Underwhelming Achievements

I Glow

2011-07-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

Some shots of me done at midnight with very little light and a long exposure.

Short and only a little blasphemous.

2011-05-20T17:21:00.001-07:00

I beheld a pale horse and upon it a pale rider.
And the Lord said "Those Bloody Emo kids have got into the stables again! Watkins, go give him a damn good thrashing".

As I Lay

2011-04-23T17:26:00.000-07:00

As I lay there, I watch with cold indifference the branches that sway before me. I choose this moment, this time, this now. I choose this as the time for the path to open.

My leaking soul colours my world and perception becomes more than it ever was. Is a passing from one path to another always fraught with the fear of change?

In my movement, there are no edges any more. A path through the wooded knowledge or all that once was cannot calm me. Pastures new await me and their call is a siren song.

I go.

2am, can't sleep. Started Something.

2011-04-14T18:03:00.000-07:00

So, I can't get to sleep.
I am forced into minor action by my angry brain. I start a story.
This is what I've got so far:

Do you know what the future hates?
It hates you.
You, you vacuous deep fried burger eating fuckstain.
Do you know why the future hates you? Because you have no plan to deal with your shit. You just want to eat, sleep, fuck and watch TV before you die. And what happens then?
The future.
The bright shining future you won’t see so you have helped conspire not to happen.
So yes, the Future hates you.
But that’s ok.
It’s why I’m here.

Yeah, no sleep makes me a happy go lucky person, don't it.

Useless Metaphysical Mechanic

2011-03-03T15:32:00.001-08:00

*cough* *shudder* *splutter*
"Damn it, what's wrong this thing?"
*ding*
"Maybe I can help, sir?"
"I dunno. It was going alright, now it seems to have trouble going anywhere. I think it's got stuck."
"Let me check" *Hits it with a hammer* "Sorry, sir. I think you're going to have to make the best of it."
"Well what's wrong with it?"
‎"Like you said, sir, stuck. Just try giving it a shift in direction every now and then."
"I do, but the roads keep crumbling."
"Well, keep trying, sir, everyone's got to find their own path for their life. Sorry I couldn't be more help."
"Cliche spouting tit." *Hits life with spanner and swears at it*
"Come on, come on. I was supposed to be somewhere by now!"

Drunk and Loving the A-Team

2010-12-04T19:02:00.000-08:00

Title pretty much says it all.
I have been knocking back the cheapCarlsberg I bought at Tesco earlier.
Watched Match of the Day and saw Samir Nasri make the Fulham players look like complete tits while taking Arsenal to the top of the league - so the evening started well.
Then I tried to watch Vertigo after several beers and while fiddling on the laptoipo. Next thing I know its 20 minutes in and I've watched none of it.
So Vertigo goes and instead the last 2 episodes of The A-Team Season 3 go in.
Now I love this show. Not in an ironic "Oh look at how cheesy this all is, let's laugh at how they kill no-one."
NO.
I really love this show. I grew up watching it Saturday tea times and have plowed my way through the boxset of season 1-3 whenever I've had a break in my regularly scheduled entertainment.
It's wonderful, a proper family action show. Murdock was always my favourite, but I find I appreciate Face and the shit he goes through much more now.
All I need to do is buy the final 2 seasons and I'm going to be one happy bunny.

Return from the wherever I was

2009-09-25T01:16:00.000-07:00

It's been a long six months since I last wrote. Everything was going fine between us, I had my novel and you had my banging on about how much I was getting done. It was the perfect kind of relationship, I could vent and you just took it.
But then something new and shiny came into my life. Promising a quick sensation release, saying my words would be out there almost immediately and people would defintely read them. Well, I fell for it. Writing short stories about a character that has lurked in my head for a few years now. Oh, how optimistically we all got stuck in. There was a website, a name, and I'd gone into seven weeks worth of content before I understood that I would be getting no more responses from the guy behind it.
Seven weeks worth of stories that now languish, crying to be set free, if only I can devise a platform.
Worst of all, I left you for this failure and never even bothered to write. The novel lay alone in its file, untouched, unloved, my mind occupied by the collapse of the shiny new thing that had so entranced me.

Cut to six months later.
My friends got married this weekend and it was brilliant. Meeting people I'd never seen. Seeing people I hadn't chated to for ages.
Then realising that all of my friends are moving on, making a life and I'm still living at home with my parents and going nowhere.
It was all I needed really, a swift metaphorical butt kicking.
So on Monday I was back in the routine. Up before 9, breakfast, coffee, then writing.

I'm averaging just over a thousand words a day, broke the 50 thousand word barrier yesterday and realised that I'm going to go past the 60k ideal I was aiming for.
Anyway, let's have the tally:
Words done Monday: 1290
Words done Tuesday: 1099
Words done Wednesday: 1712
Words done Thursday: 1067
Total words this week: 5168

Total words so far: 50080

Done that now

2009-03-12T06:49:00.000-07:00

Huzzah, I finally finished the awkward chapter!
It has take me a while, not being able to sleep and getting completely floored by my CFS mentally these past weeks hasn't helped, but it is at last done.
I don't know that I'm completely happy with how it has turned out, but I'm not going back to check until I do the next draft.
Could I work out how to end this chapter? Not really, I think it's now the longest one in the book so far, but I did it by letting the characters have a moment of full release from the tension with a giggling bout. It fits, it suits, I hope it works.

Now though, I can get onto the finale. Got the first big set piece coming up, which isn't action, but if I describe it properly, will still be a very cool moment for the reader to picture in their minds.

As for the project that is to follow, well, I'm putting the details in place. It's going to be a science fiction story, for adults, not the audience of this book. I may write up a couple of the short stories I have floating around in my head to get me back into that style of writing first.

All in all, progress is being made.

Words today: 469
Total Words: 34982

Councils of War!

2009-03-02T02:09:00.000-08:00

I seem to have manouvered myself into a part which I had tremendous trouble writing in my last novel. Namely, the council of war sequence. Where all is explained.
OK, so last time was a much more free flowing affair, coming about halfway through the book and changing the course of what the reader was expecting up until then. This one is an actual council of war, planning for the battle that will take place in the next few chapters.
However, the last one took me something like 6 years to finish, so I'm not looking forward to it. This is what coes of going "Wouldn't it be cool if M could do this and this and this." Yes it would, right, how do I weave this cool stuff into the narrative? Et Voila! Council of War scene!

At least this one is not a chapter in and of itself, it's the tag end of a chapter that sets up most of the main characters viewpoints and emotional states prior to the last punch up.

So what did I do? I introduced a new character, right in the middle of the situation, where noe was planned, now I have to do something with him. OK, so he was slightly set up before, but I could have excised him from the story without a problem, now he's solved a major emotional obstacle and is going to have to stay.
I have no idea how to use the bugger in the rest of the story though. I'm not seeing this end well for him.

Words Today: 1086
Total Words: 33510

Spot on.

2009-02-27T02:34:00.000-08:00

So I reached the end of today's section, which has mostly involved making the villain somewhat cartoonish before unleashing unexpected violence and death.
As I did the word count I found I had hit 996.
Well, can't stop there can I?
But finding the right 4 words to close out the section, because I wasn't about to start the next just yet, was quite hard. Especially as I had already ended the sequence.
But I'm a trooper, I have succeeded where lesser men might not have been all that bothered.
"Who would he choose?"
A little menacing, no? Even out of context, just knowing it's the bad guys thoughts makes it so.

All done for the week. Maybe time to get back to the comic pitch I have to do a rewrite on. I have decided to scrap an issue I'd planned and replace it with something more fantastical. As the artist said, I'm not playing up the fantasy elements enough, well this one should do it.
It's also planned as a mostly silent episode now.
Let's see if that sticks.

Words today: 1000
Total Words: 32424

Return to the fold

2009-02-26T01:48:00.000-08:00

Well, that break lasted a lot longer than planned.

Last week was supposed to be a week off and of doing some research. Instead it became a week of finishing a chapter on Monday, then playing GTA 4 and watching films.
I went out to see Slumdog Millionaire, which is a wonderful film and I've had the soundtrack (an Oscar winner dontchaknow) on almost constant spin.
But halfway through last week, I realised I dodn't know how to proceed from the point I had stopped. Couldn't think of which character to follow and focus on. My main idea, it turned out, I had already done properly and in full in an earlier chapter. So that was out.

And so, until today, I've been stumped. But then, as so often happens, I made myself sit down and begin to write. Just follow the protagonist for a bit, put the words down and let it come. As it nearly always does, this sparked off ideas and now the chapter is on the move.
Part of the problem is that I'm now racing headlong into the climax and I'm worried about word count. A stupid thing to get hung up on I know, but I'm tempted to try some padding, but also think that if I crack on with plot the words and situations are there to reach the goal of 60k.

Meh, I at least have got some traction back now. But I'm disappointed because if I'd kept up the pace of early January, this novel would be maybe a thousand words away from completion now. Instead it's half done with about a sixth of the words being the first 4 chapters which I haven't written yet. They'll probably be the last things I do actually write.

Words Today: 752
Total Words: 31424

Week's End

2009-02-13T02:28:00.000-08:00

Well, two writing days out of five isn't great, but it's better than none.
Another thousand words today and the end of a chapter.
I've probably got one, maybe two more chapters I could write without diving back into the research, but I think I'll take next week off from new writing and change focus to research and rewrites on other projects.

In other news, my latest pitch to Abaddon fell at the final hurdle. Apparently I've never been so close before, so I'm getting there. Came up with 5 new ideas for pitches in the four hours after I got the rejection, I'm sure there will be more by the time the submissions gate opens again.

Words Today: 1192
Total Words: 28143

A slothful sense of no motion

2009-02-11T02:01:00.000-08:00

Well, last week was mostly a bust. Spent all day Monday in bed, barely able to do anything. Couldn't even think about writing. The rest of the week wasn't much better, but I did get the first part of an action sequence done.
Then that was it until today. Part of that is because I went to see some friends in Reading over the weekend, which completely took it out of me.
I've managed about 45 minutes this morning, and that's it.
I have at least finished that action sequence, now I'm about to get going on the following one, which leads onto another one, and then there is a break before the big final action set piece. So I'm in sight of the conclusion.
A couple of issues as there are some plot points happening elsewhere that I should be making reference to, but I don't want to lose the momentum I've built up.

Words today: 653
Total Words: 25810

Blergh

2009-01-27T01:53:00.000-08:00

Just over a thousand words in a about 40 minutes. Head feels like it's squashing my brain, which is the sign of a bad day coming.
So an hour early bail out here, can feel speech just slipping away. Still, had a character make a relevant point, one I'd not even considered until today.
Know what the next big action scene is, now all I need is a better fix on the location of one of Britain's treasures - not a lost one I hasten to add, they know where it is - I just need to know where in the where it is.

Words today: 1043
Total Words: 21950

Back on Track

2009-01-26T02:45:00.000-08:00

Today was a good day. I've set up things that are going to be important at the finale. The female lead is also getting more of a personality, cheeky little minx that she is. I'll have to go back and insert some stuff into earlier chapters to make it all gel, but that's what redrafting is all about.
Word count is also back up to acceptable levels.
Once again, the chapter that I had so much trouble writing, the one that took up all of last week, has turned out to be a bit of a beast, nearly 5000 words. Making it nearly a quarter of the whole that has been written so far. I could probably chop it into two, but I don't really want to.

In other problems, it turns out my big action sequence, planned before the giant blockbuster budget breaking finale, needs a complete overhaul, what with there being none of the geography I need for the planned sequence to work being anywhere in the vicinity. This is the problem with real world set stories, you're tied to what actually exists when it comes to cliffs and such. Oh well.
Looks like Plymouth is in for an utter beating.

Words today: 1758
Total words so far: 20906

A Week of Little Success

2009-01-23T02:32:00.000-08:00

Well, this week has turned out to be a bit of a wash all around really. The problems I was having last week spilled on into this and there was little progress made, I didn't even get any words done on Wednesday or Thursday.
However, on Wednesday I did realise what my prblem was, I was trying to write an action sequence that I hadn't thought through properly. I had my hero's motivation for doing it, but not the reasons for the challenges he was being set. Once I had that worked out I got onto the final part of the challenge and this is where there was a great grinding to a halt.
See, my usual method is to imagine action sequences and then build the story around them, getting people to the places they need to be with the equipment required. This often means an action sequence planned for one story may not be workable, so it gets filed and re-used in another.
This time I worked to a point where I needed an action sequence, but nothing in the action store was right for it, not even remotely. This meant I had to stop and properly think through what I wanted to happen.
All the other major action points for this novel are fully formed and with a few minor hitches (as in the next location that begins an action sequence is nowhere near a beach of a big cliff with stairs running down it's length. So a rethink is coming and it looks as though Plymouth's in for an invasion of beasties along with a second car chase.)
Well, today I finally sat down with the action sequence in my head and it is done. Finally I can get things moving again. It's not quite a straight sprint to the finish now - there's research that needs doing to get specifics of places that will be required to build the next few scenes around - but there should be no more unexpectedness.

Words today: 1062
Total words: 19143

Locked Room Problem

2009-01-16T01:15:00.000-08:00

It's so hard today. All I have to do is get the hero out of a locked room into a corridor where I can throw all kinds of craziness and get back into the action.
Shouldn't be too hard should it?

Well apparently, it is! I have just written 200 words of the most circular reasoning ever. If this then this, which means this, so this is that!
That will require a very hefty rewrite, but right now all I want to do is get the hero to escape. Why can't I manage that?

I can feel my fingers trying to cramp up at the very idea of doing more on this bit, which is never a good sign.
But it must be done. The story stops dead here if I don't.

Yesterday was about a 300 word day and giving up after 45 minutes. Today I MUST hammer through this.
If I'm still stuck in this room come Monday there's an exponentially increasing chance that I will bail, find all the usual reasons for not continuing on. And that's not acceptable.

Cold Car

2009-01-15T00:49:00.000-08:00

I'm having a real problem getting started this morning. I feel like an old car that someone's trying to make go on a cold and snowy morning.
It. Just. Won't. Ca. Cat. Catch.

I know what I'm writing this morning, an escpae from a locked room. There are story, character and emotional reasons for the escape, which is a nice trifecta. My only problem is that I cannot fix the geography or contents of the room in my head. Once out of the room I have the free reign to go a bit bug nuts with obstacles for the hero to overcome. But getting him out of the room in a way that shows him to be resourceful, brave and desperate? Drawing a big blank.

I was hoping that setting this down here might fire up some inspiration.
But no.
Instead I now have Blogger voice going "Wow, you really don't know what you are doing today do you?"

Doesn't help that yesterday ended up a bit of a washout as I had to give up after an hour to take my Dad to my Nan's. So I didn't quite hit 1000 words. The wordcount this week is very much down on last week's, there's been no epic 3000 word action sequence day. Thinking ahead, I can't see another section I know quite as well as the car chase, so there may not be again.
Plus I'm umming and ahhing about whether I need to add extra events to stretch the wordcount all the way to novel length. Chapters keep ending at about 1600 words, which would mean over 30 chapters to reach 60000 words, which is the target. In current plans, I'm about halfway through and on less than a quarter of the words.
OK, so I still have chapters 1 - 4 to write, and they are quite actiony and big, but I don't see them breaking the 4000 limit they'd probably have to to catch up.

Total Words at start of this morning: 16572

Week 2 - Villains and Monsters

2009-01-12T02:51:00.000-08:00

Well, day 1 of week 2 and I'm still getting up and going to work at my desk.
This is a good thing.
Last week I went to Brighton on Thursday after my work and a very sudden meeting with my advisor. I hadn't managed to get into Brighton to pick up my comics for about 6 months (I can tell this because there were 6 issues of The Walking Dead for me to buy), which meant that there was a big old stack of nearly 40 comics. Costing me, well, let's just say it was not cheap.
So I won't leave it that long again.

Unfortunately I overestimated how much energy I had to spare and had a major crash on the train home.
I had really forgotten just how bad my bad can be. I was pale, sweaty, feeling nauseous. Unable to sit properly or hold my head by by use of my neck muscles alone. I must have looked like I either had the plague or was going cold turkey.
It's been a long time since I overextended myself like that and now I remember why.
I guess I just have to stick my hand in the fire every so often to remind myself that it's hot and it hurts.

That left Friday as a kille and I had to quit after 45 minutes. Managed about 700 words though, so not a total wash-out.

Today I start after a weekend of not exactly taking it still, by being mostly sedentary.

Today I have revealed the villains history, which did not even exist until this morning, when I was stuck for what actually happened in this chapter/scene.
But with his history now fixed, he becomes more than just this shadowy boogey man that he has been.
Plus it gives our wise character real motivation beyond the obvious to lay the big ole smack down in the finale.

Today's Word Count: 1787
Total Words: 14613

Day 3 hates me.

2009-01-07T01:04:00.000-08:00

And here's where it becomes hard.
Woke up this morning knowing that I had no real clear idea of where today's writing was going to take me. I know the general ideas I need to get down, but I haven't been through the specifics in my head. This is where the word count slows considerably normally.
Added to that today is the first day I'm fighting with my CFS to get anything done. It was going to happen sooner or later, it just seems like it's sonner, which is a bugger.

Yesterday went well. Another chapter completed, the following chapter started. Only 2000 words, but that's the target I like to aim for.
Now I have to work out how many people are going to appear in this new section, do I need to create a new character. And horror of horrors, if I get past this bit I DO know what comes next, but I have yet to name the villain!
Argh, I hate naming characters, it's not something that ever comes easy!

Total words at start of today: 8994 (Almost a 6th of projected total, and I started on chapter 5!)

Edit:
40 minute early bail out today. Can't concentrate any more, CFS kicking my brain to mush.
Still, 1305 words done. The mysterious M revealed, with humour and gags that hopefully are funny.
Total words at bail out: 10304

New Year, New Plan.

2009-01-05T01:21:00.000-08:00

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaand, we're back.

With today being the first full week of the New Year, I'm starting a new regime. The plan is to have the first draft of the new book finished by June 15th. Only really getting into it from today onwards, after a couple of half hearted goes last year.
Attempts will be made to keep a semi-regular posting schedule on here as well.

I'm going to treat writing this like a job. At the PC from 9-11 every day, longer if I want, but minimum 2 hours a day. Target is about 1500 words per day.

However, in the first 20 minutes of this new scheme I've already reached 629, if it keeps going this fast then the first draft could get done a long time ahead of schedule.

Total words as of this post: 4518

Edited to say: 2 hours = 3022 words.
Total words at end of today - 6911

New Phrase.

2008-04-10T14:21:00.000-07:00

Been a while since I was last here.
Not coming back regular yet.

Book has been renamed The Sun Box and is at some agencies.
New novel Ghost Armada has words dripping into it.

Here's a new phrase for usage -
Emotional Stakes - weapons that cry and agonise when they are used to kill vampires, questioning the morality of their own esistence

Nearly there

2008-01-10T02:50:00.000-08:00

Application form is now done and ready to be sent off.
Which means I can now allow myself time to do some writing.

The spy short story just needs the big set piece finale doing - before heading back into rewrites to de-clunk some of the language.
I've decided on 2 more series to do as children's novels. One based on a character from the completed book, another series taking many elements I had set up for other series, compliling them all together then adding giant robots!

Let's go to work.

Return of the Prodigious Slacker

2008-01-04T04:02:00.000-08:00

So, New Year, new chance to get nowhere.

Currently I'm filling out 2 applications for jobs with the local council. One I can do, One I really want. But on past experiences with them, I won't even get a reply. Understandable, there is now an 18 month gap in my CV which just keeps getting bigger. Thing is, I have been looking for work, but no-one seems willing to take on someone with ME/CFS. But again, the longer I'm unsuccessful the less chances I'll have to get a job. A stupid cycle that unfortuanetly makes perfect business sense.

So, as to the writing - Lunatics and Fools got a mostly positive review over at Whispers. Still only sold 3 copies of it though.
My first novel really needs another revision and a snappy synopsis, but I keep putting it off. Don't get me wrong, I am proud of my work, but I like the writing - not the hawking to agencies.
Have nearly finished the first adventure for my Spy character - probably be submitting that to Astonishing Adventures! Magazine when it's had a polish.
Have thought of 3 new novel ideas over Christmas, but think I'll go for the one that seems most in keeping with my first - ie Children's adventure, not harsh, dystopian sci-fi.
And the plans for my one man radio play podcast keep coming - I just need to sit and write out the overall outline and find some cheap (read free) recording software.

Plan to update here twice a week. Let's see how long that lasts.

The problem I have is because I'm not working and no-one I know lives locally, I don't do much. But Maybe some critiques of adverts, TV shows and films might keep the flow alive.

Till then.

Got a book out

2007-10-19T05:11:00.000-07:00

Oh yes I do.
Collecting all of my short stories I still have copies of, they have been retouched and tightened here and there. It's weird reading some stuff I wrote nearly ten years ago and finding my style of storytelling is still very similar, but much less polished, lots of language that really needed the ten years of writing to make better.
So please, have a look here.
You can read the first page of ten of the fourteen stories in the preview. It's £6 + p&p.

It's called Lunatics and Fools because the stories all contain one or the other, plus it's a fairly apt description of pretty much everyone I have ever met, even if they aren't like that all of the time.

In the corner of my eye...

2007-10-11T15:27:00.000-07:00

As I'm sat here, strangely browsing websites I've been to not five minutes earlier, desperate for something new to have appeared to relieve my boredom, I see something move in the corner of my eye.
On my windowsill, at eyeheight, something black flickers across. Now, we have a lot of spiders in the house, so I assume there is one watching me, but nothing is there.
Then it happens again, and again. Now I'm freaked to sit this close to the window in case some evil fucker of a poisonous jumping spider is waiting until my senses are dulled to pounce.

The shit my brain does to me is just untrue.
I hate my briain. I love my imagination. I hate that I believe my brain telling me my imagination is true. I love the stories I tell myself.

I'm just weird, let's call it true and say goodnight.

How will he find the time?

2007-10-06T12:45:00.000-07:00

OK, I've been getting lots of those random spamporn emails. Yeah I know you get them too, that's why I'm not explaining the concept, ok?
Right, anyway, I've just deleted one that had the strangest subject line I've seen in a good long time - crazy zoo fucker.
Just a few things here - is it the fucker that is crazy? I mean, to attempt to work your way through a whole zoo is pretty out there, you'll have to give me that one. Or maybe the zoo is crazy, in which case - what kind of exhibits does a crazy zoo have? It's half lion half baboon! It flings crap in your face then eats your nipples!
Or maybe he's not fucking the creatures in the zoo, maybe he's dug a hole in the middle of the site and is pounding away at the concrete.

I want to know why my brain comes up with these, quite strange, possibilities.

And I also want to know why I keep getting Tranny porn spam - almost every damn day - did I sign up for a mailing list by mistake? Where's my Make your cock larger emails? No, instead it's all Hot Trannnys waiting for you.
Keep waiting.

Anyway - more craziness later.

In other news, my first comic strip is appearing in FutureQuake 9, buy your copy now.
I'm also putting out a book of my short stories - link to appear when I've seen the test copy.

RIP Robert Jordan

2007-09-17T03:43:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted, and I'm sad that this is the reason I choose to come back.

The Wheel of Time books have been part of my life for over 15 years now. It was only 3 weeks ago I finished a 2 month big re-read of the whole lot in one lump, excited about how it would finally end.

While I mourn the passing of a man whose imagination created a world of immense scope and complexity, I rejoice that the words he gave us will last. He has left behind him a literary legacy that his family can be proud of. More than that, he has given joy and wonder to so many, I hope they can find some comfort that the death of a man most have never met will touch so many so profoundly.

The Wheel of Time was both a wonderful place for me to go to and a huge inspiration in my own attempts at writing.

The Dragon has passed, and the world will never be the same again.

Rejection and Beginnings.

2007-08-04T16:03:00.000-07:00

So today I received the first of what I expect ( but hope against) of many rejections of my debut novel.
Firest in a series of Children's adventure fantasy fiction, I am quite proud of it and am fairly confident of selling it.
I've had positive comments from people who have no reason to be anything but honest (ie no family members).

In the mean time I have just started a new novel set in an entirely different series. For a long time I was planning on writing book 2 of the fantasy series, but if for some reason I can't sell book 1, then I'm stuck with 2 full novels I can't sell.
So I am now at work on an action/horror series for ages 12+.
It took me 4 days to get it going. 3 times I started it and the start was bad. Poorly written, exposition or dialogue heavy and just not good.
Now it is rocking along. I have the format of the telling, I have the basic plot in my head.
And this time I have a good title Six Moons.
So, with luck, I'll be finished with that by year's end and have 2 novel to shop around.

A new Experiment

2007-07-25T09:30:00.000-07:00

In an effort to keep myself writing, instead of slacking, I have set myself a new challenge.

At this blog here I am starting something new.
What this blog is for is a new story. It only has a title right now "It Comes". There is no genre aim, no planned route, no ending thought of. Characters don't exist yet.
I'm as much in the dark as to what is going on as anyone who starts to read it today.
So far there are 2 episodes of the story. And I don't know why the things that have happened have happened, yet. This story is going to grow, for the most part, I'm going to try to not think about it too much when I'm not actively writing it.
I have no idea how long it will be. Might be fnished in a month, might take 3 years to get to the end. Come join me and find out.

At least once a week I will update with a new section of the story

Meet the GRRBOT

2007-07-11T15:44:00.000-07:00

He's eeeevil.

A lack of worry about important things.

2007-07-01T02:47:00.000-07:00

So, a few things have happened in the last days.
Firstly, 2 car bombs are found in London then someone sets a car on fire and drives it into Glasgow airport.
Terror alerts are at their highest.
With a new Prime Minister, could it be this is the terrorists trying to take advantage of the transitional phase and strike before everyone is settled in their jobs?
And what am I most worried about?
Last night's episode of Doctor Who! There are spoliers to follow.
I love the show, I really do. It's the only British programme I am scheduling myself to see (Jekyll is gaining some ground though). But last night's finale had some truly inane stuff.
It's supposed to be a science fiction show, so I can accept that occasionally it will use some old cod explanation or psuedo-scientific explanation. But the Doctor glowing because everyone thought his name? What the hell was that about?
Yes, we all guessed who the Toclafane were, but that was fine, even made sense and was doen well. But RTD again wrote himself into a situation where he couldn't write out of.
And quite frankly, if the Doctor could tap into the network, why not change the sublimnial message form "Obey" to "Resist"? The Doctor would always have preferred people to save themselves with a small nudge from him than gaining weird glowy powers.

So what do we learn from this? That I will still be going to London soon, with no fear.
But that watching the Christmas episode of Doctor Who now fills me with some apprehension - even though it does have a damn intriguing start.
And to those who don't like the end of last night's episode led straight in to it, I say unto thee, Yah Boo. Cliffhangers are what Doctor Who is all about.

It Is Done!

2007-03-15T11:14:00.000-07:00

At 2.30 today I finished the first draft of my first novel.

I am so excited I can barely contain myself. Sent a large email out to anyone who's email address I ever saved, so if you got it and didn't want to know, sorry and shame on you for being a downer!

82520 words is the final count. About 12000 more than I anticipated. But I'm thinking at least 7000 will go once the Red Pen of Doom attacks the draft on Monday.

But this weekend I'm in Reading for the getting drunk.

If you can't join me for a drink, fill a recepticle with booze and tilt it in acknowledgment, would ya.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Done it. Finished a novel.
That puts me ahead of about 80% of writers in the world.

Plus, 11 days ago I was at 60000 words. That's over a quarter of the novel I've written in that time. I could have been rich and famous by now if I'd got my finger out years ago.

One to go!

2007-03-14T18:09:00.000-07:00

So tonight I completed the penultimate chapter, with a word count sitting at 79507. Which is a pain because I wanted to end on 80000.
Now I could start the final chapter "Homecoming" to reach that target, but if I do, I'll work until the book is finished, whch will leave me dead tomorrow.
ut tomorrow the first draft will be completed. there's no doubt that, barring a crippling fatigue strike, I will have a completed first draft by 7pm tomorrow (checks watch), tonight.

Todays words are not the best I've ever written. But they will do for now. Prettying up language is what second drafts are all about!

One to go.
People, we have a near "Go get drinks in to celebrate" situation.

So Close I can Taste it.

2007-03-13T19:07:00.000-07:00

So, the final battle is written. The enemy is vanquished and there are only 2 chapters left to write.

Holy crap, I've damn near written a novel. And one of the chapters is only a short epilogue. Current word count is 76323, which for those of you paying attention means I wrote over 6000 words since yesterday!

The wrap up chapter is probably only 3000 or so long and the epilogue 1500. So that's less words to finish it than I've done in the past 36 hours.

8 years of work nearly complete.

Excuse me if I ramble, I can't quite believe it.

70000 words and still writing

2007-03-12T15:12:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right. Today I hit 70000 words and I'm still going.
I'm now in the middle of the end fight and I'm feeling good about this. I may even work through until I get to the very end of the battle. To get to the very last bit of action would be awesome, it's possible I could even do that tonight. If I worked like a mad bastard I could even have a finished book by tomorrow and although I'm tempted to go for it, I don't think it's such a great idea.

OK, so I said I could have it done by yesterday, but I lost 2 days after Thursdays late nighter, so finishing tomorrow or Wednesday isn't bad for that guess.
Final word count guesstimation - 78000.
That's 7000 more than I have now. I'm thinking another 3 to get to the end of the fighting and 4 to tie up loose ends and lay the groundwork for book 2. Plus, that totally unexpected cliffhanger that should make you all want the second part of the saga.

I'm due in Reading this weekend and it will be wicked if I have a finished first draft to get my mates to buy me drinks for, I mean celebrate with me.

A Damn Fine Day!

2007-03-09T06:32:00.000-08:00

Today is a fine and beautiful day. A day that shall long be remembered (by me) as being one of the best for years.
Last night went on a mad late night writing spree, something I have not done for years. Cranked out 3000 words describing the battle that starts the end of my novel. A little bit touching in places, crazy in others and a couple of out there moments for you to enjoy if/when it sees print.
So now I'm to the point I have been envisioning for years, all the little individual fights my heroes get. Each has their own moment to shine. I'm thinking maybe 6000 words until the heroes are victorious and another 4000 until the very end. Which puts the total wordcount at about 5000 more than I thought, but we shall see.
On top of that, today I got a preview of the artwork for my first comic to see print, besides my own homemade effort, and it's great. Coming in a FutureQuake near you soon. Plus the artist said he would send me the pages so I have them to keep as a reminder!
Finally, there is to be a meeting of my old role play gang in Reading next weekend. The mighty Kurg will lead us in crazy adventures one more time. We've been talking about this happening for a year or so now, and it's about to be a reality.

All in all, one of the greatest days.

A "HOLY CRAP!" moment.

2007-03-06T12:16:00.000-08:00

Well, I carried on with doing todays words after my last post, and I just kept writing. While the aim is about 1000 per day, it tends to be more about finishing the scene.

So todays word count is about 1750, but that's not the thing.

Pretty much since I started on this book, there has been an image in my mind of something that was the catalyst for the big fight really kicking off at the end. Tonight I finally got to writing that point and as I got there, I realised that it left the character as a total cypher. He'd only been seen in the background or in flashes throughout and now he was going to die.
Instead everything changed, the whole mood of this final fight has been affected, in a good way I think, by a sudden flash that should provole everyone who reads it into going "Holy Crap! Did that just happen."
The kind of moment you love to read, and it's great I think I finally made one.
Not only is it shocking, it finally makes the character a character.

At this rate the ending will be complete by Sunday. Today is going well.

Chugga Chugga Chugga - just chugging along.

2007-03-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

Well, by cracky, it looks as though the end is near. By the end of tonight the final battle will have commenced.
I'll probably get as far as the first arrow being fired, the first blow being swung and then stop, to go for a balls out action rampage tomorrow.

Quite frankly, at the speed I write when I'm going, I should be doing an easy 5000 words a day, and that's something I used to be able to do, until I got ill. But I'm not complaining, I do what I can as I can and what comes out is what comes out.

If I take onle lesson from this into the start of the next novel I start, it will be to work from a goddamn fixed synopsis and some chapter breakdowns! Fluidity in a story is not a bad thing, it allows the old creative juices to do their thang. But this book is almost nothing like the original pitch I made to myself about it. The magic sword is gone, in came big armies and personal responsibilities. The macguffin responsible for kick starting the story now takes a massive back seat, it hasn't even been written in as a seen thing yet. Instead it's now going to form the end of the book. And at last I have a definite fixed end to this book.
The actual fight and the events therein are still somewhat loose, there are major points that I have to hit, but beyond that it's all improvisational right now.

10 days, that's what I think. Friday next week I hope to be writing the words that every fantasy novel should end with:
To Be Continued...

60000 words!

2007-03-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

Well, hello there my small munchkins of delight!
Did you miss me?

I haven't been a blogging fool for quite some time now, a quick check on the last date says it's been nearly 2 months.
Well in that time I have been writing, working on the children's novel, and today I finally hit 60000 words!
Quite frankly, for something I started 8 years ago, it's not been fast enough, considering 20000 have been done in the last 6 months, but we're getting there. The final battle approaches as all the players finally get their arses in gear and the druids begin to hand out slappings left and right!

It's been a weird process to get this far, and I'm looking forward to having a finished article to tout about. Once it's done I shall be both plotting the sequel, which finishes this arc of Dian's life (ambitious, huh?), and starting to actually write one of the other 6 novels I now have written up in synopsis form. A couple of those have been pitched to Abaddon books, so with any luck I might even get paid for my efforts.

I now have a fairly rigid schedule of 1000 words a day. A schedule that took a minor pounding this week due to the Fatgue attack that has had me bed ridden 5 days out of 7, but I still got 4500 words done.

And so, the final stretch approaches. Minor characters have grown into full characters, and some of them aren't going to make the finale. Some are that weren't meant to and that's been the astonishing thing as this book grows, that these characters have become as real as figments of my imagination that do as I tell them can.

A meme - whatever that is.

2007-01-18T03:31:00.000-08:00

So, I've been hearing about meme's for a while. Still not entirely sure why they are called a meme, but here's one I spotted on David Bishop's blog.
Take the nearest book to you. Open to page 123, go down to the 5th line. Type out the next 3 scentences.

The nearest book to me is a collection of 6 James Bond novels in one.

'Krebs never makes a mistake with his knots.' He gesticulated towards the bloody figure on the other chair. 'When he wakes up,' he said, 'you can tell him that these doors will open once more, just before noon tomorrow.

That's from Moonraker.

2007 - not an auspicious start to the year.

2007-01-09T12:35:00.000-08:00

So, it's not been the best of starts to the year.
I get back from the New Year piss up in Skegness Butlins, turn on my PC and my C: drive goes pop.
That's £45 for a new hard drive, and the year is only 3 days old. So I can't write anything, nor can I get at my CV to apply for jobs.
I pay for a Friday delivery, but it doesn't get delivered on Friday, it arrives on Monday. I order a 160GB drive, but it only has 127GB of space.

There have been many other small annoyances so far, but that was by far the biggest.

The only plus side is that this morning I got an email from FutureQuake asking me to cut down a script for acceptance. So that's tomorrows job, todays and last nights was reinstalling everything on my PC.

So a late, but heartfelt, Happy New Year all of you.

Want some free rentals? Maybe a free iPod or games console?

2006-12-05T02:36:00.000-08:00

Well, click on this here link http://Apple.real-incentives.com/?referral=4868
and sign up then.

It's that thing you may have heard about where you sign up, do one offer, then get others to do the same and they send you something for free.

I signed up for Lovefilm, because it's free. Basically, a two week free rental trial, where you get each new film when you send the old one back, cancel and they charge you nothing, and you've completed your offer.
I've got The Devil's Backbone, Kagemusha and When the Wind Blows all lined up to watch.

Now all I need are some people to be referred to it by me, and I can get a free iPod too.
It only takes 6 people to go from this link, and I'm in.

I'll let it be your Christmas present to me ;)

I'm such a fickle fool

2006-11-28T10:02:00.000-08:00

Not much has been done on The Carpenter's Apprentice in the past 3 weeks, I think my enthusiasm is waning again. Maybe when I finally get some feedback I'll pick up the pace again.

Instead I've been thinking on pitches for Abaddon when they reopen their doors in February.
There's one for Chronicles of the Afterblight that wouldn't come together for me last year that I now have a rudimentary story for, which is a step up from just having a situation, which is where I beached last year.
I also started work on a Zombie story. However this has merged with another idea I was working on, and suddenly I'm liking my set up and story too much to give it away. It's one of those things, it had a high concept premise, but as I worked out the story and started making character cnnections, I realised it could easily support a series on it's own. At that time I still planned to pitch it to Jon.
Now though, well, I'm thinking I could make more money out of this if I keep it to myself and get an agent and publisher.
But should I? Getting it to Abaddon and commisioned would mean a guaranteed amount, but nothing more. Not pitching it could mean getting less and not getting the kind of distribution they get.

I've just spent a half hour writing the first five hundred words, and it all flowed so nicely, I had a great time. I was starting to forget how much fun writing can be when it all just comes naturally.

Time will tell which way I swing on this, but even if I don't pitch it, I've got at least another 2 ideas for Abaddon, not counting the one i mentioned above.

Missed opportunities, coincidences and doing stuff.

2006-11-05T11:30:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I got up at a ridiculous hour to do a car boot sale, an attempt to rid myself of the mountains of videos in my room.
It did not go well, I still have most of them.
What I want to tell you about however, is the meeting of a girl and how I've been kicking myself since.

She came up to the videos as I was packing away, we chatted, and it seemed she was vry much like a female version of myself - where taste in film is concerned, not in respect to facial hair.
We chatted, then she said she was waiting until her friend came back from uni to go see Clerks 2, and she walked on.
I thought to myself, I should give her my number and say if she ever wanted to go see a film, then she could always ring me.
I didn't, because I am me.
Ever since I've been wondering what might have been had I done so - ho hum.

David Bishop finally added me to his friends on MySpace on Friday. Yesterday I thanked him and told him the Graphic Novel was on indefinite hold due to my work on The Carpenter's Apprentice and no communication with Emma.
This morning I awake to find an email from Emma saying she is ready to crack on with the book and thinks it will be even better now she has learnt more.
Life's just weird.

So now I will be alternating between Quinn and my novel. Probably doing more on the novel as it's got much more to write and I've set a deadline of New Year to have it done by.
With Quinn I hope to publish it as 4 individual comics, possibly in black and white, saving the colour print for the collected GN.

Josephet Tate: Page One

2006-10-26T07:22:00.000-07:00

Like I said yesterday, here is page one of Josephet Tate.
I doubt I'll ever write a better intro to a character than this.

Having re-read it, I now know where my friend got the Transmet vibe from, I do visualise it drawn by Darick Robertson, 'cos it never hurts to aim high.
Also it probably has something to do with the fact the character starts hairy and ends up bald, but this guy is nothing like Spider Jerusalem.

Here you are.

Page 1.

Panel 1.

Wide shot of a shuttle on a launch pad. Clearly preparing for launch.

CONTROLLER: (Bubbles should be spikey and run vertically down the side of the panel) 10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4.

Panel 2.

JOSEPHET is standing under the rocket boosters. His long hair and scraggly beard kind of go with the truly disgusting Hawaiian shirt he is wearing. He has a giant shit-eating grin on his face, and a fag hanging out the corner of his mouth.

JOSEPHET: 3. 2. 1. Rock On!

Panel 3.

The rocket bursts into life, beginning its climb towards the stars.

Panel 4.

JOSEPHET is now naked, his clothes having been burnt away by the force of the rockets. All his hair is gone as well, including his eyebrows. He does not look happy, like something has just failed him. There is no need to make this a full length image of him yeah? No little Josephet swinging in the wind cheers.

JOSEPHET: Fuck!

Panel 5.

JOSEPHET storms away from the launch pad. Marching purposefully.

JOSEPHET: I fucking loved that shirt!

Not doing much

2006-10-25T13:30:00.000-07:00

I feel bloody knackered. Went to Brighton to pick up my latest comics subs today, and it's killed me.
Picked up book 1 of Planetary (I know, late to the party). Liked it, then looked at my MySpace messages to see one from Warren Ellis announcing that Planetary ends today. Done, finished, kaputski. Oh well, I think I'll be getting the other trades.

Tried to write, did 2 and some pages on Josephet Tate and the more I write, the more it feels like I'm ripping Warren Ellis off. My friend read the first page and said it read like Transmetropolitan, it has that vibe. Whether that means I'm writing well or just taking off a great writer in a poor story, I don't know.
May post page one tomorrow, I like that page.

Fell short of my 6 page aim, but brain is fried.

Trailer Remixes

2006-10-22T04:46:00.000-07:00

This has been going on for a while now, but I found some new ones to share with you.

School of Rock as a Psycho thriller

Groundhog Day as a thriller

The Sound of Music as a tense political thriller

Ferris Bueller in Terminator 4

Quick Strip

2006-10-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

No, not like that. Get your filthy minds out of the gutter.
A quick one from StripCreator.

Death Can't Take a Holiday

Not much work done on the book yesterday, and the weekends I get off. At least I'm creating something though.
Gotta keep those juices flowing. Not those juices! Oh I give up.

Making quick comics.

2006-10-13T11:31:00.000-07:00

I have recently been introduced to the site StripCreator
I've only made one so far, but more will come I'm sure.

Check it out.

Keeping yourself interested.

2006-10-13T06:43:00.000-07:00

I've noticed that when I do my daily target of words (3 times this week!) I tend to end the days work the same way I try to end a chapter, with something interesting, exciting or cliffhangerish.
It makes me want to keep telling the story the next day. So far I only failed on Wednesday, because I was so exhausted.
6000 words this week, I think I'm looking at an 80 to 90,000 word novel here, when originally I was planning on about 60,000.
Things keep happening though, I know where the story is going, I know who's who, but I don't know all the characters yet. Just introduced a new one, who was supposed to be a craven coward who dies later in a rearguard action. Now he's something else, still probably going to die, but not until the second novel at this rate.

3 scratchcards down, no money yet. 1 carried over to next week (Wednesday ticket).

Membership has benefits

2006-10-10T01:31:00.000-07:00

Despite any claims to the contrary I may have made back in June, the only habit 've picked up is avoiding doing anything, and that's not new.

Well, a new leaf has been turned, rolled up and dunked in hot water to make a cup of tea. And now I'm fully refreshed in a classically British way, I can move on.

Last night I finally reached what I am provisionally calling the end of Book One of The Carpenter's Apprentice. All the main characters are established, truths revealed, skills demonstrated, bad guys smacked around, cue massive battle and time to get on with the plot.
It's been about 8 years since I first started work on this book, for the BBC's New Talent scheme where they wanted some children's novels as submissions. Kind of glad I didn't advance. I'm sure I would have finished the book back then if I had, but it was much more your generic fantasy plot, with 8 years of procrastination and thought the characters are much more developed and there is a massive overarching plot for the whole world.
It was this giant backstory that had me stumped for so long, it had grown so big and complicated that I lost sight of the smaller story I was actually telling with this book.

Today sees the start of plotting and writing for Book Two, another 45000 words and I should have a completed novel to start harrassing agents with.
However, crippling doubts have crept in, the only reason I managed to finish Book One is a series of bribes, promises and threats I made to myself. To save myself from this I'm collecting a bunch of readers from my gaming clan to read Book One and let me know if it is actually worth my time to continue on with this story, or if it's time to pack it away and make a start on one of the three other projects I have waiting for me to start.

It's not writers block.

2006-09-26T10:49:00.000-07:00

And I'll prove that right now by writing a post on here.

No, instead what I am suffering from right now is my famous cannotdecideitis.
It's a tragic and debilitating problem that leaves you looking at five or six different projects and being unable to decide which one to write.
Professional writers, I imagine, don't suffer from this, they've got a deadline to meet and nearest deadline gets done first.
As an aspiring author, who has no deadlines or contractual worries, no money hanging on this decision, I can't choose.
Do I carry on with the 2/3 maybe 1/2 completed children's novel? Maybe do the post-apocalyptic novel that readers of the synopsis have cheered on. Perhaps I could do the action/horror novel I keep talking about.
I could even get on with one of several comic ideas. Perhaps work on that TV script I've been planning.

But which one? I can't choose, every day I think a different one is my best bet.
Tomorrow I'm implementing my reward plan, buying a scratchcard for every day of the week and if I meet my target for the day (6 pages of script or 2000 words of prose) then I get to scratch that days card. No day can ever have more than 3 cards on it, and on complettion of any project (except short stories and comics under 22 pages long) I get to scratch all of them.
It may cost me £5 a week to do this, but hopefully it'll motivate me, and there's always and outside chance my reward scheme will make me rich.

Somethings have happened.

2006-09-12T02:32:00.000-07:00

Hello again. Last time we spoke I was preparing for a weekend in London, having had over a week to recover, I feel I can now talk about it.

Things didn't start too brilliantly when my train into London was delayed by 20 minutes, not that I noticed during the wait, which is the joy of being stuck head first into a good book.
After meeting up with my mate, we left for our first excusrion of the weekend. Across London on the mighty and mostly regular public transport system to a pub called The Griffin. My friend had explained this pub to me before, and some months earlier an epic cross-city trek to see it's unbridled fruits had come apart at the twelth hour, literally, as the place closes at midnight and that was our arrival time. This time we arrived early enough to see the young ladies of delight.
I have to say I was shocked, shocked I tell you. A pound in a pint glass from everyone for the girl to get up and strip, Sky Sports on the big screen between girls, offers of private dances, you'd probably join me in thinking that the "girls" would be 40 year old mum's with saggy boobs. But not, extremely attractive, nice smelling and very flexible girls are the order of the day. They get up on stage and wow the crowd with skillful displays of pole grinding. One girl even kept winking at the audience, and not with her eyes! (That's muscle control for you!)

Upon leaving the wonderful world of winking brown eyes, we set forth on a mission to buy more beer
"Hey, supermarkets do 24 hour beer selling now."
"Really? Let's get some more then."
As you can tell, a lot of thought went into our plan. Approaching the Sainsbury's, that most dreadful of "in the middle of London" afflictions struck us, the over full bladder. With pubs chucking out to the sides, there was no chance of slipping inside for a crafty non-customer piss, so it would be down to the many and varied alleys of London. Which presents a larger problem, clearly people have grown fed up of going to work and stepping over rivers of piss in the morning, so now all the visible alleys are well let and CCTV'd. The lights are not as much of a problem as the cameras are, you never know who is going to be sat there at a bank of monitors, hand on the zoom control, waiting for me to whip out my magnificent manhood. The solution is the age old "covering each other" mission. Which does not mean peeing all over your friend.
Bladders dry, river of golden glory stepped over, to Sainsbury's we did go.

At which point it was back to his, beers, Whatever on Channel 4, and that program is a big steaming turd if ever I watced one, and passing out on a settee.

I'll tell you about Saturday later.

In more interesting news, I've had 2 submission acceptances since my return.
One was for Zarjaz, the 2000ad fanzine, which I sent a Sinister Dexter story into a few months ago. Apparently he liked it and sent it to an artist, but forgot to mention it to me.
The Second was for the publishers of Sancho, the nice Irish lads over at 20000-Leagues. Nina and Styx, the everyday story of a teenage goth girl and her demonically possesed teddy bear will be seeing print, hooray! The acceptance email called Styx a classic character, which is cool, because I loved that trapped-in-a-cuddly-toy maniac!

Now, if I could just write something that I get paid for...

Oh, I didn't get the job. Hey-ho. But I do have the opportunity to buy a business, so there's stuff a-coming.

Hup Bang a lang.

2006-08-31T11:41:00.000-07:00

And that title makes as much sense as a banana with a machine gun in a vegan restaurant.
Yeah, whatever.
You may guess (or you could look at the dates of past posts and see) that I've not been here for a while. The reason? It was so hot this summer, my brain actually melted and I've stored it in the fridge until it coalesced into a solid enough lump to force back in through my ear with a reasonable expectation that it would stay there.

But stuff has happened.
I started writing The Carpenter's Apprentice again, and have stopped for the 57th time. One day I'll even get the website up and running.
I am going to see if me and Jon can mesh our minds together and create a printable Future Shock or Terror Tale.
Finally, I had an interview today for the post of Freelance Reporter for the Six Vllages area. The fact there's about 12 villages in the area not-withstanding.
Got to say, I've never been more relaxed in an interview, I was not even slightly nervous. It's not like I'm convinced that I am the best for the job, I'm sure I can do it, but still.
Guess I'm just at a stage now where I can take what comes with ease.

Except for the fact that I still can't fit into my suit!
Damn podgy wasteline! But snacks are so nice. Humph!

Anyway, I'm back. But tomorrow I'm going to London for a "Nearly my birthday" piss up.
I may even try to get the APEs to come to The Church on Sunday.

So, next post will be Monday at the earliest. Let's see what the weekend brings!

I'm Spider-Man!

2006-06-28T17:05:00.001-07:00

See above

I'm Spider-Man!

2006-06-28T17:05:00.000-07:00

Your results:
You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man		85%
Green Lantern		70%
Hulk		65%
The Flash		55%
Robin		48%
Superman		45%
Catwoman		45%
Supergirl		43%
Batman		40%
Iron Man		35%
Wonder Woman		23%

You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.

Gotta make it a habit!

2006-06-15T16:32:00.000-07:00

Wow, over a fortnight since my last post. I put off one because I was going to a wedding, then I never got around to it, and now I'm off to another tomorrow (wedding on Saturday, but 3+ hour travelling means a day before journey), what a train-set lifestyle I lead! (Because I'm too poor to travel anwhere by jet!)

So anyway. I have now written about 30 pages of the as-yet-untitled Courier follow up. Only about 80-ish to go.
Emma has made a start on the artwork, but it's going to be a long old slog before I'm happy with every line of dialogue and she's done all of the art. Sometome next year, which for someone who hops projects like fury is a long time for me, but I'm committed to this.

And I have to make posting here a habit. If anyone read it it might spark some interesting posts from any comments and questions people have. But as I'm all alone out here, I may just slpip into madness. Is blogging to yourself more mental than talking to yourself?

Moving in general directions.

2006-05-30T04:43:00.000-07:00

Chapter 3 has been written, rewritten and had an extra page of violence added!
Huzzah!
However, it's still taking me too long to write my pages, I was going to stick with doing 2 a day, but I too often don't do anything in a day. Still, that makes about 24 pages done of a guesstimated 100. Although I'm thinking it's going to run over that, and I've been restraining myself!

I found out last week that I no longer fit into my suit! It's a terribvle and tragic thing, especially as I'm going to Sabrina's wedding on Saturday! I have enforced a rigid exercise programme on myself, and tried to cut down on my food intake, but it's so hard when there is nothing else to do around here.
Tomorrow I try the trousers on again and decide if I'm going to make it or if I need new trousers.

Saw X-Men 3 yesterday, and I liked it.
I then went on to read the reviews and comments of people online to see what others thought of it. And the split in opinion comes down to this
Movie goers - liked it, it had spectacle, humanity (mutantity?) and cool effects, even if there were a couple of wasted characters.
Comic book fanboys - hated it. Hated having their stories of their childhood crammed into this one film. It seems they want the film to either be all about the Pheonix or all about the Cure, not both.
I felt it worked fine, but comic book fans think the movie should appeal to them, whe in reality they are just a tiny, very vocal minority, of the people who will go to see this film. From sales figures I've seen, maybe 250 000 people buy X Men comics, over 8 times that number of people saw the film on opening weekend. Sorry boys, but appealing just to you isn't worth the money to make a film.

Ronery

2006-05-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

I'm So Ronery
I'm so ronery
So ronery
So ronery and sadry arone
There's no one Just me onry Sitting on my rittle throne I work very hard and make up great prans
But nobody ristens, no one understands
Seems that no one takes me serirousry
And so I'm ronery A little ronery
Poor rittre me
There's nobodyI can rerate to
Feer rike a bird in a cage It's kinda sihry
But not rearry
Because it's fihring my body with rage I work rearry hard and I'm physicarry fit
But nobody here seems to rearize that
When I rure the world maybe they'rr notice me
But untir then I'rr just be roneryRittre ronery, poor rittre me
I'm so ronery I'm so ronery

(Lyrics to I'm So Ronery by Trey Parker)
Yeah, I'm having a poor day, and now I have hiccups!

Got 1 page done on a Sinister Dexter stiry I plan to send to Zarjaz, beyond that, done nothing worthwhile in over a week and a half. So much for 2 pages a day.

Launch Pad

2006-05-15T13:17:00.000-07:00

Presenting Launch Pad, the Superhero with Explosive Diarrhea as his power!
Drawn by Lee O Connor at the very end of this weeks Bristol Con when he offered to do a sketch, but neither of us could think of what he should do. And so I came up with, this guy.

And isn't it great.
I will have to do a 1 page story about him saving a cat or something.

Check out Lee's website at http://www.leeoconnor.com/

Back on Track.

2006-05-09T03:14:00.000-07:00

OK, so last time's post was all about some cock ups at the benefit agency and I felt a need to vent a little.

Now I am well and truly back on track, keeping myself to a minimum of 2 pages a day for the Quinn Graphic Novel, hopefully Emma will be getting some artwork to me in the next few weeks.
Chapter 2 after a long and torturous time is now done. It's has turned out to be a slow, wordy chapter, so it's shorter than I originally planned. However, I spent ages trying to make it work by mixing in the action from the 3rd chapter to keep the pace going. Unfortunately that just wouldn't work for me. So now Chapter 3 is going to be slam bang all action and funky futurstic gadgets. Because what's the point of writng a futuristic undercover-cop-versus-London-underworld in mad-shooty-death if you don't add the crazy furturistic technology, like bullets that track by video camera and can turn corners after fired?

The Carpenter's Apprentice is on hold again, until I finish re-reading The Chronicles of Prydain again, a series I heartily recommend. They were the basis for the Disney pic The Black Cauldron, but the books are much better. Although any Disney film that has zombie warriors is alright in my book.

There you go, news, revelation and a recommendation, what more to you want?

Ok, maybe a chuckle at David Blaine's expense.

Rant (Spoiler, contains lots of swearing)

2006-05-05T05:40:00.000-07:00

Fuck you
Fuck you all.
Fuck all of you with your working bodies and physical ability to hold a full time job.Fuck you for not having to live with your parents.
Fuck you with your "It's only £9 a month you can afford that can't you", because no, I fucking can't
Fuck you and your World of Warcraft addiction and those of you that only post in that fucking forum.
Fuck the DWP and their fucking up of my claim for the fourth fucking time. Fuck them and their "We made a decision in June last year." Fuck off you did, you never said a fucking word, except to send the wrong fucking form which you were told about.
Fuck the government and their downsizing of the Benfit Agency workforce, all you're doing is putting inexperienced people in place over experienced people and causing disruption to the system.
Fuck you and your "We want people off Incapacity benefit and into work", I try and you fuck me over.
Fuck you, whoever happens to be Minister for Employment and Benefits now. Fuck you you stupid sack of shit. The system worked, now it doesn't, and that's your fucking fault you public schoolboy retard.
Fuck you Blair, you were never Labour, there hasn't been a Labour government for over 20 years now.
Fuck you middle class wankers who think everything is OK when the people at the bottom who need your help most, the people that you are supposed to be working to improve their lives, get shat on everyday.
Fuck you and your telling me you made a decision in June last year and I shouldn't have been getting any money since then. I play nice, I play in the system, I spend hours filling in forms and making sure everything is double checked, and then you hire retard fuckwads who can't look at my whole file because it's still restricted access 3 years after working there and you fuck me.
Fuck off with your patronising smiles.
Fuck you and your happy lives, planning weddings, going to Comic conventions.
Fuck all of you who can do everything I want, but fuck you to my body which betrays me on a daily fucking basis.
I WANT OUT!

For those unable to read between the lines, I had a letter today telling me they are stopping my benefit for reasons that don't make sense. Also that the decision was made in June last year and I shouldn't have been getting money since then.

The only thing I got in June last year was a form about me working, which was the wrong form and they were told that.

Rage rage rage.

This was supposed to be a good few weeks, Bristol Comic Expo next weekend, a wedding a fortnight later and another a fortnight after that.
If this stands, I won't be going to any of them.

Down Down Down

2006-04-25T04:43:00.000-07:00

So, not posting for 3 weeks, almost like all my old blogs that lie discarded by the wayside.

Had all 3 Future Shocks rejected, got the flu, feel like I'm a shit writer who no-one will ever want to read.
HooRah for crippling insecurities!

More when I don't feel so down.

And you should all go out and get the Infernal Affairs trilogy to watch. The Scorsese remake will be good, but I doubt it will match the brilliance of the original.

One shock down, another gives me a Devil of a time.

2006-04-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I came up with a Future Shock idea, today I wrote the whole thing. Tomorrow it gets posted.
That's the fastest turnaround of conception to submission of anything I've ever written, and I think it's rather good.
The twist doesn't lend too much to guesswork and I think the story would keep any reader entertained. (I'm holding naive visions and hope an Ian Gibson-style artist could be used on it).

The other one began life as an idea for a short story, and I'm not sure that it's going to work as a comic.

Pff, don't care.

I got a Heroclix from Tharg! (Who now has his own MySpace http://www.myspace.com/thargthemighty)

I'm in 2000ad!

2006-04-01T09:14:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read that right.
My name will be printed in 2000ad next to something I wrote.
It's a letter. But I got a free Nemesis the Warlock Heroclix for it, so that's cool.

I have just re-read what I sent, and it's ever so fanboy, over usage of 2000ad-isms like ghafflebette and Squaxx.

But hey, I'm in. That's Stage One complete.
Now, Stage Two, getting them to pay me for stuff.

Doing things, getting stuff done.

2006-03-31T06:09:00.000-08:00

So, chapter one is done and off with the very nice man who said he'd have a look over it for me.
Chapter two, while planned, is waiting on comments made on chapter one before I put anything down.
I am in the middle of two Future Shocks, one of which I have been thinking of for a few years, but only recently decided to make it a comic instead of a short story.

I have lost my job, there was just no money to pay me, and, it turns out, there may not be the money to pay me for what I have already done, due to some crossed wires. Huzzah!

However I am on the lookout for work, and have seen something I can talk to my advisor about on Wednesday, unless I want to live in Barcalona for a year and teach English. It is something I have considered from time to time, but I don't think I'm ready to go do that just yet.
Had it been in Japan though, well...

Still heard nothing back on the two scripts I sent to 2000ad 2 1/2 weeks ago, so I have no idea if that's good/bad or means nothing.

Updates as we get them folks, remember, green oranges are bad for you!

Hunting the very rare Editorialis Freelancita

2006-03-26T06:52:00.000-08:00

So last night I decide I'm going to email someone I've never met, never spoken to on the phone and the only connection to them I have is that I've commented in their blog a couple of times. And I emailed him to ask if he would be amenable to a touch of freelance editing.
And I was drunk at the time.

It's not the best set of circumstances, but let me tell you where I was coming from.
With work on Quinn well under way and Chapter 1 done, I began to think about it. I want people to pay money to read this, as such I want to make it the best I can.
Alan Moore has said his writing suffered because people got too scared to edit him, and I'm no Alan Moore (yet), so for this work to be the best it can be, I will need editorial help.
Finding an editor for prose wouldn't be too hard, yet still would provide a bit of a challenge.
But where the hell do you find a freelance comic editor?

The guy I emailed, he's not even an editor any more, he's a writer of many things, some of which I own, though they weren't bought based on his name, more the property he was writing. I mean the 2000ad audio plays, I don't even know how many are his.

My point is, he's the only one I could think of, and he doesn't do it any more.

I know that the art will have to grab people, but that's Emma's job. Mine is to turn out the best script I can, and for that it will need someone to give it the once over who isn't me.

Where the hell do I find one?

Quinn - Back to fight crime, and punch people

2006-03-23T08:06:00.000-08:00

It may not be the catchiest tag line, but it will do for now.

Yes, rejoice you three people who may have read The Courier and visit this blog. For I have begun the mighty follow up, to be known as Quinn until further notice or a better title presents itself.
I had started to forget how much fun it is just to write, so I am doubly glad that Quinn is so much fun.
Some of you may know I am writing this for Emma (artist on The Courier) to draw, and then put it out as a graphic novel. It's nice, because for the first time I am writing something that doesn't have to be condensed into 5 pages. Which means I can plot out more characters and, more importantly, more entertaining fight and action sequences. I am 9 pages in so far and already I have a sequence I am very pleased with down. Whether I am trying to cram too much in and will get shot down by Emma, I don't know, but for now I can add camera swoops and explosion noises to my hearts content.

I think I need to be careful though, originally planned as 9, 10 page chapters, I am 8 pages done and haven't got to the meat of the chapter yet. I may need to find myself an editor after all. Either that or carry on like this which means exposition will necessarily be kept to a minimum.

Discussion needs to be had with Emma, because I am of the mind that we should only put up completed chapters, rather than individual pages as they are done. This would mean longer between updates online, but anyone coming in would have a complete section to read from the start.
Maybe even give it it's own webpage, seperate from Emma's site - which you should check out for her latest work Split Silver, not usually my kind of thing, but I keep reading it.

So yeah, stuff done, no reply from 2000ad, no Heroclix for me I guess, no rejection of the Furture Shocks yet either. To be honest, I think my favourite of the two I sent is better than the one in this weeks 2000ad, which seemed quite old fashioned and obvious. But hey, I'm always going to like my own stuff I guess.

Comedy in Reading (the town, not the verb)

2006-03-15T07:50:00.000-08:00

Going up to my old haunts to see Omid Djalili tonight, I may have mentioned this before.
Due to a lack of planning and checking on my part, I am surprised to find I will have to crash there tonight, as there are no trains home late night.

However, a bonus piece of news, Futurequake has been named SFX's fanzine of the month. Now, it's not the issue I'm in, but it is a mag I have been accepted by, so I will take the reflected glory.
That's not a bad thing.

Assault on Tharg's Mighty Organ (heh).

2006-03-14T13:22:00.000-08:00

Yes, today I stepped up my campaign to get my name, in print, in the mighty publication, otherwise known as 2000ad.
So, I have emailed the letters page and hope to get my Heroclix figure, a bonus Graphic Novel would be good, but the letter wasn't that deserving.
However, I now have 2 Future Shocks completed and ready to go, maybe a bit of dialogue polishing, but I'm very happy with one and a little puzzled with another. I know I've got a decent story, but for some reasons I can't quite suss why it doesn't seem right, I may have just spent too much time thinking on it to be honest.

Tomorrow I go to Reading to see Omid Djalili on stage. While there I will be droppping off a few of the printed copies of The Courier with Jon, who has offered to pass them around the 2000ad office. With rumours that the Megazine will start printing small press strips to bring cost down and fill pages, there is a chance that will prove more useful than had I given them to him to hand around a couple of months ago like I meant to.

Meanwhile I've managed to start a couple of long threads on the 2000ad message board, not to do with me, but I like the fact I've got people talking.

Anyway, that's two more Future Shocks I need to do this week, at the very least. May even get 3 done.

In other news check out the BBC's Open Earth Archive, where you can cut together your own little movies of nature, or download more clips and make a longer one.

Anyway, fare thee well, traveller on the virtual seas, pass back this way again, maybe there will be news that you care about. But probably not.

Nuff Said

2006-03-12T16:58:00.000-08:00

Rob Spalding --
[noun]:

An immortal

'How" will you be defined in the dictionary?' at QuizGalaxy.com

Such a slacker!

2006-03-11T06:32:00.000-08:00

So I had last week off work while the company tries to find the money to continually employ me.
"Perfect!" you cry, "now you have plenty of time and no distractions to get in the way of your writing."

Ah, so true. Six Future Shocks mostly planned out in my head. More chapters needing to be done for The Carpenter's Apprentice, perhaps even get to work on the action-Cthulu story.

So I watched Firefly from start to finish, then read the Serenity comic and watched Serenity. I need more stories in the Verse!

Yup, I wasted the week, yay me! I did get on FS done, but I am not happy with the ending. And now I also have this week off, which doesn't give the best bodings (is bodings a word?).

But I will get stuff done this week! If only because I have watched everything, read al my comics, including Bone which you should all get because it's brilliant.
So, this week the plan is to get at least 4 Shocks done, and as a reward I won't panic over how much it's going to cost to get to see Omid Djalili on Wednesday.

Yeah, because I won't waste this week either, I despair of myself.

Getting there.

2006-03-03T12:52:00.000-08:00

Yup, so website bought. Images begged for and got a couple. First two chapters re-written and just about ready for first public consumption.
Joomla installed and struggling with.

Yes, that's right, it can't be too much longer before I actually get the site up for people to view. I will however need techie help from my mate, who I (shamefully) only ever seem yto see these days when I need tech help. That's partly because he's so busy and partly because I'm so lazy.

After agonising over trying to come up with Future Shock ideas for a few years, last week was inspiration central, I came up with 4 new stories and resolved how to fit another 2 into the framework after being stuck for about 6 months on them.

The follow up to The Courier, provisionally titled Quinn, carries on apace in my mind. And I will be heading to the Bristol ComicExpo because Jon has crashing space, which is cool. So I may be pimping the (unwritten and barely planned) book there. In a related bonus my local comic shop said they would take some on a sale or return when it's done, even let me do a promotional day where I can sit in there and sign copies. Which will be nice.

Anyway, movement, movement, forward the Year of Rob!

I Got a Website!

2006-02-21T14:46:00.000-08:00

Oooooh, yes I do.

I finally got the cash into my account and bought my domain. Now all I have to do is con/beg my web-savvy buddy to help me start coding it and get it up there.

When it is up and running I'll be posting my novel The Carpenter's Apprentice up for people to read for free.
It's a Fantasy Adventure story for kids and it's something I'm proud of.
Hopefully others will find it entertaining an excting, and will stick with it as each chapter comes up to read.
So far there are 12 completed chapters, and they will be going up on a bi-weekly schedule.

Anyway, link will crop up at the side when the content is ready.

On another note, the final page of The Courier is up on Emma's site. That's the whole Prologue as I am now starting to call it. Work will begin on the full length follow up in about a month for me, and I'm hoping to get the first script to Emma by the end of March.

Money Money Money!

2006-02-15T15:25:00.000-08:00

So, I should finally be getting paid for working! I mean, I've only been at the company for about 8 months!

S'cool though, I wasn't meant to get paid, until 4 weeks ago, I can't beleive how long it's taken to get the money sorted, and it's nothing to do with the company either, just stupid government agencies. That's not paranoia, the JobCentre have it in for me!

And I got my InCap today, so with the 6 weeks wages, which I now realise won't be £420 'cos it's got to be taxed (boo!) but I should still have enough to take a chunk off of my overdraft and finally buy my website!
Woo-Hoo!

Once I get my techie mate round to give me a hand I should be able to start posting up my novel in installments.
If there are any artists who read this, I going to be asking for some character illustrations, for no money, to brighten up the website.

Anyhoo, I'm a happy chappy!

The Result

2006-02-14T16:04:00.000-08:00

Liverpool 1 - 0 Arsenal.

Bugger.

Valentine Shopping in Tesco.

2006-02-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

So, as a single guy, I won't make any kind of typical "Oh why am I alone, on this the most overhyped and romantic day of the year?"
Instead, I want to think a while on a topic that I'm considering exploiting next year.

And that is, singles in Tesco on Valentine's day.

Now, I live a good 15 minute car drive from the nearest decent pub, and a 20 minute walk from the nearest poor pub.
It's only 5 minutes drive to Tesco, and so me and my mate across the road have made it the highlight of our week on occasion, because there is nothing else to do.

I popped in tonight to grab the cheapest bottle of red wine I could find, so I could get drunk watching the Arsenal/Liverpool match (which so far is poor) and get down to plotting that graphic novel.
While having an aimless wander I began to think. I have heard it said that supermarkets are a good place to meet women, fill a basket with either stuff that makes you look cultured, or stuff that makes you look a bit lonely, and try to strike up conversations with women who also have similar stuff in their baskets.
And it struck me, women, wandering around Tesco at 7.45 on Valentines Day are either single, or about to dump the guy that left them to wander about a supermarket that night.
I saw a few, and had I had more than £3 to my name, I may have tried to get one to go for a "we're both sad enough to be here tonight" dinner. I say may, but I would probably chicken out, it's what I do.

Now, my thought is, are the women there likely to be more or less receptive? I'm thining more, but then again, being approached by a strange bearded man probably isn't what they want. In my experience it's not what any women want.
But for those who don't look like a relation of Chewbacca or as if the only light you've seen all year is the glow of your computer monitor, then it may be worth a go.

Let me know how it pans out for you, yeah?

Printed Copies!

2006-02-12T15:03:00.000-08:00

I have a few copies of the Courier in my hands!
After some thoroughly scary quotes for getting 50 done, I am printing them at home. This has the bonus of not needing a minimum amount and being able to print off as many as I need.
Got to do 10 or so tomorrow for Emma.

But it is so cool to hold in my hand something that I wrote and see it in it's graphic form.

All those none of you reading this blog, if you want to see it, check out the link on the left.
Unless you want to offer me some work writing a comic for you, then ask and I'll post you a copy. I'll even sign it if ya like!

I'm a Classic!

2006-02-08T11:47:00.000-08:00

Yup, that's right. I was told today that I am a classic.
OK, so it was followed by the words "...case of someone suffering from CFS." But if we ignore that...
No?
Sod the lotta ya. So, the story is, I went to see the people at the CFS clinic today. A specialist who deals with people who suffer the same condition as me every day. It turns out I'm not anxious or depressed, well I could have told them that, and I did.
There are apparently three things that help everyone with CFS, first is a strictly controlled exercise regimine, which I am now on a waiting list (hooray Britain!) to get in on. Second is pacing, basically realising that if I do lots today, tomorrow I wioll be screwed. The third is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, but they only seem to use that on people who are anxious or depressed (they don't mention anything about people with psycopathic tendancies, ho-hum).

On the comic side, I have started to sketch out a rough idea for what I want to do in the Courier Graphic Novel/Long comic. Only problem is that I keep thinking in far too grand terms - "There should be an earthquake." "No, there should be the invasion of an enemy nation state's army." "NO! There should be an earthquake set by an enemy nation so their army can invade." All this, I should mention, in the middle of an Infernal Affairs-type story. And if you haven't seen that film, do yourself a favour, go get it now!
But I am drafting in some characters from an unwritten story, because they will slot nicely into the world. I have a protagonist, an antagonist, a selection of minor characters, backstories, motivations. All I need now is an actual plot for the main story.
It's going to come, I'm sure of it.

Back Once Again, but no Renegade Master.

2006-02-07T12:17:00.000-08:00

So yeah, I've been away to sunny Reading.
Jon's birthday was good, and it's always nice to see the guys and mock them for playing waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much World of Warcraft.

I have some copies of The Courier in my hand, most are photocopies in greyscale and don't look as good as the spangly colour ones.
All I have to do now is find somewhere to get some full colour ones printed up at a not extortionate amount.

Also, I'm not done with Quinn, there is much more of his story to tell, and Emma is on board for the long haul. So it may be that I will get a graphic novel out there, even if it is self published.

Doesn't bother me, though, of course, I'd rather get paid to do it, but getting it out there will be a tremendous result and allow me to fulfill a long standing ambition - to write something that ends up in the British Museum. I think I've wanted to do that since I heard it stores every book ever published, when I was about 5, so over 20 years a standing ambition.
That's more commitment than anything else in my life ever!

Ballsy Move.

2006-02-01T14:56:00.000-08:00

At the Brighton Comic Expo last November, Tony Lee said I should just email Joe Quesada at Marvel and ask for work.
"Yeah right." I thought.

But I've just done it. All this latest forward motion has got me some (over)confidence. I can't really believe I just did that.

On the other hand, if I don't ask him, he'll never get the chance to say yes.

The worst that can happen is he says no. At least I hope that's the worst that can happen.
Sudden visions of big guys in suits with baseball bats turning up at my door.
"Mr Quesada don't like to be bothered."

*gulp*

Surely not, he always seems so nice on those DVD extras.

Party time, let's go to work.

2006-02-01T07:00:00.000-08:00

Several things to cover here.

First, I now have in my grubby little mitts a test run of "The Courier", as in a printed and bound version. I am now past the point of objectivity on this comic, having spent so much time re-reading it. But it still has lines that I love in it.
Hopefully I'll have a couple done up for this weekend, more on that in a mo.
Emma has put up the cover and page 1 on her site. No idea how long between updates she will do, there are only 7 pages of comic and it took her a couple of months to draw, so I would guess she is going to tease it out some.

Second, I am off to Reading this weekend for Jon's birthday. That's Jon "Dammit accept one of my pitches", editor at Abaddon. So I get to drunkenly barrage him with ideas this weekend.
Apparently there will be a nice bloke who wrote for the latest series of Doctor Who there also. I met him a Brighton Comic Expo, so hopefully when I slip him a copy of the Courier and try to blag some sort of work off him, he won't be too surprised.
I hope.

Thirdly, I am writing this while waiting to see how MarioKart for the DS is doing on ebay. At the moment its 2 minutes away and I'm preparing to bid.
Hang on a minute.

Wait for it...

So exciting.

While we wait - watch Life on Mars. It's the best new thing on British TV at the moment.
Also, watch My Name is Earl, the funniest new sitcom since Scrubs - honest!

Here we go...

30 seconds to go.

I win!

OK, you can all go now. Nothing to see here.

What a pitch!

2006-01-29T06:43:00.000-08:00

So, just mailed off my latest pitch for Abaddon. It's set in their fantasy world and probably is more political than most of the pitches they get.
And I just realised I didn't mention it is totally non-allegorical to the editor. I can see where a lot of comparisons between it and recent events could be drawn, but it is just a story, based on my reading of their world guidelines.
Ah well.

The next pitch to finish has tombs, monsters, traps and treasure. Your standard fantasy fare, but I think the political one would be more rewarding to write.
Then again, like I keep saying, I'll take anything.

Some forward motion.

2006-01-28T06:30:00.000-08:00

So, Emma has put up the cover of The Courier. I really like it, and it's all her, no input from me at all on the cover.
In other comic news, FutureQuake accepted my submission, so that's a few more people who get to see my name in print.

The Matthew Reilly/HP Lovecraft story is progressing at a rate of 500 words a week, which is far too slow. Must do some writing on it.

Still have to type up that hand written Terror Tale, but the acceptance from FQ makes me more positive.

Finally, "The Year of Rob" is gaining momentum.

Inspiration I got, a follow through, I don't.

2006-01-27T15:44:00.000-08:00

SO, started a pitch for Abaddon after the double rejection. And I haveno idea where it is going. Plans I had have been ditched without bare consideration to my brain. I'm thinking that I may dump them in an underground tomb with as yet undescribed beasties waiting to break out. The question is, should the wizard be nice and a bastard, or evil and a bastard?

Got going on another pitch, aiming for a Black Hawk Down in fantasy land kind of deal here, and I mean like the book. Films ok, but the book is so much better.

Might have another zombie pitch bubbling away. Zombies as the good guys, can that work?

Wrote up and sent of the revised script for FutueQuake, at long bloody last. Not quite perfect, but I did get it all onto one page, which I think has crammed it slightly.

Been having a bash on the Penny Arcade Auto Assault Beta weekend. Can't make up my mind. It's fun, but would I spend hours playing it, especially as I can't find any kind of in game comms, like the chat in World of Warcraft. Bah, got the entire weekend to piss about with it.

Parents are away, so I should be drunk and writing for the rest of the weekend, I hope. Lots of FA cup action on over the weekend so I may get distracted.

Finally, Jon of Abaddon and rejecting my pitches fame, has said he'd pay money to watch me walk on stage and start a stund up set with "All the wankers in the room, hands up."
I have until march to decide if I have the bottle to do that.

Excuse the spelling mistakes, I'm a tad drunk.

Oh, and I'm waiting on one more page and then The Courier is complete, except for a couple of dialogue changes!

But no-one reads this blog, so only I care. But that is enough.

Denied!

2006-01-25T12:26:00.000-08:00

Just checked my mail, to find 2 rejections from Abaddon. I can see the point being made on both of them. Maybe I can re-submit my Pax Britannia one if I iron out some of the inconsistencies I mentioned, or just totally rework it, as I like my main characters. As for the zombie one, perhaps a short-ish story is called for, and as it isn't specific to any world, I can submit that anywhere.

At least it has me working on my Fantasy world pitch, now if only I had a clue where it was going. I changed my mind and now I'm lost. The internal logic so far is good, the characters seem to stand up well, but I don't have a clue where it's going. I was planning on some Indiana Jones type escapades in that world with this, but think that will have to wait for something different.

Pah, at least I'm dealing with the rejection in a positive way, by cracking on with something new.
That is positive, right?

Done and Nearly Dusted.

2006-01-25T08:03:00.000-08:00

While in the office yesterday I finished up the major and most dull part of the database. Woo-Wee!
Now all I have to do is a bit of tinkering and make it accessible and usable for anyone else. Which is potentially a bit of a bugger.

Have done nothing today, instead watched the first five episodes of a show called "How I Met Your Mother." Which is funny in a quirky way. However what makes this show a bit odd to me, just like another new show called "Crumbs" is the fact that they both look to have been shot single camera style, like "Scrubs" and "Malcolm In The Middle", but then they added a laughter track to it. To me this seems about as good as the laughter track they added to old Hanna-Barbera cartoons, it just seems out of place.

Hopefully I can get the Terror Tale I found the other day typed up tonight, but I am supposed to be going to the cinema to see Underworld: Evolution with the folks. I can live with not seeing it until DVD, but I haven't been to the flicks in ages.

In other news, Emma has posted up on her news page that she expects to start putting The Courier up for people to look at on Friday. I still haven't seen the last two pages, but based on what I have seen so far, they will be awesome. The front cover she did I love, I think when I get it printed up it will definitely get people interested enough to pick it up and open it.
I wan to make a couple of dialogue changes before printing, but it's looking essentially done, and I couldn't be more chuffed.

Strange visitor

2006-01-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

OK, so I've got up late, come downstairs in my PJ's and picked up my copy of 2000ad which the poostman has kindly delivered.
Then there's a ring on the doorbell.
Now, being less than proud of how my half naked body looks these days, I cowered behind the half opened door while answering. It was a sweet looking little old lady.
"I'm here about the new born baby."
Puzzled frown, shake of head, "There's no baby here."
"I'm sure there is, I just spoke to them and confirmed I'd be there in just a minute."
Now I'm looking around wildly for a baby that definitely didn't exist in the house last night when I went to bed.
"Nope, we really don't have a baby here."
"6 ***********?" (I'm not actually prinitng my address here.)
"Yeah, that's us."
"Then I'm here for the baby."
Right, now I'm getting panicky, I'm sure I'm in the right house. At least I was, now there's some thoughts creeping in that the world has gone a bit wonky.
"See, it's 6 *********, Othertown. Ah, missed that."
Sigh of relief, "Yeah, this is 6 *********, Myvillage."
"My mistake. Goodbye."
Close door, shake head. Consider going back to bed and starting the day all over again.

I didn't, but I kinda wish I had.

Treading Water AGAIN!

2006-01-23T11:56:00.000-08:00

And once again I am avoiding doing database work by writing here in this blog. I think this post possibly makes this my most written in blog so far, what an honour for it.
SO, no writing done since Friday, 500-some words in an hour that night, slacking since. However, once again re-discovered my bedroom floor on Saturday, and in doing so unearthed my notebook that I wrote some future shock scripts in. Specifically, the Terror Tale I did and have been unsuccessfully trying to re-write ever since. Needs tweaking, but I should get that done on Wednesday and off to Tharg before leaving for work on Thursday (I hope).
Supposed to be going to see Underworld: Evolution tomorrow, hope it lasts longer in the memory than the first one did. Came out after seeing with my mate, we turned to each other and couldn't remember a damn thing that happened in it. It did at least keep us entertained for 2 hours, which is more than other films I've seen have done.
Been working my way through Band of Brothers on the weekends with my Dad. I still think it's one of the best television series ever produced, and it's a shame that with every reality show that costs 10p to make and keeps the masses zombied out, the chance of another show like it really diminishes, especially over here. I want the BBC to stop chasing ratings and make more shows like Doctor Who, more work for scriptwriters and real actors. Y'know, people with actual talent.
Erm, right, rant over, back to the database grind.

A time for Red

2006-01-20T12:07:00.000-08:00

So the weeks most unsurprising football story is over, and we've signed Theo Walcott.
Wasn't too sure about having the lad, but after seeing some of his goals on the Championship review last night, I am convinced he can become great, especially if Theirry Henry stays about to pass on his knowledge.
Only thing the lad has to worry about is the point that Arsenal signed Jermaine Pennant when he was young. Yeah, this young talented lad who Wenger nutured was recently playing for Birmingham (and when that's not the worst part of the story you've got to be concerned) while wearing one of those ankle tags so the police knew where he was.

Beyond that, I am sat here, getting ready to consume an entire bottle of red and get down to some work on one of the 2 novels I am going to focus on until I get that call from Abaddon. My kids novel or Matthew Reilly meets HP Lovecraft.
I'm more up for the Reilly/Lovecraft one at the moment.

I think.

[Edit] It's definitely that one. Just found my page of quotes for it, have to get to the point where I can put this in.

Scientist: Violence is not always the answer.
Jackson: But when it is, I'm a f*****g star pupil.

Is this progress?

2006-01-18T07:23:00.000-08:00

Here I am, posting when I should be working. That is, real work, looking through magazines for anyone who has advertised but isn't in my database. It is unbelievably boring, especially as I have got myself all worked up over the fact that an eamil this morning told me one of my pitches has been passed on to a series creator. This means one of two things, Jon liked it and thinks it could work in that world, or he enjoyed it but can't make a decision based on his own thougts because he knows me and I have been sneaking in begging notes onto the end of my submission emails.
It would be nice if it is the former, I hoped Jon could stay neutral when he read my submissions, as a friend I would like him to get me a paying gig, as a writer I want to be judged purely on the merits of what I write.
Anyhew, hopefully the guy who came up with the world will like it enough and I can move on to the next stage of the process, a chapter by chapter breakdown, and that actually scares me. So far all my writing has had a broad outline and then things have changed in the actual telling. In my big work-in-progress kids novel, f'r instance, the hero suddenly left the nicely crafted party I had made, met a new character I had to scrabble to find a name for, met another character about 2 chapters before I planned, and gave me the answer to a question I had posed myself.
I don't know how much freedom a chapter breakdown will leave me, but probably not that much. On the other hand, 6 years on and that book is still only half done, so maybe a rigid structure can prevent the stopping times I immerse myself in.
Meh.

Right, back to databases, how I hate them.

...not quite.

2006-01-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

So I knuckled down and cranked out the pitch for a zombie story for Abaddon.
Yay for me.
At least that is something productive out of these past few days.
Best get cracking on the next pitch and those scripts tomorrow if I'm not too shagged out.

Another wasted weekend...

2006-01-16T09:24:00.000-08:00

It's now Monday, and all those great things I had planned for the weekend have failed to materialise.
Futurequake have asked me to shrink a 5 page Furture Shock into 1 page, in fact they asked before Christmas and I still haven't done it.
Had an idea for a new Terror Tale, didn't even start on it, but I think it probably needs a bit more thinking on because I realised my original plan doesn't quite track.
Finally, writing up one of the 2 pitches I want to make to Jon at Abaddon, total failure. Thought about them, sure, written anything, no.
However I have made some progress in my head on the zombie story today, it's a neat little way to go from 0 - 50000 zombies really quickly. Insta-zombie! Zombies in a tin! Obviously that isn't how I'll do it, but it has that kind of feel to it.
Would have done some toaday, planned to and everything. But sat down to do the work for my actual job, and managed to kncker myself.
This CFS/ME is really putting a pisser on "The Year of Rob."
But I'll get there, see if I don't!

Just a Thought

2006-01-12T15:38:00.000-08:00

You can check out one of the character designs for my comic on the artist's website.
http://www.emmaolsen.com
If you vote for her on TopWeb Comics, the link's on the right of the page.
Check out her comic as well.
Then curse because she is only 14! Dammit I can't even get stickmen to look right.

But then, that's why I write, because I can't draw, sing, play a musical instrument or any of the other things you need talent for.

A New Beginning.

2006-01-12T13:42:00.000-08:00

A new year, a(nother) new blog, time to begin.

Well today I finally finished and emailed off my pitch for one of the Abaddon worlds. Abaddon is a new imprint from Rebellion, the people currently publishing 2000ad, and they have 4 new worlds in which they will be releasing novels. Mine was done for the steampunk Magna Britannia series.
Hopefully it will get a favourable response, I have 2 others to set down and send before the deadline of March 31st, 1 for the fantasy world and one for a zombie novel. It would be nice to get commisioned to write one, mostly for the money (£3500 - not to be taken lightly when you are as broke as me) and the other because it may kickstart me into actually doing some damn writing!
If it all looks bad I will have to badger the commisioning editor (I know where he lives) until he gives me a story to re-pitch to him guaranteeing success. Not the ideal way, but hey!

The next month or so should see the launch of my website, domain as yet unknown as I don't have the money to buy it at the moment :P
Also, my first comic work should be available on the net within the next 2 weeks. It's a small thing that I will be using as an advert to promote myself, something suggested by Andy Diggle, writer of The Losers for Vertigo - he's a nice bloke as well.

So, until I next do something,

That Is All.