Hey! Who wrote this book?

February 15, 2013 at 12:19 pm (Uncategorized)
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Open Book

 

Hey! Who wrote this book?

It all started earlier this week when I was preparing a talk on Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. There was an intro by Edwidge Danticat and I decided to look her up. I’d known of her writing for years and always thought of her as an older woman.

She’s only FIVE years older than me!

AND she’s been wining awards and recognition for her writing since I went off to college.

Argh!

I posted about that on Facebook, questioning what the heck I’d been doing all this time with my writing, and an old friend suggested we share works in progress to help move things along. Being as he is a really good editor, I pulled out my Biomalware manuscript from last August that I wrote during Camp NaNoWriMo.

Now, what I want to know is, who wrote this book when I wasn’t looking? Because there’s 149 pages and it’s not nearly as bad as I remember. I guess what they say about giving it time in a drawer is true.

So, yesterday I took the afternoon off to work on it. Of course, I got a stomach virus but that’s a story you don’t want to hear and I STILL managed to get the novel outlined and rearranged some pieces of it – after a nap.

(I’m sure I’ve mentioned Biomalware before but to bring everyone up to speed, the novel is set in the near future where a new strain of genetic modification to crops has created food which isn’t food for everyone, some people cannot derive nutrition from it. Now it is infiltrating even the organic crops through pollen contamination, and that’s not all it’s doing.  The short story that started it is here, in case you’re interested.)

My next step is to use the information on Scenes and Sequels that I learned from Jim Butcher’s LiveJournal to focus the action in each chapter. (If you haven’t checked it out, I highly recommend it. He hasn’t written much lately but the information on how he writes is really useful.)

Then I’ll go back through and tighten up things using the rest of the info in his posts on things like characterization and THEN I’m going to look back at it and make sure I’ve done everything I learned from Donald Maass in his book, Writing the Breakout Novel.

Luckily, after posting on Facebook, I have several more interested readers to give me feedback once I’m ready, as well as my writer’s group.

Now, the problem is that I want to apply for the James Jones Fellowship Contest because I think my book fits in AND because the first prize is TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS.

It’s awarded to “an American author of a first fiction novel-in-progress” and “is intended to honor the spirit of unblinking honesty, determination, and insight into modern culture exemplified by the late James Jones.”

What’s the problem there, you ask? Well, the deadline is March 1st. Luckily they just want the summary and first fifty pages so I will send that out to my readers at the end of the weekend.

Of course, we also plan to celebrate Valentine’s Day on Saturday and we have a family gathering on Sunday.

*slump*

Maybe I can get some rest next week.

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Inappropriate Stories in My Head

September 28, 2012 at 1:47 pm (Uncategorized)
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I was supposed to be working on my novelization of Biomalware.  I was supposed to be editing and re-writing, but the Universe had other plans.  Let me tell you a little story.

Last week I ordered a few items as presents for an upcoming birthday.  Earlier this week, the packages arrived, plus one.  I didn’t think too much of it but as I opened the last package and pulled out an item I wasn’t expecting to see, my mind did a few backflips.

It was a red Ferrari logo t-shirt.  I had seen this somewhere before, and recently.  In my sleep deprived state, my mind struggled to piece it together.  I knew I hadn’t ordered it.  Where did I see it?  A television show that we had watched that weekend.  Someone had been on the phone asking if the Ferrari logo was on the front and the back.

My mind reeled.  I had seen it somewhere else too, an online store.  Was I dreaming?  I almost always know when I’m dreaming.  I looked in the bag, no invoice or note.

I hadn’t bought it, had I?  Was I ordering things in my sleep?  Had someone ordered it and sent it to me for the birthday party that weekend at my house?  Perhaps one of my siblings?

I checked my invoices.  No, I hadn’t been ordering anything in my sleep.

I talked or messaged family.  No, no one had ordered it and had it sent.

To add a little more context, I’ve just started watching Doctor Who, the new series.  I had just watched the episode where Rose looks into the heart of the Tardis and becomes an avatar, sending the words “Bad Wolf” back in time and space to warn herself.

This was just too f@%*ing weird.

So, last night at writer’s group, I put the story to the group and challenged them to come up with a reason for the package arriving.

One of the group went the way of a horror story.  Fine.  Not for me, though.

As I drove home my mind continued to work on it, suggesting where the package had come from and why.  (Gallifrey, Texas.)  I’ve become a bit too invested in Doctor Who and he figured prominently in the explanation I’m afraid.

This morning, while I was showering, the story began again, dialogue writing itself.  I’m supposed to see a psychic in a week and apparently she has a message for the main character, saying where the package came from.  Little bit of telepathy, he’s not really dead.  I had to go write it down before work in order to still the voices.

I think I have a nice little sci-fi story going and it could really turn into something publishable if I just write it and then take out the Doctor Who specific references.

It’s not what I was supposed to be working on, but at least I’m writing again, creating.  I’m just going to ride the wave and enjoy it.  The other will come in its own time.

Life is strange and wonderful, if you just look at it the right way.  Enjoy.

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