Fiction Novel, my new pastime

This may come as a surprise to some of you, but I just don't seem to have enough to do each day to keep myself busy! Okay, maybe I do, but I'm just bored with the same old thing day after day.

For the past year or so I've had an idea for a book. The idea struck me one day because of events that have been taking place in our country and our politics. I won't go into any details as far as that's concerned, but I will say that the idea that hit me just wouldn't go away. It just kept coming back to me, haunting me so to speak.

Several times I mentioned it to my wife, Peggy during conversations about events in the news. I think she took my comments with a grain of salt, not thinking that i would someday act on the idea.

So in December I decided to begin writing a series of books broken down into 12 volumes that would detail my 30+ years of experience building model ships. "Oh Boy" I thought. Once again I'm writing more technical manuals, more practicums for our business. In all the years that I've been writing, all I've ever written were technical manuals, except for my one personal book about my experiences in Vietnam - One Four Man Up.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like writing technical manuals, especially about things I know a thing or two about. It's easy to write about things you know and understand, but try writing something about a topic you know absolutely nothing about. Try writing a novel, a fiction novel about high tech stuff and speculative possibilities. Now that's a whole other matter.

Out of the blue, I sat down at my computer one morning and opened my word processor. I sat and thought for a few moments about that idea I had had for a book that came to me over a year ago. I don't quite understand how or why it happened, but suddenly I was typing away as thoughts and ideas flooded my brain.

By the time Peggy got up, I was beaming with excitement. My fiction novel was actually underway. I told her about my idea and she listened with the attention of a person sitting in on a discussion about the mating habits of the ruptured boll weevil.

As days went buy, I completed a few chapters and thought I might actually have something. Then I turned what I had written over to Peggy, not so much for her input but for editing the grammatical content. That got her attention real fast.

She had questions, she had comments, she had suggestions. Unexpectedly, she was actually drawn into the story by what I had written so far. She made edits and returned the two chapters to me a few days later.

Since then the story has evolved. New ideas have come into my head. Every chapter I had previously written has been changed with new additions to the story. A few weeks ago on a Saturday morning I wrote 25 more pages and completed chapter 7. Today I started chapter 11. I just have two chapters left to complete the story.

I'm finding myself amazed at how much fun it is to write something like this. I find myself so engrossed in the writing that I can't stop because I'm afraid the ideas will flee my mind if I don't get them written down.

Now I'm probably my own worst critic on something like this, but personally I think this story is actually good. The idea, the implications of that idea are just down right scary. I don't want to give the story away just yet. Just think of a Stephen King novel you might have read or heard about. It's that kind of story. It's about something that has not yet happened but may happen, could happen, and if it did, well, to coin a well know phrase, "God help us all!"

Ok, so here's the deal. I now believe that I can actually finish this novel. I plan to self publish it through Amazon or some other self publishing service in paperback form. I don't know how much the book will cost because it depends on the number of total pages in it, but it sholdn't be much more than $10.00 or $15.00.

Once the book is published I would like to ask for your assistance. I need this book to go viral so that a major publishing company will become interested in it and decide to pick it up and publish it themselves. If I can make that happen, that would mean the book would appear in every major bookstore across the country.

Yeah, I know, I'm dreaming. That's probably never going to happen, but it certainly won't happen if I don't at least try and make it happen. Everyone reading this blog can help me make it happen by buying the book, reading it, and sharing your thoughts and opinions about the book with as many other people as possible. Sharing it on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter can go a long ways for me.

I'm not looking to make a fortune and land a job writing day and night turning out fiction novels at the rate of Tom Clancy. As far as the self published version of the book is concerned, I'm not looking to make a profit from any sales to you, my fiends, my followers, my customers. I plan to sell it to anyone reading this blog for the price it costs me to have it printed.

So that's the latest of what I've been up to recently. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the matter and hope you'll support me in this totally new endeavor. The title to the book is Blind Terror. I should be finished with it in a few weeks. Then it's back in Peggy's hands for editing while I design the cover. I'm shooting for the end of March when I release it to the public for sale.

Thanks for listening.

Bob