I Have Stories To Tell! Episode the 4th

A boyish howdy and howdy to the girl who knocks 'em dead if they're alive and knocks 'em alive if they're dead, and welcome to the Abner Normal literary world of G.B. Miller, where being a moderate anything in today's world is strictly verboten, but being a craven coward running a university that bows down to the ones that they truly serve is a good thing.

Today's post will be a random mish-mosh of brain squeezin's coupled with writing topics. Let us begin at the beginning, because every post should have either one tired cliche or one semi-obscure pop culture quote {semi-obscure for those under the age of 40} contained within.

First, the prerequisite picture:

This is the skyline of Hartford, CT, taken from the office building of where I work. The buildings in the background are what passes for downtown, such as it is. The less said about that cesspool the better.

I did get some writing done this past week, but not as much as I'd originally planned to do. The original plan, hence the stay-ca that I took this week, was to knock out about 5k+ words and get through chapter six, thus finishing part the 1st of the book. However, life got very much in the way and thus I ultimately knocked out about one-third of that goal, which was roughly 1,650 words (plus or minus).

The main reason as to why the low output is that I really can't write anymore when I'm angry. Early on in my writing career, anger did indeed motivated me immeasurably. Cranked out quite a bit of slushiness in the process, so in one particular way, it was a good thing. However, nowadays, misplaced anger is a terrible thing, since the bulk of what I'm writing is not motivated or flavored with anger, and to inject that particular emotion into the mix would just be plain bad.

My ultimate goal with this particular WiP is to get to a point that, when I put it aside to get book #2 ready for publication Spring 2019, I'll be able to quickly figure out where the plot is after not working on it for several months. So I'm giving myself to the end of January to either complete it or have it at least 85% completed. Then I'll work on book #2.

Book #2 of the "Friendship Trilogy" will be entitled The Friendship Has Continued. What follows next is a short info dump followed by the particular pathway I will be following in order to get this to publication.

Book #2 takes place roughly two to three weeks after the end of The Friendship Has Begun, which is to say that we go through the wedding nuptials and the honeymoon. We do lightly touch upon a few items from book #1, mostly to refresh everyone's memory about that particular plot, since some remnants of that plot will be properly carried forward to book #3.

What I have left to do with book #2 is another one to two rounds of editing, especially since I've spent the past six months re-reading it from cover to cover and I'm finding more typos that need to be fixed as well as sentences/paragraphs that could use some tightening up.

Once I get everything to my liking as well as getting my c/c down to a reasonable level of outstanding debt, I will be contacting a freelance editor that came highly recommended to me early 2018 and that I highly recommend to anyone else who needs a good editor/proofreader, PinkProof. Based out of the U.K., not only did she do a fantastic job for me on book #1, but gave some great writing advice as well.

Once I get that completed, I will be using a graphic designer that has done my last two books for me, Book Cover By Design. She does fantastic work as well, and although I can't quite remember how I got referred to her to begin with, I do highly recommend her. She will be my go-to person as well for my books.

Of course, before getting the book cover and during the final editing process (this include the manuscript being with the editor) I will have to create that all important, all dreaded jacket blurb.

As Jack Palance would say in his version of "A Christmas Carol" (I have seen about two dozen versions in my lifetime and this one is in my top 5): Blah, blah, blah.

As always, you check me out on FB, as well as my writings either at the links on the said for Amazon and Smashwords, or @ the various cover pics on the sides.

{c} 2018 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved