I have a lot to say about a lot of things, but here I'll just  quickly say, between tossing things for Žluta, I have been slogging through The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco forever and forever and I'm about half way through. Why am I persisting? I've tried to read it before and failed. It was one of my father's favorite books I guess is ( Read more... )

I am writing this so I will remember. I shouldn't do workshops because all the standard things that people say at workshops do not help me write better stories, they baffle me, they annoy me, and sometimes infuriate or depress me. I don't actually agree that all novels ought to have the same exact structure: nor do I believe that the reader needs ( Read more... )

So The Drummer Boy is reaching draft status. I'm closing in on the last chapters. I took some time off to revise the earlier chapters and I've made notes for some further revisions, but I'm feeling ready to hear what other people have to say about it. It's long enough, and I'm close enough to the end, that I am pretty confident that by the time you ( Read more... )

So, I've been pretty busy. I have been to many museums, parks, and shops: I have also been revising The Drummer Boy, and socialising with Frank the son and Hana the daughter-in-law, and also for a week there with my niece and nephew ( Read more... )

Yesterday I was working on the downstairs bedroom so I don't have to live in a dump for the next year and so I will eventually be able to clean up the living room too ( Read more... )

In November I'm going to finish The Drummer Boy in its first draft.  I don't know how many words that is -- somewhere between 35 and 50 thousand, I think.

In December I'll be begging for some people to read it.

I looked at an old novel of mine, and it was pretty sad.  The story was strong, I think, but the execution was just not there.  Then I looked at the re-writing I had started but gave up because I forget why, some form of discouragement anyway.  The rewriting looked pretty strong, but I couldn't remember what I was going to do to it next ( Read more... )

Dropped the boom on Yanek. Now he just has to flop around a bit before he's marching away with the other "recruits." The chapter will end in drum training camp, which I cannot find any references for so I'm making it up whole cloth.  So glad this is a fantasy. I figure they drum and drum and drum, mostly ( Read more... )

Suspense is what I am in as I am writing the last bits before the boom drops on Yanek.  Actually I kind of already dropped the boom on him in the last couple hundred words as I made it impossible for him to avoid disappointing the hyoung Duke. I feel like a bad person ( Read more... )

So personhead julesjones did this and I want to also, so, simply, here it is. I adjusted some of the questions, comparing her version and Justin Bog's original.
1. What is the working title of your book? Drummer Boy.  There's no reason to change it that I could imagine. Though in my head I refer to it as not-Poland.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book ( Read more... )