January 2018 - Gary David Gillen

Writing Progress Report January 2018 and Annual Review

This is my Writing Progress Report January 2018 and Annual Review.

Ollie being cute.

Annual Writing Progress from December 2016 to December 2017

Worked on Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (98000 words total). I wrote 14 Chapters of the novel this year. After Chapters 29 and 31 are written, then The First Draft will be completed!!!

The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been submitted to magazines.

Statistics of magazine submissions since December 2016 are; 5 different stories submitted a total of 15 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and 15 rejections.

Annual Events from December 2016 to December 2017

I attended seven conventions in the past year. They were Winter Fiction Fest in Cleveland, ConCoction in Cleveland, Marcon in Columbus, Cleveland Inkubator at the Cleveland Public Library, Confluence in Pittsburgh, Western Reserve Writers Conference at the Cuyahoga County Public Library, and the Indy Author Day at the Cuyahoga County Public Library.

This is a link to the Cleveland ConCoction website.

http://www.clevelandconcoction.org/

Annual Writing Goals for 2018

Complete the novel Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (98000 words total). After Chapters 29 and 31 are written, then The First Draft will be completed!!!

Type the Edits for Chapters 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 26, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36 of Assassin in New Marl City.

Type Chapters 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22, 25, 27, 28, 29, and 31.

Polish and submit the stories Chemithurgy, Sleeping Disease, Space-Dog Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction magazines.

Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer and then Self Publish the Novelette.

Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer and Self Publish the Novella.

Convert a 24000-word Screenplay called Cuba Liberto into a novel of 72000 words.

Annual Planned Events for 2018

I plan to attend ten conventions in 2018. They will be Winter Fiction Fest in Cleveland, ConCoction in Cleveland, the April Western Reserve Writers Conference at the Cuyahoga County Public Library, Marcon in Columbus, Cleveland Inkubator at the Cleveland Public Library, Confluence in Pittsburgh, the September Western Reserve Writers Conference at the Cuyahoga County Public Library, CapClave in Gaithersburg, the Indy Author Day at the Cuyahoga County Public Library, and the Book Baby Authors Convention.

Purchase an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first ten chapters of Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program, Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for Assassin in New Marl.

Writing Progress from December 2017

Wrote Chapters 23 and 25 of Assassin in New Marl City.

The stories 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, Get to the Point, and LARP Film Noir have been submitted to magazines.

Statistics of magazine submissions since December 2016 are; 5 different stories submitted a total of 15 times with 0 accepted, 0 pending, and 15 rejections.

Events from December 2017

None to Report.

Writing Goals for January 2018

Continue to work on Assassin in New Marl City. I want to expand the novel from 20 chapters to 36 chapters (98000 words total). Write Chapters 29, and 31 of the novel this month. The First Draft will be completed!!!

Type the Edits for Chapters 15, 16, 18, 20, 24, 26, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, and 36 of Assassin in New Marl City.

Type Chapters 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 22 23, 25, 27, and 28.

Polish and submit the stories Hybrid-Dog Confession, White Bracer, Mage Squad, I Shall Not Return, Prisoner of Tarnal, and Kay-Eye for submission to short fiction magazines.

Submit 4 Humours, Space Station Sunyata, Grognard, and LARP Film Noir to other short fiction magazines.

Hire an editor for Searcher of Riven from Fiveer.

Hire an editor for Ruins of Yarnud from Fiveer.

Planned Events for January 2018

Purchase an e-book cover for Assassin in New Marl City from Fiveer.

Put the first ten chapters of Assassin in New Marl City into the writing program, Scrivener.

Work on completing a Query letter to use to find an agent for Assassin in New Marl.

Links

I wrote four blog posts for garydavidgillen.com including my writing progress report for December 2017 linked below.

Writing Progress Report December 2017

Introduction

In near future, Cleveland, Ohio, detective Jake and his partner E. C. are searching for an Android Subject (AnSub) that has committed a murder. When hackers reprogram synthetic humanoids to commit murder the crime is called Murder by Munchausen. Their squad responds to AnSub crimes and are not so affectionately called the Geek Squad. Jake captures the AnSub and when that crime intersects a serial killer’s crimes, Jake is forced to solve both crimes or risk the life of someone he loves.

Summary

Jake was a detective in the Robbery/Homicide department with his partner Maddie. Something happened which Jake calls “the Incident” and he takes the fall. Jake is reassigned to the Geek Squad, which is the least desirable department in the police force. Maddie stays in Robbery/Homicide.

The novel opens sometime after his transfer. Jake and E. C. take the AnSub to their department android authority who Jake has dubbed Q, named after the character in the James Bond novels. Jake is fond of what he calls old-school thinking and practices. Jake did not have a romantic relationship with Maddie when they were partners. They become romantically involved now. Maddie is assigned a case that could involve a serial killer reenacting past serial killer crimes. Jake thinks his case is related to Maddie’s investigation.

Jake is helped by Maddie, Q, reporter Jamal, the owner of a diner retired cop Cutty, and a Secret Service agent to solve his case. He follows the evidence to someone called the Baron. Jake must trap the Baron in the act to prove his theories and that involves letting Maddie come into harm’s way. Will Jake risk his new love to prove his case?

Recommendation

I liked that the author included locations in Cleveland such as the West Side Market, Edgewater Park, the Flats, and Cleveland Clinic. I have frequented those locations and I think that the author has described and used them effectively. Most of Jake’s retro thinking, words and actions worked in the context of the story. He has a wise guy attitude that is appealing. I thought that the author missed an opportunity to complicate Jake’s relationship with Maddie by further developing his thoughts about his former girlfriend Amy. If they had met that would have added complications.

This was a short novel and I understand the limitations of that space, but I would have liked the story better if there was a more definitive conclusion. It felt like half of a novel. I think that there will be a worthwhile conclusion in The Darknet, Murder by Munchausen Mysteries Book 2 and I plan to read it when it is released.

Month: January 2018