New Site

I have a new site.

http://justindherd.net

Worldbuilding in Slow Motion

So now that I finished ViNoWriMo (check out keypub.net for more information), I'm stuck in the position that I don't want to touch that novel until the March 14th winners are announced. I would love to start querying, but The Faithful is currently being read by my fiance, with the ending of the novel up in the air. I can't quite be shopping it about if I don't even know what the length or the ending will be.

I have two projects I can work on. I can work on my next novel, which is set in a desert wasteland on the side of a cliff, or rework my first novel, Between the Shadows. I'm stuck in between new ideas for both of these and can't quite decide which way I'm leaning.

On one hand, I have a brand new novel with a new place that I can expand on and feel creatively fulfilled. On the other, I have an old property that I'm giving a fresh breath of life. The old story felt empty, amorphous. With the new ideas I have, it changes so much of the original work that there is no way to keep the original manuscript and build off of it. I now have two more novels under my belt, so many lessons I've learned that it just seems like a flawed concept to keep going back to try and fix the errors in it.

Maybe after I'm done I'll find that the two works aren't entirely dissimilar, but I'd hate to read that old manuscript and get lost in that version of the world and lose what I had been thinking about. It truly is a reimagining where I'm going with it, not just another run through with edits to try and correct fundamental problems with the manuscript.

Here I am, stuck between two projects, each with its own creative possibilities.

I'll let you know where I'm going.

I'm here, I swears.

It's been awhile. I'm not ignoring you, I swear, blog of mine. Well, I kinda am. I used to have a program that came with my laptop that allowed me to just type a post and it would do it without logging in, but I haven't been able to find it online again.

I'm nearing the end of my re-imagining of my second novel. I just hit my 15k goal and am pushing past it. Listening to short-story podcasts, rocking out to several different bands, and overall spending most of my unemployment searching for retail managerial jobs and writing like crazy.

Is it just me or did this Christmas sneak up on everyone? It hasn't really felt like it's winter here in Oklahoma. There's been a couple ice days, but nothing really that big. No snow, some rain, and maybe three days that have dipped below 32 degrees. Kinda weak.

If you want to jump onto some of those short-story podcasts, I've been enjoying the following:

Podcastle - Fantasy (http://podcastle.org/)

Pseudopod - Horror (http://pseudopod.org/)

Escape Pod - Science Fiction (http://escapepod.org/)

Drabblecast - Weird Stuff (http://web.me.com/normsherman/Site/Podcast/Podcast.html)

Knee Deep in Words

I think it's interesting that in the past two weeks I have gotten the bug to write words. That, with the latest events of my life, I'm now abuzz with the need to write. To finish my second novel, to twist, warp it, into something that exists, even if it's not good.

I just passed 275 pages into the novel, while I have no idea how long it's going to be, what twists it will take. The truth about the novel is that I have the general feeling of where it will go, but this was originally a two book series that I was trying to stretch out to three.

The problem came with that I had introduced too many characters and gods and a ton of events and characters I'd have to cut away that I froze for six months on what to do next. Eventually, I realized I should just push, wrap all my ideas into a workable project and then dissect it and bring it all about. Maybe it's the wrong way to go about it, but it's what works.

But now that I've thrown myself head first into it, I am losing a bit of the control - some of the events are falling away so that my ending is in flux. I'm not sure what it will come out to be, whether or not they'll end in 20k/30k or even 50k words. I'm enjoying it thus far, even if it is a bit middling right now.

Fifty thousand words in and no idea where to stop.

Wish me luck!

Heartbreaking . . .

Kylie from Connecticut by Ben Folds
It's just a thought
But where did it come from?
What does she do with it
If it comes back?
A note from his assistant
There by the telephone
She sees it again
As she turns out the light

Kylie is calling from Connecticut
She says you've got the number
It said:
Kylie is calling from Connecticut
It's there on her mind
As she closes her eyes

She believes
There are things you should know about
When you've been married for
Thirty-five years
And her heart belongs to a man
That she hadn't seen since
A magical night when the children were small

Kylie is calling from Connecticut
She says you've got the number
It said:
Kylie is calling from Connecticut
It's back on her mind
As she closes her eyes

Kylie is calling from Connecticut
It's probably nothing
Yeah, nothing at all
But
Kylie is calling from Connecticut
It's all coming back
As she's reading old letters
That she hid in the closest
With the pictures she'd cherished
That she kept to herself
For a good thirty years
As she closes her eyes

Link (Live performance)

There's just so much that can be pulled from the lyrics, as simple as they are. I can totally imagine this woman's life and circumstances that brought her to this place, laying in bed and silently worrying about "Kylie." A name from the past she had forgotten about for "a good thirty years" until this note came up. And that she would say nothing about it to her husband, a man she hadn't known since the children were young. But Kylie is that person that he always loved, never forgot and that it's still there, hidden amongst all the years that had passed.

Simple phrases bring about the most complex ideas. The melody is amazing and I cannot escape it. As time passes, it just seems to be building the images and lives of these people. It's almost an unofficial sequel to his songs The Last Polka and Missing the War from Ben Folds Five days, which deals with the failing marriage of these two people. As if they were neither strong enough to break away from each other and years later are miserable in their own rights, despite her love for him and has grown to depend on him. He's a comfort to her, despite her not knowing who he is anymore. He's there and that's all she really has now that the kids have left.

It's even grown since I began to write this post.

What do you guys think about it?