Jay Cantrell: Blog

Hi all,

I wish to thank all the fine folks who have taken the time to write to me to express their dissatisfaction with the turn Always on Guard took in the last two chapters.

It took me a while but I finally pulled the files I'd posted. Chapters 31 and 32 were exactly as I remembered them. I was a bit puzzled at some of the e-mails I received.

So I went back through the other chapters I'd posted and my confusion eased immediately.

Sometime between finishing the story in 2009 and posting it in 2012, I revised several earlier chapters to recast Denae into what I consider a typical teenage girl. I distinctly remember rewriting large sections of first-person accounts to reflect her grown sense of invincibility, not only because she had a powerful man at her side but because she was immensely popular with the citizens.

The only problem is that I didn't bother to revised the text I sent out to my proofreader. I sent him the original files I received from BlackIrish (who I'm positive pointed out to me that Denae needed to be reworked at the front). ZoltanTheDuck does excellent work -- as the improvement of my stories since he signed on can attest. I rarely -- if ever -- check his work when it's returned. Oh, I might give the chapter a quick read but I don't pore over every comma and semicolon.

BlackIrish is a terrific editor -- and not only because he can parse through my ramblings to get from what I said to what I meant. He does a thorough job of pointing out inconsistencies in the characters and in the plot. He's saved me from myself a dozen times in each story he's looked over.

Then it comes to the author. He sometimes doesn't live up to his end of the bargain -- such as when he fails to notice for months on end that he's posted obsolete files. I am digging through my story files in an attempt to locate the versions that reflect the changes I made after it was edited but before it was proofed.

As soon as I locate them and clean up the copy, I'll post the revised chapters and let the readers know. I think it will make the story more enjoyable for the folks who have followed along since the outset.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll continue to follow along as Part 2 opens today.

Best wishes,
Jay C.

Hi all,

The last two chapters of Part 1 of Always on Guard hit the queue this evening.

It might be a while before Part 2 goes up. We're having some issues with getting fiber optic lines run to the neighborhood. Now the storm has pushed the completion date back even farther in the distance.

My internet access has been intermittent and has consisted solely of dial up.

Then there is the whole Mac/PC thing with SOL.

I write on a Mac. If I post it straight away, the punctuation is OK. But my editor and proofreaders use PCs. So when I get the files back I have to take them to our family PC to fix things and get them to read correctly on SOL.

Right now, I don't have the PCs set up -- because neither of them even has a phone modem installed. So when I started to post these files last week, well, all the quotation marks and apostrophres were strange characters. I didn't get the chance to use a PC until today.

I've decided I'm not going to battle with dial-up just to post files with strange punctuation. So until I get everything up and running, I'm going to focus on editing "A Flawed Diamond," the sequel to "The Outsider" and writing a new story, "A Death in Emerald Cove."

So, that's where we are. Once I get things together here, I'll start posting again.

Regards,
Jay C.

I thought I might take a minute or two to keep readers updated on where things stand with "Always on Guard" and my next story, the long-planned sequel to "The Outsider."

So here goes:

"Always on Guard" is taking far longer to post than I anticipated. I'm a little short on chapters back from the second set of eyes (I posted the last chapter I have on hand earlier today). So I face a quandary. Do I go forward and try to catch the niggling mistakes myself or do I hold off and let ZoltanTheDuck, who is far more than a proofreader, catch his breath?

Right now, I'm torn. Zoltan does excellent work (as any reader who compares the first 90 chapters of "Daze in the Valley" with the last 80 chapters can plainly see). At the same time, I would dearly love to get this story moving along.

We're not even a third of the way through the tale and I wanted to have it concluded by Christmas. At my current pace, I won't have it done until Christmas 2013! Still, real life takes precedence and I understand that as well as anyone.

I suppose I have until next Friday to figure it out.

In other news, I concluded the first draft of "The Outsider II" earlier in the week. It's 90 chapters so it will take a while for me to go through the entire story and make sure I didn't change character names halfway through (and yes, I've done that before).

I hope to send it off to my trusty editor, BlackIrish, in a couple of weeks. He had already done a skim of the first 70 chapters but I know he and I will have a lot to discuss before it's in its final version -- including picking a better title for the story.

Because of the setting, I have another accomplished SOL writer taking a read through, as well, to ensure that I have portrayed the scenes as realistically as possible. His comments have already made the story better.

Now I'm back to hunting and pecking at a few other stories I've started over the past decade and set aside for one reason or another. I'm not certain what will follow "The Outsider II" but it appears I'll have a couple of years to get something together.

My thanks to everyone who has taken the time to drop me an e-mail. Most of them include an allusion to posting more frequently, so I thought I'd save some time and offer an explanation here.

My best to all,
Jay C.

I just posted a story called "A Toast in an Empty Bar." It is a small tribute to those who served and died in the military.

I grew up in West Virginia. A high percentage of my high school classmates joined the military afterward. In West Virginia, it is always that way.

For some, it is a legacy. For some, it is a choice. For others, it is their only hope to leave their hometown.

I am the youngest of four brothers and the only one not to serve in the military. I am younger by many years and I had options not available to my brothers when my time came. My three older brothers served during the Vietnam War. All three made it home safely but not without the scars that the conflict left behind.

I have several nieces and nephews (and a couple of great nieces and nephews) in the armed forces. So far, each of them has survived their enlistments.

I am thankful for this fact. Just as I'm cognizant of the fact that many men and women did not make it home.

Let us never forget their sacrifice -- and let us never forget the families of those who have fallen.

Someone or thing hacked my fucking e-mail. God damned cock-sucking computer geeks with too much time on their hands. I hope they all develop leaking pustules on their nutsacks.

I changed the password and I hope that stops it. Meanwhile I guess they grabbed every address that's stored in my account. I wish there was a way I could reach through the computer and rip their lungs out but I guess the iPhone doesn't have that app yet.

If you've gotten a screwy e-mail from me, please don't click the link. I can only imagine where it might lead you or what it might do to your computer.

Sorry,
Jay C.