Blog

Having subjected A Sea Sought in Song to one last editorial pass, and having submitted it to five indie publishers, I’m now churning through Book Two—Wrath and Crimson Rime—to give it a once-over as well. I really do think this will be the final edit on my part. The sequel was always in relatively better shape, since I already had 116K words’ worth of voice-development under my belt before I started it. So by the end of the weekend, I’ll have two full novels fit and trim and ready to face the world. Again. Theoretically.

In the meantime, I thought I’d re-up my heretofore greatest claim to fame: the chapter from Book Two which won an Honorable Mention at the prestigious Writers of the Future contest in the 1st quarter of 2019. As a flashback to Hugh Conrad’s past, it’s a rip-roarin’ noir adventure set in 1947 Iceland. It’s fun, exciting, tragic, and intriguing. It’s worth a read. After all, just look how it begins:

Anyway, if you want to give it a gander just click here.

[Language and violence advisory notice: these are adult novels I’m writing, after all.]

In the interest of self-promotion (which I’m bad at), or of screaming into the void (which I’m all-too-good at), I’d like to take this opportunity to display part of one of the more flattering full-manuscript rejections I’ve yet received from a publisher (a major one, whose name you’d know).

And for the record, I’d like to state that ALL the songs in A Sea Sought in Song (which def lives up to its name) are both pertinent (tho not necessarily “penitent”) and relevant.

For the last several months I’ve been stuck in Book Three. Done some revision and stage-setting, but haven’t been able to charge ahead through the big mid-book cliffhanger.

The problem is that at this phase of Book Three, I’m supposed to mastermind an elaborate heist. This is difficult for obvious reasons, the main one being that I can’t do my usual thing and just start writing. Two paragraphs into pantsing one character’s subplot and I’ll already be screwing up another’s. If I don’t envision the entire interlocking mechanism before hitting the switch, it’ll end up falling apart.

The heist is going down in a palatial underground complex. Currently it’s kind of a black box in there, and this is the problem. I have a highly visual imagination, and I can’t even begin to plot out who’s supposed to do what where until I get blueprints for this place. I know what’s going on with my characters before they go in, and I know what they’ll be like when they come out, and I’ve caught glimpses of what happens inside, but the nitty-gritty details elude me. What I need is a map—or better yet, a 3D render.

So that’s what I’m making. Not a 3D render; a map that’ll let me render the setting in my mind.

In a way this is a positive predicament. Much to my chagrin, I’m right there with my characters. They need to infiltrate this place, and so do I. Hopefully the map gets me inside.