My Novel's Journey--on Hold. Bad week

Been a bad week, and I had a long blog about all the stuff, good as well as bad, that happened.  Then I erased it because really, with all the good things in my life, I should not be whining.  So, this is and isn't' a novel's journey, but here are the good things going on in my writing life:

1.  Twilight Times is going to re-release Infinite Space, Infinite God I with a new cover!  If you'd like to get one with the old cover--soon to be a collector item, I'm sure!--e-mail me instead of going to some Amazon third part who wants an outrageous sum.  I have 40 copies left that long to be read!


2.  30+ people were kind enough to tag Live and Let Fly this week, which jumped the Amazon rank by nearly 100,000 to 40,000 or wowmillion books.  (It's back down to somewhere past 100,000 now.)

4.  I wrote a couple of cool scenes that are getting axed, but I came up with some fun new characters:  Petal and Leaf are pixies who drive a cab.  Not sure where they'll fit in, but they feel like the need a role.

5.  I'm canceling my Housekeeping for Writers Class because of low registration, but I'm going to do something low key and free in its place.  I want to Spring Clean, and I'm betting there are some authors out there who feel the same.  More on this later.

6.  I got 100 more people liking the DragonEye, PI FB page.  Vern will be posting more regularly there, mostly cartoons, quips from the books and stories, and some snarky comments.  If you aren't on his page yet, head over to https://www.facebook.com/DragonEyePI and LIKE Vern & Grace.

As for all the bad stuff, let's just say that in the grand scheme of things, it's all inconsequential, but it is making me rethink some aspects of my writing.  I'll share more when I've come to some decisions.  right now, I'm going to do a little soul searching.

My Novel's Journey: Gapman: Getting back on the horse

It seems oddly appropriate that with the Avengers movie coming out, I would finally be starting my own superhero novel, Gapman.  Like Live and Let Fly, Gapman is a spoof set in the DragonEye, PI universe.

Ronnie Engleson, a mild-mannered entertainment reporter, visits the set of a superhero play happening in Faerie, where he falls into a vat of magically created toxic waste, gets bitten by a radioactive pixie, and is struck by lightning while crossing the Interdimensional Gap.  The next day, he wakes up with superpowers.

Superpowers, of course, do not always mean super-effectiveness, and Ronnie wrecks a lot of havoc trying to do good for the city of Los Lagos.  The Chief of Police finally calls in Vern to catch the superpowered pain-in-the-behind, but Grace has a better idea.  Someone has put out a contract on Vern and she thinks a superhero could be the back-up he needs.  She convinces Vern to train him instead.  So Vern is stuck with a superpowered pain-in-the-tail for a padawan.

Things are heating up in Los Lagos between the Mundane Purists and the Faerie.  When the secret leader of the Pure Humans comes to town just as the Faerie Pope makes his first historic visit, Vern and his new padawan discover a conspiracy to tear the city apart--and Faerie-Mundane relations with it.  Can Gapman hero-up in time to stop a raging tide of bigotry from destroying his beloved city?

This is an off-the-cuff summary, as you can tell, and reflects my pantster nature.  The characters have not fully revealed their intentions or the evil plot.  (No supervillain this time; Gapman needs time to train up.)

My first challenge this time is simply getting started again after a long break of not writing fiction.  In February, I finished Old Man and the Void, and then had to stop to prepare for the Catholic Writers Conference online and the Live and Let Fly book tour; then I edited Neeta Lyffe 2: I Left My Brains in San Francisco, and polished Old Man for crits.  So it was nearly three months before I started Gapman.  I had about 9000 words from a previous start, plus scenes I'd played with in workshops.

First, I read the scenes and start to familiarize myself with the characters.  Then I got some cards and brainstormed more scenes.  I thought it might push me into knowing the book, but after adding a few, I felt like I was shooting blindly, so I stopped.  I finally reverted back to the old standby: BICHOK.  (Butt in Chair, Hands on Keyboard.)  I had to make myself just write and trust the characters to lead me.

So far, that's working.  Ronnie led me to his first super-hero adventure (in which he gives a guy a concussion, messes up evidence, and gets Vern and Grace in trouble) and gave me a new angle on the evil plan.

Here's a snippet from that scene.  Ronnie doesn't have a superhero costume yet, and is using a tarp as a cape. (It was raining.)  Vern and Grace are at the police station getting grilled by Detective Vialpando after the adventure:

I wondered briefly if that's why the guy I saw was hanging around.  There was something weird about that bum, but I couldn't put my claw on it.  As a result, I didn't mention him to Vialpando.  Thorough detective he was, he'd probably go find the guy and rough him up for answers he didn't have.  Vialpando stayed just enough on the side of lawfulness and good that he stayed in Captain Santry's good graces, but he was a bully at heart, and lately, he'd been pushing it.

"And that's what I don't get," he voice, though level rang with accusation.  "You say they kidnap the retarded redcap kid--some kind of gang thing, you said--"

"That's what Jose thought, and the boys are Real Humans," Grace replied with insufferable calm.

Vialpando exploded out of the chair and slammed his hands in front of her.  "Then why the hell are the only injured people some John Doe, the three Real Humans on the floor and another kid up on the balcony?"

Grace didn't even blink at his outburst, although her tone took on just a bit of scolding.  She'd battled demigods and demons--and more to the point, had taught Catholic school.  "Perhaps asking them would produce some answers?"

"Maybe when the kid from the balcony wakes up, I will.  What'd you do to him, Grace?  I've got a specialist that says he was knocked back twenty feet and slammed into a concrete wall."

My novel's journey: Multi-genre week

This was me last week.  I'm still working on plot cards for Gapman, and writing when I don't have plot ideas coming.  I also did another sweep of The Old Man and the Void because my SF crit group, Tharsis Tuus, has revived after a long hibernation.  I'm trying to get ahead in all my June blogs so that I can take vacation, as well.  Fabianspace, DragonEye, and Rocket Science for the Rest of Us will continue to have posts.

Mostly, however, I've been in the read-aloud edits for Neeta Lyffe Zombie Exterminator 2: I Left My Brains in San Francisco.  This one has a strong romantic element because Neeta and Ted get together at last; unfortunately, they are both kind of dancing around the fact that they love each other, and Neeta is also suffering from insecurity from the trauma of chopping Bergie's head off in Zombie Death Extreme.  The result was, I inadvertently "committed chick lit."  The women understood where Neeta was coming from, but the men thought she was annoying or out of character.  I thought I'd fixed it in the last round of edits, but Rob let me know that I still had not gotten the chickness out the book.  Fortunately, he's the kind of guy who can say, "Here is where you're going wrong.  Try this..."  So guys, rest assured, you will not be reading chick lit, and you can thank Rob Fabian, Dough Davidson, Lee Mather, and Walt Staples for it.

In other news, it's my birthday, and I feel like giving you a present.  The first five people to go to my website, pick out a book and e-mail me using the comments section will get an electronic or print copy, their choice, depending on if I have them in my home stock.

My Novel's Journey: Found--One Supervillian Plot

As you know, I've been searching for a supervillian plot for Gapman, as my original idea didn't seem big enough for the book. Like so many things, I mull over stuff until I go nuts, give up, watch TV and get a perfect inspiration!

This time, it was the 2012 movie commercial that did it. What could be bigger than bringing about the end of the world?

Of course, I already did that during Live and Let Fly, so I needed a new twist. For a long time, I played with the Mayan calendar/2012 idea, but I've discarded it for a few reasons:

--I already did Ragnorak in Live and Let Fly, so a legendary end-of-the-world is redundant.

--I didn't want to get into the tangled research I'd feel obligated to do to get this right. I looked at a few websites, and was amazed at the depth of thought people have given this, along with tying in all kinds of other end-of-world prophesies. I wish I could say these people have too much time on their hands, but since the world will end in 2012, I don’t see how that's the case.

--It really doesn't tie into Faerie, and the other subplots I've been developing: the Mundane's re-emerging distrust of the Faerie, especially the Faerie Church; the fact that Satan is trying to bend the rules by establishing a beachhead of Faerie evil in Los Lagos; the mysterious murders of Gap scientists and mages (which I plan to develop fully in Damsels and Knights); the appearance of the unique magic/chemical drug, Puck.

--It ties my universe to a specific date, which I've been avoiding.

--I can do funnier than a defective Mayan calendar.

So, the current Supervillian plot is:

--Author predicted that the opening of the Gap would herald the end of our worlds.

--20 years later, this STILL HAS NOT HAPPENED

--Frustrated author (who is published by a vanity press posing as traditional and has sold a whopping 24 books) is trying again--this time asserting the weather experiment will destroy our ecosystem

--As the world's biggest publicity stunt, is drilling into the poles, where he will pour the frozen ice into the molten core of the earth, stopping the magnetic field, creating a steam cloud that will envelop the earth, yadda-yadda. That way, he gets to have big "I Told You So!" and sell his latest book, a guide to living in the ruined Earth. (need a cathy title).

--He's using magic in his factory to combine titanium with Faerimet. The byproduct happens to be Puck. Yes, people are snorting industrial waste. Is it really that different from real life?

As a side plot, someone's going to ambush Vern and do something nasty to him that won't really show itself until the next DragonEye, PI book. BWAHAHAHA! If you read carefully, you'll see Vern's changing just a bit. At least, if I write it well, you will.

I have to admit though: right now the changes to Discovery are taking up my imagination, so Gapman is moving much slower than expected. That's fine, though--no one's accepted Live and Let Fly yet, so I have time.

Join me in writing Gapman! and editing Discovery

Welcome back to Fabianspace

As many folks know, I gave up blogging for awhile. I wasn't enjoying it and it wasn't drawing people to my site or writing, so I decided to play with Twitter and forget about the blogsphere.

Not sure why, but this month, I decided, "I'd like to try blogging again." One thing enjoyed in my blogging time was chronicling my adventures writing Live and Let Fly. I found it also motivated me to write, as I needed something to blog about. So I'm going to start again with regular writing and editing adventures. Hopefully, I can teach something as well.

I have two projects going right now:

Gapman! is my super-spy spoof in the DragonEye, PI universe. I've already got several scenes worked out, which are spit-out-your-soda funny. Los Lagos, Colorado, home of the Interdimensional Gap and the sleuthing duo of dragon Vern and Sister Grace, gets its first real superhero. Here's a teaser I made up for fun:


I'll be sharing the adventures of my seat-of-the-pants writing.

Discovery is the Catholic science fiction story I started as a 2006 (2007?) NaNoWriMo project. I'd put it away for a long time, but it kept calling to me, so this year, I made myself finish it. I fought tooth and nail, lead and byte for this one. It changed quite a bit mid-stream (for the waaaay better), so it is in need of a serious re-write and edit. I have a publisher in mind for it, and he's interested in seeing it, so I want it to sing! Join me as I conduct major surgery on a hard-won novel.

Discovery is my priority, since I'm still trying to sell Live and Let Fly, and Gapman comes after that, so I'm posting about it every Thursday. Gapman will be every-other Monday, and I'll intersperse news and other fun stuff in the opposite Mondays. So please, come on back, make comments and let me know if I'm interesting you at all.

More workshop fun

An update: Got the cover sketch from Roe. I am soooo excited! It's a fun cover--basically the characters gathered for a group shot in front of the Citrus Stars hotel. It was just an outline sketch, though, so I'm not posting it, though.

Last day of the conference is today. I've ahd a terrific time, but am suffering from BICHOK. (Butt in chair, hands on keyboard) Last night, I actually sat on an ice pack, that's how sore I am from sitting. If I ever have to do a story with a character on bedrest, I can now relate.I'm actually reclined on the couch today. Thursday, I'll try to give you some stats of the conference.

Devon's Dialogue workshop was, once again, one of the most fun for me. I used it to work on some scenes for the next DragonEye story, GapMan! Here's a snippet:


Ronnie set his elbows on the railing beside him. The scaffolding creaked at the change in weight, but he ignored it, intent on the scene below.

Captain Infinity had delivered the usual lines of "You fiend! You won't get away with this" and received the obligatory punch in the gut from a stocky dwarf minion--Kent, Ronnie realized. Hawgin threw back his head and laughed.

His voice rose. "Show him what awaits his secret beloved!" The minion fangirls bowed and rushed off, stage left. Moments later, a squad of pixies flew in. Ronnie squinted at them.

"Are they glowing?"

Goldleaf's sigh was half groan. "That's the Tweet Troupe. Studied Mundane method acting. Graduates of the 'They Were Discovered' Complete Video Course for the Aspiring Thespian."

"Is the glowing magic, then?"

"Uh, no. Radioactivity."

"For real?"

Goldleaf shrugged. "They snuck through the reactor in Los Lagos. Don't ask me how. They take their art very seriously."