uncharacteristically

Uncharacteristically.

• It takes twenty letters to spell it out. 
• Yes, it's a dreaded 'ly' word
• It's an adjective and not entirely necessary
• the thing takes up half the line of text
• six more letters and it would be the alphabet long
• It de-rails the reader like an atom bomb

And did I just use it in chapter 1 of my novel?

You bet-ya! 

And there it stays!

Draft 1 on zombie wife complete

I've been cracking at it for some time now, but I've finished the second round of drafts on my first draft. Now I'm making the "big" edit pass through the novel. I might end up with an extra scene or two from here, but it's mostly edits now. Fix this fix that, and then on to Beta readers. I'm guessing four to six weeks for that.
Are you excited? You can bet your knickers I am! (Haven't said that for a while.)
If you're currently chewing through that ten course meal that is Speaker of the Winds, the clock is ticking.

:-)

Awe.... gee! Oh well.

The results are in. Sadly I didn't win the Writing Excuses Retreat scholarship. It's alright. There were over 70 qualified applicants, at least the opportunity was there and someone is going to get the writing experience of a lifetime.

I'm nearing the end of scene's I'm adding to Zombie Wife. It's still short of where I think it should be. Draft 1 will clock in under 57,000. After my first revision it may still be under 60,000. Feels weird to write something so small. That said, it will be great to get another novel under my belt and start in with some more experience into my next novel.

I haven't decided what to write next. I'm very tempted to write Monster in the Woods, but it's possible that the story concept may need to be heavily revised.  Also I've been playing with another story concept that I can call Desert Sands for now. It's got some really interesting world building, magic systems. It's the least developed of the two, but I've been chewing on it for as long as I have been for Monster in the Woods.  We'll see what comes of this after I've wrapped up revisions on Zombie Wife.

Just a small update.  ;-)

So what's next?

While Speaker of the Winds goes out and is reviewed, a process I expect to take many months, I'm going to revise Zombie Wife.
Brittany and I are really excited about this one and she believes it's my best work yet. I finally managed to pre-write a full outline before drafting the story and I have to admit it wrote the fastest.
I do have many revisions planned for it already and the second draft will be substantially improved and expanded. I expect it to grow my as much as double. Currently it's sitting just over 40,000 words, but I need it to be closer to the 80 to 90's.
I've been told the ending could be considered zombie cliche, but I see it more as zombie traditional. Still it makes me nervous, so I'm going to write an alternate ending and get some feedback from my readers. So you zombie story junkies let me know what you think when it comes around.

For now, what do you think? Does cliche, even when done well, turn you off?

Thx

A Memory of Light

It was an adventure. Monday night I visited Provo, UT to attend the Q&A and signing of the last book in the Wheel of Time series. A Memory of Light.

Then I attended the midnight launch/signing and picked up my copy. I'd say it was a historic event. Of course, very busy for my tastes, but it was manageable  Thanks to the help of family I was only #479 out of 2100+ books sold that night in that bookstore I'm told. Which means that I was finally through the personalization line (Since the books were pre-signed.) and got to have Brandon write a brief message and take a picture.
Like the series, this book is more about all the people who put it together and support it, not just the writer. So they also had many of those people here. Harriet, Robert Jordan's wife, was at the Q&A and she also signed the books. Maria, who worked heavily in the world for continuity, and others who contributed heavily to the books production.
I got through the line around 2:30am. Brandon was already very tired and there were still hundreds of people behind me.  Probably not thousands. Most picked up their book and went home. Likely because Brandon lives locally and can personalize their book later.