First Draft Finished!!!

Finally, after six months of writing, the first draft of my new colonial novel, The Last Cabin, is done! Many thanks to those of you over the last weeks who have helped me hem and haw through various titles for this book as well. So the work’s all done, right?

Not quite. I’ve begun my second round of rewrites and am pretty pleased with the results so far. The biggest joke is that my novel totals over 117,000 words in length, which is way too long! Now I have the task before me of trimming it down to a marketable size of well under 100,000 words.

We’ll see how it goes, as I’m anxious to get this story into the hands of fellow readers and agents alike. Hopefully, I can start sharing sample chapters with many of you soon, as my wife has diligently made me rewrite every chapter as I went along during my first draft, so I’m hoping just to clean up a few things before getting feedback from a wider audience. I’ll have a synopsis for you all soon and hope to give you a proper introduction to my novel sometime in the next couple weeks!

Impressionists: Part 2

This weekend I saw the second half of the Impressionist’s exhibit at the De Young Museum in San Francisco. I like the first half I saw a couple months back, but the second part was easily a hundred times better. I got up close and personal with greats like Van Gogh, Cezanne, Gauguin, Rousseau, and many more.


I definitely loved the “Tahitian Girls” by Gauguin, as well as “The Snake Charmer” by Rousseau. But I also found the personal lives of the artists equally intriguing, such as the fact that Van Gogh only painted professionally for a period of 10 years, and how Cezanne struggled as a relative unknown for most of his lifetime. The human element really helped bring these pieces of artwork to life.

As a would-be writer I find such pieces of art inspiring and the lives of the artists themselves equally fascinating, not so much for their successes and failures, but for their struggles and everyday lives. It’s easy to imaging painters living in an artist’s colony somewhere, but when you realize they too had day jobs and families and other responsibilities in their lives it gives you a new found respect for them and their work. If you haven’t had a chance, checkout some of these impressive exhibits in San Francisco, or simply look them up online to learn a little more about the painters themselves.

Wanted: Catchy Title

I’ve got some exciting stuff in the works to help bring in the New Year, but first thing’s first. I’m in the throws of trying to come up with a decent title for my newest novel set in the colonial frontier. Needless to say, even if you haven’t read any samples of my work yet, your opinion with regards to catchy titles would be most helpful.

Here are some potential titles I’m kicking around right now: Indian Summer, Forgotten Valley, Blue Mountains, Elkhart, To Rutland Go, The Night in Which the Corn Grows, The Roebucks, and The Last Cabin. Don’t even worry about plot or background, I’m just curious as to which of these potential titles you would most likely pickup from a bookshelf and open up.

So please let me know what you think. If you have another, much more intriguing title, please don’t hesitate to share it. I’ve often found title names for books in the most unlikely of places. Thanks for the help!

Happy New Years!

Brining in the New Year has always had a slightly artificial feeling to me. Unlike Christmas or Halloween, it never really elicits quite the same feeling, but maybe that’s because something as simple as a date change feels somewhat arbitrary to me. Nonetheless, New Years is still worth celebrating.

Namely, because of that old tradition of creating New Years resolutions. A chance to remake ourselves anew for the New Year. Or to at least try and tackle those resolutions from last year again.

So what are your resolutions? I’m trying to think of something not entirely selfish this year, as often my resolutions revolve around attaining some personal goal or improving myself, but I think it’s time I resolved to do something for someone other than me. If any ideas pop into your head, let me know. Otherwise, have a very happy New Years!

Merry Christmas!!!

Hey all! With the holidays upon us I’ll only be blogging intermittently, because after all it’s the holidays and it’s best to spend as much face time with family and friends as possible. I hope that you all enjoy doing the same.

I’m sure you’re all out doing last minute shopping too and trying to wrap up work. Good luck with all that. But tune in at the start of the New Year and I’ll have lots more exciting things to actually blog about.

Namely, I have more irons in the fire regarding my writing and am continuing to pursue publication through potential agents. But we’ll get into that stuff later. In the meantime…whatever your preference, happy holidays and have a very, very Merry Christmas!

Great Charles Dickens Fair

Apparently, every Christmas Ren-fair folks dress up in Victorian-era costumes for the Charles Dickens Fair held every year in San Francisco. I’ve heard that similar events like this one take place all of the country, but I’ve never been to one. What I’m trying to discern today is whether one of these things is worth seeing in person.

With all the stress of the holidays, fitting one more task in sounds pretty nuts. However, I’m into new experiences and was wondering if anyone has tried one of these events. I’ve heard that it’s supposed to be a great way to get into the Christmas season as Charles Dickens’ stories have become such an integral part of how we see and celebrate the holidays.

I honestly don’t know if I can make it to one this season, but as both a reader of Dickens and a fan of Christmas I figure it’s worth a try. I just hope the people aren’t quite as eccentric as the folks at Ren-fair. Nonetheless, if anyone has gone to one of these, let me know what you thought of it.

Ugly Sweater Party

A bad or ugly sweater party can be a really good thing. Tonight my wife and I are going to the annual bad sweater party some friends of mine have hosted around Christmas time for the past several years. What are we wearing? Bad sweaters of course. 

Not only is it a good excuse to get together with friends, you can actually put to use those old, crazy Christmas sweaters you or family members have received in years past. I know I personally like to use my dad’s since they truly are out of fashion. But it’s a good thing in this case Dad.

Additional benefits to holding or attending an ugly sweater party is that you’re already warm (I mean you’re wearing sweaters), and there’s usually plenty of holiday food and cheer. Obviously, I’d like to invite you all to come, but since some of you are pretty far flung across the globe, that probably won’t work. But whatever you’re doing tonight, have a great weekend as Christmas is just around the corner.