Monday, August 30, 2010

Episode 11 Takes Off

Episode 11 of The Dark InSpectre is now online, and things start getting way funky as our hero meets a grim ghost from the past who whacks an old friend from the present.

Here's an excerpt:
Bonardi’s expression went from pain and confusion to stark terror. “No…you’re…I mean, he’s…dead. That was years ago. I saw the body. There’s no way.” He shook his head back and forth, eyes wild.

Multiple Man lapped up his fear, savoring it. “Apparently, some deaths are more permanent than others.”

Get some: http://darkinspec.blogspot.com/

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Rejection Redux

Got a short story rejected from the historical fiction web magazine Lacuna. Really thought I had a shot. Another one to add to the pile. Sigh...

Here's the actual note:
"I'm sorry for taking so long to get back to you. I thought 'Forge of the Soul' was a creative idea, and your writing style is very readable and well-paced, but I'm afraid the ending didn't quite work for me. I wish you the best of luck placing it elsewhere."

So it's not all bad, and I appreciate the nice words. I even said so in a reply to her, also asked what didn't work for her about the ending. Don't know if I'll get a reply to that. I'll have to re-read and think about it before re-subbing. Another one bites the dust...

Saturday, August 21, 2010

On the Bus

I took the bus on Friday to Rinebeck, NY to pick up my older boy from summer camp, about a two and a half hour ride, so I took my trusty laptop and tried to do some writing. I can't say I really remember ever writing on a bus before, but I figured, hey, can't be that big a deal, right?

It was...interesting. VERY bumpy heading upstate. And the bus was piping in this ridiculously loud movie the whole time, which was extremely annoying. But I did get some good writing done, so it was worth it in the end. And then my computer ran out of juice way before I was expecting it to, which was troubling.

So, not an experience I'd want to repeat, all things considered. But then again, you have to take your writing time where you can get it, right? This was another Dark InSpectre episode, so if I finish it off in the next day or so, I can get back to the crime novel over the next week. Yay!

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Guest Bloggin

I'm guest blogging over at Abandoned Towers today on creative writing. It's a new Wordpress blog and it posted just great, which was a huge relief seeing as I'm not the most tech savvy person in the world. Come on over and visit!

http://abandonedtowers.com/weblog/a-little-exercise-for-the-old-creativity-muscle/

Monday, August 16, 2010

Big Ten

Episode 10 of The Dark InSpectre is now online, in which Jack wades knee-deep into a fresh crime scene the likes of which he's never seen before, and catches a glimpse of a brand new player, Multiple Man.

Here's an excerpt:
I was grateful for the air conditioning, feeling the sweat start to cool on the back of my neck. Then the smell of laser burn and charred flesh assaulted my nose. I looked around. There were three bodies—the officer and a female civilian lay next to each other about ten feet from the store clerk who was sprawled over the counter by the cash register. There was a pale, translucent presence accompanying each one, but I ignored them for the time being. Standard procedure was read the scene first, talk to the dead later.


Sunday, August 15, 2010

Back in the Saddle

After more massive work on re-claiming lost computer files, finally got back into writing some more on the new crime novel today. It had been a while, so I re-read the first three chapters to get the feel again, then picked up where I left off with the start of chapter 4. Felt good, got back in the flow.

Tomorrow, though, have to switch gears back to the Dark InSpectre with a new episode, where things are really picking up at a wicked pace, so stay tuned! And then after I post, I'll write another new episode about four episode's ahead since that's about how far out I like to keep in terms of the story in my head. And then maybe I can get back to the crime novel, and then I have another guest blog post over at Abandoned Towers this Friday!

So even though it seems like I'm not doing very much, in reality I guess I am. Then why won't my little voice stop nagging at me to get back to work...?

Monday, August 9, 2010

The return of GN/BN

Yes, it's time once again for Good News/Bad News.

Good News: My editor/publisher really liked the first three chapters and plot overview I handed in of the crime novel I started, so she green lighted me and I'm off and running with it!

Bad News: I just got another soul crushing rejection of a short story I submitted back in May to a market that usually gives good feedback, but this time gave none.

Good News: Audio episode 3 of Unfinished Business just ran on the Beam Me up podcast, which is always cool exposure for me.

Bad news: my home computer went kablooey and I spent all weekend fixing it, so got absolutely no writing done whatsoever, and it's still not completely fixed

Good News: My reasonably sucessful (by my low standards) series the Dark InSpectre is going well and I'm just entering a completely wild set of episodes that will send events spinning off in a very cool direction.

Bad news: my health has been absolutely crap and I've felt completely awful; getting hit with migraines several times a week, also nasty drug side effects. Not fun at all.

So what's the tally? Bad news 3, Good news 3. It's all tied up. I could go either way. C'mon, gimme some good news...!

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Idle musings

I was poking around some of the other series produced by my editor/publisher in addition to The Dark InSpectre and saw something interesting. Her publishing company, Cyberwizard Productions, is taking one of them, Knight Terrors: The (mis)Adventures of Smoke the Dragon, and turning it into a book. The series is close to wrapping up and she's taking all the episodes and putting them together into a print piece. She posted the cover online. It's pretty sweet.

Just got me thinking. Wonder if that'll happen with my series. That would be cool. Just by my rough estimation, I'd say it's not quite at the halfway mark yet of the current storyline. By the time it would reach the last episode, the whole series would probably be about book length. Of course, I have no idea if anyone would buy it, aside from my friends and family of course (love ya mom!), but it would still be pretty cool. Okay, daydreaming over. Back to work. Though I wonder what the cover would look like. And who would play Jack in the movie...

Monday, August 2, 2010

Episode 9 Hits the Web

I've just posted Episode 9 of In Plain Sight, The Dark InSpectre series. We're now starting to pick up steam with the beginning of a new homicide investigation to add to our hero's various dilemmas.

Here's an excerpt:
At that moment a call came in over the comm in my ear. “All units, multiple homicides, officer down, Wheeler’s Convenience Store, corner of Trafford and Old Towne Road. Please respond.”
Trafford and Old Towne was just a few minutes away.

I thought about it. A potentially pissed off Mary or a fresh multiple homicide. The chicken in me won hands down. I swerved across three lanes of traffic, ignoring the beeps and shouted obscenities as I raced through the early evening.



Sunday, August 1, 2010

So now I'm writing a novel...

I finished reviewing and revising the first three chapters and the plot overview and sent it in. Within a half an hour, that's right, thirty minutes, my editor got back to me and gave the green light to go ahead with the whole manuscript. She really liked it. I found the plot overview very interesting to write. It really forced me to figure out in my head step by step where this story is logically going to go. Of course things can and will probably change, but it was a valuable exercise that I should probably do more often.

I liked my wife's reaction best. She looked at my editor's very positive response and turned to me and said, "so now you're writing a novel." Priceless. (she meant that in a good way). So the storyline of the novel is a straight crime fiction drama, no scifi whatsoever, very hardhitting.

So now what? Right now I take a breath. I've been writing at a very hard pace lately both on the first three chapters and the Dark InSpectre series. Doing both at the same time has been tough. I'm going to ease up just a wee bit on the novel over the next week or two, and then dive back in. But right now it's all good. Let's hope I can keep it up. And stay tuned for Episode 9 of Dark InSpectre tomorrow!