My “Autumn Round” Goals

The “Autumn Round” of ROW80 is finally here!  I’ve had this date marked on my calendar for over a month now, waiting for this day to come so I could re-start a new round of words.  The “Summer Round” didn’t go as smoothly as I’d expected it would, as I “crashed-and-burned” halfway through the round.  Not sure exactly what caused it, but one skipped post led to another, and before I knew it I was finding it more and more difficult to jump back into the rhythm of writing and posting.  I had been faithfully posting to this blog twice a week, every week, since February, but in mid-August I faltered.  For whatever reason, I stumbled and fell, and for the remainder of the round, I just laid there on the warm ground, exhausted and dispirited.  But part of falling down is getting back up.  This blog post is my attempt of getting myself up and into the flow of writing consistently again.  With the beginning of this fourth round, I can start anew.

My “Autumn Round” Goals
Here is a quick overview of my ROW80 (Round 4) Goals.  During this round, I plan on writing 80,000 words towards my “Sword & Sorcery” novel.  A thousand words a day may sound ambitious, especially after my “Summer Round” debacle, but I think I can do it this round due to my previous success with completing NaNoWriMo last year, which I’m also participating in this year (My NaNo Page).  If I can do the 50,000 words in the month of November, then what’s another 30,000 words during the 80-day round?  A thousand words-per-day average seems doable under these conditions, so I’m going with 80,000 words in 80-days.  For the month of October, I will be working on my story-outline in preparation for November.  I have a single story-idea that I’ve been working on and want to see this story to completion.  Last year’s NaNoWriMo was an exercise in world-building, where I came up with a lot of story-ideas for my “Sword & Sorcery” universe as I just let my imagination run wild.  But this year I intend to actually focus on one story, which is the original purpose of this particular writing challenge.  After the madness of NaNo, I should have a 50,000 word first-draft (mess).  I plan on writing and editing my novel after November up until the last day of Round 4, which this year falls of the Eve of Christmas Eve.  I will, of course, be documenting my progress here on this blog twice a week, which is also part of my goal of discipline and accountability.  My blog posts may be shorter due to the workload, and may not include the usual excerpts of past posts, but they will be focused on my actual writing progress and they will come regularly twice a week.  I’ll go into more detail in my Wednesday blog-post, so I’ll continue this conversation there…

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

An Automaton on Autopilot

Here’s my ROW80 (Round 3) weekend update.  As I’ve mentioned in my last post, I’ve been trying to maximize the productivity of my story-crafting time during the work-week, as I work forty-hours a week at a “regular job” and only have a few hours to spend on it each evening.  Often times at work, I find myself daydreaming about my story-world; my mind drifting into those fantastical realms of my imagination while my body does the monotonous work before me as if it were an automaton on autopilot.  My employer and coworkers see only my quiet dedication to the task at hand, praising my strong work-ethic and high production output.  Little do they know that I’m just “going through the motions” while my mind is off in another world.  Ironically, I do my best imagining while at work and wish I were home writing during those times.  It would seem that my creativity is most active in the mornings, especially after the first cup of coffee has kicked in.  I find myself planning and plotting and sneaking notes into my mobile app, eagerly awaiting those few hours I have planned for myself that evening.  Some days, this anticipation is the only thing that gets me through the workday.  Yet, despite my best intentions, my evening writing sessions haven’t been going as planned lately.  Over the past few weeks, my writing output has decreased significantly.  This is somewhat due to work fatigue, but mostly it’s just me wasting a lot of valuable writing-time doing “story-research” on the Internet.  Being that I only have about ten hours of quality writing time each work-week and about eight hours during the weekend, I’ve decided to do most of my “story-researching” on the Internet on the weekends, after my creative-wells have run dry.  That way, I can get the most out of my limited writing-time while also allocating the necessary research-time needed for my story-world.  To do this, I’ve create a new “sacred space” for my writing sessions.  During this work-week, I’ve been doing all of my writing away from my desktop computer (with its Internet temptation) and onto my new laptop (which I don’t use for web-surfing), which is now situated on its own dedicated workstation table.  This change in routine has been working pretty good so far this week as I have written a few random practice-scenes and have worked on the back-story of one of my heroines.  This change has been good.  I’ve also started doing a lot more outlining on graph-paper and have compiled a few more character sheets in the process.  I enjoy writing with pencil and paper sometimes, especially as I’m lying in bed, scratching out ideas before the clock tells me its bedtime again.  After all, its a workday tomorrow, and I need to get plenty of rest so I can “go through the motions” again while daydreaming at work.

Conan had entered the part of the city reserved for the temples.  On all sides of him they glittered white in the starlight — snowy marble pillars and golden domes and silver arches, shrines of Zamora’s myriad strange gods.  He did not trouble his head about them; he knew that Zamora’s religion, like all things of civilized, long-settled people, was intricate and complex, and had lost most of the pristine essence in a maze of formulas and rituals.  He had squatted for hours in the courtyards of the philosophers, listening to the arguments of theologians and teachers, and come away in a haze of bewilderment, sure of only one thing; that they were all touched in the head.  His gods were simple and understandable; Crom was their chief, and he lived on a great mountain, whence he sent forth doom and death.  It was useless to call on Crom, because he was a gloomy, savage god, and he hated weaklings.  But he gave a man courage at birth, and the will and might to kill his enemies, which, in the Cimmerian’s mind, was all any god should be expected to do.
— (Excerpt from The Tower of the Elephant, by Robert E. Howard)

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Creating Time and Space

I live a secret double-life.  Each workday, I dutifully trek-off to work at my "regular job", trading my limited time and valuable effort for meager wages.  I’m a chemist at a chemical-analysis lab, making bulk chemical reagents and custom standards for science industries.  My department is very profitable for the company, so management let’s us do our work in peace.  My coworkers are math-wizards, science-nerds and techo-geeks.  They’re all super-nice people, but they’re very much left-brain thinkers.  Together, we all spend the majority of the sunlit day in a climate-controlled lab doing science and stuff, until finally, the day is over and we can all go home to our real lives.  It’s a decent job as far as “regular jobs” go, and it pays the bills, but it’s not my passion.  I’m just a cog in the machine of someone else’s dream.  Each evening, I come home to my other job — my "dream job" — my fledgling authorship career job, spending what's left of the remainder of the day on story-crafting, building my empire in my spare time.  Essentially, I'm a wage-slave by day and an author-entrepreneur by night.   That’s my secret double-life.  None of my friends, family, or coworkers know of my writing ambitions or aspirations.  They’ll know someday, once I’ve actually written and published something, but until then, I just keep it to myself.  Of course, all of you in the “writers blogosphere” know my secret life.  That’s okay, I don’t mind.  You understand me.  You’re all right-brained creative types on a similar journey, so I don’t mind sharing my writing aspiration secrets with y’all. 

I wish I had more time to write during the day, especially in the mornings when I’m most creative.  My “regular job” is quiet and repetitive, so I often find myself daydreaming about my “Sword & Sorcery” story-world while I’m working; my body on autopilot while my mind is in a far-away, fantastical land.  Often times, I’m stealthily tapping my story-ideas into my mobile app while I’m pretending to work.  I can’t help it, I have a creative mind that’s always active.  In the evening of the workday, I’ve designated at least two hours of “story-crafting” time for myself, whether it be outlining, plotting, reading, researching or writing towards my story-world.  That’s the only thing that gets me through my work-week.  On the weekends, I have a lot more free time, so I try to get as much writing done as my life will allow.  Four hours is my goal for Saturdays and Sundays; more if I'm on a roll (although, my creative-well usually needs replenishing by then).  You may have noticed lately that I’ve had trouble posting Wednesday updates lately, which is either caused by work-week fatigue or by the fact that I would rather spend my limited time story-crafting instead of posting .  Posting on the weekends has been easier to accomplish for me lately, so I haven’t missed any yet, although this one is pretty late on Sunday evening.  I plan on getting back on the bi-weekly schedule soon.  We’ll see if that is the case this Wednesday, right?  It’s all about creating time for myself.

I’ve also been having trouble with my word-count goals.  My writing output has been low.  Oh, I’ve been doing plenty of planning and reading and researching, but not a lot of actual writing has been getting done lately.  I do the “butt in the seat, hands on the keyboard” routine, and usually get about a paragraph into my writing before my Inner-Editor takes me off on some research, fact-finding tangent on the Internet.  He’ll suggest that my battle scenes need more authenticity, so I’ll end up watching two-hours worth of “sword-fighting technique” YouTube videos until my bedtime comes.  Important research for sure, especially for a “Sword & Sorcery” novel (I rationalize to myself), but not a lot of actual writing has been getting done lately.  The Internet, for all it’s good, can be a time-suck.  I came up with a solution that I’m going to try next week (and beyond if it works).  I’ve decided to do all of my writing on my new laptop instead of my desktop; the difference being that I don’t do any web-surfing on my new laptop, only on my desktop.  This will remove the tempting, attractive distraction of researching while writing.  If I need to research a scene, I’ll just make a note in brackets to [research this] and continue writing.  I have Scrivener on both computers, so I share my manuscript files through Dropbox.  I cleaned off an old computer desk that I had and set it up for my laptop.  This way, when I do my “butt in the seat, hands on the keyboard” routine, I won’t have any excuse or distractions from actually writing.  I’ve created for myself a creative space exclusively for writing.  Creating time and space.  You see what I did there?  Just like the blog title. =)

Steel flashed and the throng surged wildly back out of the way.  In their flight they knocked over the single candle and the den was plunged into darkness, broken by the crash of upset benches, drums of flying feet, shouts, oaths of people tumbling over one another, and a single strident yell of agony that cut the din like a knife.  When the candle was relighted, most of the guests had gone out by doors and broken windows, and the rest huddled behind stacks of wine-kegs and under tables.  The barbarian was gone; the center of the room deserted except for the gashed body of the Kothian.  The Cimmerian, with the unerring instinct of the barbarian, had killed his man in the darkness and confusion.
— (Excerpt from The Tower of the Elephant, by Robert E. Howard)

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

A Quick Overview

Here’s my ROW80 (Round 3) weekend update.  I’ve made some great story-crafting progress this week, especially as it pertains to one of my major villains, but more on that in a minute.  First, I want to give you a quick overview of where my “Sword & Sorcery” story-world is in its development so far.  Keep in mind that everything at this point is in the conceptual-stage of development; constantly evolving and ever changing. 

Note: A [bracketed word] means that the idea is conceptual, or that it is yet unnamed. 

All my “Sword & Sorcery” stories take place on an “Alternate-Earth” type planet.  This [World] was three main continents, each separated by vast treacherous seas.  These continents are the [Civilized Continent], the [Wild Continent], and the [Mystical Continent]. 

• The [Civilized Continent] has beautiful cities, rival kingdoms, and competing nations.  Don’t let the name fool you, it can be anything but civilized.  It is steeped in history as it contains the majority of the population of the [World].  Magic is feared and forbidden here.  All magic and monsters have been purged from the land long ago, after the [Great Arcane War].  

• The [Wild Continent] resides on the farthest outskirts of the trading routes of the [Civilized Continent], untamed and mostly undiscovered.  It has some ancient outposts along the coastlines, but they have long been claimed by jungle overgrowth.  This is a very primitive land inhabited by dangerous wild creatures and great beasts.  Survival is the law of the land here. 

• The [Mystical Continent] resides on the other side of the [World], cloaked in mystical fog and mystery.  It hosts the [World]’s oldest history, with ancient ruins and magical secrets located throughout this enchanted and accursed land.  It is sparsely populated with reclusive sorcerers, arcane cultists and remnant monstrosities.

There are several reasons why I wanted my story-world to be unified on one planet, yet separated by locations.  By separating locations, I have created for myself an “ultimate sandbox” to play in, leaving open all the story-possibilities that I want to tell.  On the [Civilized Continent], I can write classically-styled heroic fantasy.  On the [Wild Continent], I can write action-adventure fantasy.  And on the [Mystical Continent], I can write "fantaisie-noir".  All vary in tone, mood and style.  I unified my story-world on one planet because I wanted to leave open the possibility of shared history or maybe even a world-battle, but for now, each location will have there own unique characters and situations.  I have considered a few cross-over characters, like the [Mariner], the [Mercenary], and the [Scribe], but that won’t happen until I get further in a series. 

My “Sword & Sorcery” product-line will consist on three major series; an [Arcane Series], a [Rogue Series], and a [Warrior Series].  My sixteen story-idea threads are divided (almost) evenly between these three series.  Many are stand-alone stories, but some have potential for trilogies.  Scattered within are twenty-seven main characters and twenty villains.  Of them, I have a few candidates for “legendary status”, meaning these characters are my favorites, will have multiple adventures, and will represent my heroic fantasy franchise.  No “Sword & Sorcery” franchise would be complete without a least one Conan-esque hero, so my [Warrior Series] has one.  My [Legendary Hero] is just as strong and skilled with the sword, but is more fully-clothed (most of the time).  My [Warrior Series] also has an Amazon-like heroine I’ve dubbed the [Monster Huntress].  Yes, she hunts monsters.  In my [Rogue Series], my franchise character is the [Mercenary].  Others in this series may share in his action-adventures, but they are all under-developed so far, so I haven’t decided on their status yet.  My [Arcane Series] franchise characters are the [Grand Magister] and the [Arcane Warrior], who are both sorcerer-warriors (think sword-master, martial-artist and Jedi-master combined) battling the [Arch-Sorcerer] and his [Acolytes] for control of forbidden magic and power supremacy.  I’m still working on the magic-system. 

Which brings me to the major villain I mentioned at the top of this post.  For the past couple of days, I’ve been obsessed with one of the lesser-developed villains in my [Arcane Series].  His conceptual name is the [Savant] and he has great magical super-powers that I’m not yet ready to reveal.  But let’s just say that his unique talents are sought by both rival factions, and that he is a danger to himself and to others if his powers aren’t safely harnessed and properly controlled.  The [Arch-Sorcerer] villain secretly takes an interest in his talents and has sinister plans for him in the future.  All I can tell you now is that he will have a profound affect on many characters and plots in my [Arcane Series].  He is my “fallen hero” and the first I’ve developed with a negative character-arc.  Exciting stuff!  More details later.

Against the background of somber, primitive forest she posed with an unconscious picturesqueness, bizarre and out of place.  She should have been posed against a background of sea clouds, painted masts, and wheeling gulls.  There was the color of the sea in her wide eyes.  And that was as it should have been, because this was Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, whose deeds are celebrated in song and ballad wherever seafarers gather.
— (Excerpt from, Red Nails, by Robert E. Howard)

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

Plotting and Plodding Along

Two weeks into ROW80 (Round 3) and I’m still trying to outline the various stories I have for my “Sword & Sorcery” universe.  Either time is racing by too quickly or I’m just a slow writer (maybe both, probably neither).  Actually, I’ve learned some valuable lessons about story-crafting this week.  I’ve learned that outlining is a whole different mindset from idea-creation.  Up until now, I’ve let my Muse run wild in the wilderness so that she can freely create fascinating characters and situations for my story-world.  She has done a wonderful job so far and I thank her for that.  It’s always best to keep my Muse and my Inner-Editor separated from each other if any story-crafting is to get done.  My Inner-Editor doesn’t play nicely with her, so I keep him locked away in a dark cage while she’s frolicking in the sunshine.  But now that I have a few basic characters and story-ideas, I need to take the next step and give them story structure.  That’s where my Inner-Editor comes in.  So out from his cage comes my Inner-Editor and into the shadows hides my Muse.  It’s his job to organize my Muse’s chaotic mess of fragmented ideas and concepts and to try to put them into some sort of coherent story-telling structure.  His analytical-mind gives direction and form to her ethereal creations.  I’m learning that this process takes longer than I had expected it to take.  Whereas my Muse’s creative-mind is agile and fluid, my Inner-Editor’s analytical-mind is slow and methodical.  This probably explains my slow progress right now.  But that's okay.  That’s how it should be, I guess.  After all, outlining is one the most important aspects of story-crafting, so I can't just skim over it.  It’s the spine of my story-skeleton.  Once this outlining process is relatively complete, I will shove my Inner-Editor back into his cold, dank dungeon where he can do little harm to the creative process.  I’ll then coax my Muse out of the shadows again so that she can scamper within the boundaries of the new playground he has built for her.  So that’s where I am right now; hyper-analyzing every story possibility with my Inner-Editor.  I’ve made some good progress towards a couple of my stories this week.  Most of my previously created characters have been just standing around, waiting for their first adventure.  Well, this week, my Inner-Editor has giving one of my main characters purpose.  This hero has been matched with a worthy opponent, both of them having conflicting story-goals.  Knowing the opposition has made structuring his first story easier.  I’m still trying to decide on the main dramatic situation and possible subplots, but I’ve made headway with this particular character.  I’ll detail that progress more in my next post.

His eyes swept the blood-stained ranks, seeking expressions of wrath or jealousy.  He saw none.  The fury was gone from the ebon faces.  He realized that to these men Bêlit was more than a woman; a goddess whose will was unquestioned.  He glanced at the Argus, wallowing in the crimson sea-wash, heeling far over, her decks awash, held up by the grappling-irons.  He glanced at the blue-fringed shore, at the far green hazes of the ocean, at the vibrant figure which stood before him; and his barbaric soul stirred within him.  To quest these shining blue realms with that white-skinned young tiger-cat — to love, laugh, wander and pillage — “I’ll sail with you,” he grunted, shaking the red drops from his blade.
— (Excerpt from, Queen of the Black Coast, by Robert E. Howard)

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

It's All Coming Together

I’d say that the first week of ROW80 (Round 3) has been relatively productive, as I’ve made a few breakthroughs in previous story-ideas, and I've added a new hero and story-arc to my list of potential works.  So far, within my “sword & sorcery” story-world, I have sixteen different story-ideas that I’ve been working on, each with their own unique characters and conflicts.  Some of these story-ideas are more developed than others, having obvious plot progression and climax resolution, while others are nothing more than scene-ideas or story-fragments; partial aspects of a grander story, possibly with epic trilogy potential.  Within these story-ideas, I have developed over twenty-seven main characters and nearly twenty villains, each with unique personalities based on various heroic (and villainous) archetypes.  The possibilities, thus far, have been endless, which has been both a blessing and burden.  I am thankful to my Muse for these story-ideas and characters, yet pairing the correct character with the correct story has been quite a challenge.  I’m constantly evaluating whether or not the character I have in one story might be better suited for a different story, and vice versa.  And thus, the aforementioned breakthrough.  I had been struggling with a few of my stories because my characters were mismatched for the story I wanted to tell.  By swapping two main characters and splitting-off a third into a new character type, I was able to pair them all up correctly to their proper stories.  Now, these stories feel right.  You may be thinking, “Sixteen stories?  C’mon man, pick a story and write it already.  Focus, dude!”  Yeah, I know, my Inner-Editor says the same thing all the time.  I wish it were that easy.  These stories are still in their discovery phase, meaning all of the “What If” scenarios have yet to be fully explored.  I may eventually combine many of these characters and plots, so I don’t want to commit to any one of them fully right now.  Instead, I will develop these story-threads separately, treating them as character-studies within simple plot-structures that may be woven into a larger story someday.  I’ll have to see where these stories take me.  Some may be origin stories for some of my legendary characters, so I’m also trying to keep that in mind as I write.  For instance, some of the story-ideas have epic trilogy potential.  Those are the ones that I want to develop further.  A few of my characters will reach legendary status within my story-world, accomplishing heroic feats and eventually mentoring some of the future heroes that are yet to follow in their footsteps.  For these legendary characters, I plan on developing their complete character-arcs over three books, showing their skill progression from novice to adept to mastery.  Exciting stuff!  It’s all coming together, albeit, at a slow and steady pace.  So far, I’m happy with the progress.  Each step in my writing journey takes me closer to my authorship destination.

Conan did not see what she cast upon the fire, but the wolf whimpered in his dreams, and a green smoke gathered and billowed up into the hut.  And as he watched, the walls and ceilings of the hut seemed to widen, to grow remote and vanish, merging with infinite immensities; the smoke rolled about him, blotting out everything.  And in it, forms moved and faded and stood out in startling clarity.
— (Excerpt from The Hour of the Dragon, by Robert E. Howard)

That’s all for now.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…

ROW80 "Summer Round" Goals

The “Summer Round” of ROW80 is finally here!  Over these past few weeks, I’ve been looking forward to the resumption of this 80-day writing challenge.  July always gets me fired-up and motivated.  For me, it’s a time for reflection of the past six months and for a commitment to the six months yet to come.  The year is half over, and there is so much that needs doing before the next.  There are stories in my head that need telling.  So many stories and time’s a wasting, right?  Well, not so fast.  These stories need to be told well.  They need to be told properly so they can have the most impact and reach their fullest potential as a story.  Thus is the writer’s dilemma; to write fast and to write well.  As with any new skill, mastery will come with time, effort and patience.  I remind myself that the process is a journey, not a destination.  I just need to be in the present, to realize where I am on that journey, and to learn and grow as I move forward through the wilderness towards my potential horizons. 

Many of you know me from the previous round, but for those new to this round, I think a reintroduction of myself is in order.  I'm a (somewhat-talented) visual artist that has been sketching and drawing ever since I was able to hold a pencil in my hand.  As a boy, I'd draw epic stories in comic-book style, for hours on end, often making gruesome battlefield noises as I drew.  Writing came later in my youth, during my teenage years.  As my drawing skills improved, I wanted better stories for my comics, something other than just cool battle scenes.  So I learned to write my stories first, then draw what I wrote.  The stories were sophomoric by today’s standards, but they gave context to my drawings and added a whole new level of immersion to my art.  I'm grown now, but that boy still remains inside me, and still hopes to create that epic comic someday (or ‘graphic novel’ as they're called today), maybe after I'm financially self-sufficient.  So why have I returned to writing?  Stories, that's why.  I love reading stories, but I also love creating my own stories; stories that I can't find anywhere else; stories that only I can write.  Most profoundly, I'm drawn back to writing (as an art form) because of it's scalability.  The time and effort put into crafting a novel can repeatedly pay-off financially with every sale of that novel, over and over again, throughout one’s lifetime and beyond.  Books are intellectual property assets that can be a steady source of income.  Conversely, the time spend on one art project, let’s say a painting, only results in one financial transaction, the selling of that painting to one buyer.  With scalable income, the time and effort is spent once, but the income generated by that time and effort can continue for many years thereafter.  Hopefully, through writing novels, I can someday have the financial freedom to support my “art habit.”

So, how did I get here?  I rediscovered writing last year.  Ever since my participation in last November’s writing challenge, I have been obsessed with the prospect of becoming a “heroic fantasy” author.  During that time, I successfully wrote fifty-thousand words of story-ideas and world-building content, laying the foundation of my “Sword & Sorcery” fantasy-world.  I had intended to continue writing after the challenge, but struggled to keep the momentum going.  By chance, I discovered the “A Round of Words in 80-Days” writing challenge.  The premise of the challenge intrigued me; four “rounds” a year, each lasting eighty days, with self-set word-counts and goals, posted to a blog twice a week.  Perfect!  It was exactly what I needed; discipline and accountability.  I joined the “Spring Round” of ROW80 in March and successfully participated in it.  I set some achievable, albeit ambitious, goals for myself, hoping to write to these arbitrary word-count numbers that I had designated for myself, but that wasn’t my standard for success or failure this time around.  For the “Spring Round”, I just wanted to serendipitously experience it, to see for myself what I was capable of achieving, and to establish a baseline for future rounds.  By going this route, I assured my success so long as I wrote consistently each day and publicly reported my progress each week.  Which brings me to the present.

Goals for ROW80 (Round 3)
For the "Summer Round" of ROW80, I plan to write 60,000 words towards my “Sword & Sorcery” story-world.  This will include world-building, character development, and story-crafting.  I have several story-candidates that I want to develop further and plan on taking at least one of those story ideas to completion during that time.  I currently have fifteen story-ideas that I’m working on, each with their own characters and villains, and I’m setting-up and organizing each one so that I can work on them during this round.  Decisions will be made once I narrow my choices and work out some story issues first.  I’ll elaborate more on that in my mid-week post.  I plan on reading at least one "heroic fantasy" novel (or several short-stories) per month while I’m writing, just to keep my writing fresh and to learn from the works of other authors in my genre.  Of course, I have a lot to learn about writing, and plan to read at least one book a month on the craft of story-telling.  This is an easy goal for me as I am constantly reading about writing more than I am actually writing (which I hope to change here).  Finally, I plan to write two blog posts per week here, publicly sharing the discoveries and adventures of my writing journey. 

Excerpts
As many of you know by now, I love the “Sword and Sorcery” fantasy genre.  Every post, I try to bring to you an excerpt from the master story-tellers of that genre.  Not surprisingly, Robert E. Howard, being the originator and father of that genre, is my favorite author.  One day I hope to emulate and duplicate his story-telling prowess, but in my own style and voice, of course.  As many of you know, I usually start my post with an excerpt on the top of the post, but I’ve decided to move it to the bottom of the post instead.  Two reasons.  First, my blog posts from here show up on Google Plus with only the first few lines visible to entice the reader.  Since I promote myself and ROW80 there, I want the first words that viewers see of my posts to be my own.  Secondly, as much as I want to introduce examples of this genre to the world, I realize that it's importance is secondary to my own writing journey, which is what this blog is all about.  So, yeah, if you like the excerpts, they’ll be at the bottom of each post (see below).

“The going grew rougher, the scenery more rugged, steep grassy slopes pitching up to densely timbered mountainsides.  Here, he knew, he might elude his hunters, but for that hellish bird that squalled incessantly above him.  He could no longer see them in this broken country, but he was certain that they still followed him, guided unerringly by their feathered allies.  That black shape became like a demonic incubus, hounding him through measureless hells.  The stones he hurled with a curse went wide or fell harmless, though in his youth he had felled hawks on the wing.”
— (Excerpt from The Hour of the Dragon, by Robert E. Howard)

This post is long, so I'll end it here.  Keep the Fire Burning!
Please visit the other writers in the ROW80 Community…