About a year ago, I started playing in a Call of Cthulhu tabletop role-playing game, run by a friend. I had not done an ongoing tabletop RPG in many years, but the circumstances arose where the team was short an adventurer, so I thought, why not?
I was not ready to jump into the chaos with a character of my own making, so I opted for a pre-generated character. The “private detective” pre-gen jumped out at me. That was a role I could play.
I’ve been a big fan of detective stories for a while. My favorites include Lew Archer, George Gently, and Albert Campion. (I really should get some women detectives in there.) Part of this is because of the television I enjoy – where I will say that women inspectors abound, including Annika Strandhed, Sarah Lund, Saga Norén, Mared Rhys, Ellie Miller, and many more – but also because my latest original story centers on a pair of amateur sleuths.
I gave my detective the name Cameron West, though everyone calls him West. I can’t tell you where his name came from, only that when I started playing him, I tried to channel my inner Archer/Gently/Strandhed. It partly worked.
While I can write a pretty good observant smartass, playing one on the fly was a different matter. West was a lot more brute force than subtle detecting. Which, lucky for me and the rest of the investigative party, has turned out fine.
Call of Cthulhu is one of those games where characters can die. Characters are often expected to die. West has at least one more scheduled adventure in him as of this writing, but in case he doesn’t make it through, I wrote a diary of his exploits that I’ve shared on this website, called The Ruminations of (Cameron) West. You can read all the entries starting here, with his first adventure, in New York.
Back in October, Ness of NESSMADETHIS (Bats in the Belfry Art) reached out asking if I would be interested in writing a Transformers Christmas story. She had drawn Soundwave taking the alt-form of the leg lamp from the movie “A Christmas Story” and wanted to create a larger story around that. Something feel-good and light for these hard times. I loved the image, and I loved the idea. I got to work right away on a quick draft.
Ness and I liked the idea of Soundwave learning about Christmas, kind of like Dr. Seuss’s Grinch, from traveling around Earth and observing different human traditions. I did some quick research on winter holiday mainstays, like exchanging gifts and singing carols. I wrote up a first draft that got the point across, but then I had a thought. If Soundwave was going to learn about the power of Christmas like the Grinch did, maybe I should write the story in verse! That additional creative tick added a whole new dimension to the project for me.
Even though the verse version made the text about 3x as long as it would have been otherwise, Ness agreed to run with it. And run she has! Every picture/page is a delight, and I’m excited to share the finished product as a small book when the illustrations are complete.
If you would like to follow along as Ness posts each image, you can do so via Ness’s Instagram. Better yet, become a member of Ness’s Ko-Fi to get first-run access to these illustrations and so much more!
If you’d like a hard copy of the story when it’s all put together, drop me a line at Mayumi@bonusparts.com so we can discuss details.
A few weeks ago, I decided to move my books to IngramSpark. IngramSpark is an online self-publishing platform that connects authors with potential audiences around the world, in markets from bookstores to libraries. Much like Amazon’s KindleDirect Publishing, IngramSpark is both a print and ebook design and distribution company. Unlike Amazon, though, IngramSpark is not owned by a billionaire oligarch.
I consider Jeff Bezos to be scum. That’s the main reason I shifted my attentions away from Amazon and toward IngramSpark.
You still won’t find my book in bookstores, though.
This is because I still do print on demand, and bookstores don’t like print on demand. They’d much prefer to buy 10 copies and then be able to return those 10 copies if they don’t sell. For a very small author like me, the potential price of returns isn’t worth it. But it does feel good to be getting away from Amazon.
Now, Amazon remains the big go-to for many authors, and I understand why. Its global presence seems unbeatable; everywhere, there is Amazon. Amazon can also afford to do things cheaply, like free shipping. But Amazon’s anti-union and slave labor practices don’t align with my personal values. Of course, I’m in a position where I can afford to be selective. Not everyone is in that boat. I don’t blame anyone for sticking with Amazon or using Amazon or KindleDirect Publishing.
In order to give people a reason to buy my book (maybe someday it will be books) from IngramSpark rather than Amazon, I’m making the IngramSpark version $1 cheaper. That cuts a bit into my profit, of course, but to me, it’s worth it to get people to shift even a little bit away from Amazon.
I also plan to offer signed or personalized copies of my book through this website and my Ko-Fi. I’ll be ordering those books from IngramSpark, for sure.
There is the temptation to flounder, to panic. But I have a plan.
I’m going to edit this story.
I enjoy the intoxicating freedom of free writing, but there’s a part of me that enjoys editing even more. It’s easier, in some ways, to fix ideas that are already on the page. The story exists in at least a basic form. So, while it can take a lot of concentrated work to adjust plots, dialogue, event progression, even characters, I’m not starting from scratch. I’m just making it better.
I have fond memories of editing my last original story, Number Seven and the Life Left Behind. I printed up the manuscript, walked over to our University library, and settled into one of the quiet study spaces over several lunch breaks, just me, my pages, and my correcting pen. I’m looking forward to doing the same with this story, which is still working under the tentative title House of Ghosts and Strays.
Before I go into full editing mode, though, I’m going to take a break. It’s important for me to take a break from a story every now and then. It’s especially important for me to break between finishing a draft and diving into editing.
Writing requires a specific set of skills related to forming ideas and putting them down on the page. Plot threads and characters can run wild. It’s fun! Editing requires a different skill set, though. It demands focus and critical thinking.
Now, don’t let anyone discourage you: A first draft can be good. It can even be great. But even the greatest first draft will benefit from review and revision.
The more distance you can put between yourself and the feelings of protection you have for your first draft baby, the better off you’ll be when it comes to editing. You’ll be able to see things more clearly, understand when and where some parts need to change. You’ll also be able to better understand when things don’t need to change. That’s equally important because – and trust me on this – after you’ve been in the edit phase for a while, there is a part of you that will despise your story. And that’s totally normal.
For now, though, I’m still deeply in love with this story and its characters and their world. I hope that others will fall in love with them someday, too. After the story’s been edited, of course.
After 253 days, over 96,000 words, and 32 chapters, the first draft is done.
I had to write that twice because I can’t quite believe it.
I know that there are scary and infuriating things happening in the world and in my country in particular. And I am frightened and furious over many of them. But I also think it’s important to celebrate our wins when they happen. For me, finishing a draft is always something to celebrate.
Writing brings me a very particular kind of joy. The forming of ideas and committing them to paper, especially in the form of a story, is a feeling for which there is no equal, for me. It’s especially significant that I’ve finished this original story on the day that was my aunt’s birthday.
My aunt passed away in 2022. She was an artist not exactly like me, but she was someone I could talk to about my art and creative process. I can’t do that with many people in my life. She was one person who was content to just listen to me, though. She liked hearing about how I came up with characters, the way I thought through plots, my interest in research and the significance of names. There are many days when I wish she were still here, but this day – her birthday and the day I finished this story – is a hard one to be without her. I like to think that she’s glad I stuck to my guns and saw this one through.
My ending word count as of 11:17 am ET: 96,568.
This is only the first leg of this story’s journey. From here, I need to move into the edit process. I’m not afraid of it, though. I know that there are chunks of this story that I need to fix, but I want to bask in this feeling of accomplishment for a little while, at least. I think I’ve earned it.
There are lots of people I need to thank for their support on my journey thus far. My partner, my writer friends, my story coach, my artist. Everyone who’s followed along with this blog experiment and dropped me a note, shared my progress, or even just clicked a heart.
If you’d like to follow my editing process, drop me a line here or on any of my other media so I’ll know to share how things are going. In the meantime, as the Muppets once sang, keep believing, keep pretending. Do what you set out to do.
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