N.C. Reed's Blog, page 5

half the year is way past gone. Two thirds of it in fact. What happened to all the time? I missed some of it somewhere, for real.

I’ve been very busy this year so far, so maybe that’s what happened, but whatever it was, I looked up today and ‘boom’ it’s nearly

FOOTBALL SEASON!!!!!!

By which of course I mean college football. I haven’t watched an NFL game in years and certainly won’t start now. College football on the other hand gives us all the chance to hate our friends and neighbors for reasons other than the election signs in their yards,

“Why so long?”

That is a frequent question I get about the wait between titles, particularly with my “Black Sheep” series.  Some note that I might have two or three other books between each Parno novel, and that is true.

To breakdown how that comes to be, first you have to realize the scope and size of the Black Sheep universe. To quote my nephew, “it has a lot of moving parts”. I like that analogy and have used it often since he said it, because it’s true. There are far more characters in Parno’s world than in say the “Fire” or “Stormcrow” worlds. I should say recurring characters rather than just blanket characters perhaps, but either way it is still accurate.

The truth is that it takes me a good while just to make sure that I haven’t written a character in Parno ‘out of character’, and to make sure that I don’t write something that invalidates something I wrote in an earlier novel. Another reason is that Parno novels tend to be anywhere from half-again larger to twice as large as most of my other works, word count wise. I think every Parno novel has weighed in at over 150k words, whereas most of my other works usually run about 90k, give or take.

Why is it that way? Mostly because it takes that many more words to tell the same amount of story. Because the scope is so much larger and there are so many more characters, it takes a lot more book to cover roughly the same amount of ground. The “Fire” series for instance is kept deliberately limited because it’s meant to be oriented only around the Sanders family and their struggle with the PAW world they live in. I don’t delve into anything else or try to show what may or may not be happening anywhere other than in their immediate area. They are isolated and trying to remain so.

Parno on the other hand is way more massive in size, encompassing almost all of what had once been the Southeastern United States as well as other areas of the eastern part of the country. It deals with governments as well as individuals and includes political realities of their world as well as military issues and personal lives of the characters. Many, many characters.

I tend to work on more than one project at the time as well. I might work half the day on a “Fire” novel, then stop and change to working on a Parno novel, or perhaps a Stormcrow novel, or one of a few other projects I’m trying to make work. If I get on a real roll with one project or another and things are starting to really fall into place, then I stay with that project for as long as that ‘roll’ lasts, which could be a day, two days, or a week. Sometimes I’m blocked on a project and just have to set it aside while I work through that block. Meanwhile I can work on something else.

Such was the case with “Parno’s Peril”. I knew how I wanted the first third or so to read, I knew how I wanted it to end, at least more or less, but connecting the two became an issue. I wrote no telling how many pages that were ultimately deleted because they just felt off. Clunky if you will. No flow, hard to read and uncomfortable. If they read that way for me and I’m the writer, then I have to believe they ‘ll read that way for the my readers as well, and I just don’t want that. Above all else I want people to enjoy reading my works. I’m not usually trying to highlight any particular social issue or political issue or anything else really. I’m just trying to tell a good story that is believable, readable, and above all else enjoyable. At the end of the day if I haven’t entertained the reader, then I failed at my job.

I try to attain realism in all things. I remember that some people felt like Billy Todd showed people having a little too much good luck finding things, but reminded them that over 96% of the world’s population had perished in “Odd Billy Todd”. Of course they’d have ‘luck’ finding things since there weren’t that many people left to compete with.

In Parno, it takes time for a rider on a horse to ride from say Jackson, Tennessee to Nashville. It takes more time to ride from Jackson, Mississippi to Atlanta Georgia. Weeks in fact. So, the story had to cover a lot of time as well as territory. And news travels at the speed of horse, too. What happens on the battlefield won’t be known in the Royal City for days, three at least usually.

It takes a good deal of study and research to right realistic scenarios, and I am an army of one so to speak, so when I’m researching, I’m not writing. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that writing isn’t work, because if you’re intending to tell a good, accurate and believable story then you’re going to have to put in some work, never doubt.

So yes, sometimes it takes me a while to get something done. I wish, sincerely, that I could do it faster, but if I work too fast, then it becomes sloppy, clunky and hard to read. The last thing I want, ever, in my work.

Finally, the truth is that writing a completed “Parno” novel is often exhausting. I slept over twelve hours the day after I delivered “Parno’s Peril” to the publisher, lol. You’d think that sitting in front of computer and writing wouldn’t tire you out, but you’d be wrong. It amazes me even now how tired I can get ‘working’ on a book, lol.

So, that’s a rather simplified look at how I try to work, as well as some of the reasons why writing a “Parno” novel takes longer than my other books. It’s honestly just much more difficult to do. But I enjoy it even so, thus I keep doing it. It doesn’t hurt that people who like what I do tell me that. I always enjoy hearing from people who have read my work and have something to say. Every few days I try to take the time to check here and on my FB page and reply to whatever messages I have been sent so if you want to ask me a question or make a comment, please don’t hesitate to do just that!

NCR

Parno’s Peril is now available on Amazon!

Well, Parno’s Peril has been sent off to the publishers. It will have to be sent through the editing process and cover art will have to finalized and all the other things that publishers must do with books, but hopefully I can announce it’s drop date soon. Creative Texts are very good at their work and also very efficient so it shouldn’t be long now.

Parno is an exhausting work as it has so many moving parts as it was once described, and that’s why it takes so long between novels. I find myself checking old works to make sure I’m staying with characters and plots and what not, and after 600k words it’s not as easy as you might think. Or as easy as I thought for that matter,

While we spend the week lighting off fireworks, grilling, enjoying time off and generally doing all thing American, take a minute to pause and remember the moral and physical courage demonstrated so long ago by our Founding Fathers as they gathered on this date to declare their independence from England and began the journey that we’re still traveling today.

It’s not always easy to do what must be done. It’s not always enough to play it safe. Sometimes we have to take the road that is not only less traveled by also the road that is most dangerous and entails more risk.

We have a great deal to live up to in America, and an ideal that is worth protecting from any enemy, whether foreign or domestic. We have to have the courage to do that, regardless of how difficult it might be at times. And sometimes it is difficult.

So enjoy the holiday. Enjoy time with family, eating, drinking, making merry, sleeping in, staying up late, all those things that we’ve come to associate with a week long celebration.

But don’t forget why we’re celebrating. Don’t forget the men and women who are this very day making it possible. And don’t forget the courage of men and women throughout history who have shaped this nation. Who had the moral and physical courage to stand and deliver when it counted.

Please have a safe and fun filled holiday!

NCR

I exchanged messages with a reader earlier who had become worried about me when I didn’t update my blog. Possibly one of the nicest messages I’ve gotten since I started this whole thing so long ago.

I am horrible at that sometimes, just like I am at other things simply because I literally have no sense of passing time when I’m working. I will be willing to swear that I posted something a week ago, only to look and see that it was actually LAST MONTH.

And then I have to admit all over again that I had no idea how long it had been.

It’s not that I don’t try, because I do. But I swear I’d forget to eat if I didn’t have a wife who will eventually come and ask ‘have you eaten today?’.

At which point I will actually have to stop and think about it because I can’t remember. “Did I have that bowl of cereal this morning? Or was that yesterday morning?”

Book 4 in the “Fire From the Sky” series is now available on pre-order. It will ‘drop’ on June 18.

I have for the most part avoided any of the multitude of arguments over so called ‘gun control’ that have arisen of late. One of the main reasons I have done so is the simple fact that the Second Amendment to the Constitution, listed under the original Bill of Rights, flatly and completely insures the right of the American citizen to both keep and to bear arms.

Some people try to say that applies only to the militia, but if you look at how the amendment is written, you can see that it is because of the necessity of a standing militia that the right to keep and bear arms is afforded the regular citizenry. Not as part of the militia, but as a way to resist that militia should it be controlled by a tyrannical government.

I am the first to admit that the recent spate of school shootings, hell ANY school shooting is bad. And that something has to be done about it. But looking at facts, when did such events begin to occur?

Americans have been owning firearms since before we were an actual nation. We have had access to such rifles as the AR-15 for a long time. When I was a boy, you could have searched the vehicles in the parking lot and in at least one out of three cars or trucks found a shotgun or deer rifle waiting for a student who was going hunting following school hours. We never had a school shooting even though all these guns were on school property at any given time.

Access to firearms is obviously not the issue, or else these problems would have arisen long before now.

So when we look for a solution to the problem, we need to start looking for when the problem started.

There’s no one thing that is likely to blame for what is happening right now. Certainly bullying seems to be a part of it. Ostracizing of students and marginalizing them can lead not only to resentment but a need or desire for revenge. Another problem is the so called “Gun Free Zone” acts.

Surely it has dawned on people by now that criminals simply don’t obey gun laws. These laws only serve to disarm good people who otherwise could be armed to defend themselves. I have read many times of brave, selfless teachers who placed themselves in front of their students in an effort to protect them. Jesus said there is no greater love than when someone lays down their life for their friends. Surely such love is demonstrated by an unarmed teacher facing certain death to try and protect their students with their last breath.

It’s time to eliminate Joe Biden’s Gun Free Zones. It’s time to place real protection at the entrances to our schools. Armed men and women who become the sheepdogs that protect our lambs.

Place true armed protection at our schools. Nor ‘Resource Officers’ and not “Truancy Officers,” but real and true armed protection that is there for one reason only; protect our students. Limit entrance to the grounds to where any potential shooter must go through that protection to get to our children. We have a multitude of returning veterans who would make excellent protectors of our schools and would be proud to serve in such a capacity.

Allow willing teachers to be trained and certified to carry firearms for the protection of students and themselves. Don’t force any teacher to do so, and don’t allow every teacher to do so just because they want to. We can administer the same testing and training for them that we do for such officials as police officers. No, the teacher doesn’t have to pass the physical tests of a police academy, but they do have to pass the standard firearms training and certification if they want and are willing to be armed as a deterrent to attacks on their school.

In more than one instance we have seen that these shooters are doing these acts for notoriety. They choose targets that are ‘soft’, or incapable of fighting back.

Maybe it’s time we changed that.

Changing gun laws won’t stop a rampaging nut job from taking a stolen weapon and shooting his or her way through a school of unprotected children.

An armed and prepared protector could.

NCR

I cannot believe how long it has been since I made an entry on this blog, but it actually seems as if I just did it last week or so. I literally cannot comprehend how fast the last month has passed me by. I admit I have been extremely busy, but I didn’t know I was that far behind the time.

I have finished Book Four of the Fire From the Sky series, called Firestorm, and it will be sent to the publisher probably on Friday after I have read through it one more time and made sure there are no glaring errors. PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT IN ANY WAY A PROMISE OF RELEASE DATE! I don’t want to go through that again. This, as I promised before, is simply letting you know that it’s done on my end. Remember that editing, cover art and so on still have to be completed before it’s released. When Creative Texts gives me the release date I will post it here and on FaceBook, and on Twitter if it allows me to.

There is a bit of a love hate relationship between me and Twitter. I love to use Twitter to inform people about my book, and they hate to let me do it

So. . . . . .

Apparently my publisher received complaints from Amazon that had been forwarded by readers about two missed release dates on my books. Since we’ve never announced a release that wasn’t already set to go, and since none of them has ever not been released on the date set by the publisher, all I could figure was that it was coming from the updates I sometimes post here about what I’m working on and when I hope to have it available.

But all that has ever been, all it was ever meant to be, was simply letting anyone who wanted to know what I was doing get an idea of where I was on a particular book and when I hoped to have it ready for delivery. I’ve never posted a release date, by which I mean an actual “book available on such and such a date”, that we have missed.  There have been times when I couldn’t get a book out in the time I had meant to, most recently with Trial by Fire, but that was simply a case of my believing I could get the work done by then, only to discover that I couldn’t. There had not been a ‘hard’ or set delivery date for Trial by Fire, just an estimate that I had provided based on where I was in the book and how quickly I thought the rest of the book would develop.

In view of this difficulty, though, in order to avoid any further misunderstandings or misconceptions that might create difficulty for my publisher, and ultimately for me, I have decided that in the future I won’t give updates like those. Doesn’t mean I won’t respond to questions, and I can still reply that “Such a percentage finished” for whatever book in question, which is probably a better way to do things like that anyway had I thought it through. Hopefully doing things this way will smooth out any problems and make for better communications about future projects.

I apologize if my estimating when I could have something done has led to this misunderstanding, and hope this new way of doing things will make things better.

As always, thanks for your support, your encouragement and your patronage.

NCR