The Outsider: Blog

I will upload a new copy of Chapter 14 to address the processing errors in the current one after my nap..

That was a rough shift; what a fun ride home...

EDIT: Well, the first re-upload took care of the errors... but new ones are now there. I've generated and submitted another copy...

This morning I've begun posting my latest story A Glass, and Darkly, a sequel to A Charmed Life. The story is fully written, edited, and formatted; I will queue as many chapters in advance as the system allows me to. The story will post one chapter every Friday until mid-July.

AGaD is a sequel to ACL, and I've tried to reintroduce people as they appear, but there may still be instances where folks who haven't yet read ACL are unclear why they should already understand who characters are or why events are significant.

I've read and reread this story many times while writing it, trying to maintain constant tone and rhythm as well as trying to catch spelling and grammatical errors. Naturally, I'm sure I've missed a few (hopefully not more than that).

As before, Graybyrd offered to be my editor for this effort. Without his help and guidance, this story would still be in development.

...in exactly the last place I want to be stalled: at the end of the story. Whether it was the shooting in Vegas at the beginning of October, my impossibly crazy schedule or something else, the drive to write seems to have departed. In addition, a major chunk of what's written needs lots of revision; I found new source material which needs to be incorporated into the story.

If there's anything I'm learning as I write this story, it's that I don't know how to estimate how much longer the process will take.

Story #2 is still in development and nearing the end of the writing process. While I have a basic plan for the end of the story I want to make sure I don't shoot myself in the foot this close to the finish line. I'm guessing I have three more chapters to write and send to Graybyrd, then I'll have to give it a final look before formatting it to send to FS. Shouldn't be too much longer.

I doubt I'll ever be a prolific writer, at least not in the near term given how my schedule is these days, though I do have ideas for two other stories. We'll see if they make it past the idea stage.

Here it is nearing summer in the Northern Hemisphere once again. Hard to believe we're this far into 2017.

Writing story #2 continues to progress. I'm probably about halfway to where I want to be on the story's timeline, though I'm not sure if that halfway matches the number of chapters to be written. After revising my first drafts up to Chapter 8, I hit a bit of a dry spell where my motivation flagged. I'm in a better groove now and am moving right along.

My initial thought that I'd be posting the story by the summertime now seems a little optimistic. My family and I have a vacation coming up which will affect how much writing I get to do, and I'm sure Graybyrd has plans for the summer also. He's continued to be a sounding board for my vision for where I'd like to have this story go, so I think I've got a good handle on its destination; it's just getting it there that will take time again.

I won't keep announcing hoped-for target dates, that just strikes me as somewhat cruel if (when) I don't meet them. The only thing I'll do is post general progress updates occasionally until I put the story in the queue.