The Story that Almost Didn’t Get Finished
kosmo - See all 471 of my articles
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My latest story, The Cell Window, took six weeks to finish. Key Relationships (the main story from The Fiction of Kosmo Volume 1 – roughly the same length as The Cell Window) took about ten days to complete, so I assumed I was setting aside plenty of time when I began writing a full month in advance of my projected publication date. I never dreamed that I would miss the date by two weeks. (one of the nice things about being the Editor-in-Chief is that nobody breathes down my neck when I miss a deadline)
So, what happened? I try to avoid uses excuses too often, but I’m making this an “all excuses” edition of The Soap Boxers, just for kicks.
- I have been fighting off a few different illnesses. In August, I contracted the stomach flu twice. For the month of October, I have been dealing with a sinus infection that just won’t go away. I’m on the second treatment of antibiotics – hopefully this will do the trick. Needless to say, a sick Kosmo is a Kosmo who doesn’t feel like writing. None of this stuff was particularly severe, but still enough to hamper creativity a bit.
- In the last month, my two year old daughter had decided that she doesn’t want to go to be at eight o’clock; preferring eight thirty or nine o’clock instead. This effectively cuts my writing time in half, as I often use the 8-10 PM block to write.
- I really, really wanted to read Dan Brown’s The Lost Symbol and get a review up quickly. Alas, that hasn’t happened quite yet, although I am about 70% of the way through the book.
- My Rockies made the playoffs! There was important October baseball to watch. My Rockies have made the playoffs three times in seventeen years – so Rockies playoff games will push a lot of things to the back burner.
- Issues related to the blog took up some time. Some other writers were also dealing with illnesses and were unable to meet timelines, meaning that I had to write more in order to fill in the gaps. Obviously, I’m not faulting them for this – it was completely beyond their control. There was a sudden unilateral parting of the ways with another writer that caused a gap. I wrote several articles to fill this gap, while also taking the time to line up some new writers to fill this spot.
- Finally, I backed myself into a bit of a corner. Typically, when I write, I rough out a plot, suggesting several larger scenes. I use these as benchmarks during the writing process. I know that on the way from point A to point Z, I’ll hit D, J, T, and X. Along the way, there will be a lot of “connector” material. I can’t simply skip from high point to high point – there must be a natural flow to the story. I skip around a lot during the writing process. I’ll write point J and then perhaps write the connector material between points X and Z. In the case of The Cell Window, I wrote too many of the main scenes first. Effectively, I ate all of the dessert first and left myself with a plate of veggies. This made the second half of the work much harder. Lesson learned – leave some good parts for later!
So, what does the future hold, as far as fiction?
- First, I have a rough idea of the story for next quarter. I’m not waiting until I have a mere month before the deadline this time around! The working title is If the Walls Could Talk. I doubt that will be the final title, as I’m not a big fan of it. Anyway, the story will features stories-within-a-story, as the owner of a B&B reminisces about some of the past guests and their experiences. The B&B featured in the book will be Buckingham Place. If this sounds familiar (other than the reference to Buckingham PALACE), it’s because Hayley and Mike in Key Relationships stayed at this B&B.
- Also, I am finally beginning work on my novel. Its working title will be Casting Stones. I AM a big fan of that title, so there is a strong chance the book will retain the title. Casting Stones will be a murder mystery that follow a detective named Brooke as she attempts to catch a serial killer. I don’t want to share many more details at this point, because most of the details that I have figured out would be huge spoilers and give away a ton of the plot. Considering the other irons that are currently in the fire, I would be very surprised if I finish Casting Stones in less than two years. I do NOT plan to make this available on the web – I actually intend to find a publisher. Obviously, that’s a long shot, but it’s what I’m aiming for.
http://www.thesoapboxers.com/the-story-that-almost-didn%e2%80%99t-get-finished/
Member Exclusive: The Cell Window
kosmo - See all 471 of my articles
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Note: This story is very different than last quarter’s story, Key Relationships. The Cell Window depicts adult situations and crimes against women. You may find this story a bit disturbing. You have been warned …. The New Recruit Duncan made a quick test call to verify that the phone was operational. The phone chirped out [...]
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All That Glitters Isn’t Gold
kosmo - See all 471 of my articles
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Recently, I have noticed a lot of advertisements for coins on TV and in magazines. Casual observers should be able to determine that many of these coins will never have any substantial value. If you really think those Derek Jeter coins (the most hits ever by a Yankee!) are going to fund your retirement plan, [...]
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Football, Kiosks, and More
kosmo - See all 471 of my articles
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Football in Iowa This past weekend was a great weekend for the two largest state universities in Iowa. My alma mater, Iowa State University, traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska to face Johnny Goodman’s Huskers. ISU’s program has fallen on hard times recently – or, more accurately, regressed back to the mean after several strong seasons under [...]
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Scrap The BCS
Johnny Goodman - See all 53 of my articles
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We are entering that great time of year when the end all of end all college football arguments just starts to heat up. That’s right, the BCS talk. A plethora of one undefeated teams still remain. A lot of great one loss teams are out there. The conference match-ups are starting to hit full bore [...]
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Custom Stories
kosmo - See all 471 of my articles
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This blog has been live for over a year. In the last 6+ months, I have shared many fiction stories with you – roughly thirty thousand words! At this point, no reader has been charged even a penny for anything that had been published on the site. This will continue to be the case, with [...]
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HSBC Again …
kosmo - See all 471 of my articles
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As mentioned earlier, we recently canceled our HSBC card after yet another problem. Yesterday, we received a letter in the mail discussing these problems. One passage in particular jumped out at me. Note: the errors in grammar, usage, and punctuation are those of the original writer. “… With regard to the fraud alert placed on your [...]
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Canadian Current Events
Tyson Turner - See all 11 of my articles
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News Items of the Week Toronto Maple Leafs winless in first seven games, panic ensues It’s likely no secret that the Leafs are Canada’s most popular hockey team. They sell out most arenas all over North America, and often times draw louder cheers than the home team. But it has been a rough few years, [...]
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Apple and Microsoft
kosmo - See all 471 of my articles
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How Do You Like Them AAPLs? If you had bought shares of Apple Computer (AAPL) in July of 1997, you would have paid $13 per share. At the close of the trading day on Thursday, shares of Apple were worth more than $200. Certainly, having an investment return fifteen times your original outlay twelve years later is a great return [...]
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Johnny’s Picks
Johnny Goodman - See all 53 of my articles
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Thanks all for hanging in there with me as I missed last week … Johnny G has more important matters to attend to … like starting a chemo treatments to battle Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. But enough of the bad news, lets concentrate on Football this week. Last Week: Straight Up – 15-5 ATS: 14-6 For the [...]
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Writers for The Soap Boxers are freelance writers who work as independent contractors. Opinions expressed by the writers may not necessarily reflect the opinion of management.
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