To Kill or Not To Kill

I just sent you the latest chapter of To Kill or Not To Kill. I also attached the whole draft - four chapters, 66 pages, because you haven't seen it in a year and I thought you might want to skim it to refresh your memory. There are couple of highlighted passages in the full draft - ignore these - they just indicate things I need to fix.

Enjoy - I hope! Happy Easter!

Jerkules

I started writing this after Andy joked that since my turn was coming on Valentines Day I should write a romance. I thought that was pretty funny but then decided, why not? It starts out with a romantic interest but it's still fantasy. The protag is 14. This is brand new so I'm open to anything such as where you think the story is going or not going. What you know and would like to know or think you know. Hercules is really going to mess things up but I don't really know how yet. Any ideas?

New Schedule!

Bill just sent out his submission, which reminded me I should post the schedule. Here it is!

Bill     Jan. 24

Alan    Feb. 14

Carolyn   March 6

Andy       March 27

Poetry & Prose

Team, 

I have e-mailed my portion of an anthology I am participating in for your review. It is to be published in April using Amazon's Create Space. 

A Read Local group was created in Jamestown last year with two other local authors and we decided to create 

BBK, Three Authors of Jamestown, A Collection of Poetry, Essays and Short Fiction. I am providing the poetry. 

I attached a pdf draft of my section.  I also attached  drafts of the front and back cover for reference. The photos were taken in my library and 20% of what we sell will go to the libraries capital campaign. 

This has been an amazing experience and I encourage everyone of you to look to local partners for sharing publishing ideas. Keith Norman, the K in the title, has published a number of books with Create Space and took over the design and formatting process. We will have our first reading at the University of Jamestown on April 9th. 

I am very interested in what you have to say about the concept, the cover design, and my work. The poetry covers 1972 to 2015. 

About 25 pages of stuff. 

Bill

The Moonswallower

Hey, everyone. I've sent you the piece. What do you know, think you know, and want to know?

Thanks!

Sludge 1st 20 Pages

I did a substantial rewrite of the first 20 pages of Sludge. I tried to incorporate the suggestions of author Dave Farland. I shortened the time before the fistball game. The biggest criticism I got was that I tortured Sludge too much. I took out the grizzly-dogs, maybe to bring in later. I also toned down the electrocution scene. I was told that it was too violent for middle-grade. I also changed Sludge's age to 14 from 12 to get away with the milder violence I still have. I still want to hit the MG audience but I also hope this will be a crossover with young YA. I've been told that publishers don't like the term upper middle-grade. I'll be emailing the 20 pages soon. Please tell me what your inner middle grade tells you. This might be a tough questions since you've already read it and might be sick of it, but does it keep your interest? Does it seem too violent for 10-12-year-olds? Will kids from the 13-16 year old crowd go for it? All other comments are very welcome.

Thanks a million,

Alan

August 23 Post

I will post the next pages of Tramp on the 24th. I was distracted by the new Sherlock on PPS tonight and you all know he is Tramp's favorite detective.