Charlie Foxtrot: Blog

Thanks to all the readers who have taken time to drop me a note regarding 'A New Past'.

The support for moving the plot forward and creating meaningful challenges for Paul has been tremendous. To all of you, I hope the next few chapters won't disappoint.

A handful of readers have stated they won't be reading further, since they feel I have taken a dark turn in what is supposed to be a light, escapist tale. Others feel betrayed that I killed favorite characters off.

Everyone is entitled to read what they want, and to stop reading as they see fit. I respect that. I think they will be disappointed by not reading to the story's conclusion, but I'm not going to further defend my own editorial choices, and hope you can all respect them as much as I respect your own choices.

Now for the update. I am charging toward the conclusion of the tale. I am writing chapter 59 starting this week and will conclude the story by chapter 60, even if the final two chapters exceed the 10,000 work chapter length I typically aim for. That's the good news.

The less good news is that I think I've worn out my editors. I've re-worked chapters 50-55 several times, but not gotten much feedback from the folks that have offered to proof-read. Right now, I think I'm actually okay with that. I've improved my own QA process and will take the lumps for grammatical errors from the critical fans who find more errors than I imagine remain after any editing and revision.

With that in mind, I plan on posting Chapter 50 within the next two weeks and will then post the remaining chapters every other week until the last chapter is written, and then post updates weekly. I reserve the right to change that plan, but would like to have the tale finished and in your hands before the end of summer.

As always, thanks for reading.

-Charlie

If you've not yet read chapters 48 & 49 of 'A New Past' yet, please don't read this blog post. Spoilers lie ahead.

You've been warned.

*****

I imagined I would get a visceral response to both the cliffhanger at the end of chapter 48 and the follow-on action in chapter 49. I have not been disappointed.

Several readers have written the tale off after I killed favorite characters and relationships. I'm sorry you feel that way and do not have enough trust in my current story telling abilities to persevere and continue reading.

Others have written quibbles that Paul did not take enough action, that he had the capability to seek out retribution and should have. While I considered that option, as I wrote the words, it became obvious that it would be contrary to Paul's actual character.

Would he work as close to twenty-four by seven to give himself the capabilities of annihilating North Korea? Absolutely. Would he consider dropping a satellite on their capital? Of course. Would he make the gamble of leaving his kids to be raised without a parent given his own memories of growing up without a father? I think not. I hoped the dream of being arrested for conspiring to cause the murder of U.S. service men and women would drive that home. If not, I guess I need to continue honing the story telling abilities referenced above.

A few insightful readers have thanked me for the chapters and empathized that as hard as it was to read, it must have been harder to write.

They seem to understand the struggle I faced that so delayed this story. It was not until I made it through chapter 49 that I had any drive left for the tale.

You see, I was getting bored with the story. Paul has not faced any real setback recently (if at all). That is changing. It was becoming impossible to create opposition that could not be out-engineered, out-spent, or easily out-maneuvered. I did not want to write about a two dimensional facsimile of Tony Stark in the Marvel Universe.

Deciding to take the action I did stemmed from the needs of the story and the main character, just as the next chapters will explore his reaction to the strange new world he is thrust into. Just as Wendy's death forced a significant change in his outlook in book one, Jeryl's death will force a change on him once again.

Of course, he has much greater resources and knowledge to draw on facing this emotional change. Some of those seeds have already been planted in the tale.

I don't want to give the story away, but I will say that about 50% of the speculation I've received so far has some germ of the plot in it. I'll leave it to you readers to decide what 50% of your own thinking that might be.

In the meantime, I'm working on editing chapters 50-57, and writing 58 and beyond. Once I reach the conclusion (still shooting for wrapping up by chapter 60, or so), I will accelerate my posting schedule.

As always, thanks for reading,

-Charlie

Yes, I know you hate them. Trust me, I really do understand, but I think you will see that this had to happen from an overall plot perspective.

(If it hasn't already posted, you should see Chapter 48 of "A New Past" up soon. Once you read it, you'll understand.)

This was an incredibly difficult chapter to write since it is a major plot inflection point, as was chapter 49. Again, you'll understand once you read this chapter and the next.

Thanks for reading.

-Charlie

I just submitted a bonus chapter for "A New Past" for this month. It should be up shortly.

Thanks for reading,

-Charlie

I have just submitted Chapter 45 of "A New Past" for posting, so it should be up shortly.

I am up to Chapter 57 from a writing perspective, and have had decent momentum until this past week.

I will be sticking to my publishing schedule of one chapter a month until I conclude this book. Once I have the writing done and the full book off to my editors, I may accelerate that posting schedule.

I have one other story in the works that derailed a little of my focus over the past week, but have gotten it out of my brain now and hope to return to finishing "A New Past". The new story may get posted prior to the next chapter of "A New Past", we'll just have to see.

Thanks for reading,

-Charlie