The Nothing

I'm just going to assume anyone reading my blog has read the one from the month before. The good news is that I have selected an editor to help polish my book. The bad news is that it'll probably have to wait until after I sell the house. I haven't reached out for a quote just yet, but it'll probably cost me three to four thousand dollars. As long as my budget is stretched across two houses, I haven't been able to save any real amount of money. So if anyone wants to drop the money in my lap, feel free to do so.

I'm still slowly going through the edit of Colony Earth. The changes I'm making are minor, but it's letting me get familiar once again with my characters. There's an upcoming chapter that will require larger changes, but I haven't crossed that bridge just yet.

I know no one reads my book reviews, but I did finish the Witcher series. The review for the final book and overall thoughts are coming soon.

That's pretty much it. I keep meaning to schedule some time for my bad poetry, but something keeps coming up. Like video games.

Until next time, and at all times, be kind.

Do It Like Montresor

I've made a decision. It seems pretty insignificant considering everything that's been going on. You know, the world coming to an end. But, I feel it has to be done. And there's no talking me out of it either. It is like I've walked through a door, closed it behind me, and then bricked it up like Montresor. And, for the love of God, I don't even care if it blows up in my face.

I'm going to self-publish. I could go into a rant about the publishing industry but I would just sound like a jaded neckbeard. I've just come to my last breaking point with not being a published author. I know there's a good chance that only a hand full of people will read my book if I self-publish. And most of them will be my friends and family. But, fuck it, I have to try.

That's all I really have to say this month. I've been a daze for the last couple of months as Earth spirals down the uncaring universal drain. Just hoping there's a flipside of this. Humans, for all our faults, are crafty little shits. We'll probably be alright. 

All cynicism punctuated with vague optimism aside, the daze is why I've been silent the last couple of months. Still doing book reviews as I'm still reading. But it feels mostly out of habit and self-therapy than anything else. Step one to getting self-published is finding myself an editor to work with. It'll cost money and might take a few tries to find someone. Time and money always find a way to include themselves in any equation.

On the actual writing side of things, I've picked up my Colony Earth project again as I slowly comb over the tome. Just something to do as I wait for responses from the leads I'm chasing down. Once I finish editing and familiarizing myself with what I've already written, it'll finally be time to start new work. I've been trying to sell Variant War for so long hopefully I'll remember how it's done. Either way, it's been a long time coming.

 Until next time, and at all times, be kind.

My Life, The Fan

Well, it's all really hit the fan now, hasn't it? I could go into a detailed rant of what happens when the general public is poorly educated combined with the inherent failings of democracy, but I'll spare both of us. For those who care, the wife and I are doing well. We've canceled pretty much all our plans and only go out when we need to. Both being thankful because there are so many people who have it so much worse and we're doing what we can to pay it forward.

With everything that's happened in the past month alone, what has gone on with my writing seems almost petty. But it still happened and I'm going to talk about it. First off, the conference didn't really go as planned. The agent in question behaved as if she was interested, but didn't do much to follow up on it. Another dead end. To top things off, the event gave me a stomach bug that put me down for two days. It's bad enough that I get jerked around and my money taken, but it literally made me sick.
There are a number of things about the conference itself that I could comment on, but I'll reframe beyond broad outlines. Saying more would make me look vindictive and petty. And I'm not petty, just bitter.

In better news, I've once again joined a writing group. We're meeting via Zoom, like every meeting happening this month. The group seems to be doing well. Hopefully, it'll last and will be beneficial for all.

I've somewhat started working on Colony Earth again. Step one is to get reacquainted with it. I've set a daily task to work on a chapter. I've only done it twice this week, but I should do it more once I remember how much I enjoy writing. Once the twenty chapters that I've already written are edited and updated, I'll start working on new material. I'll keep trying to sell the first book, but I need something new under my belt before I go crazy.

Nothing else to report. I was going to say that I've been trying to keep busy, but that isn't true. It's not staying busy that's the problem, its staying committed. The beginning of March really took the wind out of me, and I've just started to get it back. Half of me wants to become a successful writer just so I can go down the list of people who didn't believe in me and taunt them. Okay, maybe I'm a little petty.

Until next time, and at all times, be kind.

Dear Bubba Rick's Publishing

We're in the endgame now. The house is officially on the market and the large portion of work that needs to be done to it is finished. Now I just need to sell the damn thing. New problems will take its place. I know this. At least that's what my anxiety tells me. For example, last night the dishwasher stopped working. The pleasures of being a homeowner I suppose. But, the sooner I tackle the problems behind me, the sooner I can tackle the problems in front of me.

Speaking of problems, rejection season is here. I've sent out thirty-seven query letters this month and have already received six form rejections that are almost word for word the same. I don't mind. I'm just naturally bitter. I've gone through the entirety of the agent section in the writer's market book. There are still agencies that have multiple agents that deal in science fiction, and several that are simply closed currently, so I still have plenty of querying to go. For now, at least, it's on to publishers who actually take un-agented manuscripts. Which aren't many, especially ones that are a step above self-publishing. Dear Bubba Rick's Publishing.

I have written into the short form notebook I purchased this month. It's mostly reworking some previously written work, but at least it's something. I should have a regular work schedule sometime this month. With the old house pretty much done outside cleaning out the garage, it's no longer taking up so much of my time. I'm currently thinking of a mid-afternoon break on Sunday with coffee and a snack. Coffee and food are the best motivators outside of whiskey.

Will I get any real writing done soon? I hope so. Querying is taking point at the moment, and that won't last forever. I'll give that until June before I start rethinking my plan for the first book. Self-publishing is looking better all the time. Once all the letters are sent out, I'll work on Colony Earth until summer arrives. At least that's the plan.

The wife and I have taken up dancing lessons. With her being Puerto Rican and me being Irish, it's like watching a ballerina dance with a golem. If you keep up with the book reviews, I've also been reading the Witcher book series. It's something I've been wanting to do for several years, but a mix of lack of time and most of them not being translated got in the way. So I'm finally getting that done. That's been more than enough to keep me busy, so I'll stop boring you for this month.

Until next time, and at all times, be kind.

Before the Binge

Disclaimer: 99% of this entry was written before November. Also, it will mostly outline my plan of attack for the event NaNoWriMo. Also, I use the term 'shitty' more than once, but it's been that kind of month.

I was hoping to begin querying my first novel this past month, but alas it was not to be. I was going to use the Writer's Market as a resource and spam every corner of the literary world. Problem is that the Deluxe Edition I ordered was scheduled for October 8th never arrived. The book mostly disappeared or was labeled 'Out of Stock' by every place on the planet that sales books. The whole reason I paid extra for the 'Deluxe Edition' was to start querying right away. I ended up canceling my order and had to put querying on hold until after the first of the year. The standard version is scheduled to come out in early November and, even if that remains to be true, the holidays are a shitty time to query people. Plus, I have a book to write.

That book is currently titled 'Thermal Kings'. There's an eighty percent chance that will change by the time I'm done with it, but it is what it is for now. There are, of course, some days I won't be able to write. To be honest, November is kind of a shitty month to host this event. Thanksgiving being the chief reason among them. With that holiday and other obligations, I currently calculate that I have twenty-six days worth of writing. That means I need to write just under two thousand words a day to reach the fifty thousand word goal. However, I'm setting a daily goal of twenty-five hundred words a day so I can be, at least, mostly done before the week of Thanksgiving. Follow me on Twitter (@LesAbernathy) if you want plenty of word count shitposting.

Since I'm the ML, it's up to me to encourage people to keep writing so they'll forget everything dies and gets forgotten. I scheduled a NaNoWriMo kickoff event for Sunday at a local coffee shop. Because of course I did. I want to meet every Sunday, but let me meet these people and see if I want to keep meeting them. Since the event is in the future, we'll both have to wait to find out how it goes.

Not much else to say. There was some shitty stuff going on at work this month, but I've gotten as much as I can off my plate as I can before the big month. I'm ready, but I don't feel ready. If that makes sense. I hope to get into the flow of things and become unstoppable. Like I usually do. The trick is just to get started in the first place.

Until next time, and at all times, be kind.

P.S. Free Hong Kong.

Moving Pictures

Moving sucks. Good news is that we've set a goal for September 21st as the big moving day. It won't be the end of it, but at least we'll actually be living in the new house after that point. Assuming we can keep that date. The only writing news is that I've been named the municipal liaison for NaNoWriMo in my area. I'm stilling editing and waiting on all other fronts. Everything else is moving related.

For something completely different, I finished painting my room and here is the end result:

The big mural.

How this started was that I was staring at the blank wall wondering what the hell I was doing with my life. I had already resigned myself to doing a large mural but had yet to design it. I had recently seen Rembrandt's "Night Watch" and it had left an impact. Several thoughts later, I had the mural compulsively designed in my mind. The end product is 90% of what I envisioned. So proud of all my hard work I even initialed the damn thing.

Corners



The Door

Above the Shelf. I didn't paint the shelf.

 

The far side of the wall.

 





Window Wall. The latter is not a part of the art.

Squares. Ignore the Ethernet cables.

Well, that's my room. What sucks is that most of this will be covered by shelves, desks, and bookcases. But that's life. If you happen to run across this and have any questions/comments/praise/hatred, the comment box is below. It was fun to paint, but it took a hellish long time. Maybe by the time we move next I'll have forgotten how hard it was to do.

What's Up?

I don't have much to update on writing-wise, so I'll try to be brief. Moving is going slowly, but we're making progress. I hope to do a separate blog entry on the painting designs I'm doing, so keep an eye out for that. I haven't been taking pictures of my progress because there aren't enough people who pay attention for me to put in the effort. You will, however, see the finished product once I'm done. Might be as early as this weekend. End of August at the latest.

Writing stuff, there isn't much to report. I've scheduled a short-form writing time on Sundays, but I have yet to keep it. To be fair, I have a good excuse. Might have to wait until all the moving is done before I can dive back in. I'm still editing Variant War, entering the final arc of the novel. I'm keeping track of who POVs each chapter because I need to go back and edit Snyder's chapters. If I keep this up, I should be done soon.

I put in an application to manage my local region for NaNoWriMo. I'm still planning on doing it even though I have yet to plot out the novel. I still have three months. Editing and moving have just gotten in the way. Plus work keeps throwing me curveballs. That's never fun.

In other uninteresting news, I completed reading my Heinlein collection. Had some oddball short stories and a collection of speeches that had alluded me until now. I want to do a podcast to do a deep dive into his work, but it's not like I have time for that. Also, I can't think of anyone who would want to listen to my voice.

Still nothing from Writers of the Future for the third quarter, but I'm not expecting anything until September. As I understand it, they haven't finished doing the second quarter. We'll see.

That's pretty much it for now. I know it's pretty much reviews at the moment, but that's what pointless blogs are for.

I just flew back from Europe and boy are my arms tired.

Actually, I've been back for a few weeks now, but this is the first blog entry since being across the pond. Europe was great in case anyone cares. I was half expecting some kind of revelation when I was over there, but it was just enjoyable and not some kind of other worldly experience. The only place we visited that I thought would be a good place to live in was Amsterdam. Seriously, legal pot is the least interesting thing about the place. But more on that later.

Mostly it's been a struggle to get back on track since the honeymoon ended. I spent most of June just catching up on stuff. Then, almost as soon as I felt things were back to normal, we had to start moving into the new house. Good news is that we're not in a hurry. Bad news is that the process eats up all my free time. I'm still editing The Variant War, a process that should be done before October. Speaking of October, the 2020 version of the Writer's Market book comes out on the eighth. I've decided to hold off on query letters until then. Just need to focus on personal stuff so I can be ready for what's ahead of me.

Have my other writing projects gotten any love? Not really. I hope to spend the next few months doing prep work for Thermal Kings to be ready for NaNoWriMo in November. I also put in an application to be the regional dude for the event. It will feel good to finally get to do some actual writing again. I also have a new short-form project, but it hasn't gotten as much attention as it probably should. The best solution here would be to schedule two hours every week to work on it. But, you know, personal stuff.

I finally got the Honorable Mention certificate in the mail. I will hang it up in my new office when we move. Wifey has been calling it the 'L. Ron Hubbard certificate', which has jokingly been taken out of context.  Hilarious. I also entered another short story for the third quarter. I won't hear back from them until around September. There has been a new story swimming around in my head, but it will stay in the notes phase until next year. Like most things apparently.

I had to look at the last entry before I realized that I hadn't made an update to the conference. Short version: It was a waste of time and money. There is no long version. I still might go back, but I'll be more careful with who I pitch to. That's all I have to say on the subject.

To end on a more positive note, I visited the Rijksmuseum while in Amsterdam. They had a Rembrandt exhibit but we were unable to get in. It was the last weekend and the viewing was a madhouse. However, they kept Night Watch in its proper place as the centerpiece of the museum. Words don't do it justice, so I won't even try. All I can do is ask a question. If you don't have seeing Night Watch on your bucket list, do you even want to live?

So Many Frying Pans, So Little Fire

Did I get stuff done during the month of February? Kind of. The number one thing on my to-do list, at least as far as writing is concerned, is the writing sample for the conference in May. The due date is April 3rd and it's not 100% just yet. The query letter is in a good place, but the synopsis needs to be completely redone. There is also the first nineteen pages in which contains the first two and a half scenes. I did the first scene this past week for reasons I'll get to in a moment.

The first Pitmad event of 2019 is next week. For those who don't know, Pitmad is a writing event on Twitter where you use a single tweet to pitch your completed book. Agents use the hashtags to keep an eye out for tweets that interest them. Considering most people can't get a solid argument down in 280 characters, I don't understand how you properly convey an entire novel in that length, but it might be a good opportunity to hook up with an agent. I've already written the tweet I'm going to use, and it should be good enough to spark something. After an agent likes the tweet, I send them a query letter and/or a sample of my book. I'll probably never hear from them again, but who the fuck knows. Side note, I might do a separate blog entry if it's eventful enough to warrant it.

As part of the writing conference, an editor went through the sample before I send it off to the big wigs. Basically, the feedback was to completely redo the query letter and synopsis plus some notes to help the flow of my novel. The reason I did the first scene was there's going to be a meeting, unrelated to the conference, on the first page of my novel on April 6th. Since it's on the far side of Atlanta, I'm not a 100% sure that I'm going, but I needed to send my first page by today (March 3rd). Honestly, the editor's notes weren't super helpful. He had a bunch of stuff he wanted to take out, but doing so would have made my novel tone deaf. After editing that first scene, I might have used about 40% of his notes. That's a failing grade in most schools. Still, I shouldn't complain about anything that makes my novel at least a little bit better.

The new book(s) are on hold until I get that conference package ready to go. I also plan to start sending out queries again once it's finished. Most agents ask for the things that are in my sample, so I can't query until it's done. Once the package is done, and I start querying again, I'm still going to work on editing my first book. As for my third book project, tentatively titled "Thermal Kings", I will continue to write and rewrite that first chapter. I will also plot out the book and hope to have the entire thing planned out by NaNoWriMo. I'm not getting married this year, so I shouldn't have anything holding me back from doing it this year.

Poetry. Fucking poetry. It's gotten better but still isn't good enough for human consumption. I might have said that last month, but it's the truth. I still need a good rhythming rule. It's a process. I plan to release the entire thing once I get a few hundred poems done. I can't guarantee it'll be worth reading though.

Starting this coming month I really need to get back into my newer projects. It's been a while since I've actually worked on them. I've been stuck in editor mode for too long. Once I get the synopsis done, the rest of the package should be easy peasy. Colony Earth is going on hold until Variant War's next round of edits is done, but I'm really itching to get back into it. So that leaves Thermal Kings as the project in which I will actually write something. Here's to having something to report by the end of March.

End of line.

January Was a Hell of a Year

January was such a long month that I actually went back to my last entry to see what the hell was going on. Now that the month is over, it feels like I'm doing the first real update of the year. Not that I have much to really report, but this blog is more for me than it's for you. A blog for someone who can't afford a shrink.

For the update portion, I've made some progress. Finished the first chapter of the new book. Well, finished is a strong word. Maybe saying that I have more than just a vague concept is more accurate. I sent the draft out to a few friends and actually got some feedback. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with said draft, but I know I need to pin down the narrative before I spend a year or two writing out a whole book. It wouldn't be good if I put the book before the voice.

In the book-already-completed department, I got the professional critique back on the first 19 pages along with the query materials. Long story short, he liked the actual novel, but I need to improve talking about my novel. I haven't gone through all of the material yet, but I have until April 3rd. I feel like I need to get it done, but also I have to time to do it right.

Poetry. Fucking poetry. I got a rhyming dictionary last week to help with this particular project. Maybe when I'm happier with the process, I'll talk more about it, but right not all you need to know is that its garbage. Hence the dictionary. I already have some ideas on how to use it, so maybe by March, my poems will be passible.

As always, I have a ton of personal stuff going on, but I don't use this blog to talk about them. I'm mainly seeking focus on my writing. With all the shit that goes down on a daily basis, it's easy to lose something you love to do. And, what I really would love to do, is become a successful author. That requires focus. Hence the blog and self-deprecation.

Also, for the two whom actually read this, what do you guy(s) think about the reviews. If I find the time, I might expand reviews into movies. We'll see.

End of line.

New Home, Same Rules

For the two people who follow me, I deleted my Wordpress website. There were several reasons, but I mostly just put the cart before the horse. I need a website if I take the plunge into self-publishing, but I don't have a book that's 100% just yet. The website just fell into the space of being a pointless blog that was only ever visited by other Wordpress users. And they would only follow my site in the hopes I would follow them back. It became a waste of time and money. Hence the deletion.

I still feel the need for a blog, so I created this. I doubt anyone will really visit it, but who knows. I just really needed to do a monthly update on my senseless shit. Given my tone of cynicism and self-deprecating humor, there was only one logical choice for this site. The Flog.

For the update part, there isn't much to update. I started a new book a couple weeks ago, but I haven't gotten very far. My plan is to complete the first full chapter and pass it around to a few people to get some feedback. The narrative is experimental, to say the least, so I need someone to tell me if I'm on the right track or if I'm just crazy. At least before I spend the next couple of years writing an entire book that way.

I also have another writing project on the side. Poetry. Yeah, I know, it's probably a bad idea, but I think I have a method to my madness. For the time being, I intend to write a poem a week. That is unless I find a means to expedite the process I'm currently using. I completed my first poem just before writing this entry, and it took me almost two hours. Can't afford to do something like that every day. Not unless I do it during my office hours. Of course, I would never do that. Honest.

As for the future, I have a writing conference to go in May. I sent off a sample of my novel to someone who is going to critique it before I send it off to the people who will actually consider it. It's the most important item on my writing agenda. I don't know it will result in an actual career, but it's better than nothing.

For a note about the blog, I also intend to post reviews of random things I've consumed. Books, movies, and whatever I find the time for. Something to fill up the page in between the monthly updates. A way to keep the juices flowing as it were.

Until the next time.

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