Refusenik: Blog

The early Christmas release did turn out to be a bit premature as it had more errors than I like.

Thanks to all who sent in comments.

For this week's release, chapters 6 through 9, we have a little old and a little new. We see the introduction of an important theme 'home' - which will run through the story. Not to worry, Scott will be returning to Fort Stockton again.

A year ago I posted the last segment of Human Phoenix, my first book. I've been fortunate to have two titles that were rated favorably this year.

Today, perhaps prematurely, I've sent the first five chapters of the sequel, Human Man (heck of a title, sparky), to the posting queue.

The book is complete. As long as the internet doesn't go up in flames, I'll post for 9 or 10 weeks until the conclusion. New chapters will go up Monday, December 30th.

I think it's a nice, tight wrap-up of the Scott MacIntyre story - but you'll be the ones to determine that. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

My thanks, as always, to PCBondsman for his editing assistance. All errors are my own - we know you'll find some.

Merry Christmas,

Wrote the last line of the rough draft tonight. I think it's a nice little wrap up novel for the Human series. But, you'll be the ones to make the final judgement.

Next comes rewriting and editing. I've got scenes to add, scenes to cut, and a bunch of proof reading to do/have done.

Possible late Christmas present? Keep your fingers crossed.

I had a great Nano and November. It was tremendous fun to revisit Scott MacIntyre and Fort Stockton.

I powered through the month. Except for a brief lull in the second week, I hit or exceeded my daily word total and 'won' Nano handily.

What's that mean?

It means I'm past halfway and closing in on the ending.

I want to start publishing chapters before the New Year, but I think editing will push that. I've got to finish the darned thing, make my own editing/rewriting pass, and then send it off to let fresh eyes look at it. Then I look at those suggested changes and evaluate them. After that, you fine folks get a look.

I'm at the frustrating point where I really want people to read the latest stuff, but know it's not ready yet.

My 2014 resolution is to quit predicting publication dates altogether. The only absolute I have is when I start writing, not when it ends :-P

Fortunately, there are no hard deadlines in the world of amateur writing.

Oh yeah, you might have noticed that I'm not answering any email. Why? An hour answering email is 500 ~ 1000 words not written on the book.

I'm hoping that most readers will accept a finished book 2 in lieu of response.

National Novel Writing Month has started with a bang. I'm writing and having fun revisiting the world of Scott MacIntyre.

For those unfamiliar with Nano, the goal is to write 50 thousand words in the month of November. The math works out to 1667 words per day. To put that in perspective, a good productivity rate for a fiction writer is roughly 500 words per hour by most standards.

Don't expect many reports. Time away from writing is lost time, at least in November.