Status and a little more

Posted on by D. D. Wolf

Writing Week Status

After some false starts and a viewpoint change or two, I’m holding steady on my writing word count goal for the week. I’m even a little ahead of the curve at the moment! Being able to delve back into the Jagged Earth Story World lore brought me out of a dry spell in words to page (technically electrons to magnetic media, but I digress). I created some chapter heading quotes and rearranged the order of a few chapters. The key to breaking the block on the latest chapter was changing the the viewpoint of the scene from one character to another. That technique definitely goes into the toolbox for future use.

 

A Little More

I searched around on the Internet a while back, looking for a writing contest that seemed legitimate and that Orchids Ablaze would fit with. Enter Chanticleer Book Reviews. Their contests are divided into several categories and. lo and behold! They have a category that specifically calls out superhuman/paranormal content. So after plenty of hemming and hawing, I submitted Orchids Ablaze. There was some soul searching involved since the entry fee is several (dozens) times more than any money I’ve made on the book. However, if you don’t bet, you can’t win. I’m still a long way from “winning”, but the book popped up on the PARANORMAL Book Awards for Supernatural Fiction – the SHORTLIST for the 2019 CIBAs recently. Just a bit of validation perhaps, but it came at the right time. My head was getting bruised from beating it against the desk.

So, I’m fairly excited to have even made it this far. That’s two cut lines in (slush pile to long list to shortlist) and we’ll see if I can make two more. Well wishes, genie wishes, and any leftover wishes  you gentle readers have to spare will be greatly appreciated.

DDW

 

Written by D. D. Wolf

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I'm on my 5th or 6th career depending on how you count them, but ideally this one will be my last with the kind help of our readers. I've traveled to several states across the U.S., but the Appalachian Mountains of Tennessee and North Carolina will always be where I'm most comfortable. I've been an avid reader of comics for more years than I'm going to mention, but I return time after time to the old pulps. Obviously the Doc Savage books have been a tremendous influence. There's just something about seeing and hearing those characters in your mind's eye, just the way YOU, as the reader, think they should be.. I've been writing poems, lyrics and stories of varying quality since I was in my teens, which means most of my archives are on paper in three-ring binders! I've been creating characters in various RPG systems for at least that long. I've always thought characters made the story: good characters can live on through story after story. It wasn't until the last 6 or 7 years that I felt I could write characters well enough to be engaging. You'll have to let me know how I'm doing.

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