Edit or Write - I Will Take Writing - Every Time

Nothing to do with the post but I saw this yearling and she wanted her photo taken

Trying to edit and rewrite something seven years old is difficult work. I have never tried anything like this before and am glad that I have not. Seems that my writing is better now, or, at least, I like it better, and I am changing everything as I go. I liked the story, still do, but it seems like it is taking more time than writing a new one. I had a goal of completing this by the end of the month, not sure I can make it now.

The following is an excerpt from the book, my first attempt at a young adult western mystery.

Russ Duke stood chomping the stub of a cigar on the balcony of his third story room at the downtown Casper Motor Inn, watching traffic crawl past the oldest hotel in town. The room was awful, the location was terrible, the bed was the worst he ever attempted to sleep in, but the rates were good, and that was the way Russ Duke liked it.

Duke had kept Medina’s room the past two days, and that was long enough.  He walked up the road to the Platte River, stopped and threw the key to his former partner’s second floor room from the bridge. He was pretty sure the cops had not yet found the body if they had it would have been on the news by now. He was safe. He smiled at how easy it had been. Then he started to laugh, he used to hate Medina, hated all pretty boy’s like him, now he didn’t care, Medina was dead. Duke laughed, tried to whistle a tune, but started coughing instead. He flipped the inch long stub of his cigar into the river, started laughing again as he walked toward a row of fast food restaurants.

“Ha dead, couldn’t happen to a nicer guy,” Duke laughed at his joke, life was good.

Duke ordered the #3 breakfast, grabbed a newspaper and sat down to eat. The headline in the Casper paper said what he had been waiting for. Man Found Dead at Hell’s Half Acre – Cause of Death Under Investigation. Duke could not help himself; he started to laugh, again.

End of the Day

Becoming a Famous Writer

Combing over the nonfiction section of a book store recently it looks to me that famous people write lots of books. Most of these titles didn’t tempt me much, not much at all. Funny how, not many authors get famous, but many famous people fancy themselves as authors. It does do one thing for the writing profession, it keeps authors willing to research and ghost write busy.

 I have been told that the average self-published book sells less than 100 copies and that the smallest of publishing houses often sell less than 100 of a title also. That’s not many books, the competition is fierce, but I still believe that well written fiction or nonfiction can sell if properly promoted. Therein lies the answer to most self-published authors selling so few books, marketing. If someone is already famous and has instant name recognition the selling part is easy.

Seems like I saw more unknown authors that were trying to sell fiction and how-to books than nonfiction. Not sure why, just what I ran across in my most recent visit to a book store – and it was an independent.

Oh – did I buy anything? One paperback by a midlist author that I like, I have read a half dozen or more of her books. When I read unknowns, I always download from Amazon. My price range for these unknown author books, free to $2.99.

Just Looking for a Good Book