Somebody said that writing the second novel is harder than the first.

Oh, wait, it was Daniel J. Hogan.  And he said it here.

I definitely get where he’s coming from.  I have been far more attentive to The Glass Crown’s shortcomings, as I write them, than I was to those in The Remembrance.  I know that once I finish, there will be rewriting and editing galore to make the story flow coherently, and to fill in gaps and inconsistencies.

The Remembrance seemed to flow out of me, once I really got going.  I feel like I’m prying out the Glass Crown with a crowbar, word by word.  For The Remembrance, getting the stuff in my head onto paper was my primary focus.  For The Glass Crown, I want to get the stuff out of my head, and put it onto paper WELL.  That’s a whole different class of intimidating.

The pic shows two copies of The Remembrance, my first novel, on the Michigan Writers shelf at Everybody Reads Books & Stuff.  That’s on East Michigan in Lansing, next to Gone Wired and across the street from Emil’s.  Location, location, location!
They carry everything from fiction to progressive politics to family tragedy to green living. If they didn’t have something that I was looking for, they ordered it for me. I can’t rave enough about this place.
In other news, Fight or Flight, a webcomic written by me and illustrated by Richard Schlaack, continues to chug along.  It updates with either comics or sketches every Friday here.  A paper issue is in the works.
Todd’s story is available via the link to the left (if you’re viewing this on my site, and not via rss).
Is there any place you’d like to see me for a signing? Drop me an email (via the contact page) and I’ll see what I can do!

It only took me three days to devote enough concentration to complete a novel outline.  The Glass Crown has a main story arc, smaller arcs, and each chapter – from the prologue to the epilogue – has a summary.
Instead of being exhausting, the process was energizing. I feel like a rabbit with a drum.  The story was there, just waiting for me to write it down.  I can’t wait to put flesh on these new bones.

It’s time to re-outline The Glass Crown.  The original outline only went up to Chapter 10, and has become increasingly inaccurate.  I need to reconsider, revisit, and rethink the primary story arc, as well as the smaller arcs and which character has been participating in each.  I need to know what the main characters are going to do after the conclusion, and I need to remember what they were doing before the beginning.

So, yeah.  Outline time.

I want you to be able to read my works anywhere you like, anywhen you like, anyhow you like.  So far, making them available in .pdf format, and for free I might add, seemed to cover that pretty well.  Proprietary eReaders and smartphone apps have made things a bit more confusing and difficult, but I figured keeping with one default format was a good way to go.

I’ve decided to give something new a shot.  Wattpad.  They boast apps for nearly every smartphone out there, so I figured that I’d give them a shot.  I checked their copyright agreements to make sure that I retained ownership of my own work, and uploaded both The Remembrance and Todd’s Story.

Using their app on my G1 has been easy on the eyes so far, with the notable exception of stripped formatting.

So, if you’re interested on reading words on your phone, give it a shot.  You can find my works at the following ID numbers:

The Remembrance: 536196

Todd’s Story: 536169