REP: Blog

I received a suggestion from one of my readers in response to the status update I posted yesterday. I am implementing his suggestion of posting shorter Parts. In implementing that suggest, I will be dividing my planned Part 2 into two Parts, which will allow me to start posting Part 2 in about 2-3 months.

I will be following the rest of my projected story development with the exception of a modified decision of working on Opening Earth Part 3 and The Ark Part 2 in parallel after completing Time Scope Part 2 and several shorter stories in the D-Hopping Universe.

REP

Today, I received an email from a reader asking about my anticipated posting date for Part 2 of The Ark. I realized that it has been some time since I last updated my blog to provide the status of the stories that I am working on, so I decided to remedy that oversight.

After completing The Ark Part 1, I turned my efforts to Opening Earth Part 2. I also worked on a few other stories when writer's block disrupted my efforts on OE2. I have around 28 OE2 chapters written (i.e. over 250,000 words), and I expect the story to increase to over 35 chapters. OE1 was around 225,000 words.

Early last month, I encountered a delay in OE2's story development. I discovered that I had repeated one scene in two places - bad writer needed his hand slapped for losing control of his development effort. While remedying that error, I also recalled that in Part 1, I left a number of tasks incomplete and unfortunately I lost track of the things my main character said and did about those tasks that would require closure in Part 2 or 3.

Since smacking my hand, I have gone through Part 1 and identified those tasks and activities that require further input to Part 2 and Part 3. I still need to incorporate the incomplete Part 1 threads in appropriate places in Part 2, and some of those items will extend into Part 3. During this review process, I decided to introduce several new factors in Part 2 and need to integrate them into the current chapters of Part 2. Many of these factors will rollover into Part 3, so I need to ensure they are adequately documented to support their inclusion into that part of the story when I finally get around to writing it. All in all, this will probably extend the development of OE2 into the early part of 2017.

Once OE2 is complete and fully edited, I will start posting it and turn my attentions to the completion of Time Scope Part 2. After that I will probably return to the D-Hopping Universe and complete my in-progress Officer Symms and Sam's Hopping stories. Both will be multi-chapter stories, and I currently have no plans for developing sequels for these two stories.

That will probably extend my story development effort into late 2017. I am planning on starting The Ark Part 2 after that. I also have a story, The Pink Monkey Chronicles that I started many years ago. It has been on my backburner for over 15 years and I hope to complete its development sometime in the future.

REP

Just uploaded Version 2.0 of Opening Earth. This version contains numerous edits to correct grammatical errors and minor wording changes to improve readability. Essentially no change to the story itself.

For those readers who follow my blog, I have previously expressed an interest in not working with an editor. I know that my grammar and sentence structure is not always as good as it could be, but I worked with editors in the past and I have not been all that interested in working with another editor.

I recently asked for advice about publishing stories as e-books. Jim7 was one of many people who responded to my request and he offered to assist me to prepare my stories for publication. Based on the responses I received, I decided that pursuing commercialization of my stories was not something that I was interested in doing.

Jim7 is still willing to work with me by editing my stories, so I decided to accept his kind offer of assistance. I expect the overall quality of my future stories will improve.

The first story that I will have Jim7 work on is Opening Earth Part 2. I suggested that he read Part 1 for background. He decided to edit it as he reads it, and I do not anticipate any significant changes to the story. Therefore, I will be asking the web master, Lazeez, to replace the existing story files without reposting the story.

Thank you Jim7 for taking on the monumental task of editing Opening Earth Part 1.

I anticipate Part 2 will be ready for posting late this year or early next year.

Thank you,
REP

I would like to thank my readers who nominated my story 'Opening Earth' for the various categories of the 2015 Clitorides Award. I would also like to thank my readers who voted for my story in the two categories in which the story made it into the finals.

I have mentioned in the past to many of my readers that I write to satisfy an inner need. I have also acknowledged that my ego appreciates the high ratings my readers give my stories. Because of my focus on writing, I have not followed the nominations and voting of the Clitorides Awards. I hadn't voted or even looked at the stories that had been nominated for awards, so I was pleasantly surprised when I learned 'Opening Earth' had been nominated for an award in at least two categories.

I decided that I would have to pay a bit of attention to the Clitorides Awards in the coming years. While exploring the Clitorides Award web page, I stumbled into the listing of stories nominated for the 2016 Clitorides. I learned that several readers have already nominated 'The Ark' for an award. I would like to thank those readers for their support. I would also like to thank my readers for any nomination that they may wish to submit in the future to include those readers who may choose to vote for my stories in the finals of the 2016 Clitorides, assuming that my nominated stories make it into the finals.

Once again, I thank all of my readers for their support. I especially appreciate the E-mails I receive from my readers and I appreciate those readers who take the time to rate my stories. Based on past E-mails and ratings, I plan to continue my efforts in providing my readers with interesting and reasonably well written stories. As you all know, I make my share of grammatical errors and other mistakes.