Wake me up when September ends! (WIP Wednesday)

Thirty thousand words written. That was my target for the month of September as I pushed to raise my regular writing schedule to the level I feel it needs to reach to really know I can fight back the inner demons that want to derail me from my regular writing projects. So how did I do?

I finished the month at 30,621 words.

Photo by Hafidh Satyanto on Unsplash

This month, the goal raises to 40,000 words as I prepare for NaNoWriMo and its 50,000 word challenge.

My writing schedule for the serial fiction I produce has long been to continuously switch from one to another as I go. This keeps me from burning out with the various projects I'm working on. My brain generally goes in just too many directions to not bounce a bit between tales. Right now Lightweight and Project Supernatural are both in great places as I continue their narratives. My focus is back on the local hero project, which is now tentatively titled Shockwave.

Like so much of what I write, Shockwave is a labor of love. I built it to both explore my own local community but also to open a few different corners of the Quandrant Universe at the same time. I've hinted at corners of the cosmic landscape in the pages of Lightweight: Beyond, but Shockwave will start to reveal some of the connective tissue that binds things together.

In addition, I'm continuing my work on Atomic Werewolf 2000 and my edits on Dino Force as well, but I'll talk more about those in time.

And since it's October, NaNo-prep means I've started to lay out the basics for my project come November. I will share more about it in my next newsletter, so be sure to subscribe if you to get the first peak on the new title.

One night on the Orient Express... and dinosaurs! (WIP Wednesday)

I talked quite a bit about the project I code named the Horror Universe as a potential project a few weeks back. I'm now three chapters into the first tale in the series, an adventure that starts on the Orient Express as it barrels across Europe and towards Bucharest. Our hero is one Lucy Marston, an agent for a government body so secret even the President doesn't know of its operations. The year is 1938, war looms in Europe and she's on a mission to stop what she thinks is a Nazi plot to release a deadly virus in Romania.

Marvel's versions of the monsters by Bruce Timm, whose horror art
continues as an inspiration for the project. 

She has no idea of the true threat she faces however, as a dark being from the recent past seeks to rise from the grave.

The new book is a high energy sexy adventure with the dark undertones that will be built upon with each new book in the burgeoning series. If things go as planned over the next few years, this will be the first in a planned eight part series as I introduce the more monstrous side of the Quadrant Universe.

Make no mistake however: you will see no traditional heroes as this one develops. Just various levels of monsters and men. However, it will get a new nickname as I continue to develop new projects, mostly to avoid any confusion between the original Horror Universe moniker and the overall Quadrant Universe. From now until it receives its final name, it will simply be Project SUPERNATURAL.

I'm still working on a final title both for this initial volume and the series as a whole. This one is likely to fall by the wayside before its completed so as to start my NaNoWriMo project, but more on that one in a few short weeks. But I do have one other project to share.

I built a strong head start on my planned thirty thousand words for the month as well, so I've taken away some time from my heavy writing schedule to finally work towards final edits and writes on Dino Force. The series hit several snags as I worked to connect the disparate stories a bit better than they initially were when I first started editing the book. The book will likely see the light of day early next year, far later than I ever hoped for it to wrap up, but still as a complete gorgeous book which will hopefully lead to more with the characters.

Work on Atomic Werewolf 2000 continues as well, but I don't want to spill too many beans on that one. So I'll close out this WIP Wednesday with a challenge to start your own plans to bring your writing to life. I'd love to hear from anyone and everyone with plans for NaNoWriMo as November looms.

Too much work, not enough reward

Unforgettable may not have been her finest
work, but far be it from me to ever avoid
an excuse to post a Rosario Dawson pic.
Image credit: Cosmopolitan Latin.

As I continue to work my way back to a regular writing / editing / blogging schedule, I feel it's time to break down some of the walls between real life and the magical faerie world of the internet. After last week's post, I am going to continue my look at my own life on a weekly or biweekly post. So let's get into what's been up lately.

It was something of a hell week at my primary job with about ten hours of overtime collected there on top of my regular sixteen hour side job at the bookstore. The kids went back to school on Wednesday with a bunch of half days which sent my sleeping schedule completely out of wack as well. Coupled with the final move of everything from storage into the new house and it was just too much all at once.

I ended up feeling like rotten skunk garbage by Sunday afternoon. My already troubled left ankle gave out on me and so I ended up missing a night of work. But I'm mending now as I hopefully move into a couple of easier weeks with Labor Day approaching.

Sadly, all that business didn't leave much time to do anything. I finally watched Logan and caught the weird Rosario Dawson / Katherine Heigl film Unforgettable, and I read an old Super Spy graphic novel by Matt Kindt. None were bad, but I didn't think any of them were really as good as I hoped they would be. That was most of the limited free time I had available to me in the week, but I've got several other novels, graphic novels and movies to work my way through in the next few days.

I did get a bit more editing done on the current projects. I'm moving forward nicely with Teel James Glenn's Gunmaster with Dino Force waiting in the wings. I've still not sat down to get quite as into my own writing as I would like, but hopefully in the next few days I'll start that process flowing as well.

With that said, I've got way too much work to do, so let's get on with it!

Where I've been, or when life comes with no lemonade

This blog has sat fallow for way too long now. After finally getting things up to a regular schedule, life decided to get in the way of everything. Here's a quick rundown of everything that's went down.

• Left one house. Stuck in a no-tell hotel for a little over a month until the next was ready. 
• Picked up a second part time job, pushing my work week to nearly 60 hours.
• Started having seriously bowel pain and bleeding.
• Went through one colonoscopy, bled even more and went through a second emergency colonoscopy the next day. Spent twenty-four hours in the ICU and another five days waiting to learn I was (thankfully) cancer free.
• Found out on the same day I learned I was cancer free that my father-in-law had terminal cancer and attended his funeral two weeks later. 

All in all, it's pretty much been the most disastrous summer I've experienced. And I've had some damn rough summers as of late.

Right now, we're about half moved into a new house with the majority of our stuff still stuck in storage. Coupled with the long work weeks and the storm of awfulness, anxiety and depression, it's been challenging to accomplish anything.

But I am hoping to change that in August. I've got two editorial projects in the works now (Pulpsploitation: The Gunmaster and Dino Force.) They will bring an end to my Metahuman Press label, at least as a full-fledged micro-press. At the current time, I do not have it in me to continue publishing and writing. With that in mind, it seemed clear the editing would have to give.

I'm far from done creating nor will I completey give up on new projects with other writers. But I will be looking into a publishing partner for future projects in the near future.

In the mean time, I will continue to blog here and there, update this with things I like and things I think you should like.

Just keep living life. We've only got a finite time and I for one plan on living mine to the fullest.

Monster motorcyclists and the women that love them (WIP Wednesday)

Chris Hebert's cover for Dino Force.

Since Jim Beard has already hinted at his next project to be published by Metahuman Press, I can reveal that my current PROJECT DEMON is actually a short story called Moon Chopper. The new book is something of a sequel to the Super Swingin 1968 Special. This time the heroes are coming out of the 1970s however and get to play with two of the eras' major tropes: bikers and the supernatural.

Obviously, one such character stands out as a prime example of those combined genres, but I hope I'm making Moon Chopper unique enough that he doesn't just seem a clone of any other ghostly riders.

My new tale will introduce the world to Gordon Bridges, a simple man on the road with a dark secret. After nearly dying, he was given the powers of the Moon Chopper. Now he can transform into a beast of the night, but one with a purpose. His quest to defend the open road often brings him up against dark threats. His only ally is his girl, Friday, an intrepid reporter with a knack for trouble.

While working on that, I'm also giving a second pass to my Dino Force offering. Paolo may be the most unique character on the book, and perhaps the one with the strongest redemption story. I'm hoping it can do justice to the great work T. Mike McCurley, Don Gates and Travis Hiltz are also bringing to the book.

With those two short works filling my time, I am also in the development stage of my next long work. I haven't finalized which book will be my next, but I hope to get to all three works over the rest of 2017. Right now, I don't want to go into any more details on any of them, outside of their codenames: EARTH. FAITH. GRAFT. One of these works will be a sequel to a previous release, but the other two will be all new novels. Of the two others, I expect one might be the first novel I release under a pseudonym. The genre moves outside my usual undertakings and I suspect starting the new series with a new name might be the best way to help get it off the ground.

But that's of course a long way out. For now, I've got some short stories to work on. Wish me luck.

Kickstart the Week: 7 days left for Dino Force!

We have just seven days left now to make Dino Force a reality through Kickstarter. I've added two new reward levels in the last day: one that allows everyone to get five books, either for themselves or as gifts for others. I've also added a level where your name can be added to one of the Dino Force stories. You will be a bit player in the adventure!

Head over to the Kickstarter before time runs out! 

WIP Update: early May 2017

Both my writing and editing time have been extremely limited in the last couples weeks. I've started another job outside writing which eats into the few hours I actually have every week. But I have made some progress on edits for the upcoming second book in the Pulpsloitation franchise, which Teel James Glenn looks to be making a rip-roaring yarn.

I have also started the first few hundred words on a novelette for an upcoming anthology being assembled by other editors for Metahuman Press. This will be the first book I won't have a heavy hand in editing for the line, but I am still contributing to the first of the two planned volumes. I've started coding my projects for the year, especially with several of them going unnamed at the current time, so right now this one will just be PROJECT DEMON. It's the most straight up superhero thing I've written so far this year, so I'm definitely excited to see how well it plays out over the writing process.

I have also started edits on the other Dino Force contributions than mine. I will most likely make some changes to the epilogue after I've done so in order to streamline the finish in a slightly stronger light. Of course, Dino Force is still funding on Kickstarter and awaiting your support. If you love superheroes, giant monsters or robot dinosaurs, this is the book for you!

Today's image is from the opening credits of the first show I ever saw with combining robots, The Mighty Orbots. It's an 80s classic that still holds up pretty well these days.

A few words on the origins of Dino Force

Dino Force started as a concept among dozens of others I came up with as a teenager. I can trace that earliest incarnations' origins to my frustration with the kind of kids shows currently running on television right around my fifteenth birthday. I looked at shows like Power Rangers and Captain Planet, or even older fare at that time like Voltron and the Mighty Orbots with frustration. Here were great concepts at their heart that were filtered by awful children's television standards into claptrap that at best was mindless and at worst talked to its young viewers like morons. It always annoyed me as a child and it annoyed me even more as a teen. So I created a team of five young heroes with the idea they would fill the holes I saw in all those concepts.

I created a reason for their powers, a brief back history and even the saurid threat the initial team would face. But I never set out to really plot their adventures.

Fast forward twenty years. While going through old files and putting together some of the background material for Quadrant, I stumbled upon the old micro-plots I made for the "issues" of Dino Force I wanted to create. I dusted them off, and thought back to all the Godzilla, Ultraman and Super Sentai stuff I'd seen since, even later Power Rangers shows I enjoyed like Dino Thunder and In Space. I realized in those plot points, I had something that might be interesting to develop as a shared world anthology.

Super Kaiju Battle Squadron Dino Force was born. I recruited five other writers to help bring the concept of an international contingent of young heroes coming together to save the world. Two later dropped away from the project and I moved my prologues and epilogues into forming the tale of the team's leader rather than a sixth member. I then took up Dino Green's story in Brazil as well, setting up a full contingent of warriors by the book's end. Along with T. Mike McCurley, Don Gates and Travis Hiltz, we created a novel length anthology introducing our characters to the world.

That anthology is now funding on Kickstarter.

This is one of those weird ideas that came from a place of love and I hope you'll join me in helping making it a reality.

Dino Force lives!

DINO FORCE IS NOW ON KICKSTARTER! Why am I yelling? Anyway, go back it already!

Kickstart the Week 56: Dinoforce launches this week!

This week, the focus is on my latest Kickstarter project. I'll have more on it tomorrow, but stay tuned for Super Kaiju Battle Squadron: DINO FORCE to arrive in the next 24 hours on Kickstarter!

Newsletter subscribers get the first look at the full cover on launch tomorrow, but I'll have full word on the project here as well.

Check out the first look at the Kickstarter banner for this one below!

Art by Chris Hebert! 

WIP Wednesday: Early April 2017

April this year, much like last year, has been all about Camp Nanowrimo. And while last year's project ran into roadblocks that caused me to at least temporarily abandon it after the Camp, so far this year's project is firing on all cylinders.

This year I'm deep at work on a project called Outlaw, a mixture of super powered fiction, classic action adventure and urban fantasy. It is also planned as the first book of a proposed multi-author series. Regular Metahuman Press cohort Travis Hiltz is my co-creator on this one and will have his own volume down the line. Right now, I'm working to lay out the basic world and supporting cast so other writers can see where we're going with the character.

I expect to work on this one both this month and at the next Camp Nanowrimo in July. While it won't see publication to (at the earliest) this time next year, it will have an important part in a new Metahuman Press project down the road. But I may have already said too much about that one...

I also continue work on Dino Force. I am just about done with the main section of my contribution with only a brief epilogue to the shared universe anthology to add on. Fans interested in this one should stay tuned for next week, when the Kickstarter launches for the project!

And that pretty much wraps up my work on the writing front. But if you're a wrestling fan, don't forget to check out my thoughts over at The Wrestling Weekday.

WIP Wednesday: End of March 2017

Things continue abreast from earlier this month, even as I start to move more irons into the fire as I get back into a more regimented writing and editing schedule. I'm still far from at the production level I would like to be for my work, but I do at least have a regular rhythm in place both for my writing and my blog posting.

I am nearing completion on my Dino Force story I mentioned last update. From there, I will start edits on the book in May, followed by a short epilogue story meant to tie the other stories in the book together in preparation for the two proposed sequel volumes that will continue the tale.

My current plan is to launch a Kickstarter for the final book in mid-April, which I will write about more in the next few weeks. I've already lined up an artist for the cover with the plans to give the final book a July or August release schedule.

This Diana Nock image remains my ideal view of Jenny
(and graces both ebook covers of my stories.)

Speaking of August, I am also prepping for this year's Jenny Everywhere Day on August 13th. I've released two previous shorts over the years featuring the character. This time around, I'll tell a bit more detailed arc, outside the 3000 or 2000 word briefs I wrote for that day in 2012 and 2014. This will continue the same narrative however, although I am making an effort to allow anyone to jump right in with the new story. My eventual plan is to craft an entire full length book for the character, but I suspect that is still a few years down the road.

If you're interested in reading either of my previous Jenny stories, "Past Prologue" and "Troll Hunted" are both available for whatever you want to pay (including nothing) on Smashwords.

I've started edits on the next book in the Pulpsploitation series as well, but more on Teel James Glenn's Gunmaster novel should come up in the May update as progress goes into full swing on that one.

Oh, and as for April, that involves a new project that in turn will be part of a much larger ongoing project debuting next year, but more on the story in the next update and the larger project in the coming months....

WIP Wednesday: March 2017

It has been slow going on the writing front since the beginning of the year. I have edited some material and am working on an outline for a new series, but outside the limited time I've had for that, I haven't done much writing.

That has changed however in the last few days as I've put several hundred words into a new short story, my first real fiction work of the new year. The new story is part of an anthology I solicited entries for many many moons ago, a book entitled Super Kaiju Battle Squadron: Dino Force. With a title like that it probably comes as no surprise that the book was inspired by various Japanese tokusatsu series. My story takes the action to Rio De Janeiro to introduce the T-Rex of the team. It will be joined by four other tales, but more on that later.

That is just the first planned story I have for the year but as I said previously, I am not rushing towards any of it. But I strongly suspect you will see the release of Dino Force sometime before the end of the year.

As to what else I am working on? That will be revealed in the next few weeks, especially with a big project announcement come April.