Progress, slow but getting there...

Vengeance of the Ghost is progressing. I've finally finished the first draft of Chapter 10. It has taken so long that I am going back over the story before beginning Chapter 11. This helped solve one of the problems I've been having. Chapter 4 originally had the seduction of Simon by his older sister in it. This being the third book of the series and that subject matter appearing for the first time, I decided to cut it. This left Chapter 4 rather skeletal and rushed. During the re-read, I worked on it again. The skeletal framework gave me a good start to building the new Simon. I think it reads much better now.

The second problem I've been having was that I was fighting the story to make it go my way. This began in Chapter 10. At first it was going to be the start of the war between the dwarves and the deep-elves. That didn't work so I changed it to concentrate on what was happening to Tal. The result was that a certain elf was going to die, or so I thought. Apparently, the story didn't want the character I wanted to kill the elf to do the deed. The story had other plans. After fighting to get my way for over a month, I decided to surrender to the story and things turned out much better. The elf that was going to die still lives, though probably not long and another problem that I would have had later has been solved. Hopefully, I'll be caught up with my re-read and moving on to chapter 11 tomorrow.

During the writing of the first two novels, I had several friends encouraging me along the way. They provided the support I needed to believe what I was writing was good enough to publish. Over the last few months, real life has made their lives too hectic to give the story much attention and my support and belief went with them. I have no bad feelings towards them, they are friends and I realize that other things are far more important than reading someone's story. It just makes the writing far more difficult. I find myself questioning every word I put on the word-processor. I'm sure they'll be back when things calm down, but until then, writing will probably be slow.

At this point, I still plan to have Vengeance out by May or June. That will be delayed if the book has not reached the standard of professionalism I expect my stories to have. I'll keep posting updates as the book progresses.

Thanks for reading.

Roadblock...

Both Shadow of the Ghost and Legacy of the Ghost had places that seemed like someone had set up a roadblock to hinder their completion. Vengeance of the Ghost, not to be left out, has one as well. For Vengeance, it is Chapter 10. I know what needs to happen, but the words refuse to find the page. In spite of this, it is progressing, quite slowly, but progressing.

GenCon 2010, which is a gamer convention, will occur without my presence this year. Maybe 2011 will prove to be the year I can attend.

More updates...

Vengeance of the Ghost is progressing well. I'm currently working on the first death of the story. I'm hoping to have that crispy corpse as well as the rest of Chapter 10 finished tonight.

Shadow of the Ghost will be republished via CreateSpace very soon. The best part of this is that the price will be reduced considerably.

GenCon Indy 2010: At this time, it looks like I will be found on Author's Avenue at GenCon Indy next August. I will have the entire Lord of Chaos trilogy with me as well. Depending on my inspiration, kaben nine may be there also. My first priority is to complete Vengeance so kaben may not make it by then.

About time for an update...

Vengeance of the Ghost is progressing well again. The first nine chapters are rewritten to fit some new subplots into the story. I'm really happy with where it is headed. The ending has not changed, just the road traveled to reach that ending. At this time, I'm going to say that the release date will still be mid to late spring. I hope those who have followed up to this point find the story to their satisfaction.

kaben nine is once again out of the storage bin. I'll be working on that story on and off while I mull over how I want chapters of Vengeance to go. I probably won't post any more of that here. Those that want to read it will have to wait until it is completed.

I'll be back with more news, stamps and autographs more often again. Thanks to all that have purchased my books. I hope you have enjoyed the journey and will continue to enjoy it as the rest of the story unfolds.

Delete or...

Upon waking this morning, I thought about the words forced onto the computer yesterday. By the time I sat before the monitor, I had convinced myself to delete the whole chapter and try again. Fortunately, I avoided the story until after I had imbued a decent dose of coffee. My thinking cleared a bit and I decided to read what I had written the day before and see what I could salvage. As it turns out, I added a few things here, changed a few things there and pretty much kept the whole thing. Afterwards, I went on to complete chapter 9. To make the quota, I also got a good start on chapter 10. Vengeance of the Ghost is still making progress.

Today, instead of a stamp, I'll post an autograph. Many years ago, I was at a Sci-Con in Virginia Beach. Among the guest was this gentlemen. He was very pleasant to speak with and signed two books for me.
More later,
Tanner

Simon says...

Writing was an exercise in frustration today. I think part of it is the lack of interest in Legacy of the Ghost. So far the paperback version has yet to sell a single copy. The kindle version is not doing much better. I wish I knew how to get more readers. Those that have read the first book seem to have enjoyed it, but they aren't moving on to book two yet.

Anyway, I managed 1,500 words for Vengeance of the Ghost. Most of it was forced and will probably have to be rewritten or deleted altogether. Then Simon mentioned something about how the stream in The Garden reacted to Tal and things started flowing a little. On top of that, Arienna is starting to show interest in Mistress, though she doesn't know who Mistress is just yet. Arienna is just intrigued that Mistress was able to pull off what she did and wants to take her home as a new pet, so to speak. We'll see how that turns out. There may not be enough of Mistress left to take home. I haven't decided yet.

I have decided to post a stamp or autograph or both from my collection from now on. Tonight it will be a stamp. It's Austrian, ANK # 1. I'm not sure if it is the handmade paper variety or the machine-made paper variety, so the date of issue is either 1850 or 1854. One day, I'll learn how to tell the difference.

Vengeance quota met, kaben nine branded, stamp

So far, my quest to write at least 1,000 words a day on Vengeance of the Ghost has been successful. Today I finished chapter 8 and got a good start on chapter 9. There's a lot going on in the final chapter of the trilogy so this book might prove to be the longer of the three. I have no doubts that it will be longer than Legacy of the Ghost. The only character whose fate remains unknown to me at this point is Mistress. She has a couple paths that she can travel. Arienna will have some say in that.

kaben nine is still hanging around in his torture chamber. His host likes to label all his toys with his brand and kaben nine is no exception. I am enjoying composing this tale. The support characters are proving to be a lot of fun to work with.

There was a comment on yesterday's blog that requested a picture of my favorite Austrian stamp so far. I had planned to put a stamp here, but for a different reason. The one pictured below is not very valuable. As a matter of fact, it could probably used as postage in Austria without much financial loss. The reason I chose this one is that it was issued on May 8, 1958. This stamp is the same age as I am.