Long Time

It's been a while since I posted on my blog. I am alive and well and living life to the fullest. I hope that all you who stop by to visit are doing great too. For the last year and a half, my employment has been in transition and I finally decided to neglect something in an attempt to find balance in my life - so my blog got put on hold. Sometimes a guy just can't do everything!! (And in my case, it's not just sometimes!)

When I can, I've been working on my fiction novel, "The Treasure of El Grado Escaso" and it is coming along wonderfully. Here is a little snipit from the novel (copyrighted by me of course). This is the final paragraph from Chapter 8: As background, Craik Torres is definitely a bad guy and Jen is the heroine of my story. The scene takes place within a sunken ship at 155 feet below the surface of the ocean near Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. I hope you enjoy...

"The bloodstained, underwater weapons moved closer. Craik’s tanned head entered the darkened hold. His thick black hair waved through the suspended silt like recently mowed sea grass strewn with copious quantities of plankton. He came on steadily. Jen was frozen. Her breath was caught in her throat. The big man turned. Wide, sea foam green eyes were met by an icy glare. From three short feet away, Jen gaped at the lean, rawboned visage of Craik Torres. Any traces of mercy that the diving guide may have possessed, any immoral desires he once harbored for Jen, any loyalty he once pretended to have, were all gone, completely swept away by his latest lust for what lay scattered within the sunken hold of La Niña Perezosa. Murder flickered in his light brown eyes. Jen’s heart stopped. It was as though she had lifted the black cowl of the grim reaper and was now staring point blank into his foreboding face. For a split second, time stood still. Then, like a merciless winter storm raging across Montana, Craik lunged to snuff out Jen’s life."

Who Do You Write Like?

This morning I found a fun place to start my day. I visited Deirdra Eden Coppel's blog and found a very cool widget! I followed the link to a program that analyses a person's writing style: http://iwl.me/
Rather curious about comparing my own writing style to the styles of others, I posted a small sample of my new novel, "Treasure of El Grado Escaso" and the analysis said that:

I write like
Ernest Hemingway

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I then posted a much bigger sample of the "in progress" novel and it still said that I write like Ernest Hemingway.
I next posted several excerpts from my yet unpublished book, "Three Seconds On, Three Seconds Off" (about my growing up on a lighthouse on the west coast of Canada) for analysis and it said:

I write like
Edgar Allan Poe

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

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For my third and final post, I uploaded some of my novel, "In Ravenscrag's Shadow" and it said:

I write like
Stephen King

I Write Like by Mémoires, journal software. Analyze your writing!

I'm most definitely flattered!

Treasure of El Grado Escaso - My New Novel

OK, OK, enough serious blog posts. Several weeks ago, I mentioned my new work of fiction, and here I am, as promised, to tell you about the excitement.

It all began in November 2010, when my wife Diana and I went to Mexico with some friends. I went scuba diving 13 times and was awed at the sights and sounds of the southern Baja Peninsula, or "Baja Mexico Sur" as it is locally known. Before the trip, I wondered if my holiday should include doing a little research for some future writing, but when I was immersed in Mexico, my decision was obvious. How could I be surrounded by such an awesome place and not put pen to paper? 

During the vacation, one of our group coined the name of a perfect Mexican fictional character for my future writing pleasure - Rico Suave. I liked the name and as our time ticked by, I took more and more photographs to support my future creative writing. As our trip drew to an end, one of the group proposed a scenario where each member of our group randomly picked five numbers from 1 to 1500 (the number of photographs my wife and I had taken). I would then match the random numbers to the corresponding photos, put the photos together and then craft a story based on those photos. (I've included 12 of the photos in this post.) And who was to be the star of this crazy story? You guessed it, our fictional Mexican,  Rico Suave. I even got a title suggestion, "Los Aventuras de Rico Suave" - Spanish for "The Adventures of Rico Suave".
Well, the challenge was accepted and the story begun. I identified the 25 photos, added 5 of my own (not picked at random), and began to write. But the lessons I learned from writing "In Ravenscrag's Shadow" quickly rose to meet my excited efforts. Where is your plot? How do I incorporate these 30 photographs? Who is Enrico Suave? Who are the other characters? What do these people look like? What motivates them and drives the story forward? What kind of story is this anyway?

With these questions and more bouncing off my cranium like a surrounding barrage of attacks in the 1980's video game of Asteroids, I stopped writing and began preparing. First, I decided what kind of guy Rico Suave was. Then, I created a back story to support him. It took longer than I imagined it would, but when I was done, I had a deep rooted character of substance - a character that could last for a series of books - if I wanted him to. Next, I developed a plot, followed by a character arc for Mr. Suave. I then began filling in the other characters, giving them life and personality-fuel so they would add to the story. Next, I decided that because I had multiple story lines, that I needed a chronology to keep the lines separate in my head and to be able to mesh the contemporary story lines at the appropriate moments - you know, "we interrupt this exciting story line with another exiting story line". And somewhere in the middle of all this process, the title of the book changes several times. I finally settled on the perfect title, "Treasure of El Grado Escaso".

As I was working on the chronology (which I still am), I made the decision to incorporate as many actual facts into the story as I could. I am capable of making things up, but why do that when there are so many awesome things in the world of reality. And besides, when I read a fiction novel, I assume that a certain portion of the book is factual - and I very much like that. So I researched and researched and researched! I sent out emails to people who could expand my understanding of certain tools my characters would use (Like the versatile Foldspear my heroine will defend herself with or the very cool SOG pocket knife sported by one of my bad guys). I enjoyed researching, but was anxious to begin writing. As I worked on the chronology, I would catch myself writing expansions of the notes. I mean, how could I not. The scenes were just begging to be written - twisting my arms!
And so, here I am, my larger-than-it-should-be chronology is nearly done. My major characters are mostly complete (I've made character reference sheets for each). I have 30 great photographs, a great title, great back stories for my major characters, great locations for the plot to unfurl, great land and sea adventures in southern Baja, great gadgets, great bad guys, exciting treasure, great twists and turns, great romance, great heartache and of course, a great hero - and so far you only know the short version of his name, "Enrico Suave".
Stay tuned...
The adventure is only beginning...