There's more progress to report for my Aero Rangers stories. Tunguska Terror has been on the market for abt 6 weeks now, and I'm hoping to get some sales figures soon. Personally I know of about 40 sales to friends, and I have 4 nice reviews on Amazon, so that's a start.
Next, I have signed a contract with Ellipsis Imprints to publish the second volume. The manuscript is in my Editor's hands at present.
Next I must have a chat with Eldon Cowgur, the artist who did Tunguska's excellent cover. There is always something. And now I am back to work on another story, called 'Hell's Legion'. It has been on hiatus whille I had other irons i. the fire, but I am itching to get back to it.
Until Next Time.

So its official: my novel Tunguska Terror, 1920, vol. 1 of Aero Rangers, pub by Ellipsis Imprints drops Aug 1, 2023. Preorder e book cheap from Ellipsis, or wait for Aug 1 and order e book or paperback from your favorite online book seller. I will add a book cover photo. later tonight. Buy my book, make me happy!
DRW

Great news on the publisj
hing front. Ellipsis Imprints has just announced: 1920, Tunguska Terror, the first volume of my Aero Rangers stories, will be available for purchase Aug 1, 2023. check out the cover on Ellipis website!
I will arrend Austin's wn Armadillo con on Aug 4.

At last there is Joy in Mudville. After a very long dry spell I am seeing progress on one of my stories. The Trogs of Paris are on the march! Ideas are flowing, research reaches a fever pitch. I sure hope it works out.
DRW

Well, here it is, January 1 of 2023. We have made it thus far.
So the good news, I have heard from my publisher/editor and we're about to do some final editing and arranging the script. So Maybe, just Maybe we will have a published book by the end of this year. Of course that means I'll have to dive into publicizing Aero Rangers I, Tunguska Terror, so people can buy it. I have never been very good at self promotion... that will be another learning process.
In the meanwhile, I've been helping a fellow author clean up their new manuscript... it looks very promising, but said author wants it Just Right. I will be digging into that script this afternoon, in hopes of finding any inelegant prose. That's a pleasant way to wind down from the stresses of the season.
And the stresses have been exceptional, with the oncology clinic having breakdowns with their radio therapy machine, which have put me behind a bit on my treatments. That's bad enough, but my younger brother in Oregon just had to choose the holiday season for a life threatening ruptured appendix, which landed him in hospital. Fortunately, he seems to be on the mend, but such things at a distance create quite a stir. He's bored to tears in the hospital, resulting in many long telephone calls to sister Barbara and to me, at least an hour and a half every day on the phone, often with a follow-up from Barbara. I am considering having a phone simply grafted to the side of my face, to make things a bit easier.
Anyway, that's my situation on the First of the New Year. I am looking forward to getting the first of the Aero Rangers complete and formatted for publication. If Tunguska Terror sells and the publisher is willing, I will get busy preparing Aero Rangers II, for publication. It's a long road, but one has to start somewhere.
Looking forward to better days. DRW/Iolo

July 10: I have started negotiations with my computer literate brother Paul to cobble together a web page for my Aero Rangers I stories. I'm hoping to see real progress on that in a week or two.
Meanwhile, I've dug out the footnotes originally prepared for Aero Rangers I (Tunguska Terror) Unfortunately the file is badly out of date, some stuff is just plain missing and the chapter numbers don't line up anymore, so I'll be correcting the notes over the next few days. Needless to say, if we end up trimming or eliminating chapters in the editing process, things will have to be done over, but the notes really are in a sorry state and most of what I do now should carry over into the completed script.
Eventually we'll have to decide if the footnotes go to the bottom of the page or end of each chapter. For the electronic version, we should be able to embed the notes directly in the text... click and read. That will be convenient.
Writing a narrative is lots more fun than the fiddly bits of getting everything organized, but sadly it's still an important part of the business. So back to the salt mines, we go. More later. DRW

Well, the Summer Solstice is upon us, and another week has fled. The good news is, artist Eldon Cowgur has delivered two exciting concept sketches for the cover. Now I have to decide on one of those and set him loose with pencils, pens and arcane drawy-stuff. It promises to be perfectly wonderful... and no, you can't have a peek. It will all be unveiled when Aero Rangers I, Tunguska Terror is released. But I assure you it's gonna be Verra-Cool. DRW/Aero Rangers.

May 30: wherein our Hero runs off at the keyboard again.

Observations on Writing.

One of the most common questions writers get is 'where do your ideas come from." Followed by "I have an idea, how 'bout you write it down and we'll split the proceeds?"
No, I can't use your idea. Ideas are the easy part. It's getting the story down in a coherent form that's hard. Any writer who doesn't have a bunch of ideas may be technically competent, but they're no story teller.
Do you plot everything ahead of time, or just dive into writing?
To write stories you have to learn to daydream in sequence, then write the dreams down. There seem to be two distinct tribes of writers:
a. Outliners, who get the story line all worked out, then start writing.
b. Seat of the Pantsers start with a vague story idea and some idea where the narrative will end up. After a certain indeterminate period of rsearch, Pantsers dive in and start writing.
Research note: At some point, every writer must finish with the research and Start Writing. You don't have to know everything for the first draft anyway. So don't let endless research keep you from the story. All writers sometimes get blindsided by relevlations, so even the most rigid Outliners have to be flexible about eventual outcome. I am very much a pantser, though if I don't know the subject well, I will do a lot of research before actually beginning the narrative. During the research period, a lot of ideas get stirred into a big pot. If I am forced to do more research, there's more time for ideas to trickle down into the mix. And remember, you don't have to know Everything about a subject: just enough to write a convincing story.
The great advantage/disadvantage to writing pure fantasy lies in the freedom to create. The downside is having to make up Everything, or at least borrow ideas from elsewhere after filing off the serial numbers. If your creation isn't convincing, your readers will let you know.
If you're writing historical/alternative history/ fantasy, you get the enjoyment of making stuff up, but the historical details have to match reality... within certain limits. My sword and sorcery stories happen in a fantasy world based on Italian/Greek Renaissance society. Over the years, I have read lots of sword/sorcery and have my particular preferences. The four Giocco/Isabel stories reflect my preferences and prejudices. I can avoid irritating mistakes made by other authors, substituting my own errors in their place.
My five Aero Rangers stories take place at historical junctures... with a twist of Things that Go Bump in the Night. The historical stuff has to make sense.
There's plenty of ripping adventure in our history as a starting point. Sadly public schools make an effort to drain all the blood out before the adventure of history soils the children's minds. Real history doesn't present a lot of nicely wrapped tales of good-guys vs. bad-guys, but it's much more interesting.
So where do I find interesting characters... and can I be in your story? Fortunately good storybook actors are everywhere: historical characters, people in the news, folks you meet on the street. Though I hesitate to use friends outright (friends can be offended if you dwell on less admirable traits) Mostly I change names and mix traits. One of my fencing buddies showed up in my first story: his strengths and foibles made a wonderful character. I'm not sure Abe ever forgave me. Then there was a gravel-voiced mechanic from my local garage... an unpolished gem of a man who informed Edmund Tailor in Aero Rangers tales. On one of my journeys I stopped for gas in East Texas, to encounter one of the prettiest women I've ever met, standing behind the register. I stole her away for Cassi, in Sorcerer's Daughter.
Occasionally a friend asks to be included in a story... that's rather more difficult. I need people who naturally fit the tale I'm telling. My friend may not fit anywhere, except as victim. One of my writer friends actually killed off a whole group at one go... at their request. It was a glorious death. The easiest way to include friends is as NPCs in a tavern or crowd scene. The tavern scene usually satisfieds most requests without too much collateral damage...perhaps that's why every fantasy story must have at least one tavern scene.
That should do for now. More later. DRW

As I was saying: or was i? Oh yeah: So I've been writing stories for about 20 years, and have finished 9 novels, with two unfinished that may or may not see completion. Which is to say, they're kinda stuck.
At least I now have a publisher (Ellipsis Press, in UK) for the first of my adventure stories (Aero Rangers I, Tunguska Terror) Assuming things don't go off the rails like they did before, we should see Tunguska in print (probably initially e-book) about the end of the year (2022)
So here's the backstory on Aero Rangers. About 30 years ago, I had an idea for a series of illustrations of classic 1920s-30s aircraft in action against unlikely opponents... Airship USS Macon off Catalina Island, beset by fire dragons, British Hawker Hind bombers attempt to defend sight-seers on Loch Ness, Chinese attack aircraft over Peking, (Curtiss A-12s) defend against a Japanese Godzilla column... Yeah, that sort of stuff. King Kong would fit right in, but he's copyright already.
I mentioned the idea to my engineer brother. He said "what you want is a computer game, where you fly the planes and fight monsters." He was right of course. Fortunately I had friends working for Origin Games in Austin. I broached the idea to a senior designer, who agreed the concept was promising, but assured me home computers were not yet up to the necessary cool graphics. He said wait a few years.
So I waited a few years and raised the question again. My friend said. That would be an expensive game to produce, and honestly anybody with the funds is making multiple player online games." I was very disappointed.
Then about 15 years ago, when I had been writing sword and sorcery stories for a few years, I decided to give my airplanes and dragons concept a go.
In fact, I had just submitted the last/best of my sword/sorcery to a Big Name Agent, recommended by a friend in the business. Along with Sorcerer's Daughter, I sent the first couple of chapters of Tunguska Terror. Big Agent told me what was wrong with my medieval fantasy, and gave good hints for fixing it (He was right, dammit, and after the fix, Sorcerer was much better. But I was getting tired of sword and sorcery, and wanted to move on to Aero Rangers.
Big Agent admitted Tunguska Terror had possibilities, but he didn't like 'pulp' stories, and couldn't peddle stuff he didn't like. He also told me 'Pulp' was a dirty word in the business, and I should never label my stuff as pulp. So instead, I write Ripping Yarns, never pulp.
At this point, there are 5 complete Aero Rangers tales (about 90K words each) with two more incomplete, and I have a sympathetic publisher.
I'll tell more about my publishing mis adventures in another log. I'll sign off for now. DRW.

Well here I am, making my first post to Dreamwidth: In future, I'll begin writing about my efforts to get my stories published.