Posts Tagged ‘writing update’

Re-Editing Update

Posted: September 8, 2011 in Dawn of Wolves, fantasy, Pure Escapism, writing, writing update
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Just an update on the process of re-editing all the old stories – so far two have been done. The Tomb of the Tagosa Kings and The Adventures of Ray the Robot have now had a go over trying to fix any errors that fell through the cracks previous times. I also gave The Adventures of Ray the Robot a new and slightly improved cover.

The other stories will slowly get the same editing process.

Also, the next two Nhaqosa short stories are getting close to being finished, and after that it will be time to finish Dawn of Wolves.

Dawn of Wolves Update & Other Things

Posted: August 17, 2011 in Dawn of Wolves, Sharael, writing, writing update
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The new story ‘Dawn of Wolves’ continues to make progress – the rewrite is up to 39,000 words already (even though the rough draft isn’t finished yet.) When I started I thought it would be only about 40K words, but now it is looking at being between 50 & 60K, taking it out of novella range and into a short novel. I’ll still probably label it as a novella. Fleshing it out to a fully fledged novel would need another 30-40K words and there just isn’t that in the plot, not without masses of padding and adding that much verbose purple prose would just ruin it. Sadly it can be a bit of a trap many fantasy authors fall in to. There is one series that got bogged down in this to such a state that one entire lengthy chapter of a book was just a precession of people entering a room described in such detail that near every stitch on their clothes was made note of.

The story of Dawn of Wolves recounts the start of the Nacatori Wars that The Tomb of the Tagosa Kings is set near the end of. It is told from two sides, on one a young, inexperienced Lieutenant Elraes, but also has appearances from other important characters, like Professor Halir, Harry Ban and others. It is the first meeting between Elraes and Harry as well. On the other you have Colonel Inkhumetekh, Haksetian advisor to the Nacatori. It is important to get the other point of view as it is an effort to help dissuade the notion that somehow they are the ‘evil empire.’ Also of interest is a character who makes an appearance, Tol Ventaro, who works alongside Inkhumetekh.

That is a name I have used before, in Tears of the Mountain. It is the name Prince Travanto gave himself. One thing about fantasy is you rarely see names used more than once – there can be a cast of thousands and each has their own unique name. This is a far cry from how we do it in the real world. Some names are far more common than others – one year in primary school there were six of us called Andrew in the one class. I know plenty of other people who share names as well, not to mention the fact that some names run in families. This is something I intend to happen in my stories.

One example is the name Heric – named after a legendary figure in Maedari history, Heric Jennet, it has become the most popular boys name in the setting, though for various reasons every single one is more commonly referred to as Harry (much as in our world Henry used to be known as Harry – Prince Harry’s real name is actually Henry). Of course they need to be differentiated and as such acquire nicknames, such as Red Harry, Tall Harry, Harry the Younger and the like.

Now back to the writing so I can get the story finished.

Update

Posted: July 19, 2011 in writing, writing update
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I noticed I haven’t posted for a while so it is about time to fix that. I recently fractured my right collarbone which hasn’t helped matters, and slows down writing given I am right handed.

I have actually finished the rewrites of the next two Nhaqosa short stories and at some stage need to get around to polishing and editing them. I am considering keeping them waiting until I’ve finished the others I’ve planned and releasing them – and the currently released ones – as a single compilation.

It has also come to mind that I’m not getting as much done as I should, and that is because I am spreading my time too thin between too many stories. I need to focus on just a few. Besides the Nhaqosa stories, the other one I’m working on is the Dawn of Wolves novella (currently up to 21K). Only once I’m, done with them will I consider which of the numerous other projects to work on – and I have a few. On the short list is actually sitting down and properly mapping out the maps and timelines for the setting. A lot of it is only rough at the moment, and that really needs to be fixed.

The Future of the White Bull

Posted: May 5, 2011 in fantasy, Pure Escapism, writing, writing update
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I’ve been doing some planning on the future of The Chronicles of the White Bull collection of stories and have come up with a bit of a outline.

In all, including the four stories written so far, there are going to be ten in total. The next four will be written and released in pairs, like the first four, and then I’ll read a prologue and epilogue story, the start and the end of Nhaqosa’s story, and release them all as an anthology, comparable in length to a full novel. Hopefully I’ll even be able to get some proper artwork for the cover. Of the remaining six I have plans or have started writing four of them.

While doing all that I’ll also be working on the Peregrine and Blade stories, but once the Nhaqosa series is done I’ll be starting on a new one – The Halir Ashford Expeditions. Halir Ashford, professor, explorer, historian and adventurer, was just meant to be a bit character to help the plot in a story that barely got started before it was set aside but Halir survived and thrived, and is a central character in two novelettes (The Tomb of the Tagosa Kings & Gifts and Sacrifices) and both novels (Tears of the Mountains & Winter Wolves), as well as being in an unfinished novellas (Dawn of Wolves). The collection he will be in will help flesh out the history, both past and present, of the world of Sharael.

Now just to get it all written…

Yes, I Am A Pulp Writer

Posted: April 10, 2011 in Pure Escapism, steampunk, sword and sorcery, writing
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I have written two novels of what I like to think as serious fantasy, and have plans for more, but I have come to the realisation that at the moment I am a pulp writer – and I like it.

Those big, epic, world changing bookstopper fantasy series – they aren’t me. It was hard enough to finish off the two novels at novel length. It was after doing so that I realised that I prefer the short versions of stories – shorts and novelettes and novellas – and more importantly, prefer writing stories in the pulp style; action, adventure, larger than life characters etc. Nothing too serious, nor high literature, but fun to read.

I find myself even preferring to read the shorter style stories – I haven’t read one of those mega series in a long time.

For the time being I am going to be concentrating on writing pulp style shorts, working on four series mainly; The Chronicles of the White Bull, Primal Tales, The Sir Richard Hammerman Adventures and Peregrine and Blade.

The Chronicles of the White Bull and Primal Tales both have stories already written and available in the Pure Escapism collection; Primal tales is fantasy set in a primeval, low-tech world, a place of wild forests and prehistoric creatures. The Chronicles of the White Bull follows the exploits of an escaped minotaur gladiator, travelling a dying world in the search for home.

The Sir Richard Hammerman is steampunk pulp; currently with a novella and novelette half-written. Sir Richard Hammerman is a gentleman adventurer who travels with his companions who travels an Earth similar, but not exactly, to our own, a place of weird science, of pterodactyl riding pygmies, airships and odd contraptions.

Peregrine and Blade is pure pulp, inspired by the likes of Robert E Howard, Fritz Leiber and their ilk. The first novelette has been written up in rough form – and can be read here – the first of many.

March Report

Posted: April 2, 2011 in fantasy, General, writing update
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Here we are, a quarter of the way through the year already. Where does time go?

Output fell again, down to around 40K last month, though there were a number of reasons for that. For half the month I was dog-sitting my brother’s dog while he was overseas and that tends to chew up time. Also looking for work.

Output wise saw work on various short stories/novelettes, cleaning them up and re-releasing them on Smashwords, and putting some of them up on Amazon for the first time. More on that in a latter post. I also, finally, finished off Cara’s Choice; it is currently in editing when I can find the time and I hope to have it released in April at some stage.

Against my better judgement, I started work on two new stories; the Tirhanium novella I mentioned previously and a pure sword and sorcery pulp idea that I will post about later.

Sales dropped from February, down to just five, but as I’m not actually pushing it at the moment that can be expected.

Not setting any real goals for April – will just see what pans out.

February Report

Posted: March 1, 2011 in fantasy, General, Tears of the Mountain, winter wolves, writing update
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And here we are in March already – two months of the year gone.

The output was reduced a lot compared to January, only around 50-60K done, but a lot of time was spent finishing Winter Wolves, proof-reading it and publishing it on Amazon/Smashwords.

The givewaway of Winter Wolves has slowed down some, but has now hit 101 people having acquired it. No reviews yet but three people have said that they will at some stage.

Sales wise, between the two novels I managed 15 sales for the month. Not a huge amount, but it is a start. Of those 6 were of Winter Wolves, so I’ll have to calculate how much goes towards supporting my sister – that one of them was on Amazon.uk and is listed in pence makes it more challenging.

I didn’t hit all my goals – a fair way off it actually, but it was a decent month still.

Aims for March. Work on He Stands Between, Dawn of Wolves, Hammer of the Skies and a novelette for another project. Aim is to try and finish one of the first three and the novelette.

Winter Wolves Finished

Posted: February 19, 2011 in fantasy, winter wolves, writing update
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Early this morning I got to the end of the rewrite and polishing of Winter Wolves and typed ‘The End.’

Its been a long while since I started it but now it has reached its conclusion. Well, more or less. There is still work to be done; proof reading, cover design and above all formatting for both Smashwords and Amazon. Hopefully that will not take too long and people can have a rad of it.

Already working on what to do next. I have the half finished novel He Stands Between, as well as two novellas, Hammer of the Skies and Dawn of Wolves that need finishing, plus another currently secret project. Maybe I’ll just flip a coin to see which gets priority.

And at some stage I need to work on updating parts of the website.

Progress Report

Posted: February 16, 2011 in winter wolves, writing update
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I’m making good progress on the editing of Winter Wolves, having done thirteen of the twenty one chapter so far.

That is the easy part.

After finishing the rewriting I did some brainstorming, trying to nut out a few problems I was having with the plot as it sat. The brainstorming worked well, as I figured out a way to fix the problems not only to my satisfaction, but to tie it in with a short story I’ve written as well. The major issue with the new ideas is that it is going to take some major rewriting in the second half of the book – maybe even whole chapters will need to be done. That all lies ahead still.

But at the current rate I am still looking at the end of the month to have it done and up available for download around the place.

Winter Wolves: Starting the Final Edit/Polish

Posted: February 10, 2011 in fantasy, winter wolves, writing update
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I’ve finished writing Winter Wolves. Its been a long time in the coming, but it is done finally.

Now comes the next phase – the editing and polishing. It is going to need it. Some concepts and ideas changed during the writing and so I’m going to have to go back through it and fix any inconstancies that may have caused, as well as fleshing out various spots that need some more detail. The largest amount of work needs to happen in the last one third, while the first one third is almost ready to go.

The aim is to have it up and out by the end of the month. Sooner if I can manage it.

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