Finding Forrester

The novel has entered it's latter stages. After completing Chapter 13 I wrote a chapter that centered on the main protagonist, a Wizard named Taint. When I'd finished it I realized that it was too soon to introduce this chapter, and that I did not have the characters positioned where they needed to be when that chapter occurred. So I pushed that chapter aside and started another one. I'm still not sure if there will be additional chapters before Taint gets center stage, because I am struggling with that new chapter, chapter 14.

I had the house to myself today. I didn't want to write, not really. I got busy with the daily chores. Procrastinating further, I then scrounged up some more chores to do. I still didn't feel any inspiration. Feeling a bit defeated, I checked our movie library for some mindless entertainment. After turning down the movies I usually reach for when I don't want to think too hard, I came across "Finding Forrester." I remember getting this movie months ago, but now I couldn't remember what prompted me to get it or what it was about. The DVD was still wrapped in cellophane. I watched it.

"Finding Forrester" is about a number of things, but what interested me was that it was mostly about writers. The two main characters are a teenage boy with a gift for writing, and an aging recluse who wrote a single, famous book, and then never wrote another. It's an enjoyable movie and I recommend it. I was looking for some inspiration, and this movie provided it. Sure, the little sayings that are sprinkled throughout the movie are homilies, but when you can't make the words come, I'll grasp at any straw that's offered.

There is the always popular: "The only way to learn how to write it to write."

Then there was the tip: "If you can't think of anything to write, pick something and copy it word for word until your own words start to intrude."

This was very appropriate for me personally: "You must write your first draft with your heart. You rewrite with your head."

The corollary to the above: "The first key to writing is... to write, not to think! "

I've been thinking too much and spending too much time on re-writing things already written instead of pressing onward with the new. So, please excuse me, but that unfinished Chapter 14 is waiting for me.

National Novel Writing Month is Here Again!

Once each year an organization  with the tongue bending name of National November Writing Month (or NaNoWriMo) has a contest. The goal of the contest is to complete an entire novel in thirty days. I tried it in 2011 last year, but I didn't get very far. I have entered the contest again this year, and I am making a lot more progress than in that first attempt.

The bad news is that I am running pretty far behind in terms of total word count toward the 60,000 word goal of the novel. The good news, though, is that the novel is coming along and I'm pretty happy with the results so far. I have two weeks to try and get caught up, but even if I don't, I am still determined to get a first draft done by the end of the year.

If anyone would like additional information about the contest, check out their website at

www.namowrimo.org

Biography In Progress

Biography In Progress

10/8/2011 9:59:26 PM

 
Note to Readers: If you get a kind of time warp feeling as you read this, I understand and will explain. When I decided to do this, "this" being this blog and what the blog is about, I needed to create a place to put it so you good folks could read it. The process of getting the blog and other associated parts together is also something I wanted in the blog, which will seem strange to read about since it's obviously already in place or you wouldn't be reading this. Now that you've seen my site, let me take you back in time to why I created it and how I got to where I am now.

There was a time back in the 1990's that I did a lot of fiction writing, primarily science fiction and horror. I didn't make much money at it, but I did publish a number of stories. I also did book reviews and some artwork as well, and even became a story editor/reviewer for a small press "zine" called Neophyte. All of the publishers I worked with, whether small press or mainstream, required that submissions be sent through the mail in hard copy. I was already using a computer for writing, but it was a rare publisher that accepted electronic submissions. So it took time and postage for a story to find a home.

I distinctly remember how much I loved writing and how hard I worked at it, mostly at night after a full day's work at my "real" job. That's why I was so surprised when somewhere along the way I realized I had stopped writing. I couldn't recall wanting to stop writing, nor could I recall making a decision to stop writing. My life just went on without it.

I missed it, at least at an unconscious level. I think I missed it even before I realized it was gone, if that makes sense. To be honest, I never stopped writing all together, because there was that gap I felt had to be filled somehow. So I wrote. As a fan of the board/computer Baseball game by Strat-O-Matic, I became expert enough to write articles to improve play and to explain "under the hood" mechanics of the game. When The Sporting News launched an online version of the game I wrote about that as well. Then came a new game - World of Warcraft. I launched not just one, but two blogs on the subject, one of which is still active even now.

I wasn't writing original stories, however. I worked at being creative and entertaining in my blogs, but the reality was it was based on a world already created by others and was more about reporting what happened instead of creating something new. These things served as a substitute, and still have their place, but my desire to write original stories never really left me. It was buried under an otherwise full and happy life.

I'm writing again. Hopefully, determinably, I'm going to put some serious time and effort into it.

I call this post my "Biography in Progress" because I want this blog to be mostly about my reconnection with writing, which is as yet unwritten.

More posts to follow ... and by the way, look to the "About Me" link to get the usual biographical details.

As always, comments are welcome and encouraged!

Starting the Journey

Starting the Journey

10/11/2011 1:29:01 PM

 
Thanks for the comments in the Guestbook!

I've had several guesses as to just what a Jaded Walker is - that funny looking image on the Home page that anyone visiting the site can't miss.

The Jaded Walker is my Familiar. When I was actively writing fiction, I had two companions that sat on back of my desk. One was a stone gargoyle, and the other was a ... doll, I guess I'd have to call it. It was about fourteen inches tall and was made of wood, corn husks, straw, acorns, and a small cornucopia of other things. The Jaded Walker mostly resembles that doll, which I called my forest troll. The Jaded Walker acquired a bat at some point in it's life, and it's purpose was (and is) to encourage, goad, and sometimes threaten to make sure I was writing.

This is a journey for me, one I want to document. I love writing ... but I got lost along the way. It's a stretch yet to call myself  "a writer." That's what this journey is about - from being someone who writes, to being a writer. I feel like I'm traveling through a forest, unsure of my direction, but with a few markers from my past to help guide me along. I've had a glimpse of what the road ahead looks like, but there are many pitfalls still to navigate.

This blog will be mostly about me and what I write. I feel a little queasy about that, as I am a very private person, and the last thing I want is to talk about myself. Writing is all about sharing, though,  and part of the reason for not just writing this blog, but sharing it, is to help me open up more. While I will be doing this even if I am it's only reader, I am hopeful that friends, family, and interested future friends will find something to interest them here, and to share your own thoughts, offer encouragement and criticism, or just visit now and then.

The primary goal I seek probably won't surprise anyone - writing a novel. I have the beginnings already, but there are a lot of steps between now and that ultimate goal - such as what to do with my earlier work.

Joining the 212st Century

Joining the 212st Century

10/12/2011 10:47:56 PM

 
One of the first things I want to address concerns my earlier works. I feel strongly that I need closure on that earlier period of writing. I still have contributor copies of the sources of my published work, and it's unlikely they exist anywhere else. Which brings me to the first project in my reconnection to writing. I am currently assembling a collection of my short stories into a format for e-book publishing. The collection will include both previously published and unpublished work.

I'm a computer geek of sorts, and I collect and irregularly save software of all types and descriptions, jumping from one to another like a hyper child in a candy store. As a result I am struggling to find software versions of various programs that can read and decipher the pile of digital paper that comprise the content of my stories.  It's taking time and patience going through everything, deleting of bad formatting codes and restructuring the content into a usable form. There is a smaller batch that is being painstakingly re-typed from scratch. Some of that work is being done by my wife, which I am very grateful for! My typing is fast, but my mistakes are many.

I have also selected a resource for the initial publishing of the work. The company is called Smashwords. There is a link under Resources if anyone is interested. It offers everything needed to prepare and publish work in e-book format, and includes a lot of advice and help as well.

It occurred to me that I am starting a business. I really didn't think of it that way when I first started writing, but I have to think that way now as writing is, in fact, my job. I'm going to need a name for my business. That was a quick decision. I intend to keep the pseudonym "J Walker Bell" as this is the pen name I used for all of my published work.

I'm going to need to keep track of business related expenditures and those paychecks as well (being optimistic). That, too, I'll write about and share, since I know I'll write about it anyway. Like I've said, I can't help writing. The business side of writing means more preparation and more work. Even so, I need to make the time to actually do some writing! 

Charlie 10/17/2011 2:01:54 PM

The Porch Cool! I'm thinking about using "The Porch" as a free sample from the collection once it's ready on the epub site. I may also include sample paragraphs one new stuff I'm working on this website. Almost done with my latest story!

Tim 10/16/2011 4:59:27 PM

suggestion If you have the work in print Adobe has great OCR. Oh and I still have the copy of the fanzine "Nightside" with " the Porch" in it.

When An Idea Intrudes

When An Idea Intrudes

10/15/2011 9:27:54 AM

 
Putting together the pieces for the collection of short stories is my first priority, and I am almost ready. However, a new idea for a story popped up that I could not set aside. Normally I would jot down the key ideas and the bare bones framework for the story so that I wouldn't lose the creative spark that got the idea started.  This particular story had much stronger legs than most sparks provide, and I ended up spending quite a bit of time laying out the meat in the story.

I recall reading that Isaac Asimov typically had several stories in the works at any given time. In a time before home computers, he set up several typewriters, one for each story he was working on, so that he could work on whichever piece he wanted to, moving from typewriter to typewriter. Now, with a computer, that becomes almost too easy, and I find that I have a lot more than a "few" projects in work. The challenge is in prioritizing the work and ensuring that sufficient progress is being made on the right things.

That's why this post is a short one. I also want this story to marinate before I get back to it. Sometimes what looked interesting when I wrote it doesn't live up to that interest on a later read. The working title is "Belefonte's Bug Begone Service."

I have to admit that I've already broken my own rule. I'm writing another story called "The Hallway." This is one of those stories that I could never get right. There are currently five versions of it and I'm now working on the sixth. It has started to come together, which is good, but it also doesn't want to end. Every time I think I'm getting there, the story takes a new turn. Stories have a way of doing that.

The Business of Writing

The Business of Writing

10/16/2011 12:42:14 PM

 
Ninety percent of my working hours should be spent writing. This post is about the other ten percent.

I'm sure there are a lot of places where I can find tips and advice about running a self-employed business from the home. Google came up with ten pages worth. I'm sure I'll get into some of that, but I started a little closer to home. Recently, the San Diego Union Tribune (the "U-T" as the paper is marketing themselves now) had a special business section called "Ginormous Jobs." One of the articles got my attention: "10 Ways to Build Your Online Identity" focuses on creating and managing a "personal brand." What that means, in short, is making sure that you are aware of all information that is out there about you; that it's accurate, consistent, and says what you want it to.

I've been going through those ten suggestions and have learned a few things along the way. It starts with keeping track of references to yourself on the web. One good way to do that is to use a free service called Google Alerts. I have a very common name, so I used several forms of my name and my pen name to track any new hits on those names that turn up. I get an Alert via email each day there is a hit. I've come across some interesting activity about other people with my name. There is a music group trio with my name that I thought was kind of cool. Then there was the guy from Harrisburg, PA (near where I used to live) who has been missing now for two weeks who has the exact same name as mine except for a "D" added to his middle name. That feels a little spooky, this close to Halloween.

The next task was to establish my "web presence."  I did research about web hosting and domain name services and decided to go with the company InMotion Hosting. They have the capabilities and features that I wanted at a cost I can manage.  After deciding on InMotion I took a look at their forum pages to see what their users had to say. I discovered that at the beginning of October the company had been hit by a hacker who defaced many of their customer's websites. While I was not happy that the site failed to protect their customers from the hack, I was impressed with the successful recovery efforts and their openness even when it reflected badly on them. In the end I decided to give them a try anyway, voting with my checkbook for their honesty and dedicated response. It didn't hurt that by strange coincidence their two data centers are located in San Diego and Virginia Beach.

Having my own domain means that I can give that domain any name I want - or, more accurately, any name that is not already taken. I had also checked out several websites of authors that I liked to see how they named their own sites. Most used the name they published under, either their real name or pen name. There are some exceptions, such as Orson Scott Card. He used the domain name Hatrack for his site, but it's easy to see why. There is a history to the name that his fans understand; plus, Card is a very big figure in the science fiction community and that recognition provides a lot of protection to his "brand."  I really had two choices - my real name or my pen name. I checked and both were available. Since I have already published stories under my pen name, I decided to go with that for the domain. Which you should already know by looking at my website address. I still think it's kind of cool to have my own dot-com address.

Checking out other author websites also helped me put together the features I wanted for my own website. Frankly, I wasn't very impressed with many of them and didn't find much that would keep me coming to those sites. The basic layout that I was looking for I found at author Gregory Benford's site. His site is managed by Lucky Bat Books (online services and e-book services) and the website was designed using Wordpress software. Lucky Bat is for authors who actually make a living at it - ie, I can't afford their prices. Benford's site is certainly more extensive than I could manage at present, but the framework and information presented is pretty much what I used for my site. The InMotion folks gave me several choices for setting up the website, including Wordpress. Instead, I went with the simplest template based program, and that was both good and bad. The bad was that it took more time that I expected to find and tweak a template that did what I wanted it to. I did take time to look over the other web publishing software offered. I like the additional flexibility and will likely learn one of those at some point. I do love to tinker, and I could spend the next month learning and playing with website software, but that would certainly blow my 90% writing rule. I stuck with my first choice, and while I intend to improve on it at some point, overall I'm satisfied with the results. For now.

Other things on the list of ten I'm still working on include finding and joining associations and sites that support writers. That will be an ongoing thing.

Matt 10/19/2011 9:53:11 AM

Wordpress Thank you! Wordpress is quickly becoming one of the best applications for someone to use to not only have a blog but to have social networking, e-commerce and a ton of other plugins and features that anyone would want on their site. Just let me know :)

Charlie 10/19/2011 8:01:42 AM

Wordpress Nice work, Matt! Just looking what you've done I saw things that I am going to want on my own site. When I get time I'm going to take a look at Wordpress and will probably have a lot of questions.

Matt 10/18/2011 12:40:46 PM

Wordpress Hello! I do know how to use Wordpress and you can see my handy work here, http://droidappscentral.com/ I created that with a already set template and then just did some HTML Editing to make it the way I wanted. I also did http://firsttimehomeowner.biz/blog/ Let me know if you need help!

Charlie 10/18/2011 7:07:13 AM

My Smart Nephew Wow! Hmm, does he know how to use Wordpress or Joompla? :-)

tim 10/17/2011 5:56:51 PM

coincidence There is more of a coincidence to InMotion than their location, Matthew works for them.

Finding a Publisher

Finding a Publisher

10/18/2011 11:53:25 AM

 
I am now looking for information about publishers and submissions. How submissions are handled now is a complete mystery to me. The first interesting site I came up with is "Poets and Writers."

http://www.pw.org/

This appears to be an excellent site that not only has information for writers, it also includes a large listing of publishers, a great many of them surprisingly similar to the small press publishers I've often worked with in the past.

Two things jumped out at me as I browsed the site, the submission process and author's rights. Back when I sent submissions for consideration on paper via the mail, two universal rules were (1) no simultaneous submissions; and (2) publisher's retained North American rights to the story. These rules ensured that when a publisher accepted a story they knew it would be the first time the story appeared in a North American market. Neither of those rules seem to apply today. Simultaneous submissions via electronic means is widely accepted, and most publishers that I checked with revert all rights back to the author upon publication. The main reason for these changes in my view is the fact that electronic content is impossible to contain. It gets copied and shared. Publishers rights don't mean much in that particular case, so why not revert rights back to the writer and let them deal with it if they want? The one new rule that also seems to be universal is that if a piece is submitted simultaneously to multiple publishers, those publishers want to know immediately if the piece is accepted elsewhere so that they can take it off their own list of submissions. I imagine that writers who fail to make those notifications will have a harder time finding a publisher willing to consider their work.

It appears to me that small press publishing is much the same today as I remember it. Revenue is always an issue for any business, and 'zines come and go with some rapidity. Turn around for submissions was an ongoing issue even when dealing in hard copy. I'm sure submissions have exploded with the ease with which someone can write something and drop it via email to a hundred publishers. What a nightmare that must be for those who have to sort through it. Manuscripts would get lost; today, files get eaten by the computer.

The number of niche markets has also exploded. Magazines that I submitted to mainly stayed with Science Fiction, Horror, and Fantasy, with some finer distinctions being drawn along lines of hard science vs soft, subtle vs in your face horror, etc. Now, I could probably pick any subject, however narrow or specific, and find a magazine that specialized in delivering exactly that type of story. Selecting markets to submit stories to will take more effort and more creativity to get them considered. The story must be good, of course, but it also has to meet the publisher's idea of what is right for his magazine.

My story collection is in the final stretch. Editing out the formatting errors is complete, and every story is ready for the next step. I also finished the last new story for the collection, which is in proof reading now.

A New Story

A New Story

10/21/2011 1:15:12 PM

 
I completed a new story this week. I planned for the story to be the last story in the collection, but I'm having second thoughts about that. Not because I don't like it, but because I like it quite a lot. The collection basically has a publisher already, and I have enough stories for it. I think I'll test the market with the new story and see what kind of feedback I get back.

The working title of the story was "The Hallway." When I had trouble with the original draft of the story, however, the changes were significant enough that I came up with an alternate title as well, "Seeds." I liked the new title, but my proof reader in chief commented that I shouldn't give too much away. That made a lot of sense. I played around with some other possible titles, but came back to the original. "The Hallway" it remains.

I have a business card now. That was more work than I wanted to spend on it, but Microsoft Word is a program I love to hate. With the help of a free Avery addon I was able to make a pretty nice business card, but no matter how well calibrated the printer or how much I tweaked the design, Word refused to print it out correctly.

I went to the CNET site (a good place to look for free software) to find and download a business card design program, and gave the Avery DesignPro 5.4 a try. It was free, it was simple, it didn't require MS Word, and it did what I wanted it to do. Best of all, it printed out the cards perfectly. I highly recommend it.

"The Hallway" Submitted

"The Hallway" Submitted

10/30/2011 5:57:40 PM

 
I am working on a new story called "The Incursion." It's a parallel universe story with a local setting. I had to do some research on Quantum physics get up to speed on the scientific background behind this age old idea. I rarely write hard science fiction, but I do like to make sure that there is at least some scientific basis underpinning the story. The parallel universe idea comes from an alternate interpretation of quantum mechanics that rejects the more accepted theory that time is linear with a past, a present and a future. Using what has been called the many-worlds interpretation (MWI), it's been extrapolated that there are an infinite number of parallel universes that represent every instance of past, present and future, all existing at the same time. The differing opinion is centered on observations of subatomic particles such as electrons, which are known to have a position and trajectory, but can't be directly observed without the observer becoming a part of what is being observed. And that's about as deep as I want to get on the subject.

From a story perspective, the universe of our Earth comes in contact with a parallel universe. The intersection of the two universes allow sentient beings from another world to transit to Earth.

The story is not that far along. I have a lot of background information to put together that I am still working on. What was interesting is that I had an easier time digging through the science, building a background and history for the aliens, and setting time and place, than I'm having laying out the plot of the story. I reached a point where I looked at the computer screen and my characters stared back at me (figuratively, of course) asking, "Well, what do you want me to do?" I was kind of hoping they'd tell me.

I "think" I've gotten past that point, now; at least my characters haven't talked back to me recently.

I submitted "The Hallway" to Apex Magazine this weekend. I really like the looks of their site and their magazine, and will be buying a couple of issues to see what they are accepting as well as to enjoy the stories. The magazine does not allow simultaneous submissions and it could be weeks (or months) before I might hear back. The fiction editor has quite an impressive resume of work which I somehow managed to miss out on. I hope she has some of her work available via e-book as I think I'd like it.

The story collection is still coming along, but I have to admit I slacked off a bit on Friday night for a very long, exciting and successful evening of World of Warcraft. The report on that can be found at

wildfamilytales.blogspot.com/2011/10/friday-28-oct-f-i-r-e-l-n-d-s.html

Charlie 11/3/2011 8:59:11 AM

New Story Haven't read those. Sounds interesting, though.

Erik 11/1/2011 10:28:24 AM

New story I can't wait to read the new story once it is put together! I have always loved the extraterrestrial stuff and the multiple universe travel stuff sounds fun. Have you ever read any of the Dark Materials trilogy from Philip Pullman? They are The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spy Glass. They revolve around multiple universes, etc and are all great.

"Raised by the Fox" Published

"Raised by the Fox" Published

11/9/2011 11:23:23 AM

 
Well, it's official, I submitted my short story collection for publishing, and it's now available for sale. To find the book go to the Smashwords Author Page at http://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jwalkerbell

Table of Contents
Introduction, Acknowledgements, Special Tribute
Dominant Species
Outpost
The Porch
Gates of Delirium (poem)
Infant Dawn
Birth of Words
Of Cactus, Castles, and Queens
Testament of Faith
The Net

The book is just over 41,000 words and if printed would reach 72 pages. There are seven fiction stories, one true story, an essay, and a poem in the collection. Every entry has it's own introduction.

The final tasks involved going through a 39 step process of formatting those 41,000 words into something that could be turned into an ebook readable on a multitude of devices from computers to Kindles to smart phones. After reading and re-reading, and then reading again, I reached a point where I had to say DONE even though I still wanted to proof it some more. It took a full day to design and create the book cover. I decided to go with a black and white cover instead of color since some formats don't support color. I intend to be flashier in future submissions, but I like the cover I came up with and I hope others do, too.

Once the ebook was available for download, I checked the final product using the epub format. Of course, I discovered typos that despite everything still escaped the proofing process. The good thing about an ebook, though, is that I can correct the errors and upload an updated version. Overall, though, the ebook looks good and I did not have any horrific problems that some folks have. I was very careful to follow all directions and used recommended the style guide, which eliminated a lot of self-induced problems.

At the moment, "Raised by the Fox" is available only through Smashwords. I've met all of the criteria for Premium service, however, and once that has been confirmed by Smashwords, they will forward the ebook to Amazon, Sony, Barnes and Noble, and other major book publishers.

If the 99 cents is too steep, you can still read the first thirty percent of the book for free. Just go to the above link and select online reading, or download the sample in your choice of format.

National Novel Writing Month

National Novel Writing Month

11/13/2011 11:13:00 PM

The NaNoWriMo is an annual writing contest. The goal is to write a novel of at least 50,000 words in thirty days. The contest takes place in November each year and there are prizes for the winners. The best novel gets a publishing contract. Meeting that goal requires writing an average of 1,667 words every day. By way of comparison, my collection of short stories "Raised by the Fox" was 41,340 words, which was written over the course of several years, not days.

I am not participating in the contest, although I thought about it. I am obviously a little late getting around to it, and there are contest requirements (such as posting each day's work to the site) that I didn't really care to meet. I was late getting started because I was in the middle of getting my short story collection published, and that was more important.

However, I do like the idea, and I think that attempting to meet the spirit of the competition instead of the detailed contest requirements will still help me to keep going.

The novel is underway. The story I mentioned in an earlier blog entry called "The Incursion" is intended to fit into the novel at some point. I am tracking my daily output of words, but I admit that I am behind and hoping to catch up a little before admitting how far I've gotten (or not gotten). Feel free to offer encouragement and bug me about my progress. I may even ask for help when things get sticky.

For those who may have had a chance to take a look at "Raised by the Fox" I would appreciate any feedback you might have. Pats on the back are nice but I'd most appreciate constructive criticism. Where did a story go wrong? Was something not adequately explained? Did characters not seem real enough?  Blast away here in the blog!

Finally, one of the things that gets a book noticed is book ratings and reviews on the Smashwords site. Unfortunately, only those who buy the book can rate it. This is not a ploy (at least, it's not MY ploy) to get more sales. But if you do happen to buy the book, I also encourage you to enter a rating and even make a comment or two.

Now I should get back to building up my word count - uh, I mean writing.

Jaded Walker Update

Jaded Walker Update

11/25/2011 11:32:59 AM

 
The good news is that "Raised by the Fox" passed the compatibility test and can be listed on Amazon, Sony, Barnes and Noble, and other sites beside the Smashwords site. The book has been downloaded 17 times. Thank you for checking it out!  As always please feel free to comment on what you've read, offer suggestions, critiques, etc.

The news was not so good for my most recent story, "The Hallway."  I submitted the story to Apex Publishing for their monthly magazine. On 23 Nov they rejected the story, stating it "doesn't currently meet our needs." I should have the story off to another publisher pretty soon.

I also have to admit the novel "Incursion" is moving along a bit slowly, but it is moving. I tend to write in chunks, and in a longer work the chunks don't necessarily tie together yet. I have also set a challenge for myself because the story is being told from three different perspectives. I have trouble in my writing with maintaining the correct tense, and the differing perspectives making that even harder to keep up with. There is a first person view that is in the current tense. There is a past tense in the third person view that catches the reader up to the present tense. And then there is another third person view that takes place in ... well, more on that as the story moves along.

Managing Projects

Managing Projects

12/26/2011 10:25:28 AM

 
I use a program called Jarte Plus to keep notes on many things, not the least of which is the JadedWalker blog that appears on my website. It is a simple word processor built on the Windows Wordpad program and enhanced with a spell checker and other very nice features I find indispensable.

I have documents for many projects filling tabs at the top of the program, from writing projects to Christmas lists to baseball statistics and on to the current list of pixilated gear  I want for my World of Warcraft character.  I love it, but I am a hoarder of words and can't seem to get rid of anything I write. You see, I not only have a document for my blog posts, I have one for random thoughts, one for crazy ideas, one for jotting down random things that occur to me, as well as the expected documents having to do with actual stories I'm writing.  Crazy, I know.

My propensity to hold on to even the smallest bits of prose has finally succeeded in unbalancing what little organization I had in preparing posts for the blog. I've totally lost control. Since I can't bring myself to delete anything, I took the next best, somewhat cowardly approach - I started a new document, promising myself to be more organized about it this time.

What you are now reading is the first entry.

The annual NaNoWriMo challenge to write a novel in thirty days ended in December. I didn't get very far, but it was fun to be a part of that and I made a few contacts I hope will help me get more engaged with other writers and organizations that support writers.  I've been catching up on some of the posts from that event and came across one that touched a nerve. Audrey Niffenegger, an accomplished visual artist and writer who helped support the project, commented on her own writing style: "I’m a very slow writer. Slow works for me. I have all the bad habits my fellow writers warn you not to fall into: I procrastinate. I write a bit and wander off to think it over and come back two weeks later. I have no schedule, no regular habits, no fetishes, no daily word quota. I incubate ideas for years and once I start to work on them I can spend more years happily researching esoteric bits and bobs that may not even end up in the novel. I am terribly caffeine dependent. I edit while I write. "

That description is me, in a nutshell. Although I'd replace the caffeine with diet caffeine free pepsi. I also have to add that, in addition to enjoying the research as much as the writing, I enjoy writing about writing almost as much despite how little I actually know.

A new year is on the horizon, and "The Incursion" is still getting some love and a few paragraphs added while I fuss with plot issues that I haven't been able to wrestle into something I like, yet.

Thanks again to those who have come by the website and checked out my short story collection, "Raised by the Fox."

Website Changes

Website Changes

1/7/2012 12:06:10 PM

 
Just a quick note to let everyone know that the Guestbook has been retired. I removed it because spammers had found it and were dumping adds and other junk that I had to constanty get rid of.

Please use this blog for comments, or you can contact me directly through email.

Thanks!

"The Incursion" Reaches a Dead End

"The Incursion" Reaches a Dead End

1/13/2012 10:23:23 AM

 
Despite an awful lot of work, I finally had to admit to myself that my novel of parallel universes had reached a dead end. The story idea that I started with got lost in the midst of a lot of interesting research that did not really advance the story.  There was a very elaborate alien culture that kept growing in complexity.  Ultimately, there was too much explanation and not nearly enough plot to hold everything together. A completed prologue to the novel and two chapters are the forlorn results.

The problem boiled down to losing my way and forgetting what my original intent was. I was not writing the story I wanted to write.  It was time to figuratively put a clean sheet of paper into the typewriter and start again.

I thought I would have a hard time resetting the story. I had to come up with an entirely new set of circumstances having nothing to do with aliens or parallel universes. I still had the core of the story intact, however, and that's the characters. When I started writing about them, things started falling into place.

I haven't quite decided where to start, but I can say this - the background story (or the story behind the story) begins in Tecate, Mexico, and with a very special person known only as  #1098/1.  More to follow ...

Smashwords Read an eBook Week Promotion

My ebook publishing site, Smashwords, has announced a Smashwords Read an eBook Week promotion for March 4-10, 2012. Thousands of books are being discounted by 25%, 50%, 75% and even 100% (Free!). To get the promotional pricing you only need to do two things:

1) During the promotional period simply go to the Smashwords website where there will be  a special catalog of the discounted books.

http://www.smashwords.com/

2) Check right here on my site for my coupon code to get the discount. Coupon codes are also made available at each author's Smashwords page for all books being discounted for the promotion. It's a great opportunity to check out some new authors at a great price!

That's all there is to it!  Again, the promotion starts on 4 March.

I recently downloaded two from from eBook only authors and will be reporting in depth reviews in coming posts.

Welcome to the JadedWalker Blog!

Welcome to the new blog for the website www.jwalkerbell.com

The old blog has been retired and removed as it just didn't have the flexibility I was looking for. I am importing all of the posts from the original blog site.