I've been following the news reports on the radio about the space shuttle program coming to an end. Tomorrow the Atlantis returns to earth never again to leave it. And it's the last flight. I think it is sad that space exploration hasn't progressed further than it has. And to leave it like this and not have something in place already, I shake my head. I'm sure there are some who will say it's too expensive and that there are better things to spend money on. I agree there are many worthy projects to spend money on and so many that would benefit people right now.
That doesn't stop me from thinking how neat it would be to have a colony on the moon and to send people to Mars and possibly set up a colony there too. A large space station, like a little city, orbiting the earth would be nice too. And I would love to be able to visit such a space station or one of those colonies.
At the very least it would be nice of the countries of the world would cooperate, or corporations for that matter, and send people to the moon again. If for no other reason than to show everyone that the US did get there in the 1960's and put to rest all the nonsense about it being a hoax.
The US should at least replace the space shuttle with something to take astronauts to the international space station even if there is no ambition to return to the moon or go on to Mars.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Friendships
As I go about the Internet trying to become known in my way and finding people to help me with my novel I am creating friendships that I hope will last a long time. Since high school I have not forged any long lasting friendships in person except perhaps at my work. There are people I know that I trust and I am friends with but at this point I doubt I will be in contact with them once I or they move.
I am still in contact with two friends from when I was in school. One I have known since middle school, the other since elementary school. We e-mail each other every few months.
I am sure some of this is the way I am and the way life changed after high school. Other than right now there is no other place I have lived longer except where I grew up. I've lived in the same house in Virginia for just over six year. Where I grew up I lived in that house in Utah for eleven years continuously.
I have some friends I only know from conversations via the Internet. Some of these I have known for about five years now.
Too me, communicating on a regular basis opens up the possibility of creating friendships. As I communicate with people and ask them to beta read my book, edit my book, and/or design the cover for my book, I hope that some of them become my friends. Most of those who volunteered to beta read my book are my friends. I realize that me hiring editors and cover designers means I have a business relationship with them, but in my mind I consider them as friends. They have chosen to help me the best they can. The depth of the friendship is something different and since I have just met them on the Internet in the past few weeks there is not much depth there yet.
It seems to me it is easier for me to make friend via the Internet than in person. I am divorced with custody of my four children and so most evenings are spent at home out of necessity. Saturdays is when I do my grocery shopping and other errands. Sometimes I don't get a chance to take a break and relax on Saturdays until the evening. Sundays I spend at church and then home relaxing. So all that leaves little time for me to strengthen friendships with people who live near me. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention I spend three hours a day commuting to and from work.
I want to find time to go visit peoples blogs and write comments. I want to participate on kindleboards more. When I do visit blogs I often can't seem to think of anything to say and the same thing seems to happen on kindleboards. There are so many wonderful people there that know so much more than me about self publishing and I learn a lot from them and for that I am thankful.
I believe I will have many more friends as time progresses, but for me it happens very slowly.
I am still in contact with two friends from when I was in school. One I have known since middle school, the other since elementary school. We e-mail each other every few months.
I am sure some of this is the way I am and the way life changed after high school. Other than right now there is no other place I have lived longer except where I grew up. I've lived in the same house in Virginia for just over six year. Where I grew up I lived in that house in Utah for eleven years continuously.
I have some friends I only know from conversations via the Internet. Some of these I have known for about five years now.
Too me, communicating on a regular basis opens up the possibility of creating friendships. As I communicate with people and ask them to beta read my book, edit my book, and/or design the cover for my book, I hope that some of them become my friends. Most of those who volunteered to beta read my book are my friends. I realize that me hiring editors and cover designers means I have a business relationship with them, but in my mind I consider them as friends. They have chosen to help me the best they can. The depth of the friendship is something different and since I have just met them on the Internet in the past few weeks there is not much depth there yet.
It seems to me it is easier for me to make friend via the Internet than in person. I am divorced with custody of my four children and so most evenings are spent at home out of necessity. Saturdays is when I do my grocery shopping and other errands. Sometimes I don't get a chance to take a break and relax on Saturdays until the evening. Sundays I spend at church and then home relaxing. So all that leaves little time for me to strengthen friendships with people who live near me. Oh, and I almost forgot to mention I spend three hours a day commuting to and from work.
I want to find time to go visit peoples blogs and write comments. I want to participate on kindleboards more. When I do visit blogs I often can't seem to think of anything to say and the same thing seems to happen on kindleboards. There are so many wonderful people there that know so much more than me about self publishing and I learn a lot from them and for that I am thankful.
I believe I will have many more friends as time progresses, but for me it happens very slowly.
Friday, July 8, 2011
More Idea's Already?
So, now that my first draft is done I have all kinds of ideas flowing into my head for book two in the series as well as for other books, including sci-fi. Good grief. I want to finish this book first and get it published then work on book two. I am generally good at staying focused.
So far I am almost one fourth of the way through the first round of revisions. At this rate I should be finished by the end of July. I think I'll have my story ready for beta readers about mid August. As I complete each fourth of my book I am sending it off to Arkali (Yep the one at kindleboards.com) for editing. This way I will be able to include her suggestions and corrections before giving my story to my beta readers. I am surprised at how many people I have found that are willing to beta read my story. I even have a teenager and pre teen that will be reading it (not counting my children who may decide to beta read for me). I believe I will have changes made based on beta readers by the end of September and expect to turn my story over to its final editor in early October. Cherie Reich at Hazard Editing will be doing the final edit.
Now if I can just keep those story ideas at bay until I get all that done, I will be doing good.
So far I am almost one fourth of the way through the first round of revisions. At this rate I should be finished by the end of July. I think I'll have my story ready for beta readers about mid August. As I complete each fourth of my book I am sending it off to Arkali (Yep the one at kindleboards.com) for editing. This way I will be able to include her suggestions and corrections before giving my story to my beta readers. I am surprised at how many people I have found that are willing to beta read my story. I even have a teenager and pre teen that will be reading it (not counting my children who may decide to beta read for me). I believe I will have changes made based on beta readers by the end of September and expect to turn my story over to its final editor in early October. Cherie Reich at Hazard Editing will be doing the final edit.
Now if I can just keep those story ideas at bay until I get all that done, I will be doing good.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
First Draft Completed
I finished the first draft of the first novel in my series about dragons. I added a chapter showing one of the main characters during a time of happiness. It was actually meant to be part of another chapter but became its own chapter.
Now I think I'll read through the entire story and then start the first round of revisions.
Now I think I'll read through the entire story and then start the first round of revisions.
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
First Draft Almost Finished
I managed to write about 800 more words in my WIP. That was yesterday. All the week prior I managed to get distracted by various things including preparing to go camping, camping Friday to Saturday at Lake Anna, playing runescape, and now Eden Eternal.
There is only one more chapter I need to look at and then as long as I don't think up another chapter or two the first draft of my novel will be done. I wrote a much needed chapter to make things fit into place and took out a chapter place holder that was never going to get written.
This will be the first time I have ever finished a first draft of a novel length story. I did write a novel before this but decided to do a major rewrite before finishing the first draft and then the story never got finished. I keep reading that others say the first novel you ever write usually should never be published. Hopefully that was the one that I never finished. If the interest of my children in my current novel is any indication I would say that this novel is one that will be of interest to more people. Time, of course, will tell.
As long as Eden Eternal doesn't distract me too much, I should have the first draft done by the end of this week or at least before the 5th of July.
There is only one more chapter I need to look at and then as long as I don't think up another chapter or two the first draft of my novel will be done. I wrote a much needed chapter to make things fit into place and took out a chapter place holder that was never going to get written.
This will be the first time I have ever finished a first draft of a novel length story. I did write a novel before this but decided to do a major rewrite before finishing the first draft and then the story never got finished. I keep reading that others say the first novel you ever write usually should never be published. Hopefully that was the one that I never finished. If the interest of my children in my current novel is any indication I would say that this novel is one that will be of interest to more people. Time, of course, will tell.
As long as Eden Eternal doesn't distract me too much, I should have the first draft done by the end of this week or at least before the 5th of July.
Saturday, June 18, 2011
More details about my story
Right now the working title of my book is Dragon Claws Rage. I feel like I am getting closer and closer to finishing the first draft. The story is just over 73,000 words. I want it to be longer and believe it will be. The reason I think this way is because some of the chapters need to be fleshed out and do more showing than telling. Some chapters seem to be but an outline of what should happen in the chapter.
I'm not an expert and so perhaps saying that my first draft is finished inspite of these chapters may not be accurate. However, I wrote a chapter at the end of the book and then realized it was too sad to be the end and have figured out a way to end the book on a happy note, very happy one indeed.
I have been eliminating my place holders where I marked my story that I need to return. I use ~~~ and just search for that. There are only two or three of them left.
What I found surprising is that my story right now has 66 chapters. Since I know I am going to add one more it is going to at least have 67 chapters. I think it likely as I start the second draft that some of them may get combined into one. I tend to write short chapters. Each chapter either has a change of character point of view or some other logical end point.
I am a member of critiquecircle.com and plan to put up the first chapter there for critique either today or within a week so that I can start getting more feed back. I got very good information from the editor that I plan to have edit my book once it is ready for editing and so during my second draft I will make use of her very sage advice to improve my entire book watching for the things she pointed out. I am also planning to use the emotion thesaurus at http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/ since I believe that will help me show rather than tell. Such as show a character getting angry instead of simply saying he got angry.
More ideas are flowing about the second book and possibly the third. I've always wanted to make this a three book series and then after that write more stories in the same world. I have five or more short stories that I wrote over ten years ago that are in this world and I may expand one of them into a novel. But that is for later.
The main dragon creator was a wizard named Holvien. All the dragons he created he gave a weakness to ensure they did not turn against their creators. Another council member, Tedorlan, didn't see the need for such a weakness. After Holvien had created three different dragon types, Tedorlan created the largest, most intelligent dragons yet and did not give them a weakness. These are the red dragons. They inherited some of Tedorlan's attitude and soon turned against their creator and the nation that created dragons. So the next two dragons Holvien created were designed to meet that threat and so they have a natural protection from the red dragons psychic powers.
The dragons Holvien created followed his pattern for using safeguards when they created altered humans to help them. They gave these humans some of their own powers but limited the activation of that power. Only when three of the altered humans are touching each other will the power activate.
Well, I am off to work on my story now.
I'm not an expert and so perhaps saying that my first draft is finished inspite of these chapters may not be accurate. However, I wrote a chapter at the end of the book and then realized it was too sad to be the end and have figured out a way to end the book on a happy note, very happy one indeed.
I have been eliminating my place holders where I marked my story that I need to return. I use ~~~ and just search for that. There are only two or three of them left.
What I found surprising is that my story right now has 66 chapters. Since I know I am going to add one more it is going to at least have 67 chapters. I think it likely as I start the second draft that some of them may get combined into one. I tend to write short chapters. Each chapter either has a change of character point of view or some other logical end point.
I am a member of critiquecircle.com and plan to put up the first chapter there for critique either today or within a week so that I can start getting more feed back. I got very good information from the editor that I plan to have edit my book once it is ready for editing and so during my second draft I will make use of her very sage advice to improve my entire book watching for the things she pointed out. I am also planning to use the emotion thesaurus at http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/ since I believe that will help me show rather than tell. Such as show a character getting angry instead of simply saying he got angry.
More ideas are flowing about the second book and possibly the third. I've always wanted to make this a three book series and then after that write more stories in the same world. I have five or more short stories that I wrote over ten years ago that are in this world and I may expand one of them into a novel. But that is for later.
The main dragon creator was a wizard named Holvien. All the dragons he created he gave a weakness to ensure they did not turn against their creators. Another council member, Tedorlan, didn't see the need for such a weakness. After Holvien had created three different dragon types, Tedorlan created the largest, most intelligent dragons yet and did not give them a weakness. These are the red dragons. They inherited some of Tedorlan's attitude and soon turned against their creator and the nation that created dragons. So the next two dragons Holvien created were designed to meet that threat and so they have a natural protection from the red dragons psychic powers.
The dragons Holvien created followed his pattern for using safeguards when they created altered humans to help them. They gave these humans some of their own powers but limited the activation of that power. Only when three of the altered humans are touching each other will the power activate.
Well, I am off to work on my story now.
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Book Progress - Blurb and Dragons
Well I don't seem to be doing to well as a blogger. Good thing I am finding time to work on my book and plan for the other things I need such as an editor and a cover designer. I contacted a designer today that draws well since I believe I will need someone to draw what I want for my books cover. I contacted an editor today too. I'm now waiting for replies.
As of now my plan is to self publish for the Kindle first. At some point after that I will get my book set up for printing on demand since I plan to print some copies for myself, my children, family, and friends.
Here is my most recent attempt at a book blurb. I expect it is still in need of much work but it is a starting point at giving anyone who reads my blog an idea of what my book is about:
For centuries the dragons hid while following a well crafted plan. They would initiate the final phase five years hence which would culminate in their retaking their land and founding a mighty nation.
In a day their enemies unravel the plan and threaten the dragons very existence. One of their magically augmented humans vanishes. Over half of the ruling dragons are slain along with their trained human leaders. Unstoppable trackers now hunt their remaining altered humans.
The dragons take swift and decisive action. They gather their magic altered humans and initiate the summoning that will bring the dragons to their land. Enemies spring into action against Maikel as the dragons groom him to lead the offensive to establish themselves as a nation.
The story has changed a lot from when I first started it. The main characters are both sixteen when the book starts. Another main character is fourteen. Then there are the dragons whose ages range from twenty to three hundred or more.
As a reader, I love reading books that have dragons and/or elves in them. I've put both in my book. As I think about my book I am surprised that elves are not more prominent in it; the dragons of course are.
In my book more than one thousand years ago their was a nation ruled by magicians. The nation was unique in that it was a mix of humans and elves living together. Using magic, the rulers created dragons as protectors of their nation. Neighboring nations feared these dragons and so rose up against the dragon creating nation and defeated it. They believed they killed all its leaders and all the dragons. They were wrong.
Before most of the ruling council was killed they gave the land to the dragons. The few surviving dragons went into hiding and waited for the right time to reclaim their land. During the first book the dragons begin the process to reclaim their land and attempt to establish a nation ruled by dragons. The color of the dragons that gather to form this nation are green, white, blue, silver, and gold.
Their land is a vast mountain range which they have kept free of most people by employing humans and elves as foresters who constantly roam the mountain range and use magic items to instill a fear in any who are not wanted so that they flee the mountain range and never return.
Of course the neighboring nations are less than pleased to learn that thousands of dragons are now living in these mountains and many battles follow.
That will give you an idea of some of what goes on in my book. I currently have written a little over 71,000 words. Right now I am thinking to end the first book at 80,000 or 90,000 words. My goal is to have the book on the Kindle in September or October. At the very least before Christmas. Some days I am able to type about 2,000 words. Other days I only manage a measly 151 (that would be yesterday). Weekly I often average about 3,000 or so words. I know there will be a second book in this series. I would like it to be a three book series but ideas for a third book haven't come to me yet. I plan to write most of my fantasy books in the same world with some minor characters becoming main characters and such.
Well, I think that's enough for now.
As of now my plan is to self publish for the Kindle first. At some point after that I will get my book set up for printing on demand since I plan to print some copies for myself, my children, family, and friends.
Here is my most recent attempt at a book blurb. I expect it is still in need of much work but it is a starting point at giving anyone who reads my blog an idea of what my book is about:
For centuries the dragons hid while following a well crafted plan. They would initiate the final phase five years hence which would culminate in their retaking their land and founding a mighty nation.
In a day their enemies unravel the plan and threaten the dragons very existence. One of their magically augmented humans vanishes. Over half of the ruling dragons are slain along with their trained human leaders. Unstoppable trackers now hunt their remaining altered humans.
The dragons take swift and decisive action. They gather their magic altered humans and initiate the summoning that will bring the dragons to their land. Enemies spring into action against Maikel as the dragons groom him to lead the offensive to establish themselves as a nation.
The story has changed a lot from when I first started it. The main characters are both sixteen when the book starts. Another main character is fourteen. Then there are the dragons whose ages range from twenty to three hundred or more.
As a reader, I love reading books that have dragons and/or elves in them. I've put both in my book. As I think about my book I am surprised that elves are not more prominent in it; the dragons of course are.
In my book more than one thousand years ago their was a nation ruled by magicians. The nation was unique in that it was a mix of humans and elves living together. Using magic, the rulers created dragons as protectors of their nation. Neighboring nations feared these dragons and so rose up against the dragon creating nation and defeated it. They believed they killed all its leaders and all the dragons. They were wrong.
Before most of the ruling council was killed they gave the land to the dragons. The few surviving dragons went into hiding and waited for the right time to reclaim their land. During the first book the dragons begin the process to reclaim their land and attempt to establish a nation ruled by dragons. The color of the dragons that gather to form this nation are green, white, blue, silver, and gold.
Their land is a vast mountain range which they have kept free of most people by employing humans and elves as foresters who constantly roam the mountain range and use magic items to instill a fear in any who are not wanted so that they flee the mountain range and never return.
Of course the neighboring nations are less than pleased to learn that thousands of dragons are now living in these mountains and many battles follow.
That will give you an idea of some of what goes on in my book. I currently have written a little over 71,000 words. Right now I am thinking to end the first book at 80,000 or 90,000 words. My goal is to have the book on the Kindle in September or October. At the very least before Christmas. Some days I am able to type about 2,000 words. Other days I only manage a measly 151 (that would be yesterday). Weekly I often average about 3,000 or so words. I know there will be a second book in this series. I would like it to be a three book series but ideas for a third book haven't come to me yet. I plan to write most of my fantasy books in the same world with some minor characters becoming main characters and such.
Well, I think that's enough for now.
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