With the first story still in the stages of editing, I believe that it’s time that I shared with you what I am currently up to.  I will update you on the progress of where the first story is after I have contacted the editor.  Considering that my first book is a large manuscript, I don’t want to rush her.  I am guessing that there is a lot for me to change, and these changes will be made once I see what they are.  Trisha McDonald, the one who is editing my first book owns Splattered Ink Press.  I encourage you all to check her out and sign up for her newsletter.  It is filled with useful advice if you are looking to be a writer yourself.

Getting to the update, I am currently working on my second book in my The Tale of Zachary Willowbrook series.  This second book is the heart of the series, and focuses on Zachary’s school years from preschool to college.

If you just came across my site and you have no idea what I am talking about, bare with me.  What is the purpose of this site?  What am I trying to do here?  The purpose of this site is for me to present my work in a way that is both open and honest.  I have numerous short stories,  creative writing pieces, movie reviews and book reviews.

If you are observant, you would notice a link that would take you to something unrelated to this site.  This was Walker on Politics, something that I decided to discontinue for obvious reasons.  There’s not much to see there.  Just my attempt at critiquing politics.  I didn’t like it after a while, so I stopped.  In fact, this site used to be called Walker on Politics, if you could believe that.

But I’m not one to dwell on the past.  There are two main things worth noting are the following pages:

Think & Write

These are creative writing exercises that I decided to start, since I was experiencing writer’s block at the time.  Just 10 minutes of creative writing and I had something on my site for the day.  Some of them would make very good ideas while others are just trash.  Some are very imaginative, while others can be strange and bizarre.  If you check out Think & Write #100, there’s a “directory”  that has the first 100 Think & Writes indexed  (This can be found in the link called “Tower of Ideas” if you are interested).  Over time, I decided to stop doing these, since I felt that my writer’s block was cured.  Having that said, I suggest that you check them out.

Me & My Muse

This is something new that I decided to start.  It’s pretty much my attempt to combine two things that you never see together:  journaling and creative writing.  It’s an experiment, if you will.  What I do is talk about a certain topic.  It can be about something happening in my day.  At some point during the discussion, my Muse interrupts me.  Hilarity ensues.  Maybe more wit than hilarity, but I’ll leave that up to you to decide.

So who is this Muse?  It’s pretty much my creativity personified, and has numerous different forms based on her different qualities.  For the first version of herself, she can be pretty predictable and shallow.  She’s the comic relief for this series and is very out there because of her creative nature.  She thinks that she’s funny, but that’s her own Achilles heel.  My Muse is pretty much a character that I designed with no boundaries.  She’s spontaneous,  shallow, naive, immature and obnoxious at times.  But she’s creativity.  And creativity cannot be restrained or harnessed (unless she’s in my head).  This, of course, is only demonstrated in the first 100 entries.  After Day 100, the truth is revealed.

At the end, she normally goes back inside my head, where she belongs.  Looking at this series, I really see it as something that I want to improve over time.  I haven’t gotten all the bugs out yet, so bare with me.  But if you read after Day 100, I’m getting pretty close.  I feel that everything after 100 is where this series really begins.  The first 100 were purely experimental, while the later entries more closely reflect where I want to go with this concept.  You will like the Muse a lot more after Day 100.  Trust me.

In the later series, she takes on new forms.  She can be her normal self, a spoiled rich snob or shy.  In the 200 series and beyond, her original form and all other older forms are confined to ghosts.  Despite how many forms there are, they all share a common oneness.  Just as we as humans all have different qualities, those qualities all share a common oneness with ourselves.  The same is true with my Muse.  If you really want to know why she’s there,  I explain it in entry 296.

To summarize, my Muse is my companion.  And together, we’re a duo.  Like Sonny and Cher, Abbott and Costello and Regis and Kathie Lee.  I’m the straight person and the real side and she’s the comedy relief – the lighter and imaginary side.

And if you’re curious in reading any of my over 300 entries, they are all indexed in the “Tower of Muses” link.  Every 100 entries has a “directory”, along with my favorite entries for that series.  If you are into reading daily blogs and somewhat witty material, check this series out.  I am really excited with how this series is turning out and I look forward to revealing her later transformations.

 

Now that I talked about the site, let’s return to my progress on this book, which was the purpose of this post in the first place.  For those of you who are new to this site, you’re probably wondering what this book is about.  What is the Tale of Zachary Willowbrook?

The Tale of Zachary Willowbrook is a biographical story about a boy named Zachary.  For the longer version,  I talk about the book here.

Here’s the cliff notes version of Zachary Willowbrook.  He is a boy that was born on February 29th.  And for some bizarre reason that the book never explains, Zachary ages one year for every four years.  So in one year, he would only age three months.

So this story is about Zachary, and how he’s treated because of his gift.  His parents and family will treat him well, of course.  His brother, sister, mom, dad, relatives and friends.  But how will the world treat him?  With Zachary’s gift, he’ll be able to live four times longer than the average person.

While the story was originally intended to be one book, I made it into a trilogy since it was too long to be one book.

The first book, The Tale of Zachary Willowbrook: A Leap Day Paradox is about Zachary’s earlier days, from birth to early childhood.  I will provide an update about this book after I contact the editor, as it is still in the process of being edited.

The second book, The Tale of Zachary Willowbrook: The School Years is about Zachary’s experience at school from his early school years, all the way through his college years.  So far, I have reached an exciting part of the story.  Zachary is finally going to school.  Getting to school for him was an uphill battle, as you will see when this is published someday  (or if I decide to treat you to some excerpts in the meantime.  🙂 )

The third book has no working title yet, but it will cover Zachary’s adult years all the way to his death.  A working title for this would be something along the lines of “Leaping Forward”.

An interesting fact about this story that’s worth noting is that the idea to write this story actually came from a Think & Write (Think & Write #23) and it can be found here.

Getting back to my first book,  I mentioned that I finished the editing process and that my writing friend was looking at it.  After I receive everything back from her,  I will work on a second draft.  I will let you know when that is, and will keep you updated on that.  In the meantime, book two is in progress.  School may be out for the summer, but “School Years” is in session.

That’s about it for updates.  If you are new, enjoy this site and check out the different sections if you haven’t already.  If you’re a returning visitor,  I hope to see you again.  But whoever you are, just be sure to wipe your feet on the mat.

Follow me on Twitter to stay updated on the progress that I’m making on my writing projects.  Also check out my facebook page and click the like button.

Besides that, just make yourself comfortable here.  You’re always welcome at the Estate.