Hi guys, I just wanted to check in with a quick June author update. I had hoped to make this a vlog on YouTube, but time won’t permit. I’ve provided headlines in case you need to skim.
There’s not too much to report, but I felt the need to post in case anyone was curious.
What am I writing?
I’ve been mostly writing for fun recently as a form of stress relief from my personal life and to take breaks from editing. I’ve been toying with some story ideas and characters, but nothing has been too serious. (Life’s been hectic for me and I’m not sure I want to talk about it.)
I started writing a paranormal police drama where a small-town sheriff is murdered by a vampire during a wellness check, and it’s up to his partner and a park ranger to uncover the forces at work and stop them.
The story’s told from the brooding partner, Nick Graves’ perspective, as he’s wrestling with a failed engagement and the death of the only man he’d deemed a father, Sheriff Bride.
Little does he know, the park ranger, Allyson Gibbous, is about to turn his whole life upside down. All those stories about the supernatural, werewolves, vampires, and even monsters, they are real. 😱
Now Nick must investigate with Allyson and open his eyes to new possibilities that there’s more out there in the world, lurking, searching, hunting, and possibly someone waiting to fall in love along the way, but much like monsters, Nick doesn’t believe in fairy tales.
The problem is, I just don’t think my story’s very good.
I wrote a lot and probably 20-50% of the book. However, I’m not sure why, but it just doesn’t feel right and I’m not too happy with it. To be honest, I’ve been feeling incredibly discouraged in my writing. It feels like nothing seems to be working. No matter what or how much I try, but I’m getting ahead of myself.
Mermaids & Bullets
Another story I’ve started playing with was an action story of a mermaid who, while searching for her kidnapped brother, becomes tangled in a conspiracy plot to topple the state and reignite calls for aquatic supremacy and dragon genocide after decades of peace.
Now this mermaid is ready. It’s her mission to eliminate all five heads of the insurrectionists who took her brother and her arm, or else the city’s whole way of life will come to an end.
This is… Mermaids and Bullets. 💥
I enjoyed the idea of taking one of the most random and nonthreatening idea and turning it into Machete.
That wraps up what I’ve been writing about in this quick June Author Update; let’s dive into the editing.
How’s editing?
Not great. Well, good and bad, I should say. It’s complicated.
The good.
I feel like I found some direction on where to take one project and have taken the next steps over the past few weekends.
To recap the past months, I polished a work in progress, The Hollow Death of Belladonna Bates, that has taken me two, (almost three,) years to complete, sent it to a content/copy editor for feedback, and thought it was finally nearly ready to publish.
I was excited. My story about assassins, fist fights in the rain and scandalous romance was finally going to come to light. I planned to publish this month.
In the meantime, I wrote another draft in about three months and got it ready for a developmental edit. This was a story about a secretary pulling a prison break in the same setting. (A prison break has been something I’ve always wanted to write.) This one was also a challenge for me to tell a story as succinctly and quickly as possible.
So, which story would you suspect to be further along towards publishing?
If you said the second, you’d be right. Ironically, the second story may have a better chance of publishing first before the other.
Back to the positives, the developmental editor had provided loads of feedback that I’m still working through, but I can’t help but feel discouraged. I worry this one’s no good either.
The story has fantastic action. It only needs strengthening of the internal plot and pacing. Overall, I’m looking forward to our next discussion and hopefully something she can add will ease my nerves.
The bad.
I may be restarting, pausing, or even trashing my work in progress after three years. The story, no matter what I do, never seems to work.
I thought I had it great and how I wanted it, but it was too long. I cut, revised and adapted to overcome its issues yet created/revealed more in the process.
Needless to say, I’m discouraged and I’m not having fun. I want to go back to writing than editing, and I want to enjoy this story again.
How’s the comic book?
Changing gears, I have good news. The comic book for Lafonda and Leo, (currently dubbed the land of magic,) has been coming along nicely. We are almost four pages deep out of twenty-two planned.
As plans go, I intend so far to publish it digitally since printing costs continue to climb. Perhaps down the road if three to ten issues come out of this project, I can release a print volume.
Check out this neat character design of Maxy the narrator:
Special shoutouts
Special shoutouts this month goes to Dungeon of Chaos Podcast.
A big thanks goes to Matt, the gamemaster, for allowing me on. This is my first time as a Warlock character and one of the few campaigns I’ve been a player for. He does a ton of work behind the scenes, running the game for us. This campaign is his first time in the GM’s seat for D&D, so while he’s learning, I see him improving tremendously. This week’s game, in particular, was a ton of fun. Probably one of his best.
So, thanks for putting up with us. (Even though we de-rail the plot with our antics. A lot!)
I’ve included links below to some of the various platforms on which you can find the podcast.
Please give the game a listen if you’re interested.
Concluding Remarks
That about sums up this quick June author update. Thank you for reading!
Sincerely,
Antonio