A turn toward writing.

This blog is probably going to take a distinct turn toward the craft of writing.

I've decided to rewrite my last novel, Sometimes A Dragon, which in some ways was never quite finished.

I liked this book, a lot.

I started writing it after meeting my wife, Linda, in the Farewell Bend Writer's Roundtable. Yes, I met my wife in a writer's group.

We started writing it together, actually, the adventures of Tenly and Toller, but I tend to change things constantly, and Linda is more steady, and I ended up taking over the story and finishing it.

I loved the book. But it didn't work. The style, which was so much fun to write, was not as much fun to read. The main two characters don't even enter the story until 50 pages in. There is too much narrative, and not enough scenes and dialogue.

And yet the story, I believe, is fresh and different and fun.

It needs to be totally rewritten and reset.

So I'm going to start the story at the 50 page mark, where Tenly and Toller enter the story, and do whatever needs to be done to get the earlier scenes into the book as flashbacks, and try to pull it all together. I'm a little older, a little wiser, a little more experienced now.

The point of view characters need to be Tenly and Toller, though the narrator will probably remain the changeling, Pox.

In looking at the first 50 pages, they divide neatly into 6 chapters -- The Tales Of Pox.

1.) The Ship.
2.) The Master.
3.) The Old Man
4.) The Apprentice
5.) The Gargoyle
6.) The Owl.

Here's the cool thing. Each of these chapters can stand alone as a back short story.

Here's the big news:

I've decided to publish this book online.

Six months ago I wouldn't have considered such a thing. But now? I think it's the thing to do.
I'm not sure that I wouldn't choose this route even if I had a publisher, but I'm not going in that direction, in any case.

So the six back stories can be included online. "Oh, if you like Sometimes a Dragon, and want to get a little history of their world, here are the Tales of Pox."

Which is something I can do online, that I never could've done on paper.

I decided on this course, because my friend Jared Folkins in going in with me as a partner. He's going to do the technical and promotional parts, so that there is at least a chance the story will actually be found and read.

We'll see where it leads.

I'm also going to put my book Deviltree online, with a bit of rewriting.

And if all that works, I've three or four more books well along that way -- all I need is a bit of encouragement.

What you'll find in my talking about writing is that I'm not afraid to change my mind, to go charging off in new directions, pull back and go back to the origins and so on -- once that creative urge sets in, I just let it flow. You think I'm obsessive about business, you ain't seen nothin' yet!