This is it the red letter day

Three years ago I started this blog to promote and discuss the writing of a story that became known as Heathen Hearts. In that time my granddaughter was born and my father died. It has been a struggle, many times against the mechanics of writing with a computer. Finding the time has been the biggest struggle because I work for a living  not to mention I live in a suddenly crowded house. No more sitting at the kitchen table with my imaginary friends!

This IS the Red Letter Day though. After all this time I have checked all Kindle's boxes and followed all their cues. Today Heathen Hearts has been published on Amazon.

 http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MIHUK7Q

On the one hand I want to go hide in the trailer and start writing something new. This story still begs my attention though, so I must find ways and follow advice on how to make this book, if not a household name...at least well read.

I can hardly wait for critics to start emailing me to say that there are no ship graves at Gamla Uppsala, or there was no monument to the victorious Soviet army in Budapest or the bus stop in Pincher Creek wasn't in the Black Hat Trading company at that time. My answer will be one word...fantasy! This is a work of contemporary fantasy. None of this ever happened and the characters never existed...sigh!

The same goes for any friends or family who think they see themselves in some of the characters. As I said in one of my early posts, a writer needs references. My wife actually gave me the idea. She was reading a complicated story with many characters. She flipped through catalogs and magazines to make cut outs of various people. These she named after the characters in the story so she could keep track of them. I went to not just on line photos, but my own albums for faces to reference. Not only faces but I used parts of names in order to keep track of the various actors in the story. I always meant to change them completely but the monster grew too big to go back through every chapter and change names. In the end, I couldn't because Alex was...well Alex and Lorne...Lorne etc. At one time I wanted to change Anya's name but found out that her name actually became an important part of the story in later bits. When Deedee is asked why she called her never to be born son, Hawk, she replied, "Because that's his name." And so each character became their name.
In the end these characters and places are works of fiction and bear no resemblance to actual places nor people living or dead.

Read the book for the adventure and the travel. Read it to solve or resolve the mystery. Is there a moral to the story? I don't know...maybe...life is what you make it. You only get the one chance. Go ahead and stick your head out of the window of a speeding car and take life full in the face. Just be ready for bumblebees...  

Troubles

Oh-oh....

It's almost too hard to believe. I had the story all converted into a file to upload onto kindle, I've finally decided on which cover to use, all I was waiting for was to get home from a two week trip to Europe.
Just when I was finally ready to do the long awaited deed...the computer packed in. Somehow the start up files are corrupted and the thing won't start. If it does it won't stay on any one page before it jams. I've taken it in but was told there was nothing wrong...after $125. It's going back today but if it truly is screwed...I will rebuild the file from the flash drive and the cover picture from emails and try to redo it on this laptop.
The only good thing about this delay is that I found that the table of contents for Part Two was missing. My hopes of being a published writer sting hang in the balance...

Ready To Go

As Winston Churchill  said;

“Writing a book is an adventure. To begin with it is a toy and an amusement. Then it becomes a mistress, then it becomes a master, then it becomes a tyrant. The last phase is that just as you are about to be reconciled to your servitude, you kill the monster and fling him to the public.”

Heathen Hearts is ready to be flung to the public...

I have the file all ready to upload onto Kindle. The only hold up is the cover page...and a trip to see my daughter in Holland.

Here are the top runners for book cover:

Maybe we'll number them one to four from the top to the bottom. If you have a favorite... you could let me know.

I will post when the dirty deed is done and the book is published.

I have failed to keep a very important rule. First stories should always start with KISS. Keep It Simple Stupid! I have so many ideas for a straight forward story, why did I have to get involved with three time periods all intertwined?
It has been a struggle what with work taking up most of my time. I've been going back through the story fixing (hopefully) punctuation and names that were altered etc. I have been disappointed to see errors that I thought I'd corrected, still undone. What the heck? Is the computer not saving them once I've moved on?
I have found a possible publisher on facebook. I was hoping to have more of the product cleaned up before approaching them.

A sad thing and one I will regret is that my father just passed away. He won't get a chance to read the story although I was not sure it would be his cup of tea. I've blabbed for so many years about being a publish author, especially with this story, now he will never know if I did it or not. With the memorial service coming up and looking after resettling Mom, it may be hard to carry on. I know I must after all these years and I know that if I ever want to get to the new material, I'll have to be faithful to these characters and "get 'er done".

Here is a song for my father...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IU1rZa8Ur_Q&feature=player_embedded#!

The Journey is the Thing

I have been quiet for the past while so I will fill you in on what is happening with “Heathen Hearts”. After dividing the story in to three very unequal parts I have sent the first part “The King’s Grave” to a reader with the Writer’s Guild of Alberta for,...evaluation I guess. I have continued to “tweak” the later two sections while putting them together in their,...closer to finished form. The results of the professional reading will take at least eight weeks so maybe by November I’ll get the results back. After that I will take some time to implement any changes they recommend that will improve the story in the telling.

I have almost convinced myself to go with e-publishing as it seems I would have more control over the process. It is true that once the words hit the web they seem to be fair game but I’m hoping theft won’t be a problem. Some e-books actually get printed if they do well though I’m not sure what happens to author rights in that case. I thought of getting some elaborate artwork done for the cover but even the family connection might cost than I’d like. I might do a bit of experimenting with images on my own and see if I can make a less flashy substitute. 

All in all I foresee the new year before this story gets into the hands of the public,...sigh!!

Some other random thoughts: I would like to have a music disc to go with this book. That said I would need the services of a musician as I am not one. My first thought was the drummer for RUSH, Neil Peart. I wonder if he’s looking for a project. Colin James is another singer/songwriter who might have the versatility to do a reasonable job for basically a “Celtic Rock” Band. I would be interested mostly in the publicity while Royalties could be worked out.

I think I have mentioned this before but I was thinking that “Loud-Macleod” should have a sound something like "Eluveitie" only without the growled vocals. “Chameleon” should sound more like “Fleetwood Mac” with a twist of “The Eagles”. The final band, “Heathen Hearts” in their last concert tour, I hear “Night Wish” from the album, “Dark Passion Play”. If I could find a musician to collaborate, the words that are already in the book are not cast in stone. I have no problems with new and better versions of those nonexistent tunes!

I guess the thing is that anything could happen it just may not happen all at once. The whole experience is on a learning curve. Hopefully the next story and the next won't take so long.

Making Some Headway

For the past little while I have been,..well for one,...reading my story from front to back. This was the first time I had ever done so. I was encouraged to pretend that this story was just one I pulled off the book shelf. I was only allowed to make obvious spelling and grammatical corrections. I must confess that I couldn't help but play with the story and juggle things around from time to time. I'm sure it has been improved by my effort.
One of the major errors I was forced to deal with late, had to do with the Swedish habit of identifying grand-parents specifically maternal or paternal. Thanks Google Translate for that mistake. Oh I see they have better options now!

I would like to send the manuscipt to a professional reader selected by the Alberta Writers Guild, which I am a member of but it is still not cheap. I have therefore decided to break the story down into three parts. The first six chapters are entitled: "Heathen Hearts Part One: The King's Grave". While only 284 pages,...there is 88,528 words according to the computer word count. I have also decided to put this fiction into the "Fantasy" genre mainly because I really don't know where it belongs exactly.

I know that every time I read a section I find things wrong,...mostly typo errors thankfully. Did I mention that I am having to reread almost the whole story to change Anja's Grandma from The Mormor to The Farmor as she is Anja's FaderModer not ModerModer,...if you follow. At some point I will have to stop worrying the story to death I know and send this first part to,...somebody to proof read etc. In the meantime, I will continue to prepare the next third for a similar journey.

Character Models - The Good, The Bad,...

Many writers use models or images to be able to easily remember or recognise their story characters as they work. I've known some people who will go through magazines and catalogues and snip out someone who reminds them of a particular character. They might cut out some cardboard and glue the picture on and put the character's name across it or a the bottom. Some writers who can draw, may sketch what they think their character looks like themselves or do a story board. In the end it is the reader who will use their own imagination and the writer's descriptions to create the image in their mind's eye.


I thought I'd throw in  some of the miscellaneous character models I used for this story. I don't have pictures for everybody and if I do I won't bore the reader anymore than I already have. So here is a photo of the models used for Mac and his friends.


The Good

From left to right are Alex Wainright, Mac Macleod, and Lorne Sawczyn keeping Law and Order out on the Range! Taken at the Jay Seven Bar Ranch in between gigs with the group 'Chameleon'. This band also included Anja, Gette, and Deedee. The emphasis musically was six part harmonies. Alex played keyboard and guitars, Lorne played an array of traditional instruments such as Banjo, Mandolin, Dobro, etc. Mac played his usual loud, rhythm and sang many of the lead vocals.


The Bad


Every story has to have a bad guy, an arch villain and this story is no different. From the very start I had a picture of what the magazine mogul Malcolm Forsythe  should look like. Perhaps my character is a little heftier,...he has large hands,...as soon as I saw Ray Liota I knew I had my model.

I mean just look at that face. Doesn't he have "Sinister Business Tycoon" with hidden 'secrets' written all over him? That is why he is the model for my Malcolm Forsythe.

Here is a clue,...

Character Models - Deedee Hanlon

Many writers use models or images to be able to easily remember or recognise their story characters as they work. I've known some people who will go through magazines and catalogues and snip out someone who reminds them of a particular character. They might cut out some cardboard and glue the picture on and put the character's name across it or a the bottom. Some writers who can draw, may sketch what they think their character looks like themselves or do a story board. In the end it is the reader who will use their own imagination and the writer's descriptions to create the image in their mind's eye.


In some ways Deirdre Hanlon was one of the hardest to find a model for. I had an image in my head that worked pretty well but I thought I should find something as I had the others. Try as I might I could not find an Irish face that looked like Deedee. For a while I was tempted to use Avril Lavigne but I wasn't quite satisfied.
Deedee is quite short, only 5'2" in stocking feet. She has a turned up nose with a band of freckles and green eyes. Her hair is usually a sandy reddish blond but she often dyes it and cuts it to spice things up. Though the drummer for the bands in the story, being raised in Belfast, Ireland she also plays the Uilleann pipes, the Scottish War pipes, Tin whistle, Recorder, besides the Bodhran drum and singing lead vocals on many tracks.

At long last I just happened to think of an old friend of my daughter's and also happened to find some photos of her on a social networking site. I've decided not to mention her name but as soon as I saw the photos,...she became my model for Deedee Hanlon. I hope she won't mind.  :)

Character Models - Gette Kozak

Many writers use models or images to be able to easily remember or recognise their story characters as they work. I've known some people who will go through magazines and catalogues and snip out someone who reminds them of a particular character. They might cut out some cardboard and glue the picture on and put the character's name across it or a the bottom. Some writers who can draw, may sketch what they think their character looks like themselves or do a story board. In the end it is the reader who will use their own imagination and the writer's descriptions to create the image in their mind's eye.
One of the easiest because I only have one photo model is,...


Brigette Kozak

"Gette" is 5'6" with dark eyes and features that reveal her heritage. Her mother's maiden name was Kun which is the name of the people known in English as Cuman. They were a Nomadic people from the Eur-Asian Steppe also known as the Kipchak before moving into Hungary around the year 1000 c.e. Though mostly a mystery, their language is of Turkic-Iranian origin. Gette like Anja is classically trained and can play almost any instrument. She plays either lead guitar, or lead fiddle (violin) on most of their early "Rock and Reel" music but on the final tour and record she does major duty on keyboards besides.

Gette posed a bit of a problem for me as I had another image in my head altogether when I started. She transformed from bitch-witch to beautiful witch as I got to know her better. I looked through Hungarian faces for quite some time before this model appeared. I have no idea of her name but she had done excellent service as a stand in for Brigette Kozak.

Story Fun

One of the fun things about this story is trying to imagine the characters and the music they would play, what it would sound like. Just  crusing through Youtube I came across a very young version of "Gette Kozak" playing the guitar in her room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuX2VFSBOHM&feature=related

Now if they every made a movie of this story,...ha, ha, ha, I'd have to try and find out who this really is!

What is really ironic is that I have been using this photo of an unknown(to me) Hungarian Model as my,...model for Gette. The guitar playing girl is very similar.

Maybe over the next little while I'll add photos of the faces I used to picture my characters as I wrote.

Writing wise,...I have finish a major part of the story or have it saved and pages printed anyway. The "back to the present" part remains to be rewritten and saved so there is still a lot of work to do. In a way it is kind of sad to see another section of this story come to a close. I like these "imaginary friends" of mine and I like their story. I just wish they'd picked a better writer,...I do have to look forward to actually reading it from end to end for the first time and adding more finishing touches. We'll I better not "hang about" here then!

Another Sample

CHAPTER TWELVE: “CLIMBING BACK ON THE HORSE”

Sitting on the new baled hay stacked in the loft Mac retreated into his music. He dusted off a song he had started quite some time before during a previous crisis. The words and music came to him anew and somehow they seemed much more poignant. Being busy with his own solace, he failed to notice Gette withdrawing more and more into herself as well. For the first week or so she along with Deedee and Anja would go down to the bend in the Red Deer River. They would strip down and wade or swim across to the deeper channel on the far side. Returning, they would lay under the cottonwoods while they dried.

As of late Gette started staying after the others were finished or go alone to swim. She said it reminded her of when she was a child and they used to swim in the nearby Tisza River. Sometimes she would immerse herself in the cooling flow but more often she would sit and try to be soothed by the lapping sound of the water and the sunlight playing on the ripples. Other times singing, Gette would wander barefoot along the shore. She thought a lot about home and her life and wondered if it was all worth it. Gette remembered as she walked alone the guys warning her about dangerous quicksand that would “swallow up a horse and rider in seconds”. She wondered what that would be like. In reality it sounded horrible but if it was quick and if she was never found,...

Maybe she could be like Shakespeare’s Ophelia and float down the river in madness until the water filled her voluminous clothes and pulled her under. It might be pretty watching the sun on rippling water only from underneath! If only she had some voluminous clothing! Why did dying have to be so complicated?

The thing that always stopped her in the end was not so much the world going on without her, though that too made her sad. It was the pain and heartbreak her death would cause Anja, Deedee and most of all Mac. He had worked so hard to keep her alive. Her happiness always seemed his first concern. Mac would be devastated if she were to kill herself. He did have Anja though, and Anja would always pull him through. She on the other hand,...had no one!

Another day and another night went by without so much as a word from Lorne. Soon another week had passed. If he would even call to say that he had thought it over but could not bring himself to love her anymore, it wouldn’t be any easier but at least she would know. As it was, it seemed he had driven her from his thoughts, boarded over the memories they shared and hardening his heart, was getting on with his life without her. This was too much!

That morning Gette made up her mind. Avoiding Deedee and especially Anja she made her way down to the shore. It was another glorious summer day with high wispy mare’s tail clouds in an azure sky. Sunlight sparkled on the greenish river as it in turn reflected the dancing leaves of the cottonwoods in the warm gentle breeze. She had on one of her favourite short dresses and held her best high heels in one hand. Around her neck was a silver heart shaped locket that her brother Peter had given her a very long time ago. This was so if they ever did find her body,… they would know whose it was.

The water was clear and cool as it rose up her leg to mid thigh. Clouds of river silt swirled up around her feet with each step like dust storms on the Puszta only in miniature. Looking up at the sky for one last time Gette lay back in the water and let the current lift her off the bottom.

On Magic

All my stories are a little,...quirky, it seems I have no say in the matter. The only reason I can think of is that as children we were raised on fairytales with witches and wizards and magic. Then we grow up,...and there is no magic. What a shame!

So in my stories there is always a little magic at least. Sometimes it is so subtle the characters are not even aware of it. There is usually one character who does know and so uses either  the little they have or has the ability to draw on "a greater power".
The lives and the fates of my "actors" are shaped by the ebb and flow of natures magic no matter what I try and write about.

For example, in one of my "unfinished novels" there is a character who always knows what is happening in the village. Birds, trees, animals, even the breeze keep her informed.

In "Anulfes Saga" there is a "slave" Anulf and his boat crew take upon themselves to protect. She is obviously high born by her clothes and bearing but like the rest of the "cargo", is bound for the slave markets of Sirkland. She never speaks but has a way about her that attracts all the children taken as slaves as well. She looks after them and they her as if they have a special connection. A small boy speaks for her when necessary otherwise her will or desire is just,...known.

In Heathen Hearts Mac has this ability to know what horses are thinking and respond correctly. Then there is the "Mormor", Anja's Grandma. Is she really a witch or just a crazy old lady? What does that make Anja?!

Heathen Hearts,...A Teaser

Torkel “Mac” Macleod is a young Cowboy from southern Alberta. It’s the 1970’s and he is just an ordinary cowboy working ranches, riding lease in season and playing in a small time country-folk band when it is too cold to punch cows. He can ride, rope and treat a calf like any other ordinary cowboy. Mac hates being ordinary!

If he has a special skill, it is training and working with horses. He also has an uncanny ability to attract talented women! Maybe it’s because he treats both horses and women with respect. Maybe it’s because he plays guitar and sings with a powerful voice turning his own lyrics and poetry into things of beauty. Somewhere or somehow he gets it into his thick, Scots-Irish head that he wants to be a Rock Star!

This is a story of how he goes about making his wish come true. It is also about what people will do and how far they will go to fulfill their dreams. Lastly it is about what happens if “Fate” has already made other plans. Throughout and ultimately, it is a story about love and the human condition.

Anja is a pretty Swedish folk singer Mac meets by chance on a trip to Europe in the summer of ’74. Raised on a small backwoods farm by her Grandma the “Mormor”, (known in the region as the “White Witch of Lindstrom Wood”), all Anja wants is to be ordinary. She doesn’t stand a chance! Mac should have known there was much more to this tall, slender girl. He met her inside the stone circle of the “King’s Grave” at Uppsala, the ancient home of Sweden’s Heathen Kings after all.  Anja has only one desire. She wants to see that Mac’s wishes come true.

Enter Brigette Kozak or just ‘Gette’ to her friends. A Hungarian musical virtuoso living in Vienne with her brother Peter, she never was ordinary and has no plans to change. Talented and intelligent, she has a past that won’t give her peace. She has convinced herself that nothing good can ever come to her. Even Mac and Anja must be a mistake. She begins to believe that all the drugs available to up and coming Rock Stars are the only way to find the solace she seeks.

The last and youngest member of the band Mac forms is Deedee Hanlon. Hardened by the poor, working class Protestant enclaves of Belfast she is no stranger to violence both sectarian and domestic. Yet still she shines as a Diamond hiding behind her rough Belfast mouth where simple wisdom springs forth amid all the expletives.

These four disparate characters find purpose and joy making music,…and love, together forming a unique bond that seems beyond friendship. Their gift to the world is music and in exchange all they asked is to be allowed to create the music they love. What they want from the world is to be taken for the serious musicians they are and not as some freak show because of their living arrangement. Sadly it is not to be.

“Beware the first long lives his hate. Vengeance is swift but always too late!” What did the “Mormor’s” words to Deedee mean and what did she say to Gette to send her into a spiral of self destruction? Why is Malcolm Forsythe out to destroy the band and why does the millionaire Publisher have such hatred for Mac Macleod? It is possible that they might never know for sure, but there is something sinister about Malcolm Forsythe.

When trouble comes and Mac and his band take refuge with his childhood friends in southern Alberta, will they stand by him? What about his family? Anja’s Grandma warned that they will be tested, that there will be sacrifices and they will have to be strong and stand together through very difficult times. Their only chance of survival will depend on them working together and relying on each other completely.

But it is much more complicated than that. How are they to accomplish their “mission” if after the “accident” Mac does not remember,… if he forgets there ever was a band called ‘Loud-Macleod’? What if he is told that Anja, Gette and Deedee are just figments of a brain damaged mind and his life with them only but some madman’s dream? Malcolm Forsythe’s plan is unfolding. What will happen to Anja, Gette and Deedee, and what must Mac do when he finds out that they once shared their ‘Heathen Hearts’?

*****

Genesis of Heathen Hearts

The genesis of the story "Heathen Hearts" basically comes from my desire to write a story or a novel. I have written historical based articles for local newspapers but wanted to something,...bigger, more important. I tried a radio play once but never heard back,...I spent some years researching a novel that took place during the South African War(1899-1902) but left it idle long enough for Fred Stenson to produce a much better job of my idea.

I  had been writing a story with some success about seventeen years ago. I set up a routine of writing every evening after the kids went to bed and it was working well. Life came along and changed things enough that I have let that story slide. I may revive it one day but it was getting weird and the possible outcome was disturbing to me.

More recently I have been working on a "Viking Saga" and I'll post some of it here. I should have been working on it as a screenplay as there are so many Viking reenactors here in Alberta. The whole "gist" behind the story is something that could be filmed in Alberta and believably pass for Europe and Asia.

While working on the above story, the premise came into my head: what if you found out that in your younger days you had actually had a completely different life that had somehow been suppressed and blotted from your memory? Almost at once a series of characters clamored into my thoughts and demanded that I write their story. My wife calls these people my "imaginary friends" and they have been with me for over a year and a half.

The story of their life in the mid 1970s and thirty years later has been written. It took a year to write and I do mean write. I filled eight scribbler/notebooks before the telling was told. I am now in the process of typing a "first" rewrite, getting it onto computer and saving it in print and on disc.

I hope to use this Blog to share some of the details and perhaps a few excerpts in the hopes of not only creating some interest but keeping me interested hopefully long enough to get this thing publish! Actually I see a prequel, I see a multimedia thing with an accompanying music disc and pictures in graphic novel style.

Anyway, this is my first post so I will stop now as I still have a lot to learn about blogging,....