I've been thinking about the novel again. 

I've probably said this before, but over the years I've gone through various fads and crazes that burn brightly for a while and then fade out (poker, Games Workshop, Warcraft, etc). But writing is an addiction, the desire never leaves me. Oh sure, the urge to write does (that's kinda why I go through long periods without writing) but the actual desire to write a novel and see it published is as much a part of me as blood and bone. 

After a long hiatus, I'm getting my urge back. I want to start writing again. There's only so long a whale can go without Oxygen, afterall. Not that I'm a whale, but you get the idea. If I was a whale, I'd be a Blue whale. Not a sperm whale because then I'd have to fight huge squids and that would suck. But I digress...

The novel idea has changed again. You may recall that I was working on a story taken from The Ashes of Autumn and combined with another plot. There was a big war in the north, and there was a lot of strange shit going down in the city of Ember. 

Well, the whole 'war in the north' storyline has gone. It's a shame, because I had some pretty cool ideas and was looking forward to writing about Graven and Barusk. I've ditched it mainly because I want to tell a more focused story. I don't want to write a big epic fantasy trilogy; there are plenty of other writers doing exactly the same thing, and are doing a better job than I could do. Besides, when I was writing this novel last year I found myself looking forward more to writing the Ember sequences than the northern war sequences. So why not just ditch the whole plotline and focus solely on Ember?

Lukan is still here though, along with Channa the Witch-hunter. The Phaeron and Ghalgarith are still present and correct, and will form the main thrust of the plot. I still love the idea of their war spilling over into the world of men (and women) and never considered ditching them. My problem now is that I have loads of cool ideas for characters, chapters and locations, but I don't know how they all fit together. It's kind of like seeing a cool magic trick and trying to figure out how it works. 

I've got a few hours spare today, so I'm going to try and work out some basic points. I hate planning, because it's boring and I'm crap at it. But it is a necessary evil. When I have more news, I'll write an update. 

In other news, Speculative Horizons is going really well. Over 1000 hits already, with a recent average of around 40 a day which is good going for a new blog. It's a lot of fun and I'm glad I went ahead with it. 

Hope you are all well. 

-J

 

It's been a criminally long time since I last posted an entry in the old livejournal. I have been pretty busy, but the real reason for my absence was the sad lack of stuff to write about. Still, I've decided to write an entry as two months is too long, and now I do actually have some interesting things to talk about. 

Firstly, let me say I hope all of you had a good festive season and I wish you all a happy and prosperous 2008. 

Right, with the pleasantries over, here's what's happened in the last few weeks: 

I'll start with the best thing: I won an ARC of Joe Abercrombie's novel Last Argument of Kings. OH YES. What made it all the sweeter was that it was not just the luck of the draw, but the fact that Joe actually considered my entry worthy of winning a copy. Check out the post here: http://www.joeabercrombie.com/2007/12/i-deserve-proof-because.html
This is easily the coolest thing I've ever won. It is even going to have a personalised message inside. Nice. Plus the best thing of all is that I get to read the final chapter in the First Law trilogy BEFORE THE COMMON MAN ON THE STREET. Excellent. I think my copy arrived on Friday but because our postbox is too small it was sent to a depot somewhere. I'll need to get it re-directed and that will waste valuable time. Gaaah... 

My short story 'A Song for the Dead' was rejected by Sorcerous Signals. It apparently made it onto the 'maybe' pile but ultimately 'didn't grab' the editor enough. Sigh.  

I've written a new short story called 'Potatoes.' It is about a guy who is obsessed with potatoes (omg, seriously?), and a girl who becomes obsessed with him, despite her growing revulsion towards him. It's the first time I've written something that has made my skin crawl. The story is strongly influenced by 'The Pear-Shaped Man by George R. R. Martin which is an amazing horror story. Check it out in his Dreamsongs anthology. 

Last, but not least, I've started a new blog about speculative fiction. I'd been toying with the idea for a while, and so I decided to go ahead and do it. The blog is called Speculative Horizons and will have book reviews, author interviews and other various tasty speculative snippets. There might even be some Terry Goodkind piss-taking. The blog has only been going a week, but there's already three book reviews up with some other stuff. Other material will be added as the days and weeks pass. I'm having a lot of fun with it and it looks pretty cool. The blog can be found here: http://speculativehorizons.blogspot.com/

Please feel more than welcome to drop by and check out what new stuff I've posted. I ought to say that this blog is by no means replacing my livejournal, I will continue to post here about my writing and whatever stuff. Sepculative Horizons is just a hobby where I can talk about other people's writing.

As for my own writing plans this year, I've not really made any. But after toying with the idea of writing a screenplay, I'm thinking about the novel once again. I'll post more about this when I know more. 

In December I also: 

Went to Prague. It was good. Very good. Everyone should go. 

Bought an Xbox 360. Halo 3 is good. Very good. 

Wondered how the hell I'm going to write a novel when I'm maintaining a new blog and have an Xbox 360. Watch this space...

Anyway, here's to a prosperous 2008.

I submitted 'The Ashes of Autumn' to Aberrant Dreams many months ago, and had pretty much given up hope of hearing back from them. So imagine my surprise when I found an email in my inbox from Sara King, the fiction editor of the 'zine. 

Had Ashes finally been accepted? Had I finally found the poor thing a home? In short, no. But it is easily the best rejection I've ever had. 

Here it is in its entirety: 

Hi James,

Thank you for submitting THE ASHES OF AUTUMN to Aberrant Dreams, but I'm
afraid we're going to pass. However, you're a very strong writer and I
believe you've got the potential to do amazing things, which is why I'm
taking the time to give you a more in-depth critique than I normally
give--I think you've reached the point in your career where you can digest
constructive comments.

So here goes: While your storytelling carried me through the entire 33
pages, when I reached the end, I didn't feel as if the story is quite
there yet. There were certain points that felt rushed, whereas others
felt drawn out. For instance, I felt that the scene in which Jerek frees
the soulsinger could have been much more powerful if drawn out a bit more,
showing us that Jerek really was afraid of him before untying him.
Afterwards, the soulsinger mentioned that Jerek freed him while he was
afraid, but I felt more like the story told me Jerek was afraid, instead
of showed me.

The scenes I felt dragged on too long were mostly the prolonged fighting
scenes in the church. Also, I noticed that the story has a tendency to
state things twice, which is sometimes useful in novels, but with
wordcount being so important to a short story, redundancy is usually its
death. I think if you cut back by about 1/3-1/4, this story would be much
likelier to sell.

I went through the first page of your manuscript and offered a few
suggestions on where to cut (highlighted.) I liked your hook very much,
by the way. You'll notice I left the first paragraph alone :)

Aside from the redundancies, I would have liked to feel more emotion from
the protagonist overall, both in action and dialogue. A few key points
for this would be when his horse got killed (was it his favorite horse?
Had it been his companion throughout the war?), when the celebrant
confronts him (has he dealt with zealots in the past? Did they get people
killed?), when the first wave of demons attacks (what did his body feel
like? Did he have butterflies or did he feel like puking himself?), when
he sees the first defender die (does he feel responsible?), and when he
rescues the soulsinger (does it go through his head that the man could be
controlling the demons? That he IS a demon?).

But again, your professional storytelling was impressive. Thanks again
for submitting THE ASHES OF AUTUMN to Aberrant Dreams and I truly hope you
submit your work to us again soon.

Sara King
Fiction Editor, Aberrant Dreams

Any disappointment I felt at the story being knocked back for the fourth time was erased by Sara's response. The fact that she took the time to offer some serious advice is great, but what really gave me a boost was the fact that she thinks I'm a strong writer who can achieve good things. Interestingly, Howard at Black Gate said almost exactly the same thing. This is really encouraging; to have two people who clearly know the business give praise like this is a massive boost (and a hefty massage to the ego). Sara also included a file of the story with some highlighted passages. Not only can I learn from this, but I also got my story back! (The original file was lost when my pc died a few months back).

The downside is that it makes the voice in my head say, "See? I told you that you can do it. Now, stop screwing about and do some friggin' writing."

Yes Sir. Right away.
 

Just a quick note to wish everyone, on this night when the boundary between the worlds of spirit and flesh is at its thinnest, a very happy Samhain (or Halloween if you prefer to use the more modern phrase)! 

As our pumpkins flicker in the window, I'll be kicking back and eating too much chocolate, as well as raising a glass of 'Pumpking' ale (no, really!) to celebrate, er, well, all things ghoulish and ghastly! 

Happy Samhain!

I realised a couple of days ago that something was bothering me about my novel. I wasn't sure what the problem was at first. I was writing a scene where Lukan goes out in search of some dinner in the forest and finds a scouting party of northmen instead. Now, I don't know what roast northman tastes like, but I bet it's not nice. Plus you would get lots of hair stuck between your teeth. They are quite hairy after all. I was struggling to write the scene for some reason, and it was only after an hour or so that I realised it was my bullshit alarm going off. There's no loud claxon or a flashing neon lights; just a vague sense at the back of my mind that something isn't quite right. Like when you leave the house and have a odd sense that you've forgotten something, but can't remember what it is. With much grumbling and muttering I stopped to think. 

• The first is that we don't see enough of Lukan before he gets hanged and has his moment of epiphany. After he is saved from the executioner's blade, he is a changed man. But we don't see nearly enough of his former personality to make this change that significant.
• The second is that Lukan is actually a more interesting person before his change of outlook. I realised I prefer Lukan as a wise-cracking rogue more than I like him as a sincere scout.

The first of the above problems was not that difficult to resolve - I'd just add some more material at the start of the novel so we can spend more time with him in his former state. The second problem is more difficult. By that I don't mean in terms of resolving, I mean in terms of what the actual resolution involves. 

So, after much gormless face-pulling I've come to a solution. I'm going to swap Lukan and Osuran around. Lukan is now going to be the focus for the Ember storyline, and will be teaming up with Channa for an adventure into the bowls of the city in their attempt to find whatever it is they are looking for before their enemies get hold of it. Osuran is now going to take Lukan's place as a scout at Longhorn Watch. I figured this change means Lukan can retain his rogue-like personality (or Chaotic-Good alignment, if we're talking geek terms) and can now get up to all sorts of mischief in the city. This makes sense, as I'd always envisaged Lukan as a bit of a loose-cannon, while Osuran is meant to be more cool and collected. I think now I originally put them in the wrong places and that if I switch them things will work much better. Besides, Lukan didn't like the frozen north much. He put on a brave face, but his heart wasn't really in it. I think he'll be happier in Ember. Rat is going to come too; there is a dynamic between the two that I want to have some fun with. Plus, I like Rat. He's a cheeky little bastard but his heart is in the right place.

The only real problem with the above decision is the fact that I want to write the Lukan/Rat/Channa/Ember storyline, and I don't really know nearly enough about how it is going to work, so my thinking cap is going to have to stay on for a while yet. I've also realised that this book is going to be way more than 120k words (which to be honest I think was a rather optimistic estimate). In any case John Jarrold wrote in one of his posts on the chronicles website that 120k words is too short for an epic fantasy. I think the book will weigh in at about 175-200k words (if it ever gets finished). 

In other news, we got 300 on DVD yesterday so watched it last night. I've seen it before of course, but it was fun to watch again. I didn't really feel any differently about it second time round. It's decent, fun entertainment but little more than that. I'm still re-reading The Lies of Locke Lamora and am enjoying it almost as much as the first time. I'm struggling to think of a novel that I've enjoyed reading more than this one. I'm looking forward very much to reading the next in the sequence, though I've heard it is slightly disappointing (probably only because the first one is so damned good it would be impossible to top it). 

More news as and when. Meanwhile, below is the result of my Song of Ice and Fire personality test. I was rather surprised and am not in total agreement, though can see where it comes from in some ways. 

Link: The Song of Ice and Fire House Test

Progress so far:

26,355 / 120,000 (22.0%)

 For some reason that word count looks disappointing. I think it was because I was hoping to hit the 30,000 word mark, but given that I was only on around 21k at the last count that was a pretty unrealistic target. Still, 22% is not far from 25%. By next week, Barring some sort of disaster, I should hit the 1/4 way mark. Given that I only started writing the novel on 17 September, reaching the 25% point after only 6/7 weeks is pretty good. 

Writing has been good this week. I didn't manage to write every day, but I wrote enough on the other days to make up for it. I shoot for about 5k a week, which was achieved this time around. I've found myself concentrating purely on Lukan and Rat's plotline, rather than writing the chapters in order. The reason for this is twofold: firstly I have not sketched out how the 'Ember' storyline is going to go, and have not really developed the characters of Channa and Osuran enough. Secondly, at this stage I prefer to just concentrate on a select group of characters. By writing from Lukan's perspective all the time, I'm learning more about him at a faster rate than I would otherwise. It makes the writing easier too, as I'm not constantly flitting between POVs. The finished novel will be totally different, as the first third of the book with alternate between the 'Lukan' and 'Ember' chapters, with the 'Magnus' chapters joining the mix later on. The Magnus chapters will focus on Magnus (obviously) who is the garrison commander at Longhorn Watch. As things are going down in Ember and Lukan is gallavanting across the frozen landscape, we'll see Magnus attempt to thwart the invasion of the northmen with the meagre resources at his disposal. Magnus is a character that intrigues me: all strength and honour on the outside, but all pain and regret on the inside. Can he lead his men to victory despite the demons that hound him? We'll see...but not yet. 

Things are not looking good for Lukan and Rat. After settling in at Longhorn Watch, they discover on a scouting mission that the skath are moving south in a mass exodus. After a rather hairy (literally) run-in with a skath tracker, they return to the Watch, where they discover their scouting companions have yet to return from an assignment. Scouring the wilderness for their friends (and to find the reason for the skath migration) they find Glissek, one of their missing companions. Trouble is, he's missing three of the fingers on one hand and all the nails from the rest of his remaining ones. He's also dangerously close to insanity at the horrors that have been visited upon him. Lukan and friends hope they can coax what information they can from him before his inevitable death. They'll get their information, but will they be any better off for it? Would you rather know that a 50,000 strong army of hairy northmen is about to 'liberate' your land, or would you rather remain ignorant? One thing is for sure: there will be dark days ahead. 

In other news, I managed to get back most of the music I lost when my pc died on me a few months back. If I'd known I could just import the tunes from my ipod, back to my pc, I could have done it ages ago. Sigh. Oh well, better late than never. And it'll save me £150, as well as the boredom of having to buy all the music again. 

My fiancee brought home a little furry mouse toy that squeaks when you shake it. Not for me, but for our cats. Nyla, who normally sits on her chair looking thoroughly bored with everything, went absolutely beserk and spent the next hour carrying the damned thing around in her mouth. The electronic screeching from the mouse almost drove me insane. At one point I managed to wrench it from her grasp, only for her to squeal and launch herself at me like a little demon from the burning pits. I beat a hasty retreat to the bathroom, to wash the kitten drool from my hands...

I stopped reading Bitterwood. I made it about halfway through and just couldn't manage the rest. The story and characters just completely failed to grab me, and some of the dialogue I just felt was painfully juvenile. The only thing I liked was the little piglet called Poocher. The rest is already a dim memory. Instead, I've started re-reading The Lies of Locke Lamora, in preperation for reading Red Seas Under Red Skies. Damn but I forgot what a great novel it is. I'm only about 40 pages in and already I'm hooked, just like I was the first time. Lynch can write, but more than that he writes some of the funniest dialogue I've ever read. Yeah, sure, so it is unrealistic because 'real people don't talk like that.' Who gives a shit, when it's so funny. In any case, why should the people of Camorr speak like us? It's a different world, where they have wolf sharks and Jereshti jellyfish. Why the hell would they speak like us, when our worlds are so different?

Well, I was meant to do some writing tonight. Instead, I surfed the net and found this hilarious story about a nutcase that tried to pass off the late, great, David Gemmell's 'The Dark Prince' as her own book...

Check out the comparison between her first chapter and Gemmell's (scroll down the page a bit): http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2007/10/11/top-10-tips-for-plagairists/

Here's her own website: http://www.alongstoryshort.net/LanaiaLee.html#anchor_254
(Note the 'To the writing community at large' message where she (hopelessly) tries to explain away the similarities, in the face of an increasing backlash...

And here is a little taster of her own writing. As you might expect, it's shit: http://www.alongstoryshort.net/IDENTITY.html

A discussion about this whole scenario on westeros: http://asoiaf.westeros.org/index.php?showtopic=23433

Looks like the 'author' is completely denying the blatant plagiarism, blaming her 'ghost writer' instead. She's now threatening to sue everyone, promising "ten-fold Wiccan retribution" despite the fact that she's the one who actually broke the law. 

In her own words: "God gave me this literary gift, so why not use it?"

Unbelievable.

You just couldn't make this stuff up.

Novel progress so far: 

21,059 / 120,000 (17.5%)

Almost forgot that it was progress-update day.  

Well, this week saw more progress than last week. It's not been easy though. Perhaps I've mentioned this before, but there is an old Chinese proverb that goes as follows: "If you neglect your craft for one day, it will neglect you for two." 

So true. So painfully true. I've neglected my writing too much in the last two weeks (mainly for legit reasons) but it made no difference - neglection is neglection. In the days when I tried to make up for lost time, it was a real struggle. I liken it to standing at the foot of a wall and staring up at it, thinking 'Wow, how the heck did I manage to get up there?' I've really learned that writing every day has so many benefits. Not just in terms of word count, but in terms of creativity and enthusiasm. So, some days were hard but it gave me the chance to put to use a new attribute I've developed: the ability to keep writing in the face of adversity (namely, when the voice in my head is saying 'Stop. Why are you doing this? Why? Go and have some tea and biscuits and a nice lie down. Who cares about the novel? No-one is buying epic fantasy at the moment anyway. In fact, just jack the whole thing in and take up gardening' and so on). But I bit the bullet, slaved away and the word count this week is a sign that it was worth it. 

Incidentally, the notion that editors are not currently looking for epic fantasy is one I've seen being bandied around several well-informed blogs. If it's true I have no idea why. George R.R. Martin is as popular as ever, while Joe Abercrombie's rapidly-increasing following indicates the sub-genre is in good health. Well, whatever. I'm just going to keep slaving away. 

Lukan and Rat are almost at Longhorn Watch now. They're spending the night at the Roundhouse, a sort of halfway house between the Watch and Mordvayne. I've almost finished chapter 5, which has turned into something of an info-dump chapter yet without being overly info-dumpish. If that makes sense. I've said before that it's funny how characters sometimes pop out of nowhere. This is what happened with Rat, and now it has happened with Avran. I decided that Magnus,  garrison captain of Longhorn Watch,  just wouldn't travel alone, so I decided he was accompanied by two guards - Callas and Avran. Callus is fairly quiet and a bit uptight, whereas Avran just opened his gob and didn't shut up. He's witty, talkative and a bit of a ladies' man. He's also quite a lot of fun to write. I've no idea where on earth he came from, but he's livened things up a bit. I hope he'll stick around. I think Lukan hopes so too, the two of them seem to get on well. 

It's not all good news though. Some skath have been sighted south of the Watch, not far from the Roundhouse, which is unheard of. Why have they come so far south? It will fall to Lukan to discover the answer, and find the answer he will...but not without paying a deadly price.

This week bore witness to the inevitable: the first stuttering in my so-far indomitable writing progress. The danger was always there, the hounds of inconsistancy snapping at my heals as they waited for me to stumble. This week they finally sank their slavering jaws into my, er, hmm...ok let's dispense with the imagery. To put it more simply, I got little writing done this week, demonstrated by the following diagram:

15,874 / 120,000 (13.2%)

 Barely over 500 words more than last week's total. This doesn't show the whole picture however. True, I only managed to write on Tuesday and Wednesday last week but I had good reasons: Thursday night I was preparing for my trip to London, Friday I was in London all day and didn't get home til late (not to mention being utterly knackered) while Saturday and Sunday I was busy being ill with a shitty cold and a head so fuzzy that I could barely remember my own name let alone do any writing. 

The writing I did get done was not particularly progressive in a word-count sense; I mainly re-wrote earlier passages and so the overall count did not really increase much. Still, after my four-day absence I managed to get back into the swing of it today. I didn't get that much done, but what I did was important. I had to write a scene where Lukan finds out why Magnus rescued him. I couldn't get it to flow properly and in fact I didn't have a clue how the scene would go. Worse, I was bored at the prospect of such a scene. So I scrapped it. Lukan no longer gets hanged: instead he demands execution by beheading on the basis that he doesn't want to die like a common criminal. He gets his wish, and is distraught to find that, as the shadow of the sword hovers over him, his life doesn't flash before his eyes...because he never really had one. All he feels is regret, and after he is gifted his last-minute reprieve, he realises he has to make something of his life.

In other news, I found an interesting thread on the Chronicles Network site in the publishing forum. It involves John Jarrold, fantasy publishing guru, who kindly has answered the questions of forum members. It is extremely insightful, not to mention interesting. John appears to be away at the minute, but there are over 20 pages of past discussion to get your teeth into. Check it out: http://www.chronicles-network.com/forum/10900-personal-question-s-to-john-jarrold.html Incidentally, John Jarrold is the (un)lucky chap who will be receiving the finished draft of The Winterstone, when it is done. I bet he can't wait...

My trip to London last Friday was pretty good, if you ignored the pretty horrific schedule: awake at 4.30, up at 5, taxi to station at 5.30, train at 6.35, arrive London for 9. Still, we went first class so got lots of nice food. The journey back was especially good fun, with much free drink and loud conversation, to the clear irritation of the tosser  business man sitting near us. 

Finished reading Winterbirth by Brian Ruckley recently. A solid effort but slightly disappointing. I found the serious style a little hard to swallow after the witty cynicism of Joe Abercrombie, and never really connected with any of the characters. The overall premise is good though. Currently reading Bitterwood by James Maxey. It's certainly not your usual cup of tea. Once you get your head around the dragons that act and live like humans it is pretty good. Some of the dialogue is a bit crap though.

Novel progress so far:

15,351 / 120,000 (12.8%)

It's been another good week, novel-wise. I've managed to meet my 500-words-a-day target once again, and have surpassed this on quite a few days. The weekend was particularly productive, with an entire chapter being written on Friday night and another whole chapter being completed over Saturday and Sunday. I feel like I'm well into the groove now. More importantly, I feel like I want to write and that makes such a difference. 

Already there is a marked contrast between my progress on this novel when compared to my last project. My consistancy was nowhere near as good last time around; I'd write 1000 words one day, then have a couple of days where nothing got done, then write 2000 words in a day, then nothing for a few more days, then 500 words and so on... This time, hitting a minimum of 500 words a day has just been great for progress, but also for the actual process. I feel far more switched on and motivated. I'm determined not to slip and have a day where I don't write, because I know I could end up falling back into old habits. Just over 15,000 words in two weeks is good enough reason to not start slacking. Friday might be a problem as I'm travelling to London on business, but I'll try to get some writing done on the train. The company's sending me first class, so I'll get plenty of peace and quiet. 

As for the story, Lukan found himself framed for a murder he didn't commit. He was hauled before a magistrate, found guilty, and hanged that same afternoon...only to be cut down just before he choked to death. Luckily for him, his neck didn't snap. Lucky for me too, otherwise we'd have a pretty short novel. Hmmm, now that I think of it, that might be a good thing...Anyway, his life was saved by Magnus, the very same fellow who accosted Lukan the previous night and seemed like a potential problem. Appearances can be deceiving. Magnus didn't just save Lukan for no reason; Lukan will find out in due course that he is to travel north to Longhorn Watch, one of the most northerly colonies, to serve as a scout. The idea is that Lukan will find the direction that his life has been missing,  the sense of purpose he has looked so hard for, but then it'll all be torn away from him, leaving him rather angry and caught up in a nasty conflict that is far more complex than it looks. 

It's nice when writing suprises you, which is what happened to me this week when Rat popped up out of nowhere. Lukan needed to find out which of the merchants were heading south so he could travel with them (the road south from Mordvayne to Ember isn't safe). While I was pondering how he would go about this, a little street urchin popped up and tried to pickpocket him. Lukan caught him in the act, and rather than handing him over to the guards, he paid Rat to find out the information he needs. Rat then went on to play a crucial role in the murder trial (he was blackmailed into giving evidence against Lukan) and he will accompany Lukan to the colony. The two will become quite close, with the idea that Rat will eventually die (for a bit of emotional turmoil). I've really come to like Rat, he's a cheeky little scamp with a good heart, but he'd serve no real purpose beyond that which I've intended for him. Then again, you never know. 

The only other thing of note is that Jharn, the clansman POV character is no more. I decided that having three POV characters who were all male and all roughly the same age might be both difficult and possibly a bit dull. I've made Graven the POV character from the clan side, and I'm already enjoying writing his scenes. I feel that he and his companion Barusk are two of the strongest characters I have so far, so I want to make maximum use of them. By getting rid of Jharn, I can do this. 

I'm having second thoughts about the prologue; I'm currently using an amended version of the old one. Having written chapters one and two, I'm wondering whether they serve as better openings. The writing I feel is superior in both chapters to the prologue. We'll have to see. At the moment, I feel that every new chapter I write is better than the last, leading me to think "Hmm, maybe this could be the start of the novel!" Still, no need to worry about this yet. Such things can be resolved when the first draft of the whole damn thing is done. 

So far, so good.
 

Like most of the fantasy world I was shocked and saddened by the untimely death of Robert Jordan. Even the critics and detractors of his writing can't deny that he was such a leading light in the field, not to mention a staunch defender of the genre ("I write fantasy, and I wear my ghetto badge with pride" he once said). His books touched the lives of millions, mine included. I only actually ever read 'The Eye of the World' from his epic series 'The Wheel of Time' (I stopped reading halfway through book 2 for some reason) but I remember being entranced by the atmosphere that pervaded his books. There is no doubt that Robert Jordan could write. It is extremely sad that his cancer proved too tough for him in the end. One of my biggest Heroes is Freddie Mercury; I've always admired the way he handled his illness before he died. I now admire Robert Jordan for the same reason - he fought to the end, never lost hope, and handled it all with such amazing dignity. I was extremely touched by his last words, spoken to his wife. First David Gemmell, then Robert Jordan. Both before their time, and both massive losses to the fantasy world. 

My attention was drawn this week to a book by a new fantasy writer called David Bilsborough. There allegedly has been quite a bit of hype about this book and it has caused tongues to wag as it is, apparently, a load of shite. I've not read it, but from what I've heard it sounds like a hopeless Tolkien clone with juvenile dialogue and far too much descriptive prose. And characters with stupid names. You know there is going to be a problem when the main character's name is pronounced 'Baldy.' Well, not quite like that, but close enough. But what really drew my attention was an interview he did over at sffworld (and at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist). Some of you may recall my rant about Terry NotveryGoodkind for some of the atrocious things he said in an interview. Well, Bilsborough's interview is nowhere near as bad, but he does come up with some howlers. Not only does he accuse American authors of being responsible for every cliche in fantasy these days, he also accuses internet users of being 'gullible.' Now this stuff is just so misguided it is funny, but when he then says that fantasy doesn't deserve any respect (because it's a load of shit, apparently) then it gets serious. Nothing bothers me more than fantasy authors that slag off the genre they write in *cough*Goodkind*cough*. The way I see it, fantasy is one of the oldest story genres in history, and of course it is deserving of respect. What respect can it expect however when its own authors are slagging it off? There has been some debate as to whether Bilsborough is just being very self-deprecating, or whether he is a complete twat. I favour the latter school of thought. The interview can be found here: http://www.sffworld.com/interview/230p0.html and the book review here: http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/371.html

Anyway, back to my own novel. Progress so far:

6,871 / 120,000 (5.7%)

 

I started writing exactly a week ago today. Progress for the first week has been good. I decided early on that I'm going to shoot for 500 words a day. The reasoning behind this is that 1000 words is just not going to happen every day, but 500 words is a much more manageable target. If I write 500 words a day, I should have the first draft finished by next June. So far, I've managed a minimum of 500 words a day, more on certain days (I think my best was just short of 1000...not sure what day that was). Unlike last time I'm not keeping a record of how much I've written every day, mainly because it is a pain and doesn't really serve much of a purpose. I do however check at the end of each writing session to see if I've hit the 500 word mark. So far so good. 

I knew that getting back into writing regularly would be tough, so I started by editing the prologue. I'm using the old prologue from The Ashes of Autumn because I think it is a good start to the novel, and is crucial to the main plot. I made some alterations here and there and actually re-wrote quite a bit of it, but mostly it stayed the same. I then started chapter 1, which I finished yesterday...or maybe the day before. I'm now about a quarter of the way through chapter 2. Both chapters focus on Lukan. He's changed quite a bit since his last incarnation, has Lukan. Well, at least physically. Otherwise he has the same values, the same sense of justice, the same streak of goodness. He's a lot more interesting this time round though, which is quite fortunate really. He's already acquired his own voice. This of course is good. We've only been following him for just over a chapter and already he's won a small fortune at cards, blown most of said fortune, been challenged to a duel, won said duel, and bumped into someone that knows a lot more about him than Lukan would like. At the moment he's stuck in the northern outpost of Mordvayne, the main Emberan settlement in Remgarde. It's a bit of a shithole, which is why Lukan is there. He hoped those searching for him won't find him. They won't, but unfortunately others will...and a series of events will then occur to alter the course of history, not to mention his own life...

The next chapter will be the first to involve the main clansman character, who as of yet is nameless. It's going to be good though. I've written a version before, so I'm looking forward to writing a new version. It's going to have snow tigers in it. And a man thought dead will prove that...he's not dead. Or at least not as dead as people thought. His name is Rashka the Blackhanded, and chaos will be sown in his footsteps...

 

What a difference a few weeks makes. 

Just over a month ago I had no story and no characters. I had snippets of history and background, as well as a lot of ideas, but nothing really substantial. I said in my last journal entry that I hoped to spend my holiday in France working everything out, so I could begin writing when I got back. 

I didn't get everything worked out. I did however manage to get all of the history and background down. When it came to the plot, I hit a brick wall. I realised I had three different storylines and absolutely no idea how to tie them together. The longer I spent trying to work it out, the more annoyed I got with the whole thing. I felt like I had a bag of pearls and no drawstring to keep them all together, so they just kept spilling out. It was pretty frustrating. I spent the last week or so of the holiday wrestling with the problem, and then the next two weeks after I got home. 

One of the main difficulties I encountered was the way every time I thought I'd solved a problem, two more would pop up in its place. At times I felt I would have more luck trying to find Bigfoot than sort out these multiple plotlines. Now however, it's finally sorted. I think. As far as I can tell, everything that needs to be worked out at this point is more or less worked out; I know what basically is going to happen, who the characters are and what they want to achieve. It's all a bit more complex than I'd anticipated, but now it all seems to fit together quite nicely. Of course I don't know everything that happens and there are some questions that at some point will need to be answered, but they can wait. It might be easier to answer these questions once I've got a few thousand words into the novel. 

So, how much resemblance does this new project have to my old one, The Ashes of Autumn? Well, quite a lot has survived. The idea of the leylines and the power that flows along them is still crucial to the plot, the centuries-old blood feud between the Phaeron and Ghalgarith is present and correct, and there is still a storyline that focuses on dark goings-on in a city. Much has changed however. A lot of the action takes part in Remgarde, a sub-arctic land, rather than the old setting of Runevia. The remainder takes part in the city of Ember, which I've spent a lot of time developing and am quite pleased with. 

The novel itself focuses on the clans of Remgarde, who have united after years of infighting and are now launching a large offensive against the Emberans (the settlers from the city of Ember) who have colonised the southern reaches of Remgarde, looking to exploit the natural mineral wealth of the region. Lukan Gardova, on the run from the ghosts of his past, finds himself (not for the first time) in the wrong place at the wrong time. Caught up in the struggle, he finds himself forming an uneasy alliance with a band of renegade clansman who claim that the clans are being used merely as pawns in an even more deadly game. After throwing in his lot with the renegades, Lukan finds himself undertaking a desperate search for the truth, a search that will force him to face the terrors and dangers of the frozen tundra. A search that will reveal a horrifying truth...

Meanwhile, to the south, there is hysteria in the City of Ember. A strange cult has arisen and, seemingly with the support of one of the Emberlords, has started a witchhunt, burning dozens of citizens at the stake. Osuran, a young officer in Ember's army, finds himself in the midst of this hysteria when he visits his uncle, only to find him murdered, and a word etched on the floor in his uncle's blood. Before long both the city guards and the cult are on his tail, both for very different reasons. The guards think he murdered his uncle, the cult believe he knows a secret that they must discover at all costs... Finding himself cornered by the cult, Osuran is resuced by Channa Kharnos. Together they must uncover a trail of clues in search of a centuries-old journal, risking the dangers of the city as their enemies gather around them...

While the war rages in the north, while Lukan embarks on his journey and Channa and Osuran hunt for their journal, a hidden power watches and waits...knowing its time will come. 

BOOM. The above is a very basic overview of what the story is about. I could go into more detail but it would take far too long. In any case, going into more detail is exactly what I'll be doing over the coming months anyway, as I actually get round to writing the damn thing. I have to say, I am excited about this one. Of all the projects I've undertaken this is easily the one with the most potential. I think I've managed to build a world and a plot with many interesting opportunities, but only time will tell. 

Tomorrow it all kicks off, when the writing starts. This is what I've been building up to since I put the Ashes of Autumn on hold earlier this year. Tomorrow's job is the prologue. I'm going to be using the old Ashes prologue, but with a few alterations. Hopefully I'll get that nailed tomorrow night, which would be a good start. 

I'll be posting much more frequently over the coming weeks and months as I (hopefully) progress further. My posts (again hopefully) will be a bit shorter than this one...

So, here's to new adventures.

When I put The Ashes of Autumn project on hold earlier this year, it was nice in a way to be free of the commitment I'd made to writing every day. I stopped writing the novel in January due to the problems I discussed in an earlier post, and for the last few months I've put all writing projects on the backburner. During this time I've written one short story and not much else.

Recently I've got itchy fingers and have increasingly found myself thinking about the novel again. This doesn't surprise me, as writing is something I can't escape (not that I would want to). Every time I take a prolonged break from writing, the urge always comes back eventually. And with the urge, the desire to create. 

So once again I find myself in the early stages of planning a novel. It's a sitation I've been in many times before; I've lost count of the novels I've started and abandoned. You might think this would become frustrating, but it's all part of the organic process of writing. Each time I've learned different things - not to infodump so much, not to introduce four new characters in the same chapter, not to overload the prose with description, and so on. 

The two main things I learned from the Ashes of Autumn project were that firstly I'm the type of writer that needs some semblance of a plan, a structure, an outline. Secondly, that novels change dramatically as you write them. The Ashes of Autumn, when I was planning it, started out as a novel that focused on a handful of characters and one particular place - the Duchy of Runevia. By the time I'd reached chapter eight, it had grown into a bit of a monster that strayed a long way from the original premise. 

This time, I'm going to do things a little differently. I don't want to write 70,000 words just to find that the main character is boring, like last time. (I wouldn't tell Lukan that to his face, but he was boring, and he knows it). I'm going to make a detailed plot outline this time, rather than the trees-in-the-mist approach I took last time. I'm also going to try and flesh out the characters as much as possible. I'm not stupid - I know that only when you write about them do they truly spring to life, but I want to try and get their main personalities nailed as much as possible so that when I write about them the sparks fly. 

So when am I going to be able to do all this preparation when I'm working myself to the bone with 50+ hour weeks? Well, for one thing work is slowly starting to quieten down a bit now and hopefully my hours will be a bit more forgiving than they have been over the last few months. Secondly, I'm off to France for a couple of weeks with my family and will be taking a blank notebook. The idea is to get as much down as possible in terms of characters, plot and themes. 

The intention for the moment is for three plotlines, two taking place in Remgarde - a sub-arctic land. The other will take place in the City of Ember. I want to take the attributes that I like (adventure and mystery/political intrigue) and meld them together with these three plots.

The City of Ember is something I'm quite excited about, and I had a whole  raft of ideas fleshed out. Unfortunately these were lost when my computer died a few weeks back, but most are still locked in my head so they are not completely gone. I actually didn't lose quite as much as I initially reported when the pc breathed its last - in terms of writing, I at least had the foresight to email the prologue and first eight chapters to myself, so they are not lost. 

So, I hope by the start of September that I will be in a far more advanced position with this project. It doesn't really have a name yet, so I'm calling it The Winterstone, just so at least there is some sense of permanence. I'll divulge further details as and when they come to me...

In other news, I went and saw the Transformers movie. As this post has already turned into a bit of a Behemoth, I won't go into much detail. It will suffice to say that it was pretty much what I expected - brilliant CGI coupled with a dull plot and poor script. It was a bit like biting into a sweet-looking peach, only to find it is grey and mushy inside. As a bit of a Transformers fan-boy, I was always going to be hard to please, but I just couldn't help thinking that this movie was a waste of the license. The Transformers universe is vast, with so much background and scope. This movie just doesn't make use of this background material. A shame. The transformers themselves were hideously under-developed as well; the confrontation between Megatron and Prime completely lacked the epic quality it had in the original animated movie. They even stole one of the best lines from the animated film -'one shall stand, one shall fall' but it completely lacked dramatic impact. 

Sigh. Anyway, better sign out now. As ever, to those of you that have managed to read this far, I salute you.

No writing has been done since my last post. I'm so out of practice that even writing this is taxing my brain, which is already close to melting point. 

Things have just been hectic recently. We're insanely busy at work, so I've been putting in nearly 50 hours a week, which leaves me feeling pretty exhausted and not very creative. The only free time I tend to get at the moment is in the evenings at about 10, but that is spent with Jelly exploring the exotic land of Elona in Guild Wars: Nightfall. I've also been wasting time messing around with Facebook, which is rather despressingly addictive. 

My better half said to me this week, "You know what your problem is? You have an obsessive personality." She didn't mean this in the sense that I am minorly obsessive compulsive (which I am) but in the sense that I'm either doing something all the time, or not at all. When I thought about this, I realised she was right - I'm either writing every day, or not at all. I'm either playing Guildwars every day for a couple of hours, or not all. There is no halfway point. I don't seem capable of writing some nights and playing Guildwars the rest of the time. I think this fits the way I look at things; I don't believe in half measures. I'm either right behind something or I'm not behind it all. Perhaps if I could multi-task it might mean I get more writing done, but I'm just too single-minded. 

I got an email back from Howard at Black Gate about 'A Song for the Dead' after I emailed him the final version a few weeks ago. He said that he remembers our correspondence from a few months back, but at the moment is unable to consider my story due to the backlog of submissions they have to get through. He recommended that I wait until the end of the year and submit it again. All well and good, but the thought of waiting 6 months, sending out the story and waiting another 3 months only to get another rejection (probably) seems a little too sadistic even for me. I think I'll have to try and find another place to send it. Maybe Interzone, they're always good for a quick rejection letter. No news yet on Ashes, still with Aberrant Dreams...but then again they have a 5 month *sigh* response time...so we're only 2/3 months in.

You can't go anywhere at the moment without seeing the new Harry Potter book. I used to hate Harry Potter with a passion, but these days I appreciate it for what it is - a damn fine idea. The whole notion of a boy at wizard school seems like such a simple idea, you almost feel like slapping yourself and thinking "Why didn't I think of that?!" It would be amazing to enjoy the popularity that J.K. Rowling has. 

The money would be nice too.

Flashspec arrived today and it looks fantastic. It's quite easily the best-looking publication that I've appeared in so far. I've not had time to read many of the stories yet, so that pleasure is still to come. The first volume was reviewed by quite a few websites, so it'll be interesting to see what people make of the new volume. 

Not much other writing news to report. My computer died on me last weekend and the only way I could fix it was to do a destructive restore. Not really a problem, apart from I'd never bothered to back up my writing, music or photos. I lost almost everything; the 70k words of the Ashes of Autumn, the several short stories I had, plus all my character profiles, plans, etc. 

Pretty annoying really, but not much could be done. By the time I realised my PC was screwed, it was too late to save anything. Still, at least I emailed A Song for the Dead to Jelly shortly before the incident, so that is saved at least. 

I watched The Brothers Grimm the other night. Great concept, terrible movie. The only thing I liked were some of the buildings, particularly the outside of the German city near the start. The rest of the movie was pretty dire.

On the internet I mean. My presence on the web has been minimal for the last six weeks or so, due mainly to the fact we moved house and it took an eternity to get the new place sorted out with telephone and broadband. Still, we got there in the end and are now the proud owners of our own house as well as two hyperactive kittens that spend their days wrestling and leaping all over the furniture. 

It took a few weeks to get the broadband sorted but it's now up and running, which is good because I felt like we were living in the Stone Age. It's certainly nice to be back in the 21st century. 

Anyway, back to the writing. The Ashes of Autumn is still with Aberrant Dreams, no news on that yet. The Watcher, as I've previously mentioned, will be appearing in Flashspec Vol 2 and this has just gone to press. Should be well worth the wait. There is a new website for the volume with a finalised list of what order the stories are appearing in. The Watcher is sixth out of thirty-four, which is pretty cool. Check out the website: http://www.flashspec.equilibriumbooks.com/volume2.htm

I've been thinking recently of writing a few short stories involving some of the characters from the novel I'm planning, just to help me get under their collective skins a little more and to keep the creative juices pumping while I flesh out the novel a bit. The first characters I wanted to tackle were Graven and Barusk, the two clansmen. I think I mentioned before that I was looking forward to writing about these guys. They didn't disappoint me. Over the space of a week I wrote a story called 'A Song for the Dead' which opens with the two guys on the run in a frozen forest from some pursuing skath (sort of like werewolves). Exhausted and with nowhere to turn, they take shelter in some ruins, waiting for the inevitable final battle. The skath however, refuse to follow and after a while depart. Graven and Barusk are initially confused, however the strange presence that lingers over the ruins offers a subtle clue...and when darkness falls, the pair discover why you really shouldn't go camping in the woods. At least not without an Axe of Mightiness +7...Graven manages to save the day, not with one his well-aimed arrows, but with an ancient song of olden days...

I'll be sending the story to Jelly, my faithful reading troll, and then will be looking to find it a home. I am thinking at the moment of trying Black Gate first; Howard did encourage me to send more material so maybe I'll take advantage of that. 

The writing of the story itself was really hard; I've often found that when you return to writing after a long absence it is a bit like banging your head against a brick wall. 

Anyway, I have a hundred and one things to do now that I'm back on the net, so I'll bid you all farewell for now. Hope everyone is keeping well and best of luck with all your endeavours.

The Watcher was accepted for publication in Flashspec Volume 2 this week.

As I mentioned in my previous post, it had been put aside for further consideration a couple of weeks ago. A few days ago I got an email from Neil Cladingboel, the editor, confirming that The Watcher had been accepted. This was great news of course, and I was on a huge natural high for the rest of the day. Few feelings beat the excitement that comes with an acceptance; I was practically floating.

Neil attached an edited and formatted version of the story to his email for my approval. It was an unusual experience for me to look at my work after it had been edited by someone else, and at first I felt a little disorientated. After I read the piece a few times, I realised Neil had done a good job with the editing. He'd managed to streamline the story a little and crank the pacing up. Nonetheless, a few minor things were bothering me so I made a list of requested changes and shot an email back to him. Neil replied the next day, with a new and improved version which I approved as the final version.

So, I'm pretty excited at appearing in Flashspec. There is bound to be a lot of quality in this publication, so I'm looking forward to enjoying the other stories and seeing how my own measures up. I'm pleased with it. The whole anthology should be great. The first anthology was actually reviewed by a few websites, so it will be exciting to see the reviews for the new one.

You can check out the artwork by visiting the web page: http://www.flashspec.equilibriumbooks.com/anthologies.htm

A list of contributing writers (including yours truly) can be found here: http://www.flashspec.equilibriumbooks.com/authors2.htm

The whole acceptance is made all the sweeter by the fact that my first submission was rejected. It just shows how you have to keep plugging away. Don't take rejections personally and don't let them get you down. Just shrug your shoulders and use it as motivation to keep going. 

With this recent success, you might think it odd that I've listed my mood as being irritated. The unavoidable truth is that at the moment things are pretty hectic; we're in the middle of trying to buy a house (never again, I swear) and have a million things that need resolving but many of which are out of our hands. On top of that, we're both very busy at work. I'm actually having to go in tomorrow and work through Saturday. Not great, but it has to be done. The double-pay rate is some consolation though...

I've submitted The Ashes of Autumn to an ezine called Aberrant Dreams. I've read some of the material published there already and I believe my own submission is no lesser in quality. Sadly, it's not my decision and so we'll have to see with that one. Fingers crossed. 

As for the novel, I'm still thinking about it. It's slowly building in my mind, little flashes of insight here and there. It's slowly growing into something more substantial. I'll speak more about this in time. 

I'm still reading Gardens of the Moon. Hairlock is brilliant. There is something disturbing about an insane puppet with alarmingly powerful magical abilities... 

The Ashes of Autumn was rejected again today. 

After getting the rejection from Howard at Black Gate, I wasted no time in sending the story out again. This time I targeted Albedo One, which is an Irish SFF magazine. They responded impressively quickly (less than two weeks) but unfortunately it was in the negative. The email mentioned that my story had 'merits' but you get the impression that is just part of the generic rejection email. Or maybe not, but ultimately it doesn't mean much. 

On a brighter note, I wrote another piece of flash fiction and submitted it to Flashspec. I got an email a few days later saying that the story had been put aside for further consideration, which is certainly better than being rejected. I immediately replied to the email and sent an updated version of the story, as I'd had it read by my reading troll (brother Jelly). Jelly made some good observations and suggestions, and so I re-wrote it and sent it back to Flashspec so when they come to reconsider the story they can evaluate the newer version. 

The story is called "The Watcher" and is about 450 words long. It's about a lone soldier's struggle against a horde of invading demons...or is it? Hopefully you'll be able to read it in print if you're that intrigued! We'll see. I'd love to get in the anthology, but if I don't I hope to find a home for it elsewhere. I'm pretty pleased with it actually. 

We're in the process of packing to move house at the moment, and I found my old file of novel stuff that I've kept for years. The folder is basically a collection of maps, rough drafts, plot outlines and other stuff. It's a real treasure chest of ideas, and I enjoyed reading through my old material and seeing how bad some of it is. Yet some of it is pretty decent, and I picked up a few things that I may use in the future. 

Never throw anything away. 

Anyway, I'm still concentrating on my short fiction at the moment but various ideas keep popping up for the novel and I'm starting to get itchy fingers. By that I mean I want to start getting stuck into it. Hopefully this time I won't make similar mistakes to last time. 

Only time will tell though I guess. 

I finally got around to reading Gardens of the Moon, and I'm enjoying it. I've heard a lot of good things and quite a few not so good things about it, but so far so good. The start of the book is messy, as in there are a lot of characters and a lot of things happening and it can be a bit confusing. But for some reason I took to it straight away, there was something in the writing that smacked me around the chops and hooked me. Now I'm over 200 pages in and I'm liking it a lot. The use of magic in Erikson's world is very interesting and I like the whole epic feel. 

Right, I'm off to scour Ralan's for another market to thrust Ashes upon...

Two weeks since my last post, and two rejections in that time. 

I finally received the email from Howard at Black Gate that I'd been anticipating/dreading. Disappointingly, he said that while he liked the changes I'd made to 'The Ashes of Autumn' he was still going to pass on it. So, a shame but at least he kindly provided more feedback and some tips to help improve my writing. It's a kick in the teeth, but in the long term it'll hopefully prove beneficial to my writing. Rejection, I think, helps to form your personal character as a writer. I'm now going to have a think about possible markets for TAOA. If anyone knows of any ezines/print magazines that publish 10,000 word stories of dark heroic fantasy, let me know...

The other rejection was for a piece of flash fiction I wrote for an anthology called 'Flashspec Anthology 2". I wrote the piece in about an hour and a half, it's only 750 words long. It's called 'Over the Wall" and is about a soldier in a siege tower and his thoughts and feelings as the tower approaches the battlements of a fort. Normally when I finish a piece I'll leave it for a while and then a week or so later I'll read it through and edit it. With this story, I just wrote it, read it through a couple of times and then sent it off. I liked the idea of writing it and sending it in the same day. In any case, the piece was rejected. No other feedback was offered, but then they've had over 100 submissions in the first few days, so I guess they've got a lot to get through. I might have another go. The link, if anyone would like to have a go themselves, is: http://www.flashspec.equilibriumbooks.com/about.htm 

Regarding the novel, I'm still brainstorming. Soon I'm going to write down all of the ideas I have and try flesh things out a bit more. 

In other news, I returned home for Easter and had a great few days in leafy Surrey, in the ridiculously hot weather. I actually got sunburn, which for Easter in the UK is bizarre. Global warming anyone? Anyway, it was great to see all the family and chill out for a few days. Despite being born in Guildford and having lived near there for most of my life, I've never made it inside the old Norman castle there, so it was cool to finally make it inside. I also went to see 300, which was decent enough but ultimately a bit underwhelming.  

Last night, when installing an update for itunes, I chose an option for itunes to locate all music files on my hard drive and add them to my music library if they were not there already. I ended up with an odd assortment of new tunes, most of which I had no idea I even possessed anywhere on my pc. Especially disturbing was the addition of the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle soundtrack to my itunes library. I still have no idea where that one came from...

I'll post again when I have more to say about the novel.

I'd like to start this post by thanking everyone who commented on my last post, offering advice and condolence in equal measure. I really was surprised and quite humbled by the reaction my post garnered, and for that I would like to say thank you. I began this journal really for my own amusement; the idea of other writers actually reading and commenting on what I'd written was more of a bonus. I certainly didn't expect to have met so many good people, and receive so much support from everyone. The encouragement I received from all of you has been fantastic. Thank you. 

I've been thinking a lot since my last post, about how (if?) I can salvage this story. My thoughts swiftly returned to a story I'd planned out a while back, some two or three years ago. I'd even started writing this story at one point, while in my final year at university. I didn't get far, but the idea always remained and gradually evolved. So like I said, when my current novel ground to a standstill I immediately thought of this previous story. Why? I don't know. Maybe because this is the story I wanted to write all along. I'm not sure, but the more I've thought about this story the more excited I've got. I dug out a basic plot that I'd jotted down a while ago, and was pleased to see it generally held up quite well. Now I've reached the point where I know that this is the story I want to write. 

But what of the old story, the story that until recently was 'the one'? What will become of Lukan and the gang? Will the blood feud between the Phaeron and Ghalgarith ever get settled? That remains to be seen. I said previously that I still liked the idea of a blood feud between the Ghalgarith and the Phaeron, and the idea that the survivors of these ancient races would fight out their final battle in the present. I still like the idea of hysteria sweeping a kingdom, of a witchhunt being carried out by a shady organisation, of a sealed-off part of the city where no one goes. The idea of the four elemental orbs is definitely being dropped, as it's too generic for my liking. Some of the characters will go, but some will stay. Lukan is being reworked, he's now twenty years older and more of a minor character (no, he didn't like that one bit). 

You might be wondering where all this is going. Well, the idea is to take the good bits of my most recent novel and mix them with the main plot of this older story. I've had a think about how this might work and although the idea is very rough, it seems promising. The plan now is to keep thinking and flesh the whole thing out more. It'll take time, but I'm willing to wait. You can't rush things like this. I'm not great at sitting down and brainstorming (sorry, where are my politically-correct manners? 'Thought-shower'). I prefer to let stuff come to me, as it usually does at odd moments. Was it Camus that said the great ideas happen on street corners and in a restaurant's revolving door? I think maybe he's right. I'm not saying that my ideas are great, I'm just saying they occur to me at strange moments. In any case, I'll write more when I have more. If anyone's wondering what this 'old' story of mine involves, it includes snow, a fierce war between two bitter enemies, a lost city, a witchhunter, a secret sect and a feud going back centuries...and sabretooth tigers. And sea serpents. But enough of that...

I notice that I've fallen into the old trap of not writing anything for weeks, then sitting down and alarmingly spewing forth these epic posts that only serve to clutter up all of your friend lists. Apologies, I'll wrap things up now. 

In other news, my short story 'The Ashes of Autumn' is still under consideration by Black Gate magazine. You may recall that I send a re-written version to the editor of the magazine, but didn't hear back. Well, a month passed and I sent a polite query. Howard responded immediately, saying he hoped to read the re-write soon. He confirmed he'd given it a quick glance and liked what he saw, so fingers crossed for good news in the near future.

I've started reading 'Before They are Hanged', which is the second book in Joe Abercrombie's 'First Law' series. Joe's series has really taken off on this side of the Atlantic, and with good reason - he's managed to write a hugely entertaining fantasy story, which manages to be epic, deep, gritty and hilarious at the same time. The first book, 'The Blade Itself' was fabulous, and the follow-up builds on this. Really fantastic stuff.

Finally, I have had the pleasure this past week of exchanging messages and the odd email with John Marco, the author of the wonderful Tyrants and Kings trilogy, as well as The Eyes of God trilogy (which I'm sure is wonderful but is still on my to-read-before-I-die-list). John has a brand new blog up and running, ruminating on all sorts of interesting writer-ish stuff, among other tidbits. You'll find the link in my little links collection on the right of my journal. John's a lovely guy to talk to and very encouraging to fellow writers, so feel free to drop by and say hello. If anyone by some disastrous turn of events has somehow not read any of John's books, then view my review of The Jackal of Nar at the following link: http://www.sffworld.com/brevoff/162.html 

Right, that's about it for this post. As always, I salute those of you have managed to read this far and hope to receive your continued support.

Onwards!