The Legend and the Dark

The Legend and the Dark is the novel I'm currently submitting to agents. It is a fantasy novel of approximately 125,000 words and while it is a completely stand alone novel, it has the potential to become the first book of a series.

Mallandor is dead. At least, that's what the king hopes. He masterminded a genocidal massacre that wiped out all the Fallerians thirty years ago, but the Overlord's youngest son was never found. For years, the king searched for the missing heir, but to no avail. Finally, he decides--Mallandor is dead.

He was wrong.

Infiltrating the new society using a number of aliases, Mallandor, now 'Mallor' becomes a legendary thief while pursuing his revenge. He learns that the insurgent king did not act alone and thus his list of targets and his retaliatory plan grows. However, thirty-six hours before the culmination of his life-long quest, Mallor learns from his lover that he has a daughter, and that she is being held hostage by a sadistic, magic-abusing sorcerer. The price for her release is the Armilleae, a cursed holy relic desired by everyone for its restorative powers, including the ailing goddess to whom it belongs.

If Mallor recovers the missing Armilleae and uses it to buy Zoelle’s freedom, his goddess will die, the souls of the dead Fallerians will remain unredeemed, and his home city of Sepeccare and all of its inhabitants including Zoelle will be dragged into a watery hell. If he returns the relic to his goddess, she will survive, but his daughter will die. With Zoelle doomed regardless of his decision, Mallor searches for a third option while being hunted by three people: an officer in the insurgent king's secret police who claims to have killed him once before, his own deadly duplicate, created by the cursed holy relic and loyal to the ruler of hell, and his ex-wife, a manipulative, shape-changing sorceress, and keeper of a secret darker than Mallor's own history.

It is during this search that Mallor confronts his destiny and realizes the true purpose of his existence.

I'll keep you posted on the progress of this book.

Take care, my friends...

Writing Life

Work on the current WIP has been slowed due to illness (both my little ones got sick last week and I inevitably caught a bad cold too), but, I have continued to push forward on it. My oldest son is anxiously waiting to read more, and I made a deal with him--improve your grades and lower your cross-country running times and I'll let you read more. He liked that idea. I'm taking him out to the city park in a couple of hours when the sun comes up so he can get some training in. I'll be on my bike. He'll run. Then, it's off to bed for me. Working the midnight shift has been an adjustment for me, my family and my creativity.

I finished a short story, Confined Transgressions, for one of my writer's groups. A couple of times a year we work on creative pieces based on random themes. The latest theme is 'Boundaries.' For those of you who belong to writer's groups - do you do similar writing exercises?

Be well, my friends (because being sick is just darn miserable!)

The Chicago Cubs

Yes, I am a die-hard Cubs fan. Yes, I have been disappointed by them many times over the years. Yes, they may disappoint again this year, but maybe, just maybe, this will be their year, and we won't have to say, 'wait 'til next year'. After 100 years, I think it's time.

'Go Cubs, Go....'

Writing

What's that saying about the best laid plans of mice and men? They often go a stray...

My lofty (okay, they really aren't that lofty) writing goals this past week were not exactly met. However, I did manage to add more words to my current untitled WIP, I did write the first draft of my children's picture book, and I did some editing on my first novel, The Rush of Betrayal, for my upcoming writer's group meeting, so I am moving forward on multiple fronts. I know, I know, I mentioned how I dislike working on many projects simultaneously, but...but...what can I say--I'm human. I change my mind from time to time. Besides, the muse decided to nudge me into writing the children's book and now I have to polish that a bit more so I can bring it to my other writer's group meeting next week.

Yes, I belong to two different writer's groups. I'll talk about them more in an upcoming entry.

My oldest son is anxious to read more of my current WIP. He'll turn 15 later this month, and over the weekend he was pestering me to let him read the new pages. I must say, it's very strange listening to him talk about my characters and the problems they're facing. We spent a good hour in the car just discussing various aspects of the story. I got a kick out of seeing how enthusiastic he was--and that alone is quite a writing boost. I have a fan. (And considering how picky he is about what he likes to read, I'm happy).

My youngest son (he'll turn 5 in November) listened to the rough draft of my picture book (obviously, it had no illustrations). After I was done reading, he bluntly said, "Daddy, I liked the story, this much." He spread his index finger and thumb open almost as far as they would go. "And I didn't like it, this much." He held those same fingers about a half an inch a part.

"I'm glad you liked it, but what didn't you like about the story?"

"It didn't have any pictures..."

So there you go.

My little girl (she'll turn 2 in November) waited until he was done talking, and then walked over and gave me a hug. I don't know if that meant she liked the story, or that she felt sorry for me for the harsh criticism I'd just received from her brother, but honestly the reason really didn't matter. Hugs from her are just sweet.

Take care, my friends. Be well, and write often.

Writer Friends

I just added a few links to some of my writer friends' websites. Check them out. I'll continue to add more links once my brain is fully functioning, and I've had a chance to sleep.

Writing update: I added a few hundred words to my WIP (work-in-progress) last night before work, and I hope to write more later this afternoon when I'm awake again.

Sleep beckons. Be well, my friends. :)

Writing Update

This entry will be short and sweet--and a way for me to track my forward movement on my current work-in-progress.

I added just over 1000 words to my (still untitled) novel tonight. I would have liked to have written more, but such is life. I'll take it. I'd like to continue adding between 500-1000 words everyday, and between 1000-2000 on my one day off each week. At that pace, I 'should' be able to finish the first draft some time in early November (ahead of my 'end of the year' goal).

Sleep beckons. Goodnight.

Writing Query Letters

Writing a good query letter is a necessary evil in the writing business. It's not enough to write a novel (hopefully, a good novel), you have to also be able to condense that novel into a couple of sentences, a paragraph at most, and you have to write those few lines in such a way as to peak the interest of very busy agents and/or editors so that they want to read more of your work. Thousands of hours, months, years even of your time spent hunched over a computer composing and editing your novel--and its fate typically rests in those few sentences and perhaps at most 30 seconds of an agent's/editor's time.

Talk about pressure, eh?

You know, it might just be easier to write a query letter first, and then write the book to match it afterwards...(though I don't recommend submitting any query letter without having written and polished your book--and no, I honestly did not learn that from first-hand experience).

I wonder how many good books have never been published because an author has difficulties writing a good query letter. I know some people will say, "If you can't write a good query letter, then you obviously can't write a good novel..."

"I disagree."

"You would, you're not very good at writing query letters."

"Wow. You're being harsh tonight."

"Get used to it. You need thick skin to be a writer."

"I know, but writing a novel and writing a query letter are two very different beasts."

"No, no, no! They both are made up of words. Words are your tools. Either you know how to use them properly or not."

"But, for me, when I write a novel, I am creating a new world, new people, revealing their story, their problems, the words I use are put together in such a way as to evoke feelings, to entertain, and a query letter..."

"Yeah?"

"A query letter is all about selling that book and me. It's a sales pitch. It's an entirely different style of writing."

"So?"

"Well, it's not that I'm incapable of writing creatively--I'm just not certain that I'm very talented at selling myself."

"That's too bad. You'll probably continue to fail until you overcome that problem and learn how to write in that style too."

"Yeah..."

So, that's the bottom line, I think. There's more to writing than just writing. You have to be able to sell yourself too. You need to be able to put that artistic hat aside and wear the salesman (salesperson) hat equally well. Because if you cannot be that multi-faceted writer, agents and editors will pass you by and spend their limited time on writers who can.

Additional writing goal: become a better salesman...write better queries.

Take care all -