Tons of Updates

A number of things to tell about today. First of all, I got my first comments on my screenplay draft. I admit they came from my wife, but she is a great help. She thought the flow was good other than two areas where I had question marks as well. Net result is that we are both feeling good about it. For now, I have put the file on both computers and onto a flash drive and will let it sit until later in the month.

For the BRATS, I have begun work on a series of books tentatively called the Pressman Chronicles. They are targetted at the 9 to 12 year old range with an emphasis on aspects of being a military dependent which will help children deal with their difference from the rest of their community(ies). I tentatively plan on the series being 10 to 14 books and am in the process of outlining them now. Please chime in if you have a particular issue which you think would be good to address. If you want to see the topics I intend to tackle currently, please shoot me an email address and I'll forward it on to you. Send me your email, press here.

For the parents, if you have checked out my writing.com posts, you may have run across Agent P. I have recieved a number of questions about when people will be able to read an actual Agent P book. First of all, thanks to everyone who has asked this question. It has been really encouraging. So perhaps it is lunacy, but I am in the process of drafting a series for Agent P books targetted at 6-9 years of age. The concept behind the books would be to help children who have just gone through the transition of learning the truth about Santa Claus. My goal is to provide them with a fun way to discover how Christmas can still be exciting and precious, even with their new perception of Santa.

The main challenge for the Pressman Chronicles and Agent P will be adjusting to the writing style needed for each age group. I am working on both of these already so I feel confident in saying that it feels like a juggling act already.

On top of these two new projects, I am laying out the outline for the first of my KrystalShield Trilogy. The first book is tentatively named Shard of Remembrance. This will be an adult fantasy series, but will deal with a main character who is a military dependent in a fantasy setting. My goal for him is to approximate some of the trials and challenges of us BRATs and look at how he deals with them.

As I stated earlier, I am committed to producing fiction for military dependants. The first step is for me to write it. Then I get to see if the editors think they are worthy of publication. I know there is enough of a market for these to be profitable, so I have no concerns there. I actually read this weekend that most science fiction books consider 20,000 novels a good sales run. I read that and thought about how many BRATs are out there. I don't think we'll have trouble convincing a publisher that this can be profitable, but that doesn't mean that I can turn in an inferior manuscript. That would not be right to them or to all of my fellow BRATs.

Time to get back to work. I fervently believe that I can finish drafts of all three of these projects by September. That is my time line.

SCRIPTFRENZY WIN!!

Well, it's official. At about 9:30 pm last night, I finished my first screenplay. Space Bugs is still the working title and I am very satisfied with how it turned out. My final word count is at 20,099 words, so just eked in. I know I created some gaps though which I will add to the script to fix. I'm going to fix the major stuff today and tomorrow and then put it up for a while. After my head clears I'll come back and edit it. I have a tentative gameplan of submitting it in September. This is dictated by wanting to let it sit on a shelf in July and then do an edit in early August. After that edit I'll let it sit for a few weeks and then do another edit in late August or early September. After that have some test readers and let it fly.

On a side note, Script Frenzy appears to have overstepped themselves. I'm not positive, but it appears that the Young Writer's program got more money than could be afforded. They are basically begging at this point and I find myself torn. On one side I don't have a problem with the donation, but on the other side it seems like I'm bailing them out. I participated in Script Frenzy specifically because it was free and I am just getting my career going. Yet now, what appears to be fiscal irresponsibility is causing them to pressure me and others to make donations. Not how I like to do business personally. I have no decisions yet, but thought I would mention that this appears to be an example of making sure you understand your limitations. If you want to make a donation, click HERE.

In other news, I am really eager to do some more work on my Agent P character. This was a fluke from Writing.com which I enjoyed thoroughly and for which I recieved a lot of positive praise. I talked about trying to push him to publication before, but never went after it. Of course, that was when my confidence level was lower. I am thinking that I will do 14 stories targetted at the 6-9 yr old age range. I'm going to sketch out what that would take and see if I can turn out a story or two.

I also turned out a 2300 word piece yesterday for an absolute write contest. I posted for feedback, but I intend to edit it today and then shelve it for two weeks. Hopefully it can go out by the end of July. I think it was a good piece, although I have no feedback yet.

On the brat front, I am pulling together ideas for a children's or young adults series where the main characters will be military brats in a fantasy setting. My thought is that their problems will be similar, but different. Whereas many others might have the brat side as a background element, my characters will have it as a focal point driving them through the story(ies). I am targetting completion of the story outlines for the end of next week.

I also recieved copies of Third Culture Kids, by David Pollock, and my copy of the book spotlighted in the information bar, Mary Weichert's Military Brats. Here's a link to David's book on Amazon:

Wow! Will wonders never cease. I was getting the link for David's book and stumbled on this one.

Someone else is helping TCKs, even if not specifically BRATs. Please note, I have never heard of this book before today, so check it out at your own risk.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have suggestions on any of these ideas.

Who are these people, anyway?

Been a hectic few days for me.

First, my best news is getting confirmation that I have a seat in the Dragon*Con Basic Writer's Workshop. I'm still kicking around being part of the Advanced Workshop, but I'm leaning toward a 'no' at this point. My main reason is wanting to be sure that I digest the information from the basic workshop, but I'm also nervous about whether I will click with Ann Crispin. It's nothing personal, but I know sometimes people don't mesh well. Pair up those two with a desire to spend some time enjoying the rest of Dragon*Con and I reach my decision. Now we'll see if that changes with time.

Second, I attended the second meeting (my first) of the Master Mind Group in Cumming. I met Shawn, Cheryl, and Ben there. We were quite an ecclectic collection of aspiring published authors. Or I should say, everyone except Cheryl. She gets the cookie for the most success to date with one sale already published in a Chicken Soup book, and a pending podcast (which in my true form I already forgot who it was sold to.) Cheryl has a blog up that you can check out as well.

Shawn has a webpage and blog that you can check out as well. She has written for quite a while, but, like me, is still searching for the editor who will be blinded by her brilliance. She also is the Municipal Liaison for Scriptfrenzy and NaNoWriMo. Very passionate woman with big dreams for providing support to authors, locally and globally.

Ben wins the rookie award for the meeting. Great guy, he is just getting his feet under him in his writing. He was very refreshing in his candor and openness to suggestions. I hope to see him there again.

I took my camera with intentions of snapping some photos to post, but maybe next time. The small size of the group made the thought of snapping photos seem invasive to me. I'll take the camera next time and we'll see.

On the writing front, my screenplay is up to 14,000 words and climbing. I have five days to hit 20K, but then I have some polishing to do. This is definitely a rough draft. But overall it has been fun.

I also have done some more work on my short story, Jameson Special Op. I got a great piece of advice last night which brought a revelation I was begining to suspect. I have the story starting too soon. I need to change the starting point and that will help with word count, as well as helping with holding reader interest. I hope to get a chance to work on that later today.

State of Literary BRATdom in Fiction

I have changed the format considerably, but still want to keep everyone updated on my progress.

Checks in the mail for the Writing Workshop in August. I don't have any idea when I will know something on that one. I'm guessing two to four weeks.

My Screenplay is coming along nicely. We are two thirds through the month and I have about 10,000 words written so far. Although this might seem like I'm behind the curve, I have been adding about 2000 words every two days, so I am doing fine so far. The drop was mostly due to some issues last week. Don't worry, it will be finished on time.

I have also started a new story. It is tentatively called Jameson Special Op for now. I'll tweek the title later. The story is a science fiction piece which deals with a military dependant and his relationship with his father (a Colonel in the Army.) This is the true story, but in the mix the hero must deal with aliens and a situation which he finds himself uniquely qualified for.

This leads me into the relationship between these two topics. There is method to my madness, at least on this occasion. I think there is a remarkable lack of material available for the public about military dependants and our unique struggles and viewpoints. Since I am just getting started in my writing career, I am in a privileged position of being able to tailor my work around these dynamics. So that is what I'm going to become more focused on.

I will not claim that every story or book I write will deal with military dependants, but I will make a concerted effort to include our stories within my stories. There is a risk that this may not be popular, but since when did a BRAT care about not being accepted? I can deal with anything for three years.

If you are interested in some of the things that have been written to date, check out these links:



If you're like me, you look at this list and think that it is kind of sad that so many men, women, and children are underrepresented within our fictional literary world. Oh there are slight mentions where brats play a minor role here or there in other works, but the list of main characters and themes is criminally short. It should be noted that there is an increasing number of non-fiction books which are directed at military families and specifically parents in the military, not to mention autobiographies. But when you cross the line to read a work of fiction, the picking become noticeably slimmer. I can't make others fix it, so I guess I will join the few innovators who are trying to make a difference.

Who are those others? I'm working on a list of the resources which I think warrant mentioning. Hopefully I will have that finished in the next week or so.

Until then, bear with me, and keep reading.

Writer's of the Future Rejection

It is official. Writers of the Future posted their list of finalists to be considered by the final judges and my name is not there. On one side I am disappointed that I did not advance. On the other side of that thought is the realization that this is my first submission to this contest and it draws the most recognition among aspiring writers so I am not exactly the only talent submitting a story. Add to this a number of revelations over the last two months about thing I could have done differently in the story.

Overall: no harm, no foul. The posted list was online, so I have not recieved the copy of my manuscript back yet. I am hoping that a stray note may have been made on it, but I have been warned that this is fairly rare. I can understand the judges guarding their advise while hoping still.

I have almost two thousand words done on my manuscript for Script Frenzy so far. I may write some more of it tonight yet. Other than that, I am leaning toward pushing forward on my novel more than another WotF submission. The novel is running around in my head currently, while the WotF stories are hanging in limbo. I will have to decide on Monday.

Hope you have a good weekend!