Good Friday

[rickp43]

Well, this is Good Friday, but for me, not for the religious significance, but because of the amazing and wonderful responses I've been receiving all week ever since Jenna talked me into posting my two Brokeback stories to a couple fanfic (slash) sites that I'd never visited. I don't think of Brokeback as slash, and have no interests in the other "

Comments

[techequeen]

Rick, we are grateful to you for your stories. Thank you. Donna

Thanks

[rickp43]

Thank you, Donna. Hug.

[mazaher]

I beg pardon for coming in so late with this. I read (twice) Cold and wonderful Santa Fe and now your posts about Erin. A big hug to you, if I may. In my experience, taking them along a full, happy life and being there for them until the end, and beyond, is a blessing which never fades.
Thank You so much for Erin, and for the stories. Jenna was quite right, as usual.

Return hug

[rickp43]

Thank you for that. I'll take all the hugs over that sweet angel that I can get. I've taken two of my dogs to the end that way, and after the first, swore I could never go through it again. This, I think, might be the last time. But the blessing of our twelve years with her were and are something that will never fade (as I hold back tears, yet.)
And thank you, too, for the comment on the stories.

[jennasts]

Hey, Rich,
Just got an email from a friend distributing your Santa Fe again to a group of us. Just wanted you to know that people are still discovering your work and really enjoying it.

So, how is the novel doing? Hope you are doing well, writing and enjoying life. Take care.
Love,
Jenna

[rickp43]

Hey Jenna,
Thanks for checking in. Still working through the rewrite of the last draft. Seems to be taking forever, but this time, I'm focusing on the story and really tightening and cutting anything extraneous. Amazing how you can go through a chapter, cut and tighten, then go back over one more time to proof what you've done and see even more. Little things that add maybe a nice touch of detail but nothing, really, to the story. Like the fact that pecan pie is dad's favorite. So, with more and more surgical drive, I'm getting more accustomed to murdering my little darlings. So far (I'm more that 2/3 through now) I've managed to cut around 25% from the last edited draft. So, it goes on. Life is fine. We escaped any real damage from the windstorm that still has many around us without power. Other than the downward spiraling economy and our income along with it (no plasma HDTVs for a while yet, I'm afraid ;) ), all's well.
Love,
Rick

[bcatjr]

A novel?

Would be interested in that. where are you at in this endevour?

Novel

[rickp43]

I just wrote about where I am with that project in an answer to Jenna, which you can see above. It's basically a paranormal thriller, and I'm in the third rewrite/edit of it. It took going through it the second time to find the last two chapters and put an ending on it. It's a multi-character thing, and it had to come together well. Now, having got the ending, everything else from the beginning had to be refocused with more clarity as to where it was going and cutting thousands of extraneous words. I'd ended up with a 170,000 word manuscript, and needed to cut it to closer to 100,000. Might not make that goal, but that's about a limit for a first-time author to be considered for publication. Anyway, that's where I am, now, and when I finish, then I'll go through it again for flow, story, and more polishing. As the old adage says, "writing is rewriting." So true.

Rick

Re: Novel

[bcatjr]

Good luck with your novel. Let us know how it goes so we can support you!!

And if you need someone to read it and give ya feedback, look me up.

Beth

Re: Novel

[rickp43]

Thanks. I'll sure put something up here, maybe a first chapter or two, to see how it goes.

[gibbous_moon]

hi rick,

tomorrow is march first. for some reason i was running through some old bookmarks and found your entries. it made me wonder where your life has gone, and it made me want to let you know, since i never did, how much i appreciated your story "santa fe"...best wishes, kj

Thanks

[rickp43]

Thank you for your comment. It's nice, while still revising this novel endlessly, and, of course, wondering if it's been worth the time, to hear that something I wrote is remembered well. I'm wielding a sharper scapel this time through. Spent a year almost on the previous revision and found new focus, and a keener eye for cutting, but still finding outside eyes to be a great help, catching my ex-English-teacher's addiction to too many commas, prisoner to "grammatical correctness" where breaking rules for ease of flow and style really does warrant breaking rules. Funny, since I used fragments with abondon! LOL. Anyway, that's it, except for working and hoping Spring comes soon.