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This will be a rather long entry, as I have several things to mention.
As I predicted earlier, real life has indeed intervened and kept me from writing as much as I'd like. However, over the past three or four days, I've been able to jump headlong into chapter 65 of LiaB, and I've taken a good chunk out of it. With a little luck, I hope to have the chapter posted sometime next week. I'm likely to remain busy for the remainder of January, so don't expect too much just yet. I should be back up to speed (writing-wise) in three or four weeks.
One thing I've noticed when writing a story of this length is how important -- and challenging -- it is to remain focused. Here's an example of what I'm talking about. If you track the dates on which I've posted each chapter of LiaB, you'll notice that I've maintained a pretty steady rate throughout, with the exception of a noticeable slowdown that lasted from mid-April through July of last year. During that period, I decided to jump ahead in the story and work on the section that would become chapters 61, 62 and 63 -- the "Victor section." That section crystallized from a series of emails with a behind-the-scenes collaborator (to whom I am eternally grateful), and before too long, I felt compelled to jump ahead and actually write that section, while at the same time putting on hold the posting of new chapters. The interesting question is: as an author, should you follow strong creative urges like this, and strike while the iron is hot? That's what I did, and the thing is, when the scene was finished, I had a devil of a time finding the motivation to jump back to the "active" point in the story. I wanted to keep writing the newer material. It actually took me a couple of weeks to get back in the mood, but eventually I went back and started to fill in the gap (it was about 12 chapters at the time) until I finally hooked up with the newer material. On the whole, I'm happy that I did that ... I'm very pleased with the way that Victor storyline turned out.
Why am I mentioning this now? Because over the holidays, real life caused me to go nearly two weeks with no time to work on LiaB. However, during quiet moments, my creative writing mind was still at work. Strangely enough, the ideas for not one but two new stories dawned on me during that time. In the first few days of January, I felt an urge to write the beginnings of both stories. After writing an entire prologue of one story, and about half of chapter 1 in the other -- striking while the iron was hot, in a sense -- I stopped myself. It was time to re-establish my priorities.
Yes, fans of LiaB -- fear not. I've re-focused on LiaB, and put the other two stories on the back burner where they belong. LiaB is a very special story for me, and bringing it to a conclusion which does it justice (i.e. not a "rush to completion" job) is first and foremost in my mind. I do have the remainder of the story mapped out mentally, and though we're about to enter the homestretch, there's still a ways to go yet.
Of course, this also means that when LiaB is finished, I have a couple of other things in the works, and will be able to jump into them quickly.
On another note, I've noticed that some other authors occasionally solicit feedback from readers who might have relevant expertise in certain fields. With the LiaB characters moving into their adult lives, I'm about to encounter situations where I'll have to write about subject areas where I have limited knowledge. Therefore, it's very likely that I'll be soliciting help of this nature in the very near future.
Finally, I have a confession to make, and with it, I'll give you a little teaser. :) It's been assumed by most of you that I'm a new author, and that LiaB is my first attempt at erotic writing. That's not entirely true -- it's actually my second attempt. I do have another story, a fairly long one that's been incomplete and inactive for a while, up on SOL under another pen name. I'm not going to reveal which story it is (at this time), but I will tell you this. I intend to give three or four characters from that story brief cameos in LiaB. Let me say this -- it hasn't happened yet, and it definitely won't happen until after chapter 70. But let's see if anyone out there is sharp-eyed enough to catch it. :)
Chapters 61 through 63 of LiaB, as I knew they would, generated quite a strong response from you, the readers. Certainly, there's nothing like a little conflict to liven up a story. It was more than that, however.
The aim of that Victor sequence was simply to create a challenge for Pat and Inez. Up to that point, their relationship had been smooth sailing, although they had faced a few external challenges. As Narrator Pat told you, it was kind of a "perfect storm" situation. Put another way, it was rather contrived. But this is fiction, after all, where "contrived" is often a normal state of affairs.
All of the characters in this story have flaws. The Inez in the current timeline is beautiful, intelligent and sweet ... BUT she is also very insecure, way too trusting, and is loyal to a fault to her family members. You might expect that those qualities caused the Inez in the other timeline to self-destruct. Pat, meanwhile, tends to dwell so much on minutiae that he ignores the big picture. (That, of course, is the main reason why many of you readers find him so frustrating.) And along comes Victor, who is both smart enough to figure out the weak points of both of them, and ruthless enough to take full advantage of them.
It's important to note that Pat and Inez's relationship was never in danger. I might have given that impression when I dropped that big cliff-hanger on you at the end of chapter 62, with Pat's explosion. (I admit it: I have a thing for cliff-hangers.) However, I was quite happy to see that the reaction to chapter 63 was every bit as positive as the reaction to chapter 62 was negative.
On another note, I posted not too long ago that I planned to take a six-week hiatus from writing at the end of the year. I'll now back off from that, but only by a minute amount. What I'm trying to say is that if indeed there are any updates to LiaB over the next six to eight weeks, they'll be few and far between. I can't promise anything. In early February, I expect to resume posting new chapters at the same pace I've (more or less) maintained up till now. The story has roughly 20 chapters to go, so we're about to enter the homestretch.
Happy Holidays!
With chapter 60 having been posted, I've now reached the point in the story I mentioned earlier. Not the fast-forward point - that's still several chapters away. I'm talking about the point where I have pre-written chapters available and ready to go. It's challenging to segue smoothly into material you've written ahead of time; hopefully, I pulled it off.
Here's a very rough posting schedule. Look for chapter 61 over the weekend. 62 should go up around the middle of next week, and you'll hopefully have 63 the following weekend.
Looking past chapter 63, I'll surely revert back to the pace I've maintained for the past few months - a chapter every week or 10 days. I do have one heads-up, though. I'll very likely be taking a break from writing of about six weeks in duration, from Christmas through the beginning of February. I've got some real-time things to attend to. After that, I'll come back and attack the rest of the story. I should have about fifteen chapters left at that point.
C'mon ... you really didn't think I'd send poor Pat back to the other timeline, did you? :)
I did truncate chapter 58 slightly to resolve the cliffhanger as soon as possible. The remainder of that chapter will be 59, and it might be a little shorter than recent chapters.
I mentioned in an earlier entry that I had some already written material in hand. It now looks like bits of chapters 61 and 62 are already written, and 63 and 64 are complete and just about ready to go. I'll probably move quickly at that point, and post them in short order.
At about chapter 68 (roughly), I'll arrive at the point where I hit the fast-forward button. I might cover the next 20 years in, say, 7 or 8 chapters. When I get close to 2007, which was Pat's send-back point, I'll slow down again. That's as much as I'm willing to divulge. :)
I still expect the final version of Lightning in a Bottle to have between 80 and 90 chapters.
One more heads-up: from the Christmas holidays through the month of January, real life will have much of my attention, so don't be surprised if the updates are few and far between at the time.
As an addendum to the recently posted chapter 53 ... East Durham, New York, where part of the chapter took place, is a real, live place. An Irish festival does take place there annually (and it did back in the '80s, too). Here's more info ... http://mjqirishculturalcenter.com/
... and also here ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Durham,_New_York
I do want to send out a public thank you to those who take the time to write and offer constructive criticism. Hopefully, it's helping me become a better writer. LiaB is my first crack at this, and I still have a lot to learn.
There are two frequent criticisms about the story I'd like to address. Some have questioned why I even bothered to work the time travel theme into the story. I acknowledge that I'm taking an unconventional approach to the whole do-over theme. Most of the classic do-over stories feature a protagonist who either becomes fabulously wealthy or gains a great deal of worldly power. There's a mindset held by a few out there that human nature is such that a portrayal of a character who does not set out in pursuit of obscene amounts of money and power is unrealistic. But who's to say for sure that's the case? That theme has been done several times already in time travel stories (and very well, I might add). I wanted to take a different approach.
Let's not lose sight of the fact that in Pat's other life, he was quite wealthy. That's a crucial consideration here. But he was also quite shallow and materialistic, and his life was unfulfilling (although he didn't realize it). Most importantly, he lacked intimacy. In the current timeline, intimacy became his number one aim, although it took him a while to realize it.
When Pat was first sent back in time, he stubbornly clung to the idea that he wanted to go back to his old life. (Yes, I know - that drove many of you absolutely nuts.) In a sense, he was buying into that very same mindset - that money and power were what it's all about. He crashed and burned for awhile, actually seeming to do worse the second time around. His transition came when he realized that intimacy was what he truly desired in this new life. This transition began in chapter 24 (the long one-on-one talk with Eileen) and ended in chapter 27 (when he rescued Inez from being assaulted). At that point, he fully appreciated the opportunity that lay before him.
I acknowledge that over the past ten or twelve chapters (since Pat and Inez got together), there hasn't been much in the way of time-travel issues. That's mostly due to Pat's current station in life. He's a senior in college, and right now, he's happy where he is. The band is doing far better than he could have imagined. Similarly, his relationship with Inez is far deeper and more intimate than he knew possible. Soon, he'll be graduating from college, out in the real world for the second time, and it might be reasonable to think he'll be more inclined to take advantage of his pre-knowledge. I won't venture any further into spoiler territory. But I'll say this much: any actions he might take will be aimed simply at ensuring that he, his family, and those he cares about are well provided for. If you're expecting Pat to turn into a mixture of Howard Hughes, Abraham Lincoln, and Superman, you'll be sadly disappointed.
One other thing I've heard a few times, going back almost to the beginning. A few have inquired, "What's the purpose of chapters 1 through 3? I only want to know what happened after Pat was sent back in time. All the good time travel stories start with the hero being sent back."
The first three chapters, you'll recall, took place in the old timeline. Pat was sent back at the end of chapter 3. I actually wrote those chapters more than six years ago. At the time, I'll confess, one aim I had was simply to do things a little differently. (My contrarian side took over.) My main goal, however, was to provide context. Given that we're dealing with two timelines that were different from the get-go, I thought the background information would be useful. Also, when the story is complete, it might become more apparent why I said as much as I did up front. That's all I'll say on that issue.
About my plans for the rest of the story ... early on, I threw out an estimate of 55 to 60 chapters in the completed story. Obviously, we're going way past that. My guess now is that the final number of chapters will end up being in the 80's, and that's pretty firm at this point. I do have a rough outline in my mind about how the rest of the story will play out. I also have three future chapters that I've already written, and I expect that they will be chapters 61, 62 and 63 (give or take a couple). When I reach that point, you'll get a lot of reading material in a short time.
One thing I don't intend to do is, without warning, suddenly flash forward to the present time. What I'll do instead is, at a logical point in the story, hit the fast-forward button and move through time a lot faster. Don't worry, I'm nowhere near that point yet. When I'm about to do it, I'll post a heads-up here.
Thanks for reading!
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