The 4th draft of chapter 21 is complete. Here’s what happens, in vague poem form:

Fine treats are doled out to the littlest chum;

Even those that have failed soon receive some.

Though one treat is squeezed in a frustrated hand;

The best treat of all is the grasp of a plan.

Mm, sounds like a juicy chapter. With the help of Kim’s notes, I had four main goals to achieve here. Let’s go over them. Continue reading →

Jump, jump: the dreamer’s awake;

Fall, fall: quite a risk that you make.

Three remain in the game and the dame’s set to get maimed.

Stay, stay: it’s the stance that you take.

Okay! Done with chapter 20. Book two, draft four in case you need a reminder.

Kim had requested some changes in the first half, and those have gone well. I was able to come up with some surprising solutions to a couple of problems I was having.

I erased a great deal from the middle of this chapter. The erased portions added little to the story. I replaced it with all-new content that helps set up the finale.

The end of the chapter was what Kim liked the most. I cleaned it up and steeled myself for what happens next:

You see, there is a cliffhanger at the end of the chapter. And Kim felt that the resolution in chapter 21 flopped. 😑

I’m usually angry or annoyed whenever Kim says something like that. At first, anyway. But my tune changes when I think about what I need to do and, eventually, when I solve the problem and come up with something amazing.

And I remember that I wouldn’t have come up with that amazing thing if Kim had gone easy on me. If she had just said “It’s fine; whatever.”

But enough about that. Let’s have some more fun with the AI generation site.

First, I typed in the poem that I wrote up there at the top of the blog post:

Interesting interpretation. A one-legged woman jumping, falling, and staying all at the same time. It’s even Halloween in the background. Happy Halloween, by the way.

Next I am going to describe a character from THIS chapter. Yes, a new character that only a few other people in the world know about! Are you ready?

Wow, cool! Just about everything is wrong, as usual. The hair is almost right. And there’s no hovering drone. Sorry, I guess this isn’t exciting for you unless you have the description. Let’s do something else. What character haven’t I done from the first book? Dring?

A bony teen with hexagonal sunglasses. His hair is short with a rat tail in the back. He’s sitting in an office littered with empty water bottles.

Haha,ha what? Does the AI not know what a hexagon is? Let me change the art style. That was ‘comic book.’ Let’s try ‘cyberpunk.’

Okay, better. Now the water bottles are on the monitor he’s watching? I guess that could be his desktop picture. Whoa, there’s a manga style now? I gotta check that out.

Now we’re back to the blue shirt and grey hair. And everything else but the face is just turning into more of a mess, ha,ha,ha. Dring is lost in his own little world now. Water bottles piling up, the monitor floating around, and the hexagons exist everywhere BUT his sunglasses.

Ah well, I’ll see you next time!

Time to update everyone with my progress on chapter 19 of the 4th draft of Abandonment Party 2! And, oh my, did Kim have problems with this one. In her notes she said I was trying to get too creative and artsy, and I might have hurt the story in my efforts to push the envelope.

I won’t tell you exactly how the chapter goes, but imagine something like this: Mean and her friends have received a vital clue about the destruction of the world. They are searching for a long-lost character that has important details. As the chapter begins I describe the location in exquisite detail. The characters discuss their surroundings with awe and excitement. Where is this person? What secrets will they learn? Continue reading →

Now I’m working on the 4th draft of chapter 18. It’s pretty short and it revisits a book one location, but with a twist. Did I do that already? I can’t remember.

Here’s the poem that describes it:

An invitation from a girl that’s been ignored.

A trip to a pristine house, quite adored.

Once-rivals meet while a question’s unspoken:

Is it fair to keep my world, while allowing yours to be broken?

—–

I’m still having trouble finding people to illustrate my next book cover. I’d also like pictures of my characters for the bios section on this site. My friend Matt told me about AI illustrations that are generated on websites. And I can even use them for free! Could my problems be solved!?

The site I found is called ‘Stable Diffusion.’ It has a space to type positive prompts, for the stuff you want; and a place to type negative prompts, for the stuff you do not want.

So let us begin with Officer Mackaba! He’s the early antagonist that chases Mean around the abandoned Hardpan City. I’ll put the positive prompts in italics for your viewing pleasure, followed by the resulting picture. Continue reading →

Okay, now I’m on the 4th draft of chapter 17! It’s an event that you’ll KNOW is going to happen from early on in the book, you’re going to WANT it to happen, and it’s my job to make it as satisfying as possible. Here’s the preview:

The wilted bloom takes the stage at last;

her presence and strength bound to the past.

How best to cultivate this flower?

Apply pressure! Truth! Swell with power! Continue reading →

I’m currently working on the 4th draft of chapter 16. There is quite a bit of pointless drama to cut out this time. It’s mostly romance between characters and explicit displays of affection. You know, the kind of stuff people hate reading about. Kim told me it was all unnecessary, so it’s gone now. Whew! Close one.

But I couldn’t just leave it at that. I replaced the cut scenes with the kind of drama that everyone loves: character-driven emotional outbursts! I really like this one. And remember: I wouldn’t add something unless I thought it was an improvement over what I cut out. But… I can’t go into detail without spoilers.

So as usual, here’s another vague poem to describe chapter 16: Continue reading →

I’m almost done with the 4th draft of chapter 15. Let’s get the vague poem that describes the contents going:

Today a school of fish are spied;

the angler grins, his hair now dyed;

hungrily one takes the bait;

soon three more flop to their plates;

a fifth is steamed, one more is fried;

the seventh lets the first inside. Continue reading →

I finished the 4th draft of chapter 14. Here’s the vague, nonsensical poem that represents it:

An emergency that is dire indeed;

Flame is required for the prisoner, freed;

Quenched next in a world of both trauma and laughs;

On one of the group, suspicion is cast. Continue reading →

Update on Abandonment Party 2, chapter 12, 4th draft: Got it done; added all the intrigue and character-driven agency that Kim wanted. But this chapter was waaaaay too long. 26 pages. I found a good opportunity for a break and a DRAMATIC ending line, so I split it up into two chapters. Chapter 12 will be “Villan’s Legacy” and 13 will be “Prisoner.” Tell me what you think, even though you don’t know the contents of the text. Unless you’re Kim or Matt. Then you can tell me what you think of those titles. Unless you forgot what happened AGAIN, Matt.

Speaking of Matt, the 21st was his birthday! Congrats! You da best! I went out to eat with him and his sister to a public place called Westport Social. It’s kind of like a bar inside a warehouse with cruise ship party games spread around. Here’s a photo I took: Continue reading →

An error in the FIRST book, that is. Yes, David—the master of logic, aerodynamics, and physics—has found a plot hole in Abandonment Party.

And it has nothing to do with the MASSIVE FLYING OBEJECTS that are present in the final pages. He said all that was fine. So where is the error? It begins in the “Clash of Automatons” chapter. Open your Kindles and join me there, won’t you? Continue reading →