Of Editing

So, I've figured out that editing for other people is a lot easier than editing for myself. I spent about 30 minutes editing a 2,500 word short story that Sammy, my co-author, wrote. It's really, really good and wasn't that difficult to edit. Hopefully she'll be sharing it with everyone soon because it's so awesome... sad but awesome.

We were talking and she's going to do an alphabet based serial starting with her first one. I'm thinking that might be a good way to go for  myself as well. So I'm going to try and get some written and see how it goes. I'm also working on The Pink Triangle projects still and that should stay my primary focus along with the co-writing works with Sammy.

I've started watching The Tudors and I have a feeling I'll want to write something in the era...

I've also been reading And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. It's a brilliant book that has me completely riveted and I'm completely surprised by that to be honest. It's not often a book can bring me to the verge of tears and not even 15% into the ebook and I've already teared up three or so times.

This is another short update but please keep tuned!

I'm also participating in this giveaway! The book looks so good. :( I don't really know what else to say to really blog about a giveaway but I'm excited to participate and share it this way. Check it out!

How to work in boring information?

So I recently decided that one of my novels, I'm going to first put into a short story. It will have a lot of differences from the later novel version but some things remain the same. Things like... there's some boring information that I think is really important to my story! In the novel, I intend to just leave it as an introduction but how do I work some "boring" (I don't find them boring!) historical notes into my short story? I don't think I can just include an introduction but it feels like it's important to set up the culture going into my story as it's something many people aren't quite aware of.

I'll share the introduction below but I'm also angsting a bit because I'm just shy of 15,000 on the novel and the word count limit for the short story is 20k. I'm going to have to do some serious reworking of the pace and some of the finer details of the story to make it fit. Luckily I have a good amount of time to get ready to sub. I think maybe I can give the short story the happy ending that I don't feel befits the novel. Hm... Lots to think about!

The introduction is the following (and obviously it's in need of some editing):

Before the World Wars Germany had been a wonderful place to live. There were advances in many parts of society, advances that even America had lacked, still prior to even the black civil rights movement. In Germany, there were movements for gay rights, for equality, for democracy. The Wiemar Republic had noble intentions and hopes for a progressive society. It was the beginning of what could have been a golden social revolution. Perhaps the only country that was progressed as far as gay rights by this time was France, and the influence was not far from Germany.

For years, Magnus Hirschfeld pioneered the study of sexual science. He paved the way for many of the congresses and institutes that are dedicated to the study in this field. Hirschfeld was a Jewish, homosexual physician and a socialist. It was through him the groundwork for the gay rights movement in Germany and much of the modern world was laid down, not only that, but his was the first institute dedicated to the subject of sexual science.

Unfortunately, it was also through his work that the argument for why homosexuals were part of contragenics (any human who was not Aryan). He had hypothesized that homosexuals were actually a third gender and while he later debunked his own theory and abandoned it, it wasn’t before the Nazi party had latched onto it and used his theories against the people that he was crusading to help; the Nazi party used it as a basis for saying that homosexuals, like Jews were sub-human. During the Weimar Republic, however, he did prosper and provided invaluable research in a previous untouched field of study.

The hopes that were carried on the shoulders of the Republic were all but completely decimated after Germany’s defeat in World War II left the country in shambles and seeking a scapegoat for the hardships that followed, unstoppable inflation and skyrocketing unemployment. Everyone that was not the accepted majority of Germans fell victim to the anger and blame that the German people desperately needed in a time of nationalistic tragedy, rising inflation and fear of communist revolution. The Bolsheviks had succeeded in taking over Russia and Germany feared Communism as did most of the western world. Communism, after all was the worst fate that a country could fall to in those days.

Turmoil and desperation created many enemies two of the most pronounced and loathed the Jews and the Homosexuals even though many other groups bore targets as well. In the same desperation, Germany found two heroes, that they trusted would bring them out of their dark plight and restore Germany back to it’s previous glory. Hitler and Himmler.

The events of Roehm’s massacre in June of 1934 and the subsequent further outlawing of homosexual activity in June of 1935, the dates being no coincidence, and making it so that men had to even fear touching another man.

It is in this dark time that this story takes place.

It might be out of place to ask but if you were working with historical information but you have limited word count availability and it doesn't quite tie in nicely to your story then how do you make sure to set this kind of information without boring your audience?

So this stuff has pretty much been all that's on my writing plate lately as my cowriter hasn't been tossing me back her parts on the stories we're writing together. Hopefully next update I'll be able to talk about the progression of those.

Current Writing Projects

These are a list of the projects that I have started. They're listed in the order of current priority. Honestly, nothing else will probably be written until I finish The Pink Triangle. However, this is where you get to tell me what you find interesting and would like to see come about. I might be able to spin out a free fiction story to spike your interest in the meantime. I really just want to be able to hear your feedback on it.

Untitled - Damon and Luke



This is a short story that I have been working on and it is set in Reno, Nevada. I'm about 1/3 or so into the piece and I'm having a lot of fun with it. It's an interracial pair with a bit of boss/employee drama on the side with it. Hopefully it'll catch your eye when it comes out, but I am hoping to get it submitted to a press.

The Pink Triangle



Synopsis:

There are few who know that during World War II German Nazis not only persecuted Jews, but also gypsies, other minorities and political prisoners. Perhaps, least known are the bearers of the Pink Triangle. History has swept under the rug the vile treatment of German homosexual prisoners within labor camps designated for them. Some victim stories rival the horrors that have been more famously recounted by Jewish survivors.

The Pink Triangle will be about two young and vivacious homosexual Germans that were childhood friends. It will draw from events before Reinhold’s arrest and Dieter’s enlistment into the service to avoid the same fate. Throughout, the novel readers will follow both of their journeys until their paths intertwine again.

But after they both experience the horrors and travesties of the Nazi regime from different sides, will they be able to reconcile their lives and find the passion for each other and more importantly for living that they once had?

Giro di Venezia (When in Rome)



This is a short homo-erotic romance story. It’s set in Venice between a young 18 year old from California and an older Venetian and the development of their relationship and emotions during the time that Ricky is visiting Venice with his parents. Luciano opens up this young man to a whole new world figuratively and literally.

Untitled



This story is a modern day cowboy story. There’s love and romance and a rekindling of a deeper connection that a fast paced life in the city had worn down and exhausted from our two heroes.

Political Gamble



This will be the second novel that I write and it is set in the 60s in Boston and starts right before the Kennedy assassination. Our two characters are a son of a politician and a young man who came into money through his father’s unexpected success. They both find themselves at Harvard and in a time of unexpected social turmoil and they both begin to find themselves in this story of romance, social changes and self exploration.

There are many more projects that I plan to do but these are the ones that are currently in the near future in the works. I look forward to your thoughts.