It Begins: 3rd At-Home Writing Retreat of 2024

Good morning!

The proof copy of "House on Top of the Hill" arrived on Wednesday, but I haven't made much progression in reading through it, just the prologue and two chapters.

So the goal this week is to read through ALL of it and upload the copyedited manuscript to KDP, which will hopefully result in an approved book and copies ordered.

I'm also planning to work on hard edits for the third book the BryonySeries Ruthless trilogy by Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara.

Oh, and I have a slew of BryonySeries, WriteOn Joliet, and assorted "life" tasks that need addressing. So this week of work is shaping up to be a working week of another kind.

Anyway, here is the synopsis and chapter titles of "House on Top of the Hill," the third book in the BryonySeries Limbo trilogy. Cover image is by Timothy Baran.

Note: Despite the wording of the synopsis none of the story is actually told from the perspective of Steve Barnes, although he appears in most of the chapters.

Instead the novel, which spans forty - fairly consecutively - years, is told through a slew of different protagonists in a seemingly short story format. But the chapters all possess an underlying theme, recurring characters, and an ending that won't make sense if you skip to it first.

This post has more details on how the BryonySeries fits together.

Happy Monday!

Change comes slowly to Munsonville, and for Steve Barnes, who spends his entire life in the village, that's just fine. From boyhood to manhood, he savors the slow pace and friendly smiles, even while working by his parents' side from sunup to sundown to run the family diner.

The only blight is this fishing village's preoccupation with an empty mansion in the woods, whose tales of former glory and catastrophe fueled a rampage of ghost stories. Steve doesn't believe them, but some do – and no no one can deny the power the crumbling old building holds over them.

Especially when it changes everyone, including Steve, forever.

Prologue

Chapter 1: The Traveling Salesman

Chapter 2: Roundtable

Chapter 3: Bottle of the Red Stuff

Chapter 4: Cracking Open the Nest Egg

Chapter 5: Picture Postcards

Chapter 6: Whispers of the Heart

Chapter 7: I Run at Night

Chapter 8: Laid to Rest

Chapter 9: Necking

Chapter 10: Spider and Fly

Chapter 11: Death Heard Round the World

Chapter 12: Mine

Chapter 13: Second Sight

Chapter 14: Chop, Sizzle, Broil, and Bake

Chapter 15: The Rage

Chapter 16: Hard Choice to Make

Chapter 17: Through the Camera’s Eye

Chapter 18: Words Enough For Me

Chapter 19: The All-Hallowed Albatross

Chapter 20: Dancing in the Past

Chapter 21: The New Professor

Chapter 22: Enigma in Residence

Chapter 23: Rain

Chapter 24: From Fry Pan to Factotum

Chapter 25: Nutty Tina Swanson

Chapter 26: Preternatural Guest

Chapter 27: A New Lease on a Very Old Dream

Chapter 28: Journey of a Thousand Heartaches

Chapter 29: The News That Changed Everything

Chapter 30: Severed Links

Epilogue

When You First Hold Your Words in Your Hands

Many people who write fiction have those stories in their heads for many years before they feel brave enough to actually write them.

Many people who write fiction know, deep down, they will never see their work traditionally published.

Even when people who write fiction understand they can self-publish and share their writings with a few, the process feels so daunting they never tackle it.

And many people who write fiction also know that, however they publish, few actual people will ever read those words, even if they sell their books.

Knowing all of this, writers still, somehow, write.

And no joy can match the the joy when the first proof copy of your first book arrives in the mail and you can actually hold your words in your hands.

Pictured is the real Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara (yes, he's a real person), holding the proof copy of Ruthless, his first novel.

His wife Nancy, a beloved art teacher who made the front page of the Daily Southtown when she retired from Brodnicki Elementary School in Justice in 2014 - and was subsequently given the keys of the city - created all the interior and cover art.

Rebekah created the actual cover and did all the formatting.

I did all the editing - except for one round of copyediting that Colleen H Robbins did - and am currently copyediting the proof.

But nothing matches the work Ed himself put into this novel.

You see, Ed is extremely dyslexic and scatterbrained - his own words. And he's also said he's never finished anything. 

My kids say this is not true. He's worked as a supervisor in newspaper delivery his entire life. And he always finished his routes.

Nevertheless, this book is a huge accomplishment in many ways. He wrote it to fit into my BryonySeries and developed some of my characters in ways I didn't imagine.

He asked for deadlines from, and he met every one.

And to ensure he met those deadlines, he worked through COVID.

Not "COVID" as in the pandemic.

But his own battle with COVID in November.

I'm very honored to be part of his publishing journey.

And I'm inviting everyone reading this post right now to be part of the celebration.

Calkins Day 2021 will be held from 7 to 8 p.m. Calkins Day (Feb. 13, 2021) on Zoom. 

Real food and drink available if you bring your own ingredients. 

Calkins and his sidekick “The Goddess” will chat about author collaborations, how to legally  fictionalize a real person, literary nonsense. Irish vampires, deep time psychosis, and Astro-Time Physics.

He will also answer questions but doesn’t promise you’ll understand the answers. Calkins will also randomly give away three copies of “Ruthless.”

And we will celebrate the release of “Ruthless,” by Ed Calkins, Steward of Tara, is a work of absolute literary nonsense about the last seven seconds in the life of an Irishman and his afterlife as an Irish vampire, most of which never happened.

Local author and WriteOn Joliet co-leader Tom Hernandez will emcee. 

Chef Tim will give three demonstrations. Menu and ingredient list provided after registration.

Calkins Day is free. To register, visit bryonyseries.com/registerforcalkinsday.

Story Round-Up: Features in The Herald-News, Sept. 5 through Sept. 11

So the proof copies for the next two books - Cornell Dyer and the Old Folks Home AND Lycanthropic Summer - are both due to arrive today.

Unless they come early, I'll probably pick at them over the next week or so, since I'm working this weekend.

And with that, I'm moving on. I've been up since before 4 a.m. and my mind is sluggish.

All brain cells are focusing on this complex question:

Should I open up The Phoenix and get to work?

Or should I take a nap?

Maybe a nap - after I make a couple phone calls.

Maybe.

Because part of me feels like working, at least in partial remembrance of how hard my family and I worked this day nineteen years ago.

My husband was getting ready for work, and I was talking on the phone with one of my editors when she said, "I have to go! A plane just hit the World Trade Center."

I told my husband, and he switched the TV station to the news. And while the newscasters thought they were giving a recap, Ron and I saw a second plane hit the towers in real time - just as the newscasters realized what was happening.

I was to work today in remembrance of those who woke up nineteen years ago and lost their lives, never to work again.

So there's that.

Below these ramblings are all the places you can find me.

After that, a roundup of my feature stories for this week.

Have a great Friday!


THE HERALD-NEWS

Feature stories: Weekly roundup at the bottom of this blog.

Non-bylined features: Search by topic (people, pets, A and E, faith, health, and food) at theherald-news.com. Once a week, I do combine a week's worth into a single blog post.

Daily updates: I do post the briefs on Twitter during the week, so you're welcome to follow me at @Denise_Unland61.

BRYONYSERIES

Website: bryonyseries.com

Social media: BryonySeries on Twitter @BryonySeries. and facebook.com/BryonySeries.

Follow the adventures of Bertrand the Mouse on Instagram at bertrand_bryonyseries.

Books: bryonyseries.com/copy-of-general-store

Events: bryonyseries.com/fetes-and-feasts. 

WRITERS

If you're a writer anywhere in the world, you're welcome to join WriteOn Joliet's Facebook page. We're based in Joliet, Illinois, but we love to meet and interact with writers outside our area, too.

If you'd like to officially join WriteOn Joliet, we have two tiers of dues. We also have a marketing arm that's getting longer every year, well, except this year. Check us out at writeonjoliet.com.

NEWSLETTERS

Sign up for the Will County Go Guide

http://www.theherald-news.com/newsletter/will-county-go-guide/#//


Sign up for the LocalLit Short Story Newsletter

http://www.theherald-news.com/newsletter/locallit/


Sign up for The Munsonville Times

https://www.bryonyseries.com/munsonville-times


QUESTIONS

Email me at bryonyseries@gmail.com.

Thank you for reading The Herald-News. And for reading this blog. And if you've read (or plan to read) any of my books. Your support is greatly appreciated.


FEATURE STORIES:

Eat a good meal, help a cancer patient 

Robotic surgery, water vapor therapy available locally for prostate conditions


This is what 'back-to-school' looks like during a coronavirus pandemic


LocalLit book spotlight: 'Brian Says: Quotes from a Restless Mind'


And the review:


Young Minooka mom determined to beat stage 4 breast cancer


Joliet-based treatment center has 24-hour helpline for people struggling with addictions, even during the coronavirus


Pets of the Week: Sept. 7


Corticosteroids to treat severe cases of COVID-19: 'It does confirm what we've been doing:' Local hospitals embrace what WHO calls an effective intervention


She lives in a nursing home - and has raised more than $10,000 for Relay for Life: Katie Meskimen doesn't let health issues interfere with helping others in need


New study shows association between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19 risk


The flight of 100 years makes a stop in Romeoville

Illustration by Matt Coundiff for "Visage"

You Really Can't Go Home Again

Well, yeah, physically, you can.

But when we've moved past, and grown from, certain experiences, we can't return to the old perspective and enjoy them the same way.

The other night, I picked up a novel I had enjoyed in childhood, one I had wanted to re-read for a long time, and settled into bed with it. The title is unimportant, but it's a favorite novel, one that inspired me to write the type of fiction I write, and one that inspired me to write, period.

This book goes so far back into my childhood enjoyment that I remember my sister and I playing Miss America with our babysitter. When the babysitter asked me who I most wanted to meet in the entire world, I gave this author's name.

And yet the other night, I closed the book at page three and put it away.

Had I stuck with it, I'm fairly certain the story, and the way this author told it, would have wrapped me in its magic. That wasn't the problem.

The problem was, right there on page one, in this beautifully hard-bound traditionally published book with stunning pen and ink illustrations, was a typo.

Yes, a typo, On page one.

I took a breath, kept reading, and turned to page two.

And there was another.

And another.

I was done.

Now I'm not being judgmental. It's not the typos that bothered me, or rather, it's not the fact the book had typos that bothered me.

As a self-published author, I can't tell you the number of times I've read about the advantages of traditional publishing, with pristine editing being one of them.

As a self-published author. I struggle (and fail) to produce copy completely error-free. In fact, I told my editor for Before the Blood," I can live with a few typos (because, you know, I'm self-published)."

But the reason why I hired this particular editor was less about the catching typos (although she does) and more about catching plot holes, inconsistencies in characterizations, etc. The major types of stuff that ruin a story.

Since I'm not a huge publishing house with an elaborate staff of talented editors, I have to pick and choose my priorities.

I'll take a flawless story and characters that leap off the page over a few typos.

So why did I put the book away?

Not because the book has changed. But because I have changed.

I am no longer a child reaching for that book to get wrapped up in its wonder.

I am now an adult that creates some of that wonder for others.

But I am now also a self-published author who can move past the hand-wringing worry about publishing a perfect book.

Such a book doesn't exist. It didn't exist in the 1960s. And it doesn't exist today.

Yes, of course, I will write and edit as clean a story as possible and ruthlessly seek and weed out every mistake, every lesser word.

Too many word weeds will overtake a great story and choke it.

But a few? Depends on the reader and his or her tolerance for typos.

Apparently mine is a bit higher than most (I was good at grammar as a child).

Maybe in a month or so, I'll reach for the book again. I'm guessing I'll enjoy it on several levels.

With better understanding of how good books come to be.

With a probable chance I'll be analyzing its sentence structures...and marveling.

With gratitude to the author who has long since past on...

And with a bit of my nine-year-old self reading along with me and simply enjoying the journey.

Two Quick Proofreading Tips

Want to weed out pesky errors from your edited work? 

Try this:

1) Read your story aloud. You'll catch errors and clumsy writing.

2) Read it backwards, same reasons.

Stay safe, stay warm, and may all your prose be smooth and error-free!

Editing, Defined

Often when writers talk about "editing," they really mean, "proofreading" or catching and correcting typos and minor errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

In actuallity, proofreading is the last step, after all the editing is complete. The process of editing has several components. They are:

Manuscript assessment: Okay, so maybe an assessment is not a the same as editing. But an assessment gives  an author a good first glimpse of how much editing - including self-editing - may be required. An assessment also provides a wide critique of the manuscript's strengths and weaknesses, along with overall suggestions for improvement.

Developmental editing: This type of editing targets content and structure: plot, pacing, dialogue, characterization, inconsistences, wordiness, and over-writing.

Line editing: the The editor literally examines the manuscript line by line. Paragraphs may be rearanged, and sentences may be rewritten to ensure smooth transitions and prose.

Copy editing: Corrects word choices, spelling, punctuation, and grammar.

And finally, proofreading.

For authors that choose to self-publish, I cannot stress enough the importance of editing, and that should be where authors spend the most money.

Yes, self-editing is important. Self-editing involves setting the completed manuscript aside for a month or two and then moving through the above steps. That, too, is a process.

Rigorous self-editing will cut down your editing expense. But authors are too close to their works to be the final eyes.

By "too close," I don't mean "emotionally attached."

You see, when one constructs an entire manuscript word by word, it becomes impossible to notice every flaw. The brain simply cannot see them anymore. A pair of fresh expert eyes notices them instantly.