"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.

Countdown to Nano

Something like 8 1/2 hours to go here. Around the world, the calendar rolls over to November first, one timezone at a time, and thousands of crazy people begin their own private (and collective) Nano insanity. We pledge to write a minimum of 50,000 words in the month of November, and some of us are greedy for completed first draft novels of larger girths. We will only give up if we run out of chocolate before the end of the month. Obviously, stocking up is a vital process. We are crazy, but we are not alone. The characters in our heads are clamoring to get out, to quit talking about what they're going to do, and get on with doing it. Of the thousands (anybody know how many people signed up this year?) of participants, we also array ourselves in little groups of online writing chums, in larger forums at nano and elsewhere. We talk big.

We're already tired. Maybe I should skip the *we* already. :P I know its possible, as I did it last year, and so did tons of other people. But was it really this busy at work last year? I don't think so. I do know I was running on far more energy a year ago than I am now. Now I'd just like a nap.

Maybe I'll settle for stocking up on chocolate instead. Er, I mean food. It does take more than chocolate to get through an entire month. I guess I'll hit the grocery store on my way home from work. It's Hallowe'en, they might even have chocolate on sale! :)

Fantasy writers

So. You think you're a fantasy writer? See how you fare on the The Fantasy Novelist's Exam. I'll be interested to hear the results.

Two diverse items of interest to writers

First off, any of you who hang out at Zette's blog already have met the woodle pooves, but it occurs to me that I have some readers who doubtless are unfamiliar with them. If your characters always do what you tell them to, beware. Don't let them see Zette's blog entry, for they may get ideas. Oh, and a bit of advice for YOU the writer: Do not take a sip of any beverage as you open that link, unless said beverage will be easy to wipe off your monitor after you spew it forth. Yes, that funny.

Secondly, and on a more serious note, I read the good news this morning that Holly Lisle, author of over 25 books ranging from science fiction and fantasy to romantic suspense, is coming out with a non-fiction book, Create a Character Clinic in January. Holly builds excellent characters, and I think this book will be well worth it. I discovered Holly and Forward Motion almost four years ago through Holly's free downloadable book Mugging the Muse: Writing Fiction for Love and Money. It was full of much more practical information about writing than most of the books I'd taken out of the library on the topic, and I assume this new book will be even better, reflecting a more specific topic and more years of writing under her belt.

Creston Mapes' first book

From time to time I've had the opportunity to blog about something new in Christian publishing. And from time to time there really IS something new. One of the most unique releases I've come across recently is DARK STAR: Confessions of a Rock Idol by Creston Mapes.

I haven't yet had a chance to read Creston's book, but I will be if I can get my hands on a copy, even though it doesn't really look like my first choice genre. I'm wondering how my son and teenage nephews might like it. This is how Creston himself describes his story: "Dark Star is a wild ride! It's a first-person account - a memoir-style novel - about a drug addicted, millionaire rock star named Everett Lester. He is on trial for the first degree murder of his personal psychic. Everett begins getting letters from a Christian girl in Topeka, Kansas - and without wanting to admit it, he finds hope in those letters. Dark Star is Everett's story about his troubled youth, his world-famous band, DeathStroke, his popularity and riches, his discontentment, his dabblings in the psychic realm, and his ultimate decision to accept or reject Jesus Christ as the Lord of his life."

The first chapter is posted on Creston's website. Go read it; you know you want to!

A Vist from the Police

Yesterday my friend-the-RCMP-Officer Tom phoned to say he was in town. He came on down to the farm for supper, and then let me pick his brain about police drug squad work for a couple of hours. Who knows why I'm suddenly interested in drugs? (Not DOing them, you understand...) I got a few little plot twists for the novel from Tom, and a few things that won't work quite the way I thought, but it's all good. I think I can work with reality here. Such a shock. (I mean working with reality is a shock...)

My biggest problem will be reading the notes I wrote while he was here. I was scribbling in an all-fired hurry, trust me. I can hardly read my writing the next day when I've taken my time with it, but today has been too crazy-busy to even open the notebook, until now. And I'm so scared of my own handwriting, I'm in here blogging instead. Not sure what that says about me, or my handwriting.

It's been a busy month at the flooring shop, but today capped it all. Just nutso for hours and hours. I hope it's not like that in November, or it's gonna be harder to get through Nano.

Down home on the farm

I don't have a lot of progress to tell you on the writing front, so here's a kitty to let you know I'm still thinking of you all. Ain't she cute? :)


One of Miranda's kittens 

Yesterday we shipped our calves. Thursday Jim and a few other guys separated out the calves from their mamas, and kept the calves in the corral over night. Trust me, we did not get much sleep, due to all the bawling and bellowing. The bovines were *quite* unhappy. So we were up around five o'clock on Friday. One of the calves had lost her eartag, so job #1 was re-tagging her.

Okay. Picture this (cause I was too busy to actually take the photos, you'll have to use your own imagination): a wet, muck-filled corral with 17 calves, averaging 500-600 pounds each. Hubby, with a rope. He's going to slip the rope around the tag-less calf's neck, cinch her to the nearest post, and re-tag her through the old hole in her ear. He just wants me there *in case*. Have the setting in mind?

Characters go into action. The wonderful hubby slips said rope around calf's head. He wraps the rope quickly around the nearest post. Problem. There is about eight feet of tautly stretched rope. Oh, and 16 other calves, all quite excited about the action. Hubby hangs onto the rope, but he is too far away from the calf to encourage her forward. And she has all four hooves planted firmly in the muck, and has absolutely no intention of closing the gap.

Enter wife (that's me), stage south. I'm dressed right. Overalls. Rubber boots. My job is to encourage her to go with the rope. I'm like in the middle of the corral when the suction of the muck overcomes my ability to move. I have a choice. I can either: a) keep my right foot in its boot, and fall headlong in the muck (remember the 17 calves, kicking around), or b) remove foot from boot, abandoning said boot in middle of corral, but keeping my balance. Sort of.

More setting required, this time auditory. Seventeen calves, bawling and mooing at the top of their (expansive) lungs. Seventeen cows on the other side of the boards, increasing the racket tenfold. A bull, and a few other casual bovine onlookers, adding to the noise because everyone else is doing it and it sounds like fun. Hubby, yelling: "Move her foward! Get out of the way! What are you DOing? Are you okay?" Yes, all in one breath.

I wasn't much help. The calf stayed stretched out at the end of the rope, at least six feet from the fence. The other sixteen stampeded across my imbedded boot to the other end of the corral. Hubby followed his rope to the calf and popped the tag through with no additional excitement, then pulled out my boot and handed it to me, where I was perched on the railing.

I looked at the boot. I looked at my manure soaked sock. I looked at my boot. I pulled off my sock, stuck my foot in the boot, and climbed out of the corral, dropping my icky sock on the burning pile on the way by.

Oh, yes. We also had our share of fun actually loading the calves on the trailer, but I'll spare you the details.

Houston, we have an outline!

I got the outline for the Nano romance put together over the weekend, and it came in at 45 scenes, which is about what I was aiming for. Some of the scenes will be a ton of fun to write, too, so I'm starting to get excited about November.

However. (Isn't there always a however?) However, I have a lot of research to do. My big job today was writing down all the questions I could think of that have sprung out of my outline, categorizing them, and figuring out how to get the research done for them. I sent out three email requests to people in the know, and now I get to wait for responses. (Checks email inbox again.)

Just in case you all are knowledgable about these things, the categories are:
Police procedural work in Canada on a drug raid.
Watercolor artwork.
The city of Victoria, BC.

Anyone stepping up to the plate to help? No? And drat, my email inbox is STILL empty. Did I remember to tell everyone that time is of the essence? Taps fingers. Right, I have two weeks yet, but I'm aware that some of these answers might well lead to new questions, and we'll need time to answer those too. I'm off to check my email...

JOY -- another tag!

I saw this meme begin on Holly Lisle's blog a couple of days ago, and thought it might eventually come around here to roost. Thanks, Tina. I think! Here it is:

THE SEARCH FOR JOY

Search your blog for the word “joy” used in the context of “happiness.” If you cannot find the word in your weblog, you may use any of the select list of synonyms below.

joy — amusement, bliss, cheer, comfort, delectation, delight, ecstasy, elation, exaltation, exultation, exulting, felicity, gaiety, gladness, glee, good humor, gratification, happiness, hilarity, humor, jubilance, liveliness, merriment, mirth, pleasure, rapture, regalement, rejoicing, revelry, satisfaction, wonder

If you’ve found the word and it was not used facetiously or sarcastically, good for you. All you need to do is link to your earlier entry, and write a few words about that joyous moment. If, however, you have no joy (whole words only) in your weblog, you must dig deep in your soul and find something wonderful in your life right now. One little thing that fills you with warmth, that bubbles you over with quiet happiness, or tickles you with its good-hearted hilarity, or makes you glad you just took a breath, and are getting ready to take another. It doesn’t have to be anything big. A smile someone gave you; your cat on your shoulder; the way the light angles through your window and casts rainbows on your floor. All it has to be is something genuine, something real, something that matters to you.

Because we all need joy in our lives, and need to take the time — from time to time — to recognize it. And sometimes, we need to pass it on.

Even if we’re a big pain in the ass when we do.

When you’ve dealt with your own joy, pass the quest on to five other bloggers.

***

Do you know something? Apparently in the ten and a half months I have been on blogspot, I have not used the word JOY once. That's embarrassing. My understanding of the word *joy* is that it is an underlying satisfaction in one's life, rather than *happiness*, which can come and go with the weather. There is much in my life that gives me true joy.

I find great joy in my relationship with Jesus, who gave himself for me.

I find great joy in my husband, Jim, in my kids and kids-in-law, in my friends both in Real Life and here on the web. You all mean a lot to me, in that understated supportive way. I love you!

I hereby tag:
Mar, who sprung the last one on me.
Maripat, because I know she wants to.
Lisa, because now I know she's reading my blog after all.
EJ, because she was so excited to be tagged last time.
Linda Ruth, because to the best of my knowledge, she doesn't KNOW she was tagged last time yet.

One of those weeks

If you were guessing that I haven't posted because there's been nothing to say, you're close to right. Finally finally finally the workmen are finished fixing up the exterior of the store. Finally I have finished repainting the sign and it is back up above the door.

Now BC teachers are on strike, and while I no longer have kids at home, my bosses do. So my one boss loaned me a teenage boy this morning to do some of the heavy work I've been avoiding around here. Even so, I did too much and am suffering for it. But you can't ignore a gift teenager! I'd certainly be in much worse shape if I'd've moved all those five gallon buckets myself. Mostly I directed traffic.

On the writing front, I've been jotting things in a notebook as I think of them. When I went over the notes to see what I had, I discovered that I have roughly half the novel outlined. Gotta love the low-pain method of outlining. I still need to key in what I've got and figure out where it goes from here. It's gotta go somewhere, because my couple aren't together yet. And I still have 30K of story left to go. Hopefully I'll be able to get to that yet today.

Blade Dancer

I've just finished Blade Dancer by Sheila Viehl. Here's another great opening line for you: All I was trying to do when they caught me was bury my mother in an unmarked grave. This opens a very strange book, but truth to tell, most anything Sheila writes (and she writes in five genres, so that's a lot!) is a little strange. My daughter said that she and her husband agreed that Blade Dancer was the best book they had read in 2005. And MY husband has rapidly become a Sheila fan himself. If you enjoy science fiction with a twisted sense of humor, give this book a try!