August 2018
Welcome to the Wild Blue Yonder Newsletter!
Thank you for all your support and encouragement, and for sticking with me on this weirdly awesome carnival ride that transforms ideas into novels.
This edition includes updates on Baghdaddy and Cypher 1.0.
This August is crazy. It has 23 different awareness campaigns. They highlight National Wellness, Crayon Collection, Family Fun, Catfish, Black Business, Eye Exams, Golf, Peaches, Immunizations, Panini’s and Goat Cheese, among other things.
When I remember, I try to do a few things or cook a few meals every month that reflect something I didn’t expect to see on the list. National Ice Cream Sandwich day was popular with Jo and the boys when I stocked up. Squid day was less popular for them, but I’ll celebrate it again just to see the look their faces when I serve all things squid for dinner. For a visual, think giving a toddler wasabi. To be clear, I’m not advocating feeding toddlers wasabi. But have fun, and do something unexpected.
Mike Towle, my Dev Editor, true to his word, returned Baghdaddy just before 1 August, and his comments were exactly what the manuscript needed. We talked before he started and one of the biggest challenges I had with Baghdaddy wasn’t the story, it was the right format to present the story in a way that would make sense to readers of memoir.
I tried a lot of different things and used a narrative style of alternating war stories with formative family stories. It worked and generated interest but each chapter needed to stand on its own, and that made the book long. Mike recommended a more traditional memoir structure to tighten the narrative, and I’ve been hard at work doing just that since the beginning of the month.
The final version of Baghdaddy will begin with an introduction to the world in the aftermath of 9/11, highlight what happened when two different Presidents called for uprisings, and review some of the reasons we found ourselves in Iraq. It will also discuss why childhood, fatherhood, and going to war are very similar things.
After the Intro there will be three short chapters of battles in my war to grow up, followed by surprising experiences in Kuwait, and a behind the scenes tour of fighting terrorists and insurgents in Iraq. As I watch the story get tighter and move even faster, I’m confident I made the right decision. But after years of work, a developmental edit is tough. I knew it was coming, but it still feels like my baby is having major surgery so he can grow up big and strong. The good and bad part is, I’m the surgeon.
I’ll finish the changes to the first part of Baghdaddy today. My deadline to return my edits to the manuscript is the 23^rd. After I get the new structure right, there are still a few different types of edits yet to come, but we are on track for a Spring 2019 release.
My new book Cypher 1.0 is somewhere between halfway and three-quarters of the way complete, and I’m still chipping away at it. Next week, I’ll be far enough along on Baghdaddy to also get back to writing Cypher. This is a great example of “Be careful what you ask for,” but I’m getting ready to start the last two major sequences in the second act, and I can’t wait to begin.
I love the characters in this book, and after I get this novel out to my alpha readers, I’ll introduce the Cypher children to you. I’m working hard to finish this book by the end of September but getting Baghdaddy to the publisher takes priority. Keep your fingers crossed. It’s going to be close.
Thanks again for staying with me on this journey.
Bill
Thanks again for reading my newsletter.
More information on my books and events will follow.
Also, the first 50 people to sign up for this newsletter will be invited to the Baghdaddy launch party at a place still to be determined somewhere in or around Boise Idaho.