Coming Soon – TIN CAT

November 11, 2020 / Coming Soon / Leave a Comment

Yesterday I decided I wanted to reanimate my mostly dead writing career, starting with my most popular novella TIN CAT.

Miracle Max from The Princess Bride saying "Mostly dead is slightly alive."

I didn’t have a digital copy of any file. I’m fairly sure that’s an authorial sin of some kind. I’ve plans to get a SSD and, you know, keep doc files and PDFs. But I digress.

Pippa had a copy and emailed it to me. We weren’t sure if there was a DRM on it, but it went through Calibre fine. So I now have a Word doc, cleaned up and almost ready to go. I’ve emailed Champagne – who were the original publishers – about the cover. In the meantime, I found the original stock photo, so I can recreate a similar cover if push comes to shove.

I’m not sure when I’ll be hitting “publish”, but it could be as soon as December.

NaNo Report Week 1

November 10, 2020 / NaNoWriMo / Leave a Comment

A little late due to the epic weekend, then next door’s dog getting run over yesterday (she survived, but was injured enough to require the vet.)

Small Majicks is currently sat at 16341 words. I still have a fair amount of cards to fill in on Scrivener, so I’m not overly concerned about the dreaded Week 2. Hopefully by the time they’re filled in, the story will have enough momentum to keep me writing.

It’s very tempting to try writing a book, rather than a first draft. I keep reminding myself that it doesn’t need to be perfect at this point. Nor do chapter breaks matter. It just needs to be written.

April Round Up

May 2, 2020 / Round Up / Leave a Comment

April was a pretty decent writing month, possibly because I barely left the house. Lockdown has been good for something after all!

WriYe was a bit hit and miss, but I won April Camp, so overall I’m happy. My challenge results:

  • Full Moon 3,632 / 3,000
  • New Moon 1,028 / 900
  • 5K Weekend 1,279 / 5,000
  • WriDay 1,247 / 2,500

At the time of writing Tombs stands at 22,305 / 80,000 words, which doesn’t include the first rough draft I wrote a couple of years old. I’m working my way through that, saving what can be folded in and deleting what can’t. I’m nearly done with Act 1. Acts 2 and 3 both have a couple of scenes in them, because I can’t write in a straight line.

May goals

  • 12,500 overall
  • Full Moon 900
  • WriDay 2,500
  • MerMay 5,000
  • New Moon 900
  • 5K Weekend

Project Writing Shed!

April 20, 2020 / Writing / Leave a Comment

Early 2018 we bought a secondhand shed with the intention of setting up a woodworking business. Late 2018 H had a Stoke and all our plans went poof. Since then, the shed has been sat, gathering oddments and spiders.

This is how it looked just after installation. It’s a wee bit more weathered. But I have a Plan.

I’ve listed the woodworking tools for sale. As soon as the tip is open, I’m going to clear it out and reseal the wood. It needs new roof felt and better poly on the windows, then repainting.

I’m going for a blue exterior and a lemon interior. It’ll be fully insulated and lit by fairy lights. I’m going to get a rug/carpet off-cut on the floor. I’ll probably keep the old desk, though it needs covering somehow. I’ll put in bookshelves and maybe a cosy corner for reading. It’ll be geeky, of course, because this is me. I might frame my celeb photoshoots and put them on the wall. My Prism certificate is definitely going up.

In short, I’m going to create a haven for me to be able to get away from the crazy that’s my every day life, even just for a couple of hours.

March Round Up

April 20, 2020 / Writing / Leave a Comment

Well, that was a month.

The UK getting hit with the Covid-19 virus wasn’t a surprise (unless you were in government, and being clueless) but the impact has been… interesting.

We were due to be on holiday by now, but were fairly sure that the country would end up locked down. It would have been nice if Boris had gone on with it, instead of dragging his feet. At least then I’d not have spent most of March in limbo.

I did, somehow, manage to hit 17,786 words (goal was 12,500) and win my monthly WriYe challenges, but it all felt odd. Like I’d not done anything. Of course now we’re in lockdown and life is uber weird. I am coping. I don’t go out much anyway, so there’s not a lot of difference except it takes twice as long to get my shopping done.

April is Camp. I’m resurrecting The Tombs of Arkon Theta and aiming for 20K. I’ll let you know if I get there this time in May.

February Round Up

April 20, 2020 / Writing / Leave a Comment

February was an epic month! I’m so delighted and thrilled with what I managed to get done, the highlight being a 5K day on Sunday 23rd.

I wrote 19K on The Ammonite Affair, 10K on an untitled fantasy, and 3K on other works for a mammoth 33,103 words – more than twice my goal for the month! Plus I hit – even blasted past – every challenge goal on WriYe.

Much of this has to do with finding 4thewords – a role-playing game where you battle monsters by writing words. A little childish, perhaps, but it really worked for me in February. And why not have a little fun while writing?!