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This March I've entered The
Clarion Dare! Along with
several others from my
esteemed Clarion 2000 Class,
I will be writing (hopefully) a
thousand words a day
towards a novel. I'm not the
only one who has embarked
on this madness. Check out
the CLARION DARE PAGE!

DO YOU DARE?

Clarion Dare Update!!!

March 4, 2001

So okay, we began the dare this
week. I've stuck with my idea about
developing the world of "Machina ex
Deus" into a novel. That gave me a
head start of five thousand words.
The piece is now over nine thousand
words. I've been getting the thousand
words a day with no real problem,
haven't been pushing things real hard.
Hopefully, soon, I'll finally figure out
what the novel is about. Right now
I'm writing by the seat of my pants,
so to speak. Which is kind of hard
on the keyboard. (sheepish grin)

Clarion Update!!!

March 12, 2001

Well, the novel, now called "The
Saint of Black Bullets" has just
passed the 20, 000 word mark!
I've made my goal every single day
since the dare began. Of course,
a lot of those words probably won't
be there once I get around to final
editing. But a bunch of them will.
The novel is progressing, and
concerns the nature of God, good
and evil, genocide, and the
relationship between giving, love,
and absolution. It also has
centipedes, psychedelic
mushrooms, and lots of gun play!

I'm at it. I'm unstoppable, and
relentless!

CLARION DARE UPDATE

MARCH 18,2001

Well Folks, "The Saint of Black
Bullets," now the novel's working
title, continues to roll its merry
way! It's now 28,775 words long.
A few of them I actually like too.
I've made a thousand words and
then some every day this week.
Sean Stewart told our Clarion
Class that he had to write a
quarter of the book to figure out
what it was about. (paraphrased).
I'm beginning to get that idea!

Clarion Dare Update

March 24, 2001

"The Saint of Black
Bullets" is now 37,367
words long. The book has
revealed to me that it will
be in three distinct
sections. The first section,
"The Corrupting of Hell" is
almost complete. Still to
come are "The
Complicating of Mortality"
and "The Perverting of
Heaven."

If each section is about
the length of the first, then
the novel will be about 120
K long. This will take more
time than the Dare, of
course. But I am
committed--or at least I
should be. :)

Clarion Dare update!

April 1, 2001

It's been a hard week. The wife has
had bronchitus, which triggered
some migranes. And then I came
down with a milder version. I felt
like homemade shit. So did she.
We both stayed home all week-
except for doctor's visits.

Nevertheless, I've achieved my goal
every single day. I'm beginning to
feel like the protagonist in the novel,
Lerner Marquette.

Lerner is a private investigator who
is now an angel. Angels, by
definition in this novel, are blind until
they accept their deaths and the
deeds of their life. Lerner has
accepted nothing. Now, his body
can see, it just can't relay this
information to his concious soul.
And his mind can think, but there
are thoughts within him that he is
not in touch with.

So it is with me. Whenever I
"think" about the book, I'm never
sure I understand what's going on.
Whenever I simply sit down and
write, the words flow, and the story
progresses. Guess that't the best I
can hope for.

current word count: 47, 586!

04-08-01

Okay, I finally cracked. Thanks to all of
my Dare Companions, and to Maureen and
Greg, I decided that I could actually take a
day off from the novel. In fact, updating the
web page is the only productive thing I've
done all day. This follows a rare (the
young man I work with is in respite care)
two-day weekend. It's amazing how long a
day off is when it actually begins in the
morning and not at noon!

So the novel continues and it's getting
harder and tougher as all my brilliant ideas
from the beginning now have to lead
somewhere.

But it's still going. Current word count is
55,353 words and I've got most of the
scene tomorrow in my head. :)

meanwhile, back to relaxing! aaahhhh!

Clarion Dare Update 04-25-2001

So okay, I'm a bit late with the
update. But nothing else is new.
I've begun regularly taking Sunday
Morning off. It seems to help me
recharge and provides a good deal
more down time. Perhaps that's
slowed production of the novel
somewhat, but not by much, since
I generally write more than a
thousand words at a sitting.

In fact, I'm up to 75, 788 words!
I'm finding it difficult to be objective
any more. Guess I'll just keep
writing, extending my own
personal Dare into May and June,
most likely. And then let God sort
'em out.

May 9, 2001

Well, the updates are getting further and further apart.
Perhaps that's because, unfortunately there isn't any
other news at the moment. And, officially, the Clarion
Dare is over. But the novel isn't. So essentially I'm
keeping to the same schedule of writing at least a
thousand words every day. In all this time I've missed
only a couple of days, one of them today, due to the
hectic demands of the dreaded day job. For me,
however, The Dare isn't over until the first draft is
complete.

The current word count is 93,330. I'm diving into the last
part of the middle section. Probably around 50,000
words to go, but at least I'll lose a significant number
from line edits in the second draft.

I'm tired, but I'm into the book. I think it's got a point
and I'm getting around to it. Wish me luck!

July 1, 2001

So it is written, so it is begun!

Well, I've been defficient in
web page updates, but not with
the novel. "The Saint of Black
Bullets" is complete! At close to a
hundred and fifty thousand words,
the real work now begins,
correcting, editing, making sense
out of things that don't quite work.

That will be a long difficult
process, but not one without
rewards. Right now I'm going to
do some short fiction and get my
perspective back.

The Dare is over. LONG LIVE
THE DARE!