Painted into a corner

I had a productive weekend creatively. Chapter 4 of Emergence collective is recorded, and I got Chapter 24 of Emergence Ascended sort of almost finished, maybe. Yeah, I am a little undecided since it seems that I painted myself into a narrative corner plot-wise. I am stuck with a decision that will steer the story on two different paths. The two storylines converge in this chapter.

One of the issues and how I managed to do it is I am a seat-of-the-pants kind of writer where I do not outline the entire story. I have a plan about how I want it to end, and I wander with the story as I navigate my way to the ending. By wander, I mean that as I am writing a scene, even I do not know what is going to happen next. Sometimes I have epiphanies and inspirations that feel right but create other issues that I have to reconcile with the overall storyline. Like I did Saturday, On the one hand, I am very happy with my latest bout of inspiration (It makes sense for those characters), but it has created a timing issue with the plot and a sticky situation that I have to think about and finesse my way out of.

Yes, I know I am being vague about it, but I am hoping that you might be curious enough to grab yourself a copy once it is finished. Anyway, I will ponder this for a bit, and maybe I will come up with an elegant solution. On the optimistic side of the coin, I do enjoy a challenge; without them, we only stagnate and do not grow.

Thanks for reading!

Saturday quick post

I’m feeling great today. All the holiday stuff is past us, and I get to get back into writing. Unfortunately, I won’t get a chance to do any recording tomorrow, but I’m not abandoning that project. I finished a chapter and a half today, so at least there is that. I really wanted to keep going, but Adulting takes precedence ya know? I am excited about this part of the book, and it’s hard to tear myself away. The second act of the story is my favorite part to write. I’ve established all the setup stuff, all the important characters are doing their thing, and the plot is plotting. now I get to play with the pieces of the story. I’m already excited for people to read it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Quantum Mechanics… If you’re not confused by it, you don’t understand it.

A deep goal of theoretical physics is to unify the fundamental forces of nature, gravity, electromagnetism, and the strong and weak nuclear forces into the theory of everything (TOE).

The Theory of Everything, namely M-theory, string theory, and quantum field theory (and interactions with geometry and topology) is a tasty cosmic stew that to me are topics that are too tempting to not be used as a backbone or structure in the subtext of my story.  String theory specifically has been calling my name for a number of years now, and despite the controversial nature of the theory I am on “Team String”. Lucky for me I don’t have to back anything up that is to say with a “Ph.D.” or citations to peer-reviewed articles, because, hey I write Fiction! One of the issues I have with science fiction (more to the point the uber-nerd readers) is a suspension of disbelief gets lost in the mire of “I know more than the author of the story I am picking apart” (Come on I am not writing a dissertation, just a fun story, just go with it). That little thing has cautioned me to do my research, lest I get flamed somewhere on the internet. But it also gets in the way of artistic license…. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah String theory.  Essentially it is the idea of vibrational frequencies (the strings) that make up all matter and energy in the universe. Man, that is good stuff. How could one not use that in a science fiction book? It’s the ultimate tool to describe why the magic in my stories has a connection to reality.

I know that this may not entice anyone to read my next book, but hopefully, if you read “Emergence Collective” with this in the back of your mind it might make it a little more interesting. (and not to mention prepare you for the next one) I have written in previous blog posts that I create a rule set for each story, that helps maintain the continuity, of a concept or even the behavior of the characters. The theory of everything, M theory, quantum field theory, and String theory is my basic rule sets for my WIP. Don’t worry, you really do not have to understand any of it to enjoy my stories which are pure and utter fantasy. If you are the uber-nerd, I will go toe to toe about why my rule sets do or don’t work. I would enjoy that conversation.

A new adventure

As if I don’t have enough to do, I am starting on the path of Audible. On my bucket list is to publish my book on Audible. So, where to start? A good voice is the place to start I suppose. The idea solidified during a D&D session last Friday. Of course, I have been thinking about Audible even before I published the print version, so it is always on my mind. The dungeon master mentioned offhandedly that he always wanted to be a voice actor, and I immediately said to myself, “You need a voice actor for your book.” I like Zack’s DM’n skills, and he always does fun voices for the non-player characters so I figured I’d give him a shot. Since he truly wants to start a career in this field, I figured that both our goals are aligned and, since I am going to have to shell out money, it should benefit someone I know rather than a random actor I choose out of a line-up. I crunched the numbers, and it is reasonable to buy the recording equipment for him (as compensation). Of course I have no idea (haven’t started researching that yet) how much it is going to cost to have my audio edited, but I will cross that bridge when I have something to edit. I’ll take any advice anyone has on this subject! feel free to leave a comment! (You can just say hi as well) Thanks for visiting!

Emergence Ascended Sneak peak…

Here is an excerpt from Emergence Ascended. The sequel to Emergence collective.

Barney materialized right in front of her, making her nearly jump out of her chair backward. She skittered back, wheeling the chair until it collided with her desk, knocking her laptop onto the floor as she toppled over. Serenity scrambled to her feet, never taking her eyes off of Barney while she frantically searched for anything that could be used as a weapon, but all she could find was a pair of scissors. Not completely satisfied, but it was all she had; she waved the scissors around and jabbed them at Barney. “Who the fuck are you, and how did you get in here?” she screamed. Still jabbing the scissors at him. Barney just chuckled at her; it was funny to him how she nearly flipped backward. And now with the scissors.

Seeing Barney laugh at her pissed her off, overtaking any fear she had just felt. “I’m gonna fucking gut you mother fucker!” she screamed as she lunged toward him.  He barely moved; with a twitch of his wrist, he blocked the scissors, knocking them out of her hand and sending them sliding across the floor, then grabbing her wrist in the same motion.

Serenity yanked her arm, trying to pull free from Barney’s iron grip but only managed to pull herself closer to him. Not missing an opportunity, she raised her knee with a grunt connecting solidly with his crotch. With an “oof!’ Barney dropped to a knee doubling over in excruciating pain that made him suddenly nauseous. “Enough!” he bellowed as he pushed her away, sending her off balance, and stood up. She backpedaled, landing on her sofa. She frantically looked around, eyes darting this way and that, searching for another weapon.

Progress is progress

I took a step back and really looked at what I had written so far In “Emergence Ascended” (The sequel to “Emergence Collective.”  You really have to read, trust me it’s worth it.). I wasn’t satisfied with my character, as I wanted to add more character to the character. I have a specific idea of how this character is supposed to read. So, I took some time from adding new content to the story and dug a bit deeper into the character, and reinforced some of the more important character traits that I wanted to express. It is hard for me to show, not tell how you are supposed to perceive the character. But I gave it my best shot. I am somewhat happier with how it reads and even though I am blinded by the fact that I already know how the character is supposed to be perceived, (I have to pretend that I don’t, as I write it).

I think it is very important to the story overall, how the character is initially perceived since later in the story it explains a lot. (things that are not plot specific, but add important elements or subtext to the story.  

This might surprise you

There are some surprises in Emergence Collective that I have been careful not to mention in my blog. Although I have been tempted to spill those beans. When I was writing it (the secret surprise) I was constantly thinking “Is this way out there? Are the readers going to enjoy this?” When I asked the editor what she thought of the book (as she was the first person to actually read it), she mentioned it right off, and that was something that she really enjoyed. So all my waffling over it was at least for one person, enjoyable.

It’s more than you think it is….

Yee olde Correspondences

I grew up in rural Alaska. It is a beautiful, brutal, vast, and sometimes boring place to grow up. Boring for a kid at least. Living on a homestead at the end of a homemade road in a cabin, there are not really many things to do. Of course, I did the usual kid things, made forts in the woods, climbed trees, and did some fishing, but at the end of the day, all these activities were done solitarily. I have a sister, but when she is your only company to play with it can get kind of dull. Our tiny town of Wasilla Had a decent library so books became a thing. I discovered, that you can travel to faraway places with adventures and mysteries to uncover. I started reading a lot. I discovered H.P Lovecraft (Specifically “the strange case of Charles Dexter Ward” and He blew my mind, I was instantly a horror fan. My Dad encouraged Isaac Asimov, and that threw me into the Science Fiction rabbit hole.

My First Favorite Author was H.P. Lovecraft however and I read everything I could get my hands on. I learned about how he would correspond with other authors, pen-pals as it were. Long conversations, that took months and years to have. But as a reader, I, of course, could not have conversations with the authors I read, (Obviously the dead ones were the hardest to reach) But in those days there were very few resources to tap into to even get the conversation started.  So I only could dream of talking to an author about the books I was reading, asking questions, and getting insight into the stories that I may have not picked up on.  Ah the days before the internet. Thank you, Arpanet (the first internet for you youngins).

Fast forward to the future. I grew up, trying my hand at writing, to realize that writing is for the soul, not the pocketbook (or google wallet (again for the youngins)). Make an Author page/blog, get your name out there and see if that works. Not so much yet, but its still new.

The Blog. The point of starting the blog was to promote me, my books, and my writing.  One side effect of writing a blog is that suddenly you are in a community.  Gone are the days of isolation in the Alaskan bush. I have started having great conversations with other authors, trading insights, asking questions, and just getting to know others that are afflicted with the same obsessive need to express our insanity to the world.  I look forward to more conversations, with other authors, and especially if you are a fan of my work, I would very much like to hear from you.

Go with the flow?

Alright! Saturday morning, I’m up early, got some good coffee in my mug and I pull out my laptop. Im feeling good, feeling inspired. It’s been way to long since I wrote anything substantial in my WIP but I am inspired and ready to go. When I am not smashing keys and making words, I’m thinking about the next scene or character development. Saturday I was gonna write a pretty important scene that I have been ruminating about.

I start writing. the clacking of the keyboard is near-constant, except for the occasional breaks to sip more coffee and keep the flow state rolling. Wow, the words are pouring out of me in a fluid stream of consciousness. I write the chapter in one go. Wish I could write like this all the time. I finish the chapter, and by that time, my quiet solitude is coming to an end (as my family is now getting up. I write in the morning before every in the house gets up and starts expecting me to acknowledge their existence).

Before I close the laptop I give a quick skim over the chapters to make sure that everything is lining up and the story is going where I want. I start reading chapter 5, and it’s very familiar, I keep going and as it turns out, It was almost identical to the chapter I just wrote. Really? Of course, I have been thinking hard about this part of the story, cause it’s an important plot thingy, but how could I have actually forgot that I already added it in? Maybe I should read my own stuff more often. Really, more to the point, I shouldn’t allow myself to get so distracted that I forget where I am at. Sheesh. Have any of you ever done something that silly?

Fresh perspectives, everything you want in life is on the other side of fear.

Getting my head back into the game, thinking about my current work in progress.  I have not written anything significant on my WIP for a month (wow time flies) or so. Chapter 8, of Emergence Ascended, is not what I want it to be.  I’ve been thinking of a rewrite, putting in additional details and what message this chapter sends, and how the story will progress from here.  I suppose this chapter is a pivotal moment in the storyline. But rethinking what I am trying to express, has made me start to rethink some of the earlier chapters, and nearly a complete rewrite of one of the characters. Don’t get me wrong, I am not struggling with it but there are things that I wanted to illustrate in Emergence Collective that I don’t think I clearly articulated.

There are some pretty complicated concepts that are the meat of my “Hippy Scifi” (thx for coining a new genre name, T.A.Walker) narrative that needs to be described. The character also have a tangled mess of interactions and relationships that need some serious thought, (starting from the earlier chapters.)

I have never done a rewrite. What you see is what word vomit spilled out at the time. Only a few minor changes in sentence structure or grammar stuffs, maybe I rewrote an entire paragraph once or twice. As a new writer, I am not sure if this is considered normal or not. My fear is that if I start to rearrange my thoughts (that I had at the time) when I wrote it, that I will lose what my intention for where the story was going.

How many of you rewrite your work? I am hoping that maybe I am starting to mature as a writer and these little fears about ruining it by rewriting are simply that, a silly fear.