Year in Review 2020

Each year I create a list of goals for every area of my life. Throughout the year I work on my goals, track my progress, and then commit to posting my top accomplishments. I hope to inspire you to do the same.

This was a difficult year for all of us. When talk of the lockdowns began, I decided to ask myself a question: how do I use the lockdown to make every area of my life better? I wanted to put my efforts and resources into positive action and still have an outstanding year despite obstacles that were outside my control.

Writing

I’ll start with short stories since I decided to put a lot of time into the creation, editing, and submitting of short tales. My efforts paid off with one acceptance and two honorable mentions. More info below.

Short Stories

My story Shattered was accepted and published in the Horror Zine’s 11th Anniversary issue. You might still find it free to read here.

Atonement received an Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest 1^st quarter 2020.

Received an honorable mention for my story Leviathan in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest for 3rd quarter 2020. (Including last year, this was the 3^rd story that received this honor in a row).

Completed and sent a new story (5,000 words) to Writers of the Future contest 4^th quarter.

Wrote a 1,700 word short story for Weird Tales but the contest was canceled. The story is cooling while awaiting an edit and a new market.

Sent stories to 24 markets including WOTF, The Horror Zine & the Baen Fantasy Award. More than normal and due to Covid restrictions.

Each story submitted received a new polish edit bringing writing up to current standard.

Wrote 2 new stories, one for Weird Tales and the other for WOTF.

Magic Moments

Editor told me I was writing at a profesional level.

Received invites to resubmit from pro and semi-pro publications.

Had a top editor include me in a post where he touted the quality of fiction in the Horror Zine.

Reading

I love to read but have been a little distracted. I’ll make it a goal to read more next year.

Marketing

I fell off from blogging and only posted 1 video related to writing.

An opportunity arose that I can’t talk about yet. Stay tuned, I’ll let you know more by the middle of January.

Completed the free Writers of the Future writing workshop. It’s great! What are you waiting for? Take the workshop here.

Novels

Completed up to Chapter 17 in Black Magic Bullets that began as an NaNoWriMo project. As the Covid lockdown took over, I found myself spending more time finishing up a completed novel and writing short fiction for the WOTF contest. I received good feedback on this first draft, including an excited reader who compared my story to the Dresden Files.

Completed the ProWritingAid edit of The Tower. I deleted over 30k words bringing the story from 90k to 60k. I cut this thing to the bone!

Reassessed Year of the Demon and am considering transforming it into urban fantasy. If nothing else, I’ve decided to put it through another round of edits before sending it out again.

Darkness Absolute (working title)

Began a redux in late February bringing the events back to the late 1990s. Hopefully it will be complete by the time 90s nostalgia hits.

Wolves of Vengeance

On account of the lockdowns, I decided to do a free kindle promotion of WoV.

Free kindle promotion received 31 downloads.

ProWritingAid purchased WoV as part of a Facebook promotion

Martial Arts and Physical fitness

With many martial arts seminars on hold, I wanted to make sure I kept up with solo training. My main goals were to burn calories, stay sharp, and improve my flexibility. Most of my kicking had been centered around practical low line techniques. I decided to return to high kicks to increase my stretch.

Warmed up and stretched before each session (ballistic, static, active, etc.).

I purchased Marco Lala’s stretching video and put his recommendations into practice. Check out his products here.

Performed shadow kickboxing session 3 times per week with Patty.

Utilized Bas Rutten’s Thai Boxing workout routine 3-4 two minute rounds with one-minute rest. This is high Intensity Interval training (HIIT). You can still get his MMA Workout CDs & DVD here.

Practiced combination kicking with an emphasis on high kicks for stretching. Spinning and turning kicks to reclaim agility.

Hojo Undo (supplementary exercises): Performed the 1^st five dumbell exercises in the original P90X program, low weight high reps 3x per week. Performed calisthenics on many opposite days. Also, practiced various squats for leg day.

Ken Suburi (basic sword cuts) Inspired by the last korean sword seminar I attended, I performed 100 sword cuts per session with bokken from various stances.

Kata/hyung worked various forms and studied bunkai and oyo for practical effectiveness. Focused on improving Gankaku/Jindo. In the early days we learned advanced forms for testing but tended not to go back to them.

Sinawalli: practiced double stick solo paterns shadow and on targets.

Knife: practiced basic knife cuts and patterns along with live hand positioning.

Improved my high kicks to where I can once again kick above my own head height.

Created the Warrior Temple Garage Dojang. I utilized the dumpster provided by our condo association to clean out the garage. I swept the area, put down puzzle mats, hung up an American and Korean Flag and equipped the area with training items including a target bag.

Began wearing a fitness tracker. Discovered that even with exercise I’m struggling to maintain moderate activity during the lockdown.

I posted some martial arts videos on YouTube. As the summer heated up, I fell out of making videos. I might go back to it eventually.

I attended some virtual seminars on FaceBook Live.

I was accepted as a Moo Duk Kwan Herritage Member.

I attended the 75^th anniversary of the Moo Duk Kwan Zoom seminar. It was amazing to reconnect to my Moo Duk Kwan roots, roots that go back to my Dad and my 2^nd cousin.

I utilized a free GracyU program preview but I fell out of using it.

Family

Called my parents 2x per week.

Celebrated 25 years of marriage & 28 years together.

Post Christmas get together at in-laws in January 2020.

Visited parents at Foxwoods

Diesel’s yearly physical along with distemper and rabies shots.

Helped my parents with their car radio—went up for a visit and had lunch.

Health

February Eye Appointment.

March Dentist Cleaning.

August eye appointment.

September Dental Cleaning with full x-rays.

November Annual physical. Everything normal but I could use to lose a little Covid weight. I was up 5 pounds.

I began weighing in again and counting calories. Then I found that just limiting my calorie intake worked better than keeping track in a food planner.

By restricting calories and continued exercise, I was able to lose the 5 pounds by the middle of December. This goal continues and is on going. My last weigh-in near the end of December showed I had lost close to 7 pounds since my physical.

Cars

Patty was sideswiped in a parking garage and we had Liberty Auto fix the damage. We only paid deductible.

Had airbags replaced through a Subaru recall for my car.

Mass State Inspection for both cars.

Air Conditioner Warranty Repair at Mazda for Patty’s car.

House

Purchased a desk and set up an office for Patty to work from home during lockdown.

Purchased draw organizers for kitchen.

Removed hutch on entertainment center to streamline and make more modern.

Utilized dumpster provide by association to clean out garage. Turned garage into lockdown dojang.

Purchased Robot Vac to keep house tidy.

Attached a strap to our living room TV to make it Diesel proof. Patty let me use power tools?

Travel

Hahaha! Our plans were sidelined by Covid.

AV/Tech/Cord-cutting

Canceled Philo. It’s a great service and cheap, but we weren’t watching it enough.

Began donating $5 per month to Locast to get reliable local stations through streaming.

Got a 3 month trial of Peacock. We didn’t watch it enough and canceled.

STARZ – we got a couple free 3 month previews. Not enough movies or shows we were interested in to keep.

HBO $10 a month for 3 months through Amazon. We ended up going with the HBO Max promotion for $11 a month.

We tried two weeks of YouTube TV but we rarely watch anything except local/network programing. It’s a great service but canceled after the trial.

Sling Happy Hour free after 5pm or something like that. We signed up and it’s a good service but we didn’t use it enough to justify the cost after the free Happy Hour ended.

We watched The Phantom of the Opera musical free on YouTube.

Epix was free for a time on Apple+ and we watched a couple movies.

Love Never Dies free on YouTube.

Watched Halloween 2018 on Blu-Ray as part of a Twitter watch party with the cast.

Watched Sly Stallone discuss Rocky while watching movie live streaming.

I began posting Youtube videos regarding dollar tree finds and movie collecting.

Xfinity provided us with a free subscription to Peacock Premium along with a free Flex streaming box.

Other interest/passions

Don’t mind the homophone confusion in the title. Should read: Dollar Tree Blu-Ray Haul!

Made many trips to Dollar Tree stores in my surrounding area to pick up DVDs and Blu-Ray discs.

Purchased some movies on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Sampled Redbreast 12 Irish Potstill Whisky. So good! This was my first time sipping an authentic Irish whisky that’s not a blend.

That’s about it for this year. See you in 2021!!!

Free Horror Fiction: Shattered

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I just wanted to announce that my cosmic horror story, “Shattered,” is included, and free to read, in the 11th Anniversary issue of The Horror Zine! Check it out here!

The Scribe’s Arcanum: Anatomy of an Indie Novel—Wolves of Vengeance Part 2

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As an organic writer, I firmly believe in letting the characters dictate the narrative within the plot structure. To that end, I created the first three main characters.

Jack Amon

Jack, much like his real-life counterpart, was a former bully in high school, a drug user, and a problem drinker. Turning his life around, he moves out of the fictional Wellington, Massachusetts, and gets a job in construction in the equally fictional Farmington, MA. When he hears about his old friends dying from wild animal attacks, he remembers the curse Michael Matheson put on all of them. A curse they had laughed off. He returns to Wellington to attend a funeral and to investigate the real reasons his old classmates are dying. Writers often use the name Jack for the quintessential hero, but I also had another reason. As I mentioned in part 1, I received partial inspiration from Flatliners (1988), and Kiefer Sunderland’s character in the film. The TV show 24 made me think of Sunderland as Jack Bauer. I decided Jack would be a good first name. In high school, I loved King Diamond’s horror concept albums and took Jack’s surname from the house (Amon) in the albums, Them and Conspiracy.

Michael Matheson

Michael was bullied which eventually led to him attending Gold’s Tae Kwon Do to protect himself. But Michael had a dark side, dabbling in black magic and the occult. Finding a spell in an old grimoire, he performed a ritual to awaken the Wolves of Vengeance, a corporal curse to attack his bullies. After performing the ritual, nothing happened. Michael chalked it up as a failure. Twenty-something years later the Wolves finally arrive and begin killing their marks. Michael never left Wellington and took over the school when Gold retired. Michael comes from my middle name and Matheson as an homage to Richard Matheson, the author of such works as I am Legend. Like Jack, he’s a composite character, drawn from more than one person, but he’s somewhat based on me.

Katty LaRocque

Katty was an aspiring musician in high school (a guitarist to be exact) and a self-described rocker chick. She, like Jack, has a problem with alcohol. Unlike Jack, she’s a full-blown alcoholic. Her pet name derives from her high school persona (catty) and Andy LaRoche’s (King Diamond guitarist) last name. She’s based on various musicians I knew in high school and a real-life rocker chick from my high school.

Welcome to Hell: A working Guide for the Beginning Writer

I had read Tom Piccirilli’s Welcome to Hell: A Working Guide for the Beginning Writer. Pic suggested newer novelists lightly outline the first half of their novels. I took his advice. Once the outline was complete, I realized the manuscript would only reach novella length. Needing to beef up the manuscript, I asked myself this question:

What characters do I need to tell this story?

Police involvement was a given. Adding a detective made sense.

The only thing I worried about was voluminous research. What experience did I have that I could transfer to the character to make him believable? Turns out, I had more than I thought.

I had worked a decade in private security, part of the criminal justice field. First, as a patrol officer, then as a security manager, and finally as a human resources recruiter. Security work put me in regular contact with police, fire, and EMS. As a security manager, I had performed investigations and later worked for a security and investigations firm, picking up interesting information directly from private investigators.

My dad had also worked in private investigations, safety & security, special police, and fire, along with being one of the first EMTs in Massachusetts. He had been in charge of makeup and effects for emergency response training. When I was a kid he’d sometime practice the makeup effects on me. I grew up with this stuff!

I had also recently visited my local PD to renew a license and got the nickel tour. I used my hometown police station as a model for the one in the book.

The Writer’s Digest Howdunit series filled in many of the gaps.

Police Procedural: a Writers Guide to the Police and how they work

With the research and experience in mind, I set about creating Detective Adrian Callahan. Originally, he was nothing more than a generic Irish cop. My wife would later express an idea that would help flesh out his character. More on that later.

All in all, I consider my detective a success. I had a former law enforcement officer say as much. He felt my detective was accurate and believable. You can’t get much better than that.

With the decision to include a detective, I then decided that the military in some form might also be involved. I thought about adding a grizzled military captain but not wanting to include another generic character, I cast a woman as my military captain. At that moment, Captain Amanda Rann was born.

Next time, I’ll discuss how Callahan’s changes made him a controversial character, and how Rann becomes a driving force in the novel.

Get Wolves of Vengeance here!

The Scribe’s Arcanum: Anatomy of an Indie Novel—Wolves of Vengeance Part 1

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Note: Since most people are sheltering in place, I figured I’d make my first novel FREE for as long as Amazon lets me. You can get Wolves of Vengeance here. If you read it, and you’re so inclined, I’d love for you to post a review on Amazon. Just a few sentences and whatever star rating you feel it deserves would be perfect. Thanks!

Back in 2006, I abandoned my first novel. I had spent four long years trying to wrangle that mess of a manuscript into a cohesive whole, and by the time I figured out how to save it—I had a big problem. My skill level at the time was no match for the complexity of the story. I stepped away from the project.

I decided to develop an idea originally envisioned as a screenplay.

The seed of that idea came from an incident in high school and the aftermath that would stay with me forever.

The “stranger comes to town” motif of Stephen King’s novels, along with the “man and woman come together to defeat a great evil while healing themselves in the process” motif, often seen in Dean Koontz novels, inspired my approach to this story.

Buy Salem’s Lot from Amazon*

Also, the film Flatliners, where Kiefer Sunderland’s character “flatlines” and has a confrontation with the “ghost” of the child he bullied when he was younger, was very influential.

Buy Flatliners on Amazon*

Here’s some background information:

In 1987, after dealing with bullies in my freshman year, I attended an old school Tae Kwon Do dojang (training hall). Our teacher ran the place like a fight gym. The students were motivated adults, mostly working-class men who liked to beat the crap out of each other for fun. It was a rough tutelage. We maintained military bearing, conditioned ourselves like fighters, and lived for continuous contact sparring practiced every night without safety equipment.

Within a short time, the fierce reputation of the dojang, along with winning a few school fights, ended the bullying.

In my senior year, I slacked off a little with my training. Without the constant need to defend myself, I lost my motivation.

Then providence intervened.

Without going into the details, I had an altercation with a student. We’ll call him Jack. After the encounter, he said he would beat me up after school.

I waited for him in the parking lot, but he never showed. That should have ended it.

Instead, the next day, a female student asked if Jack and I had fought. I told her he never showed. And then, stupidly, I added: “He must have been too scared to fight me.”

My comment didn’t allow Jack to save face. I had just been afflicted by the symptoms of foot-in-mouth disease. My remark made it back to him, and this time he was waiting for me after school.

We had a standoff and a shouting match. The principle broke it up. Although we threw no punches, we both declared victory.

Of course, neither of us wanted to fight and is the reason we ended up in a stalemate. But from that point on, I needed to train just in case we ended up throwing down. I went straight back to hard training at the dojang. Two years later, I would earn a black belt. You can watch the highlights of that test here. Skip to near the end for sparring.

Jack and I never had words again. We ended up at the same party once, not long after high school, but we kept to ourselves.

The last time I saw him, he was walking around the downtown area. I was driving my girlfriend’s (now my wife) brand-new car. We made eye contact. That moment seemed like a little victory.

I never forgot about our skirmish, though. Without a resolution, the incident nestled insidiously in my subconscious.

A few years later, my dad called to tell me Jack had died of a drug overdose.

I began to wonder what would have happened if he had turned his life around. That gave me an idea. I could give him a new life in the screenplay idea I had always meant to write. In that instant, Jack Amon and Wolves of Vengeance were born.

In 2006, I decided to develop that idea into a novel.

Next time, I’ll explain how I expanded the idea into novel form and how I developed the main cast of characters.

*As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

Free Kindle Version of Epitaphs!

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I hope everyone is doing well during these crazy times. Just wanted to let you know that Epitaphs: The Journal of the New England Horror Writers is free for a limited time on Kindle. This anthology includes my story, “Malfeasance.” Happy Reading!

If you’re interested in how I wrote and sold this story you can read about it here.

Before I go, I want to let you know I’ve been behind on my blog writing. You probably already know that. Haha! But I will be continuing The Scribes of Arcanum: Anatomy of a Sale series. I also want to get back to my NaNoWriMo novel, BLACK MAGIC BULLETS.

On an encouraging note, I just received an acceptance from an award-winning webzine. I’ll have a free story online for you to ready sometime in July.

I’ve been plugging away at the final edits of a 90,000-word horror thriller. Hopefully, I’ll be finished soon and can put it on the market.

The better part of this week was spent rewriting a short story for an anthology open call. I really love the story, but it needed a lot of TLC to bring it up to my current standards.

I also sent out a Lovecraft inspired story to another anthology open call.

That’s it for now. I’ll be back soon. Stay safe out there!

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Scribe’s Arcanum: Anatomy of Writers of the Future Honorable Mention—Blade of the Vagabond Part 3

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For Part 1, click here. For Part 2, click here.

Realizing I could resubmit Blade of the Vagabond to the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest, I set out to put the 8,000-word version through a final polish. I uploaded the manuscript into ProWritingAid and began making my prose lean and mean. With an even cleaner manuscript, I went through the process outlined on the Writers of the Future website and submitted it through their web-portal.

Writers of the Future Volume 35

There was nothing else to do but wait and keep working on my current project. After facing rejection a few times with this story, I had no expectations. In fact, I sent it off only to keep the manuscript circulating. I didn’t feel the story in its shortest form, grabbed a top spot, and I didn’t have time to re-edit the longer version to make the submission window. Truly, I would need to add back between 1,000 and 1,500 words to sand down what I felt was an awkward transition.

Imagine my surprise when I received this email:

Dear Entrant,

Your story has been judged and is an Honorable Mention for the 3^rd quarter of the L Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. (You entered between 1 April and 30 June <2019>).

Congratulations!!! You were in the top 2% of all entries.

Getting an Honorable Mention from the Writers of the Future contest is a big deal. There are no figures on how many enter the contest each quarter. It’s a very large number. From the information I had, we could estimate something like 14,000 entries! I’m not sure if that number’s accurate, but if it is, it’s understandable why they wouldn’t want to make it public. They want you to send in your story, and if that number intimidates you, you’ll be less likely to submit. Probably the largest and most prestigious contest in the Science Fiction and Fantasy genre. If you want to get any recognition—bring your A-game.

Receiving the Honorable Mention was a nice pick-me-up during a long dry period in sales. It showed I was on the right track, encouraging me to redouble my efforts.

It also made me reevaluate my writing career direction. Previously, I’d been submitting mostly short horror stories and writing a combination of novel-length thrillers and horror thrillers. After the Honorable Mention, I began not only working on an Urban Fantasy novel but reevaluated some of my unpublished short fiction to market it as dark fantasy or rewrite it as Urban fantasy. No matter which, I’ll probably work on more fantasy and Science fiction as I go forward.

A list of all the Honorable Mentions and Winners for that quarter can be found here.

A great post with tips on writing for the contest can be found here.

So, that’s it. That’s the full story of how I got an Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest. If you enter, and I hope you do, I wish you the best of luck. Keep plugging away. I know I am!

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Black Magic Bullets: Chapter 17

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I have finally returned to Black Magic Bullets. This chapter is very short, but after so long a wait, I wanted to post something. I’m sorry for the delay. Before I present this next chapter, let me explain what led up to the previous chapter.

I had no idea what would happen when Kenzi and Harrison entered the basement. Usually, I’d just write out of order and go to a scene a little further along in the narrative, but since I’m posting the first draft publicly, I didn’t want to leave the audience hanging. By moving on, the next scene usually tells me what needs to come before. In that way, I can become unstuck and move on. Since I wasn’t going to do that, I had reached an impasse. Luckily, an idea arrived quickly.

Everything I read, watch, and experience tends to inform how the story develops. Black Magic Bullets is no exception.

Interestingly enough, we ended up putting on Bright with Will Smith on Netflix one night. Not a great movie, even when just streaming in the background.

Bright reminded me of Alienation meets Lord of the Rings in an Urban Fantasy world. I thought it interesting how close the orcs and elves were to J.R.R. Tolkien’s creations. After the movie ended, I realized I wanted to put orcs in the basement level of the building in Black Magic Bullets. I was intrigued but didn’t want my story to be derivative of Tolkien’s world.

The Lord of the Rings*

Then I remembered Ogre, Ogre by Piers Anthony, a novel set in his Xanth series. I hadn’t thought of that novel since the mid-80s. Using an ogre appealed to me more since they’re derived directly from world mythology. And that’s how ogre’s ended up in my manuscript.

Ogre, Ogre (Xanth)

Now, without further ado, here’s the 1st draft of Chapter Seventeen.

BLACK MAGIC BULLETS

An Urban Fantasy

David North-Martino

Working as an Inhuman Resources Recruiter is no walk through the cemetery, especially when you’ve been cursed and your head is filled with stollen secrets from one of the most powerful occult groups in Boston. To survive, you might just need a few…

BLACK MAGIC BULLETS

Chapter Seventeen

The next location went much the same way as the first, this time—thankfully— with no ogres. That was a relief. But all this searching was eating up time.

Cyber contacted us not long after we dejectedly left the second abandoned structure. She had an idea for a place to check out that I would never have imagined. I supposed that was why Dreadstone employed her. She had thought through the situation and trusted her, but I still didn’t have much hope of finding Dedra’s body.

When we arrived at the maze of small buildings, the sun had reached its zenith.

“Take another hit,” Kenzi said.

I already hated this part of the job. I couldn’t wait until my mystical abilities matured.

I took the hit of the gas and stepped out of the BMW.

Entering the maze, we snaked our way through squat metal buildings. Kenzi followed my lead. Each unit painted blue reminding me of the identical prefab houses in the culdesacs of the middle-class and the ubiquitous brick government housing of the underprivileged.

Then I saw the signature and told Kenzi as much. I wish I hadn’t.

The storage locker looked the same as any other, but this one was different. Would the locker contain Dedra’s body? I didn’t want to know.

Kenzi stepped in front of the locker, raising a crowbar.

Metal struck metal. Once, twice, a third time. Finally, the padlock gave way. Plucking from its resting place, Kenzi tossed it. The padlock bounced once off concrete and came to rest.

Squatting, Kenzi lifted the gate and immediately turned her head.

Foul air escaped the confines. Now I knew the odor of the dead.

Kenzi turned her head as if slapped. I suspected once we found the body, I’d turn green and throw up. Unlike the male body in the basement, this one had succumbed to heat and cold and was generally worse for wear.

Although I felt queasy, my stomach didn’t betray me. I was grateful. The last thing I wanted was to lose my cookies in front of Kenzi.

“If this is her,” Kenzi said, examining the body. “We won’t be needing that shovel.”

“How will we know?”

Kenzi grabbed a body bag from the trunk and then returned.

“The body’s female,” she said. “We bring her back to Dreadstone.”

“And if it is her?” I asked.

“Then we have a murderer to find.”

To be continued…

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The Scribe’s Arcanum: Anatomy of a Writers of the Future Honorable Mention—Blade of the Vagabond Part 2

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In part 1, I examined the inspiration that led to writing Blade of the Vagabond (you can read that here). In Part 2, we’ll continue as I turn BOTV into a novelette and send it out to the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future contest.

Originally, Blade of the Vagabond had a subtitle. The first 20,000-word version was called Blade of the Vagabond: Heaven, Earth, and Woman. The subtitle is a play on a Confucian concept of Heaven, Earth, and Man where, in very simplistic terms, man acts as the harmonizing force between the spiritual and material realms or perhaps between the opposites of Yin and Yang. The place in-between where truth resides. That’s close enough for a laymen’s understanding, but I’m sure I’ll get some criticism for it. If you have a more succinct explanation, feel free to post in the comments. I welcome your thoughts.

Anyway, I changed Man to Woman in the subtitle as my main character is female.

I was introduced to the term through my martial arts practice and have been fascinated ever since. The concept became the central focus of the story.

Once I had finished the first draft, I put the story away, awaiting a viable market. As I mentioned in Part 1, the open submission period ended before I completed the first draft. Luckily, soon after, the original publisher reopened for submissions.

I edited my draft and then gave it to Patty for a proofread. After reading the initial draft, Patty dubbed this story her favorite of any I had written. After a polish edit, I felt satisfied enough to send it and await a response.

Feeling this story represented my best work, I was convinced it had a good chance of selling. I sent it to them with high hopes. What happened next would change the course of how I submitted the story.

The editorial team from the publishing house contacted me and their response surprised me. Originally, the story had a prologue. In the opening, we see one villain, a henchman to the Big Bad, not the protagonist, as he prepares for infiltration and assassination. It was a long opening filled with action and intrigue. The idea was to pull the reader into the action before we reached the first chapter and met the protagonist. I felt this high action opening increased the danger and tension, setting up the story for the final confrontation.

The editors, however, had mistaken my prologue (which was clearly labeled) with the first chapter and the villain’s henchman with my main protagonist. They felt too separated from the “protagonist” as if watching a movie and weren’t fully engaged by the writing. I found this odd since my story’s subtitle was Heaven, Earth, and Woman, how could they mistake my male antagonist for my female protagonist?

Here’s what they wrote:

I appreciated how this began in media res, watching someone on a mission , but there was a lot of action with no motivation. Movies often open this way and perhaps it works better in cinema because camera angles and music can create emotional sensations in the audience, but with prose our connection is a little more difficult to forge. I spend too much of this story following the protagonist without sharing the feelings, which hamstrings our ability to anticipate or experience true tension. This is subjective and another editorial team may feel differently, so I wish you the best of luck placing it elsewhere.

Pro Tip: Editors are overworked and if they’re confused by your submission, they’ll reject you. They won’t give you the benefit of the doubt. They don’t have time.

Yet, there’s more to learn. Many wannabe writers base their stories on films and TV shows and use a cinematic technique throughout the whole book. Because of this, the cinematic technique may brand you as an amateur. It’s unfortunate but understandable.

Also, there’s an important reason I didn’t share the antagonist’s feelings: he doesn’t have any. Using a potion and mind-altering meditative techniques, the antagonist blots out his feelings.

What I thought was obvious wasn’t. Would every editor feel the same? There was no way to know. Removing the Prologue didn’t hurt the story. With a few tweaks, I annexed it. Cutting the story lowered the word count making it more marketable.

Pro Tip: Novellas and novelettes are a harder sell for newer and less established writers.

I also wondered if readers who liked the prologue would enjoy the main story and vice versa. Both sections had a different tone.

Next, I sent a modified version to a top pro magazine. The response I received was encouraging. This editor enjoyed the writing. He wrote, “some really good writing here,” personalizing the rejection letter.

Pro Tip: Getting compliments from professional editors at top magazines is a very good sign. It may mean you’re writing at a professional level or are close.

Here’s the thing: did I think a top magazine would buy a 16,000-word novella from a virtual unknown? No, but it was worth a try and gave me valuable feedback. You can’t win if you don’t play.

Encouraged by the pro editor’s response, I sent the story to L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest. The 16,000-word version didn’t win.

Then I heard about another contest at a very large and popular SF and Fantasy Independent press. The problem? Their upper word count was 8,000 words. If I wanted to send them Blade of the Vagabond, I’d have to cut the story in half. Could I trim the story to its essence, reducing it to the low end of novelette form, while keeping enough plot for the story to make sense? That was a good question. Some poignant moments and a subplot or two would need to be removed, but I believed it could be done. I set out on a mission.

I whittled it down to 9,000 words without losing the main plot, but I had to do without some poignant moments and some of what made the first two versions of the story unique.

Now to shave the manuscript to 8,000 words, I had to lose a connector scene. The story still worked well enough, but I wasn’t happy with the transition between one chapter. If I wanted to submit to the contest, I’d have to live with it.

Once sent, I returned to my novel (working title: The Tower) already in progress.

When the contest ended, and they announced winners, it was time to send Blade of the Vagabond somewhere else.

L. Ron Hubbard Presents Writers of the Future Vol. 35*

I received an email notification from the director of Writers of the Future that there was still time to submit a story for the 3^rd quarter. Could I send a different version of the same story to the contest? I’d have to find out. If allowed, I figured it was worth a shot.

Next time I’ll tell you what happened, how I edited my manuscript into shape, and what I learned in the process. I’ll see you then.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

The Scribe’s Arcanum: Anatomy of a Writers of the Future Honorable Mention—Blade of the Vagabond Part 1

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Today I’d like to discuss how my story, Blade of the Vagabond, was created and how it was ultimately awarded an Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest.

The idea to write Blade of the Vagabond came when I noticed an open call from a major science fiction and fantasy publisher. They were looking for fantasy novellas inspired by non-European cultures. An idea hit me so powerfully that I stopped work on my novel in progress to focus on this new project.

At the time I had no hope of making the deadline, but the idea wouldn’t leave me alone. I put everything aside and pushed on.

The first inkling of a concept for this story began to sprout while taking an Arthurian Literature class at UMASS Lowell. The professor, Dr. Archer, assigned a paper where we were to write about any topic on the Middle Ages we wanted to explore. I knew exactly what I wanted to research and became excited by the prospect.

Having been a martial artist all my life, and having years of training in a system centered on Japanese Feudal combat, I decided to research Medieval fighting systems. My focus was on sword schools as there was ample woodcut evidence through surviving woodcuts that depicted the techniques.

I used books like Sigmund Ringeck’s Knightly Arts of Combat: Sword and Buckler Fighting, Wrestling, and Fighting in Armor by David Lidholm.

Knightly Arts of Combat: Sword-and-Buckler Fighting, Wrestling, and Fighting in Armor

As I crafted the paper, I thought about how interesting it would be to include realistic combat dynamics into fantasy fiction. The concept stayed in the back of my mind but remained just a potential idea jotted down in my notebook.

When I learned about the open call for non-European inspired fantasy fiction, I thought it would be fun to create a world based on ancient Japan. Although, I also drew from ancient Korea and China.

The Comming of Conan The Cimmerian*

Wanting to create a swashbuckling sword and sorcery epic fantasy drama, I drew upon many inspirations including Robert E. Howard’s Conan the Barbarian and Kull the Conquer series of stories. Inspiration also came from the Seven Samurai (1954) and the Jidaigeki (period dramas) and chanbara (sword fighting Amurai cinema).

Seven Samurai*

However, I didn’t want to include the samurai or the ninja as this had been done to death. Instead, I used an obscure book as my inspiration for a fighting wizard character: Leung Ting’s Skills of the Vagabonds. The book had capitalized on the 1980s ninja boom comparing the Chinese Vagabond assassins to Japan’s ninja assassins. Marketing at its finest! The glowing eyes on the cover of the book had stayed with me over the years and I thought it would be great fodder for fantasy fiction.

Skills of the Vagabonds

Delving deeply into Japanese mythology, I began to craft the story into a 20,000-word novella, the low end of the word count required for submission.

For the title, I decided on a mixture of Skills of the Vagabond and a variant of the “Swords” titles prevalent in the fantasy genre like Swords against Wizardry (Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser sequence) by Fritz Leiber and Sword of Destiny (Witcher Saga) by Andrzej Sapkowski. Blade of the Vagabond sounded like a fantasy story to my ear.

Sword of Destiny (The Witcher)*

Despite the open call ending before I finished, I soldiered on completing the first draft and then shelving the project until, six months later, they opened for submissions once again.

Next time, I’ll delve into the submission process that led to receiving an Honorable Mention. I’ll also reveal the original title and how and why it changed. I hope you’ll follow my blog to find out what happened.

*As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Year in Review 2019

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Each year I create a list of goals for every area of my life. Throughout the year I work on my goals, track my progress, and then commit to posting my top accomplishments. I hope in doing so it will inspire you to do the same.

Writing

Novels

Finished the third-draft of The Tower of Abandon, a horror-thriller novel that is hovering around 75,000 words.

Entered the St. Martin’s Minotaur/Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition.

Participated in the National November Writing Month (NaNoWriMo).

Began writing Black Magic Bullets (Urban Fantasy) during NaNoWriMo and published 16 (first-draft) chapters on my blog.

I FREAKING LOVE THIS. It fills a void that Harry Dresden has left. –Review from a Twitter follower.

Began utilizing ProWritingAid to tighten my prose.

Short Stories

Awarded an Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Contest putting my story in the top 2% of all entries.

My story Shattered (3,200 words) was shortlisted for inclusion in an anthology.

Submitted to 11 fiction markets including 2 submissions to WOTF.

Reviews

Wrote and posted a review of glass slipper dreams, shattered by Doungjai Gam.

Wrote and posted a review of Ararat by Christopher Golden.

Read through a manuscript and gave input to a pro/Indy writer.

Notable Books Read

The Chinaman (The Foreigner) by Stephen Leather

Eaters of the Dead by Michael Crichton

Ararat by Christopher Golden

The Big Bopper Rises by Reb MacRath

Dr. Sleep by Stephen King

Without Remorse by Tom Clancy

Storm Front by Jim Butcher

Writers of the Future Vol. 35

Marketing/Platform

Wrote 21 plus Scribes of Arcanum Anatomy of a Sale blog posts.

Reposted 2 of my out of print stories on my blog.

Posted 16 (1^st draft) chapters of Black Magic Bullets on blog.

Family & Friends

Introducing our adoptive cat, Diesel!

We adopted a five-year-old tuxedo cat from the Woonsocket Cat Sanctuary. He had gone semi-feral and they thought he might never be adoptable. Surprisingly, to all the staff, Diesel took to us very quickly. Although, once we got him home, he hid for almost a month. Now he can’t get enough of us and has made it his mission to become a lap cat. The main challenge we had with him is that at some point, as far as the vet can tell, he bit the inside of his cheek and he had to take meds to heal his wound. We brought him to the vet 4 times this year for checkups and it seems he has finally healed. Diesel has made himself at home and has become a part of our family.

I drove my dad (and my mom) to an eye doctor appointment the day after his cataract surgery and then we went to lunch.

I met my parents for breakfast at Foxwoods.

Met briefly with friends at the New England Whiskey Fest.

Saw Rambo: Last Blood with my dad.

Went to New Orleans for our Anniversary.

Had Thanksgiving dinner with the In-Laws.

Kept in touch with my friend and former English professor through email.

Martial Arts and Other Training.

I was Patty’s plus one at Planet Fitness. Most of my time there was for leg days. I spent 30 minutes on either the treadmill or incumbent bike and then performed weighted leg lifts and squats among other exercises.

Celebrated 32 years of formal martial arts training.

Had the opportunity to take a couple Hapkido and open classes this year.

Attended the Chung Suk Kuhapdo (Korean sword) seminar taught by Master May of the Blue Stone Dojang.

After the seminar, I was invited to have lunch at Arisu Korean Restaurant in Leominster, MA. Had Sujeonggwa Cinnamon with Ginger Punch, Bulgogi beef with white rice and some appetizers, miso soup, and either Seafood Paijeon or Kimchi-jeon.

Home training included shadow boxing using JKD attack by combination (ABC) and Bas Rutten Boxing and Tai boxing HITT training, Kali double and single stick, stick and dagger, Bunkai and forms training, and Kunhapdo sword draws and 100 cuts.

Health

Had my annual physical and am the picture of health. Although, I could use to drop a couple pounds. Haha!

My doctor wanted a spot on my forehead checked by a dermatologist. I went to the appointment but it was a false alarm. No issues. Whew!

Began calcium and magnesium supplements.

Saw my ophthalmologist twice and my pressure has been down.

Had two dental cleanings. Dental exam showed a cracked tooth and I had to have a root canal that took three appointments to complete.

Cars

Had to replace tires on my car. They were nearing the end of their tread cycle and had dry rot.

I went through the process of replacing my driver’s license with a Real ID.

Patty’s struts failed and were replaced under warranty.

A small piece of composite worked it’s way inside one of Patty’s tires and was fixed for free.

Patty’s vehicle needed brakes and rotors.

Updated Patty’s out of date Mazda infotainment system firmware.

Cord Cutting

To save money we hooked up a Clearstream antenna to receive free Over The Air TV.

At the same time we switched to Philo for live TV streaming.

During the year we utilized free and discounted premium streaming services including Showtime and Starz. Starz is still ongoing.

Utilized free 30 day free trial for Netflix that is still ongoing.

Shopping

Utilized various discount stores and got loyalty cards for Ollie’s Bargain Outlet and Ocean State Job Lots.

Utilized a discounted BJ’s membership that is still ongoing.

Finances

Refinanced our mortgage

Leveraged taxes again to a tax preparer.

House

I put everything aside for about a month to do some much-needed house repairs.

We brought in an electrician to replace wired smoke and CO2 alarms along with adding a heat detector in the garage.

The electrician also updated lighting in the dining area, kitchen, and upstairs hall. We also had them replace the broken exhaust fan in the bathroom.

As part of the bathroom refresh to prep for the electrician and plumber, we painted the ceiling and installed a stick-on backsplash.

We had Victory Plumbing come in and rebuild shower fixtures in both the upstairs and downstairs bathrooms. The downstairs had seized and needed replacement and the upstairs was going. Also, I had to refresh the downstairs bathroom faucet and the kitchen faucet which was leaking.

I replaced the downstairs toilet innards to stop it from running. (I was tired of chasing after it! Haha).

I replaced the doorbell with a wireless doorbell.

I also changed out the garbage disposal.

We replaced our old stove since two of the burners no longer worked, and our old fridge since it was dying.

We had the electricians add an outlet in the garage ceiling to be up to code and then replaced our broken garage door and automatic door opener.

Travel & Fun

New Orleans

We hadn’t been to New Orleans since the year 2000 and it was nice to return to the Crescent City. It was very hot and muggy and we decided not to venture too far from our hotel, but still had a great time.

Stayed at the Wyndham French Quater – it was fine but would not recommend. The Concierge tried to pressure us into a timeshare presentation. We had trouble getting the maid service to clean our room but they were right there on the day we left looking for a tip. I have a tip for them—do your job!

Deuce Mcallister’s Ole Saint Kitchen & Tap was right next door, and very convenient when the weather became too oppressive for walking.

Started many a morning (or afternoon) with Chicory coffee and beignets at Cafe Beignet.

A bartender at B.B. King’s turned us onto Hochstadter’s Low & Slow Rock & Rye and Old Fashioned cocktail in a bottle.

We marched in a popup parade.

We ate at Oceana Red Fish, had Muffulettas at Central Grocery & Deli, and a farewell meal at Acme Oyster House.

Hung out at Jackson Square, toured St. Louis Cathedral and the Old Ursuline Convent, and walked around Frenchmen Street.

Watched Steamboat Willie at the Cafe Beignet at Musical Legends Park.

I performed Karaoke at The Cat’s Meow. Hey, someone has to entertain the people visiting the Big Easy! Watch my performance here!

Whitesnake Concert – Twin River Casino in Lincoln, RI

Patty took me to see Whitesnake at Twin River Casino in Lincoln, RI for my birthday.

We had a blast. Birthday dinner at Texas Roadhouse and washed it down with Slow & Easy whiskey sours at the concert.

New England Whiskey Fest – Twin River Casino in Lincoln, RI

Here’s a list of what we tried at the New England Whiskey Fest, along with initial impressions. If it wasn’t so busy, I’d have taken more pictures.

Glenfiddich Bourbon Barrel Reserve 14 – We both prefer the 12 or 15 Solara cask. Sweet arrival with a dry spicy finish.

Eagle Rare – Very sweet. Would make a good mixing whiskey.

Sazerac Rye – one of Patty’s favorites. Very spicy. Probably better in a Sazerac, but no problem drinking neat.

Whistle Pig Straight Rye 15 – Okay, would try again.

Highland Park 12 – Lightly peated. Nicely balanced. One of Patty’s favorites. I liked this a lot.

Auchentoshan 12 – I tried this. Very nice. Floral and sweet. Enjoyable.

Laphroaig 10 – Patty didn’t’ try. Either my tastes are changing or this whiskey has mellowed. Still has a strong taste of cough sweets, but I swear I was hunting for peat. Maybe tasting so many spirts changed the nature of this whiskey on my pallet.

Jameson Black Barrel – Patty tried. She wasn’t impressed.

A mixed drink with Bully Boy white whiskey. Patty tried and enjoyed it.

West Cork Port Cask finish – Patty tried and did not like.

Food

Bourbon infused cupcakes. Awesome!

Fred and Steve’s Steak House Steak Sandwich (I ate two!).

Shipyard Pub Truffle Fries.

Wicked Good Chicken Cheese Waffle or something. I had this but didn’t like it.

Wrapped Scallop w/ Bacon. Patty had one. She thought it was awesome.

Fiji supplied the water.

Popa Chubby provided the music.

A good time was had by all!

2019 Movies Watched in 2019 at Home

The Foreigner **** Starz – This is from 2017 but watched after reading Stephen Leather’s novel.

Captain Marvel ** Movies Anywhere.

The Curse of Llorona *** Amazon $.99 rental

Avengers: Endgame **** Movies Anywhere

Avengement **** DVD

Triple Threat ** /Blu-Ray

Annabelle Comes Home ** Prime rental

Kill Chain *** Prime

John Wick 3: Parabellum **** Blu-Ray

6 Underground *** Netflix

Men in Black: International * Starz

Spiderman: Far From Home **** Blu Ray

Brightburn ** Starz

2019 Movies watched in the Theater

Rambo: Last Blood **** Cinema World Fitchburg.

Ad Astra **** Providence Place IMAX

That’s it for 2019. I’ll see you in 2020!

Happy New Year!!!