Where’s my %$?@* book?

Been over a year since el Deano sent out an update to Mine readers. In that past update to Mine followers, I mentioned that the story remains a viable property. I still believe that’s the case. Many times I’ve felt like bagging the whole deal, but for me personally, it’s not an option, although I’ve been consciously negligent in addressing its needed revisions. That’s the bad news. (The bi-polarity of my situation did cause me to change the name of the story to Me vs. Myself, but only in the Scrivener folder/document naming.)  

The good news is that a true and dear friend of mine took the time to read and exhaustively detail the issues he identified in the story. 

“I edit the way Ghengis Khan took summer vacations,” he said. And then more to the point, “As we have discussed before, the writing itself is magnificent, the stuff of English major wet dreams. I’m horribly envious. The pacing, on the other hand, is a problem. It takes forever, plus a couple millennia, for anything to actually happen.”

Good and bad news, right? I’m both joyous and frightened to open the PDF he sent over. But, Fear + Breath = Excitement, so breathing deeply, once more into the breach I go.

You’ll get your %$?@* book when it’s done!

Congrats on writing a 100k words for your new project, Dean!  That’s outstanding   Glad to hear MINE is progressing as as as well.  Happy New Year!

Inkshares Update: January 7th, 2021
It’s been eight months since my last update and I keep clicking my heels together and still flying monkeys rain down upon us spewing their virulent exhortations. Anyway, without rehashing the obvious that we’re all living, I did want to bring to your attention that Dean Fearce hasn’t given up. MINE is at this point in time still a viable work in progress and I thank you one and all for your patience and support. If something truly remarkable changes in the manuscript’s status, you will be the first to know. But do know this: I’ve produced another one-hundred thousand words in a single document and they are far better with more amazing characteristics than any previous thousands upon thousands of words I’ve strung together, creating multitudinous documents before they went to their final resting place at the bottom of a litter box. Requiesce in pace. But, that’s just my opinion so we shall wait upon the prophecy as foretold by the man behind the curtain to reveal the true nature of such a thing. You see, writing is easy. Creating delightful characters is harder. Stringing chapters together with continuity and a plot line that serves those characters with an arc that truly delivers them somewhere over the rainbow is harder still. I won’t even bring up those wicked witch revisions. And yes I do go on. It amuses me. I do so hope it amuses you but I still have my day job in any event. Hope you are safe and healthy and I love you all. Now go follow those writers in the 2020 All-Genre Manuscript Contest. Oh-Ee-Yah! Ee-Oh-Ah!

Feel grateful to be working. Being a remote-working introvert, not much has changed for me. Hope all is well with you my friends and fellow writers. Are you using this time getting busy with writing? 

Read an article about the state of booksellers in this pandemic time. It concerned me. Folks are likely shopping at Amazon to get their book fix. I do too, but thought: What if I bought some books on Inkshares? We all have an interest in keeping the enterprise sailing along, right? Whatever happens happens, but I still believe, so I committed to buying five books. Here are my picks:

Abomination

https://www.inkshares.com/books/abomination

Dracula vs. Hitler

https://www.inkshares.com/books/dracula-v-hitler

Welcome to Deadland

https://www.inkshares.com/books/welcome-to-deadland

The Love Fool

https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-love-fool

One Murder More

https://www.inkshares.com/books/one-murder-more

The Talkers are Talking

https://www.inkshares.com/books/the-talkers-are-talking

Okay, there are six now—all trade or hardcover books, me being an old school boomer who likes his paper. Some of these are on my Kindle app but they’re dead to me there. And The Talkers are Talking is still in production. Darn! Guess I’ll have to wait for that one.

“Where’s my book?”

I still hear the question frequently, though less than last year, which was less than the year before. Will own the fact that I held a mistaken belief that my earlier drafts had more potential for publishing than they did. Also, I can write copious amounts but figuring that minimum 75% of that is drivel, it’s going to take a lot more copious drivel to get the job done. The good news is as an amateur writer, I can see my writing muscle getting…wait for it…stronger. Ha! what did you think I was going to say?

Saw a comment on FB from a friend, another writer, which I found interesting. We seem to have the opposite challenge about writing. I need to write everyday, obsessively, even just a little if possible, but have a demanding day job and other obligations that get in my way. I’ve been writing and rewriting this one project for close to 20 years now (along with a few others) and believe I’m finally learning how to tell the story. We’ll see how that works out for me—and for you my patient supporters—but I don’t think I’ll stop writing until I’m dead. It’s my drug.

I admit the quiet isolation of sheltering in place and social distancing is heavenly for an introverted extrovert who’s re-writing a novel for the umpteenth time. Good news is a solid draft for the 1st Act has been written and compiled. Now engaged in outlining Act 2. The end is a moving target which makes it fun. The process feels like yoga. Surrender, breath and wherever you are is where you are. I promise there will be a book at the end of this process, death be damned.

Here’s some more good news: Ozark Season 3 starts next Friday, March 27th. Stay safe and mind your manners. Coronageddon is upon us. If you’re a writer, make the most of it. Just effing write. And remember to always cough into your elbow. *hack, hack*

Inkshares editors have indicated a need to be more consistent with descriptive language throughout my story. I wrote this today and it makes me feel good so I wanted to share it with a little bit of chest pounding because whether it’s good or bad isn’t as important as that feeling that reminds me of why I enjoy writing. This paragraph occurs in a chapter after the inciting incident in MINE but before the 1st act turn. Plot points are important.

“Is it something I said?” He looks at me with implacable eyes and I feel judgment. Resentment. Not by him. Some other little fiend judges me this day. I shrink into myself while the light spool draws tighter toward gray grayer grayest with rain and more rain draining the world to a dark nothing the way mixing too many colors becomes an oozing brackish mud absorbing everything. Like Mount Vesuvius erupting its smothering volcanic ash leaving a hollow where once, for a mere moment, we occupied a space. Or maybe it’s seasonal affective disorder. “The court order hasn’t been lifted, has it?”

Here’s a link to follow MINE. I always try to follow back. https://www.inkshares.com/books/murder-happens

Happy Giving Thanks Day!

Dean Fearce is grateful and appreciative for many things not the least of which are you, my friends, family and supporters, who have gotten behind this project and have waited patiently for its fruition. Being Thanksgiving, it felt appropriate to provide an update on the status of the book:

https://www.inkshares.com/books/murder-happens

The latest manuscript was submitted to Inkshares this past summer. It went through a read by the editor. It came back with interesting comments and observations. The bottom line was that the plot was not working. Recommendations on books to read were made. Thomas Pynchon’s Inherent Vice was one. I tried to read it but failed. Tried to watch the film and failed. 

Moving on, I found a tattered copy of Gardner’s The Art of Fiction online. It’s on my bedside table held together with a rubber band. It was entertaining and informative with a side of anxious guilt that I hadn’t gotten a degree in literature and therefore knew not the high-browed references he made. But as I said it was informative. And entertaining. That was unexpected.

Read a few other books in that time that weren’t recommended by the editor. Breathless by Shane Lindemoen was good. It’s recommended reading. I originally backed the project on Inkshares but Shane chose to publish it elsewhere. He’s now started an independent publishing concern, which is intriguing.

Check it out here: https://www.amazon.com/Breathless-Shane-Lindemoen/dp/1949472620/

Bunches of authors like Mike Welch and Susan Hamilton, both met on Inkshares, are publishing themed short-stories. If you haven’t seen the Writing Bloc anthologies, you can find them on Facebook. The editor accepts submissions for projects well in advance of publication.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/383485668831888/

In regards to MINE, I took a break to absorb the feedback (it’s never easy to accept helpful criticism, but it’s always advisable) and do additional reading and watching to figure out how to plot the novel. I love good stories, so it’s not like work. Good news is I’ve arrived at a solution. Next steps are to read the manuscript through, then begin the re-write starting December 1st. Hopefully you will hear from me again next year with a loud and resounding cheer, something like Eureka!

Hugs and kisses,

Dean Fearce

Thanksgiving Day, 2019

Such a clear voice. A little Thomas Harris and with a bruise of James Ellroy.

Hello Again All My Lovelies!

I had promised to send the revised manuscript to Adam end of June. It’s a couple weeks past my deadline, but this weekend I’m working through the draft with a final polish before submitting to the publisher. It’s been almost two years since that 2017 Horror Contest Halloween photo-finish with Mike Welch. There have been major edits, revisions, darlings murdered and rewrites to the novel. But what really happened, from my perspective, is a personal transformation as my editor urged me to dig deeper, write better and bring nuance to every aspect of the story. I am not that same writer from 2017. It’s hard to articulate what exactly I am now, but I believe that journey is captured in my story: MINE. Hopefully this draft will pass muster with the Inkshares team and you all will get a glimpse into this shadowy realm of becoming… 

Bonjour mes amis!

Today is a good day because I identified the thing.

Rewind to about a month ago, me following up on the delivery of MINE draft three, and a long discussion with the publisher. It was not the conversation I expected, and caused a true Come to Zeus moment. Also, a valuable learning experience once I’d recovered from the shock and worked through the 5 stages of grief. 

I believe it was valuable enough to share with you, my friends.

If you have a book in production with Inkshares, then you’re familiar with the Author Questionnaire. Check out number two below. It’s the question that needs to be answered to take the story to the next level (a.k.a. sell that shiz!).

2) What is the hook that will really grab your reader? Please pitch the book in one or two sentences. This ‘pitch’ should be as pithy and captivating as possible.

From the commercial perspective, I am an unknown author, aspiring to be a mid-lister, and not even regarded as an up-and-comer (to my knowledge) so the reality of creating a suspenseful thriller with snippets of beautiful prose in a compelling voice that has literary aspirations isn’t enough to sell the book. What I do have is thirty seconds and a paragraph on the back of the book cover.

That’s my takeaway.

So, I called a meeting with my dev editor. I said, no matter how much it costs, no matter what it takes, I want to get my hair cut into the shape of a dick head.

Kidding. Lighten up. Been there, done that. 

What I said was no matter the outcome here, publishing wise, let’s take this story to the next level. She said, aiiight, let’s do it. Then she gave me a new insight into a core theme of the book I hadn’t noticed, but knew in my heart she’d nailed it.

Another big but, though, is how to illuminate the thing into the next iteration of the manuscript?

I put it all aside, knowing I had to trust the process which involves a cult-like faith in the creative higher power that the solution exists in the giant playground where ideas run and jump and fall off the monkey bars, breaking their arms and chipping their teeth.

Give it the space it needs, and all shall be revealed. Just don’t eat the sandbox treats.

Last night I lay in bed, feeling a weight like swimming in an ice-cold lake with concrete mukluks. Then, I got up early because something was going on and not just because I had to use the bathroom.

My process involves capturing precocious ideas when they throw rocks at me unexpectedly. This morning I went through those notes, compiled them into a document and parsed them into a solution, if not the solution.

It involves a looping cycle like the worm Ouroboros, the book’s tail eating the beginning, and…BAM! There’s the manuscript, regurgitated on the pages. 

At some point this spring or early summer, I’ll let you all know if this works, being good at completion to a deadline (once upon a time a young princess told me I had two minutes, the end).

Here’s another takeaway.

Nurture that germ that’s going to infect the reader and spread the story like a contagion across the pages, so it grows, unchecked, into…the thing...