I really enjoy the first day on a new book. I didn't get to devote all day to it, since I had to do some more work on one of those outlines I wrote yesterday, but I still managed to get 16 pages done on the new manuscript. This book features a character I haven't written before (plus a few that I have), so that's always interesting and fun. I wound up writing 404 pages in February. Added to the exactly 400 I did in January, I have 804 for the year. That's certainly not bad, but I'd like to do a little more than that. I know some of you probably think I'm greedy, or obsessed, or just plain crazy, but here's the thing: there are still stories I want to tell. Lots and lots of stories. And I have to get as many of them out there into the world as I can. I'm not getting any younger, you know.
I did some more editing today (my stuff and others), but the main thing was that I wrote two outlines, one of them a 4-pager, the other 10 pages. These days 10 pages is fairly long for one of my outlines, but there's a lot going on in this particular book. And even at that length, it's not that detailed. Still lots of things to work out in the actual writing. But that's good, because it keeps the project fresh and interesting.
No pages today. We ran errands part of the day (and talked about plots for future books while we were at it, which sort of counts as work) and I've spent the afternoon editing a book by a friend of mine. I need these change-of-pace days after writing so much in the past week. Tomorrow I'll be back at it, although I think I'll probably write outlines rather than starting the next book. (That'll be the day after tomorrow.)
RIVERS OF GOLD: A NOVEL OF THE CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH is now available as an e-book for both the Kindle and the Nook. This is a book that Livia and I wrote a number of years ago, and it's the sort of big, sprawling, historical epic nobody writes much anymore. And if I do say so myself, I think it's the sort of book that we do really well and it's one of my favorites among our historical novels. Lots of action and romance, colorful settings and characters, some historical background, a little humor, and a final scene that I really, really like. Check it out!
Somehow we missed this made-for-cable Western starring Tom Selleck and based on a novel by Louis L'Amour when it came out about a dozen years ago, hence the "overlooked" designation. Hard to believe, isn't it? But we came across an inexpensive copy of the DVD at Sam's, couldn't remember if we'd seen it, and decided to take a chance. I'm glad we did. I'd read the novel probably thirty years ago, so the story wasn't completely new to me and the movie version seems like a pretty faithful adaptation. The hero, Rafe Covington (played by Selleck, and by the way, the character's name was Rafe Caradec in the book), shows up in Wyoming to protect the ranch owned by a friend of his who has died, and to protect the friend's widow (Virginia Madsen) as well. The local saloon owner/bad guy (Mark Harmon) has designs on both. No, there's nothing here that will surprise anybody who's read or watched a few Westerns. But even something that's very familiar can be quite entertaining if done well, and CROSSFIRE TRAIL is. Selleck makes a great Western hero and has a real flair for delivering lines like the one he says to Madsen when he's explaining why he didn't become a priest like his mother wanted him to be: "Never quite got the knack of turnin' the other cheek." In addition, character actors abound, such as Wilford Brimley playing an old ranch hand who becomes Selleck's sidekick and Barry Corbin as the local sheriff who's in the bad guy's pocket. Brad Johnson is appropriately menacing as a sinister gunfighter. Simon Wincer, who directed QUIGLEY DOWN UNDER (a great film with a lousy title), is the director of CROSSFIRE TRAIL and keeps the action moving along at a nice pace. The Canadian scenery, standing in for Wyoming, is spectacular, the music is stirring, and all in all I had a grand time watching this one. If you're a Western fan like me and missed it like we did, you should hunt up a copy and check it out.
I love the end-of-the-book zone. 36 pages today. My eyes ache, but it's worth it to be done. Of course, I'm not really done. I still have some editing to do, then the manuscript goes to Livia for more editing, then back to me for any final revisions. The chapters I did today were actually sort of tricky, because I knew some of the characters had to die and I literally hadn't decided which ones yet. I hope I made the right decisions. I was also quite fond of the little scene I came up with to end the book and hope it still reads okay when I go back over it.
I remember buying, reading, and enjoying the first issues of THE JUSTICE MACHINE back in the Eighties, when it was the first superhero group comic book from an independent publisher. Now series creator Mark Ellis, who's also the author of many fine action/adventure novels, is bringing back THE JUSTICE MACHINE in an all-new graphic novel being funded through Kickstarter. You can find all the details here. I'm backing this one and look forward to reading the finished book.
I wrote 21 pages today, which got me into position where I might, just might, finish this book tomorrow, although I'll have to have a really good day. It's pretty much all action from here on out.
Not exactly subtle, is it? But there are some excellent authors in this issue, including Hugh B. Cave, David Goodis, and Russell Gray, who was really Bruno Fischer. There were only three issues of SINISTER STORIES, an indication that by 1940 the Weird Menace genre was on its last legs.
I've been a little under the weather today (allergies), but I still managed to write 16 pages again. This book keeps making its way toward the finish line. I think of what I'm doing now as choreography. This is a big cast book, and I have to get all the characters in their proper positions for the series of big action scenes that wraps everything up. Can't have somebody showing up out of nowhere in the middle of a battle, not unless you've set up the surprise somewhere back along the way. This particular book doesn't have any real twists like that, but before I'm done, lots of stuff will have Blowed Up Real Good.
