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.

Austria and Vengeance...

Way back in May, some stamps were ordered for my birthday from a stamp dealer in Austria. They arrived today along with the catalog that dealer publishes each year. The catalog, ANK, is a specialized type thing that features Austrian stamps. Granted, it is written in German, but every stamp issued in Austria up to 2009 is pictured there. It's a great help. So, I spent most of the day organizing my collection.

I neglected to keep track of the time during this organization task. When I finally closed the book, happy that my collection was stored in chronological order, it was already 2 am. The rest of the night I devoted to writing. Since I have set a daily quota for Vengeance of the Ghost, that's the story I delved into. Chapter 8 is coming along well. After ending Legacy of the Ghost the way I did, I don't want to keep my readers waiting too long to find out what happens next. As a result, kaben nine did not make any progress today. At least he was nice about it and left me alone.

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Tanner

The hypnotizing cursor...

I write using OpenOffice.org Writer and I'm sure other computer word processing programs are the same, or at least similar. As the program waits for me to add words, it has a vertical black line that flashes to show me where these words will appear. Most of the night, I sat hypnotized by this little black vertical line with no words to introduce to it. Finally, after a bit of a fight, I put a close on Chapter 7 of Vengeance of the Ghost. I'm not at all happy with the words that finally got placed there, but it allowed me to move on. So, Chapter 8 got it's start tonight. I've set this 1,000 word a day quota for Vengeance, and so far I've been able to do that. Today's total: 1,100.

All the while I was fighting the end of Chapter 7, kaben nine was being a good little boy and hanging quietly in his torture chamber. I'm not sure if he knew he would formally meet his target for the first task tonight and was delaying it, or if he just wanted to be like the other story and be stubborn. Regardless, his story progressed as well.

The amazon.com price of Legacy of the Ghost has finally dropped to $11.99 which I am very happy with. It's much better than the price of Shadow.

One final note, as of today, I've seriously started pursuing a degree in applied mathematics. I really love math and upper level math teachers seem to be the only type with any demand in this less than wonderful economy. Before I begin, I think it best to take a refresher in pre-calculus and calculus. I'm looking forward to that.

More later,
Tanner

kaben nine got pushy tonight...

In spite of that, Vengeance of the Ghost continued to progress with another 1400 words added to the manuscript. The story is unfolding well. The way things are going, there is going to be a lot of death in the last book of the trilogy.

Then kaben nine decided he had waited long enough so I had to deal with him. He has this sneaky way of telling me about chapters I'm not ready to write so that I'll finish the one I'm on. I only managed 600+ words on his story, but I have the feeling that he'll be out of that torture chamber tomorrow night. Then it will be a short visit with granny for him.

For those following Samaya's blog, (it's linked on the side there), she has a great picture of a fire that happened on her mountain some 8 years ago. When I saw it, I was immediately reminded of what Ky did to LaVerran Keep in the first chapter of Shadow of the Ghost.

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Tanner

More musings...

Another productive day ends. Thanks to a couple friends, a great deal of work got completed in my yard, including surgically removing a dead poplar from atop another, much smaller tree. The little tree should survive the ordeal now.

Vengeance of the Ghost gained another 2100 words in length. kaben nine left me alone for the most part while I wrote, though he did remind me of some things while I played in the weeds.

Finally, thanks Samaya for posting the pictures. That mountain of yours is awesome.

More later,
Tanner