Writing In Theory & Practice: Where there’s a WIP there’s a way

Work(s) In Progress, aka WIP, being an author’s incomplete work that has entered the production process but is not yet a finished or fully edited manuscript, are the writer’s bowling pins, juggled with varying degrees of prowess, though seldom, but not never, in full clown make-up. I’ve several in the air even as I type this. Let’s see, there’s the one about a talking cat, another about dreaming gods awakened by a siren song, then there’s an old school ghostbreaker tale, and that sword and sorcery / occult detective thing, and some Landon Connors stories (more than one naturally, including the graphic novel) and Cairnwood Manor and gods knows what else. All in the air at any given moment. It’s all rather… chaotic and I’ve kind of lost focus. Between all these things, and a family, and a day job, and what all, it’s amazing that I ever type the words “The End”.

But I do. On occasion. Type “The End”, I mean. All the best writers do. Some of the worst ones even manage it.

“The End”.

Two little words, but I’ll be damned if they’re not the most important ones you hammer out on your keyboard.

It’s been a while since I typed those two words. I really need to do so, and soon.

This weekend I’m going to sit down and go through all these WIPs, scrutinize and prioritize accordingly, and make a concerted effort to work my way toward those two words on each and every one of them.

Tell those WIPs I’m coming… and hell’s coming with me.

—BF
Hoosierland
3/13/13

VAMPIRES DON’T SPARKLE UPDATE

Vampires Don’t Sparkle! – an anthology edited by Michael West, with stories by some really cool and talented people such as J. F. Gonzalez, Tim Waggoner, Elizabeth Massie, Gord Rollo, Lucy A. Snyder, Maurice Broaddus, Gary A. Braunbeck, Jerry Gordon, Douglas F. Warrick, Gregory L. Hall, R. J. Sullivan, Kyle S. Johnson, Stephen Zimmer, Joel A. Sutherland, and, well, myself, is now available. Order your copy through Amazon, and remember, in honour and memory of the late, great Sara Larson, a portion of the proceeds from the sale of this book will be donated to cancer research institutions to fight the real horrors of cancer. I know a number of the authors, myself included, donated their payment to this worthy cause. Cancer sucks. So do sparkly vampires.