Where's Ralph? Writing in Virginia

Readers of our blog may have noticed a significant drop-off in the frequency of our posts. (If you haven't we have an even bigger problem).

During the last 30 days, I once again participated in the National November Writing Month event. The idea's simple enough -- start and finish a 50,000 word novel in one month. I completed the event last year, and I did so again this year.

Unfortunately, my other writing fell by the wayside, for which I apologize. We'll get back to business now that the event's over.

As always, Nanowrimo was a blast. My novel was titled "Death in Five States," and was actually a prequel to last year's tome, "The Crimson Doom." Here's the first draft, as I completed it yesterday, warts and all.

"Death in Five States" by Ralph Graves - first draft pdf

Over the next few days, I'll go back through the manuscript and clean up spelling errors and other typos. But I won't even think about serious editing for another few months. And I already know there's some trimming in this story's future.

So will "Death in Five States" ever be published?

I'm not sure. It's a literary homage to a pretty obscure genre of fiction (the hero pulps of the late 1930's), so this may be as far as it gets. No matter. I had fun, learned a lot about the writing process, and already have the next adventure planned out.

- Ralph