Back and Working

We’re back from a fun-filled excursion to Florida visiting dear friends and then the Land of the Mouse. Taking over the world, is Disney. Some may view that with alarm, but hordes of others welcome the inevitable coming of our new overlords. At least, judging by the crowds in the theme parks. A veritable river of people, thick and fast-flowing. And of those over about 11 or 12, most were doggedly focused on getting to the next ride or attraction. Very few of those leaving Space Mountain or Buzz Lightyear’s ride or even Pirates of the Caribbean looked excited, or happy, or entertained; more, it seemed to be: Where to next? I might miss something I’ve planned to do. Not the reaction I’d hope for at “The Happiest Place on Earth!”

Back home, I finished the Ugly First Draft of Coda?. Well, except for closing it off; I still need to think about that, and I’m going to ask my long suffering partners to take a look and see if I’ve had any success in telling the story I hope to. Comments may drive the tenor of the ending.  So far, it’s just over 90K words, right where I hoped it would be. Strangling the characters when they want to run off may have a more beneficial effect than I’d thought.

The rewrite of Connections is about a third through. I’ve benefited from the blog posts I mentioned last time, at Ramblings of a Grumpy Old Man (not me, in this case!) and other input (thanks, reading partners!) and I hope the lessons learned lead to a better result. So far, four or five insignificant (read: extraneous, unrelated to the story) plot lines have been deleted, but I fear the word count goes up as often as it goes down; it’s still over 110K. Hopefully, they are better used than the earlier ones.

The next task will be the description and the covers. Suggestions will be welcome; if you’d like to offer one, say so, and I’ll try to give you information to point you.

Comments are always welcome.

From On the Road

Not a Bing Crosby-Bob Hope movie… I hope. Who remembers them besides me?

We’re back in the land of no internetz, well except for Panera Bread. In Norfolk, on the way to meet the grandson at The Mouse, in Florida. He, with parental units, will arrive Sunday, the same day we plan to get there. While he goes by plane (school vacation is all he has), we’re driving, hence the intermediate stops, here at Gramma’s house and then outside Savannah. Us old people don’t want to drive all that long any more, LOL.

As for writing, my job for now, I’ve finally finished up two critiques for wonderful people that I can’t say any more about since their work isn’t public yet. I’ll try to let you know when they’re available.

Freedom Does Matter has a review on Goodreads. I’m not sure about the proprieties of reposting, but it’s linked from my book page, here. She discusses Mercenaries, too. Sales are existent, but countable on hands so far.

The third book, which has gone through maybe ten titles starting with Background Check, is currently called Connections for now. I’m trying to find a photo or two I can work both the English and Spanish words into. I have, two days ago, finished a major revision, recommended by my readers, and I’m letting it stew for a week or so, till we return home at the end of the month. If I can get it read again, I’m hopeful for an April release. I’ll post more about that later, along with some ideas for the cover. Reaction is always welcome.

The fourth book, working title Coda?, will be coming up for more work now that I’ve set Connections aside. Lessons learned from Connections are being applied, and that should make the story both stronger and clearer. But new scenes are required! It’s about 70Kwords now; the goal is 110K +/-, similar to Freedom and Connections.

I don’t believe I mentioned it before, but the hand-hewn map I used in the front matter of all the Mercenaries books describing the Nest, has been redrawn by Tommi Salama, find him at tommisalama (at) gmail.com. I think he did a great job; he’s looking at another map of the Nest, used in the reference material section, again, of all the books. You could find a worse cartographer. He does graphic design as well.

There are interesting posts at Ramblings of a Grumpy Old Man, . Try it and see if you like it.


Your thoughts and comments are always welcome!