Category: Freelance work

Weekly Update – May 30, 2017

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Event, Freelance work, Novels, Renaissance faires, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Robin Hood’s Faire is over, and it was a great run. For the most part I’m spending today recovering, and this weekend I get to return to my regular writing schedule — which is good, because I’ve fallen behind.

WRITING PROJECTS

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Blades of Glory: Got a little work in and I’m within arm’s reach of the 50,000 work mark.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: Second draft finished, third draft in process.

Action Figures – Issue Eight: Crawling from the Wreckage: Second draft finished.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Rough plotting in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins: Audiobook recording in progress.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

MISC.

It’s all official now, so I’d like to announce that I am writing a mud show script for an act that will appear at the Mutton & Mead Medieval Festival in Turners Fall, Massachusetts next month. Bonus: the lead performer is my friend Jen, who is also the narrator for my Action Figures audiobook!

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Weekly Update – May 16, 2017

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Event, Freelance work, Novels, Renaissance faires, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

Another slow week, mostly due to the opening of Robin Hood’s Faire. One weekend down, two to go!

WRITING PROJECTS

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Blades of Glory: No progress since last week, but I’m planning to get back into it this week before packing up for a three-day weekend at RHF.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: Second draft finished, and I did a little work on draft three based on some feedback from a beta reader I wanted to get out of my head before I forgot it all. I ended up adding about 2,000 words to the manuscript.

Action Figures – Issue Eight: Crawling from the Wreckage: Second draft finished.

Action Figures – Issue Nine: Rough plotting in progress.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins: Audiobook recording in progress.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

MISC.

I’ve been tapped to write up a script for an independent renaissance faire act — a mud show, to be precise. I should be getting some info this week on what’s needed for the show.

Weekly Update – August 9, 2016

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Cheap Thrills Digest, Event, Freelance work, News writing, Novels, Renaissance faires, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young Adult2 Comments

Pageflex Persona [document: PRS0000038_00056]Earlier this year I released Cheap Thrills Digest to sell exclusively at live events and through this website, and I’ve been debating whether to make it available through Amazon as well.

I’ve decided to go ahead and do it in the interest of enhancing my Amazon catalog and perhaps goosing my income a little.

WRITING PROJECTS

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: With my editor, still on-track for a September release.

Action Figures – Issue Six: Power Play: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Live Free or Die: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War and Action Figures – Issue Eight: I got some work done on both books, which is good, because last weekend was my last writing weekend for the rest of the month. I’m busy helping my wife out with shows until September, when I’ll be diving back into Assassins Brawl to get that prepped for its release.

Action Figures – Issue One: Secret Origins:  Audiobook recording in process.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

MISC.

This week I officially dove back into the world of journalism after nearly three years away. I’ve started doing a little light freelancing for the Worcester Telegram, covering Auburn Board of Selectmen — nothing too glamorous, but it keeps me busy and brings a little extra money in.

 

Weekly Update – June 14, 2016

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Event, Freelance work, Novels, Renaissance faires, Strongarm & Lightfoot, Writing process, Young AdultLeave a comment

WRITING PROJECTS

The Adventures of Strongarm & Lightfoot – Assassins Brawl: I received some more beta reader feedback over the weekend, and as a result I’ve made some significant revisions to what is becoming a formal fourth draft. The story’s main bad guy is getting punched up, as are some thematic elements, and some characterization issues are getting ironed out. I usually don’t make such drastic adjustments to my novels this far in — I’m normally cleaning out superfluous language and streamlining the prose — but the story needs it to be a worthy follow-up to Scratching a Lich. I’ll be working on S&L 2 this weekend. I might also see some preliminary cover art!

Action Figures – Issue Six: Power Play: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Live Free or Die: Pre-editing revisions are done, in the queue for editing.

Action Figures – Issue Seven: The Black End War: Made a little more progress over the weekend, but I won’t be able to hit this one hard until S&L 2 is out of the way.

APPEARANCES and EVENTS

  • Sunday, October 2: The Connecticut Renaissance Faire’s 2016 Meet the Author series, which runs from 1 to 3 PM. As it happens, I’m playing a more active hand in promoting the Meet the Author series this year (more on that below).
  • Saturday & Sunday, October 15 & 16: The fall New Bedford Bookfest. Times TBA.

MISC.

Last week I finally got together with my friend Phil at the lovely Scrapwood Studios in Connecticut to record our podcast, in which I discuss Scratching a Lich and read the first chapter from said book — the first time I’ve ever done a reading of any kind. The podcast went up yesterday, so here it is. Enjoy!

Finally, as I mentioned above, I am more involved with promoting the CTRF Meet the Author series this year than I was last year. I’ve been contracted to write up a ton of promotional material for the show, including press materials for the series, so hopefully both the faire as a whole and the author events will see a lot more traffic.

An Aside…

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Freelance work, Renaissance faires, Theatrical scriptsLeave a comment

Work proceeds on getting Action Figures prepped for self-publication. The manuscript has been formatted properly, my sister-in-law (an editor by trade) is kindly giving the manuscript a once-over to hunt out any typos, and this weekend I hope to do a final once-over myself.

But that’s not why I’m posting today. No, I’m drawing a little attention to a freelance job I did some time ago for the Krebashia Kingdom renaissance faire, which went up this past weekend. I’ve been waiting for the show to come and go before I added a script segment to my writing samples, and now that it’s wrapped, the script bit is up here. I’m happy with the way it came out, and a little sad the job came with turning over the rights because I’d like to actually see this show performed elsewhere, like where I can actually see it, but oh well.

Cha-ching!

On By ronsonbeckIn Business of writing, Freelance work, Renaissance faires, Theatrical scriptsLeave a comment

That’s the sound of me earning money as a freelance writer.

As mentioned previously, I was contacted out of the blue by someone looking for a renaissance faire variety act script. After a few weeks of writing, getting feedback, re-writing, getting more feedback, and re-re-writing, I finished the script yesterday and sent it off along with an invoice.

It felt good from both a “finishing a project” perspective and a “Hey, look, people will pay me to write stuff for them!” perspective, but I find the latter feeling more gratifying — not just for the boost to my bank account, which is always appreciated, but because it feels like some measurable forward momentum. I’ve finished a lot of projects over the past year or so, but this one earned me money and, later this year, real live people* will see it when it’s performed as part of the Krebashia Kingdom faire in June.

It kind of made up for the rejection e-mail I got the next morning. Sigh.

I’ll post a portion of the script here once the show has had its debut.

* No offense to the real live people who test-read my stuff.

Spinning My Wheels

On By ronsonbeckIn Freelance work, Novels, Writing processLeave a comment

It seems that my writing is in a holding pattern all over. To wit:

* A number of queries to agents and publishers have not yet received a response of any sort;

* A work-for-hire project is waiting for some client feedback;

* A new project, an attempt at an urban fantasy noir-type of novel, feels like it’s going nowhere fast.

That last one is particular frustrating because it’s all on me; I’m not waiting for someone else to get a move-on, I’m trying to figure out why the story just seems to be going in circles rather than moving forward in any appreciable way. I might have to shelve this one and find a new (or an old) project to work on so I can at least pretend progress is happening career-wise.

My hope is something will shake loose soon and I’ll shift from famine to feast.

They See Me Freelancin’…

On By ronsonbeckIn Business of writing, Freelance work, Renaissance faires, Theatrical scriptsLeave a comment

While things on the novel front got off to a cruddy start for 2013, the freelance gods smiled upon me the other week when someone stumbled across me via Facebook and asked about writing a script for a renaissance faire variety act.

The last time I wrote a full script of this nature was at least six or seven years ago, when I wrote Sex & Violence, a two-person show for my wife Veronica (of Storied Threads fame) and her friend/assistant Kate (of Time Traveler’s Wardrobe), so it was nice to flex the ol’ writing muscles in an unfamiliar direction.

It’s also gratifying to work with a complete stranger rather than a friend, because it means I have to do a lot of things I normally don’t have to do, like write up a contract for services rendered and try to create a concept when the client only has general ideas as to what she wants. Today we pinned down a promising concept, and once I write up a first draft we’ll move into the nitpicking phase when the client goes through the script, tells me what she likes and what she doesn’t so I can tinker and tune the draft into a final form.

Bonus: it is a paying gig. I’ve done a lot of work on spec in the past, either as a favor to a friend or because I was desperate for experience and exposure, but the days of free labor are over. As the saying goes, artwork is still work.

Action Figures – A Non-Progress Report

On By ronsonbeckIn Action Figures, Freelance work, News writing, Novels, Renaissance faires1 Comment

It’s coming up on one month since I re-submitted my manuscript and — not that this is a surprise — there’s been no word yet. I’m honestly not expecting to hear anything for quite a while yet, but I’m starting to get into that twitchy checking-e-mail-constantly phase.

That’s not as bad this time around, in good part because I’m otherwise occupied with my day job and my various responsibilities with the Connecticut Renaissance Faire (I’m in the cast, I’m serving as fight captain for the stage combat work, I’m writing Mandrake’s Mysteries again, and I’m helping the online publicity effort).

I’m also casually fleshing out the next story in the series, in part to keep those rare free moments occupied with something productive, and perhaps as a bit of positive affirmation. “The manuscript is going to sell, which means I should outline the rest of the series,” I’m telling myself.

Killing Jokes

On By ronsonbeckIn Freelance work, Murder mysteries, Theatrical scriptsLeave a comment

Casino Confidential has gone up, and from what I’m hearing, it was very well-received by an audience of about 300 people at the Worcester Jewish Community Center.

I’m somewhat sorry I couldn’t be there myself, because it’s always thrilling to see something I wrote on its feet before an audience, but it’s probably a good thing I wasn’t around, because I’m also the type who will sit there the whole time thinking, “That’s not how I wrote that line!”

I know, you just can’t make me happy.

Except I am happy with this script. There were definitely challenges, to put it kindly, because the clients (the WJCC) were what you would call “hands on” (again, to put it mildly) and so a lot of elements were thrown in as concessions to them — elements I would have deleted in a heartbeat, but had to be there, so it was my job to make the best of them.

Click on the link above to read scene two of the script, and if anyone out there is interested in having this very same show performed for them, perhaps as a fundraiser, then give Stephen and Alena at Autumn Tree Productions a shout, because they now own the rights to the script. Yes, that’s how full-service I am; not only will I write for you, if you pay me to buy the rights to the finished product, I’ll sign ’em over.