Guns & Magic

 

The First Man by Albert Camus. This is another book that got grabbed at random. It’s actually an unfinished manuscript, what Camus was working on when he died. The book was published by the heirs in the 1990′s. So far, it’s been interesting in the depiction of poverty in Algeria in the first half of the 20th century. Since this book is incomplete, and since Camus had a long writing career, I requested a selection of his short stories from the library. I expect I’ll get to those next week.

 

I didn’t get any writing in today. I did get in a bit of editing, though.

 

-David

 

Horse Girl – 1007 words (chapter 9 total: 2043)

 

I changed the tentative title of this chapter yesterday, from “Nothing Goes Right” to “Arguments”. It’s not much of a title, but its a great summary of the point of the chapter. So far, it’s helped keep me on track. In an obtuse sort of way.

 

Chapter 8 got renamed just before I finished writing it. It had been called “Travis Talks”, because in the outline that was the main point of the chapter. But as I wrote the chapter, I noticed that there was a recurring element: the men in Stevie’s life were underestimating her and misunderstanding her. So I changed the title to “Stupid Men” and during the pre-post editing of the chapter, enhanced those parts of the story.

 

I’m pretty sure that I will rename all of the chapters of the book when I’m finished. I don’t want the titles to telegraph too much of what’s coming up in the story. And I don’t want them to be too “cute” either (no stupid TV episode title puns, for example). Until then, though, I find it helps to keep them closely tied to the content of the chapter.

 

-David

 

It has begun. Tonight I edited the first chapter of The Summoning Fire. Only 3 or 4 months after I had originally planned to start.

 

My plan is to edit a chapter a night until I have a complete second draft. Then starts the Even More Fun Part: Query letters to publishers!

 

Publishers? you ask.

 

Yes, I say again. Publishers.

 

Not an agent first? you ask.

 

That is correct. I did an agent hunt back in 2005, when I had finished my first novel manuscript. And the most important thing I learned was:

 

How to write a query letter.

 

Oh, and:

 

It’ll be much easier to get an agent (should you decide you still want one) after you’ve interested a publisher in your manuscript.

 

But, you may protest, don’t most publishers refuse unsolicited manuscripts?

 

That is correct, I will agree. But that just means they want to be queried before you send them the manuscript. At that point, it will not be “unsolicited”.

 

The query letter is the same, pretty much, whether you send it to the publisher or an agent.

 

I did get one mostly positive response to my agent hunt, BTW. Even if I didn’t get an actual agent to represent me. That is, I got some good feedback. I even listened to their advice. Eventually.

 

Their advice, and my own desire to improve myself as a writer before undergoing another round of query letters, prodded me towards my 2006 project, A Short Story a Day. Of which The Summoning Fire was one result.

 

So, on with it.

 

-David

 

Horse Girl – 1033 words (chapter 9 total: 1033)

 

For a brief time, I considered merging chapters 9 and 10 in the outline. But now that I’m started, I’m thinking I’ll keep them separate.

 

If for no other reason than to have some short chapters again.

 

The first 5 chapters of the book averaged 4500 words each. Chapters 6, 7 & 8, though, all weighed in right at 6000 words. I can’t help but wonder if they’re too long. So far, though, I’m not seeing where I would be able to cut out significant chunks. I’m trying not to worry about it too much. There will be plenty of time to cut it down later.

 

Speaking of cutting…I’ve decided to start editing The Summoning Fire in the evenings. I expect that will take me a couple weeks, then I’ll have a decent 2nd draft. I was reading a few of the stories/chapters last night, and it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the writing style and the characters. So very different from the Horse Girl project.

 

I’m enjoying Horse Girl as much as I can enjoy anything while I’m writing it (especially when writing the middle), but the difference in themes and settings and characters and situations are like night and day.

 

Which means that later this year I’ll be marketing 2 very different books. Probably to 2 very different publishers. One young adult girl-and-horse book. And one woman-with-a-shotgun-fighting-demons book. At least they’re both (loosely) categorized as “modern fantasy”.

 

-David

 

by David Michael

 

 

“Good job,” Dad said when Stevie posed in the door of his office, trophy held up in her right hand. He even smiled, and stood up to give Stevie a congratulatory hug. Stevie hugged him as tight as she could without hurting her wrist too much. She didn’t mind. Good job and a hug from Dad almost made up for him not being there.

 

Then she put the trophy on his desk and then ran back outside to help Blake get Jack Rabbit out of the trailer and into the pasture with the other horses.

 

She had trouble grooming Jack Rabbit with just one hand. It wasn’t impossible. Just awkward. Even more so because Jack Rabbit wouldn’t stand still. He wanted to get to the pasture, to the other horses. Like her, Jack Rabbit wanted an audience to tell his story of winning.

 

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Horse Girl – 1090 words (chapter 8 total: 6112)

 

That ends chapter 8. I’ll edit it the text and get it posted either tonight or tomorrow.

 

I am so glad to be out of chapter 8. I’m not sure I did a good job with the last part of the chapter, but I’m still just damn happy that I can edit it now, instead of still having to write it.

 

-David

 

Horse Girl – ~250 words (chapter 8 total: 5022)

 

I wasn’t too concerned with word count today, my first day back to writing in over 3 months. Last night I read through chapter 7 and did some minor editing (I didn’t update the blog, though). Today I read through chapter 8, editing (cutting mostly), until I came to the end of what I had written. Then I started writing. My total new words would be closer to 300, but the net new words is only 226.

 

A 3 month hiatus in the middle of a manuscript probably doesn’t help it much. But that’s the way life goes sometimes.

 

Finishing chapter 8 this week will help propel me towards completing the book, I think. This chapter had become its own roadblock. I think I’m past that now.

 

-David

 

Double Vision by Pat Barker.

 

This is the first of three books my wife grabbed at random from the library yesterday. It’s been right at 2 months since the last time I read fiction. I expect I’ll be reading fiction almost exclusively for the near future. That is, unless the book I have reserved at the library ever comes in.

 

In other news: I expect to start work on the Horse Girl book again next week. With steady work I should be able to finish it before the end of summer.

 

-David

 

Death’s Men: Soldiers of the Great War by Denis Winter. A friend loaned me this book, along with A Short History of World War I by James L. Stokesbury, which I read back in April. So, for the near future, should Trivial Pursuit come out with a WW1 edition, I’m your man.

 

Death’s Men presents the Great War, not from the point of view of national leaders safe at home nor from the vantage of generals behind the lines, but as the war was seen by men digging trenches under fire; by men peaking over the parapets of those trenches along the western front; by men “going over the top” into no man’s land and charging forward into the fog of war. It’s powerful stuff, delivered in a very understated, very British manner.

 

Before Death’s Men I read Buffetology by Mary Buffet and David Clark. Buffetology is the clear intellectual forebear of Rule #1 by Phil Town, which I read in May. Of the two books, though, I prefer Rule #1 for its clarity of presentation–and its lack of “exploitive feel” (Mary Buffet married into, then divorced out of, the Buffet family; so, obviously, she’s an expert on how Warren Buffet invests).

 

I need to find something new to read now. A visit to the library is in order.

 

-David