Progress

My characters will be trapsing around space in
something similar to this, but more beat up looking.

The outline is coming along nicely. I have short paragraphs for the first 14 chapters. I’m aiming for 25 chapters total, but I’m obviously flexible on that. I just want to be sure to tell a complete story. Today I have gotten some good work time on it, thanks to the situation at my day-job. I can keep the file open, and switch to it in between tasks easily enough. This is actually how I get a lot of my writing done these days.

Today I managed to work my way through a plot hole, and add a few elements that will set the story, and setting, apart. Basically, it was starting to sound like a straight-up sci-fi action story, with very few fantasy elements. But, I managed to figure out how to add in more magic, and make it integral to the plot. I’ll now need to detail out a few new characters, and piece together how certain plot elements work. It’s all starting to shape up nicely.

I also figured out how one of the characters’ personality quirks will fit into the overall plot. Admittedly, it may creep some people out. But I think I can present it in a way that’s both tasteful and powerful, and probably even a bit chuckle-worthy. Which brought me to the idea that I would like to do that with a few of the characters. Not all of them yet, as I am aiming this book to lead into sequels, and I need to save some details for those.

Over on the reading front, I finished the L’Amour book last week, and immediately started in on my next choice. For those who don’t see me on Facebook, I posted a picture last week of five short-ish novels that I plan to read in rapid succession. My goal is to try to read them all by the end of March. I thought about setting my goal for the end of February, but I need to be realistic about my reading speed. The five novels I chose are:

Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
The Land That Time Forgot, Edgar Rice Burroughs
The Executioner #65, Cambodia Clash, “Don Pendleton”
The Black Mountains, Fred Saberhagen
The Maltese Falcon, Dashell Hammett

I figure that’s a good mix, and really reflects my eclectic tastes in reading.

My new semester starts today. I will need to log in and make my initial post this week. I usually try to get that out of the way on Monday, but the website is really bogged down today (most likely from the sheer number of students with the same idea), so it may happen later this week.

In other news, it’s effing cold outside!