The right motivator.

Andy Zeigert, my cover artist to Led to the Slaughter and The Dead Spend No Gold, had this comment about me not checking my rankings and sales and reviews.

"How many times I gotta tell ya. :-P

It's like stepping on the scale 20 times a day. Totally toxic."

He's been telling me this for awhile, and I mostly agree.  But like I said, I don't think it was a bad thing to do...for a while.

Luckily, both sales and reviews were better than I expected, so it wasn't a discouraging thing.

And secondly, I felt like it was important to see what sorts of efforts helped sales and what sort of efforts made no difference. 

As I mentioned, the takeaway was that most promotional efforts had little or no effect. 

So...now I know.  Now I can concentrate on writing and not worry about getting my work and my name out there on a constant basis.

One reason I wanted to stop checking is because it was a distraction.

But the biggest reason was because it was the wrong motivator for writing.

It's really important to have the right motivator.  Usually, if possible, the moral high ground. 

For instance, at the store, when I finally broke away from the "collector/investor" model, and just started selling product as "entertainment" the whole thing became easier to do.  It was easier to buy, easier to sell, but most of all easier to justify the whole thing.  I have no problem selling things for fun -- I just couldn't sell anything as a collectable or investment anymore and feel good about it.

Ultimately, the moral high ground motivator for writing is just writing for writings sake.  For art, if you will.  For self-exploration.  For fun.  Any of those things.

Writing for money or fame or whatever -- wrong motivator.  Probably can't win.  Besides, if I write for fun and good things happen, it's a bonus.

And more likely, I think.

Daredevil: Comics are the most creative and original stories out there.

The new Daredevil series on Netflix reminds me of my start in comics.

A confession:  I was not a comic reader when I bought Pegasus Books.  I'd played around a little, reading some Elfquest, some First Kingdom, some other fantasy oriented books.

So when I bought the store, I realized I needed to understand what I was selling.

I started with reading a full run of X-Men comics, which was the hottest title at the time.  I liked them, the soap-opera elements, and could understand why they were popular.  But they didn't grab me deep down.

I kept having that experience right up to the moment I found Swamp Thing, which was the first title that Alan Moore wrote.  I actually cried during one of his comics, which is not something I do very much.  This was a good writer.  (Who of course went on to write great comics like Watchmen and V for Vendetta and just about anything else he wrote.)

There were other titles I really liked, such as American Flagg, and other indy-types.

The next author (and artist) to really convince me comics were an artform was Frank Miller.  Specifically Daredevil.  He was still writing in the superhero format, but...well, it was more gritty noir.  I really liked that.  I liked what he did with Batman, too.  (More his Batman: Year One than The Dark Knight Returns, frankly.)

This version of Daredevil is the best superhero series I've seen -- frankly, I like it more than almost all the Marvel movies.  I just wish that people who watch it and like it could understand that the same experience is available in comics -- years and years of great, gritty stories, not just by Miller but by a host of other artists and writers. 

Comics, in some ways, are the most creative and original stories out there.

Some day they're going to do Preacher and Y-the Last Man and many others of the huge backlog of great stories, and I predict they'll be hugely popular -- and that they won't do a thing for comic sales...


I don't have that kind of fortitude.

You know how when you make a big decision that hadn't planned on making and you instantly know it's the right decision?

Quitting checking my rankings and sales and reviews yesterday had more impact than I thought it would.  It sort of reminds me of when I quit smoking years ago: I suddenly had all this free time on my hands and free hands on my time.  I never knew that so much of my day was made up of that.

Anyway, I can tell this is the right thing to do.  Just concentrate on the writing.

Makes me wonder how much free time I'd have if I stopped using the internet or watching TV?

The days would certainly be longer.  A life extension, so to speak.  Especially if you're the type of person I am, who is perfectly happy to be by myself.

But no...the other day I woke up and my wifi was down and boy, did the morning feel empty. 

So it's all good in theory, but I don't think I have that kind of fortitude.

Besides, I'd probably just use up all that free time reading -- which would be better than internet and TV browsing, perhaps, but would still take up all the time.

Anyway, I feel like I have writing time in front of me, and that's a great thing.

Incubating my daydreams again.

So I've made the decision to stop checking rankings and sales and reviews of my books.

I'd gotten pretty obsessive over it, checking multiple times throughout the day.

I'm not sorry I was doing that.  I learned some things.  Mostly I learned a negative, that is, sales didn't happen because of how many times I mentioned or highlighted my books, or how often a publisher did something, or even how many reviews I got.  Books with 10 reviews sell as well as books with 35 reviews.

As long as the news was mostly positive -- as long as I was selling some books every day and the reviews were all positive -- I don't think checking hurt me.

But the downside is so much bigger than the upside, that I've decided to quit while I'm ahead, with the understanding that not paying attention can't hurt my sales.  I mean, I'll still pay attention to my blog and Facebook and my publishers' sites and emails.  Just not the rankings and reviews.

It had gotten to the point where sales and good reviews were expected and where no longer getting much more of a reaction than, "that's cool..."

Whereas, when I got only my 3rd 3 star review, it felt really harsh.  I mean, what would happen with a 1 or 2 star review, which I think is inevitable?

So the upside benefits of checking were fading and the downside was increasing.

For instance, most of the criticisms of Tuskers were that it wasn't "believable." Well, if they didn't find book I believable, they sure as hell won't find book II believable, because I pretty much up the far out aspects of the story.  That doesn't bother me -- it seems perfectly right.  But I can almost see what the reaction is going to be.

Anyway, I look fondly back on the days when all I did was write and had nothing to do with the outside world.  I have a perfect opportunity to do that again, because the next year is pretty much settled.  The Tuskers books have a home, the Golem book is ready to be sent to find a home, and I'm assuming that if I write a third Virginia Reed adventure, it will find a home.  So...I can turn my back on all the marketing stuff and just write.

I'll have to fight the impulse to check for the next 3 or 4 weeks, until it becomes a habit.  Just concentrate on doing the work.  Making the books as good as I can.  Nothing but that.

 I'm looking forward to descending into my little make believe world again.  Incubating my daydreams.

Stuck and questioning.

I seem to be stuck.  I'm questioning whether it is a good idea to force myself to write.

I got about 800 words in yesterday.  Which is basically doodling.

Not sure what to do.

I have to box up books at Linda's store today, but I still have time earlier to do some writing.

I'm going to make the time, and focus, but I'm not going to write unless I'm pleased with the notions.  So...we'll see.

A classic lull.

I'm having one of those classic lulls, the low ebb of a cycle.  I'm glad I've owned a business long enough to recognize it for what it is.  I just need to keep on trucking and the cycle will turn upward at some point.

Here's the thing -- Everything has it's ups and downs, and you can't always be on the high end of a cycle.

Most of the lull comes from other folk.  Waiting for everyone else. There is nothing I can do about that. I just have to be patient.

I continue to get good reviews -- I've gotten 8 four star reviews and 43 five star reviews for Led to the Slaughter.  Most of the later ones are from strangers -- so I'm feeling pretty good about that.  I've been lucky not to get that one or two bad reviews that almost every book gets, even really good ones, so I'm way up the rankings on Average Customer Reviews.  Out of 64,402 horror novels, I'm ranked in the top 3/10ths of 1%.  Tuskers is also doing really well, in the top 1/2 of 1%.  Those are some rarefied heights.   (This does not reflect sales, unfortunately.) 

That helps me when I have moments of doubt -- like right now.  Everything I write seems to be shit right now.  I know that's not true.  I'm not letting it stop me.

I still feel the desire to write. 

(I woke up with an entire s/f short story this morning in my head.  I'm not going to write it.  No point.  The s/f people have their thing and I've already learned that my thing is not their thing and I'm not going to knock my head against the wall.)

I seem to be regaining some bad habits.  When I started out, I'd had a lot of time to think about what I'd done wrong, work-habit wise, in my first career.  I had a set of rules about what not to do.

I was very focused and disciplined about this.  Since I've had some success finishing books, I've been letting some of those rules slide a bit, which I can now see was a big mistake.

I need to get back to my original approach and stick to it.

This is one of those moments when it's easy to take my eyes off the ball.  I have to continue to be diligent and conscientious and I'll come out the other side.  Like I said, I learned that in the business.  Sometimes years would go by and nothing would happen though I felt I was doing the right things.  I just kept the faith, kept trying to do what I thought were the right things, and in the end -- the cycle would turn and my efforts would be rewarded.

Sometimes success just comes from being plodding past the point where most people give up.

Famous last words?

Landscaper called a month and a half ago wanting to get started.

"Call me back in mid-April," I said.

"You sure?"

"This is Bend.  Mid-April is soon enough."

"Okaaaayyyy....."

My poor bleeding heart in front of the house got a little too exuberant.  It's drooping now.

I always make the joke that the gardening departments in Bend make twice as much money as anywhere else.  They sell the same plants twice, once in March and once in May.

*****

Woke up and my wifi was down.

My life felt empty.

There's something wrong with that feeling.

*****

Finally put my chapters on Tuskers III in order yesterday.  I had a sinking feeling about it.

Woke up this morning and realized that if I switched the second and sixth chapters, and rewrote them slightly, they would be so much better.

The lesson being -- Sleep on it.

*****

I don't want to like Frank Sinatra for some reason.  After watching the first half of the documentary last night, I think I understand him a bit more.

It is a Sinatra production, so I think it whitewashes a lot.  The whole "met some gangsters in Cuba once and everything else is made up" posture is ridiculous.  I've read enough reliable stories elsewhere to know that there is more to the story.

I still remember my Mom's comment when Elvis died.  "I don't understand the fuss," she said.  "Now if it was Sinatra..."

Seeing those pictures of Bobbysoxers, I couldn't help but see my Mom in the audience.  heh.

*****

I want to finish up the books I'm committed to, but then I want to write One-ups.  Each as different as possible.

This will both keep me fresh, and let me discover more what my strengths and weaknesses are.

I thought of a title to a second Golem book: The Too Quiet Man.  But I need to resist writing it.

But if I do, it will be a standalone, part of a series.  Just like the next Virginia Reed book.  No more of these long continuing stories like The Vampire Evolution Trilogy or Tuskers.  It's too hard.

*****

They shot a cougar on Pilot Butte, about half a mile from my house.

The paper this morning had this advice.  "Don't hike alone."

Well, fuck that.  I walk in the Badlands (15 miles east of town or so) all the time.  I'm not going to stop.

Famous last words?

Building the book foundations for an eventful ending.

I wrote three Tuskers viewpoint chapters in the last three days, thus building one corner of the architecture of the story.  With the foundation in place, I can build the plot higher.

I'm not terribly happy with these chapters, but they should hold up until I can improve them.

Now I need a chapter from the folk at the Pederson barn, a couple more chapters from the citizens of Sagauro, then a couple of chapters of the conflict between the two groups, then the climactic chapters of humans versus Tuskers.   That should about do it.  I'm at about 36K words, with about 50K envisioned.

Today I have a fill-in chapter that I don't know will work.  There are several chapters in this book that I might jettison if they aren't improved.

Anyway, I'm making progress.

The thing I'm most encouraged about is that for both this book and for Tuskers IV, I have sufficiently eventful climaxes lined up.  The whole book doesn't work if I can't come up with good enough endings, and I've built these books so that the potential for something grand is there.


Writing every day.

I'm writing chapters that I don't particularly like.

I guess I'm hoping I can fix them.

I give myself most of the day to get the inspirational spark -- sometimes just a sentence that comes whole to start.  But if by late afternoon I haven't come up with anything, I go ahead and write anyway.

Actually, I also figure that if I can't fix the chapter, I can throw it out.  I mean, the writing itself is a good exercise and I learn something every time I sit down to write.  I have faith that there is always more where that came from.

Even in books where I'm inspired, there comes a time when I have to force the issue.  Books don't get written without effort.

The quality control comes from not releasing anything until it meets my standards. But it doesn't come before I write -- I write whatever it is I'm writing.

Oregon poet William Stafford had this advice: "There is no such thing as writer's block for writers whose standards are low enough."


I'd go even further: there is a joy to writing without standards.  It often results in something fun.  And you know what?  It's probably just as good or profound or artistic in the end as that stilted piece of crap you write trying to reach some high standard.

A year later, I can't really tell the difference between work I labored over and work that come to me in a flash.  Except that the labored stuff sometimes is better.

Don't get me wrong.  I love it when the words flow, when I think I'm being "artistic."  If I could, it would always be this way.  But sometimes I write stuff that I don't think is good, but get me part way to where I'm going.

The quality of the writing isn't affected by whether I think I'm writing "art" or "pulp," because in the end I write the best I can.  That can't be helped.  I have to write the best I can no matter what I'm doing.

By forcing the issue, I sometimes go places I wouldn't have gone otherwise.

So...writing every day is good, even if it isn't always easy.

A pleasing balance.

I don't know if I'm being silly or pretentious, but I include in thinking about my writing such things as "themes" and "architecture." (There are probably technical terms for what I'm saying, but since I don't know them, I've made up my own terminology.)

I have three different viewpoint clusters in Tuskers III -- not just different viewpoint characters, but clusters of viewpoint characters separated by time and space from other clusters, but connected in the plot.

So when I have too many chapters with one cluster, it makes the book feel lopsided, somehow.  In an architectural sense.

So I find myself looking for the other clusters to counter-balance that.

For instance, I have quite a few chapters in Tuskers III with new characters.  I have a few chapters with older, main characters, and the biggest addition is a third cluster from the viewpoint of the Tuskers themselves. 

I'm having no trouble with the first cluster, the new humans. 

I've got a plan in mind for the second cluster, the former main characters.  They'll come in strong at the end, where they belong.

The third clusters seems sparse. I feel like I need a couple more early chapters from the viewpoint of Napoleon, the main Tusker character.

But the story so far hasn't offered a reason for those chapters.

Nevertheless, I feel like the book is lacking chapters from that viewpoint.  There has to be something I'm missing, otherwise the book would feel complete and it doesn't.  It's lacking something -- a pleasing balance, if you will.

So today's task will be to come up with those counter-balancing chapters.  I may spend most of the day thinking about it, before I write.  The new chapters have to be legit.  They can't just be chapters for chapters sake.

But because the architecture of the story demands it, I'm positive they are there.

Apparently all those years my creative subconscous was screaming to get out.

I spent 25 years telling myself I didn't need to write.  That the world was full of books.  That others were much better writers than me.

After a great start, publishing my first 3 books, my experience in my first career hadn't ended well.  I'd tied myself up in knots with my fourth book, wrote a crappy fifth book, and tried really hard with my sixth book and came Soooooooo Cloooooose.

My seventh book, I wrote exactly the way I wanted, and it didn't work.

My work habits sucked.  I was totally hitting writer's block.  I'd put too high expectations on myself.

Worse, I now had four manuscripts in a cedar chest that I knew were never going to see the light of day, and I didn't see much point in adding to them.

The publishing industry looked awful to me.  It appeared to me that luck, timing, and who you knew mattered more than talent or potential talent.  Fuck that.

So I convinced myself not to try.

The internet changed that.  Just the idea that a book wouldn't end up in a cedar chest to be tossed out someday, but would actually be online, even if only a few people ever looked at it -- that was enough for me to try.

So I set out to write just one more book.  Just to see if I could do it.

The first book was finished, but I mishandled completely.  Oh, oh.  Back to old habits.  I wrote a second book that had possibilities, but it got clogged too. I wrote third book, just for fun, and that was better.

Then I woke up one day with a vampire book blooming in my head.  I ignored the warning thoughts that "The world doesn't need another vampire book" and it poured out of me, and I haven't stopped since.

I had the idea of Donner Party and Werewolves, and it came out well.  My first really mature book, I thought.

So the ease with which I write comes and goes.  Sometimes it comes pouring out of me, sometimes it becomes a chore, but either way, I've tried to finish the books.

What I'm saying here is -- I'm amazed.

Who knew?

I just wanted to write one more book.

Apparently all those 25 years I was telling myself I didn't need to write, my creative subconscious was screaming to get out.

When did my obsessions become mainstream?

It's been obvious for a while. Culture is moving in my direction.  But I think over the last few months, I've decided that I'm now exactly at the center.

I didn't move an inch.  Culture moved to me.  I am now at the center of the universe, which is only right and proper, but also a little scary.

I turned to Linda after watching half a dozen TV promos for upcoming shows and said, "They've really figure me out."

I wasn't aware just how out of the mainstream I was when I was younger.  Dad and I watched Star Trek, watched it get canceled after season 3, cause, you know, it really wasn't that popular.

I remember reading Lord of the Rings in Junior High and not being able to find another soul who had read it.  As an adult I've had to remind myself that most people didn't read when I was younger -- that it isn't a new phenomenon.   I was glad that before my mom passed away that the first Lord of the Rings movie came out, so she finally understood that her weird son wasn't alone in his obsession.  ("I liked Harry Potter more," was her comment.)

An interesting thing happens in the store all the time now.  People come in who are fans of things that I've always liked.  But...they are fans in the sense of t-shirts and buttons and toys, not in the actual books or comics the thing they profess to like is based on.  So it's possible all this "mainstreaming" is only an inch deep and a mile wide.

On the other hand, I don't get people backing out of the store in alarm anymore, like used to happen 30 years ago. So much is familiar to so many people that almost everyone feels comfortable in my store now.

It's like, when did hard rock become background music to commercials?  When did the most obscure pop culture reference become mainstream currency?  When did science fiction not only become accepted by mainstream, but front and center?

It's all very strange.

Conflicting advice.

I don't think there is a single element of writing where I can't find conflicting advice, often diametrically opposed advice.

The one I've been noticing lately is -- write !, no matter how badly I think I am doing.  The opposite advice, of course, is don't write! unless I'm passionate about what I'm writing.

What this means, to me, is that I am on my own.  Trust my own instincts, follow my own inclinations.

I have my small business as a comparison.  Almost all the advice I read early about small business was wrong.  There was good advice mixed in with the bad, but there was no way of knowing which was which.  Until I learned it myself.  Then the good advice was just confirmation, and the bad advice was something I just shook my head over.

But it means that I am very leery about taking advice willy-nilly, without some evidence of my own to back it up, by which time I don't usually need the advice. 

Frankly, if I really tried to follow all the advice out there, I'd be tied up in knots.

I trust my instincts.  Most often, the best result comes from just doing what I think is right; even if everyone else is saying the opposite.

I imagine that's what a crazy person thinks.  Or put another way -- that's what I think and that's what a crazy person thinks. Which means I may or may not be crazy.

Knots, I tell you.

Fighting scenes.


When Ragnarok asked me to write a column about "fighting scenes" I wasn't sure if I could come up with anything useful.  I don't have a particular strategy how write scenes with fighting in them.  I pretty much wing it.

My subconscious seems to come up with (I hope) believable moves -- the hero does this, that villain does that.  I mean, when you get right down to it, fighting is just a sequence of reciprocal blows.  The hard part is making it different and interesting.

The more intriguing question to me is how long the fight scenes should go.  You can make them short and to the brutal point, or you can extend them...and extend them.  It's a matter of feeling it, I suppose.  Too much fighting is as boring as too little.

Unfortunately, sometimes fighting is a replacement for storytelling.  That is, it works as 'filler.'  You see that a lot in action movies, in comics, and in books.  To me, it's off putting when the action serves as filler, no matter how cleverly it's done.

I think one of the worst examples of this I've seen is the movie, Armageddon.  (I've boycotted Michael Bay movies ever since.)

I've probably lost half of you with that statement. Sigh.

But to me much of the movie seems to consist of fighting for fighting's sake. The smarmy emotions, the lousy dialogue, but most especially the bullshit action scenes.  It's exhausting and not very illuminating. I happened to look at my watch at one point, bored to tears by the meaningless explosions, and I realized that the explosions came every 15 minutes or so -- or about the average time between commercials on TV and presumably the average concentration span of the American viewer.

On the other hand, I do like action movies above all others.  Given a choice between a drama, a comedy or an action movie, and I'll pick action every time.  I saw Kingsman last weekend, for instance.  Loved it.

What I'm saying is, the action has to be often enough to be interesting, but not so often as to replace real storytelling.  (I have the same problem with meaningless drama -- lots of TV shows are guilty of this -- sudden bullshit drama, meaningless fights.  Armageddon happened to have both meaningless drama and stupid action.)

Fighting scenes that come from the consequences of the characters actions -- that's what I'm looking for.  Aliens, Terminator, Die Hard.

I personally think the big budget action flicks are spending way too much time and money on fighting scenes, explosions, car chases and such.  These movies would be better if they cut about 1/3rd the action, and added about 1/3rd more character development.

But then, I'm obviously out of touch. 

Like I said, I do fighting scenes by feel.  I sort of wing it -- letting my subconscious choreograph the moves.  I admit, I probably spend a fair amount of conscious effort wondering how often and how long the fighting scenes should take place. I try to have something every chapter, if possible.  I try to build to bigger action scenes as the book progresses.

Fighting is fun, if done right.

It just has to fit the story.

The house alone.

Linda's visiting church friends in the valley, so I have the house to myself all day.  There is nothing like knowing that absolutely nothing can interrupt me to get me writing.  I can spend the whole day in the "fictional dreamstate" without breaking away.

When I was trying to kickstart this new writing career, I spent some money going to motels out of town with the sole purpose of writing.  That's a little expensive, so I've stopped doing that.  If I were to find myself blocked for some reason, though, I would probably resort to that method again.

So it's just me and the cat. Panga looked around for Linda all morning and finally settled for cuddling with me.




I have to work?

Horror of horrors, I have to work an extra day this week.  On a Friday.  On a Spring Break.

I'm too old for this shit.

I was able to put most of the product away yesterday -- it's amazing how over 15K retail worth of product can just blend in the store as if it never arrived.  I mean, it was just basic restock.  What happens is that I just start seeing all the things we don't have. 

I really have to be patient with people.  It's hard.  A couple of times I blurted, "geez, people, don't anyone read books anymore?" in a mild voice, but no one took offense, heh.

Tons of people coming in.  I'm really pleased that Cameron and Matt seem to be gaining some new, younger customers.  These customers seem surprised to see me -- like, "who the hell are you?"

Had a Secret Shopper report, which was mostly positive.

Weirdly, and I couldn't tell if this was on purpose or just an observation, but the three "negatives" were all things I do on purpose.

No TV.  Yes, I think having a TV is a bad idea.

No gaming tables.  I have no room or inclination and personally believe it detracts from the shopping experience.

No "New" comics section.  I tried this for awhile and thought it hindered, not helped, sales.  The "new" comics face forward, usually on the front shelves, and shouldn't be that hard for anyone who is serious about finding a title from finding it.  Plus they can always ask.  The inability for a "newbie" such as self-confessed non-comic secret shopper to find a particular comic is more a feature of the fact that there are so many damn comics than the design of the store.

Besides, I'm pretty sure people buy more comics when the new comics are mixed with the old.

So none of the apparent negatives were negative in my opinion.  Other than that, the report was very positive. 

I'm glad to have Cameron and Matt being the face of the store.  I have a much harder time faking friendliness if I don't actually feel it.  For instance, I know I should give out a cheery "Thanks for Coming In!" when non-customers leave, but I can't do it.  I just smile, sometimes nod, but that's about it.

I love my store, and I really think people are all right, but I can't put on a false persona as much any more.

Ah, well.  That's why I'm stepping back and letting younger, friskier people take the stage.

So there's that...

I'm now about halfway through Tuskers III. 

Until I made the decision to split it in three parts, I was 2/3rds of the way.  Fortunately, I'm about halfway through Tuskers IV as well.  Nothing but an plot outline for Tuskers V.

I'm liking it.  I get absorbed by the characters sometimes and forget that the horror readers want action, so that's something I'm trying to be conscious of.  But story is everything, and I think I've kind of figured out how to do that in a certain way, and hopefully I can keep learning.

This looks like it will be my best month for sales, which is encouraging since I'm now more than a year since the release of Led to the Slaughter.  I'm not getting rich -- hell, I'm not even breaking even -- but, well, I can see how it might be possible to earn a little pocket cash in the future.

Interesting in that I've done absolutely nothing in promotion lately.  I've barely mentioned my books on Facebook, except for this daily blog.  There was a big drop off in my early books late last year, but then they went back to previous levels and have stayed there since. 

I do believe it is probably important to have a new release every four to six months.  I've got 3 books in the top 3.8% in sales of all horror novels, which sounds good until you realize there are 64,000 books on the list...heh.  But it beats the alternative.

Reviews have so far been stellar, and that makes me feel like I'm doing something right.  Led to the Slaughter is in the top 3/10th of 1% in Average Customer Reviews.  Probably just an accident of fate, but cool to see anyway.

I'm feeling busy and engaged and liking it.  So there's that...




Writing faster than the world can absorb.

I need to get back to writing in the mornings as much as possible, so I can do other things in the afternoon if I have to.  If I do even the simplest chore, such as doing a bank deposit, I seem to lose my ability to write.

*****

Went to writer's group and read chapters 4-6 of The Last Fedora.  Realized as I read it that I had no action -- I mean, the story progressed, but no physical action, no tearing off of arms or legs like a proper horror novel.

Slept on it and realized I could insert a flashback scene in one of the chapters that would work.  Not only work, but build up the myth of the Golem. 

*****

I wrote my chapter yesterday early, and then spent most of the day making game and book orders.  Essentially, I ordered everything I'd sold since Christmas, plus.  The store seems to be doing well enough to risk that -- though it's a huge amount and there may be some cashflow issues.

Getting about 18K retail worth of merchandise within a few days.  Going to try not to let it stress me out getting it out for display.  It will all be on my head because I'm working Thursday and Friday this week.

I should have done it last week so that it would be here for Spring Break, but I think we still have some out-of-towners still to show up.

*****

It's a strange thing to be so far ahead of the game.  I'm writing much faster than I can publish, which kind of nags at me a little.  You know, it ain't necessary so why do it?  But I can't take that attitude. My writing shouldn't have anything to do with how fast it can be published, only whether it feels right.  I still love creating things, so I'm trying not to let myself slack off.

Things happening to different characters at different times in different places.

The more I write, the more a strange thing keeps happening.

I have a complete story in my head.  A whole world, where things are happening in different places at different times to different characters.  It's perfectly clear in my own head.

But when I write it down, I realize that the reader doesn't have access to the whole story, so it may not be so clear to them.

I figure if the story is valid, the reader will sense that -- if I do a good enough job of trying to explain it.  But I'm not sure.

Timeline issues.

The events of Tuskers III start when the events of Tuskers II are still happening, just to different characters.  Then a few chapters in, they start to overlap.  I think I've managed to integrate them, but I won't know until people read it.  Linda thinks I should make sure I clearly mark the dates, but I'm not sure that is a solution because it would require the reader to go back to II to realize the dates are different.  Actually, not even then, because I don't have dates in II.

So the only thing I can do is try to be as clear as possible.  Mention it more than once -- probably in each of the first three chapters.

It's all one big story, and I'm just dipping into with different viewpoints, sometimes at the same time.

Thing is, I'm putting faith in the reader to figure it out.

Same thing happens in IV.  Events begin to different characters before the events of the previous book are finished.

I think if my internal sense of story works, then most readers will also figure it out. I mean, if they are reading Tuskers III and Tuskers IV, I assume they are invested.

I hope.