Refusenik: Blog

Here's a little something to tide you over, just in case Thursday stretches into Friday.

Will I feel bad if I don't make the Thursday deadline, a little. I'll feel worse if I kick it out the door before it's ready.

One thought. There were a surprising amount of 'Can't it go on and on forever?' notes in the inbox this week.

Answer: No.

I don't write never ending sagas. Don't have the patience for it. Bravo to those that do. There are other stories I want to try and tell.

That doesn't preclude me from returning some day and writing a new story related to the old. I'll discuss that more after I've gotten the rest of this beast posted.

Hopefully tomorrow :-)

"Write faster!" was the cry.

"Read slower," the author yelled back as the typewriters tied to his ankles dragged him under.

I will be posting the ending of Island Mine on Thursday. You can look forward to 4 or 5 chapters, depending on where the breaks fall.

This means no Tuesday release.

No shouting, I'm busy trying to break the news to a group of unruly AIs.

The action starts to ratchet up. Where is all leading and does Refusenik Nik talk a lot in the third person?

Stay tuned friends. It may be a bumpy ride.

Another week, another chapter or two to feed the hungry hordes (hordes, not whores). The end--of the book--is near and that's a good thing.

It's been a productive week. I've jotted down several ideas for future stories. The danger is that you're tempted to drop everything and start working on the new idea. Instead, I've written them down in my 'ideas' file and will let them age like a fine cheese/steak/wine?

Oh, now I'm hungry. Congratulations, blog.

What, another chapter this week? Unleash the hounds, let slip the dogs of war, oh isn't that a cute puppy?

Sorry, didn't know what to write there.

Regarding chapter 11. A small handful of errors were pointed out by sharp eyes readers. A damned homophone or two, or three. A couple I should have caught myself, but it happens.

I have a great volunteer editor, and readers who will point out mistakes to keep me honest. It's greatly appreciated.

On that subject. Yes, it's important to catch and correct errors, as they can throw the reader out of the story. But, and this is a big juicy butt, don't let that prevent you from writing.

Published authors don't crap out perfect, unblemished and mistake free prose. They have a writer's group to bounce things off of at critical stages. They have alpha readers, beta readers, an editor and probably a line editor - and still mistakes slip through.

So yes, look for and correct mistakes, but imperfection shouldn't stop you from writing.

I had that image in my head too, "A writer doesn't make those mistakes." Well, it's horse hockey (I wish I had figured that out much earlier).