Hello again fiction fans! If you’re reading this then it means that you’ve stuck around despite my extended absence, and for that I thank you. The last couple of months have been difficult for me. I lost my father abruptly in November due to cancer and it has not been an easy adjustment to make. Needless to say writing had to take a back seat while my family and I dealt with this transition. Now I am back, however, and my will to write is stronger than ever.

In the spirit of new beginnings I’ve decided to not only resume this site, but to revise it as well. Much as I would like to devote a majority of my time to my passion for writing, life does make other demands of me at the moment and I just never seem to make as much progress as I would like. So, I’ve decided to cut back on updating my Writing Journal from once a week to once a month. This way I will have something more substantial to blog about, which should make for more interesting reads. So look for the next installment around the end of January. Not to worry, though, I also plan to make periodic posts on other subjects. So, keep an eye on the Random Thoughts section as well.

Guess that’s about all for now. I apologize again about the disappearance. I will try to give more of a heads up about future absences. Thanks to all for sticking with me. Happy new year, and may all your resolutions bear fruit!

I know, I know, this weeks post is later than usual. Unfortunately a family crisis has come up , so I’m sure you’ll all forgive the tardiness. I’ll be going out of town this week for the same reason, so sadly I may not have much new material to unveil, but I will try to make a post of some kind on Wednesday or Thursday. If I’m unable to though, I apologize in advance.

Needless to say, I’ve had more pressing matters on my mind this week but I did manage to get some writing done. Chapter Two is still chugging along. Not near done yet, but I did overcome a rather tedious bit. It was mostly description, which I think I mentioned isn’t my favorite, but it was very necessary and it’s paved the way for a very interesting and productive scene, I hope. The bad news is that none of this week’s material is particularly note-worthy. So, I won’t be posting a snippet this week. I will certainly try to include one in my next post however. Thank you all for understanding.

Well, another week down. They seem to be flying by. Fortunately this one was much more productive than last week. current word count is at 4,536 and chapter two is moving steadily along, although it’s not as long as it might be. I was reading through what I’d written earlier this week and going over my game plan for chapter two in my head. I decided that there was two many disjointed events going on. I really want this one to have a smooth flow to it, to move from description to dialogue to action as seamlessly as possible. To that end I decided to cut a large chunk from the beginning of chapter two and incorporate it into the end of chapter one. Indecently last weeks snippet was included in this section. I think this will make chapter to a lot more cohesive as well as allowing chapter one to end on a somewhat lighter note than before.

Now that I feel I’ve established a good foundation for our protagonist’s personality, I’m going to throw some curves his way and we’ll see what happens. Unfortunately giving away specifics would spoil things for you but, but I will say that chapter two will involve a nice bit of action. I’m very anxious to get to that part. Action scenes are, hands down, my favorite part of writing and if I play my cards right this one will go a long way to establishing my setting and some of the back story without getting tedious. So bonus points for me if it works as planned.

For now I leave you with a snippet that’s a bit more descriptive than previous weeks. It may not be quite as exciting or thought provoking but I think its got nice flow. Besides, it wouldn’t be a very good novel without at least some good description. So, enjoy the snippet and your weekend! Until next time.

“The Grand Hall seemed strangely hollow. Come Council day the high, domed ceiling and bare, gray walls would resound with anxious murmuring, but today they only added to the empty feeling. My footsteps echoed as I descended the hard steps that ran down the center of the room. The long Council table, on its narrow stage, sat abandoned at the far end of the large room. In two weeks I would sit there with the other department heads, facing a fluttering gray sea of citizenry. They would fill every spot on the curving, padded benches that fanned out and up towards the main entrance. Today only a handful were scattered among the rows; mostly by parents with younger children. I took a seat in the front and tried to look like I was there voluntarily.”

Bah, another slow week I’m afraid. I’d like to say that life just got busy but to be honest I think I was reveling in the victory of finishing chapter one and let time slip away. We’ll call this a lesson learned. Still, chapter two is under way and shaping up pretty well so far, if I do say so. I started it off with a conversation between the main character and a close friend. I think this makes for a nice contrast to the almost combative nature of the interactions in chapter one, which you caught a glimpse of in the snippets. This week’s snippet is on the shorter side, but I think it says a lot without a lot of words.

I’d also like to thank all those, and by all I mean both, who deigned to leave comments. The encouragement was much appreciated. I’d love to hear more feedback, even if it’s not all positive. I can take it, I swear.

Finally, before I leave you all with your snippet I believe I owe you all some spoiling, although it’s more just background information. I’ve already given away the setting and the bare bones of the plot in very brief detail, but I’d thought I’d flesh it out a bit for you and maybe even drop a little tidbit about our hero. The story opens on one of several nomadic colonies of human survivors; refugees from a brutal and devastating war that devastated the entire planet, leaving only a wasteland behind. The enemy: self-aware and self-sustaining machines. Both sides suffered heavy losses and no clear victor has emerged… yet. Humanity survives by staying on the move and staying hidden as they try to recover and rebuild. We will be following the story of Devin, a talented and spirited, young scientist who was born into this harsh life many years after the world was forever changed. Through his own eyes we will watch as he struggles against a narrow-minded and paranoid society, butting heads and breaking rules along the way.

Well, that’s all you get for now. More to come, later, right now I’m going to bed and trying to think about the early start I have waiting tomorrow. thanks again for the interest and support. Don’t forget to comment! Enjoy your snippet and goodnight!

“And what was I supposed to say, Gallen?” I asked, trying to will away the flush in my cheeks. The older man always had a way of making me feel foolish. “You should have seen her eyes. I could have told her the war was over and she’d still have hit me.”

Hello there! Sorry for the late post, guys, but I have some news that I think will make up for it. Two pieces of good news, fact. First of all, I managed to really get the old thinker working this week and boosted my word count up to 3310, which is more than the previous two weeks combined. And second I am happy to report that the first draft of chapter one is complete! Now there’s a milestone for you. I realize one chapter in three weeks isn’t an ideal pace, but it’s definitely a start. My current goal is to make to one chapter a week, but for now I’m happy with the progress I’ve made.

Chapter One ended up being a lot more narrow in scope than I had first intended, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing. It gives enough setting so that readers won’t be confused without burying them in details. The main focus, though is on my protagonist and establishing his personality early. The science fiction aspect is important and integral to the story but I really feel that it should take a back seat to character development. I won’t do any good to weave the most intricate and exciting plot ever if nobody cares about the characters involved. At least that’s my way of thinking. That being said, chapter two is going to be more fast-paced and have a good bit of action, while at the same time introducing a bit more of the setting the chapter one has.

Anyway thanks for reading, and here is your snippet of the week:

“I was back in control now and it was easy to keep the irritation out of my voice. I had hoped to make a quick escape and return to my work, but I could hardly tell her so. Besides, she had given me what I wanted and if she wanted to gloat over it for a while then so be it. I would be the one gloating soon enough.”

I’ve got good news and bad news this week, fiction fans. The good news is that I hit a hot streak and made some major progress on chapter one. The bad news is that I didn’t like the direction it was heading and ended up scrapping a good chunk of my work from this week. Considering that I only increased my total word count by about 400, I should probably feel discouraged, but somehow I’m not really worried about it. I discovered something that didn’t work and perhaps I can avoid similar sidetracks in the future. So I’m filing this experience under live and learn.

On a more positive note I have done a fair bit of mental mapping on both this chapter and future ones. My focus for the moment is the dynamic between protagonist and antagonist,  both of whom will be introduced in the first chapter. I want my readers to really get a sense of the conflict that will be driving the main character in later chapters. I think in my next post I’ll do a bit more spoiling and let some info on my protagonist slip. After all this first chapter is really about him and how he interacts with his environment and the various other people around him. I’m trying to keep it fresh and fluid though and staying away from the pitfall of info dumping, which isn’t as easy as it sounds. That’s actually a large part of why I had to cut so much material this week. I caught myself telling rather than showing and we can’t have that.

Anyway, that’s all I have to report for now. Wish me luck for this coming week. I’ve got a couple days set aside just for writing so let’s hope I can use them effectively and really get this thing going. I apologize in advance for this week’s snippet. I didn’t have as much to choose from as I would have liked, but I think it represents the chapter well and gives a nice peek into the mind of the main character. Of course, I may be slightly biased so you’ll have to decide for yourselves. Without further ado, your snippet of the week. Enjoy and see you all next week!

” I’m not sure how long she made me stand there this time, but the incessant throbbing in my skull made the interval seem exponentially longer. Courtesy dictated that I allow the Seer to acknowledge me before speaking and she delighted in making me wait. It was a none too subtle reminder of her authority. I wonder if she knew just how deeply these little insults affected me.”

Has it been a week already? I certainly hope they don’t all go by that fast. Well, here I am, checking in as promised. It’s been a busy week, but writing did happen, thankfully. Before I get into the details of my progress, I thought you might like to know what exactly I’m working on. I decided to go for the gusto and shoot for my first full-length fiction novel. I’ve written short stories in the past and I found that it’s just not my style. That was the easy decision. The hard part was trying to decide which of my many, many ideas to focus on exclusively. They’re all so very interesting and I’m attached to each and every one of them. In the end I decided to run with an idea that was sparked by the inane ramblings of a close friend of mine and die-hard computer nerd. It should be no surprise then that this will be a work of science fiction. I don’t have a name as of yet, but I’m working on it. The setting is good old Earth, but not as we know her. This is a broken and shattered Earth of the distant future. That’s right, I’m going post-apocalyptic here. The question is exactly what sort of apocalyptic horror am I unleashing upon our poor planet. Is it nuclear war? A giant meteor? Zombies? None of the above. My antagonist of choice is… A.I. (artificial intelligence for you non sci-fi nerds out there). Now, I know what you’re thinking. This is starting to sound awfully familiar, but don’t worry I’ve got some wild twists and turns in store that will take this old idea to new heights. Okay, that’s all the spoiling I’m going to do for now. I may reveal a bit more in future posts however, so stay tuned! Now on to the actual update.

Like I said it’s been sort of a busy week. The usual grind of work was intensified by the sudden addition of two different staff meetings, one of which happened to fall on my weekend, bummer. Add to that planning a birthday party and desperately trying to cling to what’s left of my social life and it’s a miracle I got any writing done at all. But write I did. My current word count for the week is 1023. Not great, but definitely not a bad start. Due to the complexity of the protagonist I decided to write this first-person. It’s not my usual style and it’s taking some getting used to for sure, but I definitely think it will make for a better read in the end. Not to make excuses but the word count is somewhat deceptive because there was a good deal of revising involved as I tried to find the character’s unique voice. I normally don’t like to rewrite mid-chapter but now that I have the tone of the book more or less solidified the going should be much smoother from here on out. I think we can expect bigger leaps in the weeks ahead. And with that, I leave you with this, your snippet of the week:

“Dr. Haynes had done all she could, of course. This time she had been particularly confident in a new treatment and when I told her it was helping her face brightened so much that she was almost pretty. I never enjoyed lying to her, but I wouldn’t be the one to rub her nose in failure.”

Thanks for the interest, see you next week!

Today I embark upon an epic journey, destination: Awesome. Well, that’s the idea anyway. The truth is that, despite the fact that I’ve been calling myself a writer for some years now, my list of published works remains a big, fat zero. My obstacle? Too many ideas and too little time, plus a heaping portion of procrastination. Well, no more! Today I begin work on, what I hope to be, the first of many novels by Sean Blair.  To that end I set down this blog as both motivation and a marker for my creative progress. It is my hope that you will come along with on this journey and share in the trials and tribulations of an aspiring writer. Today I make this promise to myself and to any who are bored enough to have read this far: I will update this journal once a week, come rain or shine, with my latest progress or a well thought-out excuse as to why I have none. Enjoy!