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What book is everyone writing right now?

Just finished Tiktaalik's Crypt of Souls. It was excellent, as good as the first. I wrote an Amazon review for you.

But I need more. Can't wait. I am into your story Tik. Hope they pick the third book up soon. :D

How are sales on the first book so far?
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
Just finished Tiktaalik's Crypt of Souls. It was excellent, as good as the first. I wrote an Amazon review for you.

But I need more. Can't wait. I am into your story Tik. Hope they pick the third book up soon. :D

How are sales on the first book so far?
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Many, many thanks for a review on Amazon - reviews, good, bad, or ugly, are about the most important thing for sales these days.

I think sales are so-so; I don't have direct access to data, so it's hard to tell. "Stolen" will be out in paperback October 5th, which will be nice but a whole new ballgame to deal with. No idea when/if #3 will be picked up.

Meanwhile, I'm off on a new project, fantasy but set in the present day. Here's my working blurb:

Lorcas' father gives him a rock for his thirteenth birthday. But not just any rock - this one is the cornerstone of an ancient castle. Years later, Lorcas begins to rebuild the castle, one stone at a time. But as he builds, the castle becomes more aware - and more malevolent. Lorcas soon finds himself in danger from a mysterious group who are bent on keeping the castle, named Rook, from being rebuilt. Aided by a shadow that lives under the cornerstone and a group of people who've been guarding the cornerstone since the castle was taken apart, Lorcas creates something he never imagined. Would Rook have been better left in ruins?

Working title "Cornerstone". I'm on Chapter Eight. What do folks think?
 
Tiktaalik said:
Many, many thanks for a review on Amazon - reviews, good, bad, or ugly, are about the most important thing for sales these days.

I think sales are so-so; I don't have direct access to data, so it's hard to tell. "Stolen" will be out in paperback October 5th, which will be nice but a whole new ballgame to deal with. No idea when/if #3 will be picked up.

Meanwhile, I'm off on a new project, fantasy but set in the present day. Here's my working blurb:

Lorcas' father gives him a rock for his thirteenth birthday. But not just any rock - this one is the cornerstone of an ancient castle. Years later, Lorcas begins to rebuild the castle, one stone at a time. But as he builds, the castle becomes more aware - and more malevolent. Lorcas soon finds himself in danger from a mysterious group who are bent on keeping the castle, named Rook, from being rebuilt. Aided by a shadow that lives under the cornerstone and a group of people who've been guarding the cornerstone since the castle was taken apart, Lorcas creates something he never imagined. Would Rook have been better left in ruins?

Working title "Cornerstone". I'm on Chapter Eight. What do folks think?
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I think it's great. That's a really cool premise. I say, go for it, definitely.


I'm learning so much from one person in my writer's group. The critique he offers on my pieces has been so insightful. I go away and rewrite the section and it's improved a hundred fold. I'm seriously tempted to hire him at some point as an editor.

I've picked up a few things from your books, too. I need more smaller conflicts or something that builds more toward the larger conflict. And I decided my protagonist needs a friend. The girls in her village bully her, but maybe it's too unrealistic that no one is her friend except her boyfriend, so I'm growing the part of her younger protégé to a larger friend role.

I may have said so in the thread already, but I let my son read a chapter, finally, and he really liked it. I know he wasn't faking it, I can read him too well for that.

Anyway, November is fast approaching (a year since I started). I have a new estimate. It's going to take 2 years for the first story and I don't know how much longer for the second. No matter, I'm still pleased with how things are progressing.
 
I'm wondering how long I should wait after submitting a manuscript before I start to shop around elsewhere. I sent mine into a publisher two months ago and have heard nothing back. They did not give me a time estimate when I sent it in. Is it time to move on?
 
Avery, if your manuscript was sent "over the transom" (that is, unsolicited and unagented), then two months is nothing. It's time for a polite inquiry along the lines of, "Did you receive my manuscript and assign it to a first reader yet?"
 
I sent them a query letter and they asked for the manuscript. Obviously, I am new to this whole process.
 
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Look on their website, old newsgroups, wherever, to see if you can find guidance or others reporting how long it took to get a book evaluated at this publisher. If you can't find anything at all, you can always call. Be extremely polite, and tell whoever answers the phone that so-and-so requested to see your manuscript, and you wanted to make sure it had arrived safely. If you got a positive response to your original query, chances are good they have a log, and the receptionist (whoever answers the phone when you call) can tell you on whose desk the box is sitting, and the average length of time you should expect to wait before hearing back.

It can be a long, long, very frustrating process. I once had a book that Lester del Rey was interested in. It took him five years to get around to reading it. I called approximately every six weeks during that time to ask his secretary to make sure it stayed on the top of his pile. At that time in history, having the Del Rey imprint meant a lot, so I was willing to put up with it. (He ended up rejecting the work, but said he'd take it if I were willing to make some major character changes. Loved the writing, loved the pace, loved the story, but hated the people. I never did send that book on, because after reading his lengthy and throughtful analysis, I decided he was right. Instead I went onto the next book, which I sold in about three months. Since then, I have always sold the book before writing it. It's hard to get into that position, but once there, it's the best place to be.)
 
Avery Dashwood said:
I sent them a query letter and they asked for the manuscript. Obviously, I am new to this whole process.
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If they asked for the manuscript, that's awesome. That's a big step. I'd second the idea that it's time for a polite "just checking" email. Maybe they'll give you a better timeline if you ask.
 
Ok I'm very much inspired by this thread!

I've always been interested in writing but usually abandon a story some way in. This time, seeing as I'm also working on my PHD, I've decided to setup writing the story as a kind of a reward for myself as well as a break from the technical writing and research that occurs during the PHD.

My inspiration for the book came from a dream I had, where I was reading a book. When I woke up I was disappointed that the book didn't exist so I decided to write it. Unfortunately all that remains from the dream is the name of an alien race and a bit of the mood of the book but it was enough to get me going.

I suspect the most similar style to that which I am attempting is Ian M Banks' Culture series, though I am working hard to distance my story and ideas from his.

The basic idea so far revolves around a young women/teenager who joins an Alien religious cult and her "heroine's journey".

There are two topics that I am wondering about including: Atheism and Erotica (that should be the name for an upcoming TAM!). I don't want my story to be preachy at all, and I don't want it to be tacky. I suppose I will still see how those pan out.

In terms of the technical aspects I'm writing it in LaTeX, which I am also using for my PHD. I find it refreshing to not have to constantly fret over layout as I tend to do when using Word, and instead being able to focusing on just on cranking out words.
 
DarthFishy said:
In terms of the technical aspects I'm writing it in LaTeX, which I am also using for my PHD. I find it refreshing to not have to constantly fret over layout as I tend to do when using Word, and instead being able to focusing on just on cranking out words.
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Seriously? You worry over layout issues when writing a novel? Hell, when I'm writing, I don't care if only a crayon and a brown paper sack is the only media available. I've written in WordStar on CP/M machines, any old slew of Windows-based word processors, scribbled in notebooks, and even drug out my old manual typewriter(s) when the mood struck. The important thing is that the words made it down on paper.

Once the first draft is finished, THEN I --MIGHT-- start worrying about layout. And for a novel, how hard is that? Set margins, double spaced, non-proportional font like Dark Courier or Courier New, with a suitable header and page number.

With screenplays, though, it's different. There, format MATTERS. I usually tell newbie screenwriters to just download a free copy of Celtx or buy Final Draft.

Beanbag
 
Beanbag said:
Seriously? You worry over layout issues when writing a novel? Hell, when I'm writing, I don't care if only a crayon and a brown paper sack is the only media available. I've written in WordStar on CP/M machines, any old slew of Windows-based word processors, scribbled in notebooks, and even drug out my old manual typewriter(s) when the mood struck. The important thing is that the words made it down on paper.
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Perhaps worry is the wrong word, I feel more I get distracted by it, and I can't focus on the words on paper (as you say). This is more true for writing something like a Thesis though, where formatting and especially referencing is quite important. I found that using LaTeX instead of word for that really helped me focus more on what I was writing and less on the presentation. I found that a little bit of this focus carried over when writing fiction as well.

Wouldn't mind writing on a manual typewriter if I could get my hands on one... and justify the expense :)
 
I've been using Scrivener (which I think I mentioned upthread) - there's a novel version & it separates your chapters, character notes, scenes, outlines, drafts, etc., pretty much however you want. You just use drop-downs to label the view you're in and it sorts it for you. That's about as far as I go when worrying about formatting at the first draft level...
 
OK I'm having a look at Scrivener and it looks intriguing. Downloading the trial version now...

UPDATE:

Ok, I can see why someone people here like Scrivener so much. It really does seem to allow one to easily collect and manage all the different parts of a document easily.

I also just realised that the 30 day trial is just as long as NaNoWriMo :)
 
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I've set aside writing stories for a while. Instead, I'm writing puzzles. My wife and have been asked to be next year's creators of a contest held at a family reunion. My goal is to create puzzles that are different from those of previous years, but not too tough.

The event is similar to something described in this thread, but it's for family and takes place in Southern Ontario.

So far I have worked out three puzzles. I think they're pretty good, and fairly easy to solve. They all yield clues that lead people from one landmark to the next. But I have to recognize that not everyone has a puzzle-solving aptitude, and that puzzles that I think are easy might actually stump some pretty smart people.

I estimate I'll have to come up with at least three more puzzles, and perhaps more than that.
 
Skeptic Ginger said:
What kind of puzzles?
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So far, I have the following:

A word search puzzzle. A small grid holds about a dozen hidden words. When all of the hidden words are circled, four letters remain uncircled. Place the four letters in alphabetical order.
The four uncircled letters are I-N-H-T, and when you place them in alphabetical order, they spell H-I-N-T. This is not an accident, but a subtle confirmation to the solver that the solution is correct. The fact that "N" is the third letter in "HINT" is the clue that leads the solver to the next destination.
A logic puzzle. Many people HATE logic puzzles, so I've devised an easy one. Smith always tells lies, Jones sometimes tells the truth and sometimes lies, and Brown always tells the truth. The first man says: "The second man is named Smith." The second man says: "My name is Jones." The third man says: "The second man is named Brown." Which one is Brown?
Brown always tells the truth, so he would never say "My name is Jones"; instead, he would say "My name is Brown." That means the second man cannot be Brown. Similarly, Brown would never identify someone else as being himself, so he would never say "The second man is named Brown." Therefore, the second and third men are not Brown, meaning the first man is Brown.

There are other logical approaches to the problem that work just as well and yield the same answer. If you wish, you can also deduce the identities of the second and third man, but that is not necessary. You only need to identify Brown in order to get to the next destination.

This puzzle, incidentally, gives more information than is necessary, and I'm wondering if too much information helps or hurts. For example, the puzzle might say that Smith and Jones might either lie or tell the truth, but no matter what, Brown ALWAYS tells the truth. I'm toying with the possibility of posing the problem in this way, but I think it might make the problem seem harder.
A jumble-type puzzle. Unscramble the letters in a series of words and use selected letters from the unscrambled words to form an answer to a riddle. This puzzle is likely subject to change because I'm not really happy with the riddle, yet.

One puzzle in the works is a wordplay puzzle. Have a series of short-answer questions, such as: Rip apart (4 letters); what a hen does when she produces an egg (3 letters); opposite of "pro" (3 letters); and __ de Janiero (3 letters). Now arrange these four words and say them aloud to name a nearby geographical feature.
LAY-CON-TEAR-RIO, or "Lake Ontario." I believe this puzzle is, in its current state, too difficult, so I am probably going to re-write it.

Other ideas include a maze puzzle and a hidden-items-in-picture puzzle, but those will require me to invest some time in some art work.

Suggestions for puzzles are welcome. The basic criteria are that they have to be solvable in a unique way by ordinary people (not puzzle fans) in about five to ten minutes.
 
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How about letterboxing? You leave clues leading to the next location and finally arrive at a cache where you sign in and trade out a trinket or two. It's like geocaching but without the GPS -it's an older hobby.
 
Tiktaalik said:
How about letterboxing? You leave clues leading to the next location and finally arrive at a cache where you sign in and trade out a trinket or two. It's like geocaching but without the GPS -it's an older hobby.
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I'm not completely sure what letterboxing is, but I suspect it's similar to the "treasure hunts" that my parents participated in forty years ago, where there were actual physical clues left at actual sites around town (e.g., written clues left in coffee cans). Also, I have (reluctantly) participated in a similar game where there were supposed to be people stationed at stops to give clues. (In a display of astonishing bone-headedness, one of those officials deserted his/her post before giving my team the necessary clue to the next destination, causing us to be two hours behind all the other teams, and embarrassing the hell out of us. But that's another story.)

Anyway, I don't want to leave physical clues around, because I don't have a way to secure them and the clues might get taken or otherwise disturbed by people not involved with the game. I don't have the personnel to leave people at various locations, plus the bone-headed screw-up I alluded to above makes that option very distasteful to me.

So basically what happens is this: Each team gets a packet of written instuctions. The packet is several pages (in past years, packets have been as large as about 50 pages!). Teams have a driver and a navigator. Teams have to follow the instructions ("Turn left, go straight, turn right at the McDonald's...."), answer questions about sights they see ("What picture is painted on the mailbox at 123 Hummingbird Lane?") and solve the puzzles in order to find out where to go next. Previous events have used the first two techniques. No one has ever added puzzles into the mix.

My current plan is to have a "safety net" for each puzzle. If a team decides it cannot solve a puzzle, it can open a sealed envelope attached to the page and find the answer (and thereby learn the next destination). Opening an envelope, however, will result in a (say) ten-minute penalty being added to a team's time.

Perhaps the most devious trick up my sleeve is that all teams start out on the same route, but at one point, all the routes diverge! Any team that decides to follow another team is going to run into trouble!
 
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