Larry Denninger's Blog: This Is Where The Title Goes

I'm treating March as my personal NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month, for those who are unfamiliar), but without focusing on the word count - which is a false representation of progress, imho. What's the point of churning out 50,000 words in a month, if 50% of them are the wrong ones?

That being said, I need the external catalyst to gain and maintain momentum - and I have a Muse to kick my ass as required! - and the goal is to have a collection of solid chapters by month's end. Which my editor will efficiently tear to shreds. As it should be.

On Friday March 25, I was interviewed by Al Kresta on Kresta in the Afternoon, heard on Ave Maria Radio, about my novel, the writing process, and music. You can listen to it here.

This article from Atlas Obscura (from 2018) popped up on my FB feed this morning. Those of you who've read Clara will understand.

With Musical Cryptography, Composers Can Hide Messages in Their Melodies

The 250th copy of Songs for Clara was ordered yesterday! Thank you to any of you who contributed to helping me reach that goal in the 5 months since publication!

There isn't much consensus on the average number of copies sold for self-published fiction. From what I've read across the Innerwebz, sales range between 100-500 copies, and that's not taking genre into account.

Using that metric, I'm pretty close to average. For now. I'm edging closer to the 'break even' number, and for me, that's the primary goal.

I've been lax in providing Novel #2 updates, for various IRL reasons. I am working on it, though, of that you can be assured.

I started on my second novel at the beginning of August. I have a working title, names of several characters, and the final scene in rough draft. It'll be interesting to see how much it changes once the story is written, and my editor runs it through the wringer!

As is my habit - I don't like the word superstition, because that gives credit to a power I don't believe in - I don't reveal details at this early stage of the process. I know! I'm totally starving out natural human curiosity! But details are wont to change as concepts sprout, grow, get pruned back, before finally flowering into its fullness. Besides, I'm a bit of a "pantser" at the projects' onset rather than a "plotter" - there really aren't a whole lot of details to reveal. My style shifts about halfway through the writing process. So I guess that makes me a "plontser"?

In any case, moving forward the WIP will be referred to as "TUOTS", the title's acronym. And I'll reveal this much: it's a stand alone work, completely unrelated to Songs for Clara . The themes focus on marriage, mystery, and perhaps a little bit of magic.

Til next time - happy reading!

Thank you to everybody who participated in my recently-ended Giveaway. Over 3800 people entered - I'm humbled by the response, and appreciate that you clicked on the 'Follow' button!

If you were one of the lucky winners - I hope you enjoy reading Songs for Clara as much as I enjoyed writing it. I look forward to your reviews and feedback!

If you were not chosen to receive a free e-book, I feel your pain. I haven't won a giveaway yet! Regardless, I hope you consider purchasing a copy - plus you can read the first few chapters for free at Amazon, via the "Look Inside!' feature. Kinda like a test drive, but without an obnoxious salesguy in the passenger seat.

In other big news, I've started work on a new project! I'll talk about that a little bit in my next post, so stay tuned.

Take care, and happy reading!