Roadtrip

I am headed out soon for a roadtrip so writing and blogging might be thin through Sunday.

I am going to the annual NRA convention!

I am hoping that the people watching and the floor of the convention will inspire.

Guns play a big part of my book.

I will be taking my computer along on this trip but I am not sure I will get any work don on my book.

--I will likely get reading done!

Boston Marathon

The Boston Marathon is today. Security is jacked WAY up this year after what happened last year.

I remember this event in detail. The aftermath especially. The media getting everything wrong. The over reach of the police. Illegal search and seizures. Military style reaction to find one kid.

They still try to gloss over the over reaction. Basically rolling tanks.

It was also the depth of the surveillance that was in place all the time that led them to the culprits.

All of this was while I was in my early chapters of this novel. As I work the second draft I can see it in there.

--The Lesson: We need more Andy Griffith and Less SWAT.

Quotes of the Week

 Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.
- Mark Twain

I am never going to have anything more to do with politics or politicians. When this war is over I shall confine myself entirely to writing and painting.
- Winston Churchill

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
- Henry David Thoreau

If you have other things in your life—family, friends, good productive day work—these can interact with your writing and the sum will be all the richer.
- David Brin

My own experience is that once a story has been written, one has to cross out the beginning and the end. It is there that we authors do most of our lying.
- Anton Chekhov

I have been successful probably because I have always realized that I knew nothing about writing and have merely tried to tell an interesting story entertainingly.
- Edgar Rice Burroughs

First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him!
- Ray Bradbury

Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.
- Willa Cather

I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.
- Douglas Adams

Words are a lens to focus one’s mind.
- Ayn Rand

Weekend Open

Last night, as I was editing my novel, I hit the first chapter that just had a single sentence, as a place holder.

As luck would have it, I have no plans this weekend. Well, my Friday plans include Yoga and hot tub.

This means that I will be able to get up on Saturday morning, make coffee, and then write that chapter while my wife sleeps or goes to yard sales. I will do a bit of project work in the house. I might even light the firepit in the evening a sip some fine single malt scotch!

Sunday will be Easter. No church for me this year. My daughter will be home from college for a night to have dinner!

--Fingers crossed. Hope to get a lot of work done.

Photos to Help Writing

Like most people I have a "Smart Phone". I don't really use it all that much but the piece I like and do use the most is the camera. It has an 8 megapixel camera that can also take panoramic photos. These are great for reference materials so you can get a setting right.

When your book is finally a best seller and they start offering tours of the settings you describe, you will have gotten it right.

World War II Memorial

My wife Brenda and I took Monday off to go see the cherry blossoms and tour the National Art Museum. We also stopped by the World War II Memorial.

--Take photos. Use them as a tool.

Books: Amped

I just finished reading the book, Amped by Daniel H. Wilson.

I really enjoyed the book Robopocalypse that Wilson also wrote. When I say Amped at the library I had to pick it up.

It was a fun, easy, fast read. It is one of those books that reads fast and feels like a movie in your head.

--Good stuff. I recommend it!

Quotes of the Week

Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.
--Mark Twain

Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.
--Mark Twain

A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.
--Virginia Woolf

I’ve put in so many enigmas and puzzles that it will keep the professors busy for centuries arguing over what I meant, and that’s the only way of insuring one’s immortality.
--James Joyce

The first draft of anything is shit.
--Ernest Hemingway

Always be a poet, even in prose.
--Charles Baudelaire

Literature — creative literature — unconcerned with sex, is inconceivable.
--Gertrude Stein

True Stories...

I may have to write a story about a haunting.

 A true story...

The series of photos above were taken by my security system when the motion sensors were set off in the middle of the night.

I have the sensor set pretty high the neighborhood cat or clouds above don't set the system off.

Click on the image. Check out the ghost that the first frame captured...

--It would be so creepy if this was my last post ever!

Reading: The Remaining

I just finished reading the first four books in the series called, The Remaining by D.J. Molles.

I sucked these books down super fast.

These books have several things I really enjoy in fiction:

• ZOMBIES!
• Post apocalypse dystopia.
• Good gun content.
• Well depicted action.
• Good character development.

I even love screaming at the open book when I think they have made a wrong decision. Character make mistakes!

This is my favorite kind of summer reading.

--These were so good I could not wait for summer.

Running Late

I am running late this morning.

Running dry on Blog fodder too. Enjoy this photo of trees that I saw on Pinterest when I should have been writing.

I had one of those rare, incredibly productive days at work yesterday. The excellent kind of day when to time goes by fast and happy.

Maybe I will post more later.

--Because both of my reader are very demanding!

Writers Vacation

I was talking with my wife about my novel and how it's coming. As always the topic of time, or lack there of, came up.

I swear if I had a full week to focus I could finish off this book in a 40 hour work week.

Then a "Writers Vacation" came up.

What would be the perfect writers vacation be?

• Beautiful relaxing place.
• Electricity.
• Secluded.
• Great bed for good sleep.
• Coffee.
• No Internet.
• Good food close by.
• Comfy work spaces.

--That is almost the same list I have for retirement!

Happened Again

No work last night. Dammit.

Distractions abound.

The list of things I did do last night:

• Yoga
• Internet - Email
• Configured my new security camera.
• Internet - Facebook
• Dinner with wife
• Internet - Pinterest
• Tivo - Continuum 
• Internet - Blogging
• Tivo - Game of Thrones
• Internet - Posting as my Cat
• Bedtime.

--Opps. Forgot to work on my book. SLACKER!

Monday and Moving Slow

Progress is being made on the second draft. This weekend I was feeling like if I could just take a whole week off and work on it eight hours a day I could knock it out by Friday. Oh well, someone has to bring home some bacon!

 

--Back to work today. Progress will be made tonight.

Quotes of the Week

“I went to college, but I learned to write by reading and writing.”
― Daniel Pinkwater

“Don't worry about meaning. If a story's any good, it can't help but have meaning. Let the PhDs tell you what your story means.”
― William Kittredge

“Art is too often discounted as a secondary priority. The writer is necessary to society.”
― Kayla Rae Whitaker

“Go beyond yourself -- write.”
― Pearle Louise Munn Bishop

“Every novel is an attempt to capture time, to weave something solid out of air. The author knows it is an impossible task - that is why he keeps on trying.”
― David Beaty

Writing. Opening a vein in your wrist with a spoon.”
― Ann-Marie MacDonald

Sex

 Logan's Run

I am working on the second draft and was editing a really hot sex scene in my book. Had to tone it down. Man, that was fun writing it!

I know I am not writing a kids book here, but it is not going to be hard core like some of the books I have read (and enjoyed). Have you read and Laurell Hamilton?

The funny thing is, I found myself actually having to do research into sex practices I was completely clueless about. That was fun! Thanks for the info Criagslist!

--Back to work!

Book: Lines of Departure

I just finished reading Lines of Departure by Marko Kloos (pronounced like "Close"). This is the sequel to Terms of Enlistment.

Both of these are really great military SciFi.

Vicious interstellar conflict with an indestructible alien species. Bloody civil war over the last habitable zones of the cosmos. Political unrest, militaristic police forces, dire threats to the Solar System…

Humanity is on the ropes, and after years of fighting a two-front war with losing odds, so is North American Defense Corps officer Andrew Grayson. He dreams of dropping out of the service one day, alongside his pilot girlfriend, but as warfare consumes entire planets and conditions on Earth deteriorate, he wonders if there will be anywhere left for them to go.

After surviving a disastrous space-borne assault, Grayson is reassigned to a ship bound for a distant colony—and packed with malcontents and troublemakers. His most dangerous battle has just begun.

In this sequel to the bestselling Terms of Enlistment, a weary soldier must fight to prevent the downfall of his species…or bear witness to humanity’s last, fleeting breaths.

--Go read these!!

Harvard discovers three of its library books are bound in human flesh!

"There's something undeniably creepy about big, expansive libraries. The hushed whispers, the almost artificial quiet, and the smell of dusty tomes combine to create a surreal experience. But when it comes to creepy libraries, Harvard University might take the cake... you see, three of its books are bound in human skin."

"A few years ago, three separate books were discovered in Harvard University's library that had particularly strange-looking leather covers. Upon further inspection, it was discovered that the smooth binding was actually human flesh... in one case, skin harvested from a man who was flayed alive. Yep, definitely the creepiest library ever."

--Did any of these people see Army of Darkness!?

Notes While Editing

I take a lot of notes on paper about my novel.

As I edit I am finding these notes are very hand to keep me organized and consistent while I am editing.

All kinds of things are in lists:

• Place names
• People names
• Ship names, makes and models
• Scifi Technology
• Possessions

I also have drawings in my notes:

• Various maps with different scales with distances
• Floor plans of buildings 
• Drawings of places and things

All of these things help my writing and editing remain consistent.

--I really love drawing maps and floor plans. Even if they never get used.

Stay on Target!

Editing resumed last night. It will continue today.

A friend was emailing with me about the book and said I should edit in stead of blogging or reading so much.

Sigh.

It is the reading that will get curtailed. Not completely, and just for a few months until my second draft is done.

He also said, "Write shorter books!"

My next volume will be 90,000 words. Not 190,000.

--Now it 's time to drink coffee. Not giving up coffee.