The Diamond Island

The family gathering was pulled off with a minimum of fuss.  Charcoal-grilled Nature’s Promise hamburgers, homemade peach cobbler, and plenty of generic chips, freezer-thawed french fries, and garden vegetable salad with mom’s homemade dressing.  Nothing beats a fresh slice of garden grown tomato on your burger, whoo-eee!  Then, crack out the Labor Day punch and talk family business to candlelight in the backyard.  Yeah, the Slack bonus points were a-cumulatin’ in the Slor that day I can tell you.

The book revisions have reached the 55% mark, which is awesome.  I got more done this weekend than I did my week long vacation to sit and write, even though I am sick with a sore throat and a clogged ear.  I can’t explain the discrepancy in the space-time continuum, though I believe it has to do with hitting a stretch where the writing didn’t need as much work, and the fact that the revisions are gaining momentum on the remaining pages.  Still need to do that polish stage, and complete my artwork for the cover, but I’m happy.  The revised material is much better than the first draft stuff.

K has been watching the first season of the Highlander television series, and I keep getting drawn in to watch.  We finished the first season this weekend, and all I can say is Darius!  I still think the first movie is the only one that counts, the others being pretty lame.  Part of that is nostalgia, and part of that is revulsion at the franchising effect on the story.  If you forget the movies, the television series is actually pretty good action, with some nice camp and an attempt to tell a story in exploration of the alternate universe.

The tomatoes from the garden have totally defeated us; we’re just giving them away now.  The weeds have gotten out of control, and the groundhog roams at will.  The sunflowers have pretty much bitten the dust, but there isn’t a seed left on them, so at least they are dying satisfied, so to speak.  We planted some fresh basil, which ought to produce for us some nice pesto in the next few weeks before autumn forces our hand to garden mark two.  We have a lizard now!  About seven inches, black with brown and ochre markings, living in our pile of unused wood.  We threw him some baby tomatoes and the next day we were rewarded with a pile of skins.  Yea!  Feed the animal bonus points!

One of the purposes I envision for this website is to be a source of information about my books. I’ve been a storyteller going all the way back to Richie Rich times, and I’ve been growing more serious about my writing for a good many years now. The language arts are just something I do. My folks kept me supplied with books of all difficulty levels since as far back as I can remember. If it interested me, they got it. Jacques-Yves Cousteau’s analysis of shipwrecks might have been a bit over my head at age 5, but I took it in. Exposure to it made impressions on my young mutant brain.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2007. The need to write is growing, the need to create has reached the limits of my little hidey-hole, and I’m still crippled by a major obstacle. I don’t know if my ideas are any good, if I have the skill or the talent to present them, if I can even get them out there for people to accept or reject. The specter of the gatekeepers is just too intimidating for little ol’ me.

Something happens. Several personal pieces of my life come together right about the time I’m doing research into the publishing business. Reading the testimonials and essays of authors, agents, editors, publishers and commentators, I realize I’m blocked by something that doesn’t matter. I have no chance at all of success! Whatever I plan to do, it’s governed by complete luck. Talent, skill, money, connections, promotion – it’s all completely random and out of my control.

So I give up. I don’t care anymore, and all of a sudden I’m free, I’m liberated. I see what I am going to do. I’m going to write books until I don’t. I’m going to do it my way and experience what happens. And it happens. I write a book in three months, and I start studying ways to improve my writing. I format, edit and revise. I start looking at ways to get it out there to people. I’ve never been this serious about something in my entire life. I have a purpose.

This is where I stand today. The book is 290 pages. I’m about 34% through the first revision. The revisions are hard work, but worth it. When I complete them, I have someone I trust lined up to give me honest feedback and suggestions. Assuming the person says it’s good to go with no major changes, I’ll have to do a polish. I’m pushing to have everything done before this year ends (the holiday season would be personally meaningful and appropriate). It’s hard for me to not talk about it with people, because I’m so excited about what I’m doing. I’m impatient to start the next book, and the next, and the next.

But what you really want is a teaser, right?

Young Rordan the rustic wants to be a sage and help his brother advance. Kea the drifter wants to murder Rordan and make it look like an accident. At Regol Coros Academy, magic is leaking into ordinary life. If Rordan doesn’t uncover Kea’s secret, he must serve evil or die! But can either of them pay the price of magic’s discovery?

Hello, and welcome to the very first installment. I’m busy prying open containers and seeing what came with the order. In some places, the assembly instructions have been written with lemon juice, and I’m not entirely sure if my ape’s brain has invented fire yet. Stay tuned! With luck, something entertaining ought to appear soon.