What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? I began writing my outline in late January 2021 (BELOW) and began Chapter 1 around mid-February 2021. I took a slightly different drafting approach than I had with my first novel. Instead of poring over endless drafts, trying to get every word right before sending it to my developmental editor (Jennifer ColIins), wrote as strong of a second draft as I could then sent it to her. My thought was that if I was going to end up changing substantial aspects of the plot and characters anyway, I may save time by avoiding needless drafts.
Turns out, I did need substantial changes. After making them, I then sent the manuscript to my copy/line editor for several rounds of sculpting and re-shaping, before finally sending it to my proofreader. She in turn pointed out not just the normal spelling and grammar mistakes, but a few plot holes my editors and I had both missed. This step was invaluable. I made the last writing corrections around the end of February 2022, about thirteen months after I first began.
Click on the link below to read about Jennifer Collins.
https://stokercon2022.sched.com/whitewavedarling
Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail. And can you please include a photo? Unlike my first novel, where I wrote 90% of it at my computer desk at home, I took a completely different approach with Dead Reckoning. Many times, I couldn’t seem to concentrate in the solitude and quietness at home. I had the house to myself most days and had no pets at the time. I began a habit of stuffing my laptop into its case and driving to one of a collection of bookstores, libraries, coffee chops, and restaurants around town. I quickly took to appreciating sliding into a booth at a favorite breakfast or lunch spot, grabbing a table at my local Barnes & Noble café, even choosing the bustling activity of my favorite sports bar at times to get a writing session in.
It’s called Cafe Vino Tinto, a cool indoor-outdoor coffee shop located in Safety Harbor, Florida (between Clearwater and Tampa). Like many of the cozy town’s businesses, it is a converted old style bungalow.”
It may seem counter-intuitive, but I discovered that the ambient (and sometimes raucous) noise and activity around me helped the creative process. I think it fed my muse. When I did write at home, I wrote almost exclusively from my living room recliner. Although I don’t have photos of the many businesses I wrote at outside my home, see the attached photo of my home ‘writing desk.’ (BELOW)
What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? As mentioned previously, I found that being around people in social settings worked well for me at times. Whether at home or about, I appreciated having music or a television on low volume in the background. I found that eating while I wrote was too distracting, however drinking coffee or even a cold beer at times, helped me stay in my writing zone.
I wrote about 25% of the book from desktop computers and 75% from my laptop. I wrote at all times of the day or night, since my full-time job hours are 7pm-7am and on rotating days. Since this schedule has me constantly flipping between being a normal human and a vampire, it really depended on whether I’d worked the night before. Some days I wouldn’t start writing until late afternoon or early evening. Others, I’d be rested in early morning and start fresh then. Either way, my most productive time of day for my muse was, and still is, from early morning to early afternoon. Funny thing was, during the editing phases I began to see the pattern of good writing (done in the mornings) and at times some pretty bad writing (likely done at night).
Please include just one excerpt and include page numbers as reference. This one excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.
His brain shut down amid the horror unfolding
before him, the unimaginable occurring now when just minutes before he had been sleeping peacefully with his siblings, his parents in the next room slumbering as well, all his hopes and dreams he’d held onto since as long as he could remember swirling inside his mind.
He didn’t see much else that happened after that, nor did he need to. He heard enough. His mother’s miserable wails, his father’s dying moans, as the shooting continued. And then his sisters’ and brother’s cries for mercy stopping one at a time, each synchronized with the blast of a gun, until only the crackling sound of the fire coming from the house remained, and with it the acrid smell of smoke, as the whole of the West End burned like hell on earth. (p.53)
Click on the link below to order DEAD RECKONING from Amazon
Why is this excerpt so emotional for you as a writer to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific excerpt? I believe it constitutes the entire impetus for the story. The character in the passage is a young Black boy who has just witnessed the murder of his entire family, at the hands of a white mob bent on vigilante justice. This experience drives him toward his own sense of perverted justice and puts into motion the plot for the rest of the book. It was an emotional scene for me to write since I could empathize with the boy. He was already living under the heavy hand of Jim Crow, then the only world he knew was turned upside down in the space of just a few minutes. I grew up experiencing some prejudice due to my skin color, but it was nothing compared to what the character had to deal with. It gave me more appreciation for what people of color truly had to deal with during the Jim Crow era.
Click on the link below to read about the Jim Crow era.
https://library.law.howard.edu/civilrightshistory/blackrights/jimcrow
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. Yes. My line editor (Jason Pettus) suggested I cut the original passage down almost by half. The result is something that says the same thing but is much more concise and is devoid of a needless image of the character’s past. It keeps the reader more grounded in the moment. Like many areas of my early drafts, the reduction of this passage highlights something my copy editor pointed out: that just because something is well-written, it doesn’t always belong in the story. As in many cases throughout the book, I agreed with him here. You can compare the photo of the marked-up version to the finished excerpt above in question 4 and see how cutting nearly half the original passage gives a shorter, more impactful paragraph.
Click on link to read about Jason Pettus
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/908505.Jason_Pettus
Jacob Moon was born and raised in Minneapolis, Minnesota. At 15, he moved with his family to St. Petersburg, Florida where he graduated high school. Soon after, he enlisted in the army and was stationed to the 25th Infantry Division, Schofield Barracks, Hawaii, where he served for three years.
Moving to Clearwater, Florida where he currently lives, he went on to a twenty-six year career as a corrections officer at a large county jail. There, he worked mostly as a supervisor in the medical/psychiatric area of the jail.
A life-long reader, Jacob enjoys many different genres, particularly historical (fiction and non-fiction), suspense/thrillers, horror/supernatural, and classics.
He began writing fiction as an early teen, inspired by classic and modern horror novelists. Through the years, his range of writing interests evolved to include mainstream, suspense/thrillers, humor, and historical fiction. His first published short story, ‘Knocking Them Down,’ was published in the #32 edition of the British horror magazine Morpheus Tales. His most notable publication credit is his short story ‘Seven Generals,’ based on one of his real-life army experiences, was published in the March 29, 2019 edition of The Saturday Evening Post.
He is the divorced father of two adult children.
In his forties, Jacob turned to writing longer works. The results so far have been ‘Furlough,’ a crime thriller, and ‘Dead Reckoning,’ a supernatural suspense thriller. Both were self-published.
When he is not writing, Jacob enjoys watching sports, and is a faithful fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning, Tampa Bay Rays, and Minnesota Vikings. He plays in an adult amateur ice hockey league, admittedly not nearly at high a level as he did as a teen. In recent years he has learned to play guitar–acoustic mostly– and although he enjoys singing along to his wide-ranging titles, he does not profess to do so well. He has also taken up traveling to various cities across the country to see his favorite sports teams play. A foodie at heart, he loves cuisines from around the world. And ice cold beer.
Most of the INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links can be found at the very end of the below feature:
http://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2021/03/stephenson-holts-arranged-marriage-is.html
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