Current location:	Mordvayne
Current mood:	energetic
Current music:	HIM - 'Bleed Well'

A star fades and a clown is born...

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...