BenMurphy.net

Update!

2007-11-11T09:28:00.000-05:00

So, no news on the book front. I still have that last revision that I want to submit to some agencies again, but I haven't passed it to my local reading circle to get feed back yet. What's the hold up? Am I really serious about getting published?

Of course, I am.

But two things have happened since August that have taken up a large amount of time. First, I started university classes at USF. Since I am working full time and going to school full time, life has been busy. I'm majoring in Elementary Education and will graduate May of '09 and will hopefully start teaching August of '09. I've really been enjoying the classes.

But I would be further along in the publishing process now, were it just work and class I had to attend to. What other great things have been happening. As I may have posted before, my fiancee and I are expecting our first child. Well, she's finally here!

Born October 24th, Olympia is finally here. The last few months have been a whirlwind of preparation, both materially and mentally. She is a beautiful little girl and I love both her and her mommy with all my heart.

So I've been balancing work, school, and parenting the last few months. I feel I'm getting into a rhythm now, as this first semester of classes comes to a close. I'm eager to get back to the book, which I feel is done, but I need to print out copies and have some people read the latest revision. One great thing about going back to school is that I have professional contacts. For instance, one of my classes is "Children's Literature" and my professor has 20+ years experience in kid's books. She's not a publisher, of course, but she has volunteered to read my book and I know she will have invaluable insight to share.

So, that's about it. The book is still alive and it will be published, but life doesn't stay on hold in the mean time. I'm enjoying life and a published book will only make it sweeter.

Another Revision?

2007-07-03T14:18:00.000-05:00

So the submission process is on hold for the moment. If anyone who has a query of mine responds back, great, but I'm not sending any more out for now.

Why? I wanted to experiment with my book some more. Simply put, I have a feeling that the first half of the book is too long and too slow. It was always a concern of mine, but my adult readers didn't really feel that way. I got some great feedback on how to speed it up some, but mostly regarding sentence composition, not plot lines. I cut down the first part of the story, sentence-wise, before I submitted, but I find myself going back to my initial concern that the first half is too slow.

Percy Jackson confirmed it. If you haven't read about him yet, I suggest you look up Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan. It's a middle grade fantasy novel with a target audience of 10 year olds... the same audience I'm going after. All I can say is, wow! The writing is quick and snappy, but provides great characterization and precise descriptions where needed. I don't intend to mimic Riordan's writing style (he writes in first person - which I didn't think I'd like at first, but loved later!), but he did show me how a story can be quick, yet detailed.

I would say that his writing is the opposite of J.K. Rowling, but just as good and, to be honest, I was drawn in by Percy Jackson in a way that I never was with Harry. Sorry!

So, I've gone back over my book and realized it was about 30,000 words too long. I don't say that so I can copy Percy Jackson's style and length, but because I realized the story didn't NEED to be as long as it is. I saw almost right away where I could cut; how to make the story flow quicker and the writing snappier.

Right in the middle of my story was a 6 chapter spread that introduced a lot of characters, clever exchanges of dialog, and really developed some internal conflicts for the characters. Unfortunately, the external conflict ground to a crawl during that same time. Now the same conflict, internal and external, takes place over just 2 chapters. Zzzzzziiip! We're moving right along!

The beginning suffered much of the same and, I believe, was a little too heavy handed with the theme. Cut Cut Snip Snip. I'm still working on this part, but the first 4 chapters have been merged into 2 chapters, getting to the main conflict much quicker. I still have some more cropping to do and I just keep getting more excited as I go along. I really think this will make my story more accessable and, to be honest, an easier sell.

I've cut 25,000 words so far and have a few thousand more to go. I am going to go line-by-line again and work on sentence composition, weeding out access description and dialog. I want less stage direction and more fun. Anyone interested in reading the latest edit, let me know!

The Search Goes On...

2007-06-13T21:16:00.000-05:00

The big agent liked my query, but passed on the full manuscript. "Didn't resonate". Ah, well... that's the biz.

Fortunately, I've got around a dozen queries floating out there and there are plenty more agents to send to if this batch doesn't work out. It only takes one yes :)

I wont lie and say it doesn't hurt to be turned down, but, as any pimply-faced teen in high school knows, the sting fades with time and courage arrives again to tempt us with glory.

So, here's to awkward teens and new authors... it'll happen... eventually.

My First Query

2007-05-22T23:15:00.000-05:00

So tonight was it: my fist official submission to a literary agent. I've been working on a query letter for a few weeks now, trying to make it perfect. It was a very unnerving process.

For those not in the know, a query letter is an official "look at me" letter. It is almost like a press release, though the target audience is that particular person who will likely ignore you, but just might make your career. The query starts with your "hook", a single sentence description of your story. From there you describe the characters, plot, and conflicts in a single paragraph. After that nightmare, you get to relax a little and list your writing credentials and why your wrote this particular story. Never been published? I guess you'd better have a great hook and an interesting story behind the story. After all that, you get to sum up the letter, thank the agent for their time, and leave your contact information.

Please allow 6 weeks or eternity for a response.

The purpose of a query is to introduce you as an author and the story you're trying to sell. Many books and articles have been written on how to write the perfect query, often with contradictory information. If an agent likes your query, he or she may ask to see a sample of your work (say the first 50 pages) or perhaps the whole completed manuscript. After that, an offer of representation may be made... or not.

Simply put, a query is the gateway through which agents and writers meet each other. A manuscript will not be read unless an agent takes interest in the original query. That being said, the query is most likely the single most important work of a new author's life.

And I sent my first query to perhaps one of the greatest literary agents of all time. I will not name names here, to avoid my own embarrassment, but also out of professional courtesy to this or other agents.

It is said that rejection is a writers most familiar companion, but I have a good feeling. This should be where I "CMA" by being humble and nervous. I wont do that. I've yet to watch or read "The Secret", but I do believe in positive thinking. What's more, however, is that I've worked my rear off on this novel (as well as the query) and I am confident in my success.

So tonight's the night.

In other news, I have spent some hours going through the manuscript again and have made some minor changes here and there. I've taken the feedback I've received from my early readers and it has been very helpful. The novel is much better off for their criticism and I've very pleased with the result. I've managed to trim off a couple thousand more words and I could send out a copy of the manuscript today and be at ease.

Getting some feedback...

2007-05-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

April is behind us now and I'm proud to say that I finished everything that I had proposed in my last update. I trimmed 5,000 words from the story, which involved taking out one minor character (Ghostpaw, you will be remembered!) and tweaking bits here and there. I think the story reads much smoother than it originally did and I am very proud of the end result, which is 119,000 words and 380 pages.

With that done, I went to the local Office Depot and had them print out two manuscripts. Surprisingly, it was done right there (as opposed to the 4 day wait I was originally quoted) and cost $10 less than I had estimated.

With two copies of my completed book in hand, what did I do? After I did a little jig, I gave a copy to my fiancee and one to my mother. Along with reading the book, Mom made three additional copies (printed on front/back of pages and bound in a spiral bounder) to make it easier for people to read. Of course, "official" manuscripts are not printed double sided and are never bound, but I will admit that these new copies were so much easier to carry around and read.

So, in total, four people have read my book. The feedback has been great. So far everyone likes or loves it. Let me set the record straight, friends and family will always say they love something that you spent 2 years of your life creating. In no way does having your mommy love your book mean that it will be a best seller or even find a publisher at all. In my query letters to prospective agents, I will not boast that my uncle said "the last 1/3rd of the book was some of the best fantasy writing I've ever read". This will not impress agents or publishers.

But does make me smile and feel real good about what I've done. It's true, having friends and family gush over your work will not ensure that it sells, however, if they are truthful and really did enjoy it, then it means that it's at least readable. Now, when these readers can identify your major themes and talk about your characters exactly as you yourself imagined them, then it means that your story was understandable... and if they are smiling while they are discussing all this, then it at least means that your story was enjoyable.

So, the feedback has been great so far and I am most excited to make a few minor changes to the master manuscript and start sending out those queries. I've wanted to send out the queries for weeks now, but it would be just my luck that someone bites and wants a final manuscript ASAP (I could only wish)... but how amateure would that look if I had to delay sending it because "my mommy hasn't finished proofing it yet"? So I decided to wait.

I am meeting my uncle tonight to get the last of his input. He holds the record so far of being the fastest reader, as not more than 30 hours after I'd handed him the manuscript he called me to let me know that he finished it and loved it.

So by this time next week I should have all the final changes made to the master and will have as final a story as any book can be (with the exceptions of editor input). I have my list of agents in mind, but I'm going to send to one in particular first. Something about him caught my eye and I want to give him full courtesy to read my query first.

To everyone who has helped me so far: Jeanie, Mom, Susan, and Reese: thank you very much and it has been a pleasure.

Another long break...

2007-03-28T15:42:00.000-05:00

Wow, another few months have gone by. It's taking my just as long to "finish" the book as it did to write it. I wonder if that's typical. Before anyone brands me as a slacker, I do work full time and started college full-time again in January. I already have an Associates degree, but am now completing some pre-req courses to get into USF's Bachelor program for Elementary Education, which starts in August. On the more personal front, I'm excited to announce that my fiancee and I are having a baby! This last month has been a whirlwind of information, doctor's appointments, and post-baby planning. We are expecting in October and, before anyone asks, we don't know yet what the sex is.

So I won't say that working on the book has taken a back seat... but it's just gone very slowly. But I have good news! The changes to my first manuscript have all been made on the master document file, so editing is 90% done. I want to change two scenes in the book to make them more interesting and I also need to cut about 5,000 words. Eeek!! 5,000 words? How can I possibly do that? The story is about 124,000 words right now, and my research shows that fist time authors are usually only granted between 100,000-120,000 words for their first work, and many publishers wont take a risk over 100,000. I'm going to analyze my story and trim the fat as much as possible.

I have a list of agents I will query very soon and I've already started my query letter. It's nerve wracking to try and sell yourself on a single page, but it's how it's done and I'm confident I will succeed.

I have updated my website with some cool pictures I took and edited myself. I also added a "twitter" badge for microblog posts. I don't know how much I'll use it (I'm busy enough as it is), but it looks neat and is cutting-edge internet stuff.

By the end of the week, I think I'll have the whole story finished. I really can't wait for someone to read it!

Still going...

2006-12-01T10:28:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything for a long while for two reasons:

1) The blogger website has had reoccurring problems connecting to my webserver. It very frustrating when I want to post something and have to wait three days before I can get it up. I don't really know what the problem is. I've done a lot of research and it appears that this is a problem that blogger has had for a couple years off and on. Some people believe it is a problem with the end server (where benmurphy.net is hosted) while many others believe it is a problem with blogger. Regardless, every other time I go to make a post it doesn't work. I'm looking at using an alternate blogging program, but this one is so nice... when it works!

2) I haven't had a lot to report! I'm still doing the revision by going through the firs printed manuscript chapter by chapter. I realized I wasn't doing it fast enough so I've recommitted myself to doing it every night. I takes about an hour per chapter and I'm about 1/4 through the book. It's taken me a month to do the first fourth, which is way too long for my taste. To be fair, the first part of the book was written almost 2 years ago and really needed some work. I think from here on out it will go much smoother.

Still, I have another 20 hours to go, so if I spend an hour a night, it will take me 20 days to finish. That still feels too long! I really wish I could do it faster, but considering I only had about 90 minutes a day to write the book in the first place, I shouldn't beat myself up over not having the time.

I really do have the time, it's just a matter of using it efficiently. Still, I laugh that it took me 15 minutes last night to go over two sentences. I loved both, but they didn't fit well together so I spent that time trying to make a match. It's funny that it took me 20 seconds to originally write the 30 words in question, but 15 minutes to get it to work. *sigh* So is the life of a writer... it could be worse!

Now, let's hope this blog goes through.

Manuscript time!

2006-10-31T08:41:00.000-05:00

First, Happy Halloween!! I love this time of year...

So, I just printed out a manuscript. I've waited a little bit because I wanted to fix the first chapter (I did) and I needed to finish another early chapter, the one where our young heros are asked to undertake their first quest. It was an important chapter that I skipped over because I wasn't quite sure how to "ask them". I'm glad I waited because what I have now feels right.

As I've been filling in the beginning chapters, I've realized a few changes I'd like to make towards the end (not the ending!). I decided not to make those changes before I printed out a manuscript. I want to see what I have now and how it reads on paper before I rewrite a couple chapter (it may not need it).

Other than the one change in the later chapter, I've put a lot of work into getting the chapters together. I actually elliminated an entire chapter, which means I had to rename all my file names (which include the chapter number). I then copy & pasted everything into a single document, adjusted the margins, font, and spacing to get a working manuscript of the entire book. In size 12 font with double spaces and one inch margins, the book is 406 pages long... and according to OfficeMax it would cost $32 to print.

I know this because I went through OfficeMax's online document service. I decided not to have them print it because they can't have it done until after Monday. Why it takes 3 days to print 400 pages in black ink, I don't know.

By the way, I've very thankful for my boss, who's let me print out my first manuscript on the company laser printer. I offered to pay, but he wanted none of it. Thanks, Gabe.

Now that I have the manuscript, it will probably take me a week to read it and edit it with red ink. Then I'll get back on the PC and make the changes to the documents. I'll probably read over that first manuscript a couple times, once out loud for sure. Once I'm comfortable with the changes I've made, I'll probably print another manuscript and start the process again. I'll compare the edited version to the original and see if the changes better the story. If they do and I'm happy with it, I'll start looking for an agent.

I'm a little worried about finding an agent. I've had contact in the past with a few authors, namely Margaret Weis (of Dragonlance fame) and Keith Baker (creater of the Eberron world for D&D and author of a few Eberron novels). I plan to ask them kindly for the name of an agent they could recommend; nothing more. I think I'll have better luck with Mrs. Weis, as she has many novels published independent of Wizards of the Coast (who does all the Dragonlance and Eberron books).

Of course, if they can't recommend one, or if the ones they do aren't interested because they're busy, don't represent juvenile literature, or if I just suck, then I'll be back to the drawing board. I'll have to get one of those literary agent guides and start sending querry letters.

Time to prepare the Wall of Rejection!!

-Ben

Still here!

2006-10-07T11:34:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to post a quick blurb to let people know that I'm still here. I'll admit that I've been slow on the editing process, not because it's hard or painful, but because I've been sleeping. Haha, not for weeks straight, but instead of getting up at or before 7am (2 hours before my normal work time) I've been sleeping until 8. I've woken up early a few days and have gotten some great work done, but I find that, after 8 months of getting up early, I like to sleep in.

Don't worry, though. I'm not some dead-beat writer who never finishes a project. I've heard it's good to take several weeks off from a story to clear ones head. It's been 5 weeks since I've finished the first draft and I'm very eager to get back to work on it full-time (by full time I mean a couple hours a day, all the time I can make for it).

In other news, I've been doing some very non-writer stuff; things that should bar me from the serious writers-guild... you know, things like having a life outside of the computer room. I went to a reptile convention and bought some new pets! My girlfriend and I are now the proud owner of 2 horned-lizards, 4 poison-dart frogs, and a sugar glider named Bindy Moone. I'm usually wary about the sale of exotic pets and animals, but all of these species have a long history of captive breeding here in America... with the possible exception of the horned-lizards. I read online that many of the ones sold are wild-caught, which I abhor. Our two new ones are little babies, though, and are very well adjusted to human contact, so I hope they were bred and not caught. We named our sugar glider after Steve Irwan's courageous daughter, Bindi, which is appropriate because gliders are an Australian animal, named in honor of an Australian hero, with a indigenous sounding name. Actually our glider's bloodline is probably from Indonesia, but it's still close enough :)

When I get the website more organized, I'll post pictures of everything. In the mean time, back to work!

The revision process...

2006-09-20T10:54:00.000-05:00

Hello, again. I know it's been more than 2 weeks since I last posted, so you're probably wondering what has been happening. To be honest, not much!

I technically finished the book on August 31. I took about a week off, not touching or even looking at it. It was such an emotional release to finish and was left satisfied, but drained. I went back to work around the 10th and gave the story a once over.

Basically, I made a chapter-by-chapter list with a brief note about what happened in each chapter. I know there were some chapters that needed work, either needing more added to it or a lot taken out, so I put a check mark next to each chapter that I know needs work.... Hmm, about 1/3 of all chapters need something (mostly stuff taken out).

Fast forward to this week and I've actually gone back to work again. I started re-writing the first chapter. Thankfully, there are no plot changes going on. It's just the first chapter was written almost two years ago, so I needed it to match the quality and tone of my latest chapters.

Other than Chapter 1, I only need to "add" to one other chapter... one I skipped over early on. Every other marked chapter needs extra stuff taken out. This will be hard for me... there is a line between too much description and too little. Every story, especially fantasy stories, need description and events that show how magical the place is... the problem is that each of those events has to be connected to the main plot or a sub-plot. When I wrote the first draft, there were some cool ideas I threw in, and even a couple of characters, that ended up not being important in the end.

But here's the hard part... this will be a multi-book story. It's nice to have something come up in book 2 or 3 and readers can think back to book 1 and remember when it first came up. It might not have seemed important in book 1, but it pays off later.

For instance, in Harry Potter 1 there is a mention of a Mrs. Figg who sometimes would baby-sit Harry. It turns out in book 5 (I think) that she was a part of the magical world that was tasked by Dumbledore to watch over him. Now, through a literary analysis of the name Figg we learn that it symbolizes hidden meanings or mystery. See what she did? She gave a brief mention of something in book 1 that was much deeper than it seemed and came back as a detail in a future book.

These are the decisions I'm faced with now. Why's it a big deal? Why can't I just leave things as they are? My book is about 130,000 words long... which is a little long for a juvenile book from a first-time author. Longer books are more expensive to print and, from what I hear, most publishers don't like to take that chance on a new author. Look at HP1 versus HP5. The Sorcerer's Stone is about 1/3 the size of Order of the Phoenix. Then again, Rowling did manage to fit the Ms. Figg tidbit into book 1 (or was it 2?). I'll just have to work at it :)

I'll write another update as soon as I make some significant progress. My goal is to "add" the small amount that I know is needed, then print out a manuscript and read it page by page. I'll go through it with a red pen, make notes, and cross out the scenes I don't need. My goal is first draft - 10%. 127,000 words? I actually want to get under 120,000.

I'll let you know!

-Ben

Oh yeah... I finished!

2006-09-03T09:33:00.000-05:00

Who: Me, Ben Murphy.

What: A major sense of accomplishment.

Where: My PC.

When: Thursday afternoon, 31 August 2006.

Why: I finished my first novel!!!!!!!

I'm sorry I didn't post as soon as I finished, but I was too busy walking around with a smile on my face. To be honest, I'd been at the computer from 8:30 am to about 4:00pm, with only a small break for food here and there. People have always asked me if I can stand writing for that long and I always tell them I think I can... as I've only had a few opportunities to do it. At my most usual writing marathons, I'm writing for about 4-5 hours straight, but that's only on some weekends when I decide to put off the grass-mowing until next weekend.

Since I work 40 hours a week, have a household to maintain (cook, clean, etc), and also a relationship to enjoy, I only get to write for an hour or so every morning before work; other than weekends I mentioned above. This semi-vacation was liberating. At my shortest stretches, I still wrote for 4 hours at a time and I always wanted more time. It was only on Thursday, after I wrote the final words for the final chapter, did I feel done.

So the next time anyone asks "can you write for that long?" I will smile and say yes; I have and I hope to do so 5 or 6 days a week for the rest of my life.

Woah, there. I'm not quitting my day job or anything else so fantastical. I just finished a book... anyone can write an hour a day for 8 months. I wont be so bold as to think my writing career is made!

So what next? I have some editing to do on some early chapters to make the match the style of the middle and later chapters (the first chapter was written almost 2 years ago!). Once that is done, I will go down to OfficeMax and have them print me out a hard copy. With an actual manuscript in hand, I will spend a week or two going over it line by line with a red pen, crossing out anything that doesn't work, marking spelling and grammar errors, and adding little notes for things that need improvement. I'll then fire up the old PC and update the digital version to match the inked one.

After that... it will be open season on literary agents. I'll be going hunting. From what I hear, the agent is an elusive quarry, and only the most professional and persistent writers will bag one. I'll have to oil up the trusty query letter and put on my protective over-jacket, and head out into the woods.

I'll post my progress here. Why? I don't know if anyone is even reading this now. Huh, an author's worst fear :)

An interesting vacation

2006-08-31T07:16:00.000-05:00

Well, the title should clue any writer off that this writing "vacation" hasn't gone exactly as planned.

Fortunately, it could have been worse! A little thing called Tropical Storm Ernesto rolled through town yesterday. The storm itself proved to be nothing more than a little wind, however, it did prove a distraction.

See, when I'm not writing, I'm the operations manager of a small Internet Provider (small as in a couple thousand customers and less than 20 employees). It was up to me to monitor the storm and determin if we'd close and what staff we would need, etc. Since the National Weather Center predicted 60 mile an hour winds and the eye passing less than 20 miles from our office, it was kind of a big deal.

All things considered, the event passed with only minor annoyance. I had to spend a couple extra hours at work Tuesday getting everything organized and then had to suffer through another hour at the office Wednesday morning; then phone calls from staff members throughout the day "checking in" like I had asked them to do (before they came on shift). The weather is gone and so is the need for my managerial attention.

So did I use the non-storm as an excuse to not write? Absolutely not! I was able to write all Tuesday afternoon and finished about 8 pages of a chapter and then another 3 pages of the next. Wednesday, I wrote from about 11am until 5pm and finished a long chapter (the one I mention in my previous post, with all the problems that were miraculously solved by a dream I had). I then started, which I think will be the last chapter of the book.

So today I'm finishing up! I have until 4 or 5 to write and I really believe I'll be finished... I just have this last chapter and maybe an Epilogue. We'll see! So far, this has been a successful endevour and I'm very excited to be almost, almost, almost done!

Start of the End

2006-08-28T22:00:00.000-05:00

I haven't posted anything these last few weeks. I tried to post something last week, but I couldn't get blogger to access my site. It looks like its working now.

The basics of my missing post regard a semi-writers block I had. I had a particular chapter in mind that was relevent to the ending of the book, but as I wrote it I realized it wasn't anywhere near as dramatic as I meant it to be. Somethings sound better than they look on paper. I said a "semi" writers block because I didn't stop writing. I fortunately had other chapters to write that weren't 100% dependent on the problem chapter, so I continued. Still, I found that my flow was interrupted and I didn't progress as quickly.

I'm glad to say I have solved the problem and am moving on. How did I solve it? Well, I had a dream... a dream that had nothing to do with my book, until I woke up and realized it had everything to do with the book. It was one of those spontaneous, unconscious ideas that spring up only while we dream.

Sow, back to the title of this post: Start of the End. I'm taking the rest of the week off (almost) to finish the first draft of the book. If I can finish it before Friday, I'll start with the revision. Still, when I'm done writing the last few chapters, I have to go back and spruce up the beginning some, and then add a single chapter in the middle that explains what I already know... but couldn't find the words to portray it to the reader. I know what I want to say, but wasn't sure how to do it. It wont be a problem now.

I'm actually going to be working 1-3 hours every day this week and will be home writing the rest of the time. I think the small committment to work will actually help me... forcing me to wake up, clean up, and be on a schedule.

I plan to blog my progress at the end of each day, partly as a record, but also as a motivator. It's kind of funny, but as I near the end of this project, I have two new ideas for future and different projects. I hope that will be my future curse... too many ideas and not enough time to write them all (assuming that I'm already occupied writing so much else). Here's hoping!

Can you feel it?

2006-08-09T14:35:00.000-05:00

It struck me this last Saturday that I could finish my book right then. I had reached a point in the story where there was a suitable climax with a cliffhanger ending. No, none of the objectives of the characters had been met and only a few of the mysteries had been uncovered, but it was such a dramatic point that I found myself out of breath when I finished the chapter. I had never intended to end the first book at that point, but it was so exhilarating to write that I found myself spent. My mind wanted to continue, but I needed a break so I could roll things around in my head for awhile.

See, perfect cliffhanger ending. Then I remembered that I hate cliffhangers... well, I hate poorly written ones; ones with no resolution to the overall story. I hate books that really should be part of another book, one which will not be released for another year or three. My cliffhanger ending would have been just that.

So, I'm continuing with the story as planned. Still, the oddest feeling remained... I could have finished my book. That means I'm close to actually being done. I wrote again today, finished another chapter, and the feeling is still there... I'm almost done!

This project has been three years in the making. Though I've only committed the last eight months to regular writing, the ideas and characters have been with me since late 2003. The story has evolved so much from that first thought, but it has been with me, gnawing to get out and I speak no lies when I say it is only weeks away.

It's like the first week of December, knowing that one magical day is so close. I have a lot of work to go before I finish a final draft, but the first draft will mean the most to me... at least so far.

I can't wait to share this project with my friends and family. It's hard to believe that only a few people have even read a single sample chapter. How have I been keeping this to myself for so long?!

There is a lot of work to be done between this draft and actually getting published, but the sense of accomplishment that is slowly dawning on me is almost overwhelming. I can't imagine how it would feel to actually be published. I can only try my best!

First Blog of my life... how little I've lived.

2006-08-04T16:52:00.000-05:00

This is really just a test blog. I don't even know if it will work. I'm trying to get hit blogger program to show up on my actual website, benmurphy.net, which will be a public portal to my writing works. Yes, I have a professional purpose for posting myself online. I'm trying to market. Is that too cynical?

Wow, I just had the sudden thought that these blogs are like a diary... which is something I thought little girls do and who, being smarter than the rest of us, go to great lengths to keep their thoughts private.

What darkness lies in the hearts of little girls? Only the Shadow knows.

Well, let's give this a whirl!