Too many ideas...

I'm having a bit of a quandary lately.  With the kids home from school for the summer, writing has been grabbed in little snatches whenever opportunity presents.  I've soldiered on with a bit of Loremaster 2, but little else has spilled from my pen this summer.  The problem is, I've been having this terrific influx of ideas for stories lately.

 I've been diligently scribbling down the ideas as they come and there are some real gems - ideas I'm eager to work on.  Yet tonight, as the family walked the dog, my son asked me when I'm going to get back to work on Gerry, the children's story I've been slowly writing for what seems like forever.  It's a story I love and one I really need to finish, so I made a promise.

I have one short story - 5000 words - I've committed to write.  That's what will demand my initial focus.  After that story is done, barring any news about Loremaster or any other stories on submission, Gerry will get my full attention once the kids are back in school and the days become my own again.

Stick a fork in it...it's done!

Well - it took longer than I expected, but the full edit - line by line, word by word - of Loremaster is done.  The file is saved in four different places and I am happy with the result.

A line by line edit is an arduous task.  I can only sustain that kind of editing for a few hours before my eyes cross and I really need a break.  I am glad I took the time to do it.  I found numerous opportunities for improvement, overused words, awkward structures and the odd grammatical error.  Loremaster is a much better manuscript today than it was a few weeks ago.

What now?

I have a number of projects that need attention, but where to start?

Do I jump right in to the Loremaster sequel that I started a few months back?  Might make sense - I have the first book fresh in my mind.

Do I finally finish fleshing out Patriot or Herne to novel length?

Do I revisit The Witch, a little story that grew and one I'm very fond of?

Do I start something new?

I suppose the first thing to do is take a deep breath, look at what I have on the go and decide where my energies are most profitably spent.

I'll take the weekend to figure it all out.

Editing in the sun...

Ahhh - it doesn't get much better.

I'm in the shade, the mercury is flirting with 23 degrees, there's a slight breeze wafting through the cedar hedge and the wonderful Willow is asleep by my feet.

I've just finished editing pages 382 through 454 of the manuscript and needed a little break before pushing through to the end (another 80 or so pages - heavy editing required).

I am looking forward to finishing this edit.  Two nights ago a new idea for a story leapt, almost fully formed into my head.  I've scribbled down some notes, but I think the idea is a winner and would like to get to work on it.

Well, the sooner I finish tne edit, the sooner I can get to the new stuff...

Crossin' the eyes and dottin' the tease

I have been a busy boy.

First - I'll show a few pictures that make me happy.  I can't take much credit for the end results in these ones.  I have often talked about the little park our local Heritage Committee has been spearheading called BT Corner.  Yesterday the good people at the Fergus Horticultural Society and their Dig in the Dirt Crew help bring the park one step closer to completion.

Here's the front entry to the park shown from behind.

Next, just look at all the planting along the western edge of the plaza.

Note the two new trees.  I think they're crab apple trees, but they might be service berry.  The reason I don't know is simply because I wasn't there yesterday.  I really wanted to be, but I was some place better.  Several weeks before there was any thought of planting at the Corner, I had already committed to accompanying my son on a trip to Doon Heritage Crossroads Museum for the annual water festival.

Here's another couple of pictures that make me happy.  These two pictures were taken within seconds of one another and illustrate the difference between boys and girls.  My wife and I have been very careful about not imposing gender specific activities upon the children, but some things seem firmly planted on both the x and the y chromosomes.

Sugar and Spice

And - Lord of the Flies

Something else that makes me happy is what has been occupying my days.  I have been going through the manuscript of Loremaster.  Page by page - word by word.  

I have been finding repeated works, awkward phrasing, mistakes in continuity, and problems with punctuation.  It is fiddly, exacting detail work and anyone who knows me can tell you that this kind of work drives me nuts.  However, this time I take my editing pen in hand without any reservation - eagerly, in fact.  I want to make sure that Loremaster is the best I can make it with a consistent voice throughout.  I figure about four more days of heavy editing and I'll be there.  

Speaking of which, best get back to it...

Waffles

I have this killer waffle recipe which I'm not going to share today.

The waffle I'm talking about is the title for my fantasy novel.  For a long, long time it was Loremaster, and I like that title.  I liked the original novel, but I got some feedback from agents and others that my novel had too many traditional elements.  Guilty as charged.  Loremaster started out with wizards, elves, dwarves and giants, along with a myriad of other old fantasy standbys.

I took a long, hard look at the manuscript and made some changes.  Wizardry, with all its mysticism became Craftsmanship, with all of the hard work that the word implies.  Dwarves became a race of swarthy, hardy humans known as the Volkstamites.  The elves became a detached, almost ghostly race of outsiders called the Nitherec.  And the giants...well, there's only so much you can do.  The giants are still giants, and rightly so.

I'm happy with the changes made.  I'm glad I moved from preconceived notions of elves and dwarves etc and flavoured the world with my own creations.  I think these changes make the novel unique.

I also changed the title.  It went from Loremaster to The Edgeling.   "Edgeling" is the name that humans have given to the Nitherec people because of their tendency to stand at the fringes of the world and not become involved.

Why did I change the title?  Well, to be honest, after making various changes to the body of the novel, I wanted to approach some of the agents again with a revitalized manuscript.  I thought maintaining the title might stand against me, so I changed it.

But it bothered me.

All of the changes I made to the body of the story added to the novel.  Changing the title, I think, took away from it.  Loremaster, I feel, has more punch than The Edgeling.

And so - after lots of waffling and consultation with those familiar with the book - my fantasy novel is once again, Loremaster.

What is it about a synopsis?

So... In order to submit book length manuscripts to agents and publishers more often than not you need to supply a synopsis of the story.  The synopsis needs to run through all of the major threads of the story so that whoever ends up reviewing your submission will quickly know the gist of the tale and know whether it is the sort of thing they will want to develop or represent.

A synopsis shouldn't be that daunting.  For Gerry - my children's story about an orphaned giant - a synopsis is a straightforward affair because all of the action follows Gerry.  From the mountain top beginning to the reunion at the end, Gerry is the character we follow around.  With The Edgeling (formerly titled Loremaster) things are a little more complex.

You would think that having written the damn book, the synopsis would be easy.  Not so.

In The Edgeling there are eight major characters and the flow of the story goes from one character to the next as they all scramble off in varying directions.  Layer onto that a politically complex world and a smattering of racial bigotry, a Cain and Able sub-story, a resurrection and a gypsy-like band of travelling folk and a synopsis begins to get daunting.

At 502 revised pages and just over 163,000 words, The Edgeling is a long story.  Attempting to give a fair synopsis in the standard 5-10 page treatment is asking a lot.  Because of the novel's length and complexity, I'm afraid the synopsis may run as long as 15 pages which may in itself be a reason for an agent or publisher to reject the manuscript without reading a single word of the actual text. I am therefore trying to be brief, but it is difficult.

To compound the problem - the weather has been terrific.  Sunny days with mild temperatures have me wanting to be anywhere BUT the basement writing the synopsis.  The last few days I've brought the laptop into the front porch to take advantage of the sunshine and still work on the synopsis.  That's the plan, anyway.

Because I don't really want to write the synopsis, I am find a thousand little things to do other that get the damn thing typed and polished.  Things like dishes, laundry, yard clean up, winterizing the carport and ...well...updating this blog...

Okay - enough  - back to it.

Strange and wonderful...

It has been a week of strange and wonderful things.  I have been plodding ahead with a synopsis for The Edgeling and have been moving (slowly) forward on Gerry.

Something strange to begin with - it seems after twenty-two years good old Duffer (who lately has more than his fair share of "Bill the Cat" moments) has decided to stave off Alzheimer's by challenging himself with new skills.

He's decided to start with Beatrix Potter.  Good choice, Duff.

Now onto something wonderful.  My little time-consuming park project, BT Corner.  Most of the landscaping is done.  The wall is all but finished and the paving stones are in.  There are a few touches left for this autumn, but then I can take a break from the park (for the most part) until Spring when there will be planting and benches and information plaques to contend with.  Here's how the Corner looks today:

I especially love that red maple.

Something else wonderful - this:

Is that?  Could that be?  No....no one would ever-

Yes.  That's Nature's Perfect Food, right there.  Bacon, and lots of it.  That is a bacon, potato and cheddar tart, my friends.  I wish I could take credit for this flavour treat/ heart attack on a plate but that honour goes to PEI chef, Michael Smith.

Here's what it looks like inside:

Trust me - all you need with this is the salad (and maybe a defibrillator).

Now on to strange and wonderful.

I love my town.  We are blessed with hundreds of heritage homes built from local limestone by the skilled hands of masons long dead.  One of these buildings is our own Carnegie Library.  It is a stately building and last night, as I waited for my daughter to finish her piano lesson, I snapped this shot - just in time for Hallowe'en.

This really is the only way to light a building like this.

And speaking of lights...Remember Trixie, the albino black cat.  Well here she is, mounted and lit, just in time for Hallowe'en.

A whole new look

I've had the blog's new look up and running for about a week now. What prompted a make-over? Well...a couple of things.

The Sand-dragon eating its creator was a fitting symbol for a blog about writing. It fit in with the fantasy theme and often when writing it feels like the writing is trying to devour the writer. Lately, however, I find my writing moving away from the fantasy genre. To tell the truth, Loremaster, my 700 page novel, is about the only thing truly "fantasy" that I've written.

More and more, of late, my writing has moved toward stories more rooted in worlds we recognize very much as our own. It's true that I've put out some horror stories lately and I'm currently working on a science-fiction story with a real Twilight Zone feel to it but more and more I keep returning to my Patriot re-write and The Witch and Small Town Secrets, all stories placed in reality (more or less).

I also wanted a more personal touch to the blog. The Sand-dragon was not my picture. It was a photo from a competition held in Vancouver (I believe) and the picture spoke to me so I used it on the title bar of the blog. The tin-boat above is a photo taken by me during a vacation in Northern Ontario a few years back. I snapped this picture shortly after dawn while the mist was still dancing across the still waters of the lake.

The boat, incidental, was on loan to me from my brother-in-law. I've caught a lot of bass in that boat...

Speaking of a whole new look - on a personal level - after 42 years yours truly finally has an ass. It's barely noticeable to the casual observer, but to me it's positively magnificent. My wife attributes the bike riding and the elliptical machine at the gym. After a lifetime of having an ass you could use as a straight edge, I finally have a little curve at the base of my spine. And hard! Sweet Jesus - if you need to strike a match or crack a walnut - I'm your guy. (Well, not quite yet...)

Anyway - kids are heading to bed and want me to read a story so I guess I'd better get my brand new ass upstairs.

Farstrider

Well, it has been a while since I last wrote about my family's Close Encounter of the Thump Kind with a majestic white-tailed deer.   We have now heard from the insurance company and it did indeed cost us deerly.  The car's damage was more extensive than first thought - there was a lot of stuff smushed-in under that crumpled hood and the cost of repairs quickly escalated.  Too bad - I'll miss the Camry.

So, as the Beynon's adjust to life as a one car family (something that was going to happen soon, anyway), I have revisited my Loremaster manuscript with a new and critical eye.  As I read it,  I now see things I was too close to before.  Lots of little things that can be cut or tweeked.  The entire prologue is gone - I liked the prologue with its Mission Impossible raid, but I'm learning that prologues can be a kiss of death for a manuscript and really, Loremaster worked perfectly well without it.  Reading the manuscript, I could see that it was too Elf-y and Dwarf-y and Wizard-y and a little Monk-y.  These can be fixed.  The monks can become Zealots but still keep their nobility and religion.  The Wizards will become Scholars and Craftsmen and still weild thier magical might.  The Dwarves...well, them I can just do without - Gruff, ill-mannered humans can accomplish anything the Dwarves could have done but the Elves were going to be a problem.  One of the main characters happened to be an Elf...but no longer.  Now he's a Farstrider.

"What's a Farstrider?" you may ask.  Ask away, but I'm not telling - you'll just have to wait and see.  

But I will give you this much:

"Farstrider" will be the new title of the book.

Time flies...

It feels like just yesterday that I was writing about DAW’s rejection of my manuscript for Loremaster and the next thing you know it's July 18th and you're readying yourself to go on vacation.

A lot has been going on since last I posted.

Let's start with the story, The Witch. I'd wanted to keep it in the neighbourhood of 8 to 10,000 words but it just didn't want to stay there. It has grown in complexity and the characters are taking on a life of their own. I do have a bit of a cautionary tale here, though. I've been happily working on this story each day, nurturing it and watching it grow. At the end of the day I got into the unfortunate habit of simply reducing my document on the computer screen but not actually saving it. Well, Microsoft had one of their usual security updates that took control of my computer and shut it down without asking me, thank you very much. Imagine my surprise after failing to save my document to see the startup screen of my computer smiling at me one morning. "Oh well," I thought, "no problem at all. Microsoft Word has an automatic recovery system built right in and I know for damn sure that it is set to save every 10 minutes so all I have to do is start up Microsoft Word and I'm back in business." It's a really nice theory that if your computer shuts down unexpectedly Microsoft Word will step up and help you out. And you know what, most times it does... but not this time. I tried and tried but to no avail. As near as I can figure I lost nine pages of really good stuff. Fortunately, it was nine pages that I was able to improve upon during the second, forced rewrite. The Witch is shaping up to be a fine, fine tale.

I heard back from a couple of stories making the rounds. Small Town Secrets, submitted to The Missouri Review, came back with a rejection but it did have a personal note from the reader inviting me to submit other, perhaps slightly shorter work. I've since submitted Small Town Secrets to The Paris Review . I also received a rejection for the story, Just Business from Dark Recesses Press. The person who reviewed Just Business gave me a very detailed explanation regarding the story's rejection. She praised the quality of my writing but told me the story, which concerns a man with a very cavalier attitude toward human traffic, just wasn't what her readers would consider horrific or terrifying. Fair enough. I decided to submit it to Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. Unlike the rejection from Daw, which was a form letter and as such is to be ignored, these last two rejections actually had useful information and constructive criticism and feedback. I'm feeling optimistic.

The summer is in full swing and it's a busy time with the kids. It's a little unnerving when your five-year-old has a more active social calendar than you do. I guess I can take comfort in the fact that he is a very gregarious five-year-old. One of the things that both kids are signed up for this summer is the reading program at the local library. The five-year-old's program lasts a half hour on Wednesdays before lunch. My daughter's program is on the same day but for an hour in the afternoon. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do with this floating hour and a half where I needed to be close to the library but had someone else watching the kids. The first day I use the time to run errands downtown and did a little people watching. On the second day I had no errands to run so I took a notebook with me and planted myself in this incredibly comfortable chair in a quiet section of the second floor of our local library. In the crisp air conditioning, surrounded by countless shelves of books, with the distant sound of kids on the lower level enjoying their reading club, I opened the notebook and tried to come up with something that I could exclusively write during these summer reading club times. Well, the constructive criticism for Just Business was still fresh in my mind so I decided to work on a conversation between a person who deals in very specialized merchandise and a customer. Since then the character, a British gentleman named Alastair Middleman, his family business (in continuous operation for 26 generations), his tragic past and his wayward daughter who now must be put through her apprenticeship in preparation to take over the family business have been occupying many of my waking thoughts. They promise to be an entertaining family and speaking of family...

Today, just before I decided to write this post, I was busy strapping a car carrier to the roof of the Camry in preparation for the start of our family camping vacation. We're heading out to the east coast to visit friends we've not seen in far too long. Along the way will be camping and sightseeing and generally enjoying each other's company. When I get back I'm sure there'll be a host of pictures and a great number of stories to pass along.

Till then behave and play nice.

Disappointment... and opportunity

There is a little bit of disappointing news that showed up in the mail late last week. It came in a self-addressed stamped envelope and I have to admit that as soon as I opened it I was crestfallen. (Just on a personal note, I have always loved that word-crestfallen. I don't believe there's any other of 11 letter word that can so sum up a state of utter disappointment). Inside the envelope was a lovely letter from the good people at DAW Books. It was a rejection slip for my novel, Loremaster.

Although rejection is never a fun thing, I'm forced to remind myself that rejections are the bumps on the road to publication. Some of the bumps have useful information that should be heeded and you can adjust your course. Other bumps, like this one, are generic and you just have to put up with the jostling and continue onward. The next step for Loremaster is sending it off to a different publisher but before I do I'll need to assemble a chapter by chapter synopsis. It'll take me about a day or two to make the synopsis and then we'll be ready for round two.

In other news, my witch story keeps growing and growing. It's currently sitting at about 9000 words and I get the sense that it's only about half done. I'm really enjoying writing it but, man, it has taken on a life of its own.

When I'm finished the witch story and have the synopsis written for Loremaster I'll need to turn to a promise I made the kids. Years ago, when my daughter was little, I created a story called Gerry the Giant. Both kids are reading now and both have requested that I put Gerry the Giant into words for them. There's another kids' story dancing around in my head about Bladd the Blampire. What's a Blampire? Blampires are creatures that appear at dusk, usually in closets or under beds in rooms where there are young children. Blampires are kind of like vampires except they get their nourishment from children's imaginations. They look a little scary, but you can't always trust first impressions. They are actually very, very nice. Enough said about that for now.

The voice recognition software, Nuance's Dragon Naturally Speaking, is working out pretty well. After a few initial hiccups (I actually just had to train the software for the word ‘hiccups’ - it thought I was saying ‘pickups’) I'm settling into the software nicely. When you're as poor a typist as I am being able to put words on paper as quickly as you can speak is a real asset.

Well, this blog entry has gone on long enough-I need to get back to that one-legged witch and the little girl that won't leave her alone.

Loremaster Revisited

So maybe a story week was a little ambitious considering my current project.…

But, I am happy to say that my current project is now my finished project! Yesterday afternoon, at about 3:45 PM, I put the finishing touches on my Loremaster manuscript. About another half hour was spent fiddling with fonts and type sizes. I ended up settling on the standard Times New Roman and reduced it from a 12 to 11 pt font. By changing it to 11 pt I was able to reduce the overall length of the manuscript from 618 pages to a much more manageable, and more cheaply posted, 513 pages. I also spent some time, actually about 45 minutes, finding and replacing all those words that are different in British spelling than American spelling. I’m talking about words like “honour” and “armour” and changing them to “honor” and “armor”. In a fantasy novel where one of the major characters is the personification of knightly conduct, there were a lot of changes to be made. At the end of it all I figure there were about ¾ of a page of “u” s that vanished from the U.S. version of the manuscript.

Yesterday, around 4:45 PM, with disk in hand, I walked into one of our local printers. This morning I returned to pick up the manuscript. There’s something profoundly weighty about 513 pages that you have painstakingly written and revised and revised again. The manuscript sits here at my side waiting only for a cover letter and a synopsis before being bundled up and sent screaming into the world. That's it in the photo up there...

Now that Loremaster has been effectively put to bed it is time for me to move on to other projects. One of these projects is to get started on my short-story-a-week program. This week’s story will be set in a little village I’ve created called Mitchell’s Crossing and center around a former ballerina with a wooden leg. Guess what her first name is...

I’m also going to get started on either the flesh-out of Patriot or The Platinum Ticket or I’ll start working again on a novel length piece of fiction I started last year called, Nothing’s Made To Last.

There are a few things of note going on in my little town this week that I’d like to pass along. The Elora Writers Festival takes place this Sunday. I understand there are still tickets available and you can follow the link to the web site for more info. My wife and I went last year and it was a great experience. If you find yourself in the neighbourhood this weekend, plan on attending.

Also going on in my township of Center Wellington is the annual general meeting of the Outdoor Writers of Canada. The membership are meeting here from Thursday till Saturday in a variety of venues. It’s nice to see our little town snagged a convention usually reserved for places like Montreal or Victoria.

There’s a lot more going on that I’ll cover in the next post but for now that dancer with the prosthetic limb wants to shake a leg…

A story a week...

Ambitious? Yes, but something I can do. In addition to finishing the Loremaster edit, fleshing out Patriot and The Platinum Ticket and putting together a couple of rough outlines for a few other novel length projects I have decided on a goal of one short story a week - written, edited and submitted to market. To this end I have blown the dust off a couple of books in the basement.

One - none too dusty actually - is Fiction Writer's Workshop by Josip Novakovich. In his book, Novakovich presents a complete Fiction Workshop with a good number of story assignments. Taking my recent successes from the Fiction Workshop I attended earlier this year, I can see the value of a creative springboard.

The second book is much older and has a touch of sentimental value. It is called Writing with a Purpose by John M. Bassett and Donald G. Rutledge. This particular copy of the book was published in 1958. It was presented to me in grade seven by my teacher, Mr. Ian Morrison. Mr. Morrison is also the guy who tried - and failed - to teach me how to play a musical instrument. My most vivid memory of Ian Morrison is an errant stick of chalk hurled in anger that nailed the girl sitting next to me. No - the chalk wasn't intended for little Dave Beynon - he was actually trying for the kid behind the girl but his aim was rather awful. But I digress...
Writing with a Purpose is a great all-round primer for any sort of writing you might choose to do. Essays and letters comprise a good deal of the material but there are some real creative writing gems scattered throughout.

Why a story a week? Well - I need to get some publishing credits and I need them sooner than later. In Issac Asimov's compilation, Gold, he reprinted a number of essays from the magazine that bore his name. In one of the essays he speaks about cover letters and getting published. One thing he talks about are how self-doubting most fiction editors are, himself included. He said that when an editor sees previous writing credits cited in the cover letter it makes him or her far more likely to give the story serious consideration. Those previous publishing credits tell the editor that other editors have found this author's work salable. Of course, the writing still needs to be good, but those publishing credit are priceless.

I already have five short stories making the rounds. With additional stories entering the world each week my chances increase that much more and once I can add publishing credits to the cover letters...well, the sky's the limit. Publishing credits also come in handy in finding agents and publishers for novel length fiction.

Speaking of writing, I need to edit some more Loremaster... next time I plan on talking about having fun...

As Handy As They Come...

It is always been my firm belief that the gene for “handiness” resides firmly on the Y chromosome. This belief probably stems from my childhood observations. My father was the ultimate handyman. He could frame, string electrical work and drywall. Carpentry and plumbing were second nature to him. With the right tools he could build anything. I’d always hoped that this handiness gene had been passed along but 41 years of experience has taught me differently (for the sake of my son, I hope it has skipped a generation). All of this leads into my recent misadventures.

It is been a rather chaotic week around the Beynon household. For a long time now we’ve needed to replace the enclosure surrounding our bathtub. With peeling grout and more than a hint of mold, it could be put off no longer. To begin we tore out the strips of this laminated board product with dubious water-resistant properties. It was this board that had become moldy. As I tore out the drywall it soon became abundantly clear that our lovely old house was completely off square. It also became clear that the plumbing side of the job (the challenge I was looking forward to) was very much beyond my meager abilities. After swallowing my pride and making sure that I still had some manhood left, I picked up the phone and call the plumber.

The plumber stopped by, took a look at the pipes and the tub, and drew my attention to something I had been doing my best to ignore. The edges of the existing tub and the brackets underneath were very rusty. Chewing my lip and nodding my head, it was agreed that a new tub would be needed. A soaker tub was ordered and delivered. The plumber and his helper showed up a few days later and set to work.

I, emasculated, could only watch.

It was much later in the day, after hours of straining and reaching and fiddling on the part of the plumber and his assistant, that I knew the right decision had been made. It would have taken me a week of messing around and at the end of it all I would have had to pick up the phone and call the guy anyway.

Next came the drywalling and the tub surround. As I said before, our old house is not square. That meant I had to build up the corner of the bathroom in order to have a square corner for the tub surround. The correct term is apparently “shimming the studs”. To me it sounds like something that might happen at a singles bar in Spain – kind of like the “running of the bulls”. The drywall in itself was an adventure with many a swearword aiding in adjusting the fit. I’m really glad the kids were at school while all this was going on. The tub surround is a five piece marvel of modern engineering. We chose the five piece model because it’s more forgiving for uneven walls. After a lot of measuring, measuring, measuring again and finally cutting, all five pieces were mounted to the wall.

I have discovered a job I really, really hate. The application of silicon sealant is a chore devised by the Devil, I say. After a failed initial attempt, I ended up with a crooked snail trail along each and every seam. I am far from satisfied with the job I’ve done but there comes a time when you need your damn bath tub back. In a couple of weeks I will revisit the silicon on the tub surround but for now I have other things to do.

Those other things include doing a final polish on a total of five short stories that I aim to have sent out by the end of tomorrow. Once those are out in the world next week will be dedicated to a final edit of Loremaster.

Rat Dog

The Fiction Writer's Workshop resumed after a two week hiatus. This week's discussions centred around plot. My favourite quote of the evening is an unattributed one as follows:

What do your characters treasure most? Put it at stake and let your characters fight for it.


Think about any story that has captivated you and odds are the above quote applies.

During the workshop we also took a look at the last assignment from our workshop on Point of View. There were two choices from that workshop. The one I chose was as follows:

Please use the past tense for this exercise. One to three pages.
(Any point of view)
The lobby of a swanky apartment building--the doorman is opening the door for a female tenant just as a man walking a small dog passes the entrance. A potted plant falls from a sixth floor window narrowly missing the woman. The dog strains at the leash and paws through the remnants of the potted plant.

Quite the springboard. It actually ended up being 8 pages but once I started I had to keep going. I had a lot of fun with this one and it can be found over at the fiction notebook. I called it The Rat Dog.

Those who know me will recognize my long standing dislike of diminutive canines is creeping into my fiction. I have long held the belief that if it's smaller than a cat then it forfeits its right to be called a dog. And then there are the cat-sized ones that fall into the realm of what my friend Diane calls "kickin' dogs". I guess anything less than knee height falls into this category. Anything higher than the knee technically qualifies as a dog but if I need to stoop to pet it - well, that's iffy.

I'm happy to report that Loremaster's beginning has been rewritten and with some luck and hard work the manuscript will be revamped in short order. So far the story remains the same with a healthy portion of house-cleaning and technical corrections. Looking forward to getting it submitted so I can move onto something new...

Something new involving demons...

Just around the corner...

I've been assured that Spring is coming. If you believe the Press it came last week. There are even signs that the season of renewal is desperately trying to make its presence known. Over the Easter weekend my son and I played basketball in the driveway - twice. The family went for a great long walk the day before yesterday along the still snow choked-path along the Grand River but it was mild and pleasant and the water was actually flowing - moving - not frozen!! And yesterday, to top it all off - a big fat robin in the back yard! Actually a pair of big fat robins hopping merrily around the bird-feeders. Joy of joys - winter must be over if my sweet friends the robins have come back.

Today those same sweet, sweet harbingers of Spring are probably taking shelter in the cedar hedge that runs along the western edge of my property cowering and wondering what the hell they were doing showing themselves yesterday. Today, as I look out the window, my eyes are greeted by a wall of white. Yes, the day after the universally agreed upon sign of Spring shows up we're find ourselves in the grip of a March blizzard.

That's life.

Speaking of "That's life" my wife directed me to a little something on YouTube. It's actually the last lecture made by a fella called Randy Pausch - a professor dying of cancer. He was featured on Oprah but don't let that dissuade you. If you follow the link, I promise you it's worth a look.

I also found out today that a geeky kind of teenage hero of mine passed away earlier this month. That's right, folks, the father of Dungeons & Dragons, Gary Gygax is dead. Back in 1974 along with his buddy, Dave Arneson, he created a world of escape where every shy awkward kid could, armed only with a pencil, some graph paper, a fist full of multi-sided dice and an imagination become a hero of epic proportions. For those of us who were a little awkward and ...well, a little geeky...it was very empowering. It was in large part the game of D&D that help inspire my interest in writing fantasy. Farewell, Gary, you'll be missed.

Writing is going slowly. I have set aside most of this week to clean up Loremaster for the eventually submission to DAW. The writing workshop gears up again this Thursday and I'm sure there's something I should have put together for that that will need to be addressed either tomorrow or Thursday morning.

The other bit of news is that although Windows Vista, in my opinion, really, really sucks, there is one part of it that I have discovered leaves XP in the dust. That feature is the built-in Speech Recognition software. My daughter is very musical and asked if there was a way we could record her voice on the computer. I knew that there was a dusty old microphone plugged into the basement office computer from my previous flirtation with Speech Recognition with XP. Well, eventually the microphone found itself plugged into the Vista-driven laptop. Low and behold, a new interface and a computer begging me to talk to it. After a little training I was running applications and surfing the web without placing a finger on the keyboard. I am, thus far, impressed.

Better get back to the other writing now...

2008 Elora Writer's Festival

Last week I attended to kick-off for the 2008 Elora Writer’s Festival. The turn out wasn’t as good as it could have been but hey, we’d received yet another 25 centimetres of snow the previous day so that could have had something to do with it.

There were local personalities from our newspapers and the cable station. The author who hosts our Fiction workshop, Michael Hale, was the master of ceremonies. In attendance also was actor, Colin Fox of PSIfactor fame (actually his IMDb listing is as long as your arm, PSIfactor doesn't begin to describe his accomplishments).

During the festivities the writers who will be reading from their works were announced and you can visit the website for a full accounting. The theme and format of the 5^th Annual Elora Writer’s Festival Writing Competition was announced as well. This year the format is “A Harvest of Words” – follow the link to enter.

The other bit of news from the evening is that the guy who never wins anything (that’d be yours truly) won a door prize. I received 2 books from our local bookstore, Roxanne’s Reflections. The books were Helen Humphrey’s Wild Dogs and Laurie Gough’s travel memoir, Kiss the Sunset Pig. I haven’t read them yet but a quick flip through Kiss the Sunset Pig had me laughing.

Last week at the Fiction Workshop the assignment was to create a scene or situation where two characters come together and each wants something from the other. I don’t know how exactly it happened but this was a springboard to one of the most grim things I’ve ever written. So grim, in fact, was the story that I felt the need to go out in the world and be among people after I finished it. I went for a walk downtown, rented a movie and bought some goodies for the kids just to be among people and get centred.

What is this grim story? Well, it is called Just Business and can be accessed at the Fiction Notebook.

There’s no Workshop for the next two weeks but I am keeping busy cleaning up Loremaster and doing odd jobs around the house. Loremaster should be ready to go out into the world by the end of the month and hopefully I’ll have the bathroom renovated by then too…

Structure, setting and submissions

This week marked a return to the Writing workshop after a 2 week absence.

This week we spoke of setting and structure and the type of language used to achieve the desired effect in writing. We spoke of the importance of dialog and how versatile well-written dialog can be.

Our exercise this week was to construct a scene, using dialog effectively, between Sisyphus and his wife as she brings him his lunch. Sisyphus was the Greek king who was doomed for all eternity to roll a massive boulder up a hill. It was a fun exercise and I encourage you to try it for yourself. My effort is over in my writing notebook that you can link to here.

While you're at the notebook have a look around (the notebook can be accessed just to the left and above ). One of the stories has been submitted to the Missouri Review for consideration. The same story has been submitted to the New Quarterly, as well.

Loremaster has been seeing some slow editing over the past weeks, but I anticipate a flurry of motion in the next little while. My goal for submission is to have the manuscript in the mail no later than March 15th. I have been putting together a new beginning for my novella, The Platinum Ticket, as part its evolution in becoming a full length novel. So far all the work has been in my head, but it will find paper while I'm cleaning up Loremaster. Patriot hasn't seen any revision yet, but that will come with time.

All this writing and a new job search on the horizon. Exciting!

Big Red Paperweight

I have this big red paperweight that has been within ready reach since those days of my undergraduate degree from McMaster all those years ago. It tips the scales oh, around seven pounds. It has been used to prop open doors and windows. It has been used as a coaster for countless coffee cups. It has been thrown in anger and left a dent in a plaster wall. It can be opened, my hefty red paperweight and when you look inside, guess what you’ll find…

Words. Thousands of words. And beside each of those words are more words, describing the word that they follow. My massive red paperweight is, of course, The Random House Webster’s College Dictionary (1988 edition).

One word in particular had me reaching for it this evening.

Resignation – n. 1. the act of resigning. 2. a formal statement, document, etc. stating that one gives up an office or position. 3. an accepting, unresisting attitude, state, etc. ; submission, acquiescence. [ 1350-1400 ME < rescinding =" L">

On Monday morning I found myself in a position where I needed to resign from my commissioned sales job.

I had been with the display company since August of last year and we had been flirting with salary discussions for some time. After a long while of being put off, I pressed the issue with my boss last Friday and told him what I needed. The proposal I made was, in my opinion, based on an established benchmark (ie. A person of comparable experience and skill set currently employed doing the same job) and all I asked for was fair and equitable treatment. Unfortunately my boss, while assuring me that I was a valuable member of the team, didn’t feel that he could afford to pay me what this other person was earning and asked me what I could live with.

“I just told you what I could live with.” I told him.

“But can you settle for less?” was his reply.

“I told you what I can settle for. Make me an offer and find out.”

He said he’d look at things over the weekend and come back to me on Monday. Well, Sunday night I received an e-mail from HR with an offer considerably less than the earlier stated benchmark. After that I had no choice but to resign.

I’ve had mixed feelings about this but it is for the best. I am parting on amicable terms and will serve out my notice making sure that projects that are underway are transitioned properly. It is a company filled with really good people and lots of potential and I do wish them all the success in the world.

Now – what will I do? Well, that’s a really good question.

I don’t think I will go back into graphics or packaging sales, though I am good at it and have twenty years experience. Ideally, the fiction will begin to sell and I will be submitting the short fiction to various markets in the coming weeks. I will also finish the last revision of Loremaster in the very near future and get that submitted but in the meantime – the chilluns gotta eat.

I think the best plan for now is to find something local that won’t devour my time and energies (or gas and wear and tear on the car). Let's face it, there are a multitude of ways to earn money. I have some things in mind and I will keep you posted.

Wish me luck – it’s all very exciting!!!

It's a whole New Year...

As I said in my last post on New Year’s Eve – last year was a pivotal one for me. All years are pivotal but I was actually paying attention during this one.

After far too many years running on a treadmill for a packaging company, I found myself in January of last year in a position where I could take a long hard look at what I had made of my life and what direction I wanted to steer things for the future.

First let me say that as lives go, I have been fairly lucky. I’m 40 years old and still have all of my fingers and toes – all 21 of ‘em. My general health is good. I’m fairly intelligent and somewhat well educated. And to top it all off I am blessed with a wonderful, healthy family that loves me (let’s face it – if you have that, anything else is gravy).

On the other side of the equation had been a job that offered little in the way of fulfillment. There was frustration and stress and though the money was pretty good, it was not enough to compensate for the incredible bullshit to reward ratio – bullshit winning out every time.

In January 2007 I decided to start things off by finishing a novel that had been shelved for many years. A goodly portion of the novel was written while I was at University with infrequent visits every few years adding to the story. Starting that first week of 2007 I wrote everyday until finally, in mid February, the first draft was finished. It was an amazing feeling of accomplishment. The novel was nearly complete when I settled in for the day. From the first few typed words I could smell blood. I knew that today was the day. I might have stopped briefly for a hot dog lunch but as my wife returned home around 5:30pm I was still tapping away at the keyboard. I was so close, I could taste it when my wife said, “Remember, it’s your turn to take the boy to indoor soccer.”

Normally I am riveted to my son’s soccer games, but this evening I was on such a high that I was writing and revising the final paragraphs in my head and I have to admit that I remember virtually nothing of the game. Home we came – ahhh - bedtime routine for the kids – stories – songs (please, sweet Jesus, go to sleep easily tonight) and finally, with a last flutter of eyelids, I crept to the door and rushed to the basement.

“Dinner?” my wife asked as I swept past her.

“Later…” I said, “Almost done – couple hundred or so words…love you.”

I lowered myself at the keyboard and pounded out the final scene and, as I typed “The End” I was filled with a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction I have never experienced before.

“So this is what slaying a dragon must feel like.”

I’m pretty sure I said those words out loud.

With a novel finished and in need of a rewrite I decided I needed some distance before I set to that task. I wrote a number of short stories and started a couple of novels. The novels are both derived from a novella, The Platinum Ticket, that I will flesh out to novel length this year. I also sent out numerous queries to various agents to represent my completed novel, Loremaster. I soon discovered that finding an agent is very difficult even for a published author and next to impossible for an unpublished one. I intend to start a new round of agent queries later this month now that I have gotten over my initial round of rejections.

Good ol’ Loremaster needs one last polish – a complete, word by word walk-through over the next month or so – and then I’ll submit to DAW books to see if it can rise, cream-like, through their slush pile.

Over the Labour Day weekend I took part in the 3 Day Novel contest and create what I consider to be one of my finest stories – a novella called Patriot. Normally the results of the 3 Day Novel contest are announced during the month of January. I am keeping my fingers crossed. If it doesn’t win, Patriot can easily be expanded to novel length without losing any of its flavour.

There are also some new ideas that will be worked on this year. I have some lovely ideas about demons, Herne the Hunter, and children’s story about giants and dragons. There are also a number of short story ideas germinating in my brain that will need to make their way out onto paper. I am also going to drop off a registration form and a cheque to participate in a fiction writing workshop at the end of January.

With all of this on the go, I am looking forward to a productive 2008.