A book came over me

I'm going to finish The Last Fedora: The Golem Gangster Chronicles today.

I hope.

I've got the last two and half chapters all outlined in my head, I'm excited to go, and I think they work.

So I'm going to press through and finish.

I like this book.  I'm leaving it very open to a sequel, in fact, I'm more or less implying it.

But I'm determined for now to alternate new books, each one a different idea, with finishing up what I've already written.

I need to finish Tuskers III, and I'd like to write the third Virginia Reed adventure, (The Dark You Fear: Ghosts of the Lost Blue Bucket Mine), so my plate is probably pretty full for the year.  But if I can, I'd like to try to write my love story, Gargoyle Dreams: A Gothic Love Story.  And finish up Nobody's Killing Me: The Linger Longfellow Odyssey. (Both of the latter books are more experimental -- which I think I can allow myself now that I've proven to myself that I can finish books.)

I want to leave myself open to sudden inspirations, though.  Both Tuskers and The Last Fedora came out of nowhere and I loved how they came out.  As I told my editor, Lara:  "I had a book come over me."




Linda's bookstore is overflowing with books because I was sick one week, and determined to write the next week, and I haven't been filing.

Plus I have a dental appointment tomorrow.  So if I finish today, I can work most of tomorrow at Linda's store.  It isn't a chore for me.  I like digging into stacks and stacks of books, seeing what I can find...

Rocking the ending.

I was rock and rolling through The Last Fedora, but as I came up to the ending I realized I might want to think it through a little.

Doesn't matter if the rest of the book is good if I don't nail the ending.

But the more I thought about the ending, the more evolved and substantial it got.  Nothing wrong with that.  It doesn't hurt to let it have some substance.

It's may take a little longer than I thought.  A few days, maybe.  But I think it will be worth it.

I have to go back and do a little rewriting, not much.  I've finally got in the habit of when I write something later in the book that requires changing something earlier in the book of going ahead and doing that.  I had a rule against any substantive rewriting until the book was finished because of my experiences 30 years ago of getting bogged down.  That doesn't seem to be happening now.  Depends on the definition of "substantive" I suppose.

The answers to the ending comes from my researching of Golem's.  Which, if I'm going to come up with answers, it a good place to go.

I really like this book.  I wish all books came out this way.

It's a book!

Crossed the 40K mark yesterday, which means The Last Fedora is a book, even if I were to just write one last lame chapter.  But it's going well.  I like everything about it so far.

Yesterday I had to contemplate the final 20% of the story, which basically means writing the penultimate section and then the climatic section.  So I had to think it through.

I went back and added a chapter in the middle of the book where I more or less explain where the Golems came from and how they fell into the hands of Gangsters. Amazingly, I was able to find some valid historical reasons.  Which is so cool.  Amazingly, it all fit the book so far (a few adjustments) and will make the ending possible.

Then I had to go back and develop an animus between one of the secondary good guy characters and the main bad guy, so that Jacob, the Golem in the title, has a good motivation to bring the book to a close.

It all fits like it was meant to be.

The feeling that engenders is worth everything.  I love it.  It feels like I've found a dusty manuscript in a library that already exists, and is fun to read.  

It isn't about the gangsters or the Golem.

The biggest thing I've learned over the last two years (or relearned) is that writing is about the story and the characters, and their emotional, intellectual and spiritual journey.  At least for me.  Where the story is set, or what genre, or what plot devices are used, doesn't matter as much.

I'm nearing the end of The Last Fedora, and my focus is on the emotional journey of the characters.
It may feature Golems and Gangsters, but it isn't about Golems and Gangsters, anymore than the Hobbit is about Orcs, or Star Wars is about space ships, or Harry Potter is about magic.

I'd already decided this as a reader.

I've been mystified for years by how easily people categorize their reading.  "Oh, I don't read science fiction."

Well, why?  Do you like good stories? A story set in Jane Austen's England is more real than a story set in near future America?  Huh?

You can make the case that Jane Austen is a better writer than more science fiction writers -- she's a better writer than writers of most novels.  But that is a different issue.  Where it is set, with what specific devices the writer is using isn't as important as whether you like the characters, or whether you enjoy the story.

Anyway, yesterday was about road trip -- the characters bonding.  Today, it's about love story, the hero and heroine meeting again.

Oh, and there are gangsters chasing them and the Golem is protecting them, but that is the action which carries the story.  The action doesn't matter if you don't care about the characters.

In other words, I'm not writing a story about Golems and gangsters and dressing it with some characters I put through their paces.

No it's about characters, for whom the Golems and gangsters are devices to tell their story. 

I have to be conscious that readers of horror want a certain amount action, and yes, gore and horror -- but I'll only do that if it makes sense for the characters and the story, not the other way around.  So I had a bonding chapter that could have been written with just the road trip aspects, but because I was writing a Horror Noir novel, I brought in the gangsters -- but only because it deepened the actions of the characters.

I'm not going to convince anyone who rejects Tuskers because it's about a Wild Pig Apocalypse.  Or Led to the Slaughter because it has werewolves. 

But it's important that I understand the difference.

Fictional road trip.

I've got my characters on the run.

Now I want to develop the relationships between them further.  I need to incubate the romance, deepen the humanity of the Golem, and so on.

This is going to be challenging.

At the same time, I don't want to lose sight of the gangster background, so I'll need to get them involved as well.

I got off work early yesterday thanks to Cameron, and instead of losing all of Thursday, I had a chance to think about the ending of The Last Fedora: The Gangster Golem Chronicles.

I know what I want to accomplish thematically and emotionally.  I have a vague notion of what I want the plot to do.  Enough to move forward.

I dreamed about the book all night, so I know my subconscious is ready.  (I dreamed a lot about two characters who were cute -- but aren't actually in the book.  I tried to think of a way to get them in the book this morning, but couldn't.)

I'm going to do nothing but lock myself in my room for the next week and finish this book.  I'm still in love with it, which is a good sign this far in.  Also a good sign, I'm excited to do it, instead of feeling like I have to do it.

Linda is my Touchstone.

I know that when Linda likes something, I'm on the right track.  If she is enthusiastic about something, I really know I'm on the right track.

I have to be careful asking her for plotting advice though, because her ideas are so good they sway me in a different direction than the one I was heading.  They are good ideas, but they don't necessarily fit the the flow of the story. 

Anyway, today I knew I had the easiest, most fun chapters of the entire book to write.  I'd been pointing toward them since early in the story.

A minor villain has become a major villain, not by plan but because he just sort of took over the narrative.

Anyway, all the stuff I thought of in the initial excitement of the book, as well as the stuff I thought of a couple of days later to improve it, have been done.  I'm 2/3rds of the way through the book.

Now I just have to come up with an ending that I feel is as strong as the rest of the book.  I think I can do that because that excitement over the book is still there, and there is still things simmering in my subconscious, I'm assuming.  There is still plenty of good stuff to come.

You sort of just know when a book is going to be a book.

I just have to let it rise to the surface.

A good book is the excuse for all things neglected.

By the end of today, I should be 3/5ths of the way through The Last Fedora: The Gangster Golem Chronicles.

It's coming easy.  Much like Tuskers.  I should have it done by this time next week.

Why am I doing anything other than writing books this way?

Well, I can't be sure I'll always have that idea that completely engages me.  On the other hand, so far, every time I've needed the next idea, it has come to me.  Next, I have an idea that has a strong theme, if not a killer twist, and that is a love story called Gargoyle Dreams: A Gothic Love Story.  Don't know if there is a book there, but there is the start of one.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.  I need to finish Tuskers III.  I want to write the third Virginia Reed adventure, The Dark You Fear: Ghosts of the Lost Blue Bucket Mine.

But after that, I'm going to concentrate on one-ups for awhile.  Single books.  Hopefully with the feeling I had with Tuskers and The Last Fedora.

I'm getting way ahead of all the "support services," such as editors, cover artists, and publishers, but I've decided that is Okay.  The writing of the original content is the important thing -- everything else will happen in its own good time.

I've let lots of things slide, personally and professionally.  Fortunately Cameron and Matt are picking up the slack at the store. In fact, they seem to be doing better than I was.  So that's covered.

When I'm really engaged in a book, everything else comes second.  Personal grooming, eating, exercise, getting out, going to movies, reading books, TV, talking to Linda, the store, the family, the bills, the lawn and garden, the upkeep on the house, and on and on. 

I figure everything is absolved if I actually write a good book.

A good book is the excuse for all things neglected.

Tuskers is going to be an Audible book!

I've known this for a few weeks but I wanted to make sure it was a done deal.

Here's the announcement: 

http://www.ragnarokpub.com/#!Audiobooks-Accolades-Announcements/caet/54eb999b0cf24f8d0056ceeb

I had to ask Linda what it meant.  I don't listen to audio books.

"That's who I get most of my audio books from!" she said.

So I looked around, and it appears to be rare that authors -- especially smaller authors -- are actually offered contracts.  There are only 2525 horror novels in Audible, for instance, while Amazon touts 62,000 horror ebooks.  As you can imagine, there are lots of Stephen King novels and Dean Koontz, (top ten authors account for 10% of the audio books) then there are the old classics like Mary Shelly and Bram Stoker.

So seems like some nice company to be in!

It turns out that Audible likes what Ragnarok Publications is doing, so it's due mostly the publisher.

But it was quite unexpected.

I'm being given an advance and they do all the production and so I'm pretty excited by it.

It will be so interesting to hear someone else -- a pro -- reading my writing!

I don't know when it's coming out.  I'll keep you posted.

Got a cold, going to write.

I don't think this cold will stop me from writing, and it had the benefit of getting me out of a dentist appointment.

The Last Fedora: The Golem Gangster Chronicles, is coming very smoothly so far.  I'm starting to see a pattern.  I get an idea I like, I start writing, I get about 10K words in and realize I've left out some basic elements, some plot thing or a character.

So I add those in, which then expands the plot, and before I know it, I'm halfway through the book with 2/3rds of the book plotted and a vague idea of how I want it to end.

For me it is all about getting the right mix of characters.  If I do that, and they have competing motivations, the plot takes care of itself.

I need the bad guy, the good guy, the romantic interest, the sidekicks, and so on.

What usually happens is that a couple of smaller characters grow large in personality.  They just insert themselves into the story, and that's cool because it makes the plot less predictable.

I'm calling this the Tuskers model of writing, though I was doing most of that already.  It just really clarified with Tuskers.  I won't call it a formula until becomes boring and predictable.

It's really about creating interesting people and letting them do their thing.

Led to the Slaughter anniversary.

I'm a little late.  Led to the Slaughter: the Donner Party Werewolves was one year old on February 19.

I had no idea what to expect, I've learned a lot since then.  I received enough encouragement to keep writing.

Led to the Slaughter is still in the top 5% of horror novels currently on Amazon, after a year, so I'm cool with that.

I had a five year plan, which I've extended because of the success I've had so far.

Just need to keep on doing what I'm doing.

Is it really so hard to believe?

I really like the way The Last Fedora is coming together.  Just need to continue the pace I'm on and I'll be finished before I know it.

I didn't set out to write these odd little stories, but I think it's the right approach.  Writing just another fantasy or whatever, what's the point?

I'm not being odd just to be odd.  These are the stories that are coming to me, and that's great.  Trying to catch people's attention that way, and maybe eventually start writing something with a broader appeal.  Or not.  I write what my subconscious wants to write.

People seem to be having a hard time buying the premise of Super Intelligent Pigs on a Rampage.  To me, Tuskers requires no more suspension of disbelief than a million other ideas.  Especially among those who already read this kind of stuff.

I write these books as "real" as possible, though.  The werewolves are just another force of nature, another form of human, if you will, in Led to the Slaughter.  They shouldn't be that hard to swallow.

I've contributed to this idea that I'm not serious by acquiescing and even contributing to Pig Jokes.  But really, is it so outrageous?

But then, the second book is more or less Steampunk Pigs.  And the third book is Zombie Pigs, so I may be pushing believability hard.  But I'm trying.

Doubt fades when I write.

It's not that doubt disappears when I write, it just seems less important, unrelated to the actual story.  I'm so engrossed in telling the story, that anything else fades.

So the obvious solution to doubt is to write, wouldn't you say?

Linda thought I was getting to some crux chapters too quickly, and I sensed she was right.  Then again, I didn't just want filler.

At the same time, I felt like I needed a couple of more characters.

So last night, just before bed, I realized I needed a woman for romantic interest.  And at the same time, I thought it would be fun to delve a little into the history of Gangster Golems.

I'd already made the main protagonist a history major having a hard time finding a job after college, so decided this woman can be someone he knows, who gets tangled up in the events of the story.

Cool.  Two problems solved very elegantly.  I love that little storytelling subconscious part of my brain.  It's been chaffing for years, apparently.

Writing Holiday.

Went walking in Badlands again, kind of regular route nowadays.

I'm 10K words into The Last Fedora, with the rest of the book sketched out.  I'm going to try to write it as fast as possible.

I read some chapters last night to Linda and she said, "Oh, I thought that would take longer."

"Am I rushing it?"

"You could do a couple of chapters building up the danger."

"Okay."

The other sense I have is that I need to build up the likability of a couple of characters, or even create a couple more likeable characters.  I've got a couple, but there are being acted on, not acting.  So maybe one more character in the mix.

It's already veered off a little, a minor character has become a major villain.

Anyway, it's a fun book to write, and I'm hoping it will be as fun to read.

Linda is going on a little writing trip, which also leaves me alone to write.  I'm always it little more productive when I'm alone, though I don't have as hard a time when Linda is around as she has when I'm around. Try as I might not to, I tend to interrupt her.  Plus she feels more responsibility toward outside things.  Me?  When I'm writing, everything else can go hang.

I started a new book.

I started a new book.  I don't want to jinx it by talking about it too soon, but it has really taken off and I"m really liking it.

I'm writing it the way I did Tuskers -- fast and straight to the point. 

I had a dream the other night that I thought would make a good story, but it was a mystery story, and I wasn't sure I wanted to stray from what I was doing.

Went for a walk in the Badlands yesterday.  It was glorious.  Just the right temperature to be walking in my shirtsleeves without sweating.  Loved it.  I've missed doing that.

So halfway through the walk, the dream came back to me and I asked myself what I could do to fit it into the horror genre, and bamm, the whole damn thing came to me. I got really excited, euphoric, because I knew it was good.  I really, really liked the whole thing.

I think the right term would be Horror Noir.  (Is that a thing?  I'm sure it must be.)

Even though most of the day was gone, I started writing it, and had 5000 words by bedtime, with more story tumbling in my mind.

Woke up this morning and started writing again. Have the basic plot pretty much worked out.  I'm excited.  I want to get this sucker written.

I'll just tell you the title:

The Last Fedora: The Gangster Golem Chronicles.

Sent Faerylander to Beta readers.

I tried giving Faerylander one last read and couldn't do it.

It is just a jumble of words to me now. I mean, the story is in my head, and I see it reflected on the page, but I can't get a sense of the narrative flow.  I just see the words.

Thing is, I know it is improved.

I can take any section that I changed and see exactly where the improvements are.  In each and every part, right down to changing the phrasing or words, it is better.  I can see it.

But as a total?  I'm out of the picture.

This has happened to me before, especially early in my career.  Star Axe and Deviltree became word jumbles, but at the same time, the response from the publishers was better.  So I know that the very process that puts me at a distance makes the book better.

But I'd really hoped to avoid that this time around.  I can pick up Tuskers, for instance, and instantly become involved with the story.  It is very fresh to me.

But this was the fifth full rewrite of Faerylander, along with a bunch of early versions where I moved chapters around.  I've completely lost the connection.

So I'm hoping my Beta readers and editors can point out where and if I went wrong.  I decided not to give them any instructions, just said, "Any and all suggestions and changes are appreciated."

Bren asked me if was still willing to look at the "big picture," in other words, major changes and I shuddered, but then said yes.  Hell, I've gone this far with the book.  I want it to be good.  I'm willing to make changes yet again if they are obvious improvements and can realistically be done.

Phew.

Now I can move on for a couple of months and get some other writing done.

Faerylander is done (again.)

I finished the structural rewrite of Faerylander.  (By my count, the 20th version, but probably about the 5th full rewrite.)  I'm pretty sure this is it.

I cut about 10%.  I think the motivations are clearer and the action more concise.  The flow is more forward and a little less sideways.

I still want to work on the language a little, take out a few of the more unnecessary and overdone passages.  I'm a more subtle writer now.  But those are easy enough fixes, they just need to be done.

I'd like to cut a little bit more, just little bits here and there.  I'm going to tinker with it for another couple of weeks or so.

But the story is more or less complete.

It's funny, but I don't think any of the full rewrites were the total answer, but the combination of them has wrestled a book into shape.  There are a few things I can't fix, but nothing that kills the deal, I don't think.

I'm going to send this off to Beta readers and then to Editors, so it's still months away from being shown to the world, but I'm pretty sure it's finally ready.  (I think the last draft was probably almost ready, but this one is better, so...)

If I can fully finish, that will free me up to getting Wolflander and Ghostlander ready by the end of the year, too.  Both will require rewrites based on what I changed in Faerylander.

Also in the next two weeks I'm going to write that one scene I wanted to add to Tuskers II and send the book on its way to Ragnarok Publications.

Then get to work on finishing Tuskers III.  

Onward and upward.

Algorithmic Gods.

Got all excited yesterday at work on Thursday because I kept bopping onto the Amazon best-seller list. (Stayed there most of the next two days.)

Got home and found I hadn't sold a book all day. It was all a hangover from a surge the night before.

Here's the thing -- the rankings are relative -- so I can be not selling books and yet rise in the rankings, or conversely, selling books and yet falling in the rankings.  For instance, right now I'm falling in overall rankings, but rising in genre rankings.

The real point.  What does it matter?  I can't seem to affect them either way.

In fact, it seems like every time I try to influence people, by promoting my book in any way, the opposite happens.  Other times, I'm paying no attention and suddenly the book starts selling.

There was a week late in January where I don't think I sold a single book.  My graph took a huge dive, stayed there for a week, and then started slowly climbing until it was past the previous high.

What?  When?  Where? Why?  How?  

Only the Algorithmic Gods know.

I really need to stop worshiping at their altar.

Simple fixes that aren't so simple.

I'm overly optimistic when it comes to writing.  I think, oh, I can fix that easy.

Faerylander always looks close to being finished.  It's almost there, I tell myself.  And then, when I correct one thing, another two things pop up which need to be fixed.

I had thought I was in the language phase of the rewrite, that the structural phase was done.  I thought most of the plot changes were in the first half.  But I'm finding plenty of plot problems in the second half too.  Like a puzzle with pieces moved around, it makes the rest of the puzzle harder to solve.

Went to bed last night, started thinking about how some of the motivations STILL didn't make sense, and trying to figure out the fix.  Tossed and turned until three o'clock, got up and jotted down a bunch of notes, then went back to sleep.

Thing is, if I can identify a problem, I can usually come up with a solution. Usually.  But sometimes the problem is just under the surface, and only revealed when another problem is removed.

That is, every layer of problems I lift reveals another layer of problems.

How can this be?  How can Faerylander, which has so much possibility, and interesting characters and settings and ideas -- how can it be such a mess and take 4 years?  And something like Tuskers comes out whole and complete and in a very short time?

I suppose it's possible that Tuskers has problems I just don't recognize, but that's not the feeling I take away from it.

Really, if I'd known that Faerylander was going to be such a burden, I would have dropped it long ago.  But I kept fooling myself into thinking I was almost there.  That plus I wrote two sequels that don't make sense without the first book. (I won't be doing that again...)

But here I'm going to say it again:  this rewrite has made the book much better, and it's close to being right.

I'm pretty sure.

Forgetting why books are good.

I'm going to get a lot of people disagreeing with me, as usual.

There are three science-fictions series where I think the first (and sometimes the second) book in the series are brilliant, but each succeeding volume gets progressively worse.

I think the reason for this is that the writer forgot what made the first book(s) good.

DUNE, Frank Herbert

STARTIDE RISING and UPLIFT WARS, David Brin

ENDER'S GAME, Orson Scott Card

All of these books are great and I highly recommend them to everyone.

But most of the following volumes quite frankly suck.

How can this be?

In each of these books, the authors were lauded and lionized and given awards.  What did the they take away from this?

They heard the message that the "ideas" and the "philosophies" and the "world-building" was what made these books special.  And don't get me wrong, they are very good in all those elements.

But what really made these books good was that they had great characters that you cared about.  As detailed and careful as the authors were about their world building, the stories really revolved around characters.

The later books are mostly about ideas, and the characters are just there to expound.

And in my opinion they are nearly unreadable.  The second and third books are OK sometimes, but after that....yuck.

A book owes a debt only to itself.

The parts are all in place.

Now I need to fall back in love with my book.

I want this book to exist as its own thing -- without regard to anything or anyone else.

When I write a first draft, I love what I'm doing.  If I don't love what I'd doing, the book doesn't get written.  So I love what I'm writing, I love the plot, the characters, the writing.

And then, the more I change things in rewrites, the more the rosy glow fades.

The assumption is that whatever made me love the story in the first place is still there, and all the changes are just making it more readable, more possible for the reader to love the book too.

Paradoxically, though, the more I work on it, the more I fall out of love with the book.  It becomes much more of an intellectual puzzle.  How can I make this scene snap? What does the character want to say that makes him or her unique?  Is this explanation necessary?  And so on.

With Faerylander, I've rewritten so many times that the original book is more or less gone, but what has replaced it is a better book.  I know this intellectually.  There are many parts of the book that still retain that rosy glow, but other parts have completely faded.

So over the next couple of weeks I want to infuse the story with that starry eyed feeling.  I want to soften the lenses to blur the rough edges of technique and feel the story.

I want to feel the book from beginning to end.

The only way I knew how to do this is to immerse myself into the story, day and night, without interruption.  Weirdly, a lot of time is spent just dithering, nibbling around the edges, sort of in the world but not actively engaged in it.  Making the whole thing come alive in my mind.

I can't worry about what other people are going to think.  The book is a world of its own and owes a debt only to itself. The book needs to be good, not my opinion of it -- or others, or worrying about sales, or any of that.  It needs to be inherently its own thing, of itself.