Dadmaster: Reading, Writing, Editing!

Reading!

I love to read! One of my favorite things to do is to take my kiddos to a park, let them run around, and take out a book. With several published books under my editor's belt, it's like I have a new way to appreciate books! I give books a critical eye, down to how they structure sentences, and think about what I would've done had I been given the book as a manuscript.

A little while back, I went through and tried to keep track of every book I've read as an adult on Goodreads. The site lets you organize books into "books I've read" and "books I'm currently reading". Problem was, when I did that, I realized I was in the middle of SEVEN different books! Some books I want to read, but don't just fly off the pages!

Anyways, I'm happy to report that I've finished all seven of those books! And now I'm in the middle of five other books! Oops.

Writing!

I have tried to write a LOT of stories! Lich, about the necromancer superhero, Esther Lake, about the paranormal investigator in the small town, Grand Consul, about the near-end of the world, Vesper's Ridge, about a group of vampire do-googers .... and most lately, a combination of all of these.

But let me tell you, the best thing I've done to contribute to good writing in the last few years is to support Jessi, who's been writing a GREAT story! Some nights, we'll just toss ideas back and forth, just developing her story, making things happen, determining what should happen between our group of heroes. And it's my FAVORITE kind of story: good and fun people taking on bad and serious situations! I love it all.

I know what I'm good at, and it's not sitting down and cranking out pages of story (a skill I'm working on). It's making a character and giving them important and meaningful actions! That's all my years of role-playing games coming at me! Only problem is, by the point that these big actions happen, the reader is probably supposed to care about the character first! I just want to skip right to the big powerful moments! (It doesn't work!)

Editing!

I have a darn good eye for spelling, grammar, and mechanics. The greatest thing about it is, that I don't really mind errors! I'm a descriptivist linguist, yo! As long as it doesn't majorly affect comprehension, I have no problem with problems! Unless I'm an editor, in which case I will do my job and do it WELL. I'll hunt down every last comma and hyphen and get them all sorted out!

Most recently, I've been helping my friend Jared work on his second book, Remnants. If you ask me, he's been focusing a lot on laying down the groundwork; getting an online store in order, expanding his audience, making a blog... where all I'm looking for is a book! But I'll help where I can! I'm a helper guy, and I'm good at it!

This is all on the side of, you know, fatherhood! Speaking of which, here are my boys!