Leonard the Great's Revised Cover

Here's the new and much improved front cover for the book. I'm quite pleased with it. Thanks to thoughtful feedback from you guys and some inspired design work by Mike Wykowski, it looks much more like a middle-grade fantasy novel and much less like a historical biography.

One of the cool things that Mike came up with was the addition of images from medieval tapestries as a background layer in the black areas. It's a subtle add that features knights and mythological creatures doing battle -- and it looks really cool!

Thanks to Keith, Tom, Steve and everyone else (except the guy who suggested I add Lindsay Lohan in a bikini) for your extremely helpful notes. I asked for feedback and you delivered -- big time.

Leonard the Great's Cover

Uncomplicated, uncluttered; just the way I like it. I think this cover gives a pretty good idea of what the book is about, too -- a kid doing knightly things.

 I'm very pleased with how it's looking so far, but I'm also (just) smart enough to be open to feedback. Let me know what you think.

Thanks to graphic designer Mike Wykowski for his help in getting it "just right".

Beta Reader -- Activate!

Just a quick update --

Spent the week doing a fairly rigorous edit of Caden before sending the manuscript off to trusted beta reader JZ tonight. I'm pleased with how things are going so far. To me, it comes across as a fun and easy read that I think kids will enjoy. Hope it comes across that way to him, too.

I'm kind of amazed at how quickly I got through the first edit, averaging about five chapters a day. I'm choosing to tell myself it went that fast because there are no errors and the story is really tight. Yeah. Right. Anyway, we'll see.

Hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July!

So Far, So Good

Began the rewrite on Caden Brave, my new (2009 NaNo) middle grade novel. To quote the great Mel Brooks, I'm finding it to be "surprisingly not bad". I'm only a few chapters in, so hopefully that trend will continue.

Back at the end of the first draft, I'd had just about enough of Caden, and pretty much hated it. But I also know how these things go for me -- I get really sick of the manuscript, set it aside for a month or so, and then breathe a sigh of relief upon discovering that (amazingly) there's something I can work with. It's my novelling circle of life -- and yes, I know "novelling" is not a real word but I like it so there! (sticks out tongue)

In other news, thanks to some help from a graphic designer friend of mine, I've got an "almost final" book cover for Leonard the Great. While not ready to go public yet (I'll share it when I get closer to publishing it on Createspace), I will say that I'm extremely pleased with how it's turned out. I'm waiting for one more set of notes from an author friend of mine and then, it's go time!

FINALLY!!!

How I currently feel

If any of you were wondering where I've been for the last month or so, I've been writing and writing and writing (and writing) -- slogging my way through the last few chapters of my 2009 NaNo effort, "Caden Brave". Well, today, I did it. I typed the closing words of my first draft. FINALLY!

Mind you, this is only the first draft, but now the hard part is over. I'm going to file it away for a month or so and get caught up on the skillions of other things I'm working on to get work. Then I'll pick it back up and start with the fixes, the part of writing that I truly enjoy.

The first draft closing stats: Caden Brave, A middle grade space opera, 66553 words/307 pages.

One more time...FINALLY!!!

"Odd and the Frost Giants" by Neil Gaiman - Mini Review

This chapter book is much more sparse in style than the usual fare from Neil Gaiman. Absent is the expected meticulous development and overall cleverness that make his other works such a delight to read. It is for younger kids so maybe he didn't feel the need to work out the story and character the way he usually does.

"Odd and the Frost Giants" is a simple tale about an unlucky boy back in the days of the Vikings who comes to the aid of Odin, Thor, and Loki as they try to take back Asgard from a crafty Frost Giant.

Considering Gaiman's superb writing skill, I think he should have taken what is really a sketchy short story and developed it into a full middle grade novel with a satisfying plot and main character arc. As the narrative raced past plot points at breakneck speed I found myself wishing he had taken the time to do just that.

In short, while "Odd" is better than many titles in this niche, I just didn't get my Neil Gaiman fix off this one.

Awesome Screenplay Now Available for Bidding War!

Uh, yeah. Sure. We'll get back to you on that.

Anyway... just completed an exhaustive rewrite of last April's Script Frenzy project "Nick of Time" and sent it off to the agent. I put a lot of work into getting it as close to "just right" as I could and in general, I'm very pleased with how it turned out. As I've mentioned before, I think it would make a fun flick -- either as effects-laden live action or as an animated flick in the style of "Howl's Moving Castle". It's kid-centric sci fi. Anybody know anyone at Studio Ghibli?

I should probably participate in next month's Frenzy, but the act of just having "finished" a screenplay and the desire to concentrate on completing the first draft of my 2009 NaNo manuscript are making me hesitate. You can also do TV scripts, comic books, and stage plays as part of the challenge so maybe I'll try one of those. We'll see.

In other news, Popcornopolis' Zebra Chocolate is the new crack.

Onward!