I wrote my novel Mail Order Bride during the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic, and I challenge anyone to read it and not see the influence. One of the major threads that runs through the story is that the people live in a culture where physical contact is largely taboo, which is something that ultimately …
This morning, I finished the first draft of The Master of Puppets. It’s a first draft, and as always first draft is first drafty, so it needs some work, but it was a pain in the ass to write, and I really, really need some time away from the universe. To be clear, it’s a …
The Master of Puppets is DONE! That is my third novel this year. I am a machine!
So, a lot going on right now. Mail Order Bride is out on submission to a publisher. I should here back within 90 days. Scatter just came back from the editor. It needs a bit more touch up than Mail Order Bride, but the edits are still fairly minor. 86,635 words on The Master of …
83,519 words on The Master of Puppets. 22 Chapters. I ended Chapter 22 right as the bad guys are coming over the hill to attack the good guys (metaphorically. It’s just outside Dallas, so there aren’t any actual hills). This book continues to kick my ass, but I’m so close to the end.
One of my favorite tropes, which probably harkens back to how much of an impact I Will Fear No Evil had on me, is the voice in the back of the head. In at least three of the books on my list, including Mail Order Bride, this takes the form of an AI that also …
I sent a new chapter of The Master of Puppets to the alpha readers tonight, and one of them responded with “That’s like the opposite of resolving shit before heading into a fight!”, which is true, but I don’t understand why they are surprised. One of the few absolute certainties with my writing is that …
Broke 80,000 words on The Master of Puppets. The ending of the book is set up and ready to go. I’m really hoping I can finish it in the next week or so. Damn this book is kicking my ass.
One of the tropes I absolutely despise is when the conflict in a story could be resolved if the characters sit down and talked to each other for five minutes. I bring this up because last night I got Mail Order Bride back from the editor, and one of her comments was “I am delighted …
So, I got Mail Order Bride back from the editor last night, and I had planned to wait a few days to look at it, but I got impatient (come on, you knew that was going to happen) and went through the edits. It turns out, there wasn’t a lot that needed changing, so I …