First and foremost: Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers and mothers-to-be. Hope your men are taking good care of you on your special day. The weather’s been great all week here and we’ve started Mother’s Day with brilliant sunshine.
Why I want to Write–What’s Led Me to This Stage in My Life
This is the second time I’ve tried to write my ramblings today. I was about to hit save when Shadow, one of our cats, decided to jump from the floor and landed on the keyboard. Despite every possible effort to recover what I wrote, whatever combination of keys he landed on ensured that nothing was found. So, here we are, thirty minutes later, and I’ll begin again. Shadow’s outside in the sunshine, which is what he wanted.
I completed my final submission to a publishing house, at least for now. I’m concentrating on editing and fine-tuning my manuscript. Later this week I’ll be attending an online conference meeting with the other members of my group to receive their assessment of my writing. I’m looking forward to the session.
During the past week I also received feedback from three editors who reviewed the first 4,500 words of my manuscript. I received some good advice, which is always helpful, but also disagreed with some recommendations as I felt they changed the context of the story. I’m sure all writers go through this and it’s part of the journey.
A bit more from the Kurdish Connection:
When he entered the canteen, Jürgen sat at a table in the corner, remnants of three boiled eggs center stage on his plate as he spread jam on his toast. He wiped a hand across his beard to shake loose any crumbs as CC approached. “Guten morgen. Are you ready for another exciting day?”
Jürgen worked on what turned out to be a T-pillar, believed to be near the center of the structure, about fifteen feet high, with a circumference of twelve feet. As Jürgen cleared away soil and debris from the sides of the pillar, he spotted a figure. “Gott im Himmel! Might be a lizard.”
As the men climbed back up the hill, CC spotted a slender, dark-haired man. Dressed in baggy pants, loose-fitting shirt, and floppy hat, he appeared to be another Turkish worker, but the backpack slung over his shoulder seemed out of place. He turned in a circle as if trying to gather his bearings, and rushed away. CC kept an eye on the man until he disappeared.
Once they arrived in Al-Bab, Dave drove around to show Ben various areas of the flourishing city of 150,000 inhabitants. Leaving the M4 and entering the city, the streets became narrow, crammed with trucks, buses, cars, with occasional donkey-drawn carts and wandering pedestrians. Whitewashed buildings jostled for space, with small stores embedded among apartment blocks
Across the street, a short, thin man dressed in a black didashah, with a red and white shumaq huddled in the shadows, watching and waiting. He adjusted the shumaq around his neck to keep the evening chill at bay. Where are the foreigners?
More next week.
My Work in Progress
I continued reviewing critiques of ‘The Kurdish Connection’. As always, I found excellent recommendations to improve the story. My review is now complete through chapter fifteen. This past week I finished editing chapters nine and ten, and they’re re-posted to the two subscription writing sites I use. Work on chapter eleven is underway and I hope to have it completed and posted by next Sunday.
Editing of the first three chapters of ‘A Cartel’s Revenge’ began this week, as this will be my submission for a Strongest Start Competition being held by one of my writing sites.
Books I’m Reading
This week I began reading ‘The Jungle (The Oregon Files Book 8)’ by Clive Cussler and Jack Du Brul, two of my favorite authors. As with their previous book, I’m looking to read a good thriller and also analyze the plot, characters, and scene, so I can improve my writing.
Next week I’ll provide a review of this book. I’ll also resume reading lesser-known authors, and have three books waiting for my attention.
Blogs/Author Pages/Writing Sites I’d Like to Share
I’ve now expanded this section from being only about blogs that I follow but also introduce you to some new authors and a few writing sites. Hope you’ll check out the links!
The Porcupine Quill – An excellent article by publisher Tim Inkster providing advice to writers. The article is under the About Us tab.
Creative Indie with Derek Murphy – Derek provides a wealth of information based on his own experiences to help writers.
Writing Resources
I don’t have any new writing resources to share this week as time ran out and I was unable to devote and research efforts. I hope to have something new for next week.
Once again, we’ve come to the end of another ramble. Hope you’ve found something of interest or at least useful for your own writing. Until the next time, thank you for reading!
© Copyright 2016 Randall Krzak. All rights reserved.
