aroslav: Blog

It’s been long enough ago that many of you might not recall that I used to post stories as soon as I finished a chapter. I quit doing that back in 2016 when I finished Living Next Door to Heaven 2. Then I started holding books until they were completely finished and fully edited (and/or rewritten) before I started posting them.

There were a few motivating factors. First, I was becoming alarmed at the number of stories I started reading online only to get to the last chapter and discover the story was “Unfinished and Inactive.” At that point, I decided that I would only post stories that are finished and edited so I could upload all the chapters to post automagically on the scheduled dates. I didn’t want anyone to get to the end of one of my posted stories and say, “He didn’t finish it?” Even if someone came along later and said, “Oh yeah. He died.”

Believe me, I have a lot of those stories in my files. Among the most recent ones are stories I started called “It Ain’t Immortality, But…”, “From Birth”, “A Place Among Peers”, and “Drawing on the Dark Side of the Brain 2.” In each case the story was interrupted when I found it didn’t hold together past the concept, or that I lost interest in it, or another great idea just came along and claimed my head (like Team Manager SWISH! and Bob's Memoir). I can hear the screams from irate readers if I just quit posting those stories and they faded into a yellow bar across the title.

Another reason is that I change a story significantly after the first draft and people get irrationally upset when the names of favorite characters change, the birthday changes, the story location changes, etc.

Case in point: I wrote and posted Living Next Door to Heaven between 2014 and 2016. THEN, I decided to publish the story. Only I’d used names and even a few events that were too similar to actual people I’d known. Even though the chances that those people would be the kind of people who would read one of my books were slim, I did a sweeping change of names, schools, towns, and other locations. However, I didn’t post those changes on SOL because LNDtH was my most popular story and people were heavily invested in the characters the way they were named.

Spin forward two or three years when I wrote LNDtH 3: What Were They Thinking? I had left behind the original character names and places years before. I wrote with all the new names. I am still getting comments from people who read the last story and get upset because the names have changed.

Another example happened this week. I’m writing a fun new story that I can hardly wait to share with you, called Full Frame. I post the raw, unedited version online for my Sausage Grinder Patrons who pay to see it before anyone touches it. But over the past week and a half, I re-read and edited from the beginning because a reader had suggested that I didn’t set up certain relationships and actions well enough early on. And I agreed.

So, I rewrote several chapters and realized I didn’t like the name of the town; the name of one character who became more important than I thought he would was too similar to the name of another person I had introduced; a sister’s name wasn’t appropriate for the family; and I’d consistently misspelled or switched between spellings of a couple of others. I corrected all that in the new draft and when I continued writing, I used all the new information.

Now I have to explain to the Sausage Grinders that I know Eby Mill has been changed to Abbey Mills (not entirely because of autocorrect); I know the sister is now Naomi, not Susan; yes, it is Father Emory and not Father Emroy; and the tension between the town constable and the motorcyclists was established in chapter two.

But they paid to see that, so they understand. Readers on SOL wouldn’t.

I leave published works far behind me when they are finished. I seldom even go back to correct a typo. “What is written is written; it cannot be erased,” said. Pilate.

On the other hand, my blog posts go up with no more than a re-read, untouched by editors’ eyes. You get this raw.

Enjoy!

Bob's Memoirs: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon Volume 1 ended yesterday without really being noticed. Which is as it should be, since Volume 2 continues Friday with the next chapter in the saga. The book became so unwieldy that I had to cut it up into three volumes of five parts each.

Volume 2: After Caesar (Mostly) picks up the story with Part VI, chapter 27. It bounces between San Francisco in the 60s and India in the third century AC (After Caesar). Yes, there is actually a reason for this and it all makes perfectly clear sense. To Bob.

Also available on Bookapy, May 27.

In other news, I'm pulling up stakes and heading out of Las Vegas tomorrow, just as 100+ degree weather moves in again. I'll be traveling north and spending the holiday weekend in Bordertown, NV before I start the leisurely trek across Oregon and up into Washington State. I haven't settled on a plan for the summer yet, but it is looking more and more like I'll be headed east if I can scrape up the dollars for gas. My eldest sister will be 86 in July and it's been seven years since I last visited her in Ohio.

Of course, I have other motives for making this trip east. The entire Team Manager series is set in central Iowa, an area I really haven't spent much time in. I thought I'd tour the area, visit the towns and colleges I based the fictional story locations on and then move on into Northwestern Illinois.

Why there? Well, the next big story is set in the northwest corner of Illinois, and I think it's time to visit the small towns and pick up a little more local color. That next big story, Full Frame, which is already some 200,000 words, won't reach you until the end of the Team Manager series is either upon us or near. Team Manager CHAMP! is slated to begin posting on SOL June 16 and will conclude the saga October 2. I'll probably break down and start posting Full Frame in September, just because I'm so excited about the story.

Of course, Bob's Memoir will continue running with Volume 3 and will not conclude until October 12.

Stay healthy, live a good life, and make the world a better place!

If you're familiar with Las Vegas, you'll know summer has arrived and with it, fire warnings all over. I've got a couple more weeks down here, wrapping up medical appointments and getting myself ready to travel before I start my northward migration. I plan to head up to Reno from here and then hit US395 north from there. Plan to be in the Seattle area by June 1.

In the meantime, I'm just typing my little fingers to the bone! The rewrite of Team Manager CHAMP! is half done and is being sent out to initial editors. As soon as I'm done rewriting that, I'll start rewriting Volume 3 of Bob's Memoir. I expect that to hit the editing channel before I reach Seattle. Bob's Memoir Volume 2 is already edited and will hit SOL on May 27. I expect Team Manager CHAMP! to be ready to continue the story of Dennis and crew when COACH! ends starting June 16.

The Team Manager saga will end for now the first of October and I'll start posting my new favorite work, Full Frame. If writing on this project continues to go at the pace it currently is, posting of Full Frame will continue at least until March 2023. Of course, my Sausage Grinder patrons are already reading the eighth chapter since they get it as I'm writing instead of waiting for the finished work. It's running through its first editing cycle as I write and so far, comments have been very positive.

Someplace along the line, I should probably put away the laundry I washed two weeks ago!

To all those of you who are mothers, are with mothers, or have mothers of your own, Happy Mothers' Day.

Enjoy!

Puff puff pant pant.

You can probably hear me a block away as I chase after my story for the month of April. I’ve been posting around 3,000 words a day for my Sausage Grinder patrons on Volume 3 of Bob’s Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon. This story (Volume 1 chapter 16 posted on SOL today) hasn’t been as popular as many—certainly not like Team Manager—but I have a soft spot for the demon and I want to finish telling his story. I’ll get it finished yet this week.

Then I’m on to my next project, Full Frame. I’ll tell you about that in a bit (this is a long blog post). First, let’s talk about why I punish myself with self-imposed deadlines, occasional writer’s block, inane comments on the stories that have nothing to do with the story, and carpal tunnel syndrome. In other words: Why do I write?

I buy a lot of stock photography for covers, illustrations, and web content. I license most of this content from Shutterstock, and they send me tips and tricks and promotions in my email. This week they sent a note that was so inspirational, I want to share it with everyone.

Today I heard an unusual term applied to content: the gift economy. The idea was to try thinking of whatever you’re making not as operating in service of the commodity economy, but rather as a gift extended to the world without expectation. I love that concept because it requires an immediate mindset of generosity, and a conviction that we live in a world of creative abundance. This is not to say that art should be free; of course, creators need to make money, and I would never devalue the energy, skill, and talent that goes into making something. Rather, I see the gift economy as it relates to content as a recognition of value beyond simple exchange, reaching into what makes something special—worth beyond measure, as it were. My favorite marketing concept is that a rising tide lifts all boats, which to me is the opposite of a zero-sum situation; more makes more. By putting our creative output into the world in a spirit of generosity, we lift the boat for everyone.
—Jennifer Braunschweiger, Senior Director of Content Marketing, Shutterstock

Seldom has a vendor so closely matched my philosophy in life and writing. I have often told people I don’t write for a living; I write to live.

Some years ago, I became aware that I would soon be a person living on a fixed income who still enjoys reading and loves books and stories. But the budget for acquiring those books and stories was going to be significantly reduced. I couldn’t buy everything I wanted to read. And that realization brought with it the understanding that my books were in that category for many many people.

So, I decided I would make all my books and stories available for free online reading, through both StoriesOnline and my own websites. Currently, over fifty books from my two pen names are now available and I’m happy they are being viewed and read by thousands of people. I still sell my books through several channels, including Bookapy, and since launching the free reading sites for my books, I’m happy to say my book sales have also increased. This effort to provide free reading material is supported by the generous contributions of my patrons. Through their gifts and subscriptions, I am able to maintain the websites and provide my books for free online reading.

My top tier patrons get to read the raw and unedited content that I produce each week—complete with typos, homonyms, incomplete sentences, and content that will get cut during rewrites. During special times of the year, I focus on a single story and post a section a day (November and April) as part of NaNoWriMo. But I’m constantly writing and getting new and fresh ideas out every week.

Beginning on May 1, my top tier patrons will have access to my newest creative project, Full Frame.

Let me know if you’d like a sneak peek at what’s coming in the fall. I'll send you an excerpt link.

Nate Hart, class of 1968, has just been uprooted from his lifelong home in Chicago by his mother’s new career: Methodist minister. Moving to a small town in Northwestern Illinois just before his junior year in high school, is going to mean starting over in life. But Nate has a passion for photography and that passion will lead him to others as he becomes his new school’s official photographer. What he sees in the full frame of his photographs, however, will change the town.

This story will have a slow burn. As a junior in high school, Nate won’t get much opportunity to part the legs of his cute classmates, but as a photographer, there will be lots of opportunities to see them through the camera lens. Chapters will be 6,000-7,000 words in length and will post twice a week when they start here on SOL in the fall. (After Team Manager is finished.) Before then, only my top tier patrons will have access to the new work as it is written.

My alpha reader, Les, had this to say about what I’ve managed to get written on Full Frame between chapters of Bob’s Memoir.

I can see why you’re excited about this one. Based on the first few chapters, this has Team Manager already beat, hands down!!!

Why do I write? How could I not tell these stories when they are overflowing my creative cup? I love these characters and need to tell their stories.

Enjoy!

Yeah, well I had mental surgery on Thursday, which meant two days off the blood thinner, a day and a half of getting uptight about the coming operation, forty-five minutes in the chair, a day of starving, a sleepless night of heaving because of a bad reaction to the antibiotics, and two days trying to regain some semblance of order in my daily life. That brings us to today.

Oh, yeah. I meant to say dental surgery, but I'm pretty sure I lost half my mind.

Nonetheless, I managed to get some writing done during my hazy awake times. The spreadsheet says 16000 words this week, which brings my April Camp NaNoWriMo project (Bob volume 3) to just over 26,000 words. If you end up liking it, I'll consider taking drugs before I write the next thing on my list.

Which reminds me: In order to devote April to Bob, I finished the first draft of Team Manager CHAMP! on March 31. This volume will bring the current series to a conclusion with the crew ready to start college the next day. When I get around to writing the college years, I'm pretty sure I'll start a new series. It will be a while.

In the meantime, the bug for another project has hit me. This time it will be a sixteen-year-old boy transferred out of Chicago when his father loses his job and his mother gets one. He ends up in the small town of Eby Mill, about 150 miles west of Chicago—just before you fall off the edge of the world into Iowa.

I'm spending 'non-working' time plotting and outlining for this story. I expect I'll start writing sometime this summer. I'm planning the story to be one that follows the kid into the world after school and shows what life was really like in the late 60s through the 80s. And yes, there is an actual plot to each volume in the series. We should have some fun with this one.

What else?

Well, I spent ten days up north, helping my daughter get her new house ready to move into. When I got home last Sunday, I had to put my right wrist in a brace from all the painting I'd done. The house is lovely, though, and I'll be spending at least a little time camped in their back yard this summer. I'm considering a run across the US to New England in the mid-summer, depending on whether or not I can afford the gas. Haven't seen my 86-year-old sister in Ohio in about six or seven years. Haven't made it to Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont since I started full timing. Might even head back west across Canada if there isn't another resurgence of the plague.

I think it would be a great time to visit Iowa and Illinois to research the places I'm writing about. That's always fun to do after the fact.

I plan to be back here in Vegas for next winter so I can finish getting my health fixed with a new implant, sleep therapy, and hearing review. Whoopee!

So, it's time to work on a pesky client project (yes, I still do odd jobs), and then see if I can add another 2,000 words to Bob3. Hope you all have a great week!