Tag: The Wolfcat Chronicles

Books, Editing, Publishing, Uncategorized, Writing

Ironing Out the Wrinkles in a Plot

Elgon Williams, Author

In some ways publishing Fried Windows in May of last year created a few paradoxes for the main character Brent. WARNING: If you haven’t read the book, you might want to before continuing on. I’m about to reveal some things about the plot.

There are some relationships Brent and characters in my other novels, particularly Andy Hunter, Terry Harper, Lee Anders Johnston and Caroline Henderson from One Over X (two of six books published) and The Power of X (as yet unpublished). There is also a loose connection between the mother  in Becoming Thuperman and Terry Harper – as they attended high school together. Brent meets Terry Harper while he attends Purdue University where the latter is pursuing aa doctorate in applied physics and eventually becomes a professor before taking a tenured position at the University of Texas.

Brent and Lee Anders Johnston hale from neighboring towns in rural Ohio. Both were musicians in their teen years. Brent actually played bass for a brief while in a band that Lee led. Lee was best friends with the lead guitar from Brent’s garage band – which is how they met. Ironically, as they were both the sons of farmers, their fathers knew one another, though not very well.

After the disintegration of Brent’s garage band over an issue about performing a Rock Opera Brent wrote for his senior English project – a piece on Beowulf – Brent and Lee perform an acoustic set at the Christmas party of a friend of Brent. It is the last time Brent and Lee perform together for nearly twenty years, though the two of them conspired during their connection to compose a few songs that will end up reuniting them in later years – and reinvigorating Lee’s career as a professional musician.

Lee departs Rock as his vehicle of musical  expression and begins playing Blues with a couple of musicians while he attends Purdue University – where he studies Engineering and meets Terry Harper, his professor of physics. In Lee’s Junior year at Purdue his folks sell their farm in Ohio and retire to Texas. Lee transfers to the University of Texas. The following year, Terry Harper is offered a tenured position at UT, based on his recently published best seller on astral physics the university. And, so Lee and Terry reconnect at UT and the Lee changes his major to physics.

While in Austin and immersed in the vibrant artistic community, Lee joins a country band called Faction. At a bar in Austin he meets Caroline Henderson, the daughter of Joseph Henderson, CEO of HENCO. They share a few dates before establishing a relationship.

When Lee is offered a research job in Colorado, three of the original members of the band follow him there. They form the nucleus of a new Faction that lands a recording contract. Lee and Caroline have a long distance relationship until she completes college.

To pursue his musical career,  Lee quits his job and accompanies the band to Memphis where they record their first album.  Then, against her father’s protests, Caroline joins Lee and goes on tour with Faction, actually performing with the band as a background singer.

So, where is Andy Hunter is all this? Anyone who has read One Over X, knows that both Andy and Lee have a relationship in another version of reality, where both work for Henco. Lee works at a product assembly facility while Andy is a coder for the instructions loaded into the devices the company makes. The company’s CEO is Caroline Henderson who took up the reins when her father, Joseph Henderson passed away – never knowing she is to the Andy who was born of an unwed mother who used to work for the Hendersons.

In the other world, the one where Caroline and Andy grew up as siblings, Andy studies applied physics at UT Austin and becomes enamored with Dr. Harper to the point that he begins writing a boot about him. In the process he attempts to create a device based on Harper’s hypotheses that can cancel out the effects of the electromagnetic fields of the Earth – theoretically opening portals to every other dimension.

The powers that be – as in the Universal Powers That Be – are not amused with Andy’s devise of how it throws a significant distortion into the over all matrix of fabricated reality – the shell they created as the distracting illusion of life. With it Andy can, pretty much, go wherever he wants – as long at he knows his destination. Therein lies the rub.  Andy knows that the device can do but doesn’t understand it’s potential. And in the process of exploring it he becomes genetically altered to be more like an extraterrestrial ancestor of humanity than a man.

Brent is a transplanted straddler, born into the world to correct the problems Andy will eventually cause. He gets sidetracked with his own issues and adventures but, moreover, he is intended to defeat Andy’s modification to the design. Brent is naturally drawn toward the people he needs to connect with in order to fix things. Yet he is uncooperative in dealing directly with any of his new found friends.  As a result, Andy changes many things both for Earth and Anter’x, a directly connect world – via wormholes – on the other side of the galaxy. There the wolfcats thrive – for a while anyway, along with a primordial ancestor of humanity called the Hovdin and a race called Sabatin that enslaved the Hovdin for a time.

In The Attributes, a two book set that I wrote a while back, all the timelines and plot lines are resolved. Imagine that! Me crop 2

 

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Update: What A Month – Or Two

Elgon Williams, Author

Here I go again, apologizing for the absence of posts lately. I’ll use the tried and true excuse – I was busy – because that is true. But a number of things converged to contribute. For one thing, I am posting to a group blog with other Pandamoon Publishing authors. The link is accessible from the website at http://www.pandamoonpublishing.com . Most of what I will post there is concerning the publishing and editing process. Here I plan to continue discussing other things, mostly the progress on writing books and such, but other things of interest.

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As you may recall, back in April I purchased a new computer, a Surface Pro 3. Although I love the computer I had some issues with it after installing a preview version of Windows 10. And a wrestling match with Microsoft began. The end result of that was a replacement of the tablet.

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Once more I am playing with Windows 10, albeit a more refined version. The actual release is scheduled for July 29, so the builds are pretty close to finished product. I can tell you that the build I am currently using, (10130) is almost ready for prime time. There are a couple of annoying things about it, an error I receive at shutdown for one) but, otherwise, it is remarkably stable.

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I replaced a MacBook Pro as mu primary computer. I had intended to continue using the MBP for writing but it has an issue with its battery swelling up so I have not used it much over the past two months. I had occasion to boot it up the other day to look for a file and I have to tell you that my Surface Pro 3 is so much faster. I know a lot of that has to do with the access times for the Hard Drive. The Surface has flash memory as a hard drive. The MBP has a 5400 RPM disc drive. You’re talking about factors of 100 to 1000 times in speed for pulling stuff from the drive. Boot up on the Surface Pro 3 is less than ten seconds. The MBP takes over a minute. Also, there is so many background operations running on the MBP that it takes forever – it seems – for it to be ready to use once it has booted up. I could disable everything and it would run faster, I suppose. But what’s the point now that I don’t use it. I’m considering removing the battery and using it again, though. I just haven’t gotten around to that. It is a future project. But, for now, the Surface Pro 3 is my primary computer.

I’ve been working more hours for the past several months, so I don’t have as much free time. I have been reading, catching up on some of the manuscripts I have promised to read and comment on for other authors. I have a new favorite author, by the way. Laura Ellen Scott has a book coming out later this year titled The Juliet. You will be reading that one, I promise.  Later this month Jeff Messick’s long-awaited Knights Of The Shield is being released. That’s a supernatural cop thriller. It ranks high on my recommended reads list. Rose Montague has a new book coming out as well. I still have to read that one, but I will because there is a namesake character in it – all part of the global scheme of making Elgon a common name. Yeah, it will take a while before it appears on the label of a Coke bottle.

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I have been rediscovering music from the 70’s. So expect a couple of upcoming blogs posts about that. Otherwise, over the next several months while I am working on edits for BT and the first book of The Wolfcat Chronicles, I will be writing a sequel for Becoming Thuperman and one for Fried Windows as well. So expect progress reports on those.

#BecomingThuperman, #TheWolfcatChronicles #FriedWindows #MacBookPro #SurfacePro3, #Update

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Plans For Fried Windows Sequel

Elgon Williams, Author

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At the conclusion of Fried Windows it’s fairly clear, I think, that a sequel is coming. In fact, there are several other books I’ve written that carry on Brent Woods’ story, though only Fried Windows and a piece about his early college experiences are told in first person. There was a bit, about a chapter and a half of material from the original ending of Fried Windows that I removed in an early revision. My publisher and editor haven’t seen that part yet. The reason for its removal was that it felt anticlimactic. Really it was the beginning of another story, anyway. So I thought of it as a starting point for launching a sequel except…

There are several things Brent must yet accomplished in the Inworld. And there is a good bit he will be doing in the Outworld before he is at a time and place necessary for the linking of his storyline to that of The Wolfcat Chronicles, in which he also appears. Most of that has been worked out long ago as part of the twenty or so manuscripts I have written over the past dozen years. The missing piece is the sequel to Fried Windows, which is about 75% written. I’m working not he other 25%.

In the sequel we learn a lot more about Brent’s past associations with The Program, his role in the covert organization and the reason for his resignation and departure from the organization. We also meet a couple of the back characters that influence the events in The Wolfcat Chronicles. So the book is important for providing many connections between the storylines.

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Originally I drafted a beginning for the sequel, tentatively titled Ninja Bread Cookies, that picks up directly from where Fried Windows ends. But you see, that is not really how the story flows. There are vital pieces of information missing that the reader needs about the relationships between Brent/Carlos, Lord Cecil, Strawb and Lucy. In the process of escaping disaster Brent causes a number of other problems for himself that must be resolved and he needs help from his friends – some of whom are still connected with The Program. As many issues as he has with Forsyth, Sullivan and others yet to be introduced, Brent was very good at what he did – perhaps too good for his own good. Brent knows things that The Program prefers not to have revealed. It has been the reason for their monitoring his activities and, also, it has been the leverage Brent needed to get what he wanted from The Program in the past – that chance at having a somewhat normal life, if only for a brief span.

Forsyth and the others want to use Brent’s past against him as a means of preventing him the credibility he would need to expose their secrets. And they are good enough at what they do to have created a good deal of doubt even in Brent’s mind as to his sanity. So, if you thought Fried Windows was a wild ride of unbridled imagination, imagine seeing the world through the eyes of a lunatic, where nothing is real except that for the moment anything is perceived.

The reason for the revision to the ending of The Wolfcat Chronicles was largely related to the sequel for Fried Windows. Anyone who read the original ending of TWC would find that a part of the story was removed, a piece that connected everything to a reality apart and outside, where the creator lived. The way the ending is now leaves that connection to the imagination of the reader – probably for the best. Also the ending makes it clear how the world of the Wolfcats is related to Brent’s world.

#FriedWindows #TheWolfcatChronicles #NinjaBreadCookies #NovelsInProgress #NewBooks

 

 

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My Years at the Home(less) Depot

Elgon Williams, Author

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My kids and I used to joke a bit when I worked for a certain major home improvements retailer. We called it “The Homeless Depot” because it seemed I was almost never home. What time I could spend with my kids was tempered because I was usually exhausted from the strain I was putting on my body. I was a lot younger then, otherwise I would have never survived the 65 to 70 hours per week (on average). Retail management can be like that, not that it makes it right for anyone having to endure long hours.

For a while the rewards were there, though. I received stock options and performance bonuses as incentives to continue working all those crazy hours. There was a stretch of time what I worked between 90 and 110 hours a week while converting an older store to a new system for receiving and handling merchandise. I was a superstar with the company at the time, on the fast track to becoming a store manager. But the company was a lot different back then than its present day version. In many ways it was a lot like running your own business with someone else money. General Managers were like kings in their own little realm. Everyone in management, even the hourly department supervisors,  wanted to be a general manager. Otherwise why be a manager at all? And the advancements were there. In fact the company had more opportunities than they had qualified people. Due to its rapid growth, we hired managers from he outside and tried to train them in our ways of thinking. Sometimes it worked. I was part of that. I hired and trained some people who are store managers, district managers, regionals managers and corporate buyers. Many of them passed over me, but at the time I didn’t mind because it was for the good of the company’s growth and many times they did have more overall experience in magnet – just not within the company.

That was the company’s strength, really, growing. Each of the managers and most of the employees were stockholders and had a vested interest in ensuring the customers were treated in a way that few if any other retailers at the time did. That is why the company grew from 63 stores when I started in 1987 to over 1200 by the time I left in late 1999.

My family circa 1990

So, what changed that made me leave? A good bit of it was my personal life. I can’t blame the company for a lot of that, though my work schedule played some part in establishing the premise for my marital problems. You see, when you wok all those hours you are’t home enough to keep an eye on things. And, as I mentioned earlier, when you are home you’re bone tired. So your performance as a husband as well as a father is diminished. Apart from the usual honey-do lists like mowing the lawn and fixing this or that around the house, spending time with the kids was what I did on my days off. We went places, like the park, or places that were designed to entertain kids like amusement centers. We took in movies they wanted to see. Dad time was fun time for them. Sometimes my wife, their mother, went with us but often that was her day off from handling her duties with the kids. She spent it with friends and/or shopping.

Gradually my now ex-wife and I drifted apart. Add to that mix my hobby, writing. Since my son, my oldest child, was a baby, I had been resurrecting a story I had been working on since I was in high school – what would eventually become One Over X. Also I was formulating some of the material used in The Wolfcat Chronicles. Before 1993, the major obstacle to writing, other than the time doing other things, was that I was using a typewriter. That changed when we bought our first computer, ostensibly for the kids. From that day on I was the one learning how to use it as a prelude to teaching my kids. At first they were not all that interested. So basically it was my machine. It sat in my study on my desk. I played Solitaire on it and transcribed my novel in progress. Sometimes I experimented with other things, but mostly that’s what I did.

People at work were much more seasoned users. Some of the guys used Auto-cad. They had relatively powerful machines compared to mine. But from talking to them I learned a lot about personal computers and proper maintenance. Also, I knew I would eventually have to upgrade my machine in order to accomplish what I needed it to do. You see, I wanted to scan all those typewritten pages, 10,000 of them, and use an OCR program to convert them into digital word processing documents. The machine I had would not do that at anything near the speed I sought. Also I wanted to scan family pictures into the computer.

Somewhere along the line I began using the email address I had acquired through an online service and took an interest in locating and reconnecting with people I hadn’t seen since high school. All of that also took away from the time I spent with my wife. Since i did most of that at night after I got home, and often into he wee hours of the morning, it was not time away from my kids but from her.

Looking back on it, a lot of what happened my completely my fault. My wife and I separated. She took the kids back to Florida with her, except she went to the east coast not the west coast where we had lived previously. She wanted to be close to her best friend who live on the Space Coast. Most of my family lived on the West Coast near Clearwater. I tried for two years to get my company to transfer me back to Florida – anywhere in Florida so I could at least visit my kids on my days off and spend time with my other family – my mother and father were both getting on in years. Mom was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s and Dad was still vigorous but he had some health issues related to Parkinson’s. Despite asking everyone my store managers to the CEO’s personal assistance for help in getting a transfer the answer was no.

You see, I had become a dinosaur for the new wave of people, the future of the company. I was an old timer with ideas rooted in the company;s formative years that the powers that be were no longer interested following . They wanted to nudge people like me into retiring. After all, most of us had plenty of stock. They didn’t realize that we were the soul of the company if not it’s heart. When they lost us, they lost a lot more than what the bean counters were considering, our relatively high salaries.

They believed they could hire tow or three younger guys to do the work we did. What they lost was the experience and expertise upon which the company was built. That is why the company is nothing like it was when I started working for them and, when I left fourteen years ago it had already started down that path. The founders and several of the major players were retiring. There was no one willing to do for me what I was asking. So I resigned.

#PersonalHistory #writing #TheWolfcatChronicles #OneOverX #RetailManagement

 

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What A Difference Three Years Makes

Elgon Williams, Author

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Hopeless, pretty-much – that was where I was three years and two days ago. I needed to change a lot of things about me and how I was living my life – or rather existing without actually living. You know how people say – usually jokingly – that they have no life? Three years ago I truly had none.

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The way I ended things with my previous employer I was probably destined to be homeless. Over the past three years I have been that, basically homeless. I’ve couch surfed a bit and stayed with relatives long past my welcome, I think, but I haven’t starved to death. I’ve stayed focused on completing writing projects. I have twelve books under contract, now. Imagine that!

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Three years ago this was where I was: I lived in a two bedroom apartment in a part of town that wasn’t exactly the best or safest. I walked to work, though, because the place I worked was that close. My kids were grown-up and moved out. My son still lived close enough that every once in a while we’d meet up for a day’s outing. My marriage was over long before the formalities of the divorce. I really didn’t have any savings but had managed not to fall any deeper into debt.

 

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I’d been working in retail for so long that I believed there was nothing else I could do and, furthermore, submitted to the will of the corporation that abused me on a daily basis. When I was away from work I drank a lot and I wrote a lot, though nothing much that was worth the effort to revise, I’m afraid. Had I continued living that way I’m pretty sure I’d be dead by now, probably from the stress of the work combined with the alcohol abuse.

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Today I don’t drink anything alcoholic. I ride my bike everywhere I go and do that on a regular basis. I work at several jobs for the money but mainly I write full time, which is what I have been meaning to do for all my life – just I let everything else get in the way.

I could go back into management, I suppose. One of my side jobs would provide a track for that, but I’m not interested. I’ve done management. I’m over it. I like talking to customers, the nice ones who don’t have the problems. You see, when you’re in management for too long you begin to think that every customer is a problem because the only customers you ever see are the ones who have the problems requiring management attention. I’m better off with a job that basically requires minimal managerial skills.

The other things I do are related to my writing so that is comfortable enough. I’m working with and assisting other authors. That’s cool. And I write for several hours a day on average. Even if most of what I am writing will not make it onto a printed page, I’m still working at my chosen craft. And a lot of what I have been writing has potential – or at least I think it does.

I wrote a short story the other day, which was remarkable on several levels. First I don’t usually write short stories. Second, I haven’t written anything short since the experiment that produced Fried Windows. Third, the way I write doesn’t lend itself to writing anything short. Despite all that, I knocked out 2,646 words over the course of an hour and a half. I wish I could write that fast everyday. That would be amazing, right? It wasn’t half bad, either.

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Thursday is my next full day off. I have plans, though nothing special or outrageous. I’m going to begin working again on the sequel to Fried Windows which is already about half finished. Alternately I may work on the sequel to Becoming Thuperman. We’ll see. I have to go grocery shopping first thing in the morning. My supply of everything has been depleted. I guess I should knock out the Fried Windows thing first since there are several readers who are waiting for it. A couple of people have asked me what happens to Brent. You know, that would be telling, except, obviously, he is in other books since I’ve mentioned that he is in The Wolfcat Chronicles, right? But technically, those works are set either before or after Fried Windows, depending on your perspective in the cosmos.

Anyway, I’m better off where I am right now than where I was three years ago. I’m not satisfied with everything about my life. I need to complete a lot of things to really get back to where I think I belong, but I’m not hungry and I have a place to sleep and a roof over my head which is much better than it might have been.

#writing #TheWolfcatChronicles #FriedWindows #BecomingThuperman #StarvingArtist

 

 

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The Wolfcat Chronicles Complete

Elgon Williams, Author

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Friday morning I completed revisions for Book 10 of The Wolfcat Chronicles, which included a major rewrite of the final three chapters. I submitted the manuscript to my publisher. So the series that I have spend over a decade writing and most of my life preparing is one step closer to reality.

Before I move on to other projects, I’d like to reassure all those who have read early versions of the books that the essential story has not been altered. Some of the details have changed here and there in the process of revisions. One chapter was added and, in several other places the dialogue was modified a bit, to make the series connect with Fried Windows in a much more substantive way. Otherwise, it’s the same. I’m sure that as the editing process progresses there will be some other changes, though I expect them to be minor and more along the lines of ensuring consistency between the beginning and the end of the story and giving it a good hair cut here and there. The objective of editing is to trim away those things that do not directly contribute to the story, developing the characters, and advancing the plot,

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What’s next? Well, yesterday morning I did something I haven’t done for a while. In fact I’ve not done it since composing what has since become Fried Windows. I wrote a short story. I’m not sure I’ll do anything more with it. I could, though. There is an opening to expand the tale and I may pursue that – kind of like I did with Fried Windows – and we see where that ended up. But for now it’s a back burner sort of things.

The short story I wrote was my attempt to fulfill a prior commitment to write a piece for a collection with a theme “the seven deadly sins”. My challenge was to write something about greed. I’m not sure if I actually accomplished that with the story. What I wrote was more about wealth, money and large corporations mistreating the little guy. To me that’s practical reality of the sin or greed. However, I also believe that all the seven deadly sins are interconnected in many ways. If you ponder the subject for a while you will eventually get to a place that I am, where you understand how one thing leads to another and so on. Greed, envy, avarice… it’s all connected.

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The next two things I plan to work on are the sequels for Fried Windows and Becoming Thuperman. That leaves the stand alone story of Bongwater Moses still lingering in the background, but I need to finish that one too. Somewhere along the way I also want to revise a couple of other stories about the Brent character from Fried Windows.

Having the major weight of ten books off my shoulders – at least until substantive editing begins – I can work on a number of other projects. At some point I’ll be going through something of a relaunching of Fried Windows as it comes up on its first anniversary and is released in the formats and through other distributors. I’m not sure when that will come about. It’s popularity has been increasing through the free promotions, but it has been a slow process. It’s a bit like acquiring friends for me, growing readers. It takes a while to get to know me but after someone has gotten to know me they tend to be friends for life.

 

Lately I’ve been scheduled to work more hours at my day job. That is largely a result of picking up shifts that other people cannot work and having been cross trained to serve other roles. Hey, I can use the money for buying books to sell at book signings, right? Also I’ve saving up to buy a better bike. One with gears that change and working brakes both front and rear would be a vast improvement over what I have been using. However, it’s hard to justify the expense at this point, as I am getting by with what I have. The tried were placed last summer and have a lot of wear left on them.

My idea is to keep the present bike as a backup in case I wake up one day and my tires are flat on the newer bike I’d be using. You know, kind of like having a second car. As my son leave early for work each day and I tend to work in the mostly in evenings I don’t have the option of asking him to drive me. My options would be to call a cab – which I can’t afford – or hoof it for the 4.5 miles. I’d probably opt for the latter though I’m not exactly sure how long i would take me to get there.

At some point I need a new laptop to replace the one I have that doesn’t serve as a laptop anymore – battery dead, screen doesn’t work. I know I’m going to need portability eventually, especially when I start moving around and traveling again, but at the moment it isn’t a huge priority. I’m using a jury-rigged configuration that serves my purposes well enough. Also, as I refuse to go back to a Windows platform for my working computer, I’m kind of at the mercy for how inflated the prices for Apple computers are. They tend to be very proud of their products, as my dad always said of something expensive for no apparent reason. Yes, I get that Apple computers tend to last longer and are supposed to be built better, etc. I’m not convinced any of that is particularly true anymore, if it ever was. Remember, I repaired computers for a while. I’ve been inside everything imaginable. And since Apple switched to using Intel processors their systems have become more and more like everything else out there in the PC world. Much of the difference is cosmetic except that I prefer the operating system to windows and find it to be generally more stable, with he exception of the Safari browser which has been crashing lately for whatever reason.

Coming up there are some promotions for Fried Windows. As soon as I have resupplied my local stash of books, meaning ordering some directly from the publisher, I’ll be working on some local book signings. So, for anyone in Central Florida, be on the look out for announcements. I plan to tie-in the appearances with pre-release activities for The Wolfcat Chronicles and Becoming Thuperman. I’ll also be participating in some promotional stuff for other authors whether as a publicist or a friend.

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Rose Montague has two books coming out next month, for example one at the beginning of the month titled Jane, the sequel to Jade. There is another coming out later next months as well. More about that in upcoming blogs. I also plan to interview her again. She is an interesting person and an excellent storyteller. Her first book, Jade, was released a little over a year ago. I read and reviewed it somewhere around that time. Her writing is as unique as her subject matter. I highly recommend her books to anyone who enjoys novels that bend reality a bit – stories about shape shifters, witches etc.

#TheWolfcatChronicles #FriedWindows #Becoming Thuperman #NewProjects #Rose Montague #Jade #Jane #Revisions #Writing #Publishing

 

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The Wolfcat Chronicles Revision Book 10 Nearing Completion

Elgon Williams, Author

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It’s taken most of this month to accomplish and has included some rewrites, adding in a couple of new chapters but the revision for The Wolfcat Chronicles Book 10 is almost complete. Since the last chapter will be virtually scrapped, there are only three more left for me to go through, but I anticipate heavy rewrites ahead. However, I’m still on target to complete the revision before the end of the month.

My day job, such that is is, has been scheduling more hours, which is a good thing because I can use the money, but the downside is that I have less time for writing, revising and doing my publicity gig. On balance it is a good thing, just I have less free time. I’m okay with that, though the time I spend taking Rocco for afternoon walks is impacted. I’m sure he’s not happy about it.

I’ve decided to redefine my social media presence, though it may at first confuse those who know me well and are accustomed to my warped sense of humor and shotgun approach to appreciating life. Despite my hatred for the word normal I am approaching potential readers who are, as a rule, more so normal than me. I don’t want to frighten anyone off.

I’m well aware that at times I can seem completely off my rocker. For the most part, in my personal life, I couldn’t care less what other people think. Those who don’t accept the way I am are probably no people with whom I would want to associate anyway. But it occurs to me that appears less mainstream alienates all but a fairly unique minority of potential readers. As I can’t remove the stick most people have up their butts, at least not directly, I have to appeal to the straight laced as well as all the others who have discovered the imagination driven universe I’ve created in my books.

So my blogs and my social media will be about books in general – those I have written as well as those my friends have written. I have a lot of authors who are my friends, so there is always someone with a book coming out soon. I will also post things about music, because that is part of me and it is integrated into my writing. There will be some humorous things from time to time. And there will be posts about animals, because I love animals, especially pandas, wolves, dogs and cats. Political stuff is off limits unless it is really humorous in a non-partisan way. This of you who know me well know how politically neutral I am in real life – that translates into I hate both major political parties in my country pretty much equally while I also advocate some causes each party supports.

I’m also going to stay away from religious posts because those tend to offend people in general unless they share a certain belief. Personally I feel religious dogma divides people. Also, I’m relatively certain that the God I know is not a religious sort. Things that are done and have been done historically in the name of religion have often times not been Godly acts filled with love and grace. So, if you want to discuss religion with me, we’ll take that private. You are entitled to your personal relationship with whatever you believe and so am I. Enough said.

Most will not see much of a change in what I post. But from time to time I have deviated from what I have spelled out here and it has alienated some friends. If it wasn’t for being an increasingly public person upon which other people have tied a certain amount of business capital, I wouldn’t give two craps. But I owe it to people who had enough faith in me to take some risks in supporting me as an author and promoting my works.

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#TheWolfcatChronicles #SocialMedia

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How It Begins, Continues and Ends

Elgon Williams, Author

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The beginning of a book has the illusion of being easy but next to the ending it can be the most difficult part to write. Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always found the middle of a book the quickest write. You see – you know the characters fairly well by then and the plot is already well underway. So development is pretty much over and its time to let the action evolve. You know where things are heading and may even have an idea for an ending, though usually endings change because, by the time you get there, whatever you had in mind from the outset has altered from experiencing the book’s progress through the eyes of the characters. You have have planned an untimely demise for a character who has become your favorite or your main character may actually be less interesting than you originally imagined.

I’ve often told people that I suck at writing endings. Ive time I’ve gotten better at it, especially after writing the interim endings for each of the books in The Wolfcat Chronicles series. But serial ending are different. They always lead into something else. As far as my writing goes, almost every book I’ve written connects to something else, though. If it doesn’t seem to, wait for it. Another book is probably on  the way and somehow it will connect. Even Becoming Thuperman, which I purposely wrote as a stand alone, connects into the weird world of Brent Woods. Its connection is the most tangential of all the manuscripts I’ve composed. Hint, Will’s mother went to high school with Terry Harper. Yeah, it’s in there.

A number of my friends are writers. Some tell me coming up with a title is difficult. For whatever reason that’s the easiest part of the process for me. Many, like me, write a good bit of the novel by the seat of their pants. We call it being a Pantser. The experience of creation is a wild, spontaneous ride. I think some of that comes through in the book and the readers can share a bit of the creative experience. However it is a bit like taking a 1000 piece crossword pule and throwing it on the floor and hoping some of the pieces just accidentally come together. Since I don’t believe in accidents…well, every writer must organize things at some point, right?

Other writers detail out a plot from beginning to end. They’re called Plotters. I think there is a downside to this style as well. The book can become too stylized and predictable as it methodically progresses. It’s kind of like looking as a sine wave on an oscilloscope – you know there is a peak ahead and valley after and then another peak. There is a steady rhythm and flow, which is nice for some readers but it will put others to sleep. Mixing it up a bit, throwing in a random, unexpected event  or two helps break the monotony. That may not come until the draft is finished and, as a writer, you just feel the book is missing something. That’s one reason revisions tend to add pages to a manuscript as the author tweaks this and that or suddenly realizes there is a subplot that can be used to create some mystery or tension. Perhaps there is an alternate love connection that wasn’t clear from the start.

If an author wants to excite the reader and, for whatever time it takes to read a book, engage the imagination and suspend disbelief, he or she should make the book as realistic as possible. As much as we plot and plan our lives, things do not always work out the way we want. So why expect a book to be any different? As you can probably tell, my writing style is a little of both Pantser and Plotter. I usually begin the process with a few character profiles and then have the key players interact in conversations. Often enough the characters tell me where the conflicts are and that almost always hints at where the plot is headed. Building the story around the dialogue, as it is inherently more interesting to the reader than long narratives, is also better for showing and not telling the story. If you focus on dialogue and use action tags to highlight what the characters are doing, their nervous ticks, their habit of playing with a pencil or a pen while sitting at a desk, lighting a second cigarette before snuffing out the first, you immediately allow the reader to visualize a scene as if he or she is there. observing.

I don’t think one author should guide another in the creative aspect but sharing some notes and giving a little advice helps. Every writer’s situation is different. Of necessity some cannot devote the kind of time they might like to the task because of other obligations whether its family, work or something else. Often writers claim to have writer’s block and sometimes it is tied to beginning the writing process. It’s hard to start something and easy to be distracted with life or anything else that is less painful than coming to terms with the crazy ideas you have kicking around in your noggin. So, if you suffer when coming up with a way to begin a book, why not start in the middle instead?  Give it a try. Work your way in both directions from the middle and eventually you’ll have a beginning and and ending. Does it work every time? No, of course not. But it’s different and changing things up a bit helps break writer’s block. A lot of times that’s all you need is a nudge.

The other way I’ve found to overcome writer’s block is have a pretty much set schedule for your writing. Whenever that is, wherever you are you write. It doesn’t matter what you write, just write something. It could be a shopping list, an email, a note – whatever, just connect mind to hand and let the process and the flow of ideas take over. Writer’s block, to me, seems to be a temporary halt in the flow. Force the effort to write but never force the writing.What I mean is this, keep the avenue of your ideas open. Dredge the channel to prevent anything from damming things up. Having said that, don’t make writing a drudgery.

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If whatever project you’re working on isn’t inspiring you to get out and bed and work on it, it’s probably going to have the same effect on someone reading it. Don’t scrap it just yet, but set it aside and come back to it later. Some books need to be fleshed out in a search process. Fried Windows flowed as sixteen sort of related short stories before I ever started to think of them as a novel. One Over X came to me as vignettes focused on individual characters. Stories that refuse to flow from start to end can be more challenging but that doesn’t mean the idea isn’t good or that the book won’t work well. Sometimes a story has to come out in pieces. It can be frustrating, but when everything comes together it will be worth the wait.

Not every idea you have will make a good book or even a good short story. Sometimes the silliest things make the best stories, though. So never give up on an idea too soon. Just be aware that your scrap pile will grow exponentially while your actual projects progress in a more linear fashion.

#WritingTips #WritersBlock #Beginnings #Endings #Plotters #Pantsers #CreativeFlow #BecomingThuperman #TheWolfcatChronicles #FriedWindows

 

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Promotional Stuff, Pets and A Birthday

Elgon Williams, Author

 

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Today and yesterday were kind of dedicated promotional days. That’s why I didn’t post anything. Sort of busy answering questions and making pitches for Fried Windows, Becoming Thuperman and The Wolfcat Chronicles.

Speaking of the wolfcats, I’m working on Chapter 9, but I’m about 3/4 of the way through a new chapter that I’m writing. It helps tie into the rewrite and also connect the series into Fried Windows a little better than the original version.  Otherwise I’m hanging out with my son’s dog, my grand-dog, as it were. His name is Rocco. I’ve mentioned him before. He’s 105 lbs of American Bulldog and a big baby. He’s sitting beside me as I write this, wondering why I haven’t petted him in the past ten seconds and hoping I’ll take him on a walk so because usually he gets a treat afterwards.

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I read somewhere that most days read the mental maturity of a two or three year old. Rocco is definitely in his terrible twos. He demands attention almost constantly but he does understand a few simple words and phrases. However, he doesn’t like deviating from routine. Like going for a walk. The county has decided to tear up some of the sidewalks,It seems related to whether there is a pin oak tree near to the section. This has interrupted Rocco’s usual path for walking so it confuses and frustrate him when I make him detour around the missing sections or the freshly poured concrete. The county frowns upon dog prints in the fresh new slabs. Apparently they consider that graffiti for which there is some sort of fine if they catch you. Is anyone else getting a mental picture of the local sheriff running through  set of paw prints belonging to known offenders?

Anyway, the promotional stuff went well. I don’t know if I sold any books but I made some friends. Friend may last longer than book promotions, anyway.

I believe I’m still on target to complete Book 10 of The Wolfcat Chronicles before the end of the month. I don’t force any problems yet. The new stuff I’m adding in gives the series a twist or two, and lends a touch of mystery to the last book the series. It’s all good.

20121031075644-1aDid Mary Poppins this year!!

In other news, today is my big sister Joyce’s birthday. In the pictures above she is dressed for Halloween. So, no she doesn’t always dress funny. Anyway, Joyce is nine years my senior and was known to babysit for me when I was like Rocco is now – no, not a dog but a whining pup of sorts and totally dependent. She’s one of those special people you enjoy being around because she savors friendships and loves life. When I’m around her I have to step up my game a bit to say something funny or unusual. She has that effect on me. I try to make her laugh. I always have. And if she doesn’t laugh with me, I’ll accept her laughing at me.

Family Pics-6Joyce And Jerry

So, Happy Birthday, big sis.

#birthday #Rocco #FriedWindows #Revisions #TheWolfcatChronicles, #BecomingThuperman #Promotions

 

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Midweek Crisis

Elgon Williams, Author

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Generally, I don’t care what day of the week it is. There is a routine I observe regardless. I guess that comes from many years working in retail and having the concept of weekend totally destroyed. But, if I hate any day of the week it’s probably Wednesday, aka, humpday.

While most people hate Mondays, I’m generally okay with those. Sometimes I have them off even when it doesn’t involve a holiday. Wednesday, however, used to be my weekly in store staff meeting. This was when my boss delivered all the notes that his boss gave him on their weekly Tuesday meetings. And, as the rule of shit flowing downhill, it meant having to scramble to get things done before the weekend, and a lot of stuff done before the new weekly ad broke on Thursday. Even though I’m out of that situation now, the dread feeling about Wednesday remains.

I’ve never liked meetings, especially the ones that turn into non-productive bitch sessions. Also, I’m not fond of the ones that should probably take 45 minutes but extend well past three or four hours – and then you have all these bullet points and action items to communicate to subordinates and get them to implement things before the end of the day. Meetings, conference calls etc are necessary I guess, but often they are used in the CYA (cover your ass) mode of thinking, as in, “As I told you last week at our meeting…”

Today I have a couple of things I have to. I was originally scheduled to work today, to do some training at work. But I’m driving my son over to the airport, so I had to reschedule a bit. My son have a conference in Indianapolis. As he is aware he’ll be freezing his Floridian ass off, he is out shopping for a winter coat. The good news is that those who’ll be on clearance by now here in the Sunshine State.

I’m a bit apprehensive about the drive to the airport. I have a license and lots of driving experience – like since almost before I could walk – but for the past five or so years I haven’t been driving all that often. I ride a bike everywhere. And my son’s car is new to him (not new to the world but it amounts to the same thing, right?) And it’s a Porche. Anything one needs to have a crash course on how to start it is going to be intimidating. Plus it has twice the horsepower of the last vehicle I drove regularly. So I’ll be driving this thing like a paranoid grandma from Pasadena.

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When I get back to the house I’ll be diving into The Wolfcat Chronicles Book 10 Chapter 4. I did nothing with the book yesterday or Monday evening. I was working on some promotional stuff for one of the authors I represent as a publicist. And yesterday afternoon and evening I was at my other job. So, I’m kind of eager to get back into the book. I’m hopeful about getting to Chapter 10 or 11 before the weekend, which roughly a third of the way through the book. Realize, of course, that somewhere around Chapter 20 everything will come to a screeching halt as I will be rewriting everything – and at time writing entirely new material. I have an outline and some other ideas I’m playing with for that, but I expect I’ll be into that just prior to the end of the month.

A good portion of March I’ll spend reviewing Book 10 before finally submitting it, the concluding piece of The Wolfcat Chronicles. By then I expect to be knee deep in substantive edits for the series.

#update #TheWolfcatChronicles #Humpday