ozma914 | Entries tagged with novels

Yes, I've won National Novel Writing Month! 50,000 words of a novel over, in my case, 25 days.

What's my reward? Well, bragging rights. Also, I get a novel out of it, and that's no small thing. 99% of all people who attempt to write a novel agree it's horribly difficult to get it finished. The other 1% are friggin' freaks of nature.

This is the fourth time I finished a novel rough draft in thirty days or fewer, so by now I'm pretty sure I can do it. This one was different in couple of ways, though:

First, it's, it's a sequel to a novel that hasn't been published yet, Fire On Mist Creek. The original one, also a romantic comedy, remains in the hands of a very big publisher of romance novels. Unfortunately, after asking for the full manuscript, the editor has had it so long the odds of them buying it are vanishingly slim.

The other unusual thing is that this story is my first novel set during a holiday, specifically Christmas, which you probably figured from the title. Christmas novels are popular among romance readers; on the other hand, I assume their popularity is limited to a certain time of the year.

I shot for a 60,000 word manuscript, but it looks like the story will end up at barely 55,000. That's okay for some romance publishers, but by most standards falls short for a novel. That's something I'll worry about later, when I have the whole thing finished.

So, how do I celebrate? By starting the editing process, of course. One mistake NaNoWriMo participants often make is to immediately start shipping their book around to agents and editors. Unless you're a savant, 50,000 words in 30 days leaves you with a rough draft ... very rough. Mine needs editing. I'll make four or five passes at least, before it's ready. That's the job.

I'll probably polish up the first scene and put it in the newsletter, so people will have an idea of what to expect. When will the whole thing come out? Well ... some Christmas yet to come. That, also, is the job.

(But don't forget our other books are available as gifts THIS Christmas!)

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Current Mood: busy

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You won't hear much from me in November, although my regular blogs will continue with stuff already written and saved. Why? I've decided to once again compete in National Novel Writing Month, with the intention of losing.

It's a throwback to my high school days in Physical Education class, something I excelled in losing ... in. I did become adept at finding hiding places around the gym. Under the bleachers was always popular with us nerd types.

National Novel Writing Month, shortened to NaNoWriMo to save typing fingers, has its own official website. My account is here: https://nanowrimo.org/participants/mark-r-hunter. Guess I'd better update it. The idea is to write an entire novel--or at least, 50,000 words of it--in one short month, which happens to be November. Why November?

Why not?

It's not the best month, what with American holidays and all. I would have picked January. What else is there to do in January? Go outside? Ha.

A bigger question: Why do it at all?

Some writers start that Great American Novel, but never finish. Maybe they peter out because they don't manage their time well, or get sidetracked. Maybe they're the type who edit so obsessively they never finish that first chapter, page, or, in extreme cases, sentence. They go over it again and again, and in the end ... don't end.

But the first draft is allowed to suck. Nobody else has to see it, ever. NaNoWriMo is designed to be that butt kick that forces writers to forge through and finish their first draft. They don't have time to edit: To make fifty thousand words in thirty days they have to write almost 1,700 words a day! Go to it, get that first draft done, and edit later.

My own writing habit is to sit down and go over what I wrote last time, to get me back into the groove, and I do usually edit then. Just the same, I've won NaNoWriMo three times: With Summer Jobs Are Murder (formerly Red Is For Ick, and don't I regret that), Fire On Mist Creek, and The Source Emerald. Since then all three of those novels have been edited, polished, and are trapped in submission hell.

(No, I don't think my NaNo projects are cursed.)

So, I'll stick to the habits that worked with me in the past. As a result, I'll consider myself lucky to get 40,000 words done, but I know from experience that once I get that far, I'll be able to power though and finish--maybe in January. And honestly, any writer who takes their shot, works hard, and emerges with something to show for it, wins NaNoWriMo no matter how many words they get in..

What's my new book about? It's a holiday-themed romantic comedy: Christmas on Mist Creek.

Yes, that's right: I'm writing a sequel to a book that hasn't even been published yet.

Find our books at:

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

Sometimes you have to write wherever you can.

Remember, every time you pass on a book, a typesetter loses his case. Don’t cause all-caps.

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This one is a bit odd for me, considering The Flying Girl was published all the way back in 1911. Still, it came highly recommended, and I found it easier to read than a lot of other writing at the time was.

It's also far more feminist than you'd imagine, at least for its time. The Flying Girl tells the story of Orissa Kane, a 17-year-old in California who's holding down a job to support her blind mother and her brother, an inventor who's working on his own flying machine. To say airplanes were still new at the time puts it mildly; in fact, the author gives credit for help on the book from Glenn C Curtis, a founder of the U.S. aircraft industry and winner of the first international air meet, and Wilbur Wright, who with his brother did something even more spectacular just eight years before publication.

Orissa's brother Steve is a genius in mechanical design, but the Kane family finds itself in the middle of a dispute with two former business partners, who want to invest in the Kane airplane for different reasons. Here Van Dyne cleverly describes one partner in heroic terms and the other like one might describe a silent movie villain--then flips the script.

Soon the plane is the target of sabotage that injures Steve; and although it can be repaired, Steve is forced out of an upcoming nationwide competition by a broken leg. If only there was someone who'd been watching over his shoulder the whole time, and knew just about as much about the flying machine as Steve himself ... but who ...?

Oh, no, surely not a girl. How indecent!

To say the book's approach to a female protagonist was advanced for the time is putting it mildly. Orissa Kane jumps into the role of airplane pilot fearlessly, and meets all the many challenges that come along with it. Yes, there's a boy, and Orissa never loses her "maidenly virtues", but she's also competent and way braver than I would have been.

But what would you expect, from the same author who invented Dorothy Gale and Ozma of Oz?

Because Edith Van Dyne was really L. Frank Baum, who wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and its sequels. That shouldn't come as a surprise for those who read the Oz books, which were full of strong, smart, competent female characters. (And it's how The Flying Girl came into my reading orbit. I've been reading up on Baum as I prepared to tackle writing my own Oz book.)

By today's standards The Flying Girl would be considered a young adult book, and it also works pretty well, a century later, as an historical novel. In context it's surprisingly advanced not only in its treatment of women, but in its technical aspects--it turns out Baum, who wrote science fiction and invented an early robot and miniature submarines, had an interest in the mechanical.

There's a sequel, The Flying Girl and Her Chum, and I liked this one enough to look forward to trying the second one.

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/53386/53386-h/53386-h.htm

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1929527241

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

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Some novels dive right into the action; some try to get you interested in the characters and their world first; and the best ones try to accomplish both right from the get-go.

Scavenger Hunt, by Dani Lamia, is a slow burn, so slow I was convinced I was reading a literary novel at first. (Literary novel definition: No plot, no fun, and everyone dies in the end.) And yet, despite the fact that I'm a vocal hater of literary novels, Scavenger Hunt managed to draw me in to the story of Caitlin Nylo, a rich kid who, as the novel opens, comes home to find her mother has committed suicide.

See? No fun.

Jump forward to present day, when Caitlin is divorced, second in command of her eccentric father's toy and gaming company, and unwilling wrangler of her four dysfunctional siblings. Lamia puts a lot of words into describing the world of Caitlin and her family's world, and despite myself I was drawn in. The first twist comes when her father passes away, and Caitlin is enraged to discover his multi-billion dollar inheritance--including control of the company--will go not to his number one daughter, but to whichever brother or sister manages to win an elaborate scavenger hunt.

After that, the twists start coming so fast that I had to put pain cream on my neck. The competition exposes old injuries and sibling rivalries, and that's before the game becomes deadly.

https://www.amazon.com/Scavenger-Hunt-Dani-Lamia-ebook/dp/B085HKPSY1

Have you ever read one of those books that was good, then had a final twist that made it great? When I got to the end of the second to last chapter I had to stand up and walk around the room, yelling and shaking my head. My co-workers weren't amused.

Otherwise I'm still of mixed feelings, because I wanted so badly to dislike a setup that took a third of the book, but I just couldn't. Lamia drew me in with Caitlin's damaged, cynical outlook on life, as well as vivid descriptions of the other characters and their world. It drew me all the way to the scavenger hunt, which went nothing at all like the characters, or I, could have expected. Literary novel? Maybe literary mystery would be a better description.

You probably won't finish this book with a smile on your face--but you won't forget it easily, either.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

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I planned to take a break from long works after reading The Passage, which I described as "War and Peace and More War". But my wife wanted to forge ahead into the sequel, and it's hard to say no considering how good the original was.

The Passage covered an entire century, starting with an ill-advised government experiment (aren't they all?) and ending with a world overrun by what we could loosely call vampires, with a few human settlements hanging on. Two of our constants are Amy, a six year old subject of the experiments, and Arbogast, a government agent who once had a daughter of his own, and against orders decides to protect the little girl.

As The Twelve opens we find ourselves right back at the beginning, following a small group of survivors as they try to escape the virus spreading through America. At first there seems little connection between them and characters from the previous book, but as their paths converge those connections do appear. By the time we jump forward to "present" day we're back with the people from the first novel, including a mysteriously slow aging Amy, who turns out to be the key to evolving events.

Speaking of evolving, the hordes of infected are now under the control of the original experiment subjects--The Twelve--and in a horrible city of human slaves they're planning a new order that could be quite literally a fate worse than death. The only way to stop them: Infiltrate the city, and kill The Twelve.

How hard could it be?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007GBTBMY

The Twelve is epic and complex, and yes, it's long, but my only complaint is that you might have a little trouble keeping track of characters. Luckily Cronin is good at keeping things and people clarified, for which I assume he has a flow chart marching along every one of his office walls. Its been awhile since I've been willing to trade sleep for reading, and this time Cronin is the reason why. The Twelve might not be right for someone looking for a light read, but for anyone who wants to be drawn in and actually care about the characters, this is the place to be.

Maybe--just maybe--The Twelve is actually better than The Passage. If that's so the third book in the trilogy, which we just picked up, will have to be pretty spectacular, indeed. And pretty long.

The City of Mirrors awaits me. If I disappear for a while, don't be concerned.

http://markrhunter.com/
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/"Mark R Hunter"

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You may have heard of Outlander, a little tale of time travel and kilts that spawned, oh, several dozen sequels, and a TV series that's headed into its sixth season. Being a fan of time travel stories, I agreed readily when my wife wanted to watch it, and we quickly became hooked.

Also, I love the Bear McCreary score.

Naturally, that led to reading the book. It's a long book, and I'm told the first novel is the shortest of them.

But it shares with the series a gift for detail, which should satisfy history buffs even as the story rolls along fast enough to keep the casual reader entertained.

Claire Randall is a World War II nurse, reunited with her husband, a history and genealogy buff, at the end of the war. They're vacationing in Scotland when they discover an isolated circle of standing stones, not uncommon in that country. It's the kind of thing you shouldn't visit again right after a group of white-clad women do a spooky dance inside it, but Claire is the curious sort.

Next thing you know, she's right back in a war again, this time between the English and the Scottish ... in 1743. Women are second-hand citizens, Claire has the healing powers of a witch, and there's some guy who looks exactly like her husband threatening her at every turn.

Oh, and then there's James Fraser, that redheaded muscle man in a kilt, who's as close to being the perfect man as the 1700s could produce. From the moment she dresses his wounds ('cause he's an awesome warrior man, don'cha know), fate keeps bringing them together, until she finds herself torn between her past life, which is in the future, and her present life, which is in the past.

Outlander is a slam-bang adventure, a hot (heavily R rated) romance, and a meticulously researched historical novel. I found myself fascinated by the detail: Diana Gabaldon clearly did her due diligence, but doesn't overwhelm the reader with so much detail as to make the story boring. Her characters are well drawn, and there are plenty of twists to go around. Just keep in mind that many of those twists are on the violent side, and on at least one occasion the sexually violent side.

Yes, I plan to read the other novels, although considering the size of my present reading list, I'll probably have the TV series finished, first.

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Emily has updated the website and yes, Coming Attractions is up and ready to order in both print and e-book versions. Check it out and read a sample here:

http://markrhunter.com/

(You know, after all this time I still have trouble getting used to the idea of a website with my name on it.)

She sent in a print order, and there's a form you can use on the website to order one straight from us, signed or unsigned. ('Cause do you really want graffiti in your brand new book?) And hey, just let us know if you want her to sign it! You can pay with PayPal, or a credit card, or a debit card ... but my scheme to take payment in large blocks of milk chocolate didn't work out.

Of course, you could just knock on the front door and ask for a copy, when they arrive in a week or so--but I'd suggest calling ahead, so the dog doesn't get too upset.

"Sorry, I can't get your book right now: I'm out testing my fur coat."

Don't forget to review! Authors survive on three things: Sales, reviews, and caffeine. One can build on the others.

As I've mentioned before, here's the post that mentions all the places you can order Coming Attractions and most of our other books:

https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/2018/12/coming-attractions-is-e-booking-all.html

And remember: Every time you buy a book, the winter gets just a bit warmer. Help us out of the snowdrifts.

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After some thought, I've decided to compete in National Novel Writing Month this year, with the intention of losing.

I suppose in a way it's a throwback to my high school days in PE class. That's Physical Education, something I excelled in losing ... in. I did become adept, however, in finding hiding places around the gym. Under the bleachers was always popular with us nerd types.

National Novel Writing Month has been shortened to NaNoWriMo to save typing fingers, and it actually has its own official website. My account is here: https://nanowrimo.org/participants/mark-r-hunter.

The idea is to write an entire novel--or at least, 50,000 words of it--in one short month, which happens to be November. Why November?

Why not?

To me it's not the best month, having a major American holiday in it. I would have picked January. What else is there to do in January? Go outside? I jest.

A bigger question is, why do it at all?

There are writers who start that Great American Novel, but never finish it. Maybe they just peter out because they don't manage their time well, or get sidetracked by other things. Or, maybe they're the type who edit obsessively, so obsessively that they never actually finish that first chapter, page, or, in extreme cases, sentence. They go over and over it, again and again, and in the end ... don't end.

But it's the first draft. As Mur Lafferty of "I Should Be Writing" is fond of saying, the first draft is allowed to suck. Nobody else has to see it, ever. For the people mentioned above, NaNoWriMo is designed to be that butt kick that forces them to forge through and finish their first draft. They don't have time to edit: To make that fifty thousand words in thirty days they have to write, what, 1,700 words a day? Go to it, get that first draft done, and edit later.

But I'm not one of those writers.

Oh, I did win NaNoWriMo once, a few years ago. It was with a young adult mystery called Red Is For Ick, which I'm currently shopping around to agents after many, many hours of editing and polishing. I did about 51,000 words in thirty days, then dropped from exhaustion. It was a huge mess, exactly as it was supposed to be, and the mess intimidated me so much it was months before I went back and added another five thousand or so words to finish it.

It just wasn't my style: I'm one of those writers who can edit as he goes. Whenever I start a writing session I go back over what was written the day before and clean it up, and fix major plot problems as I encounter them. So my first drafts are typically pretty clean, although of course they'll still need more work and polishing later on. (Especially after my wife gets a hold of them.)

So, while I am indeed entering NaNoWriMo with the intention of writing every day, I've decided this time that I'm going to stick to the habits that have worked with me in the past. As a result, I'll consider myself lucky if I get 40,000 words done, but I know from experience that once I've gotten that far, I'll be able to power though and finish--maybe in January. And honestly, any writer who takes a good shot at it, works hard, and emerges with something to show for it, wins NaNoWriMo whether they get that 50,000 words in or not.

What's the book about? It's a romantic comedy about volunteer firefighters. Its title? Um ... Fire on Mist Creek.

No, I have no idea what the title will be. I just made that up on the spot.

Sometimes you have to write wherever you can.

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Slightly Off the Mark

NaNoWriMo Winner!

Even Losers Can Win With NaNoWriMo

book review: The Flying Girl by Edith Van Dyne

book review: Scavenger Hunt, by Dani Lamia

book review: The Twelve, by Justin Cronin

Book Review: Outlander

Website updates, and print books available!

How I plan to lose NaNoWriMo

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