I started writing at an early age, but did not actively pursue writing for publication until I was nearly forty. Beginning as a journalist for a small town weekly newspaper and then for a regional business magazine, I never lost sight of my dream to be a published author. That dream finally came true at age 55.
Follow me on Twitter @darrellzwriting.
October 2023
Editing continues. Second round, including my Alpha reader’s recommendations. By scene count, I am halfway through. By word count, nearly 75%. Lots of rewriting was required.
I aim to send the undated draft to my beta readers by Thanksgiving, ideally by Halloween.
July 2023
I attended the Imaginarium Convention in Louisville, KY. Terry Brooks was the honored guest. There were some great sessions, and Terry was a great guest. He shared some humorous stories in addition to some sage advice for authors–aspiring or otherwise.
March 2021
I am still revising my alternate history draft. It was a VERY ROUGH draft. I have done extensive research as part of my revision. As a result, I am only 1/3 of the way through the draft. Hopefully, the hardest scenes are behind me. Next month is another Camp NaNoWriMo. My goal will be to revise the remaining scenes. Last year, I also participated in a “Poem a Day” contest. The results are posted here. This year, I will pass. Perhaps I will do that exercise in a different month.
I signed a contract extension with my publisher for Thrust of the Stiletto.
July 2020
Using another Camp NaNoWriMo, I finished the 140,000-word first draft of my alternate history. Now comes the fun of removing everything that does not belong in the book.
April 2020
Using Camp NaNoWriMo, I added another 30,000 words to my alternate history.
Many of the events I had planned to attend in order to promote Thrust of the Stiletto were cancelled. We’ll see what happens next year. CONglomeration will not return. GalaxyCon Louisville will not return.
November 2019
I began writing my new book, an alternate history that explores the impact of one person’s one decision. Using NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), I wrote the first 50,000 words. It was difficult turning off my internal editor, but I managed.
I attended GalaxyCon Louisville with a few sessions about writing.
August 2019
I launched my author website. Work will continue on the site for the foreseeable future.
April 2019
I attended ConGlomeration 2019 in Louisville, where I attended some very helpful sessions about writing and publishing.
March 2019
I signed a contract with Black Rose Writing to publish my first novel, Thrust of the Stiletto. This will be published on November 14, 2019.
darrellzwriting 