Hi Readers:
First the bad news, but it's not all that bad. I did a bit of re-writing of some older material in order to keep my serials coming on this serial blog, and today my local novel writing group heard me read some and voted it easily the worst thing they'd ever heard from me. As I read it I found myself stumbling over clunky sentences, and wincing, so I had no difficulty seeing what they were criticizing. As a consequence I will not be posting any reworked ten-year old material here. That's the good news.
I guess I should be pleased that my writing has improved over the years, but I'm chastened to think that I don't have the skill to tune out the old wording enough to translate it into a more polished piece of work. The story had some merit, but I would need to keep the old draft well out of sight if I wanted to make another stab at completing it.
In it's place I will start a completely new version of an older novel in the same Iskander series, and serialize it here. I will give it the old title of "Iskander's Wildcat" and it will still have Gisel's reckless love affair with Lord Ricart – but this takes place three years after "Arrival" that you've read here – when she's a nineteen year old lieutenant in Iskander's Special Forces.
As to my other writing – the novels – "Deadly Enterprise" and "The Wildcat's Victory" will begin entering Double Dragon's editing system in January, with a target date to publish the first in June 2007. I've already met my editor online and am looking forward to working with her. In fact we will both have short stories published in the Double Dragon anthology "Twisted Tales II" which also comes out in 2007.
We will both be contributing a chapter to a round robin novel that will be serialized by Double Dragon next year. It will start with the first chapter available from J. Richard Jacobs in February. Lea will have her chapter up in April, but mine's not due until this time next year. BTW I believe there is going to be a contest on the Double Dragon website to find a title for the RR novel – there will be a prize for the best suggestion.
The serial that I started with the short story "Arrival"( which can be found posted on this blog), has gone through a full critique with my other, online, writing group and I have received some good ideas on the limitations of the material. I will work on chiseling it into a proper novel during 2007 in the hopes of having the third Iskander novel follow the first two at a reasonably short interval. Especially important since it's a prequel to them.
Still no word about my fantasy "Rast" that's on the editor's desk at a new Canadian publisher. I have avoided setting down any ideas on a sequel to it, but I do have some siren spells buzzing in my head. I did do a title evaluation on the Lulu site and found that Rast had a low rating and the title I'd dropped "Sorcerer's Bane" scored quite high. That'll be the first change to make. Since that publisher puts out print novels – on paper, no less – I intend to sit patiently until they've made up their minds. I have three writing friends with novels accepted by them – one whose novel I championed, and another that I had serious input into.
Enough chattering. I had better get down to writing a episode or two of the new serial that I can post here. Our next local writers' meeting is in a month's time – I'll try it out with them and hopefully be able to post it here around Christmas. Please come by and look for it.
Chris.
First the bad news, but it's not all that bad. I did a bit of re-writing of some older material in order to keep my serials coming on this serial blog, and today my local novel writing group heard me read some and voted it easily the worst thing they'd ever heard from me. As I read it I found myself stumbling over clunky sentences, and wincing, so I had no difficulty seeing what they were criticizing. As a consequence I will not be posting any reworked ten-year old material here. That's the good news.
I guess I should be pleased that my writing has improved over the years, but I'm chastened to think that I don't have the skill to tune out the old wording enough to translate it into a more polished piece of work. The story had some merit, but I would need to keep the old draft well out of sight if I wanted to make another stab at completing it.
In it's place I will start a completely new version of an older novel in the same Iskander series, and serialize it here. I will give it the old title of "Iskander's Wildcat" and it will still have Gisel's reckless love affair with Lord Ricart – but this takes place three years after "Arrival" that you've read here – when she's a nineteen year old lieutenant in Iskander's Special Forces.
As to my other writing – the novels – "Deadly Enterprise" and "The Wildcat's Victory" will begin entering Double Dragon's editing system in January, with a target date to publish the first in June 2007. I've already met my editor online and am looking forward to working with her. In fact we will both have short stories published in the Double Dragon anthology "Twisted Tales II" which also comes out in 2007.
We will both be contributing a chapter to a round robin novel that will be serialized by Double Dragon next year. It will start with the first chapter available from J. Richard Jacobs in February. Lea will have her chapter up in April, but mine's not due until this time next year. BTW I believe there is going to be a contest on the Double Dragon website to find a title for the RR novel – there will be a prize for the best suggestion.
The serial that I started with the short story "Arrival"( which can be found posted on this blog), has gone through a full critique with my other, online, writing group and I have received some good ideas on the limitations of the material. I will work on chiseling it into a proper novel during 2007 in the hopes of having the third Iskander novel follow the first two at a reasonably short interval. Especially important since it's a prequel to them.
Still no word about my fantasy "Rast" that's on the editor's desk at a new Canadian publisher. I have avoided setting down any ideas on a sequel to it, but I do have some siren spells buzzing in my head. I did do a title evaluation on the Lulu site and found that Rast had a low rating and the title I'd dropped "Sorcerer's Bane" scored quite high. That'll be the first change to make. Since that publisher puts out print novels – on paper, no less – I intend to sit patiently until they've made up their minds. I have three writing friends with novels accepted by them – one whose novel I championed, and another that I had serious input into.
Enough chattering. I had better get down to writing a episode or two of the new serial that I can post here. Our next local writers' meeting is in a month's time – I'll try it out with them and hopefully be able to post it here around Christmas. Please come by and look for it.
Chris.
posted by Christopher Hoare at 7:32 PM
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