Hello again, everyone. Yes, it’s been another long drought for the old blog but I’m back. The manuscript I’m currently working on, “Best Dog Hikes Alabama” has really been a challenge not because of the hikes but for every external issue, but even though the deadline is breathing down my neck, I’m starting to find time to get to the other projects that have been percolating.
Be on the lookout for several new audio and video podcasts that are currently in production and will be released soon and a new look to the old website, www.joecuhaj.com.
One project I am really looking forward to getting back to is my murder mystery, “Dead Air”. Yes, I am a multi-genre writer and have been told many times I shouldn’t do that. I just don’t see why a writer has to be tied down to one genre. But I’ll leave that for another blog entry.
“Dead Air” takes place in the war years of the 1940s in a mid-size Gulf Coast city that’s known for its ship building. The story revolves around a radio station, W.M.A.L., and its staff as they are flung into a murder mystery when their star performer, Samantha Starr, is killed right there in the production studio.
The station’s Foley or sound effects man, Art Foley (and he will be the first to tell you his name is just a coincidence), becomes an amateur sleuth to prove that Samantha’s husband and W.M.A.L. performer Ralph Bandera, who is being accused of the murder, is innocent.
Well, I finished the book about five years ago and submitted it to a couple of publishers. They were all receptive to the story and plot line but said it was just lacking something, mostly in the descriptions of the town and the times. It wasn’t deep enough. Oh, and the end was weak. That’s a problem.
Shortly after, I went to make changes and the file was corrupted. I go to my backup on a separate hard drive and the hard drive died – DIED! My complete manuscript…POOF! It would cost a couple thousand dollars to get the data off the drive. That wasn’t happening. My attitude has been that it is a chance to reboot and make the second effort better, not by starting from scratch, I have the outline and notes, but filling in those blanks and improving the weaknesses.
So now I’m having a blast going through archives to bring the times and town to life. I think the characters themselves were fleshed out enough, just need that little extra.
I’ll keep you posted on its progress. In the meantime, you can read the opening chapters of the original rough draft of the manuscript (the one thing that survived) here.
Have a great week, and until next time….Cheers!
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