Here’s what I did a while back: I wrote a book with two viewpoint characters, that was supposed to be the first in a series.

Then the story went in a different direction. It was a fun direction, but either it needed a completely different ending or it needed to be a standalone novel.

So I finally figured out I needed to cut it down to a single viewpoint.

So half the book went away.

And it was really not fun to go back and recreate the missing scenes/events, because I knew how it ended & the whole process felt artificial.

Then (yesterday!) I thought of a fun twist & it started to be exciting to work on the book again. So the first half or so is done, and I have roughly half of the remaining story written. I can probably use most of that. The short version of all this is that I think I’ll finish it up in the next couple of weeks.

Of course, I could be wrong about that. Sometimes things take longer than I expect. Fairly often, actually. We’ll see how it goes.

Equally of course, there were other ways I could have gone with all this. Probably the best would have been to simply publish the standalone version (though it did need some work), and write some other book to be the first in a series. Chances are, I’d have spent less time on that overall.

But I really, really wanted to write a series. For silly reasons having to do with getting paid. And I didn’t realize (though in hindsight it’s fairly obvious) how little fun I would have trying to make that novel fit into the pattern I was after.

Anyway.

I’m back to having fun. And I have some time to do this–time not obligated in a bunch of other directions. I kind of made that time, and it involves both getting up early and closing the door (or going elsewhere) to cut myself off from my family, two things of which I’m not especially fond. But: fun! Really. It’s nice. I hope it continues.

Because that’s a thing for me. Writing is supposed to be fun. I need to get better at remembering that. When it’s not fun, it flat doesn’t work.

For me, anyway. Maybe for readers too? I couldn’t say. If the words don’t come, readers are most unlikely to show up. What would they read? Something else. Right.

So…

Have fun out there!

Yo!

Bottom line: I’m working on something, and have already posted today’s effort. As I complete more, I’ll post that, and write about it here on the blog. I may go back and edit my work, or I may not, but either way that’s not what these posts are about.

It’s intended, at this point (albeit with only one day’s worth of actual writing so far), to become a novel. The whole unedited mess–and I’m going to try to resist editing other than fixing typos after the end of each day!–will be available at the link above. Each future post, if any, will include a link to that day’s effort for any who want to follow along, and perhaps the thing as a whole will be readable. Caveat lector, and all that.

Curious? It’s like this.

Witch, Blooded: Incandescent Iron Throne

The Coming Dystopia of the Vampire Gods, Book 1

I’m Amity Parker. I’m a witch, though just barely…by choice. Magic isn’t my favorite thing, for a lot of reasons. Don’t even get me started on vampire sorcerors.

This is my first trip to Vegas, and I’m here to kill a man–sort of. A bloodsucking fiend, anyway. Or so I’ve been told.

Turns out the situation is more complicated than I’ve been led to believe. Worse yet, this is my first mission as an agent of the Grand Coven. All of a sudden my brand-new team and I are up against the end of the world. Which just might happen before we can even get started–thousands of years ago, in fact.

Didn’t see that one coming.

I have lots to say about exactly how I came up with that title, and to a lesser extent the description (which may change at any point), but I’ll save that stuff for another day. Let’s just see how it goes for a bit first.

If this seems to be going well, I’ll put some effort/cash/both into a cover. And post that too.

Today’s stats: 2280 words, one scene.

Have fun out there!

See, the urge to edit absolutely everything is well-nigh inescapable. I originally intended to title this post something like “Fleeing in progress!” But I hate the use of the word “fleeing” there. After all, why not say “flight”? But then I wondered about alternative meanings. Plus, maybe “fleeing” is more clearly active, and thus theoretically better in some possibly relevant sense? But I still didn’t like the title. So I avoided the issue with a simple rephrasing. Sound good? Okay, let’s move on. Probably this bit will make sense in a bit (which is awkward phrasing but for some reason I like it anyway), but I’m not promising that.

Would I like to come back and edit this post again tomorrow? Or next week? No, I would not. I would rather poke a needle through my tongue. This may be important.

I have this collection of novels and stories I’ve started in the last few months. Some of the stories are sort of completed, with editing to be done. None of the novels have gotten far. Maximum word-count is about 10,000. Which should just be a few days’ work, if I were on a roll. Which I ain’t.

I understand this is typical of writers. Or at least most writers. But in my life to date, an unfinished project has been an extreme rarity. Or at least more than one uncompleted project, anyway, because I’m generally working on something.

It’s pretty weird…so I decided to go back and figure out what the first unfinished project was, and see if that led to any sort of insight.

Well, maybe it did? My last completed novel was Bleed on the Sky, which was written quickly and quickly followed by a completed nonfiction book on online security and privacy. So what happened after that? Some starts on novels. An abortive story-a-day plan (I really wanted that one to work). More work on trying to finish stories, and various returns to novel projects I would call “in progress” except that there has been next to no progress. Hmm. What’s missing?

I think I might know. If we go back just a little bit further, the book before Bleed on the Sky was The Secret. That one got stalled partway through, but I picked it up and completed it fairly quickly. Then it took a really long time to convince myself it was worth editing and publishing the thing. But right after I did, I completed two more full-length books in short order.

Then what happened? Well…The Secret sold much, much, much better than I’d expected it to. The online privacy book did almost as well. What didn’t sell? Bleed on the Sky. I mean, it didn’t sell at all. Maybe 50 copies. Only one review on Amazon. Occasionally someone still buys that book, on one site or another, but I’m including those in my estimate of 50 sales. (The cover is truly awful, by the way, and I’ve always known that. I told myself it didn’t matter much, because after all there were all those readers of the first book! And after all I was immediately busy with something else. Maybe I was even right that it didn’t matter? But either way, the lousy cover can’t have helped the book.)

I’d thought that book was a no-brainer, since so many people had read Shiver on the Sky and asked for a sequel–and Shiver was still being read by many people, since it was free. Yeah, not so much with the sales there.

What’s missing here? Maybe it’s simple. I had originally written Shiver on the Sky to be a standalone novel. But when I started writing Bleed on the Sky, that was intended to be book two of a trilogy. However…why write the third book if people aren’t reading the second book? Right? So I thought I should move along to brand-new material.

You know what, though? I know nothing about book marketing (not that I haven’t read everything I could find on the subject–I’m just not convinced the people writing the books and articles actually know more than I do…they seem to me to be mostly just saying things that may or may not be true in any given moment or context), so I should probably never ever ever make decisions based on my ideas of what will or won’t sell. I do know that it bothered me to stop writing after book two of a trilogy. I also know that if I’d been able to keep my momentum up by writing the third book, it would’ve been finished long ago. Maybe the momentum would’ve continued? Maybe there would be another book or two by now? Or, you know, maybe not.

Also maybe nobody buys a second book in a trilogy without a third being available, especially if there was a three-year wait between the first two. Especially with a crappy cover. I have no freaking idea what does or doesn’t drive book sales (other than new books), and it’s silly for me to pretend otherwise.

So the hell with it. I’m reading those books I wrote about Owen Tremaine and his screwy friends again today, which may or may not be a good idea but it’s what I’m doing, and I will write something–even if it’s only a single sentence, and even if it’s only a sentence I don’t like–on the third book. Today. I’m also determined to edit as I go, since I seem to have developed a severe allergy to revisiting work that feels complete in my head.

Book three will be titled Flee from the Sky. I know a few things about it already. Not too many, which is the way I like it. My intent is to write something every day. A single word will suffice, as far as I’m concerned. But I suspect it’ll turn into much more than that. Still: one word satisfies this goal. Maybe even some punctuation would do. Just…something.

Maybe this book will sell a million copies when it’s done. Maybe only five. I’ve decided I don’t really care. It’s just the next book I intended to write once upon a time, and I was excited about it, and now I’m going to do it.

As for what happens next after I finish it, it beats me. Which is another thing I like. I see no downside to this plan. If it works, maybe I can just do whatever I most want to do with my writing afterward, too. Since trying to write what I think will sell clearly doesn’t work for me.

Regardless? Have fun out there!

Way, way back in the fog of stuff that happened earlier than today–specifically in the year of our sins 2013–I started posting a free story every week on this here blog. It was a lot of work. I was doing book covers, too, and trying to keep up with publishing them on various retailers’ sites. I kept it up for 17 weeks, about 1/3 of the 52 I’d planned.

Why’d I stop? I got busy with other things, and I thought focusing on other efforts might be more helpful…by which I mean I wanted to get books written, and the stories got in the way. I never figured out how to get paid much of anything for them, so what was the point?

I’ll tell you the damn point: I had huge piles of fun with it! So I want to do it again. Screw logic anyway. It never did me any favors.

Last time I did book covers. This time I won’t. Last time I posted the stories as individual blog entries and left them up till the stories were published elsewhere. This time I won’t. Last time I had a few previously unpublished (at least outside my What Happens in September… collection) stories sitting around as a buffer. This time I won’t. Last time I published a couple of things that were probably the beginnings of novels rather than standalone fiction. This time I’ll do that again. Hey, sometimes an excerpt can be fun. Right?

Know what, though? I don’t even have time to write tonight. I’m helping a buddy with a minor issue with his software startup, and I’m going to have to cut this a bit short. Plus, I’m going to cheat and post this tomorrow (Thursday) to keep up my blog-every-day streak.

So, to recap: I have no stories prepared. I am working on two separate novels. I’m busy with lots of other projects. And yet, next Wednesday I’m pretty sure I’ll send out a story description and a link to a new “free story” page on the site. I’ll refresh that page, and talk about it on the blog, every time there’s a new story. Ideally it’ll happen once a week, but we’ll see how it goes.

Sound kind of dumb? Cool! That’s what I’m aiming for. And hey, it might even happen. You think?

Have fun out there!

(New-fiction word count: I’ll bet you can figure it out. I’d say I’m sorry about that, but I just ain’t. Plus I think I’ll make it up to you before long. YMMV.)

Busy around here. We’re in San Antonio, but not in our final location–to the extent that “final” means anything with us–so everything takes longer and costs more than seems reasonable. And it’s still quite possible that our plans will be upset entirely, leaving us to decide (again) upon a plan for the sort of thing most people seem to have no trouble with. Which is totally okay with me. (Not sure how most folks do it–which city? Which state? What sort of income-generating maneuvers? Somehow these decisions become sticky, and people mostly stay put. I’m not sure about the hows and whys of that. But it happens. ‘Course a couple of friends of mine add stuff like “which continent?” to the mix, so maybe I need to open my mind a bit. Seriously, since we’re all getting new information all the time, how do these decisions end up lasting for so long? Inertia? Or just a focus on other things?)

I could pretend this is a hardship. But who would believe me? I mentioned to my brother in law the other week that his sister (and niece) and I were once again sojourning in Limbo. No real address, all the financial stuff up in the air, and so forth. He and his girlfriend immediately laughed and raced to be the first to point out that I deserved no pity, ’cause we clearly liked that sort of thing. Which was true. In fact, as I said then…being betwixt and between has become comfortable. It feels like…home. If I were joking, I don’t know that it would be especially funny. But I’m not. Does that make it funnier?

So, we’re planning to stay put for a few years at least. Hmm. We’ll see how it goes. Since we still have strong ties to the kids who lived with us before, and I don’t like it when we don’t see them…it might happen.

Okay. Lots of stuff in flux, lots to do, no office space whatsoever. Writing fiction isn’t so much a challenge as a memory. But it’s a sort of pleasant memory. You know? And I’ve been thinking about trying a pen name out, and thinking I might want to try writing a book–or a set of books–wholly within genre boundaries.

There’s the YA dystopian science fiction thing I started. I really like the way it’s going, but even if it turns into a trilogy as planned…do I want to write a lot more pure science fiction afterward? Maybe, and maybe not, but I like including elements of other genres in there. So. I think I’ll publish “Destiny’s Dance” under my own name. Or maybe not. But whatever; it’s not quite the sort of thing I think I should be writing under a new name. Not if the new name is supposed to stick around for a while, and I’m supposed to provide lots of genre-bounded fiction with it.

Instead? I think I’ll go for paranormal romance. Well, romance/mystery/crime. Think C E Murphy, Faith Hunter, that sort of thing. I like reading those. Pretty sure I could write them too, and have fun doing so. I’ll bet I could write lots of them.

Too bad there’s no dedicated office space for me to use. And there are all these damned interruptions. Gee, maybe I should wait until conditions are perfect, or satisfy my “get stuff done” urges with something like a thousand words a day. Eked out in 15-minute spurts, or perhaps dictated a sentence at a time as life-pauses occur throughout the days ahead. And I could eat bean sprouts, and walk 10000 steps a day, and maybe also do a lot of logic puzzles to sharpen my mind.

Also I have no plot for a book. No title. No protagonist in mind. I did do some market research over at Amazon, trying to figure out what sort of plot/character elements are generally expected by readers of paranormal romance, and which choices in those areas are associated with better sales. Just to figure out where the lines were, so I could color within them. Is that sort of thing a leash on my creativity? Sure. Just as if I’d decided to write a sonnet, or anything else. I mean, writing novels means forgoing audio content, right? No videos in them either. I kind of like the idea of creating a massive version of the choose-your-own-adventure books I enjoyed when I was young, too, but how do I attract readers to it? Well, who knows? Maybe I’ll do that sometime, and add audio narration. Might be the thing to do, in a decade or two.

So, where were we? Conditions considerably less than ideal for writing fiction. No ideas to speak of beyond genre boundaries.

But there’s this temptation to create a fun sort of kick-ass heroine, you know? To see if I can do it, partly. (Well. Mostly.)

So that’s settled, then. New book. Starting tomorrow. I’m going to try to finish it in a month. Mostly writing in the wee hours of the morning, because that’s when I can focus. I mean, in theory.

Will it work? Beats me. I’m looking forward to reading the thing, though, as it gets typed. (This is important. I get to read stories I like, and it’s also fun to try to write myself into corners. I don’t like knowing how my stories will work out in advance.)

I’m also going to do the typing on my laptop, using its built-in keyboard. I don’t usually mess with that, because the trackpad is so annoying–moves the mouse cursor around and clicks randomly. But I don’t really have space for an external keyboard, or a mouse, and after all I can mess with the trackpad’s settings. And wouldn’t it be fun to be able to usefully type on a laptop afterward? A new superpower!

So, about failure. Taking longer than a month may or may not be a big deal. Straying too far outside genre boundaries and expectations would be a failure. I mean, I could just publish the book under my own name that way, but that’s not the plan. As for failing in public? Well…thing is, I may not reveal the title here. Or even the author name. So how would you guys even know if I screwed up? Maybe you wouldn’t! Unless you ask me privately for the pen name, or I decide to make it public (this currently seems likely), or some other thing happens.

This project is going to be fun. I’ll keep you posted. Ish. (I’m tempted to start thinking about a plot now, or a character, or a setting. Maybe get some index cards or something. But I won’t–that stuff just ends up turning into an excuse for not writing.)

Have fun out there!

I hate doing this. I actually like dealing with Amazon…but I don’t like dealing only with Amazon. OTOH, I like it when actual people (not just the ones I make up in my head) can and do read my books and stories.

What’s that mean? It means I pulled all of my ebooks, except Shiver on the Sky, from all non-Amazon sites this morning. The problem: most of that stuff was free. The free stuff got downloaded. People didn’t proceed to buy the books that cost money, though.

Logically, the finger of blame points to me: my material simply isn’t compelling enough that people who read some of it, or even most of it, will pay $2.99 or a local equivalent to read one of my novels or story collections. So I’ll work on that. It’s part of being a writer. I’m always trying to do better.

However? It’s also true that, when my material is available in Amazon’s Kindle Unlimited program, it gets read more often. And I even get paid for each page read. Folks who borrow the books improve the books’ rankings, which actually seems to inspire more people to buy the books too.

I like the multiple-streams-of-income thing. I don’t like the dependent-on-Amazon thing. But I’ve tried new releases both ways. I’ve tried freebies both ways. I tried it all before, too, but hoped things had changed.

Clearly, I need to work on my writing/storytelling skills. That’s a given. In the meantime, I like it when people read what I’ve written. And I like it when I get paid, even if it’s not much. It’s kind of inspiring. And, you know, money is fun.

So, starting in a week or so–or whenever the ebooks actually disappear from non-Amazon digital shelves–all of my books will be available in Kindle Unlimited. When I released The Secret in Kindle Unlimited, it sparked interest in other stuff I’d written, and thanks mostly to Kindle Unlimited readers I had a couple of months of my best fiction-income ever. When I released Bleed on the Sky, not in Kindle Unlimited, with my other books also mostly not in Kindle Unlimited, it didn’t move the needle at all.

It is what it is. Maybe when I have 20 or 30 books out it’ll make a difference. I’ll probably write better stuff by then, too. Everybody’s a winner!

Meanwhile I’m working on Destiny’s Dance (the novel, not the previously-published story/prologue), which is a lot of fun to write. Almost certainly the start of a new series. And I have at least one other series I’d like to write, too, and then there’s the possibility of more nonfiction coming along. So I’ll get back to all that, and wish y’all a good day.

Have fun out there!

It’s funny to remember that I thought it would just be a blog post about some of the computer-hackery stuff in Bleed on the Sky. Then I thought…well…maybe 12,000 words or so, definitely worth making it into a short ebook.

Well, it’s over 30K words now, and I won’t be terribly surprised if it ends up hitting 50K. There’s just so much to say, and I guess I’m writing the book I wish I could read, same as always–only nonfiction this time.

Anyway, no big deal, but I wanted to tell you guys I’m having a blast with it. And if you happen to be a techie-sort of person (or, even better, a non-techie with a strong interest in online privacy) and think you might be able to read something like this fairly quickly? I’m looking for beta readers. Contact me via the site, or reply to the email if you get this that way, or DM me on Twitter, or whatever.

I’m probably going to start the Bleed edits either tomorrow or the next day. Not expecting to hear much more than I already have from that set of readers. So…the ebook, at least, ought to be ready pretty soon!

Now I’m wondering what I’ll write next. I kind of don’t care, because I’m having so much fun with all this. But at some point I’ll have to decide…maybe when I start typing the thing? {8′>

Have fun out there!

I have some early feedback from Bleed on the Sky beta readers. There are some minor issues, but so far nothing that looks like it’ll take more than a day or so to fix. This one’s getting a lot of “fun” and “hard to put down” sorts of comments, but nothing like either the “I really hated the end” or the “best one yet!” I heard about The Secret. So, I guess, it’s a book all right.

The next Owen novel (Flee from the Sky) will be fun to write. I have about 10K words already–most of which I cut from Bleed because it was threatening to become a monster of a book. I had to reshuffle things to create an ending for it…it definitely promises/needs a sequel, but…maybe that’s not a bad thing.

Meanwhile, the privacy book’s coming along. At first I thought it would be a blog post talking about real-world aspects of the computer hackery in Bleed. Then I answered some questions for a friend, thought I might re-use some of that material, and thought I’d write a short book…maybe 12K or so. Well, it’s 13K words so far, and I have lots more chapters to go. Maybe it’ll be 30K when I’m done? It’s an interesting project for me, both intrinsically and because I’m including approximately 79.4 bajillion links. So I can’t just go off into a writing cave–I need a web browser open as I go. And I’m using a second monitor, which is something I’ve never done for fiction. Back when I wrote code for my own company I used four monitors, and could have used more if I’d had more room on my desk. For fiction? I might do better without a monitor at all…which comment now tempts me to do a post on writing processes, ’cause I may have learned a thing or two since the last time I did that, but that post ain’t this post.

Anyway, figuring out a nonfiction writing process is interesting. It’s definitely easier to write than fiction, and I can apparently do it while surrounded by family and friends…instead of, you know, in a back room with the door closed. I figure that’s probably because I’ve written a lot more nonfiction, even if not for publication–or at least not under my own name; I have a couple of funny stories about that–than fiction. So I may be better at it…so far.

I do miss the “daydreaming at the keyboard” aspect of writing fiction, though. The privacy book actually has an outline, and I’m sort of following it.

But…come on. I still think I’ll finish the book within the next week or so. And it’s been less than two weeks since I finished the first draft of Bleed on the Sky. So, you know, maybe it’s okay to have a short hiatus from the fiction stuff.

As far as publication goes…for Bleed, I need to finish the cover, do the ebook and print interior versions, and get it all out there. I may be able to get the ebook out in a week or so, but it’ll take a bit longer for the print version (mostly because I’ll want a mailed proof before I publish the thing, and so far they’ve all been delayed in shipping). I also want to do large-print versions of my novels, but that’s the sort of side project I can do when my brain’s fried at the end of the day.

I’m not sure when the privacy book will get published. Sometime before the end of December? I don’t really have beta readers for this sort of project, and did I mention the 16.435 sextillion links? It’s a bit dense in some ways, though I hope it’s also entertaining. I do think it’s turning out well…we’ll see.

The next project will be fiction…but what sort of fiction? I’ve “narrowed it down” to one of three: the first Destiny novel, the next Owen novel, or my semi-superhero project…which is intended to be the first in a new series. Depends, I guess, on how I feel when I can get started on it. I’m definitely looking forward to the fictioneering, though…

Oh, and I’ll be doing a cookbook for my wife’s farmers’ market business thing. Should be fun. She’ll do most of the writing, but I’ll do a bit of editing and probably all of the formatting/design bits. Not sure when that’ll happen, but it probably won’t be too long. And again, that’s the sort of thing I can do after my brain gets too tired to write, so it probably won’t slow anything else down too much.

I’ll let you know when things get closer to publication. Very soon, I hope.

Meanwhile? Have fun out there!

By which, yes, I do mean Bleed on the Sky. Or the first draft, anyway, and some early edits. It’s in the hands of beta readers now. Possibly in their brains, too. Maybe even in their hearts and souls, if I’ve done it right. Anyway, I’ve been promised some pretty durn quick feedback, with the holidays and such, so…the book might be available very early in December. Guess I should finish up the cover, huh?

Next project, which ought to go much more quickly (hoping to finish by the end of the month!), is a nonfiction book. My current title, because it maketh me to smile, is: Take Back Your Privacy: The Barefoot Anarchist’s Guide to Today’s Digital Landscape. It starts off with a section on free speech, the chilling effect thereon of mass surveillance, the dangers of self-incrimination even when you’re sure you haven’t broken any laws…and then jumps into the actually-useful bits.

It’s going to cover a lot of topics: Threat Modeling, VPNs, Tor, Telephony, GPS devices, Web Browsing, Passwords, Digital Purchases, Physical Security, and more. The table of contents keeps growing. (Yes, this one has an outline.) It’s going to include a LOT of links, because why should anyone believe me without them? (In general, folks don’t…I’ve noticed this, so very often, and gnashed my teeth to ribbons!)

Anyway, if all goes well the thing will be both informative and humorous. And I really haven’t seen anything else out there that covers these topics in the same way, for the same audience(s), and which in fact distinguishes throughout the book which audience I’m speaking to at the moment: my theory is that it’ll be useful for everybody from Grandma and her Facebook habit to a whistleblower who really needs to tell us all about something horrific. Unlike nearly all of the stuff I read out there, I’m going to be specific about both what works and what each tool’s limitations really are…and in general warn against believing sweeping statements about “security” no matter where you find them.

So, that’s a lot to do, and I need to get back to it.

After that book? Maybe another Owen sequel (there WILL be at least one more), maybe the first Destiny book, maybe a book about Yetis in Southeast Alaska (which I must not must not must not title Yeti Again), maybe a short Marvin novel, and maybe this other near-future semi-superhero fantasy-like series I want to write.

Ideas are plentiful around here. Time? Not so much.

Anyway, what are you guys working on? I’m curious…

Hope you’re having fun out there!

Well, Draft the First isn’t done yet. My brain’s apparently only willing to daydream at the keyboard for so many hours a day. It’s sort of frustrating, because I want to see how the story comes out!  {8′>

And now progress will slow somewhat, ’cause I’m working on other projects too. But FWIW I still expect to have a somewhat readable first draft of Bleed on the Sky done sometime next week. If that works out, I’ll be starting something new, and I’ll tell you about it at that point.

Meanwhile, with all the typing for BotS, plus working on one of my super-secret projects (which New Release Club members will be the first to learn about), plus my already-sore knuckle on the finger of my right hand? My hands are aching. So I’ll just stop here, ideally with the following thought uppermost in your minds: “What the heck did he do with that finger??”

Have fun out there!