And the test results are in!

Bringing the New Year in with a Beta Draft of Remember the Alamok, a few special folks are getting copies of the manuscript to read. It is terribly exciting when someone who has had no involvement or prior exposure to the project gets to read it! Will they like it or not????

And just as the suspense was about to kill us...

Beta Readers 1 and 2 have reported back. Not only did they make it all the way through the book (without encouragement or pestering, I might add...), they liked it! In fact, I heard those words that and author longs to hear..."When do I get to read the next one?"

So, spirits buoyed by the positive response, RTA is one very big step closer to that ever elusive Final Draft!

And just to show what a nice person I am, in celebration, here is an excerpt...



"Axel took a deep breath and tried unsuccessfully to convince herself that the man in front of her would not look better with her dagger embedded in his eye. The thin stiletto she'd taken off a man from Goren last year, which was strapped to the underside of her left wrist, seemed like a good choice. It would just fit through the socket far enough to scrape the back of the man's skull from the inside. The fingers of her left hand twitched a bit, but she restrained herself in the interest of doing her job. Business before pleasure. Still not convinced that the inside of his head didn't need a good scratching, Axel decided that waiting until after she was done in Veltan would be acceptable."


 

 

A Bit of Poetry

The elusive muse of lines that rhyme

The poetic spirit that's hard to find

Made an appearance in this author's mind

And the following poem's what it left behind


 
Night Blade


 
A splash of red

     on darkest night

The tear of flesh

 in shadows bright


 
The sweetest taste

 across the tongue

No fresher breath

 'er through the lung


 
The thrill of death

 upon the wind

With silver glee 

 keen edges rend


 
Bright steel reflects

 the savage scene

Black hearts rejoice

 in primal scream


 
Deadly seconds

 and endless hours

The fruit of life

 the soul devours


 
A splash of red

 on darkest night

Marks the path of

 blade in the night

The Terrible Trouble With Titles

It is a happy day for a me when I come up with a title.  When "Collaborative Fantasy Project" changes to "Axel and Ajax Novel" and then finally to "Remember the Alamok," there is a rejuvenation. It's almost a new book; a book that you can imagine sitting on a bookstore shelf somewhere.  There's no longer that vague threat hanging in the air over the book; no more lingering doubt as to what you are working on.  When asked, "What are you working on?" I can reply with confidence.  "I'm working on 'Tough Target!'" or "Remember the Alamok." To me, giving a book a title is like stabbing that fluttering concept of a novel with a very solid and sturdy bowie knife! Until I pin it down, my book exists on many planes and I only can see the edges and not all the dimensions of it. It's like quantum uncertainty.  Does it exist or is it only a theory?  If a tree falls and no one hears it? If you don't open the box, is Schrodinger's Cat dead? Is a book without a title, really a book at all?
Having said all this, there apparently aren't enough titles to go around.  Even if you aren't trying to find it, odds are good that another book will cross your path and it will have already used your wonderful title!  Be not discouraged, though.  Just take it as a compliment and write on!