Week In Review: Week Twenty Five & Twenty Six 2009

Posted: July 2, 2009 in Pure Escapism, Tears of the Mountain, writing update
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It would appear that I did not do one for last week, so here are two for the price of one.

Twenty six weeks down, twenty six to go. Had hoped to show more progress thus far, but slow and steady as the old saying goes.

Over the last two weeks I have finished off the second volume of Pure Escapism, started the third and also Tears of the Mountain, the working title of the novel I’ve started. I’m already 4200 words in to the rough draft of it after only a few days and I haven’t even really started. Pure Escapism Volume Three totals over 10K words also so far and I have yet to complete the main story, or start editing and fleshing out.

By next week those totals will hopefully be significantly increased.

The New Project

Posted: July 1, 2009 in Tears of the Mountain, writing update
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After a long period of threatening, I have finally started work on writing the novel. Yep, it is now the WIP and will remain so until it is done, with Pure Escapism relegated behind it.

I started writing it two days ago and have already passed 3000 words on the rough draft, which was a bit more than I expected. I’d written up shortly before that a couple of pages in a notebook detailing just the first small part of the story. I haven’t even finished expanding on that in the rough draft and those 3000 words came from just 150 words in the synopsis. And that will only get longer once it goes from draft to expanded form.

I’m am currently giving it the working title Tears of the Mountain, but that is probably going to change later on.

As for the story itself, it takes place about 20 years prior to the events in Tomb of the Tagosa Kings from the first volume of Pure Escapism, and features a younger Halir. It has action, adventure, lost cities, ancient ruins, hidden treasures, intrigue, politics and much more.

July/Midyear Plans

Posted: July 1, 2009 in Pure Escapism, writing update
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We are now exactly half of the way through the year and it is time to take stock, recharge and plan ahead.

For July there are a couple of aims.

One is to finish off the third volume of Pure Escapism. That, however, is a secondary goal.

The primary goal for the month is to get working on the rough draft of the novel.

There are a few other minor things I’d like to see done – such as fix up the website – but they are only if time allows.

For the rest of the year, number one goal is of course finishing off the novel, hopefully finding a home for it. In addition I hope to put out at least two more volumes of Pure Escapism in that time.

June Challenge Report

Posted: July 1, 2009 in Pure Escapism, writing update
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June has come and gone and with it the challenge I had set myself.

It was to aim for doing 2K a day in word count, but to do at least 1K minimum. End result came to 40,000 words for the month.

Not as much as I would have hoped for, but if you look at it over a year keeping that pace up, it comes to almost half a million words. Which is a lot.

During that period I did finish off the second volume of Pure Escapism, and make a good start on the third. More importantly I did finally make a start on the novel in the last couple of days.

Of course, now I know what I’m doing, next month will be better. Naturally.

Interest Driven By Word Of Blog

Posted: June 29, 2009 in General
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In the past week I’ve read two articles about how more often blogs and twitter are now driving interest in books and sales.

The first was a post from Alan Baxter, talking about comments he’d seen in a post by the agent Nathan Bransford.

The second came via a link via twitter. in a post from Follow the Reader, asking whether Twitter and Blogs really drive book sales.

It is hardly surprising really when you think about it.  In the old days you often relied on word of mouth from family and friends about new books, music, movies etc and whether they were worth seeing or getting.

Now days your circle of friends tends to be much larger and more connected via blogs, forums and of course twitter.  It is not surprising that more people are getting their recommendations from it.

It is certainly something worth thinking about – and something I am slowly trying to build on, to garner interest in my works via these media and hopefully, at some stage, build up some type of critical mass.

Tauren Druid Form Video

Posted: June 29, 2009 in General
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WOW.com has just put up a video of the World of Warcraft Tauren druid forms, both bear and cat, for viewing.

It comes in at 10 minutes and shows all the various colours available.

Can’t wait to try them myself.

I Knew I Shouldn’t Have Done It

Posted: June 28, 2009 in writing update
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I went to the movies yesterday. I had been tossing up whether to go or not – it had been a while since I last went and I should have really been writing. But in the end I went.

I ended up seeing Transformers 2. The first one had been decent, but not great, and I was hoping the second would be as well. Parts were – the parts with giant robots thrashing it out. The rest, well, it was filled with far too much juvenile humour, stupid plot and useless characters. But enough about that.

As I was watching I got thinking about writing. Yeah, even when I was taking time off the old brain never stops. In this time a completely new idea was sparked, in part inspired by fragments of the movie and in part from another story I’d recently come across.

What was odd is it is really a genre I’d never considered before. Or genres. The concept covers a few genres – part sci-fi, part action-thriller, part military-adventure and even part horror. The plot has been unfolding itself before me fairly rapidly.

Whether I use it or not is another question. I should probably write down the ideas that are spawning in my fevered imagination just in case…

Another One Down

Posted: June 28, 2009 in Pure Escapism, writing update
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Just finished off the third short story rough draft for Pure Escapism Volume Three. Only one more to go and I can start the major task of editing.

The fourth one is going to be the longest, but I hope to have its draft completed by the end of the month, just a couple of days away. So far it has panned out that in each volume there is one major story that takes up about half the book and three others that fill in the rest. Not sure how that happened, but I think I’ll stick with it.

Fantasy Fans Arise!

Posted: June 27, 2009 in General
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I’ll admit it. I’m a fan of fantasy. The books, the movies, the games. I’ve always been a fan, even when I didn’t know it. I was proud to admit it through my schooling days, and still am.

Yet we aren’t always taken seriously.

So I was pleased to come across the following post – Let’s stop sneering at fantasy readers. Good advice.

As a reader first, and now hopeful writer, it has always been my genre. I’ve tried dabbling in other genres, but always returned to it. Most of my favourite books are fantasy books. Tolkien. Gemmell. Pratchett.

And while my writing is often fantasy with some twists and variations, it is still proudly planted in the fantasy genre.

And that is the way I like it.

Pushing Forward

Posted: June 27, 2009 in Pure Escapism, writing update
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After finishing the second volume of Pure Escapism, I know I said I was going to move back to the novel, but somehow that hasn’t happened yet. Instead I’ve been working on the third volume and to date have two rough drafts done for stories, and two more in progress. One of those is plotted out and I hope to have done by the end of the day.

At this rate I’ll have all the drafts done soon and I can edit it all together. Hopefully I can also improve the Pure Escapism part of the site at the same time, and expand on the podcast for it.

Speaking of, when I get back to working on the novel, I might have a go serialising it via podcast as well. We will see how that goes.

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