The Hollerinth Affair - Revisited

Reread... reread... reread....

I found a couple structural errors.  Or perhaps they could be called grammatical errors. The first was a quotation mark.  I forgot to end a couple sentences properly.  Dropped the quotes.

There were another couple of 'errors' that made a few sentences read oddly.  The 'odd' bit was if you read straight through a section, they made perfect sense.

However, if you stopped at a paragraph that appeared to be a good subject change area to stop, went away for the day, came back and tried to start reading again, it was a little... awkward how it 'restarted'.  I found three such places.

So... those things fixed and the story now having gone through at least a half dozen rereads with fewer and fewer changes, I feel better about it.

I will say, however, there is one more thing that I can add to the things that I've learned and would like to pass on to any other writers that happen across this page....

Reread... reread... reread.

Kind of a Heads Up on How I Write... Sometimes

Writers tend to find their own way into writing.  Some have a nice office, computers with fancy spell checkers.  Some have their place on the couch... slowly getting butt cheek imprints in the cushions.

For me, I find a great deal of inspiration occurs when I am out and about.  Sitting in the sun somewhere waiting for someone or something.  Maybe taking a break in the middle of the day.  Sometimes just sitting in front of a coffee shop I can find inspiration for a new story.

Regardless, I try to have my journal at hand all the time.

Having lost one, I decided to make a new one.  It was made from an old jacket that I picked up for about fifteen dollars.  From it, I've made my journal cover, the pieces for a new wallet, and still have enough for another journal cover.

In that journal at this time are three more stories.  I have tentatively titled them 'Not Just Another Pirate Story', 'Silence', and 'The Portal'.

Of course, the titles can and likely will be changed as I go along.

Briefly, the Pirate story is a different take on how pirates 'get the babe'.  It has been a fun story to outline and build characters for.  It's finished in outline, now to transfer it into a manuscript.

The Silence story is a bit of a short sci-fi.  One of these days I'll be able to sit down and post it into a computer.

The Portal story is another sci-fi.  A bit heavier.  Interdimensional and all that.  Same thing... I need the time in front of a computer.

There are several others that are coming to the front of my to-do list.

The Historian, The Last Tinker, Contact (of a different kind - title unsettled), Chronicles of The Unwilling (a bit of magic in that one), and others.

Many years... many ideas... many outlines already sitting there... many stories to finish.

Watercolors is the one getting attention at the moment.

Funny how some days I can pen upwards of 8,000 words.  Sometimes more.  Other times, I'm hard pressed to get as few as a thousand onto paper.  Then, I imagine, this is true of all writers.

Kind of like Writers' Tackle.  Different from Writer's Block.  Writer's Block means you are stumped... period.  Writer's Tackle means you got tackled by a thought or idea and it won't let go of your legs and let you keep going.  You gotta kick and struggle for a while before you can get past it.

Posting to this blog seems to do a good job of breaking a tackle.

Watercolors - Or is it 'Watercolours'?

This story was inspired a few months back when some pictures were discovered at a flea market.  Watercolors, about forty of them.  It occurred to me that there had to be a reason for painting so many pictures.  All really very nice.  Dated.  Location marked on most of them.

And I wondered what 'other' reasons could someone have for painting such pictures.

From that, the story developed quickly, leading the three main characters on a journey across England, France, Austria, and other destinations far afield.

Each location has something in common, though.

Each location has had a mysterious death very near it and very close to the time the picture was dated.  Was this person interested in strange deaths?

And again, I wondered... what other reason could a person have for painting such pictures?

About half way through now at about 25,000 words.

They soon discover who painted the pictures.

I wonder if this is a good thing.... or not.

We shall see.....

The Hollerinth Affair - Finished and Undergoing the First Critical Review

Well, this one has been an interesting 'write'.

At first, I had a little trouble deciding what kind of twist to put at the end.  Then I realized I had too many variations on one of the names.  My editor went through and gave some wonderful recommendations and suddenly the naming was simplified and easier to follow.  Funny now when you get your head down and into writing a story you don't notice certain things.  Kind of like another story I have been writing... too many occurrences of the word 'softly'.  But, then, that IS another story.

I strongly recommend a 'pre-edit' be done by an independent editor before you put a book out for any sort of review.

Anyway, it's now out and going through the first critical review in front of a couple readers.  Depending on flow and clarity, we'll see what if any changes get incorporated.

But, it's done.  Ended at 79,500 words.  Nice whodunit.  My short synopsis follows:

The Hollerinth Affair

What would you do if you found out that the last twelve years of your life were a lie?

What starts as a possibly miss-posted military medal opens a floodgate of lies and deception as James Hollerinth discovers the last twelve years of his life may not have been his, but instead, a careful fabrication meant to hide a deep military operation of which he has no recollection.  Nor does he have any memory of ever being in the military.

His life began anew after a car crash that killed his parents… or so he thought.  Owner of a large, successful engineering firm, James is happily married and raising two children.  Living a dream life where even the drive to work in the morning is a pleasant, often looked forward to experience.

Once the mysterious medal is investigated, he finds that he has been carefully watched since ‘the accident’. 

However, someone is watching the watchers.

As his life unravels, his family is taken which leaves him at first devastated.  

Then he gets angry… and takes his life back.

The Hollerinth Affair - What happens when you discover you aren't who you thought you were?

This story was penned in outline form within the first year after my dad died.  Inspired by a medal showing up for him that was likely supposed to have been given to him when he got out of the service right after I was born, the story quickly took shape in outline.

Character developement took a little while as I was working on the other manuscripts.  But now that they are done, I've been able to hammer it out pretty quickly.

Now at about 75,000 words, I have a few chapters to finish and it will be ready for the first critical edit cycle.

I will post more here and a teaser as I get the story turned over to editing.

Boston Knights - A Story About A Little Gold And A Little Love

This story was inspired from two directions.  The first was the discovery of two unusual keys at the Flinder's Market in Adelaide.  The second was two ladies that I have known for many years that do everything together.  And no, there is nothing of me in this story.  Well, very little that I will admit to anyway.

This story practically wrote itself.  The keys were discovered the first weekend in February, the story was finished and through the first critical editing by the second week in March.

The teaser for Boston Knights follows:

-------------------

The discovery that some ancient stories handed down in the families had more truth to them than fiction sparks a hunt for the real truth of the stories.  Told as bedtime stories, three individuals find themselves working together to find out more about their ancestors and where they might have hidden some gold, or if it was after all, nothing but a hoax.

The adventure begins with Steve, whose elder brothers work in construction.  Having found an old desk amidst some demolition work of theirs, they call their brother to salvage it and see if perhaps he might want to restore it and some other bits and pieces.

As Steve is an antiquities restoration expert, he is definitely interested.  Within the desk, behind some well locked drawers, he eventually finds hints that the stories he was told as a kid, may have been more than just stories.  In his pursuit of answers, he finds members of two other families that heard the same stories when they were children.

This begins a delightful adventure that finds the three of them embroiled in more and more details that lead them further and further from their homes.

Eventually, the puzzle pieces begin to come together in Ayr, Scottland when they make the acquaintance of some more members of the extended families, only to find their hopes dashed when they discover any gold that may have existed was quickly squandered.  Moreover, any additional clues seem to have been destroyed.

-----------------------------------

This is what I would call a light romance and adventure.  At a somewhere over 63,000 words, it is a quick and easy read aimed at young adults and romantics looking for something a little different.

I will 'clean up' my teaser as I get this book through its final editing.  It is, by the way, a finished manuscript ready for presentation to an agent/publisher.

I'm still looking.

Waiting - A Story About A Volcano... and MORE

WAITING... a story of a little over 101,200 words.  Though I am still unsettled about the title on that one, I expect something like 'Waiting For The Right Moment' might work as well.  There are a number of 'waiting' titles already out there.  I will accept the advice and guidance of a good agent... by which I have not yet been found.

I'm not sure where the inspiration came from for that story.  It was something I penned back in the early 2000s.  One of those ideas that I put to paper and left to mature... hopefully like a fine wine.

I picked it up again in 2006, worked on the overall outline and characters I wanted to 'employ'.  And set it aside until recently.

Mind you, I did not stop writing in the interim.  I write pretty much all the time.  If I am in a parking lot waiting for a customer to open up for the day, I sit and make lots of squiggly black lines in one of my journals in hopes it makes some sort of sense the next time I look at it.  If I'm waiting for some long job to finish, I'll take a 'coffee and writing' break - no charge to the customer, of course.

This last year I got stuck back into it.  Taking breaks now and then, still reading lots of stuff, still pecking at it and other things... but it did take the forefront of my writing efforts.

Once I figured out the direction and the final plotline, it was a fast finish.  Two subsequent months in editing and re-editing left me with a fairly well finished product that I was then willing to 'expose' to some fearless readers for their critical review.  It survived three separate reviews with minor recommendations each time.  I did go ahead and send it out then to about a dozen different folks... agents, publishers, and the like.

I did get back maybe 50% response rate - disappointing, but not entirely unexpected.  Most of the responses were boilerplates.  The folks couldn't even take the time to read the query letters in full because I included a sentence at the end that told them to include the word 'bedazzled' somewhere in the body of the text so my email program would allow it through the spam filter.  ONLY ONE editor did so.  I had no such filter active so I know none went to spam.  It was a test... only a test.

Out of all that, I did receive two offers for publishing.  One even included a contract.

However, the contract was by all appearances, an offer to start a self-publishing round for me.  The other was clearly pushing me to self-publish.  NOT what I want to do.  I want an agent and/or publisher that can  look at my work critically, say yea or nay, give advice, and help me move on.  I prefer a traditional relationship over some nonsensical thing where I have to worry about all the minutia of self-publishing.

My stories have been well received.  The folks that have read them (not all family and friends!) have asked for more, asked if there were going to be sequels, and in just about every case, became very invested in the characters.  I like that!

Anyway... here is the teaser without the spoiler that I have been sending to the agents and publishers.

-----------------------

This is the story of Alex, a gentleman going through a troubled time in his life.  At a loss for direction, an unexpected introduction leads to a very unexpected adventure.

Beginning in a somber court setting, our ‘hero’ finds himself at a loss for what to do next with his life.  Perhaps he just needs to go do a load of laundry.  However, an interruption and introduction leaves him equally confused until he concludes this new person is just some sort of recruiter trying to get him to do some ‘consulting’.  He has no idea how right, or how wrong he could be.

His first meeting is a quick tete e tete and a bit of a tease.  With no real information on what ‘they’ want him to do, Alex continues with his efforts to find direction and move back into a more normal life.

Still feeling disconnected and needing some distraction, he falls into a deal where a wonderful vacation presents itself… and he grabs it.  To his chagrin, it turns out to be just another part of the recruiting process that started weeks earlier.

Giving in to curiosity, intrigue, and the charms of his recruiter, Tracy, he cautiously accepts the opportunity for the adventure.

This journey finds him helping decipher some strange technology found inside a volcano, an unexpected love affair develops, and a virtual reality turns out to be not so virtual.

On his way, he finds that Tracy becomes more than a close friend, and the people she works with become very important in his life.  Berk, a large, boisterous Australian.  Theo, the director of the project, vegetarian and so tall he needs to duck through doorways.  There are Karen, a feisty molecular physicist and other scientist trying to make sense of what they have found.  Kyle and Tatyana are the ‘concierges’, pilots, and protectors.

Karen and Tracy have a surprising history and a closeness that keeps Alex on his toes.  They become his closest allies in his search for a new way to look at the information that has already been uncovered. 

As the secrets of the volcano are untangled, a virtual reality begins to play heavily in the lives of our characters.  At once seeming to be a help to their quest for information.  At other times, the virtual reality seems almost to be playing with their very lives.

It is soon discovered massive amounts of energy have been accumulating for more time than our characters can comprehend.  What possible purpose could there be in accumulating enough power to knock our solar system askew?  Moreover, how is it possible that what they found in the volcano can predate any such technology developed by humankind?

An unexpected antagonist is quietly moving against the island volcano and its occupants, wanting only to take the technological secrets of the volcano and its newly discovered ‘inhabitant’.

 

And then there is (censored).  If ever trouble could come from an unexpected place, (censored) was that place.  Instrumental in divulging to the antagonist the secrets and surprising technologies within the volcano, (censored) pushes into motion a sequence of events that can only end one way.

Once the trouble starts, it can only end with the help of what they have found in the volcano. 

The only caveat… they must first figure out how to make it work.