Today I will be getting a package in the mail. It will contain a couple of toys. I will not allow myself to touch those toys until my word count is at 225,000 or above. I’m presently at 224,000 (give or take a hundred words). I will make that happen in short order. I know I will. Not because the toys are showing up (though they are great motivation) but because I’ve been writing daily for five months now without fail. I’ve not missed a day. Sure I’ve had a couple days that were extremely light, but I’ve written daily and will continue to do so with or without the toys.

At they start they will be toys. Why? Because I’ll be playing with them to get them set up and discovering new uses for them. At present I’m not a gamer, but the two toys I’ve ordered (I’ll post about them tomorrow) will be used more for productivity with both my work and my writing. I know I won’t be utilizing them to their fullest, but they’re cool, I wanted them, I had a couple ideas what I’d be using them for. That and I felt that for sticking to my goal and getting way ahead of schedule, I deserved to spoil myself a little.

I know I ask this a lot, but if you’re a writer, what’s stopping you from writing daily? You can come here daily, see that I’m getting words out and those words add up quickly. Very quickly.

I won’t push and pry. Well, probably not until tomorrow’s Unorthodox Writing Tip anyway.

Of Gnomes and Dwarves is just as much fun to write as I remember. The original text only had one viewpoint with some head hopping. That was pretty much from Maus and Willie’s Point of View. I’ve changed that slightly. I’m now in Maus’s head a majority of the time and I’ve added scenes for Reeg and Semal. Semal is the main villain and we’ll get to see his mental breakdown in glorious detail throughout the book just as well see Maus come to grips with his own fears and preconceived notions about others. Willie, well, he’s Willie and always will be.

I asked my favorite daughter about Slick and Dorg. If you recall I was going to change the sex of these characters. I explained to her how they played in the book and she didn’t like the change. Based on her input and my own thinkings on the topic, they will not be changing. I don’t think the story will suffer for it. It will still be a fun story. I’m almost at the first scene with Slick

One thing I’ve noticed in the original writing. It was very fast-paced to the point where a lot of details were either glossed over very briefly or completely left out. I am, of course, filling in the blanks that I left behind in the original writing without even thinking about it. Things like descriptions, character’s feelings and inner monologue, background history, introspection, and better narration. And lots more dialog. I didn’t realize just how much the story was lacking. From what I can tell the story will probably come in around the 90,000 word mark without even trying hard.

Currently I’m 9 chapters in and already at 17,000 words. Compared to the original at the same point in the story where I was at roughly 6500 words. Granted there are new scenes, but the ones I’ve re-written are much richer and fuller than the previous writing. I don’t feel I’ve lost the original feel of the story, only improved upon it. I would think it difficult at this point to write the story worse. As I’ve said, I think I’m finally at the point as a writer where I can tell the story I want to tell.

This isn’t a bad thing, but I had many friends and family read the original. I got a lot of “This is really good”, “I liked it”, etc. I did get a couple “It’s missing something, but I’m not sure what” responses that I took to heart when I kept writing on this story over and over and over for many years. It wasn’t until I stopped working on it and started writing more words and more works that I realized what it had been missing. For some reason I was afraid to basically throw away the story again and start over. I’d done that a dozen times before and starting over seemed like work. Now, I look at it as needed and a fun trip back to where it all began.

I’ve got a lot to do today, so I’d better get at it. Sorry I didn’t post a duck picture today.

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!

I ask myself strange questions all the time. One of the biggest is why do people stop by here and listen to me ramble. Then I figure they might have discovered me from something I’ve done and perhaps want to know more about me. Let me give you a quick run down.

Author and podcaster of V&A Shipping, Billy Barbarian, and Murdockian Tales.

Author of Astel (available in ebook and print formats)

Author of a few eshorts available on smashwords.

I’ve written a lot of books. Six are currently with a publisher for review. I’m anxiously waiting to hear word back. I have several more than are in progress at some stage and I’m currently in the re-writing phase on my first books in the Of Gnomes and Dwarves series.

To date I’ve written over 100 short stories and 13 novels. I have 4 that are started and I’m aiming to get those done one day. I’ve been writing in some form or another since 1985. I was serious for brief periods over those years and completed a lot of words during all that time.

It wasn’t until this year (2012 if you’re reading this from the future) that I got serious enough to track my progress and write on a daily basis. I came to the determination that I’ll never succeed as a writer if I don’t take it as seriously as any other job. In this year I have planned to write 450,000 words. So far I’m at 225,000 words. I will meet my goal and most likely surpass it. I’ve written more than ever before and I’m much happier about my writing than I ever have been.

I was always in love with the dream of being a writer, but now I’m seeing that dream become a realization as I get more and more works completed and sent out to be reviewed and hopefully one day soon, accepted. I have gotten my momentum down and I have no plans of letting up now. 2012 is the year I get the ball rolling and keep it rolling.

That’s who I am as a writer. I’m also a father of my favorite daughter and married to the wife. Both complete me in ways I cannot explain and I enjoy spoiling my babies. I live in Southern California which is as close to paradise as I can get. I grew up in Minnesota and Colorado so I have enough of the woods and snow for a lifetime. We have two poodles (both white) and they also keep me busy.

Now is your turn. Who are you? Let me know. I’d love to hear from you.

Tomorrow I’ll talk about ducks.

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!

I spent my four years in the military. As I’ve said here before, it wasn’t a lifestyle for me. Having spent some time in the military I can appreciate the sacrifice the men and women are given and have given. It’s not easy being in. At least it wasn’t for me. For men like my brother, it was a difficult 20 years, but he finished out his time. I’m thankful for what he did for his country and for me. He spent more time overseas and in the Gulf Wars than he did back home. Though he got to see so many different countries, he spent a greater amount of time looking at nothing but water for days and weeks on end.

If you ever have a chance, thank a military man or woman. One who has given up a piece of his or her life to do something that most people can’t do, won’t do, or wouldn’t even think of doing. It is because of them that you actually have a choice. It is because of them that I can spend a majority of my time sitting in from of a computer writing code, writing books, surfing the web, and having a better life for myself. I was once part of their ranks, but chose a different path when the time came.

If you are in the U.S. Military, any branch, I say “Thank you.” For everything you do or have done or will do. Putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation and often life threatening you ensure that I can live the life that I choose to live. There are no words that can express how grateful that I am for all you do. If you were here, I would not shake your hand, I’d give you a hug. It means that much to me. I know a little of what you’re doing and what you’re going through. Because of you, I got to go camping this weekend and eat too much, get too much sun, and need more rest now than when the weekend began. I can play silly games on my phone (Temple run is addicting. #justsaying). I can read a book. Listen to a band, take pictures of ducks, and enjoy my family and friends.

Thank you.

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!

The sun and I have never really gotten along. When I was a kid and in the sun all day (and never without sunscreen) I would tan a golden color that my favorite daughter now does. Now if I don’t slather on sun screen on an hourly basis I turn a n interesting shade of pink that will start to itch and then I know it’s too late.

Today I am a little itchy and a nice shade of red. I will do my best to avoid the sun but I’m confident that I will darken a little more.

The wife is getting some spray sun screen and I will do my best to spray and slather as often as possible as we will be spending a good amount of time at the beach.

I had a crazy dream last night that had me as the star as my dreams often do. I was in an insane asylum. They thought I was insane as they do at these places. My neighbor had his wife living with him but ninjas came and killed his wife. I tried to explain this to the attendants but they threatened to lock me away.

Before I could escape, three ladies that looked as much like old hags as any old hags have looked gave me a test with some tiny sculptures that they claimed I made as a kid. I knew the work was far too good for my uncoordinated hands and before I had arranged them all in the box I smashed them all and escaped.

I found musket upon stairs trying to tell the person in charge that ninjas were trying to kill me. He didn’t believe me and they killed him. I was back on the run.

I found a white.backhoe and started digging a hole next to a white, picket fence when the white ninja found me. I smashed and hurried him. The person with me said “I’m glad that’s over.” But I had to explain that just because they appear dead doesn’t mean they are dead.

Once again I was o. The run.

Then the Millikan’s son got up, stumbled around the tent and nearly fell on me. I was face down in my pillow so I misses the entertaining fall, but still got a good laugh out of it.

Today will see more camping fun. I am off to go take more pictures of ducks.

Until Tomorrow!

Woo Woo!

Last night and today was a camping trip. Having far too much fun to say more at this time. I did get a pic of a duck though.

Until Tomorrow!

Woo Woo!

Before I get into today’s daily update, let me first say that today marks the 15th anniversary when I said “I do” to my wife. I love her as much today as I did when we got married. Probably more. It’s been a long time that we’ve been together and we’ve been through so much. I think that’s one of the reasons I’ve been so eager to re-write Of Gnomes and Dwarves. As I’ve said many times this is the first book I wrote. My wife (girlfriend at the time) was the first person to read it. Something about having he read my words and give me her feedback really spurred me on to believe that I can actually do this. Of course there was always the getting a job and doing regular work that prevented me from doing something I’m passionate about, but I’ve tried to make as much time as I can for my writing. She had always supported me and enjoyed it when something of mine saw publication.

I love you baby!

So as the title of this one suggests, I’m not the fastest writer. Yesterday was filled with challenges. Before I started work I wrote my daily update, a movie review, An Unorthodox Writing Tip, and a book review. I posted those throughout the day. My favorite daughter had a volleyball practice right after school. She has all week. I haven’t attended those because I’m usually finishing up work.

Work yesterday drove me mad trying to get everything ready for a major release. I had to make sure I had some database work done and ready. I had to bring my favorite daughter her bag for volleyball. I bought the wife a card and 15 roses (one for each year don’tchaknow). I had offered to interview Mr. Plested for his Get Published podcast because he’s got a book (Mik Murdoch) coming out in August. I had my major release of a large project I’d been working on that ran into trouble and went later that it should have (due to client issues not anything with my code).

Even with all that going on and working until 10:30PM last night I still found 45 minutes so squeeze out 1900 words in Of Gnomes and Dwarves. Yesterday’s total word count was 4694. I was stunned when I realized how busy my day was.

And to top it all off. I’m sick. I won’t bore you with the details, but it’s painful, my head is throbbing, the weather is messing with me big time. I’m not a happy camper physically, but nothing can take away the joy I feel about having gotten so many words written. I know all this will need some good editing, but the story is moving along nicely. I’ve gotten the pacing down so that it’s not break-neck speed right out of the gate and I feel that I’m keep the original intent of the story with its elements of humor, drama, and character interaction.

One of my biggest peeves about D&D related stories is that you either started with a party and off they went on grand adventures, or they met at a tavern, started drinking, and went on an adventure, or they needed to save the world. My story doesn’t do that. At least not at first.

As I’ve said I’ve got a plan for these books. The first is just the beginning and you’ll be able to see a lot of threads that I intend to clean up as I go along in the series. As fast as I’m getting through the words in book 1, the story is just starting to get moving. There’s so much more that I need to pack in there that this will be a good book. Not too long, not too short. I’m shooting for 70,000, but I think it’ll go beyond that. I might bump my goal up to 90,000 and see where it lands.

There’s a lot to get done today. There will be camping this weekend. With all the words I’ve put out in the last couple of days I’m currently 30 days ahead of my annual goal. You don’t know how good that feels. Words are coming easier and easier the further along this year goes. If you’re a writer and not writing daily, I ask you one thing: Why?

I’ve got packing to do for camping, food to buy, words to write, pictures of ducks to download (I should be able to see some while I’m camping) so…

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!

I will be writing as much as humanly possible again today. You can count on that. My word counts for the past few days (blog posts and fiction) are as follows: 1532,2629,1926,2572,2038,3714,3134. I hope to get over 2000 yet again today. I’m on a roll and it feels GREAT! Words are falling out of my head. I’m adding new scenes. I’m a writing fool I tell you. I’m nearly 25 days ahead of my annual goal. This will make vacations a lot easier as I won’t be stressing about not writing fiction each day (I will still attempt to blog daily).

I’ll be interviewing Mr. Plested tomorrow for his own podcast. I’ll be recording Golden West this week. I’ll be recording lines (audition lines) for J. Daniel Sawyer. I’ll be recording an episode of Unorthodox Writing Tips. I’ll be busy as I can be and loving it.

The way Of Gnomes and Dwarves is falling into place makes me very happy. Everything about the new plot lines, the character development, making it fresh and easy to read, I’m just enjoying it all. The original was roughly 60,000 words and it lacked in so many ways. The new version will likely be 90,000 or better, but it’s not feeling bloated as I’m writing it. It’s feeling like a real book. Like an actual epic fantasy story should feel. It’s difficult to describe, but I’m just so happy with the words and I can’t wait to share them with the world.

What are my plans for this story?

Glad you axed. (little plun there, Willie has a big axe and he isn’t afraid to use it).

I’ll most likely be self-pubbing this one. I’ll get a professional cover done. I’ll look at getting the insides professionally laid out. I’ll get great editing for it. I’m going to do this one right. I’ll be reworking Astel sometime this year also. Mostly just getting the editing done better and leaving it out there.

Why am I going to do this one on my own? Because I have so many plans for this one. I plan on writing a lot of books in this universe. Short stories. Character descriptions. I’ll be getting art work done. I’m going to have a lot of fun with this one. I’m going to do this one better than I did Astel (which I kind of let fall flat, sadly). I’ll also look at doing the audio and getting that up on podiobooks once the ebook is out and ready for consumption. This way as people listen they’ll be able to find the book.

I’ll tell you this now, once you get into the story, you’re not going to want to wait and see what happens next. No, really. It’s a fun and fast story. Just you wait and see.

I’ve got some other regular world things to go and do. We’re going camping this weekend. I need to pick up a surfboard and mount it for my favorite daughter’s old middle school. I need to order a new mouse.

OH! New Mouse! I’ve made up my mind. I’m going to get the M.M.O. 7. This was the one I thought might be too pricey, but I figure I spend all day sitting at the computer, why shouldn’t I have a really good mouse? Yeah. Why not? It’ll help me download pictures of ducks faster so I can finally write that duck post and people can stop asking me what this obsession I have with ducks is all about.

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!

I’m not a fan of putting anything on my feet. I’m barefoot unless I need to go outside and even in the coldest of weather I’ll be wearing flip flops. I really don’t like having my feet confined. If I do put anything on my feet, I love the feel of new socks. It doesn’t matter if they’ve been washed once or a thousand times. Old socks suck. On the contrary, I love the feel of an old pair of shoes. New shoes are tight and confining. The make my feet feel tired after wearing them for a short time even if I’m wearing new socks (which doesn’t happen often).

But when I slip on a brand new pair of socks and an old, broken in pair of shoes, my feet feel happy. It’s one of the only times when they’re confined that they have that level of comfort. Any other time, if you see shoes on my feet, I’m unhappy. My feet have this need to be free.

So what’s all this about socks and shoes?

I’ve put on a new pair of socks. My writing have changed/evolved/grown over the past 25 years of putting words down on paper. I’ve learned how to tell a story. I have a fairly good idea what works and what’s on shaky ground. I need help from time to time, but my stories and characterization have gotten stronger. When I put down words it’s like slipping on a new pair of socks in that I’m comfortable in what I’m doing.

What about the old pair of shoes? Well, Of Gnomes and Dwarves was the first book I wrote. It’s gone through many iterations, multiple false starts, and more pain ans suffering learning how to write than I care to talk about. But it’s my pain and the characters in the stories haven’t really changed much over the years. They still run around inside my head killing ogres, trolls, goblins and orcs. That’s what they do. It’s what they did. They’re my old pair of shoes that I can throw on any time no matter how ratty they look and be happy with them on my feet. They’re so comfortable that I can walk for miles.

I’ve been writing new words in Of Gnomes and Dwarves. Not only that, I’m adding new scenes. I’m cranking out words like I used to. I’m 5 days in and I’ve written 9500 words thus far. The best part, I’ve cut out a lot and put in so much that those 9500 words don’t even have me getting the first two main characters to meet (that’ll happen in the scene I’m working on and I’m excited about it.)

Now don’t get me wrong. I’m always excited to sit and write. I love putting words down. I have a passion for writing or I wouldn’t have committed to making it a part time job. I would have instead done something else. But Maus, Willie, Reeg, and Dorg are fun characters. Being that I’ve written the first four books (which will serve as nothing more than plot outlines at this point) I know what’s coming up next in vivid detail. I can make references to characters that won’t be introduced until books 2 or 3. I’m adding a level of detail that the world never had before. Sure the characters were fun, the story was a good one, but the writing overall was weak and needed to be greatly improved.

I’m making those improvements. I’m having so much fun being back in that world. I can’t wait to get into chapters where Maus and Willie… well, you’ll just have to wait. Just be happy in the fact that this is a fun story and will be a blast to read.

One of the things I’ve done that I didn’t think I was going to do. My stories were so short in the early days, that I had a story teller. His story had a prologue, interlude, and epilogue. So he would have three chapters per book that would follow his story and my plan was to complete his entire story arc over the entire run of the books. I’m not sure I’m going to include him at all for several reasons. The main reason being that my writing has changed so much that I can now take the same storyline and tell a much richer (i.e. Longer) story with the same story line without adding a lot of bulk that will make the story feel bloated.

For now, my brain is tired. My Favorite Daughter is having two volleyball sessions on Tuesday (today) and Thursday. I’ve got a major code release Thursday night. I lost one of my best programming helpers (Kiran, if you’re reading this, I miss you) and I’ve got so much work on my plate. I need to go to bed, read for a little bit, and then tackle tomorrow.

I didn’t have a chance to get more duck pictures downloaded so I haven’t written that duck post just yet. Soon. Very Very soon.

Until Tomorrow!

WOO WOO!