After sending a chapter of Childhood's Tears off to a beta and getting their feedback, I have decided to do something I've never done before. I'm going to revise this story before I get to the end. I was looking at the comments they made, especially between the first half and the second half of the chapter and realized they were absolutely right.

Then I looked at the whole story I'd written up until now and realized I had an OK story, but I had missed the big thrust of the story. I'd always envisioned this story to be sort of an "Indiana Jones meets Call of Cthulhu" but in the first draft, we were heavy into Indy and there was damn little Cthulhu. This needs to change.

So, since I wss going to rewrite the first chapter, I might as well go in now and revise the story to add in the spooky as well as the adventure. It was fun, I discussed the issue with the daughter over dinner tonight and she suggested what would make a wonderful addition to the book which will give it a Lovecraftian feel, but still keep it true to the world I'm developing.

You won't be seeing word counts for a while, but there will be progress measured in chapters updated. (Actually, overall word count will probably be coming down with the rewrite, but that's O.K. too.)

Current Revisions: Chapter 1 completed.

But, now back to see if the Royals can beat the White Sox in extra innings.

Night, everyone

So far, so good.

Caught my flight at 1020 yesterday morning only to find out it wasn't a direct flight into St. Louis. I don't recall a layover when I booked it (I normally try to avoid those if at all possible), but whether I planned it or not, I had a lovely 30 minutes hanging around Louisville, KY. After that, the flight was uneventful and the Archon staff volunteer was there waiting to give me a ride to the convention.

Staying in the Hampton Inn this weekend. Pretty nice hotel, right next door to the Ponderosa Steak House. $5.99 all you can eat Buffet, Thurs-Sat lunch. I'm thinking that sounds like a darn good deal for lunches compared to the prices at the Convention Center for food. And, as usual, I had to indulge in one of my guilty pleasures while back in the Midwest. Yes, I stopped by White Castles for some sliders.

Interesting thing . . . while I was there devouring my trophies, I noted a picture hanging there of four guys in Columbus, OH in 1981. Now, I can't swear to it, but damned if one of those guys in the picture didn't look like a friend of mine, Gib Bickel from the Laughing Ogre Comics Store in Columbus. I'm going to have to drop him a line and ask him if he's seen the picture first of all and whether he was living in Columbus at the time. It was kind of spooky and cool at the same time.

The panels went well. I stopped in on the Small Press panel and heard some good and some bad things about Small Press book publishers. A lot of it I had already surmised from the various threads over at Absolute Write, but it was nice to have some things confirmed.

After that, I hit my own panel on Developing Interesting Characters. Robin Bailey had some good questions and then the audience asked some very good questions (lots of beginning authors out in the audience.) I also found it interesting that there were three iBook survivors on the panel (Robin, Mark and myself).

After a short break and wandering into a few random panels, it was time for the 1100 panel on Vampires, Werewolves and other things that go bump in the night. We were beginning to worry when we outnumbered the audience 3-1, but after a few minutes, things were a more normal ratio. The panelists were very worried when I pulled out the computer with the prepared questions. Then I asked the first question "I've heard the terms horror, gothic horror and dark fantasy used. Are there really these differences in fiction? If so, what are they? Are they just a marketing ploy?" Once they stopped threatening to hang me, there were some very good responses and the rest of the panel went enjoyably well. Although when I said, "OK, If you could only pick one horror movie and one horror novel, what would they be?", the thought of stringing me up re-crossed their minds. Good panelists, good questions from the audience and I only had to step in once to get every one focused so we could go on to the next question.

Managed to avoid a political debate going on in the V.I.P. suite and listened to the dance music for a bit.

Now, I'm tired and ready to call it a night.

Homework tomorrow, then con.

(OH, btw, they added me to two more panels . . . now it's 9 panels and two autograph sessions.)