The 2nd Draft is Complete!

March 28, 2008 at 8:25 am · Filed under Books, Publishing, Writing

I can’t even begin to convey to you the excitement that I am feeling right now! When I completed my first draft several weeks ago I was happy, but not elated. I knew that even though I had a full manuscript in my hands, it was still far from complete. But Yesterday morning at 10:29 am I completed my second draft.

It’s massive, isn’t it? (The manuscript, jackass!)

This is significant because up until this point I would never even have considered showing it to anyone. It simply wasn’t ready for prying eyes. Some of the things that I have written about in my book are of a sensitive nature and I had to be sure that I was portraying things how I truly intended to portray them. It’s a nonfiction book, true. But even cold hard facts can sound as if they are slanted one way or another if one is not careful with their writing.

“Five Years” compared to our local phone book.

Because my book began as a collection of stories rather than as the start of a novel, I was worried when I first decided to attempt the conversion of the stories into a novel because I wasn’t sure that there would be enough content for a book. Boy was I wrong. At over 130,000 words and 600 pages (76 of which are a glossary), this thing is a behemoth. It is to me anyway.

Before this the longest document I had ever written was a feature length screenplay. Even that couldn’t compare to the mass behind 600 pages (printed on one side because my printer sucks) of sea stories. On a related note, I’ve also received my copy of “Youji Haiku,” which holds the honor of being the very first book ever in print with my name on it! Okay, so it’s a print-on-demand publisher and I’m the only one in the galaxy who will likely ever own one because the retail price for the book is astronomical, but I’m proud all the same.

Hell yeah! It’s the first book ever printed with my name on it!

And so the persistent march toward publication of my book continues. I’ve been scanning photos all morning for inclusion in a black and white insert that will be found in the center of the book. You’ve probably seen examples of this in books that you have read in the past. I plan to use LuLu again, but this time only to print special Reader Copies which will go only to my closest and most trusted friends and associates for review. The chosen few will know who they are very soon.

Take care all!

JMK

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Isn’t Writing Fun?

March 24, 2008 at 4:41 am · Filed under Books, Publishing, Writing

Well folks, after 5 years of work I’m roughly fifty percent complete with a 2nd draft of my book. And no, a book doesn’t normally take 5 years to write. My problem, and the reason for taking so long, was that when I began this project back in 2003 I wasn’t planning on writing a book. This thing was only supposed to be a collection of memories from my Navy days.

As I continued to write (and I completely stopped writing in the 2nd year for many months) I began to notice that some of the stories I was recording were pretty interesting. As any kid with a vivid imagination might, I began to picture big name movie stars playing the part of me in a movie about, well me. Sean Connery would have been perfect in his younger days. Brad Pitt might do an okay job.

Anyhow, the point is that the document began to evolve. Soon I was challenging myself to turn individual stories into entire chapters. Of course, for someone like myself who likes to type, that was an easy task. In fact, the creative side of things has proven to be a cake walk. The hard part has come in the editing phase.

With two little children demanding most of my attention from 2 - 10 every afternoon it has turned into a sort of game. I’ll get them laid down for their afternoon naps, grab a soda, and head to the office to edit. But just as I sink my teeth into a bad paragraph or an unnecessary story, they wake up crying. I think they know when I’m editing.

Add to that the fact that my printer is apparently possessed by the devil and you can begin to see why editing is proving to be so difficult. When editing I like to print out a hard copy of anything I’m working on so that I can actually hold a physical copy in my hands like a real book. I feel that it edits better if it is being read as intended, rather than on a tiny little computer screen. But when I tried to print “5 years” I got a jigsaw puzzle instead of a book. The first ten or so pages printed just fine, but then it skipped to the last ten and proceeded to print ten from somewhere in the middle, and so on.

So, after hours and hours of messing with my printer, and after using up an entire forest’s worth of paper, I finally figured out that I would have to abandon the 2-sided printing operation. Now I have six hundred pages stacked up on my desk, single sided and double-spaced. This is an incredible waste, I know. Blame HP for building crappy printers ten years ago.

Actually, I have two stacks of three hundred pages each on my desk because I’ve already waded through the first half of my book. Despite all of my troubles along the way, I have to say that this feels incredibly good! At one point I had a problem with entire chapters disappearing and I began to wonder if the Navy Intelligence Community was making that happen because of my decision to write candidly about them. Believe me, they can do that.

But if they were I have apparently solved the problem by saving my book down to something like eight different locations anytime I modify it. It’s a strange feeling to sit down at the computer to write only to find that you have to re-write something that you know for sure that you had already written. It’s a bit like having a memory stolen from you. If it wasn’t the Navy then I blame Bill Gates and his crappy PC based OS. I am, after all, a Macintosh user through and through, despite the fact that work on my book has been done nearly 80% of the time on a PC. When it sells, I will remedy that fact.

Anyway, that’s where I am now. I have 300 pages left to edit by hand and then I have only to make the changes to my soft copies. At that point this thing will be ready to be seen by prying eyes. I’ve cut entire chapters in editing, and added new sub-chapters elsewhere. This book really is something new now, and I can’t wait to see how people respond to it!

Stay tuned.

JMK

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Writer’s Block

March 21, 2008 at 4:48 am · Filed under Writing

Why do I always start these things out with the word well followed by a comma? Well, today the answer might have to do with my writer’s block. I’ve got a 100% complete rough draft of my book to be editing, but at the moment that sounds like taking a package of sandpaper to my nether regions “just to smooth things out a bit.” Meanwhile I’m trying to secure another freelance job so I can help my wife pay our bills, and all the while I’ve gone four days without posting anything here at Words From.

Fear not dear readers, for I have not retired. My witty remarks and constant deluge of anger will continue to spew forth, I just need to find some motivation this week. I know, Friday is an unlikely day to look for motivation to get through the week. Sunday or Monday might have been better choices for the task. But then I’ve never been one to jump on that band wagon. It’s a fad, really, making smart choices. People who are prone to fads have no stability whatsoever, and I’m looking for a stable place to drop anchor here.

At some point I’m just going to have to don my damned wet suit and dive down to search for pearls. If I don’t resurface for a while it’s because I’m working with sandpaper and that never goes fast under water. Right now I’ve got a 127,000 word (600 pages including the glossary) behemoth on my hands that could really use some quality time with the hedge trimmer for the purpose of slimming down. Anyway, I think I’ve mixed enough metaphors into this sorry excuse for a blog post, so I’ll just leave you hanging here for now.

JMK

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Luck of the Irish!

March 17, 2008 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Excitement, Holidays

Last night my wife and I were watching the news and we saw a story together that made us both go, “Wow, cool!” It seems that somewhere in this valley is a good samaritan with a sense of humor and some wealthy friends in the leprechaun community. A local Grand Junction citizen stepped off the GVT bus yesterday and noticed something out of place underneath the bench at his bus stop. He decided to take a closer look; it was the best decision he had made all day.

What the unknown man found was a little, black, plastic pot full of gold Sacagawea dollars. That’s right, he had found himself a little pot of gold on St. Patrick’s day! I refer to him as “the unknown man” because despite my wife and I both having seen the story, I can find no reference to it at our daily paper (Grand Junction Daily Sentinel) nor at any of our local television news station websites (KREX, KJCT, KKCO, KFQX). Apparently it’s not big enough news to keep reporting.

My wife Carolyn and I both thought that this was pretty damned interesting though. To whoever left that little cache for someone to find, I’d like to say thank you! It was refreshing to see a story that was 100% positive! I don’t even known the guy who found your gift, but I imagine that it really made his day! I’ve often thought that if I were rich I would like to spend some time committing random acts of philanthropy like you have here.

Thank you for the inspiration!

JMK

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The 21st Century G.I. Bill

March 14, 2008 at 7:24 am · Filed under Government, Military, Money

This is just a short note on a very important legislative movement to return the education benefits afforded our veterans to the levels they existed at in the post World War II era. At that time our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines were given full tuition, had all their textbooks purchased for them, and were given a monthly stipend. The 21st Century G.I. Bill will make the modern benefits equal to those given in the past.

For more information or to sign the official petition as a citizen co-sponsor, go to Congressman Mark Udall’s website. There is a short video that gives some background on the project that is well worth the two minutes required to watch it. If you are a veteran, are serving on active duty, or know someone who falls into either of these categories, it is essential that you show your support by signing this petition.

The Link: http://www.markudall.com/page/s/GIBill

Thanks!

JMK

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