I am working on an espionage novel, trying to get it into shape for submission. That's my big summer project, along with promoting the new novel Haxan. When I am finished with that I will turn my attention to writing a new Haxan novel in the series. I think I have a weighty enough idea …
CZP Bought My New Haxan Novel QUATERNITY for July 2015!
A lot of good news on the writing front, recently. Haxan has just been published by CZP last week, and I also learned they want to buy Quaternity for a July 2015 publication date. As followers of this blog know Quaternity has a very special place in my mind. I wrote that novel, all 85,000 …
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Valkyrie Artwork as Reflection for “Remember Me in the Halls of Valhalla”
When I was working on a story entitled "Remember Me in the Halls of Valhalla" I wanted to portray the Valkyries as true death-maidens rather than generic (and cliched) fantasy figures. In my search I landed upon some artwork on the Internet. Just wanted to share some of them with you here. I never used …
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The Eyes of the Valkyrie
Several days ago I finished my new Haxan short story "Remember Me in the Halls of Valhalla" and I think it came out okay. I had a scene where I wanted to show these Valkyries were unlike the common blonde-haired, blue-eyed fantasy figures you often see. These were more like true death-maidens (though still beautiful) …
Reflection on Story Present
I've been struggling with my new story "Remember Me in the Halls of Valhalla" for several weeks now. To put things in perspective I haven't been writing a lot lately. Personal stuff has roared in and stolen much of my time. It happens. But I have kept this story on the front burner in my …
Quaternity and Haxan Update
Still have some personal things on my plate which take precedence over everything else, but I wanted to catch you up on my writing so far. I finished the second draft of Quaternity and sent it to the publisher for review. I thought they had a lot of really good advice for me and I …
The Writing Log Jam is Finally Breaking Apart
I've had a bit of a breakthrough on the short story I'm working on. It's called "Remember Me in the Halls of Valhalla". I started this story at the last WorldCon in San Antonio. I knew if I thought about it long enough, and talked to a couple of writers and bounced some ideas, something …
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My New Story Coming from Frontier Tales, and a Discussion of Character Motivation Revealed by Voice and Style
Frontier Tales has accepted a new Haxan story from me. It will appear in September. The title is as yet undecided. I'm really excited about this story for many reasons. It features Magra Snowberry and tells the story how she tries to get home to the man she loves. Standing in her way are four …
Looking at a Story with Fresh Eyes
I'm a couple of chapters into the new novel. After I wrote the first chapter I was pretty okay with it. I knew it wasn't perfect but there was enough there for me to feel it was well within my ability to fix. After I went to sleep and looked at it the next morning …
Writing What Makes You Uncomfortable
About a week ago I was emailing a writing friend of mine who was having trouble generating story ideas. That got me to thinking about something I wrote on this topic a while back, and I want to revisit it because I think it's one of the strongest things any writer can do. This conversation …
Coasting Downhill
I finished reading my new novel Quaternity aloud. This exercise was very helpful. Not only because I found some little mistakes, but I found places where it didn't "sound" right. So I made the appropriate changes. Truman Capote once said he wrote for the ear. There's some truth in that, I think. Hearing the words …
Seeing Your Story in a New Light
Today my writing buddy, Melissa Lenhardt, was editing her novel on hard copy. That's right, she was using real sheets of paper. I had almost forgotten what that stuff looked like. We got to talking and she said it was very helpful to see her story on hard copy rather than a computer screen. It …
Setting Aside Ego for the Benefit of Story
A writer friend of mine, Paula C. Brown, asked how I go about writing notes for a novel. She wanted to know the method I use because she was having a little trouble getting focused. This is a problem I run into myself when it comes to finding focus and generating ideas. I don't have …
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On Pushing Your Writing Beyond Safe Boundaries
A writer friend of mine, Sandra Wickham, was trying to brainstorm ideas and found herself, in her own words, "floundering." She wondered aloud if people had any tips on how to dig deep for a big idea. I expect she got lots of good advice, because if writers have anything in over abundance it's advice. …
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Writing is the Art of Reality
I believe writing is the art of reality. Writers paint in words. We use the world around us to create, and we create immense worlds. We aren't constrained unless we let ourselves be constrained. We can take as much as we want, or as little, depending on the story that wants to be told. We …
Tension and Compromise, the Charybdis and Scylla of Art
Speaking only for myself, but I find it's important to find a workable balance between perfection and compromise. I was responding on a classical guitar forum earlier tonight and it got me to thinking about this problem in more detail. Not only how it affects facets of our lives, but, since this is primarily a …
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Chopping Out the Undergrowth of a Story and Revealing Gold
Today I will start the third (and I hope) final big edit of the new Haxan novel, Quaternity. I plan to read the novel out loud, as I mentioned before in this blog, and am eager to see (hear?) how it sounds. I've been a little stuck on another short story I finished editing, though. …
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There might be blood. But then we’d have to swab it up and who wants to do that?
I am finishing the second big edit of Quaternity. This morning I finished fixing some pieces in the story that had been bothering me. I think I might be reaching a point where I am starting to do more harm than good. Too much editing can have a negative impact on a manuscript. I am …
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Finished the First Edit of Quaternity
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 …
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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Hoover's Corner 