REP: Blog

I finished writing Opening Earth 3 and my pre-edit proof read. The unedited files are with my editor. After they come back, I will review and incorporate the edits. Then I will let the story sit for a short while so my memory is not fresh as to the content. By the time I finish my last proof reading, the last chapter of The Footlocker should be due to post. I will start posting OE3 the following Tuesday at intervals of 1 chapter/week on Tuesdays. This Part consists of the Introduction and 19 chapters.

The feedback I received from The Footlocker has been mostly positive. A couple of people were upset because they felt I thought the Nazis weren't villains. For the record, I believe the Nazi Party of the war years was an atrocious organization. The political party that became the Nazi Party was formed around 1920. It was just one of many German political parties formed at that time in response to the conditions resulting from the Treaty of Versailles. The Germans who joined those parties were typical of most Europeans. They had their likes and dislikes, but they weren't the evil beings that made up the Nazi Party of the 1940s. Enough said on that point.

I've started work on Time Scope Part 3. The first thing I did was reread Part 1 and Part 2 of Time Scope, and made a few changes. The changes are mostly minor edits and a couple of minor additions. It will be several weeks before I post the updated chapters. The changes aren't significant enough to warrant your rereading those Parts. I had forgotten portions of the story, so you may wish to reread it to refresh your memory of the story when I start posting Part 3.

I fixed one error in the plot. Think about the scene where Alicia receives a phone call about the check for the Power Ball ticket being ready for pick up. Jeb submitted the ticket so the Lottery Office would have called him, not Alicia - Opps, but it was an easy fix. I substituted Jeb for Alicia and changed subsequent references to him.

I will like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. For those who don't celebrate Christmas or the New Year, have a wonderful holiday season.

REP

When you step into it like I did in Chapter 2 of The Footlocker, you have to fix it. I was so busy focusing on the story's timeline that I forgot the timeline of the computer industry did not match what I had written.

In my timeline, Hans invested in software companies before his death in 1967. However the software industry did not start until after his death. I considered changing the timeline but that would created major problems. So I found an alternative approach.

For those of you who have read Chapter 2, I have posted my updated chapter. I changed two paragraphs to have Elsa make the investments in software companies after Hans' death. Everything remains essentially the same except for a minor edit that another reader pointed out to me.

I want to thank everyone that pointed out my mistake so it could be corrected.

Some good and bad news.

The bad news is, I've had a bout of writer's block and it has delayed progress on Opening Earth 3.

The good news is, I overcame the block by working on The Footlocker, and I finished that story. I just finished submitting the Introduction and Chapter 1 of the story for posting, so it should be available in a couple of hours. If your find any grammatical errors in the story, please notify me so I can correct them.

REP

Good day to all. Some good news and some bad news; I let you figure out which is which.

My production rate has dropped over the past year due to several personal reasons. I haven't quit writing, and I have several serial stories my readers want me to continue. My current sequence for developing the next parts of the stories is indicated below:

1. Opening Earth 3 - in-progress, maybe 70% complete. Not sure where I want to interrupt Doug's saga, but hope to post by the end of the year. There will likely be a part 4.

2. Time Scope 3 - After OE3. Development time is probably 8-12 months at my current rate of writing.

3. Sauce for the Gander 2 - After TS3. Development time is probably 8-12 months at my current rate of writing. The rest of Carl's story may be relatively short, 4-6 chapters, but hopefully interesting.

I estimate the above at close to 3 years of writing. However, I may work on the following if I need a break:

A. The Ark 3 - This is a maybe and primarily depends on my determining how to continue the story in an interesting way. If I write TA3 it will be after Sauce 2.

B. Chocolateen-Ancient Abilities - These are 4 stories with overlapping characters. I am thinking of merging the 4 stories into a single story, and deleting the standalone stories. If I merge the stories, I will integrate the scenes in an appropriate order. I will also add new content. I will probably intermingle the development of the new story in parallel with completing 1-3 above, when I need a break from development of 1-3.

C. I also have a couple of new stories that seem to be close to completion. Depending on circumstances, I may complete and post those stories (i.e., Caveman Courtship, The Footlocker, and The Pink Monkey Chronicles). I have no idea when I will work on these stories, but I may do so between 1-3 above.

I will turn 73 later this year and over the past year, I have noticed a decline in my health. Please be warned that if that decline continues, I may not be able to complete the above. We will just have to wait and see.

In my earlier post, I said Sam's Hopping had 6 chapters. It actually has 7 chapters. Chapter 6 posted today, and next Tuesday's post will be the final chapter.

Opening Earth 3 is about 240 pages of draft scenes. About a third of those pages need to be reworked. Hopefully it will be ready for a fall posting.