The news that is not being reported (but should) / Happenings In The Outhouse 27-Oct-2017

If you watch the news, you'd think all that ever happens is whatever President Trump tweets, whatever celebrity is skirting the edge of sanity in regards to those tweets, and . . . well, anything related to politics or whatever issue seems to get the leftist media (please don't deny they're mainly slanted this way) all up in arms.

I rarely watch the news, except for the local news stations, and even then I limit my consumption.

Because whenever I see the meltdowns (and, of course, everyone with a smartphone and internet access is a political genius and can solve the world's problems in seconds, right?), I ask myself, "What is going on in the world that is not being reported?"

I do, believe, I have the answer.

Human trafficking.

Modern day slavery, in other words.

I first tackled this issue in the third novel in the Central Division Series: Discarded.

Human trafficking is a pandemic of epic proportions.

And it is largely being ignored.

Lately, we've heard about a variety of Hollywood executives called out for sexual harassment and the like.  Is it all related to human trafficking?

Yes.

It all deals with people of power undermining people without.  I will tackle this issue again in later blogs.  If you have Netflix, check out the documentary I Am Jane Doe.  It's only one of many documentaries that examines this issue.  Just go on your favorite web browser and search human trafficking.  You'd be amazed at what you'll find.

Paul Harvey and Mike Rowe walk into a bar / Happenings In The Outhouse 20-Oct-2017

Paul Harvey and Mike Rowe walk into a bar . . .

Probably waiting for the punch line, aren't you?

I was listening to a podcast recently from John Grisham's Book Tour podcast and he was speaking with author Ron Rash about storytelling.  More specifically, oral storytelling.  The kind told after a long day of work, after the supper dishes have been cleared away, and the reminiscence of days gone by flow freely from one's lips.

I reflected on my own life.  I grew up in northern Minnesota.  Now, I don't know if it's a regional thing or a reflection of my Scandinavian upbringing, but there are many stories I have been told over the years, many of them repeatedly.

And I still love to hear them.

This is something I feel I've passed on to my children as well.  Our middle child keeps asking me to tell her about this or that.  These are stories I've told many times.  But she still likes to hear them.

When The Force Awakens came out in the theaters almost two years ago, I took my kids the second weekend.  While we waited patiently in line, there were a group of people behind us--okay, there was one heck of a line behind us, but that wasn't the point.  In the group right behind us was an older lady who had a voice that seemed to carry--we all know people like this, ones who can whisper and they can be heard several feet away.  I honestly can't remember what she was saying, but it was funny, for I said to my kids, "Hey, who needs stand-up comedy.  Just stand in line at the theater."  Our three kids burst out laughing . . . and it's a memory that they carry with them to this day.

I grew up listening to Paul Harvey on the radio.  Even though his bits were only a handful of minutes long, I still loved to hear the stories.  Mike Rowe has a weekly podcast, where he spins a tale in much the same way as Mr. Harvey.  Some days I can guess who he's talking about, others I haven't a clue.

This goes with songs too.  If there is a story behind it, those are my favorites.

I love hearing stories.  Funny, dark, it doesn't matter.

Shadowkill Trilogy is Complete / Happenings In The Outhouse 13-Oct-2017

The Shadowkill Trilogy is complete . . . and published.

All three books are, of course, published separately as well as the complete trilogy in its own box set collection.  Here is the cover for the complete trilogy.

Here is the link for all the ebook retailers for all three separate books as well as the three-volume collection.

I blame Stephen King for my first one million words / Happenings In The Outhouse 06-Oct-2017

In 1978, Stephen King published The Stand.  According to the Wikipedia page, it was 823 pages long, which was his longest book to date at the time (it was his fifth published novel), but it was republished in 1990 as the uncut and complete version.  This one was 1,152 pages.

In 1986, King published It, at a whopping 1,138 pages.  This was almost unheard of, for a horror novel.

My first two novels (both in the horror genre, and both at this time are unpublished) were over 1,000 pages long.  Keep in mind, this was on my Brother word processor, and the average words per page was between 250-350 words.  If my math is correct, that means my first two novels totaled 500K-700K.

Turn back the clocks a bit as these were the days of looking for an agent, praying someone would notice you, and then . . . well, sitting back while the royalty checks came flying in.  Okay, I know that's hardly ever the case.

When I contacted agents, I was proud that I could tell them I had a 1,000 page whopper of a horror novel.  Funny thing was, no one ever said it was too long.  But knowing more about word counts now, the usual horror novel is roughly 65-80K.  These were definitely too long.

But what King did was give us permission to write a horror novel that was longer than others.  I had no idea, at the time, that novels of this length were unusual.  Had he wrote It or The Stand before Carrie, The Shining, or Salem's Lot, chances are they wouldn't be published.

Since I had read the longer novels, that was what my mind worked out.  Did my first two books work?

Sort of.

I will tell you this: both have been pared down, and the second one will see publication around early 2018.

Write until it's done / Happenings In The Outhouse 29-Sept-2017

A few weeks ago, during our tri-weekly writers' group meeting, one of our members shared a piece of writing advice that we all thought was golden.
It's very simple.

Write.

And keep writing until it's done.

No more, no less.

With all the writing advice out there, this one goes to the heart of much of most writing.  Some writers try to push a short story idea to something longer just for the sake of making it longer.  Some writers even try to squeeze a longer piece into something shorter.  Again, just for the sake of making it shorter.

One of my recent publications titled Bruce is an example of this.  When the story was originally conceived, it was a short story.  A few thousand words at best.  By the time it was complete, it was just shy of 11,000 words.  Not a short story at all.  A novelette.  But I wrote the story that needed to be told.  I didn't cram anything in that didn't pertain to the story and I didn't leave anything out for the sake of keeping it short.

I wrote.

I wrote until it was done.

Try it.  Write a story without any notion of length.  There are a number of epic fantasy novels, many published a few decades ago, that were bloated just to fit the genre.  Stephen King has even written a few door stops--although we can argue if the door stops worked or not.  People have argued that the last 2-3 Harry Potter books could've been cut down too.

Cycling (in writing) / Happenings In The Outhouse 22-Sept-2017

Ever wonder how many successful writers publish all the time?  No, it's not because writing is all they do--although that may be true as well--but there is a secret to churning out story after story that I didn't discover until this earlier year.
It is called cycling.

Dean Wesley Smith talked about it on one of his blogs this past February.

Bestselling Christian author Jerry B. Jenkins (co-author of the Left Behind series) even talked about it last month on The Creative Penn podcast.

This is something I have also started incorporating in my writing--and it has boosted by overall productivity immensely.

Cycling.  It's not just for bicycles anymore.

In a nutshell, it works like this: write a few hundred words (this amount will vary with each author) until you get to a point where you either feel the need to stop or even after a certain period of time.  Then, take a small break and re-read what you had written.  Once you get to the end, keep writing.  As you re-read, fix what needs fixing, edit what needs editing, but using your creative mind to keep going.

To some, this may seem like a slow process.  Take, for example, NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month, which occurs every November.  The goal is to write 50,000 word in a single month, which equates to 1,667 words a day.  Many writers who write their 50,000 words in November for NaNoWriMo will then say the story is crap.  Why?  Using the cycling method--a method that bestselling authors use--may help not make the story crap.

In Smith's post, he states that using this cycling method will keep one in a creative mode.  This will keep the story fresh.  I have also found that it eliminates the needless editing passovers.  Don't get me wrong, stories still need editing, but cycling will boost your productivity and decrease the amount of time "working" on "fixing" your stories.
Give it a try on your next story.  It may take a bit to get your personal rhythm down, but cycling is worth trying out.

A life of its own / Happenings In The Outhouse 15-Sept-2017

Last week, I started writing a new novel in a new series.  This story has been brewing in my mind for the longest time--it's the reason I chose to write it next, after I completed my technothriller series The Shadowkill Trilogy.

This new story is a superhero story.

I've written a few posts where my story ideas look like Morse Code.

Let me briefly explain again: the dots are where this happens and then this happens and so on.  The dashes are scenes where this thing happens.  Together, I write to fill in the spaces.

This new story has been brewing for a long time--and I really mean, a long time.  I'd walk to and from work (the day job), and I'd envision what this superhero would do.

I won't explain the story nor the powers this superhero has (I briefly told the story to my youngest daughter, who watches a lot of superhero shows on Netflix, and she thought it was very cool!) but I will say that once I sat down to write it . . . the story took on a life of its own.  Some of the troubling areas of the story has worked itself out as I write it.

If you're having troubles starting or even continuing a story that you're working on, go back a few hundred words, read, and then write.  Keep the words flowing.

Publication update:
I am currently working on the covers for the final two books in The Shadowkill Trilogy, my nonfiction book centered around traveling with diabetes, and a superhero novelette.  Once these four are completed, I will share links, etc.
I am also working on putting a box set together for The Shadowkill Trilogy too.  Good times!