Usefulness of magic

I hope I am not giving too much away when I tell you I spent my morning writing about the trip Vir, Feelim, and Oona are making to the Museum Island that Ailis found. One of the questions that I have been asking myself as I write these novels is about the usefulness of magic. Vir has repeated again in this novel a saying he brought with him. “Magic is like an ethereal tooth and of little value.” Now that the survivors from the first novel have found Whole-Fruit, will their magic proved more useful? It is one of the questions that the second novel in the series will explore.

Re-visiting the consequences of love

Yesterday’s blog drew some interesting comments. Most were totally unrelated to either first or second novel but interesting nevertheless. The first two most popular comments seem to be the consequences of love are happiness and sadness. The third seemed to be having a family. There were other interesting comments such as “spending too much” and “going camping.” I have no idea what the last one means – grin. If you have any thoughts about the consequences of love, please feel free to share them here.

Consequences of love

If you have my novel Bringer of Justice, these comments will make sense to you. If you have not read the novel, they may not make sense to you. I do not want to explain more because it could ruin your enjoyment of the novel if you have not yet had a chance to read it. In the second novel in the series, the protagonist, Vir, is dealing with the consequences of love. I am finding it difficult to write. Nothing I have written so far is good enough. I had hoped Vir would give me some clues, but that has not happened. Yet?

How to start writing

I will be able to spend some time today working on the new novel, but I wanted to answer the question here that I answered in an email for someone. The question was, “How do I get started in writing?” My first reaction was to say, “Just do it.” I then began to think back to how I got started. There are still many weekly “newspapers” that are mostly advertising but are looking for little human interest items. It is the way that I started. The first things I wrote were restaurant reviews. I was living in the Philadelphia area and I was single. Going out and having dinner with the date was a great way to gather material. I wrote for a company that owned several of these advertising papers around the Philadelphia area. At first, I was paid nothing. When they would publish a restaurant review of mine, I would compare it to the one I submitted trying to figure out why they made certain changes. I did not have the benefit of talking to whoever was doing the editing. After a few months, they asked me if I would review restaurants they wanted reviewed. They were willing to pay for the meal and any other expenses I accrued. I accepted because it meant one free dinner every week. If I really like the restaurant, I could then take my next date to it. It was like killing two birds with one stone. Those assignments gave me credibility as a writer because I was a paid restaurant reviewer. It all simply came about because I had been willing to work for nothing at first and used it to improve my writing. If you live in a small town where restaurant reviews are possible, you could do a cooking column. It is something that almost any of the advertising newspapers will use. You write your first columns using recipes you like and asking for others to submit their recipes. You can add interest simply by interviewing those people who send you recipes. They do not have to be extensive but they add a great deal to the column. Here is a bit of a sample – “Jane Doe says this cake recipe is a favorite in her household of three children and a hungry husband.” You will find people very much appreciate a sentence or two about them when you use the recipe. I hope this gives you some ideas. I hope this answers the question of how to get started in writing – just do it! I wrote for a company that was

Frustrating

I have been doing a great deal of writing, but none of it has been done on the next book in the series Legends of the Herric. It is frustrating. However, I have to eat and pay my bills. I will keep you posted.

Indiegogo address

To answer a question – the Indiegogo address is below.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/bringer-of-justice/

Failure

It appears the crowdfunding at Indiegogo is a failure. It ends in a week and it has raised a total of $58 as of a few minutes ago. It means I will have to spend more time marketing Bringer of Justice and less time working on the second novel of the series. It is common sense that unless the first novel in the series does not sell well then there is little or no hope for the second novel.