David R. Michael's Blog, page 29

Writing Progress Report

 
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, April 11, 2011.
 








Writing Project


Words




Monday


GoSH1


1555




Tuesday


GoSH1


1619




Wednesday


GoSH1


1567




Thursday


GoSH1 – FIRST DRAFT COMPLETE!!!
Edited "Enamored".


2233




Friday


Sigils
Edited "Secondhand Coffin".


521




Saturday


Sigils


513




Sunday


Sigils
Created base ebook doc for "Sweet Tooth".
Created "Sweet Tooth" ebook doc for KDP, PubIt, & Smashwords.


1156














Total



9164




 








Publishing/Marketing




Monday





Tuesday





Wednesday





Thursday





Friday





Saturday





Sunday


Uploaded "Sweet Tooth" to KDP, PubIt, & Smashwords.




 
Reading List

The British Army 1660-1704 by John Tincey, illustrated by Gerry Embleton.
British Redcoat 1740-93 by Stuart Reid, illustrated by Richard Hook.

 
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Opining About Short Stories

 
I'm over on Book Brouhaha today, opining about short stories.
 
-David
 
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Underway Again On Another Twisted Path

 
Today I wrote the first 521 words of my new novel project, which I will refer to as "Sigils".
 
Those first 500 words have been a long time coming. I wrote the first notes for this novel back in July of 2005. Which makes it one of my earliest ideas for a "post-modern, nonlinear" story–more than a year before I structured and wrote The Summoning Fire.
 
The Summoning Fire was built in the shape of a spiral, four storylines spinning out (both forward in time and backward) from a single, explosive event. (You can read more about that here.)
 
Sigils was built as parallel lines. The beginning of the first storyline is the end of the second, with both storylines told in parallel. Unlike The Summoning Fire, though, the parallel storylines both go forward. The viewpoint switches back and forth–then, about halfway through, forth and back.
 
I blame the movie Memento for making me see the possibilities of oddly structured stories. There are other examples of convoluted storylines, of course. Like Twelve Monkees and Sliding Doors and Slaughterhouse Five. So it's not like I'm inventing anything new here. Nonlinear stories go way back. But I find them fun and challenging.
 
Hopefully that's what Sigils will be: Fun and challenging. And, hopefully, my readers won't get too lost at the beginning.
 
-David
 
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Typing "THE END" is Such Sweet Sorrow

 
This afternoon I typed "THE END of TGoSH Book One", signalling the completion of the first draft of the GoSH1 project.
 
Yesterday, my daughter was excited to hear that I would finish the book today. Then dismayed to learn that she still wouldn't be able to read it for at least a month. Because no one gets to read anything I write until I get a chance to read it–and edit it–first. She'll survive. I just hope she likes the final result…
 
The novel weighs in at just over 66,000 words. My original estimate/target was 60,000 words, so I came pretty close. That makes GoSH1 longer than either The Summoning Fire, The Girl Who Ran With Horses and (of course) The Door to the Sky, but shorter than the Gunwitch project I finished back in January. When I get to GoSH2 later this year, I'll be targeting the same length (60K-ish words). That's my plan for all of the GoSH books, should I do as many as I idly think I might (at least 3).
Today is also the 24th consecutive day I've written something (even on weekends). Tomorrow, day 25, will be the challenge, because I'm not sure if I want to start on the next novel immediately or write a couple short stories as a sort of "warm down".
 
I might get to GoSH1 for editing and publishing before Gunwitch. I'm excited to see what Serene (and, yes, other people) think about the novel. I'm excited to give The Girl Who Ran With Horses another book to keep it company on the Teen/Young Adult page. I'm excited thinking about new stories for the girls in GoSH1.
 
I'm excited.
 
Typing "THE END" is like that. It's the end of a long task, but it's also the beginning of the next step and something new and different.
 
And, for those keeping count, this is my second completed novel of 2011. Only four more to reach my goal for the year…
 
-David
 
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Writer in Training

 
I just taught my nine-year-old daughter how to count words in her writing project. She doesn't write every day (yet), but she's already written more than I had at nine. Proud father? Why, yes, yes I am.
 
-David
 
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I HaZ LogO

 
My brother, Don Michael, Jr., designed my new Four Crows Landing logo:
 



 
And, because I asked nicely, a cool not-a-logo:
 

 
The funniest part of the whole logo design process was when Don asked me about colors. I looked at him funny (via email) and said, "Colors? But … they're crows …"
 
-David
 
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THE GIRL WHO RAN WITH HORSES Featured at YA Indie Spotlight

 
The Girl Who Ran With Horses is featured in the YA Indie Spotlight today over at Katie Klein Writes.
 
Or I am, sorta. =)
 
YA Indie Spotlight: David Michael
 
-David
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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I Want to Create Heroines

 
Back in 2002 when I decided I was going to start writing again–really writing, this time–I looked at the world around me and decided that I wanted to write about heroines.
 
Why? A couple reasons.
 
First, at the time, Harry Potter and a lot of very similar male leads of very similar YA novels seemed to have the hero thing covered. This is still true today.
 
Second, and more importantly, at the time, my little girl was about 6 months old. I wanted to write something she could read (eventually). I wanted to write about girls and women who were, in the parlance of Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity, Big Damn Heroes. Because that's what I want her to grow up to be.
 
My daughter is over nine years old now. She's been waiting impatiently for GoSH1 for about a month. When I finally hand her my Kindle with an ebook draft, I expect she'll finish it, all 60K-ish words, in one marathon, stay-up-late reading session.
 
It's possible she reads faster than I do. Since early December when I gave her a copy of The Girl Who Ran With Horses, she's read that book twice. Plus reading all seven of the Harry Potter novels (for the third time). Plus reading the entire 18-book series of The Warriors. Plus a lot more.
 
She definitely reads books faster than I could ever hope to write them. Even if I had gotten more stories and novels done between 2002 and now, she would have already read through them.
 
I'm looking forward to hearing what she thinks of my three new heroines in GoSH1 (I'm almost finished, I promise!), and I'm looking forward to thinking up new adventures for them. And I'm looking forward to creating even more heroines: good, bad, and angry.
 
-David
 
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Writing Progress Report

 
Writing progress report for the week starting Monday, April 4, 2011.
 








Writing Project


Words




Monday


GoSH1


2021




Tuesday


GoSH1


517




Wednesday


GoSH1


526




Thursday


GoSH1


1000




Friday


GoSH1
Started editing "Effie Two-Five".


2381




Saturday


GoSH1
Finished editing "Effie Two-Five".


1048




Sunday


GoSH1


562














Total



8055




YTD Total: 100348 (ahead 348 words)
 








Publishing/Marketing




Monday





Tuesday





Wednesday





Thursday


Approved 4CL logo.




Friday





Saturday





Sunday





 
Reading List

Pike and Shot Tactics 1590-1660 by Keith Roberts.
Podkayne of Mars by Robert Heinlein.

 
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Becoming Insane

 
How can you not like a band called "Infected Mushroom"???
 

 
I first heard this song while working on GoSH1. I expect to listen to it a lot while working on my next, much darker project.
 
I'm kinda looking forward to "going dark" again. GoSH1 has its dark moments (the back quarter of the book), but it's a story about (and for) 11-year-old girls. I'm writing GoSH1 for my daughter. So, yeah, that puts a limit on things. I kept a leash on the darkness.
 
For my next project, though, the leash comes off and the claws will be bared. There will be magic and blood and more.
 
Probably no chainsaws. Probably. Chainsaws or no, though, my daughter won't get to read this one for years.
 
Sing along!
 
I'm becoming insane, insane…
I'm becoming insane, insane…
 
-David
 
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