BLOG POST 238

Tessera Trilogy Blog Post 238

The working draft of The Next One now stands at 141 pages reviewed. This equates to a word count of 60,000.

I attended the Fredericksburg, VA Independent Book Fair on Saturday with fellow members of the Riverside Writers Group (RWG). There were actually six tables across Fredericksburg’s Riverfront Park displaying their printed works. 

The RWG recently published another anthology featuring short stories and poetry efforts of members. The effort is titled River Tides and is available via Print On Demand through Amazon. Among its many works is a poem by yours truly, Pursuit of the word.

Over the weekend I followed the glitter of another local shiny object. Fredericksburg’s Convention Center hosted its annual Stamps and Coins event. I went briefly on Saturday in hopes of disposing of a large assemblage of stamps representing the hobby interests of my Dad, oldest brother Dan and his sons, and my own collecting. Though the stamps represented a vast source of memories about collecting over decades I decided it was time to dispose of them. Luckily I found a vendor, the Postal History Center from NC who was interested. Saved a few stamps, but the boxes, more boxes, and binders are now – gone. 

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BAM 25 September 2017 critique comments

BAM member –

1.      Lots of detail, some not credible – agree, working

2.      Clarify wording about location of Adnan’s van versus that of Damadh – agree, working

3.      Reduce repetitive mention of terrorist leaders’ location – agree, working

4.      Clarify the relative locations of the terrorists and sensor array, versus FBI and Bai, Maria, the B&B, and US Marshall – will try to improve

5.      Tension is ratcheting up - thanks

BAM member –

1.      Like how things are coming together – thanks

2.      Too much information, telling, then repeating – agree, working

3.      Suggested change of dialogue between Adnan and Damadh to increase tension – will consider

4.      Insert POV shift – agree, working

5.      Questioned if cool air would change drone battery response, or lift – yes

6.      Delete repetitive identification of Adnan calling Judy about his location – will improve

7.      Questioned how Judy would keep agents from killing Adnan – keep reading; there’s a plan

8.      Concerned that Judy has become central character – stay tuned

9.      Questioned why an agent would ask about what weapons he was facing – Duh, he’s concerned with the fire power in front of him

10.  Reduce repetitive mention of terrorist leaders’ location – agree, working

11.  Concerned with possible loss of story tension if bomb doesn’t blow up – stay tuned

12.  Questioned why Bai was setting off fireworks – stated before it was a diversion to distract the terrorists

13.  “At this point something has to explode” – stay tuned

14.  Suggested a twist in the story – thanks, agree and working

BAM member –

1.      Felt confusion about names of good versus bad guys (couldn’t recall from previous)

2.      Questioned Judy becoming the central character – because of FBI role in anti-terrorism actions

3.      Minor editorial change – agree, working

4.      Questioned Judy fears about her career – she was reassigning her fears away from her possible death

BAM member –

1.      Thought really good addition - thanks

2.      Minor editorial change – agree, working

3.      Reduce repetitive mention of De La Luz’s name (page 3) – agree, working