Familiar - Draft 1 Completed

It has been a busy and very productive month. I'm really enjoying my day jobs - probably the first time I have ever enjoyed my paid employment. I've applied to help out at the local cat sanctuary. The 1st draft of my next book is complete. I have even got the cover for it sorted after my Canva course at Gower College last week! The year is definitely ending way better than it began. And, best of all, my daughter is coming home for a few days next month, so I have something very special to look forward to... 🙂

Storm Bert

A really atmospheric storm bludgeoned the house all day, conjuring just the right mood to add a big chunk of writing to the novel I'm currently writing, Familiar.

Three Quarters...

As things stand, I am about 3/4 through my 9th and final novel(la). Whilst I am no longer aiming to reach the word count set by Nanowrimo, I am on target to complete thecfirst draft of the book, which is a massive takeaway for me from the project. 

Part 3 Begings...

Needs Must

 

Catch Up

After a cheeky day of Nanowrimo yesterday, it's time to catch up on my writing...

Another UnXpected Turn

I've reached a decent stage of my novel, Familiar. So much so that I no longer feel it necessary to reach my daily word count for Nanowrimo. 

I have now reached the stage of the book where I am happy just to write one scene of the book a day. I think this will be sufficient to finish the novel(la) by the end of the month. 🙂

UnXpected Turn

Piling on the word count as the story takes an unexpected turn!

Cracking On.

I woke up this morning feeling quite concerned that on Day 10 of Nanowrimo, I would fail to meet my minimum word quota for the day.  At circa 17k words, I literaly had no idea what would happen next in the novel. 

It's a difficult task completing Nanowrimo - its targets are ruthless, especially when you are holding down a full-time job. Forcing the narrative,  conjuring the plot from the ether can take time, you'd naturally think. But the way this novel clicked together today, really made me appreciate that my muse really rewards the hard graft of daily writing.

When you're fingers bleed,

you're muse will lead.

Critical Cat

fudjcat critiquing my writing this morning:

8.25

My 9th and final novel reaches the quarter way mark.

This is the End

The Nanowrimo pain continues...

I have wanted to be a published author for as long as I can remember, certainly since I was 7 or 8 years old. Whilst having articles published in newspapers since the 1990s, my first novel, Crawley, was not published until May 2017. Edn™ followed in May of the following year. My third novel, Lore, hit the Amazon shelves just 3 short months later.

Pixie-Led & Berserk! were added to my oeuvre in 2019, followed by Solstice in 2022 and Vampires from Hell in 2023.

Earlier this year I published Cold Comfort, the first draft of which was written back in 1997, before being locked away in a drawer, not quite forgotten, for over a quarter of a century. 

Familiar will be my 9th novel and will be published in May 2025. This will mark the 8th anniversary of the publication of my first novel. It will end a busy 8 years of my life writing creative fiction.

As you may or may not (probably the latter) be aware, I have become less enamoured with novel writing of late. To be honest, it takes a lot of work to write a novel, and unless you are one of the Stephen Kings or Graham Mastertons of the world, the monetary returns are not worth the blood, sweat and tears that come with the business.

As such, in May next year, my novel-writing days will officially lie behind me. Having 9 novels to your name is something to be proud of. And I am. But I am 59 next year, and my heart is set on retiring from the full-time cut and thrust of employment as soon as possible. To do so, however, I need to make all my creative endeavours earn me some serious coin. More of which soon (more likely than not in my New Year's Resolution 2025 post)...

7k into Nano

7k words into Nanowrimo and still going strong...

Balancing Act

A day off work to work on my new novel. Typing can be a bit of a balancing act with the fudjcat fighting for dominance of my lap though.

A Gathering for Guy (part 2)

We drove into Knighton shortly before lunch, wining and dining at the George and Dragon.  Tara, Guy's daughter, told me that she featured in The Knighton Vampires book, playing the piano in the establishment. Sadly, there was no piano remaining when I went, though the chef there served a very delicious hot meal. 

We left the George and Dragon feeling full and continued our tour of Knighton, with me snapping various locations I was told featured in Guy's book. I won't share all my pics here as they will end up featuring in the next GNS zine I hope get out in early Spring next year. But here's one more, 

of the auctioneer's car-park, which featured in the Guy N Smith short story The Baby.

What debauchery and horror took place here in the GNS tale of a demonic baby?
I guess I will have to source and purchase the short story to find out.

As dusk grew heavy that evening, we headed back out to the neighbouring graveyard. Mrs E was hoping for More Northern Lights pics (it turned out it was too cloudy) and I wanted to photograph some curiously illuminated graves I'd spotted the night before.

That done, and remembering the cool but scary shadowme pic I captured the night before, I roped Mrs E into lighting my rear for a second time as I wanted some spooky author pics for my next horror book.

Return to our lodgings, we were met by this little fellow. Sat on our door step as bold as brass. Is this a cool omen as the novel I was just taking pics for was Familiar - my supernatural tale about a toad!

Writing is a comforting madness

Finally More Familiar

I am finally getting inspired to do some work on my Familiar novel, and managed to grab an hour after work to do a little research.

Writing Familiar

Viewings

Today, we had the first couple of sale viewings for the house we are temporarily living in. In the meantime, I cracked on with writing my ninth novel, Familiar.

Bank Holiday Monday

A lovely Sunday morning saw us out in the garden. Even Fudge joined us, her first time outside since the fire. She was a little nervous and stuck close to us, but she enjoyed her time in the new garden:

A rare pic of Fudge with Monty:

Whilst out there, I also made good headway with my next novel, Familiar.

The light in our temporary home is gorgeous. I think I'm starting to fall in love with the place.