Tag: preview

Serialize This – Chapter 3

I recently discovered that publishers of serial novels like to get their victims on mailing lists before explaining the proposition. I’m on too many mailing lists. It’s ‘unsubscribe’ here, ‘Stop’ there, ‘Block’ over yonder.

But, I did allow myself to get suckered enough times to assemble a custom plan, just for my Internet friends, but I’ll need your email address before I can tell you about it.

Nah. I'm kidding. There's no plan. Tell me what you want, and I'll see what I can do.

Chapter 3

The White House, Washington DC

It was another sunny day at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue where, at 8:00 AM sharp, Colonel Theodore Clarke, USAF retired, appeared on the President’s Patio outside the Oval Office.

She let him in through a side door. “You could come in the front, you know. Maybe check in with Captain Price.”

“Tune into the Anuraga Channel.” Clarke gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Bharamin’s in orbit.”

Continue reading “Serialize This – Chapter 3” →
0

Serialize This – Chapter 2

I am, perhaps, over-satisfied with the notion of serializing an essay about serializing a novel. It’s recursive, a seldom-employed literary device, perhaps for good reason.

Regardless, feel free to appreciate this insightful moment while I veer back to the main topic: Would you pay to read Maroli Tango x-pages at a time, for a monthly fee?

Chapter 2

AMV Anuraga, The Dust Cloud

In 1970, a teenage Amancio Goncalves Lopez visited Zambales, Philippines to sign up for what became 6 years of service in the U.S. Navy, during which time he earned high marks as an administrative chef, and a fast path toward U.S. citizenship.

And so, by these portents was Brandon Amancio Lopez born in 1980, the son of restauranteurs Manny and Berlina Lopez of Cincinnati, Ohio.

Continue reading “Serialize This – Chapter 2” →
0

Serialize This – Chapter 1

Claude AI says Maroli Tango is ready for publication — good news for all of us, I hope.

What would you pay, if anything, to read a 4th-edit WIP, 3,000 words per week? Would you value access to material excised for technical, rather than artistic reasons? How about exclusive desktop wallpaper? There could even be tee-shirts, although perhaps in the same sense of ‘There could be unicorns’.

Wait! You don’t have to tell me right now. I’m posting 7 chapters. Just, whenever you get around to it.

Chapter 1

Previously

When Carmen Luisa Colletti was a 12-year-old nosepicker in convent school, a Benedictine nun told her, “Boys have a tendency to be shallow, young men not much better. Wait it out, and use your brain to make a sensible choice.”

Continue reading “Serialize This – Chapter 1” →
0

Grade This!

Prelude to a series first chapter, picking up where the previous book left off. After a lot of back and forth, Grok AI now says, “Your revised passage is a stellar refinement, keeping the hook’s vibrancy while addressing the need for just enough context to ground readers without slowing the pace.”

Good enough for me. Readers and writers: What say you?

When Carmen Luisa Colletti was a 12-year-old nosepicker in convent school, a Benedictine nun told her, “Boys have a tendency to be shallow, young men not much better. Wait it out, and use your brain to make a sensible choice.”

Continue reading “Grade This!” →
0

Blurb 3.4

Are you bored with this yet? Sorry, but I'm not.

Nobody expects the Sasquatch Intervention.

Furry migrants from outer space. A shaggy ambassador sporting an Alabama accent. Homestead claims going back to the Ice Age.

Not the alien invasion we imagined, not by a long shot. Earth geopolitics are in an uproar. U.S. President Carmen Benequista is juggling red-hot pokers with little help, and she’s tired of it.

Continue reading “Blurb 3.4” →
0

Blurb 2.4

Let's see if we can make it fit on the back cover. 254 words.

In Old Testament times, co-occupancy with migrants from another planet was, for humans, like having a rich uncle who stopped answering the door. And then, in 48 BCE, the Alexandrian Library burned down. Evidence destroyed. The Anye faded into the shadows and we forgot about them; until recently, when a 1×2 kilometer starship showed up at the Dust Cloud, there to rescue Earth from cosmic disaster.

“Not so fast”, said the global elite. “What’s in it for us?”

United States President Carmen Benequista is dealing with a mutinous Congress, in no mood to entertain a dream séance, during which her deceased husband says, “Find someone to share your life.”

Continue reading “Blurb 2.4” →
0

Mining for inspiration

I’ve recently given myself the objective of crafting an opening to the current work-in-progress so compelling that every reader will be enthralled, no matter what kind of book they’re in the mood for.

Exhibit 1: An early-draft description for Maroli Tango:

Sometimes, no matter what’s going on, you have to make it about you.

Visited in a dream by her deceased husband, United States President Carmen Luisa Benequista gets a wake-up call. Anton Benequista, gone these past 13 years, tells her, “Find someone to share your life.”

It’s not a rocket science proposition. Carmen’s steady companion, Space Mafia kingpin Brandon Lopez, 15 years her junior, is waiting for a signal. Done deal, if she wants.

First-contact survivor Mason Fowlkes, soon to be 16, is growing up fast as an apprentice Ship’s Mechanic aboard the Anye migration vessel Anuraga. The work life is great; the home life not so much.

French Air Force lieutenant Marie Jourdaine is on the rebound after a brief stint as the world’s youngest female fighter pilot. Things are kind of working out, and kind of not.

Caught in the middle is Chester, an elevated maroli labor appliance, a product of ancient Anye technology, monstrous in appearance, sweet of disposition, intent on discovering his place in the universe.

It’s been a bumpy ride, fraught with challenges. Maybe it’s time for our heroes to take care of themselves.

Continue reading “Mining for inspiration” →
8

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑