Wow - Boot camp was a great experience.

Fortunately, unfortunately, I will be choosing to take advantage of what I learned by rewriting everything that has happened so far. For most folks, that means they will want to just bow out until I'm finally done, for crying out loud. But for the few, the perserverent, I will continue to maintain this blog.

Two big changes are:

1) ... Continue reading »

Trivia - An established author with whom I will be attending a writing workshop (Aug 2007) shared information on writing a 1000-word synopsis of one's novel, describing the crisis and climax of the tale.

That's how I realized that the events in the chapter titled "The Virgin" were the climax of the first part of the book (Elvira's story). But I hadn't written it as a climax.

As ... Continue reading »

Trivia - The appalling thing about my decision to stick with all known historical facts in my fictional tale is that I have been able to go back and insert major events without causing major structural damage to my later narrative.

For those who do not know the fictional from the factual, the basic facts of the major characters in this chapter are true - dates, who leaves, what ... Continue reading »

Trivia - Summer 1841 was an awful time, only to be exceeded by the summer of 1842. Joseph Smith was particularly saddened by the death of his younger brother, Don Carlos. I can't help think that Joseph must have wished that a different man had died of malarial fever...