Monthly Work Update - The Lost Ones

I decided to add a new series of posts to the blog this year.  These posts will detail my works in progress, or WIPs.  I’m not going into details on plot or characters, but I will offer insight into how the story came about, where it may be going, and how close I feel it is to completion. 

Tentative title: The Lost Ones

Original concept: A captain goes in search of his fiancé when her research probe disappears on the edge of a gas cloud in deep space.

Draft version: First

Present word count: Novel: 668 (Expected completion: 100,000)

                                    Prequel Short: 288 (Expected completion: 10,000)

Writing process:

Okay, I admit this idea had a little bit of outside influence to get started. Some friends were picking on my standard log in name that I’d used for years in many forums and for email addresses. They stated it no longer fit me and I needed to change it. After a glance at the address book, favorites list, etc, that would require such a change, I searched for a way to avoid said change. After falling asleep while watching a show about the universe on the Science Channel, This concept jumped into my head.

Right now, I’m still fleshing things out, like propulsion systems, ship shapes, and the whole how we travel concepts, but the story line is sound and building. I’ve written the first two scenes of the novel and one scene of the prequel short story. However, stress from regular life events have slowed all my writing to a crawl. I hope to get back to the creation of this story soon.

Future expectations:

This story is coming from years of experience, from strong friendships, and from other writers around me. It feels like my strongest concept to date, but that remains to be seen. So for now, the sky’s the limit. Book, movie, TV  miniseries. All will fit the concept, I hope. Just got to see where it goes.

Work in Progress - Blood Bond

I decided to add a new series of posts to the blog this year.  These posts will detail my works in progress, or WIPs.  I’m not going into details on plot or characters, but I will offer insight into how the story came about, where it may be going, and how close I feel it is to completion. 

Tentative title: Blood Bond

Original concept: Twin brothers, separated by unusual circumstances when their mother is murdered, reconnect during their first year at college. They search for the killer of their parents while trying to juggle the challenges of college.

Draft version: First

Present word count: 54,994 (Unknown completion number)

Writing process:

This was the first of my books that started as a National Novel Writing month project. I did win the year I wrote this one, reaching 50,000 words by month’s end.  It was my first attempt at the challenge, so sitting to write was a rush. I loved the encouragement. Plus, I picked a concept that stretched my writing skills. Two POV characters who alternated chapters and trying to write a mystery. Above and beyond my usual short story one POV concepts.

After NaNo, I admit the book sat as I hadn’t fully developed my work process, but that allowed me to percolate ideas and plot concepts while I tried to complete other projects. Now I get to it maybe once a month, adding more to it. I’ve got the first and last chapter written, but getting the stuffing between them has proven more challenging than I thought. Clues appear either too obvious and easy or too vague and lost among other red herrings. The bad guy seems too nice to be evil. Yeah, so I’m not sure how mystery writers do this sometimes.

Future expectations:

 My hope is to complete the novel. That is the primary goal. After that, I would want to assess my attempt. Will it go toward publication? I’m not 100% sure yet. I’ve not attempted a short mystery yet, so I can’t say for certain it’s a genre I’ll pursue, but it was something new I tried. When the book is complete, then we can see where I go.

Monthly WIP Update - Great Divide

I decided to add a new series of posts to the blog this year.  These posts will detail my works in progress, or WIPs.  I’m not going into details on plot or characters, but I will offer insight into how the story came about, where it may be going, and how close I feel it is to completion. 

Tentative title: The Great Divide

Original concept: A Pangaea exists with all land in one mass and a large settlement occupies the center of the continent. Eruptions and fissures break the world into multiple pieces. How does the populace handle the destruction of the world they know and the new world once it forms?

Draft version: First

Present word count: 17,897 (Unknown completion number)

Writing process:

This is another of my books that started as a National Novel Writing month project. I did win the year I wrote this one, reaching 52,000 words by month’s end.  That particular year, I felt a lot of stress in the writing, so I pushed this book to the back burner for three years after completion. Couldn’t even open the file. Somehow, just the thought of the story brought all the stress back.

Once I got the nerve to open the file again, I started pulling the concept apart. I found I had too many minor, useless characters that could be combined and reworked.  With that realization, I broke the file down to three different sections, with my three primary points of view, then created a fourth with the others I needed to rework. After looking at all the files, I decided to shrink the scope of the project down to the one point of view for now. I’ve not thrown anything out, just placed all but the section I kept to the side.

Future expectations:

This project is feeling like a hit or miss proposition. I’m wanting to examine it to see if I can reach a publishable work, but it may end up in the scrap heap where I’ll find good parts to rip from it and create new.  After it’s start and the years since I have dared open it, I’m not as confident in the story as I was when I wrote it. However, I’ve learned things since its initial writing, so I can put my new knowledge to work. That will make it that much better.

WIP Update - Space Fire and Rescue

I decided to add a new series of posts to the blog this year.  These posts will detail my works in progress, or WIPs.  I’m not going into details on plot or characters, but I will offer insight into how the story came about, where it may be going, and how close I feel it is to completion. 


Tentative title: Rescue and Fire Station 5 (Short story series)

Original concept: The local solar system has received colonizing efforts, with space stations and domes on other planets.  Now, the same way that cities need fire and rescue facilities, so do the space stations, colonies, and intrasystem ships.  We follow one character from recruit to office work.

Draft version: First
Present word count: “The First Mission” - 7421 words (in editing sessions)
                                  “ Lost among the Freight” - 2976 words (incomplete)
                                  “Fire control” - 2351 words (incomplete)
                                  “Summoned” - 988 words (incomplete)

Writing process:
The concept for this series comes from my childhood.  I can’t believe it really does come from that far back, but it does.  Way back when I was five, my life’s goal was to become a firefighter.  We lived within a mile of the local fire station.  As a teen, I could tell you what equipment rolled based just on their siren.  Now that I’m older, I have more sense than wanting to run into a burning building, but I still find comfort living within walking distance of the local fire company. 

The actual concept probably started in the back of my head in 2001 after the attacks in New York and Washington, but I didn’t actually put it on paper until 2009.  Originally it was one story, but I decided to expand it to a series when the ideas kept flowing.  In the story, “Fire Control,” they face an issue that could overwhelm even the strongest firefighter, and one I imagine may mirror the issues those in the Pentagon felt as they fought the destruction there.

The work has never gone through a major “must write” session like the previous WIP I listed.  This one flowed each time I opened the file, however, so I can’t complain.  Because this is a short story, I don’t have as extensive of a writer’s book on the concept, though with it expanding to a series of stories, I expect that will change. 

I could jokingly state that the sound track is the fire engines when they roll through our neighborhood or each time I hear them leave the station.  In reality, any music playing tends toward this series’s soundtrack.  I’ve not searched out songs about fire trucks or fire fighters.  Any suggestions would be welcome.


Future expectations:
My first step through all this is to get it within the pages of a publication as a short story.  If things work as I’d like them to, I will publish the first couple, then combine them into a novel I can sell to publishers with the readership established with the magazine stories.  It’s the old fashioned way to write, but it is how I want to try it. 

Work in Progress Update - Ghost Train

I decided to add a new series of posts to the blog this year.  These posts will detail my works in progress, or WIPs.  I’m not going into details on plot or characters, but I will offer insight into how the story came about, where it may be going, and how close I feel it is to completion. 


Tentative title: Ghost Train

Original concept: Railroad company is cutting costs and chooses to close the round house that supports a small town.  Story follows MC as he fights for his town and his job,

Draft version: First
Present word count: 53,872 (Expected completion - 65,000)

Writing process:
This novel started as an idea I worked for National Novel Writing Month back in 2006.  I’d written a lot of fantasy and science fiction prior to this attempt, so I wanted to stretch my wings and try something different.  As I’d always had a fascination with trains, I took my personal fears of the loss of a job and combined that with the concept of working for a train company.  The idea built itself from there.  When I first started writing, I concentrated on the MC and his work.  The story had one plot line.  It didn’t feel right without an additional conflict to really twist my MC into knots, so I added a wife with a baby on the way. 

I was successful in making the initial fifty thousand words for NaNoWriMo but haven’t pushed the story to completion since then.  I’ve gotten all but two sections completed, one of which is difficult for me.  These cover the bulk of a major stand off between the main character and the police.  I’m awaiting word from the local sheriff to see if I can ask some questions about hostage tactics for the sake of the book.

I have a sound track that I play in the background with songs from various genres based on trains.  Restless Heart, Johnny Cash, and several others that I could find.  My process doesn’t have trouble with lyrics in while writing, but that comes from years of listening to the radio while studying for tests in school.  Not all of the writing is done in my writing room.  Some I wrote while sitting in Star Bucks, Panera Bread, and Barns & Noble Bookstores.  Headphones are your friend in those situations, provided you don’t sing along... which I sometimes did.

Future expectations:
Honestly, I think this is a big step for me, as I’ve completed many short stories, but the completion of the first novel is a milestone.  Sometimes I think it scares me to think the project is done.  It doesn’t help that I have many, many ideas working through the ether to completion and I get back to this one maybe every three months.