A Fishy Tale

 

My good wife saw a pond on sale at Wal Mart and decided it would be just the thing for our back yard. She presented it to me for installation. I pointed out that a pond without fish would be a nursery for mosquitos. The pond was planted and Wal Mart goldfish added.

 

A son-in-law replaced a toilet in the house and left it lurking in the back yard. Not one given to wasting treasures I installed the toilet in a mound of earth beside the pond and painted it a concrete gray. Flowers took root in the tank and a fountain in the bowl wafted a stream of water down into the fish pond. A virtual miracle of design and technology!

 

Raccoons cleaned out the fish. I installed a predator net and new goldfish.

 

She who must be obeyed decided we should move to a larger house. It had a jungle garden overrun and abused and no fish pond. I went out, bought a new pond, a new predator net, and went to work. Soon a miniature cottage on top of a tiny hill spouted water into a stream running down into the fish pond. Everyone was relatively happy.

 

The problem with our climate is you cannot leave fish outside in a pond all year long. Sometime around the end of October they will form part of a large block of ice. So each year we’d remove the three fish, drain the pond, and bring them inside to a large tank some good friend decide we needed and he didn’t.

 

One fall I had the pond almost empty and was cleaning the pump when lo and behold, I discovered a small fish inside. When the Mrs. checked the two inches of muddy water remaining in the pond she discovered four more tiny fish. I remembered then I’d dumped most of the water out onto the front yard to soak the trees...two hours ago. I found another eight fish still flopping around in the grass and the dead leaves.

 

We now drain the pond through a strainer into a pail each fall. We have a tank downstairs with the seven largest fish and a tank upstairs with roughly fourteen (They won’t stay still to be counted) from that last two years’ broods. I have gifted a grandson with enough fish for two small tanks and my son-in-law has two large tanks in his living room. The fish store says they may take some and give me credit against future purchases.

 

I have studied fish medicine, water changing techniques, and how to peel frozen peas. I am running out of friends who desire a valuable goldfish. Fortunately the always-starving cat pays the fish no attention at all. Now I need lights for the upstairs tank because I’ve been advised the tank is too dark. Outside, the ice is now off the pond and the yard is a mess. It’s that time of year again.

 

Oh good grief. No wonder I have trouble finding time to write!

 

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com

www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

 

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)

The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1,2,3)

The Housetrap Chronicles (Volumes 1 to 8)

Alex in Wanderland,

Knight’s Bridge

We’re Not in Kansas

Toltec Dawn (Book 1, 2, of 3)

Losing Control

I started my latest novel knowing the details of the opening scene and the closing chapter, and without a lot of meat for the middle. This is not an unusual situation for me to be in, being a died-in-the-wool pantser. I often write by the seat of my well-worn trousers. I began with the idea of two characters and a slender thread of a plot to get me through to the end. I thought I knew who was the main character. The one who the action would center around.

I started writing this epic.

Wouldn’t you know it, the beast began to change and I was helpless to stop it.

Number two character is now number one, and the other is in danger of fading away into the background. I must take immediate action to prevent his disappearance!

Not only that, but other more interesting minor characters are demanding additional stage presence. They may be right. People who could only expect a walk-on part are now anticipating acting in whole chapters.

I hope the project will be better for the interest the thespians are displaying.

As the author, I sometimes feel more like the conductor of an unruly orchestra, with everyone demanding a solo. It gets noisy around here sometimes, at least inside my head.

I suppose I could avoid a situation like this by calmly plotting out the story in great detail and fixing the structure in cement before I start. But where would the fun be in that?

I often say I write to discover how the story ends. In this case, I’m writing to uncover the path they took to get there, and who is acting as the guide in all this organized confusion.

The director is in serious danger of losing control of the script!

R.J.Hore
www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)
The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1,2,3)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volumes 1 to 7 with #8 due out April 4th)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas
Toltec Dawn (Book 1, 2, of 3)

The Evolution of Writing

I started writing fiction while I was still up to my eyeballs in a stressful day job. As a matter of fact, I wrote so much non-fiction as a small part of the job I qualified for Professional Writer status through the Canadian Authors Association. After a long day at work, I’d go home and start writing for the pleasure of writing, and not because I had to.

I started thinking the other day about how much my writing process has changed over the years. What got me diverted was the novel I’m currently working on. I’ve started with a beginning and an ending, but the great middle is a dark and unknown continent. I keep having to go back and scatter clues, check spelling of names (characters, highways, etc.) and generally do a massive amount of changing and inserting as I go.

Which brings me to how I used to write a novel.

I’d start with a lined notebook and a pen. I’d fill several notebooks. Then I got an ancient manual typewriter. This was my introduction to white-out. You make a mistake, or decide on a correction on the typewritten page, and voila, bring out the white-out. It came as either a strip you could type on over the change, or a liquid you dripped on the sin, making certain not to put on too much or you ruined your ribbon.

Then I advanced to a second-hand electric typewriter. This was not as difficult for me as for those who might not be able to keep up with the increase in speed. I was, and still am, a two-fingered typist, which suits me just fine. I type at about the same speed as I plot so everything works out.

I won some money on a Grey Cup Ticket (Canadian Football Championship) and went out and purchased a Commodore64 computer, complete with a box of 5” floppy discs. What a great technological leap forward! I still have two novels that never graduated from the 64, but I do have hard copy. Someday I will have to sit down and transcribe them into Word, manually, changing them drastically as I go, being very early works in my writing career.

When I retired from the daily slog, I took up writing fulltime and on a modern laptop too. (Well, it was modern, back then.) Now I can glory in making as many changes as my little black heart desires, check the spelling of my characters’ names, and insert those brilliant chunks of dialogue I create while on my early morning walks.

I still have the handwritten notebooks around here somewhere, and the floppies, although the Commodore64 is hiding in the garage. The typewriters have gone to wherever typewriters go, hopefully not spending their remaining years as boat anchors. I now have three laptops, (one is a little netbook) and can write on the road. Just as well, given the amount of stuff I’ve churned out in recent years. My process has come a long way since those early workbooks. What works best for you?

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)

The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1,2,3)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volumes 1 to 7 with #8 due out in March)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas
Toltec Dawn (Book 1 of 3)

 

 

A Novel Approach

After finishing the first draft of number nine in my Housetrap Chronicles series, I decided to work on an idea I’d been kicking around for a few years. Number nine is in the hand s of my Beta Reader, I have time to kill.

I had the idea for an opening scene for a novel, nothing else beyond that. But it was something I could visualize, sort of. I sat down to sketch out a few notes.  Then I began to write. At this point I had no characters, no plot, but an idea of the format of how I wanted to tell the story. By the time I’d finished the first rough chapter I had my two main characters. Better yet, I had the ending.

Of course, there is the all-important question of what goes on in the middle?

I’m blundering my way through this monster, with little to go on other than how the characters react to each other, and the events triggered by the opening scene. I’ve passed the 33,000 word mark and still seem to be going in a straight line. Characters I’d never imagined have dropped in to fill out the cast. Sometimes I have to take a firm hand so they don’t go astray.

Usually I have more control of what’s going on. I’m a pantser, but at least I normally have  some vague idea of what to expect in the middle of a story. In this case, I just have a faint light at the end, and my final chapter.

I don’t recommend writing this way. There is a fear of having long stretches of boredom, too much description, too many mouthy characters spouting off. Looks like it won’t be stuck as a novella, but will the project make it to a full-length novel?

This was supposed to be a serious attempt at a space opera, but already I hear hints of wisecracking going on among the mutinous cast.

And then today my fitbit gave up the ghost and I spent most of the afternoon wrestling with the replacement, to no avail. Good thing I managed to get some writing done this morning!

Where am I going with this? I wish I knew.

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)

The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1,2,3)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volumes 1 to 7 with #8 due out in July)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas
Toltec Dawn (Book 1 of 3)

A New Year

Looks like another busy writing year.

Toltec Khan, the first book in my Toltec What-If series, has completed editing and is due out shortly.

Toltec Noon, the third in the series, has reached the waiting-in-line for the editing process.

Murder on the Disoriented Express, number 8 in my Housetrap Chronicles fantasy detective series, has completed editing and is scheduled for release in March 2017.

Number 9 in the Housetrap Chronicles, still untitled, has completed first draft and is now in the beta reader stage. Should be ready to go to the publisher in a month or two. That will give me another three novellas that could form the basis of a third print collection of these silly tales.

To keep out of trouble I'm mucking about with the first chapters of a potential space opera. I'm guessing it will be a full length novel, if I ever finish it.

To try and sell some books this year I'm appearing at the following cons where I'm promoting print editions of my books. These are all in Winnipeg:

Horror Con in February
KeyCon in May
Comic Con in October

In August I'm attending When Words Collide in Calgary. Appearing on 2 or 3 panels there.

Keep on writing. It will help you off the streets and keep the brain from freezing up.

Ron
www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

Make the Most of Your opportunities!

New and aspiring writers often ask how they can get noticed by publishers.

My advice is to write often, and always submit your work. No sense in letting your writing wither in a desk drawer. If you don’t send it out I can almost guarantee you will never be noticed.

When your submission is rejected, and it probably will be, at least in the beginning, read any comments or suggestions for improvement, and send it out again.

Referring to short stories, I read advice once that said to write one submission a week and send it out. If it comes back, send it out again. After two years of this hard work you will either be published, or at the least, a much better writer.

I was fortunate to enter an international short story contest and win first place. That gave my confidence a badly-needed boost.

I got my start by sending short stories to anthologies and magazines. One perceptive editor told me on two separate occasions that my short stories sounded like they should be novels. I thanked her at a recent writer’s conference when she was one of the featured guests. Now the shortest project I work on is a novella at about 30,000 words. I prefer the longer projects.

One of my short stories was “almost chosen.” Made the second to last cut for an anthology. However, the editor liked my writing and asked me to submit for her next project. My story was accepted, and when I met my current publisher, I could at least point to something in print and the fact that I’d help launch that anthology in my hometown.

I attended conferences and took every opportunity to appear before publishers and agents in person. Be prepared for the unexpected question. Have your novel proposal down so you can tell the story in a few short sentences. Surviving a face-to-face with a book publisher who didn’t follow the meeting rules got my first novels published.

The bottom line is you are guaranteed never to be published if you never write anything. So get busy now!

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)

The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1,2,3)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volume 1 to 7)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas
Toltec Dawn (Book 1 of 3)

Apologies for Being a Day Late

I was supposed to have this written and posted for the 2^nd. But I have excuses, a whole pile of them.

I spent last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, working a book table at a Comic Con. Long days and few sales. Sixty thousand people there to look but not to buy. Sold half as many books as I did the year before. But it was interesting and I re-connected with a few old contacts.

Then, besides re-connecting with my wife, I had to get ready for last night. It was the monthly meeting of our writer’s workshop. Three readings plus the critiques. If you have never belonged to a workshop you should join one. Just be prepared to take the comments on your work with a grain of thought. I belong to a group where I’m the only fantasy writer. I bounce scenes off of them, I wouldn’t try and run an entire novel past them.

But they do buy my books.

Today I’m waiting to hear from a contractor who is supposed to look at replacing a section of eaves trough before winter clamps down on us. Expecting a cold one this year. And I have to get ready to take part in a literary festival next month an hour’s drive from here. Want to launch my latest book there that just made it into print, Alex in Wanderland.  But first I have to lay hands on a few copies.

I also suspect the wife is getting anxious to have some action on that list she has of things I keep putting off.

Must go now.

R.J.Hore

www.ronaldhore.com
www.facebook.com/RonaldJHore

The Dark Lady Trilogy (Volume 1,2,3)

The Queen’s Pawn (Volume 1,2,3)
The Housetrap Chronicles (Volume 1 to 7)
Alex in Wanderland,
Knight’s Bridge
We’re Not in Kansas
Toltec Dawn (Book 1 of 3)