On the Verge...

Huh. I had a post in here I started about a month and a half ago but never came back to finish it...how terrible of me. It was about the critique group I've joined. Well, tonight I'm meeting up with them for the 3rd time. Guess that should tell you that I'm getting something out of it.

About the group: I'm a bit of a stand-out in the group. The stuff I'm writing is different in scope and content (obviously) but I'm also the youngest in the group (at a spritely 31) and I'm the only guy there as well. I had reservations about joining a group of women who might (or might not) have different goals than me, but I've quickly tossed those thoughts away once I got to know them. They'll all very nice, but all very honest and quick to tell me what stuff works and doesn't work with my book.

Oh...I should mention this: We meet every other week (I missed last week) and we bring an excerpt or a short story that we're working on. Instead of just handing it to people for them to read on their own, we just read it right there in front of each other...out loud. It was a bit strange for me, since I don't usually read my stuff aloud, but I gotta admit: it's very helpful. I can hear what parts of my story work or don't work. Also, I can get a sense of my 'audience's' reaction to what I'm reading. Pretty exciting stuff.

From what I can tell, all of the women in my group seem to dig the adventures of Travis & his Magic Sandbox. They've told me (and I hope they're not just being nice) that it's only a matter of time before I'm published. You hear that editors and agent types? Strike while the iron is hot.

One woman told me that she mentioned the premise of my book to a friend or two and they were both like: That sounds fantastic. I want to read it! Hey ladies, I want you to read it to. I want everyone to read it.

So anyway, I'm meeitng with them again tonight. I keep trying to pull different excerpts from book one to entice them to ask me if they can read the whole thing. Maybe that's a critique group no-no. I'm not sure.

As for new and exciting book-writing...

I'm on the verge of starting Book 3. It's been over a year since I've written anything new and honestly, I feel like an empty sack of garbage for letting it take so long. Sure, I've got excuses (the whole firefighting/EMT training this past year) but I still need to get back on the horse and get to work on the newest Travis book. I need to get it going and hopefully roughed out before year's end, since I'm losing my office. More on that, later...

In the meantime, here's a picture of the hero of my books, drawn by a friend of mine from work named Teddy. This is from Book 2, in case you're wondering what's on his hand.