R.W. Krpoun's Blog, page 28

Zerk enters final review

My latest zombie novel, Zerk, enters it’s final review, and it targeted for release in early December.

Other projects are also currently underway, both old and new, and I am hoping that 2018 will see several new releases.

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!

Never disregard a good psycho

So Charlie Manson cashed in his chips this weeks. I can’t his passing marked any sort of milestone, but I remember when his group’s killing made the news, and then when the book Helter Skelter came out. Not all that long past they had a limited TV series based on his group with the guy from X Files in the lead role.

But a writer looks for the use in news. What was it about Manson? He was a small-time criminal with little formal education, a man who adapted naturally and comfortably to prison. Yet he formed a ‘family’ and sent them out to perform mass murder, and they did it despite the fact he wasn’t present, and the wrong people were in the house.

Late, one of his followers (Squeaky Fromm) nearly assassinated President Ford; if she had remembered to chamber a round first she would have gotten him.

All for Charlie, who was already back home in prison.

Manson was a true villain, and a writer would do well to examine his life and habits, because this guy had the business of being bad down pat. If you want to write a real villain, look no further than Charlie.

 

Limping into the high speed era

One drawback of living in the country is that getting internet service is tough. We made do with dial-up until 2011, and are just now getting what could be called ‘high-speed’ internet service, with ‘high speed’ being defined here as ‘fast enough to play MMOs on my PS4’.

This may not sound important, but the ability to download data and seek out inspiration on the Net is greatly hindered by bandwidth that considered a 50mb download to be a major event.

Anyway, I am easing into something resembling the modern era.

Zerk first edit complete!

The first editorial review of Zerk is complete, adding about 1100 words while closing up a lot of plot irregularities.

I first started this novel in 2012, but ran into plot issues and it lay idle until I knocked out about another third of it in 2016. I picked it back up this September, and hammered it out in its entirety. However the five-year writing period ,meant there were false sidebars and memory lapses in the rough draft, which hopefully I have fixed.

The second edit will start this weekend, and the December 2017 release date looks pretty solid.

The rough draft of Zerk is done!

A project I started back in 2012 and hung up on a plot issue is now done, thanks to the extra time afforded me by retirement. I hope to have it in print before Christmas.

It’s called ‘Zerk’, and it chronicles the actions of a rather odd young man in the midst of a zombie outbreak.

Below is the ‘blurb’ I have in mind for the book description. I’ll post an excerpt once the first review is done.

Colors have meaning, many firearms have personalities, and Bear is real: these are the linchpins of Zerk’s world, even if no one else seems to understand. That he is may be crazy and probably is stupid he acknowledges without taking offense.

Raised and trained by The Old Man for a war in America which never came, Zerk soldiers on in a nation crippled by a zombie apocalypse, standing firm for Old Glory and putting the mission first. Mindful of the nature of colors and the input of Bear, his only friend (and whom only Zerk can hear), he stands tall for the red, white and blue, just as he was taught. Alone in far too many ways Zerk hunts zombies while striving to be both a good man and the American warrior that he was trained to become.

Tragic, heroic, and human Zerk fights for a country that didn’t care that he existed before the outbreak, facing a terrible mystery and even greater challenge, aided only by Bear, an unspeaking boy, a motor-mouth roller-girl, and an elderly priest.

Of such simple materials are legends made.

And the wait begins

So Compass is selling well, but as yet there has been no reviews. That’s no shock, because its a sizable novel, but it makes for a eager week.

On behalf of all indie writers I would like to ask that if you enjoy a book, please review it. Reviews are hard to come by for all of us.

In other news a long-delayed project has hit 74,000 words. I hope to finish the rough draft this week and have it published before Christmas. It is a zombie novel with a bit of a twist; I am trying to expand my writing horizons and polish my skill, such as it is, to greater heights.

I’ll post a sample later this week.

More bad habits and useful distractions

With more time to write, I am also able to spend more time immersing myself in genre-relevant material. This also means wasting a lot of time on stuff like Full Front Nerdity’ wen comic, and Goblins: Life Through Their Eyes.

I’m also looking at what YouTube has to offer.

All this and a solid 1500 words a day: life is good!

The Master’s Compass is live!

The E-book, anyway. It’s $2.99 due to the rising cost of adjectives, but remember: every time a book goes unsold the terrorists win.

After all the editing the manuscript was about a thousand words less, but that was mostly just smoothing out the verbiage, and snipping away the odd excess detail.

Having a book in edit is hard, because it it drastically cuts down on other projects, so I don’t get my writing ‘fix’, or even do much research because the prepping of a manuscript demands all my attention.

But now it is done, and hopefully it will be well received. As for me, other projects await, and the writing goes on.

The Master’s Compass is done

Compass has finally traversed the editing process. The e-book should be available on 10-24-17, and the paperback around the 28th.

I hope people enjoy it!

A Legend Re-Discovered

And by re-discovered I mean in the true European sense as it existed for centuries: lots of people already knew about it, but it isn’t official because they simply lived there.

Anyway, fifteen years ago or more I was on a forum with a gifted writer whose posts about his own life and hobbies were amazing stuff. His writing was the sort of thing that made you want to not just read more of his material, but to be a better writer.

Time passed, and he left for the big time, and eventually I was booted from the forum for making liberals cry (a pointless action because I had so many secondary accounts that I sometimes got in flame wars with myself. It was a strange time.)

This week, as I struggled with the flu, a arm largely disabled by the first flue shot I have gotten since 1984 (and which I am pretty sure gave me the flu), a subpoena to a murder trial that involved me testifying about arrests I made in 2001, final editing on my latest book, and Texas weather that zips from 90 to 41 and back every eighteen hours, I came across his website. It was a Godsend, a ray of happiness in a stressful week.

Do yourself a favor, visit his site:

http://albruno3.blogspot.com/