WIP Update 8-10-11: Devil Dog and The Warlord

Just a short post this Wednesday on updates is all I have time for and there I’m pretty sure I can stuff it all in pretty quick and painless.

First update: Devil Dog is still in edit mode, but I’ve been trying out some new tricks to make it less painless. One of my editors recommended it after I complained about how much I don’t want to do it after reading the book and rewriting so many times already, but it needs to be done. I’m preparing a blog to discuss his tips as well, for those who might be interested in those. Not only are some of the tips making it easier to go through the manuscript, but they are going to verify the story flows as it should. I’ll be posting some excerpts pre-editor pretty soon on my Facebook fan page.

Second Update: I’m well into the first chapter of The Warlord. It’s been slow going, but I’m very excited about what I’ve got so far. I can already tell this book will be much larger than the Devil Dog. I’ve been building this world for twenty years. Cultures, peoples, religions, languages, history, geography, etc. have all been detailed. I’ve even toyed with an RPG rules game someday. Wrote the first 50 pages of that a few years back and saved it.

Third Update: The sequel to Devil Dog hasn’t been touched too much since I plotted out the scenes and designed the outline and characters. I’m still working on the opening line, but patience is the key and I’m sure it will come to me eventually. I have plenty else to do in the meantime.

I guess a detox update is in order. I discovered I suck at dieting/detoxing. I can’t go more than three days before giving into the call of something sweet. So I’ll just go back to working out and eating in moderation. Hope everyone is having a great week, I’ll get something more interesting up by Friday and I’ll link up another book review tomorrow.

I’m also trying to come up with a weekly special post. Something like Medieval Weaponry Mondays. That’s the front runner on my short list of ideas. Actually, I think I'm going to run with that. It's one of my favorite hobbies along with castle construction and defenses.

Writer Ramblings: Writing More Than 1 Novel at a Time?

What to do when you're muse is out of control. I'm suffering from the opposite of writer's block these days. I just started my detox today and apparently the detoxing hasn't slowed down my muse as I thought it would. So what to do? This isn't as much of a good thing as some people might think. I fleshed out notes on a 16 book superhero style series. I don't even have time to work on that, but it's shooting to the front of all my thoughts. This is probably because of all the superhero movies coming out lately.

I'm going to be focusing on two other series already. The shorter one I've already started with the Unforgiven series, book 1 called Devil Dog (Modern Day Action Thriller). It's written and is now going through edits and reader testing before its publication. Book 2's outline is complete and the temporary working title is going to be Rampage and Revenge. I'm pretty sure that title will change later.

The second series is a fantasy series that I've also conjured up enough material over the last 15 years for 16 thick novels. My brain feels like it's going to explode. No wonder I had a migraine a week ago. Tonight, I'm putting the finishing touches on the outline for the fantasy book that I'm calling The Warlord and then I will begin writing it tomorrow when I'm unable to edit Devil Dog.

I've heard some mention that you shouldn't work on more than one book at a time, but the question is, why not? I guess I'll find out the hard way. As long as I stick to my outlines, I have a feeling I'll be writing 3 or 4 books a year. I won't just rush them out, I would hate to sacrifice quality, so if editing a book takes another 6 months then, so be it, but if I can crank out the manuscripts and not require them to be rewritten, well, I ask again, why not? With the amount of detail that goes into my multiple page outlines that defines everything from constant themes, subplots, character descriptions and arcs and every single scene mapped out, it would be a task to actually get lost and mixed up. I guess we'll see.

Writer's Ramblings: Legend of the Devil Dog

A Devil Dog is nothing satanic, it's a name that marines have used since WWI when Germans at the Battle of Belleau Wood, in 1918, saw the marines climb out of the trenches filled with mustard gas and charge up a hill at them. The marines climbed on their hands and feet to reach the top of the hill. They had those gas masks that made them look like they had snouts and they’re eyes were bloodshot from the gas. Their mouths foamed, from over exertion, which was coming out of the masks, making them look like rabid dogs. I don’t know how much of that was real but the “Hounds from Hell” nickname became Devil Dogs after translating it from German and it’s said the Germans started the nickname when they were running for their lives.

Some recent news article has mentioned that newest generation marines have thought of it as an insult for troublemaker. That’s a shame, because I think it is an awesome nickname and marines should be proud to be called a Devil Dog. Last thing anyone wants to go head to head with is a Hound from Hell.

I've been spending the evening cleaning up the manuscript for The Devil Dog, I eliminated approximately 12,000 words of dull, and boring scenes that included excessive back-story and pointless dialogue. I’m not sweating though, because all the new scenes I’ve planned with the new outline that there should be far more than 12,000 words put back into it. Tonight, I’ll begin filling in those scenes and hopefully this week I’ll have a complete manuscript again, this time with a much faster story pace than before. Hopefully I removed all the lulls in the tension that I had previously with poor pacing.

I just wanted to cleanse my pallet with a book update since the day is nearly over and I am a little tired of the end of the world stuff. Especially since everyone is still here. The jokes over, its old news, and we’re moving on with our lives. I just feel sorry for the people who believed it.

I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend and I’ll get a blog up by Monday night that doesn’t involve my own book or zombies.