Jay Cantrell: Blog

Hello all,

Over the past few years, starting with "A Flawed Diamond," I think, I've gotten offers at the start of each story either to purchase an "advanced" copy of the completed story or to compensate me for my time and work. The concept grew with "Unforgettable Weeks" and has grown farther with "Runaway Train."

I'm not certain why the concept of selling the stories makes me uncomfortable. I am a capitalist at heart.

I am flattered beyond words that people find my efforts worthy of compensation. It makes me glad to know that readers like the story so much they are willing to shell out their hard-earned money to read it all at once.

The generosity of the SOL family never ceases to amaze me.

Yet I still find the concept unsettling.

Perhaps it is because I've never had a job I truly enjoyed and I don't want a hobby I like to turn into a job. Perhaps it is because I know the value of my labor better than anyone and I don't think it worth compensation.

I suppose I should sit down and reflect on it some but I know me well enough to know I won't - or if I do it will be far in the future.

Suffice it say that, for now, advanced copies of completed unpublished work are not available for purchase. Any money that a reader wishes to donate to me would be better spent by Lazeez to keep the site up and running.

I truly appreciate the kindness that comes along with each offer of compensation but I am not comfortable with the concept at this point.

Best wishes to all,
Jay C.

Hi all,

I surpassed 3 million total downloads this week with the beginning of my 20th story on the site and picked up a couple of more awards for my (fictitious) trophy case.

I would like to thank the readers that have offered kind words and criticism over the years.

I would also like to praise Lazeez for the work done on the site. It isn't easy to keep something like this operating, particularly with the shifting international legal interpretations.

I truly appreciate the readers and our site administrator for all they give.

Best wishes,
Jay C.

Hi all,

Today marks the start of my next offering, Runaway Train.

It is 146 chapters and run to about Christmas. As usual, I will post two chapters on Monday or Tuesday and two more on Thursday, Friday or Saturday.

Best wishes,
Jay C.

Hello all,

I've gotten many comments about my previous blog posting regarding the process I use for getting a story ready for this site.

I want to offer my thanks to the readers that sent me a message to let me know they'd still be around when the story is ready to post.

I also wanted to assure everyone that I am not taking a three-year respite from the site. I have almost 400 chapters finished on three stories that will fill the time until the final part of Regan and Andy's story is posted.

My next story, "Runaway Train," is already with the editor and should start in the next couple of months. It will run through the end of the year.

The one after that is already written and edited. It will go to the proofers while I post "Runaway Train." I plan to start it in early 2017. It should wrap up by the fall.

The next story is also 90 percent finished. It will carry me up to the start of "Unimaginable Lives" in 2018.

So I'm not going to disappear. I knew that the research and writing for "Lives" would be time-consuming so I tried to work ahead far enough to make sure I'd have at least one novel-length story per year until I got it finished.

I hope that helps to answer some of the questions I've gotten recently.

Best wishes,
Jay C.

Hi all,

I've gotten several emails since "Unforgettable Weeks" concluded asking about the timetable for the next installment on the Regan and Andy series.

Surely I couldn't have really meant 2018!

Yes, I could (and don't call me Surely).

As with so many things in life, there is a long version and a short version to why it will be at least two years before "Unimaginable Lives" makes an appearance.

The short version: I'm a bit lazy and I have more important things to do when I'm not being lazy. (Nothing like the cold, hard truth, is there?)

Now the long version:

I am a father, a husband, a brother, an uncle, a friend and an employee. Each of those titles takes precedence over the title of writer. I compose these stories when I have exactly nothing else that requires my attention.

I write, on average, three to five hours each week. Even if I were to start today and keep that pace (which is unrealistic, since … see the paragraph above) it would be a year before I finished the story.

The final part of the trilogy is outlined at 150+ chapters. Those don't magically appear on my computer. I sent away for some "Writing Gremlins" that I saw advertised on the back of a match book but their only language was Sanskrit and … and they used too many adverbs for my taste.

Although it might not seem like it to the members of the Grammar Police and Pedant Society, each chapter that appears on SOL usually took four to five hours of somebody's labor to produce.

I usually spend 50 to 100 hours of research before I put the first sentence down. The research isn't just into locations or potential professions. It encompasses character personalities (how would Character A react, etc.) and plot progression.

I don't plan to start writing Unimaginable Lives for another six to eight weeks because I still have research to do. The writing will take anywhere from a year to 18 months to complete.

Some stories, such as Daze in the Valley, took three or four years to write (on top of another year of research into the subject matter). Even shorter stories such as Emerald Cove and Lifeline took six or nine months to write because of the intricate subject matter.

It takes time.

That's just the steps in the process that involve just little old me. The rest require input from others.

My editor, BlackIrish, is in high demand. I am not the only writer he works with and I'm not the best writer he works (if you haven't read G. Younger's stories, now is the time). I don't get preference on his time - and, as with me, he has other things to do in his life.

Our system lets him look at partially completed works and that helps but it will still take him time to cull through a long story, make corrections and send it back.

Usually his notes and ideas spur at least three more chapters or several lengthy rewrites (or, in the case of A Flawed Diamond, an entire story).

After BlackIrish has done his thing, I separate the story into chapters and get them formatted for SOL. This usually takes me about two weeks or more because this part is tedious and I don't like to do it.

I ship the individual chapters off to the proofreading crew. As with BlackIrish, this group works with other writers. As with everyone else in the process, they have other parts of their lives that come first.

I use a two-tiered proofing system. I sent the files off to one person - usually 10 or 15 chapters at a time. It takes about two weeks to get them turned around and then I send them off to a second proofer. They come back to me when they come back and not a minute sooner. My most recent proofers have been extremely quick but it still takes a month by the time the first set of files is back in my hands.

Only when I have 15-20 chapters in hand (and formatted) will I start to post. I dislike huge gaps in a story. Since I post in a serialized format, I won't leave the reader hanging for two months unless it is completely unavoidable.

The timeline for a story is usually the same:

One month to plot and outline;
Three to six months to research and change plot and outline;
Twelve to 18 months to write, correct and rewrite;
One to two months for top-to-bottom editing;
Two weeks to a month for additions or rewrites;
Two weeks to a month for formatting;
One month for proofreading.

I generally average two years from the time I start to write until the time I start to post on SOL on large stories (more than 50 chapters). I thought 2018 was a pretty generous estimate (because it doesn't factor in real-life constraints or that that I sometimes get so tired of writing about the same people that I walk away from them for a couple of months).

I included it so I wouldn't get a stream of emails from people asking when the next part is coming out.

So, to provide an answer to everybody that has asked, yes, 2018 is when I plan to release the next section of the story.

I will have other stories in the interim (stories I've been working on for the past three or four years while other stories have been posted).

I plan to post three novel-length stories between now and the time that Unimaginable Weeks rolls around.

I hope that explains the situation a little better.

Best wishes,
Jay C.