Such a great afternoon, I was just strolling through the bookstore with my arm around my lucky wife.  (Lucky, cause she is married to ME!)  ANYWAY….

We were walking through the bookstore, collecting a pile of new adventures to take home wh I strolled through the mystery section and the clouds parted.  A shaft of sunlight came down from the heavens to alight upon a copy of Elmwood.   (Two copies actually)

Like an elementary school girl, I squealed and ran the copies to the information booth.

“May I ink in your books?”  I asked the young lady manning the booth.

“You’ll have to buy them first.”

“But look this is my name on the inside.”  I pointed to the byline.

“Do you want us to take it out?”

“This is my story.”

She just stared at me like I was no longer speaking English.

“I just want to sign my story.”

Nope, nothing.

“I want to autograph the book.”

“I’ll have to ask my manager.”  She said.  The uncertainty was thick in her voice.  She squeezed a button on her headset.  “There is a guy who says said he wrote one of our books and would like to autograph it.”  A pause.  “Yea, ok.”  Another pause.  “All right.”

The young lady looked back to me.  “It would be very nice to have you autograph the books”

I am pretty sure I saw her wince just a little as I scrawled through the book with an ink pen.   (She must have been a purist)

She collected the books back from me.

“I can go put them back on the shelf for you.”

“My manager said I need to put a signed by the author sticker on it.

With that, I skipped to the front counter to pay for my weekly fix.

 

Then the edits start.  Time for counseling.  Now we have to visit a professional to find our flaws. Hopefully, we find a way to solve them, or at least make them less noticeable.  This is where we have to pull the belt tight and hang on.  Those nasty editors just love to point out our mistakes.  And somehow I have to smile through it all.

Finally, we are done.  We point our manuscript to the world, and with a nudge, we whisper, “Get ’em.”  Now we have to wait in silence, not knowing what if anything is going to happen.  We wait in silence, with our doubt.  Was I good enough? Did I give them all that I had?  SHould I have done more?  What could I have done to prepare them?

Then, we here the faint whisper.  Check back here next month.  I have something to show you.

Oh Yea, it’s time to stock up on energy drinks and snack bars. What is the status of my book inventory? I’m going to need some eye candy to catch people walking by.
Is the guest list out…
Author Guest of Honor: Timothy Zahn!?! Heir to the empire Timothy Zahn? The man who brought us, Grand Admiral Thran? I’ve got to have him sign my books.
Toastmaster: John Jackson Miller? Star Wars, Star Trek, Planet of the Apes, novels, and comics. He has done it all.
Comic Guest of Honor: Tom Nguyen. DC, Marvel, and indy work? I have to check my collection. I’m sure I have some of his covers.
Editor Guest of Honor: Gordon Van Gelder – He has put together some fantastic anthologies. I need to get his contact info. I bet he can put mt in Barnes & Noble.

So you see some of the headliners. So if you are in the area March 15-17 be sure to stop by. They always put on a fantastic event.

Is one book that every screen writer must read. Does a fantastic job of breaking down the three act play into simple beats. Recently, I picked up a copy of Save the Cat Writes a Novel.
This book has been a huge help. I’ve never really thought about novels as a three act play.
In all of my research two books have been recommended to me over and over. Steven King’s: On Writing (Christmas is right around the corner. Hint hint nudge nudge) and Save the Cat.
Well, this Saturday (Dec 22 7:pm at Panera Bread – 4530 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee 38117) I’ll be leading a discussion on the book. – This event is being hosted by the Memphis Writers – Writing club. This is an open club, everyone is welcome Come early & stay late to meet some fantastic writers. I’m talking about you!

We all have dreams. Dreams are why we get out of bed in the morning. One o my first dreams of childhood was to be a writer. I remember clearly: I was in kindergarten; it was open house day. The day the parents got to visit the classroom with the students. We showed our parents, where we studded, played, and napped. One of the parents asked me what I wanted to do when I grew up. I said I wanted to be a writer.
Five years ago, I wrote a few short stories. Somehow they got published. I was no longer just a writer. I became an author.
Over the past year, I struggled to put together one more short story. For over eight months that was all I wrote. I had a dream to be a writer, but nothing was coming out of the keyboard.
Forty-nine days ago, I started something new. I made a plan. My plan was to write one thousand words a day. First draft stuff, no grammar, no spelling, just word vomit. One thousand words a day. Today, I just finished forty-nine days straight. I’m nearing the end of my first-draft. Of my first novel.
Today’s word count is 50,137 words. I’m not done, almost but not just yet. But today I am celebrating. I had a number in my head of 50,000 words. That was something I never thought I could do.
So thank you for indulging me.
Dream + Plan = Success
50,137 words

So I have been crazy busy these last few months. I’ve taken part in some retreats, Writers conventions, I’ve taught classes, had a couple video interviews and had adventures. I’ll work hard on sharing more details as I work to get my feet back underneath me.
One success I want to share is my steps to a word count. I know this is the month of NaNoWriMo. Over the past year, I have taken the idea “Yes, I’m a writer, I’ve got a hand full of short stories in ink, and a novel on the way.” The first nine months of this year. I finished a couple short stories, 1 flash fiction and a couple chapters in my novel. Sounds like a lot, but it wasn’t. The words on the page just weren’t showing up.
I’ve been taking classes, trying to find accountability partners, anything just to get the words flowing.
I was in a class that was being led by my friend and author Bill Webb. During his class we did a couple five minutes writings. I was shocked at how much I could put on paper in only five minutes. It was there after I gave myself a word count challenge. Every day I will put 1,000 words into my current writing project.
My rues for this, it doesn’t include rewrites, editing, blogging, or anything else. 1,000 words into my writing project. After that, I’ll take on the rest of the world.
I figured that 1,000 words is a small enough number it would be achievable in even the busyest day. I also figured it would be great to keep pushing myself to beat my last streak, always growing my number of success days longer and longer.
Then a very cool thing happened. I completed a week of success. 7,000 words into a new novel that never existed before. Just like everyone else I suffer through motivation. I hate getting started – Getting done is wonderful, I love the feeling of accomplishment. But writing is hard. Full disclosure, many of those days I whined and fought, finally my stubbornness would win out and drag me to the word processor.
So I finished a week. 7,000 words. It felt fantastic. Then thought My longest published short story is just over 9,000 words. That’s only two days. I could do two more days. Heck, I already did seven what is two more. 9,000 words. Well It was just over 9,000 words. A day later 10,000 words. 10,000 words in the bag.
Then another thing happened. Four more days and I had accomplished two full weeks of writing. 14,000 words. Then something fantastic happened. It wasn’t so hard to get to the word processor. I knocked out 14 days, I don’t want to start that day count all over. I was going out for a romantic weekend with my wife. I was afraid that I would blow my streak, so I got up at 5:am and knocked out my 1,000 words. Then we made it back home late the next day. The streak continued, I bragged to my friends, no longer giving the word count, but now it is a day count. The numbers keep going up.
I finished my 23rd day on this diet. My novel is sitting at over 23,000 words, in only 23 days. So, I apologize about not sending out the blogs more often because. I’ve been putting words on paper.
Set your self a goal. Maybe it is a word count, maybe it is several minutes or pages. It doesn’t matter what it is because soon you’re real goal is the number of days of success. I’ve had 23 days of success so far. I would never have believed in the beginning.
One step at a time, one day at a time. Challenge yourself and then succeed.

Beretta. Check.
Switchblade, Check.
Brass-knuckles, Check.
Secret Weapon.   Double check.
Sorry, I have to get back to packing.  Thursday, Nov 20th, I have the opportunity to discuss writing fight scenes, with writer publisher, pirate, werewolf, radio star and evil genius.  Allen Gilbreth.
This is another of those “Dark Oak Press – Authors Around Town” events.  Like I said before, this month the subject will be fight scenes.   Guns, knives, or light sabers we are going to hit them all.  How to make your scene sound authentic.  How do you hook the reader into the story?  How do you get all the blood out of your carpet?
The event will be Nov 20th.  Starting at 7:pm  We only have an hour, and I expect it to fly by.  — Warning for those of you sitting in the front row.  Beware the splash zone.

 

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