Thursday 24 November 2011

Untitled Project

Untitled Project
The Legends of Light video... my first attempt. I got up at three in the morning due to pain. So I checked my emails, went on Facebook and Twitter and made it to half five, then got bored. So here is what I did for an hour, went on to Animoto and made a video for Legends. Not bad for a first attempt if I do say so myself. Now all I have to do is stay awake until I can get the kids off to school. *YAWN*

Wednesday 2 November 2011

I'm there. I'm not sure it's any different from here.

Yesterday was the day I'd been waiting for. The day my book was published. The Legends of Light is now available to buy. My e-book is a reality. So I'm over the moon right? I'm dancing on air and shouting it to the world... right? Well no, not really. I'm wondering what to cook tonight. Yesterday I rushed out during the dry spell and cleaned up after the dogs (I know, too much information). I'm wondering if there's enough washing for a full load and deciding that if I don't look it won't exist.
So what's going on? This is something I dreamt of, this is IT as far as a writer is concerned surely?
What I've discovered is that the thing that gets your heart racing (only a little, hopefully), the thing that gets you excited and up in the mornings, is writing. Creating something out of nowhere, getting involved with your characters, getting to know and love them, even the evil ones. Once the book is written then that's it, unless you are doing a sequel or a prequel or an offshoot or some other quel or shoot, you need never see those people again. It's like being on holiday, you make new friends, you have so much in common, you are going to keep in touch no matter what. Then when you get home you never hear from them again and you don't mind.
At the moment I'm still typing up Altair Jones' story, I'm editing my horror poems, I'm starting a book with no name yet and I'm wondering if I should do a short story as a lead in to my next published work... Endings. Oh and I'm doing pizza tonight, it's quick, it doesn't involve lifting heavy pans and there's only me and youngest at home. And it doesn't take up so much of my life if I do quick and easy meals. I'm never going to write a cookery book that's for sure.
http://greyhartpress.com/our-fantasy-stories/the-legends-of-light/

Friday 14 October 2011

Went AWOL... sorry.

I'm back, sorry I went AWOL. I've been trying to write a book of horror poems and am nearly there. I've also finished writing my pulp fiction novelette (is that how you spell that?) provisionally called Altair Jones and the Rehab Murders. A woman who's only friend is her ship's computer Dan. She's a PI and is called in when the bodies start to pile up in The House of Lost Souls a rehab run by The Order of the Sun. Who dunnit and why? I'm not telling.
The edits are more or less done for The Legends of Light and the book cover is wonderful. Greyhart Press rock. Well I would say that wouldn't I. Anyhow it should be available to buy hopefully next month. I'll try and keep you updated, if I remember.
Apart from that I'm feeling like death warmed up. The fibro isn't liking the weather changes and it's getting colder at night so I'm waking up more often. Not much I can do about it except complain to anyone who'll listen... that'll be nobody then... except you guys. Oh god, my best friend is a blog!
The kitten we got in the summer is well and truely settled in. He's got the dogs in order and the staff are doing what they're told (me) He will insist on helping with my writng though. If I'm in bed writing by hand he keeps nudging the end of the pen. If I'm typing he'll attempt to walk across the laptop... ho hum. Maybe I can teach him to type and he can earn his living.
That's all for now. See you soon, I hope.

Saturday 3 September 2011

I'm in!

Well today's email brought with it the contract from Greyhart Press and I've agreed. So that's it, I'm on th ebooks, I am one of their books... I'm an author :) Okay so edits and publishing and stuff needs doing first but I'm not going to worry about that. Although editing poetry can be a bit of a pain.
I had to change a few parts already as the use of words didn't fit the voice of the piece. In a prose piece that would just mean a change of word...in a poetry piece it can mean a rewrite of a couple of lines if you can't find a word that scans or the word you want to replace is at the end of a line and rhymes with another one... no good just bunging in a replacement if it then ruins the whole thing. Anyway, I think I got all of them so it may well just be the odd stray comma or lack of one.
Apart from the excitement of that I'm struggling with my right wrist in a neoprene doohicky to protect a damaged tendon so writing is limited to the essentials... and the blog of course.

Wednesday 31 August 2011

Two days off

I've had to have two days away from blogging, not that I'm obliged to blog every day of course but it's noce to keep my hand in as it were. On Sunday I had a long trip in the car which in turn caused my fibro to flare so the last two days, when I should have been writing I've been asleep because I can't sleep through the night because of pain... which in turn is a pain! I've got virtually nothing done.
I have however come up with a, I hope, great idea for a steampunk story. Just a short one based on a few bits I read about Tesla... the 'father' of electricity. He sounds like a very strange man and a genius... which often go hand in hand it would seem.
I must get back to the book as well, I've not even looked at it since the weekend. But I have a short story buzzing round in my head and the two are incompatible so I can't do both or I'll confuse myself... easily done.
So back to writing and not prevaricating or falling asleep I hope...

Saturday 27 August 2011

Bad day all round.

Today my daughter set off to Mongolia. Okay so she's going with a group of volunteers to help some Mongolian youths set up their own youth group. It's not like she's alone on a train steaming through Russia prey to criminals and god knows what. But I'm a mother and it's my job to worry... so I am

This in turn has caused a flare up of my fibromyalgia and I'm in pain and exhausted... typical. I've managed to write a couple of pages of the project I'm working on... a pulp fiction book staring Altair Jones, an inter-galactic private investigator with questionable morals.

Altair first appeared in a short I wrote for a pulp fiction competition... still waiting to hear about that one. She's young and pretty and her only friend is her onboard computer Dan, he's got a personality chip and sometimes a chip on his shoulder! She's just as likely to use sex as she is a gun if it means she gets what she wants. I like her, maybe because she does stuff I no longer can... not shoot people obviously!

Anyway, she got in my head and I thought she deserved her own book. I started writing it with no idea how it ends or who-done-it even. At the moment it's called 'Unknown' because I haven't come up with a title yet. Set in a rehab clinic on a planet inhabited by a cult religion she needs to discover who is murdering the clients before she becomes one of the victims. I've made it a 1/4 of the way through.

Watch this space...

Friday 26 August 2011

To blog or not to blog

OK so I was stuck for a title but it just about sums it all up.

I've been toying with the idea for a while and finally decided that, since I already had a Blogger account I may as well use it.

News on the writing front, I'm hoping to have my book of Fantasy poetry published towards the end of the year. I had begun to wonder if I was ever going to get anywhere other than the odd short or poem hidden away here and there in obscure magas or e-zines. Mind you if you write fantasy and or poetry there's not a huge choice when it comes to lack of obscurity.

Recently, on Linkedin, someone described speculative fiction as crap for teens... this got a whole lot of 'crap writers' talking, as you would. We now have our own catch phrase... Crap On! So I will.

On the fibro front, I'm doing better than I could be doing. Not much else you can say about it... for those who don't know about fibro or don't have fibro feel free to just ignore these bits... or better still look it up, educate yourself there's probably someone near you who has it but doesn't talk about it for fear of misunderstandings and abuse.

So that's it, my first blog... enjoy, hate whatever... but please don't ignore.