Elgon Williams's Blog, page 21

How It Begins, Continues and Ends

The beginning of a book has the illusion of being easy but next to the ending it can be the most difficult part to write. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always found the middle of a book the quickest write. You see – you know the characters fairly well by then and the plot is already well underway. So development is pretty much over and its time to let the action evolve. You know where things are heading and may even have an idea for an ending, though usually endings change because, by the time you get there, whatever you had in mind from the outset has altered from experiencing the book’s progress through the eyes of the characters. You have have planned an untimely demise for a character who has become your favorite or your main character may actually be less interesting than you originally imagined.

I’ve often told people that I suck at writing endings. Ive time I’ve gotten better at it, especially after writing the interim endings for each of the books in The Wolfcat Chronicles series. But serial ending are different. They always lead into something else. As far as my writing goes, almost every book I’ve written connects to something else, though. If it doesn’t seem to, wait for it. Another book is probably on  the way and somehow it will connect. Even Becoming Thuperman, which I purposely wrote as a stand alone, connects into the weird world of Brent Woods. Its connection is the most tangential of all the manuscripts I’ve composed. Hint, Will’s mother went to high school with Terry Harper. Yeah, it’s in there.

A number of my friends are writers. Some tell me coming up with a title is difficult. For whatever reason that’s the easiest part of the process for me. Many, like me, write a good bit of the novel by the seat of their pants. We call it being a Pantser. The experience of creation is a wild, spontaneous ride. I think some of that comes through in the book and the readers can share a bit of the creative experience. However it is a bit like taking a 1000 piece crossword pule and throwing it on the floor and hoping some of the pieces just accidentally come together. Since I don’t believe in accidents…well, every writer must organize things at some point, right?

Other writers detail out a plot from beginning to end. They’re called Plotters. I think there is a downside to this style as well. The book can become too stylized and predictable as it methodically progresses. It’s kind of like looking as a sine wave on an oscilloscope – you know there is a peak ahead and valley after and then another peak. There is a steady rhythm and flow, which is nice for some readers but it will put others to sleep. Mixing it up a bit, throwing in a random, unexpected event  or two helps break the monotony. That may not come until the draft is finished and, as a writer, you just feel the book is missing something. That’s one reason revisions tend to add pages to a manuscript as the author tweaks this and that or suddenly realizes there is a subplot that can be used to create some mystery or tension. Perhaps there is an alternate love connection that wasn’t clear from the start.

If an author wants to excite the reader and, for whatever time it takes to read a book, engage the imagination and suspend disbelief, he or she should make the book as realistic as possible. As much as we plot and plan our lives, things do not always work out the way we want. So why expect a book to be any different? As you can probably tell, my writing style is a little of both Pantser and Plotter. I usually begin the process with a few character profiles and then have the key players interact in conversations. Often enough the characters tell me where the conflicts are and that almost always hints at where the plot is headed. Building the story around the dialogue, as it is inherently more interesting to the reader than long narratives, is also better for showing and not telling the story. If you focus on dialogue and use action tags to highlight what the characters are doing, their nervous ticks, their habit of playing with a pencil or a pen while sitting at a desk, lighting a second cigarette before snuffing out the first, you immediately allow the reader to visualize a scene as if he or she is there. observing.

I don’t think one author should guide another in the creative aspect but sharing some notes and giving a little advice helps. Every writer’s situation is different. Of necessity some cannot devote the kind of time they might like to the task because of other obligations whether its family, work or something else. Often writers claim to have writer’s block and sometimes it is tied to beginning the writing process. It’s hard to start something and easy to be distracted with life or anything else that is less painful than coming to terms with the crazy ideas you have kicking around in your noggin. So, if you suffer when coming up with a way to begin a book, why not start in the middle instead?  Give it a try. Work your way in both directions from the middle and eventually you’ll have a beginning and and ending. Does it work every time? No, of course not. But it’s different and changing things up a bit helps break writer’s block. A lot of times that’s all you need is a nudge.

The other way I’ve found to overcome writer’s block is have a pretty much set schedule for your writing. Whenever that is, wherever you are you write. It doesn’t matter what you write, just write something. It could be a shopping list, an email, a note – whatever, just connect mind to hand and let the process and the flow of ideas take over. Writer’s block, to me, seems to be a temporary halt in the flow. Force the effort to write but never force the writing.What I mean is this, keep the avenue of your ideas open. Dredge the channel to prevent anything from damming things up. Having said that, don’t make writing a drudgery.

If whatever project you’re working on isn’t inspiring you to get out and bed and work on it, it’s probably going to have the same effect on someone reading it. Don’t scrap it just yet, but set it aside and come back to it later. Some books need to be fleshed out in a search process. Fried Windows flowed as sixteen sort of related short stories before I ever started to think of them as a novel. One Over X came to me as vignettes focused on individual characters. Stories that refuse to flow from start to end can be more challenging but that doesn’t mean the idea isn’t good or that the book won’t work well. Sometimes a story has to come out in pieces. It can be frustrating, but when everything comes together it will be worth the wait.

Not every idea you have will make a good book or even a good short story. Sometimes the silliest things make the best stories, though. So never give up on an idea too soon. Just be aware that your scrap pile will grow exponentially while your actual projects progress in a more linear fashion.

#WritingTips #WritersBlock #Beginnings #Endings #Plotters #Pantsers #CreativeFlow #BecomingThuperman #TheWolfcatChronicles #FriedWindows

 

Promotional Stuff, Pets and A Birthday

 

Today and yesterday were kind of dedicated promotional days. That’s why I didn’t post anything. Sort of busy answering questions and making pitches for Fried Windows, Becoming Thuperman and The Wolfcat Chronicles.

Speaking of the wolfcats, I’m working on Chapter 9, but I’m about 3/4 of the way through a new chapter that I’m writing. It helps tie into the rewrite and also connect the series into Fried Windows a little better than the original version.  Otherwise I’m hanging out with my son’s dog, my grand-dog, as it were. His name is Rocco. I’ve mentioned him before. He’s 105 lbs of American Bulldog and a big baby. He’s sitting beside me as I write this, wondering why I haven’t petted him in the past ten seconds and hoping I’ll take him on a walk so because usually he gets a treat afterwards.

I read somewhere that most days read the mental maturity of a two or three year old. Rocco is definitely in his terrible twos. He demands attention almost constantly but he does understand a few simple words and phrases. However, he doesn’t like deviating from routine. Like going for a walk. The county has decided to tear up some of the sidewalks,It seems related to whether there is a pin oak tree near to the section. This has interrupted Rocco’s usual path for walking so it confuses and frustrate him when I make him detour around the missing sections or the freshly poured concrete. The county frowns upon dog prints in the fresh new slabs. Apparently they consider that graffiti for which there is some sort of fine if they catch you. Is anyone else getting a mental picture of the local sheriff running through  set of paw prints belonging to known offenders?

Anyway, the promotional stuff went well. I don’t know if I sold any books but I made some friends. Friend may last longer than book promotions, anyway.

I believe I’m still on target to complete Book 10 of The Wolfcat Chronicles before the end of the month. I don’t force any problems yet. The new stuff I’m adding in gives the series a twist or two, and lends a touch of mystery to the last book the series. It’s all good.

In other news, today is my big sister Joyce’s birthday. In the pictures above she is dressed for Halloween. So, no she doesn’t always dress funny. Anyway, Joyce is nine years my senior and was known to babysit for me when I was like Rocco is now – no, not a dog but a whining pup of sorts and totally dependent. She’s one of those special people you enjoy being around because she savors friendships and loves life. When I’m around her I have to step up my game a bit to say something funny or unusual. She has that effect on me. I try to make her laugh. I always have. And if she doesn’t laugh with me, I’ll accept her laughing at me.

So, Happy Birthday, big sis.

#birthday #Rocco #FriedWindows #Revisions #TheWolfcatChronicles, #BecomingThuperman #Promotions

 

Throwback Thursday – Foreigner’s Debut Album

In 1976 Mick Jones (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer, vocals), Ian McDonald (guitar, saxophone, flute, backing vocals) and Lou Graham (lead vocals, percussion) formed the nucleus of the band to be later named Foreigner. Al Greenwood (keyboards and synthesizers) was added along with Dennis Elliot (drums) and Ed Gagliardi (bass) to form the original lineup of the band appearing on the first, self-titled album. Jones came up with the band’s name Foriegner  after the group realized that former name Trigger was already in use. His logic was that since the group consisted of three Brits and three Americans, no matter where the band was at least three of them would be foreigners.

The first album was released in March 1977 and immediately connected with an audience featuring three hits, “Feels Like The First Time”, “Cold As Ice” and “Long, Long Way Home”. The album stayed in the top 20 for a year selling 4 million copies. By May the band was already headlining larger venues, well on their way to becoming one of the best selling groups of all times.

Although the band would undergo several personnel changes over the ensuing years they became a band synonymous with the late 70’s and 80’s in popular music, producing a series of hits including (From Double Vision)  “Hot Blooded”, “Double Vision”, Blue Monday, Blue Day”,  (From Head Games) “Head Games”, “Dirty White Boy”, (From 4) “Urgent”, “Waiting For A Girl Like You”, “Juke Box Hero”, “Break It Up”, (From Agent Provocateur) “That Was Yesterday” and “I Want To Know What Love Is” – the band’s biggest hit, reaching number 1 in the UK, US and many other countries.

 

Mick Jones and Lou Graham were indicted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2013.

#70sMusic #Foreigner #MickJones #LouGraham

Midweek Crisis

Generally, I don’t care what day of the week it is. There is a routine I observe regardless. I guess that comes from many years working in retail and having the concept of weekend totally destroyed. But, if I hate any day of the week it’s probably Wednesday, aka, humpday.

While most people hate Mondays, I’m generally okay with those. Sometimes I have them off even when it doesn’t involve a holiday. Wednesday, however, used to be my weekly in store staff meeting. This was when my boss delivered all the notes that his boss gave him on their weekly Tuesday meetings. And, as the rule of shit flowing downhill, it meant having to scramble to get things done before the weekend, and a lot of stuff done before the new weekly ad broke on Thursday. Even though I’m out of that situation now, the dread feeling about Wednesday remains.

I’ve never liked meetings, especially the ones that turn into non-productive bitch sessions. Also, I’m not fond of the ones that should probably take 45 minutes but extend well past three or four hours – and then you have all these bullet points and action items to communicate to subordinates and get them to implement things before the end of the day. Meetings, conference calls etc are necessary I guess, but often they are used in the CYA (cover your ass) mode of thinking, as in, “As I told you last week at our meeting…”

Today I have a couple of things I have to. I was originally scheduled to work today, to do some training at work. But I’m driving my son over to the airport, so I had to reschedule a bit. My son have a conference in Indianapolis. As he is aware he’ll be freezing his Floridian ass off, he is out shopping for a winter coat. The good news is that those who’ll be on clearance by now here in the Sunshine State.

I’m a bit apprehensive about the drive to the airport. I have a license and lots of driving experience – like since almost before I could walk – but for the past five or so years I haven’t been driving all that often. I ride a bike everywhere. And my son’s car is new to him (not new to the world but it amounts to the same thing, right?) And it’s a Porche. Anything one needs to have a crash course on how to start it is going to be intimidating. Plus it has twice the horsepower of the last vehicle I drove regularly. So I’ll be driving this thing like a paranoid grandma from Pasadena.

When I get back to the house I’ll be diving into The Wolfcat Chronicles Book 10 Chapter 4. I did nothing with the book yesterday or Monday evening. I was working on some promotional stuff for one of the authors I represent as a publicist. And yesterday afternoon and evening I was at my other job. So, I’m kind of eager to get back into the book. I’m hopeful about getting to Chapter 10 or 11 before the weekend, which roughly a third of the way through the book. Realize, of course, that somewhere around Chapter 20 everything will come to a screeching halt as I will be rewriting everything – and at time writing entirely new material. I have an outline and some other ideas I’m playing with for that, but I expect I’ll be into that just prior to the end of the month.

A good portion of March I’ll spend reviewing Book 10 before finally submitting it, the concluding piece of The Wolfcat Chronicles. By then I expect to be knee deep in substantive edits for the series.

#update #TheWolfcatChronicles #Humpday

 

The Wolfcat Chronicles – The Inspiration

There’s not a single moment that stands out to cite as the inspiration to write The Wolfcat Chronicles. More accurately it was a series of incidents and a process in the evolution of an idea. Since the series is related in many ways to other writing, I could say it began with the first piece of fiction I wrote as a kid. But the idea to write a novel came about when I was riding my my dad’s pickup truck returning from the Trade Day Flea Market in Washington Court House, Ohio in late 1969. He asked what I wanted to be when I grew up if, as i had just told him, I didn’t feel cut out to be a farmer.

My mother told me she’d always heard that the first thing a baby grasps hold of is related in some way to what he or she will do in life. I grabbed a pencil. Years later when I was in college my mother reminded me of that, to which I replied, “The pencil also had an eraser. So maybe it was telling me I’d make a lot of mistakes.”

I toyed around with some stories during high school, even published some in the school newspaper and monthly literary magazine. But it wasn’t until college that I set out to compose a novel. I knew nothing about how to accomplish that, but that did not deter me.

After enrolling in a creative writing course I wrote the first bonafide piece of The Wolfcat Chronicles, a character profile for a wolfcat, though at the time I didn’t call the hybrid creature anything in particular. It was an assignment for which I received a grade of C-. My obstructor didn’t like sci-fi and fantasy, which was fine because I didn’t like him much either. He picked it apart, saying it was absurd and impossible to have a creature that was a their human, a third wolf and a third cat. He’d never heard of the theory of gene splicing. Not many people had back in the late 70’s.

Later that year I wrote a draft novel titled Tarot. Some portions that story survive within chapters of One Over X and The Wolfcat Chronicles. Tarot allowed me the experience of writing a long story spanning several chapters. I let a couple of friends read it and received feedback, some positive. I thought of editing it, revising it and sending it off to a publisher but a few months after writing it I actually read the draft. The story was thin, banal, not well-thought-out or developed and probably not worth the effort to fix.

My first actual publication was the Unit History of the 6903rd Electronic Security Group at Osan AB, Republic of Korea. It wasn’t destined for any bestseller list. It contained highly classified information and therefore had a very small distribution list. It was over 400 pages and received several awards.

Also while in the military I wrote a draft regulation for cataloguing, storing and disposing of classified information. The regulation was adopted within the intelligence community. Also, while I was in training I wrote a training manual that was implemented at my training base. I received commendation for both achievements.

I mention all that because prior to my experience as a unit historian I lacked confidence in my ability to write. It also allowed me to work with a computer word processor, albeit it a primitive one. Receiving accolades bolstered my ego – something vital int he development of an author, even if those who were the most impressed were not especially talented at writing.

Upon returning to the States I began writing From The Inside, the first book of the One Over X series. I would spend the next eight years laboring over that while working in retail management, being a father of three small children and all the other necessary chores and duties. Writing was a hobby. I’m amazed how much progress was actually made, all things considered.

In 1993 I bought the my computer, ostensibly for the family. The kids played some DOS children’s games on it but I wound up using it most of the time. Other than playing solitaire for the first few months of owning it and figuring out how to get online and use email, I began the meticulous process of recreating my novel in progress in a digital format using the MS Works word processor that came with my computer.

In April 1995 I came down with a bacterial infection in my bloodstream which all but destroyed my aortic valve. I was admitted to the hospital with a fever of 104 degrees F and put on IV’s with antibiotics. During the period of high fever which lasted an entire weekend I had vivid dreams about battles between demonic creatures, humans and animals. I recalled them well enough to write about them in my journal. That material made it into The Wolfcat Chronicles Book 7.

After a summer of recuperating from having my valve replaced, I upgraded to a faster computer and bought a copy of MS Word. I converted the Works documents into MS Word format and then began the painstaking process of correcting all the issues that conversion created. That was also the first time I edited and revised any of One Over X.

Along with my adventure in writing I was becoming a computer technician on the side, just from figuring out how to repair my computer and troubleshoot the software. I read computer magazines, books on writing programs and computer repair. I continued writing and eventually produced a rough draft for From The Inside. I met a small publisher join Connecticut and began a two year ordeal of editing the book. A lot of that knowledge influenced my characters and their roles. It also served as an inspiration for the EthosSphere program in One Over X, which in 2015 terminology would be called The Internet of Things.

In the late Spring of 2000, shortly after my father passed away and while corresponding with my publisher and sending edits and revisions back and forth, I began writing The Wolfcat Chronicles in earnest. Starting with what is now Chapter 2 of Book 3, it was intended to be a wolf story that I shared with friends I’d made in an IRC chatroom. We pretended to be a Wolf Pack and created a roll playing game. Many of the character names in the series came from the screen names of those people or variations upon them. One of those people called herself Ela’na the Wolfcat. She became my personal muse during the compilation of the ten books in draft. We became friends over the years, though we have never met in person and live on opposite sides of the country. And yes, the similarity of the character she was playing int he RPG online and the character profile I’d written in 1977 was not lost on me – especially when years later i discovered she was born on the same day I wrote the character profile for my creative writing class. (Cue Twilight Zone Music)

 

Book 3 through 7 were written first, originally a 413 page single volume titled One Pack, that grew in revisions and through the addition of other backstories and characters. Book 8 and half of Book 9 were written next and was originally titled The Last Wolfcat. While writing that story in 2005, my published asked me to edit a children’s story and upon my recommendation a couple of other scenes were added to the book. I helped write those. Based on that experience, my published suggested I write a children’s story about the wolfcats, sort of like The Hobbit serves as an introduction to Lord of the Rings. One chapter into writing the prequel to One Pack, which was titled The Spectre of Dammerwald, it was clearly not going to be a children’s story. That eventually became Books 1 and 2.

Upon completing the prequel, I now had sufficient backstory to flesh out the remainder of Book 9 and write Book 10. However, a lot of the material in Spectre required making many changes, both minor and major, to Books 3 through 8. Upon completing that long task (during the Spring of 2007), I began writing The Attributes, which concludes many of the threads created in One Over X and The Wolfcat Chronicles, thought it is a stand-alone, two-book series.

In 2011, I posted each chapter of the draft for The Wolfcat Chronicles to a writer’s website and received feedback which I am presently incorporating into the current set of revisions. By then I had written several other manuscripts and stories that are as yet unpublished. I also wrote much of the Earth-side backstory for Ela’na the Wolfcat, which involved Brent Woods, the main character in Fried Windows. In 2012, I wrote Fried Windows, which technically takes place both before and after The Wolfcat Chronicles. I promise, that will make sense once you have read the books.

#TheWolfcatChronicles #FriedWindows #Inspiration #Writing #Publishing

 

 

 

 

The Final Episode of The Wolfcat Chronicles and Some Other Stuff

Yesterday I began working on Book Ten of The Wolfcat Chronicles. I’ll not call this a revision because I’ll be extensively rewriting the book, most of the changes coming in the last third to a half of the story. But already I have changed a couple of things early on and I’m only two chapters into the effort.

As originally written the book was 33 chapters and around 320 pages. After all the work on it I expect it to remain about the same length. There isn’t a great deal of the story and overall plot that will be altered until apron Chapter 26 or so. Between the way Book 9 concluded and how I have begun Book 10, the foreshadowing for the new conclusion to the series has already begun.

Lately I’ve been spending a lot more time at work, doing my other job. That has not really affected my writing and revising of books but it has caused some other adjustments in my schedule. This week I have fewer days scheduled, though I could be called in to cover someone else’s absence. I’ve been doing a lot of that. I need the money, so…

Because I’m riding my bike more often and for longer distances because my work is 4.5 miles away, I’m gradually losing some weight again. I had put on a few more pounds over the holidays, so it’s not a bad thing. I still could lose around thirty pounds and never miss them – except for needing smaller size clothes.

I’ll miss the Superbowl as I’m working this evening. I’ll watch the commercials separately. I always do that online. Having worked retail for so many years I rarely got a chance to watch the big game. Those years my boss threw a party I was always the last to show up because, somehow, I was the one scheduled to close the store. As we don’t have cable TV where I’m staying, I wouldn’t be watching it anyway, unless I streamed the broadcast. I heard NBC is doing that. Folks, consider that the death nell for broadcast TV – when sports is streamed over the Internet and widely available. Cable and Satellite company won’t be able too charge exorbitant rates to provide you with a zillion channels of crap, of which you maybe watch four or five. It makes far more sense to purchase individual shows and costs less money. Haven’t not had cable for much of the past 8 years, I can tell you how much I don’t miss it – or the $100+ a month for stuff I never watched anyway.

#TheWolfcatChronicles #Revisions #Rewrites

 

I Must Be Getting Old; I’ve Already Lost My Mind

Okay, the title is a bit overdramatic. But yesterday morning I had pretty good evidence of the deterioration of my mental faculties, or at least my perception.

As my son left for work, his dog, Rocco, came to visit me, as he does every morning. It was that time for the daily routine. He wanted to go for a walk in the neighborhood so that he can do what dogs normally do on walks.

Rocco likes sniffing everything and everywhere. He leaves his scent as if a calling card or a territorial proclamation for other neighborhood pets. Then, finally arriving at that perfect place to drop0off a few pups, I turn away with some indifference and respect for his privacy even out in the open, plastic bag stretched over my hand to wait. Afterwards, I dutifully pick up the evidence of his business transaction, tie a neat knot in the bag and carry it back to the house to deposit in the trash can. Garbage pick up is every Monday and Thursday, so I stuff it inside garbage bag to ensure its odor does not become too overwhelming whenever anyone steps out into the garage.

Rocco enjoys going on walks mainly because at the conclusion I give him a treat. A spoonful of peanut butter has been his favorite of late, but really, anything from a dog biscuit to chicken or beef jerky would suffice. I enjoy the walks because it gets my blood circulating first thing in the morning, even if lately its been chillier than I prefer, and quite chilly for Florida.

Yesterday morning’s routine was interrupted with the alarm of not being able to locate my shoes. Walking the dog in house slippers is out of the questions and flip flops at this time of year would be ludicrous, even if I wore white socks to prevent my tootsies from being overly chilled. I had to find my leather dockers – what I always wear.for walking the dog. But as I scanned the floor beside my bed, they simply were not there.

Nudging Rocco to one side as he eagerly awaited, even whining with his growing urgency, I stood and scooted the bed back to see if somehow I might have kicked the shoes under the edge. Nope, not there. I got down on hands and knees – for a man going on 59 that is something of a minor accomplishment though not nearly as much as getting back up afterwards – and confirmed there was nothing under the bed buta couple of fairly large dust bunnies. Certainly the greedy shoe eating ogre departed long ago. That’s not to say that the closet gnome wasn’t busy, though, as behind my back, while I was looking elsewhere, he must have deposited my missing shoes, the ones he’d hidden from me, directly where I had initially looked – the exact place I always leave them, beside my bed. And then, quickly he climbed over the piles of dirty laundry awaiting Saturday, laundry day, and burrowed into the shadowy places of his mysterious realm.

Well, it was either that of Rocco hid my shoes. I doubt that because he was the one eager to go for a walk and the delay, though possibly amusing, would have only made matter worse. Of course, there is also the obvious, alternative conclusion that I am losing what is left of my mind or at least getting old and forgetful.

Both craziness and forgetfulness run deep in my gene pool. And, on top of everything else, I’m a writer. So, the first thing that popped into my mind was to blame a host of unlikely and improbably culprits, contriving all sorts of conspiracy theories and such,  instead of admitting the simple fact that there is a blind spot that all humans have and it is directly in front of our noses.

#humor #dogs #DailyRoutine #Rocco

I Must Be Getting Old; I’ve Already Lost My mind

Okay, the title is a bit overdramatic. But yesterday morning I had pretty good evidence of the deterioration of my mental faculties, or at least my perception.

As my son left for work, his dog, Rocco, came to visit me, as he does every morning. It was that time for the daily routine. He wanted to go for a walk in the neighborhood so that he can do what dogs normally do on walks.

Rocco likes sniffing everything and everywhere. He leaves his scent as if a calling card or a territorial proclamation for other neighborhood pets. Then, finally arriving at that perfect place to drop0off a few pups, I turn away with some indifference and respect for his privacy even out in the open, plastic bag stretched over my hand to wait. Afterwards, I dutifully pick up the evidence of his business transaction, tie a neat knot in the bag and carry it back to the house to deposit in the trash can. Garbage pick up is every Monday and Thursday, so I stuff it inside garbage bag to ensure its odor does not become too overwhelming whenever anyone steps out into the garage.

Rocco enjoys going on walks mainly because at the conclusion I give him a treat. A spoonful of peanut butter has been his favorite of late, but really, anything from a dog biscuit to chicken or beef jerky would suffice. I enjoy the walks because it gets my blood circulating first thing in the morning, even if lately its been chillier than I prefer, and quite chilly for Florida.

Yesterday morning’s routine was interrupted with the alarm of not being able to locate my shoes. Walking the dog in house slippers is out of the questions and flip flops at this time of year would be ludicrous, even if I wore white socks to prevent my tootsies from being overly chilled. I had to find my leather dockers – what I always wear.for walking the dog. But as I scanned the floor beside my bed, they simply were not there.

Nudging Rocco to one side as he eagerly awaited, even whining with his growing urgency, I stood and scooted the bed back to see if somehow I might have kicked the shoes under the edge. Nope, not there. I got down on hands and knees – for a man going on 59 that is something of a minor accomplishment though not nearly as much as getting back up afterwards – and confirmed there was nothing under the bed buta couple of fairly large dust bunnies. Certainly the greedy shoe eating ogre departed long ago. That’s not to say that the closet gnome wasn’t busy, though, as behind my back, while I was looking elsewhere, he must have deposited my missing shoes, the ones he’d hidden from me, directly where I had initially looked – the exact place I always leave them, beside my bed. And then, quickly he climbed over the piles of dirty laundry awaiting Saturday, laundry day, and burrowed into the shadowy places of his mysterious realm.

Well, it was either that of Rocco hid my shoes. I doubt that because he was the one eager to go for a walk and the delay, though possibly amusing, would have only made matter worse. Of course, there is also the obvious, alternative conclusion that I am losing what is left of my mind or at least getting old and forgetful.

Both craziness and forgetfulness run deep in my gene pool. And, on top of everything else, I’m a writer. So, the first thing that popped into my mind was to blame a host of unlikely and improbably culprits, contriving all sorts of conspiracy theories and such,  instead of admitting the simple fact that there is a blind spot that all humans have and it is directly in front of our noses.

#humor #dogs #DailyRoutine #Rocco

The Wolfcat Chronicles Book Nine Submitted

Yesterday evening I completed the revision of The Woflcat Chronicles Book 9 and submitted it to my publisher.  For those of you who were beta readers for the draft of the manuscript, I changed a few things – most of them in keeping with the new ending I envision for Book 10.

I am taking a bit of a break now. I promised to read a friend’s book and review it, so for the next few days, aside from working, I’ll be plowing through a spy thriller. It’s not a genre I follow all that often but I have read a few of Tom Clancy’s books. I started reading it last night and, so far, the book is intriguing – always a good start.

For Book Ten, I expect the first half to three quarters of the story to remain pretty much to same. There are places to be and battles to fight that are necessary to the overall story arc of the series and resolution of the tenth book’s plot. The last few chapters will be extensively rewritten, though, and one of them scrapped, for the most part. This will allow the story to better align with other related stories contained in other books, publishing and unpublished, including Fried Windows. I’m excited to get started on reworking Book Ten  but I’m a little apprehensive as well. Beta readers were about 50/50 on whether they liked the original ending. Personally, I wasn’t happy with it. It accomplished some things I wanted but not all. My hope is that I will make it an ending worth reading ten books in order to reach.

One of the difficulties of writing a book with feedback from readers is that everyone finds a favorite character – even relatively minor ones – and wants something different to happen with them. Sometimes that is just not possible within the constraints of a story. Yeah, I know I’m writing a fantasy where everything is possible, at least from a  creator’s perspective, but it isn’t quite a wide open to the imagination as one might think. When a fantasy world is created, if it is to be believed on any level, there must be rules established, laws of nature, as it were, and those become restrictions. I believe I’ve been pretty agile and adept at circumventing expectations and conventions as I write The Wolfcat Chronicles. Expect the unexpected has been my motto. But, still, there are some things that must happen in order to conclude the series properly.

Someone once asked me which of the many characters introduced throughout the series is my favorite. That’s tough to answer. As I write a scene there is a star and, for the duration, he or she must be my favorite to whom I pay the most attention. Overall, of course Ela’na and Rotor are favorites. Of the supporting characters, though, I really enjoyed writing the scenes with Swip’ter and Shealu in the One Pack section of the series, especially when they first meet. In the first two books, which comprise the Spectre of Dammerwald section, I enjoyed Grem and to a lesser extent Slammer. In the concluding section, The Last Wolfcat, I enjoyed writing about Mang.

I expect to be back to working on The Wolfcat Chronicles sometime next week, probably by Wednesday. It should take most of February and perhaps longer to finish. I’m not sure at this point. It’s been a long time since I was last here in the story.

 

#TheWolfcatChronicles #FriedWindows #Revising #Writing #Publishing

 

Throwback Thursday – Aerosmith’s Toys In The Attic

Formed in Boston 1971, Aerosmith featured Joe Perry (lead guitar), Tom Hamilton (bass guitar), Steve Tyler (lead vocals and harmonica), Joey Kramer (drums) and Brad Whitford (guitar) – who replaced Ray Tabano. They rapidly grew a local following playing clubs. A year later they signed with Columbia Records and produced the self titled first album in 1973 which peaked at #166 on Billboard, featuring the minor hit Dream On (peaked at #59) along with Mama Kin and a cover of Walking the Dog which became crowd favorites during concerts.

In 1974, Get Your Wings was released and the band began to receive national airplay for their cover of an old Yardbird’s hit Train Kept A Rollin’ and Same Old Song and Dance. The album continued the band’s fusing blues with hard rock and also produce other favorites Lord of The Thighs, S.O.S. Too Bad and Seasons of Wither.

The 1975 release of Toys in the Attic (the title is a euphemism for being crazy) became the band’s international breakthrough behind the power of the hits Sweet Emotion and Walk This Way. Following on the album’s success Dream On was also re-released to peak at #6 to become their best charting single in the 70’s. Later, Walk This Way was covered by Run DMC in 1986 supported by a music video featuring Aerosmith’s Steve Tyler and Joe Perry playing the song on the other side of a wall that the Hip-hoppers break through, giving Aerosmith a broadened fan base that spanned genres.

Aerosmith is sometimes referred to as the bad boys from Boston and reputedly the greatest American Rock band, but despite the band’s popularity int he 70’s, it wasn’t until the band’s resurgence int he late 80’s. largely due to they crossover hits on the pop charts along with the awards won for the Walk This Way collaboration with DMC that catapulted the group into another level of stardom. They were indicted in the Rock’n’Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

#70sMusic #Aerosmith #SteveTyler #JoePerry #RunDMC