R.M. Ridley's Blog, page 21

Exciting Update … Nothing has Changed

It is true -Nothing has changed.

I continue to work at editing, ‘Bindings & Spines’, the second novel in the White Dragon Black series. Mind you, these edits have wrought some major changes in the layout/chapters themselves. As I’ve said all along – the story is good… but it needs tightening up. I’m working hard to do that. It  takes guts, determination, and a cold ruthlessness, mixed with a large dollop of creativity to do this sort of hard edits- but sometimes you have no choice.

I try to write at least a couple hundred words everyday in the fifth novel in the series, enough to make sure I stay grounded in the story. Some days it’s more than just those few hundred, somedays I can barely get them out. But I persevere, because I’ve experienced how hard it is to get back into a novel you just let slip for a few months – I don’t want to go through that again.

I might be getting closer to convincing my wife to do reviews on here- maybe twice a week ,on a set day. I think it would be fun for you, my readers, and if it could help out other indie authors, like myself, that would be a good thing too. I try to do what I can by hosting the promotional release posts, and making you aware of new books, but this would be an extra treat I think.

And that’s it. My life may not be exciting, but it’s all mine.

 

Filed under: MIscellaneous, Writing Tagged: Bindings & Spines, book reviews, current work in progress, edits, Jonathan Alvey, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, plot, readers, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, wife, writing

Wibbly Wobbly

 I think my Muse watches too much Dr. Who…

All right, you can’t watch too much of The Doctor but she really does seems to think that time is non-linear… at least when it comes to recording a story.

I was getting my morning writing session in and only managed a couple hundred words before running out of steam. I was reluctant to stop with so few words however and thus sat staring at the screen for a bit. My Muse, sensing my predicament came up to me and said, ‘Here write this – I think we can have some fun with it.’

It did seem like fun. It also fit why the lead up to his had been worded as it had and emphasized certain themes. It was also well after a scene I was just heading towards. Like a full chapter later sort of deal. Once more I had a good idea, that would itself lead to another good scene, and tie into one of the main themes of the story – it just happened to be in the future (from a writers’s chronological order and from a plot stance).

I wrote it. Of course I wrote it. One doesn’t piss of one’s Muse… it’s the cardinal law of writing.I know have two scenes written that that are out of order. But I console myself – at least it’s better than the last novel, ‘Corrupted Souls’ she had me dancing all over that manuscript like I was doing the time warp.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: Corrupted Souls, current work in progress, Dr. Who, Jonathan Alvey, muse, non-linear, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, plot, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, Wibbly Wobbly, writing

The Stinging Bite of Truth

Well, it seems I was riding some sort of high when I wrote the second novel… so long ago now, and it makes me a little worried about #3.

‘Bindings & Spines” is still a good story, don’t get me wrong, but it is…wordy. A lot of the edits is cutting. My personal editor suggest cuts and I tried to follow as well as I could, while still holding the things I thought I need in there. Now my beta reader suggests cuts and I try to take that advice seriously as well. Tomorrow Wendell wasn’t as much about cuts, but additions to solidify the world and now I’m fighting a totally different dragon. But since both of these two, who I trust and respect, are saying ‘trim it down’, I have little choice but to do so.

There is less metaphor and more description. I think that is part of the problem. TW was rife with metaphor and simile. Instead of ‘felt like a pinate after a boisterous party’, I have four paragraphs of detailed issues. Having identified the problem will, I hope, go a long way to resolving it. This will also bring the word count down, making it much closer to ‘Tomorrow Wendell’ in length.

It’s hard to hear critiques some times. It is also far to easy to tell yourself, ‘but they don’t get it’ — thing is… they do. They especially ‘get it’ when it’s people who have read a lot of your work before

Alas, I’m human. The important thing s tat I have accepted it and, by accepting it, allowed myself to see why thus opening myself to understand the difference from the first to the second novel.

I will never stop learning my craft, that’s part of what makes being a writer such a great job.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: beta reader, Bindings & Spines, characters, current work in progress, editor, edits, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, plot, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, wierd thoughts, world building, writing

Parental fear and why I should win the Nobel prize for physics

I have ‘stolen’ this from another author’s blog to bring to you the shear brilliance of the theory

Parental fear and why I should win the Nobel prize for physics.

via Parental fear and why I should win the Nobel prize for physics.

Filed under: Writing

No Rest for the Righteous …or is that Wicked?

So I’ve been trying to get back into the routine of writing and editing everyday – it’s wasn’t going quite as well as I might have hoped. Then yesterday I was chatting on-line with my editor from from my publishing house, and somehow the issue of the contract for my next novel came up. When she realized I didn’t have one yet, she excused herself from the conversation for a moment. When she came back on, it was to tell me she’d started the mechanism for making that happen.

It’s amazing how the prospect of an incoming contract for your next novel can motivate. I edited an entire chapter that afternoon. I also wrote more in the fifth novel.  The thought that a contract might end up on my door with the title ‘Bindings & Spines’ printed on it, certainly made the whole thing more real–more urgent. No longer was I just doodling along with a theoretical knowledge that, in a little less than a year, I should have that ready to send to them. Now there was the all too real knowledge that dates could be set, schedules made, and contracts to uphold.

Yup, nothing like a bite from reality on your ass to get you moving!

Filed under: Publishing, Writing Tagged: Bindings & Spines, current work in progress, editor, edits, Jonathan Alvey, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, publish, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, writing, Xchyler Publishing

My Muse Stopped by For a Chat

Last night, I was all ready to go to sleep.  I was in bed and relaxed and to call it a day. Then a familiar voice came whispering in my ear. At first I thought this was one of those brief stops to say a few words, that I would have to hen sit up and grabbing pen and paper from my side table, quickly record. I was wrong.

This was a real visit. A sit down with drinks while my Muse shared things with me. I got up, dressed and headed downstairs quickly. One doesn’t want to piss off one’s Muse. A thousand words later I was allowed to return to bed and hour after I had originally went there. I pulled the covers over me feeling good, contented, and satisfied.

She came back.

She whispered a few more words. Words that she had forgotten to tell me, words I should scribble down before falling asleep. I was a bad writer and failed to do so.

When I got up this morning, I was only halfway through my first cup of coffee, when my Muse came back and re-iterated those words — and rare gift hardly ever bestowed on a errant writer as I. I wasn’t going to push my luck twice. I hopped up and quickly added them to the manuscript.

I was half way through the second cup when she said, ‘gulp that down, we have work to do.’ Being in no position to argue. I gulped it down, kissed my wife and scurried into my study. Then I wrote. and every time I thought I was done, suddenly a new paragraph, a new idea, and new exchange of words.

I only ended up writing 1433 – only I say, like that number is currently common practice these days. The great thing about this mornings progress, was the force of the flow and the fact that when it was over, I had direction to take the novel. The words I wrote opened up other scenes and set the stage for avenues to explore. It was like opening a door in a mansion you’re still trying to familiarize yourself with, to find a map of the main floor  painted on the wall.

In short – the last twelve hours have been good ones.

Filed under: Writing Tagged: current work in progress, Jonathan Alvey, muse, novel, paranormal, paranormal private investigator, plot, scene, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, world building, writing

So There I was…

Once more I had issues with the truck. I love Vera (if you love firefly…) and she is great to work on, but sometimes she gets issues and I am not yet skilled at playing mechanic to always diagnose them. Also, sometimes, one issue is masked by another, and I fix one but the other persists, so I believe the first issue isn’t really solved.

So fuel filter issues should have been solved but still had trouble starting, this culminated in two attempts to start and the truck simply didn’t have the juice to turn the starter, once with another vehicle jumpered to her

The second time this happened, I told my wife that I had to change out the starter (thankfully under warranty) and get a new battery (just to be sure–Vera takes two to get her going). So today I got word the auto supply store ‘Canadian Tire’ had the new stater in, and I could go get it.

I managed to get Vera to turn over – just – and drove to the next town. I pulled into the parking lot – way off to the side – and taking my tools, went to work. I popped the leads off the batteries (hey, one had to come right out anyway) and then shimmied under the truck. I used to own a ford ranger, low as a sports car. Now I have Vera, a f-250 that stands high off the ground. Taking off the starter was no more tricky than that one bolt that is always impossible to see or feel and twice that to reach with  wrench.

There I was in the parking lot of an auto supply store pulling my starter…I felt like such a -a – GUY!,

So I brought the, still hot, starter in and dropped it on the service desk and they swapped for a new one. I grabbed my new battery and went right back out. Slipped the new starer into place, laying on my back in the parking lot, then put in the new battery, hooked it all up and with a sense of pride, and, yes, dread, got behind the wheel.

I slid the key in and with a few kind words to Vera, turned the key. Now I’m not willing to jinx the thing by saying it’s all fixed, but I will say she started up real damn easy, as she did at the grocery store, and the fuel pump.

I’ve washed of the grease, and road dirt. I’ve peeled off that dirty shirt, and yet, part of me still wants to beat my chest and bellow my defiance into the air. I think that might just be tempting fate though. Maybe a nice glass of cold milk instead.

Filed under: MIscellaneous

There is a Word for That

I don’t know how it is for most people, but the point on which my mood and abilities balances is very small and sensitive.

It doesn’t take much to swing me from doing okay, to doing crappy and trying to hold my head above water. Trying to keep focus and purpose when things dip away from a balance is very hard.

I have been have issues with my truck for a little while now, and recently they got worse and more confusing. Then, to frustrate me more, the worse and confusing went way, leaving me baffled and worried. Worse and confusing came back yesterday evening. Ruining my ability to relax in front of the television, or when I finally crawled to bed.

I don’t know what is wrong. I have some possibles – some ‘maybe it’s…’  but nothing that makes me think, ‘I can deal with this’.

Trying to work through this issue, trying to get myself to see how I should progress, is stymied by the fact that this frustration and stress triggers my cycle, making it hard to focus and be analytical, which makes it hard to move forward on plans to fix the truck, which gives me stress, which…. Well, you get the picture.

I have little choice but to try and attack the two first possibles of we the truck is acting up. Deal with the first things I think of, and see what happens. But even doing that is more difficult, if I don’t have a vehicle with which to go do that.

This entire summer has been a write off in so many ways. I love this season. I adore spending time working, and relaxing, in the long, warm days. This year that hasn’t happened – for a number of reasons. I just hope not getting it, doesn’t affect the coming winter cycle’s.

Don’t get me wrong – it isn’t all doom and gloom. I mean I did get published this year and it’s hard to top that, but the summer really hasn’t gone in a way I hoped, planned, or anticipated.

But I guess there is a word for that – Life.

Filed under: Mental Health, MIscellaneous

New Publisher Arrives on the Scene

“One Small Step…” can Create One Giant LEAP!
 
 
 That’s what popular young adult authors Shannon Delany, Judith Graves, and Jen Murgia hope. The bold trio recently took on management (and in Delany’s case ownership) of established small publisher Leap Books LLC.

 The three women come from diverse backgrounds in publishing but have pooled their skills and resources to breathe new life into Leap.

 Established in 2009 by Laurie Edwards, Leap has earned a respected place in the young adult and middle grade markets, gaining recognition from the Green Earth Books Award program, the Young Adult Library Services Association Popular Paperbacks program, and receiving recommended reading status from authoritative review sources, such as Kirkus Reviews, the Midwest Book Review, and CM Magazine.

 What should readers look forward to with the relaunch of Leap? “We already have a backlist of strong stories thanks to the foundation Laurie Edwards built for Leap Books, but it seems like people have overlooked many of them while swimming in the sea of current YA and MG novels. We’re going to change that and build on the existing list with our upcoming SHINE list of edgy YA and NA e-novellas and a re-branding and re-launching of both our YA novel line SURGE and our middle grade novel line.”

What should authors look forward to with Leap Books? “Although Leap’s SURGE line usually only accepts agented submissions, in mid-October we’ll be opening our doors wide for unagented works, too. If you have a well-polished YA or MG novel that grabs us and holds us, we may have a spot in our lineup for you. Watch the Leap Books blog–no, stalk the blog–to find out when to submit. And watch for special anthologies to submit to–we have some great ones coming up!”

For now Delany suggests readers and writers alike leap into the contest running until August 8th at http://leapbks.blogspot.ca/ and if you’re serious about writing for a publisher, first give a few of their books a read.

You can find Leap Books at:

http://leapbks.net/
http://www.Twitter.com/Leapbks
http://www.FaceBook.com/people/LeapBooks-Owner/

Enter the Rafflecopter contest to win three Leap e-books of YOUR choice!
 a Rafflecopter giveaway
Filed under: Writing

At a Loss for Words

You all know that I have been sending requests to blog which host book reviews, looking for honest feed back about, ‘Tomorrow Wendell’. One of the sites kind enough to agree to do so has just posted the review.

And it is good.

I love their format, the style of the review, and the work they put into it is astounding.

I can’t thank these people enough, good review or bad, for their time. What they do makes a world of difference to me, and the exposure my novel gets. The only way I can repay them is to direct people to their site, and that is what I will be doing for each and every one.

So, if you want to read what this reviewer had to say about my debut novel ‘Tomorrow Wendell’ – go check it out HERE

I will tell you this  … I was flattered and honoured

 

Filed under: Book Release Tagged: book review, book review blog, JC's Book Haven, Jonathan Alvey, novel, paranormal private investigator, readers, Tomorrow Wendell, Urban Fantasy, White Dragon Black Series, world building, Xchyler Publishing