Poetry Commentary

It has been brought to my attention that there needs to be a place for commentary or discussion of the works that have now been posted on the site. Until I can arrange something on-site, this thread can be for commentary/discussion of the Poetry that is posted on DavidJace.com.

Short Story Comments

It has been brought to my attention that there needs to be a place for commentary or discussion of the works that have now been posted on the site. Until I can arrange something on-site, this thread can be for commentary/discussion of the Short Stories that are posted on DavidJace.com.

Novel Discussion

It has been brought to my attention that there needs to be a place for commentary or discussion of the works that have now been posted on the site. Until I can arrange something on-site, this thread can be for commentary/discussion of the Novel Excerpts that are posted on DavidJace.com.

Website Relaunch!

DavidJace.com has just undergone some improvements and additions! Of course, it isn't a huge change visually, but there's a lot more content now and I am hoping everyone will like the changes.

To start with, I've added excerpts of most of the novels, whether they are completed or in progress. You can reach the excerpts by clicking on the titles. For the novels, I've also added word-counters, so you can see the progress being made on the novels and in what stage of completion they might be in. (Those nifty word-counters are courtesy of Writertopia. Thanks, Bill!)

You may notice that there are some cute little "Bonus Material" signs in the novel section. Those now take you to the pages that were up for Hero Games and On Common Ground, where you can meet some of the characters. I hope/plan to add more bonus content as time goes on, so keep watching for those signs!

In the Short Stories section, I've now posted the short stories free to read! :) Hope you enjoy them. I've also added another short story that wasn't there previously. On The Nanite Chaser, you'll see a little sign that reads "First in Series!" That one should be pretty clear. That particular story is a series, of which "The Nanite Chaser" is the first installment. Three other installments are currently written, and I plan to be writing more. I intend to post a new installment of this series about once a month or so. You'll have to keep checking back to keep reading the story.

Finally, in the Poetry section, I've added a couple of new (old) poems.

Now that my first year of teaching is nearly done, I expect to be getting back to writing. You'll have to look carefully to figure out which novel is currently 'under construction,' but I did leave you a hint on the site!

I don't yet have a system for comments on the works, but feel free to leave comments here for now if you have them. Comments welcome!

NaNoWriMo 1 Failure; 7 Successes

NaNoWriMo is over and I failed miserably. Sort of. My students, I am proud to say, succeeded! I had 7 winners, with a cumulative word count around 100,000!! Incredible! I am so proud of them!

I managed over 10,000 words myself, and really like the character, the world, and the story. So, worry not, it will be continued. As well as Hero Games, which I started in the summer and still need to finish.

For now, Merry Christmas, readers!

Yellow Light-Red Light-Green Light!

So, in my last post at the end of the summer, I talked about how life had rather thrown me a yellow light and my writing had slowed considerably. Well, then I started my new job teaching English to 8th graders and that pretty much threw down the red light on my writing... and reading... and pretty much anything that wasn't planning, grading, or sleeping!

Well, NaNoWriMo is here!! I've been able to offer this opportunity to the students at school and I have 13 middle school students competing in the Young Writers' Program of NaNoWriMo, plus me! So, I'm writing, but it isn't Hero Games, since I started that previously.

I'm currently working on a new sci fi called Thassodar Jax: Terra Ranger. It is about an alien living on Earth as a representative of the galactic government, protecting the still undeveloped species on this planet. He's like a forest ranger for the whole planet. Everything's going fine. He's dealing with standard tourists who must visit incognito and with heavily restricted import/export agencies. Then he starts noticing a suspicious trend of missing elderly. Elderly citizens of a protected species are NOT approved for exporting!

It's just rather sad that some of my students are leaving my word count in the dust! My only defense is that they don't have papers to grade!

Quiet Summer

Well, life is busy. If you haven't realized that, let me know when you are scheduled to be born; I'll send you a birthday card. The summer was packed full of kid-time, and I felt guilty even thinking of "stealing" time to write. So summer is now over and kids are back at school, so the writing should be on full steam, right? Wrong.

The kids aren't the only ones back in school. I've accepted a teaching position locally and find myself buried in lesson plans, grading, and professional development, all held together by red tape. Don't get me wrong, though, I love it. My students are awesome. With a little luck, a group of them will be doing NaNoWriMo with me this year!

So the writing is on a slow at the moment. However, I did finish Chapter 2 (see last post) and made some progress into Chapter 3 before the slowdown. More writing soon, I hope!

Just got to figure out what I want to work on for NaNoWriMo!