Red Ice is finished!

At least the first draft is done. . . .

I finished the first draft this afternoon. It's a little longer than I expected, and a couple of decisions will have to be made after I go through and rewrite it. I'm going to lay this off to the side for a couple of days, then dive back in and rewrite it and see what happens.

Red Ice took me 108 days to write -- a little more than three months. A bit longer than I expected or planned. But I pushed through (one of the reason why I haven't posted in three weeks) and it's done.

Right now, I want to rewrite this and get it into Rick Chesler's hands before the end of the month. If everything goes right (Murphy, he whose law rules supreme, is a writer), I hope to see Red Ice up on Amazon by mid-September.

And the snapshot of AF's current standings:


Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,430 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#479 in Kindle Store > eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military
#1104 in Kindle Store > eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military
#1217 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Military

Again, watching the sales raking going up and down is like watching an insane roller coaster. The funny things is while sales are ahead of last month, the borrow rate is way off from July -- off by over 3,000 pages. There was a glitch on Amazon earlier in the week which did screw up the page count. We'll have to see if that comes back, or if it's a lingering problem in Amazon's system.

As for overseas.....Amazon.uk

#61,928 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#224 in Kindle Store > Books > Crime, Thriller & Mystery > Thrillers > Military
#1141 in Kindle Store > Books > Crime, Thriller & Mystery > Thrillers > Action & Adventure
#1216 in Kindle Store > Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military

Remember, if you are a member of Amazon Prime, Outcast Ops: African Firestorm is on Kindle Direct! Use this link! African Firestorm on Amazon! For Amazon UK, click here! And check out the other two (soon to be three) novels in the series!

Red Ice Final Stats (First Draft):

Done: Prologue, Chapter 1-41, Epilogue
Words Written the last twenty-two days: 18,985
Total Word Count: 72,400 (111.38% of 65,000 words)
Average Words Written per day: 670/day (+49)

Later!

Craig

Writing Red Ice: Days Eighty Through Eighty-Six

Has it been almost three months since I started writing this? Wow, times flies when you're writing.....

Anyway, I'm in the final stages of the next to last action piece in the novel. I finally got through Chapters 27 and 28. After I'm done, it'll be a set up leading into the climax and the climax itself. Maybe three or more updates. After that, it'll be going back through and editing and rewriting. But the first step must always be, Get the First Draft done!

There have been a few changes from outline to the actual writing --- I need to go back and add a few foreshadowing bits to set of actions that happen later in the book, maybe switch around a few scenes, proofreading and some editing. It's about halfway done -- the easy part is the first draft.....

And a snapshot of AF's current standings:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #158,852 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#494 in Kindle Store >  eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military

#1105 in Kindle Store >  eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military

#1199 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Military

These are the lowest rankings since I started doing this --- but it only takes a couple of sales to boost it back up into the top 100,000. We'll see if the downtrend continues.

As for overseas.....Amazon.uk

#45,458 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
#160 in Kindle Store > Books > Crime, Thriller & Mystery > Thrillers > Military
#886 in Kindle Store > Books > Crime, Thriller & Mystery > Thrillers > Action & Adventure
#949 in Kindle Store > Books > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military

So they finally broke the sales down on Amazon.uk by category. While the sales look much better here than on Amazon, there is less competition here, where a couple of sales here have a greater effect on sales. Right now, one out of every four sales of African Firestorm come from the United Kingdom.

It still making money -- It's not a mega bestseller, but I'm not looking to write one. I'm looking to write books books that sell consistently, over a longer period of time. More books means more money. It isn't a sprint, but a marathon.....

Remember, if you are a member of Amazon Prime, Outcast Ops: African Firestorm is on Kindle Direct! Use this link! African Firestorm on Amazon! And check out the other two novels in the series!

Red Ice Progress:

Done: Prologue, Chapter 1-30, 40% of Chapter 31
Words Written the last six days: 4,070
Total Word Count: 53,415 (82.18% of 65,000 words)
Average Words Written per day: 621/day (-4)

Later!

Craig

Writing Red Ice: Days Seventy-Two Through Seventy-Nine

I took Sunday off, as it was my Birthday, but I still managed to add a nice chunk of words to Red Ice. I have noticed that there's a twist in the plot I hadn't considered, so when I'm done the first draft and go through it again, I need to add bits and pieces to strengthen this subplot.

Chapters 27 and 28 have needed some reworking, for several POVs, make sure plot threads stay current with each other, and to make the action scenes flow better. I have them just about worked out and they should be done before the next update.


And because I'm a sucker for punishment, Here are the latest sale rankings for Amazon :

Amazon Best Sellers Rank:  #37,208 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#189 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military

#309 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military

#376 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Military

It bounced up father than I expected. Under the new system, there is a surprisingly large number of pages being read. How that will translate to actually money at the end of the month is not known. We'll see. I have a target page count in mind by the end of the month, and we'll see how close it comes.

I welcome reviews, so if you have read it, please post a review!

Amazon UK Bestsellers Rank: #65,205 Paid in Kindle Store

If you are a member of Amazon Prime, Outcast Ops: African Firestorm is on Kindle Direct! Use this link! African Firestorm on Amazon! And check out the other novels in the series!

Red Ice Progress:

Done: Prologue, Chapter 1-26, 85% of Chapter 27, 65% of Chapter 28
Words Written the last seven days: 6,025
Total Word Count: 49,345 (75.92% of 65,000 words)
Average Words Written per day: 625/day (+15)

Later!

Craig

Writing Red Ice: Days Fifty-Seven through Sixty-Six

A short update tonight -- it's late.

Managed to continue rolling forward, closing in on 40K, but I ran into a a timeline problem, and a discussion with my co-author means I need to add in a chapter that promises to up the stories tension a few points. So, that took some time, but I think the story is still on track, maybe a little longer than I had planned, but it should help the story a bit.

The latest sale rankings for Amazon :

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #92,393 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#337 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military

#725 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military

#789 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Military

A few sales (or lack of) will make this number jump up and down a lot. But Rick and I are watching the borrow stats for the Kindle unlimited and Amazon Prime programs. This is the first month Amazon is paying by the page for borrows, which means more pages read = more $$ at the end of the month. The last two months (May and June) we were looking at a 75/25 split and a 60/40 split between sales and barrows, but this month so far, it's more of a 50/50 split. We'll have to watch this some more.....

As for Amazon UK, the ranking is below:

Amazon UK Bestsellers Rank: #123,973 Paid in Kindle Store

If you and are a member of Amazon Prime, you can borrow Outcast Ops: African Firestorm though Kindle Direct! Use this link! African Firestorm on Amazon! And check out the other novels in the series!

Red Ice Progress:

Done: Prologue, Chapter 1-22, 75% of Chapter 23
Words Written the last nine days: 3,610
Total Word Count: 39,650 (61.0% of 65,000 words)
Average Words Written per day: 600/day (-44)

Later!

Craig

Writing Red Ice: Days Fifty-One through Fifty-Six

And Red Ice is past the halfway point!

It's going well, bouncing between this and a short story submission for an Anthology and both are proceeding smoothly. But as I said in my other blog, I'm expecting something to go wrong --- it's the way of Murphy!

So, what have I been looking up for Red Ice lately? More street level looks at San Francisco (Google Maps are a writer's best friend when they need to describe a place they have never been!), how to breech a door, 12-Gage breaching rounds, and several shotguns to find the right one. Make of that what you will.....

And African Firestorm has been bouncing up an down on the sale ranks. Starting today, Amazon  has changed the way authors get paid for Kindle select titles. Before, an author got paid if a reader read 10% of the book -- in African Firestorm's case, 24 pages. But if an author write a 20-page story, they would get paid the same rate as I would after a reader read 2 pages. Now, someone read African Firestorm entirely, Rick Chesler and myself will get paid more than some author who wrote a 20-page story. It's only fair.....

Now, the latest sale rankings for Amazon:

Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #102,229 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

#252 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers > Military

#439 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Literature & Fiction > Action & Adventure > War & Military

#537 in Books > Mystery, Thriller & Suspense > Thrillers & Suspense > Military

As you can see, it's popped up again. A few sales will do that, and if you brought it after visiting this blog, I thank you. Looking at where the sales are coming from, over 70% are in the US, over a quarter from the UK and 2% combined from Canada and Australia. Interesting......

As for Amazon UK, the ranking is below:

Amazon UK Bestsellers Rank: #45,253 Paid in Kindle Store

Apparently, Amazon UK hasn't gotten around to breaking down the rankings below 100 in individual categories like Amazon US has. Hopefully that will change in the future.

If you haven't gotten Outcast Ops: African Firestorm yet, and are a member of Amazon Prime, you can borrow it though Kindle Direct! Use this link! African Firestorm on Amazon! And check out the other novels in the series!

Red Ice Progress:

Done: Prologue, Chapter 1-20, 5% of Chapter 21
Words Written the last six days: 5,000
Total Word Count: 36,040 (55.44% of 65,000 words)
Average Words Written per day: 644/day

Later!

Craig

Writing Red Ice: Days Thirty-Six through Forty

Not as good, as the past three days, but I did manage to finish a chapter and start the next chapter. The book is still going forward according to the outline, and as long as it's moving, I can claim progress.

One of the fun things about being an author is being about to plan a crime for the book you're working on that if you were to do for real would have Law Enforcement knocking on your door. For example, I spent most of the day plotting an assassination of a city mayor. And as if I was planning to do it for real, I have to look at where the assassination is taking place and plot not only for the bad guys, but for the good guys --- I have to be the assassin leader, the bodyguard leader, and the main characters.

First up is the assassin leader. What is the lay of the land and how can you take advantage of it? I used Google maps (Both overhead and street level) to scout the real building I'm using in the story to get an idea of the location. Then it's choose the method I want to carry out the assassination with, followed by how do the assassins escape.

Then it's the Bodyguard team leader. They has an obstinate person who they are protecting, so they have to protect the principal. Like with the assassination team, I have to follow what I think is common sense and plausible for the scene.

As for the main characters, I have their starting location plotted out and their actions out. I know where the ending is going. Now I just have to get there......

And if you haven't gotten the best-selling Kindle novel, Outcast Ops: African Firestorm yet, and are a member of Amazon Prime, you can borrow it though Kindle Direct! Use this link! African Firestorm on Amazon! And check out the other novels in the series!

Done: Prologue, Chapter 1-15, 30% of Chapter 16
Words Written the last three days: 2,475
Total Word Count: 27,145 (41.76% of 65,000 words)
Average Words Written per day: 679/day

Later!

Craig

Writing Red Ice: Days Thirty-Three through Thirty-Five

Another short update, because it's way past my bedtime.......

Still, it was a good three days -- three chapters completed, and still on the outline. Chapter 15 started, and I'm a third of the way through it. Had to look up a few foreign words, and figure out how to translate them without translating them, if you take my meaning. Let's see if I can duplicate the same result in the next three days.

Done: Prologue, Chapter 1-14
Words Written the last three days: 4,070
Total Word Count: 24,670 (37.95% of 65,000 words)
Average Words Written per day: 705/day

Later!

Craig

Writing Red Ice: Days Thirty through Thirty-Two

A short update tonight -- there was some sad news in the family, which has put a damper on the mood here. An uncle of mine died on Monday, and it's hit the family hard. He was a good man, leaves a wife, a couple of sons and several grandchildren. So, no long rambling post from me tonight.

Two more chapters done, start Chapter 12 tomorrow.....

If you haven't gotten African Firestorm yet, and are a member of Amazon Prime, you can borrow it though Kindle Direct. Use this link: African Firestorm on Amazon

Done: Prologue, Chapter 1-11

Words Written the last three days: 1,460
Total Word Count: 20,600 (31.69% of 65,000 words)
Average Words Written per day: 644/day

Later!

Craig

Writing Red Ice: Day Two

Well, Day Two didn't go as well as Day One did, but I did complete the Prologue and I'm working through the first scene in Chapter One. Only managed to get a little over 600 words today, but it does introduce two of the novel's major supporting characters and goes a long way to setting up the first combat scene. Important progress.....

What took time today was finding the right locations for the first two chapters.While Google Maps can give me a lot of street-views, there are areas where there are NO street-level views and I have to stare hard (and use the zoom-in feature) to get a feel for the location so I can describe it in the novel.

So, why didn't I make up a location? I could, but I like using real places as much as possible. I do mix them up a bit -- For African Firestorm, there was a hotel where I had the team stay, but I didn't use the actual hotel's name, description, or floor plan in the novel. Instead, I replaced  it with another hotel. For a couple of the houses, I use real house descriptions, but the house I describe is actually the next street over, or up the street from that location.

But a few places you can't fake. Red Ice's prologue's takes place in a well-known San Francisco tourist spot. So I have to "block out the action that takes place so anyone who knows that area can imagine the action taking place instead of saying to themselves, "That's not right! There's no road there!" or, "There's no pier in that location!"

That's just the way I write.

That's all for tonight.

Done:  Prologue, 30% of Chapter 1
Words Written Today: 630
Total Word Count: 1,610 (2.47% of 65,000 words)

Later!

Craig

Word Count update #3

I hate colds!

I was having a good week writing until I developed a cold over the weekend that wiped out Sunday and still be a probelm this week. So, between Zinc drops, cough drops, and a couple of other medcine, I trying to fight this cold off, with little effect.

Which is a pity, because this was shaping up to be a good week. While I didn't my target for the first two days, they were by small amounts. The four days made up for the missed targets the first two days, but Sunday came and I could only write less than two hundred words.

So, I'm posting this, then I'm going back to bed
Anyway, the stats for the week:
Battlecorps words written this week: 4,854
Original words written this week: 4,261
Total words written for this week: 9,115
Target word count for this week: 8,995(seven days @ 1,285 words/day)
Over/under word count for the week:+120 words
Over/under word count for the year: + 2,865 words

And now bed calls....

Craig

Word Count update # 2

This last week was a very good one for the writing goals. I exceeded my daily goals on six out of the seven days, several times by more than five hundred words. I wrote some in four different Battlecorps stories, and in two original novels. Merlin's Courtship is over 86,000 words, and while I see the need to change some things, I intend to push on and complete the first draft before making any major changes. As for Mind Wipe, I am close to finishing up the first chapter. In part, it's world-building on the fly and not for the faint-hearted.

Anyway, the stats for the week:

Battlecorps words written this week: 6,500
Original words written this week: 5,564
Total words written for this week: 12,064
Target word count for this week: 8,995(seven days @ 1,285 words/day)
Over/under word count for the week: + 3,069 words
Over/under word count for the year: + 2,745words

So, a good second week, and I will try to keep it going!

Later!

Craig

Word Count update # 1

Right, my writing goals were posted, and I realized that one way to stay honest was to keep people apprized of how I was doing. So, hopefully, I will be posting one of these every week to keep myself honest.. We shall see if this works....

Now, my writing falls into two categories: Writing for the Battletech Gaming Universe (My latest Battlecorps story was published last week on the Battlecorps site, plus my first solo product for the gaming universe should be out soon) and my original writing.

An explanation of my writing style, which can best be described as chaos. Unless I am working with a deadline, I tend to work on several stories at a time, spending a hour on one story, thirty minutes on a second story and forty-five minutes on a third. I won’t bother going into detail with my Battletech efforts, as I have a separate blog for those (I don’t know why, I just do.)

I worked on two original novels this week. The first is Merlin’s Courtship, the third novel of the Merlin Chronicles and my NaNoWriMo entry for 2012. As of now, the novel is over 82,500 words, and I can sort of see an ending in sight. But even as I write the novel, I see major structural changes that need to be done to it, but I am determined to press on and complete the first draft of the novel, then go back and complete the first drafts of the first two novels in the story. Those three are the core of my original writing goals for this year, and if I can get those three written to at least a first draft stage, then I can rewrite on those days I am ahead on my word count.

The second is novel that has the potential of being the first of a science fiction series, with strong elements of cyberpunk and I would be lying if I didn’t say there were elements from animes like Ghost in the Shell, Bubble Gum Crisis, and Appleseed in it. I’m still trying to get a feel for this world I’m creating, so the only thing I have solid knowledge of it right now is the title: Mind Wipe. That’s going to take some thought as I create this new world where my characters are playing. At least that’s set on this earth, sometime in the future.

I have not forgotten the Death Throne series, but as high fantasy, that’s going to take more world-building as I have to create at least three different societies from scratch. When I have a few idle minutes, I will give it some thought.

Now, to the purpose of this blog. This "week" started January 1, and has six days in it. To reach my goal, I have to average 1,285 words a day. This week, I spilt it – three days I exceeded the average and three days I didn’t. And the numbers:

Battlecorps words written this week: 3,488
Original words written this week: 3,898
Total words written for this week: 7,386
Target word count for this week: 7,710 (six days @ 1,285 words/day)
Over/under word count for the week: -324 words
Over/under word count for the year: -324 words

So, there you go. One week, and I’m already off the pace by three hundred words. Multiply that by fifty weeks and that’s over 15,000 words off the target. This next week, I must see if I can make up that difference (which works out to a little less that an extra fifty words a day this week.)

Later!

Craig