November 2006 Blogs
The November Photo of the Month is, without a doubt, the most beautiful Photo of the Month I've had the pleasure of presenting to you in over two years of blogging. My wife and I are expecting our first baby in early December, and we couldn't be happier.
Friday November 24, 2006
Here's a video of me singing "I Walk the Line" by Johnny Cash.
Monday November 20, 2006
I have had a very busy few days, and there is much to report. First up, the Roman Phoenix novel is currently at 22,772 words at 119 pages. I should have some free time in the next few days, and it is my goal to take advantage of this time to write.
I received my first few responses today to my 42 queries to literary agents. So far, they have all been form-letter responses. I finished putting together the next 100 tonight to go out in tomorrow's mail. Once that round is in the mail, that will be 142 of 450 literary agents I'd like to query by New Years. A good start.
I'd like to try to get the next 100 after that started by this weekend, but I may have to wait on a new toner cartridge, which I ordered via Amazon.com tonight. That probably won't be here until early next week, so it's more likely that the next round won't go out until the weekend of December 1.
This past Saturday night, I attended the NC Lulu Authors Meetup in Raleigh, North Carolina. All total 16 people came, and we met in the Rooftop Restaurant of the Clarion State Capitol. I think a good time was had by all, and I made a video of the event.
Friday November 17, 2006
I've got another one of these video log updates for my drive to query 450 Literary Agents by the end of the year. This one has a really cool video montage at the end played to the tune of the Beatles's "Helter Skelter." I had fun.
Wednesday November 15, 2006
I might start doing more of these Video Logs, if I see there's any interest in them. This one is in regards to my most recent push to query 450 literary agents before New Years for my novel The Colorado Sequence.
Monday November 13, 2006
Crossed the 20,000-word mark in Roman Phoenix today! Yahoo!!
I also scheduled a reservation for our NC Lulu Authors Meetup Group for this Saturday at the Rooftop Restaurant in Raleigh's Clarion Downtown.
If you are a writer or are interested in joining a group of local writers, you are welcome to attend. Right now, it looks like we'll have between 15-25 people.
There's more info here regarding the event.
Also this weekend, I sent out a round of 42 query letters via snail mail to literary agents. Dropped them off at the post office on Saturday, so I should begin getting the first responses by the end of the week.
This is the first 42 in a projected 450 literary agents I'd like to query by New Years. I'll keep you updated as to whether I get any positive responses.
Stacey
Thursday November 9, 2006
It's late on a Thursday night, and I thought it'd be good to get in here and update the blog. It's been a busy week, but I managed to cross the 100-page mark in my new novel Roman Phoenix. It looks like I'll have some free time tomorrow to write, so I'd like very much to get a couple scenes written.
I attended the Durham Writers Group last night in Durham, North Carolina. We had a good turn-out of local writers, several of whom have been published quite well. Including Jeff Davidson who published a number of books in the Idiot's Guide series and sold more than one million total copies altogether, and Earl Cox who has published several non-fiction books as well. I had a great time, and it was good seeing familiar faces and meeting the new folks as well.
I put together a video that may be helpful for folks. It's titled "My Literary Agency Query Package" and it explains what went in my most recent literary agency query package.
Sunday November 5, 2006
I have written a little bit each day for the past four or five days. Some days it's only a few hundred words, but if you write just some each day, eventually you'll get a whole novel written. The current word count is 18,773 at 97 pages. That is a solid 1/4 of a novel, and that thought makes me feel content and happy.
It's just amazing to me how a novel comes together every time. Some novels you write in three weeks; some have taken me three years. This current one feels slow sometimes, but even at this pace, I'll have 70,000 words in a total of six months.
I guess that's part of what's amazing to me right this moment, as I'm thinking about this. It feels like it's coming along at a snail's pace, but the reality is that even at this pace I'll have the novel's first draft done by April or May.
The key is to just write some every day, even if it's only a couple of paragraphs.
On a different note, my anniversary is tomorrow November 6. It was two years ago that Susan and I were married. And so to commemorate the event, I made a short film.
See what love can do...
Thursday November 2, 2006
I managed to write a little bit this evening, bringing the word count total up to 16,912 at 88 pages in Roman Phoenix. I'm beginning to eye the 100-page mark, which is a good 1/3 to 1/4 of a novel. I'm excited about the possibilities with this novel, and I should be able to do some writing tomorrow on it.
Stacey
Tuesday October 31, 2006
I had a pretty productive today in working on Roman Phoenix. I got started early and wrote about a thousand words, bringing the word count total up to just over 16,000 at 84 pages.
This novel has unfolded in an interestingly clear way. I know roughly where I want the novel to go midway through, and I already know how I want it to end. With each chapter I've written, I've had a pretty good idea of where I want the chapter to go and where I want the next chapter to go.
So, I've had a lot of fun with it. It is probably my most clearly genre-fitting novel (mystery/suspense) with an original protagonist (Dr. Roman Phoenix) and a clear concept for the plot to follow (road rage). It'll be interesting to see what I can do with it, once it's ready to submit to agents because these are three components that factor in heavily in deciding to rep a novel.
It may be my most cohesive novel to date, and it's following a very clear narrative storyline, whereby each chapter switches from the protagonist's point-of-view to the villain's point-of-view. Not one single chapter has deviated from this story structure yet, and my goal is to keep it so throughout the whole novel.
I should be getting the updates to the site up in the next few days, with a new Photo of the Month and new photos on the "Books & Writers" section of the site.
