Tales of The Painted Lady - in July

This'll be a quick post, folks. It's Friday night, baby's fast asleep in her crib, and Mommy and Daddy are ready to kickback and relax. Hope you're all enjoying your starts to the weekend.

I just wanted to take this moment to share with you all that starting in July, as a means of counting down to the publication of The Painted Lady in August, I will be releasing five original (and FREE!) "micro-stories" weekly, one every Friday of the month (so July 3, 10, 17, 24, and 31). The stories will be posted online through my site and on my Facebook.
 

Each of the five stories - presented under the banner Tales of The Painted Lady - will be told through the perspective of a different character that appears in the book, giving you access to motivations behind some of their actions and feelings you won't be privy to in the book, and will serve as a lead-in to the events in the novel.

I'll have more info about Tales to share soon, but for now just wanted to get this little nugget of info out there.

Enjoy your Friday!

It's Gettin A Little Drafty... (Part 2 of 4)

Last week I began a short blog series opening up about the amount of drafts I do (or try to do) for each writing project. I posted a short excerpt from the first draft of my upcoming novel, The Painted Lady (out in August). This week I'll post the second draft version of that same paragraph and explain what changed between the two.

First, here again is the first draft excerpt:

He stared across the table at the woman - this woman far too beautiful for him. This wasn't one of those instances where Miles was selling himself short; it's just that he wasn't naïve to the point that he didn't realize this. Around the restaurant he'd spotted numerous side-glances of the congratulatory kind - winks and nods - sent his way. Of these he was appreciative. It's always nice to know when people think the one you're with is more than decent enough on the eyes. And not just your own.

My first drafts are done based on a short outline that, more or less, keeps me in check. I don't plot the entire story but I need to know where I'm going so that, in the midst of discovery, I don't drift so far off course that I write myself into a corner and can't get back on track. At the same time I don't restrict myself, keeping outlines free to creatively explore whatever may pop up in the course of learning about my protagonist's situation. When I am doing the first draft I don't edit and I don't ever go back. I try to avoid anything that may stall progression. Occasionally in the second draft I run into inconsistencies in the shape of molehills or even huge mountains that I have to fix, but the first draft is essential. Or I should say finishing the first draft is essential. Mistakes can always be fixed in subsequent drafts.

Which is what I try to do with draft number two.

When it comes to the second draft I don't edit in screen; I retype the entire manuscript from page one using the printed out (and marked up) first draft as a guide, keeping only the bits of story that I feel are essential.

Now, here is the second draft version of the paragraph excerpt from above:

He stared across the table at the woman - this woman far too beautiful for him. This wasn't one of those instances where Miles was selling himself short; it's just that he wasn't naïve to the fact that he was the luckiest guy in Tony's Restaurant. If not the world. To further drive this point there were numerous sly glances of the congratulatory kind - winks and nods - fielding in his direction. Of these he was appreciative. It's always nice to know when people think the one you're with is more than decent enough on the eyes. And not just your own pair. Questionable attractiveness is subject to specific tastes. Real beauty is appreciated by all.

Okay, so where some areas of the paragraph have gotten a shot of more detail since the first draft, there's a bit too much embellishing going on here. And that happens. Second drafts, for me, are where the story really starts to come alive by adding/tweaking the right details that evoke a sense of realism (for example here: giving the restaurant a name). The fine line not to cross is where too many details take precedence and pull readers out of the story. But in the midst of draft two I go easy on myself because I know I have two more passes on the manuscript yet to do, and where draft two is about selecting what is essential to the story and focusing on it, draft three is really about honing that focus.

More about draft three coming up next.

It's Gettin A Little Drafty... (Part 1 of 4)

This past Monday I put the finishing touches on my final draft for my sophomore novel, The Painted Lady, which will be coming your way this August from Winter Goose Publishing (be on the lookout soon for both the cover reveal and the official plot summary). Being done has not only lifted a huge weight off my chest but it also frees me up for a lot of things I have meaning to do more of lately, one of which being blogging (!). Yes, I do realize I haven't blogged in a while but the book (and family) takes priority, and now that it's done I'm going to try and make up for my lack of posts. Finishing up the latest draft (which actually isn't the final in terms of being the finished book, but I'll get to that in a sec) actually got an idea brewing: I thought I would do a series of posts about the amount of drafts I do for each manuscript and then detail what I do with each pass by providing an example.

When I write, I try to keep to doing five drafts. Some require more (Seeing was actually six drafts - one and two were a completely different - and much lighter - novel; draft three rebuilt the story in a huge way) but it's never less than five.

The first draft is my "Anything Goes" draft where I include every idea and don't focus on having perfect writing so that I don't get caught up on the details and become discouraged (first drafts are supposed to be terrible). Draft two is where I decide what sticks and what has to go (sometimes it's scenes, sometimes entire subplots, sometimes whole characters). Draft two is also completely rewritten in a new blank document. Draft three is shaping up the rough edges and making last decisions on what is essential to the book. Draft four is my "Sale Draft" where I work hard to nail everything down to where all the manuscript should require is a professional editor's pass. The fifth draft is a combination of the editor's thoughts and my own final nitpicks. Then, book.

For the purposes of this blog series on drafts, I thought I would provide an example from The Painted Lady. Looking over the four passes I've done for the book (it's just been submitted to the editor), I found a paragraph that changed in both small and big ways throughout each draft (which spanned from July 2013 to May 2015).

Below is a short excerpt from draft number one:

He stared across the table at the woman - this woman far too beautiful for him. This wasn't one of those instances where Miles was selling himself short; it's just that he wasn't naïve to the point that he didn't realize this. Around the restaurant he'd spotted numerous side-glances of the congratulatory kind - winks and nods - sent his way. Of these he was appreciative. It's always nice to know when people think the one you're with is more than decent enough on the eyes. And not just your own.

This is definitely first draft writing. A bit loose and on the rambling side for sure. There's no real rhythm or cadence but that's to be expected here. Definitely needs to be trimmed and tightened up.

Next time I'll post the version of this paragraph that appears in Draft Two and compare them.

Stay tuned.

Welcome to the New Site!

It's not uncommon for me to tinker with my website - it's always in a state of upgrade. I get bored with the look and jot down ideas for organizing the site better, or changing it up visually to be more appealing, and I implement them when time allows me the opportunity.

The current version of the site is all new and I invite you to check it out - it's very slimmed down compared to the previous version (just felt there were too many links and too much information squeezed into small spaces before) and currently features only what is absolutely vital. A nice addition now is that my blog is actually featured, rather than mirrored, on the site.

Quite a stream of news will be coming along shortly. In addition to the cover reveal, official summary, and the release date for THE PAINTED LADY, there are a few things I'm sitting on, waiting to put out here on the site. One, which is in such an early stage that it may or may not come to fruition, is something so huge that if it comes to pass, I will announce it as soon as I can.

I also post a bit on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, so you can always follow me there. :)

Also, in case you haven't seen it yet, here's the first book trailer for THE PAINTED LADY.

The Brand New Winter Goose Publishing

This past weekend my publisher, Winter Goose Publishing (www.wintergoosepublishing.com), rolled out a brand new logo and design. This comes out ahead of their call for submissions - the open submissions period will be for the month of April only. 

I love the new, stark imagery incorporated on their site and the new sleek logo. My favorite change of theirs is to the new slogan: Where words take flight

Head on over to their site, have a look around. Sign up for their newsletter to be kept up to date on new releases and authors. 

You can also find Winter Goose on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/wintergoosepublishing) and Twitter (@WinterGoosePub).

For any writers: if you've been sitting on a manuscript, why not send it to WGP!?! You've got all of April to do so. There's nothing to lose by possibly being published by a wonderful press that cares and takes pride equally in regards to their products and their authors.

Seriously, what have you got to lose? Get on that submission!

Seven Things You Didn't Know About My Writing (Expanded Edition)

Last night I was tagged in a Facebook post by friend Kevin Lucia (www.kevinlucia.com), author of THINGS SLIP THROUGH, DEVOURER OF SOULS, and the upcoming THROUGH A MIRROR, DARKLY (which I'll be reading and reviewing shortly), and in this post I was to list seven things about my writing that you probably didn't know. I had fun with the list and decided it made for a cool blog entry. So here we are.

And because this is also appearing here, I've gone ahead and elaborated on some of my responses.

Seven Things You Didn't Know About My Writing:

1. I wrote my first novel in a span of about three months back in the spring/summer of 2007. It was a 109,000 word mashup called SIGNAL that consisted of all things Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Stephen King, and George Romero's zombie films. To be blunt, the book sucks. I self-pubbed it because I didn't know better at the time. Don't bother looking for it or buying it. Not worth it. (I also sent a copy to Kevin Lucia to review for the Press & Sun all those years ago. Thank God he never did.) If you look it up there's a copy somewhere going for well over $100. I find that laughable.

2. Before SEEING I wrote two full manuscripts (HAUNTED, UNWRITTEN) and plotted a third (SIGHTINGS) with teenage protagonists. I knew I wanted to have a young main character because I had been working with children and loved seeing the world from their perspective - innocence and an open-minded willingness to believe.

3. It was my Creative Writing professor in college who pushed me to be a writer. She praised my work in class and said I should try to get published. She loved a story I wrote called "The Lottery Begins" that served as a prequel to my favorite short story by Shirley Jackson ("The Lottery"). It was also this same teacher who read a book of mine after I graduated and tore it to pieces. This was back in 2008 and, needless to say, because of her scathing review, I wouldn't write again for two years.

4. My wife was the one who convinced me to start writing again. When we were dating, I told her my dream had always been to be an author, so, for our anniversary that month, she bought me a green-covered notebook and some pens. This was in the fall of 2010. The first draft of the novel I hand-wrote in that notebook was titled RUN TO ME. Later, I renamed the book SEEING. I still have the notebook and the pen I wrote it with.

5. My writing is largely inspired by The Twilight Zone, mostly in the show's concept of ordinary people facing "What if..." situations.

6. I don't write long novels, yet, because my style - for the first three books anyway - is to follow one character through life-changing events and only focus on what's important in the story. In SEEING, this year's THE PAINTED LADY, and next year's AN UNEXPECTED VISIT, the action follows one character's experiences over a short period of time, never splitting off to follow another character and subplots are kept to a minimum. I have larger ideas for longer stories but want to build up to them. I don't think I've earned writing a long novel just yet. Right now I am very comfortable doing quieter, shorter stories that get in your head and live there. I also believe that many long books tend to contain a lot of filler that is unnecessary and more people tend to get bored with a story if they sense the author dragging their heels. I don't want readers to set my books down so I keep the story moving best I can with only what is most important.

7. Many times before I begin a writing/editing session I will read a few pages from my favorite book, A MONSTER CALLS. The author, Patrick Ness, crafted such a lovely, tragic novel that I can't help but be inspired by his creation. Reading his work always makes me strive to make my own work better.

And there you have it.

Author Night in Apalachin on April 7

The time of the event is still being determined (I'll update as soon as I know), but I have been asked to appear at an Author Night at the Apalachin Public Library in Apalachin, New York on Tuesday, April 7. Further details about the event are forthcoming.

Maybe I'll read a snippet from THE PAINTED LADY...