2011 Update

There's been a lack of posts these past few months mainly because there's not been a lot of activity moving my novel closer to publication. But allow me to catch everyone up on what all is happening.

First of all, the Gideon Cain anthology did come out and what feedback I've heard from it has been positive. But something I would certainly crave is more reader reaction to the anthology and, of course, to my story in particular. I'm sure that's true for any fledgling author. I do believe there's a lot of really golden potential in the Gideon Cain property and I hope to see more done with it in the future.

Perhaps something I can do this year on this blog is put together some Q & As with some of the contributing authors.

Another new, exciting development started taking shape back in the fall. In my day job as a

video producer, I had a client step into my edit suite one day and flip out over some drawings I had scattered around my desk.

He was sitting on an idea for a new online and outdoor advertising campaign for a client of his but he needed the right artist to bring it to life. He wanted to feature his client's pet bulldog in a comic strip.

So I whipped up a few samples, including the image you see here, and he got very excited.

We're still in the pre-launch stage but we hope to get things rolling very soon. This looks to be a fairly long lasting gig that will keep me happily chained to a drawing table for most of the coming months.

When the site launches, I'll announce it here.

But this blog is about my writing novels in my "Galahad's Doom" series. The first one is entitled "My Brother's Keeper" and the follow up is called "Marching As To War". There's been movement on both in recent weeks.

No, I'm no closer to having my cover art finished for the the first book, but that's a blessing because I've been able to continually revisit that manuscript and improve it with each polish.

But I could be looking at doing some real work on it with a thorough revision thanks to my friend and editor extraordinaire, Sam McDavid. Sam has read the book and has been very generous with his praise. He's got a very high opinion of the story and is encouraging me to really shop it around to major publishers.

BUT.... since the story is so good, and the wait has been so long, the prose should be perfect. Sam is good at catching things that could and should be improved upon and challenging me on details. For that I am thankful, and I'm encouraged by his positive feedback, but I look to have a lot more time that still needs to go into this first book than I thought.

As for "Marching As To War", I was finally able to get some writing done on it back in November. Knocked out between 5 and 6 thousands words, completing 3 or 4 scenes. That book stands at around 40K, but before I go much further on that I'm going to really be looking at my outline to make sure this book is shaping up the way it needs to.

In all humility, the first book did surpass my own expectations and came out a lot stronger than I ever thought I'd pull off. Reader opinion may differ once the book is out, of course, but I feel like it turned out so well that now I have to question what I have planned for the 2nd and 3rd books: do they adequately deliver on that standard set by the first one?

I don't know.

But I'll find out.

One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

"Ryan was nearly killed twice in half an hour."

Those were the very first words by Tom Clancy I ever read. I had picked up a novel called Patriot Games and said I'll read the first page and if I like it, then I'll buy it. I only had to read that first line. My reaction: "Yep. I'll take this one!"

I love it when a book throws you right into the action at the very beginning. I do this with My Brother's Keeper. After a cryptic, foreshadowing prologue, readers are introduced to Galen smack in the middle of a sword fight. I like it. I think it works.

Now I began writing the follow-up novel but I ran into a problem: I didn't have that kind of strong opening for Galen this time around. The book opens with a couple of intriguing bits of action involving other characters in the prologue, but as I opened up Chapter One with Galen I didn't have anything real strong.

I considered revising the ending of the first book so that I could start Book 2 in a more interesting place. But that would have hurt the first book's ending. That ending needs to be what it is, structurally speaking.

By that, I mean each book in the series corresponds to an Act, so that the trilogy will ultimately tell a single Three Act Story. I want the first book to end at the end of Act One. It needs to. Anything else will be anti-climatic and take away from the sense of resolution I've been able to give the book.

So what did I do?

Well, perhaps unwisely, I just plowed ahead and wrote the opening Galen scene with what I had planned. Meaning, no real action, just a quiet little scene with dialogue introducing a couple of the characters. I didn't like it as much as I liked Galen's opening in the first book, but what could I do? My story is what it is.

Right?

Yeah, that's what I thought. So this past week I spent a few days on business in Baltimore and I was able to write the full first chapter of the second book (which will be entitled Marching As To War). I was happy that I actually made progress on the book, something I haven't done in a couple of months.

But then I expressed my misgivings about the opening with my buddy Sam McDavid. And wouldn't you know it? Sam gave me some great suggestions that will solve the problem. So thanks a lot, Sam, for making me throw out everything I managed to accomplish in Baltimore. I'm back to just the prologue and now I have to start all over again. Great pal.

But seriously, I know what Sam and I came up with for the revised opening is a great improvement so I know I'll use it, even though it creates a couple of problems I'll need to iron out. So I'd like to report that I got some writing on Marching As To War done this past week, but that meager step forward has a date with my Delete key. I'll take two steps back and make sure I nail an opening that will grab readers from the very beginning.

"Galen was nearly killed twice in half an hour." Has a nice ring to it, don't you think?