The bare-bones Dark InSpectre site is back up. The the new theme and banner graphic have not been downloaded yet (still waiting for my editor to do that), but it's functional and I've started fooling around with it, installing some widgets, etc. I've also started uploading all the original episodes. I'm about halfway done. Hopefully my editor can find some time to add her own touches to the site and I can send out that long-awaited email welcoming everybody back. I think I'll post a double new episode for everybody along with a thanks for being so patient. There are still lots of little details to work out with the site, how to moderate comments, how to upload the audio episodes. But it's all finally happening. So yay!
In other news, I just happened to run across my story from that Pirates and Swashbucklers anthology on the publisher's website being offered for free as an enticement to buy the anthology. So if you want to read it for free, check it out here. And if you like it, buy the whole book, all the stories are really good, I swear!
And speaking of that anthology, the editor just emailed me to verify my PayPal account. It seems like I'm actually going to get paid for it, woohoo! Of course, it's all PayPal money, which I regard as monopoly money, but still pretty cool, right?
AND I'm about halfway through a new short story I've had in my head for a long time. So double yay! I definitely seem to have emerged from the morose stasis field I was caught in when it came to my various writing endeavors. Thank god, it was getting depressing for a while there. But things seem to be picking up at last!
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Monday, January 9, 2012
She's Back!
Hooray! A day before I was planning on e-mailing my editor to see WTF'sU, she e-mails me! Turns out she's had the flu and so been totally out of commission. But she's back now and ready to roll. So she's going to finish fixing up the new version of the Dark InSpectre site, and I just sent her the next four episodes to edit. So yay! I'll still have to re-load all 58 of the old episodes, so boo! But at least things are moving ahead. I also wrote the next monthly blog column for the Abandoned Towers site, so that's out of the way, too. Looks like things are back on track, which is good. I can't tell you the various grim scenarios that were going through my mind on what had happened. The most likely one was the tried and true kidnapped by mutants scenario. Thank god they are all just figments of my tortured paranoia. Hopefully we'll all be seeing Jack Garrett back on the web in a couple weeks. :)
Sunday, January 1, 2012
Back from the Break
For the holiday break, I took the fam down to Rockville, Md. to stay with my folks. We just got back yesterday after five full days of family fun. It was a good trip, and I actually was able to revise a short story that had been nagging at me so that it's now ready to be re-subbed. It was a pretty substantial overhaul, so I'm pretty happy I was able to get it all done while on break. Still no word from my editor on anything. A facebook friend of mine actually asked me what's happening with the Dark InSpectre, so people are, in fact, conscious of it's absence. I'm going to have to send my editor a concerned email soon asking her what the hell's up. Oh, happy new year's!
Friday, December 16, 2011
Back in the Saddle
After a short break, I have returned with my column over at Abandoned Towers. Go take a gander and be inspired by the gloriousness of my words!
http://abandonedtowers.com/weblog/2011/12/16/because-inspiration-doesn%e2%80%99t-take-a-holiday/
http://abandonedtowers.com/weblog/2011/12/16/because-inspiration-doesn%e2%80%99t-take-a-holiday/
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Waiting, Waiting, Waiting
There hasn't been a whole lot of writing activity lately. This hasn't been entirely my doing, though, so that's something. I turned in my revised novel to my editor/publisher about two weeks ago and have heard nothing. I'm hoping it's going well, but who knows? Actually after addressing her macro revisions, I'm kind of expecting a major line edit to come back. But again, who knows? I have heard nothing since I sent it in.
Speaking of silence, it's now been almost two months since the Dark InSpectre went dark. There had been some progress. There's still that blank skeleton site up, but that went up about a week and a half ago. I sent an email to my editor/publisher last week checking on the progress and have heard nothing. It's kind of giving me an uneasy feeling getting nothing but silence on two fronts. Makes me think something's going on. Paranoid? Me? Well....
I know that what I should really be doing is addressing some short stories that have been on the back burner for a while. But to be honest my health hasn't been the best and work has been quite crazy. So it's just been kind of a lull. Which isn't terrible. I just wish I'd hear something...
Speaking of silence, it's now been almost two months since the Dark InSpectre went dark. There had been some progress. There's still that blank skeleton site up, but that went up about a week and a half ago. I sent an email to my editor/publisher last week checking on the progress and have heard nothing. It's kind of giving me an uneasy feeling getting nothing but silence on two fronts. Makes me think something's going on. Paranoid? Me? Well....
I know that what I should really be doing is addressing some short stories that have been on the back burner for a while. But to be honest my health hasn't been the best and work has been quite crazy. So it's just been kind of a lull. Which isn't terrible. I just wish I'd hear something...
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Back From the Abyss
Slowly but surely, The Dark InSpectre is crawling back from Internet Oblivion. Like a rash you just can't get rid of. A thrilling, compelling, irresistable rash of chocolate-covered joy. After doing several webby things involving domain names and DNS servers (I asked several people for help), I have registered darkinspectre.com and enabled my editor/publisher to host it. She is using the wordpress theme we picked out and is building the actual site. But it exists! Yes, if you go there, you will see an empty, under construction page. But this is progress cuz as little as one week ago, even this bare bones framework was not a reality. So yay! I suppose at some point, all the previous episodes will have to be re-loaded. I am not looking forward to that.
On the novel front, I have done the heavy lifting in terms of the revision my editor wanted, and I even have a nifty idea for what to do witht the first chapter she wanted me to excise. Hint: I will make it available on my web site as a promotional teaser! So now all that remains is going through the whole manuscript again and smoothing out the language. I'm more than half way done and steamrolling ahead. Soon, very soon, this book will be ready for the next round. Muaahaaahaaa!
On the novel front, I have done the heavy lifting in terms of the revision my editor wanted, and I even have a nifty idea for what to do witht the first chapter she wanted me to excise. Hint: I will make it available on my web site as a promotional teaser! So now all that remains is going through the whole manuscript again and smoothing out the language. I'm more than half way done and steamrolling ahead. Soon, very soon, this book will be ready for the next round. Muaahaaahaaa!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Well, That Was Fast
One thing I'll say about my publisher/editor. When I send her something important, the feedback is pretty fast. I sent her the finished manuscript of my crime novel around late morning yesterday, and she gave me feedback in the late afternoon. I really don't know how she reads these things so fast.
The feedback itself? Ah yes. First of all, I asked her pointedly if she thought it was any good. Her answer: yes. So now there is one other person outside of my wife who thinks my novel is worth the electronic paper it's written on. Yay!
And of course she wants some revisions. The first is relatively minor, just go through the manuscript and fix some areas that exhibit a particular style of writing I tend to fall into, namely short, choppy paragraphs. Mind you, I actually like that style in some instances, particular for action/intense sequences. But she wants me to cut down on them, which is fine.
The next thing is not so simple. She wants me to cut out the entire first chapter and start with chapter 2. I respect the thinking behind this. A piece of well-worn, age-old advice for writers is to "start in the middle" and it often takes writers a chapter or two to really get into their story and build up steam, so to speak. It's often a good idea to just rip away all the beginning introductory stuff and start with the "meat" of the story.
However, I actually have a lot of good "meat" in my first chapter, as well as several developments that are integral to the plot. Her advice is to weave in whatever details are necessary into the next chapter or two, but eliminate that first one. I would almost rather she told me a character didn't work for her, or something in the plot needed to be fixed. To me that would be easier to tackle than trying to wend through line by line inserting dialogue and clever little asides meant to convey all the information from the first chapter that's necessary for the story. Cuz there's a lot of it.
Of less importance is the fact that I really liked what I wrote, and I will have to mourn the scenes that end up on the cutting room floor, including the opening, which I thought was absolutely perfect. But I guess that's what I'll do. I'll take this as a challenge, and try to make it work. Good thing I took off next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I now know what I'll be doing.
And I suppose it could be much, much worse, right? She could've said it outright sucked. So maybe I should just get to work, cuz when all is said and done, this manuscript is one major step closer to getting published. And that's a good thing.
The feedback itself? Ah yes. First of all, I asked her pointedly if she thought it was any good. Her answer: yes. So now there is one other person outside of my wife who thinks my novel is worth the electronic paper it's written on. Yay!
And of course she wants some revisions. The first is relatively minor, just go through the manuscript and fix some areas that exhibit a particular style of writing I tend to fall into, namely short, choppy paragraphs. Mind you, I actually like that style in some instances, particular for action/intense sequences. But she wants me to cut down on them, which is fine.
The next thing is not so simple. She wants me to cut out the entire first chapter and start with chapter 2. I respect the thinking behind this. A piece of well-worn, age-old advice for writers is to "start in the middle" and it often takes writers a chapter or two to really get into their story and build up steam, so to speak. It's often a good idea to just rip away all the beginning introductory stuff and start with the "meat" of the story.
However, I actually have a lot of good "meat" in my first chapter, as well as several developments that are integral to the plot. Her advice is to weave in whatever details are necessary into the next chapter or two, but eliminate that first one. I would almost rather she told me a character didn't work for her, or something in the plot needed to be fixed. To me that would be easier to tackle than trying to wend through line by line inserting dialogue and clever little asides meant to convey all the information from the first chapter that's necessary for the story. Cuz there's a lot of it.
Of less importance is the fact that I really liked what I wrote, and I will have to mourn the scenes that end up on the cutting room floor, including the opening, which I thought was absolutely perfect. But I guess that's what I'll do. I'll take this as a challenge, and try to make it work. Good thing I took off next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I now know what I'll be doing.
And I suppose it could be much, much worse, right? She could've said it outright sucked. So maybe I should just get to work, cuz when all is said and done, this manuscript is one major step closer to getting published. And that's a good thing.
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