The Dragons Roar into 2018...

Well, so far 2018 has become an interesting year. Being unemployed I suddenly find myself with more time to write. Which is fortunate, because I have discovered some problems in my writing.

I finished Dragon Betrayal and have posted it to the appropriate sites. In the meantime, I’ve been performing a detailed edit of Dragon Hunter and Dragon Heart and Dragon Betrayal to fix some troubling problems with the online versions. Reviewing copies I found chunks missing. Not sure if you have a copy that appears to have parts missing, please let me know. I’ll send you a corrected copy. 

I’m still hunting for a job, but I’m not having much luck. I’ll keep searching for now. I’d really like to find some work for a couple of more years in order to make a smoother transition to retirement. The more I read the job descriptions, the more I realize my profession has changed dramatically, while I languished at my last employer developing paper manuals. Everything is going online, which I think is great. Nevertheless, I've been left behind by the technology. And I don't think I can catch up. Nor am I sure that I want to.

What I want to do is write. So that is what I'll do. Not only the stories of the DragonHawk Saga, but other stories as well. I have two young grandchildren now. I'd like to write some stories for them. I really need to finish Hurricane Cats and share that with everyone. If you've been reading this blog for any time, you may have seen some of the excerpts. If you haven't, you can scroll down and read them.

But right now, I need to get back to the DragonHawk Saga and finish editing Dragon Betrayal. I've got a lot of ideas for Dragon Revenge. A lot of battles and a sea change in the Star Trader Galaxy. So back to work.

And as always, thanks for reading!

Dave

2017: Good Bye and Good Riddance!

The end of 2017 is rapidly approaching. I for one, am ready for this year to end.

This year has been a challenge to write a quality story in Dragon Betrayal. At one point it was a Frankenstein hodgepodge of ideas, themes, and seemingly unconnected events. I struggled to put the story together. But I did finish Dragon Betrayal and its out there at your favorite e-book store for your reading enjoyment.

As much as I want to jump right into Book Four of the DragonHawk Saga, Dragon Revenge, I'm going to take a break. I've got a priority project to deal with right now.

Finding a new day job to support my writing.

I really wasn't surprised when I was laid off from my day job. I'd been expecting it for some time as my previous employer struggled to find work to keep the folks in our office gainfully employed. In the end, they piled everyone onto what I will refer to as "The Big Project", hoping we could salvage what was turning out to be an unsolvable problem. No matter what we did, the client was not happy with the work. The problem was not in Houston, the problem was overseas, at the client site, where the team there refused to take a stand.

So after we designed the system and built outlines of what was needed, they terminate our contract. We've done all the grunt work. Any junior engineer who can read can take what developed and finish it out. I fact I wouldn't be surprised if they hired some of the ex-pats that were supposed to have our backs to finish the project.

Water under the bridge now. Onward and upward. Only time will tell if I find a job or go into an early retirement. I'd like to work through 2018 if I could.

You can help. Buy my books. Read my stories. Tell your friends about them.

And as always,

Thanks for reading!


Dave

Dragon Betrayal - It's done!

Dragon Betrayal - It's Done!

I am happy to report that Dragon Betrayal is done! Finished, Processed and Published!

The story, like all the stories of the DragonHawk Saga, is available at your favorite e-book store!

This was a hard story for me to write. I hope I pulled it off... Take a read and let me know. In the meantime, stay tuned for the next adventure of the DragonHawk Saga, Dragon Revenge!

Thanks for reading!

Dave

Dragon Betrayal Progress Report

Hello to all of the fans of the DragonHawk Saga!

You are a fan, right? Have you read Dragon Hunter or Dragon Heart? You better hurry up, Dragon Betrayal will be out there soon!

I promise!

Seriously! Despite the demands of my day job, I find time each day to some editing. More on some days. Less on others. A lot at night while others are sleeping.

Like right now, while I'm writing this blog update on the Right Screen, Dragon Betrayal is open for editing on the Left Screen.

Port and Starboard Main Viewscreens? Sure why not!

I've got so much I want to do to the DragonHawk Saga. But Dragon Betrayal is my top priority. I'm almost there, three-quarters of the way through the manuscript, so the end is in sight.

So, back to work. And remember, if you wake up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, I'm probably sitting here with the cat and the dragons.

Thanks for reading!

Dave

Getting Close to the End!

Hello to the fans of the DragonHawk Saga!

I'm happy to report that Dragon Betrayal is getting close to the end! I hope to have it wrapped up this weekend. Once it's finished, I've got to go through and do the conversion to Kindle and Smashwords formats. It takes a little time to remove all of the formatting and clean out the shortcut and formatting macros I use when I am writing.

I've also got to process updates to Dragon Hunter and Dragon Heart. I made some changes to both books while I was working on Betrayal to clear up some inconsistencies. Remember the Saga is going to be 10 books long. So if you find something in one book that doesn't seem to fit, it might be connected to something that's going to happen in the next book.

Anyway, when I get all three books loaded on the various sites, I'm going to have a special offer that will let you get all three books for almost nothing. So stay tuned for that.

After I accomplish all of that, I'm going to break away from the stories to work on the website and my (feeble) marketing attempts. I expect to start work on Dragon Revenge, Book Four of the DragonHawk Saga, by the end of summer.

June 14th will be the first anniversary of Big Boy's passing. Baby Girl and I miss that ole cat and think about him everyday. In my spare time, I've been working on a book called Hurricane Cats, a "historical fiction" if you will, of the lives of these two cats before they came into my life. I'm going to be giving away copies of Hurricane Cats starting June 14th, in memory of that ole Tom Cat.

Well, that's about it. I've caught you up with writing for now. It's time for Baby Girl and I to get back to work!

As always, thanks for reading!


Dave

Moving Forward in 2017

Happy New Year!

Welcome to 2017!

Well, we made it to 2017. I can't believe how fast 2016 flew by, or how little progress I made in 2016 on advancing the Saga. I got about halfway through Book Three, Dragon Betrayal, then stalled out. So I went back through Books One and Two to try and regain momentum.

Think of it as trying to drive up a hill, stalling halfway, then rolling back down the hill and making another run at it.

That worked pretty well for a while. My writing style and my knowledge of writing has changed, (improved?), and I made a bunch of changes. Rewording sentences, improving grammar, cutting down on excess details, etc. In an attempt to improve the flow of the story.

That worked pretty well on Book One, Dragon Hunter. And its going good on Book Two, Dragon Heart. I've made a big plot change that requires a lot of rewriting. I'd hoped to get caught up over the Christmas Holiday, but I fell ill and didn't make as much progress as I would have liked.

So, now it's 2017. Time to move on. I've ignored the Saga this week, concentrating on getting the new year started. Next week, I'm starting a new project at work. I don't think it will be that difficult, but it will set the pace for how much and the quality of writing time that I will have after normal working hours.

You see, I work on the Saga in the evenings after I finish my normal work, usually after everyone has gone to bed. I do my best writing between the hours of 11 PM and 2 AM in the morning. So it seems. On the weekends, I'll work later or get up earlier than everyone else and get in a couple of hours of writing before everyone else is up and about.

So, what's the moral of the story?

My mission is to tell the story of the Tycho Drakkon and their pursuit of the Return of the Great Dragon through the stories of the DragonHawk Saga. I hope to get that mission back on track, just as soon as I can.

As always, thanks for reading!

Dave

DragonHawk Saga Update

Hi there friends and readers.

It's been a rather frustrating time for me. I hit a massive writer's block while working on Dragon Betrayal, so I decided to go back and read Dragon Hunter and Dragon Heart, in an effort to try and get some momentum back in my writing. Kinda like backing up to get a running start at a hill.

Bad idea. As my writing style and my knowledge of writing has grown, I soon found myself embroiled in an effort to revise and rewrite Dragon Hunter. So far I have reduced the size by about 3700 words, and hopefully improved the readability and flow of the story.

Right now, I'm working on Dragon Heart. It's going okay. Not good, but okay. I've gotten stuck in one spot that I want to rewrite, but I struggle for the words. Maybe I should just leave it as it is, and move on.

A note about Dragon Hunter. I did managed to reduce the size of the story by about 3750 words, thereabouts. Dragon Hunter and Dragon Heart are both about the same size, which probably doesn't matter to anyone but me. After all, if you are a reader, you only want a good story.

And if you are a reader, I'd like to hear what you have to say about the DragonHawk Saga. If you are not a reader, then I invite you to give my stories a try and let me know what you think.

As always, thanks for reading the DragonHawk Saga!


Dave

P.S.

I seemed to have made it past my block last night. Reading and rewriting of Dragon Heart is moving along nicely now. All I had to do was eliminate the distractions. Put on the headphones and called up a nice long playlist. Didn't stop until 2 AM this morning. Back at it after lunch with fresh cup of caff and The Beatles "One" Album!

Cheers!

Dave