Wow, where'd the time go?

I just realized that the National Novel Writing Month ended a good two weeks ago, and I haven't said a thing about it here. Long story short, I made it. 52,568 words in one month.

I don't know if the last part of the novel could be exactly called an ending. That's one spot where I normally have trouble in my writing, figuring out when and how to bring it all to a conclusion. Even with these blogs, I usually sit around staring at the last paragraph and thinking "Ok, now how do I bring this all together without making it look like I just walked away from the keyboard at a random point?"

I think part of the problem in this case was that when I hit 50,000 words, I realized I was only at about the 2/3 mark. I had a lot more I wanted to do with the novel from that point, which I had known from the outset would be the case. But, then I got to 52,000 words, and I still didn't see the end in sight. So, I just wrapped up what I was working on there, ended that section of the book, and said "Ok, I can call this done."

I don't know when I'll get back to it. I want to flesh it out some more, get to the actual ending. But I was already in the middle of a couple other things when I started this project. I have some notes here from editors who read two of my stories. My first priority is to read those notes, go over the stories with a fine toothed comb, and figure out what adjustments to make.

I think I may have said this before in this blog, but the notes I have here from one of the editors who read "Long and Short" seem to stem from the fact that I revised the story heavily several times. The draft I have now is about half as long as the original draft. A lot of that was dead wood. I was trying to tell two or three stories at once. But it looks like I may have removed more than I should have. I'll have to consider that carefully in my next draft of the story.

The other critique is a bit meatier, and I nearly slapped myself on the forehead at one comment. I fell into the dangerous writing trap of telling rather than showing early on in the story. That's the first thing I'm going to have to work on.

I'm almost done with school now, so I'll have a lot more free time. That means no more excuses for slacking on my writing. Heck, if I was able to pound out a 50,000 word novel while attending class, I should have no problem revising my latest story, and getting to work on the next.

I think I'll send "Where Do We Go From Here" to Leading Edge. They say they'll consider anything up to 15,000 words, and this one is about 11,000, so that shouldn't be a problem. Maybe I'll finally strike gold with this one. And while I'm waiting on that, I have "Little Lucy" to work on. Time to get back into the wild world of publishing.

-E. Maxfield Moen

It's Almost Over

Wow. Four days to go on NaNoWriMo. I passed the 45,000 word mark last night, and I might have 46,000 words down in another hour or so. That would give me plenty of breathing space for this last stretch, since I could write only about 1,000 words a day and still be done in time.

That wall I was worried about never came. I never hit a spot in this novel where I was stymied on the next step for more than an hour or two. When that happened, I just played a video game or read something else for a while, and when I came back, I knew where I wanted to go.

The only thing I'm really stuck on now is precisely how I'll end the book. I don't want to just stop writing when I hit 50,000 words, I want there to be some closure. A sequel hook, if nothing else. I think I have an idea, but it's going to be tricky.

This has been a real ride. At first, I was exhilarated, and times I still find myself in that sort of zen state I hit when I'm really into what I'm writing. But lately, it's been a real chore, pounding out this novel every single day for a month straight. I think I'll be real glad in a few days, when this is over and I can turn away from writing for a little while. But just a little while.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Week 4

I'm fully on track now, as far as sheer word count goes. I should be hitting the 40,000 word mark tomorrow. It's rather breathtaking, in a way. I find it hard to believe I've been doing this for four weeks now. It doesn't even feel like it's been two weeks.

When I started doing this, I said to myself that 50,000 words isn't a whole lot, as far as novels go. It's not even 200 pages. I could read a 200 page novel in three days, and that's just in my leisure time. And yet, at the same time, when I realize that I've written almost 40,000 words in less than a month, it shocks me to the core. I always wanted to be a novelist, but I never before now considered the size of a project like that. Even in my previous attempts to hammer out a novel, I always looked at it more as discrete parts that fit together, rather than a cohesive whole.

Of course, that's the way to tackle a big project. Don't look at it as one huge thing, or you'll get overwhelmed. That's how I'm approaching this novel, too. I think what's really surprising me is how the ideas are just flowing out. I thought the time constraint might strangle me after a while, but I've been going strong. Every day now since November 1st, I've sat in front of this computer and refused to let myself budge until I'd written something. It's a good feeling, to know that this is something I can do, if I put my mind to it.

Well, there's only one more week to go. And unless I get a major case of writer's block, I don't see anything that can stop me.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Past the hump

I did a lot of catching up today, and now I'm past the halfway mark. 25,857 words. I once again ended up adding another part I'd planned on mentioning later. However, there was a good spot for it, and the timing felt right, so I included it.

The proverbial waste matter is gonna be hitting the fan for the main characters real soon. I've got several game-changing events coming up in the next few sections, all in preparation for the final event. I'm still confident I'll have this done by November 30th, come hell or high water.

-E. Maxfield Moen

NaNoWriMo, Week 3

I haven't updated this in a while, so I thought I'd mention my progress. I'm almost at the halfway point, 24,000+ words and counting. I slacked off a bit on the weekend, so I tried to play some catchup tonight.

The plot's not moving as quickly as I expected, I keep throwing in stuff I hadn't seen coming. For instance, tonight I had planned on writing about a press conference. Instead I added a part with Dr. Edwards and his two companions discussing the press conference in his apartment. Then when I got ready to move to the press conference, I found Dr. Edwards talking to his cabbie on the way to the press conference.

I imagine if I planned on this actually being a 50,000 word novel when I'm done with it, the plot would seem to be dragging its heels. Maybe it is in any case. But, this is the first draft, and one thing I've heard from several sources is "Write now, edit later." I'll just get down everything I have in my head now, and worry about tightening the story up later, as I usually try to do.

That's about all for now. The way I have this planned out, the real fun stuff is right around the corner, just in time for the halfway point. In further drafts of the story, this will probably be closer to the 1/4 mark. I can already see a couple sections in my head I can probably chop out if the pacing is really that much of an issue. But that's for another time. This is turning out to be a much wilder project than I'd anticipated, and I'm still looking forward to November 30th and 50,000 words. Wish me luck.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Phew

I didn't get around to writing last night like I'd planned to. I was goofing off...OK, I was procrastinating, and by the time it occurred to me I should be getting down and dirty I was having trouble keeping my eyes opened. So when I rolled out of bed today, I told myself in a very firm tone of voice that I was going to knock out at least 2000 words before I could go out and screw around with my friends.

Instead, I got down a little over 2,500 words before realizing I was seeing double and decided I needed a break. So I'm stepping back from the novel for a little while, and instead looking around at the forums on the site I'm doing all this writing for. My stats for the site say that at the rate I'm going, I'll be done by November 28th. This is a huge improvement from the date of December 5th it had given me before I updated my word count.

I'm still on Chapter Three, which has already become much longer than I'd expected. The chapter is basically a huge Infodump, explaining the basic operation of magic in this novel, and some history. I'll probably end up breaking a lot of it up and sprinkling it throughout the novel in later drafts. But for right now, one thing I've read over and over regarding writing is "Write now, edit later." that's pretty much also the goal of National Novel Writing Month, so for now I'm going to let the ideas flow out, and worry about how well it all works later.My mantra for the rest of this month is will be "This is just a rough draft."

It's often tempting to go back and revise something, or to hover over a sentence and say "What's the best way to phrase this?" But I have to keep in mind that my goal right now is just to get words on paper, I have all the time in the world after November to smooth over awkward sections, to edit, revise, and rework the novel. I've got a long way to go yet.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Update

I had hoped to get some more writing done last night, but I didn't get a chance. I had to be up early today, and I forgot about it until a couple hours after I should have gone to bed. So, to make up for it, I just did some writing now. For some reason, I seem to be at my creative best in the wee hours of the morning. But at this point in the novel, I'm still in territory that I've firmly fleshed out in my mind, so getting the creative juices flowing was no problem.

My word count is up to over 6,000 words now, which seems like a good pace. If I can keep it up, I should have 50,000 words banged out before I know it. I plan on trying for another 2,000 words tonight, but we'll see what happens.

Stephen King, in his book On Writing, suggested that you should write three pages every day. I've felt a little guilty that I haven't done anything approaching that up till now. But so far, I've knocked out 11 pages in about three days, so it looks like I'm finally following his advice. Let's hope I can keep this up.

I paused in my writing about halfway through Chapter Three. I hope to at least finish that chapter tonight, and maybe get started on Chapter Four. I'm still working on ideas that have been percolating for a while now. The details get more and more vague somewhere around Chapter 5, but I know where I'm going with the story, even if I'm not fully sure how to get there yet. However, the whole point of this National Novel Writing Month exercise is just to write away, so I'm not too worried.

The only thing at this point that could get me worried is if I start slacking off. That's part of the reason why I'm writing these blogs, to keep myself motivated. If I don't follow through with this, I'll have documented evidence of my laziness right here where anyone can see it. The thought of the shame that will cause should help keep me going.

Finishing Chapter Three should be a breeze. As I said, I've had the whole thing mapped out in my head for months, so I know exactly where I'm going with this section of the story and how I want to get there. After a while, the road gets a bit rougher, but I've marked out most of the landmarks in my head, so I at least know where I'm going. I'm going to stop with the road metaphor here before I beat it to death.

So, 6,000 words down, 44,000 to go. And a little under four weeks to do it in. This is going to be interesting.

-E. Maxfield Moen

NaNoWriMo Day 2

Well, I finished Chapter 1 of Mage War. I found myself introducing something a lot sooner than I'd expected. With only 50,000 words to work with, I gotta keep the pace fast and flowing. I posted all of Chapter 1 on the site as an excerpt of the novel, I figured that should be enough to give anyone checking me out a good idea of my writing style and the feel of the novel.

It's funny, 50,000 words sounds like a lot at first blush, but it really isn't. Chapter one came out to just over 4,000 words. If I keep that average going, the book will end up being 12 and a half chapters. Of course, that's just for this site, I won't have any such constraints when I begin reworking the novel for actual publication. But I want to try and fit in as many of the ideas I've had for this novel into that 50,000 words. I think maybe one thing I'll do in this draft is exclude a couple side characters I'd planned on using. It should improve the pacing and the wordcount without seriously damaging the story. Especially as I've already decided to expand the role of some other characters.

Anyway, I think I'm doing pretty well with this so far. I'm pretty confident I'll have those 50,000 words banged out before the deadline on November 30th. I'll post more developments here as they occur.

Crossing the Rubicon

I decided to join the National Novel Writing Month, which started today. It's an organization designed to kick authors like me in the butt to get writing. Basically, it runs through the month of November, and writers who sign up get 30 days to pump out a 50,000 word novel.

Obviously, 30 days isn't long enough to thoroughly research, revise, and edit a novel, even one that short. The idea is to just put your imagination and creativity into overdrive and just write. The actual quality of the novel is secondary. This made me a bit nervous when I was thinking about joining. It seemed to me like it glorified hack writing. But, in the end, I decided that I'd try and see what a deadline does to motivate me. If nothing else, by the end of this month, I should have a very rough first draft.

The story I decided to go with for this is one I've been kicking around for a while. I'm calling it Mage War. In essence, it picks up right where "Where Do We Go From Here" left off. That short story ended with Dr. Darrell Edwards III making a presentation at a scientific conference. Mage War starts off a few hours after the conference, with Darrell and his friends watching the fallout from his conference and deciding their next steps. I've had a vague outline in my head for a while of what I want to do with the story, but I haven't really written anything yet. So I thought that this would be a good novel to write this month.

I signed up today, and as it'll be midnight in 5 minutes, that'll give me 29 days to get going on this novel. The timing is a bit annoying, since I'm still taking classes this month, but if I hold off, I'll have to wait till next year to try again. No time like the present. Maybe the added constraint of balancing this with my schoolwork will motivate me more.

-E. Maxfield Moen

A lot of work to do

I'm back in school right now, so I haven't had much time lately to devote to writing. The classwork is pretty heavy, and even when I have time to write, I'm usually too overloaded to think about it much. Having said that, I did get started on the second draft of my current story. The tentative title is "Little Lucy," though I'll probably end up changing that.

I finally heard back from Leading Edge regarding "The Mind's Retreat." Another rejection slip, though after all this time I'd been expecting it. Just like with "Long and Short," I got critiques from two of the editors. There's some good stuff in there. I'm heartened by phrases like "You did a good job..." "I like the way it unfolds," "...engaging plot," and "Your writing is great..." The more critical parts highlight some things I need to work on. Both editors mention that there's some stuff that doesn't get a proper explanation, which is probably the result of my having cut it down to about half it's original size. I was perhaps more eager than I should have been, and cut out stuff I should have kept, as well as keeping stuff that could have been removed. I'll have to go over the story again with that in mind.

One thing that embarrasses me a bit. One editor stated that I fell into the rather elementary trap of telling, not showing. He didn't give any specifics, so I'm going to have to go over the story carefully and see where I erred. The same editor mentioned that I bring up a lot of jargon in the story that isn't explained. That he did list in detail, and I can see what he means. I can see without even rereading the story where I can pare down on that. He also says that there should be more action. This is a valid point, I do mention a lot of action happening in the backstory, which I could easily incorporate.

One editor said he was dissatisfied with the ending, the other said he liked the resolution. I think when I rework the story, I'll do it with more of an eye towards the former's opinion. I think I can address his critique of the ending by only changing a few words.

I also need to go back and do some work on "Long and Short." I reread the critiques I got for that story, and I can see a few points in the story I should shore up. But I think that before I work on either of those stories, I should get to work on "Little Lucy" first. I want to get it ready to start sending out. I'm about halfway through my current semester, so I should be able to get some serious work done there after I do my finals. Hopefully even before that. There's a break coming up for Thanksgiving, I should spend that time working on my writing.

I want to get back to submitting stories, but I need to work on the three I just mentioned first. I think I'll look for somewhere to send "The Last Day" in the meantime. I think I'll send it along to Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show. And if Space and Time magazine is ever open for submissions again, I'll start sending stuff their way as well. Either way, my priority right now is to finish this semester and get my Associates in Liberal Arts degree.

-E. Maxfield Moen

A Shot In The Arm

Well, getting two rejections in one day seems to have been the elixir I needed to get back to work. After writing my last blog, I got down to finishing my current story. I took a quick glance at it when I was done, and can see a lot of revision will be necessary. I changed my mind about a point or two about partway through, leaving the end product a bit confused and inconsistent. I think I've come to a decision about which way I want to go, so I'm going to work on the next draft with that in mind.

I'm also trying to decide if I should send "Long and Short" over to Intergalactic Medicine Show. I'm not sure if it's the kind of thing they're looking for. I think I'll read a couple more issues of that magazine before deciding. In any case, there's a couple suggestions the editors of Leading Edge gave me for the story, and I should give them some thought before sending "Long and Short" anywhere else.

I haven't heard from Leading Edge yet regarding my latest submission to them, though I won't be surprised if that takes another month. Space and Time Magazine's website still says they're closed for submissions, so there's no point in sending anything their way. Aside from that, I'm going to start researching more places to send my work to. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the key is persistence. I don't plan on giving up any time soon.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Two at once

After writing that last entry, I decided to check my email in case Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show had gotten back to me. It turns out they had. Two rejections in one day.

But, I'm not gonna let that demoralize me. I just gotta keep writing, keep sending out manuscripts; in other words, keep persisting.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Well, that was fast

I heard back from Zahir today, about two months earlier than I'd expected a response. Another rejection.

I still have two other stories I'm waiting to get a reply from. I imagine I'll be hearing from Leading Edge soon, I sent them a story back in March. The other story was sent via email, so I'll have to keep an eye out for that.

I have the beginnings of another story bubbling in my head. I'll try and work on that, as well as the stuff I'm already working on. In the meantime, my latest rejection slip goes on my fridge along with all the others.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Two for the price of...two

I'm sending out two submissions today. First, after reading some of Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, I decided to send them "Where Do We Go From Here." I hope they enjoy it.

After I did that, I decided to crack open my copy of 2010 The Short Story and Novel Writer's Market and see if there was anything in there that caught my attention. I also decided that this time I would work from Z-A, in case I came upon any magazines which I had never looked at before. I found in there a website called Zahir, which I'm sure I've never looked at before. They had their latest stories on the site, and after reading them, I decided that I should send them a copy of "The Last Day." It's shorter than the stories I saw on the site, but I think it's a good fit nonetheless.

The Intergalactic Medicine Show story I sent via email, so they'll probably see it in the morning. The Zahir story I decided to send through snail mail, as it'll probably be cheaper than the $2.50 fee they want for electronic submissions. I don't expect to hear from either of them for a few months, regardless of the method of delivery.

So, I'll be making a run to the post office in the morning. Once I do that, it means I'll have three stories I'm waiting for a response on. If I can keep the momentum going, it'd be nice to have all my stories out for consideration at once. I'll have to do some more research and find some more places to send my stories to.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Another rejection

Well, I heard from Barbaric Yawp today. It was a brief note written in the corner of the letter I'd sent with my story. The editor must have liked it at least somewhat, because he says my story made it to the "final cut." That's good to know, at least it wasn't rejected out of hand. He also asked me to send another. I'm thinking I'll send him the one I'm working on once I'm satisfied with it.

I've been thinking about submitting a story to Orson Scott Card's Intergalactic Medicine Show, which is an e-zine. the main thing holding me back is probably a little silly. I wanted to check out an issue before submitting, to get an idea of what they're looking for, but the site only offers yearly subscriptions. It's only $15.00, and I should be able to read the magazine on my eReader. I don't have a compatible reader, but I do have a program which the site says will be able to convert the format to a version I can use.

I think I'll give it a shot. If it turns out that the magazine doesn't seem like it'd be a good fit for me, I'm only out $15. And the fiction should be entertaining.

I haven't heard back from one magazine I sent a Query Letter to last year, Outer Darkness. It's been so long I can't even remember what story I had in mind to send them. Maybe I didn't have any, and I was waiting for a response to my Query Letter to get an idea.

Well, that's all the news I have for now. Hopefully in the next week or so I'll be sending out a couple more stories. Till then, good night and good luck.

-E. Maxfield Moen

(Lack of) Progress Report

Wow, I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. I wish I had more to say. I'm still working on my latest story idea, still on the first draft. It's proving to be trickier than I had anticipated. My difficulty is in getting the tone right. I'm trying to make a lighthearted story with a rather ludicrous premise, but within the setting it's totally serious, and that's proving to be harder to convey on paper than I'd thought.

I'm not sure if what I wrote above makes any sense or not. I hope it does, or maybe I'm in the wrong field. ;-)

In the meantime, I should get back to researching publications to send my stories to. According to a spreadsheet I set up to keep track of such things, I submitted "The Last Day" to Barbaric Yawp back in December, and I haven't heard from them yet. I think I'll give it another month before I start shopping that story around again. In the meantime, I have other stories to submit. Space and Time magazine says it's closed for submissions every time I check the site, which is a shame, as I think I'd be a good fit with them.

I have a couple ideas of other places I can send stories to, I just have to determine which of my stories they'd be most likely to accept. That, and get to work on putting my current story idea together. Time to put the old nose to the grindstone.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Second Try

I finished my revision of "The Mind's Retreat" a few hours ago, and I will be mailing it to Leading Edge tomorrow. I ended up taking the story from about 11,000 words to a bit less than 9,000. Even more impressive when you consider the second draft of the story was more like 18,000 words.

The reason it was originally so long was that I didn't have any real direction in mind when I was first writing the story. I had this character in mind, I knew a whole lot about his life, and I ended up writing the first draft of the story as a highlights reel of the first 20 or so years of his life. Hell, the first draft started with his Baptism.

As I went on, I started focusing more and more on the latter half of the story, which was really the story I wanted to tell. It turned out that the first 5,000 pages or so were nothing more than an overly-long introduction, so I trimmed that out. I kept parts as flashbacks, and ended up trimming that, too.

Eventually, with the draft I was working from today, I had shortened the timeline of the story from 20 years to more like 6 months. And most of that was transit time in Interstellar Space that went wholly unmentioned. With this copy, I realized that even that was putting too much reliance on flashbacks, so I changed one part into a dream that was more described than shown (and in about 1/10th the time, as well, without missing anything important), and adapted another into a record another character was watching. So that now, the entire time frame of the story went from 20-something years to about 24 hours. And it still tells the story I wanted to tell, and probably does a better job than before.

I think this draft is a lot tighter, and I think I'll stick with it. Until I decide to revise it again.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Sigh...

I'm going over my story "The Mind's Retreat." I'd planned on giving it a quick-once over, shortening it down to about 10,000 words. Well, what started out as a quick editing process has turned into a full-blown new draft of the story. I realized that the narrative is rather wobbly in some places, and other parts that I didn't explain properly.

I got rid of one whole section that I thought was extraneous, and then I realized that another part, integral to the story, makes no sense without some of the background from the deleted section. So now I've got to work out some compromise that'll make everything clear without resorting to a long flashback that sends the plot to a screeching halt and really has no place in a short story.

Of course, if this results in a product superior to what it's replacing, then it's worth the effort. It's just I was hoping to send "The Mind's Retreat" out to a magazine today, and now I see it might be another day or two before I'm satisfied with it. In the meantime, I'm totally stuck on the story I was working on before, which is real annoying because I'm about 3/4 of the way through. I know where I want the story to go, just not how to get there.

Well, I'll keep slogging it out, and hopefully I'll have something worth sending out for publication soon. Keeping my fingers crossed.

-E. Maxfield Moen

New Story Idea

I have a new story I'm working on. No title yet, I'm only about halfway through the first draft. This one will be pretty short, probably about 4,000 words at most. I want this one to be somewhat satirical. It's not very light-hearted so far, but I plan on working on that after I get the first draft down.

In the meantime, I'm also working on tightening up "Where Do We Go From Here." I want to get it down to about 10,000 words, which means I gotta cut about 3,000 words from it. I've been finding bits of cruft to cut out here and there, stuff that I don't think is needed to tell the story the way I want it told. I'm also going to be doing that with my other stories, to widen the number of magazines I can send my stuff out to. That done, I'll get back down to researching magazines.

I have to admit I was a bit demoralized by the lack of venues available to me. This isn't the 50s, when pulp magazines could be found around every corner. I'm going to have to really plug away. I have to keep my chin up and not be daunted by the prospects.

I knew it would be hard work to get published, but knowing something and experiencing it are two different things. That's something I thought I'd learned by now, but life is a constant learning process.

Well, talking about it isn't going to get it done. I'd better get my nose back to the grindstone.

-E. Maxfield Moen

First Rejection

I heard back from Leading Edge the other day, haven't gotten around to posting it till now. It was, as you may have guess, a rejection slip. I can't say I'm surprised, I imagine it's only on TV that writers act like it's the end of the world when they get rejected.

I got critiques from two editors, which was nice of them. It's got good stuff and bad, which has the double bonus of makign me feel good about myself, and showing me areas of improvement. One of the editors wrote "...above all else, your characters are very well developed." I was very pleased to read that, as I've always felt that characterization was my strong suit, And I'm glad to see that I'm not alone in thinking that.

The other editor wrote that he felt the Sci-Fi aspects of the story were rather superfluous, and it seemed like they were only there to make it fit into the genre. I can see where the guy is coming from, because it was the one thing I worried about more than anything with "Long and Short." The story, as well as several others I've written, are all set in the same universe, which is very definitely Sci-Fi. However, this story takes place on a colony with a pre-Industrial culture (based heavily on 16th century Japan, to be precise), so the larger backdrop can easily be missed, and the few elements of technology on the planet probably do seem to an outside viewer like they're just thrown in so I can claim it's Sci-Fi.

On the other hand, the other editor seemed to like how I combined a Space Opera-style future with an ancient culture, so maybe I'm just worrying about this too much. I think what I'll do is go over the story again and see if I can make the clearly Sci-Fi aspects of it seem more seamless.

Overall, the comments were positive, but obviously not positive enough to be accepted. It took a while longer than I expected to hear back from them, but aside from that I feel this was a pleasant experience, and I'll certainly be submitting more stuff to Leading Edge.

-E. Maxfield Moen

Nothing new, unfortunately

I've been keeping pretty quiet over here lately, haven't had much to say. I'm still having writer's block on my latest idea, I just can't seem to flesh it out. I know how I want it to start, and I've got a pretty good idea of the plot progression, but that's about as far as I can get. Until I have a cohesive structure laid out, I don't want to start putting pen to paper.

I also haven't heard back from any of the magazines I've sent stories out to. I guess I've waited long enough, I should start sending the stories out to other places. Wish I had more to report, but for the time being, that's it.

-E. Maxfield Moen