Going off-line for a while.....

I'm going off-line for a while.  Probably about two years.  I have new expenses with a new apartment.  And I can't afford internet right now for my laptop.  So, I'm putting all my blogs into hiatus for the foreseeable future.  It's been fun.  However, I'll still have personal and professional email accounts if you need to get a hold of me online. 

Thanks,
Regards,
Blake Wood Walker
St. Louis, MO
USA

Tried my hand at satire

I tried my hand at satire this week on a dark subject.  Mobile trailer meth labs and the children who are sexually abused by live-in boyfriends of their meth lab mothers who cook this crap up in front of children to leave the taxpayer stuck with the thousands in clean-up bills, 

To which I reply, "Trailer fire.  Trailer fire.  You're going to die...."

Blake

Copy editing of Kepler Falling Complete

My copy editing of Kepler Falling is now complete.  Time to move onto other projects....

Blake

Copy editing Kepler Falling

I'm going through and copy editing Kepler Falling for mistakes.  I've gone through my other novellas.  My last novella was Eternity's Edge.  That's a sequel to Kepler Falling.  I have numerous novellas to take to Writers Under The Arch this fall.  It'll keep me busy most of the the next two and half years.  Not much else is happening, right now.  I'm in a waiting mode until tomorrow or this coming week...

Blake

Week in review....

I spent the weekend going over things online.  I tried writing to no avail.  I'm going to give it another shot later this afternoon.  I've got a bunch of poetry to read, edit, and have critiqued.  I'm still working on a rough draft of Eternity's Edge.  That will take awhile.  I've run out of things to read.  I want to get more done this coming week.  The goal is 1,000 additional words. 

My younger sibling finished the first rough draft of his novel.  It's over 286,000 words!  It's way too long for a first time novel.  But he's done.  It's a cyber-noir crime story.  He's been working on it for a long time.  This was his second attempt at writing it.  It's long and involved.  My brother is a much better at descriptions and world building than me.  However, his characters have had little empathy in the past.  I don't know if that's changed with his latest writing.....

Blake 

I'm working on new summertime projects....

I been reading A Collection of Short Stories, Volume:  One by Louis L'Amour.  I've also read a couple of Napoleonic fantasy novels that were OK.  I could write better stuff than what I've read.

Writing-wise, I've tried my hand at poetry.  I've also written a western short story (it's actually flash fiction).  I also restarted my rough draft of Eternity's Edge (about 27,251 words).  I hope to have about 40,000 to 50,000 words by the time I'm done with the rough draft. 

That's it for now...
Blake

Finished draft of Nordic Sun...

I finished the ALPHA draft of the sci-fi novella, Nordic Sun, this past week.  I'm going into my BETA draft revisions now.  It will take a while to complete it.  It's about 26,000 words long.  I'll see how much I wind up cutting.  I cut off quite a bit, so far....

Blake

New spring prose projects....

Here's what I'm working on this spring:

1)  Eternity's Edge:  I'm working on the rough draft of a new sci-fi novel/novella.  It's a sequel to Kepler Falling.  I have about 26,000 words done.  I'm looking to finish the rough draft later this year....

2)  Revision of Kepler Falling:  This will be the second revision of the third draft of Kepler Falling.  I don't know how long it will take.  Probably the next six-months (maybe).  I'll bring the revised draft to WUTA for critiquing at the end of the year...

3)  Nordic Sun:  I'm about two-thirds of the way done with my third sci-fi novella.  This was my attempt to write hard sci-fi (instead of the religious based Kepler Falling space opera and Colonel Singh military sci-fi stories I wrote previously).  I have two more novellas to review at WUTA later this year. One's historical fiction/fantasy.  The other is steampunk... 

Literary journal rant....

I'm tired of dealing with literary journals.  My poetry has been rejected once again as unusable without any explanation.  Other that it didn't meet the current publishing requirements via a form letter.  I save my rejections letters.  It's a history of where I've applied and where I don't need to, again. 

What they don't tell you that your work wasn't left-leaning enough, you didn't graduate from the right undergraduate institution, and you didn't sleep with the editorial staff while in graduate school.  I'm amazed some of these presses are still in business, other than to nurture said baby-academic writers. 

Am I too cynical?  I sent my best work to them.  And when I mean my best, it was my best.  Only to be gutted by silent, pro-forma rejection.  What qualifies as acceptable work? 

I wonder....

Completed projects....

I completed the rewrite of my draft of Kepler Falling earlier this month.  I'm now working the rough draft for Eternity's Edge.  I'm also working on my weekly critique and revision of Nordic Sun, too.  That should be done in ten weeks...

Blake Wood Walker

Year end review....

I thought I'd do a year end review of my current writing projects.  Here we go:

1)  Kepler Falling 3rd Draft Rewrite:  I'm about 60% through my rewriting of the third draft of Kelper Falling.  I wanted this done by New Years 2018.  Looks like the spring of 2018, now.  I'm further behind than I'd like in getting done with this rewrite.  I might have bit more off than I could chew, however...

2)  Eternity's Edge 1st Rough Draft:  I have about 26,000 words written.  I don't know how many more I'll do.  Maybe another 25,000 words for 50,000 plus word novel.  I should aim for 60,000 and then cull the manuscript when I go to revise it the first time through.  I'd like to have this done by July 1, 2018....

3)  Nordic Sun WUTA Critique:  This is still underway.  It'll take a while to get done, unfortunately....

4)  Johannesburg Passage WUTA Critique:  Not started yet.

5)  Ganbaatar WUTA Critique:  Not started yet.

6)  Vanishing Point WUTA Critique:  Not started yet.

7)  Jesus Christ - Necromancer WUTA Critique:  Not started yet.

Weekly rewriting/revision grind: part II

Here are my weekly rewriting/revision projects:

1)  Kepler Falling.  I've been rewriting this manuscript for a while.  I don't think I'll have it done until spring 2018.  The damn thing is taking much longer than I anticipated.  Life got in the way of my writing, unfortunately.  On the bright side, I think about 60% complete with the current rewrite.  This is the manuscript's third draft....

2)  Nordic Sun.  I've been taking this to my local writers group, Writers Under the Arch.  I've been using their feedback to revise the novella.  Nordic Sun is undergoing its second revision.  I hope to have this completed by March 2018....

3)  I've shelved Eternity's Edge writing until I get done with the Kepler Falling rewrite.  That project has been backlog to the rest of 2018...

Kepler Falling is a sci-fi novel where a woman astrophysicist must make hard choices concerning a girl she loves on a sabotaged, sub-light interstellar colonization effort to a distant star system.  The choices the main character makes determines the outcome of the novel. 

Eternity's Edge is the sequel to Kepler Falling.  This time, the story is told from the prospective of the child who was saved aboard the Johannes Kepler.  Now an adult, she journey's to the edge of the universe with immortal descendants of survivors who settled Proxima Centauri aboard the FTL vessel, the Beersheba.  With their Yahweh leaders, the humans interact with a race of giant, intelligent praying mantises, who react to their presence.

Nordic Sun is a hard sci-fi novella about a Scandinavian interstellar expedition that finds out the terrestrial satellite they chose to colonization has already been claimed by another intelligent race who terraformed the world to their needs.  Hilarity and misunderstanding ensues.   

Monthly rewriting/revision grind...

I started blogging on Linkedin.com about my weekly rewriting/revisions/writing projects on my laptop.  Here's where I'm currently at this month:

1)  Kepler Falling:  I have about 200 pages worth of rewriting done.  I thought I could get done by New Years Day 2018.  That won't happen.  I'll be lucky if I finish up by my birthday in March 2018.

2)  Eternity's Edge:  I have about 25,000 words.  I need another 25,000 words for a manuscript.  I'd like to have the rough draft done by June 2018.

3)  Nordic Sun:  I'm on the eighth week of 23 weeks worth of critiques for WUTA.  This will keep me going until March 2018.

4)  Other Novellas/Short Stories:  Those projects will take the WUTA critique group until the end of October 2018 to get through with critiquing and revising/editing....

Blake Wood Walker

Current writing projects....

I'm working on the writing the third draft of Kepler Falling.  It will take until New Years Day 2018 to get the novel done.  I'm also starting to revise and write Eternity's Edge.  That's the sequel to Kepler Falling.  I don't know whether it will just a novella or a full length novel, yet.  I started the chapter outlines last week, however....

I'm also revising Nordic Sun.  That should take until the winter of 2018 to complete.
Regards,
Blake

Want to know a secret about Sapper Joe's reading list....

Want to know a secret about Sapper Joe's reading list?  It's all audio-books!  I set out to read 30 book by the end of 2017.  I've now achieved that goal.

Being a writer, you're required to read to keep abreast of the field of new and emerging authors.  It helps to know who your competition is.  In fiction, you're labeled by what genera you write. It determines how your books are marketed and how they are sold.  The publishing houses came up with it as a way to market their "brands."  It's lazy and stupid.  Because there are many good writers who's work defies labeling.

But, it's the only game in town.  I've been reading science fiction and fantasy since I was ten (except for a break of ten years).  It's what I write and am familiar.  I also read military history and biographies.  Sapper Joe listens exclusively to military history.  He's listened to about 30 books on the Russian Civil War.  Sapper Joe doesn't read fiction and hates most commercial published works.

I read 50 pages per day/four days per week.  Two books are nonfiction.  Two books are fiction.  I read both hard copies and NOOK ebooks.  The rules for writing nonfiction are the total opposite of fiction writing.  Most authors are either nonfiction or fiction.  Then there's genera.  Science fiction and fantasy are lumped together.  They are really two separate markets.  If it involves magic and fairies and vampires, it's fantasy.  If it involves plastisteel starships, sci-fi.

Right now, there's a dearth of chick-lit vampire/zombie porn being written and marketed because that what's selling.  If it has sex and demons and no plot, that will sell, too.  There's some steampunk/alternative history, too.  Not too much military sci-fi or decent speculative fiction besides Jack Campbell's Lost Fleet Series and Melunch's Tour of the Merrimack Series.  I don't consider Star Wars/Star Trek serious speculative fiction.  It has it's fan base.  I like to think, so that leaves me out.

WH40K and the Horus Heresy series are almost as bad as Star Wars/Star Trek.  Depending on the authors, the books either well written and enjoy or a dredge to read.  I thought I'd put my two cents on my own reading.  I like popcorn military action in enjoyable amounts.  Military sci-fi is an acquired taste.  I've broadened out my reading of female military sci-fi to see who writes it well.  I've found a few pleasant surprises like William Deitz's Andromeda's War and Legion of the Damned series.

My other interest in military history.  I've read a tremendous amount on the Vietnam War and First Indochina War.  I've also read about more recent conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.  Some recent books have included:

The Rhodesian War:  A Military History by Moorecroft; The Roman Empire and the Silk Road; Four Days in September;  A Devil of a Whipping:  The Battle of Cowpens; The Road to Guilford Courthouse:  The American Revolution in the Carolinas; The Madness of Alexander the Great; and Empire of the Summer Moon.

The reading piles has about 55 more books before I'm caught up.  I'm looking by the end of 2019 to done with all my current read.  That doesn't include the manuscripts I review and critique as part of a local writing workshop.  However, I am making progress....  lol.  However, slow.

More rewriting/editing...

I'm about 100 pages into my rewrite of Kepler Falling.  That's probably about 1/4 of the manuscript.  It's going to take me the rest of 2017 to complete the third revision....

I'm also working on revising Nordic Sun.  That will take the rest of the year to complete, too.  However, my poetry chapbook, Lies I Was Told, is now complete.  Both it and Half A World Away need to eventually published....

Regards,
Blake

Recent writing...

Sorry for my blogging lapse.  I've spent the previous months getting manuscripts ready for publication and taking some writing workshops.  Most of the work I've submitted has been rejected.  I need to find new short story and novella markets for my speculative fiction.

I took a workshop called The First Five Pages by Jeffrey Ricker.  I found out I needed to completely rewrite my novel, Kepler Falling.  That project started in May 2017.  I should be done with it by the end of the year.  I'll need to go though and then line and copy edit my work.  That's another 3-6 months worth of work....

Needless to say, I've been rewriting since then.  I haven't had time to write anything new.  I spent several months reediting novellas and a short story.  They are need of critiques from my local writers group.  It will take the next six months to get through two novellas.  Right now, I'm working on editing a chapbook of poetry.

I've also been reading.  I signed up for a reading challenge on Goodreads.com back in January 2017.  I'm 2/3 the way through my book pledge.  I need to read more each week in order to clear my book pile by the end of 2019.  That is the goal.  Whether that happens remains to be seen...

Blake

Completed renewed editing on Kepler Falling....

I spent the past week completing renewed editing on my novel, Kepler Falling.  The manuscript is now in need of Autocrit.com, a website that will edit and suggest grammatical and structural changes to your manuscript.  It's a paid website.  I'll see about using it this summer.  I'll use it for my other novellas that haven't been critiqued by WUTA.

I'm working on Eternity's Edge.  I don't think it'll make it into a novel.  Novella, maybe.  More like short story.  Damned my luck....

Blake

Recent work has been short stories and novellas...

My recent work has been short stories and novellas.

I'm not sure why.  I don't know if the time I'm giving myself to write has something to do with it.  Or whether my muse has betrayed me into writing shorter fiction works.  I've spent a good part of the year editing a current work, Kepler Falling.  I finished the rough draft of my steampunk novella, Johannesburg Passage, in December 2016.

I also work a short story called Vanishing Point.  It was about a French MD who goes aboard an interstellar expedition to a tropical water world, only to be hijacked in space.  Which brings me to my current project, Eternity's Edge.  It is a sequel to Kepler Falling.  I'm about 2,000 words into it.  I have more to write this morning.  I hope it will lead into another novel.  My luck would be a novella...

Speaking of which, I've written four novellas in the past two years.  Those being Johannesburg Passage, Tales from the Red Planet, Ganbaatar, and Nordic Sun.  Tales from the Red Planet is the only one to be critiqued and ready for publication.  I also have Price of Command and the Desmon Singh stories, too.  They too have proved to be without a publisher also.

The only thing gaining traction this year is my poetry.  I have one chapbook ready for publication and a second chapbook in the process of being revised.  My poetry has always been one of my strong suites getting published. Recently, it hasn't proven to be the case.  I keep my rejection letters organized to see where I submit.  However, literary journals haven't been kind to me...  

Completed my latest rough draft of a steampunk novella

I completed the latest rough draft of a steampunk novella set in South Africa during the Boer War today.  I went through and did line editing.  This is the last manuscript I'll write.  My writing has been cursed turning into novellas.  I wanted a second novel length manuscript.  All I got was three novellas.  I started to bring the first sci-fi novella, Nordic Sun, to the weekly WUTA critique meetings.  Its my longest piece at 32,000 words.  I have another historical/fantasy work called Ganbaatar  It's set during the Mongol invasion of Russia in 1223 and is 19,900 words.  I also the steampunk novella called Johannesburg Passage.  It's a wartime tragedy.  It's only 12,000 words.

These works need weekly WUTA critiques in order to be revised properly.  I'd also like to take them through WUTA Big Books for a more thorough critique after they've been revised a second time with suggestions from WUTA's weekly critique group.  I figure it will take all of 2017 in order to get the novellas reviewed.

I also have poetry at our Maya Cafe sessions to be critiqued, too....