OK, Yer On.

Dan, I'll take that bet.

I'll let you know if This Dark Earth is as good as he says. Probably is better, knowing what I know of Dan.

Free Day

For today only, The Hidden Witness is free for Kindles from Amazon. Or it should be, if I didn't screw it up.

Consider it a reverse birthday present.

UPDATE: I'm not certain that it is working. Ah, well.

Seven Sentences

Dan O'Shea posted this on his Facebook page:

The rules: The challenge is to post seven lines from an unpublished work of fiction, and most people choose their present Work in Progress. Specifically, you would:

-Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript
... -Go to line 7
-Post on your blog or Facebook page the next 7 lines, or sentences, as they are – no cheating
-Tag 7 other authors to do the same.

I'm not going to tag seven other authors. I don't have seven friends who are writing books. But here is mine, from a work in progress:

There was an address for service of legal papers, which Lena recognized as a law firm in Grover City which made a specialty out of shielding companies from the embarrassment of process servers.

There were a number of filings. One was for a change of name from Together Brethren, Inc., then one to change the company from a foreign corporation to a domestic one, which meant that they had started out elsewhere. They had been a Nevada corporation, which didn’t mean much, as Nevada was not too far behind Delaware for being a corporate-friendly state. The Nevada listing was with another law firm, so that was a dead end.

An Internet search for the Together Brethren pulled down some interesting results. The group was a religious sect which believed in living apart from those they deemed to be non-believers, which apparently meant the other 6.999999 billion people on the planet.

Yeah, Just What I Always Wanted

E-books and Kindle and what not. Dan O'Shea has a good post about that.

Basically, if your dream is to see your loving manuscript in print, well, sucks to be you in the second decade of the 21st Century.

A Family Affair, Updated

The 2011 story, where you will learn about a Pittsburgh subway station that resembles a butter dish.

(Original post)

A Family Affair

I am not a professional writer, in that I don't sell my writings directly to make a living. The closest thing to a professional writer in my family is my sister, Ann. She's a reporter for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

The PG has a feature called the Saturday Diary. Among the entries that Ann has written there, she has an ongoing tale about the Christmas village that she builds on top of the fireplace mantle each year. These are her columns about it for `08, `09 and `10. I've been told that one is in the pipeline for this season, as well.

Blood On the Snow

I showed it to two people. While they each had different comments, they agreed on one thing: The ending sucked.

I reread it and agreed. So I scrapped the ending and took it in a different direction. Seems to be better.

82K words. At one point, I was concerned that I might not be able to have enough material for a novel-length.

Blood On the Snow

And the first draft is done!

I basically wrote 68,000 words in less than five weeks. This last week, I felt as though I was just smoking the keyboard.

Now to let it rest for a few days, then reread and begin editing.

(And some sleep)

Blood On the Snow

I have been trying to write a chapter a day. Most days I've been able to do that. Possibly one or two days a week, I don't. I've passed on a number of flash fiction challenges, as they cut into my production time.

With luck, a first draft will be done by the middle of next month, allowing for non-productive days.

I, Monster

(Flash fiction)

Hi, Doctor. Thanks for seeing me. I only need this one session. I’ll sit in a chair, thanks.

Don’t worry about my name. You can call me Mr. Monster. I don’t mind. It’s how I think of myself.

Oh, you wouldn’t know I’m a monster, not if you passed me on the street. But I am.