Scot's Blog

The Snowtear Wars Series: Completed -- August 28, 2008

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 15:00:49 GMT

It is with great pleasure, and satisfaction, that I am announcing I have completed the fifth and final book in The Snowtear Wars series. It ended up having twenty-two chapters in all. The relief I feel is enormous, and the joy is overwhelming. Yes, I still have to do a lot of editing left to do, but the story is now in place, and now I can relax and enjoying polishing everything up. I will put the book aside for awhile now and then go back to it in a few months to do the editing.

Chapter Twenty-One Done -- August 28, 2008

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 13:10:15 GMT

The climaxes have all been completed in Book Five now. I have the last wrap-up chapter left to do, which will only be a few pages long, and then the book and the series will be complete. I will have to open up a bottle of champagne for this one!

Summer Work Almost at an End -- August 27, 2008

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 03:16:41 GMT

I'm beginning to wind down my summer projects for the year (my outdoor projects). All my wood has been cut, split and stacked. I've built my kids a clubhouse. I built benches around our bonfire pit (which I also built). I made a picnic table, with benches. I redid our upstairs bathroom, and got my neighbor to help me lift a cast iron tub up there, too. God bless him. I repainted my front porch and basement door. I've put up five sets of shutters (I still have eight to go, but am not sure if they'll get done this year). I built a garden arch for the gateway, and another massive arch to support a giant wave of grapevines that were trying to take over a path. I cleared one new path down to our brook, and can't wait to make a seating area down there next year. Overall, a lot got done this year.

All these projects coming to an end means one thing: time to get back to serious writing. Yep. The train is leaving the station again, and it's time for my imagination to get aboard. I'm 10 pages away from finishing Book Five of The Snowtear Wars, so I'll do that first. Then I'm going to do some more polishing on a couple of other manuscripts I have in a drawer so my agent can send them out. Then I'll get back to doing more editing on The Snowtear Wars. And then, finally, I will get back to writing my new series. We'll see where I'm at by Spring of 2009. Hopefully, I will be well on my way to the next level.

Bigfoot A Hoax -- August 15, 2008

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 23:22:27 GMT

I'm sure many of you have heard about the Bigfoot in Georgia that two men reportedly found while hiking in the woods. Just so you know, the man behind this operation, a Mr. Biscardi, was known to have perpetrated another bigfoot hoax in the past. So why should we believe him this time? Because of this stupid photo of a stuffed gorilla suit in a freezer box, and some supposed hairs they sent to a scientist in Minnesota to study? I hope you're not all falling for it. As always, consider the source before you make any judgments. As much as we want to believe it's true, this isn't the real deal. Their claims that the body is under tight security so it can be tested before they reveal the evidence is nothing more than a good marketing scheme that the media is feeding into and dishing back out to the public. Some people just didn't get enough attention when they were kids, I guess. I hope they enjoy their fifteen minutes of fame, which, unfortunately, will probably turn out to be much more.

Chapter Twenty Done -- August 12, 2008

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:27:22 GMT

Okay, I know I said I was supposed to have this book finished eleven days ago, but that just goes to show you how busy my life is. I did finish chapter twenty in Book Five now, which is the most important chapter in the entire series. Now, I only have two chapters left, short ones, to wrap up the book, and more importantly, the series. It's about 2-3 days worth of writing, at most. Hopefully that means I'll be done by Friday. I am really please with the way the series is ending. I've only had it floating around in my head for three years now! I seem to be finishing a lot of projects lately. I finished cutting, splitting and stacking wood for this winter this week (which is why I didn't finish the book sooner). I had to take advantage of the sunshine we got during those days. We've had so much rain lately, we're breaking records. Roads are washing out!

19 Knocked Out -- August 6th, 2008

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:20:35 GMT

This chapter ended up being shorter than I thought it would be, but I got everything I needed to get accomplished, done. So, that leaves me with three chapters left to write. Twenty and Twenty-One will have the climaxes, and then the Twenty-two will be wrap-up. Twenty will be my last full length chapter, if there is such a thing. It will be twice as long as the last two, I guess I should say. The last two chapters I could knock out in a couple of days, where as Twenty could take me a week. I hope to have Twenty done by the end of this week, though. We'll see. I have tons of house projects going on right now.

Elated for Eighteen - July 23, 2008

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 18:08:40 GMT

Chapter 18 in Book Five has been completed. Unfortunately, I had to add one more chapter to the end of the book because of the way things are playing out. But that last chapter will be very short. Like 3 pages or less. So, I'm not really adding on that much extra work. I predict I have 32 pages to write or less before this series is done. If I can write 4 pages a day from here on out (8 days worth of writing), only doing business days, that would make my target finish date August 4th. But, with the way projects have been going on around the house, it could be pushed back a few days. However, if I get on a roll, and I can see the end in sight, I sometimes will push harder to finish a book before my predicted deadline. So, it could be as early as August 1st that I finish.

Stories Produce Stories -- July 16, 2008

Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:43:06 GMT

If you can write fast, you may have an advantage over other writers. Publishers like to put out books that reflect the hot topics in the world. The best place to find those ideas is in the news. And if you can provide a unique angle on a story, your chances of getting published increase tenfold. Of course, you actually need to write a GOOD manuscript, and have it nicely edited BEFORE you submit it. Whatever's hot, sells. It's as simple as that. And if you can predict something that could become hot, then you may have a sure thing. Television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and the Internet are the no-brainers to get started.

Read the New Review for Chimes -- July 15, 2008

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 12:53:11 GMT

Here's another great review for Book 1 of The Snowtear Wars, The Chimes of Yawrana, by Molly Martin at The Compulsive Reader. You can read the new review here: http://www.compulsivereader.com/html/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1964

Artwork for Book 4 Finalized -- July 14, 2008

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:29:41 GMT

Yes, at last, the artwork by Steve A. Roberts for the cover of Book Four, The Mirrors of Methalis, in The Snowtear Wars series, has been completed. Unfortunately, I can't attach a photo of the cover here (text not yet added to the image by publisher). I don't want to post it in my blog to be viewed either because I don't think this is the proper place to unveil it, in my opinion. I will post it, however, in "The Bookstore" section of my website once it's ready and up on my publisher's website. Sooooooo, keep your eye out for it there or on my website!