• Writing Resources

    The Novel is Finished

    About six weeks ago, at the start of nanowrimo, I wrote my first words for the novel I’m still affectionately calling ‘Novel #4’. Today I wrote the final words*. All told, during these six weeks I’ve written 126 000 words, a few more than the 100 000 I had been aiming towards. Why did the novel end up a bit longer than I had planned? Honestly I think it was because I didn’t want the story to end. I know how it needed to end but I became too attached to some of the characters (not Wanderer specifically, he’s the backbone through the story arc driving the world he lives…

  • Writing Resources

    Novel progress

    Even though Nanwrimo ended last week I’m still hard at work on the novel (hence my relative online quietness). I passed 92000 words written yesterday. The end is in sight (though the novel will be a tad longer than originally intended). The novel, for those who are unaware is a continuation of the story started in my story ‘The Prophet’ (originally printed in The End of the Days 2 anthology — the story can be read for free at Amazon ).

  • Writing Resources

    It is finished… again!

    I’ve finished the second draft of Novel #3! What does this mean? I have a novel that I could start submitting to publishers (though I am *not* going to start submitting it just yet… more on that, below.) This revision has taken longer than I expected partly because I expended more energy on completing and promoting the Lazy Designer game design book than I had expected. Plus I did more revision work than I had intended. What have I Learned? My first drafts need to improve. I am still spending too much time on the revisions. This revision was finished quicker than the last; I hope for the next novel…

  • Writing Resources

    Halfway to Three

    This week has been productive writing wise… I just passed the halfway point on my third novel (first draft). If I keep an aggressive schedule I”ll finish the rough draft by early July. Then I’ll spend a month or so reviewing it (while preparing for the fourth novel) and then start in on a revision draft. So it looks like I should be able to start submitting it in early fall. I’ve also done a bit of a course correction. I had almost finished planning the next novel but I’m going to save that planning for later and instead the fourth novel will be a novel set in the world…

  • Writing Resources

    The Prophet

    My story ‘The Prophet’ is now available in the anthology END OF DAYS: AN APOCALYPTIC ANTHOLOGY VOLUME 2 from Living Dead Press. You can order the anthology directly from Amazon. This story is actually the first (chronologically) in a series of stories featuring Wanderer. The ‘end’ of the series was my first story in print. It was called ‘The End of the Road’ and appeared in Not One of Us and is available through AnthologyBuilder. Goodreads reviews for The Prophet Reviews from Goodreads.com

  • Writing Resources

    October has been a good month for the stories

    Just a few days before finding out that my Writer’s of the Future submission had qualified as a finalist, I received acceptances to two anthologies. Both anthologies will be available in 2010. When I’m allowed I’ll post details about the markets and stories (one is a fantasy story set in the same universe as The Tale of Lady Spite and From the Sea, the other is sci-fi and is in fact the first story of my ‘Wanderer‘ sc-fi future universe which terminates with The End of the Road, published by Not One of Us ). Just had to share the good news. And today I received an acceptance for another…