Catch Up
I have neglected this blog for a period of several months. Purposely. Too many spinning plates in the off-screen world to keep this going as well. That period is past, I think. Schedule has settled down, income has risen to a liveable level and plans are in place to keep it this way for the next year at least.

W. I. P.
Work in Progress is the Fairy Tale Twisting of “After Midnight.” The retelling of three princesses that are about to be executed so that the Evil Fairy who has them can take over their Kingdoms. Nothing ‘original’… except that the Princesses are Snow White, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella! And there is no guarantee of a Disney Happy Ending.

It has been a much more difficult write than I first imagined. (Duh.) But even the first draft is looking good to me. It has to be told in at least three parts to get all three princesses kidnapped and taken to Maleficent’s Citadel, in preparation for the Grand Execution. I have Sleeping Beauty (Aurora) at the castle. That was the easy one, for some reason.

Getting Cinderella (Elena) there has been FAR more difficult, but I’ve been writing it with more action and dialogue and less ‘telling the story’. This part is just about finished, maybe one more chapter to finish out the details. Timewise, the story is right up to the night before the Executions. I think that means I’m almost finished. I think…?

I asked on Instagram (@gordondelandauthor) if serializing this story on the blog here might work. I got a few answers back, all positive, so shortly you will begin to see regular, frequent posts of the story.

WARNING: it is not all ‘disney for kids’. A lot of it is. But there are twists that are not kid-friendly. I’ve left out smutty sex and most of the swearing, but that’s because the Heros are Royalty and have manners. The villains don’t but I’m kinda over villains that are sexy. In fact, I’m over the whole ‘sex sells’ thing. If the story is no good, I’m not going to add chains and torture chambers to pimp it out. I want to be known for good stories well written. I can write and sell porn separately. Probably under a different name. If ever.

What Happened to Bobby Loves Helen?
In one word, nothing. They are living quietly in Kenwood, Helen is enjoying her jewelry shop and having dinner at home with Bobby, when he is in town. He’s spending too much time on the road in Indiana, and she’s lonesome and worried he gonna get shot.

The nice thing is, I realize that this point in the story is where I can accomplish two things. First, I can finish this story, and probably revise it into a series of journal entries. The idea of going back to add a sufficient amount of dialogue to make it a ‘real novel’ scares me. Depresses me, actually. One of my readers said “This sounds like ‘Dragnet’! You use the same sentence structure very f*cking time!” I laughed. I agreed. I like it.

The second nice thing is that it is THIS point where I can write the rest of the story to ALSO be the historical flashback in the novel it was SUPPOSED to be in. All that I have so far, is really back story for the novel, “Upstairs”, a sequel to “Down Cellar”, my completed-but-unpubished novel of murder, secret tunnels and a plumber. Well I might not use that line in a query. But it’s allthat and more. 🙂

But Wait! There’s More!
Oh, and I have VOWED to finish “Change at Belmont”, this year, before June. I started it back in the late 80’s or early 1990’s and it’s still “almost done”. I had to write a car chase scene and I finally got it done! More on this one later.

That’s all for now. I will post on both Facebook and Instagram before I begin the serialization of “After Midnight: Confessions of a Killer FGM.” I might have to adjust the title a little. Her confessions are NOT the whole story! But… You’ll see! That is, if you follow along. 🙂

Keep Writing. Keep Reading. Keep going forward!