Hopefully, he can get it where it'll at least start again and all I'll have to pay for is a fan and give him some Guinness beer for his time and effort (assuming it's not a major job).  In the mean time, however, I have to share Candice's computer with her and find other things to do with my time.  Maybe this is a sign I should actually get to my "second job" of being an author.

Also, last night, we finally set up the vivarium we've had for nearly a year now that was just collecting dust.  Today, we went and got frogs for it.  Since they're nocturnal creatures, we decided to name them after night related gods.  We've named them Morpheus, Nyx, and Apollo.  Morpheus is the god of dreams.  Nyx is the goddess of night.  And Apollo rides across the sky in a chariot when morning arises.  They are all green tree frogs for us to get the hang of it.  At $5 each, it's not so bad if we fail with them as it would be if they were the red eye tree frogs that run about $50 each.

Eventually, we'll have the other kind (or something cooler).  We'll probably not stop there, either, but we will probably slow down on new pet acquisitions for a while, if for no other reason than the budget won't allow for it.

Candice hasn't been motivated to create lately, so hopefully the new creatures might inspire her a bit.

That, or they'll keep us up all night barking and we'll both lose all creative drive from sleep deprivation.

Here's some pictures of the froggies:

Nyx (The small one)

Morpheus (Adventurous)

Apollo (Shy)

 And the vivarium (the first two are from just before we finished setting it up):

To be honest, we haven't done a single thing towards editing or cover design in over a week and a half.  Don't worry, though, we will still have the book out this year one way or another, and it should be available in the store you get your e-books from.  I have a page or so written on the zombie story, and it is starting to morph into being told multiple different ways within the story itself.  I think there will be excerpts from several different writing sources (scientific documents, personal correspondence, news stories, etc) that when combined in the right order, will tell the basic story.  Don't worry, part of it is still indeed first person point of view from at least one of the zombies.  I'm not sure how it will all play out yet, though.  And to be sure, that's the way I prefer it.  If I know where the story will lead before I get there, I will lose interest in it and not actually write it.


Anyway, that's all I have for this blog post at this time.  Have a nice day and thanks for reading!

Coincidence, A sign, or Just Annoying?

The story I'm currently working on is a first person zombie tale.  It begins with the first death scene from Darkness, though there is no need to read Darkness before it.  It will stand alone.  the connection is just a nice tie-in between stories, where the villain from one story is also the cause of the situation in the other story.  There are a few clues in Darkness, but not reading one or the other wouldn't leave you feeling like you missed something.  (Darkness will be in my upcoming book Dark Stories For A Restless Night.)

The story doesn't have a title yet, not even a working one.  It's still in early writing phase.  For most of my stories, I have at most a vague idea of what is going to happen, if that, and I let the words for the story as they flow off my pencil.

That being said, though, I jotted down an idea back in October when Candice and I were listening to The Shining in anticipation of the new Doctor Sleep book by Stephen King.  It simply read "Not all books should be opened.  Not all knowledge should be gained."  It was inspired by a quick blurb when Jack found the scrapbook in the basement of the Overlook and something told him not to open the book because not all books should be opened.

After that, I proceeded to write a few paragraphs from that, and even got a general idea of where it might go.  I never typed it up, and came across the idea a month later, but not the start of the story that I'd written, so I started it again.  Suffice it to say, none of those ever got typed up even as a place marker to start writing the story.  In the past week, I've come across the idea again, as well as each of the handwritten pages that start the story.  It's very odd that they would keep popping in front of me at different times.

It makes me wonder if it's a sign that I should be working on that story, if it's just coincidence, or if it's just annoying.  Anyway, I've typed them up and at least saved them so that I can work on them later.  Here's the first few paragraphs, let me know what you think of the opening:


Preface

Not all books should be opened.  Not all knowledge should be gained.  I know this now, but I’d have considered those words blasphemous for a librarian to utter even a year ago.

Back then, I ravenously fed on all knowledge and reading.  I cherished any ancient text that my hungry brain could come across.  To me, there was no concept even of forbidden knowledge.

But now I know better.  Now I know that some knowledge should be forbidden.


That's the preface and likely the tag lines for the story.  I'm not sure if I'll switch over to writing more on it now, or if I'll wait, or if I'll split time between the two.

If I keep coming across "signs" to write more on the "Forbidden Knowledge" project, I might have to finally take notice that I'm meant to work on it before my first person zombie story (even though it is finally starting to come to the surface).

As for the zombie story, the preface (as I mentioned earlier) appears in a slightly different form in Darkness.  Then, when I start telling the story, it's in the form of a letter from the main character.  I'm thinking about including pictures of the scrawl along with the typed text to show just how unreadable it is, since it is being written by someone with very little control over their muscles.  What I don't know is if that is just a quick blurb of a story that'll be followed by a separate, bigger zombie story, or if it'll lead to a bigger story within the one I'm already writing.

Other projects waiting in the writing wing include my vampire story where Josef Mengele is the vampire and retells history from that aspect.  Since Josef is the main character in it, I have to find a way to make him more sympathetic, while at the same time still a horrendously horrible person from history.  I also have a werewolf story brewing in my head too, so that it appears like a big portion of the second book might be my takes on some classic horror genres.

Either way, it all seems to be coming together as long as I can keep motivated.

On a different front, here are some season and half-season premier dates we're looking forward to in the near future:

Face Off - 14 Jan 2014
Walking Dead - 9 Feb 2014
Whose Line Is It Anyway? - 21 Mar 2014

Game of Thrones - 6 Apr 2014

That's all I have for this entry.  Thanks for reading.

Has It Been Six Years Already?

Six years ago today, I went out to meet a fellow hobbyist (http://www.wheresgeorge.com/) in downtown Denver.  We'd "met" online previously on the forums, but after realizing we lived somewhat near each other, we decided to meet.

Just over six months later, we got married.  I haven't been happier in my adult life, and I also have three wonderful (though often obnoxious) kids that bring a smile to my face most days.

Here's to sixty more years!

Today, we plan to make some jam for the book fair at Gabe's school that comes up the first two weeks of February.  Candice is one of the driving forces for it, and works most of the nights it happens.  Several times throughout it, they have a bake sale to raise more funds.  This year, we plan to have jam as our contribution those nights.

I need to write more towards my next story.  I haven't really added much of anything to it since last weekend, and then I only added a couple of paragraphs.

Great News in Bundles!

Let's start with the good news!  I have a brand new niece, Loretta Melinda Bishop, born yesterday!

Also, reports are coming in that Hallie Marie White has been found alive.  Hopefully, she is also safe and unharmed.  I've updated my previous blog post about her (at the top of it, of course) to show she was found.

I removed the Goodreads code from the blog page because of two reasons, first, every time I posted a blog entry to my Facebook page, it insisted on using one of the book covers as the image for the post, and secondly because it didn't update dynamically when I finished a new book.  I didn't want to have to re-post the code every time I finished a book.  So, if you want to follow what I've been reading, friend me on Goodreads.

I've also started adding "labels" to my blog posts, and as a side project, I've been going back and adding them to past blog posts.  I don't know if they help, but I'm adding them anyway.

I've started the zombie story.  It's looking like it will shape up to a decent story, but might take a while to write.  Also, it looks like Dark Stories For A Restless Night will probably be priced at $1.99 when we finish editing and designing the cover.

Missing Child

UPDATE:  Hallie was found on 8 Jan 2014.

Yesterday my friend's 14 year old daughter took her suitcases and got into a car with an unidentified white male in his mid-20's in Florida. She left her phone at home and no one has seen or heard from her since. She is considered an endangered runaway. So here is her Missing Person's poster. If you're reading this page and you live in or have friends and family in the southern part of the United States, please share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr and anywhere else you think it might get seen. 

Hallie Marie White is 14 years old. She was last seen wearing a black and white t-shirt, blue jeans, and a black headscarf like the one in the right hand picture. She has dark blond / light brown hair, blue eyes, is 5'5'' tall and weighs approximately 160 lbs. She was last seen getting into a white 4-door Hyundai sedan with Texas plate BSF-8801 which is registered to Enterprise Rent-a-car. The police have not yet gotten the record of who rented the car. If you see this girl or that car, PLEASE call the Escambia County Sheriff's office at (850) 436-9630 or Klass Kids at (855) 733-5567 with any information! 

Recent Happenings

So, in the past few days, I've finished the draft of the last story for my book (I wrote about that in my last blog post) that will be coming out this year and started writing the next story on my mind. The next one is more of a concept still and not so much a story yet, but it'll get there. 

The other day I took down most of the outdoor Christmas lights and decorations. I hung the curtain rod in Megi's room. I fixed the sliding glass door (it wouldn't lock any more, but does now). And I re-installed Candice's Sims 3 games on her computer because it was crashing all the time. Well, it still crashes, but seems to be performing better than it was. I have to read some articles on how to fix it. Ele¢troni¢ Art$ should stop putting out crappy programs that require computer experts to "fix" your computer after you install their games. That's my opinion of the whole thing. Most other games don't seem to have issues if you have a system (well) above the minimum standard for running the program. It would be nice if a company that gave a crap about the people that bought its product would take over for them, but that'$ too much to hope for... 

Yesterday, I went to see the Sharks-Avs play with Candice.  My team has yet to win when Candice goes to the game.  :-/  But in this case, her team (and my #2 team) won, so it's all good.

Today, we plan to take down and box up more Christmas decorations rather than venture out into the single digit temperatures. The kids want to go outside and build a snowman. More power to them, especially since that's real hard to do here with the snow as dry as it is most of the time. 

 Anyway, that's all I have for this blog, thanks for reading.

Close To Completion

Today, I finished handwriting the last of the latest short story I was working on for the book coming out this year some time. It was five pages and my thumb joint jot a cramp near the end, but it was worth it. I still have to type it up and polish it up some, but it ended itself pretty well. I haven't decided yet whether to attempt to write the companion story for this story before putting out this book or have it be the first story I write for the next book. It'll probably depend on how well the writing attempt goes before I make the decision.

For now, my biggest decision will be what to title the first book of short stories. I originally had one thing in mind, then another. Now, I'm leaning towards Dark Stories For A Restless Night. I might think of something more awe-inspiring later.

For now, the book consists of the following stories (And a quick blurb about each):

Mary's Painting - A woman buys more than she expects when she purchases a painting on a whim
Sins of the Father - A priest defends the mission he presides over
The Fall - A young boy awakens after a bad accident while playing
Darkness - A group sets out on a rescue mission in the Mexican jungles and finds themselves at peril
Cat's Eye View - Find out why cats behave the way they do
The Viewing - Witness the last days of life on a distant planet
The Journey - A man travels exestentially through the cosmos
Un-Separation - A man's unhappy and unexpected reunion with his wife

That's all I have for this entry, thanks for reading.