Richard Raley's Blog, page 4

Second Draft Done and Seismic Semester Cut Jokes

So, that's wrapped up!  In fact it's so wrapped up, that I'm not going to bother with a subtraction edit.  I already cut what I'm going to cut.  I mean, might be a sentence here or there, but nothing huge.  Despite the length, I feel I was actually really disciplined when it came to stream of conscious and big huge asides this go around.  Probably cuz every word I wrote hurt!
At this point, anything more being cut would require entire subplots to be removed and...I don't want to, so there!
So what do we have ahead?
Conclude FM6, 3 Ancillary Novel Noteapalooza.Common Errors Search-a-thon. (now that I'm using modern spellcheckers, the typo issue is SO much easier BTW)Ellipsis Hunt and the Defuckening.Formatting.Kindle Copy Edit.Beta Reading.Release.
After that, I plan to work on The War to End All Wars until I can't take the teenager drama any more and switch to finishing the Vicky Novel.  After that I'll go back to WtEAW and again, switch to FM7 if I can't take it any more and just flip back and forth until those are both written.
Here are some of the jokes I cut mostly for mood reasons.
1.

Want to grunt and hump at the Asylum, do ya? Hope those privacy curtains are enough to hide your shame. Secret closet you stole the key for? Still someone walking past that door every few minutes, so best not squeak like a chipmunk or you’ll give the game away. Favorite spot in the Park takes three turns off the main thoroughfare, past one extra aggravated peacock and a malfunctioning water fixture tries to wash out your ass crack? Why hello, Mr. Gullick! You ever seen your daughter’s uterus? Just give me a sec, she’s pretty wide open down there so it shouldn’t be too much trouble if I angle her just right…

2.
Almost two years later and she still fucking ain’t done it, kiddies. What that fucking tell you about Bonegrinders? Granted, she hasn’t talked to me since graduation, being we’re both so busy. But I got fucking email now, ya know? King Henry’s Hidden Treasures has a Facebook page! Not that the old ladies buy the teapots know how to use Facebook without asking their grandchildren to reset their password every week, but Val probably does.

3.

I mean…I stick things in strange holes too, but not my hand.  And a snake never bitten it…yet.
Ever.
Ain’t that kinky.  As far as animals go, leave ‘em to Jesus.  Don’t even like ‘em in the room, not after this one time where a college girl’s cat just sat on the edge of the bed throwing its ass in my face the whole time.  Get me too, Papi Enorme!  Faunamancers got it rough, even if they ain’t fucking the animals.  All that commentary on your moves gotta be soul crushing.
Why you sound like chipmunk, mistress?  Is he hurting you?  Can I bite him?  No, no, not God.  It’s ‘dog’.  People make that mistake all the time.  Like when I pooped in Mrs. Dingle’s yard and she said, “God damn it!”  No, it’s dog.  And my name isn’t Damn It…why are you glaring at me, did I do something wrong?  I’m a good boy!  I don’t want to eat cat shit, but I can’t help myself!  I haven’t done it today.  Want to smell my breath to check?  Here, smell.  I’ll pant like you are.
4.
Bad way, more like.  Shit saying.  Ain’t a good way to lose a hand, I’m thinking.  Snapped off by a corpusmancer’s over-exercised monster coot coot?
Still ain’t good, but if you gotta lose a hand that’s a unique way to go about it…
Tell your grandkids about it one day.
Well, Timmy, your grandma got herself addicted to the Suzanne Somers ThighMaster and I am the G Spot Messiah…put the two together and Grandpa hasn’t been able to jerk off for forty years now.  Sure, could use the other hand, but…nothing feels worse than jerking off with the wrong hand.  There a better metaphor for life?  I don’t think so, Timmy.
I.
Don’t.
Think.
So.

Halfway Done With Second Draft

For real this time!

Only one doctor appointment this month (next Monday), so hoping to at least get through the second draft and all the readthrough noteapalooza that remains, maybe even formatting.

Only cut 4 pages so far.  Mostly just KH inner monologuing and a few jokes that undercut moments or distracted too much.  I'll post all of them later for your enjoyment.  I'm very aware it's a huge novel and I could hack a hundred pages out of it, but I'm just...fine with it be indulgent and everything being back and forth and interconnected?  They don't have to kill trees to print it, ya know?

That said, the first half of the novel is much more set than the back half, so we'll see.  The first half has been sitting on my computer for years.  Probably fiddled with it a dozen times at this point and already cut a ton before I even started this edit.  Back half is all the stuff I worked on this last year and half while the spine started improving, so that's much more malleable.

My note list is more than half crossed off.  Only a couple rewrites and not like whole scenes, just a line or paragraph to fix the Camping Test problem I created for myself and a few other small inconsistencies or things I noticed while rereading the series that I wanted to reference.  Or adding foreshadowing with the novel itself.

Outside of editing stuff...playing the Bazaar to keep occasionally entertained.  Like...I'm really just focused in on the edit right now.  Not reading anything.  Barely watching TV/Movies.  Haven't got back to the Penguin, started Diplomat S2, only watched 4 episodes of Arcane so far...like...I'm a bad horrible consumer at the moment, yes I am!

If I don't write another update before the holidays, everyone enjoy themselves and stay safe while traveling!

Halfway Done With Second Draft*

 *by chapter.

Please ignore the fact that chapters 7-12 are 600 of the 850 pages.

Minor Update

 6 chapters left on the FM6 readthrough.  20 pages left to type into the laptop from Session 92.

Oh, I'm also losing my mind.

I think the reason why I hate the noteapalooza is it's 100% non-creative grunt work.  Probably speaks to why I put it off for 8 years.  But...not enjoying it...at all.  It just takes FOREVER.

On a positive note, my spinal pain has dropped quite a lot, overall from like 7s to 4s.  Not nearly as much as I hoped, but I can type for much longer periods, including about 1k of new material I came up with while inputting the edited pages into the laptop.

Biggest hindrance is midback pain while sitting for so long and muscle weakness in my left arm.  That grip just feels very light and the movements are very sluggish still.  I'm also quite gun shy about leaping out into new experiments at the moment.  Don't want to reinjure anything by overdoing it.  Like I have about a dozen times in the last three years.

We learn eventually!!!

Don't see the spine docs until next month, will know the next steps then.

Until then, noteapalooza continues and then Edit Slightly-Slower-Than-Usual-Hell.

So I'm Addicted to The Bazaar

My days are pretty much:  play Bazaar run.  Type 4 pages of edits into laptop.  Play Bazaar run.  Type 4 pages of edits into laptop.  Play Bazaar run.  Read chapter of FM6 while taking notes.  Huh, time for another Bazaar run, huh?
It's like Hearthstone Battlegrounds meets Backpack Battles except with a much higher quality level art and polish wise.  In closed Beta now, needs some work on bugs and balance, but full release is supposed to be in January.  FTP, so check it out when it drops.

October Burnination Week #2

Predictably, my left side is just finally starting to heal and feel better as I need to get the right side burnt out on Wednesday.  I swear, I never type Wednesday right.  Wed-there's an n somewhere-day.  Anyway, I've managed to finish the main rewrite/edit/whatever-the-**** on the last chapter, the one bit of work I accomplished this month, looks like.

Means the TO DO list is something like:

Type Session 92 changes into laptop.Finish Readthrough Notepalooza on FM6 + 3 MancyVerse Moments novels.Upload 2024 Editions to KindleSecond Draft of Seismic Semester (sans Session 81 which is locked, you're a good chapter, yes, you are!)Post Session 81 Preview and Cover RevealSubtraction Edit of Seismic SemesterFormattingKindle/Copywriting EditBeta ReadRelease (reminder that I do not release during the Holidays, so even if all goes smoothly [it hasn't been] the soonest would be mid Feb-there's an r somewhere-ary)But in the near future, back in rest and heal mode for a couple weeks looks like.  Season 2 of Arcane and the Diplomat coming out in that time, two of my favorite shows of the last few years, so I will be entertained at least.  HIGHLY recommend both.  Arcane is a must for anyone.  Diplomat is the most West Wing feeling show I've watched, except if not limited by tv network censoring laws.  Same producers and Alison Janney has been cast as the VP, the West Wing bloodline is very present.

A Fitting Seismic Semester Tease

Apologizingto patients being a grave sin as far as Evelyn Strange was concerned.  Only slightly less problematic than rootingfor the Yankees.

Another Week Off?

Spine is, if not screaming, then still vigorously complaining.  I suppose this is a good sign from a certain point of view that this really is the area that's the main perpetrator and it's taking a bit longer to heal up.  But yeah, still bruised and swollen where they burnt the nerves out.  Pain and aching all down my left shoulder and around my neck too.  Woke up to a thirty minute intense cramp in my left foot today, that was fun.

So...no work getting done really.  Few days back I managed to hand edit a whole 8 pages of the last chapter (which is the only chapter still left in first draft state), but I've been paying the price ever since.  Just very gun-shy to push myself with more and think another week of FM and reading in bed is probably the smarted thing to do.  No matter how frustrated it makes me.

Read through the four Thursday Murder Club books, good fun if weak on the mystery aspect.  Septuagenarians solving murders from their retirement community if you haven't heard of it.  Turning it into a movie with Helen Mirren as the lead, should be fun.  Highly recommend Penguin if you haven't started it as well.  Don't even really need to be a comic book fan to enjoy it, I'd say.  It's once again made me realize how little time I have for even "good" television these days when we have so much "great" media swirling around.  Been struggling through quite a few shows the last month maybe forcing myself to ingest an episode a day and then devoured all four episodes of Penguin yesterday, and I can't wait for the next one.

Anyway, 3 paragraphs is about what I want to push myself to type at the moment, so here's hoping I have more productive news to report in a week or two.

Week Off

Burnination C4 to C7 left side tomorrow morning.  Be out of action for a week at least.  Got tried of note taking and worked on editing the first chapter of Seismic Semester the last couple days.  I think it's like...done.  Just don't see anything more I can do with it.  Nothing to add, did my subtraction edit.  It feels pretty tight.  Might be some typos I catch on the kindle or the beta readers notice, but...feels locked.  So one down and eleven to go.  Granted the first chapter is the shortest and simplest by a mile, because of course it is!

Regardless, it being done, I'll post it as a sample chapter later this month or early November along with the cover reveal.

Hope any of you in Florida are staying very safe.  Had some of my family dodge the worst of Helene in NC.  Not fun, not fun at all.

October Preview: FM6 Noteapalooza and Burnination

4 doctor appointments, including the left/right C4-C7 RFAs this month.  So far I'm usually in extra amounts of pain for about a week after every RFA, I imagine it will continue this time.  Two weeks after I start feeling better with pain levels dropping.  Since the vast majority of my pain is radiating from this spot, no idea how much extra pain or how much it will drop once they're through burning those nerves out.

My hope is that I'll be able to sit in chair and type for 8 hours a day afterwards.  Being able to go for a morning walk and use a video game controller and not having to wear wrists braces 24/7 would be nice added bonuses, but I really just want my typing to be painless again.  Or at least a lot better than it is now. So, that's the hope.

I have started the FM6 readthrough.  Got through 5 sessions in 2 days and I already want to die (22 left to go).  104 notations already.  Pfft.  Already noticed a couple things I'll need to add to Seismic Semester, imagine there will be more.

So that's me for the next month.

Totally recommend playing Tactical Breach Wizards if you like puzzle/tactical games btw.  It's not like XCom where you have percentages and every encounter is long and grindy.  Is much more like a puzzle game since every skill hits and you're expected to clear rooms in two turns max (very few go longer if you're doing things right).  Good characters and fun urban fantasy story too.