Editing and writing projects - August 2016

After deciding to shelf Kepler Falling, I went ahead and am doing a final edit on the manuscript.  It's looking like it will be my only full novel length project. 

My current writing project, Johannesburg Passage, is turning into another novella.  I'm only 5,500 words into it.  However, I outlined everything in order for things to make sense.  It's a steampunk/alternative history story set during the Boer War.  I think it will be last writing project for a while.  I have several novellas in need of marketing/critiquing. 

I thought I'd edited another sci-fi novella called Nordic Sun.  I couldn't find the latest copy.  I went back to my previous copy and doing the editing all over.  That's two weeks worth of work.  Ugh.  It needs to go through critiquing at WUTA in the coming months. 

So much for my poetry... 

New writing project....

I'm doing a final edit of Kepler Falling.  Afterwards, I'm shelving the manuscript.  There are several reasons for this.  One is the subject of the novel.  Second is what happens during the conflict and how different groups might perceive thing.

Given today's political climate, I felt best not to get the manuscript published.  Maybe sometime in the future when cooler heads prevail...

However, I'm working on a new writing project.  This involves a steampunk story set during the Boer War.  I'd like to get at least 50,000 words out of it.  It'll be a short manuscript.  That's okay.  I'd outline the story back in January 2016 and then shelved it and the plot outline until this month.  I started working again on things last week.  I have 2000 words so far.  I'd like to write 500 words per week.  4 times a day week for 2000 words per week.  That means I'll have a manuscript completed in about six months...

Getting back to Kepler Falling.  I'd been working on the manuscript for ten odd years.  It was my baby.  It's hard to be objective and know when to let things go.  This is one of those times, unfortunately.

Blake

June 2016 reading....

I spent the month finishing Small Favor by Jim Butcher.  The book is the 10th installment of the Dresden Files.  It was somewhat formulaic and predictable.  Harry Dresden is a battle wizard in Chicago, IL in an urban fantasy.  He gets pulled into a conflict with fallen angels and military arm of the Catholic Church.  There's also the Italian mafia and the fae.  Dresden moves from one battle to another.  The books is non-stop action.  Enjoyable, but predictable...

I'm also reading Proxima by Stephen Baxter and The Last Stand of Fox Company. 

Proxima is about Yuri Eden's settlement on Proxima Centauri c. an Earth-like planet orbiting a red dwarf.  There's intelligent life on the planet.  I'm getting to the part of first contact between the remaining humans and native life-forms. 

The other nonfiction books is The Last Stand of Fox Company.  It's about a US Marine Corps company during the Korean War at the Chosin Reservoir.  I'm at the point where a Chinese Peoples Liberation Army infantry battalion is attacking Fox Company on a cold winter's morning...

That's what I'm reading right now.  I'll move onto another hard copy of The Lost Fleet:  Beyond the Frontier series by Jack Campbell.  I'm making more progress with the hard copies than I'm with my ebooks, right now.  

Editing Kepler Falling - 5th Draft

I'm in the process of editing Kepler Falling - 5th Draft this summer.  I'm about halfway done.  I posted my novel in Inkshares.com, which is a crowd-source publisher.  I haven't had much luck with it, however.  I haven't had that much time to really put into promoting the novel.  I should do a much better job.

Most of my effort has been on editing Kepler Falling.  This book will probably the only novel I ever write.  My other works have been novellas.  I don't know what that says about my writing.

Regards,
Blake

Finished Ganbaatar. Reedit. Repeat.

I finished editing Ganbaatar earlier this month.  I moved back to editing Kepler Falling.  I'm on my fifth draft of the novel.  It seems like the only thing I do is reedit/revise/repeat.  I figure I'll be editing the rest of the year until I'm done revising.

I have poetry in need of critiquing.  I haven't been able to make it to WUTA lately.  My family life has thrown me some curves with a sick parent.  I still edit and revise each day.  It daunting with a large project like Kepler Falling.  It'll literary take months to get through all 96,000+ words.  I need to writer some more poetry when I find the time.

More novella editing this April 2016....

I have about 30 more pages of editing left to do in Ganbaatar.  I'd like to get the novella does by the end of the week.  I'll see how I do...

Blake

April 2014 novella editing

What should be consumed by poetry is being drowned out by novella editing.  I'm on the third draft of Ganbaatar.  Fortunately, it's under 20,000 words.  Bad news, I'm on Page 19.  This will take a while to plod through...

Blake