End of the year resolutions...

I look back to the end of 2015.  I wonder.  Where did this year go?  However, I did get some writing projects done...

1)  Ganbaatar:  the rough draft of a novella set in 13th century Asia got completed.  The manuscript was started in the fall of 2014.  Many things kept me from completing it.  However, I followed an outline and kept to it.  I wanted a novel.  Instead, I got a novella.  I believe that was due to me sticking to my chapter outline.  However the material was there for a novel.

2)  Half A World Away - A Poetry Chapbook:  I worked on poetry the second half of 2015.  I took my good poetry and bought it to WUTA to be critiqued and reworked.  Half A World Away is the result of that revision.  It's due for Big Books in March 2016.

3)  Poetry:  I worked on random poetry for eventual submission to an academic literary journal in the hopes of getting published again for the first time in twenty old years.

4)  Scars of Victory:  Final short story in the Desmon Singh story cycle.

5)  Kepler Falling:  Manuscript was revised and edited on its third draft earlier in the 2015.

6)  New Sci-Fi Novel:  I started a rough draft of a new speculative fiction novel.  It's about 19,000 words.  I'm aiming for 80,000 words at the end of June 2016.

2016 will see the following:

1)  Completion of rough draft of New Sci-Fi Novel.
2)  Start of third sci-fi novel in August 2016.
3)  Editing/Revising of Half A World Away.
4)  Poetry submissions to literary journals.

Early holiday purchases....

I decided to make my holiday purchases early this year.  After taking my mom book shopping at Barnes and Noble two weeks ago, I purchased books online.  I got the following:

Finland at War:  The Winter War 1939-1940.
The Battles of the Cornells and Falklands, 1914.
Red Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Blue Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson.
Hero of the Imperium by Sandy Mitchell.

I reorganized my bookshelves and put everything in order.  I also purchased Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie.  So I have about 13 hard copy books to read this coming year...

Writing second novel...

Work is progressing on my second novel.  I'm about 10,000 words into it.  I'm aiming for 80,000 words.  I hope to have it complete by July 1, 2015.

Great used book hunt...

I found a used book by Philip Jose Farmer yesterday.  I want to broaden my knowledge of commercial speculative fiction.  I'd read Farmer in the past.  But I can't recall what I read.  I also picked up Elizabeth Moon's Victory Conditions, Ben Bova's Orion and King Arthur, John Scalzi's Old Man's War, Gini Koch's Alien vs. Alien, and RM Meluch's Tour of the Merrimack:  The Myriad/Wolf Star.

I'm also looking for Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice and Stephen Baxter's Ultima.  I also have two WH40K Horus Heresy novels to read at some point, too.  There are other books I want to get.  However, I'll have to see what I can afford electronically.  Most of my new purchases will probably be ebooks.  They're normally cheaper and don't take up any space on my bookshelves.  However, I've been able to get new paperbacks cheaper than the ebooks editions recently.

Rather strange...  

Building literary agent database...

I put together a literary agent database of possible literary agents.  I have about a dozen agents, authors, and books so far.  I'll add more as I go.  I spent the weekend book shopping.  I bought books of different sci-fi/fantasy authors I need to read to know what's out there commercially.

I did start a new project.  It's a speculative fiction novel about interstellar colonization.  I don't want to give much away.  I hope it will be rather original when I get done with the rough draft.  I'm trying to write at least 2000 words/per week.  I should be done with the rough draft by the end of June 2016...

Literary Agent Hunt, Query Letters, and New Authors/Books to read

I spent the week writing a query letter and putting together a database of literary agents, authors, and books they represent.  I wanted to be authors I'd read or heard.  I wasted a lot of ink printing things out.  I finally got a small list assembled.  Some of the agents represent several authors I'd read.  I was told to have a list of at least 50-100 possible agents.  God, that'll kill me, lol!

Here's a list of authors and books I need to eventually read:

Ben Bova's Orion and King Arthur; John Scalzi's Old Man's War; Ann Leckie's Ancillary Justice; Philip Jose Farmer's Doc Savage; R.M. Meluch's The Twice and Future Caesar; Robert Jordan's Wheel of TIme, Set #1; Gini Koch's Alien vs. Alien.

I now have about a dozen different sci-fi/fantasy books to read, along with these.  I'd be lucky to get one read a month.  I might be caught up on all my reading by the time I get Kepler Falling through WUTA and Big Books in two years.  It will take me that long to get done with my reading list...

However, I'll see about getting a query letter to WUTA one of these days. Soon.

Done moving

I finished moving last night.  I just have to clean up my old bedroom, vacuum it, and give my keys back to my former roommate Saturday afternoon.  I'm tired and worn out.  I thought I'd keep cool by moving stuff in the evening.  The humidity and heat didn't cooperate.  However, all the trips I made to and from my old house to my mom's condo paid off...

Setting up my downstairs office

I spent this evening setting up my downstairs office.  I put my laptop computer, books, CDs, and DVDs, in my father's old room.  I updated my computer files and backed everything, too.  I need to install Norton 360 on the laptop latter this weekend and hook it up to the local wifi server.  I've been using my mom's machine for Internet until then. 

I finished a novella recently called Ganbaatar.  It's based on the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1223.   I don't understand why my stories turn into novellas.  This has happened on several occasions.  I wanted a novel.  I got a novella, instead. 

Or my short stories turn into novellas, too.  Battle Damage is a case in point.  I rewrote a new character and scene index to go with it.  I worked on it this morning.  I don't think it'll take long to finish.  I'm taking a hiatus from new projects once I'm done with the rough draft of Battle Damage.  I want to work on a poetry chap book, Half A World Away, and my novel, Kepler Falling.  Those projects should take the next several years... 

Rearranging the book pile: part III

I got through Unbreakable:  Book One in the Chronicles of Promise Paen.  It was fun read.  I gave away some of my books.  It included several WH40K novels.  I had some H.P. Lovecraft anthologies from my brother's book collection.  I started in them and realized I'd already read the stories in earlier anthologies.

I shelved them and moved onto another WH40K novel called Master of Sanctity.  It's the second book in the Legacy of Caliban trilogy.  It's proved to be another easy read.  But it's about 412 pages long.

That means I have four move hard copies to read before going to my electronic slush pile...

Lamenting lack of writing and progress on the book pile: part 2

I finally wrote some this past week on my Mongol invasion story/novel/novella.  It's about 20,000 words now.  I don't know how long it's going to take to finish the rough draft.  I'm not writing that much on it.  I'm lucky to get 1,250 words/per week.  Sometimes, it's more like a 1,000 words/per week.

I started working on it in March 2015.  I thought it would have progressed into more by now.  I know what I want to write.  It's just a matter of doing it.  My father's illness threw a wrench into things.  At the rate I'm going, I don't expect to get done until spring 2016.  I could get done faster if I put some effort into it.

However, with everything going on right now, I don't see that happening...

That can also be said about my book pile.  I got little reading done in my current novel, Unbreakable, this weekend.  I should be pulling out my hair.  I have about six other hard copies to read.  Plus another dozen ebooks.  As the way things stand, I'll never get done.  Unless something changes.  Still, I need to make a more concentrated effort to catch up with my pleasure reading and stop adding to my reading pile.

I haven't written this week!

I haven't written this week!  I spent Tuesday night editing poetry.  That's been it.  I plan to get back to writing next week...

My father passed away...

This is a simple note to say my father passed away on Monday, July 20, 2015 at 6 AM at home.  He suffered from terminal stomach cancer and a stroke.  He's no longer suffering and felt no pain at the end.

My father had been in hospice for seven months.  I came to terms with his impending death weeks ago.  I can now get on with my life again.  However, I understand what those who lost a parent have gone through...

Blake

Writing among a midnight vigil

I've gotten some writing done while I've been taking care of my dying father during the past several nights.  It's mainly been wargaming related stuff.  A new The Sword and The Flame variant for the Spanish-American War of 1898.  I've also written a critique of a new manuscript I read last night. 

This evening had me writing my father's impending obituary.  It was a simple piece.  I didn't feel it merited anything fancy.  Being Southern, my father's family obits rambled on for paragraphs.  Writing used an economy of words to convey a point across.  At least, that's what I've been taught. 

I never got along with my father.  He and I clashed.  I've done more for my parents in the past several months than I care to recall.  That's fine.  My father will die at home.  Loved and not alone.  I haven't really reflected on what things would have been like if he'd gone to a regular hospice unit.  I wouldn't have been burdened in staying up for nights on end making sure he got his pain medicine.  The whole ordeal has worn me down.  I'm tired and in need of sleep.

There isn't much else to say. 

Reality intervenes on my writing....

I spent the last several weeks helping my younger sibling pack for his move to Columbia, MO.  I've literary gone through my parent's house and pack boxes of books.  I've weeded out 500 books and bags of trash.  This doesn't include all the gaming stuff my brother left behind.  This project finally got finished yesterday afternoon.

I did this all for my mom, who wanted my brother's stuff out of her house.  But it's killed my writing time.  I haven't had time to really write like I want.  I was luck to finish painting.  Now, I can focus back on editing Kepler Falling and continue writing the rough draft of Ganbaatar...

Shifting priorities...

I've trudged through with Ganbaatar.  I have a lot of work to do with the rough draft.  Several of my short story projects got either shelved or will get turned into novellas or full length novels. 

Kepler 186 f has been tabled.  Battle Damage will eventually be reedited into a novella or novel.  I decided to start bringing Kepler Falling to WUTA next week.  My overriding priority will be to getting Kepler Falling edited in the next two years.  Other writing projects will be secondary.  I'll still write poetry.  But it will be whenever I feel the urge... 

Side projects still fill my time....

I wrote some nonfiction essays I'll be bring to WUTA in the coming weeks.  I also decided to bring Kepler Falling at the end of June 2015.  I don't know whether to continue trying to write a rough draft of Ganbaatar or shelve it for a later time.  It's going to be hard finding time to write this month.  I'm really leaning to shelving the novel and work on it later.  I'll see how things go....

Reflecting on online dating disasters...

I wrote some nonfiction essays about my online dating disasters.  I've led a charmed life.  When I lived in Hays, KS, I went halfway across the world to meet people.

I don't recommend it.  Stay local.  You're better off.

In the two women I met, thing's didn't work out.  I did get to see parts of the world I'd never been to.  That was when I had money.  Now, I'm lucky just to pay bills.  But that was then, this is now.  I wouldn't mind love coming into my life.  Whether that happens remains to be seen...

More submissions and revisions

I sent out several submissions for short stories.  I think I'm done writing these works for a while.  Most of my effort has been spent having my short stories critiqued by WUTA and then revising them for eventual submission.  I have a backlog of short stories.  I won't get caught up until the beginning of August 2015.

I have a new rough draft staring me in the face.  It's Ganbaatar.  I've outlined the remaining chapters and know how long it should be.  I'm guessing another 150-200 words.  I'm already at page 55 of the rough draft.  I'll be adding more to it in the coming weeks.  I'd like to have 10 pages written a week.  I don't know if that's doable.  I'll see.

I also have the third draft of Kepler Falling to have critiqued by WUTA.  That should take 80 weeks at 6 pages a week.  That also leaves 12 weeks out for poetry at the Maya Cafe.  I should work on more poetry.  But I've been lazy.  I do have the beginning of a chap book started on my computer.  I'll see about getting that published later when I have some money to afford a printer.

Regards,
Blake

Mid April 2015 updates....

I finished my third draft of Kepler Falling the end of March 2015.  It's now about 97,000 words (or 482 double spaced pages).  I'd like to submit it to a local group critique over the next year and half before reediting for a fourth time.  I'd then like to get the revised Kepler Falling to WUTA Big Books in 2017.

My current project are sci-fi short stories.  I'd like to get them critiqued by July 1, 2015.  I have markets to submit my short stories.  Some are overseas.  It'll be awhile before I hear back from them.

I've heard back from most of the poetry I submitted.  They have been rejected without comment.  A local literary magazine wanted more of my work.  I have some poetry available for critique.  I'll have to wait until the fourth Tuesday of the month before I can submit those.

I'm trying to work on a rough draft of a Mongol invasion story of Russia in 1223.  That has about 10.000 words.  I need to work on it some more this coming week.  I also have my ancient Egyptian lessons to complete, too....

Throwing myself into editing Kepler Falling....

I've spent my free time editing Kepler Falling.  I've got about 162 pages rewritten,  This novel is going to be about 100,000 words/560 pages double spaced.  I decided to focus all my free time rewriting/revising the novel.  It was hard for me to work on editing Kepler Falling and then try and write a page in Ganbaatar.

The goal now is to have Kepler Falling edited by the end of April 2015.  I go back and continue writing Ganbaatar once I have the second rewrite of Kepler Falling done.  I'm also working on short stories I'd like to get through WUTA in the next six months, revised, and then submitted to various presses.

Those are my goals...

I've also vowed to catch up on my reading this year and get the hard copies I own read.  I'm also reading speculative fiction stories from Analog Magazine.  I need to catch up on them this weekend.  M-F are for writing.  Monday evening and Saturdays are for reading!

Writing Resolutions for 2015

I started the New Year with good intentions.  I remind myself the way to hell is paved with good intentions.

The first thing was to write a page a day in the rough draft of a new historical/fantasy novel.  The second part was to revise a page a day in my first novel, Kepler Falling.

That project has taken over my free time.  I changed the POV from third person to first person.  I thought I'd take both stories and make them one long novels.  I'm now in the process of doing that.  But I've stopped work on my historical/fantasy novel.  I think I can get Kepler Falling rewritten in relatively short order.  I'll then be able to focus my full energy writing something once I get the second editing/revision done.

I'm also working on short stories.  I'm only attending WUTA once every two weeks.  So, my editing.revising of short stories will probably take the rest of the year.  That's fine, I can bring my revised version of Kepler Fallling to WUTA in 2016 and then submit it to Big Books the following year.  By that time I'll have Ganbaatar completed....