REP: Blog

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.

Earlier this month I updated several chapters of The Ark Part 2. Today, one of my readers let me know that there was a directory at the end of Chapter 17. When I checked, I found that somehow I have pasted part of a Master file over about a page of the chapter.

I replaced the deleted text and the chapter looks okay now. If you read the corrupted chapter, you may want to reread that part of Chapter 17.

Good day to all.

The Ark Part 2 is fully posted and I hope you enjoyed the story.

Some of my readers used the Feedback link to let me know they didn't enjoy The Ark Part 2 as much as some of my other stories and nowhere near as much as Part 1. Unfortunately, a few of those readers indicated they intended to bail on the story. Not a problem for I had adopted a different writing style that many did not care for. Other readers let me know it was very good. One reader said he was in awe at the breadth and depth of the story. Another said he didn't see why I had laid such a broad foundation until he read the last chapter. I guess they saw something that others missed. Regardless of your opinion, I enjoyed writing the story even though it took up a lot of my time and was a lot of work.

I finished Sam's Hopping over a month ago, but waited until yesterday to start posting it. The posting interval will be once a week on Tuesdays. All six chapters of the story have been uploaded to SOL, so there is no reason to worry that part of the story will not be posted. Now I will have to focus on OE3.

As one of my readers mentioned in a feedback message, Sam's Hopping fleshes out my D-Hopping Universe. As far as hopping goes, Opening Earth is about Exploratory hopping and Sam's Hopping is about commercial hopping. Sam and Tom, the 2 main hoppers in the story will face a number of problems. At least one of which will be beyond their ability to fix. They will just have to deal with the repercussions, and that leads to an interesting series of events. I hope you enjoy the story for it was fun to write.

I asked if any of my readers preferred which of two stories I should work on when I needed a break from OE 3. The results say almost everyone wants me to work on Time Scope 2. I guess the cliffhanger that TS1 presented at the end of the story needs to be resolved far more than knowing how Carl will actually receive his revenge. I will have to work that out one of these days.

As far as Sauce for the Gander goes, you may have noticed that I don't always follow the path the earlier scenes in a story indicate as a resolution to a problem. Often something comes up that demands a different solution, I wonder why that happens. My original intent for Sauce was to have it be a standalone story, but my editor TeNderLoin convinced me to turn the story into a series.

Well that's all for now folks.

Lately, I have been doing several things in addition to correcting the errors that I made in The Ark Part 2.

I finished writing a new short story, Sam's Hopping. The chapters have been edited, so I will start posting its 6 chapters on a once a week basis once the last chapter of The Ark Part 2 has been posted; which is currently scheduled for 2/12/2019.

I updated Opening Earth Parts 1 and 2. However, the two parts are not ready for posting at this time. I need to reread the two parts and correct any further errors that I find. Like many authors, I seem to introduce errors when I edit a story to correct errors.

I have also been working on Opening Earth, Part 3. I currently have a final draft for 3 chapters and a preliminary cut on about 5 chapters. Currently that consists of about 191 pages, and for reference Parts 1 and 2 were about 460 pages. However, like most of my longer stories it will take a good bit of time to finish writing the story. When I need a break from the story, I will work on something else. Possibly 'Sauce for the Gander 2' or 'Time Scope 3'. Which of these 2 stories would you prefer to see developed next?