Springing Ahead

June 1, 2019 by Nathan 11 Comments

May was a challenge month and I definitely didn’t reach my stretch goals.

Cape Grace:
This poor book has been through the mill. Twice. As I said last month, I’ve started stripping it down to the bones to find the real story behind all the verbiage. The big problem is that the earliest drafts were dated in 2010. I’d already abandoned all the work from 2008 and 2009, but little pieces kept cropping up.

I couldn’t seem to get it in the right order. Chapters had scenes with characters who weren’t even in the story any more. Chapters had the wrong conversations and even the wrong places in them. Even after I got it stripped down and started adding new pieces to fill the holes, it just wasn’t working.

Then somebody mentioned Scrivener. Again.

I’ve had a kind of love/hate relationship with Scrivener since I got my first copy back when NaNoWriMo gave a half-price coupon for winners years ago. I tried it but my ADHD just wouldn’t let me use it effectively. This time it’s different. I’ve got the book and I need the tools that Scrivener provides. I’m on a new 30-day free trial but I’m cautiously optimistic that the stuff I have now is right and that the direction we’re going is good. The structures in Scrivener that I found so distracting before now fill the need I have for overhauling this manuscript.

It’s probably going to be shorter than my other novels but I’m still pushing close to 70k words now and will probably break into the 80k word levels in the next few days.

Jesse Young is still working on the final drafts for the new covers. I’m really liking the rough sketches and looking forward to the finals.

In Darkness Forged:
Yeah. No progress on the paperback there.

Tanyth Fairport:
No news on the audiobooks for this yet.

SFWA:
This month SFWA has been both blessing and curse. The Nebula Weekend in Burbank gave me a break from the mundane life but also stripped me of every bit of reserve energy I had. After a week in Burbank, it took me the better part of the next week just to begin catching up on sleep.

Emily Woo Zeller and Nathan Lowell at the Nebula Weekend 2019, Burbank, CA — I got to meet Emily Woo Zeller – the woman who’ll bring Natalya and Zoya to life for the Audible versions of the Smuggler’s Tales.

Bottom line:
I’m behind on my goal of four books this year. I’ve been tempted to chuck Cape Grace a couple of times but the longer I spend with it the more I like it and feel the need to push through this mushy-middle and get the story to where it needs to be.

May Flowers?

May 1, 2019 by Nathan 2 Comments

More like snowdrops. It’s snowed here the last couple of days. Nothing heavy. It’s not sticking, but it’s darned cold for May. Just sayin’.

Cape Grace is slimmer now than it started with in April. I couldn’t make it work so I started stripping it down until I had stuff that belonged. It’s better now but the real work is only just beginning. I’m not saying this book is cursed … but I think this book is cursed.

In better news, I’ve seen the mockups of the new Shaman Tales covers and I’m really liking what I’m seeing. In theory I’ll have them by the time the book is ready so I can recover South Coast the same time I’m publishing Cape Grace.

Fingers crossed on that.

By Darkness Forged is waiting in the wings. Still. Forlorn as ever.

For those who haven’t heard, the Smuggler’s Tales are on Podium’s schedule for a September, 2019, release on Audible.

April Showers

April 1, 2019 by Nathan 15 Comments

We’ve had our share of rain the last few days. My lawn loves it but between the weather and – honestly – lack of energy, my walking schedule has been ragged.

News:

I spent four days of writing with the Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. The goal was to get 25k words in four days. That’s right. Half a NaNoWriMo in 4 days instead of two weeks. That’s 6250 words a day for a four day weekend. I made the count and then some but I’ve been trying to straighten out the story ever since.

The good news is that Cape Grace is just over 100,000 words and I have almost all the pieces. The bad news is that they’re not even close to being in the right order. I’ll get there, but I did myself no favors in constructing this plate of pasta.

By Darkness Forged should be available on Audible tomorrow, April 2. It’s up for preorder now. The paperback is still on my To Do List.

Podium has assigned a narrator for the Seeker’s Tales – Emily Woo Zeller. You can hear a sample for one of her recent books Minimum Wage Magic.

Speaking of NaNo, Camp NaNo starts today. A few of my RMFW buddies and I will be working toward another hair on fire month. I’m going to try to write another novel this month while I’m still working on ironing out this one. I’m behind on my goals but there’s still time.

And speaking of goals, I’ve set a goal to write every day this year. I missed a day in January and few days in February, but this month I’ve written every day and produced 41,231 new words.

That’s it for this month.

Safe Voyage.