CAMPFIRE STORIES...Marching Toward Completion

I've begun preparing the next collection, titled CAMPFIRE STORIES, for publication. Last night, I started the final editing pass thr'gh the stories, beginning with "The End of Seconds".

With a couple of exceptions, these are all the completed stories that I've tried to have published. Yes, four of the stories were published for zero financial gain. That's why I'm collecting them into this anthology and epublishing them. I'll get them out to the public one way or another.

There are five stories that aren't in this collection.  The first two, "With Eyes Open..." and "A Voice in the Darkness" were collected in their own edition, imaginatively titled WITH EYES OPEN... (currently available on Lulu, iTunes and NOOK). The third, "A God to Dance With" is part of the next collection, titled A BRIGHT SYMMETRY (currently on hold pending the start of editing in March). The fourth, titled "Wanderer", is a major part of a novel that I really hope to get back to one day. The fifth, titled "Brianna and the Three"...let's just say it's a special case. It doesn't just need editing, it needs complete rewriting. So it'll have to wait for a future anthology.

The stories in CAMPFIRE STORIES are arranged not in the order they were written but in chronologic order as they occur in the timeline of my fictional universe. This is the sequence:

"The End of Seconds" - 13.7 billion years plus 1 day ago
"Games of Life and Cold" - Sometime in the past
"If You Listen Softly..." - 2005
"All My Yesterdays, Remembered" - 2009
"Symmetry" - 2010
"Signpost" - 2114
"Last Light" - 2189
"The Shape of the Truth" - 2196

I'm also going to try a different company when I publish CAMPFIRE STORIES.  It's not that I have anything against Lulu. I just want to examine my options.

By the way, when I say I'm editing, I'm talking old school...

Now, if you'll excuse me...I have to start editing "Games of Life and Cold".

01/20/2013 - A BRIGHT SYMMETRY - Finally Finished

It's taken me the better part of a decade (longer if you consider when the first story was written), the collection A BRIGHT SYMMETRY is now complete.  I finished the last story, "Intermezzo", earlier tonight.

The final word count:

Only Time.........................1967
A God To Dance With......7724
Really Real*.....................4232
Intermezzo........................1978
The Arc of Heaven..........18306
Interlude*..........................6935
...and Forever....................1798
* Both Really Real and Interlude will be getting new title.

That brings the total word count to 42,980 as of now.  That'll change as I get into editing.  Yeah, it's shorter than a novel.  Since this will be going through epublishing, I'm not concerned about it.

"Rae"

My current focus, along with BEFORE THE DAWN, is the completion of all those stories that I started but for some reason abandoned.  There are any number of reasons why they were abandoned; I lost the plot line, or I lost interest in the story, or I got distracted by another project and never got back.

So I'm focusing on getting those abandoned stories completed...and there are a fair number of them.

The one I've recently started is titled "Rae".  Set in the year 2200, it centers on EarthGov Security Special Agent Kevin Martin and his partner, Probationary Agent Rachael (Rae) Mercer. Assigned to investigate a murder on a colony world, they soon find there's much more to it...especially when Kevin is accused of nearly beating Rae to death, an act he has no memory of committing.

Here are the two main characters:

Rachael Mercer (Rae)

Name:  Rachael Mercer

Race:  Human

Age:  28

Date of Birth:  23 December 2172

Place of Birth:  New Paltz, New York, NorAm, Earth

Citizenship:  Rae is a citizen of Earth

Legal Status:  No criminal record

Relatives:  Unnamed parents

Height:  5’8” (172.72 cm)

Weight:  126 lbs (57.15 kg)

Eye Color:  Blue

Hair Color:  Brown (tinted blue)

Religion:  Agnostic

Intelligence:  Above average

Strength:  Normal

Speed:  Normal

Stamina:  Normal

Durability:  Normal

Agility:  Normal

Reflexes:  Normal

Profession/Rank (Current):  Government security agent, adventurer

Profession/Rank (Former): N/A

Current Alias:  Azure

Former Alias:  N/A

Personal Weaponry:  Waller-Jameson CZ75 Phased Plasma Pistol, various others, as needed

Usual Base of Operations:  EarthGov Security, Division Five, a division of EarthGov, Oneonta, New York

Friends/Allies/Confidants:  Leah Buchanan, Cheryl Dolan, Kevin Martin, Alexandra Sinclair, Bryan Styles

Enemies:

Skills:  Rae is a skilled agent who graduated in the top ten percent of her class at the Academy

Special Abilities:  Rae is a latent telepath.  While she can’t directly read minds, she can sense the emotional state of the minds around her.  She can also distinguish one mind from another, which she refers to as “picking up a vibe”.

Source of Special Abilities:  Genetic mutation

Interests/Hobbies:

Kevin Martin

Name:  Kevin Martin

Race:  Human

Age:  30

Date of Birth:  16 February 2170

Place of Birth:  Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, NorAm, Earth

Citizenship:  Kevin is a citizen of Earth

Legal Status:  No criminal record

Relatives:  Unnamed parents

Height:  5’11” (180.34 cm)

Weight:  170 lbs (77.11 kg)

Eye Color:  Brown

Hair Color:  Brown

Religion:  Catholic (not devout)

Intelligence:  Above average

Strength:  Normal

Speed:  Normal

Stamina:  Normal

Durability:  Normal

Agility:  Normal

Reflexes:  Normal

Profession/Rank (Current):  Government security agent, adventurer

Profession/Rank (Former):  N/A

Current Alias:  Perseus

Former Alias:  N/A

Personal Weaponry:  Waller-Jameson CZ75 Phased Plasma Pistol, various others, as needed

Usual Base of Operations:  EarthGov Security, Division Five, a division of EarthGov, Oneonta, New York

Friends/Allies/Confidants:  Leah Buchanan, Cheryl Dolan, Rachael Mercer, Alexandra Sinclair, Bryan Styles

Enemies:

Skills:  Kevin is a skilled agent and an expert marksman

Special Abilities:  N/A

Source of Special Abilities:  N/A

Interests/Hobbies:

 There is one other character I want to mention, Division Director Alexandra Sinclair. Since all my stories take place in one time line, stretching from 13.7 billion years plus 1 day in the past to about the year 7784, you'll see Director Sinclair again...with a different position.

01/06/13: ...And The Progress Continues...

2013 has started the way 2012 ended:  With continued progress, working toward actually completing projects that have languished for one reason or another.

The most recently completed project is the second draft of "The Shape of the Truth", a story which actually started its life as the opening of a novel.  The story didn't fit with the rest of the novel, so I decided to use it as its own story.

The second draft was actually a line-by-line edit of the story, which I felt necessary since I hadn't working on it for a couple of years.  Now I just have to type it up.

With luck, this kind of production will continue through the rest of the year.  Next half-finished project to be worked on:  "Rae", the story of two EarthGov Security agents, set in about the same time frame as "The Shape of the Truth" (the late 22nd-early 23rd century).

ETA:  I just finished typing up "The Shape of the Truth".  It's a healthy 16,168 words.  Of course, that'll change as I move through the next stages of editing...which will start in about three weeks.