DONE

I finished editing tonight. I changed a lot less than I expected, mostly just cleaning up awkward sentences and fixing unclear parts. I think it stands as it is, perhaps a bit silly and uncomplicated at times, but hopefully an enjoyable read.

I look forward to seeing what the real-life inspiration for the main character has to say about it!

I happily say goodbye to Rob and Sera, though there is still a bit of cover work and final editing to do to get the book actually into print. I need another late night, perhaps, and then I'll be good to go.
Some final silly artwork will likely make its way into the back of the book, too.

48 pages left

Not much left to go! I'm trying to finish in the next week or so. I'll keep you all posted.
Cover art should be quick once the editing is done. It'll probably take me longer to find a good pdf converter than anything. It's so hard to get a good one that switches to 6x9 and embeds fonts.

expect it on lulu within 2 weeks!

Final 100 pages

I'm into the final 100 pages of editing for Earthbound. I'm going to try to finish it in the next 2 weeks. Cover artwork and layout should take a day or two. It should come in around 600 pages, and I toned down the appendices. I have a few pieces of artwork that may or may not make it into the volume.

The real question is... open ending for a possible volume 2, or leave it with a pretty good cliffhanger for a necessary volume 2? I'm not sure it's necessarily worth revisiting, but it might be popular. We'll see.

Two Thirds Done

Still editing earthbound. I'm 2/3 of the way done. I had to shrink it to size 10 font to get it under 700 pages. It was near a thousand at size 12. I also shrank a few things down and cut down some of the appendices and other junk I wanted to add. They didn't add much to it.

I'm 400 of 600 pages done, and moving fairly quickly. I work on it for 30-45 minutes perhaps 3-5 times a week. I'm trying to move it along, but there's not always a lot of time.

After that's done, I might work on The Emperor's Dogs, a new book I have an idea for. The Sworn Lands Vol 2 is still in the works, and I have about a third of In Roam 2 done, too. Not sure if I'm going back to that.

Still Editing

Still working on Earthbound. I have a lot of ideas of where to go after that, but it will be some time yet. I think I"m around 30% done. On weekdays, I get half a chapter or so done. I don't find myself adding as much to this book as I did in previous ones. Typically, I add about 10% during the editing process. This time it's more like 2-5%. Does that mean I didn't have as much to say or that I wrote more completely this time? It's hard to say. Unlike some other books, this one does not have to be backfilled with a whole world of history. Instead, it's mostly our world with a few visitors...

I'll keep you all posted on the progress, especially since I'm on here more often blogging for an educatonal site anyway.

Sera & Rob

Editing Earthbound, and I'm really liking the side character Phil. He's the comic relief character, but he's probably my favorite. I'm still pondering an expanded or alternate ending. I'm not sure. It's coming along, but I'm really starting to get interested in a second set of Perennials novels, or another project tentatively titled The Emperor's Dogs.

I'll discuss that one more later.

Back in Action

So I just started editing Earthbound after something like 6 months out of action. Hooray for that, eh? I also played around a little on lulu.com, adding previews to most of my books. They fiddled with a few settings here and there, and I'm not sure I'm in love with it to be honest.

We'll see how that all goes... I'll keep you all posted about Earthbound as it progresses. Keep an eye out on my new homepage on weebly, too.

Closing in on an end

I've been busy doing this and that lately, but I'm finally knocking out the last few chapters. A skirmish that is prelude to the final fight and then some concluding chapters that may end up in Sera's world... I don't want to give too much away.

It's odd how writing can be kind of a chore, but then when I sit down to do it, I enjoy it. I think if I like writing the chapters, then readers should enjoy reading them. If I struggle to write them, they'll come out awkward and unreal. Not every chapter can be easy though.

Trying to decide whether to go on with In-Roam 2 after this, picking up where it was left off, or go on to newer projects. I still think a combined Pancake & Hen volume (new content?), and perhaps an expanded Afterlives book are in the works. Let's not forget Legends of the Sworn Lands Volume 2, probably the second half of the story. I don't really see a third book there.

Sera and Rob get complicated

I've had fun writing the last few chapters here. No, I don't mean the last of the book, though I wish I was. That is still quite a ways off. I'm adding more action, more drama, and drawing all the characters back together as I push toward a conclusion. I can sort of see two endings, one in Sera's world, and one in ours. I know which one would be more satisfying, but it's the harder ending to write. Although, it would answer more questions and also open more doors for a sequel someday. I really do think I want to just knock this out in a one-shot deal, which might mean just plowing through and writing a thick volume, a tome if you will, and just finish it all at once. It'd probably be the size of my Perennials novels, but it would be nice to do. As it is, I'm already about a year into this one, with several month-long breaks. I need to decide in the next few chapters though.

In other news, I have several new ideas for projects. I have one in particular that has a lot of my attention, but with work and Earthbound still coming along, I'm not sure when I'll get to it. I have tentatively named the project 'The Laurel Wreath.'

Before I do a new volume, I'll probably rework Pancake & Hen into one Master Collection, and possibly do an extended version of Afterlives, with a few more stories.

A few more chapters and a lot more thinking

I've been watching what I consider to be my rivals for audience. Yeah, I know I'm the little guy off the to side, but I'm researching the market for paranormal teen/twenty-somethings drama. Vampire Diaries, Supernatural (to a lesser extent), Twilight, and True Blood are all somewhat what I'm going for. Granted, I'm not doing anything with vampires, but the powers, drama, romance, and some otherworldy elements are all there, which makes Buffy the Vampire Slayer probably closest to what I'm doing.

This makes me really struggle with a balance between broodiness, drama, romance, and action. I don't want to bore the male readers, which I'm trying to entice with a more male-oriented less pussified version of Twilight drama, but I need enough drama to make it seem somewhat realistic, seeing how the main character is essentially a regular guy that I grew up with.

The plot is progressing, but I think there's always a sort of sexual tension and excitement that disappears as soon as everything is revealed. Case and Point: Smallville. While interesting still, I think it lost a lot of its appeal after all of Clark's powers were revealed. The only way they keep it fresh is by introducing a new enemy or a new girl that looks good in a sweater for him to save. The newness fades all too quickly if you're not careful.

Finally, I'm torn on whether or not I want the story or the book to end up in Sera's world. Inkheart, a popular young adult fantasy book, spawned 2 sequels. The first was pretty interesting, but all the action happened in our world for the 1st book. The 2nd two books all happened in the Inkworld, which was cool to see, better in some ways than the original, but also a bit different flavor from the first, which I liked quite a lot. So, do I do it all in a long 1-shot tome, or split it into a couple volumes of obviously different flavors? I can already imagine a cool point as a cliffhanger ending, but do I seize it when I could just plow through and do the whole story arc in a massive novel? It's a hard choice.

I'll dwell on it a bit more as the story progresses. I'm at 114k words now and counting. If I go too far it will physically necessitate a second volume, if only to call it Part II.

New Layout

I've been working off and on on Earthbound. It's hard to really decide how far to go with this. I could go all out and really write a massive novel, basically finishing the story in one go, or I could break it into pieces. I'm over 100,000 words now, so that's about 300 pages. I tend to add a lot of detail and the 1st and 2nd edits, as well, so it would lengthen as I reworked parts of it. The idea of revisiting a story always gives me mixed feelings. Sometimes there is a lot of things left undone, often purposely, but with so many prospective projects on my hands, it can be hard to put in the effort to return and finish a story versus beginning a new one.

That said, I still have a partially started In-Roam Part II to consider. I don't like tossing stuff out or stopping partway, but there is a lot of work left to be done. I'll see where I'm at after finishing Earthbound, which will likely take me the rest of the summer.

Things just take longer than they used to, and I blame games. Dawn Of War, based off of Warhammer 40K, has really killed my free time the last few months. :(

In other news, I found reviews for Afterlives and Pancake & Hen floating around on the Internet. It's nice to be noticed!

finally!

No, I'm not done with Earthbound, but after Spring Break, I have resumed writing. Actually, I knocked out a chapter in about an hour tonight, which is great time. I hope to be back onto things.

I'm also considering scaling back a lot of my projects to focus on sending out scripts to major publishers or marketing my own stuff more aggressively by myself.

Earthbound still has a couple months left in it, depending on if I want to go one long novel, or a couple short ones. I should probably write the second and likely final piece of the Sworn Lands, as well. After that, my other projects may be indefinitely on hold.

More word on that later. We'll just see how things go, career-wise and free time wise.

House Seals

If you've been following Earthbound at all, you might have picked up on the Houses on the world where our main character, Serafina, comes from. I've been sketching and working on some of the seals and symbols of the main houses, especially from a rival House, House Exuro. I'm including a copy of what I have so far...

I know the writing has been sort of slow lately, but that's because I've been working on the backstory and the other world, which should help in Volume 2. I suppose it could wait until I'm done with Volume 1, but I like to do things as they come to me, to keep them fresh. I may even begin a map for that book at some point.

Team Todd, Team Phil, and Team Rob

I've been considering making spoof T-shirts of twilight's team edward and team jacob craze. It seemed amusing to have the characters from Earthbound in similar shirts, especially since two of the three are spectacularly unattractive. It could be an amusing gimmick to get some attention. With every tween and teen knowing about the jacob/edward thing, I imagine I'd get a lot of confused and curious inquiries about the other characters that they'd never heard about.

I'll have to see about making some sort of cartoony/realistic sketch of the three characters. They may be forthcoming. It just depends on time and my artistic talents.

More drama

Knocked out another chapter and a half of Earthbound. I must say, while not a lot happens, there is a lot of arguing and consideration. Part of that is because I'm doing several scenes from the viewpoints of both characters, or overlapping scenes at least. Although, when I think about it, the competition, stuff like Twilight, doesn't have a lot of action and stuff happening, either. It's just the fluctuating of feelings back and forth as they all try to decide what they really want to do...

Earthbound takes a more adult look at it, namely because the characters are older than the ages or approximate age of appearance of the undead characters in Twilight. It's written for high school and college age readers, as well, rather than tweens.

I must say, more than anything else I've written in awhile, this is enjoyable. Shadowcaster, the first volume of the sworn lands, was a difficult write. I had things I wanted to do, but I just couldn't get into the mindset of Marcus as easily as I can with Rob Dunn.

I hope the real Rob Dunn, the basis for the character, enjoys all I'm doing with the book.

Been awhile

With the holidays, family visits, and the like, I've been working at a snail's pace. I got a chapter done last week, two actually, and I thought things were moving again. Been busy with just random this and that, though. Also, helping my wife start a business on etsy.com. Check her out in the coming weeks at www.etsy.com/shop/wuju/

I plan on pushing through with Earthbound in the coming weeks or months. I expect to finish that one in the next three months. After that, I may consider part 2 of the sworn lands.

If you hadn't noticed, I'm not talking much about In-Roam 2. It's sort of on indefinite hold. I may be writing it alone, so I'll have to rethink my involvement. There's some good stuff in the planned plot, but I'm just not certain it's worth it to me.

Also, want to start marketing my books more. Tired of writing so much for so little recognition. I need to get the word out there more, for my science now book as well...

Ongoing

I'm still waiting on my co-writer for IR2, so I put out another chapter of Earthbound. Things are moving on dramatically, and the openings for more action and romance are rapidly approaching. Also, with a tangle with the law, things get more dangerous for Rob and Sera.

I'll post more later this week with the next chapter. For now, check it out!

Earthbound updates

Since my co-writer for In-Roam 2 is busy working through the holidays, I've decided to focus my efforts over my vacation break on Earthbound. On one other note for I-R, I've been discussing taking another of the setting's original player's character and placing her into the story. In-Roam was originally a role-playing environment I designed, and as such, some of the player characters have been inserted into the stories. It would be nice to add this character into the 2nd story, but it'd have to be handled right. It could, however, be interesting.

As far as Earthbound goes, things progress fairly quickly, I suppose. I just knocked out another 6000 words in the last two evenings. Those two chapters were pretty fun to write, the one about Robert's friend, Phil, especially. Phil is a scheming nerd that feels very protective of Serafina, and it might make things interesting in the next few chapters. He's sort of a comic relief character, as well. It's nice to maintain a balance between drama and action, between serious plot development and comedy.

Anyway, I may not post too often over the holidays, but I'll try to get another one in before the new year. Have a good one!

Fight Club - Earthbound Style

I just wrote the first true action scene of Earthbound. Sera gets a visit from another woman from her planet, and it quickly turns into a brawl. He's a selection from the fight scene...

Oriana licked her lips and leaned forward to whisper secretively. “And your mother? Celia, wasn’t it? Did she know of me, of my time with your father?”

Sera’s fists swung at Oriana’s face almost of their own volition, first the right and then the left. The right nearly connected, but Oriana’s forearm came up to block it. The left grazed the redhead’s chin, but then Oriana’s right fist came up to meet her chin.

She wasn’t certain, but it felt as if she’d just left the ground. She crashed down on a table, but it collapsed beneath her. Bottles smashed around her, and glass rained around her as stars danced before her eyes. Slowly, she picked herself up off the floor.

Her eyes blazing, she stepped forward to meet Oriana. If she truly was who she said she was, she’d had years to get used to this world, and she’d not just been through the pylons. On a good day, it might have been an even match, but now, only the fires of her anger gave her any chance.

They met with a thunderclap of punches, both striking each other with elemental energies behind their fists. Fire lent Oriana a heat that scalded as she connected her fists to Sera’s body, but Sera’s body was surrounded by a cushion of air that deflected some of the blow. Her own knuckles were wrapped in light that cut through the dimness of the bar like a brief flash of light across the sea when the sun finally dipped below the horizon.

Excerpt from Earthbound

Here's an excerpt from a recent chapter of Earthbound

As she fumbled with the folding chair and a device called a radio that somehow share music, news, and weather, she pulled Rob’s house key out of the small bag he’d given her. She’d only just put the key into the slot when footsteps came up behind her and a loud voice exclaimed, “Holy hell, is that my bathing suit?”

Sera spun around quickly and found herself staring at a girl about her age that bore a strong familial resemblance to Robert. The chin was similar, and the nose was a bit too large to be called pretty, but she had long, flaxen hair that was nearly as long as Sera’s own. A bag was slung over the girl’s shoulder, and her hands were on her hips in a pose that was definitely disapproving.

“What the hell?”

“Pardon?” Sera replied, once again feeling insecure about her ability to interact with this world’s people. At home, she’d not have thought twice about talking back to a younger girl who dared reproach her, but here, everything was different.

“Well, it certainly didn’t look that good on me.” Rob’s sister said wistfully, looking her up and down.

“I apologize for not seeking your permission to use your garment.”

“Eh, it was last year’s anyway. So who the heck are you and where did Rob find you? You’re certainly not his girlfriend. You’re too pretty,” Rob’s sister frowned at the fading bruises on her side, “although you do look as if you’ve been in a fight.”

“I am Sera, Rob’s friend.” She answered. She supposed it was only right that she identify herself, but it struck her as strange that people continually demanded to know her name without offering their own. “What do you mean by girlfriend?”

“The girl he’s sleeping with.”

“Oh. We are not sleeping together. He stays in the other room.”

“Psh. I knew he couldn’t get a girl like you. No way, no how.” The girl said smugly, shaking her head.

Sera laughed. Rob’s sister certainly didn’t have a favorable opinion of her older brother. She’d never had a brother, so she didn’t know how it was, but she’d had an older cousin, and she’d always treated him with deference. “He is a nice man, but we just met.”

“And already you’re wearing my old clothes and sleeping at his place? This, I’ve gotta hear.”