The DragonHawk Saga & The Master Storyboard

A good day today (uh, yesterday) working on the DragonHawk Saga. I have been continuing my work on the Master Storyboard, basically reconstructing one big outline from all of the chapters I have written in all the books I have been working on.

The Dragon Hunters, Book 1, is outlined now by chapter, with brief descriptions of what I expect to happen in each one. Only a few chapters have been written, in what I would consider a rough draft. The Dragon Hunters is the start of the DragonHawk Saga, joining the Star Trader Galaxy in the middle of a war that threatens the peace of the Star Trader Families. The story follows the Tycho Star Traders and the Drakkon DragonHawks as they struggle to deal with the rest of the Trade and the rise of the Planetary Corporations.

Tycho Station, Book 2, has been completely written, but as I sync it to the outline, I see that it needs some work. If you have read any of my earlier blog entries, then you know that I have been revising it to improve the action and the pace. That work continues. Tycho Station is the sequel to the Dragon Hunters. Tycho Station follows Elias Hawkes, who became the StarHawke Tycho after his father steps down into retirement. The threats against the Tycho Star Traders and their Drakkon DragonHawks grow as they are accused of being responsible for the OutRider pirates raiding the OutWorlds. Speculation about his family's Drakkon heritage only increases when the birth of his son, Morgan Elias, triggers the legend of the return of the Great Dragon, who will unify all the Trade and restore the Star Empire. The StarHawke Tycho and his Hawkkur Legion race to protect the Tycho Star Traders from destruction and the hands of their enemies.

The Dragon's Revenge, Book 3, has been outlined to about 65% of the story. A few chapters are in rough draft and there are a lot of notes. This book follows in the wake of Tycho Station, Book 2, after the Tycho Star Traders are attacked and it looks like all of the Drakkon have been killed. The Tycho Star Traders fight to stay alive and exact revenge on their attackers. In the end, threats from outside the Star Trader Galaxy force the Tychos and all the Star Trader into an Alliance with their friends and foes to overcome the threat.

Dragon Summer, Book 4, has been outlined to about 50%. The original version of this book needs a lot of rewriting to bring into alignment with the rest of the saga. Dragon Summer runs parallel to The Dragon's Revenge and occurs outside of the Star Trader Galaxy for the most part. Bane Sollar, the brother of the StarHawke Tycho, fled the Tycho Trade Station to deliver the StarHawke's infant son to his grandparents wh,o in their retirement, are scouting other races and people in hopes of expanding Trade to new markets. Unfortunately, the boy falls into the hands of locals and becomes lost for many years. He finally is reunited with grandparents, but not until after a dangerous and ardous journey. Once he finds his family, he must learn about his Star Trader and Drakkon heritage and prepare for the day that he returns to the Star Trader Galaxy to reclaim his place.

I have barely started outlining Book 5, Gaanard Station. In this book, Morgan returns to the Star Trader Galaxy, to the Gaanard Trade Station, to attend Trade School. The Horath War is raging, and the massive Trade Station is filled with refugees from all over the Star Trader Galaxy. His grandparents and Bane Sollar believe these conditions will give Morgan the cover he needs to acclimate to being a Star Trader and start preparing for the day when he will formally claim his place as the StarHawke Tycho.

Gateway Station, Book 6, is the first book in the series that I started. As I have defined the DragonHawk Saga, it has found its place in the story sequence. Unfortunately, it needs a lot of revision to fit the storyline. But it is full of details and backstory that have enabled me to build most of the "early days" of the saga. Gateway Station explores the intrigue of the post Horath War era of the Alliance. Gateway Station is a massive trade station built during the war by the Star Traders as a massive spaceport and fortress. At the end of the war, it is "donated" as the headquarters of the Alliance. The Star Traders see it as a lot like Gaanard, a place where all of the members of the Alliance can meet and work out their differnece. (Yeah, we all know how well that will work!). Bane Sollar and Morgan Hawkes, who is still "undercover", get entangled with some old enemies. At the same time, word is leaked from Gaanard that young Morgan is the StarHawke Tycho, a survivor of the Tycho Massacre. He and Sollar become separated when the Sollar Hawk is attacked at Gateway Station and Morgan is forced to take the starship out on his own, to prevent it from falling into the hands of their enemies.

The StarHawke Tycho is the title of Book 7. At one time it was a complete story, but I don't think that most of it will fit the saga. So there is a lot of work to be done. The story includes a mission to rescue his grandparents and the rest of the monitoring team, as they may have been found out by the locals, as well as the triumphant return to the Tycho Trade Station by the StarHawke Tycho and, hopefully, his grandparents.

Conbor Station will be Book 8. Nothing is developed for this story, other than a rough synopsis. In this story, the StarHawke Tycho on a goodwill tour of Gaanard, Gateway Station, and Conborine. A lot of politics as he makes the rounds, attending formal receptions to celebrate his survival and his title. At the same time, he is still searching for Bane Sollar, who has disappeared from view on the trail of the people responsible for the Tycho Massacre.

The title of Book 9 is The DragonHawk War. This will be open warfare between the Star Trader Families as they align themselves behind the Tycho Star Traders and the Drakkon, or the Reska Star Traders and their Rahhol DragonHawks.

Book 10 is titled the Great Dragon and will feature the finale of the DragonHawk War, the emergence of the Great Dragon, and finally, the restoration of peace to the Star Trader Galaxy. I hope.

Well that's the plan, as I see at 0129 hours on Monday, December 20, 2010. Now all I have to is find the words to tell the stories...

Thanks for reading! And if I don't have an opportunity to make another entry this week, let me wish you a Merry Christmas!

Dave

Gateway Station

Do you want to learn about Gateway Station? Read about Trann Mor on the Gateway Station page!

I was better when I didn't know so much?

Tonignt, while working on the Master Timeline, I was reviewing and reading Gateway Station, the first story I started working on, back in 1985. (I sent out 14 queries in 1990, before I departed on a six month WestPac cruise on the USS Aspro, SSN-648). I think my writing was better then, before I (supposedly) learned all these rules about writing. Back in 1985, when I first started writing about Morgan and Bane and their adventures, the words just seemed to pour out, faster than I could write them down or type them up.

But there was only one story them. And I did not worry too much about how a character got to my story. (Now I know that is called "backstory"). And it did not really matter, because I wasn't trying to connect all these stories into a coherent, linked series.

But now it does matter. I've got Gateway Station, the DragonHawks, parts of the Dragon Hunters, most of Dragon Summer, parts of Dragon's Revenge, Heritage, the DragonHawk War, and so on...

So, I guess I'll keep working on the details and look back on the early part of my writing for inspiration. Maybe that is the key to solving the puzzle that is the DragonHawk Saga.

Thanks for reading!

It's Alive!

The Master Storyboard, that is.

It has taken life as a big Excel spreadsheet. Right now, I am going back through all the books, writing summaries of each chapter (or a description of what I want to happen) for The Dragon Hunters, The DragonHawks, and Dragon Summer. Still have Dragon's Revenge, and the Dragon's Return to add. I like the way it is working out, I think it is going to be a handy tool to sort out this big long storyline.

I think the pro's (That's the people that have been spamming me to buy their "expert" software that will solve all my writing problems for me!) call it "backstory".

Maybe I'm making a mountain out of a mole hill. Or as a friend of mine is fond of saying: "pole vaulting over mouse droppings". (He says it a bit different, but you get my drift...)

Anyway, I'll sort the details out to my satisfaction and then press on with the writing. At least now, I have a tool to keep track of things!

The moral of the story: It's my plot, my characters, my story. I'm not going to let somebody else reshape it with their tools.

Cheers!

Dave

The Master Storyboard

If you have been reading my blog, you know how many problems I have been having with my writing. Last night I started on a new tool that I hope will help me fix the stories. I call it the Master Storyboard. I intend for it to be the official master list of all the DragonHawk stories by book and chapter.

Its in an Excel format so it is flexible and expandable. Hopefully it will help me get my thoughts back on track.

Bottom line, things are pretty hectic around here these days. To add to my "angst", my main pc for writing has major problems. One of the software updates (from AVG anti-virus software) broke Windows 7 and the computer was stuck in a constant restart and shutdown loop.

So my "IT Department", my two sons David and Will, are going to rebuild it for me, adding a 1 Terra Byte hard drive! Looking forward to filling that bad boy up!

The moral of the story? Back your stuff up, on an external drive, a separate drive on your network, or one of the online storage programs. Just do something. I have my stuff pretty well organized, but it still took me 3 hours to move it all to this laptop until the other computer is up.

In the meantime, its back to the storyboard!

Cheers!

The Battle of Rikkman Three Draws to a Close...

Well, I have wasted enough time on this chapter, time to move on.

A lot of changes taking place in the DragonHawks, including the title (used to be Tycho Station). A lot of rewriting to do in all the books, just working my way through it, a bit at a time.

So, what's the intent?

Well the Sollar Star just got shot up on Rikkman Three. So, Bane Sollar has to find a ride back home. In the meantime, how was it possible for the residents of Starport to mount such a defense against their attackers?

A lot of questions to answer!

Home Sweet Home!

I've decided to do a little reorganization of the blog. I've been bouncing around working on this and that, making a little progress, here and there. So I will document my progress on individual pages for the specific books that I am working on. So, if you want to know what I am doing, you're going to have to look around and figure it ou!

Still Battling on Rikkman Three

Well, I am still battling away on Rikkman Three. I realized it was unrealistic to think that the former Free Traders and other independent types that live on Rikkman Three, would not have set up some sort of defensive systems around their home. So I have been reworking the battle to put a little more "teeth" in the fight, from the viewport of the colonists, that is.

The DragonHawks

Doing some writing and some behind the scenes work tonight. Continuing to write on the aftermath of the Rikkman Three battle. Trying to find some character names, I have gotten into a bit of reorganization of my Star Trader Data workbook, specifically the character spreadsheet. With 258 characters list by name, I decided to break it up by first and last name, and do some other reorganization.

Meanwhile, Sollar and Alanca are still keeping secrets from each other. Sollar does not want to talk too much about the wreck of the Sollar Star. Nor does Alanca want to talk about his organization, although he knows that Sollar could help him out, just like he can help Sollar out. Hopefully their friendship will prevail in the end!

The Battle of Rikkman Three Continues

It's been a long time since I wrote a new blog entry. I did not realize how long until I saw that my last entry was on September 19th. Truth be told, I have not been writing very much lately. I must admit that I got distracted by another author, Kim Harrison and her series about witch bounty hunter Rachel Morgan. If you are not familiar with her books, you should go check out her work at http://www.kimharrison.com/.

Meanwhile, the battle of Rikkman Three continues. I have almost finished the battle, working right now on the aftermath. I am sad to report that the Sollar Star did not survive the battle. So now, Bane Sollar is stuck on Rikkman Three, hiding from the Reska who are prowling through the wreckage of the terminal and the Sollar Star, looking for Bane Sollar.

So I have a lot of work to do, to get Sollar safely away from Rikkman Three and back to Tycho Station. I have a feeling that Sollar is going to find out some things about his friend Pol Alanca and the other residents of Rikkman Three.

Thanks for reading!

Dave

Dragon Summer - The Escape

Tonight I posted a different part of Dragon Summer to that page. Go over and read about The Escape and let me know what you think!

Thanks!

Dave

The Battle of Rikkman Three, Tycho Station

I have been making some good progress lately as I work on a major change to Tycho Station. This change will ripple through the rest of the book, as I destroy the Sollar Star in the battle and leave Sollar at the mercy of the former Free Traders, Mundo Wigo and Ramm Charan.  Overall, it should be a good change.

At the same time, I cut out a big, meandering background story that was not really needed. So my quest to reduce the size of the story continues...

At last, an update

Well, it's been almost a month since I made an entry here on the blog. I've been working on Tycho Station and a bit on Dragon Hunters. Not making much progress. I know I need to rewrite the the battle on Rikkman Three, have some pretty radical ideas about what to do. Like make the attack, an attack on Sollar. The OutRiders coming after their masters, the Tycho Star Traders, or something like that. And the destruction of the Sollar Star.

Then move the timeline of Dragon Hunters forward, have the Tychos kicked out of Gaanard at the start of the story. Have Elias get an earlier start on building up his fleet and the size of Legion.

Need more action! Need more action! Danger Will Robinson! Danger!

Something like that...

Thanks for reading!

The Campaign Against And, But and That

When I am in writing mode, just trying to get my thoughts out of my head and onto the screen, I have a tendency to abuse the words "and", "but", and "that".

So I aw rewriting Tycho Station in the "Campaign Against And, But and That".

There's a lot of extra words between those ands, buts, and thats. Some of them are useful, most of them are extraneous. So I am cleaning them up as well. Rewriting passages to make them more descriptive with fewer words.

Simplifying descriptions, making them more descriptive. (I hope)

Tonight so far, I have deleted 1, 545 words and five more pages!

Behind the Scenes in the DragonHawk Saga

Hello faithful readers,

I have worked my way through the first eight chapters of Tycho Station. So far I have cut 1 whole chapter, 16 pages and over 4400 words from the story. The goal is to make it read better, more active and less passive. I feel pretty good about the results so far.

Meanwhile, the story I started for the 2010 Challenge, Dragon's Revenge, did not survive. I have cut it up into pieces and merged it into Dragon Summer. I hope to streamline Dragon Summer, removing a bunch of stuff that has nothing to do with the main story.

I feel good about all the changes. I think I am bringing the main storyline into better focus. After I finish the edit on Tycho Station, I will go back to Dragon Summer and finish it up. Then I need to get Dragon Hunters, the first story, properly written.

Thanks for reading!

Dave

Ahead Full! Raise Battle Screen!

Dragon's Revenge is coming along nicely. Integrating with Tycho Station and Dragon Summer pretty well. Sollar's almost home after dropping Morgan off with his grandparents on TS9329P3 (you have to read the stories to find out where that is!).

For some reason that I haven't figured out yet, I decided to name each chapter with a word starting with the letter "R" (This episode of the DragonHawk Saga is brought to you by the letter "R"!)

So far, I have Rescue, Recovery, Regroup, Resolution, Renegades, Research, Return, Retaliationi, Risk, Resignation, Reconnaissance, Reality, Reception, and Redemption. If you have any additional suggestions, just let me know.

Here's a new picture of the cats...

When you lose suction, you switch tanks!

If you work in the energy industry, you probably know what that means. But how does it apply to writing?

If you run out of ideas for one story, you switch to another? That will work, especially when you have ten stories to write (3 in actual writing process, 1 supposed to be complete but needs more editing!)

But if you are embroiled in a writing contest and need to write 1700 words a day and you are already 12,000 words behind, what do you do?

The only thing I can think to do is to jump to another chapter in the same book and try the story from a new approach.

That's what I'm going to try tonight. I'll let you know how that works out!

Tying Everything Together.

One of the pitfalls of using characters that span multiple stories is keeping track of where they are, how they got there, what are they doing now, and what are they going to do next. These characters are usually the protagonist or the antagonist, or close allies of them so their movements and actions usually affect the plot. As the author you want their movements to be like moves on a chess board. Their movements have to be carefully orchestrated to enhance the story and keep the reader interested. Especially when your readers have identified themselves with that character.

It starts getting hairy when you have 250 plus identified characters, with fifty or so who are actively involved in the storylines. You have to be careful when you kill them off and when you move them around. You have to make sure they are in the right place at the right time. If you kill someone off in Dragon Hunters or Tycho Station, you can't use that character again in Dragon's Revenge.

I started Gateway Station back in the mid-1980s. Some of the characters in Gateway Station are major characters that are featured in many if not all of the stories. So I have to reverse engineer everything to make it all work out. Or trash it and write it over.

(Yeah, I really did start this "SAGA" way back in the dark ages, writing in spiral notebooks and 3x5 cards!  I would not trade my computer for anything. My handwriting is horrible. Always has been.)

Meanwhile, Back at the Tycho Trade Station, the Dragons prepare for revenge!

Started working on Dragon's Revenge, the direct line sequel to Tycho Station. Making a little progress, but not much. Writing the story as my participation in NANOWRIMO. We write in July here instead of November, because everyone is just too busy.

This story will follow up on the end of Tycho Station, revealing some details from the Tycho Star Trader point of view. I have vowed to make it more exciting by having more action, more battles between the Tychos and the surviving OutRiders and their Reska allies. Maybe some intrigue in the streets of Conborine.

At the end, I will link Dragon's Revenge to Dragon Summer.

Oh, by the way, Happy Independence Day!

Blogging remotely

This is the first time I have written to the blog from my iPhone...

Making slow progress as I blend the old with the new. Sometimes it's just a matter of changing a word here or there. Sometimes I have to rewrite or delete a whole paragraph.

I am rapidly approaching the point where I will be deleting whole sections for the new ending. My goal is to reach that point tonight. Tomorrow starts NANOWRIMO which I plan to use to get Dragon's Revenge going. Then I can tie the two stories together.

The view a little further on...

Well, I finally finished the battle between three dragons and two DragonHawks. The battle occured in Morgan's mind as he battled against the Black Dragon over control of his mind. He was helped by his grandmother and her Dragon Within. Then at the last, they are all saved by Morgan's Battle Within, Tycho.

At least a first run through of the battle. But we'll leave it alone for a while and move on.

Coming up on NANOWRIMO (July 1 thru July 31), 50,000 words in one month. Search for "No Plot, No Problem" if you want to know more. 1700 words per night.

Originally I committed to turn away from the DragonHawk Saga and work on another idea I had, project name: "Travelin' Jack." Its about a time traveler, who can control when and where he goes backwards or forwards in time. Not so sure about how that would work out. But I don't want to start another DragonHawk story. Too much work to do to the stories I already have started.

Well, time to do some writing...

Motivation and Inspiration

Seem to be missing a bit of both these days. Storylines and details that swirl through my mind and make sense when I think them through just don't seem to be making it to the story...
Thinking about backing off for a while... Let things sit and see what happens...

June Sixteenth, Nineteen Fifty Three

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to mee-eee!
Happy Birthday to me!

Chug, Chug, Chug, Chug, Chug

Just chugging along. Maybe losing the changes I made last week was not so bad after all. Trying to add some suspense in the storyline. What happened to Morgan? Where is he? Who has found him?

Time for some more chug...

ARRRGGGG!

That's the sound you make when you come home from work and find out that while you were juggling files last night (late last night/this morning) that you wiped out everything you did over the weekend.

What does that do to the famous "Break Through" (see yesterday's entry)?

Well, I know what I want to do, all I have to do is do it.

Later,

Dave

Breaking Through the Block...

Early this morning about 0200 hours, I finally broke through the block that had been stifling me for the past couple of weeks. In the process, I streamlined part of Dragon Summer, combining three chapters and deleting about 30 pages of text. It feels good to be back on the move. And I don't think the story was hurt by the changes.
Speaking of changes, Blogger put out some new templates, so I have been playing with the look and feel. Let me know what you think!

Blogging tonight from a Remote Location!

Tonight I am blogging from a remote location. My new Acer Aspire laptop on the other side of the desk! Father's Day and my birthday came a little early this year. I also received a new iPhone 3GS. Don't know what I did to deserve all of this...

Still working on integrating Chapters 7 and 8 of Dragon Summer. Quite a departure from the original story, but I think better. More believable. Charl, a Hawkkur trooper on the monitoring team's security detail will find Morgan unconscious in the woods. Charl, who goes by the local name of Charlie, is the projectionist and handyman at the drive-in. Every evening, after the drive-in is closed, he goes for a short run through the surrounding woods, part exercise, part security perimeter sweep. There are a lot of sophisticated sensors protecting the team and their secret station, but Charl prefers take a look at things himself. He is religiously loyal to Mani and Makala Hawkes. And they trust him with their lives...

Anyway, that's the plan.

More later,

Dave

Chugging Right Along...

Combining Chapter 7 and Chapter 8 is working out pretty good. Chugging right along towards the Shining White Walls...

Getting Unstuck

For the last two weeks I have been stuck on Chapter 7 in Dragon Summer. The original plan I had was to have a bunch of short vignettes, consisting of Morgan's Dragon Dreams. Well, I could not make that work so I was trying to find a way to rewrite it.
What I am in the process of doing is dumping most of Chapter 7, salvaging only one of the dreams that is moved into Chapter 8. Which will now become Chapter 7.
It's like the hack and slash I talked about earlier. In the past I have been hesitant to delete, even cut, saving bits and pieces of everything. Now not so much. And I think it is helping my writing.
Meanwhile, back to work. Its 10:15 PM and I want to fix the new Chapter 7 before the night ends. The end of the first part of Dragon Summer is rapidly approaching and the Shining White Walls are near!

Thanks for reading! Please leave a comment or just say hello!

Dave

A new look...

Like the new look? I added Twitter and was playing around with the template, decided to make some changes.

Tell me what you think!

A Little Hack and Slash is good for the soul!

Working my way through Dragon Summer last night. Found a few paragraphs that I did not like so I deleted them!
That may not sound like a big deal, but for me it is! I very rarely have the guts to delete something. I try to save or salvage everything. I think that is a flaw in my writing. I have to be willing to say: "It's garbage! Just delete it!"
Last night I deleted a whole chapter. And I think I have a lot more to delete. You know you can drag some parts of a story out for just so long...
Back to the writing. I'm watching "Enter the Dragon" with Bruce Lee on AMC tonight. Best kung fu movie every made!

Cheers!

Dave

Plodding along...

I haven't been writing very much lately. I've been having a dry spell as far as original thought is concerned. So I took a break from the stories...
Here we are at the First of June. In another months, the group I write with each year will launch our annual NANOWRIMO (July 1 thru July 31). The official session is in November, but who has time to write then? Since we have a bunch of young writers (many who are more talented than I ever will be!), we write in July, while everyone is out of school.
Meanwhile, I am far away from the Star Trader Galaxy, helping Morgan find his way on some backwater planet known to the Star Traders only as TS9329P3. See if we can't get him a little further down the road tonight.

Back to the Drawing Board?

Well, so much for consolidating stories - too complicated and too large.
So now I have new storyline that is parallel to Dragon Summer. I call it Dragon's Revenge. The story will take place in the Star Trader Galaxy in the wake of the attack on the Tycho Trade Station. The prologue will cover the last half of the attack, as the Tycho Legacy and the Tycho Heritage arrive to take on the attackers. The first chapter will go into the aftermath, the time when the survivors are getting together and working to save their Trade Station. Sollar will get involved when he returns from TS9329P3. Afterwards, he will set out to track down the people responsible for the attack. Lots of action. Lots of fighting...
Stay tuned!

Note To Self

1. Don't write long passive passages.
2. Find some action.
3. Give up background information in conversations (just don't drag them out!)

So, do I have Colonel Obrie Lorcan, Acting Commander of the Hawkkur Legion and Loke Tashinga, Acting Supervising Manager, tell Sollar (and the readers) what happened after he left with Morgan?
Hmmm....

Still back at the Tycho Trade Station...

It's about 2317 hours now. I have been writing for about four hours. Going pretty good. Steady and productive. Some distractions but not too bad.
Gonna call it a night. Got that other job thing to do tomorrow!

Meanwhile back in the Star Trader Galaxy...

I'm writing again. Not editing. Writing new stuff. I'm reorganizing Dragon Summer. After the prologue where Sollar leaves Morgan on TS9329P3, The first few chapters will be Sollar's return to the Tycho Trade Station in the aftermath of the attack. When he finds out that Morgan is not with his grandparents, I'll jump back to Dragon Summer. Dragon Summer will end with Morgan going back to the Star Trader Galaxy. I think. I hope. Maybe...
Anyway, I am writing again. So that's good.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

As my chair sinks slowly to the floor (gas cylinder leaks!) I return to the keyboard to figure out how to do three things at one time. Oh, what will I do? (Dramatic expression).
I think I WILL do three things at the same time.

Okay all of this light-hearted nonsense aside, what I am trying to say is that sometimes I get an idea or an urge to work on the other stories. Instead of fighting that urge, I will just shift gears and jump over to that story and let it flow...

Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

Going in Three Directions at the Same Time?

I have three projects I really want to work on badly. Long term projects that will take serious time to complete.
What are those three projects?
Write "Dragon Hunters" which is book 1 in the DragonHawk Saga
Edit "Tycho Station," book 2, which is technically finished but needs some serious editing.
Edit and Rewrite "Dragon Summer" book 3, which is a combination of Dragon Summer, the Star Trader and Gaanard Station into one book.
Hmm, pause while I eat dinner...

Rewriting to get it Write!

Tonight I am working on Dragon Summer. Baby Girl is asleep on my backpack, giving off her particular little high pitch snore. Its really an neat sound. Some time in her past, before she came to live with us, somebody kicked her in the lower jaw, breaking three teeth on each side and damaging her voice box. She does not make any noise, other than the little snoring sound and a tiny growl when she is really mad.
Meanwhile, I am reading and editing, making passages more readable while bringing the story in line with my latest plans for the storyline. You can read about that in my post from last week.
More later,
Dave

How To Combine Three Stories into One - My Latest BIG Idea

Okay, so here's the scenario. In the story, The Star Trader, Tycho Station has been devastaed  The big battle is over and the survivors are picking up the pieces. Bane Sollar is on his way home after delivering young baby Morgan to his grandparents on TS9329P3. His job now is to get the surviving Tycho Star Traders together, protect the remaining assests, rebuild the family. Oh, yeah, find the people responsible for the attack and destroy them, knowing that most of the Trade and all the Planet Corps are against them.
Meanwhile, running parallel to The Star Trader is Dragon Summer. In this story, we find out that Morgan did not make it safely to his grandparents. The robot carrying him to the monitoring team was intercepted by a local cop and has disappeared into "the system." His grandparents and the rest of the team don't know anything about the Tycho Massacre or their now missing grandson. It is not until Sollar sends them a message, explaining his actions, that they realize something has gone terribly wrong.
Dragon Summer picks up 15 years later, when Morgan successfully escapes from the school orphanage and starts out on his own to find out who he is and what happened to his family.
By the time Morgan finds his way to his grandparents, the Star Trader Galaxy is five seasons into a war that has united Star Traders, Planet Corps and the Frontier Council into a new Alliance. Their goal is to destroy the Hoards of Horath, a warring race from a neighboring galaxy that has set out to conquer the Star Trader Galaxy and in particular, the Star Traders. In the Star Trader, Sollar has had to postpone his hunt for the people who murdered his brother's family as the Tycho Star Traders join with the Trade to battle the Horath. And over in Dragon Summer, the time has come for Morgan to travel to Gaanard to establish his presence in the Trade and start on the long journey to claim his Family.
So you see, we have three stories running at the same time, The Star Trader featuring Bane Sollar, Dragon Summer featuring teenaged Morgan Elias Hawkes and Heritage, The Horath War, featuring a cast of thousand. About half way the the war, The Star Trader and Dragon Summer come together to blend in to a fourth story, Gaanard Station, which takes us out to the end of the war, the rise of the Alliance and a bunch of other stuff as Morgan becomes a Star Trader, and eventually, the StarHawke Tycho, the Elder of the Tycho Star Traders.
So I am going to blend Dragon Summer and The Star Trader together then finish up with Gaanard Station, with the war coming along for the ride. Instead of four different novels, I'll end up with two.
The first one will contain Dragon Summer, The Star Trader, and the first half of Heritage, the Horath War.
The second one will contain the merged ends of Dragon Summer and The Star Trader, Gaanard Station, and the second half of the Horath War.
I need to update some diagrams, so I will end for now. I'll try to make a flow chart that shows all of this. In the meantime, don't worry. Its all clear in my brain...

Stress

Doctor says I have to reduce my stress. In today's time, that should be fun to do, hey? Let's see, what shall I do?
Can't stop working, can I? Big Project. Lots of work. Lots of deadlines. Lots of stress...
Can't go on vacation... Got to work on Big Project. Don't have the money or the time. More stress...
Gee, I guess I could stop writing... You know, staying up late, using some of that quiet evening time when no one is around to really get things done...
I've sent the first story to two different publishers with no luck. Just more stress...
Should I send it to others? Should I give up on this project?
Stress, stress, stress...
Maybe I will...
Maybe I won't...
Maybe I should start buying lottery tickets...

What do you think?

Hurricane Cats

I was looking through some photos of the cats today and got to thinking back about the time we brought them home. They had been to the vet in Galveston, and Big Boy was pretty loopy from the medicine they had given him for an abscess on his head. (Probably from fighting?). We had a pen set up in the back yard for them. The plan was that they would stay in the pen for a couple of weeks until they got used to us.
Well, Baby Girl escaped the first night, disappeared without a trace. We started letting Big Boy out of the pen bit by bit. He would walk around the back yard but then come back to the pen. About a week after Baby Girl disappeared, Big Boy took off.
We were disappointed but we kept a watch for them, putting out food on the front porch from time to time.
One day Cindy looked out of the windows in the study and saw Baby Girl. She put some fresh wet food out and backed away. Baby Girl came up and very carefully ate the food. Then she disappeared again. But she came back the next day. And the next... And the next...  About a week later Big Boy showed up.
Slowly but surely we made friends with them and invited them into the house. Now they are part of the family.
This photo is one of Big Boy and Baby Girl eating together on the front porch, getting used to coming around each day and getting fed.
Now, when I come home from work and the cats see my car coming down the street, they head for the house, knowing its time to eat.
I really love these two cats. I hope they stick around for a long time.

Back up and do it right?

Wednesday I received a rejection e-mail from the Donald Maass Agency. Really bummed me out for a couple of days. I was already in a funk, and that news did not help. Not that I hadn't expected it.

But Heinlein's Rules are starting to take effect so I should get back to work soon. Maybe a bit this weekend.

The problem is that I really want to rewrite Tycho Station. That would be breaking the rules... hmm...

Okay so last night I dug out an old document I started. The document is a history book, the history of the Star Folk and the Star Traders.  Its basically a twenty thousand year outline of the Star Folk and Star Trader.

I'm going to try to update and flesh it out some more. Try to resolve some issues by having something concrete to rely on. Then I might take a shot at Dragon Hunters this summer. July is NANOWRIMO at Rivendell, so maybe I will outline it and then start it during the contest. In between I'll work on Dragon Summer.

And sneak a peek at Tycho Station along the way.

Next week's job is to find another publisher or agent to send Tycho Station to.

In the meantime, I have been looking at a website called Smashwords. They take you paper based book and "smash it" into an e-book, Kindal doc that I could sell electronically on the web. Sounds interesting, so I'll have to look a bit further...

If I take Tycho Station the e-book route, I have to go through it and strip out the formatting, which would give me an excuse to edit it...

So, lots of options. Biggest problem is time. And patience. Got to stay patient to work a few hours here and there. And not stress out when things don't work out.

Learning by Experience

I've been writing for a long time. Not only on my stories, but as a technical writer and a training developer. Sometimes it catches me by surprise when I realize how much my writing has changed. Last night I told you that I was going back to Dragon Summer, after abandoning my attempts to change Tycho Station. Parts of this story contain some of my earliest writing attempts. Tonight as I edited the Prologue, which is one of the first things I wrote, I edited out 15 pages of extraneous information. Some of it I saved for future use, but a lot of it I just deleted.

The new prologue is much better. More action, less passive voice, less "stuff" that does not belong or does not add to the story.

How did I figure out what to do? How did I know what to cut?

The biggest factor I believe is the passage of time. Hours and hours of writing. Listening to experts and reading other's work. In other words Experience.

I go back to Heinlein's Rules:
You must write
Finish what you start

If you follow those two rules, consciously or subconsciously, you gain that valuable commodity known as Experience.

At least that's what I think.

Tomorrow I will post the old and the new prologues on the exercpts page and you can judge for yourself. Right now I have to get back to the story. See how far I can get tonight before I give up.

Dave

In Compliance with Heinlein's Rules... Again!

Shifting gears in compliance with Heilein's Rules although I have been strugging with Rule Three. I thought I could make it better, but I just kept screwing it up. So I threw away the edits and I'm standing pat with the original version of Tycho Station.

So now I am working on Dragon Summer, story number 3 in the DragonHawk Saga. A lot of it is the first part of the story I ever wrote. It reads really rough. I can see a lot of wholesale delete of superfulous detail and boring technobabble.

What about story number 1, The Dragon Hunters? Maybe I will save it for NANOWRIMO in July...

Going to add a page tonight to display Heinlein's Rules.

Cheers!

Dave

Why won't you play with me?

Tonight while trying to write, I watched an interesting interchange between Baby Girl, my used to be Ferel but is still kinda wild, cat and Nawla, our five month old Australian Shepherd. Nawla was being her usual exuberant self, chasing whatever we would throw for her. Meanwhile, Baby Girl, who was sitting on the desk, decided she wanted to find a quiet spot away from the crazy dog. Nawla was taking a break, sitting on the floor by Cindy's chair chewing on a rubber dog Frisbee.
So Baby Girl quietly hopped down and eased her way across the entry, heading for the formal dining room. She got about halfway across the entry before Nawla saw that Baby Girl was down at her level. So, with ball in mouth, she hopped up and headed for the cat.
Baby Girl stopped and turned sideways, facing Nawla and arching her back.
Nawla stopped in her tracks, ball in her mouth and stared at the cat. She has already found what happens when you get too close to Big Boy or Baby Girl. They don't run. They turn and get ready to do battle.
So Nawla stopped and thought about it for a few minutes.
Then she dropped the ball and let it roll over towards Baby Girl.
The ball rolled over until it was about three inches from Baby Girl.
Baby Girl looked at the ball.
The arch in her back eased.
Nawla flopped down on her belly paws spread, tail wagging.
Baby Girl looked at Nawla.
Nawla looked at Baby Girl.
Baby Girl looked at Nawla.
Nawla looked at the ball.
I heard strange music in the background. Waa - aah!
Like the soundtrack for The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly...
Baby Girl looked at Nawla.
Nawla looked at Baby Girl.
This went on for about five minutes. Long enough for me to get the camera and take a couple of pictures.
Finally Nawla got bored and when looking for her Frisbee.
Baby Girl disappeared into the formal dining room, one of her favorite hiding places.
And I got back to writing.

Now, that's more like it!

So I am sitting in the study tonight, working on my stories. I gave up trying to find anything worthwhile on the TV to watch, but I did find something to listen to. Direct TV Channel 840, 8-Tracks! Songs from the 60s and 70s rock that was on that really far out thing called the 8 track tape! Steppenwolf Monster (rather appropriate after this weekend, don't you think?), The Doors, Alan Parsons Project, Moby Grape, some really great bands! I could write all night... Maybe I will!

Rock on!

Dave

Are you bored?

Are you bored? Did you come over here because you read my challenge on my Facebook Page? Stick around, read the excerpt from Tycho Station about Varla Riss, the Lioness. Tell me what you think about her!

In Compliance with Heinlein's Rules...

I sent a query out last night to a potential agency. The query included a synopsis and the first five pages. I fudged and sent them the first six pages of The Lioness that you can read on another page of my blog. Hopefully it will do the trick.

Sometimes I'm not sure I'm not just talking to myself. If you stop by here and read my ramblings, please leave a comment.

Thanks!

Dave

Heinlein's Rules

Robert Heinlein is one of my all time favorite authors. If not the all time. (It would be a tie between Heinlein and Verne). He wrote an essay about writing "speculative fiction" in which he stated five rules for writing. I thought I would post them here tonight, as they seem to back up my decision to push forward with my original plans for Tycho Station and the rest of the DragonHawk Saga. So, without further ado, here's Heinlein's Rules for writing:

Rule One: You Must Write
I try to write something every night, even if it is an entry here on the blog or some notes on one my stories. I don't always manage to write. Sometimes life just refuses to cooperate. But most of the time I am successful.

Rule Two: Finish What Your Start
Last summer I finshed Tycho Station. So I complied with that rule.

Rule Three: You Must Refrain From Rewriting, Except to Editorial Order
Well, that one was broken. Guess it's time to comply.

Rule Four: You Must Put Your Story on the Market
I've made a couple of half hearted attempts, with no luck (obviously)

Rule Five: You Must Keep it on the Market until it has Sold
Got to do Four before you can do Five...

Okay, now I have a plan. I know what I need to do. Time to get to work!

Dave

Damn the torpedos! Full Speed Ahead!

For the past year or so, I have dithered and waivered and hemmed and hawwed (?) around with Tycho Station, wondering if I should break it up into two stories, remove parts and make it smaller or maybe just start over. I have heard fellow writers and actual authors who have said that at 800 plus pages and over 218,000 words it is way too big for a first novel. So, I spent the last month moving, cutting, revising, editing, blah, blah, blah....

Enough! Sweep all that stuff aside and go forward with the version that I like. Its the only version that makes sense to me. Its a bit rough, but I think it will work...

To celebrate my decision I have added a new page called Exercpts from Tycho Station. You can find the link right under the DragonHawk Saga map. Click on the page and read about The Lioness.

Then leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Thanks!

Dave

Time to kick the tires and light the fires!

It occurred to me at work today, as I was struggling to write some terminal learning objectives and some enabling objectives for a refinery training program that I am working on. I realized that I was tired of tweaking things, fussing with templates, reformatting styles and shifting content around. Time to get back to what is important, THE WRITING!
So back to Tycho Station to finish the down-sizing and editing. Need to get it into position to be marketed. That's got to be the highest priority.

Cheers!

Dave

Gonna enter a contest...

I found out about a writing contest that I want to enter. Its called "Writers and Illustrators of the Future." It is a short story type contest (maybe a "novella"?) with a maximum length of 14,000 words. I have decided to take a "flash back" from one of my stories and try to work it into something that I can enter. I've only got about 2500 words so far, so a lot of work left to do. I've got until March 31 to enter the contest and even if I don't win anything, the judges will send me a written appraisal of my writing. That alone will be worth the effort. Here's a link to the website. Check it out and let me know what you think!

http://www.writersofthefuture.com/index.htm

Thanks!

Dave

Cats & Dragons & Dogs

Hi Everyone,
Sorry I haven't posted for a while. I have been working on big project at work that has eaten up a lot of time.
Andrew's cell phone science project was finished up and turned in. Can't wait to see what he gets for a grade. Yeah, we all chipped in and helped out, but isn't that what we are supposed to do? In case you don't know, Andrew is my grandson. His dad is divorced and he and Andrew have lived with us since Andrew was about 2. I help with his homework all the time. The trainer in me comes out and I try to help him in a manner that helps him understand what he is doing. I mean, he is 11 and in the 5th grade. We didn't do science projects like this in the 5th grade. We did science projects in Jr High. That's what they intermediate school now. I guess the term "Junior" is not politically correct?
Anyway, I hope he gets a good grade. He did work hard on it.

Cats & Dragons & Dogs... We have a new dog. Andrew has a new dog. An Australian Shepherd named Nawla. She's about 11 weeks old now. Tonight Andrew and she started obedience training. Our vet tells us that she is a very smart, very trainable breed. These dogs traditionally herd cattle and sheep. We don't have any cattle or sheep, but we have another old dog, Kassie, and two cats. Nawla has been terrorizing them a bit, just puppy stuff. Wait until she gets bigger. And smarter. They'll never know what hit them!
Speaking about Cats & Dragons... I have been working on background stuff for the past month or so. I have consolidated my development manual with my reference manual, because I had conflicting notes in both that I needed to resolve. I also have this spreadsheet where I have a quick reference of people, places and things that needs to be  synced with the manuals. Its a lot of work, but it is work that needs to be done.
If I was a real author... I would have done proper background work... Hmm, let me think about that.
Sure, that might be valid. But this thing called the DragonHawk Saga has grown quite a bit from the original concept and the original one story. Now I have ten stories, about a half a million words and many, many hours.
But I did write some new words tonight, other than stuff in the reference manual. I wrote a bit in the prologue of The Dragon Hunters, the first story. Seems there's the Rahhol DragonHawk (He's one of the bad guys!) who is plotting against the Tycho Star Traders...
Well, I hope to get some work and writing done this weekend. Supposed to be bad weather.
Guess I will post this and wrap things up for the night.

Thanks for reading!

Dave

Time out for a little science!

My grandson is working on a science project. We are conducting a survey about cell phone batteries. If you would like to help, downn load the form. (I saved it as a graphic!) Take the survey and send it back to us! Soon!

Thanks,

Dave