Discover My Undead Mother-in-law in this post! I’m giving you everything I have about this delightful, middle-aged, zombie woman with anger managment issues. This is every post I have on her through my seven year career as a self-published author.
My working title is: Magic Arrives. My premise is simple: our Earth, in 2023, becomes magical. I’ve worked out most of the rules for my magic system, but I won’t tell anyone, not even the readers of my book. I want the reader to discover how the magic works as the characters do.
Patricia McKillip practices her craft of writing fantasy at the highest level in this atmospheric depiction of a city, Ombria, rocked by the death of its regent, Royce. The mysterious and manipulative Black Dominia immediately orders his mistress, Lydea, out on the streets, presumably to die. Lydea, a beautiful former tavern wench, makes her way across the dangerous city at night to her father’s tavern. A mysterious girl, Mag, helps her.
Mag, was raised by a sorceress, Faey, who stays in the shadows of Ombria, content to sell her spells to the highest bidders–including the Black Dominia.
Ms. McKillip introduces more colorful characters, without explaining the magic they contain at all. The complex political and magical mystery continues until the end when the mystery pops like a bubble.
This is a must read for any fan of fantasy with vivid characters. (less)
First time I’ve read a book by James Ghoul, and I’m looking forward to the second!
Bronze Rank Brewer is a very unconventional RPG-type novel, where the main character, Hawkin, decides to embark on a brewing quest. He doesn’t want to travel; he loves his woody wilderness. He is very sociable and friendly. He befriends both a hideous, deadly monster who becomes a friend and helper and also earns the loyalty of a rejected goblin. And a goddess.
The goddess is of astral planes, not of brewing. Somehow, she thinks Hawkin will become the greatest brewer ever, and the brewing god is upset. So he sends his most trustworthy brewer to find Hawkin and find out his secret.
Finishing My First Draft and Starting My Second of my latest book, Secret Supers in Space. What an adventure! Let me tell you about how it all happened.
First, this book is the third in my Secret Supers series. The first is:
Secret Supers – click for to get yours
Jeremy Gentle fell flat on his face at therapy. That was normal since he had cerebral palsy. But his new superpower wasn’t normal.
Then things got weirder when his best friend, Dan Elanga, got a different superpower. But Dan was still blind.
Kayla Verdera and Aubrey Wilcosky, two girls in their middle-school special ed class, discovered they too had new superpowers. Kayla was mute and needed a walker. Aubrey lost two legs and used crutches. But they were as powerful as the boys.
What should the four friends do? Jeremy knew if the word got out, it’d be a media circus. Then they started fighting crime, as the Secret Supers. Who knew a disability could be a perfect disguise? No one would ever think of disabled kids as superheroes. Then they ran into problems they never expected.
Secret Supers blurb
Then I wrote the second novel:
Villain’s Vacation cover. Click for your copy!
Four disabled seventh-graders with superpowers take a vacation at Coaster World. They need a break from fighting criminals. Ever since the beginning of the school year when they acquired their unusual abilities, they’ve been training and using those powers to fight crime in their town.
Little do they know the arch-villain they recently defeated also loves coasters and is vacationing at Coaster World. Worse, the villain wants revenge. Nothing less than turning these teens to a life of crime will satisfy.
Can Jeremy, Dan, Kayla, and Aubrey withstand the villain’s attacks? Or will they become Super Villains?
You can only find out by reading the adventure ‘Villain’s Vacation’.
Cover blurb
And now, I’ll tell you about my WIP, Secret Supers in Space.
We Interrupt This First Draft to Edit Another Book
I began SSS in November 2021 as my novel for Write a Novel in November Month. But instead of writing fifty thousand words, I wrote 3,940. My stats from my tracking spreadsheet as of November 30, 2021.
Start Words
End words
Words
Words/hour
Running total of words
Running total of time
3,837
3,973
136
70.34
3,973
21:29:00
from my writing log spreadsheet
Why so few? I spent more than half my time editing my non-fiction book, The Gospel Medley.
The Gospel Medley cover. Click to get
Why did the Gospel Medley get priority? 1) It was almost done and 2) I’d been working on it for forty years.
Everything Takes Longer Than You Think
“Everything” includes editing my non-fiction book. I didn’t finish that until April 2022. By the end of April, my stats were:
Start Words
End words
Words
Words/hour
Running total of words
Running total of time
6,101
6,129
28
14.00
6,129
42:43:00
from my writing log spreadsheet
Why did I write so little in 42 hours devoted to the book? Research.
I had to research Space Camp. That included its curriculum, the space simulations it runs, and when they occur during the week. I watched Youtube videos and learned a lot.
You see, as I write the first draft if I have a question I must answer it before I can write anything else. You might say, ‘Just guess and check it later.’ But no–I can’t write something factually wrong. It drives me nuts.
Some might say I’m already nuts.
Nut expert.
Why Did It Take Five Months to Write 30,000 Words?
You’re right. It’s odd it took me that long. One excuse is I had several book conventions–ten from March to September. I love them, but each takes up three to four days of my time: preparation, travel, selling, and documentation, where I record my sales.
Here are my final stats:
Start Words
End words
Words
Words/hour
Running total of words
Running total of time
35,389
36,796
1,407
686.34
36,796
149:10:00
from my writing log spreadsheet
You ask me, “Andy, what took you one hundred hours to write 30,000 words?” The answer is more research. I studied SpaceX, the Dragon capsule, the International Space Station, the docking procedure, the undocking procedure, the landing procedure, and where the Dragon capsule lands. I studied the map of Florida, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico for hiding places for my villains.
