"Big Liar, Little Man."

Woke up with the title in my head and went ahead and wrote the story.

"Big Liar, Little Man." https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073YH5HJ1/

This is the second little fable I've written, after "Burp the Burrow Wight."

I went ahead and concocted a cover to it and published it, just like that. I don't know, I may have a bunch of these cute little stories in my head. They're palate cleansers, you know? Done and done. Like poetry is to me, a way to exercise my creative side without any real consequences.

I was told by a friend to stick to writing, but I can't afford to hire artists for a .99 story (my cut, .35).

I've noticed, though, that the short story covers I see online are nowhere near the quality of the covers for books. Obviously, everyone is in the same boat. So my covers actually don't compare all the badly to the covers for other shorts stories, at least I don't think so.

Here's the cover:

For "Takeover," I am purposely letting the characters dictate the plot. Usually what happens about now is that I have an idea of where the book is going and write accordingly. I'm trying hard not to do that. I'm trying to make each chapter a surprise. If it doesn't click with me strongly, I'm not writing it.

In a way, it's waiting for "inspiration" which everyone tells you not to do, but I think I can afford to take a chance since I'm really on a roll, you know.

I spent the whole day yesterday waiting for inspiration. By the time I went for my twilight walk, I'd given up, figured that nothing was going to come that day.

I was halfway through my walk when a character popped his head up and said, "My turn."

So that will have to happen each time. I'm not going to write anything that doesn't feel strong.

The feeling I'm attempting is authentic, real. No fictional glow, but something that feels like it could have happened, that these are real people narrating the story. I'm about 14,000 words in, so the question is, can I keep this going all the way and will it turn into a plot of some kind? I've got some foreshadowing going, so I'm hoping.

No compromises on this one. (Compromises with myself, by the way. Most of what other people mention is valid, but more often than not I get it in my head that even though I really like something, others won't, and that changes what I do. Not this time. If I like it, I'm doing it.)

There's the, "I don't understand that reference," or "That transition is confusing," or...all kinds of things that are clear to me and I think should be clear to the reader but aren't. So I've always thought the point was to be clear, but in doing so, I always feel like I've lost a little edge, a little bit of a challenge, this time, screw that. I'm putting it in if I think it's valid.

It's maybe a bit more "literary" this time. Terrible word, that I normally shy away from. Nothing will keep me from reading a book more than labeling it "literary." But I'm not doing anything that smacks of "pot-boiler" fiction. Nothing fantastical (not that there is anything wrong with that) and nothing melodramatic.

As I've said before, all my books turn into Duncan McGeary books in the end; they all end up with similar style, even when I try to do something new. My guess is, trying to be literary is all fine and good, but maybe all that will happen is that I make my book just a little harder to read for most, but something a few people will appreciate. Heh.

Dialogue is naked.

"Takeover" feels real to me. The book's got a really solid feeling to it, like it's meant to be. I get this sense in the pit of my stomach sometimes. Yesterday on my walk, I got this feeling that something strong is going to come out of it. Not sure what, just that it's there, that it's merely a matter of telling the story.

I don't want to be talked out of this delusion just yet.

I'm writing it the way I want, without any editorial input from my brain. I suspect some of it probably doesn't work, but I really like it. So I'm thinking I'll probably write this exactly the way I want, without any compromise whatsoever, because I think it's good.

My feeling is, if I try for literary, I won't get there but I'll write a better book from the attempt.

I'm getting to the part of my book with more dialogue and that feels a little weaker to me, because I think writing convincing dialogue comes from real world experience and in that I'm limited.

I can imagine people's interior thoughts easier, somehow. Embellish them enough to make them sound convincing.

Dialogue just sits there stark, without any clothing, and if it isn't strong, it shows.

But I won't get better at it until I try. I'm looking for naturalness, but also surprising turns.

Because people aren't predictable, and that shows in their words. So much is revealed by so little.

Read the first 17 pages of "Takeover" at writer's group.

Somewhat to my surprise, the "epistolary" element of the book is passing muster. No one seems bothered by it. It's clear I'll need to clear up some things, maybe label the entries better, change the order, but overall the idea seems to be working.

Gary thought I should kill one of my babies. (A section Linda had singled out as really liking.)

Came up with some really satisfying plots elements yesterday on my walk. Since I'd pretty much run out of ideas the day before, that was very reassuring. I just have to trust that my subconscious will keep coming up with stuff.

Writing this way is extraordinarily easy for me. It's more or less a fresh start every day. The story advances by addition, but not by straightforward timeline, which is fine with me. Jumping around like that is very refreshing.

I have chosen one character to carry the narration. I'm trying to make sure he's at least every third entry.

My biggest problem is that the more extreme characters are the most interesting. Much more fun to get in their heads, and by doing so, I can't help but make them sympathetic. But I really don't believe their views, even though it may seem like I do. I don't really get into the political specifics, so far, more just their general since of aggrievedness, their pissed offness.

The moderate characters by contrast are, well, moderate, and they tend to get drowned out.

Just like real life.

I'm hoping by the end of the book I've made it clear that taking-over places is a bad idea.

Linda thinks the real theme of the book is the inability to see consequences, that taking extreme action leads to extremes...ending in violence. I hadn't intended this as the theme, but by trying to access the character motivations, this seems to be what's coming up. Not the "reasons" for their actions, but that they respond to their anger in inappropriate ways.

I've avoided the specifics politics, like I said, which is unexpected. But I can see a way to keep doing this, making it more about personality than politics.

I've decided not to even go into the POV of the law enforcement. So the two people who work at the monument and stay behind have to carry the "moderate" load.

That's going to take some doing, I think. That will be a challenge. This book was always going to be a minefield, so I really want to defuse that ass much as possible, and that means making the two sides roughly equal.

If the reader gets far enough into the book, he'll find that it evens out as the original takover-ers join the moderates to fight to true extremists. But whether people will hang in there long enough, I don't know.

This book could fall victim to the extreme polarization these days. It's probably a stupid thing to write.

I'm also writing a few "babies," that is, parts that are artistically satisfying but maybe aren't completely needed. (Just about anything can be atmosphere and mood, but not everything materially advances the story.)

For instance, I decided to have one of the characters be a "cowboy" poet and as a result, I have a couple of poems I wrote included, and really, it's all character mood and shading.

Anyway, the book really has me in its grip, and I'm writing it the way it wants to be written, and if that doesn't work for other people, so be it.

Writing an epistolary novel.

Without meaning to, it looks like I'm writing an epistolary novel called "Takeover."

Epistolary: a literary work in the form of letters or documents.

I'm 10,000 words in.

I started out writing "witness" statements for color. They came out so well I kept doing them and at some point I realized I was telling the story that way.

I feel like I have a knack for this format, capturing the voices of the characters. They come out pretty convincing, I think.

It's an interesting technique. On one hand, it's slightly distancing in that it is one step removed from the story. It is a kind of "dear reader" effect in that you are aware that it is after the fact. On the other hand, you can get all the way into the POV of a bunch of characters, which I think cancels out the distancing factor.

It's not the first time I've done it. I was halfway through "Led to the Slaughter" when the Donner Party reached the mountains. I needed to show the suffering, the cold, and the hunger, and I landed on diary entries to show the daily struggle. It worked really well. I also used this technique in "The Darkness You Fear" because the POV character is Virginia Reed, but she wasn't with the Lost Meek Wagon Train, so I had another character's journal telling the story.

Interestingly, I realized that I was currently reading an epistolary novel without having been aware of it: "D.O.D.O." by Neal Stephenson.

I'm kind of winging it so far, quickly using up the research I've done. So far the action is paralleling the Malhuer occupation and the Bundy Ranch standoff. Pretty soon I'll be moving into new territory; a murder and an escalation of action, the 'Juniper Rebellion.'

As long as these characters keep telling the story in an interesting way, I'm going to keep going with this technique. I'm not sure how publishers are going to feel about it, but the books seems to want to be written this way.

In Cahoots.

The moonlight in cahoots,
to keep me riding
the dusty trail
on the banks of the canal,
a calf astray in the weeds.

Blackbirds dive bomb me,
pretending to be wounded,
leading me astray,
in cahoots, I reckon
with the lost calf.

Be safe, I murmur.
The water rushes through
the narrows, in cahoots,
spraying the soft green
amidst the brown.

In cahoots,
the bounding rabbits,
the scurrying lizards,
to keep me wandering,
no hurry to find the calf.

Dark and quiet,
until the calf bellows,
lost in the reeds,
needing its mother,
In cahoots to end my sojourn.

I rope the calf,
it quiets and follows,
the blackbirds ignore me,
the darkening trail,
in cahoots to lead me home.





I'll be honest here.

It takes amazing few sales to get in the Top 100 lists on Amazon. Amazingly few. I'm amazed the whole thing isn't manipulated even more.

If you got 50 friends to buy within a few days, you'd probably be in the Top 10 on some lists. Of course, you wouldn't stay there for long, but on the theory that people checking for something to read would check the front page, it might do some good.

But really, how many people are LOOKING for something to read rather than trying to beat off suggestions with a stick?

I've resorted to asking friends to buy my books a few times, but not every time. It worked very well for my first book, Led to the Slaughter; not quite as well for Tuskers, and then pretty much since then, not all that well.

I published Faerie Punk with no fanfare at all. Just announced it once, and that was it. By far my worst selling book, dang it. It's good book, too. Wouldn't it be so much more fun to just put a book out there and expect people to buy it?

I'm going to make a big push for Snaked. I think Cohesion is an interesting publisher, with exciting books in their roster, and they've got some marketing clout and credibility, so it might all be worth going after.

So be prepared!

Meanwhile, "FREE MARS!" is currently in the Top 100 lists, and a few more sales would keep it there for awhile, so I'm asking again. A bit of an ego trip, I admit. No real money in it.  Costs all of 99 cents.

Love you whether you buy it or not, dear blog readers.

 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073R2WMBY/

So if about 10 of you guys who regularly read this blog--you know, where I talk about what I'm writing--would actually buy FREE MARS!--it would move up the ranks pretty fast where people who don't read my blog might find it?

Not sure. "FREE MARS!" is only .99 and a half hour read. Give it a try, folks. Help me feel like this blog means something.

Here's the link. You know, click it, and spend 1/4th a cup of coffee?

Dunc

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073R2WMBY/

Write like you don't care.

I can't tell you the number of people I've run into that have the tools to write a book and never get around to it. They have much too high expectations of their first efforts.

But at the same time, it's these high expectations that get some people to actually write a book. The financial rewards are usually so unrealistic it isn't worth talking about. That reality will hit you fast enough and if that's the only reason you're writing, then you might as well quit now.

It's the response by your family and friends that you have to overcome. Either they'll blow smoke, tell you what you want to hear, or they'll be honest.

It's enough to crush ambition. But...at least what happened to me is that the urge to write returned, again and again, after each crushing. And I slowly got a little better. But at first, most writers aren't going to be at the level they hoped for.

So they write something and they think it's pretty good and they expose it and find out maybe it isn't that good, so they try again, and it falls short again but there is a bit of improvement, and then you do it again, and you've got the beginner mistakes out of the way but you find even bigger problems, and...well...it never ends.

It's a constant negotiation with reality.

I'm always trying to write the "good" book. That sounds modest, but it isn't. It's the Holy Grail. It's something that very few writers ever actually manage. It's my own definition, I guess. A "good" book that is so good that people talk about it, pass it along to others, reread and savored.

Every time I start a new book there is a chance it will happen.

But I can't put that expectation on myself or nothing will get done. I do best when I just wing it, write whatever comes to me, enjoy the process, not care whether anyone else is going to like it.

It's a bit of a Catch-22, I suppose. I might be better served trying to figure out what might be commercially viable, then do a lot of planning to achieve that goal.

But...that book will never get written. Has never gotten written. A few times I've tried, and the result wasn't that good, frankly. It fell flat. Right idea, right approach, flat result.

Bad idea, bad approach, lively result.

Anyway, if I had any advice to beginning writers it would be to write like you don't care. Do it for your own amusement.

Of course, the old pros would probably look down at this approach. But for me, it's very liberating. And it doesn't keep me from trying to get better. I just give myself breathing room, and the chance to have fun, and to keep the sense of exploration alive.

Writing short pieces of "Takeover," what I'm calling "witness testimonies." If nothing else, it gives me a sense of each character. I ended up liking these snippets so much, I almost wonder if I could write an entire book that way.

I like the kind of complexity they weave, the sort of disjointedness and contrary observations that real-life events have.

I do think there needs to be a connecting thread, though. A main narrator. But meanwhile, I'm just writing things as they occur to me, with the idea that I can thread them all together later.

I'm just writing stuff that I'm inspired by so far. Using up a lot of the research I did fast, but I'm going to be moving into new territory soon, so that's probably all right.

I'm just hoping it will all hang together at the end.

Right now, I'm thinking of taking one character and making him every second or third entry, and making each entry of his at least a couple thousand words. (Most of the others are between 300 to 1000 words.) Use his narration as the connective tissue but try to maintain the tone.
 

Got the "Tuskers IV" publisher-edits yesterday. They asked for a few small revisions and for me to look over the copy-edits.

I almost always accept edits. I'm not sure if this is because I'm a wuss or because I've been lucky so far and the suggestions haven't been out of bounds. In fact, most of them are pretty good. And as far as word changes and grammar, I find the changes are almost always for the better.

Anyway, I quickly wrote what they wanted and sent it back, so it looks like "Tuskers IV" might be ready to go. I think it came out really well, especially since it's a fourth book. It may actually be the best of the lot.

I'm very responsive to direction, I'll give myself that. I try to do what they ask. It doesn't ever seem to be a problem, despite the stories you hear about obtrusive and wrong-headed editors.

At least so far.

So I've done editing over the last three months of "Deadfall Ridge," "Snaked," and now "Tuskers IV."

I'm looking forward to writing new stuff. I still have at least one book out there that I'll probably have to do under an editor's supervision, and a possibility of another.

After that, I'm on my own unless something happens.


"FREE MARS!" is ready as it is, but I've decided to take a couple steps back and give it a chance to breathe.

I have a theory: patient never finishes. Impulse gets it done. Or as my Dad always put it, "Do something...even if it's wrong."

Still...

Anyway, I love the story as is. There are a few changes I want to make at the end. I sort of have the villain blurting out his nefarious plans. Instead, I can break the scene into two parts, where Sceeter figures out what he's doing and challenges him and only then does the villain blurt out his nefarious plans.  

 Other than that, I'm ready to go. So sometime in the next week or so, probably.

 Here's the kicker. I think there's a novel here, so I'm going to go ahead and expand it. There is a tradition of short stories and novellas being expanded into novels, so I don't think I'm breaking any rules here. The short story is complete in itself, but can also be expanded.

 The whole thing has really grabbed me, and plot elements are spilling out of my subconscious, so apparently that's what I'm going to be writing for the next couple of months.

 I never know until I'm finished on one project what is going to grab me. But when something excites me, I go with it.

Final version. I rather like the stark simplicity of it. It's just a whim of a story, I don't want to make too much of it. (Though I rather like it.)

"FREE MARS! The Kids are Revolting.

"Spunky red-haired, freckled Sceeter has had enough. In the depths of the tunnels she scrawls "FREE MARS!" and before she knows it, the rebellion has begun, with her as its leader!"

The story is inspired by the utterly bonzo, but strangely wonderful conspiracy theory of child slave colonies on Mars.

If ever there was a call for a Heinleinesque young adult/adult science fiction adventure, this was it.

"Sceeter Lives!"

I'm going to go ahead and put it up for .99.









So I'm no artist, but I can't afford designers for a 99 cent story, so I did my best. It isn't horrible, but it ain't great. Heh.

Thing is, if I went with this I literally could have written a 9000 word story in one day and then uploaded it the very next day. Wow.

Not every story need be a novel.

I don't know why it took so long to realize it. I suppose, because I don't read shorter fiction, that I didn't think I'd want to write it.

Here's the thing. I'm not sure that what I write, whether it be novels, novellas, or short stories, are what I would actually read cold. That is, if I ran across the idea without knowing it was me, you know, I'm not sure it would pull my trigger.

I'm not sure what that says about my ambitions. Really kind of bizarre. But there it is. I'm not sure if it means my ideas aren't good enough or that I have different appetites or that I don't know my own mind.

Because I love my stories, and when I'm writing them it's like reading a very intense book.

Yesterday I wrote for 11 hours straight, finished a complete 9000 word story, and I enjoyed every moment of it. Nor do I think the story suffered from the speed, in fact it may have benefited from the creative energy, the excitement, and the goal of finishing.

It's exhausting, mind-draining, and everything but everything else gets put off--even eating. Linda drifted in and out of my attention. (Well, actually, I came to her every 1000 words or so excited to read them outloud to her. She is a gem, folks. A writer's dream wife.) But mostly I was in a fog.

I did a lot of these marathon sessions my first year back in writing, and I loved it, but I also realized that everything else kind of went on autopilot. I also didn't think it was physically healthy. So I arrived at the idea of writing a steady 1500 to 2000 words every day, and I think that was the right approach.

Then again, I love "FREE MARS!" which I wrote in 11 hours yesterday. So I guess every routine can be broken if the urge is strong enough.

The idea that I don't have to do 60K words just because I get an idea is sort of exciting. I mean, it means I can write more things more quickly. Just have fun with them.

I often get these ideas, but then I have to consider whether they are strong enough or interesting enough to carry me for a few months, and most often the answer it no. But some would be just fine for a day or a week or a fortnight or a month, and that is a very freeing idea.

I think I thought that a short story had a specific format, which was a bit of mystery to me. But now I realize a story is just how many words and pages it takes to tell it. Period.

Yes, there is probably a correct formal way to write a short story, and yes, I'm probably doing it all wrong just like when I write poetry, or...probably...novels. But what I enjoy is telling stories, and the stories should be told in the length and style they want to be.

Not commercial relevant, probably. But I'm more and more returning to the pure notion of writing for my own reasons.

I will say this, and it may be egotistical, but I think if I truly set out to do nothing but Big Five mainstream novels, that it would probably take some time, and I'd have any number of set-backs, but that in the end, I'd probably achieve it.

But I'm realizing more and more that I don't want to do that. I don't want to take that journey, because it would keep me from writing what I want when I want. Probably because of my age and relative financial security, I don't want to pay the price because it reins me in.

I'll repeat that: The goal is to write WHAT I want WHEN I want.

And that probably means I'm on my own unless what I write happens accidentally to coincide with the marketplace.

The joy I take in writing must mean something.

I know the old pro writers would roll their eyes at this, and well they should. But it don't matter to me.

Child Slave Colonies on Mars. I've got to write it!

I have a million things to do, so what happens? I get caught up on the idea of child slave colonies on Mars, (Alex Jone's of Info Wars utterly bonzo conspiracy theory.)

It such a strange and strangely wonderful idea (not child slavery but the thought that anyone would believe it) that I wanted to write a Heinleinesque young adult/adult science fiction adventure.

"FREE MARS!"

"Spunky red-haired, freckled Sceeter has had enough. In the depths of the tunnels she scrawls "FREE MARS!" and before she knows it, the rebellion has begun, with her as its leader!"

The story grabbed me at 9:00 in the morning, and as often happens, I wrote a thousand words in jest, then another thousand words a little more seriously, and then...well, I was off.

I pretty much buried myself in the story, played hooky and wrote all day long. Barely got up to eat. Just kept writing and writing, and 9000 words and 11 hours later, I was finished. When I went for my walk, my eyes couldn't focus on anything farther than a few feet away. (That can't be good, heh).

As usual with a new story, I absolutely love it.

I have finished, I hope, the final rewrite of "Snaked." Though, actually, I'd be willing to do another round. There's nothing more satisfying than seeing improvements (and nothing less satisfying than actually doing them.)

It is much more cohesive, streamlined and action-packed "Snaked" than the original version. 

Cohesion wanted a timestamp for every chapter, a countdown, and so I had to fully analyze what was happening in the story. I found some discrepancies I needed to fix that I might not have found otherwise. I also had to figure out the countdown according to the timestamp, which required some math on my part.

Math makes my head hurt.

As an experiment, I did a version of the story where I reordered the chapters to strictly follow the timeline.

Basically, the editors told me to quit fucking with the book, that it was nearly finished, so I'm just going to send them the new chapter order and let them decide if they want to do anything with it.

All in all, a very satisfying experience. I wish more editors and publishers would do this. I feel like Cohesion is really behind the book, and it fits right in with their sea creature books, which are doing very well.

"Primordial," by https://www.amazon.com/Primordial-David-Wood-ebook/dp/B06WW7DMFB/
"Fathomless," by https://www.amazon.com/Fathomless-Greig-Beck-ebook/dp/B01N7IELYU/

and now "Snaked" by Duncan McGeary.




I finished writing the extra action scenes that AJ at Cohesion wanted. I think it works great.

Basically, from the start, Cohesion has asked me to build up the tension and the action, and in each case they've been right.

They also asked that I do a timeline with this draft. A countdown. T-minus 12 hours. T-minus 6 hours, etc.

So I've been trying to oblige. I think it's one of the harder things to do, frankly. It's very difficult to measure time in fiction, to give it an exact placement.

On one hand, I think a countdown might be very annoying. Hopefully it's unnecessary. The story all takes place within two days (and an epilogue on the third day), and there are many overlapping chapters, so I'm not sure it really helps.

I'm went ahead and did it, but my own opinion is to go lightly. If anything, do a time stamp every few chapters instead of every chapter.

BUT, and this is a BIG deal, the timeline made me look at the story closer. I realized that in at least two different places I have an extra day. Mostly, the timeline for the people out on the ocean didn't match the people on shore.

It forced me to telescope the action at sea.

What's cool is that it made the story better, and actually closer to the way it would probably be.

For instance, I have a fishing boat taking a couple of days to get out to the deep ocean from Seattle. But in fact, modern fishing boats can go up to 60 or 70 mph! So it would only take hours. Which is great, because I needed the character out on a boat in the morning, and then out on a different boat in the afternoon, and the new timeline actually works better.

The second example was having the main heroes spend a night at sea, and that can't happen. But because they were in the dark, they got to see the bioluminescent snakes and all that, which is very visual and I really didn't want to lose that.

So instead of night, I have it being very dark and cloudy, like a heavy woolen blanket in the sky, almost dusk. It works, really, it isn't unbelievable, and again, I since don't need the extra day, I can fit it all the action in on the one day.

So the countdown made me look at what was happening and fit it into place properly.

I'm going to need to give it a complete read through to make sure the continuity matches the changes. But other than that, I think the book is ready.

I hope.

Unless Cohesion wants more snakes...

Working on transitions today.

Building up the tension and the action is great, but if the surrounding material doesn't reflect it, it seems weird. It feels sort of flat before and after the big events, because originally the peaks weren't there.

The basic thrust Cohesion Press has had from the very beginning is that I need to amp up the action with the snakes. Geoff originally rejected the manuscript because I'd dropped the snakes once the tsunami started. So went back and wrote four chapters (one of which is AJ, the editor's, favorite scene.)

The book was much better for it.

Then, after accepting and editing it, they asked for more and bigger action, including a Queen Snake, to cut some of the subplots, and to streamline the book.

Again, the book was much better for it.

Now they've come to me for a final round, and you guessed it, amp up the action.

The action part isn't that hard to do, but the emotional reactions of the characters can be hard to adjust. I do tend to underplay the emotional reactions, and when I try to artificially add emotion, it comes across to me as melodramatic.

So I really have to work on that, feel my way, make sure that I'm happy with the results and yet manage to add some feeling.

It's all a welcome learning process, which I will be aware of with the next book.

My "Tales of the Thirteen Principalities" is fine with the slightly laid back, slightly fairy-tale removed tone I think. I'd like to think I'm doing a Jack Vance thing. (I love Jack Vance.)

But if I'm going to write creature or thriller books, I need to be aware that if I'm going to get the characters in trouble, then I need to get them in Extreme trouble, all the way through.