Sorry, I got a case of sillies today. Answer me this, if you can tell me from what magazine my title came from, I will feature a link to your blog or website on the upper part of my front page for the rest of the month.
Anywho.....today's post will be an update on what I've been doing with my time spent away from Facebook and the blogs. It will also be the first in a series of periodic posts about my second novel, with excerpts featured at FSG.
For the past several months, I've been working on my latest novel, tentatively titled A Lascivious Limbo. Originally based on a badly written short story entitled Golden Texas Tea, which was intended to be a sequel to my badly written first self-pubbed novel "Shades of Love" {which someday I intend to re-write and turn it into a good pre-quel}, it has morphed and grown into a rather smooth dual plotted novel that is currently sitting at 108 pages/43K words.
What I did to make what I feel is a story more on par with my second self pubbed chapbook Betrayed! {better writing, better pacing, and better plotting}, was to actually read other books in the genre I'm attempting to write in and pick up valuable writing tips from those and the other writing related blogs/e-zines that I follow.
About the only thing I kept from the original story was the basic plot {which if you read the original story, then you knew it was incredibly hard to find}, which was a ghost story of sorts. Beyond that, the original story became a 24 page outline as I gutted the entire thing from beginning to end.
Instead of using the crappy beginning that started the original story {click here, here and here}, I started with lead female character already dead and being picked up by a bus sent by Limbo to collect the recently departed. If you remember the Albert Brooks movie "Defending Your Life", then you got the basic premise of my novel, only done with a slight twist.
Instead of the character being like Albert Brooks, where he's defending his poor choices and lack of risk taking, the character is reliving the last four days of her life and narrating those last four days to make a DVD, in order to see whether or not she moves on to the next phase of her journey, called Rebirth.
I also made Limbo a privately held corporation that acts as a conduit to the other parts of the afterlife: Rebirth, Heaven, Purgatory and Hell.
I wrote the book in a way that was similar to Betrayed!, in other words, each chapter contained both plots clearly defined and clearly written, thus easier to follow. Within each chapter, there are two plot headings. The first is the actual day on earth, with second being the actual day in Limbo {ex: May 24th-part 1; and Limbo Day 1-part 1}.
This week's post at FSG features the entire prologue to the novel. Please give serious consideration to leaving a thoughtful critique of it (and to future ones as well), as I will listen to and possibly incorporate any and all reasonable suggestions made. I really do value your opinion of my writing.
Prologue to "A Lascivious Limbo"
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
16 comments:
Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.
About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.
So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.
G. B. Miller
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Electric Sheep magazine. But I must confess, I Googled and there it was. So no need to give me any credit. And I am likely not the first anyway. :)
ReplyDeleteYour story sounds intriguing.
Lynn: Never even heard of "Electric Sheep" magazine (where do people find the time to actually create niche magazines like this?).
ReplyDeleteAs for the story, thanks.
I may post a link of yours anyways, just for sheer funkiness of what you found for a magazine.
Sounds like progress is being made.
ReplyDeleteSlow but steady. Problem is, because I want to do this one the right way, I keep having to stop and spend anywhere from a couple of days to presently, a couple of weeks, so that I can plot out what I want to say and how I need to say it.
ReplyDeleteWhat's saving my bacon right now, is that old short story serving as an outline.
"Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" is originally from the theme song to the 1952 film "High Noon". The theme song is by Tex Ritter and is called "Theme to High Noon", and features the refrain, "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling."
ReplyDeleteUnless it was in the magazine you are thinking of before 1952, that is the origin of the phrase.
That sounds really interesting. My brother wrote a novella about a kid who accidentally (through a bureaucratic error) gets sent to a high school of teens in limbo (dead, actually), which, believe it or not, was pretty funny.
ReplyDeleteSophia: Thanks for stopping by.
ReplyDeleteYou 99% hit the nail on the head.
I actually pulled the phrase from an old MAD Magazine spoof of "High Noon", called "Hah Noon!". They had a peripheral character singing that opening line, who winds up being shot by Gary Cooper's character at the end of the story.
So as promised, I'll feature a link to your blog/website on the front page of mine for the rest of the month.
R.K.: Thanks. This one is being written more as a romance than anything else.
hehe I was confused about whick title your blog subtitle(a food magazine of some sort I was thinking) or the blog post (which I thought was some old western movie song). It's been a long week already. Story sounds very cool. I read a book about a woman who had died in an accident and lingered here because she didn't want to cross over. Very interesting premise it was. I like you have been lurking around but sadly terrible about commenting. Will try to be better. It's nice to know there's people out there reading what you write and share. I'm glad you have good radio to make the shudder work day shudder go better. Right now I'm sharing office space with a co-worker who has a very ecclectic taste in music and is taking delight and sharing in hopes of making me crack. Fortunately my taste is very broad but a Michael Buble sound-alike doing a long lizard version of Pearl Jam's "Better Man" put me over the edge. I do have my ipod shuffle but politics dictates that it would be rude to plug that in. 'sigh'
ReplyDeleteHi Jeanne.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I do go through periods where I do more lurking than commenting, but I try to comment just to let people know that there's someone still out there enjoying the blog.
I will admit, sometimes I do have a major disconnect with blog titles and content (like this one). I enjoy making people think, or at the very least, throwing them for a loop, although I must confess, I'm not even sure how I attracted the aforementioned Sophia Cacciola, since this post was only posted for five hours before she came by for a visit.
I will admit, it's nice that people do enjoy what I write. I think I would still be writing, even if I was the only one reading it (and I spent most of 2008 like that).
And the radio....the radio....the radio has been both a blessing and a curse sometimes. Right now, it's a blessing.
A Lascivious Limbo ... Love the title.
ReplyDeleteyes, I went so far as to name my band "Do Not Forsake Me Oh My Darling" so I have a personal interest in the phrase! (http://donotforsake.com - if you're interested!)
ReplyDeleteBest,
Sophia
Sophia: Thanks for stopping by again.
ReplyDeleteI meant what I said, and yesterday, after doing a bit of exploring of both your blog and website, I update my front page, so near the top is a link to both your blog and website (wasn't sure which one you would want, so I did both.
Travis: Thanks. I want to re-write it as a ghost story of sorts, but to also keep it in the same vien of what I've been writing for the past couple of years.
It's funny, but it only has one semi-graphic sex scene in it. The rest of it is strongly suggestive of trodding down that path.
Sounds like you're well on your way with this novel, G! And definitely a catchy title and a nicely twisted plot. :)
ReplyDeleteTalon: Thanks....I should be getting back to it (I hope) in about another week or so. I'm finding that I need to take long breaks from it, so that I can properly figure out what I need to write next in it.
ReplyDeleteLove the title. You've got good ideas and an interesting plot. Good luck with this one. I know you'll hit it out of the park :)
ReplyDeleteThanks.
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, but unlike a few other pieces of mine, this one is not dripping with graphic sex.
It only has one graphic scene (somewhat tastefully done), but otherwise, it's chock full of suggestive innuendo.