The Darkest of Horizons

For over eight years now, I've been toiling and carving my way through a beast of a manuscript titled Dark Horizons - originally titled Crystal City. At least, Dark Horizons is the title of this project for the moment. I'm sure it'll change at some point before publication, only because everything else about this manuscript has changed in the last eight years.

Dark Horizons is the third installment in my Expired Reality series. The series itself has gone through drastic changes of its own over the years - the most noticeably with the shift in genre from young adult to edgy Christian speculative fiction. But Dark Horizons has seen the majority of the changes because drafts of this book were written up before my genre change and after, and I have yet another draft rewrite to do before I am satisfied with where this series is going.

I think the third book in any series can be a difficult challenge, especially if the series itself is planned to run a dozen or so installments. The first book of any series sets up characters and plot. The second book goes into the plot a bit more and even digs a little deeper into the characters. By the third book, you're pretty much building a rudder by which the rest of the series is going to move with. Dark Horizons is a crucial volume in my Expired Reality series, and because of that I am taking many pains to make sure it's a phenomenal piece of fiction that lines up with the tone and storylines I am trying to establish for the ER series as a whole.

And that tone is a dark one. Whereas my Black Earth series is somewhat dark and gloomy, there was an overall feeling of redemption by the time the series came to its end with the fourth book, Exodus. But seeing how Dark Horizons is set to be the third novel in a 12 + book series, I have to have the redemptive moments and the moments of victory come fewer and farther between.

With the second book in the series - Lost Birth - ending on a low point, Dark Horizons opens up with the main character, David Corbin, wallowing in sorrow. His character is one I have worked years and years to refine, and I think I'm finally catching my stride with him, especially with the opportunities Dark Horizons will give me to add some more dimension to him. Whereas he started out the series in Endangered Memories as a washed up, unemployed hero, Lost Birth, the second novel in the series, saw him as a man on fire who was ready to risk everything to save the love of his life. After the death of someone very close to him at the end of Lost Birth, Dark Horizons will open up with David in the darkest place (metaphorically) he has ever known. This darkness will be used to flesh out much of his character and show him as not just a hero, but also an anti-hero of sorts.

Some of the anti-hero came out in Lost Birth when David attempted to take an innocent girl hostage to escape the police, and he ended up getting her shot. The incident opened up the doors for where Dark Horizons is going to take David - on the run from police, on a course to save the world.

I am really excited to reach the day when this manuscript - in it's polished form - can finally see the light of day. Before that can happen though, I have to continue my epic struggle with this beast and get it under control.

Dark Horizons

Just recently, I took advantage of one of the rewards of winning NaNoWriMo last November - 5 free copies of my book from Createspace. Seeing how I never actually ordered any paperbacks of Endangered Memories when I revamped the cover design at the beginning of the year, I went ahead and ordered five copies and now display them magnificently on my desk. I found though, that like many of my books, I will sometimes pick it up and start reading it. And lately, by reading a lot of my older works, I can feel my passion for writing returning in full bloom.

This isn't to say that my passion for writing ever went away. It just got a bit buried under the monumental task of moving here to the Bay Area, getting acclimated in a new place, and trying to get back into the groove of online marketing and whatnot.

With that being said, I'm also happy to say that I'm back at work on Dark Horizons, thanks to Camp NaNoWriMo. I have a lot of great ideas for this installment in my Expired Reality series, and I hope to write them all out and get this manuscript done as soon as I possibly can, seeing how it's been on hiatus for the last few years. Starting as a nearly 60,000 word draft, Dark Horizons will pick up where Lost Birth left off and continue the story of David Corbin and both his search for the Codex of Ra'f and his battle against the emergent Legion.

Camp NaNoWriMo Changes

With yesterday being the official start of Camp NaNoWriMo, I took some time to sit down, open up my old NaNoWriMo draft of Dark Horizons, and scanned the book to see how badly this thing would need to be overhauled and rewritten for Camp NaNoWriMo.

Boy was I surprised.

This manuscript is an absolute gem that's apparently been sitting in a digital folder since August of 2011 - the same month my son was born. After perusing the nearly 60,000 word manuscript, I've come to the conclusion that my Camp NaNoWriMo goal needs to be changed. This draft of Dark Horizons has a nice edgy feel to it - one of the main reasons I was going to rewrite it to match it up with the feel of my Black Earth series. It also follows most of the plot lines I was going to write the new manuscript in. And I can't ignore the fact that already 56,888 words are written in this thing.

The beautiful thing about Camp NaNoWriMo is that it can be used for edits, revisions, or alternate word counts. Unlike its big brother, NaNoWriMo (every November), Camp NaNoWriMo allows you to set your word goal to one other than the typical 50,000. So, I'm going to take advantage of this and set my goal to 43,112 words. Seeing how my manuscript draft is already 56,888, this would bring the draft to 100,000 words by the time July is over with - the perfect size for a first draft.

Today and tomorrow I'm going to be spending some time chiseling out an outline for the manuscript, and then after the holiday weekend, I'll be starting work on the 43,112 words I need to complete before the end of July.

Full Steam Ahead

 

Now that Endangered Memories is out there for all the world to love or hate - and I have a website design that I can take pride in - I can move forward on the many other projects I've had on the burners for a while now, including the sequel to Endangered Memories, and even the third volume in the Black Earth series.

This week starts a very strict daily schedule I put together to make sure I stick to my goals and make progress each and every day. With that implemented, here's a rundown of what I'll be working on the next couple months.

1. My first priority is to format Picture Perfect and Endangered Memories for paperback release. I released them in ebook format first so readers could read them and because the paperback conversion process can take a while.

2. My second priority is getting Lost Birth, the sequel to Endangered Memories, finished. I just got my editor's edits back on it and now I have to sift through those and make some changes of my own before the manuscript will be ready for ebook format. I'm also working with my cover designer, Jelani Parham, on another awesome cover for the series.

3. My next task is to finish Dark Horizons, the third book in the Expired Reality series. I have about half of the manuscript written, but my goal is to hand off the complete draft to my editor in mid-July. That means I have to get my butt in the chair and get to writing!

4. Another item on my list is my email newsletter, The Lysallis Times. When my laptop bit the dust a few weeks ago, it took Microsoft Publisher with it and I don't have another copy. So, I'm going to be using Publisher Pro to put together my newsletter, but I sort of have to start from scratch when it comes to the design process.

5. Phew. I'm getting worn just writing these out. The final project on my list for this year is the third book in my Black Earth series, The Dark Lighthouse. (The title is tentative). The manuscript for this hasn't even been started yet, but my goal is to hand it off to my editor by the end of August, right before the baby is born. Can I pull it off? Sure can, but it's going to take a lot of hard work.

So, there you have it. In between all of this, I'm working on some new merchandise to post in my Zazzle store, running two blogs side by side - including a new one that details my family's walk of faith, and playing through the Xenosaga series on my PS2. A writer/gamer geek's work is never done.

What Is Going On?!

As hard as I've tried over the last week to get back on track with my projects, I have failed miserably. Most of last week - and even the week before - was taken up with personal matters, and my half-hearted attempt this last weekend to catch up with my writing and self-publishing agenda didn't pan out so well. Distractions just keep coming and I keep giving in to them, disappearing off the map to take care of things that aren't going to move me forward in my writing career.

No more. I have cordoned off this week to get myself back in the game and back in line with my projects and all of their deadlines.Here are a few updates -

As I write this, my good friend, Jelani Parham, is sketching out the cover design for Endangered Memories - the first book in my upcoming young adult series - which I still plan on releasing in June. I have seen his initial sketches and I dropped my jaw on the table I was so impressed. He has truly captured the heart of my story in his illustrations and I cannot wait to reveal more to all of you in the next week or so.

Lost Birth - the second volume in my young adult series - is in the middle of being professionally edited. I plan to release the final product in July sometime.

I am getting back into writing Dark Horizons - the third book in my upcoming series - and hope to have the initial draft finished in the next few weeks. I am setting a personal goal of 7,000 words per day, which I plan to meet at any cost.

For those of you signed up with my email newsletter, I apologize that it's been months since I sent one out, but my goal is to have another issue out the door by the end of this month. If you want to sign up for my free email newsletter, head to http://www.davidnalderman.com/contact.htm.

On another note, I know that some of you started following this blog because I used to post about the incredible journey of faith that my wife and I have been on since I was fired from my job as a data entry specialist almost two years ago. I haven't posted much about that in this blog because I know a good portion of my crowd now comes to read about writing or self-publishing. So I've decided to create an entirely separate blog where I will be detailing much of what has been going on over the last couple years. The blog will be very personal and candid and something I hope to turn into a non-fiction book sometime in the future. For those who want to follow, you can check it out at  - http://www.ofdreamsandfaith.blogspot.com. I haven't posted anything there yet, but I do plan to by next week.

Now, sorry to shut the door in your face, but I have to get back to work.;)

Outlining With Reluctance

As I write my novels, I'm really not one to outline. I don't really care for the structure, nor do I like trying to guess what my characters are going to end up doing. We all know they do whatever they want regardless of our own intentions as their writer, and trying to outline their actions ahead of time just feels like a wasted effort.

Usually I just plow through a story, writing as my muse - and my characters - direct me. The only thing I ever nail down before a book is barely started is the ending. That's right, I usually have the ending to the book already figured out before I even get part way into the manuscript.

Not this time though. While working on Dark Horizons - the third volume in my upcoming young adult series - the other day,  I realized I have absolutely no clue where this story is going. I know where I want to be a few books down the road in this series, but I have no idea how this book is going to end or how I'm even going to get to that endpoint.

Because of this quandary, I've taken it upon myself to sit down and start sketching out the chapters, trying to figure out what characters I need to cover - there are a lot - and what plot points I need and want to write through. As this series is set to run at the very least twelve volumes, I need to have a bit more structure in regards to the direction I'm heading in.

When it came to the first book in this series, it was easy to run rampant and let the story go wherever I wanted it to. When the second book came through the pipeline, I found it a bit more challenging to just write whatever I felt like writing at the time, but I still managed to fit all the pieces together. Now that I'm in the third volume in this series, I don't have a choice but to map out the direction I'm heading in, especially since most of the story is pulling from the direction I started in during the first two volumes.

And, since I have only given myself about four more weeks to finish this manuscript, I decided I'm going to apply the NanoWrimo (National Novel Writing Month) technique to my writing regime. I'm setting a personal goal of 7,000 fresh words that need to be written per day, seeing how most of this draft which started out as a 50,000 word NanoWrimo manuscript needs to be rewritten anyway.