Housekeeping
I’ve sent various minor and major corrections to the queue.
In chapter 19 the space station name slipped from Pacifica to Oceania in a few places. The human brain is funny, or at least mine is. I mentioned Oceania, VA, in an email during the writing of that chapter and somehow…well, anyway it’s fixed.
Fixed an error where I conflated the Sun-Earth L4 and L5 with the Earth-Moon L4 and L5.
Also corrected a slip where I changed Marquesas to the French spelling Marquises, in two chapters.
What is this damn queue I keep talking about? Authors can’t publish directly to the site. You upload your content to a queue, and then a human looks at it, makes sure it’s properly formatted, and publishes it.
So what I did I learn?
The vast majority of you liked it, which is always a relief. Not everyone did of course. That’s something you have to accept early on if you’re going to do this. I’m still working on that. The urge to fire back an email explaining why they’re wrong is tough to resist, but to quote an infamous American “Resist we much.”
On the subject of feedback, if you wrote I really appreciate it. Just know that it’s going to take me a while to respond to the hundreds of emails that have flooded in since Saturday morning.
So, the big lesson I learned was to never post the beginning of a story when you don’t have the ending finished. I thought I’d have plenty of time to wrap things up. That laughter you hear in the background is coming from every other writer.
I got more comfortable with changing POV. I know that can be irritating. Sometimes as a reader, if I don’t like the character, I’ll skip that character’s segments or chapters.
My goal for Island Mine was to write a tighter, shorter story than what I’d done with Human Phoenix. Cue more laughter. Specifically, my target was 125 thousand words. I was certain I’d come in under that, but actually exceeded it hitting 154,829 words by my count.
Some people think, erroneously, that I gave up on the story and rushed the ending. If you think putting out 49k words in 5 chapters over the course of one week is “rushing” toward an ending, then you need a new metric. I suspect that comes from folks who think every story should be a never ending saga.
I wrote exactly the story I set out to write with the ending I envisioned. That’s a pretty good feeling when it’s all over and done with.
If I had it to do over again, and the beauty as a writer is that you always do, I’d tinker with chapter one by taking out the flashback review of Waylon’s life. Not sure how, or if, I’d drop all that information back in. I’d also start weaving in the POV changes earlier, maybe with a look at Captain Arnold working another problem long before Waylon and Freehold get on his radar.
A note about my editor, pcbondsman, he did an amazing amount of work and helped me steer clear of several plot holes and logical inconsistencies. He deserves a round of applause.
My writing plans
I’ve committed to writing the sequel to Human Phoenix. I am taking a summer writing course and am not sure how that’s going to play with my recreational writing. I don’t think I’ll combine the two.
In the fall, I want to try NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). That takes place in November.
Story ideas I have bubbling include; my take on a post apocalyptic story, a fantasy piece, and a space opera.
What about a sequel to Island Mine?
I intended Island Mine to be a standalone story from the start. About halfway through I realized there was potential for more. It surprised me a little. The ending certainly leaves open that possibility. If I do pick it up again, it won’t be anytime soon.
Thanks for reading!
The END.
It is so nice to write those words.
This blog entry was going to be titled, 'Hold onto your panties,' but that was too silly. Me, tired? Nah.
No spoilers. My editor, who has put up with a lot, suggested I have a fire extinguisher handy.
I'll only say it's the story I wanted to write. I got the idea while writing Human Phoenix and the note I wrote then was exactly 12 words long. Looking back, I can say I wrote that exact story.
Chapters 16 through 19 have 39,222 words. Be happy and enjoy the read. I enjoyed the hell out of writing it.
I'll decompress for a day or two and then post a 'what I learned' kind of blog entry along with my thoughts on future stories.
Goodnight Cleveland!
Friday, Friday, Friday...is when I'll post the final four chapters, 16 ~ 19.
The last chapter still needs a little polishing.
That is all.
Here's a little something to tide you over, just in case Thursday stretches into Friday.
Will I feel bad if I don't make the Thursday deadline, a little. I'll feel worse if I kick it out the door before it's ready.
One thought. There were a surprising amount of 'Can't it go on and on forever?' notes in the inbox this week.
Answer: No.
I don't write never ending sagas. Don't have the patience for it. Bravo to those that do. There are other stories I want to try and tell.
That doesn't preclude me from returning some day and writing a new story related to the old. I'll discuss that more after I've gotten the rest of this beast posted.
Hopefully tomorrow :-)
"Write faster!" was the cry.
"Read slower," the author yelled back as the typewriters tied to his ankles dragged him under.
I can hear the groaning from my desk as you read this.
Attention all ships at sea:
I will be posting the ending of Island Mine on Thursday. You can look forward to 4 or 5 chapters, depending on where the breaks fall.
No Tuesday release as I contemplate having all the characters sit down for a nice cup of cocoa while they discuss what the horrible author put them through during the writing of this story.