Updates (daily) – Page 5 – Phil Slattery, Writer, Publisher

Update: June 7, 2019, 5:02 p.m. Word Count for “Shadows and Stars…”

For my sci-fi novel, Shadows and Stars Lying Down, I am shooting for a word count of between 80,000 to 100,000. I currently have a little over 54,000 words. I am past the point of no return. I have to finish this.

When I research word count for a novel, short story, or novella, I find a lot of varying answers. The most recent general consensus seems to be that to be accepted as a first novel by most publishers these days, the word count should be around 80,000-100,000. That may vary considerably by publisher (I have seen one that accepts 50,000 words as a first novel and another as 40,000, a more traditional count).

Other figures I have found for other formats for fiction are:

6-300 for micro-fiction

Up to 1,000 for flash fiction

1,000-21,000 for a short story (sometimes longer)

Around 10,000 for a novelette (a debatable category)

Circa 20,000-50,000 for a novella

Of course, there are lots of subcategories and nuanced categories that one might find, particularly under the flash fiction category. There is even a Twitter novel/story of what can fit into a single tweet.

For what it’s worth, I did a quick search of Duotrope, which I use for submitting short stories. In general, Duotrope considers 40,000+ words to be a novel. Granted that this is very small slice of novel publishers, but I found out the following, which may give an indication of generally accepted lengths for a novel (there are a whole lot of possible caveats here). I won’t list the publishing company names. Note the range of differences. Note also that some of these companies overlap the different pay rates. For example, a company might pay pro rates and semi-pro rates (though I tried to separate those here). In any case, this gives an idea of the range of opinions of the length a novel should be.

I have surpassed the 40,000+ point with my novel, but to tell the story as I think it should be, I will need at least 80,000 words anyway.

For a market paying Duotrope’s “pro rates” for a novel on any topic there were six matches. Here are the lengths considered novels:

40,000-45,000

40,000-75,000

40,000-80,000

80,000+ (two companies)

100,000-130,000

For a market paying Duotrope’s “semi-pro rates” for a novel on any topic there were six matches. Here are the lengths considered novels:

40,000+ (four companies)

60,000+

80,000+

For a market paying Duotrope’s “token rates” for a novel on any topic there were six matches. Here are the lengths considered novels:

40,000+ (four companies)

40,000-90,000

80,000+

Let me know you opinion of these lengths and nuanced categories/formats you find interesting.

Update: June 6, 2019, 4:08 a.m.

Occasionally, I have issues with sleeping. Tonight is one of those nights.

I typed some notes I made recently into Shadows and Stars... earlier this evening, watched a little TV, and then tried to get to sleep around 2:00 with no success. So I played a video game until just now and I will try to sleep.

Shadows and Stars… is gradually taking shape. I had a couple of ideas for it while watching TV earlier. Some ideas about society and life as a whole seem to be taking shape as the novel progresses. I suppose it’s because I am thinking along different lines, because Shadows and Stars… involves an alien world (not like the “grays” though; more like Earth people with a few differences) and I have to think about what an alien society would be like. I want to make it different enough to be intriguing, but yet similar enough that readers can easily see the comparisons and contrasts with our world. The aliens also have to have an alien perspective on the universe and on life in general, so I am trying to develop some radical breaks with the way our society views things. I am starting to come to some realizations about our own world, things that we take for granted, but which might seem bizarre to an alien. As part of this approach, I am developing characters with radically different thinking and viewpoints than we have or admit to having on Earth. As an example, one of the alien characters is a reclusive monk named Sato, who lives alone in the deep forest. When two of the main characters come across his cabin in the forest, the main character, the protagonist, Daryn, notices several parchment scrolls of Sato’s meditations lying around. Sato allows Daryn to read part of one. Following are Sato’s observations. I may add more later. Note that Sato calls himself “mad”. He uses this sarcastically and ironically, because it is what the supposedly civilized people of his world call him, because he doesn’t fit in to their society. In reality, he is very astute, but no one recognizes this.

I came up with these in a variety of ways. Some are my own observations and conclusions. Some are derivative of philosophical principles, quotes, or statements or other stuff (for lack of a better term). I tried to make them mystical sounding and somewhat confusing, like something you would expect an alien recluse/philosopher to say when he is penning his thoughts in his primitive, remote cabin in the woods in the dark of night. Remember: I tried to write these from an alien perspective and these are only a few of his “musings”.

Let me know what you think.

The Musings of Sato the Mad

Lies are truths wrapped in shadows; truths are lies drenched in sunlight.
The beast that eats me is evil, but I am evil to the beast I eat.
A man believes not what he needs to believe, but what he desires to be true.
More gods dance in the night than roam in the daylight.
As with man, there are fewer gods on mountaintops than in valleys.
Just as corpses are nectar to maggots, so are lies to despots.
All hearts are red.
Does a lizard need to remember yesterday?
The gods I trust loiter beyond the trees pelting me with flies and hornets.
Perhaps there was a day when the sun did not rise, but I do not remember it.
Spirits of the dead and candleflames of the past loiter with the gods beyond the trees.
Mud gives us something from which to raise ourselves.
The spiritual man is a warrior, and, in the city, like a warrior, he is too engaged in battling his enemies to engage in thought.
Unlike man, insects do not kill those of their own species for pleasure.
Healthy animals kill only out of need.
To a dying man, diamonds are only pretty stones.
Some insects live twenty years underground as grubworms, before emerging into the daylight as flies only to live just long enough to spawn then die. Men think of this as the mature stage in the life of the fly, but to the fly is it not death? His life has been underground. Perhaps a man’s life is only the death stage of his existence and his actual life, much longer, sadly forgotten, was before birth. Many would like to believe this is the grub stage of our existence and we will be flies in the next.
If I am reborn into another life, will that life be in the future? Could it be in the past? Could I be my own ancestor? If I am reborn into the future, I could be my own descendant. Could I be reborn as someone in the present on the other side of this world whom I will never meet? Perhaps I have already been reborn as someone I met yesterday or whom I will meet tomorrow. Perhaps I will be reborn as a brother sperm who never made it to my mother’s egg.
Wicked, wicked Sato, whose thoughts flow like a raging river through the kingdoms of past, present, and future to swirl through the ocean’s depths to envelop the monsters of the soul!
To rule nations, ply the leaders’ minds with the wine of lies they desire.

Update: June 5, 2019 5:22 p.m.

I didn’t get any writing done yesterday, though I had a couple of ideas. Too tired from a busy workweek so far. I am hoping to get something done this evening. My conscience is weighing upon me. I feel guilty when not writing. Anymore, writing is the most exciting thing I do.

I am experimenting occasionally with different ways to stimulate ideas as well as my writing. One is to make the writing more realistic not only by writing about past experiences and expanding on them (like Hemingway), but by trying to live the story as much as possible. For one work-in-progress (WIP), I set part of it in Farmington, so that I could go to the places I mention and see and experience what the characters would see and experience at the time described in the book. Parts of Shadows and Stars… is set in desert or plains areas like those around where I live in the Four Corners area. Come to think of it, there are mountains north of here around Durango, CO. I should set some of the book in the mountains in areas similar to where I have hiked.

I have been toying with the new website format. I haven’t received any submissions yet. I enjoyed being an editor, when I was working at it more diligently than I have in a long time.

I have already programmed The Saturday Night Special out to August and much advertising of my works through the end of June.

I am listening to the CD “The Best of Cusco” (1997) right now as I take a brief break. I really enjoy this album. In 1997, I was just out of the Navy and trying to establish myself as a photographer and a writer (I meandered off that career path sometime back to my regret). That was in the age of film cameras and I was doing some work for a small magazine in Kentucky among other things. I had my own dark room set up in my sister’s house. I loved working there and I played this album a lot. Anytime I listen to it now, I can visualize the red darkroom light and the mingled smells of developer, stop bath, and rinse. I loved the creative process of photography. Watch a photo form in the developer was always like magic. I never tired of it. Digital photography, which was just coming onto the scene then, took all that away.

Update: June 1, 2019, 2:50 a.m.

I did some writing at Olive Garden tonight after having supper. I just now finished typing it into Shadows and Stars Lying down. It was only about five hundred words, but the idea for it has been bugging me for the past several days.

In Shadows and Stars Lying Down, the protagonist, Daryn, and his bodyguard, Sero, walk upon a monk’s (Sato’s) cabin in the deep forest. I am really fascinated by the possibilities to describe the new religions and anti-religions that exist on this planet, so I spend sometime developing them, though I do not want the novel to be dominated by them by any means.

Sato is becoming something of a pivotal figure in at least the first half of the novel. So I have Daryn and him discuss Sato’s beliefs briefly, but then I have Daryn read from one of the journals that Sato keeps. Here are a few bullets from Sato’s writings to give you an idea of what they are. I invented these based on my readings from philosophy and theology. There are several more in addition to these.

Mud gives us something from which to raise ourselves.
The spiritual man is a warrior, and, in the city, like a warrior, he is too engaged in battling his enemies to engage in thought.
Unlike man, insects do not kill those of their own species for pleasure.
Healthy animals kill only out of need.
To a dying man, diamonds are only pretty stones.
Some insects live twenty years underground as grub worms, before emerging into the daylight as flies only to live just long enough to spawn then die. Men think of this as the mature stage in the life of the fly, but to the fly is it not death? His life has been underground. Perhaps a man’s life is only the death stage of his existence and his actual life, much longer, sadly forgotten, was before birth. Many would like to believe this is the grub stage of our existence and we will be flies in the next.

Maybe I will post more tomorrow. I hope to spend most of the day writing.

Update: May 31, 2019

I didn’t make any substantial progress with the novel last night. I did manage to type up about a thousand words. I have found that once I get into my creative zone (which wasn’t last night), I really don’t want to stop writing down new ideas and plot lines.

In the novel, I have a alien scientist named Mikash on a planet called Zaigosh. Mikash needs an assistant, so that they can have a dialogue to reveal Mikash’s thoughts and plans. I have named this assistant Psotto, but I have yet to develop him at all in terms of character, which I want to do. I need to examine what the plot demands of him.

Yesterday, a former colleague/acquaintance was showing me and some other his new Tesla, which has a computer screen vs. a dashboard. This was a mind-blower for me in a couple of ways. On Zaigosh, the cars are all magnetic levitation driven with computer screens instead of dashboards. I thought I was being very forward thinking in coming up with this idea, only to find out that Elon Musk has already done it. Am I so far behind the times that my ideas of the future are already part of the present?

Update: May 30, 2019–Visit to Texas

Working on “Shadows and Stars Lying Down”. May 24 or 25, 2019, in IHOP, Midland, TX

I have been down in Texas over the last several days and returned on Monday. I didn’t get much writing done, though my wife took a few snapshots of me working my sci-fi novel at an IHOP in Midland about 11:00 pm.

I had named the book originally Jacob’s Ladder as a working title, then decided on Shadows and Stars, but have decided on Shadows and Stars Lying Down, as the protagonist’s name is Daryn Tsela Jacob. He is a Navajo, whose middle name means “stars lying down”. I gave him the middle name Tsela out of coincidence, not recognizing the connection with the book’s title (I just wanted

Reading Kerouac’s “Desolation Angels”, Midland, TX, May 27, 2019

an obviously Navajo name), but which my wife recognized and thus suggested the expanded title. I liked it, because it gives the novel a mysterious connotation. I hope it will intrigue the public and make them pick up a copy to examine it.

My wife, Fran, picked up a few books from the local library book exchange, two of which I immediately latched onto and started reading: Kerouac’s Desolation Angels and Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

Here’s photos of she and I having dinner.

Dinner, Ray’s Italian, Midland, TX, May 26, 2019. Appetizer: Escargot Provencale. Iced tea.

Fran, my wife. Dinner, Ray’s Italian, Midland, TX, May 26, 2019. Appetizer: Escargot Provencale. Iced tea.

Update: May 14, 2019–Social Life in Farmington

Last night, I had a busy night after work.

First, I went to my first advisory board meeting of the local public radio station KSJE as a member of the advisory board. I was accepted some months ago, but have been unable to attend until last night due to scheduling conflicts. There were only four of us, including general manager Scott Michlin, but it was relaxing and informative. I enjoyed it very much and I enjoyed hearing about the upcoming projects, including the “Zero-Mile Fun Run” on this coming Saturday at 9:30 a.m. at San Juan College. If you are in the Farmington, NM area, I recommend you come. Participants will run about 27 feet and will receive a t-shirt. The “run” is primarily for fun, socializing, and making contacts.

After the meeting at about 5:30, I dropped by Studio 116 to find out what time their concert started. They weren’t starting until 7:00. I mentioned I would pass the time by going to dinner across the street at the Chile Pod. Karen recommended the Nacho Fries appetizer as a whole meal. She was right. They put a lot of Nacho Fries on a plate for a very reasonable price and the fries include Carne Adovada!

After dinner, I went down to Karen Ellsbury’s Studio 116. They host jazz and other bands in their back lot. This summer, they are hosting a free concert by a small band every Wednesday from about 6-8. I plan on attending one tonight. Last night, they had a special guest, Levi Platero’s blues band, which is very popular in the Four Corners area. They were terrific! Incredible soulful blues. You listen to it and think, “This is what the blues is about.” Studio 116 did charge a cover charge for this performance, but it was well worth it. I noticed, as you can see in the accompanying photos, that Levi, the lead singer and guitarist, played his guitar with his eyes closed and seem to be into his playing in a spiritual way. I have seen my share of big name concerts, but the only other performer I have seen play his guitar like this was Eric Clapton in a concert in Seattle in probably the late 80’s-early 90’s. I ran into a few friends from the Farmington Writers Circle and we watched the concert together.

Following the concert, I went to Lucky Break Billiards and Darts, where I shot pool for a little over an hour before picking up some dog food and fruit at Wal-Mart and then heading home.

Tonight, I will probably go back to Karen’s for a free concert (I don’t know who’s playing tonight) preceded by a quick run to Hobby Lobby, where I will pick up a glass jar, probably a faux mason jar, in which to store some small cigars, which have dried out. I found out a few years ago, that dry pipe tobacco can be rejuvenated by putting it into a jar with a slice of apple wrapped in a paper towel. This works very well and can keep them moist for months to years. Tonight, I will see if the same will work with small cigars (specifically, Macanudo Maduros). It will take a few days for them to absorb the juice.

Update: May 1, 2019, 1:23 a.m.

I just now finished typing up the first draft of my new sci-fi short story, “The Charade”, 2,167 words. This will be set in the future, after a battle over Denver, during which US forces repelled an invading alien armada. The US commander has captured the alien commander and is interrogating him to an extreme. There is lots of subtext and intrigue and a twist at the end.

Earlier today, I wrote a one-sentence story and submitted it to Roarreadingseries.com. They provided the prompt “thrift store”. My story is probably more gruesome than they anticipated receiving. The deadline is May 5. Hopefully, I will hear soon after that.

Update: April 28, 2019 10:03 pm

It has been a busy weekend. Yesterday morning I spent much of the morning to maybe early afternoon making plans to complete several short stories and either add them to my existing anthologies on Amazon or to create new anthologies. I spent much of yesterday afternoon and evening writing in various coffee shops and restaurants in Farmington. I intended to work on my sci-fi novel, whose working title is Jacob’s Ladder. Instead, I worked on a sci-fi/horror short story, on which I had a brainstorm for most of the day. It’s title is “The Charade”. It’s about the interrogation of an alien commander after his invasion armada has been defeated over Denver. For a short story, it will have a lot of intricacy and subtext. That’s all I will say about it for now.

The city of Aztec turned off the electric to most of the city, or at least our neighborhood, from 10 pm last night to about 7:00 this morning. Therefore, after I had spent most of the day in Farmington, I came home for a short while to feed the dog and type most of “The Charade”. Then I went back into Farmington for dinner at Olive Garden, then over to Lucky Breaks to shoot pool for about an hour before proceeding to Denny’s to write more on Jacob’s Ladder. If you saw last night’s posts, you know that I wasn’t too successful at that, because I was tired and couldn’t focus on writing. I couldn’t get a good “flow” going. Therefore, I spent most of my time on my social media related to writing. I had enough energy to do that.

I became very tired around 3:00 a.m. and headed home. Before I went home, I took a detour to Main Street to check out the hours for the Chile Pod, a very good New Mexican restaurant. I was planning to go there today for breakfast, but it was closed. I took the attached photo of Main Street looking east from the Chile Pod at 3:28 a.m. just because I had never seen the street so empty. There also seems to be a sort of desolate beauty about the street. When I used to do black and white photography in the 80’s-90’s, I used to take a lot of dramatic night shots of Alexandria Virginia and Washington, DC for the same reason.

I arrived home at about 4:00, and the electricity was out as announced. I had put some candles and a lighter near the door before I had left at 9:30 p.m. I lit them, sat up for a few minutes, and then lay down on the sofa to sleep, but never fell asleep.

When dawn came, the dog wanted out. I let her out. I lay back down, but couldn’t fall asleep for whatever reason. I felt very fatigued, but still had too much energy to sleep. Therefore, I surfed the Net for a while, including reading a few articles on using keywords and how to market books on Amazon. Then I worked on fine-tuning the administrative and marketing stuff for both my paperback and e-books on Amazon. I also worked some on finishing the paperback version of Nocturne. While doing that, I had a couple of ideas.

The first idea was to write and publish on Amazon a children’s book, for which I had the initial idea probably more than ten years ago while living in Corpus Christi. The original draft is on an old hard drive that I haven’t been able to access for about ten years. It is about a young brown pelican who is afraid to dive into the water for fish from about five stories up, which is what brown pelicans do. His father then has to teach him to overcome his fear. The young pelican also learns about trusting his father.

The second idea I had was to put together a collection of classic short horror stories and poetry from the ones I published on my website a few years ago in a recurring article called “The Saturday Night Special”, because I published them on Saturday nights. They seemed to be fairly popular. Most were stories from the nineteenth century, though a few were from 1900-1920, before copyright laws were established. Thus, all are in the public domain. I chose works from classic horror authors: Poe, M.R. James, Algernon Blackwood, Edward Bulwer-Lytton, etc. I started on that and had the first three stories in it, when, about 5:00 p.m., I decided to clean up and go have something to eat at a local Chinese restaurant. I took a notebook with me to write the first draft of the children’s book. See the previous article for photos of me and the notebook at the Wonderful House restaurant tonight.

I had hot and sour soup and pot stickers. While eating I read the news on my iPhone. Then I went to work on my book and didn’t put the pen down, with the exception of receiving a few calls from my wife (she is in Texas), until I had finished, which I did at 8:45 (the restaurant closes at 9:00). I then posted on this blog that I had completed the first draft and I came home.

Once home I started the laundry and started this post while watching a program on YouTube about the “Iceman”, Richard Kuklinski, famed mafia hit-man. It ended just now. Still no sleep. This happens occasionally and is not at all unusual for me.

I never managed to do the household chores I needed to do this weekend: financial planning, mowing the yard, cleaning the house, etc. Still, I got a lot done for my writing career.

This is the way it has been for me for a few weeks. I have had this drive to write, which grows increasingly strong with each day. I can hardly tear myself away from the keyboard.

It’s 11:24 p.m.. Still no sleep. Laundry is in the dryer. Going to bed soon.

Good night.

Friday Update — Beginning Research into Contemporary Theatre

I have been contemplating my play “Centaurs” and trying to work out what I need to change. It just isn’t exciting enough. It doesn’t involve the audience enough. I know there’s something missing, but I can’t pinpoint it. Therefore, tonight I have been surfing YouTube for performances of great plays and surfing the Internet for what are considered the great play of American theatre. Perhaps not surprisingly, there is a generally accepted canon of the greatest American plays: “The Iceman Cometh”, “Long Day’s Journey into Night”, “Death of a Salesman”, “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf”, etc., with “Angels in America” probably being the most contemporary on most lists. Although all are terrific works, none seem to have something innovative enough to interest me. Therefore, I have started looking into contemporary theatre. This is turning out to be quite interesting. Contemporary theatre, based on the few videos I have seen tonight (and on past experience too, of course), seems to have the minimalist, dreamy, postmodernist, almost mystical qualities that intrigue me. I will continue my research for probably a few days to come, but I am already coming up with ideas about interaction with the audience and monologues. Combining those with my own past experience in public speaking and acting (I was once in two short Tennessee Williams plays), I feel I may be on to something.

Update on my Poetry Collection Nocturne

inside-og2-2-a — Official Author’s Photo from March, 2015

The last few days I have been working almost continuously on collecting the poems I wrote from 1985 to 1996 into a volume I call Nocturne. I am almost finished with the first draft.

I first collected them together about two years ago and submitted them to a publisher, who I thought would be ideal for them. I knew from the beginning that their usual wait time for a decision was about six months, but I was willing to wait, because I thought they would be excellent for it. You can probably guess the rest.

I was not in a hurry, so I waited. I would check back every few months and they would say that a decision would be soon; they were still working through their backlog. Eventually, they turned it down.

Not being high on the priority list of my life, I took my time in finding other potential publishers. I looked for ones (primarily in the Poets and Writers website) that would respond in less than three months. I submitted it simultaneously to a couple of publishers about a month ago. I am awaiting their responses.

However, now I am preparing to publish Nocturne myself on Kindle. At the same time, I am developing a print version.

Both potential publishers should respond in January. Unless one offers a terrific deal, I will publish Nocturne on February 1. My Kindle version will feature lots of (public domain stock) photos that I have selected to heighten the poignancy, which the version I submitted to the publishers does not.

In the meantime I will be refining the Kindle version and studying the best strategies for pre-release publicity and marketing.

Wish me luck.

#Weird Coincidence? #Synchronicity?

I just arrived at Ruby’s restaurant in Aztec planning on a breakfast of pappas con carne adovada and the waitress seated me at a booth next to a man that looks very much like the photo of the fictional character Jack Thurston I posted on Twitter (@jthurston666). Of course, the photo is a public domain photo I got from Pexels. Nonetheless, the coincidence seems uncanny. Has anyone else had a similar coincidence? I suppose this falls under the category of synchronicity.

Update 4 April

I need to use WordPress more for quick posts than Twitter, because WordPress can feed to six other social media automatically, whereas it’s much more of a chore with Twitter to post to other media. Twitter is more fun though and more of a challenge to get a complete idea across in 140 characters. You can be much more impulsive with Twitter.

I can’t say for certain, but I believe I (i.e. My fictional character @jthurston666) am getting more followers on Twitter, because I noted in his profile that he is fictional. However, I did follow a few hundred more just before announcing that Jack is fictional, but several of Jack’s new followers are not being followed by me.

Right now, Jack is living in Piste, Mexico, but I will have him move soon to the Farmington, NM, area, where I live. I can update his daily activities in more detail and be truer to life than I can if he lives in a town where I have never been. My ostensible reasons for bringing him here are threefold: 1) Jack spent time here as a boy, 2) he has family in the area, and 3) he can try conjuring spirits from the local Anasazi ruins, which are scattered throughout the area (not including the local national parks).

In Jacob’s Ladder, I originally had Jacob’s wife be Italian, but I changed her to Navajo for several reasons. First, they live between Santa Fe and Los Alamos, so it makes more sense for her to be a local. Accordingly, I made Darren (his first name) half-Navajo. I am not fully decided whether he’ll be half-Apache or half-Jewish or what. Second, although I halve been to Italy for a few days total, I have spent nearly six years in the Farmington area, therefore I am much more familiar on a personal level with the Navajo culture, third, I want to break the stereotype of native Americans as being impoverished, not highly educated, and limiting themselves to living on the reservation.

That’s all for tonight. Check out my earlier posts today at @philslattery201.