Books

I wanted something suitably dark for the cover of book IV. I think my designer captured it perfectly. Two youngsters exploring a huge underground mine.

One thing I love about writing is that no matter how much you plan, you never really know where the book is going to take you. I listen to the story and let it tell itself. I do use an outline to keep a trajectory in mind so I don’t just write forever, but once I’m into the weeds of typing it out, I’m often taken into new areas I never imagined when I created the outline. I’m almost done with the epilogue of this book, and it’s taken me in some new directions. The ending of the main portion of the book was unlike anything I could have thought up prior to writing it. The ending only became obvious when I was deep in the story, and even then I resisted up until the very end to write what I needed to write.

Sometimes, you just have to let your characters tell the story they want to tell. Right?

I’m sitting at 87,000 words. This book is a little longer than I thought it would be, but I feel really good about the material I’ve written. I don’t see any reason why it will go over 90,000 after edits and whatnots.

Then, I can start on the next book!

EE

Wow, I’m so happy to have enough readers go through my first book that 50 people have now left reviews. I view this as an achievement almost on par with publishing the thing. Real people have entered my imagination and spent the time there as they read through my story. That is probably the coolest thing about writing.

Reviews are a funny thing. Some authors studiously avoid looking at the reviews people leave for their books, because they don’t want to stress out about it. However, as a self-published author I’ve found it very helpful to at least check in once in a while to ensure reviewers aren’t reporting major problems with my book, such as it is missing a chapter or had so many grammatical errors they couldn’t finish it. Fortunately, I’ve avoided those big pitfalls.

Most reviews have been very favorable (4.6 average over 50 reviews). So many people gave it five stars, and there is lots of really great feedback about the book. It’s truly humbling to read. The book is about zombies, but I tried to add in some deeper meaning in how my characters handled the changes thrust upon them at the end of the world. Apparently a lot of people enjoyed that. The poorest reviews come from people who didn’t favor the religious predilections of Grandma Marty, which I respect. I’ve been told it should have a warning to let people know religion would have a role in the book, but I think the reviews do a pretty good job of that…so I’ll let them carry that load. I wrote the book by letting Marty say what she wanted to say, and what came out is what you see. You don’t try to tone down a 104-year-old lady.

Thank you to all who left reviews, even the negative ones. Taken together I hope they give future readers a good perspective on what they can expect when they open up book 1 and enter the zombie apocalypse with my characters.

Enjoy!

EE

 

Not even a computer crash can keep this book down! I’m paranoid about saving my work, but even with all the precautions I take, I still feel it will ALL get deleted by some massive accident. I’m happy to say that didn’t happen the other night, but we did have a wind-driven power failure in town which drained my UPS overnight and then caused my PC to shut off. When I pushed the button to turn it back on in the morning…it remained silent. What a horrible feeling.

However, I save my work on my main hard drive, a USB thumb drive, an external hard drive, and then for good measure I put it into a Google Drive folder. The only thing I’m missing is to go “Book of Eli” and memorize the whole thing!

I’m still at 67,000 words, but not because I haven’t been doing any work. I had to go in and totally rework an early chapter to match the action later in the book, so I scrubbed out about 3000 words, then added in about 3000 new words. This is my normal process in writing, as I tend to check my work as I go to reduce the editing needed at the end. Seems to be working out OK.

So what was the cause of my computer woes? As best I can tell it was a bad power supply. I bought a new one and slapped it in there and all seems right again. My computer is ancient (over 5 years at least) and I keep it on 100% of the time–so it was probably time for a new power supply. As long as I can keep hitting the keys in Libre Office, I can keep writing books. The old girl keeps on keepin’ on.

EE

I’ve kind of lost track of the days. It says I did 7000 words since yesterday, but the time has flown by and I can’t really be sure. Plus, my story is in a deep dark place where time seems to fade away. I guess I’m REALLY getting into the story.

I was thinking this book was going to be a little shorter than my last three, but I’m already at 67k words? This thing is going to be much closer in size to the others (those are around 90k words) than I thought. The story just tells itself, so putting boundaries on it is tough. I have to aim for a good cutoff so I can start working on the fifth book. That is the big challenge for me when writing this series.

Not a bad problem to have!

 

Being a writer is new for me. It’s so easy to get distracted and some days almost no writing gets done at all. All the other minutia can stack up faster than you’d believe. Posting on message boards. Maintaining social media channels. Updating this website. Selling and promoting books already out in the market. So I got to wondering how much I could write if I dedicated a full day to NOTHING but banging on the keyboard.

The result? I cranked out 11,500 words in about 8 hours! That was a great day. Just me, my characters, and my world–with no email, no social media, no phone calls.

The next days I did about 2000 words a day, as part of a more “normal” routine, but now I’m wondering if I’m spending my time wisely. I could take a cue from the movie Spaceballs, and instead of spending my time preparing to write, I should just write!

Getting there!

Last week I redesigned my book 2 cover with artwork and assistance from Covers by Christian. I’m extremely pleased with his work and now my first three books have brand spanking new covers!

The cover graphics celebrate one element of my story, with the MRAP vehicle similar to the one shown here. I wish I could have found the exact model I have in the book, but we live in an imperfect world.

Here is Siren Songs: Sirens of the Zombie Apocalypse, Book 2 in all its glory.

Moved about 3000 words over the last few days. 2000 this afternoon. I’m really excited that the story is revealing new pieces of the mystery of the zombie plague in ways I never imagined when I sketched the book’s outline. So many nooks and crannies to explore.

When the zombies come, will there be any authority/government left at all in cities well outside the normal channels of government? St. Louis is well outside the pull of Washington D.C., for instance. Would the Feds–if they were still around–have any influence in St. Louis once half the population was eating the other? What would be the point?

Right away other entities would fill in the void. People have to eat. Drink. Stick together for protection. Those needs don’t just disappear, though I feel it would be impossible on any scale beyond a neighborhood or very small community. There would be too many people sick and zombie-fied to contain them if authorities tried to control too large an area. But there would be pockets of control. This portion of the book I’m exploring one such pocket.

Thanks for reading.

 

I did about 5000 words today. I’ve been adding text, editing, and splicing other parts of the book, which has changed some of the numbers. That’s why there are more than 5000 words since my last post. Things are moving along nicely though.

The last few days have been filled with distraction and downtime for the weekend. Too much time on the hands of a writer can be dangerous.

You may think writing a fourth book would be routine for me. I’ve wrote three books already, so what’s the big deal? Right? Then I read an old blog post over on fellow writer Sarah Noffke’s blog. It has to do with the creative beast inside us.

And I was worried. I was absolutely terrified that whatever had happened to me was going to stop. That the writing monster would vacate my system suddenly. That I’d be abandoned halfway through this book with no creative inspiration.

This was exactly how I was feeling! What if writing three books was a fluke? A lucky series of events put me in the right spot at the right time, and the creative energy zapped for that exact frame of time necessary to make those books. Sounds insane when you write it down.

Sarah sums up her own struggle with this.

But I know now that the stories that come through me are a part of something that I’ve allowed, not something that’s suddenly happened to me.

I think that feels right.

Being unemployed, and writing, feels wrong in so many ways. “This is not what a proper person does.” That’s my irrational mind speaking. “You are going to run out of ideas, then where will you be?” Irrational, again. “You can’t make a living by writing.” Irra– OK, there may be some truth to that, at least in the short term. But I have to keep believing that writing isn’t something that’s suddenly happened to me. I’ve been crafting stories since I played Dungeons and Dragons 30 years ago. It’s in my blood. And it always will be.

That’s all I’ve got for tonight. Tomorrow I plan to reach for the 50k word barrier. Then I’ll feel the pressure go down for book the fourth…

 

 

I only managed to get 1000 words logged before I ran out of juice tonight. I’ve spent most of the day working on a revision of book 1 for Createspace as well as lining up promotion of book 1 this week. I tell you, even though it doesn’t pay like a full-time job, writing IS a full time job.

Today’s brief topic concerns geography. Once the zombie apocalypse comes, I wonder what happens to all the barges lining the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and the smaller rivers connected to them. Will shipping stop, or continue until the bitter end? Will towns and cities use the utilitarian barges to dump their dead and get them out of their sight in a hurry? In book 1 Liam saw just such a barge – laden with the undead that some thoughtless city north of St. Louis sent down. Maybe that town had no choice? Hmm, might be a story there.

I’m having fun learning about Cairo, IL, but its time to be moving on. Heading up the river. No paddles allowed as we head into zombie territory!

EE