Guns & Magic

 

Well, almost.

 

The new proof of New Fairy Moon, née GoSH1, arrived today and it looks marvelous. I’m very excited. I expect to be able to announce it available everywhere on Monday.

 

Here is a teaser from the book cover:

 

 

New Fairy Moon will be my 5th independently published novel, which is beginning to seem like a lot. Even if it’s not, really.

 

-David

 

 

Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, May 7, 2012. (more…)

 

With the arrival of the first (and, sadly, imperfect) proof of New Fairy Moon (GoSH1) yesterday, my daughter, Serene, decided to draw the bedrooms of the three main characters. The story starts in the bedroom of one of the characters–and that bedroom was modeled largely on my daughter’s bedroom–so that one I know. Mostly.

 

One of the other character’s bedroom gets some text-time in the story, as well, but not in as much as detail. In fact, all that’s ever mentioned about her bedroom is that she has a closet, a door, a bed, a window, some vague posters on the wall, and a place to put her pet rat’s cage.

 

What does the front of their houses look like? I don’t know. One of them has a balcony over the front porch. One of them is probably vintage red brick.

 

See, I don’t bother to think up stuff I don’t need to tell the story. I don’t have detailed floor maps of the houses the girls live in with lists of their furniture. I haven’t even named all their parents. Eventually, as I write further books with those characters, I will know all this stuff. Until then, what’s the point?

 

In tech parlance, this could be called “just-in-time story detail”. When I need to know, I’ll make it up.

 

This is an advantage of novel writing over filmmaking. If I were filming these stories, I would need to fully dress the sets, even the ones that have very limited screen time.

 

On the other hand, I am striving to be more detailed in my character and setting descriptions, so I guess it’s good that I have to face this kind of interrogation every once in a while. Help me up my game.

 

I’m having to order a new proof of the book for review. The first proof had a couple issues that required some significant (and tedious) effort to correct. In the process I actually found a few minor things to correct in the manuscript, so I guess it all works out. My current hope is to announce the release of the book before the end of next week. The ebook version is ready to go for Kindle, Nook and Smashwords. I’m just waiting on my desktop publishing skills to be up to the task of making the book I see in my head the book that comes off the printer.

 

-David

 

 

Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, April 30, 2012. (more…)

 

Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, April 23, 2012. (more…)

 

Yesterday on The Journal’s emailing list I finally admitted in public that the update of The Journal that I’ve been working on is The Journal 6 (due out this summer). I then gave a broad-strokes “road map” for future development of the software (summary: IPad -> Mac -> Android). So now I’m doing something similar for my fiction.

 

 

I hinted at this in yesterday’s post. Today I decided to be more explicit.

 

I could plan past 2013, but I think you get the general idea. Besides, I hate going on record *that* far in advance. And, who knows? Maybe I’ll have some thrilling new idea for a book or three twixt now and then.

 

Currently, I have 6 GoSH books planned, so that series will keep me busy for a while (especially writing only 1 per year). For the Gunwitch series, I’ve planned out to #3. I will write more than that, I’m sure, eventually, because I love the setting and the characters, but right now I have just the 3 planned. For that matter, I expect to create further 3- and 6-book series of GoSH, I just have only the first 6 on my plate right now.

 

Sometimes I do wish I was more than one writer. But I am only one writer, who is also one programmer.

 

 

So, yeah, I kinda know what I’ll be doing for at least the next couple years. But I’m OK with that. I do better with a schedule than without one.

 

-David

 

 

I’ve been busy lately with a number of Looming Things.

 

The biggest, and most looming, is a major update of The Journal (AKA, the software product that pays my bills). I’ve been working somewhat feverishly on The Journal with an eye to getting this update out the door before the end of summer, and I’m somewhat surprised to see it’s working. The update is in testing now, and should be available before the middle of summer. Getting this done will free up a lot of time. A good chunk of which will then be devoted to the next iteration of the product, because the bills must be paid, though in a far less intense manner. At least at first.

 

Next up is the looming release of my next novel, New Fairy Moon, which is the tween novel I have been calling GoSH1. The print-on-demand elements are just about complete (interior and cover), and I built the base ebook document yesterday.

 

Finally, the uncompleted manuscript of Gunwitch2 is beginning to loom over me and poke at me to remind me that I need to get that finished. Because I need to start work on GoSH2, and because I cannot possibly publish Gunwitch2 until I have a least a first draft.

 

So, what are these goals that are adjusting? First, and most obvious, is that I won’t be finishing 4 novels this year. My new goal for this year, and for the next couple years, is to complete 2 novels each year. At present, I would guess those novels will have project names starting with GoSH- and Gunwitch-, but I might have new ideas between now and then and feel the urge to chase the occasional wild hare.

 

The primary reason for this adjustment in goals is that I will also be working on The Journal over that time period. Besides the current update, I have mapped out several significant new updates/directions that leverage the existing product and target new platforms.

 

Over the past year, I’ve come to a better understanding of myself. I’m a programmer at least as much as I’m a writer, so I best be making accommodations on both sides of that divide. Even if I suddenly became wildly successful with one aspect of my life, I wouldn’t abandon the other. There would be changes, sure, but who I am would still be the same. The specifics might change, but I would still need to write, and I would still need to program.

 

And, because summer is also looming, I expect I’ll start taking pictures again too. Because I need to do that too. Just not as much.

 

-David

 

 

Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, April 9, 2012. (more…)

 

Earlier this week I indulged/amused myself in a comment on The Daring Novelist‘s blog, suggesting that what Yoda meant to say was: Do, or do not, there is no why.

 

 

I was just having a bit of fun, but the revised phrase has stuck with me, echoing around in my head and making me wonder if maybe I had hit on something.

 

Maybe there is no why.

 

For example: Why am I a software developer? I could trace my route through programming and an interest in computers and provide examples of possible why’s.

 

Because I like programming software I design. Because I like programming, in general. Because I like making a computer do what I tell it. Because I wanted to make video games. Because the pastor’s wife donated her TI99/4A to the church’s small school. Because the Atari came out when I was a kid. Because my parents bought the family a Pong console. Because my Dad was an electronic repairman.

 

Is any of those the why? Are all of them the why? Or just a part of the why?

 

I don’t know. To me, being a software developer, a computer programmer, is so deep within me that anything I offer up to explain “why” is slanted by the fact of what I am: a software developer. It’s become a tautology. I am a programmer because I program. I develop software because I am a software developer.

 

I’m beginning to think maybe I’m a writer for a similar, circular reason: I’m a writer because I write.

 

Again, I could trace a route through my life, through stories and authors that inspired me, but eventually I hit a point where I wanted to be a writer and I cannot provide a reason why. The earliest story I can remember that inspired me to write was Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH–but the first story I remember writing, I wrote *before* I read that book. It’s possible that what inspired me to write my first story was my parents buying me a small spiral notebook when I was in 3rd grade. Did a set of blank pages in the shape of a book inspire me to write that first story? What kind of a “why” is that?

 

Maybe there is no why.

 

Which would kinda negate the whole question of motivation. Being who you are, because that’s who you are, how can you possibly do anything except what you do? And how can you not do what you do? And why would need a reason to do what you do? Just do it, already.

 

-David

 

 

Copy editing GoSH1 finished today. Yay!

 

I find copy editing such tedious work that it’s hard to do it while also writing or anything else writing-related. Generally, the time required per chapter isn’t huge, but the mental effort is enough that after a couple chapters I just want to go do something else.

 

Now, though, I can get on with formatting GoSH1 for print and ebook. I find that much more enjoyable.

 

Next week (or maybe earlier) I’ll pick up Gunwitch2 again and start marching it toward a completed first draft. Now that GoSH1 is almost ready, I’m getting excited about starting work on GoSH2. And I will, once Gunwitch2 is finished.

 

I no longer expect to finish 4 novels this year, but I will finish 2, and maybe even a 3rd (or, at least, most of a 3rd).

 

-David