Today I finished the first edit for the Haxan prequel novel. The title of the novel is Quaternity. There is a sub-title The Sunset of Destruction, the Ashes of the West. I think it went pretty well. As I have mentioned this is not like anything I have ever written before. When I first thought …
Catching Small Fish Edits and Frying Them Up for Dinner
25 pages today on the first rewrite and edit of the WIP. Not bad. About what I expected. This section demands I go a little slower because it was written the first time with the foreknowledge I would come back and fix some things about it. It's tiring work. I don't mind this donkey drudgery. …
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Second Day of Rewrites and Edits … and Pizza Awaits!
Sixty pages today. The rewrite and edit is going well. I work through the morning into late afternoon. At night I read through what I have done without stopping. This is to make sure it all hangs together and is cohesive. Problem spots are ironed out. This piecemeal way of doing things appears to be …
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First Day of Rewrite and Edit … While Snow Falls Outside
Did 65 pages of edit and rewrite today. Haven't come across anything that was too difficult to handle. I see some little things I need to develop, but that can wait until the second rewrite, I think. So far so good. May do a little more tonight, but probably best to break off now. I'm …
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A Novel in the Light of Day
I've been writing a long time. I've always been a writer, I guess, even as a small boy that's all I ever wanted to do. But I have been doing this full-time since 1998. One of the things I have learned is how to read other writers. When I read their stories or novels I …
The Border Trip: Rio Grande
Traveling along the border between Texas and Mexico means you travel along the Rio Grande. The river played a big part in the novel because it was analogous to the border that exists in a man's heart. Since the novel is primarily about a man finding himself, having a majority of the novel take place …
The Border Trip: Fort Davis Camping
Here are more pictures from what I have been calling my Border Trip. It's the trip I took from Laredo to Nogales in preparation to writing the novel I have just completed. The buttes in the distance are fantastic. Here is my campsite at Fort Davis. There was a lot of wildlife here, including javelinas …
Dust Storms Around Antelope Wells, New Mexico
When I was on my Border Trip earlier this year, researching the novel, I often ran into dust storms. Here are a few pictures of them. It was strange how they came in waves and would buffet the truck, clear off, then come again. This was a pretty little church north of Antelope …
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Catching Up with Me
Next week I will try to post some pictures from the Border Trip I took to research the novel. I don't know what they will add to the context of the process I have already written about, but you might like them. Who knows? I wanted to thank everyone for all the kind words and …
More Thoughts on the Completed Novel
I am trying to completely process what I was able to accomplish in 19 days. One of the things that strikes me about it is how fast this novel was written. Yet when you take into account all the notes, research, trips, preparation, it wasn't so fast. Then again it was kind of fast, ha. …
How I Wrote 85,000 words, from Laredo to Nogales, in 19 Days
IÂ finished the novel, and I am trying to process what it took, and what I went through. I would wake up at 3am, have coffee, write. I worked through the day. I did research and made notes. Sometimes I would go to bed at midnight. Most of the time I was asleep by 9 …
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Takes a writer to know a writer….
Just a quick update about the novel writing so far. I have been working diligently every day. I plan on having this novel completed (first draft) by next week. If I do, I will have a lot to say about the process and what I went through to get it done. Haven't forgotten you guys …
The Value of Research. Or, riding the horse of serendipity until it bottoms out.
Heh. The value of research. In my WIP I had the main characters visit Abilene before they went into Fort Griffin. Except, this novel takes place circa 1869 and Abilene wasn't founded until 1881. Oops. So I did a little digging and found out Buffalo Gap was a staging area for hunters during their winter …
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Hoover's Corner 