23.November.2005.Wed
My short story, Baker-124, was accepted by GenderiZine of Massachusetts.
You can order a copy of of the magazine right here. It comes in either an E-zine format or a hard copy format that they will mail to you.
As the title suggests, this magazine deals with issues of sexuality, including orientation. The story, Baker-124, has an element of that within it, though it is not the main theme.
As I mentioned earlier, Baker-124 is a River City short story featuring Officer Matt Westboard.
You can order a copy of of the magazine right here. It comes in either an E-zine format or a hard copy format that they will mail to you.
As the title suggests, this magazine deals with issues of sexuality, including orientation. The story, Baker-124, has an element of that within it, though it is not the main theme.
As I mentioned earlier, Baker-124 is a River City short story featuring Officer Matt Westboard.
See my 10/10/2005 post about my story The Worst Door, and read the comments, if you’re interested at all in what I’ve been dealing with spam-wise.
21.November.2005.Mon
I have reached the end of this now...the completed first draft is about 72,000 words.
Now I will ask a couple of test readers to give me some feedback while I work on finishing up the eighty-seventh revision of the first two River City books. Hopefully, by the time I get All That Counts back from my readers, I’ll have a little clinical distance and can effectively work the first revision.
I had two different endings in mind...we’ll see what my beta readers think of my choice.
As always, it feels good to have finished the first draft of a novel.
Now I will ask a couple of test readers to give me some feedback while I work on finishing up the eighty-seventh revision of the first two River City books. Hopefully, by the time I get All That Counts back from my readers, I’ll have a little clinical distance and can effectively work the first revision.
I had two different endings in mind...we’ll see what my beta readers think of my choice.
As always, it feels good to have finished the first draft of a novel.
17.November.2005.Thu
One of the pieces in Heroes Often Fail that really didn’t have anything to do with the main storyline was a chapter involving Matt Westboard.
Westboard is a supporting character in Under A Raging Moon, who works on the same platoon as Katie McLeod. He’s a good guy and a solid cop.
In this chapter, he responds to a welfare check on a little girl at some run-down apartments in River City. The call requires him to investigate her living conditions and determine if she should be placed with CPS or not.
The chapter is a powerful chapter, I think (Conway agreed when he read it), but the fact is that it has absolutely nothing to do with the kidnapping of Amy Dugger, which is the main story of the novel.
Truth be told, I’ve wanted to include calls for service experiences as part of the River City books from the very beginning. I’ve also wanted to make sure most of the characters get at least a little face-time in each installment. What I’ve discovered (read: one part pointed out to me, one part further reflection) is that the story must be paramount. In both Under A Raging Moon and Heroes Often Fail, I have passages that serve no purpose other than to tell an interesting tale about a call some cop went on.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve begun revising both books, taking out these unrelated calls and putting them in a file all their own with an eye toward fashioning a book around them where that is the point—patrol calls. Meanwhile, I’ve found that there are enough calls for service in Under A Raging Moon to still give the reader that flavor and yet not impede the story itself. Same with Heroes Often Fail.
This chapter with Westboard, however, looked like it could stand alone as a short story. I edited it with that in mind, removing references to the Heroes Often Fail storyline that weren’t necessary and tightening it a little bit. At the end of the process, I believed it was a stand alone short piece, so it has officially entered the River City lexicon as such.
Baker-124 is Matt Westboard’s patrol callsign. If you haven’t read Good Shepherd yet, please check it out—Westboard is mentioned there, too.
I have another Westboard story in mind that I haven’t written yet, and he will show up as a supporting character in the third, fourth and fifth River City books (Beneath A Weeping Sky, River City: Patrol and And Every Man Has To Die) for sure. I imagine he’ll be around for others, too.
This story is out in submission already.
Westboard is a supporting character in Under A Raging Moon, who works on the same platoon as Katie McLeod. He’s a good guy and a solid cop.
In this chapter, he responds to a welfare check on a little girl at some run-down apartments in River City. The call requires him to investigate her living conditions and determine if she should be placed with CPS or not.
The chapter is a powerful chapter, I think (Conway agreed when he read it), but the fact is that it has absolutely nothing to do with the kidnapping of Amy Dugger, which is the main story of the novel.
Truth be told, I’ve wanted to include calls for service experiences as part of the River City books from the very beginning. I’ve also wanted to make sure most of the characters get at least a little face-time in each installment. What I’ve discovered (read: one part pointed out to me, one part further reflection) is that the story must be paramount. In both Under A Raging Moon and Heroes Often Fail, I have passages that serve no purpose other than to tell an interesting tale about a call some cop went on.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve begun revising both books, taking out these unrelated calls and putting them in a file all their own with an eye toward fashioning a book around them where that is the point—patrol calls. Meanwhile, I’ve found that there are enough calls for service in Under A Raging Moon to still give the reader that flavor and yet not impede the story itself. Same with Heroes Often Fail.
This chapter with Westboard, however, looked like it could stand alone as a short story. I edited it with that in mind, removing references to the Heroes Often Fail storyline that weren’t necessary and tightening it a little bit. At the end of the process, I believed it was a stand alone short piece, so it has officially entered the River City lexicon as such.
Baker-124 is Matt Westboard’s patrol callsign. If you haven’t read Good Shepherd yet, please check it out—Westboard is mentioned there, too.
I have another Westboard story in mind that I haven’t written yet, and he will show up as a supporting character in the third, fourth and fifth River City books (Beneath A Weeping Sky, River City: Patrol and And Every Man Has To Die) for sure. I imagine he’ll be around for others, too.
This story is out in submission already.
11.November.2005.Fri
I’ve slowed down on this a little over the past couple of weeks, but I got a couple thousand words done today. There were two important scenes in this small block here where a crisis with the main player’s teammate is resolved and one with his wife begins.
I’ve been working on too many things, including editing and website stuff and this novel has been mildly neglected.
I’m going to try to get a couple of hours on both Saturday and Sunday, if I can.
I’ve been working on too many things, including editing and website stuff and this novel has been mildly neglected.
I’m going to try to get a couple of hours on both Saturday and Sunday, if I can.
10.November.2005.Thu
My short story, Be My Santa Baby, which I recently submitted to Mysterical-E magazine for the December issue, was accepted.
When it is published next month, the link is here. Ho, ho, ho.
When it is published next month, the link is here. Ho, ho, ho.
06.November.2005.Sun
I got a letter back from two agents this week.
Both wanted to represent me.
Before you send congratulations, you should know the rest.
The first agency sent two identical letters, both of them thanking me for allowing them to consider the following books: A Ragging Moon, Waist Deep, River City and Some Degree of Murder.
Okay, I don’t claim to be a household name (not even in my own household), but come on...if they’d read the proposal I sent, it is very clear that the name of the series is “River City.” And if they can’t even get the title of the first book right, how much attention are they really paying?
Oh, enough to ask for a $250 retainer, that’s how much.
The second agency is run by a felon, something I discovered after submitting a query letter. She wrote back a convincing “I want to represent you” letter, even writing that she “especially enjoyed the prologue and the epilogue in the first novel.”
The problem is, she’s been convicted in San Angelo, Texas for fraud and was working for another fraudelent agency. To make matters worse, she asked for a “retainer” of $325/year for one novel or $500/yr for the whole series.
At least she got the name of my book right.
The sad thing is, people pay them.
No reputable agent asks for any money up front. Period. These folks are scammers and I wish I’d done better research before mailing queries. I was in a rush, trying to get an agent to help in my negotiations with the small press that had made an offer on the series, and I cut corners. What I got for my trouble was about $25 in wasted copies and postage.
Better than the retainers fees, though, I suppose.
Both wanted to represent me.
Before you send congratulations, you should know the rest.
The first agency sent two identical letters, both of them thanking me for allowing them to consider the following books: A Ragging Moon, Waist Deep, River City and Some Degree of Murder.
Okay, I don’t claim to be a household name (not even in my own household), but come on...if they’d read the proposal I sent, it is very clear that the name of the series is “River City.” And if they can’t even get the title of the first book right, how much attention are they really paying?
Oh, enough to ask for a $250 retainer, that’s how much.
The second agency is run by a felon, something I discovered after submitting a query letter. She wrote back a convincing “I want to represent you” letter, even writing that she “especially enjoyed the prologue and the epilogue in the first novel.”
The problem is, she’s been convicted in San Angelo, Texas for fraud and was working for another fraudelent agency. To make matters worse, she asked for a “retainer” of $325/year for one novel or $500/yr for the whole series.
At least she got the name of my book right.
The sad thing is, people pay them.
No reputable agent asks for any money up front. Period. These folks are scammers and I wish I’d done better research before mailing queries. I was in a rush, trying to get an agent to help in my negotiations with the small press that had made an offer on the series, and I cut corners. What I got for my trouble was about $25 in wasted copies and postage.
Better than the retainers fees, though, I suppose.
I modified and somewhat completed (for now, anyway) a River City timeline chart. It includes all the different River City novels and short stories in chronological order. The characters involved in each book or story are listed as well.
Two of the short stories included were written by Colin Conway and will eventually appear in Tales of River City. Likewise, Some Degree of Murder, a novel, was co-authored by Conway.
This isn’t the slickest of charts, but it’s a start. As I add stories and characters to the River City canon, I’ll update the chart. The novels are all linked to the novels page, but when published, each novel will have it’s own page. The published shorts are linked to their publication site and the unpublished ones are linked to the page where all unpublished shorts are listed. As they get published, the links will change.
Hope you find the chart interesting or helpful.
The other thing I did was add a short blurb about another novel in the pipeline. This one is called River City: Patrol. As it was, in the first two River City novels, I had a number of scenes in which patrol officers responded to calls for service in the course of duty. The scenes were good, but some of them didn’t serve to advance the story. On sage advice, I pulled these out of Under A Raging Moon and Heroes Often Fail and they will be part of a novel that will focus on exactly that–patrol calls for service.
Meanwhile, one or two of the calls-for-service stories have the makings of stand-alone short stories, so I will revise them to fit that mode.
Two of the short stories included were written by Colin Conway and will eventually appear in Tales of River City. Likewise, Some Degree of Murder, a novel, was co-authored by Conway.
This isn’t the slickest of charts, but it’s a start. As I add stories and characters to the River City canon, I’ll update the chart. The novels are all linked to the novels page, but when published, each novel will have it’s own page. The published shorts are linked to their publication site and the unpublished ones are linked to the page where all unpublished shorts are listed. As they get published, the links will change.
Hope you find the chart interesting or helpful.
The other thing I did was add a short blurb about another novel in the pipeline. This one is called River City: Patrol. As it was, in the first two River City novels, I had a number of scenes in which patrol officers responded to calls for service in the course of duty. The scenes were good, but some of them didn’t serve to advance the story. On sage advice, I pulled these out of Under A Raging Moon and Heroes Often Fail and they will be part of a novel that will focus on exactly that–patrol calls for service.
Meanwhile, one or two of the calls-for-service stories have the makings of stand-alone short stories, so I will revise them to fit that mode.
Take a look, if you haven’t yet, at my new website design. Go ahead, do it and come back. I’ll wait.
Cool, huh?
I’d like to take credit for it, but all I did was tweak some verbiage. The design was done by tobejodok. As soon as I can find his portfolio again online, I’ll post a link to it.
Although I felt good about the noobie work I did on my original site, there is no way I could get a site up this slick and professional-looking anytime soon. He did a fantastic job.
But tell me what you think.
Cool, huh?
I’d like to take credit for it, but all I did was tweak some verbiage. The design was done by tobejodok. As soon as I can find his portfolio again online, I’ll post a link to it.
Although I felt good about the noobie work I did on my original site, there is no way I could get a site up this slick and professional-looking anytime soon. He did a fantastic job.
But tell me what you think.
