Current W.I.P.s: GNS3 | Lost Glove Society
Tetanus
At the GP surgery waiting for a tetanus jab so I can start working as a cat socialiser and photographer at the local Animal Centre.
Lore - New Cover
The new cover of my 2018 novel, Lore. More new book covers coming soon as I tidy up my backlog...
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.
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. 🙂
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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.
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Dracula. My Favourite Edition.
The postie only went and pushed this through my letterbox this morning!
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.
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)...
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.
An Afternoon in the Garden
I spent a lovely afternoon the garden today. I even got the chance to get the chiminea roaring again. 🙂
Lego Bargain
I picked these little fellas up for less that £20 for the lot. Not bad. Looks like my Lego constructing days are not over yet...
Guy N. Smith - Night of the Werewolf
Fantastic re-release 🙂 I am a big fan of Guy's werewolf books and this is a thing of beauty:
The Quiet Before the Storm
The quiet before the storm of activity. Nanowrimo, or write a novel in a month, commences tomorrow...
Dracula
Fresh through the letterbox this morning - Dracula looking more like the figure described within the pages of the novel than most other editions.
The Nun
My final pop shots for Halloween 2024. The Nun, from The Conjuring and also the self-titled spin-off franchise. There are a few different versions. This moonlit version is my favourite. For those who hate Pop Funkos, and there a hell of a lot of you out there, my fb feed will be funko-free now until Christmas...
Reading Again...
Billie Quick's blood has just streaked the pale vampire's faces, meking them appear "like clowns from an unholy circus." Love it!
Flight
Me and Jamie went down the Taliesin Centre today as a late birthday treat for him. Our mission? To board a flight that explored life, death, quantum mechanics and more.
Set aboard an aircraft set-up housed within a long shipping container, we took our seats with trepidation and more than a little excitement.
Buckling in, we donned our headphoned and prepared for take-off.
The floor rumbled nicely as we took our imaginary flight and the sound effects really did give a good impression of thrust as the lights dimmed and we were cast into absolute darkness.
Then the captain introduced what we could expect from the flight. He explained the concept of Schrodinger's cut - the Quantum Mechanics metaphor of a cat in a sealed box being in both states of life and death until the box was opened and we looked inside. This flight set us in the same equation, with us being the cat.
Suddenly the darkness was interupted by lighting flashing through the cabin windows as a huge thunderstorm erupted about us and we audirorially explored both experiences of flying safely through the storm and the plane suddenly careering to its doom...
To speak more of the 'flight' would be to spoil the experience for others who decide to take the trip for themselves after reading thing post. All I will add is that it was a tenner well spent. 🙂
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