Category Archives: Books/Literature

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 10/27/16 update

Incredibly good news: I’ve just finished my latest complete re-reading/review of book #6 of the Corrosive Knights series aaaaaaannnnnddddd…

This will be the very last full book review of it I’ll do.

The novel reads extremely well and the “problems” I found in the latest re-reading amounted to grammatical issues which shouldn’t take much time to clean up on the computer.  Now, there were two chapters (out of 80) that I feel will require a little more than just grammatical clean up and I might give them one more read through before officially finishing, but even these two chapters were well on their way to being finished.

Which means I can say with stone cold certainty that this novel will be released by later November or, at the very worst, very early December.  After doing the corrections on the computer, all that’ll be left to do is format everything on PDF for print and Kindle e-book and we’re off.

So, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your incredible patience.  My next update will be the last regarding this book and will not only give you this book’s title, but it will tell you the novel is ready to be purchased.

Before I go, I wanted to reprint the following Corrosive Knights FAQ.  It offers insight into the series and the timelines of each novel.  If you haven’t yet read it, do so.  It’ll give you an idea of how this series progresses (I originally posted this here).

*******

Writing these (Corrosive Knights) books has been a blast even as they’ve also been a mighty struggle.  I’m working with a series I feel is unique in many ways.  To begin, the scope of the story is incredibly large, taking place over the course of some 20,000 plus years.  Readers are offered events in different epochs which, when put together, form a much larger story.

While there have been plenty of stories featuring flashbacks and flash-forwards, I think its safe to say no series -at least none that I’m aware of!- features entire novels that take place in sometimes vastly different times, past and the future, while (hopefully!) logically building up the larger tale.

The five Corrosive Knights books plus the one I’m currently working on have been/will be released -and ideally should be read- in this order:

Corrosive Knights Covers

I say “ideally” but I’m not being entirely honest: The first three books of the series, Mechanic, The Last Flight of the Argus, and Chameleon could be read in any order.  They feature unique characters and take place in vastly different times and therefore if one wanted to one could read them in any order they choose.

However, by the time you reach Nox, Ghost of the Argus, and the so-far unnamed Book #6, the continuity established in these first three novels kicks in and, while I think the later books could be enjoyed on their own, I HIGHLY recommend you read books 1, 2, and 3 before venturing into the ones that follow.

Now, if I were to tell the Corrosive Knights story in chronological order, i.e. each book’s main story occurring “one after the other” and ignore whatever smaller flashback elements are presented within said novels, the story order would go like this:

Corrosive Knights in Chronological Order

That’s right: The book I’m currently working on, #6 of the Corrosive Knights series, actually takes place before the events of The Last Flight of the Argus and Ghost of the Argus.  In fact, they take place a couple hundred years before those books!  Yet I would absolutely NOT recommend anyone read that book when it is released before already reading the rest of the series and, in particular, The Last Flight of the Argus and Ghost of the Argus.

Why?

Because the events of those two books in particular fill in story concepts which have a big payoff in Book #6 and propels the reader into the Corrosive Knights series finale, which will be Book #7.

Fear not, thought.  There will be an epilogue to the series, a Book #8, which will wrap certain things up that weren’t/aren’t wrapped up in Book #7.  Book #8 will also offer what I hope is a great long view of the heroes we’ve followed for so long while focusing on one in particular.  To further screw with your head, I’m already finished with the first draft of Book #8 but only have a chapter or so written (along with a general idea of the story) of Book #7.

Not only is my series presented in a quirky temporal way, so too it would appear is my creative output!

Books/Literature

On Writing…Henry James and the Organic Form

Way back in February of this year I offered an update of my latest Corrosive Knights novel and the then hope I would have the novel ready by May (obviously, I was being waaaay too optimistic).  Toward the end of that particular update, I wrote the following and felt it worth cutting and pasting here:

Back when I was in College I took a Literature course and while I don’t remember much about it, there was one particular lesson regarding author Henry James’ view of a novel that really, really stuck with me.  I’ll let Mr. James’ words speak for themselves:

A novel is a living thing, all one and continuous, like any other organism, and in proportion as it lives will it be found, that in each of the parts there is something of each of the other parts.

Mr. James’ ideas, often referred to as the view that a good/great novel presents an “organic whole”, urges authors to not waste a single word or create any scene(s) within their work that is superfluous and doesn’t contribute to the entirety of the work/story you are telling.

Thus in the “perfect” novel a reader is given a work wherein not even one single word is wasted.  Each and every one of the words and sentences and paragraphs and chapters, etc. move the story forward until it reaches its end.

I took this lesson very much to heart.

So whether you like, hate, or are indifferent to any/all of my works, it is my intention to never waste your time as a reader.  I try my best to make sure every element I insert into a novel has a reason for being there and ties into the larger story I’m telling.

And it is indeed a large story and one I couldn’t be prouder of.

I present this because this morning, as I’m going over the 12th draft of my most recent novel, Henry James’ theory on the nuts and bolts of what makes a novel remains one of the best bits of instruction about writing I can think of.  (For the record, Elmore Leonard offered what I consider my second favorite bit of advice but I can’t find the actual quote.  It went something along the lines of “When revising a novel, get rid of all the boring stuff and leave in the good stuff”.  As simple as this sounds, it is a truly profound comment on writing).

Which brings us to this, Danielle Dutton offering…

Terrible Writing Advice From Famous Writers

I wish there was more!  Oh, wait…Emily Temple offers us some more…

Bad Writing Advice From Famous Authors

One of my favorite “bad” pieces of writing advice is presented in this later link and comes from Ray Bradbury:

Quantity produces quality.  If you only write a few things, you are doomed.

On the surface, this bit of advice is something that tempts you into thinking its true.  If you release a number of books/stories, there is a good chance that some of them will touch a nerve and be viewed as “great” works.

 

This may work for some, but I feel there is a double edged sword here: If you are focused entirely on releasing work after work, is there not a danger you will start repeating yourself?  Is there not a danger that you will come to view your works as a commodity instead of something you aspire to make “great”?

My latest Corrosive Knights novel has taken to date 2 years to make.  It runs roughly 100,000 words and, when it is finally released (soon!), I suspect a speedy reader could read it in a day or two.

Why did it take me 2 years to make the novel?  Because that’s the length of time I needed to make it.

It sounds silly when put that way but this is the reality: This novel features an intricate plot that is not unlike the delicate machinery in a Swiss watch.  All the elements in this novel have to come together to work as a whole and, when dealing with the intricacies I’m trying to put forward, this is not an easy thing to achieve.

I don’t want to give readers something they’ve seen before.  I want to release something that surprises and, hopefully, delights them because it is unique in its own way and unique when compared to my other works.

Understand, I don’t want to sound obnoxious. Just as I know there are those who like my works I also know there are others who don’t care for them.

This is the way things go.

I could literally “bust my ass” while scaling back my ambitions and write one novel after the other and release them every few months.

I could do that but I know the quality of the works will be inferior…at least to my eyes.

Writing, for me, is not an easy thing to do.  I love doing so dearly and know I will do so until the day I die.  At times the process is incredibly frustrating.  Even infuriating.

Yet I will continue to do so.

There’s nothing as beautiful as finishing your latest novel and realizing you’ve created something you can be proud of.  Something that will live long past your days on this planet and will, hopefully, give joy to others.

I’ve babbled enough.  Back to the 12th draft of my novel!

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 10/18/16 update

We’re in the final stretch.

Before heading out for my mini-vacation, I went over those three chapters of my latest Corrosive Knights novel that I felt needed particular attention.

I had just enough time to go over those three chapters twice, both times reading, revising, then fixing them on the computer.  Quite literally as I was about to go to sleep that final night before leaving, I printed the entire novel out and had it ready for when I returned.

Starting today, I intend to give the entire novel one more/final read-through and revision (draft #12, for those counting).  I anticipate adding one more little bit to the novel’s conclusion but otherwise what I’m hoping to find this go around are nothing more than grammatical errors and a finished book.

Deciding a novel is finished and therefore making it available to readers is, to me, something I take very seriously.  The reason this novel took me two years and to date 12 drafts to complete is because I refuse to put any of my works out there for people to spend their hard earned money on without feeling those works are the very best I could make them.

Luckily, I don’t have any publisher or accountant or investor behind me forcing me to get my latest work out there quick, quick, quick.

For better or ill, when book #6 of the Corrosive Knights series is released, it will be the very best novel I could do at this particular time.

And I think it’s terrific.  I can’t wait to allow you guys out there read it.

Stay tuned!

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Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 10/10/16 update

Yesterday, after much delays (thanks, Hurricane Matthew), I finally finished up the revisions for draft 11b of my latest Corrosive Knights novel.

Last update I noted that I thought everything was good and that after that draft was done I’d probably do one more full draft and be done with the novel.

Not so fast.

As I’m writing the revisions into my Word file, I’m essentially doing another revision of the novel as I go along.  Things were humming really nicely until I got to the last chapters of the book and realized there was some stuff that needed further clarification.

Now, for those eager to get their hands on the book -I know you’re out there, right?!- don’t despair: The problems I found amounted to only 3 chapters of the book’s nearly 80 chapters and a total of 8 pages, single spaced.

I strongly suspect I’ll get through these revisions, which I’ll label draft 11c, in the next few days and then its off to the full, and final, draft.

So we’re dealing with at best a minor hiccup here.

Stay tuned!

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 10/4/16 Update

Yesterday was a very good day.

I finished reading and writing my revisions to draft 11b of the latest Corrosive Knights novel, #6 of the series, now will turn to putting those written fixes into the computer.

The reason I labeled the draft 11b (and the previous draft 11a) was because these were not full novel revisions.  In the case of 11a, I read/revised a little over one half of the book, mostly the second half, because I felt the first half of the book was good as is.

With 11b, I was able to cut down the number of pages even more and found myself reviewing just a little under 1/2 of the book this time around.  I could have cut that page count even more but I wanted to read a “block” of the book to make sure one chapter flowed into the next.

As I was about to start draft 11b, I worried there might be a need for an 11c review.

This is where the “very good day” thing I wrote above comes into play:

After finishing up this latest draft, I’m happy to report the novel is pretty much done.

I found a few things that needed clarification/elimination but overall I feel the second half of the novel, the part that needed this extra look, is finally ready to be “locked down”.

So, what’s left to do?

After putting the corrections into the computer, I’m going to print the whole thing out and give the entire novel one more read through which will be draft #12.  Hopefully, following this read through and after correcting whatever grammatical errors are left, we’re done.

Finished.

Finito.

Not long now, friends.  Just have to get through Hurricane Matthew and we’ll be fine…

Corrosive Knights Book #6

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 9/27/16 Update

Quick update here: I’m done with draft 11a of book #6 in the Corrosive Knights series (I still want to keep its name hidden)…

Corrosive Knights Covers

The journey’s been long and hard but I truly believe this book is tantalizingly close to being done.  It’s also, if I do say so myself, an amazing novel.

Corrosive Knights Book #6

I labeled the current revision 11a because I didn’t feel the need to revise the entire novel, focusing instead on roughly half of it (mostly the second half) that I felt needed cleaning up.

After doing this, what’s left to be done is even less.  I’m going to look over exactly what I’ve done today and print out what I feel still needs further scrutiny.  I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m down to needing to clean up only about 1/4 of the book for revision 11b.

I’m really hopeful after this revision I’ll just need to give the entire novel one last, quick read-through, mostly for grammatical/spelling issues, and be done with it.

It won’t be long now, and I couldn’t be any more excited.

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Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 9/16/2016 update

As of yesterday I read through the material I felt needed to be reviewed in my latest Corrosive Knights book, which will be #6 in the series (still keepin’ the title a secret)…

Corrosive Knights Book #6

As I mentioned in my last update, I felt roughly 1/2 of the book was ready to go but needed to focus on the other 1/2 and this is what, as of yesterday, I did.  What excites me is the fact that apart from maybe 4-5 chapters which I will go over again, I feel much of this half of the novel, after I finish the latest revision, will also be good to go.

So the process moves along and we get nearer and nearer to me being satisfied with the entirety of the work.

For those counting, I consider myself doing draft #11a.  I designate is “a” because I’m not doing the full novel.  I’ll type up my revisions in the next few days, print out the sections I feel still need another look, and its off to draft #11b!

Books/Literature

Corrosive Knights, a 9/7/16 update

Whew.

Just finished the last pages of the 10th revision of the latest Corrosive Knights novel, Book #6 (I’m keeping the title a secret for just a bit longer)…

Corrosive Knights Book #6

Unlike the previous drafts, this one was very significant in that after getting it done, I now have a much stronger idea of how close I am to finishing it.  Or, to put it another way, I can now very distinctly see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Before getting too excited, however, the book isn’t quite done yet.  However, over 1/2 of it is completely fine.  The book clocks in at 101,000 words, give or take, with this draft and, in my opinion, its an incredible (pardon the language) mind-fuck of a novel.  When it is finally released, I think readers will be surprised and shocked and intrigued by what I’ve presented.

At least I hope!

So what’s left to do?  I no longer need to revise the entire book but will instead focus on the sections I feel still need work.  In that respect the latest revisions have moved the ball forward tremendously and I suspect I’ll give those pages two quick revisions (I don’t think it should take more than three or so weeks) before going over the entire novel one last time and then…ta da!…releasing it.

While its still hard to predict a solid release date, suffice to say we are just about there and I couldn’t be more excited.

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Books/Literature, TV

Inspiration and wild timing

1 Comment

Earlier this morning -at 10:17 A.M. to be precise- I posted the following blog entry regarding zeppelins (you can read the post here).  The upshot of my entry was that I was turned on, via reddit, to a great photograph from 1931 of a zeppelin flying over a pyramid at Giza and that, in turn, made me wax nostalgic for my love of zeppelins in general, which had me noting how I used them extensively in my first published work, the retro-futuristic noir mystery graphic novel The Dark Fringe.

 

Not 45 minutes later and posted on i09 I find the following article by Katharine Trendacosta:

The 10 Best Times TV Shows Completely Swapped Genres

Although it wasn’t presented among Ms. Trendacosta’s top 10, I wasn’t terribly surprised to find the Fringe second season episode Brown Betty listed among the comments as another example of a show using a different genre within its run.  For those unfamiliar with the episode, here’s the trailer to Brown Betty:

Interesting stuff, no?

So what the heck does that have to do with my similarly titled The Dark Fringe?

I strongly suspect my book, originally released in 1996 (Fringe first aired in 2008 and some ten plus years after my book’s original release and Brown Betty in particular first aired on April 29, 2010), was at least a partial inspiration for that particular episode.

Now, before you think I’m one of those creative types who screams “they ripped me off!” every time some work comes with some vague similarity to my own, take that thought from your head.  I don’t and I’m not making this claim regarding Brown Betty.

As I said, I strongly suspect my book INSPIRED that particular episode.  Not in its story, however, but in the setting/visuals they used.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

As I said before, I published the four issues of The Dark Fringe in the mid-1990’s and collected and published a Trade paperback (TPB) of the run in 2003.  The TPB caught the eye of one Scott Rosenburg at Platinum Studios.  He had brought the Men In Black comic book to the big screen (I believe he originally had a hand in its creation as a comic book) and founded Platinum Studios to promote other comic book stories/concepts for the movies.

Anyway, he found and read The Dark Fringe at the time the TPB was released and offered to present the book to the movie studios.  I agreed and he did.  During that time, he also managed to get another of his properties, Cowboys and Aliens, off the ground and made into a feature film and I know he presented my book to the people behind that movie.  And among that movie’s creative staff were some of the same people behind a little TV series which would soon appeared entitled, you guessed it, Fringe.

Was the Fringe inspired, at least by its title, by my The Dark Fringe?  I don’t know and it is irrelevant.  As it originally appeared, the Fringe TV show was clearly inspired by The X-Files rather than anything remotely similar to what was in my series.

However, when Brown Betty appeared in season 2 and my wife and I watched it, I distinctly recall turning to her not ten minutes into the episode and after seeing its film noir setting along with zeppelins and old-fashioned radio/computer hybrids, and saying: “Looks like someone on the show’s read The Dark Fringe!”

My wife was incensed.  “How could they rip you off like this?!” she said.

I wasn’t as bothered.  As I’ve already noted, the story presented in Brown Betty was nothing remotely like what I wrote for The Dark Fringe.  However, back in 2010 and to the best of my memory there wasn’t anything quite like the Zeppelin heavy retrofuturistic film noir setting that I presented in my book and which I now saw in that episode.

So while Brown Betty had nothing like my story within it, I to this day believe someone on the show’s staff (perhaps several someones) were at the very least inspired by my book’s “look” and emulated it for this episode.

This was not an unusual thing, either.  Several episodes in that second season of Fringe were clearly inspired by other comic books, including the season’s two part conclusion which liberally used DC’s multiverse concept.

So there you have it, for what its worth.  Whether inspired by my work or not, I enjoyed Fringe and I enjoyed Brown Betty.  Maybe moreso because they maybe, possibly, could have, might’ve drawn some inspiration by one of my own humble works.

Books/Literature

On writing…re-writing

Rainy days have a way of making me reflect on my life and passions and one of the biggest ones is writing.

As of today, I’m knee deep in my 10th (!) draft of the latest Corrosive Knights novel and as of this month, its been two full years since I first began writing it.  The fact that I’ve been working on this material as long as I have and remain as laser focused on getting this book cleaned up and released is proof of my love for this work and my love, in general for writing.

After this book is released?

I’ll do like I usually do, take a day or two to pat myself on the back and admire the fact that the bookshelf devoted to my works has filled up just a little bit more.  After that day or two is over, I return to my computer and begin writing my next novel.

Getting back to the topic on hand, my guess is it takes approximately three months (give or take) for me to write the first draft of a novel but, obviously, much, much more time revising and rewriting it before I feel its ready for release,

I’m not the only one.  While googling the topic of rewriting, I was struck by many of the quotes I found.  For instance,

“I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.” Vladimir Nabokov

Another one:

“Writing a first draft is like groping one’s way into a dark room, or overhearing a faint conversation, or telling a joke whose punchline you’ve forgotten. As someone said, one writes mainly to rewrite, for rewriting and revising are how one’s mind comes to inhabit the material fully.”  Ted Solotaroff

Perhaps the most succinct and to the point quote I found regarding this topic comes from author Truman Capote:

Good writing is re-writing.

It is also, needless to say, a lot of work and someone like me, as passionate as I am about writing, would find it far harder to work on a novel if I still had to use a typewriter as opposed to a computer.

Mind you, I have used both.

When I was much younger and computers and word processing programs didn’t yet exist, I wrote a few stories (none good, trust me!) and found it an incredibly frustrating process.  The process of writing those works on a typewriter was slowed considerably every time you hit the wrong key or realized, mid sentence or mid-paragraph or mid-thought, you could write whatever it is you were writing a lot better better if you did this or that.  With a typewriter, you’re stuck.  You could either tear the page out or draw a line through the “bad” sentence/paragraph or you could keep going and make a note on the page that when you re-wrote it, you needed to change x or w or z.

Regardless, if I were using a typewriter today rather than a computer my latest novel, now two years in the making, would easily take twice as long if not more to finish off.

And I would have done it.

Mind you, it would not have been easy and my level of frustration would be far greater but I would have done it.

I love writing that much.

Why point all this out?

As the cliche goes, the best thing in the world is to find your passion and make something positive out of it.

Having said that, one should look oneself in the mirror and see if their passions, whatever they may be, are something that can be realized.

If your great passion is to be an Olympic swimmer but you have neither the long, lean body, the physical strength, and/or patience to spend hour after hour in a pool exercising, then chances are you’ll never accomplish that which you desire.

Similarly, if you want to be a writer and have this extraordinary idea you think would make for a great book yet day after day put off writing that book to spend time watching TV shows or playing video games or taking a walk, then chances are you’ll never get that book done.

Put in the work.  The sad fact is that even if you work extremely hard, nothing may come of it.

However, if you’re anything like me and the day comes for you to look back on your life and your accomplishments, you’ll find yourself thankful for many things.  For me, I’ll be thankful for my family.  I’ll be thankful for the friends I found along the way.  I’ll remember the good times and try hard not to dwell on the bad.

For me, I’ll look at that bookshelf which houses my works.  By then, I hope it’ll be full of wonderful works I can be proud of.  They may not make me rich and famous but their existence sure fills me with satisfaction and a sense of accomplishment.

Have fun at it.

Always.