Archive for the ‘Writing’ Category

Sequelwerks

Posted: July 7, 2014 in Writing
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So, yes, Donnie’s sequel is in the process of being written. I’m not going to drop any plot points or anything because this thing could second drafted to hell and back and leave me looking like a jackass that doesn’t know what he’s doing. And I am not in the habit of making myself look like a jackass that doesn’t know what he’s doing on purpose. But the important takeaway for you, the hypothetical reader, is this: you can haz sequel. Narrative is getting forged and shit. There is dialogue. F-bombs are being dropped willy and also, nilly. And when They Tell Me I’m The Bad Guy: Return of The Beast hits your Kindle like a drunk starting a fight with the sun, it will do so as the product of a lot of work, overthinking, and the emotion you hu-mans call ‘love.’ For now, though, it’s still mostly that first thing: a lot of work. And work is hard. Write that down.

Hugs and Kisses,

R.D.

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Check-In

Posted: March 28, 2014 in Writing
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They Tell Me I’m The Bad Guy: Return of The Beast (title may stick, title may not, don’t hold me to anything and stop suffocating me, man!), is in full force production. I’ve said (a lot) before that I didn’t want to do a sequel just for the sake of doing it, and I can safely say that I ain’t doing it for that reason. I’m really liking where this thing is going to go and am happy as hell to be working on it. It picks up on a lot of the threads from the first one; think of it not so much a second Donnie Guillory story as a continuation of *the* Donnie Guillory story (so faux-deep . . . so faux-deep). And it is also the last planned installment for the character. I can’t imagine having anything else to say after this one, and I’m not just some one-trick pony, you guys. I’ve got like three, maybe even four tricks. Not five, though. I’m not David Blaine.

By the way, Bloody Copper, Roaring Lead is still out there on the Kindle. I crazy undersold it when I released it, but it’s a very cool slow-burn mystery with some heart, revelations, a coolly capable man out of his element, and a bunch of story-telling conventions clashing while being subverted. And what’s not to dig about anarchist hillbillies and hard-edged, illiterate killers? I’ve got some ideas to do a prequel for the Freem character in the future, anyway, so why not get on the bus now before it goes totes mainstream, bro? You’re gonna want to say you already knew about it before Oprah puts her book club label on it. Then you’ll just look like a chump.

Hugs and Kisses,

R. D.

Merry Christmas, Jive Turkeys

Posted: December 25, 2013 in Writing
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Bloody Copper, Roaring Lead is officially down to clown, guys. Hardboiled fiction has been an enormous influence on me, and this is my love letter to both it and one of my other big loves, the western. It’s the tropes and archetypes of the two biggest pulp genres of their day clashing against one another in a murder mystery: a cynical P.I., a powerful rancher, merciless thugs, the high desert, wry wit, and vicious cowboys all set during Prohibition. I made it especially for you guys for Christmas so don’t be douche about it. Get this s-word on your Kindles or be b-words.

Holiday Hugs and Kisses,

R. D.

It. Is. Coming.

Posted: December 15, 2013 in Writing
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BCRL Cover 8-6

I Have Slain in Battle the Beast That is My Imagination

Posted: October 21, 2013 in Writing
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Soooo, the hardboiled thing is done. That’s right, finished. I could keep going back to it, polishing it, never satisfied (i.e., the George Lucas treatment), but it’s ready to send out to publishers. It feels effin’ great (or ‘just the tops’ in my current vernacular). It also means that Donnie is back up to bat (also up to bat: re-learning how to swear. You buncha bitch-ass shitheads).

Unfortunately for you guys (motherfuckers), I don’t like to tease plot details, characters, or story points (so suck it, assholes). But I’ve said before the last two chapters of the first book really tell you everything you need to know about the direction the sequel is going. Like They Tell Me I’m The Bad Guy, there are going to be psychological underpinnings to it the same way Polarization/Pendulum Effect was a sort of runner through the first one (spoiler: the theme was not f-words and nicotine). Also, Donnie’s still not going to be a damn Mary Sue (trope alert, dickhead). He’s been given the power to make fuck-ups on a grand scale so of course that’s exactly what he’s going to end up doing because he’s Donnie and Donnie fucking knows best despite all evidence, right? (biiiiitch)

So hang in there, fans. Shit is going to get way more real and way more unreal before this thing’s through (*middle finger*).

Hugs and Kisses,

R. D.

Obligatory Check-In

Posted: August 29, 2013 in Writing
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Okay, so some of you are like, “Hey, R.D., you’re a cool guy, you’re with it, I kinda think about you while I lie in bed at night, but what’s the deal with the sequel to They Tell Me I’m The Bad Guy, bro?” To those people, I say, “Calm the fuck down and go over that third thing you said again, but real slow.” Then I say, “I’m still working on this hardboiled mystery thing. How about you climb down out of my ass, guy?”

All of this is to say that, yes, I’m *still* working on the hardboiled novel thing. I’ve got about 6 chapters of edits and rewrites left, but grabbing time has been a challenge and the ghost of Raymond Chandler is over in the corner wryly mocking everything I put on the page (and it turns out that phone number in Ghostbusters doesn’t even work, either). I’m of a mind that if I’m going to put my name on something forever, it damn well better be something that I worked my ass off making, thus, the still working on it part (Pro tip: it also makes negative reviews far more damaging to my soul).

I will throw out a bone and say that as far as TTMITBG2 goes, the last two chapters of the first book lay a lot of foundation for what Donnie will be dealing with in the second. DeltaBlue will be returning. A few other characters in those pages are down as maybe’s but haven’t yet committed. And there will, of course, be new blood to put Don through his paces (his horrible, horrible paces). And to put your mind at ease, I’m staying acutely aware of the symptoms of sequelitis. Pitfalls are everywhere, but I pledge to avoid them. That said, get ready to meet the wisecracking, precocious kid Donnie will be saddled with for the entire book and his hilarious catchphrase, “No way, Don-nay.” Also, there will be no more swearing. It didn’t test well. So be sure to pick up They Tell Me I’m The Bad Guy II: The Winter of Broken Crows when it comes out.

Hugs and Kisses,

R. D.

Sitrep

Posted: February 7, 2013 in Writing
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Obligatory check-in post. Not a lot going on, really, but my not putting much on this site since December makes me look lazy and neglectful, and I am not at least one of those things. Mostly, my slacking off (I said ‘slacking’) is due to being too busy with writing words that will go into a storybook instead of words that will be housed in server bunkers or clouds or human battery farms or however they’re storing Internet data these days.

As for what I’m working on (because I know you’re so invested in it), I’ve put a June deadline on finishing it. It’s a book, which, point of interest, has nothing at all to do with the one that probably brought you to this site. You know, the one that you surrendered actual money earned at that job you hate so that you could read and might have even enjoyed. Yeah, it’s got nothing to do with that one (’cause striking while the iron’s hot is how you get third degree burns, kids). Instead, I’m currently wading twenty-two chapters deep in what will probably be twenty-eight or twenty-nine chapters of a hard boiled Prohibition-era detective story (yeah, I’ve posted about this before, but there’s no harm in repeating it–there is, however, shame. Lots of dirty, whore-like shame). There’s no sci-fi to this story in any way (so I guess fuck you, readers who likes that), but there’s more to premise and a higherness to the concept than just standard hard boiled boilerplate stuff (boilerplates – also hot).

Anyway, when that’s finished up, I’m going to see about getting it printed on Mother Earth-offending paper and sold in Mom & Pop store-killing retail chains; something I didn’t do with They Tell Me I’m The Bad Guy because I thought it might be something of a hard sell (and some Amazon reviewers agree). But once this hard boiled thing is all squared away, I’ll be working on the next installment of Donnie Guillory’s life, which I also expect to be the last. Yes, I know trilogies are what all the cool kids are doing these days, but I’m a firm believer in telling only as much story as you’ve legitimately got. If you keep pushing things too hard (that’s what she said) to where the good ideas are drying up and getting harder and harder to come by (that’s what she said), you’re just going to end up disappointing everybody and making a mess (. . . she said that, too). So when the TTMITBG sequel is done, I think I’ll have said all I have to say with Donnie (13% of that being the f-word). I’ve got other stories I want to get to before I die; not gonna spend all my time with him. That guy’s an asshole.

Hugs and Kisses,

R. D.