I was in Fred's a while back. If you have don't have Fred's where you live, they're kind of like a miniature department store. I haven't heard the term department store in a long time, but Google assures me they still exist in the current century. So, I was in Fred's, and their ambient music was 80s music. A Men at Work song came on that I recognized. I didn't have a lot of albums during the 80s, but that song was from one that I actually had. If you lived in the 80s, you know it was like every 5th song was a Michael Jackson song. A lot of songs never made it to radio. The Men at Work song was one of those. It was never played on air during the 80s. That made me wonder something. People today don't know what was on the radio back then. Since that song didn't make it to radio, is it really an authentic 80s song?
It was made during the 80s. It came out during the 80s. But is it authentic 80s? Nobody but people who bought the album ever heard it. Does it really count? The kids today listening to 80s music don't know the difference. It's all 80s music to them. I got to thinking about that.
Back in 2013 or maybe 2012 I was at Burger King. They were playing 80s music. A Duran Duran song that I hadn't heard since it was on the radio in the 80s came on. That was the first time that had happened to me. It's hard to describe the feeling I got. Burger King was a place I went during the 80s, so I was in an 80s-type setting. Music can trigger a lot of things in a person. Hearing that song again took me back to the point in time when I used to hear it. It was like I was seeing myself then and in the present. It was like the song put me in two time periods at once. It was extremely strange. I've had that happen a few times since but never as jarringly as that first time.
I've decided that the Men at Work song I heard at Fred's, even though it was never on the radio back in the day, is indeed an authentic 80s song. The kids today can listen to the old music and enjoy it. They're just doing it out of context. They don't have the 80s experience that goes with that music. The setting in which they're listening to it is out of context.
It makes me wonder if older people thought about things like that when I was listening to classic rock.
Book Stuff
I've gone through the proof copy of the mystery/romance and fixed things and ordered the updated version. It'll probably get here Monday. The plan is to mail it out right away to test readers and see what they think. I still have doubts about it. Ideally, I'd like to find an agent for it, if I can, though that might be very difficult.
I've been working on the Messengers sequel. I'm very close to the end. It's going to be a lot of work to get into shape, once the rough draft is done.
Thursday, July 31, 2014
Friday, July 18, 2014
Seeing Some Progress
I read a book not long ago by William Woodall that was set in Texas. Somebody in the book made brisket, which I had to look up, because I'm from the south. I don't know what all people out west eat. I forget exactly what the definition was, but it's basically some kind of beef. So, I was at the store recently and noticed some pulled beef brisket in barbeque sauce. I had to get it to see what brisket is. Well, hmm, it isn't different than normal barbequed beef. I've been making barbeque sandwiches with it.
Here's the point. I had a barbeque sandwich with barbeque potato chips on the side. It made me wonder something. Is eating a barbeque sandwich with barbeque potato chips too southern?
Anyway, the forces of darkness have been fighting me tooth and nail on the writing front lately. I could use prayer for that and prayer in general. It seems like it's been one roadblock after another. I need a breakthrough in some area.
There's been some good news. A cold front from Canada has moved in bringing lower temperatures and lower humidity. It's July in Georgia, and it's been in the 70s and 80s without the oppressive humidity we normally have. (That's 21-26+ degrees in Celsius.) The high today is 73o(22.78C), and tomorrow is about the same. The nights have been blessedly cool. The weather feels miraculous.
I've been wrestling a bit with the ending for the first book in the Messengers sequel and decided to change it because the original idea didn't seem dramatic enough. I think I have it now. I just need to force some time to finish it.
And, I've finally gotten back to the mystery/romance and read it through making corrections along the way. I finished that last night but still need to transfer the changes to computer. I printed it out to read so I could work on it anywhere. Plus, there's something about going over a hard copy that's more real than doing it on the computer.
I still don't have a title for it, but I think it works. I wasn't sure it would. It seems to flow along once I get past the first few pages, which makes me worry about the first few pages. They set the stage for later. I'm just not sure that's enough to grab a reader's attention. The first bit of suspense doesn't happen until page 4. I need to make sure people get that far. I'll have to think about it more. Right now, the plan is to get the changes done then let someone else read it while I work on the sequel to Messengers.
Here's the point. I had a barbeque sandwich with barbeque potato chips on the side. It made me wonder something. Is eating a barbeque sandwich with barbeque potato chips too southern?
Anyway, the forces of darkness have been fighting me tooth and nail on the writing front lately. I could use prayer for that and prayer in general. It seems like it's been one roadblock after another. I need a breakthrough in some area.
There's been some good news. A cold front from Canada has moved in bringing lower temperatures and lower humidity. It's July in Georgia, and it's been in the 70s and 80s without the oppressive humidity we normally have. (That's 21-26+ degrees in Celsius.) The high today is 73o(22.78C), and tomorrow is about the same. The nights have been blessedly cool. The weather feels miraculous.
I've been wrestling a bit with the ending for the first book in the Messengers sequel and decided to change it because the original idea didn't seem dramatic enough. I think I have it now. I just need to force some time to finish it.
And, I've finally gotten back to the mystery/romance and read it through making corrections along the way. I finished that last night but still need to transfer the changes to computer. I printed it out to read so I could work on it anywhere. Plus, there's something about going over a hard copy that's more real than doing it on the computer.
I still don't have a title for it, but I think it works. I wasn't sure it would. It seems to flow along once I get past the first few pages, which makes me worry about the first few pages. They set the stage for later. I'm just not sure that's enough to grab a reader's attention. The first bit of suspense doesn't happen until page 4. I need to make sure people get that far. I'll have to think about it more. Right now, the plan is to get the changes done then let someone else read it while I work on the sequel to Messengers.
Thursday, July 3, 2014
Sequel 2
Blogspot got me again with the New Blog button. It wanted me to create a different blog. No!
If you haven't heard of NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's in November. People write a 50,000 word "novel" in a month. I've never done it, because it didn't fit what I was doing at the time. I wasn't going to stop Messengers to do a 50k book. I was thinking I might try it this year. Why? Because I got about 60k words done on the Messengers sequel in less than a month. I'm over 85% of the way toward the target word count of 80k words now, although it's slowed down quite a lot due to various things like dental problems, sleep problems and structure angst. Sci-Fi and fantasy novels run 80k to 120k words depending. I'd call 40k words a novella. That's why I put quotes around novel up above. Is 50k really a novel? Ask a publisher. ;)
Structure angst. When I was doing Messengers, I wrote the kind of book I wanted to read. I ignored a lot of rules like: not adding important characters at the end, putting in scenes that added atmosphere but didn't necessarily advance the plot, telling instead of showing, etc. If I came to something cool that I wished someone else would've done at least once if it wasn't against "the rules," I went ahead and did it if I thought it worked! If I'd followed the rules, everyone would've been healed at the end of book 4. Joe and Ceinwen would marry at the end of book 4. The rain would have been at the end of book 4. Etc.
Anyway, from here on out I'm paying more attention to the rules, especially structure. Novels have a certain structure to follow. The sequel may not exactly follow the structure. So, I'm having some angst about what to do about it. I guess I'm going to finish it up and then go back and see how it looks. It makes me tired thinking about it.
I have two main storylines. Marion and Etan are the main characters most of the time, and they're doing their own things. That reminds me. In the last blog I was talking about the prologue being long. Forget it. There was a lot more story there than I thought. The prologue turned into book 1. But. There's still going to have to be a division between this book and the next one because there's a time gap between the things that happen in this book and the beginning of the war. This book(which doesn't have a title right now) happens the same year that Messengers ended. The next book takes place about three years later based on everything going on now. So, back to the storylines. I have to make sure they follow the correct structure and that things are timed properly so it's not jarring to skip back and forth.
The mystery/romance. I haven't gotten back to it in any significant way. I think the structure is mostly okay. ;) I need to do a read through on it to see how it reads now and then fix anything that comes up. I already know I need to add a little in the ending chapters to make it flow better. I've been debating whether to take a break from the sequel to do that or keep going. So far I've kept going on the sequel.
I'm out of time. I'll let you know more later.
If you haven't heard of NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. It's in November. People write a 50,000 word "novel" in a month. I've never done it, because it didn't fit what I was doing at the time. I wasn't going to stop Messengers to do a 50k book. I was thinking I might try it this year. Why? Because I got about 60k words done on the Messengers sequel in less than a month. I'm over 85% of the way toward the target word count of 80k words now, although it's slowed down quite a lot due to various things like dental problems, sleep problems and structure angst. Sci-Fi and fantasy novels run 80k to 120k words depending. I'd call 40k words a novella. That's why I put quotes around novel up above. Is 50k really a novel? Ask a publisher. ;)
Structure angst. When I was doing Messengers, I wrote the kind of book I wanted to read. I ignored a lot of rules like: not adding important characters at the end, putting in scenes that added atmosphere but didn't necessarily advance the plot, telling instead of showing, etc. If I came to something cool that I wished someone else would've done at least once if it wasn't against "the rules," I went ahead and did it if I thought it worked! If I'd followed the rules, everyone would've been healed at the end of book 4. Joe and Ceinwen would marry at the end of book 4. The rain would have been at the end of book 4. Etc.
Anyway, from here on out I'm paying more attention to the rules, especially structure. Novels have a certain structure to follow. The sequel may not exactly follow the structure. So, I'm having some angst about what to do about it. I guess I'm going to finish it up and then go back and see how it looks. It makes me tired thinking about it.
I have two main storylines. Marion and Etan are the main characters most of the time, and they're doing their own things. That reminds me. In the last blog I was talking about the prologue being long. Forget it. There was a lot more story there than I thought. The prologue turned into book 1. But. There's still going to have to be a division between this book and the next one because there's a time gap between the things that happen in this book and the beginning of the war. This book(which doesn't have a title right now) happens the same year that Messengers ended. The next book takes place about three years later based on everything going on now. So, back to the storylines. I have to make sure they follow the correct structure and that things are timed properly so it's not jarring to skip back and forth.
The mystery/romance. I haven't gotten back to it in any significant way. I think the structure is mostly okay. ;) I need to do a read through on it to see how it reads now and then fix anything that comes up. I already know I need to add a little in the ending chapters to make it flow better. I've been debating whether to take a break from the sequel to do that or keep going. So far I've kept going on the sequel.
I'm out of time. I'll let you know more later.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)