Let's get this blog started...

Up until today I have been working on one (that’s 1) novel for more than twenty years.

Let’s just let that sink in for a moment.

Twenty years: One book.

And it’s never been published.

My book is a fantasy epic of approximately 160,000 words, the first of intended series. That works out to eight thousand words a year, or about twenty-one words a day...doesn’t sound like much of an accomplishment, does it? My friends and family tell me that’s quite an achievement just to have finished a novel...many have started out, but few have completed one. And I think they right. But it’s not enough. I want to be published, dang nab it! The problem is for over twenty years I have put all my eggs in one basket...and nobody wants the basket.

I have sent query letters to over three dozen agents over the years and for the most part I have only gotten back form letters saying thank you for your interest but we feel we are not the right agency for this project and we wish you best of luck in your future endeavours blah blah blah. And I really can’t blame them. They must be looking at storyline and thinking that this plot is sooooo 1990’s...and they would be right, of course. That’s when I really started writing it. But even the Double-Aughts are over and now we are into the One-ders and it’s time I started writing stories for the 21st century. So I am going to write four of them.

Or at least attempt to do so...

So that is what this blog is about. I am going to attempt to write four novels in one year, and chronicle my efforts. I don’t promise to write every single day—I am human after all and stuff happens—but I will try to write something daily, both working on the novels and commenting on it through this blog.

And I am sure this blog will not be just about my writing. I will comment about stuff that happens in my daily life. I will try to make it as interesting and entertaining as possible for you, my future devoted readers, but I don’t know who you are yet, so please bear with me. I also have to keep in mind that nobody will be reading this except my current friends and family, and that’s okay. This will be a way for us to keep in touch often, and I think it will be more interesting than simply creating a Facebook account.

This blog will also give me one hope and one fear. My hope is that by blogging about my progress on the four books, and having people read about it, it will keep me accountable to my goal. My fear, of course, is that I will spend too much time blogging and not enough time actually writing the novels. Hopefully by this time next year I will have completed four novels of different genres to shop around to agents, and one of them will catch their attention. Worse comes to worse, it will be a learning experience for me and I will have to come to grips that I couldn’t write my way out of paper bag if somebody soaked it first, and maybe I’ll take up fly fishing or playing the saxophone as a hobby...only time will tell...

Anyhoo, that’s it for now. On Saturday I will talk about the specifics of the four novels, on Sunday...well...we'll see what happens...and then on Monday I will be taking my trusty laptop on the bus and start working on the first book.

Now I’ve got to think of a clever signoff, some catchphrase I will use at the end of every blog...something witty and original and memorable...hmmm...

:: thinking...pondering...racking brain... ::

How about...

Publish or Perish.

I think that one has already been taken by college professors.

The journey of a thousand stories begins with a single word.

Too cliché sounding.

Don’t just talk about it—write about it!

Close...

I’ve got it!

Continuing on my write of passage,
James Baron