Monday 27th June, 2011

Alt.Fiction [External Link] has been and gone for another year and I’m having my central heating fixed during a mini heatwave.

Although the forecast indicates the heatwave will be ending tomorrow, while the central heating work will continue over the rest of the week. I have explained carefully to Finn that this will be “Bring your dog to work” week, not “Let your dog eat the plumber” week.

The heatwave sprung up on the second day (Sunday) of Alt.Fiction. It wasn’t particularly cold on the first day, but it wasn’t the almost thirty degrees centigrade it hit by the end of the Sunday. Although I’m sure that Adele of Un:Bound [External Link], who was stuck in the podcasting suite for almost the entire weekend (she was let out for good behaviour at lunch time – for about half an hour – and at the end of the day), will say otherwise. That was one hot and stuffy room usually crowded with an audience. Made up of those people smart enough to realise the podcasts were allowed audiences. I was not one of those until Sunday.

Pretending to play the guitar and genealogy obviously haven’t progressed since the last update (although I now have a stack of TABERNERs to check over and possibly add to the online data. It would be nice to say I have something to show for my writing work. However, the work has mostly been of the mental exercise variety (got to love workshops that get you thinking about your WIP, whether intended to be applied so directly or not). I did manage to rattle off the first draft of the “sort of noir science fiction thing” I mentioned last week and that is now with my alpha reader, Dylan Fox. The shhh! project is awaiting feedback and I have, oddly enough, received some more – and very comprehensive – feedback on 25 Ways to Kill A Werewolf. The good news is it looks like the latter might even get to second draft stage! So, back to The Three Guineveres and the seventh battle!

Sunday 19th June, 2011

It’s another “nothing to see here” update but, if you want to know about it, click on the “read more”.

As you may have noticed, it was Father’s Day today – in the UK, at least. This week is also my big sister’s birthday week (Happy Birthday, Sam!). As per usual, we’ve ended up combining the two and having the celebrations this evening. We like our family things small and quiet, so that’s pretty much all there is to it.

In terms of my spare time, genealogy is still pretty much on hold. I haven’t managed to coax The Master Genealogist back up to functioning order again. I run Ubuntu (9.04 LTS, if I remember the numbers correctly) as my operating system and I have to do things to make Windows-based programs run. I’m following exactly the same instructions as last time and I can’t get things to display properly. It’s not like I had any updates to make, so you probably won’t notice the difference!

In my writing time I’ve moved The Three Guineveres (Part I) a little closer to the seventh battle. In fact, the next bit written should be the seventh battle itself. I’ve also been working on another one of those projects I don’t like to mention (so shhhh!) and have detoured into turning one of Arthur’s knight’s tales into a sort of noir science fiction thing.

Oh, and I’m still somehow tinkering around on the guitar. I haven’t got bored of it, yet.

Next week’s update will be delayed (although it will turn up, unlike last week’s) because it’s Alt.Fiction [External Link] weekend in Derby. Maybe see you there?

Sunday 14th November, 2010

A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

So, computers. It’s times like this I’m ashamed to admit to a degree in Computer Science (or half of one, anyway). The computer problems are not shifting very fast at all.

I’ve got a new hard-drive (solid state and wow is it good) for the OS on my desk-top. It’s still Windows XP because I prefer it, but I’ve had to reinstall from scratch and I’ve lost a lot of my pictures and music because I was lazy. I haven’t lost anything else because I’ve always run two hard-drives: one for “system” and one for “data” – except for the stuff Microsoft tends to file under “My Documents”, which I shall eventually have to pay someone else to rescue for me. It’s all up and running except for losing the driver for my wireless connection. I also have to sort out the new printer so I can start spamming submitting print copies of my writing. You never know, I may even get to do some genealogy soon. Funny how you always want to do what you can’t…

The laptop is on Ubuntu 10.04 – or “Lucid Lynx” for some reason best not looked into – and now actually recognises the wireless connection. It even networks. But when wireless networked, it’s very very slow. I’m not entirely sure what went wrong in the first place (now a fortnight ago) because it worked fine when I did the install. I may just do a reinstall but I’m nervous of potentially loosing Internet access with both computers at the same time.

I have, of course, been avoiding working on both problems whenever possible. I have other things to do in my life and so they only get a couple of hours at the weekend a piece. As well as work, Finn and turning up for fencing, I’ve been concentrating on writing.

The latest New Dryas set stories have been sent out to various readers and are being polished off. I had hoped to put Down-Time in for Warrior Wisewoman [External Link] but I’m not sure it has the sense of wonder that Roby James looks for. Otherwise, they’re shaping up nicely in my very loose time-line.

The Alex Jones world is now also back in my thoughts. I’ve completed another method in 25 Ways to Kill a Werewolf and I think the whole collection just might work. It’s intended as a stand-alone novel and it’s unlikely that Alex (or Conn) will drift into it but never say “never”, etc. Because the werewolves so definitely follow the same rules as Alex’s do, there’s no doubt that these characters are running around in the same world. It’s also be good to working on an idea I put aside for so long – it’s good to know I can pick an idea up several months later and find it still works (or appears to). Also, the latest news on The Dog Handler acceptance: it looks like it will be published in the online version of Title Goes Here [External Link] in September 2011.

My final bit of writing miscellany: remember I went to Alt Fiction’s Other Worlds event [External Link] in Derby? Part of the event was a couple of workshops run in parallel. I went to the fantasy workshop led by Mark Charan Newton [External Link]. I now have a short story (about 1500 words) as a result of the cues he gave us. Sanctuary (working title) needs a bit more spit and polish before I decide what to do with it.

Sunday 7th November, 2010

A week off (sorry), computer problems, a writing acceptance / update and other miscellaneous.

So, I’ve had a “week off” from the web-site. Sorry, it was unintentional. The hard-drive on my main, desk top computer has corrupted to the point that the OS (Windows XP, in fact) no longer loads properly. I have now got things sorted out so I can use the lap-top (running Ubuntu, if you’re interested) to make updates but I hadn’t managed it in time for last Sunday. I am actually in the process of fixing both computers – setting up the desk-top with a new hard-drive and Windows XP again and getting the lap-top to recognise the wireless aspect of my router. I’m not the computer geek I used to be and I was never that hot at it, so this may take the rest of my life-time!

I have also been on a week off from work and that’s given me the chance to focus on getting through some second drafts and getting back on top of my writing. By chance, I’ve also managed to rehome The Dog Handler, the third of the stories with Alex Jones in. It has been accepted for on-line publication by Title Goes Here [External Link]. And yesterday I went to Alt.Fiction’s Other Worlds event [External Link] in Derby. Yes, I did enjoy it but I’m not great on reviewing. You can find one of the first reviews here: Speculative Fiction report [External Link]

The final thing to mention is that genealogy updates will be on hold. While I’ve managed to secure the data from the original hard-drive, I’m having difficulty with the program I use, so it’ll be a week or so (with luck) before I can do any updates. Not that I’ve made any in a while but I was all set to put together a SANSOM update. Typical!

Sunday 13th June, 2010

Yesterday was Alt.Fiction [External Link] (a Derby speculative fiction festival) day!

I some how managed to fool my otherwise very intelligent sister into thinking that taking her to it was a good early birthday present for her and we braved the wilds of Derby. We attended a couple of panels and a couple of workshops, detoured slightly to do some clothes shopping (it started off as a wander through the city centre) and then got slightly lost on our way out of town. We had fun.

The two workshops we attended were the Dark Fantasy and the Screenwriting. Kim Lakin-Smith [External Link] ran the dark fantasy one and part of the session was a writing exercise. Which turned into Baba Yaga, my newly posted piece of flash fiction. I actually got about halfway through it during the workshop and tied it up quickly once Sam and I got home. I’m not sure it’s the best ending for it and I may do an alternative version in the future that ties it up better. Anyway, both Sam and I enjoyed the workshop, so thank you, Kim!

For sake of completion, the screenplay workshop was run by Stephen Volk [External Link] and he’s left Sam even more in awe of people who create. I’m in awe but more because he’s had the ability and the courage to be a successful, self-employed writer…