This was a very productive day. I might’ve kept going, but the Astro-Ray game started and Verlander is pitching. This is Game 4. If the Astros win today, they win the division. If they lose, there’ll be Game 5.
The Braves and Cardinals are 2-2, so are the Dodgers and Nationals. They’ll all settle in their Game 5s.
Oh, and the Yankees already swept out the Twins.
I just finished a new novella. 18,430 words and 84 pages. It’s an international conspiracy thriller. It’s a rough draft and needs cleaning, but that will come later.
I’m offloading some of my oldest stories this year. Bare Back Magazine just bought my story “The Carnival” for their October 2019 issue. This is my third sale to them.
I don’t remember exactly when I wrote “The Carnival”, but it was at least ten years ago.
I just finished the epic fantasy novel that I stopped writing in 2004. It’s now 707 pages and 141,821 words. This draft is pretty rough and it’s going to need cleaning. I might end up adding more than I take out. But before I start the editing process, I want to finish the series. This was Book One. I hope to have the story wrapped up at the end of Book Three, but it might end up taking four or five books to finish this story.
This is not the first novel I’ve finished, it’s just one that has sat unfinished for fifteen years.
I just sold one of my oldest stories. Been shopping it around for years. It’s called “The Infected” and it’ll be in the next issue of Short Short Story. The editor hopes to have the issue out in a couple weeks.
Bare Back Magazine bought my story “The Music Man and the Dream” for their July 2019 issue. This is my second sale to them.
Also sold some spruce trees today.
Just wrapped up the first draft of a new novella. It’s a fantasy set in the early 1700s. Has to do with sailing and pirates. This draft is 102 pages and 22,299 words. I’m going to let it sit for a while, and then I’ll start the edit process.
I’m still working on the medieval themed epic fantasy novel from fifteen years ago. I now have 571 pages and 114,982 words. I try to work on it every day, but sometimes that doesn’t happen.
I had a late start today, but managed to get 632 words into the novel. The total pagecount is now 534. The total wordcount is 107,548. I’ll probably need another 50,000 words before it’s done.
Between 2002 and 2004, I was writing an epic fantasy novel. I had 491 pages down, and then I just stopped in early 2004. Over the years, I would pull up the manuscript and do some edits here and there, and try and fail to get back into the story. I had not moved the story forward since early 2004.
About a month ago, I started reading it again, and refrained from editing. While reading, I made lists of character names, cities, towns, castles, kingdoms, etc. Anything that had a name went on a list.
I finished reading a couple weeks ago and I’m moving the story forward again. I now have 525 pages down. I’m still not as connected to the story as I was fifteen years ago, but having the lists of names helps.
I had crude maps of the kingdoms, but at some point I threw them away. I just bought this big sketch pad. I’m going to try redrawing the maps from memory, so I can keep track of what’s what and where.
I had also written several spinoff short stories and novellas that were connected to this novel. But I threw those away too. Some of those stories had received positive feedback from editors.
I can’t believe I developed so much self-doubt and threw out all that work. I’m going to finish this novel and the entire series before I start the editing process.
