Merry Christmas, all of you. I know it’s been a shade on the quiet side around here, and that’s because I’ve been slaving over a hot keyboard.  I wanted to finish Night’s Fall‘s first draft this year, and this evening I nailed it. As y’all probably know, there’s a few steps still to go before you can have it in your mits.  Lots of editing, rewriting, editing, critique, rewriting, editing, and general anxiety attacks still to go.  I need to find a bunch of beta readers to tell me if it sucks!  But … there it is.  I can enter Christmas Day knowing how this story ends. Have a safe Christmas.  See you next time.  

I killed a major character today. It’s not (spoilers? I mean, it’s not like my books don’t have a body count that is legion) the only one that drops in Night’s Fall, but I tend to hit a bit of a funk afterwards because I want all the good guys to live forever.  Unfortunately, that’s shit storytelling, so if it’s plausible that someone dies, well. Now, I’ll go drink myself to sleep.

You ever heard dubstep violin? Didn’t think so.  Check this out.  A friend linked it to me this morning. What I think is interesting here is not that there’s someone that’s successful doing “indie stuff, and fuck the man,” but rather that there are two things missing from the conversation. Publishers provide a useful service — marking, production, etc.  The problem is, they think they are gatekeepers.  This is one of the reasons driving the schism between the two — but I don’t think it has to be that way.  I think there’s room in the conversation for people who want to buy or produce indie and publishers both, if only both sides mature a little. These success stories are non-repeatable.  If they were, then everyone would have a #1 seller on Amazon.  There isn’t a programmatical way to attack Read More …

Danny jumped out of a helicopter today. Without a parachute. Night’s Fall is making its slow sprint (?) to the end.  All houses are in order.  The opponents are lined up.  It is time for the final showdown. Knowing me, this will still take 30,000 words, but it’ll be a lot of fun, because, you know, werewolves.

I’m upgrading Scrivener. This could be a beautiful thing, or it could eat my manuscript. And on that note, I’m off to make backups of my backups.

I don’t think Night’s Fall has enough villains. So: today, I made some more.  I’m having fun with this, it’s not every day you get to exercise your supervillain fantasies. Book’s about 72,000 words long now, and I figure I’m … about 2/3 the way there.  Nothing like the last third being stocked with epic boss fights and witty dialogue.

I’ve got a new villain. One of the tricks with making these damn things is they cutter up your mind, getting under your mental feet.  I don’t naturally think in evil ways — although I’m sure Hitler thought much the same thing — so trying to come up with vile, insideous things is not a natural act for me. Still, I’m getting with the programme. I spent today writing a scene with the villain of Night’s Fall, and it gets under my skin a little.  I hope you enjoy his end as much as I will.

How goes progress on Night’s Fall? Well.  I guess we’re about half way?  Just thought I’d keep you updated — stuff is happening.  I’d like to get it done before Christmas, but I suspect that’s not a realistic goal, because my salaried work sucks my time out through my eyeballs.