Off to the Beta Readers…

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It’s weird. Really weird, but I don’t have anything that I can—or even should—do to my book, and that’s because I’ve sent it to a few beta readers. While I still have 1,000 more words to cut, I need to let it sit before I go through it for what is probably the 50th time.

And with that last pass, I was pretty pleased with it. I feel like it’s close, but as I mentioned last week, no one but my trusted critique partner has seen 70 or so percent of it, so now it’s time to find out what some other people think.

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Until I hear back from them, there’s nothing I can do. I don’t want to make any changes, not even axing a few unnecessary words, because the betas might find a major problem or have some excellent comments and suggestions. I want to be able to consider their feedback working from the same manuscript they’re commenting on.

Like I said, it’s weird. For three years, there hasn’t been a single day when there wasn’t something I could work on. From writing it to editing it to refining it to trimming it down, there has always been something to do. Even when I thought I was finished two years ago, I was working on the second half of the story (what I thought then would be a second book).

Buried in Words

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I got yelled at on Twitter for not having updated my blog since…July. That was in October, and here it is November, so I might be doing this wrong.

Never you mind! Onwards and upwards! Storm the castle! Hip! Hip! Hooey! No time like the present, said Bryan. Never.

So what have I been doing with my time? Lots. And lots.

For one thing, I’ve been tink, tink, tinkering away at my manuscript. Back in July, I mentioned I was done, but had 35,000 words to cut. since then, I’ve added another 3,000 words in the process of rewriting and honing the ending, but I’ve cut a net of 36,300 words, leaving me at 121,699 words as of right now. If you remember, my goal is an even 120,000 words, or less.

Counting Words

Counting Words

I Finished Writing My Novel (Again)

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I finished writing my novel last night. I should say that I finished writing it again, because technically I thought I finished it about a year ago. This time is different, though, because I finished what was originally going to be the second novel, which means the full story is complete for the first time.

Mason Truman. He has a fork.

Mason Truman. He has a fork.

There are caveats, of course. The last chapter is only in a first-and-a-half draft state, and the last two chapters haven’t faced the withering scrutiny of my critique partner, let alone my bank of awesome beta readers.

Also, it’s sitting at 155,000 words. That means I not only have a LOT of polishing to do, I have to cut out 35,000 damned words before I can start shopping it out again. In the SciFi realm, no agent will touch a first time author with a manuscript longer than 120,000 words—90,000-120,000 words is the range most will consider.

But, this is a big deal for me. I have learned a lot about writing during the last two years, and the book I just completed is head and shoulders above the book I thought I finished a year ago.

Inching Inexorably Closer

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It’s been a little more than two years now since I began working on my first novel. I started it two or three weeks after Black Friday. I thought I had finished it a year ago, only to realize that I needed write it differently last fall.

It seems that I’m inching inexorably closer to that goal. I’ve rewritten the prologue and a completely new beginning to the novel. I’ve pored over the middle, cutting big chunks out of it out in the process, and am so near the end of the story I can taste it.

In fact, I’m 4-6 major scenes away from completing it. Of course, the closer I get to that ending, the slower the progress. I very much feel like the snail in the Monsters University trailer (starting at 40 seconds):

I imagine it’s part of the process of learning how to write a damned book, but I’ve been very interested to see that the closer I get to this (new) end, the more often I scrap scenes entirely and the more often I rewrite from scratch.

‘Indigo Meadow’ by The Black Angels, an Insanely Great Album

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I am obsessed with this album. Utterly obsessed. Indigo Meadow by The Black Angels is one of the five best albums of the last ten years, and I can’t stop listening to it. I’ve had it for two weeks, and I’ve listened straight through it 14 times, and I’ve heard my favorite tune, “You’re Mine,” 23 times.

And I can’t stop. :)

Indigo Meadow by The Black Angels

Indigo Meadow by The Black Angels

The Black Angels are an Austin, TX band, and they are part of the modern psychedelic movement that probably owes it existence to The Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s burst of creativity in the mid 1990s. It’s a genre that loosely includes bands like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Warlocks, the above-mentioned BJM, and newer bands like The Spyrals and my former band, The Atomic Love Bombs.

Five TV Shows I Am Really Enjoying

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I’ve caught a few new shows of late that I’m really enjoying. I thought I’d mention them. You know, since The Game of Thrones can bite my ass. Yes, I’m still all cranky about that.

There are spoilers ahead, but I designed my writeups not to reveal more than you might learn in the opening minutes of each show.

Orphan Black

This is a new show from the BBC; it airs on BBC America here in the States. The show stars Tatiana Maslany as Sarah, a young ne’er do well trying to sell a big brick of stolen cocaine so she can use the money to get her daughter back, run away, and start life anew somewhere else.

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Something Goes Wrong

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In writing, sometimes you just have to get back to basics. I’ve been banging my head against the wall for some time. It turns out that the answer to my problem was pretty simple. In fact, I posted it to my Instagram feed:

Something Goes Wrong

Courtesy of My New Dry Erase Board

Something Goes Wrong! Of course! That’s just what I needed. It seems so obvious now, but the truth is it took my friend and fellow writer Dmitri Del Castillo to help ferret it out. He’s great at that sort of thing.

Dave Hamilton & Schrödinger’s Amp

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Macworld/iWorld 2013 took place last week. In case you’re unfamiliar, this is an annual trade show and conference for users of Apple’s Mac and iOS products. It’s a ton of fun, and one of the highlight of the week is the party thrown by The Mac Observer and Back Beat Media called Cirque du Mac.

This year marked the 10th Cirque du Mac event, earning it the moniker Cirque du Mac X. See what we did there?

Anyway, I really look forward to it. Not only is it the biggest party of the week, it’s not a schmooze event like most trade show parties. People aren’t there to network, they’re there to have a great time. In recent years, we’ve had a trapeze artist doing an aerial silk act. For many years, we’ve had a face painter and henna tattoo artist who dresses up in the most amazingly awesome costumes.

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How Cool Is That?
Photo courtesy of Amanda Pearson

Scatter Shot: 12-12-12, Dobby, Two Rogers, & Instagram

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Hey folks, it’s time for another scatter shot post. First up:

The Stones

OK, how did I miss this? When did Dobby sign with The Stones? To refresh your memory, here he is in one of the Potter films:

Dobby

Dobby

And here is is playing guitar with Mick Jagger in the 12-12-12 Concert for Sandy Relief.

Dobby Jams

Mick’s on the left, Dobby’s on the right.

It’s great to see that even a house elf can get a leg up in the world.

I Wrote the Book I Want to Read – What about a Book that Will Sell?

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I’ve been working on my first novel, a SciFi book about a PI who gets dragged into something much bigger than he thought. All he wants is to drink his strained-algae coffee, but it turns out he’s going to have to save the world. It’s called The Mason Truman Project, and I’ve blogged about it several times.

I finished the book early last spring, and I’ve been working on refining it off an on since , while I also worked on the second book in the series. I started shopping it out in June, resulting in another raft of fine editing.

I’ve had a fantastic group of beta readers. I’m lucky enough to know lots of very smart folks, and it turns out my mother thinks my book is the bee’s knees. Thanks, Mom!

I’ve also been fortunate to meet some fellow writers, and between the betas and my writer friends, I came to a realization a few weeks ago: I’ve written the book I want to read, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s the book I can sell.

SlowThere were two problems, the beginning and the ending. OK, those are two huge problems, but let me explain. The beginning of my book is what I think of as a slow burner. The story unfolds organically in a deliberate way while Mason figures out how to get started on the case that gets him entangled with all this messy end-of-the-world stuff that interrupts his coffee time.