I realized the other day that it’s kind of silly maintaining a WordPress blog and a hand-coded HTML Web site for Section 51 (yup, folks, that was hand-coded). I mean, just yesterday I redesigned the main section51hq.com site using Photoshop Elements, Taco HTML Edit and (eek!) tables, only to discover I didn’t know enough HTML to make it do what I wanted it to do.

So, less than 24 hours after the table-based homepage went live, I’ve switched the whole kit ‘n’ kaboodle over to Joomla!. (The exclamation point is part of the name. Seriously. Like Yahoo! and Jeopardy!.) And, before long, this blog will be Powered by the Joomla as well. (As soon as I can find a working way to convert entries from WordPress to Joomla, since the one plugin Joomla hosts doesn’t work for me.)

Oh, and also in the last 48 hours: a new logo design and graphical look for the trailer. I’m also rendering some new animations for a longer trailer.

Not a whole lotta writing, but that’s OK so I can look at the stories with fresher eyes and make them their best.

This is likely my last entry on this particular blog, since I’ll be blogging over on the main site soon.

Comments (0) Nov 28 2009

Okay, for working on my own for Section 51, I have quite a bit going on:

• Novel 1 (“The Empty City”) – now on a second revision/rewrite
• Short Story 1 (“Salazar”) – on a bit of a break before editing
• Novel 2 (unnamed) – a few chapters into the first writing
• Music – a few GarageBand songs written as a bit of inspiration, plus some new background music for the TEC ad I showed you earlier
• This blog

And that doesn’t count the “Salazar” ad I’m starting to think about or the cover art I still need to design.

I don’t really mind the fact I have so much going on with Section 51, since it allows me to be creative in several different avenues, but it certainly makes it a bit harder to get the next draft of TEC done.

On the plus side, I’ve added to the length. Earlier, I mentioned I was worried about the story being around 9,000 words, making it an awfully short novel. Now, with quite a bit of revision still to go, I’m up to more than 15,000 words, and the story is more colorful. And when you add in the 8,500 words of “Salazar,” I think the first book will be pretty satisfying.

Comments (0) Nov 16 2009

Well, I’m one giant step closer to releasing “Salazar.” I’ve finished the first draft — 8,000 words or so — and my carefully selected group of test readers are going over it.

I’ve also looked at a couple of distribution channels for the story. I don’t think I’ll make it available on its own in print format, since it’ll just be too short to be worth it, but I definitely plan on printing it with The Empty City. I’ll probably offer it up on a couple of the different e-bookstores around for probably around $2 or $3, but I haven’t set anything in stone yet. No matter what, though, I’ll have links to wherever I publish on the main Section 51 site.

Part of my dilemma is DRM. I’m a bit paranoid about piracy, but I’m also looking at the fact that practically every musical group has DRM-free content on iTunes or AmazonMP3, and they’re not doing too poorly for themselves.

I definitely got over the favorite child syndrome I mentioned earlier after reading the first few chapters again. I still think it’s pretty good, but I needed to rework the first chapters some. I’m tempering my nervousness with the realization that I’m always self-conscious about my writing, so if it is good, my test readers should clear up a lot of that doubt. Plus, I know I’m not going for The Greatest Story Ever Written, but instead a good plot and interesting characters. “Salazar” is all about defining who the title character is is and where he comes from, and I think it’s a fascinating story.

Comments (0) Nov 13 2009

I didn’t plan “Salazar” out the way most writers would, I guess. It’s part of my writing style: I come up with a vague idea of the story and just work towards it.

The plan was to write a short story, maybe 5,000 words or so, to accompany “The Empty City.” It’s similar in theme and the two stories are designed to weave together at one point, but TEC was supposed to be the main story.

And, without revealing too much, I knew of five (now six) major plot points. Let’s call them A, B, C, D, E and F.

Now, seven chapters and 5,785 words in, I just got to point D (which, by the way, is the shared point with TEC), and points E and F I know are going to be complicated. I still need to finish my rewrite of TEC, which has already lengthened that story, so I’m looking at a thicker book than I anticipated. (Not necessarily a bad thing, since longer books aren’t that much more expensive to print.)

Plus, I’m facing a favorite-child dilemma: I’m liking “Salazar” a lot more than TEC. It could be because it’s a much more personal story (TEC is about, well, a city, and “Salazar” is about, well, a person), but it’s still a much different theme than I see Section 51 taking. (Heck, “Salazar” is barely sci-fi; I never planned on introducing the sci-fi elements until E and F, and so far, it’s a simple realistic drama. Or whatever the literary term is.)

Another couple of days, and I’ll probably have the first draft of “Salazar” done, and judging by my complete lack of self-doubt on it, it shouldn’t take too long to revise. I don’t think it’s going to be long enough to offer in print, but I’m leaning towards releasing it as a low-price e-book while I wrap up TEC, and still bundling the two together. Maybe under the title “Section 51 Origins.”

And I know I promised an excerpt, but I do have a couple of copyright concerns regarding that. I think I’ll wait until I’m all done and I’ve submitted the story to the Copyright Office before I post it. (Either way, it should be available on the e-book retailers I’m looking at.)

Comments (0) Nov 10 2009

I’ve been working tonight on (1) battling the bug I’ve been fighting for more than a week, and (2) expanding the short story I had mentioned in previous posts, sort of a prequel to “The Empty City” about one of the supporting characters and how he ended up where he is. The story, “Salazar: Section 51 Origins,” is turning into quite the work, if I do say so myself.

In one evening, I’ve expanded the first chapter into three chapters that, together, are already longer than the rest of that story. It’s definitely a much different animal, too: the sci-fi that’s going to be a cornerstone of the Section 51 series doesn’t actually come in till the end, and it has a much darker tone. I was actually feeling a bit depressed when I finished the first chapter, which ends in tragedy.

What’s interesting is the work I’m dipping into. A while ago, for fun, I wrote a few screenplays for a non-sci-fi dramatic television series that I never expected to publish or produce. I fell in love with two of the characters in that work, coming up with pretty elaborate backgrounds for them, nearly ignoring the rest of the characters. (I might end up adapting that series for more prose fiction, but I still have yet another book project that’s been in my mind since I was 12.)

Anyway, now that the cat’s kind of out of the bag with Section 51, when I’m done writing it, I’m debating releasing “Salazar” as an e-book before I publish “The Empty City.” It’s probably not going to be long enough to be printed on its own, but I would probably still include it at the end of TEC as a sort of extra feature. There’s one event that’ll be in both stories, not to mention the shared character, so it should fit together nicely.

Stay tuned. There’s a possibility I’ll post an excerpt right here.

Comments (0) Nov 08 2009