David M. Crampton

Writing the Second Novel

David Crampton — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:20:56 +0000

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.

Self Promotion

David Crampton — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 18:08:13 +0000

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!

Where did that come from?

David Crampton — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 01:06:32 +0000

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.

Progress Report

David Crampton — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 01:10:54 +0000

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.

Reading words on your phone

David Crampton — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 17:18:43 +0000

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

Daily Writing

David Crampton — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 02:55:18 +0000

Writing really is like speaking a language or competing in a sport. If you don’t use it, you lose it. The creativity can atrophy and twist upon itself with disuse. I’m battling that, stretching the limb, working the muscle, practicing the art. I have a paper journal that is seeing some regular use, as well as several blogs scattered throughout this great network of tubes. I’ve also been shown 750words.com, which I’ve spent a little bit of time on. Go ahead, give it a look. It won’t bite. :)

Me, I’m going to see how it works out. The more often I can get the words out of my head, the better.

More, bigger sale!

David Crampton — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:27:38 +0000

I checked back at Amazon.com today, and the sale is even bigger! 69% off! http://amzn.com/1411611748

The Remembrance, on sale!

David Crampton — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 14:27:23 +0000

Strolling around Amazon.com brought me a nice surprise today. They’ve got The Remembrance on sale at 66% off! If price has been a factor, or has even been prohibitive, head on over there and snag a copy today!

Hopefully, you have noticed nothing.

David Crampton — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:13:51 +0000

Anything different around here? Well, I hope not. Though the last month or so have seen some major changes on the back end of the site.

We’re no longer hosted by LiquidWeb. Still being part of Michigan’s unemployed has brought monthly bills to the forefront. So, we’re now with a small, local start-up company called VPS4ALL. (Full disclosure – I’m one of the people starting it up.) Moving from a web-interface hosting solution to one that was command-line only really made me flex some geek muscles that had been out of practice.

All of the differences are behind the scenes, so to speak, in Linux Land, and I hope that it remains that way. If you notice any strangeness with the way that the site behaves, let me know. :)

Call and answer

David Crampton — Sat, 22 May 2010 14:56:16 +0000

DC: *insert random irreverent comment here*
WG: *witty rejoinder*
DC: *mock expression of surprise at your skill with wit followed up with congratulations on progress with the same*
WG: *continuation of sharp commentary, with a sly bit self mockery*
DC: *complete failure to keep up, hasty substitution with gurgling noise*
WG: *chuckling indulgently*
DC: *overused catch phrase*
WG: *expected response to catch phrase, with return catch phrase*
DC: *quote from recently-watched movie and/or TV series*
WG: *laughing hysterically, fond exasperation at said quote*

Post-Penguicon

David Crampton — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:10:31 +0000

My two panels went off pretty well. Saturday’s was standing room only, and Sunday morning’s actually had attendees. I sold a couple of books, got a bunch of badge ribbons, and ran into a crazy amount of friends that I hadn’t seen in forever. All of the webcomic flyers got picked up, and 90% of the badge ribbons are gone. Not to mention that I sold some books!

I uploaded the new pics to my Penguicon gallery.

The writery site has a new WP theme (which you already know if you’re reading this there), which I think is much more clean, crisp, and readable than the last. Feel free to let me know what you think.

PenguiCon!

David Crampton — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 03:28:53 +0000

Looks like my panel schedule hasn’t changed yet. I’ve gone through and added all of the panels that I’d like to attend to my Google Calendar. I was planning on hitting the bar and/or the pool at some point, right? *squints at the double-booking* They have to make their panels so damn interesting…

I’ve got some packing to do, some gathering of my homemade promotional materials, and a double-check of the driving directions. I intend on taking some photos, and linking to others, but I hope to see you there in person. :) The quest begins in earnest tomorrow!

Horoscope

David Crampton — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 22:22:23 +0000

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Taurus genius Irving Berlin (1888-1989) has been called the greatest songwriter who ever lived. Among his 1,500 compositions were iconic tunes like “God Bless America” and “White Christmas,” as well as scores for 18 Hollywood movies and 19 Broadway shows. And yet he never learned to read or write music. Was he embarrassed about his handicap? Not at all. He even bragged about it. He felt that having such a minimal grasp of the conventions of songwriting was an advantage, giving him the freedom to be extraordinarily original. Is there any way in which you’re like Irving Berlin, Taurus? Do you have a seeming limitation that is actually an aid to your creativity and uniqueness? Celebrate it this week.

Penguicon Updates

David Crampton — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 20:11:52 +0000

Badge Ribbons – rescued from the attic!
Copies of The Remembrance and Todd’s Story – received and ready to go!
Panel schedule – received and subject to change!

Methods of Life-Hacking

Methods of life-hacking to make writing easier, such as avoiding/dealing with distraction, mixing job/family/massively multiplayer online game life with writing.

@ Saturday 3PM

w/ David M. Crampton (m), David Erik Nelson, Jim C. Hines

The End is only the beginning… of the work

Following directions isn’t that hard, really. In other words, every time I read an agent or editor or publisher’s blog, there’s an amazing rift between the work put into creating the piece and the work put into shopping the piece around.

@ Sunday 10AM

w/ David M. Crampton, The Ferrett, Sarah Monette (m)

Horoscope

David Crampton — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 20:17:33 +0000

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): I got a spam email containing supposed words of wisdom from the Dalai Lama. “We spend more, but have less,” it said. ”We have more conveniences, but less time; more experts, yet more problems.” It went on like this for a while. I was suspicious. It seemed to contain too many pop platitudes to have been uttered by the Dalai Lama. With Google’s help, I did some research and discovered that the passage was actually the handiwork of pastor Bob Moorehead, who resigned from his Seattle church under a cloud of allegations about misconduct. I urge you to make similar investigations of the ostensible truths you receive this week, Taurus. You may find discrepancies as major as the differences between the Dalai Lama and Bob Moorehead.