The first draft of Serpent’s Smile will be removed from this website on September 15th. There are several reasons for this. A re-write is now in progress. Commercial book publishers avoid works that are available elsewhere, especially when free. The … Continue reading
Category Archives: Writing
Printing of Preliminary Edition
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Printing of the preliminary edition of Serpent’s Smile is underway. This is a limited run, not otherwise available to the general public. Copies are destined for readers with technical expertise in specific areas–explosives, for example–and to select individuals within the … Continue reading
Critical Reader Input
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Serpent’s Smile has been extensively edited since the first draft appeared here. Several tens of thousands of words have been cut. But writers are myopic; they see only what’s at the end of their nose, and even then they tend … Continue reading
Revision Complete, Reviews Begin
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Line-edits and revisions are complete. My first novel, Serpent’s Smile, now enters the review process. More than 20,000 words have been removed to tighten-up the story. Back-story has been chopped and scattered for better flow, or condensed for clarity. It’s … Continue reading
Adverb’s Disease
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Beware! My writing is afflicted with a horrible disease. Adverb’s Disease shows as weak little words attached to verbs. They add nothing to the story and just take up space and time. A pure waste of ink! Diagnosed by one of the … Continue reading
Serpent’s Smile, Chapter One, Part One Reading
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The A, B, C, D and F of Editing Fiction
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Here’s the process I’ll be trying out as I edit the nearly 500 pages of double-spaced text in my first draft. First, some definitions using the grading system we all learned in school. Fiction is built with several parts: Action … Continue reading
Last Chapter Goes Up (Appears) Saturday Morning
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The climax of “Serpent’s Smile” will appear early Saturday morning. If you’ve been reading along, you will be pleased to find out how it ends — everything will be posted as of then. The story includes 99,136 words. [550,238 characters!] … Continue reading
First Draft Complete
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In a bagel shop in Santa Barbara California, I finished the first draft of the final chapter. It will be posted along with two others over the next three weeks. Work began last October with the outline. A month later, … Continue reading
Two To Get Ready
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In two chapters, I’ll be done with the first draft of Serpent’s Smile. I won’t try your patience with a list of my exposed stupidities (“Things I Learned”). That’s for me to know and not do again. Instead, I’ll quote one of … Continue reading