Sunday, December 27, 2009

THE NEXT STEP

I sent out a query to an agent tonight. I'm just making a roll of the dice and taking the simple approach.

Saturday, December 26, 2009

A PIECE OF CRAP

For a long time I referred to the time travel story as a piece of crap. I even called it that in the About the Author section I wrote for Secrets of Starpoint Mountain. After spending the last month reworking it after all these years I'm really regretting that. I'm turning out to be quite proud of it. I'm not saying it didn't take a lot of work to put it together but the basic story and characters have remained mostly intact.

I think the reason I dissed it so much was because it was such a nightmare to write. It took me years and years. The earliest reference I have is a synopsis dated November 11, 1988 and I know it was 1991 at least before I finished it. I had no self discipline then and would work on it nonstop for days and days and then not touch it for months. I'm a lot better at it now, I write very day, and it's was an interesting experience to take a look at it again.

The first thing I did was take out a lot of sad fan boy references including changing some of the character names and replacing the title. At the same time I found some 1983 specific references and put them in the right places. The cable network has a total of 23 stations, which was a lot at the time, and one of the hit movie and music references at the time is Flashdance and She Blinded Me With Science. Of course they listen to these on cassette tapes.

Another thing I found uncomfortable was that so much of it took place in the factory where I work. I took the "write what you know" advice to literally. The newer version you get the idea that he works in some type of manufacturing location it's not really clear what they build.

I also strengthened two of the supporting characters. I explained more on how Michelle gets from point A to point D and back to point B. The woman that Ross is semi-involved with really had the most changes. I changed her name to Mandy, the original was Snow but there is a major character in Starpoint named Snow and I didn't want to use the name twice. I also gave some of the Ross's actions and dialougue to her.

I've sent for a new printing of the updated version of the book so I can step away from it for a week. The next step is to use it to try and get an agents.


Saturday, December 12, 2009

SHORT STORIES

I've been looking at my short stories wondering if there's enough to make an anthology. There's about a dozen of them but they are really short. I've got a couple of other ideas yet to develop in to stories but they are still pretty short. The strange thing is I really miss not working in the Starpoint Mountain universe. I've worked on it so much and concentrated on it every day for so long I feel odd being outside of it.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

TIME OFF

I realized I needed to take some time away from the book. I had been going through it so many times I was starting to second guess myself. I had so many marks on my proof copy I wasn't sure how many I had actually changed or not. I finished it off, ordered a new proof copy, and haven't looked at it since. It'll also give the two editors going through it a break, too. It feels good. I'll wait a few more days and then sit down and start through it anew.