winterburnwriting

[winterburnwriting]

Hello There!

No, it isn't a dead blog until I let it die! Yes, it has been about 2 months since I last posted. And I wish I were coming back to tell you all that I was absent for so long because I was spending that time working very hard on the short novel. Unfortunately, that isn't really the case. Truth be told, I didn't have much going on that was preventing me from working, I just didn't feel like working on it and failed to summon the willpower to make it happen.

However, I did also have a computer problem in the last week. My primary computer several years ago was a decent enough (at the time) PC with a GTX 1070 and such. Nothing fancy, but it was fine. Then I went to college for one year and decided early into that I was going to buy a high-end laptop, since I had to buy one for classes anyway. I bought an Alienware m17 R4. It was a nice ugprade from my PC so I used it as my primary computer for the last couple of years. Since October 2021, I think. This is what I was writing my book on.

Unfortunately, it has been losing functions and components bit by bit for a very long time and seemed to be headed towards total lemon-ness. I was down to no wi-fi, no trackpad, no bluetooth (without a USB adapter), and no built-in screen (I used an external monitor). It was not looking great. Then it seemed to reject all video output whatsoever. Then it decided it didn't want to boot. I tried to open it up and diagnose and fix the issue to no avail. I sealed it back up, and it had the same issue plus a loud beeping! I mean, very loud. I kinda gave up at this point and decided to order some nice new parts for my now-old PC.

Once I had gotten some parts together I opened my laptop back up to take the SSDs out and put them into my Franken-PC. Then I saw something shocking. The battery ribbon cable.... was not plugged back in for the last test. I say "to hell with it!" and plug it back in, and I try to test the laptop again. And wouldn't you know it? It works fine. I am 850 dollars into the hole on a new emergency PC build. And the laptop works fine.

This was frustrating, but the laptop was going to die sometime soon anyway. So I go ahead with building the PC, I move the SSDs over, and I set everything back up the way it was before I got the laptop. Just with a nicer GPU and a worse CPU.

At least videogames look prettier now.

And I am now using my old mechanical Corsair keyboard, which I had bought towards the end of using my PC before switching to the Alienware. So that will take some getting used to for writing. But speaking of writing.... (drumroll please!)

I'm halfway done writing the first draft of my short novel!

This isn't as impressive as where I'd like to be by now, but it's still neat. I hit 23,291 words at the end of my writing session today, and I am aiming for around 45ish thousand words for the final product. Hopefully it won't take me so long to write the second half. I just need to stay productive, and maybe I can finish the draft by the end of June! I would really like to be (self) published in the Fall so I can start working on my first big proper novel in the last quarter of this year.

Anyway, since I haven't written very much since I last wrote here, I won't be leaving an excerpt. That, and it's 2:15 AM and I have work at 11 AM in the morning. So I should sleep. But I will be posting here again!

I hope this blogpost finds you well, and I wish you a lovely day.

[winterburnwriting]

Been a Minute! Still Working on it!

Hello! Sorry for the delay. It has been two weeks since I last posted anything here. I am sorry for that. I have been very busy, and frankly a little down. Not so much due to not being productive enough - Though I am working on that. It's a few things. My money situation was looking a little rougher than I wanted it too after a disappointing tax return, all that jazz. But it's going better now. Nothing too crazy.

The work has been tedious, thanks in no part to videogames. And my third or fourth Supernatural rewatch. But that isn't all that has been hindering me. I am a chunk of the way into act two now, though the steam train is only just starting to roll. The onslaught of violence and obstacles hasn't quite gotten started just yet. Only a page to go before it does! Then onto another chapter where I will try to include more action and worldbuilding.

The second act is something I thought would come more naturally, but working on a story with no real idea of where the plot is going to go... It's a lot harder than I thought. I thought it would be easier and messier. Like sketching instead of illustrating, if that makes sense. But instead I just have a lot more time to second-guess my every little decision, and I can't build a bridge if I don't know one of the two things I'm bridging.

I have some loose ideas for where and what I want to see from the next chapter or two, but I need a lot more than that to make this story feel substantial. I know I have a word count goal of around 45,000-50,000, but I feel like I want to spend more time in this world, and give more of a window into this story. If I force myself to cut it short before I've gotten enough creative energy from the ideas, I won't be happy with the work and I won't have learned as much as I could have from the project.

Maybe I won't even make it to 45,000, at the rate things are going, however. Or maybe I just need more inspiration. If I could set aside more time for writing, maybe I could dedicate more of it to researching the subject matter and getting inspiration from that. Part of the story's travelogue format is to make it feel like a monster-of-the-week story for vampires, with every chapter giving the characters glimpses at new types of vampires. The focus is on where the vampires are from, to make it simple.

For example, the main antagonist is a Dutch vampire, as I may or may not have mentioned previously. This means he can turn into mist, like Dracula. He can't fly (though he can float as mist). He can't burn in the sun. Stuff like that. I haven't set out ideas for every kind of vampire just yet, but the idea is that American and English vampires are sort of the "vanilla" of the bunch, with the only real abilities to their names usually being strength or speed.

I think maybe I want the vampires in my world to gain more power and identity the older they are. And if you are bitten by someone like the Dutch vampire, the Duke, maybe you are more inclined to get that vampire's traits and power. But it would still have to develop. So where you are from isn't necessarily the main player, if you're bitten by an old and powerful vampire from somewhere else. A vampire of a certain bloodline will create more vampires of that bloodline. AT least, generally.

So the first vampires that the two main characters meet are going to be American vampires. They were turned by some other minor American vampire, who was turned by another and so on and so forth back a long ways. Little remains of whatever original power the progenitor of their line had, so it's up to them to try and survive long enough to get their own power. Though they have the usual vampire tricks, and they are not to be taken lightly.

Most American vampires come from English bloodlines, but a lot of them are mixed, too. Vampires can still mate, and produce vampire offspring. This is looked down upon by a lot of vampires though. And my vampires don't organize under one banner, really, but I do think I want some of them to have systems of vampiric worship. I think I'll get into it a bit later, but maybe I'll tease it in this story or make it a minor element. It is only a short novel, after all.

A lot of this I wish I had worked out sooner, as it's going to come up in future stories I tell, but for now I have to try and figure out just what I must as I write this story. I'm going to try and keep the curtains pretty tightly closed, and only give the reader what is necessary to keep intrigue and prove I have unique ideas about my world as far as vampires go.

In other news - I just got to introduce a character I have been excited about for a while now. It is my very own vampire hunter - Wark. He's half-Australian, and gets introduced with a major misunderstanding of sorts. He seems friendly, like the only hope the protagonists have, and then he tries to kill one of them. What happens from there? Who knows. Here is this weeks teaser excerpt. All names and content subject to change.

"

Headlights bore down on the both of them, still down on the road recovering, and turned sharply to the trees next to them as the 1987 Chevy Caprice’s tires slid over the road and into the dirt. Bram waved at this car more frantically than the last several. The silhouette within’s eyes seemed filled with alarm underneath an exceptionally wide-brimmed hat.

Lucy got herself to something of a half-standing position, and Bram helped her into a full standing as he did the same. They waited for the driver to step out of the vehicle and address them. His dark, dirty boots appeared first as the door swung to the side and the engine fell silent. The width of his hat barely fit through the doorway. Dozens and dozens of long, sharp teeth hung from it and swung from side to side and the man stood up and closed the car door with a kthud.

Bram expected him to rush over and voice his concern, perhaps even ask if he and Lucy were alright. He strode slowly, a long, dark, and stain-ridden coat dragging in the grass behind him. It was cast from him as though it were his own shadow, only further. Dark pouches hung below his eucalyptus-colored eyes, and messy brown hair flew loosely from his head, unlike the moderate goatee on his face, which was groomed but voluminous."

"

That's all for this blog post. Have to cut myself off at some point! I hope you all enjoyed and I will be back as soon as I can with more updates. The writing has definitely been slow but I am going to speed up again very soon, I promise! At least 4,000 or 5,000 words a week! And more if I can help it. Nothing stopping me from doing 1,000 words a day, really. Take care, everybody!

[winterburnwriting]

Well, in my last post I said I was sick and would get back here in about 10 days. That was a little over 10 days ago, so here I am. I feel much better now, but the break in writing has made it hard to get back into the habit of doing. I have been writing, though. The short novel is now at 14,000 words or so.

The past few days have been pretty productive. I've been getting good hours in, and I got to write a more interesting part of the short novel. I basically wrapped up act 1 and now I'm starting act 2. Act 1 was 4 chapters, but Act 2 might be 5 or 6, depending on how inspired I am for content in the travelogue style.

In terms of word count, I think it will end up looking like 15k words for act 1, 20-25k words for act 2, and 5-10k words for act 3, which might only be a chapter or two long. I don't think this is such an unusual format. I do think I might cut a good chunk of act 1 out, though, as it feels like it drags quite a bit and I think readers would like to get into the travelogue portion faster. It depends how much I end up being able to come up with for act 2.

Tonight I should be able to get a few more hours of writing in. Given the rate things are going, I am hoping to finish my draft by the end of april at the latest. It might be a little earlier or a little later, but that's my hope. Then it's on to an extensive edit where I retool the content and flair a lot of the phrases. I think that'll take a month, at least.

I feel good about my progress though. The short novel should be published by mid summer, if all goes well. Then it's on to my big first novel!

Just a reminder - The names and content are all subject to change. Graphic imagery may be present in all previews. Here's this post's preview excerpt!

"Okay. You're right. Let's haul it in."

Lucy and Bram left the house, grabbed the air mattress and its proprietary air compressor, and returned to the same spot inside. Lucy held one end and walked away from Bram with it so it would be laying flat. She bent down to plug the air compressor hose into the fixture on the mattress itself. "Perfect!" Bram exclaimed. Lucy raised herself back up and drew a short icy breath, her eyes growing like balloons.

Bram looked at her, puzzled and with a raised eyebrow. The mulleted man with broken teeth from the diner was standing right behind him. Bram didn't notice. Lucy tried to speak - to warn him - but she couldn't exert more than air as the stranger raised one hand as if he were a cat about to catch a mouse. "What? Is somethi-" Bram was interrupted. Lucy couldn't tell what kind of strike the stranger had performed before she felt a pain on the back of her head and heard a ringing.

…

Bram woke up, startled. He struggled against a weight. His arms felt strange. They were numb. He noticed his legs felt similarly strange. Strangest of all was his head, however. It wasn't on a pillow. It wasn't on the ground. He opened his eyes and saw he was sitting up on his knees. His arms were immobile. He blinked several times and looked at himself again to see he was bound in rope and chains. The mist was as thick as milk in whatever room this was. It looked like a dungeon.

"Bram?" He heard Lucy say. "Bram???" She repeated.

"L-...Lucy? Honey?"

"I'm over here."

Bram turned his head around, still groggy, and found where Lucy was. He also shook his head as if realizing something. "God, what is that smell? It-" He began before jumping aback. There was a man in the room. Or Bram assumed he was a human man.

The figure stood some 7 or 8 feet tall, with a body just as wide, if not wider. He was drenched in velvet and silk robes and garments, all cobalt, violet, and fir. His head was as round and bald as a golf ball, and just as empty except for 2 large antlers protruding straight back from the back of his head, quite unlike antlers on a stag. The antlers supported what little blonde hair flowed off of the man’s pale head.

[winterburnwriting]

I'm Sick!

Yup! Quite ill, unfortunately. On the one hand, it seems like I'll have to call out from work tomorrow so I will get a day off there... On the other hand, I feel terrible and I don't have it in me to write much of anything for my short novel! So the update I would have posted in 5-7 days wouldn't include very much.

So I'm gonna write a little here about the movies I look forward to this year. I figured I have few other places to discuss that, and it is relevant to my work, as I take a lot of inspiration from the movies I watch. Here goes.

Paddington 3 - I went to see the original Paddington in a theater which has recently closed down permanently with my mom. I really cherish that memory. Any time we have had together doing something like that really sticks out as a wholly positive and special memory in my head. They're wonderful films. I am of the rare opinion the first is better than the second, but as you can imagine I might be biased. I also got to see the Paddington shop in Paddington Station in London a few months ago! That has made me even more excited for this third entry in the series, which I will surely see with my mom as soon as it releases. They come out so infrequently that this is going to be very fun!

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Ghostbusters has long been a big part of my life. I saw it a very long time ago, presumably with my dad, as he loves them too. When I was a newborn he joked with my mom that they should hang Vigo the Carpathian's portrait over my crib. Funny - I actually ended up liking the second almost as much if not more than the first. Perhaps it was a premonition. Anyhoo, I think as far as supernatural comedy-action goes, the Ghostbusters series is essentially unmatched, and I was thrilled when I found out that it was one of the few series my girlfriend actually had seen and liked. So her and I share a lot of love for Ghostbusters, and I really really loved Afterlife. I saw it in theaters with my dad. I admit, I could see this entry not being as good as afterlife, but that isn't its fault. Afterlife was just that good, in my opinion. And I'm not complaining - Just to have more Ghostbusters movies coming out after waiting for so long is really exciting! I hope it's amazing!

Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire - I'm... Not sure what to think of what we have seen so far for this film. The villain seems a little... plain, to me. And something seems really weird about the way they animate Godzilla this time around. I hope that's just the animation and effects not being finalized yet. The first 3 films in the Monsterverse are really really great, especially King of the Monsters. I loved that movie quite a lot. I had to go to Boston to see it with my dad and my sister while she was going to college. You can imagine how surprised we were when the climax took place there! Godzilla 2014 I also hold fondly in my heart as one of the movies my mom and I saw in theaters back in the day. I have a lot of nostalgia for it now, and it's the movie that really got me into Godzilla (I had seen the original around that time, too). Kong I watched at home with my sister but unexpectedly loved. Normally I don't care much about King Kong, personally. And then Godzilla Vs. Kong was pretty decent. It had a lot to live up to, following up on KotM. But it ended up being pretty fun. It didn't hurt that it was essentially one of just two big movies to release in the summer of 2020, alongside Bill and Ted 3. I liked Mechagodzilla's design, but his implementation into the story left something to be desired. I did feel like they were going somewhere with the Hollow Earth business, and I am happy to see GxK is apparently trying to follow through with that idea. I just hope it's not quiiite as awkward and canned as some of the trailers make it look. That being said, Godzilla's new pink crystal design is really inspired, and I think they will have some surprises for us that we don't see coming. No matter what, I will have a good time seeing it. Especially since this is also one series I share a love for with my girlfriend. I recommended KotM to her a few years ago and she really enjoyed it, especially Mothra.

Argylle - This seems like an interesting enough action film. There has been an odd trend lately of films about novelists, but as one myself I'm not complaining. It's directed by Matthew Vaughn, who directed all of the Kingsman movies. I really liked the first one of those. The second was alright. I didn't get around to watching the third, though I was curious about its depiction of Rasputin. This movie seems to have similar fun and colorful vibes. The cinematography and lighting is clearly very important to this man. I bet he has good relationships with his DPs. I'm pretty excited about the cast too. John Cena especially has seemed to really hit his stride lately, comedically and seriously. He was a delight as Peacemaker in James Gunn's Suicide Squad and the Peacemaker show which followed.

The Fall Guy - This looks alright, for an action flick. I'm not sure I like the vibe of it, but the set pieces look fun and whatnot. I'm curious to see what comes from this one mostly because of Ryan Gosling. He is always fun to watch. David Leitch is a decent director, too. We'll have to see how this one looks.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - There was one or two nights quite a few years ago that my sister and I randomly decided we would watch a shitload of the Planet of the Apes movies. I have very little memory of the actual plot aside from snippets, and I could not for the life of me tell you which of the movies we actually watched. I want to say we watched one or two of the older ones and one or two of the newer ones. I can't follow the plot anyway, so I think I'll just go into this one without any rewatches. If anything, I might just watch the most recent one. It's not the top of my list, but it could be a fun evening out.

Furiosa - I'm not some Mad Max superfan, but Fury Road was really fun. I have no idea what to really expect from Furiosa but if it's even like 65% as fun as its predecessor it will be good enough. As a side note, I have found it really difficult to find the original Mad Max films available to watch. I've never seen them. Perhaps they would be good discs to buy.

Garfield - This will be a bit of a hate watch, I must admit. I like Garfield and I don't think Chris Pratt is a good fit for the role. Regardless of what I think of him, he's just a weird choice. I'll watch this one at home.

Deadpool 3 - I don't watch a lot of Marvel stuff nowadays, save for Doctor Strange, Spider-Man, and the occasional odd-ball thing like Moon Knight (still praying squirrel girl gets a series!). But the Deadpool movies were really fun. I actually don't like the character of Deadpool at all, mostly because a lot of fans of Deadpool act inappropriately at various conventions and it's quite cringe-worthy. Ryan Reynolds does such a great job though, and he brings a formidable passion to the role. And Hugh Jackman will be there as Wolverine, and that's neat. I liked the X-Men movies a fair bit. I will say, I haven't rewatched the other 2 Deadpool movies at all. I saw both in theaters once and that is it. I wonder if they hold up.

Borderlands - Very curious. Played the second game with my sister and my dad back in the day quite a lot. This could be fun. It could also be pretty bad. We shall se.

Beetlejuice 2 - Extremely excited for this, though cautiously so. Beetlejuice is one of my all-time favorite movies. My girlfriend and I saw the musical in NYC together on our very first vacation, so it has a lot of extra special meaning to me, as well. I think it's Tim Burton's best work, and the cast and crew all performed so excellently that I'm not sure they could ever recapture the magic. That being said, they've got Willem Dafoe in the new one, so that helps their odds. I'm a little worried about Barb and Adam being cut out, though I think their story was pretty much concluded anyway. Then again, so was Lydia's, I feel. I'm just sad they aren't still together as a big happy weird family. Here is hoping this turns out good, though! It might be my most anticipated next to the first 3 on this list.

Alien: Romulus - I was extremely obsessed with Alien and HR Giger as a younger man. Throughout all of middle school and a very good chunk of high school, I could think of little else. The stories I wrote for English classes were very much inspired by Alien (not outright ripoffs, mind you). The art I doodled in my free time and on every worksheet I ever had was strictly biomechanical. I loved it so much. I still do, but I haven't thought about it much recently due to the content draught aside from the games I haven't gotten around to playing yet. I loved Prometheus and Covenant, honestly, in a weird way, even though Prometheus was originally supposedly not going to be an Alien movie at all. I think it's terrible Scott didn't at least get a chance to wrap up his vision for that story with one last film. I didn't quite like covenant as much as Prometheus, but I thought it was decent. I'm weird though, and I think the second film in the series is the worst by far. So take what I say with a grain of salt. I know this new Fede Alvarez film (which I thought was a show until I googled it just a minute ago) is set on Earth with teenagers facing the xenomorph. That could be fun. They never go to Earth. Then again, I wonder if that's for a reason. We will find out if and when this releases this year.

Joker: Folie à Deux - I saw the first one with my sister and my dad in theaters, also in Boston. I thought it was pretty good, actually. I mean, once you get past the memes and the silliness... And the weird people who completely obsess over the character, it's a well-made film with a good score and some really good writing. It has its flaws, but it's a lot of fun. I'm not quite sure it needed a sequel, but I definitely have my eyes out for this one.

Wolf Man - This would normally have me very excited, as I love the Universal Monsters a lot, but it's being directed by the guy that directed Invisible Man 2020, and that was not my cup of tea, so I am not sure I will like this one. I also doubt it will come out this year, because as far as I can tell, it hasn't really even entered production yet. I'll be curious, but I think this could stink. I won't get into Invisible Man right now, though.

Venom 3 - I think Venom was okay. Like Joker, it had the issue of a lot of people being huge weird fans of the character, albeit in a less concerning or toxic way. I never really liked him that much, but Spider-Man 3 was pretty much my favorite movie as a child, so I have a tiny bit of nostalgia attached to him. I did always like Carnage, however, so I'm happy he was in the sequel. When I saw that, though, I did so in IMAX with my mom, and the volume was so unbelievably loud that I couldn't hear properly for days after going, let alone enjoy the movie properly. Some cool shots though. I don't have any expectations for this one. I overlooked any issues with the second because it had Carnage. This one has to find a way to hook me. I'll probably go see it even if it doesn't, though. I might not be a big superhero guy anymore, but sometimes it's just nice to leave the house and see a movie. They can't all be Shin Godzilla. Some of them have to be a different kind of escapism.

Nosferatu - I'm really ashamed to say I haven't seen the original Nosferatu once in my whole life. I am very familiar with its iconic moments and plot, as well as its backstory, but I have never seen it somehow. I keep saving it for Halloween and then not getting the chance to watch it. It doesn't help I don't think anyone would want to watch it with me if I asked. I like it, though, despite having never seen it. I also love Willem Dafoe. I should watch his Nosferatu-related movie, too. This one will probably be pretty good.

Beyond the Spider-Verse - I liked the first Spider-Verse a lot. The second one was decent, but not as good as the first in my opinion. Still, both are great movies. The animation is superb. The third seems to be in a curious position as far as development goes. I hope it's a smooth ride. I also hope they delay it if it's necessary.

Wow! That's a lot of movies. More than I thought were coming out. Beetlejuice 2, Paddington 3, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, and Godzilla X Kong are my most anticipated by far. Everything else is icing on the cake. Last year was extremely good for movies, but this year seems to be promising, too! I think it will be a fun one. March will be especially busy for me with both Ghostbusters and Godzilla releasing that month, one week apart.

I did not mean to rant for so long. It's 4 AM now. I should get some rest so I stop being sick! I hope you enjoyed reading these trivial opinions and anecdotes if you chose to for some reason. Maybe you should go to bed too. If you do, good night. Thank you for sticking around.

Take care everybody. You will hear from me in 10 days or so. I'll talk to you all then! I hope you all have stuff to look forward to this year, be it movies, games, book, comics, manga, or anime! Have fun out there.

[winterburnwriting]

Better Than I Thought! Progress for Jan 18

I was originally going to write a blog today about how I had not written as much as I wanted to in the last week. I started writing this blog earlier today, when I was on break at work after getting a little bit of writing in. I thought I should almost use this as a little confessional. I had made progress, just not nearly as much as I should have. Then I got home today, ate dinner, procrastinated for an hour or two, and sat down to write.

I just finished up a 3 or 4 hour session of good solid work. I feel quite good about the progress I made. When I was writing about my disappointments, the short novel was only at 7,300 words or so. That meant I had only written around a thousand words over the course of a whole week! Not great. Not nothing, but definitely not what I needed to accomplish.

As of writing this, the short novel is now at 10,226 words. Still a far cry from my goal of 45,000, but I'm almost a quarter of the way there! And the goal number is a rough estimate. Ultimately the content of the story is what will decide its length. I am proud of myself for actually finally sitting down, putting on some music (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure and a lot of America, both of which I've been using as background music for my writing lately), and getting some writing done.

Chapter 3 is officially done, and with it, the slow opening part of the story is too! The next chapter will mark the shift from the opening where the characters and tone are established to the crazy fantastic elements taking hold of the newlywed protagonists' lives! In other words, moving day! They are moving into the house unaware that it has some vampiric squatters, led by the eccentric and terrifying creature known as The Duke. This is a chapter I am excited to write.

Moral of the story? If you are having trouble writing due to procrastinating and getting distracted, music may help! And when pushing through chapters of your novel or short novel that don't capture your imagination the way you think future ones might, try to focus on those ones you are excited for when pushing through the current work. You can always change things and spice them up later!

Thank you for reading my little blog post. I hope you are enjoying this series, as I am really enjoying having somewhere to talk about the progress I am making. It's a nice tool for holding myself accountable. That being said, I think I might be getting more writing here done than on Google Docs! Ha! Well, this goes faster. Anyway, here is an excerpt from Moving Blood (temporary title).

"

The rest of Lucy’s shift was fairly standard. The alternating experiences of serving customers like normal and hearing her coworkers talk about the new busboy potentially being found dead and mutilated in a shit tunnel gave her some whiplash, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. After the diner started to empty out and the cooks turned into cleaners, Lucy punched out and went to her car.

Lucy pulled out of the parking lot and began her commute home. Dusk draped itself on only the horizon now, with the town now being lit mostly by its many streetlights, cars, and townhouses. She kept her windows rolled completely down to breathe the evening air. Music played from her stereo. She thought of Bram. She was quite excited to see him. As ordinary as the day was, she was stressed out. The move combined with the murder in town may not have had her shattered, but she definitely looked forward to getting home. That is, even if it was one of the last times she would come home to that dinky shithole apartment they called home.

"

Thanks for reading! This isn't a weekly series, necessarily, but I might post around that often! Albeit, not always at this length. Have a good time. Take care of yourselves. I will catch you all later!

[winterburnwriting]

Progress for Today (Jan 10)

Well I managed to get some more writing done today. Er, last night? This morning? Yes today was my day off and I had to take care of some things for my family but after that was dealt with and making a pitstop at a record store, it was my intention to get some writing done. At least a little. I am prioritizing consistent progress over great amounts of progress.

I stayed up late watching TV (Resident Alien on Syfy, good show) and working on some various things around the house. I didn't do any job-hunting (something I probably should have found time for). But it was a nice enough evening. A big storm kicked up in the afternoon and persists as I write this, with some of the strongest winds we have seen here in years.

A couple hours ago the storm must have ripped something off a tree down the street because our power flickered and went out. This happens frequently in the highly rural area I live in. Sometimes it won't return for weeks on end. It's a hoot. But thankfully, as I was preparing to climb into bed very early and get some reading done, the power returned just as quickly as it had gone.

Realizing I had yet to get any writing done yet and not wanting to do it on my phone in bed, I decided to re-open my laptop so I could write just a couple paragraphs. Instead I started getting into the rhythm of the process and wrote about 1,067 words. Not some great accomplishment, especially to any proper author, but I was proud. It was a couple more pages out of the way.

I am on chapter 3, which still places me at the simple beginning of the story. There is a newlywed couple. Chapter one is very short and explores the home life of these two in very short form. It also sets up the shabby state of their cheap apartment, and the husband's finding a real dinky property for them to buy and turn into a beautiful home with renovations and redecorations.

Chapter two focuses on the husband, who spends his day working on professional sculpting work and struggling with their collapsing home and failing appliances. There's a lot of emphasis on the fact these two are not making a great living. I also include a cute mouse named Gerald, who is not a pet but he is a friend. There's a brief phone call sequence at the beginning with the husband and his father. I might change that to make it a little more volatile. I'm not sure where I want to take that yet. It depends highly on the logistics of later chapters.

I've only just started chapter 3, but it'll focus on a day at work for the wife. She tends tables at a local diner. She's friends with her coworkers. One of them alerts her to a strange beatnik customer at the bar, wearing leather and sporting a goofy but discerning look. His teeth are mangled and sharp. It's a sight. She also saw his oddly fancy car outside. That's all I have so far. This is setting up some things for future chapters. Where the chapter will go from there I'm not certain. I might just spend it developing her and her normal life a bit more. Sometimes it's fun just to write normal folks living normal lives, too.

That's all I have today. Hopefully it isn't the last time this week I manage to get some writing in. I want to get at least 3.5-5k words committed to paper each week. A low goal, but that's all I need to get this finished within a couple months. Wish me luck! I'll include a very short excerpt below. The names are completely temporary. Have a good night! Er... day.

"Lucy reached the time clock and slid her punch card in. She wondered about moving. Would it affect her ability to work here at the diner? She hoped not. This job was quite good for her. She always doubted the idea that she could work somewhere else. And she got decent pay, all things considered. More than anything, she would just miss having her friends to talk to during her shifts. She decided not to tell them she might be ripped out of her post.

“Mornin’ Luce!” chirped a bird named Liz. She was blonde and short - Shorter than Lucy, who was slightly above average height. Her smile reminded Lucy this shift wouldn’t be so bad. She wasn’t alone."

[winterburnwriting]

Introducing Myself and Winterburn

Hello! My name is Quinn. I am creating this blog as a place to post updates about the novels I am writing. Hopefully I can post here at least every month or so outside of working on my novels. I have yet to finish one, but I got about 40-50k words into my first attempt prior to scrapping it and starting over. That one has been in the outlining phase for quite a while but it's on the backburner while I work on a more attainable short novel.

You see, I have been working on my primary novel for 5 or 6 years, and while I am extremely excited to get back to work on it with everything I have learned and cultivated since my last attempt, I also want something to show for my time spent writing. The worst thing about being an aspiring writer is when people ask to see my works. I don't really have anything complete - Let alone anything I'm proud enough of to share.

I have a lot of old documentation for my primary novel, as I have done more planning than writing for it, and I might share that over time but more than anything I want to focus hard on my short novel right now so I can get it out of the way, so to speak. I decided not to plan it out too much at risk of it entering development purgatory just like my other project, so I'll be sharing more live updates about the progress.

My primary novel is a postmodern urban fantasy (fluffy words, aren't they?) set in a fictional town in Vermont in the mid 2000s. It follows a couple of teenagers uncovering fantastic and terrifying secrets about their small town that lead to places they never imagined. All of this with an Ancient Greek flair.

My short novel will be a bit more cliché and silly, as it's going to be a vampire revenge story! I have big plans for another, more serious vampire novel someday, but for now I wanted to write about something I thought would be fun. So far I have written about 4k words out of my goal of around 45k. The end result may be a little longer or a little shorter than that. it does take place in the same world as my other novels will, and is set in the early 2000s, though it likely won't connect very much.

There are other novels in the works as well, with a total of 4 novels and 2 short novels in mind at the moment. I do have ideas for some bite-size short stories, too, if ever I want to break up the release of major novels a bit more. The idea is to release the short novel, then the primary novel, then 2 more novels set parallel to that novel, then a big novel the events of which follow the other 3, and then a short novel telling something of a prequel story.

If and when I ever get that far, I am sure I will have many more ideas for what will follow. That's not much of a concern right now. I just wanted to share what my road map looks like so you all know, and partially so I can hold myself accountable to it. It is easy to lose sight of the series in the pursuit of a debut work.

One of the main things I am hoping to do with this blog is develop the world of my novels. You might see little fiction pieces in here, just as a way to flex my short-term story muscles a bit and get tidbits of lore online. I also want to post design documents if I can. I have quite the backlog.

I hope this blog continues and succeeds, and if you are reading it I hope it brings you interesting ideas and stories to enjoy. If I have kept it up for years and you are reading this, congratulations! Your scroll wheel can rest now. Take care!