All posts by David Todd

Operation Lotus Sunday, Writing

Four Points of View

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Last night I finished a chapter in China Tour (or, as I might rename it, Smugglers and Spies). It’s the chapter for September 23, 1983, when both couples are in Xian, China, but don’t run into each other.

I don’t want to give away the plot—not that anyone thinking about picking up the book in the future is likely to come here and read a spoiler—so I won’t say too much. The tourist couple and the CIA agent couple find themselves in places of extreme tension, sexual temptation. They are supposed to be working on a plan to get the dissident out through Beijing three days hence, rescuing a botched operation. But instead of sticking fully to business, they are thrust into the sexual temptation.

I’m writing the book in multiple third-person point of view. That is, the narrator is inside one person’s head at a time, one of the four main characters. In one chapter I have one other POV, a Chinese agent’s. Writing in this manner you have to keep track of whose POV you’re in, and limit observations to what they sense and think.

The alternative to this is to write it in third-person omniscient. This is when the narrator has a God-level view. He can be in anyone’s head, see what anyone sees, tell the reader what anyone is thinking. Herman Wouk used this POV in his classics The Winds of War and War and Remembrance, as did James Michener in Centennial.

I like the omniscient POV, but publishing industry insiders say it is less favored by the average reader nowadays. So, I decided for simple third person for China Tour.

The scenes I wrote last night and over this past weekend required careful attention to make sure I didn’t “head hop”—that is, begin a scene in one person’s head and end it in another’s without a good reason to do so and a logical transition. The scenes from last night weren’t that hard. The four main characters were all in different places. But the ones from the weekend were difficult. The two couples were together, and the scenes were short. I was in the agent-husband’s head, then the tourist husband’s, then maybe the agent wife’s, then the tourist wife’s. Back and forth from scene to scene.

I don’t really know if I got it all right. I’ll be re-reading them over the next two weeks and seeing if I kept the POVs pure. It will be an interesting exercise, and the most complicated use of POV I’ve used up to this point in my writing career.

The book is now 61,000 words. I have four days of it yet to write (Sept 24, 25, 26, and 27, 1983). The last day will be the denouement and should be short. The 26th will be the longest. Right now I don’t have a clue what I will write for the 24th and 25th. I think they might be short as well, maybe 1000 words each. So right now it looks as if the book will be close to 70,000 words. I think that’s a good length for a spy novel.

I don’t expect to be writing much new material over the next two to two and a half weeks, and business and pleasure will have a hold on me. But I will have a lot of time to think through these last four days of the book, and plan what to do next.

The book launch? Right now I’m guessing around April 1, 2013, but there’s the finishing and the editing and finding and replying to beta readers and final corrections and formatting and working with a cover designer and uploading. So we’ll see if I can keep to that schedule.

goals, Writing

January 2013 Sales

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January has closed. It’s time to post my book sales. Here’s the table and graph.

As you can see, it’s not a particularly encouraging situation. Since October I’ve had 8 – 7 – 7 – 7 sales per month. True, I’ve not done a lot to promote my books (a FB post here and there; speaking to a few people about them), but it’s still pretty dismal.

With baseball season coming on I need to figure out how to promote In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I also need to have the cover re-done, but not sure I want to spend the money at this time.

Writing

Passing through a dry spell

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It began a week ago today, or maybe even a week ago yesterday. The dry spell, I mean.

It’s not writer’s block. I know exactly what I want to write next on my work-in-progress. And what after that and after that. I think I finally have all the scenes in my mind right up to the end of the book.

So why not write? It’s an overwhelming sense that it doesn’t matter if I write or not.

I could say more, but I think I’ll leave it at that.

Daddy Daughter Day, Operation Lotus Sunday

Progress on two books

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As reported in other posts, my main writing work at present is China Tour, a novel of events in Communist China in 1983. I had planned for this to be about 75,000 words. However, as I worked through it, it seemed to be running shorter than that. After a week adding 10,000 words, the book is at 53,600 words. At this point I think it will be completed at between 60,000 and 65,000 words.

As I say, that’s shorter than I thought it would be. Is it too short for a spy novel? A typical romance is around 50,000 words; a general novel might be 75,000 words. A sci-fi or fantasy is typically 90,000. An epic is 125,000 or much more. So I’m not sure what I have here. I do not that there’s no point in “padding” the novel with useless stuff that doesn’t advance the story or enlighten the reader concerning the characters.

If I’m right, then I’m near the end of the novel. Next I have what I call the temptation scenes. After that it’s the culmination of the book as the CIA operation takes place in Beijing. Then will be the denouement chapter to close out. I see all of this as being about 10,000 words, unless the operation itself takes more than that.

So I’m on the downhill part of the novel. My experience with my first two novels is that the writing goes faster at this point. Maybe that’s because the motivation is there to stick to business and get it done. Maybe it’s because the story is so familiar at this point, as are the characters, that writing scenes is easier at this point.

Whatever the reason, I may be a week away from finishing. That’s exciting. I would like to finish it before February 7, when Lynda and I take off for a road trip. I’d like to have it with me and use some evenings on that trip for editing. That seems like a better vacation/business trip activity than new writing.

The news on another book is also exciting. This isn’t even on my list of publication goals for the year. It’s my poetry book, Father Daughter Day. This has been essentially done since 2006. I’ve made minor tweaks in the years since. The delay in publishing it has been illustrations. I don’t think the book will sell as well if it’s text only as it will if it is generously illustrated.

But how to get an illustrator when you have no money to pay one and when hopes of sales are just that: hopes? I tried to get some art teachers at the high school and university level interested as a practicum project for their class, to no avail. I checked with a couple of amateur artists I know, and couldn’t get them to do it. So I let it sit. I should also say that I never made finding an illustrator a priority. When I had a free moment and this book came to mind, I did something about an illustrator. Otherwise the book sat dormant. I have one more poem I’d like to add to it, but it’s not essential.

So back in October 2012 one of those times came, when thinking of the book and having the name of an artist I know both came together at the same time. I asked her about it and she sounded interested. Then I didn’t hear anything, leading me to believe she wasn’t interested.

Then yesterday she contacted me. She had computer troubles as well as family and life issues. Yes, she said, she was interested, and was anxious to get started. So I recent the book and some sample illustrations. She’s going over it now. We will have to have a conversation about deadlines, speculative compensation, etc. Depending on her schedule we might not be able to get it done this year. Then again, if she works fast and we keep most of the illustrations simple, it may be done this year.

This also is exciting. I’m trying not to get too excited, actually, in case it falls through. China Tour will be published, probably before April 1. I’d love to have Father Daughter Day available on Amazon before Fathers’ Day, though that’s probably not possible. All in all, however, I see my publishing much farther down the road now than it seemed to be a week ago.

goals, Writing

Review of 2012 Publishing Goals

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Back in January 2012 I established some publishing goals for the year. Since I just did the same for 2013, I thought I should go back and see how did on those goals. I wrote them in three posts last January. I’ll summarize them here and tell how I did.

Fiction

Publish my second short story, titled “Too Old To Play”. I did this in January, exactly on schedule. It’s only sold three copies, but it’s there and available.

Publish my novel Doctor Luke’s Assistant. I did this in March, exactly on schedule. It’s been my best selling work so far.

Publish my novel In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I did this in August, a little later than I’d hoped, but I delayed it for consideration by a publisher, and by then I was too engaged with other projects to jump right back in this. It isn’t selling, but baseball season is just around the corner.

Publish another short story in the Danny Tompkins series. I did not do this. Instead I wrote a different short story and published it, and it’s sold 10 copies.

Begin work on my third novel. Okay, I suppose this was a writing goal, not a publishing goal. I did this, beginning China Tour in October.

Non-Fiction: Articles

The no-money one of these is Suite101.com. I did not write any articles for Suite101 this year. As I wrote in January, “The site is soon to go through a major re-vamp. I’m waiting to see what they do, and if anything I want to write on will still be suitable.” The revamp occurred. I’m making a little more residual income there than I thought I would, but I still don’t expect to write any articles for them any time soon, almost certainly not in 2013.

The one for decent money is Buildipedia.com. As planned I wrote for Buildipedia for several months. Then they axed my column. I haven’t had any ideas for feature articles for them, so that prospect is dormant for a while and probably will remain so.

The third gig is a site named Decoded Science. I wrote and published one article with them in 2012. I still like the concept of Decoded Science. I like the owner/editor. I just haven’t had any ideas for articles. I wanted to do a series of articles on low impact development. The owner/editor was favorable, but I haven’t found time or energy to do them. It’s a possibility in 2013, thought not all that likely.

Non-Fiction: Books

The Candy Store Generation. I wrote this and published it in July 2012, more or less on schedule. I liked how it came out. It’s sold about 15 copies, which is a big disappointment.

John Cheney of Newbury, Massachusetts. This was to be a family genealogy book. I found no time to add to the research I’ve already done, so did not write anything on this. Maybe some day.

Articles written about floodplain engineering that would form the basis of a decent book. Yes, they would, but I’ve done nothing on this other than brainstorm a little.

A second book in the Documenting America series: the Civil War years. I wrote the first chapter of this, or most of the first chapter, then abandoned it for the time being. The research was going to be much more than I thought. I read some as research, maybe 10 to 15 hours of reading. I wish I could have written it, and hope to do it in 2013.

So, I didn’t do too badly, did I? I hope I do as well, relative to my goals, in 2013.

goals, self-publishing

2013 Publishing Goals

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My time off from writing during Christmas and New Year’s travels was extended by the flu. Finally the last three days I’ve felt like doing something. I read about 50 pages in China Tour, doing light edits. I should finish it tonight and get the edits typed not later than Saturday morning.

Then it’s send it off to a beta reader and get back to writing. My goal for the weekend is to add 6,000 words. If I manage to do that, I’ll be at 44,000+ words, on the way to…? I’m still not sure how long the book is, but if I get the 6,000 words added I think I’ll be at a point where I’ll have a handle on the length.

One things I haven’t spent much time on is my goals for 2013. Last year I decided to establish a publishing schedule rather than writing goals. It seems more definite, more intentional. I wasn’t writing to write. I was writing to publish. I intend to do the same thing in 2013.

Except, I haven’t spent enough time so far considering what I can actually accomplish. So for right now it’s publishing goals. I hope, before January ends, to do the necessary work to establish a publishing schedule.

Here’s what I’ve come up with so far.

  • Publish China Tour
  • Publish one other novel, either Headshots or Preserve The Revelation
  • Publish two short stories. One will be in my teen grief series, and probably be titled “Kicking Stones”. The other will  likely be in the Sharon Williams CIA agent series (if the inspiration comes), currently untitled.
  • Publish one non-fiction book, almost certainly Documenting America: Civil War Edition.
  • Publish two professional essays in the engineering field. These are actually written. I would only need to tweak them for a somewhat broader audience and figure out how to do covers, or bite the bullet and pay for them.

So there it is. Stay tuned for further updates.

self-publishing

December 2012 Book Sales

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Forgive my absence, please. After trips to Chicago and Oklahoma City during Christmas and New Year’s, I came home sick, possibly picked up from sick grandchildren in OKC. After fighting it for several days at home, I went to the doc and learned it was flu. So I’m on antibiotics and strong cough medicine. Finally today I was well enough to go to work. The good news is I’ve lost 12 pounds through all of this. Now if I can just keep it off and lose 30 or 40 more in 2013.

I compiled my December book sales today, once I had access to the spreadsheet on my computer at work. Here’s the totals and the graph.

  • “Mom’s Letter” – 1
  • Documenting America – Homeschool Edition – 1
  • In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People – 1
  • “Whiskey, Zebra, Tango” – 3

In short, my sales have flatlined for the last five months (8, 12, 8, 7, 7) after the bump that Doctor Luke’s Assistant gave them in June and July.

I’m working on a table of book sales for the year, and will provide that in another post, either today or tomorrow.

Operation Lotus Sunday

Editing “China Tour”

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On Saturday I found myself with some time, so I decided to edit China Tour. I started from the beginning, and got all the way to page 48 in the couple of hours of quiet time I had. I enjoyed this time. Editing doesn’t bother me.

What concerns me, however, is how few changes I have. Granted that I’ve been over some of this before, when I read the last five pages before going on to new material. But I’ve found in past novels that I always have some things to change in the early chapters based on what I write in the later chapters.

Perhaps it will be the need to foreshadow a plot element that I added, which I didn’t anticipate early on. Perhaps it was foreshadowing of something I later decided not to put in the book, so I have to take something out. For whatever reason, I’ve always found the edits to be necessary.

This time, not so much. I’m editing at the point in the story where the mistaken identity has happened, but the CIA agents haven’t figured it all out yet. They are about to meet the tourist couple, and learn the extent of the problem.

Perhaps I’ll find more to edit as I get into it more. I might find some time tomorrow, Christmas day, to edit twenty to thirty pages. We’ll see how that goes. I’m anxious to get back to the writing, to adding new material and completing the story. Right now I’ve fallen behind the pace needed to have it done by early February, but there’s still time to catch up.

Stay tuned. And Merry Christmas.