First rereading of Part 1 of 'The Fracking War' is finished

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - I just reread the first segment (of five) of my draft of The Fracking War ("Prelude to War"). It was my first peek at the book since I drafted it last winter in Mexico.

Natural gas explosions, scary in real-life, too

I let it sit a long time so I would forget a lot of it. The time, I thought, would help me determine if it moved along fast enough, the dialog made sense and the plot was plausible.

Well, with some modifications, it looks like yes, yes, and yes.  Woo-hoo!

But it will be up to the Beta readers to determine if my somewhat-biased judgment is anywhere near right.

Where's my hammock?

It took a couple of hours to go through, reading fairly fast. I believe I will go back in the next day or so and edit this first section, making it final (as a draft). I had thought I would read through all five sections and then go back and edit.

But what I saw/read is pretty clear to me right now and doing it this way will make the editing task a little less Herculean.

Maybe.

Regardless, this writer needs a nap right now.

Right now. I'm writing myself a nap in this chapter of my life.

A Boy Scout salute derails my editing start on 'The Fracking War'

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - I had my printed out copy of the draft of The Fracking War sitting on my desk, ready for the red-pencil treatment just a few days ago.

The next phase in this process is for me to read it a closely as a I can, making changes, perhaps adding chapters if needed. Because it's the last time I will edit before it goes out to my beta readers, it's a little nerve-wracking. I want to be sure to iron out any inconsistencies, fix factual missteps and smooth out the roughest edges factually and stylistically.

It's been at least six weeks since I peeked at it. So in some ways, it will be brand new and I should spot things that I would normally have read right past had I done this when I first completed the draft in Sacramento.

My confidence was very high until I dove into a novel I picked up at the Watkins Glen public library, a book that seems to have  been through the traditional publishing mill: editors, fact checkers, fact checkers who check other fact checkers and the editors.

Did I mention the fact checkers?

Then I read these three sentences on page 7 of this novel:

"No long stories. Scout's honor." 

The detective lifted two fingers in a Boy Scout salute.

Santa Crappo! The author wrote that he lifted two fingers.

Boy Scout salute

My time with the scouting organization was limited. A couple of years as a Cub Scout. Maybe three as a Boy Scout.

I still say the longest summer I ever spent was a week at Camp Merz, a Boy Scout camp in Chautauqua County, New York.

But I did learn all that paramilitary protocol forwards and backwards.

Cub Scout salute

For the record, the Boy Scout salute uses three fingers. Cub Scouts use two. Believe me. I saluted my butt off. We had some retired military guys as leaders who loved the saluting.


So you might say, big deal, a minor error.

Yes, a minor error, but just the kind of minor error that should never appear in a well-edited novel. If the writer (and fact checkers and editors and the fact checkers who check the other fact checkers) can't get a detail like a salute correct, how will a reader believe the plot?

They won't. Which I why I will be reading The Fracking War even closer than I had planned.

Oh, by the way, there is some saluting in The Fracking War. But if I remember, it's mostly of the single-digit variety.

Fallling back into the news cycle: 4 stories in one week

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - I was back on home news territory only a few days before I went out on my first writing assignment for the daily Elmira Star-Gazette: Covering a trial of three people arrested for trespassing at the local natural gas facility March 18.

Protesters about to be released

They were blocking the entrance, making a political statement about how bad a proposed expansion of the project will be for the area.

It will be disastrous, actually.

But after that hearing - during which they were quickly sentenced to 15 days in jail - I wrote a second piece a few days later about their anticipated release.

Then the night of their actual release from jail I took photos to accompany yet a third piece published later that day about their release and their plans to keep fighting for environmental justice.

This story was a freelancer trifecta.

At the release of the prisoners, I managed to get scolded by a burly sheriff's deputy for standing up on a railing outside the jail while shooting still photos. He told me, "Get down before you fall down." 
 

Yes, it was cold shooting photos that night

It sounded soooo familiar. Then I remembered, that's exactly what I told all four of my children whenever they climbed on something.

I got down, by the way. Even with media credentials, you never argue with police, especially a cop that outweighs you by 100 pounds and carries a large caliber pistol and a nightstick.

Next up on the freelance writing/freelance photography deck is a photo shoot Saturday at the Tiki Bar Polar Plunge in Seneca Lake. Yes, it's exactly what it sounds like: jumping into 42-degree water. There will be large volumes of alcohol involved, too, so the swimmers will be able to warm back up.

Or warm up before they plunge.

OH! And The Fracking War draft? It's all neatly printed out in a box staring at me right now, making noises that say, Read Me! Edit Me! Publish Me! 

Maybe after the Plunge Saturday.

Last year's Tiki Bar Polar Plunge - hope the weather is as nice Saturday

'The Fracking War' gets ready for first round of editing

WATKINS GLEN, New York, USA - After a full month of not looking at the completed draft of The Fracking War, I printed out all five sections in the last two days, burning through a whole printer cartridge in the process.

Five sections, 100,000 words

But now it's printed out and the work - my work - begins with a full, red-pencil-in-hand read through. I will do that on the hard copy, making editorial comments along the way, just like I did for more years than I would like to count on student work.

When that process is done, I will boot up the draft of the book on this computer, making changes as needed, and possibly add  (or delete) sections. Whole chapters might get dumped, too, or expanded and other chapters added. I tried not to read as I printed it out, though peeking was too tempting at times.

But the month-long break from looking at it means I should be able to read the draft almost like a fresh piece of literature. At least I hope it's fresh and doesn't read (or smell) like a month-old tuna.

Once my editing/rewriting/rejiggering is done in the next few weeks, off the draft will go to three beta readers for their take on The Fracking War.

A number of people have asked me, "How many pages is it?" The answer? I have no idea. The total word count for the five sections is close to 100,000 words. That makes it longer than most books you would pick up in the airport to read on a flight, but way, way short of a Stephen King blockbuster. 

The other question is, "What's your next book about?"

Kee-rist, I'm just hoping to survive the publishing of The Fracking War. But I suppose as a follow up I could team up with Adm. Fox and we could write something a little lighter, maybe The Art of Sofa Surfing. 

Or we could write a non-fiction book about our adventures in Mexico.

No, not ready to tackle that.

The Fracking War draft Ver. 1.0 is officially completed - wine please!

SACRAMENTO, Calif. USA - The first draft of The Fracking War is officially completed as of 5:31 p.m. Pacific Time. I tuned up the last two chapters this afternoon and had a character give a rousing speech that brought tears to eyes of the people in his audience.

I will break the tape with a wine glass

In the other chapter I had to tie up a loose end with a particularly gruesome scene.  I had to do it. The characters insisted.

We'll see what the beta readers think about that.

All I can think at the moment is Jesus H. Christ it was haul to get to this point!

In November when I started writing, the 100,000 or so words looked as formidable as a hike across the entire nation of Canada - in midwinter. Then sometime around Christmas I could see the words and scenes piling up, a story taking shape. Progress!

A few characters fell by the wayside as the months went by. There were plenty of incidents of problems with hydrofracking and the corruption of public officials finding their way onto my pages in the chapters. My characters were - I suppose I should say are - busy every second.

All along I was nourished by daily headlines and near continuous Facebook postings from various amigos about things going on with hydrofracking.

The real world of hydrofracking is a damned scary place.

Whose body is in the swamp?

The draft completed today will have one more piece added - an epilog.

I started to write the epilog two days ago, then realized that it would be better to write it after I do my first edit on the book. There are things from early on that will likely deserve mention.

There was a body found in the swamp I think that needs identification.

And the guy who drank the fracking fluid from the plastic water bottle? Not sure if I need to explain more about his ongoing woes from have a highly flammable ethylene-filled bladder.

And you thought it was a great trick in the film Gasland when the guy lights the water from his tap on fire.

That was nothing.

Josh Fox from Gasland ignites the gas in the tap water