I would like to thank Cate for giving me something to post about today

While I wait for the end of the month to roll around Cate Gardener, the writer of the beautifully written chapbook The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon, tagged me. Here is the take:
From the biggest bookcase you have, pick out one book whose author’s last name starts with each letter of your last name. If you have no books by an author whose last name starts with a particular letter, go to the next letter. If you have two of the same letter in your last name, get two separate authors, not two books by the same author. Bonus: If you can, pick the first book you haven’t read off your shelf, unless you’re one of those people who’s read all the books you own.

- Post the first sentence of each book, along with the author and title. Feel free to skip prefaces and such, especially if they’re by a different writer.

I was glad I have a rather large bookcase to choose from because there aren't many books with authors whose last names start with E I found out. G was rather difficult as well. So without further interruption here we go.

E: Beulah by Augusta Jane Evens. A January sun had passed the zenith, and the slanting rays flamed over the window-panes of a large brick building, bearing on its front in golden letters the inscription, "Orphan Asylum." This was a book leftover from one of my college literature classes.

Y: Yeager, an autobiography by Chuck Yeager. I never knew when I might be taking my last ride. Actually a very interesting autobiography. I recommend it.

B: Spiderweb by Robert Bloch. The door was of blonde wood, highly waxed. Admittedly, not the best first line of a book. The rest was much better. Really.

E: Timepiece by Richard Paul Evans. I find myself astonished at mankind's persistent yet vain attempts to escape the certainty of oblivion; expressed in nothing less than the ancient pyramids and by nothing more than a stick in a child's hand, etching a name into a freshly poured sidewalk. My wife and I share the bookshelves and this is one of hers. I have yet to read it.

R: Servant of the Bones by Anne Rice. This is Azriel's tale as he told it to me, as he begged me to bear witness and to record his words. I have never read this book, yet.

G: Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales For Our Life & Times by James Finn Garner. There once was a young person named Red Riding Hood who lived with her mother on the edge of a large wood. His take on the classic stories is well worth the read. Very funny.

I am not going to tag anyone in this post except everyone who wants to do it. It is actually a challenge to find books that represent the letters in your name. Have fun. See you tomorrow.

Winter Solstice

I know, it is August 29th. I am well aware that this is the end of summer and no where near the Winter Solstice, but my story of that title is up at M-Brane SF, issue #8. It is the fastest I have ever written that many words (it came in at 4800 words and I had it written, first draft, in just over two hours.) It is available as a .pdf, dead tree, or Kindle versions through the website. He has had some great writers in his magazine in the past year including Cat Rambo, Cate Gardener and some other pretty heavy hitters. Mr. Fletcher also does an incredible job with the layout of the magazine. It looks fantastic. The covers alone are worth buying the magazine for.

enough pimping, time to get to writing. Have a great day. My next post will be the end of the month round-up. (sheesh, it is the end of the month already.)

Out of my hands, for now

Last night my lovely and talented wife, Ann, finished looking through my manuscript for Big Chief's Gold. This morning I went over her suggestion (and the obvious typing errors, more about that in a minute) and sent it off to my lovely and talented beta-readers. Thanks guys *waves*.

Now a thing I figured out about my word processing program. I had a character named Pat. Pat is a boring name and I needed to change it. I hit the select all button, changed the name (it was supposed to use exact case only) and it changed every word with Pat in it, like PATh, aPAThy. . .not good. I didn't think anything of it. I told it to use exact case, nothing else. I will never do that again, nor will I ever name a character Pat again. I was glad my wife caught it. Although she said it confused her at first to have a proper name in the middle of random letters like aDerrickhy, that made no sense in the context of the sentence. Lucky for me my wife is smarter than I am.

Now I am going to go off and continue writing other things. Happy weekend everyone.

It was a dark and stormy morning

it really is kind of dark and it really is stormy here in West Central Iowa right now. Lots of inspiration. I think I will draw the blinds shut and get to typing.

I would also like everyone to meet my old college roommate. Carmen is a copy-editor for a newspaper and also one of the best artists that I know. He has an entire blog devoted to the miniatures that he paints for fun. You know the ones, from the d&d sets that let you set up little battles. He is better than your average miniature painter though. Well, go see for yourself. Carmen's Painty Fun Time is up for your amusement. Tell him I sent you. Who knows, he might just give you a little inspiration.

In other news. I was planning on jotting notes yesterday, but instead found myself with an hour of uninterrupted writing time so I started that book I was telling you about yesterday. I shall see how it goes. I am about 1/30th of the way through it if you use the 60K marker for a novel.

Hope everyone has a good day. talk at you later.

Like a hammer in the back of the head

So I was outside working in my shop last night, painting the last of my trim (most of the trim in my house is stained but we decided for a brighter look in the basement and went with paint). As I was brushing with long strokes to keep it all even and thinking of some short stories that I had started but was having a hard time keeping going. I think the ideas were too big for a short story. It helps that I could incorporate several of them into one longer narrative. This actually got me excited that I might be thinking of another book idea (I am a little mad that it is only months away from NaNo at this point, because I am still doing the dark romance for my NaNo project) I am wondering if I can hash out a first draft of this idea before November starts and if I will be burned out by then.

Am I the only one having a hard time keeping a short narrative in my head?

Monday :P

So I got in about an hours worth of writing this morning and I think it was all for nothing. I don't think I can use any of it. Garbage in, garbage out.

The good news is that I might have a new angle on the story to work out. I will see how that pans out over the next couple of days.

After I take my wife's suggestions (I have already taken her up on the character's names thing) I would be wondering if any of you would like to beta read a 26K MG story. It is not horror but adventure. If you liked My Side Of the Mountain and just about anything by Gary Paulson then you might be interested. You can e-mail me at jeyberg74@gmail.com. I would be happy to have all the input I can get before I start sending it out to agents and publishers.

I know, a lot of you are already looking at that and going "26K. that is way too short. There is no way you are getting a publisher for a book like that." I beg to differ. Because of Winn-Dixie came in at a very short 110 pages (about 25K) for the same age group. It was a Newbery honor book for 2001. I believe all you need is for the story to be complete. I hope mine is. I believe it is. I would like a second (or 25th) opinion.

hope everyone is having a more productive Monday than I am. Until next time.

WIP Wednesday

I have started a new story for Horsemen of the Apocalypse antho from Pill house press and I have to say I am really enjoying it. I am only about 1K into it so far. I will post a segment of it below. It is a combination of Famine and War (they seem to go together quite nicely in my story, one bringing about the other.)

In other news, I am still editing Chief's Gold. I had a nice discussion with my wife about character names yesterday and she gave me some good ideas (I didn't like the generic names I had given 50% of my characters) For some reason, when I wrote it I switched back and forth between 3rd person and 1st person. I didn't intend to. I guess that is what edits are for. To catch crap like that.

I kind of doubt if I get any writing done today, other than this blog post. My boy is sick with a virus of some sort (it is in the throat and head. I know this because I have the same thing.) and I am dead tired from being up most of the night with him. We did manage to go on a nice drive until 2 in the morning.

Now for a glimpse of unfinished story:
I turned from him, aware of what would happen next. Behind me I could hear him start to convulse, gurgle and paw at the ground with his boots that he had stuffed with the cover of a burned book to replace the worn out sole. I tried not to think of the misery he was going through and if I would go the same way as the sounds shuffled to a stop.
I could hear his corpse leak into the soil. That slow sucking sound of moisture in a parched land that no man should hear. Ashes to ashes as they say.