Another Day, Another Rewrite

Depending on how you look at it, I rewrote five or six stories last week.  Monday I rewrote Dancepocalypse.  On Tuesday I reworked Stone Temple Space Raiders.  On Wednesday I rewrote Soldier's Men, and on Thursday I rewrote Dig My Grave.  Then on Friday I rewrote Dig My Grave again, and in the evening began a rewrite of Fryer Out of Time, which is in theory the sequel to Dig My Grave.  I finished that rewrite Saturday night.

Sunday I did nothing.  But another thing I did on Saturday was take a couple of simple steps towards publishing a Grandpa Anarchy book.  I selected thirty stories that I would like to include in a a first book of Grandpa Anarchy stories, and I placed them in a folder in my drop box so that friends can help me edit them.  I only really talked to Chuck about this since he was the one that told me I still had time to do a book -- but it will be best if I can get help from several others also.

My tentative story list would include the first eight stories that I wrote before last November (all of which I've read at Writer's Night) and then a selection of the next twenty-some stories.  I removed World of Hero because it's one of my longest stories and one of the least-ready to publish, but I included the Amethyst Road stories even though they're probably not publishable as is either.  But they do include Circuit Boy, who appears in two other stories that would be in the book.

Of the other stories included, I've read Shadow Over Scranton, Stone Temple Space Raiders, and Two-Fisted Christmas Ghost Story at Writer's Night.  Of those I haven't read, I'm quite certain that Roasted and Mostless In Capertown work as is, and probably Turncoats and Double Trouble.  The list also includes the very recently rewritten Dancepocalypse, Stone Temple Space Raiders, Soldier's Men and Dig My Grave.

That leaves a few stories that I either know have problems or at least need to be tightened up a bit -- There Be Whales, Contract, Supper Soldier, Nemesis, My Sudden But Inevitable Betrayal... and the story I rewrote today, Sex Slaves of Sirix Alpha Six.

Sex Slaves was a fun story built around 50's science fiction tropes, but it was, like many of the stories I wrote back in November 2012, a story without a strong (or surprising, or funny) ending.  I reworked it today, tightening it up and giving it a very different ending, and I think it probably works better now.  Well, I know it works better, but I'm not sure how much better.

I should probably look at There Be Whales tomorrow, since that involves some of the same characters.  But having glanced through it yesterday, I have to say that I already like how it ends so it may need nothing more than tightening up.