Happy New Year! May you find health, happiness, and good fortune!
For those with a birthday to end 2016 or have one today, happy birthday to you! Here are some people associated with the writing world who’ve had one, too: E.M. [Edward Morgan] Forster, English novelist (A Passage to India, A Room With a View); J.D. [Jerome David] Salinger, U.S. novelist (The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey); Rudyard Kipling, British author (The Jungle Book, Soldiers Three); Hinton Helper, southern abolitionist who wrote The Impending Crisis; Thomas Gray, English poet; Henry Miller, American writer.
My Work in Progress
During the past week, I concentrated on research and drafting the second chapter of New World Revolution. I completed the draft yesterday, so now the next few days will be spent doing some editing before I post the chapter to the two subscription writing sites I use. This will be the ultimate litmus test–have I written a chapter that will appeal to writers from various genres? Time will tell.
During the upcoming week, I also hope to complete the next chapter of Dangerous Alliance and A Cartel’s Revenge. Ambitious plans so will see how things go. Here’s a bit more from A Cartel’s Revenge:
The man glared at them for several moments before speaking. “I don’t understand why you think you can descend on my territory without my permission.” His gaze rested on Javier and switched to AJ. “Well?”
“Mr. Brown, as you’re aware, my boss—”
“Lady, I don’t care who your boss thinks he is but he has no authority over what happens in Panama. That’s my job.”
“I understand, sir, b-but—”
“Don’t stutter, get to the point. I won’t waste all day on some wild guesswork by desk jockeys.”
“Mr. Brown, what AJ tried to say is we understand—”
“Listen, Colonel. I don’t care who either of you are nor do I care about your mission.”
“Whether you agree or not, we’re here. Now, should we go outside, whip it out, and determine who can piss farthest? Win or lose, we’re staying.”
Perhaps more next time or something from New World Revolution.
Books I’m Reading
Over the past week, I finished Preston Holtry’s latest novel in his Morgan Westphal series, The Good Thief. This is another spellbinding mystery by a master storyteller, and I hope it’s not the last!
Join Morgan as he investigates a murder on an Indian reservation, mixes business with pleasure when he joins his girlfriend on a trip to New York, almost getting killed several times before he solves the mystery. As with all of Preston’s novels, this one will keep you holding onto your seat as you try to identify the killer (or killers) before Morgan. Excellent work and needless to say, another five-star story!
Blogs/Author Pages/Writing Sites I’d Like to Share
I’ve expanded this section from being only about blogs that I follow but also introduce you to some new authors and a few writing sites. With the beginning of a new year, I’d also like to include some lighthearted sites I stumble across, whether comedic or with animals.
Flawless Animals – An interesting mix of pets (and a few humans, too).
Kevin Brown Poetry – more poetry from a Northern Irish poet.
Writing Resources
With plenty of events to take care of as 2016 came to a close, I found I didn’t have much time to spend searching for new writing resources.
Once again, we’ve reached 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 2017 Randall Krzak. All rights reserved.
Thanks Randall. All the best for 2017. I hope your plans succeed.
Many thanks! Hope you have a great 2017, too!