'Fracking Justice' section titled 'Sedition' nearing completion

WATKINS GLEN, New York - The fourth of five sections of the sequel to The Fracking War has about a week's worth of writing left to do. At least it seems that way on a rainy upstate New York afternoon.

The section of Fracking Justice under construction is called simply 'Sedition'. And it's pretty damned seditious.

What's slowing progress is that the section has a chapter in need of a major rewrite. Then there are five more chapters that need to be added to close it out.

Still, it's surging ahead. And as in the drafting of The Fracking War, it's hard to keep ahead of the bizarre hydrofracking/gas industry news.

Just think about the bills working their way through Congress right now to make gas exports much more easier. Or how in upstate New York, propane companies are blaming last winter's fuel shortages on a lack of storage, when we know it was mostly the results of export to other nations.

Next thing you know, the natural gas and oil industry will be exempted from most federal clean air and clean water laws.

Oh. Sorry. They already are.

 

'Fracking Justice' finally gets back into the queue

WATKINS GLEN, New York - After cleaning my office this past week and doing everything possible to avoid getting back to working on the draft of Fracking Justice (the sequel to The Fracking War), I ran across the cartoon at the right on Facebook today.

How could I not dive back into Fracking Justice after seeing that?

For the record, writers are generally not all that self-confident about their writing. If they do exude self-confidence, it's usually an act.

That said, after rereading the first section of Fracking Justice, I'm self-confident enough (or just acting) to say that it will be done sometime this summer. Reading just the first part of the book (of five sections) makes me wonder if I should title it Fracking Injustice.

For the novel writers and would-be novel writers reading this, I have a warning about writing a sequel: It's freakin' hard.

Why?

Just as in writing a news article, you cannot assume that a reader has read the previous book. So all that hard character development has to be recreated. Then, of course, there has to be some new characters created, a few old ones made to disappear, and entire fictional communities made whole again.

Like I said, freakin' hard.

But in the end, justice will be served, hot and cold. Fracking Justice, that is.

Someone else's love story - a novel well-worth taking a look at

WATKINS GLEN, New York - Someone else's love story, a novel by Joshilyn Jackson, says on its cover "You won't be able to put it down."

Damn... it was true. Too true!

After a couple of marathon days, reading in between other projects (including writing the sequel to The Fracking War) I rammed through this book, finishing it last night with a contented sigh.

It's quite a tale, twisting and turning with a lot of surprises. A lot. And the surprises come up fast in the copy. Forget foreshadowing. And it works.

There's crime, romance, familial discord/dysfunction, and a handful of other dramatic issues that keep you turning the pages one right after another. Thank God there are chapter breaks in the book or I never would have been able to stop.

Joshilyn Jackson

Jackson uses different character points of view to tell the story, mostly through two main characters. One of the characters has an adorable son. He's a heart breaker.

But what happens to all these characters you will have to read for yourself.

Someone else's love story is highly recommended reading. Highly! And it's even available at the Watkins Glen Public Library.