If a Blog falls in the internet, will you read it?

The World of Sibanenne--Gaslight Romance Setting

2010-10-17T02:44:00.000-05:00

Sibanenne is the fourth planet from its sun. It has a single moon of corresponding size to Luna in the Earth system. Sibanenne is slightly smaller than Earth, with a similar land/water ratio, gravity, and essentially the same sort of atmosphere. It's sun is an orange dwarf, somewhat smaller than our own sun. But the world has not phase-locked with its sun. It is significantly cooler than Earth,

A new project, or "What are you thinking?"

2010-09-25T00:31:00.000-05:00

So, I was about to start the rough draft of another book for Kilian and Aishe. I love them as much as ever, and enjoy writing about them. But I was looking at my query letters, and thinking about the business of writing, and it made me consider what my options are. I love writing. I think I have a book that has the potential to be published. But there's more to being accepted than being a good

A strange new world...

2010-09-01T18:28:00.000-05:00

Today I started sending out query letters. There's nothing I find more difficult than selling myself. That might be why I have a Master's Degree but I'm working a minimum wage job. That said, if I'm ever going to find anything worth selling myself for, it's a book I've spent more of the last 2 years writing, polishing, editing and rebuilding line by line. It's still a bit longer than most

Progress Report: June

2010-06-30T21:01:00.000-05:00

Tonight I put "The End" on the Rough Draft of Aurori's Gambit. It's 109000 words and 33 chapters. I'll give it the customary rest on my laptop before I go through the re-write stage. It has a different feel than the first book. Still plenty of action. But also lots of character, and family development, and intrigue. All in all, I'm pleased. And I think it puts my characters in a good place for

The USMNT's World Cup 2010 Postmortem

2010-06-30T11:21:00.000-05:00

It was a good, not great World Cup. And it was a World Cup that will be frustrating to those of us who've been fans of the sport for a lifetime already because we think it was a missed opportunity. No doubt winning the Group for the first time since 1930 counts as an important achievement. Especially when it contains a traditional power like England, even if they were overrated this World Cup.

On frustrating draws that turn out well.

2010-06-19T16:10:00.000-05:00

Footy is a cruel sport. Almost certainly the cruelest of all sports. That was illustrated when a rightful victory by the US was stolen (in Victory fashion) by a referee who still has not and seemingly cannot explain his rationale for the decision. This after allowing a Slovenian defender to throw Jozy Altidore to the ground and allowing Clint Dempsey to get away without a card on an exceedingly

My thoughts on US-England and Group C

2010-06-13T16:11:00.000-05:00

At the beginning of the US-England match, I thought I would be groaning for two hours. The goal by Steven Gerrard was well taken and a fine run. But Ricardo Clark was caught ball-watching and ought to have been able to track him better than he did. That said, from that time through most of the first half, the US had the majority of possession and legitimately looked the more menacing side. Dolo

Don't try to get my attention for the next month...

2010-06-12T09:53:00.000-05:00

I'll be busy watching the World Cup for the next month. I can't even tell you how much writing I'll get done. When I got married (a dozen years ago tomorrow), my friends put together a video. The first thing they asked was, "How can you get married during the World Cup?" We rented a hotel room to watch the infamously disastrous US-Iran match in 1998. I'm watching Argentina and Nigeria now.

One of those crazy writing events.

2010-06-02T18:32:00.000-05:00

Well, I reached a rather thorny part of Aurori's Gambit today. And I responded to it as I almost always do when my characters get in a dangerous spot, by writing a whole ton until I finally get them back into something resembling 'normal' again. I pounded through 24 pages of notes today. Aurori's Blood is 57000 words and 17 chapters now. I'm fairly certain I'm about halfway through, judging by my

On the end of 'Lost'

2010-05-24T09:13:00.000-05:00

For six seasons I watched this show. That's easily longer than I followed any other show. Even though I like Babylon 5 and Alias more than Lost (and in order those are my three favorite TV shows of my lifetime) in both the case of B5 and Alias, I came on board late to those shows. For B5, I saw only glimpses of the show until it got on TNT and I was able to watch seasons 1-4 on the wind-up to

Where to now?

2010-05-15T06:28:00.000-05:00

Well, I've got Aurori's Blood about as edited as I can for the present. I think I'm going to give it another month, maybe two, and let things fallow in my head. Then I'm going to give it one more run through with the comb and decide if it works. In the meantime, I've started writing the first chapter of Aurori's Gambit. Which will be book two. I've got notes for scenes considerably further on,

Progress Report

2010-05-02T16:49:00.001-05:00

It's taken two full edits of my 2nd draft, but I'm just about under 140,000 words. So I should be able to start a copy edit of Aurori's Blood here in the next week. I'm happy with the story. I can see why most books suggest a simple 3 act plot for a first novel. I think the major part of my problems with word count have been my ambition in the storylines of the book. Update: Third draft (or is

A day all fine folk should revel.

2010-04-23T15:23:00.000-05:00

Tis "Talk Like Shakespeare Day." So let us wish happy birthday to the Bard by granting that tis much ado on this day. Yay, ye should all woo thy significant personage with the appropriate verbiage. And if that fails lament that they dost not comprehend the blessing they hath received to receive a boon companion of such find breeding. So mine cousins all, rejoice and celebrate. And I shall take

Should I use a pen name.

2010-04-16T13:56:00.000-05:00

There's a poll to the right here I've added. I'd like to make up my mind on this before I start sending letters off to agents and publishers, the one thing on this everyone agrees on is that it's important to use 'right from the start' if you use one. I have to say "Gillogly" is hard to spell, harder to pronounce and easy to trace. Those are all bad for an author. On the other hand, it's a very

Good News and Bad News

2010-04-14T18:11:00.000-05:00

The Good news is, I put "The End" on the second draft of Aurori's Blood. And I think it's a solid story. There's plenty of action, I like Kilian and Aishe more than ever. And there's good intrigue to set things up for future installments. I think it's a well-written story. Anyone who's too high-brow to accept there's well-written fantasy will disagree, but then I think most 'literary fiction' is

The end (of the draft) is nigh

2010-04-11T18:26:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm coming down to the last couple chapters of my second edit of Aurori's Blood. I think I'll be on my final edit the next time around. There's four secondary plots that will be excised from the book to bring word count down. 1) I'm going to remove Gerld (Kilian's nephew/apprentice) from Book 1 and move them into central characters for the new book 2. This should free up a good bit of

The vaguaries of my writing process.

2010-04-04T19:49:00.000-05:00

I was working on my rewrite of Aurori's Blood today. And I was thinking I had run short of pages, as I was working away from my printer. What made it worse was I realized almost 2 pages of what I had with me from the rough draft was a plotline I've decided to excise from the book. I was thinking I would run out of work and be frustrated. But then my head started spinning out ideas for Book 2's

As promised...

2010-04-02T15:44:00.001-05:00

I have started a new politically oriented blog titled "Ranger's Arrows." It can be found here. So it is my intention to keep my political rants and comments off this blog as much as possible in the future and keep this to my 'project' blog. That said, I'm pretty sure I'll still do my footy and other 'fun' posting here. I think I've solved my word-count dilemma. I'll know for sure after I finish

Truth in Advertising

2010-03-31T12:40:00.003-05:00

The sycophants in the Lamestream media are telling us that "the right wing" is violent, homophobic, race-hating and resorting to violence on Democratic "leaders" because we didn't get our way. They also tell us that to say that there are extremists on BOTH sides who engage in this reprehensible behavior is 'inflammatory and untrue.' The left 'never' resorts to this, they tell us.I have a one word

Oh dear, more 'change' we didn't need.

2010-03-31T01:27:00.002-05:00

FOXNews.com - Sallie Mae Blames 2,500 Layoffs on Obama's Student Loan OverhaulPosted using ShareThis2500 jobs lost in the Student Loan industry thanks to the nationalization of that industry as part of Obamacare. Of course, this was slid into the bill as a payoff late and almost no one knew it was there. And there was never a debate about it. But Sallie better not attribute that to this bill, or

Congress should live under its own laws, no?

2010-03-29T08:23:00.003-05:00

If Congress thinks its laws are so great, then why do they continually make themselves exempt from them? ObamaCare is yet another example. So I'm all in favor of the link below as a Constitutional Amendment.http://www.redstate.com/theancientmariner/2010/03/29/proposed-28th-amendment-to-end-congressional-double-standards/

Word Counts and Dilemmas

2010-03-26T09:03:00.002-05:00

Well, when I started writing my story (closing in on a year ago now for the first draft) I looked through my books on writing. But one subject none of them ever touched on was; "How long is too long?" So I set a rather arbitrary target length of 150,000 words, which the rough draft more or less came in at (159k, to be exact).I expected the re-write to reduce my word count. But there were parts I

March status report

2010-03-19T19:29:00.002-05:00

So right now I've just passed 100,000 words in the re-write of Aurori's Blood. There's been parts I've kept more or less intact, and other parts I've changed dramatically. The section I'm on right now is a section I've spent a great deal of massaging all along on. So now there's not a lot of 'changing' to do, other than conforming it to changes I've already made.Chief among those changes is

An MLS strike?

2010-03-12T13:37:00.002-06:00

The MLS players' union voted to go on strike if there is not a deal by the time their season is supposed to start, that is March 25th. Realistically, it seems likely that there is little chance a deal will be done in time. Putting aside my frustration with the fact it always seems to be American sports that have their seasons' canceled because the sides insist waiting until doomsday to negotiate

Moving right along...

2010-03-06T20:30:00.002-06:00

Well, here we are in March. And it took me longer to get started with the rewrite of what was A Golem, a Witch and a Wardrobe and is now titled Aurori's Blood. But I am 40,000 words into the rewrite and I have added a couple scenes and wrinkles I like while still doing quite a bit to clean up the verbiage. At first I thought that I would be sure to follow Stephen King's "rewrite= 1st draft - 10%

Thoughts on US-Netherlands

2010-03-03T16:48:00.003-06:00

1) Everyone is going to say Bornstein had a bad game for the US. But the truth is, he had a great game...for the Dutch. Scored 1 goal for them and assisted on the other. How could Holland have asked for more out of him? At this point we all know Bob Bradley is going to find a way to bring him to South Africa and play him. What the coach sees in him the rest of us do not I don't know. So I've just

So this is "Post Partisan"?

2010-02-18T21:47:00.005-06:00

Here's what a contributor to WaPo says about the actions of an insane domestic terrorist today.http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/02/_joseph_stack_was_angry.html"I am struck by how his alienation is similar to that we're hearing from the extreme elements of the Tea Party movement." Now...this would be true if the WaPo had actually bothered to accurately quote the attacker.

Back to work

2010-02-17T20:25:00.004-06:00

Well, I was a bit behind on my schedule because of some personal RL issues. But I started work on the second draft of "Golem"...which now bears a new working title; Aurori's Blood. Right now I am reworking chapter two. I have made a few changes to Kilian. And I have made Aishe a year younger to keep things believable in terms of the setting. But I am happy in general with both of them as

So Washington is broken, but they want us to think they can fix it?

2010-01-29T13:24:00.002-06:00

The President's policies caused unemployment to jump from 7.6% when he took office to 10%--and in real terms, counting those who've given up on finding work, over 17%. This despite the fact that he claims that he 'created 2 million jobs.' Well, seeing as many of those "jobs" are in Congressional Districts that don't exist, and many others simply cannot be placed. And seeing how the only sectors

Merry Christmas, from the US Senate

2009-12-19T14:38:00.003-06:00

On Christmas Eve, the US Senate will vote to end the Republic. By co-opting yet another 1/6th the US economy, by refusing to listen to the will of the populace, 60% of whom are against this Health Care monstrosity, including BOTH the Left AND Right blogospheres. By usurping our freedom of choice. By subverting the Constitution and forcing Americans to spend their money on an item that should be a

One of these things is not like the other...

2009-12-10T05:22:00.002-06:00

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/7-companies-that-may-not-see-2020.aspx#uc2AddAnd I'll tell you which one I think it is.Borders; now, let me put my cards on the table here. I'm not simply a fan of the faux community stores try to build (Borders, Barnes and Nobles, Starbucks stand up) or the cheap way 'community' is thrown around in modern society in general. Community

Book Excerpt: Old Enemies, Newly Met

2009-12-05T12:03:00.000-06:00

Camuel looked over the camp. His Kezdeményez could not yet endure the light of the sun. They took refuge from its glare in a cave a mile east. Camuel squinted in the light of the orb. He rarely traveled under it. But he had raced northeast to make his way here in the night, only to find himself this scant distance short from his quarry. He paced the camp and looked at her broken circle. “Your

December Status Update

2009-12-02T07:10:00.003-06:00

Well, despite the proliferation of non-writing related rants recently, I really 'am' making progress with my writing. Of Cabals and Covens (book 2) is now at 147000 words. I think the 'rough' draft of that will hit the shelf next week. (And that is a true 'rough' draft. Not nearly the polish I want on it yet.) After that, it's time to pull out Golem once more and get to work on the rewrite and

Notes on a half-baked speech.

2009-12-02T06:56:00.002-06:00

So, the "Commander-in-Chief" (his term) of the US Military said that we should fight a war that is "necessary" and "in our vital National Security interests" for 18 months and then quit--regardless of the status at the time.The "Commander-in-Chief" (his words, again) said that it was his predecessor Pres. Bush's fault that he was having to do this. Never mind the historical record and the

This week's evidence the Duopoly is a disaster.

2009-12-01T02:50:00.002-06:00

http://mccain.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressOffice.PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=47538b18-beb4-65f7-e213-6b8bde316f71Erick Erickson (whom I respect) over at Redstate.com called this 'frustrating.' I have to ask, what do we expect? The washington bureaucracy is garbage-in, garbage-out. McCain is just playing the typical Senate game, give something to get something and everyone gets

Why do Conservatives buy Mainstream Media tripe?

2009-11-21T19:06:00.002-06:00

http://thenextright.com/lgm/palin-incompetence1) I am not saying I am on the Sarah Palin bandwagon. But anyone saying she doesn't have the experience or the knowledge to hold the office is too busy reading the Daily Kos and Democratic Talking Points to recognize that Palin now is more experienced politically than Obama was when he WON office. And she has had to deal with a far more hostile

Book Excerpt: The Way of Escape

2009-11-18T09:45:00.001-06:00

Aishe had gotten a poor trade in the village on the food she had bought. But it was better than nothing. She had spared enough to buy a pouch for storage as well. She had given the leather strap a good tug twice on her walk back. It had not broken so she thought it would serve for a time. She considered the road as she began her walk back. “Not that I do not believe my father. But I would rather

What really was 'stimulated' anyway?

2009-11-18T09:04:00.003-06:00

This article says all you need to know about the mess that was the Porkulus package. "http://business.theatlantic.com/2009/10/should_the_stimulus_saving_or_creating_650000_jobs_impress_us.php" But I'll add this: we are now printing money to pay for our debt because no one else will loan us money anymore. Unemployment is higher now than the Administration's own estimates of what it would be WITH

More weird stuff in my writing habits.

2009-11-12T07:54:00.002-06:00

For some authors I really admire, the plot is going to happen no matter what. They're good authors, or I wouldn't hold them in regard. But for them, the character is going to find a way to win (or die) no matter what. The fun is in making what happens believable. One of the authors to my right has said this in no uncertain terms. That's his style and it works for him and I could only pray I am as

Election Results

2009-11-04T16:45:00.003-06:00

The GOP is spinning last night like it was a resounding triumph for them. New Jersey was a big win. Virginia is a state they should win. But losing NY-23 was foolish and unnecessary. It also illustrates that the duopoly is more interested in protecting itself than expressing ideals.The Republicans picked up the most liberal Republican the State of New York could find and then had her run in a

November Status Report

2009-11-03T08:48:00.004-06:00

Well, I got a lot of writing done this month. I wrote what I found to be a very challenging section in Of Cabals and Covens which I think came out well and causes Aishe to grow as a character. The manuscript for that now stands at 94000 words. I think it'll end up being a fair amount shorter than Golem, but there's more intrigue and more varied scenes. It's a more complicated book in terms of

Today's Segment on Buyer Remorse

2009-10-26T11:35:00.006-05:00

"http://http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/oct/26/hotbutton-60387717/?feat=home_columns"Ok, let's be honest here. I despise oppressive government. And yes, Obama is being oppressive. But I really don't feel sorry for people in West Virginia and Pennsylvania who voted for Pres. Obama despite his promise to bankrupt their coal industry. He didn't hide it. It came out in the General Election. He

Book Excerpt: Life Without the Courage for Death is Slavery

2009-10-26T07:17:00.001-05:00

Marko was waiting for his daughter as she came to the cave they had prepared for the enchanting. It was hidden by the undergrowth. He had a fire burning deep within the cavern to ensure the smoke did not give away the refuge. He ate venison for breakfast. He had just finished when his daughter entered the cave. He could see she wore a brown traveling dress, still with flower prints, but much

My Weird Writing Habits

2009-10-22T06:00:00.003-05:00

I have no idea if this is common with other people who write or not. But the pattern for me has become so predicatable that I can see it coming for days before it happens. Maybe this will make you laugh. Maybe you'll just think I'm nuts. maybe both. Perhaps it will actually make sense to someone besides me (though I doubt it, hehe).When I write and things are unfolding without a huge amount of

Why I am done with the Republican Party.

2009-10-17T08:31:00.002-05:00

Start by reading this: http://michellemalkin.com/2009/10/16/calling-them-out-nrcc-rnc-gingrich-back-margaret-sanger-award-winner/Now, if this were an isolated incident, I could almost swallow this. But it's not. The Republican leadership is also backing Charlie Crist instead of the more conservative (and, by the polls, electable) Rubio for Senate in Florida. And there are other quite nauseating

October Update

2009-10-14T02:21:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been a tad neglectful of this the past couple weeks. I can't really say there's a good reason why.I did a rework of the outline for 'Cabal' (Book 2 of the Historical Fantasy). And Book 1 (Golem) is getting looked at every week as part of the review process but is still being allowed to 'fallow.' The new outline for Cabal is much cleaner. Lots of backtracking for the sake of

“Take the world as it is, not as it ought to be.” - Book Excerpt

2009-09-28T15:27:00.001-05:00

Schoenbrunn Palace,Wien, AustriaMay 9th, 1590 “So Kilian, how long have you known Mellaco?” Kilian danced a variation of a galliard he was not quite proficient with yet, so he missed the question. “Ermm, Kilian, I appreciate the concern for my toes. But I had asked how long have you known Mellaco?” His partner’s eyes twinkled as she asked the question. Her sideways glances despite her corset were

More evidence Rep. Wilson didn't lie.

2009-09-27T13:37:00.004-05:00

Pres Obama said the Health Care bill would not raise taxes. That's what he was specifically called out by Rep. Wilson for saying. But once again...our President forgot to read the bill before he spoke about it. Here's an inconvenient truth right from the text of Sen. Baucus' bill:Page 29, sentence one of the bill introduced by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont) says: “The

And this is the Chicago Way

2009-09-23T14:23:00.004-05:00

Pay for play? Nah...how could this be pay for play? It's just how things are done in Chicago-on-the-Potomac.And yes, it *is* clearly a violation of campaign finance laws. But then, the Democrats let ACORN do that all the time.http://campaignspot.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NThiYjA3ODNiN2MwOTJkMTFjYzQ1MjJmYjcyMmIwNGQ=

Short Status Update.

2009-09-18T14:18:00.003-05:00

I finished editing the Rough Draft last night. I'm still doing a peer review with it. And I'll check each chapter again as I send it out. But for the moment, it's on the shelf for the most part for a month or so. Then I'll take it down for the rewrite. Hopefully by Spring '10 at the latest I'll be ready to start 'campaigning' for A Golem, A Witch and a Wardrobe (or whatever the final title is) to

Well, I was having a nice writing day...then I saw this.

2009-09-16T17:29:00.004-05:00

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/sep/16/obama-wh-collects-web-users-data/?source=newsletter_must-read-stories-today_photo_featureSo much for privacy and personal freedom on the internet. This goes right along with Jay Rockefeller and his wish 'the Internet was never invented.' Did anyone expect a Chicago politician who surrounded himself with Chicago politicians to actually not resort to

A Man Changed by Disaster- Amias Ze'ev: Excerpt

2009-09-16T02:02:00.002-05:00

Stare MestoMay 1st, 1588 The man was tall, gaunt, and bald except for his skullcap. His wife had never lost all her pregnancy weight from their son. But she carried it well on comfortable hips and shoulders. She was almost as tall as the man and she had well-worn laugh lines around her eyes. Their son had not taken after their height, as of yet. But he was a bright boy and loved the

The most unimpressive six points I've seen...

2009-09-09T20:32:00.003-05:00

The USA had what will look like a great week on the standings. Six points from two matches. It's likely they will sit top of the group at the end of the day. But the manner in which they performed in both matches was disturbing. Shocking lapses in defense in both matches. Bornstein's "clearance" in the El Salvador game was shocking and only matched by Howard's desire to go on walkabout. This

So...is that stimulus working?

2009-09-08T07:49:00.003-05:00

Think the Mainstream Media will touch this?http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iZjENhg4--bQB_o5w9YFrwVvlBnQNote the emphasis that the report puts on 'stimulus spending' being a bad thing economically. The solution to our economic issues is not to encourage more debt. It's to bite the bullet, get out of debt and encourage our citizens to do the same. More borrowing only invites

Progress report; September Edition

2009-09-07T14:52:00.002-05:00

So, I've edited 2/3rds of A Golem, A Witch and A Wardrobe. Yeah, I know, I still need a permanent title for it. I work on that in the mornings during the week when I don't have schoolwork to get done or when I have less than an hour to work (as it takes me about an hour to settle into a writing groove, but I can edit without preamble). I'm 58 pages and 29k words into the second book; Of Cabals

Excerpt from My novel- Meet Kilian Kohler.

2009-09-06T02:10:00.004-05:00

“Good evening, Lady D’Aoust.” Kilian smiled and sketched a bow before the petite, olive-skinned lady. She looked up at the German and smiled, “Greetings.” She curtsied in reply. “And who do I have the privilege of meeting?” “I am Kilian Kohler, from Brandenburg, my lady.” “And I would gather since you know my name, you know where I am from?” Kilian affected a blush and nodded. “Yes

Here's an interesting situation...

2009-09-02T07:31:00.003-05:00

Seems that the major breweries are raising prices at the same time. Earlier this year, they cut prices together too. Here's the story.http://abcnews.go.com/Business/TheBigMoney/higher-beer-prices-raise-red-flag/story?id=8458381They suggest an anti-trust review. I'd like that, to be sure. But here's a better idea...Buy from a local microbrewery. Your beer will be better quality, have more taste,

So, if Jay Rockefeller has his way, will I be shut down?

2009-08-30T09:57:00.007-05:00

Watch this... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct9xzXUQLuYSen. Rockefeller is proposing a law that can be used to remove any pretense of 'net neutrality' from the country. Seeing as the tool for an opposition--any opposition--in a republic is the effective dissemination of information, this is nothing less than fear-mongering in the hopes of stifling dissent.http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-

Just a tease

2009-08-20T08:21:00.002-05:00

Here's a bit from the beginning of the first book: