Synopsis

When you're the best at what you do, it's not always easy to walk away. But Nathan McBride believed he had done just that. The former Marine sniper and covert CIA operative had put the violence of his former life behind him, until now.

When a deep-cover FBI agent disappears, along with an enormous cache of powerful Semtex explosive, the government envisions a disaster of international proportions and has no choice but to coax Nathan out of retirement. But almost as soon as Nathan accepts the assignment, he finds himself caught between a ruthless adversary with a blood-chilling plan and federal officials who will stop at nothing to see their own brand of justice done.

"Andrew Peterson has created the most brutally effective thriller hero to appear in years."—Ridley Pearson, author of KILLER WEEKEND.

More About Andrew Peterson

At age six, Andrew won his first shooting competition at summer camp which led to a life-long devotion to marksmanship.  He has won numerous competitions throughout the Southwestern United States and holds the classification of Master in the NRA's High Power Rifle ranking system.  Andrew is working on the next novel in a planned series featuring Nathan McBride, a former Marine Corps sniper and ex-CIA operative.  Born and raised in San Diego, California, Andrew attended La Jolla High School before enrolling at the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a B.S. Degree in Architecture.  Andrew and his wife Carla, live in Central California.

Simon is also the creator of the free and extremely useful word processor for writers, yWriter.

Simon is a very nice guy.

When I downloaded a beta version of yWriter, and pointed out a bug in the program via email, Simon fixed it within days and emailed me back to let me know the latest build corrected the issue. So, help me say 'thanks!' and go enjoy the very entertaining science fiction Simon writes (and is sharing for free). 

Can you tell a story in such a confined space? If so, you could win an IPod Nano 4G. You have until Friday, May 23rd to enter.

You can read my entry here: http://twitter.com/JeremyJames/statuses/815930549 If I win, I'll be donating the iPod to a charitable organization.

In other news… 

I've added a widget to the bottom  of all the pages of my blog which lists books I've read and recommend.

I also did a massive update of the Writing Links  section of the site.

Updates have been infrequent, but alas, I'm sure you'd rather I finish THE VEINGEL  than blog about mindless things. Thanks to everyone who's provided encouragement.

You could do this by hand, of course. But that would be boring. And slow.

Using a spreadsheet to track your writing progress also allows you to tweak the calculation for accuracy. For example, you can predict when you'll write "THE END" by the cumulative average words per day written, OR, your words-per-day average for the last 7 days. That way, when you write 30+ pages during a crack coffee binge, you won't get too cocky thinking your book will be finished in a week. You'll look at your cumulative Projected Finish Date and realize that you're really only averaging an amazing 100 words per day.

I'm gunning for May 30th, 2008 to have the rewrite of THE VEINGEL completed.

By the way, the only thing I have to enter in the table above is the "gray" fields—everything else is calculated auto-magically for me. (I hope to post more of these free tools in the future.)
 
 

If you’d like a copy of this spreadsheet for your own use, get in touch, I’d be happy to share you can find it here: Google Writing Deadline Spreadsheet (might need a Google Account to access, not sure—if so, email me and I’ll send you an invite). Or better yet, just download it here: Writing Spreadsheet. (right-click—> ‘Save As’)

It would be nice if the muse would get to work a little earlier, but when I hired her, she made me agree to flex-time.

In case you're wondering: My muse looks like the faery version of Selma Hayek, with black butterfly wings as sharp as razor blades along the edges.

In Other News…

I'm working on a post about my writing process. I wrote a tongue-in-cheek version before, but this one will be a little more serious and informative. It's come to my attention that I don't write like most people, so I thought it might be interesting to share what I do differently and why. Probably it will evolve into several posts.

Question For Readers:

If given the choice, would you prefer reading one longer blog post written throughout the day and posted at night? Or several shorter posts released as they're written?

In theory, I like writing the former, because it's less interruption. That said, I'm often too damn tired after the sun goes down to formulate a coherent entry into this blog. Today, I'm writing this entry first thing before I get started on the manuscript. But that approach cuts into the quality time I get to spend with the muse. She is a jealous god, so I gotta be careful about that.

Frustrated 

Is it just me, or is it only possible to complete 2% of what you'd really like to get done in life? 

Be that as it may, I have learned a fair amount about writing dialogue from watching shows like THE WIRE, and more recently, another HBO presentation, IN TREATMENT.

Highly recommended.

Others?