Hello and welcome to another edition of tight beam. It doesn’t feel like it’s been another month already, but here we are… So first let me cover what I’ve accomplished since the last post, tell you the plan for November and then drop another of the short stories as a freebie.
I went on my trip, and it was fantastic. I’ve come back, and while not all the other life / non writing problems have been dealt with, several have been. I even got an early start on this year’s NaNoWriMo. I write about a book a year, as a holiday gift for my beta readers (I think I explained in the previous issue that NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. Wherein, during the month of November, the challenge is to write an entire 50,000 word novel.) I have no specific word count goal set, just to get the story told. I have given myself from the middle of October until the middle of December, so it’s more like two months for me, but this is part of how I keep my “write a book a year” schedule to keep my beta readers happy. That book’s going well now.
The only change is which book I am writing. Originally, I had planned on finishing book seven in The Descendant Saga. But the weather in Ireland was so nice, and all the old castles we visited really set the mood. So I started work on the prequel to the fantasy book I wrote last year. The beta readers loved the first one, and with the Irish environment I just spent a week in, it really helped set the mood for the fantasy book. This prequel to the fantasy book I wrote last year, takes place during the black plague. That is all the info I’ll give you on the new fantasy book. It takes place during the winter from 1349 to 1350. Don’t want too many spoilers, so I’ll leave it at that. I have some good feedback and some significant revisions to make in the first fantasy book, but I want to get this one done and out of my head before I loose the idea.
Come new years, with the second fantasy book complete. (and that’s it, there’s only the two, I won’t have anymore detours, I promise.) With those out of the way, I will get back to my sci-fi content. I have six complete manuscripts already. I can publish the first one as soon as I get the audio book finished and edited. (which is like a 1/3 done already) My goal is to get the first two books published next year, and finish writing book seven. If I am being really ambitious, I want to get three printed next year, and still finish writing number seven. I already have cover art for the first two from my grandfather. With such a backlog of content, I really hope to get it all pumped out while my grandfather is still willing to paint more art for me. But I am not willing to sacrifice quality for the sake of speed. I was told there’s a triangle to sales. Speed, quality, and price, and you can only pick two of the three. I love my story, and that my grandfather as agreed to help provide art for the series. I don’t want to price anyone out of enjoying my content, nor am I willing to sacrifice the quality. I don’t want my name on something sub par. Unfortunately, that means we’re working against the clock here. I digress, onto the part where I drop a little nugget of free writing, some short story or thought experiment, let me dig around and see what I haven’t used yet…. This is a little more self reflection, and not strictly a story.
Could you not?
In order to understand your own capacity for good, and all that you can contribute and help and build in the world, you must have perspective. To understand how much you can help, and how good you can be, you must first look inwards and discover your internal evil. To openly and honestly realize your own capacity for evil and hatred. To understand how much you can destroy, to provide context and perspective for how much you can create. When you understand how dark the cave is, it makes it that much more important to you on a personal level, in an indescribably intimate way, that you bring the light, that you create as much light and goodness as you can, because you understand and realize just how dark it can be, within not just yourself but inside of every human being. It is easier to circumvent the evil to navigate around the storm when you understand just how big the clouds on the horizon are.
Think of yourself not just as the victim, but as the perpetrator. As both perspectives are important and necessary. Without one, the other has no meaning, no depth. Review your history and read the first-hand accounts. Not just as the starving child inside the camp, or the liberating soldiers flinging open the gates and setting the oppressed free, but also as the guards to that camp, holding them in, withholding their food, as the conquerors and the oppressors packing people on trains like cattle. Think of how the mob mentality and the cancel culture grip our world now. When everyone else is doing it, could you not do it? At the crucifixion, there was a crowd there cheering. Statistically speaking, you are much more likely to be a part of that angry, burning, looting, cheering mob than you are not to be. Could you not? Would you not cheer will you stand in the gap against the blood lust of man? In order to promote goodness, and fight the evil out in the world, you must fight the evil within and promote the goodness inside yourself, inside your own soul. In order for there to be light, there must also be darkness…
The Descendant Saga 