Social media is broken.

You are rewarded for re-posting, not for expressing your own thoughts.

You are rewarded for lists -- of titles, and for namedropping of all kinds.

You are rewarded for being an ass.

You are rewarded for posting pictures, graphs, quotes.  (None that you did yourself.)

You are rewarded for being provocative.

You are rewarded for being mundane.  (There is a Christmas festival this weekend!  Oh, oh, a new brewery has opened!  Blah, blah.)

You are rewarded for being a suck-up.

You are rewarded for being a single subject, single issue kind of guy.  Ride that hobby-horse to death.

You are rewarded for being insanely upbeat.

You are rewarded for being insanely downbeat.

You are rewarded for not being nuanced or dwelling in gray or for not over-explaining.

You are rewarded for how much you network.

One last thing, which isn't a reward.  Social media is totally infested by commercial interests.  They sneak in everywhere.  


Do all the above and you'll get more hits.

Write a moderately toned, thoughtful post of your own thoughts and feelings, and be prepare to be ignored.


This isn't sour grapes.  I do all the above rewarded things, and I get more hits on those posts as a result.

But I at least I sort of do them more or less accidentally...

Write first, think about it second.

I had no intention of writing a sequel to Deviltree, yet here I am.   Thing is, the premise of the Deeptowers absolutely lent itself to a series, and I've now set up a series of villain, like E.E. Doc Smith's Lensmen, where the Big Bad is revealed to be the flunky of an even Bigger Bad, and so on.

I'm about a third of the way through Deeptowers, already.  What's interesting to me is that the plot points are coming along just about where I'd want them, and the characters are popping up just about where I'd want them, and the explanations are happening just about where I'd want them.

This is what I mean by being proficient.  I'm not second guessing when something happen, or how it happens.

It is coming naturally.

The writing is more or less proficient too, but I'm aware that it needs some work and some fleshing out.  The great thing about that is that I finally got over my fear of rewriting, and actually kind of like the process.  I've learned a few tricks, but the main thing is that I'm letting myself go back as I write and do changes, because I now trust myself not to make such big changes that I lose my way.

I'm continuing on with the philosophy that I write so fast, and the stories just keep coming so fast, that I should just write them and worry about them latter.

Write first, think second.

Every book I write, I seem to learn a little more. 

At first, I was probably using 90% of time and effort just trying to get proficient -- readable.
Now I think I start off 50% proficient, and that gives me more energy and time to improve on it, try to add a little more art and depth.

Interesting to me though, is that the tone of Deeptowers is so similar to Deviltree, even though there is a 30 year gap between the two books.

I don't feel like I'm a 60 year old writer versus a 30 year old writer.  It's more like I took a couple years off, and I'm a 33 year old writer versus a 30 year old writer.  Anyway, that's the way if feels inside.

Are the locals winning?

Interesting discussion on KTVZ about the relatively recent loss of national and regional chains here in Bend.  Quizno's, Papa Johns, Outback, Sears, Rays, etc. etc.

First of all, I'm not sure this isn't a normal rate of business turnover.  Some places work and some places don't -- and I think that holds true for national chains as much as it does for local businesses.

Some comments about how the locals must be doing better, but local stores go out of business at a much faster pace than national chains, they just don't get noticed as much.   (And the percentage of failures by chains seems to me to be miniscule.)

I mean, I've been surprised that we have as many major chains as we do, and that they seem to just keep on going.  I think many of them were lured here during the boom years, and I'm betting some of them are wondering why the hell they opened in such an isolated backwater.  I mean, when you wander through an empty Kmart or Sears, you wonder how they manage to keep going and going.  (Not that Kmart or Sears were new -- but the older stores are the canary in the coal mine.)

So the big chains come to town, even when the town probably can't support them, but they go on for year after year once they're here.

Until they don't.

Also interesting to me, is I didn't particularly didn't like Quezno's and Papa Johns and the Outback.  Bad experiences at all three.  So they may just have been badly run locally.

Another comment was wondering how they could have made it through the Great Recession and then collapse when the economy is getting better.

First of all, is the economy really getting significantly better?

Secondly, it probably was the Great Recession that killed them.

It's as if you had a major illness and you're just getting back on your feet and a minor bug comes along and finishes you off.


Meanwhile, there is a local business that I see is moving again.  This is at least the third time in the last year or so.

I don't understand this.  This is one of the worst things you can do, in my opinion.  I think that sometimes people open stores and they don't get the results they expected and so they think the grass is greener somewhere else.

But I think every reboot just resets the clock and makes it all that much harder the next time.  (Not to mention being disruptive and costly and stressful.)

I think you figure out the strengths and weaknesses of your location, adapt your business, and hang in there until enough people find you.  (Assuming that you're in the middle range of suitable locations.  If you picked a really bad location, I can see how you would want to move -- but moving three times in a year means you don't have the location, location, location knack...)

The other side of Black Friday.

What no one talks about are the days immediately following Black Friday.  By Sunday, the frenzy has worn off and it is a normal day.  Monday and Tuesday are usually abjectly horrible.

I drove to work yesterday and the entire street had empty parking places.  This is unusual at any time of year.  But there it was.

The store did about half normal business yesterday, and I expect it won't do much better Tuesday.  (It did worse...)

When you take the much lower sales in the week after Black Friday, take out the day of Thanksgiving itself, and average it out, it doesn't look all the impressive.

The Cold weather isn't doing us any favors.

Meanwhile, I commented to my manager, Cameron, that this was the season when we would start missing shipments.  Sure enough, this week's shipment didn't arrive.  (The customer should see it on time, but we have to scramble).  I looked it up online and they had left a box on the warehouse floor.  Probably some temp didn't feel like loading it that minute. 

See, this is when we get 'temporary' workers, 'substitute' drivers, etc.

Big business likes to brag about how "efficient" they are -- but what they mean by efficient is cheaper.  What I mean by "efficient" is getting the job done correctly.  Those are opposite things.

But the public buys into the "efficient" myth.

I don't buy the bad weather argument.  I don't buy the increased traffic argument.

That happens every year.  It shouldn't be a surprise -- they should find a way to deal with it.  It isn't an act of god when it snows.  But it happens each and every year, costing us who knows how much.

But UPS saved a few pennies.



This is one of the reasons that I don't go crazy with discount sales.

If I do three times normal business on the Friday and Saturday following Thanksgiving, and then follow up those with a week of half normal business -- basically, not much has happened. 

I'll give you an example -- and really, this is an example of how misinformed the media can be about business.  Really disgraceful reporting.

I was reading an article about half-price sales.  The magazine used the example of a business that did 16% better business for 10 days at half price.  The same business then did 8% less business over the next two 10 day periods.  The implication of the article was that the business had done just as well as normal.

But this is leaving out cost of goods.

First of all, my cost of goods is more than 50%, so under the above scenario I actually lost money on the supposedly higher sales -- and then proceeded to make 8% less the rest of the month.

Of course, this is all assuming that the "Sale" is for real -- I think in the case of most big box stores it is a manipulated figure, and pretty much bogus.


Christmas is undeniable better -- but it all comes down to those last ten days, and that seems like Russian Roulette to me.  One of these days, something will go wrong, and everyone will be in shock.
But it hasn't happened yet, and you can't operate a business on worst case scenarios.  You have to take a calculated risk.

This year, my calculated risk was to completely stock the store, top to bottom.

Procrastination city.

I'm really proud of myself for hanging in there and writing my quota of words yesterday.

I spent half the day on store business.  It looks to me that I'll be spending a fair amount of each day of this month on store business.  It's the Christmas season and I want to keep on top of things this year.  Last year, I was deep in writing and I let Christmas happen on autopilot and had a very weak season.

So this year I'm determined to get it back to the previous years levels, which means constant ordering and restocking.

However, after I've spent hours on this kind of activity, when it comes time to write, it just isn't there.  This is just half a day of activity, so it explains all those years when full time work precluded any writing on my part. 

It isn't so much the time, as the focus.

It was procrastination city, yesterday.

So I sat myself down mid-afternoon and wrote 500 words.  That was it.  Nothing else came.

So I sat myself down at around 6:00 and tried again, this time nothing.

So I sat myself down at 9:30 and finally the words flowed.  Finished up at midnight with the proper number of words.  Even more importantly, I liked what I wrote.

Having the whole day to devote to writing is a huge luxury.  Working at the store, and then giving myself the time to write, is harder.  It's more or less OK if I give up any other activity I might engage in, but requires a dedication to dead time that can feel like I'm wasting time.

But it isn't wasted if the results come in.

You, sir, are no J.D. Salinger.

Three of Salinger's unpublished stories have been put online.  One of them, apparently, holds up well.  As far as I've heard, he more or less completed it early in his career.  (It contains a letter from Holden Caulfield!)

I've read a review that said the other two stories were more or less unfinished drafts.

Here's the thing.  If Salinger strained and groaned and thought and giggled and ate and shat and walked around some and meandered and chased inappropriately young women and thought some more and put one word a day on a piece of paper:  he would have completed 18 thousand words in 50 years.

Two words a day, 36K words.

10 words a day, 180K words  (or two novels).

Ten words a day, that's all he had to do.

(The same number of words I just wrote on the preceding line.)

WTF, JD?

Books selling is getting weird.

Ding-dong.

"Who is it?"

Buzzzzzzzzzzzz.  zzzzz... .scrrreeepppp!

"Go away!"

Ding-dong.

"Person of the house!  By your heat signature, I can tell you're in there.  We have a package."

"I don't want it!'

"Person -- you ordered a book two hours ago.  If you do not answer the door I will be forced to use my hellfire missiles."

"Honey, where's the shotgun!"

Boom!   Buzzzzzzzzzz. zzzz......sccreeeeppp!   Boom!

"May day, May day. Headquarters, tell Jeff we're going down!"

"What was it, dear?  Who was at the door?"

"Alien invaders, I think.  Don't worry, I think I got them.

"What's with all the confetti on our porch?"

Getting proficient.

My strategy since I came back to writing was just to keep writing -- do the best I can each time, and then move on. 

My feeling was -- I would get better if I just kept doing it.

In the meantime, I'd just judge each book on its own merits.  If it was ready, then I'd put it out.  The Vampire Evolution Trilogy books seemed to be ready, right away.  Freedy Filkins was exactly what it should be.

The Reluctant Wizard was OK but could be much better and was part of a larger storyline.  Put it aside.  The rewrite of Sometimes a Dragon was better, but needs to be better still.  Spell Realm is a bit of mess, but has potential.  I'm using the word inchoate for my fantasies -- a lot of the elements are there, but they're also a mess.

Faerylander was a huge problem, and book needed to be rewritten and rewritten over and over again, until I was satisfied.  Wolflander, the sequel, came out fine.

Led to the Slaughter had so much potential that even though it came out fine, I thought I could improve it.   I'm happy with it now, and will probably put it out soon.

Deviltree is fine, and probably can't be improved very much.  It was written 30 years ago -- and a lot of work was put into it then.  So it just needs to be made ready.

And now I'm writing Deeptower, the sequel, and I'm really liking it.

What is happening, I think, is that I'm getting more proficient.  I've been fine turning the process, which is a big deal.  I've got a certain number of words I try to get in every day, not too little, not too much.  I have a good idea about the 'architecture' of each book.  I've rediscovered the tone I feel I'm best at producing. The work habits -- the things that allow me to be creative -- are to me just as important as the creative part itself. 

I've managed to really work out a process.

Getting down the story proficiently in the first place, gives me a chance to expend my creative energy on making it better.  I don't believe being proficient in and of itself necessarily makes the books better, but being proficient gives me more of an opportunity to make them better, if that makes sense.

When I first came back, I forbid myself from rewriting until I was done -- because of past experiences of changing too much and bogging down in confusion.  Now...I allow myself to go back and change things as I go along.  I allow myself to browse the manuscript and make changes.

I've figured out little tricks that guide me into rewriting, and I think my resistance, my dislike of rewriting is breaking down. 

All this is great.  But the original idea and plot are probably more important than all of that, and those are going to come on a hit or miss basis.  Which is another reason to keep writing books.  Writing a really good book is the goal each time, and each time I probably fall a little short of that -- but I'm not sure I'm the best judge of that.

It gets so that I don't judge it that way -- I just ask myself if it is a complete story; does it deserve to exist?  Do these characters and this world deserve to be read?  Whether it is any good or not, isn't up to me, I think.  That's a qualitative judgement on the part of the reader and will be different with each reader.

A really big discovery for me is the wonderous advantage of having already written a book, creating the characters and the world.  The second book is so much easier.  And the third and so on.

Except when it's all one storyline, like in the Vampire Evolution Trilogy, then it becomes more complicated.  But the complication is possible because the preliminaries have been done.

But the writing itself seems to be flowing without too much stress.  It almost feels too easy, but I know that if it comes out proficiently, than that is what I'm striving for. 

Then all I can do is try to make it better.

Small Business Saturday at Pegasus Books.

Had a couple of good days at Pegasus Books, Wed. and Fri., thanks to my employees Cameron and Matt.  They're doing such a good job I feel like I can concentrate on my writing and not worry.

I went to the store this morning expecting it to be cleaned out, but it looks as packed as ever.  The great thing about the holidays isn't just the higher sales -- though those are nice -- but the fact that much of the stuff we sell doesn't have to be replaced. 

Sometimes the stuff has sat in the store for half a year, but a tourist comes along and it's the very thing they've been looking for.

I wish Black Weekend was predictive of the rest of the season -- because it's been a good one so far -- but it really isn't. 

I have some faith this December will be better than last year because I'm doing way more restocking than last year.

I always have to get ready for the shock of the 10 days after this weekend -- always an enormous dropoff, sometimes even below normal levels.  Especially if the weather is as bad as predicted.

Anyway, a least we'll soon have this weekend under our belt.

Buy a Book for Christmas!

Buy a book for Christmas.

I'm pretty sure the whole -- "this is the day the stores make a profit" -- thing is bogus.  In fact, I seem to remember that the "black" part of the description was there because it was such a stressful, hectic day.

It was bigger for us early in our career.  I believe the chainstores have very efficiently siphoned off most of the frenzy.  It is also completely unpredictable.  The year before last, for instance, was 40% higher than last year -- for no apparent reason.

I doubt the deals are any better now than they will be in a couple of weeks.  And I doubt there will be any shortage of buyable merchandise closer to Christmas.

I don't have "Sales" at my store.  I don't stray from that during this season.  I strive to have as much merchandise as possible, and the more I can maintain regular prices the more stuff I can carry.  In fact, I really have even less reason to have "Sales" at this time of year when I'm going to have increased volume anyway.

I try to have good stuff at everyday prices.

I have to be careful to calibrate my inventory correctly.  I want more merchandise in the store before this weekend -- but I also have to be aware that there will be a dramatic dropoff in sales after this weekend for about two weeks.  Then the final two weeks before Christmas -- Boom.

The last two weeks have become so important, it is kind of scary.  I always worry that something catastrophic will happen -- events, weather, something.  That the Sheriff of Nottingham will "Cancel Christmas." 

Hasn't happened...yet.

There is a week less time this year between Thanksgiving and Christmas, but that week is missing from November, and since I'm already ahead of last year in November -- with two big days left -- apparently it had little effect.  In fact, logically, it should make December all that much stronger.

I believe the mild weather has been working in our favor.  That and the fact that I really stocked up this year, especially board games and books.

Anyway, we're good.  We see an increase, to be sure, but not as much as I read other stores do -- in fact, I think I actually see a slight decrease in traffic from my regulars.  What it does do is position me to pay off a heft chunk of my bills and hopefully have some cash in the bank for the long dry spell of the first half of the year.

If I can beat last year at Christmas, I may beat last year altogether, which considering how careful I've been in my buying, will be a real achievement.

Meanwhile, everyone have fun.  Buy a book for Christmas.

Ready to get going again.

Woke up at 5:00 in the morning, a prologue to Deeptower going through my mind.  I hadn't intended to have a prologue but apparently my subconscious begs to differ.

This is coming easy -- almost too easy.  I've already written 11,000 words. 

I worry when that happens, actually.   I feel like maybe there hasn't been enough of a struggle.  But then -- I'm sure that will come.

I think I'm benefiting from all the world building I did in Deviltree.  I can take that as my starting point, and move on from there.  It makes things so much clearer and easier.  I can concentrate on story and character.



I think Faerylander, in the end, benefited from all the problems.  It's a better book.  I don't know whether it's a good book or not, but it's like a problem child who I love and who I finally need to let go.

Let the little beast go out into the world and hope for the best.

I know that I cut what I could and retained what I could, while pushing for a forward momentum to the story.  I think I made the characters more sympathetic and their motivations much clearer.  I think I managed to add a little tension.  I cut most of the light and or silly passages.

There were some intrinsic problems that arose from pushing it through early on -- I was five months in and stuck and decided I needed to push forward, and I'm both glad I did and determined that I'll never do that again.  But I've worked and worked at ameliorating those problems as best I can,  and hopefully the reader won't notice.

I'd almost given up on Faerylander, but I'm glad I kept at it.  I think its a real book now.



After a couple of months, I'm back to writing.  The last original book I wrote, Spell Realm, was a real problem, which made me wonder if I'd lost my creative mojo.   But it has been gaining favor with me as the weeks have passed.  Some of the scenes are very clear in my head, which must mean they were effective to some extent and that there will be something to work with there when I'm ready.



Blood of Gold is with Lara, my editor.  I'm hoping to publish it early next year so that my Vampire Evolution Trilogy will be complete.



My intention is to just write next year.  Concentrate on the writing.  I have enough books finished and lined up to be able to put one out every 3 or 4 months.  Most of them still need to be edited, formatted and covers prepared.  But most of them won't need extensive rewriting.

The ones that do need extensive rewriting -- mostly my fantasies -- I'm setting aside for now, with the intention of going back occasionally and working on them.  They are just kind of inchoate right now, and I'm letting them be that way.  The way they are interconnected means I'll probably have them all done at the same time.

The Faerylander world, the Deviltree world, even the Led to the Slaughter world, all lend themselves to a series of books.  I think the Vampire Evolution story is complete.  Freedy Filkins is a stand alone (I'm not tackling LOTR's!)

So I'm creating a body of work that I'm proud of.  Maybe no one will ever notice, but I know what I've accomplished.  I'm starting to be really proud of it.

To my future self.

So I've got this long drawn out analogy, which most of you will probably lose interest in. (Overthinking it much?)

But I want to get it down for my 'future' self in case I ever wonder why I made the choices I made.

The analogy is way at the end of this blog -- first I have a couple of preliminaries...



ONE:

There is a freedom in writing for myself -- a liberating, euphoric freedom.

How to explain....... 

So I reach a point in a plot where I'm wondering -- do I do this or do I do that?  I ask myself -- what will people think if I do that?  Often, the answer is -- they'll probably think it's silly, or stupid, or hackneyed.

So I change what I'm doing, and try something else.

But let's say I really liked the idea and will always wonder if I could have made it work.

There is a difference in how I approach writing.  It comes down to whether I'm worried about what others think, or whether I'm writing for myself.  If I write for myself, I give myself permission to do anything.  If I start to consider how it is going to look to others -- then I start second guessing myself.

I'm free and light when I do it for myself.  I'm bogged down with all kinds of worries and concerns when I starting thinking about doing it for others.

So if I'm concerned about going through a traditional method of publishing, I think one way.  If I'm doing it for myself, I often think another way.  The doing it for myself gives me the permission to follow my own creative impulses.

The minute I start to consider how other people are going to think -- it changes.  It's less satisfying.  I'm not as willing to take chances.  If I do it for myself, I figure I can fix whatever is wrong with it, or perhaps come up with something wildly different.

So that means I'm just indulging myself, right?

Not necessarily.  This is similar to the idea that I have some control over whether a book is good or bad.  Well, of course I do, right?

Not that I can see.  I doubt anyone sets out to write a "bad" book.  Everyone is probably doing their best.

At least I am.  I'm not setting out to write a book I don't like.  I'm writing to my maximum current abilities.

Really, when I'm talk about that kind of thing, I'm really talking about how much time I want to spend on rewriting.  So, basically, the idea is that if I'm writing on a qualitative scale of 1 to 10, that if I start with a 6, and then spend two years diligently trying to improve it, that I end up with an 8.

(I don't think this is necessarily a given, at least for me.  It's more a three steps forward two steps back process.  What I gain in polish and perhaps depth, I lose in spontaneity and freshness.  Sometimes, I think, it's even a two steps forward and three steps back process.)

But say I spend much less time trying to improve it, and I end up with a 6.5 or a 7.

Obviously, an 8 is better than a 6.5.  But what if it takes two years to achieve an 8, and three months to achieve the 7?  So in two years I've achieved one 8 level book, whereas I might have had eight 7 level books -- or more likely, say one 5 level book, three 6 level books, three 7 level books, and one 8 level book.

It's worse than that.  Let's say by writing eight books I learn and get better.  So each book is a .2 improvement.  So by the eighth book, I'm at a 7.6 level to start.  I really believe this is happening.  Maybe it's a .1 improvement, but it's happening.

It's not all one thing or the other.  I can set aside the 5 and 6 level books and come back to them later.  I may improve a 7 level book easily, or take a long time but do other things while I'm at it.

(Again, overthinking it much?  ;)



So -- I haven't even reached the analogy yet, by the way...


TWO:

Second part of the preliminary thinking.

I now think of writing with architecture in mind.  So, every book has a foundation, it has walls, it has different levels, it has rooms and windows and doors, it has plumbing and electricity, it has a roof, and so on.

So when I construct a book, I have to keep all those elements in mind.  I may build part of the foundation and part of the roof at the same time, I may build one room at a time, but in the end I have to put all the elements together.

The art of it is in how I construct these elements. So let's say, I decide to build a Colonial?



THREE:


So here's where I start the analogy.


I just build the Colonial, because that's what I want to do.

But everyone is buying Craftmen houses.  Let's say -- Northwest Crossing.

Whereas, I feel like building a Colonial east of town, in the middle of the desert.

Pretty stupid.  I admit.  If my goal is to actually sell it, or even have people find it, I'm doing a very doubtful thing.

So there's the difference.  If I build in Northwest Crossing, I will have to worry about what the market wants, try to fit in, build where everyone else is building.  In doing so, I have to get permits, I have to hire contractors, I have trust that a real estate agent will sell the house.  It takes forever, I'm building to other people's specifications, and in the end there is no guarantee that the house will sell anyway.

But my little Colonial.  I do it all myself.  I build it quickly.  I don't have to have contractors or workers or permits or any of those things.  It's a little quirky, with a little tower on one end, a back room that's round.

Totally not the style anyone wants, completely out of place in the sagebrush and junipers.

Worse -- it doesn't have any connectors.  It doesn't have sewer line, or a water main, or an electrical line.  It's all wells, and generators, and so on.

But it's done.

So what?  Nobody will find it, if they do find it, they won't have any way of relating to it.  It will sit lonely and unappreciated.

But I compound the problem, and build another one...and another.  Each a different style -- whatever I feel like building.  Pretty soon I have a whole sub-division of misfits, which very few people will find, they have to take my word that the houses are livable.

Who knows?  Maybe someday Colonials in the desert will be all the rage.  Probably won't happen, but you never know.  Maybe the subdivision will fit into the larger picture someday. 


FOUR:

This is all just to say -- writing for myself is free and liberating and fast and fun -- but perhaps pointless.  But all I have to do is build it.  I don't have to worry about anything else.

Writing for others is second guessing, and frustrating, and takes forever, and isn't much fun, and constricting -- and maybe just as pointless.  But there is a chance, if a slim one.

So do I want to put up with everything else for a slim chance?

I've decided -- no.

Sorry you had to read my whole labored analogy to get here....
 

Redmond's turn.

It's interesting to see Redmond grappling with street closures.  I'm assuming that they didn't close 6th and 7th Streets before because for so long they were the only routes through town.

So when they did start closing streets, it came as a shock to many of the established businesses.

They objected.  They objected because it was probably obvious to them that the whole thing is a net loss for most businesses.  They could look at the results -- and they had enough time to see if there was a hidden benefit (the old -- "they'll come back later" excuse) and make up their own minds.

See, what I think happened in Bend is the frog in the hot water scenario.  It seemed like a good idea at first, it slowly escalated, then became a confirmed thing, and now no one can tell the real effect.  More and more events, longer events, more disruptive events.  Every one of them "Worthy", often for a good cause.

It'll be good for business they say, without any proof whatsoever.  It's just assumed.  Any retailer who demurs will be dismissed as a crackpot.  Newer businesses will assume that because they've been happening for so long, they must be good, right?  (And newer businesses probably make up the majority of active retailers...)

Also interesting to see that the proponents are using the same half-assed concessions to muddy the waters.

They pretend it's about "communication" and "advance warnings." Which I think are meant to just obscure the issue and make it look like something is being done.

No, it's about street closures.

But the proponents will be organized and persistent.

The retailers meanwhile will be all over the place, with a single "pro" retailer cancelling a dozen "con" retailers.  The retailers who are unhappy will throw up their hands and go along to get along.

The lobby for these events are -- the event promoters, the event sellers, the government, the pro-business groups, the advertisers, the media, and most of all, the attendees.

Retailers don't have a chance against that lineup.

Jumping on a sinking ship.

The Barnes and Noble strategy continues to mystify me.

I'm pretty sure that a full on bookstore B & N would still be viable if that's where they spent their time, space, energy and money.

So the first ad on TV I see for the holiday season?  An ad that is mostly about the Nook.

But in the latest quarter of the year, their sales in the Nook were down 32.2%.  Their sales in digital content were down 21.2%.  Their sales in digital accessories were down 41.3%.

Meanwhile their sales in actual books were down 3.7%, which they attribute to the drop off in sales of 50 Shades of Gray.  Which I believe.

So putting yourself out of business to support for a failing model, and destroying what is a viable model in the meantime.   Why?  WTF?

Owning the river.

So do they own the river?  Or the land beneath Mirror Pond?

A long lawsuit trying to decide the matter would just accomplish the same thing they want -- the delay in tearing down the dam.

Look, I personally think we have to keep Mirror Pond.  We have to dredge it.  Shore up the damn and generate a little money and build the fish ladder, and so on.

Going to cost a ton of money.

Which we don't have.  Here's the thing -- when you spend millions on an unfunded bus system, and then you get sued for having faulty wheelchair access, you don't have the money.  When you spend millions on a pie in the sky project like Juniper Ridge, then you don't have the money to fix the water system.  When you bank on future growth in a UGB that isn't realistic, you don't have the money to fix Mirror Pond.

A "natural" river sounds good.  Have you been down to the natural river lately?  Not the parks, the actual river.  I bet most haven't because you'd have to work your way through thick brush and mud and waves of insects.   It won't be visually appealing, or experientially mentally appealing, unless you built paths and parks and so on.  Which costs money.

It all just comes back to money and how stupid the city council has been with it. 

It makes 'poetic' sense.

I have a line in my first chapter of Faerylander that I knew was a problem when I wrote it.  But I liked it so much, I left it in.  It passed muster with the first 4 people I read it to (or they didn't notice it) but the fifth reader called me on it.

The line is spoken by the villain, who has just been released from 10 years in prison.  He's trying to charm a girl.  "He had to remind himself that a smile on the Outside was the same as a frown on the Inside."

Martha says, "That's sounds good but it doesn't really make sense."

So, I agreed with her at first.  But then I started thinking about it.  What I meant was, just as you'll go further in the world with a smile than with a frown, in prison your fall back position would probably be a frown, not a smile.

Of course, that still doesn't make it valid or true, but at least it makes more sense.  But -- if you need to explain a line, it doesn't work.

But it "feels" true, you know.  It makes a kind of poetic sense, at least to me. 

If you don't think about it too much.

So would he say it?

 I've decided to leave it in, just because people sometimes say things that don't really make sense if you thought about it.

Such a great feeling.

I don't want to get sappy, but I love writing the first few chapters of a new book.  It's like I'm at the beginning of a great adventure.  Oh sure, later I'll come back and find all kinds of flaws, but for now, it's the simple sheer joy of creation.

I'm pretty amazed by it each time.  Who knew?

I'd never really seriously considered writing a sequel to Deviltree.  Oh, I'd always known that the device of a Deeptower lent itself to that possibility.  But I hadn't been considering it.

Then yesterday, I just started writing it.

First chapter came easy.  Well, that often happens.  I've probably written dozens of first chapters without a decent followup.  (Though not in the last couple of years -- I seem to be finishing everything I start, nowadays.)

First chapter, a young prince escaping his pursuers, finding a Deeptower, and then being saved by the strange creature who emerges.  But then the creature turns around and tosses the hero into the dark depths.

Second chapter?

I woke up this morning, curious.  I started to take a shower and the scene flowed into me.

Hero wakes up and there are three dragon heads staring down on him.  A couple of hours later, I have the second chapter done.

How does that happen?  It's as if my subconscious was ready for this, as if it knew before I did that there was a story there.  It's a miraculous feeling.  I get such a kick out of it.

Let the fates decide.

I had a year of extremely productive creative writing from September, 2012 to September 2013.  Then I started to get a little distracted by the other part of writing. 

What to do with it all?

The last thing I wrote, Spell Realm, seemed underdeveloped, so I told myself I needed to think about the practical publishing elements of writing.  Does it do me any good to write a sequel, if the original isn't good enough?  Do I really want to go off half-cocked on things, instead of thinking them through?

But... the minute I started thinking this way, it was as if the creative part of me started to switch off.  I did manage to rewrite Faerylander in a productive way, and that was valuable.  But I really believe I need to just get back to writing again.

I sort of consciously gave up on the critical thinking, practical part yesterday.  I started writing a sequel that may not have any real practical utility.  But that isn't the point.  It has creative utility and that's what I need to focus on.

The minute I put the onus on myself to be "practical," to think about the endgame, the publishing part, I start to lose my way.

When I'm productive I think this way:  Am I enjoying this?  Do I like it?  Do I think it holds together?

When I'm trying to be practical, I think this way:  Will anyone read this?  Is there something I can do that will make it more reader friendly?  How does this come across to the reader?

None of these are bad things to think about -- but they are also inherent in the former method.  By satisfying myself, I believe I satisfy the reader.   The danger, I suppose, is that I'll be self-indulgent, or that I'll put something out that isn't ready.

But I've proven to myself, at least, that I'm willing to be patient, and to not release something until I think it's ready.  The end result of doing it for myself, is very similar to the end result of trying to do it for others -- without all the downsides.

Simply put:   The writing -- and what happens to the writing afterwards -- are two different things.

If I don't think about the publishing part, I'm very very prolific.  I'm enjoying myself.  I'm not second-guessing myself all the time.  I feel more free to try different things, and to fail if that's what it takes.  To experiment, to do it my way.  To look inward, not outward.

It's the freedom of knowing that people may never read what I've done, but it doesn't matter as long as I know I'm accomplishing something.  As long as I feel like I'm doing something worthwhile.

If I start worrying about success or failure or how it is going to be received -- then it becomes something different, less satisfying.

Let the fates decide.  It's out of my hands.  I'm going to write, and all that other stuff can wait.


So, I started to write a sequel to Deviltree, which I'm calling Deeptower.  I was a little fuzzy on some of the details, the spelling of names and such, so I went to the digital copy of the original book that I had scanned into the computer.

After my writing session, I decided to start doing a final draft of Deviltree.  The book is a little short -- about 57K words, and I'd like to get it to 60K words.  It could be loosened up a little.  It reads kind of formal, which has a kind of attraction, but I can embellish a little without losing that.

Linda did a editing job on it, so I'm going through the manuscript, page by page, putting in Linda's changes and whatever changes occur to me.  I'll probably be done with the rewrite sooner than I'm done with the sequel, but that's all right.

So I'm excited to be back to creating original material, and curious if I can do that and also do a rewriting job at the same time.  If I use the morning for the original material, and the afternoons for the rewriting, I don't see why not.

Meanwhile, the outside world is still out there but I'm ignoring it. 

I'm feeling the urge to write.

After a couple of months of rewriting, I'm feeling the urge to write.

But I'm afraid of going off half-cocked like I did with Spell Realm.  I didn't think through the premise on that one, nor did I have any clue about the ending, and it came out a bit of a mess.

Last night I envisioned a clogged "deeptower" -- covered in leaves and mud, with the crude timbers the locals had put over the top caving in.  A small hole opens from the torrential rains, and a young man find it who knows nothing about what a deeptower is.

And then what?

Deeptowers are an invention I made for Deviltree, which are actually holes in the ground with steps lining them that lead to other worlds.  But you descend (which turns into an ascension) you lose your memory and you can never return.

I realized at the time that it was great connecting device to a series of stories -- but it allows each story to be as different as I want them to be.

I should probably mull it over for a couple of days before diving in...

It's interesting to me that I've gone from never repeating myself -- my first six books were all different, except the second and third books, which were really the same book I cut in half.

Now, I keep returning to the worlds I created.  I have a 3 part fantasy in mind, with a 3 part followup.

I have the Vampire Evolution Trilogy done.

I have Faerylander and Wolflander finished, with the idea of following it up with more titles like Ghostlander and Xenolander and so on.

I've got the main character of Led to the Slaughter set up to continue her adventures.

Now I'm contemplating going back to Deviltree and continuing in that world.

I really like the idea of having each of these worlds fully fleshed out.

I feel like Star Axe and Snowcastles and Icetowers are really finished.  And I think Freedy Filkins was a one off.

But all the rest are fair game.

Everyone remembers.

OK.  My Kennedy experience.  Which is pretty much the same experience as everyone else who was of school age.

Someone comes in and whispers in teacher's ear.  She leaves the room, comes back crying.  Tells us that President Kennedy is dead, and sends us home.

I remember walking up the path to my house with a friend and saying, "Well, he wasn't a very good president anyway."  Probably parroting something my Dad had said while JFK was alive.

In my defense, that comment has stayed with me ever since.  I've felt guilty about it ever since.  All I can think is, I didn't understand the finality of death.

I was a just turned 11 year old, who was impressionable and naive.  I was clued to the TV for the next several days.  Maybe my first real experience with tragedy.

Still, I wish I could go back and take back that stupid statement.  Little psychopath.