The Importance of Knowing Where You Are.

And now to distract myself from working on book 2 and talk with you lovely people… tsk tsk tsk.

I must say that it has been so easy to get lost in my own creation.  Writing Book 2 has been like driving in the mountains at night when the “holler fogs” are out.  One minute you see things clearly, and you’re up high on a hill, then, zoop! right back into zero visibility with your high-beams reflecting back in your face.

Once again, I have rediscovered the desperate need I have in knowing my geography, and even more than that, the names of places.  I know those of you who have read my book are going “Oh dear Lord!  Not more long names!”  Yep.  They’re coming.  When your naming convention is based on old Norse, Finnish, Icelandic, Swedish and of course lots of Norwegian with a dash of Ojibway for the pickle on top of that linguistic sundae, you get some strange names.  But once named, and considered in the mental geography of my series, it is so much nicer to work there.

On the other hand, once I know the names of things, and where they exist in my mind, things get much easier and my confidence grows which means better chapters.  Much shorter chapters too.  I’m taking a tip from James Patterson on this one and going the Pringles route.  Once you pop, you can’t… steal blatant advertising jingles.  Blah!  What was I saying!?

So anyway, it’s been a little harder going, but I’ve been having fun with it once I defeat the obstacles that keep rearing their heads.  I was hoping to get 5 chapters done this weekend, but it looks like 3… mayyyybe 4 might be the result.  We’ll see.  The resistance is strong in this book.

On a positive note, the Alpha readers are looking at it as we speak and providing a little feedback, but since they don’t know where its going yet, and there are six subplots to work with… umm yeah, currently 6…it’s been a heck of a job braiding a big novel I never expected to happen in the first place!  But that’s what I get when the readers fall in love with a secondary character.  We’re going to have to see what to cull out and maybe use a freebie for you guys.

The even gooder news is that I am keeping careful track of things in the glossary and I am going to try and get help to hot link the terms, so those that buy the eBook will have a much better time with it.  Not sure how yet, but it’s my desire, so if anyone has tips on how to set that up in Scrivener, let me know, please!  I want to learn.

Also, an interesting side business may be cropping up.  Once I research more about this, I’ll make an announcement.  That will also wait till after I finalize banking and small business type of legals too (so after book 2 is in the hands of my lovely beta readers and editors which I hope will be late spring or early summer so I can meet my self imposed deadline.

Lastly, as a precaution, I’m removing all artwork from my blog that I did not purchase or do myself.  Yes, I am sad about this, but thanks to the litigious society we live in, I’m just not going to risk it anymore.  If people can get me some good advice on where I can get SAFE clip art for my website where I don’t have to be looking over my shoulder and worry about surprise bills, cease and desist orders

So… happy thoughts.