2021

Hi everyone, long time no post. I stepped back from social media for a while to concentrate on other stuff. Some of my time went into work — new role with new demands —, some time went into the final touches of my latest novel.

On the last day of 2021, let’s take a small review of my year in writing. Here are my personal creative highlights during a strange year 2021 (another one!).

THE TRANSPORT PUBLISHED

2020 was the year when I wrote my sci-fi military action thriller The Transport, but 2021 was the year when I published it. Usually I get by with two new books on the market each year, but in 2021 it was a little different.

THE TRANSPORT — THE AUDIOBOOK PODCAST

It started as an experiment. And as a nod to one of my writer role models Scott Sigler and his audiobook podcast from 2006(?) Earthcore, which sort of started the sci-fi journey for me. During the recording an publishing of the audiobook I learned a lot about recording, audio processing, and reading aloud. And I managed to get through all the hundred-plus chapters, staying at it, releasing episode after episode. In that respect, the audio book was like a small writing project from beginning to end. Will I repeat it? Probably not, as it takes too much time off writing.

THE FEBRUARY SONGS PROJECT

Another completely different creative project. Writing songs, recording them, and publish them. One song a day throughout the month of February. I had not written a single songer for almost over thirty years and it was a huge learning and endurance process during the COVID-pandemic-dominated month. I had to learn Logic Pro almost from scratch, juggle the various equipment, fight with skill limitations on almost every instrument (including my voice). But somehow, it all worked out. Almost a year after, I can listen to the songs again without constantly thinking “Jeez, you shoulda… Oh, no, that was soooo sloppy…”. This experiment, I probably will repeat in February 2022, need to put some mental and conceptual planning into it, though.

THE OLD MAN BOOK PROJECT

As I write this, in the middle of my Christmas vacations break, I reached one of my edting milestones. One more pass and the manuscript will be ready for the editor. Similar as THE TRANSPORT, this book is not part of a series but a stand alone thriller with a different kind of hero. If things go well, I’ll manage to publish it in February / March timeframe.

Well, and that’s a wrap to another year. Was it a good year? Creativity-wise definitely, with a lot learned and tried out. Commercially? Well… working on that! Thanks for everyone buying, reading, listening to my books. Keep it on!

[Updated] And off we go again... Calendar Moonshine "Brilliant #3" in the making

UPDATE Jan 3 2021: You maybe noticed, a lot of stuff has happened since this post from April. COVID Trouble took priority. The Transport completion took priority. And my new project, the Audiobook Podcast Version of The Transport, took priority. The remaining 79066 words of Brilliant #3 might come. But then, maybe not.

Chapter One, Word One. Thirty minutes later 934 words down. 79066 words to go. No pressure.

Should anyone be teased enough, I recommend of course the two first books in the Brilliant Series, both available in all major eBook Retailers and in paperback.

A Brilliant Plan - It was planned as a routine job: get in, crack the safe, fetch the diamonds. Instead Calendar finds a dead body and by sheer chance becomes involved to find the murderer and the stolen jewels. To stay out of jail, Calendar has to use all her wits, skills and charm. And must solve a century old jewelry mystery.

Brilliant Actors - What could be more exciting than attending the Academy Awards ceremony, joining the hottest after-show party, and have an A-movie star wearing your jewelry? All of the above, plus spending the rest of the night in jail after a precious piece of jewelry is stolen! Calendar gets thirty days to clear her name or go to jail—permanently.

Getting closer to point "Writing-Burn-Down-Zero"

My new day job that I started earlier this year comes with a longer commute on the train. Time effectively spent with writing on my current book, a science fiction thriller romp with a lot of “citations” from classics such as “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, “The Terminator”, or “Independence Day”. The writing process for me comes in several stages. Ideation and plotting are the core creative parts, fleshing out the story from a one liner (“A bunch of stranded aliens try to steal back their spaceship from US military”) to a fifty chapter structure. After that it’s writing. The most challenging part. Will the story idea hold up to hundred-thousand words? Will the characters be interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention for such a long time? Will all the plot-lines play out as sketched out?

Let me explain “Writing Burn Down Zero”: Burn down is my take on agile project methodology, adapted for writing. The fifty-plus chapter cards are my task repository, writing one after another — not necessarily in chapter order — is like developing a piece of software. One function point after another, each chapter stands on its own, with own drama and cast of characters, reactive or active, and with a small cliff hanger at the end. And the long list of chapters slowly burns down like a candle, two steps forward, one step back , putting flesh to the bare bone, creating life.

“Burn Down Zero” for my latest story approaches fast, I am running out of things to write, that moment when my burn down list will be empty. All chapters will be there. The story is there. All the characters are in. All stories within the story are resolved.

The story will be far from done, don’t get me wrong here. All over the place, I entered my open issue code “xxx”: missing story twists, missing descriptions, holes I found and was too lazy to resolve, missing characters. The next phase of work, resolving the xxx’ses, will take me as long as writing the story itself and usually adds ten percent of additional word count. I hate what’s ahead, but I love approaching Burn Down Zero! (Anytime next week)

The story is there.

It works!

I’ve made it this far!

A good feeling.

The Year So Fast / Upcoming

2018 is almost over and 2019 knocks at my door. I managed to publish my usual two books, the German version of Teen Monster Hunters and the English follow-up Teen Vampire Hunters. Which is good, I guess. Sales-wise the monthly checks came in from my various publishing platforms, but definitely not with the numbers I’d like to see. It remains an inner struggle to spend time with non-writing activities. Maybe I should heed a friend’s advice and hire someone to run social campaigns to extend my readership.

The second route in 2019 will be the conventional publisher route. I have 11 full size books under my belt, have the basic handiwork of a writer, and the discipline to deliver on time. My current project is aimed at a broader thriller scifi horror audience and hopefully an agent or publishing house will be interested.

On a personal level, there are also big changes ahead. I am switching jobs, leaving behind a lot of very nice colleagues. The new job is a bit cloak and dagger, so I will not elaborate. I might need to establish a sort of topical firewall to separate truth from believable fiction when writing crime and spy stories.

And so it goes… 2018. Thanks for the memories. Good riddance to lost opportunities. 2019, it’s in my hands to do it better.

Teen Monster Hunters republishing

That was another long hiatus from blogging / socializing. I spent a while translating Teen Monster Hunters, which led to some rephrasings and corrections on the English version, too. As my previous publisher closed shop a few days ago, I relaunched the eBook once more. And so it goes into Kindle Direct first for the next three months, should be up and running in a few days. Next update is the print version.

All About Eve...

Writing like crazy on three items at the same time. And then, as if there was nothing better to do, I would stumble tonight on the TV over "All About Eve". It had been a while since I last saw that one and I was immediately riveted again. Witty dialogues, wonderfully atmospheric, carefully staged and incredible cast. I am usually not a nostalgic, but 'they don't make movies like that anymore!'

Wikipedia "All About Eve" under Fair Use Policy

So what is going these days? My rom-com chick lit start-up novel got the treatment a second round. I put in a lot of work in order to complete and edit and then decided to stop once more. The story is good, but not good enough yet. There are three women who in the course of the story will fall in love with three men. That is the easy part. But I have not figured out yet how to make the three fall-in-love cases unique. So far all three cases are pretty much the same. The male is the dominant one, making the female realize that her way is the wrong way and that she should put trust in steady relationship. Once is fine. Two maybe with a little variation acceptable. But three in one book in one fifth act is too much. As I ran out of ideas and lack the right tactic, I decided to shelf the book for now. 

What happens in the meanwhile? The next Teen Monster Hunter novel is in the making. Teen Vampire Hunters is going well, I am not measuring yet, but all chapters are defined and in place, so it is all a matter of writing and sticking to the formul. The first Teen Monster Hunters book was indeed the first one, introducing the main characters and the story format. But Teen Vampire Hunters will be the first one out of the regular story stack that will be sequence agnostic, meaning: you can read them in any order you like. There will be no overlap and no development that makes it necessary to stick to a sequence. All in "the formula". 

And then there is the German translation of "Teen Monster Hunters". Mostly to the benefit of my youngest son and his school peers. One of my books is always an appreciated gift or token, so the German version will go well with the locls. And maybe gives me opportunity to organize a reading one of these days, locally.