Distractions...

My youngest daughter (sorry, no pictures) is nearly seven. She's riding a JR50 (a tiny Suzuki motorcycle), and wants to go ride in the dirt before the carpool boys get bikes... competitive much?

So, Dad, being a good Dad, goes and gets stiffer springs for his (slightly-larger) Yamaha pitbike (it's a TTR125, for those who know about such things), so he can go putt in the dirt and generally supervise while she crashes a lot. Or something...

Meant a lot of wrenching today, and since the forks on Dad's bike are tiny, Dad had no clue how much oil to put in... meaning I may have a 'field adjustment' in my future (drain some while at the parking area of the trailhead).

Sandy (Sparks) is getting through the first pass. This pass, you'll recall, was mostly plot tweak - I'm fixing it to 'better fit the Action/Adventure genre'. A few other things I didn't really like, but was too wrapped up in the story before to want to tweak got tweaked, and I'll make a couple of desultory spot-edits in phrases or whatnot.

Next week I'll begin the deathmarch-edit, like I did on Hell's Own. That'll be the "each sentence in a microscope". Thank Heaven this story's shorter...

Then comes the 'print it and read it like a book' pass. And, this time, I'll probably ask a professional to judge the first few dozen pages.

I would really like this book to sell, since it's sequel is such a great story. If I can't sell Sparks, I'll have to redo the beginning to Lenore (the sequel)... and that'll be harsh.

Anyway, have a great weekend, and I'll try not to break any bones keeping up with my youngest girl on the trail...


dave

Rebuilding Forks Can Be Messy

So I got the bright idea of pulling the cartridges from my forks (my racebike's front end suspension) and changing the oil.

Suffice it to say it's a messy job... I think I've cleaned up the spills and 'incidental contact'.

Back on the literary front, I've submitted Hell's Own, but haven't heard a peep yet (natch). Also, I'm reworking - I've lost count of what iteration this is - Sparks. Busy busy busy!


That's it for now. Maybe more later...


dave

Editing was hard

By the title, I hope you, dear reader, will conclude I sent the novel I'd been working so assiduously upon to the publisher.

I'll be working on Sparks now.

Meanwhile, in my other life, Julie Ann Shapiro's been asking me if I'll play a bigger role on ABNA Books. I also have my racebike's forks disassembled while I rebuild them, and will take advantage of the slower pace now that Hell's Own's shipped out to finish the rebuild.

And it's Spring Break. No rest for the virtuous.


dave

Editing is hard, Part III

So, if you write a novel, and someone suggests that, after you think you're done, before you send it to the publisher, you print it out and read it...

Listen to them, okay?

What works on the computer screen looks way different on the printed page, especially if you print the page like it'll look in a book. You find you can suddenly live with shorter sentences, and chop off lots of dialogue tags ("Go to Heck," he cursed. The tag is the 'he cursed' part)

I'm profoundly sick of this novel. The words don't seem like my own any longer... I want to send it to the editor and practice my awards acceptance speech (into my pillow, of course. My 11-year-old daughter assures me it's safe) instead.

But I'll finish the slog. This weekend is it for this novel, I'm shipping it Monday morning.

If I survive.

Race Results March 8-9, ASMA, Arroyo Seco Raceway

Unusual for me, my first race of the day was my best, and even more unusual, the first race of the ASMA season, after not having been on the track for a long time (November 11 last year), was a good and fast one. Even though it's not my favorite direction, anti-clockwise was good to me this time.

I ran 1:15's in the first race, Unlimited Superstock (ULSS), which made me pretty happy. I don't remember Ken S getting by me, but he did, and so I took fourth (thought I'd passed Jim W for third). That was a great pass... I'm smiling as I type this. On the brakes, tucked under the inside of the Yucca corner, I let go of the brake sooner than he did, and on the gas faster, and bye-bye Jim.

Second race was star-crossed. Formula 40 (unlimited displacement, unlimited mods, racers aged 40 and older) should be a pretty sedate race, really, clean, lots of experience and wisdom triumphing over aggression. I was 3rd in the grid, slot 1C, and held the position in the launch. Tom Savoca passed me as we got close to Turn 1, and I was just slotting in behind him and Jeff Smith when I felt my back tire give a lurch. Immediately, I knew what had happened (a racer hit my tire with his front tire), and looked to my outside for an escape, but saw another racer's head and upper torso sliding past me there. Look inside (to the left), and watched the crashed racer's bike, spinning on it's side, careen five feet past me and take out Savoca like a bowling ball. With nowhere to go, I rode straight off the track, into the desert, safely. I turned around, and immediately signaled for the redflag, as I could see inside Tom's thigh... Tom's one hell of a tough dude, but I could see he'd need a bunch of medical attention. The race was restarted after they flew him to El Paso (he'll be fine, it was mostly soft-tissue/fatty damage, not muscle). In the now-shortened (7 laps was too many to fit all the other races remaining into the remaining daylight, so we did 5) race, I got passed on the last lap by Greg T, who wanted to show off, since he was riding my old ZX-6R. I think he clenched a little seat-leather with his sphincter on that pass, as he entered the corner sideways... Finished 4th.

Third race was F-Am (Unlimited Gran Prix/ULGP). This is usually a long race, but today was 8 laps, I think... we didn't make all of them. The weather had changed to be a lot colder, and rain was falling around us, rendering track and tires cold. My bike didn't like the cold... it would miss randomly between 10,000 and 10,700 RPM, and I kept moving backwards on the straights (giving up ground). We think it's the kickstand safety interlock, and I'll be yanking the part out of my bike tonight. Nonetheless, I got passed by three riders driving out of one corner, and mercifully for me (but not for the rider involved), Stacy S (a guy) broke his collarbone, ending the race. I only finished four laps in this race, and got, maybe, 5 points in the class.

Don't get the idea that there's tons of crashes in a raceday. This was really unusual.

My last race was Unlimited Superbike (ULSB), and I gave it heck. Okay, maybe I gave it a mild curse. It was cold, I was tired, and I ran 1:16's, a good pace, but only good enough (with the bike misfiring) for fifth place.

Not a stellar weekend, but not a bad start.

Friday, before a race weekend...

I'll be racing Sunday in New Mexico (ASMA).

The start of a new season is always an adventure, and I have great hopes for this season. Lost a few pounds, plan to lose more, plan to win a couple of championships.

I'll let the world know on Monday how I did!



dave

Editing is hard, part II

Wow. I have to tell you, after two weeks of intensive editing on Hell's Own, it's a lot more readable, and, I hope, publishable.

But my brain feels like white-noise mush.

Every sentence, every clause: does this add to the story? Do I need this? Can I snip it and not destroy the feel? Can I say this simpler?

Big chunks of the story were eliminated. The ending is better. Two more days, another couple of read-throughs, and I'll ship it to a few friends for sanity-checking (typos, partial sentences caused by cuts, etc).

---

Today they announced the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award top-ten. Good luck to those writers! I'll reenter the contest next time around, with an action/adventure novel I suppose, not a literary work, but one that should win some more attention.

That's all for tonight,


dave