Mark R. Hunter's Blog, page 29
November 18, 2020
The Wonderful NaNoWriMo Project of Ours
Update: I'm up to 42,000 words in my new rough draft!
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My fire photo book project has been handed over to Emily, who's working on getting all the photos ready and put in their proper place--a job I wouldn't wish on anybody. I mean, she has to go by my notes.
So that leaves me without much to do until she finishes her part, just in time for NaNoWriMo. That's National Novel Writing Month, November, in which authors are challenged to pound out 50,000 words on a novel (or some kind of writing) in just one month. I've won NaNoWriMo twice, coming out with the rough drafts for Summer Jobs are Murder and Fire On Mist Creek. (Both are finished but unpublished at the moment, but that's another story.)
I'm doing something different this year, but also something I've been wanting to do since I was a kid. I'm writing a novel set in a universe created by somebody else, specifically by Lyman Frank Baum, who can't complain because he passed away a hundred years ago.
It could be called fanfiction, which is a generalized term for fiction written using someone else's world and/or characters. That's popular but technically illegal, unless the work has passed into the public domain. In this case it has, which is why you've seen properties such as Wicked and Oz: The Great and Powerful.
By now you've figured out my novel is going to be based on the Oz books, by L. Frank Baum (not the MGM movie, which varies in critical ways from the book--don't get me started on "it was all a dream".)
This is something I've been wanting to do since I was a little kid, reading Baum's 14 Oz books over and over. For the last several years a more specific idea has been germinating, and now I'm going to take the time to finally do it, before it drives me crazy.
There's more than one way to approach doing an Oz adaptation, though:
You can stick slavishly with the original version, making it completely faithful. This can be very difficult, because Baum was writing kid's books, and the later ones reluctantly. He sometimes didn't concern himself all that much over continuity. If you try to stick to the details of all the canon Oz books--forty or so, by different authors--you'll make yourself insane.
Second, you can throw all that away and have something only loosely based on the original, such as the novel Wicked, or the TV show Emerald City. Baum, who was after all writing for children, wouldn't have recognized some of them.
Then there's whether you're going to write a children's book or one for adults. Probably the most difficult thing you could do is to follow the original books, yet make your own work be for older readers.
So that's what I'm doing.
Naturally I'm not going to give you a lot of details, considering I have not only the rough draft, but weeks of revision and polishing to do before it's even ready to send to publishers (if we don't self-publish). My outline is done, but my outlines tend to change along the way.
What I will say is that the story will be meant for adults and young adults, with the conceit that Baum's Oz books were retellings of events that actually happened: But that the "Royal Historian of Oz", L. Frank Baum, was after all a storyteller first and foremost. In other words, he himself changed details to suit his stories, and to make them more suitable for children.
That explains such things as people dying in the first book, but later books staging that no one in Oz can die, just as an example. Otherwise I'm going for humor, action, magic, and a fun storyline. There will also be a few deeper questions, such as what kind of a personality a ten year old girl will have after living well over a century--and still being ten years old.
So, what do you think? Can I do this? And how badly could I screw it up?
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
My fire photo book project has been handed over to Emily, who's working on getting all the photos ready and put in their proper place--a job I wouldn't wish on anybody. I mean, she has to go by my notes.
So that leaves me without much to do until she finishes her part, just in time for NaNoWriMo. That's National Novel Writing Month, November, in which authors are challenged to pound out 50,000 words on a novel (or some kind of writing) in just one month. I've won NaNoWriMo twice, coming out with the rough drafts for Summer Jobs are Murder and Fire On Mist Creek. (Both are finished but unpublished at the moment, but that's another story.)
I'm doing something different this year, but also something I've been wanting to do since I was a kid. I'm writing a novel set in a universe created by somebody else, specifically by Lyman Frank Baum, who can't complain because he passed away a hundred years ago.
It could be called fanfiction, which is a generalized term for fiction written using someone else's world and/or characters. That's popular but technically illegal, unless the work has passed into the public domain. In this case it has, which is why you've seen properties such as Wicked and Oz: The Great and Powerful.
By now you've figured out my novel is going to be based on the Oz books, by L. Frank Baum (not the MGM movie, which varies in critical ways from the book--don't get me started on "it was all a dream".)
This is something I've been wanting to do since I was a little kid, reading Baum's 14 Oz books over and over. For the last several years a more specific idea has been germinating, and now I'm going to take the time to finally do it, before it drives me crazy.
There's more than one way to approach doing an Oz adaptation, though:
You can stick slavishly with the original version, making it completely faithful. This can be very difficult, because Baum was writing kid's books, and the later ones reluctantly. He sometimes didn't concern himself all that much over continuity. If you try to stick to the details of all the canon Oz books--forty or so, by different authors--you'll make yourself insane.
Second, you can throw all that away and have something only loosely based on the original, such as the novel Wicked, or the TV show Emerald City. Baum, who was after all writing for children, wouldn't have recognized some of them.
Then there's whether you're going to write a children's book or one for adults. Probably the most difficult thing you could do is to follow the original books, yet make your own work be for older readers.
So that's what I'm doing.
Naturally I'm not going to give you a lot of details, considering I have not only the rough draft, but weeks of revision and polishing to do before it's even ready to send to publishers (if we don't self-publish). My outline is done, but my outlines tend to change along the way.
What I will say is that the story will be meant for adults and young adults, with the conceit that Baum's Oz books were retellings of events that actually happened: But that the "Royal Historian of Oz", L. Frank Baum, was after all a storyteller first and foremost. In other words, he himself changed details to suit his stories, and to make them more suitable for children.
That explains such things as people dying in the first book, but later books staging that no one in Oz can die, just as an example. Otherwise I'm going for humor, action, magic, and a fun storyline. There will also be a few deeper questions, such as what kind of a personality a ten year old girl will have after living well over a century--and still being ten years old.
So, what do you think? Can I do this? And how badly could I screw it up?
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
November 15, 2020
Coming Attractions down, word count up
NaNoWriMo update: 35,000 words into the new novel!
Just an update on our newest book, More Slightly Off the Mark: We had to make some changes, and that screwed up formatting, and things happened, pandemic, yadayada ... anyway, it's back up for sale in print and e-book. If you ordered a copy direct from us, there will be a slight delay in delivery, for which I'm deeply sorry. I blame 2020.
---------------------------------------------------
It's that time of year again ... that time when we think about Christmas and completely forget the fact that there's still another major holiday before then.
While I'm firmly of the "too much Christmas lessons the holiday" opinion, I'm also well aware that many of you are already searching for Christmas presents. Honestly, it's a good idea, and I should do it myself someday. But until then, here's another idea for Christmas presents:
Yes, books. If you already knew, why did you let me go on for so long?
In addition to previously dropping prices on some of our other books, we recently dropped the e-book price of Coming Attractions from $2.99 to $1.99, which according to my admittedly weak math is close to a dollar off, and in the area of half the cost of a four dollar book.
As usual, you can go direct and get it and our other books on the website:
http://www.markrhunter.com/books.html
In that case you can get it signed ... which is kind of like your own personal graffiti, already in the book when you get it. No extra price for my defacing! Heck, it should drop the price.
Needless to say, of course, you can also get it and the other books on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Attract...
I'm hearing some people aren't leaving Amazon this year. At all. I'm more of a brick and mortar guy, but I suppose reading in general is more important to me than where you get your reading. If you're contrary, you can do a search for "Coming Attractions Mark R. Hunter" and get hits from several different book sellers, because some of us just march to the beat of our own book drums.
But remember this: Buy early, buy often. Whenever Santa delivers a book, one of his whiskers turns into an angel and flies away. And Santa's getting pretty hairy.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
Just an update on our newest book, More Slightly Off the Mark: We had to make some changes, and that screwed up formatting, and things happened, pandemic, yadayada ... anyway, it's back up for sale in print and e-book. If you ordered a copy direct from us, there will be a slight delay in delivery, for which I'm deeply sorry. I blame 2020.
---------------------------------------------------
It's that time of year again ... that time when we think about Christmas and completely forget the fact that there's still another major holiday before then.
While I'm firmly of the "too much Christmas lessons the holiday" opinion, I'm also well aware that many of you are already searching for Christmas presents. Honestly, it's a good idea, and I should do it myself someday. But until then, here's another idea for Christmas presents:
Yes, books. If you already knew, why did you let me go on for so long?
In addition to previously dropping prices on some of our other books, we recently dropped the e-book price of Coming Attractions from $2.99 to $1.99, which according to my admittedly weak math is close to a dollar off, and in the area of half the cost of a four dollar book.
As usual, you can go direct and get it and our other books on the website:
http://www.markrhunter.com/books.html
In that case you can get it signed ... which is kind of like your own personal graffiti, already in the book when you get it. No extra price for my defacing! Heck, it should drop the price.
Needless to say, of course, you can also get it and the other books on Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Attract...
I'm hearing some people aren't leaving Amazon this year. At all. I'm more of a brick and mortar guy, but I suppose reading in general is more important to me than where you get your reading. If you're contrary, you can do a search for "Coming Attractions Mark R. Hunter" and get hits from several different book sellers, because some of us just march to the beat of our own book drums.
But remember this: Buy early, buy often. Whenever Santa delivers a book, one of his whiskers turns into an angel and flies away. And Santa's getting pretty hairy.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
November 12, 2020
I'm just not telling ... not on purpose
In which I talk about NaNoWriMo without giving away what my book is about. Maybe the dog did, but I didn't. I swear.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4kxx...
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4kxx...
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
November 8, 2020
Truth is Stranger ... If You Can Believe It
I recently found this column, which I wrote awhile back (14 years ago!) and put in my “something to send in if the oncoming winter has me so down I can’t think of anything funny to say” file. These "interesting" facts have no doubt gone around the world several time since then.
SLIGHTLY OFF THE MARK
This contains interesting “facts” e-mailed to me. The truth is, I stole -- ahem -- wrote about this stuff so long ago that my readers back then have all died of old age, so think of it as an "I Love Lucy" rerun.
Now, these may or may not be true -- that’s the problem with the internet -- but they’re still interesting:
“A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why.”
Surely a federally funded study is in progress?
“In ten minutes, a hurricane released more energy than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.”
But there are practical difficulties to loading a hurricane into a B-52’s bomb bay.
“On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.”
No, NO--pens. P.E.N.S. There's no "I". Get your mind out of the gutter.
“On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.”
Well, death, doesn’t jump off the ceiling and wrap its creepy-crawly little poison legs around you in the middle of the night, does it? Um ... does it?
“Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.”
As a result, the average New Yorkers fears cabs more than spiders, death, or hurricanes.
“Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.”
Any of you ladies want to tell me something?
“Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.”
Do we really want to? I mean, it’s hard enough to adjust to changing technology year to year -- someone who lived over a century had to adjust to the idea of flying, let alone space travel, cell phones, and Michael Jackson turning white.
(I should point out that when I wrote this, Michael Jackson was alive. And white.)
“Women blink nearly twice as much as men.”
This one’s easy to explain. I blink when I hear something ridiculous, and so whenever a woman listens to a man ...
“It’s physically impossible for you to lick your elbow.”
And this is a concern why --? Seriously, what drunk college student first thought, “Gee, I wonder if I can lick my elbow?”
“The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books.”
Imagine that -- books in a library. At least they’ll have plenty of storage room in the basements.
(By the way, I’m told this is a common urban legend at libraries around the country. Possibly started by college students who got bored with trying to lick their elbows.)
“A snail can sleep for three years.”
Never thought I’d envy a snail.
“Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.”
It was made by government contract.
“The electric chair was invented by a dentist.”
Well, of course it was.
“In ancient Egypt, priests plucked every hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.”
A concept that was invented by a dentist, before electricity.
“Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.”
I wonder how long the inventor of the typewriter had to work to fit in that little inside joke?
“’Go’ is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.”
Followed directly by “stop”, of course.
“A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.”
How do we know this? Maybe they’re just very polite.
“American on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.”
Not the same Americans every day. I hope.
“If Barbie was life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.”
How’d you like to be HER chiropractor?
“Barbie would then stand seven feet, two inches tall.”
Wow-- she could put my eyes out with those things.
“No word in the English language rhymes with ‘month’”
And don’t think I haven’t tried.
Putting all these together, I’ve learned that no one knows why a duck’s quack doesn’t echo while standing under a 7 foot tall Barbie in a hurricane, but if a snail that’s been sleeping for three years doesn’t get hit by a baseball, it’s often used to pluck all the hair from an Egyptian priest who invented the electric chair while on a dental appointment to fix teeth he knocked out while trying to lick his elbow in the Indiana University library 116 years ago. Luckily, he had a typewriter and so didn’t choke on a pen, but instead was running from his personal ad date’s husband when a New York cabbie swatting at a spider didn’t see the ‘go’ sign and ran over him and his pet crocodile in front of a pizza place. During a hurricane.
I tried to fit “month” in there somewhere, but couldn’t get the rhythm right, no matter how much I blinked.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
SLIGHTLY OFF THE MARK
This contains interesting “facts” e-mailed to me. The truth is, I stole -- ahem -- wrote about this stuff so long ago that my readers back then have all died of old age, so think of it as an "I Love Lucy" rerun.
Now, these may or may not be true -- that’s the problem with the internet -- but they’re still interesting:
“A duck’s quack doesn’t echo, and no one knows why.”
Surely a federally funded study is in progress?
“In ten minutes, a hurricane released more energy than all the world’s nuclear weapons combined.”
But there are practical difficulties to loading a hurricane into a B-52’s bomb bay.
“On average, 100 people choke to death on ball-point pens every year.”
No, NO--pens. P.E.N.S. There's no "I". Get your mind out of the gutter.
“On average, people fear spiders more than they do death.”
Well, death, doesn’t jump off the ceiling and wrap its creepy-crawly little poison legs around you in the middle of the night, does it? Um ... does it?
“Ninety percent of New York City cabbies are recently arrived immigrants.”
As a result, the average New Yorkers fears cabs more than spiders, death, or hurricanes.
“Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.”
Any of you ladies want to tell me something?
“Only one person in two billion will live to be 116 or older.”
Do we really want to? I mean, it’s hard enough to adjust to changing technology year to year -- someone who lived over a century had to adjust to the idea of flying, let alone space travel, cell phones, and Michael Jackson turning white.
(I should point out that when I wrote this, Michael Jackson was alive. And white.)
“Women blink nearly twice as much as men.”
This one’s easy to explain. I blink when I hear something ridiculous, and so whenever a woman listens to a man ...
“It’s physically impossible for you to lick your elbow.”
And this is a concern why --? Seriously, what drunk college student first thought, “Gee, I wonder if I can lick my elbow?”
“The main library at Indiana University sinks over an inch every year because when it was built, engineers failed to take into account the weight of all the books.”
Imagine that -- books in a library. At least they’ll have plenty of storage room in the basements.
(By the way, I’m told this is a common urban legend at libraries around the country. Possibly started by college students who got bored with trying to lick their elbows.)
“A snail can sleep for three years.”
Never thought I’d envy a snail.
“Average life span of a major league baseball: 7 pitches.”
It was made by government contract.
“The electric chair was invented by a dentist.”
Well, of course it was.
“In ancient Egypt, priests plucked every hair from their bodies, including their eyebrows and eyelashes.”
A concept that was invented by a dentist, before electricity.
“Typewriter is the longest word that can be made using the letters on only one row of the keyboard.”
I wonder how long the inventor of the typewriter had to work to fit in that little inside joke?
“’Go’ is the shortest complete sentence in the English language.”
Followed directly by “stop”, of course.
“A crocodile cannot stick its tongue out.”
How do we know this? Maybe they’re just very polite.
“American on average eat 18 acres of pizza every day.”
Not the same Americans every day. I hope.
“If Barbie was life-size, her measurements would be 39-23-33.”
How’d you like to be HER chiropractor?
“Barbie would then stand seven feet, two inches tall.”
Wow-- she could put my eyes out with those things.
“No word in the English language rhymes with ‘month’”
And don’t think I haven’t tried.
Putting all these together, I’ve learned that no one knows why a duck’s quack doesn’t echo while standing under a 7 foot tall Barbie in a hurricane, but if a snail that’s been sleeping for three years doesn’t get hit by a baseball, it’s often used to pluck all the hair from an Egyptian priest who invented the electric chair while on a dental appointment to fix teeth he knocked out while trying to lick his elbow in the Indiana University library 116 years ago. Luckily, he had a typewriter and so didn’t choke on a pen, but instead was running from his personal ad date’s husband when a New York cabbie swatting at a spider didn’t see the ‘go’ sign and ran over him and his pet crocodile in front of a pizza place. During a hurricane.
I tried to fit “month” in there somewhere, but couldn’t get the rhythm right, no matter how much I blinked.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
November 3, 2020
Congratulation, Mr. President
(Before you read this, let me remind you that this is a humor blog. Just sayin'. No, I'm not going to debate over it; let's just have some fun.)
Let the recounts begin!
Okay, so as you read this election day voting hours are over, although the election itself might go on for weeks, months, or, as in the case of some Trump haters, the last one never stopped. But it's over for me, because I'm voting for National Novel Writing Month, which means I have to write 50,000 words on a novel during November.
In other words, I just won't have time for shrieking and wringing hands. Those are my typing hands.
Because of NaNoWriMo, most of my posts this month were pre-written and scheduled for November, including this one--as I write this it's actually October 27th. But I don't want to influence the election, so I'm not posting it until Tuesday evening.
It would be a mistake for me to make any predictions, but what the heck:
Congratulations, President Biden.
Yes, I know, the lawsuits haven't even begun yet. But I'm confident in my position. President-elect Biden has all the advantages of any Democrat candidate: The cheerleading of mainstream media, a stranglehold on big cities and their highly populated cemeteries, and a really awesome hair plug job that makes him by-gosh handsome.
Say what you want about Trump, but he should have gone for those hair transplants. And stayed off Twitter.
Biden also had the advantage of being more likeable than Hillary Clinton, which really isn't all that hard, while also attracting the women's vote with Vice-President Harris. Sure, Biden was an old white man when he got elected, but so was George Washington.
(I just checked, and Washington was 57 when he was first inaugurated. But my point stands, because back then 57 was today's 77.)
Now that he's President-elect and in charge of the Secret Service and the most powerful military in the world, I'd like to apologize for calling him dumb. Yeah, I still believe he's kind of intelligence challenged--which isn't the fault of anyone born that way, after all--but I'm really sorry I said it. It's just that after keeping track of things he said during the Obama years, it never occurred to me that he'd get so far.
Honestly, I didn't think President Trump would get that far, either: Four years ago I predicted we'd be seeing a Clinton reelection in 2020.
But Biden did it, and that takes a lot of work, and Biden should get credit for that. I can barely make it through a whole week without two hour naps, and I'm George Washington age. President Biden will be--what--82 at the end of his first term? (Trump's not that much younger.) It's a rough job for anyone, let alone someone so old.
Maybe I should also start being nice to V.P. Harris. Just in case.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
Let the recounts begin!
Okay, so as you read this election day voting hours are over, although the election itself might go on for weeks, months, or, as in the case of some Trump haters, the last one never stopped. But it's over for me, because I'm voting for National Novel Writing Month, which means I have to write 50,000 words on a novel during November.
In other words, I just won't have time for shrieking and wringing hands. Those are my typing hands.
Because of NaNoWriMo, most of my posts this month were pre-written and scheduled for November, including this one--as I write this it's actually October 27th. But I don't want to influence the election, so I'm not posting it until Tuesday evening.
It would be a mistake for me to make any predictions, but what the heck:
Congratulations, President Biden.
Yes, I know, the lawsuits haven't even begun yet. But I'm confident in my position. President-elect Biden has all the advantages of any Democrat candidate: The cheerleading of mainstream media, a stranglehold on big cities and their highly populated cemeteries, and a really awesome hair plug job that makes him by-gosh handsome.
Say what you want about Trump, but he should have gone for those hair transplants. And stayed off Twitter.
Biden also had the advantage of being more likeable than Hillary Clinton, which really isn't all that hard, while also attracting the women's vote with Vice-President Harris. Sure, Biden was an old white man when he got elected, but so was George Washington.
(I just checked, and Washington was 57 when he was first inaugurated. But my point stands, because back then 57 was today's 77.)
Now that he's President-elect and in charge of the Secret Service and the most powerful military in the world, I'd like to apologize for calling him dumb. Yeah, I still believe he's kind of intelligence challenged--which isn't the fault of anyone born that way, after all--but I'm really sorry I said it. It's just that after keeping track of things he said during the Obama years, it never occurred to me that he'd get so far.
Honestly, I didn't think President Trump would get that far, either: Four years ago I predicted we'd be seeing a Clinton reelection in 2020.
But Biden did it, and that takes a lot of work, and Biden should get credit for that. I can barely make it through a whole week without two hour naps, and I'm George Washington age. President Biden will be--what--82 at the end of his first term? (Trump's not that much younger.) It's a rough job for anyone, let alone someone so old.
Maybe I should also start being nice to V.P. Harris. Just in case.
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
November 1, 2020
Coming Attractions price drop
I wasn't going to post this weekend, but I wanted everyone to know that for the upcoming holiday season we're dropping the e-book price of Coming Attractions to $1.99. It's already dropped on Amazon and Smashwords, and within the next few days it'll come down on other sites, also.
You can pick it up on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Attract...
And Smashwords here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Or of course you can always go to the website:
http://www.markrhunter.com/books.html
I'll write more about it later, but for now I'm 2,000 words into NaNoWriMo, and I really would rather be 3,000 words in.
You can pick it up on Amazon here:
https://www.amazon.com/Coming-Attract...
And Smashwords here:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view...
Or of course you can always go to the website:
http://www.markrhunter.com/books.html
I'll write more about it later, but for now I'm 2,000 words into NaNoWriMo, and I really would rather be 3,000 words in.
October 30, 2020
How to win at NaNoWriMo
I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year, and aren't you jealous?
No, it's not a yodeling contest in Wisconsin. Sheesh. It stands for National Novel Writing Month, the month being November, and the challenge being to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That figures out to ... let's see ... carry the--ah. 1,667 words per day, on the average.
Doesn't sound like much ... until you try it.
Personally, I would have chosen NaNoWriMo to be in January, which has an extra day, no holidays, and absolutely no reason to go outside. (What, New Year's? Let's face it: That holiday is actually on December 31st. After that a ball drops, you kiss someone through a mask, go home, and sleep late. Start writing at noon, and you're good.)
But the advantage of November is that you can use the excuse to leap up as soon as the turkey is eaten on Thanksgiving. "Sorry, love catching up with the family but Uncle Bert has already started with the political insults and the football game will be boring gotta go!" And you're outta there.
If you're a writer, you have the advantage of being too poor to go do anything else anyway, so why not give it a try? I won NaNoWriMo twice, with my manuscripts for Summer Jobs Are Murder and Fire On Mist Creek, both now quietly accumulating rejection slips in the corner. So I can give you a few tips on how to make it through the month, which is intended to give wannabe writers a kick in the proverbial pants:
Have your story ready to go. Characters created, outlines done (if you’re an outliner), research … um, researched. You should be prepared to type the first line of the actual story at 12:01 a.m. November 1st. (Or 10 a.m., or whenever you start.)
Second, take care of personal matters. Have a talk with friends and family. Tell them why it’s important to you. Make sure they either support you, or your locks are changed. If there’s some TV show you can’t stand to miss, DVR it. Take care to stay hydrated and eat proper meals, and every once in awhile get up and make sure your legs still work. Hire someone to make the meals and do the dishes.
Oh, wait, you're a writer--you can't afford to hire anyone.
Third, clear your schedule. As much as possible, anything you need to do, have done in October. Doctor appointments, for instance. Or, delay it until December. Laundry, for instance.
In other words, free up as much time as possible, and use that time for writing—writing first. Sure, if you cut a finger off you have to go to the hospital, but couldn’t you just bandage up an amputated toe for a few weeks? You don’t type with your toes.
Do you?
Once you get started writing, keep at it--don't worry about typos or other problems, you can fix those in edits. Get your story down.
I'm doing what I've been calling my Untitled Oz Project, which has no title. (My original titles always suck, anyway.) Tell me yours! You've got nothing to lose but 30 days ... and maybe a toe.
If anyone wants to tag along on my trip, or maybe try a trip of your own, my NaNoWriMo account is here:
https://nanowrimo.org/participants/ma...
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
No, it's not a yodeling contest in Wisconsin. Sheesh. It stands for National Novel Writing Month, the month being November, and the challenge being to write 50,000 words in 30 days. That figures out to ... let's see ... carry the--ah. 1,667 words per day, on the average.
Doesn't sound like much ... until you try it.
Personally, I would have chosen NaNoWriMo to be in January, which has an extra day, no holidays, and absolutely no reason to go outside. (What, New Year's? Let's face it: That holiday is actually on December 31st. After that a ball drops, you kiss someone through a mask, go home, and sleep late. Start writing at noon, and you're good.)
But the advantage of November is that you can use the excuse to leap up as soon as the turkey is eaten on Thanksgiving. "Sorry, love catching up with the family but Uncle Bert has already started with the political insults and the football game will be boring gotta go!" And you're outta there.
If you're a writer, you have the advantage of being too poor to go do anything else anyway, so why not give it a try? I won NaNoWriMo twice, with my manuscripts for Summer Jobs Are Murder and Fire On Mist Creek, both now quietly accumulating rejection slips in the corner. So I can give you a few tips on how to make it through the month, which is intended to give wannabe writers a kick in the proverbial pants:
Have your story ready to go. Characters created, outlines done (if you’re an outliner), research … um, researched. You should be prepared to type the first line of the actual story at 12:01 a.m. November 1st. (Or 10 a.m., or whenever you start.)
Second, take care of personal matters. Have a talk with friends and family. Tell them why it’s important to you. Make sure they either support you, or your locks are changed. If there’s some TV show you can’t stand to miss, DVR it. Take care to stay hydrated and eat proper meals, and every once in awhile get up and make sure your legs still work. Hire someone to make the meals and do the dishes.
Oh, wait, you're a writer--you can't afford to hire anyone.
Third, clear your schedule. As much as possible, anything you need to do, have done in October. Doctor appointments, for instance. Or, delay it until December. Laundry, for instance.
In other words, free up as much time as possible, and use that time for writing—writing first. Sure, if you cut a finger off you have to go to the hospital, but couldn’t you just bandage up an amputated toe for a few weeks? You don’t type with your toes.
Do you?
Once you get started writing, keep at it--don't worry about typos or other problems, you can fix those in edits. Get your story down.
I'm doing what I've been calling my Untitled Oz Project, which has no title. (My original titles always suck, anyway.) Tell me yours! You've got nothing to lose but 30 days ... and maybe a toe.
If anyone wants to tag along on my trip, or maybe try a trip of your own, my NaNoWriMo account is here:
https://nanowrimo.org/participants/ma...
http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
October 26, 2020
Tennessee and Rhode Island on 50 Authors From 50 States
It's a sad, sick day in Tennessee, and something's fishy in Rhode Island, on 50 Authors From 50 States:
https://annettesnyder.blogspot.com/20...
https://annettesnyder.blogspot.com/20...
https://annettesnyder.blogspot.com/20...
https://annettesnyder.blogspot.com/20...
October 21, 2020
Book Review: The City of Mirrors, by Justin Cronin
I was going to make this short: I can't say much about the plot or characters, because that would spoil the first two books of this trilogy. But there's so much going on, and so much to talk about, and so many, many pages, that I'm not sure "short" counts for anything here.
The City of Mirrors is the finish of a thousand year story begun in The Passage. As we open enough time has passed since the second book, The Twelve, that younger members of an apocalypse-surviving human community have come to think the deadly "virals" they've heard of are just scary stories. The last outpost of humanity, Kerrville, Texas, is bursting at the seems in a spreading civilization that harkens back to the Old West.
Both the rest of humanity and the virals seem to be extict, although one small group of survivors have been trying to repair a ship that might take them exploring, and a few others are scattered here and there.
But all is, naturally, not what it seems. At about the same time the survivors learn they may, indeed, be the last humans on Earth, the final Big Bad makes his appearance: Zero, the one who came before The Twelve. And he's got surprises waiting.
There's enough backstory here that you could read The City of Mirrors as a standalone, but I wouldn't recommend it. Justin Cronin brings all the strings together, including the ones you didn't even know were there, and his final act is immensely satisfying to those who've seen the story all the way through. Spreadsheets? Markable walls all over his house, covered with family trees and notes? I don't know how he does it. But I submit that he's actually better at these sprawling sagas than George R.R. Martin, who sometimes seems to enjoy mystifying his readers about who the heck these people are, and where they heck they've been.
My only issue is that there's one huge--and I mean HUGE--flashback involving Zero, the sort-of-villain who's been ahead of everyone else from the beginning. We find out in detail exactly why he ends up where he is, and what drives him. It's not that it's not interesting. The story of Zero's life, and how he ends up at the epicenter of a civilization-ending epidemic, is fascinating. It's just that it goes into an amazing amount of detail that the reader doesn't really need to know, in a book that's already so long that Chuck Norris could stand on it to punch out Godzilla. You could skip a lot of it ... but you won't know which parts, until you reach the end of the story.
Oh, and what is The City of Mirrors? Well, that's revealed, but to give it away would be ... giving it away.
And then, to satisfy the "thousand year" thing I mentioned earlier, we go far, far into the future, to find out the results of our heroes' actions. It's the ultimate epilogue--and it works.
I highly recommend the whole trilogy, and I'm impressed that Cronin clearly wasn't winging it--he knew where all the characters, and his vast story, were going all along.
https://www.amazon.com/City-Mirrors-N...
The City of Mirrors is the finish of a thousand year story begun in The Passage. As we open enough time has passed since the second book, The Twelve, that younger members of an apocalypse-surviving human community have come to think the deadly "virals" they've heard of are just scary stories. The last outpost of humanity, Kerrville, Texas, is bursting at the seems in a spreading civilization that harkens back to the Old West.
Both the rest of humanity and the virals seem to be extict, although one small group of survivors have been trying to repair a ship that might take them exploring, and a few others are scattered here and there.
But all is, naturally, not what it seems. At about the same time the survivors learn they may, indeed, be the last humans on Earth, the final Big Bad makes his appearance: Zero, the one who came before The Twelve. And he's got surprises waiting.
There's enough backstory here that you could read The City of Mirrors as a standalone, but I wouldn't recommend it. Justin Cronin brings all the strings together, including the ones you didn't even know were there, and his final act is immensely satisfying to those who've seen the story all the way through. Spreadsheets? Markable walls all over his house, covered with family trees and notes? I don't know how he does it. But I submit that he's actually better at these sprawling sagas than George R.R. Martin, who sometimes seems to enjoy mystifying his readers about who the heck these people are, and where they heck they've been.
My only issue is that there's one huge--and I mean HUGE--flashback involving Zero, the sort-of-villain who's been ahead of everyone else from the beginning. We find out in detail exactly why he ends up where he is, and what drives him. It's not that it's not interesting. The story of Zero's life, and how he ends up at the epicenter of a civilization-ending epidemic, is fascinating. It's just that it goes into an amazing amount of detail that the reader doesn't really need to know, in a book that's already so long that Chuck Norris could stand on it to punch out Godzilla. You could skip a lot of it ... but you won't know which parts, until you reach the end of the story.
Oh, and what is The City of Mirrors? Well, that's revealed, but to give it away would be ... giving it away.
And then, to satisfy the "thousand year" thing I mentioned earlier, we go far, far into the future, to find out the results of our heroes' actions. It's the ultimate epilogue--and it works.
I highly recommend the whole trilogy, and I'm impressed that Cronin clearly wasn't winging it--he knew where all the characters, and his vast story, were going all along.
https://www.amazon.com/City-Mirrors-N...
October 12, 2020
I Missed Fire Prevention, but Fires Go On
I've barely had a moment free the last several days, and completely forgot that last week was Fire Prevention Week. (A lot of its normal activities, naturally, were curtailed by COVID. Little meanie virus.) So I'm late, and the upcoming week doesn't look all that much better, so I'm partaking in that time honored tradition of reposting a previous blog, or as we called it at the time, newspaper column.
The actual theme of this year's fire prevention week was "Serve Up Fire Safety in the Kitchen!" Heaven knows the kitchen can be a pretty dangerous place, especially when I'm using it. Why, just last ... never mind. So be careful in the kitchen, have a fire extinguisher and an escape plan, and when Daylight Savings Time ends in two weeks don't forget to change the batteries on your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector.
-----------------------------------------------------
In my three (or so) decades in the emergency services, (Forty now. I don't want to talk about it.) I never heard anyone complain their smoke detectors worked properly. Well, okay, once—but that guy was an arsonist.
Fire Prevention Week this year is October 9-15, mostly because nothing else goes on in mid-October. No, actually it was because the Great Chicago Fire happened on October 9, 1871. That fire destroyed more than 17,400 structures and killed at least 250 people, and might have been prevented if Mrs. O’Leary had installed a smoke detector in her barn. Have you ever seen a cow remove a smoke detector battery? Me neither.
Nobody really knows what started the Great Chicago Fire, so the dairy industry has a real beef with blaming the cow, which legend says knocked over a lamp. Does the lamp industry ever get the blame? Noooo....
We do know that at about the same time the Peshtigo Fire roared across Wisconsin, killing 1,152 people and burning 16 entire towns. In fact, several fires burned across Michigan and Wisconsin at the time, causing some to speculate a meteor shower may have caused the conflagration. There might have been shooting stars elsewhere, but Chicago got all the press.
This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme is “Don’t wait, check the date!” So ask your date: Does she have a working smoke detector? If not, maybe you should go back to your place.
Just as you should change your smoke detector batteries every fall and spring, you should replace your smoke alarm every ten years. Doing the same to your carbon monoxide detector is a great idea, so it can make a sound to warn about the gas that never makes a sound.
As I hadn’t given much thought to the age of my own smoke detectors, I took that advice. The one in the basement stairway said: “Manufactured 1888 by the Tesla Fire Alarm Co.”
Not a good sign.
The one in the kitchen hallway said simply: “Smoke alarm. Patent pending.”
Oh boy.
So don’t wait—check the date. Do it right now, because otherwise you’d be waiting. I know it doesn’t have quite the pizzazz of the 1942 Fire Prevention Week theme: “Today Every Fire Helps Hitler”.
But hey … you can’t blame the Nazis for everything.
***
Ahem. This would be a good time to remind you that proceeds from our book Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department go to support, naturally, the Albion Fire Department. You can grab a copy of that or any of our books at the website, http://www.markrhunter.com/books.html, or from the other usual suspects.
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
The actual theme of this year's fire prevention week was "Serve Up Fire Safety in the Kitchen!" Heaven knows the kitchen can be a pretty dangerous place, especially when I'm using it. Why, just last ... never mind. So be careful in the kitchen, have a fire extinguisher and an escape plan, and when Daylight Savings Time ends in two weeks don't forget to change the batteries on your smoke detector and carbon monoxide detector.
-----------------------------------------------------
In my three (or so) decades in the emergency services, (Forty now. I don't want to talk about it.) I never heard anyone complain their smoke detectors worked properly. Well, okay, once—but that guy was an arsonist.
Fire Prevention Week this year is October 9-15, mostly because nothing else goes on in mid-October. No, actually it was because the Great Chicago Fire happened on October 9, 1871. That fire destroyed more than 17,400 structures and killed at least 250 people, and might have been prevented if Mrs. O’Leary had installed a smoke detector in her barn. Have you ever seen a cow remove a smoke detector battery? Me neither.
Nobody really knows what started the Great Chicago Fire, so the dairy industry has a real beef with blaming the cow, which legend says knocked over a lamp. Does the lamp industry ever get the blame? Noooo....
We do know that at about the same time the Peshtigo Fire roared across Wisconsin, killing 1,152 people and burning 16 entire towns. In fact, several fires burned across Michigan and Wisconsin at the time, causing some to speculate a meteor shower may have caused the conflagration. There might have been shooting stars elsewhere, but Chicago got all the press.
This year’s Fire Prevention Week theme is “Don’t wait, check the date!” So ask your date: Does she have a working smoke detector? If not, maybe you should go back to your place.
Just as you should change your smoke detector batteries every fall and spring, you should replace your smoke alarm every ten years. Doing the same to your carbon monoxide detector is a great idea, so it can make a sound to warn about the gas that never makes a sound.
As I hadn’t given much thought to the age of my own smoke detectors, I took that advice. The one in the basement stairway said: “Manufactured 1888 by the Tesla Fire Alarm Co.”
Not a good sign.
The one in the kitchen hallway said simply: “Smoke alarm. Patent pending.”
Oh boy.
So don’t wait—check the date. Do it right now, because otherwise you’d be waiting. I know it doesn’t have quite the pizzazz of the 1942 Fire Prevention Week theme: “Today Every Fire Helps Hitler”.
But hey … you can’t blame the Nazis for everything.
***
Ahem. This would be a good time to remind you that proceeds from our book Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights: A Century or So With the Albion Fire Department go to support, naturally, the Albion Fire Department. You can grab a copy of that or any of our books at the website, http://www.markrhunter.com/books.html, or from the other usual suspects.
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/&quo... R Hunter"
