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Why Do We Bother?

Those areas of human endeavor where art is created have become very crowded with the ability of anyone to post things to the internet. You only have to look at Amazon Kindle books or visit Soundcloud to see how much is done every single day. Needless to say, there are times where writers, music producers, artists, etc wonder why they are bothering to do what they do.

There are dark times when we sit and think that we’ll never succeed, we’ll never do anything good, we’re not getting better at it, etc. One content creator has done an excellent exposition on those feelings, how to address them and more. The video is called ‘The Darker Side of Making Music’ but it does address everyone who does creative work. Cameron of Venus Theory calls it a rant, but it soberly discusses all the self-doubt that creators run into. And he has a great voice.

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Raven: The Call from Central (2nd Edition) available now on Kindle

Finally, the 2nd Edition of Raven: The Call from Central is available on Amazon.

This edition has numerous corrections and enhanced descriptions to align with the later books in the series and make the scenes easier to understand. Also included is the short story ‘All it Takes is Meeting the Right Team’, which is the story of how Gothgirl joined Iskandar. This story has not been published elsewhere.

As the series grew in numbers of books, I began to see holes in the way the Tournament was conducted and how the characters related to it. Being an engineer, I’m always into the details, so something had to be done (LOL). Also, I beefed up the descriptions of the scenes so that you could be a better feel of what was happening.

Raven: The Call from Central is live on Amazon here:

Raven of Iskandar Book 8

This is the cover for Book 8 of Raven of Iskandar. The book itself is in the third round of edits. Only minor tweaks happening now.

As for the cover, you get to see Raven and Soria. Finally got a good AI generated image of each. Both were generated in the same image, which is difficult because AI gets confused easily. The cover is a composite of two AI generated images. The explosion was a separate generation. The two images were composited in Canva and the text added in Canva.

On another subject, The Happy Dale Incident is nearing the completion of the first draft. Right now, it looks like there are only 1 1/2 chapters to finish. Of course, then it heads off to the editing cycle(s).

I’m working on getting both released on Kindle and in paperback by mid-November.

Raven of Iskandar & AI & Status

Book 8 of Raven of Iskandar, titled ‘War’ is now into the second round of editing. My editor (Hello, Yvonne!) is insisting on more material, so you’ll get more material!

Incidentally, my editor (and friend) is Yvonne Marrs, the author of somewhere between 30 and 50 novels including the series ‘When the Sax Man Plays’, ‘Can’t Buy Health’ and ‘Undeserved’. One of her best books is ‘Harbortown Murder’.

Harbortown Murder is an excellent murder mystery and I’ve urged her to do more mysteries. She did one other murder mystery, ‘Termination at the Halt: Ghost Train Murder Mystery” which also excellent. It was done as a fundraiser for the refurbishing of a Halt. Never knew what one was, but it’s sort of a mini train station.

Raven of Iskandar: I mentioned before that the cover for the previous Raven book, ‘Outbreak’ was done with AI image assistance. I combined three AI-generated images.

For ‘War’, I’m at it again with AI image generation and this time wrestling with the attempt to render the members of the team. While team members Skylla and Angel will take a bit more work, here are some successes with rendering Raven, Chaoschick and Soria:

The toughest part so far has been getting Raven’s–and Soria’s–skin color correct.

The ultimate aim is to be able to fill the cover with the team. Yeah, I know, good luck. LOL

And, just for laughs, here is one of the more ridiculous failures

Everyone Always Goes Away

You really don’t notice it when you are young. 

It starts when you are in grammar school.  You spend multiple grades with the same friends.  You may even have friends in the local neighborhood.  Sometimes they move away and you lose track of them.

You graduate to high school and some of your friends from grammar school are not in the same high school.  You lose track of them.  However, you find new friends.

You graduate high school and head off to college.  While most of your friends came with you into high school, this is different.  Your friends spread out all across the country.  You keep in touch with some and lose track of some.  Even more extreme, one or two friends go to the same college with you.  They have different majors and you lose track of them.

You graduate college.  You start a job, get to know people, then you hop to the next job and somehow never keep up with former coworkers.  But, there are now new coworkers.

All the while, your family is aging.  Your grandparents passed away a few years ago.  Your father passes away and your mother is in a facility.  No longer is it ‘not keeping track’ of someone.  They are really gone from your life.

The years go by quickly.  Your kids grow up and move away.  Some of them keep touch.  Some don’t.

Then one of your friends passes away.  Then you realize they passed away several years ago and you never knew it.

Somehow, now, in your old age, you feel that there is no one to replace them.

This is the time of year when thoughts turn to those who have left your life.  With the internet, it is much easier to find those who you’ve lost track of.  You can contact them and remember old times.

Or…you just check them off the list.

Raven Of Iskandar Update & Coming Attractions!

The last chapter of ‘War’ is now being completed. The next step will be to read through the whole book, editing as I go along. I’ll be checking for inconsistencies and, if there are any chapters that need to be added to further the story and make it more comprehensible. After that, it’s off to the editor, who has said that she can’t wait to read it.

Of course, English is the common language that divided the USA from the UK, so we will undoubtedly have more miscommunication.

‘War’, book 8 of Raven of Iskandar is now over 80,000 words and likely to still grow.

Coming Attractions!

Back in the dim past, when first drafts were either handwritten or typed on a mechanical typewriter, I had ‘written’ several stories worthy of rewriting. I’m amazed at how I felt I was writing well at that time. They’re awful. However, as bad as the writing was, the ideas are worth developing.

‘So’s Your Fairy Godmother’ — A guy gets sent, unwillingly, on a quest in a bizarre world by a replacement–and very sexy–fairy godmother.

This one’s a comedy adventure with an unique set of characters. I’m not even trying to be serious with this one. This may not make a full book, as the original only had 12,000 words. The original lacks a lot of description. Mainly, other than the bad writing, it lacks logical situations. A bit of clean-up there.

‘The Happy Dale Incident’ — A professor unwillingly studies the reactions of some wacko patients in a genuine haunted house. If you know what a greptch is, then you’ll know they had to call out the army. Another comedy adventure.

The original only had 13,000 words but needs a lot more ‘meat’ on the bones, so this one may make a full novel.

‘Day of the Greptch’ — The sequel to ‘The Happy Dale Incident’. The residents of Happy Dale go wild again. This time across the whole country.

This one is a real problem to get done. The original was handwritten in pencil on both sides of leger paper. Did you ever hear the phrase ‘I can’t read my own handwriting’?

Finally one serious story that will make novel length. It’s called ‘Blood Red Summer’ and it’s a post-apocalyptic story. This one is at least in Word format. I had rewritten parts of it over the years, but never worked steadily on it. Basically, it’s about a religious war where a number of small kingdoms try to work together to protect the knowledge left after worldwide nuclear war. There’s plenty of sub-plots featuring assassins, backstabbing and finally culminates in actual sword and spear warfare.

One more item: I will be going through an interview for a UK organization called Reader’s House. They do produce a magazine but they prioritize the more famous authors. Still, I may not end up in the magazine, but I will be posted on their website.

That’s all for now. Hope you had a great Thanksgiving and best wishes to all outside the USA where it was just another Thursday.