New Book: Second Draft Completed

New Book: "Beatrice" - Second Draft is Complete

(Forest)

The second draft of my new book, Beatrice, is finished. This draft went from 72,000 to 76,000 words, and there are now twenty-eight chapters. As I thought, the book got bigger with each edit. That seems to be a trend.

Ever since I started this book, the ending was something that bothered me. I just wasn't sure what I would do to end it. The rest of the book had been very intricate and each chapter seemed to almost write itself, but not the ending.

I finished, but wasn't satisfied. The final chapter just didn't work. It obviously was bothering me because one night I dreamed a different ending, and that was it. I got up that night and wrote down the idea. The next morning, I was finally excited about how I would end it, and then I spent time adding and changing to make it right. I'm very pleased now. I'm going to publish the book within a couple of weeks, and then I'm going to stop writing for a while. I'm a bit burned out.

I've planned a sequel to Rooms and now Beatrice has a sequel as well. That wasn't planned from the beginning, but now I know it has to happen.

After I get Beatrice published, I'm going to concentrate only on my agent/publisher search and writing in my blog, and as I mentioned in my last post, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to enter Beatrice in this year's Amazon Breakout Novel Contest. I'm looking forward  to it.

When Beatrice is finally finished and published on Amazon, I'll let you know. I'm really looking forward to it. I think my writing is improving every day, and it will be fun to see how it does.

Also, if you haven't yet, please don't forget to check out Rooms and Wheatgrass: An Irish Fantasy on Amazon.

Tree/Moon Image from:

Forest Blue Moonlight Wallpapers.. Digital image. Travelization. N.p., 30 June 2012, Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <www.travelization.net>.

Rooms / Agent Search / Beatrice Update

Cover Illustration and Design by Greg Opalinski

Below are some of the first reviews that have come in from Amazon and Goodreads for my science fiction novel, Rooms, since it was published about three weeks ago.

*****
I started Rooms one evening and found the story line engaging and the characters interesting. The next day I picked it up again planning to read for a bit. A third of the way in I couldn't stop--reading all day until finished. The characters became more and more real. The diversity and fullness of the plot held me.

Stegner touches on many issues--environmental, political, social, moral & spiritual. In the process he has also created just a darn good story. It engaged me in ways I did not expect and left me wanting a sequel!

*****
The story line/plot found in this novel grabs you from the very beginning and holds your attention to the point you cannot put it down. It has twists and turns that will take a reader by surprise. The book highlights many important social and cultural concerns that really need to be addressed today as our world moves forward through time to an uncertain future. This novel is destined to become a movie - Order it now --- you are in for a very interesting ride through time and space.

*****
Beautiful, deep story that captures your imagination. As you read the book, more and more elements of the plot come into play. The unique feature of the book is that it is not only a story written to entertain a reader but is also a deep, wise and touching story that will make you think about the world that we live in, what it is and what should be really important in our lives.

*****
What a great ride and adventure! You see people give books reviews all the time where they say they couldn't put the book down, well don't start reading unless you want to stay up all night with this one. Excellent writing style, you really get to know and care about the characters. It also really makes you think about what if. Love it!!

To find the book on Amazon, you can click the links below.

Paperback on Amazon
Kindle eBook on Amazon

Agent Search: This has finally begun
It has taken me a long time, but I've finally started to search for an agent. I completed my agent query for Rooms and sent out six of those the other day. I'm going to try to send a few out each day. If anything happens with that, I'll let you know.

New Book: "Beatrice" - First Draft is Complete

(Forest)

The first draft of my new book, Beatrice, is finished. The completed draft is about 72,000 words. As always, when I complete the editing process, I'm sure it will be longer.

Right now, I'm just reading it through without making any changes, and I'm getting ideas about what I want to do to improve it, but I'm very happy with how it's hanging together and the story as a whole. It's fun and changes tempo and focus throughout, while telling the overall story. I'm learning my craft, one day, one page at a time!

As I've mentioned before, the climax was really fun to write, as well as the last chapter, wrapping everything up. I will publish Beatrice when I'm done on Amazon, and my catalog of books will begin to grow.

I'm pretty sure that I'm going to enter Beatrice in this year's Amazon Breakout Novel Contest. I'm looking forward  to it.

Tree/Moon Image from:

Forest Blue Moonlight Wallpapers.. Digital image. Travelization. N.p., 30 June 2012, Web. 16 Mar. 2014. <www.travelization.net>.

REVIEWS of ROOMS & Some thoughts on ROOMS and WHEATGRASS: AN IRISH FANTASY

Cover Illustration and Design by Greg Opalinski

Below are some of the first reviews that have come in from Amazon and Goodreads for my science fiction novel, Rooms, since it was published about two weeks ago.

*****
I started Rooms one evening and found the story line engaging and the characters interesting. The next day I picked it up again planning to read for a bit. A third of the way in I couldn't stop--reading all day until finished. The characters became more and more real. The diversity and fullness of the plot held me.

Stegner touches on many issues--environmental, political, social, moral & spiritual. In the process he has also created just a darn good story. It engaged me in ways I did not expect and left me wanting a sequel!

*****
The story line/plot found in this novel grabs you from the very beginning and holds your attention to the point you cannot put it down. It has twists and turns that will take a reader by surprise. The book highlights many important social and cultural concerns that really need to be addressed today as our world moves forward through time to an uncertain future. This novel is destined to become a movie - Order it now --- you are in for a very interesting ride through time and space.

*****
Beautiful, deep story that captures your imagination. As you read the book, more and more elements of the plot come into play. The unique feature of the book is that it is not only a story written to entertain a reader but is also a deep, wise and touching story that will make you think about the world that we live in, what it is and what should be really important in our lives.

*****
What a great ride and adventure! You see people give books reviews all the time where they say they couldn't put the book down, well don't start reading unless you want to stay up all night with this one. Excellent writing style, you really get to know and care about the characters. It also really makes you think about what if. Love it!!

To find the book on Amazon, you can click the links below.

Paperback on Amazon
Kindle eBook on Amazon

A Thought About Rooms: Being outside in the open, under the sun, beneath the stars - being Free!

As I wrote Rooms, I thought a great deal about the world we now live on and how people of all ages yearn for and even crave open, natural places. You see people walking in parks or along rural, city and mountain trails, families having picnics by a river or even a small pond, and others simply lying outside on the grass on a bright, sunny day watching the world pass by. It’s incredibly basic to our nature.

In my book, it is one of the themes that is woven into the plot. I thought of the human race migrating to different rocks throughout the galaxy, ingeniously figuring out ways to live and survive and all the time actually searching for another earth-like planet. How would it be to live beyond the earth, always within something? How would it affect us? How would we cope? And what would happen to us if our planet’s environment was so polluted and damaged that simply being outside could kill us?

In the first chapter, the main character, Rad, finds himself thinking back to a time when he took a chance and exposed himself to the elements, even though he was living on a lunar planet with no oxygen, little warmth and hardly any water. His primeval need took over. He had to do it. Below is an excerpt from chapter one, where he is thinking back and remembering how it felt.

“He had been living on a settlement where he’d received his first assignment after leaving the lifeglobe where his parents had raised him. It was a lunar planet with no atmosphere. Rad had walked outside the lifeglobe one night in his survival suit and had dared to shut off the system and open the optical face of his headgear for less than a minute. He remembered it very clearly and could still feel the rush of air from his suit and see the unobstructed view of the horizon and stars in the distance. The experience had been extremely frightening and yet magnificent at the same time. The cold had been severe, threatening to freeze his skin. His lungs had ached from the need to inhale, and his eyes had clouded rapidly with exposure to the elements. He’d become light-headed and dizzy in seconds; his head had pounded and ached from the rapid change in pressure. But even with all of this, the experience had made him feel extraordinarily alive. It had been a rush, more exhilarating than anything he had ever known. He’d only been exposed to the elements for a few seconds before closing the face of his helmet and re-pressurizing his suit, but being out in the open, unblocked and free, had been something that he would never forget. Everywhere he had ever been, there had always been the necessity to look through something, always needing to be protected from the ‘out there.’ Everyone was always protected from the ‘out there.’” 


A Thought about Wheatgrass: An Irish Fantasy: The background behind the book.

I wanted to briefly give some background behind the writing of Wheatgrass: An Irish Fantasy. I knew someone once who was in an abusive relationship, one that they felt they simply couldn't leave. It broke my heart, so I wrote this story.

    

FIRST REVIEWS ARE IN FOR ROOMS & Progress On New Book

Cover Illustration and Design by Greg Opalinski

Rooms has been published on Amazon in both Kindle and paperback form for a little over a week now. It's selling in both formats and the ratings and reviews have started coming in on both GoodReads and on Amazon. Here are three of them.

*****
I started Rooms one evening and found the story line engaging and the characters interesting. The next day I picked it up again planning to read for a bit. A third of the way in I couldn't stop--reading all day until finished. The characters became more and more real. The diversity and fullness of the plot held me.

Stegner touches on many issues--environmental, political, social, moral & spiritual. In the process he has also created just a darn good story. It engaged me in ways I did not expect and left me wanting a sequel!

*****
The story line/plot found in this novel grabs you from the very beginning and holds your attention to the point you cannot put it down. It has twists and turns that will take a reader by surprise. The book highlights many important social and cultural concerns that really need to be addressed today as our world moves forward through time to an uncertain future. This novel is destined to become a movie - Order it now --- you are in for a very interesting ride through time and space.

*****
Beautiful, deep story that captures your imagination. As you read the book, more and more elements of the plot come into play. The unique feature of the book is that it is not only a story written to entertain a reader but is also a deep, wise and touching story that will make you think about the world that we live in, what it is and what should be really important in our lives.

To find the book on Amazon, you can click the links below.

Paperback on Amazon
Kindle eBook on Amazon

New Book

I've completed 23 chapters of Beatrice and am well into chapter 24. It's looking more and more like there will need to be at least 26 chapters to finish the book as the climax is more complex and lengthy than I had first planned.

The going is very slow right now. I'm writing and rewriting continually doing my best to create the images and emotions that I want. It's fascinating but also difficult.

I find myself very caught up in the scenes as they unfold, and I'm experiencing the emotions and feelings of the characters as they encounter them. It's a very intense section of the book.

I should be done with the first draft in about a week.