GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK 24

On November 24th at approximately 5:30 p.m. I finished the first draft of the fourth and final book in the series. I spent a lot of time the few days leading up to it in tears when some characters had to die but I also felt really good about things. I'm incredibly proud of it. I spent the rest of the day just smiling.

GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK 23

It was quite an odd week writing this book.
On Monday I had to kill off a character. It was one that I had originally introduced as just a one shot in the first book cause I wanted to use a cool name and ended up being one of the few characters that shows up in all four books. They just took on a life of their own and became more important as the story went on. I felt kind of bad that I had to kill them off but I felt it was necessary to keep the drama and the threat strong. I wanted to make sure that the character wasn't just a red shirt so I had to think back and will strengthen a few things on the rewrite. I also made sure that the death had an effect on Gallif and Luvin. It hurt them and, at the same time, gave them strength.
Sometimes it feels weird to be upset about the death of a character. I asked a few friends about it and was relieved to find out I'm not the only one who's had that experience. I also remembered a guy in a writing class that I took when I was at UI who made it clear he didn't give a damn about his characters. It made the stories difficult to read and there was no emotion to it. I think if an author doesn't care about their characters then there is no reason the reader should.
There are two big finales in the fourth book. One of them I've been prepared for since the first book, I knew how it would end, but the other one has been itching me and coming together a bit at a time as the story developed. It's a do or die scene and I knew if it didn't work the whole thing would fall apart.
Friday, however, the sky opened again and all the elements fell in to place. The characters were in the right place at the right time. I wrote 8 pages, about 3200 words, in a six hour period. It felt great. It all came together so well I bet I spent an hour just smiling and it felt really good. I looked back at it today and feel it's some of the best writing I've ever done. It's still odd to think of myself as an author.
I'm really thinking I'll finish the book next week. It'll be just in time to celebrate at ChicagoTARDIS.

PUBLISHERS

I met a owner of a small press publishing company at Icon and talked to her about selling the publishing rights for my books to her. She was very nice and we really hit it off. Spent a lot of time talking about it at ICON and have to wait a few months for her and one of her editors to really take a look at it. What impressed her the most was that I had done so much to promote the book instead of just writing it and hoping someone might buy it. I've submitted it to contests, charity auctions, and newspapers for review. We are putting together a recording if me reading excerpts from the book and adding visuals for Youtube. We are also putting together a video trailer. It's just waiting andkeeping my fingers crossed now.

GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK 22

Had another good week writing. Though I didn't turn out as many pages as last week I still covered lots of territory. I had some important combat scenes to deal with and it took a while to set up even though I didn't completely write them out. I worry that if I write the fight scenes out in detail the first round that, when I do the final draft, the action will get stale. What I do on the first draft, the, is write down just the important points and a few details. The stronger points about what happens to who, who gets wounded, who works well as partners, who fails, etc. In the first book I even went as far as to go through each combat scene and make sure I never used the same verbs twice in combat. I didn't do it in the second one and I think it kind of hurt the scenes in the long run. When I can I'll take time to go back and do that.
The other thing I did is decided which of the main characters in the books will die and how. I spent a lot of time working it out and chose carefully the fate of the characters. I want to make sure that there is some meaning and drama in their deaths. If I'm going to kill them off I want to make sure there is a reason or their deaths effect somebody in some way.

GALLIF OF STARPOINT MOUNTAIN WEEK 21

Another very successful week. It's very exciting the way things are coming together with the mix of characters, story and combat. The real challenge I'm having is how to build up the tension before everything is revealed. I keep in mind for there to be any real drama and suspension that I have to keep a credible threat. The hardest part of that is it means that someone's going to have to die. It was hard enough killing of some of the characters in the first book when I'd only known them for a short length of time. Doing it now won't be easy.