A Fantabulous Weekend with Loving Wife (and Kevin Hearne)

It's been a while since I have posted, so as I sit by myself in a hotel room in Las Vegas (damn you Blackjack gods for making it a short night!), I thought I would fill you in on what was a weekend of fun and relaxation that Loving Wife and I will never forget.

Waaaaay back in the late spring/early summer, one of my favorite authors, Kevin Hearne, announced that he would be having a release party in Mesa, AZ for his newest book (mandatory and well deserved plug: here is the link to the Iron Druid Chronicles starting with HOUNDED--go get it. No, right now. I will wait.)

Well, seeing as a) I really like Kevin Hearne and b) Loving Wife and I hadn't been on a 'getaway' weekend for many moons, I woke up at 545am on a Saturday morning* and purchased two tickets to the release party. This was done with a bit of hope and wishful thinking, for as I had read and enjoyed all the books, Loving Wife had not and there was no guarantee she would like them.

Kicked in the nuts -- and it was good!

So I sent off my book to someone I trusted. She read the whole thing. Yay! The first person besides Loving Wife (who saw it still steaming and dripping ink off the printer) to read my book.

How'd she like it? She tore that MFer apart and slapped me upside the head with its bloody entrails.

Which is EXACTLY why I sent it to her.

Getting kicked in the nuts about something you have obsessed over for half a year isn't the most pleasant feeling in the world and the very first thing I thought when I read her email was along the lines of 'worthless, bloody hack'. And, indeed, I may be a worthless bloody hack, but within moments of reading her comments the first time through, I also knew she had hit upon those things that weren't sitting quite right but I couldn't figure out what was wrong.

The wrong character is the primary villain? Crap
It sounds like cheap fan fiction of a favorite author? Shit (but Yay for having someone compare me to Jim Butcher!)
Your world building is held together with spit and toilet tissue? Dammit.

But quite honestly, I am grateful. More than grateful, I am relieved. I am relieved that while what she pointed out makes for a lot of work, I immediately agreed with her assessment once it was laid out for me.

So, as is often the phrase in the writing world, I am off to kill my darlings. Because DEATH FOOF is going to get a major overhaul. And that is a good thing.

It's the best sort of kick in the nuts a guy can get.

NaNoWriMo - What the what?

Today marks the start of NaNoWriMo. For the uninitiated, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. Without boring the non-writers out there, it is basically a group effort designed to give writers a nudge/boost/smack in the ass to sit down and just write.

The goal is to write 50k words, roughly the equivalent to 1/2-3/4 of a full novel. Dividing that over 30 days, it's about 1666 words per day. Now, this doesn't seem that much, right? After all, you remember the 500 word essays you wrote in high school and you churned those out on the bus on your way to school.

Well, Aspiring Author is here to tell you that sitting down and writing a little over 1500 words a day can be really hard if you don't have a plan. It's easy enough to churn out writing in discrete chunks-- I am vomiting out a little over 325 words for this blog post right now -- when that writing has a specific purpose. But it is much more difficult to write those words when they are just links in a chain that has to stretch from point A to point B and not become hopelessly tangled like those seventeen year old strings of Christmas lights you are about to break out.

Yours truly will not be participating in NaNoWriMo per se. However, I have decided to do so in spirit. I will not be shooting towards a specific word count goal, but I will be spending the month of November writing the sequel to DEATH FOOF. Yes, that was a 'title reveal' I just did there. Congrats on becoming one of the first to know the name of my first book.

The sequel has been plotted, and has a working title of THE UNDEAD DEAD. So, to all my writing friends out there in interwebland, good luck on NaNoWriMo. Consider this another nudge or boost to get you to write.

If you want a smack in the ass, I will have to ask permission from Loving Wife first.

Cheers.

AA

It's all done but the crying...

Yup. I did it. I not only finished my first novel, I finished the full polish.

Which, of course, doesn't mean jack squat.

I can't tell you how exhilirating it is to say it's done. While I have been working on this non-stop for the better part of the last five months, the idea is really more than six years old. To say that I actually have a complete, end-to-end, yes-it-really-has-an-ending, novel sitting on my hard drive, one that at least a few people think has some potential, makes me giddy.

Of course, I also feel like 40 year old virgin spinster at her first vibrator party--excited, scared, a little confused and wondering what the hell I do with this thing next.

Because in reality, I have only climbed one rung of the ladder. Oh sure, it is the biggest, hardest and most intimidating rung, but there is still a looming climb to becoming a published author. But the thing is, you can't become published if you don't have a damn book!

And I have a damn book!

So, its on to creating the synopsis, polishing the query letter for the 947th time and researching those agents who look like they might give a guy with a beer belly and a penchant for ribald similies a break.

So, while I continue the climb, at least I know I have made it out of the morass of wannabes and pretenders who keep saying they will write a book but never do. I must admit, the view from this level is pretty sweet.

Cheers.
AA

Editing Update - Almost There!

Whew! The Writer Therapy bloghop was a rush. I cruised the interwebs and peeked in on the writing habits of two dozen of my fellow wanna be authors (and an occasional published one). It is exhilarating to see that there is so much support among the writing community.

I also saw more traffic in two days to this little corner of the blogosphere than in the last month. That's very cool. I hope my ramblings, rants and occasional Dr. Suess riff were well-received. Welcome to all those that dropped by and decided to follow.

The blog hop made me peek through previous posts and I realized I hadn't updated on the editing of the Work in Progress (WIP) in some time. I can't believe it was over a month ago that I updated. Time doesn't only fly, it zooms like a friggin rocket, causing whole weeks to disappear. But, I am happy to say that the first full-edit of the WIP is nearly complete. Here are the basic stats:

37 Chapters
91,000 words
335 pages

Three of the remaing five chapters are fairly short (under 2k words) but the 'money shot' chapter where everything wraps up is over 5k, so I am going to end up a little higher than I planned at about 107-110k since I still have to add a wrap up chapter now that I have tidied up most of the loose ends.

The cool thing--and those writers out there know exactly what I am talking about--is that as I move through this section of the work, I haven't seen it in several weeks and as I sit down to edit I get lost in the actual reading of my own book. I wrote the damn thing and yet I find myself clicking through page after page asking 'what happens next?!?!'

I take that as a postive sign. :)

Getting to the end of the edits is a mixture of relief, exhilaration and dread. It is good to get through it, but just like the actual writing, I know I had good days and bad days during the editing process. There are still going to be rough patches that need more work. But the book is on the cusp of query ready and I have already generated a list of agents that I will be sending it out to, broken down into a couple of tiers. That causes the dread. Is the query good enough? Is the synopsis good enough (for those agents that want it)? Can I figure out how to convert the damn thing to .RTF? Will I hit send and hear nothing but crickets chirping for the next two months?

Ah, well, for those that have been following from the beginning (Hi Mom! Again!), you know that I will keep pushing on. Over the past six to eight months, I've come to realize that writing is something I will do regardless of whether an agent moons over my work. But I'll get there. Hopefully before retirement age.

Cheers!

AA

Writer Therapy - How I avoid going postal

Today, the good folks at Writer Therapy are sponsoring a blog hop. The question they presented is what do I use as writer's therapy (see what they did there?) and how do I use it to maintain my writerly aspirations and not chuck the whole computer out the window?*

At first, the question seemed simple. What do I use as therapy so I can continue to press forwad and write. Then I realized there are so many reasons that I might not write. Now, I had a much more complicated question on my hand. After all, one week, I may put in nearly ninety hours at the 'real job' and have no energy or time to write. Is the therapy I need for that the same as when I have plenty of time, but am struggling on developing plot for the newest work? What about like now, when I am deep into edits of a completed work and the writing is not pounding out words, but erasing them and struggling to find better words to say the same thing?

Not so simple a question now, is it? But I've thought about it, and realized that despite the type of problem I am experiencing with my writing, there is one common theme to the therapy I use to combat it: time.

I have never been the type to have a 'go to' means of stress relief. I love massages, but can't afford a biweekly rubdown. I don't have a specific hobby unless you count planting my butt in front of a television the size of a double-wide to watch hockey games (get your act together NHL and NHLPA!) and while I used to play sports religiously, that would be counterproductive now since the aches and pains of moving this old body faster than a brisk walk would prevent me from sitting at a keyboard for more than thirty seven seconds.

But getting away from the writing in some manner always works. Thankfully, it also doesn't require removing myself too far from writing either. For instance, I can jump on Scribophile and edit someone else's work for an hour or dial up the latest Chuck Wendig or Chris F. Holm or Kevin Hearne book and read for several hours. I also love spending time with Loving Wife and the Kiddo and with my son getting heavily involved with band projects, a lot of time is being spent there!

I'm lucky. My personality is such that I don't stress much even in the most critical situations. I also have never put much undue pressure on myself (Loving Wife insists my nervous system is laced with Xanax). However, I do get obsessive about things. As I mentioned in a previous post, the bug is in me and that sometimes has me writing or editing instead of doing some of the other important things in life. All things in moderation!

So for me, the answer of what I do as Writing Therapy is simple: give it time. Sometimes its letting the work percolate for a couple of days, sometimes just getting up and raiding the refrigerator in the middle of an editing session is enough. But in all cases, time is the answer. Time lets the little blue globe of writing mana fill back up and allows the maelstrom of dust I caused in the latest flurry of edits settle back down. This may be a simple answer, but it is wholly and completely me. And I figure if I can't be honest with myself, there is no way I can be honest as a writer.

Cheers!

*Okay, the computer is a 25 lb Alienware. Maybe I can just chuck the mouse?

Blessing in Disguise or How I Caught the Bug

Several months ago, around the time I started this blog, I was recovering from a concussion. I was out of work for two full months. I have spent a small fortune's worth of electronic ink describing my fun with the feds that happened by my hospital while I was out on leave. And, quite frankly, concussions suck donkey balls.

But was that knock on the noggin a proverbial blessing in disguise?

I have been a pharmacist for sixteen and half years. Before that was three years of year round pharamcy school. The year before I went into pharmacy school, I worked at Disneyland nearly full-time. Before that was five years of undergrad where I worked full time during the summers in between semesters. So, you have to go back to the summer of my high school graduation, before I started college, to find anything close to two straight months of doing nothing.

What did I get out of that two months off with a constant (literal) headache and a pending (figurative) headache from the feds? I got two months to sit in front of a computer and write. When I sat down during that time, I was on chapter seventeen of this manuscript. A manuscript that saw me dabble with it on and off for the better part of four years (at least one file is listed as 2007!). But in that two months, I wrote THIRTY FIVE more chapters. I doubled my output of five years in eight weeks. Why? Because I had the time. Because I wasn't distracted.

Because I caught the bug.

Work is hard. Getting up and going to the hospital every day, dealing with rules, regulations and employees can be a grind. I like being a pharmacist. I am very good at what I do. But its a 45+ hour a week job on the good weeks (and a blackberry hardwired into my lower spinal column for constant contact). It is draining. I think all of us have felt that at some point or another. But since that two months, I come home and I can't stay away from the computer and Word and editing that next chapter. It should feel like more work. After all, if you are an author, writing IS your job. But it doesn't. It doesn't feel like work at all. It feels like I have to do it. I have to get through that next chapter. I have to finish the editing. I can't let it sit. I'm OCD with this writing thing.

Like I said...a bug, or maybe a disease. But for once, I am glad I got sick. Because writing, even with its own frustrations, makes me happy. It almost makes it worth the concussion.

Green Eggs and Coffee

I've tried to drink coffee, oh yes I have,
But I never drink coffee, which makes my wife sad.

I've tried lattes and mochas, sweetened and creamed.
I've tried it as ice cream and ways in between.

I'm old and I'm ornery and set in my ways
I wont drink your coffee, not now, not these days

Take it from here, this so vile brew
It won't touch my lips, it's not mine, but for you

My course has stayed steady, with nary a wobble,
Of coffee I've none, not even a snobble.

'Tis bitter and black and made none the better
By sugar or cream or even cold weather.

But today a thought, quite unexpected I guess
A request from my mouth gave quite some distress.

A small coffee, I said, to the Krispy Kreme girl,
Why not, thought my head, let's give it a whirl.

I received the dark brew, all steaming and hot,
Fresh smelly and strange and straight from the pot.

I toddled myself to the small narrow counter
And added some cream and some sugary powder.

"What are you doing?" I asked of my daring new head
We don't like this coffee, not ever you said!

But in went the sugar, followed by cream
Cooling the coffee, reducing the steam

I skedaddled myself straight back to the car
to make sense of my morning, a strange one by far.

Too hot for the lips, I set it aside
And wondered aloud as I finished my ride

What would the wife say, when soon she found out
I ordered a coffee, quite hot and most stout?

Finally it cooled and I was able to drink
of this popular liquid, this communal link

That connected so many, and if you were lucky
You could get one for nine bucks at the local Starbuckys

Wonder of wonders, the brew was still bitter,
But with cream and some sugar, I found I could sip her

This tiny carafe of watered down beans
that would hurt like the dickens, if spilled on my jeans.

I can't say, for sure, that coffee's my thing,
nor praises can I give, nor certainly sing

But I admit, for a day, my head has decided
That coffees not bad, and should not be blighted.

So I nod to the wife and beg her forgiveness,
As I sip on my soda and return to my business

Of dismissing the black brew I recently drank
as decidedly grody and bitter and rank

But perhaps, in a moment, of weakness I'm sure
I would fall prey to the odor, the tangible lure

Of sharing a coffee, her favorite drink
And not secrectly pour it straight down the sink.

But I will not enjoy it, that evil black brew!
(except maybe with cream, and a sugar or two.)

Hot Damn! I won a query critique!

So after my first rejection, I turned around and won a query critique from the fine folks at Writer Therapy!

For my non-writing readers, a query is a bare bones (250-300 word) summary of your book designed to 'hook' an agent and get them to read your book. Think of the back cover blurbs of all the books you see on the shelves. A query reads a lot like that back cover copy. You make a decision on a new book at least in part because of what is written there and the agent makes the same decision by reading a query.

Agents see hundreds of queries a week, so making a query stand out is vitally important. You can write the next Great American Novel, but it doesn't get published if you can't find an agent or editor who can make a decision to read it. To do that, you need a great query.

Quite frankly, queries are often harder than writing the book. As I mentioned in previous posts, a typical novel is between 70k and 120k words. Trying to distill that down to 300 and convey all the humor, suspense, and enough plot to hook a reader -- not to mention a professional reader -- is really frikken hard.

That is why I am so psyched to have won this contest. To have someone look at the query and give their input is a leg up on thousands of other writers that I didn't have yesterday. So, yeah, I have perma-grin on my face today!

By the way, a quick editing update: 48,900 words, 180 pages. Halfway home!

And a shout out to my friend Jamie over at This isn't Rocket Science!, who was also one of the ten winners and without whom, I would have never known about the contest. Thanks, Jamie!

First Rejection - I became chum!

I got my first rejection today!

Yay! Almost a rite of passage, from what I understand. The good thing is that it was entirely expected. Janet Reid is a well-known literary agent and offers a once a week "Chum Bucket" where she answers queries with a personal note, eschewing a form letter reply. It is quite nice of her to think of the minnows out there.

Quite frankly, she doesn't represent work in my genre and I knew that. However, some of her fellow agents in her agency do and, at best, I was hoping for a "hey, why don't you try [agent X]". Instead, I got a very nice reply stating that zombies weren't her thing.

But, she didn't tear apart my query and she didn't tell me I sucked royally (and she would, if not quite so bluntly...or, well, yeah, she would put it bluntly). Neither did she refer me to remedial query school, which is good, considering I have read the entirety of the QueryShark website. I would have been quite humbled if I had fouled up that bad.

So, I am happy with "It's not my thing."

To use a baseball analogy, I didn't strike out. Then again, I didn't even get a bunt single, much less a double off the wall. But I put the ball solidly into play. I like to think it was a liner to left field.

The lesson learned? I can face the pitchers in this league. It may have been my first at-bat, but I am going to keep swinging.

Editing update

Just a quick note to say that my editing continues, much to the chagrin of Loving Wife. Heh, she thought my online gaming was bad, now she has me sitting at a computer editing away for hours.

So, the update:

15 chapters
125 pages
33,000 words

These middle chapters originally did not have one of the main three characters and are taking a little longer as I fit him back in, but I am one-third of the way through the book. I can also see my writing improving. It was right around this point that the writing picked up steam again and it is cleaner, less muddled. Let's hope the rest of this goes a little faster.

I have also been polishing my query and trying to win various writing contests advertised through Twitter (follow me @ DavHalt). The agent list is also being whittled down to the dozen or so likely candidates with a few 'first choice' folks who rep the same genre as me.

I will check back in with another update down the road! Back to the dungeon for more writing/editing.

Cheers.

-AA

First Page Contest at Writers Therapy!

Very cool!

In a down low bluesy sort of way.

Not the cold macaroni salad sort...

A First Page Contest sponsored by Writer Therapy. Check it out! I am entering. You should, too!

You know, if you have a book. That you've written. Not one off your shelf. That wouldn't be fair.

--Cheers! AA

Scribophile

So in perusing the interwebs the other evening, I came across a website called Scribophile. It is a website where you can sign up to critique other people's work and have your own critiqued. While I have always had vague worries of posting my writing on websites, it wasn't the worries you would think. I don't worry about someone stealing my work or ideas as the chances of that happening are almost non-existent. What I did worry about was losing publishing rights because the work would be posted to the website.

Scribophile eased my fears of that since a) when you sign up, they have some legal documents you must electronically agree to that basically says 'you get to keep all rights to your stuff', and b) they have a section that highlights and trumptes published work by the authors that are members of the website.

Pretty cool stuff. So I jumped on, earned some karma points for critiquing some other work, and posted my first chapter of the book.

Holy guacamole! Talk about invigorating. This is copied verbatim from one of the critiquers:

I can't find anything to criticize in this. If it were a book on the shelves, I would buy it. If the rest of the novel were as good/entertaining/awesome as this first chapter, I would buy copies for my friends. This was terribly interesting, with great characters and characterizations. Any question I had while reading was answered in seconds. I can't wait to read more! Good job!

Now, I know what you are thinking. There are a bunch of critiquers on there that just post shit to make you feel good or they say the same damn thing about everyone. I thought the same thing. The cool thing about Scribophile? You can't hide what you have done. I was able to go back and review more than a dozen of this person's critiques. It turns out, she's an English teacher. And she spares nothing on many of the works she critiques, slicing and dicing many manuscripts from top to bottom. In other words, she had no reason to say what she did about mine, but she did anyway. Cuz she liked it.

I got three more critiques on that first chapter that all had extremely positive things to say. While I have had some very smart and helpful people help me edit that first chapter into its current incarnation (thanks Loving Wife and Space Cadet 570 and Angela James!), I can't tell you how rewarding it is to have complete strangers write things like what you see above.

So the vim and vigor is back in Aspiring Author's typing fingers. The earlier rewrites I mentioned are complete and after tonight, I have the first 100 pages and close to 25,000 words edited and I can't wait to keep going.

If you have been dying to see my first chapter (and chapters 2 and 3), I invite you to head on over to Scribophile. It's free to sign up, the people are friendly and even if you never critique or have any writing to post, it's fascinating to see people going through the process. If you do go over, look me up. I am listed under Dave Halter and my avatar is the familiar Jack-o-lantern you see off to the left of this blog.

By the way, many thanks to the folks that let me know after my last post either here in the comments or via Facebook or in person (hi Loving Wife!) that you get the feeds from the blog and support me by reading. It is very encouraging and I am glad these words aren't drifting in cyberspace like pixelated chaff.

Cheers!

Catching up

So, yeah, it's been a while. Again.

So many things going on as the summer winds down around Aspiring Author's household. Unfortunately, most of these things are not typical summer activities. I still have the Feds showing up at work to check out the hospital every few weeks. Thankfully, they seemed to have accepted my plans of correction for all their niggling issues, so even though they may be back in other areas, the pharmacy should be just about clear. But it is still friggin exhausting.

On the writing front, I finished up the Before You Hit Send self-editing workshop this past week. It was phenomenal. I find myself with a much better eye for the fluff and garbage now, which is -- or will be -- invaluable come submission time.

As for the book itself, the editing process is going well, but has slowed down. The first nine chapters were flowing along nicely, but with the aid of the workshop, I could tell the next three to four chapters were a big black hole of unnecessary description. It wasn't hard to see this, especially since this is where the book originally bogged down when I first latched onto the idea. I struggled with these chapters for several months to almost a year before inspiration took hold and the rest of the book basically flowed from my fingers into the keyboard like a dam had broken.

Unfortunately, it was not as simple as slicing those chapters out. To get to the point where the story 'works' again, I would have had to rewrite before and after so much, that it made sense just to rework those pesky chapters. Thankfully, there was a glaring plot hole that needed to be filled and I am in the process of writing that section now. In the long run, I think it will turn out to be one to two longer chapters, but chapters that build a much cleaner foundation for the ending events in the book.

Alas, this also means that I have to hold off on editing down the line until I get these two other chapters written and, quite frankly, I have been completely exhausted in the evenings until the last day or two.

So, for those of you still reading the ramblings, thanks for your patience. It's still a little wierd not getting many comments back so I feel these words are being set free into cyberspace with very little support, but since the primary goal of this blog is to keep me writing, mission accomplished. At least for tonight.

Rewrites

Today, I got to do my first rewrite. It sucked. And then it didn't. Explanations coming...

When I first introduced a significant charcter in my book, I had a vague idea of what I wanted him to be. By the time I got to the final third of the book, however, his entire motivation had changed. What I wrote in the last part of the book was fine, but I always knew I would have to tweak the character's earlier chapters.

I finally made it to that chapter today. Knowing I would need to ensure it was foreshawdowed correctly, I read the entire chapter before making a single edit. As I mentioned, it sucked. Not "the writing sucked" (although it needed editing as bad as the rest of the book), the entire chapter was pointed in one direction and I needed it to point another, for I realized this was one of the four major pivots in the book and it didn't set up the next section correctly.

Editing (or, How I realized I have a lot to learn)

As I mentioned, I enrolled in an online editing course recently. I am about halfway through and all I can say is that I have been humbled. But following in the wake of that humility, my confidence is growing.

I thought my writing was decent. I had no illusions that it was perfect or near perfect, but holy crap on a cracker am I glad I didn't begin querying with what I had before I took this course. I have experienced several "Oh shit" moments during this class. Some of them have been of the positive variety, but more of them have been of the /facepalm variety.

The crazy thing is that the concepts are simple. Many times, the fixes are simple. What is not so simple? Seeing it in your own work before it is pointed out.

The awesomeness of all this is I have a growing suite of tools to allow me to become a better writer. Even if this current book never shows up in your e-reader or on your bookshelf, this course will allow me to take those next steps down the road of becoming Published Author. This book or the next or the next. It will happen. Because I believe it will.

So go out and think positive today. And maybe toss a positive thought my way, too. Couldn't hurt. :)

Oh Hells yeah!

I just realized that if I begin querying before the end of the year, then I am actively 'working' on becoming an author.

That makes my trip to Vegas in a few weeks tax deductible!

Annnnndddd....we're back!

So. Miss me? Three plus weeks of work hell are slowly settling down into a new normal. I am finally getting home at a decent time again. Of course, in the middle of everything going on at work, we had to move. The new home is frikken awesome, but I will be befuddled by where everything is for weeks.

With all the work and the move, I haven't been able to write much. I did manage to revise the ending I spoke about in this post, but I have yet to write the final chapter and the epilogue. Partially, its because I am so tired, I can barely pee straight. (I tend to lean to the left a little when I am tired). But I have to admit that it is partially because I am still ruminating on the ending.

(more)

"Real" work sucks - a work /rant

/rant on So if you noticed my bio, you know Aspiring Author is a pharmacist in Real Life. But I don't work in a store, I manage the pharmacy of a large hospital. Right now, that work sucks. Sucks like a Hoover outfitted with a Harley motor. We do tons of things to promote patient safety. We do good work. I am proud to be associated with this place. And every once in a while, the government comes in to make sure we are doing it well. That is a good thing, I think. But they don't send robots. They send people. And sometimes people who have nothing better to do than make other people feel shitty about the good things they do. These people have very small penises. Really. Proven fact. I think. They must have, otherwise the testosterone that is vomited out from these people in the form of petty, irrelevant and ignorant animosity would have increased their penis size like it should have. So I feel sorry for these men with tiny cocks, whose only means of satisfaction is to temporarily mind-feck those of us who actually provide good service to our patients. I understand their job, but how shitty must it be to know that every day you go to work, people will hate you for being there. So, tiny dicks and worthless jobs. Yup, sounds just like the guys in Washington. /rant off

Done! (Sort of)

I did it! Aspiring Author finished up the ending of his book! Well, sort of. The good guys prevail (sort of), the bad guys are beaten (sort of) and I can move on to revisions (sort of). I still have the 'wrap up' chapter to complete and a short epilogue, but the story is done.

The final chapter came in at a whopping thirteen plus pages and almost 6,000 words. Remember, if a novel is roughly 100,000 words, that is 6% of the entire book in a single chapter. Most of my chapters run about 2500-3000 at the most.

I will need to go back and edit the ending though. I was so 'in the moment' last night that I wrote almost 4500 words non-stop and never looked back. That is an awesome feeling when you get in that groove, but it also means I have some significant editing to do because the brain thinks faster than even the most nimble typing fingers. I am certain there will be typos, bad grammer, repetitive descriptors and the like, but that's okay.

It's actually quite fun to go back and read those sections because when I am writing them, I am so focused on what happens next, that I have almost instantly forgotten what I wrote. I usually find some of my most favorite lines and descriptions during edits of these type of chapters because I don't let thinking get in the way of my brains creativity. Of course, when the brain is being creative, it can't type for shit, so I still have to take care of the aforementioned typos. :)

So, the book is almost done. The last chapter will tie up some loose ends and the epilogue will fill the reader in on a long forgotten character...stay tuned!

Tragedy and Life

The tragedy in Colorado touched home a little bit. I have friends who know victims of the shooting rampage. As much as I have been looking forward to the final Batman movie, the desire to be first in line on Friday night or Saturday morning had been popped like a balloon after reading the horrific details of what happened Thursday night.

So I went off to work this morning without a thought towards the Batman movie. But I am father to a 12 year old boy. And while kids always want to see a movie, it isn't until they get to be around 12 years old that they begin to really want to see certain movies. In fact, us boys always remember that first big movie we wanted to see...

Together Again

Loving Wife is back home from another week of travels. All is well with the world again.

Love to everyone!

Oh yeah...and the penultimate chapter has begun...

Oh what a lovely feeling!

With last night's breakthrough, I was able to add another 3000 words and finish Chapter 40 tonight. And Oh. My. God. Becky.  It was damn fun to write that chapter.

I just wrapped up what happens to the primary bad guy and even he said "Oh, yes, Aspiring Author, that was well done."

What a giddy feeling. I should do this more often. I can't wait for Loving Wife to get home and tell me if it is as satisfying to her as a reader as it was to me as a writer.

To continue the good news, in the middle of a craptastic day at work, an entirely new story popped into my head. I have it written down and tucked away. Aftere getting you all boned up on Urban Fantasy, I may have to start throwing some Steampunk your way!

But first...the final two chapters of this one. And an epilogue. I am not sure I will be able to sleep!

Blocking Breakthrough!

So I have been thinking, ruminating, pondering, mulling, musing and meditating over how to block the ending to my book. Blocking is a stage term that means to set the actors and scene in a play to facilitate the performance. In book form, it basically boils down to how to set up and carry through a scene.

On a stage, you can have actors doing different things at the same time because the medium of a play is both aural and visual. In a book, its a little more difficult in that you have to somehow convey the idea that multiple things are happening in the linear progression of chapters.

So while an earlier post mentioned it was much easier to write the ending of the book, I have decided that I must amend that particular commentary to say that it is much easier to visualize the end of the book as opposed to write it. In other words, I know what happens, but with so many things happening at once, in what order do they happen? Or, more importantly, in what order do I tell you, the reader, what is happening?

2700 words

I got 2700 hundred words in today. A good chunk of writing for being sick with a head cold and worried about work. It was refreshing to sit down and write again for pleasure. But it's not even 7pm and I am exhausted. I didn't sleep last night as I went through a box of tissues. Sometimes, I would rather just puke my guts out once and get it over with rather than have a cold for two days where your nose literally drips if you're not careful.

So I am going to all 2700 words a minor miracle. Let's hope I don't have to throw them all out when I read them without a ton of Benadryl on board.

Urban Fantasy Pool. Please Jump In!

So you have read my blog (you have read the rest of my blog, right? Right? Helllooo?)

Ahem...back to the subject. If you have read the rest of my blog, you know that my book is in a genre known as Urban Fantasy. Ever seen True Blood on HBO? That's Urban Fantasy with hot vampires and geeky nerboy fancrush bisexual hotties. Remeber Carnivale (also on HBO)? Urban Fantasy with weird circus people. How about something a little more accessible. Say...The Walking Dead on basic cable? Mostly Urban Fantasy with zombies! yay!*

So you have lots of Urban Fantasy around you and you didn't know it! So, how do you find it to read it? Cuz there is really good stuff out there. That is what this post is about! Also a few tidbits about my favorite authors in this genre...read on!

Project Ugh to Project Yay!

In my two months of medical leave, I missed quite a lot. Not missed in the "I wish I was there" kind of way, but in the "where the hell is AA and why the heck did he not finish his part" kind.

In other words, there was stuff I was supposed to be doing that I couldn't that I now have to catch up on, even though I have no flippin clue what I am supposed to be doing.

Word Count

I tallied up a rough word count of my book today and it's looking like I will finish up the first draft with roughly100-105 thousand words. Considering I have quite a bit of revision to do of the first half of the book, I expect that will come down some, so I am very happy I am in the right range.

Your average 300 page book has roughly 75-80,000 words. Anything over 110,000 starts to veer into big, Tolkienesque territory and is really hard to get published as a first time author. The sweet spot is between 80 and 100k. Too short, and your novel may not have enough meat. Too long, and it not only risks dragging on, but it costs more to produce.

"Mexican" Food Rant

/rant on

Trying a new Mexican food place in SoCal is supposed to be a cool little adventure into the spicy side of life for us gringos, but I knew we were in trouble as soon as we walked into tonight's "Mexican" food place.

First of all, THIS is a jalapeno. It is a small pepper with a bunch of little seeds in it. It's hot. It's used in Mexican food. Obviously, the shit you served us tonight was not Mexican food, because it would have snivled like a five year old boy if you had farted jalapeno at it from the next room.

Kings and Family

It struck me today on the way home, that yes, its true, the Kings -- my Kings! -- won the Stanley Cup this year. This still boggles Aspiring Author's concussion rattled mind*. This is good in the 'now-I-can-die-happy' sort of way. So as I am zoning out on the local freeway thinking about LA Hockey goodness, I also was thinking of who I was watching those games with.

Happy Fourth

Happy Fourth of July to all of my two and half readers!

Rent Rant

/rant on

Sometimes renting is great. When the air conditioning springs a leak, and it costs $300 to fix it, you call the warranty people and they take care of it. That's awesome.

Sometimes renting sucks pygmy marmoset balls. Sure, their tiny and they get stuck in your teeth, but that's the point. It not only sucks, it is annoying as feck.

Work Stuff

Being a Manager of People is sometimes the most rewarding thing in the world. You can turn minions into leaders. You can provide a place where people can do their best work in the best way possible. You can make a positive impact on those who work for you. You can be ultra-cool boss dude where everyone loves you.

Unless  you have my job.

*Sigh*

Wrapping it up

In a previous post, I mentioned that writing the ending is easier than much of the middle is the book. Considering I have written four and a half chapters in the past two weeks (roughly 15,000 words) that is true.

What I didn't realize is how freakin' exhausting it would be! This came as a surprise as I thought I would cruise through the ending because all those story lines were wrapping up and coming together, all I had to do was finish typing.

Then the damn characters got in the way.

Back to Work

So it is back to work for me next week. It has been nine long weeks since I last set foot in the pharmacy. I am both anxious to get back and dreading it. Going back should be a good feeling, but with all that is going on there right now, it will be like jumping back into the middle of a firefight.

But I need to go back, even if the headaches aren't gone. Being a Manager of People is sometimes a dreadfully thankless job, but it can also be extremely important. I don't pretend to be the best leader on the planet, but I like to think I do a pretty good job. But working with egos and emotional baggage can be a lot more stressful than just throwing together widgets. Or writing.

So back I go. Back into the fire and the frenzy. The good news is the book is nearly complete. I see three more chapters and an epilogue and then its time to go back to the beginning and revise, revise, revise.

Let's hope I have the energy to finish those last chapters once I return to my Real Job.

What its about (for real this time)

So, at least one of my blog readers (Hi Mom!) commented that I didn't really give you all a good idea of what my book was about in this post.

Muahahahaha! That means I am doing it right! You are supposed to be curious! You are supposed to be intrigued! What does the venerable Aspiring Author have up his sleeve?

Eh. Who am I kidding? IF/WHEN this thing gets published, it will likely be years from now, so below the jump, I will give you a little more detail...

Work Stoppage

You shall pet me and love me and worship me before you are allowed to begin Chapter 32! So sayeth Mystic Kitty!

Concussion Junction, What's your Function?

It has been eight long weeks of headaches for me, thanks to someone doing their best Metta World Peace impression to my noggin in a hockey game. Later this morning, I will finally go to the neurologist who (I hope) can shed some light on 'why'. I don't hold any expectations regarding 'how long' or finding 'this magic pill', as I am fully aware that the only consistent thing with concussions is their inconsistency in how long it takes to recover.

What I do hope happens is that I get sent for tests to rule out anything ugly, like a cracked bone in my neck, or, heaven forbid, a tumor. I honestly don't think those are issues, but until I get some scans/tests to confirm that, I can't squash those mental bugs that occasionally pop up when I am hurting the worst.

UPDATE: Crap. I am out of work for another month until I get an MRI and switch over my meds. The meds I have been on are apparently great in the short term, but terrible in the long term because they cause rebound headaches after a while. Loving Wife and I just looked at each other on the way home and shook our heads. We're pharmacists. We should have known that. Just goes to show it is very difficult to "treat yourself" when you are a medical professional.

Another Chapter done

Hard to believe, but Chapter 31 is now complete. It was probably one of the fastest chapters I have written. As I mentioned in a previous post about Chapter 30, writing the ending is actually easier in many ways. Unlike the middle of the book, where the characters can go off in innumerable ways (and often do!), the end provides a funnel effect where many things must happen in order to complete the story.

The only hard part? Making sure that a) things don't happen too quickly, b) that it isn't so predictable that the reader doesn't even bother to read the last twenty pages, and c) you don't forget anything!

A very successful literary agent commented that in the larger framework of any story, the protagonist must undergo a series of ups and downs. No one likes a hero who wins every fight or a villian who has no sympathetic characteristics. Why? Because its BORING and no one wants to read boring.

So, I just finished beating the crap out of my protagonist in Chapter 31 and damn was it fun. But I have to knock him down so that when he gets back up, it will be that much more satisfying.

I just never expected to find so much joy in putting him through the wringer. :)

A lesson on genre

So, what is my book about.? I have been getting many questions about that. Okay, no, I haven't, because no one really reads this blog yet. But I am going to tell you anyway! (Because when I become Published Author, you're gonna want to know what the hell was going on 'way back when')

First, a lesson on genre.

If you surf the net long enough at 2am, you eventually come across a lot of websites that feature naked women definitions of the various kinds of genres into which books are generally classified and stratified. Genre is different from category. You can get a decent accounting of the type of categories, by looking at amazon.com. Getting a decent account of genre is a little more difficult.

House Hunting sucks

Looked at eight houses today that were for rent in the area we like and in the price range we want. FIVE of them already had deals in place. Two turned out to be serial rentals  (read: trashy!).

Only one was decent. It will probably be gone tomorrow.

I seriously hope rentals are turning over quickly.

Milestone!

Tonight, I finished chapter 30 in my book. Since I plan on 34-36 chapters (depending on how naturally the final plot points come together), I am on the home stretch.

In fact, Chapter 31 starts the denouement.

Time to move! Wait, what?

Well this is a fine how-do-you-do. Earlier this week, I sent an email to our landlord to see if the terms of our lease would be changing. The response?

"We're selling the house. Get the heck out!"

I may have added that last part. The truth is, while it throws summer plans into complete turmoil, we need more room. With Ian growing almost as fast as the sunflowers in the back yard and Loving Wife and I trading elbows to the gut while sharing an office, more room will be welcome. We are definitely looking this as glass half full. It will also potentially allow me to get a little closer to work.

Our only issue? School. Ian is just going into middle school, and he is still a year away from potentially going to OCHSA. Decisions, decisions. Anyway, time to start saving boxes and donating clothes.

Oh...and there will definitely be pizza and beer to anyone willing to answer a call from us come moving weekend!

Weeeener!

Anyone who knows me understands that I am a huge LA Kings fan.

Thus, you can surmise that I am deleriously happy that the Kings won the Stanley Cup. What you don't know is that I am not some fairweather fan. I enjoy baseball, like football and will even watch most of a soccer match on occasion. But hockey, especially Kings hockey, can literally affect my health. If the Kings lose a couple games in a row, my heartburn kicks up to flame thrower levels and I am pretty sure my blood pressure goes up twenty points. When they win, I swear I lose weight and become more attractive to my wife.

So, being the kick-ass Kings fan that I am, and true believer, I put a bet down on the Kings to win the Stanley Cup, two hours before the game. The first game of the playoffs. I will soon be off to collect my 18-1 winnings.

That definitely makes me feel like giddy.

Being a Writer vs Being an Author

Being a writer is easy. You sit down in front of your computer and pound away to put the letters together to make words, you put the words together to make sentences and the sentences together to hopefully convey a coherent thought.

I am already a writer.

But I am not an Author. Being an Author is much harder than being a writer. Being an Author means writing in a way that other people like it so much, they want to pay to read to it. I have no doubt that I am in for a goodly number of rejections, a healthy dose of skepticism and sackful of "I told you so" from one corner of the universe or another.

But the cool thing about being an Author? You have to be a writer first and it doesn't matter how many rejections I get, how much skepticism is sent my way or how many people tell me "I told you so", they can't stop me from writing.

So I will keep doing that. And hope that by suffering through the hardships, I come out ready to be an Author instead of just a writer.

...And so it begins

With these words, I become a blogger. Weird to think about. Blogs are what I read, not what I write. But here I am, putting myself out there, throwing words at the web and seeing what gets stuck.

I can't count how many blogs that I have been to where I lurk and lurk and lurk and never comment or participate. While it is not in my nature to be overly careful, it is in my nature to be spontaneous. Thus, instead of becoming a commentor or forum troll, I just ran out and put up my own blog.

There is a reason, of course. Nothing is done without thoughtful consideration. Well, that's not true, I do a lot without any thought whatsoever, but in this case, I am hoping this becomes the home of the DavHalt the Published Author. Perhaps a few years from now, I will look at this post and tell my future self that I was a genius for starting it now.

Or not.

This could be just another leaf blown into the gutter of the information superhighway, crinkling, crackling and decaying in the detritus of life.

Or maybe its the first post of a dude who finally got his book published. Only time will tell.

Either way, since no one else is likely to do so, I welcome myself to my new blog. I wonder how long before someone else stumbles across it...