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Archives September 2016

Boo Hoo — Chapter 13

Well I did something today I didn’t think I could do.  I made my creative consultant cry.  Now before you go jumping to conclusions, it was appropriate that she did so.  To describe as she did, the pacing of the book for the last few chapters has been bang, bang, bang.  But here we come to chapter thirteen and you pause for just a brief minute to add some insight into Firebane’s persona and raw emotion into the story.

Here is a snippet from some words that fell out of my brain onto the computer this afternoon regarding the scene in question between Firebane and Speedsting, the dragon.

“Speedsting,” Firebane declared turning suddenly to see the dragon.   “You move quite silently when you want to,” Firebane commented.  “I didn’t know you were there.”

“Obviously,” Speedsting replied.  “It was not stealth that hid my presence from you, but rather your compassion for this one that blinded you to all distractions.” 

I don’t know why, but Speedsting’s reply in this scene is one of my favorite lines in this book so far.

It was fun building up to this scene, and what happens next is like the wandering friend that interrupts a couples kiss.  KABOOM.  We are now off to the races.  The climax of the book is upon us and we have two and half more chapters to go.  If I keep on pace, we should hit somewhere in the mid to upper seventy thousand words.

DON’T FORGET!  Two weeks from Saturday is the Greenwood Public Library Author Fair.  I will be there signing books and chatting with everyone and hopefully sharing a completed manuscript — it will still be a first draft, of course — but it will be there.  You can pick it up, hold it in your hands, point out all of the glaring type-o’s.  But that’s the point, I get free proof reading #BigSmile.

Until next time, blessing to you all, and happy reading!

GPL Author Fair and Updates on Book 3

I regret that it has been a while since my last post, but I think the progress that has been made in the last two weeks will give me a good justification.  That’s a fancy way of saying, I’ve been writing furiously on the book and haven’t had time!

The Greenwood Public Library Local Author Fair is quickly approaching on October 15th.  Please be sure to tell all of your reader friends about this event and opportunity to meet me and pick up some fun reading either for themselves or as a head start on Christmas.

Chapters 10, 11 and 12 are now in the can, as they say.  I will hopefully get to work on Chapter 13 this weekend.  I’ve broken the 61K word mark at this point, and I’m on pace to hit somewhere in the mid 70’s.  As you would expect, the pacing of the story has picked up a bit as we’re nearing the climax of this book.  I’ve been able to develop a lot of over arching themes in these chapters that will carry through in some cases till the end of book five.

With my goal now to complete the rough draft of book three by the end of October, I plan on rolling right on into book four for NanoWriMo which is National Novel Writing Month.  I have so far gotten concessions from my family to take the NanoWriMo challenge in November, which will give me a great head start on book four.  I still need to work on the detailed outline for book four, which means I will need to arrange a date with my creative consultant at some point in the next few weeks.

I believe I’ve settled on the title for book three, “Prophet to the Outerlands.”  This theme of titling books with their character focus and region of plot setting will continue throughout the rest of the chronicles.  I’ve had it discussed that chapter illustrations would be an interesting add-in to the book.  I’m open to any volunteers that would like to provide their gifts/talents in exchange for cover credits and billings on the title page.

Until next time, blessing and happy reading!

Cover Designs and Chapter 10

The last week has been a great week for writing. I might even go so far as to say its been the best day for this project as a whole. Labor Day weekend gave me some much needed downtime from my normal professional activities. This included some much needed rest. Saturday, I had an opportunity and the intention to spend several hours writing. It didn’t happen. Fatigue and the opportunity to sleep kept me from it. However on Monday, I managed to pull off a good solid three hour writing session. The results were completion of chapter nine, the dungeon crawl chapter.

I’m very pleased with the results of chapter nine more so than I thought I would be at first. I am a little worried; however, as it is the longest chapter I’ve ever produced. I’ve discussed it with my creative consultant and she feels that it moves along nicely. I mentioned maybe breaking it up into two chapters just to keep the flow of the book moving, and she did not feel like it was necessary. So, for now, I will keep it all together, all 9,500 words of it. Yes, you read that correctly.

Tuesday and today, I’ve been pouring myself into chapter ten trying desperately to keep the momentum going. Just five and a half more chapters to go. Chapter ten has our cast encountering a dragon from the Outerlands. This one, as Arnethia so aptly puts it in the book, is not trying to eat them. Firebane is being placed in some tough leadership situations right now. Given his reliance on Guntharr’s commanding persona over the years, this has him a little uncomfortable, to say the least.

Its about time that I start thinking about cover designs. Here is a simple one I threw together this evening. I love the background. It is very much a setting from the book.

I do have an exciting announcement. I will be signing books at the Greenwood Public Library Author Fair on Saturday, October 15. I’ll be posting more information on the Facebook page in the next few weeks.

Until next time, Blessings to you and happy reading!