I NEED that!

So, one afternoon last week I get a call from one of my friends. She says that she has a friend that likes to read and pointed her to my website, where I have excerpts from much of my work. Now the friend wanted to ask me something. She hands the phone to the friend and the friend says:

"I NEED to read the rest of that book!"

Now, I'm still unpublished. In fact, she's lucky that the one she was interested in is even finished; not all of them are! So I arranged to get her email and email it to her, because it isn't currently under consideration by anyone.

So I have two thoughts on this situation, both of them very positive, and maybe they are just related.

1. How awesome a friend I have that apparently does regular word-of-mouth marketing for me? She claims it has nothing to do with being my friend, but hey, it feels pretty cool, either way.

2. What an amazing feeling to hear someone say "I NEED to read more!" I've had people read my stuff over the years, I'm not one that's shy about that, but very rarely have I had someone, especially someone I have never met, be that excited about my work.

So, this post isn't a deep insight into the mind of a writer, nor an exciting update as to what is happening with my work, but merely a very heartfelt thank you to my friend. Thank you, for bringing me that huge feel-good moment. Every fledgling writer could use more of those.

Stormy Weather

It's that NanoTime again! Time for the next of Derek Daniels's ongoing adventures as a Nanite Chaser. Stormy Weather is now available to read on the DavidJace website. If you haven't read the previous adventures, they can be found on the main page of the site, under Short Stories, along with the current episode.

I particularly liked this episode for a couple of reasons. One, the girl he meets; I love the dancing in the rain image. Two, the little hints that are embedded in the story. I'm not saying any more about that, though.

At the bottom of the story, as usual, is a Comment link. Please let me know what you think of it. Especially if you catch an inconsistency with previous episodes, or if you think the voice is not staying true throughout. Or if, heaven help us, you just happen to like it!

If it weren't for this thing called Life...

Yes, I'm posting late today. It isn't my fault! I did it! Someone must have snuck in and deleted it just to get me in trouble! (I must have been hanging out with my kids alot. They're rubbing off on me.)

Ah, Life. If it weren't for that silly millstone around our necks, we'd be able to get so much more done! I have been determined to get some writing down now that summer is here, and yet, *sigh* not a word. I feel like a horrible failure.

"The Microcosmic God" by Theodore Sturgeon is about a scientist that invents an entire race of little creatures to which he is, effectively, god. It's a wonderful little story with a lot more to it than I have described here. Highly recommended. However, at one point, he invents a drug that completely removes the need for sleep, so that he can spend 24 hrs a day with his little creatures! It has come to that. I must either invent a sleep-removing drug or become undead if I want to get anything done. This ridiculous Life thing is just too in the way.

Drastic as this decision is, I have decided to put it off and try one more thing first. Hero Games is my current, stalled, project. Instead of trying to finish the planning on it, I'm going to jump into it, and start writing. I'll use the plans I've developed so far, and see where the rest of it goes. When I'm done, I'll tear back through it, change it all up, and write it again. Let's see how this plan works for me. I'm aware that other authors do it like this all the time!! And if it doesn't work out, I've always got that undead thing to try.

Thyme Four Ace Mile

This week, I wanted to do something with a little less "deep thought." OK, I admit it, I was having too much fun with kids, summer camps, swim lessons, and Elvenfire marathons to manage a proper list. My dad sent me this list of puns and quips and I decided to share a few smiles with my readers. I hope you enjoy them.


1. How Do You Catch a Unique Rabbit?
Unique up on It.

2. How Do You Catch a Tame Rabbit?
Tame Way.

3. How Do Crazy People Go Through The Forest?
They Take The Psychopath.

4. How Do You Get Holy Water?
You Boil The Hell Out of It.

5. What Do Fish Say When They Hit a Concrete Wall?
Dam!

6. What Do Eskimos get from sitting on the Ice too long?
Polaroids.

7. What Do You Call a Boomerang That Doesn't Work?
A Stick.

8. What Do You Call Cheese That Isn't Yours?
Nacho Cheese.

9. What Do You Call Santa's Helpers?
Subordinate Clauses.

10. What Do You Call Four Bullfighters In Quicksand?
Quatro Cinco.

11. What Do You Get From a Pampered Cow?
Spoiled Milk.

12. What Do You Get When You Cross a Snowman With a Vampire?
Frostbite.

13. What Lies At The Bottom Of The Ocean And Twitches?
A Nervous Wreck.

14. What's The Difference Between Roast Beef And Pea Soup?
Anyone Can Roast Beef.

15. Where Do You Find a Dog With No Legs?
Right Where You Left Him.

16. Why Do Gorillas Have Big Nostrils?
Because They Have Big Fingers.

17. Why Don't Blind People Like To Sky Dive?
Because it scares the Dog.

18. What Kind of Coffee Was Served on The Titanic?
Sanka.

19. What is The Difference Between a Harley And a Hoover?
The Location of the Dirt Bag.

20. Why Did Pilgrims' Pants Always Fall Down?
Because They Wore Their Belt Buckles on Their Hats.

21. What's The Difference Between a Bad Golfer And a Bad Skydiver?
A Bad Golfer Goes, Whack, Dang!
A Bad Skydiver Goes Dang! Whack.

22. How Are a Texas Tornado And a Tennessee Divorce The Same?
Somebody's Gonna Lose a Trailer.

200 Word Challenge, Easy & Expert

A few weeks ago, I posted the 200-Word Challenge. However, as my sharp-eyed students and Donna Hole pointed out, I'm clearly not ready for that level of challenge! So this week, I would like to introduce the Easy and Expert levels of the 200-Word Challenge.

The Easy Level: Write a 200 word passage, without repeating a single noun, verb, adjective, or adverb. You may re-use articles, conjunctions, and even prepositions. The passage has to be cohesive, but may be about anything you like. It may be a descriptive vignette, or a short character profile, or even flash fiction.

The Expert Level: Again, write a 200 word passage, of any nature, but without repeating a single word. No repeating articles, prepositions, adverbs, verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, not even gerunds nor predicate nominatives! If you succeed on this one, I definitely want you to post it, because I at least know that it is theoretically possible...

The standard challenge is linked at the top of the page, so feel free to revisit that as well, if you like. I'd love to see your various efforts posted here. Good luck!

Memory: A Nanite Chaser Story

The new episode of The Nanite Chaser series is up! Along with the new episode, Derek Daniels got a snazzy new logo image for the series. (Look to the left. *wink*) I think he looks rather dashing, don't you?

The new episode has replaced the first one on the DavidJace.com home page, so you'll now see Memory listed there instead of The Nanite Chaser. To get to the first episode, I've put in a dropbox under the new story to find Earlier Episodes. Just pick the one you need to read and click Go. Memory will go into this dropbox when Stormy Weather goes up next month. Oops, I said too much!

To me, Memory is a fun one because you get to see a little bit of the early days for Derek Daniels, when he was still learning some of the tricks that are more familiar to him later on. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The Motivations of the Meanies

Last month, on Magical Words, Faith Hunter began posting a series about the requirements of a successful modern antagonist in several different genres. She calls the series The Great Satan, and has so far posted three parts. I looked forward to the continuance after ConCarolinas is over.

The primary thrust of her articles is that, in most genres, antagonists need character development and motivation as much as the protagonist. They are, after all, equal and opposite.

This aligns very well with what I have been trying to be more conscious of: making sure all of my major characters have a reason to be there. This idea also echoes my acting training very well. When on stage (or camera), every single movement or action or expression means something. Thus, you cannot do anything on stage (or camera) without a reason for doing it. Too many beginning actors make this mistake, moving across the stage because "they felt like it" or, worse, because "I need to be there when Erick enters the scene 5 minutes from now." Your character doesn't know Erick will be entering the scene in 5 minutes, or that he needs to be standing there to catch Erick when he falls in, drunk! So, the actor needs to be there, and the actor needs to find the character a reason to be there, too.

So now we see that this is a mistake a writer can make as well. Why does the dragon destroy the land? Why does the queen kill any pretty girl in the kingdom? Why does the magic tower of smoke drag people down the hole? It might be a dragon, a government employee, or a magic tower of smoke, but it has to have a reason for doing whatever it is that it's doing.

Faith Hunter asks four questions as she addresses the common antagonist in each genre:

1. What makes them work?
2. How do we keep them from becoming formulaic? (The pseudo-Satan.)
3.What mistakes do we writers make that allow them to become formulaic? (Just another way of looking at number two above, with a different perspective.)
4. And how do we as readers contribute to the success or failure of the BBU? (Culture and the reader.)

Based on the first posts, and my own experience, I would say that generally, the answer to #4 is "expectation of the genre" and "suspension of disbelief." The reader knows if they pick up a mystery, that there's going to be a murder and the guy's going to try to get away with it. If they pick up a fantasy, there's going to be magic involved, especially from the "Big Bad Ugly."

The other three questions, however, are what we writers need to pay attention to in this realm. Much of the answer falls into the idea of developing the antagonist the way one would (should) develop their protagonist: make them believable, give them proper motivation, paint them with both weaknesses and strengths, etc. In other words, make your "villains" into "characters" instead. Give them a reason to be in your book other than what you need from them.