All posts by Mark

Fragments, Questioner's Shadow, Shattered, Software, StoryBox, The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, TrackerBox, Writing

Long Overdue Update

It’s been over a month, and I’m sure some of you are wondering what’s going on. Look to the right. See the progress meters? They’re getting updated finally.

Mendleson Moony is now moving along smoothly. I’ve written over 11000 words this week alone. If all goes well and I judged the final length correctly, I’ll finish the draft right around Thanksgiving (probably the day after).

I’ve started the final edit of Questioner’s Shadow. I’m currently editing about two chapters each evening. I’d like to push that to three, if I can, but at two chapters a day, I should be done with it in a couple weeks. Then it’s time to do the layout, order the proof and do the final proofread. I’m going to try to push that as much as I can because I’d like to have paper copies available for the holidays so that I can give them away as presents.

You may have noticed that the Fragments progress bar has disappeared. I took it down because I’m not actively working on it. However, it will go back up as soon as the draft of Moony is finished. Seeing as how it’s the sequel to Shattered, I’m hoping to have it available for you before the end of March. It’s not a firm date. I have to write the thing, order the cover art and hope the artist can deliver it on time, and get it edited and formatted. And, let’s face it, I haven’t had a track record of finishing a novel without taking a break somewhere in the middle. However, it IS coming, and it’s the next project in the pipeline.

And the last thing. I’m no longer posting software updates here. Bookmark this link if you want to be informed of updates and have the automatic update check turned off. You could also follow me on twitter (@mark_fassett) if you want. I tend to announce them there.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my cat just vaulted onto my leg with claws extended. I must go tend to my wounds.

Software, StoryBox

StoryBox 1.5.120 Released

There are quite a few changes in this release, but the biggest one is that it now requires .Net 4.0 in order to run. I’ve tried to keep it using .Net 3.5 for as long as I could, but it became impossible with the latest release.

As for other changes, if you tell StoryBox where to find KindleGen on your computer, it will now produce a .mobi file when you tick the “Prepare For Kindle” checkbox in the export options. You can download KindleGen from Amazon.com (the easiest way to find it is to google KindleGen). StoryBox also now lets you insert SB code via the document context menu to link to pictures documents so that they will be included in your exports. This is useful for graphic chapter headers or interior illustrations.

Check the release notes for the other changes while you are downloading.

Download StoryBox

The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, Writing

10 Day Novel – Why I Failed

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Well, I suppose I should report on the 10 Day Novel project.

Of course, you probably know by now that I didn’t manage to finish the book in ten days. There are a number of reasons why I didn’t manage to finish, but primarily, it comes down to a couple simple things.

First, I had this section in the middle where I knew something was supposed to happen, but I didn’t know what. I’ve mostly got it sorted out now, but for a while, there, I had nothing.

Second, there were some life events. My daughter’s first day of kindergarten, football, more football. I should remember to NEVER schedule large blocks of time writing on the weekends during football season.

Third, I’m under quite a bit of stress because of a lack of work in my “day job”. It would certainly help if everyone using StoryBox for free bought a copy today, and would be even better if for some reason Shattered just took off and sold a couple thousand copies in the next week. Then I wouldn’t have to worry so much about a day job.

Fourth, it would have been easier to finish the book in ten days if I had stuck with a genre that I know well. I tried to stretch myself a bit, and it made things harder.

I WILL try this again, but not until football season is over. I plan to finish Mendleson Mooney in the next three weeks or so. I have to be done with it before November. I’m going to really start Fragments Nov 1 (with NaNoWriMo).

Minimalism

Minimalism?

It’s all Zoe’s fault. The other day, I read this blog entry from Zoe Winters (an author of paranormal romance books) So You Think You Know Minimalist Decor? and I had to follow up on it. What the hell is “minimalism”? So I googled it up and found a bunch of blogs. The Minimalists, Becoming Minimalist, and mnmlist, among others. Color me intrigued.

Our house, if you’ve ever been in it, is not a hoarder house. You can walk through it, as long as you can avoid the toys that are inevitably strewn about the room. However, we’re still bogged down with stuff. Our garage has no room in it for anything. My office has more distractions than I can count, and my kids’ rooms have more toys than a typical toy store.

I would love to use the nuclear option on my house. Empty it of crap, and only put back what we really use. It’s not entirely realistic, though. I think Wendy (my wife) is willing to get rid of some stuff, but I don’t think she’s ready to get rid of things that she uses only rarely. I’m not entirely certain I’m ready to do that, either. So we decided that we would just take it a little bit at a time. The kids pick one toy a night that they want to donate. We’re going to work one bit of the house at a time each day, and eventually, we should reach our goal.

We started, yesterday, with a drawer in the kitchen that has been a source of annoyance since we’ve lived in this house. It’s really nice to be able to shut it without having to squish stuff down. I also put some of the more than 100 model railroad cars I collected up on eBay. I’ve wanted to build a model railroad in this house for years, but I never got around to it, and I may never get around to it, so to eBay they go. One other thing I did today was cleared out about four shelves full of books, which will be going to Half Price Books tomorrow.
Pile of Books

I don’t think we’ll ever be minimalists in the true sense of the word. I like my book, movie, and game collections. My wife has things she likes. So we’ve decided to eliminate all the other crap first and see where that leads us.

The Sacrifice of Mendleson Mooney, Writing

10 Day Novel: Day 6 & 7

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In the past couple days, I’ve managed about 1300 words total. Not exactly the kind of progress I’d hoped for.

First, I must explain that I took the weekend off. It became readily apparent when I sat down to try to work Saturday that my mind wasn’t in it. I had spent eight or more hours each day that week writing or trying to write. I was tired, and I wanted to watch football and interact with my family.

Second, I’ve really struggled with the middle of this thing. I had basically 80% of the novel plotted out: the first 40% and the last 40%. There’s about 20% in the middle that’s really got me stuck. Part of it is that I’m trying to write a different kind of story than I might normally write. The 20% in the middle really focuses on the different bits.

So what does this mean for getting the novel done in ten days? It means it’s not going to happen. The first 40% took four days. The last 40%, I suspect will take four days. The 20% in the middle will probably eat an extra week unless I find my way quickly. The project won’t drag on forever, but if things go well over the next three writing days, I might be able to finish in 14 days of writing instead of ten. That’s not so bad.