Rhodar and other news about my writing

I've published a different version of this on my author facebook page, but I have no idea how many people actually look at that.

As of today I've reached 55,000 words with my Rhodar novel and there is much more to go. I do have sort of an outline, but that changes as the story and the characters develop.

My next release with Melange Books will be in October of this year with Book 4 in my Spider Wars series. Actually, the book is the fifth book in that series, but the first one 'Outpost Epsilon' stands on its own and when I wrote it I didn't know it would develop into a series.

Melange Books is also designing a new cover for my already published mystery novel 'Bullet of Revenge'. I’m looking forward to that new cover.

My self published books number 7 and number 8 in my Xandra series have also been accepted by Melange to be published next year. They aren't selling well with Smashwords. I should never have self-published them, because they are part of a series and they should be published with the same publisher, which is Melange Books for me. But at that time Melange wasn't accepting any Science Fiction. I didn't know that was meant for only new authors. My publisher Nancy Schumacher told me later that I am one of her Science Fiction writers and she will always accept my stories.

It is nice to know I have a home for my stories. Writing is lots of fun but part of that fun is to share the stories I write, to share my imagination with people who want to escape the daily grind and live in a fantasy world for a little while. That's what I supply and I hope the readers enjoy my stories as much as I enjoyed writing them.

Even though writing for me is a pleasant pastime and my passion I do take it seriously, especially if I want to publish it. As I write I also learn and grow. I make sure my grammar is correct and I try to avoid spelling mistakes. When I’m done with the story I read it probably half a dozen times, each time looking for errors like inconsistencies, spelling mistakes and sentence structure and yet—there is always something I miss. That’s why it is so important to have an editor. My new editor at Melange is going over my stories with a ‘fine-toothed comb’ and she has a sharp pencil. I’m always amazed how many errors she finds, but I take her advice to heart.

Writing is fun, but if you want to publish it is also hard work. Most of us authors don’t make any money on our books. We don’t get paid for all the hard work, but that doesn’t discourage us from writing the next novel, always hoping this is the one. If we don’t get rewarded with money for our efforts there is still a payoff. We enjoy dreaming our dreams, living in the worlds we create and we learn. That’s what living is about, experiencing and learning and growing and using the gifts we received. Doing nothing with our lives is a terrible waste. We were meant to create; even it is only in our minds.

Enjoy this day. Perhaps read one of my stories.

Update on Rhodar, the Barbarian

Yesterday I passed the 50,000 word mark with my new novel about Rhodar, the Barbarian. I don't have a title yet. That won't happen until I'm finished with the novel. Things are moving along fine. I have a skeleton of an outline, but that changes with the progress of the story.  As I write, the ideas come to me and the story takes on more substance. I try to write every day, as times allows. Sometimes I may write only a couple of paragraphs, other days I write a few pages. And that's okay. As long as I stay with the story so I don't have to waste too much time re-reading what I wrote. There are quite a number of characters in the story. New ones introduce themselves as the story develops, but there are only a few main characters and the story is written with multiple POVs. Some of the less important characters may appear only once, others show up more times during the story. I have a sheet listing all the characters and they all have some kind of background, which may not be mentioned in the story itself. As I introduce a new character, he/she gets added to the list. It's the only way to keep them organized, especially with all the names I have to invent.
Writing a sword & sorcery story is different from writing science fiction or a modern crime story. The people talk differently and act differently from characters in a crime story for instance. Science fiction is different again. It is a challenge but I'm enjoying it.

When I used to read (so many years ago, no time now!), I read a slew of sword & sorcery books. My favorite authors were Robert E. Howard, featuring Conan ( I read them all, more than once); Lin Carter with Thongor; Michael Moorcock with his Elric of Melnibone. And, of course, Edgar Rice Borroughs with John Carter of Mars and Carson Napier on Venus (I read all of them). There were other authors, like John Brunner and Roger Zelazny, and more. I have a library full of books and I read each book. Oh, I miss those wonderful worlds they created and to read about them. I wish I had time to read them all over again and live again in those worlds. Now I just write, creating my own worlds. There are only so many hours in a day and so many other things I want to do.

To get back to Rhodar, I don't know how long the story will be, but I'm aiming for about 90,000 words. Shouldn't be a problem. Too much longer and it will be too long for e-publishing. Can't have that. Many of my books turned out too long and I divided them into 2 or 3 books, but I don't want to do that anymore. I don't think readers like that. Most prefer when the story ends in one book. A series is fine, but each book has to have an ending. Anyway, that's what I want to do for my future books.