Nowhere to go but forward

I'm down to the last three or four chapters as of March 28. Last Tuesday, on March 25, I finished the final story that arcs back in time and deals with the greater history of Fable Avenue.

The last leap back is set in the year 1899, far past the glory days of the Old West. The tale expounds on the story of Joseph Pepper IV and his adventure with the Fable Avenue Saga's universe's legendary African-American outlaw Thunder John and his crew called the Brother Dogs. This exploit was mentioned by Joseph Pepper IV in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn as he recounts to his lover, Theresa Amat, the means by which he acquired the mysterious veil he presents to her as a gift.

Before jumping into the writing of this grand adventure, I took time out to write a chapter dedicated to the origin of Thunder John and The Brother Dogs, which takes place in 1878. Like I mentioned in the last post, the story was gritty and bloody, and I listened to nothing but Wu Tang while scripting it. A short chapter after this narrative puts the reader back in the Old West, nineteen years later. Thunder John and the Brother Dogs are a little war torn. And here's a young Joseph Pepper IV dragging them into a hunt. It felt good to present the story in its entirety. One thing that was added to the mix was an antithesis to Joseph Pepper IV, a rival to his scholarly teachings. This character is in addition to Joseph Pepper's Belloq-esque arch-nemesis Ethan Cassidy (also featured in the story). Joseph describes this new character, added to his rogue gallery, as doing more damage to his own people (black people) than the slave master. A man obsessed with traveling to areas where Joseph has spoken and holding lectures attempting to negating his words. Humorously, Joseph says the man is a shame mostly because he has such an interesting name for a black man. It sounds strong, but Joseph considers him weak minded despite his name. Completing the story put a great deal of references made in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn, concerning the larger story, to rest. The story took longer to write than I expected, putting me about four or five days behind my writing schedule.

As it stands now, for the second book of this saga, there's nowhere to go but forward. So what's ahead? Well, we're sticking to the contemporary setting of the story for the remainder of the book. Chapter 30, which is the chapter following the final leap back in time, was a blessing to write. Though I've talked a great deal on Joseph Pepper IV and his adventures, he and his exploits are not the main focus of the story (as important as they are). It was easy to slip back into the main characters and their drama, as it now winds up to a grand climax (for this installment of Fable Avenue). The main female character pays homage and gains inspiration from Thunder John's wife (the true leader of his crew, and Governor-Queen of the town Copper Lyall mentioned in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn). With danger looming over Fable Avenue, this young woman looks to the past to help her keep her home and culture safe.

Chapter 31 is what I'm looking at now. This chapter is a bit of a sandwich. After some narrative I'll be flowing into the second-to-last stanza of my fourth and final epic poem. Coming out of that, we flow into an action sequence that starts off with a bunch of stealth moves. Once the sequence meets its climax, and when things are settled, we flow into the conclusion of my fourth (AND FINAL) epic poem. This will be great, and of course worthy of an entry into this online journal (and perhaps, a little more). My quest for writing four independent epic poems will come to an end. And this will setup the concluding chapters to this installment of The Fable Avenue Saga™.

And as I write, the editors are tearing through the manuscript like a caterpillar eating up a leaf. Chew. Chew. Chew. Red mark. Red mark. Red mark. But it's all for the good of the story.

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February Forever and the 150 page Race

February, hands down, was one of the most bizarre months ever in recorded history. Ever. And for some reason it would never end. For the shortest month of the year, it sure as hell did drag. To be fair to the month of February, the bizarness of things began in January. Bee-zar. But we in the middle of 'here' so we ain't gon' mind the past. Thankfully, a lot of writing was accomplished in that time regarding Book II of the Fable Avenue Saga™. The good thing was that a teaser trailer for the book was created, and there was a boost in digital and hardcopy sales for The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn, as many people (who I am grateful to) scrambled to get their hands on the first book of the series to prepare themselves for the second. The teaser debuted late, as I was distracted from finishing the simple video. It was intended for an early February release, but it was late February that saw the teaser trailer posted to social networking sites. But, it's out. People's curiosity and interest are up, and a renwal in book purchases has occurred.

So I got that going for me, which is nice.

No entry was done for February to this blog, but I was able to keep people up-to-date with social network outlets. Originally, I planned for this entry to be a character study. The Fable Avenue story has once again arced back to the past, and we're covering ground that was first touched on in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn. That ground covered is the story of the legendary, mystical outlaw Thunder John and his crew called The Brother Dogs. He was first mentioned in passing by Jackson Fable, who managed to have possession of one of his LeMat revolvers. He was next mentioned by Joseph Pepper IV, who insists he shared an adventure with him. This adventure is purported to be Thunder John's last, but Joseph Pepper's cryptic dialogue within The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn suggests otherwise. I am currently composing that adventure, and writing a 26-year-old Joseph Pepper's interaction with these rough, mystical outlaws is a thrill. I looked back at notes written long ago outlining this tale and just smiled. I began writing those notes in early 2010. Each time I made changes to the story, I marked the month and date. The last note is dated early 2012.

But that's the second story concerning Thunder John and The Brother Dogs. The first story recounts a young conjure woman hiring Thunder John, his brother Donovan, and their mentor (also mentioned in passing by Jackson Fable, and named as Top Hat by the crossroads guardian). She sanctions a rescue that turns into a violent bloodbath (as opposed to those poignant and endearing bloodbaths). I wrote the story while listening to particular Wu Tang songs (from Clan albums to solo joints). Tough and rough is this story. I had a lot of fun getting to know The Brother Dogs, and as I write their second tale with Thunder John, it feels less like a story expounded on (from Joseph Pepper IV's rendition in The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn) and more like a crossover of comic book heroes. My heroes. A teaser video focusing on Thunder John and The Brother Dogs is due in the coming months. The story was written over February and was a lot longer than I intended. But I'm still on track for the overall length of the book.

And so, I continue writing, and I'm within 150 pages from finishing the second book in the Fable Avenue Saga™, but the celebration is far from close. There's a lot to cover in these final pages, and as it looks from here, Books 2 and 3 (the middle acts of this 4 act saga), will most likely be the most dense in their page count. Heavy editing has started on Book 2, and I stand nervous. In this month of March there will be a great deal of business being worked out. This passed weekend saw a letter composed that concerns the release video for Book 2, debuting later this year (fall). This weekend coming up, I will continue to hammer out the update and new look for Twin Griffin Books. The weekend of the 22nd has me grinning, and that's about all I can say. Big, all-day business meeting. We're also working on the cover.

After the book's 2nd run through with edits, there will be a proof made and reviewed. Copyright will be made, attached to The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn as part of the Fable Avenue Saga™. Then we'll reveal a title. A lot happening.

And then there's a wedding coming this summer.

But, my fiancee and her friend are doing most of the planning. I'm just showing up and standing where told. I am. I do.

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Curtain fall. Curtain rise.

Let’s go back a little. It was December 24, Christmas Eve, close to midnight. I was hammering away at the final pages of Act Two for the second book in The Fable Avenue Saga, stopping every once and a while to stand, catch a breath, pace, and think about its close. Shortly after midnight, Act Two came to a gut-wrenching finish with the villains displaying how they earned the right to be called villains. It's brutal. And no hero is spared.

The next phase of the book can be described as either act three or two small acts that finish the story. Either way, it all adds up to the fact that I’m writing the third act for the book. Act three has begun, and already has a chapter wrapped up for it. I’ve also outlined the remaining plot points for my fourth and final epic poem that runs parallel to the main story. I haven’t done a page count yet for my final epic poem, but I’m sure it’s the shortest. Even with four more parts to compose for it, I don’t think it will run over sixty pages. The second epic poem, the yet-to-be published To Enlighten the G.O.D.Z., is the longest of my epic poems, running close to four-hundred pages. That story will see the light of day…one of these days.

With the rest of the manuscript laid out with outlines for each act and parts of the epic poem, it’s just about getting to the finish line now. I would hope to hit that mark come late March or early April. If I stay at the pace I’m writing now, that shouldn’t be a problem.

After finishing the first chapter for the third act, I went back and made some additions to the previous acts, putting in a character that’s talked about but won’t be seen until the end of the book. I had to work the character in and make it seamless with the rest of the story, and I think I’ve done that. There were only four moments where I had to do that, and the character was appropriately addressed. The character was always supposed to be there, but I was having a hard time finding her place. Now her importance has been figured out (besides just fleshing out a family tree), and I can move forward with bringing her to the forefront when we finally get to see her.

This weekend I will give a pause in writing to go back through the first act and prepare it for print to give to the editors. It’s coming to around that time where all the confidence I have in what I’m writing will be smashed and cut to pieces by the close scrutiny of evil, editors’ keen eyesight. Good times.

The weekend after next, act two will get its first run through by my eyes. I’ll be tightening the text as best I can, catching whatever typos are there, and prep it to move along to the editors once they finish hacking at act one and scarring my confidence for life. And as all that is happening, parallel to writing/finishing the manuscript, the first of three commercials will be scripted.

The end is not too far off. I just have to stay on track and keep pushing forward with the writing. Having an outline saves a lot of time. There have been things added, subtracted, or put into different points in the story. But for the most part, I have a plan to follow. Reworking something is a lot less stressful when you have the ground rules properly laid out.

Once this book is finished and out, I can really call The Fable Avenue Saga a series. One book doesn’t cut it, but you gotta start somewhere.

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Year ends, but not the writing...

Things to do in Fable Avenue. And all is getting done. Will have an in-depth writeup by Monday.  Let's end the year with a chat. This link to my interview on the Artist First Radio Network was posted on the Twin Griffin Books Facebook fan page, and I'm throwing it up here as the year ends.

There is great news for the next book in the Fable Avenue project, but as said above, that will be given a proper writeup come Monday. See you then. In the meantime, listen...

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Follow the Script

I expressed a while back that I wanted to end Act II of this next book sometime in December. Well, December is almost upon us, and although there are only three chapters left in the second act, they are plotted as being dense.

I’m now on chapter twenty-two. Started it over the weekend. Chapter twenty-one was short, very fun; and just as much a palate cleanser—time off rather—for all that’s going on in the larger arc of the Fable Avenue Saga. It could be considered a short story, following a minor character into a task. It took time to write, even though it was short. I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t too cliché or silly. I ran through many scenarios on how the chapter would take place, settled on one, and then went about presenting it in as much of a non-cliché way as I could. The ending is what makes it, and it was something I re-wrote after taking a look at the whole chapter. I added a few more lines, and then it came together.

Now, chapter twenty-two. Our main characters are back on stage, front and center. There’s a lot of action in this chapter, and it builds on the relationship between the main male and female character, and the magic they share and use. There’s also a good deal of the epic poem that runs parallel to the story. I have a page count budgeted for this chapter, but I’d like to run under that count. The great thing now is that all introductions have been made. All characters, heroes and villains, have been strategically placed on the board to make the proper moves toward conflict. Some characters have just been mentioned and not seen, but the setup for their entrance is there. This all plays out within the last chapters of act II, culminating in a rough and gritty showdown.

Finishing act II sometime in December might be wishful thinking at the moment. Early January, definitely. But this all depends on how much I can buckle down and do the writing. One reason I’d like to knock out act II over the coming weeks, is because I can then send them to the editors and start on that (which will happen in January, regardless).

But there is good news. In fact, I’d like to think there’s great news. The rest of the book has been outlined. I now have something to follow besides handwritten notes scattered through different notebooks, and my memory. I’m very excited about that. It almost feels like the project has been completed…but I’m not getting delusional. There’s a lot of work to be done in terms of writing. The outline now has to be fleshed out into proper, narrative prose.

The remaining acts, including act II, are not as heavy in their outline. The beginning squares away a lot of business. Now, it’s time to get down and gritty into the magic.

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Heavy Weights

Just finished chapter 20. It's no small chapter, but it's read is smooth. It takes place over four days, and documents each day with an appropriate length. Although it's long, chapter 20 is written in a way where the reader won't feel bogged down. I made a decision that a moment written for chapter 20 would best serve another part of the story, happening three chapters from now. So, I cut and pasted the text into a separate Word doc, and it's now tucked away for later use. The scene is only three pages long, and was supposed to run into another before I decided to have both scenes take place later in the book.

There was also a bit of a lesson in humility with chapter 20 of Book II of Fable Avenue. When it came to the final pages of chapter 20, I decided to borrow from a sequence I had written for an unfinished manuscript that's 15 years old. The manuscript only has about 60 pages (and some change) written for it. But the scene wasn't going to be a simple copy and paste, and to be honest, I used the direction of the scene, not the entire scene itself.

Anyway, I started reading this old work and I realized how far I'd come in writing. Yeah, it's arrogant, but I gotta give a small pat on my back. Good God, did what I read really suck. It was okay, but it suffered from the amateur, juvenile mistakes that plague aspiring writers (and some established ones, I gotta say. And I ain't talkin' about YA writers.). There was a good amount of narrative, but there was a lot of expository narrative. The dialogue was often cringe-worthy, but there was little expository writing. Too many characters trying to be 'cool' with quirky one-liners. It was heavier than an after school or Saturday morning cartoon, but the juvenile writing was present none-the-less.

In my defense, it was at a time when I was writing to write. I had ideas, and it was about putting them down. Quick. I did know the writing wasn't tight, but, fifteen years later, I'm surprised at how far I've come (and still learning). Even in my final work, there's stuff I go back and read and say, "Okay, we can avoid that for the next project."

But I'm grateful for the guerilla writing I did all those years ago. Now I can pull from them, as well as writings I did far before that.

So, what do we got now? We got the next chapters of this current project. Chapter 21 is short and fun, a nice break from a storm of thick, heavy weight chapters to come before Act II of this piece concludes. I've already begun outlining what needs to happen in Act III, and it looks like it won't be as long as I've feared. I'm sitting at 334 pgs so far, and hoping, at best, that 220 is all that's left. Again, at the most.

Other activities going on at the moment are a design for the book cover, and there's some scripting for videos for the book. TwinGriffinBooks.com will also get a makeover, and the ball on this is already rolling.

Most likely, the end of December will see the beginning of the third act. I hope to finish the book around late May or early June, which gives a good amount of time for editing. A first round of edits will begin in January and run parallel with wrapping up the book's writing. As things come along, there will be some teaser videos for the new book, a title reveal (when it can be more than just Fable Avenue Book II), and book cover reveal.

Writing this series continues to be an amazing experience. 2014 will be big.

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Fable Avenue. Book Two. Act Two. Chapter Twenty.

Ah, the month of October. The month where the second installment of The Fable Avenue Saga™takes place. And, as it is, I am hammering, hammering, hammering out the second act for the second installment of The Fable Avenue Saga. I've reached the 280 pgs mark, and budgeting for another 250 pgs (to be on the safe side). I'm not looking for the second installment of The Fable Avenue Saga™to go too long. So, where am I exactly in my progress? It's been a while since an update has happened, but I've been hard at the most important work in an author's literary life. Writing.

I've hit chapter twenty, well within the second act of this new project. The female lead has been introduced and her character is fleshing out more than I've hoped. She's drawing upon an inner strength that I hadn't intended until I started writing her. I was so caught up in her backstory and the trauma she undergoes as a six-year-old child. But like many female characters composed before her within The Fable Avenue Saga™, she moves forward with a believable footing.

The character also brings with her two mysteries. Both mysteries are personal. One focuses on her mother and father. The other focuses on her intentions as she and her grandmother become reintroduced to the Fable Avenue community. It's nothing wicked, but it makes the character human, rounded and real. With her entrance, we also find another story from 12 Stories High as canon and connected to the Fable Avenue universe. Earlier in the book, another story was referenced as the lead male character has an experience that parallels a character from a story in 12 Stories High. This first reference, though subtle, will be expounded on later in the series. So that makes 3 stories so far that have their connection. The only one I can mention is Ah, Moor, having been referenced in Fable Avenue's first book (also known as the "Prologue book") The Ghost of Gabriel's Horn.

The villains have also been introduced early in this second act. They are a great parallel to the main male/female heroes of the story. And much like the main male lead character, who they are, and how they connect to the main characters, allows me to give a nod to my favorite comic book hero, Spider-Man and his villains. This part of Fable Avenue was supposed to be a graphic novel, as I've said before, originally titled The Nu Ancients, and then, Street Fables.

Four more chapters are lined up before the close of the second act, and they are heavy. The beginning of the second act was quick, as the setup of the first act took care of presenting the characters (obviously). Even with new characters poppoing up, the story moves forward at a quicker pace. My notes aren't as thick as with the first act, but I have outlined a good deal of events and placed them in the proper order of their presentation. I have been writing out the second act rather quickly. I'm far ahead of schedule, and I do hope that I'll be creeping into the third act by December, if not a good ways in. I'm already thinking ahead in terms of outlining the third act's pacing. The fourth epic poem is also expanded as the main female character adds her touch to the poetic narrative. I'm currently chopping away at this event. As well, festivities and celebration are in the air, but villains are around the corner in coming chapters.

We all know how second acts within narratives can go. Protagonists + antogonist/villains + perils/collision = dark and hopeless, emo-moody gloom and doom. But there is still a party, and nothing can be too gloomy with jazz playing. Just ask famous jazz pla-...no...he was a heroin addict. Okay, just ask famous jazz sing-...no...they were strung out too...and so was she... Okay, when you hear jazz, it's like seeing oranges in The Godfather.

The sky under Fable Avenue is falling, and everything including the kitchen sink, will hit the fan. But don't worry, we ain't got heroes for nothing. It'll seem like that, but they'll eventually get the job done.

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