This is the book the way I want it.

I know I said I was done with "Shadows Over Summer House" but I still had 18 epigraphs to write. I figured I'd do those slowly, maybe over the course of the month while the book was with my editor, Lara.

But started on them yesterday, got a couple of good ideas, and ended up writing 17 epigraphs in one day, so I now have enough to cover all 37 chapters. 2800 words, making the novel 93,000 words so far.

The epigraphs tell a parallel story that is pertinent to the main story, but also completely separate. It could have been a novel in itself, if treated as an outline.

To me, it adds just enough extra flavor to make the book better.

Today I'm printing out the 37 epigraphs, cutting them out, and lining them up in the order I think they should be. Kind of an old-fashioned method I remember using a lot when there were no word processing programs. 

So, well dang me, but I really like this book. At the same time, I can see how it might not work with other readers, for various reasons.

Don't matter. This is the book the way I want it.

Epigraphical.

I like to stick little epigraphs at the beginnings of chapters. I've done it on a few books so far. I suspect going forward that it will be more common.

Epigraphs are easy for me to write and sometimes I think they're rather clever. They can import information, or mood, or contrast the happenings in the story.

To me, they are often short, short stories, with a beginning, middle, and end.

The reason they are so easy to write, I think, is that they are a lot like blog entries. I've written on this blog now almost every day for 12 years (hard to believe.) So I've had some practice, but even from the beginning I tended to construct my entries as little stories as much as I could.

Anyway, even though I've finished the first draft of "Shadows Over Summer House," I still have about 12 epigraphs to write (out of 37 needed.)

Not rushing them. I'm letting them come to me. Then I have to decide in what order to insert them

The funny thing is, taken as a whole, and read in order, they are like a little separate short story running parallel to the book.

Very fun to write.

I got a weird idea, that probably won't pan out, of trying to think of a theme for a story, a premise, and then writing a little blog entry each day telling the story. Just a little side project. I'm not sure why that wouldn't work, since I always have this little bit of nervous creative energy in the morning.

Not sure it will be readable, but that's why it's an experiment.

I'm thinking I might revive my "Ye Old Time-travel Shop" idea. Pretend I'm in the store and my customers are aliens.

Writing comparisons are invidious.

Started my rewrite of "Shadows Over Summer House" yesterday.

As it happened, I also started a new book to read. (I read at least an hour every night before bed.)

I examined my bookshelves and saw the James Lee Burke book, "House of the Rising Sun," and asked myself, "Do I dare?"

I took a chance and started reading.

You ever have the experience where you think you're pretty good and you've done a pretty good job and then someone comes along who makes you feel like you're an amateur?

Yeah, well.

Beautiful writing, heavy characters, lots of action and drama and atmosphere, and brilliant dialogue.

Fuck me.

If anything, it's almost too much. He can load a scene with so much that it can sort of overwhelm things--or maybe I'm just aware as a writer what he's doing.

Oh, well. There will always be someone better at what you do than you are.

I'm not sure what it is I do?

I just get these ideas and the urge to tell a story, I see them in my head, the words come and I put them down on paper. I enjoy it and the stories seem to make sense and the words flow, so why wouldn't I do it?

I have no idea if I'm any good or not. I have no idea even if I would read my own stuff given the chance. I can't expect people to read me just because. I can hope for that, hope that people enjoy it, but other than doing my best, I have no control over that.

I guess I can aspire to that level of writing, and at the same time enjoy and admire it.

I like writing and it's very fulfilling so I'll just keep doing my best.

First draft of "Shadows Over Summer House" is done.

John Grisham says to never start a book without an ending already worked out.

All the way through the book I had only the vaguest outline in my mind, especially the ending. But when it came time to write the ending, it spilled out. In fact, I had three chapters to write and when I went on my walk, I finished the first of those chapters, thought out the last two chapters, came home and wrote the second the last chapter (which meant two chapters in one day, which I don't normally allow, but there was no way to push it back).

Woke up the next day knowing where the last chapter was going, and the epilogue.

The book took twice as long as usual. On purpose. I didn't want to force this book, I wanted to allow the occasional day off to do things or...gasp...do nothing at all.

Of course, I rewrote the first 20% of the book from scratch. Once I did that, the writing was smooth sailing. There aren't any parts of it that feel off.

The biggest dare was just writing it in the casual first person way I did. I don't know if it works. It was certainly pleasant to write it that way.

No one can accuse me of writing one kind of book. This one started off as a hard-boiled heist, then became half a Gothic romance. Not heavy on the hard-boiled or the romance parts, but that's how I thought of it.

I think it works pretty well.

I kept the supernatural out until the last three chapters, which surprised me. I'm sure readers will pick up hints. I really need to find someone who knows nothing about the book to read it to get an opinion.

The book is currently at 88,000 words. I've got little Diary portions at the beginning of each chapter, and I've only written about 1/3rd of them so far. I also tend to expand when I rewrite, so my guess is this book is going to end up between 95,000 and 100,000 words, which is one of my bigger efforts.

It's probably not commercial, and there is probably no point in sending it to the big publisher I've been trying to entice with a "thriller." He's made it clear he doesn't do supernatural.

This was a declaration of independence in a way--because the story could have stayed non-supernatural, but I just don't think it would have been as satisfied with it. So I did it the way I thought it should be done.

High Desert Dusk

Alone at dusk,
the high desert quiet,
even the ravens have stilled.

The sunset on fire,
a long way away,
red glow over white branches.

Dust on my legs,
twigs snapping,
hard rock beneath my feet.

Stillness over everything,
trees, rocks, grasses,
and most of all me.

That rock, that tree, and me,
equal in the eyes of nature,
all but moments of time.

The world empties of sound,
of movement, of thought,
A frozen eternity.

I stand in the glow
of peace and silence,
wondering.

Award winning boring SF.

Started reading an award winning S.F. novel last night.

Started off pretentious. "Keep going," I told myself. Maybe she drops the pretentiousness of the prologue, the endless confusing prologue.

The story starts off finally; it's in present tense which I find distracting.

I keep reading, some pretty wordplay, some deep themes, great characterization, interesting ideas.

40 pages in, after she has introduced a couple of new characters, I realize that the scene keeps going, I turn the pages and see that even though she's pretty much covered what she needed to cover, this interaction goes on for five more pages.

I realize I'm bored.

I quit reading.

40 pages in and nothing is happening. Worse--things are happening, big things, but they are all off stage. We see the aftermath of all the action.  

She never shows us any of it. 

The upshot? This book does a lot of the things I'm thinking I want to do (other than the pretentiousness) and I didn't like it. I could tell this was an attempt at a "literary" SF, and the action and pacing weren't going to be what I like these days.

I've noticed before that literary genre books tend to skip the action. I don't see any reason why, except they maybe don't want to be accused of actually writing the genre they're writing?

I wrote one of my first scenes in my first book as the aftermath of a giant battle. The main character walking through the wreckage. My writing teacher said,

"Show us the battle."

I've never forgotten that.

I've decided not to mention names--writing is a hard gig, so I won't slam any writer--but I also noticed this on another book that is famous, that has had a TV show, and which totally frustrated me. A great premise that the writer seems to avoid fulfilling all the way through the book. Magic, but no magic. War, but no battles. Utterly underwhelming.

Beautiful language and characterization and description, all in service to a story that refused to do anything. 

I feel so out of step with the world.

So my stories are fast moving and spare. You know what? Maybe I should go with that. Maybe I should embrace it.

Saving all the drama for dramatic moments makes them melodramatic.

Just spent another 1000 words in small steps. It's the theme of this book. Explicating the steps, showing the day-to-day activity. There is something innately interesting about that process. At least I hope so. And how else do I show motivations if I don't have time to let them show during the course of a day?

Saving them up for dramatic moments only makes them melodramatic.

The danger is that I'm repeating myself. Certainly, I've seen that in other books, but it also tends to lend a little depth to the characters, reinforces what is important and what isn't important.

I don't know, maybe this is all hogwash. I'm admittedly experimenting. But I really wanted to try this and so far I'm actually kind of liking it. I'm feeling more like I'm living in this world, and if I feel that way, then maybe the reader will too.

I'm letting myself fill in some of the "in-between" spots. So, for instance, in the latest chapter the protagonist is driving to the heist, unexpectedly accompanied by a goon assigned to watch over him by the crime boss. So on the way they are feeling each other out, I'm providing information, I have some inner dialogue and some description.

All this might have been passed over in a previous novel. I probably would have gone directly to the heist.

But I really like what I said above: Saving up all the drama for the dramatic moments only makes them melodramatic. 

It's better to have the character think to themselves over several chapters--"uh, oh, this is a bad development," then "if I don't watch out I'm going to get trapped," then "how am I going to escape this?" to "I'm trapped!' then to have it suddenly happen once in the middle of a scene, "OH, MY GOD, I'M TRAPPED!!!!"

I'm also letting myself use words. That is, I'm not trying to be as spare as usual. This would normally be a bad thing, but I write so sparsely that I usually have to add in the re-write. I'm just letting things breathe a little more.

Like I said, I don't know if this works, but it seems to work for me. I'm feeling as if I'm personally in this book more.

All of this is my perception. The book isn't probably all that different. Linda sort of confirmed that. But at least in my mind, I'm trying something different. 

How do you make a heist interesting?

Sounds like a stupid question, after all how many books and movies are based on that very idea?

But unless the heist is the actual focus, it's pretty hard to make a heist interesting these days. I mean, unless you want to spend chapters coming up with twists and turns.

Which just goes to show that the heist isn't the point of "Shadows over Summer House," but more of a plot device that motivates the characters. A McGuffin so to speak. 

Really, this is just a strong-arm robbery. Busting in, tying people up, grabbing the money and running.

So, yeah, I can have everything go wrong. The bad guys show up, one of the robbers betrays them, and so on and so on.

But really, it's just a fucking heist.

I could probably say the same thing about the gun battle at the end--but I have a nice little trick up my sleeve on that one.

So I've spent one day already mulling over my heist, waiting for something that really clicks, that will make the scene interesting and involving. I know it's out there somewhere, but I'm not writing it until I've got it figured out. 

The true test of finishing a novel.

The true test of a novel is whether I'm absorbed by it all the way through.

I have half a dozen books that are between 30% to 60% finished. A couple of them were interrupted by other events, but most of them simply lost steam. It's hard to let 20,000 or 30,000 or 40,000 words go to waste, but if the stories can't engage my interest, there is no reason to believe they'll engage the interest of a reader.

Better to move on, spend my efforts on something that absorbs me in a way I can't deny.

I've run into writer's block before while still believing in a book. Usually that just means I need to figure out where I went off path and a different way to proceed.

A great example was "Led to the Slaughter." I managed to get the Donner Party all the way to the mountains and then couldn't figure out how to move the story forward. How do you show the cold and the hunger in a narrative way? They're stuck there. There needed to be lots of repetition to get it across and that couldn't be allowed to get boring.

It wasn't until I figured out that I could use day-to-day journal entries to get it across in a fresh way that I was able to keep going.

Anyway, with "Shadows over Summer House" I've been absorbed by the story all the way through--enough, even, to rewrite a full 25,000 words from scratch. I'm nearing the end and it all seems to be falling into place.

I don't know if this means it's any good, only that it has engaged my interest all the way through, and that would seem to be a true test of worthiness.

 * * *

I have reached the final chapters. All that's left to do is the actual heist and then write the big climactic fight.

What's very cool is that I've managed to keep the Big Twist to the very end, which I didn't expect. I mean, I suspect many readers will figure it out, but I think I've played fair, giving enough information and avoiding outright lying. (The lying, such as it is, is what the main character sees--or doesn't see--and that's part of the twist).

These last chapters are action scenes--which for me is always easier to do. Or to be more precise--they are easy to do and at the same time hard to do well.

I'm flying blind right now--this is about as far as I've gotten without detailed plans. Heist and Big Reveal and Big Fight. That's about all I know.

But it's there. I can feel it.

Secret corridors aren't as easy as they sound!

Spent most of yesterday afternoon drawing up the floorplans to Summer House. Probably would have been nice to have these diagrams before I started, instead of 72K words in, but most of this stuff I didn't know I needed until I wrote it.

I will have to change the narrative a little to fit the floorplans. Secret corridors and rooms aren't as easy as they sound! I'm still not sure I've got the fine details right, but at least the general directions and dimensions are close.

Trying to finish "Shadows Over Summer House" by April, but I don't know if I'll make it. Lara is prepared to take on the editing that month, so I'm going to try.

Goosed my "major" publisher again, and again no response. It is time to give up, I guess. This was sort of my last hurrah.

What will happen to the ghostwritten book I sold them a couple of years ago, I have no idea. The subject matter has been very topical for the last few years, and I worry they're letting opportunity pass.

I'm tempted to give the money back...if that is even possible. I know that I'm not terribly interested in re-writing it for someone else. It was never about the money. The only reason I sold it was because I thought I'd have a better entry into the publisher, but instead they can't even be bothered to acknowledge my emails. I mean, even a, "Hi. We see hear you," would be nice.

So, right or wrong, I take away from my experience that my writing is good enough for the major publishers, but my name and social media presence isn't. 

I got Mike Corley to adapt one of the covers I'd already bought (for the book I ended up selling as a ghost book), and used it for "Deadfall Ridge." Thanks, Mike, for doing that. Looks perfect for the story, so at least I didn't throw that money away. But it also means I've given up that the publisher will ever get back to me. "Takeover" same thing,

I'd thought to send "Shadows Over Summer House," but not hearing anything, along with the fact that there is a bit of "Turn of the Screw" type supernatural to it which the publisher had made clear he wasn't interested in, means I probably shouldn't bother.

Disappointing but also indicative of how the "major" publishers treat most writers. This was the kind of stuff I put up with 30 years ago, too. It was only the opening up of Amazon and small publishers that brought me back to writing.

I like my current publishers. I can write to my heart's content, send the finished stories off to them, and actually get responses and results! Amazon, you magnificent bastard! (Says the writer part of me--my bookstore and reader part are still a little leery...)

Taking my time writing this time around.

Against all current advice and common wisdom, I'm taking a more measured--dare I say, leisurely--pace to "Shadows Over Summer House." This applies both to the actual process of writing it and to the story itself.

I want to inhabit this world for a while, feel it out. In order to pull this off I need three things.

1.) A strong narrative voice.

2.) A sturdy plot.

3.)  Plenty of atmosphere and mood.

I chose to write this in 1st person, with just one POV, so the narrator needs to be someone interesting enough to stay with. I'm trying to add more interior dialogue then usual to keep this going.

The sturdy plot is what pretty gave me the latitude to try to slow down. There are two almost completely different genres here, about half and half, and maybe it doesn't work, but it certainly carries a lot of potential. I like the mix.

I'm purposely stretching time. What could potentially be done in a week of time I've expanded to a couple of months. I want the sense that they are living this, one day at a time, and not every day something major happens.

The mood and atmosphere  is something I'm trying to include as I go along, but will also be the major focus in the rewrite--trying to get down evocative descriptions and telling details.

None of this may work, but I've written so many books that I think it is essential that I experiment, that I try new things, that I take risks.

Reading "Takeover" all the way through to the Farewell Bend Writer's Group.

I write so fast, I rarely get a chance to read more than a third of any WIP to writer's group, so they've heard a succession of the beginnings of novels.

That seems a little unfair, and of course I never get the wisdom of their advice on the latter parts of my stories, but what else can I do? The beginning is probably the most important part.

Anyway, with "Takeover" I decided to read it all the way through to the end, even though I'm almost finished with the next book. Partly, I wanted to write "Shadows Over Summer House" without any input from anyone else (except Linda, of course, and she is incredibly simpatico to my writing and never discourages me.) But also, I thought it might be more fair as well as interesting to read an entire novel.

It's probably only the second or third time I've done so in the 38 years the Farewell Bend Writer's Roundtable has existed.

The writer's group is pretty loosey-goosey. We generally have about 6 or 7 participants, and 2 or 3 readers.

(I think we could probably do with one or two more members if there is anyone reading this in Central Oregon who'd like to join. We are very welcoming, our critique is constructive. We meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month at 7:00 P.M. at the East Bend Library branch's meeting room, so come on by. You don't have to read anything, by the way--there are lots of people over the years that just come to critique. We're mostly old foggies, but we'd love to have new younger blood. Hmmmm, tasty.)

The last two times I've read, the group has basically just said, "It's good. There's nothing we can find wrong with it." Which I can tell you rarely happens. The end of "Takeover" is some of the best writing I've done--and I only wish I could have managed to do that in the set-up of the first half of the book. I'm probably going to need to go back and do something about that, because the book is worth improving.

Linda teared up during my reading, which to me is always a "Score!" All of the members mentioned how strong that chapter was--which was interesting, because I had no clue that it was anything out of the ordinary.

Anyway, one more session and I will have read the whole book, which is kind of cool. 

There is no good way to ask someone to buy your book.

There simply is no good way to ask someone to buy your book.

You have to come at it sideways. But of course, that doesn't really work because you're trying to overcome inertia, which is pretty hard to do, like pushing a car with a feather. Some authors are really good at the sideways promo; though usually they are banking on previous success.

I think you have a chance to be somewhat aggressive with your first book. Friends and family are excited for you and will support you. Even then, I went too far testing the boundaries. I was forgiven mostly that first time, though I had a couple of people get mad at me.

I learned not to do that.

Strangely, I can sell books at my store. Person to person contact. I try not to be too aggressive. Usually the subject only pops up after I've already had a nice conversation going. I'll just casually mention, "Would you like to see the books I've written?" I lead them over to them, put one in their hands, give them a short synopsis.

Mostly it's, "Huh...interesting." Walk away.

But every once in awhile someone will act interested. I'll say, "Hey, I'll sign it!"

I started to worry that I was pressuring people by my presence, so lately I've added, "Please don't feel like you have to buy the book. You know, you can go home and buy it as an ebook and it's just as good."

And a good percentage will take that out--though I know they won't buy the book that way. I don't want to feel like I bullied someone.

So like I said, there doesn't seem to be any good way. You don't want to seem too needy, too desperate, too...whatever.

You try to be clever, you try to find tangential prompts--pictures of wild pigs are good, for instance--but that doesn't do all that much either.

Anyway, I really don't want to be that cousin who shows up at a wedding and tries to sell everyone life insurance. The moral high ground is to let people decide on their own whether your books sound interesting.

Heh.

Yeah, the moral high ground is the worst promotional technique in existence.

"The Last Fedora" is live!

Crossroad Press has published "The Last Fedora: The Gangster Golem Chronicles." (Cover by Mike Corley.)

This is probably my personal favorite book. There's something about it I really like. The main protagonist is a ten year old boy: in fact the book could almost be called "A Boy and his Golem." It has a young adult feel, but also has elements that are probably too severe for it to be marketed in that category.

I've sat on this book for several years because I wanted to find the perfect home for it. Since I've decided to release my unpublished novels through Crossroad, this was the perfect book to start.

I do believe this story is original. This was when I started realizing that I was writing books that maybe didn't fit any particular genre completely--and that was all right.

I hope everyone who has read a previous book by me will give it a try. I think you'll like Tony and Jacob and Greg and Maria.

Please go and buy it right now and equally importantly post a review! Love you all, and thanks for supporting me.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07BF3KR22/

Time to release the Kraken!

Have I mentioned I've written a lot of books? A lot?

I write almost every day, usually between 1500 and 2000 words. I'm very disciplined. That's a lot of words over the course of a year. It may seem like too much, but I maintain if you are spending all day writing and can't produce that many words there is something wrong with you. Seriously. What are you doing?

(Jesus, this sounds like a parody. "The Best Words." But you know, also true.)

It also seems to be the best pace for me, producing the best results. I have noticed that if I take twice as long, which I've done a couple of times as an experiment, that the quality isn't any better. In some ways, writing a book in one fell swoop keeps the story momentum strong and focused.

I believe writing a great or classic book is an accident. You don't know starting out how a book is going to turn out. Each time you think you've got it. You don't turn on or off the "classic" button. I suspect I'm more likely to stumble across a classic by constant writing than by somehow bearing down and producing a turd.

NOTE! ****The above number or words, written once an hour for 8 hours, would be a very productive day. I mean, really, how hard is that? ****

I believe I write entertaining books--at least, I hope so. You can't please everyone, of course, but I don't release any story until it is as good as I can make it.

Rewriting doesn't take me all that long either. Too much rewriting for me is more of a problem than too little. I have to be careful about not getting obsessed with changing the story and words around and ruining it.

Sometimes a book just doesn't work. I have about 10 books that just aren't ready for primetime. But I have a dozen or more that are mostly finished and which I quite like. I've been sitting on them, trying to figure out the best way to proceed.

I've decided I need to get going.

Crossroad Press has expressed a willingness to look at what I send them. Their attitude is, once they've decided to publish you, they are trusting that what you send will be good. So it's up to me.

I was pretty impressed by the first month royalty statement from them, considering these were already published books, some of which had stuttered starts.

So I've more or less decided to start releasing most of my books through them, including my already self-published novels.

I'm still more than happy with Dragon Moon Press for my Vampire Evolution Trilogy and Amber Cove for my Virginia Reed Adventures, and I intend to continue writing for them if they'll let me, but it's just time for me to start releasing what I've already written and Crossroad Press seems to have the system that can accommodate me.

So...most of my books under one banner for maximum effect.
Cover and editing services.
An established platform.
Monthly royalty statements.
Openness to what I've written.
Timely responses. 

Hopefully, this will allow me to concentrate on writing and nothing but writing.

First up. Probably my own personal favorite, which I finished a couple years ago and have been sitting on because I wanted to find it a good home.

"The Last Fedora."

Have signed a contract with Crossroad, so it should be out soon.

What fun!  I'm excited to finally get my stuff out there.

Tricky turn.

All along, the trickiest part of "Shadows over Summer House" was going to be the Big Reveal. When and how I reveal the "twist."

The twist has to be believable, but it can't be telegraphed too much. At the same time, I have to play fair and let the reader guess.

I was pretty amazed that I got roughly 60,000 words into the novel without revealing the twist, but I was rapidly coming up on the point where it would or wouldn't happen.

So yesterday I started off with a chapter whose main purpose to was prepare the reader by hinting at what might happen through atmospherics and mood. But not quite coming out with it.

But what happened, to my great surprise, was that I more or less revealed half the twist. That is, the reader now thinks the twist has happened, but in reality the bigger twist is further into the story.

At least, I hope so.

So now I'm going full blast into a couple of mood/atmospherics chapters, then back to a few heist chapters. Probably soon after that, the Big Reveal will have to happen, but I may be able to keep it until the very end, the last 10% of the book at worst, maybe even the last 5% of the book.

Cool.

The introverted store owner.

I had to work today for the first time in a long time. (Cameron is off the a comic convention in Seattle.)

I found myself getting nervous and even excited. Dealing with the public for 8 hours can be a challenge.

So I did it for several decades, I put on a very outgoing persona to get through it, sometimes more outgoing than others. I mean, the outgoingness is genuine, but not usually called for in the rest of my life, and for the last few years I've been writing, which is a loner activity. So talking to so many people is both energizing and enervating.

Anyway, the day went smoothly enough but now that I'm home I feel like I've been run over by a truck. It's just not my normal life anymore, it's not a routine that I can simply fall into. I think because I'm there so seldom I tend to over engage with people, therefore burning all the energy I have.

At the same time, I like it. I mean, it wears me out but I like being around people like that where I'm in my own place and I'm somewhat of an expert and I can talk about books and comics and movies and Bend and such.

The Uncanny Valley of plausibility.

The closer to reality I write, the more anything unrealistic stands out.

I started off writing fantasy. The biggest difficulty with writing fantasy is avoiding overused tropes--and they're all overused by now.

Then I started writing horror. It is much easier to write an original storyline in this genre; just about anything can be labeled horror given a few tweaks here and there.

The last three books I've written are thrillers. I originally stayed away from this genre because I realized that I just didn't have the knowledge of police procedures and gun use and all that kind of thing to make it sound believable.

In other words, the more believable the genre, the more you need to be accurate. An Uncanny Valley of plausibility.

(SF is a whole nother hurdle--getting the science right is crucial and not my strong suit as much as I love reading it.)

I recently had the epiphany that all genres are fantasy in one form or another. So that freed me up to finally tackle the subject. But...I'm still finding the believability factor to be a large hurdle.

I've mentioned my tendency for quirkiness--well, in fantasy this is not only not a hindrance, it's a benefit. The more peculiar, the better. Unless, I suppose, you're writing ponderous medieval epic fantasy. (A large percentage of fantasy.)

I'm trying to play this thriller straight. Make it interesting, but not by doing odd little things. It's pretty difficult for me to stick to reality. I always want to throw in stuff that is cute or a little strange.

But I don't want any reader to go, "Wait....what?"

So the problem is this: If I write fantasy, then I have to construct an entire world, when all I really want to do is tell a damn story.

If I write thrillers, the world is already there, but everything has to be researched to make it plausible.

In both cases, it's a lot of work and I'm intellectually lazy. 

Horror is a nice middle ground for me. I can write with a reality background but am allowed to be as quirky as I want to be.

But I've now written so much horror that I want to try other things. Plus I've realized that most people don't take horror seriously. (Even though I think right now it's the most vibrant of genres...)

So I have to research (for thrillers) or I have to world build (for fantasy.)

I still intend to write a fantasy trilogy someday. All this writing I've done is prelude to that. But I'm not ready to tackle it yet.

Going quirky.

Wrote a chapter yesterday and woke up today certain I'd gone off track.

I went quirky.

I have a scene where the main protagonist meets a crime boss. As he approaches the ballroom of an old rundown Victorian house that serves as headquarters, he hears Billy Joel music. Entering the room, there are couples dancing to the music, obvious professionals, with an audience of gangsters. They're paid off and leave and then the scene more or less starts.

Uh, what?

Why did I include the professional dancers? Billy Joel, fine. This is New Jersey. But young people dancing for the pleasure of gangsters? I don't think so.

(Oh, and the Victorian is a faded pink color. Unnecessary quirky detail?)

I tend to do this kind of thing if I don't watch myself. Sometimes the quirk takes over the book. In "Deadfall Ridge" I have the main character wearing a bulletproof Bigfoot costume through most of the book. It becomes a running joke.

It started off as a simple quirk, a prank the hunting guide plays on his clients. But then I made the mistake of keeping it.

So I'm trying not to do that again, unless I plan on making the entire book quirky, in which case I probably should do a lot more of it. It's hard enough to keep plausibility without adding to the problem.

Yes, I've identified thrillers as another form of fantasy. (Reading the last Silva book about the super Israeli spy, Gabriel Allon. Might as well put spandex on him.) But that just means I have to try all the harder to keep verisimilitude wherever and whenever I can.

The Big Plot Twist

One more chapter to write of "Shadows over Summer House" where I actually know where I'm going. It is one of the partial chapters I wrote before this version, so I will finally catch up. A little over 50K words, so this is officially a book if I can find an ending. (I'm guessing at least 5K words collated from the previous version and another 5K from a routine rewrite, so more like 60K so far.)

Now, I have to construct a heist, and then a final confrontation. Only vague glimmerings of these.

Somewhere in the middle of the climax I reveal The Big Plot Twist. Then I have to go back and decide how many hints I want to include, to play fair. Or maybe no hints, I'm not sure.

If I write steadily, I'll be done with this version somewhere around mid-March. This will be the longest I've spent on a first draft of a book. I want to give it a good solid rewrite. So that will take me until April before I have an officially completed first draft.

That's assuming that the story keeps flowing. I'm not writing over blocks this time. I'm waiting for inspiration.

Assuming I finish, I'm setting the manuscript aside for a minimum of two months. This is something new, at least on a purposeful basis. But I've learned over the last few books that after a couple of months I tend to come up with substantial improvements. So this time, I'm adding this cooling-off period to the process. Add in the editor time, and a final rewrite and this book will probably take more than six months to complete. Which is way longer than usual.

However, about 2 of those months aren't actually spent writing, so I can turn my attention to other projects during that time. Still, even 4 months is longer than normal for me.