When I examined the time I have to actually write per week, I was dismayed to see how little time I have—despite sleeping only 4 to 6 hours a day. Then I looked at my writing production over the last year, including blogs and saw just how over blogged I am. My goal, as I stated above, is to be a consistently published novelist and poet. Yet, most of my writing time was being spent writing blogs and articles for the internet. I was blogging nine different topics a week. That is at least nine hours a week. This may not sound like much to many of my readers. However, with everything I have to juggle in my life, nine hours is often the only amount of time I have in a week to write. Meanwhile I am working on 8 novels and 4 poetry collections. Something had to give.

As such, I am changing my schedule of blogging all together. I will keep this blog, Coffee with David, going on a consistent weekly basis. My others will be as I have time or a pressing matter to share.

Thank you for reading and checking this blog from time to time. Please continue to follow me on Coffee With David as I share the “behind the scenes life” of this writer who is determined to reach his goals in life: That goal is to publish 300 novels and 80 poetry collections over the next forty years. I know how insane that may sound, but that is my goal should God let me live that long.

I understand the President’s position and wonder if it was not a similar one that propelled those who survived the fall of Rome faced. Their choices led to the dark ages.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/04/14/obama-to-unveil-vision-for-space-program/?iref=allsearch&fbid=cF0FwY5zYsG
http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/15/obama.space/index.html?iref=allsearch
http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/space/04/14/us.space.program/index.html?iref=allsearch

I do not agree that we should just stay home where it is safe and try to solve the problems that people cannot solve not can sustain the generational levels of political and social will power necessary to do so Here is why: We have to continue the manned flight program for a very simple reason. You can ask a thousand scientist about global warming, population control, genetic engineering, and you will get a thousand different theories. But, there are two things that all of them will agree on: One day the earth will not be able to support the human population as the resources will be scarce or exhausted needed to maintain the race; and one day the star we know as our sun will grow cold and go out. It may be decades, centuries or even a million years from now, it will happen. The earth is our cradle, but like any infant there comes a time we have to leave this cradle. For if we don’t before these events happen then we will have lost Plato, Einstein, Elvis, Buddy Holly, Michelangelo, Lin Yutang, Charles W. Chestnut, W. E. B. DuBois, Da Vinci, Lao Tzu, Bruce Lee, George Santana, Mohandas Gandhi, and all of the blood and sweat of those who came before us and all the dreams and potential of the generations that follow is . . . and all of the suffering that has been endured and triumphs that have been won . . . all of the lives we have made . . . all that defines us as human beings will have been lost. All would have been for nothing—nothing but futile musing and an imaginable criminal waste of life—unless we go to the stars.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information about the blogs, articles, poetry, and novels I write.

Fortunately, I am taking a few seminars in romance writing at the Missouri Writers Conference April 16-18. I hope to find the seed of knowledge that I need to shore that part of story building.

Meanwhile, I am open to anyone who might have a suggestion of resources.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for the articles, blogs, poems, and stories that I write.

I have also returned to producing short fiction for publication. I am re-editing some of my short stories that did not publish yet and I will be producing more. I am mostly focusing my fiction writing on Horror, Hard Sci-Fi, and Space Westerns—the same genres as my web serials.

Additionally, I am producing my poetry again. I have one piece that is being published in an e-zine, more on that soon. I am sending out more of my poetry for publication consideration. You can find my poetry as it is published by going to my website and looking under poetry. Some of my poetry I will be putting online for my readers to enjoy, knowing that I will not be able to send it out for publication.

I have also restarted my freelance writing. I am currently writing for an online site, but I will be looking to branch out to magazines and other journals soon. Please look at my website under non-fiction for these articles.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for more articles, blogs, poetry, and stories that I write.

I have also restarted my poetry writing with five new rough drafts thus far this week. Four of them are inspired not by the health care law that was passed, but by the method and attitude of government (all parties) and the reaction of my fellow Americans. One of these is further inspired by the television shows Caprica and Battlestar Galactica. I do not know if I will send that out anywhere, but I will read it at an upcoming open mic. The fifth poem is about something special that has happened in my life recently—something that returned faith to me. I cannot go into details at this time.

I have also finished the rough draft to the web serial or web opera Dark Medicine and am in 2nd draft as I write. I will begin work on the other three that I will start posting in August after I turn Dark Medicine Series 1 in to an editor to review. I will be posting a new blog in Dark Medicine and starting three new blogs related to these four stories. Please keep an eye open for them.

Once I have all four in 2nd draft form, I will begin the 2nd draft of the sci-fi novel, The Guardians. Additionally, I am also working on more poems and short stories.

As if all of this on top of my normal job didn’t keep me occupied, but on April 16-18 I will be attending and presenting at the Missouri Writers conference.

Do I ever slow down? Sadly, I don’t think I know how. There is just too much to write.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for updates on articles, blogs, poems, and stories that I write.

I also noticed that for some of my writing, most especially my vampire stories, the market is saturated with teen fantasy vampires that would not put much fear into anyone. Clearly they are popular and I will not besmirch them any more that my previous statement. I write about the monster vampire—the one who may either reveal or loathe his existence (and sometimes both kinds of characters), but are an expression of our dark side.

Along with this observation, I looked at my other main market: Science Fiction. There are so many out there that the market is hard to break into.

So, what is a new writer to do? There are a few things that can be done—but you need to be creative and believe in yourself. As a result, I am going to launch four ventures of my own and start a Web Opera. I am using this term to break away from the term Web Serial as those tend to be more video oriented. In a few months, I intend to begin placing monthly episodes of four stories: Dark Medicine (A gothic Vampire Horror), The Haunted (A horror about an exorcist), The Indebted (a Science Fiction based on my novella, but greatly expanded), and Herne’s Law (a Space Western). These stories are being plotted or replotted to fit this new format.

The downside of this plan is simple: no publisher will want these stories. They will already have been self-published. However, I am ok with that. I am no longer looking for a publisher at this moment. Instead, what I hope they will do is create a readership and thus a track record that I can use to demonstrate in regards to other stories.

This is a bold gamble and maybe I foolishly have too much faith in myself. However, being a writer who had to overcome learning disabilities and teachers telling him to drop out of school and not even think about college, I learned that if you do not believe in yourself no one else will. As proof, I have a Masters Degree and graduated with it with a GPA between 3.5 and 4.0. (actually, I have a Bachelors with minors, a Masters, and a certificate along with a teaching certificate. See my web page for a little more information) I have done what I have been told I cannot do—and like the oak tree who had to fight for water and room to grow, I am stronger for it.

Please visit my blogs and website for updates. This is going to be an interesting ride!

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on the stories, articles, and blogs that I write.

Yes, we get sick. Yes, said sickness or injury will cause us not to write—or does it? Our minds are spinning all the time with stories or poems. In my case, and I doubt I am alone, I wonder what this character or that character would act like if he or she were sick like me. These musings may never make it on the page and sometimes the physical activity of writing may come to a grinding halt, but the muse does not stop. Once we can get back to work (regardless of doctors orders in some cases), we have to make up for the time lost in order to meet our deadlines.

This is the life that chose us. We are writers—the living recorders of thoughts and deeds of our own or others or how we may see the world and share it with others. It is our calling—regardless if we are healthy or sick, the work has to be done.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com for information on the blogs, stories, poems, and articles I write.