"Comes a Horseman" by Robert Liparulo

If you've been following my blog, you may have noticed that about once a month for the past half year I've taken a blog post to talk about a specific book recently come out in Christian publishing. I'm part of a group blogging together on this, and I don't get to choose the books, though I'm sure suggestions are welcome. The idea is to create a buzz about these books, make people aware of their existence, and to see if by this venture, we can bump the sales up a little. It may be difficult to tell exactly how much of a book's sales can be attributed to blog buzz, but it's fun to try, all the same.

It's been kind of interesting to see what kinds of books are coming out from Christian publishers these days. It's exciting to see the variety available; things have really been a'changin' in the past few years. I've had the opportunity to read most of the books that we talk about, though sometimes the books arrive in the wilds of Canada a little too late for me to read them BEFORE we blog about them. And I have to admit, not every title looks like a book I want to read, either.

This months's book, Comes a Horseman by Robert Liparulo is one such book.

Here are a couple of samples of the kind of praise (found on his website) that Robert is gleaning for his story:

"If you like thrillers that are spine chilling and just won't let go of the reader, this book is for you. "
-- Mysteries Galore

"Robert Liparulo has crafted a diabolical thrill ride of a novel that makes the roller coaster at Magic Mountain seem like a speed bump. Part serial killer procedural, part global techno-thriller, part spiritual suspense epic, Comes a Horseman has enough plot twists and action to decode Da Vinci! Highly recommended!"
--Jay Bonansinga, author of Frozen, The Killer's Game, and The Sinking of the Eastland

Um, I have to admit that I've never yet read a book that matched this description in any way, and I'm trying to decide if I'm going to be brave enough when Comes a Horseman shows up in my mailbox.. How much do I need to do in the name of market research? How much do I need to do in the name of supporting fellow new authors? Can I just let my husband read it?

The jury is still out.

50112!!!

I cleared the 50K today, and may even finish the novel tonight. Apparently one of the reasons I revise is to grow novels to an appropriate length... Anyway, whew.

46012

It's interesting. This first draft actually won't be much longer than 50K, but I also don't think I'll have trouble hitting it to start with. Two chapters left to write, and the final one will likely be a bit shorter as it wraps things up. Some threads are already being tied off in today's chapter. I'm a little surprised to be so close to the end of the story, but not worried about lengthening the book to make a more saleable length. My habit is to write short and weave more in later, and this will be no exception, though I do believe I did better than usual at description as I went along.

I wonder what I'll spend December doing, after all? I'm sure my critiques for False Perceptions won't be back that much too early. Hmm.

First I'll finish this, then I'll worry about that. Deal.

I cleared 40000 last night!

WooHoo, I'm on the *home stretch* now. Jumping back in for more words.

36640

Still moving right along. Metaphorically speaking, the sun just went down, and its always darkest just before the dawn. Poor Chloe and Dean.

Hubby is feeling enough better that he left a bit ago for his apartment, hoping to be able to manage two twelve hour day shifts starting tomorrow. You may recall that he'd already booked off this set's night shifts, which is good. He figured the two day shifts seemed manageable.

If there's supposed to be something more to life, I'm not remembering what it might be. Hoping to get to bed early myself tonight; I'm pretty tired (but NOT getting sick. Really not...)

33591

I had another good writing day today, for which I'm thankful. Starting to approach the grand finale for the book, currently estimated out at about 65K. Ish. I cut a couple of *future* scenes out of the outline today as I realized they didn't have enough reason to exist. Anyway, everybody in the story is supremely stressed out at the moment, so its time to tighten the screws and make it all worse.

My calendars are in the mail! WooHoo!!! I'm so VERY glad they're out of my hair.

Hubby is home for his four off, sicker than a dog. Not pretty. Just when I thought we'd have a nice weekend together, I'm trying to avoid him so I don't get it too. Yay us.

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I've had a couple of good days this week--over 4K yesterday and 3K today, so I'm feeling pretty good about my chances of winning Nano at this time. I have nine writing days left, which requires an average of 2390 per day to make the grade. All things being equal, this should be doable. There's always the *option* of working evenings or weekends, but my plan is to do without if possible. Jim will be home this weekend, and we all know how rarely his days off land over a weekend, so I'm not planning anything else when he's home. Then, he mentioned that he has two floaters he has to take before the end of November, or lose them, so he's chosen to ditch his next pair of night shifts. They were due to land on the following weekend, so that means an extra weekend with him this month. Yay!!

This year, for the seventh year in a row, I'm making calendars for my family. A few years ago my mother clued in that it would be great if she paid for them, and it becomes her Christmas gift to her kids and grandkids. It works well for me, because I had sometimes waited quite awhile for some of the checks to drift in. Now I get a lump sum at the beginning, and go ink shopping from there. Seventeen calendars uses about two color cartridges and two blacks, so it's fairly significant. My mom has 11 grandkids and 11 great-grandkids, and this year's calendar is all about the little ones, one page each, with the twelfth page showing a photo of my sisters' reunion in August. Last year I had no end of trouble with my new printer, but it seems to be behaving fairly well this year. I've just got a few more pages to finish printing, and then I can take a lunch hour to do the binding at a local graphic arts shop that a friend of mine owns. Maybe tomorrow? Then all the hangy holes get punched (by hand!) and they go in the mail. Two of them have to go overseas, so I'm hoping to hit the mail by Monday at the latest.

That's about all that's new in my little world. How's yours?

Still alive!

Nine days of writing (less one sick day in which I did nothing useful) has netted me about 19K. I'm still on a decent track, if I can average 2600 a day. Today I did 3300, so it's doable. The story is fun, contemporariness notwithstanding. I have been finding many entertaining ways to make my male main character's life miserable. His lady friend is doing better at the moment, but I'm looking for a role reversal there anytime soon. It's all good.

The really good news is that in the past four or five days I have been relatively painfree in the neck and shoulder for the first time in ten weeks. It has been a long haul, and there have certainly been times I didn't think this flare-up would ever flare back down. I'm very thankful for the many people who have been praying for me; I've been very aware of you. I see the doctor again tomorrow.

This past weekend we took the long trip out to visit our daughter and son-in-law, and from there added more miles to see Jim's 94 year old grandmother. She's not doing very well, and it had been over a year since we'd seen her. I'm sure she forgot we'd been there within five minutes, and we wished we could forget, too. Somehow it still seems important that we went, though.

Jim decided I needed a recliner (my kids figure I'm the one who's ancient, now...) to help out with my neck problems. We found a good price on a good quality chair, so that is kind of cool. When you're kind of short, it's hard to shop for an easy chair. It was a huge store, specializing in upholstered living room pieces, and there were exactly three chairs that fit me. At least that brought the choices down to a deal-with-able level. It was good to spend a few days with family. Which of course means that Jim is back up-country for work for the next few days. Can't get used to having him around...

Day 8, 12688

I lost Friday to the flu (and had company over the weekend), so I'm about 1600 words shy of where I wanted to be by the end of my sixth writing day. However, once I get rolling on my day's words, they've been coming fairly well so far.

I've had almost no energy leftover, however, for posting or surfing or even cooking dinner. Survival mode it is.

Two days in - 4971

I guess that makes Nano off to a reasonably good start. Of course, last year I did that many words in the first DAY. let alone two, but I didn't have as much Real Life last year.

I did discover that my male main character, Dean, has more psychological problems than I thought he had. I'm gonna have to get the guy into counseling, because that is NOT what this book is about. Chloe is doing fine. I guess I knew her a little better to start with.

For me to write fifty thousand words on one month's worth of work days alone, my goal is 2381 words per day. If I want to finish tbe entire first draft (you can stop laughing your head off any time now), it would require about a thousand a day more. Or some weekends. We'll see how it goes.