I hope to get to this soon, but I think I need to complete at least the first revision of HOF first.  And that won't get done until I've let it sit for a short time, so it may be another month or so.

I've been letting this plot brew in my head and I don't believe much of the existing narrative will be salvaged.  The characters and situations were originally written in 1995 or 1996.  Since then, I re-wrote UARM and then wrote HOF, not to mention jumping the setting ahead ten years in SDOM and WD.  All of that had the effect of causing the characters to grow in ways that don't match up well to the 1995 draft.

In writing HOF, I only used two passages from the original draft (then in the narrative of BAWS), and both were heavily revised.  So I don't know how much of the "1/4 complete" will actually apply.

Again, we'll see. 

One of the things I may do is put a little more work in on my fantasy book...it is only in its infancy, so there's plenty to do.  There's also the issue that I haven't written any fantasy in a very long time and what I did write was pretty immature and derivative.

So we'll see how that goes.

Well, still waiting for a formal offer from a particular publisher.  Indications seem very favorable, so we will see. 

In the meantime, I have not submitted any River City works to other agents or publishers.  If for some reason this doesn't work out, then I'll start that process up again.  Right now, I'm optimistic about this particular press, so I put other submissions on hold once they expressed a sincere interest.

Rest assured, I will update this BLOG when any sort of developments occur.

Well, it's been 10 days since I finished the first draft, and for some reason I feel like letting it sit for another week or two before delving into the first revision. 

One reason is that I'd like to get some feedback from Conway before I do that.  We'll see how that works out.

I think, though, that I will work on a couple of smaller projects, or work a little on a larger project, before coming back to it.  I am eager to revise and get busy on BAWS, but I think it needs to sit a little bit first.

Well, I just finished the first draft of Heroes Often Fail about an hour ago.

It clocks in at about 73,500 words.

It's a pretty dark book, and there's less action than in Under A Raging Moon, but I think it's still tense.

The next book in the Patrol Series, Beneath A Weeping Sky, will have more action and the final book in that series, And Every Man Has To Die will be action-packed.

Anyway, it feels good to finish the first draft.  I think I'll let it sit for at least a week or so before I think about the first edit.  I may even try to get a first impression from a reader first.

I'm up to about 65,000 words right now (if I remember right from Sunday).  I haven't been able to write since then, but will get some time in this Friday, Sat and Sunday.  I fully expect to finish the first draft this weekend.

My short story, "Vancouver Dreams," was accepted for publication in the upcoming Summer issue of SNReview.

SNReview is an online publication that I discovered quite by accident.  I did a web search on "hockey fiction" and got a hit on Frank Haberle's short story "Digger," published at SNReview.  The online magazine itself is not a hockey fiction magazine, but more of a literary one.  Haberle's story had a hockey setting, though.

About the same time, I was trying to come up with a submission for MOTH Magazine (now on hiatus), which has a loose theme each issue.  Their next theme was "Vancouver."  I'd been wanting to write a hockey short story for a while and had an idea and after reading Haberle's story, I went ahead and wrote "Vancouver Dreams."

I submitted it to MOTH.  The editor there liked it, but the magazine was suspending publication.  Eventually, I submitted it to SNReview (riding Haberle's coattails, one could say!) and I just received the acceptance email today.

I want to say thanks to Frank Haberle for reading the story and for being supportive of it.  I also appreciate Kim Bannerman's positive comments from MOTH. Most of all, thanks to SNReview for accepting my story.  I'm thrilled.

Does that sound like an Academy Award speech?  Well, as always, an accepted story makes me gush.  Not like it happens every day, you know?

45,000 words...

As I move forward in the plotline, I find I'm discarding things from the outline that will slow down the plot...it's an interesting balance between moving the plot straight ahead and showing that no matter what is going on in patrol, there are always calls to answer.

31,000 words...I'm in a groove.   Of course, as always, I'm too close and it's too new to know if it's any good or not!

I've found that working with a loose outline works best for me.  I don't feel like it is rigid or confining, but it gives me a general sense of direction.  I can and do switch things around as I go, but having that loose outline serves as a reminder for some smaller details I want to include, too.

It was a fruitful weekend.  I'm at the 26,000 mark now, first draft.

As always, the story drives itself a little bit, making choices for me...I do have a rough outline and am sticking to it in general...

I think this book will be a little longer than UARM or WD, though it's hard to tell.  Sometimes my notes are two written lines long and that ends up being fifteen pages of novel.  Other times, my notes are six lines long and that only takes up three pages.  So, I guess we'll see.  I don't believe length will be an issue, though.