24 August 09, The first cut of Shadowed Vale is complete.  I am happy with the love story and the adventure story.

17 August, I know where Shadowed Vale is going--Yah!  We are moving ahead full steam.  I am growing Nikita so I can integrate Mara, her sister.  I also have increased Alex's role.  The denouncement will focus around him.  I am revealing more details about the Family Traders--there is so much fun detail.  Den and Natana are still there, but they have taken on more a caretaker role--they will play a pivotal role in the final big events.  I'm almost certain I will need another novel to finish the series.  I'll see.  Shadowed Vale is up to 13 chapters and moving toward completion.  There looks like the need of a fifth book. 

18 July, time passes so quickly, I have been busy, but I haven't put up any progress for a while.  I have been working on the notes for Children.  I just love this novel, and I hope it will be in publication soon.  I don't get tired of reading it--and I wrote it.

I took a little break from Shadowed Vale--I want to figure out just where I am going.  I know where, but sometimes you have to take a little break. I want to bring in a child for Nata and Den.  I met the sweetest and outgoing child during vacation and I want to model Kita's sister after this kid.  I want to grow her to about 8 with Kita at around 20 to 21 with interaction between the two.  Need to figure this into the story and build up to it.  This interaction will show the culture of the ship and time.  Still no word on a publisher--oh well.

22 June, progressing slowly toward the major point of this novel.  It's a slow revelation.  I want an big Kita denouncement but I'm not sure if I want that as the denouncement of the novel itself.  As I wrote, this is a Nikita novel too.  I didn't intend to make it so much about this character, but I need to have her grow up and her growth and problems on the ship seem like a great way to explain the culture and times.  These culture and times issues will play in the overall context of the plot, theme, and story.  Of course, you must guess the overall issue is the government of the Human Galactic Confederation.  How this fits in the larger sense of the novels is difficult.  The novels are a microcosm of the larger issues in the Confederation.  I need to grow Kita as well as Den and Natana.  The point is how and to what extent and where and how will the larger picture of the political aspects fit into the story.

Also thinking a little about Klava's story.  Aegypt didn't really end with Warrior, although only one of the Aegypt novels is in publication--as of yet.  I really need an agent to help push these works at a faster pace and with more market.  My publisher is fantastic, but I need a larger following of readers and perhaps more than one publisher.  If anyone has an idea, send me a note.

18 June, Shadowed Vale is progressing more as a novel about Nikita.  I think this is okay, she is really an adult character in a kid's body.  The character herself kind of engenders this excitement.  She is competent and capable, but has to learn how to interact with people and in the environment of the ship.  The most interesting turns have been with her training as a shuttle instructor.  She was driven to learn piloting a shuttle via her psyonic abilities when she was on the streets of El Rashad.  Now, the Shuttle Master, Steve Larsen wants to continue her training.  The council knows what is going on, but Nikita isn't even an apprentice yet--in the ship she has no status.  When Alex won't continue as NIkita's student for instructor training, Master Larsen finds Nikita a student to instruct.  The student is 17 year old Candice Dirk (tactical: Candy).  The problem is that Candy resents being trained by a twelve year old who looks nine.  Nikita's problem is that if Candy fails, Nikita fails--she can't allow that.  We also discover that Nikita's tactical is Nitro (lot of explosive in a very small package).  I work very comfortably in this pilot type environment--I think my readers enjoy seeing this glimpse of this flying world.

17 June, Fourth chapter on Shadowed Vale.  Already four small resolutions in the lives of Den, Natana, and Nikita.  Unresolved: Alex has a crush on Nikita--you know where that will lead with her.  Nichol's career has some snags.  Nikita is having issues as an instructor.  Small knots leading up to the big one--where is the Shadowed Vale.

6 June, still working on Shadowed Vale, but I think I will reread Aegypt and also put my reader's comments in for Children and Warrior.

1 June, I haven't been unproductive, on the contrary, my readers have been going through the Aegypt novels and I have hard comments on Children and Warrior that I will put in.  One reader was not very happy with Sveta (compared to Klava) as the major character in Warrior.  I actually think that isn't as bad as some might think.  I would like to write Klava's story in the future, and I will work more on Sveta, but not necessarily to make her more palatable.  One of my readers dislikes Lumiere.  The rest love her.  No one yet dislikes Kathrin or Leora--that's very interesting.  They all have their own faults and each is distinctive--my reader's opinions just make this clearer to me.  I don't want anyone to hate the characters, but I want them to be so true to themselves that they do invoke strong responses.  If they make the reader want to keep reading, that's the point after all. 

I have been writing on Shadowed.  I may change the name of the ship/novel--maybe not.  It's a working title, after all.  The writing is slightly slow, but that's okay.  I tend to either work straight through a novel or start and stop for a while until it really flows.  I did reread the first few Aegypt novels when I sent them to one of my readers.  I didn't make any corrections to them at the time--just read for fun.  I saw some issues, but I'm convinced they are fun to read.  I told one of my readers, I was achieving my goal of actually writing novels I like to read.  This isn't as strange as it sounds.  My favorite writers are my models.  I reread their books because they speak to me.  If I am getting writing down on paper that has some of the force of my favorites, I hope that means I am getting better as a writer.   

11 May, Put together the file structures in a briefcase for Shadowed Vale.  This is the next novel in the Ghost Ship Chronicles.  I know where I'm starting and I know where I'm going.  Getting there should be interesting.  Aiming for about 70 to 80K novel.  We know where than went last time.

I have to say, Warrior is really a fun book.  I can't wait til it comes out in print.  This is a long novel, but one I can't put down--and I wrote it.  Children is similar.  These two really fit together nicely.  I think most will really like the Sveta character, especially in Warrior.  She absolutely knows what she wants and she goes to get it.  To watch her thwarted and challenged, first by her parents, next by her love, then by her grand parents, then by Yinglong, then by Fenghuang, and then by her real mother.  The tone of the novel is poignant and Sveta is the reason. 

7 May, I added some secrets to the Ghost pages.  It's the same discussion on all three explaining why I decided to make psyonics a major theme of the novels.  I'll add more secrets in the future--promise.

Already thinking about the next Ghost book.  I printed copies of Children and Warrior and started to read Children.  That's a fun book.  I see stuff that needs work, but I'll wait until my reader gets to slash it up later this month.  Then I'll go back over it in detail--same with Warrior.  If anyone is interested in becoming a reader.  I'd be happy to send a manuscript.