Wild Things

WILD TURKEY

No, not the bourbon. I mean the actual wild turkey, Meleagris gallopavo, or as I call him, Mr. Gobbles.

Mr. Gobbles wandered in front of my trail camera yesterday, and had his portrait made. He's a striking bird, and yes that is an almost metallic green you see on his plumage. That means he's a male. If his lady friend was around she was clever enough to avoid having her picture snapped.

We see big flocks of wild turkey in the distance all the time. Seeing this guy up close is a treat. Most of the time they're long gone before you can approach them.

That derelict structure in the background is an old deer stand, long abandoned. 

The image above is Mr. Gobbles. He appears to be inspecting the camera. He's probably wondering if he can use it as a Wifi hotspot.

As long as I'm posting critter pics, here's one of Lou Ann, posing triumphantly at the peak of Two Thousand Millimeter Mountain:

And here's another Lou pic, as she enjoys her obligatory dip in the pond.

I've heard no repeats of the call I recorded (The Wild Man of Yocona Bottom), so either Bigfoot has rented a condo closer to town or he's learned to do his yelling in a bucket so the neighbors don't raise a fuss.

BOOK GIVEAWAY

I'm giving away a free signed copy of All the Paths of Shadow this week! To win it, all you have to do is email me (franktuttle at franktuttle dot com) with the CORRECT COUNT of the gargoyles in the picture above. The first person to offer a correct summation of the gargoyles contained in the image wins. 

I'll sign the book however you want and mail it out free of charge. Just get the number right.

Good luck!

RANDOM WRITING ROOM: THE EVILS OF HEAD-HOPPING

Look in any writing how-to book and you'll find pages and pages of advice on how to best handle point of view. 

Point of view takes many forms. First person. Second person. Third person omniscient.  The Unreliable Narrator.  Third Person Objective. 

Your choices are many. 

I'm not going to list each and every possible POV and the advantages and disadvantages thereof.  I tend to stick with first person in my Markhat stories, and third person omniscient in most of my other titles. But here's one thing I will tell you about point of view -- pick one, and stick with it. 

One of the dangers in shifting a POV is called 'head-hopping.' It's jarring and distracting. 

Here's an example, to show you what I mean. Assume that Mary is our heroine, and this passage takes place somewhere in the middle of the story: 

Mary frowned. "I don't know if I can get all this done before Saturday, Mr. Smith." Mary fought to keep her voice from shaking. Of course I can't get all this work done before Saturday, she thought.  No one could, and he knows it, and he's just being cruel. 

"I have perfect faith in you," said Mr. Smith. He allowed himself a triumphant smile. You'll work all night every night because you have no choice, he mused, watching Mary fight back tears. You'll do what I say, because I'm the boss. 

  

That's an example of head-hopping. It's perfectly fine to show the reader what Mary is thinking, because she's the heroine, and we get to see what's going on inside her. 

But her boss, Mr. Smith, is off limits. Jumping into his head reveals things Mary simply cannot know. And since Mary's character is our point of view character, we need to stay in her head and her head alone, especially if this is a short story. 

Let's amend that exchange above to avoid head-hopping. 

Mary frowned. "I don't know if I can get all this done before Saturday, Mr. Smith." Mary fought to keep her voice from shaking. Of course I can't get all this work done before Saturday, she thought.  No one could, and he knows it, and he's just being cruel. 

"I have perfect faith in you," said Mr. Smith.  He smiled a thin little smile and leaned forward, putting his face close to Mary's.  His eyes met hers. "You won't disappoint me, will you, Mary? Because you like this job, don't you? You need this job, isn't that right?" 

Mary blinked and looked away. "Yes sir," she said. "Yes sir." 

We see Mary's thoughts. But what goes on in Mr. Smith's head is as much a mystery to us as it is to Mary, although he makes it clear from his words and his actions that he's a bully, and he enjoys being a bully. 

You'll be pleased to learn that Mr. Smith is later set upon by raging giant weasels, and Mary inherits his job and gives herself a raise. Hopefully you also learned the basics of avoiding head-hopping. It's a bad practice. Avoid it with as much vigor as you would avoid raging weasels of giant stature.   

 

WRITING UPDATE

First round edits on The Five Faces are back with the publisher. I am more than 70% done with the new Markhat book, The Darker Carnival, assuming I wind up with a manuscript fairly close to the projected word count. 

Since I'm meeting or exceeding my 1500 word per day target, I could finish the first draft this month. My very first Word file entitled The Darker Carnival is dated mid-October, so if I make my January deadline that will mean I started and finished a rough draft in around three months.

If you look at the math, writing a book in 90 days isn't impossible. At 1500 words per day that's 135,000 words, after cutting a quarter of those away you're left with around 100K. 

It's not necessary to be a verb-slingin' superman to write a book quickly -- A steady pace and commitment to daily goals is all you really need. 

I've never managed to pull it off before. I hope I can do it again!

Oh, and not that I'm plugging a book, but here's a book I'm plugging:

And here's the link to the book I'm not plugging:

Brown River Queen

If you've read the book already and liked it and haven't had a chance to leave a review, there's a link, wink wink nudge nudge...

Okay, back to work for me! Take care, and see you next week!