In the end I have no idea really how the book will be divided into Chapters and Parts. Currently I am using “chapters” to break up the story between characters and “parts” to bridge gaps in time. I think it helps move the story forward, but then again I could be completely wrong with my methods. I am currently over optimistic and toying with the idea that I may actually have the first draft completed by October. Whether I am ahead of schedule or not, once I go back and start working on the second draft I’m sure a lot of stuff may change.

Oh well, time to top guessing and get back to the story.

I was extremely happy with myself when I looked up tonight and realized I had just crossed the half-way point for the goal I had set for myself. That’s right, I’m staring at “Approx 35,001 Words” at the top of my manuscript! Okay, its just a first draft, but at least it’s something. If a writer never sets goals for themselves they’ll never write anything.

Shady Palms - Concept Art

To celebrate the midpoint of this first draft I am posting a mock-up of my proposed cover for the novel. I want the artwork to be a little more refined in the end, but I figure it’s a good teaser. I figure if a publisher doesn’t pick up the story then I’ll self-publish electronically and I’ll need a cover anyway. I whipped this together in just a few hours with Photoshop, but I think it gets the point across. Please let me know what you think.

While I am not working as much at the hospital as I normally do, mainly because of our seasonal slowdown in admission rates, I have tried my damndest to work as much as I can on the novel on my days off. I feel that, at the least, I have been able to move the story ahead on a weekly basis. I wish I could pound out novels at the pace Stephen King can, but maybe one day with a shitload of hard work and bloody fingertips I will be able to.

One of the biggest reasons I had started on the novel was because I felt I wasn’t giving my characters justice in a screenplay format. After living with them running around my head for 8 months, I am finally beginning to feel like I actually know these people. Due to the nature of the beast I have to kill a few off and critically injure some others, but I’ve already determined who my survivors are going to be so they can live another day in another story.  To stoke the fire a little bit I dropped a hint at what one of my characters next adventures may be. It may take a few years for him to get there, but it will be well worth the long wait. Fans of my short film Sustenance should be able to easily pick up on the clues that Dr. Phobia may come to life again in the pages of a future novel.

For a moment there, I was thinking I would never meet my personal goal of having the first draft completed by December. It’s baby steps like these that help keep my goals within reach.

But enough on that for now. I am happy to announce that I have passed the 100 page mark while writing the first draft of Shady Palms. As I have stated numerous times before, my free time is few and far between lately, so I typically only get a few days a month to work on it.  If I could devote my time solely to writing, I would have probably been wrapping up the final draft of the novel rather than patting myself on the back for achieving another small mile-marker.

I think most all aspiring writers have their own personal roadblocks they have to overcome when crafting a story. For me it’s the 100 page mark.  When I started writing years ago, I would be happy with the occasional short story that ran 40-60 pages long. Then when I started writing screenplays, most were around 90-100 pages until I tackled Redress, which is currently sitting around 135 pages and desperately in need of a final review.

As I cross the 100 page mark, I’m actually at 111 pages as of this blog post, I think the story is exactly where it needs to be.  My main characters are defined, the intrigue is in the air, key plot points are set in motion and the blood is spraying across the walls ever so often.  When it comes to drawing from the original source material, I’m about halfway through the old screenplay and I’m staring at page #7 of my 14 page treatment. All signs point to the middle of the story, but I know there is more to this story to tell.

If you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to writing the story for you…you’re really going to love this when I’m done.

Tentatively Part Two of the Story is entitled “Furlough” as it deals with a new main character and her release to work at the Shady Palms as part of a crooked work furlough program. In the original screenplay I had hinted at some of the struggles this character had been challenged with through her life but not I have the liberty to explain things a little more and flesh out my characters motivations a little more.

As of right now, I have written approximately 1/3 of the story. In the end I think I will have a total of five parts in the book, each one dealing with a specific time frame in the story.  As I look back at the original screenplay and look forward to the development of the characters in the novel, I have often found myself using the former work as a skeleton to build the muscle of the story on.

As I conducted research on radioactive materials used for medical treatments, I found that I would have to go back and tweak parts of the story so they were clinically correct. I have also been spending tome researching the long term effects of radiation on a quarantined zone in Chernobyl.  At first I was just looking for hideous photos of genetic mutations of people and animals but I ended up coming across information at was a great benefit. As I had discovered, fallout from the Chernobyl Accident, not only caused thousands of cancer cases, it may have also grossly mutated insects in the fallout zone.  Some people still debate this, but scientific evidence points to the fact most of these mutations were caused directly by exposure to ionizing radiation.  I was thrilled as I consumed all of the information I could on the subject. After all, I am writing a story about killer bedbugs mutated by radiation.

I am greatly appreciate the words of encouragement some of you have been sending me. I am trying to add a few thousand words every week to the story. Thanks to the fact I have some extended time off this summer, I am finding that I have more time to spend working on the novel. At times I am extremely optimistic about my progress. I may even complete my first draft ahead of schedule…that is if I don’t suffer a hard drive crash or a FarmVille relapse.

After much deliberation I decided to break the story into three parts. This was mainly because the characters from the beginning of the story have nothing to really do with the characters in the middle of the story, but their actions are the catalyst for the rest of the story. I guess I could liken it to writing a story about the nuclear testing on the islands where Godzilla came from and then later writing a story about the emergence of the giant, fire-breathing lizard that destroyed Tokyo. In my case it’s mutated insects, but radioactivity still plays a key part in the story.

I have also been doing substantial research for the story in my precious spare time. My topics of study have included medical radiation therapy, bomb building, and bedbug allergies.  After the events of the past weekend with the terrorist trying to detonate a car bomb in Times Square, it reinforces to me how real the world in my story actually is, with the exception it will one day be crawling with mutated insects. Now I’m just waiting for the FBI to come knocking on my door since  I have been rampantly searching Google with terms such as “Oklahoma City Bombing”, “Fertilizer Bombs” and “Dirty Bombs”. If the agents show up to question me, maybe they will offer to serve as technical consultants for the story.  As of right now, I am relying on various movies and reruns of The X-Files to conjure up my theories of how they would conduct their anti-terrorism investigations.

I am confident that if I can continue at this pace, I should be able to complete the first draft of the novel by the end of the year. With the summer months headed my way and my regular job slowing down, it certain seems promising.

Now that I have decided to tell my story in the written form rather than as a movie, I have been having to tackle some issues with the plot.  In a film it’s easy to have cut from one scene to the next, but in a novel you have the time to fill in some details that are sometimes rather difficult to get across in a film.  I am finding that I am able to develop and convey the internal thoughts of my main characters better and it’s helping to flesh them out. I’m only a few chapters in, but I’m thinking that this may book may serve as a spring board for a longer series further down the road. A lot can happen in a shady motel at the end of town…

I had started work on the novel for Cinco de Mayo Massacre a long time ago but I could never get past the first chapter, so I shelved it after staring at the screen with writers block for several days. The story was all written in a treatment I did a while ago, but

After some serious thought I pulled out the 1/2 completed screenplay and 14 page treatment for Bedbugs from Hell. After a lot of thought I finally decided to make this my next official writing project and my first novel that I will seriously attempt to get published. Rather than just call it the same things, I thought I would name the book after the Shady Palms Motel that is the centerpiece of the story.

The great thing about this project is that the story is basically written. Now I just have to fill in the gaps and add some detail. I don’t have to worry about special effects or other film related crap. I can just write the story the way I see it and then it’s done. If nobody officially publishes it I can always self-publish through Amazon.

Given the fact I have little time to write anymore, I think I am giving myself a year to come up with a solid first draft for this one. We’ll see, I’ve always been one to play it by ear, so maybe I’ll fall into a good creative streak and push this puppy out faster.

The original treatment I wrote for the film was around 14 pages. I am already on page 27 of the screenplay – and that’s after only adapting about 4 pages of the treatment. I think the first draft of this is going to come in around 120 pages and I should have it completed near the end of November.

I’ve told a few people about the plot of the film, and It’s funny, but I love the look on people’s faces when they say, “Oh, how are you going to work hardcore sex into that”.I really enjoy making people guess what the hell I’m going to do next. I can definitely say that this next film will take splatter porn to a whole new level. As far as the hardcore stuff, you all need to stop worrying about it. In the end, I’m going to sit you down in a dark room and tell you a scary story…and those sick fucks that liked Slaughter Disc are really going to love this one or they are going to run from the room throwing up