DUNE 7 BLOG

Thursday, March 23, 2006

Another Story

After spending months chained to the keyboard and editing desk to complete polishing HUNTERS and several revisions of SANDWORMS, then the rewrite of my YA fantasy with Rebecca Moesta, CRYSTAL DOORS: OCEAN REALMS, and now I'm in the midst of the final polish of SLAN HUNTER -- I was getting very anxious to do something original and creative again.

As I mentioned in the March 13 blog, Brian and I plotted out a new DUNE short story, tentatively titled "Treasure in the Sand," which will be published this fall shortly before the release of HUNTERS. We discussed the characters, the story, the twists, and mapped out the structure (six scenes). After I got back home from our brief San Francisco trip, I spent the next several days putting the final touches and revisions on HUNTERS -- that was definitely the priority. But now, with that manuscript delivered (and enthusiastically accepted by the editor and publisher), I could turn my mind to the new short story.

At last, some fresh writing! New scenes, new characters. I love the creative process, "telling the story" instead of fine-tuning it over ten drafts. After sending notes and outlines back and forth, Brian and I settled on three scenes for each of us to do.

As I've mentioned in earlier entries, my preferred writing method is to go out walking or hiking, dictating the fiction into a microcassette recorder. The weather had been beautiful here in Colorado, blue skies, most of the snow melted. After spending part of the day editing SLAN HUNTER, I was eager to get outside and do my three sections of the story.

Then, of course, the weather turned foul and cold, gray skies, a stiff breeze picking up. But I was not to be deterred. I wore a warm jacket and gloves, then set off with my notes and my tape recorder down a nice bike trail through the hills near my home. I intended to do a long enough hike to dictate all three scenes. Three or four miles should have been sufficient for me to talk out about 15 pages. The scenes were clear in my head, and I had a very good idea of what the characters would do and say. I started walking, and talking.

And it got colder, and then started snowing. Then the wind picked up. I wasn't quite dressed for this, and the wind wreaks havoc with the recorder's built-in microphone. I got back to the car, frustrated, though I did complete two of the three scenes. That night, I learned on the TV news that we were supposed to get 8 - 12 inches of snow.

Next morning, the temperature was about 13 degrees, everything was covered with ice and drifting snow. Schools and many businesses were closed, the TV warned against driving anywhere unless absolutely necessary.

But I had a problem -- Catherine, my assistant and typist, was going on vacation the very next day, and if I didn't give her my tape with the three scenes, she wouldn't have time to transcribe it -- and then I couldn't send the story to Brian for at least a week.

So, this time I got out the ski jacket, the thick stocking cap, the heavy gloves, thrust the tape recorder in my pocket, pulled on insulated boots, and trudged out, talking to myself, determined to get that last scene done. Walking through whipping snow in the cold while describing a sandstorm on Dune was a unique experience, but I finished and delivered the tape to Catherine, who quickly transcribed the fifteen pages.

This morning, my wife had laser eye surgery. While I sat in the waiting room for a couple of hours, I used my laptop to edit those three scenes, so I can send them to Brian right away. (An odd sense of déjà vu, since I edited the final draft of our Butlerian Jihad novelette, "Hunting Harkonnens," also in a hospital waiting room several years ago while Rebecca had a different surgery.) But the scenes are finished and sent off for Brian to complete his portion of the story.

And, while Rebecca is still groggy and napping upstairs, I'm writing this blog entry.

We'll let you know when the story is finished and available.

--KJA