Crawling Into The Playground Of My Mind

Today's post will be one part update and one part exploration as it applies to my writing and the various projects I have on hand.

1} Update

I'm making steady, albeit very slow, progress in rewriting my crime novella/novel "It's Just Business". Free time, as always, is a precious commodity that I don't have great quantities of. So I plod along the best I can.

I've now reached the decision on what I want to do with my completed novellas "Shadow's Vengeance" and "Blackness In The White Sand" and where I want to go, and that is to go the self-publishing route. I want to do Smashwords for the e-book version and Createspace for the print version of my novellas.

The main reason as to why I decided to self-publish is that the novella, for what its worth, is unusually hard to land with a publisher (see the rejects I got for Shadow's Vengeance). Most publishers prefer the novel (i.e. 60K+) format as opposed to the novella format, and except for my commercial debut, most of my stories are in that particular format.

With that being said, I am having a devil of a time trying to find an acceptable cover for my novella Shadow's Vengeance. The problem that I'm finding is a bit of a sticky issue, in that my female MC's are black, and for the subject matter in question (Hell, demons and angels) all of the type of covers that I've found to fit, use white models as their anchor.

I really don't want to use landscapes and things like that for my novella, as having a person would make a better connection/tie-in for the novella. So, we shall keep looking and hopefully I'll find something before the end of the year.

2} The playground of my mind

I think I've mentioned previously that when I tap into my subconscious, the writing that springs forth has a tendency to be uber violent. This particular point was driven home earlier this year when I decided to put away a rather revolting (IMO) crime novella/novel. The content contained within that story runs directly counter to what I can tolerate in my reading, and as such, always gave me a severe case of the creeps whenever I decided to work on it. After I'd put it away, I swore I would never take a stroll down that particular pathway again.

Sad to say, I am travelling down that particular pathway again, as I'm now mining not only the dark recesses of my memory banks, but examining some of the ethical quandaries as well.

What I mean about ethical quandaries, which I'm sure we all have faced at one time or another in our lives, is that some of the content that I'm creating runs directly counter to how I actually stand to a given part of the content.

But, as some are want to say, sometimes the genre that you choose to write in will often dictate how the content should be created. In the crime genre, it is my belief (and I'm sure people will disagree with this belief) that you really have to lose whatever inhibitions you may have about a particular subject/concept in order to write a satisfying story.

This is something that I'm actively doing with this novella/novel.

The basic premise is that a drug dealer has pawned his wife off to one of his lower level seller/runner. The other basic plot is that the end of the novella/novel takes place at a funeral. So my main issue is to get from the start of plot A to the end of plot B by any means necessary. And because it's in the crime genre as well as the paranormal genre, it gives me carte blanche to get from A to B.

For the moment, I'm not really thrilled about some of the scenes I've written, but I keep reminding myself that in the crime genre, the end justifies the means.

Or does it?

Two Turntables And I Ain't Scared To Use 'Em

One of the main reasons why I wanted to purge and clean out my den last June (and in the process get completely wasted and sick), was that I wanted to be able to listen to my monster record collection. Prior to this past June, my music and stereo were spread out on two floors/three locations in my house: the 45's (about 1200+) located in the dining room, the majority of my LP's (about 1700+) located in the cellar buried in back of a pallet of old booze and the remaining LP's (about 500+) and two turntables located in my soon-to-be man cave.

So after doing a ginormous non-medical three day purge of the contents of my soon-to-be man cave and some killer vacuuming, coupled with the three hour titanic non-food binge, I had my music set up to where I could properly access it. Not only was I finally able to figure out just exactly what the hell I had (for the first time in five years), but I inadvertently created a nice place where I could play bad air guitar, bad air bass and bad air drums.

Anywho, I also found a great place to put my two turntables. Originally they were just to left of me and my computer, but after the remodel, they wound up on top of the 45 record cabinet.

About the turntables. Ever since my one piece stereo (turntable/cassette/AM-FM tuner) vanished while I was moving back to Newington in 2004, I've been on a major search and destroy for either a new turntable plus components or a one piece stereo to play my vinyl on. I succeeded in the late 2000's by buying a combined turntable/radio tuner/cassette/CD player & burner stereo. So I spent some time not only to listening to my music but burning CD's as well. Eventually I gave up using the turntable as the cheap stylus (plastic) wore out, and just concentrated on the CD player portion.

This went on for a few more years, until I was able to buy one of those turntables that I could hook into my computer and burn CD's/listen to music via my computer. However, we did a slight swerve as we took a few of the funky colored wires that came with it and hooked up the turntable through the seldom used one piece stereo.

Presto! Instant semi-killer stereo system!

Or so I thought. In my haste to get a decent stereo system up and running, I neglected to think about one very key concern: speakers.

That's right boys and girls. I was so wrapped up in getting my turntable up and running that I completely forgot about getting separate speakers (and thus having twin stereo sound) in my man cave. So the end result is now a crappy stereo sound in my man cave and a unhappy camper.

But... there was a little light at the end of the long dark tunnel. Even though I had a crappy stereo sound that mostly drove me batty, I did have that one key accessory that all people need if they want to play air guitar or air drums without bothering the outside world.

Headphones!

So now all is right with my world, because now not only do I have a semi-killer stereo system but I have a pair of killer headphones that will help me properly fry out my brain cells, whether I listen to 45s, LPs, or CDs.

I tell you, not only is music a beautiful thing but it can push you to do things that you long thought were too aggravating or tedious to do.

Writing To Music?

Music and writing, while they go hand in hand for most people, it rarely did for me. Usually, the only time I would listen to music while writing would be while I was applying a boat load of editing notes to a second draft of a given manuscript. Beyond that, music was a bona fide major league distraction of epic proportions.

But sometimes, certain things do change, and listening to music while writing was one of them.

I've mentioned previously that I was reworking and rewriting a very old (about six years) crime novella/novel, so that it would be more in line with what I was already writing (paranormal). However, I knew I had my work cut out for me, because while I had originally written this thing while I was still able to channel some anger into my writing, I had no such reservoir to help me now.

But... I did have an idea on how to get some of that anger, or rather, that particular mindset back. Some time ago, I remember reading a comment put forth by Charles Gramlich, either on his blog or on mine, on how he would often listen to hard rock/heavy metal in order to write battles scenes for his stories.

I thought if that can work for him maybe it can work for me.

Enter my record collection.

After going on a brief search and destroy, I found some heavy metal/hard rock to listen to. First up were two Metallica LP's: Masters of Puppets and Garage Days Re-Revisited.

That music was just what the doctor ordered as the opening notes of "Battery" instantly got me into the necessary frame of mind to rewrite the story.

Dark violent music equals sometimes dark and seriously violent writing.

It took me almost a half dozen attempts before I was able to listen to each album in its entirety. The end result from those two albums with roughly a quality pages of prose (I had originally started rewriting the lighter music, but switched up when I realized that the rest of the novella/novel required darker and heavier stuff).

As I've mentioned earlier, I started with some Metallica, but soon realized that if I wanted to continue down this vein of darkness I was going to need a larger dose of heavy metal.

A quick search of my memory bank brought up an early eighties compilation entitled The Best Of Metal Blade, Volume 1. So I spent a few weeks frying my brain cells out to early eighties heavy metal (i.e. Fates Warning, Airax, Bitch and Celtic Frost). Did a world of good for pumping up the anger quotient for my writing.

Once I mentioned to finish off that very nice double LP, I quickly search my memory banks and came up with Motorhead.

Gracing my turntable right now is the first of about four Motorhead albums, entitled 1916.

I do have some other heavy metal/hard rock floating around, Judas Priest and Iron Maiden for example, that should keep me occupied for the rest of the novella/novel.

Sometimes, you just have to open your mind to new sources of creativity, inspiration, and a new way of getting things done.

What Happens On Hiatus Doesn't Stay On Hiatus

Day one featured random thoughts of abandonment zipping through my brain at breakneck speed as I couldn't stop thinking about how my loyal readers would vacate the premises once my blog settled into hiatus mode.

Day two featured a calmer mood and greater appreciation for all things that surround me. Day two also featured an internal slap across the face for thinking such a pedestrian thought.

Day three through nine featured all kinds of interesting things, including rediscovering my warped sense of humor (FB), pushing various people's buttons (FB), non-hysterical discussions on certain hot topic issues (FB), writing with music and music.

Re: Music.

I spent an ungodly amount of my hiatus listening to music and/or getting lost within myself. I rediscovered a few parts of myself that were long thought buried, and after doing some writing to music, rediscovered my passion for blogging.

I actually came up with a few music related posts while I was getting lost within myself and during the past weekend (14th & 15th), felt relaxed enough to sit outdoors within the shade of Cedar Mountain and start fleshing them out. I have one post already written and a partial one in my folder of fun, and as I go about my day-to-day activities, will probably jot down a few ideas that I have percolating on the back burner

As for this blog, while I have rediscovered my passion for blogging, I am still very leery of going back to a schedule. So to avoid putting undue stress on myself, especially since I've decide to slightly refocus my efforts with my writing (more on that much later in the program), I decided to borrow a page from everyone else out there who blogs and (sort of) blog on the fly.

If I got something that is ready to post, I'll post. If I don't, I won't stress about it.

I'm not quite sure what other changes I might make to this blog, content-wise, but you can be sure that I'll clue everyone in before I do it.

To liven up your Prince Spaghetti day, I leave you with a song that has been humming in the background of my mind while I was writing this post.

Is This The End?

A fourth of a score and some change ago, I started this little blog that you happen to be perusing today. Called Cedar's Mountain, it basically contained my witty and sometime acerbic observations about life, the real world and the cyber world.

For 1,047 posts, I managed to keep not only my readers, but myself entertained as well. Through the various peaks and valleys, and yes, even through the cyclical nature of people's tastes, attitudes and their lives, I tried to be that anchor of calm in an ocean of chaos.

This past week, after posting two throwaways (1048 & 1049) on my bog, I've come to the bitter realization that maybe it's time to ride off into the sunset.

I came to this realization not gradually, but rather suddenly, in that while I was supposedly procrastinating about writing a post about turntables & music, I was really procrastinating about having to write something for the blog.

Sometimes, after we do something that we love for an extended period of time, we wake up one day with a case of "WTF am I doing this for?"

In other words, we are nauseated by what we love to do.

My friends, after five and a quarter years of blogging, I am suddenly overwhelmed with a bad case of nausea. I look at my blog and say to myself, "What am I doing here?"

Previously, the answer would be, "You're here to write a blog post, so get to it."

Now, the answer is, "Damned if I know."

Granted, it's a bad answer to give yourself. It's also a bad answer to give everyone else who depends on you to fulfill their weekly dose of you.

But, as I'm want to say from time to time, there is more to this than meets the eye.

Burnout coupled with disillusionment can often cause people to make snap decisions that they later regret (guilty as charged). So my friends, I need to think long and hard about what I want to do versus what I need to do with this blog.

And because I need to think long and hard about my blogging future, I'm going on hiatus for short spell. You'll still be able to peruse my blogs, as not only do I detest closing a blog for any kind of reason (FSG notwithstanding), but I still intend to be a presence in the cyber world.

I'll still read and comment on your blogs, because quite frankly it's the perfect mental break for the day and/or evening.

Piltdown Man, Lovecraft and Tequila Sunrises for all.

I remain yours in perpetuity,

George

It's Just Business

I thought I would lighten the mood a little bit by writing about my latest writing project, because frankly, I'm finding myself getting wound tighter than the NAACP over a Texas Rodeo Clown.

This particular novella , which I've mentioned numerous times in the past either in passing or as a full blown post almost from day one of this blog, is what I considered to be the platform that I've launched numerous writing endeavors: five blogs, two short stories, one novel, one chapbook and one short story trilogy.

I'm not entirely sure where I came up with the basic premise of this novella (yes, really). All I remember about this novella are the following items:

1} Crime genre. The plot, as I've been able to deduce, is about a low level drug dealer who gets stuck with his boss's skanky girlfriend. One subplot features her getting him into a lot of trouble. Another has a rival drug dealer wanting to use the both of them as bait for a hostile takeover.

2} I wrote myself into a serious corner back in 2007 and it took me several month to get out of it, which means I went nuclear on it, aka, purging a huge chunk of text to get myself back to where I started getting lost.

3} I had the final scene of the book play out to the end at the end of each chapter. In other words, while you were reading each chapter, you were also reading a huge part of the final chapter at the same time.

4} It was my first interracial story (you can thank my small circle of female friends for that inspiration).

5} It wasn't a paranormal fantasy (didn't really get into that until a few years later).

6} It underwent at least four name changes. Early on I called it "Cedar Mountain Ecstasy", then "Ecstasy", then "E", then "It's Just Business". The main reason for the title changes is that I grew disenchanted with each title, until I came up with one that I semi-like.

So basically, even though I'm not doing a total rewrite from scratch, I'm still tweaking the hell out of it.

In addition to the painfully obvious sentence/paragraph/grammar repair that needs to be done, I plan on performing the following modifications as well.

1} Turning the female MC into a hybrid human. However, I do need to come up with a different feline to use. I've already used a lynx and a jaguar in my stories for hybrids and a cougar is out of the question (obviously), so I'm thinking of using a cheetah as a hybrid.

2} I still want to keep it as a crime novella, although in this one its bad guy versus bad guy versus semi-bad guy, so that means I may have to tweak the violence a little. Plus a add new kind of drug since crystal meth/crack/ecstasy is so 90's. Maybe K2, which is becoming popular amongst the younger generation.

3} Sex. Would you believe that I have exactly one implied and one semi-explicit scene of sex? I know, it's hard to believe, but I think I need to tweak those, plus a few others as well. I must be slipping in my old age.

4} Interracial. Interracial couples are still my relationship of writing choice, so it behooves me to keep it like that.

5} Locale. I simply love using Connecticut as my locale of choice, since it's the one that I'm most comfortable with. If you can use local as a basis for all things connected to your story, then half the battle is already one.

I think this basically sums up what I want to do with this novella/novel, which is to bring it more in line with what I already got sitting on the sidelines: paranormal/fantasy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Since I originally wrote this post about a month ago (yeah, I'm just that lazy), some things went bump in the night. Specifically, I started re-writing the novella and so far, I managed to reduce the page count by two. I've tidied up the grammar and started filling in the logic holes that I enthusiastically wrote in the first time around. I've tweaked the female MC and turned her into a hybrid but so far have resisted making her uber violent and uber assertive like I've done in my other completed novellas. Finally, I started working on the sex thing, but so far, haven't needed to make it that totally graphic. Yet.

In other news, if you haven't had the chance to check out this:

You should give it a chance this coming weekend, as on August 24th and 25th, I'll be giving it away for free on Amazon. That's right, absolutely free. So check it out, and while you're at it, you can wander over to Smashwords and check out my short story trilogy, which is partially free as well.

I Is Rejuvenated!

It's funny how the warmer weather can have such a profound impact on one's own creativity.

Usually in the fall and winter, my muse, as it applies to my writing, has a tendency to go wandering off to the land that time has forgotten about. Where the air is warm, the breeze is cool and gentle, and life is exceptionally easy and sleazy. Thus, my writing screeches to a halt. Dried up. Dried out. Barren as a blade of grass in the Mojave desert.

But...when the warmer weather hit, that's when things start to heat up.

My muse comes in from the cold, shakes off the aftereffects of sun, wind spray, more sun, more wind, sand, etc. etc. etc. etc.

.....

.....

Muse steps over and uncorks a high hard one that sends good old G.B. flying out of the chair and face first to the ground. She looks over and after being satisfied with a job well done, sits down in front of the computer and starts to type.

Coming back from the cold, eh?! Where the hell do you get off telling these good people that I'm a slacker?! I'll have you know that I ain't no slacker! Contrary to popular opinion, while you was busy pretending to be the man you ain't, I was busy conjuring up new ideas and fresh approaches to old ideas.

But did you pay attention to me? Hell no! You were busy being the martyr and playing that bullshit "woe is me" persona that fools everyone but me.

During the rant G.B. starts showing signs of life. He grabs hold of the chair and slowly pulls himself up. Muse, suddenly aware of her chair being moved, looks to her left and spies G.B. doing the moving. Narrowing her eyes until they were mere slits, she delivers a hard elbow to his jaw, dislodging him from the chair and knocking him out cold.

Again satisfied at job well done, she turns her attention back to the computer.

Sorry for the interruption, but the f.b.i. guy was trying to butt in again. Now where was I? Oh yeah. I was busy working my tight little ass off coming up with a slew of fresh new ideas that would knock your socks off. But was he paying attention to me and my ideas? Of course not. He would listen to my ideas, then say, "yeah, sure, okay that'll work, thanks." before dismissing me with a wave of his slimy little hand.

This went on for quite a while and each time that he would do it, I would get wetter than a mad hen. Until finally he went to the well one to many times and..."

"No I didn't, sweet thang," said G.B., who had finally regained consciousness.

"Excuse me."

Muse gets up and within the span of thirty seconds was having another knockdown drag out battle with G.B. Punches were thrown, screams could be heard, clothing was torn and rip, then suddenly all becomes very quiet.

Uncomfortably quiet.

Passionately quiet as one could just vaguely hear a few choice words and phrase drifting out from outside the computer desk.

Many minutes later, Muse returned and took a seat in front of the computer. Looking like something the cat dragged in after a passionate night and day of lovemaking, she sighed deeply and lovingly, before viciously attacking the keyboard.

So after he went to the well one too many times, words and passionate...ummm...hostilities were exchanged. Eventually we came to a mutual understanding about what my future will be in this partnership.

......

......

Damn!

......

Ummm....well...I leave you with this thought. My main man G.B. has once again found that his creative juices are just bursting at the seams, and he would like to thank yours truly for helping him find the spigot to unleash those juices.

'Cause after all, a muse like myself knows all the moves and has all the weapons at her disposal, in order to make her writer shine like polished gold.

I Is Losted

For three solid years (2010 thru 2012) I didn't let anyone or anything stop me from achieving my goal of being a published somebody. I developed serious tunnel vision as I motored my way through from a seed of an idea that was planted in my head on Super Bowl Sunday to a first draft, second draft, editing, re-editing, third draft, re-re-editing, contract, cover, trailer, first galley, second galley and finally e-publication, with print publication taking place this year.

With that success still fresh, I decided to tweak a novella so that I could continue my journey of becoming a published somebody. That particular item occupied my time for another two months or so, as I re-edited and re-wrote the novella until it was a high glossy finish, and began the laborious process of querying and submitting.

While that was going on, I decided to work on my slush novel, so that I would have something in the on deck circle once I had succeeded in landing my novella with a publisher.

However, a problem quickly raised its very ugly head and has threatened to permanently derail this new project.

No passion.

Try as I might, I am seriously lacking the passion to actually write this thing. Whether its because I have the daunting task of completely re-writing 12 chapters and merging a chapbook into a viable product, or the fact that I plan on using my Dragon software to write this entire thing from beginning to end, I honestly can't say.

With my previous book, the passion and drive was there. I mean, I wrote that thing on my computer at home, on paper in my backyard, on paper at the park, you name the location, I cranked out at least a few paragraphs.

With this project, the passion and drive is definitely not there. It's more like, "Gotta sit my ass down and make a go of this. Oh wait, I should write a brief outline/synopsis so I know what the F this thing is all about, then I should do a little research for new character names, maybe come up with a new direction/twist...." and so on and so on. Anything to avoid to do actual writing.

To be honest with everyone, this issue is actually part of larger problem, which is the lack of original writing. I have not written an original word since April 2010. As of this post, that's coming up on 4 years.

4 years.

Four years of no writing putting me into a sour mood is bad enough, but when I'm reading the various blogs and Facebook pages of fellow writers and I see all of these updates by everyone of the fantastic progress that everyone is making with their writing, not only does my sour mood turn ugly, but now I'm become just a tad unglued.

I actually have nothing against my fellow writers for doing what they're doing and I'm all for them, but comparing their progress with my lack of progress (among other things) puts me into the type of frame of mind that makes it a daily struggle not to act like a total Richard.

So, how does one deal with the reality of when one's passion/drive for writing rides off into the sunset for a seriously extended vacation?

A Writing Vacation We Did Take, But Did We Actually Write?

Last week, I decided to take a two and a half day vacation from work so that I might be able to do some writing, 'cause to put it bluntly, I have not done any original writing (i.e non-editing or rewriting) since 2010. Yes, I know it sounds hard to believe, but there was a plan of attack behind the drought, in that I would always have something on deck while I was attempting do something with a previously completed manuscript.

In other words, while I was busy trying to get Line 21 published, I had a completed novella on deck, so that when I finally was able to get Line 21 published, I would have something to start the process all over again. So as you can see, I'm kind of anal/linear when it comes to my writing.

Anyways, now that I'm going through the submission/querying process with my novella, I once again need a completed manuscript in the on-deck circle.

Thus, the basic idea behind the writing vacation.

But as you undoubtedly have come to know in your life, the best laid plans are often just that.

So after a 3 1/2 year hiatus, I took out that slush novel (A Lascivious Limbo) and sat down this past Monday at the library to familiarize myself with the various plots and rationales behind the novel. For two hours, I read all 115 pages from beginning to end, trying like hell to remember what I was writing about. Sadly, when I had finished reading, I came to the realization that there was simply no way on Father Nature's green earth I was going to be able to finish this particular slush novel, if ever.

Did I go back to square one? Well, I did spend the next few hours feeling sorry for myself and lamenting over the fact that I didn't get any writing done, so yeah, you might say I went back to square one. After I had gotten the pity party out of my system, I got to thinking on what I should work on next. And truth be told, it quickly became a no-brainer on what I should work on next.

The novel version of my self-pubbed chapbook, Betrayed!

Long story short, back in 2009, I spent several months waffling on whether I should publish a chapbook version of my novella, or give up the self-publishing ghost and concentrate on writing a full length novel. In the end, I did both. I self-pubbed my chapbook and wrote about 10 chapters of the novel, which I ended at the beginning of the chapbook.

Five years later, I now have a project to work on. On one side of the equation, I have 10 completed chapters of a novel. On the other side, I have a chapbook/novella of the exact same thing. So if you can believe it, I got a chance to create something completely new out of two different versions of the same story.

I'm actually looking forward to doing this, because this will give me the opportunity to apply what I've learned in the past five years of writing. Plus, it will give me something to write about on the blog, since having a published outline to a novel is definitely something worth exploring.

First things first, I need to come up with a new title for the novel. The original title was "A Betrayal of Vows" and I'm not too thrilled about keeping it, since I plan on doing a semi-major gutting of the novel and the while the overall plot will remain the same, I want to incorporate a few other things into the mix.

So my question to you is this: what should the title of this new novel be? If you need a refresher, you can click on the link up above which will give you a brief synopsis of the chapbook.

Fulfilling My New Year's Resolution 2013

About three and a half years ago, I wrote a novella based on this short piece of flash fiction, which was originally based on doing what I do best in my spare time: people watching.

The original plot of that piece of flash fiction was something that was pretty basic and somewhat overused: obsessive love. Nothing more, and certainly nothing less, and as you can see by the comments left at that post, everyone agreed that it was a pretty decent piece of prose, also nothing more and certainly nothing less.

By late December, I had managed to write a roughly thirty page novella, details of which can be found here, broken link and all. And up until recently, the hardest part in writing this novella, was trying to come up with a decent title for it, which after six tries, became "A Shadow Warrior's Redemption".

For the next couple of years, I would periodically tweak it before sending it off to the only part of my writing life in which I have a sparkling .000 batting average: writing contests. Eventually, I got fed up with having a .000 batting average with that story (really, all of my stories that were submitted to writing contests), and after doing one last edit to keep myself occupied while the glacial wheels for publishing my book creakily completed its one and only rotation, I stuck it in my world famous (to me) slush pile of semi-ignorance.

Fast forward to late 2012.

While I was posting a short series on what slush novel I should work on next, an unexpected offer happened to pop up in my other online home (Facebook). So being the flexible writer that I am, I quickly switched gears and pulled out my novella. After giving it some thought, I decided to try something a little different. I had been writing my personal slush crime novel in the first person/present tense for the past several months, and after working through a few kinks, I decided to try the same approach with an already completed story.

So I proceeded to spend the next month re-editing/re-writing my entire novella in the first person/present tense p.o.v. Being pretty stoked about what I had accomplished gave me enough motivation to write out a super short synopsis (678 words) in the first person and the query letter, with a 79 word synopsis, all in the span of about a week and a half.

With everything all set and ready to go, I contacted my friend to ask if her offer was still valid. Sadly, things went bump with her (she was very unhappy with her current publisher), and thus, the offer was no longer valid.

Expressing sympathy for my friend's predicament (about two months later, another friend went through something much worse with the same publisher), I nevertheless decided to soldier on and within a week, I started querying the novella. I immediately sent out one query to a publisher that was looking for novellas, and while I was deciding who to query next (one will definitely be sent to my current publisher, as they're now reopened to some types of submissions, and one will not be sent to that anonymous publisher I had previously mentioned), I also decided to revisit the idea of doing what I did with Line 21 back in 2011 when I had begun querying that novel: create a page to chart the journey to publication of A Shadow Warrior's Redemption.

Thus, I present to you the reading public, the static page for my latest project, A Shadow Warrior's Redemption. Just like with Line 21, you'll be able to follow the journey of ASWR to publication. I don't believe I'll be able to duplicate the success I had querying Line 21 (struck gold on the 13th query), but I do believe that I will strike gold sometime this year with this novella.

And thus, fulfill for the 3rd consecutive year, my New Year's resolution of getting at least one story published.

2011: Short story entitled "Red Stripe"
2012: Commercial debut novel entitled "Line 21"
2013: Will it be ASWR?

What Is Present Is Simply The Epilogue To The Past

Today's post is the end result of combining too little sleep, too much snow, a general malaise of the body and early morning overtime into one big fat pot of charcoaled nothingness. In other words, genuine real world burnout.

This past weekend, while I was searching for something to write about for today, I started going through my big fat notebook of the first year and a half (May '08 thru Sept '09) of this blog. A few things gradually stuck out while I was perusing that notebook.

1} I was a really mouthy blogger. Mouthy as in, seriously sarcastic and seriously caustic.

2} I wrote some seriously long essay style posts.

3} I had a lot to say and most of the time, I went for the jugular with each and every post written.

By going through this notebook, it's interesting to see not only how I had started developing as a blogger but how I had started developing as a writer. In those early years ('08 thru '09) I was really all over the place with my blogging and my writing. I guess one could say with a certain degree of truthfulness, that I was trying to find my voice as a blogger and writer.

Problem was, my voice as a blogger was not the same as my voice as a writer.

As a blogger, my voice was simply oozing confidence to the point of arrogance. I wrote what I want, when I want (which in those early years, was a punishing pace of one to two posts every other day). I mean, I covered almost every single general topic that one could think of, at least how it applied to me. Truth be told, in those early years, there was almost no feasible way to stop me or shut me up. For all intents and purposes, I was a blogging machine during those early years.

But (yeah, you know that one was going to show up sooner or later) one very valid and feasible way not only showed up to stop me, but it damn well took me by the shirt, jacked me up a few feet, then threw me down a well traveled path that countless others had taken.

And what was that one very valid and feasible way that decided to grace my humble abode?

My conscience and his bitchy wife the Muse decided that it was time for me to serious up with my writing, so they collectively stopped by in early 2010 and basically jacked me up and threw me down the path of where no truly sane and fragile ego dared to tread.

The path of most resistance? Getting published.

So thus began a quest, fraught with perils, pitfalls (without Harry), potholes and more alliteration that you can possibly and unequivocally shake a finger at (but not with a pointed stick), to get myself published the normal (aka not self-publishing) way.

'Course, this meant that two things needed to happen: I had to clamp down on my blogging voice and pump up my writing voice.

But, to pump up my writing voice, I first needed something to pump it up with. That something was finally found back in 2010, which was first specifically mentioned in mid March of 2010 (if you scroll down the entire month, amongst all those posts with a general theme of sex and broken links, you will recognize a post with a title that is now the central focus of my nascent writing career).

From that point on, I did indeed find my writing voice and to this day, it has not left me. That writing voice of mine is the glue that is both keeping me grounded and to a lesser extent keeping this blog going.

As the title says, the present is simply the epilogue to the past, and my past is what truly got me here to the present.

I may someday unleash my true blogging voice again, but at this point, it will clearly be riding shotgun to my writing voice, because right now, my writing voice is now driving the 442 in the extreme left lane down the interstate highway that is my life. And it's my writing voice who will determine how much of my blogging voice will bleed through to grace your computer screen.

And no, I'm not saying goodbye, 'cause you know, you really can't get rid of me that easy. I'll still be here to feed you fresh meat (or fresh vegetables if you happen to be vegetarian), except starting next week, it will be on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with an alternating weekend post thrown in for good measure, because you know deep down, truly deep down, you guys are more than just my regular readers.

You are my cyber friends and my cyber family. You mean as much to me as my flesh and blood friends and family do.

Have a fantastic Monday, and I'll catch you on the flip side of Wednesday, when I'll introduce the story that will help me fulfill my New Year's resolution for the 3rd straight year. In the meantime, please check out this piece of flash fiction that my publisher put up on their blog last week for Valentine's Day. It originaly was part of a top five spammer lovefest tag post.

It's called, "A Long Difficult Journey".

Now Objectify!

I thought I would finish off this weird week by doing a two part series on nudity and women in fiction, and yes, you can fully immerse your mind in the gutter because I really want to hear your opinion about nudity and women in fiction. So sit back, relax, have a few beers, turn on those Dallas Cowboys on your t.v. Lock your doors and close your minds. It's time, for the two minute warning....whoops, wrong tangent.
~~~~~~~~~~~

The other day I was participating in a conversation about smaller government (a very big thing within a sub-circle of my Facebook friends), when a particular person we'll call Andrea decided, as some liberals are want to do when they find themselves on the losing end of a well thought out multi-pronged argument to change the topic by dumping on my book cover and saying I should be ashamed about objectifying women.

Now In Print



My reply, in its entirety, was this:

Sure, let's talk about how I objectify women. My avatar picture is my commercial debut called "Line 21". It's the story about a woman who's in debt to her uncle the loan shark, and the only way that she can come up with the $2000 in five day is to become an adult movie actress.

Now, if you have an issue with a woman using her body to earn money to pay bills, pay tuition for college, or simply to live a better life, that's your prerogative. But I can point you in the direction of dozens of women who do just that with what they do, be it with making movies, dancing as a stripper (Gold's Club anyone?), be in rap videos, what have you, in order to better themselves.

So please, tell me how writing a story about a woman who has an ethical quandary in using her body that way is objectifying her?

Andrea, do yourself a favor and go to a bookstore or surf Amazon and you'll find quite a few books written by women who have done exactly that, and not only have made a career out of doing it, but built a solid money making company out of it as well.

I finished the comment by doing a brief pimp of my book.

Suffice to say, Andrea didn't really have a response to my comment and instead switched to another topic of discussion.

However, the question itself did get me to think about what I write and how I write it.

While it's true for the most part that my stories are dripping with sex, or rather, have lead characters who simply ooze estrogen, it's also equally true that I make a genuine effort in creating my character as strong as they can be. Again, I know it sounds cliche, but I do enjoy making my characters use sex as a weapon of control.

Line 21 does have an underlying theme of control, in that Jeannie discovers (belatedly) that she can basically control her slice of the world simply by using what she has.

In my short story Red Stripe punk rock singer Krystal also uses her body, as well as her voice, as a weapon to control, inspired and incite the crowd with tragic consequences.

The point I'm trying to make, is that in adult fiction (as well as other mediums) sex sells, and thus requires a writer to use a certain amount of that particular weapon to enhance and/or round out a story. Doesn't necessarily mean that we objectify a woman (or man for that matter), only that we are using the gift that we have to the best of our abilities. No more and no less.

So my question to you is simply this: What is your opinion about turning a woman (or a man) into an object of desire and/or fantasy for the purpose of a story?

If A Blog Repeats Itself, Is It Really A Bad Thing?

Last Sunday, I had a few hours to kill while waiting for the Patriots to ultimately lose to the Ravens in the AFC Championship game, so I decided what better way to kill those two hours than to go through the previous years on this blog to find posts about my current novel and my current project and add a few new labels to make them more readily accessible.

So, starting with mid 2009, specifically, this post, I proceeded to go through each and every post on my blog to see which posts fitted the criteria I had previously stated. Along the way, I discovered one troubling fact: my posts for 2010 thru mid 2011 were some of the salient, zany, offbeat and downright peculiar pieces of delectable prose that it was my pleasure to have wrote.

Somehow and somewhere during the past couple of years, I have seem to taken the road way less traveled and apparently found myself on a tiny ledge with no easy way to get down. I'm not saying its a bad thing by any stretch of the imagination, but when your prose goes from something like this particular post, to what you've been writing for the past few months, it does have a tendency to make self-doubt start creeping into your blog writing.

Nevertheless, I am determined to make something good come out of that troubling fact. The first thing I plan on doing, which I actually started doing years ago, but stopped due to a short attention span, is to print out all of my posts and organize them either alphabetically or chronologically. The second thing I plan on doing, which I've already started with two new tags called "The Info Dump" and "My Blog", is to explore the vast archive of my blog and try to incorporate some of those old but wickedly solid posts of yesteryear into some new and updated versions.

I'm not quite sure what kind of reoccurring title I should come up with. I've already established a decent one for music called "Vanishing from the Megahertz", so I would like to come up with one that I can use as a reoccurring title for explore the archive that is Cedar's Mountain.

However, I would like to give everyone a fair warning about this little adventure. While during the years of 2009-2011 I was writing with a smoothness that I haven't experienced in quite some time, I was also keeping a tight rein on what I really wanted to say about certain things (like the above mentioned post). I think that this time around, I probably will go from a PG-13 point of view to about an sub R-rated point of view when I write new versions of the old scene.

In any event, this new facet won't debut for about a month or so since I need to get all of my ducks facing in the right direction. Which means not only do I need to print and organize my posts (yay), but I need to finish the project that I'd started this past Sunday. Plus, I need to wiggle this in with the upcoming querying process for my novella A Shadow Warrior's Redemption.

In the meantime, a dual question for you the reader:

1} Would this be something that you might find interesting to read and maybe explore?

2} Do you have a suggestion on what I should call this new reoccurring post series?

Don't Tell Them That!

Contest update: To Debra and David, I have not forgotten about you. My book hasn't dropped to print yet (although my publisher are doing their very best to clear out the backlog, for which I am extremely grateful) and as soon as it does, I will ship it out to you.

I would to share with a few pearls of wisdom that I have learned the hard way while I have been on this curious writing journey.

 Don't tell certain people that they're the source of inspiration for a given story.

This is especially pertinent if you write the kind of fiction that I write (here, here and here). This is the fastest way of a) making someone feel wickedly uncomfortable, and b) killing a friendship.

Think about it for a minute. If you write fiction that is flavored to varying degrees with sex, do you really want to tell a particular individual that they inspired you to write a steamy story?

While they may be flattered at first for all about ten seconds, that feeling will change faster than a politician with no courage of their convictions once they get hold of your story and read it. If it contains anything like I write (women of color are the main characters, either overtly or implied), I can almost guarantee that you will have the equivalent of a .45 pointed at an area between the legs while you try to explain their assumption would be incorrect.

So to cure this potential problem, if those friends (my circle of friends are predominately female) of yours ask about your inspiration, lie like a dog. You'll be thankful that you did, and more importantly, you'll still be in one piece AND your friends will still be your friends.

 Don't tell certain people that you didn't write them into a particular story.

If you have a spouse or friend who knows about your writing and is generally supportive of your writing endeavors, and they happen to inquire on whether or not they're written into a particular story that you're working on, don't come down with a case of the honestys and tell them no. That is the worst possible thing that you can say, because it will create conflict and a argument where there was none before.

Again, think about it for a minute. If they know about the story that you're working on, and you've talked about it in excruciating detail for months on end, don't let them assume anything other than they might be part of the story. If you keep them in the dark, they'll be happy and you'll be happy (and still friends/married).

For the record, I have told one person that they were written into a story of mine, and that was because they won a contest. For details, check out part one and part two of that particular contest.

Don't tell people what you really write.

This may sound overly paranoid, but if people know you as relatively well balanced individual with a strange sense of humor and you have developed/cultivated that particular reputation for years/decades, for God's sake, don't tell people what you write, if what you write is polar opposite of who you are.

Case in point: my friends and co-workers have a tough time reconciling the person they know with what I write for fiction. Think I'm kidding? I've had conversations that start and end like this:

Me: "I do a little writing on the side."

They: "Really? What do you write?"

Me: "Adult fantasy/erotica."

They: "Ummm...that's interesting."

So if a casual acquaintance/co-worker happens to ask you what you write, and you damn well know that if you give a honest answer you'll be hoisted by your own petard, do what I do: create a new genre called "quirky fiction" and tell them exactly that. That way, your reputation remains relatively intact and people won't look at you sideways.

So my friends, those are my pearls of wisdom when it comes to explaining the writing side of my life to friends, family and co-workers. When it comes to strangers that I carry on casual conversations, then I disregard the first two and throw caution to the wind with the third.

How 'bout you? Any lessons learned or gleaned from your years of writing that you simply do not do anymore in the company of people that you know?

Have I Got The Time?

Hell no, I don't have the time. What do you take me for, some kind octopus?

Since November 27th, I've often felt like I was an octopus, in that all kinds of issues/problems/tangents have been rearing their ugly head all at the same time. Be it work related or family related, it has demanded my attention to the point where I had to tell my muse to take five to the power of ten (that's 9,765,625 minutes or about 18 1/2 years) while I deal with whatever calamity is going on.

However, we are not going to vent on that today. Today's post will be an update on the various writing related thingys that are going in my world right now (hence, all the writing related tags that you see at the bottom of this post).

No original writing to speak of has oozed from pen since mid-October, which is directly due to my novel, Line 21, being unleashed to the general public.

That isn't to say that I haven't been doing any non-blog related writing. On the contrary and as I mentioned in a post from a few weeks ago, I have been attempting to write a synopsis for my novella "A Shadow Warrior's Redemption". However, when I finally sat down to do it, I discovered much to my annoyance that when I flipped open the novella (I have a hard copy), I still had a mixture of past and present tense, as opposed to being all present tense.

Thus, we started editing the novella, yet again. However, that came to halt this past week as I got an e-mail from my publisher stating that my book was ready to be sent to the printers and would I be kind enough to proof my PDF one last time making sure to look for errors and not to change prose and oh does the cover meet with your approval and oh do you want a pic on the back cover and oh is there anything else you might want to add to the back cover?

So to the side did my novella get flung to, and after blowing off the dust bunnies, we opened our PDF, to once again do a line-by-line edit. I say "once again" because yours truly neglected to save his notes from the last time he did this, which was in mid-October prior to the release of the book.

So we proceeded to spend the past three days line by line, excuse me, I should say, paragraph by paragraph skimming of my novel looking for small grammar/cosmetic errors that would deter from the enjoyment of the book.

Note: skimming through your book is a perfectly acceptable method of editing when you have almost every scene and plot swerve memorized to the point where if someone mentions a chapter, you can say with confidence what exactly is going on in that chapter.

When all was said and done, I was able to answer his questions with confidence by saying:

1} Found 6 grammar/cosmetic errors.
2} No pic, 'cause sometimes mystery about identity is a good thing.
3} The cover is fine as it has generated some strong comments, both positive and negative.
4} Some book review snippets would be nice.

And as an added bonus, gained a new book to read and review that the editor had written earlier (erotic thriller set in WWI).

Swiftly changing gears, we now move on to book reading/reviewing.

I did finish KC Sprayberry's wonderful YA novel Softy Say Goodbye over the Thanksgiving holiday. I left a very nice review (under my pen name) and I highly recommend it. Also this past week, I finished a nice romance novel by Christine Stovell entitled Move Over Darling, and I also thought it was pretty good. Strangely enough, the copy I have is in paperback and according to Amazon, isn't due to be published until March '13, and because of that, I wasn't able to leave a review on it.

And before you ask, "G.B., why didn't you leave it under the Kindle version?", the reason I didn't was that I'm a bit fussy when it comes to reviews. If I read an e-book, the review goes to the e-book. If I read a paperback/hardcover, the review goes to that. So in this case, I'll have to wait until March '13 to leave a lengthier review than the one I left on Facebook.

Beyond finishing those two, I have not yet found the time to start any of the now six books that I have loaded on my Nook. I do have Carl Brush's Second Vendetta as next to be read, but when that will be is anyone's guess.

So that about sums up what is going on writing-wise in my world. I'm looking to get back to editing my novella, but I have about three incomplete blog post ideas to work on and I have a tentative stop for G.B.'s Disjointed Blog Tour of 2012 in the works for this month to work on as well. And I have to work all of this in while dealing with the day-to-day bullshit that is putting a serious cramp in everything else that I want/need to do.

Yay me.

On The Fly Or Mining Those Brain Cells?

I'm a strange blogger (quiet!) in that I find it's easier to mine the brain cells for a blog post instead of blogging on the fly.

To me, blogging on the fly, while its the pinnacle of truly creative writing, ultimately kills me. It means I have to sit in front of my computer and not only think of a topic to write about, but write it without doing any kind of basic research. And believe it or not, blogging on the fly actually dries up my creative juices to the point where I actually wind up writing super duper short blog posts just so I can get something up for a given day in question.

However, mining the brain cells is a helluva lot more fun for me. I can take a pen to paper and write out a two to three page blog post on whatever the subject might be, from real world stuff to flash fiction, and stash it to the side for future use. This is the only advantage to my dead end job, because I have so much down time, this is the easiest way for me to fly under the radar and keep out of trouble. So more often than not, I can write about two week's worth of posts ahead of time while I'm killing time at work.

Some of my more crazier and well known posts have come from keeping myself occupied at work. Monday's post is a great example of that, in that I wrote the entire post at work, which took me about twenty-five minutes to write. The only extra work that I had to do on it was to dig out the half dozen or so links that were embedded in the post itself.

So the question for you today is, do you enjoy blogging on the fly, in which you sit down at the computer and simply write out your blog post with zero idea on what you're gonna write about (much like this post); or are you one of those people who enjoys mining the brain cells on what you're gonna write before sitting down at the computer and spending quality time writing out a thoughtful post?

Not Resting On My Laurels (3)

part 1, part 2

This post was originally supposed to be the final part of a min-series about what novel I should work on next. Part 1 dealt with the pimping of my chapbook, my debut novel and a teaser of sorts. Part 2 featured the back story of incomplete novel #1. Part 3 was supposed to be about incomplete novel #2.

However, as all of you are no doubt aware, the best laid plans often get changed at zero minus twenty.

I actually wrote this entire post (by hand) back in late October prior to the release of my debut. But between the release of my debut and the final post of this mini-series, I managed to do some nifty networking on Facebook with a fellow writer/friend.

She recently came out with a new novel and one day she decided to pimp out her publisher. I chose to comment on it, and after a pleasant conversation that featured among other things, types of story and word length, she gave me a proverbial offer that was too good to pass up: help with my next submission.

So, a few weeks ago, I took out a completed long short story entitled "A Shadow Warrior's Redemption" (not sure if I wrote about this previously on my blog. I think I did, but I'll be damned if I can't remember what tags it went under) and got busy doing another round of edits, mostly to tightened up the structure and dialogue.

It's been a wickedly slow process, 'cause as most of you probably have experienced in your world, sometimes real life takes precedence over extracurricular activities, so you do the best you can, when you can.

And if you think that it's gonna get slower once I get done with another round edits, you are correct. 'Cause not only am I editing this story yet again, but I have to write a synopsis for it as well.

For those of you who were around when I was going through my trials and tribulations in trying to write a synopsis for my novel (damn thing took me about three weeks to write, of which 20 1/2 days were spent procrastinating and the other half day PAICAW*), aka condensing 69K words to a four page outline/story; this time, I have to write synopsis for what will wind up to be about 18,500 words and a good query letter.

*Plant Ass In Chair And Write

The interesting thing about this novella is that while there is some graphic sex (yeah, this will be running theme in perpetuity), it's also chock full of paranormal violence, along with themes of Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory, and with personages of Angels and Demons driving the story.

So to sum things up, I'm not exactly resting on my laurels with my writing. I do have a project in the works (although it's not fresh writing), which will help me stay occupied while I think of a good way to pimp my novel without actually having a print copy to play with yet.

Not Resting On My Laurels (2)

part 1

As I'd stated in my last post, I have two incomplete novels that I'm having an incredibly hard time in deciding on which to work on next. Today's post will examine the candidate for the Never Say Die party.

The candidate for the Never Say Die party is entitled "A Betrayal of Vows".

If this sounds familiar, it ought to be, because it's the long version of my current chapbook Betrayed.

This one had a peculiar birth, death, rebirth, killed again, brought back on life support, squashed like a bug, surviving like a cockroach, stomped to death like a wine grape, and yet is still clawing its way back to rap on my chamber door.

If this sounds confusing to you, imagine how confused I got while searching the memory banks for this one. Nevertheless, in its full uglified glory, is the story about the life of a story that simply would not stay dead.

This story was written sometime between 2006 & 2008. I can't quite pinpoint the year, 'cause I was doing a boatload of writing back then (all of it pretty atrocious, save for one short story) and as soon as I'd finish one story, I would start on another.

This story was basically my 2nd attempt at writing a dual plotted story, and by all accounts, it was mediocre. Nevertheless, being blinded by my inflated opinion of my writing, I sincerely felt that I did a whiz bang job on this story. However, people smarter than me did not, so to the slush pile it eventually went.

Two years later, having started doing the blogging thing and in desperate need of material, I resurrected the story and posted it on my blog. There it stayed for a little over a year, until I started looking for something to self-publish.

I dragged the story out from the slush pile and believe it or not, started writing two new versions of the story: one, the chapbook version that you see for sale on my book blog; and two, the novel length version. At the same time.

Back then, I did have some major moose-size testicles when it came to multi-tasking my writing.

Anyways, I decided to write both of these things in '09 and unlike my early attempts, this time I had at least a year of gathering practical writing tips and advice from writers like Charles Gramlich, David Cranmer, Travis Erwin and David Barber. So armed, I decided to do something that I never did with a novel, but often did at work.

Research.

I started writing the novel version by using Google, my memory and a ridiculously large out-of-date road map. The end result become a novel with a setting that started in Connecticut, turned into a flight, then a road trip that went through parts of Maryland and ended in Virginia. As a matter of fact, this novel become one of my better efforts at writing a dual plot.

As plot one became the wedding, the flight and the honeymoon, plot two become where the wife decided to cheat on her husband with her bff.

As solid as my writing was for this novel, things eventually grounded to a halt, as I had decided, after much waffling, to self-pub the short story. So the novel went on the back burner, not that it wasn't going to be headed there soon.

I was slowly having problems in writing the second plot, simply because finding a handle on how to get to where the short story opens up at was becoming increasingly impossible.

Since I'd decided to self-pub this story and make a few dollars (ha!), there remained the problem of what to do about the version I had posted on this blog. The solution, while pretty clear to me, also was pretty drastic. Thus, the first of only three times in the history of my blog happened: I nuked the story. 32 posts in all vanished in one fell swoop, or rather, one click of the button.

I presently stand at the following places with this novel.

1} With the main plot, I've written up to where the chapbook actually starts at, which totals about 6 chapters.

2} With the second plot, I'm kind of at a crossroads. I have the MC's wife thoroughly besotted with her bff and I have the wife as the husband in that relationship. This issue I'm having is that I'm trying to get them from the apartment to where they're making out hot and heavy in the front seat of the car. Once I can get to that, then I can properly incorporate and expand on the chapbook itself. This has five chapters written, so overall, the book has a total of 11 chapters completed.

And just so you can get a basic idea of what this one is about, please take a stroll over to It's Always Saturday In Suburbia (if you can) for a short excerpt.

to be continued

Not Resting On My Laurels

One of the myriad of problems that can crop up when you create a multi-part post is when the first part suddenly becomes out-of-date and/or irrelevant.

Such is the case for this post. I had an absolutely beautiful beginning written for this post, where my biting humor, which has been sorely lacking for the past few months, came back for a surprise visit. However, last Thursday's post made part of this post completely irrelevant.

Be that as it may, I will do my best to salvage part 1 of this post. The title alone should give you the basic idea of what this multi-part post is about, which will be covered in minute detail (without putting you to sleep) in the coming days.

The now-tossed three paragraphs of part 1 dealt with the fact that I had the release date of my book pushed back because of some last minute editing changes. It also had a couple of links to the following blogs: Novel Spaces, my book blog and my adult blog.

And it also dealt with a blatant pimping of my chapbook "Betrayed"

Now that I've given you the essential re-crap of the first half of this post, we will now continue with the second half of the first part of this post as it was originally conceived.

Ahem

This P.S.A has been brought to you today by the wind being faster than a rolling "O", my imagination, which is stronger than a silent "E", and my ego, which can leap a seriously tiny "T" in a single bound without tripping over its shoelaces.

Because you know I'm not just a word, nor am I just a plan (contrary to the party of the 1st part of this post), I am Letter-man.*

*not to be confused with the gray hair himbo on CBS, 'cause you know I would never be a ho' or run interference for the President like he does.

Now, onto bigger and brighter things: namely, what in the world do I work on next?

The main reason why yours truly asks this seemingly inconsequential question of his readers, is that I really need to switch gears and work on something that would be more suited for general public consumption, 'cause you know what I'm working on now is not, beyond any truly enlightened people like my peeps, suited for public consumption.

The slush pile of ignorance that I have gently rapping at my chamber door isn't very large, but what I have is very meaty, very beefy, big and bouncy.

And maddeningly incomplete.

What might they be? Stayed tuned to this blog in the coming days to find out what that answer is. In the meantime, please enjoy this little video by Louis Armstrong.

It's Story Time With The Best Rejection Ever!

A two part post today, and what makes it unusual, it's that it'll be as short as the stubble on top of my head.

Over at "It's Always Saturday In Suburbia", we have part 3 of The Muse Is Thy Master. Not sure where I'm going with this story, but at least it's keeping me occupied and keeping me out of trouble while I'm writing it.

Not sure if I'd mentioned this last week, but I posted another 4 star review, this time for Gary Peterson's "The Millpond Murder Case". Feel free to check it out and possibly purchase a copy today. You won't be disappointed.

I posted this previously on Facebook over the weekend, and since I don't cross paths with most of you over there (yet), I thought I would post it over here.

In early September, I submitted a quirky horror story to The Cynic Magazine, called "A Day At The Office" for a special Halloween edition that they were putting together. This past Saturday (9/29), I got this very interesting rejection from the editor.

I just got through reading "A Day at the Office" and I thought it was pretty original. In fact, I enjoyed it. However, I don't think it's a good fit for our magazine. Give it a few years, and I think the public may just be ready for this one.

  Now how interesting is that? I've gotten flat out rejection letters and I've even gotten a rejection that invited me to resubmit once I had fixed a few issues with the rejected story, but I've never gotten one where the editor liked it, thought it was very original, but rejected because it wasn't a good fit for their magazine.

I've solicited a few suggestions/opinions on Facebook about this, but I'm interested to hear your thoughts/ideas/opinions about this and what direction I should go in with this.