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Under the Darkened Moon is not yet done, but it is getting close. A few more chapters need polishing. Then it will be off to whatever is next on the list once the novel is sent off to fend for itself in the slush piles of literary agents and publishers. And boy, is that list of potential projects long. I have so many that it is going to be hard to choose.

There are a lot of short stories I am working on. I have considered finishing up enough of those to wrap them up into an small book of maybe 100 pages or so and get something published and available for sale. Right now I am preparing to get two stories (Frist and Second Lessons & The Yoke) critiqued by my writers group. Second Chances is available to do something with too. So that could be the start for this idea. Read more…

Prince of Thorns, the debut novel my Mark Lawrence, follows the story of Jorg, a Prince with a particularly mean streak.  At the age of nine, Jorg watches as his mother and brother are brutally murdered.  He then embarks on a quest for vengeance.  It ‘s a story that has been told, and told successfully, many times.

I think that one thing is clear, Mark Lawrence has a way with words and uses them compellingly to set scenes.  But I also think one other thing is also very clear – in Prince of Thorns, that same talent is not used to give depth to the characters or the overall plot.  Prince Jorg is about as one-dimensional as they come.  His gratuitous callousness is never truly counterbalanced with a desire to feel sorry for him (which would have given him other dimensions he so sorely needed). Read more…

Last night I sat down wanting to touch up some things with my short story “The War Within”. But I couldn’t quite get in the mood. The story still needs work however I just could not figure out what to work on exactly.

Some parts are right as I want them. So rather than do something I would later regret I started free writing the short story “Sacrifice” and adapt to a story in a whole other world.

Unlike “The War Within” which gives some background to a secondary character in my project called “Dark Moon”, “Sacrifice” gives flesh to a character that I have written about in short stories (unpublished) before. However she is much more the main character in those stories.

I think the exercise was a good one. It got me off my current rut with “The War Within” and quickly I had a new story with a clear beginning, middle, and end. Right now it stands at 1,500 some words but there is a lot of straight dialogue without any added features to break it up. I plan on fixing that to make it more than just he said, she said, he said, she said, he said which is boring and can confuse the reader without pointers every now and again to let the reader know exactly who is speaking.

I have also decided to tell much of this story through flashbacks. Normally I abhor flashbacks but for this story I am going to try them. It seems to work.