Q – “You finished the book?  Great!  When are you going to quit your day job?” A – “Not anytime soon!” There’s a common misconception that writers make a lot of money.  I’m not sure why that exists.  Ever hear the term ‘starving artist’?  It applies to us writers as well.  To quote a book Continue reading

It is 2011 and I still do not have a flying car or my own jet pack.  I am highly disappointed in the future. This is normally the blog entry where I’d put up my New Year’s resolutions but let’s be honest – those generally last until something shiny comes along and distracts me and Continue reading

I wrapped up revisions on Genie Memories this morning.   Short of changes suggested by my Beta readers (who I’ll seek out after the holidays), I don’t plan on touching it again. It’s done.  Finite.  Kaput.  Finale. Since the plan was to get this done before December 31st, I’m considering it an early Christmas present for Continue reading

While revising today, I noticed that Genie Memories had fallen under the 60,000 word count (59,606 to be precise).   This event spurred to life two of my Moose (Meese?) – the Irrational Moose and the Wise Moose.  These two had a chat that went a bit like this : Irrational Moose : Ah, GOD! Wise Continue reading

In the month of November, I have made only four (now five) blog entries.  Two of these were short (barely the length of a Tweet), one was random musings while lying sick on the couch, and the last linking a video someone else made. In that same time period, I also edited and revised 181 Continue reading

While some folks have to deal with Writers Block, I have to deal with this : Little creep tried to eat my editing pen. On a side note, anyone who has ever said a variation of “Writing is not real work” has never attempted to edit a novel. On Saturday I set what I thought Continue reading

Seven days off and it’s back to writing. On the left is the completed draft of Genie Memories, double-spaced and Courier font-size 12.  334 pages.  Perfect for making notes.  On the right, the single spaced draft I used while actually writing the story.  Scattered throughout its pages are notes I made but didn’t want to Continue reading

So what is it like to finish a novel? That’s easy to answer – it’s just like finishing a marathon. See?  Easy.  Now do you … what?  Wait … are you telling me you haven’t run a marathon? Well, crap. Okay, let me try to explain : It is well known among the running community that Continue reading

At 6:58pm on Wednesday, October 20th, I finished the 1st draft of Genie Memories. According to the time stamp on the file, I began Chapter One on April 15th 2009 at 9:42pm (CST).  That’s roughly eighteen months (1 year and 189 days if you want to get picky).  A little over one year since I Continue reading

Productivity – I be thy name. Articles, a book review, and most importantly – Chapters 26, 27, and 28 of Genie Memories.  Chapter 29 is started and I should have it finished Thursday or Friday night.  After that, there are only two, maybe three more chapters until the entire book is finished. Once that’s done, Continue reading