Midnight Hotel Blog

Partnership Severed

2007-12-24T18:02:00.000-06:00

I'm sorry to report that my partnership with my writing partner on the Midnight Hotel series was severed today. I'll be rewriting and reworking the series. I will probably start that after the first of the year after I finish the two stories I'm currently writing, one of which I hope to submit January 10, 2008 to Samhain Publishing.

To my former writing partner, I wish you luck with your future endeavors and hope to hear from you and how you're doing.

To those who have been waiting for the Midnight Hotel series to come out, I'm afraid the wait will be a bit longer, and the storyline will be changing to reflect the removal of certain characters. The world it's set it will remain the same, however. That will not change.

I hope everyone has a happy holiday, and I'll post again when I have more news.

Update on the submitted story

2007-07-23T08:26:00.000-05:00

I heard back from the publisher. They didn't feel the story fit their catalog because it's set in the 1970s. They said it was a hard decision, but because it's set in the '70s it’s neither contemporary or historical. So, I doubt they'll want my Word War II story either for the same reason.

I can't change the time the story is set, because this story deals with the parents of some characters in my contemporary series. Also my Word War II story deals with the parents of some of the characters in my 1970s story.

So, where do I go from here? I haven't figured that out yet. I'll update as I can.

Updated the web site

2007-07-21T12:03:00.000-05:00

You can now see the floorplans of the first two floors of the hotel! The second floor doesn't have all the room numbers listed yet, and I'm working on getting the third floor done. The third floor is where all the suites are located, so those will take quite a bit of time to get done. The basement will have to wait a bit before I make that floorplan available on the site.

On another note, on June 26 I submitted a story to a publisher. I'm waiting to hear back from them and will share the good or bad news, as the case may be, as soon as I hear anything. Well, if it's good news, I'll have to wait until I wake up from my faint, but as soon as I do.... LOL

Added a Site Feed link

2006-10-16T15:19:00.000-05:00

Readers of this blog should be able to add the RSS/Atom feed to their reader. This is still in the testing phase, but I hope it will work. If you have problems with it, let me know, and I'll see what I can do to get it working.

Midnight Hotel vs. Blue Ridge

2006-09-26T13:34:00.000-05:00

I need to finish the Blue Ridge story, and get the cover art finished for the first book in my series set at the Midnight Hotel. I'm closer to publication than I was. I do need to give it another read over and catch any mistakes missed, I've been busy on my Blue Ridge story, and haven't had time.

Oh, and to make things even better, I've had another idea for a story dealing with the werewolves in my world. Joy, joy. Just what I need, more writing, when I need to get MH finished and published. LOL

Wish me luck and time. It looks like I need both. LOL

Still working on Blue Ridge

2006-09-13T02:53:00.000-05:00

I really need to come up with a better title for this story. I'm hoping one will come to me as I get closer to getting it finished. For now, Blue Ridge works. I have the first five chapters written and started on the sixth. My couple is now lovers. I had a time getting that scene written. It took me about a week to get it done. Finally got it finished night before last and have moved on. I need to add some conflict though, so I think that will be coming up soon.

These characters aren't as vocal to me as my Midnight Hotel characters are. In fact, the main one I'm hearing is my hero, Jonathan. Most of the story has been in his POV. I need to bring in my heroine's POV as well, but she is very quiet. Maybe she'll start speaking up once I get some conflict going in the story.

It's late, and I'm not going to work on it any more tonight. I'm going to head for bed and try to get an early start in the morning, or whenever I wake up, and try to get more written on it.

Finally getting some work done!

2006-07-25T21:27:00.000-05:00

I've started doing some serious work on my Blue Ridge story. I have a new Dell Notebook computer, and that's making it easier to work. With luck, I'll have the first draft finished in before long. Okay, it might take me awhile. It depends on how much time I can spend on it, but at least I now have a decent system to work on.

My new notebook isn't one of Dell's most expensive models, but it does what I need, and that's what counts. Right?

I'll be updating my word counts for the Blue Ridge story on this blog as I can.

Writing to the CD Ancient Power.

Finished current edit of Book One

2006-05-04T05:31:00.000-05:00

Well, I finally finished putting the changes for book one into the computer. I need to read it over once more and let my co-writer read it, then if all looks right, I'll be going into the next phase of getting it published. Hurrah!

Meanwhile, I'll be starting to try to get the changes for book two into the computer and continue to read over book three.

Started on book three

2006-04-29T00:37:00.000-05:00

I got the first chapter of book three edited on the hard copy today. This book is pretty much a rough draft. So, it might take me a bit longer to get it edited. We'll see how it goes.

It's storming bad here, so I need to get off of the computer. I'll try to update this tomorrow on my progress.

Finally finished editing the hard copy of book two!

2006-04-27T22:30:00.000-05:00

I finished the last four chapters of book two today, and pulled out book three to start on next. I'll be doing that one on hard copy as well. It's still a fairly rough draft, so this will be one of the first edits it's had. There's only thirty chapters, at the moment, in book three. I'm thinking about adding a new first chapter to it to bring in some action and give the readers a taste of what's to come.

After I finish the last changes for book one in the computer, I'll input the changes for book two, and start reading book one to be sure I didn't miss anything.

Getting there with the second book

2006-04-27T02:05:00.000-05:00

I edited four more chapters in the second book today. That leaves four to do. I'm hoping to get them done tomorrow.

I didn't get the last four chapters of book one corrected though. I'm hoping to get that done soon. Maybe tomorrow.

Managed to get more done

2006-04-25T22:19:00.000-05:00

I edited five chapters in book two, and input two chapters of changes for book one. Slow and steady wins the race, I guess.

We've been having some rough weather here tonight, so I may not get any more done tonight. If the storm gets worse, I'll be shutting down the computer and unplugging it.

I still haven't found the right graphics for the cover art, and I haven't been able to figure out how to use Poser.

With luck, I'll finish the changes for book one tomorrow, if I can't tonight. I still have four chapters to do in that one.

Editing like crazy today!

2006-04-24T18:32:00.000-05:00

Wow, I've done quite a bit today. I edited three chapters in book two, and input six chapters of changes into the computer for book one. And I might be able to get a bit more done. It's hard to tell yet. If I do, I'll be updating today's entry of the blog, so I can brag and crow at my productive day.

Check out the 'word' meter and see how well I've been doing lately. Oh, and I wrote a bit on a new story last night. I'm not really concentrating on the new stories at the moment. I need to get the edits done of the books I have written now. Once they are well on their way to being published, I'll go back to writing more seriously on the new stories I have for the series.

I guess that's it for now. I'll be posting more as I can.

Update on the edits for Book Two

2006-04-24T00:16:00.000-05:00

I got eight chapters edited on paper today. This is the first edits this book has had, so it's still rough, but it's getting better. With such a good start on it, it shouldn't take as long to get it polished enough to publish.

Busy edting

2006-04-21T23:50:00.000-05:00

I've finished editing the first book on my hard copy, so when I can't get on the computer to update the file, I'm editing the second book. I have eight and a half chapters done on the hard copy of the second book.

I'm hoping it won't take as long to get ready as the first one has. I'm hoping to finish updating the file for the first book soon. Then I need to read over it to be sure I didn't miss anything. While doing that, I'll finish the floorplans and hopefully get the cover finished.

With luck, I'll have the first one published in the next month or so.

Twenty chapters edited on the computer

2006-04-08T22:59:00.000-05:00

I just finished getting the first twenty chapters edited on the computer, and I have twenty four and a half done on paper. A little over sixty percent done with the edits on the first book.

I need to finish the third floor floorplan of the hotel and get the cover art selected and ready. After that's done, I need to work up the copyright page, finish the dedication page and create the PDF file to upload to lulu.

Fifteen chapters edited and counting

2006-04-04T00:16:00.000-05:00

I now have fifteen (15) chapters edited on the computer, twenty (20) on my hard copy waiting to be put into the computer. I'm 45.5 % done on the computer, 60.6 % done on my hard copy. With luck, I'll have the full edit done within the next few days.

After I finish the edit, I'll finish the floor plan, then get to work on my cover art and blurb. After that, I'll announce a release date for when the book will be availible for purchase.

Chugging along with the edit

2006-03-31T15:59:00.000-06:00

I've edited the first ten chapters of the first book of the first trilogy. I hope to get another ten done soon.

Web site update. I'm moving the Midnight Hotel to a new URL and will be dropping the midnight-hotel.com domain. The new domain is http://www.aprpublishing.com and the Midnight Hotel series will be within that domain. Just follow the book links until you reach the Midnight Hotel's area.

I'll be updating the web site and this blog as I progress.

Hotel Progress Update

2006-02-20T23:19:00.000-06:00

I've actually been editing the book, and have gotten several chapters done on the hard copy. I need to make the changes to the file, but that will come. When not working on that, I'm slowly building the virtual hotel on my computer using a CAD program. I have two floors almost done. Yea! I still have the third floor to do, and the basement. I'll work on that last since it doesn't play a big part in the first book. I'm hoping to be able to include the floor plans in the book, so the readers can 'see' the hotel.

I've also got several other story ideas swimming around in my head. Including a background story for a future character. I have the outline done on that one, but haven't actually put fingers to keyboard and started writing it.

I have an account over at lulu.com, and I'll be publishing Midnight Hotel over there for the time being. Yes, it's self publishing, and I have to do the marketing myself, but there's less headaches than dealing with a big name publisher who likes the story, but "maybe you can change everything in it to suit what I like." So, I'm going to give this a try, then maybe try a big name publisher later, if ever. I'll have to see how it goes. So far, the people who've read Midnight Hotel has liked it. Most liked it as is, and didn't want me to do much editing on it. However, I can see at least some of the errors that needed to be fixed, and some crit partners have pointed out a few things that needed to be revised in order for it to make sense.

I'll try to keep this blog more up-to-date. I keep falling down on the job when it comes to blogging. I do try though. 8-)

Well, I think that's about it for this posting. Wish me luck with the editing and blogging.

No new progress

2005-11-15T06:19:00.000-06:00

Well, I haven't done much writing lately. I did submit chapter one of the first book to a crit group I'm in. I'm going to have to do some rewriting, reworking and rethinking, not in that order, however. I hope to be able to report better progress later.

I've been battling sinus and allergies recently, which is another reason why I haven't gotten as much done as I would have liked.

I need to do some crits for Shannon and a couple of others then submit my second chapter to the group. I did have a few new ideas of books in the series. One could turn into Jenny's story. I'll see how it goes then decide if I'm going to continue on it or scrap it. It has an interesting first paragraph, but that's all I've written on it so far.

It's late, and I need to get to bed. Hopefully, I'll feel better when I get up and can get some work done.

Writing Progress Report

2005-09-24T16:44:00.000-05:00

Friday (9-23-2005) I didn't get much done. I got into the 'zone' and have a good thought going, and Mom wanted me to help her with something to get ready in case Hurricane Rita came to call. I tried to get back into it, but I think my Muse went to visit someone else, because I didn't see her again. Of the five pages I was going to try for, I got three written.

There is one problem with the Hurricane story. There's no problems, conflict or chaos. The hotel is very smoothly run. I tried to throw a monkey wrench into the mix, and either it wasn't much of one, or everyone is just too good at their jobs. (sigh) Maybe something will happen when the guests arrive. I might wind up scraping this story for now, and going back to my other WIP (work in progress), Randora's Story.

I'll report on today's progress later. So far, it's been ziltch.

New story idea -- yes, another one!

2005-09-22T15:03:00.000-05:00

As we prepare in case we catch a piece of Hurricane Rita, I had an idea for a new story.

A hurricane is heading for the (fictional) city of Bodeville, and everyone is getting ready for it. During the storm the hotel has to be able to deal with emergency after emergency as well as keep everyone alive, unhurt and unbitten (for the mortals at the hotel).

It's rough, but I might work on it and see how it goes. I found a writing workshop late last night. It's called "Fast Draft Workshop" and is over at Romance Divas (RD). The idea is to just start typing and commit to writing twenty pages a day for two weeks. Some of the folks in the workshop isn't quite getting twenty pages, but they are happy with what that can do. Whether it's four pages, ten pages, twenty pages, or even better, more than twenty pages a day. The main point is to write. The rules are to not go back and read what you wrote the day before and to turn off that internal editor in your head. Then after the two weeks is over, that's when you go back and read, rewrite, edit, etc.

We'll see how I do. I'll have a problem turning off that editor that lives in my head. I'll try to update this blog as I work. Wish me luck. (LOL)

Updated the web site

2005-09-09T16:31:00.000-05:00

I changed the look of the Midnight Hotel web site. I also added some pages.

Working on the second floor

2005-07-28T22:21:00.000-05:00

I've been working on the second floor floorplan for the hotel. I think I've just about got it finished now. I still don't have all the doors and windows placed, but that's the easy part.

I'll be starting on the third floor soon. I already have some of the suites placed, but it still needs a lot of work done before it's finished.

On another note, I need to go over the chapters and try to come up with an outline and a synopsis to send to the publisher. Finish polishing up the first three chapters and I'll be about ready to send them to a publisher.

Worked on a story

2005-07-21T01:14:00.000-05:00

Kas and I did some work on the Randora/Claude story. We didn't get a lot done, but we wrote a decent amount. I'm hoping to get some more work done on that story soon.